Mirror Test

Taking photos under the overhead wires by using a mirror.

     Cameras are too big to be able to take photos from a scale persons height. So I had the idea of placing a mirror on the layout at a 45 degree angle and aiming the camera down at the mirror that I wanted to try out:

You can actually make out the bottom edge of the mirror in this photo. And since the photo was taken in a mirror, I had to flip it in a photo editing app.

    It kinda worked! I was able to get a very low POV. Not bad for a quick and dirty test. The photo is a little 'foggy', I suspect that's due to my little mirror being rather old. There is also some ghosting effects going on that is quite prominent on the forward pole of the trolley. This is due to my little mirror being a 'regular' (second surface) mirror.

The mirror set up.

    For this photo of my mirror set up, my camera was sitting on the layout. This is the lowest I can get my lens to the ground and still we are about at the roof level of the trolley looking downward. So this mirror technique seems to be viable.

    I'm encouraged by these results. So I'll order a new 'first surface' mirror that should be more clear and eliminate ghosting, and continue to experiment.

Yes sir! Continue to experiment!

Dandy

The Grand Union Intersection in Action!

A Video of the Fully Functional Grand Union Intersection in HO Scale!

The dang thing actually works! Yes sir! It actually works!

Dandy

Dancing the Cloverleaf

Hot Damn! The overhead wires around the layout and through the intersection have been completed and the cars can now run a continuous "cloverleaf" pattern. So you know what that means:

A video! Watch as #105 and #426 run beautifully around the layout:

 Once all the bugs are worked out and the layout is running relatively smooth (and I build up the courage), I'll cut into the overhead and string the wires for turnouts on that Grand Union Intersection. Until then, lets enjoy the cars finally running under power from the overhead! Yes sir! Let's enjoy the cars finally running!

Dandy

YES SIR!

With the first length of overhead contact wire installed, cars are starting to roll on the layout!

Making a racket with a symphony of clickety-clack, Niles car #105 crosses the intricate intersection track work under power from the overhead. We are finally rolling! Yes sir! We are finally rolling!

Dandy

2012 State of the Layout Address

Happy New Year Folks! 2012 is going to be a gang busters year I just know it! Yes sir! A gang busters year! I have some new projects ready to start as well as finishing up old projects, as I resolve this year to be my most productive year yet! So bring it on!

State of the Layout:

This is how things stand at this moment, January 1st 2012:

SD&SE Ry #107 Niles Car. During this holiday season I added the finishing details. This car is 98% DONE!  I'll post more about that in the coming weeks.

SDERy Birney #103 has been making regular runs on the Southern California Traction Clubs layout. The car with its BullAnt mechanism performs beautifully even through rough, intricate trackage. The car was declared 100% finished until Fred Gurzeler presented me with some beautiful, delicately built fenders for the underbody that I have yet to install. This car will be an important representative of 4 wheeled equipment when I start fine tuning the track and stringing overhead on my layout, hopefully soon this year. Yes sir! Hopefully soon this year!

SD&SE Ry #105 Niles Car is listing to one side! That's not good. Leaning like that causes the trolley pole to be off center and so has to reach over to the overhead. Which means the shoe is contacting the overhead at an angle. Which means dewirements are frequent.  I can't figure out why its listing but I do know how to fix it thanks again the invaluable Fred Gurzeler. He gave me some hardware that replaces the tiny Hollywood foundry screws that attach the trucks to the body. The listing isn't the fault of the Hollywood Foundry equipment but this swapping of hardware will probably fix the problem. When that's done, the car is ready for super-detailing.

 

Point Loma RR #109 / #402: I've been referring to this car as #109, but the prototype was later repainted and renumbered to #402. The paint scheme of #402 is the one I'm modeling so this car will be referred to as #402 from here on out. Progress has stalled on this car because this car requires some custom printed decals since the lettering and striping include silver. I don't have the funds for that right now and so concentrated funds on getting #105 and #107 done. They will represent big interurbans when I'm fine tuning the track and stringing overhead on my layout.

The Layout is in a state all right. A state of chaos!  The layout has suffered. From the destruction of its overhead by rambunctious kittens, to dust, to over a decade of storage, and the trial and errors of learning how to build a traction layout. So it was stripped down to just the track and streets and is ready to be rebuilt stronger, better. A canopy (what I was originally been referring to in this blog as a valence) designed to look like a streetcar deck roof, has been built to keep dust off the layout and to house the layouts lighting. It features faux stained glass clerestory windows and a brass conductors bell. I recently covered the wooden roof with a waterproof paper mache to simulate canvas covering. Sides will be installed to insulate the layout from the inhospitable world of dirt and varmints and anything else that could cause damage and grief! 

Then and only then can I start stringing the overhead again. This time tailored to a sample of each type of rolling stock that's going to be running on this layout. Which brings me to my next project...

San Diego Electric Railway Class 5, 400 series car. This project will be built from a 1970s brass import by Pacific Traction and feature the new Diablo mechanism from Hollywood Foundry.

Dandy Blog. As you can see, this blog is sporting a new 1920s look to it and features an art deco portrait of the man himself, ol' Sparky along with one of the 400 series cars. The new "Module Spotlight" feature has been met with happy comments and so will continue. Bloggin' along. Yes sir! Bloggin' along.

So that's where it all stands. As you can see I got my work cut out for me. One more car to go and then I can concentrate on getting the layout running. Yes sir! Concentrate on getting the layout running!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ Gurzelin'

Installing a Hollywood Foundry Gurzeler on Niles #105.

The Gurzeler is the second mechanism that I'm trying out on these Niles cars. #107 got the half floor which has worked out just fine. And now #105 will get the Gurzeler. Each mechanism has it advantages.

This is the city. Los Angeles, California. I belong to a club here. The Southern California Traction Club. I'm a traction modeler.
Sunday, 2011, a club member who goes by the name, interestingly enough, of Fred Gurzeler, approaches me. Fred, a man of a few words, reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small object. Its an etched plate. He hands it to me explaining that its a mounting plate for mounting the Gurzeler mechanism to Suydam PE 414 cars. No mention of where it came from, or what those mysterious markings mean. Just a well manufactured mounting plate. That's how Fred operates. Who am I to argue or ask questions? Its exactly what I need. Thanks Fred. I owe you one.

Exhibit A.
The mysterious Gurzeler mounting plate.

While soldering the mounting plate to the floor, I managed to unsolder one of the seats. And maybe some underbody details. No matter! Easily fixed.

I wasn't able to get the opening for the belt exactly centered because the plate has to fit between the interior bulkheads that the floor screws into. Even if I did, it later proved to be a problem. The opening needs to more towards one end or the other so that the motor is centered inside the car because the flywheel protruded into the interior bulkhead base. (Edit: Turns out that if I had ordered the Gurzeler Motor Package, I wouldn't have had this problem! DDS 10-11)

The Gurzeler is a simple yet brilliant design. The motor is mounted in place with double sided tape which also acts as a sound barrier. The belt (not an O ring, but an actual belt made to withstand the tension) replaces the noisy gear tower and also pulls down on the motor, helping to keep it in place.

Under floor view. I chose silicone tubes to transfer the power to the LowBoy trucks. Seems to me silicon tubes would be the easiest to replace should they fail after a while.

With no giant motors under the floor and those silicone drive shafts, these cars should be able to negotiate some crazy radius curves now!

This all went together easy-peasy (except for the off-centering of the motor. See below). The motor and silicone drive shafts are nice and level. I added a Miniatronics 2 pin Micro Mini Connector socket by soldering the leads to the motor and gluing the socket to the top of the motor. The other plug will connect to the decoder. This makes for a convenient way to separate the floor from the body for maintenance.

(Edit: Turns out that if I had ordered the Gurzeler Motor Package, I wouldn't have had this problem! DS 10-11) I had to cut a notch in the base of the bulkhead so that the flywheel on the motor will clear when attaching the floor to the model. For the folks who don't have their own mysterious Fred Gurzeler and have to fabricate their own mounting plate at home, the openings for the belt drive and screws need to be closer to the end of the mounting plate. We could all use a mysterious Fred Gurzeler in our lives, couldn't we? Yes sir! We could all use a mysterious Fred Gurzeler in our lives.

Its in there! The motor does sit slightly above window level. But models are very seldom viewed from this angle. All motors would be visible from regular viewing angles. So that's where populating the model comes in. Putting folks in the seats will take the attention away from the motor as was done with Birney #301. The only thing guests will notice about the motor after that is the smooth quiet operation of the model around the layout. Now if I could just get to building that layout. Yes sir! If I could just get to building that layout!!!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ New Mechanisms for the Old Girls.

Looks like Hollywood Foundry has two mechanisms that will potentially fit the old Suydam Niles cars. The Half Floor Gearbox or the Gurzeler, both used in conjunction with the BullAnt LoBoy Trucks.

Both mechanisms have their advantages and disadvantages of course, but really, the disadvantages are very minor. So either mechanism should work just fine for these models. Therefore I have ordered one of each to try them both out.

Also worthy of note, I'm very impressed with the Hollywood Foundry's new Diablo mechanism. The Diablo could be used with these cars, but not without some major modification to the interior bulkheads that separate the enclosed center and the open ends. If your okay with hacking away at these bulkheads then the Diablo might be a good choice. But I'm not so much, so I won't (But I am excited by the possibility of using the Diablo to remotor my Pacific Traction, San Diego 400 series, class 5 cars in the very near future!).

According to my calculations, the 10 Series Half Floor Gearbox with a 1024 Motor will fit below window level of the car, maintaining that realistic see-through look (unlike Birney 301 which has a big ol' motor blocking the windows). The only downside is that the gearbox is a little noisy. I only say that because we are spoiled these days. The Gurzeler is very quiet and the Diablo is practically silent. The Half Floor Gearbox is noisy only in comparison to these. But really, its not all that bad!

The Gurzeler (also with a 1024 motor for consistency) will sit slightly above the bottom of the windows, but not by much. But instead of a gearbox, the Gurzeler uses a belt drive (with a real belt, not an O ring!). Therefore, as I mentioned before, this mechanism is very quiet.

#105 will be fitted with the Gurzeler and #107 with the Half Floor. After living with these for a while, I will decide which mechanisms to use for #109 and #110.

All the cars will be fitted with Hollywood Foundry's LoBoy Trucks. From what I understand, Geoff Baxter (of Hollywood Foundry fame) designed these trucks to directly replace the old Suydam trucks that had a bad habit of splitting their plastic gears, rendering them all but useless. Kudos to Mr. Baxter for this. Because of his efforts, these 40 year old Suydam cars can be built into fine models that can finally perform every bit as good as they look. Cheers to Mr. Baxter. Yes sir! Cheers Mr. Baxter!


Dandy

Pacific Electric Red Cars Weekend

This Fathers Day weekend! June 18 & 19th at the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, California.

Two of my Niles cars (#105 & #107) will be on the Southern California Traction Clubs layout in the OERM's Town Hall. So stop by and say "howdy".

From the OERM website:

Join Dad for ride into the past on the Big Red Cars of the Pacific Electric. Although we operate selected PE cars throughout the year, this is the weekend when we have the largest group of them out to ride and photograph. Once again this year we'll also have the Southern California Traction Club on hand with their giant HO Scale model trolley layout.

On Sunday we'll also have a family barbeque from Noon-2 pm. Admission to the grounds is free, regular prices apply for train ride tickets ($12 adults, $8 children 5-11).

I'll be there all weekend and you should too. Yes sir! You should be there too!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ Running Cost Tally

Model Railroading can get expensive. I'm going to try to keep a running tally of how much it costs me to rebuild these Niles cars. But don't blame me if I don't follow through with this. I mean, how do I factor in the use of Butane used for soldering? Or the use of tools (including Photoshop for designing decals)? And labor isn’t being factored in at all. etc.

Suydam PE 414 & 1300 Niles Cars Rebuild Cost Tally

	#105 SD&SE combine	#107 SD&SE	#109 Point Loma RR	#110 Sightseeing
Original Car Purchase 1	$250.00	$250,00	$250.00	$250.00
Precision Scale Co. Incandescent Headlamp For Interurban Cars #31004	n/a	$3.50	$3.50	n/a
Misc. Brass	$0.66
Paint	$5.77	$5.77	$5.77
1 pk Clear Inkjet Decal Film 8 1/2 X 11 2.	$0.42	$0.42
TCS M4 Decoder	$41.80	$41.80	$0.00	$0.00
Total	$298.65	$301.49	$259.27	$250.00

Notes:

1. Today's (2009) going rate for these cars (some were purchased for more, some were purchased for less, but they averaged out to today's going rate).

2.$2.50 ÷ 6 cars= $0.42

Ka-ching! Ka-ching! Ka-ching! Yes sir! Ka-ching! Ka-ching! Ka-ching!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ Cathedral Glass Windows

Simulating the Yellow Stained Glass Windows

Bill Bolton was very kind enough to think of me when he came across the September 1908 issue of Electric Traction Weekly that featured an article on the new Niles cars for San Diego, and sent me a copy. What a timely treasure trove of information that article is with lavish descriptions of the cars inside and out! I knew that the "deck sashes" (clerestory windows) and "upper side sashes" (the arched portion of the center windows) were of stained glass, but I has not a clue to its color. This article reveals them as "Yellow Cathedral Glass". Wonderful! Thanks a million Bill!
After some discussion around the Southern California Traction Club clubhouse, we concluded that colored index tabs would make suitable material. And handy too, we had some extra in the clubs files.

After digging out a yellow tab, I cut it to size and glued it into place with my new glue of choice for this sort of thing: Micro Kristal Klear.

I was going to do the same for the clerestory windows (or "Deck Sashes" as the article describes them as) but it occured to me that Micro Kristal Klear might be perfect for this since the windows are tiny and the material goes in the window rather than behind the window frames like the yellow plastic would.

I "blobbed" on the Micro Kristal Klear over the windows from the inside with a small screwdriver.

The goop filled in the window nicely.

To "stain" the glass yellow, I purchased a bottle of Mr Hobby Clear Yellow Acrylic paint. It comes in a tiny bottle in a variety of colors to tint the taillights and turn signals etc, on auto models.

After the Micro Kristal Klear windows dried, I filled in the window with the clear yellow paint. If the index tabs fade over time, I'll tint them with the clear yellow paint as well.

Oh I wish you could see this in person, the windows glow yellow really nicely. The photograph just doesn't do it justice.
Thanks to good friends around the world, these are turning out to be some very handsome cars. Yes Sir! Very handsome cars!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ Applying Decals to #107

Now that the decals are made, I'm going to try a different technique of applying the decals so as to help them settle more easily into the wood slats.

Remember, decals have to be applied onto glossy surfaces. Since I painted #107 with Floquil paints, which dry dead flat, a coat of gloss has to be sprayed on to where the decals are going to go. AND the decals need to be sealed as well. So while I have the gloss in the airbrush, I'll coat the decals with it as well.

Okay, Floquil Hi Gloss has been applied to the decals and #107. While they dry let me recap the decaling of #105...

With #105 the decals didn't want to settle into the deep wood slats. Eventually, the parts of the decal with air under it will dry out and flake off. So I'll probably loose that part of the "5", and the 3D drop shadow of the "0", and the rose buds on the corner flourish of the pin stripping, etc.  So after discussing the matter with Don Ball, it was concluded that it was difficult for the air to escape from under the vast expanse of the decal paper. So he suggested cutting the decals closer to the printing:

With a new, sharp eXacto blade, I cut out the negative areas of the decals that didn't contain any printing. But while applying the decals, I had a horrible problems with the decals curling! I wasn't able to get any photos since I was frantically trying to get the decals to lay down flat and straight before they set. Some decals got so distorted that I had to scrape them off and print new ones. Now its quite possible that this happened because the decal paper I used is over a year old. Fresh paper might behave better, but I don't know for sure. But I'll be sure to start with fresh decal paper next time since decal paper doesn't cost and arm or a leg.

Decaled and sealed with Dull Cote. Over all it looks good! But under closer inspection, the pinstripes are a bit wiggly, air bubbles can be seen here and there, and the edges of the decals are visible. Hopefully, some of these imperfections will be hidden by a bit of weathering. But over all, its looking good. Yes sir! Looking good!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ Decals for #107

As typical of railroad companies in the early 20th century, the San Diego & South Eastern Railway lettering and striping scheme became more simplified.

This photo of #105 was used to determine the lettering scheme for my model of #107, since the number #105 i'm using for the combine.

Gone are the embellishment in the corners of the pin striping, and gone are the 3D lettering with drop shadows as found with the earlier Niles cars lettering scheme. The result is a rather smart looking interurban. The spelling out of "San Diego & South Eastern" has been replaced by an interlocking monogram which I tried to magnify as greatly as possible (so great that the printing dot matrix is the limiting factor) :

Here is the monogram as seen in the center of the car greatly magnified. Spending quite a bit of time studying this monogram I have determined that it has to be the initials of the San Diego & South Eastern Ry (the photo is identified as San Diego Southern Ry). The two "S"'s are clearly visible. The "E" is readily discernible as well, though I'm not sure how it interrelates with the second "S". But the "D", is it backwards? The blob at the top center between the "D" and the "E" does have the general shape of an ampersand. And the blob at the bottom center is the right size for a "RY". So here is my interpretation of this monogram:

What do you think? Looks about right? I hope so, it was a lot of work. I'm not too concerned about it though, its so tiny in HO scale that it'll just end up looking like the fuzzy prototype picture anyway.

It also appears that the spelling out of the railways name occurs underneath the cars number. The overall shape of the fuzzy streak in the photo is about the right proportion for it. I can't imagine what else it would say otherwise.

And here is my interpretation of that as well. Looks about right? I settled on mahogany brown for the lettering and striping. Seems like the logical choice.

The finished decals. I did a test print and found that despite careful measuring, the proportions are off a bit (I ran into that with #105 as well), so adjustments will have to be made when I actually print onto decal paper. Otherwise, were good to go, yes sir! We're good to go!

Dandy

Niles Project ~ Doing the Dirty Work

Weathering #105 to give it the appearance of a hard working interurban.

San Diego cars were a grimy lot. Look at this photo of #101. Its a dirty dirty trolley! The Wells Fargo panel looks to be recently painted (new express contract?), so its clean. but the sides and window posts are down right grungy. I suppose it would be difficult to keep a wooden car that makes its home working the hot, dusty dirt streets and in the moist salt air of a desert by the sea city clean. And judging by the automobiles, we're well into the teens if not the 20's by this time, so this car has many years of service under its belt rail.

Since my model of #105 has taken some modelers license to it, I intend to"go wild" with the weathering. This car will be the dirtiest of all my revenue cars, it will represent the dirty end of the weathering spectrum. The rest of the fleet will be a bit more classy in appearance. But for now, I'm going to have some fun with this.


There are some weathering techniques I want to try out. I'm a big fan of the Bragdon weathering powders, they are fantastic for, rusting, dusting, dirtying and "scale effect". I'll elaborate how to use the Bragdon Weathering System in a future post, but real quick, the powders contain a friction activated adhesive that affixes the powders when they are scrubbed on. But I want the powders to settle into the groves to accentuate the wood slats. So I'm trying the powders as a wash by mixing the powders with alcohol. The photo above is the result of this. I took a "0" brush load of the dark brown powder and mixed it with 4 drops of alcohol. The effect is stunning. Not only did the pigment settle into the groves, but it also stained the paint really nicely. It really desaturated to colors.

I thought I had overdone it. But comparing this photo with the prototype photo at the top of this post, it  actually looks about right. This car looks like a work-a-day interurban that has been making its rounds, keeping its schedule, and moving the merchandise. It has been a useful trolley, yes sir, a very useful trolley.

Dandy