ok i recently bought a bachmann building kit locomotive Maintainance building item number 15163 i was looking over the parts when i noticed there was no floor can any tell me if there is suposed to be a floor and if so how do i go about contacting bachmann to get the part i need? or do you have to make one, and any sugestions for makeing a floor if any of you have used this model building kit ? [ 22. September 2002, 22:12: Message edited by: Wolv_Cub ]
There is no floor provided with this kit. I just used a piece of foam since I needed to raise the bldg a bit to clear my SD80MAC's.
ok thanks, i will have to think on how i really want this floor to look. any one have and pics of a real loco maintainance building or some pics of models? just to give me an idea on how it should look. [ 23. September 2002, 01:43: Message edited by: Wolv_Cub ]
Yes i did thanks i had to work 24 yesterday so im just looking at them now and its the official answer man with the pics [ 24. September 2002, 13:31: Message edited by: Wolv_Cub ]
Probably not the same photos Watash is referring to but these are posted right here in the N Forum on TrainBoard on this thread Loco Shop Proto Photos (was Bachmann Kit) ===== http://www.trainboard.com/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=9;t=002238 ===== eNjoy [ 24. September 2002, 19:24: Message edited by: dbn160 ]
no they arent the same that watash sent but just as interesting ,, if you havent seen some pics of the old steam loco shops you might be interested that for the most part the basic concept is still the same .. but now i have some ideas and now its back out to hunt for the elusive parts i need for the vision i have in my head in the mail today i recived my new walthers mini sale catalog today and i notice peco has a HOscale loco inspection pit kit though its for code 100 and 75 rails im sure i should be able to find ans Nscale inspection pit that will fit nicely in to the vision in my head that i know have for my loco shop
Wolv_cub, all three kinds of pits are easy to make in any scale. You don't need any tie strip, since the rails are buried in cement. So it doesent matter what size rail you use for the actual pit, only the rail head is seen. In N scale, there isn't much detail that could be seen, unless you want to take some extremely close up photos. The pits were way back toward the rear of the shop anyway, so you would have to remove the roof to even see one. In our roundhouse, not all stalls had pits. We had three inspection pits, two lube pits, and two jack pits. Its is the stuff that is in each that is different, see? You just cut a square slot with steps at each end, and a set in one side. I better add: The jack pits were different, they had a ramp at one end to roll the big jacks, blocks, and pullers down in to and out of those pits. Steps were at the other end, and one side. [ 25. September 2002, 04:38: Message edited by: watash ]
Well my search for pits for nsacle has turned up nil but as you say watash it looks like i should be able to come up with some thing for the pits the building i have , has only 2 bays so I will have to consider what pits i will put in to the building. a small question though were there every any pits on the out side of the shops ? if so what pits were out side ? jesper i have the photo and can email them to you if watash hasnt all ready just let me know .
No pits on the outside that I ever heard of. The reason would be they would hold rain water. Mosquitos, stagnent water smell, and danger of electrical shock is some other reasons. The pits you may have seen outside engines facilities, could have been abandoned scale pits, where the weighing scale equipment has been removed. If you only have two stalls, just cut one pit. Drill a hole about 5/16" diameter through your base board, (1/2" thick ?), then use a saber saw to follow just inside your pencil marks. You can cut the corners square with the saw. When you paint the inside of the cutout grimey black, then dry brush a few streaks of cement gray, it will look fine. Glue or nail a piece of wood, plastic, or even cardboard to the bottom of your baseboard, to cover the pit slot, so it will look like the bottom of this pit. (Paint it flat black first.) At N scale, I doubt if anyone could see steps in one end of the pit anyway, and the other end is way back inside the engine house. Start the pit about 10-12 scale feet inside the double doors, and end it 15-20 scale feet from the rear wall. The pits did not run the full length, only enough to reach the whole engine carriage. If we had to work on the tender, the engine was backed in over the pit. Depending on the length of time to do the job, the engine was sometimes dissconnected, and pulled away, so the doors could be closed. That was the only time I ever saw engines backed into a roundhouse. I have seen a photo of all engines being backed into a roundhouse, but that was just for making the photo back during the Civil War. Remember, there are no ties under the rails inside a roundhouse, it is all cement. Neal Wolf, who owns Diamond Scale Products out in California, makes a full line of engine facilities, in HO and N, including these pits. I can no longer give you his email or phone, because the old word processor that I had all those addresses on, crashed. Sorry. Maybe someone else has his info. I posted it on here a year or so ago regarding his Turntables and pits, which I am using (134 foot) on my layout. His products are exceptionally well detailed. [ 26. September 2002, 17:05: Message edited by: watash ]
The August 2000 issue of Mailine Modeler has a nice article showing how they detailed and spruced up one of these models. If you have the space these can easily be combined to be a larger facility. My current plans are for using 3 kits and having an L shape facility with 4 tracks two of them being twice the length of the normal facility. For bachman it is a pretty nice kit. I have found that if you are using foam for a base one can easily cut out pits and then use styrene to finish them. Just a thought. Bryan
well while still in the begining stages of building my board. i have 1/2 in particle board with a 1/2 in of blue foam board insulation glued to it so for diging out the pit is only an matter of removeing the foam board where i need the pit to go. my brother found some buildings on sale somewhere and go them for me so im in the process of puting the kits together and detailing them with paint. though i think im going to go vist the local hobby shops and see what i can find in the way of detail parts for the buildings just to improve there looks and see about order things like tool boxes and such to add detail to the interior of my loco shop and my car shop. as far as my layout i have settled on a variation of the layout in the "N Scale Model Railroad That Grows" published by kalmbach books,though the lay out calls for 40 x 60 inches i have 48 x74 inches so im planing on useing the extra room for my train maintainance area and round house. and adding a riverfront .
