The Junction Collection – Bellevue, Ohio × Leatherius Woodman – a leather stamping study

From the Practice Log – an ongoing series of leather stamping studies.

An August study.

For Bellevue, Ohio. Volume I was The Postmark Collection. This is Volume II – we call it The Junction Collection: five designs from the town the Nickel Plate put on the map, pressed into leather.

First, we wrote a route card. Every car sorted through the Bellevue yard carried one, a slip telling the switchmen where it was bound, and a luggage tag does the same work for a suitcase. On ours, four tracks leave one center and the right-hand track is pressed heaviest – SENT THE RIGHT WAY.

Black-and-white SENT THE RIGHT WAY route-card artwork for The Junction Collection, Volume II, a Bellevue, Ohio leather study.

The trio runs from true black through warm red to pale warm greige. The black tag carries the card in gold.

Looks great when stamped onto the leather.

Three leather luggage tags stamped with the SENT THE RIGHT WAY route card from The Junction Collection, Volume II, of Bellevue, Ohio.

Next, the number plate. No. 757 is Bellevue's own Berkshire, built in 1944 and home again since 2019, and a steam engine wears its number on a round plate at the smokebox front. We drew that plate for the keychains – NICKEL PLATE arched over a large 757, the 2-8-4 wheel arrangement beneath.

Black-and-white Nickel Plate 757 number-plate artwork for The Junction Collection, Volume II, a Bellevue, Ohio leather study.

The duo is a black fob and a warm red one. On the black, the plate presses in gold, the closest leather comes to polished brass.

Two leather keychains stamped with the Nickel Plate 757 number plate from The Junction Collection, Volume II, of Bellevue, Ohio.

Then we went to the hardware counter. Bellevue keeps a whole hardware store as it stood, a business that opened in 1913, and every drawer in a store like that wore a cast pull with a small label card. Ours reads KEEP IT HANDY, and it sits low in the corner of the toiletry bags, where a drawer label belongs.

Black-and-white KEEP IT HANDY drawer-pull artwork for The Junction Collection, Volume II, a Bellevue, Ohio leather study.

The stack is honeyed russet over dark espresso – old counter wood in two shades.

Two leather toiletry bags stamped with KEEP IT HANDY from The Junction Collection, Volume II, of Bellevue, Ohio.

The yard itself, then. Bellevue grew into the largest classification terminal on the whole Nickel Plate, a place whose talent was taking whatever arrived and sending it out sorted. A catchall tray does the same for a day's pockets, so the tray, in golden tan, takes the fan of yard tracks with IT ALL SORTS OUT beneath the lead.

Black-and-white Bellevue Yard track-fan artwork for The Junction Collection, Volume II, a Bellevue, Ohio leather study.

It looks genuinely beautiful.

A golden tan leather catchall tray stamped with the Bellevue Yard track fan from The Junction Collection, Volume II, of Bellevue, Ohio.

And finally, the one we liked the most. The first dome car built in America lives in Bellevue – a glass crown made for seeing the whole line at once. The journals carry that crown over a long horizon and the words TAKE THE LONG VIEW, which is what a journal is for. One in deep green, one in warm mid-gray.

Black-and-white TAKE THE LONG VIEW dome artwork for The Junction Collection, Volume II, a Bellevue, Ohio leather study.

Looks absolutely gorgeous when stamped onto the leather.

Two leather journals stamped with TAKE THE LONG VIEW from The Junction Collection, Volume II, of Bellevue, Ohio.

We made this out of love. Leatherius Woodman is on a mission to create and share artifacts of beauty, craft and love – this study is one of them, and we hope the feeling is mutual. Every image is a render – how we prototype before cutting a die.

If this is your Bellevue and you'd like these made real, or anything here changed – say hello through our contact page.