US Style Track in S - Jameston & Leven River RR

mickoo

Western Thunderer

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
I'm thinking of applying layers of varnish over a painted baseboard top. The jetty is supposed to be at the limit of tidal effect in the river concerned so the water level is reckoned to stay fairly stable - no Severn tidal rise and fall here.

When I did the water on my now scrapped dutch layout (after smoothing the surface) I painted the habour water a muddy turbulent green/brown and once dry I painted a layer of PVA - the better quality PVA glues dry clear. As the PVA was setting I stippled it with either a one or two inch paint brush and being viscous the glue settled down and dried with a ripple effect as if a breeze had caught it. Once dry I gave it a couple of coats of gloss varnish. The effect of the stippling can just be seen at the bottom of the photo with the reflection of the upright harbour fenders.
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JimG

Western Thunderer

Try this one - real Jordan territory here. :):):):)

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Jim,
 

JimG

Western Thunderer
When I did the water on my now scrapped dutch layout (after smoothing the surface) I painted the habour water a muddy turbulent green/brown and once dry I painted a layer of PVA - the better quality PVA glues dry clear. As the PVA was setting I stippled it with either a one or two inch paint brush and being viscous the glue settled down and dried with a ripple effect as if a breeze had caught it. Once dry I gave it a couple of coats of gloss varnish. The effect of the stippling can just be seen at the bottom of the photo with the reflection of the upright harbour fenders.
View attachment 85857

Dave,

Many thanks for your methods. I'll do a bit of experimentation to see if I can get results which you got.

Jim.
 

Jordan

Mid-Western Thunderer
When I did the water on my now scrapped dutch layout (after smoothing the surface) I painted the habour water a muddy turbulent green/brown and once dry I painted a layer of PVA - the better quality PVA glues dry clear. As the PVA was setting I stippled it with either a one or two inch paint brush and being viscous the glue settled down and dried with a ripple effect as if a breeze had caught it. Once dry I gave it a couple of coats of gloss varnish. The effect of the stippling can just be seen at the bottom of the photo with the reflection of the upright harbour fenders.
View attachment 85857
Photos like that are going to attract comments about how unethical it is to post photos of the real thing & pretend it's a model. ;)

Seriously impressed by the dip in the track in the photo Mickoo linked to!! :bowdown: :thumbs:
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
It's not a rail joint as such, this form of link span is not ( originally in this case) fixed at the land end. Originally there would of been no head gear to raise and lower, the water end either floated on pontoon or the whole link span had a structure underneath on wheels. The idea is that you pulled up or pushed down the span to adjust for the tide.

The link span rails sit on top of the normal rails which run under the span and under water, there are two side plates to stop the span rails falling off the main rails.

I suspect the head gear was added when engines got heavier and you'll note a small lifting bridge has been added.

The lake isn't tidal but the water level varies due to the seasons and there are photos that show the gp7 almost up to it's axle boxes in water. What's different about this set up is that the engine is shipped on the barge each way with the cargo.
 

JimG

Western Thunderer
Before I progressed further with the jetty, I had to make my mind up about what else was going to go on the baseboard on which the jetty was situated since I would have to do a lot of scenic work before the jetty was finally planted in position.. That got me started on a second building which would go behind the jetty. This second building had a lot of windows so I started thinking about a way of making the windows, then decided to make windows for the first building to work out a method. All the building prototypes I have chosen for the layout so far have got sash windows of some type so I started to work out a method of making them which would give a fair representation.

I decided to use thin card to do the glazing bars and frames and to use this in layers to give a bit of depth to the glazing bars.

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These were the pairs of cuts From the Emblaser 1 for the frames and glazing bars for the large sash windows on the first building, using thin card about 0/2mm thick. It's just about noticeable that the left hand ones have very fine glazing bars (0.2mm) and the right hand ones have thicker bars (0.4mm)

The window being modelled is this, on the right - taken from Google Street View

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I wonder if the top part ever moved. It would have been a very heavy frame to manoeuvre and maybe it was fixed , or maybe became fixed by years of paint as many sash windows became. :)

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A frame was constructed from bits of Plastikard to be a nice fit on the card parts. Glue was applied round the frame of the second part and the two were mated in the frame.

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The resulting glued frame. The glazing bars are not glued. Putting anything liquid on them immediately rendered them soft and pliable and they bent out of shape. I spent a fair bit of time trying to get round this problem, even trying very thin cyanoacrylate glue in the hope that it would wick between the bars an set quickly before the card started distorting, but no luck.

I also found these

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....small plastic bottles with stainless steel spouts to dispense the glue after messing around with your average glue bottle and its spout and cocktail sticks. They work extremely well and I haven't had a blocked nozzle so far. And if they did block, a small drill or bit of wire down the nozzle should clean it out. I got them form Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ROSENICE-Squeeze-Plastic-Applicator-Bottles/dp/B074QHJBP7
/ref=sr_1_23?ie=UTF8&qid=1524760185&sr=8-23&keywords=plastic+bottles+with+nozzle

The Aliphatic 20% was an experiment with dilute glue on the glazing bars which didn't work. :)

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The two frames ready for further treatment which actually worked....

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...a hefty scoosh of Halford's primer and the glazing bars are bonded together with no distorting. :):):)

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When dry, the frames are cut from their surrounds and I give them a press under a weight to get them flat.

Continue to the next message because of the number of pictures. :)

Jim.
 

adrian

Flying Squad
The resulting glued frame. The glazing bars are not glued. Putting anything liquid on them immediately rendered them soft and pliable and they bent out of shape. I spent a fair bit of time trying to get round this problem, even trying very thin cyanoacrylate glue in the hope that it would wick between the bars an set quickly before the card started distorting, but no luck.
That's looking very nice, with the frame doing the alignment do you think a spray adhesive would work on the bars or does it need adjustment when placed together?
 

JimG

Western Thunderer
The next operation was to build something to hold the frames. This would be inside the building.

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I started off with a rectangular base and made two sides - on the right. The 20 thou sides had a 30 thou wide front applied, this to supply a lip against which the upper window frames would rest.

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The sides are fitted to the support frame...

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...and the upper frame is fitted behind the lips on the support frame sides. Eagle eyed readers may note that the support frame has changed, the result of a second go to improve on some matters. :)

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10 thou Plastikard is fitted inside the support frame sides to provide a bit more beef to the locating of the frames to avoid frames being pushed inwards. A piece of 10 thou is also fitted across the bottom of the upper frame to provide a bit more support and also to provide a positive stop for the glazing of both upper and lower frames.

US-S-SwitchingLayout-X163.jpg Other pieces of 20 thou are fitted on the inner sides with a 20 thou gap to the back of the glazing bars. This is to provide a slot of the glazing. I wanted the glazing removable so that painting would be much easier.

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...and a view from the front with a bit of glazing inserted. Excuse the battered example of Plastigklaze but it does show up better than a pristine bit. :)

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The lower frame is fitted in a similar fashion. In this case a small sliver of 10 thou Plasticard locks the front of the frame to the side and this also represents the central guide of a sash window setup.

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The completed frame with grotty glazing in both sash frames...

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...and a quickie try out with the window held roughly in place in the building.

I've aimed the positioning of the sash box a full brick length in from the building facade. I couldn't accurately determine whether the prototypes were a half brick depth or one brick depth so I went with one brick. But I could adjust this quite easily by making the support frame sides about 1.5mm deeper if I wanted to go for the half brick depth. I aim to use the same method for smaller windows which look to have the sash boxes one half brick in.

Now that I've finally worked out how to do it, I'll go into full pre-fab mode and CNC cut all the support frame parts necessary. to go with the laser cut window frame parts so that I can plough on with multiple windows quite quickly. The second building I have started has ten sash windows and could have more when I design the second part of the setup.

But it is a relief to get that out of the way - three weeks of going up multiple dead ends with a large pile of card and Plastikard bits. Peter Insole has a lot to answer for. :):):)

Jim.
 

JimG

Western Thunderer
That's looking very nice, with the frame doing the alignment do you think a spray adhesive would work on the bars or does it need adjustment when placed together?

Adrian,

The Halford's primer seems to be doing the job quite well. These frames have taken a fair beating in all the messing around with the support frames and they still look reasonable. I will also get the alignment better since there are one or two places where it could have been a bit better on the ones in the pictures. I'm also looking for the 0.5mm PETG you kindly sent me a while ago to do some experiments on my 1:32 coaches. I decided to go with 1mm PETG at the time and put your 0.5mm PETG away safely somewhere, and I'm still hunting. :headbang:

Jim.
 

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Jim,

Those window frames look lovely, but I was caught by your comment in post #89 about the top part of the window being movable; it's not. It's been chocked in place; the feature in the blue circle. It could even be added to your profile...

Steph

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JimG

Western Thunderer
Jim,

Those window frames look lovely, but I was caught by your comment in post #89 about the top part of the window being movable; it's not. It's been chocked in place; the feature in the blue circle. It could even be added to your profile...

Steph,

I've been pouring over these pictures for months and I missed that. :) The three windows next to that door have the same vertical setup - seven high on top and a three high on the bottom. But the remainder of similar windows were built with equal height frames of five panes high. I suspect that the frame next to the door might have been replaced at some time since the brickwork on the left side of the door looks as though the window may have been narrowed. And it could be that the punters asked for a smaller lower pane to make life easier opening it, and the upper frame was well and truly nailed in place.:) I can't cook up a story for the two five pane wide and 3 + 7 neighbours. :)

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Jim.
 

JimG

Western Thunderer
Don't think that's a chock, it's a run-through horn.

JB.

I did think that but I thought that whatever it is in the picture looked a bit longer than a run-through horn. And you've just reminded me of what is missing on my upper frames. :)

Jim.
 

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Don't think that's a chock, it's a run-through horn.

JB.

I'm not sure there's anything for it to run into though, having had a look at that picture again. I appreciate that 'chock' is probably not what the things are called by master window-makers, but chock seems to me what it's doing. :)

Steph
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
I guess one thing to be said is that if the upper sash moved, there would be an awful lot of lead weight in the box frame.

JB.
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
I did think that but I thought that whatever it is in the picture looked a bit longer than a run-through horn. And you've just reminded me of what is missing on my upper frames. :)

Jim.
To be fair, not all vertical sliders have horns..
JB.
 

JimG

Western Thunderer
Work is still proceeding albeit a bit slowly as I venture up a few dead ends in making these windows. Just like the picture in MRJ many years ago of the pile of bits left over after the building of a locomotive, here's my scrap heap from the windows. :)

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It's possibly one of the drawbacks (or advantages??) of CNC with a laser cutter or a mill, but it's very easy to make an adjustment and do another run, so I tend to develop a design CAD then on to the cutters - the main reason for the pile shown above. But I think I've managed to iron out most of the problems I ran into so that I can re-use the for all the windows I'll have to build for the other buildings on the layout.

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This is a pretty well complete sash window for the upper floor with its glazing fitted - 0.5mm PETG. I have still to paint the whole window which will be a colour close to the Halford's red primer used on the window frames. I've also just noticed that I hadn't fully fitted the frame and it's angled back slightly at the top. :)

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The method I'm using also allows me to model an opened sash and in the case of the second window, the lower sash is lifted. There will be a better fit between the sides and the sill. I've kept the sill separate from the window assembly, and fitted it to the brickwork. This allowed me to fit a deeper sill for appearance purposes which would not foul the insertion of glazing in the lower sash window.

Onwards to the doors and maybe the finish. :)

Jim.

PS. Note the horns. :):)
 
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