Cuspidor Station Depot Building

 I finally re-engineered the depot structure.  It was made from an ancient  Atlas (Rico I think) plastic kit which I dismantled, cut down to fit my limited space between the tracks at Cuspidor Flats and re-assembled.  Almost complete, it still needs signage to be knocked up on my printer and a train order board.  I used to have a lovely little Grandt Line one but it has vanished like so many small bits and pieces over the years. The roof is made with Auhagen shingles, a bit coarse but available over here so it had to suffice.

On this end wall you can make out signs of the butchery I had to perform on the kit, however it won't be visible from the normal viewpoint so isn't an issue. Meanwhile Chief Conductor Cyrus Dibble rushes to get all the freight and luggage ready for the five o'clock train.

In its eventual position, ideally it should face in the opposite direction but a lot of detail would have been lost.  It isn't beyond the realms of possibility that the noted Colorado raiload architect Edward Finkel got the plans the wrong way round, that's Cuspidor for you, after all! Either way Cuspidor now has its depot which will be merged into the landscape pretty soon.  Fortunately I arranged the structure as a press fit onto its base and that will make for an easy installation.

Trogolodyte house settled in.

The little trog house made from plaster wall scraps has now been embedded into the cliffside near the Plughole Falls. 

It looks like young George Willikers has taken over the old abandoned place to make his own. He's built a shed/outhouse from half of an old caravan. It seems he's in the process of rigging up a supply of running water to his sink using an old barrel and pipework that looks like he scrounged it from the now derelict Lady Wendy mine. Lucky there was a small spring in the mountainside near enough to tap into. Mind you he might want to put an overflow pipe into that barrel or he may get more water than he bargained for....

I need to put a shine on the spring outflow and a support timber under the barrel, plus I have a small woodpile to go next to his front door. The lad has been busy.

The scene is pretty well finished

I see that George must have heard me, he found a length of galvanised pipe and put in that overflow. Phew! The spring has garnered some ferns and moss and the water coming down the cliff and along the ditch by the track looks suspiciously like superglue. A bit of fence for privacy and a handy old mine ladder to access the cliff, standing on the rickety roof of the woodpile, complete the scene. Oh, he put in that timber support under the tank too. I think I'll leave him to his plumbing labours now.

A few more details and the road across the track to the packway added.

Still have to add some crusty boards to the track for the crossing

Two small structures from photos

 I found some photos on the web when looking to expand residential accommodation in Cuspidor. Two evenings were spent building them. The tract house is made from Evergreen styrene and windows and doors from my scrapbox.  The little trglodyte dwelling is made from bits of plaster walls I made some time back.

The original model I found on the net

My version

This will be fitted into a rockface on the layout

Found on Shorpy

My version

A small project for my granddaughters to help on

 Jasmine (9) was interested in how I made my models so I decided to do a small build with her and Darcie's (5) help along the way. Here is a potted account. 

Found on Dreamtime

Scale drawing

Cutting openings

First boards

The girls helped gluing on boards

Walls clad

Internal wood (paper) added

Finished shack on a display board

A new denizen appears in Cuspidor

 

A new character comes to town. This is Rita Garcia, named for a great friend of my wife. She has just acquired a low rent property but great things are planned for her. An ice cream parlour has been mooted. Rough and tumble Cuspidor could do with cooling down at times. Ben & Jerry's - Pah!

Lower town views

Al's in a hurry, chilli again last night......

The real skid row.

New limekiln (disused) and new ore chute for the abandoned Victor Mine

The limekiln started life as half of an ornate cap to a curtain pole. 

The gas staion/garage is always busy but that car has been there for at least 4 years...

"Ernie - Are you working or sleeping on the job?"

Makes my backyard look positively tidy

The house on the left is one we actually visited at Animas Forks in Colorado

Cuspidor history

 Some history

Early on I did have a statue of the purported founder but he got lost in some upheaval. I now have a new statue of Jedediah Arbuthnot, the real father of the Cuspidor valley. He was passing through the territory whilst evading some rapacious debt collectors when he happened to purchase some 10,000 square miles in the Uncompahgre range from an impecunious Indian chieftain, for the princely sum of 15 dollars and a case of dubious scotch whisky. Soon though, he realised that the land was worthless and passed it on for 50 dollars to an old prospector, Isiah Faraday, who struck gold and died a millionaire in the Bahamas. Now Arbuthnot looks out on all that he had lost.  In truth, the sculptor had no idea what Arbuthnot looked like and modelled him on his own grandfather. Sic transit gloria mundi....

The unfortunate Jedediah Arbuthnot, whose bones lie undiscovered to this day.

Widow Avery gets more real estate

I felt that I had short - changed Mrs Avery in terms of land so I extended her little portion with a bit of plaster. This was coloured to match in and then I added an outhouse to address her daily needs (BTS laserkit). Then a wall and a chopping block with some logs. Job Done!!

First colour

Next

Sorted

Wall and outhose installed

She's happy now.

The new backscene etc

Backscene shots