Boston & Maine Eastern Route Progress

[jbvb]

The other night I made the base wall.



Last night I applied a 1/16" layer of wood putty to the top. While it was still wet I carved the nubbly tops with a hobby knife. This could probably be done with 'leather hard' plaster, provided you made the whole wall in one go, to avoid issues getting new plaster to stick to old.  The dilute black latex wash revealed that a lot of finish work is needed before final painting & mortar-line carving.

16-Jun-2013: A discussion in another thread got me thinking about how I model; I tend to get a project to a certain point, then work on something else. For a change, I'm going to finish the High St. scene as best I can. This hasn't kept me from making progress elsewhere this weekend, but most of the effort went here:



The house is a temporary view-block, not what goes there in the long run. This needs more diverse grass, the H-arm (left) where the open wire changed to cable and telltales.

[jbvb]

19-Jun-2013:  Robert Goslin complimented my stone work.

Thanks, Robert, I've seen plaster/putty/spackle lift when the substrate flexes or expands/contracts, and don't want to lose my investment in carving. The diesel is a P2K EMD BL-2 I detailed and painted. The BL-2 was a bastardized F-3 rushed into production about 1949 to compete with Alco's RS-2. Not many were sold, and few were as long-lived as the GP-7s which replaced them in EMD's catalog.

In pursuit of completeness, the last couple of evenings went to building the H-arm:



To the Rix parts, I added a cable termination box (.125 square styrene tube with .060 channel for the wire hoods) and a work platform (Plastruct 3/64 angle brackets, .020 wire rail w/ .010x.018 flat brass braces) for signal maintainers. Now that I've built it, I thought I'd find the slides I took in the '80s or '90s. But actually I found my sketch, showing I forgot the large wood terminal box below the crossarms which the platform provided access too.  Someday, when I need another H-arm...



I also added a few tall grass bunches, I will do more based on the picture.

[jbvb]

30-Jun-2013: The previous week, I'd gone to Atlantic City by train (work, not play), so I used some laptop time to make the panel diagrams I need for my Electrical Engineering AP certificate. This is Bexley (see about halfway down pg. 3 of this thread for the track plan):



Original image lost, excerpt from my XtrkCAD signal plan of Bexley substituted. The 'arrow' block gap symbols show where individual 'swing block' segments are powered from depending on the switch position. The printing quality suffers because it's a screen capture rather than an export: XTrkCAD won't export at more than 100 DPI, which doesn't work well at the scale of the electrical symbol parameter file I'm using. But it's OK for documentation.

I was working on a couple more H-arms (I made a jig, why not) and had started the CBS Hytron (later Owens-Illinois) warehouse that will be the biggest building on the Newburyport end of the layout. Pictures when I got the walls up (later the same day).

The temperature outside is above 90F, but my old house holds the cool well so I'm downstairs doing computer work till the sun gets lower. But before the attic got too hot, I got the core of the Hytron warehouse together.



The prototype was built in 1952 using concrete up to just above the floor, then block, then fibreglass windows and a steel trim piece at the
top. There was no wind generator, and only one other building in the 1/2 mile square "block" it occupies. The original shed roofs were segments over each freight door, I now suspect what I've done is the 1970 version.  Either complicates uncoupling, but so far we've managed.



Thinking about warping, I checked my pile of scrap acrylic, and decided to use it instead of foam-core. The foundation is 1/2" plywood, the roof is recycled political sign material; it's about 3/16" thick and appears to be extruded polyproplyene. Next step was applying laminations.

[jbvb]

07-Jul-2013: Here it is with styrene applied for pilasters and the strip that will support the car shed roof. I used the flat car to set the loading door threshold heights.



This morning I sanded the area near the top of the wall that will represent the fibreglass windows, then masked and applied Plastruct .020 cinderblock sheet using 3M 77 spray adhesive.



I wouldn't have masked the bottom of the wall had I realized I only needed to spray the back of the cinderblock sheet. When dry, I can paint the concrete and cinderblock portions. The corrugated metal and flashing at the top of the wall awaited buying more styrene.

Knock on wood, but today's work went so fast I felt like I was channeling Harsco (RR-Line member rapidly building structures for his steel mill layout at the time).

09-Jul-2013: I was keeping up with BigLars' challenge to get things finished, because my project list is too long, and there's a real risk of losing important bits if I leave them too long. At the bottom, I want a working, good-looking model railroad, nobody is going to build it for me, and I'm able to do the work now.



Recent progress: Sunday a coat of rattle-can texture paint for the concrete areas, overcoated with gray. I don't like the finish and the color is too brown, so I'll be airbrushing it anyway. But it will be almost a meter from viewers. Tuesday AM I trimmed the masking and applied the corrugated strip at the top, using Evergreen .080 spacing sheet. I plan to paint it red before I apply a separately-painted silver cap strip. Then I can try out my ideas for the windows and doors.

[jbvb]

14-Jul-2013: The chalky red was photographed in 2006. The shed was at best a few years old at the early end of my 1955 - 1965 modeling era. I intended to try a can of ancient Floquil Caboose Red which is much closer to Tuscan than current production (no help to anyone following along, though). Then I took a detour and photographed the underside: The exterior corrugated metal has been repainted at least once, but the protected parts apparently haven't been:



I found some only-a-little-oversize corrugated-both-sides styrene from JTT Architectural Models at The Hobby Bunker in Malden, MA (war gaming, auto & military models) and decided to do a fairly accurate underside, even if nobody will ever see it. So this is stalled till I can buy another pack of 12 inch (0.125) I-beam and some ~7 inch (.080) H column Monday.

I went back to my Hobbytown RS-3 project (which happens to be spread out in my much cooler living room):



I ordered NS wheels from NWSL before I took an axle assembly entirely apart: Observe wheel with 3/32" bore & 1/16" shouldered axle end. I'd waited quite a while for unmounted wheels, so I decided bushing the bores down would be faster than ordering the right wheels. K&S 3/32" brass tube was a tight press fit in the wheel, but loose on the axle. I heated it red hot to soften it, then pressing it in made it a so-so slip fit on the axle. After soldering and reassembly, a couple of wheels are maybe .002 out of true, which works OK with my track. Still, not the recommended approach

16-Jul-2013: As late afternoon sun glints off the nose of a Portland-bound E-7, extra 1538 West (a job known as The Camel) waits on the yard ladder. When the varnish clears, she'll double her train together and begin the final leg of today's two Mystic Jct. - Bexley round-trips.



1538 won't really be finished till the headlights are installed, but the cosmetic work is done. Unless I decide to adjust one of the cab windows. This job greatly increased my respect for people who hand-fit windows - accurate laser-cut parts would have saved me about 2 hours of filing and trying and filing...

And of course there's work to be done on the building flats. The new one with nice window detailing is my friend Ron G's work.

[jbvb]

28-Jul-2013:  I was stalled on Hytron (airbrushing time) and my Hobbytown RS-3 (electronic parts), so I decided to do something about the above scene.



I had built the left flat from DPM modulars a while back, I'd just built the middle one from a mix of Walthers & DPM parts, and Ron G. gave me the one on the right. They're mounted to the backdrop, which got black paint where needed and my flats were ready for windows. But first I finished the foundations and added trees & shrubs.

04-Aug-2013: All my modeling time the past week went to scenery around Maxwell Sq. (over the Bexley Tunnel). The Engine Terminal (E) portal area was the more photogenic at this point:



Based on prototypes around Boston, I decided that I needed an employees' shortcut between the residential area and the yard:



I started with CV stair moldings and added a platform with rail. .080 square posts, 'car siding' deck, 2x4 bracing & railing.

Twelve years later, I still need to work out how to model the two signal/telephone cables that would have been hung on cleats mounted on the retaining wall. I don't think I'll try doing the separate carrier wire and suspension loops the prototype used, as this is fairly far from viewers.

[jbvb]

06-Aug-2013:. Last night's project had been placing some trees, Woodland Scenics fiber grass and Noch grass tufts here and there. Then I mopped my attic's linoleum floor in honor of potential company. Ron G. wound up not being able to make it, but I enjoyed how much better it looks. I shifted to completing an old NPP brass NYO&W coach as a B&M 4500 series car. Windows cut and one side decaled. I needed more acrylic solvent to work on Hytron, and a bit more thought about fences & structures before more work in Bexley.

A bit of hot air while I waited for the decals to dry: Some of my posts here are journaling; I make notes to myself so I'll be able to retrieve some fact, or understand how I did something years later. Some are for others: interesting prototypes, useful techniques. Some are so my friends can see what I'm doing without making the trek to the New Hampshire seacoast.

RR-Line had a sticky thread (stayed at the top of its sub-forum) with pointers to people's layouts. I commented that some threads don't progress much, some are cut off by life issues, some continue. I looked up a few authors to see if they were still active. I wish all of you
enjoyment; I'm plugging along on my own motivation, but this site, the magazines I get and the Hub Division are important sources of encouragement. I respect those of you who build dioramas, but I don't always look in on your work, lest I overwhelm myself with wanting your craftsmanship over my whole 240 sq. ft. of benchwork and 75 - 100 structures. I understand that all the active members are looking for community and encouragement, so I will do my best to hold up my end.

11-Aug-2013: I was away for the a few days, but that morning I got to work on the enginehouse end of the tunnel. But once I had the portal built, I looked in the other end and realized with the lining I'd installed last week, I was pretty close to a nice photo from the west end:



New England still has quite a few of these short cut-and-cover 'arches' or 'tunnels'. Photos of several are here: https://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/arches.html. Exposure was 1 sec. at f/40 with only room lighting. Next time I used a longer focal length lens and placed the camera a little farther away. The railing over the portal is .025 brass wire, the right retaining wall is wood putty, painted black and carved through for the mortar lines. And of course, the photo revealed a little more to be done.

On 11-Aug-17 Orionvp17 asked: What is the stone used for the retaining walls? I have a lot of B&M/New England "picture books" with shots of retaining walls in this configuration -- black stone and tan mortar. The coloring of the stone is so complete and uniform that I have a hard time believing it's simply dirt/coal dust, and the material seems to be ubiquitous. Thoughts?

Pete, I've watched the black color weather off the stone over the years, especially near the coast. In and around Newburyport, it's almost all visibly gray granite now: This is visible in my Merrimack St. bridge thread (not yet copied to Modelers Forum).

Inland, the black color persists; these photos of the Dover & Greenfield arches were taken in the past 10 years: http://www.faracresfarm.com/jbvb/rr/arches.html

I can't imagine the B&M or any of the other RRs where this is found painting the stone, neatly skipping the mortar. Neither can I imagine paint of the 1950s lasting 50 years on exposed rock surfaces. So it has to be some combination of coal soot and steam oil condensate.

22-Aug-2013: I'd been away from home a good deal, and hadn't found a store that stocks 3' lengths of K&S brass wire, so no additional railings. But I did get a package:



Forum member Wallace S. said he would post about this project, so all I said was 'Thank you very much'. I was very happy to be running DC trains a la Linn Westcott, with a realistic brake. The Kadee brush has been moved elsewhere, lest it short against the throttle case.



I use it as the 3rd throttle, for local switching in West Lynn and GE's River Works. To get it out of the way when idle, I built a simple slide-out shelf using mostly scrap I could lay hands on at 9PM.

[jbvb]

A "True Action Throttle", of which this is a variant, really benefits from a voltmeter to adjust starting voltage etc. To keep the wiring simple, I connected it to the 'Loop' output, which I'm not using otherwise.

I painted the shelf the same blue as my other control panels.  I hope it helps visiting operators spot it ('this blue means electrical controls').

27-Aug-2013: Machining and welding a new seat subframe for my 1984 Yanmar-built JD 1050 tractor (still running in 2025 at Seashore Trolley Museum) and doing things with family & friends consumed a lot of the weekend. The only progress was this:



Having a Lynn throttle got me going on completing the River Works panel, which is needed before any in-plant track I lay can be used. For those who have Humpyard Purveyance levers (company closed 2024), this is the simplest and most functional mount I've done yet.

I had posted this next bit in RR-Line's Model RR Construction but there isn't an equivalent here:

Simple under-the-baseboard mount for Humpyard Purveyance turnout control levers:

 

Note that the lever is facing the wrong way in this picture.  I cut the shape from a scrap of 3/4" birch plywood using a bandsaw, but a
handsaw or sabre saw would also work. The main part is 2 1/4" deep, the mounting ears are 1" deep. I marked hole locations using Humpyard's template and drilled them with my drill press. I could have cut off the unused actuating arms, but I prefer to leave them intact, fantasizing that I may live long enough to complete this layout, scrap it and re-use them. So I sanded a pocket with the front roller of my hand belt sander.

[jbvb]

This is another Humpyard lever mounting block, slotted with a table saw to avoid cutting off one of the arms.



31-Aug-2013: Getting everything in place to use the turnouts led me to start laying rail for GE's receiving & interchange tracks in front of Building 41 (left).



I had laid the ties and ballasted in 2012. This was about 6 hours work, the usual sequence: Temporarily position the stock rails, make the frog points & determine the frog position, file switchpoint notches, spike the stock & frog rails, make the closure rails.

In other news, the first part of my article on the Hytron warehouse has appeared in the Hub Division's Headlight:
http://www.hubdiv.org/docs/Headlight2013_0910_v30.1.pdf

Many of the pictures have been posted here, but the text has more history & narrative. The editor was likely to ask about Part 2 the next week. So as soon as I could spot cars on the interchange track, I started clearing up the maze of "but I should do X first" issues that stalled finishing Hytron.

01-Sep-2013:  I found out I wasn't on the right email list to be included in the 2013 Tour de Chooch. But probably in 2014. This retroactively justified my switch to trackwork - it contributed to my planned first op session this winter. Meanwhile, scenery work (other than Hytron) needn't be rushed.

11-Sep-2013: After I got the first GE receiving track operating, I went back to scenery. West Lynn now has some ground cover, the 6th St. (GE Plant) grade crossing is paved but not dry enough to clean up, and there is gloss medium water in a number of ditches beside the RoW. This consumed most of Sunday and several evenings/mornings. But only one part advanced enough to look photogenic to me:



Ron G. confirmed the actual name of the head of navigation on the Little River in Newbury, MA is 'Four Rock'. This photo is framed to omit the unfinished riverbed, lack of water and lack of marsh grass. Prototype photo posted on Page 6 of this thread.

I had to compress it, and had I found this picture when I built the baseboard, the river bottom wouldn't be as deep. Stonework is wood putty painted with latex flat black & carved. The center pier is "1/4 lattice stock" (actually 3/16" thick) wetted & dipped in wood putty powder, then sealed with Scalecoat Flat Finish. Twelve years so far without flaking...

[jbvb]

28-Sep-2013: A busy month between town & personal chores, hiking, an overnight trip to the Common Ground Fair in ME and most of a week at corporate HQ. But I had squeezed in a little modeling: wiring, ground cover and grade crossing pavement in West Lynn, progress on my Hobbytown RS-3.  Not much photogenic till tonight:



I began the Hytron warehouse car shed, using the JTT corrugated styrene. I spliced four pieces and reinforced them with Evergreen .125" I-beam for the roof. I got the vertical sheets cut out, but I'm going to make an angle template before I apply them.

29-Sep-2013:  I replied to a comment: Most of the layout models track ballasted with cinders. The bridge area is done with Woodland Scenics "Fine Cinders" with modest quantities of "Fine Brown" and "Fine Gray" mixed in to represent clinkers. Part of West Lynn is done with a stone 'cinders' product which I stopped using because the white chunks were too big. Elsewhere, I've used Highball Products limestone cinders, but nobody in my area stocks it and I haven't been motivated to order it since I figured out how to get the effect I want with WS products.

Most of the ballast is applied using conventional 'bonded' techniques, but when I want it to stick to an unrealistically steep slope (If I was HO scale, I wouldn't want to be a brakeman on this road), I paint the slope with a 50/50 dilution of white glue and sprinkle ballast mix on it.

30-Sep-2013:  After maybe 6 hours work Saturday & Sunday, the Hytron warehouse looks like this:



Idea Scoreboard: Wins

Gluing styrene to acrylic with Weld-On cement.

Masking warehouse doors so they're clear and look open from a distance.

JTT corrugated styrene for the shed - more brittle than Evergreen or Plastruct, but glues OK.

Angle jig so I could make the shed removable.

So-so:

Polyethylene political sign material sprayed black & ballasted for the roof - when a grain gets knocked off, I get a white spot.

3M spray cement for the Plastruct cinder block - should have used Weld-On, it worked to repair loose bits.

Fail:

Sanded acrylic isn't opaque enough for the fibreglass windows.

I'm going to try printing a scaled photo of the prototype's windows and gluing it on with contact cement. But aside from that, a sign and some roof details, the building is done. Next job was writing part II of my article for the Hub Headlight.

6-Oct-2013:  Layout progress was going to wait about three weeks.  My role in the NER "Tracks to Lakeport" convention 10/17-20 expanded - beside my passenger car clinic, I subbed for a guy who wasn't able to put on a slide show, and opened my Eastern Route open for visitors Thursday afternoon & all day Sunday.  Suddenly it was cleanup/organize time. Some in-progress projects are getting put away, some are getting finished:



This is the last piece of backdrop in the south (West Lynn/Bexley) end of the room. I scribed/cut the cove curve in 1/8" masonite with a compass and a utility knife. 2" angle brackets and countersunk 12-24 flathead machine screws hold the bottom. Despite all the fancy gadgets and numbers, paint matching is still inexact. I took a little extra time to blend darker blue with my latest can of "not quite Sherwin Williams 1787" from the local hardware store.

[jbvb]

22-Oct-2013: I didn't get a lot of visitors, but I enjoyed showing the layout to everyone who stopped by. And I met a couple of new-to-me local modelers. My presentations at the convention went well, though between cleanup for the tour and a short-notice trip to NJ courtesy of my soon-to-be-former employer, I did a "yellow box/stack loader" slide show. No time for operations, but I saw Dave Sias's layout and had a great conversation with Dwight Smith (B&M employee & historian, founder of Conway Scenic Ry) after buying some of his photos, which I can use on my Unofficial B&M Page.

Since I got home, I've completed 1538, my Hobbytown RS-3, and another NPP O&W coach is ready for diaphragms before joining the secondary passenger service fleet.

24-Oct-2013: I installed diaphragms on my latest passenger car, "high window" (24"x36" glass) coach 4501. Because my other Nickel Plate Products NY,O&W coaches have Walthers, and John B. was asking about them, I got a pair the other day.



I'm switching to a shorter coupler as soon as I can get #153s, so I cut these in half. The new pressure plate is cut from an aluminum EMF shield from a scrapped electronic gadget.



If I feel ambitious, I will apply the rooftop conduit to at least 4501, as even many of the AC-equipped cars of this type had the head-end lighting setup.



Here it is behind headlight-equipped 1538 drifting into Bexley depot.

[jbvb]

11-03-2013: I didn't expect a lot of uninterrupted time this weekend, so I worked on track, which I usually put down and pick up without a glitch. I completed one turnout in the GE main plant's private trackage, and made progress on two more. Details inline from a Track thread.

Someone asked in another thread about how to use slide switches for frog power and point locking. I use mine with heel-thrown points, but parts of this how-to should be usable with conventional throwbars.



Here I've made the points (lower right). I cut the 1/8" brass point tubes (left center). I drilled 1/8" holes for them at the end of each closure rail (top). I cut the 3/32" point rods (next to the points). I drew where the points should be positioned on the rods to line up with the closure rails. This step could be avoided by carefully locating a smaller pilot hole before changing to the 1/8" bit.



Both points have been silver-soldered to their rods, and the rod threaded 3-48.  One is in place.

I use .025 music wire for the two throws (one shown).

The block is lexan, drilled #50 and tapped 2-56 for 3 locking screws.  One locks the block to one of the throw wires from the points
One locks the block to the brass rod connecting it to the slide switch.  One locks the block to the push-pull wire or rod from the layout edge control knob (or Humpyard Purveyance lever).



The loops of wire connecting the closure and stock rails visible in the first picture are also soldered to the point tubes.  This is how the points are powered.

[jbvb]

The throw wires are clamped to the point rods with 3-48 nuts.  Get a nut-driver that fits if you build more than a couple of these. They sometimes need maintenance every few years.



This slide switch's bracket is 1" aluminum angle. Smaller switches use smaller angle. Mounting holes are #50, tapped 2-56.

Modern industry thinks it more profitable to make SPST switches like this. I bought it accidentally because I was hurrying. I paid by stunt-soldering the red wire to make it SPDT.  I use DPDT for switches in signal territory. I've used 3PDT and 4PDT to power diamond crossing frogs and swing blocks. Paul Mallery calls swing blocks X-Sections in his wiring book. I forget if they're mentioned in Linn Westcott's book. In block control systems they save you a knob or toggle by changing the power feed with turnout position.



The screws are cut off flush to clear the rod. The switch's slider is drilled #53 and tapped 1-72. I thread the 1/16" brass rod with a 1-72 die.

[jbvb]

Here the mechanism is far enough along to throw and lock the points.  Track power isn't connected yet.



Here I've wired the slide switch to the frog (yellow/brown going left) and the block feeders (terminal strip).  The block feed is also connected to the point tubes.  And the yellow out-of-focus push/pull rod behind the Lexan block comes from the Humpyard Purveyance lever on the fascia.

Why do I bother with all this? The point rods can be whatever length is necessary. The mechanism can go on either side of the rods, up to about 30 degrees off the center line of the track. You can use it with push/pull rods, solenoids, twin coil machines or stall-motor drives. You must be able to get at both the mechanism and the points simultaneously to get it adjusted (or have a helper).  Once it's right, it stays right for a long time.  The oldest ones in service on the Eastern Route were built at TMRC in the 1970s.

07-Nov-2013: Part II of my Hytron Warehouse article had been published in the Hub Headlight:

http://www.hubdiv.org/docs/Headlight2013_1112_v30.2.pdf

16-Nov-2013: Some photogenic progress: Bachmann's B&M RS-3 detailing reflects the price. A little airbrush weathering helped, but I really noticed the absence of a steam generator. The other night I applied a stack & vent from Custom Finishing. Floquil Weathered Black isn't an exact match, but I'll work on that next time I'm using my airbrush.



In other news, my timetable was just about complete, so I knew how many throttles I need. It was more than I had, so off to MRC.

[jbvb]

24-Nov-2013: I had a few minutes to browse in a Michaels and picked up a tube of Liquitex "Hooker's Green". I spent a while tinkering with it to adjust the color of the marsh grass pieces for the Little River scene:



This was better, but still a bit bright at a low angle. Anyway, I didn't glue it down till I finished the water. I mixed Mars Black, Titanium White and Raw Umber acrylics till I got a mud color I liked. Then I thickened it with Wood Putty and painted the stream bed and banks.



The marshes around here are pretty muddy, but there is often some sand and gravel showing on the inside of meanders and other places where the water flow slows. I used some beach sand for this, fixing it in place with some "scary hair" spray.

29-Nov-2013: Responding to New Haven modeler Bill Shanaman:  Your timetable & other documents look good; I've never had to learn Word or Excel to that level for work, but I clearly need to study what you've done.

Today's progress all took place outside the layout room:



That afternoon, with the sun relatively low and nearly perpendicular to one of the Hytron warehouse's walls, I set up my tripod and almost froze my fingers taking photos. Then I spent a couple of hours learning how to make the above with the Gnu Image Manipulation Program, a free tool which is the best available for the set of operating systems I want to use it on. I have more to learn, as I had to work out the size iteratively, but once I can get a couple of good prints on matte paper, I'll be all set to finish the building.

1-Dec-2013:  I find layout tours helpful as well as fun. I saw several of the Tour de Chooch layouts Saturday; I didn't visit any Sunday because of chores, including cleaning the house in case anyone dropped by. I guess it was just as well, as what has been drizzle here was ice farther inland and higher up. This contributed to my not getting any visitors.

At any rate, one thing I really noticed about the layouts I saw was lighting. Several used track lighting, which had good color rendition, but only in the hot spots. One was only lit by the room's two overhead incandescent fixtures, so photography was really tough, and I'd have brought in extra lights just to work on its corners. One had relatively even lighting from fluorescent fixtures in the suspended ceiling, but they were standard tubes, so my pictures came out greenish.

All of which made me really glad I took the time to work out daylight-colored, even lighting over the whole 'visible' part of the layout. Most of my pictures here were taken with room lighting; only those with shadows hinting at a sun direction used my photofloods. I must use a tripod when I stop down for good depth of field, but that's inevitable: enough light to shoot handheld at f/32 would make summer modeling even more sweaty.