RGS Rotary Snowplow by yvesvidal - DURANGO PRESS - On3 - 1/48

[Kevin]

now that is very nice indeed

[yvesvidal]

A few progress on the tender piece. My kit came with a folded brass shell, whereas the latest kit from WISEMAN are offering a resin molded tender.

 

The first thing I did was to cut a similar shape to the top of the tender, in order to provide a stiffer tender and a way to glue it on the chassis previously planked. In fact gluing brass sheet directly to the wood planks is not the best way to do it, and I strongly recommend making that extra part: 

 

 

The top of the tender is soldered to the brass enclosure, to the best of my abilities (not great in this case) using a mini torch. This is required due to the large parts being heated. I am an expert when it comes to soldering electronic parts, but this is more of a challenge for me.

 

 

 

I am not going to show you the underside of the tender....I intend to keep my reputation of modeler, intact....

 

Installation of the tank on top of the tender chassis: 

 

 

 

After this difficult task, hand rails and small details are added to the main tank: 

 

 

 

And finally, a coat of primer is done to harmonize the whole assembly. Next is the underneath piece: 

 

 

That piece is made of foam board and will be used to glue some weight, in order to stabilize the tender. I always use coins in my train models, to increase their value.... Coins will not age like lead and are easier to procure. Here we  have 32 cents of extra value and these coins are increasing (almost doubling) the weight of the tender. Let's not forget that the tender sits in between the engine and the heavy snowplow. It needs to remain on the track, when the engine is pushing.

 

 

 

Overall view: 

 

 

That is all for today....

 

Yves

[Canute]

Progressing nicely, Yves. 👍

 

Back in the day, the Rio Grande plow trains could get up to 7 cars with 2 extra water cars, a cook's car and a couple of bunk cars for the crews.

[yvesvidal]

I have decided to start working on the cabin of the snowplow. It is a very delicate work, similar to some of these wooden kits of railroad structures and buildings made by advanced kit makers. The wood available in the kit, is calculated with precision and there is absolutely no room for errors. Overall, this snowplow by Durango Press is one of the most difficult kit I have ever done.

 

 

As you will see, my building of the cabin side is simplified, especially when it comes to the framing. The purpose of the kit maker was to show the interior and offer later on an additional kit depicting the internal mechanism of the snowplow. That is the reason why the internal framing was so carefully designed in the kit. The additional kit was never created and there is not enough wood to implement the framing as suggested on the assembly instructions.

 

 

After using a paper template, each opening is carefully cut. This is a tedious task and I wish laser cutting had been used for that purpose.

 

 

Longitudinal framing is done to stiffen the sides, and around he doors. Plastic windows are installed.

 

 

 

Framing around the doors is finished. I have less than 2 mm of wood left after doing that.....

 

 

 

Doors and access covers are glued in place.

 

 

One side is finished. Now, I have to repeat the same on the other side, front, rear and an intermediate wall.

 

Yves

[Canute]

That side looks very good, Yves. This was state of the art for the 60-70s. Lasers were just entering the workplace back then. Hospitals and the military were early users. We needed smaller, faster computers to effectively control laser cutters. If you can draw up something in STL format, a laser cutter can use it to cut your patterns.

[Kevin]

very clean and tidy, but then i have never seen any of your work that wasn't

[yvesvidal]

I finished installing the grab-irons and handles, on this side and started the cuts on the other half: 

 

 

Yves

[John Ruy]

10 minutes ago, yvesvidal said:

I finished installing the grab-irons and handles, on this side and started the cuts on the other half: 

 

 

Yves

Excellent work Yves… 👏

[Canute]

Nice crisp side wall. Very nice build.

[CDW]

Wow, what a great-looking model Yves. A very difficult build it looks to me.

[yvesvidal]

28 minutes ago, CDW said:

Wow, what a great-looking model Yves. A very difficult build it looks to me.

Craig, yes you are absolutely right: very difficult model, involving all kinds of disciplines that I do not master very well (soldering, wood gluing, plastic gluing, metal gluing.....) and most importantly the lack of assembly instructions. It is all text and you have to decipher and find the parts you need among a large amount of small wood pieces and cast white metal parts. For instance, the pieces of wood are indicated in inches and feet !!! You have to divide by 48 or use a special O gauge ruler to find out what they are talking about. Basically, it is like building the real stuff.... Definitely a very advanced kit.

 

At last, assembly of the two sides is now completed.

 

 

These will have to be painted and decaled before being glued to the main frame.

 

I am now working on the rear bulkhead.

 

Yves

[yvesvidal]

Rear bulkhead is pretty much done. There are still some details but I will install them, once it has been glued to the boiler: 

 

 

 

John Deere Green airbrushed.... 

 

Yves

[Landlubber Mike]

Wow Yves, what a cool project!  Great job so far!

[yvesvidal]

Here comes the dreaded moments (for me): the painting and the decals.

 

The decals are from the early 70's and nothing has been updated or recreated since then: 

 

 

I got in touch with Keith Wiseman, the current manufacturer of that kit (my kit is probably older since it is the original Durango Press) and he sent me some replacement decals. However, he indicated that they are all from the early 70's and as a result they disintegrate as soon as you place them in the water. We are talking of 50 years old decals.... I tried the technique in which you spray matte clear coat on top as an attempt to keep all the pieces together, but I was not very happy with the results. It makes the thickness of the decals too obvious and I ended up sanding everything and re-painting.

 

I decided to go with Dry Transfers that I love. If you have never tried that, it is wonderful and I have used them on a lot of projects. Woodland scenics has a whole series related to railroading and I went with them for the R.G.S. logo. K4, a new comer in the world or Railroad decals, produces a MoW sheet (Maintenance of the Way) that has some "rotary" examples: 

 

 

K4 is very inexpensive (I got 4 sheets for $15, including shipping) whereas Woodland Scenics is overpriced ($19 for one sheet, including shipping). By combining these two sets, I was able to come up with something that looks prototypical: 

 

 

You can clearly see the crispness of the transfers which do not have the film, around the letters. Not shown on that picture, I used a sharp blade and cut decals and transfers, following the wood planks for added realism.

 

 

It was relatively expensive to decals that tender and snowplow and Keith Wiseman indicated to me, but a little bit too late, that Thinfilm Decals has these decals ready to go, for On3 rotary snowplow operated by the Rio Grande Southern. Oh well too late....

 

 

I did not have the heart to sand everything and repaint a third time.

 

Yves

Edited October 7, 2023 by yvesvidal

[yvesvidal]

After decaling, it was time to move on with the tender. The box to contain the coal is built with the woods and anchors provided in the kit: 

 

 

The wood is stained to mimic the presence of coal. For the coals, I am using real coal from Reading, crushed at the scale of 1/48th. I usually put some on top of my O scale steam engines, to finish the tenders.

 

 

This is the real stuff, gathered on the leftovers of the coaling towers of READING.

 

 

The coal is delicately installed and glued with water diluted PVA glue. 

 

And this is where we stand as of today. The tank is not yet glued to the tender chassis: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoy that little model.

 

Yves

Edited October 7, 2023 by yvesvidal

[Canute]

Shame about the decals, but your plow and tender look good. The coal pile looks very good.

[yvesvidal]

A quick update on the snowplow: 

 

 

The flanger is glued underneath the chassis. These flanger blades could be controlled from the inside of the plow and helped clean-up the track for the rear truck and tender.

 

 

Now, we are getting serious with the gluing of the right side to the chassis. This is done carefully, making sure everything is aligned in the best possible way.

 

 

The junction is secured with some strong wood glue (Titebond).

 

 

That is all for today, folks.

 

Yves

[yvesvidal]

Main walls are in place. Below is where we stand: 

 

 

I am still missing the front wall and the cabin wall, inside.

 

 

Above, you can clearly see that the snowplow was designed for regular track gauge. In our case, we are using the narrow gauge trucks (On3 at 1/48 scale). The tender on the other hand, is showing its true origin designed as a narrow gauge piece of equipment for RGS (Rio Grande Southern).

 

 

The tank is not glued to the chassis, yet. I need to finish the covers before doing anything else.

 

 

Ready to swallow and jettison, tons of snow....

 

 

The furnace through which coal was shoveled in.

 

Yves

Edited October 9, 2023 by yvesvidal

[Jack12477]

Nice job! It's my favorite rotary.

[king derelict]

Beautiful. It looks great

Alan

[CDW]

What a beauty. I know little to nothing about railroads, but this makes me want to know more.

[Jack12477]

35 minutes ago, CDW said:

What a beauty. I know little to nothing about railroads, but this makes me want to know more.

Take a trip to Colorado and take a ride on the D&RGW Durango & Silverton and/or Cumbres & Toltec narrow guage scenic railroads.  I've been on the Durango & Silverton. Well worth the trip. 

[realworkingsailor]

1 hour ago, CDW said:

. I know little to nothing about railroads, but this makes me want to know more.

Wuh oh….. I don’t think there are adequate words to describe the depth of the rabbit hole you now find in front of you….  😆

Andy

[Egilman]

2 minutes ago, realworkingsailor said:

Wuh oh….. I don’t think there are adequate words to describe the depth of the rabbit hole you now find in front of you….

I would advise a goodly supply of breadcrumbs to leave a trail back with... (or searchers to find you)

[realworkingsailor]

13 minutes ago, Egilman said:

I would advise a goodly supply of breadcrumbs to leave a trail back with... 

A trail of empty model boxes works well too….

[Canute]

Another section of the rabbit hole: D&RGW had 2 rotaries in snow trains of 7 cars. They were based in Chama and Alamosa. Lots of snow in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.

[Jack12477]

27 minutes ago, Canute said:

D&RGW had 2 rotaries in snow trains of 7 cars. They were based in Chama and Alamosa. Lots of snow in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.

That's the Cumbre & Toltec Scenic Railroad. They run the rotaries for tourists

 

Rotary OY at Cumbres Pass

 

Rotary OY returns to Cumbres & Toltec

Edited October 10, 2023 by Jack12477

[Canute]

True, Jack, but both (D&S, C&TS) of these now tourist lines were part of a narrow gauge division of the Rio Grande, until the 60s. I have a few videos of these rotaries in action as tourist action.  Impressive tossing of snow.

[wefalck]

I love this old-time steam-technology ...

 

Over here in Europe, of course, we also have narrow-gauge rotary steam-plows. Here is a video from the Bernina Pass of the Rhatian Railway in Switzerland:

 

https://youtu.be/oGndpEPgEgw?feature=shared

 

They keep the line open all year around at least to the Italian border. A couple of James Bond ski pursuits were filmed in the area, particularly on the Morteratsch glacier. I used to ski there, when I was a student.

Edited October 10, 2023 by wefalck

[Jack12477]

5 hours ago, Canute said:

True, Jack, but both (D&S, C&TS) of these now tourist lines were part of a narrow gauge division of the Rio Grande, until the 60s. I have a few videos of these rotaries in action as tourist action.  Impressive tossing of snow.

I know! I had started to design an N scale layout around the D&RGW with these branches included but life got in the way and the layout never got started. 😔 I have all the track, switches, rolling stock and most of the structures for it, but now no room to build it.