Workshop – 78 Miles to Yosemite

Workshop and Model Builds Update

Posted on March 6, 2020 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.

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

Getting Organized

Posted on July 30, 2019July 30, 2019 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.

PL&E 36’ boxcar
NP 36’ fish belly boxcar
UTLX Van Dyke 6500 gal tank car
PRR X29 Boxcar
SP B-50-15 boxcar
UTLX Van Dyke 6500 gal tank car
PFE R-30-12 reefer
PFE R-40-2 reefer
ATSF Bx-2 boxcar
SP B-50-12 boxcar
MKT 1925 single sheathed boxcar
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:

Merced Ice & Cold Storage
YV water tank at Merced
YV oil tank at Merced
YPCCo packing house at Merced
Yosemite Lumber box factory at Merced Falls
Yosemite Lumber dry shed at Merced Falls
YV steel water tank at Merced Falls
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 New Workshop

Posted on April 12, 2019April 12, 2019 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 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

Improving Processes

Posted on October 24, 2018 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 October 6, 2018July 9, 2019 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 October 1, 2018 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