Weekend Update 8/4/24

[gi-depp]

Print and paint four diesel generators for the engine house Fort Bliss.


in position

[altohorn25]

I also got my Broadway Limited NYC set of F7's weathered for my "Pacemaker" merchandise service.

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[Wlal13again]

Print and paint four diesel generators for the engine house Fort Bliss.


in position

In 1987 I got to ride the switcher at Bliss when we were railheading to NTC

[Sumner]

A little late to the update.  Couldn't upload to my site on JustHost's server for the last two days but they finally got things fixed.

I posted the whole up date on my build thread on here....

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=58208.msg802409#msg802409

But will post a few pictures here.

   

    Above we can see the north wall although due to the height of the bandsaw I'm raising the top (above the end opening) an additional 7-8 scale feet and adding a footer to the bottom of the wall. Of course that means I also had to go back and do the same for all the other walls of the mill. That is done but not shown above.



    The equipment shown above is mostly my interpretation of looking at the equipment that Hull-Oakes has now or had back into I believe the 60's or before. I'm not quite anal enough to want to duplicate it exactly and that would be hard to do in N scale and the space restraints of the scene on the layout. As it is it will occupy about 3' x 6.5' at the end of the layout on the upper level. So compromises were taken in the design of what you see above. Big shout out to Autodesk for putting a free non-commercial version of Fusion for us that don't have $600 a year to spend on the real thing.

    I probably wouldn't of been able to of designed these parts a year or so ago but did design them with most of the tools I used then. I use less that 20 tools in Fusion to do my design work and I'll bet that is less than 5% of what Fusion is capable of. I mentioned this for anyone looking for a CAD program. Personally I don't think it can be beat for what is out there free. Take a look and try it out. There are good videos out there on getting started like the one ( HERE ). That one got me started and if you can master it you will be off to designing yourself.



    I had to make two prints of most of what you see here. The first would come out OK but I'd see things that I wanted to add so would make changes (painfully slow ones on the chain from the mill pond and the log deck) and then print the second print shown above for both of those items and for the carriage. I was happy with the bandsaw the first time around.



    I'll design and print some additional logs of different diameters and lengths to use on the chains and in the mill pond. Can't see it here but I have some designed with bark on and bark off (after the debarker).

    The carriage that moves back and forth with the log on it and that also moves the log towards the bandsaw blade for each cut is actually more complicated than what I designed. It has cable and hydraulic lines all over it. Check out the video  ( HERE ).



    For years someone rode on the carriage and operated it. I have the seat for the operator at the far end of the carriage above and will have an operator on the carriage. Now at Hull-Oakes the carriage has been replaced and no operator needed.

Check out the Layout Engineering Reports section on here for more info and images.

Sumner

[arbomambo]

Tweaking the T-TRAK modules a little…
Re-painting all my existing module’s fascia a matte black in order to blend better with others in the region.
Also painting the rears of the skyboards black.
I also added some distant desert scenes on the horizon of the Southwestern modules.

[arbomambo]

I’m also going to be moving away from the Southwestern-themed T-TRAK modules (I have enough to populate my own peninsula or single-row spine, a la FreeMo, within a larger setup) and build a number of East Tennessee/Northern Georgia-themed ones.
To that end, I’ve been working in an ubiquitous structure seen all over this region, using Showcase Miniatures excellent Feeder barn.





The inspiration came from this scene from the 2014 Norfolk Southern company calendar.

[samusi01]

Made some trains.



Looked at some trains.



Ran some trains.



Ran some more trains.



Beyond that, not much...

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I’m also going to be moving away from the Southwestern-themed T-TRAK modules (I have enough to populate my own peninsula or single-row spine, a la FreeMo, within a larger setup) and build a number of East Tennessee/Northern Georgia-themed ones.
To that end, I’ve been working in an ubiquitous structure seen all over this region, using Showcase Miniatures excellent Feeder barn.





The inspiration came from this scene from the 2014 Norfolk Southern company calendar.

Gorgeous! Your Mother Road set is gorgeous and is one of the things that made me start paying attention to TTRAK. I can't wait to see your next project come together.

[Slim Rail Mike]

Worked on a couple of buildings for servicing the engines, Rough I know, think of them as impressions.

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The inspiration

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[Lemosteam]

Nice-looking scrap piles for the LIRRIS. Wonder what the ground around them will look like.

Thanks @OldEastRR and @wm3798 .

I will be using the same "dirt as everywhere, except I will be airbushing rust seep around the piles, and adding some oil stains here and there sround the scrap, and where the yard vehicles travel.

Here is an overhead of the yard I found from a boat on vacation in Duluth, MN that I posted pics of in my layout thread, which could be a TTrak switching module in itself:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Duluth,+MN/@46.7621321,-92.1049085,361m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x52ae527e782e37ff:0x90fdbf76eb580c72!8m2!3d46.7866719!4d-92.1004852!16zL20vMGgxazY?entry=ttu

[samusi01]

That Duluth scrap yard has been around a while.

Here it is in the late 1980s: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeff_lemke/25414420423/

And early 1970s: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeff_lemke/27979042093/

Always thought it'd be an interesting location to model.

[southernman]

I’m also going to be moving away from the Southwestern-themed T-TRAK modules (I have enough to populate my own peninsula or single-row spine, a la FreeMo, within a larger setup) and build a number of East Tennessee/Northern Georgia-themed ones.
To that end, I’ve been working in an ubiquitous structure seen all over this region, using Showcase Miniatures excellent Feeder barn.





The inspiration came from this scene from the 2014 Norfolk Southern company calendar.

Atta boy !!!
Sadly that barn is no more but it was really cool while it lasted.
Just a few miles from the area my layout represents. I hope to build another one that will better depict the area when I retire in a couple of years.

[eja]

SEE 7 STATES  .....VISIT ROCK CITY !

Boy, does that ever bring back some very clouded memories from childhood while seated in the back seat of the parent's 1950ish (?) car.

No idea where we were (West Va, Kentucky Va ?), or going, but a clearly remember that signage everywhere on more than one trip.   Also remember that they put bumper sticker on the front of every car that visited because you would see them for miles as we got closer to "Rock City" .

We never visited ...

Ed, ...  (who now lives nowhere close to Rock City and had forgotten about it until now.)

[Dwight in Toronto]

I well remember the lead-up signage for Rock City, and visiting the place, as a 6 year old on a family road trip to Miami beach.  That was over 60 years ago.  My grandkids occasionally look at the ViewMaster reels today!