Sunshine, Palm Trees and a Food Industry...

Finally managed to scratch build the air condition and exhaust fan...

The exhaust fan is a piece of 8mm diameter styrene rod that had to be drilled to allow a 6mm length to be glued inside, slightly protruding from one end.

This was glued into position and a small length of 4mm rod was glued centrally to the opposite side. I also glued a small piece of styrene to this and when it had cured, I filed this smooth and round. The edges were lightly filed to give a rounded edge. The 8mm rod was also filed lightly to form an angle towards the 6mm rod. Sorry no photo...

The air conditioner was made out of 30 thou styrene sheet, with 4 sides cut out 10mm square. These were glued together with a 3mm square strip to help form 90* corners.

In my spares box, I had a verandah/fire escape floor, which is made up of fine slats. This is perfect for the grill on the air con.

Two small sections were cut and filed to fit in each side of the styrene box. The exhaust end of the air con was made up of 20 thou styrene sheet, two pieces cut 7mm wide, the other two 5mm wide. These were glued together to form a long square tube as you can not purchase 7mm square tube.

Both the air con and the exhaust tube were glued together and a small slither of corrugated styrene sheet (same as roof) was cut and glued to the bottom of the air con. This enables the air con to sit level and the corrugations sitting inside the roof corrugations.

Two supports for the exhaust tube were cut to length and glued into place.

Both the exhaust fan and air con were painted/weathered and then glued to the roof of the cafe and a length of 0.64mm styrene rod acts as a power conduit. It looks reasonably close to the prototype so I'm pretty chuffed with this. The only difference is that the exhaust fan does not have a protective cage around it !

Next job is to bed the cafe into the lay out, that may not happen until next week.

Cheers, Gary.

 

I know what you mean Tony. Unfortunately Evergreen Styrene doesn't always give a metric conversion on their products.What I can say is the 0.040" = 1mm, 0.060"=1.5mm, etc etc....

Cheers, Gary.

 

Yesterday afternoon I started on the planting of the cafe on the layout and managed to get it all settled in by late last night.

I had to mark out and remove any ground material back to the flat base. Here you can see where I traced around the floor plan of the cafe and I have started to remove the ground material.

All ground material out and level, although the knife marks make it look quite rough !

The base of the cafe had a piece of 1mm card glued to its foot print with extra strips to bring the height up to the footpath.

This shows that the model needed raising to marry it to the foot path...

To bed the base in, I needed to build up the ground around the building using the same fine sand and grout mix used elsewhere on the layout.

You can see here that I have laid and smoothed out the sand/grout mix. This was sprayed with IPA (isopropyl alcohol) then a ballast mix of PVA/water/detergent applied.

Whilst this was still wet, I sprinkled the surface with very fine gravel from the Matt's Ballast range. A little more sand/grout was sprinkled over the top of this to give a blended surface.

A stip of card was added alongside the cafe to form the driveway to the rear. I scribed the card and dusted it with pastels to give it a distressed concrete look. This was then sprayed with clear matt sealer.

With a little more massaging of the ground material around the cafe, I ended up with a nice surface. A corrugated iron and timber fence that I had made recently was used behind the cafe to separate the railway from the cafe yard. Grass and weeds were added as well as the dumpster bin I had also made recently and the usual trash of paper, pallet, car tyres and a few boxes.

Between the fence and the outhouse, I added a steel gate. This is another great rail fanning location for the gunzels !!

With the palms relocated back into position and the addition of some scrub, it finishes off the rail side of the fence.

Well, I think this end is nearing completion and I'll focus my attention to the opposite end from now on.

Cheers, Gary.

 

I filmed this on Monday, (hence the name), before I had planted the cafe, but had it there in position...



Cheers, Gary.

 

Back in post #103, I kit bashed left over pieces from a Walthers kit into a small industrial complex. Yesterday I planted the complex onto the layout...

The area where it is to be planted is at the far right hand end of the layout.

I measured the area up with the building and an industrial tank.

Using the tank, I thought that it shall have a spillage bung and a concrete hardstand next to it. The hard stand for trucks to reverse up to the tanks for filling.

This was all measured out and the present scenery removed using a scalpel and a knife.

A length of 1mm thick card was slotted into place to bring the height up to the outer frame of the layout and also to represent the concrete hardstand. Another two strips of 2mm thick card were used to create the bung walls. This was all painted with Tamiya surfacer/primer grey.

The bung around the tank with building in place.

The card had an additional line scribed through it to represent the individual concrete pours/expansion joints.

I set about gluing the building in place and adding scenery to hide the join from old to new...

Weathering powders were used to dirty up the concrete hardstand and fine gravel was glued in place under the tank.

A view from the end of the layout looking down the line past the building and fence line.

Next up will be fixing the industrial tanks in place on the opposite side of the tracks...

Cheers, Gary.

 

Video update, August 2021 :



Cheers, Gary.

 

A little more scratch building this weekend. The crossing in the US all have an electrical cabinet close by and I have seen a few online, mostly from the US and the cost of postage is prohibitive. So, I went researching these cabinets and found some great sites full of info which are now bookmarked in my computer for future reference.

Having come across one manufacturers page (manufacturer of cabinets), I scrolled down their page and hey presto, a line drawing with measurements !! See below.

Along with the line drawings are drawings of the cabinets which aided me with the scratch build.

I decided to scratch build one from 30thou styrene sheet (0.75mm), cutting out the four walls and scribing in the individual panel lines and also the door. The door was scribed deeper into the styrene.

These four walls were then pieced together using 1.5mm angle on the inside, which protruded out the bottom of the cabinet to form the legs, as shown in the diagram above.

The roof was next to go on followed by the weather strip above the door, the hinges, the small removable panels just under the roof line, the door handle and the lifting lugs. Most of this was made from 0.25mm styrene strip cut to size and shape and/or drilled out accordingly.

Once this had all set firm (cured), I drilled into the bottom (I added a false floor) and added a few conduits which look as if they disappear into the ground.

This was then spray painted silver to represent the prototypes I have seen along the lines in Miami.

A prototype situated to the left of this industrial line...

Throughout the week I will plant this opposite side of the tracks to where the cafe now resides.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Not a lot has happened on the layout over the last couple of weeks, but I have made a little progress on the front of the layout with some scenery work.

I had a blank area to the right of the green industrial building, the one that sits over the hinge block, so I thought that some industrial waste could be left there. I imagine that the green building is a small fabrication and repairs work shop so scrap metal is called for !

Using a few lengths of Evergreen styrene tube and a handful of small offcuts that I had stashed in a zip lock bag, these were added to the scene after judicial weathering. A small tank was also added to the scene for variation of waste material.

Next door to where I work is a small fabrication business and there is a gantry crane onsite. I decided to use this crane as inspiration to build a model.

The model is constructed of Evergreen styrene 4mm I beam, 4mm channel, strip and rod as well as some fine chain, both 2.5mm link and 1mm link.

The gantry frame. the slider actually slides across the I beam girder.

Building the block and tackle...

Completed block and tackle... The top of it is articulated using two chain links. Be nice if I could pull the chain through it !

Gantry crane finished except for paint and weathering...

Andy Solis asked how I went about making the block and tackle so I drew up a sketch of how it is pieced together. It is rather fiddly work, but rewarding in the end !

I'll get the model painted, weathered and planted tomorrow.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thanks Kimbo. It was quite fiddly work, but I persisted regardless ! I wasn't going to give up on it and allow it to win...

Cheers, Gary.

 

Today I painted, weathered and installed the gantry crane on the layout...

I think it came up pretty good. I also think the owner should take more care of it. I'd easily say it is a useful piece of kit in the yard as the owner has taken care of the block and tackle whereas the frame itself is looking a little less forgiving...

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thank you kindly and that's great coming from you, the 'Master' of ingenuity !

Yes, you are right, if it ain't available, make it your self. You know I don't mind a little scratch building from time to time. It really allows the mind to be creative !

Cheers, Gary.

 

Not a lot done on the layout over the last couple of weeks, not enough time or modelling supplies. Today (11/10/21), I'm hoping that the local hobby shop will re-open as I had purchased grab irons from the US for two locomotives, but I haven't the paint to paint them first before applying. Touch wood they'll be open !

I have recently purchased two more locomotives, this time in Conrail livery, which worked this stretch of railway line several years back. They are both coming on the 'slow boat' from Otter Valley Railroad in Tillsonburg, Canada... I have been informed by the supplier that it will be a two to three month wait for arrival.

One is the Rapido GE B36-7 in Conrail livery, #3606 complete with sound (ESU LokSound) and ditch lights in Norfolk Southern patch. See here : https://rapidotrains.com/products/h...tives/ho-scale-ge-b36-7-locomotive-second-run

The other is Rapido EMD SW1200 in Conrail livery #9339 with sound. See here : https://rapidotrains.com/products/diesel-locomotives/ho-scale-emd-sw1200

I'm looking forward to their arrival !

Last night whilst I was up waiting to listen to the F1 broadcast (yes, listen as I don't have pay tv...), I put together an operating session...

I hope you enjoy...



Cheers, Gary.

 

This weekend is all about fitting grab irons and lift rings to two of my CSX locomotives, a GP9 and the SD60M... I have started on the GP9 as there are plenty of holes to drill out and several lift rings and grab irons to paint and fit.

All parts were painted first and whilst these were drying, I drilled the body shell after carefully removing it from the chassis.

These parts are small and yes, a couple decided to grow wings and fly to unknown parts whilst attempting to hold them in the tweezers... The lift rings would be less than 1.2mm in diameter...

I purchased some paint on Monday afternoon as we could travel further than 5kms (3 miles) and I took the locos with me to match the paint. This paint here by SMS is as close to the original livery of the GP9 and I was told by good friend (Jurgen, owner of SMS) that he will be producing CSX blue shortly.

So with this one loco done, I move on to the next.

I'm still waiting on several parts from the US (Bob the Train Guy) to completely detail these two locomotives, namely drop steps, MU stands, MU hoses, air hoses and sun shades.

A couple of pics from the layout. The figures I purchased some time ago have come in handy !

Cheers, Gary.

 

I have started on the detailing of second locomotive, the SD60M. I thought early on that the detailing kit from Walthers would have lift rings for the roof panels, but this locomotive class does not have any as shown in the pic below.

So, here I am thinking this will be as simple as the GP9 I done earlier on the weekend... That is not the case.

First indication that this would be an issue came about when I tried to remove the chassis from the body. The GP9 I had done earlier was quite simple, remove the couplers, remove two chassis screws, remove the two chassis screws under the fuel tank and pull apart. Simple right ?

No, not that simple with the SD60M...

I remove the couplers, I removed the two screws under the coupler box locations, I removed the fuel tank and removed the two screws under the fuel tank cover. Gave it a wiggle, nope, nothing. I then sited two screws under the No.2 end bogie. Sweet, I just undo these and be done. Ok, to lift the body shell...

No. That didn't quite work as I had imagined... What I did do is remove two screws that hold the motor in place. These two are the two under the fuel tank cover. Although the body shell did come loose, there was more top do as the chassis on these locomotives are two part ! Go figure...

The lower part of the chassis cradles the motor and houses the bogies etc. The top half of the chassis holds the decoder, lights, speaker enclosure, wiring and if you didn't know what you were doing, you would most possibly rip the wires from the bogie pick ups off the decoder... Not a good design initiative Walthers.

So, how the heck do you remove the top part of the chassis which is firmly planted within the body shell ??

To be honest I had no idea ! So I turned to youtube to find a video on removing the body shell. Couldn't find one at all, but what I did find was a video on a decoder upgrade in the SD60M, by DCCTRAIN Live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX638F7pqtI

I sat and watched this for some time. It even had the streamer confused. he basically tried what I said above and no luck. He even thought that the body may flex off the chassis, like sliding a credit card down the body sides of a coach the separate the two. Nope, that's not the answer either.

The answer is to keep the two parts slightly separated (lower chassis & top chassis/body shell) and reattach the screws into the top part of the chassis. Screw these in about 3/4 distance then use a pair of needle nose pliers to gently prise away the top chassis from the body, work both ends slowly until separated.

Sweet, that technique worked well and no damage whatsoever !

Now I can finally get onto the job of drilling all the pilot holes for the grab irons !

Unlike the GP9 kit, you don't get any spare grab irons if one grows wings and flies ! The Walthers bean counters must be getting tight...

The makings for the pilot holes are clearly defined on this model compared to the GP9. After drilling< I went about working out what needs to be painted blue, what needs to be painted white and of course there is one that is white for the cab roof. These were all painted up using SMS Trainer Yellow, SMS Field Blue, which needed a drop of the PN Blue (as used on the GP9) and white from Mr Hobby.

These were allowed to dry then I placed them onto the body shell. I started with one that is located on the side of the locomotive where the blower is located, just to get this one out of the way. (no photo) I followed this up with the roof top grab iron located next to the radiator fan on the No.2 end. (see photo)

Next I completed the front nose, but only the four lower grab irons. These were all touched with some CA on the inside of the body shell before moving to the No.2 end. Again, once all seven in place, they were touched with a small amount of CA.

The next five grab irons are located on the top of the short hood, cab end and one on the cab roof. I completed the four on the short hood first, gave a swipe with CA then onto the roof top grab iron. With all grab irons set in place, I gave the CA a good 30 minutes to go off before touching up any damaged paint from holding the grab irons in the tweezers.

The painting was complete and the model looks a lot better now. The only additions this locomotive needs is air hoses, MU hoses, coupler bar and perhaps ditch lights and she's a good'n !

No.1 end... Nine individual grab irons mounted...

No.2 end... Eight individual grab irons mounted.

Pic of CSX SD60M #8757 (Courtesy RRPicture Archives.NET Image by Max Linder) showing the associated detail on the front end.

Cheers, Gary.