Modelling Rideau Street School/King's Town School

At 66 Rideau Street stands a building that has gone full circle. Originally built as      it found more pedestrian uses before again returning to its original calling. Read more about its history in this post. It's where three family members spend their days as teacher and students at King's Town School (KTS). So while spending time in the layout room with the two KTS students recently, telling them about some of the buildings I've modelled that are still near the school, it dawned on me that I should model this long-lived Swamp Ward structure as it still stands in the neighbourhood it was originally built to serve. Looking at photos of it, I realized that I would have to go all-in and actually cut window holes and use doors and windows and all those other fiddly bits and pieces of limestone construction to try and make it look right!

I decided to use a Pola HO scale brewery that I'd picked up at a train show for a paltry six bucks as feedstock. I didn't have a lot of room on the layout, and though I realize the current incarnation of the building has extensive additions now used as classrooms, I kept it to the original shape for the available footprint on the layout. I want to be able to show it as King's Town School when I decide to backdate it to a more industrial/commercial use it had during my 1970 modelled era. Feedstock pieces and photo inspiration (above) and windows for the school front (below). I duct-taped the windows to make it easier to paint them. I had a lot of them, even if the pane-count is off. Made the build pain-free!

 

The Pola brewery with roof already used for another project. This is one reason why I love coming across inexpensive structures at train shows!

I printed off this stone image to format, print and paste onto the structure as limestone:

Window holes cut, limestone paper applied to areas that would be visible upon completion.  (Back of building will have an addition that will cover it.) I tried to measure/guess the height to make both parts' roof peaks equal height. I came close!

Windows, soldier-corners and front height adjustment added. Rear addition built and roof added, ready to accept front part's roof (below). Dremel made quick work of the window and door openings (front door was one of the last things added!), with paper lintels and Vallejo plastic putty added after 'limestone'.

The rear addition is two sides of a trainshow-find house laid flat, with styrene ends I cut to match. Rear roof formerly used on my Sowards coal shed before it was rebuilt. Finally a chance to use those circular windows! The end windows reflect being bricked over, or the original windows removed and newer windows installed:

I'm quite bad at taking in-progress photos. Well, who really wants to read this if it's "Oh look, I added a window!" Not you, I'm sure. Front and north side, with size-reduced current wood-finished addition with that never-fixed eavestrough I heard of! The end roof-supports are from Belmont Hotel window shades Dremel'd, hand trimmed and painted black:

Rear/south with really big chimney. Perhaps too big, but its mounting-slot is cut right into the roof for strength!

North side/rear:

Front/south side (below). Door and front windows have current King's Town School appearance, with hanging sign over left window still to be added:

Prototype and outdoor-photographed model:

After I positioned a couple of vehicles on the layout with the school building, to snap some on-layout photos, a plumbing call at the school included an Ubdegrove van! (Photo via Caitlin Barton)

Life imitates art!

I cannot write this stuff! The cause of the plumbing issue was several [vintage and possibly by now biohazard] Coke bottles in an outflow pipe. Had they been there since the building was a Coca-Cola bottling facility? If so, persistent plumbing problems have hopefully now been paused. You know...Coke, the pause that reflushes!