Don't Trust Robert's Advice on 3D Printed Buildings

In the past, I've declared that 3d printing isn't great for buildings. Most buildings are easy to make using sheet styrene or sheet wood - I can probably build them faster than I could draw them on the computer. I only need one copy of a particular building, so the ability to print multiple copies isn't so interesting. Buildings tend to be large; they're either slow to print, or won't fit at all in the 3d printer. I'll admit I've used the 3d printer to make details (such as the architectural details for the Market Street station, or the freight doors I borrowed from the Guggenhime packing house. But buildings? Not worth the trouble.

Well, actually, sometimes the 3d printer can help with buildings, and two recent projects highlight when the printer might come in handy.

J. S. Roberts and clerestory windows Early 20th century buildings often used clerestory windows - raised sections of roof with small windows - as a way to bring light into the center of a building. We usually think of this with sawtooth roof factories, but you'd also see this in frame structures. The J. S. Roberts packing house off San Carlos Street got light into the fruit sorting area on the third floor with a raised roof and some small windows, all above the barn-like building's normal roof line.

J.S. Roberts clerestory windows

Clerestory windows like this are a pain to scratchbuild. There's not a lot of good, tiny window castings if you're trying to model a strip of two foot high windows. Because the clerestory roof is often only raised a couple feet, building the walls around the window can be difficult. If the clerestory is on a peaked roof, then I've also got to cut the ends to match the roof slope precisely. The last time I did a model like this, I used some 3d printed blocks to form the clerestory section, but still had to cut the lapped siding sheet to fit. For that model (the Earl Fruit Company packing house on Ryland St.), I wasn't completely happy with the overall clerestory look (too few windows, clerestory section too tall), but I decided it would do.

When I completed the main section of the J.S. Roberts packing house, I knew I needed to make another clerestory roof to finish the project. However, the 1930's photos I'd seen showed a very short space between the two roofs. I couldn't think of any commercial windows that would work, and I knew the whole assembly would be tedious to build.

Clerestory 3d model

Roof and access hatch

Instead, I cheated - I sketched the whole clerestory roof - siding, windows and all - as a single piece. I didn't have to worry about cutting the angles against the roof (as long as I measured the angle correctly.) I could size the windows to exactly match the space. I did have to draw out the location of *every single board* for the siding - tedious, but doable on this relatively small model. The result was too big for the printer, so I split it in two, printed two copies, and glued the pieces together to make a completed clerestory assembly. After painting and attaching corrugated siding for a roof, I was done. The windows, although solid, got some black gloss paint to make it look like there really was glass in those panes. The result was just right - a roofline that matches the prototype and I didnt have to cut any fussy angles.

In fact, I was happy enough with the result that I did another 3d print for the access hatch on the roof. Again, by 3d printing it, I didn't have to worry about cutting the correct angle into plastic siding, and didn't have to worry about fabricating a tiny box perfectly square.

Campbell passenger shelter for the Peninsular Railway

The Sourisseau Academy, one of the local history organizations in San Jose, posted a picture recently of downtown Campbell in the 1920's. The photo, showing the area around the railroad tracks and Campbell Ave., reminded me that the former Peninsular Railway, an interurban line, used to go from downtown San Jose to downtown Los Gatos via Campbell. The tracks cut through the new suburbs of Willow Glen and turned here and there through orchards. Just before the tracks reached downtown Cambpbell, they curved off Campbell Ave. and onto Railway Ave to pass next to the old S.P. depot. The Sourisseau's photo shows Campbell Ave. at Railway Ave. - the curve of the interurban tracks, the overgrown mess of the SP's former garden at the intersection, and a small passenger shelter at the intersection which must have been handy both in the rain and on really hot days in summer. (The photo is visible in the Sourisseau February 2015 video, showing the interurban tracks turning south onto Railway Ave.)

Now, the passenger shelter wasn't much - a bench for a couple people, simple siding, and some minor architectural details to please the town burghers. It's also exactly the sort of model that's easy to make in styrene with a couple hours work. I was still curious whether I could make one in 3d, and did some quick sketches.

Applying the siding was the annoying part; rather than just pulling some lapped siding sheet out of a drawer, I had to draw each board: correct spacing, correct overlap at the bottom, etc. The rest was pretty trivial, with the hardest part being the choice of how to print the model. (I chose to print it upside down, with the roof having the bad surface where the model attached to the 3d printer.) Some filing, and some Campbell shingles completed the model. It's not much, but it showed me that I could create small structures quickly. More importantly, I got to play around a bit with the design and experiment with the decorative eave ends. For my layout, 3d printing the shelter is a bit of overkill, but if I needed three or four, it might have been a suitable project for 3d printing.

I still think 3d printing isn't particularly useful for 3d structure models, but these two projects reminded me that 3d printing could still be handy either for work that would be challenging to do by hand, or where I wanted to experiment with details or shapes.

Modeling the Weed-Infested Parts of the San Jose-Los Gatos Branch... With Photos!

W.P. Crossing, Los Gatos branch, 1940's?

Jack Burgess once explained how he started modeling the Yosemite Valley Railroad. “I went into the model train store, and they had two books on two California shorelines. I bought the Yosemite Valley one because it had more pictures.” That’s not an unusual way to start out modeling a specific railroad; usually when we start, we know only a bit about the specific railroad, don’t know where to turn for good photos, and don’t always have a good understanding of what the surroundings looked like or what trains ran there.

Luckily, we learn more over time. Jack ended up learning more about the YV than anyone else I can think of, and wrote a book about it. And me - well, I started out choosing the industries along the track based on which names sounded better, but every year I’ve learned a bit more about San Jose, the Los Gatos branch, and the canning industry.

And every year or so, I discover some picture that shows me a side of the railroad I’d never seen before. This photo, for example. I found this in a set of railroad photos on Flickr that were put online by the Barriger collection at the University of Missouri, shows the tracks in San Jose at the Western Pacific crossing. It’s a place that appears on my model railroad, so this photo gives me lots of details about what the area looked like, what the buildings looked like, and also what little details I ought to add to my model.

It's also a photo I thought I'd never find - an uninterrupted shot of some underused tracks cutting through the canneries and dried fruit packing houses on the edge of San Jose, showing more weeds than track. It's not a pretty shot, and it's not an action shot, but it shows a scene of San Jose that every distractible schoolboy saw on the way home from school - a photo few people would have ever taken. And it wasn't taken by a schoolboy, but a railroad executive.

Link to BIG VERSION of picture at Flickr.

The Industries:

Sack shed, Sunsweet Plant #6, Lincoln Ave.

It may not look like much, but this photo is filled with major industries. The corrugated iron fence and barbed wire top protects the Standard Oil depot. In the distance to the left, you see the roof of the large, wooden Sunsweet Plant #6 packing house on Lincoln Avenue - originally the George N. Herbert Packing Company. That little one story building in front of it? It’s listed on a 1950’s Sanborn map as “sack storage”, probably for Sunsweet. That packing house is the same era and the same rough construction as the J.S. Roberts packing house I’ve been building recently. The chimneys behind Sunsweet hint at the Contadina cannery, packing tomato paste.

1930 Sanborn Map, Lincoln Ave at Auzerais

On the right in the foreground is the sawtoothed former Virden Packing cannery; by this time, it may already be used for wine storage. It’s also got that loading dock on the side, also probably an SP siding. The masonry building on the other side of Lincoln Ave. would have been a cold storage building (I’d guess for pears for the canneries), and then in the far distance is the United States Products cannery, packing in glass for extra shelf appeal.

The Details:

Derail, WP Crossing

For detailing a scene, this is a beautiful photo. For example, the WP crossing was controlled by a switch tower through at least the 1930’s. That tower would have been just to the right of the scene You can see signs of its existence here - derails on both the left and right sidings / drill tracks to keep cars from rolling over the crossing and blocking the tracks. You can also see wood framing the ditch under the tracks which held the rods that controlled the derail.

If you look a bit further out, you’ll see cross bucks and a banjo crossing signal in the distance where Lincoln Ave. crosses the tracks. If I had any questions about appropriate signals for the busy Lincoln Ave. crossing, I now know. You’ll also see the searchlight signal a bit further out, indicating that the SP finally did put signals along the Los Gatos branch. There’s finally all the little details - hip-high weeds on the left side of the tracks, and fewer weeds on the right side. The tracks are set right in the dirt - all those lessons about raising main tracks to make them look better maintained is a lot of bunk, at least for San Jose. The railroad’s telephone poles and signal poles frame the shot, reminding me of another detail to add. Then there’s the random debris - posts sticking up out of the weeds, the canvas in a pile on the side of the tracks, the scrap wire just past the WP tracks.

Switchman's Shanty, Lincoln Ave., San Jose

And if you look past that signal in the middle foreground, you’ll see a little shack on the right side of the tracks - that switchman’s shanty that showed up on the Dome of Foam engineering plans.

And if I needed ideas about my buildings, there’s lots of great details that would apply, whether here or in another part of California: the corrugated iron fence around Standard Oil. The weathered low building for the empty prune sacks, with its big freight door and lots of windows high up. The packing shed with random gables and skylights poking out here and there.

Even the locomotive’s position gives me hints about how the tracks were used. None of the maps I had showed whether there was a track in that location, so I assumed there might be an interchange with the Western Pacific. Locomotive 1235 is sitting on a track in the right place; it might be an interchange track, or it might only be a spur for the Interurban railroad yards up on San Carlos Street. The photo also tells me I ought to be switching the industries along this track with a similar tiny 0-6-0.

Photos like these are waiting for you to find them. I couldn’t have imagined finding a photo like this when I started modeling the Vasona Branch, but I keep discovering photos like this. Each photo helps interpret the purpose of the different railroad tracks, identify the changes to the industries along the track over time, and hint at the set-dressing details that will make my models more realistic.

Your favorite railroad probably has photos like this - maybe you’ll see them in a book, or find some random photographer who snapped a photo of your favorite bit of track. (For example, if you model 1971-era Oakland, check out Nick deWolf’s photos of San Francisco and Oakland in the summer of 1971, which has some photos of local scrapyards and industries.)

The Barriger collection on Flickr is also huge, with a lot of very non-traditional photos of empty tracks, industries, and stations. Those photos also cover many railroads including the Western Pacific and Southern Pacific.

But I know there’s a bunch of photos out there that you’d love to find; just keep looking.

[Original photo from the Barriger collection at the University of Missouri; they're being quite generous to share the photos on Flickr, so go look at them and add comments explaining where these photos are. The Barriger collection is a set of photos taken by a railway exec in the 1930's and 1940's; check them out for some great discoveries.]

"Campbell is Just a Tank Town Now"

When I started designing the Vasona Branch layout, I didn't realize that my preferred era - early 1930's - was also the time that The Peninsular Railway had interurban (long-distance electric trolley service) running from San Jose to Los Gatos by way of Campbell.

The Peninsular Railway covered the west end of the Santa Clara Valley, going from Mayfield (Palo Alto) through Los Altos to Cupertino, Cupertino to San Jose along Stevens Creek Road, Cupertino to Los Gatos along Highway 9, and Los Gatos via Willow Glen and Campbell. Although the line was abandoned by the late 1930's, rails were still visible in the middle of Meridian Ave. in San Jose well into the 1960's. For some photos of the Peninsular Railway, check out the Saratoga Historical Foundation's capsule history of the Peninsular Railway in Saratoga, or History Los Gatos's collection of photos.

Within Campbell, the Peninsular line came down Bascom, turned at what's now the Pruneyard, and went down Campbell Ave. to Railway Ave., turning south just before downtown. There's one photo of the Peninsular making the turn at Railway Ave. in Campbell: The Orchard City. A 1930's era photo postcard of the Campbell Depot (available from the Pomona Library and U.C.'s California Digital Library shows the trolley power line and rails passage in front of the depot.

But as cars became popular, ridership dwindled. The streetcars ran at a loss until the Great Depression forced some hard choices. The March 8, 1932 Campbell Press leads with the headline "Street Car Service to Campbell to be Discontinued Soon", remarking that the California Railroad Commission was allowing the Peninsular to abandon the San Jose-Campbell-Los Gatos line.

The CRC's decision reasons for allowing the closure: the need to expand the State Highway (Bascom Ave.), risks of having the train line next to the roadway, and the company's loss ($1,000 a month loss on cost to operate of $3,000 a month) all encouraged the choice. The CRC also noted that several chick hatcheries and egg suppliers in the Campbell area declared they needed the interurban to run their businesses, but the CRC thought the Campbell post office would be convenient enough. The Interurban had been willing to stop and pick up freight anywhere along the line, but that wasn't enough of a reason to keep it running.

By April 1, it was over. "LAST ELECTRIC CAR SERVED CAMPBELL THURSDAY NIGHT: The last car over the Peninsular railway between San Jose and Campbell ran Thursday evening, and new buses between the two towns started Friday Morning, April 1. Peerless Stages started running buses on the same route, if not at the same frequency.

But Campbell folks didn't like *that* sort of progress. The Chamber of Commerce went on the record against the buses in August, but Peerless wasn't willing to increase service. J. B. Held, the company manager, got quoted in September wit the colorful language "We can't play Santa Claus forever… we can't run buses at hours and places when there's no traffic to warrant it." Even the bus was losing $600 a month right after taking over the service, and conflicts with Greyhound's charter for routes through Los Gatos kept Peerless from adjusting the route so it would be more profitable.

And folks moved on to cars. The car problem was so obviously bad that the January, 19, 1933 issue of the Campbell Press highlighted that a stop sign had just been placed on Campbell Ave. on Winchester Road. One wonders how they dealt with the traffic jams that must have caused.

From a model railroad point of view, I'm planning to put in the tracks and wires for the trolley in front of my Campbell depot model. Although the area around the depot had a bit of work last year when I cleared space for the Sunsweet plant and added the team track, I've been delaying detailing the scene till after the Sunsweet plant and Hyde Cannery work is done.

As long as I'm modeling before April 1, 1933, I can even put the interurban car on the tracks. The Western Railroader's special issue on the Peninsular Railway notes that the 70 series cars were used on the line up until the twenties, then moved over to the San Jose Railroad local trolleys. The CTRC's San Jose Trolley #124 resembles the 70 series well, and can be seen in San Jose's Kelley Park. The 50 series cars were often used on this run in the late 1920's and early 1930's, so putting one in front of the depot would be a nice touch. At least one car - car 52 - survived and is now at the Western Railway Museum near Rio Vista.

Of course, any interurban details I add to Campbell also need to appear in Los Gatos, for the Peninsular survived there even longer. If I model downtown Los Gatos, then I'll also need to include the Peninsular Railway tracks crossing the SP at Main Street.

The disappearance of the Peninsular Railway wasn't the last of the affronts to Campbell. By March 8, 1935, the SP was also threatening to pull back on passenger service through Campbell and cancel the two San Francisco - Santa Cruz trains that went through Campbell. The paper lists that the trains would be cancelled by March 15, but the April 7, 1935 timetable still shows the trains as passing through Campbell and ready to make a flag stop if anyone wanted. The trains were still on the schedule in 1940, so either SP didn't cancel the trains, or did bring back service. Throughout, Campbell constantly worried whether the absence of rail service would force the decline of their fair city.

[Picture postcard of the Peninsular Railway on a trestle near Saratoga is from Hooked on Los Gatos / Los Gatos Public Library.]