Private Crossing

The road leading into the Eldon C. Stutsman, Inc. complex has several names, depending on whom you ask. Johnson County sees it as a part of Iowa Avenue while Stutsman claims it as their own, calling it Stutsman Boulevard. To the IAIS, CRANDIC, and the FRA, it’s simply a Private Crossing.

Using the prototype as reference, I started with a set of Blair Line’s Wood Grade Crossings. I painted the panels gray, then applied a Burnt Umber wash. The combination of the two colors gives a faded and weathered look better suited to a well-worn road.

The road itself, along with the visible portion of the Stutsman lot, were fabricated from .040 styrene. I’m still on my original 4×8 sheet I purchased from a local plastics dealer years ago.

Each section was trimmed to fit and leveled with the grade crossing timbers. Since there are no curbs lining any of the sections, I sanded the edges to round them over smooth.

Testors Flat Light Aircraft Gray continues to be my color of choice for modeling concrete. Everything was spray and then lightly weathered with an alcohol and India ink wash applied with an airbrush.

Seams were applied with a soft artist’s pencil. I went with a 15 foot spacing between lines. Perhaps a bit wider than normal, but it looked correct to my eye when applied.

After the concrete sections were glued down, I spent a fair amount of time blending everything together with PanPastels. The lot is very visible portion of the front door to the layout, so I want it to flow into the photo backdrop as smoothly as possible.

Several layers of powder later, and I’m rather pleased with the overall effect. One step closer to wrapping up this project.