Rainier Great Western Const Update

RGW Feb 19, 2007

  1. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    It’s nice to hear no one actually has COVID. I’m glad you guys are being safe and making headway. I’ve been exposed twice in the past 2 weeks at work, my going to the club is on hold so I don’t take it to the guys older than me there.
    I think there is a great social aspect to this hobby that gets over looked. Keep on as you all can Michael, it’s nice to see your progress.

    Happy New Year buddy!
     
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  2. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    A very Happy & Healthy New Year to you and all of your fantastic crew!
     
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  3. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks Ken, same to you!
     
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  4. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Another productive night at the RGW. I finished the second 737 and started on #3.

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    I am using a decal mask system from Vintage Flyer decals. I sent them what model I was using and they cut the masks out to fit the window shape.

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    It's a bit laborious to put on the masks, but I believe in the end it will be time well spent.

    Wain continued the ballasting in South Seattle Yard. He's coming down the grade into the yard. Most of this grade is obscured so we aren't going overboard and wasting ballast, but he is giving it enough in case some intrepid photographer gets a hankering for an unusual shot or two.

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    Rey continued cleaning track in Maple Valley then found a kink in a curved turnout that was causing havoc with his caboose. The kink is at the top of the file in the foreground just beyond the points.

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    By evening's end he'd done about all that could be done to fix the issue. A complete fix would mean tearing this whole section out. We're not going there for a caboose! The flat car went through with no issues.

    Well, we welcomed in 2021 and wished good riddance to 2020. Hope you did too. Until next week....
     
  5. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    Time to convert to EOT’s!!!
    Nice update Mike!
     
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  6. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Just realized I didn't do an update last week. We were again well short as only Rey and I made it. Wain had come by on Saturday to finish the ballast at Black River Jct.

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    Meanwhile I started working on resurrecting a $1 'aged' swap meet find. It was two roundhouse engine facility kits that were kitbashed together. Now, this kit was in horrid shape right after completion, let alone after years of sitting under my layout collecting dust. But the thing that drew me to it was the literal sag in the roof.

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    The purpose of this structure is to hide the return loop track in the South Seattle Yard as it skates under the staging tracks at one end and back out the other. It's perfect for that, as long as we can "fix" it. There's so much here to undo, then put back in usable form. Fortunately the glue has cracked right on the seams, so I don't have to try and pry it apart. I'm sure I'll get into this more tonight.

    Thanks for checking in.
     
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  7. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Nice lots of projects going over at the RGW
     
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  8. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    One of tonight's projects was to close the gap between the subroadbed and the backdrop in Black River Junction. Wain tackled that head on. He'd already carved the first foam landform when I got over there.

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    We use a Woodland Scenics road marking tool to find and set the curve. We then transfer that curve to the foam, so that cut follows the backdrop perfectly.

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    After carving the foam with a hot wire foam cutter, we test fit the landform.

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    Once satisfied, Wain pulls it off the layout, carves the profile we want; in this case slopes toward the track and away from the track and then we put it in place and start in the next one.

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    Only one more to go. The landforms are not glued in place until the last step. We'll take them all off the layout, paint and scenic them, then glue them in place.

    Reynold continued his work on the track. Using an NMRA gauge, he's working his way around the trackage checking for any ballast that infringes on the rails.

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    One other addition tonight was the completion of the rock wall down the grade into South Seattle Yard.

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    Wain did a masterful job with the painting and install of these wall sections and the wall cap.

    I made good progress with the swap meet building, leaving a ton of scrap in my wake with the dremel, but it's in no condition to take pictures. So those we'll have to show them later.

    That's it for tonight, thanks for checking in.
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2021
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  9. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Spent some time today working on the swap meet warehouse. Last Tuesday I took the right-most section off and started trimming the walls and roof to create a bend in the building. This was needed in order to follow the track in South Seattle Yard. You'll see what I mean in a second. Here is what it will ultimately look like.

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    As mentioned it required trimming the roof then sanding both sides to an acceptable fit. Eventually I'll need to use gap filler in some spots, but for now I'll keep moving forward.

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    The wall section came with a fairly sizeable section missing, otherwise the trim job worked well.

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    Here's the fix. Not a perfect fit, but where the building is located, the minute difference will not be noticable.

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    So when put in it's eventual location, the building is too long.

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    The only other choice was hard left of that location.

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    After some fiddling, the only location that works is the original choice. That means shortening the wall and the roof at the extreme right end. After some surgery, here's how it looks.

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    After the glue dried and some hidden shoring added, here's how it looks in place. You can easily see in the second shot how the track turns, necessitating the change in building configuration.

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    It has enough clearance to let anything I have pass, which is nice. So the next steps will be to add entry and exit walls. Then I intend to add a short second level to hide the plywood edge behind the building. It will serve no purpose other than to hide the plywood. I'll probably make the backside (visible from the aisle nearest the staging tracks) look like a concrete wall or something similar.

    That's it for now.
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2021
  10. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    It seemed like old times last night, as Wain and I were the only two to make it to RGW work night. The two of us worked together for nearly 7 years on the layout before anyone else started coming by. We reminisced about those days during the evening.

    Wain started his night by tidying up some of the ballast in Franklin. No one quite remembers who put this down, but a vacuum session picked so much up it's looked poor ever since.

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    It's really looking as intended now; rustic and heavily used, but not barren in large swaths.

    I continued working on 737s, adding number 4 to the list.

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    After I was through with the above, Wain and I started final shaping of the landforms at Black River Jct.

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    We used our foam cutter to get the rough shape, then took everything over to the workbench to rasp the foam to final shape.

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    Well, that's all for this report. Thanks for checking in.
     
  11. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Always great to see y'all busy doing something in the layout M say hi to W for me

    Stay safe all
     
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  12. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Nothing much today, sanding the #4 737 fuselage, but added the center landform for the wye at Black River Jct.

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  13. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    I like the way you all are hiding the edge of the layout with the sky board.
     
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  14. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Looks great
     
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  15. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Here's a recap of tonight's work. Wain set out to scenic the landforms at Black River Jct. Our process starts with a basic cover of brown paint.

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    While the landform is still wet, we apply ground foam.

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    After that dries we add another layer of ground foam, mixing both coarse and fine to achieve a varied texture. A little wet water and 50/50 glue keeps it all in place. Later we will add foliage, but for tonight, we went from this:

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    To this:

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    While Wain completed the scenery, I put the first two coats of Tamiya Fine gray primer on the three 737 fuselages. Once dry, a quick inspection of each model revealed what, if any, imperfections need to be addressed.

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    All of them needed some attention, but relatively little, remarkably. So here they'll sit until the final coats, tomorrow.

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    That's it for tonight, thanks for checking in.
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2021
  16. VinceP

    VinceP TrainBoard Member

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    Boing boing lol

    Looks great
     
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  17. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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  18. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks Dale, Vince. M
     
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  19. RGW

    RGW TrainBoard Member

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    Back from a respite seeing family in Texas, tonight was another good night of progress on the RGW.

    Wain spent the last week working at his house on the foam landforms that surround the Black River Jct wye. He added Woodland Scenics ground foams and clump foliage. He also carved foam and then cast a rock outcropping to sit atop the tunnel portal. Tonight he and I set to get it all in place. We started with this canvas.

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    After a couple of hours of painting the tunnel, hot gluing down landforms and a ton of new ground foams along the tracks and existing landforms, we have this:

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    We have a plan in mind to minimize the look of the great riser, so there's still more work to do, but for now, this is very cool stuff.

    Rey has been working on an old doodlebug that was given to me as a gift, albeit in horrid condition, many moons ago. There's a great backstory to it which I'll relate another time, perhaps once Rey has this running.

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    Once I finished with Wain I spent time cleaning up Black Diamond so I could begin the track cleaning process. We use a combination of CRC and graphite on the rails.

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    The folks at Model Railroad Hobbyist did an exhaustive study on products to improve connectivity. They posted the results in their online magazine and near the top of the list was CRC Contact Cleaner. You spray a bit of it on a scrap piece of 1x4 and rub it on the track. As you can see in the picture, it turns the wood black. Once dried, you touch both rails with the graphite. It works great.

    One other project I addressed was a set of Chooch walls that just didn't want to retain their adhesion to the foam. So I used 5 minute epoxy and, well, let's just say it ain't going anywhere. I'll follow it up with some new greenery to cover the exposed epoxy. I'm expecting that to add more character to the setting.

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    Well that's it for tonight. Thanks for checking in.
     
    Last edited: Mar 3, 2021
  20. gregamer

    gregamer TrainBoard Supporter

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    Looking Great Michael. I especially like the crib wall. Things seem to be really progressing.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
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