78 Miles to Yosemite

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Emerging from a Funk

Posted on by jkdummler

Along the way, I’ve lost my way, and have been trying to fight, claw, and adjust my way back to a mindset that will get me back at the workbench and get some projects finished or moved forward.

I think it’s only natural in the times we live in at the moment to have some stagnation in projects.  Due to the fact that some items we use in our hobby have become difficult to acquire, and the general uncertainty we all face, I’m sure I’m not the only one who has had trouble getting to the workbench.  It’s also Summer, the general “low ebb” of model railroading, so that likely plays a part.

As I hit a wall with planning and looking at what to do in the future, I found myself struggling to build models or finish models.  The energy and wind went right out of my sails, and the desire to sit down and work omg a project I found hard to come by.  

Model railroading is not an immediate gratification hobby.  In reality, it’s long-term and slow paced.  That’s not bad.  Maybe that’s why when you read all the surveys in the hobby press it points to a demographic that is older than I currently am.  There’s more time to do things.  I don’t necessarily buy into the idea that the hobby is aging.  We all are.  However, I know quite a few young model railroaders who are in the hobby and enjoy it.

For me at the moment, it’s not a lack of interest, it’s that roadblock of a layout.  We all want to know where our trains are going to operate.  That’s part of the joy of planning a model railroad.  The pieces of rolling stock, the structures, the locomotives, are all smaller parts of a larger whole.

I’ve writing so many times about the starts and stops of my modeling.  How do I get myself to the point where I can just, even slowly, make progress without getting stuck?  

While traveling recently to care for an older family member who was ill, I had a chance to read the August, 2020 Model Railroader.  MR has become a read and recycle magazine for me the last few years, but there was an article in this issue that I found to be quite interesting.  The article, “All You Need to Know In Four Square Feet” by Lance Mindheim.  The article revolves around a learning layout in minimum space.  The line, right at the beginning of the article, that really gets my attention is: “A layout on a board can teach you vital skills before “the day” comes”.  Ok, that’s interesting to me because I have come to the realization that I am not at “the day” but I still want to build something.

As I read this article and got to thinking about layout planning, I stared to really separate items and tasks of modeling into groups for myself.  One group, we’ll just call “Group A” are the tasks I can do, have space for, have the skills for, have the materials for, and the other, “Group B”, are the sills where I need to spend some time learning, trying things, experimenting, and find out what works for me and what I like. Changing scale from HO to Proto48 isn’t a 1:1 change, and there are things I need to experiment with and relearn.  Group A tasks consist mostly of rolling stock construction items.  I can do that, I enjoy doing that, and I would like to do more of that.  Group B items include finding a way to manage benchwork, track laying, scratch building structures, and scenery.  

Suddenly, I found myself separating things into individual models, which the completion of a pice of rolling stock of a structure being the whole, instead of just a piece.  I can focus on the Group A tasks, and if I am careful with what I’m doing, I can experiment with a really simple and manageable ‘layout’ based on the idea shared in the MR article, sort out everything I need from the learning there, not feel bad about tearing stuff down or starting over if something doesn’t work because I’m not working on a final layout, I’m working on a learning project, moving skills and tasks from Group B to a Group C where thins are practiced and learned and ready for “that day” when I am in the spot for a layout.  Along the way, the Group A tasks, building the rolling stock mostly, will get done, and when it’s time, those things will just be ready to roll and I won’t have a layout without something to run on it.

This week I’ll get the workshop cleaned up and sorted, started projects organized into an order that makes sense, likely with the ones closest to being done up first, and I’ll settle a spot for a practice “board”, and get to practicing both the things I know I enjoy as complete projects unto themselves, and learning the skills I need and want to practice for when that “some day” comes.  

That idea gives me the calm from the storm of trying to layout plan in a vacuum that I’ve been battling, and I think now I will have some projects in P48 to really share as we close the Summer out and head into the Fall.

-Jeremy

Workshop Update

Posted on by jkdummler

Not all the work being done right now is focused on research and track planning.  Ok, most of it is, but I’m still plugging along on freight car projects.  I have a trio of cars to share with you today that are nearing completion.

First up is an ATSF Bx2 (also known as a USRA double sheathed boxcar).  The car kit comes from Rails Unlimited.  By kit we’re talking about a roof, two sides, two ends, and a floor.  Everything else is sourced by the modeler.  I’ve been working on this car for several months, struggling with mostly the end ladders.  Taking a pointer from a friend, I built the ladders on the car ends, not separately, as the styles and rungs are different materials (the styles are from Chooch, the rungs are home-bent).  The result was satisfactory.  The other interesting piece for this car was getting the brake wheel, a Precision Scale brass part that closely matches the builders photo) bent.  The part is a flat casting, but the prototype appears to be slightly bowl shaped.  The part was pressed gently over a ball bearing to achieve the proper shape.  Once assembled, the car was primed with Tamiya primer, and then painted with Scalecoat Oxide Brown.  This car will be the first one through decals soon.  The decals are Protocraft products.  I’m really looking forward to getting this car on trucks and ready to go into service.

Next up, a Pennsylvania Railroad “FM” flat car stand-in.  The original model is a Red Caboose fishbelly flat car kit.  The model was rebuilt using KD brake parts from Wiseman Model Services and added car weight from Scale City.  I added matching brake wheels and equipment from Foot Hill Model Works to match photos of FM flat cars.  I painted the car with Scalecoat in a mix of 4 parts IC Orange to 1 part Oxide Red.  It’s quite bright.  That color will tone down with weathering once I weather and paint the deck of the car and get decals sorted out, this will be in service for delivering vehicles and other large items on the railroad.

The third car up is an Intermountain USRA gondola.  Neither of the major interchange railroads, the SP and ATSF, were assigned USRA gons.  However, the SP acquired some of this car type with their acquisition of the El Paso & Southwestern in the mid 1920’s.  As I need some gondolas, and kits are somewhat hard to come by in O scale, I decided to build an EPSW gondola from the SP.  It’s likely that the SP was repainting these by 1928, but I’ll keep the car as an EPSW offering for interest.  The car was an undecorated offering, and I have painted it with Scalecoat Black.

I’m very pleased to say that I have started another build.  The first piece of true Yosemite Valley equipment in Proto48 that I’m building.  The Mullet River Model Works YV15 caboose that I acquired this year is starting a slow process of gluing and drying to assemble the wood car.  I’ll be sharing more photos of this build as time goes on.

These three cars ready for decals, and the two UTLX tank cars I built earlier this year, puts me at about a car a month pace.  I’m good with that.  It means I have years of car building ahead, while also indicating that I’m getting better at my own supply chain for car parts, and learning how to assemble things more quickly in this scale.  While I’ve built cars in HO for years, relearning everything to a new size, and for a new level of detail, has some curve to it and I’m pleased with where my curve is going.

Back to the workbench!

-Jeremy

Workshop and Model Builds Update

Posted on by jkdummler

It’s been a while since my last post.  Almost a year on from changing scale, I ran out of steam suddenly and got bogged down by a few projects.   I’ve been working on an ATSF Bx2 boxcar, and the end ladders have given me no end of grief.  There isn’t a casting or kit available, and I’ve been learning to assemble Chooch ladders by failing and breaking at least 4 sets, but I think I now have a way to adjust to this so we’ll see when the car comes out again.  

ATSF Bx2 with brake detail in place and grab irons finished. (Car from Rails Unlimited)

The other task bogging me down is finishing a pair of really finicky tank car rebuilds.  These cars started last San Juan cars that were stripped of details and had everything replaced.  The fact is, however, there isn’t really a good spot to grip these things that doesn’t have railings or other parts, and even though the decals have been here for over a month, and the cars have been on my to-do list almost daily, I haven’t gotten around to sitting down and putting lettering on the cars. 

I think I kind of locked myself up by starting too many projects, trying to have something to do, and then got overwhelmed by having too may open-ended ongoing builds.  

Getting out of the funk there takes some doing, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

For starters, the Bx2 ladders have been frustrating because I have been trying to build them off the car and then add them to the ends.  In reality, the easy way as suggested by a friend, and the way to fix some of those issues, is to build them on the car end.  The issue with doing that is my Bissey vacuum vise that I have used for years when building in HO scale does not open wide enough to properly hold an O scale boxcar vertically for me to work on the ends.  I had not replaced it, and now I’ve hit a frustration by not replacing it, so I’ve taken care of that.  A new, and surprising smaller, vacuum vise was delivered this week.  The new tool will replace the old one, and I should be able to get the end ladders on my boxcar projects without trying to figure out how to balance a car and work at the same time one handed.

The tool pictured below is a PanaVise 209 Vacuum Base Jr. The link is here: Amazon
One other new tool. A bright green (so I can find it more easily) ergonomic hobby knife. Spotting things on the table is frustrating sometimes, so the bright colors can help.

To address the stoppage with the tank cars, I’ve decided to power on and have all the materials ready.  I’ve set a date, and a reminder on my phone.  I also would kind of like to get things on track here, and as I feel the energy returning, I’m sure that the tank car lettering project will get done.

Today is the day…. 3/6/2020. I had to get up early before work, but the first side of these cars is now setting with setting solution.

Beyond those blocks, I’ve acquitted the tools to try and fix the warped R40-2 kit, and have tested the height ideas I have for the layout by setting the section I built last year up on a table and having not only me, but my wife, sit at it and reach in.  The height and leg debate is ongoing in my head.  We’ll see where that leads this year when it’s warm enough to set things back up in the garage to build the next layout section.

Layout height test. More on this soon.

I’ve also taken a step back from some things that have been taking little bits of time here and there that I can’t control.  A couple of volunteer positions that I have enjoyed, but that with the way life changes from time to time I don’t have the energy or time as a resource to fully commit to them at the moment, either have or will be ending soon.  Unblocking my small amounts of availability to work on projects feels like a good idea.

So, here we are, not much progress has been made, but the energy and time are now returning, and hopefully I will have more to share with you soon.

-Jeremy

The Ice House – Part 3

Posted on by jkdummler

In part 2 of this series, I said it was now time to get building.  So, let’s get a start!

My first step with the Merced Ice & Cold Storage facility was to determine the footprint.  Using the foam core mockup, I placed it on the drawing of the layout track plan, and adjusted it so that a freight car can just peek out from the side, like in the photo snippet seen in part 2.  Then I marked points on the drawing, and drew in the footprint of the main building.  If you look back to part 1, you’ll see that this rear portion of the facility is ice storage.  However, also looking at my rendition of the plant, we see that the cold storage space is attached to the ice storage, and to the loading platform, but that section of the facility will make the rear of the building larger than the drawing I have, by about a third.

I then drew in what I think is a representative size tor the cold storage area of the facility, and then connected the sections to the edge of the layout.

The overall drawing then gives me an idea of how much styrene I need to order, and logically, I think there would be a door into the ice storage and a separate door into the cold storage, so I need to sort out two sets of dock doors.

I don’t think the facility needs windows on the rear of the building.  The one photo of the side of the building that I know of shows what might be faux window openings on the sides of the building for aesthetic purposes, but the rear wouldn’t likely even have those.  This is the “all business” side, and just plain brick is what I would imagine we would see.  

With graph paper, I now started drawing the building sections.  The main section of the building as taken from the drawings by Jack Burgess works out to 16 1/8” long on paper.  The front of the building has some ornamental brickwork at the top of the walls, but being the back of the building, facing the company property, I decided to dispense with that ornamentation on this side and save the company some money during construction.  The height of the building I set at 7”.  Essentially, my giant graph paper had a big rectangle on it that needed additional details.

I then looked at the photos of the building, and it appears to have a foundation sill of formed concrete that the brickwork is standing on.  This makes some sense to me as the ice storage room is noted in the Sanborn drawings as having a concrete floor.  The drawings show a curb about 2’ hight at the front.  I thought about wrapping that to the rear, but that left me with a problem in look, and a problem for, I assume, the people constructing the original building as well.

Standing next to a freight car, the door height winds up being about 4’ from the ground.  Most loading docks and platforms are aiming to be right about that same height to roll on and roll off.  If anything, the dock can be slitty lower than the door, but not half the height.  I also figured that the doors into the facility would not be super high, so I wanted to set the door sills at about 3’.

That kind of setting would put the building sill, and the dock, somewhat out of wack.  I decided to set the sill at 3’ tall on the rear of the building, as it will form a lip for the brick and a location to rest the loading platform.  This may be a compromise for building, but I have no drawings or photos of the back of the building, and I’m comfortable with the decision as it’s likely to be unseen under the platform.

With that decided, I then located an opening for a double door, using the dimensions of a set of Tichy doors for the dimensions.  This still leaves the building very plain on the rear, but I highly doubt there would have been big windows into the ice storage room at the rear here, and photos of the building show this area had false windows that were bricked in along the public street.

The full size mockup of the building front at the top, and my drawings for the rear at the bottom.

 I then moved on and drew another rectangle, this one 5 1/2” wide and 6” high, to begin to flesh in the cold storage space for food products.  While this isn’t a huge space, and with doors that match the doors on the main ice building, it’s even a little smaller than one might think, judging from the Sanborm map drawings of the facility, the measurements work out to be about right.  I made the structure lower, 6” instead of 7”, as it’s what I imagine being an addition, added to keep food cold, and the buildings like this that I have seen usually are slightly smaller than the building they are attached to.  This will also provide some visual interest as the roofline will drop and change instead of having one giant brick rectangle on the layout.

From here, it was time to place a materials order for at least the core of the building.  I’ve ordered some black Evergreen styrene sheets, .080” thick, that will form the core of the structure.  When those arrive, it’ll be time to get cutting and gluing.

Next time we’ll look at the detail changes to a stock Red Caboose R-30-12-9 PFE reefer, and get the first car started.

-JD

RPM Chicagoland 2019

Posted on by jkdummler

It’s time for RPM Chicagoland 2019 to kick off in just a few hours. I’m looking forward to three days of fantastic clinics and talking with friends, new and old.

My clinic handout for this year, along with the handout for my wife’s clinic on Poultry cars, are both in the clinic handouts section of this site. You’re welcome to take a look.

We hope to see folks here, and hope too that everyone attending has a great time.

-Jeremy

NP Boxcar – 5

Posted on by jkdummler

Inching closer to finished with the NP boxcar build, I sat down last weekend with some new (to me) products from a couple of different weathering product producers, and some old standby products as well to get a start on not only the NP car but also a P&LE 36′ car I’ve been working on at the same time.

The pencils applied wet make sort of puddles where you want the grit and grime.
After brushing with water tome things around and blend, and then using a cotton swab to remove excess material and further blend, the outcome is pleasingly dirty.

First up, I wanted to try some weathering pencils by AK. These are a dry / wet product that can be used to add all sorts of effects. I have three sets that I ordered after seeing a video on YouTube about them, and I wanted to see how they work. While the dry application is really similar to applying Prisma artists pencils, these AK products blend in a little better from my experience when a soft brush is used after applying them dry. Where they really were fantastic, though, was when applied wet. The process is essentially to dip the pencil in water and then apply it to the area you want the color to go. You can add streaks or pools or lines as you see from my photos here. Once the color is applied, you let it sit a minute or two, then come back with a wet brush and move it around. That is followed by a cotton swab used to remove the color, which then leaves just the amount you’re looking for. It takes a little practice, the being water based, they clean off if you make a mistake. Additionally, using more than one color in an area and blending with a brush and with the swab will produce a really nice effect.

Using the same techniques used on the roof, the sides of the cars and some other details received streaking of dust and dirt.

I used the pencils mostly for dirt and dust, but with some of the darker shades of red and brown I changed a couple of boards one the car sides to look like the paint was starting to fail, and around the door hardwire I added rust and grime. I’ll come back with some other products and enhance this look shortly, but the base effect was fantastic. I’ll be using these much more often.

Following the pencils, I airbrushed some dirt and grime lightly onto the under sides and along the sills of the cars using some Ammo “Kursk Soil”. The general grime on these parts stands out nicely. I’ll come back again and add some additional rust and a few other grit colors to finish out the look.

Finally, I turned to the trucks for these two cars. I decided to try using some Mig “Oil Brushers” for the wheels. These were great. The paint is in the container, and so is an applicator. It didn’t take me long to use some rust, and some “Starship Bay Grunge” on the wheel faces to get the base look.

These are just the first layers. I still have a few things to do to enhance things and build up some grime in places, but that will come this weekend. The plan is that by the 19th/20th I’ll be doing final assembly on these cars.

-Jeremy

Getting Organized

Posted on by jkdummler

Goals are good things to have.  I find that list-making and goal setting spurs me on to accomplish tasks in a realistic timeframe, and I feel that accomplishment which then spurs me onward toward the next item on the list, toward the next goal.

I’m now looking at the projects I have started, or would like to start, and thinking about how to order them properly.  In the days when I used to build HO models, I’d build 5 or 6 models all at once.  That’s likely not to happen anymore.  The fact is, the larger equipment is simply space-hungry.  

I have set for myself a goal that I think is reasonable when it comes to kits and cars.  I’m planning to work on one freight car at a time.  Shocking to think about, when many of us have started kits and set them aside and started others.  Seriously, though, one kit car at a time.  I believe it is possible to build one car in 4-6 weeks at the rate I work.  Not super fast, but yet too, enjoyable.  

Here is the list of kit cars that I am planning to build, and the order in which I plan to build them.  Please note, there are more cars in the stash than are listed here.  I only picked the next 12 because that is roughly a year’s worth of work.  Once this list is completed, I’ll prioritize the next set of 12 to build.

  1. PL&E 36’ boxcar
  2. NP 36’ fish belly boxcar
  3. UTLX Van Dyke 6500 gal tank car
  4. PRR X29 Boxcar
  5. SP B-50-15 boxcar
  6. UTLX Van Dyke 6500 gal tank car
  7. PFE R-30-12 reefer
  8. PFE R-40-2 reefer
  9. ATSF Bx-2 boxcar
  10. SP B-50-12 boxcar
  11. MKT 1925 single sheathed boxcar
  12. SP ex-EPSW USRA composite gondola

I initially started cars 1, 2, and 3 from the list.  That has proven to be OK, but I am looking forward to wrapping them up and getting the number of in-progress cars down to 1 at a time.  That isn’t to say that if I get to a spot with a project where I’m waiting on supplies of data or photos that there won’t be a chance that a 2nd project is moving forward.

If I’m building just one kit at a time, or one car at a time, it’s likely that I’m going to need other projects to occupy modeling time and interest while things dry or while I wait for parts.  To that end, I’ve also organized some non-car projects.  A number of structures are going to be needed for the layout and getting those built will fall into the project list.  I plan to only work on one structure at a time, which will make the structures available as a second ongoing project group.  Based on my plans for the layout, I need to build:

  1. Merced Ice & Cold Storage
  2. YV water tank at Merced
  3. YV oil tank at Merced
  4. YPCCo packing house at Merced
  5. Yosemite Lumber box factory at Merced Falls
  6. Yosemite Lumber dry shed at Merced Falls
  7. YV steel water tank at Merced Falls
  8. YV station at Merced Falls

There is also a huge need on this railroad for motive power and home-road cars.  None of the YV cabooses, rock cars, box cars, flat cars, stock cars, MOW cars, passenger cars, or log cars are commercially available at the moment, and few have ever been in O scale. My guess right now is that I’m going to need/want 2 locomotives, 2 cabooses, 6 rock cars, 2 flat cars, 1 stock car, 1 box car, an unknown number of MOW cars, 2 passenger cars, and 6 log cars.  That’s 20-ish cars and 2 locomotives that need to be scratch built.  This group, then comprises the third project group that will be available. 

I have selected the two locomotives that I want to build.  Yosemite Valley 4-4-0 American #23 and Yosemite Valley 2-6-0 Mogul #25 are my targets.  Should a third locomotive ever become a want, I would target YV27 or YV29.  Two locomotives, though, should keep this railroad busy at least for right now with plans for only two towns in the offing.  The rest of the equipment is fairly straight forward.  YV observation car 330 is definitely in the plans as one of the passenger cars.  

Along with these three groups, there will be layout work to complete.  That gives me four more or less separate spheres of projects to tackle.  Group 1: Kit Cars.  Group 2:  Structures.  Group 3: Scratch Builds.  Group 4:  Layout.  They can all run concurrently, but the key is going to be one item from each group at a time.

This is what I’m thinking will work for me right now.  We’ll see how it all comes together.  I used to do this kind of planning in January as a goals for the year kind of look ahead.  It may be coming on to August, but this year the scale change and getting that all under control and plans made for moving forward means I and doing this and you are seeing it here at the end of July.

I’m ready to hit the workbench this week and finish-up the NP boxcar build so it can go to paint.  The plan is to finish that by the end of August.  Books are coming in the mail on how to scratch build locomotives.  I’m excited about that.  We’ll be looking at Merced Ice & Cold Storage shortly as well, and some big plans for layout construction are also on the horizon.

Lots to do, now that I’m organized, it’s time to get it going.

-Jeremy

A Virtual RPM

Posted on by jkdummler

My good friend, Eric, has posted a new “Virtual RPM” with models on display from several modelers. You can access the photos and descriptions on his blog here: http://designbuildop.hansmanns.org/2019/03/03/virtual-rpm-3/

Both my wife and I contributed some of our most recent work to the effort. We hope you enjoy, and I hope too that if you don’t already follow Eric’s blog, that you’ll dive in and explore the amazing resource that he has compiled there.

-Jeremy

2018 RPM Chicagoland Clinic

Posted on by jkdummler

My clinic for RPM Chicagoland is now done and in the “can” as they say.  This year I will be presenting a revised version of the clinic I first gave in 2016 on modeling with low vision.

This year I’ll be discussing the newly revised workshop that we’ve built, some changes in equipment that I use on a regular basis, and more tips for operating and making your layout comfortable for those with low vision to enjoy.

If you haven’t signed up yet, and will be in the Chicago area October 18, 19, 20, please come out to hear me, and other speakers.  You can find registration information at rpmconference.com.

-JD