Reprinted with permission from June/July, 2000 Page 50-51
	[WEBMASTER'S NOTE: Thanks to Russ Reinberg for allowing us to post this article. Please check back for additional articles from Fine Scale Railroader from time to time.] I FELL IN love with Bachmann’s 1:20.3 scale Shay. The model initiated my entry into model railroading. Overnight my interest in simply buying and running trains out-of-the-box turned to detailing, kit building, kitbashing, scratch-building, and weathering. As an architect, I suppose my everyday attention to detail led me in that direction but so did the articles and photography in FINESCALE RAILROADER. The 30 inch wide by 60 inch long diorama is 1:20.3 scale. I spiked weathered stainless steel rail to individual wood ties. The ballast is crushed granite. The roadbed is elevated so it can pass over a small stream adjacent to a trackside maintenance shed. I built up the shed from individual planks of basswood after hand scribing each to enhance the grain. The double doors similarly are scratchbuilt and hang from operating brass hinges. The roof is corrugated metal. I cut soft drink cans into rectangles and rolled them through a press to create the corrugation. The figures are from Bachmann. I repositioned their limbs and added such details as painted tissue paper clothing, plastic and wire eyeglasses, and doll hair beards and mous-taches. The 1929 Ford pickup is a Scale Models kit. I added wood planks to the bed, bolt heads, a tail pipe with a wire hanger, and spark plug wires on the engine. The balsa tree trunks and wooden electrical pole also are handmade. The tree branches are caspia. The boulders along the stream bed are paper maché on wire frames. The turf is from Woodland Scenics. The log car behind the Climax is from a Hartford Prod-ucts kit. The Porter is from Lehmann. The modified and detailed dump cars are from Bachmann. The 1931 Caterpil-lar bulldozer is primarily scratchbuilt; the front blade, treads, and sideframes came from an old AMT/Ertl kit. The model required many hours to transform into a credible 1:20.3 scale model. The 1915 Ford Model TT stake truck began as a Scale Models car kit. It, too, required some time and effort to convert into an accurate 1:20.3 scale model. Credit for the photography belongs to my good friend and occasional FINESCALE RAILROADER contributor, Gary Nichols. BY RICHARD SCHMITT PHOTOS BY GARY NICHOLS 1:20.3 SCALE
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