Boston & Maine Ashuelot Branch - 1939

[garethashenden]

They're not my designs, something I found on Thingiverse. HO models reduced to N in the slicer. The whole shell is printed as one part. I got some rippling on the sides, but I think that was a result of the angle I printed it at. The biggest problem with them is the designer doesn't understand that a 40' boxcar is an internal dimension. They are both exactly 40' outside, when they should be 40'6" inside. Maybe not a huge difference, but it looks off. One of them is the auto version of the NYC steel boxcars, when put next to the BLI model its clearly off.

[Brian M]

Nice progress lately.  I always enjoy seeing your updates, especially seeing how the handlaid track/turnouts are coming along.  Like you mentioned, one just can't get the same kind of flow to the track work compared to using manufactured turnouts.  Keep up the good work.

-Brian.

[chessie system fan]

Found them. Yeah, definitely not up to our standards. Oh well.

[garethashenden]

Almost as soon as I made the last post I started work on the hill at the front of the layout. A piece of foam was cut to the approximate shape and glued down. To this was added a few layers of Fast-Mache paper mache. I need to properly define the road that runs through here, and find a good way of modeling well maintained dirt roads.







The next change is that I decided to remove an industry. The box factory near the Ashuelot station has gone. The space between the station and the bridge was feeling crowded. In reality it is almost a mile between them, and I've only got two and a half feet. I think I will model the overgrown foundation eventually, although not even that is left of the prototype. I have been starting to mess about with operations, and the traffic from this factory will not be missed.



I completed the wiring to the lift bridge and added sides to it to prevent any derailments ending up on the floor. The first train has made it across with the locomotive leading, and it successfully shoved back across as well. I will add some guard rails at the joints, just in case. Throughout all of this my triangle eared supervisor has been paying very close attention to my work. Too close in many cases.



Finally, I have decided to tackle the problem of the Ashuelot Paper switch. This turnout is the first one I made, and some of the things I did with it that I thought were a good idea at the time haven't worked in the way I had hoped they would. My skills have also improved substantially since then. While it has mostly worked, it has a habit of derailing something between 1/4 and 1/3 of the cars that pass over it. Adding to this issue one of the pointblades came detached from the throwbar. Compounding this, I knew there were some funky things going on underneath. Most of the layout is built on 1" foam, aside from this 14" long section. There was a gap where the 8' long piece of foam didn't reach, and I wanted to have the drop down to the river, so nothing is as sturdy or level as it should be. So all of that lead me towards replacement rather than repair.
I removed the turnout, and the random bits of plywood and styrene that had been shimming it into position. The foam was relieved to allow me to set in a piece of hardboard to provide a stable foundation. A slot was cut in one end to allow the spur to drop down to the level of the trestle, this was then covered in cork sheet. I started making the new turnout, but the supervisor thought that the length of rail would make an excellent cat toy, so work ceased for the evening. Hopefully today will see it completed.

[Chris333]

Those guard rails to prevent derailments will not be enough...


Your triangle eared supervisor. 

[garethashenden]

On Friday I had dinner with an old friend, someone I've known since first grade, and I kept getting distracted by the exposed brick wall in the restaurant. Its a fairly typical downtown three story brick building, probably built in the late 19th century or early 20th. The sort of thing represented by DPM kits. Anyway, this wall was a good example of American bond brickwork, six rows of stretchers and then a row of headers. Seeing this, and discussing various styles of brickwork over dinner, inspired me to return to one of my papermill projects. Previously I have referred to this building as Paper Services, that was the name when they closed in 2005. Some correspondence between them and the railroad  that I came across recently gave the name as The Robertson Company in 1951. This name, or more technically Robertson Brothers, appears in 1907 fire insurance maps, so that's the name I'll use.
Confusingly, just upstream, there was W.F. Robinson & Co., another papermill which I am not modeling. Not sure when they closed, although I did find a letter from them in 1961, then operating as the Winchester Paper Company, trying to get the railroad to pay for the construction of an oil tank. The reasoning being that it was on railroad land and less expensive than relocating the track, which had been an earlier idea. No idea if it ever happened, and its all gone now.

I have found one source stating that this mill was first constructed in 1880, it was certainly expanded over the years. When I worked on it before I had started with the newer end, now it was time to head towards the original structure. I am using American bond brick sheet from N Scale Architect bonded to 0.020" Evergreen styrene sheet and Tichy windows and doors.

The starting point:


The prototype:


This gable wall seems excessively tall, but some of it will end up under ground. I'm just not sure how much yet.


You can see the brick pattern here. I had to cut the bottom sash out of the arched window to have something of approximately the right shape.


The next wall looks to have had a loading door, I'm going to give it a loading dock.


The current state of the back wall, ready for lamination.


And the current state of the project overall.

[EJN]

One window appears to be upside down compared to the others, arrowed below

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[garethashenden]

One window appears to be upside down compared to the others, arrowed below

(Attachment Link)

  I believe you are correct. I will try to fix it.

[peteski]

Nice scratchbuilding effort.  I also have a commend about windows and such in the same photo EJN commented on.

I'm not an architect, but in masonry buildings I usually see windows being inset into the wall. They do not have frames or trim protruding out of the wall. Sometimes they have a sill on the bottom (made of either bricks or a stone or concrete slab) and brick or another solid piece lintel (I had to look that up) on the top which prevents the bricks from falling down into the opening. I suppose the lintel could be a steel beam almost invisible in the opening.

Of  course there is always the Ed's Law. 

[nickelplate759]

Nice scratchbuilding effort.  I also have a commend about windows and such in the same photo EJN commented on.

I'm not an architect, but in masonry buildings I usually see windows being inset into the wall. They do not have frames or trim protruding out of the wall. Sometimes they have a sill on the bottom (made of either bricks or a stone or concrete slab) and brick or another solid piece lintel (I had to look that up) on the top which prevents the bricks from falling down into the opening. I suppose the lintel could be a steel beam almost invisible in the opening.

Of  course there is always the Ed's Law. 

If the windows are not inset, they will very likely leak when there's heavy rain or snow melt.  So yeah, see if you can inset them.

[garethashenden]

Nice scratchbuilding effort.  I also have a commend about windows and such in the same photo EJN commented on.

I'm not an architect, but in masonry buildings I usually see windows being inset into the wall. They do not have frames or trim protruding out of the wall. Sometimes they have a sill on the bottom (made of either bricks or a stone or concrete slab) and brick or another solid piece lintel (I had to look that up) on the top which prevents the bricks from falling down into the opening. I suppose the lintel could be a steel beam almost invisible in the opening.

Of  course there is always the Ed's Law. 

You know, Something was looking a little off to me about the windows but I hadn't quite figured out what it was. I forgot about the windowsills and lintels. Looking at pictures of other local brick mills, the sides of the windows aren't too far off, maybe the should be 0.010" back, but they're broadly fine. But they desperately need sills and lintels. I can't really tell what the prototype had from the fuzzy pictures I have. But, its a two building complex and the other one is still there, mostly. The most common form of lintel is a low arch, paired with either brick or granite window sills. The surviving building has exactly that, it is the granite state after all. I think that adding that arch, and getting it to look good, at this stage would be difficult, but I have some ideas for the when I get to the next building. For this one I think I will add granite sills and lintels. Its an older style, but having the two buildings be different will add some interest.

Incidentally, the first thing I did when I got my first 3d printer back in 2018 was to try to print low arched brick window lintels. Some things never change...

Here are some pictures of the surviving building and the Boot Mill in Lowell, showing the double granite style.

[peteski]

You know, Something was looking a little off to me about the windows but I hadn't quite figured out what it was. I forgot about the windowsills and lintels. Looking at pictures of other local brick mills, the sides of the windows aren't too far off, maybe the should be 0.010" back, but they're broadly fine. But they desperately need sills and lintels.

That's exactly what hit me when I first looked at your photos. With only the windows in the brick wall opening the window looks bare.

[Bob]

So how do you cut the openings for your windows?  I scratch build virtually all of my structures and I just struggle with getting the openings square and the right size.  I am constantly having to file the darn openings to get them to the right size.  Looks like you cut these in the brick sheet, which is thin, then you glue this to the 0.02" styrene and then cut openings in that too? 

[garethashenden]

Both the brick and the backing sheets are 0.020" thick. Its mostly just a machinists square, a ruler, and a scalpel. I run a pencil along the mortar lines at the top and bottom of the windows, that keeps them all at the same height. I cut them on the tight side, then glue the backing sheet on. I'm using Mr. Cement thin, which isn't exactly what I should be using, but its what I had. So I make sure to rub some in the window opening so that the brick sheet and backing sheets fuse at the openings. Then I'll cut the backing sheet and file the window opening until the window casing fits. With these particular windows I file them too, there are mold lines that are worth removing.

One thing I have been trying to make a conscious effort to do with this building is that every wall has one reference corner. Whichever corner ends up being the best right angle, I'll mark it with the right angle symbol and then take all the measurements from there, and only use the two edges with the square. You can see the sharpie showing through the brickwork on the gable wall, lower right corner.

[peteski]

The only thing to look out for when laminating 2 sheets of polystyrene using a solvent cement is possible warpage down the line. In my experience it  might take months to show up.  Hopefully with the walls all assembled into a box shape will prevent any warping.  Also if you only apply the cement iin certain spits, not over the entire wall, that should also minimize any warping.