Eureka Springs Boiler House Build: LarryH

[LarryH]

This thread was started in December, 2025

LarryH
December 2025 in HO Scale Builds
The Eureka Spring Boiler House finally rose to the top of my projects list. Brett released this kit in 1996, almost 30 years ago. I found this kit at a train show for the original price of $21.00. I’ve seen them go for $80 on ebay, so I definitely got my monies worth.

As usual the first thing I did was read the instructions and then inventory the kit. The castings are absolutely top notch. I’m especially impressed by the oil tank and the water tank. The detail is amazing.

I model the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad in the late 19th century. Everything runs on coal in my little piece of Colorado, so the boiler will be coal fired. I currently have a two stall engine house that needs steam generation, so an attached boiler house suits the project.

I’ll use the boiler with base as built, but the rest of the structure is mostly redesigned. I started with flat black spray paint in a rattle can. Most of the coloring is done with Rembrandt pastels and dry brushing highlights. More weathering will be done down the road. The pastels are protected using Krylon Workable Fixatif. It is designed for use with pastels and doesn’t change the color or texture of the pastels. I’ve abandoned Dulcote and use the Fixatif for all my clear flat use.

The kit contains strip wood to build the wall framing. I drew up new wall framing in CorelDraw and cut them from MDF on the laser. All the walls have changed except the wall with the wide door. The building will now have four walls, and a removable roof. I incorporated notches in the header of the walls to accept and align the roof rafters. I want the workers to have some natural light, so I incorporated three windows. To supply interior light, a section of PC tie material will be used to simulate a beam running the length of the boiler house. It will reside in the notches at the top center of the narrow walls. The tiny LEDs will have lamp shades from Titchy.

Because the high country gets cold in the winter, doors are needed so I drew and cut them from four layers of .015" laserboard. The window glass will be sandwiched between the middle two layers. The doors will be mounted using Grandt Line hinges.

A coal fired boiler needs a bin for coal storage. A small scratch built one will serve that function indoors. A larger one will be built for outside storage. Coal and details to follow.

Comments

TomMich
December 2025 edited December 2025
Great start! I have always like this kit but found SW kits too late and the secondary market prices are too high. I have thought of scratch building it, but have not gotten around to it. I look forward to see what you do with it.

KKarns
December 2025
Great start Larry on your reimagined Eureka Springs Boiler House. It’s a prime piece for many other details. Tom and I look forward to seeing what comes from Larry’s bench on this one!

admin
December 2025
Outstanding job Larry. The main boiler/foundation casting is crusty and nasty, perfecto!

TravisS
December 2025 edited December 2025
Looks great Larry. I just got mine but paid more than $21!!

LarryH
December 2025
Tom, Ken, Brett & Travis Thanks for the replies. There’ll be more photos as I make progress.

Jerry
December 2025
Wonderful start on this build.

Jerry

Jeroen
December 2025
That looks fabulous! I never saw this kit before to be honest. Did I miss something?

MuddyCreekRR
December 2025
Also following along…I’m always intrigued by the HO builds…tiny stuff…

LarryH
December 2025
Jeroen and Muddy Creek - glad to have you aboard. There are a few seats left in the parlor car.

The model is progressing well, just a bit slower than I wanted with all the holiday activities.

The boiler house will be attached to an existing two stall engine house. The walls of the engine house are grey stained board and batten. The story is that the boiler house was added at some later date and is just wood boards without battens. Access between the boiler house and the engine house is needed, so I cut a hole in the back wall of the engine house to match the cutout in the rear wall framing of the boiler house.

The laser leaves burn marks when it cuts. By partially sanding the burn marks from the wall framing, the framing has a grungy appearance. The frame was then colored with a brown shoe dye / alcohol mix.

The wall boards are stained with a shoe dye and alcohol mixture and when dry, glued to the frame. The inside is not exposed to the Colorado weather and has a brown patina. Some 0000 steel wool rubbed on one side removed a little of the color. Then a brown art marker colored the inside of the boards. Finally a 30% black art marker is touched to the end grain on the bottom of the boards. The color wicks up the wood for a short way and gives a weathered appearance. The photo has a blue tint that the model does not.

The foundation of the boiler house is elevated above grade so a ramp will facilitate access. A jig holds the 1/32" plywood supports in place during assembly.

I wanted to check all the parts so far for fit, and am pleased.

The kit comes with a rooftop water tank. That’ll be the next step in this build.

glandesjr
December 2025
this is looking really great, Larry. I really like the idea of using a black marker to color the bottom ends of the boards. It looks great as it wicks up the bottom of the boards. Great idea and awesome-looking build. Looking forward to the finished build.

TravisS
December 2025
wonderful color on those boards!

KKarns
December 2025
Nice update Larry. I’m on board with Travis, liking the color tones you achieved on the exterior boards with the variation that’s subtile.

Joel
December 2025
Great work so far on this little kit. love the colour and texture

[JimM]

Larry, any more progress you can report? We’d love to see more.

[LarryH]

Jim, Thanks for asking. I’ve made a bit of progress, but not many photos.

The kit came with a soda straw for the chimney. Since I’m building a removable roof, I thought that a brass chimney would hold up better. In the late 19th century, some chimneys had a ring around the top that I really like. I used a short piece of tubing that just fit into the boiler and then a slightly larger diameter tubing for the chimney. I then soldered a ring of . brass wire around the top and polished the whole thing. A grove made using a tubing cutter will simulate the joints. I’ll start the coloring process with some Blacken-It. Then add texture and rust.

I cut the access hole in the rear wall of the engine house, and trimmed the battens to make a smooth wall. I then colored the trimmed area using an art marker. Weathering to come.

A while back I decided that all my structures will have lighting. I used a stick of PC board tie for the conductor. Noticed in the photo that one of the LEDs is out. Time to fix that. I threaded the LED wires through San Juan Models lamp shades. I’ll be painting the ties to resemble beams that run above the tracks. These are for the engine house, and I’ll build the boiler house lights soon.

Beyond that, I’ve been designing the 4’ x 11’6” extension of my layout where the Sierra West models will reside. When I get a bit further along, I’ll begin a new build thread for the extension.

[JimM]

Larry, very creative thinking there. I like the chminey and the lighting solution is “lights out” . Great job, looking forward to seeing more.