Cathead

Here's a bit of fun historical background. I was finally able to make a trip to the State Historical Society research center, where they have all sorts of cool stuff. The item I was after, which I'd perused before but not taken detailed notes from, was this:

This is a thick volume, published by the railroad, that lists summaries of every town along its entire system covering Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. These summaries include population, primary industries, descriptions of the surrounding country and its agriculture, and so on. The volume then goes on to list, in exhaustive detail, every business or businessman having a relationship with the railroad in an extraordinary variety of classifications. For example:



That last one cracks me up. Language is always changing.
 
So I was able to slowly go through the entire volume and note down every business that dealt with the railroad in my focus towns like New Franklin and Rocheport. Here's a summary of the businesses operating in Rocheport in 1912 that the railroad felt were worth listing in its business directory as shippers or receivers, curated for the entries I felt were most relevant. Yes, I'm focusing on 1900 instead, but this is the only year the research library has and it's close enough for my purposes.

Hotels Grossman Hotel Agricultural implement, vehicle and wagon manufacturers and dealers W.W. Scobbee Apple and potato dealers, buyers, shippers, and growers George Roberts, apple grower & shipper C.D. Hill, " C.C. Bell, " H.J. Fieschman, " Luther Grigsby, " Sid Challies, " L. Torbitt, " C.S. Jenkins, " Coal & wood dealers T.J. Canole Drug dealers B.F. Dimitt E.H. Chinn General merchandise dealers E. Inman J.B. Challis H.R. Harris Grain Elevators, flour, feed, corn, grist and rice mills Rocheport Roller Mills, flour, 125 bbls daily Rocheport Elevator, 10,000 bu Hardware and mill supplies F.E. Bysfield Hay and alfalfa dealers and shippers T.J. Canole Lumber F.E. Bysfield Stock yards and livestock dealers and shippers Basque & McMillan Rapp & Little D.C. Steckdaub  
Note some of the interesting overlaps: TJ Canole is both a wood/coal dealer AND a hay/alfalfa dealer. This is pretty fun, since when I was first trying to figure out what that giant hay barn was, I thought it might be a lumber yard. It may still double as a fuel dealer and that means I can spot cars of coal there (Missouri has several major coal mining regions that were quite active in this era, including a major field along the MK&T mainline in SW Missouri). Also noted that FE Bysfield is listed under both hardware and lumber; that's also a pretty sensible combination.
 
The sheer amount of independent businesses in a town of 434 is fascinating. Not to mention the far more diverse agriculture. Nine independent growers and shippers of apples from a town that size! I knew this area was once vibrant with orchards but even so that's a vivid picture. I'm strongly resisting the urge to get political here with regards to the decline in small towns, manufacturing, and independent communities and the resulting socio-economic problems. 
 
So all this is very interesting if you're a complete local history nerd, but why is it relevant to this modeling project? Two primary reasons.
 
(1) It lets me use real names for local businesses. I can now call it the Rocheport Elevator (creative name, I know) and put a sign for TJ Canole, hay dealer, on the larger barn wall. I can give the commercial buildings in town the names of real enterprises. It adds a layer of realism and context that I think is pretty neat.
 
(2) It makes operating sessions more interesting. Having all these names for local shippers lets me set up specific orders for cars. For example, maybe one set of stock cars sent to the stockyard is for a consignment being shipped by Basque & McMillan to one destination, while another set of cars is for Rapp & Little being sent to a different destination (for example, Kansas City vs St Louis, both of which had major meatpacking establishments), instead of just "two stock cars". I can have different boxcars spotted to be loaded with apples from different farms being sent to different destinations. I can have shipments for a given merchandise or implement dealer set out, rather than just "spot boxcar 123 on track 1 loaded with general freight". Operators switching in Rocheport (or anywhere else) will have a much richer sense of what the railroad is doing there, and that's part of the joy of modeling railroading, the ability to really recreate the actions (not just the look) of a setting.
 
Another aspect of (2) is the value of planning a model railroad based on real settings. I laid out my version of Rocheport based on the actual track arrangements and what I could see in contemporary photographs. For example, there's only one siding and only two physical destinations for freight cars on that siding (the stockyards and the hay/grain complex). Model railroaders building something more freelanced would want more physical industries in a scene this size, and would be adding factories and other sidings and so on. I stuck with what I could see. And the reward is the evidence that Rocheport DID have a lot of other industries going, it's just that most of them didn't have specific loading points. I left room in my track plan for two spots where freight cars can be spotted for general loading/unloading (called "team tracks", since traditionally a wagon drawn by a horse team would pull up there, and still called that today even when served by modern trucks). I didn't have a specific plan for what would ship to/from these points, I just felt certain they'd be needed. And now I have a massive list of specific businesses that would be using those team track points, from outbound apple shipments to inbound farm equipment. It just makes the whole setting so much more vibrant.
 
In a future post I'll talk more about model railroad operations but this is enough writing for one post. I think it's some pretty cool context and maybe you will, too.
 
 
 

Chris, here's another question about accuracy, as a former student of Russian. In the "what it's supposed to look like" photo, the stern has what's obviously supposed to be the ship's name in Russian, Phoenix (феникс). But that first letter looks totally off; it looks like a plain "o", not the Cyrillic "f", "ф", which can be scribed various ways but must have a vertical line through it. Sometimes it looks like a sideways 8, sometimes a circle, but always the vertical line. What they show would read as "oenix" in English. It really threw me until I realized it was an incomplete f. Unless I'm missing something about 18th century Russian script, which I admit to not being familiar with...
 
What does the lettering look like in your kit?

I would have said the same as Other Keith; black makes a good undertone but the way to weather it is with shades of grey that tone down its ability to soak up light, and reveal some of the surface texture. Another reason I like pastels, because they inherently leave some texture on any surface that scatters light just a bit.

It doesn't. As far as I can find so far (unless I overlooked it somewhere), the regular kit had the name as part of the PE stern detailing, but the deluxe kit has nothing. I had already been thinking about how I'm going to tackle that issue. Looking ahead to the possibility of painting the name, I had already used Google Translate to make a copy of the name in Russian, with Cyrillic characters. But thanks for checking! 😉

Here's a bit of fun historical background. I was finally able to make a trip to the State Historical Society research center, where they have all sorts of cool stuff. The item I was after, which I'd perused before but not taken detailed notes from, was this:

This is a thick volume, published by the railroad, that lists summaries of every town along its entire system covering Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. These summaries include population, primary industries, descriptions of the surrounding country and its agriculture, and so on. The volume then goes on to list, in exhaustive detail, every business or businessman having a relationship with the railroad in an extraordinary variety of classifications. For example:



That last one cracks me up. Language is always changing.
 
So I was able to slowly go through the entire volume and note down every business that dealt with the railroad in my focus towns like New Franklin and Rocheport. Here's a summary of the businesses operating in Rocheport in 1912 that the railroad felt were worth listing in its business directory as shippers or receivers, curated for the entries I felt were most relevant. Yes, I'm focusing on 1900 instead, but this is the only year the research library has and it's close enough for my purposes.

Hotels Grossman Hotel Agricultural implement, vehicle and wagon manufacturers and dealers W.W. Scobbee Apple and potato dealers, buyers, shippers, and growers George Roberts, apple grower & shipper C.D. Hill, " C.C. Bell, " H.J. Fieschman, " Luther Grigsby, " Sid Challies, " L. Torbitt, " C.S. Jenkins, " Coal & wood dealers T.J. Canole Drug dealers B.F. Dimitt E.H. Chinn General merchandise dealers E. Inman J.B. Challis H.R. Harris Grain Elevators, flour, feed, corn, grist and rice mills Rocheport Roller Mills, flour, 125 bbls daily Rocheport Elevator, 10,000 bu Hardware and mill supplies F.E. Bysfield Hay and alfalfa dealers and shippers T.J. Canole Lumber F.E. Bysfield Stock yards and livestock dealers and shippers Basque & McMillan Rapp & Little D.C. Steckdaub  
Note some of the interesting overlaps: TJ Canole is both a wood/coal dealer AND a hay/alfalfa dealer. This is pretty fun, since when I was first trying to figure out what that giant hay barn was, I thought it might be a lumber yard. It may still double as a fuel dealer and that means I can spot cars of coal there (Missouri has several major coal mining regions that were quite active in this era, including a major field along the MK&T mainline in SW Missouri). Also noted that FE Bysfield is listed under both hardware and lumber; that's also a pretty sensible combination.
 
The sheer amount of independent businesses in a town of 434 is fascinating. Not to mention the far more diverse agriculture. Nine independent growers and shippers of apples from a town that size! I knew this area was once vibrant with orchards but even so that's a vivid picture. I'm strongly resisting the urge to get political here with regards to the decline in small towns, manufacturing, and independent communities and the resulting socio-economic problems. 
 
So all this is very interesting if you're a complete local history nerd, but why is it relevant to this modeling project? Two primary reasons.
 
(1) It lets me use real names for local businesses. I can now call it the Rocheport Elevator (creative name, I know) and put a sign for TJ Canole, hay dealer, on the larger barn wall. I can give the commercial buildings in town the names of real enterprises. It adds a layer of realism and context that I think is pretty neat.
 
(2) It makes operating sessions more interesting. Having all these names for local shippers lets me set up specific orders for cars. For example, maybe one set of stock cars sent to the stockyard is for a consignment being shipped by Basque & McMillan to one destination, while another set of cars is for Rapp & Little being sent to a different destination (for example, Kansas City vs St Louis, both of which had major meatpacking establishments), instead of just "two stock cars". I can have different boxcars spotted to be loaded with apples from different farms being sent to different destinations. I can have shipments for a given merchandise or implement dealer set out, rather than just "spot boxcar 123 on track 1 loaded with general freight". Operators switching in Rocheport (or anywhere else) will have a much richer sense of what the railroad is doing there, and that's part of the joy of modeling railroading, the ability to really recreate the actions (not just the look) of a setting.
 
Another aspect of (2) is the value of planning a model railroad based on real settings. I laid out my version of Rocheport based on the actual track arrangements and what I could see in contemporary photographs. For example, there's only one siding and only two physical destinations for freight cars on that siding (the stockyards and the hay/grain complex). Model railroaders building something more freelanced would want more physical industries in a scene this size, and would be adding factories and other sidings and so on. I stuck with what I could see. And the reward is the evidence that Rocheport DID have a lot of other industries going, it's just that most of them didn't have specific loading points. I left room in my track plan for two spots where freight cars can be spotted for general loading/unloading (called "team tracks", since traditionally a wagon drawn by a horse team would pull up there, and still called that today even when served by modern trucks). I didn't have a specific plan for what would ship to/from these points, I just felt certain they'd be needed. And now I have a massive list of specific businesses that would be using those team track points, from outbound apple shipments to inbound farm equipment. It just makes the whole setting so much more vibrant.
 
In a future post I'll talk more about model railroad operations but this is enough writing for one post. I think it's some pretty cool context and maybe you will, too.
 
 
 

Time for an update. Even with the record heat we had been having I managed to get some time in the shop this week and last.
First, as promised here is a photo of the cat heads. I haven't touched up the black paint on them yet, but you can see how much I had to notch them so the bow rail lays flat on them.
 

 
The instructions show using brass rod to make the decorations for the transom and planking it vertically.
 

 
I did not like the look of that, so I made wood trim pieces for the transom and planked it horizontally as it shows in the AOS Beagle. I did leave off the curly Q's though and the trim on the counter.
 

 

 
My trim pieces may be a little too wide but I can live with that. This will all be painted black. I then sanded the planks down and glued the fake quarter galleries to the hull.
 

 
On the other side of the transom piece instead of just painting the plywood black as the instructions show, I planked it as well.
I will stain these planks to match the inner bulwark planks.
 

 
I slightly edge bent planks for the rails at the top of the bulwarks and the aft deck. These will also be stained. The kit supplies a laser cut piece that goes on the inside of the transom piece at the deck and the fit was OK but not curved enough. I soaked and bent a piece of basswood and clamped it to the inside of the transom piece at the deck to use instead. This gave me a much better fit.
 

 
Finally I have been working on the taffrail and outer trim pieces for the transom. For these I used the cut out from the laser sheet that held the transom piece and made two pieces of hardwood with the top curve and the side curve. I used the top curve piece to bend the taffrail (on the right), which came out very well. I tried doing that for the side pieces (left) but I could not get them to bend enough without kinking.
 

 
So I decided to cut the side pieces from a block of boxwood. I first rough cut the inside curve with a band saw then sanded it using a sanding drum in my drill press, until I had a good fit on the transom piece. I then rough cut the outside curve with the band saw and used a disk sander to get it to the same thickness as the taffrail. Once I had one side piece made I used it as a template for the other side piece.
 

 
These came out much better than the bent pieces. These and the taffrail will also be stained before I glue them on.
 

I have been working on the boiler room. 

The outside panel is simple. The hand ropes are the only detail on the outside.  Not certain what it is called, but on the main deck, a panel was added to keep people from falling into the pit.

On the inside, there is the handles for the capstan and the fire hose.  Although the capstan was steam powered, there seems to have been a habit of still including manual handles “just in case”.  The panel is still removable and will not be cemented in until after the hog chains are finally set when the hurricane deck is in place.

Lots of little (time consuming) details have been added.  In the boiler pit, a coal shovel and the four firebox tools were made.  Period publications listed the tools at eight feet tall -  probably long enough to both stay away from a hot fire box but also to keep the handles cooler.  On the opposite side is the ladder into the pit.

The steam dome had several additions.  Piping to the capstan, and the radiators in the men’s smoker and the pilothouse were added.  Other stuff like finishing the water piping and spent steam vent to the chimney were also built.   
 

Now I would like to finish up the engine room.  Again, sorry for the delays but life has gotten in the way.
 

I got the bits of molding along the outer bulwarks added.
 

 
I then set about adding some clear semi-gloss polyacrylic to the hull, and things got a little dicey. Most of the first coat went nicely, but then the polyacrylic acted as a solvent on the paint on the wales, leaving several smudges. So first I had to clean that up. Then I sprayed the entire hull with matte clear spray to hopefully seal all the existing paint. While that was drying, I worked on painting some of the hull ornamentation. Moving on to the second coat of polyacrylic, the matte clear had done its job of sealing stuff, but somehow I had managed to get a couple of dabs of the ornaments colors on my freshly painted hull. 😡 So, I had to clean that off before proceeding. Finally got it all done.
 
Now I'm not 100% happy with the tone of the 'orange ochre' paint I had on hand for painting the aft carvings. I made several attempts to mix up a batch -- each ended in abject failure. I will probably dash off to Hobby Lobby to see if I can't find something.
 
BTW, while painting the various carvings, I noticed that they are completely different from the pieces used on the prototype model and shown on the box art. More on that later.

Thank you Eric and thank you Keith... it´s nice t be back and I hope we will have again some nice chats on here
 
Micha

I would have said the same as Other Keith; black makes a good undertone but the way to weather it is with shades of grey that tone down its ability to soak up light, and reveal some of the surface texture. Another reason I like pastels, because they inherently leave some texture on any surface that scatters light just a bit.

One thing to be aware of with MK kits is that they only mostly fall together by themselves, but not totally. There are instances where parts don't fit as indicated in the instructions, usually as a result of error creep during the build, and some thought has to be given as to how to proceed. The keel veneers are one such instance. In the Step 46 inset, you can see that the bottom veneer, H22, is supposed to sit atop (i.e., directly beneath) the two side pieces, H21.

 
But there are problems with that suggestion. First, it doesn't match the construction sequence of the corresponding veneers on the stem. Second, on my particular build the side veneers overlapped the false keel too much, i.e., they stuck out too far, and laying the bottom piece atop them would have made that piece stand proud of the veneers on the stem. I had to choose between trimming the side pieces to allow the bottom piece to sit flush, or else trim the bottom piece to fit between the two side pieces. I chose the latter option, because it results in the exposed, thin sides of the veneers facing toward the bottom of the keel, where they won't be seen on the finished model.

 
Hope that all made sense.
 
Onward!

Just a post to show that Phoenix is back on the bench! Working on getting some veneers done -- exciting, right?
 

Thank you, Keith and Eric. I'll remember your suggestions for the "next" time when I have a black surface. For this roof I made a very thin black wash and applied till I was happy with the look knowing a dark black would be problematic. Thank you both again.

I would have said the same as Other Keith; black makes a good undertone but the way to weather it is with shades of grey that tone down its ability to soak up light, and reveal some of the surface texture. Another reason I like pastels, because they inherently leave some texture on any surface that scatters light just a bit.

I would have said the same as Other Keith; black makes a good undertone but the way to weather it is with shades of grey that tone down its ability to soak up light, and reveal some of the surface texture. Another reason I like pastels, because they inherently leave some texture on any surface that scatters light just a bit.

on my armour and railway kits i never use black - i use black primer and then use thinned coats of humbrol matt 67 tank grey and lighter shades of grey if more aging wanted- your wheel house (oops pilothouse across the pond) roof looks the part.
 
Keith

A nice start, Keith. Just make sure the hull planking lines up nicely so she'll float! 😀
 
John

Thank you to everyone for the comments and likes.
 
 Well, finally something that resembles a build log. Research is a necessity but there comes a point when ya just gotta make something! 
 
 I've completed the pilothouse. Who say's you can't start at the top and work your way down?  The vertical siding is 1/32" x 1/32" basswood glued together using CA. 
 
 I believe this was only a two man crew, the pilot would have been responsible for making forward and reverse changes requiring him to race up and down the stairs to the twin cylinder vertical steam engine which leads me to believe there wasn't a PH door. I also think the boiler had an automatic coal feeder, more about that later. 
 
 The sternwheeler I'm trying to replicate is so rough that I didn't do any sanding and I didn't try to correct the basswood pieces if they didn't line up exactly. This is going to be pretty much the theme of this build though it's hard to not try and make things all nicely aligned and ship shape. 

 
 There didn't appear to be any glazing in the PH windows, these are open window frames from Itchy Train. 

 
 I don't know how one weathers the color black so I tried to show wear by not making the roofing a deep black and leaving light patches here and there. The PH is 0.8" W x 0.9" L x 0.8" H.  The roof is 0.11" x 0.12". A penny is 0.7" D. 

 
 Next up is the what I'm call the engine room which isn't exactly what that room is but.. I wanted to get the ER and PH done where I'd have a better idea on how long and wide I need to make the hull. 
 
 Thank you to everyone for the support and following along and being part of the journey.
 
    Keith 

I continued on track-laying and wiring for part of today. Here's what the wiring under the two west-end turnouts looks like. It's not as scary or chaotic as it seems, like wires are actually neatly bundled together and nothing's soldered, meaning it's easy to adjust if needed. Thick black and red wires are the bus wires that carry main track power, smaller wires branching off from them carry power to individual track feeders, and yellow/brown/orange wires are the control wires for the turnouts. This is by far the most complicated section because of the turnouts and the throttle panel.

Here's a detail of track laying. I lay a thin smear of glue down on the roadbed, then use these nifty metal track spacers to set consistent curves or straight runs; these hold the flexible track in the right shape while I use a few small spikes to hold the track down until the glue dries.
 

And the really cool news is that the track-laying and wiring are all done! After a small amount of trouble-shooting, everything appears to work smoothly and I can operate all across the layout. It's super-exciting. In celebration, here are some broader context shots with more trains staged for appearance.
 




It's so cool to reach this stage. It'll be back to scenery for a while now, but I can actually run trains!
 
 
I don't think we can upload video or audio clips directly to MSW, and I don't really want to start posting layout stuff to third-party sites like YouTube. So I'm not sure if I can do that. I do agree I'd love you all to see and hear the actual operation, it adds so much. I'll give this some thought, there may be a solution down the road.
 
Thanks to all of you for helping me get to this point!
 
EDIT: I forgot to add this image, which is a first rough take on recreating the historic photo that inspired this whole project. Pretty cool!


The actual location of the real shot is actually west of the tunnel (layout left), so it'll appear if/when I extend this to the next module. The layout shot is actually along the bluffs in the background of the historic shot, just east (layout right) of Rocheport. But it's close enough!

Yesterday featured a landmark occurrence: the first movement of a train on this project:

 
OK, fine, it was just a quick electrical test of the first bits of track laid. But it was still a very exciting moment! This locomotive is sound-equipped, and the huffing of exhaust along with a triumphant whistle blast brought Mrs. Cathead in to see what was going on. Here's a broader view:

I really hate doing electrical work, it's easily my least favorite thing about model railroading. But it needs to be done so I'm doing it. I already showed the turnout controls; another step was to install the panels where locomotive throttles plug in. These involve drilling out rough holes in the fascia to accomodate the circuitry behind these panels, them screwing them in place. You'll also notice that the left-hand track diagram is now painted instead of taped, as agreed on by the community.
 


I then installed throttle holsters as well. So now the front-facing part of the electrical work is done, and it's time to start doing all the fiddly under-layout wiring along with additional tracklaying. I've already found something I need to troubleshoot and hope I can figure out. Did I mention that I hate electrical work? But the good news is that it directly leads to some really fun stuff (operating trains). 
 
A few more status shots. It really is starting to look "official" with the fascia infrastructure near completion.


And one final shot down the tracks:

Welcome back!

Me, too, though I kinda can't wait until the next revolution comes and locomotives become self-contained with battery power. I'd be thrilled to eliminate all track wiring. Sound does add an extraordinary level of immersive realism.
 
Yeah, the car card boxes will be right at that shelf for easy use. This way this scene is designed, it's all but impossible (or at least highly inadvisable) for any paperwork to get put on the layout because the tracks are set back a bit with scenery in the foreground. There will also be a track diagram with spotting locations labeled, I'm working on developing that now. That'll be a future post.

It wasn't the question I was laughing at, it was the "I see NOTHINNNNG!... except an old, blurry photo!"  I would never laugh at anyone's question.

Me, too, though I kinda can't wait until the next revolution comes and locomotives become self-contained with battery power. I'd be thrilled to eliminate all track wiring. Sound does add an extraordinary level of immersive realism.
 
Yeah, the car card boxes will be right at that shelf for easy use. This way this scene is designed, it's all but impossible (or at least highly inadvisable) for any paperwork to get put on the layout because the tracks are set back a bit with scenery in the foreground. There will also be a track diagram with spotting locations labeled, I'm working on developing that now. That'll be a future post.

Excellent writeup on building/growing your layout. 👍
 
Dead rail is the thing for the garden railway crowd. Our club garden setup is mostly that nowadays, with a few live steamers in the mix, too. Batteries need to shrink a lot for HO, but I can see the O scale guys doing it. Not sure about the tin-plate folks. I need to talk to my American Flyer guy.