New layout; Bonanza & Western Railroad

Discussion in 'Freelance' started by skyraider, Jan 21, 2018.

  1. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Recently my wife and I went for a drive out in horse and ranch country and ended up at an Australian Shepherd trial to see some friends. We saw a bunch of things that were good ideas for the farm on the railroad, so I played Green Acres the last couple of days. Attached are a few photos of the current progress on the farm / ranch. It needs cows, people, a few implements laying around, maybe more trees, etc., but it's getting there. There's going to be a small windmill and stock tank near the deciduous tree.

    Paul
     

    Attached Files:

  2. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Hopefully, everyone is having a great beginning to their summer. Just completed a pillar crane and stack of rail and added them to the yard. The pillar crane will be used to unload coal for the coal bin and for loading and unloading flat cars. It is positioned so that it can access a fairly large area of the adjacent track to facilitate usage.

    The next project is to finish replacing the bad gears in a set of Also / Proto 2000 ABBA Fa / FB's. Once that is done, I'll take some photos of the set pulling a train.

    Have a great summer!!

    Paul Moore
     

    Attached Files:

  3. Joe Lovett

    Joe Lovett Member

    Paul, your layout is coming along nicely, great photos!!!

    Joe
     
    Sirfoldalot likes this.
  4. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Thanks, Joe. The streaks of rust on the crane base need to be redone. They look contrived--not realistic, I don't think. With my color vision, painting and weathering are an issue. I'll keep plugging away.

    Paul
     
  5. klrwhizkid

    klrwhizkid Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    Paul, Athearn 60044 gears for SD40-2 are a good match for those.
     
    Sirfoldalot likes this.
  6. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Thanks, Keith. I've already done two of the units using A-Line replacement gears, and they worked perfectly. Difficult to install, but they worked well once installed. If I run into issues, I'll try the Athearn 60044.

    Paul
     
    Sirfoldalot and Ozarktraveler like this.
  7. Thanks for those john. That is great looking
     
  8. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    My father went into the road construction business after graduating from SMU with a degree in civil engineering. He spent his entire working career with Texas Bitulithic Company. As a side note, I shoveled concrete, asphalt, and ran a jackhammer for seven summers during high school and college. As a result, I knew what I didn't want to do when I grew up!!! I Initially dad was the book keeper for a large asphalt lay down crew that was building new highways in Texas. He ended up as the chief structural estimator heading up the team that estimated the cost of building bridges.

    All that was just to establish that he knows what he's talking about when it comes to roads and bridges. He told me that the small town he grew up in--Grand Saline, TX--had chip seal roads in town when he was growing up there. They just sprayed tar down and then spread gravel over it. The sidewalks were often gravel or just wooden boardwalks in front of the downtown buildings.

    So that's how I decided to do my small town. It's hard to see, but I attempted to do chip seal by mixing black paint with glue, spreading that on the road surface, then sprinkling light tan gravel over it. The town sidewalks are gravel. In the second photo you can see the color difference between the sidewalks and the chip seal. There will be a boardwalk style entrance to each of the buildings. The walks aren't all built yet.

    The gazebo is just a free paper kit I found online. All I have is a cheap black laser printer, so I drastically lowered the contrast and increased the brightness before printing it. I also resized it, but not enough. It's still too big. After printing it, I colored it with art markers and then cut it out and glued it together. There will eventually be an actual structure there, but I wanted to see how it looked. There will also be grass, a few trees and some park benches.

    The tall green structure to the left of town (south on the layout) is a partially scratch built building a friend started building. It is where the church will be, and I just wanted something there with approximately the same footprint as the church. It's way too tall, but the square area is close.

    The railroad depot isn't actually a depot on the layout. It's the railroad's main office for the yard and locomotive facility.

    Paul Moore
     

    Attached Files:

  9. Sirfoldalot

    Sirfoldalot Frisco.org Supporter Frisco.org Supporter

    PAUL -- I have thoroughly enjoyed your "build" and look forward to more.
    Interesting side thought was the fact that where I grew up - all the roads were sprayed asphalt and pea gravel over
    the top. Made for lots of dings on the windshields!
    If you don't mind - a post of the "paper" gazebo website would be appreciated? Thought I'd try and make a few of them for some friends?
     
  10. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Thanks for the comments. Any suggestions are welcome. Here's the site with free paper models:

    http://www.geocities.ws/chucho868/

    At this point, I can't decide if I like the gazebo on the railroad or not. I may nix it and put something else in the small city park.

    Do you--or did you--fly airplanes?

    Paul Moore
     
  11. Sirfoldalot

    Sirfoldalot Frisco.org Supporter Frisco.org Supporter

    It's a pretty neat looking structure - just looks a little large. Spousal Unit and I saw quite a few in Texas small town squares which we drove through. I thought they fit very nice where they were, but I'm not sure about your location. With a little more built up town, it may go very nicely? You sort of need a "town square"!

    To answer your question - TWA for 34 years.
     
    Joe Lovett and Ozarktraveler like this.
  12. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Yes, it's too large. Here's a link to a kit that is a little smaller I may buy:

    http://www.summit-customcuts.com/gazeboho.html

    The prototype is in LaGrange, TX.

    I don't think there's room for a town square. The plan is for a small town park with the Gazebo, a few trees and a grassy area. That may change, but that's the current plan. The layout is already beginning to be too cluttered for my taste.

    With my horrible color vision, the military and airlines were out of the question for me. I have a commercial license and ended up owning a Bonanza and selling Mooney's for a short time.

    Paul Moore
     
  13. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Kits have gotten so expensive that I try to kit bash from stuff laying around the house or scratch build whenever possible. Friday evening an idea hit me for a church.

    In my parts box I've had a partially built building that I got from a friend about 20 years ago. It wasn't being used for anything. I realized that if I cut off the bottom story, scratch built a bell tower, installed some windows and doors, it might work for a church. It started life as the partially shingled dark green two story thing on the left side of the first photo.

    It came out ok. Definitely not great, but tolerable. I screwed up and made the bell tower too big. It looked fine on paper, but the finished product needs to be redone. It still needs grass, a tree or two, and a gravel parking lot, but it's pretty close to done. My wife thinks it needs a tiny cemetery next to it. Maybe there will be a tiny cemetery on the left and an extremely small parsonage on the right.

    Last weekend I worked on the town park, put weeds and trees on the hill behind the town, so here is the current state of progress.

    Paul Moore
     

    Attached Files:

  14. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Just an update on the church and something related to modeling I discovered today. The church is basically done. I found a picture of a clock on Google that I liked. Downloaded it, scaled it to size on Photoshop, and printed it on clear acetate using my laser printer. It worked!!! Then I glued it to the front of the clock tower using Kristal Klear, which dries completely clear.

    Anyway, if you want lettering or an advertisement on a window in a building, or want something to look glass covered, you can print it on a laser or ink jet printer. NOTE: for ink jet, you probably need ink jet specific acetate. It has sort of a rough texture on one side for the ink to stick to, but is clear.

    Paul Moore
     

    Attached Files:

  15. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Basically completed another small area of the layout. It's a transitional area between the town and yard and the small ranch and country.

    Paul
     

    Attached Files:

  16. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Started working on the mine area on the back of the layout. Got the painting and ground basically done. No shrubs or trees yet, but the paint and dirt are mostly done. Also started building the old mining apparatus that will be laying around. There will be an old boiler, a cable hoist and a few other abandoned odds and ends that were left behind when the newer, 1945 vintage mine was opened.

    The boiler is a cast resin piece I found in my parts box. After lots of filing, cutting and painting, it came out fairly good.

    The hoist mechanism was fun. The base is carved out of a block of orange balsa foam. It's extremely easy to work with. You can cut, sand and paint it with just about anything and in any method you want. The only issue is the sanding dust. It goes everywhere.

    The machinery was made out of stuff laying around because I am too cheap to buy a kit. An O scale freight wheel and axle, a handful of HO scale plastic freight wheels, one of the broken gears out of an FA, some railroad ties and a few other odds and ends went in to the hoist mechanism... plus the block of orange balsa foam. The cable reel needed to be a larger diameter than the O scale axle, so I drilled and reamed out a piece of 5/16" oak dowel so it fit over the axle, and glued it on. The cable reel ends are nothing but washers.

    The reason the bottom of the base is curved and angled is that it had to be sanded to fit the ground on the layout where it will be placed.

    Still a long way to go, but it's fun.

    Paul Moore
     

    Attached Files:

  17. gbnf

    gbnf Member

    Too cheap to buy a kit? Scratchbuilding makes your layout unique, and a reflection of you, rather than your wallet. I really like the hoist mechanism. Thanks for all the photos. Your initial vision is becoming reality.
     
    Ozarktraveler and skyraider like this.
  18. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Thanks, and it is fun.

    There's a gas station kit I was going to buy. Looking through the parts bin, I found enough windows and doors to scratch build one instead. As long as you can buy 40's vintage gas pumps, it will be fun and cheap, too.

    Paul
     
    Ozarktraveler and Joe Lovett like this.
  19. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Did some more work on the mine the last few days. "Planted" weeds and bushes, drew up plans for the abandoned mining tower \ head house, and started building it. It still has lots of more diagonal braces to be cut, stained and glued in place, but it's well on the way. It needs quite a bit of weathering and aging. The wood looks too new.

    Paul
     

    Attached Files:

    Joe Lovett and rjthomas909 like this.
  20. skyraider

    skyraider Member

    Hope everyone had a great summer. We've had tons of rain the past six weeks, which is always welcome in a semi-arid environment.

    Haven't done much to the actual layout in quite awhile. I did install the head tower. A few photos are attached. There's a pretty involved scratch building project that is nearly complete. When it's done, I'll post photos of it.

    Paul Moore
     

    Attached Files:

Share This Page