Boston & Maine Eastern Route Progress

[jbvb]

12-Feb-2017: About 2010, I'd started the Chipman St. overpass west of Bexley Depot. I designed the multi-span boxed pony truss bridge, built the abutments and got stalled because I wasn't sure what the surroundings would look like:




I decided I knew enough about the setting so I collected the research & materials and started a new thread:

 <Boxed Pony Truss scratchbuild To Be Posted>

17-Feb-2017: A week of working on the Chipman St. bridge (intermixed with a snowstorm, etc.) had it almost ready for paint/stain. This afternoon I cleaned up for tomorrow's op session, this evening to testing with trains. But I took a few minutes to play around with the bridge as a photo prop. This one has potential, once I've figured out the backdrop and built a few more flats and partial buildings:



18-Feb-2017:  Dave Emery posted pictures from that day's Op Session (I didn't take any). "I observed/acted as brakeman/kibbitzed for an operating session on James' railroad today:"

[jbvb]

I'm a complete neophyte to operations, so it was really interesting to see how this all comes together. The signals and interlocking were particularly effective at preventing accidents, and except for one car and a couple of recalcitrant couplers, everything (steam and diesel) ran great! Next time I'll actually try to run a train."

19-Feb-2017: It was good to see you, Dave. I'm thinking the next will probably be late April or early May. We'll see how much the layout evolves before then.



The weather favored airbrushing today, so I painted the bridge's truss enclosures and road deck. And after setting it to dry, I tried out another photo angle.

22-Feb-2017: I got the basic bridge model pretty much complete - paint was drying on the truss enclosure roofs.



B&M 6113 by Rapido westbound.



My model of 3821, the B&M's only E-8, goes back to the first run of P2K E-8s in the early 2000s.

[jbvb]

13-Mar-2017: After my last post, I spent a week at an all-you-can-drink place on the Mayan Rivera - not my first choice but a friend in the group demanded a swim-up bar. Returning to frigid weather, paperwork and doing a styrene scratchbuilding clinic for the Seacoast Division, I only just got back to the layout:



Rapido's Phase II (New Look) RDC is another beautiful model. But its pilot is much pickier about vertical curves in the track; it derails at several places which don't bother the Phase I model at all. Filing will be required, but before I start I'll get out the RDC books and see how much clearance the prototype had.

The other bit of progress visible here is Tichy #8016 NBW castings on the guard timbers. After a slow start, I got fairly adept at installing them - the recommended #77 drill is a light press fit, which worked fine once I got out serrated-jaw tweezers. Motivation: Hoping the Rowley River Bridge earns a Merit Award when evaluated for Master Builder - Structures.

18-Mar-2017: The box pony truss got its last NBWs this evening. Then I installed the sidewalk curb and paved it. Final photos will go in its own thread if the paving dries satisfactorily.



I was happy to see at least one angle where NBWs were visible: representing bolts holding up the floor beams in this case. The bolt securing the brace to the outrigger beam is also in the picture, but I can only make it out in the original. The ends of the tension members in the trusses are only visible when it's upside down in a good light.

21-Mar-2017: Using serrated-jaw medical tweezers got the patience required well below that required of a saint. They were given to me by my Dr. who said they'd otherwise go to scrap after one use.

I finished installing the Chipman St. boxed pony truss bridge:



It's been lightly weathered with A&I, next came a candle for smoke stains.



Once I finish the backdrop and scenery in the area, I'll try these again with lighting over and above my room lights.

[jbvb]

13-Apr-2017: I got back from a trip to the U.K. and found the backlog I'd expected. Today finally left me some time for the Eastern Route:



I'd built a partial eastern abutment for the Chipman St. overpass. This is a 'grab shot' which might have been taken from King Arthur Flour's unloading dock (except in the real world the building was removed to make room for my camera). The visible area needs more cinders and ground cover, and at some point King Arthur's coal unloading pit will appear in the foreground.

21-Apr-2017:  Early in March I'd done a Scratchbuilding Structures in Styrene clinic at the Seacoast Division's Derry Fun Night. As before, my presentation was building something mixed with passing around pieces and subassemblies while answering questions. The subject was the B&M's Newburyport, MA section house.

I'd measured, photographed, drawn and built Ipswich's Section House years ago. Newburyport's housed two gangs, so it was built to the same standard design, but twice as long. It's long gone, but I remembered the speeder doors being at the ends. I couldn't place the people doors, so after finding the B&M RRHS Archive's ICC valuation data covers an earlier version of the building, I chose one, facing the track (breaking & entering wasn't unknown in Newburyport of that era).

Materials are Evergreen .060 spacing clapboard .040 thick, .080 square bracing and .010 x .060 for trim boards:



Last night I cut the rear wall and assembled the basic structure.



This morning I added an .040 styrene roof and most of the remaining trim boards. Once I get the rafter tails on it, I'll paint at least the roof.

The only other recent activity is non-photogenic: Beginning to pave the High St. overpass for the Structures AP and cleaning up some punch list items from the last op session.

24-Apr-2017: I had a busy weekend: the Hub Division annual meeting & spring show on Saturday, then re-qualifying as an operator at Seashore Trolley Museum, so no model work till late today.



The High St. overpass is paved, but needs detail painting to make the granite curbs look better. I've had some success at using colored pencils for lane markings on 'grout sand' asphalt, so I'll try white tomorrow. And then there's a little to do on the underside and retaining walls.

[jbvb]

Working in that end of the room got me thinking about other jobs. I've got the L girders for Downtown Newburyport made, but last week I finally got ICC valuation data for the Merrimack River drawbridge. Knowing the pier elevations and truss depths, I finally started cutting the plywood that's sat 5 years in my barn:



The back and bottom will be 1/2" plywood, the ends 3/4" because I'm making it as compatible as I can with FreeMo. Once all the parts are cut and assembled, I'll reduce the depth of the temporary span's web to clear the piers so I can run trains while work is ongoing.

Most of the area will be river, but there will be a little land & marsh by the abutments. And a timber fender pier with gratings to protect the swing span when open. And a very complicated 3-span deck truss bridge, with animated gates to warn trains. And the true golden spike for my Eastern Route. Someday...

25-Apr-2017: I got the 'kinda FreeMo' module mostly built. I measured enough that initially it was a 'light press fit' in the opening, but it's much easier to plane 1/16" off than it is to add 1/16" to something that's too short.



The backdrop board isn't attached; far too complicated to get it positioned fairly tight to the ceiling with just two hands. I hope to get help from Mieke tomorrow or Thursday, so meanwhile I'll re-work the temporary chunk of main line and connect it again.

Frank Palmer was looking forward to the river/marsh.  I replied: What salt marsh I can fit in will be on the Salisbury (right, RR east) bank. Newburyport was remnants of shipyards upstream of the bridge, retaining walls and dock bulkheads downstream.

Not being the grade of woodworker who owns meter-long bar clamps or a big workbench with bench dogs, I asked Mieke for help putting the backboard on the Merrimack River module last night. We eventually managed to get it aligned, drilled, screwed and glued together, at the cost of a drill bit. The screw pilot's original spade point was tougher, I should see if it's available separately. Grinding and hardening a new one would be a venture into new territory for me.



Photo credit Mieke.

Once the glue fillets I applied to seal the joints are dry, I'll start painting. The temporary track is operable, and built to be easy to remove/replace. I expect to cut it down in several stages as I build first the abutments and piers, then the bridge spans.

27-Apr-2017: Annoyed face is because I'd broken both the bit I'd started with and the spare on this job. But I need to go to Amesbury Industrial Supply anyway, and 1/2 doz. 3/32" in HSS will be a lot less than a pair of 1 meter bar clamps that I'll use once a decade.



I painted everything visible today; the model bridge is stalled pending a couple of dimensions for the prototype's swing span. I don't have room for it full-size, but it should fit if I trim one truss bay off each end. But I need to know how long a bay is; the center bay over the pier is longer than the rest.

29-Apr-2017: Frank Palmer had blamed the hand drill for the broken bit. I replied: Frank, I'm not a very stylish person. I do own a drill-driver, which gets used with the hex bits that its keyless chuck will grasp reliably.

The hand drill works fine till I ask it to swing the big countersink part of the screw pilot with only the 3/32" drill bit to guide it. I go years without breaking small drills by themselves.

[jbvb]

2-May-2017:



With the drawbridge stalled, I went back to the Downtown Newburyport peninsula. Sunday afternoon was checking my CAD drawing against reality (surprise, surprise they're different) and making sure I could build it in a practical envelope. Monday I built the support frames and with Mieke's help got the L girders attached and into position. My hardware store offered me Spax construction screws as substitutes for Robertson square drive. But their modified Phillips heads still make Phillips bits cam out.

Because the peninsula is too big to leave the room in one piece, I've designed the track and scenery as three modules supported by the L girders. I will saw the profile board edges from plywood and frame the middle of each as open grid with plywood subroadbed and hardboard streets. I hope I have the details worked out before the next spell of rainy weather.

6-May-2017: The rain didn't really start Friday until we'd inspected and tinkered with 600 yards of track up at Seashore. So the layout work waited till evening:



Mieke, my son Frank and I cut a sheet of 1/4" birch plywood into strips Thursday afternoon, while his birthday pork roast was in the oven. Friday night and today, I partly assembled the first of three modules that will sit on the L girders. This one will support the Pond St. Freight House track and State and Pleasant Streets. The inland portion of the City RR will be to the left, and the Market Square/Waterfront module will be closest to the camera.

Since I took this photo, I've been transferring data from the plan and marking cut lines on the plywood profile boards. I'm expecting to have to take each of them apart again to cut the sides down, but I'll make a quick trial of my saber saw and a fine blade first. If the vibration is manageable, I'll glue the ends in place. I'll also try adding the 1/2" plywood subroadbed for stiffness.

The Spax screws turn out to be usable with a Robertson square driver. They aren't quite as cam-out resistant as regular Robertson screws, but I can put much more torque on them with my hands than my drill-driver can manage. Next time I'm in the hardware store, I should see if they have a square drive hex bit. I would probably have to make my own square shank bit for my brace..

9-May-2017: My plan shows peninsulas in each end of the attic, but their trackage is stub-end; no room for a turnback curve. The north (rural) end is downtown Newburyport, under construction. The southern peninsula will begin with a wye leading to a branch to oil terminals, with gestures toward real-world fuel unloading piers in Beverly, Salem and Chelsea/East Boston.



Being retired, I can afford to do this old-school (as in how I learned at the Tech Model RR Club): the roadbed is 1/4" pine lattice stock, nailed and glued to 1/2" plywood subroadbed. It's ready for puttying to fill the cracks, then sanding, then ties. The module frame itself needs one more crossmember in the triangle closest to the camera, then I will lay out the elevations on the profile board sides and cut them down as necessary.

Next is the City RR/South End module to its left. I was a North End kid, but some South End friends will help me get it right.

14-May-2017: The fun parts of Friday and Saturday involved 1:1 trolleys and trackwork (the less fun was driving a lot and dealing with my former tenants and the mess they left - the first OxyContin tragedy I witnessed up close). Today it rained all day, so I stayed dry working on the layout:



The basic carpentry for the first module was complete, so I spent the morning with four different levels and pencil, laying out the profile I need on the 1/4" plywood side pieces.

[jbvb]

Without roads, scenery or structures, it was an easy 1-person job to lug the 2' x 8' module to my wood shop. I used a saber saw to cut the profile, then cleaned the cuts up with a plane. Because I was in sawdust country, I got out the orbital sander to smooth out the pine lattice stock roadbed.



15-May-2017: I started here with all the circa-1800 structures that were on the 6-milker dairy farm my grandparents bought in 1919; my wood shop was originally a woodshed, eventually my grandfather's first garage in the 1930s. My mother wrote 1946 in the new cement floor. It is neither heated nor mosquito-proof, but I can make unlimited sawdust as long as I'm fast on my feet.

24-May-2017: I asked  about cinder ballast.  My Downtown Newburyport peninsula was ready for ballasting. I really liked Highball Products limestone 'Cinders', but they had closed a few years ago.

1. I had Woodland Scenics 'Cinders' on hand; it's really too black at the outset, but I've been mixing in a little Gray and Brown to temper it and provide the 'clinkers' I recall from hanging around the tracks. In the long term, it bleaches a bit and accumulates dust to look OK.

2. Arizona Rock & Mineral has a wide range, but their website photos are plastic-bagged product under what appears to be fluorescent light. Can anyone point me at better photos?  I found out about sweeping iron minerals out of it before my motors got clogged.

3. Scenic Express offers 'Dark Gray' stone, but again the photos don't give me a lot of confidence about what I'd actually get.

4. Walthers has a 'Genuine Limestone' ballast from Bachmann, but Google doesn't seem to know of any other colors. Any experience?

I could lighten a stone product that looks too black in my 5000 K lighting with gray beach sand or sanded grout. If it's too light, I'm not sure what I could do.

10-Jun-2017: My order from AZ Rock & Mineral took about 5 days to arrive:



Left to right, #122-2 HO Yard Mix, #122-1 N Yard Mix, #103-1 N Cinders. Existing ballast on Rowley is a stone 'cinders' product I bought in 1988 or '89, vendor long gone but I like the effect. Illumination is my layout's 'daylight' fluorescents. The AZ Cinders aren't as dark as I expected, and have a reddish cast which the limestone doesn't. Not unrealistic, but different.



Limestone 'cinders' (could be Highball, could be the older bag) on the left, Woodland Scenics Fine Cinders with WS brown & gray mix-ins on the right. Both tempered by 7 years of dust.

[jbvb]

Since my computer drawing doesn't match real life exactly, I drew the track plan out full size on cardboard. It will become baseboard
templates next.



I hot-glued the cardboard sheets together and built the two modules, then trimmed it and turned it into plywood.



The West of State St. module's profile board will get trimmed after its module is fitted.



I frequented the Pond St. RoW around 1970, 18 years after the track was removed. I don't recall much there but sand; it was cut 20-30 feet deep through a glacial moraine. I ballasted my Pond St. spur with a combination of AZ Yard Mix, Cinders and Hampton Beach sand. Once I start landforms, I may dust it with a little 'house cellar dirt' for the yellowish color of glacial till in this area.

And of course, once there was rail and enough spikes, there had to be a first run.

[jbvb]

16-Jun-2017: The early part of this week was hot enough I was working on track in the early morning. The scrapes on the ties are from the
piece of hacksaw blade I reopened the frog's flangeways with. I touched it up after the mechanism worked.



Today cooler, cloudy weather motivated me to cut the rest of the parts for the 2nd module, the westerly part of the City Railroad:



Nothing in the forecast looked remotely like haying weather; I hoped to assemble it to the point where roadbed could be cut before the sun returned.

19-Jun-2017: My attic is usually the hottest part of the house in summer.  I was up there at 7 that morning, assembling the frame of the 1st City RR. module and thinking of a long-ago issue of Model Railroader:

Bill Clouser was a well-known O scale traction modeler in the '70s. He was also a pioneer manufacturer of resin trolley kits. He wrote that he typically went to bed early and got up before dawn. In those quiet, cool hours the phone didn't ring and the distractions of the day didn't keep him from his work.



I cut the blocks for the left end joints the night before.  I needed to re-cut the short straight bit of profile board on the side facing Rowley. But I also had a photography project to complete before month's end, which will require cleaning up the area. So framing got finished.

I often take a structure or equipment project downstairs where the thermal mass of the chimney keeps things cool,  but another trip was coming up.

25-Jun-2017:  My hobby time went to cleaning up the layout area for the photography project: Modelers Forum had a "Franklin &South Manchester Traveling Hopper Car" which made a trip or two around my layout. Pictures here:

 https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=2042.345

Happily, I got double duty out of my cleanup: Pete (OrionVP17) stopped by this morning and we spent a while looking over the Eastern Route while discussing planning, building, the AP and the potential of Perfect vs. progress toward Pretty Good.

BurleyJim said:

The search for the correct color cinders is interesting. I wonder if there is a regional aspect with cinders. As a kid in Chicago, the Chicago Alderman used to do the neighborhood a favor and have cinders delivered to the alleys to cover the dirt and mud. Those cinders were almost coffee ground colored. The elementary school playground would receive the same cinders. None of that sissy chopped up tire stuff for us! I think the cinders came from the coal
fired power plants and they had a glass like texture to them

Jim, industrial cinders around here would be mostly VA and PA bituminous, with anthracite from small-medium building heat. In Chicago, I expect most of the coal came from IL, IN and KY mines, which I recall as having more ash, sulfur etc. I know lignite is also known as 'brown coal' but not where coal from that basin lies in the overall range of coals.

9-Aug-2017: Back from a trip, my internet was down for 2 days.  So while it couldn't gobble up my time, I worked on the Pond St. spur:



I'd made extra slide switch brackets and acrylic connector blocks last run, so it was just assembling parts. I had to buy an acorn nut to make the knob, but otherwise it worked.



Of course I had to do a ceremonial 'first switch'. Despite the net, I was determined to start roadbed for the City RR spur that month.

[jbvb]

2-Sep-2017: In between trolley operations, harvesting grain and tending my orchard, I've made some progress on the City RR side of the Downtown Newburyport peninsula:



The 2nd module's carpentry is finished except for one piece of hardboard fascia. Building the roadbed out of 1.25" pine lattice stock is much easier with a good miter saw handy. I had a tricky job laying out the westerly turnout on the runaround to maximize length, but then tracklaying starts.

19-Sep-2017: Fruit season, firewood, home repairs, business, trolleys and their track left me few hours in the attic that Fall. But the HO scale track crew worked on the City Railroad:



The crew installing ties and ballast was approaching Water St. (but can't reach it till I built the peninsula's final module). I used a mix of Arizona Rock & Mineral 'Basalt', 'Black Cinders' and 'Yard Mix'.



The rail gang worked on the runaround/yard where the City RR diverges from the main at Newburyport West.

12-Oct-2017: Not much time for track work, and the work was going slowly: the most recent chunk of '1/4" pine lattice stock' turned out to be Southern Yellow Pine or something else too hard to spike into. I spent a number of evenings drilling absolutely necessary spike holes and hoping my first 'Weldwood' turnout works [still together after 7 years of temperature cycling].

But then I completed the Eastern Route's 50th hand-laid turnout (my lifetime total is probably over 100). Lots of scenery and structures yet to be done, but I like the feel of this angle. Regardless of editing the top of the backdrop out of any photos.



The westbound local's crew is tying up for the evening rush on the City RR and going for beans. The stagger block shows High Green; a Portsmouth express is on the bell and the Newburyport Draw tender has everything lined up.

[jbvb]

2-Nov-2017: It had been a busy two weeks; in between cleaning, houseguests, travel and chivying contractors to show up and do what they promised, I did find some time to work on the layout. And I had a little help:



Namo was 9 years old then.  He's from Thailand. He asked what to do about a meat tray that my town doesn't recycle, so we tried out carving a wall a la RR-Line member Harsco (Rick). My jar of Modeler's Mortar had come adrift in the cleaning, so Namo did the mortar with a wash of white craft paint.



Here he's running the test train I've been keeping at Newburyport. The Amherst show souvenir cars are Plate C, the largest I expect will ever run in Downtown Newburyport.



The wall is more than 3 feet from anyone looking directly at it, and Namo's first effort looks pretty good for that purpose.

Not much happened to the layout for a couple of weeks; Namo had to go home for the start of his school term, and his mother and I went to the NER convention in Newport, RI.

17-Nov-2017: It was a while before Namo got another chance to visit, his school holidays didn't match ours and it's a long, long trip.

Tour de Chooch loomed; I focused on the Downtown Newburyport peninsula. The waterfront module was framed, but the end-of-track was at High St.



The track is powered past the end of the run-around, but I put off the switch mechanism for more generally visible work:



With the Tour's traditional timing, I have to bracket Thanksgiving with a lot of cleaning both upstairs and downstairs.

[jbvb]

26-Nov-2017: Michael Hohn called me a master of lumber re-use. I thanked him; Yes, all the 1x2 visible was part of my High School layout when the words "I am not a crook" echoed around the American political scene.

I survived Tour de Chooch: about 70 visitors Saturday but never more than 6-7 upstairs. I talked almost continually from 0915 to 1630. Nobody else to run trains, so I just kept one orbiting. Three hours didn't melt either RS-3 1536 (Bachmann) or E-7 3811 (BLI). Track  behaved well, signals too except when an apparent open circuit generated two greens on the Bexley Tunnel westward home's upper heads. My Northeastern open platform coach was unhappy leaving Draw westbound. Punch list was addressed that week.

6-Dec-2017: The HUB Division's NEMTE had more kids than 2016, mostly on Sunday. We'd tried ticket giveaways on local radio stations and got a good response.



Mieke photographed me explaining some aspect of the B&M to a teenage Tour de Chooch visitor. I made the Eastern RR logo up, working with my Thai friend Nid, who designed and printed the shirt I'm wearing.



And that night I got the last pieces of City RR baseboard cut. But track may take a while - I plan one last op session before I redo the car cards and Freight Train Symbol Book to reflect the new customers.

14-Dec-2017: The customers have all been there quite a while (in the model world), but up until recently, they were switched differently: The 44-tonner based in Amesbury's 1-stall enginehouse worked Newburyport when it came to exchange cars with the east- and westbound locals.



I chose Homasote for the terminal portion of the City RR - A friend gave me more than I'm ever likely to use, and this portion ran on flat, filled land next to the Merrimack River. I'll cut what ditches I need with a utility knife.

Before laying any more track, I established the river bottom (plywood). Then I took this module out to the barn to trim the fascia boards. Then screw it to the L girders and it will be ready.

16-Dec-2017: Mieke asked why I needed the river bottom first.  I hadn't trimmed the plywood edges of that module down to their final elevations yet. The river portion must be marked at exactly level and about 1/4" above the river bottom. Then I'll take it outside to cut - more room to work and less sawdust in the layout space. Once I've built the bulkheads and riverbank (if I've done it right), I'll be able to pour the Enviro-Tex river 'water' right up to that edge without drama.

11-Jan-2018: I'd been working on roadbed, to the point that I started on ties.

I also put the Eastern Route into the NMRA's 'Layout Directory' with about a dozen pictures. Many have already appeared on RR-Line, but now readers who are NMRA members can find me another way. Those of you who aren't NMRA members, if web search doesn't do the job, feel free to ask.

18-Jan-2018:

 

The tie gang working the City RR job has finished up, stain is progressing. Once I get ballast applied, the rail gang will reappear.

I still long for the days when I could stop by Northeastern Scale Lumber in Methuen, MA to buy wood I needed off the shelf. Shipping on my recent order was $10 and I could have bought three times as much without filling the box. This tie job used up almost all the stock I bought, but it will be a while before I need any more: I haven't decided how much of the in-plant GE track will be girder rail in pavement and how much will be open.

[jbvb]

22-Jan-2018: The last bit of staining being dry, I put down another batch of ballast this afternoon. Then after dinner I started spiking rail:




The City RR was now operational to the (eventual) Water St. grade crossing.

1-Feb-2018: Since it needed the metal cutting bandsaw and the mill (my drill press isn't normally set up with a vise), I made all the slide switch and point block assemblies needed to finish the City RR. I completed two more turnouts:



Then I backed my patient test train out on the main and ran it down to the current end-of-track: Opposite the foot of Federal St. on the prototype. The next three switches and the diamond will all have to be built together; I can post the photos here but I've asked if they would go better in a  Subroadbed, Roadbed and Track sub-forum.

1-Feb-2018: A good deal more progress. This 'quitting time' photo came out kind of pretty, in an engineering sort of way.



Years earlier, I'd built a curved diamond in West Lynn using the "small pieces of rail & a file" technique.  Here I decided to try Tim Warris's method of notching continuous rails at the crossing points.

4-Oct-2018:  Paused to contemplate the nature of this diamond. In my youth, there were many light-duty bolted-rail diamonds in industrial areas. This one, in Ossipee NH, is the only one I know of that has survived abandonment, redevelopment and rail-trail scrapping.



Heavily traveled diamonds required a lot of maintenance and were upgraded with heavy rail, cast frogs etc. as fast as the owner could afford to. But a century old relic like this, that might have seen 20 moves in its busiest day, remains in place 45 years after its feed mill received its last car.

[jbvb]

My model diamond is a sharper angle. But I wanted to reproduce the look of the separate guardrails at the acute ends, so I made some parts and considered how it looks. This isn't the most functional position for the separate guards, but the open space looks plausible. Looks vs. function....

4-Feb-2018: Frank Palmer asked:

I was wondering why you didn't run the guard rails all the way instead of having 2 pieces?

Frank, pretty much any diamond in use today would have guard rails as you drew. But the prototype I show didn't; look at the right
end of the rotting birch log. Problem is, it's probably about a 10 degree frog angle and my model is more like 20 degrees. I can build it either way, but it needs to work and not look silly.

11-Feb-2018: While I was thinking about the Swift spur's diamond, I worked on structures. Then a relatively warm day (for Feb. on the NH seacoast) came along. It was clearly time to airbrush (which needs an open window in my attic):



I had been working on the Newburyport Section House that I started at a 2017 Hub Division clinic. I installed the roof permanently, then some interior framing and the rafter tails. Then it was ready for a couple of colors. It complements the rest of this scene nicely, but my phone camera was more flattering - lens closer to the ground and it overexposed the sky so much I didn't need to edit out the backdrop-ceiling joint.



Then I finished up the diamond. The way it worked for me, Tim Warris' method is rather fraught with opportunities for serious mistakes. Of course, rotary tools with cutting disks are not milling machines, and I could have been more thorough about holding everything in place while I soldered. It operates OK, but I'm not sure if I'll build the last three diamonds this way - depends on whether I can find a non combustible work surface I can drive pins or nails into.  The ceramic foam pads don't have a lot of holding power.

14-Feb-2018: Still working on track. The night before I'd filled in two turnouts and the 3rd ready for its guardrails.



For better looks, I started gapping the area with a razor saw. It's harder to see the gaps themselves, but as usual, there are marks in the ballast and a couple on the ties in the diamond. Win a few, lose a few...

Today was warm (50F is warm for February in NH) so I got the points ready and silver brazed the point rods:



The only above-the-roadbed work remaining is 4-5 feeders. Switchstands and wheel stops will come with the scenery. But I had three mechanisms to build. Because the pushrods come out below 'water level', they're going to be a little different than any I've built before.

[jbvb]

Frank Palmer's image that should have gone with the question above: