This is what one of their kindling bags looks like. The wood scraps might be pine, spruce, basswood, maple and other species used to make furniture. I am going to make my layout from their kindling. Then when it's all done I can throw it in the woodstove ... kidding (or is it kindling). Going to have a great time.
I can see you scratching the structures out of kindling with a good set of chisels and sandpaper, but the locomotives if they are not electric they will have to run on steam. Now if they burn wood and they are made out of wood...
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
SpaceMouse I can see you scratching the structures out of kindling with a good set of chisels and sandpaper, but the locomotives if they are not electric they will have to run on steam. Now if they burn wood and they are made out of wood...
HaHa. All my trains will be CN HO scale but there will be minimum plastic in the layout.
For this project, I am going to need a way to work in different rooms in my house because I may want to work in the kitchen when I'm cooking, the family room when watching the dogs, outside when it is warm enough, basement where my trains and large power tools are, etc. In the March 1962 issue of Model Railroader, Jim Fisk wrote a short article entitled "Handy tray for assembling models." Just what I needed.
Last year I built a tray inspired by that article. Plywood base about 2' x 1 1/3'. A good size to move anywhere in my house and will sit on any of my work benches or desks.
There is a main work area and a place for tools for the job at hand.
And finally a styrofoam bottom for the work area. Note that I deliberately used CN colours (as close as my red paint would allow).
Around here the Broadway Lion appears to approach his model RR holistically.
Bear "It's all about having fun."
bearman Around here the Broadway Lion appears to approach his model RR holistically.
I think that's great.
I am going to start on page 71 of the October 1956 issue of Model Railroader. In the section called "Kinks" E.C. Harsch made a 64-word contribution called "Wax Water." He describes a technique for using paraffin for creek and waterfalls. So, time for a little chemistry experiment.
I really like the Woodland Scenics Realistic Water. We'll see how this water interacts with candle wax.
Wax was melted on the stove in boiling water.
Three test samples prepared. Top left I poured Realistic Water then a few drops of melted wax. The bottom two samples are the reverse, melted wax then a few drops of RW. Will come back to these when the RW sets up.
Time to dig into a bag of kindling for a flat piece of softwood. Going to use my router freestyle to carve out a river bed.
Riverbed cut and, yes, I keep all the sawdust for later use.
Season will be early spring and a lovely blue sky. So, I'll apply sky blue paint to the river bed.
Had a close look at the wax-RW samples and there are no problems putting the two together. Therefore, I'll use the wax to make submerged ice that hasn't yet melted in the early spring.
Before pouring a first layer of RW, I placed pieces of real shale from Walton, NS at specific locations on the riverbed.
Carved out some terrain and river banks, then added RW to set up overnight. As always, kept the shavings.
Down by the river someone is building a boat. E.L. Moore wrote an article on a boat in the January 1968 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. I'll do something like that.
So, back into the bag of kindling for a small piece of wood to carve a hull.
Scaling the hull dimensions in the article, a quick back-of-the-kindling calculation means cutting my 1"-wide piece of wood to 3.6" long.
Most of the carving I can do with my large striking knife. This is a professional tool from Lee Valley.
The boat's hull will be positioned on block 1 (B1) as shown, and a small marine slip will be built that will allow the boat to be launched into the lake on block 2 (B2), located east of B1.
To build a ship cradle I need to know the hull contours at the support locations, in this case fore, aft and mid ships.
Slip and cradle will be made by modifying an inexpensive CP 315206 flat car.
I'm diggin this. Look forward to more progress reports.
s~
On YouTube at It's My Railroad
originaldirtguy I'm diggin this. Look forward to more progress reports. s~
Thanks s~, I am too.
Carving and cutting the plastic car was just as easy as the wood. Of coarse I'll keep the shavings and two smaller flat sections for other applications.
Going to change the colour of the flat bed so I'll soak it overnight in heavy duty oven cleaner inside a strong ziplock bag. it's going to be relatively mild tonight so I can leave it outside to avoid fumes in the house.
Purchased a Life-Like Proto 2000 53'6" AAR 50 ton flat car today. This CN #662720 will be leased by the quarry as a general maintenance car.
The quarry will also lease a Life-Like Proto 2000 SW9/1200 locomotive #7034 from CN. This switcher is ideal for the small layout. There is no specific calendar time period.
After a night soaking in oven cleaner, the paint just falls off with a touch.
Toothbrush and water and the piece is ready for a coat or two of primer, which I'm out of at the moment. Will pick some up at the hobby shop this morning.
Down to the paint shop to apply some primer.
I am going to need a few small mechanical components for the marine slip. The best source, and cheapest, that I have found is the remote control toy vehicle. I can buy them at one of our biggest community recycling stores for peanuts. This one was missing a wheel and was priced at $0.99CA, plus, when I bought it on Seniors Day (Tuesday's) I got 30% off that. So, let's see what's in this box of chocolates Mr. Gump.
Modeller's treasure trove. Everything else in the trash.
Already got some ideas for the marine slip so need to take a few more toys apart.
Slip and cradle starting to take shape.
Time to blend the kindling sawdust and shavings.
Making my own particle board out of the blended kindling sawdust and quick drying wood glue. Using small pieces of model train cardboard boxes to sandwich the particle board and the contour tool to draw the hull shapes fore, aft and midship.
Kindling particleboard cradle components will need a day or two to cure so I can carve the hull contours.
Block 3 (B3) In place. Headed to hilly terrain common to limestone and gypsum areas East of B3.
A canal will be built going south from the lake for the boats to pass. The lake will only have one island, the two smaller features will be submerged sandbars.
Zinc will be used for the cradle framework.
Bought a bunch of used small hoppers today. Will upgrade all trucks, couplers, repainted, and add BOKX reporting marks. Here are four of them.
Zinc framework installed on the kindling particleboard using stained glass materials, tools, and techniques including the zinc itself, flux, solder, and soon a black patina. Slots are left on the sides of the zinc framework for fitting to the metal uprights on the flatbed.
Patina gives the zinc an older look.
This is how the forward contoured cradle support fits on the uprights. The aft section will be done next.
Basic cradle components are complete, lots more detail, including the slip to the lake, to work on. Starting to fill the lake with Realistic Water.
The design of the quarry is in progress based on Jim Shiff's article entitled "Open Pit Mine Railroad," Railroad Modeler, January 1975, Vol. 5(1), pp. 38-41, and my personal tour of the world's largest open-pit gypsum quarry a few years ago. This quarry is still in operation and expanding, and is only a 30 minute drive from my house.
B1 and it's neighbouring block to the south will be animated. Pneumatic and electrical lines will now be installed under B1. Tools required are metal rule, miniature router plane, striking knife and my antique 1 1/4" chisel.
As you can see, these tools are ideal for the job.
Planning the quarry blocks requires detailed knowledge of the rail cars as well as the land moving fleet. Roads, bridges, canal barges, etc all need appropriate dimensions. Making drawings today, among many other things.
Priming the first BOKX gypsum hopper.
Because the hoppers are small, I can enjoy painting them by hand.
Ore car painting coming along. Among several other upgrades will be the installation of real optical sensing gear in the undercarriage plus brake lines with associated gear. Will be buying at least 12 of these Roundhouse ore cars.
Two pair of electrical leads and a pneumatic line installed on B1.
Temporary tape cover. Four-pin electrical connectors will be installed.
Whisper pump delivering good airflow to B1.
I'm lost as to what you are trying to do with the air pump and animation in general. Can you explain it to me?
SpaceMouse I'm lost as to what you are trying to do with the air pump and animation in general. Can you explain it to me?
There will be an operating crane at the small shipyard that can lift lumber, ships masts, etc. One electrical pair is for lighting, the other for the crane's motor. The forced air for crane pneumatics. I will design, build and integrate the control electronics.
When I say holistic, I really mean using everything and anything for railroad modelling, including animation. Animation is covered in the model railroading literature! Here is just some of my electromechanical collection from online sources like Mouser and Amazon, and taking apart remote control toys as I have already mentioned.
As for designing and building electrical circuits, I have a growing collection of the best how-to books available. An ingenious book by a Lego technics designer explains pretty much everything one needs to know about motors, gearboxes, suspension systems, torque, even pneumatic systems design. The latter applies way beyond just Lego. Knowledge is MY key to creativity.
Ore cars will be NATO Black. Will order R.R. Gothic - White lettering. Will practice with black lettering for now. All wheels will be changed to quality Rapido metal ($1ea).
Testing couplers under heavy loads of real Nova Scotia gypsum. Plastic couplers will not hold with 8-10 cars but metal ones will.
First modified ore car with gypsum load runs beautifully with new wheels and couplers. Using one of my Genesis SD75I locomotives on the DC test track. This CN locomotive was repainted NATO Black with an air brush and will also bear the BOKR marks.
Lots of modelling to do today. Priming and painting ore cars, buying more Rapido wheels and Kadee couplers, filling lake on B3 with water, motor selections for crane on B1, and dry transfer lettering. Oh, and it's Tuesday so 30% discount on more remote controlled toy vehicles at the community recycling store.
Just after 6 am and dogs fed, wood stove lit, coffee on, and modelling begun. Ore car painting and lake fill proceeding on schedule.
Five ore cars are in various stages of painting. Hand painting gives the cars a rugged look which will be followed by adding some dents and wear. Will order white lettering sheets this morning and after those arrive and letters/numbers applied, some significant weathering related to operation in a gypsum quarry.
Picked up a box of Rapido wheelsets, two Woodland Scenics Dry Transfer Decals (R.R. Gothic - White) with many full sheets on order, and eight more Kadee couplers. Having a time!
Bought two RC vehicles this morning and they are packed with goodies. With my 30% seniors discount they came to $5CA.
Putting my layout in a box to take to the hobby shop this morning. Looking for used back room parts for the crane and canal locks.
Back from the hobby shop with an idea. I'm going to try to make an old operational crane from an old operational train. This is going to be fun.
Looking after three dogs this afternoon so got my handy tray and tools to start working on a crane. Set up a fourth test track - good thing I collect old power supplies.
Definitely crane potential.
When I saw the "holistic approach" part I figured you'd be using all natural materials, more like a complete abandonment of traditional layout construction techniques! To see how you intend to repurpose rc car components and Legos into a layout should be interesting good luck!!!
Steve
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough!
OldSchoolScratchbuilderDefinitely crane potential.
I can see where your going with that. You'll probably have to re-engineer the "pancake" motor to get any kind of a s-l-o-w crane speed from it.
And Legos, check out the new March MR magazine, page 31, and see how Thomas Klimoski animates his working gate, and he uses the same Lego Technic mechanisms to operate garage doors.
You can watch his video on the gate, on the main page of MR web site, and when you do, many more of his videos will show up on the right.
Mike.
My You Tube
mbinsewi I can see where your going with that. You'll probably have to re-engineer the "pancake" motor to get any kind of a s-l-o-w crane speed from it.
Going to take that motor out of the plastic casing and may build my own casing. Will definitely slow the speed - worm gears are good for that. If I can't make that work, I also have smaller motors with builtin gear boxes. They operate at slow speed and high torque.
Painting fifth ore car today, numbers six and seven will be soaked in oven cleaner over night. Thursday is my hiking day and I am going to Cheverie on the Bay of Fundy to find the perfect piece of gypsum/anhydrite/limestone for block 4 (B4 will lie east of the lake on B3.
Unit train coming along nicely. Four ore cars on track, one almost finished in the paint shop, and the bodies of six more soaking in oven cleaner outside overnight. All cars have new quality wheels and couplers. Eastern section of the lake (on B3) is filling in and wood painted before ground cover is installed. Met a prospector on my hike today and we are going to have coffee and talk geology on Saturday
Ceramic accessory magnets installed on B3 and second coat of paint applied.
Six more ore cars ready for primer and paint. Going to be another fun day on the modelling front.
The banks of Lake Albert have been cut and painted.
For ground cover I am going to use the kindling sawdust and Frary & Hayden's recipe for dying it (Railroad Model Craftsman, September 1973, Vol. 42(4), pp. 48-49).
My wife is laughing at me, but warned me not to turn the kitchen green!
Totally unexpected that the sawdust would turn into a ball like this! If funest was a word, I'd use it right now.
Enjoyed the sawdust ball but alas, it must be broken apart to dry. Need to keep breaking apart the small lumps and turning the sawdust for a day or so.
Primed and ready for painting.
Another coat of NATO Black tomorrow, then two coats of German Grey on the inside of the ore cars, and I'll have 11 cars on the track. Maritime Hobbies has a few more for me so I'll buy them tomorrow.
Newspaper was very wet so I changed the paper. May have dry ground cover for B3 sometime tomorrow.
Have an ideal motor with built-in gear box for azimuthal rotation of the crane on B1. The crane's body will be carved out of kindling.
Cars six through eleven all painted and will be hauling Nova Scotia gypsum on the track later this morning.
Gypsum unit train getting longer - 11 ore cars now. Bought two more from the hobby shop this morning.
Dyed sawdust ground cover is dry and readily sifted into grades just like my minerals as shown. From left to right the grades are as follows: >5.2 mm, 2.7-5.2 mm, 1.2-2.7 mm, 0.2-1.2 mm, and very fine particles <0.2 mm. Some wood's sawdust have their own natural colours like the red cocobolo shown.
Ground cover applied to B3 by brushing on Woodland Scenics' Scenic Cement and a using a sieve. When dry I'll remove the excess and see if more is required. Note, magnets will be hidden under the cover.
Ceramic disks were still showing so I added more sawdust cover over them.
The underside of a horse will be painted with Nova Scotia magnetite from Cape Blomidon and positioned over one of the ceramic disks. Since it is early spring at Nova Scotia latitudes, a sunny sky, and now I'll add around noon, appropriate shadows will be added to the ground cover, in this case, that of the horse.
By appropriate shadow I mean casting the shadow to the north with the correct shape and dimensions based on the object's outline and altitude of the sun. Note that the object's cast outline depends on the object's orientation with respect to the position of the sun.
Texture and colour matches our current neighbourhood lawns.
Two loose pieces of Nova Scotia magnetite are firmly attracted to the embedded ceramic magnets. In this way, accessories can be attached to B3 and changed anytime since they won be permanently attached to the scenery. Shadows will also be removable.
Using a flashlight at the correct sun's position, the horse's shadow is easily drawn.
Paper shadow is glued onto a piece of black plastic canvas.
Black paint applied to the shadow.
Back of the shadow filled with glue. Shape rough cut with striking knife.
Applied very fine dyed sawdust to the back of the shadow so it sits better on the slightly uneven ground.
The shado can be placed with the object if desired like this. Took the shaDow off B3 to let it dry then I'll touch it up to finish. All my shadows will be made this way.
Numbers 12 and 13 ore cars soaking in oven cleaner until tomorrow.
A rock pile has been glued together on a piece of paper for B3. The pile consists of shale from Walton, NS and three pieces of magnetite from Cape Blomidon, NS. The presence of magnetite in the pile will make it stick to the ceramic magnets embedded in B3. A shadow for the pile will be made once it dries.
The crane on B1 will be designed using my collection of technical Lego. Here you can see gears, universal joints, linkages, casings, clutches, axles, differentials, turntables, knob wheels, racks and more. The working Lego crane will be scaled to HO non-Lego when finished.
Excellent selection of pins and bushings.
I have a variety of motors, actuators, battery boxes, RC transmitter/receiver and associated gear.
My design will start with the main motor oriented horizontally. Here you see a two-way switch for changing crane azimuthal rotation direction, axle, worm gear, bushings, motor, and mountings.
Oven cleaner did a nice job stripping the paint off the two ore cars. They will be primed and painted today. Their undercarriages are already finished and on the track. Rock pile is dry. A little water and the paper rubs off. Applied a bit more glue on the underside for better support, then I'll also add some fine dyed sawdust like I did for the horse shadow.
Rock pile and it's shadow are finished. Last two ore cars (at this time) being painted, and acquired a Broadway Limited Imports brass construction CN Hi-Rail Pick-Up that runs on DC and DCC. This work vehicle will be used on the BOKR.
It's Tuesday and that means senior's discount at Value Village community recycling stores. First store, the smaller one had lots of toy vehicles for my parts collection. Already see a few items for the crane.
Plastic cylinders, valves and reservoirs are terribly uninteresting. They are not going back on my ore cars. Will do better than this.
To add details and more realism to the BOKR ore cars I made a field trip to Hantsport, NS this morning to examine the old gypsum hoppers in depth.
The old depot and surrounding yard have been designated a Provincial Heritage Property.
Many of the old gypsum cars are here. I took lots of pics today, with emphasis on the brake equipment.
I also took pictures of the hilly terrain around Windsor, NS. This hill by the highway is made of gypsum as you can see. I will build a hill like this on Block 4 (B4).
I will use the same numbering scheme for the BOKX ore cars starting at 352901.
Here is the 10x12 brake cylinder.
The auxiliary reservoir. I'll add gypsum like this.
Control valve etc.
Neat stuff! I enjoy following along. I'm looking forward to the crane!
For small tapered wooden parts like barrels and reservoirs I'll use pencils and my old school sharpener.
Two truncated pencil cones and an old metal washer make one non-plastic reservoir.
Some quick dry wood glue and a c-clamp should do it. So much more rewarding!
To make my brake work more visible, I will paint the main components hull red. All mounting brackets will be made from zinc. All the brake lines will be made from the stiff-wire antennas of the toy RC vehicles I have been tearing apart.
Although pencils may have their modelling applications, dowels are easier to attach brake lines to and they sharpen just as easily in my old school Boston sharpener. Also, the sawdust from the sharpener is 100% wood, thus, modelling material.
Mounting brackets for the reservoir and cylinder made from zinc. Holes drilled in the bottom of the brackets match the manufacurer's holes in the under frame in diameter. All parts painted black (the hull red made the reservoir look like a wooden barrel). Valve, brake lever and the brake lines will be made next.
Yesterday was winter hiking day in the Windsor Group geology areas of interest for the BOKR. Today I work on Block 4 (B4) and ore car brake systems.
Many ideas for lettering my ore cars are shown in my go-to book entitled "Illustrated Treasury of Modern Freight Cars of North America," James W. Kerr (DPA-LTA Enterprises Inc., Lewiston, NY, 2006). Lettering for ore, air side dump, hopper, and covered hopper cars on pages 52-85 provide lots of useful examples.
Making technical drawings for brake component design and installation.
Now that I worked out the equations and numbers for the frustum of a cone, I can reproduce identical reservoirs easily and quickly.
In the 25 minutes since my last post I cut enough wood for reservoirs for all my ore cars.
Today I will standardize the design and installation of a reservoir mounting frame. I will begin trying my favorite material, zinc.
Zinc reservoir mount complete with centre hole to attach to the underframe.
This is where the auxiliary reservoir will go when completed with brake lines and paint.
Electrical wire soldered to the mount through the bottom hole. Stained glass flux, solder and black patina used to age the zinc mount.
Reservoir mount installed and looks aged. Brake hoses will be wire and black heat shrink. Painting the reservoir (I like it much better than the plastic one).
These Roundhouse ore cars do not come with brake wheels. I started collecting HO scale wheels from cars I disassembled for parts last year, however, I didn't like these plastic pieces much. I found a metal alternative that I like much better. Small parts from fabric snaps are the same diameter and look great painted and installed on cars. The snaps in this picture will be primed and painted for the ore cars.
All painted and drying. From local fabric store to the model railroad - everything and anything!
After a few days of intense music activities, it's back to some modelling time. Working on the ore car's control valve, cylinder and associated brake lines today.
The cylinder will be a modified electrical diode that I removed from one of the RC vehicles. Surface coating has been scraped off to prepare for paint and one end has been tapered using a drill and hard grinding bit.
The BOKR will be submitted to Railroad Model Craftsman for publication, Hopefully.