The M-K & Eastern RR Harbour branch

[Kris]

This is really looking fantastic, that signal is great.

[M Graff]

Thanks guys, I have another shot of the 4-6-0 that shows a little bit more of it. The ash on top of the boiler is pastel powder sprinkled in wet dullcote:

[Gene]

Don't get me wrong..the loco looks fantastic..its up to your usual high standards Michael..but to my eye they looked a bit overscale..or maybe its the pic

[Sir Madog]

Gene - it´s just the viewing angle making the loco appear over sized. Even for being a small US steamer, she is quite abeast when viewed next to our small little European locos.

[Gene]

Ulrich...I was talking about the chains on the tender not the loco itself

[M Graff]

I have now showed the layout to an outside "critic" .

The extremely talented On30 Maine Narrow gauge afficionado Mr Troels Kirk of "The Coast line RR" fame.

And it got very positively praised by him, wich really made my day .

I got it ready just in time for the deadline.....

 

(photo by T. Kirk)

I´m really happy with the result and I know that I will have many years of updates to report from this one!

[Will Vale]

Great work, and beautiful presentation too.  I like that you've included an author shot

 

Can I ask how have you supported the layout on the wall, and can it be demounted for shows etc.?

 

Will

 

 

[M Graff]

It rests on shelf brackets (the ones that has a wall mounted "rail") and the layout is movable indeed, but I need another background as the one that is now is attached to the brackets on the wall.

[Gene]

Michael...that photo is great...it really shows the layout to full effect and your wonderful modelling skills!!

[newcastle_central]

Michael,

 

only just discovered this but it looks amazing. The "author" shot above just looks so atmospheric and realistic. Keep up the good work.

 

Jonathan

[shortliner]

Looks really well, Michael!

[Loxborough]

Michael,

 

For some reason I have a silly aversion to US prototype so hadn't really paid much attention to this thread but I decided this morning to have a look anyway. And how glad I am that I did. Outstanding modelling, superb detailing and weathering, with use of novel materials (I particularly like the plumbers' tape to produce a metallic finish).

 

Most of all, though, I am impressed at how quickly you have got it done.

 

Many many congratulations on a truly brilliant piece of modelling.

 

George

 

 

[M Graff]

Thanks for the compliments guys. I think I have outdone myself in the time it took to finish this layout to this state of completion, considering that it wasn´t much done on it during the summer (this summer was WARM).

I really hope that it has something to offer to most modelers out there, as I think the models themself are "universal" .

[M Graff]

Wow, time really flies sometimes...

Has it already been 6 months since the comp??

I have made a steady progress on the layout and made some BIG changes on the city on the left side (see my Blog: Link).

Here is a movie that I made today that shows some switching on the layout, enjoy! :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDkCFTEALrY

[dave1905]

The "portal crane" you used for the car float is actually a transfer crane for the East Broad Top, a 3 ft gauge railroad in central Pennsylvania that lasted until 1956 and then was restored as a tourist line. The crane was originally inteneded to transfer loads of lumber between standard and narrow gauge cars, but it was most famous for being used as a car lift. The EBT would roll a standard gauge car uner the crane, lift up each end and replace the tracks with special narrow gauge trucks, then run the standard gauge car over the narrow gauge road., reversing the process going back to the standard gaguge road. Thought you might like the history.

 

On your doodlebug, if you can find Alco (RS2, RS3) or switcher trucks (SW1200, SW7, etc) they will look more like the drop equalizer trucks used on doodlebugs. The switcher trucks will have a closer wheelbase.

[M Graff]

Thanks for the info Dave.

I have found some RS sideframes for my Doodlebug, Now to see if I can just lenghten them a wee bit......

Otherwise I will fit the trucks as well.

[M Graff]

Hello in the summer heat

I have always had a desire for a special locomotive for my layout.

It all started when I read about the small port terminals in New York and the locomotives they were using.

Central of New Jersey had an Ingersoll Rand locomotive that is one of the first commercially made diesel locomotives:

A very beautiful locomotives in my opinion

Then came Tim Warris with his Bronx Terminal in HO (an incredible layout).

There he showed how to take a brass Boxcab and rebuild the drive to get it to run as well as it looks.

The problem with just Boxcabs is that the only models that are available are either made of brass and costs a fortune, and runs like a bag of s**t.

Or you may have to be be content with an old Roundhouse locomotives in plastic that is also going like muck ... Plus, you have to add the extra detailing to make it look reasonably good .....

Neither option was very good

I thought it would be nice to build one myself.

One problem was that it was really tricky to get hold of the drawings of the locomotive.

Luckily, as I am a member on a U.S. forum, where one of the members have recently built an I-R Boxcab in brass and in S-scale.

I emailed him about the drawings and he emailed me back everything he had as PDFs

I had to resize it a bit before I got the printouts right for HO.

After some thoughts and inquiries, I finally found a locomotive that would do as a chassis donor:

(See http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/38510-Bachmann-70-tonner-bad-loco-or-is-it/page__p__410924__fromsearch__1#entry410924)

Apparently it is a bit of a difference in length. but very acceptable to me.

I decided that I would build the new body in plastic, which could be a challenge.

I used 1, 0.5 and 0.25 mm plasticard and some profiles.

This is about everything you need for the basic construction (needle files and tweezers are not in the picture).

I drew up the parts with an ink-pen and drilled the corners of the windows before I cut them out with an Xacto-knife.

This is "the base wall" , made of 0.5 mm plastic On to it, the embossed outer skins of 0.25 mm plastic will be applied. That way I get good stability in the body and a "plate-like" appearance.

The chassis was shortened 4 mm on one side, and the entire original decoder with lights sent into the round-archive .

I made two boards to mount my LED's and resistors on.

The Lenz decoder was hard wired in and mounted above the motor, but under the weight.

I made a new base of 1 mm plastic.

This is how it looked after I glued the walls to the base:

I made the outer skins and the inner window frames of 0.25 mm plastic.

The outer skins, I placed (upside down) on the drawing, and used a self-made light table to emboss all the rivets with a needle in a wooden holder.

I can now reveal, that when you venture into this kind of construction, without having tested the techniques, it can REALLY go down the drains!

The picture that follows shows just that:

First, it did not work out with my roof, it was formed like a Banana..... Luckily I found a roof in the scrap box that could be cut to shape and be used instead.

It was not the biggest problem .......

I had glued the body together and glued the window frames in place before applying the outer skins with the embossed rivets .

It did not work out that way, so I started from scratch .

But as I had done it once, it went rather quickly the second time ......

The Chassi beams are plasticard I-beams 2.5 mm.

I had almost feared the construction of the roof mounted radiators ....

Fortunately, I had a piece of corrugated patterned plasticard. I shaped a piece of 0.5 mm metal in the right curvature, then I took the plastic, forcing it to follow the shape of the plate and secured it with clamps and then dipped the whole shebang in boiling water for a few minutes. When it had cooled down I had a row of convincing cooling tubes in the right shape!

So here is the build as it stands right now, just some paint and small details remain:

The exhaust pipes on the roof is turned from beech in a drill stand

Scratchbuilding is FUN!

[chris_irl]

very nice layout, just had a browse through this thread.

 

I really like your diesel shunters, the weathering on them is very nicely done

[Will Vale]

Love the boxcab - I really enjoyed what little scratchbuilding I've done, and yes, doing it twice seems to be pretty common Did you have to do any filing for the window frames? I found it was very hard to square the corners without taking too much material away.

 

The formed radiators are clever, and I think the loco's face is particularly good. Looking forward to seeing it painted up now.

 

Will

 

PS: "round archive" is funny.

[signalmaintainer]

I think you've done a superb job! And if you've taken more photos, there might be a publication in the US interested in a story about this model.

[trisonic]

The whole layout is a work of art.

No disrespect to the Winners but how this didn't win the 2010 Challenge is beyond me!

 

Best, Pete.

[Gene]

What Trisonic said!

 

 

 

The whole layout is a work of art.

No disrespect to the Winners but how this didn't win the 2010 Challenge is beyond me!

 

Best, Pete.

[M Graff]

Thanks all!

I have painted it now:

 

 

 

 

Not really finished yet, a few windows to finish and so....

[M Graff]

And now for something different:

 

I found a kit at a Trainshow here in Sweden this weekend:

A 1934 Ford Bus. Just what I needed for my layout!

As I understand it, it was very common during WW2 that these smaller types of buses were used in major cities in the U.S., in addition to trams and Subways.

Jordan/Highway Miniatures makes really nice kits I think!

The amount of detail is sufficient without making it tricky to assemble. I deviated from the manual however, as the description advocated that all parts should be painted before assembly ...... I hate to glue together pre-painted parts, so I glued it together to a point where it wouldn´t obstruct the installation of the windows later.

The headlights were made of solid clear plastic. That makes it very easy to make them look good.... I just masked the lamp housings and then painted them silver before I painted them with the end color. Then you get real reflectors in them!

The purple you see here on the lenses is Maskol (liquid mask film from Humbrol).

This is how far it could be assembled before painting. Very nice interior detail I think. Just enough detail.

I painted the bus créme yellow, black fenders and rims, and a gray roof. I clear coated it with Future Kleer, and weathered it with a light wash.

Here is the result:

 

As can be seen, I have both driver and passengers in the bus

A very nice acquaintance, which surely whetted the appetite!

[M Graff]

This is the state of my model activities this time of the year:

It does improve the visibility to work in the sunshine

 

I felt a bit inspired yesterday and began serving my Broadway Limited SW-7.

 

It had been showing some poor power pick up in the leading bogie, so I disassembled the locomotive as best as I could .

I washed out as much oil as I could from the gearboxes, as it seemed to be the probable reason for the problem.

While it was disassembled, I took the chance to weather it as well B)

It was supposed to look used but not to death.... U.S. RR´s during WW2 usually wasn´t much into cleaning the locomotives, and not particularly Port-switchers....

It was marked for NYC, but I wanted to have it in my RR's markings: M-K & E.

I erased the text with a fiberglass brush and then painted a layer of black (Vallejo Model Air) to completely remove all traces of the text.

I assembled the shell and masked all the windows with Humbrol Maskol.

I then mixed a color of 50-50 black and gray / black. Then I used that in order to tone down the black original color.

 

The bogies were blasted with baking soda and primed with a dark gray paint.

Radiator grilles were painted with a lighter gray color, so the dark wash would work against it.

 

The wheels were also masked with Maskol, both the treads and bearing journals.

Current consumption is via the journals, so no colour there!

The wheel sides were painted black and weathered with pastel powder.

 

The bogie sides were painted in the same way.

 

Some decals and general weathering later, it became like this:

 

Clearcoated with Modelmaster Dullcote B).

 

I have also been changing a bit on the layout, the gas station that were on the front of the layout:

 

It has been replaced by a coal merchant:

 

 

 

And then I finally got some use for this car:

(I really like that car, wish I could find some more of them....).

 

PS, when I tried the SW after assembling it, it worked perfectly! Really nice to eliminate the flaws.