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+--- Thread: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge (/showthread.php?tid=9623)
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 09-06-2023
I don't know if I'd use the term 'amazing', but I'm not going to ask you to take it back, Tom. Hopefully I'm showing how a big project can be accomplished in small, somewhat thought out steps with some simple materials and techniques.
So, it seems like any "kitbash" kind of effort means you spend just about as much time building and designing supporting structures as you do joining pieces together. That holds true for the coal breaker. I started to attempt to join my two orthogonal roof pieces that attach to the 2nd story via a 12/12 sloping extension on the top of that 2nd story. I wasn't getting a whole lot of practical support and I couldn't maintain that 45-degree angle, so I decided to build some supporting columns that attach to the back side of the foam board and maintain the roof angle. Built them out of extra cardstock, folded them into columns and applied some glue...
I also discovered that I'd cut the wrong angle on the projecting edge of each roof section. I'd mistakenly laid each section out and cut at 45 degrees. However, just like crown molding, that'll guarantee that the two pieces won't join in the corner. The appropriate miter angle for a "45-degree" corner if you cut it flat is 35.3 degrees, and since we're talking about thin paper, I don't have to worry about a bevel angle. I had to redo the ends of each roof section, but I now have something that looks close, and I'm going to slap a joiner piece over the corner (also part of the Small Steel Mill kit) and call the intermediate roof done.
Another advantage of the supporting columns is that it will give me the perfect spacing to place and secure the 3rd story to the existing structure. More pictures of that when I get something built!
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 09-09-2023
Well, I mocked up the final stories on the front wall of the coal breaker. The left side (which I still need to build) will be a series of roofs and walls stepping up toward the peak. Your basic massive, nearly defunct hunk of steel. Once I get the main structure built, I plan on some outbuildings and conveyors, some major refuse piles of stone, etc.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - Amalynn - 09-10-2023
This thread has been an amazing read. I did a hike along the rail trail through that gorge several years ago and recognize much of the route. I had been curious at the time what the railroad history in there had been previously. It’s an intense but beautiful hike. The coal breaker project has been especially cool, as well. I’ve taken several notes from your scenery work. I’ll have to start collecting “brown stuff” in a container for when I eventually get space to build a layout, myself.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 09-10-2023
Glad you liked it! I'll try to keep doing interesting stuff, and I hope you find some space soon. Most of the rail trail runs on the old mainline of the Jersey Central - they pulled up the track in the early to mid 70's. That trail's now part of the Delaware and Lehigh trail which can take you from Wilkes Barre to Philadelphia. Haven't hiked or biked much of it, but I'll like to at some point.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 09-17-2023
A bit more progress on the Coal Breaker's upper stories.
To stagger the floors upward, I'm building standoffs (just like the supports for the first two floors) out of cardstock. I measure the difference in depth between the two floors, factor in the thickness of the foam board, cut them out, fold them, and build enough to go across the structure. Then comes the next wall glued onto the standoffs.
At the same time, I'm working on the individual roof sections for each story (I temporarily laid in the roof over the 3rd story in the photo below to illustrate - I have to fit the back end to contour to the backdrop). The combination of cardstock and foam board makes an extremely sturdy structure that I can easily slide right onto the platform I built for the understory.
I'm thinking about some additional outbuildings for the complex to include a steam plant with lines that'll enter into the side of the coal breaker. I'll also have to build some conveyors from the breaker back down below earth and the structures to support them. Coming along!
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - tompm - 09-17-2023
It just keeps getting better and better.
I did not realize how massive this was going to be
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 09-23-2023
I begin to know what it's like to build a wedding cake....
I just have the final roof to build, cut to size and install for the basic structure of the coal breaker. I keep thinking of accessory buildings to add... all in good time.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - Charlie B - 09-24-2023
Todd, you rally did this up right. Great project.
Charlie
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 09-25-2023
Thanks, Charlie! One more photo of the completed "main" structure.
Next, I spent some time last evening coming up with a conveyor shaft to bring the bulk coal up from underground to the top of the building. There were some nice siding pieces left over from my "Silver City Factory Flat" kit that I thought had the right scale and corrugated steel look, so I joined about 6 sections together and cut the end to the right angle, added windows (out of the same kit), and mocked up three sides and a floor.... Here it is just resting against the top of the breaker and the foam board, but you get the idea.
Tonight I'll add a roof sections (also from the Silver City Factory Flat). The conveyor structure starts out virtually 2D right near the breaker, but transitions to 3-D and moves away from the backdrop on the way down. I'll have to figure out some towers to support the conveyor at different spacings on the way down, and eventually, I'll be building some coal and stone berms to hide the lower end of the conveyor. I supported the floor of the conveyor with some leftover plastic I-beams to give the whole thing some stiffness. The picture below shows the underside of the floor and some of the siding details.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 09-28-2023
Two nights were spent on the roof of the conveyor, but here she is (not in the final location yet). I need to build my support columns - have some ideas, but I'm going to play around until I find something I like.
I did find a couple of pictures of the "Hazleton Colliery Shaft Breaker" which was still working until around 1984. Even though I didn't see these pictures until I'd built my breaker, I think it has the same spirit of dilapidation and hulking massiveness.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - Amalynn - 09-28-2023
That looks phenomenal
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 09-30-2023
Thanks, Amanda! Time for more progress.
As I alluded to, I'd been looking for a way to support the conveyor, and if you look at the previous picture of the real breaker, that's done by a tower-truss.
I started looking in my bin of old plastic parts - I was thinking about maybe using something like a signal tower, but wasn't finding anything tall enough.
Back to the files from Clever Models. For the girder bridge kit, there are a ton of long, thin rivetted lengths of rusty steel. I decided to cut them out, and and join three of them together (two folded into 90-degree angles and a flat on the other side). I built maybe seven or eight of these "triple girders" and then made a template on a piece of plywood and joined the girders with a dab of glue.
Then there was the support from ground level. I used a shorter version of the piers used for the support of the breaker from the Overhead Crane kit for those, and put a short foot on the bottom of each main girder. I'll eventually pair this tall support structure with another that's slightly shorter and link those with other girder pieces to create a tower.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 09-30-2023
Although the footings aren't in their final orientations and nothing's been glued down, here's the look I'm heading toward. The scale on the girders is a little too chunky, but I'd rather have too much beef than it be undersized.
My next efforts will be devoted to the space between the breaker and the mountain scenery to the right of it. My initial thoughts are to build wasteland areas around the coal breaker - painting the backdrop, adding plenty of piles of waste coal and rock, mining equipment, etc. I also need to build another conveyor to pull all of the waste materials out of the breaker with a loading area for trucks to transport the waste away from the breaker. I'm also planning a steam plant to supply heat to the breaker. Since I'm simulating August, there won't be any steam or smoke heading out of the proposed chimney. Gotta think big!
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 10-06-2023
I did get the paints out briefly during the 2nd game of the wild card series between my Phillies and the Marlins. Roughed in some hill profiles and then went to town with a bunch of greens and grays - first with a relatively wide brush... Color pallette was inspired by a current picture of the area around the old Hazleton Shaft Colliery via Google maps. I did pull down one of those that I'll mount on some wallboard and place somewhere on the backdrop.
...and then a bit of detail with a smaller one.
Next I plan on building some support structures for a bunch of stone and coal refuse near the end of the conveyor. Not sure when that's going to happen, but I'll submit some photos at that point.
RE: Rainbows in the Lehigh Valley Gorge - TMo - 10-09-2023
Construction now begins on the mine entry. Now in the mid 60's there was a big hurricane that dumped so much water on Hazleton that the mine pumps we're able to keep up, or there was not power available to keep the pumps running (I think the 2nd argument was most accurate). The massive flooding was the death knell for underground coal mining in Hazleton. Thereafter the breaker was only used to process stripped coal. I'm working under the assumption that they still used the conveyor system to run coal up to the top of the breaker, so I'm working on a dump truck ramp access around the bottom of the conveyor. Just bought a Euclid dump truck that I'll install somewhere on the property.
Got my cardboard strips and glue gun out to build the rough topography. Tomorrow night, I'll try to find some time to alter it and add the dump truck ramp.