Workin on the Railroad (what did you do this week?)


This week was a few diff projects.
I started construction a cheap window paintbooth with fan a neighbor gave me. (not top of the line but will keep fumes outside)
A NICE Genesis weathered box car I won on eBay came. (Was amazed with this one!)
Working on the fence to my sub-station.
And the club took an exploration day on the Shade Gap Branch of the East Broad Top Railroad in Pennsylvania.


interesting setup..
 
Finished the outside work of my airbrush window mounted paintbooth that I put on my train room window. I used an old fan a neighbor gave me and a flouresent light for lighting. I built the box with left over lumber, legs are treated lumber, top box is pine and painted. I slopped the top and its made it from tempered glass for natural light. The fan I cleaned, painted the shell and glued screen to the inside of the front guard to keep bugs out. I sealed the top where glass meets with carpet strips and sealed the top glass to my window with 2 types of tape. I also caulked and sealed all seams. Its to rain hard tommr so I will check for leaks. I need to add a lazy susan turntable once i find a cheap one and a holder of some type to hold painting items and maybe a way to hang things. I sat inside on a small seat at the window and it seems perfect height for me. Also, my cat seems to approve of it...Closest she's come to outside. LOL
 
I'm still hunting down some 'free' wood to finish my table. I've also been redoing my layout (RTS) and have not found a satisfying point for it.
 
Finished the outside work of my airbrush window mounted paintbooth that I put on my train room window. I used an old fan a neighbor gave me and a flouresent light for lighting. I built the box with left over lumber, legs are treated lumber, top box is pine and painted. I slopped the top and its made it from tempered glass for natural light. The fan I cleaned, painted the shell and glued screen to the inside of the front guard to keep bugs out. I sealed the top where glass meets with carpet strips and sealed the top glass to my window with 2 types of tape. I also caulked and sealed all seams. Its to rain hard tommr so I will check for leaks. I need to add a lazy susan turntable once i find a cheap one and a holder of some type to hold painting items and maybe a way to hang things. I sat inside on a small seat at the window and it seems perfect height for me. Also, my cat seems to approve of it...Closest she's come to outside. LOL

Bob, It looks nice, but my only concern would be that electrical motor of the fan sitting out there at the end. Rain, Snow, condensation etc. :eek:
 
Jerome,
Thanks!
Yeah i thought of that. Last night before our weather started I put a rubber sheet down over the fan incase rain blew in that direction. That gave me the idea to build a closeable flap board that i will beable to open and close from inside. Just one solid lid that will piviot out using an adjustable rod. I checked it today and thru 40 mph winds and hard rain I have no leaks yet! (Knock on partical board with fake wood covering computer desk..lol)
 
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Bob, that sounds like another good idea!!! If you can line the inner door with some weather stripping, then when you close it tight, it should be totally weather proof.
 
Did some shaping of Medicine Hill in a layout corner (named because of the Medicine Wheel I will be constructing at the top). It is a 8 inch rise above the layout base in comparison to the rest of the land and is a sort of finger of a much bigger though not taller hill that will be implied rather than built and overlooks the Tallgrass River and town of Goldfield.

I also started on a piece of asphalt road and a 2 track grade crossing using that foam paper stuff and techniques I've read about in here somewhere and, did some more work on the Feed Mill which I'll post some updates of in that thread.

Medicine Hill taking shape..

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Next step will be filling the layer gaps and then start colourising as a base coat and then formally scenicking the Hill before building the Medicine Wheel.

EDIT: You will also note that the large highway-ish road allowance in the first 2 pics has been removed in favour of a rebuild that will see it become a gravel roadway that will cross the track and then turn abruptly left into an industry of some sort yet undecided but might be built from Medusa Cement. At the turn will be a cattle guard (seen in the picture in yellow) where a small two track trail along the base of the hill will continue into the background.
 
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Well? Lay down some track. Run a train over it to see if it will not derail. Take the track up, fix derail spot. Repeat. Repeat again. Finish up weekend taking it all apart again to let mud dry and look forward to this coming week to do the same on the loop end. It's comin', it's comin'. Later............Mike
 
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I laid a few feet of roadbed, and one turnout. It's a Walther's curved turnout, and it needed a lot of tweaking to get things to run over it without derailing. It's smooth as silk now, but it took most of my available work time to get it that way. That was Saturday evening. Yesterday I decided I had to organize my tools; they were spread out all over the layout, some in plastic boxes, some in canvas tool bags, etc. I bought a rolling tool chest at Sears. It fits nicely under the layout, and certainly improves the clutter in the room. It rolls easily, so I can move it when I have to work under that portion of the layout.
 
Well, since I broke what I think is a cardinal rule about building tunnels under large mountains with no way to reach stuck trains. :( I've spent about an hour this week trying to retrieve an engine with a track cleaner that got stuck on some dirty track.

I really don't want to cut into the plaster on the mountain but the problems only going to get worse with time. I'm going to have to think about some sort of lift out section of the mountain to deal with this.
 
Last weekend I ran my old 4x8 layout for the last time and then started to take it apart to make room for my new much larger layout. I'm finishing off the room that the layout is in so hopefully this weekend will be hanging some sheet rock.
 
Well, since I broke what I think is a cardinal rule about building tunnels under large mountains with no way to reach stuck trains. :( I've spent about an hour this week trying to retrieve an engine with a track cleaner that got stuck on some dirty track.

I really don't want to cut into the plaster on the mountain but the problems only going to get worse with time. I'm going to have to think about some sort of lift out section of the mountain to deal with this.

Another good tip is to use re-railer sections thru the tunnel (even just a couple) it will save a few disasters!
 
Another good tip is to use re-railer sections thru the tunnel (even just a couple) it will save a few disasters!
I have a helix at one end of the layout, and when I built it, I suppose I had visions of it being inside a mountain or something. Now, I think I'll just leave it open, or possibly covered with quickly-removable panels to get inside. I have nightmares about exactly the same sort of situation that supergreenman is dealing with now.

Good luck.
 
For those of you that frequent the coffee shop, I apologize! I know you've heard about my corn fields for far too long. :eek:

I've been installing a corn field on the outskirts of the city of Mankato. The kits are made by Busch. I've installed 1600 stalks and realized that I need about 800 more!:eek: It's been tedious but absolutely necessary in order to model the rural area around Mankato MN. It should look pretty authentic when I'm finished.
 
Ran a few trains at the SMRA open house this last weekend.
Was all right but a couple guys like to disregard rules at the worst times, like the one that states that any cars or locos are to be removed until satisfactorily repaired.

Corey if you're gonna add cornfields near Mankato be sure to put a big Jolly Green Giant looking down a hill at them!
 
Corey if you're gonna add cornfields near Mankato be sure to put a big Jolly Green Giant looking down a hill at them!



That would be funny huh? The area I'm modeling is Mankato and south of Mankato. Of course, with my handy dandy modelers license, I could stretch the truth enough to accommodate the big guy.

I take it you've been through Le Sueur?
 
Well aside from working with the real ones, I finished assembling a Funaro & Camerlengo GTW single sheathed 40' Auto boxcar, and last night started on a Westerfield Michigan Central 40' Auto box

Later,

DEVLYN
 



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