Marching forward

I assembled the window frames and paneling for a second side. I plan to have 4 passenger car sides together within a few days.

I stained the remainder of the stringers for the trestle's deck. Mit mein Neffe und Nichte besuchen im Dezember, bedurft ihr Onkel seine Bruecke abarbeiten.

Thankful for Dell

My laptop returned on Monday...various new parts including a new motherboard. Additionally, they're sending me a replacement main battery...something which hasn't worked for months. Everything was covered by my Complete Care warranty.

I have on passenger car side looking very much like it. It is 38'10" long exactly...and will be 40'6" once the corner moldings are added. I need to create the fixed window panes now.


This pile consists of about 200 pieces for the window frames needed to produce two coaches. The rectangle is my assembly jig (which I modified after this picture) to have a uniform window spacing.


Here is one of the upper frames in place.

Here is the side in its current state of development. Above it is the side of baggage car #40. I intend to finish both coaches and the baggage car at the same time. I'll probably use slightly different construction techniques for the other 3 coach sides. If the paycar sides were sitting there, they'd be in between them in length. The cars are 34', 36'2", and 40'6" long.

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Lisa and I took Liam to Johnny's Toys yesterday. I picked up a variety of supplies, including styrene tubes for the 2-8-0's cylinders and 1/2" tubes for making brake shoes. I can't bring myself to spend $3 per car to purchase them from a manufacturer...at least not now.

Here are the brake beams for the way car. There are also the four window frame tests in the shot.

Here is the car sitting next to the team track. I sure hope I receive some Link & Pin couplers for Christmas so that I'll be able to pull it. (mom, dad, Lisa, family...hint hint). She'll receive her white paint soon enough. The next one will receive red paint. The South Park had apprx 20 of these cars...the first ten were red and the rest were either white or pale yellow. The early cars had less hand rails and strap steps, they were red, white lettering, and I think they were 14'11". The last red cars had black lettering and were 12'11" long. The next cars were white (or pale yellow) with black lettering, box steps, and more hand rails. The last cars had different lettering, different windows, rounded corner moldings, and I think they were only 12'4" long. No one really knows which ones were the long or short ones...but we do know that some were these lengths because there were a dozen that survived to become C&S cabooses. We know that 72-73ish were 12'11" because one became C&S #1006 and is sitting in Silver Plume, Colorado.

Laptop still out

My laptop is probably in Memphis today, getting a diagnostic performed on it. I expect the problem to be on the motherboard. If computers had bladders, a glass of water probably wouldn't cause such a problem (or if the circuit boards were coated in epoxy to prevent shorts).

I produced 4 pilot models of the arched upper pane windows for the B&S cars. The windows are 23 5/8 inches wide, I've decided that they should be 12" tall and 1" thick, plus 1/2" for glazing and clearance for the slidinging pane. In O scale, that becomes a window which is 0.4920"x 0.250"x0.020". I've built pilot windows by fabrication of (3) 1x2s and a 1x4, the same but with 1/2x1 reinforcements through the joints, laminating 1/2x2 and 1/2x 4s so as to reinforce the joints, and the last technique was to cut it out of a single piece of sheet styrene. From 6", they all look great...but if they aren't the best that I can reasonably do (which they aren't, before my windows had pockets for removable glazing), I'll notice the imperfections. For me, the best way to form nice arches is to mark off 2" from the edges of the 1x4 top pieces. I then use a round file to for the arches at each corner. I cut and file the center flat. This is how some of the arched windows looked in the 1890s...and I can't really tell how they were arched in the 1870s or 1880s. I'm looking forward to completing the roof. I might try to track down some plans of the Carson & Colorado coaches, kin to these, as they could help with some of the subtle details.

Here is a link to Carson & Colorado #5, built to the same design, and unlike the South Park cars, her roof was never modernized...http://www.oerm.org/pages/GF5.htm
Here previous owner, Ward Kimball, paid for his backyard railroad by creating Disney's renditions of Dumbo, Jiminy Cricket, and the Cheshire Cat. The photos of her are in many respects more useful than the only 2 photos of the car from my time period. The difference being the paint (mine will be Chocolate Brown), the presence of a name plate oval, and a belt rail.

Additionally, I'm rounding up information on South Park passenger cars #1 & #2 and #16-#17,#22-#25. All of these cars were "built" in Wilmington, DE in 1874. #1 were probably kits from Jackson & Sharp which the Halleck Bros of Denver assembled. The others were built by the obscure Bowers & Dure Co. There were two major builders in Wilmington, J&S and Harlan and Hollingsworth. B&D sure seems to have copied their design. I have a 1930s era drawing of the B&D coaches, a drawing of a Har & Hol coach from 1875, and pictures of a J&S car of that time period. The B&D cars came to the South Park through a short lived arrangement with the Santa Fe, but I won't go into that story, Jay Gould, the UP, and such now. The B&D cars and #1 were all 35' long; they were all rebuilt from hooded roofs to bullnose roofs that made the car bodies 8'11" tall. The B&Ds' sides were 6' tall. #1 had the same window pattern as the B&D coaches...the B&D combines & #1 had an 18'6" passenger section with the same number of window locations. The vents and stack arrangement is the same on both. The biggest difference is that #1 was only 7'7" wide while the B&Ds were 8' wide and the windows on #1 were slightly taller. The Har & Hol coach is 35' long, 7'7" wide, 8'8" tall body (6' sides, 2'8" hooded roof), and had 13 windows. All had arched single pane windows (although the center window on the H&H was slightly wider).

So, I'll may be able to make nearly identical roofs for all of these cars, perhaps I'll cast them in resin. If I do that, I know a few people whom I'd like to repay for helping me out with a few things in the past...and maybe sell a couple of them on ebay to cover the cost of the rubber molds and resin. Still, my previous experience with resin has been bad enough to assume this to be a waste...unless I'm building all of the cars and trying a different resin. The key here is that I can easily alter the B&D roof to be 5" narrower for #1.

I haven't mentioned #2 much because little is known of #2. Coach #2, the Denver, was probably identical to #1, the Auraria, upon leaving J&S as a kit. The Halleck brothers then replaced a couple windows with a baggage door and added the partition, just as was done with #23 and #25 in 1884. #2 burned in 1880, and therefore isn't necessary for my future layout (I might build her anyway to go with some of the other 1874 equipment...specifically the boxcars and the 4-4-0).

Only 5 South Park passenger cars were named: Auraria (a then twin city to Denver), Denver, Geneva, Halls Valley, and Leadville. The exception to the numbering only after 1878 were the Pullmans: Plan 73 cars South Park, Bonanza, Leadville, and San Juan (which also burned), and then Plan 73A Pullmans Kenosha and Hortense. Pullmans were sleeping cars for the train from Denver to Gunnison...the service lasted only a few years...but the cars were later converted to coaches, combines, and a business car.

Fried laptop

Yesterday, I unintentionally served a partial glass of water to my laptop. It is now acting fussier than Liam. Oh well. Glad I have complete care. No picture uploads till Dell fixes it (for free!).

I tore out some track work I've been happy with, including a 3-way switch. I soldered together a replacement on PC Board...but will probably create another replacement since the mainline curve is now slightly too sharp.

I've decided to start my passenger train. I have 1 baggage car side assembled, a huge pile of window frame parts and car side parts cut and awaiting assembly on my desk. These will be the Barney & Smith built coaches #3 and #5 of 1878. IIRC, #3 was named the Geneva. Additionally, B&S (of Dayton, OH) also built #4...but she was a slightly different design while #3 & #5 were sisters and kin to 6 Nevada narrow gauge cars...2 of which survive...one thanks to one of Walt Disney's main henchmen, Ward Kimball. Additionally, there is a floor plan from these in Scott Trostel's B&S book. That gives me ample resources to start these two cars. For the record, #4 was the Halls Valley and became C&S #77...serving the citizens of Colorado as a 1st class passenger car for more than 60 years.

So, my passenger train will consist of a baggage-express car and a pair of coaches. After those are completed, I'll want to knock out a pair of Pullmans, a DSP&P built coach (quite different), a B-M-X (Baggage-Mail-Express), and combine #1. I will try to avoid the constant temptation to start on the East Broad Top's Orbisonia which would be a very easy car to build. But this third batch of cars (the paycar was the first batch) are in the distant future. I have a variety of good reasons to have stalled on the Paycar (which isn't a passenger car despite its appearance, it is a rolling bank), and one of them is to have it along with the three passenger cars in the same painting, wiring, and brake work sessions.

A typical South Park passenger train of around 1884 would be pulled by a Cooke mogul and have a baggage car (likely a B-M-X), coach or two, and a Pullman from Denver to Gunnison. Such a train would have quite probably overwhelmed a Mason Bogie at Kenosha and Alpine Passes...but a big Cooke moguls (which could out pull some of the 2-8-0s) would have been fine.

Workshop moved, production continues

Hurray for Lisa! She found my missing plans. They included drawings of the Pitkin depot on the DSP&P (which I'd started building months ago), the Almont depot of the D&RG (the coolest depot on the D&RG), a C&S flanger, and D&RG #1. The Almont depot will be a rustic fishing depot opposite the aisle from the Pitkin depot which will sit in between the team track and the wye.

Earlier this week, while Lisa took a nap, I moved the company shops from the kitchen and dining room tables to the loft, adjacent the layout.

I drilled out the rods for the 2-8-0 and it rolls smoothly (a pleasant surprise). smoother than my commercially produced locomotives.



I then checked a pair of domes that I picked up from Precision Scale a few years ago only to determine that they are too small for my 2-8-0. Instead, I'll be making resin duplicates of the domes on my 35yr old Cooke 2-6-0...they are spot on. The smoke stack will be a casting Lisa gave me for my birthday last year (from Coronado). I've had plenty of unhappiness in the past from dealing with alumilite resin...mostly in an ill fated attempt to duplicate truck side frames (it is faster, easier, and more reliable to just form them from styrene). These should be easier...and I don't need as many.



I also added the weight and deck to my 26' 1878 flat car. This, along with the assembled 27' coal car, were built with a hidden pocket for the weight. This caused some slight problems and I won't be doing this again. Eliminating the intermediate sills and putting the weights in their place is better. I'll use a bit of weathering to tone down the rainbow look of the deck.



Here's the piles of ready to use, stained but not weathered, and distressed but not stained lumber for the trestle.

2-8-0 progress

After the better part of a week with no appreciable progress, I've resumed work.

I cut out a piece of 0.020" thick styrene for the boiler. I then wrapped it around a slightly undersized metal broom stick. I used at least a dozen rubber bands to keep it tight. I then submerged it in boiling water. Boiling water softens styrene but doesn't melt it. After I removed it from the water I cooled it...just to make sure I didn't ruin it while removing it. Once it was off, I cleaned up the ends and glued them together. I added a piece of 0.010"x0.060" stryene to reinforce the seem.



Next I produced a few stiffeners from styrene sheet using a homemade compass scriber. I glued them into place.



With the boiler's glue drying (in my pin vise to keep it round), I started on the rods. First I made a test run with styrene...and learned that the bearings need to be 0.030" oversized. I then cut them out from 0.025" brass sheet using my trusty vice and jeweler's saw. I located the crankpin holes with my caliper and used my auto-center punch (worth its weight in gold).



While verifying that the frame had the proper dimensions, I learned that I'd messed up a little. The drivers came from a Broadway Limited Imports On30 2-8-0. I'd re-gauged them with a gear puller, but chose to disregard its rods due to the spacing being off. For some reason, BLI decided that instead of the proper 4'2"-3'1"-4'1" driver spacing, they made theirs something along the lines of 4'-3'4"-4' (my Cooke 2-8-0 should be 4'1"-3'2"-4'1"). 2" off of correct for a Cooke doesn't seem like much, but the center wheels are supposed to nearly touch...and it really looks bad to me if they don't. My mistake was that I'd somehow managed to duplicate BLI's spacing on the center drivers. I rectified this and made a few slight changes to bring it within +/-0.002" of being correct.