4.1. Stock Tower
Model
Although this Atlas kit is overused, I happen to like it. At the outset, I set myself a challenge: Could I build a 100% stock kit? About halfway into the project, I lost my own bet. Given how many other structures I'd planned on modeling as abandoned, it seemed incongruous to have a functional tower. So, I abandoned it as well. It was a simple matter of replacing the window parts with pieces of micro-ply.
Accompanying the tower is a generic little brick outbuilding. This is actually the pumphouse from an ancient Arnold Rapido water tower kit. I'd built one for my first layout, so building one again was akin to a trip through the Wayback Machine. The scene will be rounded out with a signal bridge, an NJ International kit cut down to fit.
Incidentally, this tower is what inspired the layout's name. Before I decided to model it as abandoned, I named the tower "Stock" in reference to it being a stock kit. This then led to naming the nearby industrial town Stockton (no relation to the real Stockton in New Jersey, a very picturesque historic village on the Delaware). And that naturally led to the railroad becoming the Stockton Branch. The tower was the very first structure I'd finished for the layout.
The guys at The Railwire really liked it.
Reference
These reference images helped guide the tower's abandonment.
And this reference image drove the development of the whole scene, complete with brick outbuilding.
There was some discussion at The Railwire over the condition of the wooden stairs on an abandoned tower. Seems they hold up pretty well.
