West of Forest Avenue

Next, we’ll take a look at the structures west of Forest Avenue. First up is the team track platform ❶. Though not overly noticeable on the layout, the old team track is prominent when you walk the line.

During my site visit I took photos of the concrete platform from 90-degree angles, printed the images out, and glued them to Pikestuff’s injection-molded plastic Versatile Modular Loading Dock kit (No. 541-0017).

Next up is Maingas ❷. The full-size industry is no longer rail served, and the liquefied petroleum gas tanks and loading platform are long gone. I did a quick and dirty representation of the business using the Walthers Central Gas kit (No. 933-3011) as the starting point.

Until recent years, Plasmine Technology was one of the primary customers on the Bishop Street Branch ❸. The company, which produces paper coating products, received inbound products in tank cars and hoppers.

The masonry block structure has a unique, oblong shape. I’ve never been a fan of using sheet styrene cinder block material, as the mortar lines seem too pronounced. Because Plasmine is such a key structure, I again turned to the photolaminate technique.

Since the building isn’t directly next to the street, I had Dan take photos of the full-size industry. Using prototype images let me use some artistic license and add the sign to the side with photo-editing software. I scratchbuilt the silo by wrapping styrene sheet siding around a piece of PVC pipe.

At the end of the Bishop Street Branch is BlueLinx, ❹, the sole remaining customer on the line. The building products distributor receives boxcars and center-beam flatcars. The structure itself is fairly unremarkable. I used two Pikestuff kits and glued them side by side. I made the foundation from

⁄8"- thick PVC wood. I used various colors of Rust-Oleum to

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spray-paint the building.