Boston & Maine Eastern Route Progress

[deemery]

Is there a particular town on the map that Bexley represents?

dave

[jbvb]

From a RR point of view, Bexley is a substitute for Salem, MA.  But I'm not trying to do the old part of Salem or its waterfront; the only antique is the Richie-Gilbert House..  The buildings I've chosen to model to date look more like Lynn; 3-decker residential, mostly masonry in the commercial areas. Some commercial buildings newer than WWII but most 1900-1929. Thinking about it a bit, you see Bexley-like construction in the real Salem on the land side of the tracks parallel to Bridge St. and the road to Peabody Sq.  Also around the Castle Hill yard.

[Mr. Critter]

I fully realize that this thread is a preservational re-post of an epic from another forum, but reading it here's been like watching someone thoughtfully build a large model railroad and its impedimenta in the space of a couple of months.  Love it.  Fond of your historical, contextual tidbits, especially, having a love for the New England states and their architectural styles.

I'm glad you've taken the time and trouble to migrate your words and pictures here, I applaud you for doing so, and I hope to see more.  I'll be tuned to this channel.

[jbvb]

Thanks for your interest, Mr. Critter.  I have fond memories of Montreal in years past: Labatt's Porter, the elevated track south of Gare Central and the ground-level industrial district and canals near it.  Having my old threads around is good for me personally: I have to go through them once in a while to refresh the context of the work to date and review/update my priorities.  But also, my old posts are often effective answers to questions elsewhere, particularly when "a picture is worth a thousand words".  And doing that publicizes Modelersforum.

----------------

11-Jan-2020: The Perplexing Puzzles Plus 'Hardware Store' now has window glazing and basic roof details; I have ideas for signage but need to work out details of a possible animation. So it'll sit till I'm sure <may happen in 2025>:



This is my first try at this angle. It will improve when a real produce terminal and the Depot Square flats appear in the background.
Parts are on order to complete the large portion of the Colonial Georgian House, and I have most of the windows in the kitbashed RDA Ashford Tower. I know what I need to do for the CTC machine and lighting, I still <in 2025> need to figure out the order boards and their control levers.

12-Jan-2020: Today was so warm (68F/20C, likely a record) I switched to jobs which are less pleasant in cold weather: choosing and cutting lumber in my unheated barn/shop.



First I worked out a plan for a glacial kettle hole pond in Newburyport by the City RR tracks (the prototype pond is on the other side). The bed is leftover Homasote. Screen wire and ground goop will probably follow this week.

While glue was drying I started work on the US 1 overpass. I cut 1/8" hardboard roadbed (left top running from the backdrop over the main line) and a support. Then I got ambitious and sketched out the traffic circle were US 1 meets State St. (and Parker St. in the prototype, which I've no room for). That's the bright white cardboard political sign starfish in the center. The levels were never going to be prototypical, but it looks like it will work and even look passable by a tractor and 32-foot trailer. I'm sooooo glad I don't have to build roads for 53 footers...

16-Jan-2020: NH is pretty good for getting rid of political signs a day or two after the election. But I do have a stock of both the coated cardboard and corrugated plastic material.



Taking advantage of relatively warm weather, I've continued to work on roads, foundations and landforms. I have a footprint for Georgetown Sand & Gravel, the spur just behind the RH abutment. And I'm now far enough along that I can start designing, then building the US 1 overpass. The bright red boxcar is a souvenir from the Amherst Club, out to check clearances for AAR Plate C. Because of its 1930s construction Route 1 was high enough that it didn't need telltales, so I tried a LP on the roof.

But they forecast cold, so I'll probably go back to structures until it's time to pack the Rowley modules for the Big E show a week from tomorrow. I just got the windows I need to finish the Georgian Colonial in the far upper right. If I'm feeling ambitious I'll make a couple of prototype window assemblies for GE Bldg. 41 (also in this Tichy shipment).

In between everything else, I've done some checking and tweaking track. I've signed up for the RailRun operations event in late March and I should probably invite my crew over for a warm-up before that - it's been almost a year since I've gotten out the timetables. <forward looking statements rapidly became obsolete>

17-Jan-2020: When possible, I devote as little real-estate to public highways as possible. But here, US 1 was very conspicuous,. The overpass was  built for 4 tracks and I couldn't avoid presenting it in profile. I had thought about doing the rotary as a simple intersection, but the circle is the thing most Newburyporters remember about this not-really-a-neighborhood-because-nobody-lives here. If you look at the site today, Google's satellite shows the mostly-abandoned roadbeds of the lines I'm modeling. I can even spot hints of the one-time trolley overpass I'm not modeling...

20-Jan-2020: I braved the cold and opened the window for airbrushing the Colonial Georgian House's windows.



I waited to look at it in daylight before final installation of the doors; They have to wait if it needs more spraying.



Then I made the telegraph key swivel extension for Bexley Tower. .025 wire and an enclosure bent out of .005 shim brass and soldered. I'm almost ready to paint this and apply a paper track diagram with controls.

[jbvb]

22-Jan-2020: Good progress: The Bexley Tower CTC machine is just about finished, but I need a better picture to post. And I shingled about 3/4 of the Colonial Georgian House:



The tower needs a couple of 'candlestick' style phones without dials. Seems there are parts from Alexander (back order at Walthers) and SS Ltd. But the image of SS 2247 on scales-tructures.com is <still, in 2025> awful: a scan of a scan of a long-ago half-tone. Can anyone comment on the casting quality?

30-Jan-2020: It's pretty much done, with my real center-chimney colonial in the background.



I got stalled on the BEST house when I couldn't find Tichy's glazing for one package of 4024 windows. I'm sure I had it, but a young person borrowed my workbench for a project and it couldn't be found thereafter. So today I made two dozen new panes: I locked my caliper to the height, then used its points to mark out enough strips. Then I set my old-style 'Chopper' to the width. Cutting and assembly actually took less time than I'd spent hunting for the missing laser-cut glazing - I didn't have to file off the little stubs left from cutting the laser-cut panes free.

Now it was complete enough to start on scenery around it.

2-Feb-2020: Much closer to finishing the three structures I started in December:



Bexley Tower now has its signs and the Train Director's workplace is illuminated. It needed a wall calendar (UP 1953 calendar found online & printed) and a desk chair. Then deal with the train order signal. And then weather the roof, at least. That big roof overhang would have kept the windows and walls relatively clean.

A personal site describing how to make your own calendar for any year. A fair amount of work, but if you want to avoid compromise:

 http://virginian.mdodd.com/calendar.html

9-Feb-2020: I'd been thinking about how to light the Bexley platform shed for a while. The platform itself is removable and I wanted the shed to be removable from the platform. A little matter of not having installed station signs yet was foremost.

Friday I sorted through materials on hand and decided I knew enough to start:



The 3/32" square brass (K&S) shoe on the RH canopy support is the positive connection. I wired the 5 WeHonest 'R60GR Hanging lamp with gray shade' LED assemblies in series. I used styrene (mostly .060 C channel) to retain the wire. Now that it works, I will glue/paint it (one step if I can make it work) to the styrene canopy and 3D-printed supports.

I had a few tense moments doing the wiring: the very fine stranded wire is impossible to splice mechanically, so I soldered by smashing a hot blob of solder on the iron down on my fireproof sheet. Then after starting on the 3rd lamp, found out the 2nd was bad (an excellent reason not to paint the connections as I went).

I went back to it Saturday and got all the lamps working individually. But my variable power supply is decades out of date, so I couldn't measure both voltage and current. It took a tense half hour to discover that WeHonest's LEDs start to light at about 2.5 VDC. My signal LEDs gave first light at about 1.7 volts.

Then some crawling around to confirm there was a power supply good for 15 VDC. I decided to check the resistor with the variable power supply, which led to me using a 1.5K where the calculated value would have been 220 ohms.



The 1/8" hardboard platform lifts out, then the foam 'Depot Square' module can be removed and worked on out of place. Canopy supports fit into the 1/8" square brass sockets. All except the end sockets are crimped at the bottom so the supports don't fall through. The end sockets are wired as positive/negative feeds. More work, but maintaining a strict 'finish the back before starting the front' discipline would have stalled the layout completely a decade ago.



Night lighting hides all manner of sins, but Kanthima noticed the unpainted wire before I did. I still like this photo. When the scene is complete there will be lit structures and street lighting in the background, so this simple composition will require extra switch controls to replicate.

[jbvb]

This shaky 2015 shot shows Bexley Depot when Mieke was still working on it. The mesh on the foam substrate is fiberglass window screen to hold the Wood Putty I later carved stonework into. I'd thought for a while about more access than just the ramp down from the square level. I settled on semi-circular stairs at the back corners. I had gotten 3/32" balsa in 2019 and finally sat down with it today:



Once the glue dried, this got cut in half.  Each part was fitted to a corner.  Then coated in 'granite' glop and mortar lines carved.



I'd found I skimped on real-estate for my platforms, so I didn't need 6 baggage wagons to make Bexley look 'populated'. Painting these Tichy kits came next.

13-Feb-2020: After clearing snow & slush, back to work:



I had to make one more step layer for the left one. Filing them to fit went pretty fast with a shoemaker's rasp. I had been thinking I'd make wire '2-pipe' railings for all the tops of the retaining walls. But then I was placing a bus near the top of the ramp and thought of something that was common in the 1960s:



As more, heavier vehicles blundered into RR property after WWII, a common solution was to sink worn out rail for posts. Then they would weld more rail onto it to make a cheap, substantial barrier. I haven't seen one in years; just W-section guardrail. They might have been too tough...

At any rate, when jockeying buses and snowplows wrecked the original fence, this Code 70 fabrication replaced it. Tomorrow I'll build 'two pipe' railings for the rest of the area. Pipe railing should be black, but I hadn't thought of being out of Signal Yellow, so painting the rail barrier awaits shopping.

14-Feb-2020: I was asked what a "shoemaker's rasp' was: The name I was taught for a 4-in-1 file: one side flat, the other rounded, one end of each is coarse, the other has projecting teeth like a wood rasp. Convenient to have around the workbench if you're shaping objects at least a few inches square.

[jbvb]

23-Feb-2020: The past week was my stepson's winter school break; we'd visited relatives in upstate NY. But the previous evening I got back to work on the Bexley Depot area:



I made a better jig and got the pedestrian overpass access to the point of test-fitting. Next, finish that, then maybe start the railing behind the depot.

27-Feb-2020: Construction of the DigiCompuTron-A-Matics background building started: https://modelersforum.com/index.php?topic=6980

29-Feb-2020: Fellow North Shore resident Bror Hultgren posted:

Having visited and followed your progress for years with great admiration, I have a small quibble with your rendering of the granite walls. Here is a shot of the B&M bridge and abutments over Merrimac St in Newburyport:

My eyes are drawn to the white mortar lines. The prototype contrast between the mortar and the stone is much more subdued and the granite surface shows  some texture. My guess is that a wash of AI and some stippling the dark grey with warmer hues would work

Bror, that would work for the present day, but I'm modeling the '50s and '60s. B&M stonework in Newburyport, Newbury and Rowley is within 3 miles of the Atlantic, which I think is why the soot coating I remember (but didn't photograph) from 1970 has vanished. Then, the coloring was like recent photos of Dover, Greenfield and Bellows Falls on my 'New England's Railroad Arches' page:

New England RR Arches

Bror replied:

James, point taken. Though as an artist, and looking at the pictures you cite I feel that the white mortar is too stark and the same as are the granite grays. My eye is drawn to them instead of the railroad. Maybe somewhere in between will be close to the color of the 40s and 50s?

Bror, I agree, the Bexley Depot stonework in particular does need a gray wash plus something to take the shine off the black paint if the wash doesn't. It doesn't stand out to standing viewers 3-5 feet away, but it's conspicuous in the photo below. I need to play with white paint on hand and see what takes dilution well.

Dave Emery asked where the Merrimack St. stone was quarried. I replied: The closest granite quarries to Newburyport when the line was double-tracked about 1880 would have been Rockport, MA, but I've no idea if that was the Eastern's actual choice. In this area, it could have come by barge or rail.

Photogenic progress that day:



The future DynaCompuTronAMatics HQ building (Rix Vicky's Fashions kitbash) fills in its corner of the Approaching Bexley Depot Westbound scene nicely. Now I need to finish it, build the actual pedestrian bridge, add the inter-track fence, station signage, one more background building facing Depot Sq. and finally, fill in the backdrop with paint or photo prints.

DynaCompuTronAMatics is unknown to google!  Because I'd misremembered it from the old Apple Gunikes joke commercials. I should have searched "DigiCompuTron-A-Matics".



I gave up trying to hand-control the camera in this placement and got out its manual. Much sharper with the self-timer, though this shot suffers from not getting the tower in-frame. The railings and rail guard were worth the effort, so were the interior lights.

[jbvb]

17-Mar-2020: For a while I worked on 28 Winter St., then I shifted to landforms. Things went slower after our school closed and we had both my stepson and a girl from down the street here (her mother worked in an oxygen mask plant and there's no way they'd close that down). But I tried out a couple of new views.



Looking from the US 1 overpass across the Pond St. spur to the Winter/Washington/Strong St. area. If I do it right, I'll have a long shot where the aisle is invisible. Note 28 and 32 Winter St. both have foundations, and 32's has been lowered a couple of scale feet.



Looking from High St. near the City RR underpass toward US 1 and the main line. The low area next to the City RR will be a kettle hole pond. Newburyport is built on a glacial moraine which provided several kettle holes of different sizes. My model is on the opposite side of the City RR from the prototype's.

The next morning we plowed a field.

Dave Emery said he got good results from brushing on Winsor Newton Galeria Matt Varnish. Bernie Kempinski prefers diluting it 50% and airbrushing:

 https://usmrr.blogspot.com/2020/03/crisis-mode.html

My first thought for a source was the basement art supply place in North Beverly, MA. I'd tried a widely available FolkArt acrylic matte but found it ineffective. Airbrushing Scalecoat clear flat was extremely effective - one coat and the shine on a Bowser boxcar was completely gone. But I did need to dig the ground glass out of the airbrush after. <2025 : appears the last attempt to revive Scalecoat failed>

Pete recommended Tamiya spray flat finish, but that needs good ventilation and has potential overspray problems when used on a layout.

3-Apr-2020: My attention had been elsewhere, but then my shipment from Model Memories arrived:

Bexley station is on a sharp curve with bi-directional double track, and a quarter mile from the West Portal of the single track Bexley Tunnel. So a pedestrian overpass and inter-track fence are de rigueur, lest most trains crawl through at Restricted Speed per Rule 107. Years ago I'd bought some of MM's etched brass 'Hairpin Fence', so with the platforms and baggage crossing finished, I measured and purchased enough for the whole job.



MM uses thin brass, and I do operations. So after soldering the pieces together, I reinforced the whole length with .020 phosphor bronze wire (Tichy) soldered on the hidden side of the horizontals. I also soldered .020 posts to the verticals. This is the test assembly in its drilled holes, tomorrow I'll blacken and paint it.

I bought a fence/gate pack too, but the gate turns out to be scale 9' 9" long. If my platforms were as wide as many prototypes, this would have been OK. But considering how to get a baggage cart turned 90 degrees and through a gate without dropping a wheel to the ballast, I made my crossing 14 feet wide. Once I have both segments of fence in, I'll scratchbuild a 16 foot rolling gate.

The stairway to the left didn't fit Bexley Tower, so I found a home for it connecting the inbound platform to Chipman St. And of course, the photo shows how badly the platform needs sweeping.

4-Apr-2020: Chuck Diljak and Pete wondered if I was working hard because the HUB Division planned to host the 2020 NER convention.
<2025 the convention turned into Mill City 2021 and my layout was open for it>

A convention was indeed planned, which the Hub Division would host Columbus Day Weekend. By which time we all hoped very much we wouldn't be in crisis mode. But actually, the layout was getting the benefit of "Do your farming when the weather tells you to" and the suspension of most of my other volunteer and recreational activities. I could have finally bought cable, or streaming video, but no, not me.

No crowd of RailRun operators last weekend, maybe visitors and operators in October. Or maybe Tour de Chooch visitors after Thanksgiving. Someday..

George D commented:

That fence looks very fragile, James. That's going to be a nice scene when it's done.

5-Apr-2020: George, I agree. I spent today doing this to about 30 inches more of it, for east of the baggage crossing:



One minor problem is that Model Memories had applied some kind of coating, presumably to keep the brass bright. This made it harder to solder to. If I'd been patient I could have asked them how to remove it chemically. Instead I got out the Bright Boy, source of the few bent hairpins visible near the RH post.

While blackening it (not very well, see above re: coating), I noticed the reinforcement bulked up the fence in a good way. If I need fence close to the edge of the layout or in a place where operators reach but both sides are visible, I'd use DA flat bar or K&S 1/32" brass angle. That would improve realism a lot. But I had the .020 wire on hand and the back of this is invisible.

9-Apr-2020: Today's work was dividing my LED room lighting for two power supplies, then adding more strips to fill in dim spots. So not very photogenic. But I got the inter-track fence installed earlier:



The gate is the next part, then painting. But because last Friday's paint order (from 32 driving miles away) arrived today, tomorrow 28 Winter St. will be airbrushed.

[jbvb]

11-Apr-2020: My paint order arrived, so I decided to build the rolling gate. When I solder it to the fence and paint everything, it finishes this bit of the scene.



The blue tape jig helped, but next time I'll use stronger tape. A Chopper that worked on .020 phosphor bronze would have been useful, but not worth the room even a small sheet metal shear requires.



Where the gate's going, I'm not sure anyone will ever notice whether or not it gets wheels. And I need a new bottle of blackener; perhaps
Amesbury Industrial Supply can help.

12-Apr-2020: I installed the gate without a wheel because the prototypes I recall were less than 6" diameter; It's dead black and 2 feet from anything but my camera. Somehow I have a memory of wrestling with a gate like this, but I can't reconstruct where/when. It was balky and noisy, though...



I'm happy with Scalecoat's Flat Grimy Black, but The Ground Glass is Strong in This One, strong enough that I had to blow back my airbrush every 30 seconds or so. I can live with that, particularly when their Clear Flat also needs it. I did take a little extra time cleaning.



With a little more detail, this might go somewhere. Better baggage cart, maybe a bench on the platform, something blocking seeing through the interior, signs and ads, reduce the exposure compensation.

[jbvb]

22-Apr-2020: I checked the peel-n-stick shingle stash; not enough for 28 Winter, so I ordered - due today, I'm told. Meanwhile, I've been looking at 32 Winter, where my friend Mike grew up, in its unfinished state since 2013. And the parts it needed were all together:



I'd stalled on how to do the perfect mitered corners I see on asbestos-cement shingled houses. Alas, I won't get that from BEST's #3028, at least not without much more trouble than I'm already taking. If Evergreen made a clapboard with .125" exposure, the corners could be beveled and puttied, then shingle joints cut with a knife. But .100 is their largest.

Yesterday mid-afternoon I got tired of cutting, fiddling & trimming tiny things. I went upstairs to find something larger:



Railroad Ave. in Bexley uses UK manufacturer Wills HO/OO molded styrene cobble. I had enough stock, so I finished the corner by Saulena's and Olmsted-Flint. The unpainted sidewalk is Evergreen 1/2" square engraved sheet.

28-Apr-2020:  The 28 Winter St. house is now at 'layout ready':



My current project was detailing the removable (base is rigid foam insulation) residential neighborhood behind Bexley Engine Terminal. I hadn't made chain link fence before, but many others had. I tried it after I finish the day's convention work.

1-May-2020: Seashore Trolley Museum did a 'Modeling Mid-Day' on Facebook, so I dug up a cab ride I'd taken in 2017 and posted it to my FB <video is public, way down my timeline as of 2025. Also available on my YouTube>. This got me thinking about 1) a low-floor camera car, so I can shoot the whole layout, and 2) more/better scenery. Fall 2019 I'd lit the gas station behind Bexley Yard, but that section needed more:



My first chain link was certainly good enough for this viewing distance. I soldered the frame from .032 phosphor bronze wire. I cut the tulle mesh using a rotary knife. I applied a thin layer of Weldwood contact cement to one side and carefully set the tulle in place. Trim a bit, then airbrush Floquil Bright Silver. The concrete crib retaining wall is Chooch. At the front of the layout, I'd have made the substrate flatter and interlocked the corner.



This perspective is (effectively) from the roof of a 2-story building on Franklin St. It has some potential as a night scene, but I've got to get the gas station dimmed somehow.

[jbvb]

Carrie Creek (Phil Z on RR-Line) posted:

James, I have been thinking on your asbestos slate shingle corners. Here are some pics of mine:

a close-up about 8"



distance at 5'



straight on corner about 3'

I am thinking running a tape down each side a distance that looks good. Then taking a small dab of window glazier putty and roll a small rope and press into the joint using the tape edge as a guide. Nice thing about the putty it is paintable and will blend together.
Anyway it is an idea, use if you think it will work.

2-May-2020: Thanks for the pictures, Phil. I think if I can get the tape positioned right, I might just paint the angle - it looks no more than 1/8" thick and two coats should do that.

Last night I picked up another long-untouched project. I need to model Bolles Motors at the corner of Winter and Merrimack Streets in Newburyport. I remember my family buying cars there, but the building was demolished and replaced before I knew I wanted to model it:



I found descendants of the dealership's owner, but all they had was the above, which I think was scanned out of a City Directory. Then, looking at a built-up Wallschlager Motors, I thought I saw in its bones an acceptable stand-in. It was assembled with CA, so it only took a little flexing to re-kit. And then it sat for most of last decade.



I spent a while sawing and gluing. I don't have room for the raised rear portion with the 2nd floor repair shop, so the front and left sides of the original building will be all that's really visible. The back and right side walls are up against the depot's retaining wall.

Note to self: You'll be wanting the vintage highway sign down the road.

17-May-2020: So after spending 7 long days acting like a much younger 1:1 scale track gang foreman, I spent some time on my layout. I've shot a couple of videos with this older 1080P camera (GoPro wannabe), but this is the first with the depressed center camera car I built:

EB cab ride

Tools will be put away and things cleaned up before my next attempt.

[jbvb]

17-May-2020: The frame/platform of the camera car is .025 x 1" stainless strip from K&S. I got my trucks' bolster height with a caliper (I'm a sucker for Lindberg, shows my age, but I've never found a prototype car using 'National Timken') . The angles were bent with a 'hand seamer' (sheet metal worker's tool).



Trucks and coupler are attached with 2-56 screws. The body bolster is .040 atop .125 x .100" strip.



The camera is attached with a 1/4-20 flathead machine screw; I turned the head down in my lathe and sawed off excess length.



My previous cab ride videos were plagued by rocking, so I designed it fairly rigidly side-to-side. It hasn't rocked at all so far. The springing of the Lindberg truck is just right; the weight of the camera compresses them just a bit, so no bumps at turnouts either.

Pete asked about plastic wheels (I happen to be agnostic: plastic, Kadee sintered iron, Reboxx etc. can all be found on my equipment).

AFAIK all Lindberg wheels were plastic, acetal I think. It won't get much mileage unless a bunch of big layouts ask me to go on tour (sadly
unlikely these days), so wear won't be an issue. But if it looks like the camera can handle a night run, I will be adding a nice bright LED headlight and probably different trucks (I saved the box).

13-Jun-2020: I got around to uploading the video of an all-stops RDC local westbound cab ride:

 WB all-stops local RDC cab ride.

This was the main part of my first on-line modeling presentation to HUB Division members. Since then I've set up a USB web cam on a cord which does auto-focus. This should be pretty good for modeling demonstrations and points-of-view on the layout that aren't available to 1:1 eyes.

12-Jul-2020: Just short of a month since I last posted, which included haying season and a good deal of track work at Seashore. But I made progress on the layout:



I finished two turnouts on West Lynn's GE River Works in-plant railroad. These were built about 2013 and spiked so the Lynn Goat could switch GE's receiving tracks beside the future Building 41. Now they have mechanisms, wiring and gaps, making 58 complete hand-laid turnouts on the Eastern Route. Further in-plant construction awaits deciding whether I want to do girder rail and single point turnouts for the street track.

I also got out an undecorated 1st generation Bachmann GE 44 tonner I'd bought years ago. I will lube and clean it, but of course the first photo I found of a River Works loco was a 45 tonner (B&W too). I do recall seeing a 44 tonner there in the 1960s, but can't say whether it was painted light grey or light blue.



I did find some useful photos, on the Museum of Innovation & Science in Schenectady, NY website. These resolve several questions:

1. Enough to build the quick-n-dirty pedestrian overpass built as the USN Gear Works was going up behind the photographer in 1942.

2. GE property fence and track gate.

Plus an interesting oversize load and a nicely maintained late-model SW-1 in the B&M 'over the road' Minuteman paint scheme.



Note the differences between the 'roll out' publicity photo and the 'actually handed off to the B&M' photo above in this post. Clearly I can get a lot lazier about special loads for my flat cars.

[jbvb]

3-Aug-2020: I asked about replacement gears for the 1st generation Bachmann GE 44-tonner.  Bernd suggested Northwest Short Line.

29-Sep-2020: It had been a while. Lots of work on track and equipment at Seashore, getting my stepson ready for on-line school, politics etc. And the attic was fairly hot most nights until recently.

My modeling lag started with a discouraging experience working with my Rapido RDCs; I installed non-sound decoders in three, but when I went to speed-match them, I found my first apparently suffering from a cracked axle gear. When I opened it up and ran it upside down to ID the bad part, something came apart closer to the motors (both). It seems I have to take the drive-line completely apart to get back to where I can ID the broken gear. And while working with the others, I cooked a non-sound decoder. I do get two RDCs speed matched...

So last week I picked up a long-stalled project: Back when Star Trek: Enterprise was on, I'd take a kit and tools to a friend's house to work on while watching and sipping adult beverages. Alas, my ancient Tichy 4028 is more complicated than the basic USRA single-sheathed box: Several sprues from which only a few parts are used, 3 sets of doors, not enough grab irons, ends don't fit the shell perfectly etc. It wasn't working as a 90-minutes-most-weeks project, I put it aside.



I finished drilling/installing all the grabs (breaking a few drills doing so), then did the underbody. .020 styrene rod train line was easier to install than the supplied .020 brass wire. I used a 1/32" long drill (MicroMark) to make holes to thread it through.

The roof comes next, but I needed info for paint/lettering. I found Richard Hendrickson's July 1993 RMJ article and am thinking about extra detailing for the AP.

28-Nov-2020: Dave Emery commented:

I've broken A Lot Fewer drill bits doing grabirons through 3 related idea:
1. I buy the more expensive Gyros drill bits (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SKT9KO)
2. I'm using a low speed rechargable battery screwdriver (similar to this one: https://www.amazon.com/BLACK-DECKER-.../dp/B00TM2T9C2) and the MicroMark hex shank micro drill chucks (https://www.micromark.com/Precision-...ss-Screwdriver ). I buy the chucks "in bulk" so I have the most common drill sizes each permanently chucked into one of these.
3. Before drilling, and occasionally during drilling, I poke the drill bit into beeswax.
It used to be I'd break on average 3 drill bits per Westerfield kit (the resin they use is pretty tough). Now I usually finish the full kit without breaking the drill bit (but they do get dull, so I have to replace the drill bit. I try to keep at least 3 bits of the most common size on hand, so if I break 1, I'm not screwed for finishing a project...)

5-Dec-2020: Converting to metal wheels hasn't come to the top of my priority list. One reason is I've had two cars with metal wheels put out of service by DCC shorts across gaps. Both were passenger cars with non-run-of-the-mill trucks. The other reason is, with only about 90 freight and only 25% of them making even one trip around the main line in an Op Session, I just don't get much wear on them.

It was more than 2 months since my last post, and 2 months between that and the one before it. Almost no modeling in this half of the year. Some of that was navigating the virus crisis for me and my family, so far successfully. Some was preparations for a possible extended visit with family where the government understood public health and respected science. But most was more than 80 days at Seashore Trolley Museum, working on full-size railroad track:



Seashore's Shop yard during removal of gauge rods applied as temporary remedies for various ills. Over the previous three years, we'd built two #4 turnouts out-of-place, using 85 lb. rail. Below, our Pettibone MK-36 crane is ready to lift the northerly turnout panel.



Below, the southerly turnout in place with ties for the connection to our Main Line:



Bending 85 lb. by hand is a slow process and experience is important to getting a good result sooner. Our Western-Cullen-Hayes rail bender casting is the center of attention.  One volunteer cranks the bending jack as another watches the "jack extension" scale.

[jbvb]

Sawing 85 lb. involves a strong back and much more noise and adrenaline.



Maine's Track Laying Season was pretty much finished. But our work stood its first test: Our Pettibone Model 441B Speed Swing (blt. 1974 for Boston's MBTA) brought in the second round of ballast.

I hoped there would be more modeling in December and January than there was all Summer and Fall.

Of course, this drew some jokes:

Pete:

Looking Good, James! I don't see that NMRA gage anywhere, though.... Not sure that's gonna get you your Civil Engineer certificate....
Thanks for helping make that Museum a good one. Looking forward to getting out there for a ride or three. And some research.

Dave:

James says that next time they'll solicit donations to pay for the shipping to get some FastTracks templates...

Tyson Rayles:

Wow, that's the most realistic people I have ever seen

George_D:

That 1:1 trackwork is far too labor intense for me. I'm sticking to 1:87.

6-Dec-2020: Pete, left of the head of the person sawing rail you can see our Inspection Gauge on the ground. The NMRA might not approve it because it's purely measurement: gauge, flangeway and cross-level. The go/no-go function resides in the operator.

George, 1:1 track work is indeed labor-intensive. Since we got married, my wife's cooking had contributed to a few pounds. But they all left with this job, even Thanksgiving's extras.

16-Dec-2020: I started 34 Winter St. (my childhood friend Mike's house) in 2013. It became 3-dimensional in 2014. Then it sat as I thought about how to do the asbestos cement shingle sheathing. This past April I did the roof and started applying paper self-adhesive shingles, but the results didn't satisfy me (or at least, the AP evaluators I had hoped to show it to).

Now that the 1:1 track work season is over, I decided that the layout needed Mike's house regardless of the AP program. So I sat down last night and got it to this stage:





34 Winter is covered with BEST's #3028 Self Adhesive Laser Cut Shingles "Asbestos - Natural". No color applied yet. The corners are rough, but they lie down for a while when I rub them with my fingers. I'm hoping I can hold them flat with a fairly heavy coat of an appropriate gray (probably E-L) and then go on with windows, gutters etc.

27-Dec-2020: Airbrushing weather shifted my focus a bit. The Tichy NYC USRA rebuild (#4028D) is now waiting for the paint smell to dissipate:



This image is a Digikam/Enfuse focus stack experiment. I blended 4 images shot using a tripod but with different focus points. I like the fence being in focus. I don't like the halo around the CN boxcar's lettering. I spent a while browsing the web to get this far, I will look farther someday.

[jbvb]

2-Jan-2021: I spent some time on my Winter St. houses:



I tried Scalecoat Flat Grime for 28 Winter's lead flashing; better than BEST's shiny aluminum for my era, but needs a touch of gray. 32 Winter got a coat of Scalecoat E-L Light Gray which looked too dark. I went over it with a thin white wash and like the result. But neither made the shingles lay down enough to earn many 'Construction' points.

Windows await Northeastern Scale Lumber coming back from their 'inventory' and shipping my order. I only want some open, not most.

3-Jan-2021: Answering a question: 28 Winter St. is in Newburyport, MA at the corner of Washington St. I have an index on page one of this thread. Here's a link to the thread:

 28 Winter St. House build thread

10-Jan-2021: . DigiCompuTron-A-Matics is waiting for color laser-printable transparency film to arrive. My NYC boxcar's elderly decals crumbled so it's waiting for a new set. So I worked on 32 Winter St.:



I remember rarely seeing the sun in the street side of that house - neighbors were close and passers-by were within a yard of those windows. So I modeled shades with tape. The kitchen addition has curtains made from red see-through Xmas ribbon, but nobody will see that unless it's picked up. No gutters IIRC.

The model needs a little paint touch-up, then electric (visible) & gas (invisible) meters and the canopy over the front (side) door.

17-Jan-2021: Since my last post, 32 Winter St. progressed a little more:



I'd been working on the fit of the roof. I also applied a little 'dirt splash' weathering around the bottom edge while cleaning my airbrush. And I figured out how to hold the rather flimsy side door canopy. The roofing is a 3M tape I bought for its green tint - it's made many window shades for passenger cars and structures. But it's also got effective stickum. The upper 'rolled roofing' sheet extends under the shingles, like flashing, and is firmly stuck to the styrene underneath. The two 1x4 braces will require careful handling, but I hope not to lose the canopy itself.

I also picked up a 4' x 4' sheet of .060 styrene. I still have some of my 4x8 of .040, but that isn't rigid enough for long-span floors and large walls. The first application was Gorin Machine in Bexley, built in 2015 from Walthers modular walls:



I made separate floors so I can go back and light and/or detail if the mood strikes. But after the paint dries and I install them, visitors won't be able to see through the building in unrealistic directions. Some new techniques I tried worked out well:

Using a 4' drywall square to mark and scribe;

Using a 'hand seamer' (sheet metal tool) to break after scribing.

Using a hand plane to smooth broken edges and fine-tune the width of strips.

20-Jan-2021: I'd made an electric meter for 32 Winter St. and made 28 Winter St.'s this evening:



.040 styrene box, .080 diameter clear sprue dome, .025 phosphor bronze wire conduit, flattened for solder blob weatherhead and right angle fitting.

23-Jan-2021: I presented New England Passenger Trains for the NMRAx event. That was different from any other presentation I've given since I started about 1985.  The NMRAx tech setup had me doing my presentation blind; I saw my slides on my screen but not the audience, the host or the techs. So I just talked for ~45 minutes with no visual or audio feedback whatsoever I got the timing reasonably accurate, but I could have shortened the intro to say more about the last three slides. The questions I got were good, but I have no idea how big my audience was (aside from the two B&M modeling friends who emailed congratulations).