Gateway Subdivision

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Ok, on the project side of things, an update on the water tank.
I'm ready to install the weights & ropes for the operation of the spout. BTS says to glue the spout in the upright position. Well, that would be too easy and no fun. So the spout is going to be movable. The thread that came with the kit was pretty thick at .4-.5mm. Between the bulk of the thread and taking on the shape of the spool, it was pretty unwieldy no matter what I did to get it to relax. I tossed that thread and dug out the 0.2mm thread I have from Model shipways. I cut off a long enough piece that will hold the counterweight, up through the pulley, over to the spout, back to the other pulley, down to the other counterweight, with the spout down.

With the thread cut to length, I soaked it in water and put it on the "Hanger". That's it in the picture above..... Anyway, after hanging it I took the heat gun, and gave it a couple of 15-20 second blasts of heat. The counterweights are styrene, as I didn't have any solder that dia. (3mm) Even with this thread, were it passes through the loop on the spout, I had to mark that spot, pull it clear of the loop, and take the pliers to crease the thread so the loop has a place to sit. Otherwise it doesn't look very natural, and that's the way I want it because that's how I am...... I do drop back and use the three foot rule.....every now & then......

Ok, the plan of attack is to CA the thread at the pulleys. Then with tension on the counterweights, CA the threads from the pulleys to the weights.
The last drop of CA is the thread at the loop on the spout. You're supposed to use thread for the valve control, I put in a piece of scale chain.
The key question now, is the spout going to stay up on its own?

 

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Having left the La Grange plant in November of 1939, for its coast-to-coast barn storming tour. At 193 feet, 456-ton, with a total of 5400 h.p. the right gear ratios, could give it a top speed of 102 mph. It rolled 83,764 miles through 35 states.
Today we caught it on the Gateway headed North, passing the Tionesta cinder pit with a consist of GN 1958 cu ft 2 bay covered hoppers.

At Klamath Falls, the 103 will spend a couple of days with the mechanical dept. fueling & performing some needed maintenance.
(guess I better get the fuel stands in)
Happy Modeling!

 

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Earlier, I had shown this picture of 4 pieces of styrene angle glued in the foam to hold a building.

I did this for the Bulk Transfer office also. Here's what that looks like before I glue the roof on.......
I just like to be able to remove the building for whatever reason......
Happy Modeling!

 

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The water tank rigging has been CA'd, I hit it with some weathering powders to kill the new paint look......
Spout down.....

Spout up.....

Ladder and fill pipe to install, then it can head for the layout.....
Happy Modeling!

 

[migalyto]

The water tank rigging has been CA'd, I hit it with some weathering powders to kill the new paint look......
Spout down.....

That water tank is turning out phenomenal!

 

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Over at the Bulk Transfer site, the bulkhead and walls are done, now I can put the bunks together.
I had a happy accident happen while doing the walls. I used 2x12 scale lumber, with plain Elmer's glue spread as thin as possible. After drying, I used a sponge to apply Murky Brown stain. Now the boards are starting to separate handling them to get them stained. I got them all stained, stacked them crib style and put a couple of 1-2-3 blocks on then until the next day.

Here is what they looked like......Kind of splotchy....I like that look......I've since added the posts.

Something like this for the bunks........
Happy Modeling!

 

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That water tank is turning out phenomenal!

Thank you Mike.........While putting any model together, I always liked details. To me, that just made the model stand out. I may not get the right number of rivets on something, but hey, it's got rivets.......

 

[migalyto]

. I may not get the right number of rivets on something, but hey, it's got rivets.......

That's right!

No one here is counting!

 

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The rest of the bunk walls are installed on the bulkhead.

Kind of flimsy only glued to the side of one post, so I turned it over and tied them together with lengths of 2x12. Once dry I'll stain them, and the foam core for the piles will hide them.

Happy Modeling!

 

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Latest on the Transfer bunks, is that I got the pile foam cores started.....
There is not much room to play with at the end of the bunks, so the piles need to be only the length of the bunks.....

 

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Meanwhile on the work bench, I'm throwing the sand house together. A pretty simple laser cut kit from the GNRR Historical Society.
Just the little bit of glue used to hold the buildings to the foundation made it want to warp, hence the 1-2-3 blocks.
All one color says the instructions, paint all before assembly it says.....
I don't think so......I like to make subassemblies (especially in dealing with multi colors) before putting everything together.

Crappy lighting, but I first applied two coats of "aged barnwood" stain. After drying, I applied the Boxcar Red with a somewhat soft, square end brush, dabbing most of the paint out first, a kind of heavy dry brush technique as it were......Going for a relatively weathered look.....
Floor is painted a concrete color......

Happy Modeling!

 

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Went camping on the Umpqua River over the 4th, so I did what any good model RR does, seek out landscaping materials.
Found a small sand bar and scooped a gallon bag of sand.
Ran it through the classifier and washed it.
That's it in the big pan, Perez on the right for a color comparison, which shows a browner tone compared to the blonde of the Umpqua sand.

Joe on the pile for scale. I'm going to use the Umpqua sand for the sand house build. No foam core here, I just poured a pile of sand and soaked it with scenic cement on a piece of parchment paper, so when it is dry, it will separate easily. After it is dry enough to handle, I'll put it in the sand house and build up the pile. The ruff spot on the rt end is where the surface cracked when I moved it to the work bench.
And of course, this will give me another commodity color for the Bulk Transfer operation....

Happy Modeling!

 

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Here is a mistake that is not so happy.......
I installed the two camp tracks at the usual spacing but failed to realize how oversize the camp cars are when put together.

I'll move the outside (left) track over. There is enough slack in the feeder wires that I can file a groove in the foam to accommodate them.
I'm thinking any Helix run is not going to happen....

Happy Modeling!

 

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Back at the sand house, the pile has dried enough to peel the parchment paper off. I wanted the pile to be larger, so I put a piece of cling wrap in the building for the sand pile to sit in, left it oversized to cover the rest of the building while I sprayed it with wet water, then I hit it with 50/50 Modge pod & water solution.

Don't block the door......

Happy Modeling!

 

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I'm trying to keep moving on the creek scene.....I've added more rocks, & plants. A lot of the creeks in the desert usually run past rim rock. At the base of the rimrock tall grasses grow. I wanted to add this grass on the outside curve of the creek from the mirror back to the retaining wall.. I thought I'd try my hand at making the grass tufts.

I used this WS Field Grass. The red clothes pin, I took a bunch of fibers & folded them over, applied the clothes pin, then glued the bottom end. The other clothes pin, I just took a bunch of fibers, rolled the fibers together & applied the glue.

I made all of these from the two samples above. On the folded over sample, the individual tufts were easy to cut out because it had formed stems that were easy to separate. The other sample wasn't too bad, I just had to cut down the main stem to get the individual plants. Now I will spray them 2-3 coats of hair spray before installation. I've got Brass man for scale, I further glued the stems, so by the time I cut them, get them planted, they will be 7-8 feet tall.....

Happy Modeling!

 

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An update on the making of grass tufts. I changed the technique for making them. Now I take a bundle of the fibers , held with both hands, give it a twist and dip the center in a pool of Scenic Cement. You have to hold it for a couple of minutes until the glue sets. The Scenic Cement is alcohol based so its thin and works through the fibers easier.
Once dry, I can take the Elmers and saturate the middle section towards each end, so when dry and cut in half, the tufts are your scale size.

Here is one cut in half.......

Here are the two tufts split length wise for individual plants.......

Once all the tufts are cut, a clean up of the --stray hairs--is done, and the tops teased to make them a little bushier.
The square card needs trimmed, the round tray is ready to go......

Happy Modeling!

 

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With a batch of tufts ready to go, it was out to the layout and install them.
Hard to see, there are several tufts between the mirror and white dots. (I hadn't mixed any paint with the Hydrocal)

I put some Folkart dark grey on a dish & installed the tufts with it. Painting and gluing at the same time. Onward!

Happy Modeling!

 

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Over on the Bulk Transfer site, installing piles.......
From top to bottom, Umpqua, Red Cinder Black Cinder.
Sarhan wrap to line the bunk, then the filler foam block, then the commodity poured on that. Wet water to soak the surface followed by a soaking of Modge Podge/ water 50/50. I figured upwards of 72 hrs. to dry.......

Happy Modeling!

 

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To help hide the backdrop corner on the creek scene, I was going to use some trees. I got these Coastman trees out, since they are the tallest tree(s) I have. I bought these at the 2015 National Convention in Portland, along with a, Learn How To Make Water Kit, and a, Make A Mountain Kit (or something like that,) anyway, any liquids in the kits have long since dried up. The shaper sheet in the mountain kit I'll use for the rock bluff over the tunnel.
Pretty spendy these trees. An order sheet comes as part of the paperwork with the kits, I went to their web site to order some more foliage material, prices on everything have squarely doubled since 2015.

Really easy to make, I did these a few hours on Sat. & Sun.
The three trees on the right I assembled pretty much per their instructions, the three on the left I mixed it up with the foliage.
My favorite is the second from left.....
I have collected a couple of different colored lichens that I was going to experiment with some highlights.

Happy Modeling!

 

[DeaconKC]

Those are great looking trees! Nice job.