Full Steam Ahead - Freight House & Supply

A friend, Ron Newby, is building a series of modules for a portable railroad he showcases at train shows and he needed some building completed before a specific show deadline. I offered to do one for him and I selected a structure from a manufacturer whose kits I had not worked with before. Full Steam Ahead is a company based in Ontario which produces laser cut structure kits and ships them in these beautiful cigar style boxes with a lovely imprint of a steam locomotive on the cover. I was exited to try out a new kit from a new manufacturer.

The kit is a freight house and supply structure that would be a perfect fit on any model railroad. Opening the front and back covers of the instruction manual provides you with a fine example of how the finished product appears.

Ron gave me the liberty to select any colour scheme of my liking, so I chose to paint the structure in Boston and Maine colours, of course! Depot Buff and Maroon. The image above shows a faded and aged railroad shed where the maroon has turned to a more brownish colour - a nice combination in my books!

I painted the wall sections using an acrylic colour called 'sand' and a trim colour called 'coffee bean' over top a maroon base. Note the grooves along the top of the wall sections. These are cleverly designed to allow for the roof rafters.

A great feature of this kit are the many loading docks that surround the structure. I chose to add supports front and back creating an 'x' formation. Staining with an alcohol and ink combination provides a weathered look to the wood.

Another nice feature to this kit is the inclusion of rafter supports. Above you can see the rafter tails after having been applied with the kit in an upside down formation. Note the wraparound nature of the decking.

Here is a three-quarters view of the completed structure with many of the detail parts on the loading docks.

The structure as seen from another view. I particularly like the stairs leading from the dock to the ground.

Finally, a side view showcasing the nice sign that comes with the kit. Now that it's done, off it goes to Ron for his modules. It was a joy putting together this kit and I must congratulate Joe Rutter from Full Steam Ahead who has made such a lovely kit!

To see a more detailed account of this project with many more images, check out the link below to the Railroad-Line Forum thread I created.

http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=26388

To visit Full Steam Ahead's website...

http://www.fullsteamahead.ca

Here are some pictures that my friend, Chris Lyon, snapped of the finished model on Ron's module.

I like how Ron has detailed the scene.

Lots of little "doodad" items bring the property to life.

Nice view from the side.

A front view.

A close-up from the vantage point in front of the module...this shot taken before the detailing of the area.

Nice side-on view.

From above.

Like the vehicle and the little people.

Looks like business is brisk.

Ron is talented when it comes to module construction and finish.

I'm proud to have been able to build this structure for my good friend Ron.

An aerial view.

From the back of the module.

Thanks for checking in on this fun project.  Have a fantastic day!

To view an in-depth account of this project at the Railroad Line Forum, paste the link below into your address bar above.

http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=26388