Copyright 2019 Nicholas Kalis
Oahu Sugar Company in Fn3 (1:20.3 scale)
Loaded sugar cane car seen in the right-hand side of this photograph
Visit
My Oahu Sugar Company is a plantation layout set in one of the Hawaiian Islands. My layout is located in the finished basement of my home. I depict a three-foot narrow-gauge railroad used for the harvesting of sugar cane. Sugar cane was weighed and taken to the mill owned by the eponymous enterprise.
On the island of Oahu, Prisoner of War Camp Honouliuli really did exist during WWII. As my benchwork here is barely wider than the single track passing through this scene, it was impossible to model the POW camp in three dimensions; a two-dimensional effort would need to suffice. To depict this POW camp, I colored a black and white photo and glued it on to my styrene painted backdrop. Note how I used an Armand P. Bayardi casting to obscure where the painted photo graph ends on the right (note - Bayardi castings are sold unpainted www.armandbayardi.com). I used palm trees to obscure how the photograph ends on the left; these palm trees were painted first before being placed on my layout.
Scene
Notice that the track lacks any ballast; this was intentional. Plantation railroad often lacked any appreciable ballast. Some modelers overlook the fact that many railroad tracks in the real world just were not well maintained enough to merit any ballast at all.
Fascia Treatment
A word about the fascia treatment of my Fn3 (1:20.3) Oahu Sugar Company. The lettering is brown rub-on vinyl; the fascia color was to match the walls of my finished basement.
Revised January 9. 2022
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