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

Started by S&S RR, July 27, 2019, 08:44:50 PM

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S&S RR

Quote from: deemery on August 10, 2020, 08:55:45 AM
Looks like the track crew laid down some cork roadbed and then quit, with that tongue hanging into the turntable pit.   ;D


dave


Dave


It is really hard to get good help these days.  I have a few spur tracks that I have to splice and lengthen as a result of my moving the structures around a bit before settling on a final position.  No big deal - just a lot of pieces that have to go together and line up on something this big. I moved the roundhouses back about a 1/2 inch to give a little more room between the buildings. Everything fit and worked but it was just to tight visually when a locomotive went between the two sections of the roundhouse. One of those jobs that was a lot of work for a little change but I'm glad I did it now that it is done.
John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

S&S RR

Quote from: mark dalrymple on July 29, 2020, 08:52:39 PM
I will be very interested to see how you do this, John.

To me, these structures combined with a rail siding suggest 1000's of acres of grazing land.  Do you have plans to change some of your background scenery?  To me, at present, it looks far to rocky and steep to suggest any grazing or even access for the cattle.  I guess even hacking some sort of path leading to pastures beyond, maybe with these painted on the backdrop could work?

Cheers, Mark.




Mark


Sorry I'm late getting a return post to you - your post came at the bottom of a page and somehow I missed it.  Anyway, in regards to the Whispering Falls build site, just out of sight to the rear of the scene there is a mountain pass that leads to thousands of acres of grazing land on the South side of the mountain.  The tunnel for the Narrow Gauge line also serves as a passage for the cattle on their way from the west side of the scene. The idea with this scene is that it serves as a dairy farm and home to hundreds of head of free range cattle.  On the right side of the tracks will be a horse barn where the cowboys house their horses for the roundups. Behind the barn and the out builds will be a series of cattle corals that mange the live stock on to the train stock cars.


Since the scene is in the fall I wouldn't be surprised if the scene will end up showing round up time. ;)
John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

Mark Dalrymple

Hi John.

I'm pleased I hadn't 'ruffled your feathers' with my question.

So there is a very small milking herd at the homestead?  Are they hand milked?  I assume this is what you mean rather than a free range milking herd which (i believe) would need to come in for milking twice daily and would need a fairly substantial milking shed. 

Have you thought about putting a cattle underpass under the railway line leading to the mountain pass? 

I don't know if you have room for this idea - but you could always have some of the (imaginary) closer pasture land fenced for a dairy herd.  Milking cows are pretty good at bringing themselves in for milking - on time.  A milking shed would make an interesting model and the tank would need to be emptied regularly and would give the possibility of a milk wagon needing to be spotted and loaded.

Cheers, Mark.

S&S RR

Quote from: mark dalrymple on August 10, 2020, 04:03:44 PM
Hi John.

I'm pleased I hadn't 'ruffled your feathers' with my question.

So there is a very small milking herd at the homestead?  Are they hand milked?  I assume this is what you mean rather than a free range milking herd which (i believe) would need to come in for milking twice daily and would need a fairly substantial milking shed. 

Have you thought about putting a cattle underpass under the railway line leading to the mountain pass? 

I don't know if you have room for this idea - but you could always have some of the (imaginary) closer pasture land fenced for a dairy herd.  Milking cows are pretty good at bringing themselves in for milking - on time.  A milking shed would make an interesting model and the tank would need to be emptied regularly and would give the possibility of a milk wagon needing to be spotted and loaded.

Cheers, Mark.


Mark


No feathers ruffled here, I enjoy your questions and they help me think through how I want to develop the scene.


This scene is partially from my childhood memories of my Grand Parents farm that I spent most of my growing years visiting.  I spent most weekends there and weeks at a time during the summer when I was not in school.  It was actually 4 miles from my current cabin that I talk about in my posts, my S&S RR Northern HQTRS. My Grandparents farm had approx. 25 milking dairy cows. All hand milked. My time frame for the layout is 1949 - I'm not sure if milking machines where around yet, then.  Maybe Jerry can help us with that one. The cows on their farm were free range up until the late 1960's. After the 1960's they wandered around 160 acres of fenced in woods. Once they were confined to the farm property they had supplemental feed all year long. The milk and cream were separated in a separator building and put in milk cans that were delivered daily to the railroad depot 1 mile from the farm. Oh and the cows know to come back to the barn for milking. One of my jobs as a kid was to take the dogs and find the cattle and chase them back home if they didn't stay on schedule. Yes, two milkings - early AM and late PM. My Grandfather had a model A that he used to travel the trails to find the cows. We would stop at the top of each hill and listen for the cow bells that were hung around the necks of the cows. I can remember him letting me drive when I was old enough to see over the dashboard. He actually fitted the pedals with wood blocks so I could reach them. I can assure you that one of the vehicles that will be rusting in the pasture will be an old Ford model A.


For my scene on the RR the barn is designed with a lower level where the cows have stalls for milking and feeding.  The feed is stored in the upper level of the barn and in the Silo. The design of this barn is kind of universal - It is at home in Michigan or in British Columbia where Dario is from. I actually took some pictures of barn and Silo on my way back home from my cabin last week for reference. I have a number of small supplemental buildings planned. The limiting factor will be space not ideas. Anyway I hope this helps set the stage for the build to come. Please keep asking questions. Oh and I spent 38 years as an Engineer in Manufacturing - my feathers don't get ruffled very easily.  ;D


The idea of the free range cattle helps add to the western / mountain setting for the farm. There are hundreds if not thousands of farms/ranches in the Western US and Canada that rely on thousands of acres of grazing land to feed their cattle. It also gives me the opportunity to have a horse barn and a need for horses on the farm.


Don't be surprised if one of the supplemental buildings is a pig pen.  My Grandparents also raised pigs to supplement their income. I'm working on what I can fit into the space. 


A cattle underpass - I need to give that one some thought.  Stay tuned.
John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

S&S RR

I made some progress on the modeling front today.  Here is a picture of my test sample for the painting of the G. Wiliker's build.  I started with Hunterline Driftwood Stain and then used white soft pastel chalk to get the faded - past time for another coat of paint look. It's 1949 on my layout - the business have just been through a depression and a world war and painting hasn't reached the top of the priority list.


The top half is dry brushed and the bottom half is painted on (alcohol and pastel chalk) with lots of poking with the brush to get light and dark areas. The alcohol picked up the stain from underneath and made a very nice transition point.


The window is hunter green with some post processing after the paint booth. The satin hunter green paint that was nice and flat the last time I bought it  - well this can was very glossy.  I'm about done with rattle can paint. I will use it for primer and then use acrylic brush on or soft pastel chalks.  So what I did to tone down the glossy surface was dip the castings in Hunter Line Hunter Green stain and then dry brush hunter green soft pastel chalk over that. As you can see in the picture it did a pretty good job of toning it down. I will post some process pictures.

John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

Mark Dalrymple

Thanks so much for taking the time to flesh out your answer.  I feel I now have a much greater understanding of what you are trying to achieve.

I, too, spent a lot of my younger years staying on my cousins farm over the Christmas break.  My father worked on the railways, and so we got free travel on the trains and ferry.  Most years we would take the train - boat - train from Christchurch to Auckland where we would be met and taken up to the farm in Northland.  There we found a two storied weatherboard farmhouse and a stream (with swimming hole) gurgling down the 160 acre valley.  I recall there being a milking herd of less than 100, sheep and beef, a few pigs for home eating, chickens and a pet horse (and of course the farm dogs).  Milking, likewise, was early in the morning and early in the evening, and the milk truck came early to pick up the milk.  My job as a small boy was to clean out the milking shed with the high pressure hose.  It would just about  knock me off my feet when it started up!  We usually spent 3 weeks there over the Christmas break and for the majority of the time I would be my cousin Basil's little shadow! I loved both the farm and my cousins who owned it.  (just to clarify - my mum was the youngest of 10, and her eldest sisters eldest daughter, Irene, was only five years her junior.  Mum and Irene were more like sisters growing up and carried their friendship throughout the rest of their lives.  So when Irene married a farmer, we got to partake in farming life 3 weeks a year). 

Looking forward to your scene developing.

Cheers, Mark.

S&S RR

Quote from: mark dalrymple on August 10, 2020, 09:37:55 PM
Thanks so much for taking the time to flesh out your answer.  I feel I now have a much greater understanding of what you are trying to achieve.

I, too, spent a lot of my younger years staying on my cousins farm over the Christmas break.  My father worked on the railways, and so we got free travel on the trains and ferry.  Most years we would take the train - boat - train from Christchurch to Auckland where we would be met and taken up to the farm in Northland.  There we found a two storied weatherboard farmhouse and a stream (with swimming hole) gurgling down the 160 acre valley.  I recall there being a milking herd of less than 100, sheep and beef, a few pigs for home eating, chickens and a pet horse (and of course the farm dogs).  Milking, likewise, was early in the morning and early in the evening, and the milk truck came early to pick up the milk.  My job as a small boy was to clean out the milking shed with the high pressure hose.  It would just about  knock me off my feet when it started up!  We usually spent 3 weeks there over the Christmas break and for the majority of the time I would be my cousin Basil's little shadow! I loved both the farm and my cousins who owned it.  (just to clarify - my mum was the youngest of 10, and her eldest sisters eldest daughter, Irene, was only five years her junior.  Mum and Irene were more like sisters growing up and carried their friendship throughout the rest of their lives.  So when Irene married a farmer, we got to partake in farming life 3 weeks a year). 

Looking forward to your scene developing.

Cheers, Mark.


Mark


Farmers are the hardest working people I have ever met - all over the world.  A farm childhood work ethic can take you anywhere you want to go in this world. Those memories from your families farm are priceless. Thank you for sharing them and for following along.  Let's see where this farm scene takes us.
John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

S&S RR

As promised, here is a picture of the detail castings that I painted with the Hunter Green Satin paint (right side of the picture) and then dipped in the Hunterline Hunter Green stain left side of the picture.  The final step was then to dry brush the castings with a hunter green soft pastel chalk which dulled them down to an acceptable level.





It's getting late, I will save the rest of my updates for tomorrows post.
John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

jerryrbeach

John,


I did a quick Google search to check when the Surge milking machine was invented and it was in the 1920's.  I know that by the very early 50's my grandfather was using Surge machines.  There were some other older style machines still sitting in the barn when I was growing up.  Since I was born in '49 I don't know when he switched to the Surge machines.  I also don't recall the manufacturer of the older machines.   My grandfather sold his dairy herd around 1957 or 58 and immediately stocked the farm with a beef cow calf operation while also taking a job off the farm.  IMO, the choice of hand milking or machine milking likely boiled down to the number of cows to be milked as well as the number of people available to milk.  There was an orange Surge Milker sign on the front of the barn for many years.  It was common at that time for a barn to display tin signs for the type of barn equipment, the seed supplier, and the feed supplier, among others.  Based on the size of the barn in Dario's kit, I would think some type of milking machine would be appropriate.


I want to take a minute to address "free range".  In the 1940's there were still many dirt roads in rural areas.  There were fewer cars and speeds were much lower than they are today.  Also, a larger percentage of the population was engaged in farming.  People not engaged directly in farming would not have been far removed from the farm, especially in rural areas.  Right after WW II my dad's cousin Joe spent his summers on the farm, taking the train to upstate NY from Indiana.  My dad and Joe would ride horses and move the cows along about a dirt road to an unfenced field about a half mile away.  They would nap under some trees wile the cows ate.  Then they would move the herd back to the barn for milking.  When dirt roads were paved, vehicle speeds increased and this was no longer an option. 


The philosophy at that time was to fence any and all land that was unsuitable for crops for use as pasture.  Even when I bought my farm in 1975, it had two large pastures.  One was 23 acres, the other 18 acres.  Both had a some woods, so finding my beef herd was a challenge.  Ditto finding dairy cows to bring them in for milking.  Most farmers fed some grain at milking so it was easier to get them to come into the barn twice a day, but that was no guarantee.
Jerry

S&S RR

Here is a picture of the castings as I start to add the dark green soft pastel. The green comes back and the shinny goes away.


John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

S&S RR

Quote from: jerryrbeach on August 11, 2020, 08:51:34 PM
John,


I did a quick Google search to check when the Surge milking machine was invented and it was in the 1920's.  I know that by the very early 50's my grandfather was using Surge machines.  There were some other older style machines still sitting in the barn when I was growing up.  Since I was born in '49 I don't know when he switched to the Surge machines.  I also don't recall the manufacturer of the older machines.   My grandfather sold his dairy herd around 1957 or 58 and immediately stocked the farm with a beef cow calf operation while also taking a job off the farm.  IMO, the choice of hand milking or machine milking likely boiled down to the number of cows to be milked as well as the number of people available to milk.  There was an orange Surge Milker sign on the front of the barn for many years.  It was common at that time for a barn to display tin signs for the type of barn equipment, the seed supplier, and the feed supplier, among others.  Based on the size of the barn in Dario's kit, I would think some type of milking machine would be appropriate.


I want to take a minute to address "free range".  In the 1940's there were still many dirt roads in rural areas.  There were fewer cars and speeds were much lower than they are today.  Also, a larger percentage of the population was engaged in farming.  People not engaged directly in farming would not have been far removed from the farm, especially in rural areas.  Right after WW II my dad's cousin Joe spent his summers on the farm, taking the train to upstate NY from Indiana.  My dad and Joe would ride horses and move the cows along about a dirt road to an unfenced field about a half mile away.  They would nap under some trees wile the cows ate.  Then they would move the herd back to the barn for milking.  When dirt roads were paved, vehicle speeds increased and this was no longer an option. 


The philosophy at that time was to fence any and all land that was unsuitable for crops for use as pasture.  Even when I bought my farm in 1975, it had two large pastures.  One was 23 acres, the other 18 acres.  Both had a some woods, so finding my beef herd was a challenge.  Ditto finding dairy cows to bring them in for milking.  Most farmers fed some grain at milking so it was easier to get them to come into the barn twice a day, but that was no guarantee.


Jerry


Thank you for sharing all the great information. I asked my mother this evening what brought the free range cattle to an end on our family farm and she said 2 cows being hit by cars. She was not sure of the timing but it was in the 1960's. I was born in 1958 so my childhood memories are at the tale end of the free range era in Michigan. Thank you for following along - we will see where this journey takes us. I'm going to see if I can find a Surge Milk Machine sign to hang on the barn.
John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

S&S RR

Update: The foundation for the Whispering Falls barn is assembled - waiting for the glue to dry.


John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

S&S RR

I used 1/2 inch basswood for the bracing. I also made lap joints for the junctions between the different types of wall sections. I may add some basswood bracing to the back side of the castings lengthwise to make sure they stay straight.
John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

S&S RR

I have been taking a lot of pictures of prototype barns - here are a couple pictures that I took this week in my travels.








Dario sure nailed the design.
John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

S&S RR

Update: I spent the last couple of days with my 4 year old Grandson running trains and working on the layout fixing a couple areas of track that need attention.  I'm not sure who had more fun.  ;)   The layout ran great and NCE gets my endorsement for throttle ease of use.  My Grandson was running trains like a pro in no time. After a couple of hours I just let him go for it without issue. He was sure a lot of help working on the layout - it's amazing how easy it is for him to crawl under the layout. Tomorrow, I will be back building structures with renewed enthusiasm.
John Siekirk
Superior & Seattle Railroad

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