# Barn's Texaco



## choochoowilly (Oct 31, 2016)

I salvaged 3 + building from a broken Wells Fargo Pola building. Think the hardest part was figuring how and where to cut the old building to maximize pieces. Most of the western style buildings have a separation strip running horizontal around the building and I found that it just about split the ground and upstairs in half. This became my first cut which I did on a table saw and then moved on to the figuring the size of the sides. Found that cutting the pieces in half left a usable size piece that allowed me to make small buildings. I think I made one of the building a little rectangular just for looks by just cutting off a small strip on the side, and all the rest were square. Saved the upstairs for the peaked end of the other buildings. Had a Idea of looks for the station from memories of old, and when I finished it I found a drawing that I had done back in early 80's that I wanted it to look like, and it was pretty close. Next moved on to making the corners fit and that was done again with table saw by removing some of the wall thickness material so that the corners would lap together like the original. Some of the walls were cracked or completely broken and cemented back together with Model Masters liquid glue( really works good on Pola stuff ) and actually melts the plastic back together. I decided on a flat roof as there were 3 pieces from the Fargo building and used 1 for the building and 1 for the over hang. I cut 2 wedge shaped pieces from some thick plastic to slope the station roof. The top façade became the front top "look at me" part for the station. Well being as it was going to be a Texaco station I found some red stars made for ceramic Christmas trees and lit them from underneath the small LED's that are powered by 2 "d" cell batteries which also power the pump area and interior of the station. I circled the them with rings made from PVC pipe and painted black
Some old fashion weathered decals from eBay really brought it to life. Pumps were also purchased from there. I changed the hoses on them as the originals were too large and wouldn't hang properly. The roof I weathered like an old station that I remember that the owner had replace 1 rusted out roof panel, I get a lot of ? about why I didn't paint that panel, too funny., Side doors do open and station now has an old time coke cooler out in front and added the old time decals. Like most my projects I purposely make some things wrong or out of place just for conversation purposes, just something to think about later, Funny thing that you can't see in the pictures but the 1920ish pumps have a EPA lead warning. The other 2 buildings that were made with these parts were Sand house and Coaling tower building, along with small parts going to Girl at the top of the stairs hotel.


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## ddrum31 (Aug 30, 2017)

Looks good.! Like to see the others too.

Jason


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Choochoowilly;

I just love the way you salvage damaged kits and repurpose other craft items to make neat structures like your gas station. It really looks great!

My wife once bought a watch that came in a box that looked like galvanized steel siding, so I built it into a garden tool shed.









Best,
David Meashey


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## choochoowilly (Oct 31, 2016)

Dave Meashey said:


> Choochoowilly;
> 
> I just love the way you salvage damaged kits and repurpose other craft items to make neat structures like your gas station. It really looks great!
> 
> ...


 Now that's cool


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## choochoowilly (Oct 31, 2016)

ddrum31 said:


> Looks good.! Like to see the others too.
> 
> Jason


 Jason you can see them all on https://www.pinterest.com/billbarnwell09/
The building under the coaling tower was also part the tower it's self was an O scale Lionel one that I upsized to G


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## ddrum31 (Aug 30, 2017)

They Turned out really cool!!!


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## choochoowilly (Oct 31, 2016)

*barn's*



ddrum31 said:


> They Turned out really cool!!!


Thanks, Bill


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## Paulus (May 31, 2008)

Beautiful gas station, very characteristic! I do also like the other buildings. Great to see you used salvaged parts of old kits to make some unique models


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## choochoowilly (Oct 31, 2016)

Paulus said:


> Beautiful gas station, very characteristic! I do also like the other buildings. Great to see you used salvaged parts of old kits to make some unique models


 Thanks, it was a lot of fun as well


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## Ninobur (Oct 12, 2019)

Excellent work! Nice detail. Great realism. Do you leave them outside on the layout?


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## choochoowilly (Oct 31, 2016)

Ninobur, I no longer have a layout but do have an outside display, and yes I leave them out most of the time and that is why I no longer build with wood because between the termites and rot there is nothing left in a year, so all my buildings are plastic or PVC and is coated with Krylon rattle cans or/and outside acrylics + Krylon UV proof flat Matt, Bill


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## denray (Jan 5, 2008)

Very nice, Ilike em
Dennis


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