I described my On30 Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway in the November/December 2020 GAZETTE. After 8 years of planning and building my 10- x 12-foot layout, I considered it complete. But we all know a model railroad is never truly finished, is it?
My layout included a scratchbuilt 19- x 19-inch wharf used by the railroad to service freight and passengers transloading between ships and the narrow gauge. Two of the three sides included a scratchbuilt schooner and steam ship. But the third side was dead space with very little detail. Worse, it was one of the first things visible when entering the room. Finding ideas to fill this space was at the top of my list when shopping at the many vendor tables during the 2021 National Narrow Gauge Convention in Hickory, North Carolina.
How I filled this space with a detailed scene is shown in the following photos.
Amos Washington readies his dinghy for a day of seine fishing along the mouth of the Sheepscot River in 1925 Maine. Meanwhile, the crew of Portland-built Forney #3 has just delivered a load of sawn lumber to the lower yard. It will be loaded onto a coastal schooner to be used to build wood boxes further down the coast.This was the empty space along one side of the RR Wharf on my WW&F layout. The tide is ebbing leaving a small mud flat. But the scene isn’t very interesting. The structure above this scene is the Coal Shed used to store coal for the railroad and customers along the line.I purchased a Cook figure from Aspen Modeling Company at the National Narrow Gauge Convention in Hickory, North Carolina. Many of their figures come with extra body parts making it easy to make alterations to create a custom figure. I wanted to turn this guy from a Cook into a small-time fisherman working with a small boat. So, I removed the cooking utensil from the Cook’s right hand and drilled a hole through his fist for a rope. The left hand came from a different Aspen model. I chose the bald head since the face had so much character. Next Amos received a coat of flat white paint from a spray can. This step will highlight any defects to be corrected with putty.I painted Amos with various colors of inexpensive craft paints. The rope is a length of heavy line left over from my shipbuilding. I used several coats of brown wash to darken the skin tones to make him an African American. While Maine didn’t have a large population of African Americans in the early 20th Century, those who did live there played a key role in the workforce and economy.I purchased this Dinghy casting from Crow River Products at the National Narrow Gauge Convention in Hickory, North Carolina. When I got it home, I wasn’t sure it was detailed enough for a place in the foreground. The lack of detail on the boat’s interior would not add the interest I wanted in my scene. Adding detail to the open boat interior was a lot easier than I thought. I attached a strip of square styrene along the centerline to represent the keel. Next, I used strips of cardstock cut from an old file folder to fashion the vertical ribs. I used some of the same card stock to make the bracing along the sides and as an inner gunwale (the rail along the top.) The thwarts (seats) are strips of 1/32-inch-thick basswood stained and cut to fit. I darkened them with thin CA. The interior was painted a basic tan and the exterior white.The boat details came from my parts bins. The seine net is a small piece of material used for model chain link fencing. I gave it many coats of diluted Hunterline Medium Brown stain. I wet it with several coats of white glue to get it to lay down in a natural position and added a few net floats cut from a round wooden toothpick. The ropes are more of the heavy line forced to conform using the same diluted white glue technique. The oars are from the kit but the tholing pins are tiny bits of wood. (A tholing pin is a wooden rod inserted into the gunwale to act as a fulcrum with rowing, an early form of oar locks.Here, Amos is waiting for the tide to rise so he can launch his 11-foot Dinghy with his seine net and gear to help him get today’s catch. This area is no longer dead space, but an interesting vignette. Projects like this keep me busy on my otherwise “finished” layout.
Mar/Apr 2022
