Vertical Boiler Teakettle

Finally finished it! This is the little loco that will take guests up  the mountain to the resort. It is built over a Bachmann On30 Davenport. The parts are my own resin castings and a lot of styrene bits and pieces. The pump was built from bits of styrene as there wasn't anything on the market close to what I needed. Water is carried in the round tank up front while coal is in the bin under the seat. The piping is styrene and Plastruct pipe joints along with my own "joints" of nuts and thin styrene wafers from a paper punch. The water glass is a Precision scale 1/4" brass detail casting as are some of the valves. Its purely fictitious and home-built. Parts for this conversion will be available soon for those who may wish to build something similar.

The track work shows my new cast resin ties to slip over Micro Engineering ties once about 60% or so have been removed and re-spaced. The little bridge is one of many to be used on the line. Not heavy duty!

A little more progress.

I've successfully assembled a small length of track with the new ties in place. They really change the look of the track greatly. I have worked this small length into a tiny bridge that I will use on the system. One of many, many bridges and trestles needed. I will post photos next week of this along with the completed vertical boiler teakettle.

Progress... of sorts

A little bit of progress has been made on the vertical boiler teakettle. All of the piping is finished including my own styrene water pump, hand operated! The paint and most weathering is done and the roof is in place. I have one more brace to finish. Those were nightmares! My eyes and hand coordination are not what they used to be.

I will shoot photos next week since I have the instruction booklet to finish for the dollhouse-size country store kit and will be doing the photography for that. The deadline for the show is March 2. It makes a great looking 1/2" scale wood store and although it is for the dollhouse market, there's no reason it couldn't be used as a railroad piece in large scale. Nice as it is, it just won't fit on the island of Grande Barbosa.

I've been toying with foam rocks of various sorts of late trying to figure out the way that suits me best. I am leaning more towards expanded urethane and fine floral foam, both covered in texture paint.

Now back to painting the engineer for the teakettle...

Corrections

I am painting the vertical boiler loco now but I am going to have to back track a little. One part needs to be redone and its already glued in place. Some careful surgery will be required. I debated doing this but I believe it really needs to be corrected. Photos will be postponed during surgery and recovery.

I had to make most of my own pipe connections and valves from plastic and resin nut castings. Cambrian Models valve handles worked very well. The driver also came out nicely. He is a reworked figure from New Zealand.

For the next two weeks I won't be able to work on The Last Resort as I have a miniatures show to prepare for on the second. Going to be difficult keeping my hands off of it for all that time!

Ties that bind

I just cast up a few samples of the new, larger, rough-cut ties for the Micro Engineering track. Wonder of wonders, they work! No photos yet. I am busy painting a small section and will shoot photos sometime next week. Installed, they really change the appearance of the On30 track.

I am also assembling the piping on the vertical boiler steamer now. I hope to have some shots of it too next week. This will be the power for The Last Resort line up the 4% grade. It will actually be number 2; the #1, a not too successful unit, having been pushed off the end of the track into the ocean because there was no room to store anything that didn't work on the limited track work.

I hope next month I can start on the actual bench work before I forget what I want to do! Its all on paper, however, as most modelers know, when drawings on paper are transferred to three dimensions, nothing ever works like it did on that paper.

Under the palms

Here's a shot of the little Jung-style loco in some trial scenery. Lush, tropical greenery is interesting to make. There are companies that do a nice job in 1/32 scale or so, however, their offerings would be way too expensive with which to plant a layout. Some experimenting needs to be done. I used to work for an architectural model company when I was going to school and that is where I learned to make palms. The only problem with those is the fact they take so long to make properly. Plastic ones just don't cut it for me. The undergrowth is from pine branches at the faux greenery department of Michael's. These are OK if they are painted. They do not represent any specific flora, however, they kind of look the part and they are cheap. Other varieties of growth can be found at Michael's or the like and with a little careful snipping and coloring seem to work out quite well assuming you don't show your layout to a botanist! I'm still looking for hypsicantha though.

The Last Resort

An Island Paradise

Chapter One

Somewhere out in the Caribbean Ocean, not too terribly far from Cuba, sits a tiny island paradise. The island is situated even more closely to Grande Barbosa, a much larger, but still pretty darn small spit of land that is now home to tourists who enjoy the sun and fun that an isolated island can provide.

Travel to the island of Grande Barbosa is either by boat or antique amphibian as there is no room for a landing strip. From the port, The Last Resort is just a short trip aboard a tiny boat. The island resort is reserved only for young ladies. No gentlemen allowed! The resort itself was resurrected from a monastery owned by a small group of monks that abandoned their sanctuary almost a Century before. It fell into ruin as one might expect, which was a rather simple accomplishment considering the time it sat abandoned. An enterprising gentleman moved onto the island and set about rebuilding the monastery into a small resort. He built a tiny 15" gauge rail line along the original dirt path leading to the top of the mountain where the monastery was located. Considerable work was involved and many trestles, bridges and otherwise flimsily supported track work was required for the trip. He also runs the boat service from the larger island to the resort. He made his resort available for the use and enjoyment of young women only,where they would be undisturbed by society and allowed to frolic as they may during their stay. He was a very good host as he kept a close eye on his guests: just to be sure all were having a good time!

The idea for The Last Resort was envisioned many years ago and has been developing in my head for all that time. Several false starts were scribbled on paper over the years, but nothing really "gelled" until recently. I finally figured it out? Everything seemed to fall into place at last.

The railroad is in Gn15 and somehow it will be crammed into a base no larger (or smaller) than four by five feet. I have been working with foam and BalsaFoam for several years and decided that was the way I wanted to go. It must be somewhat portable. A model that large would be quite heavy if made the conventional way of wood and plaster. As much as could be made from lightweight materials is the name of the game. The rockwork, almost all of it, and even the structures will be built from lightweight foam materials. The Woodland Scenics layout system will also be utilized and foam rocks will fill in between. I have already used expanded urethane foam for structures an the main island and find it works beautifully. Structures in half inch scale tend to get really heavy very rapidly and that weight can be a problem. My structures weigh practically nothing! The material is strong and easy to work. The only drawback may be the fact that the material tends to be expensive. That's one reason I save every scrap. It all gets used somewhere. So much for history and philosophy: time to build.

Correction...

Let's make that five. Welcome Ray!

No photos today. I am going to get those ties molded and a few large pipe fitting parts done too. The Plastruct elbows are in so I can start the steam piping on the vertical boiler machine. Everything else is done and ready for finishing as soon as the piping is complete. I am anxious to get those ties in place to see what they look like painted and weathered. Now if I just had an extra pair of hands to help assemble the 4x5 wood frame... it shouldn't be too difficult though if I use corner blocks.

One of these days I will finish the latest water tank for the GB line. It is a hillside unit with large stone work retaining walls. The tank itself is a plaster casting representing steel sitting atop a stone and brick "shed". It will be offered as a kit soon.

Let's Celebrate!

Four members and counting! I have no idea how many we may collect, but no matter. Yesterday I experimented with some foam and carved a sample rock outcropping. Never done that before. Nope, never had a reason to. I am getting ready to start the base for The Last Resort and since it is all rock in the middle of the Caribbean somewhere, I need to be able to do that. T intend to do all of the rock carving from either foam or expanded urethane to cut down on weight. In fact, other than the bench work, which will be light lumber, everything else will be very light weight. All structures, and there will be numerous ones on the mountain top, will be urethane foam. No plaster at all. The track work will be Woodland Sceneics foam.

I just finished making five tie patterns in styrene. I will not hand lay the rails. Micro Engineering On30 track will be used along with one Pico electrofrog switch. Wiring will be kept real simple! The tie patterns are for this track. The stock smaller ties drop into slots in the new ones, cast in resin! This gives me uneven and rather crudely shaped ties without hand laying the track. I will remove about half of the stock ties before attaching the new "casings" over the remaining. I will still need a couple hundred ties I guess, but I can cast these from scrap as I do kits and things. I'll have a small pile of ties before I know it.  I will post a shot or two next week after I make the mold and some samples to assemble a short length of track as a test.

The first structure will start to take shape soon too. It will be the welcome center for the guests staying at the mountain top resort. More on that a little later.I picked up some half scale dollhouse supplies and details for this project. Actually, a length of 1/12 scale metal fencing will become cut up and used for window grills and a gate. I wish I could just sit and play all day on this, but I know I can't. Still, I need to make some time here and there somehow.

Beasts

New, larger power on the way to Grande Barbosa

I am working on several new pieces of power for the Grande Barbosa Island Railway. They are not really photo-ready as yet, but I will post a few in the works shots. One is a Heisler clone and is built upon an Athearn HO SW Diesel loco frame while the other beast is powered by two Bachmann On30 Street Car motor blocks. This one is a somewhat close copy of a real New Zealand logging loco. My unit is "powered" by a Rolls Royce engine from a 1/24 model kit I happened to be hoarding for years. Many detail parts for these units were cast in resin from my own patterns to make things easier for me. That way I only need to build something once!

The vertical boiler loco for The Last Resort island off the coast of Grande Barbosa, is nearing completion. I am just awaiting some pipe joints. When this one is finished I will post photos of her. She will be available as a resin parts conversion kit that uses the Bachmann On30 Davenport as a donor. This is a tiny loco and follows two prototypes somewhat in its design.

 The story of The Last Resort will begin pretty soon right here...

Euro-style 0-6-0T