Model Railroading > Mock-up for a Scratch-built Tower

Continuing  my trend of scratch-building real Wabash structures for my Indianapolis Branch, my second  interlocking tower is a copy of the Wabash tower at Cecil, Ohio (for my Merle Springs).  I thought I'd have some fun and draw it up in CAD and make a paper and card stock mock-up. Perhaps some of you have done the same as a place holder on your layout until the actual structure is built?

First and Second Photo:  I merged all four elevations together so they could be folded and taped together. (In retrospect, I should have pasted it on card stock.) The tower is square with a hip roof. I knew what the outside dimensions of the roof were and and guessed on the height of the peak. I gave that information to AI and let it figure the sizes of the triangles! (AI thought that was weird!) This is where a mock up is valuable in that you can see how it looks and possibly change your dimensions to suit. 

Third Photo: I did glue my roof drawing on some card stock as it would have been difficult to hold shape with plain paper. (I didn't do the outside stairway but will save that for the actual model.)
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/25 17:08 by wabash2800.

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Photo Four and Five: In addtion to making the roof from cardstock, I also added strips of styrene along the bottom and insterted a cardstock insert in the bottom. The was quick and dirty with contact cement.


Photo Six: The mock up at Merle Springs in process.

 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/25 17:53 by wabash2800.

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Photo Seven: A closer view of the mock up.

Photo Eight: A photo of the tower in the 1960s, showing it's age.

Victor Baird



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/25 18:19 by wabash2800.

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Victor, I really like your mock- up tower, It will make a nice fill in untill you get a chance to build a permanent structure. But I have to question why didn't you run it through a paint program and spend 10 more minutes and have a color mock-up? It wouldn't stand out as a white iceburg. Of courseif the prototype was white, you nailed it. It sure looks good though.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/25 18:04 by TomG.

Good point, Tom. I did, but I was having problems with my paint program or Photo Shop wanting to re-size my images. No matter what settings I changed, the printed product came out a different size. It may have been the PDF convertor program too. I never had that issue before.

Victor Baird



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/25 18:20 by wabash2800.

Well you have hands down more talent than I, I have trouble with scaling.
Huhh, it is white. Lol



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/25 18:29 by TomG.

I lot of modelers print their mock ups in B&W. At this point, I may change the pitch of the roof. I always say: If I can draw it, I can build it.

Victor Baird



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/25 18:32 by wabash2800.

That's a cool way to get something in place Victor to see how it works before you build the actual model, I might have to give that a try.

Nathan

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> I lot of modelers print their mock ups in B&W.

White card models are common for architects and engineers. Sometimes a bit of color wash is added with alcohol markers or illustrator's dyes.

Why B&W? Full-color computer art takes longer, requires more expensive printers, and has a learning curve that isn't necessary for something that is to be temporary until the next revision. Although model railroaders use their temporary models for years, architects and engineers use theirs, sometimes, for a few hours.