Adopting Clarkdale to Jefferson

Ah, Clarkdale. The "main" town of the J&S, and the foreground, if you will, of the whole thing if it can be seen as a single diorama (it's best seen as linked dioramas in my opinion, but that's a discussion for another post.) With the exception of Furlow's Folly Mine no. 1 (and the bridges), all of the structures that aren't in Dos Hermanos belong to the Clarkdale sphere. This includes the biggest structures on the railroad, by a factor of at least 2 in the case of two of them. It also includes at least two-thirds of the structures. Probably not counting bridges, but then again, there are three bridge kits used in Clarkdale itself because the big siding that goes to the mine crosses over the town.

This is, perhaps, my one reservation about Clarkdale and the track plan in general. However, I believe Olson made it so that the long bridge was removable. The text to one of the images suggests that the bridge wasn't build yet, so you could see the town without the bridge blocking half of the views, but given that literally everything else in the image was finished, I find that a little hard to believe. Was the bridge literally the last thing he built? Or did he make it removable, in part so he could tinker with it maybe after everything else was complete? In any case, it is probably my intention to make the bridge be removable too; in fact, fig. 2 in Chapter 6 shows the bridge, build, assembled, and ready to go... yet just being held in his hand separate from the layout. Anyway, there are a few things that are hard to see because the bridge is in the way, at least from all of the angles that existing photos were taken from. Some of that could be improved by better organizing the buildings that are kind of under the bridge.

Anyway, let's get cracking and do the same thing we did for the Dos Hermanos to Davis transition; first by making a list of what structures he used, bolding the ones that aren't available anymore, and then talking about what I'd do differently and what my current plan is.

• Tyco trackside shanty 01348 (also used in Dos Hermanos under the windmill)
• Atlas trackside shanty 702 (also used in Dos Hermanos as the northernmost little structure.
• Chooch Columbia depot 9004 (also used in Dos Hermanos as one of the larger structures there)
• Scratchbuilt Strathmore outhouse (also used in Dos Hermanos)
• Con-Cor (Revell) chicken coop from farmhouse kit 9003
• Woodland Scenics Doctor's Office and shoe repair (half) 224
• Woodland Scenics pharmacy 221
• Train Miniature stone jail 7052
• Woodland Scenics Doctor's Office and shoe repair (other half) 224
• Garage from Con-Cor farmhouse kit 9003
• Train Miniature saloon 7054 (renamed the Prairie Fire Inn. Curiously, Malcom Furlow repeated this same structure on the San Juan Central, probably as an in-joke between the two of them.) I also notice that while the text of his book calls it a saloon, the kit itself is called a general store and bank.
• AHM Railway Express Station 5831 (has the notable superlative of being the largest structure on the entire pike)
• Alexander Brownhoist crane 7519 (includes loading dock)
• Chooch loading dock 9005
• Scratchbuild freight station
• Tyco trackside shanty (scale house) 01348 (I don't know what he means by scale house, but this is now the third time that this same kit has been listed. There's two of them in this little town alone.)
• Atlas signal tower 704 (featured in the structures chapter (6) as the how-to assemble and weather a cheap kit so it looks good example)
• Atlas passenger station 706
• AHM Pike Ridge maintenance group 5741 (includes a pretty basic water tower, maintenance shed and a handcar)
• Century Metal Foundry oil spout 120
• Scratchbuild oil bunker
• a handful of unmentioned but clearly visible signs, fences and whatnot

Although when talking about converting Dos Hermanos to Davis I didn't attempt to make a building for building replacement of the town, I did in fact come pretty close. Here, I'm going to do a little bit less so. But let's start with the buildings that I can get. I'm actually thinking that I'll go ahead and have them all. I didn't initially have the Woodland Scenics kits on my radar when I made by big structures list, but three buildings in two kits at a decent price, and they're in cast white metal, which I'm very used to working with... I guess why not. They seem to look good on his railroad. They're mostly just false front tiny little old west like stores. There's lots of options for this kind of building, but I'll stick with these, I suppose.

I'm also interested in using the Atlas passenger station and signal tower pretty much exactly as he does. And I have an alternative to the "Prairie Fire Inn" in mind. Do I want a bigger freight station of some kind like he uses, along with a crane? I'm not sure. For this one I'll have to noodle ideas a little more; it's not quite as obvious what I want to replace them with, or how I want to arrange my Jefferson structure layout.

But let's go ahead and make a list of kits that I'd likely consider, at least.

• Atlas passenger station (probably with the dock removed, like he did. It's just too big, and not really the right touch for a frontier town) 706. I admit, I'm tempted to go with a smaller building, like Bar-Mills Springfield Station 262, though.
• Atlas Signal Tower 704
• Alexander Brownhoist crane 7519, plus dock
• Woodland Scenics doctors office and shoe repair (might rename the businesses with custom signs) 224
• Woodland Scenics pharmacy 221
• RS Laser Outhouses 3 pack (I used one of these at Davis, I'll use one here, probably. They're all three slightly different.)
• Bar-Mills 992 Shack Pack (3) All three of these are good. Two are even good replacements for the garage and chicken coop respectively, while another is a good replacement for one of the trackside shanties.
• Bachmann 45153 Water tank snap kit
• Campbell Sherriff's Office 364 would be great here, but it looks like it's out of stock everywhere, including on their own web page. I don't know if that means "out of production" or really just "out of stock" but either way, it might be hard to get a hold of.
• Banta 2131 B&O Hotel
• Bar Mills 962 Wicked Wanda's (maybe. It's probably bigger than I want to use.)
• Downtown Deco 1053 First Timer Bar
• Life-Like 1378 Stock Pen Snap Loc Kit
• Tichy 7011 Handcar shed with handcar

I might want to have a few options. I'll probably have the Life-Like 1348 three trackside shanties kit on hand in case I need a few more tiny buildings. I don't have a larger freight house; the express station analog. Do I want a crane without one?

Although my initial thought was that the Atlas signal tower and passenger station were both must-haves, I kind of am starting to think that have something like the Woodland Scenics Coal River kit might be better. It has a slightly more modestly sized passenger depot and a separate freight depot, also smaller than the old AHM kit, but both of them might well fit my idea of smaller structures generally.

In fact, browsing Woodland Scenics catalog, I see a lot of easy and accessible kits that would be great. Schultz's garage is one that could be an alternate, as is Popa Wheelie's saloon (really two complete buildings that can be separated and put wherever) and both come with a lot of extra detail. They also have an outhouse three-pack, except there's also comes with a man taking a leak, or something. The ticket office is another great false front western style tiny building, and Rocky's tavern would be a good alternative to First Timer Bar, if I end up preferring a white metal casting to a hydrocal casting. (I don't know that I have any preference, other than that I've never worked with hydrocal before.) Either way, whichever one I end up preferring here, I'll no doubt use the other somewhere else in one of the other modules (I should really do a post where I explain my modular strategy too, shouldn't I?)

Of course, the same is true when I browse the catalogs of plenty of other manufacturers too, like Banta, BTS, Campbell, Bar-Mills, Rusty Rail, etc. In fact, I'm getting so excited looking at these structure offerings that it's making me want to jump ahead and plan the other modules. Insane, I know.