Hedley Junction

[sailormatlac]

You remember my CN woodchip gondola prototype I ordered last summer from Shapeway? Well, I decided to rework it as a useable model on the layout.

Let's face it, the white strong material is a horrible material to work with. Not only it has the same texture as a Teddy Bear, but it can hardly be sanded and is porous as hell.



I had some time last evening, so while Louis-Marie was painting the new drawers, I sanded the shell. When I was satisfied, I spray automotive primer/putty on it in hope it would fill some holes in the process. Then followed another round of sanding. The result wasn't that bad, but far to be perfect and the shell was still sucking paint like a sponge.

Another problem with this material is that you can't really get sharp edges. When sanding, you always make some particles "blur" the edges. Very annoying. And it's not like plastic flashes on model kits. Forget you hobby knife, it won't do nothing.



Anyway, this morning, I decided to seal the model by brushing Future Floor Finish on it. My hope was to seal, once for all, the holes. It kind of worked, but made the surface a little bit bumpy. Thus, I sanded the model for a third time. At least, the model was now kind of smooth.

At this point, I used some Tichy freight car left over parts and detailed the gondola. The brake apparatus is a mix of various parts and makes more or less sense to me but it should be enough at this point. Wire grabirons and A-Line stirrups complete the car. Lead weights were added, bringing the completed car to 9.9 onces.



I primed the model with Krylon Red Primer, which is almost a good alternative for Boxcar Red. For once, the paint evenly coated the model, meaning holes were now sealed.



A few hours later, I airbrushed a coat of Model Master Boxcar Red thinned with Future Floor Finish. The mix ratio - 25% Future/75% Paint - worked wonders. My only mistake was to clean the airbrush with Windex! The paint turned automatically in the proverbial goo and clogged everything. Fortunately, my newer Iwata airbrush is easier to clean than my old Badger 150.



The car will need a second coat of paint, but at this point, I have a good idea of the final result. It won't be a great car, finish will still be a little bit bumpy, but with some dullcoat, it should be that bothering to the naked eye. Considering this prototype was quite costly, I feel I kind of recovered a part of my investment.

The only problem now is finding "CN Rail" decals. In the worst case, I'll have to order custom decals. So far, I didn't see any manufacturer offer a "CN RAIL" set of decal for these gondolas. Ordering custom decals seems a little bit over priced for one car. I'm a little bit at lost since, in fact, I only need the "CN RAIL" logo... Any idea?

BTW, here's a few pictures of the roofless boxcars with a coat of boxcar red:





Matt

[Canadian Atlantic Railway]

Nice to see you making progress Matt. Microscale has a decal set for CN autoracks with CN Rail lettering that may help you out with the woodchip car.
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[sailormatlac]

Nice to see you making progress Matt. Microscale has a decal set for CN autoracks with CN Rail lettering that may help you out with the woodchip car.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.canadianexpressline.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20_231_234&products_id=785">http://www.canadianexpressline.com/stor ... cts_id=785</a><!-- m -->

Thanks for the hint. I'll verify if the logo is the right scale for woodchip cars.

Matt

[sailormatlac]

If I'm not wrong, the autorack decal logo is too small for a woodchip gondola.

The best thing would be to find someone in Canada or US that could print a sheet of white decals.

Matt

[sailormatlac]

Club activities resumed this week after a short hiatus.

We had the nice surprise to see some improvements Louis-Marie did during this period. He was quite motivated lately and almost completed the car drawers and the DCC cabinet. Let's start with the DCC cabinet.



To turn on the layout, you now only have to use a small switch. No need to play directly with the equipment as it use to be. A small green LED let you know if power in on or off.





When you open the door, you have access to a programming track and a space to store power cabs.



The programming track is a short stretch of track pinned on the door itself. Some storage space for club comptability and layout documentation is available under the cabinet on shelves.

Next one, the car drawer. Looks good on photo, but far better in real. Each drawer can hold about 30 50ft cars. About 150 cars in total and there's still place to add more drawer. Top drawer is for locomotive.



The ingenuity of Louis-Marie expresses itself at best inside the drawers. He used scraps of 2"x3" lumber and cut them diagonal in half. He then fixed them in such a way cars can be easily displayed when the drawer is opened.



Once done, these display "steps" will be fully lined with protective foam sheeting. Let's be honest, it is no new, we already used this method for our original drawers, but never at this extent. I've yet to see another layout equipped with such steps. They have many advantages over simple drawers. Not only you can see better the car you want to choose, but they can't enter in contact, reducing wear and risk to break the small details. It isn't suited for locomotives with lots of details, but do wonder for freight and passenger equipment.



The most amazing thing with all these new improvement is the fact they didn't cost a single penny. Both the cabinet and drawers were made out of recycled stuff that could have ended in the fire pit or garbage bin nest summer.



By the way, I started to build some scenery work on Rivière de la cabane aux Taupiers. Regular and floral foams were used to shape general landforms according to prototype pictures. My goal is now to start working scenery from the staging area and continue toward Villeneuve as the year pass by. No real specific objectif, only moving forward. The next challenge will be to build a large highway overpass over the staging area.



Matt

[Canadian Atlantic Railway]

Very impressive Matt! I really like the car storage drawers and think that I will do something similar on mine when I get further along.

[Ralph]

I placed 1 X 2 inch strips vertically in dresser draw to contain cars but I like this angled idea a lot better!

[MLW]

Salut Matt et compagnie. C’est vraiment très bien ce que vous faites.

DCC Cabinet: Very neat, clean, organized and aesthetically pleasing. Looks very professional.

Question:

In the pictures I did not notice ventilation slots/holes for the DCC system. The group I belong to has a cabinet of sort with ventilation holes/spaces to prevent the DCC (and the power system - ) from overheating when in use. Granted the fan does cool the system but there seem no escape for the warm air and no intake for the cool air in your cabinet that I could see. Does Louis-Marie plan to incorporate this in the future?

Drawers: The drawer are nicely done and they will look great once finish with cars in them. This is a good way to keep things orgnaized, and to protect all the various rolling stock.

Question:

For detail cars and locomotive what do you plan to do? I know how fragile all those exquisite details can be, and manipulating them increase the chance of braking them. Do you plan to leave the loco in staging then?

Floral foam: Floral foam, depending where you live, can be a good and cheap alternative for scenery base. I prefer foam over any other medium for scenery construction myself.

Question:

I recall a while ago that floral foam can actually dry up. I squeezed a piece of it and it crumpled in my hand! What do you plane to do to prevent this?
I imagine it depends on what you put “on top” - plaster, paint, ground foam etc. –


Thank you for all the pictures. I quite enjoy your club layout and construction. Very well done indeed.

Cheers

Syl

[sailormatlac]

Merci Syl! Il faut dire que ton réseau nous inspire aussi beaucoup!

In the pictures I did not notice ventilation slots/holes for the DCC system. The group I belong to has a cabinet of sort with ventilation holes/spaces to prevent the DCC (and the power system - ) from overheating when in use. Granted the fan does cool the system but there seem no escape for the warm air and no intake for the cool air in your cabinet that I could see. Does Louis-Marie plan to incorporate this in the future?

At this point ,the benchwork over the cabinet will be enlarged about 6 inches. The cabinet will then be moved accordingly help air to circulate. I don't know the exact details, but Louis told me he had thought about ventilation when designing the cabinet. He will probably revise the design if it's not satisfactory in the long term. Knowing him, he probably thought it twice. Also, we rarely operate more than 2 hours in a row per week. This isn't a ver labour intensive layout!

For detail cars and locomotive what do you plan to do? I know how fragile all those exquisite details can be, and manipulating them increase the chance of braking them. Do you plan to leave the loco in staging then?

Only the cars end up in slanted drawers. We used this system for about 4 years and never experienced damage from this storage method. In fact, I find it easier to careful pick them up and store them again.

About locomotive, this isn't advisable. We use a regular drawer with a foam lining. Locomotives are stored parallel to the drawer's tracks to be sure they won't loose balance while pulling or pushing it. Is it optimal? No. Is it practical, enough. But as you guessed right, most regular locomotives will probably stay on the layout in staging. Of 6 regular locomotives, 2 are permantly stored at their respective industrial plant. That keeps damage to a minimum.

I recall a while ago that floral foam can actually dry up. I squeezed a piece of it and it crumpled in my hand! What do you plane to do to prevent this? I imagine it depends on what you put “on top” - plaster, paint, ground foam etc. –

This is far to be the best material out there. You are right, the material is easy to work with but can crumble. I only use it as a topping where I want heavily forested areas. I cover it with paint and papier-mâché. In this particular scene, most foam used was regular foam. At this point, I'm still experimenting. I've been doing model railroading for decades but have very little scenery credentials! Recently I moving away from plaster. If I have to use it, I'll tint the mix before using it. It's quite disappointing to see nice rock outcrops get chipped and looks like broken chinaware.

I guess the actual scene in Maizerets will be a kind of experimental benchwork for scenery to try and set a few standards for the rest of the layout. If I could completely scenic the layout between Maizerets and Villeneuve this year, it would be a great improvement.

Matt

[Twist]

Hi there,

nice progress on the layout....looking great..

Cheers,Chris

[sailormatlac]

Here's a picture of the finished result.



Matt

[Canadian Atlantic Railway]

I like the finished product

[Steamtrains]

I see I'm not the first to use that floral foam....I began using it several years ago when I couldn't find the regular bead foam...And I'm glad I did..!! It's so much easier to work with...I put a layer of plaster cloth over it, and Sculpamold to finish it off.

[sailormatlac]

I see I'm not the first to use that floral foam....I began using it several years ago when I couldn't find the regular bead foam...And I'm glad I did..!! It's so much easier to work with...I put a layer of plaster cloth over it, and Sculpamold to finish it off.

A agree, it is much more easier to work with floral foam than regular one. I foud two grade of floral foam, one with a coarse grain and one with a more homogeneous structure.

Matt

[mr bachmann]

I like the storage draw's but best idea was the DCC store and programme track , your idea will find a home in my storage draw's under my N scale door layout Roundhouse Creek . Thanks for sharing .

Alan