Ours is a Harvey Lunch Room along the mainline and a great place to grab a chair and cup of coffee to watch trains. The railroad financed the construction of the Harvey Co. facilities and the agreement allowed all Santa Fe employees a discount on meals. Our trains frequently stop at such places so the crews can catch a bite to eat and a cup of coffee. There is also a “News Stand” to grab a magazine or newspaper. My interest favors automotive stuff so I place more importance on the servicing of the old Packard Harvey Cars you see in the foreground scenery. I spent 17 years working on the latter-day Harvey Cars when living at the Grand Canyon before moving to Paulden Arizona.
To start with, the area on this side of the tracks has acres of space ( 10 “) with an up-front scene for a gas station. It’s a kit I built thirty years ago, and it found a new home. The service station does some of the service work on the Fred Harvey “Harvey Cars” used for the “Indian Detours” motor trips in the Southwest. The building across the street is the Harvey Car garage.
A Weaver Twin Post hoist was scratch built from brass and can be raised or lowered. I had one of these hoists (Weaver) in my shop as a car or light truck could have easy repair access for the transmission and driveline. The front hoist cylinder slides fore and aft on a track so it can be adjusted to fit the length of each car. The signpost was done likewise from brass. The perimeters of the street and driveway were made with concrete (#1290 Powder) curbs, gas station driveway, and work area slabs.
The road crosses the tracks with the crossing protected with grade crossing flashers from Oregon Rail and a detector from Circitron because I like the action.
When modeling a full-service gas station, How many folks forget to install the bell ringer hose across the pump island?
In Arizona, we do some service work outside as the sun shines most of the year and it seldom rains. We wear a glove in the summer because the tools laying in the sun get so hot you can’t touch them. JL Innovative makes several details that pick up the action for this scene. My policy is building at least one Jordan vehicle for every new scene. The green 32 Ford 5 window Hot Rod coupe was the kit selected this time. You’ll see these same vehicles in different scenes. After all, don’t your people drive from place to place on your layout?
A few extra details were added in this lower picture
The Fred Harvey lunch room (the arched structure) just received a coat of lighter paint and is now complete except for some signs. The Santa Fe depot and freight house in the upper picture is finished except for detailed junk and people. The depot was inspired by the one in Winslow Arizona and is still served by Amtrak.
The next project is to work about a 2-foot area to the right of this scene with, “again”, most of the detail upfront.
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