FriedClams

Ian, great story, that's exactly why I'm taking this modular approach. I don't want to "ruin" this room and I don't want to have to throw everything out one day. This way a variety of outcomes are possible, from some or all of the scenes ending up in various local historical museums (of which we have several along this corridor), to possibly finding a new home with someone else. And if it does have to go to the landfill, it'll be a lot easier than ripping stuff off the walls and dismantling a messy web of permanent benchwork.
 
 

Interesting to see it come together. Not to diverge too much from this log, but in my handyman days I was once hired to "restore" a large L-shaped basement area where the lady's deceased husband had run his model RR along with his friends. This area encompassed half of the basement of the house. RR track completely encircled the room (except for one doorway) with as much as three feet depth from the walls, which were adorned by very skilfully painted hills and trees (I know this because I saw the area before the husband's friends came to remove the whole thing to another location). Anyway, when I went back for the job the walls were riddled with large jagged holes where they had apparently just ripped stuff off them as opposed to unscrewing. The lady was surprised when I proposed to just patch everything up rather than install new drywall but that would have been a big job and I was getting too old to be lugging drywall sheets down stairs any more. It was one thing to patch and tape the holes (and build a little closet around the incoming water valve) but effectively hiding all the painted forests took about four coats of primer. The finished job delighted the lady with the fresh new room. I've found that one advantage of doing a job for senior ladies is that they keep you fed while you're there!  😏
 
Now back to our regular programming; sorry.

OK, let's try to catch up on the other work that's been done so far. I started trying to write up some deeper background about layout design, development, historical/geographic settings, etc. and it just got away from me, so for now we're going to focus on the more mundane physical details.
 
The Rocheport scene is built on two modules, each 5.5' long for a total length of 11'. The depth of scene (to the backdrop) is about 2' on both, though the left-hand one curves outward to accommodate a possible future curve back around the other way, and also to add more scenic interest. One rule of thumb in model railroad planning is not to lay everything too straight; subtle changes in direction add visual interest. Here's an early view of the benchwork showing how each module is its own unit, set on top of separate support structures. They're bolted together in the middle and I can take either one off its supports independently if I want to work on it in a different setting or at a different angle (such as tilted onto its side for track wiring beneath the surface or taken outside for messy painting).

If you're wondering about the wood color, most of it is Eastern Red Cedar that I cut and milled on my rural Missouri homestead farm. That'll be a theme in this project, using as much local/natural material as I can, especially for scenery. The backdrop supports are cheap pine 1x3s that I had sitting around from a long-ago project; I'm using them to use them up because they're perfect for this. The darker wood like the legs is also cedar, just older and weathered; those are reused pieces from an old chicken coop I built years ago and no longer need.
 
The benchwork is solid framed boxes, with the actual surface being plywood supported on risers. This allows for two things: (1) scenery below track level like rivers and (2) easier access for wiring later. Here are a couple early views of transferring my computer-drawn track plan onto cheap plywood sheets (which I reused from a shipping crate rather than buying new). The joint between the two modules is just to the left of the depot.


As the photos suggest, I did 95% of the woodworking down in my garage woodshop (and some outdoors when winter weather allowed). This is one of many benefits of the modular system; I can build these where all my tools are and then transport them upstairs to a more finished room, rather than turning a finished room into a construction zone for months.
 
Once I had the exact track routes laid out, I made patterns and cut new pieces from  high-end plywood to support the actual trackbed and core town areas. This ensures that the important surfaces are smooth and flat, but saves money from making everything out of good plywood. The cheap plywood remains as the base for things like rivers and other scenic areas that don't need to be perfect. Below are a few more views showing how these surfaces interact and how the risers aid in setting up scenery.
 



Another reason to do it this way is that I can alter the level of the crappy plywood to create subtle changes in land surface even for areas I want mostly flat. If you look closely at the preceding and following photos you'll see that the crappy plywood doesn't quite line up with the flat high-end roadbed. There's a long, subtle climb in the surrounding "land" surface from below track level at the right end (near the depot) to above track level at the left end (near the bridge). This fits the actual landscape through Rocheport, where the track is a bit elevated over the surrounding floodplain at the town's east end, but goes through a shallow (but noticeable) cut as it approaches the bridge/tunnel combination at the west end. The "level" point where they're both even falls where a road crosses all the tracks, just visible at the left-hand side of one of the photos. These kind of details help keep a model railroad from looking like it's laid on a plywood tabletop. Even the flattest of landscapes, like the river floodplain this setting is, have local variations.
 



The last photo also shows my scratchbuilt bridge abutments (good plywood airbrushed and weathered) and initial framing for the tunnel. The scene is set up so the tunnel provides a natural transition through the backdrop. Lots of railroads don't have tunnels so conveniently placed, but this one does!
 
This has gotten long so I'll stop there. In a future post I'll show how I started developing the more complex landscape surfaces such as the riverbanks and the hills/bluffs rising above the tracks. Thanks for your patience as I catch up to real-time on this!
 

That is a nice "tutorial" on how it should be done there, Glen. Thank you, sir.

Looks fantastic, Glen. 

I was going to do lifts and braces for the all the lower yards, then top sail yards and work my way up.  But I changed my mind and decided to do it mast by mast and complete the fore mast yards first.  Here's the fore mast lifts and braces threaded but not tied off.

 
 
And here they are all tied off.

 
 
Here's a shot from the front showing all the fore mast yards nice and parallel with each other.  I highlighted the fore mast yards as it's kind of hard to tell which yards belong to which mast from this perspective.

 
 
I find the rigging of the fore mast yard braces on the main mast interesting so I thought I'd show some close-ups of how I did it.  The red arrows point to the fore lower yard brace line as it's tied off at the main stay, runs to a block on the yard arm, back to a single block also seized to the main stay, then thru a bullseye seized to the shroud (at least I can't rig a bullseye upside down  😃), and down to the deck.

 
 
Here's the fore top sail yard brace and the fore top gallant yard brace as they are rigged at the main mast.  The arrows follow the starboard side braces.  The red arrows follow the fore top sail yard brace and the green arrows follow the fore top gallant yard brace.

 

Well dang!  You are absolutely right, Henry.  And I agree that it's too late for this build.  I think it's better to be consistent, even if it's wrong, than to have some blocks done one way and others differently.  So I will continue down my errant path.

Hi Glen,
 
I know it's too late for this build, but you appear to be installing your blocks backwards.  The hole for the tackle line should be closer to the top or strop eye end of the block. The hole represents where the line enters to go around a sheave that has its pin or axle in the middle of the block. The line should appear to pass on both sides almost the length of the block and around that imaginary sheave.
 
Info for the next build.
 
Regards,
Henry

Jerry Lee Lewis showed up this week and started banging on his keyboard singing, "Whole lot of hankin' going on!" 
 
I haven't done an exact count yet, but I figure I'm gonna need 60 or more of these things. 

 
 
 
And that was followed by a whole lot of stroppin' going on.  These are single blocks that go on the ends of all the yards for the lifts and braces.  48 of them for starters.

 
 
 
Here they are secured to the ends of the yards.  The top one in each circle will be for the lift and the lower one will be for the brace.

 
 
First lifts to be installed were for the fore and main lower yards.  For these 2 yards only, the lifts run to a double block that is fixed to an eyepin on the mast cap.  That created a major steady-hand test as I had to drill holes for the eyepins in the mast cap with a spinning bit way too close for comfort to lots of rigging.  I could envision one little blip making an unspeakable mess!  But we got through it ok.  Sigh of relief!     

 
 
Here's the lifts in place for the fore mast lower yard.

 
 
And here's the same for the main mast lower yard.

 
 
 

Fine work, sir. The wheels do look a lot better now, in my humble opinion anyway  

Elimination of discrepancies.

Greetings, dear Johann, thank You very much for Your attention to my work and Your constructive remark. You are right, i remeasured the wheels and saw that theres a descrepency in proportions. I'm now working on its improvement. Ive made different wheels, apart from that i remade rear carriages of gun carriages. My very best regards

Very smart and clever the way you made the carriage wheels and the trunnion caps.
But aren't the carriage wheels a bit too small?
I think the drawing shows different proportions.

That is some meticulous work, sir. You are an inspiration! I particularly like the jig you made to bend the brass rod, a very simple but extremely effective idea.

In the end.

Then , the blackening and assembly.

Ialso decided to weld the eyelets instead of  bending them. 

I spent a lot of time working on the fasteners for the gun trunnions, if I understand correctly they are called capsguare. Ive also made a stamp and some tools. After some unsuccessful attempts,  i finally achieved what i wanted.

I made the cheeks of the carriages using a well-known technology, gluing them into a pack. The wheels are made using a grinding wheel.

I would like to show the manufacture of gun carriages.

Beautiful model Paul!!

Hi Joe, I agree that operating everything from the cockpit would be quite a challenge. The USVMYG is the US Vintage Model Yacht Group. I believe they are mostly about pond yachting. They have a very nice website ( usvmyg.org ) . Pond yachts look like so much fun!
 There are also some higher resolution photos of Chapelle’s drawing out there. If you haven’t seen them go to villagecraftsmen.com. In the banner at the top of the page click on “Journal “. The next page has a menu on the right hand side. Click on 2013 and then September. There are three photos in the North Carolina folder. Sorry but I’m not very good at posting links. It is a great site to browse through with tons of articles on local history .

This is a goft Paul! Thank you so much. I have had help from David Bennett from the the NC Maritime Museum had shared some info with me that had given me pause. He related that these boats could be piloted by one individual who also manged the forward and main sails. That alone would be a handful. But when looking at a deck overflowing with the days catch one has to wonder how any line forward of the main storage hatch could be adroitly manipulated.
With no sheer poles, nor side rails I am going to have to add cleats around each mast to satisfy the logical needs.
 
One last question who is USVMYG?
 
Joe
 
 

Hi @Thistle17, I just went through the plans that I got from USVMYG. This is the rigging diagram for their 50” Sharpie.  Another piece to the puzzle. 
 

Just stumbled across your build. What a treat to see your process and product! I have in my possession a Florida Sharpie that was built by an unknown modeler that I have been working on (it needed some repair). It is also scratch from Chapeles collection. Part of my problem has been how to finish off the haliyards etc. as there are obvious restrictions. The smithsonian plan I have shows no rigging. Was wondering what your reference was.
 
Joe