Truck trailers for the grocery warehouse

A key visual feature I wanted to create in Lovelock at the grocery distribution warehouse was a large truck loading dock area with trailers parked at the dock doors and also in the lot.  This facility receives products both by rail and truck then ships by truck in company branded trailers.  The trailers delivering products could be from various freight companies but I needed to create some IGA trailers for this warehouse.

Years ago I had a Cannon printer that I got really good decal prints from.  When it died I replaced it with an Epson that I never got as good of results from.  The Epson got replaced last year with a Cannon G5020 but I had not yet tried to print any decals with it.  Recently I had purchased some decal paper that is supposed to be compatible with this specific printer.  So the first attempt was some IGA logo decals of various sizes to use on these trucks. 

I was so impressed with the way these came out I then made another sheet of decals with some trailer numbers and some colorful grocery store related graphics.  Both sheets were sealed with a spray coat of  Krylon Crystal Clear.

I painted and decaled 5 of the old Atlas generic 24 foot trailers models and 1 of the 40 foot models. Got those painted in white after first washing and applying a coat of gray primer.  Then the decals were applied and all the trailer bodies were given a coat of Dullcoat.

In the next post, I will describe what I did to improve the chassis parts to these trailers.

Finishing the grocery distribution warehouse

Gold Medal Models chain link fence was installed around the track side and vacant lot side of the truck parking area.  At that point I had run out of the fence material so planted hedges along the road.  Small bits of static grass clumps were added in a few spots to represent weeds growing through cracks in the pavement.  A few pallets and a dumpster were added and more details will be added later.  This view taken from the back of the bench work when it was removed from the layout.

On the building itself, details were added to the roof which help to break up the repeated pattern of the printed roof.  I used the larger air conditioning units that came with the kit, and added some turbine vents from California Freight and Detail.  I also added some plumbing vents which are styrene rod and a scratch built roof access hatch.

This is how the track side of the building looks.  I added brush around the area from static grass clumps I made myself along with some ready made ones from Scenic Express. 

And here is the finished scene of the truck area.  I knew building this that the small awnings above the truck doors were going to be delicate so I did not add them until almost everything else was done but I still managed to knock one off and can't find it.  If it does not turn up, it won't be difficult to make a replacement.

This has been a rewarding project that I actually started last August.  I'm quite happy with the way it came out and look forward to having the local from Carlin service this industry.

Building a movable rollup door

The grocery distribution warehouse in Lovelock has one track that enters a part of the building for the unloading of frozen and refrigerated products.  I wanted this rail car opening to have a door that could be opened and closed.  After a bit of thinking about how to do this and some experimentation, this is what I came up with.

After determining that the .020 thickness of Evergreen V groove siding was flexible enough to bend around a corner, I made a track that would allow this to slide though.  I started by bending a section of K&S brass 1/8 inch square tubing using the rail bender tool from Fast Tracks.  I bent 2 equal 90 degree bends in a single section and then cut it in half.

1/4 inch wide strips were cut from a sheet of .005 inch thick of sheet brass.  These were then soldered first to the inside of the bend of the tubes, then to the outside of the bend to create a pair of channels.  Then sections of the 1/8 inch square tubing were used as cross bracing to hold the channels at the proper distance.

A scrap of .020 brass strip was added to the side that would be next to the outer wall of the building and a 90 degree bend was made at the point were the wall would be.

The bottom part of the two channels and the strip near the outer wall were glued to the inside of the building with E6000 adhesive and left clamped overnight.  A section of the V groove siding sheet was cut to a width that would fit between the channels.

A .030 thick piece of styrene was glued to the inside of the door for re-enforcement.  A 2-56 screw is the linkage from the door that extended through a slot in the roof.   The position of the screw was in a place on the door where it's travel remains flat and parallel to the roof when sliding through the channels.

 A 2-56 nut was glued into a hole drilled in the bottom of a resin casting of a large refrigeration unit.  The bottom edge at one end of the casting was rounded with a file so it would not catch on the roof seam that it has to slide over. 

A pair of guides made from .040 square strip were glued to the roof along the sides of the refrigeration unit. The door is opened and closed by moving the refrigeration unit on the roof.  This section of the roof is removable and is held in place by the roof turbine which has a screw in the bottom of it.

Roof for the grocery warehouse

For the roof of the grocery distribution warehouse I wanted to use a pattern printed on paper.  I have had some good results in the past designing my own shingle roofs using Microsoft Visio and then printing them for house roofs.  I had considered making a commercial type roll roof this way but then I found something easier that I thought looked really good.

For a fee of $1.99 I was able to download a PDF file of this roof and can print as many of these as I want.  I got this from Team Track Models.  Their web address is: teamtrackmodels.com  They offer this and other types of roofing in several shades as well as paper buildings.

It took parts of 4 sheets of this printed roofing to cover the entire roof.  Each piece was cut to fit it's location and a number was written both on the bottom of the roof material and on the roof of the building.  The seams were arranged so that the patterns on the paper would match at the seams.

From my past experiences with paper roofs, I already knew not to use a more liquid type glues and used the same stick glue as I have had good results with before.

And here is the completed roof.  Of course there will be some details added such as access points, vents, and air conditioning equipment.

Painting the grocery warehouse

For me, a structure project really starts to come together when it gets painted.  I have learned through experience that a primer coat is a must when using the Vallejo paints so I ordered a large bottle of it.  This is one of the largest structures I have built and would it not fit into the spray booth. So I brought in a folding table and placed it in front of the spray booth for this job.

The finish coat on this building is Vallejo stone gray.  One tile was masked off and painted white so it could be the background for some decals I made to create a sign.  The numbers above the truck doors are from a Microscale decal set. 

Out of the many smaller pieces in the kit I selected 32 for use on this structure.  They were stuck to a sheet of cardboard with small amounts of canopy glue and sprayed with gray primer.  After that had dried overnight, the parts were brush painted in various colors.

For concrete pad at the truck loading dock,  I found that the primer gray was as good concrete color so used it for the sheet of styrene that I had already scribed the expansion joints into.  Then weathered it with some weathering wash and dabbed with a paper towel before the wash dried.  I really like the effect this gave and plan to use this again in the future on other projects.

Winter 2026 layout update

It's currently getting into the 30's at night and that is about as winter as it gets here so it is time for a winter update.  Progress on the Lovelock expansion section for the layout is progressing in between other projects and activities.  Again this winter I am participating in the annual Trainboard Winter Layout Party and have been posting regular updates on that thread.  The fascia and the control panels for 6 turnouts have now been finished.

Also, the ballasting of the track has been started and is now about 50% done.  And a few of the details of the grocery distribution warehouse are also being worked out.

I recently picked up a pair of the new Micro-Trains Railgon gondolas which will be used on the layout.  This model is most likely going to be the last new body style released by Micro-Trains as the company was purchased by Atlas in November.   A future project will be to weather these.

My Santa Fe El Capitan train

As a young boy in the 1960's I had the opportunity to ride some of the classic Santa Fe passenger trains several times between Needles, California and Los Angeles Union Station.  This included the Super Chief in the summer when it had several coaches added, the El Capitan in the summer, and the combined Super Chief / El Capitan in the early spring.

For quite some time I had been interested in acquiring an N scale model of one of these trains with the most focus having been on the Super Chief which was the first one I rode in the summer of 1965.  I also started acquiring Kato F7 locomotives in the war bonnet paint scheme whenever I found one at a good price.  After some research I determined that it was going to be difficult to put together a Super Chief close to what was running in the summer of 1965 because of a lack of the proper coaches so the idea went dormant for awhile.

After a visit to the old station in Needles this past spring, my interest was rekindled and decided to purchase a Kato El Capitan set as it had what I believe to be the correct cars for the train I rode in 1966. 

While this train is not part of my layout's northern Nevada theme, it really looks good on the layout.  Here is a photo of one of the test runs I did after acquiring the set last summer.  At that time I only had an ABA set of F7 locomotives.

At the annual International Rail Fair train show in Sacramento this past November I found the 2nd B unit to complete my ABBA set.  Then this past weekend I was able to run my new train on the layout set up by Peninsula Ntrak at the Great Train Show in Pleasanton, California.

Two of my favorite features of this trains are the baggage / dormitory car with the flared end.

And the lighted drum head on the rear of the last car.  I am still on the hunt for the add on set at a reasonable price that includes a mail storage car and an additional coach.

Painting the track for the Lovelock expansion

With the track on the Lovelock section thoroughly tested and any minor problems corrected, I was ready to paint the track and ties prior to ballasting.   While at Home Depot recently, I found this flat earth brown camouflage spray paint.   I've seen others using it in various posts and YouTube videos with good results so thought I would give it a try.  As it's winter I had to do this inside the train room.  After getting the temperature up to a reasonable level, I opened the window and turned the fans on before starting.   I also had to be careful about any overspray getting anywhere.  I am really happy with the results and it was quick. 

After letting the paint dry for about an hour, I used a razor blade to scrape the tops of the rails.  They will have to be cleaned again after ballasting but it much easier getting the paint off now before it's really set.

Track and wiring for the new section

The track work and wiring with the exception of the spurs going into the EP Minerals plant are now completed.  As I don't have an exact design for MP Minerals yet, so I am holding off permanently installing its spur tracks for now and just have a single spur loosely tacked down to I can test the operations over the entire area.

I am using the same type of manual push / pull turnout controls that I have used on the Battle Mountain and Carlin sections.  Here is the link to the post detailing how this was done Tracks across Nevada: Hand throws for turnouts. Because of the viewing angle of this section allowing easier viewing of the turnouts, I am not planning to have the indicator LED's on the fascia. 

Because this section was going to be removable, the wiring to the rest of the layout needed to be done like modular layout wiring.  I used an AMP / TE Connectivity 9 pin series 1 connector with the cable feeding through the wall into where the helix is.  This cable is antenna rotor cable with 8 conductors.  This cable and connector type is the standard we use on the modules in the Ntrak club I belong to.  The receptacle on the module was mounted to the same aluminum L channel that was used for the turnout switches. 

One pair of the wires on the cable are used for the DCC power.  Another pair is used for 12 volt DC power, and the 4 remaining wires are spares.  I wanted to give this section it's own DCC district so a locomotive here would not give a red signal on the helix block.  I had an unknown brand of DCC circuit breaker that was part of an estate I purchased a few years ago and it seems to do the job just fine.  Because the deck is only 1/4 inch thick, small 1/4 inch pieces of plywood were glued to mount the components. 

To create the gap between the helix and the new section, I used Kato insulated joiners between the Unitrak expansion track and the Unitrak section on the new section.

So for now, I am going to be running some test operations on this new section to make sure I am happy with this track arrangement and that everything is working OK before starting any ballasting or scenery.