Craftsman Structures: Depot At Tyrone

Depot at Tyrone

The second module Doug and I added to the fictitious town of Tyrone set in Eastern Ontario at the turn of the last century was the scene of the railway station.

Doug managed to secure the lovely O-Scale depot from the estate of the late Peter Nesbitt.

Peter was an avid modeler in the Ottawa Region and a well-respected judge at many NMRA events across the province of Ontario. He is deeply missed in our railway community.

Peter had already built the structure and painted it.

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All I had to do was touch up some small areas of damage and repaint and weather the plastic platform to make it appear as natural wood.

Looks like a rainy day with water on the platform. These images were taken directly after a "wash" was placed on it.

Once the structure was planted I brought in some Sculptamold to fabricate the parking area and added miscellaneous details such as the horse and buck wagon which were kits as was a second baggage wagon...all coming from Berkshire Valley Models.

The tree came from the hands of our friend, Gaston Moreau. As I mentioned in an earlier blog posting, it will be decorated with Christmas Tree lights when the snow flies offering a warm welcome to visitors who arrive Tyrone in the days leading up to Christmas.

A view out back. This is a relatively clean module. Most railway stations had a stationmaster whose family would tend some sort of garden be it a vegetable garden or simply a garden for display.

Doug created the signs for the depot which I place on either end. Below is Doug's accounting for the station at Tyrone circa 1912.

Tyrone c. Sept 1912

(a fictitious slice of Edwardian life in rural Eastern Ontario)

Tyrone Station

The land grants to UEL's after the American Revolution were rarely taken up in Eastern Ontario because of the poorly drained rocky soils. Most of these lands grants were later sold to Irish immigrants beginning with the Irish potato famine of the 1830s. Small farms were established under difficult conditions. The coming of the railways - the Ottawa & Prescott, the Grand Trunk, the Canada Atlantic and the Canadian Pacific - in the latter half of the 19th century provided a basis for economic improvement. Where tracks crossed a primitive colonist roadway, a village soon formed and that is what is represented by Tyrone station - a station named for the Irish county. Tyrone station is very small as befits the minimal number of originating passengers - its primary purpose is to handle the daily express shipment of cheese to Montreal for export to the UK.

Pulling the camera back a little we see the farmer heading out of town with empty milk jugs have just delivered full ones in town.

Yes, Peter's lovely detail with the ornate rooftop detailing certainly adds to the "feel" Doug wanted for his town of Tyrone!

Along with the three other modules, the station module certainly is an important part of "the family"!

The circular items on the baggage wagons are blocks of cheese to go out on the next train. A few more O-Scale figures were painted and added to the scene including some that came as pewter figurines which required painting and weathering.

These were all silver looking pewter figurines which I took my brush to. Doug ordered them from Knuckleduster Miniatures.

I love the detail they offer.

Some close-up shots under incandescent lighting.

Every day folk going about their business!

The figurines I painted were very similar to these pewter examples.

There's the lady awaiting the train's arrival.

She is pewter while the others you see are resin.

Some additional foliage trackside adds realism. Those cheese rounds certainly look inviting!

The three gentlemen are either resin or plastic and the lady holding the child in her arms was one of the pewter figurines from Knuckleduster Miniatures.

A drone shot of the module.

Let's go back to an earlier phase in the story. Here is Doug outside my garage on the driveway showing me the module bases he built. This was still back in heavy pandemic times so we chose to meet in the great outdoors.

Here Doug is mapping out where the angled roadway will go and other buildings.

The recently purchased depot from Peter Nesbitt's estate.

Peter did a great job on the station. Some of the figures are too modern for our time period, but they serve to give the platform a somewhat busy appearance.

My scratchbuild of the machine shop is nowhere near completion at this time, but we are having fun determining angles for the various structures.

By this time I had built the Blair Line General Store for Doug and it's placement is being decided upon as well.

A look from the other direction.

Yup...we're liking the look of things in this early planning phase.

The light catches Peter's model beautifully.

Looking mighty fine in my books!

Lovely!

I rather like the roof.

I repainted the structure using very similar colour tones to Peter's...Country Twill for the tan colour and Dark Chocolate for the brown.

Under the incandescent lighting.

And...under the fluorescent lighting.

Peter had also build the baggage cart.

Doug felt we needed another baggage cart.

Berkshire Valley Models offered up this kit you see in the two photos above.

Raggs to Riches offered up a pair of station benches.

My favourite colour tones for the benches...green and the wood colours.

This little kit went together in a jiffy!

Looking good!

These Woodland Scenics figures would agree!

For fun I created this scene knowing full well that not all of these figures will make the cut.

The other bench went on the west side of the depot.

The lads managed to find this seating place as well. I hope they will offer up their seats to the two lovely ladies who are approaching from both directions. The lad on the right is scratching his head wondering if he should give up his favourite spot - like Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory!

My finished version of the baggage cart in oxide red, forest green colours with a weathered wooden planking look.

I purposely angled the front wheel assembly for greater visual interest.

This was the baggage cart Peter had painted all black with brown wheels.

Peter did a fine job on it...but Doug and I wanted the two carts to match.

So-o-o...I went to town painting over Peter's fine paint job.

Before final weathering.

An aerial view of the two carts now residing once again on the platform. Note how the Sculptamold is taking time to dry throughout.

When we work with this project, Doug and I make up smaller batches so as not to waste much. It is a tad messy but the results offer up a fine looking dirt road and parking area.

You have to tuck up the Sculptamold right up to the platform. It shrinks a little as it cures so you will have to go back in with a little bit more later.

An overhead shot of the station module and the general store module getting their "fix" of Sculptamold.

Here I am ensuring the manicured lawn area that will house the evergreen tree has a perfectly formed square border.

Here's the little trick I used to determine the exact center spot where I want the tree to go. Clever eh?

I've added the Tyrone sign to the east side of the building and used one of my skinnier dowels to create the hole for the evergreen tree. I have yet to glue the border timbers in place.