Continuing Saga …

Again, with PT exercises, my shop day was cut short, but not unproductive. I applied the roofing material, but I'm concerned that the grain size of my gravel is just too darn big. While that was drying I built some more water boxes. Each time I do one it's getting easier and they're coming out better. "Practice makes perfect"! I did get the shingles over top of the front flashing. On the side windows, there's not enough shingles to overlap the flashing so I left it alone.

I masked the top facing of the top trim boards so paint wouldn't get on them. The gravel I have looks more like an S-gauge ballast than O'scale roofing granules. It was very light color so I first soaked it with some Tamiya Panel Line Accent Black. I then liberally applied a Mars Black/Neutral Gray mix of Artist Acrylics and sprinkled the stained gravel onto it. I then dripped a liberal amount of W-S Scenic Cement and should have set it aside to dry overnight. Instead of just letting alone, I decided (wrongly) to tip the building over the trash can and let the excess fall away. Why it was a mistake was because I also painted the parapet walls and the gravel then stuck to that making a mess. I cleaned it up, repainted the damaged areas, AND THEN put it aside to dry. The parapet top edge is a mess, BUT will be covered by the parapet cap system which I have to build. You can see the buried flashing in the front if you look hard.

With the water boxes, the real improvement was a) using the paper templates, and b) perfecting the cutting technique. I stick the pattern with the longest edge flush with the brass edge. I then cut the sides and the long edge of the tapered back panel with the mini-tin snips. Next I use the nibbler on the tapered edges and straight sides of the two ends. I cut as close to the taper as possible, but stop before I get too far since the square nibbler blade can't cut into a acute angle. The little bit left is cut using a jeweler's saw with a very fine blade since the brass is 0.010" thick. I file and straighten all the surfaces including filing the area around the pipe holes. By careful cutting and filing, the folds went better and I got tight corners that were very easy to solder using the RSU. I do the folding with the template still glued on and then soak the workpiece in acetone to dissolve off the adhesive before soldering. After soldering I dip the piece in isopropyl alcohol to remove excess flux (using rosin core solder and TIX liquid flux). I have to make 8 parts with the middle boxes being mirrored for the two sides of the building. Holes exiting out of the sides of the tape are made slightly oval using the Dremel with a cylindrical diamond-coated burr.

After they're all made and soldered to their respective downspouts I will age the brass to make it look more like old copper. I will have it done tomorrow or Friday. BTW: that pipe is not soldered. When it is, it will exit straight out to the side, thus requiring the slightly oval hole.

After the roof is cured tomorrow, I'll re-evaluate whether or not to strip the larger gravel and do something else. 

The gravel dried nicely and I'm going to leave it alone. I'm getting the hang of building the downspout system. I got one full set done, chemically treated and waiting for installation, and got 3/4 done on the second set. They're mirror images of each other and of course I made one part backwards. After this picture was taken I added 0.032" pins to several of the boxes to affix them to the wall and made a loop that I soldered to the midsection of the long downspout to stabilize that long run.

Here's the downspout for the second set showing that mid-loop. I rediscovered that I had soldering paste in a syringe applicator. This further simplified soldering the boxes since I apply the paste to both inside corners and heat each side with the RSU until the solder flows nicely. I solder the downspout to the box with TIX low temp solder so the other joints don't de-solder too readily.

Here's what I have done so far. Notice how aging the brass really adds to effect. The top section of the 1st set is over at my workbench since I'm using it as a model to get the dimensions equal. You can see the added mounting pins in this image. Without the pins, gluing those brass boxes to the wall would be very insecure.

Have a PT appt tomorrow so don't know how much more I'll get done. But it's already Friday again. I don't know what it is, but weeks never flew by so fast when I was working. Maybe it's because I get up around 9:00 and don't get done messing around until after noon. When I worked, I was up at 6:00 and often had a 45 to 60 minutes to commute to work and then back. In the winter both ends were in the dark, so the days just lasted longer. Longer days = longer weeks.

The place looks so great, only questions I have are when can I move in, and how much is rent? Fantastic work, amazing details as always.

Myles, the aged brass looks great!!  I really like the completed downspout on the one side.  Yes, I can see the pins are necessary for gluing them on.  On the prototype there would be hangers attached a various key spots.

Being laid off for the last 4 months after a year of part time, I agree I don't make quality use of all my time.  My insurance approved PT expired yesterday.  I was given a gray tee shirt with the facility's name in white on the front.  It will work for mowing grass and such!  I wish you well on your therapy!!

Dave, Are you ready to move in to the Bronx?  Since you live in New Jersey if I recall correctly, I'm guessing you may have been there.  I've never been to NYC or NJ for that matter.  

Mark Boyce posted:

Myles, the aged brass looks great!!  I really like the completed downspout on the one side.  Yes, I can see the pins are necessary for gluing them on.  On the prototype there would be hangers attached a various key spots.

Being laid off for the last 4 months after a year of part time, I agree I don't make quality use of all my time.  My insurance approved PT expired yesterday.  I was given a gray tee shirt with the facility's name in white on the front.  It will work for mowing grass and such!  I wish you well on your therapy!!

Dave, Are you ready to move in to the Bronx?  Since you live in New Jersey if I recall correctly, I'm guessing you may have been there.  I've never been to NYC or NJ for that matter.  

Well, it would be full circle I suppose sort of, lol. When my grandfather came to the USA was back in the early 1900's, he took up residence in I think the Bronx for a while. Some real funny stories my late uncle used to tell me about his father. My dad really never told me much about him though, but I guess that was because I was 2 when my grandfather passed, and was 18 when my father passed.

I have been to NYC a few times, and a little further up state. I think I would need to pop about a bit more, maybe a vacation. I'd like to see Cooperstown someday, but I'd also love to get out to Pittsburgh for a Steelers home game as well. Sent what the future holds, maybe next year.

There is always next year, Dave.

Yeah, all starts with planning. See how this year comes along, and go from there.

Happy Monday… what again! I've been trying to figure out why the days and weeks are going by so fast and have some up with a possible theory (despite that I'm just getting old). When I was a working man, I was up a 6:00 a.m. and on my way to work at 7:00. Now I'm up somewhere around 9:00 and don't actually sit down for breakfast until almost 10. That means I'm unconscious for about 3 more hours per day than before. That's 15 hours a week. No wonder the days felt longer….They were longer. This is a long post so bear with me...

We're getting near the end folks! I got the Widows Walk installed, installed all the those crazy downspouts, put in the plumbing stack, added weathering on the top knot, added some weirs so "water" would end up in the water buckets, and started making a master for the parapet capping system.

Mounting the downspouts should have been a no-brainer, or at least a half-brainer. Instead it had the makings to be a real pain in the butt. Several things contributed to this. First there was breaking four 0.032" carbide drills. Drilling the hole wasn't breaking them; pulling them out of the hole did. They're $1.50 each, so I blew $6.00 making 8 holes. Then there was the breaking of the solder joint when I was putting too much pressure on the brass pins when inserting them in the holes. This was complicated by having the aging treatment affecting solder ability. I ended up filing off the old solder. I also changed from using the TIX, which seems to solder well ONCE, but doesn't seem to have any strength on re-soldering. Instead, I used standard 60/40 rosin core. I was afraid of un-soldering the whole deal so I clamped a hemostat to prevent the long downspout from coming loose.

To close up any gaps around the water boxes, I added some shaped styrene to act as a weir. I added some styrene up top also for the same reason so the "water" would leave by the scuppers and not run over the edge around the parapet wall.

The plumbing stack was just a piece of 1/8" brass given some aging.

On Saturday, I went with a friend to an open mic jam session at Mom's Music in Louisville. We didn't play. I was just checking on the competition. I am totally out of shape having not played much at all lately and have no callouses. I did by a neat Wah Wah pedal on sale for $70. I am now officially entering the 1970s musically. Anyway… this person is the retired CEO of a large, commercial roofing company. He said my gravel is okay, and he said there probably would be a roof access hatch in the top knot. So I added one today and then glued the top knot in place.

I then added all the Widows Walk pieces. I was able to neatly join them and had plenty of extra to use if I broke anything. I did… The pins worked well and I added some thick CA to join separate sections and to tie down any loose ends.

Finally, I started crafting the master for the terra cotta parapet capping. I'm using Super Sculpey to make the master. We just bought a new toaster oven after our 30 year old Black and Decker's toast switch stopped latching. But the oven controls still work fine, so it's now in the shop where I can more conveniently bake my Sculpey stuff. I went on line and found some specs on these.  There was some vintage ones on eBay and they measure 26" long. I found a piece of 1/4" MDF scrap from this building and molded the clay on top so it would be the correct bottom shape. The master doesn't have to be strong… just strong enough to hold its shape when I do any finishing on it and when surround by liquid silicone.

It's not final shape. I've learned that you shouldn't waste your time trying to get Sculpey perfect before firing (275° for 15 minutes for each 1/4" of thickness). Instead, you make a basic shape, fire it, and then it's stable enough to work more details and get it perfected. Once I get it the way I want it, I will create a silicone mold and cast a bunch of replicas for the total cap. A 1 foot scale wall thickness is not out of line with real world practice.  I may make two of them since it takes about 1/2 hour for each resin cast to cure. That will be many hours of curing time. I may start building the Thunderchief while I'm casting all these multiple parts.

I put some weathering powders on the top know roof so it wasn't so pristine.

With the parapets finished the building WILL BE DONE. What's left is creating the base plate and siting it on the layout. I'm still debating (in my mind) how to fit it at the corner I want and what to do next door to its left. This building is 2" wider than Saulena's and that 2" will need to come out of the Sinclair Station. 

Here's where Saulena's and Sinclair Station will go. Sinclair is 17" deep, and the space near the tracks on the front is 15". I can get the 2" off the back of Sinclair's base plate and it will simply flip from one side of the street to the other.

Then Bronx and the Appliance store will move into the vacated spot. Bronx is a foot long so fits perfectly in length. It's 2" wider and that will come out of the parking lot. The appliance store will be rotated 90 degrees to the right some the display windows face the parking lot. Should be enough for about 8 to 10 parking spots.

Lastly, I still need to find stuff for the vacant lot on the other side of town. Ideas are welcome.

On another topic: I bought Phillips replacement LED tubes for a florescent fixture in out master closet. These are not plastic tubes like occasionally goes on sale in Costco, but are glass enclosures and very substantial. They're not cheap ($16/tube) but their light is terrific. You can get them in about four color temps. I chose 3500k, which is a neutral white. I was buying complete fixtures to replace all the florescent fixtures in the basement since I had tried the Costco tubes and one caught fire. I now know that you have to be very specific about what types of ballast is in the existing fixture to get the most compatible LED. The Phillips lights are correct. Now I'm re-thinking actually replacing the rest of the fixtures, since it's not so easy restringing lights over an existing layout. Replacing the tubes is much less hassle since I don't have to disturb the power connections. It's within a couple of bucks of buying new fixtures. Then I had the problem of not only disposing of the florescent tubes, but also the now obsolete fixtures. So from now on, I'll be replacing the tubes one fixture at a time. All the lights over the town are now LED. The rest of the layout is Florescent. You can see the level of light intensity is much higher with the LEDs.

You come up with a lot of little details like the terra cotta covers and the wier to direct water flow.  Now I see one use of the top knot.  I wouldn't mind an access door to my roof and especially my dad's house and shop.  I don't know if I will be able to go back up on Dad's roof again to point the chimney and fix a tiny leak in the roof vent joints that broke loose 6 months after I had it fixed, temporarily.  

Yes I do see more light intensity over the town.  I was glad to see the photographs of the existing town and your plans on moving buildings.  I forgot what the town looked like overall.  You had some photographs when placing the Night Hawks. but this shows much more.  

  I came across a "forgotten" detail you might be interested in using on one of the really old buildings; gutter valve handles.

 Before city plumbing, you likely had a cistern well for water storage below grade (basement) and gutter valves to divert rain water into it until full. Fancy systems would have a float to move the valve back to yard discharge once full. Others might have a few valves outside to be turned manually once full.  If you come across an odd basement "bunker" with a doorway later cut into it, that may have been a cistern at one time.  I've seen a few, but never knew what they were for or why a fat crock pipe was high up in the basement wall aimed up at  the house corners vs down and towards the sewage lines.  One of those times years of "useless" info bits suddenly clicks into place as a likely explaination to many of the little mysteries encountered.

 This thread has been one of the best ever for watching an evolution of a big design imo. Not Big Boy big, but "normal big" and a different type of focus all together so far.

I'm in no hurry to see you finish either... leaving me just that much more bored.  It's been a while since I said a thank you for that too, so thanks

 We all knew it would be, but it is really beginning LOOK like something very special now fyi. So hurry up not finishing it too fast so I can enjoy the completed view 😵...

Butch, your second comment is right in line with my thinking.  Certainly a different focus from Elliot and others.   I appreciate the work documenting everything, Myles!! 

I wonder if that is how they got water in the cisterns at my Dad's house, the one I grew up in, and am now maintaining until our older daughter and her husband can get their low budget fixer-upper into a state they can sell it.  There were two cisterns outside the basement door at the lowest corner of the house.  Dad and I, and with some help of my brother when he was visiting, pumped the one out that was caving in and filled it up with broken concrete, bricks, stones, anything.  The other cistern is still there as is.  I kept the pump, etc we used when we had someone in buying salvage, because our son-in-law may need it some day.  Dad had never cleaned out all the junk grandpa had accumulated.  No it wasn't of any value to American Pickers.   The house was built in 1888, still has a brick outhouse standing, and is in an area that was very rural until developers started buying up farms for houses.  The house isn't far from 2 highways that weren't even built until I was driving, that is why the area is changing.

I kinda know what you mean, though "modern" (57) this house used to have tractors cutting through the neigborhood all day when I was a kid, farmers stands everywhere and there was no police force at all until the early 70's.  It was as rural as a suburb can be.

  You could see for a couple miles once you cleared the sub. Today, you can't really see a clear quarter mile anywhere and the city has always been in the top ten for our states population beginning by the late 70s. All the nice farm houses are pretty much gone now... a few moved to a park. There are lots of small 30s-40s houses kinda spread around too, though they aren't really pretty any more.

Keep the pump. That's worth more than gold should it ever be needed again. There are still three old ones in our family.... just incase.  (and a working one at the cottage. Likely over 100 years old and holds prime even if unused for the summer.. good thing as it has a 50yard & 15ft drop to work a draw through. It's got one of the longest pump handles I've ever seen too. 

Nice comments guys! I don't think I'm going to add anything more other than the vegetation growing up the blank walls and maybe another TV antenna like the one on Nighthawks. Unlike you guys, I'm generally happy to see a project done once I'm into the multi-month duration. Besides, I have that massive F-105G Thunderchief to build on commission and then it's on to the Engine House. I'm finalizing its plans and working right now with Stephen Milley of Rail Scale Models to get an estimate of cutting both the windows and the main building. It's good to have choices re: custom laser cutting. Additionally, there may be a way to cut it myself at the U of L Additive Manufacturing Lab. Choices, choices.

I did get some new stuff the other day. My new True Sander and Duplicutter II arrived from Northwest Short Line. I simply wore the other two out. They were at least 10 years old. I dropped them more times than I'd like to admit and it damaged them eventually to failure. Clear to see old vs. new. The new Duplicutter is below the old True Sander. These tools are indispensable scratch-building items. And I've produced a lot of work with them.

Didn't get into the shop today, but will work tomorrow. I'm going to start moving out the Sinclair and Saulena's and make the changes to the Sinclair base to fit in its new space. I just went downstairs to bring a new supply of surface mount LEDs that arrived to the shop and was handling the clay parapet tile and broke most of it. It was too thin. I'll make another tomorrow with a little more cross-section. I may also add a bit of wire in the friable edges which could use some reinforcement. 

Yes, we got too carried away for sure.  I agree it is about time to button this one up and move on to the Thundercheif!  I will like to see how the building arrangements work out on the town

Myles, the Bronx house is magnificent. Fantastic job. 👏👍

Myles, your work is Fantastic and I look forward to seeing your progress updates. I think you mentioned a place you do business with, The Roundhouse in Louisville Ky, ?, if so, do you live in that area? I visit that hobby shop and like Tom and Kevin, they are very nice folks to deal with.  Thanks...

Thank you!

Yes… I live less than 2 miles from Roundhouse. I buy as much from them as I can, and when I'm not buying, I'm drooling. If you're in the area, give me private eMail and we can arrange a layout visit.

Well… I pretty much got the parapet cap master done… possibly a little bit more cleanup, but it's really done. Now I have to cast a couple of them and see how they key together. This was the third attempt. I made a fixture that provided the correct thickness of the cap's body and formed the body flush with this styrene gauge. I then fired that part. I trimmed it up a bit and then put it back on the fixture and added the thick portion with half on the previously fired body and the other half on the fixture which would provide the indentation so they would nest together. I then fired it again and cleaned it up some more with a sanding block and files so it would be a slip fit onto the wall. I won't know how they fit together until I make the castings.

It takes 15 minutes at 275°F to cure Sculpey. While it was curing both times I started doing other stuff. I measured and cut out a baseplate template that I will trace onto 1/8" Masonite and 1/8" foam core. 1/2" thick baseplates work best with my street height to make reasonable curbs. The base is 13" deep and 9" wide. The pavement area is 8 scale feet wide. Is that too wide? I think my other buildings are not set back that far. I can easily change it since it's just sitting on some Bristol Board. That's why I'm making a template.

I crawled under the layout and disconnected the power to the Sinclair Station and Saulena's and then moved them out. Saulena's is sitting in its final spot, but I'm still experimenting with the Gas Station. I didn't like it next to Saulena's since you couldn't see any of it from almost every vantage point. So I moved it up to the right corner and will trim the mounting board so it will fit into the RR curve. This picture shows that orientation, but not the fitting. The Sinclair Station uses an actual mini-florescent tube and needs DC. Saulena's is lit with grain of wheat bulbs and uses AC. Only my very earliest structures have incandescent lamps in them. Anything built over the last 5 years is LED and therefore DC.

Having the Appliance store facing front now gives me more motivation to do a nice job on its interior. As I noted a while back, I was exploring having a bunch of O'scale appliances 3D printed, but the bill would have been $350. Sorry, I'm not going to make some miniature plastic appliances for the same price as I can buy a 1:1 dishwasher. Most appliances are 30" wide so a piece of 5/8" square wood stick would slice off to some "appliance-sized" block to which I'll stick images of mid-century appliance images. So block could be 3/4" for 36" appliances like fridges.

Here's the kind of images I'm collecting.

They'll need some photoshopping to separate any backsplash control panels so they can be added on top. And the tops will have to be guesstimated since I don't have any top views of them. Viewing from 3 feet away pasted on images should work nicely.

While I was crawling around the layout, I was able to refit the guttering on this side of the fire house. I was going to make a single base plate for Bronx and the Appliance store, but had second thoughts that this is limiting. I'm going to make separated bases.

Started the mold making process. The part is so small that the mold process is very crude not needing a lot of sophistication. For silicone mold making you must use a tin-free clay that available from art houses. I simply built the clay base on my Corian work surface and made the dam out of the same clay. For larger pours I've used Lego bricks to build a mold box. The master was imbedded halfway in the clay and I use extra plastic kit sprue material; it's round and already has curves and joints that make for good flow. After all, that's the purpose they play in the plastic kit manufacture.

The Smooth-On M0025 2-part silicone is mixed 1:1 by volume. I just opened some brand new stuff. It has a shelf life and one of the two components starts to set by atmospheric moisture. You have to use it up (which I won't). I use disposable plastic cups and since I'm using such as small amount, I make the cups with the same level on both. You pour Part A and B into separate cups with the equal amounts, then pour this into a 3rd cup which is mixed a lot until it is completely homogenized. Pour from one end and let the material slowing work its way up the mold so the entrained air is pushed out ahead to the silicone.

\

Looks like a kiddie pool… I head the mold plate with the pour on top of my air brush compressor to help vibrate the pour and encourage air bubbles to exit. This is a very basic silicone and doesn't need vacuum degassing.

It takes about 6 hours to cure at room temperature. I brought it upstairs since it's a bit warmer than the shop. I went to my model club meeting tonight and when I got back it was cured some pulled off the clay to expose the mold half.

Next session I'll wrap a dam around this portion, spray it with Easy 200 mold release agent and pour the top half with additional silicone. The lumps are alignment tabs that will insure the two halves register properly. Then I'll be pouring resin over the next week or so while I start working on the Thunderchief.

After the pour I got back to the base plate construction. I took the template I made yesterday and placed it in the spot. My corner was exactly square being slightly open, so I adjusted the template and then transferred this to the 1/8" Masonite. I cut the Masonite with the saber saw clamping the stock to my back shop work table. I then finished up the edges on the belt sander and my edge sanding fixture. Using 3M99 high-strength spray adhesive, I glued on a piece of 1/8" foam core to the bottom, cut it flush with the Masonite and tried it on the layout. The curb height was just a tad low, so again I used the spray adhesive and added a layer of Bristol Board on the back which gave me the correct curb.

I marked the location of the storm drain on the street and cut the notch using a razor saw and scroll saw. Into this I glued the Westport Model Works resin cast curb inlet. The last things I did was locate and drill the hole to pass through the power leads and then measure and scribe pavement expansion strips and some strategic cracking. A corresponding hole was drilled through the layout by tracing the location of the base plate hole so the leads will be able to be terminated.

I split the difference on the setback at 1.5" (6 scale feet). There was a little filler piece that occupied the space between Saulena's and the Fire House that needed cutting down. I first had to get it off the layout. I had used styrofoam structural adhesive and had to use a putty knife to break it loose. I measured and cut it in the chop saw and just cleaned up the edge. The base plate and the filler fit like a glove. That filler was the black top area where the rescue fire truck sat.

Next session I will paint and weather the base and attach the building to it. I will also fabricate a TV antenna and install the power utility stuff like I did with Nighthawks. And I need to do something about the ivy. I probably have to do the parking lot and Appliance Store next since it's going to look funny if not done. I will make another chain link fence, only this one will be cinch at only a foot or less, compared to the monster that surrounded the refinery. Getting there… Can't forget modifying the gas station either...

Happy Friday! Today I was definitely multi-tasking. I mixed up more silicone and poured the upper half of the parapet cap mold. I then glued on some .250 X 0.020" styrene strip on the curb edge of Bronx's base plate to finish up the curb appearance. I then primed it with Tamiya light gray primer. I then went back and filled some of the gaps between the styrene and the base so it would look like a single surface. While this was drying I wired up Saulena's in its new location and also moved the elevated guard shanty to the other side of the street and then wired its lighting back up.

I went back and sanded the now-dry filler and then air brushed my concrete color blend. While this was drying I fit the Sinclair Station to its new location. This required reshaping the back edge of its base and then creating a template and cutting a filler piece from on of the remaining chunks of very high quality foam core left over from my work in Germany. I glued that in place, and while drying, went back to the Bronx base, masked and painted the black asphalt side and back edges. 

Here's the base with the painting completed. Next session I will seal this flat paint and then highlight all the expansion strips and cracks, repaint the storm water inlet, weather the entire base and glue the building in place. This will have the secondary effect of being able to move and carry the building without the fear of damage. I already knocked off the far right end of the widows walk and had to replace part of it. It's delicate and brittle.

I'm going to glue only the first floor plate and not the building's edge which will still permit me to remove the building from its interior. Speaking about lifting from the base, I find that Saulena's is aging… badly. The building is separating from the base and I don't know exactly how to fix it. It's due to it being all wood and possibly being exposed to that moisture from the dishwasher leak that destroyed the streets. I suppose I could simply overlay another piece of strip material to hide the gap and leave it alone. Rather than drill another hole in the sub-base, I just fed the wires through the watchman's shanty hole. I'll cover the wire with some scenic work.

Sinclair needed a lot of changes to make it fit the wedge-shaped new space. I had to do all this while crawling on the layout. The sub-base under the town is not support really well enough to handle full body weight, but the rail sub-roadbed is, so I'm careful to have my knees on that strong part and just lean on my hands in the weaker areas. This involved a lot of bending, climbing and trial-and-error to get a reasonable fit. I made a Bristol Board pattern, transferred this to the foam core and then re-fit… twice… before cutting anything. I have a very limited supply of the thick German foam core and I don't want to waste it. The rectangular cut out was necessitated by fitting the Z-Stuff Crossing Signal and now I had to refill it.

After a reasonable fit, I glued the new piece on with some Henkel Polyurethane glue which is pretty benign and won't damage the foam. I held the glued piece with tape.

Here's the station fitted in final position while waiting for the glue to dry. Note that there's a bit of a gap on the existing base towards the left, but I think I'm adding another curb cut there which could easily fill that space so I'm not worried.

There's one other area of concern. There's a large gap at the back edge near the right of way. Part of the problem is a slight elevation due to the Sculptamold that was used to edge the town's sub-base. I really don't relish breaking that out, so I'm thinking of building a low retaining wall to keep cars from rolling on the tracks. As I look at the station, that far back edge is no longer wide enough for a vehicle to pass. This clearly wasn't the best place for a gas station, but real estate is tight in the Village of Woodbourne. It's on a convex curve so the large overhang engines shouldn't collide. Long cars could bind on their flanks so I'll have to check that out. I can always cut more of the base away.

The mold was fully cured after dinner so I split it and cleaned up the sprue access points. Next session we'll make the first pour and see how it works. Then production will begin. Once you get the hang of it, resin casting is fun. Not cheap… but fun!

I wonder if it's too late to engineer and install an access hatch in the center of the town. It's really getting hard to get reach and I've got a lot more detailing that needs to be done (street lights, power poles, signage, more buildings, repairs, parking meters, etc.). I'm going to seriously think about this. I'm not getting any younger and can no longer count on the grandsons to do it for me. The oldest is 6 months from starting college, and the younger is a sophomore in HS and will be driving before I know it.

The Bronx building looks great!!

Yes, Sinclair Station will fit nicely.  I'm sure the addition tot eh pavement, curb and any sidewalks will look great when done.  I'm with you on the retaining wall and also some trimming so you get the proper clearance.  I'm sure it is a happy-sad time seeing the grandsons get older and start moving into "adult" activities.  Even if they were available, what they have in flexibility, I am wondering if they are getting even more long legged than you.  I agree, you need to find an alternative to get access for yourself.  I just rolled under my new table for the first time to attach some OSB to the frame.  My back is slightly sore already, but it isn't the area that had the bulging disc, so I'm not too concerned.

Yup! The boys are moving on as they should. They always check on progress whenever they visit. Which brings me to my challenge. I went under the layout today and studied the structure I built under the town. It's a hodge-podge and I should have thought of the hatch when I did all the framing. That said, I really don't think it will work. Too much stuff to wreck first before the changes can be made. The town was the last part of construction and I really wanted to get it done. So I broke some of my own rules. I fastened the Masonite from above; meaning… the fasteners are now buried in styrofoam and streets. The buildings are all removable, but not the foam and the streets. So instead of unscrewing the cleats from below as I can do on all of the subroadbed all over the layout. Here, the cleats are screwed and glued from above and are not easily moved.

So plan B. I need to be able to reach over tracks and scenery without damaging anything while extending that reach. So I'm going to try and build a wooden bridge support that I can lay on and will spread the point loads so as to not damage anything. I would like a top creeper, but can't justify the cost considering the state of completion of the layout. I post when I decide on what it's going to look like.

Trainman2001 posted:

Yup! The boys are moving on as they should. They always check on progress whenever they visit. Which brings me to my challenge. I went under the layout today and studied the structure I built under the town. It's a hodge-podge and I should have thought of the hatch when I did all the framing. That said, I really don't think it will work. Too much stuff to wreck first before the changes can be made. The town was the last part of construction and I really wanted to get it done. So I broke some of my own rules. I fastened the Masonite from above; meaning… the fasteners are now buried in styrofoam and streets. The buildings are all removable, but not the foam and the streets. So instead of unscrewing the cleats from below as I can do on all of the subroadbed all over the layout. Here, the cleats are screwed and glued from above and are not easily moved.

So plan B. I need to be able to reach over tracks and scenery without damaging anything while extending that reach. So I'm going to try and build a wooden bridge support that I can lay on and will spread the point loads so as to not damage anything. I would like a top creeper, but can't justify the cost considering the state of completion of the layout. I post when I decide on what it's going to look like.

Have you considered checking with the rental places and painting contractors in the area to see if they have something you could rent for a few days?

Hadn't, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't. It's a possibility. I did do some more engineering on the creating the hatch. It's feasible from an engineering point of view, but the difficulty may be having to do all the construction upside down underneath the town since I can't remove the Masonite/Insulation Foam sandwich that's overlaying it all. Here's a before and after shot showing the actual location of where the hatch will go. To accurately position the cuts needed to open the hatch exactly where I want it, I'm thinking to drill a 1/4" hole at each corner of the to-be-cut area and inserting a 1/4" dowel so it extends below the layout. From below I can take some string and connect the four corners thereby giving me the accurate location below the layout about what's going on above. From this point I can clearly decide what members need to be cut and where the new framing goes in. When the exterior hatch framing is complete and supporting the town, I can cut out the hatch, remove it and frame it up off the layout. But… all this is moot if I can't manipulate the new lumber from below. As I'm looking at this, the doublers could be screw up to the cross members from below by putting them on the bottom. If I put them on top, I would have to use very long screws from below to reach the doublers on top. All this thinking just occurred as I'm writing this and looking at my drawing.

I'll have to buy some more 1 X 3 and perhaps some more 1 X 2 stock. I buy the pre-primed, finger-jointed finish dimensional lumber from Lowe's. It's less expensive than clear lumber, very straight, and causes no problems whatsoever.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I started pouring the resin castings. The first one had a bubble, but it's not open to the outside. I wasn't getting good flow through the vent ports.

Before pour #2 I took the Xacto and opened up the vents more, and the result was a good pour with liquid resin showing at both ports as it should. 

I have to pour the resin in very gently in a tiny stream so it doesn't entrain any air going in. The fill side is on the right. When I did my first resin casting a few years back I didn't realize you feed the liquid from the bottom of the mold cavity so it pushes all the air in front of the liquid. It really works!

The resulting casting didn't have any bubbles. I have to manage how much pressure I put on the Panavise when holding the mold halves together. This is a very small mold and too much pressure could easily distort the mold and cause some of the furry flash you see. The mold needs to be snug enough to not leak and that's it. Not so tight it starts to distort.

I went down after dinner and poured another one, and after cleanup, it looks very good. I have to cut away the bump where the vent ports attached so they nest together properly. I poured one more before coming upstairs.

3 down, 17 more to go. Since resin is expensive and I keep mixing a least twice as much as I need for this tiny pour, I think I'm going to make another mold so I can pour two at a time and double my production. I know what I'm doing now so the second mold should be quite easy. These will all be painted a terra cotta brown before gluing them onto the parapet. With two molds I should be done pouring them at the end of the week or early next week.

More parapet tiles completed today. 7 molded, 1 more in the mold. I think I'm going to need 23. I was wondering why I have a lump in the interlock area. I found an air bubble in that area in the mold. I can't fix the silicone, so I'll just have to trim out the bump. Still getting some air bubbles in that one spot in the fat area. I actually filled it with some not-quite-set resin. It worked. If I was a smarter person I would have made my master to be multiples of these tiles so I wouldn't have to cast these ridiculous small tiles. It's not too late… I could still do that. If I did a set of four, I'd be done in three more pours. When I pull the casting from the mold it's still a bit rubbery so I put it one the wall until it hardens up. This way I can be sure that the spacing of the parapet groove is correct. It takes about another hour before the urethane is fully cured especially in such small sections. It's an exothermic reaction and the larger the quantity, the quicker the cure.

While each mold is curing I do other stuff. I got the expansion joints in the Bronx pavement treated with Tamiya Black Panel Line Accent. I first sprayed the flat paint with Tamiya Gloss so the accent wouldn't spread too far. Then after treatment, sprayed with Dullcoat. I painted the storm drain and accepted with some bare metal cream paint. Not shown is the fire hydrant that I added. I'm also going to add another telephone pole, a service hookup and a no-parking sign.

I fastened the building to the base using heavy duty Servo Tape ONLY ON THE FIRST FLOOR PLATE and not on the wall edges, so the building is still removable by undoing the screws holding the walls to the floor plate.

I then got back to work on the Sinclair mods. I have some hydrocal cast curb cuts that I made years ago when originally building the gas station. I cut the new edge and added it using the Henkel Pritt urethane glue. Next session I'll fill all the gaps, glue a cover strip on the curb to hide the foam core, mask and paint the new pavement, and try and match the aged gray/black macadam of the existing station.

While it's on the bench, I should probably figure out how to do that retaining wall. Woke up thinking about different ways to approach it, including using Bristol board, or molding a plaster wall using styrene or card stock as a casting forms.

Happy Friday!

Well… gang… it's not often that a plan goes so bad. My retaining wall attempt #1 is not going to work. I have to wait until the plaster cures (Monday) to rip it all out and do it over.

The forms dried nicely and fit on the track well. I did a couple of clearance tests with some big locos to see if anything hit. It didn't.

With a Veranda, and then a monster Coal Turbine.

I should still check it with the Allegheny and the Pennsy S-1 to be sure.

Then I had to decide what to fill the wall with. I thought of Urethane casting resin or Hydrocal plaster. Resin is very expensive, plaster is very cheap, so I chose plaster. I sealed the forms as best I could with thick CA, mixed up a pourable mixture of Hydrocal and poured the mold. First this I noticed was I had leaks at the two extreme ends. Not a problem… when the plaster hardened it would seal and I add a bit more to top off. But then… it hit the fan! The Bristol Board I used for the forms absorbed a lot of water and started to distort. The distortion got worse and worse making the whole deal into a fiasco.

I can't tear it apart until the plaster hardens, but then it's all coming out. I'll come up with another method. I may go with using wood forms, filled with Sculptamold. I'll have to use thin ply in order to follow the curve. Resin would have worked since it wouldn't have wet the Bristol Board, but I don't want to use my supply for a non-critical use. I'll keep you posted.

When I was running the Coal Turbine into the test position it was running terribly. It hadn't been run in quite a while and periodically the middle unit with its twin motors and 12 driven wheel would stop working forcing the lead control unit to spin its wheels. I pulled them off the track to examine the circuit board interconnection used in this MTH engine (and the Baldwin Centipede) and has had problems (with both engines). There were no broken or loose wires, but I did notice that all four traction tires on the control unit were gone. So I took it to the shop and gave it new tires and lubrication. The complete unit is now downstairs charging which it probably needs. I haven't put a BCR in that engine yet.

Meanwhile, Stephen Milley of Real Scale Models and I have reached agreement on all the bits and pieces to cut the Engine House. There are several changes from my previous work with River Leaf. We're using 1/8" stock instead of 1/4". It reduces cutting time and material cost. At first I wasn't sure how it would look so I made all these changes in the SketchUp model to see how it looked and it will work. Next comes the windows. Stephen does a great job with windows and is cutting them out of self-stick laser board. He's cutting the glazing too. And then we've added another wrinkle. I'm putting another laser cut window with mullions that will be stuck to the back of the glazing to give the window more stiffness and relief, and then I've added a wider frame that will stick the window to the inside building wall, solving the window mounting challenge at the same time. These windows will save me hours of time since there's a ton of them.

Stephen's machine is not very large and I've had to split the long walls, main floor and main roof into pieces with indexing keys so he could cut them. I will have to splice them together during construction. Here's the main building pieces. The long strips are the inner and outer buttresses. The inside buttresses are also going to have a very hefty block glued to it which supports the big I-beam holding the gantry rail, and then another lump up top to support the roof trusses. I did some quick research and found that I can easily get 3/4" square milled wood with will easily bulk up the 1/8" thick inner buttresses without a lot of fanfare. Actually, it would take a very large industrial laser cutter to handle the +40" length of this engine house.

The main floor need to have openings for the tracks which made the multiple pieces more finicky. Trusses will be cut from 1/16" MDF for stiffness and $$$.

Here are all the windows cutting files. Lots of windows, no glue needed… whoopee. You can see the thin exterior framed outer windows and the wider exterior frames on the inner windows.

The cutting drawings are done in hairline line width and are very precise. When I converted them to JPGs to show in this post it muddies the lines a bit. The laser program cuts .3 pt lines and engraves lines .7 pt and wider. The total bill for all the cutting will be something shy of $400.00. Doing large scratch build projects isn't cheap.

Oh… and I cast two more roof capping tiles. Slowly, but surely, I'll get them all cast.

Myles, only the window pictures can be seen. 

I can't see the photographs either.

Try again… I've reloaded the missing images.

Still not working for me. Bummer--they sound like interesting images.

Actually, you took a half-step. The pictures are not showing in-line, but you can click on them in the attachment section.

Okay… Just'a one more time...

I can see all the pictures now. Thanks Myles.

Yes, I see where the retaining wall warped.  Well you will come up with something great.

That is a lot of delicate cutting for the engine house!!!

Mark you are such an optimist… that being said, I did do a fix and it should work out okay. Bought some fresh balsa today at the LHS and simply laminated it to the wrinkly wall instead of ripping it out and starting all over. It made the wall marginally thicker, but I think I had enough clearance with just another 1/32" balsa overlay. I wet the balsa with Windex with Ammonia so it would be just a bit more flexible, and after it was dry, sanded the top flush with the existing wall so it would receive a top surface (also balsa).

\

Simply resurfacing the wall seemed a much easier solution. Due to the undulations of the existing wall, I only glued the new surface on the high spots thereby restoring a regular surface albeit a bit thicker. I glued the top piece on and it was a bit narrow so I just added tad of Bondic UV filler. It was the right length and when I cut the curve into it it just exposed a bit of the wall below. I thought I could bend the balsa width-wise, but wood doesn't like bending across the grain and it really didn't bend without distorting.

The wall's still slightly irregular but sooo much better that lies beneath. I also bought some fresh water-based sanding sealer and coated the new construction. When it's dry tomorrow, I'll fill the dents caused by the clamps. Balsa is so soft that clamping will leave marks. 

None of this work happened without the usual drama that seems to happen around me. I was also pouring another couple parapet caps. I've got 11 done so far. When I spun around in my father's old desk chair that's my working chair in the shop, It caught one of the clamps sticking out from the Sinclair station. It spun it around and dumped it on the floor UPSIDE DOWN! This, of course, did some damage, but it could have been much, much worse. It broke off the two white metal gas pumps and bent the light pole between them. It broke loose the new plaster casting curb cut and mashed the opposite corner. The whole base is German foam core and it delaminated at that corner. I put it all back together and it will survive another day. The miniature florescent light came loose. I hope it's okay. If not, I'll replace it will blue-white LEDs. I built this before I started using LEDs for all model lighting.

The area behind the wall just begs to have piles of automotive junk: old engine blocks, exhaust pipes, a pile of old tires, radiators, etc. I'll have to find out where to get some of this stuff. It's now going to be quite visible from the layout's front.

Tomorrow, after prepping the surface, I paint it concrete color and weather it a bit. I will also glue some foliage at the base to hide the interface with the roadbed. I also finish sanded the new corner and that will be painted too.

I knew you would come up with a workable solution!  

Cast some more parapet caps: number is now up to 16 with 9 more to go. Should be done in three or four days.

Got the retaining wall complete and weathered a bit. Repainted the Macadam and checked the fit again on the railroad. I realized that there was a storm drain inlet at the curb so I had to add an inlet into the curb too. It was a challenge climbing over the layout to get into a position to mark its location. 

All the filling, sealing and sanding made the balsa look decently solid so I was able to paint it my latest concrete color mix. Again, it came out looking like wet, fresh cement, not aged dry concrete. I have to figure out how to do this better. Tamiya doesn't have a "concrete" color pre-mixed. 

I painted the asphalt a gray/black mix. I first tried to match the old paint, but soon found that to be a waste of effort and repainted the whole deal like the station got a fresh coating of driveway sealer. It's funny… the area that was plastered with the joint compound caused the paint to dry more glossy than the paint on the pre-existing finish. And then after shooting it with some Dullcoat, it's still shinier. I may add some weathering powders to it to break that sheen. I also need to add tar strips, oil and gas spills, and tire wear and tear to give it some character. That concrete color is too dark!!

In the following image you can see the storm drain street inlet in the lower right corner. Leaning way over the station while on my knees, I marked the location on the curb for the curbside inlet matching the street inlet. I removed the station, took it back to the shop and cut the space out for the inlet.

Here's the new inlet. I bought these nice details from Westport Model Works a few years ago. They resin castings and look very prototypical. 

Tomorrow, the paint should all be thoroughly dry and I'll do some more weathering. I marked the sub-base for the power lead which I'll drill tomorrow also and I'll keep making parapet caps. It was a lot of work modifying the Sinclair Station for its new location, but I think it ended up okay. After it fell on the floor yesterday I thought it would be wrecked, but it survived. I'm going to add foliages and weeds at the junction to the right of way.

Nice job on the station, Myles. That area behind the station is a great place for accumulated junk. That was what was behind the station I worked at as a kid.

Thank you! This is going to be a two-day post, and today was a real potpourri.

I really didn't want to get into the junk pile building at this time, so I punted. I decided to create a form-fitting sub-base that fills the junk space behind the station. It's removable. When I'm ready to get into this little vignette project I'll be able to build the project on the work bench and drop it in when it's built. Meanwhile, I can get the gas station back onto the layout and wired up, clear the work bench and get started on the commission F-105G Thunderchief models. 

I started the process tracing the curve of the wall onto paper. I cut this out and transferred it to Bristol Board, which needed to be a bit wider so I added a straight piece to the front edge as you can see here.

I then transferred this to thin aircraft ply which will serve as the actual landscape base. It will be removed when I install the station later in this post, and will be kept for when I detail the junk pile/weed garden at the back of the station.

I then wanted to add the foliage to the wall BEFORE installation so I could do it on the bench and not laying on the railroad. At first I tried to glue it on vertically, but the stuff kept slipping off and ending up on the floor. I then took the entire station and slide into my wood working vice and carefully clamped it so the wall was now horizontal. It was then easy to keep the foliage in place.

I made a single vine out of some fine gauge twisted wire held together with thin CA. I painted the stem with thick artist acrylic and then coated it with veggie stuff. This was glued to the vertical part of the wall with Aleen's. That was yesterday. Today, I glued the upper part of the vine with thick CA so they clung to the wall.

I added an early 50s DeSoto, the wrecker and the station attendants before putting it on the layout. These metal characters had metal bases which finally had to go. They're a bit oversized already and the bases just made them even bigger. I glued them to the asphalt with thick CA.

Meanwhile I was continuing to cast parapet tiles for Bronx. 

I took the Sinclair station to the layout and got it all hooked up with power.

Here it is with the lights off.

Then I decided to try a clearance test with my most interfering locomotive, the UP U-50C. Something about this engine's geometry makes it a major impactor. It almost wrecked the Victorian Station's loading platform due to its extending fuel tank. And guess what? It rubs! Not badly enough to wreck anything, but enough to scrape off some paint and rock the engine. I made a movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu0pxEnaqKQ

Here's what the wall looks like after some repeated hits… 

I'm not going to fix it right away. I'm going to run some other equipment by also since the U-50C may not be the only offender. I will remake the parts that impinge to give more clearance. I was worried that the foliage would get hit. I was wrong. I could have solved this problem must more easy earlier if I had scribed the initial curve closer to the building, but that train has left the station. Now it will have to be a retrofit.

Back to the Bronx...

I have three more parapet cap tiles to mold and should get them done tomorrow on schedule. A couple of them I probably has the mix ratio a tad off because they never truly hardened up. With the tiny quantities I'm mixing, slight volume differences are changing the chemistry. I've tightened up on my pouring. I also made the corner pieces.

There's the need for a slightly smaller piece to fill the final gaps. I'm not sure where I'll put them… probably at the corner which will be furthest from the viewer. Notice that I'm pressing the master into service too since I'm pretty sure I won't be making these things again… famous last words.

I can't forget the electrical service or the TV antenna. But I did start working on the F-105G today too.

AND… Stephen Milley sent me the samples for the Engine House. The windows will work perfectly. The sample trusses were cut from 1/16" MDF, but he has a source for 1/10" stock which is much stiffer. We're going to use that instead of the thinner material. I would have to put webs on the top and bottom stringers to made these sample trusses stiffer. I may do that anyway since it will add to the fidelity. Won't be seen...

And this thing's going to be huge!!! There's another half wall that connects to this one. The keyed joint will be hidden and reinforced by the 3/4" outer and inner buttresses. And look mom! No bricks! It will be all concrete.

I cast two more parapet caps today. One was so poor I had to chuck it. I don't think the problem was just a slight difference in mix ratio. I think it was due to not stirring the individual components since I first opened them. The mold was soft and had liquid, oily chemical on its surfaces. It was so soft that it was unworkable. I then shook the components, remeasured a new mix and it cast perfectly. It was solid as a rock and easy to file and sand.

So I still have a few more to make and I'll attempt to get them done on Monday.

Remember to spring forward this weekend. It really seems too early for Daylight Saving Time. We just had snow this morning. It will also be dark again in the mornings here on the western edge of the Eastern Time Zone. It won't be getting dark until well after 7:00 p.m.  As a retiree, dark in the morning is great, but I feel for the school kids and folks who actually have to get to a job. Going to work in the dark was depressing.

Tomorrow I'm doing something new. I'm going to be a judge at a Science Fair for the Magnet School for STEM here in Louisville. A friend of my daughter's husband has done this and she thought that I would like to do it too.