Wichendon Machine Shop (restart)

[Philip]

Fantastic presentation! Really looking nice!


Fire prevention: Not sure what they used to cool tooling in the old days? I'd bet a dollar it was flammable.

Philip

[deemery]

Fantastic presentation! Really looking nice!


Fire prevention: Not sure what they used to cool tooling in the old days? I'd bet a dollar it was flammable.

Philip

Yeah, probably so!  Particularly since I put a forge into the building...  Maybe I should add a hose house to the compound.  (There's 2 more buildings, a Motrak Models "Bisgeier Building" that goes on the camera side of the tracks in the previous photos, and then a small foundry from an EL Moore plan that goes next to the "Bisgeier" where the glue bottle is in this early mock-up.)


add;  I need to get someone to come and help me install the backdrop behind these buildings, before I can plant them.  Installing backdrops is definitely a 2-person job.

dave

[deemery]

Finicky stuff, fitting the boiler to the steam pipe...

First I made sure the pipe from the steam engine was plumb, and then I carried the center line around to near where the steam pipe turns towards the boiler:


Here's a mock-up of the steam line:


Next I had to figure out where to put the boiler, so the line from the dome plugs into the steam line.  You can see the steam line bracket I added, at the location marked by the surface gauge:


And in position:


Finally, I used the paper mock-ups of the roof to figure out the boiler smokestack location:


dave

[Philip]

Oh cool. It that measuring device some sort of machine shop tooling? Looks old. I need one!

[deemery]

Yeah, I picked that up at an antique store.  See https://www.starrett.com/products/precision-shop-tools/surface-gages   One of the classic uses for this is to draw a line parallel to the base across a (possibly irregular) surface.  The little nob closest to the red square allows for precision adjustment of height.  

I'm sure the Real Machinists here can chime in on what else these are good for.  

dave

[Philip]

 

[deemery]

I should add you can find MUCH cheaper surface gauges than the Starrett devices...  I saw some for $50-$70 on Amazon.  Still not cheap, but we usually don't need Starrett accuracy for models.

dave

[Larry C]

Dave you definitely have some engineering skills go on there. Nice tool and love the patina on it. Nice job "planting" the boiler.

[deemery]

I looked at the boiler room in position, and there's no way I could finagle the forge smokestack.  So my plan is to cut a slot in the boiler roof framing, add a small post to hold up the one end that's not well supported, and then permanently affix that smokestack to the machine shop main building.  Then on the layout I'd slide the boiler room into position, and drop the roof down in place.  

I also need to reglue the steam line, some stuff came loose while doing test-fits.  No big deal, while things are not in position....  I need to glue the machine shop permanently to the foundation, too.  That's part of the positioning needed to make sure the boiler room slides into place.

dave

[jbvb]

It all looks good, Dave. If there's a decent gluing surface area, sometimes I use Goo to hold parts vulnerable to bumping.

[deemery]

Notch is cut for the forge smokestack, and the bracket is glued to the smokestack (after drilling a hole in the wall for the other end.)  I'll paint the bracket to match, then install that permanently.

Yeah, I know there's a window missing, I need to glue that back into place, too.

dave

[deemery]

A quick hour in the train room before a mid-afternoon concert:  I forgot I needed to add stairs to the boiler room up to the door back into the machine shop.  The prototype had some funky ladder-thingie.  The kit's stair stringers were more 'shallow' than 45 degrees and would bump into the boiler.  A 45 angle would fit OK.  So into the parts boxes for a Banta Modelworks kit that has stair stringers that are 45 degrees.  I used the treads from the Winchendon kit.

I glued a 1/16 square piece at the bottom of the stairs between the stringers to provide more gluing surface.  Then I put some glue onto the bottom of the stairs, moved the boiler shop up against the main building, and then used a paintbrush handle poked down through the rafters to make sure the stairs were snug to the shop and the bottom of the stairs were flush with the floor.  (And yeah, it's obvious I should have done the rafters after I did all this other stuff in the boiler room....)

Also note I replaced the open window on the front of the boiler room.

dave

[friscomike]

Howdy Dave,

I really like the brick boiler, and it fits the boiler house well.  Once again, it seems a shame to put a roof on it, but I understand...  I have the same struggle all the time.

How will you feed the boiler, with oil, I presume?

Have fun,
mike

[deemery]

It's a coal boiler and there's a really nicely detailed (plaster casting) stone pit that's part of the kit.  I need to add the coal and associated details/dirt.   Now I'm not quite clear how the prototype got the coal from the pit to the boiler room...   Maybe a conveyor that's not obvious to me.  I'll have to go back and relook the kit instructions (such as they are.)

dave

[PRR Modeler]

Loos great Dave. Have you decided if you are going to attach it or will it be separate?