Showcase Miniatures - 113 - Commercial Structures - Ft. Davis Railroad Depot

Specific Item Information: The Seabord Savanna-Americus Railway Depot at Fort Davis in southern Macon County Alabama is characteristic of small town railroad stations constructed across the South at the turn of the 20th century. The simple wooden structure with board-and-batten siding was built in 1904 to replace an 1892 depot, which had burned. In the 1970s the Seabord System discontinued service to Fort Davis and gave the depot to the Fort Davis Historical Group. A decade later the railroad tracks through town were removed, leaving the quaint station isolated from its original purpose. (Alabama Trust for Historic Preservation, Places in Peril Report). Anyone looking for a small depot to handle commerce on their layout will appreciate its charming appeal. It will require about 1 7/8 x 3 1/4 inches of space on your layout.

Model Information: Precision laser cut parts including peel-and-stick backed windows for easy assembly. Pewter metal casting details.

Road Name History: Commercial structures are any buildings or other man-made structures whose principal purpose is trade. These can be high-rise officer towers, gas stations or fruit stands. Any structure where end-user customers come to buy things from sellers of that product or service are consider commercial structures.

This group will therefore include quite large as well as quite small buildings. Models of these buildings might be kits or pre-assembled. They might be painted or undecorated. They might come with a host of accessories and figures or they might be fairly Spartan.

Brand/Importer Information: Founded by Joe Warren, in Cherry Valley, California, in 1995, Showcase Miniatures manufactures high quality cast pewter metal, etched brass, and/or laser cut wood model railroad structures, vehicles, and accessories in HO, N, and Z Scale. Moved to Tuskegee, Alabama in 2012, Walter Vail is Showcase Miniatures current owner and product designer. In developing new products, Walter employs different methods such as hand sculpting and the use of 3D computer software. Crafted by a master modeler, who has had his scratch-built science fiction models featured in Kalmbach Publishing's FineScale Modeler magazine, and previously designed products for businesses such as C-in-C Soft Metal Castings, FASA, GHQ, and Ral-Partha Enterprises, the high quality detail exhibited in every Showcase Miniatures product is certainly not a coincidence.