Millarville

[AndrewC]

For far too long modelling has taken a back seat to other so called 'more important' things.

 

Back in May I started slowly on building 4 modules for our club's large HO modular layout. Originally I had planned on just doing a pair of straight ones but now I've been railroaded into providing a set of corner modules as well.

 

The scene is to depict a smallish Alberta town on the edge of the foothills. The track plan is based on the town of Claresholm and Millarville exists further north west but was never connected to the railway.

 

The modules were set up for the first time today and now begins the fun of track laying. I've got 2 weeks to get it ready to the point of being able to plug into the rest of the club's layout.

 

 

 

 

[JWB]

So is this 2 weeks of full-time work, or will you pull all-nighters, or what?

[AndrewC]

JWB, its not as bad as it sounds. I just have to get the track and wiring to a state where it can be tested. I've got this week off and most of next week so I'm not worried. <touch wood> With luck I should have the track down by the weekend and the wiring is a piece of cake. DCC with a couple of throttle ports to hook up and only 3 points.

 

 

 

Managed to get most of the cork on the first module down tonight and the track test fitted. Can't remember whose idea I stole, but I've used 3mm cork tiles laminated together. Where I need a point motor (Tortoise) I replace the bottom bit of cork with 3mm ply instead. This is because the modules are formed of 50mm closed cell insulation foam.

 

Excuse the low light camera phone snaps.

 

 

 

[Jon Gwinnett]

looks great. can't wait to see developemnts...

 

 

[Barry Ten]

Very neat work with those baseboard modules. How did you get on with the alignment dowels? People often talk about them being "fiddly" to fit which has made me wary of giving them a try.

[Jon Gwinnett]

Very neat work with those baseboard modules. How did you get on with the alignment dowels? People often talk about them being "fiddly" to fit which has made me wary of giving them a try.

 

 

I was thinking the same. My carpentry skills are so poor that even the neat edging boards leave me in awe. how do people do that? When I try to cut ply into 4" strips all I get is a mess.

[Oldddudders]

I was thinking the same. My carpentry skills are so poor that even the neat edging boards leave me in awe. how do people do that? When I try to cut ply into 4" strips all I get is a mess.

I'm pretty much in your camp, Jon, but have found a power sawbench at least gives some semblance of straight lines. It was also useful in sawing up our old roof for firewood. Do mind your thumbs, though! And I have no idea of the French for plywood, so tend to use particle board with hardboard edging/profile board, although present efforts on my 2010, which will emerge shortly, are with extruded foam on 1 x 1 runners.

 

Andrew - you haven't mentioned period, but that charming-looking grain elevator suggests transition era?

[AndrewC]

Developments going slowly. The cork I was using turned out to be totally unsuitable. One of the limitations I have is that both ends of at least one straight module and the pair of curves have to conform with the club's standards. That means the track centre has to be exactly 7" from the outer edge. The roadbed has to be exactly 1/4" high and 2" wide. Try to convert that to what is currently available and I've ended up having to pack, shim, and shave bits here and there. What I needed to do is laminate 2 bits of 3mm cork together to get just slightly more than 6mm. (6.35mm = 1/4") That turned into a disaster so as of today all the track came up and the roadbed was scraped off to start again. This time I'll just use the Woodland scenics underlay and shim it up by 1 and a bit mm at each module end.

 

Barry: the dowels are a doddle. I did cheat though as the club has a metal drilling jig. Drilled out the pilot holes then used a flat bit in a drill press to open out the 25mm hole for the dowel plate. One secret I've found though is to ream them out ever so slightly and apply a drop of oil to the male of each dowel.

 

Jon: My carpentry skills are crap. It was always my weakest module of shop class. Again I cheated. Since I'm also going to be building 14 more baseboards for my home layout I stumped up the cash and got a local timber merchant to rip 2 sheets of 12mm birch and 1 sheet of 18mm birch into 4" by 4' strips. That was £200 well spent. All I had to do was cut the strips into 2 x 2' by 18m for the module ends and trim off 36mm from each 12mm piece for the module sides. I have an ancient pair of framing squares which help too. Basically they are like L shaped vices that you slot the wood into before gluing and screwing together. A perfect 90 degree angle every time.

 

The legs on the other hand were a bit more complicated. I did use plans provided by the club and I have a table saw so making the same cut over and over again is straightforward.

 

Ian: the period can be flexible from the late 60's to present day. There are still several dozen grain elevators of that type in Alberta. Most have been converted to seed cleaning or local grain storage. Alberta Pool would have still used these into the late 90s.

 

Thanks for the encouraging comments gents, its much appreciated. More to come in the following days and weeks.

[AndrewC]

Right, third time lucky. First RMWeb died last night just as I was posting, next Photobucket was down earlier this morning so I couldn't add pics. Arrrgghh!

 

Third time lucky for the modules as well, I hope.

 

Its pretty obvious I didn't make my 2 week deadline. A consulting assignment was moved ahead so I lost the week of Aug 9th which I needed to get the rest of the track down and wired. After the disaster with cork tiles, I was already pushing my luck. In future, I'm sticking to either 3mm ply or Woodland Scenics underlay. I do find it strange that nobody in the UK stocks the ubiquitous pre cut cork underlay strips that are so common in North America.

 

Finally, yesterday I managed to have a few hours free to get the track down and finished. Its only the second time in 3 weeks that I've been able to do any work at all.

 

 

The 4 modules work out to 13' by 5'. The tracks on the corner modules are 48" radius for the main line and an overall minimum of 42". Ignore the mess.

 

 

 

I haven't fixed the track a the module ends down fully as of yet. That will allow for some tinkering when I can get the track template jig from the club to ensure everything is exact to spec. The ends will be fixed with pcb ties screwed into the 6mm by 18mm blocks, which in turn will be trimmed to match the edges of the underlay before ballasting.

 

 

I tried something different with the track and soldered all the droppers to the underside of the rail before putting the track down. Its a bit more effort but the soldered joints are practically invisible.

With a bit of luck and another free day today I should get some if not most of the droppers wired up to the main track bus. Again I'm trying something different and using Scotchlok connectors instead of either soldering or using terminator blocks.

 

In the background of the bottom picture you can see the rest of the pre-cut plywood and styrofoam sheets which are for the 14 baseboards needed for the home layout. That's for another day though as I#ve had my fill of baseboard and leg construction for the next several months.

 

 

 

[the_buffers]

JWB, its not as bad as it sounds. I just have to get the track and wiring to a state where it can be tested. I've got this week off and most of next week so I'm not worried. <touch wood> With luck I should have the track down by the weekend and the wiring is a piece of cake. DCC with a couple of throttle ports to hook up and only 3 points.

 

 

 

Managed to get most of the cork on the first module down tonight and the track test fitted. Can't remember whose idea I stole, but I've used 3mm cork tiles laminated together. Where I need a point motor (Tortoise) I replace the bottom bit of cork with 3mm ply instead. This is because the modules are formed of 50mm closed cell insulation foam.

 

Excuse the low light camera phone snaps.

 

 

Hello Andrew,

 

Glad to see you finding some time to play trains.

I will be watching and following your progress from over 'ere!

 

Take care

Andrew 2

[AndrewC]

Things are still progressing. The wiring is finished and ready for testing at the club on Saturday. Once that's done I can finish off aligning the track ends and fixing them down to copper clad ties.

 

 

According to the spec each module has a pass through of track power and earth, along with an Xpressnet bus, and 2 throttle ports.

 

So far its running well with only a dodgy solder join in a feed to one of the Tortoise motors.

 

There are 9 buildings in various stages of construction to go on the modules. I'll start snapping pics as soon as they are semi-presentable.

 

Hey Andrew H. Good to hear from you. Before you ask, no I haven't given up on UK modelling. This is just a diversion.

[alcoRS1]

Looking good Andrew,

 

I cannot wait to see more. BTW I don't think you will want to go back to doing UK, I started, then I got my new layout going, I just love freight, and US is like 99% fright. There is how every a 14ft x 2ft space under half of my modern US layout for a small British layout, thinking of doing Buxton, small station and Engine shed, time period 1970s TOPS.

[AndrewC]

Thanks Alco. I still have a strong attraction to 60's UK modelling. I also have far too much stuff that I could never part with.

 

Been meaning to ask you, where in the NW are you?

 

 

Today I've managed to get the track cleaned and do some test running. So far so good. A couple of the module joins will need adjustment but thats not surprising as the track is just floating free over the last 2" of each module.

I've also started drawing out the buildings and test positioning things.

 

 

Most prairie towns were built to a simple set of rules.

Station on one side of the tracks, grain elevators and the industrial part of town on the other. (down wind from the rest of the town) Towns very rarely have the elevators and the commercial & residential areas on the same side of the line. The reasoning is the tracks & ballast make a good fire break. Having the residential area up wind of stored grain, blacksmiths, stock yards, etc just makes sense.

 

For Millarville, I'm using the station as the local museum. (Just as Claresholm, High River, Nanton, and many other towns did) There will be a pair of old wooden sided cabeese used as a diner along side the station.

 

The gas station is a Summit kit and the decals have been scanned, and Photoshopped and it will appear as a Petro-Canada station instead of Shell. Providing of course when I get around to spraying the assemblies. The fast food place is also a Summit kit and is there for measurment only. I have another of the same to build which will be rebranded as Tim Horton's.

 

 

The station building is a resin kit of a CP type 13. The first attempt at painting went pear shaped as the paint was off and went gooey when sprayed. Its taken a lot of effort to slowly strip it off the outside without damaging the very thin resin walls.

 

The elevators are a mixed bag. The closest is the Kanamodels wooden kit which looks a lot better than the Walthers one. However I was given a complete fullsize set of blueprints for Pool elevators and have found they are both very wrong. All basic wooden elevators in Alberta and Sask were built to a fixed ratio. 1x length = 1x width, height to first roof is 2x length, total height is 3x length. Roofs are always 45 degree angles. The lower roof lines take 1/3 of the total width each side. The Walthers kit is the right proportions but wrong roof angles. The Kanamodel isn't even square. Its proportions of the side match the height but the front is too narrow. Both will be binned and a pair of scratch built ones will be used instead.

 

At the other end of the modules there will be a small builder's supply based on a bashed up Walther's lumber yard combined with the salvage yard kit. I've also got the quonset hut which will become the WildRose Brewery. (the real brewery is in a big quonset hut on the old Canadian Forces base in Calgary. )

 

That's all for now. Time to dismantle them and load up for the trip to the club tomorrow.

[alcoRS1]

I am in Vancouver, Washington, BNSF land. just across the Columbia River from Portland Or. It is a great hub for rail fanning, with the North South traffic coming though, and the East West BNSF, not for getting the Portland & Western, and Amtrak

 

love the MLW/ALCO

[AndrewC]

Its about time for an update I think.

 

The Nikon got dropped by SWMBO back in September so no digital photography at the moment apart from the rather disappointing results from the iPhone.

 

I finally got down to drawing out a plan for the modules. My original one in RightTrack became corrupted and I didn't fancy trying to draw the angled modules again. This was whipped up in an hour using Paint .NET.

 

 

Since Sept I've finished aligning the track at the module ends to match the club's template.

 

The copper clad ties are down and the whole lot painted. Now the fun job of ballasting, blech!

The quonset hut is complete and ready to plonk down.

I've completed the shells and painting for the lumber yard. Just need to fill them with lumber and building supplies.

The warehouse is sitting in the front room needing another coat of paint to the roof and the fitting of the window glazing. After that it too will be ready to plonk.

The donut shop is mostly assembled and has had its first pass though the spray booth. Another coat and it will be ready for the roof and windows. Can't decide on whether or not to attempt scratch building an interior.

 

That's about it for now.

[shortliner]

Tell me there will be a couple of P-o-lis cars parked outside the do-nut shop!

[alcoRS1]

would not the station be in the place where the farm building is? so why the train pulls in, it can clear the loco away from the station with out sitting across the switch?

[AndrewC]

Jack: yes there will be a small fleet of RCMP vehicles out side of Tim Horton's.

 

Alco: I thought that too until I looked at the Google Earth images of Claresholm AB. (which is more or less what I'm basing the modules on.) The siding switch is directly in front of the station building. This is true of several other places like Beiseker, Wimborne, Big Valley, and Torrington.

 

 

 

Here are a couple of crappy snaps from the phone showing that I really have done a bit of work.

 

 

 

Positioning the warehouse. Have yet to determine what's going in it. The kit is the Walther's salvage yard. I will eventually chop off the office to the left of the window to butt the side up to the backscene.

 

 

Weathered track. One blast with Precision sleeper grime, and a dusting of rusty rails. Not looking forward to ballasting.

[AndrewC]

A couple more crappy-snaps to show the general positioning of things on the modules.

 

 

The Tim Horton's after the main colour has been sprayed. The main walls will be a darker earth colour. The kit is the Summit 'Jack in the Box' restaurant. Most of the prototypes are fake brick clad so I'm considering adding Slaters brick to at least 1 or 2 walls. Being overscale would be an advantage as most of the fake brick used in Western Canada are larger than normal bricks.

 

 

 

Totem building supplies, a much hacked about Walthers kit.

 

 

 

The edge of the station building and caboose 'diner'. The caboose is an ancient Juneco CN wooden kit. The second caboose will be the same manufacturer's CP version.

Still have to get around to repainting the station building so I can finish adding the windows and roof.

[F-UnitMad]

Useful info about the Elevator dimensions - would that hold true of Mid-Western USA Elevators too?

Another couple of Q's if you don't mind..

 

I note (and have heard before) the comment about "Industry opposite tracks to Town"; which side is the Depot building as a rule usually?

 

Re the modules, what sort of connectors do you use to link the power bus between boards? I'm just getting into DCC and this sort of thing is suddenly very important!!!

 

Cheers, Jordan.

[pH]

I note (and have heard before) the comment about "Industry opposite tracks to Town"; which side is the Depot building as a rule usually?

The Grand Trunk Pacific (now Canadian National) east-west mainline across the Prairies was built to definite standards. Most towns were built to the same design, taking account of the fact that the prevailing wind comes from the northwest. The depot was to the north of the line, with the freight shed (part of the depot) to the west, to act as a bit of a windbreak and protect the inhabited part of the depot from the prevailing wind. The town was built north of the depot. ‘Main Street’ led directly from the back door of the depot, ‘Queen Street’ was parallel to the west, and ‘King Street’ parallel to the east.

 

The ‘business tracks’ were to the south of the mainline, set back further from the tracks than was usual on other lines. With the elevator(s) on these tracks, windblown snow collecting in the lee of the elevators would not block tracks. Also, if the elevator caught fire (apparently not too unusual), the sparks would tend to blow away from the town, and the fact that the tracks were set back further than usual meant the depot and town were that bit further away from the fire, too.

 

Incidentally, there weren’t too many significant settlements on the northern Prairies when the GTP line was being built, so the railway got to name the stations and towns as they built them. Stations were named alphabetically, east to west, between major division points, though this scheme is not so obvious now with closures, new stations being opened and some renaming. There were three cycles through the alphabet between Winnipeg and Edmonton. Local workers got to name a lot of the stations. The weirdest one is supposed to be Zumbro in Saskatchewan – named after someone’s dog!

 

(EDIT - sorry this is so long and a bit off-topic. I knew where to get the answer to Jordan's question, but found all this extra information there as well. I thought it was interesting!)

[F-UnitMad]

(EDIT - sorry this is so long and a bit off-topic. I knew where to get the answer to Jordan's question, but found all this extra information there as well. I thought it was interesting!)

Got a link at all? Must admit as my avatar might suggest I'm more interested in the US Mid-West area. As a very loose generalisation the Soo mainlines tended to run on a diagonal South-East to North-West axis through Minnesota/North Dakota; almost 'into the wind' so-to-speak, if it came across from the Canadian prairie (Saskatchewan) in the same general direction. Maybe as CP Rail were a major Soo Shareholder then CP practice (which might not be far off CN practice?) would be applied south of the Border, too..??

I think it's interesting, too!! B)

[pH]

Got a link at all?

Jordan, sorry, not a link but a reference - 'Trains' magazine for June 1997, pages 38 to 45 "Canadian National's Bee Line Over The Prairie".

[AndrewC]

PH nailed it exactly. Most prairie towns were built to the same set of plans. Variances were only really due to geography. (lakes, ponds, escarpments, etc) I learned most of this in Junior High school Social Studies class. I thought it was all a waste of time back then but its the kind of thing that gets stuck in your brain.

 

North/ south running lines generally had the townsite with depot on the west side of the tracks with the elevators and 'industrial' businesses on the east. There were always exceptions. The town of Stavely, just north of Claresholm is an example. To the west of the line there is some boggy ground so everything was built on the east side of the tracks. There is a wide green space between where the elevators were and the townsite itself. Even today the dual carriageway of highway 2 diverts around the unstable ground.

Stavely, AB Note the original townsite follows the tracks and isn't orientated north/south - east/west. Later expansion to the east of Range Road 274 is east/west. Also note the elevator is further south of the rest of the town.

 

BTW, I always thought 'Eyebrow' Sask was the daftest place name. Although Vulcan Alberta has leveraged its name to become a haven for Trekkies.

 

Jordan, the club standard for power is to use 3 pin locking XLR connectors. Further up in this topic there is a pic of the underside of a module showing the power and Xpressnet jumper cables attached. Using jumpers allows for the command station to be attached anywhere on the layout as well as making it easy to isolate a single or group of modules for fault finding. Not sure about the US elevators or ones built with metal siding. I would assume so since the Walthers elevator which is based more on US practice does match the 1-2-3 ratio.

[F-UnitMad]

Thanks for the Info!! B)