Bar Mills Queen City Coal

Started by vinceg, May 19, 2020, 09:07:03 PM

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vinceg

The instructions have you begin by building the base for the tipple. It consists of a tilted platform that sits on three cross beams that sit on rows of posts. The manual gives you a full-size template to work with. I made a photocopy of the template and used it to lightly tack down the timbers. When dry, the assemblies are cut away from the template with a  razor blade. Here's the first subassembly:



You can see the tilted base of the tipple in the top of the photo. We're looking at the bottom of it -- it faces the ground when assembled. Those cross members on the base are notched to accept the base timbers at the appropriate angle. Once in place, the cross members also serve to help take the torsional warp out of the base. That little square you see in the middle accepts a small enclosure that surrounds the elevator that carries coal to the top of the tipple and into the bin. You have to cut the one cross member to accommodate this opening.

On the right of the picture, you can see the template including the little glue spots where I tacked the timbers to the sheet.

Also on that sheet, notice the cross bracing. These are actually very easy to install. The kit gives you a separate sheet of bracing members that are laser cut. Each bracing "assembly" is a single piece. Here are the base supports with the bracing installed:



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Vince

Protolancing the Illinois Central Chicago District from Chicago to Kankakee

vinceg

Time to attached the support beams to the angled platform base. One important note here. The overall bunker enclosure wraps around the outside of the base. It is important to make sure the length of the horizontal timber does not exceed the length of the base. If it does, you will have trouble putting the shell around the base in future steps. To insure I was within spec, I used a couple of weights on either side of the base and made sure that my support beams fit. In a couple of cases, I had some filing to do. Easier to do now than later. Here's a pic:



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Vince

Protolancing the Illinois Central Chicago District from Chicago to Kankakee

vinceg

After all three cross beam assemblies are installed, you get the angled based ready for the shell. Here is a picture from the front:



And from the back:



Noticed that I'm missing concrete footings for two of the supports. The package of resin castings came two pieces light. Will have to build something later. I chose to do this in the back since it won't be seen.

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Vince

Protolancing the Illinois Central Chicago District from Chicago to Kankakee

vinceg

Time to build the shell. Here are the walls with the requisite bracing:



Notice that the big front wall is really two pieces that are edge-glued together.

One really important point for anyone building the kit. There are multiple bracing diagram errors that you will want to avoid. One is huge. Notice at the bottom of the big wall (the one that has the piece numbered "5" at the bottom). You see that I have no piece along the bottom from left to right. But, the instructions tell you to do this:



The problem with that is that that wall #5 directly butts up against the first cross beam support. If you put in that support as the instructions indicate, you will have an interference problem of 5/32" (the width of the bracing member). To better show that, here's a side view with the front wall in place:



As you can see, no room for any wood there. Fortunately, I'm getting a little better at looking ahead and test fitting things. I would have been really pissed off if I had to chip away a 7" piece of glued down bracing.

The other problem is on internal walls 14 and 15. You can see in my bracing pictures above that the braces going left to right do not go all the way to the end of the wall. But, here is the instruction sheet:



I drew circles at the error points. Those ends would interfere with the tall supports on the front and back walls if you run them to the edge. You can see that I drew in some vertical lines on walls 14 and 15 to represent where the other braces will hit. Again, I saw this ahead of time so I did not have to do any whittling later in the build.

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Vince

Protolancing the Illinois Central Chicago District from Chicago to Kankakee

vinceg

By the way - one more word about wall preparation. From the bracing diagrams above you can see that much of the bracing runs in one direction only. My experience has been that anything braced this way will frequently warp along the non-braced axis. For that reason, I didn't want to stain the walls ahead of time. Rather, I decided that I would try building the entire structure first and then stain the entire building. My hope was that with the entire structure completed, there would be little, if any chance of warpage because there was support in all directions. So, as I am building the shell here, you will see that it is unfinished.

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Vince

Protolancing the Illinois Central Chicago District from Chicago to Kankakee

vinceg

Decision time. The instructions tell you to build the entire shell and then slide it onto the base. That worried me a bit. Keeping things square would be essential. And this building is oddly-shaped on the bottom so I envisioned that being a little difficult. Also, there's a lot of interesting engineering putting the parts together - the internal walls have tabs that go into the slots on the back wall, the front wall, and the base. Also, I knew that the shell has to fit fairly snugly on the base.Given the errors I had already seen in the instructions along with concerns regarding my ability to actually build the shell properly, I decided to build it in pieces on the base rather than all at once as a separate assembly.

So, starting with the base, I added the two internal walls and the back wall. Here's a pic:



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Vince

Protolancing the Illinois Central Chicago District from Chicago to Kankakee

vinceg

Now adding the front wall:



While we're talking about the front wall, I thought you might like to see some of the detail Bar Mills etched into the wood. It's pretty intricate as they etched in board lines and even nail holes. Really nice effect. Here's a closeup of the front wall:



Also in that pic you can see the two little slots that accept the tabs from the two internal walls.

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Vince

Protolancing the Illinois Central Chicago District from Chicago to Kankakee

vinceg

And, finally the side walls and rafter combs:



Another view



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Vince

Protolancing the Illinois Central Chicago District from Chicago to Kankakee

vinceg

The building is now pretty structurally sound - time to stain it. For color, I used Hunterline Driftwood stain. First time I have tried this at this scale. I really like the ending effect.

By the way, I did the same thing for the support members and the base -- just forgot to mention it.

Here are a couple of pics:



Another view:



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Vince

Protolancing the Illinois Central Chicago District from Chicago to Kankakee

vinceg

Signs are next. I have started to make it a habit to scan the sign sheets that come with kits and then use printouts of those scans on the model. Then I always have a master if (when) I mess something up. I did that here. There are two deep black banner-style signs that stretch across the tipple. When I scanned them, the deep black didn't replicate well. Fortunately, I was able to go into Affinity Photo and clean the color up easily. The result was a new printout that was as good as the original. Here are some pics with signs on the building. No weathering, yet.

The front:



The back:



And finally the south wall (that will be visible from the aisle):



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Vince

Protolancing the Illinois Central Chicago District from Chicago to Kankakee

vinceg

Now for the roof. The demo model has a green tar paper roof on the building. I have never done anything in green but wanted to try it. I wasn't sure what to do color-wise so I decided to go to Home Depot and check out what sort of flat greens they had. The Rustoleum Camouflage color of Army Green looks like it might fit the bill. So, I picked up a can and tried it. Bar Mills gives you self-stick tar paper sheets. So, I sprayed one with the paint. Here is a pic:



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Vince

Protolancing the Illinois Central Chicago District from Chicago to Kankakee

vinceg

#146
While the paint was drying I decided to do a little weathering and detailing on the front. If you remember those two little slots on the front wall (that accept the tabs from the internal walls), you noticed that they are a little unsightly. The kit provides a header that stretches across the entire front and back (there are similar tabs back there, too). to hide those tabs. I decided to add some nut/bolt/washer castings (not included with the kit). Adds a little interest but, more importantly, gives me an excuse to add rust. (And, who doesn't love rust?)

Here is the front wall with that detail.



And a closeup of a couple of NBWs:



You might also notice that I'm cheating here -- the roof is actually on at this point. I am presenting in build time line. Photo-taking time line is sometimes different when I forgot to take a few shots at the right time.

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Vince

Protolancing the Illinois Central Chicago District from Chicago to Kankakee

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Curt Webb
The Late Great Pennsylvania Railroad
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vinceg

Finally, the roof is attached and I did a little more weathering. Here is a pic of the front:



That door at the top is not glued in. So far, I'm not loving how I painted it. It's a plastic door -- wood might have been better. I might still play with it a bit to get a better match.

In addition to the roof, you can see the fascia is attached. The rafters are a little long. Might need to trim them a bit but I do like the effect of they sticking out a little past the roof. Also, You can see that they did not accept the stain very well. I would guess that the laser cutting process seals them a bit and makes them a little resistant to the alcohol mix.

I missed the concrete footings, too. Those need some smudgery.

here are a few more pics - still needs some weathering but you can see the roof in a couple of them.



A couple of things to notice in the back here - one, I did not apply the NBW castings since this wall will be facing the backdrop and only be a few inches away. Might live to regret that if I should ever move the dio, but that's a thread I'd like to start for another day.

Also notice that the coal elevator shaft is in place here.





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Vince

Protolancing the Illinois Central Chicago District from Chicago to Kankakee

vinceg

That brings me up to date with where I am. To finish this building I have still put in the coal dispensing chutes and then the large wrap-around stairway and catwalk leading from the door in front. Then, some final weathering and go back and add the outside lights around the doors (the kit was missing those detail parts - I bought a bunch that just came in recently so that I can go back and add that detail). The instructions suggest that the catwalk will be a little tricky. So, it might take a while. But, I'm looking forward to the detail.

As always, I wanted to place the new building in the diorama to see how the scene was shaping up. Here's the main view as seen from the aisle:



Visibility of all the buildings is pretty good. Still missing is the freestanding tank but I think I can easily find a spot for that.

By the way, I mentioned that the bulldozer was included with the kit. Also included with the kit is that coal-hauling dump truck.

One other "BTW" - the kit did not come with any coal. Maybe I shouldn't have expected it - my only other experience was Duffy's Coal Yard from FSM and it did include some coal. Not a big deal, just a bit surprising.

And here's an overhead view to see if my original plan for the scene still makes sense:



I think the layout still works. The coal tipple will need to move a little closer to the Rix bridge to the right because the wrap around stairs will need some room on the left. But, I think there's still room for some backdrop-hiding foliage behind the buildings as well as the cyclone fence to surround the perimeter (included with the kit).

I'll be back when the tipple is finished.

Cheers.
Vince

Protolancing the Illinois Central Chicago District from Chicago to Kankakee

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