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PRODUCTSI N F O R M A T I O N S T A T I O N

Modeling electrified railroads

FORMER TITLE: BEGINNING TRACTION MODELING

Most of us power our model dieseland steam locomotives via elec-tricity. It’s effective, but not all

that realistic when you think about it –unless, of course, you’re modeling elec-tric trains.

That’s exactly what traction model-ers do. Better still, the tight curves andintriguing equipment on traction lay-outs let you pack a lot of action andinterest into almost any size space.

A broad array of prototypesFirst, a definition. “Traction” equip-

ment is electrically powered locomotivesor rail cars that receive electricity via anoverhead wire or third-rail system.

Traction equipment covers a spec-trum ranging from interurbans, colorful

urban streetcar lines from yesteryear(some that were narrow gauge), andmodern light-rail systems to elevatedrapid transit systems old and new.(Some Class 1 railroads even got intothe electric railroading business whenthey electrified parts of their main lines,but such “heavy electric” railroadingfalls outside the scope of this article.)

Interurban and streetcar lines oftenwere built to standards that wouldmake a mainline-railroad civil engineercringe. Tight curves were common,which makes them ideal model railroad

subjects, especially in the larger scales.Interurban equipment often ran on

streetcar lines as well as their own rights-of-way to link city centers together. Itwas common to see a streetcar drop pas-sengers off at an urban station for theinterurban to take to an adjacent city.

Interurbans and streetcars are real electric trains

Getting started in

ELECTRIC FREIGHT. Once a small interurbanpassenger line, the Yakima Valley Trans-portation Co. (a subsidiary of the giant UnionPacific) eventually became a freight-onlyline and served numerous local fruit-packingwarehouses into the early 1980s. Steeplecabelectric no. 298 is moving a cut of reefers afew blocks west of the UP interchange inYakima, Wash., on Oct. 10, 1970.

STREETCARS. From the early 1900s throughthe 1930s, streetcars were the backbone ofurban transportation in North America’smedium and large cities. Cars such as these1920’s-era steel types still earn their keepwith New Orleans Regional Transit Authority.

TRACTION

PHILIP C. JOHNSON

By Paul Schmidt

Bracket pole: A lineside pole with one or two brackets thatsupports either a catenary or trolley wire.

Catenary: A type of overheadsystem with contact wire or wiresthat are supported at regularintervals by hangers attached tomessengers.

Contact wire: Low-resistance copper wire no more than 1⁄2" indiameter that carries the current and which the trolley wheel,shoe, or pantograph contacts. Also called the trolley wire.

Girder rail: Two types – girder“grooved” rail provides a guardfor the wheel flange, protectingthe flange from street pavingblocks. Girder “guard” rail has ahigher raised flange guard toguide streetcar wheels through very sharp curves.

Hanger: A device attached tothe crossarm of a bracket or thecrosspan wire from which thecontact wire is suspended. Canalso be the vertical connectorfrom the messenger wire.

Messenger: The cable that supports the contact wire byhangers at regular intervals.

Motor: An electric locomotive.

Overhead: The complex of wires suspended over the rails. Thetypical system found on interurban and street car lines is calleda “direct suspension” system. “Catenary suspension” is theother, less-common type.

Pantograph: A hinged parallelo-gram device that brings a shoein contact with the overhead wire.

Steeple cab: An electric motor with acentered cab that is higher than the restof the locomotive body.

Substation: The building that houses electrical equipmentused to convert high-voltage AC into lower-voltage DC suitablefor use by traction equipment.

Trolley pole: Averaging 12 to 14 feet long, at one end is agrooved wheel held against the contact wire by a spring-loaded base mounted on the roof. Trolley wheels were laterreplaced on some systems with more-durable and reliablesliding shoes.

SOME COMMON TRACTION TERMS

GEORGE DRURY

Examples past and present of citieswith elevated rapid transit systemsinclude Boston; Chicago; New York;San Francisco; and Vancouver, B. C.Light-rail systems can be found in Bal-timore; Los Angeles; Portland, Ore.; SanDiego; and Washington, D. C., to namea few.

Modeling tractionInterurbans and streetcars are about

equally popular within traction circles.Although there is a smattering of activ-ity in G, S, N, and Z scales, the twomost popular traction modeling scalesare O (1:48) and HO (1:87), with O scalethe more popular of the two.

“That’s due to the fact that modelerscan have large-size models and still havetight-radius curves, just like the proto-type,” says Tom Piccirillo, whose O scaleSomerset County Traction Co. layoutwas featured in the April 1996 MODEL

RAILROADER. There have been manyfine HO scale traction layouts in MR too.

“Vintage traction equipment andoperations offer more variety and charmthan modern light-rail systems,” saysEric Bronsky, another acknowledgedexpert traction modeler. Accordingly, headds, more commercial models of vin-tage equipment are available.

Easing into overheadIn addition to the prototype’s color-

ful, typically short trains, overhead wireis another of traction’s appealing ele-ments. It’s not only intriguing to watch atrolley pole or pantograph negotiate theoverhead wire, “the overhead adds the third dimension,” Piccirillo says.

Traction sure looks like fun, youmight be saying by now, but all thatoverhead wire looks complicated andhard to make.

Actually, all it really takes are theright techniques, tools, and a little prac-tice with a soldering iron.

“Putting up overhead is really just alot of fairly simple soldering steps,”says Dave Gairo, another longtime Oscale traction modeler who is also pres-ident of the Electric City TrolleyMuseum Association.

Gairo suggests beginners lay sometrack in a simple oval, install the line

poles, and put up the overhead. Makeadjustments until the overhead worksright, then move on to something morecomplex, like wiring overhead above aturnout or crossing.

Helpful articles on building overheadcan be found in the February 2000 andMarch 1993 issues of MR.

Get energizedI hope this has whetted your appetite

to at least explore this fascinating part ofmodel railroading. Given the limitedspace many of us have for a layout, trac-

INTERURBANS. The largest and most famousof interurban systems was the Pacific Elec-tric, a Southern California line whose big redcars and impressive, high-speed right-of-way make it a favorite with many tractionfans. This three-car Long Beach expresstrain is leaving downtown Los Angeles inAugust 1953.

REGINALD MCGOVERN

OrganizationsEast Penn Traction Clubwww.eastpenn.org

Southern California Traction Clubwww.trainweb.org/socaltractionclub

National Model Railroad AssociationTraction Special Interest Groupwww.intelegence.com/tractionwww.pacificelectric.us/traction

Online resourcesModel Train Magazine Indexwww.modelrailroader.comMore than 1,800 references to tractionand trolley articles in the hobby pressunder keyword “traction”

Periodicals and booksThe Line Car(publication of the NMRA Traction SIG)P. O. Box 4155San Luis Obispo, CA 93403Email: andy_r@intelegence.comor traction@pacificelectric.us

Scale Model Traction & Trolleys QuarterlyP. O. Box 04016Milwaukee, WI 53204-0016www.execpc.com/~mgrutsch

Traction Prototype and ModelsP. O. Box 6579Canton, OH 44706-0579

Trolley Talk1913 Roanoke Ave.Louisville, KY 40205-1415

Traction Guidebook for Model Railroaders (Kalmbach)No longer in print, but copies of thishelpful book might be found in localhobby shops, at swap meets, or on the Internet.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

tion could be the ideal solution for com-bining operation, intriguing equipment,and interesting, short trains. 1

Thanks to Eric Bronsky, Dave Gairo,and Tom Piccirillo for their invaluableassistance with this article.

Like other facets of model railroading,there’s a learning curve in traction

modeling. Here are some tips fromexpert traction modelers Eric Bronsky,Dave Gairo, and Tom Piccirillo to helpyou step off on the right foot in traction:• Purchase books, subscribe to a traction-specific magazine, check outWeb sites, join a club, and discoverwhat facets of traction appeal to you.• Read MODEL RAILROADER, which,among other traction articles from timeto time, has published a six-part serieson modeling the Boston MTA beginningin the October 1999 issue, and a five-part series on building the O’Dell CountyTraction Co. began in the November1988 issue.• O is the most popular scale for tractionmodeling, followed by HO. But relatively

few ready-to-run traction models areavailable in any scale, so having someexperience with kit assembly, detailing,painting, and powering models is helpful.That’s why it’s a good idea to …• … find someone who models traction,visit their layout, and learn from theirsuccesses and mistakes.• Ride the prototype and join a histori-cal society. Go to the Web site for theElectric City Trolley Museum Association(www.ectma.org) for links.• Attend a trolley modeling meet. Checkthe Coming Events schedule publishedeach month in MR and check localhobby shops for meets in your area. • Go ahead and get your feet wet – builda module or layout, and string someoverhead. “Don’t over-research,” advisesPiccirillo. – P. S.

UNDER THE OVERHEAD. An O scale steeple-cab motor glides under the catenary on TomPiccirillo’s new Somerset County TractionSystem with a local freight in tow. With itssmall equipment and tight radius curves,traction modeling is ideal for tight spaces.Tom equipped this Car Works locomotivewith a custom flywheel drive and also madehis own decals.

TOM PICCIRILLO AND T. J. NOLZ

TIPS FROM THE EXPERTS

� More on our Web siteYou’ll find a brief history of traction, thenuts and bolts of how it works, more modelphotos, and a link to a comprehensive listof manufacturers by visiting our Web site atwww.modelrailroader.com

Atraction layout is terrific for small spaces.Selective compression is easy and sensiblesince trains can be only one car long andstill look right. You can achieve realisticoperations and maintain a high scenery-to-

trains ratio. It’s also great for people, like me, whoenjoy watching trains move leisurely along thelayout making their scheduled stops. In eithercase, you’ll get real satisfaction watching a modeltrolley you built snake its way along street trackyou handlaid, getting its power from overheadwire you erected.

My interest in traction began in 1988 withMODEL RAILROADER’s fine series on traction mod-eling by Bruce Goehmann. [The O’Dell CountyTraction Co. story ran from November 1988 toApril 1989. – Ed.] Many of the techniques I usedon this layout were adapted from that series.Through their wonderful books, the other teachersthat have guided me through this project includeDave Frary, George Sellios, and John Olson.

In the six parts of this series I’ll describe how Ibuilt my HO scale model of Boston’s famed Met-ropolitan Transit Authority. Whether you followthe project exactly or just use it for inspiration,you’ll probably find a technique that’s new to you,whether it’s handlaying track, paving streets withplaster, or soldering overhead wire. Even if youthink some aspect seems too difficult, give it a try.Like most things in this hobby, practice makeseach task easier and more successful.

A tale of two citiesI had remodeled the basement – a job taking

nine months – and the dream layout was wellunderway when it happened: a job move – numbersix in 15 years. As if the relocation wasn’t enough,there was another problem – no basements in mynew hometown of Charlotte, N. C., or at least veryfew that didn’t leak. However, the move (withapologies to Charles Dickens) would truly proveto be the worst of times and the best of times.

Start modeling

traction!We begin a six-partHO project layoutbased on Boston’sfamed trolley lines

Harvey J. SimonPhotos by the author

1

My wife, Lisa, and I eventually settled on ahome with a storage area that was just largeenough for a small, walk-in layout. It turned outthat the small layout was just what I needed. Thiswould be layout number six (one for each house),and more than anything I wanted to finish it. I’dstarted a few basement empires only to see themstagnate or myself have to move. This time I gotthe layout built and discovered there’s plenty ofrailroading to be had in a small space, particularlyif you’re a traction modeler.

Choosing a themeWith this layout I finally accepted that a theme

was important. Before, the variety of model rail-roading was too exciting, and I stubbornly resistedthe advice of friends urging a more prototypicalapproach. I also found myself losing interest inthose layouts and leaving them unfinished.

Here’s where I came down on the prototypeversus free-lance issue on this layout. The track

plan, streetcars, and station stops are clearly basedon the Boston MTA. However, nestled among thedowntown buildings is Lulu’s Pet Food Co. Who’sLulu? Why that would be our miniature poodle.Many family members are similarly recognized.The fact that I commuted to work on this line dur-ing the 1970s further personalized this project. Ialso must confess that the more I got into proto-type modeling, the more fun it became and themore accuracy I tried to achieve.

I think the combination of smaller size andusing a real transportation system as the basis ofthe railroad, yet still personalizing it, helped mestay motivated. So my advice is to do someresearch in the beginning, give your layout char-acter, toss in a little humor, and you’ll be greatlyrewarded later on.

The prototypeEven if you free-lance it helps to know the gen-

eral history of the kind of railroad you model. The

Harvey Simon day-lighted the down-town subway stopson his HO scalemodel of the BostonMTA. He’ll take youstep-by-stepthrough construc-tion of this layout inthis and the nextfive issues.

Boston transit system dates to 1856 when the firsthorse-drawn streetcar line began service; otherssoon followed. These early efforts led to the for-mation of the West End Street Ry.

As the West End system grew, problems devel-oped, such as caring for the 8,000 horses thatserved as motive power. A new technology wasneeded. The West End management consideredcable cars, but after visiting the new electric linesin Richmond, Va., decided to electrify. The firstelectric line began operation on January 1, 1889.

We now fast forward to 1958 when the Metro-politan Transit Authority – the governing agency ofBoston’s mass transit system at that time –acquired the Newton Highlands branch of theBoston & Albany RR, an abandoned commuterline, and converted it to overhead electrification.This became known as the Riverside line and beganservice on July 1, 1959, a very late expansion of railpublic transit. Presidents Conference Committee(PCC) cars made up the roster and the line was aninstant hit with the suburban commuters.

In the early 1960s the Massachusetts Bay Trans-portation Authority was formed to develop a planfor coordinating and enlarging the scope of masstransit throughout eastern Massachusetts. With thechange in governing bodies the MTA became the T,and today it’s one the nation’s largest mass transitsystems, with almost a million riders daily.

The modelMy layout is a composite of two routes (fig. 1):

the Riverside line, also known as the Highlandbranch or D line, and the Brookline branch, or Cline, serving Boston and Brookline. These tworoutes now comprise the Green Line, which ispowered by overhead wire. Although less than 20miles in length, the Green Line offers more thanenough material for a credible model railroad.

Scale: 1⁄2" = 1'-0"12" grid

BOSTON

BROOKLINE

RIVERSIDE

Station

Union Station

Park Street StationArlington Station

Reservoir Station

Reservoir car barn

0"

0"

4"

4"

5.5"

Maintenance shed

Power station

D line

Modeled area

Commuter railTransit lines

To Franklin To Attleboro, Stoughton, Providence

To Reading, Haverhill To Ipswich,Rockport

To Lowell

To Fitchburg

To Framingham& Worcester

Riverside

Reservoir

ParkStreet

Arlington

C line LoganAirport

DowntownBoston crossing

Fig. 1 THE GREEN LINE

Name: Boston MTAScale: HO (1:87)Size: 7 x 12 feetLocale: BostonEra: 1959Layout height: 44" to

50"Layout style: walk inBenchwork: open gridRoadbed: 1⁄2" Homasote

on 1⁄2" plywoodTrack: Orr girder rail

and Atlas Code100 flextrack

Turnout minimum:no. 2

Minimum radius: 6"Maximum grade: 5

percentScenery: plaster cloth

hardshellBackdrop: painted on

room wallsControl: overhead-wire

pickup, two cabs

Layout at a glance

ILLUSTRATION BY RICK JOHNSON

ILLUSTRATION BY TERRI FIELD

I model the line in 1959 when the cars werepainted orange and cream. The Green Line didn’tbecome green, with appropriately painted cars,until 1965 when a new color coding system wasadopted by the MBTA. The Green Line serves thesuburbs where landscape architect Frederick Olm-stead’s “Green Necklace” concept can be found.The Blue Line serves the ocean community. TheRed Line travels to Harvard whose color is crim-son, and the Orange Line goes through a section ofBoston originally named Orange.

The track planThe layout is a 7 x 12-foot, walk-in design. In

traction modeling, aisle and reach standards arecritical. You need access to all areas of the over-head wire, because it requires adjustment fromtime to time. A two-foot reach is the absolute max-imum and, if you can manage it, 18" is better. I liketo keep my aisles at 36" as this provides enoughroom for two operators and is positively roomyfor one. This is a lot easier to do with a traction

layout as the minimum radius can be as little as 6"!Looking at the plan, you’ll see that the route is

very simple. Trains leave from Park Street station,fig. 2, then travel underground to Arlington sta-tion, fig. 3. After leaving Arlington, the trackclimbs steeply as it exits the tunnel and climbspast the gas station and diner toward Brookline,fig. 4. The grade is about five percent here, wellwithin the capabilities of the models and proto-type practice.

Brookline, fig. 5, is a transfer point for othertrolley lines and also houses a maintenance facil-ity. On this part of the layout the trackwork nearlyduplicates the prototype. There are wyes, cross-ings, and loops, and it’s fun to watch the streetcarsweave in and out among the buildings. Sometrains terminate at the Reservoir carbarn, fig. 6,while others continue on to Riverside.

When trains arrive in Riverside, they travel pastthe yard area, drop off passengers, and loop backthrough the maintenance shed to await their nextjourney to Boston.

Fig. 2 PARK STREETSTATION. This is theeastern end of theline. There are twotunnels at this sta-tion, connected by asingle loop whichserves as a stagingtrack.

Fig. 3 ARLINGTONSTATION. Althoughprototypically based,Harvey free-lancedmany businesses onthe layout, namingthem after familymembers and pets.

A few elements of the plan deserve elaboration.To model the subway sections I used hidden trackwith cutout areas for the stations. The under-ground Park Street loop offers modest staging pos-sibilities. You can hold a car on the loop and thenbring it into the station as if it were coming fromGovernment Center or Lechmere station, the twoorigins for the Green Line. With a little realign-ment, you even could add more staging tracks, andthis could really enhance operations.

Unlike the prototype, which is double-trackedto separate eastbound and westbound traffic, thelayout’s main line is only single track in certainareas. This allows for greater operating fun on anotherwise simple plan.

Of course, to have any operating fun we have tocomplete a few minor details, like building the lay-out and the streetcars. So let’s get started.

Prep workThis phase of the layout goes quickly, and in a

few weekends you’ll be ready to lay track. I’m not

terribly fussy about benchwork. It needs to besturdy and level, but we’re building a model rail-road, not Chippendale furniture. A hammer,screwdriver, power drill, adjustable wrench, pli-ers, jigsaw, level, and a few clamps are about theonly tools you’ll need. I used open-grid construc-tion of 1 x 4 and 1 x 6 pine supported by 2 x 4 firstuds for legs.

Begin by making a sketch of your space like theone in fig. 7 to determine the lumber require-ments. You want the pieces to fit properly, so mak-ing accurate, square cuts is a must. If you don’ttrust your cutting or just want to avoid the noiseand mess, it doesn’t cost much to have the piecescut when you buy them at the lumberyard – justhave a list of the pieces you’ll need.

Before starting on benchwork, let me stronglysuggest devoting some attention to your layoutroom. A well-lit and clean room will greatly add toyour enjoyment during and after construction. Ifyou’re building in the basement, a suspended ceil-ing will provide support for proper lighting and

Fig. 4 CLIMBING TOBROOKLINE. Thewestern suburbs arestill quite rural in1959. The line toBrookline is formerBoston & Albanyright-of-way.

Fig. 5 BROOKLINE.Above: Orange andcream were the orig-inal colors, andmany cars stayed inthis livery into theearly 1980s. Above right: Themodel trackworkclosely follows thatof the prototype inthe town of Brook-line. The green paintscheme wasadopted in 1965.

keep the layout clean by collecting dust fromabove. You can further minimize dust by sealingan unfinished concrete floor.

Lighting is particularly important. For my lay-out, I installed the combination of fluorescent andincandescent lights shown in fig. 8. The white andyellow light work beautifully together, and this,more than anything else, enhances the finishedpresentation.

The last thing I did before constructing thebenchwork was to paint the walls a sky blue toserve as a backdrop. You can add other detailssuch as trees or building flats now or you can goback and add them as you proceed with track andother scenery. If you can’t use your walls, you canattach backdrops made of Masonite hardboard tothe rear of your benchwork.

BenchworkI built the benchwork in four sections, fabricat-

ing each in the garage where there was plenty ofroom to maneuver. I used Elmer’s carpenter’s glue

and drywall screws to assemble the frame. Withthe aid of a Phillips bit in a power drill, construc-tion goes very quickly. Where you need to drivescrews near the end of the pine boards, drill pilotholes to avoid splitting the wood.

If you know where ponds and rivers or otherscenery will be located, it is helpful to prepare forthat now. As an example, note how a portion ofthe frame has been cut away for modeling thereservoir.

In the layout room, I attached the sections toeach other with 3⁄8" bolts. I didn’t use glue here justin case (perish the thought) I need to move thelayout. The legs are 43" on the two Boston sec-tions, 47" on the Brookline section, and 49" on theRiverside section, so the track height ranges from44" to 50". I’m six feet tall and this is a comfortableheight for installing overhead wire. Adjust the lay-out height to suit you. Higher layouts look better,but are more challenging for laying track andstringing overhead. One last thing – I should haveused lag bolts or T-nuts on the bottoms of the legs

Fig. 6 RESERVOIRCARBARN. Sometrains terminate inBrookline, layingover in the carbarn.The prototype Reser-voir car barn nowsports the “T” of theMassachusetts BayTransportationAuthority, successorto the MTA.

to level the layout. I forgot these and ended uphaving to use wood shims, which worked okay butwere awkward to adjust.

Drawing the planOnce the benchwork is complete, we can trans-

fer the track plan to the layout. Cut 1⁄2" Homasoteto fit your benchwork, except for the stretch of

steep grade between Boston and Brookline, andpencil in the plan using the scale drawing as aguide. As shown in fig. 9, I used paper templates ofthe girder rail turnouts and crossings made byRichard Orr (see list at end of article) for the com-plex trackwork in Brookline. However, you needn’tworry about that now as a rough sketch based onthe track plan will do for the time being.

Fig. 9 LAYING OUT TRACK. Harvey drew thecurves using a trammel made from an oldstick. He notes a ruler would be the obviouschoice, but he didn’t have one handy.

Fig. 10 ROADBED. Notch the 1 x 6 at thereservoir to match the 1 x 4 frame piece atthe end of this section. Note the rising gradeto Riverside.

Fig. 11 SUBWAY MOCK-UP. These crudeblocks helped to visualize the completed lay-out. Leave plenty of clearance at the tunnels;the sharp curves cause a lot of overhang.

Fig. 13 REMOVABLE CITY BASE. Harvey useddowels to pin the city base in place. Thesehold firmly yet allow the city to be removedfor maintenance of track and overhead.

Fig. 8 LIGHTING. Harvey used double-stripfluorescent lights over the layout and addedtrack lighting down the center of the room tohighlight scenes.

1x10 used for elevation change

Fig. 7 BENCHWORK

Outer frame, 1x6

Crosspieces, 1 x4, except at legs and the 1 x10 for elevation change at Brookline

Shaded areas are sandwich of1⁄2" Homosote and 1⁄2" plywood

2x4 legs

2 x4 legs

2 x4 legs 2 x4 legs

1 x4

1x4 1x4 1x41x4

1x4

1x4 1x4 1x4

1x4

1x6

1x6

1x6

1x6

1x6 1x6

1x6

1x10

Two 3⁄8" bolts for each leg

Cut out for reservoir

3⁄8" bolts between sections

1 x4

1x6

1x6

1x6

1x6

1x6

1x61x6

1x6

1x6

1x6

1x6

1x6

1x6

1x10

1x4

2x4 leg

3⁄8" bolts secure sections

Fig. 12 SUBWAY BENCHWORK. The riserssupporting the city base are 1 x 3 poplar thatis free of knots and warpage. The subwayplatforms are 1⁄8" Masonite hardboard.

LAYING OUT THE PLAN

ILLUSTRATION BY RICK JOHNSON

Using white glue and drywall screws, secure theHomasote to 1⁄2" plywood. Make the necessary cutsfor the grades and scenery (such as the cutout forthe reservoir), and then install it on the bench-work. Make the risers for the section of steepgrade and the Riverside area from leftover 1 x 4.Figure 10 shows the change in elevation nearReservoir station as well as the cutout for thereservoir itself.

Fitting the subwayYou can see in fig. 11 how I used blocks of

wood to represent the subway walls and city build-ings above the Park Street loop. After a bit of fid-dling, I established final dimensions. I then drewin the subway platforms and traced the plan onarchitectural tracing paper. I pinned flextrackdirectly to the paper to accurately trace the outlinefor the subway platforms and walls.

I then cut the tracing, transferred it to 5⁄8" par-ticle board, and cut the platform for the cityshown in fig. 12. Figure 13 shows how I used 1⁄4"

wood dowels to locate and secure the removableplatform for the city – getting stuck in a tunnel ona model railroad is just as annoying as it is on thereal thing.

I hope I’ve intrigued you with the possibilitiesof traction modeling. Next month we’ll lay girderrail track in the streets and flextrack on privaterights-of-way like that at Riverside in fig 14. Inthe meantime, order catalogs from the followingcompanies, so you have them on hand. 1

Meet Harvey J. Simon

Harvey lives inCharlotte, N. C.,

with his wife, Lisa,and their two sons:David, 20, and Ben-jamin, 18. He worksin marketing. TheBoston MTA is hissixth layout in asmany houses and thefirst to be completed.

Fig. 14 RIVERSIDE. Top: In 1959 theRiverside line wasserved completely byPCC (PresidentsConference Commit-tee) cars. Above:This suburban sta-tion is a far cry fromthe subway stops indowntown Boston.

For girder rail:Richard Orr 6506 Western Ave.Omaha, NE 68132

Overhead wiring:Tom O’Toole25445 Highland

at HarrisRichmond Heights, OH

44143

Streetcar bodiesand parts:Q-Car CompanyBox 4345Bangor, PA 18013

Motors and gears:NorthWest Short LineP. O. Box 423Seattle, WA

98111-0423

Laying

girder railand

flextrack

Last month we built benchwork and now it’stime to install track. We’ll use a combina-tion of handlaid girder rail and Atlas flex-track. You say you’ve never triedhandlaying? Not to worry. With the proper

tools and a willingness to try it’s not that tough.Patience? This you’ll need. But the extra effort youinvest now will save untold frustration later. Takeyour time with trackwork and your trolleys willrun smoothly.

I used Richard Orr’s girder rail, turnouts, andcrossings (fig. 1) in the streets. The girder railhelps prevent the plaster we’ll use for pavingfrom interfering with the streetcars’ wheels. Thegirder rail has a special flangeway that ensuressmooth operation.

Drawing the planLast month you roughly sketched the track plan

onto the Homasote roadbed. Now we need tomake this as accurate as possible. I used paper

templates of the turnouts and crossings sold byRichard Orr ($1 for a set of 10) to lay out the trackas shown in fig. 2. It’s helpful to have several tem-plates available; extras can easily be made using aphotocopier. Pushpins make adjustments easy asyou lay out the track. Invariably what looks righton the scale drawing never quite lines up correctlyin full size. Even when using the templates I foundthat slight adjustments needed to be made when Iactually installed the track.

I drew the curves using a trammel made froman old paint stick, fig. 3, though the sensible thing,of course, would have been to use a wooden ruleror yardstick. But I didn’t have one when I neededit and was too impatient to stop what I was doingto get one.

Everywhere we’ll be using girder rail, draw eachrail separately on the Homasote as a guide forspiking and soldering. For the flextrack in the sub-ways and up to Brookline and then again in River-side, a single line – the track center – is preferable.

Trolley track is a bitdifferent from what you may

be used to

By Harvey J. SimonPhotos by the author

2

After I was satisfied with the track layout, Isketched in the sidewalk areas. The sidewalks (1⁄4"plywood) act as a dam when we pour the plaster topave the streets. I installed mine before laying thetrack, see fig. 4, though you could do it after. Inany case it’s helpful to plan for your structuresnow. You want about an inch between the edge ofthe sidewalk and the exterior walls of buildings.

Laying girder railYou’ll need the following for handlaying track:• National Model Railroad Association HO

standards gauge.• At least two three-point track gauges, such as

those from Kadee, Micro Engineering, andPrecision Scale Co.

• Orr rail, turnouts, and crossings.• Orr track rolling tool and brass shims.• Track nails.• 40-watt soldering iron and rosin-core solder.• White glue.

Glue the Orr brass shims centered between thetrack lines every few inches using white glue.Make sure the ends of the shims fall on both tracklines, as shown in fig. 5, since both rails will be sol-dered to each shim.

We are now ready to shape the girder rail toconform to the track line. Due to its asymmetricdesign, the rail cannot be curved by hand withoutdistorting its shape. Accordingly, you’ll need theOrr bending tool to form curves. The tool comeswith complete instructions and it isn’t difficult toget the hang of it. You insert the rail as shown infig. 6, moving it back and forth to form the curve.By adjusting the center roller at each pass, you canproduce curves as sharp as you need.

Spike the rail to the Homasote every few inchesusing Atlas roundhead track nails – the kind usedto secure flextrack. Don’t worry about appearance– the pavement will cover these spikes. Once you’resatisfied with the placement of the rail, solder it toeach of the shims as in fig. 7.

Harvey Simon’s HOscale Boston MTAfeatures bothgirder-rail streettrack and standardrail-on-ties track onprivate right-of-way.

FlangewayPavement level

Prototype rail Orr model rail

Second rail The other rail comes next. See fig. 8. I first

curve it to its approximate shape and then lay itnext to the first rail along its intended line. In thisway I can make minor adjustments if necessary. Ithen install it using the three-point track gaugesand the standards gauge.

Lay the rail on the shims, making sure that itsinside edge faces the inside edge of the other rail.(As crazy as this sounds, it’s easy to get it wrong onstraight sections.) Arrange the track gauges asshown. I find it handy to secure the gauges to theHomasote by putting a track nail through the cen-ter hole of the gauge. This keeps the rails in properalignment and allows you the freedom to solderwithout worrying about the track shifting.

With a track gauge on each side of the shimyou are soldering, it is easy to keep the rails ingauge. After you complete the first shim, move oneof the track gauges to the far side of the next shim,leapfrog fashion, secure the rails, and solder. On

sharp curves I used four track gauges to securethe entire curve while soldering.

As you proceed, use the NMRA gauge to checkyour work. If the track is out of gauge, howeverslightly, it will immediately be apparent, and it isthen necessary to make the adjustments. If theproblem is located at one of the shims, I correct itby reheating the joint to loosen the solder andpushing the rail into its proper position using asolder-free iron. I then remove the iron while stillholding the rail in its new position until the jointcools. Recheck the spot with the gauge and theproblem should be corrected.

If the track is out of gauge between shims, justslip a new shim under the track at the problemarea and solder to correct the gauge. Occasionally,I used needlenose pliers to add a few more trackspikes to keep everything secure. Where two sec-tions of track meet, solder both ends onto oneshim to ensure a smooth transition. This alsomaintains electrical continuity.

Fig. 1 GIRDER RAIL. Orr sells a fullline of crossings and turnouts forstreet track as well as girder rail. Thedrawing illustrates the model versusprototypical cross-section.

Fig. 2 LAYING OUT TRACK. Draw locationlines for both rails for street track. Pin thetemplates in place to get accurate locationof complex trackwork.

Fig. 3 MORE LAYING TRACKS. It will help to lay out street and building locations as you lay outyour track plan. Note the transition to flextrack on the private right-of-way to Riverside. Har-vey made a trammel from a stick of stripwood. He put a nail in one end and marked radiuslengths from it and used this to draw his curves; a wood ruler would also work.

Fig. 4 SIDEWALKS. Secure the sidewalks with screws and white glue. Notice that the screwsare driven where the buildings will hide them. Be sure to leave clearance where the trackcurves. Apply a wood filler in the sidewalk area and sand it smooth so your sidewalks look likeconcrete. Harvey painted them with a 50-50 mix of Floquil Mud and Concrete and weatheredthem with a light wash of India ink and alcohol.

Fig. 5 TRACK SHIMS. Glue the shims for thegirder rail to the Homasote with white glue.Be sure they touch both lines as the rail willbe soldered to them.

Fig. 6 BENDING RAIL. Orr makes thishandy rail bender. By adjusting thecenter roller you can form any radiuscurve needed.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY RICK JOHNSON

Homasote

Plywood

3⁄8" hole

1⁄8" hole

Enlarge hole to fit overpin on underside

of point rail

Eshleman no. 3 17⁄8" link

Chisel recess for link

.039" wire

Layout facePush/pull to operate turnout

Turnouts and crossingsThe crossings and single-point turnouts are also

Orr products. The turnouts are approximately no.2s and have only one point rail – hence the name –that moves to route the trains. I use the Earl Esh-leman turnout link (available from Ye Olde Huff NPuff, Rear 606 Knepp Ave., Lewistown, PA 17044-1651) to operate my turnouts. The Eshleman linkcomes in several sizes and I used the no. 3 for mylayout, installed as shown in fig. 9.

You first need to remove the small screw at theend of the link and enlarge the hole using a needlefile until it can slip over the post on the undersideof the movable switch point on the turnout. Thenext step is to gouge out sufficient clearance in theroadbed for the link to operate without binding. Asmall chisel works fine for this. Locate the link bydetermining where the turnout post will be whenthe turnout is installed. Drill the 1⁄8" mounting holeand install the link. I add a piece of styrene overthe linkage and under the rail to prevent the plas-

ter used for pavement from interfering with themovement of the link.

For the wye at Brookline, you’ll need to cut partof one turnout in order to properly fit the curvedcrossing. The technique for this is explained in theinstructions that come with the track. Figure 10shows my installation.

Private right-of-way On the private right-of-way between Boston

and Brookline and at Riverside I used code 100Atlas flextrack laid on the Homasote. The Orrgirder rail is code 100 but you must stack extrashims to match the tie height of the flextrack. Ifound three shims did the job, as shown in fig. 11.

While I used an Atlas no. 4 turnout headinginto the Boston tunnels, I used Orr girder-railturnouts on the private right-of-way in Riverside,as shown in fig. 12. I laid the turnout rails on low-profile wood ties (Micro Engineering no. 37108)using five-minute epoxy.

Fig. 7 FIRST RAIL. The little black dots aretrack nails used to locate the rail before sol-dering it to the shims. Note the cutout in theplywood for a driveway.

Fig. 9 TURNOUT LINK. The Eshleman link requires a mounting hole and a recess in the Homa-sote (a chisel or chisel blade in a hobby knife works fine). After mounting the link, Harveyslips a thin piece of styrene over the mechanism to protect it when he paves the streets.

Fig. 8 SECOND RAIL. The three-point track gauges hold the second rail in gauge. (These arebackward; the two prong end should be on the outside of the curve.) Solder one joint thenleapfrog a gauge to the other end and solder the next joint. Check all completed work usingboth the track gauge and flangeway pins on an NMRA standards gauge.

WiringBefore proceeding, I strongly recommend test-

ing the track completely by running a streetcarover the whole layout. However, this is a bit awk-ward as both rails on the street track are con-nected electrically by way of the brass shims. Thisdiffers from conventional track where the rails areinsulated from each other. The reason the rails canbe the same polarity in traction is that the electri-cal circuit is completed through the overhead wire.

I wire one section at a time, testing as I pro-ceed. At this time you’re wiring only one side ofthe circuit. (The other side of the circuit will be theoverhead wire.) Remember, the power is going toboth rails. You’ll need separate feeders to each railfor the flextrack, but it’s automatic in the streettrack where the rails are joined by the brass shims.Where the rail ends aren’t soldered to the sameshim, use a jumper wire as shown in fig. 13.

In a later chapter we’ll build a streetcar wiredfor overhead operation. In the meantime you can

pop the shell off any powered unit you have anddo as I did in fig. 14. Clip one lead from the powerpack to the track and the other to the opposite poleof the motor. Or you could wire a battery to themotor. You can also test the track by simply push-ing a car by hand through all of it. On my layout,track joints were troublesome, but a little filinghere and there easily corrected these problems.

I designed the layout so that two operators canrun trains simultaneously. (You might also want toconsider DCC operation as this would be ideal forthe close schedules common to commuter service.)I gapped my rails as shown in fig. 15. Cutting thegaps is easiest with a cutting disk in a motor tool,but you can use a razor saw. I recommend gluinga plastic shim into the gap to guarantee it staysgapped. File the plastic to match the shape of therail after the glue dries.

I wanted to be able to follow the trains as theymoved around the layout, so I used the HoggerMW 40 walkaround throttle. The Hogger has a

Fig. 13 FEEDER WIRES. Run feeder wires through the Homasote and solder them to the rail orshims. Where rail ends aren’t soldered to the same shim, use a jumper between sections.

Fig. 10 BROOKLINE WYE. The upper photoshows how part of the outer rail of thediverging route had to be cut back to matewith the curved crossing at Brookline. Thelower photo shows the completed wye. Orrcomponents make building this quite easy,and overhead pickup makes wiring a snap.

Fig. 14 TEMPORARY POWER. Harvey clipped one lead to the trolley pole and the other to thetrack. You can test track similarly by clipping to motor leads or using a battery.

Fig. 12 TURNOUTS ON TIES. Above left, Harvey used a turnout to mark the location, thenplaced the ties to match the flextrack. The Eshleman link is in place. Right, Harvey glues theOrr turnout in place using epoxy. The pushpins serve as clamps until the epoxy sets.

Fig. 11 TRANSITION TRACK. Stack shims underthe girder rail to match height of flextrack.

Bill of materialsfor trackAtlas170 rail joiners (1)178 five-pack

flextrack (4)861 right-hand

turnout (1)2540 track nails (1)

Richard Orr6506 Western Ave.Omaha, NE 68132(Send SSAE for catalog)

17-piece bundle girder rail (1)

Shims (1)Curving tool (1)Left turnout (6)Right turnout (1)Wye turnouts (3)Left curved crossing (1)Right curved crossing (1)Templates for right and

left curved crossingsand left, right, andwye turnouts

cord that stretches to about eight feet, long enoughto reach all sections of the layout. I placed theblock controls along the fascia by installing threesmall control panels near the areas they serve. Idescribe how I built my panels in the sidebar.

We’re now ready to wire the layout. Figure 16shows the basic circuitry for two-train operation.Notice the need for only one terminal strip percontrol panel. The strip needs to have as manyports as there are electrical blocks in the layout. Ilike to label each port as well as provide a wiringdiagram indicating the schematic of the layout.

When you’ve completed the wiring, I stronglyrecommend further testing just to make sureeverything works, particularly in the street sec-tions. Believe me, you don’t want to have to dig upyour pavement later to correct a problem.

Next month we’ll call in the paving crew to plas-ter the roads, and we’ll build some scenery in therural areas that will be difficult to get to once westring the catenary. 1

Fig. 15 GAPS AND FEEDERS

Cut both rails at bars. Attach single feeders to rails at circles.

CONTROL PANELS

I find control panels fun to build.To build each panel, I drew an out-

line for the opening on the front ofthe benchwork frame. The openingis about 4" x 8" – large enough forthe wiring and the backs of the tog-gle switches when the panel isclosed. On one of them, I installed a6"-deep floor across the bottom ofthe frame. The floor supports theHogger power pack, and I hang thewalkaround controller next to thiscontrol panel. In all the panels, Imounted terminal strips to keep thewiring organized.

The panel is 1⁄8" Masonite hard-board cut to the appropriate sizeand painted the same semi-glossgreen as my fascia. After it dried, Ipenciled in the track plan, indicat-ing the various electrical blocks. Idetermined the locations for the tog-gle switches and drilled mountingholes for them. I first installed SPDT(single-pole double-throw) toggles,but am retrofitting SPDT center-offtoggles so that I can assign anytrack to either throttle or just turn it off. I finished the panel front byapplying strips of 1⁄8" yellow tape over the penciled track lines.

The panel is mounted vertically to maximize aisle space and mini-mize the reach to the track and overhead wire. I used two small hingesto mount the panel making sure that its top edge was square with theedge of the layout. The panel is kept shut with two cabinet closuremagnets. I just glued the metal catch plates to the inside face of thecontrol panel using two-part epoxy. Note also the small wire that keepsthe panel horizontal when open. – H. J. S.

This is the Brookline panel. Notethe notch at the top of the panelto allow for the street that runsoff the edge of the layout.

Inside the Brookline panel youcan see the terminal strip andSPDT block switches. Note theretaining wire on the left.

Rail Gap

Feeder

Fig. 16 WIRING DIAGRAM Overhead wire

Bus wire, 12 gauge

Block 1GapBlock 2

Block 3Rail

Feeder

To block 1 To block 3

To block 2

Terminal strip

Center-off SPDT toggle switches

To next control panel

To next control panel

Pack APack B

This month we’ll pour pavement around thegirder-rail street track we laid last time andscenic the rural areas of the layout. I’ll alsodescribe how I constructed all my scenery,although you may want to wait to finish

some of the foreground scenery, such as the reser-voir, until your layout is further along. I’d defi-nitely recommend doing the backdrop and basiclandforms now because it’s much easier to workon the scenery on the far side of the track beforethe overhead wire is installed and in the way.

PavingProperly modeled roads look great, but they do

take time, so don’t expect to just throw plaster atyour streets and be done with it. As with anythingpertaining to track, taking extra care now willensure a satisfying layout later.

There are many materials for modeling streets,including several commercial products. However,

to keep costs down I used patching plaster, avail-able at most hardware stores. Unlike plaster ofparis, patching plaster sets slowly, allowing yousufficient working time.

Before you begin, gather these supplies: mixingcups, patching plaster, spray bottle of water, dry-wall sanding mesh, sanding block, stir sticks, andtaping knives. The small brass piece in fig. 1 is justwide enough to fit between the railheads. I nar-rowed the big taping knife to fit my narrow streets.I also used two palette knives (available at art sup-ply stores) as miniature trowels to apply the plas-ter to roads.

Mix the plaster in small batches until you getthe feel for how much you can use at a time. Startwith one tablespoon of water in a plastic cup andadd two tablespoons of plaster and stir. The mix-ture should attain the consistency of peanut but-ter. If it’s too stiff, sparingly add water using thespray bottle. If it’s too soupy, add more plaster.

3

Pavingand

sceneryFinishing the streets and

adding rural scenery to theHO scale Boston MTA

By Harvey J. SimonPhotos by the author

Start paving by troweling some plaster betweenthe rails with a palette knife. Then draw the pieceof brass between the railheads as in fig. 2. Figure3 shows how I paved the street between the railand the sidewalk. Figure 4 shows how to pavestreets without curbs. To bond new sections ofplaster to already paved areas, thoroughly wet thecompleted areas with water using the spray bottle.Otherwise the new plaster may not set, and even ifit does the joint will probably crack.

Finishing the streetsAny plaster remaining in the flangeways must

be removed as even tiny amounts will foul opera-tion. As fig. 5 shows, a dental pick or jeweler’sscrewdriver works well for this. After clearing theflangeways, sand the roadway surface using dry-wall abrasive mesh. (Regular sandpaper quicklybecomes clogged with plaster.) Finally, vacuumthe area thoroughly using a full size vacuum –

small handhelds just aren’t powerful enough. Ifound this finish work took longer than I expected,but without it the trains won’t run smoothly.

To paint the streets, I first applied Blacken-It, achemical blackener from A-West, to the flangewayto eliminate any shine. I then brush-painted theplaster with a 2:1 mix of Floquil Reefer Gray andMud and weathered it with pastel chalks.

BallastingBefore adding scenery to the rural areas, we

need to paint and ballast the private right-of-waytrack. I began by brush-painting the rail with Flo-quil Rail Brown and then cleaning the railheadswith a Bright Boy rail cleaner. This went veryquickly. I used a 50/50 mix of no. 75 Gray and no.74 Light Gray Woodland Scenics fine ballastapplied as shown in fig. 6.

As a finishing touch, I sprinkled on WoodlandScenics fine turf in assorted grass-tone colors to

Harvey’s tips onpaving with plasterwill help you produce realisticstreet track like thisat Brookline.

represent weeds growing between the ties. I alsovaried the colors of a few of the ties with a wash ofIndia ink, Floquil stains, or pastel chalks. This isstrictly trial and error, and my advice is to take aless-is-more approach for the most realistic effect.

SceneryIf you don’t already own them, let me suggest

purchasing Dave Frary’s How to Build Model Rail-road Scenery from Kalmbach Publishing and theScenery Building Manual from Woodland Scenics.What worked for me comes directly from thesesources, which is actually a comforting thought. Itreally is possible to study various approaches,apply proven techniques, and come away feelinggood about your efforts.

You’ll also have to spend some money up frontto get started – ground foam, plaster, paints, andso forth – but I found that for less than $150 I wasable to scenic the entire layout. Not bad consider-

ing a single craftsman kit can cost that much. Myother recommendation is to take a drive alongsome railroad right-of-way and look, really look, atthe surroundings. Ideally you do this along theroute you’re actually modeling, but you can learn alot by studying any right-of-way.

When it comes to vegetation you’ll see trees (talland short, skinny and fat, alive and dead), shrubs,bushes, flowers, gentle hills, background moun-tains, grass, dirt, gravel, weeds – you name it – allin varying shades of green, tan, and yellow. Giventhis variety in the actual landscape, it stands toreason that the key to modeling it is to use a vari-ety of materials. Indeed, the more textures, prod-ucts, and colors you use the better your scenerywill look.

BackdropI used my room walls as the backdrop. If you

can’t or don’t wish to do this you’ll need to add

Fig. 1 TAPING KNIVES. The scraper betweenthe knives fits between the railheads. The bigknife has a small notch to fit over a curb.

Fig. 2 PAVING BETWEEN RAILS. Apply plaster,then level it by dragging the scraper betweenthe railheads. Remove plaster in the flange-way with the edge of the brass scraper.

Fig. 3 PAVING BETWEEN RAIL AND CURB. Spread and generally level the plaster with thepalette knives. When the plaster starts to set, scrape with a taping knife notched to ride onthe plywood curb. Harvey cut down his large knife to fit on his streets.

Fig. 4 PAVING STREETS WITHOUT CURBS. Bend a piece of code 100 rail to the desired shapeand pin it to the Homasote, add plaster pavement, scrape level, then remove the rail.

Fig. 5 FINISHING THE STREETS. Use a jeweler’s screwdriver to scrape away any plaster caughtin the flangeways. A compact mirror helps to inspect the inside flangeway when you can’t geton both sides of the layout. Run a hobby knife with a chisel blade along the outside edge ofthe rails as needed to ensure the railheads are higher than the pavement.

Notch fitsover curb

some sort of backdrop to your layout; fig. 7 showsone method.

My first step was to pick up a bunch of colorchips for blue latex paint and bring them home.Pick your sky blue based on how the chips look inyour home under the light you’ll have on your lay-out. When you purchase your blue pick up someinexpensive white latex paint as well. Use a rollerto paint the sky because it provides a smooth, con-sistent surface.

Although even just a blue sky background helpsset off a layout, some sort of background scene togive a sense of horizon will improve the looktremendously, and it isn’t difficult to do becauseyou don’t want to over-detail the backdrop. Youwant the viewer’s focus to be on the trains, struc-tures, and foreground scenery.

I followed Frary’s three-color technique,described fully in his book and shown in fig. 8.Using Liquitex tube acrylics and the blue and

white latex paints, I mixed three shades of green,using Chromium Oxide Green as my base color.For the light mix, use a 3:1 mix of the white andblue latex paints and add just a bit of the blackand green acrylics. The medium color is made byadding more green to the light color. The near hillsare an equal mix of green and green yellow. Now,simply sketch a few hills, load up the brush, and inno time you’ll have a decent backdrop.

At this point I got brave and experimented witha few clouds, but they looked terrible – more likeexploding marshmallows – so I eliminated them.By painting over the clouds with the sky blue, andthen streaking the horizon area with a little white, Igot a reasonable looking sky above the distant hills.

Land formsTo construct the three-dimensional hills I used

the newspaper and plaster-cloth-shell methodshown in fig. 9. You’ll need the following materials:

Fig. 6 BALLASTING. Pour ballast between the rails and brush it even with the tops of the tiesand about 1⁄2" to each side. Spray rubbing alcohol on the ballast to wet it. Then bond the bal-last by dribbling on a 3:1 mix of water and acrylic matte medium.

Fig. 9 SCENERY SHELL. Tape and staplecrumpled newspapers to form hills. Spraying the newspaper with water helpssettle it into more realistic forms. Cut the plaster cloth into 6"- to 12"-wide strips, soak in water, and drape over thenewspapers overlapping each piece. Finally rub the cloth to spread the impregnated plaster.

Fig. 8 BACKDROP PAINTING. It’s simple! Use a light green for distant hills, a darker green for middle distance, and a bright green for the foreground.

Fig. 7 BACKDROP

1⁄8" hardboard

1 x 3 supportsscrewed to benchwork

Hardboardcan be curvedat corners

Place supportsevery two feetor at seamsof hardboard

ILLUSTRATION BY KELLIE JAEGER

Newspapers Masking tapePlaster cloth (Woodland Scenics)ScissorsStaple gunSpray bottles Casting plaster (Woodland Scenics)Rock molds (Woodland Scenics)Ground foam (Woodland Scenics)Sphagnum moss (Available at craft stores)Real dirt As you build up the newspaper hills, step back

periodically and see how they’re fitting in with thescene. It’s easy to alter their shape now. Be sure toleave plenty of clearance for the trains, particu-larly where you want to add rock castings.

I made my rock castings using Woodland Scen-ics Hydrocal poured into rubber molds, as shownin fig. 10. On previous layouts I applied rock cast-ings to the hardshell while still wet. On this one,

however, I applied them after they’d set as thisallowed me to experiment with placement.

At this point I spread additional patching plas-ter over the whole shell to fill in any unnaturallooking crevices. If you had fun during your fingerpainting days in kindergarten, you’ll enjoy this.Just remember to spray the shell with water beforeapplying the plaster.

At this point I added my profile boards. (Com-monly called the fascia, since I shape mine to fol-low the contours of the scenery, I find the termprofile boards more descriptive.) Figure 11 showsmy method of making these. When the layout wasfinished, I painted them the same hunter green I’dused on my control panels. I also added a clothskirt to hide the junk beneath the benchwork.

Coloring and landscapingAs I did with landforms, I followed the tech-

niques described in the Woodland Scenics manual

Fig. 11 PROFILE BOARDS. Clamp a piece ofhardboard to the layout, draw the outline ofthe terrain onto it, remove, and cut to shapewith a saber saw. Reinstall the board andwork the terrain up to the edge.

Fig. 12 COLOR AND FOLIAGE. Stain the rocks with washes of various earth colors of acrylicpaint, then spray on a black wash to highlight the crevice detail. Paint the rest of the groundwith Woodland Scenics Earth undercoat, a greenish-tan color, and sprinkle on the fine ground foams. Finish the ground cover with coarser ground foams in a variety of shades andpieces of lichen or bushes made from poly fiber.

Fig. 10 ROCK CASTING. Spraying the mold with water that has a few drops of liquid dishdetergent added will help the casting release easily. Before adding a casting soak the sceneryshell with water. Spread patching plaster on the back of the casting and press in place. Workthe plaster that oozes from behind the casting into the contours of the shell. Then spreadadditional plaster over the whole shell.

for coloring and texturing my scenery. As fig. 12shows, I started by tinting the rocks using Wood-land Scenics’ color set, then painted the groundand finally added foliage using a variety ofground foams and a little bit of lichen. I think themost important point here is that even on the firsttry the methods worked very well.

I used five fine-turf colors: Green Grass, BurntGrass, Yellow Grass, Soil, and Earth, and fivecoarse-turf colors: Light Green, Yellow Grass,Medium Green, Earth, and Burnt Grass. Plasticsalt and pepper shakers, one for each color,worked great for applying the foams. On steep ter-rain, I first dribbled the matte medium on the sur-face, then whisked the ground foam onto the areausing a soft brush.

In addition to these commercial products, I alsoused real dirt (sifted to a realistic size) and sphag-num moss, which I ground in a blender and usedto represent fallen leaves and bark mulch.

Culvert and reservoirCulverts are a common sight along almost any

railroad right-of-way. I used the Pre Size ModelSpecialties random-stone culvert (no. 122) toenliven the corner, seen in fig. 13, between thereservoir and Riverside. To make the stream, Iused a two-part epoxy (I don’t remember thebrand, but Enviro-Tex makes a good one). Thisdries to a realistic high-gloss finish.

If you followed the benchwork diagram in Part1, you already have a cutout area for the reservoirat Brookfield shown in fig. 14. As a finishing touchI included the geese, visible in fig. 8, pressing theminto the last layer of gloss medium as it dried. As Isaid at the start, I’d hold off on at least the lastlayer of gloss medium (and the geese!) until thelayout is nearly done.

Next month we’ll build a PCC trolley car, sowe’ll be set to operate under the singing wirewhich we’ll string in February. 1

Fig. 13 THE CULVERT. To make it look built into the ter-rain, Harvey removed the sides and bottom from a PreSize culvert casting, then worked plaster around the out-let pipe. Finally he added a few rocks below the openingto make a spillway.

Fig. 14 RESERVOIR. Use plywood cut from the sub-roadbed for the lake surface. Shave the Homasote andplywood to about a 45-degree angle to support the banks– Harvey used Plastruct coursed-stone sheet (no. 91561).To make waves, spread joint compound over the plywoodand form ripples in it with a sponge as it dries. Whendry, paint the joint compound a dark gray. Then applythree coats of gloss acrylic medium, letting each one drythoroughly. Each layer adds depth and realism.

In this installment of my series on building amodel of the Boston’s MTA, we’ll build a trol-ley car to operate on overhead wire. In 1959the car roster of the Riverside line consistedentirely of President’s Conference Committee

cars, commonly referred to as PCCs, purchasedfrom Pullman-Standard. These streamlined carswere designed in the 1930s to compete with therapidly expanding use of buses. They served onthe MTA until the introduction of the LRVs (LightRail Vehicles) that are in use today. This month I’lldescribe how I built my Boston PCC models. As aguide to your detailing, there are prototype draw-ings and information on pages 106 and 107.

What’s availableSeveral PCCs are on the market and a few brass

versions have been imported, but none for themost common Boston PCC that I wanted. Depend-ing on your budget, pickiness, and enthusiasm forexperimentation, you have a range of options to fill

your roster. The least expensive choice is the Bach-mann PCC, but it needs to be modified andrewired for overhead operation. “Two new street-cars for the O’Dell County Traction Co.” in theApril 1989 MODEL RAILROADER describes how todo this on a Bachmann Brill car and offers othergood tips on building trolley cars. [Back issues areavailable; call 800-533-6644. – Ed.]

Bowser’s die-cast model costs about $60 andcomes with a ready-to-run mechanism. (Bowserhas announced that it plans to offer built-up andpainted versions and they also have a new mecha-nism that will probably be available by the timethis article appears.) Bowser also offers individualtraction parts, some of which we’ll use in the carwe’ll build.

Both the Bowser and Bachmann cars feature“standee windows,” a row of small windows abovethe main ones. Although the MTA owned some ofthese cars they did not usually see service on theRiverside line.

Building a

BostonstreetcarAn epoxy body kit and anNWSL drive make for asmooth-running PCC

By Harvey J. SimonPhotos by the author

4

My solution, though still not dead-on, producesa reasonably accurate car for about $125, and ifyou wish to do more work on the body than I did,it can be made into a very close match indeed. Ifthis price seems high to you, remember you won’tbe buying any freight cars or other rolling stock.Indeed, I have but three cars, only two of whichare powered. (The Riverside line often ran trains ofmultiple cars.) I should also add that MTS Importshas a resin-body picture-window PCC in theworks, which may be available by the time youread this, and some of this style of car did run onthe Riverside line.

You’ll note from the photos that I built twoidentical cars, the only difference being their roadnumbers and destination signs. The color schemeis the tangerine and cream of 1959. When I wasbuilding these cars I messed up a set of decals, soone of my cars is numbered incorrectly. For cor-rect numbers see the prototype information onpage 106.

ComponentsThe components for my model are shown in

fig. 1. It may look involved, but in a few eveningsyou’ll have a good looking streetcar built and run-ning. My car is powered by a NorthWest ShortLine PDT (Pretty Darn Tiny) power truck, a terrificlittle machine that integrates the motor into thetruck. It has lots of oomph and has proven to bemost reliable. Because the small motors are notcurrently available, PDTs are out of production.You can probably find one in stock, however, atlarger hobby shops. The PDTs came in a range ofwheelbases including one designed for PCCs witha 6'-0" wheelbase and 26"-diameter wheels. The 6'-0"spacing is correct, but I had special ordered onewith a 6'-6" wheelbase and 26" wheels to matchthe Bowser trailing truck. The 6" difference is notgreat so a stock model should look fine.

If you can’t find a PDT, Bowser’s new driveunit, mentioned above and shown in fig. 2, shouldbe in production by the time you read this.

Two of Harvey’sBoston PCC carsmeet at Arlingtonstation on his HOscale traction lay-out. Though notexact models, theycapture the look andfeel of the MTA.

As you can tell, like other niches in the hobby,traction modeling sometimes requires a littleresearch to find product lines, so here are a fewsources of information about traction modeling.There are two magazines for traction modelers:Scale Model Traction & Trolleys Quarterly (P. O.Box 04016, Milwaukee, WI 53204) and Trolley Talk(1913 Roanoke Ave. Louisville, KY 40205-1415;502-451-4693). There’s also a traction-orientedWeb site, www.trolleyville.com, that features tips,manufacturer information, and links.

Drive train assemblyCar construction falls in two parts: assembling

of the floor and power train followed by body prepand painting. I begin with the drive because test-ing it involves handling the body considerably, soit’s better to finish and paint the shell later.

Start by fitting the floor into the shell. It’sattached with two screws (supplied). The smalltabs inside the body may need to be filed for a

snug fit. I did this with a motor tool at low speed,being careful not to cut through the shell.

We now need to enlarge the opening in thefloor to 15⁄16" x 2" to make room for the PDT. Imarked the area to be removed and then used acarbide cutter in a motor tool to do the carving asshown in fig. 3.

The next step is making the bolster to mountthe PDT to the floor. The bolster will also serve asa platform for adding weight to the car. To makethe bolster cut a piece of .032" x 1⁄2" brass to thedimensions shown in fig. 4. These dimensionsaren’t critical, but you want the vertical dimensionclose to what I have so you don’t have to use toomany spacer washers to level the floor. I bent mybolster to shape with just a pair of pliers.

I next positioned the bolster on the floor and,using the markings shown in fig. 3 as a guide,found the pivot point on the bolster and drilled a1⁄16" hole for the kingpin. I also drilled two 1⁄16" holesin each end of the bolster for 4-40 mounting

Fig. 1 CAR COMPO-NENTS. 1. Q-Car Co.PCC body, 2. floor,3. NorthWest ShortLine power truck, 4.Bowser trailingtruck, 5. NWSLwheelsets, 6. O’TooleLines trolley pole, 7.lead weights. Harveyalso used brass barstock, shim wash-ers, and an assort-ment of screws,nuts, and wire.

Fig. 2 BOWSER DRIVE. This is Bowser’s new drive unit. To the right of the three sideframeoptions is the brake shoe casting for inside bearing trucks on the PCC.

Fig. 3 FLOOR MODIFICATIONS. The blackmarks the area that needs to be removed forthe PDT to fit into the floor. Mark the centerline of the PDT on either side of the opening,then cut away the extra material using acarbide cutter in a motor tool.

2"

Fig. 4 BODY BOLSTER FOR PDT

Drill 3⁄32" through predrilled hole in floor after locating bolster

.032" x 1⁄2" brass strip

Drill 1⁄16"

Drill 1⁄16" for 4-40 screw

Drill 1⁄16" for 4-40 screw

Q-Car floor

1⁄4"

1⁄4"

15/16"

3⁄8"

Predrilled hole for 2-56 body screwPredrilled hole for

2-56 body screw

Predrilled hole for rear truck

21⁄2"

1

2

3

6

7

4

5

ILLUSTRATIONS BY RICK JOHNSON

screws. (I used nuts on the inside of the car to fas-ten the floor and bolster; you could instead drillthe bolster with a no. 43 bit and tap it.)

Note that the front bolster-mounting hole mustbe off-center to clear the body-mounting screw.By placing the bolster on the floor, which ispredrilled for the body-mount screw, you candetermine where to locate the other hole. Don’tdrill a hole in the bolster for the body screw untilafter the final positioning of the PDT.

The next step is very important. You need tolocate the bolster so the PDT is properly centeredin the floor opening. To do this apply double-sticktape to the floor about where the bolster will bemounted. Align the pivot hole in the bolster withthe center marks on the floor and press the bolsteronto the tape. Install the trailing truck in thepredrilled hole in the floor and insert the kingpinscrew of the PDT into the bolster.

Check that the PDT is centered side-to-side andthat the pivot aligns with your marks. If necessary,

unstick the bolster and reposition the PDT. Whenit’s correctly positioned, mark the floor throughthe holes in the bolster, disassemble, and drill two1⁄16" holes in the floor. Now you can drill the 3⁄32"hole for the front body-mounting screw throughthe bolster.

Before installing the PDT make sure the motoris properly wired for overhead operation. When Iordered mine from NWSL, I specified the wiringrequirements; however, if you’re buying one fromstock it may come wired for two rail. The changeis easy to make as shown in fig. 5. Use a circularlug on the lead to the rear truck as a horseshoe-shaped one will eventually come loose and detachduring operation.

Put the kingpin of the PDT into the bolster andcheck if the floor is level as in fig. 6. (As the figureshows, after installing the bolster for the PDT Iremoved the sides of the floor on either side of thePDT for maximum swing of the truck.) If the frontend is low add Kadee shim washers between the

Fig. 6 LEVELING THE FLOOR. A small bubble-level is useful when adding shims. For maxi-mum truck swing, remove the frame aroundthe PDT once the bolster is in place.

Fig. 7 TEST TRACK. Harvey mounted flextrackto a piece of 1 x 3 which he can adjust todifferent angles. He added overhead, but youcan just clip one lead to the trolley pole.

Fig. 5 PDT WIRING

WIRED FOR TWO-RAIL OPERATION

Metal tabs connect to wheel wipers on each sideand touch motor contacts

Screw holes (empty)

WIRED FOR OVERHEAD OPERATION

Jumper wire soldered to wheel wipers and trailing truck

Wiper tab bent up and away from motor contact

Flexible stranded wire

New motor contact tab mounted in screw hole(screws and tabs supplied)

Brass washer

To trolley poleHere’s Harvey’s PDT wired for overheadoperation as in the diagram.

PDT and the bolster. If the bolster is too short,making the front end sit high, you can add wash-ers or sheet brass between the bolster and thefloor. If you have to add many shims in eitherlocation, you should probably make a new bolster.Once the floor is level, secure the PDT with thenut provided.

Performance tuningWhat we’re talking about here is adding weight.

A few extra ounces will improve the car’s perfor-mance significantly, and in fact the weight isessential to enable it to handle the steep grades. Ibuilt a small test track, fig. 7, to check the car’sperformance on grades. It’s much easier to makeadjustments at the workbench without runningback and forth to the layout.

I used lead stick-on weights mounted to the bol-ster to increase traction as shown in fig. 8. Theseweights have double-face tape that makes installa-tion easy. For my car, I started off with two pieces

stacked vertically. You’ll need to drill out theweights with a 1⁄4" bit to clear the kingpin and hexnut. I thought the double stack would be sufficientbut found during testing the car couldn’t climb thehill out of the subway. I added two side weights,bringing the car to about six ounces, and then ittracked beautifully over the whole layout.

Body prepBefore final detailing and painting you need to

install the trolley pole. The pole may be the mostimportant part of the car for it serves as the onlycontact point to complete the electrical circuitfrom the rails through the motor and back to theoverhead. I have experimented with different polesand have found the SAS poles supplied by O’TooleLines to be very reliable.

This pole has a strong spring that providesample tension against the taut overhead therebyproducing the best conditions for smooth opera-tion. You may notice that this pole has a larger-

About an hour after painting, before thepaint dries to a hard finish, Harvey peels themask back over itself, avoiding smudging.

Fig. 10 PAINTING. To make a body holder,Harvey cut the top off a sponge paintbrushand wrapped it with double-stick tape.

Masking is the most important step toensure a good paint job. Take your time anduse a good quality masking tape.

Fig. 12 GLAZING. Touse Microscale’sKristal Klear dip atoothpick into thebottle and work thematerial around andacross the windowopening until it fills,then allow it to dryundisturbed.

PDT

Fig. 9 TROLLEY POLEPlastic bushing SAS pole

Run no. 32 stranded wire from pole to motor lead. Cover splice with electrical tape or heat-shrink tubing

Fig. 8 WEIGHTING. Adding weight to the bolster puts it directly abovethe power truck where it will do the most good.

Fig. 11 BLUE EGG LOGO. These HO logos canbe copied onto decal paper with a colorcopier or sanded thin and applied directly.

than-scale trolley wheel, but the large wheel helpskeep dewirements to a minimum and I think it’s agood balance between appearance and operation.

The pole comes with the necessary parts to fit itto the Q-Car shell. The base of the pole is seated ina plastic bushing that fits into a hole on top of theshell. You’ll need to run a wire from the metal baseof the pole to the overhead motor lead as shown infig. 9. After the pole is attached and turning freely,test the car using an alligator clip lead to the pole.

Now remove the pole and get the body readyfor painting. The Q-Car shell requires little prepa-ration unless you want to make major modifica-tions to more closely match the Boston PCC cars.If you do, the prototype information describes themajor spotting features of the Riverside PCCs andsuggests modeling approaches.

My alterations were limited to removing thedividing bar in the front destination sign openingand adding a thin piece of stripwood to make adestination sign in the side window ahead of thecenter door.

I also checked for any flash in the windows orat the edges of the body (there was very little) andtrimmed it off with a hobby knife. I then filed orsanded the area to a smooth finish. Finally, Iwashed the shell in warm, soapy water and let itair dry.

PaintingJust as I took a good-enough approach for the

general detail on my car, so too I opted to simplifythe paint scheme and skip the maroon and blackstriping separating the primary body colors of tan-gerine, cream, and silver. I figured better to do anice job on a simplified scheme than mess it upwith bad lining. On the other hand, if you’re up tothe challenge, the added striping looks nice.

I use spray cans for all my painting as I find anairbrush too time-consuming to fuss with. Luckilythere are several manufacturers that offer enoughvariety to get a reasonable color match. I choseModel Master German Metallic Silver and LightIvory for the roof and window area and Boyd Sun-burst for the tangerine (Polly Scale SP DaylightOrange looks like a good choice in model paint).

My painting sequence is shown in fig. 10. I useda cheap sponge paintbrush to hold the carbodyduring painting. I first sprayed the car with grayprimer, which I then let dry for several days. ThenI began painting the body by spraying the roofwith the silver. I let this dry about a day and thenapplied masking and sprayed the Light Ivory onthe upper body. I finished a day or two later bymasking off the upper body and spraying with theSunburst on the sides.

Decaling comes next. I used Microscale railroadroman 6" black numerals for the road numbersand Walthers railroad gothic 4" white letters forthe destination sign above the front window and 3"ones in the side window. These small signs wereworth the effort, but a pain in the neck to make.I’ve since discovered that Custom Traxx makesBoston destination sign decals and even decals toput the bolt detail on the car wheels! The com-pany also expects to have a full MTA set available

soon. In the meantime you can use the MTA “blueegg” logos printed here, fig. 11, and photocopythem onto blank decal paper, or just cut them outand do as I did. I printed the logo on standardpaper then sanded the backside very thin andglued them onto the car. The finished effect is notquite as good as a decal, but still quite effective.

GlazingOn the advice of a local hobby shop owner, I

used Microscale Kristal Klear for the window glaz-ing, a new technique, for me. Figure 12 shows theprocess. Although it looks clear when dry, becausethis “glass” is quite thick you can’t really seethrough it so it provides the additional benefit ofalso concealing the lack of interior detailing.

I completed the model by painting the face ofthe wheels rail brown.

All that’s left is to reassemble your car and waitpatiently for next month when we’ll hang the over-head wire and you can finally enjoy some runningon your layout. 1

Parts list

A-Line13000 1⁄2" x 1⁄2" x 3⁄16" weights

BowserPCC dummy truck parts191 1⁄8" x 5⁄16" x 1⁄32" fiber

washers440 4-40 nuts1206 PCC gear retainer1207 frame trolley trailer truck1219 insulating bushing256031 2-56 x 3⁄16" roundhead

screws440082 4-40 x 1⁄2" flathead

screws

Boyd spray paintSunburst

Custom Traxx P. O. Box 6411751West Los Angeles, CA 90064-1175traxx@earthlink.net

ACT-995 PCC dress-up decal set (includes wheel bolt detail, taillight lenses, and more)

ACT-3200 PCC destination signs – Boston

Kadee 209 .010" fiber spacer washers

MicroscaleMI-9 Kristal Klear87-69-2 railroad roman black

letters and numbers

NorthWest Short Line7011-4 PDT with 26" wheels

and 6'-0" wheelbase (out of production but check hobby shops)

7122-4 26" 110 wheels for PCC cars

O’Toole Lines25445 Highland Rd.Richmond Heights, OH 44143-2520216-383-1281otooleline@aol.com

SAS trolley pole

Q-Car Co.7018 Littlecreek Rd.Bangor, PA 18013(SSAE for reply or order HOscale catalog $1.25, O scalecatalog $3)

HCS06 PCC floorSF501 PCC Body

Testor’s Model Masterpaints2909 Light Ivory2914 German Silver Metallic

Walthers934-806108 no. 8 white

railroad gothic

RIVERSIDESUBWAYVIA

12'-11⁄2" 2

6'-0"

25"-diameter wheels

This rear view shows how the silver roof paint and thin black stripedips down to cross just above the rear window.

Car 3246, the subject of our drawings, heads a three-car train in June1961. The third car doesn’t have the extended fan shroud on the roof.

BOSTON’S PCCS

The prototype drawings by Joseph Zen-Ruffinenrepresent the most common version of the PCC

cars that served Boston’s Metropolitan TransitAuthority. This particular car is part of the groupnumbered 3241 to 3271, which were known asWartime cars though they were built by Pullman in1946. The cars are virtually identical to the 3002-3021 (except 3010) series built by Pullman in1941 and 3272-3321 (Pullman 1951).

Beginning in 1960 the Riverside cars wererequired to have airhorns and the roof-mountedheadlights visible in the photos. The most obviousspotting feature of the Pullman PCCs versus theircounterparts built by the St. Louis Car Co. (thebasis for the Q-Car model) is the lack of ribs justabove the window line. These could be removedfrom any of the shells with some careful filing.

In addition, there are two distinguishing fea-tures of the MTA’s PCC cars: the large fan hous-ings on the roof and the left-side center door. Thefan housings could be carved from balsa orstyrene. (Note that the third car in train with 3246does not have the extended fan housing.) The left-side door was necessary for subway operation.Probably the easiest solution would be to trans-plant the center door from a Bachmann shell,though you could also build one from styrene strip.Note that the left-side door is not directly acrossfrom the right-side door.

Beginning in 1957, the MTA began repaintingits cars from a light-orange and cream scheme totangerine and cream. Repainting wouldn’t becompleted until 1963, but all the cars serving theRiverside line were tangerine. The tangerine isseparated from the cream by a 3" maroon stripeand there is a thin (about 1") black stripe that fol-lows the weather stripping above the windows andbelow the windows. Another thin maroon stripeseparates the upper border of the cream from thesilver roofs. – George Sebastian-Coleman, associ-ate editor

Ratio 1:64S scale

PROTOTYPE PHOTOS: EDWARD A. ANDERSON

3246

3246

3246

3246

RIVERSIDESUBWAYVIA

11'-11⁄2"22'-9"

10'-0"

4'-81⁄2"8'-4"

46'-0"

Drawn for MODEL RAILROADER Magazine byJOSEPH ZEN-RUFFINEN

Magazine purchaser may have photocopies of thesedrawings made as an aid to personal or commercialmodelmaking or tool design but does not have the rightto distribute copies of the drawings to others.

Car no. 3243 had just arrived at Riverside station whenEd Anderson snapped this photo on March 18, 1962.

At Park Drive a two-car train emerges from the subway section of the line thatnecessitated the unusual left-side doors on Boston PCCs.

TO CONVERT S SCALE DRAWING TO YOUR SCALE COPY

AT THESE PERCENTAGES:

N 40 percent

HO 73.5 percent

0 133.3 percent

It’s hard to believe, but this is our next-to-the-last installment. This month we’ll install theoverhead wire and finally get a chance to runthe trolley we built last month. As both proto-type and model photos show, it’s the overhead

wire that really gives traction modeling its charac-ter. Overhead may look intimidating, but it’s not asdifficult as you may think. Really. A little stressful,yes. Time consuming? Yup. But once you gainsome experience, and actually start to see yourtrolleys moving along the layout, you’ll have theenthusiasm to keep going, tackle the hard parts,and finish the job.

I’ve divided the process into straight track,curves, and turnouts and crossings. In reality you’lldo all at once, although I do recommend startingwith a short section of straight track to developyour skills and to get that little bit running thatwill inspire you to finish the rest.

There are two components to the overhead sys-tem: the span wire support structure and the con-

tact wire on which the trolley wheel actually rides.Figure 1 shows the general configuration of a com-pleted overhead installation, and fig. 2 shows thespecific arrangement of my overhead.

You’ll need the following tools to successfullyand easily install your overhead: reverse actiontweezers (the kind that open when you squeezethem), needlenose pliers, wire cutters, a “third-hand” clamping device, needle files, white indexcard, high-intensity lamp, cosmetics mirror, mark-ing pen, a drafter’s ruling pen (or hemostat), tooth-picks, cotton swabs, and flux remover. Quite a list,I know, but each item has a purpose that simpli-fies construction.

If you follow the procedures shown in the pho-tos and described in the captions on the followingpages, you should find your PCC car hummingalong under power it has prototypically collectedfrom the overhead wire. Next month I’ll wrap upthe series with a description of how I built thestructures and subway stops. 1

Stringing the

overheadHalf the fun of traction iswatching the trolley pole

snake along the wire

By Harvey J. SimonPhotos by the author

5

� The overheadwire stands outsharply against theevening sky on Harvey Simon’s HOscale model of theBoston MTA.

� This is how theoverhead wire sys-tem appears at theRiverside car barnon today’s MTA.

Fig. 1 TYPICAL SPAN-WIRE OVERHEAD

Span wire

Line pole

Ear

Pulloffs

Contact wire

BackboneEar for curves Wire frog

ILLUSTRATIONS BY KELLIE JAEGER

Fig. 2 POLE AND SUPPORT WIRE LOCATIONSDots represent polesSpan wires in redBackbone wires in blue

Cut the rod for the poles into 6" lengths. This puts thethe top of the pole about 4" above the track while thebottom extends through the benchwork an inch or two.

On sharp radius curves, the nose of the car will swingwell beyond the line of the track, so the poles must beplaced outside this turning area.

Paint the poles Pullman Green.Leave the bases and tops bare forsoldering feeder and span wires.

Solder feeders from the bus wire to every fourth or fifthset of poles. They in turn feed the span wires and ulti-mately the contact wire.

SPAN POLES

In my design, the entire overhead is metal and formsthe common rail side of the wiring as described in

Part 2 in the November 1999 issue. The supportingline poles are 1⁄8"-diameter solid brass rod (which K&S

Engineering offers in economical 36" lengths). Thesepoles extend through the roadbed and are soldered to thefeeder wires. Figure 2 shows where I placed my poles.They’re installed opposite each other so that the spanwire connecting them will be at a right angle to the lineof the track, whether straight or curved.

Gently tap the poles into 1⁄8" holes. As on the prototype, angle them slightly away fromeach other to keep the span wire taut.

Bill of materialsClover HouseP. O. Box 62MSebastopol, CA 95473no. 30 phosphorbronze wire

K&S Engineering1⁄8" brass rod

O’Toole Lines25445 Highland at HarrisRichmond Heights,OH 44143B-640 wire frogB-642 crossoverNo. 28 nickel silver wire

Precision Scale Co.5316 ears for

straight track5317 ears for

curved track

Attach the wire toone pole, slip onfour beads, pull thewire to the otherpole, and knot.

Raise the wire by pinching thepoles together and walking it upuntil it’s about 19 scale feet(25⁄8") above the track, then sol-der it to the poles.

Locate ears so thetrolley wheel is tan-gent to the track –this is track centeron straight track.

Dab flux on the spanwire at the ear loca-tion, hold the earwith reverse actiontweezers, and sol-der. The wood-blockhandrest preventsthe shakes.

SPAN WIRES AND EARSFOR STRAIGHT TRACK

The next step is to install the span wires between thepoles. This is what the contact wire will hang from. I

used no. 30 phosphor bronze wire. You’ll also need asupply of indian beads (available at craft stores) to rep-resent insulators. Every span wire has two insulators oneach side of the contact wire. Begin by wrapping thewire a couple turns around the base of one pole andtwisting the end to secure it.

Ears (also called hangers) are the little connectors towhich the overhead wire is soldered. You’ll need twotypes: one for straight sections of track and one forcurves. I used Precision Scale parts no. 5316 and5317. Although these are O scale, they don’t look tooout of place and, more importantly, have given meexcellent results. Leave the sprues on the ears until theoverhead is complete.

Sometimes a span wire isn’t perpendicular to thetrack, most often near a turnout. By grabbing the upperand lower portions of an ear with two pairs ofneedlenose pliers, it’s easy to twist the lower portion sothe groove for the wire aligns with the track.

CONTACT WIRE – STRAIGHT TRACK

Iused no. 28 nickel silver wire for my contact wire. A100-foot spool was plenty for the entire railroad.

Notice the use of the high-intensity lamp, white card,and third-hand clamping device when soldering. Themore light the better when working with small parts.The white card eliminates background visual clutter.The clamp is attached to the sprue of the ear castingand acts as a heat sink to keep the ear from coming offthe span wire. After the overhead is completed, you cango back and nip off this sprue with a wire cutter.

In general, work back to front to avoid having toreach over existing work. A logical spot to start is wherethere’s a natural break in the wire such as at a turnoutor crossing. A 3" screw driven between the divergingtracks, as shown below, can serve as the starting tie-off.Begin by threading a long piece of wire between thespan supports, laying it loosely on top of the track. Pullthe wire taut from the screw to the first ear and solder.Now repeat the process as you move down the track,keeping the wire as taut as possible.

The screw serves as a temporary tie-off for one end of thecontact wire. It should hold the wire close to the finishedheight of the contact wire.

Coat the groove onthe ear with flux.Now tin the iron witha drop of solder, pullthe wire taut, andhold it in the groove.Pass the iron underthe wire. You’ll heara sizzle, see a littlesmoke, and shouldget a solid joint.

A cosmetic mirrorhelps spot excesssolder after solder-ing. Use a needlefile to remove it. Forgood electrical contact remove allflux with a cottonswab soaked withflux remover.

To splice overhead,overlap one end ontop of the other,clamp with a rulingpen or hemostat,and solder. Clip offexcess wire and filethe underside for asmooth transition.

SUBWAY OVERHEAD

If you’ve ridden subway streetcars you may havenoticed how the trolley pole is compressed due to the

low height of the wire inside the tunnels (economicssays you don’t excavate more than necessary). To rep-resent this, I lowered the height of the trolley wire in thesubway areas to 21⁄8". I also cut off the tops of the linepoles at the point where the span wire is located toconvey the impression of being underground.The trolley wire is lower in the subway sections of the layout, as seen here.

CURVES

Now onto the curves which are a little more challeng-ing. As you can see in fig. 1, the contact wire around

curves is held in place by pulloff wires that connect theears to the backbone. Don’t solder the pulloffs as theymay require periodic adjustments. I used no. 30 phos-phor bronze wire for the backbone, strung at the sameheight as the span wires. Simply wrap a piece of wirearound the first pole on a curve, pull taut to the next,wrap, and proceed. Wrap the last pole and clip off the

excess. I solder the backbone just to the end poles so Ican adust the tension by sliding the others up or down.

The length between spans and radius of the curvewill determine the number of pullovers needed. Most ofthe time three or five pullovers will suffice. An odd num-ber is the best choice as it places one ear midwaybetween span wires. Except on span wires, the ears forcurves have two eyelets that serve as anchors for pulloffwires. Instead of being directly over track center, ears oncurves are located about halfway between the inside railand track center.

To locate the ear on a span wire on a curve,swing the pole until the wheel is perpendicu-lar to the span wire and mark the spot.

To locate ears attached to pulloffs, curve apiece of heavy wire to follow the trackbetween two line poles.

Bend the wire in half, measure, and markthe contact wire to locate the middle earbetween the two span wires.

Pull the contact wire taut from the last spanwire and hold it with flat weights (like thebricks shown here) so as not to kink it.

Solder the middle ear in place then split thedistance to either side and add additionalears as you can see on the rear track.

Make a hook in one end of a pulloff wire andslip through the eyelet. Center the ear abovetrack and twist the pulloff around backbone.

Ears on single track as in the previous photo need only the eyelet onthe outside of the curve. On double track, the outer track’s ears needboth eyelets as they serve as pulloff anchors for the inner track.

Split the distance between the middle ear and the span and solder onthe other ears. Fine-tune the location of the contact wire by running acar underneath and adjusting pulloffs.

Heavy wire

CROSSOVER HANGER

Above: Bend up the wire ends,insert them into the frog, andpull taut. Below: Using pulloffs,offset the contact wire about 1⁄8"and slightly angle the frogtoward the diverging route.

Cut both wires at the intersec-tion, bend the ends up, installthe hanger, then pull the wirestaut and solder.

DOUBLE-TRACK S CURVES

Hanging the contact wire for the double track Scurve near Reservoir requires following the

sequence shown in the drawing. Start on the outsideof the curve at the straight section (A) on the diagram.Begin with the outside wire and hang it up to point B.You then need to hang the inside wire from point A topoint C. Finish the curve by installing the original wirebetween section B to C.

TURNOUTS AND CROSSINGS

Just as turnouts and crossings require special track-work, so they require special fittings for the contact

wire. Turnouts require a “wire frog,” and there’s a specialpivoting hanger for crossovers. I used the wire frog andcrossover hanger from O’Toole.

The trolley wheel is guided through the frog by thethree rails on its underside. Because the model frog is auniversal design suitable for left, right, or wye turnouts,careful adjustment of pulloff wires as shown is critical.

After installing a frog run a car through the turnout.Don’t be discouraged if the trolley pole initially dewires.You may find that the side of the frog kicks the wheeloff the wire, or that the pole takes one route while thecar takes the other. Just keep toying with the adjust-ments until the trolley wheel glides through the turnout.

Start by hanging the contact wire through thestraight route of the turnout. Then hang the contactwire on the diverging route working toward the turnout.When you hang the frog, it’s very important to makesure it’s level and firmly anchored.

As the car follows the divergingroute the trolley wheel pulls tothe side about 1⁄3 of the distancefrom the switch point to the railfrog. Cut the overhead justslightly ahead of this point.

FINAL TIPS AND TESTING

When all the overhead is completed, paint any bareareas of the poles Pullman Green, paint the span

and backbone wires flat black, and secure the indian-bead insulators with a drop of super glue. Roll out a car,raise the pole, and let ’er go. It should glide down thetrack and you may even see a spark or two when itpasses under a hanger, just like the real ones.

If the car doesn’t respond you may have a short,most likely the result of scraps of wire lying across thetrack somewhere. You may also find that the car stalls inspots, likely the result of dirt in the trolley wheel, on thetrack, or along the overhead. Check the rails and clean

with a Bright Boy if necessary. A small piece of extra-fine sandpaper, held between your thumb and forefingerand rubbed under the overhead, will eliminate dirt orgrime from the wire. The sandpaper also works well forperiodically cleaning the trolley wheel.

Thoroughly test the entire layout. This doesn’t haveto be done overnight. I’d suggest you keep checkingand testing as you build the structures. The goal is tohave the layout running perfectly before adding struc-tures and final scenery. As you test, you’ll find areas ofdirty track. Cleaning can be an awkward task with theoverhead in place. I use a cotton swab that I cut in halfand insert into a piece of brass tubing. After soaking thecotton tip in Goo Gone, I scrub away the dirt.

A cotton swab in abrass tube allowsyou to clean trackunder the overhead.

For wye turnout

For right-handturnout

For left-handturnout

Normalcontactwirelocation

Cast rails on undersideguide trolley wheel tocorrect route

ADJUSTING FROGS

Wire frogs are usuallyplaced 1⁄3 the distance frompoint to frog of track turnout

1⁄31⁄31⁄3

LOCATING WIRE FROGS

A1

B1

B2

C2

D2

E1

DOUBLE-TRACK S-CURVESHanging SequenceStep 1: hang contact wire at A1Step 2: hang A1 to B1Step 3: hang C2 to B2Step 4: hang B1 to E1Step 5: hang B2 to D2

Structures give purpose and add scenicinterest to any layout. On mine they arethe setting for much of the action andrefine the focus of the layout’s operation.My structures are a combination of kit

built, kitbashed, and scratchbuilt models. Thetrack plan identifies most of the kits I used – a fewwere old items of unknown origin. In this the finalinstallment of my series on building an HO scalelayout based on the Riverside line of Boston’s MTAtrolley lines, we’ll scratchbuild three signaturebuildings of the line, build a couple subway sta-tions, and add some finishing details.

ScratchbuildingKit structures are great for relatively quickly

building a city, but there’s a danger that the layoutwill lack specificity. A few scratchbuilt buildingsthat are readily identifiable as belonging to yourrailroad or characteristic of it will allow viewers torecognize the scene as being “just like the proto-

type” even though most of the buildings aregeneric. For that reason I scratchbuilt the threebuildings at Riverside – the passenger station,maintenance shed, and power substation – shownin fig. 1.

If you’ve never tried scratchbuilding, believingit to be overly involved, you’ll find that it’s not dif-

A few easy scratchbuiltbuildings firmly root the layout in the prototype

By Harvey J. SimonPhotos by the author

6

Structuresand final

details

Station

ficult if you start with some simple projects likethese. Scratchbuilding does require planning andthought, but that’s part of the fun, and you’ll derivesome satisfaction just from the effort of research-ing and then modeling a particular prototype.

None of my three buildings are exact scalereplicas. All were compressed and modified to fit

the available areas on my layout. I began by takingphotographs like those in fig. 1 and drawing sim-ple sketches.

Station wallsRiverside station’s walls are a combination of

concrete block and brick. I used vacuum-formed

To give his layoutspecificity, Harveyscratchbuilt thethree buildings atRiverside based onthe prototypes.

Fig. 1 RIVERSIDEPROTOTYPES. TheRiverside stationtoday serves the con-necting bus lines.The maintenanceshed had to bemuch-condensed tofit on the layout. Thesubstation has twolarge transformers.Harvey used just oneon his model.

Maintenance shed Substation

sheet stock from Plastruct for the brick and blockand mounted it to a subwall of plain Evergreen.030" sheet styrene. The doors are from GrandtLine. All you really need to work with styrene area steel straightedge and a sharp blade in yourhobby knife.

After gathering the necessary parts, I paintedthem to remove the plastic shine. I used PollyScale Undercoat Light Gray for the concrete block,Polly Scale Roof Red for the brick, and FloquilCoach Green for the doors.

Using my photos and sketches, I laid out thewalls to the dimensions shown in fig. 2 and drewin the locations of the brick. To get the step at thetransition from concrete block to brick, the bricksheet is mounted to an additional layer of .080"styrene. I made the cutouts for the front and backdoors by making several light passes with theknife, applying more pressure with each succes-sive cut. This technique produces clean, sharpedges. The opening should be the width of the

door, not the frame, as the doors actually sit on thesurface of the subwall. For that reason I also leftpart of the wall in place behind the lower portionof the doors. It can’t be seen and adds rigidity tothe whole structure.

Trim the upper transom window off the frontdoor and the single transom from the rear door,then glue the doors to the subwalls as shown. Nowglue the cinder block and brick sections to the sub-walls, except for the end columns on the front andrear walls.

AssemblyNow glue the four walls together to form the

building shell. Add Plastruct 1⁄8"-square rod at eachcorner for reinforcement and use a small square tokeep the walls at 90 degrees until the glue sets.Now cut the brick for the end columns so it alsocovers the edges of the side walls and glue in place.

I now brushed a very thin wash of the samegray I used for the concrete across all the walls.

The doors should beglued to the surfaceof the subwall, notset into it.

Plastruct 1⁄8"-squarerod adds strength tothe corner joints.

Harvey left that partof the subwallbehind the doorfilled in for strength.

Fig. 2 RIVERSIDESTATION

FRONT

HO scale

Brick Cinder block

Door, Grandt Line 5165

Brick

Brick

Cinder blockBrick

BACK

Brick BrickCinder block Cinder block

Door, Grandt Line 5156

SIDES

Brick

Add brick atcorners after assemblyto cover side walls

ASSEMBLY

.030"subwall

.080" shims under brick

1⁄8"-square rod

Cement brick andcinder block sheetto subwall

ILLUSTRATIONS BY KELLIE JAEGER

The idea is to lightly cover the walls with this mix-ture so that the paint settles into the grout lines. Irecommend testing on a piece of scrap brick first.If your mix has too much paint you’ll hide thecolor of the brick. When the consistency is cor-rect, the mix seeks out the grout lines leaving arealistic look, and the small amount on the sur-face of the brick and concrete blocks creates aslightly weathered look. I finished the walls byweathering with a light India ink and alcoholwash. Again you may wish to test this on a scrapbefore applying to the finished model.

The hip roof was a bit of a challenge to develop.However, you can just use the drawings in fig. 3.The roof base is .030" styrene with a 1⁄2" square x11⁄2" block of balsa glued dead center. The balsamust be tapered to support the roofing. In theoryyou can just glue the roof pieces to each other, butI found the balsa support really handy.

Cut the roof pieces from Plastruct shingle sheet-stock and glue as shown. I found it difficult to

mate the pieces exactly, so to hide the joints Iapplied strips of .015" x .020" styrene at the joints.I then painted the roof Polly Scale SP LetteringGray and weathered it with the India-ink wash.

I added gutters, downspouts, and a vent tocomplete the roof. The gutters are Northeastern1⁄16" channel stock painted Polly Scale B&M Blueinstalled just below the shingles with WalthersGoo. The downspouts are .039" piano wire bent tofit. I also added a water meter made from scrapstyrene with wire conduit. The station sign isWalthers lettering decals on a piece of styrenepainted flat black.

Finally, I mounted the building on a piece of 1⁄8"plywood painted and weathered to simulate con-crete in the same manner as my sidewalks.

Maintenance shedThe maintenance shed also is based on the pro-

totype, although not from my period. The proto-type was built in the ’80s and it’s so familiar to

Because the shingle stock leaves small gaps at thejoints, Harvey filled them with styrene strips.

Harvey used a balsa block in the middle of the roof baseto support the shingle stock during gluing.

Side view HO scaleFig. 3 ROOF

End template

Side template

6"

3-3/16"

9/16"

Base template

Trim along the bottom ofthe mural then around theoutline of the buildings.

modern riders I felt it helped set the scene. (How-ever, as I mentioned in Part 1 I’m rethinking thatchoice as I become more prototypically fussy.) Ifyou compare the model in the lead photo to theactual building in fig. 1, you can see how I back-dated it by replacing the modern T logo with theolder MTA symbol (reproduced at the left).

To simulate the concrete exterior I used 3⁄64"sheet basswood that’s milled to resemble corru-gated sheet metal. I laminated it to 1⁄8" sheet bass-wood subwalls for stiffness. When gluing thelayers together be sure to apply pressure – a coupleof bricks work great – to form a strong bond. Fig-ure 4 gives the dimensions of my model. The pro-totype has many more bays, and if you have roomadding one or two more would help capture thefeel of the prototype. I painted the basswood lighttan to look like concrete, then weathered it with anIndia-ink wash.

Since this shed has a partially visible interior, Iadded pipes, a ladder, a no-smoking sign, and

other odds and ends inside. Your scrap box prob-ably contains enough stuff for modeling thesekinds of details. I made the shed’s gravel roof usingtechniques from a Mike Tylick article. It’s simply apiece of cardboard, laminated to stripwood to pre-vent warping. Paint the top black, add a thin layerof white glue, then dust it with a mix of WoodlandScenics Gray, Light Gray, and Cinders N scale bal-last. The subtle variations in color and the realistictexture look much better than when I’ve usedpainted sandpaper.

SubstationThe power substation completes the scene and

is simple to model. I used Evergreen styrene asshown in fig. 5. I included a door and window forvisual interest, but what makes this building standout is the transformer and chain link fence. Theactual substation (fig. 1) has two transformersadjacent to each other, but there wasn’t enoughroom on the layout for both.

Door GrandtLine 5058

Fig. 5 SUBSTATION

All four sides samedimensions, only onewith door and window

Roof edgingfits over walls

Evergreenstyrene 4527

Evergreenstyrene4530

WindowGrandt Line5010

1/2 HO scale

Fig. 6 PHOTOMURAL.As with any aerosol,use spray adhesiveonly in a well venti-lated area, preferablyoutdoors.

Mount the mural away fromthe edges. Roll from the cen-ter out to remove all bumps.

The added relief givenby mounting the pho-tomurals on foam corereally adds to therealism. Plywood base

Fig. 7 CITY STREETS Structure

Sidewalk(.060" styrene)

Joint compoundpaving on road

1⁄16" x 1⁄8" frame

Fig. 4 MAINTENANCE SHED

SIDE VIEW (back side has no door or emblem)

Line pole Line pole1⁄16" x 1⁄8" cap 1⁄16" x 1⁄8" cap

DoorGrandt Line 5158

END VIEW

Overhead wire

1/2 HO scale

.40" corrugated siding (basswood)over 1⁄8" plywood substructure

Urban planningScratchbuilding the structures for Riverside

was a reasonable project, but I wasn’t going toattempt to re-create downtown Boston – even withselective compression. To capture the city struc-tures without going crazy, I used some kitsstraight from the box, did a little kitbashing, andassembled a lot of DPM wall sections.

Accommodating the subway stations prettymuch shaped the rest of the scene. The area overthe curve between Arlington station and the tun-nel, Boston Commons, and the Union Station areaare all built on removable platforms of 1⁄2" plywoodfor access to the track. The rest of the city is alsobuilt on an elevated plywood base.

I developed the city scene using cardstock foot-prints I made to match a number of kits I intendedto build, as well as several buildings from earlierlayouts. After experimenting with differentarrangements, a particular configuration finallyclicked and everything seemed to fall into place.

PhotomuralsWith the major buildings located, I now deter-

mined the position for the photomural backdropsI wanted to use. These are actual photos of thePittsburgh skyline (Boston wasn’t offered) and Ithink they look more realistic than other commer-cial backdrops.

Making the backdrop is very easy. I mountedthe murals on 1⁄4" foam core using a spray adhesive.This process can get a little messy so I worked out-side, as shown in fig. 6. Don’t try to mount themurals squarely; you can trim them accuratelylater. After mounting them, I cut off the bottomand removed the sky portion by following the out-line of the buildings using a steel rule and a utilityknife. I needed to change blades twice in order tokeep a sharp edge. I then painted the edge of thefoam core flat black. I installed the scenes againstmy sky-blue wall with double-stick tape. Be carefulhere – the tape is very strong and you have onlyone shot to get it right.

Fig. 8 SUBWAY STATIONS.Tile walls, advertisingposters, a newsstand, andlots of figures replicate the hustle andbustle ofcity lifein thesubwaystops.

Fig. 9 ROCK WALLS.Harvey gently crum-pled aluminum foilto represent the rockface of the subwaytunnels and alsobetween the top ofthe subway stations’tile walls and thestreet level.

Scale: 1⁄2" = 1'-0"12" grid

BOSTON

BROOKLINE

RIVERSIDE

Station

Park StreetStationArlington Station

Reservoir StationDynaModel Products passenger station no. 2

Reservoir car barn(DPM components)

0"

0"

4"

4"

5.5"

Maintenance shed

Power stationMagnuson Union Station

Plastruct I-beams

Magnuson Kalmbach Publ.

Mainline & Siding triple deckers

Walthers Merchant’s Row 3

Design PreservationModels components

Walthers Merchant’s Row 1

Magnuson White Tower restaurantDPM brownstones

JL Innovative Pickard Motors

Fine Scale MinaturesRoadside Delights gas station and diner

Magnuson Water St.

Magnuson Victoria Falls townhouses

Magnusonkitbashedstorefronts

Magnuson Victoria Fallshotel kitbash

Magnusonkitbash

Polatheater City Classics kitbash

Walthers Merchant’sRow 2 kitbashed

City Classicskitbash

Magnuson Victoria Falls hotel

DPM components

Fig. 10 PARKDETAILS. It’s the lit-tle things, like theguy photographinghis girlfriend, thatbring a scene to life.

Sidewalks and roadsWith the backdrop installed I double-checked

the position of the buildings, then drew in the side-walks. I next removed the buildings and drew thesidewalk patterns on tracing paper. After transfer-ring the patterns to .060" styrene, I cut them out.

Before installing the sidewalks I paved theroads with a thin layer of joint compound asshown in fig. 7. After the compound hardened Isanded and feathered the edges, painted them alight gray, and weathered them with pastel chalks.Finally I glued down the sidewalks, painted andweathered them, and added the buildings.

Subway stopsThe subway stops, like Park Street station in

fig. 8, are my personal favorites. I began byinstalling tunnel liners made from aluminum foilas shown in fig. 9. I also used the foil along theedge of the city base above the walls to give a senseof the ground separating the station from thestreets above it.

I used Evergreen’s 1⁄12"-square tile sheet styreneto represent the subway walls. That works out toabout 7"-square tiles in HO scale. I cut the sheetsto shape (you’ll need to match your specific lay-out) and sprayed with a gray primer. After a dayor so, I brush-painted them with Floquil Mud,then added a light India-ink wash for weathering.This toned the color down and nicely highlightedthe grout lines.

The color advertisements are from ClassicSigns, Ltd. I used two sets, one of signs from the1950s and the other signs of the ’50s and ’60s. Icemented each sign to cardboard using sprayadhesive and framed them with 2 x 4 scale strip-wood that I’d prepainted aluminum. To finish thewalls I applied a route map and system logo –reprinted next to the caption in fig. 8.

Other details I added to Park Street stationinclude a token booth scratchbuilt from styrene, anewsstand and shoe shine area from an old FineScale Miniatures kit, turnstiles scratchbuilt fromsprues, and throngs of commuters coming and

going. Don’t be worried about over-detailing –Park Street is always busy.

Boston CommonsThe Boston Commons and Public Garden is the

city’s major urban park and I wanted it on the lay-out to help identify the city. The sidewalk andwalking paths in fig. 10 are .060" styrene. The land-scaping is composed of Woodland Scenics groundfoam in various colors and textures with a varietyof trees. Equally as important as the vegetation aredetails such as people sitting on benches, awrought iron fence (N scale), people walking theirdogs, and a fellow taking pictures of his girlfriendunder a tree. If you’re really ambitious you couldadd a pond and Boston’s famous swan boats.

Details, details, detailsOne of the real advantages of building a small

layout is the level of completion you can achieve.In the effort to get a large layout built and operat-ing, the little things that make it pop – like the

geese on the reservoir – are often neglected. Mod-estly sized layouts allow you to included these fin-ishing touches without the task seeming to requireyour entire adult life.

At a minimum, plan on including vehicles andfigures that add vitality to any scene. But also con-sider putting in street signs, store front awnings,window curtains, litter, telephone booths, animals,fire hydrants, park benches, fences, billboards, androof vents, and anything else that helps tell thestory of the scene. As fig. 11 shows, detailing is anongoing process, one that can last for years.

Final thoughtsI’ve had a wonderful time building the layout

and sharing my story with you. I hope many ofyou will give traction a try. Just remember to thinksmall. What I thought would take a year tookalmost four instead. But now that it’s finished Ican finally say, “I did it. I completed a layout.” Soget going on yours. The ride is thrilling and thefinal destination even better. Enjoy! 1

Fig. 11 DETAILS.You can always addnew details. Usingan idea from Workin’on the Railroad inthe April 1999MODEL RAILROADER,Harvey added thesepennants to the car dealership.

Parts list

Builders in Scale604 chain link fence

Classic Signs Ltd. P. O. Box 1073San Carlos, CA 94070-9998P50O posters and signs

early ’50sP501 posters and signs

’50s and ’60s

DQCI704 Second Ave.Pittsburgh, PA 15219704-01 Pittsburgh skyline704-02 Pittsburgh skyline

Evergreen 110 .015" x .020" strip4502 1⁄12"-square tile 4527 metal-siding

.060" spacing4530 metal siding

.125" spacing

9030 .030" 6" x 12" sheet 9080 .080" 6" x 12" sheet 9260 .060" 11" x 14"

Grandt Line 5010 60" x 120" roundhouse

window5058 frame door with transom5156 double door with iron

shutters5165 storefront door and

window set

K&S Engineering497 .039" music wire

Kibri 9922 transformer

Model Power548 iron fence

Northeastern Scale Models5012 1⁄16" channel

70183 1⁄16" x 1⁄8" strip wood70424 .40" corrugated siding

Plastruct90351 1⁄8"-square ABS rod91611 brick styrene sheet91620 concrete-block

styrene sheet91630 asphalt shingles

Polly Scale404082 Roof Red414134 Undercoat Light Gray414179 SP Lettering Gray414245 B&M Blue

Walthers934-806108 no. 8 white

railroad gothic lettering

Woodland Scenics74 Light Gray75 Gray76 Cinders

Dream it. Plan it. Build it.

Big-time railroading on a club layout

Expand your layout in just 4 weeks!Add a new industrial district to your railroadHow to install DCC sound, page 64plus programming tips, page 74

September 2008 • www.ModelRailroader.com

• Scratchbuild a rural overpass• Add fl agmen to your freight operations

• LANDMARK LAYOUT: The up-to-date Utah Belt• Modeling streetcars and interurbans

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Track plan for a short line

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