I've been down to visit Chama NM a few times and wandered around looking over all the structures. Even if they do not keep the engines running for very long in the engine house, there should be quite a bit of soot up in the rafters. Another thing you see a lot of is lubricating oil for all those engine parts. Overall, I would expect it to be rather grimey and sooty, not to mention ash. There is a reason engineers wear overalls. They tended to get pretty dirty themselves.
Yeah...isn't Chama cool?? I do intend to "weather" the interior but want to get the clutter etc. in forst JOhn
I've actually seen a few roundhouses that were neither cluttered, nor oily. Of course those have all been diesel era. These days, for safety reasons, and regulations, they keep 'em pretty nice. Boxcab E50
Yeah modern ones would be cleanroom clean. the thing about narrow gauge is that it really was run on a shoestring budget with often quite old equipment. Remember all those D&RGW steamers were running for a good 50 years before getting scrapped.
Even the "new" roundhouse on the Durango and Silverton line has been blackened to the rafters. I think they completed that one in the 1980s after the original burned down. At any rate it does not take much time to darken the interior of these things with coal-burning steam running in and out John
They may have been run on a budget. But the primary reason is that nothing was reasonably available, to replace the old steam. And to change over to diesel requires a very large investment, beyond the engines themselves. My thought was that some folks overdo the "weathering." As I have also been in roundhouses and engine sheds that saw steam use. And even those didn't look like sooty chimneys and oily grease pits. Boxcab E50
I agree guys...everything in moderation. Here is the story behind the Como RH (which this is based on...why I just didn't go protoype is beyond me at this point ), this thing was built early on in the history of the D, SP and P RR and rapidly became a sort of hub. It had seen a lot of use when the C & S trook over in 1898/1899. We are modeling 1899 so I suspect that much of the sooting seen in the RH today was already in place by that time. Since this thing is not strictly prototype, I guess I can "smoke it up" to my own taste John
More "Clutter" Well, I finished building two more tool cabinets and adding some clutter to the RH. I still need industrial machinery...anybody got instructions on scratch building an engine lathe? The last shot is for a comparison. Look at the picture then go to: http://ghostdepot.com/rg/mainline/san juan branch/chama round house.htm Enjoy!!!
Well, they would be sittin' there but the boss came round and chased back to work (after a photo of the crew with Climax #8...see it on Weekend Photo Fun ). yep, gotta watch those guys every minute of the day... John
Widmar Bandsaw I know I usually post the progress on the weekend, but I have a special addition. In one of my breaks from the dissertation last night I started fooling around with stuff from my junk box. What I came up with was a band saw, ALA John Widmar (see Mr. Widmar's work first hand at http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=57451&page=9&highlight=Pueblo+Roundhouse it really is fantastic). I was so impressed with his saw, I call mine the Widmar Bandsaw. Thought I'd post some pics of it prior to painting. The "G" shaped piece is the stop from some kind of nasal spray bottle, the table is a piece of styrene cut to fit. The base is a combination of some silver doohickey I had and it was raised with a piece of pen cap. The band saw is a piece of thin wire and the drive wheels are from an HO scale wagon I had sitting around. The wheel drive is a piece of black string. The main drive is a piece of green plastic wire insulation for a connector and what I think is an old Lego part (this will later be attached to a wheel near ceiling height which will be the steam drive). I need to add a brake lever to the main drive yet. Anyway check it out. Next shot will be painted and in the RH John
Looks good from here. Remember, a lot of tools were home (shop) built back then. So this will fit just fine. :thumbs_up: Boxcab E50
Well that's why we are called the "Cheap and Slow" and this is the "Cheap" part of the C & S Funny thing is I had no idea what it was going to be until I started glueing parts together. Once I had the "G" frame on the base it struck me that it looked like John Widmar's saw. The rest is history. Its in the RH and painted now, awaiting attachment to the steam line (which is YET to be hung!!). I'll get some pics up soon...But for now its back to Dissertation write up (UUggghhhh) John
Widmar Saw Complete Here is the bandsaw painted and in place. Still needs a brake and the steam band, but that comes later John
More Scratch Equipment Well guys, I won't be able to post later today so I better get these in now. I had a heck of a scratch building session yesterday. Lots of equipment (all inspired by some shots of a roundhouse back east, did not keep the website but will hunt it down and post later). Since I can only do 5 pics at a time this will take a couple of posts. All equipment is from my scrap box. So lets get started. The first piece is an axle lathe. If you have an axle lathe you also need a horizontal wheel lathe...
And more... Here is a power roller and a jib crane (from a kit). Also, an overview of the RH so far. I think it has come a long way since the project started. Thanks for looking!! John
Rolling sheet metal is right . These things are massive and look really heavy. I tried to capture the weight of it in the model by making it a bit wider than the picture... John
