Sýnir færslur með efnisorðinu Benchwork. Sýna allar færslur
Sýnir færslur með efnisorðinu Benchwork. Sýna allar færslur
sunnudagur, 15. júní 2014
Work Session Report - 15 June 2014
Tom, John, and Ben stopped by a short work session this afternoon.
About a year ago John made a yardmasters desk for White River Junction - he and Tom worked on installing it on the layout. John is an extremely talented modeler - his other hobby is making mandolins - so to say he went above and beyond the call with the YM's desk is an understatement!
But the finished desk looks great, and it's on drawer glides so it can be slid out of the way to keep the aisle clear when it's not needed.
Tom and I spent some time discussing the station platforms and B&M track arrangements by White River Junction station. We have a plan for the area that will maximize the platform area around the station building and make the finished scene close to full size in HO. It's going to have to wait until after the operating sessions in the next two weeks.
Ben worked on passenger car wheel sets.
I did a couple of minor little tasks - adding another set of feeders near the creamery crossing and ballasting some of the mainline track.
I also finished installing the phone system that Mat and Pete stopped by to help with on Tuesday night. The phone system deserves it's own post.
Thanks to all for the help!
As for me, now I have to clean up the layout room and get things staged for the session next Saturday.
Read More..
About a year ago John made a yardmasters desk for White River Junction - he and Tom worked on installing it on the layout. John is an extremely talented modeler - his other hobby is making mandolins - so to say he went above and beyond the call with the YM's desk is an understatement!
But the finished desk looks great, and it's on drawer glides so it can be slid out of the way to keep the aisle clear when it's not needed. I did a couple of minor little tasks - adding another set of feeders near the creamery crossing and ballasting some of the mainline track.
I also finished installing the phone system that Mat and Pete stopped by to help with on Tuesday night. The phone system deserves it's own post.
Thanks to all for the help!
As for me, now I have to clean up the layout room and get things staged for the session next Saturday.
þriðjudagur, 1. apríl 2014
Re-Locating Williams Creek: 4
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| A look at the mocked up "downtown" scene adjacent to the Williams Creek bridge scene. Don't blink when driving through here, you might miss it! But sometimes a scene with very little can have a huge impact. |
- I'm sure the readers of this blog are getting plenty sick of seeing pictures of raw benchwork and the somewhat endless look at construction and reconstruction. I know I'm sick of looking at it! Hopefully this Williams Creek relocation project is the last of the "deconstruction" and we can do nothing but move forward! -
I got the plywood sub roadbed installed on Sunday afternoon. Since then I've been playing with various arrangements for the Williams Creek scene. The Williams Creek project really includes the bridge scene and river itself as well the mainline on either side of the bridge � a total of about 17 feet of single track mainline. I've played around a lot with this section of the layout for several years, and I found it the least satisfying area on the entire railroad both visually and operationally.
I considered all kinds of possibilities ranging from a large water-powered mill complex, to a small town, to a large �destination industry� like a paper mill or plywood plant. I�ve arranged, and rearranged structures and track so many different ways I�ve lost track.
In the end, the answer became clear � simpler is better � �Less is More� as some of my friends are fond of saying.
Behind the station a single spur comes off the main at an angle and services a small - very small �industry.� Perhaps a small freight house - or the freight house that's been leased by a local lumber company. Or maybe a team track that�s currently being used by the State Highway department to receive road-building materials. Perhaps it�s used to store MofW cars. In any event, it�s going to be something very simple.
Bill Schamburg said it more poetically:
�There is a need for counterpoint on a layout unless you are in a Jackson Pollock mode. The natural and built landscapes exist in an organized manner. Leave breathing room, cluster things, create "high visual elements," and remember that human activity is often nodal, then provide visual relief. After all, why do city folks go for "a ride in the country?" (And, country mice have been known to head for the city for a weekend.) Some call it negative space, but it it has a positive influence on the impact and realism of a model RR, be it prototype-specific or a derivation.�
laugardagur, 29. mars 2014
Re-Locating Williams Creek: 3
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| After a long afternoon (and most of the morning) I've got the Williams Creek section in its new home. Obviously the mainline needs some realignment! But at least a favorite scene is back on the layout and not sitting on a shelf! |
Next step - getting the sub roadbed reinstalled and laying the mainline in place.
föstudagur, 28. mars 2014
Re-Locating Williams Creek - 2
Phase 1 of the Williams Creek scene relocation is complete. The first photo (left) shows how the scene looked before I removed the background hills and determined the final location of the Williams Creek "section." The shot below shows how the scene looks after the twin mountains were removed. The flextrack shows the approximate location of the mainline realignment. The white paper cut out is the Williams Creek section template. Note this will take up some aisle space.
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| PHOTO 2 |
1. Option A: Place Williams Creek as shown in photo 2 and remove the through truss bridge. Fill in the river scene closest to the camera and add a small industry and perhaps a grade crossing.
2. Option B: Place Williams Creek where the paper template is shown in Photo 2 and slide the through truss bridge closer to the fascia and angle it to match the new mainline alignment. At this point the scene has the mainline crossing the same river twice, once on the through truss, the second time on the deck girder Williams Creek bridge. We assume the river bends "off scene."
3. Option C: Remove the through truss bridge and place the Williams Creek scene in its place. Photo 3 shows the Williams Creek template in position. It's hard to see since it's draped over the truss bridge, but this option doesn't require eating up any additional aisle space. I also think two bridges may be just a "little too much of a good thing."
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| PHOTO 3 |
I'm leaning towards Option C.
Which would you choose?
fimmtudagur, 27. mars 2014
Re-locating Williams Creek - 1
with the track at Randolph completed, wired and tested it was time to see if I could actually reuse the scene in some other portion of the railroad. The most obvious potential spot was the long section of tangent track on the Essex Junction side of the peninsula. Here's some of the parameters for this project:
1. Although there are some background hills and trees in this area, it's certainly not finished scenery, so I don't mind reworking/removing the scenery in this area.
2. There is another bridge scene that I've never been terribly pleased with so I have no qualms about removing it to accommodate Williams Creek.
3. That "other" bridge scene is located in such a way that there was no room to develop anything on either side of it - I might like to add a very small town scene (grade crossing and spur serving one industry) to that area of the layout, so the rebuilding should leave room for that possibility. This means Williams Creek shouldn't be in the same location as the other bridge.
Stay tuned�
miðvikudagur, 19. febrúar 2014
Progress in Randolph
laugardagur, 1. febrúar 2014
Laying out Randolph
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| Laying out the Randolph track arrangement. In this photo, the under construction Waterbury station is serving as a stand in for Randolph. |
A key signature scene for Randolph is in this aerial view. I think I can take liberties with the prototype (such as bending the track the "wrong way," curving tangent track etc�..) as long as I get this "downtown" scene fairly accurate.
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| Aerial view of the depot area in Randolph. The station is in the upper right hand corner, which means this photo is oriented with my backdrop side on the bottom and fascia side on top. Randolph Coal and Ice (lower left) and the firehouse (with the peaked-roof tower) are also signature structures for this scene. |
mánudagur, 20. janúar 2014
Work Session Report - 20 January 2014
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| The 1x 2 shows the approximate alignment of the revised mainline through what will now be known as "Randolph." |
I'll prepare a follow-on post detailing the "whys," but I made two rather significant changes to the layout today.
First, I decided to replace the freelanced paper mill scene with another CV prototype scene. Inspired by the paper mill on Paul Dolko's former B&M layout, the paper mill was interesting, but after a couple of years of playing around with different track arrangements, buildings, etc� it never really came together. Main issue was such a large complex really didn't seem to fit with the theme of the CV in the 1950s in northern Vermont.
So, instead I'm going to add my version of Randolph, Vt, another favorite CV town.
To add Randolph we need to have a longer town scene than was available, which meant the Williams Creek bridge scene had to be removed. It will be reinstalled in another location on the layout - here it is after Tom and Stic got done with it -
Ben and I removed the track from the paper mill scene and removed a fair amount of the foam board sub roadbed and framework from the section. Then Ben turned his attention to some of the passenger cars. An ongoing project is getting the Ambassador consist off the "bad order" shelf�.
Stic and I got the risers and crosspieces level in preparation for reinstalling the sub roadbed. By the end of the day, Randolph was down to the bare grid benchwork, but rebuilding will commence shortly. 
I also decided to move the end of the peninsula over about 20" or so, mostly to create a little more room to get around the relatively tight aisle between the back of the peninsula and north end staging. To do this we simply cut the peninsula at it's base - I should say Tom cut the peninsula using a very fancy saw that made truly straight square cuts, and all of muscled the peninsula into it's new position. Tom, John, and I then filled in the gap in the layout frame and backdrop. 
föstudagur, 23. september 2011
Walking tour - 1
When Dave Emery came out for the open house last weekend he took some overall pictures of one side of the peninsula. So, I'd thought we'd start the "walking tour" with them - mostly because there's no track down in the "around the walls" section - something I plan to address very soon.
This is the view looking down the peninsula from the bottom of the basement stairs:
Read More..
This is the view looking down the peninsula from the bottom of the basement stairs:
Looking back at the peninsula (to the far right) - the Williams Creek scene is in the center.
Turning left from the previous shot reveals the unfinished section around the wall (the benchwork extends behind the photographer also). Current plans call for one fairly large industrial complex - likely a wire rope plant, to go along the left side of this shot.
When I get more track in place and cleared off I'll post photos of the rest of the layout.
miðvikudagur, 29. júní 2011
Waterbury Peninsula Campaign - the planning continues . . .
A few days ago I described the basic approach I'm taking with the peninsula area. When I started laying out the path for the waterways, I quickly determined one of two options - both of which are shown in my rather rough sketch attached.
The first shows the river arranged as I've been planning - essentially the water "disappears" (somewhat gracefully, I hope) around a bend and between two low hills. One of those hills forms a "background" for the feedmill and freighthouse in Waterbury.
OPTION 1:
The first shows the river arranged as I've been planning - essentially the water "disappears" (somewhat gracefully, I hope) around a bend and between two low hills. One of those hills forms a "background" for the feedmill and freighthouse in Waterbury.
OPTION 1:
The area around the station/feedmill will remain a "freelance free zone" - in other words it will be prototype specific. Some of the rest of Waterbury will be freelanced as needed to best fit the space.
NOTE: The white building in the lower right is a Branchline creamery kit. The white line through the center represents a road. (hey, Rick Johnson I'm not . . .) Not sure the creamery will remain in that location.
Although this looked okay on paper, and in initial planning - looking at it now I'm thinking the river/feedmill/background hill is just a little too cramped. It just doesn't look natural. To look right a mill should have a intake and an upper pond, with a falls, and a lower pond. I have that here, but it looks too forced - and the lobe end of the peninsula would end up with a few town buildings, a street, and a bunch of trees . . . and believe me when you model New England the last thing you need is a reason to make even MORE trees . . .
OPTION 2:
NOTE: The white building in the lower right is a Branchline creamery kit. The white line through the center represents a road. (hey, Rick Johnson I'm not . . .) Not sure the creamery will remain in that location.
Although this looked okay on paper, and in initial planning - looking at it now I'm thinking the river/feedmill/background hill is just a little too cramped. It just doesn't look natural. To look right a mill should have a intake and an upper pond, with a falls, and a lower pond. I have that here, but it looks too forced - and the lobe end of the peninsula would end up with a few town buildings, a street, and a bunch of trees . . . and believe me when you model New England the last thing you need is a reason to make even MORE trees . . .
OPTION 2:
This shows my current leanings - and it offers the advantage(?) of possibly adding a second mill (with another dam/falls) in the location currently occupied by the creamery building.
More importantly, even without a second mill complex, I think the water course looks a lot more natural. The hills (represented by the stacked foamboard) can be moved slightly to the right - which will free up the area behind the feedmill and freight house.
Disadvantage - I'll have to add another bridge to the mainline along a curve in the foreground. It doesn't have to be a particularly long bridge, but bridges, especially on curves, can be a real pain. One possibility is a large culvert (or even two culverts) is one possibility. The other may be to do what Paul Dolkos suggested and simply let the river "disappear" behind some trees.
Perhaps that bane of New England modelers - all those trees - are useful additions to our bag of tricks.
More importantly, even without a second mill complex, I think the water course looks a lot more natural. The hills (represented by the stacked foamboard) can be moved slightly to the right - which will free up the area behind the feedmill and freight house.
Disadvantage - I'll have to add another bridge to the mainline along a curve in the foreground. It doesn't have to be a particularly long bridge, but bridges, especially on curves, can be a real pain. One possibility is a large culvert (or even two culverts) is one possibility. The other may be to do what Paul Dolkos suggested and simply let the river "disappear" behind some trees.
Perhaps that bane of New England modelers - all those trees - are useful additions to our bag of tricks.
miðvikudagur, 15. júní 2011
A bold fascia color choice?
I haven�t posted on this blog lately simply because I�ve not done much on the layout. Oh, I�ve done plenty of thinking about the layout, but not much actual progress has been made. The reasons are many, including spring fever, a large amount of landscaping work that started in late March and is only now winding down, and simply a loss of inertia. A little bit of planning never hurt anyone. And daydreaming about that next layout is perfectly harmless, provided it doesn�t overshadow progress on the layout you�re actually trying to build.
But this bout of analysis paralysis has been the worst I�ve ever experienced. In short, I�d taken down all but the basic benchwork for a large, basement filling layout (that I�d built in near record time) and things haven�t fallen back into place as quickly as I thought they would. I have a number of structures and building mockups � I must have arranged, rearranged, and then re-rearranged them a bunch of times. Nothing seemed to look right, nothing was working right. In short, I was frustrated � burned out � and somewhat ticked off at myself and the layout.
So, as I�ve been busy at work at and puttering around the house for the last few months I�ve been doing a lot of second guessing what I�m planning to do in the basement. �Is this the �best� benchwork footprint?� �Should I model this town or that town?� I�ve even questioned era and prototype � after all, I�ve been doing some form of the Central Vermont steam era thing for well over a couple of decades. Perhaps it�s time to do something truly different?
I�ve decided the answer, at this time, for me, is �no.� I have the necessary collection of rolling stock and locomotives (too many of the latter, but that�s a story for another day) to come pretty close to accurately recreating the CV of the late steam era. I have a plan for most of the layout that I think will be interesting to build and operate. A huge question still remaining is what �Town 3� will represent. Perhaps some form of White River Junction? Perhaps a semi-freelanced industry such as a paper mill or limestone quarry. Or maybe another �typical� Northern division CV town � (If that�s the route I choose then the two most likely candidates at this point are Swanton or Randolph). Since I don�t really know what I�m going to do about the south end of the railroad, I�m going to loosely glue a few Atlas code 83 turnouts and lengths of flextrack in place as a temporary staging yard.
What I need to do is focus on those sections of the layout that are fairly firm in my mind � Waterbury and Essex Junction. After all, there�s no reason to let over thinking prevent me from making some headway on the rest of the railroad.
What does any of this have to do with installing fascia panels?
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| The Essex Junction trainshed mockup in place. |
So, what comes after that? All the track is laid in Waterbury � and even wired and painted. But there�s still a lot of track in Essex Junction that needs to be installed. Refining the Essex Junction track arrangement is the next �big� project. I've got the mockup of the trainshed built and have been using it to determine the exact position of these key element in the scene.
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| For reference, the mockup is about 28" long in HO scale. |
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| View from looking south towards the trainshed. |
NOTE: Sky blue is not the final fascia color. Those are actually leftover pieces of Masonite from the lower-level backdrops on the formerly double-decked peninsula.
sunnudagur, 9. janúar 2011
From deconstruction to Construction
I've managed to round a corner of sorts. By the end of last week I'd finished all the "tear out" work and actually started to put things back together. Although I originally planned tosave a lot of existing trackwork, in the end it made more sense to simply scrape the track up and put it aside to reuse later.
Here are a few views showing how things looked in the layout room before Thanksgiving, and how they look today.
The peninsula lobe has been removed, and the peninsula benchwork now connects to the around the wall benchwork.
This had been the location of the Williams Creek bridge crossing scene - located on
the upper deck. The bridge, piers, and abutments will be reused, but the scene itself didn't make it:
As of today, here's what the view down the aisle is - the upper deck is gone, and the lower level track will be raised about 5" (when I install the new subroadbed):
The helix, at the "front door" to the layout area is gone, replaced by the framework for a new, wider peninsula (with aisles on both sides).
The benchwork that looks like it's "floating in air along the far wall is the former upper level staging yard. It's still there since frankly, it keeps it out of the way. The plan is to remove it, spin it 180-degrees, and reuse it as the new south end staging yard. It will end up along the same wall it is now, only about 20" lower and slightly to the right of its current position. Once the staging yard is moved, I'm going to install new backdrops down the center peninsula.
fimmtudagur, 23. desember 2010
Track plan
After some real frustration with my under construction Southern New England Railway layout, I decided to make some significant changes to not only the theme of the layout and the layout itself. For a little more detail on some of those changes see my Southern New England Railway blog post, here.
Currently, the basement looks like a bomb hit it - demo and/or reconstruction of model railroads is never pretty to look at, but I'm hopeful that like a Phoenix the new railroad will arise from the ashes "new and improved."
Seems appropriate to kick off this new blog with a look at the design for the revised layout. The footprint is similar in some ways to the existing layout, although there's no helix, and the peninsula connects to the around the wall portion of the layout at the opposite end of the room, relative to the former arrangement.
Here's a track plan showing the planned new layout arrangement. Note: This plan doesn't show all the details of every structure, siding, etc . . . and, I've deliberately left some "Towns" undetermined since I need to do some more research to narrow down the field.
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