Central Alonzo (HO Cuban Sugar Mill)

[298]

Following on from https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/73816-new-project-cuba-hershey-interurban/ ,Central Alonzo Mill was the layout that evolved from that thought process and reached the stage of having the track tested and weathered before progress ground to a halt due to the stumbling block of how to represent the Mill buildings. In my defence I’ve sort of been working on it by seeing how I can kitbash Walthers structures for the now complete Blue Heron and learning 3D CAD design to make the construction of the GE Steeplecabs easier, so the four or so years it’s been wrapped up in storage haven’t exactly been wasted, modelling wise.

 

I thought I’d start a new thread because the current focus has changed from what was a 1920’s American Interurban Railroad in 1950s Cuba, to something a bit nearer the turn of the century due to the distracting acquisition of a Rapido five axle GMD-1 in Cuban colours, and additional stock from my good friends, Peter Smith’s Cuba Mainline collection and Lineas Cubanas spares from his trilogy of layouts, making it more overseas than US/Can. You’d think that having a ready made collection to hand (plus Cuba featuring in a few travel show comedies thanks to messers Tarrant & Wright) would have been enough of an inspiration but I lost the concept of the original vision and it took a lot of recent looking at Matt’s progress and a planned trip to see it at Larkrail plus photos from the Hershey in the 1950’s with pre-run down Mill buildings to bring it back. So in theory it shouldn’t take too long to make operational, with the Hershey electrics following at a later date.

 

So whilst others have been starting afresh during the lockdown, I’ve managed to spend a little time relaxing from my key worker job and additional childcare by dusting off the layout and placing Peter’s old Mill buildings in place to see what’ll work on the existing track plan. The main board has a 4’x16” scenic area that feeds onto a 3’ 5/6 road sector plate, at the moment it is locked with a solenoid and moved by hand but I hope to automate it with a stepper motor and linear actuator. The reason for this is to save space to fit into my <8’ layout home plus I’ve always wanted to design and build one with a turnout is to allow run rounds from the station area without moving the deck.  There is also a 3’x16” single track scenic section off to the left that would include a short section of street running, this may then lead onto another yard for through movements or have a short hidden section as is so both scenic boards can be set up at home in the layout display space. One thing I’ve recently realised is there is little point in me building something that needs both additional exhibition space and operators to be fully operational, so I’m reluctant to extend it too far beyond the initial idea.

 

I tried to design the track plan and uncouplers in a simple flowing style but to allow plenty of switching at the factory and train formation for a three car Hershey Interurban to be reformed with a trailer added to a mixed train to a non-electrified section hauled by a 70 tonner or Mogul, plus with a third exit from the cane unloading shed onto the sector plate where a full train could be swapped for an empty rake to give the impression it has been tipped. Something else I wanted to add was a pair of Steeplecabs on oil tankers but doubt there will the space (Had I thought about it now I should have just built a Peter North style oval with less track age at the front….).

 

Anyway, that’s the start of the project, I’ll add progress photos as I find them in the archive.

Edited May 28, 2020 by 298
Title changed

[298]

Some up to date photos to show the progress, firstly Central Caracas Mogul 1436 reverses a loaded cane train into the tipping shed. The background Mill buildings are Foam board faced with 4mm corrugated plasticard, the two brown plastic buildings are bashed up from the Walthers Allied Rail Rebuilders.

 

The loading shed behind the boxcars is a Walthers Armstrong Electric Motors kit again faced with corrugated plasticard and it's spare windows used elsewhere, I would have liked more of this size as the Hershey mill certainly had more rows of windows than other more ramshackle mills. 2-8-0 1688 is on the loco servicing road.

Edited May 24, 2020 by 298

[298]

A more modern passenger combination of an unpowered Budd RDC with a Taino coach and baggage car, this will eventually have a boxcar coach as soon as I finish drawing one and be hauled by a GMD-1. In theory I have more than enough stock, but something that would suit it that I haven't got is an EMD G8.

 

The baggage car is seen at the end of the sector plate, I was worried it how it might have fared after four years in storage but the alignment is still acceptable. The individual switches are for isolating certain roads to decrease the current draw and prevent any runaways...

 

[doctor quinn]

Quite a bit of progress there, Andy. Operationally it looks well thought out, look forward to seeing progress. 

[298]

I'm starting to think the mill buildings may be a bit oversized, yes they were big but dominate the scene a bit too much. So the six windowed loading shed will probably loose a story, the main building will loose a window and a bit of height to keep the same dimensions, and the very low relief one on the right has already had its roof pitch split and will also loose some height. 

 

Google earth is a good tool for measuring buildings, even in Cuba- the one used as the main Hershey RR shop measures about 90' across with both the tool and counting 4' wide sheets of corrugated steel.

Edited May 25, 2020 by 298

[Supaned]

Don't Frateschi do an EMD G8?

[298]

6 hours ago, Supaned said:

Don't Frateschi do an EMD G8?

 

Yes, they do...

[doctor quinn]

8 hours ago, Supaned said:

Don't Frateschi do an EMD G8?

There are some more GM Export models here as well

 

http://www.hobbytec.com.br/paginas/catalogo.php

[298]

You can see how easy it is to get distracted from the original concept, here is a variety of stock "on tour"...

 

 

[Allegheny1600]

Hi there, 298!

I'm pleased to see that you have some impressive motive power available, that is one of the things I always fancied about Cuban railways - that there is such a terrific mixture.

I don't know if you would be interested but my friend, Lorenzo, has made a 'proper' H0 scale class 47 available and he's working on a Cuban version.

His blog and contact details are here: https://chippedblade.wordpress.com/2018/12/21/class-47-printed/

I now have a 'British' 47 body and can't wait to get it running, the size difference between 00 and H0 is really remarkable so, in my humble opinion, a bashed 00 47 simply wouldn't cut it!

Don't hold your breath though. . . . 

Cheers,

John.

[298]

12 hours ago, Allegheny1600 said:

Hi there, 298!

I'm pleased to see that you have some impressive motive power available, that is one of the things I always fancied about Cuban railways - that there is such a terrific mixture.

I don't know if you would be interested but my friend, Lorenzo, has made a 'proper' H0 scale class 47 available and he's working on a Cuban version.

His blog and contact details are here: https://chippedblade.wordpress.com/2018/12/21/class-47-printed/

I now have a 'British' 47 body and can't wait to get it running, the size difference between 00 and H0 is really remarkable so, in my humble opinion, a bashed 00 47 simply wouldn't cut it!

Don't hold your breath though. . . . 

Cheers,

John.

 

Thanks for the info, I believe I might have spoken to Lorenzo at a show a couple of years ago. It'd be good to see a Cuban Duff, but since I'm now trying not to venture too far from the original plan the appearance of one would be stretching reality a bit too far. 

 

This hasn't stopped friends pranking me at shows in the past when a 4mm scale green Brush Type 4 appeared on one of my Interurban layouts when I had my back turned, like this...

Edited May 29, 2020 by 298

[298]

The transfer building has quickly had a storey lopped out of it and I think looks better, so much so that I'm not sure about doing the same to the main mill building now as the scene now looks less dominant. With Slater's 0436 plasticard out of stock everywhere I might keep it as is as I won't be able to make a replacement and only have enough in reserve to finish the buildings as is. 

 

This interesting and professionally made video of the Hershey company in Cuba is worth a look, it is very informative but raised some queries that I hadn't considered before, such as the mention of a train ferry for the Hershey docking at Santa Cruz del Norte as there doesn't appear to be evidence of the facilities there for one and only Havana is mentioned as a destination of such a ferry from the US.

 

 

[298]

As a point of reference (for me) there have recently been a run of 1950s slides of the Hershey going for quite alot of money on eBay (I hope whoever is buying them will publish a book with them in).

eBay soon looses the auctions after 3-6 months, but Worthpoint holds the key data for ten years, although you have to subscribe to see the sold prices. Various combinations of search words might yield other results, but here are some slides of the Hershey including some from the 1950s...

 

https://www.worthpoint.com/inventory/refineSearch?offset=0&max=20&query=Hershey+Cuba+slide&category=

 

 

[298]

In my usual topsy-turvy way, I'm currently down in the Car-hole listening to the storm and making a start ballasting the track the Cuban way, with WS light green coarse turf over a thin layer of Chinchilla dust*. I've never had much luck running trains over static grass as they tend to stall at the merest sight of a fibre near the rail, but now might be a good time to try with all of the lightning. At the very worst I might accidentally create Frankenstein's monster.

 

*Try explaining to a 7yr old (-6 days) why the postmen has brought a heavy parcel that actually isn't for her, then try to convince her that no furry rodents were harmed making it...

[PaulRhB]

Very nice, the Cuban influence is growing I must resist  

[298]

Although the layout doesn't look like there has been much progress on it, it now has a lighting rig, a clear plan what to modify to the finished standard and an exhibition invite for September 2022. I've also decided to drop the extension through a town and just focus on the initial layout area at the Mill. 

 

I've also finished the test print for the Brill Hershey car and alternative domed roof, again the amount of stock required has been scaled back for now so the passenger fleet will consist of one of these as a trailer, sandwiched between a 400 series baggage car and another powered Brill passenger car. A 200 series Combine and the repaint of a Bowser trolley into a Cincinnati car aren't guaranteed.

 

I've also finished putting the rivets on the Steeplecab drawing so it shouldn't take too long to add the Cuban details as appropriate. 

[298]

Conscious that it is less than a year to the layouts first show and the last warm days of the year still making it pleasant to actually work in the garage, today I split the layout to cut back the end of the backscene so it was inline with the building fronts, and painted the sky blue. The next step I've been putting off will be to map out the locations for the overhead support poles, ready to continue with scenery and finishing the buildings over winter. 

 

Now having seen the end of the layout again  I'm wondering whether to go with either a short end section to add a few more inches length to tidy up the abrupt end, or really push the boat out and continue with the 3' scenery board roughly based on the street running section at Caraballo, possibly modified to include a short staging area for a single Interurban car to shuttle back and forth...

 

[doctor quinn]

That looks superb! Even in its unfinished state it has a Caribbean feel.

[298]

19 hours ago, doctor quinn said:

That looks superb! Even in its unfinished state it has a Caribbean feel.

 

It certainly is unfinished and I'm still finding the scale of what to do in 12 months quite daunting, considering most of my modelling time is now spent on a laptop.

 

I realised if the layout was extended then it'd have to be at least 18" long so the rake of cane cars could be delivered to the mill without being split. So I might as well continue with the existing extension board which now has the lights connected and backscene painted to see if portrays the big sky seen in rural Cuba. 

 

I'm currently thinking about moving the station to here, and remembered a layout where a stairwell tower spanned across the uprights in a baseboard join to disguise it, so borrowed that idea. 

 

 

[298]

Still pondering how to model the second board with a big Cuban sky, the modified Walthers stairwell parts will span the gap but the be obvious problem that can't be unseen is you'd expect to see the back of the mill stretching off into the distance in that view, so I'm now wondering how to disguise that.

 

 

I've also been playing around with third hand HO buildings from previous American layouts, I would have loved to have been able to use the town scene from Matt's third Lineas Cubanas layout but unfortunately my era is the 1950s so needed something less "Modern Cuba".

 

But one idea I like is modelling part of a grid of a company town for the Mill, using Rix/Smalltown USA Maxwell Avenue Houses (if anyone knows of a UK stockist can they let me know), as seen in the vintage photos here: https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/2014/12/hershey_built_towns_in_cuba.html

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

Would something as simple as a tree work to break up the unwanted sight line?

[298]

On 29/09/2021 at 21:30, Jon Gwinnett said:

Would something as simple as a tree work to break up the unwanted sight line?

 

Well I suppose something could have grown in the thirty-odd years since this photo was taken when everything was new. Look how close those gardens are to the Mill....

[PaulRhB]

The problem is a perspective photo of the mill would look odd from the mill side so as Jon suggests a palm or similar might be the best distraction or a small building / office with a simple building block of colour perspective on the backscene behind that? 
Something like the backscene on Melton Mowbray North 

https://fft-keymodelworld.b-cdn.net/sites/keymodelworld/files/styles/article_body/public/inline-images/hm55_melton_pic 11r.jpg?itok=6SBdCHHR

[doctor quinn]

How about moving that free standing chimney to the end of the plant, set slightly forward of the back scene 

[Jon Gwinnett]

28 minutes ago, doctor quinn said:

How about moving that free standing chimney to the end of the plant, set slightly forward of the back scene 

Now that’s a sensible suggestion. I like it.