For far too long we have waited for a suitable gantry train for yard work, this is it in better detail than I could have dreamed. Crane rotates and slides with stationary hook and includes bins. Almost all industry needs gantry cranes, they come in large and small sizes. A rail yard gantry crane is of course that large, you will find them offloading containers in a ship yard or picking up loads of lumber in a rail yard. Archistories gantry crane is of an older design featuring riveted plate steel and diesel powered operators’ house. You will find gantry cranes like this in use today in small steel mills that rely on rail transport, two such examples are close to my home in Pennsylvania.

Water towers are one of the most interesting architectural wonders in Germany, they are everywhere from tight city enclaves to large industrial areas. The many variations of German water towers have been well documented by the photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher. Two early water towers are offered by Archistories: Sanders-art and Bw Torrnstein.  Whether you model in American or European prototypes one or both of these water towers will find a suitable home. Supplying water to industry or home water towers are everywhere in Germany. Bw Torrnstein build tips: careful to align stepped ladder with opening in catwalk and don’t forget to install all parts of superstructure. Sanders-art includes real wood for timbers which need extra gluing time than paper, keep pressure on timbers until glue has set otherwise they may slide away from roof. Even these small buildings require similar lengths of time for assembly but a Saturday afternoon should be sufficient.

Here is a great kit to build if you are new to Archistories, it is a big essential building for any layout and easy to build. The only word of caution is to be careful lining up the trusses with the roof underlayment, you cannot press the roof underlayment slots onto the trusses or they will bend; it is best to work from the inside out pushing each truss into the slots of the roof underlayment. Or you can cut off the protrusions on the trusses and glue in place.

Building is well suited to go with the interlocking tower and train station, it is based on late 19th century Prussian architecture in red brick. A very large Prussian industrial design loco repair shed that services in the repair of steam locomotives and later diesels. Because of the large expansive roof quick work will be needed gluing roof sheathing in place; start glue in the center and work out to edges with broad even strokes of a brush and apply even pressure until cement seats the card stock. I use only PVA archival cement for roofing because it sets up fast, and it is permanent. Also don’t be afraid of the hinged doors, the filigree framework needs just a couple of tiny drops of glue applied with a pin to attach to door structure. Following construction of each door comes hinging each which is simply lining up door posts with slots inside building held together by a second piece glued in place on the interior side over the slots: careful to keep glue away from hinges!!! An interesting add-on accessory for this kit are the inspection repair pits identified by Archistories as “Working Pits.” Customizing track by cutting ties is required for installation of pits, but they add that little extra detail that fellow railroaders will notice.

One of the older Archistories z scale buildings is the “Frye” house. A northern German railway house that is based on a prototype built in 1894 in Emsland Lingen. This kit was my first introduction to regular production Archistories buildings versus the earlier commissioned design for Marklin’s two ‘Factory’ kits. Featuring partition walls this building can be realistically lit, now you can light a drawing room or an upstairs bedroom instead of the whole house. Residents of this particular structure would have been penny wise limiting the amount of lamp oil or later electricity used in the house, they would have been self sufficient: farming on a small lot behind the house where chickens and pigs would have been kept. A solid red brick house built to last and still does as the prototype exemplifies even today as reported by Archistories. The two challenges with this kit are the chimneys and sills due to their small size, chimneys are constructed of gluing together two pieces that 4 brick pieces adhere to and then a cap: 7 tiny pieces comprise one chimney. Other challenge are the sills, they are small and tweezers, goggles (you might as well leave these on whenever you z scale!), and patience. I find sewing pins to be helpful when applying glue with this kit and small pieces in general. Also do not use too much glue and too much pressure when picking up sills, they are easily damaged with tweezers and expand like a sponge if you use to much glue. Take your time and you will get perfect results. This is a kit that can be varied: window insert modified with limestone can be changed out with corrugated steel instead (common in railway houses that once adorned the Lehigh Valley Railroad in and around Easton, PA). A second variation is placing the risers/steps on the opposite side of the building. Don’t forget to install the slate on each side of the dormer in correct sequence as outlined in the instructions!!! I love this building.

I bought five to create a block of them along the tracks.

The second Archistories building kit with mechanized movement is the very handsome “Moosbachtal” water mill. Two variations of this kit are available: brick infilled with exposed timber and stucco with exposed timber. Many small towns throughout Europe and America had a grist mill, they were an essential part of village life, but this never occurred to z scale model manufacturers until now! Thankfully Archistories addressed this vacancy in z scale building kits. This is a kit that should be built after putting together some of the other kits first, it entails a more complex superstructure due to the internal motor, simple wiring, and intricate parts comprising the water wheel. This is a kit that can be completed on a Saturday afternoon, it is fun to put together (all these kits are) and the result will impress friends, neighbors, and even family. No one can help but enjoy a quiet hamlet with rambling trees, overgrown grass, babbling brook and grist mill. Mill comes complete with a grist stone, tile roof and cultured stone foundation. This kit is tied with many of the Archistories kits as best z scale building ever offered. Reality vs. fantasy can describe these high quality laser cut building kits vs. plastic kits that have been offered as the gold standard for many years. Plastic kits are okay, I have built many, but in reality most buildings are not shiny; they just look like a fantasy. Archistories laser cut kits are the closest thing to what we find in the real world plus there is depth in the pigments and surface textures you will not find from any other company. And very complementary with fine z scale trains. Here are a few pictures: please keep in mind the temporary display of this fine building on a styrofoam block. If you want to see stunning vignettes using this kit in dioramas check out Archistories website or www.ZscaleMonsterTrains. Last photo shows wire with two capacitors soldered in-line that are provided in the kit with the motor (same as windmill kit). Water wheel is of a much better design than the one by Faller for their current laser cut kit lumber mill.

Archistories Windmill building kit has historical ties to the island of Toftum on Germany’s North Sea coast, it is described by Archistories as one of the oldest windmill designs and a rare right turner. Originally part of Denmark Toftum comprised one island of the chain of North Frisian Islands thus tying this windmill to Danish history. “Toftum auf Foehr” is a building kit comprising a motorized mechanism whose turning speed can be adjusted using the control of the Marklin Mini Club transformer. A few simple soldering connections are required including positive/negative wires to motor posts followed by wiring in-line two capacitors to the positive wire. Once motor is wired (Marklin wire recommended), it is installed inside the building as outlined in the instructions. I highly recommend following Arhistories step-by-step instructions in the order they provide otherwise disaster will follow and the kit ruined. The most challenging aspects to this kit are lining up the sails with the armature of the motor: a flat edge of the sail construction aligns with the flat edge of the motor armature! The other challenge is installing the risers in the railings for the stairs, here magnifying goggles, tweezers and patience is required; I have found that laying one railing flat and installing all risers with a tiny drop of glue to the bottom of each riser works well followed immediately by attaching the other railings by using the tweezers and carefully aligning risers in the holes. Once you get the hang of putting stairs together with these kits it is a breeze primarily because these are precision cut of heavy warp free cardstock. One other recommendation is to build this kit after you have a place for it on your layout, it is fragile until installed. This is an absolutely beautiful detail rich building for your z scale layout, and one I recommend building after constructing some of the easier Archistories kits: Scandinavian cottages and station kits. I provided a few photos of the one I made to show off the details: *windmill temporarily installed without cement on styrofoam the lurching forward in some of the photos is not indicative of any defects with the building.

Here is the recently released building kit from Archistories, it is the second kit that includes a motor. A mill on your layout would not be as much fun without a moving water wheel. This kit is designed flawlessly to incorporate a motor without compromising the architectural integrity of this cool building. Archistories designed a second version of this open timber mill: one features brick and the other is stucco. I like both versions and plan to build the other one next. Basic soldering is required for this kit: two capacitors provided in the kit need to be soldered in place as directed as well as wires to motor terminals (very simple). A few notes: as with the windmill in my other post I very simply placed this building on a block of styrofoam without any mounting in order to show it in action straight away; my layout is down the road, and I couldn’t wait to show this off.

YouTube Link:                                                                                                          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1yEAqp3ip0                                                                               *If the picture for the video does not show a windmill press the replay button lower left corner.

*If you would like to build this mill or its variant, it is available at ZScaleMonsterTrain.com for $57.56. For informational purpose only.

The Archistories building kits are completed well in advance of my layout being built let alone designed. Why build structures before designing a layout? Good question! I don’t have a logical answer for this except to say I love these little buildings, and I couldn’t wait to see them erected. They are safely packed away, and I am designing the layout: perhaps two plus a briefcase layout. More to discuss in the near future. So today’s two posts feature the Marienfehn windmill in action thus being one of two Archistories building kits that come with motors! A brief comment about the video: the electric wire goes through the middle of the base, I simply without a lot of fuss funneled the wires through a thick piece of styrofoam without any mounting, it lists a bit due to the temporary nature of this display.

YouTube Link:                                                                                                           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SilvDbwda18                                                                                     *If the picture for the video does not show a windmill press the replay button lower left corner.

*If you would like to add this building to your layout it is manufacturers number ARC-703141 available at ZScaleMonsterTrains.com for $56.76. For informational purpose only.