Sunshine, Palm Trees and a Food Industry...

Latest video update..., enjoy !



Cheers, Gary.

 

Well I finally decided to replace a curve on the layout that was giving the 60' high cube box cars grief. Every time I had a running session, I could here the bogies screaming against the chassis of the box car as the track radius actually tightened more than what I had thought... Smaller box cars, longer tank cars and the locomotives I have traversed the curve with no issues at all.

In the pic below, you can see a new printed track template (Anyrail) to which I will relay the curve. The curve is equivalent to radius 3 (Peco set track) which the box cars can navigate without any issues.

The point/turn out will be slide up to butt with the next set of points (Peco three way turn out).

Cheers, Gary.

 

Well after work early this morning, followed by breakfast and a little house work once I got home, I carried on with the track realignment.

Relaying the track was a relatively easy task, although I had to unscrew the original PCB where the baseboards meet and fitted another couple of pieces in place.

Not long ago I replace the curve just past this one that also leads to the peninsula section on the layout. What I didn't know is that when I soldered the rails across the PCB, the rails pinched together and I ended up with an inch of narrow gauge....

I did attempt to rectify this but with the solder on the PCB and rails, softening this and trying to realign wasn't working... Answer is to pull it out and start again...

So I got stuck into this earlier as well. Now I have two smooth curves, no narrow gauge and no wagons trying to jump rails !!

I just now need to re-read my post to find out which paints I used to paint the sleepers and rails so that it all blends back in.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks Gormo.

You are right to say the best option is to rip it out and start again, as you don't want it niggling every time you have an ops session.

Well this afternoon after a quick read of what coloured paints I used on the track previously, I had to run down to the local hobby shop to purchase a couple of jars of paint. Don't you love it when you realise the paint you need you haven't got any of it left ??

So, I got home, gave the jars a good shake and went about painting the sleepers then the rails. I think I managed to match the existing track work reasonably well considering the shop didn't have the two particular colours I was after !!

Anyway, here is what it looks like after the paint went on...

Matching the rail colour was all guess work as I didn't really take notes on one part this and two parts that.

After cleaning the rail tops, it all looks like it hasn't been touched at all, except the wagons roll through better !

Cheers, Gary.

 

So the time has come where I could start ballasting the track, but first I had to add a few additions...

The first of the additions are balsa wood sleepers. I spliced up some 1.5mm thick balsa strip into sleeper sized pieces and inserted them wherever there were no sleepers present, ie where flex meets points etc.

Some of these sleepers needed trimming down where a couple met near the frog of the points. This was done easily enough with a scalpel then they were giving a splash of paint and inserted back where they came from.

The next addition is the second crossing (grade crossing). This is located between the siding for the ferrous processing plant and the points that diverge to the peninsula. I pretty much used the same technique of 3mm thick grey board as the lead (road towards rail), but I changed my tact on the infill between the rails as this grade crossing is over a set of points. Here I decided to use styrene which was easier to cut/sand to shape to fit the curvature of the diverging rails and around the flangeway.

Former technique can be found here : https://platform1mrc.com/p1mrc/inde...es-and-a-food-industry.5350/page-2#post-87576

I found the styrene does a better job of this, than the grey board. The grey board I used was sprayed with matt finishing sealer to help protect it from any possible swelling when the scenery goes in around it (ie sand/soil/foliage/grass/ballast mix of PVA/water). The last thing I want is for the crossing to swell up above the height of the rails.

Now this is all in and secure, I started on the ballasting.

As I didn't have too much of the 'Cootamundra' ballast that I used on the original shelf layout (where this all started), I had to use what I had. I decided to try and extend what I had by adding another ballast which is of similar colour and also some fine scale road base type of material. In the end, there was enough to get around the whole layout.

To see the techniques I used to ballast, click on the link I supplied above for the grade crossing. It follows on to the ballasting.

This photo here shows the fiddle yard side of the peninsula. In this area, I added more sand and tile grout to the mix as photo of the real railway yard in Miami are very thin in regards to actual ballast material ! The second photo below shows this quite clearly.

Well that's it for now, tomorrow I'll get onto the sand/grout infill, between the tracks and any open spaces where scenery material (grass/weeds/fences etc will go.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thank you Gormo.

I have just tapped up the track and the areas where the buildings sit and I'll be applying the sand/grout mixture. With the beautuful 26*C (79*F) we are experiencing, I don't think it will take long to dry !

Cheers, Gary.

 

Well quite a lot of sand/grout mix has been applied to the layout, except next to the grade crossing.

I had to complete the crossing surface before any sand/grout mix could be applied around it. My intentions are to model a grade crossing that has a slather of bitumen down, but not done neatly. I want to reflect the look that this section of road gets absolutely hammered by the trucks coming and going to the ferrous processing plant.

This is what I have in mind...

As you can see above, the bitumen is rough, no straight edges can be seen anywhere. So, how am I to model this ? Considering I have put the grey board and styrene down already, I think I can layer the card, or I should say, delaminate the card.

This is what I already have down...

This next step was to apply a thin layer of the Golden fiber paste. This was smooth out randomly, with no straight edges. I allowed this to dry overnight so I could start scoring and peeling layers from the card (grey board). I thin took the scalpel and cut into the card right along the edges of the fiber paste. A layer of card was peeled away. I followed this process for another two layers, creating a step or you could say layers in the old bitumen.

Close up...

Now this has been completed, I decided to heap up the sand/grout mix along the edges of the card to create a shallow shoulder. I dragged the dry mix up onto the layered card to take away the card look and give it more of a ground rubble look. I let the sand/grout mix cure overnight and this is the results.

Now to create a reasonably weathered looking road surface, I used four colours of paint (Tamiya : XF-75 LN Grey, XF-54 Dark Sea Grey, XF-20 Medium Grey, X-2 White), starting with the darker colour and gradually building up layer towards the lighter colurs. Some black acrylic poster paint was mixed with a little XF-75 to create oil stains. This was applied then lightly sprayed with ispropyl to allow it to spread. I used the same black/grey mix to dry brush in some wheel tracks.

After this had dried, more sand/gout mix and some very fine road base (a Matt's Ballast product) was applied to the two layers beside the finished painted bitumen surface over a thin layer of ballast glue. This gives the impression of the old bitumen breaking up.

Finally I applied a dusting of the grout powder to blend it all together. Even the road was treated with a light dusting, using a fan brush.

Eventually when the scenery really kicks off, I'll be adding more weathering powders to the crossing area, but at the moment, I'm happy with the out come and I think I achieved that rough looking bitumen grade crossing look.

Cheers, Gary.

 

To the right hand side of the crossing I built, is the location of the ferrous processing plant. I have an area approximately 215mm (8.5") in size, although only shallow and I want to do something in here.

Whilst researching the grade crossing and located right next door to the ferrous processing plant in Miami is a small shipping company, (No, I'm not about to build a shipping company !) which has a nice little two story building at the front, just behind the tracks.

Here is a pic of the small building...

I thought that this could be the inspiration for the Ferrous Processing & Trading office building !

Looking at the photo, I estimated the door to be 7' in height, so I used that to gauge an overall dimension of the building. I ended up with the dimensions of 29' 5" wide and 21' high. As I didn't need it to be an exact copy, I decided to swap the location of the door to the opposite side of the building. Next thing to do was to look through my scratch building supplies for adequate windows.

I found a few windows in my Tichy box that would suffice so I measured these out and tranlated the measurements to the 3mm grey board I will use to build the model.

The door and window apertures were cut out and some low relief sides also cut. The whole lot was then glued together using CA (superglue).

Whilst this was drying< i gave the windows a lick of white paint (Tamiya X-2) and set them aside then concentrated on making the door and frame. The door is some 0.5mm styrene sheet that was drilled for a handle and the frame is 1.5mm Evergreen angle. The angle was glued around the sanded edges of the door aperture, then the door (with door handle and key hole) was glued into position.

The roof was made from a left over piece of roof cladding I had. It only needed trimming in width and length. I measured the underside out and glued in some 4mm long lengths of 1mm x 1.5mm Evergreen styrene strip to represent the roof beams.

Two short lengths of 4mm x 3mm Evergreen styrene strip was glued to the top of the walls with CA to act as a parapet. The underside of the roof had some 4mm x 3mm styrene strip glued in to secure it to the walls and parapet.

After test fitting the windows again (after painting them), I set about painting the model. I chose a soft yellow, similar to the prototype. This was applied and allowed to cure before I masked off the bottom section and painted that with a deeper orange-yellow. The door and frame was painted the same as the lower band.

My next job was to add a sign !

I managed to find a few Ferrous Processing and Trading logos on line, so I copied/downloaded one, reduced the size and printed it out. It was cut to size and a black boarder was drawn around the edges. This was then sprayed with finishing sealer and allowed to dry before I dry brushed on some of the same yellow shade I painted the building in. Once this was dry, I mounted the sign between the windows, just like the prototype.

I popped the windows back in, took it out to the layout and gave it a dusting of the grout to tone down the brightness of colour.

This is the end result so far...

I think it looks okay and eventually it will be blended into the scene with more weathering powders and the usual junk and clutter around the base.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thank you Gormo.

I'm hoping that once I start on teh scenics proper, it will look like it has been there for eons !

Cheers, Gary.

 

This weekend I have concentrated on converting/kitbashing the Walthers Tanker Truck Loading Rack into one that is more akin to the one found on the actual (prototype) Down Town Spur.

The kit shown on the left and what I wish to achieve on the right. I just wish I had a better photograph of this fuel depot, but one can compromise.

I started off by taking the base plate which has a ramped up loading dock section with kerb. The prototype does not have this.

The ramp and kerb had to go...

The base plate is moulded with a heavy base around the edges and where I trimmed it down required some sanding. This pic shows the step in the base plate and the red line shows what needs to be filed out.

After completing the filing down, it was time to add the tank, valves and pipe details.

There is a lot of parts that go into building this section of the model up.

Once that was complete, I had to work out how I will make the canopy supports as the kit contains four individual posts that support the canopy. These are located centrally down the model, whereas I need to make a wider twin post frame.

I ended up using 1.5 x 1.5mm square Evergreen styrene strip (#153) and cut four posts at 60mm. Additional horizontal I beams were added. I used Evergreen styrene I beams #271 for this. These were added as three separate parts, outer two and a centre section. Four 58mm lengths were cut to act as the truss beams.

To fit these to the model, I had to add the raised walkway and to do this I used the two supplied shorter support post, which are basically H beams. The walkway comes in two halves as each piece needs to wrap around the vertical piping. In each corner I drilled 1.5mm diameter holes so that the new canopy supports to slot through.

Before gluing these into position, I glued in the safety railings and stairs. The original position for the stairs were off to one side and to be like the prototype, I had to mount them centrally. This was done easily enough and then new hand rail sections were made up from 0.88mm diameter Evergreen styrene rod (#220).

I have started on the corrugated iron roof but that will come in the next post.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks Phil. I still plenty to do !

Cheers, Gary.

 

As I mentioned in my previous post, I had started on the corrugated iron roof.

For the roof I used some of my corrugated card, which was available from Broad Gauge Bodies in South Australia. I measured out two sheets to 136mm x 56mm. To these I super glued (CA) four lengths of 1mm x 1mm Evergreen styrene strip (#142), two strips to the outer edge and two inner strips. These act as the rafters for the corrugated sheet. Once this had set, I applied CA to the whole corrugated card to completely stiffen the card.

The next thing to do was to create a way of supporting the canopy in the centre.

To do this I made up two central supports from H beam. For the post I used Evergreen styrene #284. The sides were sanded down to match the dimensions of the vertical supports under the raised walkway. To these I made up the trusses from Evergreen styrene I beam #271.

Before I glued the canopy on, I had to paint and install the filler hoses and also add the fire suppression line to the canopy frame. Then the canopy was glued to the trusses as shown below.

and...

There is an extra yellow pipe that comes with the kit that I trimmed down in size and installed after the above had cured. This pipe is the fire suppression feed pipe.

The only things left to do know was to paint and install the fire extinguishers. Four came with the kit so I placed two on the raised walkway and two below.

Last but not least was to add the gates to the openings in the safety rails on the raised walkway. I decided to leave these to last as they allowed me some room to fiddle around to get everything right in behind the safety rails.

This is how it looks now...

The top of the corrugated card has been painted as well as the end hand rails each side of the stairs (top). The only thing left is to weather the model then fix it to the layout and it is done.

Cheers, Gary.