The Saga of #953 You would not believe the grief this engine has given me to get it to the point where it is presentable! The engine was scratchbuilt by Frank Miller in 2009. I gave him drivers and a motor. He did the rest. The engine is a V1 class 4-6-0. These are unusual [...]
Many people have seen the photos of my N&W K1 on Matt Forsyth’s blog. But what they didn’t see was the process that took place over the span of 11 months. A little background: I had the K1 “custom built” by someone who had a reputation as a superior model builder. The K1′s boiler was [...]
By Rob Adams The 2011 version of the renowned Naperville RPM meet was held October 20-23, 2011 at Lisle, Illinois and as in years past was well-attended with many excellent models on display. If you haven’t attended a Railroad Prototype Modelers (RPM) meet, you should make it a point to do so. The opportunities to [...]
I’ve been working with Scott Mann and his builder to make sure the N&W M 4-8-0 is built correctly. I’ve been given drawings to examine and correct. It’s been a fascinating look behind the scenes at what it takes to get a model built. I’ve been given permission by Scott to post drawings of the [...]
I was walking around the vendor halls at Indy and came upon a table with the most fantastic looking conifer trees I’ve ever seen. Long story short, I bought all 23 trees the guy had and a package of 18 tree stumps. The trees are made by Canyon Creek Scenics and they ain’t cheap, but [...]
So, I finally got back to working on the scenery around the Damascus Millworks and I wanted to share that with you.
You would not believe the grief this engine has given me to get it to the point where it is presentable!
The engine was scratchbuilt by Frank Miller in 2009. I gave him drivers and a motor. He did the rest. The engine is a V1 class 4-6-0. These are unusual because the driver size as-built was 56″ and later increased to 62″. This has 62″ drivers.
The tender I originally had behind this was a USRA 10,000 gallon unit which I quickly realized was incorrect. I needed a 9000 gallon tender and no one has ever made one. I decided to make a tender myself.
Many people have seen the photos of my N&W K1 on Matt Forsyth’s blog. But what they didn’t see was the process that took place over the span of 11 months.
A little background: I had the K1 “custom built” by someone who had a reputation as a superior model builder. The K1′s boiler was the only thing he actually scratchbuilt. The rest was made of commercial parts. The cab and cylinders came from a Sunset N&W K3. The tender is a USH NKP berk tender. The chassis is from a PFM Toby USRA Heavy 4-8-2. I gave him all these components and a substantial deposit. What I got back was the pile of crap that you’ll see in these photos. So, here we go! (Click on the photos for larger unclipped images then use the BACK button to go back to the blog text.)
By Rob Adams
The 2011 version of the renowned Naperville RPM meet was held October 20-23, 2011 at Lisle, Illinois and as in years past was well-attended with many excellent models on display. If you haven’t attended a Railroad Prototype Modelers (RPM) meet, you should make it a point to do so. The opportunities to interact with other modelers of all skill levels and learn new techniques is perhaps the most valuable part of the experience. Regardless of your prototype choice, era or scale, the models, displays and layouts exhibited will serve to inspire your own modeling.
Notable new O Scale products on display at the meet this year were Archer Fine Transfers excellent line of resin rivet head, louver and safety tread decals, the wonderful Rails Unlimited Milwaukee Road Stock car, and Mullet River Model Work’s upcoming CB&Q truss rod box car model. I’m particularly excited about the Mullet River box car, which was a common Burlington house car during the steam and early diesel era. It will be offered as-built with double-sheathed ends, and as rebuilt with steel ends and metal clad roof. This should be considered an essential freight car for any steam era modeler in O scale. I was most remiss in not snapping any photos of the pilot models, but trust me, you’ll want at least one of them on your roster!
Great Northern box car 47451
Photo 1: A model of GN box car 47451 as built by Dick Scott. Models in the back ground are HO Scale.
There were fewer finished O scale models on display than the last couple of years, but those exhibited were impressive. Of particular note was a beautiful Great Northern box car model built by Dick Scott. The car replicates one of the GN’s signature box cars built for the road from 1937 to 1942 and numbering 8000 cars in the series 45000-52999.
Dick’s model was created from:
Coincidentally, Railway Prototype Cyclopedia Volume 23 published by RP Cyc Publishing was released in concert with the Lisle RPM Meet. It includes an excellent feature about Mid-Century 40’6″ Composite Wood Sheathed Box Cars 1937-43, with thorough coverage of the GN cars, including drawings, equipment diagrams and more than two dozen prototype photographs. I would recommend it for any modeler interested in freight car history and modeling.
More information about this wonderful publication can be found at: http://www.rpcycpub.com/
Model Images from the Lisle RPM Meet
Photo 2: A side view of GN47451 as modeled in O scale by Dick Scott
Photo 3: A close up of the "B" end of GN47451 as modeled in O scale by Dick Scott
Photo 4: A side close up of GN47451 as modeled in O scale by Dick Scott, showing the fastener detail, dimensional data, chalk marks and repack stencils
Photo 5: A view of the roof and running board detail of GN47451 as modeled in O scale by Dick Scott.
Photo 6: A view of the underframe detail on GN47451 as modeled in O scale by Dick Scott.
Photo 7: Grand Trunk Western GP9 4432 as modeled in O Scale by Paul Cervenka. Paul's HO scale GTW RPO is in the foreground.
Photo 8: Another view of Grand Trunk Western GP9 4432 as modeled in O Scale by Paul Cervenka.
Photo 9: Proto:48 models built and displayed by John Pautz of American Switch & Signal.
Photo 10: A B&O M-53, one of the Proto:48 models built and displayed by John Pautz of American Switch & Signal.
Photo 11: Milwaukee Rib-side box car, one of the Proto:48 models built and displayed by John Pautz of American Switch & Signal.
All photographs by Rob Adams.
I’ve been working with Scott Mann and his builder to make sure the N&W M 4-8-0 is built correctly. I’ve been given drawings to examine and correct. It’s been a fascinating look behind the scenes at what it takes to get a model built. I’ve been given permission by Scott to post drawings of the variations.
If it were not for Steve Jobs you would not be reading this today. Back in late 1985 I came across the Macintosh computer. A friend of mine had bought one and was showing me MacWrite and MacDraw, two programs that came with the Mac. To be honest, I was not impressed. My Commodore 64 cost one-tenth as much and could do the same things, or so I thought.
About a year later I had my own “fat” Mac with 1Mb of RAM and a 10Mb Hyperdrive internal hard drive. That Hyperdrive cost $600! Then, a couple months later a friend of mine approached me with an offer to buy an Apple Laserwriter Plus for less than wholesale. I snapped it up and started a desktop publishing business while I was still working at General Electric Space Division.
I still have a copy of PageMaker 1.2 in a box with a floppy disk and printed manual. Armed with PageMaker, Photoshop and FreeHand, I was in business. By 1990 I’d had enough of the corporate grind and left GE to do DP full-time. By now I had a Mac IIci roaring along at 20Mhz with 8Mb RAM (at $1000 a Mb) and a 40Mb hard drive. I’d added a hard drive to my LaserWriter so it could access all the fonts I’d collected (over 1000) and not have to download them all to the printer’s memory. I was doing newsletters for small businesses and I worked on a management publication for a Fortune 500 company with a friend.
Meanwhile, I kept upgrading Macs whenever possible. After Jobs left Apple, it seemed like the Graphic Arts industry was the only thing holding Apple up. But we all hung in there and Jobs finally came back bringing with him the next big thing for the Mac, the new OS based on a UNIX kernel.
I’ve been through a slew of Macs: “fat” Mac, Mac SE, II, IIci, IIfx (40MHz – “wicked fast”), a “pizza box” 650, 8500, 9500, G3, G4, G5, G3 iBook, G4 iBook, MacBook, MacMini, and a 2 GHz MacBook Pro with 4Gb RAM.
Steve Jobs and the Macintosh allowed me to do what Joseph Campbell recommended, live my dream. I’ve always been a writer, even when I was working as a chemist and an engineer. It’s been what I do best and the Mac has allowed me to share that with you. Without Steve Jobs and the Macintosh, there would be no O Scale Trains Magazine.
So, farewell and thank you, Mr. Jobs. You left your mark on my life and I, for one, am grateful for it.
Joe Giannovario, Editor-in-Chief & Publisher
O Scale Trains Magazine
I was walking around the vendor halls at Indy and came upon a table with the most fantastic looking conifer trees I’ve ever seen. Long story short, I bought all 23 trees the guy had and a package of 18 tree stumps. The trees are made by Canyon Creek Scenics and they ain’t cheap, but I feel they are worth the money. The majority of my trees and scenery products come from Scenic Express which has just about anything you’d want. But these Canyon Creek trees are something else.
The masses have spoken and the voting is done. The 2011 O Scale Hall Of Fame inductees are:
Thanks to the O Scale Kings for organizing and hosting the vote.
So, I finally got back to working on the scenery around the Damascus Millworks and I wanted to share that with you.
The latest issue of OST (#58 – Sept/Oct 2011) has a discussion of my control scheme for the OST layout. In the next to last paragraph I mentioned a panel of DPDT switches so that I can control whether a module gets power or not and also to remove power in case of a short circuit. The boosters don’t reset unless the short is removed. So, here is the installation of that panel.
This project originally appeared in O Scale Trains Issue #3, published in 2002
By Harry Hieke
Working Roof Hatches – Hatch Opening
Usually early brass engines had a roof hatch soldered directly to the roof with two flat square bars as tracks. To remove these, hold the part in question with the forceps and apply heat in a slow circular fashion about half flame to the part in question only, gently lifting as the heat is applied. As soon as one part lifts free set it down and go to the next part using the residual heat build up from the last part to shorten the heating time for the next part. Once the old hatch and the tracks are removed, use the brush and heat technique to remove all the old solder then quench the roof with the squeegee.
Photo 1: A working hatch created using the techniques described in this article with a "Z" channel substituted for the rails
The next step is cutting the hole for the working hatch. If you have the correct prototype drawing, determine the hole size and position and carefully scribe them using a scribe or X-acto knife and straight edge on the roof top. If you do not have the prototype drawing and are satisfied that the old hatch and tracks were correct, then simply follow the inside solder edge of the old track and go to the end of the old solder track for the front hole and use the hatch itself to determine the length of the hole. Again using a scribe and straightedge scribe all four sides of the edge opening. Depending on your proficiency with the cut off wheel you can immediately proceed to cut the opening, or if you are not that confident, drill four safety holes at each corner (See Fig 11).
Figure 11: Marking and drilling locations for roof hatch openings
Using the drawing, drill the holes inside the scribed lines so that there is no hole outside any of the scribed edges. Use the cut off wheel and this can be a tedious task at first. The best way to do this is to hold the Dremel tool like a pencil and position the outside of the hand and the small finger against the cab roof as a brace. This way if a slip occurs it will only be a small short slip. Using the foot switch get the Dremel tool into the low RPM range, about 1000-1200 rpm, and touch the cut off wheel to the inside of one of the scribed lines. Practice this on a piece of scrap brass before going to the actual cab roof. The correct motion of the Dremel tool should be a general rocking motion parallel to the scribed line from one end to the other until the pilot holes are breached. It is not necessary to go all the way through the roof at this point. Repeat this process on all four edges. One trick that I use here is to save my old cut off wheels after they’ve been worn down a bit, so they’re quite small in diameter, maybe 3/8 of an inch in diameter. This way small slots can be cut with more accuracy.
Cut first one side, then the next, then the next in rotation until all four sides are cut to an equal depth. Once through, tap the old center portion out and file the edges clean. Examine the hole for squareness and neatness and proceed to the next step.
Most roads used C channel for the hatch rails. The smallest C channel available from Special Shapes is 3/64 inch. This is about right. Cut the channel to the proper length and square the edges. Tin the sides and jig or hold in place while soldering as noted in the technique described in Part 2. The flat side of the channel should be the side facing the hole and should be flush with the side of the hole (see Fig 12).
Figure 12: Attachment of rails for sliding roof hatch
When you are satisfied that the channels are parallel and firmly soldered in place, it is time to construct the actual cab hatch. There are several ways to construct the hatch. Every railroad had a different style. Some of them had rivets on the ends, some of them bolts which held guides in place, some had angle iron stiffeners, others had wind deflectors in the rear, while almost all had a drip ledge along the front, and some had stops constructed of angle iron in the rear or the front. Examine photos of the actual hatches which you desire to model to determine which style to make. I like to use .020 brass to construct hatches as it has good structural integrity yet can still be formed and riveted with hand tools. The way I like to bend sheet brass is to score it using a small thin cut off wheel and a straight edge. (A note when scoring brass. Use the straight edge as a guide only. Don’t let the cut off wheel touch the edge. If you press the cut off wheel against the straightedge, it won’t be straight any more and useless as a guide.)
You have to experiment to find how many times to score the brass so as to produce a nice straight bend yet still have enough integrity so that when the bend is accomplished the brass doesn’t snap off. Generally, three to six strokes is all that is necessary. The bend can be accomplished using needle nose pliers to make a perfect right angle. If the hatch has been properly measured it should fit over top of the rails but not be so tight that it is difficult to move it. If the rails are not exactly parallel, the hatch will bind.
Once it is determined that the hatch is fitted properly and slides without binding. the next step is to determine the method of holding it in place. Regardless which method is used, it is required to solder a C shaped tab to the inside of the hatch roof. Care must be taken to apply only the correct amount of heat in this process and a proper fit must be guaranteed before the guide is soldered to the hatch.
Here’s one method. The cab should be laid on its roof with the hatch properly secured into the channels. To do this, lay a piece of brass on top of the hatch and use masking tape hold that piece to the cab roof. This will prevent the masking tape from melting when heat is applied to the inside of the roof. Next lay the keeper on the inside of the hatch, (see Fig-14). The keeper should be tinned and the inside of cab should be painted with liquid solder flux. The keeper should be as far forward on the hatch as possible and flush with the front edge of the hatch. When heat is being applied the flame should be down very low and applied only long enough to get the solder to flow onto the hatch from the keeper. This may only take a few seconds and must be immediately quenched.
Figure 14a: Method 1 keeper
Figure 14b: Method 2 keeper
Now turn the cab upright, remove the masking tape and assess how easily the hatch moves. If its satisfactory, the process is complete. If it’s unsatisfactory, reposition the keeper and repeat the process.
A second method is to make a removable hatch. This entails making a C shaped piece with holes drilled in it through which a round brass bar can be slid after the cab hatch has been put in place (See Fig-15). This can be accomplished remote from the cab so that no heat has to be applied to the existing cab roof.
A third method is to simply use a pair of scissors to cut the .020 brass. The cab hatch will be flat and there will be no bends on this one. Next, two “C†channels are cut the length of the cab roof hatch. These will be soldered to the hatch and are placed so as to interlock with the tracks on the cab roof.
Assemble the entire cab roof hatch, that is the two side rails and the top cover as shown in Fig 15. To jig the parts in place it is only necessary to place some weight on the actual hatch itself to hold all the parts steady. I usually just lay a small file or some tool which will not solder to the roof on top of the hatch to gently hold it in place after everything is aligned. Now carefully paint the edge where the “C†channel attaches to the hatch plate and apply heat one side at a time. Once the first side is soldered immediately quench, go to the second side apply some more solder flux and heat this side until a bond is secure.
Figure 15: Assembling the hatch
It is very easy to get a cold solder joint if the joint itself is not carefully observed during the soldering process. A complete joint must be made the whole length of the C channel along the length of the cab hatch. (A cold solder joint is simply a weak or ineffective joint for the purposes of this article.)
At this point we should have a pair of working windows and a working cab hatch.
Figure 16a: Tracing the cab roof contour to create a hatch drip rail
Some cab hatches have a water seal or drip rail along the front edge. The following technique will outline a method for constructing the forward water seal. Take the cab itself and lay the rear “visor†end on a piece of cardboard (See Fig 16a). Using a pencil outline the curvature of the cab roof on the cardboard. Carefully cut a 1 or 2 inch section along this curvature and retain this as a template. Measure from the top of the roof to the very top of the cab hatch. This measurement should be taken at the point of the attachment of the “C†channel of its most forward point (see Fig-16b). This should come out to be about 3/32.
Figure 16b: Attaching the drip rail
Measure the width from one “C†channel face to the other. This will vary from cab to cab. Call this dimension “W†on Fig 16b. On a piece of .020 brass lay out the width distance W and the height, which in our example is 3/32 inch. Also mark a fold line about 1/32 inch above the height of the C channel used to make the tracks. Scribe a second line about 1/16 inch above the fold line. Using this top line and the dimension W take the straightedge and construct a box which will be cut out and used for the drip rail.
Using your roof template give the bottom edge of the box the curvature of the roof. Mark this and use a Dremel sanding drum, or other bit, to reproduce this radius. Check it against the roof periodically until you are sure that you have matched the roof radius exactly.
Cut this piece out and bend it at the fold line. The best way to bend it is to grasp the edge with the curvature with a pair of long nose pliers with a straight edge against the bend. Lay the other side against a wood surface and gently bend this to a 90 degree angle. The next thing to do is to tin the inside edge of this where it will butt against the “C†channels with a small drop of solder (see Fig-16b).
Slide the roof hatch back to its farthest open position and place the drip rail in position. Close the cab roof hatch and the drip rail should gently seat above the top of the hatch. Assuming this all fits, reopen the hatch and paint the drip rail and front of the C channel tracks with liquid flux. Heat this area and when the flux starts to boil slowly flash the heat from the roof to the drip rail. After doing this two or three times touch the solder to the joint between the roof tip and the lower edge of the drip rail. The solder should immediately wick across the joint. At this point remove both the heat and the solder to avoid excess solder on the roof and quench the heat.
A brief note here, if more than one cab hatch is desirable then the proper construction sequence would be to first install all of the roof rails after the holes are cut, then install the hatches as described. The reason for this step would be that more heat is required to install a roof rail than is required to construct and fabricate a roof hatch. So that the possibility exists in installing subsequent roof rails of de-soldering already finished roof hatches.
The photo at the beginning shows yet another way to construct a working cab hatch. This method is favored by custom builder Frank Miller. The rails are z-channel and the hatch sides are bent over to form a lip that rides on the top edge of the “z”. A stop is soldered to the bottom side of the hatch to keep it from sliding off the rails. (See Photo 1)
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