FRUIT JUICE

...or what happens when a Cider stand moves to Florida.

This was the photo that inspired me.  I've lost track of where I found it, and haven't seen it without watermarks:

And here is my version of the stand and most of the figures:

I did modify and paint figures for the man and two children on the left side leaning against the fence, but this is as far as I got to meet the requirements of the railroad-line.com forum challenge.  The figures are the primary reason I chose to model this little scene.  They offer so many elements that set the era, and they present diverse economic groups from the working class folks along the fence and behind the counter to the well-to-do folks out front and the tradesman bringing a tray of wares to be sold at the stand (at least that's my guess).

Though the painted-on sign in the original photo is hard to read, I think it read "ICE COLD CIDER".  Now I believe for a time in this country 'cider' was any fruit that was squeezed to make juice.  If any reader should have better information, please let me know as I enjoyed the research but didn't press the matter too far.  Regardless, by the 1920s, fresh squeezed juice was a treat to be enjoyed when available.  It was certainly the thing to have while wintering in Florida.

I decided to change the sign to read FRUIT JUICE as a way of better locating this little stand in central Florida.  Despite the industry crippling freezes of the late 1800s and early teens, the citrus industry still held on well into the 1920s.  Bananas were available at this stand, and I made mine from Milliput.  Other details are premade castings such as soda bottles in a crate or the little bottles in a crate on the counter. 

Perhaps the most curious detail was the little portrait picture adhered to the stand above the window on the left side just above the well-to-do couple and their child.  I guessed this might be an election poster, so I looked into election posters from the twenties and sure enough, many of them were just portraits with the candidate's name and maybe a slogan.  I chose a picture that I figured would work and I think it captures the look.

The little shed itself was built up board-by-board and the sign was painted freehand.  I'm pretty proud of that effort as I managed to paint a drop-shadow effect using orange beneath and yellow above.  Part of the fun was choosing colors.  My wife suggested gray for the main color and I'm glad she did.  I used a gray in the blue-tone family and I think it looks perfect.

This was a fun little project and I'm glad it is done.  Eventually I'd like to create the rest of the scene as there's so much there worth modeling from the melons on the bench to the giant shade trees to the farmhouse in the background and the wagon way beyond the stand.  Plus, I can exercise modeler's license to include elements of humor or added interest.  But now it is time to get back on the Station...and that will be the next post.

A Happy Accident

This accident became happy when it revealed what was once hidden.  On November 17, 1956, John L. Oliver buttoned up this box car.  I know this because he wrote the date on the inside of the car.

I purchased this car last year on eBay and was disappointed to find it in pieces when I received it.  The shipper did a fine job of packing it, so I suspect the postal service was a bit too reckless in their handling.  In the end it will be fine as I can reassemble the car, and, of course, it worked out for the best to reveal the maker's mark within.

Here is the outside of the car, custom painted and lettered by Mr. Oliver for his Pan-Handle Rusty Route railroad.  I can say with near certainty that he himself painted and lettered the car, as his solitary claim to fame in Model Railroader magazine was an article on painting and lettering Steam Locomotives (of which I have one, 2-8-0 #225 mentioned in a previous post).  Note the hand-made box with typed label and address stamp.

Of particular interest beyond the car's birthday was the metal weight from inside the car.  It appears to be some sort of typesetting for a stamp or document press.

And here is what it reads, after 'inking' the stamp with a Sharpie pen:

I have three other Oliver cars, an express reefer for the P-HRR, and two cabeese.  A fourth car also came from that collection and was shown in my custom Christmas coal train post, but I'm not sure if Oliver built it or if it was given to him by Earl Benteller, for whose Allegheny Railroad it is lettered.

One way I enjoy this hobby is by continuing the legacy of these pioneer modelers through preservation of their equipment, and, if possible, keeping it rolling in revenue service.  Someday the Ocali Creek shops will get this car rebuilt and back on the rails...but they've got a mighty long backlog of kits, er, projects to get to so who can say when that will be.

Turnout Trials TWO + Tools

More turnout work, but this time with tools.

On another blog (I forget which one right now) I read about track tuning and checking the level across the rails.  Sure enough, the curve coming into this turnout from the left is banked slightly towards the center, which is fine, but the turnout is flat through the points.  Actually, it was slightly banked away from the center, so I could see how that sudden change in level might cause trouble for certain finicky rolling stock or locomotives.

My solution was to shim the turnout, seen above as the white strip beneath the ties in the lower center of the image.  This did the trick, eliminating most of the incidents of derailments in this location.  The only thing remaining that might cause an issue is the funky taper on the ends of the point rails.  Atlas clips the corner off the top of the point rail, which is already a pressed-metal quasi-rail to begin with, so it becomes a tricky thing to file without doing damage.  A gentle touch is required.

Work continues on a mini scene for a Railroad-Line forum challenge, and when that is complete sometime before tax day I will return to the benchwork for this railroad in earnest; hopefully sooner than later.  Also on the wish list is helping my oldest son with a project this week that might become a post if we get anywhere with it, and maybe even some rolling stock work.  We'll see.

Japan + Wales =

...successful duplication of a detail part!  Oyumaru + Milliput = part

Since deciding to rebuild the trio of Purina cars, I've been on the lookout for Laconia end sills for what seems like ages.  I had given up ever finding them on their own, or if I did, for a decent price.  Seems like 'nostalgia pricing' for vintage parts is over-the-top high.  My next resort would be to either scratchbuild a pair or find a donor kit to sacrifice.  It would probably be cheaper and faster to buy another Purina kit of the correct number.

But then along came PLASMO, and his video of using Blue Stuff (a Green Stuff World branded oyumaru) to cast parts using epoxy putty.  After hemming and hawing a while I decided to pull the trigger and buy some.  Last night I warmed up the kettle and softened the oyumaru.  I glued the part to a scrap of plastic packaging and pressed on the softened thermoplastic...voila!  A mold! 

Next I cut away a couple bits of Milliput and kneaded them together.  Once I thought I had sufficiently mixed the two components I pressed some into the mold.  And then I waited.  Overnight.  I could see through the clear mold material that I had gotten a good press; it appeared that the Milliput was deep into the recesses of the mold.  But how good?

This morning I got my answer - as Tom Johnson* says - I think it looks pretty good.

*In these uncertain times, I find it very comforting to watch a skilled craftsman rebuild, repair and restore a beautiful piece of furniture to its best condition or former glory.  I hope to do the same with the vintage freight cars I have collected, including the Purina cars mentioned above.

Mainline Mimicry

...or, how to pull off big-time ops on a small railroad.

A cut of cars await pick up by the eastbound time freight.

I've been playing a sort of operations game that lets me model a snippet of the bigger railroad picture.  My railroad was designed to be a model of a small industrial area served by a short-line railroad with tight curves, a few spurs and a siding that serves as a runaround track.  However, when I planned the track arrangement I included a full loop of track in order to just let trains run from time to time.

 The eastbound arrives and the conductor checks his manifest.

Also, while the industries I selected allow for a limited variety of rolling stock, there are still cars I wouldn't include in a typical operating session when running the railroad as designed.  Same goes for locomotives.  Typical power serving the 'park' is all smaller steam with short wheelbases. 

Lanky Mikado 480 backs down into the siding.

Recently I got the itch to run a longer train.  I pulled out the one and only brass engine I own (and only oil burner), a custom painted beefy 2-8-0.  [There's a whole 'nother blog post about this engine coming eventually...]  I hitched her up to a string of 9 cars and a matching caboose and let her run.  Add a cup of coffee (or something stronger) and a stool to sit on and I'm blissfully unaware, for a time, of all the world's calamities.  After I'd run that engine a few days, I selected 2-8-2 #480, typical power for the Christmas Tree train - again, not a loco you'd expect to see pushing cars down spurs in this setting.

 Three cars are heading east today.  The remaining car will go west.

This is fine for a while - longer than, really - but I wanted to plus the experience.  So, I imagined my 'long' train as a time freight hauling cuts of cars from division point to division point.  I imagined my solitary siding as a place to set out cars for a local to work later or perhaps a town switcher to shove around the local industries, and likewise, to be a place for that time freight to pick up a few cars to forward on to their next destination.

 With the pickups added to the train, the setouts are shoved into the siding.

The local crew will deliver these cars to their industries.

To make this pickup/setout game a bit more random, I chose to employ a simple generator - I flipped a coin.  First flip, heads = odd, tails = even.  Second flip, heads = 1 or 2, tails = 3 or 4.  This determines how many of the cars on the siding I pick up.  Since the siding only holds a max of 4 cars, once I subtract how many I'm taking I can flip again to determine how many I'm setting out as long as it is equal to or less than the number I just picked up.  I may take all 4 cars and only set out three.  Or, I may take one and leave one.  Depends on the flip.

 Their work complete, the crew heads back to the caboose while the engine pumps air into the train.

To complicate things further make things more interesting, I add one more flip to determine if I'm setting out cars from the front or rear of the train.  This shuffles the cars in the whole train, not just the first few behind the engine.  This is also a bit more true-to-life, as cuts of cars would be blocked for just such a set-out according to the order of towns the train passes through and may be anywhere in the train.  The conductor would know which ones were to be put where.

Two blasts on the whistle and it's time to roll.  This is a scheduled freight after all.

I'd love the room to build a railroad where I could model a division point yard, or a major terminal where big steam power is coupled to long trains, which then roll over a long mainline at high speed.  But that's just not possible at present, and I'm okay with that.  I can still have a little taste of that action in minature, so to speak, right here and now.

Turnout Trials

One of my long-put-off tasks on the railroad has been tuning the turnouts, or switches.  This includes filing any rough corners or edges that wheel flanges might 'pick' and cause a derailment, checking the gauge and tolerances throughout the points and frog area, and securing the throw bar to keep the points held in place.  On that last point I have finally left the starting gate.

 The strip of white styrene has been temporarily slid into place beneath the throw bar to provide friction.  The piece is an HO scale 4x12, though the thickness is only important if, like me, you are using the same type of Atlas turnouts.  What matters is that it is enough friction to hold the points in place without regular operations causing them to move but not so much that it becomes cumbersome to slide the points over to throw the switch.

When planning this railroad and how it would be operated, I chose to make all the turnouts accessible in order to throw them by hand, whether with some sort of switch stand or by the 'finger flick' method.  Peco turnouts have a spring mechanism built in that locks the points against the stock rail; Atlas turnouts do not.  In the past I have used the popular but grossly oversized Caboose Industries ground throws.  Wanting to create a more fine-scale appearance on this railroad, I decided against using them here. 

Should this friction method work as well as I think it will, eventually I will glue the styrene strips in place when I balast the track.  I have beautiful little switch stand models that will live next to each turnout but they will only be decorative.  There are operating switch stands that either throw the turnout when you move them, or move in response to the throw bar sliding.  In the interest of time and simplicity I decided to not use those this time around.

I will report how this method works in a future post.  However I am already seeing results as I operate a locomotive that seems to derail at a couple turnouts.  After I inserted the strip, the engine has run right through without a hiccup.  Below, Pan Handle Rusty Route #225 rolls over the Icing spur turnout without derailing.  Note the white styrene strip seen beneath the tender.

When Two Become One

Or, when the materials speak, listen.

I had planned to use the little narrow windows from the Tichy Work Car Windows set to replace the narrow side windows in the cupolas.  I had thought the narrow Tichy window frames would work, but when turned vertically they weren't as tall as the square window frames on the front and back of the cupola.  However, included in the assortment were wide two-panel windows.  I held one window against the cupola side and immediately knew I had to use it. 

The narrow window openings had bothered me since I made them, and I really didn't have a good solution.   Something about the relative size or placement was off and I couldn't figure out what bugged me, I just knew I didn't like it.  So when the narrow Tichy windows didn't make it better, I was doubly discouraged at that point.  But my displeasure turned to satisfaction when I put the long, wide windows in place.

The actual fix was simple.  I cut out the center section between the two narrow windows, then added scale 2x4 strips to the sides.  I'm going to say that the new frame is a slider, and my train crew will be pleased to be able to open that window and get a breeze through the cupola rolling down the tracks in central Florida.