WM Western Lines Engineering Report

[wazzou]

How far is the reach there Lee?

[wm3798]

I built those structures out of card stock following plans published in MR a million years ago.  If I remember correctly, I worked on them while I was waiting for my first daughter to be born.  She's now 26.  I'll try to take some better pictures of them so you can see how ratty they really are!

The buildings are located in Binghampton, NY behind the station...




You can take a closer look when you come down.

The next step will be to cut out some 1/4" plywood to make the structural base, and lower the grade to account for the foundation of the Cumberland station.  All the industrial tracks will be about 3/4" below the main line grade.  The B&O interchange track will be on a fill at the same grade as the main.

My plan is to build the city blocks as removable panels that can be detailed and dolled up with interior lights and details, then plopped back into the layout.

@wazzou, the industrial tracks are all close to the aisle, within easy reach.  Refer to the track plan below, and see Cumberland.  The only thing that's a bit of a stretch is the Thomas sub line across the back of that section.  But even that can be accessed from the aisle if the need arises.



Lee

[wm3798]

As promised, my ancient and venerable card stock industrial buildings...




They've spent much of the last 10 years or so in storage, before that they were on the Delmarva Club layout for a couple of years, but otherwise haven't seen any active carloadings since about 1993.

I used a cardboard tube from a roll of paper towels for the curved end of the orange building, and some pinking shears to make the zig zag brick trim on Einbinders.  Otherwise it was simply layering strips and shapes over a photocopy of the MR drawings.

The third building in the block was between these two, and you can see the facade in the background of this shot.


I'm debating whether I should "renovate" these, or just chunk them and start over with styrene.  I have a good supply of windows and doors and some Plastruct brick sheet, so I may be able to re-skin them.

I've got a couple of others, but they're in even worse shape.


Lee

[Philip H]

I'd chuck and restart . . .

[MichaelWinicki]

I think you'd be further ahead Lee by starting over.  They look pretty rough at this point.

[conrail98]

I wouldn't chuck them, but maybe make them background buildings if you can. I think you'd need a little more detail since they'd be front and center at the location you were thinking of putting them,

Phil

[wm3798]

The orange one is stable enough to be a core that I could re-skin, in the process I'd cut out the windows and add styrene windows and glass.  Einbinder's has definitely seen better days, and is likely headed to the scrap heap.  I will probably cut them back to be shallow flats and place them against the back drop as the industries, then scratch out the freight house for the front.

To keep it era appropriate, I may model the freight house on the big concrete block structures that were at Hillen.  Somewhere I've got a picture of that.  It had a big WM logo painted on the end of the building that would be way cool...
Lee

[wazzou]

I think despite the age of those buildings and the deterioration, they look really believable...well done.

Oh and by the way, extra points to you Lee on Einbinder's for the Craft Scissor work on the facade.

[wm3798]

Enjoyed a casual afternoon of car bumping with Brian Bryan and Timmah.  Tim brought his V&O and AM Gevos, which are beautifully done, although for some reason, Fox Valley opted for dull yellow LED's...

Part of the fun was test driving a new Bachmann RS-3 brought by Tim.  I was extremely impressed with its performance.  It m.u.'d effortlessly with a recent Atlas release, and handled the East Local with great aplomb.  I'll be discussing this situation with one S. Claus in the coming weeks, in hopes that one arrives via the chimney in the living room...

Sadly, there was no photographic evidence of either of these momentous occasions, as we were all mesmerized into a stupor by the aromas of home made pot roast emanating from the galley two flights down.

Overall, the railroad ran well.  What hiccups occurred were attributable to wheels that needed cleaning, and the occasional stray bit of ballast.  The need for a proper time table and fast clock became even more apparent, as several near misses occurred on single track, and at least one instance of missing a crossover thus requiring a reversing maneuver.

The other thing that continues to parse down to further clarity is the need for wireless control.  Even with the extreme number of outlets that have been installed on both sides of the aisle, we continued to find ourselves tangled in our throttle tethers.  Bottom line on all of the systems, the layout runs great when I'm lone wolfing it, and certain sections are trouble free in just about anyone's hands, but there should definitely be some qualifying process to help the regular crew get more familiar with everything from simple rules (KEEP RIGHT!) to knowing which turnouts are decoder controlled, and which are on local panels. (Complete decoder control is on the horizon for the main lines.)

Physical plant-wise, we got a look at some more industrial develpment around the Cumberland area...


The fresh plywood there on the lower left will be the PPG Plate Glass plant.  In reality this was on the other side of Cumberland, down by Mexico Farms, but it generated an interesting variety of traffic, and I have room for a large building and a couple of spurs, so it made the cut.  It will be reached via a switchback that comes off there next to the Wills Creek beam bridge.


The switchback tail runs along the bottom edge of Wills Creek, there behind the Cumberland control panel.  The creek itself will be fitted out with a concrete channel, per the prototype, which should make this scene quite recognizable to anyone familiar with Cumberpatch.

The brewery will be on the far bank of the creek, which will extend back to meet the creek bed already built under the Hinshaw Bridge.  It's looking like I'll need to schedule a separate local train just to switch Cumberland.

Lee

[wm3798]

Bliggity Blog updated.  Pull up a chair and set a spell...
http://wmrywesternlines.blogspot.com/

Lee

[wm3798]

Sat down with some bits and pieces to build the receiving bins for plastic pellets at PPG.






The storage tanks are plastic sleeves gleened from a scrapped chandelier, the big ducts on top are chunks of sprue, and the rest came from the various junque boxes I have accumulated over the years.  Hit it with a flat white rattle can, then went back to highlight a few things with some color.

The red structure is the old engine house from the temporary yard, it will be painted white and expanded to reach the warehouse tracks on the left.  The office building is part of an old station kit that came in from the Bufkin Collection, which will be re-skinned a bit to provide some truck loading bays.  I'll add a facade to represent a second large warehouse on the edge of the fascia, and I'm plotting to do it as a cutaway with a detailed interior.

If you have storage bins in your future, just let me know.  We scrap 2-3 chandeliers a week at the ReStore.

Lee

[Mark5]

As promised, my ancient and venerable card stock industrial buildings...

Durn cool! They look really nice given what they are. If still on a shoe string they could still be useful until something more effective becomes accessible for ya.

Mark

[wm3798]

Bob's C-Liners provide a little eye candy along the main line...  That is all.

Lee

[Dave V]

...Trainphone...?   

[John]

...Trainphone...?   

Oh, those plumbing pipes on the roof