Weekend Update 1/10/16

[John]

I had this bridge laying around .. so rather than just move it from one pile of parts to another, I decided to cut it into the layout where I start a long climb to the upper leve .. still a lot of work to do, but it's a start

[BCR751]

With all this talk of stations, I thought I'd put this up.  It's a birdhouse I built based on the Grand Trunk Pacific (now CN) Plan 152-100 Station, more commonly referred to as the Type E.  There were over 200 of these built by the GTP between 1911 and 1914 on their line from Manitoba to Prince Rupert, BC.  Most have been destroyed.

[randgust]

Just finished this one up.   This is a custom-build of my resin 18-ton Climax A kit for a customer - an early 18-tonner with the round water tank, wood frame, and more open cab than the later steel-frame builds.    This one also has the GM15 gearhead motor for a 9mph top speed.

[Puddington]

Sleep is for those that can; for the rest of it's it is modelling time..... The Kanto station building is complete and I'm surprised at how it resembles the Cavan station... (I know, it's the same plan, still.....)



The station's signs are off my little HP inkjet and frankly I'm surprised and delighted at how well the images reduced and held their graphic quality. The train board has been altered to represent trains that might have travelled over our rails if they had divereted off the mains... (we can dream, right?) The signs were copied from actual CPR Express and Telegraph signs.







I was please with the roofing materials; they were British Farish roofing sheets of plastic; painted they are a good representation of the shingle roof these stations had. The doors and windows are a mixture and the siding is scribed stryene.





The station is set in place as I build the wooden platform and parking lot.... slow process. The platform will allow three passenger cars to unload and there will be a second track platform so that East and Westbound trains can use the station without switching to the northbound track.

I'm pleased with the station; it's a good representation of a Type A CPR station and fits well into a town the size that Kanto would be and in the era where stations were being either fixed up and maintained or bulldozed; this Type 1 is looking fine for her age.

[davefoxx]

I finished up the last three railing sections on my scratchbuilt Carolina-style highway bridge and just sprayed it with primer.  If time permits, I hope to do any necessary final sanding and get the bridge into a coat of concrete-colored paint tonight.



More on the Seaboard Central 2.0 thread in the Layout Engineering Forum.

DFF

[Chris333]

First snowfall of the season finally happened today. Not a lot, but the ground is white.

[davefoxx]

First snowfall of the season finally happened today. Not a lot, but the ground is white.

That cold weather is heading our way.  Right now, I can hear the wind howling.  It was 60 degrees this afternoon.  Without even sticking my head out the door, it sounds much colder now!

DFF

[Chris333]

We've had many days this season where the temp changes 30 degrees in 24 hours. I can't remember ever not at least seeing snow before Christmas.

[ChrisKLAS]

I've been taking my annual 4th Quarter break from working on the layout, but I did pick up this house in Hope, ID this weekend. The cantilever is guarding the east end of Hope siding on MRL's 4th Sub between Sandpoint and Missoula. Looking forward to some summer BBQ's while trains roll by (assuming there are any trains still running and the economy hasn't completely collapsed by then!).

[garethashenden]

Got the brakes done on the B15, now I can paint the chassis, add the wheels and gears.

[Cajonpassfan]

I've been taking my annual 4th Quarter break from working on the layout, but I did pick up this house in Hope, ID this weekend. The cantilever is guarding the east end of Hope siding on MRL's 4th Sub between Sandpoint and Missoula. Looking forward to some summer BBQ's while trains roll by (assuming there are any trains still running and the economy hasn't completely collapsed by then!).

Congratulations Chris, that's NICE! And a view of the lake too... the purple pin?
Enjoy it, Otto K. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[dnhouston]

Made a little more progress on my factory kitbash.  Still have a lot of interior detail to add, interior and exterior lighting and the clerestory.

[craigolio1]

Finished a working demo of a project long in development: R/C "micro" linear servo as a switch machine mounted directly to the turnout. The key is a simple fitted bracket done in Shapeways' "strong and flexible". The demo video shows the turnout connected to a Tam Valley "Singlet" servo controller, with the switch being thrown via DCC. If you look closely near the bottom of the frame you can see the gears turning as the points move.

Not a valid vimeo URL
That this worked as well as it does being Prototype #1... gosh, I'm ecstatic! Only "problem" encountered was the Tam Valley controller wanted to push too hard for auto-sensing the end points, so the points limits had to be set manually. If that's the biggest problem I have with this... wow.

EDIT: Forgot to mention... these servos are a whopping $4.50 each. Yeah, the Tam Valley controller makes the full system roughly $20/per depending on version, but if you're doing DCC, this is a big savings versus, say, a Smail @ ~$32 street price... plus no complicated linkage!

Once installed, ballasted etc, do you have a plan for removal to replace a servo or would that be just to trash it and build a whole new one?  Might be worth the money for ease of doing it considering how often it would need to be done.

Craig

[C855B]

That's pretty much it - cheap enough to be disposable. General game plan is to have spares of the entire assembly, swap out the failed unit and re-ballast. If the pulled turnout is recoverable, replace the failed servo on the bench and the fixed turnout unit goes into spares.

[Norway2112]

Been working on scenery and ballasting for past couple weeks in between work and two young kiddos.  I have established a love hate relationship with ballasting, tonight I finally found "my method" that seems to work for me after struggling with various brushes and techniques.  I'm using Arizona Rock & Mineral's SP/CSX/Wabash ballast, and now that I know how to manage getting it between the ties but off the tie plates I'm very happy with it.

Also received some Shapeways goodies from the Xmas week promotions.  Picked up some Bestine this weekend and they will go into the bath tomorrow.  65k gal Harriman watertower, and the SP 3600 3/4 dome with corrugated sides.

Please ignore the jumbled mess my work table has become.....