The Truck Scale
September 24, 2023
The Placerville Post Office
September 24, 2023
During the period I model, the Placerville post office was located right next door to the Placerville store. McCarville Studios make a nice kit in S-Scale for the post office but due to its simplicity and my need to reduce the depth of the structure by about 60%, I decided to scratch build the post office and save the $80 cost of the kit. Here is how it appeared around 1940.
While the structure itself is pretty simple, the doors and windows were a bit of a challenge. This view, taken during the 1960's provides a better veiw of the windows. By this time, it looked like the original wood siding was covered by some kind of rolled roofing or siding material. Note: Since the original post I have been informed by Charles Weston that the walls were covered with wavy bottom asbestos shingles.
Bill Plunkett Photo
I've covered how I normally scratch build structures by covering a styrene core with scribed wood so I am not going to repeat the process here. I will, however, cover how one can modify commercial windows and doors to better represent the prototype. For the post office, I used Grandt Line 5 panel doors #4003 shown below on the left. I glued two of the doors together and then cut down two of the single door frames and combined them to make the double doors and frame shown on the right.
For the windows, I used Tichy 2/2 double hung windows #3525.
Cutting them apart and reassembling them was a bit more difficult than the doors. The dimensions aren't quite right and the vertical mullions are a little oversize. But I my mind these were acceptable compromises (Anything to avoid scratch building a window).
And here is the post office ready to go on the layout with its second sign. The first sign included the zip code and that was a problem for my early 1940's era layout. Zip codes weren't introduced until July of 1963! The flag is from Woodland Scenics. The colors are just a guess. The only thing I could tell from the 1940's era B&W photos was that the siding was a darker and the trim was a lighter.
The Third Residence
September 27, 2023
Note: Several people have sent me emails to ask how I come up with a suitable model without having a lot of pictures and/or dimensional drawings. In short, I use photographs, a known dimension such as a door height, and a bit of modelers license.
The third residence I want to include in my Placerville scene was located 200 Front Street south of the post office.
Interestingly, this little house is still standing along Front Street in Placerville. The property, that includes 3 city lots and two small houses sold for $850,000 in February of 2022.
Using the the probable door height, I adjusted the size of the photo in order to measure the major dimensions. The measurements were then confirmed using the photo shown above and transferred onto the photo.
Denver Public Library Digital Collection
The most difficult part of building any of these structures is those pesky windows and doors which never seem to match up with a commercial part. The fact that details change, over time, makes it even more difficult when older photographs are hard to find or don't exist. Again, I went through my stock of Tichy and Grandt Line windows and came up with three that were reasonably close. In this case, I just removed a few mullions and decided they were close enough. The original window is shown to the left of the modified one. The door is a stock part.
After studying the two pictures included here and the street view on Google, I came to the conclusion that the front porch was screened in at one time and totally enclosed with the roof extended when the most recent color photo was taken. When I blew up the B&W photo I could barely see one window and a door behind the screens.
When it was all said and done, here is what I came up with. Like all the other structures along the backdrop, it is around 2" deep.
My completed version of the residence at 200 Front Street. I did use a little modeler's license by adding the picket fence and Elder Tree in the front yard. The block stone retaining wall out front is more left overs from the Monster Model works Placerville store kit. The chimney and picket fence are from Rail Scale Models. The Elder tree is from JTT. I left off the screened in porch since I had no idea if it was correct for my era.
Originally, I only planned on building 4 structures for Placerville; the depot, two warehouse and the store. Of course one led to another as I studied the available photos and now there are 8 based upon photos and three "stand ins". There are another 3 I would like to add as shown in the photo below. Unfortunately, the hotel and the two saloons down Front Street burnt down in 1919.
As always, your comments, suggestions & questions are welocome
The siding on the post office in the later photo is wavy bottom asbestos shingles.
ReplyDelete