P5se Camelback's 2010 Summer Structure Challenge GERN Plant

[P5se Camelback]

Continuing ...

The Weissport-Scranton Branch traveling north through the Canyon of Brick and Cut Stone ...


Bulk and Packaged Materials Unloading Canyon ...


Bulk Liquids and Powders Shipping and the North End of the Facility Power Plant ...


A "Barney Secord"-Type View of the Storage Silos from the South ...


Stay tuned ... this whole area is in a compleat state of flux ......... hock: 8-)

Re-Edit: Fixed image links from PhotoBucket after a PhotoBucket File Folder Re-Organization :oops:

[nachoman]

holy crud, you are the absolute MASTER of cardboard mock-ups.

If you get that scene done as your mockups suggest, you will have a top-tier layout.

[doctorwayne]

.... you are the absolute MASTER of cardboard mock-ups.

If you get that scene done as your mockups suggest, you will have a top-tier layout.

Geez, that's for sure! :jawdrop:

biL, your mock-ups look better than some of my finished models. Maybe I'd better re-think my entries for the Summer Challenge.

Wayne

[Gary S]

WOW!

As Kevin and DocWayne said, that is fantastic! That is going to be one nice GERN facility, definitely in the image of the original. Can't wait to see progress on this one, biL. it is obvious you know what you are doing. All the tanks and silos and buildings mocked up in cardboard are awesome.

[Drew]

Man, I can't wait to see your progress on this one!
I love scratch-bashing, & this looks like it's going to be one SUPER bash!
Great work!

[Gary S]

Can't stop thinking about this one. Man, this is gonna be one superb GERN facility!

biL, I hope we're not putting too much pressure on you!

[P5se Camelback]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! ... :oops: :oops:
But surely you jest! Really! I really did nothing out of the ordinary ... all I did was trace the walls, cut them out (sharp matte knife and steel straight edge -- only one bandaid this time) trace the windows, sit at my desk and color them in with an Super Black AD Marker, and then hot glue them together! And I have two huge nickle-sized burn blisters on the outside edge of my palm where I accidentally layed my hand in unnoticed large drips of hot glue on the edge of my work surface (I am very well aware of why it's called hot glue ... that stuff is HOT! Seriously ... I didn't even bother with roofs on most of them! I'll admit that is is a considerable undertaking that has grown beyond my initial thought (a totally naive thought ... I should know myself by now!)

This morning I moved a few things around again ... funny ... I seem to be doing that every morning, railroad coffee mug in hand trying to analyze how raw materials will arrive and be unloaded, and how completed product wil be loaded and shipped. I mean after all, that's what happens at a manufacturing facility ... stuff comes in, has things done to it and then it goes out. Simple! But arranging the structures so as to convey the appearance that those things take place ... not so simple ... at least not for me.

A "Secord-Like" View of the Re-Aligned Raw and Finished Materials Silos from the Southwest ...


A "Secord-Like" View of the Revised Campus and Silo Re-Alignment from the Northwest ...


A "Secord-Like" View from the North of the Re-Aligned Silos ...


I sincerely appreciate all the kind comments and as for pressure ... my whole career I've functiond best when under pressure! I'm just hoping that, after all this time away from the "Daily Design Grind" (which was always a joy to be doing,) when it's all said and done, I'm still capable of pulling off the Super Knock-Out Punch Presentation! Only TIME will tell ....... 8-)

[Gary S]

biL, I have full confidence that you're gonna pull this one off superbly. I also do my best work when under a bit of pressure from others. That's the nudge I need to go the extra step in making it "just right". I'm very glad that you joined Big Blue and have made it your model railroad home. Now ,again, not to pile on the pressure, but we are all watching this thread very closely and our entire judgment of you as a modeler and as a person worthy of Big Blue is riding on the outcome of this project....

[P5se Camelback]

Well, it seems like I might have been dragged back to “square one!” While pushing my little cardboard mockups around on a piece of plywood, I decided to take a look at how it would look with the curve that will commence right after passing under the covered walkway between the “existing” stone structure on the east side and the complex of new structures on the west side of the tracks that swing north to Scranton - Wilkes Barre. (To be honest, Scranton - Wilkes Barre is reached by a curve to the left, which will then descend to staging under the layout, and therein lies the problem.) :?

So, to mock up the curve, I got a large corrugated cardboard box, split the seam and laid it out flat, laid out a 24” radius curve with a 90° chord, grabbed the matte knife and cut it out.

Clearing all the nice little mock-ups off the piece of plywood and placing the curve in place, it became immediately apparent that I needed a much larger site mock-up … so out to the garage for two pieces of ¼” luan which were placed on the stack of still-unpacked boxes to represent the corner of the layout and the curve was placed back in the corner … uh … ohhhhhhhhhhhh
Damn!

The curve down to staging takes up a lot more space than I had expected. :o Somehow, it didn’t seem like this on paper! (That’s why we build mock-ups, Bonzo!) So … some major re-arrangement is obviously necessary! Boy, am I glad I decided to start out with mock-ups rather than to jump immediately into performing major surgery on plastic walls! To illustrate what I mean by major re-arrangement, I give you …

Initial Rework of Site showing Covered Walkway used as a Viewblock to hide the Curve of the Mainline North (to Scranton - Wilkes Barre) ...


Initial site Rework Showing 24"R track to Hidden Staging at the rear in the corner ...


Initial Site Rework from Hot Air Balloon showing False Front GERN Plant and Mocked-up Track to Staging ...


It seems I'm going to have to do some serious thinking very quickly if I'm going to get this all figured out and still leave enough time to build some better-than-a-six-year-old structures ... I'm starting to think I bit off a mouthfull that's almost too big to chew!

But! I'm not going to give up just yet! 8-)

[P5se Camelback]

Actual Construction has Begun!

In an effort to retain materials that would be wasted by placement in unseen areas, replacement walls have been measured, cut, edges dressed and final fittings have been performed ...


The next step was to use the solvent method of joining the first two walls, making use of my "All 90's," home-made corner fixture, machined using a vertical mill from 1.25" thick Plexiglas™ sheet...


Next came the installation of corner bracing, in the form of a piece of 0.100"x0.125" strip (used because it's what I had on hand) and a fabricated corner brace w/"mounting-to-the-layout" screw hole, both "welded in place using the solvent method ...


And now, four walls have made a structure ... we have the unseen side ...


And then from the viewed side, with the required notches for the "to be replaced on that side" roof joists cut into the top of the unseen wall...


Then, the Preparation for a Shadowbox-type Interior In what will be the one open door on the loading platform ...


And tonight is another "Build Night" ...

[MasonJar]

Nicely done! With two sides of every building "not seen" and replaced with plain styrene, we now expect the GERN facility to be twice as big...!

Looking forward to seeing more.

Andrew

[P5se Camelback]

Ah ... that would be 3% larger, if you please!

[doctorwayne]

Lookin' good, biL. It's also nice to see that you've still got some Floquil in the original square bottles. Better paint, in my opinion, than what they're currently offering.

Wayne

[nachoman]

Uh oh. Actual construction. Now that you are officially ahead of me, perhaps it is time to get off my rump.

[Gary S]

Now we're talking biL! Progress!

Trading out the unseen walls is a great technique for saving material and expanding structure size on a shelf layout. Another technique I used on the engine service building I have is to turn the back wall "wrong side out". Because the brick enginehouse has large open doors and the inside of the structure can be easily seen, I swapped ends on the back wall... so the brick is seen on the inside.

I also like the triangular gussets at the bottom of the corners. I'm looking forward to stealing all your structure-building techniques!