Scratch Building 101: Sinclair Station, Part 1

Have you ever wanted to scratch build a structure before?  This article will hopefully help you to overcome the fear and teach you some of the basics that will help you make a structure of your own design or from a prototype.  Scratch building isn’t as hard as it looks, the key thing is to always have is patience, this factor carries over into all aspects of this art.  Depending on the structure it could take a week to a year or more and don’t expect your first few attempts to be museum quality.

History & Prototype

The structure we will be building is modeled after a prototype Sinclair service station at the tiny town of Elberta, UT.  Unfortunately I have been unable to find any historical photographs of the service station or any information on its history.

Elberta

For me, to call Elberta a town is technically wrong, because as of the 2000 census the population stood at 278 and is designated as a Census Designated Place (CDP).  It began as two separate settlements and both were purchased in 1907. The name Elberta came from the Elberta peaches that were growing in the area.

Sinclair

The Sinclair company, as it stands today, was created on May 1, 1916 and is based out of Salt Lake City, UT. It is currently one of the largest privately-owned companies in the United States.  In 1969 Sinclair was purchased by ARCO and because of federal anti-trust provisions, they were forced to sell of the East coast operations to BP.  In 1976 ARCO spun-off the Sinclair name and sold it to the current owners which included the operations between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.  Sinclair is also well known for only using oil drilled within the US and Canada and refines their oil that is transported by pipeline to three refineries in Wyoming and Oklahoma.

The Prototype

The service station we are going to build measures 20′-6″ wide, 26′-4″ in length and stands at 18′ tall.  The front wall appears to have stucco applied to it and framed in with 1×4’s. In fact, the entire building is trimmed with standard dimensional lumber, 1×4’s, 1×6’s, 2×6’s & 2×8’s.  The rest of the building is clad in a corrugated metal from top to bottom, and this will help to make construction easier because you will be-able to disguise mistakes if needed.  The windows and doors are also wood and the chimney is brick, so the building is built from very basic materials.

Please use these supplied reference photos to help aid you on your endeavors of building your own version of this little service station.

Right Profile

Doors

Right Side

Back

Left Side

In part two of this series, we will build the Sinclair Service Station.  We will also teach you all the basic skills necessary to build your very own.

So, please stay tuned.

• Scratch Building 101: Sinclair Station, Part 2 (17)
• Christopher Hutchinson’s Sinclair Station (4)
• The Dominion Trust Building (4)
• Scratch Built IRT Kiosk: Part 4 (10)
• Scratch Built IRT Kiosk: Part 3 (7)

About the Author

Chris Brimley — Co-founder of N scale Limited, Chris was bitten by the model railroading bug when he was 14, originally working with HO scale he soon discovered the limitless possibilities of N scale. It was only a few years ago when Chris decided that it was time to break free of the kit bubble and begin scratch building structures. The few structures Chris has built have gone on to acquire multiple Best of Show awards in NMRA and non-NMRA judged shows. He is also a member of the budding Junction City N-scalers modular club based out of Ogden, UT that will strive for the best of what N-scale modelers have to offer.