78 Miles to Yosemite

Category: Workshop

A New Workshop

Posted on by jkdummler

Along with changes to scale, as I have cleaned up/out the workshop, it has become obvious that, with storage at a premium, our workshops here have needed upgrading/updating again.  Lots of equipment, both individual and shared, has for a long time been stored in drawers and caddies that are not easily mobile, and I’ve found myself up and down from the work space more than I’d like to be, and tripping over cords more than I’d like to be as well.  

With fixing those issues in mind, I started hunting for portable workshops.  Unfortunately I appear to have missed out on some fantastic portable shops from a company in Span, but their portable workshops inspired more hunting and gave me some ideas of what I was hunting for.  

I eventually hit on what folks in the hobby of slot cars and RC cars call a “pit box”. These are typically made with spots to store race cars and tools, but I found a gentleman who makes them and who was willing to customize a pair of them with removal of the slot car storage and addition of other drawers.

The new workshop
The view when open as I move into the new storage.

I’ve spent a few days now moving into this box, and found some improvements I plan to make.  First, I added some magnets so I can easily store my scale ruler.  Secondly, because the boxes are heavy to begin with being built of 3/4” plywood, and fully loaded they’re even heavier, I plan to swap the single top handle out for two heavy duty side-mounted handles.

I’m really happy to have everything tool wise now at my easy reach.  We’re closing in on the end of the reorganization of the shop and modeling items, so in short order now it will be time to sit down and build some Proto:48 equipment.  I can’t wait!

-Jeremy

Ever-shrinking layout space

Posted on by jkdummler

Ever-shrinking layout space.  The bane of any model railroader’s plans.

It’s over 10 years ago now that I started building a version of the Yosemite Valley Railroad in a 3 car garage at a house out in the Central Valley of California.  That layout didn’t get terribly far, though trains ran in Merced.

Last year, in a bout of optimism, I launched plans to build a good sized layout in our garage based on an Iian Rice layout optimized for coal hauling. When the physical construction fell apart there, we once again returned to plans, through sever iterations, to build in that same space, in the garage.

In hindsight, we probably should have changed that plan immediately because of some of the reasons that the physical construction started to fail, but the fact that the concrete floor was sweating in the summer heat didn’t really register as ‘much’ of an issue at that point, nor did the invasion of mosquitos any time the garage door was open.  A swamp cooler, maybe some removable netting, and things would maybe be OK.

Right.

Then, Illinois decided this last week and into the coming week to remind us that we live in Northern Illinois which is, I think, forecast to be as cold as the North Pole for a few days, with wind, blowing snow, and other ick.  Then there’s all the stuff that falls off the car that anything in the garage has to share with in the form of slop, muck, dirt, and when all the dries, this extremely fine dust full of corrosive salt and snow/ice fighting chemicals and general grime.  If you’re ever wondering how stuff gets grimy on a railroad, look at a car in the winter.  The same thing hits trains.

Several things do NOT fare well in that environment.  Wires, track, electronics, locomotives, scenery…. All the stuff that goes into building a model railroad…. benchwork…. It’s just not an environment that is in the least bit friendly to a layout.

I should have known better from the get-go.

When we both looked at each other one afternoon and started to say the same thing about needing to move the layout inside, the plans for even the scaled down 4.5 x16 layout we were getting close to sharing a plan for went away.  There isn’t room for that in the house.  

The search for layout space in the house has been conducted before.  It’s not ever been extremely fruitful.  There are limited spaces to house anything inside with a family of growing teenagers, even in 1800 or so square feet.  The options really come down to storing a layout in the master bedroom, where nobody visiting would ever see it or operate it, the laundry room, which is upstairs but already is string with the airbrush and painting equipment, or finding a way to fit the layout into the closet we refer to as the “office” where our workshop currently is stored.

Ok, that’s workable.  Storage can be shuffled in the house to find room for the workshop, and if carefully planned, a layout can be built in sections that ca be moved in and out of that closet with some care.  The living space of our house is big enough to house a set-up layout for operating or work that also fits in that closet.  Can you feel the ideas forming?

So, we’re on now to a layout, inside the house, temperature controlled, space decided but still needing to be completely sorted out as we Spring Clean the rest of the house, and track plans, gotta have those.

What style of layout?  It’s going to have to be more “European” than “American”.  Many layouts in the US are larger affairs like what I’ve been planning.  I took this week and looked at more space-space-conscious layout builders and the fact that they tend to build layouts with big operations that run from staging solution, through a modeled scene, to staging solution. 

As one friend put it to me this week, it’s a good idea to build in the house. Maintenance and access will beat size of layout, especially when it comes to the fact that a layout in the garage will really only be useable or accessible here for about 4 out of 12 months due to weather.

I think he’s right. Time to finalize the new plans.

-JD

Thoughts on the Year Ahead

Posted on by jkdummler
Sights of things to come. A F&C boxcar (Central Vermont 36′) was recently on the workbench for decal work.

It’s time once again to set some goals for the year.  I find that goals, as opposed to New Years Resolutions, make it more likely that I’ll continue to aim at achieving the things I decide to prioritize.  With 2019 upon us, it’s a good time to look back at some accomplishments and set some goals for the year ahead.

2018 saw some significant work accomplished toward getting our layout up…. And then because of choices I made to re-use materials or to make-due with things, saw the layout, and those materials, go away.  It really is a combination of factors there, struggling with my vision, having close to but not exactly the tool to do what I wanted to do, making some mistakes in calculations of weight (remember, the layout was going to roll), and finally, the wrong materials and reused materials that just weren’t up to what I was trying to do.  I did learn a great deal, and had fun to the point the layout got.  In the end, the saws-all cured the issues and the trash truck hauled it away.

There were good things in 2018 too.  I managed to complete close to 20 freight cars, amassed a large number of cars to work on in the coming months, and discovered the N&W in Cincinnati, which will now wind up being the first part of the next iteration of our layout.  Lots of research was done, structures were chosen, and plans are being made.

It was a good year in modeling.

2019 should be as good, if not better, in terms of hopefully having a layout to show for the effort.

So, my goals for 2019 are:

  1.   Complete the benchwork for a 3’x14’ section of layout, including backdrop, sub-roadbed, sturdy legs, and straight cut lumber.
  2. Build as many freight cars as I can, two at a time, from start to finish.  The rule I’m setting for myself is that for each boxcar I build, I need to also build some other type of car.
  3. Build 3 structure kits.

That’s it.  I should be able to accomplish those goals, more guidelines, in 2019.  There are other things that I would “like” to do, like finding a shay, building a helix, laying all the track… but some things come faster once the bigger things are done.  Benchwork takes me FOREVER to build.  By setting my sights on getting the benchwork up and in place, and not pushing myself to get all the track in, maybe, just maybe, we’ll see trains running in 2019.  That would really be fun!

-JD

Improving Processes

Posted on by jkdummler

It’s time once again to look at the modeling year ahead.  I learned a lot in the last 12 months, and my plan for the year ahead includes putting into practice a few things that I want to change in order to make my modeling even better.

One thing I have been trying to do for a long time is to get even more organized when it comes to planning a project, from freight car to structure.  Stuff tends to fly around and be out of control until I’m focusing on what the “next step” is, and then I’m waiting on parts or waiting on decals, etc….

To address that issue this year, I plan to do two things.  First, I plan to work on smaller batches of projects. It makes sense to me to work on more than one thing at a time.  When I have equipment set up to do work on brakes, or for drilling, or for decals, it makes sense to do more than one car at a time.  However, fewer than 19 all at once is probably better.  It took me most of a weekend to polish the wheels I put on cars this year, and I really would like to not make as much green dust from the Vert polish all at once.  I think a “manageable” size for a batch of cars are the 6 cars I can fit in one of my storage trays at a time.  If I can get 6 cars started, built, detailed, primed, painted, lettered, and finished, then move on to the next batch of 6, I feel like I can make progress without stalling out because I’ll see the progress along the way.

The second thing I’m working on now, before I start building, is to get projects organized on paper.  Anything I need to order, change, add, etc… to a car get’s listed on the page, and the page can be either printed or referenced on my cloud.  The eventual goal is to collect information sheets on each model, listing the parts and changes, but also the history of the car, and a prototype photo or drawing that I’m working from.  In the end, the sheets will be printed with the prototype info and the model info and can be my display at an RPM where the cars are shown.

This is an example of the initial setup sheet I’m doing for each car. This one may wind up in my 2nd or 3rd batches of 6 cars at a time this year, but the general idea of tracking everything that I need or need to do on a project in one spot will make things easier to manage when it comes to starting a project and getting it finished.

With parts inbound for the first 6 cars, and arriving before the weekend, I’m hoping to sit down and get a good start on everything.

The first 6 cars for this year are:

A pair of ACL K-7 low side gondolas

A BAR 1927 A.R.A boxcar

A Central Vermont 36’ boxcar

A SSW USRA DS clone

A Norfolk & Western bobber-style caboose

In keeping with my pledge to myself that for every box car I build, I’ll build 1 of another car type this year, that’s 3 boxcars and 3 others.  It’ll be interesting to see what happens with this batch, and then what I pull out of the kit stash for the next group. 

-JD

Freight Crate Modifications

Posted on by jkdummler

It’s that time of year again when I build the newest batch of Freight Crates from Fast Tracks to carry cars to RPM Chicagoland as well as store them until they’re in use on the layout that, (fingers crossed) will be up and running in early 2019.

For a few years now, I’ve had a couple of bits of difficulty with my crates, but in my book there isn’t a better option on the market for storing and protecting equipment.  About 6 years ago I had things in large cardboard boxes that are made to store and transport cars.  During a move, 95% of my equipment, including locomotives, were smashed to the point of unrecoverable.  After moving over to using Freight Crates, I have taken cars to multiple RPM’s and not broken anything, so the protection is sound.

The issues I’ve had surround two items.  1. The locking tabs on the bottom of the crates have a tendency to brake off.  During repeated opening and closing of the crates, I’ve broken more than one.  2.  Getting the locking tabs to not become glued in place during construction is difficult (for me),  3.  Getting crates to open when the lid slides all the way down to the bottom can be difficult.  Humidity and air temperature can affect how things slide.

So when I set out this year to build my newest batch, I decided on two things.  First, if I could avoid using the locking tabs, because I don’t really need those, I would.  Second, if I could solve the opening issues by figuring out a way to add leverage for my fingers I would do that as well.

The bottom of the Fast Tracks Freight Crate shows the mounting points near the ends for the locking mechanisms that also work to allow the crates to stack.

 

These pieces I now leave out of the bottom construction.

 

The mounts for allowing the Freight Crates to stack are still used, just without the lock portion.

The first part that solves both of my first two issues was easy.  I simply build the bottom of the crates following the directions and leave out the locking tabs.  The way I handle the crates I always have a hand on the bottom anyway.  Replacing the locking tabs with a pair of stout rubber bands around the crate wound’t hurt either, or I may wind up adding some velcro straps to the sides to keep the lids on.  Either way, without the tabs, there is no frustration and the crates still stack.

A newly assembled lid is seen drying here with blue painters tape used to hold everything together.

Solving the lid-opening issue took a little more thought.  What I decided to do was to set my Bladerunner table saw to have a 1.5″ cut.  Then I ran the parts for the sides and ends of the lid through there before assembly.  Once cut, I used a sanding sponge to just knock down any “hair” from the bald that was raised on the hardboard material, and assembled the top following the rest of the instructions.  I use blue painters tape to hold everything in place while I’m gluing and assembling both the top and bottom.  I find it works nicely to hold joints together, but peels off with ease once things are dry.

A pair of modified crates awaits filling with cars. The side modification tom the lids can be easily seen.

The end result is a Freight Crate that I can lift the lid off of easily, that stacks, and that protects my equipment.  This modification isn’t for everyone, but for me, it works.  The same modification I made to the new crates I can make carefully to the existing set, at least to the lids, with the saw, so they function just as easily.

I have a bunch of cars to finish if I’m going to make my deadlines this year, so it’s probably time to get back to the workbench!

-JD

Moving Indoors

Posted on by jkdummler

The spray booth moved inside this weekend from the garage to the laundry room all thanks to a new vent hose attachment.

For the last few years, any painting, gluing with MEK, weathering…. anything that created fumes, had to be done in our garage.  That means everything had to be done during the Spring / Summer / Fall and was subject to the outside temperature, bugs, humidity, and general idiosyncrasies of painting outside.  With the really difficult time we’ve had this year getting any time in the booth because of the strange weather patterns, things piled up that are now causing a rush ahead of RPM Chicagoland later this month.  I’m still hoping to finish 18 or so cars, but wow, wouldn’t it be nice to build and finish a project one at a time?

We solved the issue there with the addition to our spray booth of the available hose attachment.  I was able over the weekend to move all the painting equipment into our laundry room, set up, and weather cars inside without having to worry about all the outside elements.  The fan cleared the fumes nicely.

I’m looking forward to finishing cars and structures going forward as they’re ready and not waiting for everything to pile up all at once.

-J