BigDaddyYou could carve some styrene shavings and make your own.
Good idea. I will try that for workbenches etc that are towards the back of the scenes. I just got a couple of sets of sheet 'A' of these to use where they can be seen clearly:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/152407210709?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&var=451697088192&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Some larger machine tools in progress for the roundhouse. Three arbor presses, a milling machine, some drill presses and some buffing machines:
This is the result of about eight hours work. Lots more to come. A couple of days ago I got carried away and ordered a bunch of machine shop tools from Greenway. When the total came up it was close to $100 including shipping so I got cold feet. I cancelled the order and decided to make them myself. There is probably way less than $5.00 in material so far.
"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Hey Bear!
Thanks for the kind words!
Sorry, I don't do homing pigeons. Too messy!
I have to admit that I'm having a lot of fun creating the machine tools. In fact, I might be going overboard a bit with the details. Here are a lathe and a radial drill press that I built tonight:
I ordered some N scale brake wheels so I can add a few more details where appropriate. Whether or not the details will show clearly when they are in place remains to be seen, but right now I'm having too much fun to give a hoot!
Cheers!!
Dave,
Hootin' & Tootin' Your doing a great job!.......
And speaking of pigeons.....In the early 70's in Chicago, they had a bumper sticker out for Your car..it read..''Keep Your City Clean''...''Eat a Pigeon''. Thousands of pigeons in the loop. I had a sticker in My rear window of My 71 Ranchero along with a pic' of a little boy doing something to a bowtie....can't say here..LOL.
Take Care!
Frank
zstripe And speaking of pigeons.....In the early 70's in Chicago, they had a bumper sticker out for Your car..it read..''Keep Your City Clean''...''Eat a Pigeon''. Thousands of pigeons in the loop.
And speaking of pigeons.....In the early 70's in Chicago, they had a bumper sticker out for Your car..it read..''Keep Your City Clean''...''Eat a Pigeon''. Thousands of pigeons in the loop.
Rich
Alton Junction
richhotrain zstripe And speaking of pigeons.....In the early 70's in Chicago, they had a bumper sticker out for Your car..it read..''Keep Your City Clean''...''Eat a Pigeon''. Thousands of pigeons in the loop. Not anymore. Chicago's peregrine falcon population does just that - - eats pigeons, often in flight. Rich
Not anymore. Chicago's peregrine falcon population does just that - - eats pigeons, often in flight.
Now we're populated with pigeon bones.......
I really enjoy all the machines, benches and tools you are making for the interior of your roundhouse. Great work. My roundhouse is too far back for interior details to be seen, so I'm interested in what would be on the outside. Specifically a early transition era class 1 railroad in cold weather country where you wouldn't want to have to go outside and fetch something at 20 below and a foot of snow.
Maybe a jib crane mounted on a wall next to an access door for handling heavy parts deliveries (how much does a 1:1 air pump weigh?). Some pallets waiting to be returned or burned? Trash barrels (how did they handle shop trash in the days before dumpsters?) Spare acetylene tanks (what else would be considered "dangerous" enough to be kept outside in the days before OSHA?)
My theory is that a well-staffed shop/roundhouse of a class 1 railroad would be fairly clean and tidy. The workers were paid by the hour and took pride in their craft and tools so they would have kept things neat and orderly. In the post world war 2 mentality: "if it moves salute it, if it doesn't paint it". In the days of passenger service, when railroads had a big impact on the local community, management cared about how things looked.
Not trying to hijack the thread, but would welcome any ideas, comments. suggestions about "stuff" around the outside of a roundhouse?
Grinnell
PS: pigeons may be too small to be seen, but I like the idea and will try to add some
grinnellI'm interested in what would be on the outside.
Hi Grinnell:
Great question! I haven't given the exterior detailing much thought yet, but your suggestions sound good. I am going to have a short track coming off the turntable that will run between the roundhouse and the machine shop. I will put a small gon on that for the scrap metal. I think a picnic table would be appropriate too.
Just so you know, when I referred to having some 'clutter' in the roundhouse I didn't mean piles of junk. What I want is for the roundhouse to look like it would be a busy place, hence several light and medium size floor tools along with the workbenches and storage units etc. I'm also going to have several garbage cans inside as well as raw materials in several forms. There will be a pipe and bar rack or two, sheet metal storage, bags of whatever (asbestos maybe?). There will also be a shop manager's desk, two and four wheeled carts, compressed air and steam stands, oxy-acetylene torch sets, fire hoses, buckets, axes, fire extinguishers and helmets. I think pigeons are a great idea along with an accumulation of droppings along the beams. I'm sure I will think of more. I know it sounds like I'm getting carried away, but when I see a roundhouse or a shop with not much in it I'm always a bit disappointed.
After my previous post I realized that I had accidentally come up with a "cleanlyness vs safety" vignette: Wilber the roundhouse idiot using a 55 gal drum as a burn barrel to get rid of wooden pallets, next to half a dozen spare acetlyne tanks stored ouside for safety. (A flickering red LED in the burn barrel would help make the point.) It would be fun to see if any of the traveling superintendents notice.
grinnellAfter my previous post I realized that I had accidentally come up with a "cleanlyness vs safety" vignette: Wilber the roundhouse idiot using a 55 gal drum as a burn barrel to get rid of wooden pallets, next to half a dozen spare acetlyne tanks stored ouside for safety. (A flickering red LED in the burn barrel would help make the point.) It would be fun to see if any of the traveling superintendents notice.
That would be fun! I wonder if a smoke unit could be worked into the scene below the barrel?
I was on the Walthers site tonight looking for things like air hose stands, step ladders etc., and I was about to place an order until I got to the shipping cost. A $40.00 Cdn. order was going to cost me $35.00 Cdn in shipping! No thanks!
hon30critter I was on the Walthers site tonight looking for things like air hose stands, step ladders etc., and I was about to place an order until I got to the shipping cost. A $40.00 Cdn. order was going to cost me $35.00 Cdn in shipping! No thanks! Dave
Yeah,,,That's really a bummer.....and just to Canada....it's not like You have to cross an ocean or something. I have a friend in the UK, that for the past 3yrs. has been e-mailing Me lists of parts He need's or wants and I have been adding them to My need's. A lot of suppliers I deal with offer free shipping to Me over a certain amount. I gather enough to fill a Priority box and send to Him, at a cost of 66.00 US but it is still a lot more for Him to do the same thing, in most cases more than double the amount for Him. Just about ready to send His CARE pkg. LOL LOL He's the same guy, that had problem's with Model Power some yrs. ago,,,,We became good friends.
BTW: Too bad I did not know You in the 90's. When I was leased to CSX Intermodal.....I passed by Bradford twice a wk. going to Toronto on 401 to deliver finshed wood products from Seattle to a cabinet maker there. Used to enter at Detroit and come out at Sarnia...Port Huron to a empty drop yard in Grand Rapids MI. pick-up a load there and take back to Chgo. CSX Intermodal. The plus is, We did not have to stop at customs going in, just let them scan the bar code on the bill of lading. Always empty coming out.
zstripeToo bad I did not know You in the 90's. When I was leased to CSX Intermodal.....I passed by Bradford twice a wk. going to Toronto on 401 to deliver finshed wood products from Seattle to a cabinet maker there.
Small world eh! You wouldn't like Hwy 400 these days. It gets pretty slow during both morning and evening rushhours. If there is an accident, which happens every couple of days or more, you can expect to crawl for a while, a long while! My wife takes Hwy 400 home from work most nights and the trip is usually about 35 minutes. When there is an accident it takes 1 1/2 hours or more. I'm so glad I'm retired!!!
Cheers Frank!!!
All the best!
Handsome dude by the way!!
LOL....Yeah thaaaaaaaaat so called handsome dude...is white-haired, with a white beard now......be 75 this yr. God willin'....I'm game..
Frank, I have seen recent photos of you whenever I go to our local post office.
Richie
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!!
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).
Wayne
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!
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.
Mention of degreasing tanks reminded me of the hot-lye dip that the PRR used at the Altoona backshops.
http://www.billspennsyphotos.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=66809046
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
I appreciate your kind words, Ed.
gmpullman http://www.billspennsyphotos.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=66809046
Man! You certainly can't accuse the Pennsy of doing things in half-measures!
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.
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.
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)
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.
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!
Looks good Dave. Coming from an old concrete guy, your floor joints are layed out excellent.
Mike.
My You Tube
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:
Thanks,
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!