1:20 SCALE FLAGSTOP STATION
Manufacturer: Little Railways, 1621 Cherry Street, Williamsport, PA 17701. Price: ST-010 flagstop station $67.00 plus $2.50 shipping per order; Pennsylvania residents please add 6-percent sales tax.
IT COULD BE a storage shed, a crossing shanty, or a small dispatcher's office. But Little Railways' flagstop station really is just that: a scale model of a typical narrow gauge station from Maine. As usual, the company's owner, Tony Ferraro, has meticulously researched and recreated a model of a tiny prototype. As usual, even such an apparent oversight as the minimal roof overhang is authentic. As usual, the model comes assembled, painted, and subtly weathered. And, as usual, the quality is first rate.
Do the reviews of Little Railways' products sound like a broken record?
The building is 5 inches wide by 5 5/8 inches deep and stands 7 inches high to the peak. It is in true 1:20 proportion, working out to a scale 8 feet 4 inches by 9 feet 4 inches by 11 feet 8 inches. Even so, it is such a small building it would be believable in 1:22.5 scale; the only critical dimension would be the height of the door, and that scales out to a very acceptable 7 feet 1 inch.
The walls and roof are crisp, superb urethane castings. They show no evidence of warp or pinholes from bubbles. They are nearly 1/4-inch thick, so the building is heavy, very rugged, and completely weatherproof. The windows are cast metal, the panes acrylic, and the doorknob brass. Little Railways does include one wood part: the front step.
Whoever built the patterns did an excellent job. No evidence of glue or poor joints exists anywhere. The assembly and finish are equally flawless. The walls reflect a master with board-on-board construction. The roof looks particularly real; you must scrutinize it before you realize it, too, is a casting rather than individual shingles.
As the structure comes from the box, it looks almost brand new. The medium gray paint has a satin sheen and only an airbrush could have produced the weathering on the roof. A few weeks outdoors will cure that. If you want to keep it indoors, the "paint and scratch" weathering technique Bob Uniack described in the February/March 1992 OR would produce very realistic aging. We plan to use the station in an upcoming project, and we intend to compel Bob to repaint our model.
The reviews of Little Railways' products are becoming boring. Each sample is as excellent as the last. Nothing exists to criticize. Any complaint would be a nitpick. So the flagstop station is, ho-hum, another superb product. Its appearance is generic enough to fit virtually any layout so if it appeals to you, take the plunge. You are, yawn, certain to like it.--RR
