Structures for the Frazier Borate

Thinking about structures for the new Frazier Borate.

I've only found a few photos of real structures from the early 20th century Lockwood Valley, and none of them show enough detail to be of much use building a model. As a result, my goal is going to be to capture the spirit of the place, rather than exactly duplicate specific buildings.

Here's a view of Stauffer as it looked in the 1930s. That's the company store surrounded by trees, with the Frazier Mine in the background.

So here's a draft of the layout, with buildings identified.

Buildings:

• Ore Bin: The Banta ore bin, reworked so the dump car track comes in from the side.
• Shed: Calvin Witt small shed, with added platform and porch.
• Brewery: The Clever Models Brewery.
• Depot: Full Circle Models, or maybe the tiny one from Dave Meek
• Store 1: Calvin Witt False Front (Louella's Cantina)
• Store 2: The trading post from the old Frazier Borate, or BTS Greeley's Place, similarly modified (North Fork Trading)
• Store 3: Calvin Witt Blacksmith Shop (with a Berkshire Valley old time gas pump out front)

This will keep my cost down, since I have all but a couple of the buildings already; the new ones are inexpensive kits from Calvin with details and signage added.

Depending on what I decide to do with the big L&SE, I might instead put a brewery there, and put a miner's supply, agricultural supply, or a produce warehouse in its place on this layout.

Here's North Fork Trading Co., modified from a Blair Line Company House.

Some other possibilities:

I really like this log store from Wild West Models, though at 5 x 7 it may be a bit large.

This small cabin from Mount Blue would work as a little post office or store. It measures just 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.

An alternative for Building #1, the cafe, would be to scratchbuild something like this:

I saw this posted on Facebook a while back and it really brought to mind a lot of little cabins and cafes up in the southern California mountains. I talked to the builder, Eric Scott Williams, at the Mini Festa, and he confirmed that sure enough, it was inspired by places up in the Los Padres. I can see something like this with the back wall partly dug into the hillside.

Another one I like: Frenchman River Model Works, Thomas Yorke design. It's only 3 1/2 inches wide by 3 1/4 deep, so it might even fit on the Frazier Borate.

The BTS Cabin Creek Small Store would fit where I have an unspecified store. It measures approximately 3 x 5 inches.

5/6/26: I'm wondering if I could use a larger mine structure here. Might the Center Creek mine fit? 

Or a different one, such as the Wild West Models Atlantic Cable Mine:

The Atlantic Cable is 3.2 x 23 inches as shown, but the trestle could be shortened and the ore bin rotated 90 degrees, reducing total length maybe 18 inches. Main building is 8.6 inches long and the ore bin looks like 3 x 3. It appears that there is supposed to be a separate hoist house behind the main building.

It should fit, with the ore bin in the same position as the Berkshire Valley one in the drawing and the trestle running up the hill, the mine sitting on the hillside above the tunnel. Another option might be to keep the bigger Berkshire Valley ore bin in place of the squatty Wild West Models one, which would make the mine sit higher.

It would certainly look impressive, and the Wild West Models kits aren't widely used so it's not one that a lot of people have likely seen. $200 for the kit, though.

There's also the Banta Little Creek Mine, which is a more common kit. It measures 5 x 16 overall:

Here's a build by Steve Strum with the head frame rotated 90 degrees and the hoist house behind the ore bin:

Here's a quick, rough draft with the Center Creek Mine. I kinda like it:

With this version, I might put the Thomas Yorke beanery at position 2 and move the store to position 1. The blacksmith shop/gas station moves across the street (possibly facing left, toward the mine). I might add a loading dock on the spur next to the station.

An advantage of this design -- or disadvantage, depending on how you (literally) look at it, is that it is best viewed from the front side -- there's not so much to see from the back. If it is docked on the shelf next to the bigger layout, that's great. If it's displayed as a free-standing layout, it's less ideal. Because of the way the mine is configured, it doesn't really work on the other side of the layout without considerable modification to the track plan. [But what if the mountain ran roughly where the brewery and depot are in this drawing, with the canyon to the right, and the town on the opposite side of the mountain? The mine sits roughly where the brewery is now.]

Here's one with the Wild West Models mine. I shortened the trestle a bit and added a hoist house.

I actually kind of like the one with the Center Creek Mine best. 

5/7/26: Here's a whole different arrangement, which puts the mountain in the middle, with the mine on one end and the town on the other end. This is drawn with Micro Engineering switches. This is stretched to 58 inches.

I've eliminated the brewery in this version and put a small loading dock in its place.

I like that this approach gives me two distinct scenes, the mine/canyon on the right and the town on the left.

I've moved the interchange to the rear, which will make it easier to connect this with the larger layout. When "docked" it will be viewed from the front and the right end, which provides two very distinct scenes. 

Also worth looking at Bar Mills, which has a number of small buildings that might work.

5/9/26: Another, slightly more refined version. I've done away with the trestle at front left, and moved the station back in front. Added a water tank (the Banta branchline water tank I used on the San Emigdio Canyon mini) and a post office (the little Mount Blue cabin would fit). I also eliminated the tunnel at front right. Instead the track goes through a cut. Finally, I corrected the dimensions of the mine. It's a little larger than I thought.

5/10/26: Here's another idea. Back in the late 70s or early 80s, I scratch-built a mine based on an article in Model Railroader. It might be fun to build it again in O scale. Here's a photo of the old HO model:

I found the issues of Model Railroader I needed surprisingly fast -- through pure luck, they were in the first box I opened. January and February 1975. The model and article were by Alan Brewster, a long time MR contributor. The original model was in O scale.

In O scale, the complex measures 10 x 19 inches as drawn. I could pretty easily reduce the length by a couple of inches, the width by an inch. So large, but it could still work.

When I get a chance, I'll do a version of the track plan with this structure, and will scan the plans and add them here 

5/11/26: Here's a first-draft track plan with the Silver Spur Mine. I reduced the size of the two main buildings a little to bring the overall footprint down to 8 x 16.