Eastern Tn logging on the DG CC & W RR 1928

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
sml prtoltr#1.jpg SMLPrtoltr#2.jpg I have some progress with the signage for my Parrot oil truck. to get one of these right I have to go back over it many times fixing stuff, but here is a preliminary of the restoration job.
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML PRT OL CRS.jpg One thing leads to another

It is a stock woodlands scenics tank truck. It certainly looks as if it is equipped to be a weed sprayer, but this is in fuel delivery service for the Parrot oil distributor in Crooked creek. the distributor in crooked creek has one horizontal tank, and this is the only delivery truck.

the distributor in Harlow has two horizontal tanks, a warehouse, and two chain drive Mack tank trucks.

I also have a Parrot Oil gas station in Harlow, which has a tow truck.

I have an oil tank set up in Ridgemont to transfer fuel to a narrow gauge tank car. I used to have a narrow gauge Parot oil tank car, but I loaned it out, and it has never returned. I have a kit to make another, but it is a PSC kit. Insanely detailed, and a pain in the *** to assemble correctly.

Since I had all the paints out for the truck, I started painting the three tank cars I have been meaning to put into service to replace the ones I have given away.

I'm working on painting in the parrot right now, as well as sharpening the letters.
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML PRT OL FLT.jpg Parrot Oil Fleet

From looking at this picture I have to paint the roof of that tanker yellow.

I might paint the domes of the tank cars yellow also, but I'm done for know, my eyes hurt. somewhere I have a box with some more parts for those tank cars too.

Bill Nelson
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML PRT OL sgn.jpg SML PRT OL ST #1.jpg SML PRT OL St #2.jpg more Parrot oil stuff

here are picks of the parrot oil station in Harlow, and a sign, Kitbashed from a woodlands scenics kit. I think this sign was the first piece of the Parrot Oil Theme. the gas station came next , then the truck, and after that the tank cars and the distributors. This will be all for now unless I go to work on the distributors in Harlow and Crooked Creek.

the building for the distributor in Harlow is allready built, it just needs more paint work and signage. Tom gave me a little Bar mills kit, which I am considering building as the office/warehouse for the Crooked Creek.

I have to do some careful work to that courthouse , as there are some cars parked in the photo that look like they are from the 1980's. I've been thinking a little stone wall to raise it up some, and some bushes strategically placed to hide the "MODERN" Cars
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML at. Elgias' #1.jpg St. Elgias' in Mont. Furnace.jpg cleaning out the cabinet

Working on cleaning out my hobby closet, I found an almost completed Walthers' kit for a church I had built for St.Elgias' in Montgomery furnace. St Elgias is the patron saint of iron workers, so it is appropriate for doen in the cove with the coke ovens and iron furnaces. I had stopped cause I was unsure of the stain glass window decals (geometrical shapes- way to Unitarian for my taste). I also was unsure of weather I should do interior detail. I had modified the floor level and installed a styrene floor under the bell tower, and in the main area so that I could install detailing if I wanted.


I went with the plain glass but glued the windows in very sparingly, so I could remove them and add the decals if I wanted. I also glued the roof on very sparingly si I can get it off if I change my tiny mind.

So there is more space in my hobby cabinet, and I got another church on the RR , making five, one for each level, not counting the one in Harlow that is on the backdrop.


this is a very nicely done kit with good detail. the only changes I made was to add a floor, which really helps the look of a model, to open up the front door, and to swap the roof, with the chimney, around so that if I detailed the interior, the wood stove wood stove wouldn't be in the sanctuary (the Bishpp would not approve).
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML CC E H FL.jpg SML CC E H MKU.jpg searching for the next project.

While running a track cleaning train I had my eye out for a blight. Something that makes the surrounding area look worse.

The biggest thing I saw, was the mock up for the engine house in Crooked Creek.

I'm going to poke at that while watching my wife watch pre season football.


I got lots of interior details for this, and so I planned for interior detail from the get go. before I pit down the floor I put in two inspection pits I some bench work was under the 3rd track, so it didn't get one.

A skeletal building would look way better than the mock up.


Bill Nelson
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML mrking dr opnngs.jpg marking the door opening positions

My sawmill was built over a foam core mock up. It was my original plan to do the same with the engine house. I abandoned that plan cause I couldn't get the door openings satisfactorily sitghted.


to do so with a built up wall, the wall will be built on a beam that runs across the floor . I'm using a NMRA standard gauge to mark the opening. I'll frame up the wall on that board, and when it's built up, I'll cut the door openings. I'll drill some holes through the beam and the floor below it, and fix brass pins in one or the other to fix the building in place.
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
in the engine house is my favorite big rod engine power, a little River 2-4-4-2. this one is #21 an ancient Gem model, that was old when I bought it in 1974. It wouldn't run well, and would pull only 4 cars on the flat. I've lost count of the times I have modified it, but it can pull an 18 car train up a 3.3% grade, and pulles petter in a curve than it does on the staight.

#22 a much newer composite locomotive, runs much better, but can only pull about half of what #21 can, and with the cast boiler doesn't have room to pack a bunch of lead into.
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
When I made the last post , I couldn't remember #22's importer , It is an oriental , powerhouse (their label for composite locomotives). it is an excellent running locomotive out of the box. I have wanted to check it out for possible mods to make it pull more, but have yet to figure out how to get it apart. the one time I had the front frame off, it took me two hours to get it back on, and I haven't had it off yet since.

Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML out  of  the  engine  shops.jpg out of the engine shops

Today I have been cleaning up my work table, sorting tools and getting them organized putting away a lot of stuff that was gathered for the Surry parker project.


Cleaning got out of control, and I was cleaning the closet be fore I knew it. well my two MDC 2 truck shays were in the closet. I remembered they were in for repairs, as #8 had gotten out of kilter and had developed a stutter and the other (#7 I think- it's not numbered yet, and it looks just like #8) had split it's axle gears.

I took them up the the RR room, and tested them out, and #8 ran perfectly (it is about the slowest, smoothest quietest locomotive I own). #7 shakes a little at some speeds, but is smooth at others. I think I'm going to try to tun the dog out of it, and see if it smooths out, as it is a relatively new addition, and has not worked real hard yet.

since they both ran OK, I'm thinking they must have stayed down there to get some cosmetic work (or I never got around to testing them). In any case they are both up in Crooked Creek now. #8 has been in service on the mountain division for many years. it was built with all of the NWSL upgrade gears, an on-track replacement boiler (which back dates the locomotive, and is a cleaner , heavier casting). #8 has a big honking gear reduction motor in it also. #7 was built similarly only it has a cannon copier motor, which while it is a good strong slow motor it is not quite as slow as the gear reduction motor. #7 will go into service on the mountain division, I'm toying with the idea of using #8 as the mill switcher @ Crooked Creek.

In any case the workbench is getting cleaned off for the construction of the crooked creek engine house.

Bill Nelson
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML CC EH wl #1 fr.jpg framed wall

I have started framing the front wall for the Crooked Creek engine house. the engine house doors are built to the profile of an NMRA standards gauge. the wood at the bottom of the door openings will be cut out after this frame is planked. this framing is on the light side, but it is just there to hold the board and batten walls together, the roof, with the coupala and skylights will be supported by a separate post and beam frame inside the structure.

I have left the studs off above the small freight door at the right. I'm wanting to put some windows up there, but haven't selected them yet, once I have them in hand I can set the studs up for the needed openings.

the left side wall is smack dab up against the wall, but I'm going to make it with door and window openings anyway. the benchwork for Crooked Creek is made to come apart, and If I built the wall blank, I'd probably end up being able to set Crooked Creek up as a pennsua, and there would be that blank wall right in my face.


Bill Nelson
 
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Doctor G

Well-Known Member
Hey Bill,

Looks good. Like the use of the NMRA standards guage to get the door openings done.

I too used the NMRA guage to frame out the doors for the engine house at Spittenchoo on the club RR.

Doc Tom:thumb:
 

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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
It makes a mighty big door, but saves me the embarrassment of a 2-4-4-2 not fitting . the 2-4-4-2's are too long to fit in the two stall engine house in Harlow. I built a larger one stall engine house to hold #21, once I get this one done #22 can have a roof on it as well.


Since #21 pulls so much better than #22, I think I'll base it out of Crooked creek, pulling freight trains to Harlow, and I'll base #22 in Harlow, and use it to pull smaller mixed trains between Harlow and Crooked Creek. It will be interesting to try to establish some passenger service, as well as operations at all on the valley division, other than the logtrain


Bill Nelson
 

Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML CC EH  w:Dr dtl.jpg SML CC EH frnt wl fr#2.jpg progress on wall

I was able to fit a grant line D & RG W RR freight door into the big opening on the frame (Yea!). A window from a Walther's back woods engine house cut down nicely to fit above the freight size door, and I have another one (thanks Dr. Tom!)

I'll need to put a man sized door on the side wall, as well as some larger freight sized doors and some regular windows down the side wall.

I have a bunch of grant line windows I can use, and a few man size doors,, so it looks like I can do this with materials on hand. which is a good thing when you don't have a LHS.

Time to start on another wall

Bill Nelson
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
SML bad wall.jpg SML MA's pl.jpg SML MA'S Pl atd#1.jpg SML Ma's PL atd #3.jpg and now for something completely different!

while hunting for miscellaneous windows and doors for the engine house project I found a junk box. In that junk box was one of those ubiquitous model buildings, who's moulds made the rounds, and it was produced under many labels.

I remember it being marketed as "Ma's place." I built this one when I was in high school, and it was the only building in a tank town on the RR I had as a Teenager in Atlanta. GA the town consisted of this building, a water tank and a woodpile.

That RR was torn down by my dad (I was away @ Sewanee TN. in college) in 1977. this building has not been on a RR since. My first inclination was to carry it to the club, but I think we have two identical buildings there already.

I decided to cut it into two smaller buildings. I have been working to come up with more small buildings in order to increase the apparent population of Perry's Gizzard and the Ridgemont Tn. / State Line GA. area. The later is only a foot wide at places so flats on the backdrop are in order to try to make the place look like a place that might be the terminus of several railroads.

I cut the store front off the cabin, and then cut the store front down to a flat a couple inches deep. the back wall from the store section, now discarded was cut down to use as the missing end wall of the cabin.

This kitbashing from a built structure is something I have been doing a lot of, as at the club sometimes we have two or three of the same building, often in disrepair, or missing pieces, and so reconfiguring them is an interesting challenge. typically the parts you want to use fall apart at the seams, and the joints you want to separate are completely fused and must be cut with a razor saw.


This is also similar to what I'm doing to my house. I live in a farmhouse that is at least 130 years old. When a bathroom was added they used the back porch, and my wife and I are working on rebuilding the bathroom. We have discovered that whoever built the wall that enclosed the back porch did a spectacularly poor job (the wall is not attached in any meaningful way to the floor, and there is no overhang on the roof to protect it from moisture.) . That and perhaps fifty years have made that wall completely un-fixable. so we are tearing out the wall, returning to a back porch ( we can do this now that we have another bath and a half), and starting over, hopefully with a better understanding of the principles of basic carpentry and the laws of physics.

Bill Nelson
 
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Bill Nelson

Well-Known Member
Yes it is a lot of work, but one of the neat things with model trains is all the stuff goes together. I'm modifying something that I built 35 years afo, and it is going to go on the RR. I only have a few buildings that old on the railroad, but there are several locomotives and lots of cars that are that old.

So when you look through the pictures there are many many years of work involved.


Bill Nelson
 
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