Just finished installing the turnout and track for the coal trestle. There is a slight S turn going into the trestle siding but all of the hoppers are going to be 33 feet long. I think it will be ok, the mainline track radius is 19 inches with an easement near the area of the turnout. What do you think? Joe
Sounds like that should work okay for you Joe since they are shorter hoppers. looks like it will be a cool feature.
Yesterday evening I finished the 8 pulleys that go on the bridge. They started out as sewing bobbins that I glued to a 3 inch piece of dowel rod in the center hole with the bobbin at the end of the rod. Next I put the bobbin dowel assembly in a cordless drill and using a coarse file made the diameter of the bobbin smaller. They were 0.80 inch diameter and I filed them to 0.60, the drill makes quick work. After that I used a razor saw to cut the excess dowel rod so the pulley has a plugged hole and flush with the outside end plates. I then drilled a 0.098 inch hole all the way through the bobbin dowel assembly. The pulley is ready to paint, I did them with white. After the pulleys I'm going back to work on the coal trestle. Joe
These'll need a ton of grime, grease and rust, as they would have seen heavy use when the lift section was operated. Looks great!
Thank you Hemi. They were quite a long process but I like how they turned out. Will install the pulleys this afternoon. I'm having trouble finding something to model the cables. The #24 gauge wire I have on the winches and counterbalances is not what I want, they are too big. I've have had one suggestion to use heavy nylon thread but couldn't find it at Walmart and Michael's. Does anyone have any suggestions? They are.will be greatly appreciated. Joe
What about nylon fishing line leader? I don't know how well it would take to coloring. A very light coating of glue should hold it in place coiled on the drums.
Take a look a the jewelry/beads department at Michael's or other craft stores. I think people use thin wire to make bead bracelets and necklaces.
You can buy 8# Gray Braided Fishing Line at any store that sells fishing supplies. Its should be thin enough. Its braided line so it should look a lot like steel cable.
You could also try using "EZ Line". Look into N Scale EZ-Line Fine (.003) Rust or N Scale EZ-Line Heavy (.006) Rust https://www.fiferhobby.com/scenery-details/
Thank you guys for your thoughts !I!! I bought some 0.015 inch jewelry thread from Michael's but it's too small, I think I need something about 0.040 to 0.060 inch diameter. The fishing line might work like Hytec and mtntrainman suggestions. Joe
Not sure if you mean inch or mm diameter. But here is a chart of the diameter of braided fishing line... https://www.thehulltruth.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=265758&stc=1&d=1346982242
Also....if there is an upholstery shop near you...go in and ask them about their Canvas sewing thread. If the size/color looks good they might just give you a couple of yards of the stuff for free... ** I worked summers...when i wasnt driving a school bus...at a friends upholstery shop. He had all kinds of different diametr threads he used...depending on the job requirements.
First off, great work, I'm really impressed. On the thread the .015 would be about 2 1/2 inches so probably more to scale than the .040-.060 at 6" to almost 10" but maybe the .015 is just too small for someone to get the idea of what is going on. I've found that to be true while designing and printing some small objects with a 3D printer. Sometimes you need the detail to be bigger than scale just so someone can see some detail. Sumner
Thank you guys for your replies!!! Thank you Tom for your suggestion of using heavy nylon thread!!! It is perfect. Found a spool of 0.0394 inch nylon string in the fishing section at Walmart this morning and also got a couple of one ounce weights. When I got home I painted eight feet of the string brown and cleaned up the winches by removing all of the wires. Then I installed the string on the winches, each winch has two feet of brown string. The one ounce weights were installed into the counterbalances to provide some load on the strings. Joe