BEST Freight House - My Westboro Frt. House

Busy day on the Westboro loading platform.

My current project "What's in the box 6" is now finished. The original post was a week or so ago if you wish to backtrack. The small freight house was included with the BEST Elwell general store. The freight house is a really nice model once finished, but there was a few moments along the way. I suggest just using the photos and forget the instruction...they are very general.

The kit has a nice double wall feature to it which makes it very strong...not needing any bracing. As usual I do not paint any of the walls till the structure is built. I did pull some boards up and added some nail holes, but the walls do come nicely weathered. Make sure you test fit everything because on mine the slots for the joining of the inside walls are too small. It appears the interior wall sections are thicker than was the design required. I just cut out all the openings so the tabs would fit. Since the walls are thicker than designed the corner posts are too small in appearance. I used some 8" by 8" lumber from my stock for these corners. The eaves also do not fit due to the same thickness issues. I just sanded the boards to fit with 40 grit sand paper. One might get lucky and find the slots and tabs fit are OK. One other thing I had issues with was the colour codes on the lumber. It did not seem to match the instructions sheets, but was easy to figure. As I mentioned bypass the written text.

The main parts of the structure are assembled and stained with Hunterline light gray. The roof is test fit at this point. One can see the roof tab slots that needed to be enlarged so the roof would fit.

I had to sand down the roof eaves trim to fit the slots on the end walls. One can see one of the trim pieces part way attached. The other is in the process of being sanded with 40 grit sandpaper.

As you can see the platform steps are two different sizes. Cut the long one to match the short one and all will work out well.

I began by giving the whole structure a coating of Hunterline stain. Any colour will do as it is just a base coat-sealer. Painting the structure I used all Floquil paint. For the walls I used Depot Buff followed by Grime while still wet. The trim is a Tuscan red - Signal red mix...more Tuscan than Signal. Bragdon Powders are then used. Check my BEST shanty post for which powders I used on the two colours.

The walls, windows and doors are all painted. The roofing will not go on till the windows and glazing are attached. The platform lumber is also stained and ready for chopping. There is just enough decking so be careful.

The station is all painted. The roofing still needs to be added. I have stained the base of the platform with Hunterline stain seen in the photo.

Hunterline weathering stain is used for the platform lumber and support posts which was done before cutting. There is exactly the right amount of deck boards, so don't be wasting any. I really liked what Brian did with his shingles in the instruction photos, so I followed his lead. I ran some SP Lark gray, concrete and reefer gray mix paint down the sheeted shingles randomly before starting the application. There is more than enough shingles for this project. The copper strip for the top of the roof was painted with a light coat of Floquil PC green followed by some powder weathering.

One side of the roof is done. The extra roofing and copper top ridge is seen ready to go.

The freight house deck and roofing is now installed

I added some of the signs included with the kit plus some of my own. I also used reduced copies of the original Westboro station sign on the ends. A Crow River Products #A-438 smoke jack was also added. The normal clutter is added to finish off the structure...I will show you it installed and finished on the layout shortly. It is one of my favourite structures at Westboro now....George Dutka

The finished freight house is ready for some signs, smoke stack, extra details and placement on the layout.