Dot's Trackside Diner, Part 1 of 2

My N Scale White River and Northern featured a Dot's Diner, and it too was a Micro Structures Parkway Diner kit, although that project did not benefit from the interior detailing and lighting kits that were made available later; I had to do all of that work from scratch. It also enjoyed much more ambitious modifications, including an all-new roof and big lighted sign.

For my Z scale layout, my plan was to save time by building it pretty much stock, using the interior detail and lighting kits. Famous last words. Originally located near the back of the layout, the diner later got moved almost to the front edge of the layout, and my notion of living with it in stock form quickly evaporated.

It's certainly not my intention to malign Miller Engineering's fine products in any way; however, this kit did not go together quite as smoothly as the instructions would lead one to expect. The interior detailing kit, in combination with the lighting kit, presented a number of minor challenges:

• The slot for the neon sign in the building front was too narrow, and had to be enlarged (ultimately, to make the roof more easily removed, I simply chopped away the back of the slot altogether).
• The main floor part needed to be notched around the front door to clear the neon sign's electrical connection.
• The small floor part for the entrance does not clear the door inside, and a relief had to be filed along one edge.
• The back wall part does not drop down even with the side walls when installed; the sidewall parts that protrude inside the back wall must be ground down slightly at the top.
• When cut down to the designated size, the ceiling illumination panel is still too big to fit, and in fact still won't fit until nearly an additional third of the panel is cut off, by which time almost half the ceiling is no longer illuminated.
• The assembled walls have loads of light leaks where parts connect, which need to be plugged for a better lighting effect.

I made several minor cosmetic changes to the exterior. First, the awning on the side of the building had to go (there wasn't room, as the diner sat right next to the track—hence its modified name), so I filled in the mounting slots with thin strips of scrap etched stainless steel.

The roof, as supplied, did not look finished along the back of the structure; it just ended with a plain, raw sheet metal edge, and since the back of my diner would be clearly visible on the layout—it sits near the front edge at a 90-degree angle—I needed to do something to improve its appearance. I rounded off the front two corners a little with a Dremel tool, and added a stainless steel trim strip (a piece of fret material) around all four sides. Then I applied black masking tape to the roof to simulate tarpaper. New roof details included an air conditioning unit from the City Scoop kit, and a couple of vent pipes made from thin-wall brass tubing.

Despite having four windows and a door, the back wall seemed strangely barren-looking; I finally realized it was because there were no window or door frames. So I made frames out of—believe it or not—pieces of the non-illuminated marquee signs from the Crestline Theater kit. I also replaced the door with one from the Logan Savings roof access. Then I dressed up the back with some new details: a large exhaust fan (scratchbuilt from telescoping styrene tubing) in a window plugged with plywood, a small canopy over the door (from the City Scoop kit), and electric and gas lines and meters (wires and bits of styrene). The area around the back received trash bins, assorted debris, and a wire fence.

I added a working light over the back door using fiber optics; inside, a warm white LED shines in the fiber and also illuminates the kitchen interior. The windows have frosted glass that's partially blocked off in areas to suggest equipment and cabinets. The back wall was primed and finished with two different colors of paint, applied one on the other, and the top coat was partially removed with masking tape to simulate old peeling paint.

I replaced the front set of stainless steel steps with new ones made from sheet styrene distressed and finished to simulate concrete, plus a simple steel wire railing. The back staircase was not needed, as the ground is raised to nearly the level of the door at the back of the building.

To improve the appearance of the lighted sign, I cut the letters off of the etched metal version to extract the base, which was then bonded to the electroluminescent part. The portion of the sign that's inside the diner had to be carefully sealed with black paint in order to prevent flooding the entrance with pink light. After test-fitting the sign inside the building and fretting over the giant black rectangle descending across the entrance, I thought it looked vaguely like a window shade, so I went over the black paint with a cream color. This was probably in vain, but it made me feel better.

Here's the original Micro Structures Parkway Diner kit.

My first Dot's Diner was a higher-class establishment—also highly customized.

The mounting slots for the awning are filled in with tiny scraps of etched steel.

Thin strips of black tape are necessary in order to prevent light leaks.

The slot for the sign must be enlarged with a file.

A notch must be cut in the floor part to clear the sign connector and wiring.

The base is removed from the metal sign and attached to the lighted sign.

After installing the sign on the modified roof, it is test-fit on the building.

The modified roof has a new trim strip all around and a tarpaper surface.

The sign is electrically tested while the roof is in position on the building.

The wire rod helps hold the sign in place—for real.

The lighted sign color was improved by applying transparent red paint.

Another improvement made to the lighted sign was to change its color. I felt that the hot pink of the letters when the sign was off and viewed in normal light did not seem realistic, so I applied a coat of Tamiya Transparent Red paint, which not only gave it a more realistic color, but also a nice plastic-like sheen. I did not anticipate this would do much to its color when illuminated, and it didn't (nor was I concerned); it just went from a pale, slightly bluish-pink to a pale, slightly purplish-pink. I also spent a fair amount of time painstakingly applying black paint with a #000 brush to all of the edges of the letters, which blocked the pale blue "light leaks" and really enhanced the sign's realism. That was time well spent.

The little "DOT'S" sign over the entrance was deliberately designed with a kind of home-grown, amateurish style to reflect the mom-and-pop nature of the business; this and other touches were gathered from studying hundreds of reference photos. I printed it on white decal paper with an inkjet printer, and applied the decals to a scrap of plain brass from a fret (and do I ever have plenty of this). The sign was bonded to the entrance roof with CA, and a piece of .005-inch brass wire was added as a stay cable—which, given the tenuous nature of the sign's bond to the stainless steel roof, serves to help secure it much the same way as its real-life counterpart.

Continue to Part 2
Return to Construction
Return Home

Copyright © 2007-2008 by David K. Smith. All Rights Reserved.
Nothing contained in this website may be reproduced in any form
without the express written consent of the copyright holder.
Miller Engineering product photo used with permission.