11-06-2021, 03:44 PM
...and I also thought that a few photos from Mount Forest might give a more up-to-date view of things, since not much else is happening elsewhere on my layout.
Here's the Mount Forest train station, a modified Walthers kit...
...and the team track...
Just a little ways down the mainline, towards the staging yards, is the LCL warehouse, as seen from the south...
...and a view from the north...
This is the coaling tower, a Tichy kit...
Here's the turntable, not yet finished. It was an unpowered Walthers kit, to which I added a motor and gearbox from a scanner. While it worked well enough for moving the turntable, it had no indexing, and was difficult to spot precisely. I removed the motor, and will alter the turntable's shaft to increase the drag, then use finger power for both rotation and accurate alignment...
Here's the ground cover at the front of the roundhouse...
...which is partially Woodland Scenics "Fine Coal" with a little bit of fine coke-breeze added, along with some black powdered-tile grout. The oil and water spills were done using multiple applications of clear gloss water-based finish for wood, from Varathane. It's the same stuff that I used for the layout's water features.
Here are a couple of locomotives, this one an Athearn Genesis Mikado, modified with extra weight and all-wheel pick-up, plus a few added details...
...and what the crews call the "Lucky 26"...
... a Bachmann 2-8-0, she survived a 261' (HO) drop from the layout to the layout room's concrete floor.
Here's a look at the rear of the roundhouse, a much-modified Korber kit...
...and just across the track that leads to the staging yard on the other side of the aisle, is the railroad's offices and amenities for employees. The structure is a printed version of a real building, from Kingmill. I used gelled contact cement to affix it to a sheet of .060" styrene, then forced it into the coved corner of the layout. I did the cut-out for cars and pedestrians, but it will eventually house a boiler to provide direct steaming for locos in the roundhouse.
The TH&B railroad, in my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, was the first railroad in Canada to introduce the concept of direct steaming, which allowed locos to be ready for service much faster than building a fire to begin heating the boiler water.
The only evidence of the boiler house will be an elevated pipe over the tracks, with down-comers to the roundhouse and coaling tower, with underground pipes servicing the turntable and ash dump (the latter yet to be built).
I also plan to add a similar feature to the shops at Lowbanks, on the lower level of the layout.
To wrap this up, for now at least, here's a couple of photos showing what will eventually become the downtown of Mount Forest, with the Air Brake Division of Westinghouse in the foreground...
...and a view a little closer to town...
Here's the Mount Forest train station, a modified Walthers kit...
...and the team track...
Just a little ways down the mainline, towards the staging yards, is the LCL warehouse, as seen from the south...
...and a view from the north...
This is the coaling tower, a Tichy kit...
Here's the turntable, not yet finished. It was an unpowered Walthers kit, to which I added a motor and gearbox from a scanner. While it worked well enough for moving the turntable, it had no indexing, and was difficult to spot precisely. I removed the motor, and will alter the turntable's shaft to increase the drag, then use finger power for both rotation and accurate alignment...
Here's the ground cover at the front of the roundhouse...
...which is partially Woodland Scenics "Fine Coal" with a little bit of fine coke-breeze added, along with some black powdered-tile grout. The oil and water spills were done using multiple applications of clear gloss water-based finish for wood, from Varathane. It's the same stuff that I used for the layout's water features.
Here are a couple of locomotives, this one an Athearn Genesis Mikado, modified with extra weight and all-wheel pick-up, plus a few added details...
...and what the crews call the "Lucky 26"...
... a Bachmann 2-8-0, she survived a 261' (HO) drop from the layout to the layout room's concrete floor.
Here's a look at the rear of the roundhouse, a much-modified Korber kit...
...and just across the track that leads to the staging yard on the other side of the aisle, is the railroad's offices and amenities for employees. The structure is a printed version of a real building, from Kingmill. I used gelled contact cement to affix it to a sheet of .060" styrene, then forced it into the coved corner of the layout. I did the cut-out for cars and pedestrians, but it will eventually house a boiler to provide direct steaming for locos in the roundhouse.
The TH&B railroad, in my hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, was the first railroad in Canada to introduce the concept of direct steaming, which allowed locos to be ready for service much faster than building a fire to begin heating the boiler water.
The only evidence of the boiler house will be an elevated pipe over the tracks, with down-comers to the roundhouse and coaling tower, with underground pipes servicing the turntable and ash dump (the latter yet to be built).
I also plan to add a similar feature to the shops at Lowbanks, on the lower level of the layout.
To wrap this up, for now at least, here's a couple of photos showing what will eventually become the downtown of Mount Forest, with the Air Brake Division of Westinghouse in the foreground...
...and a view a little closer to town...