Two Building Builds!

 I've Been a Busy Boy!

Busy with Blog Posts, Recording YouTube Process Videos and Building out the Layout.

The Backesto Block building (pictured left) is being chronicled here on this blog, while the Watts Building (far right) is being featured in videos over on the Dan D. Sparks YouTube channel.

San Diego & Southeastern #107 rolls into a bustling downtown San Diego scene.

The full scene set up. Cobbling together what I had on hand, I was able to create a pretty nice scene. This shot was taken from the tripod at the front of the layout.

On the left is the Backesto Block, scratch-built using 3D printed parts. In the center is my Bank of Santa Monica model, originally built years ago as a kitbash of Walthers Merchant Row II—it fit the space perfectly, so back into service it went. On the right is the Walthers Ashmore Hotel, finished to resemble the Watts Building in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.

Autos come from a variety of manufacturers.

SD&SE #107 is a Suydam PE 414 model, backdated to its original San Diego appearance.

A Little Whimsy. And for fun, there’s a couple dashing across the boulevard—actually a dancing pair of figures from Preiser!

So yes… lots of entertainment coming from ol’ Dan D Sparks.

Yes sir~ lots of entertainment!

Dandy

Backesto Block Bldg ~ Score and Snap!

 Using the Tried and True Method of Score and Snap to Assemble this Styrene Building Model.

Score and snap is a surprisingly effective way to model with styrene.

I started by printing out a horizontal flipped image of the dimensional drawing and then gluing it to the back of 1/16" thick styrene. This side will be the interior of the building for reasons I'll explain in a moment.

The first cuts are precisely where the top and bottom of the windows line up.

Snap!  The styrene is first scored about half way through the thickness with an X-acto and then it is bent to snap it the rest of the way. The cutting distorts the plastic, but the snap makes a perfectly clean cut on the other side!  When the pieces are glued back together (minus the window openings) the joint on the snapped side of the styrene will be all but invisible.  That's why the mirrored imaged drawing is on the inside of the building- to hide the cuts. But the exterior side of the styrene will be almost pristine!

The top and sides of the wall are then glued back together minus the window strip.

The windows are carefully removed from the sprue and cleaned up.

The windows will be glued to the exterior of the building (the drawing is on the other side).

The styrene walls between the windows are scored and snapped from the window strip...

...and glued in place between the windows. Notice how the cuts in the styrene are almost invisible on this side of the wall.

The same process is used for the ground floor doors and windows.

Here is the building reassembled. You can really see how effective the score and snap technique is with the clean snap lines.

Then it was a matter of adding the entryways, posts and piers, cornice moldings and whatnot. I had to fabricate the roof peaks, cornices, as well as the belt course (look at me throwing around fancy architectural terms!) with various Evergreen dimensional styrene strips.

When I was satisfied that there wasn't anymore to be done while the walls could be laid flat, it was time to square them up and glue them together in the magnetic squaring jig.

Now with the walls squared I can focus on the parapet roofing and its rounded corner. For the roofing I used Evergreen Standing Seam Roofing.

Plain styrene sheets were used for the rear walls since they'll butt up to its future neighboring buildings and therefore not seen. The chimney 3d prints have also been added to the parapet roof.  

So there we have it. The basic building. So far so good. But there is still a lot of work to be done. 

Yes sir!

There's still a lot of work to be done!

Dandy

Backesto Block Bldg. ~ Gettin' My Kicks Printing Backesto Bits

 The Backesto Bits Sprue has Returned from the 3D Printers!

It took many tries, many revisions, (and many dollars!) to get it to pass the printers standards. But it's finally done! 

Despite following the printers minimum standard of 1mm thicknesses, they pushed back a lot on how delicate the whole thing was. After a lot of back and forth and many revisions, I eventually figured out that their "Fine Detail Plastic" could handle the delicacy. But of course that is their premium plastic and cost a freakin' fortune to print- $272.39!  I could have bought an actual 3D Printer for that kind of money (I'm looking in to it now.). But this has been going on for too long now so I bit the bullet and ordered it. Live and learn. Yes sir- live and learn.

But man- you can't beat that detail! This printed beautifully. The finished model should be ridiculously realistic!

Yes sir!

Ridiculous!

Dandy

Structures ~ Backesto Block Reduex

Reviving the Backesto Block Building Project.

This Time 3D Printing the Backesto Block Bldg's Detail Parts.

After the failed attempt to scratch build and cast parts for the Backesto Bldg and sulking about it all this time, I've decided to try again by 3D printing the parts this time.

Printing the entire building would be pricey.  So instead I will build this building similar to how the prototype building was built; scratch build the shell and add prebuilt details.

My selectively compressed drawings of the Backesto Block and the Old City Hall buildings. 

South side of the Backesto and the Grand Pacific Hotel.

The details (doors, windows, columns, cornices, chimneys, ornaments) were modeled on top of these drawings that I imported to a 3D program (3DS Max). 

Then all the 3d modeled "Backesto Bits" were laid out flat and attached to each other to create this sprue for ease of 3D printing.

Then off to the printer it goes! 

Shapeways = $272.39! (I should just buy my own printer!).

Now comes the wait. Fingers crossed all goes well!

Yes sir! Fingers crossed!

Dandy

#135 ~ Decodering

Installing, Wiring, and Programing a TCS KAM4-LED Decoder.

Train Control Systems Keep Alive Decoder for LEDs.

Hot Glued the decoder to the ceiling right in the center of the car.

The wiring is pretty straight forward except that the Red wires are attached to the trolley pole bases and the Black wires to all wheels:

Red = Trolley Poles

Black = Wheels

Orange = Motor

Grey = Motor

Blue = Lighting Power Bus (positive (+) ).

White = Headlight (-)

Yellow = Rear Headlight (-)

Green = Forward Interior Lights (-)

Purple = Rear Interior Lights (-)

Programing

With the Digitrax Zephyr

Programing the new address to #135:

1. Place car on the programing track.

2. Press 'Program Mode' on the Zephyr. until display reads as 'dir'.

3. Press 'LOCO' button. Display reads 'Ad2' for addresses 1-127, press again to display 'Ad4' for addresses 128-9999.

4. Press '1' and '3' and '5'. Display will read '0135'.

5. Press 'CV-WR'. Display will blink the 'Ad#' and then '0135'.

6. Return the car to the mainline to test it.

Some CV's need to be changed.  The Green wire (forward interior lights) defaults to the Function 1 (F1) button which is fine. But the Purple wire (rear interior lights) defaults to the F2 button which is a momentary contact button normally used for locomotive whistles (the whistle sounds when the button is held down). Which means that the interior lights on car #135 only light when the button is held down. So the purple wire needs to be remapped to the F3 button instead.

Digitrax Zephyr Function buttons. 

I need to remap the Green wire (CV 35) from function button 2 (F2) to function button 3 (F3).

Even though these trolley cars are bi-directional I have designated the open section as the forward end of the car to simplify things (the open section is easier to see into so I want to put my motorman figure in that end). 

Green wire (CV 35) = Front                Purple wire (CV 36) = Rear.

To remap the button-

Program:     CV 35 V=4  (simply confirm this value since this is the default)

                      CV 36 V=16 (from the default value of 8)

Remapping CV's is easiest using JMRI Decoder Pro

Otherwise its button mashing on the Zephyr:

1. Place car on the programing track.

2. Activate 'Program Mode' on the Zephyr. Program Mode light lights up.

3. Press the 'CV' button. Display reads 'ad2' or 'ad4'.

4. Press '3' and '6'. Display reads '0036'.

5. Press the 'CV' button again. Display still reads '0036'.

6. Press '1' and '6'. Display reads the value of '0016'.

7. Press the 'CV-WR' button. Display should blink once as it writes to the decoder.

8. Return the car to the mainline to test it.

And that ought to do it!

Yes sir!

That oughta do it!

Dandy

#135 ~ Illumination

 Headlights

Installing LEDs for the headlights.

Working headlights on streetcar models I find to be most helpful when working with DCC.  When I place the car on the track the first thing I do is hit the headlight button on the command station to determine if the car is getting power and responding to commands. If the car has been sitting on a siding for a while but the headlight is still on, then I know it hasn't ventured onto a dirty piece of track and the KeepAlive lost its power. So I always try to have working headlights on my cars.

The rounded lens of these LEDs look great as a headlight.

1.8mm, 3 volt, warm white LEDs works for this. The lens portion will fit inside the housing while the square portion glued against the inside wall.

Reaming out the housing a bit was required to accommodate the LED.

Perfect fit! Positive leads on top, negative on the bottom. But the square portion of the bulb is still a bulb, which means it will be casting light inside the car. So...

Black paint to block the light from the back of the LEDs, but keeping the lens clear.

Wire Routing. The leads to the LEDs are bent and trimmed so as to aid in routing the wires past the windows and up to the decoder that is mounted on the ceiling.

Illuminated.  I hooked it up to a battery to test it out and voila!

Yes sir!

Voila!

Dandy

Gassier Lamps

Brawa Historic Street Lamp.

Oh Sure! Now This Model Shows Up!

After committing and installing the gas lamps on 1890's street, this more accurate model shows up on eBay!  Isn't that always the way!

This Brawa model is much closer to the style of the gas lamps San Diego had in the early 20th century:

So I purchased it to see if it would be worth it to swap out my current gas lamps.

Well, it showed up in the mail and one thing became apparent to me right away...

It's HUGE!  The lamp in the vintage photo is about as tall as the streetcar. But this Brawa lamp is about a car and a half tall.  Despite claiming that it's HO scale on the box it might be better suited for O scale.  Hey- I wonder if it comes in N scale?

Yes... yes it does. But it looks to me like all they did was make the HO lamp shorter. The globe is still on the large size.

Well it all doesn't matter anyway, these lamps seem to have been out of production for quite some time now. Brawa doesn't make them anymore.  So I think I'll stick with what I have for now.  Maybe something will come along later. We've seen this sort of thing happen before, maybe it'll happen again?

Yes sir!

Maybe something will come along later!

Dandy