Workday Wednesday - January 3rd, 2024

First WDWD of the New Year

Our illustrious "Workday Wednesday" crew is at it again following the Christmas break.

Doug sent me this e-mail showcasing the early results from the first session of 2024.

In Doug's own words:

January 3 was the return to work of the building gang after the Christmas break.  

Fred had the IPP&W shops warmed up and we were joined by Bill Scobie and Bernie Goodmnan. Bernie and I each snapped a few pictures.  Bernie took this shot of the crew debating batten spacing and colour schemes for painting.

Bill had completed the repair on the Craig Leigh tower roof. 

 After Bernie and I moved the CL station to the shop annex, Bill installed the tower roof to complete work on the restoration of the building.  In spring the base bottom will be painted and a dark wash applied over the new stonework to age it.

January 3 marks the real start of construction of the new Glen Hammond station.  But in fact, construction began a while back.  Let's start by reviewing what has been done leading into the New Year.

You have heard of shade tree mechanics who do car repairs at home on a DIY basis.  For the GH station, IPP&W's own bridge and building crew became shade tree architects.  They whipped up a design for the station and two design decisions were made:

1) construction would be board and batten

2) scale of the model station would be 1:24 to look representative amongst all our 1:29 standard gauge rolling stock as well as our !:20 and 1:22,5 narrow gauge equipment.

The footprint of the station was drawn on a suitably sized piece of 1/2 inch plywood the bottom of which was given a coat of exterior grade paint for protection from wet outside.  It doesnt have to last forever, it only has to outlast us!  

Next the walls were laid out on 6 mm oak faced plywood and then cut for height and length.  About this time, a discussion ensued on how best to represent windows.  Fred as CEO insisted that proper windows and lighting be installed and to back his insistence, he agreed to cut all the window openings.  Over the past couple of weeks, Fred has used an oscillating tool with new sharp bits to carefully cut the window and door openings in the plywood.  

The battens are represented by scale 1x4's.  These were cut and delivered to us by Doug Culham early in the process. Bill went right to work and laid out the battens.

After examining the battens and the appearance of the walls. the architects decided that 1 inch spacing would look best.  This would represent a real wall made from 1x12's with 1x4 battens at the seams.  Bill marked the batten spacing along one wall and noted that the windows would be needed to accurately cut the battens to length.

Based on the required window and door dims as well as a statement of style preference, Chris 3D printed the doors and windows - beautifully done.  Chris dropped by as we had all the material laid out and brought us a bag of goodies - all the doors and windows for the station.

The original GH station had the traditional steeply pitched roof but for the new station a somewhat more modern moderately pitched roof was deisired.  Using very scientific methods, the shade tree architects eye balled the roof in the elevation drawing and determined that a scale 8 foot rise to the peak looked about right.  Given that the rafter to support the gable end would span a scale 14 feet, it was possible to calculate the angle at the peak of the gable.  But why use a precise but horribly complex number when a round number will suffice.  That angle when rounded is 60 degrees making the gable angle 120 degrees which is twice the calculated agle.  Based on this Chris Ellens 3D printed lovely gable ends for the station and using the same angle produced a gable end spanning a scale 9 foot chord for the operators bay.

The above image shows the various station components all laid out on the workbench in the shop.

At this point, there was a discussion on the process for building what is now almost a kit.  It was decided that:

1) official IPP&W colours will be depot buff with olive green trim - Bill took the windows and doors with him and will paint them over the next week.

2) next Wednesday, in the RGS shops, the windows will be inserted in the walls to allow battens to be cut to length and installed.

3) windows will be removed and the walls painted...then windows reinstalled.

4) walls will be erected on the base and glued together using 1x1 pine bracing as the glueing surface. 

The roof will be reconsidered at that time but the thought at the moment is to use galvanized sheet metal painted copper green.

Thanks so much for the update, Doug.  The lads are going great guns there in the workshop!

As for me, I have done a bit of modeling work while finally recovering from my bout of conjunctivitis.

I inherited this lovely creamery from fellow B&M modeller, David Primeau, who has sold his house and moved into a condominium with his lovely wife, Sheila.

This meant the teardown of his phenomenal B&M/MEC model railroad with CP run through and St. J&LC shortline action to boot!

David had built the creamery from scratch using styrene, his favourite modelling medium.  All that was left for me to do was scratchbuild the loading dock and place the structure on an old cigar box and scenic the environment around the facility.

This was a simple day's effort on my part.

I began the scratchbuild of the loading dock by determining its width and cutting the basswood to the appropriate length.  My "Colonial" furniture stain did the trick with colouring the wood planking.

Some simple tricks of the trade ensured the flooring of the loading dock would remain uniform throughout its full length.

My trusty square is a must for situations like this.

Coming along nicely.

I have glued the structure "sans roof" and the railroad spur atop the cigar box and my weights will hold things in place until the glue sets.

I snapped these images under my incandescent workbench lamp making them appear too greenish in nature.  In person, the tones are more subtle and natural.

Just enough room for a milk car!

An aerial view.

Because David's structure had a protruding section out back and I really wanted space for the spur siding I had the rear area "overhang" the cigar box.  I then created a lower foundation and painted it black to match the sides of the cigar box.

A rear view.

A three-quarter angled view.

And...in case you are thinking it...no, I don't smoke cigars!  The box actually came along with a "Full Steam Ahead" kit I built years ago.  I saved the box as I really liked the burnt etching on the box top.

Here is the box top from the kit I ordered many moons ago.

The building in the foreground on this diorama is the structure that came out of that kit.

The Full Steam Ahead kit offerings came from an Ontario school teacher up in cottage country north of Toronto.

Here's the full diorama with the clipper vessel and sardine hauler having entered the harbour and found a safe haven from an impending storm.  

I named the entire diorama after my dear friend and musician/model railroader colleague, Gerry Berrigan.

The diorama is known as Berrigan's Boatworks.

As Doug outlined the next stage of the project for the WDWD crew, I, too, will outline my next task at my workbench - an O-scale Russell Hi-Way Patrol Grader.  

Back in the nineteen "teens" these road graders where hauled by a team of horses and later in the "twenties" by tractors.  (Some photos have been found of these graders being pulled by oxen and even water buffalos!)

Well, that's it from all of us who love to model in many different scales.

We look forward to further updates next week from our "off season" WDWD crewmates as they meet at Bill's next Wednesday.  

Now, this begs the question:  will they really be working or will they be running trains high up in the mountains along the route of the Rio Grande Southern?!!

Until then...we are the OVGRS of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada