I scratchbuilt this HO replica of a Wabash interlocking tower for a retired railroader friend who is also a model railroader (as is his number two son). It was presented on his 96th birthday recently and is special to him as his trains passed this tower at Wolcottville, Indiana many times in his 40 year railroad career.
I also have fond memories of this tower as visited it many times as a very young railfan. The tower operators were friendly to a young man whose career military dad was far away serving his second tour in Vietnam. One tower operator even allowed me to throw (attempt) the Armstrong levers one day! This project was worth all the time and effort to see my friend light up and forget about his aches and pains associated with advanced aging. It is not often that you can make an elderly person feel like a kid again!
The tower has a styrene superstructure and brick contact paper for the brick detail. The slate roof was made from Kibri plastic sheet and is removable with a second floor for interior detail and lighting. (The Micro Engineering and modified Tichy windows are painted in the prototype’s black and gray colors, plus reversed to replicate masonry installations.) The Micro-Mark brick paper is made from photographs of real brick and has texture, in that the bricks are raised above the mortar lines. It is the most realistic model brick I have ever seen, including that on painted models.
I installed .005" glass in the window frames and it was almost my undoing. I have a diamond point scriber now but the carbon point one caused me to ruin more glass than I used. The chimney was also scratchbuilt using the contact brick paper and styrene. The door was constructed with individual styrene panels and a transom window cut from a window, as I could not find anything close. I had the foresight to photog