The Barn and Corral

The signature structures like the depot or major industries are normally well documented with pictures and drawings. When trying to recreate the more "off-set" buildings, like barns or individual housings, we must use modelers licence, but sometimes we are lucky and find the remnants of these structures by chance. (All b/w pictures courtesy of San Juan Capistrano Historical Society)

To the right of the packinghouse was a barn with a corral for horses or cows. It was outlined on the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from 1929, so I could determine the dimensions.

 

A picture from 1911 already showed the barn between the 2 houses in the foreground, actually only the roof.

Then finally an aerial shot from the 1950/60's shows the barn in total. Working from the dimensions on the map and the aerial view I could have built the barn.

When I browsed my photo collection to find some prototype information for the adobe houses in Los Rios District, I stumbled over the picture above, actually showing the barn I was looking for. During my visit in 2005 I had shot all kinds of buildings and structures around the depot without knowing if I ever would need them. With this straight on shot I was able to determine the exact shape of the barn and also how the exterior walls looked like.

The barn is a relatively simple looking structure, so I decided to make it a quick and easy project. I penciled the dimensions on plain .060" basswood sheet and cut the walls out with a few passes of my hobby knife.

The recessed roof served for ventilation purposes. 

This week-end I will glue the corrugated sheet stock to the wall sections and assemble the structure.

Stay tuned.