doctorwayneYeah, my wife keeps trying to get me out of the house, too. Sumpthin' tells me she's figured out how to change the locks.
I am a blessed man. Dianne and I have supported each other through thick and thin, including the loss of a son. When my train packages arrive she just winks and reminds me that I had told her that I was trying to curtail my hobby spending. I really do try!
Cheers Wayne!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
hon30critter ...Interestingly, the only pressure I have currently is coming from my wife. She keeps reminding me to go to work on the garage so I can start the layout! How's that for spousal support!
Yeah, my wife keeps trying to get me out of the house, too. Sumpthin' tells me she's figured out how to change the locks.
Wayne
Jimmy:
I followed your roundhouse project with interest. It was indeed a massive project but I think it turned out pretty well.
I'm never in any rush to get any of my modelling projects done. When something starts to become a chore I put it aside. Interestingly, the only pressure I have currently is coming from my wife. She keeps reminding me to go to work on the garage so I can start the layout! How's that for spousal support!
Cheers Jimmy!
trainnut1250Suggestion on the floor weathering - just go back and blend out the hard edges and it will look fine. I wouldn't make it any darker....
Hi Guy,
I value your !
I have gone back and tried to soften the edges of the stains and lighten up the floor areas away from the pits. So far so good, but it still needs more work. I'll post pictures once I have it where I want.
Thanks
Dave,
Awesome to see you going for it in this thread.
Suggestion on the floor weathering - just go back and blend out the hard edges and it will look fine. I wouldn't make it any darker....
Just my two cents,
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site
rrebellyou may want to do something about the pit bottoms, looks too much like its painted, should look more of a constant dark grey due to them cleaning up this area better to stop slips.
Hi rrebell:
I agree. I'm not happy with the way the pits turned out so I will have another go at them tonight. Using a dark gray is a good idea.
I saw a picture of a real pit recently that had an anti-slip mat in it. It looked like the old style that I think were made out small pieces of tires with wires joining the pieces together. They could probably be simulated with a piece of fabric from a cotton T shirt.
Thanks,
Looks great but you may want to do something about the pit bottoms, looks too much like its painted, should look more of a constant dark grey due to them cleaning up this area better to stop slips.
Wow, 18 stalls is a lot of dedication. I just finished a 9 stall roundhouse and know how after a few repititions, the thrill is gone. After about six, the fun was turning into that dreaded word: "work". Looks impressive when finished though.
Grinnell
Man, I finished up an 18 stall roundhouse in november...Thankfully I never have to build another roundhouse...all roundhoused out after such a massive project.
(My Model Railroad, My Rules)
These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway. As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).
gmpullmanAlcohol in the right hand and paint in the left or other way 'round?
Fortunately I wasn't drinking from the bottle today so I didn't get the Rye Whiskey mixed up with the Isopropyl Alcohol. FWIW, the Rye was diluted too.
gmpullmanI think everything will appear darker once the walls and roof are in place. Too dark and the details will be lost, IMHO.
Keep in mind that the roundhouse will be well lit so in fact the opposite could happen where the lighting washes out the staining on the floor. I'll have to do some tests.
Thanks for your comments Ed!
Regards,
hon30critterComments?
Dave, I love it! I am glad to see the yellow safety stripes toned down a bit, too. I think everything will appear darker once the walls and roof are in place. Too dark and the details will be lost, IMHO.
One question...
hon30critter I used black paint and alcohol.
Alcohol in the right hand and paint in the left or other way 'round?
Keep up the nice work!
Ed
Here is the first attempt at weathering the roundhouse floor. I used black paint and alcohol. I can't decide whether I like it or not. I think the oil and grease stains should be darker along the edges of the pits and lighter further from the pits. Comments?
hon30critterSorry Bear! The pigeon didn't make it:
So that’s what happened to Penelope!!
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
I have painted the base concrete colour on the roundhouse floor and added the warning stripes for the pits. The stripes need some touch up where the paint bled under the masking tape. I also installed drainage grates in the pit floors.
Next step is to mess it all up with weathering!
I’m wondering Dave, if I sent a self-addressed homing pigeon, after giving it a handful of wheat to munch on, would you kindly strap some of those great workshop machine tools to its leg and let it return?
Sorry Bear! The pigeon didn't make it:
The birders among us might recognize what is eating the pigeon. That's right, it is a Peregrine Falcon! My Aunt captured this shot a couple of days ago in Mississauga, Ontario at a shopping mall of all places. Rare sighting!
Thanks Mike. Next step is to paint a more appropriate concrete colour, and then to weather it. I'm debating painting yellow strips down the sides of the pits like I did in my Atlas roundhouse. It would certainly make the pits stand out but I'm not sure how prototypical it would be. Anybody?
Here is the Atlas roundhouse. I only installed one pit:
Looks good Dave. Coming from an old concrete guy, your floor joints are layed out excellent.
Mike.
My You Tube
I spent a couple of hours scribing the concrete seams in the roundhouse floor tonight. I don't think the pictures show them very well, but basically I decided on a 12' average sized slab. I scored the seams with a #11 blade and then used a #17 blade to clean off the raised edges. I think it will show better when the floor is painted and weathered.
Cheers all!
Shoulda’ made your own, Dave!!
That was definitely a possibility but I figured that would be pretty fussy work by the time I did eight sets with the hoses, gauges, torch, tanks and stand. I have never had much luck doing HO scale hoses. The price was fairly reasonable too, even with the shipping factored in. One other factor is that I want to get on with assembling the actual roundhouse. I installed the hinges in the doors last night. Even that was time consuming because about 25% of the hinge straps were broken so I had to fiddle with those too. I'll come back to the tools later.
hon30critter. They are undersized by quite a bit. You can see the Shapeways set on the left next to a Juneco set (which is slightly oversized)
Got the torch sets from Shapeways today. They are undersized by quite a bit. You can see the Shapeways set on the left next to a Juneco set (which is slightly oversized). The Shapeway oxygen cylinder is 3 scale feet tall so I suppose it could represent a small torch set but that isn't likely something that would ever be used in a roundhouse setting. The Shapeway torch sets are very finely detailed but because they are so small you can hardly see the details. Maybe after some paint they will show better. I'm going to go back to see if they do the same set in S scale.
Edit: I just re-ordered the torch sets in 1/64th scale. They may be a little oversized but at least they won't look like a set of hobby torches. I also asked Shapeways for a refund, explaining that the oxygen cylinder is only three scale feet tall. IIRC they should be about four feet not including the valve.
Wayne:
Thanks for the great idea! In my automotive days when I was doing my own rebuilds I always wanted a cleaning station but never had the money. Now I can have a couple, one for the roundhouse and one for the shop!
There will be a boiler house attached to the service facility. I modelled it using the East Broad Top building as an inspiration:
Ed:
That is a scary picture! I wouldn't want to be standing there if a sling broke.
Thanks guys.
I appreciate your kind words, Ed.
gmpullman http://www.billspennsyphotos.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=66809046
http://www.billspennsyphotos.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=66809046
Man! You certainly can't accuse the Pennsy of doing things in half-measures!
Mention of degreasing tanks reminded me of the hot-lye dip that the PRR used at the Altoona backshops.
I can not fathom why those men were standing so close to the operation! One bit of water or pocket of trapped air would have that hot caustic splashing everywhere!
I always enjoy looking at your photos, Wayne! Very inspiring...
Regards, Ed
A couple of years ago, I made a few cosmetic alterations to my locomotive shop (formerly a Vollmer roundhouse). The work was primarily to alter the formerly wooden end walls of the annex, (the brick portion with the large doors closest to the camera) replacing the wood with brick, as shown.
At that time, I removed a small overhead crane and the building's interior lights, which were hung from the roof framing and the long beam running to the side of- and above the platform...
While the lights were grain-of-wheat bulbs (this building, as a roundhouse, dates from the early '70s), the light shades were heavy-duty aluminum foil, formed over a suitable shape. You can't get much cheaper than that for a shade that has an actual reflective inside surface! You'd need to insulate the leads of the LEDs, but paint, nail polish, or epoxy will do that easily.
Almost forgot, but for a roundhouse or shop, a parts washer is another useful detail that could be added. Mine, just partially visible at lower left in the second photo, was based on one in the millwrights area of the steel mill in which I worked. Our's was steam-heated (all mills had steam/air/cutting gases and oxygen piped in from a central facility), and mine is intended to be the same. The vessel, like a large dumpster, was filled with Varsol or a similar solvent, and a crane could lower large parts into it for primary de-greasing. In a roundhouse, a similar unit might be serviced by a small ground-operated overhead crane, or a chain-fall type hoist, either manually or electrically powered.
Hey Wayne! Thanks for chiming in!
My lighting won't be attached to the roof. I'm going to run phosphor bronze wires down each side of the top interior beams and the LEDs will be soldered to those with an appropriate resistor in between which I hope I can make look like a wiring junction box. I looked at the premade lamp shades but I need 40 of them for the inside and 11 for the outside. The quantities prompted me to look for cheaper alternatives to the commercial shades. I'm going to use bevelled washers for the shades with smaller washers inside to keep the shades from falling off the 3mm LEDs. I seriously considered buying shades that were more to scale but the costs involved with this project are adding up fast. I just ordered another $70.00 worth of interior details that are too fussy to make myself, things like hand carts and air hose stands. I could make those myself but at some point I need to start working on the actual roundhouse itself.
To that end, I spent some time sorting parts and installing door hinges tonight. Cleaning off all of the moulding flash is becoming a second career. That task is a necessary evil! I hate doing it and I have to keep reminding myself that if I don't do it the finished results won't look quite so finished. Danged cameras!!
Thanks for you input as always Wayne! You set a pretty high standard. That is a good thing!
hon30critter ....and I'm trying to figure out how to make the roof removable....
Dave, I've got a Korber roundhouse under construction (delayed for other projects at the moment) and am planning to make the roof removeable. I shortened it considerably, and one stall is even shorter to allow a track to pass behind for access to a staging yard across the aisle.I put the resin castings together using JB Weld in conjunction with screws, and have built the walls, floor, track, and support beams for the roof trusses as a unit. The roof and its trusses will be built in-situ, but the trusses will merely sit atop the beams in the somewhat oversize gusset plates:
With the main trusses running front to back, I'll add cross trusses between them to make the support system more rigid, then cement the .060" sheet styrene roof to that, which should make it even more rigid. I don't plan to add lighting or even much detail, even though it sits right at the edge of the layout at eye-level. I've done that in the past, and don't have much interest in doing it again, at least while I'm trying to get the layout fully operational.For lighting attached to a removeable roof, Tichy and Grandt Line both offer industrial-style lampshades, and they can be suspended from the roof trusses by the wires for the LEDs or by brass tubing with an insulated wire inside it. In the past, I've used sprung brass or copper contacts, one set attached to the removeable stuff and a matching set on the structure. A mini-plug would work, too, or you could use multiple ones to help keep the roof in place and properly aligned.If mine needs its roof secured in place, a couple of removeable pins should do the trick.
I do like the shop tools and other details you've been making, and it's very tempting to do the same for mine, but it will have to wait until a lot of other stuff gets finished first.
I think I've posted this photo before...
...but I plan on painting the interior of mine in similar colours: dark-ish grey on the lower part of the walls and pillars, and white on the upper portion of the walls, pillars, and roof trusses (well-sooted, of course).
Back to the roundhouse project (I have been enjoying the sidebars so please don't quit).
I spent some time studying the roundhouse walls, internal beams and posts, and the roof tonight. I have to say that the instructions leave a lot to be desired. I'm looking at how to illuminate the structure both inside and out, and I'm trying to figure out how to make the roof removable. That is a bit of a challenge because the individual roof panels are separated by strips that are attached to the internal beams. I'm thinking of removing the roof separating strips from the beams and gluing them to the roof panels. I will divide the roof into three sections of three stalls each so the panels will be easier to handle. I might need to come up with some sort of locating system so the roof panels won't slide out of place. I'm thinking of using some simple brass pins.
Several people have suggested ways to finish the inside walls. I'm going to stick with the Plastruct brick sheets for a couple of reasons. One is that the insides of the side walls are uneven so the Plastruct sheets will bridge the gaps nicely to create flat walls, and the other is that the open spaces in between the Plastruct sheets and the wall mouldings will be perfect for running wiring unseen.
For interior lighting I'm going to use 3mm LEDs with bevelled washers as shades, and I am going to run phosphor bronze wire along both sides of the top beams to provide power. The LEDs will be a little oversize but that's no big deal. They will be easy to install simply by running the legs up either side of the beam to the phosphor bronze wires. I'm also going to use SMD resistors for each LED and they will be installed so that they will resemble junction boxes in the wiring.
I also spent some time figuring out how far the turntable will be located from the roundhouse. Walthers doesn't address the issue at all, or at least I couldn't find any instructions on how to locate the two. It turns out that the ends of the bridge track will be 5 1/8" from the apron of the roundhouse, and, conveniently, it looks like I will need track pieces 18" long to go from the ends of the roundhouse track at the back wall to the edge of the turntable. I'm not sure if Walthers designed things that way but it does mean that there won't be much track wasted in the installation.
After all that thinking my head hurts!
Now its back to building machine tools.
Cheers all!!
Frank, I have seen recent photos of you whenever I go to our local post office.
Richie
Alton Junction