Scratchbuilding a boiler flue storage rack
shim stock. They were cut and trimmed to fit, then colored with the etching solution and spiked in place with the tiny brads. The plates were only added to the outside face of the end posts. They wouldn’t be visible on the model if they were added to all the formers and posts, so I left them off. With the formers firmly glued in
place, the height from the bottom of each post to the peak of the triangular roof support was 108″. Accounting for the fact that the posts are buried about one foot in the ground, the actual visi- ble height of the rack is 8′-0″. A holding fixture was made so that the four posts, with their triangular roof supports firmly glued in place, would be held at the appropriate dis- tant apart from one another and in a straight line. With all four posts insert- ed in the fixture place, they were joined into a single unit by gluing a piece of 2″×8″ stripwood just below the form- ers on each of the 25″ wide faces of the posts. Two 2″×6″ boards were also at- tached diagonally below the lower rack to add additional strength and rigidity. With the posts still in the fixture, thin slats of 2″×6″ lumber were glued to the triangular roof supports to support the corrugated metal roofing material. The metal pieces were 32″ wide and glued to the slats so that they extended over the ends and eaves about 3″. They over- lapped each other about the same amount. Rather than starting at one end and moving across the roof to the other end and possibly ending up with a narrow piece of metal, I started from each end with three pieces, ending up in the center with a narrower piece. Prior to gluing the metal to the slats with Aleene’s Tacky Glue, the pieces were colored and weathered with Radio Shack Archer’s Etchant printed circuit etching solution.
Sixteen pieces of Code 70 rail were
cut 8′-0″ long and their ends filed until all the sharp edges were removed. Rather than painting them, I put the 16 pieces in a small pill bottle and cov- ered them with the Archer’s Etchant for a few minutes. The solution was poured off and the pieces rinsed in clean water and dried. They were then soaked in Birchwood Casey Gun Blu- ing Solution for another minute or two until they were completely blackened. The solution was returned to its bottle and the rail pieces rinsed and dried. The rail pieces were installed in their appropriate holes in the vertical posts by sliding them through the openings and centering them so they extended equally out each side. They were firmly attached in place with carefully placed dots of Dr. Mike’s cyanoacrylate adhesive.
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This underside view of the rack (top) reveals the triangular wood roof supports and the thin stripwood that supports the metal roofing pieces. Note the flue pipes resting on lengths of rail. The posts were made long enough to extend into holes in the layout’s pre- viously completed lift-out Homasote base (above). The locations for the holes were marked and then the slightly larger holes were made with a small wood carver’s chisel.
The flues were fabricated from K&S Precision Metals brass tubing. Because of my Internet searches and e-mails from modeling friends, I knew that the boiler flues for K-36 and K-37 engines were 2¹/₄″ in diameter. The closest I could come to that dimension meant using ³/₆₄″ brass tubing, which would scale out to 2¹/₂″ flues. That would be close enough for my purposes. The K- 36 engines also used 5¹/₂″ for their su- per heater piping. That was represent- ed by using ³/₃₂″ tubing. I had ¹/₁₆″ tubing which represents 4″ tubing, in my supply cabinet and decided to cut
some of that size, too, just to add vari- ety to the rack. The tubing was cut to 16′-0″ lengths, then each piece was chucked into a Sherline lathe and its end was drilled out with a numbered drill that was about four number sizes smaller than the diameter of the tubing. This helped create the appearance of thin boiler flue walls. Again, this brass tubing was blackened using the etchant and gun bluing solutions.
The finished flues were glued to the
rack rails with the smaller diameter pieces on the upper level and larger
JUNE 2014
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