Progress on the Fascia

 

 

Below is the fascia looking down the left side of the divider past Madison, NH.  Again, the fascia is contoured to the eventual scenery plan.

 

 

This shot shows the dead end aisle with the fascia wrapping tightly around to the Conway, NH area on the left.

 

I stopped cutting the fascia top edge contour in Conway because I am not certain of the terrain plan yet from Conway around through Bartlett.

 

Here is a better view of the Conway area with the trackwork completed except for the turntable area and the track that will lead to the turntable.  Those will  come later in the fall after I do the Dover turntable. The wood board on the upper left which will be part of Conway is intended to be easily unscrewed and lifted out if I need to get to the trackwork below it that follows the wall up from the staging towards Dover.  As it rises along the wall below, it gets up to where it is behind the benchwork at the end.  While I can reach under to clean and get at the two turnouts at that end, if I had to do significant repairs I would need access from the top.

 

 

Fascia view towards Conway and the corner left of Conway towards Bartlett. I ended up with a small section of FRP in the corner so more screws.  You can just see the difference in level of the bottom of the fascia on the left where the staging access needs to be. I plan to use curtain as close a color as possible to the dark green that I will be painting the fascia, so the change might not be all that noticeable if I end up not doing an additional hinged bottom section of fascia in front of the staging.

 

Last photo is the fascia on the Bartlett side above the staging.  Plenty of reach in room.  Fascia top contour not cut yet until I figure out the Bartlett terrain contour. Sorry about the photo being rather dark. One of these days I need to straighten up my mess below the staging.

 

I am hoping I can finish cutting the fascia contours and prime and paint during the week in the evenings this week.  Once I do that and obtain and hang curtains to hide all the stuff under the layout, I will feel better about how the room looks.

-Ed

Helix construction time - sanity check appreciated

So, I have read every thread I could find on MRH and several other sites on helix construction and the calculations therein.  Reminder I am in N scale.  My track radius is a given for my helix (18 inches).  The main consideration has been what I want my rise to be per level of the helix.  The only up hill direction the train will ever travel is between Bartlett and Crawford Notch which in the prototype was a very steep climb that always used helpers.  But that said I did not want to overdo the grade and invite trouble, and yet I want to allow enough finger room if needed.  My period is 1960s at the latest, so no excessively tall equipment.  I find from all the articles a lot of give and take on all of this, with everything from very little extra finger clearance to minimize grade to quite a bit of finger room.  I have read the whole grade and effective compensated grade discussion with the multiple different ways people calculate compensated grade from John Allen's experimental HO scale measurements to engineering discussions of the math to discussions of wheel friction on flat versus tapered wheels.  Bottom line is I came up with my thoughts on what I would do, and what I am looking for is a sort of "reasonableness" or "trouble" sense from some of the experienced folks here.  So below are what I am contemplating and I'd like what amounts to a sanity check.  Does my choice seem like a reasonable one and are there red flags or cautions my conclusion would raise that would cause anyone to say "oh-oh, making a mistake".  I will add that most of my equipment is older vintage, and I have seen some discussions of differences in vintage of rolling stock.

My calculations:

Thanks,

-Ed

Helix started and trains love level 1

So I am an impatient sort, and was fairly confident in my calculations and choices, so I forged ahead.  So far, things are going well.  I have the first level done at my chosen grade and so far a single untuned engine has not seen its limit yet tested with up to 13 assorted untuned cars many of which have old plastic wheelsets.  I would have kept adding but I got called upstairs to eat.  The way I am seeing it, if one DC loco can pull somewhere north of 13 cars by itself, then I feel good about how I will do when it is DCC and I have 3 locomotives pulling trains of up to about 20 more properly tuned cars.

Here are pictures and a few explanations of how I am approaching this.

The above photo shows my chosen technique.  I am using 2.5" spacers every 45 degrees.  The spacers will be staggered on alternating levels allowing me to glue and screw each spacer both top and bottom. I place the four sections and mark for screw positions for both the spacers above the plywood and the ones below that are already in place from the prior level.  I then pre-drill for the screws.  I glue and screw in from the bottom for the spacers above the current level.  Then I place the section on the prior level's spacers and glue and screw to those below.  The first level was a bit trickier, but the 3" total rise per circuit made the math easy for the spacer sizes below because it comes out neatly to 3/8" rise be 45 degrees.  The first few I just used appropriate thickness scraps. When I got to where the spacers under the first level would be long enough to be cut, I used the appropriate angle on the cut.

I decided to make each plywood section 90 degrees so I have 4 joints per level.  I purposely avoid the cut spacers ever being at a joint.  At the joints, because my 3" rise allows plenty of clearance, I use a piece of plywood under each joint and drill and screw the two sections to it firmly. from above. This evens out the joint pretty well.  It was not perfect, but that is where the fact that I am using DAP when I glue down the track comes in handy.  The DAP allows just enough track movement until it dries that any very slights variation in the plywood joint is compensated for and the DAP when dry will prevent vertical track movement.

The third picture gives a view of the level and where it feeds back down into staging. One idea that worked well was the fact that the helix plywood is the same thickness as what I have used elsewhere.  By removing a portion of the plywood from the base, the start of the bottom of the helix flows naturally from the staging plywood with no need to create any tapering of the plywood end.

I am hoping to get at least two more levels done this weekend, which will get me to where the track exits the helix to Bartlett as well as the helix continuing to rise past Bartlett.  I doubt I will get all the way up to the Frankenstein Trestle level this weekend but I will be well on my way.  All my spacers have been cut for the entire height and the levels above the first definitely appear to be able to be assembled more quickly.

Onwards and upwards!

-Ed

Helix has reached Bartlett level!

I was pleased to be able to complete work on the helix levels from staging up to Bartlett.  While it only represents 1/3 of the total helix, it is all I need for now since the upper level heading to Frankenstein trestle and Crawford Notch does not exist yet (nor will it for quite some time.)  Getting to the Bartlett level will allow me once I put in the Bartlett track to have a complete circuit from staging up to Dover, Madison, North Conway, Bartlett and then down the helix back to staging.

Here is the completed portion of the helix with track:

At this point the track will exit to Bartlett to the right.  It will not continue on within the helix.  A second track will leave Bartlett in the future and continue on up the helix.

I did run into one issue when I tested the track that I somehow missed when installing it on the helix.  Normally, when I join the tracks, I carefully run my finger over the joint to ensure that my eyes are not fooling me about whether both tracks are properly in the joiner.  I also run the train over every section before adding the next level.  Well, somehow I missed one problem spot.  So when doing the final test, I ran into a snag and not on the top level.  The train ran all the way up the helix to the top without a problem.  I then started back it down and I reached a point in the middle level where all the cars had traversed fin but the loco would stop suddenly.  Upon closer inspection, I discovered that one joiner was attached to the u[hill track and not the downhill track. One rail of the lower section was on top of the coupler, and so higher than the adjoining rail.  Oddly, the cars had all gone over fine with no derailments.  

The kicker was the location of the problem:

Sorry about the fuzzy photo (my camera does not do close-ups well), but it shows the location.  The righmost joiner between the two spacers was the problem.  With the track held down by DAP and the location between two spacers and under the upper level, I thought - oh this is gonna be painful.  I managed to get in and cut one tie on the downslope rail to provide room to slide the joiner off of the uphill rail.  I had to push the tie further back still but managed to then get a new joiner onto the downslope rail and then carefully slide it up onto the uphill rail.  Finger check confirmed success and level rails.  I retested and all was now fine.  Figures that Murphy saw to it that the one spot I failed to catch was tough to get at.  But all turned out well without any disassembly of anything.  Just a lesson learned as I work on the upper helix levels in a few months to really double and triple check everything as I go.  

This also demonstrated to me the value of having plenty of finger room between levels.  It was very easy to get at the train itself.  

-Ed

Next project - kitbashing a turntable!

It may be a few weeks before I blog again while I work on my next project.  I plan to kitbash a PECO turntable into the turntable for Dover.

Here is the stock photo of the PECO turntable if I assembled it as the kit instructs and stop there:

Now here is what it is planned to become:

Quite the project.  I will take lots of photos as I go.  Essentially the Peco kit gives me the well, bridge, rails, and electrical contacts - all things I prefer not to try to scratch build.  But I will need to scratch build the rest and then weather extensively.  It will be quite a fun project, but once done I will then be able to put it in place in Dover and finish the approach tracks and the tracks to the roundhouse.  

Wish me luck.  I have never kitbashed anything before.  Worst case I learn on the first one and then do over. The Peco turntable price is low enough if I waste one it is no big deal other than time and effort - but that's the price of learning new skills!

-Ed

Started on Dover turntable

So I got a start on taking the Peco turntable kit and turning it into the Dover, NH turntable.  So far I assembled all but the railings (which will wait until near the end) and I have taken my first shot at weathering by starting to weather the bridge and turntable well.  

The photo in the prior reply shows the prototype and an unweathered Peco turntable.  Here are a few shots of what I have done with the weathering thus far (I lack a B&M loco so far so I used MEC.)

(I hit submit too soon - here is the other picture.

Ignore the outside of the collar of the well.  That will be ground level and not visible.

I am thinking some weathering powders on the support beams and eventually just a little weeds in the well.

Any thoughts?  Please be kind but constructive help appreciated.  I have NEVER weathered anything before.  It is definitely fun.

I have styrene on order to build the tower and the shack.

-Ed

Starting Dover Roundhouse

So while I am waiting on my styrene to finish the Dover turntable, I figured I would start in on my major kitbash to create the Dover, NH Roundhouse.  I purchased this old Heljan kit as my starting point because it is six stall and the roof line is the right general shape:

This is what it will turn into:

Period is a little earlier than this photo, so the condition will be marginally better,  Here is what it looks like today just to get some of the shape:

The kitbash is pretty significant.  The roundhouse is not as deep as the Heljan.   So almost all of the parts (walls, roof sections, trusses) will be cut down.  (I have already completed cutting down the side walls and the trusses.)  Also the Heljan jas a bunch of side and back windows that the Dover roundhouse does not, so I will be using new styrene to cover over the sections with the windows on the side.  I will just start from scratch with fresh styrene for the back wall sections as that will make more sense.  I do anticipate a couple minor variations from the prototype to be able to take advantage of as much of the Heljan structural components as I can.  I will have to then add from scratch the machine shop. But I still consider it a plus not to have to create the entire structure from scratch since I am not experienced at scratchbuilding.  That said, I plan to add as much of the external detail as I can.  This will be a long project, so I anticipate completing it will be interspersed with other projects like finishing the turntable.  I will post some pictures of the progress along the way.

-Ed

Quick progress

Ed, that is quite the progress.

I like the layout "in-progress" pictures as well as the prototype one.

Interesting thread and interesting layout. Well done and keep posting away

Cheers

Syl

Love sharing the fun I am having

@Syl, Thanks!  I am definitely having fun, which it is all about, and love sharing what I am doing, especially now that I am learning to weather and am starting to build structures too.  I don't know if the turntable weathering is any good, but as my first time I feel fairly good about it so far (though I know I will improve as I get more practice.)

Glad to know someone is actually reading the thread!

-Ed

Glad to know someone is actually reading the thread!

I am, Ed.

Unfortunately, I don't have anything to contribute on helixes and kit bashing, so I haven't piped up.

As to the question of "is anyone reading this thread": it's an interesting conundrum...I'll be darn if I can figure out what makes some threads take off and others not. Of course if I could answer that, there are some ad agencies that would give me a really big office (with a view) just to pass along that information.

Anyway, Ed, I am captivated by your enthusiasm and accomplishments and hope to see much more from you.

If I'm not "piping up" you can be darn sure that I'm keeping up. You are making great progress and I love your FRP fascia.

David Stewart

More views then you think

Ed

There's more people viewing/reading your post then you think.

Like anything else in this hobby: practice, practice, practice. The turntable looks fine to me.

It is always interesting and fun to see someone's progress, layout construction, scenery, and overall layout/bench work set-up/construction. Also your prototype reference helps to know what you focus on. I think your structures will be a nice fit.

Keep posting away, like to see how things develop.

Cheers

Syl

Turntable completed!

So my strip styrene came in Saturday, and of course there was no way I could resist getting back to the Dover turntable.  As a reminder, here is a stock photo of the original Peco turntable and a couple photos of the prototype (about 7 to 8 years after the point in time I am modeling.

Armed with the Peco turntable and a bunch of strip and sheet styrene plus a piece of stripped 20AWG wire, here is the result:

At this point I am done for now.  I will add some grass in the well when I scenic the area and I will add the box and attach wires at the top when I have enough scenery done to have poles to string wires to.

The build was fascinating and fun.  The tower has over 25 separate pieces of strip styrene ranging from .010x.040 to .040x.060.  The control shack likewise has over 25 separate pieces of styrene.  The shack was particularly challenging.  Being N scale, the shack is roughly 5/16" x 3/8" footprint and just over 9/16" high.  I did not have confidence cutting the window holes in the sheet styrene, so I chose to entirely stick-build the shack (thus so many pieces for such a small structure.)  The window openings are really just the by-product of the shack framing and trim.  I chose not to install clear styrene windows as I was afraid of getting the modeling cement on them, so I simply put in the cross pieces inside the shack. That was tricky because since they are not separatelynconstructed window frames, I had to maneuver the window cross pieces in after the shall structure was all together other than the door.   If I decide later to try, I can remove the door carefully and add clear material to simulate the glass, but I probably won't. The door hinges and handle are, admittedly just painted on, but with my eyesight and any distance I can't even tell, as seen in the third photo. The two things I would like to improve (I could go back to it if I choose to) would be to reduce the width of the white that the window trim shows and to substitute a smaller gauge wire for the cable going back to the control tower.

One item that was a bit of an annoyance was the fact that the Peco turntable does not have the tie ends under the bridge deck.  So I had to cut, weather, and glue in 32 separate pieces less than .08 in length each.  It seems to me they could have molded the tie end under the deck piece and they would also serve as an even better guide for gluing the girders to the deck.  Flip side, I can be happy I added all those little pieces.

I learned a few tricks along the way.  For example, the tiniest (.01x.03) pieces of scrap strip sytrene is fanstastic for both applying cement and for painting.  That's what I used to paint the hinges and handle of the shack rather than a brush.  It holds enough paint while offering fine point control. I also learned that a leftover piece of FRP from whenI did the fascia makes a great paint pallet. I am sure I learned a lot more but it all blends in my mind now like the paint on the palette.  

So, thus ends my very first ever kitbashing, scratchbuilding, or weathering attempt.  I know my skills will improve over time, but on the whole I am very happy with it.

The roundhouse in progress in the background is the next kitbash.  So far it is just a partially assembled Keljan 6 stall roundhouse.  The kitbashing fun really starts when my sheet styrene of bricks and clapboard arrive,

-Ed

Great progress

Ed 

 Thanks for the kind words on the roster post. I hope I progress a quarter as fast as you have, I think it is great you are sharing your progress. As I have said in other posts I admire those that can stay focused and model real scenes. There are a lot of B & M modelers around, but not as many modeling the MEC . The combination is extremely logical. Look forward to your continued progress. 

                                                                                                                         Ray

PS I have been rail fanning both the B & M and MEC for years. I have taken many trips to East Deerfield, Portland, as well as Bangor a few times when vacationing in Acadia

B&M and MEC - 1960s

@Ray, Thanks.  The thing that I find hard to find are color photos in my locations showing rolling stock from the mid-1960s.  rrpicturearchives has LOTS starting the 1970s, but very few showing rolling stock in the mid-1960s.  I have the Railway Equipment Register from 1959, but outside of MEC and B&M equipment it is harder to figure out what other roads I might see rolling stock from in Dover, Madison, Conway, Bartlett, or through Crawford Notch plus Gilman VT in that period.  If your photos go back that far and you have photos in any of those areas with other rolling stock, I'd love to hear about it.  Here is the list of roads I have identified from photos online thus far. Some entries might be invalid because I went by photos even up to about 1973 or so, which means I could have roads that didn't appear in those areas in the mid-1960s.

Baltimore & Ohio (Chessie)
Bangor & Aroostook
Boston & Maine
Burlington Northern
Canadian National
Canadian Pacific
Central Vermont
Delaware & Hudson
GACX
Golden Loaf Flour
Maine Central
Missouri-Kansas-Texas
NATX
New York Central
Norfolk & Western
Penn Central
Pittsburgh & Lake Erie
Rock Island
Rutland
Southern

-Ed

the 60s

Ed

 Even though I am as old as dirt, I am afraid I did not do a lot of rail fanning till well into the 60s. I graduated from college in 64 and got married the same year. The other thing I kick myself for was I was busy chasing steam and passed up a lot photo opportunities of diesels, rolling stock, and structures,. The other thing was just starting out I did not have a great still camera, and was shooting 8 mm movies. The film and processing were expensive. I will email you offline and give you a better update.

                                                                                                                     Ray

Roundhouse progress and tracks operational!

Since my last update I have poured many hours into completing the roundhouse and attached machine shop plus adjusting and wiring the tracks.  Today I can declare success.  Though the roundhouse needs a few remaining details and improvement of the weathering, it is operational.  I also installed the tracks from the turntable into the roundhouse and tested it all out.  

Here are a few pictures from some different angles. The tracks to the roundhouse still need some shimming and gluing down.

Finally, a short video of the loco heading into the roundhouse and back.

Like I say in the video, simple stuff but it was a lot of fun to get the roundhouse fitted in place and the tracks in and out operational!

-Ed

Good work Ed. I approve of

Good work Ed.

I approve of your choice of roads

I think your roundhouse/turntable area will keep you occupied both with scenery and operating for a long time, and the rest of the tracks all add up to an interesting and enjoyable layout.

Not my scale, but definitely interesting to follow along.

Mike

New England

Ed Nice looking work. 

          Ray

Thanks - enjoying focusing on that area

Thanks.  Definitely lots still to do in that area of the layout and I am very much enjoying starting to focus on different aspects to work towards getting Dover NH closer to finished (which is quite a ways off).  It has had its surprises along the way, like the windows in the roundhouse stall doors.  Most of the pictures I had seen were all 1970s or later and there were no windows.  But I am modeling mid 1960s and when I looked closer at a couple shots from 1966 there I see windows in the stall doors.  Since the doors are amongst the parts from the old Keljan kit I kitbashed for portions of the 6 stalls, they were pretty rigid plastic. So that was lots of little holes drilled with my pin vise in each of the 12 doors to be able to then cut the window openings without cracking the plastic.  But it all feels well worth it.

Next steps will be to secure the roundhouse tracks and finish repainting the coving in the corner behind it where I had to cut the curved FRP due to the width of the roundhouse.   The new coving is styrene which will get feathered with joint compound to eliminate the edges and then primed and painted to blend with the rest of the sky.  Then it will be time to determine the height on the backdrop of the higher ground behind the yard and start painting the backdrop treed hillside and begin working on the landforms around the yard.  Really looking forward to covering over the extruded foam surface. And if I want to switch focus again as that comes along, I have a couple more structures to build for the yard that I am looking forward to.

-Ed

Same here

@ Ed

Just looking at the counter above you have had over 2,500 reads.  Just not a lot of posting.  Keep it up.

Den

Dover NH roundhouse tracks and landforms in place

More progress over the long holiday weekend and tonight.  I now have Dover trackwork fully wired and tested, got the landforms in place around the Dover yard, and painted it all an earthy base color in preparation for scenicking.  Here are a few photos.  Note that the stray paint along the bottom of the blue backdrop are of no consequence.  Those are all below horizon level of the hillside and trees that will be painted on next.  

Notice at the left end where Oak street is and where the bridge will go over the tracks.  One compromise from the prototype is I had to locate the bridge over a curved area of the triple track rather than on a straight, so the bridge length will have to be increased some.  But it still lines up well enough with the mainline through the yard that the long distance shots should approximate the prototype well.

 The small rises along the backdrop are a fairly reasonably approximation of the actual topography that rises to a low wooded hillside east of the yard (east being up in this photo angle above.) The rise behind the turntable is where the access drive climbs out to the road to the left.  They will not actually connect on the layout, with the access drive blending into the backdrop and disappearing behind the trees. Also, the rise the drive goes up as well as the rise behind the roundhouse don't actually go down in the corner, but the curved corner means I have to paint on the continued rise of the hillside.  It will be interesting joining the actual landforms and the backdrop.  But since it is treed including actual trees on the layout I think I should be able to mask the transition well.

Above and below are a couple track level views at different distances. There are still some small structures to scratch build and add about 2/3 of the way from this camera location and the turntable including the diesel pump area and what may have been a sand house. 

I will spend evenings the rest of this week practicing painting treed hillside on scraps, and then on the weekend hope to try my hand at it for real. I have photos from a distance to "see" the treeline and where eastern pine is versus poplar and birch.  Timeframe is mid-September so the leaves will be starting to turn.  My model for technique for painting the treed hillside is the set of videos by Lex Parker.

-Ed

Practice Painting

Before actually trying to paint the backdrop, I thought the first step should be to practice a bit on scraps of the same material.  I am not an artist, but I believe in practice and trying.  Below are my first two attempts at a portion of what would be the backdrop behind the Dover yard.  Note there will also be some birch trees and scrub on the layout just in front of the backdrop.   In both cases, I started with the blue painted and dried before I started, just like the real backdrop.

Practice Attempt 1:

In my first attempt, the tops of the eastern pine look more like a cornfield to me.  I definitely was too heavy and globby with the fan brush.  But I like the birch trunks. I did the first attempt in about 4 sittings letting it dry after each layer.  That seemed good for some aspects, but meant things that didn't look good dried before blending into other features. I also had a little trouble getting used to using a sponge - particularly a new one. 

Practice attempt 2:

I like the short trees and scrub MUCH better but I don;t have the birch trunks that I had in the first attempt that I liked.  I also like the eastern pine much better.  The 2nd attempt was done in a single sitting without letting it dry between layers. It still doesn't have the density of eastern pine at the top that I want, but I found that it was mich easier to approach it by using as light and FAST a touch as I was comfortable with.  Very quick light dabs with the edge of a small brush.  

Another big difference was my technique for the eastern pine branches.  In the first attempt I tried to keep each dab of the brush edge strictly on one side of the trunk.  That was very hard to do, and left the trunks more exposed and the woods much sparser than I wanted.  In the second one, while I made dabs to each side of the truck, i let them cross and even cross in front of other trunks much more randomly.  It definitely filled in better.  For the birch, I reused the same sponge (which had dried) as the first attempt and the stiffness that the dried paint left made it MUCH easier to create the stippled effect rather than globbing.  

One issue with both.  Everything seems to lean a little to the right.  I need to straighten up my brush position some I think.

I may make one more practice attempt before going for the real thing or not, depending on my mood and thoughts about it this weekend.  If anyone has suggestions for improvements I am eager to learn to get better at this.  I definitely used some of the techniques from Lex Parker's videos and some other sites, but I found in my second attempt some ways that worked for me as well  like crossing over the trunks putting on the pine branches.

-Ed