2.13. Passenger Station

Newport

Pola B208, a small freight station, was originally going here, and I'd planned to model it as a burned-out building, mostly because I was never fond of that kit. But one day in January 2020, after pulling the layout from storage to have a little fun, I had a crazy notion to replace it with one of my all-time favorites, which also appeared on the first Newport & Rock Falls. Some modelers may regard it as too European for an American layout, but consider, for example, the original station in West Trenton, New Jersey...

It was a tight fit, and I had to live with it sitting on a curve right beside a turnout, no less, but given the absurdity of many other design elements of the layout, it was fine. On 27 January 2020, the station was finished and in place.

Then, on 19 February 2021, I began work on illuminating the station; it was finally buttoned up on 9 March 2021.

There are three lights under the canopy, and three interior lights.

Station Beautification Program

One of many things on my bucket list of "always wanted to" modeling items was to edge a roof with tiny white lights, and the station seemed to be the most appropriate candidate given the interesting roofline. The first step was to install 0.040" square strip styrene near the edges of the three front-facing sides of the roof.

After marking the strips for the LED locations, I drilled 60 #72 holes for the 60 pre-wired 0402 LEDs, then installed them.

Finally, I wrestled 120 wires into eight bundled pairs, and soldered them to a large PC board terminal plate, and then painted all of the exposed strip styrene.

The finished effect is quite striking. Interestingly, when the LEDs are off, they look like architectural details. Since that glut of wires precluded bonding the roof back onto the building, it's held in place with miniature super-magnets.

The last step in the "station beautification program" was the addition of the flower bed, which was completed on 27 March 2021. It actually hides an awkward joint between the parking lot and the building base.

Pola B200 — A DKS Retro Fave

Pola's Bahnhof St. Niklaus is a faithful representation of the real St. Niklaus Station in Switzerland.

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