QSSR Mark VI - Bash the Station

Your typical poorly assembled Atlas station from the flea market

As cute as the Atlas station may look, I’ve always thought its ground floor didn’t make any sense. In particular that large baggage door at the back that doesn’t connect to a room that opens on the platform. If you had to place partitions into that footprint, you would get a very small and unpractical baggage warehouse right at the back of the office. That’s the kind of details that bother my architect eye to no end!

A typical early 20th century Intercolonial Railway depot plan

Not far from the Atlas station...

When I was younger, the local model railroad club had a large station made of two Atlas station spliced together. While it looked a little bit silly, I always thought the idea of bashing several kits together to get something more substantial did make sense. Discussing the idea with Chris Mears, he started to send me neat Prince Edward Island Railway stations photos and plans that sure did had a lot in common with the Atlas parts. Interestingly enough, ICR had copied some of PEIR designs and I happened to have a book containing several ICR architectural drawings.

I'm baffled... How can something like that happen?

Fortunately, someone gave our club an assembled Atlas station some years ago and thus I had all the required parts to experiment a little bit. Like most of these pre-built structures you can find at flea markets, it was atrocious and poorly glued. It seems Atlas was THAT kit that most people started (or ended) their modelling careers! Count myself included in that since my building skills back then weren’t that great. But let’s just say I had no regret tearing that building apart. 

Rethinking Atlas station ground floor

Some sketches before committing to the project

Using the old drawings as a starting point, I drawed a few references lines on graph paper and started to play with the parts to make a larger and more logical station. I followed a basic station ground floor plan with a general waiting room, a central office room and a medium sized baggage room. Having that design in mind, I was able to select the right parts for the right functionality. As they say, form follows function.

Disassembling the station

Cutting walls to length

Reassembling walls

I ended up keeping the original Atlas front and left walls and adding a shortened back wall to the front to create the baggage room. The new rear wall was made by splicing together an entire back wall and using heavily kitbashed front and left walls. During all the process, I made sure the roof bracket would always be spaced by 20mm centerline. Using an uneven spacing would have made the building look weird and poorly designed. I was really surprised how everything went together fast and nicely, as it was intended right from the bat!

Replicating a missing baggage door

Et voilà!

For the rest of the kitbash, I will follow some reader’s comment who advised to modify the roof. I will in fact scratchbuild it to a much gentler slope that with fit the roof brackets. I think the Atlas roof was far too much ubiquitous with its unrealistic dormers.

The new enlarged front elevation with the baggage room

New rear wall

While the new kitbashed station isn’t an exact replica of a specific station, it does follow the general arrangement and proportions of a very typical depot that could have been found all over our continent not so long ago. I hope this kitbash may inspire others to try it. After all, older kits are easy to find for a few dollars and provide countless of rewarding hobby hours.

Reassembled structure

The new back... still need to address the old telephone booth