Sunshine, Palm Trees and a Food Industry...

Discussion in 'Planks, Switching and Shelf Layouts' started by Gary, Jan 6, 2021.

  1. Vinylelpea

    Vinylelpea Full Member

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    Enjoying following your build Gary. Keep up the good work. :thumbs:
     
  2. Bazzmund

    Bazzmund Full Member

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    I do quite like the Florida East Coast. Think it's because it's the plucky also ran after the Seaboard Air Line and the Atlantic Coast Line
     
  3. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    The Florida East Coast Railroad has been around since 1892 ! Yes, there have been many Class 2 Railroads operating over their rails, many been and gone. CSX and FEC run most of the trains up and down the coast line these days.

    Found this great 1913 poster whilst trawling the internet !

    1913_Florida_East_Coast_Railway_advert.jpg

    Poster courtesy of : 'Last Train to Paradise' by Les Standiford., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

    Cheers, Gary.
     
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  4. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    About a week or so ago, I mentioned that I needed to lift a small section of track and relay it as a few wagons were having issues with the Kadee No.5s not having enough lateral movement, as the curve originally laid was a little on the tight side.

    Well I have just finished replacing/relaying the piece of track. This involved using the dremel (loke-a-like) and cutting back the radius on the turn out, back closer to the frog. This allows me to start the return S-curve earlier and in doing so, increases the radius.

    This photo clearly shows how much of the turn out has been cut back. The ends of the points turn out rails should be almost parallel to where the track join is on the straight section.


    New strips of copper clad were cut and laid where the join in the baseboards exist and firmly fitted. The new length of track was cut and measured, as was the existing piece of track left of the baseboard join.


    To give an idea of how much change has been made to the original alignment, these pic shows a piece of the set track I had used laid over the top of the newly laid section.


    The curve actually starts further back on the left, whereas previously, the track was straight to the piece of copper clad.


    I tested three box cars/reefers over the new section before soldering the rails to the copper and soldering on the droppers. The wagons roll through much easier now.

    Cheers, Gary.
     
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  5. gormo

    gormo Staff Member Administrator

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    Good solution Gary....:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:
    Looks like you would have more clearance now too to get past the timber hinge support.?
    :tophat:Gormo
     
  6. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    A little more room, but I will saw an angle on the block in the picture to gain extra space.

    Cheers, Gary.
     
  7. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    Managed to paint the sleepers, rail, add ballast and base scenery around the track I replaced through the week.


    Closer up...


    On Thursday afternoon I dropped by the local hobby shop for some green paint so I could repaint the foliage of the palms I purchased earlier a much more natural colour. I used acrylic paint from the SMS range, the colour, 'Forest Green' ! I think you can see the difference between the two...


    I also altered the hinge on the industry side of the layout, which gave me more room between the block (hinge) and the railway track. Now the locomotive drivers don't have to cringe or close their eyes when they drive their locomotive past !

    First up I added some external pine to the side of the current blocks...


    Even though the screws have been removed from the hinge, you can clearly see I gained an extra 19mm of frame to reattach the hinges...



    Where the edge of the Lego is, shows where I will cut out the excess blocks. This is about 12mm or 1/2" in the old money...


    I used the circular saw followed by a panel saw to remove the excess timber...


    And finally the hinge back in place and a lot more room between the hinge blocks and the track !


    Now I'm thinking of either a building of bridge abutments to disguise the timber blocks. I think I'll sleep on this. ;)

    Cheers, Gary.
     
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  8. Keith M

    Keith M Staff Member Moderator

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    Maybe some kind of slim building, and disguise the gap between the two halves where it hinges with a strategically placed drain pipe?:giggle:

    Keith.
     
  9. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    Yes Keith, that was one option, although I do have 18" of space to work with between the road and the end of the block (right hand side).



    Another option is to build a highway overpass, disguising the blocks as bridge abutments... If I was to build a building, I'm thinking of a low relief garage/workshop, similar to this photo...


    Then again, this type of building would suit the front of the layout... :scratchchin: Decisions, decisions...;);)
    Actually, I know what would fit around those blocks.... I might just keep it a secret for a while, unless someone wants to guess ?? :scratchchin:

    This afternoon I visited Casula Hobbies and picked up a set of crossing signs with lights and a level crossing flasher unit. Both products made right here in Australia ! The HMA crossing lights are made in Tasmania and they also build a flasher unit, but it was much, much more expensive than the CDA module I bought.


    Note the cross bucks read 'Rail Road Crossing' and not Railway Crossing ! Perfect for the US modeller !! :D


    These crossing lights should add that little more animation or life to the layout !

    Cheers, Gary.
     
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  10. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    Well, it looks like nobody guessed how I was to hide the hinge blocks !

    Lets just say that Scalescenes had come to the rescue for the disguising of the hinge blocks....

    Now you see them...


    Now you don't...!


    These come from the Scalescenes kit 'TO31 Shipping Containers'. I purchased these along with a bunch of other kits with the voucher I had won from the kit bash competition we ran last year. The print was scaled back to 87% for HO scale and I think these do the job nicely. They are a very tight fit which is great as I know they won't move.

    Cheers, Gary.
     
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  11. paul_l

    paul_l Staff Member Administrator

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    Nice one Gary, and I've taken the liberty of mashing up two of your pics to make a pick of the week, a very impressive solution

    upload_2021-3-6_12-10-13.png

    Congrats on POTW

    Paul
     
  12. Andrew Laing

    Andrew Laing Full Member

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    Fantastic idea, looks great.
    Well done on picture of the week.
     
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  13. gormo

    gormo Staff Member Administrator

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    Congrats on pic of the week Gary and also a clever solution to disguise the hinge timber.....:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:
    :tophat:Gormo
     
  14. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    Thank you for PoTW and thanks for the kind comments, much appreciated.

    The containers were pretty much put together as expected from the Scalescenes kits, although the back walls were not attached, nor the centre spacer. The long walls are 3mm in thickness, being a 2mm think main wall and a 1mm thick overlay with the print. The roof section is only a 3mm wide slither of one edge, which is secured last. These pics show the arrangement of the containers, with the top container having the complete roof.



    I'm in the process of making up some more 20' and 40' containers for both sides of the layout.

    Cheers Gary.
     
  15. jakesdad13

    jakesdad13 Staff Member Moderator

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    Well deserved POTW Gary!
     
  16. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    It's has been two weeks since an update simply because I have had a few busy weekends, not modelling, but social...

    Anyway, I asked on one of the facebook groups I'm in about what I could use for the circular armco barrier around the base of the crossing lights as shown below...


    I had been given ideas from air conditioner flexible conduit to wrapping heavy tin foil around a bolt to form the corrugations seen above. Ian (leadie69) offered me a couple of 3D printed items from a file he had altered to suit my needs.

    These are the result...


    They were made at 12mm diameter, which in HO scale equates to just under 3'6", to which I thought would be adequate. Unfortunately they were too small as compared to the prototype, so I needed to come up with another means of making the circular armco. I tried using 2mm diameter styrene rod (Evergreen Styrene #212), after softening the styrene using the hot water method. This was not going to be viable so another alternative was chosen.

    I purchased some half round styrene (Evergreen Styrene #243) and gave that a go. I knew that I could not support, bend and glue the styrene ends together to form a circle so I wrapped a 4mm wide 0.25" styrene strip around a socket and secured the styrene as a circle. The 3/8" socket was chosen for its outside diameter being closer to scale. After this had cured, I attached one end of the half round styrene to the thin circle, whilst still on the socket.


    After this had cured, I wrapped the rest of the styrene around the circle, trimmed to length and held tightly inside the opening of a larger socket. After this strip had secured itself, I repeated this again with another strip of half round.


    I repeated the same process for a second armco barrier...

    Once this had fully set, four legs were cut from 1.2mm styrene rod and glued in place.


    These were then spray painted (rattle can) with silver and they look close enough like the prototype. These are 20mm in diameter as the prototype shows that the armco is about the same diameter as the width of the flasher lights. In reality, this is closer to 6' round !


    Now I had to secure the crossing lights onto the layout. I decided to drill a hole for each crossing light and drop a length of 7mm diameter styrene tube through to just below the baseboard. This gave me a solid base to secure the lights.


    Here is the armco and lights in place on the layout...


    So, the next thing to do is to secure both lights in place then hook them up to the flasher unit...

    Cheers, Gary.
     
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  17. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    With all this rain we are getting in Sydney, even my layout has started sprouting !

    A selection browns, green, and burnt grasses of 2mm, 2.5mm and 4mm heights have been used to green up the layout from various suppliers.

    The start...



    ^ As you can see, the PVA solution is still quite wet !


    ^ Around the crossing lights...


    Above and below, wheel treads in the soft sandy ground...



    ^ The fencers have been in and started on the chain wire fencing.


    This is what makes a Miami scene, sandy soils, palm trees and painted rendered walls of the local industries !


    ^ FEC's GP40-2 #422 doing a some switching for the produce company.

    I'm after ground throws for the points detailing and have found a retailer in the US who manufacture the ones I want in brass. Just waiting on a reply from them regarding postage...


    Cheers, Gary.
     
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  18. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    Two overall pics of the layout in its entirety...



    The autumn tones appear in the grass...


    Blocking the crossing...


    Cheers, Gary.

    ps, still working on the fencing....
     
  19. Gary

    Gary Wants more time for modelling.... Staff Member Administrator

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    I got back into the fencing the last couple of days and as usual, just like the Ration fencing kit, getting the posts correct can be tricky...

    The Walthers kit comes with posts, gate posts, gates, rails and mesh. The mesh is pretty much identical to that of the Ratio kit. I had to come up with a plane of spacing the posts correctly and squarely so I could add the rails. The rails in the Walthers kit are thin strands of wire. These have a slight curve to them and you have to use super glue (CA) to keep them in place. I'd rather not use CA on the posts so I ended up ditching the wire rails in favour of Evergreen Styrene rod, #219 0.64mm diameter and used MEK to secure them to the posts. The best thing is that I could build a 350mm (14") length in one go !

    I ended up putting this together on a length of wood with grooves cut into it every 35mm, or 10 scale feet.

    .

    I taped the posts in position with the angled top section facing up. A small amount of glue was applied to the very first post (Top and bottom) and the rails attached. After the first posts had firmly fixed themselves, I carried on with the other 10 posts.


    This was then all sprayed with silver paint from a rattle can.

    I want to add barbed wire to the top and from what I have seen, you can twist thin wire around another strand to form the twisted barbs. To me thius does not look real enough ! This pic below shows this well...


    I had though long and hard over this the last few days and last night when lying in bed it came to me.... ...'fibreglass fly wire/insect screen' !

    I just recently replaced the mesh on my front security screen door and I had off cuts lying around, so I cut the mesh close to one of the horizontal strands leaving small tabs of the crossing strands intact. This was then cut down the opposite side, leaving little barbs on the strand.

    I set about gluing the strands onto the top of the posts and they didn't look too bad at all.



    With another going over with silver spray paint, I placed this length onto the layout and hey presto, a decent looking chain wire fence with scale barbed wire... Well scaled enough anyway !


    Now, back to the scissors, I have a lot of strands to cut and trim !

    Cheers, Gary.
     
  20. gormo

    gormo Staff Member Administrator

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    Good solution on the barbed wire Gary.........:thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs::thumbs:
    :tophat:Gormo
     

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