I guess I promised a photo update that I forgot about. opps! Here is a quick photo with a sloppy photoshop sky background. Nothing major but this photo shows the poplar trees, depot, and bunkhouse. Center between ROW and the Bunkhouse is the coal/tool shed. The motorcar house is in the back of the photo and is not only blurry but also partly covered from the Beverly helpers. The windmill is to the left or East of the photo frame. Nothing is set down permanently so something’s look uneven or warped, this will not be the case once they are finally set down. I still need to build the two car garages and some other various small buildings. Catenary poles and other poles are in place where they will later be permanently set. I am kind of thinking about building the catenary (not functional) but I am unsure whether I want to tackle that. It looks like it might be difficult to build, we'll see. I am going to try and get some plaster down this weekend. I build the wooden frame yesterday and it came out pretty good looking. Getting there...many more detail to come.
I would be interested to learn what you have in mind for your poles. I have made up a few. Not the best soldering job. Includes the stubbing timber, etc. Boxcab E50
Ken, You know I'm just not sure if I want to even try...it seems like you either have to do them close to the real deal or else they just wont look right. I really don’t want to be picky but I feel the ones I’ll build wont do justice. When I build Boylston for my layout I wont have to worry about this as I am building after the electric shut down, I hope that doesn't make you sad. As you know in some areas poles were left with some wire dangling. That's not too hard to model. Even though most of the buildings at Boylston were razed by the time de-electrification came about, I am still planning on including the buildings in my layout because it has become a favorite place to me. How did you build your system and do you have any photos you can post or send me? Is it in n scale? Greg
Greg- Seeing what you've accomplished to date, I have no doubt you can easily do Milw trolley poles. :thumbs_up: Mine were of course N scale. I made up several jigs. Two for the pole. The first to position a stubbing timber. The second for the arm and brace. My soldering technique, for such a finesse item, needed practice. The one thing I found lacking, I could not find a paint for the weathered pole, which made me entirely happy. Sort of a silvery-gray. But I couldn't get it right. Will see if I can find one quickly, and post a photo later this afternoon. Boxcab E50
Here are my basic pole pieces: 1/16" no flux brazing rod. 1/16" brass tube, it's top cut at a 45 degree angle. Boxcab E50
Yes. Which is no harm in N scale. That's also the reason my pole stubbing timber was left so long. Plenty of metal to which a power wire can be soldered. The square tube also makes it nice to get a tight fit into the slightly angled hole drilled in benchwork. Boxcab E50
very nice work ken! For my diorama I don't think I need to go as far as making the catenary workable. But the design is correct. I have article from an old Milwest mag. and it shows how the poles and everything else was built. Is this a good source? Do you know of which article I am speaking of...it was a two parter I believe?
A brief update: Plaster done. Framework for Diorama is complete. Painting of earth tones complete. Under the light in this particular room the earth colors kind of look gold. They look much better in person. However, most of this color will be covered by dirt. All buildings are built. Some still need some weathering and other variuos details. Some other small detail parts seem to be lying around in there as well. I also sprayed the track this time to help make the scene look more realistic. As soon as the earth tones have dried and I am satisfied with what I have so far, I will begin gluing down the track.
I'm sure I have these issues. You are referring to cross sections of the different pole structures? What I used for mine, were some lousy photos I took long ago. Plus drawings that Noel Holley gave me a few years back. Boxcab E50
Greg- With Spring forthcoming, will you be doing more outdoor photography of the dioramas? That natural light has really worked great in past setups! Keep the progress pictures coming! Boxcab E50
Ken, I have been waiting for some good sun now for a while. But I think we are finially going to see spring here soon. As soon as I have a finished product I will be putting this outside in the sun for a quick photo shoot! I also have a new digital SLR cam now too, so I hope to get better close-up photos as well.
View is looking west towards the front of the depot. Seen in the center is the small wooden bridge that the section crew built so that they could cross Johnson Creek when walking from the bunkhouse to the depot. Small update. Got a lot of scenic stuff done this weekend. Still need to add the sagebrush though. I have a few other things I need to paint and then I will start gluing down the buildings. A backdrop comes next as well.
Greg- By chance do you have a Lands, Tracks & Structures map of Boylston? (1"=100' scale.) Boxcab E50
