Weekend Update 10/7/18

[mark dance]

My suggestion is a relatively simple one. I use HO scale diesel bells for the lampshades. I just drill them out and insert pre-wired 0402 LEDs. That's it.

I'll see if I have any photos--not sure that I do.

cool! I have been using the pre-"drilled" N scale lampshades (from Grandt Line?) but will check out the bells too as they will give a nicer profile.

thx!

md

[Dave V]

I made a little progress on the Rio Grande Southern...

...at Ophir (Bridge 45A),



(Please ignore the blue water...it was wet gloss medium that has since dried clear!)

...at Windy Point:





...and at Placerville:





And just for Schnitzengiggles I painted up and old Rail Line D&RGW 3000-series boxcar I built in high school (it needed a better paint job anyway) after Malcolm Furlow's San Juan Central RR boxcar #46.  This car appears in several photos in his series and book.  Mine's a little less beat up, but even in Malcolm's world the 46 was one of the more "pristine" of the SJC's rolling stock.  It might have been SJC's only car without a significant swayback.

[BCR 570]

Mark:

Given the size of the structure, I am wondering what the risk of warpage in the walls is and what steps you may have taken to avoid it?  my two freight sheds will be 140 feet long and the risk of warpage concerns me.


This morning I went down to the Lynden, WA train show with three friends and scored a second Atlas Hooker Chemicals tank car and another Alloy Forms forklift for my lumber mill.  During this past week I completed the fuel tanks for my next three locomotives:




From L to R:  2000 gallon fuel tank for CN 3218 (MLW C-424), 3300 gallon fuel tank for BCR 722 (M-630) and 3300 gallon fuel tank for BCR 727 (M-630W).


Tim

[chuck geiger]

Dave V. where is the +25 button! I believe this was a town on John Allen's G&D!

And just for Schnitzengiggles I painted up and old Rail Line D&RGW 3000-series boxcar......

[unittrain]

Another bridge build n the works.

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[learmoia]

4020 and 4021 are almost ready for a finishing coat. I'm trying to adjust the sheen to match the Rapido sleeper car

Why not just get another Rapido car and paint it to match the rest...

Did you paint the truck side frames on the Es?

~Ian

[mark dance]

Mark:

Given the size of the structure, I am wondering what the risk of warpage in the walls is and what steps you may have taken to avoid it?  my two freight sheds will be 140 feet long and the risk of warpage concerns me.

Tim

Hi Tim...a valid concern however I am not overly worried.  In other large buildings, like the 200' long Nelson station or 160' long freightshed, I could use simple central spines or internal walls to keep things stiff and square but of course that option is not as feasible in an open structure like the diesel house.  I have to rely on other design elements just like the prototype did.

The model is based on 3/4" ply and to this a laser cut 20 thou thick floor is attached.  About 50 thou above this is a sub floor and 1/4" above that is a ground floor...both again laser cut.  Then there are the walkways 1/2" above that and finally the trussed roofs which are 1" to 2" above the walkways...again all laser cut.  All of these 5 elements have tightly fitting slots into which the innermost and outermost layers of the 5 layer walls mate.  This should hold them square and true at the top and bottom and several points in between.  The biggest risk I think is the roof elements and I am working through a way of holding these elements nice and flat as part of making them removable for access (and possibly ops).

thx for asking and Happy Thanksgiving!

md

[Iain]

Some 1:1 scale steam.  This weekend, I'm an oiler on the SS Jeremiah O'Brien.  Incidently, this is where they filmed the engine room scenes for Titanic.

[eja]

Cool ...

[BCR 570]

Thx Mark - hard to believe it is Thanksgiving already!

More progress tonight on CN 3218 - got the new battery boxes installed under the walkway port side:




And test fitted onto mechanism with new fuel tank, which was a good thing as I discovered  had to notch the foremost battery box slightly to clear the fuel tank:




Now for the hard part - removing the original battery boxes before and after the cab, and repairing the damage.


Tim

[narrowminded]

  The biggest risk I think is the roof elements and I am working through a way of holding these elements nice and flat as part of making them removable for access.

I wonder if the carbon fiber sheets available to airplane modelers would be useful.  They might have the dimensional stability needed.

And I love what's been done this far. 

[mark dance]

I wonder if the carbon fiber sheets available to airplane modelers would be useful.  They might have the dimensional stability needed.

yes possibly...an interesting idea.

Although it is a risk the laminated laser cut walls are laying very near flat so far and once attached should be no issue.

The laser cut roof elements need to be removable anyways and I think I have a way of allowing that which will snug them down flat and pass electicity to the interior LEDs as well. Just started working on this and will mock it up when I get home next week...

thx for the brain cycles on this!

md

[fcnrwy23]

The Nelson diesel house model continues to come together

WOW... 

Jerry G.

[bbeegle]

Unittrain, I really like that bridge. Where would you get the HO bells that DKS is talking about? Thanks,Brian 

[Mark W]

The Nelson diesel house model continues to come together

A very distinctive feature of the prototype were large, window-hung space heaters whose profiles were readily discernible through the shop windows.  Really these should have been 3D printed but I didn't feel like investing the time to figure out the 3D design sw when I would rather be building the diesel house.  Instead I just cut the heater profiles out of foam core and added a few styrene details.  After painting this gave passable results...

I just love this, Mark!  Perfect example of scratchbuilding before and after paint. 



I spent some more time tinkering with buildings in Marsland.
Roof access, a pair of skylights, and a new color scheme.


https://i.imgur.com/HzgRupm.jpg


Added an awning, some roof details, and a side exit.


https://i.imgur.com/HP44c1g.jpg


This one has been a long time wish list model.  I caught these cats back in 2014 and instantly wanted to model a similar load some day.


https://i.imgur.com/a3FgF6j.jpg


Deciding to put a heavy equipment distributor in Marsland sparked me to throw this together.


https://i.imgur.com/IH0aE2x.jpg