Here it is, the winner of the Brick Train Awards Best Structure for North America, the St James Frisco Depot. It took about three weeks of on and off building and lots of fiddling, kragle, and pieces. 

Some history of the depot:  The railroad depot at St. James, Missouri, used by the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company. In 1839 Samuel Massey met with other Missourians at a Railroad Convention in St. Louis and planned a railroad from St. Louis to the Maramec Iron Works in St. James. On July 4, 1860 the first train arrived.

I used the floor plans available to plan out the sections of the building, and had to use knowledge of Frisco depots during the era to get the correct colors of the depot.

 

 

 

 

Down below are renders of the model before it was in brick.

The color of the depot is based off of the color scheme that Frisco used in the late 20's/early 30's, which was very hard to track down.

A closer look at the sephamore signal.

A look at the interior. There are two benches in the waiting area with two ticket booths, the main ticket office has a telegraph station, (upper right corner of room) and a weight in the middle of the room, along with a furnace on the wall. The freight room has an express mail room (very tiny) and some freight all around the place.

A closer look at the somehow cozy waiting room.

A closer look at the freight room, with a non-sliding door. 

 

The chances of me building this in physical brick is slim to none, I will probably shave down on all of the tiles to cut down the cost.

Edited September 13, 20204 yr by legonerd54321

Lovely. The windows are fantastic. How many pieces is it?

3 minutes ago, SteamSewnEmpire said:

Lovely. The windows are fantastic. How many pieces is it?

Around 4,300 pieces.

That looks really good!

That's amazing!  How did you achieve the weathered look of the roof? A mix of old and new grey?

9 minutes ago, Pdaitabird said:

That's amazing!  How did you achieve the weathered look of the roof? A mix of old and new grey?

Haha no, I just turned on UV degrading within the studio render, it's actually supposed to be black

Edited July 6, 20204 yr by legonerd54321

15 minutes ago, legonerd54321 said:

Haha no, I just turned on UV degrading within the studio render, it's actually supposed to be black

Wow, I didn't know that Studio could do that - it's very effective!

Wonderful!

What a lovely little depot. Are you planning to bring it to life in bricks? 

 

10 hours ago, LEGOTrainBuilderSG said:

What a lovely little depot. Are you planning to bring it to life in bricks? 

 

It depends if I can redesign it without so many tiles for the platform/roof/floor 

So I may have gone back on what I said about not building the depot and modifying it if I do...

I plan on converting it to a MILS module in order to prevent the bowing of the base, and to take it to shows. And adding in some lighting, and ambient station noises if possible.

Edited September 13, 20204 yr by legonerd54321

Looks amazing in brick and the fall leaves are a great touch (and the Disney train art on the wall in the waiting office). One thought, for where the roof over the bay window meets the rest of the roof, did you consider the newish triangular tiles?

I know it would break the 1x tiles as shingles pattern, but the disruption might be worth it.

Wow this is a lovely train station ...I like the large cart very much!

For me the old-fashioned windows are the icing on the cake! 

 

Edited September 13, 20204 yr by LEGO Train 12 Volts

1 hour ago, zephyr1934 said:

Looks amazing in brick and the fall leaves are a great touch (and the Disney train art on the wall in the waiting office). One thought, for where the roof over the bay window meets the rest of the roof, did you consider the newish triangular tiles?

I know it would break the 1x tiles as shingles pattern, but the disruption might be worth it.

I tried it out after I saw your comment, and you're right, they are definitely worth it, I'll order some of them in black and I'll get to it when they arrive, thank you!

24 minutes ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Wow this is a lovely train station ...I like the large cart very much!

For me the old-fashioned windows are the icing on the cake! 

 

Yeah the old fashioned windows were definitely a challenge, but with the combination of SNOT and tiles (and maybe a bit of kragle here and there) it definitely pulled through

It's great, but out of curiosity, why DBG for the color?

5 minutes ago, SteamSewnEmpire said:

It's great, but out of curiosity, why DBG for the color?

Most Frisco depots in the 1930's had the color scheme of gray or dark gray with white trim, and some of them even had green asphalt shingles for the roof. However to my knowledge and research, the St James depot at the time didn't have the green shingles. Whenever the city decided to restore the depot in 2010, they decided to go with the green and white trims for some reason.

2 hours ago, legonerd54321 said:

...and maybe a bit of kragle here and there, it definitely pulled through

Kragle is a great glue ... I don't hide the fact that sometimes I use it too 

Great build!

Beautiful. Lovely. Excellent building techniques. Fantastic redintion. This station has everything, a LEGO model can possibly inherit and show.

The interior details are just amplifying the impression, one gets from looking at the building from some "distance".

No wonder: Original floorplans ... three weeks ... and an eye for the detail, which - for me - makes all the difference.

Very, very nice.

All the best
Thorsten

 

1 hour ago, JintaiZ said:

Great build!

 

37 minutes ago, Toastie said:

Beautiful. Lovely. Excellent building techniques. Fantastic redintion. This station has everything, a LEGO model can possibly inherit and show.

The interior details are just amplifying the impression, one gets from looking at the building from some "distance".

No wonder: Original floorplans ... three weeks ... and an eye for the detail, which - for me - makes all the difference.

Very, very nice.

All the best
Thorsten

 

Thank you guys for the kind words!

Great build! I love the building colors and wall techniques, looks really realistic. Also the leaves on the roof, great details! :) 

Great building, like the whole picture ... the building itself with the old car, the leaves on the roof, great detail.
It gives it all a 'old-feel' like it's build many years ago.
Like the photo's too. Nice way to show your build with the original in the background, especially the first one with the 'faded' building.

Looks great in the IRL build :)

So cool!  Nice interior and the detailing is superb.  Really like the Fall finish and the wagon.  Overall, a great scene, esp. as the engine rolls in.

On 9/13/2020 at 5:02 PM, neonic said:

Great building, like the whole picture ... the building itself with the old car, the leaves on the roof, great detail.
It gives it all a 'old-feel' like it's build many years ago.
Like the photo's too. Nice way to show your build with the original in the background, especially the first one with the 'faded' building.

Thank you, the pictures on here don't do it justice, since they're all compressed.

 

On 9/13/2020 at 9:26 PM, Shiva said:

Looks great in the IRL build :)

 

On 9/14/2020 at 8:37 AM, WesternOutlaw said:

So cool!  Nice interior and the detailing is superb.  Really like the Fall finish and the wagon.  Overall, a great scene, esp. as the engine rolls in.

Thanks!