Preiser people and other updates
General News
Thursday, 07 May 2009
 

After a lengthy, easily avoidable wait, I finally received about 200 Preiser people. You can see what I'm talking about here and here (thanks to the good people at PWRS.ca)


So far (and by that I mean I have opened the box), they look outstanding. I'm planning on painting them using the magic wash technique outlined in an earlier article . Painting 300 or so people may seem daunting, but men's suits in Japan seem to come in black, grey or navy, so it shouldn't be nearly as bad as it could be.

You may have noticed that my updates are less frequent. It's not a lack of interest in model railroading, it's competition from another hobby. I've taken to painting (acrylics on canvas and panel). Normally that didn't take too much time away, but to my complete surprise I've been getting commissions. Seeing as people are paying for it, it would seem unethical to unnecessarily delay their orders.

So in addition to reeling from shock, I'm also covered in gesso, which makes the railway a little more difficult.
Bridge over the River Sumida
Trackwork
Thursday, 12 March 2009
 
My initial plan to make a simple bridge abutment was really a procrastination; I've been avoiding the scariest part of my layout, which is an elevated track section bisecting the middle of the layout.

Any real progress on the layout will happen after this section is done, because all the track will be nailed down and secure. I've been avoiding this because the large potential for failure.

After staring at the layout for a while, I just decided to bite the bullet and do it. After it's done the layout should work itself out in a moderately stress-free fashion.

I don't have a photograph right now, but from the track layout, the section in question is the diagonal sloping down from left to right. It's elevated, the track flies over the yard and into a tunnel on the right side over the water.

Trackplan
Trackplan: Look for the diagonal sloping downward from left to right.
 
Kato viaduct track won't work for a couple of reasons; I'm planning an elevated station at one end, and the supports for the viaduct would cover the track underneath. As a consequence, I have to build it all myself.

Part of the problem was finding a suitable, cheap, rigid building material. Foamore won't work as a track support, MDF is heavy and a nightmare to cut. One particularly helpful supporter suggested Gatorboard, which I thought I would try to locate. It's much like foamcore, but with melamine instead of paper on the outside (according to the descriptions that I read)

Tracking it down was less obvious than I had hoped. The trip to Home Despot resulted in blank stares and an internet search resulted in a bulk supplier only. I found out it's used in the picture framing business, and my lovely wife discovered that a pre-press digital imaging place a few blocks from Home Depot offered mounting on Gatorboard.

At the imaging place I discovered an alternate, possibly superior material. It's called Sintra, and it's the plastic they use for signs (not corroplast). It cuts fairly easily with a knife, it's not water soluble and doesn't show a foam edge when cut. I left with a large enough supply to make bridge section. Added bonus: it's adhesive on one side.

When I got home, the first step was to make the plan for the bridge. Xtrkcad was proving less user friendly for a printout than I hoped (because I was printing out a diagonal section), so I scanned the pieces of track and created a vector Illustrator document with the appropriate markings. One end had to have a flared end so that I could mount my elevated platforms trackside. I left flares on both sides, because even though it's a single track layout, I wanted two platforms to simulate a larger station on my tiny layout. Some liberties need to be taken with reality.

 After some work, I printed out my plan, and using my light table I reassembled all the sheets into a cohesive whole.

That was all fine and dandy, but the next step was cutting out the Sintra with a plan printed on paper. To transfer, I used the old artist's trick. I applied charcoal to the back of the plan, taped it down on the Sintra, then traced the outline of the plan on top using a stylus*.

*a crochet hook.

Charcoal transfer of an image
Charcoal transfer of an image


Unbelievably, cutting out the bridge was relatively pain free. Once I had the basic plan down, I cut another, thinner section to make the bottom of the viaduct. This time I did it upside down, so that the two adhesive sides would meet and my construction time would be minimal. Much to my astonishment, this also worked.

The next step was to cut the piece to fit exactly. "Measure twice cut once" is a nice idea, but difficult to achieve in reality because I had to somehow measure in three dimensions with only two hands. I used the traditional non-measuring method of placing the bridge where I wanted it to be and then trimming away the excess. Again, this worked much better than I anticipated.

Cutting out the pieces
Cutting out the pieces


I'm planning to model a viaduct, but making an exact copy of the Kato raised viaducts would take a long time and I don't think they're all that attractive or particularly representative of ugly concrete rail viaducts. More realistic is the viaduct in Model Railroader; Jan2009, Vol. 76 Issue 1, p38-40. As a bonus, it's dirt simple to construct.

The article is for an HO viaduct, so everything needed to be scaled, which is simple enough to accomplish. For the sides of the viaduct, I just cut a thin piece of Sintra and used it's included adhesive to stick it to the base of the viaduct.

While I had a feeling this would work, I wasn't quite ready enough to try it on my large bridge. I made a teeny-tiny prototype (traditional sense) bridge to see how it would look.

I'm still deciding on the look of supports. Ugly monolithic pillars are pretty common, but the round columns of the Model Railroader article have a certain classical elegance. Attaching the supports to the Sintra can be a little tricky; PVA glue doesn't adhere, so I will need to use Weldbond adhesive. Depending on how strong my prototype is, I may pin the whole assembly together with brass wire (like re-bar).

I plan to pick a style, make longer columns and sink them deep into the layout to assure stabilty. Sintra is durable enough that I can use track nails to lay the track down (although I will be using caulk as well).

Tiny bridge
Tiny bridge


After this section is completed, I'll be able to work on the layout without fear of its spontaneous disintegration.
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Copyright 2009 Yamanote-sen.
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