Jim Dufour stopped by for a visit today. The hours flew by while we had great fun running freight train RI-2 between Danbury CT and the interchange yard with the B&A at Stateline MA.
Jim says I need to start posting on this blog again, he is right, will do Jim!
More to come.
Roundhouse roof supports
The blank left exterior wall will not be seen once the structure is in place on the layout. The interior side of the same wall will be inclosed as part of the shop/boiler room and also not be seen on the completed model, this makes a good surface plate for a jig to assemble the floor to roof supports.
The styrene blocks glued to the interior wall below will locate the prototypical 10"x10" vertical support posts while gluing the roof joists in place completing the assembly.
It is worth mentioning that the set of plans acquired from UCONN have a separate roof support plan that would allow a model to be built exactly complex as the prototype. This would not be seen on the completed model, so the much simplified support below will be adequate.
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Roundhouse sides, ends & windows
The original NH roundhouse plans purchased from the UCONN library has a good elevation drawing of one side of the roundhouse.
This drawing offeres little in working dimensions but the 106' 11" length of the structure sides plus window and door dimensions and their locations are known from the base floor plan. Enlarging this drawing to HO scale will later be a guide in locating and sizing the roof top ventilators.
When the finished roundhouse model is installed on the layout, the side that will be seen from the aisle is the opposite side from this drawing. Following standard practice for structures on the layout, the unseen side below will remain a blank styrene sheet.
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Windows
Window and door dimensions are unique to this roundhouse and not available in HO scale.
Ready made windows from Tichy Train Group that can be kitbashed to resemble the prototype are used as a starting point, the finished product will be close enough to suite the needs of this layout.
The photo below shows the two types of Tichy windows used and the finished windows kitbashed from them.
Windows #1 are the large windows that will be located in the back ends of the roundhouse, these are made from Tichy #8036.
Windows #2 are the side windows and frame, also made from #8036.
Windows #3 will be located above the front roundhouse door openings and boiler room, made from Tichy #8295.
Windows #4 above the side doors are also from #8295, shown here with the door frame. The associated sliding side doors have an unusual width and height and will be scratchbuilt, #8036 will also be used for the door windows (not shown).
The sides and ends
The above drawing indicates that novelty or clapboard siding was to be used on this structure. In the photo below although not very clear, it appears that the siding may be the novelty type and will be used on the model.
Evergreen styrene .040" novelity siding was purchased in a longer 12" x 24" sheet so the length of the sides could be made in one continuous piece. With the window sizes established the openings are cut out.
The front of the roundhouse will also be seen once in place on the layout. The boiler room/shop wall and plain surfaced walls over the engine bays are made and windows test fitted in photo below.
The side finished with windows installed, scratchbuilt doors and all trim in place below.
The rear walls of the engine bays will be seen from the inside only as in the prototype photo above. Below, the three assenbled inside walls.
Next, the engine bay roof supports will be assembled.
Roundhouse floor
The roundhouse baseplate made with masonite in part 8 has been covered with .040" styrene, the roundhouse floor surface now being the same material that building will be modeled with making it easier to glue all of the individual structure pieces to the floor with a styrene cement. The styrene was glued to the Masonite with ACC.
The styrene floor was not made one piece, there are four larger full length pieces, one of each located on ether side of the inspection pits with a smaller filler piece at the back end of each pit at the rear of the roundhouse.
A styrene jig cut to the full pit length of and width between the rails was made to hold the rails in gauge when gluing the rails to the masonite baseplate on ether side of the inspection pits. Once the rails were in place the jig was cut into three pieces to be used as filler pieces at the front of the inspection pits at the roundhouse entrance.
The rails are cut .375" longer that the inspection pits, this leaves an open slot for the rails of the lead tracks from the turntable to slip into so the rail joints are inside the building and not at the hard transition between the roundhouse floor and the outside ground.
Before the rails were glued inplace a power feed wire was soldered to the rear end of each rail, the wires are taped between the rails to keep them out of the way until the structure is finally located into the layout.
Baseplates for the roof support posts were glued in place at this step, they may be hard to see in the below photo. Each plate has a .030" hole drilled into the center of the plate, these holes will later accept a corresponding pin affixed in the center of each support post to locate them during assembly.
Several signature structures are needed to complete the State Line interchange yard and Rising Junction dioramas. Modeling efforts for the layout will now focus on these structures until completed.
As a reference, part 3 of this series describes layout location of the roundhouse and associated turntable. Parts 4 & 5 are about the modeling of the now completed turntable.
Modeling the 1918 roundhouse
The foundation
Fortunately for modeling, there are a set of original New Haven Railroad State Line roundhouse plans available for purchase from the University of Connecticut Library archives at the Storrs CT. campus.
Printing the ground floor plan from the set in HO scale has been very helpful in transferring the dimensions of the foundation in relation to the turntable and locating the structure onto the layout surface, see below.
After marking the four corners of the structure onto the layout surface, the print was trimmed to just the foundation footprint.
Next, the inspection pits were cut out of the print and the locations were transfered to the layout surface and cut in.
Part 1 offered a short history of the B&M converted troop sleepers to baggage/express cars and the reasoning why B&M baggage/express cars frequently appeared on the New Haven Berkshire route during the era of the layout.
B&M car #3266 was chosen as the prototype for modeling solely because this car was the first one with a photo surfacing that offered enough visual informatiom to model from.
Where to start?
A Walthers Gold Line PS Troop Sleeper was used as a starting point for the B&M car because of familiarity and wish for consistency with the New Haven converted troop sleeper (below) also modeled starting with a Walthers car.
The NH car used replacement brass car sides that correctly modeled the NH prototype.
At one time replacement brass car sides may have been offered to correctly model the B&M car but unaware of them at the time this project statrted, locating them may have been an impossibility anyway.
The Walthers troop sleepers have been out of production for some time. It was very fortunate to find an undecorated Walthers Troop Sleeper 932-4150 as a starting point.
Starting with the undecorated troop sleeper allows to interestingly convert this model car using the same methods the Boston & Maine shops did converting the prototype Pullman troop sleeper #7562 to B&M messenger car #3266.
Modeling references
The Boston and Maine Historical Society newsletter Modelers NoteS issue #113 March-April 2008 has a very informative article on all the B&M converted troop sleepers authored by Col. (retired) Tom E. Thompson, with additional writings' by Tim Gilbert and John Horvath. Referenced in this article are the writings' on the same subject by Bruce Boden in issues #94 & 96.
These article's were invaluable to understanding the prototype and building this model.
Photos that offer enough to support an accurate model these messenger cars are scarce, those available were used.
Building the model of #3266
The modeling begins as did the B&M shops by removing the troop sleeper interior components and the window glazing, see below.
The sides of the Walthers car conveniently snap on/off.
With the car sides removed, the underside core frame needs clearance for the inset of the pair of baggage doors that will be cut into the car sides in the next step. Removing only the necessary material, enough is left to support snapping the car sides back into place. Before/after photos below.
The car sides are re-installed to check for the door inset clearance in relation to the inner core frame.
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In the photo below all the block off plates, new doors and battery boxes are shown. The battery boxes were assembled from various size strips of styrene.
The doors are made by starting with plan piece of .010" styrene and layering strips of .010" styrene on top to represent the side stiles, rails and mullions, cutting out the window after the door components are all in place.
The prototype photo of car #3266 shows the original 5 lite upper door panel. The B&M replaced many of these upper door panels with 3 lite panels with one glazed so a person could escape thru the opening in an emergency.
Because of the late 50's era of the layout the 3 lite upper panel was chosen, whether car #3266 had this configuration change is only conjecture on my part.
On the prototype the far right roof vent was removed on both sides and plated over as below. Near the center most roof vent on the opposite side of the car there is a noticeable piece of bent over brass, this is to represent the vent for the water tank for the messenger facilities in the center of the car.
Here all new components are in place and car ready to paint.
Badger Model Flex B&M maroon #16-189 and Micro Scale B&M passenger decal set # 87-1014 where used to finish the car.
There were still a few underbody details to add at the time of this photo but have since been installed.
Thank you to John Horvath and Col. (retired) Tom E. Thompson for all the information they kindly supplied that made modeling this car possible.
