Sunshine, Palm Trees and a Food Industry...

I'm thinking the use of cards will be the way to go in the future. I really need to read up a bit more on this side of operations. At the moment, I simply enjoy having a play and switching out what I want !!

About a month ago, I placed a few cars around the layout and had two trains of cars in the fiddle yard for switching. It took around 40 minutes to switch out the cars from various sidings. If I add the run around moves in the fiddle yard to form up the next train or trains, I could easily add another 20 odd minutes to that duration.

In the future, it will be interesting to operate more akin to the prototype. I have come up with a game plan of forward motion not being over speed step 10 on the NCE handset and reverse moves not to exceed speed step 5. Then there is the motion of steadily moving a locomotive up to a cut of cars, stopping 20' feet short then gradually moving forward to couple up. In essence, a session could take up to 60 - 70 minutes, depending on pick ups and drop offs and general switching cars around in a siding.
The large Produce Centre has a second siding where I can place a car or cars 'to be' unloaded, on the platform road. This means pulling out the empties on the platform road and switching in the loaded cars. When all is done and the switched out cars are unloaded (24 hours later), a train will pull out the empties and switch these for the next consignment of loaded cars. Some of these may be spotted in the platform road, others in the second siding. This area alone adds a few more moves or another operation to the running of the layout.

Cheers, Gary.

 

What it really comes down to when sorting the trains consist is to keep in mind the length of the 'siding' (spur), the 'length run around' and 'is there a run around available for the move ?'. This is quite similar to prototype operation.
If it is a simple drop off and pick up in a trailing siding, the first car in the consist would be plucked from the train, moved forward past the point and then reversed in to pick up the empty, pull them both out and connect the empty to the train then move the loaded car back in to the siding.

If you need to shove or push a car into a siding, where a forward facing point is, then a run around would be required, keeping in mind the length of the run around too. The train is left on the main, clear of the run around. The car that needs spotting is pulled and sat in the run around. The loco proceeds to run around that car and then couples up and pushes (shoves) it into the siding (facing point), as per railway practice.

I have seen practices where the siding is negotiated via a trailing point, this is done first and on the trains return journey, they drop off/pick up from what was the facing points.

With my layout being a small section of a single line branch or 'short line', I can actually take possession of the main for switching activities, as I know there are no other trains on the line.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Hi Chris,

I have a couple of locos now that will span from the mid 80s to say 2010/15. This is why I have Conrail, CSX and FEC power units. I will add that not much has changed on the down town line apart from the removal of some tracks. Now that is one thing I had considered modelling..., leaving old weathered sleepers (ties) in place where there was another parallel line to the single line branch I have modelled. Saves me building more fences etc as I can just add to the ground detail instead !

Cheers, Gary.

 

I managed to put in a marathon effort of scratch building this afternoon.

I have been working on the internal structure of the ferrous processing plant on the layout. I stared with the landing and vertical I beams (Evergreen Styrene #273) and additional lateral members (Plastruct Channel #90042 - C3). This was made tall enough for it to pass through the roofing sheets so I can also model the top extractor room.

This above looked ok, but it was just too flimsy using 2.5mm I beams. This meant that the vertical I beams as well as the lateral beams (grey) were scraped and the lot was improved using Evergreen Styrene H beam (#284) instead. I also decided to build it just tall enough under the roof and not through the roof which makes the build a lot easier. The roof top structure will be built at a later date

This photo below shows the H beam in place with additional H beam laterals and lengths of 2mm x 2.5mm Evergrren Strip (#165) as lateral supports between the narrow sides of the frame. The stairs are shown further down the page and the white rectangualr box will eventually become the dust collector motor room.

The stairs with a landing and vertical I beam supports. The supports were made from the I beam I removed from the original structure. The stairs are from a Central Valley Models kit, (stairs and ladders).

Checking the height and shape for reassurance !

I started adding handrails to the structure where I could and I used 1mm square ES strip #142 and off cut strips from the standing seam roofing sheet (#4522).

I turned my attention to the dust collector motor room and I needed some vents for the side of the 'box'. These were made from the same off cut strips used for the handrails on a thin piece of styrene sheet.

This was cut into two individual vents and fixed to the side of the box. A junction box and conduit was also added to the side. The chimney is a short length of 4mm ES tube (#225) and an small cut of 5.5mm tube (#227).

The front or visual side had two doors added using thin styrene sheet (0.13mm #9009). To this I added handles (ES #219) and hinges (ES #100)

After this was completed, I added it to the model, which was glued to a sheet of 1mm thick sheet. The handrails were completed right around the model and also on the stairs.

Last but not least, additional cross bracing was added to the H beams as per the prototype.

That pretty much completes the under roof model apart from paint and weathering. This is how it looks under the main structure...

Next up I'll construct the top extractor room and patch in the holes I originally put through the roof sheets.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks mate. It was a good afternoons effort, considering I didn't start on it until just after 1pm !

Cheers, Gary.

 

First of all, thanks Kimbo. Secondly, it wouldn't be so finicky being O gauge !!

Cheers, Gary.

 

No energy pills Gormo, just had some time and I need to get a move on with the build ! I don't like long stints away from the layout, but it does happen...

Cheers, Gary.

 

Yesterday was a public holiday thanks to that woman who passed away recently. Can't remember her name, I think it was Lizzy...?

Anyhow, I decided to keep moving on the internal structure although this time I'm scratch building the roof section.

So far I have made the frame, the large boxy tank structure that sits on top, which will require more detailing as I progress and the last two pieces I made are the two fuel (?) tanks that sit atop of the tank.

The majority of this frame is Evergreen Styrene H beam (#284), which includes the legs and the two main horizontal long sections. Between these are Evergreen Styrene I beam (#273).

The large boxy tank is made from 2mm x 16mm styrene strip, two lengths measuring 45mm and the other two measuring 41mm. This were glued into two pairs then secured together. Two squares of 0.25mm Evergreen Styrene sheet (#9006) were then cut and glued to top and bottom of the box. I did glue a 2mm x 16mm x 30mm long internal support inside, to stop any possible sagging. If you have worked with styrene sheet, you will know that once it is set in place, it's there for good !

Where the joins are present on the sides of the box, I glued in 4 x legs at 32mm long and one shorter leg for the centre (front). I used Evergreen Styrene I beam (#273) for this. A line was then drawn 5mm down from the top of the tank and 1.5 x 1.5mm Evergreen Styrene angle was glued right the way round. I dare say this is adds to the strengthening of the prototype.

The last two pieces I have made are the two cylindrical tanks that sit on top. These are made from 4mm diameter Evergreen Styrene tube (#225), which was capped with small pieces of sheet (ES #9006) before being sanded smooth around the edges. Four small pieces of I beam (#273) were glued underneath to act as tank supports, which work quite well. These are very little tanks measuring 4mm diameter x 17mm long.

The next stage will be adding the walkway, stairs and handrail before I glue these three main components together and finally adding all the cross bracing...

More as it happens !

Cheers, Gary.

 

Don't you love it when you look at a photo of the same structure from a different angle and realise there is hell of a lot more detailing to do....

Oh well, better measure up for all those pipes and additional conduits to add to the model ! Lucky I have the next three days off then !!

Cheers, Gary

 

Lucky for me, everything is welded !

 

So I continue on with the roof top section of the ventilation system.

I glued all the components I made on Thursday together and added a small landing/walkway to service the system. 1.5mm angle (Evergreen Styrene #291 was used to form the supports for the walkway and a piece of 0.25mm styrene sheet was used as the walkway itself.

I drilled three support holes for the handrail using a 0.6mm drill bit and into these holes I glued some 0.64mm styrene rod (Evergreen #291). This this a ran three handrails cut from 0.25 x 0.75mm styrene strip (Evergreen #101).

As you can see in the picture, addition vertical stays were added to the sides of the square tank. This is made from Plastruct T section as I couldn't get any 1.5mm Evergreen T section.

AS I mentioned in my last post, I need to make the plumbing for water supply (?). I made this by cutting a few corners off a sprue of a Walthers kit.

The short lengths were heated (using pliers and a toaster !) and bent to shape aacordingly. A larger diameter piece of styrene rod was used as the junction for all three pipes. The side of the tank was drilled and the pipes were added. Additional angle was used under the piping for support.

The two cylindrical tanks on top of the larger tsquare tank were drilled from the top and a small piece of 1mm diameter styrene rod (Evergreen #211) was glued in to act as a filler cap. Underneath, holes were drilled with a 0.6mm bit and more plumbing made from the 0.64mm rod (Evergreen #291) was bent to shape.

Having all that in place I turned my attention to the stairs. I used a left over piece from the stairs I used on the main internal structure. The stairs were measured and cut to the appropriate length. The bottom step I drilled holes (0.6mm) to allow the fitting of the handrails. The handrails were done in the same manner as the handrails along the landing.

The only thing left to do was to finish the main water feed pipe off. This is where I noticed on closer inspection of the pictures I have (Google maps) that the pipe didn't have a 45 degree bend, it in fact turn 90 degrees towards the back of the building !

So out with the razor saw to shorten the pipe and then to make another 90 degree bend from more sprue !

With all the joins in the sprue, I decided to wrap the joins in small lengths of 0.25mm x 1mm strip (Evergreen 102). This help to hide the unsightly joins.

In the above photo you can also see that I extended the middle vertical stays and added a length across the top. Again, the Plastruct T section was used here.

To give an idea of the size of this model, I posed an Australian 50cent coin beside the structure...

Well that is another task completed and I'm happy with the results ! Next up I guess will be painting the model with primer !

Cheers, Gary.