Restoring the old AHM/Tyco/Life-Like Arlee Station

My exploration of the Merkiomen Branch led me to revisit and reconsider the many plastic kits stored at our club layout. They are, in general, classic kits that have been offered on the market decades. They are ubiquitous to North American railroading. But as with anything widespread and ubiquitous, most of them are generally shunned upon since they rarely depict a specific prototype or look unrealistic. But is it really the case?

Not that we tried to collect these kits. Over the years, people started to give us their old stuff or structures purchased from estates at flea markets. They filled a gap many years ago but ended up taking space. A few were scavenged for detail parts, others suffered paint experiments that rarely turned out well. Most suffered poor construction due to original builders using the wrong glue or being not careful that things aligned. A classic was that windows were glued in inverted positions. In all honesty, most of these kits should end up in the garbage bin but I decided to try my luck and restore them since they were generally honest representation of railroad structures. In some way, this is the next chapter to my Atlas station kitbash I did early this year.

Among the many kits were shanties, both Atlas, Revell and Life-Like, an IHC water tower, a Walthers speeder shed and some other Walthers structures such as an interlocking tower and a crossing gate shanty. However, the first one that caught my eye was the Tyco Arlee Station or more exactly, it’s later Life-Like incarnation. I recall a childhood friend who loved trains had that very station on his layout, so I have a connexion with it. While a little bit clumsy, the building had an irresistible charm. My research about American rural stations quickly shown me this kit was an excellent stand-in for many structures found all around the place, so why not try to restore it.

RMC Arlee Station article (source: HO Scale Trains Resource)

Interestingly enough, that kit had its origin, like many products of the era, from a scratchbuilt structure published in the October 1967 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. The original structure was designed by Rob Corriston to represent a typical American rural station. He drew inspiration from several prototypes, trying to capture the essence of a standard building. While the plastic kit derived its general dimensions from Mr. Corriston’s model, let’s just say that many details were lost in translation when Pola tooled it in the early 1970s in West Germany!

Let's be honest, this is a sad little kit...

Dismantling the kit wasn’t an easy task since everything was poorly glued and the plastic had melted in some places. Looking at the details, it was clear the windows looked goofy. The tooling had these depressed areas where the windows should be glued, but the dimensions were completely wrong. The doors were also a little bit caricatural, so I thought to myself “let’s replace the openings”. 

Breaking down the kit into its original components

Sifting through my stash of Tichy windows and doors, I tried several models until something would fit into the holes perfectly. To help me select them, I was also getting inspired by PRR and Reading stations. I kept the baggage doors, but installed them in recess with new trims.

 

Fitting windows and doors is the fun part!

After the kit was dismantled, cleaned and repaired, it was time to rebuild it. However, I thought some little modifications could make the kit unique and closer to prototypes I had seen. Thus, I enlarged the building by added 40mm. Fortunately, Evergreen cladding was almost a perfect fit for the existing pattern on walls. 40mm was the distance between roof brackets, so I decided to keep that rhythm.

The enlarged building

The walls were reassembled, new wainscotting was scribed on styrene in places where it was missing and I distressed all the surfaces with a razor saw. I also raised the building on a wooden plinth. A new roof was installed with a Tichy brick chimney instead of the unrealistic stone one provided with the kit. The gable wooden decorations were resculpted and textured to improve their appearance.

Finally, I replaced all the original roof brackets with new ones patterned after the same model. The reason was simple. I suspect that when Life-Like inherited the tooling, it was showing its age or was poorly fit. It meant that both parts of the mold were so misaligned that the parts had huge seamlines that couldn’t be removed without altering completing the parts. Redoing them was easier and faster, making it possible to add more texture and details to them.

 

The gable decorations were trimmed and scribed

For painting, I settled on a buff wall and brown trims scheme which was common during the late steam era in the USA. Such colors could be found all around the country, on the PRR, Reading, B&M, B&O, UP, D&RGW and ATSF with some variation. This is an interesting distinction since Canadian railway structures of the same era used red and cream paint instead.

 

Primer and washes before final painting

Some subtle weathering was applied to give more realism to the structure. I haven’t yet chosen a type of roofing nor added the window glazing. I also need to kitbash the wooden baggage platforms. However, I’m quite happy with the result. It’s both realistic and good looking. It would be at home on a UP or SP layout, or even a PRR or Reading one. It would be hard to believe it is that old plastic kit that Walthers still sell to this day. This little experiment convinced me to apply the same treat to other classic plastic kits. Who knows, they could find their way on some future layout or diorama.

Almost done!