78 Miles to Yosemite

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Grasping Space and Size: Still Learning to Plan in O Scale

Posted on by jkdummler

Things have been super slow here.  Lots of stuff is keeping me away from finishing projects I wanted to get done, but I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about layouts.  

I write about this a lot.  Boiling a railroad down to a manageable and buildable and achievable track plan, especially a railroad that one knows really well.

While building has slowly progressed on what I have called a photo diorama, I’ve also been paying attention to other small layouts and ideas that might come in handy.  A couple of things recently added to that list or conversation, and sharing them is worth while.

A couple weeks ago, I started thinking ahead to when some of the constrains I currently have on layout building are alleviated.  It’ll be a few years, but it usually takes me a while to ferment a track plan, and the change from HO to O scale has been a real struggle for me to wrap my head around track planning in general, so starting now and playing with space sizes and what fits is a useful exercise.

I stared with a list of industries I want to model somehow on the YV.  These are the bottom line, most interesting (to me) things I want to model.  Call it part of Givens & Druthers thinking or LDE’s, but for my purposes I’m calling this the ‘Must Include Industries”.  Here’s the list:

Lumber Mill

  • Log Unloading Track
  • Box Factory & Lumber Loading

Portland Cement

  • Hopper Dump
  • Bagging House

Other Industries

  • Standard Oil
  • Ice / Cold Storage
  • Station or Warehouse (both if possible)

I decided to try and fit the above YV locations into a layout that would fit in the largest bedroom in our house, and landed with this plan.

It’s good, it checks all those boxes, but one thing is really glaring to me and that’s the need to operate this with a runaround track.  That takes a lot of space.

Runaround tracks are common practice in track planning.  They’re useful.  Being able to have a train make facing and trailing point pickups and stouts means you can access a lot of the available real estate on the limited layout space.  

Layout panning requires a lot of compromises.  As modelers we are striving to bend and fit a representation of linear railroads (in most cases) that follow landforms, not walls, into confined spaces.  While that is part of the art of model railroad building, it immediately means we are compromising from the outset. 

What would my YV-based switching layout look like if I added a few other considerations? Make the room smaller, so 12×12.  Make the layout require one crew, one train, maximum of two operators and a host.  Still include the desired industries.  

I believe we are at an inflection point in layout design in North America.  Our massive layouts that people have built for years here, or that people have aimed to build “some day” may become smaller, bedroom size or smaller, operationally interesting and detailed, with many tending further toward the cameo layout that can be built in townhouses or apartments and require small numbers of operators.  

So, inspired by this, and an HO scale layout I saw while browsing some layouts online, I’ve designed this YV-inspired/based layout.

The layout includes all the industries I wanted, the log dump and box factory / dry loading for the lumber company, a track for rock cars and a track for loading boxcars at the cement company, a track for Standard Oil, a track for the ice and cold storage, and right in front of that I can add a station for LCL freight.  All of this can be accessed by a train headed in one direction, doing trailing point switching with no runaround track needed.  Adding or flipping just one industry in the opposite direction might be interesting and mean that I could stage cars for sorting and delivery at either end, or on cassettes at either end.  Something to think about.

It’s interesting to think about how I’ve gotten here.  From track plans drawn to represent just Merced or just El Portal that fill a garage to a switching layout with YV industries that now fits in a spare bedroom, the idea of a manageable and achievable layout of my own coming down the road is exciting.  Small layouts are more common that we might be lead to believe.  Building rolling stock, detailed structures, locomotives, and finished scenes can be done.  One thing that a small layout needs in my opinion, is operational realism, and we’ll talk about that in a blog post that will be coming soon.

It’s definitely time to get back to the workbench.

-Jeremy

Things I’m Thinking About

Posted on by jkdummler

Years ago I used to read the sportswriter, Peter King’s, Monday column online after the Sunday football games.  I remember him having part of the column titled “Ten Things I think I think”.  With lots of different irons in the fire, I thought I would share a few different things I am working on or thinking about here, maybe not ten, but in a similarly disjointed manner, just to provide a catch-up on several projects.

  1. Your Library Is Your Friend When Modeling

I love books, and books about railroad topics are without question the most numerous books in our library hands down.  In prepping to work on the USRA gondola project that I am trying to finish up by the end of September,  I found myself needing lettering information.  I had intended to paint the car as an El Paso & Southwestern (EPSW) car, but after discussing things with Tony Thompson, it was decided that the Southern pacific acquisition of the EPAW in 1924 would have produced repainted cars by 1928, and I changed focus to reproducing a SP lettered car.  There is a photo in Tony’s Southern Pacific freight cars book on SP gondolas showing one of these cars in San Francisco in 1934, but that is a little later, and if the cars were repainted by 1928, they would likely have been shopped at least once more time and repainted again by 1934.  To get close to the right lettering on this car, I turned to another book that I had received as a gift last year for a future PFE reefer project.  The book, “Southern Pacific Painting and Lettering Guide” has a 1925 GS gondola lettering guide included.  Using that guide, the 1934 photo from the other SP book, and several sheets of different decals from Protocraft, I have assembled as close as I think I can a plan to letter the model as it might have appeared in 1928.  Without multiple references, I would have been floating without a guide.  I’m thankful for the books that I can reference for photos and information.  They allow me to model to the best of the ability of the information and my skills at the moment.

2.  Getting the Most out of 3’ x 18”

A single track on the 36″ long photo diorama
Two tracks is better use of the space.

The photo diorama that I created is still standing in our garage without much progress being made there.  The weather in the Midwest has been hot, humid, or just generally bad for working out there. My initial plan was to lay a single track down the middle of the board.  At the same time, I want to use this small board to learn a few things, most importantly, how to hand lay Proto48 track.  With that in mind, I have decided to lay two lines of track on this project, one as a mainline and one more as a siding, allowing me to experiment with tie spacing, ballast, grass, etc… and really prefect the look of the track before moving on.  As the weather cools a little this next week, I am hoping to get roadbed down and some basic scenery texture in place to get rid of the pink foam.  I’d like, by the end of September, to have fascia on this project all the way around, the basic mud down and dry for the scenery, and be at the point where I’m sorting out rail, tie, spike, tie plates, and other track details for the Fall.  Doable?  We’ll see.

3.  “Mill Road” is the e-book I’ve Been Looking For

OST Publications, and Mike Cougill, have produced another fantastic e-book in their new release, “Mill Road”.  The book discusses Mike’s journey with his Proto48 Cameo layout and his thought process on the design, what is important, and some of his ideas on construction of such a layout.  It’s a well written, well thought through, and inspiring guide to this kind of layout design philosophy.  This is a similar road to what I’ve been finding myself drawn to, and Mike has put it in writing better than I could.  I highly recommend buying a copy if you’re interested in the Cameo layout concept, or how one comes to focus on what is important to you in modeling.  Bravo, Mike!

4.  Endings

This December, my subscription to Model Railroader Magazine will come to an end.  I have subscribed to MR since 1987.  Even with a small HO scale switching layout stored in the closet to work on this winter, the content in MR has become irrelevant to my modeling interests and sadly the magazine has become a quick scan monthly when it arrives and is then recycled.  I haven’t saved an issue in several years.  When the current subscription ends, I may occasionally pick up a copy if there is an interesting article, and I’ll likely continue to add to my shelf of Model Railroad Planning special issues, but my subscriptions to Model Railroad Hobbyist, Narrow Gauge & Shoreline Gazette, and O Scale Magazine will continue, and reading and support for O Scale Resource will as well.

5.  The Right Builder

Parts for YV 29

As many of you know, my vision is greatly limited (I’m legally blind).  When I switched to Proto48 from HO scale, and decided to keep on modeling the Yosemite Valley Railroad, one of the biggest losses for me was the locomotive roster.  The Beaver Creek YV moguls are a real draw to modeling the YV in HO, making it possible to have 5 of the 7 locomotives rostered in the late 1920’s, 1930’s, and up to abandonment, essentially ready to go in brass, and Jack Burgess having had an excellent article on modeling the two 4-4-0 American’s on the roster in Model Railroader, built from the excellent Bachmann modern 4-4-0 models.  After doing the research on building a locomotive model, knowing the skills, the tools, the materials, and incredibly importantly, the vision, I decided to take some of my own advice that I give in clinics on modeling as a low vision person, and look for help.

After an extensive search, talking to a large number of people, I’m very happy to share that Bill Meredith of Leadville Designs (https://leadvilledesigns.com) has started work and made fantastic progress on building a custom Proto48 model of YV29 as it would have appeared in 1928.  Pictured here are some of the parts for the model.  It has been a pleasure to develop this project with Bill, and I’m very excited about what is happening.  YV29 will be sound equipped, battery powered, and I’m looking forward to sharing more of the project as it progresses.

With that, it’s time to get back to work on projects, and hopefully I’ll have some progress shots to share with you soon.

-Jeremy

Photo Diorama – Up on Legs

Posted on by jkdummler

Just a brief update this week on project.  I’m working to push things forward and sharing even small steps of progress because it helps me to organize what needs to be done.

Been here before. The adjustment to a photo diorama from layout module was pretty straight forward and took only a couple of hours to assemble and to adjust the legs. At 48″ from the ground, the height is still for viewing and reach.

The photo module project has made it onto its own legs.  I’m very pleased with how fast this came together, and the weight is much better for a mobile platform.  Instead of 52″, the top is now 48″ from the ground, and it’s quite comfortable to stand at. I modified the angled braces from the previous effort on the legs into a single cross brace for stability, and that has worked nicely. The legs have pockets they fit into, and then the frame for the diorama base rests on cross members on the legs that are there to keep the legs aligned and to provide that support. Those same cross braces also provide a location to grab when moving the set up diorama, so there isn’t awkward holding points like the last effort had.

I will likely try and get basic color onto the diorama and a fascia onto the project before Fall.  I located my supply of small spikes and my splicing tools that I purchased a few years ago.  The next step will be to lay the roadbed product down and get that dry, and cut some styrene for the fascia.  I need to find time to draw the tie plates in a 3D CAD program because I need to have my own printed.  I don’t know of any commercial 3 hole tie plates out there at the moment.  

My modeling block is pretty much gone. I’m working at my 15 minutes a day program, making lists, planning work, and looking forward to finishing these things.  It would be amazing to be able to take photos of the finished freight car projects on the photo diorama.  That’ll be a neat thing to be able to share when we get there.

-Jeremy

Back at it: Project Updates For August 7, 2020

Posted on by jkdummler

After my last post, I made the decision to eliminate the really heavy piece of benchwork/module that I had built, and this week, cut up into three pieces, that section has departed to the dump.  The scenery “mud” on that project has great promise, as does the Flexxbed that I chose to use for roadbed.  However, the super heave, 3/4” plywood frame and decking just made it unwieldy to move and store.  Having decided that it’s skill-building and project c completion time, that piece no longer fit into my plans, and thus, it has met it’s end.

The photo diorama is now making progress. I’m working on modifying the legs from the last effort to fit this project, and to make some design improvements.

In it’s place, I have started constructing a new “photo diorama” to be able to learn some skills with.  It’s only 3’ long this time, and though the Fram is built from left-over 3/4” plywood benchwork pieces, the decking will be a simple piece of 2” insulation foam.  I have, at this point, glued and screwed the plywood together for the frame, so I’ve made progress there that I’m pleased with.  To use this as a display and photography diorama, I plan to make some functional adjustments to the legs from what I now call the “Heavy Module” and reuse them.  The plan is to adjust the end plates on the legs to allow for the diorama to be bolted in place, not just floating.  I’ll then adjust the length of lateral supports, and I’ll have legs that will bring things up to a height of about 50” which is comfortable for me for viewing and photography.

Modeling supplies have been cleaned up and organized again. It’s good to start fresh every once in a while with the organization.

It’s not all layout items that have made progress either.  I was fortunate to be able to correspond with several railroad history and modeling experts regarding the USRA gondola that I have planned to finish soon.  My initial thought was to letter that model as an El Paso & Southwestern car, but after corresponding about the likelihood of any of the EP&SW cars remaining in EP&SW paint by 1928, the general feeling was that the Southern Pacific would have repainted the cars after their 1924 acquisition of the EP&SW, and it is hotly unlikely that there would be a car in original lettering by August of 1928.  To adjust to that, I’ve repainted the gondola from black into a better base for SP lettering, and I’m looking forward to getting that finished soon.

Additionally on the freight car front, I have started the finishing process for the ATSF Bx2 boxcar that I detailed late last year and early this year.  That car will be first up for finishing, and I’ve set a personal goal of finishing it in August.  

This car is first up to finish. The Bx2 has been in progress the longest, so it’s first to be finished, hopefully in August.

The general finishing order for projects ahead currently stands at:

ATSF Bx2 Boxcar

SP USRA Gondola

UTLX Tank Car 1

UTLX Tank Car 2

PRR FM Flatcar

YV Caboose 15

Once I finish the projects above, I’ll pick new models from my stash and start working there.

On the skill-building front, I’ve decided to learn to hand-lay track in Proto48.  The photo diorama will be my first go there.  I’ve hand-laid track in HO before, but the detail level in Proto48 will be different.  Right now I’m hunting for a way to get the number of 3 hole tie-plates that I will need to prototypically lay YV track, and I’ll be looking to acquire the materials soon. I will likely use the tie plate project as a way to get started with 3D printing parts as I have seen some other Proto48 modelers do.  

I’m looking forward now to sharing more progress in detail on specific projects I have going on as I move them forward.

-Jeremy

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