Engine House interior

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by DigitalGriffin

Bob,
What did you use for the leather belts?

Strips of masking tape colored brown with a felt tip marker. The stickyness of the tape allows it to stick to the drive wheels.

Bob Boudreau

[davekelly]

I wish model railroader would bring back the model of the month contest. It was always inspiring to see the skill and accomplishments of others. While I doubt I'll ever get to that level - it sure gave me determination to get better!!

[DigitalGriffin]

Bob,

Absolutely wonderful work! *Green with modeling envy*

What did you use for the leather belts?

[Anonymous]

Dave:

Thanks for the comments! Guilty as charged, my enginehouse is a very old model - it was MR's "Model of the Month" in June 1983. I made it as a modeling execise to be able to take interior photos.

My next project, a machine shop, was MR's "Model of the Month" for December of the same year. Here's a shot looking in one of the end doors:



Both this and the enginehouse are freestanding models, not on any layout. When I made a second pair of modules about ten years ago, I wanted to add something similar that visitors could see the insides. So I built another machine shop that is on the edge of the module, as if it were cut right open with everything on display. There is a sheet of clear plastic in front of it for train shows. Here it is:



It had to be made extra sturdy to be able to handle the facts of hauling the modules around. I've crushed the roof at least twice when it was set up at home, and had to repair it. Click on the above photo to see a larger copy.

Bob Boudreau

[davekelly]

Bob,

You need to come clean with everyone and tell them that you just posted a pic of a real enginehouse!

Seriously, I've always loved the work you did on that. Wasn't it in one of the mags several years ago? I am really blown away, not only be the modeling of the varous interior details, but in how you lay out all of it so it looks natural. Great job!

Dave

[Anonymous]

Weren't most enginehouse/roundhouse interior walls painted white, to make them brighter?

[Railfan2882]

Hey guys,
Thanks for all the suggestions and that's a great photo Bob it's given me alot of idea. To AntonioFP45, I have neither the kit that I assembled is a the Walther's Engine House and the interior is set up similar to that in Bob's Picture.

Railfan2882

[AntonioFP45]

Railfan......

Do you have a steam locomotive "Roundhouse" or a diesel locomotive "Backshop"?
Both service locomotives but there are significant differences as to the appearance of the interiors.

[selector]

Very cool, you two. [8D][tup]

[MisterBeasley]

For my roundhouse interior:



I found a sample of cinder block brick paper on the web. I copied it and re-sized it for HO, and the duplicated it a bunch of time by inserting the graphic into Microsoft Word. Then I printed a few sheets and cut it to size.

The wood plank floor is coffee stirrers, stained with a gray stain I made by adding India Ink to almost-white stain. After staining most of the pieces, I added more ink and made a few different shades of gray for the rest.

I scratchbuilt a workbench, a coal bin and a tool crib from coffee stirrers and foam. For a final touch, I added era-appropriate pin-ups (that's Miss August, 1967 on the right) to the walls.

[jwar]

Bob... you brought that old house to life. The house is clean enough to bring in another engine and just dirty enough to let us know one just left, a story in itself. I did not work steam but spent a few years working in one,

Railfan....If your into diesel, there are two general types of floor plans

Open floor for steam and dead work on diesels. Flat open floors to get big or heavy parts to the engine.

If you want running repair (quick turn work on diesels, you might consider a tapered ramp between two pits. Narrow at the front and wider at the rear of the pit. Height was about the height of the walkway of the engine. they were about 30 feet or so in lenght, just log enough to get onto both engines if two were on a pit
You are on the right path in building a Roundhouse, tell a story, sweepers, oil spill, perhaps the forman chewing out the guy that made the spill, done that been there...LOL
....John

[topgun3208]

that pic is gorgeous. fantastic work [;)]

[howmus]

Bob, That is Amazing!!!! Wow! You also gave me some ideas on more details for the interior of my Roundhouse that I am finishing. Wonderful photo too!

[Anonymous]

That's how I started doing structure details many years ago - I started with a Pola single stall enginehouse. I removed the rear window and poked my camera lens up to the window and took some inside shots. The shiny plastic walls, no details, and styrene sheets on the windows didn't help the realism much!

I think I painted the inside walls with flat paint to make it look less like plastic. To disguise the windows I added very narrow strips of masking tape on the clear styrene, to simulate mullions on the inside. It wasn't the greatest, but it did help. I was aiming for a general disguising of the interior, not doing a complete re-do because there wasn't much room inside.

So I scratchbuilt a two-stall enginehouse with the idea of being able to detail the interior and take realistic photos using my 28mm lens with a pinhole aperture that I installed. This setup can result in focus from almost touching the lens to infinity. Here's one of my photos:



(click on photo to enlarge).

The enginehouse is about 10 inches from one end to the other.

Good luck!

Bob Boudreau

[Railfan2882]

I recently built and weathered an the Walther's Engine House kit and I'd thought of taking it to the next step of realism and add a detailed interior and leave the roof unglued so that I could show people the inside and am contemplating putting in two inspection pits from Peco, miniature machine shop equipment from Preiser and other details including a model of figure doing some arch welding that lights up (I saw the latter on a model railroading video) but have been able to find the brand or a supplier any thoughts? Also I'd like to make the interior walls more realistic and cover up the fact that I used acetate for the window glazing and considered buying another kit a and assembling it inside out as it were and trimming it to fit together on the inside matching up the windows and sandwiching acetate between the window castings and painting and weathering it. If you have any comments or suggestions
Railfan 2882