San Diego Transits Over The Years

Watercolor Sketches

Old San Diego Electric Railway
New San Diego Trolley
Former San Diego Transit Bus

Davelyman Out!

By The Light Of The Silvery Lamp

Chrome, Stainless Steel, Silver Plated, or Something, San Diego's Boulevard Lamps were Definitely a Bright Silvery Color.

Boulevard Lamp/Trolley Linepole painted Tru-Color Paint TCP-077 Silver

Well Hey! With a little improvising, I'm starting to get some decent photos of the layout now!

But yes- San Diego streetlamps were in fact silver:

Bright silver street lamps seem to be unique to San Diego. I'm not sure why this is. My guess is that Diego has a natural landlocked harbor that connects to the Pacific Ocean through a strait between Point Loma and Coronado known as the Silver Gate. It is believed that the name comes from Spanish times when silver from mines northeast of San Diego County was shipping out in Spanish ships. The first known recorded use of "Silver Gate" is from a poem written by a frontiersman poet Joaquin Miller (1837-1913). The term Silver Gate was further reinforced by San Francisco's strait being named the Golden Gate. But this gave the impression that San Diego was second to San Francisco, so "Silver Gate" was never officially adopted by the city and the term has since faded into history. But not before some streets, schools, (Balboa Park was almost named Silver Gate Park) organizations, institutions, ships and clubs adopted the term, and apparently, dotting some boulevards with some silver ornamentation in the way of street lamps. Yes sir! Silver ornamentation!

Dandy

Leaky Light!

Painting the Boulevard Lamps

Since these streetlamps are cast with clear resin, it has been proven to be tricky to cover the lamp with enough paint so the light doesn't leak out!

As is normal with painting anything, these lamps were washed with soap and water first to get any oils off that would effect the paint from adhering. Then I airbrushed a coat of primer (Tru-Color Paint TCP-256 Light Primer). The torches part of the lamps still glowed pretty good when lit, so I hand painted some black to the glowing areas (Tru-Color Paint TCP-010 Black) then airbrushed a second coat of light primer over the whole lamp.

And still a lot of light is escaping! Mostly from around the bottom where I apparently didn't paint as well as the top. So I hand painted with more primer. I found it helpful to paint while the lamps were lit. 

There it is!

Finally after a few coats of paint, the light leaks were taken care of. Then I painted the lamp Silver (Tru-Color Paint TCP-077 Silver) (San Diego lamps were silver- more on that next post). Turns out that Tru-Color Silver covers really well and any trace of light was sealed in for good.

Wow! After all these years of false starts and disappointments and failures, I have finally achieved an acceptable working streetlamp/linepole that I've always envisioned for this layout. You know, its true, if you really want something and relentlessly keep working towards that goal day by day, eventually you get there! Yes sir! Eventually you can achieve your goal!

Dandy

Small Time Casting

I Thought You Might Get A Laugh From The "Measuring Cups" I Use For Mixing The Resin For The Lamp Castings.

Top are the two parts EasyCast resins. Below them are the two part rubber mold with a light and linepole armature placed inside. And at the bottom are my measuring cups!

Yep, a couple of water bottle caps. They provide just a bit more than enough resin for a lamp casting. And they are cheap.

The caps actually have an inner cap that are filled with the resins. Then I pour the two part resin into a larger soda liter bottle cap and mix. It took some trying different cups, but eventually I found that these water bottle caps are just the right size and plentiful around here. Lucky me? Yes sir! Lucky me!

Dandy

Casting Fail

These Lamps Are Way Too Hard To Build To Have Failures Like This!

I can't tell you how disappointing it is to open the mold after 3 days of curing to find it to be a complete fail. It takes a better part of a day to build the armature and to pour the casting resin around it. It's too time consuming and costly to have this happen!

I'm not sure where I went wrong, I didn't do anything different. The only thing I can guess is that the resin ran when sandwiching the two parts of the mold together, creating these bubbles. Surface tension of the resin and no escape routes for the trapped air didn't allow the resin to fill in the voids. This clear resin takes much longer to set than the Smooth-Cast resin does, so its much more liquidy when to two halves of the mold are sandwiched together.

I'm amazed at how delicate some of these structures are. The resin stayed in the corners and edges creating this skeletal look. Unfortunately, I can't think of a way to save this lamp. The resin would have to be pried from the armature, which would damage it. Maybe- I could fill the voids with resin and put it back in the mold? Maybe?

So put it in the past and carry on. Since then I casted this perfect casting. This time I was sure to "paint" the sticky resin onto every surface of the armature before closing the mold so that it would be less likely to run away. And it seems to have worked! So- 3 useable lamps down, 9 to go! Sheesh!
Live and learn? Yes sir! Live and learn!

Dandy

It's De-Bubbly

The second casting utilizing EasyCast resin came out bubble free!

Since EasyCast casting resin takes forever to set, I took the time to remove every bubble before sandwiching the mold together.

And it worked! Not a bubble to be found anywhere.

Some resin dripped onto the end of the brass tube and solidified. I tried snapping it off, but its on there good and strong! I've been wondering how strongly the resin was holding on to the armature inside. Especially since it pops out of the rubber mold so easily. I guess that that mold release works really well because that resin has a hella grip on that brass! So I'm going to have to mill that resin drop off.

Next is trimming the flashing off the castings and then send them to the paint shop for painting. Finally some usable castings. Yes sir! Some usable castings!

Dandy

SCTC on Facebook

The Southern California Traction Club is now on Facebook.

Find us here.

And to kick things off I posted another video of the SCTC layout in action. This time a cab ride!:

Enjoy the ride! Yes sir! Enjoy the ride!

Dandy

Easy Cast

Trying Out A Clear Casting Resin For The Boulevard Lamps

After installing the Boulevard Lamps onto the layout, I was struck by how stark white the globes are on the lamp I cast last time (above, far left). While the globes on the first lamp (above, near right) are just the right transparency. But those were carved from clear acrylic tubes and are quite labor intensive. Something I would like to avoid. So I thought I would try a clear resin for the next casting.

After some research on internet I've come to the conclusion that EasyCast might work for what I need to achieve.

EasyCast takes a lot longer to set than Smoothcast, 72 hours! So I cast it and set it aside for a better part of the week. I was toying with the idea of only casting the globes and use the Smoothcast for the rest of the lamp. But that presented some problems, such as mixing such a tiny amount, and attempting to prevent the two resins from mixing (they are almost as thin as water!). So I just cast the entire lamp with the EasyCast.

Success! I can see how the armature fits inside, pretty cool. And the translucency of the globes is perfect! But whats this!?:

The EasyCast resin captured the details perfectly. But bubbles are a problem! I noticed when I was pouring the resin that the bubbles are bigger and harder to pop with this clear resin. Despite my best effort, bubbles persisted. Fortunately, most won't be seen when the lamp is painted. But...

Bubbles in the lamp globes! Geez man. Those can be seen. But since they are so tiny, I might let it slide with this casting. After all, they are about the size of scale bullet holes ;-) So its plausible that the San Diego Police Dept had a shootout on the streets! Right? Yes sir! A shoot out in the streets! 

Dandy

A Most Perfect Traction Layout

Mark's Model Traction Railroad:

Rheinberger Streetcar Companies

This layout from the Netherlands is essentially 100% operational, 100% sceniced,  100% detailed, 100% automated, and 100% fascinating to watch!

Here is the layout in action:

I just love the constant flow of traffic. Mark's website doesn't specify, but I believe the layout to be HO/OO scale. There are two parts to the layout, the modules and staging. The "show" part of the layout is currently comprised of three modules:

Each module is 110 x 90 cm (approx. 3.6' x 2.95'). Track is Roco code 100.

Here the modules are displayed together at a show.

Wow! Its 100% lit too!

Behind the Scenes:

The second part of the layout is the staging yard (Shadow Station), and its every bit as interesting to watch as the modules are! This video shows it in action:

The layout is digitally controlled with a Peco system and software called "Koploper" allows for complete automation of the layout. Fascinating stuff. More on that here.

Did I mention the layout is fully detailed?

For a lot more information and photos, visit Marks website: http://www.marks-modeltrambaan.nl/index.htm

The site is written in Dutch, but your better web browsers will offer translation. Otherwise translate it with Google Translate. Just enter the web address.

Masterfully done trolley layout. I'm a fan. This layout demonstrates the level of detail and operation that I have been striving for with my own layout.

I'll get there one day. Yes sir! I'll get there one day!

Dandy

Dirty Poles

Painting and Weathering Line Poles

I didn't get anything done on the layout this week :-( . So since I frequently come across photos I took but never shared, I thought I would share one with you.

 I take photos like these so I can remember how I did things. In this case the poles were painted with Floquil Light Green and weathered with Bragdon Rust and Weathering powders. So should I ever lengthen the boulevard and need to match to poles, well, here you go.

I was afraid I might have overdone the weathering on the poles, but recently I came across this picture of Broadway in San Diego and just look how dirty those line poles are!

 Looks like I nailed it after all! Yes sir! I nailed it after all!

Dandy

Light Cast

Looking for an easier way to cast these lamps.

Carving the lamp globes beforehand is tedious, time consuming, boring, wasteful, not fun, dull, waste of energy and time, not my favorite thing, noisy, dusty, etc...

And the shape of the globe is cast into the rubber mold, so why not cast it along with the rest of the pole? Seems like a no brainer to me.

I noticed that the last casting was glowing around the bottom of the globes. So I suspect that the Smooth-Cast casting resin is translucent. So I'm gonna do another cast, but this time fill the entire mold with the casting resin and forego the carved globes (after all the trouble I went through to get the correct size clear acrylic tubes!). And see how much light is emitted through the casting resin.

Wow! It glows just as brightly as clear acrylic tubing! Whew! So much easier than carving those globes. Yes sir! So much easier!

Dandy

Moment of Truth

Pouring the Resin Around the Lighting and Overhead Support Armature. And Hopefully End Up With A Reasonable Looking Streetlamp!

Here it is! From a virtual model and crazy idea to something I can actually hold in my hand! The freakin' thing actually turned out right.

Here is how it went:

Last post I had just finished building the support armature.

First the rubber mold needs a couple coats of mold release and allowed to dry. Then the armature is placed into the rubber mold into its precise position. That means bending and wiggling as needed to get it just right. (Note: I took this photo before I added the lamp globes).

Now its ready for the resin pour. I used Smooth-Cast resin from Smooth-on from the kit as described in this post. Just like the silicon rubber used for the mold, its mixing equal parts of resin and catalyst.

The top part of the mold (left) was poured first and allowed to set a bit while the resin was poured carefully around the armature in the bottom half of the mold (right). I'm not too concerned about using too much resin as I want to be sure it gets everywhere.

The resin in the top half has set enough (2 or 3 minutes) where I can flip the mold over. The two mold parts are keyed so that they almost lock together for perfect registration. I clicked the top parts of the molds together and then squished them together from top to bottom so that the excess resin is forced out the bottom (where the puddle is). 

The resin only takes about an hour to set fully. The thicker parts set first and the thinner parts take a little longer (the thicker part has more heat from the catalyst than the thinner sections would and so sets first). I knew it was ready to handle when the thin parts of the puddle had solidified.

The mold release allowed the mold to be pulled apart with no problem. And this is my first look at the lamp. And it looks like it worked!

The lamp peeled out of the mold with no problem. Most of the flash snapped right off. The rest required a little filing to get looking just right. Now the question is: Will it light?

It works! It actually works! I think this project is going to work out as intended! I mean some questions remain. How will it hold up to long term use as a linepole? How will the resin casting hold up with a brass armature inside of it over the long term? How long are those bulbs going to light for (I can't change burnt out ones!)? How is paint going to take to it? What am I going to use for power supply? 

But as it stands now, this crazy project is actually working out. I don't why I'm so surprised. But I am just giddy that this worked out. And its just a streetlamp. Not an Electroliner or something fancy like that. Just a streetlamp. But there it is all the same. A one of a kind model streetlamp.

Well then, one down and 11 to go. Yes sir! 1 down and 11 to go!

Dandy

Armature Nite

Building the Skeletal Framework for the Streetlamp that will Act as a Conduit for Wiring and Support the LEDs AND Trolley Overhead! Crazy Project I Know...

Built of brass, this armature performs three functions. 1. Support the LEDs so that the streetlamp will light up. 2. The brass tube is a conduit for the positive wires and the brass itself is the ground. 3. The loop at the top of this assembly is a tie off for the trolley span wires. Then this armature will be placed in a rubber mold and resin will be poured around it creating an ornate streetlamp! That's the plan anyway. Yes sir- that's the plan!

The basis for the armature is a 3/32" brass tube. A brass rod that has been drilled to accept a brass wire loop soldered on, is inserted into the tube just above where the holes for the wires are drilled.

The negative lead of the LED is bent and soldered to the brass. The positive lead is trimmed short and a thin wire is soldered on and then threaded down the tube which will protrude under the layout where the resister and electrical hookups reside. 

Okay! Now this next part turned out to be way too much work and is actually unnecessary! But I'll post it anyway for your edification and entertainment.

The resin will cover the bulbs so I milled lamp globes out of acrylic tube to fill in the space in the rubber mold.

The acrylic tube fits over the LED perfectly. An Acrylic rod is inserted in the top of the tube to fill in above the LED where the fancy curves of the lamp globe will be carved in.

 Using my Dremel Tool as a lathe. I have a chuck the fits snug inside the acrylic tube and the teeth bite in holding the lamp globe firmly.

Then spinning the acrylic a small file shaves it into shape.

Before and after.

Wholly Katz! Its lit! It works! This thing is actually working so far! This project might actually pan out after all.

Alright! Well! This is how the armature fits in the mold. Next week I'll pour the resin and we'll see if we get a respectable looking streetlamp. Yes sir! We'll see if we get a respectable looking streetlamp out of all this!

Dandy