The Blue Ridge Stemwinder in On30

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
That is going to be pretty cool. Trying to get pictures to load on Zealot,

Might have to go back to my camera , and edit them down on the computer.

Could probably do that with my phone ; had got spoiled posting straight from the phone.
Hi Bill. I did see the problems you were having with pictures. I started the benchwork err shelf work today for the new ET&WNC layout. pictures to follow soon. Tom
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Problem corrected, I can set my camera to take Gynormous, large, medium, or small pictures. the small pictures will load, after some false starts, I'll test the medium ones later


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One of my HOn3 Tweetsie hoppers. I built the two O scale cars, as my plans were in O scale, and I wanted to get a good understanding of the car before simplifying it for HOn3. I built four, and have the wood cut for another four. I may use some of the parts to make a mould for cranking them out in Resin


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the four ore cars going up the gizzard high bridge, with a caboose cut down from one of thse ubiquitous HO bobber cabeese



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I really like this little 2-6-0 modifies from a PFM C&S unit. I removed the bear trap spark arrestor to de Coloradoize it.
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
I really like the hopper cars. They look good. I especially love the dramatic scene of the four cars on those very cool bridges. Good work !
Tom
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Bench…….errrr…… shelf work for the" Blue Ridge Stemwinder”, an On30 homage to the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad.

In my last two On30 mini layouts I made exclusive use of lightweight materials such as Styrofoam board and aluminum metal supports. There is no wood in either of them except perhaps the model wooden structures.

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I found this material to be easy to work with, lightweight, and durable.

With the experience gained on the "minis" I was ready to tackle the around the walls shelf layout of the ET&WNC. Again, I wanted to use easy, lightweight materials to construct the shelf supports.

The Gladiator track system available at Lowes seemed a good one to build the shelves for the layout.

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The track that supports the shelving is attached to studs behind the drywall in the train shed. The shelving is easily attached and is about 12 inches deep. The plan for the layout calls for 12-18 inch deep sub roadbed. I think the lightweight materials will be easily supported by this shelving system which is easy to use and readily available.

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So far everything seems fairly straight and level.

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It Is enjoyable getting back to layout construction with these newer materials. Thanks for looking. Doc Tom
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
I have looked at those shelves, and this is one way to have nothing in the way under the layout. This is going to be cool to watch take shape!
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
At the lake. Got the Climax regained to On3. Putting couplers on it at the proper height will be tricky, I will need to mill out the top or middle link and pin pocket. Modify an On3 coupler, and pin it in the pocket.

Have also been working on my Russian River Generic Box car’s frame. Was short a On3 coupler box lid, and went digging through the other Russian River kits. Seems like a previous owner had removed 3 out of five of the cast underframes.

All the wood and detail parts are there, and they had trucks and couplers, so at about $12.00 a piece, they were still a heck of a deal.

I spent a good bit of time today modifying the resin under frame to take KD coupler boxes, as the kit was set up for draft gear between the main sills, which would allow next to no side to side travel , since these will be likely run on a portable or very small layout, and my equipment will all be small, I’m thinking coupler swing could be critical.

After modifying one resin under frame, It wouldn’t be much harder to knock out a wood under frame that doesn’t need modifications.

I took my camera to the lake, so I can post photos of the Climax re gauging to the On3 Locomotive shops.
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
At the lake. Got the Climax regained to On3. Putting couplers on it at the proper height will be tricky, I will need to mill out the top or middle link and pin pocket. Modify an On3 coupler, and pin it in the pocket.

Have also been working on my Russian River Generic Box car’s frame. Was short a On3 coupler box lid, and went digging through the other Russian River kits. Seems like a previous owner had removed 3 out of five of the cast underframes.

All the wood and detail parts are there, and they had trucks and couplers, so at about $12.00 a piece, they were still a heck of a deal.

I spent a good bit of time today modifying the resin under frame to take KD coupler boxes, as the kit was set up for draft gear between the main sills, which would allow next to no side to side travel , since these will be likely run on a portable or very small layout, and my equipment will all be small, I’m thinking coupler swing could be critical.

After modifying one resin under frame, It wouldn’t be much harder to knock out a wood under frame that doesn’t need modifications.

I took my camera to the lake, so I can post photos of the Climax re gauging to the On3 Locomotive shops.

Good to hear from you Bill. Looking forward to seeing some piccies of the re gauged O scale Climax. Doc Tom
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
It's Labor Day and the painters and stencil man want to get the day off. The boss wanted some pictures of the newly labeled Hopper cars, so they hung around for some pictures.

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All three of the hoppers are now fully lettered for cars #1, #12, and# 18. This is the prettiest they will look as they leave the Johnson City shops to haul iron ore and coal and make some money for the railroad.

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The actual shelf layout is still in the imagination phase. If you try real hard you can imagine the Linville Depot at the midsection of this shelf near the Historical Society fan.

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More to come. Thanks for looking. Dr. Tom
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Blue on Blue. More doings on the Blue Ridge Stemwinder in On30.

One of the nice things about Styrofoam is that construction proceeds rapidly. Here the blue foam pieces of the puzzle are coming together for the Layout Design Element (LDE) that I am calling Linville station. This LDE is 11 feet long and 18 inches deep at the center and 2 feet deep at the ends. The station will set about where the ET and WNC Historical Society fan is located.

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If you look at the track plan to the right it is the section that IAN RICE (layout designer) calls “Halfway".

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Next up, will be attaching the Styrofoam pieces and strengthening them with L Channel aluminum……….lightweight and strong.

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Thanks for looking. Doc Tom
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Looking for something else, I puound my pattern pieces for the Tweetsie ore car. these will come in handy determining the sizw of wood needed for the underframes of my Russian River kits


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Revell-Fan

Co-Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Lovely! BTW Doc, when I took another look at the figure you put in the back of the train I noticed it resembled Bill Murray a bit..! ;)

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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Lovely! BTW Doc, when I took another look at the figure you put in the back of the train I noticed it resembled Bill Murray a bit..! ;)

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Yes, Bill M. is a BIG FAN of the Tweetsie and he travels on the RR a lot when not so busy in Show Biz. TOm:cool:
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
I am going to be traveling for the next couple of weeks on a late summer vacation, so I thought I better wrap up the construction of the base of the shelf layout for the Blue Ridge Stemwinder. Time also to give you guys a break for a while from studying Blue Styrofoam.

When I was an HO modeler I learned the joys of L girder construction in making a strong support for my model RR empire. I found in my experimentation on the On30 mini layouts that the L girder construction using aluminum L girders could give the foam boards tremendous strength also.

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What I do is attach them along the edges of the blue foam board using Liquid Nails Construction Adhesive for Projects. This is a strong adhesive that is compatible with Styrofoam. I temporarily screw the channels in place but have found that once the glue dries the screws can be removed and a strong bond has been achieved.

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This layout design element ( LDE) that I am calling Linville Depot is 11 feet and a half inch long. Once all the channel is in place the entire LDE can be picked up and turned up on its side easily to allow access to the undersurface for wiring etc. It is then placed back on the wire shelving and snuggles right into place.

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Now I have an expanse flat blue terrain to begin some modeling on.

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One of the things I've always wanted to do was to blow up a neat track plan to full scale and use it to establish track lines and changes in topography. On this project I thought I would give a local printer the chance to blow up the Iain Rice’s track plan for the Linville LDE. The image is quite pixelated but I can readily see where the track lines are supposed to go. I also found that Iain’s track plan is 1 foot and a half inch shorter than the width of my Railroad room. You can see where I split the plan to allow for a longer mainline run.

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So now the passenger cars have a place to show up at Linville Depot.

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I'll be back at it in two or three weeks and hope to show some more progress.

Thanks for looking. Doc Tom
 

Doctor G

Well-Known Member
More work on the Linville layout design element(LDE)

I've had a little more time to work on the Linnville LD E.

This is what I'm shooting for in the next few months:

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I placed the 1:1 track plan on the blue foam shelf layout. I used the turnout templates from PECO and pushpins to trace out the track lines.

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I then connected all the little dots with a sharpie pen and then had an outline of the track and turnouts.

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I also used the same technique to map out the roads and geographic outlines of hills and railroad crossings.

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It looks like the On30 models of ET&WNC narrow gauge rolling stock will fit nicely.

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Next I cut out Blue foam forms for the foothills that surrounded the Linville Depot. They are stacked like wedding cake and will receive carving of rocks and sculptamold ground covering soon.

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You can get a good idea of how the nearby logging lines will connect to the Linnville LDE.

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Thanks for looking. All ideas, critiques and input greatly appreciated. Dr. Tom
 

micahrogers

Moderator "Where am I, and how did I get here?"
Staff member
Moderator
I never got into trains, my older brother always managed to destroy every train set, or race car set I ever got. I still love to look at a well designed and made train display though. Yours looks like it is coming along nicely
 
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