Along the Right of Way ...

Model Railroading Adult Education Class

Milepost 583

Rob Homer, Marshall Tracy, Gabrial Tracy, Denny DeSalve, Bob Ouenga & Dick Rush made up the model railroad class offered by Findlay Adult Education.

Way back in December, the telephone in my office rang and Bill Haggerty of the Findlay Adult Education program asked me if I still wanted to teach a class on model railroading for the winter session of classes.  Earlier in the year, after seeing that the fall advertisement for Adult Ed classes had some "non-credit" fun-type things, I had written to him offering my services to "teach" model railroading.  I had forgotten about it since I didn't hear anything back.  So the phone call was a real surprise.

But you know me... never one to shy away from something new, I said yes and off we went.  After getting registered as a teacher and writing a course description in fifty words or less, I set about planning for the newly-created, six-week intro course in model railroading.  The title of the class was easy, "The Wonderful World of Model Railroading."  But there was so much to cover in six weeks that it soon became evident that I'd be spending more time thinking about what I wouldn't cover than what I would.  Finally, I decided to concentrate mainly on HO scale, avoid DCC due to its complexities (and my lack of familiarity) then do some "hands on" activities.

Week one was spent as an overview of the hobby, where it came from and where it is today.  We also spent some time trying to get to know each other a little and find out why each of the class members was there.  But week two, we got busy with the class project which was building a small 18"x48" layout section that would allow everyone to get a little feel for one way to build their layout.  That week, we built the foundation and laid the first layer of foam.  Week three, we added some hills with newspaper, foam & plaster cloth.  Week four, we painted it and then made some trees.  Week five, we laid some track & covered most of the project with foam ground cover.  Finally, in week six, we added final details like phone poles, signals (non-working) and a maintenance shed.  We even weathered an old boxcar to show how some of those techniques might fit in with an overall plan.  Needless to say, it was a very busy six weeks and the time went by fast.

While I haven't seen any evaluations of my performance yet, I did feel that those who took the class did get something out of it... maybe a lot.  One gentleman came from over 30 miles away and I don't think anyone missed any more than one meeting of the class.  I had fun doing it and hope that they did too.  More importantly, I hope that I was able to create some more interest in them for what I think is a super hobby that one can have their entire life.  Thanks guys...

dlm

Normal, Everyday Stuff...

Milepost 582

So many times when we model things, we tend to concentrate on the unusual & spectacular.  We have that great bridge that is high and long; we have a track desperately clinging to the side of a rock canyon or we have that really unusual looking building that really draws our attention.  But so much of what we really see along the right of way is the normal, every day stuff.  We probably pass on the small, store-front businesses even though there are many more of them than there are... large factories.  We seldom model more than half a dozen houses on our layouts because we want to save space for trains... and that super-duper brewery model we bought.  And, we probably never have enough of our home road cars because... well, we already have a bunch of them in the first place; who needs more?

And so it is with the photo above.  The small, mundane, seemingly insignificant sheds and structures pictured here are just that... small, mundane & insignificant yet there are far more of this type of structure along a railroad than there is most anything else.  If you think back about 50-60 years ago, each railroad had "sections" that weren't much more than about 8-10 miles in length.  Each section had its own section house, tool shed and probably a small handcar shed as well.  There were also small phone shanties, signal towers and in really busy areas, even some small section offices.  They were small, mundane & insignificant... but they were the front line against the constant wear and tear of trains running each day.  So I decided that I needed some more mundane on my layout.

First, note that they are of a similar pattern as far as color is concerned.  This readily identifies them as part of "the company."  Following NKP practices loosely, I painted mine with green roofs and gray walls.  The Nickel Plate also had special colors for doors, windows, etc but I didn't want to get THAT precise.  Besides, painting is not my strong suit.

The small shanty on the left could be a phone booth for the lineside phones.  These were very common before the days of radio equipped trains.  It could have also served as a small watchman's shed... or even a crossing guard's hang-out.  But the point is that these would be very common indeed.

The middle building is a handcar shed.  It is patterned after a C&O prototype and was big enough to house plenty of tools, supplies and one of those handcars with the pump handles for the crew to move about.  Later, the handcar was replaced by a railroad speeder, but that too needed a place to "bed down" for the night.  This particular kit is by Tichy.

The small tower on the right is perhaps the most interesting of the three in that it could have many different uses.  It could be a small switch tower at a busy siding.  From the tower, the operator would control both tracks and signals for oncoming trains.  It could also serve as a small (very small) yard office where the operations of a few tracks could be monitored.  How about a watch tower?  Security has always been a priority of the railroad and there were plenty of hobos that wouldn't think twice of taking whatever they thought they needed to get to the next town.  The building could even serve as a road crossing tower where the operator would watch for oncoming trains then lower gates and activate lights & bells to stop motorists to allow the train to pass without incident.

But all of these were pretty routine & mundane.  Nonetheless, they were plentiful along the right of way.  And if we want an authentic looking presentation of our favorite road, chances are that we will need a bunch of miscellaneous sheds and other small buildings just like these.

dlm

A Kitbashed Hotel

Milepost 581

From this... 

to this!

A long time ago, I was at a flea market and purchased a whole box of old MODEL RAILROADER and RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN magazines for a song.  Actually, it was $10 but still, since most old mags like that go for about a quarter an issue and I probably got about 90-100 of them, I thought I did pretty well.

One of the articles that was in one of them was about taking a couple of old hotel kits and combining them to make one much larger structure.  As you can see from the photos, I did just that.  The kits were still available from Concor so I got really lucky in that sense.  I've had some experience of waiting (impatiently) to get them on Ebay; it's always nice to just find them & have at it.  They did set around on my work bench for quite some time until I was looking for a new project and these came to the top of my interest list.

Matters were compounded a bit when I couldn't find the magazine with the article in it for more specific instructions but I did remember the general idea from memory so opened the boxes and started playing around with various arrangements of wall sections to find one that seemed logical and where they all fit together.  The kit's walls are a bit unusual in that the front & back walls had a little corner trim on them that made it impractical to group in just any manner.  I finally decided on using the side walls on the sides and as the middle section.  This worked very well but I did have a bracing problem because of that pesky trim strip.  Nonetheless, I found a configuration that I liked and worked around the bracing problem. 

For quite some time, I've had a piece of glass on my work bench much like you would find on a desk top only mine is much smaller.  This is very flat and helps a lot for aligning pieces side-by-side to create longer pieces or making very flat joints.  One of the consequences of this project was to decide that I needed a larger piece of plate glass and that's now on order.  But after I got the walls arranged and cemented together, I had to cut the floor sections that go between stories apart to make enough walkways & porch floors.  This was easier than it sounds as the floor board details gave one a very clearly defined cutting edge. 

With wall sections completed and the floor pieces ready to go, I assembled the basic structure.  Once again, the flooring sections helped keep things straight and corners square.  But then came the windows.  :(     I believe that there were something like 88 of those little guys to glue into place.  Then, I got to glue in 88 clear plastic inserts for the window glass.  That took the better part of two evenings as there were a ton of them and some of them were in awkward places.  Having completed it now, if I could do it again, I'd have put in the windows & clear inserts before assembling the basic structure.  Live and learn...

The railings & porch posts are really nice castings but many of them were warped.  This created my next challenge.  I had thought of trying to soften them enough to flatten them out but decided against that.  Instead, on the second story ones (railings & porch posts combined), I first glued them into one long section the proper length then added a small plastic strip at the top.  This was just enough to keep the bent/warped pieces in line.  It also made adding them a lot easier, dealing with one piece instead of 4-5 of them.

The first floor porch posts were easy to install but tedious in that there were no locating marks.  You were on your own and each piece had to be checked to see that it was under the post above it and vertical in two planes.  The third floor railings were probably the easiest of all three floors to complete.  They were out in the open as well.

By using two kits, I was able to make the building the size of three of them since I reused the internal walls.  But I still only had two roof pieces.  Once again (a recurring theme), the scrap box saved me.  I had just completed another project that left me three unused roof sections; one of them just fit.  And it had skylights too!  Skylights would have been relatively common on a structure like this so they fit right in.  I didn't cut the roof to fit exactly but rather let it hang over on each end of the center section.  This may be a bit too modern looking for a structure this age but I did like the look.  I also used some strip styrene to give the center of the building a slightly raised appearance.

That pretty much sums up the project.  The kit was molded in appropriate colors so painting was minimal.  I did have to paint the section of roof that I retrieved from the scrap box but a few passes with a spray paint can took care of that quickly.  I liked the looks of the photo in the magazine article and I really like the appearance of the finished model as it sits on my layout across from the railroad station.

dlm

A Photo from Back Home

Milepost 580

I was cleaning up the computer work station the other day and ran across this photo that my late mother sent me at least two years ago.  It is of one of my favorite railroad spots "back home."  When the B&O Railroad reached Wheeling, West Virginia, there was a big fuss about how they were going to go across the Ohio River there.  People were buying land, speculating on where the train would go, hoping to cash in.  Well, after a period of fruitless hassles, the railroad pulled an "end run" and went a few miles south to Benwood, West Virginia, to cross the river into Bellaire, Ohio, where they were welcomed with open arms. 

Bellaire sat much lower in the Ohio River basin than Benwood did so the railroad built a large stone viaduct to take the rails from the end of the Ohio River bridge to the hills beyond Bellaire.  It was quite a spectacular structure and is still there today although the rails have been pulled up.  Now, trains using the bridge climb to the bridge level on a curving steel trestle from the north.  The tracks met on the viaduct and there was a switch there for many years.  But like I said, the rails have been pulled on the south leg of the bridge today.

Photo: J.C.Sullivan

I've never been lucky enough to catch any trains on the Bellaire Railroad Bridge let alone something from the days of steam.  But pictures like the one from the newspaper do remind one of days gone by.

Incidentally, if you took my advice and went to see the move "Unstoppable," you saw the area pictured here.  When the runaway train made the sharp curve and headed across the bridge right as the crew was trying to get it stopped; that was filmed in Bellaire.  See, you need to follow my advice!  :)

dlm

Scenes from Yesteryear

Milepost 579

My friend Mike stopped by a while ago and brought two clippings from the local newspaper that he wanted to show me.  We often don't think of old newspapers as being a source of modeling information but here is proof to the contrary.

The first photo dates back to the early 1900s shortly after the discovery of oil in the area.  For those of you not familiar with Findlay, it was natural gas that was first discovered here in the 1880s.  But that soon played out and oil began coming out of the wells that had once supplied the gas.  These early days were also the beginning of today's Marathon Petroleum Company as they began buying & refining the wells' output.  While the photo isn't all that good and was reproduced to appear in the newspaper, one can still get a sense of the kinds of industrial buildings built in that era as well as the types of rail cars used.  In this case, note that there are both boxcars and some early styled tank cars sitting at the National refinery.

The second photo is of much more interest to me personally as it was taken in the 1950s, the time I model.  There are three things of particular interest to me:  first, the engine shed housed a switch engine right here in Findlay that served local industries.  Second, the crossing guard shanty is a quaint little shack with a lot of character; I'd like to build one.  Somewhere around here, I have another book with a slightly different angle of that same shack that would help me create a plan for it.  Finally, the coal hoppers in the background appear to be wooden ones that were dubbed "War Emergency" hoppers as the steel normally used in their construction was diverted to more pressing military needs.

You may remember that back in December, I wrote about the passing of Mr. Ed Heminger, the former publisher of THE COURIER where I worked as well as a local historian and friend of mine.  I had showed him a photo of the crossing shanty from the book I mentioned above and he laughed.  He went on to tell me that when he first started working at the paper for his father, he had a paper route.  One of the stops on that route... was that small crossing shanty.  Ed was impressed enough with that photo that he wrote a piece for the company newsletter mentioning stopping there to deliver papers.  Memories are things that we simply can't take away...

There is a lot of good modeling info (and history) in these two pictures.  Being of local subjects, that makes them even better!

dlm

The New Bank

Milepost 578

When we often get together with people to solve the problems of the world, we eventually resort to, "IF I was in charge..."  Well, on my model railroad, I AM in charge and things are working out just fine.  Taxes are down, unemployment is non-existent, government spending is low and business is booming.  So much so that the local bank decided to build a new home symbolizing its strength and prosperity.

The kit is actually a part of the Walthers Cornerstone Series and is called Bailey Savings & Loan... no doubt named after the same institution on that classic Christmas movie, "It's a Wonderful Life."  Things are about the same in my world as it is a wonderful life.  From time to time there are some minor derailments and things are shut down until the railroad fixes things.  But no one is hurt and property damage is light... so things are good.

The kit assembled very easily and I'm guessing that I had it done in an evening.  The window frames are separate castings as are the "glass" pieces for the window glass.  This makes painting unnecessary and the windows go in easily.  Just be careful as that plastic cement will craze the window material and they won't be crystal clear.  One should probably use some black construction paper on the inside of the structure to prevent people from looking through it, especially through the floors.  But other than that, there's not much extra to do.  Oh, I did add the A/C unit on the roof as there was a casting blemish on the roof that I didn't like. 

I've been toying with the idea of doing some weathering on some of my buildings as their proximity to the railroad tracks would make them a target of some occasional dirt, grime & soot from the trains.  In this case, I tried something totally new to me by using a wash of alcohol & India ink.  The recommended mixture is about a tablespoon of ink per pint of isopropyl alcohol for a "light" weathering and two tablespoons per pint for a "heavy" mixture.  I made up some of each and on this structure, I used the heavy variety.

The ink brushed on like dirty water.  It dries rather quickly so one can't tarry too long.  After I got is spread around everywhere, I took a clean rag and wiped off some of the heaviest parts being careful to not push too hard.  This left the ink to collect in the cracks & crevices of the building to bring them out and make them much more prominent.  If the ink & alcohol mixture dries, you can always loosen it with some more alcohol but I didn't ned to do that on my first try.

As always, when trying any new technique, it is always best to practice on a scrap piece of something similar to what you will be working on.  At least, start on the back side of the building where your first efforts will ben least noticeable should they not turn out quite like you like them.  Just be careful of that ink solution... it doesn't wash off your skin with Lava soap.  :(

The bank doesn't have a name yet but I may remedy that soon.  My cousin's husband and I were always referring to my late uncle as "JP," so maybe this will just have to be the "JP Merkel" Bank.  He had a good sense of humor; he would have liked that.

ADDENDUM: (a week later) I did make some name plates for the bank as you can see below...  Yes, 1922 was my uncle's birthyear. :)

dlm

World's Fastest Train!

Milepost 577

This is a video of the world's fastest passenger train.  You can't really appreciate the speed, even from the video.  It isn't that long of a movie; I'm pretty sure you will enjoy it.  It is located in China and can hit well over 200mph in a little over two minutes.

Download Worlds_fastest_rail_train

Until next time...

dlm

Building a Hip Roof

Milepost 576

When I'm building a building from scratch, it seems that one of the hardest pieces for me to cut is the roofing pieces for a hip roof.  Flat roofs are easy since they are only in one plane.  Traditional peaked roofs are easy too in that you only have two equal-sized rectangles to work with.  But a hip roof... that one is a toughie.  What makes it so tough is that you are working with a piece of two dimensional material, the roofing material, to build a three dimensional shape, the roof itself.

This has been a struggle of mine and I wanted to try to figure out how to do it with a minimal amount of trial & error; cutting & taping pieces of paper together to get the right angle before cutting the roofing material.

It will be hard for me to explain this process because my drawings are two dimensional but I'll give it a shot.  Take a look at the image below; think in terms of looking directly at the end of the building where the hip roof is located.

There are two considerations: the slope of the roof or pitch, and the angle of the cut at the corner of the roofing material to create that particular slope.  You must keep in mind that in the above illustration, the roof section that you see is NOT straight up & down but is sloping away from you at the same angle as the sides.  In this case, the drawing is about 30°.  But that is the slope, not the corner marked as the Roofing Angle.

The Roofing Angle value changes with every degree of slope so I have various slopes here in increments of five degrees up to a 60°.  The calculator I was using to get these values wouldn't calculate the angle beyond a slope of 55°

So, from the table below, you can see that to get a roof with a slope of 30° such as the one pictured here, you must cut your roofing material at an angle of approximately 49°.  Here are all of the calculated values from 5 - 55 degrees:

This may help you the next time you have to struggle with those nasty hip roof cuts to build that station or even house roof for your prized model.  One word of caution... these values work only when both adjacent sides of the roof slope at the same angle.  If they are different, then these values are meaningless.

Until next time.

dlm

Really Nice W&LE Model Railroad set in 1943

Milepost 575

One of the members of a Yahoo group about the Wheeling Coalfields sent this youtube video link to the rest of the members of the group.  It's a dandy!

Turn up your speakers and enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea8G6cxWe58

dlm

Panel Track

Milepost 574

Back at milepost 560, I commented about the continuing work being done on the transfer track at Galatea.  When I was there, I noticed this piece of track and chuckled to myself; this looks EXACTLY like what those of us who are model railroaders would use on our layouts! 

The railroads call them panel tracks.  What they are are prebuilt sections of track that can easily be placed into service without a long-term disruption to mainline service.  Track components like this switch, diamonds (the railroad term for rails crossing) and even straight sections of track can be assembled and in some cases even hauled by train to the site of construction or a derailment and immediately put into place.  Cranes simply lift them into place where they are bolted or welded to existing rail and then ballasted.  This makes the line ready for service on a much more timely basis.

Now, I don't want to brag, but I use "panel track" on my layout.  Does this mean that the railroads are copying OUR methods??!?  It wouldn't be the first time.  Sometimes it just takes a while to teach an old dog new tricks.

dlm