Contents
A Tale of Two Railroads
I’ve been “into trains” since my pre-teen years, and a serious model railroader for over 40 years. Back in the late 1970s, I began searching for a prototype because it became clear to me from my reading that modeling an actual railroad offered a number of advantages over inventing one on my own. My childhood trains were American Flyer, and I had an affinity for the nice size of S scale trains (1:64), so I wanted to stay with S. While I had big dreams, as all modelers do when envisioning their ultimate layout, both space and funds were at a premium at that time, and so I knew I shouldn’t be looking at the big Class 1 railroads. Besides, I wanted to model a railroad that was, well, different from what other guys were doing.
The Crea Mine
After reading Keith Pashina’s Quartz Hill Mining Company article in the March/April 2007 GAZETTE, I asked Keith and Joe Crea if they had taken measurements of the mine, prior to its collapse. Fortunately, Joe had the detailed information that allowed me to build my O scale model of the Quartz Hill Mine that I call the Crea Mine. I began by making a building shell from aircraft plywood stained dark brown to darken the interior when viewed through the windows and doors. Before installing the roof, the flooring was modeled where it was going to be visible through the open doors. The floor is board-by-board scale lumber that was distressed by drawing a fine-tooth razor saw at an angle across the boards, and by notching the edges of random boards to show additional wear. I then brushed on Raw Umber acrylic paint, and wiped it prior to drying. Then I followed up with a light coat of Grey acrylic that was also wiped prior to drying. After the floor distressing and painting were completed, the boards were installed using random board lengths.
Tuolumne Gets An Engine House
When I started building my O scale layout, I laid out the Town of Tuolumne with its major buildings, including the sawmill, planer mill, company store, offices and dispatcher offices, along with several company houses. I planned an engine house for my On3 line and figured I had room to add an engine house for my standard gauge section. I located a kit at a train show, built and installed it on the railroad. So far so good. Then I took on the project of building my O scale sawmill which was published in the September/October 2018 GAZETTE. When the mill was installed in the town, suddenly the standard gauge engine house didn’t look so great anymore.
The East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad And Its Locomotives
The East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad was experiencing a boom in the first decade of the Twentieth Century. After 20 years of very mediocre operations, the stars were finally aligning for the little narrow gauge railroad into the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The freight business was booming, and it seemed that every month there was a new business wanting service from the railroad. With more industry came more people needing to travel back and forth over the line. The automobile was still a novelty in the major cities, so the train was the only reliable way to get around. Railroads nationally were in a Golden Age of service, and the ET&WNC wanted to join in that boom.
Gibson Logging Speeders
In 1933, Harry Gibson formed the Gibson Manufacturing Company in Seattle, Washington, to build large speeders capable of hauling large crews of loggers out into the woods. Previously he had worked as master mechanic for Weyerhaeuser Timber Company at their large logging operation at Vail, Washington, where he had seen the value of large fast crew speeders. He knew that he could build a better product than those currently being offered at the time, primarily the M.A.C. (Motor Appliance Corporation) and speeders built by Skagit Steel and Iron Works of Sedro-Wooley, Washington, starting in the 1920s. Even though it was in the midst of the Great Depresstion, he knew that logging companies at this time were looking at ways to cut costs. Previous to the design of his new machines, logging outfits had to haul men going out of camp to the logging sites in either coaches, a “mulligan” car, or even on flat cars pulled by a locomotive.
A Clyde Puffer from OO to O Scale
Model railroaders seem to be attracted to harbors and like to model the interchange between ships and railroads. The thing with harbors and boats is that they tend to be large and can dominate even the largest layout. In my case, I had already built a timber stern wheeler. But my harbor still had some water waiting to be filled and I was always on the lookout for another boat of some sort. I’m one of those modelers who reads every model railroad magazine I can get my hands on including magazines from the United Kingdom. In one UK magazine, I came across an ad for Scalescenes (scalescenes.com) featuring a number of boats. On closer inspection I found they had a OO (4mm) scale kit for a small coastal freighter called a Clyde Puffer. But Scalescene kits are paper. So how would a paper kit do? But the Clyde Puffer was just what I was looking for my harbor — a small freighter that would fit in perfectly.
The Guston Pizza
I have been reading the GAZETTE since its very beginning and am also a multiscaler. The idea of a pizza layout started when fiddling around with Shapeways On18 Shay bodies and Tenshodo drive units. Space is always scarce because I am modelling in my office. It is entered through the door of my wife’s shoe cabinet. The door is only 17 inches wide limiting the height of any layout being built in my office. With that limitation my pizza layout was built in two parts — the base and the mine — that could be assembled after being moved out of the room.
Trees Do Not a Forest Make!
There is more to a forest than trees. Forests have ground cover of many types of soil and rocks. Much dead foliage lies on the ground, including entire dead trees. Frequently there are tree stumps. There are grasses and small plants in profuse variety. Bushes and young trees at many stages of growth are present. This is called the “under story.” And yes, on top of it all there are trees. There are a couple ways to portray a forest on a model railroad layout. For vast expanses of forest where only the canopy is visible, puff-ball trees look very convincing. I have used this technique many times. For small woodlots and highly visible edges of forests, a detailed woods is in order.
Scratchbuilding Colorado Central #10 For My 0n3 Colarado Central & Southern
This is the final installment in my series on building Colorado Central #10. I have tried to highlight the major steps in its construction and here I will discuss her details, along with final thoughts on the whole project. As I said at the beginning of my series, this isn’t necessarily the best — or only way to build a locomotive, but it has worked for me. My intent was to present a method for building a locomotive in brass, showing an approach covering the main components, without going into too much detail on the small parts.
HOn3 Lambert Goose Improvements
The inspiration for this project came from an email exchange with Mark Kasprowicz. Mark recommended a really good system of using pullies and belts for improving the drives on Lambert Associates HOn3 Galloping Geese. He credits Mick Moignard for coming up with the idea. While I was making these drive improvements, I decided to make other improvements to my geese and that’s the subject of this article.
The Narrow Gauge Scene
It is no secret that I am a fan of Inter-Action Hobbies and the kits they produce. Inter-Action Hobbies, P.O. Box 1021, Chase, British Columbia, V0E 1M0, Canada, 1-888-850-1742, www.interactionhobbies.com, produces some innovative and frankly challenging kits. From N to O scale, vehicles to ships, to structures, Darryl and Joanna Jacobs have something of interest for you. If you try one of their more complex kits, I guarantee there will be a step in the assembly when you will look at what is next to do and say to yourself, “Oh heck no!” Not that it cannot be done — but it will be a detail so fine, no one will ever notice it!! Believe me, this is not a dig or complaint: just a statement of fact. From itty-bitty knobs on roll-top desk drawers to some minute soon-to-be hidden detail, you will conclude it is just not worth the angst to even try.