The Sarlacc Pit?

 

Mock up of engine storage tracks

I was distracted for a few days by an interesting track plan assignment. So today, I started building the pit for the turntable. If you recall, I built this turntable for the Road Show several years ago. I saved the rotating wooden part, but not the pit. So I had to make a new pit. Note that this pit is a conical shape, like the Sarlacc Pit in Star Wars. Now I need Boba Fett figure for the turntable scene. 

I thought, "no problem, I have the files for the parts on my computer, I'll just cut an another set and glue them up." That went well enough for the main pit. But,... for some reason, the wedge-shaped pieces to make the surface of the pit were not the correct size. I must not have saved the final version of that file. So I had to redraw those parts. Now, they are tricky to design as I had to cut the parts in 2D but rotate up to make a 3D cone. It's kind of like trying to make a model of a building with hipped roof from 2D plans, except a bit trickier as this is a truncated cone or frustum.

I could have spent a few hours doing the math, but instead I got out my calipers, measured the required shape and cut the parts on the laser. It took a try or two but I got the parts I needed. I cut those parts from 0.032 in thick laser board. 

Plan B v2 with storage tracks

Now the decision is where to place the turntable. I am coalescing on a modified version of Plan B from my earlier post.  Note that I am adding two engine storage tracks to the design. I like how the parked engines look alongside the engine house. The storage tracks are needed as I have 6 engines, but we usually only use 2 or 3. 

I did a short video describing how the turntable could fit in the space. 

New Engine House and Machine Shop at Aquia Landing

 Work in Progress on the new engine house and machine shop

MYSTERY PROJECT REVEALED!

I have started work on a new engine house and machine shop. This project was inspired by a letter by Herman Haupt to General Burnside where he briefly described an engine shop at Aquia Landing. 

November 17, 1862-11 a.m.

Major-General BURNSIDE:
I have just returned from Aquia Creek. ....snip...
A machine-shop will be extemporized at Aquia by sending lathes, planer, portable, small tools, and shafting. Army forges will furnish smith-shops.
HAUPT.

From the machines and tools he described I assume that this would be a shop for light repairs and maintenance on locomotives and rolling stock.   

This project consists of three main phases, design and build the machine shop, build and add the tools,  install everything on the layout. These are somewhat iterative as the size of the machine shop needed will depend on how many machines are included.

1. Design and build the machine shop 

 I decided I wanted this to be a higher quality model than the existing engine house I built years ago for the Road Show. So I scrapped that structure saving the roof shingled sections. I plan to redo all the windows, so I removed the Tichy windows and put them in the spares box.

Engine house framing at City Point

 The  new single track engine house at Aquia Landing will be based on the one at City Point with just one stall instead of the 3 at that location.  The length will be 15 inches with the main posts on 10-foot centers.  The frame members will all be stick built with bass wood strips. Some I will cut on my laser for precise fit of the miters and tenons (yes they look like Lincoln Logs).  I used 3/16th inch wood as that scales out to 9 inches in O Scale. Heavier beams just didn't look right. 

Framing plan for new engine house

Engine house and machine shop
at City Point

At City Point, the machine shop was installed at right angles to the engine house. I opted to make my parallel to the engine house to maximize room inside for the machine tools and work benches. I have not decided where to place the boiler house with steam engine. That depends on where I install the engine house.

I initially planned to add the engine house and machine shop inside the wye and Aquia Landing where the current engine house is located. But several other plans came to my mind.

Alternative plans for location of new engine house and machine shop

Plan A is possibly the simplest (see lead photo). The engine house resides inside the wye. There would be no changes to the track plan. The drawback is that the location of the machine shop would make it hard to see all the cool detail inside. 

Plan B mock up

Plan B moves the engine house close to the aisle between Aquia Landing and Burnside Wharf. To accomplish that, the wye gets replaced by a turntable. I have an extra turntable leftover from the Road Show, so it would not be that much work to add it. The drawback here is that the turntable might be a little difficult to reach as it is deep in benchwork. The plus is that it gives the most flexibility as there would be two tracks to access the turntable. 

Plan C Mock up

Plan C has the turntable and the shop close to the aisle by placing it alongside the engine house. This is how they did it at City Point. Accessing the turntable would be easier here. But, there is only one track to access the turntable. 

I like how both B & C make getting to Burnside wharf seem a bit farther away than Plan A as crews can no longer back around the wye to get there, they have to go all the way back to the yard and them come down the back track. B & C also remove the wye track that was probably my least reliable piece of track. It worked well most of the times, but sometimes trains derailed on the wye, especially when backing. 

The location of the boiler house and steam engine to power the tools would change depending on which plan I pick. In  Plans A & B, the boiler house is parallel to the shop. In Plan C the boiler house is perpendicular to the engine house.  In all those cases, the steam engine pulley would be parallel to the main line shaft.  

What are your thoughts? Comment below. 

2. Building the Tools

I am just about done making the tools for the machine shop. I am using some kits from Wildwest Models plus models that I am drawing in Fusion 360 and then printing.  So far I have the following:

1. Planer 1    Wildwest kit
2. Planer 2     3D print
3. Engine lathe  Wildwest kit
4. Bench lathe  Wildwest kit
5. Slotting machine  3D print
6. Wheel press  3D Print
7. Dill press small Wildwest kit
8. Grinder small Wildwest kit
9. Shaper   TBD
10. Borer   TBD

Mock up of tools in the shop

I will do a more detailed report on the tools when I get them installed. 

Trip Reports and Another Sneak Peak

Sultana heads to dock in Cambridge, MD

The talks at the North Carolina RPM and the Chesapeake forum went well. 

CAROLINA RPM

I carpooled to the Carolina RPM with Mike Pulaski. He lives in Richmond, about a 3.5 hour drive to Greensboro. So I drove to his house the night before.  I had a chance to see his layout again on Friday and see his latest progress. We left his house at 500AM on Saturday and made it to the meet as it was getting started.

Butch Eyler had this display of cars weathering over time

The meet was fairly small with about 50 attendees. They held it is a conference center for a small business. The facility is quite nice with couches and chairs in the foyer and snack room with free drinks and donuts, and later pizza for lunch. They had one track of clinics to attend. 

The model display room was small with about 6 people showing models. The vendor room was also small. But I was happy that vendor Aaron Chamberlain was there with basic supplies as I purchased tools and phosphor bronze wires.

I attended most of the clinics. One tidbit I learned was that certain solder fluxes can be conductive. You need to be careful when soldering on printed circuit traces and use non-conductive flux. 

I was the last speaker to present. By then, the meet had thinned out and perhaps 15 people were present for my talk. I think everyone enjoyed it.

On Saturday night we visited a large club layout in Greensboro, got caught in a heavy rains and saw several NS trains roll through town while eating dinner.

All in all it was a fun time. Thanks to Mike for driving and Amy for hosting me Friday night.

CHESAPEAKE FORUM

A few days later I drove to Easton to present another talk. That one was more oriented toward civil war railroad history. I think it went very well. The audience members asked a lot of questions. Later, the Chesapeake Forum coordinator sent me feedback comments and they were very positive. One person said they could, "listen for another hour."

Roger Sekera and his wife, Sue, were my hosts while in Easton. We operated his HO switching layout after the talk. He designed the layout with ideas from my article on the C&O Brooke Yard that I wrote over 20 years ago. It took the two of us about 2 hours to switch the car float and various industries.  

Sue made a nice dinner and we enjoyed a walk around his lovey neighborhood.We crashed early after dinner.  Thanks to Roger and Sue for hosting me. 

The next morning I got up early and visited Blackwater Wildlife Refuge and the Pickering Audubon Center. I saw a lot of birds and got some good pictures.

On my way home I spotted the Sultana heading into the dock at Cambridge Maryland. Sultana is a replica of a Revolutionary War sailing vessel. I stopped to get some pictures of the Classic Chesapeake scene with the schooner and light house. 

MYSTERY PROJECT

The plot thickens. 

Here are more sneak peaks at part of the mystery project. Any idea what it might be?