Across the tracks to the south of the train station and oasis is downtown Oasis Palms. This business district consists of six all-brick buildings most of which were built in the 1880s by Cameron Smith with bricks sourced from Philander Colton of the Mormon Battalion in San Diego.

The buildings on the west side of Main Street in downtown include a Barbershop/Ice Cream Parlor/Pool Hall mixed-use building, the three-story Hotel California in the middle of the block and a Saloon and package store on the corner.

The statue in the town square was of Wilbur Smith. Wilbur was the eldest son of Cameron and Malika who enlisted in the Union Army. Initially Wilbur served in the 1st California Regiment before being transferred to the 71st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, where he participated and died heroically in the Battle of Gettysburg.

At the end of the Main Street facing the town square and water fountain is the Oasis Palms Metropolis Theater. The theater was constucted in 1929 and featured a dramatic Beaux-Arts and Art-deco exterior. While the theater was small with only 50 seats, the dramatic facade and exterior lighting created an impressive night-time site to visitors.

The east side of Main Street housed the town water tower, Smith’s Hardware store and the Oasis Market which served triple duty as a market, Post Office and Pharmacy. The Market was the defacto hub of all activity in Oasis Palms.

Directly south of the Oasis Palms train station is the oasis “discovered” by Capt Cameron Smith in 1840. This ancient oasis was well-known to the local indigenous people for a millennia before Smith arrived. Smith was led to the oasis by a local guide who was a strikingly beautiful California Native American from the Hutto-pah Mojave tribe. This guide Malika, would later become his wife and would co-found the town of Oasis Palms with Smith.

This oasis provided 10,000-year-old virgin water to the town that came directly from the Fenner Aquafir located deep in the ground below Oasis Palms until the spring mysteriously ran dry in the 1980s.

 

Whether you arrived to Oasis Palms by train or by automobile the first structure greeting visitors was the Oasis Palms Train Station.  The Oasis Palms train station is one of the older buildings in town. Built in 1898, to serve the Santa Fe Mojave Limited passenger train service it later served the Midnight Limited and the El Capitan.

The Oasis Palms welcome sign on Barco Road was erected in 1945 to promote tourist traffic visiting Oasis Palms from nearby route 66. Tourists were directed from billboards at Amboy and Cadiz to take the 10-minute detour down Barco Road to visit Oasis Palms. The sign was fashioned after the sign was installed at the end of Route 66 at the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles in 1941. In reality, the detour to Oasis Palms was more like a 30-minute drive but most tourists were not disappointed with their visit to the Barco Plataue.

The Oasis Palms train station was later expanded to include a second passenger platform where visitors would arrive on the nightly Santa Fe Midnight Limited trains bringing thirsty visitors from Los Angeles. Years later, after WWII the Santa Fe El Capitan service would stop each day on its way from Los Angeles to Chicago.

 

Oasis Palms was just like every other town in mid-century America, advertising clutter was the rule. The next project was to begin decorating the various buildings with the signs that identify the various businesses in Oasis Palms.

The signs were designed in Photoshop based on historic photos (when available). Since the build era is the early 1960s, signs on the older businesses in downtown were weathered more than the signs on the newer businesses up on the hill. The signs were printed on matte finish heavy-weight photo paper and then glued to 1/4″ foam board. The sign edges were then backfilled with lightweight spackle, sanded and painted to match with acrylics. Bamboo skewers and toothpicks were painted and used to act as sign poles.

The Oasis Palms welcome sign is similar to the sign at the base of the Santa Monica Pier. The sign in Santa Monica was unveiled in 1941 and marks the unofficial end of Route 66.

The “Liquor Box” package store was promoted by a sign of Scooters Rye Whisky which had been distilled and bottled in the Oasis Palms caves starting in 1905.

The Oasis Market sign was based on the Balboa Market Sign in Newport Beach, CA the Hardware Store sign was based on the Gardner’s True Value Hardware in Lonepine CA.

 

The sidewalks in Oasis Palms create a palm tree planter down the center of Main Street and include the building foundations for the two downtown blocks. To make the blocks, first I made paper templates cutting all the odd shapes and piecing them together so I could make one piece that could be dropped in or removed as a single unit. Eventually, I will attach the buildings and lighting, and have a single power plugin per block. This will allow me to remove each block as a single piece and detail the scenes and buildings when they are off the layout.

The construction of the sidewalks began with 1/4″ birch plywood (I wanted to use 1/4″ tempered hardboard but I was unable to source any locally.) After cutting the blocks to shape with a saber saw, they were skim-coated with a layer of drywall compound. This gives the wood a more concrete-like texture and builds up the thickness of the plywood to a true 1/4 thickness.

After the drywall compound dried, the sidewalk patterns were scored with a finishing nail. I put a 1/8″ edge around the outside and added cross joints every 1.5″ at six scale feet. When scoring the joints some of the joint compound will naturally break off. These imperfections add realism to the look of the concrete.

For finishing, the blocks were first sprayed with gray Rustoleum Primer. Then I added 20% paint/water black wash, This was applied over the entire surface with a sponge brush making sure to fill every joint line and the excess was wiped off with a paper towel. Since concrete begins to yellow as it ages, next I sprayed a dusting of Rustoleum Khaki Camouflage paint. Dusting was done by spraying parallel to the surface and simply allowing the spray paint to drop on the surface. This was applied lightly with some areas heavier than others.

The next step was to give the concrete a broom finish. Using a brass wire brush, I lightly scratched the entire surface in one direction. This lightened the entire surface and allowed the base coat of gray to show through.

Then for the last layer, I very lightly re-dusted the entire surface with three different colors. I used the Rustoleum Primer Gray, Ivory, and flat Brown. This results in small gray, white, and brown dots on the surface.

 

Palm trees and streetlights were added to the center divider and the sidewalks were bolted down using 2″ long #4 screws set into the pink foam. On the underside of the layout, I added small fender washers and a nut to hold the blocks flat in place. Later these sections will be removed and detailed individually with curb painting, parking meters, fire hydrants, and people which will bring the scenes to life.

Plastic palm trees were painted and the fountain in the town square was painted using the same as the concrete technique with a final dry brushing of the white chalk paint to give it a more marble-like appearance.

Last year I mocked up the roads in Oasis Palms using 1/4 “project display board”. This is the tri-fold foam core board with paper backing on each side typically used for school projects and science fairs at $4 for a 36×48 board it’s a bargain. The pieces were cut and fitted and pinned down to the layout. I laid the foam up to the edge of the track to get an idea of where the road elevation needed to rise to create the railroad crossings.

My goal was to recreate the almost-white finish of a sun-faded desert highway. For the roads, I decided to go with the more flexible 5mm High-Density EVA foam and reuse the project board for my “ramps” (to rise from the layout base to the top of the Fastrack) and “bridges” (to span between my parallel tracks.) The project board is rigid and offers great support for the road transitions, where the EVA is flexible and can make a smooth transition from the layout deck up the ramps to the track.

For the ramps,  I cut 4″ pieces of the project board to give me a smooth transition. I beveled both edges, on the trackside, I used a 3/8″ bevel and on the layout side, I used a 1.5″ bevel. The bevels create a gradual transition from the layout surface to the 1/4″ thickness of the foam board.

Cutting these bevels was actually easier than expected. On the back, you cut through only the outside paper. Then using a sharp box cutter you cut the angle through the foam leaving the paper on the front side intact and allowing the knife blade to ride through the cut made on the back. The cut on the back actually guides the blade and the paper on the front resists the blade so you as less likely to cut the front paper. Basically the knife is only cutting the super-soft foam in the middle.

In this photo, I’m displaying the angle of the blade as it rides through the cut scored on the back side of the poster board. Although the foam is soft and cuts very easily, for safety reasons always cut away from your arms/body. After cutting, you can sand the foam and paper to get a smooth transition.

For the bridges between parallel tracks, I simply beveled the ends to 45 degrees and cut them to sit just below the height of the ties on the Fastrack. To fill the gap between the project board and my layout base, I used the same ultra-light-weight spackle used on my mountains.

The ramps and bridges make the foundation for the EVA foam roads.

I cut the EVA foam in 5″ wide strips to represent 20′ foot wide single lane roads.

To achieve the almost white road surface, the foam was painted using a sponge technique with grey and light grey (almost white) chalk paints. Then I created a wash of the grey paint and used a foam brush to add two coats of grey wash to even out the finish.

The bottom shows the EVA with the sponge finish. The top shows the roads after the two gray wash coats were applied.

Lines were added using paint markers. I put them on pretty light as I wanted the lines to look faded as well.

The roads were then glued down using Loctite Power Grab.

The ramps and bridges backfilled with spackle result in roads that blend with the terrain and make it possible for vehicles to actually cross the tracks in a somewhat prototypical fashion.

 

 

 

 

I’ve found that I have revisited my original SCARM layout design to use for measurements and reference as the build has progressed over the last year. Being a small 6.5’x9′ layout the Scarm design was not only valuable for determining the track I needed to purchase, but also the placement of roads and determining what buildings would actually fit in my tight space. While learning Scarm I challenged myself to draw some buildings for my layout. Below are the buildings, vehicles, and accessories I completed for my Scarm layout. Feel free to download and use these for your Scarm O-scale design.

The recreation of the Midnight Limited has been 90% completed and is running on the layout. We are still missing the dining car when a suitable donor is found it will be painted and added to the consist but for now the eight (8) car consist will represent the Midnight Limited visiting Oasis Palms.

The Santa Fe Berkshire Jr and Tender lead the consist.

Los Angeles 3200 Railway Express package and baggage car follow the Tender. Pasadena 3201 combination car with the Railway Post Office is next.

After the working cars, the private car Hollywood 3202 follows (note the rear balcony). Missing (for now) is the Dining Car San Bernardino 3203. Then Barstow 3204 all reclining chair passenger car.

Finally, Oasis Palms 3205 all reclining chair passenger car and Needles 3206 Observation / Lounge car.

The custom graphics for the Midnight Limited cars were prepared as vector art in Adobe Illustrator and sent to Fusion Scale Graphics to be printed. Waterslide decals can be printed at home except I needed to print “white” ink which is not an option on most home inkjet printers.

I uploaded my AI files to Fusion Scale Graphics. The 1/2 sheet of waterslide decals printed on clear paper was about $25 and arrived in my mailbox a couple of weeks later. Fusion Scale Graphics was prompt and professional, there were no extra “setup” charges, and the graphics were clear and crisp.

 

This project is to replicate the Santa Fe Midnight Limited that was acquired by the Oasis Palms Scenic Railroad after WWII. The Santa Fe Midnight Limited provided daily passenger train service from Los Angeles to Oasis Palms from 1927-1942. The Midnight Limited was a custom-painted steam-powered Berkshire pulling a consist of heavy-weight Pullmans. The cars had satin black exteriors adorned with yellow lettering, complemented by glossy black, yellow, and red stripes and silver roofs.

To recreate the Midnight Limited we decided to re-paint and badge an inexpensive Lionel ready-to-run Polar Express set. We also acquired three matching MPC-era cars from eBay (baggage, combo, diner). These cars were made in the ’70s and ’80s and used they cost between $10-$15 each plus shipping.

How to Disassemble Lionel Baby Madison Cars

The shorter-than-scale passenger cars in the Lionel ready-to-run sets are typically referred to as “Baby Madisons”. These cars are the perfect size to run on our 6×9 Oasis Palms layout. To prepare for painting, the cars were disassembled into their sub-components: roofs, bodies, vestibules, and trucks. When taking apart Lionel Baby Madison cars, the roofs are removed by compressing the windows and lifting the roof and window assembly. There are two windows on each side that are a wedge with a lip that locks the roof assembly into the body. Pressing in these windows in about 1/8″ releases the roof assembly. Use coffee stir sticks sanded to a knife edge on one end. Press the stir sticks in between the window wedge and the body. Once all four are in place, you can lift the roof and window assembly off of the body.

The trucks on the newer Baby Madison cars use rivets to attach the truck to the body. To remove these I used a Dremel tool to grind off the rivet heads. I tried drilling one and found the rivet got so hot it began melting the plastic body. Whether you drill or grind, pour water on the rivet as you work it to reduce the heat. The trucks on the MPC-era cars use a pressed-in plastic rivet that is easily removed by compressing the two little wings.

The trickiest part of disassembly was removing the vestibule ends on the bodies. The vestibules are held in place with two tabs that need to be pressed in towards the center and worked out of the slots on the car body. The slots are very tight! I had to use a combination of pushing pressure on the end of the tab and pulling pressure with a “pry-bar” of 1/16″ flat spring steel wedged between the vestibule and the body. This operation is like making diamonds from coal, it requires time and pressure. But with care, all the vestibules were removed. Unfortunately, the vestibule tabs on MPC-era cars were so brittle the ends of the tabs just broke off leaving just the squares that fit in the body slots. For the reassembly of the MPC-era cars, I will use a drop of CA glue on the remaining portion of the tabs.

The lights inside the cars are soldered to the trucks and can easily be removed by heating the solder with the soldiering iron and when the solder liquifies, simply remove the wire. The truck sub-assembly can be disassembled by prying the sides out to remove the center rail contact pickups and prying the sides to remove the wheels. A Phillips head screw will release the magnetic couplers from the truck.

Remove the Body Lettering and Window Silhouettes

To remove the widow silhouettes and old lettering I used Acetone. A clean towel dipped in acetone removed the window silhouettes and the gold Polar Express lettering leaving behind a clean surface. For the three old MPC-era cars I used Acetone to remove the ink, but these cars also had some raised areas and indentations from the ink being applied with heat stamps. To remove this ‘ghost lettering’ in the plastic I used 400 grit wet sandpaper to smooth the area. The result was a clean surface for primer and paint.

Primer and Satin Black Base Coat

All the cars were cleaned with soapy water (dish detergent) and lightly wet sanded (scuffed) with the 400 grit sandpaper. Be careful to not over sand because the small details like the rivets can quickly disappear. The windows attached to the roofs were masked off with blue painter’s tape and newspaper and all the bodies, roofs, vestibules, and trucks were primed with Rust-oleum self-etching primer.  Next, the bodies, vestibules, and trucks were painted with Rust-oleum Satin Black, and the roofs were painted Rust-oleum Metallic Finish (silver) all parts were left to completely dry overnight.

The MPC-era cars all had interior cardboard inserts designed to block the interior lamps from shining through the plastic bodies and roofs. To help block the light and to eliminate the need for the cardboard all the cars were also primed and painted black inside to create an opaque seal.

Paint the Red and Yellow Stripes and Silver Details

First, the red stripes were masked off with Tamiya 10mm masking tape and then the rest of the body of each car was masked off with blue painter’s tape and newspaper. The Rust-oleum Gloss Sunrise Red was sprayed directly over the satin black and left to completely dry overnight. The masking was removed and the yellow stripes were masked off the same way, painted with Rust-oleum Gloss Sunburst Yellow, and left to completely dry overnight. For the Engine and Tender, I kept the factory satin black base and masked off the red and yellow stripes using the same process as the cars.

The PE cars were the simplest to tape off as the body lines had nice ridges on both sides of the stripes. The Baggage car was the hardest to paint. The design used none of the baggage car body lines and both the Baggage and Combo cars have side doors with vertical extrusions that create all sorts of micro gaps under the masking tape. The solution for this was to measure and mask carefully and to spray light coats of color to minimize dripping in the gaps. Then after the stripes dried completely and the masking was removed, I used the black, red, and yellow spray paints shot into plastic cups with a fine point paint brush to clean up the fuzzy edges. It’s not perfect, but by using the same paint the touchups are color-matched and are less obvious.

To add a little extra detail the car grab handles, body side door latches, and vestibule safety gates were brush-painted with the same Rust-oleum Metallic Finish (silver) used on the roofs.

Paint the Trucks with Gunmetal Gray

The stock Lionel trucks are all black plastic but the OEM trucks on the Polar Express Berkshire and Tender are metal with a gray-painted finish. To match the engine, the plastic trucks were painted with Rust-oleum Matte Metallic Gunmetal Gray.

Next up: Applying waterslide decals, satin clear coat, final re-assembly…