Weekend Update 3/15/20

[wm3798]

Yesterday was spent doing some 1:1 tasks up at Pine Creek Railroad.

Helped lower a Plymouth off a “hospital truck” onto some big cribbing so it can await restoration in a less precarious place.
Measured an ancient door lock in preparation for my trying to find a replacement.
Helped perform a track inspection on one of our grade crossings, which was recently rebuilt by RCC (who did a great job).

No real pictures of the work, so have a reference image of the door hardware:

(Attachment Link)

@VonRyan   Check Facebook for "Old House Parts" in Maine.  There's also probably an architectural salvage place somewhere between there and the Loading Dock in Baltimore.  It's quite a bustling industry.  Is that a mortise lock(recessed in the door) or a surface mount box?  Looks to be the former.  You should be able to find a five gallon bucket or two of them at any reputable salvage dealer.  Sometimes they turn up in antique shops, but they're usually overpriced in that scenario. 

You might also be able to find a modern reproduction from someplace like "Restoration Hardware" or some other old house boutique... again, more $$$ than finding them in a bucket in an old warehouse full of goodies.

Just be warned.  If you find a good architectural salvage place, it's highly likely that you'll find yourself with several more very expensive hobbies.
Lee

[u18b]

Made some painting progress on the next EP-2.

[Philip H]

Yesterday was spent doing some 1:1 tasks up at Pine Creek Railroad.

Helped lower a Plymouth off a “hospital truck” onto some big cribbing so it can await restoration in a less precarious place.
Measured an ancient door lock in preparation for my trying to find a replacement.
Helped perform a track inspection on one of our grade crossings, which was recently rebuilt by RCC (who did a great job).

No real pictures of the work, so have a reference image of the door hardware:

(Attachment Link)

Community Forklift in Hyattsville, MD.

https://communityforklift.org/

[VonRyan]

@VonRyan   Check Facebook for "Old House Parts" in Maine.  There's also probably an architectural salvage place somewhere between there and the Loading Dock in Baltimore.  It's quite a bustling industry.  Is that a mortise lock(recessed in the door) or a surface mount box?  Looks to be the former.  You should be able to find a five gallon bucket or two of them at any reputable salvage dealer.  Sometimes they turn up in antique shops, but they're usually overpriced in that scenario. 

You might also be able to find a modern reproduction from someplace like "Restoration Hardware" or some other old house boutique... again, more $$$ than finding them in a bucket in an old warehouse full of goodies.

Just be warned.  If you find a good architectural salvage place, it's highly likely that you'll find yourself with several more very expensive hobbies.
Lee

Community Forklift in Hyattsville, MD.

https://communityforklift.org/

I went up to Renninger’s Market in Adamstown, PA today as there is a guy there who specializes in antique door hardware.

He’s got plenty of common as well as odd sized stuff, but nothing that matches what came out of the station door.
The outer plate is 7.25” tall and 1.375” wide with no buttons, the actual mechanism box is 5” tall, and from the outside of the plate to the back of the box is 3.5” deep. A rather odd combo from what I understand.

[Iain]

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Started working on a Kato hopper; planning on doing NS 8001.



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Alas, I also drilled a hole in my finger.

[Santa Fe Guy]

I've applied all the decals to my HOn3 Precision Scale Co D&RGW caboose.  I used the San Juan Decals that came with the kit for everything but the flying grande herald.  The crispness of the herald on the decals supplied wasn't as good as left overs I had from the San Juan Decals set for a 6500 series flatcar, so I used those instead. 

Decaling has got to be my all time favorite part of modeling.  I just really enjoy the process and trying to get everything perfect.  So, for me, it's not about just slapping them on.  I take endless methodical measurements with my digital calipers and make sure everything is even, level, and symmetrical.  The other thing I'm a stickler about is making sure the edge of the decal is invisible.  The San Juan decals are on very thin film, so it's fairly simple with these.  A couple of builds ago I tried what many military modelers use as a gloss coat, the current iteration of Future Floor Wax.  Same formula, now known a Pledge Revive It (last photo below).  I LOVE this stuff.  I use it straight from the bottle, no thinning.  It's very easy to airbrush.  I applied several medium thick coats to prep the model for decaling.  Applied the decals using Microset and then Microsol.  Cleaned with Q-tips dipped in warm water.  And lastly, and this is really important, applied another covering of gloss.  I do this in repeated light coats, constantly checking to see if the decal edges are still visible.  Keep repeating until they're almost invisible.  It's not really obvious in the photos, but this is glossy enough that you can see the reflection of the side grab irons on the caboose body.  Now on to weathering . . .
Erik

Really nice work Erik.
Rod.

[PiperguyUMD]

I finished a project!!

[craigolio1]

I finished a project!!

That’s fantastic. Looks really good.

[craigolio1]

Very nice. Meanwhile every freight car or model car I've tried airbrushing Future or it's present day equivalent (it seems the name changes every few years) comes out horrible. Maybe I should try my son's dual action airbrush. I did dip the canopies of a couple of helicopter models I worked on for table top gaming into a cup of Future and let them drip dry. They came out amazing.  So there may still be hope for me and Future yet.

I tried future on one model and it came out looking like a tortoise shell type pattern. Haven’t had the courage to try again.

Craig

[ChristianJDavis1]

Alas, I also drilled a hole in my finger.

Well, you could add a grab iron to that, too.

[paggs]

Hi Erik,

Great diorama,  What did you use to creat that water?

Mike P.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I finished a project!!

Seriously, that's a work of art. It needs a good backdrop for its beauty shots though.

[thomasjmdavis]

Yesterday was spent doing some 1:1 tasks up at Pine Creek Railroad.

Helped lower a Plymouth off a “hospital truck” onto some big cribbing so it can await restoration in a less precarious place.
Measured an ancient door lock in preparation for my trying to find a replacement.
Helped perform a track inspection on one of our grade crossings, which was recently rebuilt by RCC (who did a great job).

No real pictures of the work, so have a reference image of the door hardware:

(Attachment Link)

Back in the day....
(I have used a lot of mortise locks and similar hardware in my theatrical scenery days and in repair/restoration work on 19th century houses)
The two solutions I have come across.....

VERY old hardware store, the sort that has obviously been around a long time, and where there are cobwebs in the corners- the sort that has a back room that is much larger than the customer accessible area. 

And, while I assume you have already thought of this and tried.... that old hardware is usually service-able.  I have fixed several over the years by, essentially, taking them apart, cleaning the innards, replacing springs, occasionally making a replacement part, oiling it and putting it back together.  Might be a little machining involved.

In the meanwhile, I'll check the couple I have in the garage next time I dig out that box.

[PAL_Houston]

The River Forest Metra station on the UPRR Geneva Subdivision

...is REALLY Impressive!!

[pjm20]

Finally had some time to do something, so I built a double wide T Trak module with 1/2" and 3/16" foam board and some nylon hardware. Turns out I'm about an 3/16" too long some how, so I'll have to cut and sand the ends a bit.



Plan on using this as a test for scenery techniques to polish of the rust and hopefully build up enough modules for a roundy round with a large yard to run the fleet on and actually have a place to run trains.