W&A Roundhouse - Pano

New fun with the iPhone camera. My good friend  Andy Salcius was here for a couple of days. His first project was setting up this blog. He has taken many photos and videos subsequently of the layout. For this visit we experimented with panoramic photography for something slightly different to experience. He started with the idea to make a small pivotable jig. After several renditions we landed on this rig. It appears to be on a platform/flat car. That is correct! It was the first scratch built car I attempted about 25 years ago. The base however was two angled bolsters which caused it to tip left or right. He added the four posts to stabilize and high enough to hold his iPhone. Inside the car is an inverted deck made 3D by Andy when he worked for Makerbot. The inverted deck being too unstable I found the car as a sturdier base. 

Here is photo of the jig in service that Andy created. We added a few shims to ensure stability.

 

Photo below is about the 10th shot after experimenting with different Jerry-rigged jigs and using the one shown above.

Of course this view is premature in that my research continues to find some information on what the interior may have looked like during the war years. So far, thanks to the folks at the B&O Museum, the Savannah Railroad Museum and a period photo from Dave Bright (csa-railroads.com) of the Petersburg Roundhouse, I am ready to begin adding elements. These will include one or two winches in bays, gas lamps in some of the bays, a load of work benches, shelving and more debris from general maintenance.

Roundhouse Flooring Completed!

If you have visited prior postings of my ambition to add flooring, here is a photo of the final result! If you have not seen the build up, my research showed that roundhouses at this  time did have wood flooring. I thank the folks at the Savannah RR Museum for their assistance. After many hours of fitting the scribed siding, I am pleased to show its completion...

Above you can see two tracks with pits installed. Of course these were to conduct maintenance on the under belly of the locomotives. 
There is one photo of the Georgia roundhouse, below, revealing that each track had a maintenance pit. I considered reproducing this element... until I did one and immediately did a 180 on that decision. Hence, I did only two to simply offer the idea as to how these would have looked.

M&C RR Update

I know, I know, not much of the W&A recently. However, I can not pass up the opportunity to show the latest progress on Charlie Taylor's O scale M&C. Below is one of two photo updates showing the Memphis Depot.

The extraordinary aspect of this and the next photo of the Huntsville Roundhouse is that I initially thought these were laser cut as are several of the M&C structures. Actually these are scratch built. Charlie Curro is the master craftsman who has done many of the M&C buildings. The doorway detail is truly spectacular.
This one below is the Huntsville Roundhouse, also scratch built. Please note that the roof is metal!

Next post will be a tip for discarded car weights and recent photos of work on my W&A Roundhouse.

ROUNDHOUSE FLOORING PART II

Many moons ago I began planning and tracing the spaces between the roundhouse bay tracks. Research plausibly indicates that roundhouses did have wooden flooring. I chose this Northeastern 1/8" wide scribed siding. With a few more sections to cut and install, I am also adding a loco pit where workers clean loco undersides. Clearly more to do yet filling in end gaps like the one below. Next big project here is how to add lighting, most likely on beams above the bays.            

Roundhouse Interior Phase 1

This year I have been researching for the interior of the roundhouse. Starting with any roundhouse close to this period there is very, very little that I have been able to discover. Finally I found the site for the Roundhouse Museum in Savannah GA. First place to begin an interior is with the flooring. After speaking with a curator there, as well as other historians both architectural and RR oriented, wood planks appear to have been the preferred choice. Both timber and labor were quite abundant then and although cement was available at the time, there is more evidence for the use of wood as flooring. 

I decided to go with a 10x4" plank although they may have been 8" or 10x10" beams. For the purpose of fitting these between the rails and the roundhouse bays I went with planking. Using Northwest lumber I chose scribed siding versus laying each plank separately. I did however consider individual planks for the look, but I quickly went for expedience and chose sheets instead.

I started with tracing paper to get the exact dimension as shown above. One issue I discovered is that my geometry skills are clearly not up to par. Each section between the tracks is slightly different so each bay will need to have its own measurement.  
Tracing paper is mailable enough versus cardboard and I could easily work the paper and make the markings for an easier template. Next was to transfer this onto the sheet of scribed siding, make the cuts, test the placement and sand or trim where needed.

The curved pencil line is the interior wall marking. This way I know where to trim the flooring. As you can see these floors are large puzzle pieces since the sheets are being cut somewhat perpendicular to the rails as my research, although limited, had revealed.
Stay tuned as I ran out of the scribed sheets and am waiting for the next order to arrive.