and he notes -
Skylights can be painted as Gale suggested or left clear. I've seen
them with clear wire safety glass or window or plate glass as they
would have to meet snow loading standards here in New England.
From the photos on their web site, it looks like a small factory or
warehouse rather than an apartment building so the floors would be
open and it would obviously have an elevator or at least a stair
well. Either way you decide to use it (as an apartment house or a
factory) six floors is quite a trek so you could add an elevator
motor house instead of the chimney on the left side and use that
chimney to raise the other (it looks a little short). You might also
add a roof entrance shed (as shown on the cold storage buildings and
offered in the parts section), possibly a second skylight and a water
tank (also in the parts list).
If you intend to add floors to the interior, (I assume it doesn't
come with them) the stairwells would be in line with the fire escapes
and enclosed. The roof entrance would be in line with the stair wells
(and fire escape doors. The skylight is typically placed over the
stairwell but not always. The windows wouldn't have curtains unless
it was an apartment house.
I would move the fire escape ladders to one side and keep them
vertical. The zig-zag escape landings you mentioned would have narrow
metal stairs instead of ladders. Trying to make it down a sloping
ladder in a fire would be scary! It would be possible to stagger the
landings and build a set of stairs but they'd be rather steep. You
could obtain more fire escapes (also in the parts section) and make
them wider and just add railings to the ladders. The fact that
they're H0 shouldn't matter but it would look more realistic. If you
intend to use it as an apartment house, it would need a second set of
fire escapes on the left. The windows would meet fire codes as an escape route.
There are a number of old buildings in close by Dover, NH and in a
few adjoining towns, that are similar. Some have been converted to
apartments, some are either vacant or in use by small businesses. At
one time they were either knitting mills or shoe shops, dye houses,
carding mills and a number of ancillary businesses. There is a
building, albeit much larger, in nearby Gonic, NH that looks close
though the windows are taller. It's an electronic plant today but it
still draws power from the Cocheco River.
As it happened there was a similar building in adjoining Somersworth,
NH that was once a dye house but it went up in a spectacular blaze a
couple of years ago. It was a very cold night and was set by a bunch
of kids who started a fire to get warm. With all the old chemicals
saturated in the equally old wooden floors and barrels of solvents
still on the property it went up like tinder. It was slated to be
converted to apartments. Thank goodness no one was living there!
Did you intend to use it as a free standing building or a three panel
false front against a wall? A 36" wide (200 scale feet) building
would be impressive but a lot more work!
Hope my suggestions help,
Raleigh in Maine awaiting the rain...;-)
At 02:10 PM 9/8/2008, Bob Werre wrote:
>I started building the Pine Canyon 6 story back alley building on
>Saturday and it went to the paint shop Sunday afternoon.
>
>I have a question regarding the skylight enclosed in the kit...are
>skylights normally frosted or clear? Next, the building kit shows six
>normal people doors as a fire escape exit. I would assume that this
>would be from a hallway within each floor,--- is this correct. Most
>fire escapses I'm familiar with used windows in a staggered Z formation
>where the ladder would be positioned at an angle rather than straight up
>and down as the kit is designed.
>
>Perhaps, Mr. Armstrong can comment!
>
>Bob Werre
>BobWphoto.com
>
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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