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Registration is FREE!  Posting Form Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Callouts: Message Icon:                             Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by Vagel Keller[/i] [br]Thanks, Mike. And then there's the stuff in the category of "some contents may have settled in shipment" that you just have to live with, I guess. Such as the bizarre discovery that, while the doorway from the main room to the kitchen is plumb on the main room side, it's out of plumb on the kitchen side to the extent of 1/4" per 2 ft! Look at this! [:-boggled] I used painters caulk to fill the gap. The first bead shrunk a bit, so I added a second run to get a straight angle of transition to hide the seam. I think it'll turn out OK with a coat of primer and then the sky color. [center][img]http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/data/Vagel Keller/200897211231_IMG_2278.jpg[/img][/center] Meanwhile, at the other end, I came up two inches short (although it's at least plumb at this end). [:-irked] I thought the partition was less than 4' long on either side of the opening between the kitchen and the alcove and had the lumber dude at Home Despot cut the second half of my 4 x 8 sheet of hardboard into 2 x 4 sheets. Too smart, by half. Oh, well, it's a corner and I think the good ol' painters caulk trick will work here, too. This shot didn't come out as I intended, but the idea is to use the caulk to smooth the transition and hide the 1/4" difference between hardboard and wall. [center][img]http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/data/Vagel Keller/200897212447_IMG_2279.jpg[/img][/center] It was late afternoon by the time I got this all done and pretty humid, so I decided to let it all dry overnight before priming. Meanwhile, the scrapping of the old B&SGE continued with the stripping of the original Buchanan module I built back in 1985. It was based on Bob Boudreau's Mansfield Jct. that appeared in the Oct. 1984 [i]Model Railroader[/i]. [center][img]http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/data/Vagel Keller/200897213529_IMG_2280.jpg[/img][/center] The hillside came up easily, and the ground cover was easy to scrape up after saturating it with water from an atomizer. But the roadbed and ballast is going to be a challenge. The 2 x 6 sheet of plywood and 1 x 2 framing is too good to throw out. Maybe I'll just disassemble the wooden frame work and turn the plywood upside down after I rip up the track. Last thing before tying up for the night was to sand the trim pieces donated by Don Reed for the bookcase in preparation for staining and move my lantern collection and start to move my railroad library into its new home. I know this probably belongs in another area of RR-Line, but things are starting to run together in this project. [center][img]http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/data/Vagel Keller/200897214240_IMG_2282.jpg[/img][/center] That's it for this installment. It's time for scotch and a Hornblower episode. [/quote]    -  HTML is OFF | Forum Code is ON    Insert a File     Check here to include your profile signature. Check here to subscribe to this topic.      T O P I C    R E V I E W Vagel Keller Posted - 09/04/2008 : 10:56:25 PM This is a second edition of the original post that introduced a thread chronicles the progress on construction of a new layout for my HO/HOn3 Blacklog & Shade Gap Eastern. I inadvertently deleted the original post. I maintain a website for the B&SGE, and the URL appears in a later post. The original layout resided in the partially finished basement of our 110 year-old victorian house in the East End of Pittsburgh, PA. It was cold in winter, damp at all times, had exposed floor joists above, and the layout shared space with a very noisy forced air heating and air conditioning plant. Moreover, it had begun to suffer the encroachment of spousal detritus, such as out-of-season artificial floral arrangements and exercise machines. Here is a scene from the old layout: Beside all the liabilities listed above, there were a lot of things wrong with this layout. I didn't solder the rail joints, with predictable results (magnified in HOn3). The benchwork was of the table-top variety, with 1/2 inch homasote over 1/2" plywood, which resulted in lots of track irregularities in that damp environment. The last operating session occurred during an open house for the NMRA MCR regional convention in 2004. After that, the layout was ignored for a year and a half as I concentrated on finishing a Ph.D. dissertation. When my attention returned to model railroading, I found a layout covered with dust and soot and trackwork with so many issues that I threw up my hands in despair. There matters lay for two years. In October 2007 new life was breathed into the B&SGE when we were able to buy a three-apartment building across the street from our home. It's newer than our home, having been built ca. 1920, and one of the apartments was an open L-shaped space that had been used as an architect's office. It proved perfect for a layout space. While our contractor renovated the other two apartments for tenants, I got to work preparing the "office" for a new, greatly expanded version of the B&SGE. Here are some before and in-progress shots of the interior: The age of this building and the architecture of the space gave me a unique opportunity to place a layout set in the 1930s in a space from the 1930s. Thus, the 2-tone green office scheme; friends with memories from the era tell me I've nailed it. The "after" view here is a bit busy, cluttered as it is with various module projects for contribution to NMRA MCR Div. 2's FreeMo layout (SEE Don Reed's posts on this topic at http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=22539) Enjoy the rest of the chronicle, Vagel 15   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First) AVRR-PA Posted - 04/25/2013 : 9:45:25 PM Vagel is being excessively modest. He has made a ton of progress since the last open house. Don Orionvp17 Posted - 04/25/2013 : 6:55:41 PM Lookin' good, Vagel! Our thanks to Don, too! Pete in Michigan Vagel Keller Posted - 04/25/2013 : 6:25:54 PM Well, the second open house of the season is nearly upon us, and I haven't been able to make as much progress on scenery on the Buchanan Branch and at Chambersburg as hoped. That's mostly due to a number of "wait overnight for things to dry" subtasks around the cut leading to the hole in the wall tree tunnel AND buggering up a critical LITCo turnout in the process of moving the foam ridge to and from the benchwork during all those subtasks. Don was over Wednesday to install the double bents under the deck girder on the S-curve trestle (he should be updating his build thread on Mike Chambers' Craftsman's Corner any time now (hint, hint, Don!) and snapped the following shot of me trying to decide whether to continue to futz with a recalcitrant Tortoise machine under the replacement turnout or go across the street to my basement to retrieve the chainsaw and change hobbies! Soon after this, he staged an intervention and, after confiscating my house key, discovered the problem, so I'm still a model railroader. We'll have a few more things done by Sundayl, like a few more feet of ballasted track and finishing the rock work in the cut. And in the process of troubleshooting that $#%^&!! turnout, I figured out a problem with one of the C19's, which wanted to stall on the insulated frogs of the new MicroEngineering HOn3 turnouts (note to self: clean the tender wheels once in a while) So, all's well that ends well. AVRR-PA Posted - 04/20/2013 : 07:10:13 AM Thanks, Vagel. Glad you like it! Don Vagel Keller Posted - 04/19/2013 : 10:01:34 PM Don, this looks so good it has to be in the foreground. I planned to use it to replace the Walthers crossing shanty now at the Chambersburg cabin car tracks, but I'll use it at the diseasal ready tracks instead. AVRR-PA Posted - 04/19/2013 : 8:35:44 PM Thanks, Mark! I finished up an old styrene kit for Vagel - a Southern Railway shanty. Vagel gave me a color scheme and I practiced airbrushing by spraying it. Here's a picture. The colors are a good bit different in real life - less intense. MarkF Posted - 04/18/2013 : 12:44:23 AM Vagel, your making great progress. The scenery looks great. Don, that trestle will be a show stealer! Well done! I can't wait to see the scenery blended in. It's going to look great. Vagel Keller Posted - 04/17/2013 : 4:46:49 PM Thanks for taking and posting the pics, Don. That camera is a great acquisition. AVRR-PA Posted - 04/17/2013 : 4:39:26 PM I spent a little time at Vagel's today. We did a test fit on the doubled bents that will complete the S-shaped trestle and then I headed back to my shop to add NBW's on the show side and prepare lumber for the cross-braces that need to be added. Vagel has a lot of groundwork to modify/add under the trestle and he has another open house coming up. I bought a point-and-shoot camera, on sale at Staples. It has an AUTO mode which essential means "I'm an idiot-take picture for me." I love it. So the camera took some pictures and with Vagel's permission I'm posting them. Here are the double bents fitted under the trestle: The Cold Storage warehouse cardboard place-holder has been removed - for good, Vagel hopes. He's moving ahead with the permanent model: Cold Storage placeholder removed He's also working away on the removable sections which will hide the narrow gauge line as it passes the "Museum": Hiding the narrow gauge with removeables Cowan's Gap is moving right along: Cowan's Gap moving right along I thought this was pretty clever - this talus is made from the left-over plaster in his mixing cup from doing rockwork: Talus from leftover plaster crumbles A small culvert, nicely done. (Vagel borrowed all my water modeling materials today so he could do the small stream that leads to and through this culvert.) Here's some very nice rock work, in progress; Vagel credits Doug Foscali's DVD for his methods: And finally - the nursery - puffball trees ready to be planted: The Nursery If I've got it right, the Open House is on Sunday, the 29th. Plenty of time for Vagel to make lots more progress. Don AVRR-PA Posted - 04/14/2013 : 06:59:58 AM Vagel is still charging ahead at a great pace. There should be huge progress by the time of the Keystone Division's Jamboree on the 27th. I sure hope we get a big turnout. Looking forward to Wednesday! Don AVRR-PA Posted - 04/13/2013 : 4:30:42 PM quote: Originally posted by MarkF As for the puff balls, since you seem to enjoy making them so much, once your done there, I could use a few thousand!!! Ah...no. Don MarkF Posted - 04/13/2013 : 11:28:25 AM Vagel, you did a great job of disguising those holes in the wall. Scenery is coming along nicely and that entire scene has come together nicely. As for the puff balls, since you seem to enjoy making them so much, once your done there, I could use a few thousand!!! AVRR-PA Posted - 04/13/2013 : 07:21:51 AM Go, Vagel! See you Wednesday! It's looking great. Don jbvb Posted - 04/12/2013 : 10:32:18 PM Looks good, hope the RPM event goes well. Orionvp17 Posted - 04/12/2013 : 10:12:44 PM Nice job, Vagel! I think the correct version of the quote is as follows: "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm a busy man. I have a railroad to run." --Mike Chambers Enjoy! Pete in Michigan Railroad Line Forums © 2000-13 Railroad Line Co.
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