DSS&A 100 Series American

Engineers side view of my rebuilt Bachmann Southern american type locomotive.  This project will result in a good representation of a DSS&A 100 series american type engine.

Firemans side view.  I added styrene trim work to the cab to give it the appearance of a wood cab.  The domes, bell, stack and headlight are PSC castings.  The injector piping, whistle and sander valves were salvaged from the Bachmann model.

The next step will be modifying the tender.  The challenge here will be to fit in the batteries, DCC sound decoder, speaker, and wireless receiver.  I guess I did not mention that the layout that you see the engine on is being built as dead rail, so I need an appropriate engine for use on it.  It has been a pleasant experience not having to wire track, one I highly recommend. 

This is the electronics package in the tender.  There are a lot of goodies packed into a small space.  A Tam Valley radio, Tsunami 750 decoder, speaker, reed switch and controller circuit, and a pair of 110maH Sparkfun LiPo batteries.  The radio antenna is the curved red wire that lays over the top of the components.  The tender shell snaps in place so you do not have to remove screws to change the cells,  of course you do have to be careful to pick up the tender by holding the frame not the shell sides. 

I have done a little testing on performance.  So far I have found that I can perform stop/start switching, pulling four freight cars, for about 30 minutes on one set of charged batteries.  It will be interesting to see if this goes up as I put more duty cycles on the batteries.  If it could get to 45 minutes that would be ideal as it takes about 45-60 minutes to charge a pair of cells.

Crossties And Track

I have been working on some modeling projects through the summer but have mostly been enjoying  spending my time outdoors.  I did work on creating flat cut ties and detailing track using Proto 87 Store components.  This is a sample of the track on my newest shelf layout. 

Coal for the Tamarack No 2 Boiler House

Coal was delivered to the boiler houses of the mine in empty rock cars.  Rock cars loaded with copper ore would be sent to the stamps, when empty a significant number would be forwarded to the mining company's coal dock.  There they would be loaded with coal and returned to the mine.  This was a profitable cycling of cars for the railroad. 

This coal load is a resin casting created to precisely fit the 30 ton rock cars.  In the November 2011 issue of Model Railroad Hobbyist I presented a method for creating coal loads.  That method, with a slight modification was used to create the load.   Brushable silicon rubber was used to create the mold.  Once the part is cast a little side sanding and some tapering of the ends of the load allow it to snuggle down into the car.  Once the fit was established I painted the casting black.

Mine Props For Tamarack No 2

 
Tamarack Shaft No 2 is back in operation now that the miners have been refreshed with their favorite beverages.  These two cars are the first deliveries of stulls for use in the newly opened vein on the 38th level north. 

The logs were created from white pine sticks which were molded using a brushable silicon rubber.  They are cast in resin, painted and finished with powdered pigments. 

Beer Arrives In The Red Jacket District

The new Mineral Range spur which serves the beer depots located off Pine street has seen their first delivery of freight cars.  This event has been anticipated for the last four months as the depots themselves were constructed and the new spur was installed.  All of this activity has accompanied the process of changing the narrow gauge line of the Mineral Range to the universal standard sized track.  No longer will all of the beer headed for the Copper Country require unloading into cars of the narrow gauge at Houghton for shipment up to Red Jacket.  

Miller Beer Reefer Progress

I have finished construction on the first four beer reefers and am now in the process of painting.  This is the current state of the Miller Beer reefer.  Roof and ends are boxcar red and sides are white.  The Art Griffin decals have been applied to one side and now need to dry completely before I apply the eagle trademark.  I need to get some new paint brushes to do the detail painting on the model.  I am happy with the result so far, unfortunately the door on the car is five feet wide and I believe that the prototype had a four foot door.  I guess it will be back to the pattern shop for a redo!

Beer Reefer Build

I have started a build page on my next beer reefer.  It is a model of a Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul 34 foot Pabst car.  I purchased a photo of the car and decals for it from Art Griffin.  

Miller Beer CM&StP Reefer

This is an in process photo of the first in the group of refrigerator cars which will be delivering beer to the depots in Red Jacket.  This is a 28 foot car built in 1889.  My version will be after the rebuilding which applied air brakes to the car.  In the back ground is a prototype photo.  I made styrene masters of the side, end and underframe.  A mold was made and the parts were cast in resin.

Beer Distribution In Calumet (Red Jacket) 4

This is my interpretation of the Pabst depot and bottling plant, the last of the beer depots.  The first view is of the track side of the building showing the ice house, bottling plant and stable.

The above view is of the wagon loading side of the building.  I used the information gained in examining the photo to create the stepped roof of the three sections of the building. 
   

Beer Distribution In Calumet (Red Jacket) 3

This is my interpretation of the Schlitz beer depot.  This view is of the stable and front, wagon loading side.

Track side view.  Warehouse for bottled beer is on this side.  The windows placed high on the wall provide light and plenty of storage space along wall. 

Photo Of Prototype Beer Depots

Well wouldn't you know.  I have just finished the Schlitz beer depot and am ready to start the Pabst.  I was looking through the Superior Views photo pages and found the above picture.  I believe that the four beer depots are located in the left center foreground.  Extreme left is Miller, then Blatz, next Schlitz and last Pabst.  The Blatz depot is directly aligned with the Red Jacket smoke stack.  Clearly the Pabst depot shows the three sections as indicated on the Sanborn.  Tucked behind Pabst appears to be the grocery warehouse.  It appears that there is an angled wall on the Miller building.  It also seems to show the set back of the stable on the Blatz depot as shown on the map.  Of course I could be totally wrong about what I see but the direction of the photo, looking toward Red Jacket shaft, should include them.  I guess my estimates of what the buildings looked like were close.  The biggest discrepancy might be that the roof sections appear continuous not stepped down between the ice houses and the attached wings.

Beer Depots Sanborn Map Detail

This view is from the 1893 map.  The track is owned by the Mineral Range when it was still a three foot gauge common carrier. 

This view is from the 1897 map.  The most notable change is the removal of the track.  This was the time period when the MR converted to standard gauge so they may have pulled the spur.  Of course it is possible that it still existed and was not shown.  There are changes to the depots and/or this map shows more specific details associated with the buildings.  According to the key the building sections with the large "X" are stables.

I have chosen to combine data from both maps to build the models.  The Miller depot is based upon the 1893 building.  The Blatz depot did not change between maps.  I am building the Schlitz depot based upon the 1897 map configuration.  My plan is to build the Pabst depot based upon the 1897 as well. The configuration with a bottling works in the middle section and stable on the end should make a neat model.

Beer Distribution In Calumet (Red Jacket) 2

The second beer depot is that of the Blatz Brewery.  It is comprised of the ice house and stable.  This facility had no bottling operation so both bottled and keg beer were stored in the ice house.

You have to keep in mind that horses and wagons were the means for distributing the beer therefore the stable was part of the structure.  I designed the stable to reflect two stalls, room for the wagon and a small space for feed and straw storage.   

Beer Distribution In Calumet (Red Jacket)

When I studied the Sanborn maps of Red Jacket from the late 1890's I noted a block of buildings all related to beer distribution and located along a rail spur.  These distributors were for the Miller, Blatz, Schlitz and Pabst breweries.  This seems like an ideal modeling opportunity.  Photos may exist of these buildings but I am not located near enough to the resources to do the digging so I will freelance these models.

The Miller Beer Depot has an ice house and a bottling house.  Barrel beer was shipped in and stored in the ice house.  It would then be distributed to local taverns or bottled for the 'family' trade.  By this time period the bottling and pasteurization of beer was an established practice, therefore I presume that local bottling was done to eliminate the back haul of empty bottles to the breweries in Milwaukee. 

Here is the completed model.  Note that it is minimally weathered as it represents an new building.

Mineral Range Freight Equipment

My postings during the holidays has been obviously limited but I have been working on some models and am prepared at this point to share what I have been doing.

I am continuing with modeling the Mineral Range rolling stock.  Since the primary source of revenue for the railroad was servicing copper mines the majority of equipment was comprised of rock cars and flat cars. 

This model represents the 75 flat cars in the 51 to 199 series.  They were primarily used to carry mine timbers.  

This is a model of the 30 ton rock cars.  There were 100 cars in the series 1000 to 1198.  They were used to haul rock from the mine to the stamp mills and coal from the Portage Lake coal docks to the mines.

Since I need a number of these cars I created styrene patterns for the cars, RTV molds and then cast the parts in resin.  No fancy 3D printing for these models, all the pattern work is in 2D and the components are assembled to create a 3D model.  I know how to make patterns and do castings so there was no long learning curve involved or issues with printers.  The cost per complete model is about $15.