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Reg H
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Lee B wrote:
A very good lesson.
I have a few kits lying around that aren't being made anymore and I'm glad to have them.
Great work so far, can't wait to see your take on that hack in Shelton!
I've seen it many times and I agree it'll make a fine model!
Me too.
Don't hold your breath.
A lot of work ahead of me before I am ready to tackle that caboose.
I have plans for a similar, but shorter caboose I swiped from somewhere.
I might go with that one.
Reg
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Reg H
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The log dump is coming along.

This week is extra busy with other commitments,
so I don't expect to make much progress until next week.
An observation... I am a luddite.
In keeping with that characteristic,
I have a carefully hoarded collection of Floquil paint.
However, current projects required colors that I did not have,
so I ordered some Badger acrylic paints.
My early experience with acrylics many years ago,
when the Polly S paints first came out, were not positive.
In fact, they were very negative.
I have seen the light.
I have now applied the Badger paints to wood, metal and plastic.
They adhere great, and the clean up is really easy.
It isn't just the absence of the fumes, either.
I used some of Floquil last night and it was just so messy.
So I will be ordering up some more Badger paints
(actually, I already have ordered a couple more colors)
and will be squirreling away the Floquil,
against the day somebody comes along,
who wants to lay down some money for them.
Reg
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Alan Sewell
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Hi Reg.
Hope you are now recovered from the 4th July celebrations.
I know we have had a few "off line" discussions on the log dump which I think looks pretty good.
However we did discuss that in the the PNW the brow log would be a log!! not timbers.
I said I had some photos somewhere which might show how a log would sit.
Could not find a good photo until I looked on the wall in the layout room, and there it was!!!
A photo from I think a TimberTimbers or Tall Timbers calendar of 2001
(probably been there since 2003 at least)
of the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber mill with the unloader and the brow log on piling.
A scan is attached and might be useful.
I have used a balsa dowel cut down in a similar situation.
Good luck with things on the branch.
Best regards
Alan

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Reg H
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Alan
Well, that certainly is classic PNW.
I suppose I should have scratch built something along these lines.
A much more "casual" construction, including the tipped trackwork.
I love the steam-powered rail-mounted crane.
I didn't want to get into all the research and design of a scratch built project
(which is often the biggest part of a scratch building project)
so went with the kit.
While lacking a certain amount of verisimilitude,
I think it will make for an interesting scene.
I received the replacement details for the boom,
and got some work on that done over the weekend.
I am also working on finishing the trackwork for the Henderson Bay Branch.
Once I got the log dump along enough to figure out where it would (could) go,
it became possible to determine the final layout for the branch line trackage.
The location for the turnout into the logging facility was critical.
It turned out (no pun intended) to need two turnouts from the branch line.
One to serve the mill, the other to access the engine facility.
For the logging company, and the spur leading to, and across, the log dump,
I had to resort to an 18" radius curve.
Though I may play around with the arrangement some,
to see if I can get it to at least a 20" curve.
I really would like to see a 24", but there just isn't room.
All the branch line turnouts are #6.
The logging line will have #5 turnouts and Code 70 rail.
There will be a bit of an hiatus as I have to build a 12" to the foot fence.
Reg
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Reg H
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Si.
No, I managed to remember to keep all the fencing 12"/1'.
Fencing is done.
This weekend I get to regrout a bunch of brick work.

This is a view of the front of our house.
The picket fence has all been replaced and painted since this photo was taken.
Note the brick walk way and the brick wall below the picket fence.
All that brick work needs to be regrouted.
I am not looking forward to it.
Fortunately, we are having a mild summer.
Temps on Saturday should be in the high 60's to low 70's.
Reg
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Reg H
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Lee:
Yep. That's the one.
On Franklin Street one block north of Railroad Avenue and one lot west of 12th.
Si:
It started out, I believe in the 1920's, as an 850 sf "workman's cottage".
Similar to company houses all over the US,
except Simpson did not go in for company houses.
Some 35 years ago the additions started by the guy who was the local house razer,
using materials from the building across the street,
which was a junior high school and is now apartments.
The original part of the house is to the left of the turret.
There was a large shop building in back,
with an underground wine cellar between the house and the shop.
At some point, the wine cellar was used as a foundation for a new kitchen and dining room,
which then joined the shop to the rest of the house.
Half the shop was converted to a family room.
The rest is a garage that is now my machine shop.
The wine cellar is now the basement in which my model railroad resides.
We first encountered the house in 1995.
I had a business that had failed,
and we were living in a borrowed travel trailer, parked in a friend's back yard.
We met the previous owners in church and my wife visited them in the house,
returned to our trailer and expressed an interest in someday living in that house.
Which seemed an impossible dream at the time.
But life went well (for the most part) and we purchased the house in 2000.
And that certainly is a long rabbit trail that has little to do with model railroading,
except the basement.
Reg
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Reg H
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On another note...I got the crane for the log unloader finished,
except for some paint, last night.
The NBW's have been a major pain.
I just don't have the steadiness of hand to work on stuff that small anymore.
The finished product will do,
but it doesn't really do justice to the quality of the kit.
So, despite a season of lots of work around the house,
some progress is being made on the railroad.
Reg
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Lee B
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Reg H wrote:
Yep. That's the one.
On Franklin Street one block north of Railroad Avenue and one lot west of 12th.
Careful, Reg, now that I know where you are,
I might just show up asking to see the layout!
I haven't been to Shelton in a while.
I used to come to the logger parade every year with my WW2 living history group,
but trailering the Jeep all the way there was a royal pain for such a short timeframe.
The group was founded by Steve Gay who lives out on Cole Road,
his family used to own the newspaper there and he knows everyone in the area, it seems.
Those parades were always fun and sometimes the Simpson would be running that day as well.
I still feel like a fool that I didn't go chase the Simpson, not once.
____________________ -Lee
Commanding Officer, 796th Railway Operating Battalion (in On30 gauge)
https://willysmb44.webs.com/modeltrains.htm
Photos of my layout: https://www.flickr.com/photos/53587910@N05/albums/72157668176638961
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Reg H
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Lee:
At this point it looks better in photos.
I chased Simpson a few times with John Henderson.
I have a lot of railfan photos that need to be scanned,
and some method of making them available.
Not a whole lot of Simpson, but some.
Mostly Burlington Northern.
Reg
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Reg H
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The log unloader is essentially complete.
Here it is in what I think will be its general location in relationship to the mill.
I need to work on the lighting on this part of the layout.

The inhaul is just hanging there.
I haven't quite figured out how I want to terminate it.
There are some small details that will be completed,
once it is in it's final location and scenery is roughed in.
I am not as pleased with this kit as I am with the mill,
either in terms of the kit itself and my assembly work.
It is still quite a nice piece and will make a colorful addition to the layout.
But there are things that BTS could have done better,
and some things I could have done better.
One glaring example is the angle of the boom. It should be a bit higher.
But I assembled it with reference to the configuration of the parts,
and looking at the photos.
It would have been better if I had changed the assembly sequence,
and not installed the boom until the reel house had been mounted on the piling.
Reg
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Reg H
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I have started work on the engine house.
This is the south wall.

Back side view

This kit is no where near the quality of the BTS kits.
It is a good kit, just not quite up to the excellence of the BTS stuff.
A big difference is that it is obvious that Builders in Scale,
are working with a much lower capacity laser.
The sheet materials are VERY thin, and everything else is strip wood.
It also appears that the laser is designed to primarily cut in one direction,
and must kind of jog to cut at 90 degrees.
I also have some disagreement with their sequencing.
They recommend painting all the parts before assembly. DO NOT DO THAT!!!
The sheet materials are so thin, and made doubly so by the scribing,
that trying to paint it without any bracing will almost certainly result in warping.
I plan to paint the walls after the framing is all done,
so that there is some substance to the structure.
Note the framing on the walls.
The instructions recommend assembling the framing over the full size plans,
much as one would build a balsa airplane.
The wall sheathing is then to be added to the framing.
Those frame pieces are 1/16" square!!!!
Coupled with the paper thin sheathing, that just looks like the hard way to me.
On this first wall I dimensioned the framing from the plans,
and then assembled it on the sheathing.
So far that approach has worked out very well.
It is the approach I will use on the rest of the kit.
The idea of assembling that framing on the plans, removing it from the plans,
and then trying to get it situated properly on the wall sheathing (or vice versa)
just does not look like a good idea.
My Chopper came in very handy getting all those vertical members the same length.
The one thing that Builders in Scale have it over the BTS kits is the full size plans.
It helps, in conjunction with the photos, visually how things are supposed to go together.
This is a very small engine house.
The little GE locos I have for the logging operation will barely fit.
But I think it will fit in well with the rest of the layout.
A big engine house would look very much out of place.
Reg
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Alan Sewell
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Hi Reg
Impressed by your progress on the mill etc.
Wish I had any progress but rather going backwards,
since having to repair the damage caused by the grandson’s playing with “Pop’s trains”.
I have decided to relay a little used spur as one serving the company’s Plywood Division.
But then need new switches and rail joiners before I can start (Yes this is fun!!!)
The unloader looks good.
However re your query that the “in haul is just hanging and not sure how to terminate”.
I would answer by saying it needs cutting off at the base of the unloader crane and attach a hook.
Unloading in this case, would I suspect be dangerous but common.
There would be straps attached to the brow log.
When the train was positioned for unloading,
the crew would pass the straps under the logs and OVER the car frame.
These would be attached to the unloader and then tightened, tipping the load,
and hopefully not the car, into the pond.
I will attach some photos by Ivan Ergish (via John Henderson),
on the unloader at Shelton, which show a similar situation.
Best regards
Alan
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Alan Sewell
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Although The Shelton unloader was self-propelled,
its operation when unloading, is the same as a fixed version.
In the photo, the cable has been passed under the load,
and the engine is tightening the line.
Alan

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Alan Sewell
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A view from the pond as unloading a car starts.
Alan

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Alan Sewell
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Head on view,
showing the unloading cable hooked onto the loader awaiting the next loads.
Alan

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Reg H
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Alan:
Well that is pretty darn simple.
I believe they called this kind of operation "parbuckling".
And, yes, it does look dangerous.
Judging from the photos,
it appears that the crane angle on my unloader is not all that far out of line.
Especially if I keep log loads low.
I am planning on using the Kadee log cars.
I guess I better go shopping and find out if they are still available.
Re: Grandkids playing with the trains...
my grandkids are under strict orders to touch nothing unless I am present.
Reg
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