What's On Your Workbench 1/2023

[Keith Hayes]

It is a new year already and we haven't heard from a lot of folks lately. Chris, what is happening on the light railway down under? How are the goats?

Jeff, Jon, Pat, Espee? Where has that truck taken you lately?

We all know Jim is recovering from CAS (clerestory assembly syndrome). Thanks for documenting the battle, Jim.



In January Elfa stuff is on sale at The Container Store. A while back, I got hooked on these units as The can roll to the bench or work area and I can store like items in a drawer. So I have a rail/ track/ soldering drawer. One for tools, another for switch machines and so on. A while back I cut up some thin cardboard to organize my styrene,  but have not done so for stripwood until today. Remember time looking for stuff is time not modeling!

As they roll about,  I anticipate using some for train crew paperwork in the future. If they only had a drink holder....

Let's get organized out there!

[Mike Trent]

I'm working on an extension North of the depot at Dickey. Ties are glued down, and I'm ready to start gluing ballast, etc. I intend to get my layout complete as my plan was to be ready for the Convention Layout tour. I've made good progress in my recovery from an adventure with my health last summer, as most of you know. Lesson to be learned? Get stuff done while you can, because you just never know!!

I've also always kept a roster of equipment, both Motive power and rolling stock. Dates acquired and from where, modifications, dates completed, etc. When my computer went down a couple years ago, I found that I had last backed up my roster in early 2016. All my more recent stuff was lost. So I've been restoring and updating all that stuff into my new 2024 Roster. I replaced my phone in June, and was not able to capture years of photos out of my old one. Now, it appears that my entire gallery in my old phone is gone. Crap! So, this weekend I have turned to the search function in the archives of this site by putting in my name and whatever I had posted here that might help with information to add to my roster. Fortunately, I had posted photos and dates of various projects in recent times (post 2016) that have made it possible to get caught up. Since my first entry into C&S On3 was in January, 1980 (my #74). Virtually nothing I had bought or built during the first 10 years had not been sold over the years.  Since then, a lot of it has been reacquired or replaced or added to, so it makes pretty interesting reading over the last 43 years. Now, I'm  glad I have restored all of that, and I encourage you to do the same while you can. Eventually, someone will need to sift through all of the stuff in your collection. Even if it's you. And back up your pictures too!

So, not everything is workbench related, but still important.

[Jim Courtney]

. . . Jim is recovering from CAS (clerestory assembly syndrome)

My doctor insists that I need at least 2 more weeks of bedrest before beginning any new C&S modeling project.

Since we're going to Texas the last week of January for the grandson's wedding, I doubt there will be anything on my workbench until February. I might get it cleaned off and reorganized though.

PS.  Keith, it's 2024 now.

[Tim Schreiner]

Built a new work station, and I’m eager to mess it all up!

[Jeff Osborne]

Working on getting my OMI Sn3 #60 and #71 finished up.

Completed the replacement of the older open style gearboxes with Boo Rim 37:1 gearboxes and replaced the Mashima 1630 can motors with Sagami 1630 can motors.

[Jim Courtney]

Hey Jeff,

This is something that I need to do as well. I have a stash of the same BooRim gearboxes.

How did you mount the BooRim gearbox to the OMI mechanism? The axle for the BooRim main gear is 3.0 mm. The axles on the OMI 2-8-0 drivers are only 2.5 mm.

How did you solve this issue??

Also, do you plan to add a torque arm between the motor and the gearbox?

[drgwcs]

What's on my workbench besides a big mess???
Anyhow still working on the Bobtail mill (a slice of it at least) This thing is going to drive me crazy before I complete it. I got the lights under the walkway finished after about three failed attempts. I still have to finish hiding the wires. The raised walkways are convenient for that- although I had to change the orientation of the boards. Now on to railings and finishing the tables then the posts and roof structure and the wilifly tables and the straightjacket......... 

[Pat Student]

Parts to build a PBL 5500 in its as built configuration.

[Chris Walker]

The Tramway is going full blast Keith....just hauled out the 1000 load of clay from the quarry last week....and my last remaining Goat is out sunning today after stuffing herself full of fresh willow trimmings.

This is still on my workbench....a 1/16th scale 1940's Waukesha 6BZ 320 cu in 6cyl Flathead as fitted to my 1948 Link-Belt Speeder LS-50 Dragline/Shovel.  Apart from the Delrin Chain to drive the Dipperstick crowd and the braided wire-rope, all my work, but I'll have to resort to 00-90/0-80 to finish off the nbw as my hands are now toast.






I'm currently bogged down on the Winchdeck making the band clutches, all seven of them.

[tonyk375]

Incredible work Chris!

After a long break, Restarted work on my Sn3 D&RGW OO rotary.

3

[Keith Hayes]

Outstanding,  Chris! What scale is this?

[Jim Courtney]

Chris, that is exquisite model fabrication!  I envy your talent / skill set.

[Loggerhead]

Just finished a pair of J&S psngr trucks to go under my D&RG California Fruit Line car

[Loggerhead]

[Loggerhead]

[SteveG]

Stepping back and looking at it with fresh eyes, I'd have to say utter chaos:



But trying to deconstruct the attempted multi-tasking at work here, there's a Lambert 2-6-0 from eBay that arrived sans motor, and will be a re-motoring/DCC project, a D&RGW C-25 that the seller threw in for free with some significant damage (no lead truck, a lot of loose elements indicative of a fall) that I'm using to learn resistance soldering techniques, some early attempts at three-way stubs for Como yard, plus some parts for more standard turnouts for the staging yards, a bunch of 3D projects including 1902 coal/flat underframes, ASF bolsters, NY brake gear, oil headlights, early (flanged) tender shells, and bridle bars, the template for the interior supports for the Como roundhouse. Somewhere in there are some experimental brackets for Arduino-controlled servos for switch control.
The spray booth is temporarily occupied by the roundhouse wall segments, where I'm trying to get the random rock look near correct before doing some washes and overspray to get the overall colors right:



And over in the benchwork area, the start of the staging yard for London Junction on to Gunnison which will sit under much of Como:



And the panel for the east yard and roundhouse, which will go over the staging:



And last but not least, the DCC-EX command station a friend built for me, that has ongoing issues running a breadboarded DCC test decoder installation which responds perfectly to my NCE PowerCab, but not to the DCC-EX station, even though a second decoder seems to work fine with the latter:



All I need now is focus to finish at least one of these projects. :)

Steve Guty,
Lakeway, TX

[Mike Trent]

OK, here ya go. This image shows my entire layout and, if you can see that small mobile table, my workbench that I have been using for about 12 years. Yep, that's it. On that little thing I built #75, the flanger, Mail and Baggage #13, numerous freight cars, everything. Space was a real premium for me in Alabama and it still is. Naturally, I do my painting outside. My small tools are in a tackle box at the bottom and paint and other small necessities in that small cardboard box.

As to the layout, the area to the left of the depot is "North Dickey" which is being completed now. Ties are ballasted and dressed, ready for ground cover and then rail. If you don't think you have room for a layout or even a workbench, you might be surprised what you can do in a small space. In Alabama, there was a wall which ended my space at the depot. The wye ended where the door was into my room. So it was a lot smaller then.

I've had big layouts in the past, and, to be honest, this is big enough for me. It's as though I'm here in Dickey in 1935. Trains run through here six days a week. Dickey is not a destination. It's a Coaling Station. And a Division point of sorts, considering the three mile Dillon and Keystone Subdivision. When North Dickey is done, I can run a short local North to Dillon and Keystone. In addition to my operation now.

The C&S was the smallest Class 1 Railroad in the Country. Even the orphaned stepchild narrow gauge ran as a Class 1 operation. And mine does too. What a hobby.

Today's trains are ready and visible. Extra #76-#74 East is coming off the wye from Leadville with 10 cars, and Passenger Train No. 70 is arriving from Denver with #9. It takes about 20 minutes to run and set up for the next day and that's about right for me. Still plenty to do on my little empire, but I don't think I'd care to have it any other way.

[Dave Eggleston]

Mike,

I love this. As someone who's space challenged (and I think that is the vast majority of us) seeing your use of space is inspiring. Paul Scoles once confided to me that his basement layout was too large, that he wished he'd focused on a smaller footprint offering far less maintenance and far more satisfaction. Compressing the South Park isn't easy but you've done it wonderfully.

What are the dimensions of the layout? Do you have staging at either end--doesn't look like it but hard to tell from the image.

Thanks!

[Mike Trent]

Thanks, Dave. Back in the 80's I had aspirations of a much larger On3 layout in Boulder. Got a good start with Dickey as my focal point. Todd Hackett, still in High School at the time helped out with fantastic Dickey structures for the railroad. I built locomotives and rolling stock.

Life found me years later in circumstances that would not afford me with space for a large layout maybe ever again. I had too much invested in my collection in both time and money to change scales, not to mention Todd's structures.  So I set out to do what I could in a spare bedroom that was also my office. It was about 10x10. So I decided to build an On3 diorama of a compressed Dickey. I added an "L" that was about 2×4' to the door. So my original size was about 10x7.

When I came back to Colorado I had room to add another 5' beyond the depot. So, with the same "L"in place representing the Wye and mainline to Leadville, the layout is now 15x7.

I've been in this hobby most of my life and had a lot of great friends over the years many of whom are represented in their work here. Todd Hackett, of course, Joe Crea's water tanks, Bob Stull's Mercantile, Bill White's NG Dead Goat Saloon, a shed extension to the rear of the engine house (now relocated mostly into the North Dickey extension) by Tom O'Connor, Jeff Young who took the photos for the backdrop, Bob Stears, Will Cheshire, Rob Smith, Paul Schenk, and the artwork overhead of John Coker, one of which is original.

Now that I am back in the area, I will be happy to have anyone stop by. Just let me know, and we can work that out. Happy to provide photos if there is interest.

[Mike Trent]

The only future plan at this time for the layout is for a removable piece that will extend the third leg of the wye from North Dickey to the end of the "L". It has to be removable so I can lift the long engine house as needed.