Phase II - Benchwork (plywood)

Next up was plywood, and here I ran into a problem. My vehicle won't fit an entire 4'x8' sheet. For the middle sections I had the lumber store cut them into 3'x6' pieces which would fit, but for half-circles I wasn't sure how to go about it. Further, I didn't know if I would need to buy one or two sheets to get what I needed. Thankfully, my friend owns a large truck and has a much better brain for this sort of thing.

It turns out that it is possible to fit two 5' diameter half-circles on one sheet of plywood. The first and easiest is below, but it is possible that where they touch there might be a slight overlap of wood.

The second method is this. It guarantees that there won't be any shortage of wood, but it also means that the factory straight cuts are unable to be used. 

I had a paper template to use and so I probably could have figured out the above just by pushing it around, but I am glad my friend provided me proof of concept beforehand. I went with the first arrangement. Because the plywood is being topped by foam, and eventually a fascia board will be added on the outer edge, any minimal loss of wood from overlap isn't a big deal. Being able to utilize the straight rear side is important though.

My friend dropped off the plywood on my driveway and I used my paper template to spray paint the cut lines. A pencil would have worked, but this seemed easier. I cut about 1/16" extra on the curved edges to make sure I didn't short myself. 

You can see how close they came to overlapping. But, it all worked out in the end.

That extra clearance proved to be too much of a good thing, and I had to go back and sand it all off. As a result, some of the plywood edges don't quite reach the edge of the benchwork framing but that is fine. I don't want any of the plywood sticking out over the edge, which would be problematic when installing the fascia in the future.

Then, I applied a layer of wood glue to the top of every joist and around the edges and set the plywood on top. Some 1" long panel nails were added too. My assistant was very eager to help out.

Despite knowing the answer, I tried again to see the largest curve I could fit. And 0-48 diameter curves were still the answer. But they are perfect for the type of equipment I will be running.

Unfortunately, what I didn't realize was how little space I would have inside the track for my scenery. My original plan was for a farm scene but that won't fit. So, I am going with plan B (which requires more thinking...)

Phase II - Benchwork

At the Springfield train show I picked up my custom benchwork. It was very cold (I think around 10 degrees) and I had to walk out to Model Railroad Benchwork's truck to get it, and then walk it back to the bus. Thankfully, the owners helped me move it but I wish I had thought to bring gloves.

The benchwork looks great and I received several compliments about it already. But, because it is fabricated from ripped plywood some of the edges had started to splinter. That is easy to fix with a sander, but because of the weather I had to wait before I could take it outside. I don't want sawdust in the basement if I don't have to. The sides will later be hidden with a fascia so no one will ever see them.

The joints are screwed together, but it doesn't look like glue was used. Since my benchwork will be pushed around on casters in the basement I want it as strong as possible, and I don't want to disassemble it to add glue to the joints. So, I added braces to the corners. But, because of the odd angles I went with a universal corner brace: a round wood dowel. I bought some 1/2" diameter wood dowels and cut them to about 3" long. Then, they were glued into the joints with wood glue. Is it overkill? Perhaps, but it was easy enough to do. 

I had to set the benchwork sections such that the glue joints were always down, which meant that it took four different set-ups to glue all of the joints. 

After that, I used my flat workbench to attach pairs of corner sections together into 180-degree units. And it was here I ran into a little problem. When set on a flat surface, the tops of the sections touched before the bottoms did. And if I pushed the bottoms together, the sections lifted off of the flat table a little. Though the bottom corner joints were dead 90-degrees, apparently there was a little bit of variance.

So, I spread a thick layer of glue on one piece and then clamped a pair together on the flat surface with multiple clamps. I couldn't fit C-clamps into the bottom joint so I had to resort to heavy-duty spring clamps. Then, I used a countersunk bit to drill holes for some 1.5" drywall screws. These were used to further hold the two pieces together. The bottom screws had to go in at angles for lack of clearance for the drill. In the end, I don't think it will be a problem.

Finally, the weather improved and they were hauled outside and sanded to remove splinters or sharp edges. Some 120 grit stuff in my palm sander made quick work of the problem areas.

I use a pair of 5/16" bolts to connect the end sections to the middle sections of the benchwork. Before drilling the 5/16" holes, I glued on pads of 2" square, 5mm thick plywood to the areas where the holes would be. This reinforces the area for when the layout is rolled around.

During this process, my assistant Harrison rolled through on his own freight train.

The legs on my Phase I middle sections are "H" shaped, but these legs for the ends are "L" shaped. The round ends obviously need to be supported, but fitting H-shaped ones would be impossible because there aren't two parallel braces. I still wanted them to have casters, though, so I used pieces of 2x4 lumber cut into blocks and glued on the bottoms. They were predrilled for screws matching my Harbor Freight 2" casters.

The legs were also taken outside and sanded them to remove any rough edges, then painted with several coats of satin "Tricorn Black" (HGSW6258). I used a roller to obtain a good finish. 

The casters I use are from Harbor Freight and cost about $3 each. They have a 2" rubber wheel and are only rated for 75 pounds each, but that is just fine for my purposes. I'm not crawling on top of my layout.

I used 1" silver screws provided with the legs to mount them on. I used a square to try and keep them perpendicular. 

Finally, after having moved some spring clamps within easy reach, I held up one of the benchwork ends in position and temporarily clamped it in place. I then added the black C-clamp just in case Harrison came downstairs and started touching stuff. 

It was at this point that I thought perhaps the outer legs had a little too much wobble where they attached to the benchwork. I could glue them on which would make the joint super strong, but then removing them would be impossible. And keeping everything sectional was an objective for this layout. So, instead I took a block of 1/2" square wood and simply screwed it in place firmly against the leg with long deck screws. It securely sandwiches the leg.

I drilled and bolted up the ends to the rest of the benchwork with bolts, fender washers, and wing nuts. I also drilled some holes (backed with wood) to provide for wiring conduits.

Even though it doesn't look like much, I was incredibly excided about how things were progressing. You can see how the back portion is only 2' deep, but that will be enough for a small staging yard or perhaps a narrow scene of the railroad cutting through the woods over a bridge or something. 

And, it fit perfectly into the basement where I wanted it to without having to angle it at all, as I had originally planned. There is enough clearance on the right between the layout and the stairs to maneuver laundry baskets and such. (Buried behind the layout is the remaining section of my HO layout, but it won't remain there forever).

Next to come will be the plywood and foam.

Article Published - Upgrading RMT woodchip hoppers

I have another article in this month's O Gauge Railroading magazine involving upgrading new-tooling woodchip hoppers just released last year by Ready Made Trains (RMT). I ordered them in early 2022, and being new to O scale had no idea that waiting four years wasn't normal. But, RMT wanted to make sure the cars came out right and that meant working with the factory to revise the trucks which initially had issues.

The cars are nice, but lacking a few details that I prefer such as lower corner stirrup steps. To enable bent metal ones to be added, I had to modify the frames of the cars to prevent the trucks from swinging too much (which would have allowed the truck-mounted couplers to knock off the stirrups). The plastic load that came free with the car also left something to be desired to I upgraded it with real chainsaw woodchips. Weathering finished up the cars. 

For $30 a car, they are pretty nice models and will work well for my New England themed layout. It was a fun project and I hope it inspired modelers who also purchased these cars to spend a couple of minutes making them appear more realistic. 

Batten Kill Railroad "Limited" excursion train (part 2)

This project is still ongoing but I ran into a snag that put it on hold. Here is what I have accomplished:

The passenger cars had incorrect window locations which I decided to ignore. However, the same could not be said for the frame skirts along the bottom of the coaches. The prototype cars had their skirting removed for easier maintenance, and I liked the flat line across the bottom of the car. However, I left the skirting on the very ends of the car because it hid the oversize couplers. 

I considered using a Dremel and files, but a friend had a milling machine and he offered to help. We tried several techniques but what worked best was to come at it from the side and remove most of the material, and then take light finishing cuts along the bottom edge of the skirting to smooth it over. Some file work removed any remaining burrs.

The end result is below. I am very pleased with the visual transformation.

At this point I was trying to decide how to redesign the cars so that I could permanently attach the body and two ends together to make a solid unit for painting and still have a way to easily install the floor/underframe. The frames are supposed to slide into the cars, and then the ends are attached, but I was concerned that painting the ends separately would lead to unsightly gaps. 

My first idea was to fill the frame channels with styrene strips that were 3/8" wide and 0.055" thick (0.040" + 0.015" glued together) using superglue gel. It worked, but I decided to take another approach so I later trimmed them off.

Instead, I laminated two pieces of 1/4" square styrene to make sections 1/4" x 1/2". These were epoxied inside the car above the channels to form a shelf to support the underframe. Extra pieces were added to create areas for the frame to screw into.

It turns out that the metal coach frames, once trimmed along the sides to remove the bent flanges, drop onto the styrene pads at the perfect height. I used a bandsaw to remove the flanges.

Turning my attention to the ends of the coaches, the non-vestibule ends had a large gap in the bulkhead doorway and it was possible to look inside the coach. This would result in seeing a whole lot of nothing. So, I had to fill the interior bulkhead with doors even if they weren't prototypically accurate. I wasn't in the mood to scratchbuild them, so I looked at some of the parts I had left over. 

The extra vestibule end casting had a middle door that was cut out and then glued to a backer piece of styrene (with a hole cut in it for the window. I cut up the non-fitting Lionel end casting as well for the other door. 

Then the new end door pieces were glued into the openings. 

I also added some crossbracing as I noticed the sides were slowly bowing in at the ends. Normally the end castings would hold them in position, but the modified ones I was using weren't up to the task. Some 1/4" square styrene did the job.

I marked out eight holes per frame where I wanted the mounting screws to go and I drilled them out in my drill press. Then, I set the frame on the body and marked the center of the holes which were drilled through with a #43 bit. They were later tapped for 4-40 screws.

I reattached the trucks to the frames, which were now quite flimsy because the stiffening flanges on the edges had been removed. I also used blue tape on the inside to cover up all of the holes that weren't reused. This doesn't really do anything but it helped me keep track of the holes I still needed.

To complete the underframe I reattached some of the casting pieces that were originally installed on them. They slotted in on one end, and a single screw held it in place on the other end. The underframe casting does hide a few of the screws that attach the frame to the body so I will need to remove the underframe again for final installation.

Then, I washed the bodies with soap and water and sent them off to the painter. I used the same person who painted my RS3 so that the colors would match. He did a great job on them, but I ran into a snag with the tinted windows that has help this project up. More in the future.