Butcher shop - Metzgerei

I was given a set of Vollmer buildings called "Bahnhofstraße" (Station Street) item 3675. It is a box of five buildings that were/are also available separately. I started with the butcher shop which is an end building with two large shop windows. The building is also sold as item 3674. This post describes how I built it and added super detailed interior.

Loco shed smoke catchers

Loco sheds have large funnels above the tracks to help direct smoke out the chimneys. Since I was creating interior details of my roundhouse I have made smoke catchers. I need two per track. This allows a steamer to be parked head first or tender first, or even two small locos on one track.

I made mine out of a thin card and used a 6mm drinking straw cut to 30mm lengths for the new chimney. This allows the catchers to be positioned 60mm above the rails. The chimney caps from the Märklin 7288 roundhouse kit can be made to fit in the top of the drinking straw.

Tips for building plastic kits

Constructing a building from a plastic (such as from Faller) can be a pleasant project. There are also many pitfalls and as I construct my kits I often develop techniques that I think may be useful to others and also an aid memoir to myself for my next project. I have therefore assembled the list of tips below.