INTERLOCKING TOWER
Editor Eric White built the interlocking tower from an American Model Builders LaserKit, with a couple additions. The most labor-intensive was replacing the staircase’s railing. Eric didn’t like the one that came with the kit, which was laser-cut from microplywood and, to his eye, too thick and rough. Using the kit railing as a template, Eric bent and soldered together new railings for the stair and platform from brass wire, gluing them to the wooden stair with cyanoacrylate adhesive (CA).
To paint the structure, Eric chose a two-tone gray scheme typical of many Eastern roads like the Chesapeake & Ohio and Southern Ry. He said he wanted the scheme to look generic, since the module could become part of a larger Free-Mo layout someday. He used Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch 2X spray paint in Primer and Winter Gray, setting the standard for the other railroad buildings in the yard scene. He painted all the parts before assembly.
Since the second floor of the tower had a lot of large windows, Eric thought adding an interior would be a good idea. The Armstrong interlocking machine levers, another laser-cut wood product, was also made by American Model Builders (item 388). By themselves, they looked lonely, so Eric looked online and found some cast-metal office furnishings from Scale Structures Ltd. The desk, chair, file cabinet, telegraph repeater, railroad clock, and towerman figure filled the space nicely. But with the roof in place, the interior was dark and all those nice details weren’t all that visible.
Eric remedied that by adding a Woodland Scenics JustPlug stick-on light to the interior ceiling. Drilling a hole in the corner of the assembled and furnished interior floor for the wire was difficult, but the structure was sturdy and held together.