Update

Hello everybody,

Thought it was time to up date you all to why I haven't posted for the last nine months. I grew restless and unsatisfied with the way the layout was progressing. I just didn't want to work on it. So I decided to fulfill a promise I made to myself when I was 13 yrs old. I bought a live steam locomotive.

No not a ride on. I purchased an Accucraft live steame 4-4-0. It's scale is 1:20.3 or Fn3. And this will require an outside layout to operate on. I've been working on her on and foo since July updating her to look like NCNG's #1, a 4-4-0 which was converted to oil around 1920 and that is how I'm detailing my locomotive. Here take a look,

She's 28" long, it's weight is 25 lbs. empty. Under the brass tank in the tender is the fuel tank which is filled with butane. These aren't the most recent  photos but are the best of what I've got.

Now for updates with the Hopedale & Barre. Right now I still don't feel like working on it. It's not going amywhere soon.

Talk to ya later.

Chester

Lights and wires

Hi Everybody,

I've been tinkering some more. Since my last posting, I found that the steel wire I am using to move the points with the switch motor wasn't stiff enough. This meant that the motor was rotating more than it should. I can't use a thicker wire because of the size of the head bar. The biggest I found I could go without breaking threw the side of a hole is .032". I needed to find a way to fix this.

The idea I came up with was to slip a piece of tubing over the wire in hopes that it would restrain the wire enough and keep it from bending too much. So I started looking threw my scrap pile to see if I had any tubing small enough. The smallest I found was some styrene tubing. I didn't think the styrene would be able to stop the wire but tried any way. And I was right about the styrene. It would take a trip to the hobby shop to get what I needed. Some brass tubing.

I was able to go to the hobby store yesterday to get some brass tubing. Lucky me. 1/16 brass tubing slips right over a piece of .032 wire. On the drive home I started to figure out how I was going to do this. I was still thinking about slipping the tubing over the wire, but the weak spot would be between the end of the tubing and the side of the motor shaft. By the time I got home I had it all figured out.

Instead of using the tube to keep the wire from bending, I decided to use the tubing as the rod up threw the roadbed. I flattened one end, about a .25" long. From the end of the flat to the open end of the tube is the same length as the piece of styrene tubing that I first tried. This puts the end of the tube just above the roadbed. In the open end, I ACC'd a piece of .032 wire which is the part that goes threw the head bar and the connecting plate on the point. This is how the throw rod looks when installed on the motor.

Before fully installing the motor, the steel wire needs to be trimmed. Using foam sticky tape, I can position the motor and mark the wire where it comes threw the head bar. Cut it with the Dremel, stick back in place and anchor in place with a metal clamp made from flashing sheet metal.

Funny thing happened when I was putting up the layout lighting. Well it wasn't funny then. I'm using Hollow Wall Anchors to hang the mounting bases to the ceiling. Got the first three up and was working on putting in the anchors for the forth one when one of the anchors, as it was tightening up, the dry sheeting let go and right up into the ceiling went my drill. What happened was it was cutting into the sheeting with the two anchor hooks making a very nice circle just big enough  for the drill to punch on threw. I tried relocating the base block but that only made things worse. So the only thing to do was cut it out.

You can see it at the top of the photo. I also got the fifth one up which is located above the picture. That was the last thing I did in the basement last night. When I went down to the train room this morning I found the mud still wet. It doesn't dry very well in the cold. My oil filled heater was warm so I cranked it up , moved it under the patch and let the warm raising air do its thing.

One more thing has to be built before scenery goes in. The coal trestle. When I was breaking down the mill, I made sure to be careful removing the trestle bents as I'm using them to build the new coal trestle.

It'll be 18" long, long enough for two hoppers. The two bent at the left are glued back together. Those two and the two to the right had to be cut down a little. It'll be built on that piece of foam. There will be a low wall around the trestle like the abutment at the far right. The idea behind the placement of the coal trestle at the power house is there is an Archimedes screw in a trench under the trestle that feeds the coal into the power house.

The next big obstacle in my modeling effort is my workbench. Half of the bench top is covered with stuff from the On2 and even HO and that was from when I first moved into the house. It has to be made O Scale friendly. So I've begun cleaning the bench. It's going slowly but I've already got more room open so that I can start working on some rolling stock.

See ya next time.

Getting back to it.

Hi Everybody,

I have procrastinated long enough, so this week end I got back to the railroad. The first thing that needed to be done was build a table or bench for keeping all the building supplies off the benchwork.

I built this opposite Barre. This is the future location of Hopedale yard. What you can't see is the strips of wood for the spline. It's tucked up against the wall. Two shopping bags of ties. As I was building it I could see how much room was under it, so all the storage tubs will be going under here. They won't need to be moved again until construction on Hopedale begins.

Yesterday, I began working on the layout lighting. For the Barre leg there will be 12 lights spaced 2 ft apart. I started making the mounting block for the lamp base to attach to. The blocks will be screwed to the ceiling. The lamps will be hung upside down. On one edge of the block  will be an 8-32 steel insert for attaching the valance with.

Today, I was determined to get the switch motor installed. And I did.

The switch motor is a geared display motor that I learned about years ago. No I won't say how many. In the fore ground of the top photo is the power supply I built from an article in Model Railroader. It's a square wave 12 volt power supply and very easy to build. I drew up a new wiring plan for it. It will be on the construction page if you want to build one.

The bottom photo is looking up at the underside of the roadbed. The toggle switch was from the On2 layout. It's a double pull-double throw toggle. One side is the power for the motor and the other side is power for the frog. As I'm not powering the frogs here I will use a single pull-double throw. The resister is to cut down the voltage to the motor.

And from the topside there is no sign of it. Look at the opposite side of the head bar. Where the pin for connecting the bar to the point has been replaced with the throw wire from below. And as this will be the hardest switch to be installed it was also a pain installing the motor. At least the rest of the switches will be up front were it will be easier to work on.

I'll be working on finishing the lamp blocks this week. A few holes still need to be drilled in the blocks before they are screwed to the ceiling.

See ya next time.

Starting and Finishing....stuff

Hi Everybody,

I've been tinkering with a few projects at the same time. One project that I started is the conversion of my Lionel B&M PS-1 boxcar to P48. The car is in the blue and black paint with the big BM on the black side to the right of the door. I'm adding roller bearing trucks as the number series on the car were delivered with RB's. Lionel you say. You bet. Lionel has a series of cars that they produced to 1/48 scale. The only problem are the trucks and underside of the car.

I had an idea of making a new bolsters for the car and mounting a pair of converted Atlas roller bearing trucks. The results were....lets say it didn't work the way I hoped it would. So I got out my 21st edition of the "Car Builders' Cyclopedia".

Inside are a nice set of drawings of the PS-1 in the 40 & 50 ft size. So it has been decided that a new under frame and extras is needed. When I was modeling in On2, I did a lot of making patterns and making molds and casting parts that I knew where going to be needed on every car. As there will be a few PS-1's on the railroad, patterns for a new underside will be made for molds and I will cast the new parts needed. Then I will use the Protocrafts roller bearing trucks instead of trying to make silk out of burlap.

I finally finished the switch for the sidings today. I made some boo-boos on it, nothing that can't be covered over and lessons learned for the rest of the railroad. There's one more code 100 switch to build and it's the one  that leads to the coal trestle at the top of the grade.

The only thing left is to install the switch motor and there are a few wear plates still to be spiked in. I used Rail Brown on the rails. I thought I mite have a problem painting the tie plates without painting the ties at the same time. But my hands remained calm (they shake sometimes) and I developed a technique to do the rail sides and the plate without getting any on the ties. There'll be more weathering after the ballast is in place. Oh yeah, the points have their own power leads as I left them to float against the closure rails. They move real nice.

I've also started painting the rest of the rail too.

I now have to put up a bench in the room so I can get all the building material off the frame work. Once I start building the rest of the railroad, there won't be any room for all this stuff plus the risers and roadbed.

See ya next time.

Wrong address

Hi Everybody,

I was reading my last post and as I check the site links, the link for Dallas Model Works took you to the log in page. Use this link instead. http://www.dallasmodelworks.com/index.asp

Hope everybody had a safe holiday.

See ya next time.

Merry Christmas Everybody

Hi Everybody,

A Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year.

And now back to the important things, my railroad. Back at the beginning of the month I placed an order for 13 CFI's for layout lighting. They arrived last weekend. Having forgotten about them, I was quite surprised when I found the package at the back door.

I purchased from Valley Model Trains http://valleymodeltrains.com/ a kit by Brennan's Model Railroading http://www.brennansmodelrr.com/ for chain link fencing. I was confused when it arrived because it rattled when it was moved. The kit is quite neet. It comes with a 4" x 13 " piece of 1/4" peg board which strips of wood are glued vertically between the holes. Into the holes are 1/4-20 slotted screws which are held in with hex nuts.

As you can see in the photo I put one of the 1/4-20 screws in a hole. The slot in the screwhead is used to holed the wire for making the fence system. I bought this kit because it has the makings for gates which I'm going to put across the sidings at the mill.

When I started designing the railroad, I did not include reefer's. Not sure why, just came out that way. For operation, I'm going to use the old tried & true car-cards for car routing. And because of the space I am using, staging tracks really aren't an option. So to get the rolling stock on and off the layout is by using a cassette. The cassette is basically a long ended box with rails on the bottom for the cars. Each will be long enough to hold two 50'ers. The rails in the cassettes will also be powered so the cassette can also be used as a switch lead during operation. On the closed end will have a face plate on it to make it look like a drawer. There will be a rack under Hopedale to hold the cassette. Looking at the plan shows were the cassette is located at the end of Hopedale and it extends across to the wall were a structure will be located to hold that end of the cassette. Ian Rice developed the idea. I changed it for my application.

I found this site http://www.dallasmodelworks.com/about/sign_inz.asp?accessdenied=%2Finterchange%2Fmyrollingstock%2Easp which has a car-card system which I will use to pick the cars to go on the railroad. For the system to work you need to insert information, rolling stock, industries, etc. Two such industry are a team track and a freight house. And at both I've listed receiving shipments for grocery stores. So this last week I got off eBay is this Intermountain reefer for frozen meat.

As you can see a little work is needed before it goes to work.

For control, I will be using the EasyDCC system with wireless throttles. It has a receiving station which can be placed anywhere you can get the best reception. Looking at the layout plan, the best place for the receiver is at the corner between Hadley and Hopedale. The command station and all the additions needed will be located under Claremont which is about midway between both ends of the railroad. In reading the installation instructions, the receiver can be placed further than 7' by using an extender and coaxial wire. So I bought an extender which arrived this past week.

I'm on vacation this coming week and I have projects lined up to work on. Don't know how many I'll get completed, but then I'm in no hurry. So I'm going to go get started.

See ya next time.

Railroad Doings

Hi Everybody,

Just thought an update was needed so here is what I've been doing.

Here's a photo of the RS-2. I couldn't stand looking at those huge gouges Weaver called panel lines. So while I was filling in the grills in the center of the roof I just decided to fill all of the grooves. You can see that all of the grill didn't get filled in. I have two photos of RS-2's that show the roof. One is a Leigh Valley RS-2 which is the better of the two and the other is of an earlier New Haven RS-2 which also has the same two grills open. After all the body work is done I will scribe new finer panel lines. The hinges on the corner panels above the side doors also need to be replaced. The two grills will also be opened up to help with ventilation as well as an opening for sound escape. Not much but every little bit helps.

I have a Ø3/4" speaker from Tonys Trains with an enclosure and the other speaker is a mid size rectangular speaker which will be mounted vertically inside the long hood just in front of the cab facing forward. The Ø3/4" speaker will be mounted under the radiator fan facing upward. After the fan grill is in place it won't be that visible. Course I don't know anybody who will be looking down in to the fan anyway.

The cab is also getting some more work done to it. More on it later. In the back ground can be seen a sheet of the custom decals I had made. Other colors that I got with the black is orange and white. The white of course will be for the caboose. The orange matches Reefer Orange the best. The two hoods will be solid orange and all the rest is black. The black decals will used on the hoods and the orange will be for the cab numbers. Now some will think it is a copy of the New Haven paint. Not true. The GE 70 tonners that were delivered to the St. Johnsbury & Lamoille County were delivered in this paint. Besides the New Haven had a stripe along the bottom of the hoods and I don't.

I've also begun figuring out and designing the road that runs out from the backdrop to the front edge of the layout. It is straight so construction will be simple. Nice size comparison using the boxcar in front. There is a photo that fits in between the buildings under the cross over between them but I'm planning on replacing it with a new one.

It won't be long until I can start building the main line and sidings. I've still got to get the lights up. But before the main can be started, the landscape between the siding and the main has to go in. I've got a picture of how I want it to look like in my head. I think Santa is going to bring me a Nook Grassmaster Static Grass Gun for the holidays and birthday all rolled up into one. My friend Trevor Marshall used one on his own defunct On2 layout with great success. I'm also thinking about a gate across the tracks right at the corner of the building on the left and the building across the sidings. It's the red building in the photos in my last post. It will be motorized. One more thing to add to the operation.

See ya next time.

It's all in the Mill

Hi Everybody,

In the photo below you will see that I have rail down up to end of the ties. The last outside rail is only located for now as I will have to take it out to finish the roadbed up to the switch that leads to the coal trestle.

I've ordered another #6 switch kit from Red Cliff Miniatures. With the switch at the bottom of the grade being half in the road which includes the frog and guard rails, it is a shame that the detail can't be seen. The guard rails has a "C" style clamp which slides on to the rail and holds the guard rail in place. To save money, the railroad kept all of the mill sidings original rails intact. The mainline will be located right on the right side edge of the photo. The coal trestle will be located were the jars are.

And now a little back ground on the mill model. Here are a couple of photos showing it in place on Phil's O Scale railroad just before we removed it to bring it to my house.

The top photo shows most of the mill. Those buildings in front of the mill will be going back in after I get some foam in place. You can see Phil's coal trestle in the right fore ground. The prototype mill had the coal trestle located on the farside of the mill. It branched off the siding coming down to street level via curved switch located far up the siding. One of the problems with modeling this mill is that the siding came down from the railroad from the left as opposed to the right as Phil has in the lower photo. Both Phil and I have had the same problem modeling the mill.

Anyhow, in the background of the lower photo you can see a warehouse building. The prototype was located up on the railroad  and would be a mirror image of the model. And so because I had to rearrange  the mill from what Phil had I'm not able to use the warehouse building. At lest not here.

I've gotten back to working on the RS-2. There's more body work to do. That light at the end of the tunnel sure is awfully bright.

See ya next time.

EXTRA EXTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Hi Everybody,

I had to take some time off from the railroad for a while, but lately the stirrings to get back to it have been getting stronger. Two weeks ago, Mother Nature threw some of her nasty at the Northeast in the form of a very early snow event. My Power went out around 10:00 Saturday night. There sure isn't much to do when there is no electricity. Coming home from my sisters Wednesday night I could see that lights were again on, on my street. My power was back on and so was the heat. During a lot of the time I spent thinking about the railroad, so last week end I started the long over due track laying.

I started with the two sidings at the Mill first. This weekend I tackled the switch.

I still have to finish cleaning up the points and the head and back bars. The rail is code 100 from Right-O-Way. The #6 bolted frog, guard rails and points are Red Cliff Miniatures castings. The unfinished ties is the location of the street that comes out from between the two buildings. Its a good thing that all those ties will be buried, fore the front siding leaving the switch, the ties weren't laid in place very well. The problem comes from the wrong number of the different length ties at the frog end. Seeing the tie pattern, I can correct it on all further switches. I'll also be locating the switch ties first from now on.

Now with track being laid, there is the insentive to get busy and build some rolling stock, finish the RS-2, get the DCC installed on the layout, get the lighting up and working. Yup, lots to do.

See ya next time.

Bridges

Hi Everybody,

As I said in the last posting that I have some photos to show you. They didn't scan as well as I had hoped but they are still good enough. These photos were taken in the late 80's. Sense then, the railroad has gone threw some changes. Sadly, the mill for which mine was modeled after is gone. The siding that went down to street level is still in place and the area that the mill sat on is now a transshipment lot. None of the changes included the bridges.

The first photo is at the south end of the three deck girder bridge north of Gilbertville. This is the bridge that mine was modeled from. Looking at the second photo shows the shoes on the mid-river pier under both girder ends. It was a long walk in from the grade crossing that the railroad crosses before diving into wooded country that follows the river to the river crossing.  I haven't decided yet on what kind of pier and abutment arrangement I'll use. I don't know when the concrete pier was put in but I would guess shortly after the 1937 flooding that nearly wiped the Ware River valley off the map. The B&M's Central Mass branch took heavy damage to the point were the trackage south of Ware To Wheelwright north of Gillbertville was abandoned and trackage rights were obtained from the Boston & Albany to run on the Ware River branch to Wheelwright.

The next bridge going north is the second crossing of the Ware River. It is identical to the one north of Gilbertville but is two decks instead of three. As you can see on the north abutment in the second photo that the concrete has had some weathering to its edges. You can see in the first photo that the bridge uses the same type of shoe on both bridges.

                                                             

There is one more bridge that I'd like to share with you. After the mill siding and the mill are in place, the next bit of trackage will be at the front of the layout. The road that runs out from between the two mill buildings come straight to the edge of the layout. This means another bridge is call for. And it just so happens that the road passes under the north switch of the run around at Barre. This bridge will be a thru-girder with a concrete bottom so the bridge will be a ballasted bridge which I think would be more appropriate under the switch that a open deck would be.

Back before WWII there were three set of tracks running along side of each other leading up to the bridge. On the opposite side of the branch was were the B&M trackage was. It too crossed the highway on their own bridge. The third railroad was the the trolley from Palmer. It was located on the nearside of the branch. Before getting here the trolley track left the railroad embankment and crossed under the railroads in the street and continued on to Ware.

I show you this bridge as it will be what I copy for the over pass. The abutments will be of cut stone. There are many examples of stone railroad bridge abutments all around Western Mass to choose from. I'm thinking of making them using plaster castings.

Hope you enjoyed some of the history of the area of country I live in.

See ya next time.

The first project is finished......Well..almost

Hi Everybody,

Yesterday, I sat down at the work bench and started spiking the rail down on the bridge deck. it was slow at first, figuring out the best way to place the tie plates and spike rail. I got about 3/4's of both rails spiked to tie plates when I quit for the night. This morning I picked up where I left off last night.

There is still some more work to do on it. Paint the rails and tie plates, add N-B-W's and some weathering using weathering powders. The straight pins you see are there holding the girders in place. Not sure if I'm going to use them. My freind Phil (you remember Phil) did this when he built the bridge. Good thing too because I had to make a new deck. for the P48.

I was thinking of replacing the shoes for something else, but the only ones I found are made by Keil-Line, but what he has are for the really big thru-truss bridge, not this little country line plate-girder bridge. So I got out my photos of the Ware River branch and checked to see what the Central had done on these bridges. When I go into work this week I will scan them and will share them with you in the next posting, which will be more likely to be on the bridge photos.

See ya next time.

Couldn't wait any longer

Hi Everybody,

That's right. Can't wait forever, so today I gave the old eyes another chance. It must have been eye strain the other day, because I was able to focus on the pliers and spike. So I got out the bridge deck and stated spiking down rail.

I've only gotten the rails roughed in. It's been a long time since I last spiked down rail. And it was much simpler too. On2 doesn't require tie plates, so the use of tie plates is a skill that has to be worked at. Won't take long either. I think it will be easier at the layout. With the track so high off the floor it will be closer to eye level and I won't have to bend down all that much. That's one reason I chose to build it high. And that boxcar rolls so smooth it's unbelievable. I don't know if it's that the wheels are turned rather than the way commerical wheel sets are made or if it's the prototype contour or both but it does roll smoothly.

Also during the week an order from Micro Mark which contained some casting resin and a pouring ladle for pouring low-temp metal for car weight arrived. There are some parts that I have made  patterns for and made the casting molds for. When I was modeling On2 I had to make parts like body bolsters. So I made them to the prototype and with the cars so low to the ground, nobody could see them. One pattern I made is for a replacement body bolster for the Lionel PS-1 boxcars. It's more than likely that it is totally incorrect for the car, but I'm not all that concerned about the under body of the cars. If I start detailing every car to the ninth degree, I'll never get anything done. Beside, I believe more people look at the exterior of the car than getting down low enough to see the underbody.

So the arrival of the casting resin means I'll be starting to build some rolling stock. When I do, I'll let you know there is something to look at. And with that I'll say,

See ya next time.

Boxcars and books

Hi Everybody,

The B&O wagon-top boxcar arrived Friday. Take a look.

Looks real nice. You can't tell very good but I've swapped out the Weaver trucks for a set of Rich Yoders P48 Bettendorf trucks. The couplers will be replaced soon with Protocrafts couplers.

In the November 1982 issue of Mainline Modeler (sad day when Bob ended publication) is an article on the M-53 along with a set of plans. As Gene Deimling has said that as good as this car is, there are still items that need corrections or addition to. One item is the lower door guide. It is not correct for the Youngstown door. Because of the factory paint I'm thinking of just leaving them as is. However, one item that is missing and creates a hole in the looks of the car just above the couplers. In the latest issue of O Scale Trains is a review of the car. One of the accompanying photos is of the Duryea center sill at the end of the car. Clearly in the photo are two guide plates that are riveted to the bottom of the end over the outside edges of the center sill where there are two rails that these guides have passing threw them. It's an easy add-on.

I hit the jackpot last night. Nooo, not that one. I won on eBay a pristine January 1959 Equipment Register. 59 is a hard year to find equipment registers for. Hope none of you folks were bidding on it. These books are really great for assembling your freight roster. If you have never seen one or doesn't think it'll help you. Well think again grasshopper. At the time of date the register lists every operating railroad in the country with every car in that railroads roster. It won't tell you weather a 40ft boxcar is an ACF or a Pullman-Standard but does give basic dimensions. The register also include interchange points on the railroad and with who the interchange is with. If for nothing else, you can look to see if that certain car was on the railroad at that time or not. And even though I'm modeling the fall, January is close enough.

Went and got the eyes checked yesterday. Now to find the glasses I want. I'm now getting antsy to get laying rail. Would also like to start building some rolling stock too.

See ya next time.

New eyes needed

Hi Everybody,

I came to realize during the week, that if I'm going to do all this fine detail work that I'm going to need new eye glass prescription. I sat down at the bench to start spiking the rails to the bridge deck and even wearing my opti-visor I couldn't focus on the tip of the pliers and the spikes to put them into the pliers and put the spike into the hole in the tie plate.  So yesterday I made an appointment for next week end for an eye exam. But that doesn't mean every thing will come to a screeching halt either. There is a lot to do that doesn't need 20/20 vision. The lighting still needs to be installed. There's more bench work to be built.

During the week I discovered where the CV van is located. It is now at the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum in Willimantic, CT. So I'll be sending off an email asking for permission to get up close to it for photos and take some measurements.

I bought a Weaver B&O Wagon-top box car yesterday. I started out to buy the Rails Unlimited's Wagon-top boxcar kit. Ted wrote back saying that he has discontinued the car and said the Weaver car was better than his kit. I also read in the new O Scale Trains the review of the car. So a car with a new paint date of 1956 in a new red color rather than the original brown is on it's way. The car is also equipped with a Youngtowns door.

I am going threw all the rolling stock and pulling out cars that were built after Oct 1959. There are some Atlas cabooses, Quality Craft Thrall Door boxcar kits, A "State of Maine"  PS-1 50ft boxcar by Atlas that has to go. Its from the first run of these cars. Plus some other cars, it's all going up on e-bay.

OK that's all there is to report for now.

See ya next time.

It's the little things

Hi Everybody,

Well, I certainly didn't mean to be away for a month, but I was. But I did do some projects during this time. First was gathering all my code 100 switch part together and get them ready to go on the railroad.

The first part to be worked on was the frog. I have decided to not power my frogs. One less thing to do. And with 8-wheel pick up on my locomotives I'm not concerned about dead spots. And more prototype operation to boot. When was the last time you saw a switch crew stop their locomotive beyond the frog and make the brakeman walk that far?

So, the frog is by Red Cliffs Miniatures. It's a #6 and it comes with joint bars on both rails on the wing rail end which is very nice. But they cause a problem when it comes to track power. So I cut the joint bars off, squared up all four ends, glued .010 styrene to the ends. When dry I carved the excess styrene off leaving the shape of the rail cross section. I then glued on plastic joint bars to the rails. Now when the four rails are slipped into the joint bars the frog will be insulated.

I've also started cleaning up the points and the head bars. I'm still playing with how to make them to operate from a wire coming up threw the roadbed from the switch motor. And I've got to find a clevis big enough to fit over the end of the head bar to reach the switch stand which will be made to change the target position when the points move.

What next. While watching the staining dry I noticed that the head blocks really weren't long enough. I had used 12 foot ties and when looking along the ties I realized they needed to be longer. I removed the two 12 ft head ties and glued in two 16 foot ties. Now with all that tie sticking out into open space, you know they're going to get broken. So I added a block of wood and homasote under them.

Now I don't have to worry about them.

Last week my friend Phil Opielowski and I went digging cinders. Yes, Real cinders from real steam locomotives. You see, the Ware River branch in the steam days used cinders for ballast on the branch.

That's about 5 gal. of cinders right there. Now I've got to reduce all that into scale ballast. Boy it's nice when you have friends in high places. The MassCentral general manager is a personal friend of both Phil and myself and he gave us permission to go on railroad property. Even showed up and BS'd with us for a while.

One of the other projects I've been working on is the new decking for the 3 deck girder bridge that will be down at the other end of the Barre section. The basic bridge was built by Phil and it is a compressed version of the deck bridge north of Gilberville on the Ware River branch.

Here it is drying after some staining. N-B-W's still to go on along with the rails. Will be spiking the rails onto the deck this week. I will be doing this spiking at the work bench.

I have found the caboose for the railroad. The Central Vermont Ry had three U.S.R.A wood, center copula, 4-window cabooses. These where sold to the St J & L C as their #80, 81, and I think 82 but I'm not sure. And why this caboose you ask?

You did ask, right?

I've always liked center copula cabooses, so naturally I was drawn to it. It is a very simple design without a lot of garnishing. As far as I know and can remember this car hasn't been produced in O Scale. And I like having something no one else has. So the search went out for a set of plans. The good people on the Proto48 group helped in finding a drawing by Chuck Yungkurth in the Jan. 1979 issue of Model Railroader. I was able to find a copy at "Railpub" on the net. When it arrived I took the drawing into work where I was able to blow up it in 1/48 scale. From that I am now drawing the caboose in CAD to which the construction drawings will be made from.

Looking at the car and figuring out how I want to build it, it became apparent that it would make a great candidate to be cut out on a laser cutter. There is a cutter at work which is used to cut plastic blanks for printing on. I've got to find out it's perimeters so I can design accordingly

Now the only thing I'm missing for the caboose is what the frame looked like. The Yungkurth drawing doesn't show very much. There's a trolley museum down in Conn. that used to own one of the CV vans, but don't know if they still do.

"Road Trip!"

See ya next time.

Getting started.....Again

Hi Everybody,

Sorry about being away so long. But with the joys of owning a basement covered by living quarters means you have to spend time away from the railroad. But I decided last weekend that I was going to spend this weekend working on the railroad. And so I did.

I began by detailing the ties(for no better word). I was a little worried about using the fine tooth saw on the ties. I was worried that a big group of ties are going to all have the same grain pattern(is this considered rivet counting?), so instead of using the whole length of the saw blade, 6 inches long, I found that by using only an inch or two, I would have better control over how the ties, even ones side by side, would be different.

What do you think? I didn't find myself trying not to do the same thing on each tie. I found it quite fast doing the gouging and adding checks. With the ties in their natural wood the results can't be seen as well as when they are colored

This is the "Early American" minwax stain I decided on. I thinned down the stain with mineral spirits to make more of a wash than a stain.  I then started coloring in different patterns to see how they would look. In the end, the coloring all came out the same.

I also used a black wash I made as well as a light gray and a earth wash. After doing all the ties differently and as you can see in the above photo, they basically all the same coloring. So I decided on the following,

First coat is a coat of the black wash. One or two coats.

Second coat is the brown stain. The amounts vary from tie to tie.

Third and Fourth are washes of the gray and earth. Don't forget to do the sides and ends of the ties too.

I let it dry for a while here. When I came back there was too much gray so I kind of dry brushed some brown stain on to cut down the gray. By kind of dry brush, is after dipping the tips of the brush into the stain and squeezed out most of the stain on the jar lip. And to mash it all together with a wash of black.

I am using the light from the same light that will be used to light the railroad. Right now I only have one bulb, one of the compact fluorescent lamps. The lighting should go up soon too.

Now these tracks are going to be buried under dirt and ballast so I was able to practice on these ties before going out on to the rest of the railroad.

Another piece of news. The track will be ballasted with cinders. My friend Phil Opielowski, the builder of the mill, told me where real cinders can be gotten. We're going to try and get to the location this week, which happens to be Templeton, MA. The Ware River branch past threw town and the station area is still covered with cinders as well as the roadbed. As the Hopedale has past the change over from steam, the roadbed and ballast is still cinder.

See ya next time.