Weekend Update 11/12/17

[bbussey]

My Erie/EL Dunmore caboose project is in the home stretch. I'm currently working on the photo etching artwork for the details.
This is the welded series C170-C269. I've made two roof types, one with molded on wood planks and the other for photo etched roof walks. This caboose was designed in Sketchup, from which a master was printed at Shapeways, and the rest is silicone molds and pressure castings. I won't mention the absurd amount of time I put into this project. I plan on making the riveted series C100-C169 as well, complete with Erie express trucks.
-Don

Looks great!  One less model kit for me to develop. 

[coldriver]

At the south end of the yard is the Canfor sawmill which I am looking forward to modelling.  The trial arrangement of mock-ups includes the southern end of the sawmill, part of the dry kiln shed, and part of another building, with blowpipes and conveyors to the wood burner.  There is also a double track chip loader.  This arrangement is quite faithful to the prototype and looks like it will be able to accommodate as many as 14 cars:




Tim

Can't wait to see the progress on the mill Tim.  What are you using for the wigwam burner?  It'd be nice if you had one more foot to expand the mill footprint a bit (there's probably nothing of importance behind that wall is there? )

[BCR 570]

Can't wait to see the progress on the mill Tim.  What are you using for the wigwam burner?  It'd be nice if you had one more foot to expand the mill footprint a bit (there's probably nothing of importance behind that wall is there? )

I would love to have another foot or two to expand the mill as it is a bit crowded.  I cannot come any further north as I would lose capacity on the shop tracks which would hamper operations; I need to be able to stable three sets of engines and a yard engine for the operation session to work prototypically.  The south end backdrop is right in front of the closet doors so no luck expanding in that direction unfortunately.

The burner is a paper mock-up at present, borrowed from my mill at Dawson Creek.  I will probably get a burner 3D printed with etched detail parts as there is no appropriate kit in N Scale at present.  Fortunately I have some good drawings in a wonderful book titled Wood Burners by Daniel Milhayo which I recommend to anyone interested in building an accurate one.


Tim

[Cajonpassfan]

An NW-2 getting ready for work.



Thanks,
Wolf

Wolf, a nice scene! Very eSPee!
Otto

[DKS]

I would love to have another foot or two to expand the mill as it is a bit crowded.

How about extending it with a mirror? The top edge of the mirror might be disguised by an overhead object, such as a conveyor.

[randgust]

Wow, yeah... looking at that left side, seems like a natural for a mirror.

To get a really perfect edge try a front surface mirror:  https://firstsurfacemirror.com/ and you can get some pretty big ones at a decent price.

I did mine in acrylic so it could be cut with regular tools.  It's a hoot.   The signal bridge is around the opening in the mirror, half the tanks you see are reflections.  No visible edge lines.   http://www.randgust.com/flagexit4.jpg   

[SecretWeapon]

[mark dance]

Randgust:  I don't think I've ever heard of that method for making pine trees, but they do look good.

yeah...I am interested in this as well.  They look great as does the whole scene Randgust.

md

[SP-Wolf]

Wolf, a nice scene! Very eSPee!
Otto

Thank you, Otto!!!

[wcfn100]

I drove up to the CRRM yesterday to get some pictures and measurements.









Jason

[nstars]

     A friend and I are planning a trip across New Mexico and Arizona next year on the way to Salt Lake City for next years NSE convention, plan on hitting all the good spots!!!!!  was out cleaning up the train room and ran across a cd from Verne, sure miss him and his great work too. Any one in the great Houston area I have an open house from 10am till 6pm tomorrow Saturday 11/11, the tour sheet can be located at the San Jacinto model RR club website and goes thru the first week of December.
                                                                                          Gordon Bliss / Santa Fe-All the Way

That’s a pity, your open house is one week too late. I have been the last 2 weeks in Dallas and I’m now flying to San Francisco.

But on the plus side I’ll be back in Texas early December and we’re also going to Salt Lake City. 

Marc

[chessie system fan]

That's some fantastic looking cabooses, Don.  I'm looking forward to seeing some painted.

I'm curious why you designed the floor to be so thick.  Is it doubling as a weight?

[davefoxx]

Here's something that may actually resemble modeling, rather just wiring, trackwork, or decoder programming.  I took a scrap piece of 1" foam and hacked it up to fit into an open hopper car to make a coal load.  A shot of black enamel paint, a layer of white glue, a sprinkling of black sand from the arts and crafts store, and voila!  I was going for a car that's travelled some distance from the loader, so the "heaps" have settled somewhat.



Here's how it looks out of the car.  Not pretty, but it looks pretty good in the car. 



This car came without any load, so I had to fabricate the "load" out of something.  I've got tons of scrap foam, so why not?  I'm not sure that I would want to do this for an entire fleet of hoppers, but for the lone hopper car in my fleet, it was easy and cheap.

DFF

[craigolio1]

I have arrived at a fairly complete track arrangement for Chetwynd yard after several weeks of experimentation.  I have a fairly faithful rendition of the prototype with all but one track present, and a total yard capacity in excess of 50 cars.

This first view is looking north with the two cuts of cars nearest the camera sitting on East Sidings 1 and 2 ready to go to Dawson Creek.  In the distance are the sub-roadbed curves coming in from the mainline to Fort St. John and the branch line to Dawson Creek:




This second view shows the station and freight shed at right, the two shed tracks, and the shop tracks which will be able to store several consists of motive power.  The train sitting on hte passing track is two locomotives, 12 cars and caboose which will be a typical length for trains going north and coming south:




Another view of the station and freight shed with shop tracks beyond, and paper control panels on the fascia to test potential locations for them:




At the south end of the yard is the Canfor sawmill which I am looking forward to modelling.  The trial arrangement of mock-ups includes the southern end of the sawmill, part of the dry kiln shed, and part of another building, with blowpipes and conveyors to the wood burner.  There is also a double track chip loader.  This arrangement is quite faithful to the prototype and looks like it will be able to accommodate as many as 14 cars:




Looking forward to the Vancouver Train Expo show at the PNE this weekend and hanging out with my fellow PGE/BCR modellers; please stop by our PGE/BCR tables and say hi if you are there!

Tim

That's looking really good Tim.

Cool to see all your power in a group. Looks like many BCR yard shots I've seen.

Craig

[tehachapifan]

Awesome stuff this week! Wolf, nice NW2!

I finally finished my SP SW1200 project...