Foam Is Not Your Friend

We see a lot of people using foam to carve out layout. It has been a popular material for decades now, but it comes with a few serious caveats that must be addressed. I learned them again recently when building the 4' x 8' layout and was forced to start again. The issue was simple, the 2" inch pink foam didn't provide a level surface to run trains. At first, I tried to shim my tracks or use spackle to make it level, but it wouldn't be a very good long term solution. I felt I had poorly glued the foam sheets to the plywood, hence making it warp.

The spirit level never lie... This is a significant dip here.

However, after removing the foam, I did some detective work and started to measure each panels. The thickness varied greatly from panels to panels, with discrepancies worst at the edges. Just to be clear, the panels weren't flat slabs, but having a bulge in the middle like loaf of bread or a cake. The variation was also more important than I thought. After ripping the panels in 2" wide slices on the table saw, I found the following dimensions.

On the edges, for maybe 8", each the panel was 1 15/16 inch thick, then it raised to 2 1/16 in the middle. That was a 1/8" variation across less than 12" (given the "summit" was right in the middle of the panel). No wonder my track was wonky and large wheelbase steam locomotives derailed on the turnouts located near the edges.

The front spline is 1/8" lower than the back one...

Since I had elected to rebuild the layout using foam splicer similar to Woodland Scenic ones, I decided to rip an entire panel, then compare all the strips. I kept the ones closer to 2" and rejected the other ones, they would serve for yard or simply scenic work.

While making the foam splines I tried two methods: kerfing them on a single single and kerfing them on both sides (like Woodland Scenics). The strips that are kerfed on both side are much more flexible and work better, so I went with that method. Kerfing on one side results in stiff and less flexible splines. They are OK for large curves, but aren't that great when dealing with 21" and 18" radius curves. So I would stay stick with alternating kerfs on both sides.

Installing foam splines is a breeze and creating easements too... 

Kerfs on each side are spaced by about 1 1/4" so when taking in account the blade thickness, the foam web width is never less than 1/2". The same principle applied for cut depth which is also set to leave about 1/2". It's no science rocket, just take your time and do it. It may take 1 hour at your table saw, but the versatility and time saved at the layout is significant. And you also do waste material at all, which is always a nice thing.

What I learned from the Merkiomen

No cool pictures in this blog, but a few thoughts about my recent adventures in model railroading.

The Merkiomen experiment has been short but eventful... even fruitful. While I knew I wouldn't complete it, it was a fascinating project to learn about others, myself, railroading and modelling. I didn't want to be a copycat, but reverse engineering someone else layout was a big lesson because it forced me to do model railroading in a way that isn't mine. I was literally in the skin of someone else, trying to understand what forces were at play when it came to the world. It was going back to these days when the only knowledge we had of layouts were a track plan and a few pictures in a hobby magazine. Gazing for hours, trying to figure out every single details out of that minimalistic content.

Among the most enduring aspect of this project was the discovery of how fun it was to revisit old classic model kits and push them to the limit. It started with a Walthers speeder shed, then Atlas shanties, Life-Like trackside structures and even the venerable Plasticville freight shed. But as good as these models were... I was drifting. Drifting from the East Coast toward the West Coast. For some strange reasons, my modelling took a UP/SP/ATSF flavour I didn't expect in my wildest dreams. And sure enough, a large BLI ATSF 4-8-4 made its entrance in my life for free.

ATSF Super Power is... cool.

I couldn't believe Ebay would fail me so spectacularly. A month ago, I ordered a large BLI steamer from a well known seller. Everything went smooth until the parcel stopped moving, was labelled misrouted and never got updated. After almost two weeks without any news, I contacted the seller who referred me to Ebay's International shipping. Sure I did and in a matter of 12 hours, I learned my package was crushed and destroyed during transportation, but that I would get a full refund for my purchase. While a little bit sad, I thought to myself: Oh well! Nothing lost and back to Monk Subdivision... until two days later there was a parcel in front of my door in pristine condition. A little puzzled, I opened the box, expecting a wreck and discovered the locomotive was there and in excellent condition. Hard to say what I think of Ebay. In some way, I can't say I'm not happy getting the locomotive for free... but I wonder if they really tried contacting the courier at all. After all, it was indeed misrouted, not crushed.

However, having the loco in my hands and a large 4' x 8' plank ready for a new project to replace the Merkiomen, it was a logical choice to try something West Coast once for all. While fiddling with ideas, I came back to my high school friend who had an old plywood layout. It was probably some variation of an Atlas Snap-Track design. One little yard on one side and a station and an engine terminal on the other. Diminutive, but highly practical and with a good balance of realistic operation opportunities.

The Merkiomen taught me I kind of hate straight tracks parallel to the fascia. I have the same aversion toward the yard in Villeneuve. Could I funk the little layout up just as I did with my Stanstead module? Implementing diagonals and sweeping curves to break the illusion of going around? Well, I think it's possible!

Curves and diagonals create a dynamic scene

Finally, the last lessons of the Merkiomen are very practical and basics. The kind of things you learn again and again, while trying to debunk them. All of them ensure your trains run smooth and you aren't frustrated, so let's list a few of these things the next layout will implement or avoid:

- Curved turnouts are a no go as much as you can. Prototype railroads rarely use them and for a good reason: they induce geometries that locomotives don't like. You can get away with it when running diesels but steamers absolutely hate them. So save you some trouble and stay away from them except if you want to handlay them and control every aspect of geometry. Your mileage may vary, I've decided that I will not use any that aren't PECO #7 curved turnouts.

-Easements and superelevation are your friend, really. No one should lay curves without them. I was able to get a BLI 4-8-4 to navigate without too much issues a 20" curve that was laid properly. Running through the forsaken cruved Walthers turnout was another thing though...

-No more crossings for me... Seeing trains wobble over them is aesthetically unpleasing. Not for me.

-No straight tracks parallel... already talked about that point, but it's never back to repeat again and again. The goal is to see you trains under their best angle and having them on curves or diagonals is much more impressed and visually pleasing.

-Never use turnouts with hinged points. They are electrical nightmare and even if you solder jumper wires, they are still crap. I'm starting to see the virtue of using handlaid turnouts. As for Walthers and Shinohara turnouts, I used to hate them... now I hate them with a passion. Not for me!

I already started working on the new layout. It will reuse a lot of old plastic structures I've been restoring and Peco code 83 #6 unifrog turnouts with solid rail points. The concept will be based of ATSF in the early 1950s, loosely inspired by Raton Pass, with big steamers and classic diesels. I had some fun finalizing some details using Windows Copilot and it was surprisingly helpful. Sure, it doesn't design for you, but it's quite excellent to sift through old forums and historical societies. I felt is was a neat sounding board to test ideas and refine them. It's also a practical way to generate consists and switching lists for a simple operating scheme. A word of caution, I felt it was much less reliable when trying it on Monk. Copilot was clearly regurgitating information from Hedley Junction in a garbled way. ATSF being far more documented, the information was much more reliable and it shown.

More about that project in another post, but I'm quite fascinated at the idea of modelling something I never did.

What if Bachmann Freight Station was a Craftsman kit?

 

This Bachmann kit has been in their catalog since forever

The weekend was another occasion to hone my modelling skills on some structure deemed irrelevant by most serious hobbyists: the venerable Bachmann Plasticville Freight Station. Yes, one of these childish snap-together toys from the 1950s.

Deconstruction is always a delicate process

I wasn’t sure it would be a good starting point for anything, but after seeing a B&O freight shed picture found on the internet and forgotten as soon as the project was completed. Such small structures located on the mainline or nearby were quite common and handled often LCL freight. Convinced the Bachmann kit proportions were alright; I soldiered on to transform in it something more “serious”.

 

Broken into its basic components

As always, taking apart the poorly glued kit was half the challenge of this build. I had to decide what would be kept and what would be changed. The clumsy window and side door had to go and I once again had to try a few Tichy parts until I found ones that fitted both the bill and the holes in the walls. The large sliding doors weren’t bad and quite close to real ones, so they would be kept. Even the clumsy “wooden” deck in front of the station was to be kept. Recent experiments with Arlee Station proved me it was just a matter of cladding them with individual wooden plank to change their look.

 

Adding wood grain is the single most important step with plastic kits

As with all my other recent builds, the plastic wall were distressed with a razor saw to simulate wood grain. This is truly the small and easy technique that really change the game. I felt the planks covering the lower portion of the walls were out of scale. They were about 18 scale inches wide! So using a flat screwdriver, I visually split them in two by scribing an additional line in the middle of each plank.

 

The kit qualities are starting to reveal themselves

The side wall openings were also extensively reworked. The window needed some additional styrene to fit gaps on each side, but the door required extensive surgery. It had to be made higher but narrower. Some battens were added and I carved out the weird flat board on top of the door that used to have an “office” sticker sign. The oversized Bachmann gooseneck light was replaced with a Tichy one mounted on a piece of phosphore bronze. I also replaced the caricatural handles on the large sliding doors with U-shaped pieces of wire.

Never forget to add soffite... little details matter in architecture

The roof underside was decorated with thin styrene fake soffit that was glued in place. The roof fascia were alright and only needed some texturing. The roof sign holes were plugged with bits of styrene and sanded down flush with the roof.

 

Painting almost done on the main structure

As with all my American structures, it was painted buff with brown trims. Some weathering was applied. At first the wall lower parts were painted buff, but I felt it didn’t make sense. Railroads would have painted parts that gets a lot of abuse and near the ground with the darker paint to hide defects. Looking at the B&O prototype picture, it was clear they used brown for everything under the platform. So, I came back and changed it.

The roof was covered with tar paper on the original tooling and I thought it would be nice to use the same material. It was my first time modelling tar paper, so I followed a few YouTube tutorials, specifically one by Jason Jensen. I used construction paper, primed it with grey paint and distressed the strips with a 220 grit sandpaper. The technique is quite easy, but I admit the result was a little bit overboard for a well-maintained structure. Also, I should have used a much darker grey as this looks far too light. Anyway, I learned a new technique and it is what matters. The paper strips were glued directly on the roof using canopy glue. I wonder if in the future, double-faced tape could be applied to the back of the paper strips. I see a lot of possibilities for the future feed mill I need to build on Mink Subdivision.

 

My first attempt at tarpaper roofing

Finally, I decided to clad the entire original platform with planks made of styrene strips. I had to fill some gaps in the Bachmann parts and to remove about 0.5mm at the bottom to take into account the thickness of the new planking. I didn’t want my platform to sit higher than the doors.

 

Crucial steps are often simple but repetitive

I knew it would be a long process, but texturing, cutting and gluing the planking took forever. A few hours were spent on that task. In fact, it probably took half the time required to convert the building. It was not hard work, just incredibly time consuming. However, the result is excellent and worth the time invested.

 

The rebuilt kit

At the end of the day, I’m glad to have completed this project. I always wondered if the Bachmann kit could be turned into something more realistic and layout friendly. The answer is yes. The design of the kit makes it perfect to set a pickup truck or any vehicle by it. Someone could open the sliding doors opened and model an interior by adding a floor and lots of crates, sacks or barrels inside. Another advantage of this kit is his size. The footprint can fit many different locations without overpowering the scene.

 

Ready for a future layout...

I still have a few kits that needs improvement. The last two I will document here are the Walthers speeder shed and another old classic 1958 Revell kit. Stay tuned!

Restoring Atlas/Life-Like/Revell Shanties

I don't know how long this kitbashing spree will last but since I'm in the groove, let's revist a few more structures before I go back to the Murray Bay and Monk Subdivision.

A classic old Life-Like kit that was given to our club

Trackside shanties were a staple of model railroading in the steam and transition era. Over the years, many manufacturers offered their own vision of what was a shanty. While following the same general appearances, most varied greatly in dimensions. For instance, the well-known Atlas shanty is probably among the larger while the Revell one is diminutive. Life-Like offered several ones that were falling in the middle.

The quality of these models varied greatly. Personally, I was never fond of Atlas weird side window and the open door. As for the Life-Like offering, they were in general quite nice. The Revell one was kind of interesting but could be improved in the detail department.

Building upon my experience with Arlee station, I decided to apply the same improvements to these littles shanties that were rotting in our club closet. Could they be made to look good? Could their details be standardized to reduce the difference between them and create a sense of family? Surely it could!

As with all the cheap kits in our collection, these ones were poorly painted, poorly assembled and messed up by big blobs of glue. The Revell shanty was missing its door and windows while the Life-Like one had lost its smokestack. They all took a bath in the ultrasonic cleaner with some Castrol Super Clean. Then, they were ready to be dismantled and all the glue removed.

Once again, I reached my box of Tichy windows and started to look for suitable ones. After looking at prototype pictures, I became convinced that 2/2 sash windows were the best fit for most cases. I removed some mullions from 4/4 windows to get the right results.

The Life-Like windows were ludicrously small for HO

The Life-Like shanty also got a new door and windows. The original windows were far too small to look realistic and the details on the door made it looks weird and unrealistic. I decided to use the same windows than the Revell shanty and a similar door too. Using plastic sprues, I crafted a new smokestack and added a wooden plinth and a stair. I also sanded off the cheap wooden shingle texture on the roof. I will add new tar paper made of construction paper later on.

A fully refurbished Life-Like shanty

The Revell shanty got some basic modifications including a scratchbuilt door, new fascias and the replacement of the clunky shelf brackets with smaller ones. Wooden texture was added to the walls and the chimney was hollowed out with a drill to make it more realistic. Fortunately, the Tichy windows were almost a perfect fit. The structure was raised on a wooden foundation and a stair made of a big lumber added in front of the door.

 

Almost every detail was touched up on the Revell shanty

The Atlas shanty was never my favourite, thus it required more thoughtful interventions. The side windows was reduced in width to accommodate a Tichy 6/6 sash window. A piece of Evergreen metal siding had the same profile than the board and batten siding of the kit. A new door was also added in the same pattern than the other shanties. Fascias were added and the roof tarpaper texture sanded off. Once completed, the kit acquired a new identity that is better looking and which could easily be a standard structure on a model railway.

A better proportioned window completely changes the Atlas shanty

The kits were primed and got a dark wash to bring the texture out. It was followed by a coat of buff paint. Hairspray was applied to the windows, doors and trims, covered with light brown acrylic paint and chipped away with a stiff brush and water. A dark wash and some white drybrushing was added later to improve the weathered look.

 

Different size yet similar in details.

These shanties took about a day of work and probably less if I wasn’t fighting against kits that had been poorly assembled. The modifications didn’t cost that much and provided me with structures that have a better level of details while staying quite affordable and attractive. They would be at home anywhere trackside!

Revell shanty

Life-Like shanty

Atlas shanty

Restoring the old AHM/Tyco/Life-Like Arlee Station

My exploration of the Merkiomen Branch led me to revisit and reconsider the many plastic kits stored at our club layout. They are, in general, classic kits that have been offered on the market decades. They are ubiquitous to North American railroading. But as with anything widespread and ubiquitous, most of them are generally shunned upon since they rarely depict a specific prototype or look unrealistic. But is it really the case?

Not that we tried to collect these kits. Over the years, people started to give us their old stuff or structures purchased from estates at flea markets. They filled a gap many years ago but ended up taking space. A few were scavenged for detail parts, others suffered paint experiments that rarely turned out well. Most suffered poor construction due to original builders using the wrong glue or being not careful that things aligned. A classic was that windows were glued in inverted positions. In all honesty, most of these kits should end up in the garbage bin but I decided to try my luck and restore them since they were generally honest representation of railroad structures. In some way, this is the next chapter to my Atlas station kitbash I did early this year.

Among the many kits were shanties, both Atlas, Revell and Life-Like, an IHC water tower, a Walthers speeder shed and some other Walthers structures such as an interlocking tower and a crossing gate shanty. However, the first one that caught my eye was the Tyco Arlee Station or more exactly, it’s later Life-Like incarnation. I recall a childhood friend who loved trains had that very station on his layout, so I have a connexion with it. While a little bit clumsy, the building had an irresistible charm. My research about American rural stations quickly shown me this kit was an excellent stand-in for many structures found all around the place, so why not try to restore it.

RMC Arlee Station article (source: HO Scale Trains Resource)

Interestingly enough, that kit had its origin, like many products of the era, from a scratchbuilt structure published in the October 1967 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. The original structure was designed by Rob Corriston to represent a typical American rural station. He drew inspiration from several prototypes, trying to capture the essence of a standard building. While the plastic kit derived its general dimensions from Mr. Corriston’s model, let’s just say that many details were lost in translation when Pola tooled it in the early 1970s in West Germany!

Let's be honest, this is a sad little kit...

Dismantling the kit wasn’t an easy task since everything was poorly glued and the plastic had melted in some places. Looking at the details, it was clear the windows looked goofy. The tooling had these depressed areas where the windows should be glued, but the dimensions were completely wrong. The doors were also a little bit caricatural, so I thought to myself “let’s replace the openings”. 

Breaking down the kit into its original components

Sifting through my stash of Tichy windows and doors, I tried several models until something would fit into the holes perfectly. To help me select them, I was also getting inspired by PRR and Reading stations. I kept the baggage doors, but installed them in recess with new trims.

 

Fitting windows and doors is the fun part!

After the kit was dismantled, cleaned and repaired, it was time to rebuild it. However, I thought some little modifications could make the kit unique and closer to prototypes I had seen. Thus, I enlarged the building by added 40mm. Fortunately, Evergreen cladding was almost a perfect fit for the existing pattern on walls. 40mm was the distance between roof brackets, so I decided to keep that rhythm.

The enlarged building

The walls were reassembled, new wainscotting was scribed on styrene in places where it was missing and I distressed all the surfaces with a razor saw. I also raised the building on a wooden plinth. A new roof was installed with a Tichy brick chimney instead of the unrealistic stone one provided with the kit. The gable wooden decorations were resculpted and textured to improve their appearance.

Finally, I replaced all the original roof brackets with new ones patterned after the same model. The reason was simple. I suspect that when Life-Like inherited the tooling, it was showing its age or was poorly fit. It meant that both parts of the mold were so misaligned that the parts had huge seamlines that couldn’t be removed without altering completing the parts. Redoing them was easier and faster, making it possible to add more texture and details to them.

 

The gable decorations were trimmed and scribed

For painting, I settled on a buff wall and brown trims scheme which was common during the late steam era in the USA. Such colors could be found all around the country, on the PRR, Reading, B&M, B&O, UP, D&RGW and ATSF with some variation. This is an interesting distinction since Canadian railway structures of the same era used red and cream paint instead.

 

Primer and washes before final painting

Some subtle weathering was applied to give more realism to the structure. I haven’t yet chosen a type of roofing nor added the window glazing. I also need to kitbash the wooden baggage platforms. However, I’m quite happy with the result. It’s both realistic and good looking. It would be at home on a UP or SP layout, or even a PRR or Reading one. It would be hard to believe it is that old plastic kit that Walthers still sell to this day. This little experiment convinced me to apply the same treat to other classic plastic kits. Who knows, they could find their way on some future layout or diorama.

Almost done!