The WR&N IV's Oldest Detail

Tucked between the two enginehouse tracks (barely visible as a pale tan rectangle in these overhead views) was this pile of sand in a three-sided wooden enclosure. This trivial little detail was scratchbuilt for Version I of the layout. Cobbled together from scraps of basswood, it was stained with coffee—not having any wood stain on hand, I mixed up some instant coffee with a little water to make a thick brown liquid (all of the wooden structures on that old layout were stained the same way, including the trestle, which produced an interesting side-effect). The sand is very fine real sand glued to a carved block of balsa. A couple of Alloy Forms buckets were added to the scene, and an old HO brass brakewheel (looking more like a big pulley) leans up against the enclosure wall.

Here it is as it appeared on the WR&N I, back in 1974, when I was only 19 years old:

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