What's Been Happening On the Railroad: Stumbling Blocks or Gumption Traps?

It has been over a month since I last posted, Yikes! I shouldn't get too down on myself; it is somewhat expected that summer is a slow season for model railroading. I have done a few things, just not the steady progress that I had laid out for myself. Some slow progress has continued on the Curtis Cannery roof-top water tower, but I hit a small stumbling block. I tidied up the railroad, cleaned track, and did some solo operations, but I hit a bit of a stumbling block. (Do we sense a theme here?) Just last week I spent some time in the basement because it was the only cool part of the house during our week long heat wave. While there, I returned to scenery on the East Branch, which had been stymied by, wait for it, a series of stumbling blocks.

While my original drawings for the water tower had a different approach, I changed the plan at the last minute to the 12' X12' posts all aligned as straight and plumb verticals with a 90 degree angle at the base instead of many of the posts in the bents having a slight angle. I saw this approach with all straight posts and an angled board added at the end of the bent in a coal trestle somewhere, but I don't remember where. I may be breaking the "don't model from models" rule here. At any rate, I drew over my original drawing, cut and stained the parts, and went ahead starting to glue up the bents with braces as seen in the photo. 

Avoiding the heat working outside on another day, I went down to the workbench in the basement and wrapped up the rest of the braces and slanted end boards. After the glue was dry, I started brainstorming how to tie the joists holding the tank up, the bents, and the tank itself together. I was able to accurately glue the bents together by lining the parts up on the waxed paper covered drawing. Attempting to balance the 6" X 12" joists and bents in place with my shaky hands was unsuccessful as a trial of the new process. This was the stumbling block I mentioned earlier. At first I thought I would have to design a fixture to hold the joists in position and then glue the bents in place upside down. Now I am thinking that an easier approach is to glue the central joists in position at the bottom of the tank with the tank upside down before gluing the bents in place. At least I now have a plan, and I can move forward with cutting the joists to length and staining them. 

As I mentioned in the first paragraph, I spent a couple of afternoons in the basement with solo operations. I am experimenting with the notion of having the car cards at an agent's desk that I discussed here and here earlier this spring. Clearing off the layout and cleaning track and loco wheels went fine. I arranged some cars in place and made up the first switchlist. After that I ran a first session that was enjoyable, lasted a little over an hour, and suggested that "model railroading is fun." But then, for the next session, the return of the first session's turn, I had too many cars in the East Branch yard, too many destinations, too many cars to pick up at the NP interchange. And worst of all, too much in my head moving back and forth from the railroad to the agent's desk. Model railroading was NOT fun. Well, over the last month, Lance Mindheim has posted links to some Switching Operations 101 videos on his YouTube channel and discussed solo operations on his blog. After considering his suggestions, my takeaway is to simplify and slow down, instead of trying to jam the operations plan of the whole completed 4th Subdivision into this one location and small yard. 

I had hit several stumbling blocks (actually, a full on gumption trap!) earlier this year on the East Branch staging. Looking back, this is probably why I started the cannery project. I was unhappy with how several parts of this temporary staging were turning out. (They all appear in this photo from February.) I tried justifying the obvious seam between two sections of sky panels as "deal with it, it's just temporary." Despite that, it bothers me every time I notice it, and I don't want to finish painting the tree line there because of it. On the aisle side of the module I had "scalloped" the fascia that I had installed after carving out some of the foam to create some three-dimensionality to the foam tabletop. I also had glued in a cork base for a road at the far end of the scene. I worried that I was in a "can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear" situation, but didn't want to start over, so I ground to a halt.

Last week, during the worst of our heat/humidity wave, I bit the bullet and mixed up some Sculptamold. I applied it along the edge of the fascia, hoping to emphasize some irregular natural ground surface and deemphasize the too regular scallop I had cut into the fascia. After painting with my standard brown color, I was satisfied that it had mostly worked. I also went ahead and applied some wall board mud to the cork road base. After painting that a gray color, I am still not happy with it. However, I can see what to do next to correct that, rather than worried I will make it worse and not willing to do anything. 

At this point, I would say that I have possible solutions to most of my stumbling blocks, so that I can move forward and not be a victim of multiple gumption traps. We still have a lot of yard/garden projects to complete, but the railroad in the basement feels more like a place I want to go, a mental respite not a chore.  

Wordless Wednesday #2 -- CNJ 113

Susquehanna Division rode behind CNJ 113 last weekend

 

Curtis Cannery -- Part 3

 

While work on the railroad has slowed down dramatically, it has not come to a complete standstill. Yardwork, family gatherings, and medical appointments all gathered into the same time frame. Despite not working very steadily, I have made some progress though on the cannery project. As seen in the opening photo, I did complete the loading dock for the brick building, now known as "Building #1."

Although I did a bit of experimenting with the wood block structures, mainly I have been working on the water tower intended for the roof of Building #1. I did a bit of internet sleuthing, finding a number of rooftop water tower images and an instruction video on Trains.com with Steve Otte on scratchbuilding a wooden water tower. As seen in this photo, I started the tank using a plastic Scotch tape core and a section of a toilet paper roll core. After cutting the cardboard tube to length and slicing it to narrow its width, I used double stick tape to secure the plastic core to the interior of the cardboard tube. Then I hit a bit of a gumption trap. I thought I had some thin balsa wood sheets to cut into circles for the top and bottom of the tank, but they were thicker and sturdier basswood. So I ordered some balsa from Amazon. I could have used cardboard, but I have found that the humidity variations in the basement do not treat thin cardboard very well. (Hmm, I wonder how that flimsy toilet paper tube will hold up?)

After the balsa top and bottom were successfully glued to the tube and allowed to dry under weight, the next step was to side the tank with scale 3" X 12" stripwood planks. After cutting them to length on the Northwest Chopper, staining them with Hunterline "Driftwood," and allowing them to dry, I started gluing them in place with yellow carpenter's glue. My hope is that by gluing the stripwood to the balsa top and bottom disks, the tank cylinder will hold up to the humidity shifts in the train room. Later I intend to use Steve Otte's approach to using jeweler's wire for the water tank bands, but for now it was time to move on. 

Just within the last few days, I went ahead and sketched up and then inked in scale drawings of the base for the water tower to be located on the roof of Building #1. The base will consist of four bents made up of scale 12" X 12" timbers and then probably 6" X 12" joists. The joists are seen penciled on the upper left projection in the drawing. My next steps will include cutting and staining the stripwood before covering the drawing with wax paper and using it as a template for gluing the bents together. I may decide to add braces and nut bolt washer castings; we will see how much detail I am motivated to add in addition to  the bands, building the tower roof, and adding a ladder. 
 

Wordless Wednesday #1

 

Curtis Cannery Continued

Since my last post I have continued to work on the main parts of the cannery, starting with the Walthers background kit and some blocks of wood. Two friends from the Alleghany Western Division influenced me here. Dick Bradley sent me an email about my last post suggesting that he wasn't sure about the proportions of the warehouse size to the main cannery building. In his view the adjacent warehouse appears too large compared to the main structure. While the size of the brick portion of the main structure is settled with my choice of kit to kitbash, I did increase the size of the wooden portion. If after the main portion is completed I agree that the warehouse is too large, I may change it. My criticism of it is not it's size, but that it is one of the ubiquitous Walthers kits that everyone recognizes as a model railroad building. Bill Schopf, also from my old division, popularized using wooden blocks as the core of models in several clinics when I was still in Division 12 of the MCR. While I haven't decided exactly how the scratchbuilt structure portions will come together, I am pretty sure of the size and shape depicted by the wooden blocks depicted here. After cutting the two blocks I started on the brick portion of the cannery.

My first step was to make a few adjustments to the Arrowhead Ale background kit to increase the depth of the building. As I was planning to scratchbuild a wood loading dock I cut off that portion of the supplied plastic base. I also cut out a portion of an extra wall piece included in the kit to model the deeper exposed end. For the other end, I cut a section of plain styrene sheet to match the depth. I cut some strip styrene to extend the base under the deeper sides. Having a supply of various sizes of styrene on hand made the fitting of kitbashed parts easier than if I had to order online or drive for hours to shop at the nearest brick and mortar train/hobby store. 

After assembling the building with Bondene, the next step was painting. Heading out to the garage, I sprayed the walls with a gray rattle can primer. At the same time I removed the doors and windows from the sprue and mounted them with blue painter's tape on a paint stick before spraying them with a green rattle can primer. After the building had dried overnight, I started painting the brick portions with three or four different red and brown craft paints over the gray primer with a small piece of natural sponge. It looks like a mottled mess until several coats have been sponged on. I also painted some of the individual blocks of the foundation with a mix of gray and tan craft paints. I applied Vallejo's dark gray wash as a control coat and mortar color to the bricks and foundation. 

Once the paint had all dried and set up, I glued the door and window castings in place. The one finished side that I had scavenged from the extra casting had several issues. The appropriate door casting with a transom was not included, so I ended up using one without a transom and boarding up the gap with strip wood. Also, because the two upper windows at that end were aligned with the roof, I trimmed some brick wall scrap to fill those openings. I then measured and cut a heavy piece of sheet styrene for the roof, sprayed it with the gray primer, and glued it into place. As seen in the photo, I made sure that it was square and braced it with some heavy strip styrene to ensure that this portion of the building was stabile in spite of being a three-sided flat.

This photo shows the brick portion of the cannery in place as it currently stands. I have a couple of scratchbuilt additions to add: the wooden loading dock, as well as a water tank and a stair bulkhead on the roof. Also, the roof needs some kind of "texture" beyond the paint. The windows need glazing, and I need to decide if I will add any lighting to this portion of the building. Finally, in looking at the photos, I see the need for some touch up of the trim/concrete sills.

Nooksack Structures - The Cannery

Sketch of possible cannery at Nooksack

So, I have started a new project, planning and collecting information and materials for the proposed cannery at Nooksack. Last week I started sketching some ideas during the Thursday modeling Zoom I attend, and since then I inked it in and started some mockups. Some background: Everson, Washington had a fruit and vegetable cannery called the C. S. Kale Canning Company. I am relocating it to nearby Nooksack and renaming it the Curtis Canning Company. It and other Whatcom County canneries canned beans, beets, carrots, raspberries, pears, cherries, and in the 1950s a lot of green peas. My intension is for it to be a major industry for the 4th subdivision, definitely the largest in Nooksack. 

In this snapshot from today, some mockups tentatively locate parts of the cannery. Starting from the left is a ubiquitous Walthers warehouse, the one building already constructed. Next is a paper mockup of parts from the Walthers Arrowhead Ale background kit. Without kitbashing, it is not deep enough, but by using an extra wall part included in one of the sprues I can make it work. I plan to scratchbuild a wooden loading dock instead of using the plastic one from the kit. I may also scratchbuild a water tank for the roof. Moving to the right or to the east, I have a couple of scraps of wood and my team track dock sort of suggesting the scratchbuilt section seen in the initial sketch. That section needs more planning and  a cardboard mockup.

In this photo, I have a cardboard mockup of a possible additional building located beyond the boiler house drawn in the original sketch. I have DPM modular parts for the boiler house, so it could be started at any time. I have several street view photos of the Carnation plant (that is still standing) from Everson that I may use to create a background photo flat as seen approximated here. If I do, I plan to attempt a couple of techniques from Paul Dolkos: 3D visual foils on either side and layering the photo on matboard. Testing with the NMRA gauge for clearance along the track is critical as I build mockups or buildings. I have ordered the Juniper Freight House kit from Fos Scale Models, thinking it will fit on the other side of the spur, perhaps near where the gauge is sitting in the photo. 

To move beyond some scraps of wood, cut out paper photocopies, and cardboard mockups in a reassonable amount of time, I need to modify my modeling practice. Some possibilities include:

• Focus on this project
• Daily time - a little bit every day
• Maybe more than a little bit - an hour?

 

Adding a Flat Car To the Roster

Great Northern 61631 ready for the roster

 Over the last few weeks I have been working on this older Walthers "shake the box" flat car kit. I wanted to try some new (to me) detailing steps on this 42 foot flat car in addition to just assembling the kit. In trying to match my rolling stock standards, I also ended up trying some new approaches. The two new detailing steps I tackled were replacing the cast on grab irons with metal ones and adding a real wood deck. 

Here on my cluttered workbench, the grab iron process is under way. Working carefully with X-Acto #11 and #18 blades I was able to remove the cast on grab irons without significant damage to the other molded details or my fingers. I soon regretted removing them because while fashioning grab irons with the Tichy .008 wire was doable, installing them was, at best, frustrating. After getting one installed, I changed approaches. I found I had some Details West .019 wire in the parts drawer. It is oversize, but I didn't have any .0125. Thanks to a suggestion from Chuck Diljak on a Thursday night Zoom meeting I made a fixture to form the grab iron bends, so they came out somewhat consistently in size. Drilling the holes consistently was another matter. At any rate, I now had wire grabs on the ends and sides of the flat car. Definitely first time quality, but there. 

Fashioning the wood deck went much smoother. After measuring the plastic deck width and sanding it with a sanding block, I cut the 80 pieces I needed. Using my chopper set to the width of the car deck, I carefully cut the Northeastern Scale Lumber HO scale 2" X 6" to length. The care was needed to successfully keep my shaky  fingers out of the razor blade guillotine. I then stained the deck planks a few at a time in a mixture of my alcohol stain and a few extra drops of grimy black paint in a yogurt cup. After they all were stained and removed, I left them to dry overnight. Gluing them to the sanded deck with white glue went easily, with an occasional check with a small hand square. 

With my two detailing experiments completed, it was on to following the kit directions and trying to meet my rolling stock standards. With the metal weight included in the kit (rust sanded off and primed with rattle can primer) and metal wheels, the flat car was still below NMRA RP-20.1 weight. Even though I glued a combination of lead shot and "Liquid Gravity" between the center sills and along the trough beside the steel weight, it continues to be slightly under weight. One new approach that I tried was to paint the wheels with an enamel paint marker that I had on hand. While in the past I found that I didn't like using the paint markers for rails, it made easy work of painting the metal wheel fronts. Even after washing with alcohol, wheels painted with acrylics scratch easily. I later used the marker to touch up the wire grabs that had their acrylic paint flake off with barely any effort. I am hopeful that the use of enamel paint will make for more secure paint application for delicate areas. The paint marker is a breeze for my shaky hands, and clean up is negligible. 

After installing Kadee 148 Whisker couplers and installing the freshly painted trucks and metal wheels, I thought I was close to being done. Well, not so fast! Not only did the car look too high on the trucks as seen in this photo, the couplers tested too high on my test track. The problem was that the hole in the trucks didn't fit well enough onto the bolster post to slide down into position. Actually, after enlarging the hole with a round jeweler's file and testing the now too low coupler height, I realized that the problem was that the post was too large. I was able to cut a slit into red Kadee washers to fit over the oversized post and that brought the coupler height into alignment on my test track. After some paint touch up and installing the oversize brake wheel that came with the kit, I deemed it ready for inclusion on my roster as seen on the opening photo. After the inevitable banging off of the brake wheel occurs, I hope to have picked up a more appropriate one to replace it. 

While I still need to fashion a lumber load to fit this flat car and bring it up to proper weight, I think that I may return to experimenting with a next layer of scenery next.