Kitbash an inexpensive flag stop station: I stopped by a garage sale last year that had children’s toys piled up on a table. I found several items I thought I could use, including what looked to be a horse stable building. The seller was asking 50 cents for it and the other items I picked out so I paid her and went away happy with my finds.
I remembered that, years ago, Model Railroader had an article about small stations on rural railroads that would raise a flag on a pole to signal the engineer of a local train to stop for passengers [see the April 1963 issue, p. 56]. The passengers would raise the flag, as the station did not have an agent and the stations themselves were nothing more than a shelter from the weather.
I removed the horse stalls from the building and was left with a shed like structure open on the front. I made a plywood base for the building, repainted it, and added some signage inside. I used coffee stirrer sticks that I pre-stained for flooring. I also named the station for one of the towns on my layout. It made a realistic flag stop station when finished.
If you want to replicate the station I have found the source for the toy building. I stopped into a local Buc-ee’s service station and convenience store. Wandering through their toy section I found a playset with the same horse stall I had found at the garage sale. It was priced at around $25.00 but it had another building, fencing, feed troughs, and several horses that could also be used as large scale accessories. A search online also revealed it is available for mail order from Farm and Home Supply stores in Illinois. The brand is “New Ray.” You can now have another reason to pause your trains as they travel about your railroads.
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Wonderful, clever article from James. ( Two sad notes for me, though: 1) The Farm and Supply price for the set has now increased to $35 … 2) They are not allowed to ship this item to California residents, as a result of Proposition 65 )…
But overall , the article was enjoyable, & innovative- & encourages one to “keep their eyes open”:.. Thanks, from Ray S, BAGRS
Great idea and it shows that you can create and build great things from toys and find ideas at flea markets, garage sales and yard sales. It just means keeping an eye out for something that will work out on your layout with a bit of creativity and ingenuity and having an open mind. I recently converted a bunch of Christmas Village buildings bought at Dollar Tree which I used for my Holiday layout under the tree and after Christmas when I took the tree down I took the buildings and with a bit of paint and some modifications turned them into buildings for year round use on my layout. AlwYs be on the lookout for bargains and whatever you can find to be used on your layout. Joseph C Markfelder