Trestle construction, part 2

Getting back to the trestle, I installed the crossties on the deck using scale 8’ lengths of 1/16” square basswood, and outer guard rails made from scale 4x8s with NBW castings every three or four ties.

I also got started on the trestle bents, using 1/8” round stock for the piles, 1/8” square stock for the caps, and scale 2x8 for the braces. All of the wood was cut using a cheap 2” miter saw from Harbor Freight, which makes short work of repetitive cuts and ensures that all of the piles are cut at the correct angle, in this case 0, 5, or 10 degrees. The following photo shows the quick-and-dirty assembly jig I used, and a finished bent (with NBWs) in the upper right.

The piles and caps were stained a darker brown than the trestle deck and the braces.  My thinking was that these pieces might have been creosoted while the rest were left untreated. I'm not sure if that is actually prototypical but I like the contrasting wood tones.

A retaining wall for the transfer track

While the trestle is under construction I thought I'd get started on the scenery on the other end of the layout, where there is a transfer track to shift cargo between the narrow gauge and standard gauge.  The narrow gauge track is elevated by a scale 18" to facilitate the transfer, and I wanted a low stone retaining wall to separate the two tracks.  I was going to cast it in plaster like the trestle abutments but decided to try carving it from basswood instead, since I had basswood strips in the right size lying around. The blocks were carved with an X-acto knife and then textured by tapping the strips with a hammer:

Here's a photo taken from the back of the layout showing how the wall looks after painting and installation. It also shows the ballast mix I'm experimenting with, which is two parts "pit run" to one part "NP gray" from Arizona Rock and Mineral.

For the transfer crane, I am using the Walthers "LCL container terminal" gantry crane but placing it on a fixed foundation rather than rails.  In the following photo it is set in place temporarily as it is only half-finished. The kit is designed with metal walkways, which I am covering with stripwood for a more rustic look.

Trestle construction, part 1

The trestle over the Mill River (which, truth be told, is really more of a creek) will be assembled in place, starting with the stringers and deck and then adding the bents last. Since this is a two-foot-gauge railroad, I only used four stringers, two under each rail.  Each stringer is actually a single length of 1/8” x 3/16” basswood (scale 10x16), but since the trestle is on a 21” radius curve, it should have separate stringers running between each bent and angled to follow the curve.

To mimic this look, I lightly scored the inside face at scale 12’ intervals and then made a deeper cut on the opposite side.  Then I could gently bend each joint slightly without completely breaking it.

The inside stringer was scored at exact 12’ intervals, which is 42 mm in HO, and then the others were scored at 0.5 mm increments (42.5, 43, 43.5 mm) to account for the curve. Each pair of stringers is assembled with short pieces of scale 2x8 as spacers, and then the pairs are glued together with short 1/16" wide spacer blocks. I didn't bother to place the spacers in prototypical locations since they will be hidden by the bridge ties.

After the glue dried I trimmed the ends to length, installed nut-bolt-washer castings, and added short timber retaining walls at each end to hold back the fill at the top of the abutments.

It will be a couple of weeks before I can continue this build, but I'm looking forward to installing the trestle and finally getting started on scenery! And at some point I need to get back to that forney project.

Trestle abutments

The Mill River trestle will need some stone abutments, so I cast them using lego forms.  The width of the narrowest legos is 26" in HO scale, which is a decent height for abutment blocks. After the plaster set I carved in block lines and gave them a dark wash before shaking them vigorously in a small container with aquarium gravel to polish the edges and give them some more color. The result may be a bit too regular for a narrow gauge road, but I figure that since the railroad's primary customer is a granite quarry, it would have ready access to high-quality stone.

EDIT (November 2):
I eventually decided that the abutment blocks were indeed too regular, in fact they looked more like concrete than granite, so I roughed up the surfaces by tapping them with the tip of a large drill bit and then colored them with weathering powders.  Here's a comparison - the one with the new treatment is on the right:

Painting track

After masking the turnout points and spray painting all of the track brown, I tried a few techniques to paint and weather the ties. I have read that the Maine two-footers used untreated (non-creosoted) ties, which calls for a sun-bleached and weathered look. The following photo shows the steps I used: from left to right, drybrushing with white paint, then a heavy india ink/alcohol wash followed by dusting with tan weathering powder from Monroe Models. I applied the powder too heavily, but compensated by scraping the ties to give them some texture, followed by a light application of white powder to the ties to fade them, and finally applying dark rust powder to the spikes and tie plates.

Here's a closer shot of the finished section, temporarily buried in aquarium filter charcoal to approximate the cinders that I plan to use in the engine terminal area. It looks pretty good to my eye so I'll continue using this approach on the rest of the track.

Layout update

Installing the turntable inspired me to finish laying the track on the Thomaston section. To avoid having a section joint right in the middle of the engine terminal, I added a 42" long extension at a right angle to give a 9' long L-shaped section that will include the roundhouse, the car shed (the short spur in front of the roundhouse tracks), and a trestle across Mill River to the east of town.  I had originally imagined that the railroad would terminate outside of town to avoid having to cross this river (see August 2017 post), but since I wanted a trestle anyway, I decided to relocate the depot and engine terminal within the town borders.

Here's a photo of the full section. I took it it outside to paint the track:

The 9' length is a little unwieldy, but the layout is meant to be semi-permanent and it is a major advantage to not have the roundhouse tracks cross a section joint. This section is also light enough that I could imagine displaying it at shows as a standalone switching layout.

I am using traditional two-cab DC for this layout since it is difficult to jam DCC decoders into HOn30 locomotives, especially the forneys which don't have a separate tender, and I seriously doubt I will ever need to run more than two trains at the same time.  This section is divided into three blocks: one for the back track and engine terminal, one for the front track, and one for the track that crosses the creek.  Power to the two spurs is controlled by their corresponding switches, and the roundhouse tracks are selected by a rotary switch.

Here's a shot of the underside showing the wiring, switch machines, and turntable mechanism:

Turntable mechanism

A while ago I posted a series of photos showing the construction of a turntable for Thomaston. I installed the pit on the layout but ran into “analysis paralysis” when I couldn’t decide whether to motorize the turntable or rig up a manual control mechanism. I finally decided on manual, since my preference is to use manual controls wherever that would have been the case in real life (turnouts, uncoupling, etc.). The breakthrough came when I found a set of gears and a rotating turntable brick in an old box of legos:

The lego turntable brick has a 1/8” bore, so I epoxied some eighth-inch brass tubing into the bottom of the turntable, making sure that it was perfectly perpendicular:

The gears have a 3/16” bore, so I bent some 3/16” steel rod to make a crank. The white gear is attached to a 4x4 lego brick bored at 11/64” to give a press fit on the shaft in case I need to adjust it. In the photo below you can also see the pin that runs through the vertical turntable shaft and engages the nubs (the official lego term is “studs”) on the blue gear. The baseplate is still taped in place because I’m still adjusting everything to be centered and level – a surprisingly finicky process.

The mechanism turns smoothly with very little slop, but can be disassembled in seconds if I need to remove the turntable in the future. And the total cost was $3!

Freight car roster

There is now a link in the upper right corner to the St. G. R. R. freight car roster. So far I have built 10 of the 24 cars on the list. Here is the general lineup as I currently imagine it:

10-14: Non-revenue: Cabooses 10 and 11, plus three slots for future additions.
15-22: Short (20') flatcars from JM Concepts, now out of production. I believe they are freelanced. Two have been built and six are in progress.
23-26: Boxcars.  The only one that is already in service is #25, which was originally numbered 35.
27-32: 24' and 28' flatcars based on Maine prototypes: the Monson RR (Stevens Creek Models, re-released by RS Laser Kits a few years ago but I believe they are again out of production), Kennebec Central (Railway Recollections), and SR&RL (Mt. Blue Model Co.).  The SR&RL flatcars will have sides for coal service.  #31 is under construction; the rest are in service.

The single digits are reserved for locomotives and passenger cars.  I will update the roster as I finish more rolling stock.

Flatcars 29 and 30

I took a break from the forney project to build a couple of Railway Recollections flatcar kits. These cars are based on Kennebec Central prototypes.  Flatcars 12 and 28 are in the background (as well as #27, temporarily missing a truck).

The kits came with Grandt Line trucks that lack brakes, whereas I had used 3D-printed trucks with brake gear from Marsh Creek Miniatures for flats 27 and 28.  Interestingly, some of the Maine two-foot cars, such as on the the B&SR, had brakes only on one truck, so I swapped one truck between the new cars and numbers 27 and 28 to imitate this look.

More forney details

July was a typically slow summer modeling month, but I found some time to detail the rear deck of the forney.  In addition to the stirrups and other details, I added 1x2 trim around the top edge to make it look like the deck overhangs the frame, as on the prototype locomotives:

In the model, the housing on top of the deck is the mechanism that allows the rear truck to slide from side to side to accommodate sharper curves.  I made sure that the details won't restrict this motion, although with my relatively broad curves it wasn't likely to be a problem.  The wires are from the Kato passenger truck used to provide extra pickups for the motor.  At some point in the future I might replace the truck with something more prototypical, but for now I will keep it as it's hard to see anyway.

Forney update: painted, lettered, coaled, and crewed

The body is now finished with the exception of a few details that I will add after the locomotive is reassembled, namely the bell rope, whistle cord, and control rod for the sander valve.

Detailing the Railway Recollections forney

A couple of years ago I bought an assembled Railway Recollections model of SR&RL #21 from another modeler.  The kit uses the Bachmann 0-6-0 mechanism with the middle driver removed - the resulting driver wheelbase is spot-on at 6'.  The previous owner had already added a bell and a whistle, but being the detail freak that I am, I decided to see how close I could get it to the prototype as it looked circa 1920.  Here's a shot of the model before I started working on it:

The kit is well designed and the proportions are close to the prototype dimensions. The only major cosmetic change I had to do was to reduce the thickness of the headlight base (the headlight itself is very close to scale).  I wanted to wire it for lighting anyway, so after cutting off the headlight and filing down the base, I hollowed out the headlight with a drill and inserted an LED before gluing it back on.

The only other changes to the body shell were to file down the top of the smokestack a little bit and to lower the short sections of running boards near the cab - the kit places them higher than prototypical in order to clear part of the Bachmann frame.  I will eventually have to mill down the frame but I think it will be worth the effort.

I then installed grabs on the cab and tank sides, handrails on the boiler and smokebox front, an air compressor, and lots of piping, matching prototype photos as best as I could. Other details included a finial on the sand dome lid (made from a short piece of wire dipped in CA to form a bead) and sand pipes on both sides. Here are photos of each side before painting:

After painting and lettering, I will add window glass, a crew, and a coal load, plus bell and whistle ropes. Once that's done I will start on the chassis.

Completed station

Here's the completed station.  The SR&RL-style enamel signs were printed with an inkjet printer, cut out with a sharp knife, and attached with double-sided tape.

Interior lighting for passenger station

I added two LEDs for interior lighting, one in the waiting room and one in the freight section, but they were too white for my taste. Another hobby of mine is theatrical lighting design, so I had several swatch books of color filters lying around. I cut a small piece from a color correction filter (Lee 205, which converts daylight to 3800K) and wrapped it around each LED. The photo below was taken before I installed the filter in the freight section, so you can compare the effect with and without the filter.  The light looks slightly less yellow in person than it does here.

Passenger station

I have been working on a new passenger station kit from Mt. Blue Model Co.  So far everything has gone smoothly. The windows take a while to build as they are made up from several laser-cut parts, but they are fun to assemble and look good. I added a basic interior since I plan to add lighting.

Work caboose

Here's a second caboose for my roster - a Mount Blue Model Co. kit for a SR&RL work caboose.  It will be #11 on my roster, although for now I'm leaving it unlettered - like the prototype, apparently.  It makes a good complement to caboose 10.

Let's see, where was I...

It’s been nearly a year since I last posted anything here, mostly because I haven’t been able to do much modeling due to work, house repairs, the kids' activities, etc.  I’m slowly getting back to the bench, though, and should be posting more in the near future.  On my list for the next few months are finishing the freight house, building a station and several freight car kits I picked up from Mt. Blue at the recent Springfield show, installing the turntable, starting the scenery, and finishing the road’s first locomotive and passenger car.  Lots to do - stay tuned!