Modeling FUS in HO

 It starts with an Idea

As the dream of a large home layout begins to fade due to space restrictions at the moment, I have been thinking about doing something a bit more manageable.  I've always liked Mexican Railroading given the color and variety of freight cars you can model.  All to often railroading south of the US boarder has been depicted in a cartoon-ish manner for all sorts of reasons, good and bad.  I have modeled such in the past and thought this time I might inject a bit of reality in my modeling and show a more realistic view of the subject. Facebook and Yahoo groups like Mexilist have been wonderful resources for those who are interested in modeling in Mexico.  Books are few and far between but with the advent of the internet, a whole new world of modeling opens up for us.  Later I'll list some of the on line resources, but it doesn't take much searching to find great videos of world class layouts, both personal and club that exist south of us.

I have been looking for an area to model and decided to take on a short section of track in Los Robles in Veracruz Mexico.  I found a great shot on line of the small brick and stucco station and with a few more clicks found a series of photos and Google ground views on their Map site that provided photo documentation of the whole block.  Gold!

This will be a modest structure, easy to construct and then spend time detailing.  I hope to do the two other structures on either side of the building for a complete scene.  This will be added to an elongated Inglenook I am working on for switching and outdoor photography.  The area is wooded so using backgrounds where I live should fit in fine.

Below is the first test cut of the station.  I neglected to add the thru-holes on the south wall, that's been corrected and all of these parts will be cut again.  I designed the parts to be tab and slot assembled and those joins covered by the exterior pillars so this should assemble quickly.  I also got a good shot of the wall texture and rastered in rotted brick work to simulate the actual wall.  Since I am working on a full scene I will mock up the other two structures north and south of the station and decide how much room I will have to do structures behind the alley way and those across the tracks to the West.  Here is a composite of the two other structures.  The red one appears to be a club or store and the other a home with a shrine I suspect.  I got excited when I first saw it and thought it might be a used car lot...heck, it might just end up being one.