4.13. Spano's Service Station
For the Mountain Vista Railroad, I recycled the recreation of a model I'd built for the White River & Northern IV, which featured a working car lift and a rotating lighted sign.
Given the above station is too big and too modern for this layout, I'm building a new one starting with Blair Line Shotgun House, #079. I chose it over a few other options because it had the best proportions. The modifications I made were to shorten it substantially, and move the back door to the side.
A quick test-fit on the layout revealed the building was still too big for the space, so I shortened it even more.
Here the station is posed on the layout next to Three Daves General Store/Phil's Barber Shop.
By 11 June 20201 all it needed was the island and the signage.
Meanwhile, I started mass-producing lamps using prewired 0201 LEDs and Tichy N Scale lampshades.
On 16 June 2021 I moved the gas station yet again: it's now back to its original spot next to the freight station, and has been replaced with the on-again-off-again post office. I just wasn't liking it next to Christian's house. This was a good move, too, because it created space for an outdoor car lift.
Then on 25 June 2021 I finally got around to making the sign. It was quite the challenge, since I modeled all of the lamps seen in the reference photo. First, I made the sign frame from 0.030" square strip styrene, and threaded three lamps into #72 holes (below).
I wired all of the LEDs in parallel to simplify the wiring.
Next, I attached the signs, which I'd printed on shipping label stock with a laser printer. The label material has an opaque layer, so light won't shine through it.
Finally, I glued the assembly in place (the island end of the sign is not bonded to anything), ran the power leads though the wall of the building (just the way it's done in real life), applied a generous amount of CA to the light wires, and touched up the paint.
The building is removable, with the lights powered through brass wipers mounted on the base that contact bits of PC board on the walls inside.
Positioning scale-sized lamps where they are in life creates a most realistic effect at night.
The next step was making the outdoor car lift.
The station is semi-removable. The panel to which it is attached is screwed to the layout; however, it would require considerable effort to remove the panel given the surrounding scenery is permanent.
Worms, Crickets, Ice Cream
The signs on the building advertising worms, crickets and ice cream stem from a time back when a college buddy of mine and I were on vacation in New England. We saw a strange little store out in the middle of nowhere with that sign, and we thought it was a really odd combination to put together. Ever since then, whenever we encountered something weird, one of us would say, "Worms, crickets, ice cream."
One Last Move
With the WR&N X decommissioned, Spano's got relocated to the Yesteryear diorama. Meanwhile, a recreation of the original station from the WR&N IV is now prominently featured on the Men At Work diorama.
Reference
I love the makeshift vibe of the big overhead sign in the first image.
This rare 1940 color image shows the pumps were likely bright read.
Named For
For over 50 years, Rick Spano has been my friend and modeling mentor; his wife Linda was my science teacher in high school. Plus, it's a Mobil station (Socony was an earlier name) as a nod to my father, who worked for the company for 50 years.
