Building the C & AV, or, What Have I Gotten Myself Into?

[Lawton Maner]

Once he finished the hoist, hire Chuck.

[Greg Hile]

Best idea I've seen so far!

[Greg Hile]

While progress on the train depot continues at a snail's pace, I have been drawn (quite willingly, I might add) into another quick project for the C & AV. I have been thinking about how to model a burned or partially burned-out structure on my outdoor layout. Another forum that I belong to has an annual challenge to build something under certain parameters. This year we are building whatever we would like but are to use, in the case of 1/24 scale, a 42-inch 2x4. We can also use whatever supplies we had on hand as of January 1 and can spend no more than $30 on anything else for the project. We have until February 13 to complete it. So I figured, why not?

As many of you know, the Carquinez & Alhambra Valley RR is loosely based on my town, Martinez, California, around the turn of the 20th century. On August 19, 1904, fire destroyed a two-square block section of downtown Martinez. Photos of the fire scene are below. 





Among the casualties (not in the photos) was Bennett's Livery and Stables, which will be the subject of my build. The upshot of the fire was that, as pretty much the only thing left standing was the brick safe of the Bank of Martinez, the area was rebuilt with unreinforced masonry just in time for the 1906 San Francisco earthquake but that's another story. The photos in this post came courtesy of the Contra Costa County Historical Society, which, ironically, is now located on the site of the former livery. Here is an undated photo of Bennett's.



Like I said, the fire was on August 19, 1904, so do I model the livery as of August 18, or August 20, or ??

Most of my work so far has been to mill the 2x4 down into scale lumber, but I have started some of the framing and am refining the project design using SketchUp Make 2017. I have no formal training in construction so this gives me the opportunity to work out the design flaws I know I will make. It also allows me to generate a cut list to determine what still needs to be milled, and, in all likelihood, how much additional lumber beyond my 42 inches I will need.





The link to the project is https://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/27797/hile-2018-challenge-we-didn-t-start-the-fire-edition?page=1 and there has been a lively discussion about pin nailers if anyone is interested ...

[Ray Dunakin]

Cool project.

[Design-HSB]

 Greg great carpenter construction.

[5thwheel]

This is going to be a nice model. One question though. Did it actually have a flat roof? I'm seeing a 12/12 roof in the picture. More pitch than I'm seeing in the framing drawing. I'm just curious, but then again I do see some kind of a large exhaust (?) pipe on the roof in the photo. Very interesting project. Of course you are going to show your progress here? Very (funny) interesting notice the banner line strung to the tree from the building. Going to add that detail? 1/24 is a nice scale to work in.  Many years ago I produced some white metal horse drawn logging equipment, horses and oxen and a few loggers kits in that scale under the name of The Hudson Carriage Co.  The late Bill Roy took over the production and sales.

[Greg Hile]

Thanks guys!

Bill, for some reason that now escapes me I was thinking that the center portion of the roof was flat, but, you're right, there's more pitch in the photo than in my drawing. Here are a couple other photos, including one from the other side of the building (I'd post aerial photos that could confirm it but the airplane hadn't been invented yet). I'm not sure what the pipe is. It seems a little high for exhaust but you'll notice that the building down the street in one of the photos below has the same object.





The photos are undated (and may not even have been taken at the same time) but I have a Sanborn map from 1888 that shows the livery, so it is at least as old as that.

I will be showing my progress and, yes, I'm going to try to add the banner and the tree!

[Hydrostat]

Greg, nice start! Don't know, what your intention is: To me it looks like the front proportions of your building's drawing don't match the prototype. For my opinion the doorway seems to be nearly square in those b/w-pictures and so the upper wooden needs to be wider, too. This changes the building's nature a lot.

Cheers,
Volker

[Greg Hile]

Volker, thanks for your input! Here is a very rough rendering of the building with sidings. Pay no attention to the framing showing through or the decor on the barn doors. I will also be modifying the roof, as well, but does that better help visualize what I am going for?

[Ray Dunakin]

That tall "pipe" has a weather vane on top of it*, so I'm guessing it's just decorative. It could also serve double duty as a flagpole.

* Pretty easy to see in the first photo, but mostly invisible in the photo from the opposite direction due to glare from the sky.

Oddly enough, in the last photo the entire pole is invisible, but if you look very closely you can see some of the guy wires that support it.

[5thwheel]

Ray,I see the weather one pole but I was talking about what appeared to be a large pipe of some kind on the roof ridge.  but seeing from the other side it appears that is is some kind of apparatus, possibly wind mill driven on top of a structure.

Bill Hudson

[Greg Hile]

Yep! I got curious about the dates of the photos and the other structures around the livery so I went down to the county historical society and looked at the Sanborn Insurance Maps because the one I had (from 1888) indicated that there was a skating pavilion west of the livery. By the 1891 the skating rink was now the Martinez Opera House, so I suspect the photo is from somewhere around 1890 or earlier.

Anyway, in looking carefully at photos of the livery again, I noticed the weather vane and was going to point it out but Ray beat me to it. The windmill might be something from the skating pavilion. Thanks guys!

[Bill Gill]

I think the thing Bill Hudson sees in the first photo of the stables isn't on the stable. I think it's part of the windmill next door that is visible in the photo showing the other side of the stable. There is nothing on the stable roof in that photo that could be a vent or exhaust pipe.

[Lawton Maner]

This shows the trials and tribulations of research. 

[Greg Hile]

This shows the trials and tribulations of research. 

Which is one of the things I find most compelling about modeling.