My modeling activity has been put on the back burner for the season and outside projects, plus a large basement project is underway. With the grass growing faster than I can mow it, I guess adding fertilizer doesn't help, getting the boat ready to take to camp and cleaning up an outside area for a building to house the 2 boats, one car and the tractor for the winter takes a big chunk out of modeling time. Best I can do is check into the forums and see what's going on.

As for the basement project I've finally come to the conclusion that it's time to get rid of all the things that followed me home over the last 20 years and it was time to get serious about building a layout. So the first thing to go was the Buffalo Forge Drill press. I'd powered it with a treadmill motor. Great variable speed capability. It went to the wife's nephew who build pulling trucks.



GONE. Time to move the lathe and drill press.



The lumber has arrived to build up the wall which will be insulated. Code says you need to insulate 30" below the frost line. I decided on the full 8 foot. Also new LED lights are temporarily hung. I do think they will stay where they are and the wiring will get neatened up. Right now they are daisy chained. They plug into each other to form a chain.



And this is what happens to the rest of the basement "storage" area.






The first section of wall is up.



So the object of this project is to finally get the basement organized for a layout. This first part will be setting up the machine shop area which will contain the lathe, Bridgeport, small surface grinder and perhaps the Grizzly mini-mill. Then on the right will be the wood working shop. Looking at the 5th picture you can see the beam running horizontally with a post in the center. Those will be the division points for the two rooms. The whole length of the beam from left to right will be walled in with doors large enough to move equipment in and out.

An another project is to convert my Sherline mill to use ball screws. They don't wear out like the lead screws that came with the original machine. Only difference is they are metric. I'll see how that all works out when I get to that. That won't happen till fall or winter. This was delivered yesterday.



So if you don't see me around it'll because I'm either at the summer cottage or busy with the above mentioned projects. Also on another note and why I have some many 1:1 projects is that the wife finally retired in March and I can't get away with doing "jigs & fixtures" because she's home all day.

Bernd

Ok, I'm going to get into the "additive manufacturing" mode with the Anycubic Photon printer.

I needed a faster computer to run Fusion 360 and one that has Windows 10 on it. I did not want to update my Windows 7 Professional software because I have software running for my CNC Sherline mill. So I purchased the computer equipment from Tiger Direct. Took a bit of time to get here due to the weather the past couple of weeks. So new screen, track ball and keyboard plus the computer itself.



The printer is a used printer that is in excellent condition purchased from a fellow model railroader who was upgrading to a larger printer. Thank you Craig (aka Rusty Robot)

Looking forward to making small HO scale parts that can be then used for table top plastic injection molding using epoxy resin molds. When I'll get to do all this is up in the air. I won't be printing anytime soon since I hear the resin stinks up the place and I don't want to upset the wife with the smell. I have a ventilation idea planned for winter use in the basement. First though I need to down load Fusion 360 and learn that program. So don't look for any updates soon on this new adventure. If I do any printing I'll be sure to post the what and how.

Bernd

This will be the start of the scratch built rock crusher building. I'm using the basic dimensions from this article for the build. The two part article was written up in Model Railroader in November and December 1957 and is based on a real stone crusher in Gate City, Va. on the Southern Ry.

The prototype.



The prototypes rock bunker.



The model rock crusher and bunker building.



The model rock crusher building.



As I said in my layout tour thread I was going to introduce a material I haven't seen being used in model railroading. It's a common stone use in the manufacture of wood stoves and kitchen sinks of early American kitchens, it's called soap stone. It's a soft smooth feeling stone when worked for the above mentioned items. I had owned a wood soap stone stove for many years. In the search for a wood stove I researched soap stone and found out where it was quarried and the many different colors that it has.

The prototype building was built using cast concrete for the construction. I figured since this was a limestone quarry I'd make a building out of limestone blocks. This lead to research on limestone color, plus I also had the quarry close by to determine the color of the local limestone.
The first thing was to find out where I could get soapstone. If you use a search engine you'll find all sorts of places that sell large quantities. I was looking for something smaller than what these places were selling. Soapstone is used in many crafts to make things due to its carve able nature so it was easy to find in an art supply store such as "Dick Blicks Art Supply". So I ordered some stone to see if it would work for an HO scale structure.

The stone I ordered came rough sawn into blocks approximately 3" X 3" X 4".



First thing I needed to do was square up the block and get rid of the rough sawn lines in the block. So I milled the sides parallel to each other in my Bridgeport milling machine. It creates quite a bit of dust.



Once I had two sides smooth and parallel they were cut into slabs about 1/4" thick.



Using a miter saw to cut the slabs.





Did I mention it leaves a lot of dust? The powder can be used for weathering possibly.



Next I set up my Grizzly mini-mill to mill the slabs parallel. This time I set up a vacuum system to contain the dust.



I had to resort to almost enclosing the vacuum with the air filter system I had built for wood work to keep the dust from flying all around the basement.



You could almost see through these filters when they were clean.



Once the slabs were perfectly flat and parallel I had to cut them in the proper size sticks. I started out by setting up the CNC mill. I glued some aircraft plywood onto a MDF base to hold the slab of soapstone from being pushed away. I used a climbing cut which also helped hold the slab down and push it against the stop. The mill got pretty dusty cutting 16 slots or pieces.





Here's a video of cutting the sticks. Some will probably have a fit watching this but I've been around machinery for over 60 years. No one was hurt or cut anything off.

https://youtu.be/wM23JSGwqfo

Here's a penny for comparison. The first bars of soapstone are roughly .160" square.



Here's a comparison of soapstone color. The one I cut next to a piece of soapstone that is used to mark out metal for cutting. The one on the right can be bought at any of the home supply stores or a welding shop.



I scribed lines one piece to see how it would look with larger size stone scribed lines. I know what you're thinking. Why don't you just scribe the blocks on larger pieces of soapstone and be done with it. One reason. Can anybody figure it out?



Note the variegation in the green circle? When laying blocks nobody is going pick through the big heavy blocks and match the variegation. The bigger the piece the more noticeable it would be.



I made a jig for cutting the sticks to length. It's a piece of aluminum with a .155" wide by .155" deep slot. A small cross milling at the closed end provides a stop for the sticks to butt against. A slot .022" thick was cut .230" from the blind end end to guide a razor saw.



The first cut blocks and the jig loaded to to cut more.



The first blocks laid up to see if this whole idea will work.





Once I found out how floppy the foam wall was going to be I use a piece of 1/4" Luan. I also place a strip of styrene under the blocks for a mortar line.



This is how far I got using the foam. Not going to work.



I ran out of blocks at this point and decided it was a large enough test wall to determine if this is the way I wanted to go.



This is what an HO scale person would see at 100 HO scale feet from the wall.



Next experiment was to fill the mortar lines. I used plaster of Paris and a fantail brushed.









Once it looked like the lines were all filled in it was time to wet the plaster.



I used my Iwata spray gun to mist water over the plaster. I didn't use a spray bottle because spray was too heavy and would bead up on the plaster. The spray also was strong enough to wash out the lines of mortar.



I wiped the excess water off with a paper towel. This helped to clean the film of plaster sitting on top of the the blocks.



After letting the whole wall and plaster dry over night I noticed some voids in the mortar lines.



I repeated the procedure of adding some plaster, rubbing it in, misting lightly with water and waiting until the next day to see the results.



Much better.

And the scale model view of about 100 HO scale feet from the building.



This short section is the explanation of using soapstone blocks, how to manufacture them in HO scale. Next will be the actual build of the rock crusher building using the technique just explained.

Until next time.

Bernd

Not wanting to hijack Jeff's (NYCJeff) Layout thread I'm going to post some projects here on locomotives I've done in the past. Since Jeff is an NYC fan and I mentioned I had pictures of the prototype and a set of Athearn F7's in an A-B-A set. He said he'd like to see them. The set consists of a A powered unit and the other two are dummies. I had lettered these engines NYC when I belonged to the Kodak City Model Railroad Club, now the Rochester Model Railroad Club. I used to run these engines with six Pace Maker boxcars and an Athearn NYC caboose. This was back in the late 70's early 80's when I did these engines. I'm no longer a member of the club and the engines have been collecting dust until today. So fat I have not been able to find my prototype pictures. They are buried in the several 100 slides I have. I'll post them here when I finally find them.







I've always like the lighting strip paint job of the NYC engines so I stole that style for my own protolance railroad. Here are some of my projects from years past.

Here is my first major mod of an Athearn locomotive. It's a chop nose Geep. At that time nobody made chop nose engines. The chop nose is a dummy. It carried a battery for the flashing dome light. The high nose unit was powered. I did have a Model Diecasting, now Roundhouse, caboose painted in the same paint scheme. It contained a battery for flashing maker lights. Unfortunately I never took any pictures of it, at least I can't find any.





The railroad name started out as the Black Diamond Lines, now known as the NY,v & N Rwy. Looks like I've got some repainting to do. I also liked the switcher set known as the cow and calf. I built one of these using Athearn shells and an Athearn chassis for the cow. The calf is powered by a HobbyTown drive. I'm now working on a "heard'. That's a cow and two calf's. (pictures later)





When I first came up with a name for the railroad I was looking for a color scheme for the roster. At that time Rochester had it's own telephone company. Their trucks were two tone with a black belt encircling the vehicle. So I used that color scheme on my first Silver Streak kit modified caboose. It was a wood sides and metal ends & cupola kit. The F3A was my first attempt at turning and F7A into an F3A.







Here's a NYC project that's been collecting dust for at least 25 years. Can you believe that? I had acquired this book on NYC locomotives.



Now, I'm a guy that goes for unusual paint schemes or one of a kind. So this was right up my ally. Gold colored letter on NYC locomotives.



What was even better was that they had an F7A and an F3A in black paint with gold lettering.



And Acu-cal had the decals for those two engines.



So now I needed two engines. Again Athearn's engine were used. The F7A and a second one was modified into an F3A. Again 20 to 25 year ago project that needs to be completed. Hope the decals are still good.









Another locomotive I like is the SW1. Back then nobody made one. So I used an Athearn SW and followed an article in one of the modeling magazines on turning an Athearn SW1. They showed how to chop up the front truck to power it. I never did that. I left it was a dummy. So how do you use it to run around the layout? You mate it up to a powered unit. I've always been fascinated by the Coo's Bay switchers. The had dynamic brakes installed and larger underbelly tanks forcing the air tanks on top of the hood. So I started that project and never finished it.

The SW1.





The SW with dynamic braking. The engine has an Ernst Gear drive in it. Sounds like a coffee grinder, but boy is slow.



And another project collecting dust. An article in Railroad Model Craftsman got me going on this one. I like having engines nobody else has or knows about. It involves a set of Stewart Hobbies F3A and F3B. The Eire had these units. The B units were shorted since they didn't carry train heaters. I just had to have a pair. I did a write up on my website on modifying these engines. http://www.kingstonemodelworks.com/StewartFT.html

The adventure of starting a layout started in 1997 on six acres out in the country. I had drawn up a plan in Auto Cad of a ranch style house. The wife and I came to an agreement that I would have full rein of the basement and she could decorate the house anyway she wanted to. I had come up with an 1800 sq.ft. design that was then taken to an architect for house plans to submit for a building permit. When he was finished with the plans we wound up with a 2300 sq.ft. house. Quite all right by me.

So next I had to find a spot I wanted the layout to be. I'm standing in the spot where the layout ...ah house will be built.



As you can see the Tonka Toys are there to excavate that all important hole in the ground.
2300 sq.ft. turns out to be quite a big hole.



The walls are poured concrete. The house is T shaped. The garage is toward the top center of the picture. Something I designed into the house is the stairway to the basement, upper left in picture, so it would be easy to bring full 4 X 8 sheets of material into the basement.



The fully enclosed layout area. I'm standing close to the stairway from the garage. The ladder is temporary as a spiral staircase is going there. They take up less space.



And the finished product. It took almost 20 years to get to this point.



I had the house ruffed in, when the windows, roof and gutters where done I took over and did the electrical, plumbing, finish carpentry, heating and outside brickwork. There is still the master bedroom to finish and the kitchen is not fully finished yet. So occasionally I'll be involved with 1:1 scratch building. Just so you know I'm a died in the wool DYI'er unless it's to heavy to do.

So that's it for now. I'll post as soon as I get more pictures together. Hope this will be an enjoyable ride for you.

Bernd