Along the Right of Way ...

Computers & Model Railroading: City Streets

Milepost 492

 
A long time ago, I told you about thinking about how I would lay out my city after a trip to Disney World.  I noted there that every street seemed to have a curve or a T intersection that didn't allow you to look beyond that point and see something that took away from the scene that the designers were trying to create.  So I thought if it is good enough for Walt, it would be good enough for me.

But I quickly found out that commercially available road material didn't come in odd shapes like I would need to create the image I wanted to create.  So I decided to make my own. 

My creations are a bit deceiving in that I didn't allow for parking.  In the interest of space, I felt this was a sacrifice that I had to make.  A normal city street lane is about 15 feet wide.  Allow for parking and you would quickly get to a minimum of 45 feet even if you only allowed parking on one side.  So somewhere, off-layout, there must be some extra parking lots for all of my pedestrians to park their cars.  Besides, they can ride the bus!  : )

After determining that the width would be right around 30 feet, I went to work with my trusty computer and Paint Shop Pro software to lay out various street sections.  I added a center line seam as I've seen many concrete roads with them.  I also added sections as concrete was not laid in one continuous strip in the era of my layout.  But I think that what really gives my streets character is that I randomly added cracks in the concrete, patches in certain places and even manhole covers and storm sewer drains.  If you look at the photo above, you will see the drains and the manhole covers. 

Alleys were made the same way only one lane wide.  To differentiate, I made them darker so that they did contrast with the main streets.  I didn't overdo it with any of the extra features but I did add curved aprons at the alleys' ends.  By digitally saving the basic street pieces, I could add the extra features at will.  This way, I was able to make several different sections to randomly "mix 'n' match" in my city scene.

Where a turn was required, I simply laid out one semi-circular piece of roadway then cut it to fit the curve that I needed.  Again, these pieces received center lines, cracks and an occasional manhole cover for variety.  What I didn't add but could have done so easily were crosswalks, STOP lines, turning arrows and other painted- on details that are readily seen on todays metropolitan thoroughfares.

But I did make one very large mistake... I printed these pieces on normal 20# bond paper.  The moisture of the glue quickly caused them to wrinkle and now the city fathers have to come up with the cash to replace all of them.  I plan to reprint them on cardstock and will use glue sparingly so as to not recreate the wrinkling problem that I had the first time around.  This may allow me to redesign my city scene as some of the buildings just don't quite fit into the spaces available.

dlm

NKP 779 in Lincoln Park in Lima

Milepost 491

 

 

On Saturday, August 6th, open house will be observed in Lima, Ohio's Lincoln Park. The 779, Car #5, caboose #1091, NKP business car #5, and the restored and relocated Unioplois, Ohio DT&I depot located next to the exhibit. The exhibits will be open from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. This is an opportunity to go inside the cage and in the locomotive, cars and structure; all of which are well preserved.

 

Many of us have seen it from the outside, but it is rarely open to the general public. Advance arrangements for special groups can be made,however. It is not like the days when the late John Keller could be seen on location at the park taking care of his cherished engine which he helped procure for the museum, offering a cab invitation.

 

 Thanks to Dan Meckstroth for providing this information.

dlm

 

New Use for an "Old" Building...

Milepost 490

 
Several months ago, Woodland Scenics announced a new series of buildings for model railroaders.  Among those new offerings was a really neat looking fire station.  I decided then that I needed one of those in my downtown.  But I really didn't need another fire station so what would I do with two?  I could have been like the olden days when there were actually competing fire departments who rushed to fires, often fighting with one another for the "right" to douse the flames.  Nah, that wouldn't work out very well either.

 

About that time, I'd seen an old "This Old House" program where Bob Villa turned an old bank into a single family home.  So I thought, "Hey, if he can do that, so can I."  Only my old bank would be an old fire station and the single family home would be a small apartment complex.  Maybe two apartments... or even four if the tenants didn't need much space.

The conversion was simple... first, I concluded that the doors would stay as they came.  I theorized that new ones were put in place but the glass was left to allow plenty of light to come in.  Nothing else really needed modified but when I glued the doors shut, the building still looked like a fire station.  Then I decided that I had just talked about planting flowers on the layout; maybe I needed a few planter boxes in front to change the look.

The planter boxes were easy to build out of some scrap scribed siding I had in the junk box.  I glued them into place right in front of the doors.  I would have probably liked to have made them a little longer but that was the length of the size of the piece of plastic I had so in this case, availability is the guiding factor.  I guessed at a height of about 3.5 feet and cut and glued them into place.  Since I wanted to put some of my now famous artificial flowers in the boxes, I glued some false bottoms on the planter boxes as well.  Finally, a coat of sandstone colored paint and they were done.

 
I put some glue on the false bottoms and added green ground foam first.  After that dried, I brushed off the excess then put some dots of glue in the planter boxes.  Next, using tweezers, I carefully put three different colors of flower material onto the dots of glue then let that dry.  After a day, I simply blew off the excess and the flowers were done as was the entire project.  Simple and quick...

Now, I have some new residential space for my downtown.  When we model, we tend to forget that people need places to live and that residential structures probably outnumber commercial ones by about 10-1 or more in a typical city.  But commercial spaces are typically much more interesting and take up less space than houses so that's what we have more of on our layouts.

Until next time...

dlm

A Steel Mill Model of Extraordinary Proportion...

Milepost 489

 
Three words come to mind when talking about a steel mill:  Big, Heavy & Dirty.  The production of steel requires specialized heavy equipment that appears really massive to the casual observer.  And steel mills are dirty.  Everything there much more than a week or two old has a nice layer of dirt & grime already on it.  It isn't fancy; it isn't pretty but it is an important element in our economy so it should be a part of the model railroading scene as well.

Dean Freytag was quite the steel mill modeler.  When Walthers developed their series of steel mill models several years ago, Dean literally "wrote the book" on steel mill modeling.  His book was published as part of the series of offerings that made up "The Works," Walthers line of steel mill models. 

A friend sent me some photos of things from Dean's layout.  I thought I'd share them here.  Keep in mind that many of the things you see here have either been heavily kitbashed or built entirely from scratch.  Prior to the introduction of "The Works," there wasn't much in the way of kits for mill modelers.  As you look at the photos, try to pick out some common, ordinary household items that you see in them that Dean adapted to fit his needs.  Also, take a look at the various buildings and see if you recognize any of them.  Otherwise, enjoy the work of ta true craftsman.

 
I'm not totally familiar with all of the models Dean has but the items on the small cars pictured here are ingots of iron.  Probably all of these cars were scratchbuilt.

 
The yellow rig on the right I believe is designed to pick up & move raw iron slabs as shown of the left.

 
I'm thinking that this car is covered to protect the molten iron from water.  Things that hot don't mix well with water.  Hence, I believe they are covered in the mill setting.

 
Here's a pretty good picture showing the size of steel mill equipment.  Note the large dump truck on the left and the heavy duty flat car needed to move that interesting looking red thing.  Is that fashioned from a bottle cap?  Note also that most of the items in this picture have that familiar coat of dirt & grime.

 
I'm not sure what this is to represent but it was seen on top of one of the buildings in one of the photos I chose not to use.  It looks all scratchbuilt and really interesting to me.  In another setting, something like this would make a great flat car load.

 
This is one of my favorites.  I'm guessing that this is to represent redhot slag that has been recently taken from the furnace.  Slag is a byproduct of iron production and in areas where there are a lot of steel mills, it is crushed and used for roads and even railroad ballast.  Note the special engine that is used to move this car around the mill.

These pictures were very interesting to me not only because of their model railroad nature but because my family worked in iron/steel production for many years.  My great grandfather, my uncle, my father and my brother all put their time in at the mills.  Dean has done a very good job of recreating the typical steel mill look; like I said, big, heavy & dirty.

Dean passed away earlier this year.  His knowledge of and contributions to the hobby will be sorely missed.  Dean was from Ashland, Ohio, just about two hours from Findlay.

dlm

Planting Some Flowers...

Milepost 488

 
One nice thing about model railroading, it's never out of season to do what you want to do.  You want snow, make it snow.  You want fall colors, color the trees with some yellows, reds & oranges.  And if you want some flowers... well... plant them whenever you want!

Believe it or not, but I have never planted any flowers on my model railroad.  And the only ground cover I've put down was on a very small photo diorama I talked about many, many posts ago.  So this is new for both you and me.  But before I go any farther, I must admit that my wife actually planted them.  I just took pictures of her working and (very politely) told her how to do it.

Let's get started.  First you need some flowers.  But instead of a trip to the local greenhouse, I went out and grabbed some of the sawdust I'd collected last summer after a wood-working project.  It comes in real handy for ground cover.  I got it wet, put some colored water based paint in it and stirred the mess up completely.  Once all of the sawdust was coated, I spread it on some waxed paper to let it dry. 

Fast forward to today and the "flowers" were dry but kind of chunky.  Well, I found that pinching the lumps worked pretty well.  But even better, I ran them through a high speed food chopper that we have here.  About 30 seconds for each color and they were all about the consistency of sugar.  Perfect size for our project.

Now to the actual planting... To save materials, I had Janet plant each color separately.  This way, we shook off the excess material and put it back into its own color container.  The process is rather simple... put down a bead of glue where you want the flowers to grow.  Sprinkle the glue with the color of material that you want the flowers to be.  Let the glue dry, shake off the excess then start with another color until you are done.  Sound simple?  If not, the pictures will help...

 
 
 
 
Yellow, pink, blue then some green foliage and the project was over.  It took quite some time for the glue to dry between colors but the actual "work" was probably only about 5-10 minutes to get the flowers completed.  The green material was actually coarse ground foam from Woodland Scenics.  It acted a little differently so she used a brush to clean it up a little; it kept wanting to stick to the other material applied earlier.  All in all, it was a pretty simple project and would be a great way to add a little... or a lot of color to your layout.  You could use flowers around houses, in busy downtown streets, at stations as well just having some wild ones growing wherever you feel like planting them.

In a couple of posts, I'll add some flowers to a building that has been reclaimed by urban renewal.

dlm

Fiery Train Crash Blamed on Broken Rail

Milepost 487

Norfolk Southern Railroad recently announced that the cause of the fiery train crash near Arcadia, OHio, this past February was caused by a broken rail.  Specifically, there was a separation of the rail web and head according to a company spokesman.  Here is a link to the article that appeared in Tuesday's COURIER:

http://www.thecourier.com/Issues/2011/Jul/12/ar_news_071211_story1.asp?d=071211_story1,2011,Jul,12&c=n

dlm

What Is It?

Milepost 486

 
There have been so many times that I've been hanging around the railroad tracks and an unusual looking load would come along and you would ask yourself, "Now what is that?"  There's no reason why we can't do the same thing on our model railroad to equally confuse guests.  With that in mind, I present this little project that was shared with me by my friend Paul.

It also opens the door for a discussion of the fun things that you can find all over the house or at the local dollar store that could also easily become a part of your railroad world with little or no modification.  Paul likes some of the small toys found at the discount stores.  If nothing else, he says that the tires from the bigger ones make really neat flatcar loads.  I'll be showing some pictures from Dean Freytag's steel mill layout soon and there are several household items there that he used as well.

But getting back to the photo above... do you know what it is?  Well, I'm guessing that it is some kind of tank that is destined to become part of a larger project.  It is being shipped on my layout via flat car... maybe even heavy duty flat car just for emphasis.  Before it could be shipped, the loading crew had to create a little cribbing to hold it in place during its journey.  A coat of primer colored paint and it is ready for placement on the flat car for shipment.  But what is it?  Would you believe... a spring loaded toilet paper roller that I picked up at the hardware store for a grand total of $1.50??!?  I simply pulled it apart, removed the spring, glued it together permanently and gave it a coat of paint.  The cribbing is simply some scale lumber from the scrap box and BOOM!  It's done!  Anyone have any other simple items that they would like to share?

dlm

CSX Open House

Milepost 485

 
In near perfect conditions, the Open House at the new CSX Intermodal Yard was held on Tuesday, June 28.  I was fortunate enough to be able to attend, thanks to a special invitation from a CSX associate.  This afforded a rare glimpse behind the mounds to what was going on there now that the yard has officially opened for business.  There are currently 14 trains either originating or arriving at the yard right now; at the end of August when operations are 100%, that number will increase to 30 trains daily.

 
Approximately every 20 minutes, those gathered in the bleachers placed there for the event were treated to a demonstration of the crane's lifting & spotting abilities.  CSX containers were moved from rail car to the pavement or stacked on other containers nearby.  Then a different container was picked up and placed on a different car as if preparing for shipment.

 
At the same time, Terex container transports showed how they could move containers on the pavement to either other locations for sorting purposes or how they could easily be spotted onto a trailer for transport away from the yard via truck.

 
As part of the festivities, CSX CEO Michael Ward addressed the gathering explaining how this new yard would allow CSX to rapidly speed up shipment and delivery of freight to most all of their online customers.  The yard is located on the CSX main line between Chicago and the East Coast as well as being close to other CSX lines that would allow for deliveries to Toledo, Cincinnati and Columbus.  These cities in turn could make connections to other points all over the CSX system.  Ohio's Lt. Governor, Mary Taylor, was also on hand to share some remarks.

 

 
The event was held in this approx. 10,000 square foot portable building.  It would be unfair to call it a tent as it had a semi solid frame, flooring and was fully air conditioned for the comfort of the guests.  Large monitors provided a view of the activities for those who were unable to be seated inside the smaller presentation area.  Music was provided by the North Baltimore High School band and food and beverages were available.  Speaking of which, I overheard one of the people responsible for planning the event that 3,000 hot dogs were ordered and consumed during the event!

It was a special opportunity and I would like to personally thank CSX for the invitation and their hospitality during the event.

dlm

  

New Cornerstone Building from Walthers

Milepost 484

 
For those of you who stop by here on a regular basis, it should be no surprise when I mention this new building from Walthers because by now, you know that I'm a sucker for most any building with a turret or a bay window.  This one fits in with those likings very well.

The building is patterned from those built around the turn of the century and can be found in many communites still today.  So it is appropriate for any layout from say 1910 up to right now.  The kit is molded in various colors of plastic so painting is an option.  I'm not sure if mine will stay the original cream color or if it will take on a more traditional shade of red bricks.  It is also nice to see a "support" building; one that isn't specifically a railroad structure or part of a larger industrial complex.

For once, there is a new product that isn't pre-assembled.  I realize that many people today either don't have the time, patience or are just too lazy to sit down for a couple of evenings to assemble something like this but it is nice to see kits on the market from time to time.  Not only are the kits fun to build but it does tend to keep the cost down.  Even as a kit, the building will cost you around $40 depending on where you get it.

The only problem that I see with this new structure is that it may force me to totally redesign my thriving community.  I'm rapidly running out of room for these cool new buildings!

Until next time...

dlm

Railroad Street

Milepost 483

 
Call me strange, it won't be the first time, but I tend to think about unusual things when I see them.  Thus the street sign above for Railroad Street.  This particular sign is located in Hoytville, Ohio, a sleepy little town along the CSX main line to Chicago but I'll bet that a similar sign is posted in almost every little village and hamlet as well as larger communities that have or have had rail lines in them.

I read somewhere that every town has a Main Street (perhaps not literally) but I'm also thinking that Railroad Street is almost as popular.  Imagine the importance such a street must have had... when the railroad came to town, it was no doubt the center of travel and commerce for that community for some time to come and in many cases probably still is.  We don't see train travel like we used to nor is the railroad station one of the centers of commerce in communities today.  That role has likely been taken over by an Interstate interchange or major highway through town.  But Railroad Street still remains, reminding us of the past when the arrival and departure of the daily trains brought news, new people and needed freight to Smalltown America.

Speaking of America, HAPPY BIRTHDAY USA!  There will probably be a lot of cook-outs today and fireworks tonight in many communities.  Many of us will have the day off tomorrow to celebrate and take a break in our summertime activities.  As it is with any holiday, please pause for a moment to remember... the reason for the season.  Our independence was not given to us; it was earned and maintained by our forefathers who gave their blood, sweat, tears and in many cases their lives to earn and keep it.

Finally, a bit of a personal note... today would have been my father's 89th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Ooge... : )

dlm