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Sources for Building a Tar Branch – TRAINS Magazine

Color photo of buildings in HO scale model railroad.
Trains.com director David Popp broke down this row of structures for the HO scale Winston-Salem South. He built the Tar Branch buildings using kits from Design Preservation Models and City Classics. Photo by Bill Zuback

Q: In the layout of the Winston-Salem Southbound Tar Branch project, there were three small industries in the middle. Do you have brands and descriptions of the builds used? — Andy Shestak

Before I answer your question, Andy, I want to back up to get everyone up and running. The southbound Winston-Salem branch was Model railwayThe layout of the project for 2018, presented in the editions from January to April. In addition, the 2′-9” x 8′-2” HO scale model railroad has been the subject of numerous videos that you can watch on Trains.com.

The three buildings you’re asking about are, from left to right when looking at the layout, HG Wright Distributing Co., a beer distributor; Clyde L. Foy Co., food broker; and George A. Hormel & Co., as you probably guessed, a meat distributor. As you can see in the picture above, all three of these industries were single-car customers. However, the layout was set in the mid-1950s when rail transport with bulk cars was common, so this is a prototype.

All three buildings were modeled by Trains.com director David Popp. He used the DPM Landmark Structures freight yard, item #10700, as the starting point for the demolition of the HG Wright building. The easy-to-build injection molded plastic kit is available from Woodland Scenics.

David turned to a pair of City Classics’ Carnegie Street Manufacturing kits (#109) to model the Foy and Hormel buildings. Unfortunately, City Classics is no longer in business following the death of owner Jim Sacco in March 2022. However, you can still find Carnegie Street Manufacturing kits and other City Classics offerings at physical stores and online retailers, swap meets at model railways and online auction websites such as eBay.

You can learn more about how David modeled Tar Branch buildings in the Winston-Salem Southbound series on Trains.com Video.

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