Piling On

Over the past few nights I was able to get almost all the pilings and piling caps to the wharf at Aquia Landing installed.

In the photo you can see the spacer brackets I made to hold the pilings and piling caps in place while the glue dried. The stringers are not glued in yet, they are just temporarily in place.

 I may enlarge the wider area of the wharf to better accommodate the paddle wheel steamer, which you an see mocked up here on the left.

I am trying to decide what the next step should be. I might pour the water next. That way if I have a problem with the resin, I can access the area under the wharf deck. In the worst case, I can scrape it off and try again. Once the deck is installed, there will be limited access underneath it.  Stay tuned!

New Book on Waterfront Terminals and Operations

My newest book is now available for sale. You can order it from Kalmbach Hobby book store, Amazon, or your local hobby shop. If you want to get a signed copy please go to alkemscalemodels.com

Twinsville and Hidden Valley

A few months ago I was interviewed by Lionel Strang and Bruce Wilson of "A Modeler's Life." It is a fun little podcast that tries to get the behind the scenes stories of model railroaders and what they do when they aren't playing with trains. This week they published the interview on their website and iTunes. You can find it at this link.

My daughter was listening to it with me in the car when I mentioned "Twinsville." Twinsville was a train layout that my dad built for my twin brother and I when we were little boys living in Brooklyn, NY. That was about 55 years ago.  I remember the layout well, but many of the details faded from my memory. I knew there was a photo somewhere of it, but I did not have it.

When my daughter got home, she found the photo that I remembered in a collection that her mom had. So she sent me this quick cell phone snap. She will be sending the image to me so that I can clean it up in Photoshop as the image looks like it has had some damage in the half century since it was taken.

The two engineers are my brother and I. Note the spiffy bow ties and hats. The girl in the middle was a neighbor who I can't remember.

The steam engine was mine, while my brother had the diesel. I thought it was an ATSF war bonnet, but this looks like a New Haven unit. Anybody know for sure?

Note the station with the name of the town of Twinsville painted on the roof. I remember my dad hand painting the letters. My dad was really a great artist. He excelled at drawing cartoons.  Later in his life he took up acrylic painting and even sold some artwork.

In keeping with the family tradition, I built a train layout for Chase and Danica. They called it Hidden Valley. That layout would slide under Chase's bed. It was a dusty environment for a layout, but they took excellent care of it. I also built a dollhouse for Danica. I still have that in my house in the guest bedroom.

Yes, I am looking forward to grandchildren to continue the tradition.

Pier One

Meanwhile, back at Aquia Landing our hero has been sanding, puttying and painting the Potomac River surface. This is necessary before adding the wharves.

First pilings and pilot caps. Note the pile of precut pilings in the background. I need about 390 but I cut about 500.

 While the putty was drying, I cut about 500 piers approximately 0.625 inches long. I initially tried using my chop saw with a stop for the correct length. But the saw was not doing a good job with such small pieces. They were splintering and flying about the room.

The blue is actually darker than this image leads one to believe.

So I resorted to cutting the pilings on the laser. The quarter inch oak dowels were a challenge to cut. It took two passes with the laser to make the cut. I was hesitant to use the laser on stock this thick. The laser leaves a noticeable draft angle when cutting quarter inch wood. That is the kerf (i.e. the cut mark) is wider at the top than at the bottom. But a quick passs with the cut dowel over some sand paper squares up the cut surface.

I made a trio of pilings and pile caps assemblies (see first photo).

I am using a new glue that is optimized for wood. It looks and acts like a CAA glue, but supposedly can be sanded and stained.  Nonetheless, I prestained the parts as that should give the best results. The glue seems to work pretty well. It sets in 30 seconds. That is better than waiting for yellow glue to cure.

Three down and 50 or so to go.

Some touch-up on the backdrop will be necessary

CNC Benchwork

I've been working on some ideas for CNC benchwork for a future project. This is an exploded view of the design that would be used for a shadow box style layout.  However, the parts are somewhat modular and could be used to in various ways. The next step is to get some parts cut and see how they work out

Since I don't have a CNC router, I have to outsource the work. I am currently investigating vendors that provide that service. Stay tuned.