Cape & Armstrong Co. - 1:87 Scale 

Politicians rewrite history, why can't I?

Back in July I wrote that my McIntyre Marine was the largest shipper in Scots' Landing. That's no longer true. Cape & Armstrong is a wholesaler of general merchandise serving communities on the chain of lakes that stretches north from Pheasant Lake, where Scots' Landing is located. At C&A Co., merchandise of all kinds is transshipped from rail cars, to the C&A warehouse, to packet boats that serve businesses up and down the lakes. The company also handles some of the products coming south from the lake district -- furs, leather, apples and cider, honey, cranberries, and wild rice among them. At least one, often two boxcars are unloaded here each day, while an outbound car might carry a substantial amount of LCL freight.

Cape & Armstrong Co., General Merchandise

 scratch built paper model, 1:87 scale

adapted from photographs of a craftsman kit 

by Sea Port Model Works 

 A Little Diversion

People tend not to use the name "Sakrison" and the word "normal" in the same sentence. I was once asked whether anyone in my family suffers from insanity. I had to be honest. I said, "We don't suffer from it; we really enjoy it."

True Story:  My firstborn daughter has been a nerd (and proud of it) since before nerditude was cool. Both our girls attended a small private grade school where most of the families went to the same church. Ingrid was in third grade when a classmate approached her one day and asked, "Ingrid, why are you so strange?" Her teacher told me Ingrid didn't miss a beat. She turned to her classmate and responded, "Have you met my father?"

Fogarty's Bait & Tackle Shop - 1/87 Scale Paper Model

This is one of the buildings from "The Waterfront" kit by Builders in Scale. The kit is out of print but full-size plans (HO scale) are available from Builders in Scale. 

I built this paper model from BiS plans using my own barnwood texture sheet (download it here), siding and roofing from Paper Creek (no longer in business), doors and windows from my "digital parts box," signs from the Internet, a barrel and stovepipe from Tichy Train Group, stripwood, and home-made ground foam. I made the shop signs on Photoshop Elements®.

Fogarty's Bait & Tackle Shop will be located in Scots' Landing on my Ceresco & Wolf River RR.

I didn't put a loading dock on the left side of the barn. That side won't be visible on the layout, but I didn't know that when I started building the structure. 

The plans also show a canopy on this end of the barn. I may add it later.

Inverness Joinery - 1:87 scale paper model

Another large structure for Scots' Landing on my HO-scale shelf layout, Inverness Joinery is a scratch built paper model based on FOS Scale Models' "Pendleton Marine. The siding, roofing, chimneys, and platforms are texture sheets from Clever Models. Windows and doors are from my digital parts box. Details are from FSM, Preiser, and Durango Press. I'll add figures as soon as I get around to painting them. Like Scots' Landing itself, "Inverness Joinery" and its owner, John MacKinnon are fictional nods to my Scottish heritage.

 Willy's Tavern -- HO Scale

This is one of my early kit bashes, done about 40 years ago. The stone wall sections are from an old Thomas Yorke kit. The rest is Northeastern basswood and Grandt Line windows. Scale is 1/87. It's amazing what one can find while sorting through old neglected boxes. I thought this little gem was long gone.

 W.I. Shaw & Co.

"Girdles, Trusses, Corsets, & Fan Belts"

Scratch built HO Scale, Northeastern scribed siding and stripwood, Grandt Line windows & door, Floquil paints, and home-made tar paper, probably built from a plan in Model Railroader, but I don't recall. This was one of my first attempts a scratch building. I think it holds up pretty well after 50+ years.

Track Plan for Ceresco on the Ceresco & Wolf River RR -- HO Scale

 After much thinking, studying, experimenting (on paper), and head-scratching, I have finally come up with a plan for the second terminal on my point-to-point shelf layout. My HO-scale Ceresco & Wolf River RR occupies a space about 8 ft x 16 ft. The northern terminal, Scots' Landing, now under construction, is described here. 

Pictured below is my plan for Ceresco ("Seh-RESS-koh"), the southern terminal where the C&WR meets the C&NW in Sept 1943. My plan is based on an On30 design by Travis Handschug. I flipped it lengthwise, and made a few other changes. The layout ends on the right at Ceresco. The interchange track will be served by cassettes. A single hidden staging track and the line to Scots' Landing depart at upper left. Most structures will be scratch-built with a few craftsman kits and kitbashes to fill out the town.

I welcome any comments, suggestions, advice, or tasteless puns.

"Ceresco" was the name of a Fourierite Commune, also known as the Wisconsin Phalanx, the first permanent settlement in what later became my hometown, Ripon, Wisconsin. Founded in 1844, Ceresco was named for Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture.