New Update to the Layout

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad! 

The work continues on adding details and structures to the layout in readiness for the September Open House. One of the items on the list was a large flat structure to add under the display case on the south wall. 

I had from DPM Products the Powerhouse Kit. The original plan was to build it and use it on the layout as a power plant situated between Tropicana and Cargill. However, that went out the window when one of my friends from Georgia made me buy the Menards Power Plant (Thanks Engineer Ed!)

Since I didn't want this kit to go to waste, and I had a large area without details, I figured I would take the kit, make it into an abandoned flat building and add it to the wall area. 

Here's the building as purchased....

I used small lower walls (not shown) and while the kit had six of the cathedral type windows, I bought a few more. There are 12 sections to this flat structure. Windows on both sides to simulate stairwells on each end of the building. The overall length is 33 1/4". It's huge and fits just right..

The one thing that I'm not happy with are the windows. I sprayed them with weathering, but should have sprayed them black. Took a scrap piece and sprayed it black over the weathering color to no avail. I took the kit back to the workbench and proceeded to take the windows off and will replace them with ones in black. Here's the new look..

Next, I moved one of the flats that I had temporarily placed in Rock Ridge Yard over to the south wall next to the Powerhouse flat to give the rest of the wall more abandon buildings.

I like the way the rest of the wall is turning out. Today, one of the guys from our train group offered to build a flat for me in anticipation of the open house layout tour. He did some great work for one of the other guys. I asked him if he would make a 4 truck loading flat that I could put on the other side of the track by Ideal Auto Parts. Based on his talent, he said he can do it. The target date to have it on my railroad is September 10th. 

Thanks for reading!