A yard office you can model

Little did I think when I visited Milbank, S.D., for the first time in 2019 I would find a yard office you can model. But there, on the corner of North Main Street and East Railway Avenue, was a BNSF Ry. structure that looked ideal for a model railroad. It had a small footprint; could be scratchbuilt with styrene shape, sheet, and strip; and was rich in detail. Don’t let the faded, peeling Cascade Green and white paint of predecessor Burlington Northern (BN) fool you. This yard office is still used regularly by BNSF Ry. maintenance-of-way crews.

The Milbank yard office is similar to another BN structure in Crookston, Minn., which I wrote about in the November 2004 issue of Model Railroader. If I were to scratchbuild the Milbank yard office in HO scale, I would use Evergreen Scale Models 4522 ¼” square standing-seam roofing for the walls panels below the molding and the roof. The same company’s 4530 metal siding would work for the triangle-shaped section above the molding on both ends.

Pikestuff 541-1102 solid personnel doors are similar in style to those found on the prototype. I would use its 541-1201 as a starting point for the windows, kitbashing them as necessary.

Street-side details

We’ll start out by looking at the east side of the yard office, which faces North Main Street. The first thing that stands out is the window air conditioner. Showcase Miniatures is one of many firms that offer a window air conditioner unit in HO scale. I selected the company’s item 2324 because it also has a power meter, which is needed for the west end of the building.

Weatherproof utility boxes, outlets, and conduit are also attached to the east face of the building. The boxes, outlets, and conduit bodies could be fashioned from styrene strip. For the conduit sections with bends, I would use appropriately sized phosphor bronze wire from Tichy Train Group. For the straight sections, you could again use phosphor bronze wire or turn to brass wire or music wire.

Rounding out the scene is a Dumpster. Hi-Tech Details offers easy-to-build injection-molded plastic Dumpster kits. Some chipped paint and rust patches would capture the look of what’s shown in the prototype image.

The little things

A parking lot off East Railway Avenue makes it easy to photograph the yard office from public property. The south side of the office has a mailbox and mail slot by the personnel door. The larger of the two mailboxes in Showcase Miniatures’ kit 2339 looks similar to the one found on the prototype. Thin styrene strip would work for the mail slot.

A hose bib and wall-mounted garden hose holder are located below the windows. Though it’s a bit different style, Berkshire Valley’s 667 white metal hose bib casting would be a reasonable stand-in.

I couldn’t find an exact match for the wall-mounted garden hose holder, but here’s a potential workaround. Put a short piece of styrene rod or tube between two 3-D printed hubcaps from Miniprints. File the hubcap that will attach to the wall flat, paint the assembly black, and attach it to the building. Problem solved!

This view also shows a few other overlooked details: Gutters, downspouts, and vent pipes. I would use .080” styrene channel for the gutters and Pikestuff 541-1116 for the downspouts on the north and south sides of the structure. The vent pipes, both on the south face of the roof, can be made using styrene rod and strip.

There were a handful of signs on the Milbank yard office. The north (track) and south sides of the building had the maintenance-of-way mission statement, as shown above. To the right of the sign on the track side was a yard diagram. A “BNSF Company Vehicle” parking sign, complete with the railroad’s blue-and-green circle-cross herald, was attached to the east side of the structure.

When photographing structures, try to get close-up images of the signs [Do not trespass to do this. Going on private property is illegal and potentially dangerous. — Ed.] Broadside views are preferable, but not necessary. With photo-editing software, you can correct the color and shape of a sign and re-size it to your favorite modeling scale.

Supply storage

Though much of the action at the yard office you can model takes place inside the building, some things can be found outside. A steel-and-mesh cylinder cabinet, painted high-visibility yellow with a “Danger. Flammable Materials” sign on the front, is used to securely store welding and propane tanks. A similar locker could be fashioned from styrene strip and shape combined with Scale Scenics Micro-Mesh.

Next to the locker is a wire bin, painted industrial green, for defective tools. A steel storage basket from Preiser 18363 would work well for this detail.

Pallets can be sourced from Wm. K. Walthers Inc., single traffic cones are available from All Scale Miniatures, and Miniprints includes shovels in its 3-D printed railroad tools set.

Even if you don’t scratchbuild the BNSF Ry. Milbank, S.D., yard office, I hope you can put some of the ideas presented here to use in your next structure project. Signs and details like those shown above can turn an ordinary building into one that draws visitors and operators in for a closer look.