Cartoon Wednesday

 

The Colorado & Northwestern in On30

I really enjoyed working on the D&RGW switching plan (Warehouse Row) in 3D. Since I "completed" that model I have been contemplating doing it again. When I decided to do the Malinowski tribute kit builds I thought it would be an opportunity to do it again this time for the On30 layout. 

While I would love to have a layout the does the Colorado & Northwestern justice I don't have the space and I don't want a second switching layout. I envisioned a figure 8 layout with a few places to switch cars but the emphasis on scenery, good sight lines for photography and letting the trains just roll.

There are a couple of parameters. It has to be less than 4' wide and breakdown in to at least two sections so it can be moved and stored easily. Being able to make it come apart definitely adds complications to the build but I'm not going to worry about that for the model. Scenery needs to be lightweight and relatively tough so the bulk of it is going to be carved out of pink/blue. The C&N, like many Colorado railroads, ran along stream banks so a stream, and the opportunity to build a few bridges, are required features.

Looking at a few maps and a lot of pictures I decided that the little mining town of Salina would fit the bill (other than the figure 8) for the location. The station is a bit separated from the town itself and the town kind of straggles up the gulch with at least one of the mines, the Black Cloud, dominating the gulch and the town. Plus the switching is more extensive than a lot of other spots on the C&N and practically everything is on a curve.

 With that in mind I started doodling around with the compass and curve radii. I settled on 20" radius which, in theory, should accomodate the 2-8-0s that I finally managed to acquire. However, the problem with the radius is it really shortens up the passing siding to the point of making it almost useless if I limit myself to an 8' length. To combat that I stretched from 8' to 10'. The compromise is to break the layout down into three pieces, instead of the 2 pieces I was hoping for; 1 6' long and 2 2' long. For the width I needed 40" to accomodate th radius plus a couple of inches on either side which brings us to 44" wide. I'm not sure that only saving 4" from the less than 4' requirement is actually worth it and maybe in the end I'll just go all the way out to 4'.

I went through 5 or 6 iterations before I arrived at one that, mostly, fit the bill. Here are a few pictures to illustrate.

The "final" iteration of the track plan

I photocopied it so I wouldn't mess up the original when I glued it down to a sheet of PVC.

I used some contact cement to glue the paper down to the PVC and cut the whole thing out. This actually didn't work out very well. The paper started to peal away from the PVC pretty quickly as I started to cut it out. The happy accident was that the contact cement actually transferred the track plan right to the PVC so when the paper pealed away the drawing was still on the PVC.

I then cut a piece of Gatorboard to serve as the "tabletop". Its 1/4" thick so I'll have to add some more foam, of some kind, so I can really carve down below the track level.

I glued down the areas that would be elevation 0" that establishes my baseline level.

I then added some risers for the grades. The issue is I need to go from 0" to 5" in about 8' so the grades are steep. However, the C&N averaged about a 4% grade and in the area of Salina there was a section that was close to 7% (not for a long stretch but its still quite the obstacle).

A look from the side.

A closer look at the bridge crossing and the spot where I "cut in" another switch. Originally the train was to enter from the right side, but that created an awkward spot with the grades. By cutting in the switch on the 0" elevation I got around the grade issue on the right.

Now I just need to find some foam to cut up to make create a bit of scenery.

Cartoon Wednesday

 

The Roger Malinowski Tribute Part 1 - The Gunshop

I have been missing in action for the better part of the month, not intentionally but sometimes the days just fly by. I have been slowly working through a couple of projects so things have been happening but life just got in the way of actually blogging about anything. I couldn't even keep up with Cartoon Wednesday! On the plus side the garden is in and we didn't have a hail storm right after we finished like last year. It did take a lot of time though.

So recently I discovered that Roger Malinowski had passed away from cancer all the way back in November of 2022. I only found out when I visited the website for Stoney Creek Designs to see if there was anything new. I have been slowly accumulating his kits for years and have about a dozen in the cupboard waiting to be built and my intent has always been to build them not collect and resell them. There are still 3 or 4 that I would like to acquire but the prices have gone through the roof if they come up for sale at all.

That leads into my decade + fascination with On30 and the search for the Bachmann 2-8-0. Recently I have managed to acquire not 1 but 2 of these engines and have been scribbling designs for a small (ish) On30 layout to run them on. This would not replace the D&RGW HO layout (which is set in the late '50s) but would share the same basic space so it has to be something I can take down and store away when I need to scratch the HO scale itch. At this point this layout will, primarily, showcase the Stoney Creek Design kits so I anticipate operations being somewhat limited with a focus more on scenes and photography those scenes.

I figured I could, at least, go ahead and start putting together the kits on hand so I opted to start with one of the "easier" kits; The Gunstore from the Crossroads Collection. This series of four kits were not limited editions like his regular line of limited edition kits and his intent was to keep them in stock. I didn't really take a lot of pictures of this build so I'm just presenting everything that I have in somewhat the correct order.

I used Clever Creek Model texture files for the floor and walls on the inside.

The basic building finished and the roofs being test fitted.

Shingles!

Tar paper on the back addition

The finished building sections. The white door is the interior door from Grande Line (now owned by San Juan)

A look inside. Since all the models will be up very much in the foreground I want to be able to detail the interior. That required modifying both roofs to be removable. I also plan on adding lighting.

From the front. The miniature is a prospector figure from Reaper Miniatures. Despite being a 28mm Heroic sized miniature he is still on the short side maybe 5’4” or 5”

The base is a piece of gatorboard. It’s about 1/2” wide all around the building and only has some basic scenery completed. The front porch is scratch built from coffee stir sticks.