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.

Update

I threw out the old hood roof master and spent a couple days making a new one.  I was never really satisfied with the old one and when I wrote that I was going to have to" splice in a piece " to finish up the "B" unit it was just enough to push me over the edge. The new one is much better with a much better contour.  It is long enough to cover the "B" unit hood in one piece and all I have to do is cut one to fit the cab unit. All the roof details will be added after  casting so I can vary them.  All in all a much better approach. The roof was made with two laminations of styrene and then filled with Squadron Green and White alternately to get the final contour. The Green was applied then filed to shape.  The low spots were filled with White and filed to final shape. The contrasting colors help to determine where and how much to shape the piece. You might notice small gaps in the fit.  There is a slight warp in the piece which will be taken out when I glue it to its backer plate prior to casting the resin pieces.  The styrene tends to warp when worked or glued with solvent adhesives both of which happened in this case.

The drive train components have arrived minus the motor's.  Back ordered, but the flywheels, couplings, driveshafts and u-joints are now on hand. The last thing to aquire is the worm assemblies from Athearn and that should happen within the week.  Really cool, something that runs!!!

Anote about the link to the Layout Design and Construction Page.  There is nothing there yet except an old travel log my wife wrote years ago.  While fun to us you might not find it very interesting or think you got shunted off into cyberspace.  NOT.  There will be stuff as advertised shortly, I'm working on it complete with photo's, it'll just take some time. So hang in there and keep checking back and maybe next time our daughters Seattle trip will be missing and the Oregon Coast Railroad will be in its place.

The pictures show that the models have aquired a fuel tank/battery box combo and the jack pads are attached to the "B" unit.  The cab unit has had a lot of contour work and clean up done to the cab roof and the jack pads are assembled and ready to install. All the pilots are now installed with the coupler pockets but much detailing still remains to be done there.

New House of Cards

A quick note to let you know I have not been sitting idle. This is another "construct", At least the "B" unit hood is actually "together". Note the pilots are installed also. The hood end is the first one I did and is a throw away, just propped there for the "visual". Note also that the roof is too short for the "B" unit and I'll have to splice an additional piece in there to finish it up.  The door on this end of the "B" unit hood, where the cab would normally be, is an access for a hostler's stand. The unit is almost entirely styrene save for two brass plates that mount the trucks and tie the underframe together. The radiator air intakes are also brass channel and screening. There is much to be done, especially in the area of detailing but little by little it gets there.

OOPS !!!!!

My Bachmann 10 wheeler arrived right on time via UPS. I opened the box and to my horror it was "G" scale !! EEE Gads those things are huge.  I goofed while in a bidding frenzy on Ebay and ended up with a really nice model I can't use.  All those nights researching whaleback tenders have not gone for naught as it is back on the block. You have a couple days to grab a nice bargain........at dummies expense.

Layout Sketch

This is a preliminary sketch of the joint standard/narrow gauge yard at Bridge, Oregon. This is where most of the tonnage on the railroad originates and where a great deal of the switching occurs. It is also where a possible continuous run connection might be located. I think a change is already in the works as no human can squeeze between the leaning post and the benchwork so I think I'll just connect it to the post and create a little more real estate.  I really don't like using hatches but in this case I don't see much of an alternative.  Without it, there is no access to the far reaches of the layout.  If I move the track further in I waste much valuable space.  Space I fought hard for as it overhangs a retaining wall and it took much effort and expense to take back from the "dungeon". You can see now how I am going to carve away at the benchwork shown in the photo in order to create "operator " space.  Also note that there is a "test track" branching off of the lead that will be dual gauge.  It punches through the wall and emerges in the workshop ending up right next to my workbench. Not bad for an amateur.  Now, to see if it will actually work!!!

More layout stuff

This is the Chief Train Dispatchers Office.  It is also my workshop.  There is a built in workbench behind the window.  I put this stuff here by framing these walls because there are heating ducts hanging down very low inside that can't really be moved and the space isn't much good for anything else, layout wise.  There will be a door where the sheetrock t-square is hanging. The railroads name above the window and a fancy chalkboard to the left.  Should look pretty cool when everything is trimmed out.