A really great day today with more progress on the Trainbarn. With a friend's help we painted around the base of the slab the same colour as what the exterior walls will be- Manor Red. The Trainbarn's style is based on an American wooden railroad depot, which were often painted a dark brownish-red, and the Manor Red (Colorbond) colour is a close approximation of this. I also just happen to really like the colour! End result- it looks fantastic, and is another step towards completion.
Another step forward today was that I picked up the Pot Belly stove that I had ordered!
Here it is in my increasingly cluttered workshop! It is made by Masport and is their larger Pittsburgh model. Eventually it will go in a corner of the entry area of the Trainbarn, and hopefully will provide sufficient heat to keep the whole display area comfortable, although I may need to install another form of heating right down the other end. We'll see. I love the look of Pot Belly stoves, it will really add to the whole atmosphere of the building. I also plan to put a blue and white enamel coffee-pot on top of it, full of water, so that some moisture goes back into the otherwise dry air, and of course it'll always be ready for a cup of tea!!
There have been a couple of new train-related arrivals at Whistlestop this week. The first is a superb Lionel O gauge boxcar in Heinz livery, made available by the Lionel Operating Train Society (LOTS), of which I am a member. Every year they issue two or three items of custom rolling stock, and I usually try and buy at least one.
LOTS tends to find every opportunity to use the word 'LOTS' in all their communications, hence the title of this post! It is an American association, of course, so I have fairly limited contact with them, but I would very much like to attend one of their excellent yearly conventions, which include LOTS of train-related activities and many home layout visits, always in a different part of the US each year. They seem like a very friendly bunch and for me the ability to buy a special item for my collection each year is worth the membership fee. They also issue a bi-monthly magazine, called Switcher.
Another great item that arrived was a gift from a friend in the Pacific Northwest. He's an avid collector of cabooses, in all scales, although he's an HO modeller. Anyway, he's thinning down his collection so I was the lucky recipient of a #2457 Lionel tinplate caboose from 1947, in very nice condition with most of it's original box. This one is the reasonably hard to find variation without 'Eastern Division' under the number. Thanks Bob!!
I have tidied up all around the Trainbarn slab, and we'll paint the block walls next week in the same colour as the Colorbond walls, which is Manor Red. I'm very happy with the slab still, it has dried out very nicely and no cracks, yet!
We are ordering the windows and doors, and have had a really good meeting with the builders to define the next stage, which will be the framing and roof, including the verandah roof. I hope to get this happening in July.
So, there's LOTS happening!!
