A Tutorial

The Um6b has a set of dropped grab irons on the side of the unit just forward of the cooling air intake that serves as a ladder to the roof.  They are pesky little dudes to make because they must be as nearly identical as possible. To be otherwise would make the oddballs stand out like a sore thumb. In addition they have to be mounted absolutely vertical and without variation, in line, one above the other. Eyeballing these babies is out of the question, at least with my eyesight ! The solution is a set of jigs and fixtures.  They are simple to make, don't require much time or effort and are cheap.

The first is this simple aluminum angle 1/8" thick by 1"x1" x4" long with a .025 hole that is 17" from the notch filed in the end. This thing makes 18" long grab irons. Bend the wire stock over the notch as far as you can (I use .0225 brass) using your thumb and forefinger.  It won't make 90 degrees so you'll have to adjust it with a pair of pliers.  Use the inside of the aluminum angle as a guide but be careful as all extruded angle isn't necessarily 90 degrees either.  When you buy it check, they won,t mind.
When you get it square, insert it in the hole and line up the unbent end over the notch.  Bend it the same way you did the first bend.

Sorry about the blurry photo but you should be able to see enough to get the idea. The bend should come out about like the next picture.

Square this new bend up with the pliers using the aluminum angle as a reference. When that's done turn the wire sideways and check that it is not twisted. You should only be able to see one wire as in the next photo.  This is critical.  If you get things twisted the finished grab irons will never look right.  Take the time to tweak them into shape.

In the photo below you'll see that I have made two notches in the edge of the aluminum angle. They are 18" apart. Just wide enough to hold the bent up grab iron, because we need to make another bend in both "legs" to get the drop in the finished piece. That bend has to be uniform in length.

As you can see I use another piece of angle to back up the grab iron while it is in the notches and then I use a flat needle file to hold it down and simply bend the legs over the edge of the angle. Voila! Consistant, uniform length bends. You have to make final adjustments to the bend angles with pliers as usual and all the bends must be parallel and square with each other or they won't set properly in the pre drilled holes.  We're not finished yet, because those holes are just as important as the grab irons themselves and we need a couple more jigs to get this done.

This is the drill guide.  It was made from .020 styrene and the cross member from .125 square styrene.  The blade should have been .040.  This was really too flexible but I made it work. Very carefull layout work pays dividends in the end.  I centerpunch my holes with a pin using a magnifying glass and am very carefull to make sure I drill the holes as verically as I can.  If you have a sensitive drill press, use it. These were done with a pin vise using a #74 drill. The thing is glued together with styrene adhesive.  Be absolutely sure it is acurately positioned before glueing.

This is how it works.  Notice the holes next to the guide below the grab iron.  It works!!  I clamped the guide in place with some small spring clamps. Probably a good idea.  If you tried to hold it with your fingers it would most likely drift.

This is the last piece of fixture you need. Simply a piece of .060 styrene about 15" wide to space the grab irons a uniform distance from the surface while glueing. I used CYA from the inside of the car body. If things are a tiny bit out of whack you can bend the wire into shape at this stage.  If it is a lot out of whack, pull the offending grab out and make a new one. When the adhesive sets, pull the spacer out,

and admire your work !  Still needed is the nut bolt washer detail at the top of each leg.

Does anybody really need this? I don't know but it was kinda' fun to do and so I may do some more as I progress with this model.  I notice some strange effects with the photo's. The grab irons are perfectly straight as is the roof line of the engine.  I don't do Photo Shop so don't know how to fix those things.  My wife is good at it so I might have her take a shot at it when she gets some time.  Might not be worth the effort. At any rate, the moral of the story is, jigs are simple and effective and mostly cost very little. Sometimes the effort to think of a way to do them is much more than the effort required to turn out the final product. Sometimes they are the only way.

Modifying the Modified

Or in other words Plan "C". You'll note that the car repair facilities have been moved to the yard.  It will be served with dual gauge track . Again, "reach in" and depth allowed for scenery was at the tipping point so I felt it necessary to make this change.  There is also a mistake in the left to right dimension of the room.  It is actually 18" wider than on this drawing. Don't know how that happened but stuff does sometimes. It doesn't effect the overall design. Just imagine the yard tracks with a foot and a half more straight track stuck into the middle. When I am standing in the basement in the middle of this I can "see" the scenery much easier than on the drawing and I think this inability to translate the 2 dimension into three is why I keep having to change things. I also think it is why I look at layout design as sculpture more than an engineering or operational concept.  And this is just the ten foot end of a nearly 40 foot long sculpture.  Yikes!

When I am standing in the middle of this I see sight lines with trees and mountains and strucures and where water is or has been and where the trains must go. Where the lighting must be to avoid weird shadows and the structure to hold it all up. The backdrops are easier to visualize and I can see how other parts of the layout can help backdrop this section to help form a larger vista. I think that is going to turn out to be a key element in the overall impact of this project. The larger vista.

A Tribute to Athearn and A Story About Trucks

I received the worm drive assemblies from Athearn shortly after I ordered them even though they tell you it will be 6 weeks for parts delivery. Never more than 10 days. This time the worm drive assemblies were minus the gear box covers. I say that with some trepidation.  In the exploded view of the SD40 parts diagram it shows the covers as part of the "assembly".  I assumed they were.  When they didn't show up I e-mailed Athearn and asked if they were not part and did I need to order them seperately.  They sent me three new covers  with  a note attached saying they were available seperately for $8.95 a dozen and were not part of the "assembly". Thank you Athearn guys. A nice gesture which won't be forgotten.

This first picture shows how much I trimmed the styrene post I previously glued into the truck frame. It is actually flush with the cross member(Bolster).  I am beginning to think this was a mistake in material selection.  This post takes all the stress of draw bar pull and I don't think it will last very long. We'll see. At this point I was concerned about clearances .  As the next photo shows everything worked out just fine but it IS really close under there.  I cleaned up the u-joint castings just to make sure but there is no intereference.

I did have to make a modification to the gear box cover.  It would not snap shut over the gear tower when I installed the truck in the underframe. If you look closely at the two covers side by side you'll notice that the left one is taller.  I took about .010" out of the right hand one.  It then fit just fine and did not interfere with the worm gear . Previously I was concerned with finding a way to keep the trucks held in place with some sort of a clip arrangement.  Well, you can see by the slightly out of focus fourth photo of the truck mounted with the cover in place that the protruding arms do a very nice job of just that. Athearn to the rescue again!!Some surgery has to be done on the deck to allow swing room for the trucks and more room for the drive shaft and flywheels but this was a good day in the history of these models as I am convinced that they are going to run very well and reliably now without too much further problems.  I still have to deal with electrical pick ups but that shouldn't be too much of a problem.....and then the sound systems, of course.  That's a whole new univeerse for me.

The last photo shows the roof master mounted on a 1/8" aluminum plate.  I ran out of similar thickness styrene so I ran out in the shop and hacked this out of some old airplane stuff I had lying around. Aluminum like this (6061T6) is machineable with woodworking tools, I cut it on my table saw, is very stiff in this thickness and I can debond it if I really want to after I'm done with it . It should make an excellent base for casting. I'm still tinkering with the master, filling small holes and such.  As you can see, all the warp has been removed by bonding it to the plate with CYA.

New Benchwork

This is the new bench work for the engine service area referenced on the new sketch for Bridge, Oregon. It has been permanently attached to the walls.  New sheetrock work has been accomplished including the "lid".  The front of the bench will be finished, probably with a curtain in this area. Yet to be determined.

Archer Louvered Vents

These are the Archer Vents (Resin castings on decal paper) added to both engines in the appropriate places. (Battery boxes, doors and accessory panels)  While they are not perfect, they are very good and about the only way I was going to get them on these models without making seperate castings from another master and applying them that way.  This is much easier and quicker.  I work slowly and this took about an hour to do both sides of both units.  For some reason or other the vents on the brass substrate looks "cleaner" but I suppose it won't matter when painted and weathered.  I am very happy with this product so far. I'll be ordering some "GE" style tread plate and some more "Weld bead" soon.

Athearn is sending the covers for the worm drive assemblies but I still haven't  received the motors from Micro Mark. It looks like everything is going to fit in the available space but I have some surgery to do on the styrene deck to get clearance for the u-joints and drive shafts.  There is still some question about the main reservoirs which are located inside the cooling air intake screens whether they will clear the power truck "swing".  Hope so, because I'm counting on them to hide the upper gear tower.  When that is solved  I can go about devising a hold down system for the long hood(s).  Some sort of a machine screw and  tapped styrene block arrangement I think.  Engineering on the fly !

The engine service and car repair area benchwork installation

Layout Design Plan "B"

A funny thing happened on the way to installing benchwork under the portion of the layout shown by the previous sketch in this Blog. The switches on the yard lead were obviously out of reach !  So far out of reach that even if I stood on a stool or step ladder I WAS NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO REACH THEM ! Due to the nature of the basement construction there, it is impossible get to them from underneath.  This is not acceptable. Here is my solution at least for now.  It has given me a chance to rethink this whole area of the railroad too.

  There were too many yard tracks to begin with. There was no engine service or car repair facilities and only one reason for the standard gauge to be there.The wood chip facility.  This new design satisfies those concerns. Too many yard tracks? In the waning years of my employment with big yellow I worked at an outside point that had a 4 track yard.  We routinely switched 100 car trains there daily and built 100 plus car outbound trains without too much fuss. The longest track was about 70 car lengths and we had about a 60 car length lead. Everything else was shorter. Here, I'm dealing with 12 car trains maximum and not much main line traffic. There shouldn't be a problem. If it gets a little tight it just might add to the fun.

This plan swaps places with the geography but adds to the meandering look that I am striving for. It also adds revenue loads for the standard gauge and will make switching more interesting and involved when the local shows up from Coos Bay.