FIFTY-FIVE FULL OPERATING SESSIONS

My railroad and crew are picking up from the disruptions of the past two years, gradually building back to regular operations.  Crew size has been in flux with ups and downs as their availability competes with other events now returning to society. 

 

My fifty-fifth full operating session had a crew of thirteen—enough to man all needed positions, but below my desired full crew goal of fifteen or more.  As has been common this year, several crew members had to bow out in the week preceding the session.  This time it was health concerns as the instructions were made clear to all that if they felt a cold coming on, they should stay home—that often has been a sign of WuFlu developing.

 

I absorbed the reduced crew numbers with lower staffing of the Eugene Yard complex.  My staging efforts had greatly reduced the need for yard crew action, so the three that staffed the yard complex were able to keep up with the needed work.

 

Rick A. (front) served as a “Footboard Yardmaster” at Eugene.  He both managed the yard and worked a throttle for the principal switch engine working the Eugene Classification Yard.  Tucked behind Rick is Dave L. who served as the “Swing Switcher,” working in both the Classification Yard and the Arrival-Departure Yard.  Next in line going back is Mike W. who rejoined the crew after the past two years of greatly reduced operations.  He has the RR-West train on the WP Siding next to the depot, headed out of Eugene.  Finally, Mike L. is bringing in a RR-East train on the Eugene Main.

 

David L. looks on to the Arrival-Departure Yard early in the session.  Several trains are lined up for RR-West departure on the first few tracks on the right while the rest of the yard has car blocks building toward full train length.

 

Vic N. served as the “Santa Clara Tower Operator”—my name for the Yardmaster job that manages the Arrival-Departure Yard.  In this photo he is directing Sean VJ who is bringing in a RR-East train to the yard.  Seated above is Mike L. who is awaiting Dispatcher clearance from Crescent Lake—the RR-West end of this layout--overhead.

 

Managing the traffic on the railroad was the ever-steady Dave H.  Dave has regularly filled this role over the past several years.  I really need to make sure others refresh in this position or train up for it.  The small crew-counts of the past two years have forced me to suspend most of the training program which uses mentors.

 

Craig P. ran the Springfield-A job which switches industry at Springfield on the depot side of the mainline in Springfield.  This was one of two local Turns that ran during this session.

 

Mike B. guides his RR-West train around the curve at the RR-West end of Springfield.

 

Jeroen G. works the Oakridge Turn, the other local freight for this session.  He is organizing his train for efficient switching.  In the background, Mark K. watches the RR-West train he is helping for the mountain climb.

 

Rodger C. records his block clearance as his train climbs out of McCredie Springs.  Helper engineer Dave. C.  looks on.

 

Mike W. organizes to start his train RR-East, downhill, at the start of the session.  I usually have trains left out on the RR at the end of a session.  This provides immediate work for the crew at the start of a new operating session.

 

Helper engineer Dave C. watches his train as it climbs out of Cruzatte and over Shady Creek trestle (viaduct).

 

Helper engineer Mark K. watches as the train he is helping pulls into Cascade Summit.  He will cut his helpers out of the train here and then likely return light (just the helper locos) to Oakridge to await another uphill train.

 

Helper engineer Dave C. and road engineer Sean VJ watch their train as it arrives at Cascade Summit.  The rear of their train stretches in the background.  David L. is railfanning using his phone-camera.

 

Late in the afternoon, I sensed excitement involving a train leaving Eugene and through Springfield.  As it pulled around the curve at the end of the Springfield peninsula, I realized something unusual was happening.  This was a much longer train than normal.  Indeed, it appeared to have mid-train locomotives—not a normal practice on my RR for this location.  As the train continued to wind its way on toward Westfir, I realized the Santa Clara Tower Operator Vic N. decided to send out a doubled-up, non-clearing train, conspiring with train crews and the Dispatcher.

 

Long trains such as this were features of SP operations of the 1980s.  With the concurrence of my former SP Dispatcher mentor, my basic operating plan held off on this feature, at least until the crews were familiar enough with the railroad and its operation.  Evidently, my crew decided on their own they were ready!  <Big Grin>

 

The monster train still required help for the mountain climb.  We chose to add the helpers to the rear end of the combined train, just ahead of the two cabooses.  By now, several of the overall crew were hanging around watching this monster, “abandoning” their posts.

 

The monster train stretches back past Montieth Rock all the way back into Oakridge, while the head end is in McCredie Springs.

 

Mike W. controls the head-end locos on the monster train as it climbs out of McCredie Springs.  Vic N. (green shirt) is railfanning the train he created.  Mike L. (left) attends to his duty with a RR-East train getting set to leave Oakridge.

 

The monster train climbed ever higher, here crossing Salt Creek Trestle.  This brought out the railfans!

 

The monster train eventually developed motive power issues at Cruzatte—a not uncommon problem for the full-sized monster trains back in the day.  I eventually had to end the fun by breaking apart the two trains to have them proceed independently to Cascade Summit and on into Crescent Lake.  While technical issues with the layout power system defeated the attempt at a full transit of my RR with this train, it did show that both the crew and railroad have matured.

OVERDUE FREIGHT CAR ENHANCEMENT

Building, operating and maintaining a large model railroad necessarily has been an exercise in priorities.  With all of the labor supplied by just myself, I have constantly had to work on whatever I deemed highest priority at any given time.  With initial construction and operation, that list was obvious to me.  As the railroad matured, I shifted from track, wiring and initial equipage to other improvement tasks such as building and installing the three steel viaducts on the mountain climb.  That precipitated a major base terrain construction, as the viaducts (trestles) needed to be set into something.  That then led to the tunnels.  The base terrain was completed in January 2020, whereupon I turned to “industrial terrain”—structures in the Eugene and Springfield scenes.  Now that I have fulfilled my presentation obligation for the NMRA-PNR convention featuring those industries, I am turning to other deferred tasks.

 

In my past modeling, I always tried to properly weight rolling stock and apply at least a base of weathering to the finish before I placed it into service.  I did not have the time or energy for that with this layout as I first rushed to complete the mainline for the NMRA National Convention in Portland in 2015.  As described above, completing the trackwork and then operating the railroad were my prime concerns for a while, followed by the major scenery effort that set the scene. Taking a deep breath after the push to complete structures in Eugene and Springfield, I felt it was time at last to get back to the rolling stock.

 

As I have observed my railroad operating and as I handled cars during re-staging operations, I noted several cars seemed to be light weight.  This is an affliction of the current era of ready to roll freight cars.  In the past, with freight car kits, I added weight as a routine element of construction.  My preferred weight follows the NMRA recommended practice of one ounce plus a half ounce per inch of model length.  The typical fifty-foot car of my current 1984 model era should weigh about 4.5 ounces.  When I weighed a stock RTR car, I found it was a half-ounce under this weight.  That is not necessarily bad.  It is within a tolerance band for weight, but my observations of train behavior during operating sessions suggested to me a bit more weight might help.

 

Adding weight to boxcars.  One or two steel nuts of about ½-inch size provides the desired additional weight.  These are installed into the cars with adhesive caulk.

 

One of the biggest challenges to my weighting program has been opening the cars enough to add the weight.  As seen in the photo, many “modern” cars have separate roofs.  This aids painting during manufacture.  Fortunately, most of these roofs have been removable, although it has taken careful work.  As seen with the top boxcar in the weighting photo above, some of the roofs were tightly glued in place or at least an end remained tightly fixed.  As seen in the photo, I was able to pry up enough roof to insert the steel nuts used for weight for most of these.  Other cars have a removable floor—just like the “Blue Box” kits of yore.  Most of these yielded to careful prying.  

 

I still have several cars that refuse to yield an opening.  I will watch these in operation over time.  If problems develop or are observed, those cars may simply have to be retired.  A particular problem for which I have no solution yet is the fleet of 4650 cu ft covered hoppers I operate.  It appears I may be able to flow some sort of weight in through the access hole in the ends, but the car body will not open up without destroying the model.  These cars compound the problem by being even lighter than the boxcars (3.5 oz).  I have seen operational issues with some of them.  I will report later if I do find a weighting solution.

 

Another task I undertook with this fleet of freight car upgrades was to apply a weathering base.  After masking the wheels, I applied flat finish and then spray painted a light coat of “grunge.”  I may come back later to add further weathering, likely with pastels.

 

Enhanced boxcars at the Zellerbach Paper warehouse in my Eugene depot area.  The three yellow door cars got additional weight and a light coat of weathering “grunge” paint.

 

The weighting and weathering program likely will continue on a sporadic basis as time and motivation strike.  This first pass addressed thirty cars including several that I sought out.  Exactrail Southern Rwy. Pullman-Standard waffle side boxcars were very memorable for being involved in derailments at switches and being light weight.  They simply were memorable.  At least they proved easy to add weight to (roofs come off easily).  InterMountain covered hoppers are a different matter as noted above.  The freight car fleet upgrades will continue.

NMRA PNR CONVENTION 2022

The National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) Pacific Northwest Region (PNR) held its annual convention in Eugene this May.  Originally scheduled for May 2020, as with so much of life, the convention was cancelled and ultimately rescheduled for 2022 as one of the first full in-person events as we came out of societal lockdown.  

 

One of my regular crewmembers was the clinic chairman for this convention.  He long ago signed me up for a clinic presenting my modeling of the Eugene and Springfield area which would provide some local flavor to the regional convention.  Much of my layout construction (the track rework at “North” Eugene) and structure building over the past couple of years directly supported this clinic.  Preparing for such a clinic presentation provided the extra motivation I needed to tackle a number of projects in this area.  

 

This blog has been full of descriptions of my model and layout efforts in my Eugene and Springfield scenes over the past couple of years.  The clinic presented in 2022 told a far more complete story through a number of case studies than would have been possible with the original 2020 schedule.

 

My clinic began with a brief photo survey of my entire railroad to place my Eugene and Springfield into context.  I then presented several structure examples in Eugene, beginning with the depot (blog posted in 2013: https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-depot-for-eugene.html).  A couple of industries in the greater area of the depot were featured:

Zellerbach Paper: https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2020/03/urban-renewal-3-zellerbach-paper.html

Eugene Planing: https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2020/04/urban-renewal-4-eugene-planing.html

I then moved on to three more recent addition in the North Eugene industry area:”

Bi-Mart: https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2022/03/rr-east-eugene-development-8-bimart.html

Skillern Oil: https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2021/12/rr-east-eugene-development-5-skillern.html

American Steel: https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2022/02/rr-east-eugene-development-7-american.html

Each served to highlight research resources used and various construction techniques.

 

I then turned to Springfield, again beginning with the depot.  I pushed hard to meet both an end-of-month blog posting deadline (self-imposed) as well as the need for the completed depot as presentation feature.  I used multiple pictures with the depot prominently showing to tell my tale of Springfield modeling.  https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2022/04/springfield-depot.html  Industry highlights included:

Borden Chemical:  https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2018/10/industrial-development-2-borden-chemical.html

National Metallurgical: https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2020/03/industrial-development-3-national.html

Rosboro Lumber in three parts: https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2020/04/industrial-development-4-rosboro-lumber.html

https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2020/04/industrial-development-4-rosboro-lumber_30.html

https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2020/05/industrial-development-4-rosboro-lumber.html

Once again, the focus was on research resources used and construction techniques employed.

 

The convention was lightly attended—a disappointment for organizers and even attendees.  Still, good clinics were presented as noted in Tony Thompson’s blog a few days ago:  https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2022/05/another-nmra-regional-convention.html.  As with Tony, I greatly appreciated C.J. Riley’s talk on modeling realism.  I also caught one of Tony’s two clinics and piece of the other.  Jim Moomaw, one of my crewmembers and a fellow SP modeler, presented pictures and descriptions of the equipage of Dispatcher Offices over the past century.  In spite of the low attendance, I still made contact with and had great hallway and lobby discussions with several good model railroader friends, including one down from Vancouver, BC.

 

C.J. Riley presented many examples of items that contribute to model railroad realism—and some that distinctly distract.  Much of this came from C.J’s recent book for Kalmbach.

 

It was super to return to in-person conventions.  Much more goes on at a convention than the formal program of clinic presentations, model contest, or layout displays.  The people connection is vital.  As a presenter and as an audience member, I found presentations livelier and more informative when presented in-person.  The interaction between presenter and audience is vital and is not easily replicated in an on-line environment, as we have seen over the past two years.  I will be glad to see fellow hobbyists at my next convention! 

SPRINGFIELD DEPOT

My efforts to populate the Eugene and Springfield area with structures have turned to the Springfield Depot—at last!  Springfield had an SP Common Standard Type 18 depot plan.  This Queen Anne style depot was the second most common depot plan on the SP, superseded only by its replacement, the Type 22.  Both are combination passenger and freight depots with agent’s quarters on a second floor over the passenger section and agent and train order operator’s office.  The Queen Anne style features lots of gingerbread trim.  It is a lovely depot.

Springfield’s depot has been repurposed and moved a few blocks once the railroad’s business no longer required a depot.  Springfield’s Chamber of Commerce now uses the depot.  The depot has been restored to its original plan, including roof peak trim.  In the same vein, it now sports the original extensive trim paint which causes the gingerbread to really pop.

Restored Springfield depot, now serving the Chamber of Commerce.

View of the former track side of the restored Springfield depot.

Several very useful references helped guide my model efforts.  Henry Bender’s Southern Pacific Lines Standard-Design Depots, Signature Press, 2013, provides excellent history and a listing of all known Type 18 depots.  This book also features architectural drawings by Jean-Guy Tanner Dube’.  Larger versions of those drawings may be found in Jean-Guy Tanner Dube’s Railroad Depots, A Southern Pacific Collection, Tailwater Press, 2017.  I used those larger drawings to sort out interior walls for my depot model.  Southern Pacific Lines Pacific Lines Stations Volume 1,compiled by John R. Signor, Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society, 1997, provided a photo of the Springfield depot in SP service and examples of 1950s simplified trim paint.

The Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society (SPH&TS) commissioned an HO-scale kit for the Type 18 depot.  I eagerly ordered one when announced and was one of the early recipients of the kit.  The kit was manufactured by Bill Banta of Banta Model Works.  It features extensive laser-cut parts.  In contrast to other laser-cut kits for SP structures, the Banta kit uses an inner structure core cut from medium density fiberboard (MDF) to which several layers of siding and trim are applied.  Kit instructions include fourteen pages of text and photos describing assembly and another sixteen pages of parts and assembly drawings.  Wow!  

The SPH&TS (Banta Model Works) SP Type 18 Depot kit.

Building core.

Bill Banta recommends using several adhesives, including a spray contact adhesive.  As I built the kit, I found myself gravitating more and more toward use of wood glue, spread with a toothpick rather than the spray adhesive.  In retrospect, I think I should have done this throughout, as the contact cement was very unforgiving for parts positioning.  On the other hand, I probably should have considered using the spray adhesive for the intricate gingerbread trim which is done in two layers.  I augmented the primary adhesives with gap-filling CA.  There were several instances of applied siding debonding at a corner or edge.  The CA allowed me to get the lifted part reattached.  I also found the CA useful to create a tack bond for positioning while the wood glue set.  

The windows and doors for the depot follow SP standards for the era of construction, roughly 1887-1893.  No commercial styrene castings suffice, so Bill Banta designed laser-cut parts including framing and trim, upper and lower sashes, and glazing for the two sashes.  The doors are similar, as all but the freight dock doors have transom windows overhead and also have trim paneling.  Once I got into the flow of assembling and installing the windows and doors, it went pretty smoothly.  My Northwest Shortlines (NWSL) True Sander came in handy to square up the multi-layer windows and doors.

Squaring up a multi-layer door using my NWSL True Sander.

The roofs are covered in shingles—lots and lots of shingles.  The kit supplies laser-cut paper shingles which come out as strips.  Guide lines are etched/burnt into the roof panels to help align the shingles.  I have used similar shingles on a number of SP structure models, but the ones in this Banta kit are by far the best for the strip shingle technique.  I found mine tended to self-straighten as I applied them. 

I chose a “simplified” trim scheme for my depot, typical of 1950s and later depot paint.  This actually made my job more difficult.  As designed, it is relatively easy to do the original maximum trim paint.  As noted above, the trim is applied in two layers.  Almost all of that would be brown in the original scheme.  I had to sort through the parts to determine just how much of the trim needed to be painted brown.  I chose to brush paint the trim as I worked on each section.  Fortunately, I have a small stash of appropriate PolyScale paint—my old standard before it was discontinued.  I sprayed TruColor SP Colonial Yellow for the base color and then brushed my precious PolyScale over that as needed.  The PolyScale paint has a flat finish.  The TruColor paint has a gloss finish and must receive a flat overcoat before proceeding.  I had to plan carefully for that flat overspray to ensure it was done before I started installing window glazing.  Planning for paint was one of my bigger challenges for building my depot.  I ended up doing several masking and spray painting jobs as construction progressed.

I began assembly of the depot shortly after it arrived in September-October 2020.  I had to suspend depot construction as I also was involved in the high profile track project at RR-East Eugene.  I found I needed to concentrate on only one high profile job at a time.  I resumed depot construction this month—April 2022 and have now nearly completed the depot.  There are LOTS of parts to this depot kit!  Placing the now nearly-complete depot in its position at Springfield on my railroad fulfills a vision I have had since I started this layout.

The Springfield depot in position on my railroad.  Note the louver window replacements for the upstairs end windows, as seen in photos from the 1950s and later.  Microscale decal set 87-1401 provided lettering for the station sign boards. 

MARCHING FORWARD!

As mask requirements and related group gathering protocols finally give way, it is time to get back to hobby gatherings, including operations.  The month of March 2022 benefitted from timing as mask and gathering restrictions came off in Oregon just as several major RR hobby events appeared on the calendar.  My friends in the Willamette Model RR Club were able to hold what had been an annual swap meet on what turned out to be the first day in Oregon without mask requirements.  It was with great joy we finally could see full smiling faces of our fellow hobbyists.

 

The next event was Winterail, the major West Coast rail photography exhibition, now held in the Corvallis High School Performing Arts Center.  Winterail features shows with projected images set to music in the main auditorium and a companion railroadianna show held in the cafeteria space alongside the auditorium. This year’s Winterail featured a full standard Saturday program followed by a part-day program on Sunday.  The Saturday program was the show held over from 2020, which was cancelled at the last moment as the pandemic impact first hit.  New material for 2022 was shown on Sunday.  Producer Vic Neves reported ticket sales around 280—down a bit from pre-pandemic numbers, but decent enough.  As usual, the shows were of high quality with a couple of standouts.  Most notable was “Into the Light: Photography of Erik Lundgren” that had particularly striking lighting in images mostly around Colorado.  Images and music were particularly harmonious in this production by Tim Tonge.  Another takeaway from this year’s Winterail is the increasing use of camera drones helping photographers achieve a new perspective on railroading.

 

Taking advantage of several folk travelling to the Pacific Northwest for both Winterail and the next weekend’s Soundrail model railroad operations regional gathering, I scheduled a “Boomer” operating session on my railroad while my friends at WMRRC schedule one the following day.  Ten out-of-town “Boomers” were joined by a similar number of my local crew for a full operating session on my SP Cascade Line.  Shown below are a sampling of images from this fifty-second full operating session on my railroad.

 

Boomer Seth N. dispatched.  He has done so in prior visits and kept the railroad fluid.

 

Regulars Dave H. and Craig L. managed the Eugene Arrival-Departure Yard.  This combines both staging and A-D Yard functions.

 

Rodger C, (Boomer) Jim B, Craig L, study action at the RR-East end of my Eugene Classification Yard as “Santa Clara Tower Operator” Dave H. looks on.

 

Yardmaster Rick A. manages the Eugene Yard as RR-West Switcher Bill M. works his end of the yard.

 

Boomers Dave H. and Brian F. work the Springfield-A local job.  This job works Springfield industry on spurs on the backdrop side of the mainline.

 

Boomer Jeff F. brings a RR-East road freight around the curve into Springfield.

 

Dispatcher Seth N. has set up a major meet in Springfield with Jeff F.’s Eastbound road freight on the main, the out-going (RR-West) Oakridge Turn on the siding, and the Springfield-A job on the depot and drill tracks.

 

Jim B. pilots a RR-West freight around the curve past the Marcola Branch at the RR-West end of Springfield.

 

Jeff F. brings another RR-East train past Westfir.

 

Boomer Jim P. services the company fuel and maintenance of way tracks at Oakridge as part of the Oakridge Turn’s activity.

 

Oakridge Turn engineer Jim P. watcxhes as Helper engineer Boomer Dave A. cuts his helpers off the point of a RR-East train as that train’s engineer Boomer Ed S. watches.  Dispatcher Seth N. chose to bring most helpers back down to Oakridge on the point (front) of RR-East (downhill) trains.

 

Jim B. works a RR-West uphill with help from Jim L. as engineer on the mid-train helper at McCredie Springs.

 

The Dispatcher has set up a meet at Wicopee.  Jeff F. brings a RR-West uphill and into the siding as Dave H. and Dave A. hold their RR-East downhill train on the Main.

 

Meet accomplished, Road Engineer Jeff F. and Helper Jim L. check block authority with the Dispatcher as Helper Engineer Dave A. prepares to work further RR-East.

 

At the RR-West end of Wicopee, Boomer Greg W. checks his block authority as he works another train RR-West (uphill).

 

The 9363 drifts downhill over Salt Creek Trestle.

 

Ed S. and Dave A. bring another freight RR-East down over Salt Creek Trestle.

 

A priority meet at Cruzatte!  Greg W. (left) holds the main with the RR-East LABRF while Amtrak Number 11 works uphill (RR-West) under the guidance of Norm A. (right).

 

Boomer Jeff F. gets a procedural assist from local Jim L. at Crescent Lake as Jeff prepares to take a train out of Crescent Lake and RR-East downhill toward Eugene.

 

It was great to have a full crew run my railroad after two years of limited operations.  I was happy to open up the RR to out-of-state visitors, taking advantage of rail events nearby on successive weekends.  This was a great way to celebrate a return to group activities.

RR-EAST EUGENE DEVELOPMENT – 8 – BiMart Warehouse

My effort to fill the six new industrial spurs in the congested area geo-north, RR-East, of the Eugene Depot brought me to the spot designated for the BiMart warehouse.  As I noted in the first of the posts in this series (https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2021/08/rr-east-eugene-development-1.html), I consulted multiple sources to identify what industries I would model.  Most of the industries appeared on the 1977 SPINS (Southern Pacific Industrial Numbering System) diagrams for Eugene.  Given our positive view of BiMart here in Oregon plus a family tale we delight in, BiMart immediately became a winner.

 

BiMart is a local-to-the-Pacific-Northwest discount retailer, much like Costco.  Founded in Yakima, Washington, BiMart quickly became an Oregon institution and soon headquartered in Eugene.  I searched the internet for more information and found their current headquarters and distribution warehouse on Google Earth satellite view.  The current warehouse is served strictly by truck, but that 1977 SPINS document clearly identified a BiMart warehouse as an SP customer.  I suspect BiMart changed warehouse locations to a much larger truck facility as their business grew and transportation shifted to trucks.  The current satellite and street views are of a different warehouse.  

 

I chose to model a typical warehouse from the mid-century.  Concrete tilt-slab wall construction and bowed roofs were very common.  This structural form lends itself well to foam-core model construction as I have done on a number of other structures.  The bowed roof added a bit of challenge as I wanted to make a hipped version of such a roof—another common feature.  An added challenge for my model was the need for a diagonal cut along the back of my structure to fit it against the wall while having the rail side parallel the spur track.

 

BiMart Warehouse.

 

I built my model in two major sub-assemblies.  The walls were my conventional foam-core construction with a cardstock siding laminated to the core structure walls.  I simply painted the cardstock a creamy off-white.  I captured the BiMart logo from the back side of a receipt and then printed it on one of the painted cardstock sheets.  The columns were strips of plastic, painted the same wall color.  Both the roll-up freight doors and personnel doors came from my favorite Clever Models steel structure pack.  Other bits of styrene from my scrap bin provided the freight docks and personnel stairs.

 

BiMart wall construction. The freight doors are inset into the foam core sides.

 

Roof construction began with finding a suitable form for the roof arch.  Fortunately, I had a round metal tray of an appropriate size.  I cut a series of roof formers in foam-core.  I glued these to a foam-core base—a sub-roof.  I used one of the rounded formers and more foam core to duplicate the end geometry.  I wanted something to experiment with for the roof ends.  I installed longitudinal roof formers between the arches.  I also laminated wood beams to the underside of the sub-roof to keep it flat.  

 

BiMart roof assembly.  The lateral arched roof formers were joined by longitudinal formers.  Triangular pieces help form the roof ends.  A diagonal former was placed where the roof would be cut at the back of the structure.

 

I glued a sheet of cardstock to my trial end piece using rubber cement.  After this set, I trimmed the cardstock to fit the edges of the end former.  I then removed the cardstock from the former to use it as a template for the final roof pieces.  The resulting template has a gentle arch to fit the roof arch and side sections that edge outward to meet that gentle arch.

 

Trial roof end former and cardstock roof template after it was shaped and removed from the former.  The upper surface has a gentle arch and the sides angle out from the low front corners.

 

I used the roof end template to layout cut lines on the roof cardstock (chipboard).  I left quarter-inch margins outside my template for subsequent trimming.  This turned out to be perfect!  I cut the gentle arch freehand, as I no longer had a hard device to use for a cutting guide.  I accounted for this with my roof former design and my ultimate plan to cover the roof joints with paper strips. 

 

I glued the end roof sections to the roof structure using both carpenter’s glue and gap-filling CA glue.  I then placed wood pieces as weights to hold the roof panels in place on the former.  I did a small amount of trimming of the end roof sections where they overhung the arch roof former.  I then added a second arch roof former inside the end formers to support the center roof panel edges.  The center roof section was applied, once again aided by heavy wood pieces on the top and edges to hold everything in place as the glues set.   Finally, I cut the roof along the diagonal back roof former. 

 

Roof back trimmed along the diagonal former.

 

Several coats of paint were applied to the chipboard roof panels as they soaked up a lot of paint.  I was pleasantly surprised to find my guestimates of extra margins around the roof were perfect for my needs. The sub-roof neatly fit into the wall assembly.  The freight docks and stairs were built from scrap-box styrene pieces, and painted to match the structure.

 

BiMart Warehouse in place and ready for business.