Newcomer-Layout

Steffen B Jan 14, 2016

  1. Steffen B

    Steffen B TrainBoard Member

    200
    667
    18
  2. Joe Lovett

    Joe Lovett TrainBoard Member

    1,608
    4,575
    62
    Steffen, I particularly like the barn. Your layout is looking great, looking forward to seeing more. I've been following your build thread since the beginning.

    Joe
     
    bostonjim and Steffen B like this.
  3. Steffen B

    Steffen B TrainBoard Member

    200
    667
    18
    Hi Kurt and guys, here comes a little nice gimmick for one evening.

    I was wondering if I could have grain doors without blocking movement of the small pin on inner downside of the MTL car door and thus the movement of the whole door. And I did not want to have a big gap between boards and car wall to allow this movement.
    Furthermore I think doors of a loaded car in transit have to be closed and sealed. Otherwise it would be a stationary car at the elevator side.
    So what to do?

    The solution is to connect both doors and boards and to move these parts together.

    I made weathered boards from scrap wood and cut a corner where should be room for the small door pin.
    20200129_201029.jpg
    20200129_201646.jpg

    Then I glued a small strip of styrene on the inside of the door. The strip has to bridge the thickness of the car wall, so the boards can slide just behind the wall. I painted visible sides of the strips with brown.
    20200129_201922.jpg

    20200129_203025.jpg

    Then I glued the boards on the strips leaving no gaps at car bottom.
    20200129_202609.jpg

    20200129_202718.jpg

    20200129_200143.jpg

    Voila, now I have a car showing grain doors while being loaded by my elevator agent, but having closed doors while it is in transit as part of a freight train. And with its closed doors it can be switched to other destinations than the elevator.
    However, the price is a slightly reduced opening of the car door. But for me this is ok. :)
    20200129_204542.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jan 29, 2020
    gmorider, HemiAdda2d, ZFRANK and 8 others like this.
  4. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

    9,813
    14,199
    147
    Level: genius!!

    (y) Looks great!
     
    Steffen B likes this.
  5. shamoo737

    shamoo737 Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    4,596
    550
    72
    Nice work. It’s always the little details that I appreciate the most.
     
    Kurt Moose, bostonjim and Steffen B like this.
  6. Joe Lovett

    Joe Lovett TrainBoard Member

    1,608
    4,575
    62
    Great job Steffen!!! The boxcar looks fantastic with the boards in the opening. I need to do that for my grain mill fleet.

    Joe
     
    Steffen B likes this.
  7. rray

    rray Staff Member

    8,277
    9,277
    133
    Another detail to do is cut up a stack of spare doors and carefully sand or slice them thinner, and stack them on the side of the elevator to represent more doors available for more cars, and also get some tan ground foam and sprinkle a bit on the roadbed to represent some spilled grain.

    TRUE STORIES FROM C&NW
    Grain Doors
    Conductor Ed Feeley had a lucrative used lumber business going on the side from stolen grain doors. Before jumbo covered hoppers, grain was loaded at all the elevators in forty-foot boxcars. To load, the door opposite the loading spout was closed and sealed for leaks. The other door had heavy wood panels, braced plywood, or pre-made wood grain doors fastened from the inside. Grain doors typically covered about 3/4 of the opening, and the bulk product filled the car below that line. Exterior doors where then closed to protect the load, and unloading was a labor intensive task usually involving a hand shovel and brooms.

    Doors were inched open, and the grain simply spilled out. In later years, grain doors were made of disposable heavy cardboard and paper, but many wood doors were reusable and stored in stacks at elevators, or in railroad freight buildings, making them a target for thieves like Ed. Ed would use his own pickup truck to load the stolen doors from empty cars, or sometimes he would take doors from stacks piled at local elevators under darkness. Ed never got caught, and nowadays would be looking at prison time for his "hobby."
     
    gmorider, Steffen B, Kez and 2 others like this.
  8. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

    9,813
    14,199
    147
    Ol' Ed, a real entrepreneur......;)
     
  9. Steffen B

    Steffen B TrainBoard Member

    200
    667
    18
    Because of a break in gardening I could start work on the water tower. I do not like the enclosed substructure of the tank, so I tried to construct a typical open frame.
    upload_2020-5-15_10-26-2.png

    There is no special prototype but I took orientation from a C&NW tower at Lusk (photo by Wikipedia).

    upload_2020-5-15_10-28-23.png

    For making the beam structure I made a template. So I could glue small wooden strips (1.2 x 1.2 mm and 1 x 1 mm) in quick and safe way.
    20200514_202600_1.jpg
    20200514_203335_1.jpg

    The frost box is made from 7 x 7 mm wood strip.
    All parts are glued on a base plate, which will be unvisible after positioning on the layout.
    20200514_215255_1.jpg
    20200514_223346_1.jpg

    That's the look I want:
    20200514_223430_1.jpg

    So far for the moment.
    I hope you all are ok in these special and crazy times.
     
    HoboTim, gmorider, zdrada69 and 3 others like this.
  10. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    22,014
    27,407
    253
    Steffen,

    Your tank looks great!
    Lusk, WY is a bit out in the middle of nowhere. There's not much to see around that area, except for Powder River coal train movements!

    You didn't ask, but here's the Lusk depot:

    [​IMG]

    And the tank:

    [​IMG]

    I wish I took more angles of it...
     
  11. JoeS

    JoeS TrainBoard Member

    3,191
    1,211
    64
    The tower base you made is very good! I think its a pretty good representation.

    Is the tower at Lusk still standing?
     
  12. rray

    rray Staff Member

    8,277
    9,277
    133
    You did a great job with the water tank kit Steffen. :D

    I was the guy who produced that water tower kit for Micro-Trains. I did not want to have the structure base, but MTL insisted, and it was their money.

    I did make 2 other styles of water tower base, the straight open frame, and the slanted open frame, both with standpipe rooms:

    This is the first design I made, and put on my Issaquah module about 15 years ago:
    [​IMG]

    And this is the one I made for my Lester module, but will be modifying it to a straight leg design:
    [​IMG]

    Anyways, these are the designs that your water tank were based on.
     
  13. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

    22,014
    27,407
    253
    As of 2006, yes, but I think it was there in 2016 when I passed thru again.
     
    Kurt Moose likes this.
  14. Steffen B

    Steffen B TrainBoard Member

    200
    667
    18
    Hi all, thank you very much.

    @Robert: These are wonderful models, too bad that you couldn't make it in this way.
     
  15. Steffen B

    Steffen B TrainBoard Member

    200
    667
    18
    Yesterday I could finish a 2nd major structure, the water tower. I still have to add ladder and roof hatch after installing on the layout.
    I used wire instead the wooden laser part for spout chains.
    This beautiful little thing was a really big challenge for me but was worth the effort.

    20200528_205929.jpg

    20200528_205953.jpg

    Now I am preparing the tower location on my layout for final installation:

    20200528_211545.jpg

    20200528_214535.jpg

    20200528_215643.jpg
     
    Last edited: May 29, 2020
  16. bostonjim

    bostonjim TrainBoard Member

    846
    1,105
    27
    Nice job. Well done. Jim
     
  17. rray

    rray Staff Member

    8,277
    9,277
    133
    It really looks good!
     
  18. Kurt Moose

    Kurt Moose TrainBoard Member

    9,813
    14,199
    147
    The details are great!!(y)
     
  19. Joe Lovett

    Joe Lovett TrainBoard Member

    1,608
    4,575
    62
    Steffen, the water tower looks fantastic.

    Joe
     
  20. CNE1899

    CNE1899 TrainBoard Member

    1,097
    1,872
    36
    Very nice! Base came out great!
     

Share This Page