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| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| jbvb |
Posted - 01/31/2008 : 8:10:46 PM
I'm modeling the Boston & Maine's Eastern Route in HO standard gauge in my 207-year-old house's attic. The attic has its pluses and minuses - plenty of space, just up the stairs and finished, but the combination of the sloping ceiling and a 36" minimum radius meant I could only do an around-the-walls plan. Also, it can get a bit hot in the summer and cold in the winter.
The layout incorporates my Rowley MA modules, presently the only finished scenery, in the rural northern half of the attic. The southeast corner is where I'm building my compressed version of West Lynn, MA including the General Electric River works and the West Lynn creamery.
This photo shows the mainline curve passing the future creamery (spur under the file) and the Saugus Branch (long staging tracks) coming in from the left. I'm spiking rail on the branch, building the switch comes next. The flying plywood is actually pretty rigid with the flange below and the backdrop partially installed, it will get better when I bring the backdrop around to the left edge of the photo.
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| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| jbvb |
Posted - 11/07/2019 : 5:38:09 PM
Earlier this year there were a few write-ups about a new lighting/interior product line called 'Roomettes'. I've tried one 'pictures from the internet' interior, but will need many more for night-time operations. So I signed up for a Roomettes make-n-take clinic at the NER Syracuse convention.
I chose the interior for the City Classics 'Crafton Ave. Gas Station', which I'd started a few years ago. The kit came with a printed cardboard 'office' interior. Roomettes provided both 'office' and 'garage bay' interiors, plus 3D fold-up counters, tool boxes etc. The clinician/founder also provided Gem-Tac glue, a quick-setting tacky PVA product. Mine went together pretty well at the clinic.
Because I'd already built my building, I had to trim the interiors a bit to get them through the floor opening. Wiring them was a bit harder. The provided LED-on-a-tiny-board is compatible with Woodland Scenics 'Just Plug' system, which uses 12 VDC and JST 2.5 mm connectors. I got some 'male' connectors on-line (Just Plug lights have 'female' connectors with metal sockets inside a plastic housing that looks kind of 'male) and connected them up:
This blurred shot (sorry) is with my 'walk around' LED strip lighting on. The Roomettes lights are too bright for me at 12V. I haven't decided whether to buy one of the W-S dimming hubs, or just add a resistor to the circuit.
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| jbvb |
Posted - 11/05/2019 : 11:02:51 PM
Thanks, Mike & Pete. BEST doesn't provide a prototype photo of the 'Little House' part of this 'Big House, Little House' kit (I'm building the Little House separately). The chimney might have been tall to get smoke above the Big House's windows. Or it might have been so the 4-6 flues in it would draw well. If I don't like it this way, I can shorten it or punch it through the roof. But maybe it got extended when Batterman Press built across the street and the DAR ladies started getting downdrafts when the wind was east (as it often is in Bexley). |
| Orionvp17 |
Posted - 11/05/2019 : 10:28:55 PM
James,
I think the 6/6 is a good choice and yes, the chimney looks tall. Looking forward to more of this!
Pete
in Michigan |
| Michael Hohn |
Posted - 11/05/2019 : 10:14:38 PM
I like the looks of the house you’re doing. Nice proportions, although the chimney seems rather too tall.
Very New Englandy.
Mike |
| jbvb |
Posted - 11/05/2019 : 8:09:15 PM
1/16" square bracing is adequate so far on this particular structure. But all 4 walls and the roof are 2 laminated layers. At any rate, it stood up to me shaving the new window openings with a #11 blade to fit the windows I came up with from the stash.
BEST's instructions show all the big windows as 4-over-4, but somehow I wound up with two 6-over-6s, much more appropriate for a surviving structure of this age (pre-1750).
Micro Engineering 28x50" windows are very close to the kit's middle-sized windows, and let me model one open a crack.
The Ritchie-Gilbert house doesn't match its neighborhood, This is intentional and of course there is a story, which I'll tell when house & diorama are finished. |
| Orionvp17 |
Posted - 10/17/2019 : 8:58:46 PM
Looking good, James. Would love to know how the 1/16" bracing works out. I've always used 1/8" square, "just because."
Pete
in Michigan |
| jbvb |
Posted - 10/17/2019 : 8:53:20 PM
Thanks, Mike & Pete. Today was pretty wet, but with the wood stove going I dried off quickly.
The house is a little farther along. BEST recommended pre-painting the parts, but I have better luck gluing bare wood surfaces.
I've also added 1/16" square reinforcement in the corners. The stock roof is about 3/16" too short with the new end wall. I haven't decided to extend the stock parts or make new. After Seashore track work tomorrow, glue will be dry and I'll revisit. |
| Tyson Rayles |
Posted - 10/17/2019 : 06:05:22 AM
Good looking scene! |
| Orionvp17 |
Posted - 10/16/2019 : 10:08:18 PM
Looks like a fun project, James! Please keep the pix coming!
Stay dry, too!
Pete
in Michigan |
| jbvb |
Posted - 10/16/2019 : 10:00:44 PM
Room lights would dodge the headlight issue, but then the sloping ceiling looms over the scene.
I'm back to working on a couple of projects on Franklin St. The big acrylic carcass that will become Batterman Press now has its first laminated styrene 'concrete' beam. Happily, the acrylic cement didn't affect the well-dried Floquil. But it won't be photogenic till I work out how to do the masonry windows.
There's also what I plan to call the Ritchie-Gilbert House, which goes behind the Coco Club. I'm using the 'extension' part of the BEST kit here; the main house will go elsewhere. The clamps are on the end wall I fabricated to match the kit's. |
| Orionvp17 |
Posted - 10/10/2019 : 2:50:40 PM
Looking good, James!
As for the headlights. turn the room lights on... Instant Daylight and the headlight issue goes away.
Nice progress!
Pete
in Michigan |
| jbvb |
Posted - 10/10/2019 : 1:44:54 PM
Pete, I think before the real-world bridge replacement, B-15 2-6-0s (the origin of the 'Mogul Country' tagline, for B&M novices) were the largest engines allowed. But I actually built my whole RR to clear Plate C; that gives me enough of the 'that's why clerestory roofs are so low and modern steam locos look so scrunched' flavor.
Jim, I think that was a solvent cement bottle. I've never bought Al-Clad, though I have read a good deal about it. All my 'stainless' roofs and ends to date are Floquil Silver plus weathering. I do have one set of non-plated car sides (NYNH&H 14-4 sleeper), with Bare Metal Foil stashed alongside them.
My stepson and I did more work on Franklin St. over the summer. Here's the color original of the B&W shot in The Gallery:
Headlights could be added, at the cost of making the vehicles tiresome to move. |
| BurleyJim |
Posted - 10/02/2019 : 1:40:22 PM
James,
I detected a bottle of AlClad paint in the photo of the passenger car (it's a beauty!) That Alclad was recommended to me by Bill Gill, is great!
Get going on that Cars AP, mine drove me a little  , but it's just a short putt for me.
Jim |
| Orionvp17 |
Posted - 10/02/2019 : 09:59:25 AM
Tight indeed! Taking a K-7 or K-8 through there must have been a cultural experience. Wow!
Cool shot, though! Looking forward to the "finals."
Pete
in Michigan |
| jbvb |
Posted - 10/01/2019 : 10:52:01 PM
Thanks, Michael. Whichever conventions I attend next year (my presence is pretty much obligatory at the Columbus Day NER convention in Westford, MA), I will bring an entry or two and see how I do.
I'm showing my layout after the Oct. 12 Seacoast Div. Fall Event, so I did a lot of cleaning up, some of which turned into 'finishing projects so I can put parts & tools away':
This tight-clearance underpass was built in the 1870s to get the City RR branch under High St. I hadn't realized it was dry-laid until I set out to model it. The batter is as large as I've ever seen on a RR structure. But the span itself is clearly much newer, either just before or just after WWII, and allowed much larger freight cars down to waterfront customer.
My stepson carved the rocks in meat-tray styrofoam. I built the railings from cut-up Rix parts. I will clean up the shaggy edge on the hardboard before visitors. I may go back and model the blank panels, but not this week or next.
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