№ 135 ~ The Paying Passengers

How Many Passenger Figures Can I Pack In To This Model?

"...and for the carriage trade, I puts on my Hat!"

The 1915 Panama California Exposition is in full swing and the streetcars are filled to capacity with excited visitors. To try to capture the feel of this, I'm going to attempt to see how many figures I can fit in this model.

Space is terribly limited though by that big ol' motor and mechanism. So I'm squeezing in figures wherever I can.

The SDERy Class 1 cars are of the "California Car" style. That is one end is open to take advantage of the fair weather, and the other end is the enclosed "all-weather" section. This open-end section (above) is where I was able to add the most figures since it has only a few obstructions. Notice I did seat the woman on the left on the motor mount! The motorman will be standing on the platform on the right.

The enclosed section is a little more challenging with the mechanism being housed in that portion of the model. But I was able to fit a few figures in there. That seat has to go unfilled so as to have access to that screw hole.

Well I've been painting my motormen all wrong. A visit to the San Diego Electric Railway Museum in San Diego I learned that the motorman's uniforms were actually a dark brown (not blue). Which makes sense since the cars the men motor are yellow trimmed with brown. These guys are an accessory to accent the car! This is an Andrew Staddon figure.

Full Car! I don't think I can fit anymore figures in this car. For those of you keeping score, I was able to fit 14 figures in there. Almost time to close her up. But before I do that I will be fabricating some window shades to help hide the stuff I don't want seen and empasize what I do want seen. Until next time-

Car full- Next car please! 

Yes sir! 

Next car please!

Dandy

Backesto Block Bldg ~ Interior

Constructing the Interior Walls and Stairs

to Add Strength to the Structure.

It turns out that storing styrene as a roll is not at all a good idea.  Eventually the styrene won't roll out flat- it will have a permanent bend to it. So! To try to get the walls of this building as perfectly straight as possible before painting, I'm going to first add the interior walls to try to add strength to the overall structure.

But First - Stairs!

The Backesto has three stairwells.  Frustratingly, prefabricated stairs in HO scale are plentiful, but closed-tread stairs not so much.  I'm going to have to fabricate my own.

Evergreen #159 .060 x .250" styrene makes for a good tread size.

The next tread overlaps by about half. I kept adding and building up until...

Stairs! Styrene sheet the same thickness as the treads was used for the midway landing.

Floor, and ground floor walls are permanently glued into place. The grid pattern supplying a lot of rigidity to the model. The second floor and roof will be removable so that interior details and lighting can be accessed.

I think we are in a good spot to proceed to the painting of the building now.

Yes sir!

In a good spot!

Dandy

№ 135 ~ Fancy Footwear

Weathering and Installing Truck Side Frames.

One of those finishing touches the really brings the model to life.

№. 135 has got a new pair of shoes!

Side frameless. №. 135 has been running around the layout without proper footwear. It's time to rectify that.

Hard knocks life. The side frames are weathered with my tried and true technique of using a wash of Bragdon Weathering Powders mixed with alcohol. Then they were sealed with Testors Dullcote.

Obstructed. The newly installed side frame interfered with the free swinging trucks by contacting a couple of underbody details. Fortunately, careful filing back of these details allowed the trucks freedom of movement without losing the details.

Back in action with proper footwear.

Yes sir!

Back in action!

Dandy

Backesto Block Bldg ~ Color Management

Paint for the Backesto

Giving Mission Models Paint a Try.

Since I don't think Floquil is coming back and acrylics seem to be getting really good!

Painted!  Not the white ghost anymore. The building is looking much more grounded now.

Painting

Black Primer for the interior wall.  This is to help prevent the building walls from glowing when the interior lights are lit.  Styrene is rather translucent.

Tan Primer for the exterior of the building. This color is almost correct for the final color of the building!

White paint for the whole interior, including the walls that were painted black. This will help reflect the interior lighting back into the scene, illuminating the scene more fully.

Sandgrau RAL paint for the exterior. This color turned out a little 'dingier' than I expected so I think I'll try lightening it up a bit.

White and Sandgrau mix.  Ah- that did the trick! I think we are on the right track now.

Masked for the trim color. I can't paint straight lines. But I can tape straight lines! So I taped the Bejesus out of it. 

White trim. Yes its bright, but it'll tone down with a light wash of Bragdon weathering powders (mixed with alcohol). This will tone down the white and really bring out the details. (The blank walls on the bottom floor will eventually have a painted advertisement on it).

Brick Red for the window frames and doors.  Those I had to paint by hand- a rather painstaking and precise experience!   The Bragdon wash toned down the white trim nicely.

I really need to fix that broken span wire!

Gay Nineties Elegance? 

Yes sir! - Gay Nineties Elegance!

Dandy

№ 9 ~ Decoder for De Motor

 Installing a Tried and True TCS KAM4-LED Decoder

with built-in Keep Alive, auto-adjusting BEMF (Back Electro-Motive Force) motor control, Quiet Drive, and built-in resistors to power LED lighting, all in a tiny-tiny package.

Alright, № 9 has been running on the layout since 2020 (and is my best runner!). But apparently I neglected to write a post about installing its decoder. I found this out while performing some maintenance on the car and researched this blog to refresh my memory about it, but it wasn't there! So- here I am to right that wrong.

Stanton Drive installed. The two pairs of current collecting wipers can be seen rubbing on the back side of the wheels. One pair is wired to a red wire and the other pair to a black wire.

Grounded. Since I run off the overhead and not 2 rail, all 4 wheels are tied together electrically by simply soldering the red and black wires to the trolley car frame. 

Connected. The orange and grey wires from the Stanton's motor are wired to the decoder. Normally I would use a micro-connector here so that the floor could be disconnected from the body of the car. But I'm not sure that doing that is worth the extra effort. So- we'll see how it goes.

Positive and Negative Power Connections. The red wire from the decoder is soldered to the trolley pole bushing in the ceiling of the car. And the black wire from the decoder is soldered directly to the body of the car that is grounded to the wheels. Back in DC days the trolley pole was the positive (+) and the track was the negative( -) . But DCC is AC so "positive and negative" no longer applies really.

Decodered. The white wire is connected to the front headlight and the yellow wire to the rear headlight and both ground to the blue wire. Those lights I did post about. But the interior lighting I just realized I also neglected to post about! So I'll do a write-up about them when I refamiliarize myself with what the heck it did with them! Then the decoder is tucked up out of the way into the clerestory ceiling and glued into place.

Operation. Between the Stanton Drive and the KAM4, № 9 is a smooth operator.

Yes sir!

A smooth operator!

Dandy

Backesto Block Bldg ~ Windows of Opportunity

Modeling Open Windows

Modifying the Models Closed Windows into Opened Windows.

Modeling the building with opened windows adds a lot of charm and character.

And realism since this was the main factor for regulating the buildings temperature back in them days.

Repeating window patterns.    Here is what I am faced with.  Let's break up that monotonous pattern a bit.

Printed Closed.    Because of the 1mm minimum thickness required for 3D prints at the time, I had to model the windows in the closed position.

Flat File.    Taking advantage of files that have the smooth sides, we can file in one direction in the corners.

De-sashed.    The lower sash is filed away. Then the sides of the sashes are filed up to the desired height of the opening.  The flat side of the file helps us to not file into the window frame.

Sashed.    Then the lower sash is replaced by an equivalent length of styrene.  Because the upper sash would be behind the upper window, I'll add it after the window glass is installed later.

That lived-in look.    The random opened windows resemble musical notes to me (oh dang!- I should have arranged them as a bar of some popular music.).  This will help give the building that lived-in look.

Yes sir!

A lived in look!

Dandy

#135 ~ Test, Adjust, Test, Adjust, Repeat

 Making the Necessary Adjustments to Help Make № 135 a Reliable Runner.

In the last post about № 135 we were trying to troubleshoot why it couldn't negotiate the left-hand turns.

After determining that more weight was needed, it turned out that a little more work was also needed on the frame to allow the trucks to swing more freely.

After some work, № 135 successfully negotiates a left-hand turn.

Turning the power truck with my fingers, I could just make out that one corner of the truck was rubbing on the frame. Normally I would remove the truck before filing the frame, but an extra weight I had just installed made removing the truck a bit complicated. So I kept the truck in place and carefully cleaned up after the filing. I don't want all that debris getting into the gears!

With its trucks swinging more freely, № 135 successfully negotiates a left-hand turn with № 426 making an opposing left turn, while № 9 makes a right.

№ 135 is becoming a much better runner. Occasionally it will still derail while making a left turn, so more adjustments will be needed. In some places, I'm beginning to suspect that the track itself may be the culprit and that it is what needs adjusting.

It's a constant battle: run, troubleshoot, adjust; run, troubleshoot, adjust; run, troubleshoot, adjust. Slowly but surely, things keep getting better and better.

And then one fine day, it'll all be perfect!

Yes sir! Perfect!

Dandy