We’re coming up on Vancouver Train Expo, and once again I’ll be parked behind the table at Craftsman’s corner for half a day. I need a project to bring, and so, I started developing plans for the cattle pens, of which Pembroke had two.
I couldn’t find any prototype plans amongst my own resources, so I cast around on the Internet to see what I could find. The first plan came from the Rock Island, and I brought it into OnShape to interpret it and work on a scale drawing for the models. Once I had a drawing, it was a simple matter to hit print and get a 3D mock-up and make the title of this post clear: it is not a chute for mock cattle!
When I took that off the printer, however, I found it is quite a large structure, and fairly dominates the scene. It doesn’t leave much space for a gate or a pen before the pasture starts.
A further search yielded a plan by Canadian Government Railways that is substantially less robust, and more in line with the weight I want to give these structures. The CGR plan even confirms that wire fencing is appropriate, which will help to reduce the visual impact of these pens even more. So, I spent a couple of hours drawing that up too, and hit print to confirm the look.
The CGR plan fits much better than the Rock Island one. But now that I have the mock-up sitting there, I’m wondering if I should just refine it, and use a plastic chute, rather than building them up piece by piece at VTEX as had been my plan. Generally, I like to use wood to represent wood, but the chutes are two feet away from the edge of the layout and behind the roundhouse. Who will know if they’re wood?
Pembroke:87 
You’ll know that it’s not wood and it will eventually drive you crazy. Then years later you’ll forget about it.
I vote for wood.