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.