Repurposing

One of the fun aspects of model railroading is to repurpose one thing into another. Now that we are almost ready to reopen Wellington Yard after its refit over the past few weeks, it's operation needs to be overseen. Usage procedures are changed so it's important to have a base of operations for the yard dispatcher. Pictured at the right is a non-descript British Triang OO guage plastic snap together building of about 60's or 70's vintage. North American yard offices were usually two story so the dispatcher could see the yard [not needed now with computerization]. The roof has been pried off and addition added.





In this shot, the roof has been popped back on the second story styrene addition and a stove pipe added as the original chimney went missing over the years. Windows will be added to allow the dispatcher to view all the yard tracks at any point before issuing orders for trains entering the yard, switching cars into appropriate sidings, making up trains, etc. Switches could be controlled from this location as well.

And here is the repurposed result ready to go to work overseeing the activities of Wellington Yard. It has brickwork on the upper story which is appropriate to the layout's era and a box window on the end so that the dispatcher can see who is going into the loo underneath [not really].
This was a fun little project that adds a real life dimension to our layout.