Weekend Update 2/26/17

[Missaberoad]

Wish they were still making some of their sawmill line of kits. If they are in production, they are certainly hard to find.

I stand to be corrected but according to RLW's website they are still available...

https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028300
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028235
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028250
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028295
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028225N
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028220N
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028240
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028255
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028230

[basementcalling]

I stand to be corrected but according to RLW's website they are still available...

https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028300
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028235
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028250
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028295
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028225N
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028220N
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028240
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028255
https://www.republiclocomotiveworks.com/show_item.php?Item=RLW%2028230

I guess I stand corrected. I wonder if they changed their marketing strategy and went to direct sales, as MB Kleins doesn't even list them as an N scale manufacturer on their site, and Pete Postel's BLW site has a listing for them, but it's looked like this for a number of years now.

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[wazzou]

I'm going to replace the chip loader shown with the wood chip loading bin kit I just received from RLW. 

@coldriver Dean, do you mean the enclosed one that is meant to be a truck loading bunker?  For loading railcars, I think you're on the correct path with what you have now.

[BCR751]

I stand to be corrected but according to RLW's website they are still available...

Thanks for posting that,Ryan.  It looks to be a top-notch kit.  Unfortunately, it precedes by era by about 30 years 

Doug

[BCR 570]

Doug:

I think I have an RLW chip loader stashed away; I'll see if I can dig it out and photograph it for you.  it is one of the large overhead hopper types - most of our mills on the BCR had a blowpipe coming into a gantry, sometimes with a spill shroud suspended above the car.  That is what I am seeing in the aerial photos of Chetwynd and Dawson Creek.  The one at Chetwynd for Canfor was a twin track affair.

Tim

[coldriver]

@coldriver Dean, do you mean the enclosed one that is meant to be a truck loading bunker?  For loading railcars, I think you're on the correct path with what you have now.

Thanks Bryan - in all my research I swear I'd seen examples of that type of loader being used for railcars as well, but I'll be damned if I can remember where.  Clearly, even if such an animal exists, it's by far in the minority.  I've got a box plant I'm hoping to build some day that will use trucks for chip shipping - I'll save it for that!

[coldriver]

Thanks for posting that,Ryan.  It looks to be a top-notch kit.  Unfortunately, it precedes by era by about 30 years 

Doug

Should mention that my recent direct order from RLW took about three weeks to fill and that was only after some follow-up prompting... 

[BCR751]

Doug:

I think I have an RLW chip loader stashed away; I'll see if I can dig it out and photograph it for you.  it is one of the large overhead hopper types - most of our mills on the BCR had a blowpipe coming into a gantry, sometimes with a spill shroud suspended above the car.  That is what I am seeing in the aerial photos of Chetwynd and Dawson Creek.  The one at Chetwynd for Canfor was a twin track affair.

Tim

A photo would be great.

The majority of chip loaders in BC, particularly in the north, were the piped in product and the large shroud that, in most cases, covered the entire chip car.  The nozzle that sprayed the chips into the car swung back and forth while discharging the chips so as to cover the entire car for an even load.  There were three such units here in Terrace when we first moved here but they're now all gone, and I don't have any photos, dammit. I do have plans to construct one with a much smaller hood/shroud.  I built that one and, if you remember, it was displayed on a piece of test track on the wall behind my work bench.  I can send you a photo of that one if you wish.

Do you have any plans for building one of the beehive burners?

Doug

[wazzou]

Yeah, being in the timber industry for over twenty years and having been in nearly every mill in the US PNW, I can say with some certainty that those bunker type bins are for trucks only.
In fact, if you look at the photo on RLW's website, you can see that a chip car wouldn't fit under it as built without raising the structure.  The bin doors are actually inside of the car.
Those prototype bins are varied in size and capacity is measured in units.
The capacity of that bin would be more than a trailer load when full but much less than a carload.
A sawmill relies on a regular removal of the chips or risk shutdown due to plugged bunkers.
Imagine if the railroad didn't deliver cars on a regular schedule.

[BCR 570]

A photo would be great.

The majority of chip loaders in BC, particularly in the north, were the piped in product and the large shroud that, in most cases, covered the entire chip car.  The nozzle that sprayed the chips into the car swung back and forth while discharging the chips so as to cover the entire car for an even load.  There were three such units here in Terrace when we first moved here but they're now all gone, and I don't have any photos, dammit. I do have plans to construct one with a much smaller hood/shroud.  I built that one and, if you remember, it was displayed on a piece of test track on the wall behind my work bench.  I can send you a photo of that one if you wish.

Do you have any plans for building one of the beehive burners?

Doug

Someone has posted a photo of the RLW loader above, and it appears from others' comments that these were for trucks and not railcars.  I will be building the gantry with blowpipe and shroud versions but as of right now I do not have any reference photographs other than the aerials.  Andy Thomas had one of the loader at Taylor but he is now in New Zealand.

For my two burners I am planning to get the basic cone printed and then sheath it with metal siding which has been weathered appropriately, and get the exterior trusswork etched.  I have good reference photos of the burner at Bear Lake.  The burner at Dawson Creek was 78' in diameter so I will likely have to scale it down by about one third.  I haven't mapped out my mill at Chetwynd yet nor have I worked out the diameter of the burner, but it would be at least as large if not larger.  The one at Bear Lake was about 100' in diameter.

Tim

[nkalanaga]

The RLW style was used for by at least a few of the smaller Northwest mills for railcars, but you'd have to build taller supports.  Years ago, nobody worried if a few of the chips escaped, so no shrouds, and it didn't cost much to shove the car a few feet with a tractor, so they didn't need to fill the entire car at one location.

Today, I doubt that you'd find one loading railcars, unless it was at an old, and probably small, mill.  And most of those are out of business.

[fcnrwy23]

I have completed work the on MNSE's Port Bridge.

Here it is ready for the paint booth, first up a good coat of Primer! 





Our electrical work is humming right along!  With about 2/3's of the wiring completed. 

Up Date:   

The Bridge is now complete.  And ready for installation hopefully by tomorrow evening..




Jerry G.

[up1950s]

What a great lift bridge . That can't be the work table where it was born .

[btrain]

I've been busy screwing around this weekend with the layout and engines. First the good news, the first powered train rolled over the Route 20 bridge and stopped at the Bellevue passenger station. All the track is soldered on the first module (only 5 more to go !) and there are a few kinks and rail surfaces to be smoothed out, but the first milestone has passed!


Last weekend was an education in how delicate Shapeways material can be, but almost finished the decaling on the South Bolder Works H-10-44. For the chevron stripes I used Microscale's 1/16" yellow parallel stripes that was suggested by bman. It worked out brilliantly. But for every step forward...




Is two steps backwards. After letting Micro Sol do its work, I picked up the shell to wash it in the sink when my butter fingers started to act up, and the engine shell soon had a date with the floor.



Thank God for the LHS, I bought some styrene strips and was able to patch the chunk the great floor monster soon gobbled up. I plan on finishing up the engine this week.

[fcnrwy23]

What a great lift bridge . That can't be the work table where it was born .

Yes, IT IS!! 
It also has been the birthplace of many a project.  Like the recent Ballast Cleaner and Rail Grinding trains.  It is a pine, roll top, assemble it yourself, desk from K-Mart.  Purchased, 31 years ago... (I refinished the top about five years ago..  ).

The Lift Bridge, at Home!   
 

Along with the Re-Wiring, of the club layout.  The scenery is getting a long overdue makeover.  The fascia, will be redone as well...

Jerry G.