LED lights Installed

The layout with the LED strips installed. Note the different colors. The iPhone camera accentuated the
color difference. It is not as noticeable to the eye, especially with overhead lights on.

I installed the LED strip lights to the inner edge of the valance over the past two days. They work well. I used two strips on the narrower sections and three strips on the widest section. After installing them, I noticed that the second strip I installed is not the same color light as the first. I ordered only cool white lights, but it looks like I got one of each. For now I'll live with it. But I may have to go back and swap some of the strips to allow each section to have similar colored light.

The issue that some have noted with LED strips  of light spots reflecting off the rail tops does not seem to be a problem. It may be a function of the relative angles of the lights and rail.

We tried a clear, patterned diffuser, but it didn't enhance the lighting. It was also very difficult to cut without cracking. So we opted not to use it.

The mock-ups show how quickly O scale models fill up the layout space. If you convert this 29 feet long layout to N scale it is equivalent to a 6 inch by 4 feet layout not counting the staging.

Some good photos angles will be available on the layout

Road Show and a Movie

Gerry came up for a work session Saturday and we worked on finishing the bench work for the Road Show. First we tried different combinations of valances and supports. Once we decided on a path, another trip to Home Dept was required to pick up the necessary supplies.

We decided to use 1x2's and 1/2x2's for the valance framing. This made it strong enough that one can lift the sections by the valance without damage.  We used tee nuts and 5/16th inch bolts to connect the sections. So there are no clamps needed.

The sections are fairly light, about 5-10 pounds with folding legs and valance. We did not use any exotic materials in the construction. Mostly kiln dried, premium pine lumber, quarter-inch plywood and eighth-inch masonite.   Each section can be lifted by one person, though two people make it easier as they are a bit bulky. We are glad we kept them to four foot lengths.   Gerry and I were discussing the fixation some have on light weight construction and we both believe that it can be taken too far.  Stay away from three quarter inch plywood and you'll be fine with regard to weight.

This shows the integral folding
legs on the slanted section

 The sections have integral folding legs with diagonal braces. Most of the sections have one set of legs, except the big end section and the bridge section. Gerry plans to work on the bridge section at his house, so he wanted it to be able to stand on its own.

To assemble the road show layout, the only tool needed is a 1/2 inch wrench. If you are in a hurry, a 1/2 inch socket in a power drill speeds things up. It should not take us more than 15 to 30 minutes to set up.

 On Sunday I finished adding the valance and fascia. It is now ready for the next steps -  lighting and the foam terrain.

On a separate subject, I received a notice from Google that my photo quota has reached its limit. So you may find some older photos missing as I go back and purge some images.

Cherbourg Harbor Diorama

It's been a busy time so no work to report on the rail gun, home layout or Road Show. However, I did come across an interesting diorama that I thought would be appropriate to share on this blog. It depicts a scene from World War II showing the Allies harbor in Cherbourg, France. It is built about HO scale with 1/72 to 1/96th scale models used. It is a massive project built by a club with members from Belgium.  Check it out.

We are having an ACWRR Road Show work session this weekend, so hopefully there will be progress to blog about soon. If you are in the neighborhood and want to check it out or help out, drop me a line.

Lee-Brooke Railway Gun

We made it through Hurricane Sandy with no damage. Our power flickered a few times, but it stayed on. Our sump pump was working nearly continuously and it did its job. We have battery back-up on the pump, but I am thinking a generator might be a good investment. Without that pump, the basement and layout would flood.

The Lee-Brooke Railway Gun. The LoC has a high resolution
 copy of this image.

Since I don't have enough to do, I added some more projects to my do list. The first is a model of the Lee-Brooke Railway Gun in 1:32 scale to match the Dictator mortar model I had made previously.  These two models will be on display at the B&O Railroad Museum next year. The Dictator is done, but the Lee-Brooke Gun has to be finished in a few weeks.

I plan to document the Lee-Brooke Gun construction in more detail in my book, but I posted some in-progress shots here. This is a tricky project as only two photos exist of this gun and many details are not visible. Dr Dave Schneider, of SMR Trains, did a good job of researching the gun and some of its construction details, but there are still many unanswered questions.

I was able to get good measurements of an existing rifled and banded Brooke 32 pound 57 cwt cannon at the Navy Yard in Washington.   I machined the model gun from brass rods. The main tube, trunnions and knob are separate pieces. Being brass they were easy to solder using my torch.

Using the gun dimensions and the rail gauge visible in the photo, I was able to scale most of the other dimensions of the model from the photos.

Brass cannon

I concluded that the plans in Alexander's book, while very good for overall proportion are off by about 50 percent. He assumed that the wheels are 33 inch wheels. But they are smaller, probably closer to 26-28 inches. I used 42 inch O scale wheels from NWSL (thanks are due to Derrel and Linda at NWSL for the rush job in shipping the wheels to me.) These scale out to 28 inches in 1:32nd scale.

I machined axles out of iron rods. The trucks are laser cut wood and plastic. I used photo etched brake parts from my O scale cars to fabricate the brakes for the rear truck.

Trucks and frame before decking.

I decided to make all the wheels on pivoting trucks based on the truss rod patterns on the side frames. They indicated to me that the front truck was similar to the rear two trucks. It is moot since in normal viewing, you really can't see the trucks. I also added the truss rods on the frame even though they are not visible from above.

It should be noted that this car has no evidence of longitudinal truss rods. I suspect that the lengthwise planks  as well as the heavy wood framing for the ironclad casement also serve as the the longitudinal stiffeners. I originally added longitudinal frame blocking, but removed them after reconsidering the location of the truss rods. I probably should have added two lengthwise beams and used transverse blocking. Oh well. I will change that the next time I do it, maybe in O Scale.

The gun carriage was really a dilemma, as I could find no other cannon with a carriage like this one. It looks to me that they took a seacoast casement  carriage from a fortress and modified it to fit. It appears to be a cross between the casement carriage (Plate 10 US Army Ordnance manual) and the carriage for flank  casements (Plate 11 US Ordnance manual). But many of the visible details don't match either of those guns. The number of steps on the side walls, the screw elevation and the type of gun are different. The Plate 10 carriage is close but there is no tongue on this gun, and the wheel tracks on the rails are different. In fact, the wheel tracks are not visible in the Lee-Brooke Railway Gun photo, but I assumed they are there and hidden by the view angle of the photo.

Gun and carriage sitting on chassis. The casement is
started.

So the approach I took was to copy all the detail that I could see and then did a little imagineering for the rest.  Based on the angle that the carriage rails sit on, I suspect it may have some type of pintle giving it a limited traverse.  I plan on adding that feature.

Given the dearth of information, any suggestions would be appreciated.

Meanwhile, back on the layout...

Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on the Mid-Atlantic and we are all standing by hoping it will spare us. With our storm preparations complete, I thought I would do a blog post to catch up some loose ends.

Last month I did a quick scratch build of a simple cook house for the tavern scene. The idea for the cook house came from some books I borrowed from Gerry Fitzgerald about vernacular architecture. In particular the book, Back of the Big House: The Architecture of Plantation Slavery (Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern Studies) was very handy. I based my building on a similar structure from this book. This building houses a kitchen and servants quarters. The servants were likely slaves before the Union Army arrived. The building is now being used by the Army as a kitchen and Quartermaster office.

I used Tichy windows and scribed siding. The roof shingles are laser cut red cedar with self-stick adhesive. The chimney is a simple scratchbuild from sheets of brick paper over a wood core. Due to the steep hillside, I had to install the building on wooden pilings.

The cook house uphill from the tavern

To complete the tavern scene I will also add a well house, cold cellar, hitching post and other details. I started adding some fencing, but more of these will be required. I also need to paint the backdrop in this area.

Edwin Alexander's figures

A photo from Alexander's book showing some of these
figures on his layout.

Yesterday I received in the mail and package from John Brazaitis containing 6 O scale figures. He purchased these figures from Edwin Alexander near forty years ago.

This is a real treat for me, because about 20 years ago I purchased a copy of Alexander's book, "Civil War Railroads and Models." I saw it on the discount table at Crown Books (now defunct) and purchased it.  Since then I  have studied and examined this book endless times so that the binding is worn out and the pages are coming loose.  In large part it was my inspiration to try some Civil War Railroad modeling. So I am very grateful to John for sending me these figures. I look forward to painting them and adding them to a prominent place on the layout.

Lets hope we have a home and layout to come back to after the storm passes over.