Monthly Archives: March 2007

Rust Never Sleeps — And it Only Costs 99 Cents

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I think that most modelers these days paint their rails to represent rust. But, the first thought most modelers have is to run out to the hobby shop and spend three or four dollars on a little bottle of PollyS Rail Brown, or, six or seven dollars on the Floquil Rail Brown spray paint. The problem with that is that ever since Testors took over Floquil, there has been a real shift in the quality of the paints — and the price has increased, to boot!

I’ve finally found what I think is an excellent alternative to Rail Brown: Apple Barrel #20511 Brown Oxide. The price is usually about 99 cents at larger craft stores like Michael’s or A.C. Moore — even less if you catch a sale. Plus the bottle’s twice as big as the PollyS Rail Brown. You cant’ beat that with a stick! Nor, can you argue with the results.

It’s amazing the difference a little time with a paintbrush can make. The picture at left is un-painted Peco On30 Flex track, and the picture at right shows the result after painting. BTW, I usually only paint the side that will be visible — painting by hand takes a long time, you know! But, on the modules, since they could conceivably be seen from either side, I’ll need to paint both sides of the rail!

A Station Design for the C&S

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Alna Center Station during railroad operations. Museum collection, from the Davis Family Collection. This tiny station structure may be familiar, if you’ve been reading this site for any length of time. It the Alna Center Station on the WW&F during the days when the railroad was in operation. This picture is part of the Museum collection, from the Davis Family Collection. 

I post this today for two reason. First, it’s perfectly sized, and is of just the right character, to be used as a common station on the Choptank & Southern (there will be three towns that rank a real station like this). And secondly, because of an ad in the most recent Narrow Gauge & Shortline Gazette showing a new kit for this structure being available from Banta Modelworks. This station design was repeated on the WW&F at Alna Center and Sheepscot, and likely other smaller stations as well.

Unfortunately, I haven’t yet found any drawings for the structure on line to determine the dimensions. I know the building is tiny, and I’m really hoping that it is, overall, less than about 16 feet deep. That would allow it to be nestled onto the station platform on the new yard modules.

The only image I’ve been able to find of the model on line is this picture of the O-scale kit that was put out by Portland Locomotive Works. Apparently, the kit has been available for some time (it first appeared at Valley Model Trains in August of 2005), but it appears that the product line has been bought by Banta.I’m assuming the renewed interest is due, in part, to the National Narrow Gauge Convention being held in Portland, ME, which is only a short drive from the WW&F property.

By the way, it looks as if the folks at the museum have been really, really busy. The track that #10 is on in this picture wasn’t there when we visited just this past October!

Curved Modules

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We’ve been merrily building away at modules, and so far, most of them are straight! Our portable world is over 40′ long in a perfectly straight line! But, to make a typical curved module, based on the specification that was decided upon, a 90° curve creates a module that consumes a 44″x44″ area, or, is 62″ from corner to corner. Making the module itself curved helps, but a full 90° is still pretty ungainly. Enter the “half curve” or 45° curve:

 The 45° module is much smaller, and a little less awkward to move around. It’s also a lot more flexible when it comes to laying out the modules for a show.

Since we don’t really care much about running in circles, perfect symmetry is not an issue, as far as the final layout is concerned, so I’ve added the 6″ straight track at each interface that’s required by the module specs. That allows designing the 45° module so that it can be used alone to create a “dog-leg.” Or, the module can easily be flipped, creating an offset, and still meet the module specifications of a minimum 12″ straight track in the S-curve.

Of course, any number of straight modules could be inserted between a pair of curves, creating a “long curve” or a “long offset” situation.

 

A Prototype Peek

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This picture at railpictures.net shows the prototype Lake Placid yard. This shot was taken from what would be the station on my version of the yard, looking from the stub-end back towards the yard throat.

Obviously, I’ve taken a few liberties with the layout — moving the station and relocating the tracks slightly. I do, however, think that I will have done a pretty good job of retaining the flavor of the operation of the yard.

I thought that I had, at one point or another, outlined the operations and basic movements that occurred at the yard, but, I can’t find the posting anywhere. I’ll try to dig up the text, and post it in the next few days.

Module Progress — Aerial View

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Since I know someone’s bound to ask about the track arrangement for the modules … Here’s an aerial view, as of this morning. The track arrangement is based on the prototype arrangement at Lake Placid, NY., though I’ve taken a couple of liberties.

The first is the addition of the switcher pocket, which is the little spur at the upper left of the photograph. The second is the engine facility. The prototype had a turntable, which would have appeared in the big, sandy area in the left half of the picture. However, there just wasn’t room to get a large enough turntable in there. About 9″ (36 scale feet) was all I could wedge in.

 After some discussion and scheming with fellow moduleer David, is the addition of a “turntable module” as shown to the left. The space required to get an appropriate curve and track alignment onto the turntable left ample room for additional engine servicing tracks. I guess I could conceivably bring the track back to the “main” station track, as well, though it would be a fairly major undertaking at this point. We’ll see about that as work progresses. It boils down to whether or not I have time, at this point, to add it prior to the Kimberton meet. This would be a major departure from the prototype’s arrangement.

I cheated to take the picture. I’m doing a little cleanup in the layout room, so that I have room to move these modules to something approximating their final location when they’re a part of the layout, and so, they were (still attached together!) leaning against a wall.

I was surprised by a couple of things. First, even at 2ft x 8ft, the pair of modules was amazingly light — less than 35lbs! Second, there were only a few, tiny bits of loose scenic materials. Usually, when I turn a module on its end or side for the first time, I lose a good amount of ground foam.