Building The Lionel Factory

STEP-BY-STEP

BUILDING THE LIONEL FACTORY BACKDROP

PHOTO 1 - The indent of this doorway created an opportunity to place a large recessed building front that would allow for a loading dock area. The narrow space would not otherwise allow for a dock.

PHOTO 2 - I had seen the outstanding building front work of John Sethian on an on-line forum and decided to try to build a large factory backdrop. I used an Ameritowne Homestead Furniture Factory kit, which includes five sets of loading dock doors, across the bottom. I added to the height with walls of identical windows to create six additional floors. The panels shown in photo 2 comprise the recessed section only.

PHOTO 3 - Getting all of these panels aligned to each other with a minimal crease between panels is tricky. The tops have a cornice which only requires filing to create a flat surface. Side-to-side alignment, requires considerable filing. It is best to file these at an angle to have them meet at a slender point. I laid the panels side to side and spanned one-half inch hardwood across the seam using heavy duty glue to hold the panels flush.

PHOTO 4 - With five panels spanning the recess and two levels complete, I could now judge the placement. Blank wall panels were cut to aligning height for the non-recessed sides.

PHOTO 5 - The side panels are a challenge, as the walls from the furniture factory kit are shorter than the standard blanks. I had to trim these from the bottom and begin the process of gluing the upper floor panels to the tops. To make for easier alignment, I glued one-half inch square braces to the inside to keep everything squared up.

PHOTO 6 - Further complicating the construction is the need to build a side wall to accommodate the recess, as shown here. These pieces are cut from a blank wall section and must be cut exactly. Having placed the half square wood brace in the inside corner helps with alignment.

PHOTO 7 - With the side panels both complete, these are placed at each end to complete the full width. Either by design or happenstance, they met the edges of the door molding perfectly. Having the recessed sides meet the main span is a labor, as these need to be filed and sanded for a good fit. You also need to indent the cornices so they meet as seamlessly as possible.

PHOTO 8 - The general structure is now in place, however, it appears to be too large. Bad planning on my part. The top of the building butts against the top of the doorway, causing the building to stick out too far. This greatly reduced the space available for a loading dock.

PHOTO 9 - As shown in photo 8, the size of the full eight story structure brought the building front too far forward reducing the potential size of the loading dock and eliminated the possibility of having a rooftop sign, which I had already planned. I decided to remove the top three floors (one panel), however, the structure was significantly less impressive in size.

PHOTO 10 - I decided on this compromise. I cut all of the centers panels down to one floor and the end panels to two floors. This enabled nearly covering of the side door molding and left a center area for the roof top sign.

PHOTO 11 - As the project comes together, the size of the structure begins to get unwieldy. When placed, it will sit on its own weight, so to speak, so I had to be sure it was sturdy. I attached half inch square lengths to the side panels and aligned these with stabilizing braces on the main section and screwed these together.

PHOTO 12 - Crafting the add on for the top floors was an effort. Each of the panels needed to be trimmed precisely. In addition, the side sections required side walls, as these sides would be visible from a viewers perspective. Once complete, this top section will be attached to the lower section.

PHOTO 13 - The basic structure is now in place and the recess is large enough for an ample loading dock. The open space above the center section will now be sufficient for the rooftop sign I had envisioned. Prior to proceeding, considerable final fitting and filling needs to be done in order to close up obvious gaps, without disturbing the molded-in brick pattern of the fronts.

PHOTO 14 - In the final installation, I envisioned having a few of the doors open with loading dock worker figures and the like. I was willing to rebuild the doors, but I found that by using a fine tooth blade, I was able to carve out the doors intact.

PHOTO 15 - With the structure complete, it is ready for painting. About halfway through this project, I got the idea to design it as a Lionel Trains factory. Being a post-war Lionel fan, it seemed to be the most logical industry I could place on the layout that would have recognition to visitors. I used regular Krylon spray cans and applied many light coats to achieve this color.

PHOTO 16 - With over 140 windows, my choices were paint them with a brush or mask and spray. I admit to being not much of a brush painter, so I masked the entire building to spray the windows Testor's orange. I likewise masked all of the cornices to do these in Floquill Dark Blue.

PHOTO 17 - Ameritowne buildings come with acetate for the windows and a very thin tissue paper separating the sheets. This tissue works very well for opaquing. I applied 3M Spray Mount to individual pieces of tissue and glued these directly to the acetate. I then applied these to the inside face of the building with Scotch Magic Tape, which provides even more opacity. Later I would apply clip art figures behind the windows as some of the windows were to be illuminated.

PHOTO 18 - The finished color scheme with all of the window treatment applied. Seemed like it took forever to get to this point.

PHOTO 19 - With the painting done and the windows complete its on to wiring. Rather than illuminate the entire building, I chose to only light a few windows. I also placed gooseneck lamps over each bay in the loading area. In order to avoid show through to other areas, I had to make light boxes behind the windows to be lit. After making a few, I realized I could accomplish the same result with an empty pack of Kools.

PHOTO 20 - The beginnings of the roof sign. The blue frame will house the Lionel Trains signage. I decided to place a scaffold in front of the sign and used strip wood cut to eight foot scale lengths.

PHOTO 21 - With the decision to undertake a scaffold in front of the rooftop sign, the entire structure started to snowball into more work than I had anticipated. I created an alternating pattern of eight scale foot lengths and supported these from beneath, with vertical supports in the front for a railing and in back to hang from the sign. The beginnings of a ladder from the scaffold to the roof can be seen in the lower right corner.

PHOTO 22 - After tediously placing all of these supports and railings with Super Glue, I painted in Floquill Reefer Gray. I prefer the Floquill paints to anything else as they deliver a very uniform spray.

PHOTO 23 - As I stated above, this sign structure really started to get more and more involved. I had envisioned lighting it as a billboard from above or below and decided to use Model Power HO Scale Turnpike Lights suspended from above. To get these uniform, I built a framework to hold six lamps.

PHOTO 24 - To attach the lighting structure to the body of the sign, more framework construction was required. This support system will attach to the back of the sign. A further support system would need to be built to hold the sign to the roof as it was becoming "front heavy".

PHOTO 25 - With the sign complete, on to the construction of the loading dock. I used quarter square lengths for the horizontal and vertical supports and strip wood from the front cross braces and deck slating. Because my layout is in a small room, the track is descending slightly in front of the factory. Therefore, I had to compensate by making the left side taller.

PHOTO 26 - The noted "Amish Carpenter" is seen throughout this site and on my layout. Here he inspects the deck work. In the background you can see The Chopper II for cutting slats. Highly recommended for repeating cuts with accuracy.

PHOTO 27 - I debated a number of materials for use above the loading dock, including ridged metal panels. I opted to use quarter inch wide wood slating. I used quarter square uprights to the front and found the opportunity to place quarter inch wide slats to the back which conveniently covered the seams between panels.

PHOTO 28 - After completing construction of the wooden deck and roof, I painted these using a combination of Testor's Dark Tan and Floquill Roof Brown. I misted these with a light mist of Floquill Engine Black and Floquill Instant Weather. I also used an india ink wash on these.

PHOTOS 29 & 30 - The nearly finished product placed on the layout. Wiring is rigged just to see the illuminated product. Windows are selectively lit and clip art is placed behind some illuminated windows to create the impression of figures in the offices. HO scale gooseneck lamps are placed over the individual bays of the loading dock area.

By recessing the center portion of the building front within the doorway, the loading dock could be made six scale feet wide. This also allowed for building interiors into the loading dock areas where the doors have been removed.

PHOTO 31 - The Lionel Factory backdrop was designed to be the focal point of the layout, as it is directly in the center of the main wall of the train room.

PHOTO 32 - The rooftop signage is inspected by the Amish Carpenter. The sign is "jogged down" from the roofline to allow its height to fit beneath the door frame.

All told, this project took nearly six months to complete, working on and off in short intervals. The estimated material cost was nearly $500.00 for building panels, paint, stripwood and lighting .