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  food for thought
Posted by: jim currie - 02-16-2009, 10:58 PM - Forum: Upper Berth - Replies (2)

after posting a photo of a large fire box i was thinking(OK i know its dangerous) the grate area of a up big boy is 150.3 square feet. now think of a room in your house that is 10 ft wide and 15 ft long and that's the grate area not the fire box size just the grate's.one fine train room Smile
jim

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  Big Blue ID badges
Posted by: ngauger - 02-16-2009, 08:46 PM - Forum: Big Blue ID Badges & Cards - Replies (27)

Another advantage of having our Logo finalized is:    

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  Steel Mill Roll Shop( picture intense)
Posted by: LynnB - 02-16-2009, 12:10 PM - Forum: Lower Berth - Replies (13)

One day my son had asked me to take some pictures of where I worked and what type of job I did. Although I've been laid off now for about 2 weeks I did work this job for quite a while. Basicly what the job entailed was to bring in the rolls from the mill, the purpose of these rolls are to basicly either directly or indirectly squish a thick plate into thinner plate into either rolled coils or single plates depending on the company placing the orders.My job was to run the crane and\or build the rolls, when I say build the rolls it means take the chocks off the rolls after the rolls come in from the mill and get them ready for the grinder to grind down to a finished surface. We then put the chocks back on and back out to the mill.The crane job also entails not only handling the chocks to be put on the roll ends but also to very very carefully place the 30 ton rolls into the grinders and back out when ready to be built back up. Hopefully this helps someone thinking about steel mill modeling.
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  Idea's on painting junk piles
Posted by: thumsup - 02-16-2009, 12:08 PM - Forum: Scenery details - Replies (6)

Greeting,

Now that I have the "N Scale Model Tech Clutter Pack" I don't have a clue on how to paint it. Eek
These are cast resin, see photo. Any ideas are appreciated.

Joe



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  American Recovery Bill to be signed Tuesday night in Denver
Posted by: ngauger - 02-16-2009, 11:28 AM - Forum: Upper Berth - Replies (24)

Excerpt from bill online at :
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/politics&id=6660103">http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?secti ... id=6660103</a><!-- m -->

It's 4 parts and about 1000 pages long if you want to go read it Big Grin


Amtrak: $1.3 billion to improve the speed and capacity of intercity passenger rail service. The Department of Transportation’s Inspector General estimates the North East Corridor alone has a backlog of over $10 billion.

High Speed Rail and Intercity Passenger Rail Grants: $8 billion to advance the development of high speed rail and to improve the intercity passenger rail service in corridors across the nation. The States for Passenger Rail Coalition estimates that there are over $1.5 billion in projects that are ready-to-go.

Airport Improvement Grants: $1.1 billion for airport improvement projects that will improve safety and reduce congestion. An estimated $49.7 billion in eligible airport infrastructure projects are needed between 2009-2013.

Transportation Security Administration Explosive Detection Systems: $1 billion to install Aviation Explosive Detection Systems and checkpoint screening systems in the nation’s airports, improving security, and making life easier on travelers by speeding security lines. Funds are competitively awarded based on security risk.

Border and Ports of Entry: $720 million to construct GSA and Customs and Border Protection land ports of entry to improve border security, make trade and travel easier and reduce wait times.

Coast Guard: $240 million to rehabilitate and repair Coast Guard infrastructure and obstacles to navigation.

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  Discovery Channel Dirty Jobs: Loco Restoration
Posted by: ngauger - 02-16-2009, 10:51 AM - Forum: Upper Berth - Replies (9)

Tuesday Feb 17th.. Locomotove restoration on Dirty Jobs 9:00 PM Eastern

Dirty Jobs
Locomotive Builder
TV-PG (L)

Mike heads to MotivePower in Boise, Idaho to build and restore locomotives for his 200th dirty job.

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  Alberta rail resource
Posted by: Wiredup - 02-16-2009, 12:28 AM - Forum: Canada Rails - Replies (2)

Just came across this site today looking for pictures of bridges....

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Thought I would share because it's Canadian rails, and it gives a lot of history on a specific area of our country.

Some AMAZING pictures in here.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://railways-atlas.tapor.ualberta.ca/cocoon/atlas/Photos-9-1-1/">http://railways-atlas.tapor.ualberta.ca ... tos-9-1-1/</a><!-- m --> for example

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  Running Gear Repair
Posted by: MountainMan - 02-15-2009, 11:51 PM - Forum: Upper Berth - Replies (5)

I am pleased to announce that my wife's total knee replacement went flawlessly. I am now looking for ways to slow her back down, while she is looking forwards to replacing the other one! Thumbsup

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  Meanwhile, at the cottage...a scratchbuild!
Posted by: ocalicreek - 02-15-2009, 11:04 PM - Forum: Scratchbuilding and kitbashing - All Scales - Replies (75)

Hello All!

While I'm traveling back and forth between Kelso and Spanaway, I decided I needed a project to take along to my temporary quarters. For now, my wife, the boys and I all travel up there on Saturday. They return home Sunday night or Monday morning while I keep working until sometime Wednesday. We're staying in a wonderful little mother-in-law apartment attached to a stand alone 3-car garage (read "woodshop").

For a few nights at least, I become a bored bachelor. The TV only gets a few channels (until June when the digital switch occurs) and most of it is mind-rotting crud anyway. No internet (believe me, the withdrawals are serious!) SO, I figured I'd pack up a few tools, my portable lap-desk, and work on a little project.

I had so much fun building the scalescenes.com freebie card structure that I decided I needed to make something [mostly] out of cardstock. I pulled a plastic drawer and stocked it with varying thicknesses of cardstock along with several tools, some white glue, and a few bottles of paint. Any other bits I may need like wire or window glass I'll have to find along the way or bring from home.

"Dollar Models" came to mind as a simple challenge. Looking back through my old MR's (back when the D.M. articles ran, and the magazine in general was more fun and less stuffy) I found a neat little grade crossing gate tower. The prototype is (was?) a Milwaukee Road structure. A couple pictures of the prototype and model as well as text and a couple three drawings are all you get.

So far I am most of the way through one wall - scribing 1/16" card to look like novelty siding using a dental tool, 'stripping' 1/8" card for corner posts and heavy trim, and building up windows in place using a 'Cappucino Coolers' box (1/32" or so). All that in about an hour. Many hours of fun to go!

I will eventually post a scan of the copy I made from the article. It has my notes and observations scribbled on there and will show the changes I made from the drawing. A few of these are to add character the picture shows but drawing does not.

Also I will post a few progress pictures at some point. The camera is up there while I am home for the president's day holiday...ergghh...so they'll have to wait.

Thanks for reading along!

Galen

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  Micro Engineering 200ft Tall Viaduct - a build
Posted by: Wiredup - 02-15-2009, 10:09 PM - Forum: N/Z and Smaller Modeling - Replies (12)

I decided to start construction of my Micro Engineering 200ft Viaduct... the tall one. AND IT IS TALL!!! The bridge is about 8 inches tall unmodified... I had to get it down to 6 inches. So theres a slight kitbash here. Build time? 2.5 hours

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The one PITA with this model? The barrels and bridge mtc. walk way is an ADD ON KIT!!! Thats not included... how frustrating.

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Wow that is tall!

Tower assembly:

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Bridge assembly:

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Sprues are bigger than the actual MAJOR parts. So be careful with your pen knife... or....

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and if your not careful with the file...

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Now here's the pieces needed to assemble it all. Before this however I trimmed off the bottom section of the towers (2 inches) with my Dremel tool... No pic

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I glued the main tower in with the bridge upside down... why you ask? To make sure there's no gaps

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Assembled an in place! How nice!

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All thats left is to paint, weather, and add track.

A lot easier than I thought it would be.

For others wanting to partake in this kit:

RESIST the urge to use super-glue to speed up construction. Super glue sets way to fast for this kit. I like using super glue for buildings...but in this case the brush on cement works just fine. But use a smaller applicator than the included brush, less is a LOT more for this kit.

On that note, when assembling the tower structures, don't let the glue cure all the way. Be sure to assemble it while the glue still has a little give so you can make sure the tower ends up being square and level.

Take your time. This is a general idea for all models, but I put emphasis on this kit. Why? Because it's VERY easy to mess up, and they can be very frustrating.

Paint it onces it's completed. I normally paint first while everything is on the sprues, then paint it after. But in this case a nice can of flat black spray paint will be working wonders.


Thanks for viewing!

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