A New England shortline in O Scale

[Dava]

Grand Lake RR is going to have a characteristic New England covered rail over river bridge on the next section.

 

Somehow I don’t think this Bachmann Plasticville bridge is going to be the one!

Found in Malc’s Models today.

 

[Dava]

This GE 23 ton Boxcab kit arrived today, the last one! Karlgarin models just have the EMD 200 hp double-ender centrecab left. 
http://www.karlgarin.com/2doorsdown.htm

It saves me making one from plasticard. The 25 tonner from the same stable is likely to be built first. I do like small postwar era GE locos.
 

[Boxcab]

I now own that actual loco in the photo. 

I think that I bought it at the Winchester show about 8 years ago. It runs very well but needs some more weight in it to improve its adhesion as it can struggle with a couple of Atlas Master PS 4427 cu ft hoppers.

I am led to believe that this loco was built by Robin Arkinstall (of Impetus kits.)

 

I fitted a Loksound V4 with the Caterpillar engine file for the GE 44 toner & sugar cube speaker in it.

I also have unmade kits for the GE 25 toner and 70 toner that I bought many years ago, I really need to get them built.

They are ideal for minimum space O Scale layouts.

Enjoy your loco.

 

Mike.

[Dava]

Thanks Mike, I bought a 25 tonner kit from Robin at a GOG event a couple of years ago, his last of these kits he said. He had a pair of lovely 70 tonners on display but none for sale. I have a Bachmann Williams 3 rail one for conversion unless a 2 rail one turns up. There are a few of these locos still in shortline service, or were until recently.

 

Cue iconic photo of Claremont & Concord 70 tonner no. 9.

 

 

[F-UnitMad]

One of these Boxcab kits my young friend @the black knight is currently building...

[Dava]

Yes that photo helped motivate me to contact Karlgarin aka Richard McLeish to enquire about & purchase the Boxcab.

I have given up my project to build a plastic 25 tonner, I will build the 2 Doors Down brass one instead, then the Boxcab.

 

At the moment the line needs a small loco quick as Yard Goat to test the track (still being laid), wiring, traverser and generally bat railcars around in DC mode. The brass steam & diesel locos all need work on them and the little K-line  Plymouth is DCC only.

 

So an Atlas Plymouth switcher and MTH boxcar which just needed new trucks (I have a pair which don’t fit anything else) were acquired from Elaine’s Trains. The Plymouth has been subjected to predictable butchery and the result at least runs, is more compact and just needs couplings, repaint and detailing. Similar to Jordan’s but I first did this conversion back in about 2012. It has already found some pointwork it doesn’t like.

 

Edited February 18 by Dava

[Dava]

The main update from Grand Lake RR in recent weeks has been laying & testing the sidings and associated traverser.

this is 1 linear foot or 48 scale ones, providing runround or access to the backroad.

 

Side, end guards & locks yet to be fitted, tested with a range of locos, it’s fine.

Yes, the British loco fleet will have occasional running powers on the line!

 

 

[Dava]

This weekend I laid the track on Grand Lake which will serve the warehouse backs of local businesses. Is this the team track? Anyway, it’s laid and runs nicely with 40ft boxcars. There is a Banta kit which will become 2 warehouse backs.

 

I need a small locking bolt to finish the traverser, small barrel bolts seem to have disappeared so I have to make this from an Allen key, brass tube & sheet.

 

[Night Train]

Do you have a Screwfix nearby?

https://www.screwfix.com/p/smith-locke-straight-barrel-door-bolt-satin-nickel-40mm/430PY?tc=GT4

[Dava]

On 17/03/2024 at 11:20, Night Train said:

Do you have a Screwfix nearby?

https://www.screwfix.com/p/smith-locke-straight-barrel-door-bolt-satin-nickel-40mm/430PY?tc=GT4

Thanks, just too chunky & need a smaller one which used to be available. 

[Dava]

I found a broken wire coat hanger in the wardrobe. Small event but I needed one to make the wire operating handle for the traverser on Grand Lake RR. The traverser still needs its locking bolt and guards to prevent mishaps. Its completion opens up the ‘back road’ accessible from it, an obscure legacy track. This will access a warehouse but also be an isolatable track where DC steam locos can be stored when the line is in DCC mode or vice versa, or be a programming track. There will be some scenic breaks in this area, behind the freight house to conceal the traverser pit.
 

I enjoy following Chris Mears Prince St blog/Fbook on his modelling, located mainly on freight lines in Halifax NS, an area I know. Small observations on progressing modelling projects. 

[Dava]

All the track on the existing sections of Grand Lake RR is down and being tested by the existing locos before remaining ties & ballast are laid. Here #96 is on the back road via the traverser to ensure there will be clearance alongside the warehouse loading ramps, there will be a loco servicing area further along. The warehouse started life on Coxheath Sidings, built in Canada 9 years ago.
 

[Northroader]

Hi, Dava, you did me the courtesy of putting a post on one of my threads earlier on, and being nosey, I followed the signature you helpfully included. Usually it takes me about three years before I cotton on to a thread going on which is of real interest to me, so I can get up to speed quicker on this one, and I really do like what’s happening. Now a keen follower, and all the best with it.

[Dava]

Thanks Northroader, that’s great encouragement! Progress is slow currently owing to academic overwork (it’s a thing!) when I should be fettling the track with rust on rails, ties & ballast. So the stock is shunted down one end of the yard so the other end can be worked on. Those coffee stirrers each make 3 ties. 

[Dava]

News from Grand Lake RR. I’ve been working too hard so modelling has been occasional therapy. All the rail has been rust painted and the trackbed painted prior to ties and ballast being added, two trial sections have been done. 
 

Tonight a test run with DCC locos, one US Plymouth and a British Manning Wardle that hasn’t run in a while. Both did fine and the MW shows the kind of running quality to be expected from their USA tank. Normally the layout will be US, but you never know. New England could revert to Old England with a few changes in buildings?
 

I need space for a couple of other projects over the summer so some reorganisation will be needed to store Grand Lake for a few months until the Autumn, and another small layout will be retiring at last. 

 

[Dava]

My plans for completing the track sleepering or ties on Grand Lake RR involve 5mm coffee stirrers. To ensure I have sufficient for the current sections I bought a box of 1000 from Nisbetts catering suppliers. This avoids having to ‘harvest’ them from the cafe at work, Greggs etc. A big box is ideal for crafting for £5.39.

I treat the stirrers by soaking in a strong solution of oxidised instant coffee (it dried in the jar in my office last summer!) which gives a goldy brown finish, then darkened with other colours as required. The coffee aroma is quite pleasing!

 

The second phase of the layout, planned to be built next year, is a 2 x 2 river scene on a dropped section crossed by a covered New England wooden bridge about 1 foot (48 - 50 scale feet) long. The wooden sheathing will take a fair quantity of coffee stirrers!  Other wooden sections will be used as well, These bridges had a big side & end profile compared to the trains, as seen in the 2nd photo. It will be a big project using skills from building model planes a long time ago.

 

 

[Dava]

Coffee stirrers & coffee staining.

 

on the left are 120 standard size ties (3 per stirrer) steeping in strong instant coffee stain. The coffee had oxidised in the jar so basically a waste product.

 

Drying to right are the turnout ties which vary in length for 4 turnouts. They can be distressed & further stained before & after laying. Then ballasted with fine ash effect.

 

[Dava]

I’m continuing steady sleepering on Grand Lake, or tie-ing if you prefer.

Nearly 3 of the turnouts and over 1/4 of the plain track done so far.

Ties are stuck with glue stick until they get ballasted. 
The shortlines which influence me didn’t have well manicured track…

 

[Dava]

Last night I finished sleepering the turnouts on Grand Lake, as seen below the paxolin ties need painting with track colour and the wood ties tinting with water based paints. This still leaves 5 plain stretches of track to have ties added, I estimate around 200 ties. I do batches of 10 stirrers which yield 30 ties, so if I cut and dye 30 stirrers that will make 90 ties or nearly halfway.

 

I have a theory of boring tasks, if you just do one it’s very monotonous but if you alternate several different ones it’s more varied. Alongside this in my 2 weeks leave, I’m updating the GCR N scale Reunification display layout with the planned new concrete viaduct. See https://www.gcrailway.co.uk/unify/ for details. I have until next Friday to get that as complete as I can in the time I have at the station gallery at Loughborough before the Soar Valley MRX setup on 16 Aug. 
So I’m removing old scenery, making a concrete viaduct from stripwood and adapting the track layout before making the scenery fit for public view. Then there’s a myriad of other unremarkable tasks to fit in around those. So the boring railway jobs actually become quite satisfying because you do see the results. I haven’t mentioned the garden…

 

No-one has mentioned that the Yanks used track spikes to fix the rails to ties, I am aware of this. They are small and fiddly even in O scale, and don’t show up well in many prototype photos. I do have 2 packets and when all the ties are in I’ll try spiking the road to the freight house which will be on the viewing side of the layout, and see how that looks. Unlikely the whole yard will get done. The photo of Lakeside & Marblehead RR engine house in 1950  below shows shortline trackage closeup and the spikes are too small to see. The L&M was a limestone quarry shortline beside Lake Erie in Ohio.

 

 

[F-UnitMad]

2 hours ago, Dava said:

No-one has mentioned that the Yanks used track spikes to fix the rails to ties, I am aware of this. They are small and fiddly even in O scale, and don’t show up well in many prototype photos. I do have 2 packets

I suppose it's just assumed knowledge on this Section, so we were all too polite to state the very obvious... 😁

What track spikes have you got? I started off with Peco IL-13 'rail spikes' but they're well over scale for O, & stand out too much, even more so with Code 100 rail. I switched to Peco SL-14 'track pins' which are much less obstrusive, especially once painted.

I'm aware of 'proper' spikes from Micro Engineering, but was too lazy to try & work out how many I'd need, and too mean to pay postage & Customs VAT from the USA as well.!! 🙄🤦‍♂️

Photographed during ballsting; the two spurs (Code 100) used the IL-13 spikes, by the time I laid the front, main line (Code 125), I'd swapped to SL-14 pins....

Edited July 25 by F-UnitMad

[Night Train]

I did read another layout topic where the builder used a fine tipped marking pen and just put a dot on each tie to simulate the spikes. Looked pretty effective as it showed "something" to be there.

[Dava]

Spikes….a pack of Walthers 1/4’ came with the turnout parts from the US and I bought ME ones which are about the Sam length but less chunky. They would be cosmetic as the copperclad keep the track to gauge. A trial length will be spiked sometime.

 

Nothing will happen soon as my other project, the GCR Reunification model, has to be finished next week.The end section I’m working on this weekend seemed to have track ballasted with bathroom tile grout, it was like concrete to remove, causing collateral damage to the A60 bridge which, like the prototype, will now need to be replaced!

The fishplates are about the same length as O scale track spikes. Just as fiddly. My wrist has done enough for his week.

 

[Dava]

I’ve spent nearly 3 weeks on the GCR model and back at work this week, so Grand Lake hasn’t seen much progress.

 

I’m looking for an old tractor as a flat wagon load, anything American. This turned up at reasonable cost, an ERTL 1:43 John Deere type A. Most of the US wagonload ones seem to be 1:50 scale, and expensive in the UK, but this looks fine on an old wood Pennsy flatcar. It will have the wheels crated and be roped for transport…eventually. The figures are nominally 1:48. 
 

[Dava]

This is a forklift truck 3D print by https://rustyrailsmodelling.com/

It’s in 1/43 UK O scale, does it look too big for US O scale?

 

 

Dava

[stivesnick]

As fork lift trucks came in a range of sizes, I don't think this is an issue. I would be much more worried about the angle of the forks as it looks like the box is about to slide off.

 

Nick