# Johnny's store



## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

This has been my December project which has run into overtime (like most projects I take on).
Johnny's store is located at Namao, Alberta, a very small community with this gas station that's been there for 110 years. It has also served as a post office (and still does) as well as a Greyhound bus pick up, but I'm not sure that the bus goes there any more.
I photographed and measured the store back in August 2010, with the intent of building a scale replica. This got delayed until last month when I finally got started. I went back to get more measurements last month and was horrified to find it is now for sale and I understand that the county want it gone so they can make road improvements.
Anyway this is the store and included are some photographs of the model.









The front right is where the post office used to be, now it's inside.










The slope on the one side here, the north side, is 13,1/2 inch. However, that's not too bad as nothing else is straight on the whole building. Apparently it's on a dirt foundation so moves around every spring and also moves when a truck goes by.










There are no two windows or window frames the same, which makes things interesting to say the least.










These are three pictures of the frame up. I used Aspen wood and mahogany plywood for stiffeners and roof sheeting.




























After reading the four articles by Kevin Strong in Garden Railways magazine on Let there be light, I decided to add lighting. So there are now three 3mm LED's. One on the front porch and one each in the front rooms. The black plasticard is used for a light block. 










I always get asked about the shingles and these are PermaStik Safety Flex strips. They can be purchased in rolls of one and two inch wide. They come in a few different colours except the colour you want. I stained mine red over the standard black and they seem to take the stain alright. They are cut to 3/4" wide and cut half way across every 3/4". When I install them I stagger the cuts as you would with real shingles. Most sit down quite well, but there are a couple that want to get up off the roof. These are assisted to stay where they are by a dab of contact cement.










Well as can be seen, the decals make the model and while I would love to take credit for these they are of course by Stan Cedarleaf and he can take all the credit. The art work and results are of superb quality. Thanks Stan.




























The furnace vent is plasticard 5/15" diameter with a 1/4" sleeve inside attached to a rotary switch and by turning the top cover the lights are turned on or off.
The windows are 0.015" clear plasticard with plasticard trim. The frame is aspen wood, sealed, painted and sealed again.










On the roof corners I used 0.015" thick copper sheet for weather stripping. This is held in place with epoxy glue. 










In conclusion, this was a fun project to do and now because of the uncertainty of the original building I'm glad I did it.
Cheers.


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## blueregal (Jan 3, 2008)

Excellent build, very professional looking!! Regal


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## docwatsonva (Jan 2, 2008)

I agree with Regal's opinion. Excellent work with very good building techniques. I like your idea for shingles. I hate those individual wood ones.

Doc


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## paintjockey (Jan 3, 2008)

Very nice looking bubilding! If it is torn down at least it will exist on your railway. 

Terry


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Very nice Harvey


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## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

First rate, Harvey. You did it all the way I would have done it--if I could work with diverse materials and not just styrene. And thumbs up on the lighting, too.


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## up9018 (Jan 4, 2008)

Very nice building, it looks very much like the real thing. Great job Harvey. 

Chris


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

Beautiful work--clever and really well executed


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## Ray Dunakin (Jan 6, 2008)

Beautiful! Really nice work and an interesting prototype! 

What did you use for the round Coke signs?


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## curlyp (Sep 4, 2009)

Great Job. A really like the size [email protected] url(http://www.mylargescale.com/Providers/HtmlEditorProviders/CEHtmlEditorProvider/Load.ashx?type=style&file=SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/providers/htmleditorproviders/cehtmleditorprovider/dnngeneral.css);


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## denray (Jan 5, 2008)

Harvey 
Very impressive, send a couple pictures to the real owners, I think they would be honored to have someone model their building 
Dennis


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Hello Ray,
The coke signs were made from PVC pipe caps from the local hardware store. I machined them to size, (1,1/2" dia.) painted them red and then had Stan Cedarleaf perform his magic on the decals. The flat coke sign on the side is on styrene, again painted red with a Cedarleaf decal covering.
I should have mentioned in the initial presentation that the overall building dimensions are 14" wide, 24" long and 9" high.
Thanks for your comments.










This is a before and after photo.

Cheers.


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## Bob in Kalamazoo (Apr 2, 2009)

Harvey,
That is just super fantastic. Your building looks more real than the real one.







. How long did it take you from start to finish? Not counting the two years of thinking about doing it?
Bob


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks for showing the project, Harvey. It's an awesome model.


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Hello Bob,
I started the project on November 24th and essentially finished on January 13th, so about a month and a half. I would have to check with the manageress for actual hours , but I know she tends to exaggerate a little. 
Here are a couple of photographs of the porch with the light on. Not very well focused, but then neither am I.
This outside LED is painted flat white so that it's not so bright.



















Cheers.


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## Bob in Kalamazoo (Apr 2, 2009)

I was gone for a two week trip to San Francisco (Amtrak both ways) or I'm sure I could have built something just as nice in those six weeks.







Well, maybe in my dreams. I've tried scratch building, but I have a long way to go and not that many years left to do it in. I hope to have another 20 years or so. But I'm a slow learner.
Bob


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## Paulus (May 31, 2008)

Beatiful building, great job!


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## Mike Gibson (Feb 8, 2013)

Absolutely fantastic! Beautiful job!


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## jimtyp (Jan 2, 2008)

Impressive work!

And thanks for the info on the shingles, they look great.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

And kudos here as well, thanks for sharing with us!

Greg 915


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## R.W. Marty (Jan 2, 2008)

Hey Guys,
Didn't Harvey finish this building 5 1/2 years ago or am I missing something?
Rick


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Rick;

He mentioned this thread in his train storage shed thread, and several more recent members wandered over to the old thread to take a look. I think the one poster has been to the prototype store. Sometimes older threads get resurrected by a newer thread.

Cheers,
David Meashey


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## placitassteam (Jan 2, 2008)

Very nice building! I love to see people building models of historic structures.


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## Fred Mills (Nov 24, 2008)

It isn't "Weather stripping', it's called flashing....good looking model, Btw.
Fred Mills


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## Mike Gibson (Feb 8, 2013)

My fault. I'm very late to the party and I got this going again.


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## harvey (Dec 30, 2008)

Hello Mike, don't worry about it. I find that some of the old posts are a very good reference material and I even go back to some of my own old posts to see what the heck I did...it must be an age thing!
Cheers,


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