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Buildings and Structures on the
Gateway Central XV Switching Layout
layout design, text and
photos by Richard Schumacher |
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The layout was designed with low height structures in the
front corners (and no structures in the front middle) to
easily see and reach the tracks, cars and turnouts. Larger
background structures were placed at the rear (with the
tallest in the middle). Two of the
buildings (the back corners) are custom assembled to work at their
specific layout
locations, but each is a simple kitbashing project. Click
any of the photos for a larger version.
Also see these web pages:
Designing the Gateway Central XV
Project Railroad
Track Plan and Parts Lists
for the Gateway Central XV
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Built to the kit instructions. Lumber was added in the lumber racks
along with a couple of figures. This structure is also available
pre-assembled as Atlas #650. This classic structure
has a lot of character and detail at a low cost.
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Custom kitbash to fit location. The two long side walls were joined together
to make the main long wall, and the kit end with the
entry door is used for the right side.
Note that the kit wall with the dock doors was placed on
the left end of the main wall so boxcars may be spotted at these
loading doors. A custom triangular roof was made of plastic
which can be covered in N scale gravel to simulate a
gravel roof. Windows are glazed with clear plastic
sheet which was painted from the back as a view
block (so you can't see through the building). If
you would want to further customize this building, a
dock door could be opened (I would recommend the
right one) as Phil did on his DPM Cutting's Scissors structure below.
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Built to the kit instructions (the kit is from
Walthers' background building series). Figures and crates
were added on the dock. To make the back of this
structure align with the back edge of the layout,
you would want to make the dock 1" deeper by either
extending the kit dock with plastic or making a new dock
from wood. The kit's concrete dock is very plain, a
deeper scratchbuilt wood dock would add a lot of
character to this structure.
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Custom assembled or kitbashed to fit location.
This kit is part of Walthers' modular series, it is designed
using modular pieces to be easily assembled to fit unique
layout locations. Phil added two dock areas and
doors in the track side of the structure with
figures and crates. The roof needs to be custom cut
to the angle shown (two bays wide on the front wall,
single bay wide on the rear wall). Phil sketched his
vision of this structure before assembly. Although
this custom kitbash will take the longest of all the
kits on this layout to assemble, as you can see the
effort is well worth the time spent and is actually
simpler than many other kitbashing projects due to
the modular parts being used. The
windows are glazed in clear plastic, and could have
color prints of the
warehouse interiors on our download page added
behind the glass to simulate an interior.
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This may be built to the kit instructions. Phil
created a unique and distinctive version by opening
a dock door on the track side of the structure and
adding a floor, figure and cargo - all ready for a
boxcar to arrive. Note the shades
added behind the windows, which are glazed in clear plastic.
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This project railroad was built as short as possible so it would fit in
the back seat of a car for transportation to and from
train shows and events. To shorten the track as much
as possible, a shorter-than-normal switch engine was
required (standard diesel switchers, like an SW1200
or MP15 are longer than this engine). Phil
re-motored an old Rivarossi switcher with a
low-current can motor and added a SoundTraxx Tsunami
DCC sound decoder and speaker as well! The fuel
bunker was made taller to allow the speaker to fit.
The track plan page shows
a version of
this layout you can build which will work with
standard-sized diesel switchers.
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