Sailormatlac 2012 Resolution Challenge

[sailormatlac]

Today was a strange day. It was the funerals of my father's friend with whom I seriously started doing model railroading when I was a very young teenager. His late father's brother was also a model railroader that passed away last year too. I've still preserve the rolling stock we used back then and that was given by him. Nothing expensive, but full of precious memories. Anyway, I still managed to do some work on the layout and to complete the benchwork. From now on, except the lighting valence and backdrop, the fun part starts with building mockups (probably this week).

I used Styrofoam (1 1/2" thickness) for the scenery base. No roadbed will be used. Drywall joint compound was used to finish the job in a decent way. I never thought such a small plan on my computer would generate such a large shelf (18" wide)!!!!! ANyway, I like the look of the cars on it. The scenery will dwarf the trains in a realistic way. Lot of place to model the track surrounding and different team track.

The layout top is at 44 inches from the floor. It may seems a little bit low, but it's perfectly at eye level when I'm sitting at my desk. Also, from an operation stand point, it isn't that bad looking. I'm rather small (5'-5"), so it doesn't bother me too much at this point. Anyway, if I really hate this over the time, I found another place in the house where I could relocate it at a good height. For the moment, that will do the job.

Sorry for the bad pictures. My room lighting is awfully deficient.









Matt

[sailormatlac]

A general view of the train/office/library room.

As you can see, the roof line and window placement is quite ingrate.



Matt

[sailormatlac]

Finally, I decided to settle my choice on CVT/Proto 87 turnouts code 70 and ME code 70 flextrack. I once thought about getting everything done in code 55. Would be nice, but I want to operate the layout before the challenge ends. CVT turnouts are the easiest way to get custom-made curved turnout to fit my needs. Most switches will be #8 and #9 for space consideration and realism (!!!!!!!!!!!!!).

Did some researches for a proper switching engine for this little layout. I have my Proto 2000 0-8-0 CNR switcher still on my shelves that could be a nice candidate. Unfortunately, it had been shelved for years in my parent's attic, which wasn't the best climate controlled storage room you could wish for. It now runs like at an irregular pace, as if dirt and oxydation spots make it stall a little after the drivers turn a complete revolution. Anybody got this problem? How to fix it?

I would also be interested by early EMD diesels. I'm leaning toward a Bachmann CNR GP9 (which is decorated as a GP7), throw a new decoder in it and add a few details to make it believable. Maybe a SW 12000... I'll see what my budget can afford. Looks like the Bachmann would be the easiest and best choice. How's your experience of this engine? I've heard a lot of good comments so far. Am I the only one to be bothered by Bachmann CNR Green??? I feel like it's too dark. At some point, since the layout is set in late 1950's and GP7 appeared in 1953, I could manage to tone down the "wrong" color by fading it a little bit.

These images taken from CNR Photos show GP7 in what appear to be dark green (I don't trust old color picture though and the second one is a repainted engine). Im always disappointed at repainted engine, they looks TOO GLOSS to me, but it's probably a side effect of weathering practice!!!!




Matt

[doctorwayne]

Did some researches for a proper switching engine for this little layout. I have my Proto 2000 0-8-0 CNR switcher still on my shelves that could be a nice candidate. Unfortunately, it had been shelved for years in my parent's attic, which wasn't the best climate controlled storage room you could wish for. It now runs like at an irregular pace, as if dirt and oxydation spots make it stall a little after the drivers turn a complete revolution. Anybody got this problem? How to fix it?

That sounds to me like hardened grease on the gears. I recently rebuilt a brass 0-8-0 which had the same operating characteristics, and discovered the problem to be grease so hard it had to be scraped from between the teeth, using the back of an X-Acto blade. Remove the gears from the loco and clean what you can in this manner, then, if the gears are metal, clean them in lacquer thinner. If they're plastic, use hot water and dish detergent, with a brush if necessary.

I would also be interested by early EMD diesels. I'm leaning toward a Bachmann CNR GP9 (which is decorated as a GP7), throw a new decoder in it and add a few details to make it believable. Maybe a SW 12000... I'll see what my budget can afford. Looks like the Bachmann would be the easiest and best choice. How's your experience of this engine? I've heard a lot of good comments so far. Am I the only one to be bothered by Bachmann CNR Green??? I feel like it's too dark. At some point, since the layout is set in late 1950's and GP7 appeared in 1953, I could manage to tone down the "wrong" color by fading it a little bit.

Everybody to whom I've spoken has high praise for the Bachmann geeps, but all agree that the CNR green is too dark.

These images taken from CNR Photos show GP7 in what appear to be dark green (I don't trust old color picture though and the second one is a repainted engine). Im always disappointed at repainted engine, they looks TOO GLOSS to me, but it's probably a side effect of weathering practice!!!!

The 4803 must've been a trial run for building the "Sweeps" - note the Flexicoil trucks in lieu of Blombergs.

Wayne

[Tyson Rayles]

That's a pretty good space, you should be able to build a great switching layout there. Of course if you switched to the N ormal scale you could build a regional RR there or in Z the CN's mainline.

[sailormatlac]

That sounds to me like hardened grease on the gears. I recently rebuilt a brass 0-8-0 which had the same operating characteristics, and discovered the problem to be grease so hard it had to be scraped from between the teeth, using the back of an X-Acto blade. Remove the gears from the loco and clean what you can in this manner, then, if the gears are metal, clean them in lacquer thinner. If they're plastic, use hot water and dish detergent, with a brush if necessary.

Thanks Wayne, I will check out my 0-8-0 this afternoon. It makes a lot of sense. Hope to get her on track soon. I was arguably my best steamer at slow speed, excellent for switching duties.

Everybody to whom I've spoken has high praise for the Bachmann geeps, but all agree that the CNR green is too dark.

Found one at 50$. At this point, considering I have all the detailling parts on hand, I can accept the dark green. I'll try to fade it a little bit.

UPDATE: Actually buidling/designing the backdrop and fascia... My trick to determine backdrop color is to take a real picture showing a landscape and match the color near the horizon with paint chips. It usually wield realistic results with a faded greyish powder blue.

Matt

[sailormatlac]

UPDATE:

Completed and painted the benchwork (fascia and foam).

Placed the backdrop furrings and have approximately 80% of the back drop in place. It almost drove me crazy. The last piece wasn't cut to length, I knew it was time to that my Sunday break and enjoy the day. If everything is fine, I guess I'll be able to prime and paint the background by Wednesday.

No picture because I took the module in the other room to have place to work on the backdrop.

Matt

[sailormatlac]

Progress is slow as I did things that I decided to destroy...

I wqas planning to secure the backdrop with panel nails on the wall furrings... Finally, I found out it was so thighly sandwiched between the shelf brackets it would be useless. I was annoyed by a permanently fixed backdrop since I'll probably tear down the wall finish someday and get back on the wood wainscotting. I also thought about addidng backdrop to the roof and low wall at right hand. But I feel like it will be better looking if I keep it as it is. Anyway, the roundhouse, boiler room and tree lines will be there to mask it. KEEP IT SIMPLE.



Still don't know how I will build the lighting valance. And what lights I will use... Don't want to put too much budget on that. Probably 4 fluorescent over 8' should be enough. If anybody got a suggestion, let's hear it. I've read so much about it that at this point, I don't have any opinion for myself.

Matt

[sailormatlac]

Completed the backdrop. Will prime and paint it tomorrow evening. It is not attached to the wall. The shelf bracket are enough to keep it in place without risk of warping. I was thinking about painting it on all sides to seal it completely.



Now you can see the completed benchwork. Foam was painted with acrylic craft paint. Fascia is done with SICO #6200-73 "Varech" which I sampled from Humbrol #93. It turnout out better than I thought.




I whould be able to mock up the design by the end of the week. After that, I'll order the track. AND CLEAN THE ROOM.... again!

Matt

[sailormatlac]

I painted the background and decided to mock up some industries according to the plan. It looked bad. Not that I was surprised about it. So, I decided to fudge the prototype a little bit. Most track will stay similar and operation patterns will be the same too. However, I decided to get rid of the roundhouse and replace it by a long brick warehouse with a parallell road (industrial avenue aka Boulevard Montmorency nowadays). The Conway avenue industries (bottling, food warehouses) and Canardière Road were the worst parts.



Honestly, I tried many config but it didn't capture the prototype flavour. Less is more again and again... It's incredible how we can pack a lot of stuff on a CAD drawing... I'll need to put a little bit more "scenery zones" to make it credible.

Since I've been gathering informations to model a few QRL&PCo freight cars, I decided to add a few industries nearby Industrial avenue that were served by this company. We are now completely in protofreelanced world. I tried to capture scenes I remembered from my childhood and that had the local flavour instead of mimicking the area. Conway avenue was replaced by Legrade Meat Packings, a nice industry that accept tank cars, stock cars, reefers and coal hoppers. I replaced Canardière Road with a gravel path called D'Estimauville avenue. I always wanted to model this industry and I feel it's configuration is the best one to close the end of the layout. The foreground track will be used for the stock cars, so the cattle pens will be an excellent structure that won't hide the cars.







The lumber yard will be preserved (maybe), but the foreground buildings will probably disappear, using instead the lumber piles to divide the scenes. The backgroudn buildings will be reversed, with the sawdust collector at right. This is done according to a saw mill that existed on this line since the early 50's. I'll probably make a ditch behind it just like the real thing to give a little bit more scenery.

British-American Oil will stay at the same spot and will continue to hold 4 cars. However, it will have its facade on industrial avenue, which will boast a 3-track crossing.



The new Avenue Industrielle in place of the Roundhouse. I still have to decide if I'll use the track parallell to the new long building as an industry or keep it as "mainline" and storage for operation. What do you think about it? I must admit I was inspired by SSW's layout.



A global view of the new layout mock up. The fore ground track will be used as a team track for rough lumbers, gravel, coal and other bulk load.



Matt

[Tyson Rayles]

Matt the way I'm going to do my backdrop is to make a frame and attach the backdrop to it then hang it on the wall with a couple of screws, that way if I want to paint the wall or whatever it is easy to remove til I'm done then I can hang it back up when I'm finished.

[jwb]

Matt, it looks awful good even without track! I can't wait to see what you do with the abbatoir. Keep em coming!

[sailormatlac]

@Mike: Nice idea! I think one must always have in mind of to pull out thing when doing design process. I like your idea. The problem is that my backdrop have to fit within shelf bracket. Maybe I should have made it shorter in height and do it like you said. At this point, I just want a backdrop to have the feeling things are moving in the right direction. I'm well aware I'll have to change it sooner or later. When this time comes, I'll follow your idea.

@jwb: Thanks! You've got a good imagination to see a city where BB boxes are sitting. But it's hard to try to figure out a layout without track!!! I've bought 7 foamcore boards during lunch break. I'll mock up the industries better.

Honestly, I'm not sure at all about the abattoir. It was located a mile away (on the shore of the aforementionned Canardière), far from housing and near the river. My father told me how it smell bad back in the 50's-60's. Anyway, at this point, no CAD drawings will help, only a good mock up. I particularly like the new industrial Avenue location. It's inspired by the Canadian Glassine crossing located a few hundred feet away on the prototype. It gives the feeling you really enter a industrial park.

Here's a picture I found yesterday showing my prototype near St. Lawrence Cement plant in the fifties (Joseph Testagrose always amazed me with his color shots). It gives you and idea of the feeling I want to catch for my industrial avenue setting. The plant was brand new on this setting.



Matt



Matt

[sailormatlac]

Here we go for today! Backdrop installed. I really like its color, turned out better than I thought. I followed Mindheim's advice and sampled a "cold" blue near the horizon on a picture from my area in late-summer. Well, just say a lot of luck played a part in the result! ;-)



I decided to mock up the lumber yard first. It is a scale replica of my hometown sawmill which was built in the early 50's by Léo Cauchon. It is (was) rail-served by QRL&PCo (CNR), enough place for 3 cars. Google Earthn provided most informations. Here you can see the sawmill in it's late 2000's appearance. About five years ago, a fire destroyed the saw dust (chip wood) collector, so the left most part was lightly altered and lenghtened. Anyway, I think this industry could inspire a few of you building ISL. The overall building is 200 ft long by 40' large. It is now owned by Produits forestiers Résolu (Resolute Forest Products), the newst reincarnation of Abitibi-Price since last year.





Here's a foamcore mock up of the saw mill as it was built. I don't have any picture from this era (yet, I'll do some researches at the local archives) but I remember it quite well since my first ever scratchbuilt structure was this very one. I was 11 years old back then and my father helped me. We went out of mind by building the complete open-frame wood structure and trusses!!! I still one of my favorite structure on the club layout. Prior to that, I once build it in my LEGO town and, it was rail-served.

Here's the new reincarnation. The chip wood collector can fill 2 semi-trailers at once. I also added the option to load a hopper, according to picture seen in an old 70's RMC, the one they shown how to kitbash Seattle, Spokane & Portland's wood chip hoppers.



With some cars. British-American oil is in the background and almost at scale.



Matt

[mountaingoatgreg]

Matt,

Moving right along!!

That sure is a fancy building for woodchips, most of the ones I have seen in Oregon are like the one from Walthers, a large overhead bin with doors that open on the bottom. Have you thought of a design for your woodchip loader? I have seen a huge variety of designs out there, so you will have lots of options.

Also one thing, it is the Spokane Portland & Seattle Railroad Most of the first woodchip cars were just gondolas with wooden extensions added to them, I know most of the Western railroads in the USA had some sort of variation on the theme.

Keep up the great work!!