Send your Comments to:
spriest@rrmodelcraftsman.com
Postmarks I’m not a modeler, but I was very
intrigued by Larry Cannon’s article about converting large Athearn Center Flow covered hopper cars into two-bay cars for cement and sand service. The reason: In just the past
month, I had discovered some prototype conversions along the same lines: some 5,800-cubic-foot four-compartment plastics cars (old series were CCBX 57304– 57649 and a few cars from 57650– 58245) have been cut down to two-compartment cars, with the seam right in the middle. The new series are AEX 15633–15685 and 16170–16209 (93 cars total) with a capacity of 3,340 cubic feet. The prototype conversions
do not have the seam sanded nearly as smooth as Mr. Cannon’s models!
Carl Shaver Lombard, IL
I would like to add something
that might also add to the interest of the train consist. When my trains go into my hidden storage tracks, I keep the train length the same, I switch out the same type of car for car (boxcar for boxcar, different railroad, different length and so forth). Also, on all open top cars, if they come on loaded, they go off empty unless they go to a second customer, in which case it will go off loaded. I also like your new format and
the quality of paper you are using, My issues of RMC go back to 1953. Keep up the good work.
Robert Fashbaugh Alabaster, MI
I really enjoy the re-vitalized
RMC. I am finding myself drawn repeatedly to the Mike Schafer & Bill Navigato column in the March 2015 issue. In particular, I am interested in Bill’s use of Styrofoam. Could you elaborate on the particulars such as cross section of: how much thin plywood, how much foam, what type of foam, and so forth? I am planning a new
version of my K&LE railroad and am considering foam for upper levels in particular. If Bill is happy with his configuration, I can’t see any reason to try to find my own unique architecture. Thank you for whatever you
can do in this regard. John Miller
John, I’m glad you’re enjoying
our column. We are certainly enjoying putting it together. I’ll try to explain my method of using foam for you. First, I use foam insulation,
not Styrofoam. I happen to have the pink foam available locally at Home Depot or Menard’s, but some places have another brand, which is blue. It comes in 4-foot by 8-foot sheets. Thickness ranges from two inches to ½-inch. There’s also a filler that is about ¼-inch thick. I have a double-decked layout
that runs around the basement walls. A peninsula that forms sort of a “J” fills in the rest of the basement. For the lower level, along the basement walls I attached 10- to 12-inch shelf brackets. Most of the main line and town areas then have ¼-inch Lauan plywood on top of the bracket, then two-inch foam glued to the plywood with Liquid Nails foam adhesive. The foam won’t hold screws, so the plywood allows you to use screws to attach it all to the brackets. Also, the plywood provides a firm base for attaching switch machines and other hardware you may want under the benchwork. I have two 36-inch wide-
yard areas where I used a little more bracing. I lowered the wall brackets ¾-inch and installed 1-by 3-inch by 36-inch boards on top of the bracket from the wall to edge of the benchwork. I also installed a couple of 1- by 3-inch boards roughly from the edge of the plywood/foam to the base of the wall. These yards are 36 inches deep, and I wanted to be sure they withstood operators leaning on the layout and still
have no legs to interfere. These areas have held up perfectly fine for more than 10 years now. For some gentle grades, I just raise
the shelf brackets. For the center peninsula, I used
more conventional wood-grid benchwork. I just glued the foam directly to the wood cross pieces. In a few places where I needed to install switch machines, I glued a piece of ¼-inch plywood to the underside of the foam where needed. For the upper level, the procedure was pretty much the same system. One exception is that I used 1½-inch foam glued to the ¼-inch plywood on top of shelf brackets. I wanted to make the upper level as thin as practical, so I could maximize the distance from the lower level to the upper level. There was a lot of experimentation with this part of the project to see what worked and what didn’t. Generally speaking, I used shelf brackets approximately half the width of the section being supported. I used the formed type shelf brackets and also the more solid flat-angle brackets. Another note: for the track
sub-roadbed, I used several conventional and foam: California Homasote, industrial cork, and
½-inch foam. The ½-inch foam is for a more raised roadbed. All that I used was glued directly to the foam. Of course, any contours below grade are just carved out; those above are just glued stacks of scrap pieces of foam. I hope this gives you a better
idea of my process and helps you. If you have any questions, please let me know. If you would like to see more of how the layout looks now, please visit my website. Happy modeling! Bill Navigato Look Both Ways columnist
JUNE 2015 11
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