Another Building Part 2

Lots of sticks

     This kit is coming along quite well considering the number of sticks. I was surprised how well all 4 walls came together. The next step was to add the floor.
     The floor went easily and so after letting that dry for a day or two I started to add the roof.
     Well the roof material is not pre cut like most all of the other sections however the kit maker provides a location in one of the jigs that gives you the dimensions, this does make it a lot easier. I was planning on using my "The Chopper" but since the move I could not find the dam thing anywhere.
     As the wood was so thin ( a scale 1 x 12 inches) I was able to cut several pieces at a time and that helped speed up the process.
     Instead of writing heaps more lets move straight onto some pics.

Floor added.

Thousands of floor joists (well not exactly a thousand)

Roof on

     These pics show how the completed bin sits on a base. The two outside rails are glued in position and left to dry. Locating guides are glued to the underside and once dry the piece with the hole is just loosely added. The whole lot is then tipped to the right way up and then you mark where the plugs fit. A dab of glue to hold them in place during a trial fit and then left to dry.

    Now the bin can be lifted from the base scenery added and then it is put back in exactly the same position, very neat.

    This has been an interesting kit to put together, good jigs and a good set of instructions that need to be read several times before commencing the build.
    Now all that is left is for Peter to add it to his Railroad.
    Oh and I found my Chopper, right after completing all the cuts to the roof timbers. That figures.  
That's it for today.
Rod.

Another building for another RR

This time a wood kit for a HOn3 RR

     Peter is building a really nice HOn3 layout in a purpose built building based on the narrow gauge lines of the Rio Grand.
     His scenery is impressive to say the least along with his attention to detail so when he asked if I would assemble a kit for him I must admit I was a little surprised and honored at the same time.
     The kit is a Commercial Coal House manufactured by Crystal River Products with a LOT of individual pieces of strip-wood.
     The instructions are numerous and at first glance this kit looked a bit onerous. Several looks through the list of tasks and I started to understand what was needed.
     First stain all the wood different colours so it looks natural. This is did using 4 colours from my Vallejo air brush paints in a mix of alcohol making sure that I kept each bundle together so each section did not get mixed. Remember there is a LOT of sticks.
    That done and with the sticks dry it was time to work out how the jigs went together. These are very well made and allow for ease of assembly one for each wall once mastered.

    So to cut a long story short here are the pics from this build.

The rear wall

Rear wall with doors installed

Front wall in process

Front wall complete with doors and sliding door track

Side walls

Walls added and flooring installed

Floor joists installed. Lots of these!

Waiting for the roof

Then I'll add the sub base for implanting into the layout

     Another couple of sessions should see this completed and ready for Peter to install it into the scenery at Warren on the LosPinos & Toltec RR

Until my next post happy modeling.
Rod.

Working on the Railroad Pt 2

It's taking shape

     Big John and I went to little Johns on Tuesday to see if we could get some more work done on his RR. Plan was for big John to start and attach the wiring, me to continue on the scenery whilst the owner little John kept working on laying track for the new staging tracks at Newton. This is to the left of Flynn.
      A good amount of the wiring when the layout was dismantled was pre- planned where the cuts and plugs would go so this side should be relatively easy. Some of the turnout wires for Flynn were just taken out of the terminal blocks so these will need to be sorted out however John was able to get a lot done in the area between Flynn and Perry. The SE8C needs to be installed in this area before much more can be done. Whilst discussing this, the idea was put forward that all of the Circuit breakers, Digitrax stuff, BDLs along with the Tortoise motors power supply and general power packs could be installed so testing of each re-instated section of wiring could be tested.

     Here is John in the corner doing what he does best. Wiring of course.

    
     Just to digress a bit I went to Johns the day before so we could make sure that the new 15 stall roundhouse would fit it's new space. John had done a great job of ensuring that the pits fitted into the newly cut holes and allowed the roundhouse to be positioned very accurately in relation to to the new turntable. I needed to remove about 2 millimeters from one of the rear walls, cleaned up the mounting tabs on the base and then we gently installed both halves. Thankfully it fit like a glove so we decided to leave it off the layout so the tracks could be laid around it.
    John has already installed the mainline to the rear joining the staging to the old Flynn mainline however there are many more to add.

We will add the remainder of the roofs once John has laid all the tracks. 

That T/T is going to get some weathering also.

    I pushed on with the scenery at the old town of Guthrie's intersection with the main line.

The layout extensions and recommissioning is coming along nicely.
That's it for this post. Catch you next time.
Rod.

Working on the Railroad.

Building more kits and other stuff.

    As the roundhouse got moved over to Johns layout ready to be fitted into position I asked John if he had any further kits he would like put together. "Yep a few grain bins from Rix need doing," so 3 large HO bins along with a Guthrie N Scale set arrived on my work bench (such as it is at the moment as it's on the kitchen table). As I have built several of these kits before for the SFRSD they are not that difficult to assemble. These will most probably finish up in the yet to be built Mopac yard opposite the old town of Augusta.

    This is them assembled but in need of some weathering as yet.

    

      Now that the old SFRSD is set in place it was time to attack the scenery where the cuts were made to disassemble the layout from my train room. We tried to ensure that the cuts were neat as could be and in positions that could be relatively easy to repair once back in place. John was kind enough to ask if I could assist in this so who was I to say no.
     There is several spots that needed attention. The end of the Winfield / Red Rock peninsular, The centre of the Ponca / Hackney peninsular on both sides of course, the join where Perry now meets Flynn again and the melding of Guthrie to the Udall section between the grain elevators of Udall and the bridge over the Wichita River. Apart from this there is a few areas that received some minor damage when the modules were taken through the upstairs window and considering the length of these modules that is to be expected.
    Armed with some blue foam, a nice sharp knife and a tube of no more gaps I set to to see how we would go.

    Here is a few snaps of the areas going through repair. By the way John had already completed the repairs to the track-work so scenery was all that remains in these areas.

This is at Perry. 13 inches was added here to make the walkway between Flynn and Hackney that much wider.

This is the Perry Red Rock corner. This section was removed so we could cut it from the wall. It fit back quite well. All that is left is some paint and ground cover along with some fresh water ( you know the sort).

The inside repair between Red Rock and Ponca. Hope the road repair crew can do a good job.

The outside repair opposite the one above. This is between Hackney and Winfield.

The corner at the far end of Winfield as you approach Udall.

About 6 inches was added here so the Udall peninsular could rest along the wall. This gave a huge improvement to the track geometry between this and the town of Guthrie in the next room and gained more room between Winfield and Udall.

Work in progress at the intersection of Guthrie to the mainline of Udall.

 Filling in the gap at the duck-under that leads into the old town of Guthrie.

    Whilst I was cracking on with this John was busily cutting the slots in the sub road bed for the installation of the 15 stall roundhouse. Not an easy task with the layout 55 inches off the ground.

Over the Christmas break John has been adding sub-road bed to the sections between Augusta and Augusta East and Augusta East and his new open staging Newton / Flynn. (one day I will add all the new town names as soon as I can remember them all) sorry John.

Here's a few pics.

     And finally this is where the section that was single track attached to the wall behind Guthrie and beside Hackney in the old layout. This will now most likely be the mainline for the Santa Fe between Augusta and Udall. It is planned to have a new yard built for MOPAC in the front and just a tad lower. This will then be an interchange between the SF at Augusta and run through (with trackage rights by joining the SF main at Udall) and Udall on its way to Guthrie. It could even have its own dispatcher if the cards fall correctly and wouldn't that be fun LOL.

So this brings everything happening right up to date. Stay up to date by following the progress.
Regards to all.
Rod.