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After Seeing a fellow modeller's Campbell's Quincy travelling Crane inspired me to scratch my own version. This is truly a scratchbuild, I even cut all the wood using a tablesaw and my demel tool. Using a full-size tablesaw to cut 1/8" square stock out of pine can be a little intimidating but with some care it can be done.
My team track in the city of Port Teresa needed a loading ramp and crane. I planned to use a tichy jig crane but I really liked to look of the Campbell's crane and decided to use that design.
I first laid out the framework for the dock. It's all 1/8 inch square. I stained it with a dark grey acrylic. My drawings were pinned to a 1" piece of insulation foam with a sheet of wax paper and then the parts for each longatudinal framw were glued together and pinned to the drawing.
The three longatudinal frames were then pinned in place to the cross braces could be glued in.
I added the top planking. Again I used the table saw to make the planking. I started with a piece of pine 2X2 and cut a thin slice (probably around 1/16) off. Then I took that piece and using my dremel tool with a saw blade I cut across the grain to make the new parts the same width as the dock. After that I used my olfa knife to cut individual planks out. I stained them the same as the frame pieces.
I wasn't happy with the deck, it looked a little too dark and spotty. I sanded the deck lightlty with 320 grit sandpaper to take a layer of stain off, lightening it slightly then pulled out the Natural Pine Floquil stain. (I understand that this stuff is quite rare)
I'm happier with the results now
There are so many stains out there that almost any stain that we model you'll find a prototype color fo it. My problem was that the stain originally came out spotty. I think thet pigment in my acrylic stain it starting to clump so I have darker spots when I soak my stripwood.
I built the framework for the gantry, crane or whatever you would call it. I used the same 1/8 pine that I used for the dock's frame but I stained with Floquil walnut stain to add a different color. I didn't want the crane to look so deteriorated that it would be condemmed in the real world. The walnut stain is a nice darker tan color:
After that I glued the 2 main frames together. Again I drew out my plans on Graph paper, pinned it and a sheet of wax paper to the foam and glued and pinned the parts together.
I enlarged the Campell design by 1/3 instead of just clearing the track and dock I wanted the crane to be able to swing past the dock and to a flatdeck truck parked beside it. So left to right the openings are for: track, dock, and roadway. The dock part is designed to fit around the dock's framework.
Now that that is all built I have to fabricate the 'L' and 'T' braces for the joints.
Quite rare indeed! Floquil produced a set of weathering stains a few years back. After a year or two, (maybe more), they took them off the market. Not sure why. There is at least one holdover from the "system" and that is Foundation. Nice neutral color that was supposed to be applied to the item being stained, prior to application of the stain.
It is still available and being that nice neutral color, makes a great primer.
Yes I did buy the foundation a couple years ago. The stains that I still have are Walnut, natural pine and the most rare, driftwood. The driftwood is not as translucent as the others, almost a paint than a stain. Either that or it's slowly drying out. I have found that Creamcoat Mudstone (Acrylic paint) makes a good substute for it.
I'm planning on scratchbuilding a frame on rail wheels that will travel the length of the gantry. As for the hoist itself I was thinking a chain with a hoist mechanism on the rolling frame.
Sorry it's been so long since an update, this past week has been very busy with job interviews and cleaning the layout for an open house this past Wednsday night.
I finally got around to adding the corner braces to the gantry frame and I finally spent some money on the project, grandt line NWB castings.
I cut the braces out of styrene sheet, each brace specifically for the location and glues them on using loctite instant adheisive (sort like super CA)
These things eat up alot of NWB castings but that parts almost finished, except for the lateral bracing with will come next.
Okay I took a file to the edges of the braces and painted them.
I brush painted the braces in Floquil weathered black and this morning took burnt sienna (tube acrylic) and stippled it on with a stiff brush. I think the braces look pretty good now.
Next is the lateral braces for the ends, after I figure out how wide to make the frame (reallisticly)
Thanks Jim,
I had thought about getting a more rusty look to the braces, but I'm going for a gantry that was worked hard but also well maintained. There is some rust on the braces I used the burnt sienna to simulate that. Unforuntely the picture turned out a bit dark and hid it.
...I even cut all the wood using a tablesaw and my demel tool. Using a full-size tablesaw to cut 1/8" square stock out of pine can be a little intimidating but with some care it can be done...
While reading back thru this thread, I saw where I may have a suggestion for making cutting the wood a little less intimidating. Harbor Freight has a small 4" table saw that comes with a diamond and a regular blade. I bought one a while back and have used it to cut my own ties for my layout. I'm sure the Canadian equivalent to HF may have the same or similar item. Here's the HF listing.
While IMHO, its underpowered, (uses a sewing machine motor), it has so far cut almost 10,000 ties for my layout. You just have to cut slowly and not force the cut.
Thanks for the suggestion Carey but I was given a very good tablesaw (cast iron table) by another modeller. At first cutting scale lumber on it was a bit tricky but with some experimentation it got easier.
Well the frame is up and ready for adding the rails and other detail parts.
I decided on 8' spacing between the frames so a good-sized peice of cargo could be lifted and carried arcross the gantry. I used 1/8" (1' ho) square for the lateral beams and scale 4X12 (I think) for the diagonal braces. after the glue dries I'll add NWB castings.
Just a quick picture of the gantry stradling the loading dock. I breathed a sigh of relief when the two fit together properly.
LOL. I should have kept reading - you're doing an overhead bridge crane. Walthers (I think) used to have a nice kit.
Being once from the overhead crane industry my layout will certainly have an overhead crane. However, again being from the overhead crane industry I'm not aware of any runway system that would be constructed out of wood.
This is the original campbell Scale models structure that I'm basing the design off of.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/200-404
There will be a rail attached to the top of each length for the dolly to ride on.
Since I'm modelling the late fifties I'm figuing a few older wooden designs might still be around.
