TheRailwire
General Discussion => Layout Engineering Reports => Topic started by: svedblen on July 01, 2015, 02:12:02 PM
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I have been posting about an O scale turnout I built, over in the HO and Larger Scales forum (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=35954.0 (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=35954.0)). The turnout soon began to grow into a shelf layout, and the thread began to swell along with it, turning more into a Layout Engineering Report thread. So I thougth I could start a new thread here instead.
And the story continues here:
Once the shelf itself was built, mainly constructed from extruded foam, the next step was to install the the turnout assembly. It needed to come down a bit into the foam, so that the turnout track and the new track will end up at the same level. After some work with a saw, a utility knife and some sanding paper I arrived at this.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-060922141639.jpeg)
The turnout assembly in place
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-060922141704.jpeg)
With the turnout finally where it belongs, and the track at the correct level, I proceeded by cutting bitumen mats into strips, the width of a tie (I wrote about the bitumen mats in a post in the other thread. Pelle Søeborg had an article in MR a couple of years ago where he showed how he used asphalt/bitumen mats, the stuff you use for sound dampening in cars, for his sub-roadbed). The bitumen is self-adhesive and it stuck fine to the foam.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-060922141849.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-060922141950.jpeg)
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Cool! If the rest of the shelf turns out (no pun :facepalm:) as nice as the turnout, then that's definitely going to be quite an impressive piece of modelwork!
I also like how you've already got the backdrop in place before the rest of it. It creates a much better sense of location and feeling of progress than just a bare wall would have.
Ed
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With the roadbed in place it was time to start cutting ties. I had already got myself a stockpile of 4mm x 4mm basswood strips. When I built the turnout I used pine strips, since at the time I could not locate any basswood here in Sweden. The pine was a hassle since it was to hard for driving spikes into, and every spike needed pre-drilling. I did not want to do that again, and luckily I eventually managed to locate a guy that ripped and sold his own basswood strips. I think they will work much better.
Anyway, I needed a little more than 500 ties so I brought out my NWSL Chopper and started to cut away.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-060922142519.jpeg)
and after about an hour it was all done
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-060922142559.jpeg)
The next step would of course be to glue down the ties on the roadbed. When building the turnout I downloaded a turnout template from Fast Tracks, printed it and used as a template when laying the ties and the track. Now I did however not want to glue paper on top of the bitumen since I was afraid that the glue and the paper would in some way form a seal and turn the bitumen into a sound box. The opposite of why I used the bitumen in the first place.
I still printed a section of a Fast Tracks turnout template but cut it in half length-wise. I then pinned one half on each side of the bitumen roadbed, like this:
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-060922142655.jpeg)
I could then easily locate each tie, using the paper templates as an aiming tool. I spread white glue on the roadbed with a brush, and then simply put each tie down in the glue, one by one.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-060922142755.jpeg)
When I reached the end of the templates, I just repositioned them further down and continued from there. A little extra care was needed when the roadbed curved, since the ties had to be spaced further apart on the outer side of the curve.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-060922142839.jpeg)
Soon enough all ties had been laid for the first stretch of track.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-060922142923.jpeg)
So far nothing out of the ordinary. But the next step will be funnier; distressing and weathering the ties.
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Before moving ahead the ties need to be leveled. They are not all exactly the same height and the gluing might also have set them at slightly different levels. So for the track to be properly seated they need some sanding. An easy way to determine when you are done sanding, and all the ties are at the same level, is to use the old pencil mark trick. Using an ordinary pencil draw a light line along the middle of the ties. Like this
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922115624-304031399.jpeg)
Now, using a sanding block and a medium grit sanding paper (I used a #120 paper) sand away until the line has just disappeared from all the ties. Do not sand the ties on by one but use long strokes, covering a larger number of ties in each move. Here I am nearly done but need a few more strokes.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922115630-30417147.jpeg)
Now when we have a set of nice and smooth ties it is time to rough them up, to get that old and battered look. First I created a general grain pattern by dragging a fine razor saw along the top of each tie.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922115638-304181943.jpeg)
Then I added cracks and scores using an X-Acto knife with a not to sharp blade. You want a random pattern and each tie to be unique, and that is not easy. You have to deliberately concentrate to avoid repeating yourself. I do not say I am good at that but here is a sample of what I ended up with.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922115646-304191639.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922115652-304201879.jpeg)
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Great looking work so far and I love how you are showing this step by step. A good friend of mine is doing a small shelf layout in O right now and I see a few tips I need to pass on along to him.
Jon
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Thanks Jon. Nice if my posts can be of any use :)
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Today I started weathering the battered up ties, by giving them a wash of India Ink. I mixed the ink with plain tap water. No reason to go fancy with alcohol or similar stuff.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922120409-304212289.jpeg)
I made the mixed rather dark (whatever that is :facepalm:). Which does not mean I took very much of the ink. You need always go easy with India Ink, and you'd better test on a loose tie before applying the wash to the "real" ties. Below is a comparison of some freshly washed ties (bottom of picture) and some that have had the time to dry for a few minutes. You can see that they turn lighter as they dry.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922120412-30422214.jpeg)
And here is what it looks like after a few hours. But this is only the base coat. I will come back and add other shades.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922120426-30423967.jpeg)
I also had the time to lay, sand and "scratch" the ties on the other side of the turnout.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922120431-304242492.jpeg)
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I have applied one more wash to the ties, this time brown with some yellow mixed in. The purpose being to kill the somewhat greenish effect of the dry and diluted India Ink, and also to simply create an overall color variation. Once again, I used nothing fancy but what I had at hand - light brown hobby acrylics and yellow from a children's watercolor set, mixed in plain tap water. Here what it looks when just applied.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922120912-304252051.jpeg)
And when having dried. On purpose, the effect is quite subtle.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922120915-30426825.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922120919-304272421.jpeg)
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That looks great! Ties colour looks good to my eye!
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That looks great! Ties colour looks good to my eye!
Thanks, but I'm not done yet :facepalm:
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Thanks, but I'm not done yet :facepalm:
This is true. I think you need to have a couple look like they are close to new creosote like they just changed out a couple.
Must resist buying O scale stuff. I feel myself going over to the other side. :scared: :D
Jon
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Fantastic work; I really enjoy following your process in this step-by-step format. Detailed trackwork like this tempts me to make a foray into the dark, inviting depths of the large-scale world.
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Thank you guys.
I think you need to have a couple look like they are close to new creosote like they just changed out a couple.
Good idea. I might come back later and change out a few ties before I lay the track.
But first I wanted to finish up the basic weathering. The next and last step in that process was to go for the sun bleached look. I did that using a trick I think I picked up somewhere on the Proto:87 Stores web page http://www.proto87.com/ (http://www.proto87.com/), but that was before it got its new look. Anyway, the advice was to use oil paints, namely a mix of Titanium White and Ultramarine Blue. More of the former and less of the latter. Do not make an even mix, but more of a "hotchpotch", like this.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922121231-304281287.jpeg)
I sort of dry-brushed this on top of the ties, with quite a stiff brush. After which I smeared the paint out with a piece of cloth, which also got rid of any excess. I also highlighted the ends of the ties with the same kind of dry-brushing.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922121234-304291531.jpeg)
Once the track has been laid, and rust is applied to the track and the tie plates, the ties will also get its share of rust coloring. But that is later...
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Try making plastic and PC board ties look like that, even harder :scared:
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...I think you need to have a couple look like they are close to new creosote like they just changed out a couple..
Being done weathering all the ties I went back to follow Jon's advice.
I pried a few ties loose...
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922121441-304301214.jpeg)
... and glued new ones in their place. Two of them here, and the other two in two other spots.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922121446-304312420.jpeg)
I then applied a tar colored stain I had around, but I guess any dark brown, close to black, stain or wash would do. I applied it generously to get a dark creosote like look. I also dry-brushed on a yellow and red mix of oil paints to simulate excess creosote oozing out (or whatever it is that gives the ties that orange look in places). Here is what I ended up with.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922121451-304321037.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922121454-304332110.jpeg)
Now I consider myself done with the ties and could have proceeded with track laying, but since I am still waiting for a shipment of parts, tie plates among others, that has to wait. Instead I think I will do the ballasting. I know people who hand lay track often do the ballast before the track, but it will be a new experience for me.
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Ballasting got postponed some. I did not want any of the pink foam to show under the edges of the ballast, so I needed to apply some basic paint first. But before I could paint I needed to create the basic landforms. Not that there should be any dramatic forms on this layout, but I did not want it to be entirely flat either.
I removed foam in some places and added foam in others. The latter at the back, along the backdrop. This also helps in making the transition from the layout itself to the backdrop less apparent.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922141056.jpeg)
After some spackling and sanding I then painted the whole thing with a tan acrylic paint. Great overall improvement, as always when you do this step. But at least I get equally surprised every time :D
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922140841-304372377.jpeg)
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Great progress on this! It's a real treat to follow along as it all takes shape!
I'm really liking the wood ties. I've tried a variety of ways to paint plastic flextrack, but my efforts inevitably come out looking like, well, painted plastic (just imagine!). In O scale the texture of real wood is even more effective and can really be appreciated. Great job too with the coloring and roughening them up!
JMHO, I prefer to ballast before laying the rail, I find it easier than trying to force ballast under the rails and then trying to brush it off rail/tieplates/ties. You can drill small holes for wires and fill them back up later. And don't forget about the joint bars! ;)
(Side note, the one hopper all by itself looks a little lonely.... ;) )
Ed
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...I prefer to ballast before laying the rail.... You can drill small holes for wires and fill them back up later.
Thanks Ed. As you can see below I have started on the ballasting, but guess who forgot about the wires to come later? :facepalm: :facepalm:
I have planned to bury the wires in the foam and have them come out on the back, rather than drilling through and have them visible on the underside. So I will need to pry the ballast loose between some ties. Fortunatly this was only the first stretch.
When ballasting I used a few different materials in order avoid getting things to uniform. I imagine that a small outback operation, while not neglecting its trackage, used what was at hand or could be obtained at a reasonable prize, rather by going for a standard "by-the-rule-book" ballast. Thus, when topping off with additional ballast they could have been using a completely different material than the previous time. At least that is what I pretend has been the case here. ...or why not just rely on Ed's law :)
Here is what I used
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922141248-30438986.jpeg)
1 - Rubble I collected when they where laying the slabs for our patio. Not the sand for the actual setting bed, but what went under that. It is crushed rock in a variety of sizes.
2 - Sand from a children's sandbox, if I remember correctly :facepalm:
3 - Model railroad ballast, from Arizona Rock & Mineral. This is their large scale PRR Light Gray ballast. I bought it when I built the turnout around which this layout is built. I think the stones are a little to large, and also to rounded. To use only this material gave the whole thing a kind of whimsical look. At least in my eyes. That is the reason I started to blend it with other stuff (and invented the story above to go with it).
4 - Some more model railroad ballast, this time HO ballast from a German company called minitec. Unfortunately they have gone out of business. To bad, since they did great ballast. N scale too.
I first applied the crushed rock along the outside of the bitumen subroadbed. This is more or less just a filler, since most of it will probably by obscured by other scenic material (grass, weeds etc.). But if any of it sticks up it could give a nice effect.
Then I put done a layer of the sandbox sand between the ties. This is also more or less a filler, and serves the purpose of hiding the bitumen below, should there be any gaps in the layers above.
Next came the ballast from Az Rock & Mineral, topped off with some minitec ballast. Here is a picture showing the various steps
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922141307-30439734.jpeg)
And a side view
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922141313-304402312.jpeg)
To fix things in place I used the standard method - wet with alcohol and then soak with a mix of white glue and water. When dry it looks like this
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922141333-304412158.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922141339-30442985.jpeg)
This was the first stretch of the main, so on to the rest! After that it is time to deal with the spur/siding, which will get a slightly different treatment. More about that later.
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Not much progress since last, but I have done some more ballasting. When doing that I reached two of the ties which I had weathered to look like new ties, recently replaced. I wanted the ballast around those ties to also look new and fresh. The problem was I did not have any such ballast, suitable for O scale.
Then I thought I should test to do some ballast from what I had at hand. So I took some of the rubble I mentioned in the previous post, the stuff I collected when they where laying the slabs for our patio. It is some kind of crushed rock, of all possible sizes, ranging from dust to pebbles about 1/4 inch. I put some of it in a strainer, like this
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922141828-304432409.jpeg)
...and sifted it. Everything that could get through the mesh was gone. That left me we just the larger pieces...
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922141835-304441578.jpeg)
...which I then poured into a colander, with holes slightly larger than the holes in the strainer mesh.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922141839-30445229.jpeg)
Shaking the colander made the smallest pebbles fall through and into the bowl below.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922141843-304461256.jpeg)
Voilá, my O scale ballast of crushed stones!
I applied that ballast, directly from the quarry, around the new ties.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922141847-304472065.jpeg)
Looking rather good, if I may say so myself :facepalm:
P.S. The strainer and the colander were taken from the kitchen. Washed after use, with no one the wiser :trollface:
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Your ballast varies between very small & very large. Ballast is usually very uniform in size. Class I ballast varies between 3-5" & branchline ballast 2-4". Some of yours look to be from < l" & > 6"+. Take a scale ruler & measure your ballast. It shouldn't be too hard since you're O scale.
The ballast used by Los Angeles Junction Ry an industrial switching road looks more like an afterthought. Parent company Santa Fe must had a few ballast hoppers the wanted to empty. LOL
[attachimg=1]
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Your ballast varies between very small & very large. Ballast is usually very uniform in size.
Thanks for the info. Yes, I know it varies a lot, but that is more or less on purpose.
The ballast used by Los Angeles Junction Ry an industrial switching road looks more like an afterthought.
Interesting you say so, because that is more or less the impression I wanted to give regarding the half forgotten track on my layout. How well I will succeed is still an open question. In the end it might perhaps just look odd :scared:
The fresh ballast around the new ties is however more uniform in size, once again on purpose.
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I applied that ballast, directly from the quarry, around the new ties.
(http://www.lsvedberg.se/railwire/shelflayout/BallastingPart2/IMG_0627_fixed.jpg)
Looks nice with those new ties!! :D ;)
Looking rather good, if I may say so myself :facepalm:
P.S. The strainer and the colander were taken from the kitchen. Washed after use, with no one the wiser :trollface:
are you sure of that.............ya never know who might be reading these posts! :lol: :trollface:
Jon
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Looking very nice Lenart. You might want to give your ties a wash of Diluted black and alcohol and or Sienna it will bring out the grain even more.
Rod.
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Thanks guys.
You might want to give your ties a wash of Diluted black and alcohol and or Sienna it will bring out the grain even more.
I think I will try that. I thought myself that the grain did not show that much. But I will probably do the rest of the ballasting first...
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Voilá, my O scale ballast of crushed stones!
Looks great! That's a major benefit of 1:48 scale, you can really appreciate the textures.
P.S. The strainer and the colander were taken from the kitchen. Washed after use, with no one the wiser :trollface:
Hopefully your salads are not tasting too gritty lately :D
Ed
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Hopefully your salads are not tasting too gritty lately :D
Wait until I've done my own cinder ballast. Will give "Pasta Carbonara" a new meaning :D :facepalm:
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The lone hopper I have is no longer that lonely. It now enjoys the company of two more hoppers of the same kind. A fellow a$$-hat here on TRW was kind enough to offer them to me at a nice price.
So here is the entire fleet:
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922142334-30449608.jpeg)
The rails which the BN car sits on are just loose rails temporary laid there for this photo.
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Once the main was all ballasted I turned to the siding. When I did the turnout I ballasted the diverging route with Arizina Rock and Mineral's steam era yard mix, which is supposed to be some kind of cinders I assume. Anyway, I continued with the same ballast along the siding. With some N scale cinder ballast mixed in for good measure. I will probably try to make it more uniformly black, using weathering powders.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922142458-304502265.jpeg)
Where the siding ends I also constructed a poor man's bumber out of two ties.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922142504-304511093.jpeg)
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Just saw a bumper like that the other day... looking great! Any plans for the bumper? the proto I saw had small circle reflectors (like people use in winter to mark their driveway etc) and some white paint/stripes on the ties...will have to dig up the pic.
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No, I did not have any more plans for the bumper. In the only proto photo I've seen was just like this. No more. But I would love to see the photo with additional details, if you can find it.
I have used that bumber type as an inspiration before, on an N scale layout (see the pic below).
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922142845-304522044.jpeg)
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Man that looks great!! Now we just need to find you a ATSF GP38 or GP7u (possible kit bash? )
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Now we just need to find you a ATSF GP38 or GP7u (possible kit bash? )
Yeah, that would be sweet :)
But first my car needs new tires :(
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Bummer...
I did a simple eBay search and I came across lots of MTH BNSF, and the ever popular Williams line up... But those weren't two rail O. Though I believe Atlas O has a GP60... But it may be too new depending on what you want...
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I've been away for a couple of weeks but now it was finally time to spike some rail. But as always, just one more thing to do first - soldering feeder wires. Here I have soldered feeders to the first two rails, and then just laid them down in about the right position.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922150620-30453593.jpeg)
Next I wanted to mark the position of one of the rails, in reference to the ties. So I pinned down some loose rail, all at about the same position from the end of the ties all along. I tried to get a nice an smooth flow. The camera shows something that looks as an outward bend at the blue pin next, to the pen. I have the check that again.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922150624-304542255.jpeg)
Once I was satisfied I marked the position of the rail, on the ties, with a pencil. Now I can lift the rails for feeder soldering as I go along, but still easily get them back in position with help of the marks.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922150629-304552105.jpeg)
The rail will not sit directly on the ties but on tie plates. I use Grandt Line code 125 tie plates, and Micro Engineering small (1/4") spikes.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922150633-30456301.jpeg)
Keeping the rail on the previously done pencil marks, the spikes are pushed or driven in with a pair of pliers.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922150637-304571586.jpeg)
Here are the first few plates and spikes in place - two spikes per plate - one on each side of the rail.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922150642-30458627.jpeg)
Once the first rail was done, I continued with the opposite rail. Its position determined with an NMRA standards gauge
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922150649-304591454.jpeg)
Only another 1000+ tie plates to go. :P It helps if you actually find this kind of work relaxing... :)
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Neat work Lennart.
Rod.
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Thanks Rod.
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I have too many scales as it is... but you make me want to hop into Proto 48.... or at least 2 rail O.... but stuff is so expensive!!
almost looks G scale... or the real thing in some photos...
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but stuff is so expensive!!
All things equal, you need a lot fewer individual items in the larger scale. In terms of area, 1 car in O takes up the footprint of 8 cars in N. So N would actually cost twice as much, for example at say $20 per car in N and $80 per car in O. In a larger scale you can be more selective and put more attention into each item. (Plus it's easier on the eyes) ;)
Ed
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Yea that's true for all things equal, unless its Z scale where you get less for more :p
But @ 25 I don't have any eysight issues yet lol.
Well minus the whole near sighted part... 8)
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All things equal, you need a lot fewer individual items in the larger scale.
Very true, but the initial investment for your basic "starter set" such as an engine and a few cars, just to get up and running, is considerably heavier.
But on the other hand, after that you are basically done :)
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No work done on the layout for a long time, mainly due to a lack of parts. One parcel with tie plates, spikes and other things never turned up, and apparently got lost somewhere in transit. It took me some time to realize and accept that, order new stuff and wait for the second parcel to come through. It eventually did, and now I can continue spiking track!
But before doing that I added some more hardware to the turnout. Not because it actually needed any, but since I could not resist the heftier look.
First I replaced the simple gauge plate I had made out of plain styrene strip with a properly bolted plate from Right-O-Way.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922151251-304601311.jpeg)
Then I added a second throw bar, also from RoW. The throw bar is a two piece assembly, which you CA together, with a piece of paper or tissue between the pieces to make them electrically insulated from each other. Here are the two pieces before the excess CA-soaked paper has been cut away. Of course, the gauge plate is also two insulated pieces.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922151256-304611311.jpeg)
And here the throw bar has been put in place.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922151259-304621479.jpeg)
Next I painted the new parts grimy black...
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922151306-304632356.jpeg)
... and applied some weathering powder.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922151309-304642436.jpeg)
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Way too cool. Luv it.
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Darn, I'm drooling all over my iPad...this could get expensive :D
Otto
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I wish he'd stop taking pics of the proto and claiming they were his. :drool:
If he can do that type of weathering with track, imagine a locomotive and a couple cars...
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Thanks guys!
If he can do that type of weathering with track, imagine a locomotive and a couple cars...
Ha ha! Weathering track this way is no big deal. Just some paint and then dab on the chalk. But yes, weathering cars is on my agenda. I've done a few N scale cars, but O scale with those large flat panels? I'm not sure I dare :scared:
For the time being, track laying seems a safer path :facepalm:
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Thanks guys!
Ha ha! Weathering track this way is no big deal. Just some paint and then dab on the chalk. But yes, weathering cars is on my agenda. I've done a few N scale cars, but O scale with those large flat panels? I'm not sure I dare :scared:
For the time being, track laying seems a safer path :facepalm:
Oh great, now you got me thinking, I've weathered HO before, it seemed alot easier than N... But O... That's a different story. Guess I'll pick up a Atlas car and try my hand at it... My standard way using only chalks.
I've got some O27, but that's not really O Scale...
*runs off looking for cheap O Scale Atlas cars*
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Gotta love that throwbar, the detailing in O scale is just tremendous!
*runs off looking for cheap O Scale Atlas cars*
Some of those Atlas Trainman cars are pretty good for the $ ;)
Ed
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I cringe at the thought of trying to get (mechanically reliable) throw-bar detail like that in N.
Outstanding finish work!
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I cringe at the thought of trying to get (mechanically reliable) throw-bar detail like that in N.
Reliable or not, no one could ever see it without a microscope.
Ed
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Reliable or not, no one could ever see it without a microscope.
But I would love to see you try! ;)
(Making one, that is. Not only seeing one)
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When I started out to spike the rails on the other (left) side of the turnout I remembered that I had made simulated rail joints in both stock rails of the turnout, close to their ends. I had notched the rail heads and added rail joiners for added visual interest. This was when the turnout was just supposed to be a display item. You can see this in the picture below.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922152131-30465445.jpeg)
When laying the next pieces of rail I would either get a new joint just a few scale feet further away, or have to make that joint invisible. I did not want either of that. So I decided to make those fake cuts real cuts and lay the new rail starting from there.
So the rail joiners were pried loose and the rails cut. But once I had removed the spikes from the now loose pieces of rail, they were still stuck.
Bugger! I had forgot that it was here that I had soldered the feeder wires to the rails! And I had managed to hide them so well that even I missed them. :facepalm: Well, the feeders were cut off easily enough and the rail pieces finally came off. Like here (you can see the copper colored feeders coming up between the ties).
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922152134-304662418.jpeg)
But now I had a new problem. I had to get the stock rails electrically connected again. I did not want to attempt getting new feeders in from below at this point, so I instead decided to solder the next pieces of rails to the stock rails. Any ugly looking soldering would be hidden by the rail joiners.
Here new rails have been soldered in place.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922152151-30467295.jpeg)
Not that bad after all. I should have tried for a new invisible joint to begin with, rather than going this tedious route! :oops:
With rail joiners and tie plates in place we are ready and can proceed with the rail spiking proper.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922152206-30468409.jpeg)
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I cringe at the thought of trying to get (mechanically reliable) throw-bar detail like that in N.
By chance I stumbled over this N scale code 40 turnout which I messed around with nearly 10 years ago. Shown alongside its O scale counterpart.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922152700-304692194.jpeg)
Can't you see the bolts on the throwbars? ;)
Reliable? What is that?
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922152831.jpeg)
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Neat comparison, the difference is not as big as I was imagining. I'd love to see a close-up of your N throw-bar; I have some code 40 turnouts in my future and I don't have a good plan for how to do those throw-bars yet.
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@GaryHinshaw, sorry for the delay, but a really bad cold came in the way.
I actually needed a magnifying glass and to have a good look before I remembered how this turnout was done :lol: It does not look very neat, but the only one to blame for that is me. And I'm not sure it will stand up over time. But here are some pics. Explanation follows below.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922155551-3047642.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922155555-304771725.jpeg)
The throwbar furthest from the frog, is made from P:87 Stores parts, found on this page: http://www.proto87.com/n-scale-track.html (http://www.proto87.com/n-scale-track.html)
The long black bar is some kind of plastic. I think it is the one in the lower right in the 5:th photo from the top (on the P:87 page). It had predrilled holes (if I remember correctly), where you inserted two bars from set 101930, which you find towards the bottom of the page. It's those things in the shape of "blacksmith anvils", and they are pushing on the points when the rod moves. The black rod was to wide to fit between the ties, unless you sat them at an unprotypical width, so I ended up cutting the rod in half, lengthwise. This made the rod quite flimsy (not recommended).
That throwbar only pushes the points, and I cannot remember how they were supposed to be pulled back again, using the P:87 Stores parts. So that is the purpose of the second throwbar. I made it from a PCB strip, and soldered the points to it. Standard rigid fashion. For a better visual appearance I glued a styrene rod on top of the PCB throwbar.
I think the first "pushing" throwbar is a rather good solution, if you use a decent rod instead of the flimsy one I used, and find a way to attach the "anvils" to it. The problem is the "pulling" action, and how to find a non-rigid solution for that. Perhaps it is possible to combine the P:87 Stores stuff with what is discussed in the "Photo-etched details for handlaid turnouts" thread (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=34762.0 (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=34762.0))
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Thanks for the shots svedblen. Your approach is very similar to what I am doing already with code 55 turnouts. The pushing bar is exactly the same except that I use styrene bar stock instead of a pre-made part. The pulling bar is indeed the issue. The p:87 code 55 points come with a holed pre-drilled through the rail base, which I use to strengthen the solder joint between a PCB tie and the rail base. Here is an example:
(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3W3rVBs8fJg/U1zdccJOsvI/AAAAAAAAF5k/IfkbcibjSOw/s800-Ic42/DSCN3239.png)
There is a little vertical wire embedded in solder near the tip of the arrow. The code 40 points do not have a pre-drilled hole, so I either have to do that myself or find another solution.
Do you have any issues with flanges hitting the "anvils" on your c40 turnouts?
Thanks for the detour. Now back to your layout build. :)
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Do you have any issues with flanges hitting the "anvils" on your c40 turnouts?
I only did that one turnout. It was more of an experiment layout and did not see any real action. And then a move to a new house made my modeling take off in a slightly different direction. So I dare not really say.
EDIT: I took out a few cars and rolled them over the turnout. No problems with flanges hitting the "anvils". The tested cars have FVM wheels.
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Anyone want a code 40 #12 RH turnout? I have one that I built a while ago and is nearly completed (needs throwbar) but I don't think I'll ever use it. Free for the asking, just pls. cover whatever shipping you want me to use.
Ed
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A boring picture just to show that I am doing progress. The lower left rail is spiked. and three more of the same length to go :)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922155918-30478297.jpeg)
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The second rail on the siding has been spiked, and rail joiners have been fitted.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922160040-3047914.jpeg)
And now a car can roll all the way down to the poor man's bumper.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922160044-304801884.jpeg)
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The ceremonial last spike has been driven in. The event was witnessed by Sir Topham A$$-Hatt and duly documented by the official Railwire photographer...
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922160257-30481953.jpeg)
...not!
But the last spike has really been driven, although the event was not that grand, but like this:
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-190922160301-30482960.jpeg)
Even this small layout required some 400 ties, 800 tie plates and 1600 spikes, the original turnout not counted.
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A lot of spiking for sure! Must feel good to be finished with that. It's already looking great, and will only get better as you get thru the painting & weathering stages.
Ed
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A short progress report.
I have started to paint the rails. But running out of the old and proven Floquil Grimy Black, and since no more of that is to be had, I had to find a suitable substitute. I went for Vallejo acrylic Model Color, #168 Black grey. A little darker than the grimy black perhaps, but it will do fine.
This is just a first step. Dirt and rust will follow so the unpainted spots, which can be seen in the picture, do not matter at this point. Also, there is paint on the rail tops which I will remove later.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922094441-304952007.jpeg)
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This is all terrific. Thanks!
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@chicken45, thanks :)
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I have got myself a loco for the layout. It was our own @ednadolski that offered to sell me an undecorated Atlas O SD-40. Although he had made such an outstanding job with his GP9 he seemed to rather devote his future time to his Tehachapi N scale layout. Anyway, I took the opportunity to get an engine at a nice price and here it is, devoid of all possible detailing:
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922094729-304971391.jpeg)
Ed had converted the wheels of the SD-40 to P48 standards, meaning the wheel profile is prototypical. That was good for me, since that looks better and I want it that way, but also since my (only) turnout has flangeways etc that are more P48 than standard O. The loco axle length had also been adjusted to a more narrow and prototypical track gauge. This was not equally good for me, since my track gauge is standard O. Don't ask why. It's just is. :facepalm: This meant my new loco would not run on my track, unless I did something about the wheels, or rather their spacing.
So I have done some experimenting with one of the wheel sets. The conventional O scale gauge is 60 scale inches, which equals 1.25" or 31.75 mm but Proto:48 uses the prototypically accurate 56.5 scale inches which is 1,17" or 29.90 mm. That is not a very large difference, and the loco, as arrived, could actually sit tight on my track. It even powers up, and makes all sorts of sounds. But when I throttle up it immediatelly derails.
Since we are only talking about 2 mm, I simply separated the wheels on one of the axles by that amount. The axle is a little to short for that and I am not sure that the wheels will stay put in the long run. However, there want be much stress on the wheels on this little layout, and it might be enough to secure the wheels with a little Loctite. Another solution would be to buy new axles from NWSL. Fitting axles seems to be readily available for $1.25 each, so that is might be worth the trouble. The picture below shows separated wheels on the axle uppermost in the picture. You can see that the wheels sit tighter on the lower axle, P48 style.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922094733-304981813.jpeg)
Another problem is that although the gearbox of the truck is originally done for the longer axle, the original wheels were much wider. With the narrower wheels separated further apart there is a risk that the wheel with the gear slides that far out so that the gears lose contact with each other. To fix that problem I inserted a spacer between the the opposite wheel and the gearbox. The next picture shows the left wheel, with the gears, at its outmost position. It still contacts the rest of the gear assemby, even if it is a close call.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922094739-304991556.jpeg)
The non-geared wheel is electrically isolated from the axle, and uses a sprung pin sitting in the gear box to make electrical contact with the motor. You can see the pin in the lower right of this photo.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922094801-30500103.jpeg)
If the isolated wheel slides to far out from the gearbox, the pin will no longer contact the back of the wheel, and the electrical pickup is broken. To avoid that I put a spacer on the geared wheel side also. So now the isolated wheel cannot go any further out than this picture shows.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922094808-30501341.jpeg)
Even if I decide to buy new axles, I will probably start by just separating the wheels on the existing axles. Just to be able to see the loco run.
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(http://www.lsvedberg.se/railwire/shelflayout/SD40WheelsPart1/IMG_3581_resized.jpg)
Perhaps it is possible to put the spacer between the side gear and the wheel? That would help keep it more in line with the rest of the gears.
One other thought - be careful too about using too thick of a spacer. You want to keep a little side play in each axle so that the unit can still track around curves. Your curves look pretty broad so that should not really be much of a concern.
Looks like there should still be enough room to relocate the sideframes further inboard, if you wish to do that for appearances.
Ed
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Perhaps it is possible to put the spacer between the side gear and the wheel? That would help keep it more in line with the rest of the gears.
Good point, Ed. I'll try that. I have actually orded new axles from NWSL, along with /115 thread wheels to the two second hoppers, so I'll probably wait for them to arrive before I try that. Otherwise all wheels have been relocated, and the loco has run back and further on the layout 8) That did reveal one spot where the rails sat a little tight and need to be fixed .
There is also some noise from somewhere in the drive train. I don't know if it is my messing around which have caused that. Perhaps getting the gears more in line by moving the spacer will fix it. Or not. We'll see.
One other thought - be careful too about using too thick of a spacer. You want to keep a little side play in each axle so that the unit can still track around curves. Your curves look pretty broad so that should not really be much of a concern.
Yes my curves are broad, but the spacers are 0.75 mm each, which is less than what each wheel was moved outwards, so that should not be a problem anyway.
Looks like there should still be enough room to relocate the sideframes further inboard, if you wish to do that for appearances.
Yes, I noticed the large "void" between the wheels and the sideframes :) Another thing to have a look at. Thanks.
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Nice what's it going to be painted?
(crosses fingers for Santa Fe)
Wonder if I can convert my Williams P42s to two rail... Anyone know? Or should I say fudge it?
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Wonder if I can convert my Williams P42s to two rail... Anyone know? Or should I say fudge it?
I've heard of 3-rail to 2-rail conversions being done. Of course it is a non-trivial effort. If you are serious, a good starting point is some of the online O scale forums.
Ed
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There is also some noise from somewhere in the drive train. I don't know if it is my messing around which have caused that. Perhaps getting the gears more in line by moving the spacer will fix it. Or not. We'll see.
If the gears are out of line or true I could see that contributing to a 'buzz'. I would try putting the unit up on blocks and letting the wheels spin freely, to see if that can help pinpoint anything. Another option might be to pop in the factory wheelsets to see if those seem any better.
A little lube on the internal gears might help, but I would avoid putting anything on those side gears -- it will only attract and retain grime & debris.
Side note: With a heavy O scale engine, how well is that sound-absorption roadbed working out to reduce noise & vibrations?
Ed
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Nice what's it going to be painted?
(crosses fingers for Santa Fe)
Thanks. Ed was kind enought to include a Microscale BNSF decal set http://www.internettrains.com/merchant2/graphics/00000001/MSI-48-632.jpg (http://www.internettrains.com/merchant2/graphics/00000001/MSI-48-632.jpg) in the deal so who knows, your finger crossing migth work. But don't expect it to happen very soon :facepalm: Afterthought: But BNSF is perhaps not "Santa Feish" enough for your taste ;)
I would try putting the unit up on blocks and letting the wheels spin freely, to see if that can help pinpoint anything. Another option might be to pop in the factory wheelsets to see if those seem any better.
Yeah, I've been thinking along those lines myself.
Side note: With a heavy O scale engine, how well is that sound-absorption roadbed working out to reduce noise & vibrations?
I cannot really tell. I have never run an O scale engine before, so I do not know what's normal, and I do not have any stretch of track without the bitumen to compare with. I have a feeling that the bitumen helps,but I am not sure. What I do think is that the persons saying that using extruded foam for baseboard material is no good from a noise point of view actually have a point. I have the impression the foam acts like some kind of soundboard. Yesterday I had the layout shelf (foam in a wooden frame) down on the top of a set of cupboards for easy reach, but today I put it it up on its brackets, and the loco ran quiter. I think the soundboard effect of the foam was lessened when there was no solid surface below it, just the frame around it. Anyway, I still think the bitumen helps, but I cannot swear by it.
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Yes I think the larger the surface the more efficiently it can radiate sound into the surrounding air, and rigid materials (like plywood and extruded foam) are quite efficient sound transmitters too ;). With sound, efficiency == louder since the energy is not absorbed in the transmitting material. That was one of the big issues with the P:48 #6 test turnout that I built a while back: I glued the ties straight onto the balsa wood base, and it is very good at transmitting sound - even more so when glued onto a foamboard base. You can really hear (and feel) the difference as the loco moves over the turnout and onto a section of track that I built with a cork layer. Of course O scale is inherently noisy even with cork, so I think your approach with the bitumen is probably about as good as it gets. Just a thought, perhaps it would further help to add a layer of the bitumen onto the underside of the shelf... that's basically the same way the material would be used to absorb sound in an automotive application.
Ed
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Just a thought, perhaps it would further help to add a layer of the bitumen onto the underside of the shelf...
Pro: Noise is probably reduced, as you say.
Con: Bitumen is HEAVY and I wanted a ligtweight shelf that could be easily taken down when I was working on it.
Con: The bitumen mats will ruin the look of my nice shelf underside. This is in a furnished room.
Pro: Intriguing idea. Can I live without ever testing it :P
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I swapped in the original "fat" wheels, and no unexpected noise anymore :) So it was probably one of the gears that was not that well aligned. Hopefully that will be solved by Ed's tip on putting the spacer outside the gear (which I will not do until I get the longer axles).
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Progress is actually made on the layout, although you might think otherwise. What I am doing is weathering the track. I have started with the back of the rails, i.e. the side facing the backdrop. Pointless some might say, but I do not agree. An occasional future picture might be taken in an angle revealing that side of the rails. And also, I just feel happier knowing the weathering is complete. But to be on the safe side I do the back first, which will later give me no choice but doing the other side (the front) also ;)
What I do is brush on a coat of dirt colored paint, and while the paint is still wet I add weathering powders. First a light rust colored powder and then some darker rust. I apply it generously which creates a texture which in my eyes looks quite realistic.
Next I vacuum the excess powder, which will otherwise uncontrollably spread all over the roadbed. This is followed by a light dusting of dark earth and black powder, applied with a large soft brush. And it all comes out like this.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922095307-305021311.jpeg)
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(http://www.lsvedberg.se/railwire/shelflayout/WeatheringTrack1/IMG_0845_resized.jpg)
:o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o
Looking good!!!!
Also doing the back side lets you get even better once you get to the front side. :D Practice makes perfect ya know. :)
Jon
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Thanks, Jon. And yes, some practicing can never hurt :)
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Ok, I'm going to say something that may be a bit unpopular.
While I LOVE your track (absolutely, it's incredible), I'm not in love with the ballast.
In my experience, ballast is usually a somewhat consistent size, generally coming from a commercial rock crusher. Yours has a mix of bigger and larger bits that looks off to me. That doesn't mean it isn't right, it's just different from what I'm used to.
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@Ed Kapuscinski
I hear you, but it does kinda work for track that is poorly maintained though too.
On mainline track the ballast is usually up to the top of the ties and is pretty much about fist sized (or slightly smaller) rocks, that are sifted to lock in place.
I have seen some abandoned track that looks about how he's got it, if his doesn't look better than some tracks I've seen. :D
If that's his siding then it could work too, but could have a better maintained look to it...
It still looks good though so no need to tear it up for some sillyness.
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Ok, I'm going to say something that may be a bit unpopular...I'm not in love with the ballast.
No problem Ed. To tell you the truth, I'm not always in love with it either :facepalm:
I could offer you a lengthy explanation on why it looks like it does, but the short version is that @nscaler711 is rigth (thanks for the support :D): It is supposed to be a small-time outback operation, where they use anythting they can lay there hands on for ballast.
But I had actually already decided to try and hide the worst. So when I am done there will not be very much, if anything, left of the roadbed profile. The surrounding terrain will be raised and most of the larger bits will be burried and no longer visible. And weeds will probably grow over other parts of the ballast.
Keep your opinions coming - good :D or bad :x
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I'm not in love with the ballast.
I had the same initial reaction, but when I was in California this summer I drove by the Sierra RR ROW and their track looked just like this. The side track (right track) in this photo (http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=343693&nseq=38) is an example; not so much between the rails, but definitely along the shoulders.
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Cool. Goes to show that, no matter how much railroading you're familiar with, there's always more out there.
Which is great, because this really IS beautiful.
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I had the same initial reaction, but when I was in California this summer I drove by the Sierra RR ROW and their track looked just like this. The side track (right track) in this photo (http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=343693&nseq=38) is an example; not so much between the rails, but definitely along the shoulders.
Same here on the initial reaction, and, even after looking at the picture Gary posted, I think you still need to pick off the large rocks in the shoulder of your track. That would address the issue properly for me. Otherwise, it looks fantastic!
DFF
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Thanks for the comments. Your reactions convince me that I should hide or pick off the larger rocks, just as I thought.
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Better modeling through peer pressure at work! :)
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I have made some layout work during the holidays
- I am done painting the back of all rail meaning I could swap the layout around, so that the front is once again forward faced as intended :)
- I have replaced the wheels on the remaining two cars, so now all (3!) of them have wheels with proper /115 treads.
- Finally I changed the wheel axles on the engine, so that my re-gauging for standard O gauge would work better. The existing axles were shorter and for the more narrow, but prototypically correct, Proto:48 gauge.
With all this done it was time for some running, But before I could do that I had to clean the rail heads (before I mess them up again when doing the weathering on the front side). Said and done, and with both clean engine wheels and rails I set out on a back and forth run. A few dirty spots remained, but with those taken care of I still had problems near then end of the track. In the very same spot the loco stopped dead every time.
A light push and it started up again, but then went silent. After many more attempts to clean rails and wheels, to no avail, I finally brought out my voltage meter. I soon found out that at this very spot none of the wheels on the right side made electrical contact with the rail beneath it! How could that be?
If I lightly pressed on the right of the loco there was once again contact. I first thought the problem was that the roadbed was leaning in some way, making the right hand wheels suspended in the air. But that could hardly be the case. The trucks would surely be able to take up any small (invisible) misalignment like that.
Something else must make the wheels rise. So what could make them climb? When I thought "climb" I finally understood :D It turned out the track gauge was on the narrow side in that spot :facepalm:, which made the wheels climb ever so little. It was really not visible, but enough to make the wheel treads loose contact with the rail heads. The flanges still had contact with the sides of the rail head, but there my newly applied paint and weathering stopped any electricity from coming through.
I really ought to pull the rail spikes in that section and move one of the rails, but for now I just removed the paint from the uppermost part of the rail head - and no more spurious stops in that spot.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922095458-305031426.jpeg)
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I really ought to pull the rail spikes in that section and move one of the rails, but for now I just removed the paint from the uppermost part of the rail head - and no more spurious stops in that spot.
Classic short line railroading. :)
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Classic short line railroading. :)
Sure, this is not meant to be a Class A main, but making sure the wheels fit between the rails is a minimum even on this line :facepalm:
Anyway, the problematic section has been fixed; spikes pulled, tie plates removed, rail offset about a millimeter, new tie plates inserted and new spikes driven in. Vioilá, piece of cake! No, actually it was no fun at all. But now it's done :D
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I wanted to model a stone wall, with moss and lichen. I could think of a number of ways of doing this, and buying a ready-made casting was not one of them. What I could do was to for instance:
- Do a simple plaster casting and scribe a stone pattern on to it
- Scribe or imprint a stone pattern in a piece of extruded foam
- Build the wall from individual stones
I've done the first two in other (N scale) projects so I settled for the last one. Might (perhaps) be doable in O scale, which as you know is the scale for my current layout.
So I sat out to do a test wall. First I got myself a bunch of O scale stones. I made them from a flake of not yet cured plaster which I first scribed and broke into strips. The strips where then cut up into more or less rectangular stones. Like this:
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922095647-305041446.jpeg)
I then built a support structure from styrene...
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922095655-305052464.jpeg)
...on which I then stacked the stones and secured them with ordinary white glue. I applied the glue in the back, towards the support only, since I did not want any glue on the visible parts of the stones. Any glue on the stones would ruin any later staining. Here four rows of stones are in place:
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922095709-305062411.jpeg)
And finally we are done:
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922095714-30507948.jpeg)
I admit, the resulting surface is a little on the uneven and rough side. A real stone layer, working with cut stones, and producing a result like this would most probably have got sacked! The individual stone surfaces can also be improved. But for a first test I think it came out quite nice.
Here is a shot with the wall on the layout. The height of the wall is about 1.5 scale meters (a little less than 5 feet).
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922100037-30508905.jpeg)
Next up is staining and painting, followed by the application of lichen and moss.
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That looks really good Lennart!! Now you have to paint and weather it. I did something similar in N scale one block at a time :scared: for some bridge abutments.
Jon
Before................
(http://www.n-scaler.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10003/normal_PICT0064%7E0.JPG)
..........and after
(http://www.n-scaler.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10003/normal_PICT0065%7E0.JPG)
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Thanks Jon.
Yes, I think remember your abutments, now when you mention it. Really good. Your stones are looking better than mine. How did you do the stones?
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Nice job on the stonework Lennart.
I painted a cast plaster building on my now defunct On30 layout (Lost Creek RR) but before I did I sprayed the walls with Dullcoat. This allowed me add various colours to make it look like natural sandstone instead all one colour as the paint did not soak in. It gave me time to add random colours to each block.
Just a thought. Keep up the great work.[attachimg=1]
Rod.
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Dang! That looks SO GOOD! Nice work!
Forgive the crop :o
Otto K.
[attachimg=1]
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Thanks Otto. I'm glad you like it :)
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(http://www.lsvedberg.se/railwire/shelflayout/StoneWallPart1/IMG_0882_resized.jpg)
Man, the track looks especially good in this shot.
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@GaryHinshaw, thanks. Yes, fairly decent if I may say so myself ;)
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I finished my test stone wall today.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922100419-30509596.jpeg)
I first gave it a somewhat uneven India Ink wash, followed by some dry brushing - gray, concrete and brown colors. After this I sprayed the wall with Testors Dullcote.
I wanted part of the wall to be overgrown with moss. For moss I used Woodland Scenics T49 Blended Turf - Green Blend. I applied white glue with a small brush where I wanted the moss, and then sprinkled on the turf. I then immediately shook and blew the excess turf away.
I'm really happy with the result.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922100422-305101587.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922100426-30511879.jpeg)
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That wall looks really nice, Lennart. I'd say your test is a success.
DFF
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The stones look very realistic. Are walls and abutments like that built from stones just piled up on top of etch other, or is there mortar usually used?
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Thanks guys.
Good comment, Peteski. Abutments and walls that need to endure any kind of load would probably be using mortar of some kind. But at least here in Sweden (very) old walls without mortar can be seen. But those are mostly country side walls used to enclose pastures or likewise.
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I've seen low stone retaining walls here in Maryland along the NEC and OML and never noticed any mortar use.
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Inspired by the comment from @peteski about mortar, I decided I wanted to try a wall with mortar between the stones. As noted the stone wall I showed in earlier posts have stones that looks merely piled on top of each other. So I sat ought to do an additional wall section in the same way as before, but now with spackling compound between the stones. I went about more or less as you would when applying mortar between real stones.
Once the compound had dried I proceeded as with the previous wall with an India Ink wash, some additional colouring and last some moss. Here is the finished wall.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922100848-305121299.jpeg)
And for comparison, alongside the one without mortar.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922100852-305132118.jpeg)
The second one is OK as well. It's just different. But I think I like the first one better. Could perhaps be just because I think I managed the coloring better for the first wall. But of course, it all depends on what kind of wall you want to replicate and what fits the rest of the scene.
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Peteski gives a big thumbs-up! The new wall looks perfect to me! :)
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Very nicely done!
Ed
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I like the first one too. After all, stacked stone is just that. Stacked stone.
I've seen it done without mortar of any kind plenty of times.
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I like them both so I will sit on the fence with this lot.
Rod.
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Thanks everyone!
I'll have a piece of stone wall somewhere along the backdrop. Don't know yet where and how.
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Finally I have managed to get all the rail painted and weathered :facepalm:
Some new pics.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922101100-30514517.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922101103-305151035.jpeg)
With that all done I hope to get started on some scenicking, or car or engine detailing...
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That is outstanding work.
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Must resist the urge to build an O scale shelf... drool worthy! excited to see this level of craftsmanship for the scenery etc. :o
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Put that out in some sunlight and no one will be able to tell that it is model track.
Ed
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Thanks guys!
But don't expect the rest of this layout to even come close... :oops:
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Today I built myself a short wooden fence. As with the stone walls I did a while back I'm testing methods. The intention being that there will be stretches of fences and walls along the track, towards the backdrop.
Since the boards making up an O scale fence are quite wide,and at the same time very thin, I found it hard to find any scale lumber that would do. If it was wide enough it was way to thick. What I eventually did was to get some 0.4 mm (1/64 in) plywood, which I would to cut into 4 mm (5/32 in) wide boards.
So let's start. Here is the plywood where I have cut off 40 mm bit, corresponding to the height of the fence, which would be about 2 scale meters (about 6 ft).
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922144412-305161920.jpeg)
Next I used my NWSL Chopper to cut the plywood into individual boards. First I did not see that the Chopper's stop had a tendency to not stay put, making some of the boards too wide. Easily avoided once I had realized that this happened, but it made slowed down the whole process.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922144434-305172182.jpeg)
Also, the razor blade was a little to short, so the Chopper would no cut the complete length of the boards. But that was easily fixed with an X-Acto knife.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922144439-305182191.jpeg)
Once all the boards for my test fence had been cut, I soaked them in an India ink wash, along with the scale lumber I was to use for posts and supports. Here are the boards, once dry out of the wash.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922144442-30519717.jpeg)
I then laid out a simple jig, along with the horizontal support boards, and began gluing boards to the supports.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922144446-30520899.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922144451-30521189.jpeg)
Soon they were all in place, along with two vertical posts.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922144455-305222183.jpeg)
When the glue had dried it was time to pose the fence on the layout.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922144500-30523696.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922144520-30524743.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922144524-30525745.jpeg)
Not that bad I think. And there are no more excuses for not building longer stretches of both fencing and stone walls. :)
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Very nice. Now you just need some scale nails to finish it off. [You could almost pull that off in O. ;)] The boards look more grey on the layout than in the build shots. Did you add more wash or is it just the lighting?
What kind of a scene are you aiming for in the end? Will there be any buildings?
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Thanks Gary.
Yes, it's only the lighting making the boards look greyer. And nails, yes why not :) 8)
As for scenery; currenty I do not hink there will be any buildings. The shelf is not wide enough. My intention is to run fences and walls of various kinds along the tracks to indicate there is some kind of property and activity going on behind. In some stretches perhaps only bushes and trees.
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Lennart,
I think that fence looks fantastic, except in our area it's more common to see the horizontal framing members toenailed between the posts. Then, once the pickets are installed, you can't see the posts or any framing on the "finished" side of the fence. The other "ugly" side then looks like this:
(http://www.sunsetfencevt.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/stockade-fence.jpg)
Hope this helps,
DFF
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Yes Dave, that is more common here as well. I just thought putting the posts where they could be seen produced a more interesting fence. It started to look dull otherwise. I might avoid that non-prototypical approach when I do it "for real" :facepalm:
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Yes Dave, that is more common here as well. I just thought putting the posts where they could be seen produced a more interesting fence. It started to look dull otherwise. I might avoid that non-prototypical approach when I do it "for real" :facepalm:
Turn it around and put the "ugly" side towards the tracks. That will be even more interesting and show off the construction of the fence. Heck, in the real world, if it were my property, I sure wouldn't want to worry about my neighbor (the railroad) seeing the pretty side of the fence. ;)
DFF
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Thanks Gary.
Yes, it's only the lighting making the boards look greyer. And nails, yes why not :) 8)
As for scenery; currenty I do not hink there will be any buildings. The shelf is not wide enough. My intention is to run fences and walls of various kinds along the tracks to indicate there is some kind of property and activity going on behind. In some stretches perhaps only bushes and trees.
Nails, lol would be interesting but impractical I suppose....
Though you could just take a graphite pencil and add dots where nails would be, and then have rust streaks coming down from them.... As for the color (depending on your displays settings) I think the grey looks good... It all really depends on the location you are modeling... A desert may have bleached the wood and turned it grey, while the Midwest will be darker and more brown, or even a tinge of green.
But it looks really good, and I have seen fences like that, just not very often, but the posts would be thicker, two to three times thicker, than the boards...
Otherwise it looks great...
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I have built a longer fence, and put it down more permanently on the layout. This time I also made an attempt to at making nails :facepalm: :D I tested various ways of doing this but ended up simply making a mark with a pencil. Here are some pictures.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922145821-30529723.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922145825-305302016.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922145828-30531469.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922145832-305321937.jpeg)
The grass, which I though would be suitable for O, looks to thick I think.
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Nailed it! (See what I did there?) Seriously, that's a beautiful fence.
DFF
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Nailed it!
:lol:
Thanks Dave
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Now that's a fence.
Rod.
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(http://www.lsvedberg.se/railwire/shelflayout/WoodFence3/Composite_small.jpg)
With the right backdrop, and maybe a bit more vegetation variety, this shot could pass as 1:1.
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Thanks for the kind words :D
...a bit more vegetation variety...
Yes, definitely
With the right backdrop...
Yes, that also. But I am not sure what kind of theme or scene it should show. So far I have been thinking "trees", as in some close up wood. But then it would be hard to justify the fences and stone walls I am planning. Why put walls around an ordinary wood? Likewise it would be strange with distant hills or mountains, and nothing behind the fence. What I think would be better is som kind of industry. But it must neither be to close or to far away. Maybe something like this
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922150239-305331121.jpeg)
This is a low quality printout of part of a backdrop I found at http://www.backdropjunction.com (http://www.backdropjunction.com). I promise, if I decide to use this image, or any other from Backdrop Junction, I will for sure order it and pay for it through the proper channels :)
Or perhaps some "quite close" suburban area. What do you say. Any ideas?
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With the different types of barriers you want, id say go for a residential area.
All those fences and walls would be very appropriate for backyards and what not.
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With the different types of barriers you want, id say go for a residential area.
All those fences and walls would be very appropriate for backyards and what not.
Yes, thanks. I had more or less come to the same conclusion.
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I finished the wooden fence during the weekend.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922150403-305341777.jpeg)
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More like "O" for outstanding.
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More fencing, this time a wire fence built from two sizes piano wire and some metal mesh. The first picture shows how I laid out the piano wire posts and top rails on a piece of wood, held in place with tape.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922150712-305352374.jpeg)
Next I soldered the posts and rails together. I also added a few brace posts.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922150716-30536541.jpeg)
After having cut a suitable piece of wire mesh, diagonally from a larger piece, I attached the mesh. That turned out to be easier said than done. The mesh was painstakingly "unruly" and had its own ideas on how to behave. And sitting tight was not one of them :x
My initial idea was to glue (CA) the mesh to the supporting structure, but I gave that up and instead soldered it in place. The next two pictures show the fence after having been sprayed with a grey primer.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922150720-305372241.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-200922150724-305381375.jpeg)
In the last picture the mesh shows traces of me wrestling with it. Those parts will hopefully be disguised by weeds and stuff. Some weathering and rusting is also to come.
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Today I made an attempt to make a tree and a bush using Noch Leaves. Here is the result.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922063455.jpeg)
I think it came out quite good. But I did not arrive at this result at the first attempt. Here is the story, albeit in a somewhat condensed form.
I started out with a small wire tree I did some time back. It just had a few brown leaves, like this.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922062219-30546222.jpeg)
My first try to add leaves included wads of fiber as a foundation for the leaves to come. The fibers were also spray painted with gray, brown and black colors. At this point, everything looked promising.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922062225-305471727.jpeg)
On came the leaf material, and although the leaves themselves were OK, the overall impression was not that convincing. It looked as if someone had draped the trunk and the branches in a green coat. It was simply to dense, and did not have that airy look of a real tree.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922062933.jpeg)
In my head I had the pictures of the superb trees made by Jos Geurts, and as shown here https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=34967.0 (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=34967.0) as well as on other places on the net. So how does he do it?
Turns out he does not use wads of fiber, as I falsely remembered, but loose fibers. First sisal fibers and then static grass fibers. So ripped the over-coat off the tree, and sat out to try doing it in the same way as Jos.
First I sprayed the bare tree with hair spray and sprinkled on some fibers, which barely shows in the first picture. This is followed by some 2 mm static grass fibers, and last Noch Mid Green leaves (07144).
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922083545-305541356.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922062259-305501664.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922062304-30551742.jpeg)
Much better! Far from Jos' excellent trees, but I'm happy with the result. Looks more airy and lighter than the first tree.
While I was at it, I also made a bush from some wire strands. Here it is, first with the two applications of fibers, and then after adding Noch Olive Green leaves (07140).
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922062318-305522182.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922062323-30553660.jpeg)
And once again, planted on the layout.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922063455.jpeg)
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I'm not sure I prefer the trees made with static fibers, because it's not creating a full canopy. I suggest going back to the poly fiber but stretch it out and thin it much more than in your previous attempt. That will give you the canopy this tree lacks, but you'll be able to achieve a more airy look than your previous tree.
DFF
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I'm not sure I prefer the trees made with static fibers, because it's not creating a full canopy...
Yes, but is the canopy really always full? I guess it depends on the kind of tree, time of season etc but for me a typical tree is along these lines:
(http://www.ecocrowd.com.au/uploads/3/2/3/2/32325119/s455846257503310255_p23_i2_w374.jpeg)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Quercus_virginiana_2010.jpg)
But I too, as most of us, need to do a lot of trees so I will have plenty of opportunities to "stretch-the-fiber" and see how that works out :P
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I've done some more trees and bushes. I first made another try using poly fiber, stretched and stretched and stretched... but it did not turn out any good. Still looked like a tree that someone had draped with a blanket :x Maybe poly fiber works better in the smaller scales, where you do not expect to see individual branches. Or maybe it is just me don't getting the hang of it :facepalm:
Anyway, I went back to the static fiber metod. Here are some pics.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922084830-30555644.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922084835-305561253.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922084842-305572404.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922084848-30558596.jpeg)
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Not much modelling on my part lately. I have more or less just been lurking, watching what you guys accomplish. Anyway, I have practised some more on making trees and bushes, with varying result. But I thought I should share the process leading to my latest creation - a somewhat larger bush. The method I used is inspired by @grove den (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=40691.msg507399#msg507399 (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=40691.msg507399#msg507399)
I started out with some sisal fibres which I cut in approximately 5-7 cm (2-3 inch) lengths. The fibres where then assembled into a mat like structure using a piece of folded wire. Like this:
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922085305-305592344.jpeg)
To make the fibers stand up straight I folded them along the wire, and clamped them upside down (wire up) in my Work Mate. Only the bottom, folded end, is sticking up.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922085308-30560833.jpeg)
To make the folding last I soaked the fibres with glue. I used ordinary PVA glue.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922085312-305612408.jpeg)
Once the glue had set I could remove the bush-to-be from the Work Mate, and now it looked like this, after being turned bottom down.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922085330-305622127.jpeg)
I then spread the fibres to make the bush wider and give it a more "bushy" form. I also did some trimming to get rid of the longest fibres, I also sprayed the underside a grey color, to make the fibres there look more like stems.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922085335-305631015.jpeg)
Next step was to add some static grass fibres. They provides more slender branches, and also make a more denser base for the foliage to come. I used 6 mm (1/4 inch) fibres, secured with hair spray.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922090003.jpeg)
Finally I added some foliage, namely Noch light green leaves.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922085356-305651812.jpeg)
Last some picture with this bush planted on the layout, behind the fence. Outside the fence are some smaller bushes I did using the same technique.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922085401-305661384.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922085405-305671275.jpeg)
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I like it, Lennart!
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Thanks Dave.
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Nice job on this. Always great to see your progress! ;)
Ed
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Always great to see your progress!
Thanks Ed, but really not very much progress. Apart from scenery, I have a loco to detail and paint, but in that department I seem to suffer from some kind of "modeler's block". Can it be due to some other guy doing such a fabulous job on a GP9 :trollface: :D
EDIT: But I have actually contacted Norm at Protocraft about couplers, so it is no longer a complete standstill :facepalm:
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Lennart, I just found your two threads and read up on what you're doing. Beautiful work!
You'll like Norm's couplers, I use them in P:48.
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You'll like Norm's couplers, I use them in P:48.
Thanks Ken. Good to hear they seem good.
Any pics or web page showing your P:48 stuff?
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Nothing at the moment, it's all been temporary testing stuff so far. I'm getting ready on a scenery test module, though - I'm hoping on using that as a photo platform.
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I wanted an asphalt strip along the spur, indicating that it is accessible and sometimes used for some kind of loading or unloading. I made the strip using a drywall spackling compound, which I painted gray using diluted black color from an ordinary children's watercolor set.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922090326-305681367.jpeg)
As you can see I made cracks in the asphalt to make it appear old. And I wanted something more than the ordinary grass and weeds, so I created some dandelions to go along. Or at least something that is meant to be dandelions :facepalm: I will later add a thread in the Scenery Techniques forum where I show how I made the dandelions.
EDIT: Here is the added topic https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=41193.msg512673#msg512673 (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=41193.msg512673#msg512673)
Here are some more pics of the scene.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922090342-305691686.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922090346-30570843.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922090350-30571785.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922090402-30572804.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922090408-305731790.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922090413-30574361.jpeg)
EDIT: Here is the topic about the dandelions https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=41193.msg512673#msg512673 (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=41193.msg512673#msg512673)
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Whoa.
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Thanks Ed :)
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Whoa.
Not just whoa - WHOA!
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... and Ken :)
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The type "E" couplers I ordered from Protocraft arrived a few days ago, and today I assembled them. As advertised, it took some filing and drilling to get the parts ready for assembly, but it was a fairly straightforward process given the detailed instructions that Norm at Protocraft sent along. So I now have one set of couplers for each of the hoppers, and one set for the engine.
Here is what (six of them) looked before assembly. Three parts each - body and shank, knuckle and lift pin.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922091152-30575840.jpeg)
Actually, there was a fourth part also. A small spike acting as the knuckle hinge, referred to as the "escutcheon", a word I never heard of before,
And here are the first two I assembled. The hinge spike will later be trimmed to length.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922091158-305761243.jpeg)
Since I do not yet have any coupler boxes I am unable to install them and cannot make any live tests. But they seem to couple and uncouple as they should when doing a simple test by hand. Uncoupling is by lifting the pin. Cool.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922091204-305772119.jpeg)
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Those Protocraft couplers are great. You will have to be a bit careful when painting & weathering, to keep the moving surfaces clean so that the pin can drop smoothly.
What are your plans for operating the pins? (top/bottom lever, magnet, ...?)
Ed
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What are your plans for operating the pins? (top/bottom lever, magnet, ...?)
Bottom lever for the cars, and top for the loco. To get the bottom levers working smoothly might be a challenge. But challenges are to be overcome, aren't they :facepalm:
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Bottom lever for the cars
I have not tried it yet myself, but I think you will have to fashion a sort of fulcrum on the underside of the coupler to allow the lever to pivot so that it can push the pin upwards. This is what those two holes cast into the bottom of the coupler head are for. A prototype coupler has a pivoting link but that is way too small to functionally model in any scale.
Check out some of the pics of the couplers on the Protocraft site, and you will see that the bottom-operating types come with a small wire loop that hangs from those two bottom holes, and is used to hold the end of the lift bar.
Ed
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BTW one other thing I have been trying to devise is, how to make something like the prototype key/slot that lets the coupler shank slide in & out by a few scale inches whenever the coupler is pushed/pulled. The San Juan coupler has a version with a horizontal slot in the shank so that you can use a styrene strip as the key. However I am not keen on the SJs since I've found that the delrin pin does not drop too readily when coupling (which sort of defeats the purpose). On the Clouser, it should be possible to drill/mill a slot in the shank, but I don't have a milling machine to do it. :facepalm:
Ed
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Check out some of the pics of the couplers on the Protocraft site, and you will see that the bottom-operating types come with a small wire loop that hangs from those two bottom holes, and is used to hold the end of the lift bar.
Exactly. Along with the assembly instructions there was some pics (and text) describing how that wire is attached to the lever itself, on the other side of the coupler. So in theory I think I have understood have to do it. I only have to make it happen IRL :lol: I guess that loop will have to be bent few times before it gets the correct size and placement relative the pin.
BTW one other thing I have been trying to devise is, how to make something like the prototype key/slot that lets the coupler shank slide in & out by a few scale inches whenever the coupler is pushed/pulled.
You mean you want to reintroduce the slinky effect :D Is that wise? :o
But seriously, the sheer weight and momentum of the O scale cars will probably counter any such tendancy. Or it might not show on a small diorama style layout where trains at most are a couple of cars. Anyway, an interesting idea...
... but I don't have a milling machine to do it. :facepalm:
Can't you just extend the pivoting hole in the shank with a file, turning it into more of a slot than a round hole? Tedious yes, but just as a test?
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You mean you want to reintroduce the slinky effect :D Is that wise? :o
The slinky oscillation is a consequence of the spring in the MT coupler design. It is easy to reproduce with the right combination of mass/speed/friction. I install my Protocraft couplers without a spring, so there can be no oscillation. I tighten down the box covers enough to keep the coupler from moving loosely, so they do not slip out of line during coupling operations. (Prototype couplers are heavy enough not to do that.)
Can't you just extend the pivoting hole in the shank with a file, turning it into more of a slot than a round hole?
The Protocraft couplers that I have are the discontinued design that has a vertical slot in the shank rather than a pivot hole. This does allow for some travel during coupling & uncoupling. I think the newer (non-Clouser) ones also have this slot (as well as a centering spring). The slot in the San Juans is horizontal and thus takes a flat bar that also passes thru a corresponding slot in either side of the center sill, like the prototype. The slots in the pocket are elongated and permit the slack travel.
(FWIW, I think those SJs with the slots may now be discontinued as well :facepalm:)
Ed
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I install my Protocraft couplers without a spring, so there can be no oscillation.
No, I did not think you used a spring. The reference to the slinky effect was my attempt at a joke :facepalm:
I tighten down the box covers enough to keep the coupler from moving loosely, so they do not slip out of line during coupling operations.
But do they still swing when negotioating curves or turnouts? Which brings me to a subject I had not really thought about until I received the couplers from Protocraft. Part of the written instructions was a description, originally supplied by some other fellow modeler, showing how he had installed a self centering mechanism. It consisted of a narrow U-shaped piece of piano wire, soldered so that it wrapped the shank from the end, and the wires touching the box sides. See the picture, which I have taken from the Protocraft instructions (I hope that was ok Norm).
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922093145-305781648.jpeg)
I think that looks quite neat, but the question is if such a mechanism is at all needed? If you tighten down the box cover as you say you do, then the couplers will always return to the center position, and stay there, once you have made it out on tangent track again. Right? So the only time there could be a possible coupling problem is if you uncouple on a tight curve and then attempt to couple on straight track. Or do your couplers not swing at all?
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Oh yes they certainly can swing. They are just installed a bit snugly, so that they will stay put during normal moves and coupling/uncoupling. Since I currently do not (yet!) have any cut levers installed, I just lift the pin by pushing up gently from underneath with a tool. If the couplers are installed loosely, this could easily push them out of alignment so that they would have to be manually re-aligned the next time I want to make a hook. Also, left to itself a loose coupler could also 'drift' out of alignment during a forward or reverse move, thus also requiring a manual re-alignment.
With the 'slightly snug' installation, the couplers still can swing as needed during normal operation, but (again, like the prototype) they tend to stay where they were the last time they were uncoupled. Since even a prototype coupler can come out of line, I don't mind having to do the occasional re-lining (so it is prototypical! ;) ). Another nice thing is that I don't need any centering springs.
On my current (temporary) setup I have a couple of #6 turnouts which lead into relatively sharp reverse curves. Since the whole layout is very short (under 11') this sometimes leads to uncoupling while one truck of the loco or a car is still on the curve. The couplers thus are left a bit off-center, which means I will probably need to re-align them the next time, especially when there is a car length/overhang disparity from the previous drop. (The prototype would of course have the exact same problem under the same conditions.) To mitigate this, my plan for the new layout is to use longer turnouts (preferably #8 if they will fit) and eliminate as many reverse curves for parallel spur tracks as I can.
No, I did not think you used a spring. The reference to the slinky effect was my attempt at a joke :facepalm:
Oh I know ;) It just seems a bit strange to me to see any kind of centering spring at all on those Protocraft couplers. The conditions are probably different enough that they would not oscillate like the MTs in N scale, but even so it looks to me that they could potentially introduce a bit of unprototypical 'bounce' into coupling operations even in 1:48 scale. And our models do not have actual brakes after all to keep them in place ;) (in fact, the Protocraft RB trucks are so smooth, I have to chock the wheels in order to keep an uncoupled car from rolling away!)
Ed
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Thanks Ed. I think I'll follow suit and stay away from any springs and centering mechanisms. A snug fit seems easy enough and more reliable.
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There is not much room on the layout for any structures, but I wanted at least one building of some kind. I settled for a battered old shed or barn, in the far corner. It serves, and has not served, any rail purpose but just happens to sit close to the tracks. Here is what I came up with.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922095628-305792336.jpeg)
Come along if you want to see how I built it (And yes, I have seen - there is something in my camera lens. But it is inside somewhere, and I don't know where :x )
I started with a Masonite base painted black and a frame of scale lumber. All lumber, throughout the build, was cut to length and stained in a bath of India ink before assembly. For size comparison, an O scale figure is seated beside.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922095643-305812035.jpeg)
Next I cut wall boards from .4 mm plywood and glued in place.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922095648-305821819.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922100628.jpeg)
I also added some doors, broken and hanging askew.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922095714-30584128.jpeg)
Next was the roof frame, and the upper part of the gables.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922095722-305851185.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922095730-305861278.jpeg)
Now for an extra fun part. Fun because I had never done anything like it before: Metal corrugated roof panels, etched in ferric chloride to get a worn and rusty look. The warning in the how-to-pamphlet that came with the roof panels was true - it is easy to etch the panels to oblivion :facepalm:
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922095752-305871487.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922095757-30588158.jpeg)
As seen I also added door hinges, made from styrene. The green is supposed to be mildew or fungus of some kind, but I not too happy with the result :( I later tried to tone it down :)
If you look carefully you can also remnants of batten on the side wall. I added a few of those to indicate that the shed originally had a board-and-batten siding.
Last, some more pictures of the shed in its final scene on the layout.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922095812-305892024.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922095816-305901815.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922095820-305912263.jpeg)
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Beautiful. Looks like it's been there forever.
Jim
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(http://www.lsvedberg.se/railwire/shelflayout/BatteredShed/IMG_3789_small.jpg)
Wow! That's just some incredible modeling right there.
DFF
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Thanks guys.
@davefoxx, possible in O scale (and larger scales). Just so you know :D
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Terrific job, and it looks great with all the surrounding overgrown weeds & bushes. It works beautifully as a view block for the end of the track. Terrrific! 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)
Ed
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Thanks guys.
@davefoxx, possible in O scale (and larger scales). Just so you know :D
Haha! Duly noted. ;)
DFF
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@svedblen I wish you would stop lying to us and just tell us the location of where you are taking those photos!!!
:trollface:
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Thank you for the kind words, everybody :D
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The coupler boxes I ordered from Shapeways (see https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=41240.msg517370#msg517370 (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=41240.msg517370#msg517370)) arrived a few days ago. They look like this:
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922101140-305922181.jpeg)
Nice, don't you think? 8)
The boxes are easily attached to the cars, using the original mounting screws and holes. They only need to be countersunk for the screws to not later interfere with the coupler shank. Here is one of the boxes test fitted on one of the cars.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922101145-30593255.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922101149-305941900.jpeg)
So now I need to figure out how to install my Protocraft Clouser couplers in the pockets.
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Woah those look really nice! Have you soaked them in Bestine to remove the wax coating (so they can be painted)?
Ed
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Have you soaked them in Bestine to remove the wax coating (so they can be painted)?
No, not yet. Actually, I was just trying to figure out what to use. Bestine is not a brand that is locally available, so I need to find something similar. Do you happen to now what Bestine is exactly (chemically)? Wikipedia says 'heptane', whatever that is :?
EDIT: Come to think of it, Patrick, the guy who designed the boxes said this in an earlier e-mail: "I clean my models with hot soap and water, dish washing soap works well. Let air dry and prime and paint". Sounds easy enough.
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I just discovered this thread; it ranks right up there along with the very best of the best.
As one who also dabbles in 0 scale, I find it interesting that you opted to do North American trains; I have gone the other route, and am focusing on German railroads. One "lok" and 6 cars...
Your work is both inspiring and intimidating... :)
Mark in Oregon
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I use simple green (available at any big box store for 3-4$ a bottle) at 100% concentration to clean the wax off shapeways prints... let it soak for 30 minutes to an hour and scrub with a soft toothbrush, repeat if necessary.
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Your work is ... intimidating... :)
Ha ha, that was not my intention. Sorry :facepalm: :D :D
I use simple green ... let it soak for 30 minutes to an hour and scrub with a soft toothbrush, repeat if necessary.
Here in Sweden Simple Green seems to be targeted towards cleaning businesses only, and need to be ordered online if I want any :x So I think I will start with something even simpler, hot water and ordinary dishing soap. There is not much wax to begin with, and most of it is inside the box which I will probably not paint anyway. Thanks for the tip though :) Much appreciated.
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So I think I will start with something even simpler, hot water and ordinary dishing soap. There is not much wax to begin with
Doesn't take much wax to ruin a paint job. Anyways if you can find it the bestine/heptane [1] is pretty simple to use: I just put some in a jar w/lid and let the parts soak for 24 hours and then air dry. (I have left them soaking for up to two weeks and it doesn't seem to bother the FUD material. The 'no rinse, no scrub' part is great when you have intricate and/or delicate parts.)
Ed
[1] might be available in hardware or art stores, sometimes is sold as a rubber cement solvent.
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Lennart,
I used this stuff on my FXD, and it worked great.
(http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc84/dff21901/20161229_194919.jpg)
There was no wax left over. I merely dropped it in for a couple of days (I forgot about it, really), and there was no scrubbing necessary. I washed the model with dishwashing soap and water to clean any remaining crayon/wax remover off, and it's done. It's funny, because it comes out still looking translucent but turns the desired opaque white in a day or two after it dries.
If you can't find this product, you probably could use any crayon/wax remover. Oh, and it smells like Goo Gone, so, since others have reported success with that product, you could try that, too. These products ought to be much safer than Bestine or heptane.
Hope this helps,
DFF
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Anyways if you can find it the bestine/heptane [1] is pretty simple to use
I used this stuff (crayon/wax remover) on my FXD, and it worked great.
OK, I decided to not yet give up the "chemical way" for the "soapy way".
Here goes.
After some intense googling I finally understood that what is called heptane in this country is what normally sells under a name that literally translates to "chemical gasoline". So if I go out and ask for heptane the latter is what I would get. Problem is that "chemical gasoline" is something with Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) number 64742-49-0. This while Bestine includes something else that is also called heptane but with CAS number 142-82-5. Turns out the stuff with that number is what is what "we" call n-Heptane (as in normal Heptane). But that stuff does not seem to be available in this country anymore. Found on some list of banned substances.
I guess I could get some of that chemical gasoline stuff, easy enough, but I got somewhat disenchanted, and did not feel like following through on the heptane track.
Instead I decided to see what I already had at home that might do the trick. First out was something we call "T red" which is mainly denatuared etanol. This stuff is good for a lot of things, except drinking :facepalm:, and as it turned out, removing wax from FUD prints. Nothing happened when I soaked my coupler boxes in "T red".
Next I tried another alcohol, namely isopropyl alcohol, also called isopropanol or dimethyl carbinol. This stuff at least started to solve the wax, but after an hour or so the surface of the FUD started to take on a rather "too frosty" look so I did not dare continue.
Last in my little test was white spirit, also know as mineral spirits or mineral turpentine, or generically, "paint thinner". And Bingo! :D So far this looks good. The wax seems to solve and disappear. And the frosty look caused by the isopropanol seems to go away as well. I can see that now when I dared throw the whole batch of boxes into the white spirit.
Thanks everybody for all the great tips, but for now I think white sprits is doing the trick for me.
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If you can get your hands on an ultrasonic cleaner, get one. I have had success putting my parts in one and running it a couple of cycles using hot water and dish soap. Once the water stays clear thru a cycle, all wax is dissolved. I do give it a hand by soaking parts in Naptha for a couple hours before doing the ultrasonic route, but have done just the UC route and get good results.
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If you can get your hands on an ultrasonic cleaner, get one.
I don't think I can. Not easily anyway. But I remember my father having access to one before he retired. He used it for private suff on ocassions, such an old and dirty wristwatch he inherited from his father. Can't remember if that one worked out well or not though :)
P.S. My coupler boxes looks clean enough after the white spirit, then a rinse in "T red" and followed by last rinse in water.
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I don't think I can. Not easily anyway. But I remember my father having access to one before he retired. He used it for private suff on ocassions, such an old and dirty wristwatch he inherited from his father. Can't remember if that one worked out well or not though :)
P.S. My coupler boxes looks clean enough after the white spirit, then a rinse in "T red" and followed by last rinse in water.
Aren't they like, $30 on Amazon? I think @Lemosteam got one there.
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Aren't they like, $30 on Amazon?
OK, I did not know that. But right now I don't need any :D
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After having test fitted one of the coupler boxes on a car it was time to figure out how the couplers should be installed in the boxes.
For starters, I inserted a shim at the top inside of the box. This would not only lower the coupler to the correct height but would also make the coupler shank clear the upper "lip" at the box opening, As a bonus the shim, which was made out of .75 mm styrene, also added to the thickness of the top part of the box. Which would be good for the screw threads to come. Here are two of the boxes and the styrene shims to be glued in place inside the boxes. The shims could be no longer than that, or they would foul one of the box mounting screws. In the picture below the boxes are upside down, so the shim would go at the "bottom" in the picture.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922101432-305951188.jpeg)
Next I drilled and tapped a hole in the box for the coupler mounting screw (the smaller hole in the picture below). I also drilled a matching hole in the coupler shank, and shortened the shank. The latter so that I would get sufficient coupler swing inside the box, although the mounting screw is offset towards one end of the shank.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922101447-30596359.jpeg)
And here the coupler is in place in the box (and still everything is upside down in the picture).
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922101452-305971933.jpeg)
As can be seen the coupler is no longer in its pristine brass state. This since it has been "blackened" in vinegar. I searched the net for ways of blackening brass, and found acetic acid, better known as vinegar. Since vinegar is easy enough to obtain I decided to try it. It did the job, but it was not a fast process. I think the coupler sat in the vinegar for 10 days or a fortnight, but eventually it changed color.
Here the complete assembly has been test fitted on one of the cars.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922101505-30598112.jpeg)
And last, the compulsory comparison to the stock coupler.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922101510-3059927.jpeg)
Next is painting and weathering.
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Do you have a link to any larger images? I'm only getting 480x321 which is hard to see the details.
Did the vinegar etching have any noticeable effect on the operating surfaces of the coupler, and do the pin & knuckle still operate smoothly? I recall once trying to darken one of those brass couplers with some kind of chemical blackener, but it was a disaster. It came out so nasty looking I didn't even want to handle it - like something that leaked out of an old battery. But from what I can see so far, yours is looking pretty good.
Ed
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OK, I decided to not yet give up the "chemical way" for the "soapy way".
Here goes.
After some intense googling I finally understood that what is called heptane in this country is what normally sells under a name that literally translates to "chemical gasoline". So if I go out and ask for heptane the latter is what I would get. Problem is that "chemical gasoline" is something with Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) number 64742-49-0. This while Bestine includes something else that is also called heptane but with CAS number 142-82-5. Turns out the stuff with that number is what is what "we" call n-Heptane (as in normal Heptane). But that stuff does not seem to be available in this country anymore. Found on some list of banned substances.
Whenever the subject of Bestine/Heptane availability comes up, I recommend using Naphtha as a substitute. Ronsonol lighter fluid (for the old-fashion Zippo lighters) is Naphtha. Ronsonol lighter fluid should be available worldwide.
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Do you have a link to any larger images? I'm only getting 480x321 which is hard to see the details.
Yes, here:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV4sReO_KNWh9PTpZu2R7K3H9OQfAtd0fMRpM9BnO5i6nFn9IYXzx8hx6W8uDNbgLRmzylsbxX8k_N2K6Kbl2fcygl9zSHDPfU5GjJuqwyut1y-DsVUxliyOHh9J4vtQRaNUWqcd7-sYevVKEActLGtZaJFAA4qgSrEMYo_j0vHR6aAD0Q1VoOADwT/s16000/IMG_3803.JPG (https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV4sReO_KNWh9PTpZu2R7K3H9OQfAtd0fMRpM9BnO5i6nFn9IYXzx8hx6W8uDNbgLRmzylsbxX8k_N2K6Kbl2fcygl9zSHDPfU5GjJuqwyut1y-DsVUxliyOHh9J4vtQRaNUWqcd7-sYevVKEActLGtZaJFAA4qgSrEMYo_j0vHR6aAD0Q1VoOADwT/s16000/IMG_3803.JPG)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguzzQ1Gl1J1pSxRmUfj1PiS2s85v1I-LAw9fMBDM4zpiBD2MOGgAtrQ7Nmfid8RR-wO4vWCDjN5A-hF6nUJQi4YnzTgU9cQk2IZzl-ljU8dCqDF4_PDnYQbH-tF6thkfkbodn_H-5iLW1O-vBRIZEXhA5v3fzMcJmeg1i8ERu56nehT6P9ffsMhMZr/s16000/IMG_3811.JPG
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5sZHmFKfnuqjXlCjoNYsvR-u3yJHhsphOpGUPM2xBTBFPkC-OSRXLoflgVKuGiKhQvEyZwM2Xf4JkMTT10G2nQHuNZJbmmieN7iPaJFSylAdHEfrDkKIwomWnCxjUEyGkGqrYUVHT1Zn4la6nAwwB2pSW-i_9_U1mQJ-1QQyoU7qbfuOp8uaQevkJ/s16000/IMG_3812.JPG
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRK4YaUypnmKxEuORhBXlD64MqxtWMiISDuI4Y-m-MUrxuHA4jtAJ76bHFB03m9wOERNQBbtIWVqKqIJ0vTL0iASDJbzr0GZctZMg-rLNvf2nf2xNTxeJxaPFjWSQ7ZnbH_0oVSsSVk5hBUdYEVCBj2vS735zDJn8RGtmfduVfroQcgM5qqE-QOVBG/s16000/IMG_3804.JPG
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB7Mlw2Rpu4bQG4fZdQIAAtfdmbgYpR1gpxBxUzbuyzwXNZ_FdBJLweUr6eh3A--HnMB1hxQtNuaOix3yqKWdXRyGtMxjzBi2YoLmcY52TAjDwlxjV7efGqBenwN1eZUrWEqPit8sw9slMCCuqy6ep_T7i5aVPVsz_osPL5_S7UJH-36kP93WTVPCs/s16000/IMG_3808.JPG
Did the vinegar etching have any noticeable effect on the operating surfaces of the coupler, and do the pin & knuckle still operate smoothly?
No, they still operate smoothly. Here is a video (sorry, you see more of my fingers than of the coupler :facepalm:)
https://vimeo.com/212368607 (https://vimeo.com/212368607)
Ronsonol lighter fluid should be available worldwide.
Thanks for the tip. But Ronsonol seems not to be available here. Not easily anyway. For instance, a google search for "buy ronsonol", with "buy" in Swedish results in zero hits. How about that? I guess there are other brands of lighter fluid though. I'm not a smoker so I don't know.
Anyway, I ended up using White Spirits which I assume is a naphta like product. And that worked just fine.
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About vinegar: I first tried vinegar on a single coupler, the one shown in the pictures above. Once I saw that test turning out well I put the rest of them in vinegar as well. That was about a week ago, but when I checked on the couplers today its seems as if very little has happened. Strange :?
One reason could be that the first one was soaking in ordinary household vinegar, the kind used when mixing a Vinaigrette for your salad. For the next, larger, batch I still use a household vinegar, but with a little more strength and mainly intended for making pickles and such. I thought that would speed things up.
I can't explain why the second batch seems to be a failure. In both cases the active ingredient is acetic acid. Anyway, I have now moved the rest of the couplers to the first kind of vinegar. In a week or so I hope to be able to report if anything has started to happen or not.
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The coupler boxes have now been painted and installed on the cars. My local hobby shop did not carry any colors that were matches to the car ATSF and BN colors. I took some colors I think will do once the boxes have been weathered. Coupler box colors are not always the same as the car, and if they are tend to be rather rusty and dirty anyway. So I think I'm good :)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922103445-306001287.jpeg)
Instead of starting on the weathering I could not resist first trying to create a cut lever and test it out. I bent some music wire according to the instructions that came with the Protocraft couplers. Here is a short video (the spike will eventually be cut shorter):
https://vimeo.com/212455960 (https://vimeo.com/212455960)
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Lennart,
That's awesome! Seems like a lot of work, but I might consider something like those couplers for my On30 fleet. Now, one might say they'd be oversized for a narrow gauge line, but the ET&WNC was known for using standard gauge couplers mounted at standard gauge height, so that the road could switch narrow gauge and standard gauge cars.
DFF
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Seems like a lot of work, but I might consider something like those couplers for my On30 fleet.
Thanks @davefoxx. Yes a lot of work, but I like it. Remember, this is a very small layout with a very limited number of cars. Otherwise, I wouldn't know...
...the ET&WNC was known for using standard gauge couplers mounted at standard gauge height, so that the road could switch narrow gauge and standard gauge cars.
Interesting! What did their dual gauge track look like? I assumed dual gauge track had one rail in common for both gauges, leaving a three-rail track. But if the same coupler was used for both gauges, that would not be possible, since the coupler would be offset from the center for one of them. Or did the ET&WNC use a four-rail track?
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The ET&WNC's locomotives had special couplers that could pivot to each side to couple regardless of which side of the dual gauge track the locomotive was on. Normal three-rail dual gauge track.
DFF
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Fascinating. Like this?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/willysmb44/On30/11Coupler_zps4fd80ae4.jpg)
I'd love to see that feature modeled! :D
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Coupler box colors are not always the same as the car
The prototype doesn't really have a coupler box like our models do. It's built in as part of the car's center sill. For hoppers they usually are painted along with the rest of the carbody, bottom bays, bolsters, etc. But yes, they often get so grimy that it is hard to tell the actual color:
http://www.mellowmike.com/Prototypes/2bay_axle.jpg
http://trainiax.net/photos/2012/2012-04-02-mma/photo-crdx20451-6-2012-04-02-mma.JPG
I could not resist first trying to create a cut lever and test it out. I bent some music wire according to the instructions that came with the Protocraft couplers. Here is a short video (the spike will eventually be cut shorter):
Wow, that looks (and works) fantastic! Makes me want to pause my layout building and go do a few of my O scale cars (they are still waiting on the new P:48 trucks, which now look like they could be available by June/July).
How does it work with the coupler swing? You won't actually need too much there, since your track is mostly tangent and you've got a prototypically-long turnout.
Ed
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Very cool Lennart! I look forward to the video of your first switching session. :lol:
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Fascinating. Like this?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v214/willysmb44/On30/11Coupler_zps4fd80ae4.jpg)
I'd love to see that feature modeled! :D
That's it! I'd like to figure it out in O scale, too!
DFF
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How does it work with the coupler swing? You won't actually need too much there, since your track is mostly tangent and you've got a prototypically-long turnout.
No, I do not need much swing. I did as you said you had done - not tightening the screw through the shank too much. Enough so that it does not swing by itself, but loose enough so that it can swing if forced by the coupler of another car.
I fished one more coupler out of the vinegar bath and fitted it on another car, just to make some coupling and uncoupling tests. Turned out that the swing caused by first coupling on tangent track and then uncoupling on the diverging route of the turnout was enough to make the cars not couple when rolled back to tangent track again without touching the couplers. The couplers need to be quite accuratly aligned for them to mate, at least if only one of them is open. They are not that forgiving as I had anticipated. It might perhaps help with some graphite where the knuckles meet. Or loosening the screws a bit. More testing and tuning required.
Another thing that is a bit surprising is that it is not necessarily good with a coupler pin that drops back by itself too easy, as it does for the coupler in the video in my earlier post. That coupler has a tendency to close by itself while the car is rolling, making it necessary to manually open it again before coupling. Surprises everywhere!
Very cool Lennart! I look forward to the video of your first switching session. :lol:
Thanks Gary. Actually, it did just happen, as described above. But "sans video" :D
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I have finished the coupler install for the hoppers, also adding a few details such as cut levers and air hoses, and wrapping it up with some weathering.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922103848-30601271.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922103852-306022264.jpeg)
I have also begun thinking about how to install Clouser couplers on the engine. So far I have made some tests to figure out how to get the proper height.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922103855-30603583.jpeg)
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I built a front coupler box for my SD-40, from pieces of styrene. A little askew, but you get the idea :lol:
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922112806-30604935.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922112811-30606104.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922112959.jpeg)
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That loco really looks a whole lot better with the oversized gap in the pilot filled in. And I gotta say too, I really like to look of the proto-scale wheels -- another big improvement over the OOB.
Can't wait to see what this guy looks like after it's painted and weathered. Have you decided on a paint scheme?
Ed
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Can't wait to see what this guy looks like after it's painted and weathered. Have you decided on a paint scheme?
Yes, I have more or less settled on this ATSF scheme http://railpictures.net/photo/585297/ (http://railpictures.net/photo/585297/)
A fairly easy scheme, I hope, and I like the contrast beween the yellow and the blue :) Besides the Santa Fe Warbonnet livery was even known among us kids in Sweden when I was growing up, and stood as a symbol of contemporary American railroading. So I guess that might play a role as well.
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Does this look like the right decal set:
http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MD&Product_Code=48-17&Category_Code=ATSF
Ed
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Does this look like the right decal set:
http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=MD&Product_Code=48-17&Category_Code=ATSF
Ed
Thanks Ed. Yes, I think that is the right one. It is the one I was planning to use, so it better be right :facepalm:
I have also started looking for paint, but paint is tough to compare on-line. So far candidates are
Vallejo
71.004 Azul Blue
71.002 Amarillo Medio Medium Yellow
http://cdn.acrylicosvallejo.com/e33c56b715c0ac19f96a599a7fde2fb3/CC071-Rev18.pdf (http://cdn.acrylicosvallejo.com/e33c56b715c0ac19f96a599a7fde2fb3/CC071-Rev18.pdf)
70.925 Azul Intenso Blue
70.915 Amarillo Intenso Deep Yellow
http://cdn.acrylicosvallejo.com/2d567ed91fb58cdc74108685395ac19a/CC070-Rev14.pdf (http://cdn.acrylicosvallejo.com/2d567ed91fb58cdc74108685395ac19a/CC070-Rev14.pdf)
Both types look OK and more or less the same on the Vallejo charts, but the latter two looks far better when viewed on the web page of my LHS.
Other candidates are Tru-Color
20 Santa Fe ATSF Blue
http://trucolorpaint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/tcp2.pdf (http://trucolorpaint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/tcp2.pdf)
21 Santa Fe ATSF Yellow
http://trucolorpaint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/tcp1.pdf (http://trucolorpaint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/tcp1.pdf)
Anyone done a Santa Fe scheme with these colors? Or know of any other better matches?
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Id go with the trucolor paints, they are easy to apply and are a almost perfect match. I say almost because nothing is ever perfect lol.
I cant wait to see the locomotive when it is done!
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Id go with the trucolor paints
As suspected, paint counts as a hazardous item and cannot be shipped internationally. Not by well known dealers like Walthers anyway. :trollface: You can find e-bay listings stating international shipping, but then the shipping costs are outrageous. Seems like Tru-Color is out.
So I guess I will try the Vallejo. But do not expect any thing to happen anytime soon. I 'm not ready to start painting yet.
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Nothing has happened on the layout for a long time, but a few days ago I felt like making a few bushes. Here is how.
I bent the ends of short pieces of wire into a loop (or something almost a loop). I then dabbed the ends in white glue and sprinkled some static grass fibers over them, while gently rotating the wire between my fingers. The wires were then set aside for the glue to set
When the glue had set I sprayed the fibres with hair spray (but any spray adhesive would of course do) and sprinkled on Noch 2.5 mm Scatter Grass. For some bushes I used "Forest Floor" and for others i used "Meadow". Some got a combination of both.
The pictures below shows the procedure.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922113520-306081979.jpeg)
I then planted the bushes at various locations around the layout.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922113524-306091308.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922113530-30610124.jpeg)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/30/2371-210922113534-30611941.jpeg)
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Nothing has happened on the layout for a long time
:(
Bump?
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Thanks for asking @ednadolski. I saw this today! Bump? Yes, sort of. First I took a break from trains and layout modeling, wanting to try something else. Like this for instance:
https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235045759-hitachi-zaxis-135us-excavator-hasegawa-135/ (https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235045759-hitachi-zaxis-135us-excavator-hasegawa-135/)
https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235040914-a-diorama-with-a-nostalgic-touch/&tab=comments#comment-3087912 (https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235040914-a-diorama-with-a-nostalgic-touch/&tab=comments#comment-3087912)
Secondly, I hit some health problems which more or less have kept me completely off modeling for some time. So in the end, I have not checked in a TRW lately. Until today, that is, when I got the urge to find out what's happening. :)
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Nice work! Sorry to hear about your health difficulties, but hopefully things are on the upswing.
Always glad to see your modeling updates, too. 8)
Ed
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That excavator and this layout is excellent!
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Due to an upcoming move this layout had to go and is now dismantled. :(
Below, on its way to destruction...
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/24/medium_2371-260621083034.jpeg) (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=24393)
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/24/medium_2371-260621083059.jpeg) (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=24394)
Apart from the rollings stock, I saved two items. The old barn and the turnout that started it all.
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/24/medium_2371-260621083717.jpeg) (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=24395)
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So sorry to see it go, but glad to see the turnout and barn struct being preserved. You never can tell, they could serve as a starting point for the next cool thing ;)
Ed
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Ooh, I’d like to say she was calling me, but she wasn’t…
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Sorry to hear this. Will there be an opportunity for a new layout at your destination?
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I’m glad you posted of its demise or probably would have never seen this thread. I’m contemplating in my head how to make a small O scale layout much like this one. I’ll be bookmarking this thread. Thanks and good luck with the move.
Greg
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Will there be an opportunity for a new layout at your destination?
Can’t really tell yet. Negotiations have not yet started. :) But some sort of modeling will happen.
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But some sort of modeling will happen.
Nice! If you're thinking of something small+unique+gp9+Nscale then this might be worth considering: ;)
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locopicture.aspx?id=40783
Ed
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Interesting paint scheme! Cow unit? Why?
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Interesting paint scheme! Cow unit? Why?
Likely a reference to the Tillamook dairy co-op
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Likely a reference to the Tillamook dairy co-op
Yep, IIRC it was the only unit ever painted like that, so it would make a pretty unique model.
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Otherwise I thought I would try some 600 mm gauge track in O scale (more or less On2). Note the lack of tie plates 😀
(https://www.therailwire.net/forum/gallery/24/medium_2371-270621161746.jpeg) (https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?action=gallery;sa=view;id=24437)
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Note the lack of tie plates 😀
(https://media.tenor.com/images/566837eba034cef161f09e090d191bb1/tenor.gif)
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”Kill your darlings” :facepalm: