Modeling The HO Scale Yard Office (Part 1) | River Road - Vlog # 74

This mini series (Part 1) takes a beginner approach to scratch - building an HO Scale Yard Office (Modern Style) for your model railroad. The demonstration is fairly comprehensive with commentary as well.
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Music - Greaser - Track Tribe

[@1BCamden]

Thanks, great work. Interesting how traditional English and some European modelling techniques differs from Canadian/North American techniques. It shows up so well in this episode, with similar standards employed and quality of finish, the traditional English modeller would be still be working on the first door. The use of fine strip styrene is still a world away that side of the Atlantic. Being or English heritage, now living in Australia, I think I can get away with this observation.

[@boomerdiorama]

I like the points on techniques you raise there. I respect all the methods. The Japanese are superb modelers as well, as much as my American, British and European friends. I guess over the years one evolves into what becomes the most comfortable in order to achieve a satisfying result. Gone are the days of excruciating and meticulous competition modeling for me. I have grown "soft" and lazy in my approach to modeling in my senior years. I see the whole deal now as a kind of impressionistic painting rather than an act of fine scale engineering. ;-) Thanks for sharing such a thoughtful comment. It stimulates intelligent conversation. Cheers ~ Boomer.

[@1BCamden]

You are correct, there are amazing modelling crafts people all over the place, your technique brings sometimes daunting challenges into achievable outcomes of high standard.

[@boomerdiorama]

@@1BCamden I hope they inspire others to overcome the fear and attempt to build. At least a decent or satisfactory model will comes out in the end regardless. The more I think I know the more I realize how little I actually know. Cheers.

[@thomplacier677]

Nothing better than cutting styrene for my loading dock while listening to you and watching (while I’m not cutting anyway! ) Thanks for the tutorial!

[@boomerdiorama]

Right on!

[@OtterCreek]

Man, every time I watch one of these scratch build videos I want to stop what I'm doing and build something out of plastic! Looking forward to part-2 as always! ~Dennis

[@boomerdiorama]

I tried to slow the camera down just for you Dennis. ;-)

[@OtterCreek]

@@boomerdiorama You can only guess how much that means to me!! LOL.

[@Cowboy_Steve]

Howdy Boomer! Little late to the party here as I'm catching up on some of your older videos... lol. Watching this reminds me of my Naval Intelligence days during the Cold War. When doing photo interpretation of satellite images we would use the gauge of the railroad tracks to figure out building dimensions, size of equipment, etc. Throughout the Soviet Union, the tracks were a constant distance apart... and every military installation had rail service of some kind. That scale was always constant so we could be very accurate. Got a little harder figuring out the height of structures... had to do with shadows, time of day, etc. Nicely done and thanks for sharing 🤠

[@boomerdiorama]

Wow! That is cool. I heard the Soviet Rail gauge is somewhat wider than North America. Is this true?

[@Cowboy_Steve]

@@boomerdiorama Howdy Boomer! That is correct. At least through the end of the Cold War the Russian gauge was 5', where as the US/North American is 4' 8 1/2". I might do a video on this some day. It is kinda interesting. When the Russians selected 5' as their standard gauge in the 1800s it was by design primarily to be different from any gauge used in surrounding countries in order to hamper attempts by invading forces to use Russia's rail network. It was a real pain for the Germans during WW II, so mission accomplished lol.

[@bretts7029]

Another master builder vlog...Thanks Boomer!

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you!

[@philiph3156]

The CSX signal maintainers the next town over have nearly the same building in their small supply yard. This is a really great model of that prototype.

[@boomerdiorama]

That is interesting. You can sort of tell they just threw this building together since it probably doesn't get much use. But then, every time I go to visit the location something has been changed. Go figure. ;-)

[@deejayjonez599]

Great tune to go along with the build...

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you. Hey DeeJay . . . looks like you have a new avatar! ;-)

[@ErzgebirgsMoBaHO]

Very interesting video. I'm already looking forward to part 2. Greetings Tino

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you. ;-)

[@benoitevellin8796]

Guess which building I started working on this morning? :D I changed my plans now that you shared one photo of the back of this small office. Again, thank you very much for sharing your experience and your photos!

[@boomerdiorama]

Part 2 is coming this week! Cheers.

[@stevenz4432]

Nicely built and the techniques used are able to be used across scales nicely done

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you very much! Yes, they do cross all scales. Very clever observation. ;-)

[@peterainsworth8466]

That's great. You are a great teacher of the art. Thank you for these valuable videos.

[@boomerdiorama]

You are welcome. Happy Modeling!

[@harperlarry49]

Having the shovel is a great addition to the scene. I really like how you did the back wall with the flush window. I have never seen that technique before. Gotta remember that. Great work!! Cheers - Larry.

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you. Yes Larry, the "flush window" achieved through masking. We used to build clear vacuum-formed aircraft models this way back in the day. ;-)

[@harperlarry49]

@@boomerdiorama In my slot car days I used clear plastic bodies. The cars were painted on the inside. That meant numbers and flames went on first, then the final body color. Layers.....backwards. Cheers.

[@boomerdiorama]

@@harperlarry49 They probably looked real good too!

[@royreynolds108]

The back wall window is how windows are installed in trucks and heavy equipment. The glass is held by a strip of rubber molding that is applied to the hole cut in the sheet metal. If there is a joint in the molding, it is on the bottom.

[@sebsg9662]

Excellent tutorial, thank you for sharing. Can't wait for the second part! Sebastien

[@boomerdiorama]

Sure thing! Cheers ~ Boomer.

[@gregoryamer]

Some great tips here. I immediately asked myself why do I cut door holes then put doors in them; instead just make frames. Also like masking acetate to make a window.

[@boomerdiorama]

The open door is a cool feature as well. Even if it is ajar to catch the viewers interest. ;-)

[@Panzermeister36]

I like your Star Wars mug that's been "modified" to The Empire Strikes Back ;)

[@boomerdiorama]

The best episode in my opinion. It was a story, not a PC narrative. ;-)

[@Panzermeister36]

Lol, besides that, as someone who is so skilled and who used to build models professionally, I bet you're also a big fan of the groundbreaking models and cinematography in the original trilogy! That is still the golden age of cinema in my eyes.

[@boomerdiorama]

@@Panzermeister36 Yes indeed. I built a few in my day when I was with Bridge and Lions Gate Studios in Vancouver B.C. Canada. Cheers.

[@NicholassTrainChannel]

Fantastic build Boomer I love watching people scratch build models as it gives other people ideas and insperation for their own scratch build. Nice one. - Nicholas.

[@boomerdiorama]

Glad you enjoyed it. Cheers.

[@sarge4455]

Very nice

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you!

[@205004gs]

Awesome tutorial. Scratch building is not only economical, but it's lots of fun as well. Great job!👍

[@boomerdiorama]

Very true! I hope people are O.K. with these lengthy tutorials. Not sure really, but thanks for sharing. ~ Boomer.

[@thomasclavinjr.3817]

Inspiring

[@boomerdiorama]

Cheers!

[@AndyCrawford_NorfolkWestern]

Well crap! I'm gonna have to watch this one a time or two, there's a lot of density in this material. Thanks for that, both in chiding and in appreciation! :)

[@boomerdiorama]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@schadowolf]

Absolutely great video/tutorial!!! Thanks for sharing your tremendous skills!

[@boomerdiorama]

My pleasure!

[@DK-nv9zu]

You had a clever way to figure out the dimensions. Google Maps has a measurement tool that you can use too. I measured my tool shed in real life with a tape measure, then measured it on Google Maps, and it’s pretty accurate. Keep up the great work. Inspires my shelf layout!

[@boomerdiorama]

Yes. Google Earth works pretty good. I measured the Office and the Container and they were very close. Close enough anyway. Thanks for sharing. Cheers.

[@ericp6612]

Excellent tutorial! Building looks great!

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@herrkiwi3110]

You make it look so easy. I have arthritis in my hands now and find cutting the styrene straight the hardest part which is why I tend to shy away from using it. It is also reasonably expensive and in limited supply here in NZ. Absolutely LOVE the security camera's you made for it ! What an experience to have it operational ! Thanks as always for sharing.

[@boomerdiorama]

Cheers!

[@robertlussenburg1770]

Art school!

[@boomerdiorama]

Thank You. Art is Fun!

[@roblibby67]

Boomer, Thank you so much for sharing all your videos. Just found your channel about two weeks ago and love ending my day watching and learning. Just getting into model railroading and this gave me a starting point. I was wondering did you cover the making of the wooden sub structures for the warehouse in one of your videos? I have not seen them all yet. Cheers

[@boomerdiorama]

Welcome aboard! I do cover some of it in the Brewery build series here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/in-vdmNmbbScgtU If you go to my Home Page under "Videos" you can scroll backwards chronologically through the content. Check thee playlist section as well. Cheers.

[@Tom-xe9iq]

That music makes me want to do the boogaloo-shingaling!!

[@boomerdiorama]

Lol . . . Cheers.

[@bobainsworth5057]

I love your work as you know but I do have one question. Why do you work front to back? If I did that everything would be destroyed by now. It seems my elbows don't have eyes .🤠 Thanks again for great teaching video.

[@boomerdiorama]

Dyslexic Inspiration . . . lol. Notice how "tough" I build as well. Everything is designed to take abuse. I can pound and bend the trees all day long and they hold their own. The ground work is hard with cushion due to high quality matte medium. I have been leaning on the barge ramp (maple sub-structure) with all my weight and it's perfect, etc. This is why I use pro materials. I learned this in film and museum work. If I work the other way around (which is fine), I have nothing to photograph as well. Furthermore, I have leaned on the Landing Reef and River Bank for a month and none is worse for wear. Nothing chips or cracks. If it does I fix with no problem. Notice how I leave out all the fine details until last as well. ;-)

[@frankhellman6879]

An excellent tutorial. I like the acetate window-wall idea. But answer me this. At 7:17 in the video, where you're looking at the real window, why is there what appears to be a dryer vent on that wall? Any idea?

[@boomerdiorama]

To wash and dry their underwear when the tanker rolls into the river . . . lol. Just kidding. Not really sure but what a great observation and good question. Another weird thing is the dark vent on the side of the office is the same as the one on the container door as well. It has me puzzled.

[@rafaelvoncina6036]

"I have grown "soft" and lazy in my approach to modeling in my senior years. " Now, now, keep calm and carry on children! And BTW it's good to hear you all cheerful.

[@boomerdiorama]

Cheers ;-)

[@PeterTillman3]

Man I love this channel! I tried the scratch building technique for stairs from Vlog #4 and they turned out great. Just like the vents I built. Not as good as yours Boomer but not bad 😁 so can’t wait for Part 2. I really feel sorry for those modellers who use the photoshop method. Btw are you going to add the umbrella, chairs and table from the photo?

[@boomerdiorama]

Great to hear! I will add those details you mentioned Peter, but they will probably come in on the next pass sort-of-thing. After the Yard office, which is looking to be three parts now, I want to sheet the big Warehouse behind it and the Steel Mill. I'm growing tired of looking at the plywood. I also never realized this little Yard Office would yield so much video. I have to decide what to cut or include. Some people want see it all and some don't care. It's a tough decision. What do you like to see? Cheers.

[@PeterTillman3]

@@boomerdiorama that’s easy Boomer - I want to see all 🤣 honestly anything to put up is gold so the whole community benefits. I will leave you to it.

[@boomerdiorama]

@@PeterTillman3 Thanks for sharing that Peter.

[@DisVietVetUSA]

Yard office and weigh house transfer point

[@boomerdiorama]

There are infrared sensors on the Barge Ramp towers as well.

[@denisestevens6492]

Hi thankyou for yr videos as a new comer to HO scale & train scene I am trying to learn lots of tips/tricks. So yes thankyou. PS- Mr Boomer as I am also in HO scale i wanted to learn/find out how to - read a scale ruler. It will help me heapz but I just can't seem to get the knack. Any chance of a quick run down - tip on reading ho scale rule please. Before I pull my hair out 😅. I have noone to learn from or with. Ok thankyou for yr time & help. Cheerz for now. Denise WA. ❤

[@boomerdiorama]

The increments are indicated on the HO Scale ruler.😁