Sýnir færslur með efnisorðinu Waterbury. Sýna allar færslur
Sýnir færslur með efnisorðinu Waterbury. Sýna allar færslur
laugardagur, 18. júlí 2015
Op session preps and Waterbury Progress
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| Low angle aerial view of Waterbury. Filled in the gaps between the old scenery and new fascia, adding about 4"-8" to the foreground of scene. Time to call in the ballast crew and the static grass landscapers. |
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| Derby & Ball - ready for some final texturing and details. |
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| What's with this guy? Obviously my son Matthew's work�. |
Doing something I've never tried before - two op sessions in the same month. The smart thing to do would have been to leave the layout as-is from the last session. I find it difficult and somewhat time-consuming to make the shift between "construction mode" and "operating mode." Maybe as more of the layout gets "finished" this will become less time consuming. That's my hope.
Of course, in the two weeks between I redid some the fascia in Waterbury - which left a gaping hole between the old scenery and the "new" fascia.
I filled that in with foam and got a coat of earth-colored paint on it with some basic texturing in the form of sifted dirt.
I was going to repaint the fascia (it now needs it - badly!) before today's session but cooler heads prevailed when I had images of my operating crew members sporting spots of green paint!
Next on the agenda is finishing the country store for Williams Creek, getting Mrs. Griffith a house to go with the barn, and then a LOT of static grass work between the end of the peninsula and Randolph.
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| Possible location for the Griffith Farm house? |
Remind me WHY exactly I'm doing this?
sunnudagur, 5. júlí 2015
July 5 - Progress Report
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| Progress on the hay barn at Griffiths Farm. I might add a farmhouse "up the road aways�." But I finally got the lower level windows, doors, and trim in place. And planted the wire tree. |
Even without the MMR certificates I'm so close to getting some sections of this layout "finished" that I'm determined to do just that.
The barn scene I've shown several times was one of those "90%" done projects - the doors and lower windows weren't installed, and the tree adjacent to the barn was simply plopped into place.
Friday morning was spent finishing up the structure itself - I even "dug" a hole and planted the tree.
The Williams Creek area has progressed with a creamery building (a Branchline kit with a scratch built boiler house addition). But the scene needs something else.
I can't think of anything more New England than a country store. I'd had the sub walls for a BEST Trains country store (The Trussel Store) on the layout for more than a year. Finally this weekend between other obligations I got the clapboard walls painted and painted and glazed the windows.
Progress!
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| Walls with windows for the country store. The mullions on one of the large laser-cut large store front windows simply wasn't there when I removed the pieces from the wood sheet. Need to repair it. |
Not entirely sure if it will be placed in front of the mainline in Wiliams Creek or between the track and the backdrop - either position will require "adjusting" the scenery a little but I think it will be a nice addition to the scene. I'm going to hold off selecting exactly where to place it until it's assembled. See the photo below for the two possible locations.
I plan on adding a simple interior and some lighting to this structure - partially for the MMR thing (you get extra scenery points for "lighting") but mostly because I think it will be neat to have a chance to do a "nighttime" shot or two.
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| A light construction project for this week. I've stripped most of the structures from Waterbury in preparation for a short work session Tuesday evening. We're going to re-do the fascia around the lobe end of the peninsula (above) to make it a smooth curve and straighten out of a reverse curve in the fascia to add a few inches to the scene at Waterbury (below). |
A little bit of major construction is also on the agenda for this week - luckily it won't impact the upcoming op session (actually should be finished well before then). I've never been pleased with the fascia on the lobe end of the peninsula. Frankly it looked awful. John Paganoni is coming by Tuesday evening to help resolve the issue with the curved portion of the peninsula. At the same time I'm going to straighten out a weird "reverse" curve in the present fascia - essentially making the fascia straight and adding 6" or so to the front of the layout. I'll save what I'm planning to use that additional depth until another post.
laugardagur, 18. apríl 2015
Wordless Wednesday #90
(Yes, I know it's not Wednesday - internet connectivity problems�.)
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fimmtudagur, 26. mars 2015
Progress Report
They say there's nothing like an open house or a visit from some fellow modelers to really kick things into gear. I hadn't really been all that motivated to do a lot of modeling in January and February. I'd say it was more "puttering" than progress. But when I learned that two of my good friends and great New England modelers were going to venture forth from their winter hideaways to visit several layouts in the DC area, including mine, I figured it was time to get my you-know-what in gear again!
The blog has also suffered from a lack of progress posts except for a couple of "wordless Wednesdays." What do you want from me - to make progress and then have time to actually blog about it????
So what has been going on:
1. These visitor preps always seem to start with cleaning up - the layout had gotten littered with "stuff" again. Actually just getting the surface of the railroad cleared off can be a huge motivator.
2. I engaged the services of Rich Cobb to build a couple more White River Junction structures to go along with the station he completed for me a couple of years ago. This meant getting Rich photos, footprints and other bits and pieces.
3. Bernie came out here and we "swung for the fence" with an attempt to fix the issues with the "black hole of White River. You can see what our plan was here. The result, still very much under construction, can be seen below:
There was the unfinished river scene north of White River Junction that needed a little something. Last weekend was spent patching the sub terrain, adding the "dirt" texture layer and painting the backdrop. I'm still getting my sea legs under me with the painting, but I do enjoy it! A couple of evenings to prep a couple of boxes of Super trees, and another evening spent flocking and "planting" them. A quick coat of fresh black paint will double as the water surface for the time being. Yes, the bank still needs vegetation, and track needs some ballasting. Overall, I think this will be a nice photo spot on the railroad - I know I'd certainly wait for a train here, and would be sure to frame the picture with that "electric maple" on the right:
And the "official" structure awaits signage, weathering, and details:
Read More..
The blog has also suffered from a lack of progress posts except for a couple of "wordless Wednesdays." What do you want from me - to make progress and then have time to actually blog about it????
So what has been going on:
1. These visitor preps always seem to start with cleaning up - the layout had gotten littered with "stuff" again. Actually just getting the surface of the railroad cleared off can be a huge motivator.
2. I engaged the services of Rich Cobb to build a couple more White River Junction structures to go along with the station he completed for me a couple of years ago. This meant getting Rich photos, footprints and other bits and pieces.
3. Bernie came out here and we "swung for the fence" with an attempt to fix the issues with the "black hole of White River. You can see what our plan was here. The result, still very much under construction, can be seen below:
Rich came through in record time with the White River Junction ball signal (Rich delivered the models painted but unweathered - the final finishing is on me):
Yes, I consider myself blessed to have great friends and talented modelers who are willing to help me out with this project, but ultimately it's my railroad � which means I should probably do something�.
I did get the WRJ station platforms completed - by far the largest paved area I've ever in one sitting. I think I'll save the specifics on that for it's own blog post, but you can see the platforms behind the E7 in the photo above.
There was the unfinished river scene north of White River Junction that needed a little something. Last weekend was spent patching the sub terrain, adding the "dirt" texture layer and painting the backdrop. I'm still getting my sea legs under me with the painting, but I do enjoy it! A couple of evenings to prep a couple of boxes of Super trees, and another evening spent flocking and "planting" them. A quick coat of fresh black paint will double as the water surface for the time being. Yes, the bank still needs vegetation, and track needs some ballasting. Overall, I think this will be a nice photo spot on the railroad - I know I'd certainly wait for a train here, and would be sure to frame the picture with that "electric maple" on the right:A few weeks ago I did a post about the Derby & Ball building in Waterbury. Just to show I actually do things other than redo track and make trees, here's the progress shot of the Derby & Ball building (obviously still under construction!) I couldn't determine how the prototype was painted in my era, but I kind of liked the colors it's painted now, so I went with those. Very New England color palette.
One last thing - just tonight (so Jim and Randy just missed it) I got the Twin State Fruit Company building for WRJ from Rich. So out with this stylish mockup -
Sorry for such a long post - I'll try to keep future posts shorter and more frequent!
But there's been a lot going on (some things I'm keeping close to the vest for the time being!) and wanted to catch you up!
fimmtudagur, 26. febrúar 2015
Derby & Ball Co. - 3
I've been making some progress on the Derby & Ball Co. complex - as you can see, the basic walls of the "main" building are assembled and have been primed. The building is resting on the "plans" for the woodworking shop portion of the complex.
þriðjudagur, 17. febrúar 2015
Derby & Ball Co. - 2
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| Logo from a 1934-vintage Derby & Ball scythe handle. |
Derby and Ball is an example of a manufacturing company that changed with the times and adapted to new markets when their original product was no longer in demand. The company was founded by Albert Derby, one of the principals in a company called Frost, Derby & Co. The company started manufacturing scythe snaths in 1857. In 1882, Franklin P. Ball, who had been engaged in the manufacture of scythe snaths in Springfield, Vt. since 1852, joined the firm which was renamed Derby & Ball. The company had two locations - one was in Bellows Falls, the other in Waterbury. The Waterbury facility specialized in manufacturing the wooden (primarily willow) handles for the various scytes.
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| Catalog page showing the various styles of scythe handles offered by Derby, Ball & Edwards Corp. |
In 1920, the Edwards & Edwards Co. merged with Derby & Ball forming Derby, Ball & Edwards Corp. In 1933 the company was reorganized as Derby & Ball, Inc. In 1933 they started manufacturing baseball bats in addition to scythes.
The company would last into the early 1960s but not as a manufacturer of scythes or even baseball bats. (The bats were only made for a few years before that business was sold to the makers of Louisville Slugger.) Recreational skiing started becoming popular in the years before WWII, and purely by accident the company started to make skis in 1934. A December 1950 newsletter of the Mt. Mansfield Ski Club explains the story behind how the company got involved in the ski business and explained how the skis were made.
miðvikudagur, 11. febrúar 2015
mánudagur, 9. febrúar 2015
Derby & Ball
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| Derby and Ball wood shop is visible to the left side of this Phil Hastings photo. The smoke is obscuring everything but the smokestack on the remainder of the complex. |
In the meantime I decided to focus my attention on a few more of the Waterbury structures.
First up on the docket is the Derby and Ball Co. building complex.
This includes a long two story structure and a one-story building that was likely used as a wood shop.
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| You can see the basic outline of the main building in this mockup, which is nothing more than a piece of newsprint cut to fit the layout with rough sketches of the window and door locations. |
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| The footprints of the Derby and Ball buildings to the left of the mainline. |
I'd already done some mockups of the structure - my models will be fairly large as model railroad structures go but won't be scale size - I simply don't the have length. But I should be able to capture the spirit of the complex.
The smoke from the locomotive in the Phil Hasting's photo is obscuring the two-story buildings - here's how they look today - like many of the older trackside buildings in Vermont they've been renovated and altered slightly over the years, but the basic "bones" are still there - I have to thank George Dutka for these shots which he was kind enough to lend me (and they're published here with his permission):
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| George Dutka photo shows the Derby and Ball main building. The white "garage" in the background is the old woodworking shop. |
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| Sanborn Insurance Map closeup of the Derby & Ball complex. |
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| Another photo from George. This shot of the shorter building in the two-story complex reveals the gable roof was different at one point. I plan to build my model following the lower gable trim since I think the resulting model will be a little more interesting. |
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| George even found an "earlier era" picture of the complex - I'll be using this shot to backdate my model in some places - there's room for artistic interpretation even in prototype modeling! |
At this point the model isn't much to look at since I've been laying out the doors and windows on the sub wall - more updates to follow.
(I have to add after building the last three or four structures from wood it's really, really nice to be working with styrene on this one!)
sunnudagur, 23. nóvember 2014
Shepley Coal Company Sheds
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| These two sheds make up most of the Shepley Coal complex at Waterbury. |
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| View from the opposite end. Still need to stain the end wall! |
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| You can see the two coal sheds to the right (in front of 2-8-0 452) in this George Corey picture of Waterbury. The next industry I plan to work on in Waterbury is the Cooley-Wright foundry, visible in the distance to the left. |
Photos show the current state of the Shepley Coal Company sheds. Though not as interesting as silo or elevated ramp style sheds, these lean-to sheds were perhaps the most common in New England in the 1940s and 50s.
Mine is made from Scribed basswood sheets with 6 x 6 posts glued along the side. The bracing crossmembers are 2 x 8s. Everything is stained with a combination of Hunterline Blue Gray, Creosote, and Light Brown stains. The roof is black .040" styrene - I'll add tissue to the roof to represent tarpaper.
Also, the rear walls of the two sheds face the backdrop, so these are also plain styrene. No reason to expend effort on something no one will ever be able to see.
You'll notice there is some pink foam crumbs visible where I carved away some scenery to make room for the sheds. I didn't vacuum it up before taking the pictures - need to be quiet, remember?
Finally - about the name - Shepley was the name of the company as seen on prototype Sanborn Maps. I didn't have room to model the sheds full size - but my sheds are plenty long. I have a small shack that will serve as a scale house that will be installed when I add the scenery texture to this scene. I'm not sure I'm going to call the industry Shepley. I might name it after a friend.
föstudagur, 12. september 2014
The Ambassador in Waterbury
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| The Ambassador in Waterbury, P. R. Hastings photo, courtesy Mr. Robert C. Jones |
For me, it was this Phil Hastings photo of the Ambassador going through Waterbury.
I was at a Navy training school in Newport, RI and decided to take a much needed break from studying the innards of the ALCO 251C engine in a marine application to seek out some nearby hobby shops. At the time I was happily modeling the Central Vermont - the railroad that I knew from the 1970s and 80s - lots of green, black, red, and blue Geeps and ALCO RS-11s (ironically, equipped with the same 251C that I was studying).
I wandered into a local hobby shop and noticed a six volume set of hardcover books on the Central Vermont. As I flipped through Volume V of Robert C Jone's "The Central Vermont Railway" I stumbled across this Phil Hastings photo printed across a two-page spread.
I bought the book (eventually I'd obtain the entire set, which I consider a "must have" for the CV fan) and have to say it was that book - primarily that photo - that turned me from being content to model "today" to modeling the same railroad as it used to look.
I suppose it should come as no surprise that Waterbury, more specifically the angle of that Hastings photo was a scene I wanted to capture in miniature "front and center" on the railroad.
I need to tweak some of the angles, and the water tank and station might need to be a little further apart but even though the scene is unfinished I thought I'd share it here.
mánudagur, 8. september 2014
Mocking up Waterbury
I've decided to focus my modeling efforts on the Waterbury "front door" scene until it looks "done." Key to this project is scratchbuilding a number of structures that are based on specific prototypes. I've already completed the Seabury Feed Mill and the old two-story freight house. Before I got too far ahead of myself it seemed to make sense to nail down the dimensions and locations of the other structures. The first building I turned my attention to was Demeritt Cannery, which is located alongside a dedicated spur within thetrack that circles the end of the peninsula. I started by scaling the basic dimensions from a Sanborn Map
to create an outline of the building. It quickly became obvious a "full size" building wasn't going to fit, and even if it did it would overwhelm the scene.
From the prototype photos of the building (above) I know basically what the structure looked like. It has four "sections"
1. The one story section with the covered truck dump
2. A three-story section
3. A two story section
4. A gambrel roof can warehouse
I figured as long as I capture these sections the resulting model will look "right" even if it compressed from the extremely long prototype.
I adjusted the mockup - it's much easier to use tape, scissors, and scraps of paper now than to make changes to an under-construction styrene model later! One change I made was to move the truck dump to the left to clear the track. It's a minor change that also allows the other end of the structure to be placed further than the curved mainline track. You'll also note I didn't mockup all the other lumbersheds and other buildings - there's plenty of room to add them on to the layout, and they'll be scaled to the "main" building so mocking them up isn't as critical.
Once I had the final footprint for Demeritt I turned my attention to the Derby & Ball complex.
This structure will be located across the tracks from Demeritt between the edge of the layout and mainline. Since it's a foreground structure I went a step further and drew plans (I use the term loosely!) for the walls on a piece of paper to check access points and viewing angles.
I started with the building scale width, but quickly found the resulting model would have completely filled the space between the siding and fascia - no "breathing" room. I checked various widths by simply folding the paper mockup until I had a width that would allow me to include the correct number and placement of windows (I may use windows smaller than the prototype to keep the proportions correct). 
I'll use the resulting mockup to create the outline of the walls and windows directly on the .060" styrene subwalls. But that's another story.
Is the time I spent (roughly 2-3 hours while watching/listening to football games on TV) worth the effort? I think so - I can proceed forward with this section of the layout confident that the buildings will fit and will look right.
Read More..
From the prototype photos of the building (above) I know basically what the structure looked like. It has four "sections" 1. The one story section with the covered truck dump
2. A three-story section
3. A two story section
4. A gambrel roof can warehouse
I figured as long as I capture these sections the resulting model will look "right" even if it compressed from the extremely long prototype.
Once I had the final footprint for Demeritt I turned my attention to the Derby & Ball complex.
I'll use the resulting mockup to create the outline of the walls and windows directly on the .060" styrene subwalls. But that's another story.
Is the time I spent (roughly 2-3 hours while watching/listening to football games on TV) worth the effort? I think so - I can proceed forward with this section of the layout confident that the buildings will fit and will look right.
miðvikudagur, 3. september 2014
mánudagur, 1. september 2014
Waterbury Freight House 4: Two story "old" freight house
þriðjudagur, 19. ágúst 2014
Waterbury Freight House: 3 - Staining the "old" freight house walls
I decided to build this portion of the building from basswood clapboard (Albert Scale Lumber, 4" HO clapboards). I spent some time last night with Hunterline stains of various colors trying to match the overall appearance and coloration of the building in the prototype picture. I think I'm getting pretty close. I find the wood stains hard to control since the wood grain plays tricks with the coloration. I think using styrene with brush-painted colors would have been easier.
*The article indicates the location is "unknown" but it's pretty obvious to anyone who has been to Waterbury or looked at photos taken in the steam era that the photographer was standing between the station and the foundry building. You can see Frank looking out from one of the window openings!
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