Something from Nothing. Scenes salvaged from the Junkbox

[wm3798]

As noted elsewhere in these pages, a year or so ago I inquired of the collective if there were any old useless steam locomotives in the stacks of stuff under the layout that I might have for some experiments.  My objective was to challenge myself to see what I could come up with to make them something useful on the top of the layout.  I've reworked one little 0-4-0 that now runs regularly on my Retro Layout, so this is the Second effort from that assembled collection. 

I started with this old white box Bachmann 4-8-4 Northern type, which was sent to me by @jnevis  as a basket case with drivers that spin uselessly on their axles.


I tested it, and it made it around the loop one time before the loose drivers slipped out of quarter and the drive rods got all bound up.  On further investigation, I determined that there were no reasonable repairs to make, so I designated it for a scenery project to be named later.

[wm3798]

Finally, this summer I pulled it out of the drawer and started thinking about how I could put it good use.  I had done a nice scrap yard scene a number of years ago as part of a Railwire Challenge, so I have a nice warehouse building and some other details at the ready, but the Northern is pretty big, and it would have dominated that scene at the expense of several smaller engines I also have available.

A key to making a cool scrap yard scene is to have a variety of equipment visible, and having this monster in the way would just be too much.  So how could I make it work, since as a locomotive, it didn't work?

After doing my first TTrak set up in Altoona, it occurred to me that those module thrive on small, eye catching scenes that are sometimes fun and whimsical, sometimes highly detailed, sometimes downright "railroady".  Given the space limitations on the 14" deep modules, they also have to be pretty compact.

Also, while at N Scale Weekend, @Ed Kapuscinski , Ryan Lamm and I went to Cresson to the Railfan's Park there to watch the action near the top of the Alleghenies.  The park includes an elevated deck where foamers can ply their trade, complete with free parking and a trash can for Sheetz wrappers.  At once it clicked.  I needed to put the old Bachmann stalwart under glass in a Railfan's park.



I dug around the garage and found a suitable piece of scrap wood leftover from our bathroom remodel (the object of the project was to spend no money on anything new) and roughed out the scene.  My aim was to make a platform that could easily be dropped onto a module or installed on a more permanent layout, then blended into the scene.  Off to a good start.

Next, I needed to make the locomotive look more like a public display.  Last year I visited the Science Museum in Richmond, located in the old RF&P station on Broad Street.  They have a C&O Kanawah 2-8-4 displayed there, and I took some of my weathering ques from it.



Being a static display, all of the weathering is "top down"... no dust kicked up from moving drivers, no smoke residue, steam and oil residue...  Just dirt washed straight down the sides by rainfall.  The drive rods are painted an unnatural gray to protect the steel, which in better days was naked and oiled.  The paint job is tidy enough, but this old beast clearly doesn't get the attention of the more "Gee Whiz" stuff inside the Science Museum.


And so I began...
But first, I wanted to take care of some of the more glaring issues of this mass produced toy train.  The most obvious problem was the ride height of the tender.  It's a pretty nice looking Vanderbilt tank style, but sheesh, you could fly a helicopter under it.  So I removed the trucks, and filed down the bolsters molded to the tops of them, as well as the nubs they screw into.  I wasn't worried about clearances, this will never run again, so appearance was the goal.




I also took a dummy coupler, I think from an old MDC hopper kit, and used it to replace the Rapido box coupler at the back.  It would be weathered and painted, so I wasn't too worried that it lacked detail.  The object of the game is overall effect.



Next, we'll deal with the locomotive and start weathering.

Lee

[peteski]

Pretty clever - saw it in your other thread.

And Google (or the end user) strikes again. I can only see the first (locally hosted) photo.  Other (Google hosted) photos don't show up.  I see the typical for Google gray-color European-style "do not enter" signs instead.

[wm3798]

Ugh.  I'll see if I can reload them locally.  It just takes more time than it does to post a link...

[wm3798]

Moving right along.  I removed the shell so I could get some paint on the shiny wheels and drive rods of the locomotive.



I also popped the wheelsets out of the tender trucks so they could get painted as well.  I applied a thin mist of my usual blend of oxide red primer, black, and gray primer to put some grub on them hubs.  Then I took my acrylic flat paints, blended some light gray with a little bit of metallic silver to simulate the coating that seems to be on every display locomotive's drive rods and valve gear that I've seen.  This after I rotated the wheels into their final resting place and secured them with some CA from the back.



Once rigor mortis set in, and the drivers no longer spun on their hubs, I put the locomotive and tender back together so I could apply some weather to the shells.
Here's the "Before"



Using the @Ed Kapuscinski method, I applied several washes of dark grimy gray, rusty brown, and a little bit of white, thinned with cheap vodka for its evaporative properties, to tone down the shine, and show that vertical streaking of falling rain as seen on the Kanawha at Richmond.

With that underway, I next worked on building and weathering the section of track that would hold our display.  Using a similar blend of spray paint colors, then going back to highlight the ties with some black, the track was mounted to cork, which was mounted to the base.



And here's the basic installation.



More subtle than the weathering I would apply to a scrap yard scene, but enough to remind us that the volunteers still need your donations to keep up with the elements down at the park.

Next, we'll bring in the Parks and Rec guys to fluff up the creature comforts...

[wm3798]

In order to protect our old Iron Horse, we'll need to install a fence around it.  My first thought was to put a more attractive Atlas hairpin fence in, but decided that for our setting out by the tracks, it would probably be a good idea to put security above aesthetics, so I opted for a chain link fence to keep the rascals out, and the brass bell in.

There are some nice etched metal fence kits available, but if you know me, you know I'd rather invent than expend, so I started with some simple straight pins spaced 10 scale feet apart.



I used a piece of relatively soft pine for the base, so it was easy to press them into place using my handy bent-nose needlenose pliers.  If you don't have a set of these, you need one.



For fencing, again, I looked outside the realm of model railroad suppliers, and found this nice gray ribbon at Michael's.  For about $3.99 I got enough fencing to secure hundreds of N scale locomotives.  I like the way it looks in person, but it's not too shabby in photos, either.  The edge of the ribbon has a solid band about a millimeter thick, so I trim my height from the bottom so this can be the top edge.



I put some masking tape over the ribbon to measure and get a clean cut.  I made the fence 8 scale feet tall, using my handy NZT scale ruler!


(A little product placement never hurt anyone!)

Once marked, I use a good pair of scissors to get a clean cut.



Starting at one corner, I attached the end of the fence fabric to a post with CA, using a lite bead of it ... enough to secure it but not so much that it soaks through the fencing.  Once that corner is cured, I pull the fence tight to the opposite corner, then apply a little glue to each fence post, trying to keep the fabric as tight as possible as I go.  Once installed, I go back with the nippers and cut each post to length at the top of the fence.



In retrospect, depending on how the diorama will be displayed, I might keep the fence posts on the outside so you can see them from the front, but prototypically, the posts are usually on the same side of the fabric, usually the inside of an enclosure, so this is fine.  I left one short section open in the front so I could simulate a gate.



Maybe not quite as tidy as using a commercial kit, but given the fundraising efforts of those preservationists, they had to use the low bidder to install the fence...  There's a prototype for everything!



Next time, we'll put some details in the park.
Lee

[wazzou]

I know this is the preferred method of fencing for a lot of budget conscious modelers but the unwieldy bottom edge is always the deal breaker for me.
Have you ever experimented with a small wire bottom bar to see if the tension could be kept on the lower part?

[Point353]

Put that on a single-width T-Trak module and you've got an entry for Kato's module contest.

[Steveruger45]

I know this is the preferred method of fencing for a lot of budget conscious modelers but the unwieldy bottom edge is always the deal breaker for me.
Have you ever experimented with a small wire bottom bar to see if the tension could be kept on the lower part?

I’ve wondered this too.  Has anyone tried stiffening the fabric up in some way to make it more stiff without loosing the desired fence effect?
Starch, maybe?   

[Philip H]

I know this is the preferred method of fencing for a lot of budget conscious modelers but the unwieldy bottom edge is always the deal breaker for me.
Have you ever experimented with a small wire bottom bar to see if the tension could be kept on the lower part?

There's lots of fencing in the world with that unwieldy bottom.  Most of the time even if a proto fence has the bottom wire stiffener it still begins to wavy and bow.  so I'd say its not as unrealistic as you might think.

[wazzou]

There's lots of fencing in the world with that unwieldy bottom.  Most of the time even if a proto fence has the bottom wire stiffener it still begins to wavy and bow.  so I'd say its not as unrealistic as you might think.

OK...

[wm3798]

I would like it to look better. Since I'm using the pins for posts I can easily remove the fabric that I've put on and try again. The idea of using starch is interesting, but I think I'm going to experiment with some Matt Mod Podge to see how that looks on a section. Stay tuned to see how that goes.

[wm3798]

I'm back from walking the dog...  and did this quick set up.


Using a little Scotch tape, I stretched the ribbon out to be as smooth as I could on a piece of 1/2 foam I had laying around.  I made sure it had the film vapor barrier on it so the next step wouldn't be a problem...  At first I was thinking about brushing on a wash of Mod Podge Matte, but the action of brushing and the uneven nature of the material didn't seem like it would be successful.  I thought about airbrushing on the mixture, but that would mean setting up the air brush, using the air brush, cleaning the air brush... yada yada.  But when I went into the garage, I found a nice can of Krylon Matte Finish, and thought Voila!



I gave the material a fairly good coating, and I'm hoping that it stiffens it up enough to make it easier to handle and keep in a straight line.  I'm also hoping that the film vapor barrier will allow it release fairly easily from the spraying rig. 

I'm going to let it cure for 24 hours before I heck around with it, so we'll stop back at the fence company tomorrow...

Meanwhile, we have a few things to build.

[wm3798]

What's the point of having a locomotive in the park if you can't climb up and oggle its inner workings?  Job one, then, will be to erect some steps up to the cab.  Again, using bits of styrene and parts that I've had floating around in bins forever, I constructed a simple set of steps, which would later be painted to resemble treated lumber.



And, being a track side Railfan's Park, it wouldn't be complete without a "foamer's platform" for photographers and other gawkers to gather. 



This was also built up from stuff that was on-hand.  I elevated it with a couple of bits of foam core.  I'll dress around the edges with some shrubs and no one will be any the wiser.

After that I added some details, including a sidewalk some benches, and a few bored girlfriends to go along with the foamers.











So, once the fence material is dry, I'll see about replacing it, and maybe do a few other refinements. 

One thing I forgot to mention when discussing the engine, I did not permanently fix it to the base.  I felt it was better to keep it available to be placed in its original package.  However, all those trailing and pilot truck wheels are a pain in the tucchus to re-rail every time one moves the display, so I simply put a daub of E6000 on the trucks and glued them to the locomotive to keep them in alignment.  A touch of CA on the axles keeps them from floating side to side.  Now it's easy to "Pick Things Up and Put Them Down"...

We'll see how much time I have to fool with it over the long, busy weekend.

Lee

[Steveruger45]

Looks wonderful Lee.   BTW I’ve got a lot of chain link fencing to do on my layout so will be very interested in the Matt finish experiment.