Visited the Museum of Science + Industry, Chicago this past weekend, to see their terrific HO model railroad exhibit, from Chicago through the plains, the rocky mountains, and ending up in Seattle.
I will put shots of the exhibit up in future posts, but this one to one scale Empire State Express greets you at the beginning.
Empire State Express
Closeup of Driver
Empire State Express Driver
Visiting in Vermont and Adirondack area of New York and came across this beautifully painted 60 some year old ElectroMotive BL2.
Painted for the Saratoga and North Creek Railway in a scheme reminiscent of the D&H.
That’s the Hudson River behind the engine above
Picking back up on a much earlier post, I finally started casting my concrete arch hydrocal bridge in two halves.
Wood & Sintra Mold
My waxed wood and sintra casting form
Wood & Sintra mold showing thickness
Pouring hydrocal with steel rod reinforcements
Pouring requires working quickly as Hydrocal sets fast
Leveling to the face of the form
Level as close to flat as possible
Exterior pieces of the form being removed
Exterior parts remove easily
Casting removed from the mold and flipped over, with only the individual small arch pieces to be removed. These pieces have a 3 degree slope for ease of getting them out of the piece. Still required a few knocks with a small hammer on each to remove!
Casting lightly sanded at this point
First half cast, but I’ll add some detailing with a file, forming casting joints and other details, then cast the other half and place them back to back, with a spacer which is typical for this type of bridge, really two identical arches, connected at the top.
Casting before final detailing
My Dad showing me about building things, to my high school starting of so called “perfect track work” on an early train layout with my friend Joe Braun, to my college summer employment at a precision machine shop, and through a number of years of designing, building and photographing sets for Knex toys box covers, I came back to starting a layout with hopefully some life experiences and skills, to make an interesting and fun layout, that I would like to share, as I go along. Hope you enjoy and share your experiences as well.
Bob Emmott