Larry, Just catching up on your post. Layout looks great and the storefront made from paper is terrific...Nice work!!
Dave

Dave thank you, much appreciated and thanks for stopping by.

The new store is coming along so here's where it's at currently:



Here is one of the sides which is colored with a series of chalks then blended in with straight rubbing alcohol between colors.
The boards are scale 1x10's which were cut and stained before applying. Usually I'd cut the boards and glue on before staining; but
I much prefer this method. The other two sides look much the same so I won't bore you with photos of them.



This is the interior using the same 1x10's which were painted a flat white then a coat of A&I
applied over the top. This gave me a nice light grey color. The back wall is not glued in yet so
that I can detail the interior to some degree.



Lastly here is the front of the store. The shelves are made from scale lumber and painted to match the interior walls. The items
in the windows came from the parts box and painted. Didn't weather any of them as they are supposed to be brand new without
any rust or wear. Also I'll be ordering some detailing parts for the interior of the store soon.

The next task will be making a roof for the building with rafters and some sort of roofing material added. Also a big sign will be
made for the front of the store which will be attached to the front gable of the roof; I hope to make it look like it has been painted
on.

That's the store so far. Any comments/suggestions are always appreciated. See you next time.

Larry the store is coming along nicely. Love the way the light gray came out nice job.

For the windows for detail parts use HO or even N scale parts they will really look more realistic.

Larry, The store is coming along nicely. Jerry has a good idea using smaller parts. Looking forward to more.

Roland

Good color on the walls both inside and out.
I'm with Jerry and Roland on the front window display.
Keep at it, I know you'll do a great job with it.

Jerry thank you for the compliment and also for the tip on the display for the windows.

Roland thank you, much appreciated. Thanks for dropping by. and taking a look.

Rick thanks. I'll have to see what I can do with the displays when I start detailing the
interior.

Larry, the new building is coming along nicely. I am impressed by how good the front looks. Persist!

Larry,

Excellent job on everything.

I agree with you that the preferable way is to stain boards before gluing them on. The boards look more individual and it avoids the possibility of a little glue on the outside repelling the stain.

Mike

Mike thank you. The front came out better than I even thought it would.

Michael thanks. This is the first time I've done the siding this way but it
won't be my last.

Larry,

Like everyone has said, the colors look good! I have no experience with scale store displays, but it looks good to me.
Hard to tell paper from wood!

Scott

Scott thank you. I was hoping that the paper store front would blend well with the wood.
Looks like I accomplished what I wanted to do.

Now that everything's all ready for Santa, I was able to get back to the bench some. Decided to give
building construction a rest for a bit; of course I still need some interior details for the store. So I turned
my attention to getting at least one engine up and running:



Here is the donor mechanism which is an old AHM diesel switcher. It was purchased sometime in the mid '70's for
about ten bucks brand new. Sadly it now runs like crap. I decided since it doesn't run well what have I got to loose;
so I tore it completely apart and cleaned every part. The green thing in front of the chassis is a piece of Scotchbrite pad
which cleans metal without leaving any scratches. Went over the whole thing and put it all back together. Now it runs
at a scale 15 mph as smooth as silk. The pad also works very well for cleaning the tops of the rails also.



After some careful measuring, cutting, and gluing I came up with a new hood for the engine. It was constructed out of sheet styrene
which I haven't worked with in years. Then it was painted with flat black. The side doors are from the same material glued to the sides
for depth as opposed to just scribing them on. The handles are from a piece of 24 gauge copper wire. The white stuff on the hood is
sawdust; I guess I need to clean the glass that I work on.



Here is a view of the back. As you can see I used the old hood as a foundation for the new one which will be covered by the yet
to be built cab. The hood measures a scale 5 ft.high by 5.5 ft wide and 10 ft long which seems reasonable for a about a 50 ton switcher.
When the cab is finished then you won't see inside the hood. The floor for the cab is done and all the wood will be stained. The entire
engine will be weathered before the cab is built which will be out of wood. Not prototypical but that's the way I want it.



This is the front with the coupler already in place. The engine will be parked by the Shops and will be servicing the other
end of the layout hence the coupler on one end only. There will be another engine parked at the right end of the layout
to aid in digging out cars. The louvers in the grill is a print with the sides of the grill glued on top from 100# paper then
blacked with a magic marker. There are a couple of details to add to the top of the hood which will be added last.

That's where I'm at with my detour build which will be finished before the store is completed. Thanks for stopping by,
until next time.

Looks good. Glad you got it running again. Looking forward to the wood cab. Roland

That is a great looking foreground you finished, your structure is coming along nicely, and that AHM 70's era, I've had many of those when I started. They can make good kit bashed locos for a back shop build. A little TLC gets them running quite well.