Superior & Seattle Railroad Build (Volume 3) Started 7/27/19

[S&S RR]

Nice progress, John.

Looking good.

Cheers, Mark.

Mark


Thank you - it's great to be back at it.

[S&S RR]

This makes me suddenly regretful of selling my Sayles Mill! Great work as usual, John.

Craig


Thank you for the encouraging words. The Sayles Mill is one of my top 4 SRMW kits.  I'm actually building it very close to what Bob did for the prototype. Mine will not be as heavily weathered. Twenty year old paint job instead of the 30 to 40 year old mill paint job that Bob modeled. At one point last winter I was thinking about selling a few kits but after further review I decided to keep them. At some point the parts will get used even if I don't build the kit as the manufacture intended.

[Keep It Rusty]

Can't wait to see those results, John. A twenty year old paint job sounds agedly great!

[S&S RR]

Update on the Brownsville Depot Build:  I glued black construction paper to the back of the window shades to get rid of the issue with the painted window shades with the LED interior lighting.  All is well with the shades added.

[S&S RR]

I also took the baseboard and the main building to the layout to determine the final building placement on the baseboard.

[S&S RR]

You will notice Avram's in the background sitting on the track.  It has been removed from the Vansel area for safe keeping while I make the benchwork modifications for the town of Vansel.

[postalkarl]

Hey John:

The RR is looking beautiful as always.

Karl

[S&S RR]

Hey John:

The RR is looking beautiful as always.

Karl

Karl




Thank you - a little progress each day.

[S&S RR]

Today's progress report:  Starting to mount structures to the baseboard for the Brownsville build.









The wood parts have been fitted with the bracing, nail heads, and the first step in the coloring process has been completed (Hunterline Blue Grey stain).

[Jerry]

John


Another wonderful build under your command!  You have done such an amazing job on this RR!  Just your planning alone deserves a big round of applause!


Happy to have the chance to follow along!


Jerry

[S&S RR]

Jerry


It's great to have you along for the ride. And I appreciate your comments.

[S&S RR]

A quick note about the picture above. I took the picture just after staining the clapboard siding sections and the light and dark sections are mainly due to the drying process. I will be going over all of these sections with a blue grey soft pastel chalk as the next step. I will try to remember to take a picture of the clapboard after the stain dries before adding the chalk.  Those that have followed my last few builds will recognize  this as my go to technique, of late. The stain establishes the base color and the chalk gives it that 20 year old  chalky paint look. If I wanted to give it the more weathered look (aka pealing paint) (30 to 40 year old paint job look)  I would use the "Mark's sock" technique and dap acrylic paint on over the stain with an old sock. See my Beach Farms build for the Mark's sock technique. Or see Mark Dalrymple's build thread for the original sock technique. The sock technique is a modified sponge technique but you use a special sock - it just works.


This post is in response to the emails that I received about my comment about 20 year old paint vs. 30-40 year old paint. Please let me know if you have any questions.

[S&S RR]

Update: Activity on the S&S RR has been limited to design work for the past few days.  I'm spending my days outside enjoying some very nice summer weather at the Northern Hqtrs. of the S&S RR (my cabin in Northern Michigan). I work on my design projects for the layout in the evenings listening to the coyotes howl. I plan on getting back to my workbench and my current structure builds next week.

[S&S RR]

One of my projects while I was away was to standardize my control panel graphics and start getting ready for operations on the S&S RR. At this point I'm trying a color coded system where each control panel will have labels and colors to identify each track. The green labels are to aid the operator in turnout control.  The black labels identify track blocks that can be controlled  for power at the control panel. This picture is of my first draft for the South Superior Yard.  Keeping the labels off the track graphics really helps with readability - especially when you are controlling a moving train.  There will also be a color coded overall track plan that will show all the track work in the S&S RR system.  I'm using a CAD package called TurboCad for the graphics.

[ACL1504]

John,

Great looking panel and graphics. That is going to be one fantastic looking control panel. Great stuff here John.

Tom