The Saint Canard Midland's East Frankfort Shops...
Jan 23, 2017 0:16:18 GMT -5
TK Dave, JNXT 7707, and 7 more like this
Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2017 0:16:18 GMT -5
(EDIT TO ADD: photo of welcome sign in stairwell, completed Nov 2017)
~ORIGINAL POST~
So it's drawing on four months in now, yet I'm still settling into the space. I alluded to some cabin-fever excitement in another thread a while ago, but I didn't want to show off... yet a few folks said I should. So I guess I'll try to show how things are (slowly) falling into place around here.
After you come downstairs and bear witness to the POWER of the CHESSIE WALL, you can turn right instead and head into the laundry room. At the back of that room, lies the shop entrance. Pretty obvious in fact:
Within, the ol' STC lies still dismantled and dormant. There are a few things I want to address beneath before I flesh it out topside again. Not sure when I'll get to that since Model Railroad News, and now the just-gone-to-print HO Collector, are pretty much accounting for all of my railroad time of late...!
This room is smaller than I would like, and in fact is not the room we originally planned to put the layout in when we were closing. That's another story entirely!
But even though it is small, it's still able to house my workbench next to the layout. Maybe a little too close now, actually... but I can still roll my chair between there when necessary:
Right now it's cluttered with vintage Gilbert and Varney items I've dug out on behalf of HOC.
But after I resigned to putting the layout in this small room, I realized it had one (actually two) big advantages going for me: built-in bookcases I could fully claim to my use.
The smaller one is near the door. And just so happened to perfectly fit the Tyco Loco Merchandiser I was given by a dear friend:
A few items of interest are in the mechandiser display. Above that are working supplies.
Next to that shelf is my desk...:
...the dual-monitor setup is for when I have graphic design and reference projects going. I haven't even had time to plaster the blank wall yet!
To the left of the desk you can see the other shelf, which is actually bigger:
And this was another dumb-luck feature of the room, with space big enough for the desk between two shelves. I can store both the Alps decal printer (under the old pillowcase-turned-dustcover), and my wife's vinyl cutter, in the same area. Of course now I have to dedicate an obsolete laptop to run those devices, but it's still a good accessible space to use them near my development workstation, which is of course the PC in my desk.
The rest of the shelf is some of my RR reference library, along with other personal books and whatnot.
But the best thing about this arrangement, I only realized a week or so ago. I used to have a light tent made of PVC pipe, sheets, and bulky clamp-on lamps (one of which was visible earlier). But here I didn't have room to leave that crude thing set up all the time. I didn't know what to do when it came to photos for the magazines... until I had a brilliant idea, AGAIN thanks to the design of those shelves:
I installed a pull-down window shade above, then framed the bookcase with adjustable shelving runners. Made a spanner out of some scrap quarter-round, and affixed cheap LED light bars to that.
So I now have a backdrop with a seamless base transition, and a light bar that can be adjusted to accommodate almost anything... both of which store out of the way when not needed. The system still needs a little tweaking and refinement but is already leagues better than what I was using before - not bad for having thought of it a week ago and roughing it out with stuff mostly on hand.
The camera rig is there, but it's nothing fancy, really. The cabinet was another freebie. I'm blessed enough to have it full of nice locomotives. Actually, some days that embarrasses me... but I like all of them! Unfortunately the cabinet is cluttered a bit (something something MRN first world problems those Spring Mills Depot N34 hoppers I got for review are AWESOME).
Of course, being a lifelong train hoarder, I have more that doesn't fit in this room: in the arcade is a corner where an old media cabinet that I got for free and repurposed years ago, ended up fitting perfectly. I've caught guests admiring the contents and had a few ask questions, which is always a good thing:
And this concludes the tour of the STC Frankfort Shops and GIC Studios. Next time: the CHESSIE WALL! Maybe.
~ORIGINAL POST~
So it's drawing on four months in now, yet I'm still settling into the space. I alluded to some cabin-fever excitement in another thread a while ago, but I didn't want to show off... yet a few folks said I should. So I guess I'll try to show how things are (slowly) falling into place around here.
After you come downstairs and bear witness to the POWER of the CHESSIE WALL, you can turn right instead and head into the laundry room. At the back of that room, lies the shop entrance. Pretty obvious in fact:
Within, the ol' STC lies still dismantled and dormant. There are a few things I want to address beneath before I flesh it out topside again. Not sure when I'll get to that since Model Railroad News, and now the just-gone-to-print HO Collector, are pretty much accounting for all of my railroad time of late...!
This room is smaller than I would like, and in fact is not the room we originally planned to put the layout in when we were closing. That's another story entirely!
But even though it is small, it's still able to house my workbench next to the layout. Maybe a little too close now, actually... but I can still roll my chair between there when necessary:
Right now it's cluttered with vintage Gilbert and Varney items I've dug out on behalf of HOC.
But after I resigned to putting the layout in this small room, I realized it had one (actually two) big advantages going for me: built-in bookcases I could fully claim to my use.
The smaller one is near the door. And just so happened to perfectly fit the Tyco Loco Merchandiser I was given by a dear friend:
A few items of interest are in the mechandiser display. Above that are working supplies.
Next to that shelf is my desk...:
...the dual-monitor setup is for when I have graphic design and reference projects going. I haven't even had time to plaster the blank wall yet!
To the left of the desk you can see the other shelf, which is actually bigger:
And this was another dumb-luck feature of the room, with space big enough for the desk between two shelves. I can store both the Alps decal printer (under the old pillowcase-turned-dustcover), and my wife's vinyl cutter, in the same area. Of course now I have to dedicate an obsolete laptop to run those devices, but it's still a good accessible space to use them near my development workstation, which is of course the PC in my desk.
The rest of the shelf is some of my RR reference library, along with other personal books and whatnot.
But the best thing about this arrangement, I only realized a week or so ago. I used to have a light tent made of PVC pipe, sheets, and bulky clamp-on lamps (one of which was visible earlier). But here I didn't have room to leave that crude thing set up all the time. I didn't know what to do when it came to photos for the magazines... until I had a brilliant idea, AGAIN thanks to the design of those shelves:
I installed a pull-down window shade above, then framed the bookcase with adjustable shelving runners. Made a spanner out of some scrap quarter-round, and affixed cheap LED light bars to that.
So I now have a backdrop with a seamless base transition, and a light bar that can be adjusted to accommodate almost anything... both of which store out of the way when not needed. The system still needs a little tweaking and refinement but is already leagues better than what I was using before - not bad for having thought of it a week ago and roughing it out with stuff mostly on hand.
The camera rig is there, but it's nothing fancy, really. The cabinet was another freebie. I'm blessed enough to have it full of nice locomotives. Actually, some days that embarrasses me... but I like all of them! Unfortunately the cabinet is cluttered a bit (something something MRN first world problems those Spring Mills Depot N34 hoppers I got for review are AWESOME).
Of course, being a lifelong train hoarder, I have more that doesn't fit in this room: in the arcade is a corner where an old media cabinet that I got for free and repurposed years ago, ended up fitting perfectly. I've caught guests admiring the contents and had a few ask questions, which is always a good thing:
And this concludes the tour of the STC Frankfort Shops and GIC Studios. Next time: the CHESSIE WALL! Maybe.
The way you've fit everything in there makes me think you must be really good at Tetris.
