Superior & Seattle Railroad Build

[DACS]

Very ambitious and very good work John.  So, can you operate the entire railroad on your own, or does it take a crew of...?

Dave
Seattle

[Mark Dalrymple]

A bath of alcohol and chalk?

Would you be able to elaborate a little - or point me to where you have given more details of this technique (if you have) please?

Always enjoy your thread, John.  I find the way you multi task keeps my interest easily.

Cheers, Mark.

[S&S RR]

Very ambitious and very good work John.  So, can you operate the entire railroad on your own, or does it take a crew of...?

Dave
Seattle

Dave


Thanks for stopping by - to answer your question about operations - I have designed it to be operated by 3- 6 people currently.  When I get to the two planned expansions it will handle up to a dozen operators. I have been getting lots of operations experience with local layouts that are much farther along. Many of the changes I've made to the design in the past couple of years has been as a result of that operations experience.

[S&S RR]

A bath of alcohol and chalk?

Would you be able to elaborate a little - or point me to where you have given more details of this technique (if you have) please?

Always enjoy your thread, John.  I find the way you multi task keeps my interest easily.

Cheers, Mark.

Sorry Mark - I was tired last night when I wrote that post.  For this build I'm using the Brett Gallant Sierra West Scale Models technique of using Rembrandt Pastel Chalks with alcohol to  weather the loading platform on my Chippy Hollow build. I want to be careful here - Brett taught me the technique at a clinic - I think at one of the Narrow Gauge Conventions a few years back. So if he didn't invent the technique sorry to the inventor.


Brett has a very nice video of the technique if you want to take a look - craftsman kit university tab on his website.


Brett sells some very nice kits if you not familiar with them.  I have about 6 of them planned for different locations on the layout.  His latest kit is his best so far - in my opinion - and he has had some great kits.  This latest one called O'Neals Fabrication and it is the first of a series he is planning to produce.  I have already placed an order for the next few kits.


Here is the link to his website.


https://www.sierrawestscalemodels.com/index.html

[S&S RR]

Started adding the boards to the top of the platform today.  Mark you can see the results of the chalk and alcohol bath technique - sorry I think I named it that the other night.

[S&S RR]

I also made some progress on the trestle build today. Added the wood platform bridge across the lower tracks and then added the shorter trestle bents to complete the span.  Lots of cross braces and then the bolt castings to add before this trestle is complete.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Thanks John.

I have Scotia Supply which will be one of only three structures on the future extension of my layout, and so is still a long way from being built!  I did Brett's workshop at Scranton last year.  we weathered wood with chalk, but did not give it a 'bath'.  Thanks for the link - I'll have a look soon.

O'Neals Fabrication is my favourite of Brett's kits so far.  I see it as being very at home in a city layout as well as a backwoods environment.  If the exchange rate between New Zealand and the USA wasn't so appalling at the moment, I would consider buying it.  I have got out my Bar Mills Wicked Wanda's  to see how it might be modified to look more like Brett's kit - but I may as well put my time into scratch-building something unique.

Cheers, Mark.

[S&S RR]

Thanks John.

I have Scotia Supply which will be one of only three structures on the future extension of my layout, and so is still a long way from being built!  I did Brett's workshop at Scranton last year.  we weathered wood with chalk, but did not give it a 'bath'.  Thanks for the link - I'll have a look soon.

O'Neals Fabrication is my favourite of Brett's kits so far.  I see it as being very at home in a city layout as well as a backwoods environment.  If the exchange rate between New Zealand and the USA wasn't so appalling at the moment, I would consider buying it.  I have got out my Bar Mills Wicked Wanda's  to see how it might be modified to look more like Brett's kit - but I may as well put my time into scratch-building something unique.

Cheers, Mark.

Sorry Mark - the "bath" part is my poor choice of words.  Every time I use this process my train room smells like a doctors office.

[S&S RR]

Here is a progress picture of the trestle this morning, before I glued on another round of cross bracing.

[ak-milw]

Looks great without all those clamps on it.

[S&S RR]

Looks great without all those clamps on it.

Thanks Andy - about three our four more rounds of gluing and I can put the clamps away .

[S&S RR]

I also made some progress on the Chippy Hollow build.  Finished the top of the platform.

[S&S RR]

Also started gluing on the trim boards.

[S&S RR]

I finished painting the wall castings for the shed and loading dock for the Chippy Hollow Build. It's time to start laying everything out on the base board (for this build I'm using 3/16 inch gator board).  I plan to attach this directly to the 3/4 inch plywood benchwork so I'm not worried about warpage. The 12 x 18 inch piece of Gator Board will work great for this build and I will have enough left over to build the icing platform that is in the cue for build.  Those of you that are familiar with this kit will notice that I'm building mine as a mirror image of the way George built his.  I just think it will look better in this configuration where I'm planting it on the layout.  This build is currently planed for in front of the trestle I'm building.

[S&S RR]

I also made some progress on the trestle build today. One more round of gluing cross braces and it will be time to start adding the bolt castings.  Adding the bolt castings is going to be interesting given the location of the trestle. I can't wait to get to this step.