Ashuelot Branch 1939

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Anything over 45° on 2" is painful there homie.

Someone might have himself a lobster claw, but for the rest of us... stick to 1" or 1½".

[davefoxx]

The vast majority of foam on my layout (and all previous layouts) has been 2” thick.  I don’t find it to be troublesome at all, Ed, at least not with that snap blade knife you recommended oh-so-many years ago.  “Cut that sh!t, whittle, whittle, and spackle!” 🙂

DFF

[garethashenden]

I bought five sheets of 1” foam. That will probably be enough for a double layer all the way around, but my math was a bit vague. I guess we’ll find out! Before the foam though, I want to get the backscene in place. I have 1/8” hardboard cut into 16” strips that I have attached to the walls. It’s about 2/3rds done. I’m going to paint it white now, as the brown is quite oppressive. Later I’ll deal with the sky and scenery colors.

[garethashenden]

Things have been happening! I realized that while I had enough foam to do two layers all the way around, I only needed one. There are two spots where I want more height below the rail than that, but that isn't worth having to deal with an extra layer of foam all the way around. The two places are the bridge between Winchester and Ashuelot and Ashuelot Paper.

When I did the benchwork for the bridge section I created a dip using the two thin pieces from my sheet of plywood.


For Ashuelot Paper I did the same thing, but only in the front.


This papermill is nestled on an embankment between the river and the railroad. It was always one of the bigger shippers right up until the end of the railroad. I'm not sure when it closed, but its been partially demolished. They did a real half-a$$ job of it. This is where I decided to start modeling. The staging yard may get scenery, but this is the first real LDE when heading north. I have a couple of pictures of the mill from across the river, as the viewer would see it. One about 1910, the other 1960s. Yesterday I took a drive to Hinsdale and walked the rail trail. I was initially only intending to go to Ashuelot Paper, but I ended up walking all the way to Paper Services. I'm glad I did, I found a nice rock cutting which will serve to separate the two scenes. At Ashuelot Paper, the siding is below grade, maybe 10' lower and extended on a trestle. I think it was initially a coal trestle, but at some point they built a second loading dock there. There's a good Scott Whitney pictures from the early '80s showing the arrangement.
1910

1960s

1980s from behind


The trestle is still there, but its not safe for trains. I don't think its safe for people either.



The loading dock


For the actual modeling, I stack up three layers of 3/4" foam. The bottom one will be the river. I've had this building for ages and at the moment its standing in so I can get a sense of things. Not sure if it will become permanent, probably not. I have also roughed in the rock cutting. I've angled the track more and added a curve from the initial plan. I knew I would, particularly in this area.

[Chris333]

You can see the trestle on the Googler:
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.7898164,-72.4573602,3a,75y,22.92h,63.44t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipNZjm6J1dGYcESWZWc8LKpuBtgRlkPma6W-fSwR!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNZjm6J1dGYcESWZWc8LKpuBtgRlkPma6W-fSwR%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0.6093221-ya98.83941-ro0.83067596-fo100!7i5504!8i2752!5m1!1e4?entry=ttu

[Bill H]

I have also taken steps to make the pony truck less toylike. I used some NWSL wheels and made a new truck out of brass bar and thin double sided pcb.

Gareth;
One of the issues I have had with all of my Bachmann Connies are the pony truck wheels being out of round or just wobbling is perhaps a better assessment. What NWSL wheels did you select - it looks very good?

Kind regards,
Bill

[Bill H]

I started above the workbench and proceeded around the room. I may add some 45° pieces in a couple of corners, but I want to print out the trackplan and see how that looks first.

Gareth;
Regarding the brackets you are using - just how stable is the benchwork using these brackets? I realize that is a difficult measurement to quantity, but as an example, could you sit on one of the modules? I have just gotten the final approval from the inspector for my basement finish and am anxious to start construction - and those brackets look great. However, a lot of the gentlemen that I operate with are a bit rotund and may be leaning heavily on some of my benchwork. Thoughts?

Thanks,
Bill

[garethashenden]

Gareth;
One of the issues I have had with all of my Bachmann Connies are the pony truck wheels being out of round or just wobbling is perhaps a better assessment. What NWSL wheels did you select - it looks very good?

Kind regards,
Bill

The wheels I have aren't currently listed on their website. I bought them just before they changed hands, and they are still in the old catalog. It may be worth asking them directly. The part number is 96000002. They are 33" nickel silver wheels with a 1.5mm bore and a "50" tread. There are two larger treads offered in the catalog along with a different bore.

Gareth;
Regarding the brackets you are using - just how stable is the benchwork using these brackets? I realize that is a difficult measurement to quantity, but as an example, could you sit on one of the modules? I have just gotten the final approval from the inspector for my basement finish and am anxious to start construction - and those brackets look great. However, a lot of the gentlemen that I operate with are a bit rotund and may be leaning heavily on some of my benchwork. Thoughts?

Thanks,
Bill

I can't quite hang from it, but that's mostly because I can't get a good grip. The brackets are screwed into the studs, which is important. Individually the brackets can't withstand much side loading, but they're screwed to the benchwork and that makes everything more stable.

[JeffB]

The wheels I have aren't currently listed on their website. I bought them just before they changed hands, and they are still in the old catalog. It may be worth asking them directly. The part number is 96000002. They are 33" nickel silver wheels with a 1.5mm bore and a "50" tread. There are two larger treads offered in the catalog along with a different bore.

I think NWSL is just running their stock down...  Every time I visit their website, there's less product listings in the various sub-categories.  As far as I can tell from past experience with the current owner(s), they're not interested in any custom offerings like the previous (two) owners. 

So good luck with finding what you're looking for through NWSL.

Jeff

[Bill H]

Gareth;
Getting back to your brackets, I bought a few of them to test out as they look like a reasonable cost fit. Much to my surprise, I dropped one of them about two feet and it bent about 30 degrees on one leg. Looks like the structural integrity comes down to the diagonal brace and the related weld. Just a heads up on that. Will keep you updated, I am going to try using them every 16" i.e. on every wall stud and see how much stability I can get. I don't want to lean over a module to work on a back drop or whatever, and have it fall. I will keep you updated with what I find out in the next week or two.

Kind regards,
Bill

[garethashenden]

I've been painting the sky. I gave the hardboard two overall coats of a light blue, the shade the sky is at the horizon. When that was dry I attemped to create a gradient between dark blue at the top and light blue at the bottom. Both colors were matched to a photograph taken in the right area and season. The results are ok. In some places they're good, but in others the paint dried faster than I expected and there are clear roller marks visible. I'm going to let it dry thoroughly, but I'll probably redo some sections.

[Bill H]

Gareth;
Getting back to your brackets, I bought a few of them to test out as they look like a reasonable cost fit. Much to my surprise, I dropped one of them about two feet and it bent about 30 degrees on one leg. Looks like the structural integrity comes down to the diagonal brace and the related weld. Just a heads up on that. Will keep you updated, I am going to try using them every 16" i.e. on every wall stud and see how much stability I can get. I don't want to lean over a module to work on a back drop or whatever, and have it fall. I will keep you updated with what I find out in the next week or two.

Kind regards,
Bill

Gareth;
Regarding your brackets, reporting back as promised. They seem to be good when the cross braces of modules line up with the wall studs. Unfortunately, my layout was built in self composed modules, without knowing the wall stud alignments beforehand. The brackets need a cross brace to rest solidly across the bracket - exactly as you have done. But in my case, only the long front and back framework touches the brackets, and in that case the brackets have a tendency to bend at the outermost part of the bracket. So, I sent them back, but nonetheless, for your layout they seem like a great solution.

Kind regards,
Bill

[garethashenden]

Things have been happening slowly, but they have been happening! Track laying has progressed to the runaround at Ashuelot and most of the track has been wired. My plan is to get the trains running from the fiddleyard Ashuelot but not beyond before turning my efforts to scenery and buildings. Once that's at least roughed in I'll progress to Winchester. Before I did the scenery I wanted to get the lighting sorted out as that will effect the scenery coloring. That is now done!

[garethashenden]

Got tired of the steamroller wheels on the K7's tender and decided to do something about them. I took a length of 1.5mm steel rod and put it in the lathe. Turned a 65° cone on the end. Removed the rod from the lathe and cut the cone off with a piece about 8mm attached. Repeat the process until there are 8 pinpoint stub axles. The next step is to press the axles onto the wheels. Its important that the pinpoints all protrude the same amount from the wheel face. They do, but I made an error with my calculations and they protrude more than I would like.


Two stub axles are then epoxied into a muff with the back to back measurement set at 8.1mm.


By happy accident, my overly long axles are almost exactly the same length as the Bachmann originals. So they swap into the trucks just fine. They do look a bit odd though, the sideframes are too far from the wheels.


My original plan was to make plain functional sideframes with bearings to suit the axles, with a bolster between them, and then attach just the outsides of the 3d printed trucks. I have another pair of trucks to make for by much neglected B15 2-6-0 build, so I'll try that technique there. If that works as I think it will, I'll revisit these. The sideframe width is too much, I can already tell its going to bother me...

[Lemosteam]

You might try cleaning out the pockets in the sideframe to allow the pickups to sit farther into the sideframe. They are designed to match the original Bachmann frames. It does not help that the sideframes are white making the gap mor obvious.