OR&L Roof, test photos

The following are photos of the roof framing. I still have the end details to assemble...but most are formed.








Here are photos of 4 South Park cars. 3 are On3, one is an HOn3 kit that I touch every couple of years or so (she was a clearance item). Please click on the comments button if you have any positive or negative feedback on the flat and coal car decks...I'm not completely happy with them.











Edit: Mein Frau finds the black spot on the mat to be gross. It is actually some of my beloved Viennese Coffee which is grown in Yemen, roasted in Vienna, and purchased at a specialty grocer. Also, the flat and coal car are my only cars with a pocket for the weights. The advantage is that you can't see the weights when the cars are turned over; the disadvantage is that the sills aren't the full depth and the trussrods don't extend to the ends of the cars. I now prefer to leave off the intermediate sills and add them there. Sure, I could use loads...but half or so of the cars should be empty (coal/oar/lumber out, empties in).

OR&L Pictoral Supplement

I don't believe I've uploaded any photos of the Oahu Railway coach (either the prototype or the model). So this post addresses that deficiency.

Here are the completed roof components:

At this stage, the final assembly of the major parts could be accomplished in an hour or less, but I've got a couple issues with the car ends that I'd prefer to figure out first.


Here are a couple of the parts (fascia board and clerestory windows) overlaid on the drawing from the Gazette. The drawing is slightly undersized (4" over the body, but within 99% of the size). The parts are exactly to scale. The reason I'm showing this is the curve profiles...they are exact.

Here are a few photos I took of the prototype at the Hawaiian Railway Society:







The arched roof car is one of around a dozen that the OR&L built in the company shops around 1920. I won't get around to building one of them for some time as they are very long and my layout has very sharp (27"R) curves...

And their step-sister which has many design features in common:




Over on PacificNG.com, several good and knowledgeable gentlemen have shared photos and information regarding the Oahu Railway coaches...and the surviving B&S coach...

The coach and combine at Travel Town thanks to Brian N...
http://www.pacificng.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=78

The neat roof detail on the B&S coaches...thanks again to Brian N...
http://www.pacificng.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=111


To improve my detail shots, I used a Lowe's gift card on 1000W of Halogen lighting. I currently lack adequate cords to use them, but I have a few test shots here:


Obviously, too much direct light on the styrene.


A nice few of the wood grain I added to the styrene, but I need more lighting on that transom facing the camera.


An incomplete brake cylinder.

I need more time to practice with the lights, but they clearly have potential. Wish my wife's really nice camera hadn't died...

OR&L Clerestory and Club rant

Tonight, I sat down to finish forming the end roof profiles and begin the final assembly of the roof framing. The wife asked me when I'd be heading to bed, I shook my head and said...10?

I decided to assemble the end framing to the clerestory windows before attaching the car lines. Ugh. Because I calculated the spacing separately from the sides (the spacers in between the windows are different between the two), there was nearly a 0.008" error in the width of each window. That probably doesn't seem like much, but it results in a scale 2"~2.5" difference in the location of the last window in the clerestory and the last window in the car side. It might be acceptable if they both had this same error (certainly within the tolerances of the drawing), but unacceptable in this case. If I didn't fuss about 5", I might be in On30 ;-)

Of course, the wifey was a little upset at 10 when I wasn't ready for bed. In my hurry, I managed to fix one of the clerestory window sets...but then decided to trim it (the overall length was off too). Big mistake. I measured once and spent quite a bit of time finding the small pieces and fixing it. If there are any visible scars tomorrow, I'll just throw it out and visit my local hobby shop for more material. Sigh. This will be a gorgeous kit when completed.

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What is it with clubs/organizations? Most wonder why they can't attract young members, and then turn around and make the dues even worse.

A week ago, I was talking with a former member of an O-scale club. I told him that I'd previously thought of joining, but that the cost ($20-$30 per month) were out of my league. He tried to tell me that it was chunk change. Clearly, this 60ish gentleman with disposable income doesn't understand the economics of being in your 20s. It is especially bad when you are unemployed, your wife is partially employed, and you have both a 1yr old and a mortgage to pay. Yeah...the club fees are nothing! Especially when I only had $40 a month of discretionary money when we both had income.

In other news, the DSP&P historical society is now $35 per year (Edited: I accidentally put month here instead of year) . I don't have any clue why. I was a member for one year, a couple years ago. It is a fine organization that I'd love to be a part of...but it is a bridge too far financially. Back in November, I met one of its board members. He asked me if I was a member and I explained that I couldn't afford to both be a member and build trains. He didn't seem to like that and didn't say much else to me the rest of the time (keep in mind, I am very passionate about the South Park). Perhaps, they pay authors or something. $10 is for restoration work. So what about the rest? $5 for the newsletter printing/mail...and $20 for ??? How about a bare bones $5-$10 membership or something with an electronic version of the newsletter for people under 30? It wouldn't increase their costs...and it would help support the mission in the long run. Of course, if you check out the convention photos, those under-30s are conspicuously absent. Perhaps they aren't interested in trains.

I'm not certain how I'll pay for my bare-bones NMRA membership once my $10 trial runs out. It is clearly a powerful tool...especially since I actually get to meet dozens of people. Hopefully I'll have both a job as an engineer and have kit sales to fund the cheapest renewal option with the NMRA. Similarly, I've got to figure out what to do to cover my Cincinnati Railroad Club renewal. I have a war chest from Christmas...but I have no other money for discretionary spending and it is needed for starting up my resin car business. For now, I can only dream about joining other societies: SPng, HRyS, CRRM, etc. For now, I will be content to learn what I can through the internet and by devouring books through inter-library loans/borrowing from my dad.


To any leaders of organizations out there: you must compete with the free forum of the internet. They do not need you to network with other people. They do not need you to learn more than most of your members know (by actually reading books rather than just collecting). Still, they might want to join you if your cost is within their budget. Eventually, they will be paying full dues and actively supporting your organizations. Pass on your passion and your knowledge...it is vital to the future of your groups.

Happy New Year

It has been one month since my last post...too long. The trifecto of my birthday, Christmas, and New Years always robs me of some good modeling time. Still, I picked up some quality time with my dad studying NKP car #5 in Lima. My favorite gift was definitely Sundance's Colorado Central book which has been on my list the past couple of years...a tremendous book which goes mile-by-mile on the line documenting everything with photos, statistics, and maps...almost all of it from before 1890!

For the NMRA meeting, I managed to get my stock car part of the way done. I didn't finish the interior detailing/weathering or really even touch the underframe...but she still looked nice enough to draw some compliments. More importantly, it and my steam locomotive slides were conversation starters to get to know some of the NMRA members.

Here's the roof sheathing ready for installation. The sub-roof is at the lower right.


Being an open car, and being a fan of prototypical construction, the roof has appropriately sized car lines and joists (I can't recall if it has an appropriate number of car lines). The sub roof is made of sheet styrene due to the difficulty of doing the entire thing in board-by-board in a timely manner. Here it is, hurriedly painted and awaiting touch-ups:


Here's what the car looks like today:

I haven't sealed the decals as of yet. I don't quite like the spacing of the & P, so I might see about moving them if I can. Currently, the trucks are attached in the prototypical fashion with a pin...a time saver that will be replaced with a screw in the future.


My Oahu Railway coach patterns are coming along. I'm currently working on cutting the inside contours to the car lines.

I've decided to leave the clerestory car lines flat on the bottoms to improve their structural strength. I'm not that far from a completed roof. The car still needs the window patterns and an underframe. Of the cars I'm planning, I'll probably keep more of these OR&L coaches than any other cars due to the shear volume of these cars on the Oahu Railway and also due to their relative length (2-5 cars was normal Colorado narrow gauge trains, the Oahu Railway ran 4-20 car passenger trains).