Superior & Seattle Railroad Build

[Twopoint2]

John

Sorry to read about the molding mishap hopefully you'll get it worked out.

[S&S RR]

John

Sorry to read about the molding mishap hopefully you'll get it worked out.

Jim


Thanks for stopping by the thread.  It happens! As I said before, not sure why in this case but we just keep building.

[S&S RR]

A quick update on my track work project tonight. I'm approximately half way around the layout with the 3 upper level main lines. Currently I'm inside a mountain again installing two loops of track which will connect the upper levels of the HO mainline. Once I have them completed I will be installing a hidden yard for locomotive & rolling stock  storage. As it is currently designed, it will give me storage for 73 pieces of rolling stock without giving up access to any of the track work for maintenance purposes. I will post some pictures of this area when I have completed the work.

[S&S RR]

Update to my mold making project.  A few posts back we were discussing the plastic resins available and it was suggested by Marty that I try the Smooth-on products.  I just completed by third batch of castings with their 305 plastic resin and I'm really happy with the results.  It is really easy to work with and I'm real happy with how easy it is to get great air bubble free castings.  The material is also real easy to work with if you have to make modifications (see my C. C. Crow White Stone Church build thread). Here is a couple pictures of the container and the label for the material that I'm using.

[S&S RR]

During this last round of making castings I started making some of the wall castings for future scratch build project.  The S&S Railroad Locomotive Works. I should get to this latter this winter.  I'm just starting the design process now.

[EricQuebec]

Hi John,

Thank you for this very usefull tips about casting.  What about odour with the SMooth on product ?

Eric Quebec city

[S&S RR]

Hi John,

Thank you for this very usefull tips about casting.  What about odour with the SMooth on product ?

Eric Quebec city

Hi Eric


I didn't smell anything with either the mold materials or the plastic resign - I do have a vent fan in my paint booth and run it when I'm using these materials - just in case.


The materials are not cheap - the mold materials  and resign for the wall castings for my Locomotive Works project were about $60.

[EricQuebec]

Hi John,

Thank you for this very usefull tips about casting.  What about odour with the SMooth on product ?

Eric Quebec city

Hi Eric


I didn't smell anything with either the mold materials or the plastic resign - I do have a vent fan in my paint booth and run it when I'm using these materials - just in case.


The materials are not cheap - the mold materials  and resign for the wall castings for my Locomotive Works project were about $60.

Thank John.
Here in Quebec, I can have a deal (15% off on smooth on product)if I buy the stock at the Co-op of University.

Eric Québec city

[S&S RR]

Hi John,

Thank you for this very usefull tips about casting.  What about odour with the SMooth on product ?

Eric Quebec city

Hi Eric


I didn't smell anything with either the mold materials or the plastic resign - I do have a vent fan in my paint booth and run it when I'm using these materials - just in case.


The materials are not cheap - the mold materials  and resign for the wall castings for my Locomotive Works project were about $60.

Thank John.
Here in Quebec, I can have a deal (15% off on smooth on product)if I buy the stock at the Co-op of University.

Eric Québec city

That is a good help - be careful of shelf life.  You want to buy this stuff just before you need to use it.

[S&S RR]

So today was get the shop back in order and organized day.  I had everything spread all over the place from four different projects.  My main workbench is now dedicated to the Jacob's Coal FSM kit build.  I'm currently in the process of assembling the coal bins.

[S&S RR]

My roll away work bench is now dedicated to the C. C. Crow Stone Church build - which is my Challenge build.  I'm just getting started on this one.  Currently have a number of test castings in the paint booth with the primer drying.

[S&S RR]

On my third workbench I'm starting the two remaining trestle builds to complete the Narrow Gauge Line on the layout. Today, I got a good start on cutting the strip wood and found the gluing template for the trestle bents. I plan to build these two trestles right on my workbench on a base which will fit in place on the layout. If everything goes according to plan this should make these trestles much easier to build than my last trestle build project.

[S&S RR]

Today, I also completed my Trains of Texas wall casting project.  I have the molds I need and enough hydrocal and resin castings for my next couple of projects with these great castings.  In addition to the castings, I created a filing system for all the molds I'm accumulating and stored all the boxes under the layout. It sure is nice to have a clean shop to get started with tomorrow morning.   

[S&S RR]

I spent the day working on the track work today.  Which included some time making final decisions on some future structure placements.  On the left side of this scene I will be placing 4 FSM kits which are left over from my previous layout. I actually never finished the Sand House kit.  I was working on it when I made the decision to completely remove my old layout and start fresh.


On the right side of the scene I have plans for 2 or possibly 3 Sierra West kits.


I needed to make these final decisions before I placed the main line and sidings.  By studying the pictures I think you can see the process I go through to visualize the scene and make the placement decisions. I find the templates and instructions along with build pictures very helpful in making these placement decisions.  In many cases I will also be looking at some kit bashing to make a particular kit work on my layout.  Don't let the orientation of the FSM kits bother you.  I have some rock casting removal work, along with some benchwork modifications, to do tomorrow before I lay the main line. The rock castings in this area need to be detailed, trees and bushes need to be added, and rock talus needs to be added to make this scene complete.

[ak-milw]

John, I really like the saw mill dio, I will have to be building one probably after the first of the year. I am still debating on a kit or scratchbuild.