Sunshine, Palm Trees and a Food Industry...

Thanks Phil.

I originally bought some brass tube, smaller in diameter and I really thought that this may not be up to the job, so I went with the larger diameter styrene instead. It holds the frame up nicely.

Always good to know that viewers (and yourself) are learning a thing or two from my videos.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Over the last week I have finished and attached the cross bracing o the main structure.

The roofing sheet took the longest to complete as I had to glue over 160 individual 0.25mm x 1.0mm strips to the roof sheet. The roof sheet has grooves in it to locate the strip. This was a painfully slow task.

As you can see in the above photo, about 5-6mm of the strip is glued into place first. After this is done, I go back to the first section of roof I started and glue the strip in all the way. If you attempt to glue the full strip in, the MEK softens the strip too much and it ends up falling over because it is too weak. There were five individual roof sheets to do.

Luckily only two packets of Evergreen Styrene Metal Roofing #4521 was used to complete the whole 760mm length.

These individual sections were glued together to form one long roof. Evergreen Styrene angle #293 (2.5mm) was then glued on the underside of the roofs leading edge.

Four joist rows of Evergreen Styrene strip #153 (1.5mm x 1.5mm) were glued into place underneath, the first strip hard up against the edge of the angle. The following strips were spaced apart using my large steel rule, which is 33mm wide, making the centres roughly 9'6" apart.

The main frame was then laid on top (not glued) and I marked in with pencil where the roof supports would span under neath the roof sheet. These lines gave me an indication of where to glue in Evergreen Styrene strip # 155 (1.5 x 2.5mm), which will add to supporting the frame.

Here is the frame being glued to the roof sheet with the 1.5 x 2.5mm spacer and 1.5 x 1.5mm joists.

This is how it looks on the layout currently...

The next addition to the structure before painting will be the internal platform and mechanical system that sit on top. See photo below.

Looks as if I can create most of this from I beam, strip, sheet and a few handrails. Addition pipes and conduits will also be added.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks Phil. Yep, the plan is coming together nicely now. I have Monday off (tomorrow), so I will continue with the roof details.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thank you kindly mate.
I'm looking forward to when I can get some paint onto the finished model, but one must be patient !

Cheers, Gary.

 

Took a break from scratch building last night and decided to do a spot of weathering instead. I weathered up a 57' mechanical reefer (refrigerator van).

It started like this...

and with a few washes of Citadel 'Skrag Brown' and Citadel 'Mournfang Brown', followed by some removal of colour with a cotton tip, then a couple of applications of weathering powders. This was all sealed up with clear matt sealer and here is the result...

Now I'm just waiting on the three 57' Tropicana reefers to arrive which will get a similar treatment.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks mate. The weathering did help high light all the rivet details, hand rails and louvres, which was barely noticeable when it was new and clean !

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks mate.

I always google and save several images of the particular wagon I want to weather. This helps massively as these wagons in particular were kept in a reasonably clean state. This is why I only lightly weathered the model, unlike some of my other pieces of rolling stock and locomotives.

I read some where (may have been HO Scale Shelf Modelers - Facebook) that with weathering, less is more... Although I don't mind the dirty and decrepit !

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thank you Ian.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Another six new pieces of rolling stock arrived today from the US...

These pieces include another 'Procor' GP20 (20,000 gallon) tank car by Rapido. I was impressed with the one I bought earlier that I thought I should have another !

Two 'FEC' (Florida East Coast) 50' ACF box cars by Athearn Roundhouse (Roundhouse is the cheaper, less detailed models). These models are perfect for the layout as the FEC is a major player (Class 2regional railroad) and operate about 350 miles of trackage in and around Miami.

Two different road numbers...

Three 57' mechanical reefers in 'Tropicana Pure Orange Juice' livery. These are from Athearn Ready to Roll range of models. Unfortunately these models don't have the separately applied door rails or ladders. I'm not complaining as the Tropicana Juice Train that operated out of (Tampa) Florida is very well known, so these three reefer cars fit perfectly within my scene and era.

Once again, three different road numbers...

With the amount of rolling stock I have bought recently, I may have to extend the layout into Georgia !

Tropicana Juice Train video for your enjoyment...



Cheers, Gary.

 

You're right there Gormo !

But in all seriousness, The wagons I have been buying have been purchased because it allows for proper operation on the layout, ie, pull empty cars out and replace with loaded cars or vice versa.

Cheers, Gary.