Another Industry for Wells River

This old wooden factory is under construction in Wells River.

RUGG MFG. Co.- an Old Wooden Factory....by Don Janes

     The final large trackside industry for Wells River is slowly progressing towards completion.  It is the RUGG MFG. Co., a kit from South River Model Works that was released many years ago.  I purchased it from a friend, Lou Sassi, when he was liquidating his inventory of structures in preparation for a move from New York to North Carolina.  Rugg had always been one of my favorite kits and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to grab it when Lou offered it for sale. I first saw the finished model on Dick Elwell's beautiful layout in Adams, MA and hoped that someday I might have this kit on my layout also.

Dick Elwell's finished model was my inspiration to add this structure to the Green Mountain Division.

     What really impressed me about RUGG was the many different roof lines and the fact it has two different elevations which make for a very pleasing scenery effect.  As you can see from Dick's model, the scene can be loaded with details.  My structure will have a siding to a loading dock in the same area that the red truck is sitting in Dick's scene.

    I decided to build the kit on a two level base of one inch foam insulation board to serve as a base for building the kit and forming the terrain when it is placed into the layout. This is a very complex kit with many small sub-assemblies that fit together to form one large factory complex.  Bracing, painting and weathering all the individual walls, painting and adding clear styrene "glass" to what seemed like a thousand windows took about two week of works. Check out the following photos to see my progress to date.  I will be adding the roofs next, then some of the details.  After that will come the job of cutting it into the layout and trying to make it look like it really belongs there.  Stay tuned for updates as I progress.

This is the front of the building with the sub roof glued and pinned in place on the main building.  Note the different construction materials used.

The building in the foreground will have a large wooden loading platform built onto it for serving freight cars.  You can really see all the different roof lines in this photo.

This is a close-up of the trackside loading area.

This is another overall view of the structure looking at the other side.  You can see how it will be on two levels.

This view of the rear of the building shows the warehouse area.  The slots in the floor will have small rails leading outside on which small carts travel with the finished products for either storage or loading.