Onward!

 Well, it has been awhile.  Life gets busy at times, with family, work and...stuff.  While I have not been getting many models built, there has been progress on other fronts with my hobby.  These developments have re-energized me to get back to it.

Most importantly, we started construction of our new home, where we will retire, late last year.  I have a few years of work left but we have decided to make the move now, rather than hold on to both houses.  My work has been remote for years so no change there.  What will change is that we are downsizing substantially.  I am fortunate that I will have a dedicated space for a workbench and a small shelf layout, as final arrangements for our living space have developed.  This was a bit uncertain until we were well underway with construction and a serendipitous change was made in the location of the washer and dryer in our laundry room.

In progress photo, no lighting, tile not yet grouted

This is the space, small but can be dedicated to a workbench on the far wall with an "L" shape shelf layout above and on the left side.  It is about 7' x 5' of wall space.  The washer and dryer were originally to go on the wall to the left, below the cabinets but the plumber, in his wisdom, installed the connections on the wall behind me in this photo.  What at first seemed to be a mistake became an opportunity to gain more room for my hobby than we originally planned.  

My shelf may be a bit lower than originally conceived, to allow room under the cabinets, but I think it will be ok.  I was strongly considering a proscenium framed shelf design so will see if I can incorporate the cabinet as the top of my layout frame.  The counter on the right will have the laundry sink at the near end, not yet built out in this photo.  

Finishing work continues on the house, and we expect to move in sometime in July.  I will be moving my workbench and all hobby materials once we are in.  It may make sense to build a new workbench in place in the corner with the layout shelf above.

As typically happens, building a custom home, even a small one, has been an "adventure."  Coordinating subcontractors and working through the questions, crises and compromises has taken up most of my "leisure time" bandwidth this past year.  It is nice to see the end of the tunnel ahead.

Underframes (or Dipping Your Toe In)

 I don't know about you, but sometimes just contemplating taking that first step is the most difficult, like going to a lake or beach and standing on the shore, working up the nerve to get into the water (up here in the Northwest we know it is going to be cold!).

A few years ago I was at that point when it came to adding underframe details to my models.  I had read a lot of information, digested many "how to" articles and educated myself on prototype practices, but I was hesitant to give it a try for fear of "messing it up."

After a little internal pep talk ("you can do this", "how difficult could it be?", "it's just one model, right?"), I decided to dip my toe in, starting with a Red Caboose flat car model decorated for the Great Northern that came with older KC style brakes.  I wanted to update the brakes to fit my modeling period of 1965, so I substituted Tichy AB brake components, using a few small pieces of styrene to provide mounting for the brake reservoir and remembering to align the brake cylinder actuator toward the "B" end of the car.  I also painted the underframe and weight which forms the "floor" with grimy black from an aerosol spray can, or rattle can.

Red Caboose Flat Car Underframe with AB Brake Components

The results of even this small effort looked better than I had expected. With that first little step behind me I felt ready to jump in, this time adding brake rod detail to an Accurail underframe.  

Details Added to Accurail Underframe

Once again I used Tichy AB brake components, fabricating brake levers from styrene strip, and using wire grab irons as the hangers.  Dimensions were based on reference information and hand trimmed to shape with an Exacto blade.  I also added a train line (you can see it crossing through the centersill), along with brake rods from bronze wire.  The layout is generic and not necessarily 100% prototypical for a particular car, but a reasonable appearance.  Here is the result after painting with flat grimy black.

Detailed & Painted Underframe

Looking at it today, I know it is not completely accurate.  There is no chain between the brake cylinder and the lever.  I also could have added the piping between components for more realism, but the level of detail I did add really looked good.  One take away after I test fit trucks:  the wire brake rods probably need to terminate closer to the centersill as they may interfere with truck swing.  But, hey, not bad for a first attempt!

I'm now considering this my typical minimum level of detail for underframes.  There are a few other details I will add, like air hoses and coupler cut levers.  As a next challenge in building my skills I may try adding brake piping to a few cars.  Turns out the water is fine - I know that I can do this and it improves the appearance of my models, plus it is actually fun.