Weekend Update 9/22/13

[garethashenden]

I seem to be in an early Guilford mood. Boston & Maine 1563 and Springfield Terminal 70. Both still in progress. I've added grab irons, MU hoses, cut levers etc.

[chicken45]

Built a new crew cabin for mail & express train service.  I started with a bicentennial scheme N5, stripped it, new smoke jack in correct location, wire grab irons, paint & decals/weathering, and Z scale couplers.  I used the Mount Vernon Shops decals.

Looks great! Let me ask you...why did you choose the MVS decals over the Microscale ones?
Also, which color paint did you use for that? I think Z scale couplers are a must on those cabin cars. They make a HUGE difference.

[strummer]

Looks great!

Agreed...

Mark in Oregon

[johnhale]

I continued work on my oNeTrak module of the Waste Management trash transfer facility in Jessup, Maryland.









Wiring is all done, tested with other modules, ran my new Bachmann S4 through the paces making sure everything fit prior to applying landscape.

John

[HuskerN]

I finished my first Pete 387.  Still needs an exhaust stack behind the sleeper, and I need to make up some mudflaps for several of my trucks.





HuskerN
www.nscaleaddiction.blogspot.com
www.shapeways.com/shops/NScaleAddict

[nkalanaga]

Mark and Mark:  Thank you!  I thought I posted an explanation of how the bridge was built about noon Sunday, but it doesn't seem to be anywhere on the site.  So, I'll try again.

This is an old bridge, originally built about 1980.  The starting point was three AHM HO "pony truss" bridges, with everything except the trusses scrapped.  The internal bracing was basswood on the first attempt, but after a few years the glue gave up, and that was replaced with Evergreen styrene strips.  Those have survived quite well.  The deck girder is a styrene scratch job, over a block of basswood, which fills the top half, leaving the bottom open for bracing.  One can't see through the ties anyway, so a true open deck would be wasted.

The first layout was a shelf around my bedroom, and the bridge spanned a window, mounted on a prefab particle board shelf hung from the benchwork on either side with carriage bolts.  Crude, but it worked, and could be removed if needed.  At one point we replaced the windows in the house and it did have to be removed and replaced, so that came in handy.

Once MT's lo-pro wheels came out, I replaced my code 80 track with code 55, which meant a new deck for the bridge.  That wasn't hard, just glue wooden ties to the top instead of the Atlas flextrack it originally had, and spike the new rails down.

When we moved, 17 years ago now, the bridge came along, and still spans a window, although it's covered with the backdrop, in a spare bedroom.  Again, it got a new deck, this time styrene strip girders on either side of a basswood core, with ME HOn3 ties turned on edge for the bridge ties.  I just liked the look of the heavier ties, and the basswood core made it easy to spike the guard rails down.  The ties themselves were drilled in a jig, the running rail spikes inserted and glued, then the bottoms trimmed, with the rails threaded on later.  The finished strip was then glued to the deck and the guard rails spiked.  Much easier than trying to spike, or solder, the rails on the bridge itself, and with all the ties identical, the track came out nice and straight.  The track wasn't added until after the bridge was installed.

It was painted and weathered before installation, and that was also simple.  Flat black Krylon with a thin (too far away, on purpose) spattering of Krylon brown primer.

The piers and abutments are also simple (notice a pattern here?), just plaster cast in Lego brick molds.  The abutments were done in two parts, the ledge being cast as a block, and the retaining wall portion a slab, in a balsawood form on a scrap of foam insulation board.  The Bridge was installed over the gap, with the track laid on top, but not attached.  This was to account for the extra deep ties.  A straight board was then clamped to the benchwork, and track, at both ends, with the spans held to the board with rubber bands.  The piers were stuck under the bridge, and, being a little short, were shimmed and leveled with balsa wedges.  The abutment walls had already been glued in place, and now the ledges were glued to them, against the bridge shoes, so everything fit perfectly.  Once all of the glue dried, the bridge was removed, and the scenery added.  How is the bridge fastened down?  since I was casing my own piers, the tops, in the bottom of the mold, were made with depressions for pieces of styrene, 0.060 by 3/16 inch square.  After the plaster dried, these were glued in, and the bridge shoes glued to them.  Once the piers were painted, they don't show at all.

The scenery is my usual mishmash.  The cliffs are cast plaster, precolored with craft paints in the water, to match the small rocks.  Those are from a drainage ditch near where I used to work and are very close to some of the real rocks in the area modeled.  There is no river in that area, it's fictional, but the rocks match, and there is a mostly dry valley there.  With more runoff it would have a nice river.  The river itself is a piece of hard plastic carpet protector from a past office, with the underside painted to match the backdrop.  It looks better in person, because the angle is different.

The sand is sand, from Kentucky, Montana, Washington, and Idaho, mixed to match the various rocks in the area.  Vegetation is ground foam, local twigs, dried seeds from "Queen of the Meadow" plants in our yard, and whatever else looks good.  The whole scene is an example of "cheap", using inexpensive or found materials wherever possible.

The backdrop is another of my concoctions.  The canyon is the Spokane River just downstream from Post Falls, Idaho, the scenery above deck level is a picture of the hills north of Silver City, MT, the location of the layout, and the sky is the back of a roll of vinyl flooring painted blue.

All in all, probably a depressing thought for hobby shop owners everywhere, as there is very little purchased material there, outside the bridge itself.  Even the original bridges were bought at a close-out sale!

[dougnelson]

Looks great! Let me ask you...why did you choose the MVS decals over the Microscale ones?
Also, which color paint did you use for that? I think Z scale couplers are a must on those cabin cars. They make a HUGE difference.

Hi Josh:

Thanks.  Regarding the PRR crew cabin, I used the Mount Vernon Shops PRR Steel Cabin Car decals primarily because John included the 5010 car number that I needed.  The Microscale PRR Cabin Car set has all the same lettering, however you would need to piece together the car number.

As for the paint, the wisdom of the PRRT&HS paint committee is that 1940s and 1950s PRR Freight Car Color is closest to Polyscale (and Floquil) Box Car Red, so that is what I used.  Variation seen on prototype is due to weathering and accumulation of dirt and grime.

Doug.

[mmagliaro]

In between work on my steam engine, I finally got the rest of my yard tracks in and ballasted over the past
few months.
More service structures and lots of ground detail will come later, but it's fully functional, so I can store trains
in there and run them in/out of there.  Everything is ballasted now except the center island.  Yay.

[mecgp7]

Finally finished three of the four Geeps I am doing. All three have stock Atlas paint with winterization hatches added. Two had their stock numbers changed. All have had painting done to the handrails and sills to more closely resemble the prototype units. The 1729 got Bicentennial stripes  added and the other two received the Minuteman on the short hood. Finally after doing all this they all received weathering chalks and dull coating.

Jon

Very nice!

[davefoxx]

Max,

I didn't realize that you had such a complete layout.  That looks really nice.  Well played, sir.

But, one question and a few comments: Is that your final fascia color?  I'd recommend going with something darker in perhaps an earth tone.  The existing color to me is distracting and seems to pull my eye away from the beautifully finished scenes.

Dave

[mightypurdue22]

Wow, this layout is tremendous.  As for my weekend, I spent it organizing my 100+ strip styrene bags and installing a few slide switch turnout controls in place of some caboose ground throws. ~Dave

In between work on my steam engine, I finally got the rest of my yard tracks in and ballasted over the past
few months.
More service structures and lots of ground detail will come later, but it's fully functional, so I can store trains
in there and run them in/out of there.  Everything is ballasted now except the center island.  Yay.

[mmagliaro]

Max,

I didn't realize that you had such a complete layout.  That looks really nice.  Well played, sir.

But, one question and a few comments: Is that your final fascia color?  I'd recommend going with something darker in perhaps an earth tone.  The existing color to me is distracting and seems to pull my eye away from the beautifully finished scenes.

Dave

Hi Dave, and THANKS!

No, that is not the final fascia color.  That is just the bare white primer.  I have held off painting the fascia until I
got all the gluey/ballasty work done because I don't want to ruin it.    I am thinking more like a dark slate
gray, and I am thinking I will give it a gradient (like one would do on a sky backdrop) so it goes from darker at the top to
slightly lighter gray at the bottom.

[davefoxx]

Max,

I've held off the final top coat on my fascia for the same reason.  I did put on the first coat, and it actually covered well enough that it looks okay for now.  So far, there's been minimal damage to it, and the top coat will take care of that when the heavy scenery work is complete.

Slate gray should work well for a fascia color.  I'm not sure about the "gradient" of the finished color on the fascia, but if you decide that it doesn't work for you once completed, what's one more coat of paint to get it right?  So, go for it.  I would caution again, though, against a fascia that pulls the eye away from the finished scenes.  Perhaps the gradient should be subtle.

Dave

[Ian MacMillan]

Max,

I didn't realize that you had such a complete layout.

Same here. Looks pretty damn good.

[Philip H]

The only train thing I did this week was take delivery of two turnouts on panel track recently surplussed by the Seaboard Central 2.0.  These excellent code 55 R/H turnouts are to be used to fabricate a crossover in the track tying in the former Elkins yard.  Now to figure out how and where . . .