Sn3 RGS First District: Construction Update #1

Placerville, Colorado

Basic construction will consist of a series of modules connected with traditional plywood roadbed on risers on L-Girder bench work. Work will start along the 22.5 long north wall of the room with the two Placerville Modules as shown below. Note: The overall plan is shown in the August 16, 2023 post.

Since there aren't any grades through Placerville, the base will consist of 2 layers of 1" pink foam sandwiched together and framed with 1x3's. The plan is to bring each scene to a presentable level before going on the next... starting with the structures.

The Placerville Depot (Ragg's...To Riches)

The Ragg's...To Riches kits are no longer in production but most of them turn up on the secondary market. These are excellent kits and I managed to pick up this S-Scale example of the Placerville depot for a reasonable price on ebay.

Building of the kit is pretty straight forward, with the exception of the roof, so I'm not going to go into a lot "how to" instructions. But, I will offer a couple of suggestions to make the process easier.

The wainscoting and batten boards sections are combined on one piece of peel and stick material. The instructions suggest priming and painting dark brown wainscoting first, masking off the brown wainscoting, and then painting the yellow battens. I reversed the process and primed and painted the yellow battens first. It is much easier to get an opaque finish with yellow over gray than yellow over dark brown. I used a airbrush to apply the Floquil paints; Depot Buff with a little Reefer White to lighten it up and Roof Brown.

The instructions call for building up the base core and then adding the peel & stick details. I find it easier to paint and assemble each wall to include the siding, windows and doors before assembly. Per the instructions, I did hold off on adding the window sills until most of the assembly was done.

Several holes were cut in the floor in order to access the interior. The holes may come in handy at some point in the future should I need to access the inside of the building.

I found the roof to be the most challenging aspect of the kit. Although my results are satisfactory, I had a lot of trouble with the shingles on the back side of roof over the bay window. I ended up simplifying the application of the shingles so that section of the roof deviates a bit from the prototype. The instructions for how to paint the peel and stick shingles are excellent. But, measure carefully and don't waste any shingles. I used all but one strip of the peel and stick shingles.

A piece of 3/16" square strip wood was added to the bottom of the base to increase the height of the platform, to add strength and prevent warping.

The Placerville Depot "Mini-Scene" Part 1

Recently, I have been placing my structures on a base of 1" pink foam. Attaching the structure to the foam and adding some ground cover and a few other details creates a neat little mini-scene and makes the model easier to handle before it is installed on the layout.

The base for the Placerville depot is about 22" wide and 10" deep. It was painted brown with craft paint and HO cork roadbed was glued in place for the RGS mainline that ran in front of the depot. In the past, I have used flex track but this time around, at least for the time being, I have gone back to hand laid Code 70 rail on wood ties (P-B-L Code 70 flex track is and has been out of stock for months). Fast Tracks makes some cool little fixtures for spacing out the ties. For this section, I am using their "Tie Jig for Sn3 Mainline - Slightly Misaligned".

Once the ties are in the fixture, a piece of painters tape was used to remove them.

Here they are, out of the fixture, and ready to be glued down on top of the cork with yellow carpenters glue.

After the glue had dried, the ties were sanded flat and the base for the depot was glued in place leaving room to the left of the depot for the restrooms.

The ties were stained with Silverwood and weathered with powdered pigments. At this point, the depot, platform and ties were sealed with flat finish. All that remains to be done to the depot is to install the doorway thresholds, the order board above the bay window, the signage and the decorative trim along the peak of the roof.

While it is difficult to find, I prefer High Ball "Cinders" limestone ballast over most other brands. I apply and shape it dry, spray it with a 50-50 mix of alcohol and water, and apply a mix of 3 parts 50-50 water and 1 part Liquitex matte medium with a pipette. While the matte medium is more expensive than white glue, I think it is a bit more flexible, after it sets, and transmits less noise. The rail will get laid once the depot is placed on the module.

The basic ground cover is paving sand from Home Depot. It is applied the same way. A little ground foam was also added for a bit of color. The flat pad in the left of the photo is the future location of the water closet (outhouse).