Cumberland Station TTrak and Other Adventures

[DKS]

If you can scare up a 6' folding table, we're golden!  I'll assume you have a power pack or two floating around...

Not sure about the table (I'll come up with something), but I do have a bushel bin full of packs. Literally.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Not sure about the table (I'll come up with something), but I do have a bushel bin full of packs. Literally.

My DCC In a Box should be up and running by then too.

I also have a folding table I can bring along with enough corners to get the job done.

So, between us, we should be good to go, but the more the merrier. I can think of no better place to do this than DKS's living room.

[wm3798]

I have a folding table I can pull out of storage, but I think it's only a 4 footer...  Saw horses and plywood should be available at the jobsite, no?

[DKS]

Saw horses and plywood should be available at the jobsite, no?

Absolutely.

Along with beverages of preference. (Log your favorites now via PM, and they'll be at the ready.)

[randgust]

I think your bridge is just fine but if you're after a more 'interstate' look I'll show you what I did to mine.   Still a Rix bridge though.

I'm specifically modeling the 2-lane (new) overpass bridge at the west end of the Winslow yard.  It's on Google Earth.   Modern highway standards.

This is Rix piers, Rix deck, Rix underpinnings, and changing just the side guardrails/side supports with styrene and brass rod.   I used .060 thick styrene section, made a quick metal jig, and drilled a whole mess of .040x.040 square chunks for .020 K&S rod for the guardrails, then bent and glued those up.   Bent and sanded the shapes after it dried.   Works for me.   Mine's a little weird because it's curved to follow the backdrop right behind it.  Paint is Floquil Concrete with chalk weathering.    There's also a front-surface mirror in this shot, see if you can find it.

[wm3798]

I'd have to do that over about 30" of guard rails, keeping everything pretty precise to make it look good.
Seems like an obvious project for a 3-D printer...  I'll stick with what I have till something better comes along...

Lee

[randgust]

Normally I'd feel sympathetic, but I'm still in awe of your station work so you can't get an excuse from me by saying it's too tough.

I'll buy a deadline to get this presentable though!

Just really a fan of prototype modeling, and Ttrak, so watching this come together to this level has been great.  I've drive and walked that entire area many times.    I cabrode through there last summer, too.  I'm not sure that in your era it was a 'hangout' under the highway bridge, but it sure is now.   If Woodland Scenics has an 'unemployed millenials' set that's where to put them.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

They're not unemployed. They're "unpaid social media influencers".

[wm3798]

Time to listen to the ballgame.  Better tune in the radio...



Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Time to listen to the ballgame.  Better tune in the radio...

You've got to. Last time I was in Cumberland there was no cell service within 20 miles...

[wm3798]

Rho is out of town for a few days, so I have endeavored to occupy every square inch of the kitchen table, and stay up way past my bedtime...

But I must say, it's been worth the effort.

I started out by checking the street lights on the Cross Town Bridge, and after a little soldering, everything came on and glowed pleasantly when clipped to a 9v battery.



Next I set about to add some lighting to the Newspaper building behind the station.  I was fumbling around for something to mount the LEDs to, I started down my usual path of cast off track, but I really wanted to position the lamps first.  Then I remembered, I had a piece of leftover vinyl corner bead from a drywall project...  plastic, flat (when cut apart) and perforated...



If only a 3mm LED would fit in those little holes...



Eureka!

So after some soldering and hot gluing the new Polish Circuit Board into place, I had me another lit structure.



By now it was 2 a.m., so I set about to go to bed.  But of course, I couldn't resist.  I now had the bridge, the newspaper office, and of course the station all wired and ready to light, so I came up with a solution to my power supply conundrum.  I want to be able to switch the power between a 9v battery when power isn't available, and a 9v wall wart when it is.  So I gerry rigged a DPDT slide switch to look like a window air conditioner...



And I found a nice spot for the battery where it will be easy to change even when the module is hooked into a show setup.



The plan is to concoct a battery cozy that looks like a small building in an effort to camouflage my power source.  The switch alternates between the battery pack and an RCA plug (yet to be installed) that will accept an adapter rigged with the male end.  This is what I'll use to power the lights when the module is displayed in my office.

So yeah... Looks like I'm going to be mostly useless in the morning.  Oh wait.  It already is morning...  But as you can see...





It was totally worth it!

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Damn man.

Wanna come light up my chemical plant?

[DKS]

Wanna come light up my chemical plant?

Oooh. There's an offer you can't refuse. Big boy...

[Mark W]

By now it was 2 a.m., so I set about to go to bed.  But of course, I couldn't resist.  I now had the bridge, the newspaper office, and of course the station all wired and ready to light, so I came up with a solution to my power supply conundrum.  I want to be able to switch the power between a 9v battery when power isn't available, and a 9v wall wart when it is.  So I gerry rigged a DPDT slide switch to look like a window air conditioner...

Wow, absolutely love this!  Very clever thinking. 

[DKS]

Clearly the driver at the lower right spent a bit too much time at the Hard Hat...