Model Railroading on the Cheap

    Another image I have always been fond of is the Mail Pouch Chewing Tobacco barns. They have been seen for over a century in the mid-west along well traveled rural highways, an item that I consider to be American Folk Art.  I have photographed several of those barns if found with a clear shot for the camera un-encumbered by shrubbery, hanging wires, or machinery setting around in front of them and there are hundreds of others on the web. (Google Mail Pouch Barns and Wikipedia) I have made several of these barns from folded paper printed with the home computer. I even did my own artwork for some of them.

  I did my first Mail Pouch Barn in about 1980 using the technology of the time, by taking a photograph square on of a bright newly painted barn so that the subject nearly filled the view frame on the camera. In those days before digital cameras we used color print film in our cameras and had to have the film developed and printed at the drug store (which sent it out of town). Having the print enlarged might be necessary – requiring another trip to the store. Then after you had your good shot sized and printed properly, trim away all the background with scissors and scratch build a gable ended building to fit the remaining object and glue it to the end of your structure. Today’s digital photography is so much easier with the home computer; it is hard to realize how much better off we are.

   The paper billboard at the right edge of the above photo (Cobb Corn Co.) is a 3-sided object, which can be turned occasionally to show a different advertisement. The tall gray grain storage silos hide a gas pipe on the wall of the train room.

   I came up with a way to make a ‘good enough for arm’s length’ paper barn about the size of a two car garage, suitable for back ground quality, in 3 different scales, featuring a full size image of the familiar Mail Pouch Tobacco advertisements.  These were printed with the computer on 110 pound card stock paper, cut, folded and glued to make these durable structures. I wanted to display my favorite barns in a single photo for this summary.

   Here I have placed two barns so the photographer could get both in the same frame. (one barn and its removable stone foundation is set upon the main line tracks!)  These structures are about half size for HO. They are intended as back ground distant quality static buildings. The doors are always on the other side. The upper building is setting loosley on an extended stone foundation  right at the edge of this cliff against the sky board back drop.  That way the barn can be rotated occasionally to show a different MailPouch or Kentuckey Club view of the other sides. These buildings were done with the computer paint program, printed on card stock paper, cut with scissors, folded and glued together. The Purina Chows bilboard was done the same way but it is just a simple flat perhaps suitable as a billboard.