Filito Cafeteria ca. 2007 sits alongside the Spur where it crosses 12th Avenue. It shows up in a lot of images and was the ideal spot to re-hydrate with a cold juice on a scorching hot, humid Miami day.
The nature of rail fanning is such that a disproportionate number of shots are taken from just a few locations simply because they are more accessible. As a result, even the most mundane structures become stars in their own right simply because they seem to pop up in a ton of photos and videos.
Such is the case of Filito Cafeteria sitting alongside the Downtown Spur where it crosses 12th Avenue. Catty-corner across the intersection sat Trujillo and Sons, the Spur’s busiest customer back in the day. I’ve been putting off modeling it due to its complexity, especially the awnings. The day has come though….time to get to it.
I’ve started with the cinder block core. The awnings will then project off of that. There was quite a bit of photoshop work and measuring just to get to this point. (Note to self and other modelers. If you think there is even the slightest chance will model a structure, get ninety degree angle, full-on photos to work from. I didn’t, and it made my job much harder).
An aerial image from the early 2000’s
Facing north. The spur is behind the structure. Trujillo and Son’s is under the transit bridge on the right.
It’s been an adjustment going from being in mission mode/get layouts complete to slowing down and just puttering with small projects. At least for now, I’ll put plans for any future layouts on the back burner and fiddle with smaller projects on The Spur and LAJ layout.