May 9, 2011

There are five structures planned for the Washington, PA area. The first, "O'Brien Steel Construction Co." was constructed using the Showcase Miniatures "Sunkist Packing Shed" kit, the construction of which is fully documented in the Structures section of this web site. The latest photo is shown below.

I wanted to surround the property with a model of a chain link fence. The entire length of the space dedicated to this structure is 36 inches long. At first I thought about making the fence in-place in the scenery, but later realized it might be easier to build most of it "offline". I cut a one-inch strip of wood and cut and installed "poles" into the "ground". The poles are made out of 0.032" brass wire. I would have liked something a bit thicker, but that is the thickest I had on hand.

I bought some wedding veil material at Jo-Ann Fabric & Craft. For a few dollars I have enough material to put chain link fences up around all my properties! The size of the openings varies depending on which veil material you get, so find something that fits your scale. After cutting the material a scale 6 feet wide, and a strip long enough for the entire fence I was building, I superglued several lengths of 0.032" brass wire along what would become the top of the fence. After that dried, I glued the whole thing to the poles I had already planted. I made a small part of the veil stick out above the top brass wire, because that is what seems to be done in the real world.

After attaching the veil, I took the board to the garage and used a cheap spray paint of flat aluminum color and sprayed the entire fence. I then cut out a section of the scenery and permanently installed the fence (glued to the side of the roadbed). This can be seen in the photo below. Needless to say, blending of the ground will be done in the near future.

I was then going to build a static, permanently open gate and the remainder of the fence. However, as I was contemplating its construction, I realized it might be a neat idea to build an actual moving gate. The idea being that the property is closed off except when rail traffic needs to come into the property. I then built the two fence sections on the short side of the property. The gate took a bit of experimenting to get the correct translation of motion from the Tortoise switch machine that drives the gate to the gate moving in the right direction and swing open far enough to avoid blocking a train. The finished assembly is shown below.

I had to break away more of the scenery to be able to place the Tortoise, and to route the wires to the Digitrax DS44 stationary decoder that controls the Tortoise. Since the structure is against the backdrop of the layout, it was a bit of a tight squeeze to get the Tortoise to fit and still provide the lateral motion needed to control the gate. I actually had to break off a piece of the Tortoise's mounting to get it to fit next to the roadbed. The photo below shows the overhead view of the configuration. The Tortoise moves its rod left and right. The brass wire that is the top of the gate is one solid wire that is bent at a 90-degree angle going into the brass pole that provides the pivot. At the bottom the brass wire is bent at another 90-degree bent that provides the friction point against which the Tortoise wire pushes. The brass wire is then bent another 180 degrees to allow the Tortoise wire to push against it as it moves in the other direction. The distance from the pivot pole to the 180-degree bend was determined through experimentation to allow the full swing motion of the Tortoise to move the gate the full 90-degrees of its travel. Part of the plywood base upon which the structure is installed had to be carved out to allow the Tortoise to fully swing to the right. When I finally found the best position for the Tortoise, I marked its outline with a pencil, and glued it down with Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue. The Tortoise is directly glued to the benchwork base. Five-minute epoxy glue could have been used as well, but there is very little pressure exerted on the Tortoise, so Aleene's might allow easier removal of the Tortoise in the future, should the need arise.

To prove that it really works, see the YouTube video I posted. I'm switching the gate via the throttle that sends a message to the decoder that causes the Tortoise to move. If you turn up the volume you can hear the Tortoise moving, and maybe even me pressing a button on the throttle. I connected a 2000+ ohm resistor to the output of the stationary decoder to slow the movement down. I feel that this speed is about right for a gate of this size.

After rebuilding the earth around the facility, the business is now open. The road switcher is pulling out a boxcar full of new, shiny objects packed in crates.

October 29, 2011

I purchased the Tichy Group's "Jib Crane" kit (part #8007; their web site has the instruction sheet in PDF format) because it was listed under their S-scale structures section of their web site. It turns out it is actually an HO-scale kit. Initially disappointed, I decided to use it anyway. The kit is based on the crane found in the ATSF maintenance yard of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The photo below shows the interior package of the kit. It is basically a single sprue with some loose chain, and the package insert contains an exploded diagram that is used to assemble the kit. A couple of one-line instructions provide key information and a suggestion for painting it. It is all bare-minimum, but it turns out to be sufficient.

It is a relatively easy and straight-forward kit to build. I left the main crane assembly loose from the base, so that it can be repositioned as desired. After clearing the flash, I glued the wench platform to the main assembly. Next, I assembled the wench, using their suggestion for using brass wire. I made sure the two halves of the wench went together correctly by placing them in a bench vise and exerting some light pressure on the parts while the glue set. I did a similar thing for assembling the two pullies. Note that one end of the chain is inserted into the bottom bolt of the top pulley (see the kit's diagram; I followed it exactly). It is a bit tedious with these small parts, but with a bit of patience it can be done. Once the chain is attached to that pulley, you can glue it to the main assembly. After the glue set, I routed the chain by guiding it in through the bottom pulley, back through the inside of the top pulley, and then around the wench. There is plenty of chain material to do this. I was trying to get the chain to go around the wench a few times, but the clearance is really tight here. I only managed to make it go around once. The final assembly was to install the crank on the base. I then painted the whole assembly using Polly Scale "Rust", being careful to avoid the chain (I wanted to leave it its original black color). The final touch was to dry-brush Floquil's "Stainless Steel". The effect I was going for was that the crane was originally stainless steel, but has become rusted over.

Because the crane is really an HO-scale model (it measures an S-scale 12 feet tall and 8 feet wide, ignoring the base), it was too short for what I intended it to be used, which was as a crane to help load flat cars or gondolas that arrive at O'Briens' factory. Also, the crane's base is about as wide as the structure's platform, which would not allow employees to get around on the platform. I decided to scratchbuild a base for the crane to raise it up high enough to be able to reach into freight cars. The base was made out of two 1/2-inch wooden blocks, glued together, that were then covered with left-over wood from the structure kit. After weathering the wood, I glued the crane to it using Eileen Tacky glue (the crane is top-heavy, so you have to have a glue that "grabs" the base right away). The last part was to build a simple staircase to the top of the base. The stairs were the most difficult part of the project! The photo below shows the crane in its position. I have not glued it to the layout so that I can move it around if I don't like this spot.