Superior & Seattle Railroad Build (Volume 4) Started 8/14/21

[S&S RR]

John,
Fantastic modeling as always ...
And I'll echo Jeff's comment, always amazed at how you plan and execute (juggle) multiple projects seamlessly !!
Great stuff and love how your rendition of Sayles Mill is coming along, splendid !
All the best,
--paul

Paul


Thank you for your encouraging words. See my response to Jeff's post above for my explanation of why I build multiple projects at one time.  I would add that I think working this way helps build better models because I'm not tempted to glue to many sticks together without waiting for the glue to dry. Pushing it on one model has lead to my biggest do over disasters.

[S&S RR]

Looking good, John.

The mill, in particular, is looking great.  Those colours all blend together superbly.  It really is a fascinating complex.

Attached is an image of a fly rafter diagram.  Sometimes in yours (and in many, many others work) I keep seeing fly rafters attached to the side of the cladding.  The gable wall to which this cladding is attached supports the roof here, so the rafters against the cladding are redundant - nothing more than an expensive piece of trim.  When there is a very narrow overhang (6 inches) the purlins can support this roof overhang without extra support and without the roof noticeably sagging.  More than this and a fly rafter is needed.  The diagram shows how we always built these fly rafters.  You can see that the gable wall is kept the thickness of the rafter lower than the other trusses and outriggers run from the first truss in, across the gable wall, and out to the fly rafter.  Purlins are then attached above these forming an L-girder.  Dwangs (nogs) are installed between the outriggers down the rake of the gable wall to stop twisting and to add strength (we dwanged all the way down - they only show the top area dwanged here).  A short rafter is added over the bottom of the gable wall running in line with it to give fixing for the bottom purlin at this point.

This is a comment I have thought about posting in many places many, many times.  I think this is no doubt one of many mistakes we make as modelers by copying other modelers work rather than the prototype.  Its a compounding problem.  I think maybe some manufacturers are producing models with instructions telling people to do it this way - which if this is the case, would certainly add to the problem.  I have looked up Campbell plans and as expected, these are done correctly.

I hope this is taken as a future improvement rather than a criticism.  As I said, it is something I see over and over again.

Cheers, Mark.

Mark


Thank you for the encouraging words and the comments on the fly rafters.  I can't speak for all but the reason you will see the rafter against the cladding on my models is that it is serving as a molding.  I glue it against the roof card and it blocks the light from the interior between the roof card and the cladding. Most of my structures these days have interior lighting and nothing spoils a night photograph more than light squirting out between the cladding and the roof card. I think for future builds it should be a molding and not extend beyond the cladding so it looks like a rafter tail.  It's all about the details.
Thank you for the observation.

[Mark Dalrymple]

Makes perfect sense, John.

You could run a piece of 2x2 or similar to block the light, add rafter tails in line with the gable wall and fly rafters at the edge of the roof line.  Done.

Cheers, Mark.

[S&S RR]

Makes perfect sense, John.

You could run a piece of 2x2 or similar to block the light, add rafter tails in line with the gable wall and fly rafters at the edge of the roof line.  Done.

Cheers, Mark.

Yup, all future builds will be done that way.  Construction experience is very helpful in our hobby.  My problem with most models is that rafter tails are very rare in my experience. Most of the time they are boxed in on structures that I have built. They are sure a nice looking detail on a model.  I need to be careful here or we are going to start the nail head conversation, again.

[S&S RR]

I completed my FSM Water Tower build challenge, today.  Here is a picture of the build on the layout in the approximate location where I plan to use it. I will be starting the FSM Icing Platform (another build challenge build) in a couple days.  First I need to clean up my detail workbench, I have scraps laying around from the last three builds and its time.

[Jim Donovan]

Wow John;

What a fantastic job. The tower came out amazing. Thanks for describing methods used, very helpful.

Jim D

[Bruce Oberleitner]

Nice Work John!

[PRR Modeler]

Excellent modeling John.

[S&S RR]

Wow John;

What a fantastic job. The tower came out amazing. Thanks for describing methods used, very helpful.

Jim D

Jim


Thank you for the kind words, and you are welcome with the build thread. I'm sure glad Dan gets us motivated to do some build threads every year.

[S&S RR]

Nice Work John!

Bruce


Thank you for stopping by the thread and the kind words.

[S&S RR]

Excellent modeling John.

Curt


Thank you for the encouraging words. I will be starting my second challenge build in a couple days.

[S&S RR]

Look quick! My detail workbench is clean. It has been awhile since that has happened.  I found pieces and scraps from three builds while I was cleaning up.  Now, it is on to the FSM Ice Platform build challenge build.  Here is the thread if you want to follow along.


http://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6186.0

[S&S RR]

Update:  My detail workbench is no longer clean, I'm well into the Ice Platform build (see the build thread). The roof is coming along on the Hooker and Son build - I can't believe how many hours I have into this roof. It seems that every strip of tile has to be cut on both ends. The front is complete and I'm working my way up the back.

[S&S RR]

We had a short discussion about keeping multiple builds going at once and organization.  I thought I would post this picture of a markup I quickly did on my iPad.  I use this a lot to take build notes.  In this case I need to make some special signs for one of the structures in the FSM Tribute build - I wrote down the maximum dimensions for the signs on a picture of the building. I will reference this diagram when I make the signs on my computer.  I do sketches of building additions and/or changes the same way with the magic pencil on a picture for reference. Yes - print of the picture and a pencil would do the job just fine - but I would spend most of my time looking for the piece of paper.

[S&S RR]

Note:  The structure in the picture above is just sitting on the foundation - it has not been located properly or glued and therefor looks like a very bad fit.