Waipahu Engine House, Oahu Sugar Company
An Engine House in Scotland that while it differs as being built of stone shares the same style of roof ventilator with the Waipahu Engine House
Project
Tonight, I finished the ventilator roof on my Fn3 engine house (except some traces of hot glue must be removed with a hobby knife). Unlike some other engine houses, this engine house had but one ventilator roof. As this engine house serviced only steam locomotives - diesels never entered the inventory of this plantation railroad - ventilation was imperative. Notice that I did not write "clerestory roof" as this roof structure does not have any windows - indeed no louvers are apparent either. Notice in the prototype photo that the ventilator roof is anything but robust. Remember, the design for such a ventilator roof in Waipahu need not account for snow accumulation as Hawaii does not experience snowfall. Bear in mind I was unable to find any plans for this engine house so it was constructed from available black and white photos going back to the WWII era. As the Oahu Sugar Company had but one engine house, the prototype was un-numbered. No exterior signs appear on any photographs of the prototype.
My first try at a ventilator roof constructed of modeler's plywood was too thick for judging in the AP program. My second effort is simply corrugated steel from G Scale Engineering affixed with hot glue to a wood frame held together by two wooden trusses. I used a jig to build the wooden trusses. The strip wood used was weathered.
Quite a few hot glue whiskers needed to be removed - I did this with a tweezer and by hand.
I do not know when this engine house was demolished after the plantation railroad ceased to operate. I do know that a new shop building was built in 1921 "to overhaul locomotives and steam plows" - I am not sure whether this refers to the engine house pictured above and modeled by this modeler but I suspect it does.
On October 9, 2022, I added what would depict a presumed electrical line visible in photographs of the prototype. To achieve this I painted, bent and affixed a K&S Precision Metals Stock # 1161 3/32 inch Brass Rod (2.38 mm). How did I choose this size? I simply eyeballed it from the photo.
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