WM Western Lines Engineering Report

[Bob Bufkin]

Lee's got no incentive to change the road crossing.  After all, he also owns the tire dealership in Cumberland and makes money on ruined tires

[Ian MacMillan]

Lee's got no incentive to change the road crossing.  After all, he also owns the tire dealership in Cumberland and makes money on ruined tires

He also works for MDDOT and we all know that's a state union gig. Damn white hats!

[davefoxx]

So, Dave, how much time have you spent driving across grade crossings in small Pennsylvania towns?

I believe in the metropolitan suburbs they call this sort of thing a "traffic calming device"...

Still looks smoother than yours, but, whatever...  If you're happy, that's all that matters.

[davefoxx]

Heh, wouldn't be the first time I've heard this and, unfortunately, won't be the last.  A hazard of the job, I suppose.

[wm3798]

Since I pay so dearly for your retainer, I'll take a second look at it.  But only until Ed tells me it's too "model railroady"..

And Dr. Dave, I think I see the configuration I'll need for the crossbucks and flashers, too...  I'm thinking some sort of concrete foundation in the bend of the retaining wall to hold up a similar cantilever signal on the town side, and a simple crossbucks on the right.

Lee

[MichaelWinicki]

Nice crossing Lee.

Are you going to Dullcote the road surface?

[wm3798]

If you look at the left side, it's been hit with a few washes of grimy water to reasonably good effect.  The piece on the right has not yet received that treatment, but it will.  I need to decal the R R on the crossing markings first...

[MVW]

Rob's Silhouette paper windows are the absolute bomb.  It was such a simple and effective solution, no wonder it took six years to figure it out!

Lee

Lee or Rob, can you fill us in a little more regarding these "paper windows" of which you speak? If there was discussion earlier in the thread, I missed it. Sure do like the look, though!

Jim

[Zox]

Lee or Rob, can you fill us in a little more regarding these "paper windows" of which you speak? If there was discussion earlier in the thread, I missed it. Sure do like the look, though!

Jim

Basically, I made two-layer (dark red and light gray) cardstock panels, cutting the layers out individually with my Silhouette cutter to get a bit of depth (with the gray "inside" the red). Here's what I sent Lee:



I put a a peel-and-stick backing on them, as well as spray-painting the rear surface black to make them lightproof. (The multiple panels are simply convenient groupings for replication/assembly; there's no magic to them.)

Lee stuck the panels to his choice of "glass," cut the individual window sets out, and glued them in the window openings on his model.

As for the layout of the windows, Lee sent me a scanned set of building elevations, which I traced in CorelDraw to get vector outlines for the cutter. The finest muntins between the windowpanes were drawn at 0.2 scale feet thick, which is 2.4 scale inches or 0.015 actual inches--which sounds a bit thick, but that's how they scaled out on the elevations.

[wm3798]

As Rob said, I peeled and stuck the windows onto clear plastic, then carefully positioned it in the opening (no handy precast flange like on a Walthers kit.)
I then applied a dot of CA that would wick into the surface between the window and wall.

Next time, I'll plan a little better for the windows by making each unit more uniform.  Getting them positioned was a little dicey.  Fortunately, Rob provided a couple of extras.

I do need one more transom for the basement doors...  There's a doorway at the foot of the subway steps that didn't appear on the drawing.... same narrow one as the one on the far end of the building...
Lee

[MVW]

Excellent! Thanks for the rapid response, guys.

Jim

[Zox]

I do need one more transom for the basement doors...  There's a doorway at the foot of the subway steps that didn't appear on the drawing.... same narrow one as the one on the far end of the building...
Lee

Any others you need spares of, while I'm about it? I may be able to get this done tonight and in the mail tomorrow.

[wm3798]

I haven't started fooling with the dormers yet, but I may need a back up batch for them...they'll be a little trickier than the nice flat wall windows.

Also, is there a chance that those first floor warehouse doors can be attacked in styrene?  I don't have anything that comes close.

Lee

[Zox]

I haven't started fooling with the dormers yet, but I may need a back up batch for them...they'll be a little trickier than the nice flat wall windows.

Done, and ready to be mailed in the morning. A couple of the spare dormer windows didn't come out--there was a wrinkle in the tape, that kept them from cutting all the way through--but you'll have at least four extras of each kind (and two extra transom windows, in case you want to add a sub-basement).

Also, is there a chance that those first floor warehouse doors can be attacked in styrene?  I don't have anything that comes close.

Perhaps, but I'll have to experiment a bit. If you can find me a good high-res picture of the doors, it would be helpful--MR's drawings don't necessarily tell the whole story when you're dealing with relief.

[wm3798]

DKS has some detail photos that Jack Brown took back in the late 80's.  I haven't seen them yet, but there might be something to work with there.
Lee