Hi James,
That is just a piece of display track. The track is some old and dirty AristoCraft brass track a club member was giving away. It is mounted on a scrap piece of the Home Depot brand composite decking (Veranda). I spread a full tube of a Liquid Nails over the surface and pressed in the track and then bluestone stonedust into it. I let it sit a few days the banged off the excess stonedust. I topped it off with some more stonedust I had screened to lose the fine stuff. I glued with Titebond II dilute 50/50 with water and a few drops of india ink added to darken it. I liberally applied the diluted Titebond with a sponge brush and let it dry for a few days.
-Brian
Hi Brian,
It would be the photos that you have for Phase II. You seem to have some kind of grey flat block with black gravel. These materials that you used is what I'm curious about. Please... do tell! Thanks Brian.
Thanks, James. Are you asking about the track on my layout (layout website can be accessed by clicking on my signature logo or weblog icon) or the display track seen in the pictures?
Hello there,
Great job on your loco project! I want one too! Can you please tell me what you used for your track ballast and also what kind of base are you using to support you tracks and also what brand of track do you have there? I love they way you did that! Thanks ahead of time if you can reply.
The boiler design I got from looking at the patent drawings for the Dunkirk (from the gearedsteam.com site). First off, I never did any exact measurements. I just did what looked right by studying the proportions of various geared locos and using the detail parts I picked up (mostly from Ozark).
The pipe I used for the smoke box is 1.25" I.D. and the boiler is 1.5" I.D. (about 2" OD). I had to grind out the boiler tube abit with the dremel tool to get the the smoke box tube to fit. Glued with PVC cement. Next was drawing on a top center line and drilling out the holes for the domes and stack (done on the drill press with fostner bits). I added bottom supports from plastruct angle stock (quite a few pieces) in the back and a piece of I beam in the front, all glued with 5 min epoxy. I also used epoxy to glue in the domes and 1/2 a pound of lead fishing weights inside the boiler (there's 4 oz. of weight in the water tank).
Styrene strips and sheet parts and metal detail parts were glued on with CA (super glue). The smoke box rivet detail was done by fitting a piece 0.010" styrene sheet then I used a small jewelers philips head screwdriver and carefully punched in the rivets on the backside (same on the water tank). It was glued on with ProWeld (a plastic welding agent). For the smoke box front hatch I cut out a styrene circle and bubbled it up with a heat gun and filed to fit flat. Gaps were filled with Squadron putty.
There are lots of details items you can add on to personalize your loco. Its kind of a learn by doing process but just have fun with it. Any mistakes you make are usually fixable. If you look at my pix of the side of the loco with the air tank and compressor you'll see a small dent just below the head light. This was a wrinkle in the rivet overlay. I could have filled it in but decided to leave it and just "rust it out" to make it look like wear and tear on the engine.
cool. I notice the boiler started as pvc. think you could go into greater dietal about its transformation? much appreaciated.
That might just be a better way to relax than mine, sittin in my truck sencing the possibilities!
(its a 52 international this one isn't mine,oh how I wish)
Hi Patrick,
The extension will be an extension of the outer loop into a new mountain with a tunnel (the wife wants a tunnel, who am I to argue?) and a stone bridge. It will have 10' curves like the original part of the outer loop to accomodate heavyweights. It will also incorporate a logging operation and a small coal mine. Of coarse then I'll have to build a coal dump and saw mill to go with them. The double mainline is especially nice when you just put the trains on to run and enjoy a tasty beverage at the end of the day.
Thanks guy. I do have a small layout I started a year ago. You can see pics of it my clicking on my signature logo or weblog icon. Its just in a shady part of the yard (nice in the summertime though) and its tough to get good pics back there. I don't believe in display models and the Dunkirk often pulls more than its weight in logs and coal . I plan on adding another 100' of track this spring.
I became intrigued with this little logging locomotive after seeing a beautiful scratchbuilt on the cover of the 20th anniversary issue of GR (Dec 2003). A Dunkirk is a variation of a Heisler except the cylinders are located inside the cab behind the firebox. More info can be found about them at http://www.gearedsteam.com . Being fairly new to large scale, though I worked in HO on and off over the years since my early years, I thought I could create a reasonable model of one utilizing unused rolling stock and off the shelf parts. I was quite influenced by Vic Smith and the many others who post their great creations online.
Phase I - last fall
I started with a Bachmann gondola and Big Hauler Ten Wheeler cab and a pair of new diecast shay trucks. The boiler is scratch built from pvc pipe with detail parts from Ozark Miniatures and Trackside Details. The water tank is scratch built using a styrene frame with some brass tube at the corners as to wrap the outer skin around to give it nice rounded corners. The top of the gondola, front of the tender and steps use real scale 2"x8" cedar. I beefed up the underside of the gondola quite a bit with plastic angles and I-beams to strengthen and stiffen it. Truck side frames were made from very modified Hartland trucks. I utilized the driveshafts from the shay trucks for my driveshafts.
Phase I done
Phase II
Phase II included a few things I need to do to finish off the model to my eye including decalling, new front and rear wood pilots with coupler pockets, push pole pockets and steps, shortened coupler shanks, additional piping and a bit of weathering. Here are the finished results -
And here it is with a bashed bachmann bobber caboose turned in a little logger caboose (the design influenced by Kevin Strong's scratchbuilding series) and recently completed scratchbuilt water tank (base on the Morristown and Erie RR tank - http://www.whippanyrailwaymuseum.net/str_watertank.html ).
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