2mm Ashuelot Branch 1939

[garethashenden]

I haven't updated this thread since March, and there's a very good reason for that. In March I got a pair of kittens and they are a bit too enthusiastic about the railroad. Luckily I have managed to make some progress recently, hopefully that will continue. In chronological order, this is what I've been up to.

I scratchbuilt the coal trestle for Ashuelot Paper according to the B&M's standard plans. Its all Evergreen styrene.




The back of the backscene was explored. I'm kinda impressed he made it up, and he had no trouble getting all the way up.


Trees were inspected


I wasn't happy with the rock cutting. I had painted them too heavily and they'd lost the detail. So I replaced them all with new castings.


Which had to be inspected:


And with a thin wash


The trestle has now been painted and installed. Its floating for most of the length so I'll need to bring the ground level up a bit in places. But at least the track is level!

 

[Lyndhurstman]

I’m getting a good feline about this build. Nice work; the trestle is wonderful.

Cheers

Jan

 

[Oban27]

I have trouble with one feline manager but two? Good luck!

Roja

 

[Simon H]

Fortunately, our cat is getting on in years and less likely to climb all over things like layouts! It took me a while to realise that your layout was N scale...I've dabbled in US N but never quite got as far as a layout, but although I sold all the stock I'd bought, I still have some track, turnouts, structure kits and other stuff so I could potentially return to it.
I really like the whole North Eastern genre for modelling, and having found this thread will be following your progress with interest.
Cheers,
Simon.

 

[garethashenden]

I have been slowly plodding along with this. Never enough at once to justify a post, but there has been progress here and there. Overall I'm pleased with what I've done, although I wish there was more of it. However, there is one aspect of the layout that needs to be changed. Its a major one, and luckily its not too late. I am not happy with my choice of season. It had chosen late October/early November, but having just lived through them I am reminded that it is a miserable time of year. Its cold and dark and depressing, and not what I want from my bit of escapism. So a change to late May/early June is in order. Luckily there are only half a dozen trees planted.




I have also started construction of one of the paper mills, Paper Services Inc. It is a complex building that was added onto many times over the years. I suspect that the concrete block section is later than my period, but I like the contrast in materials so I'm going to model it anyway.

 

[garethashenden]

I have gotten the yard complete enough that trains can originate there! So far its only one track and three switches, but it works! To celebrate I ran a train and switched an industry. The 4-4-0 was about at capacity with a fair bit of wheel slip pulling cars up out of Ashuelot Paper, but its not the correct power for the layout. I need to get back to the 2-8-0.

 

[garethashenden]

Well its been a while. I have been picking away at things gradually and failing to update the thread.

I had originally planned on modeling November, but have decided to backdate the layout slightly to late May/early June. Luckily I hadn't really started on trees. I repainted the backscene, or I started to anyway. Its at the same stage it was before, roughed in but no details, except now its green instead of orange and brown. I also have finished the landforms beyond the track, it will be almost entirely trees. So I need to figure out a good way of making good looking trees.




I have done some experiments with trees. So far I have not found a method I am 100% happy with. These wire and static grass ones are ok.


Unfortunately they are made from twisted florists wire, and there is nothing Butternut loves more than florists wire. I don't know how he manages to hear it from across the house, but he does and he wants to help. So this isn't a sustainable method.


I've been slowly ballasting, I like how its coming out.


I was also able to realign the curve at one end. By removing about 1/2" of track I eased the curve from a bit too tight to very gentle, which is a great improvement. A bit of fill was needed.

 

[garethashenden]

The other thing I have been doing is working on a B&M B15 2-6-0 scratch build project. I started this in 2015 and last worked on it in 2019. I've learned some things since then.

I started with revising the tender. I had originally followed the outline of the water tank, this left a notable intrusion into the middle on the tender, the place where I wanted to put the motor. With modifying the tender I started with assessing my choice of motor, would something else be more suitable? I also wanted to see if I could fit all the electronics I wanted in there. In the end I decided that the 7mm coreless motor I originally had was still suitable, and that an ESU Loksound Nano would fit, along with a speaker and some capacitors.



I had originally designed the tender with an 8 wheeled rigid chassis. The idea being that the weight of the front of the tender can be transferred to the back of the locomotive aiding traction. I have now rebuilt it with two trucks, both of which will collect current from all wheels.


To aid traction, I have made the boiler from almost solid brass. There is a hole running through the center which I will use for the headlight wires. I had rolled a boiler, but it wasn't very good. It wasn't round, or quite the right size, so I tried something different. Its a tapered boiler, and as with most tapered boilers the three sections are flat across the bottom. So you can't just use a cone in the middle. I turned a section for the smokebox and front of the boiler, that was easy. I included most of the smokebox door in the turning.
For the taper, I started with some 1/2" brass rod, drilled straight through and then turned a section down to 1/4". This was done in the Unimat. I then moved over to the Boley watchmaker's lathe and used its cross slide to turn the taper. The part was held by the 1/4" section, that's the largest collet I had.


To go from a cone to the not-quite-a-cone I held the cone on the workbench and ran a large file across the end until it cleaned up. Once there was a 90° angle at the end its done! A bit of care needs to be taken to make sure it doesn't roll too much, but otherwise its pretty easy if time consuming. Here are the front two sections held together with doublesided tape.


Unfortunately somewhere I made a couple of errors in dimensions and both the front sections had to be remade. Once I had two good ones I silver soldered them together. Putting the front section back in the lathe I squared up the rear of the tapered section. The rear section and firebox are just 1/2" rod. That was simple to cut to length, but my breakthrough was the cab floor and the walkways directly in front of the cab. I realized that instead of having a bunch of separate pieces I could have one piece of sheet, which would add some much needed continuity to this part of the locomotive. Here are the three boiler sections, the cab, and the walkways starting to take shape.




Earlier today I was finally able to test the drivetrain, and it works!! When I went a step beyond and fitted an old decoder I have a short, so that is the current issue I'm facing. Tomorrow's problem.

 

[Matt.S.]

Great work Gareth - that's a very unusual prototype/scale combo to pick!