Wordless Wednesday #131

Anybody make this semaphore in HO scale?? How about the small/dwarf semaphores along the tracks?

Modeling Monday: RS-2 Pilot Details & Brake Chain Guide

When last we left the Alco DERS-2b project (click here for the previous posts), I was stuck on how to replace the pilot hand grabs:

I figured I'd use the Detail Associates lift bars - despite the very unprototypical (for NH) mounting brackets - but the grabs had me stumped. I figured I'd have to make some sort of jig to bend wire, but decided to do some more layout construction instead. So the project sat on my bench for a couple weeks.

Then, as I was rummaging through some stuff looking for something else, I found this:

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is a FULL SET of RS-2 grabs, railings, and assorted details, brand-new in the package. According to the receipt I found with it, I purchased this way back in 2003 shortly after the Proto1000 RS-2 came out for the purpose of adding the details that the P1k model lacked. I wish I'd found this before I went to the trouble of bending all those body grabs.

D'oh!

While the wire does look much better than the plastic, I decided to check the package for those funky pilot grabs. Yup! They were included. BONUS: the coupler lift bars are included as well - and they have the correct mounting brackets. Although these details are plastic rather than wire, I can live with the extra few thousandths(?!) of an inch difference in thickness to save time & aggravation and to keep this project moving forward.

Before I could install the new details though, I had to remove the old. Since I wanted to preserve the rivets and NBW detail, this was a bit more difficult than I expected. Here's what I started with:

First step was to use my flush-cutting sprue nippers to cut away as much detail as I could. Then I went at it with my favorite chisel which worked well until I had to remove the grabs - that area was just too tight and narrow.

Since I have a number of cheap little screwdrivers, I decided to sacrifice one by filing the tip down to make a very narrow chisel, as you can see above. You have to take extra care to do a good job chiseling away detail, but with time and patience you'll get everything off.

All the molded-on detail is now off, the rivets & NBW castings have survived, and holes have been drilled to accept the Kato details.

And here are said details press-fit into place (which is why the left grab is droopy). I wanted to test fit everything before figuring out how to route the MU pipes and where to locate the passenger car buffer.

MU pipes? Why, yes, I've decided to install MU capability just like on the prototype. Problem is, the part (Custom Finishing #347) is die cast metal and the end railings are likely delrin plastic. Not two materials that are likely to stick together.

Well, after much consideration and consultation with modeling buddies (including a suggestion to try and drill mounting holes and pin it all together - you know how tiny these parts are to try and drill?! %^), I decided to innovate a bit.

First, I taped the end railing down to wax paper to hold it in place and keep it from sticking to anything I didn't want it sticking to. Then I positioned the MU stand, noting where it would be touching the railings (primarily where the crosspieces touch inside of the railing's "V"). I had to file the crosspieces on the metal stand a bit to get things to fit snugly.

Then I put a large drop of contact cement in a water bottle cap and used a toothpick to apply it to the contact points on the railing and on the stand. Just a little will do - you don't want too much gooping up and looking nasty. Wait at least 15 minutes for the contact cement to set up, then carefully put the stand in place - as above. Since it's contact cement, you really have only one good try to get this right, so work slowly.

Once it's dry (I waited 24hrs, but that probably wasn't necessary), it forms a strong bond. How strong? Well, I haven't tried to separate the parts, but I can tell you that I bent the pipes (as above) while holding the stand/railings with my fingers and nothing broke free. So, so far so good.

Next, I wanted to tackle the chain guide for the hand brake. It's this part here:

Not sure why there's that red line, but whatever.

There's one on each side of the prototype, at the short-hood end (where the brake wheel is). When you ratchet/apply the hand brake, it pulls on these chains which in turn pulls out the brake pistons which applies the brake shoes to the wheels. It's not a detail that's typically included on models, but once you know it's supposed to be there, you notice when it's not there. The parts I use are Custom Finishing #147.

While I don't have a dead-on side view of the RS-2, I deduced that the guide lines up underneath the handrail stanchion closest to the cab. The problem on the P1k RS-2 model, is where to actually mount the part.

As you can see above, the "underside" of the frame on the model consists both of the model's metal frame and the plastic walkway. The notches above are in the plastic walkway and accommodate the tabs on the bottom of the handrail stanchions. The chain guide part is slightly wider than the walkway portion of the underframe, so you can't mount the part on the underside of the walkway (beside, that notch is too big). That would position the part too far "outboard" and, more importantly, you wouldn't be able to remove the walkway (the part would keep it from lifting off of the metal frame). So I decided to mount the part on the metal and marked the locations of the stanchion notches as you see above.

Before drilling the mounting hole, I got a couple of pieces of 2x2 to make a sturdy cradle for the engine. The side of the metal frame (that supports the walkways) just rests on the wood and keeps the delicate wires from resting on anything. See below:

With a sturdy base, I marked and drilled the mounting hole, being careful to keep the bit lubricated with bar soap. Having a Dremel flex shaft and foot pedal control makes this job much easier.

I drilled as close to the edge as I could, but it still positioned the part a little too far "inboard" for my taste. So I tried just notching the side in order to accommodate the mounting pin, but that left precious little contact surface for gluing - and the part kept just falling over and I couldn't figure out a way to hold it securely in place while any adhesive set up.

Speaking of adhesive: anybody ever try to solder a brass part to a metal (probably zamac?) frame? I don't think I'm going to try, but I'd sure like to know if anybody else has.

I finally settled on putting the part in the mounting hole that I'd drilled and decided to live with it being a couple thousandths inboard. I'll try to drill the other mounting hole even closer to the edge.

In the above photo, you can (hopefully) see the notch that I filed into the side - and that I didn't end up using. Also, the chain is A-Line 40 links per inch. The instructions for the part say that it's cored for 40lpi chain - don't believe them. I had to ream out the hole in order to get the chain to go through.

For adhesive, I decided to try Canopy Glue since I've heard from so many different folks (Scotty Mason, Mike Rose, etc) that it's a miracle adhesive. If it doesn't work for this application, I'll probably try contact cement again, but I'm certainly open to your suggestions for what to do here!

Photo above shows the walkway in place. Ideally, the chain guide would be centered over the joint between the walkway and frame. But it's already going to be sketchy keeping the guide from breaking off, so I want as much glue surface as possible. I'll be interested to see how it looks being so far inboard compared to the prototype.

Then again, maybe I'm being too OCD. Wouldn't be the first time . . .

I still have another part or two to mount before the chain guides are done - then I'll head back to the pilot itself and finalize the passenger car buffer position and glue all those end details in place. Oh - gotta get some hoses too (air, signal, steam).

Still hoping to have this project done in time for the next ops session, despite the recent pace.

Don't Forget the Website

If you only ever access this here blog via Google, from a bookmark, or via email (you do know you can get new posts automatically via email, don't you? :^) you may not be aware that I have a website - http://www.thevalleylocal.net - which is where you'll find more detailed & permanent research & content related to The Valley Local poject. Bonus - new blog posts get posted automatically to that site's homepage as well, so you won't miss anything if you go to the website (but if you only access the blog, you may very well miss what's put on the 'site).

While I've been pretty good at keeping the blog updated, I've only recently gotten more comfortable with updating the website on my own. But prompted by an email I received from JimD (of Cheshire Branch fame), I decided to collect my operations-related posts under a new "Operations" heading on the website. Click here and check out the left sidebar. In fact, since I realized that there are other "key posts" that I keep referring to in my own research and always have to look up, I've decided to start putting them on the website as well for quicker and easier access.

I still have some further updates to do - for example, the "Layout Tour" pages on the 'site don't reflect the latest progress (most having been posted shortly after I started the blog in Oct. 2013), and I haven't anything there about the Old Saybrook to Shailerville Bridge portion of the layout. While I know many have seen posts on those towns before, I can't expect anybody new to my blog to dig back through old posts to see what's happened.

As I get better about updating it, my plan is for the website to contain the latest and best of what's going on with the layout, as well as prototype research material that'll be handy for ready reference. So be sure to check out the website from time to time to see what's new. And if you haven't subscribed to get new posts via email and would like to, check out the subscribe button in the upper left or click here.

As always, if you have any information to share (a 1947 Engine Assignment Book perhaps?) or would like to weigh in on something, let me know in the comments or email me directly. One of the reasons to do all this is to meet other like-minded folks and enjoy this great hobby together, so it'd be great to hear from you!

On the Valley Line This Morning - 8/6/2016

During the first weekend of each summer month, the Valley Railroad (aka Essex Steam Train) runs south from Essex to the north end of the wye in Old Saybrook (end of VRR track). Since I live near the tracks, I get to see the train go practically through my backyard.

Typically, hearing the southbound train - which is backing from Essex - is my cue to get to the crossing to see the northbound run. But today, I was able to get videos of both the southbound and northbound Saybrook Specials - enjoy!

Friday Feature: Fascia for Foamboard

When I decided to try foamboard for the Essex-East Haddam portion of the railroad, one of the things that puzzled me was how to attach fascia board. In traditional L-girder construction, attaching fascia is pretty straightforward - you typically have joists that come out perpendicular to the aisle and you just screw the fascia into the ends of the joists. If your fascia is especially tall/deep, you can also reinforce this connection by first attaching a vertical "backer" to the joist and screwing the fascia to both the joist and the backer. Thusly:

Clamps and levels are your friends. Level to ensure that the backer/support is nice and vertical; clamps to hold things in place while screwing it all together.

Finished product looking toward Middletown. Note splice plate (1x4) behind joint in masonite.

However, I didn't find things quite so straightforward when dealing with foamboard, primarily since I laid the joists on their side, like bed slats, both to reduce the height of the foamboard (long story), and to provide the maximum contact area for gluing.

How do you attach fascia to this?

Here's what I did:

First, I cut the foam board back to what I wanted my aisles to be (keeping my trackplan in mind, of course) and then trimmed the slats back to the end/edge of the foamboard. Since I still didn't think the foamboard edge and slat-end would be enough to attach fascia (even if glued to the foam and screwed to the end of the slat), I came up with 1x3 verticals, as you see above. They're just screwed to the side of the slat and provide a surprising amount of rigidity.

Now that's enough to glue and screw to!

At the end of the peninsula, where the slats run in line with the aisle, rather than perpendicular to it, I just added cross pieces - as you can see above.

Finally, any joints between the ends of the fascia/masonite were dealt with by gluing a splice piece of more masonite, as above.

In Essex, since the foamboard runs right along the L-girder, I had to be more creative - using a scrap 1x3 on edge to provide a sturdy backing for the fascia in this area.

The result is a nice clean look.

One final bit - Though it's difficult sometimes to know ahead of time where your hills and dales are going to be, if you do know, try and cut your fascia to match. As you can see above, there's going to be a LARGE hill between East Haddam (in the right foreground) and Shailerville Bridge (where Bill is standing) that will also act as a viewblock. Cutting the fascia to match the expected hillside will make for a much-more-professional look. But you have to know this ahead of time. Or be willing to rip out and replace fascia later.

So that's how I attach fascia to foamboard. If you have a different technique, please share it!

A Few Words About Wordless Wednesday #130

Sharp eyes will recognize this scene as Old Saybrook (aka Saybrook Junction) and was taken in June, 1939, according to the notes on the photo. Despite the degradation in the sky, it's an amazing photograph - made all the more impressive by the fact that it could only have been shot by climbing to the top of the signal bridge that spanned the 4 main tracks.

Of course, what makes it most wonderful for my purposes - since I plan to model this scene as closely as possible - is all the "modelgenic" stuff you can see in it (which you can see even better if you click on it to enlarge). Here's what I noticed:

• FAR fewer trees than you see here nowadays (which means I won't have to make so many trees).
• Freight cars left spotted on Track 7. FYI, from left to right, the parallel tracks are #7, #5, #1, #2; Track 6 is the "balloon track" that goes behind the station, track 8 - the bulk track - ends just behind the parked automobiles, and track 10 is the house track. Best guess is that the cars left on track 7 are either being left by PDX-1 for PDX-2, or vice-versa (these were the two locals - one each way - that worked the towns between Cedar Hill Yard/New Haven and New London, CT).
• Speaking of track 7, neither it nor track 5 have much in the way of ballast (especially compared to mainline tracks 1 & 2) - which supports the hypothesis that these two tracks were used primarily for swapping cars between the local freights. I'd love to hear other thoughts/hypotheses on this (or any other details about operations here).
• Fresh - or at least clean - paint on all of the structures. And a general tidy appearance, despite the Depression and looming war in Europe (of course, labor was much cheaper then).
• Passenger platform canopy (removed in later years, but still around in my era of 1947).
• The Chapman Co. (coal-coke-oil), which in my era is on the house track to the left/east of the freight house, is not yet there in 1939.
• There's a loading dock at the end of the bulk track (track 8) - likely the location of automobile offloads (as seen here).
• A cool fence - built from scrap rail - separating the balloon track (track 6) from the parking lot.
• Small building/shanty next to the water tower (perhaps a pump house?).
• The rods from the interlocking tower are not yet covered by a wood walkway/platform as they would be in later years. But it appears that construction for the covering has been started.
• And just to the left of the rodding, a nice "hairpin" style fence to separate the RR ROW from the cemetery.

Whew! the list above is just scratching the surface - there's a LOT to see in this photo! And it's All So Modelgenic. I just hope my skills are up to the challenge of recreating this scene in HO scale. Thankfully, I have some pretty talented folks helping me out.

Wordless Wednesday #130