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Comments
Work continues on the main building. The attached warehouse is complete. Not much extra to add from the instructions though I did add some beams behind the metal doors for some support. See photo below, upper right. Like Grant, I had to salvage some scraps from the wood pile to complete the walls.
Here is the competed wall and doors.
The roof goes on much like the awnings on the main building. Here are some photos of the warehouse attached to the main structure. One LED was added to the interior of this section.
Excuse the simulated bird poop on the warehouse roof!
The Yardmaster office is next. The clapboard siding was fun to build and if you look closely, there are boards that are split, chipped and a few that have part of the board missing.
Roof is almost complete in these photos.
The office will have one gooseneck light on the gabled side and one LED inside. Once glued to the main structure, it's onto the items located on the roof.
Jeff
The office has been attached to the main building and the pitch and pine tar tank and platform were completed and glued to the warehouse roof. A small hole was drilled in the roof top accommodate the pipe.
Here is the structure thus far. First, a few close ups of the tank and platform...
...and the main building.
Several stacks are being prepared to glue onto the roofs. Then onward.
Jeff
Work continues with the docks.
Template C has the right, left and derrick docks and the sales porch, all done simultaneously. Here is some early progress.
The completed docks below. Instructions are very clear cut so no need to repeat. One variation - I decided to paint the skirting speckled white. I found that on many porches, this part was white. I'll probable make the railing white to match. This will be similar to the stairs and railing of Foss Landing.
Note that on the derrick dock, I made the height of the "barnacles" less as the dock went inland as the water level would be lower.
Now onto the main dock. Here is some preliminary work.
I have a question for the RR enthusiasts - for the rails that are on the dock, where should I terminate the deck planing - at the blue line or red one? I can't seem to find many photos of this online and the pic in other build logs are too low resolution.
Also, I bought one 36 inch length of track. For the side with the dock, instructions say to have only a few inches come off the end. What's the best method to join the track assuming I have to cut a 17 inch length into one that is, say 7 inches for the dock and 10 inches for the terrain?
As always, thanks for the kind comments and thanks in advance for any help on my questions.
amazing on all levels.
Thanks for sharing your progress with us, keep it up.
Jeff
Work continues on the main dock.
The knots in the boards were randomly placed after the boards were glued to the beams. When all the boards are down they will be given a wash with A/E to darken the knots. I decided to lay the planks to the red line. I put together a scale 40 foot flat car and the trucks run quite smoothly over the tacks with the wood placed so. I also like the look of the track "buried" in the deck. Here are a few photos.
And finally, the main building on the foundation beams and the deck. Some wood scraps were used beneath the foundation and the various platforms to get them all at the correct height.
I need to straighten the rod at the top of the cupola as it seems to be off in one axis. Also, I glued the stack with the round top to the roof on the opposite side of the roof as compared to the instructions (I noticed this after the glue was set).
jeff
Fishplates (or 'joint bars' in the US) are what actually hold two pieces of rail together.
Ken Karns has done this the best that I have seen on a couple of his HO dioramas, perhaps he could share a pic here of his HO track to show it, or a link to his thread.
Here is a shot of my track from one of my dioramas showing the joint bar between two pieces of rail. In my case I also used tie plates under the rail. To keep things simple I use a jewelers saw to cut a notch in the rail rather than cutting clear through. It keeps the rail in alignment. The joint bar or sometimes called rail bars I use are from detail associates. They are styrene and too thick. I run the joint bar over sandpaper with my finger (removes your finger prints with it) to thin down the back side to be more to scale.
Hope this helps. Rick
The derrick dock shed and the upper yard storage shed have been completed. Not much to add as the instructions and construction is very straightforward. Here's the derrick dock shed...
...and the upper yard shed below (the first photo shows the "strip wood trap" where just a mm or 2 of the first plank is glued to the underlying template, thus creating a space where the side walls will be glued)...
a few of the battens were broken off the walls...
note the crow resting on the roof.
Onto the saw shed. The frame has been completed. It is quite delicate at this stage.
Jeff
Work continues on the saw shed. The floor was next. Instructions were a bit contradictory as the floor boards are the same length as the crossbeams however you are instructed to cut a notch in the boards to accommodate the vertical beams. This notch would not be needed if the boards are as long as the crossbeam so I did not do this. The 4 trusses were easy to construct using the template.
The trusses were then glued to the upper crossbeams. That takes us to constructions of the saw table. Construction was straightforward using the supplied plans as a template.
Some logs show 3 boards used to cover the table sides however I just used 2, similar to what is shown on the plans. 3 were used on the side where the end plate will be placed.
Next up is the hardware. I have several questions I hope someone on the forum can answer.
1. The motor that sits above the table has a drive shaft that is connected to a pulley / belt. The belt connects with the drive shaft wheel on the end-plate of the saw table. There is another drive shaft under the table connected to this lower wheel (pink circle in photo below). What would this shaft be connected to? In other words, what does the motor run, the saw or the blower? If it is the saw, wouldn't it be more appropriate to line up the end-plate with the center hole of the saw (yellow circle)? I guess it could be offset with another set of pulleys and a belt to drive the saw
2. Given the layout of the saw table rollers, I assume the path of the wood along the table would be the pink arrow in the photo below. The yellow line represent the saw blade.
If this were the case, would there not be a mechanism to move the blade up and down to accommodate movement of the wood? Either the blade would have to move downward to allow the wood to roll past, or upward like the illustration below. If the blade moves downward, then I suppose the gear to do this would be under the table and therefore not seen on the model.
My assumptions at this point are the drive shaft runs the blade and there is another set of pulleys and a belt under the table. As such, the blade would have to move downward to allow for the planks to roll past and be crosscut.
I am probably over thinking this but I would like to hear some opinions before i start to glue the gear on
thanks
Jeff
The saw blade is on a swing arm, it swings front to back, not up and down.
If you look at the fittings at the top of the saw you will see how this works, and how it swings. Google will also provide some images.
As for the belt and shaft...
The motor drives the saw and the blower. the top shaft drives the saw, which pivots because it is a swing arm saw.
The shaft then continues above to a belt which drops down and drives the lower shaft which runs the blower.
So, basically, as far as remember it was designed...
The motor drives the top shaft which runs the swing saw and the belt.
The belt then transfers the power to the lower shaft.
The lower shaft drives the blower.
It's been a long time but I hope this helps.
There is no need for any extra pullys or belts, everything was designed to operate correctly and everything needed is included in the kit.