Working On The Railroad

Last February the East Broad Top Railroad was sold to a non-profit with plans to restart operations that had been suspended since 2011. This non-profit, the East Broad Top Foundation, Inc, is closely aligned with the Friends of the East Broad Top. The railroad survives today in large part due to the restoration efforts of the FEBT, although their relationship has not always been close. With the formation of the East Broad Top Foundation the FEBT is now an integral part of the future of the railroad.

The FEBT has been doing restoration work at the historic shops complex for many years. I was a part of the crew that was involved in the work done on the car shop many years ago, but it had been a while since my last trip. But when the news came out that the railroad once more had a chance of survival I had to be a part of it. So, on June 11th and 12th I made my first trip back up to Rockhill since the early 2000's to join in the volunteer restoration work .

This is my second foray in as many months to the EBT. Last month I worked with the window crew cutting and installing glass into restored window sashes. At least one of those sashes, for the freight house, was old enough that it was not assembled with nails. The pieces had been fitted and formed to be assembled with wooden pegs instead. All of the window sashes had to be carefully repaired before new glass could be installed, with some of them being completely rebuilt.

The sashes were then primed to prepare them for paint and the outsides of the windows were painted, and that is where we left them at the end of the work session.

This past week was supposed to be the family beach week in Myrtle Beach, but due to covid and the acquisition of a new puppy we opted not to go this year. I did take the week off, but we worked on the house instead of going somewhere for vacation. But then I got a special treat. Sunday, August 2 was my birthday, and for a present my lovely wife paid for the hotel so I could go back to Rockhill for the August 1 and 2 work session.

This session we installed three of those restored sashes into the Freight Office. This is one of the final phases of the restoration on that structure. The windows had been covered with plywood blanks to keep the majority of the weather out. On Saturday the blanks were removed and the newly restored windows test-fitted.

Photo by Matthew Malkiewicz

Once they had been shimmed and adjusted to fit their respective holes they were painted. On Sunday we took the freshly painted windows over and installed them into the two corner windows, but the shutter covered windows needed a bit more work.

The shutters covered a blank frame that had been built to fill a hole in the wall. The original frame had rotted away so badly that it would barely hold the shutters, but during previous restoration work that had been corrected. Properly sized sashes were rebuilt for this purpose, but before we were able to install them sliders had to be built to hold them.

First outer frames had to be built and installed, which wouldn't have been such a difficult thing except that they had to be notched to clear the shutters.

Once that was done slider pieces had to be built to retain the sashes in the frame. The sashes were then test fitted and shimmed. With that complete they were painted in preparation for installation.

The sliders were installed, then the entire window frame was painted. Since the paint was still wet at the close of business Sunday the sashes could not be permanently installed, but everything is ready to be finished up in two weeks when the railroad officially re-opens for business.

Unfortunately I will miss that event, but I am excited at the prospect of the steam engines running again next year. I will certainly be present when that happens.

Man Down

Last annual checkup the doc let me know that I was herniated. Yay me. So a week ago last Monday I went and had it fixed. For the last week and a half I've been recovering from that, and let me tell you it's no fun. I was convinced for the first couple of days at least that it would have been less painful to keep the hernia. It's getting better now, but it is going to be a few more days yet before I'm ready to go back to work.

So what have I been doing in the meantime you may ask?

First, I finished the second of my Nn3 T-TRAK modules. The trackwork had been finished and bulletproofed and the dock itself was built, what it needed was scenery. I had gotten the basic mountain done and I had built the shack, but it needed trees and finish work. The outhouse, trees, shrubbery, talus and people were all installed and then the module was cleaned and finished. I think it turned out really good.

The railings and dock workers were the finishing touches that the module really needed. Now I have two corners and a pair of singles with the Nn3 curving off to the back that will finish the narrow gauge loop to complete and then perhaps the whole collection can be taken to a show or two.

I also got some building done on my narrow gauge rail cars. I had purchased a bunch of them in anticipation of the closing of Republic Locomotive Works; Marshall (the owner) had expressed an intent to retire at the end of 2019 but apparently everyone else decided it was time to put in an order at the same time I did. He ended up having a great year and decided to hang around for a while. That is a good thing, but that meant I had a bunch of rail cars to build before I can put in another order (the East Broad Top had a lot of hoppers).

 The above picture is the fruit of my labors in that respect. Along with my regular order I got a bunch of stuff that I didn't order, mostly defective castings that I suspect came from the scrap bin at RLW that Marshall was throwing in with the orders to clean out his bins and also to give his customers some scratchbuilding materials. So along with the boxcars, hoppers, flat car and caboose that I did order I got a couple of boxcars that I didn't order that just needed some holes filled and truck bolsters rebuilt, and I also got a tank that I decided to put on a flat car.

The East Broad Top did have such a tank car, built out of flat car 116. As has become standard for my building style this is not an exact copy of that prototype, but it captures the flavor of the original. Since this photo was taken the tank has been painted silver and the car has been decaled so it looks a lot better in my opinion. It is a welcome addition to my fleet. The flat cars aren't prototype for the EBT either, but...yeah, close enough.

Then I decaled the whole lot, starting with the caboose. I already had 28 so I turned this one to 27. I finished the flat car and the tank car, then I did three of the five boxcars before finally calling it a day. I finished the other two box cars the next day, and now I can concentrate on the hoppers.

My medical vacation will be finishing up soon, I hope, but before I have to go back to work I'm hoping to finish up the coal hoppers I have in the build and then decal some of the ones I already have built for the rock trade. There are ten of those, some are fully decaled, some are partially decaled, and some are not decaled at all. The decals available from RLW do not have the labels for the rock cars, but fortunately the Friends of the East Broad Top sell some in the company store that do. I just got in a few decal sets from the FEBT, so I'll be able to finish up the ROCK decals now.

As for coal hoppers, I have six on the work table right now. The RLW hopper kits consist of a top cast in resin and a bottom frame with attached dumps in white metal. Of the six, three have had their resin tops sanded and fitted to the white metal bottoms with end platforms built and three more sanded and fitted to the bottoms with the end platforms left to build. I also have three more that are still in their package and three more on the way. I should have enough trucks and couplers for the first six but since I have more boxcars than I had planned it's probably about time to take inventory and order some more trucks and couplers. I also need to buy some brake cylinders to fit to the end platforms, something that I overlooked when I put in my initial order.

That should keep me busy until I get back to work.

Eastie Rides Again

The East Broad Top is back!

Another Locomotive Project

One of the problems in modeling Nn3 is the lack of RTR equipment. There are a few mostly Colorado prototype locomotives but for the East Broad Top everything has to be built.

Building an Nn3 locomotive usually involves starting with a Marklin chassis. In the case of the surviving EBT Mikados the 8827 Class 41 Marklin Mikado is a good starting spot, the drivers are a touch too small but with the oversize flanges the dimensions are about right. The same chassis is used for all the Mikados, and a kit is available for them through Republic Locomotive Works.

Since some of their earlier 2-8-0 locomotives were standard designs also shared by the western roads there are kits available to build them as well, and with the new PowerMax chassis you can find kits for Brill Motorcar M1 and the dinky locomotives also owned by the road. Some of the existing Marklin chassis can also be used to create the road's Mogul and ten-wheeler locomotives as well. There is one, however, that is a bit more difficult.

This is East Broad Top locomotive 11. It is a Prairie 2-6-2 locomotive and was the road's first wide firebox loco. The design was so successful that the railroad used it as the pattern for their six existing Mikado locomotives, essentially just adding another set of drivers and extending the trailing truck a bit. I have long wanted to build this locomotive but have been unable to decide how to go about it. The choices seemed to be shortening a Mikado chassis, something that I didn't feel my modeling skills to be equal to, or modifying a Marklin 8803 Mogul chassis to accept a different motor, also beyond my skills. However, there did seem to be an alternative...

This is the Marklin 8806 chassis. I first saw this locomotive on the popular online auction site but didn't have any dimensional information for it. At first glance it looked to be a promising start, the drivers appeared to be the same as the 8827 chassis and the motor is horizontal rather than vertical as it is on the 8803 chassis. However, I had problems finding one that was in a price range I felt comfortable about taking apart for a donor chassis.

And then...one came up. No box so collectors weren't interested in it, so it was had for a bit over a C note, which is about what an 8827 chassis goes for. A few clicks of the mouse and it was on its way.

When it arrived the disassembly began apace:

Once the lid was off the mechanism looked even more promising. The motor is a bit long, but the large cab of the EBT prototype should cover it adequately. There was a light board at the back of the locomotive and the frame extended back to support it, but it looks as if the chassis can be cut off aft of the rear motor mount without too many problems. The solid bottom of the motor mount platform can be filed flat as well to get rid of the arches, and the whole thing should be covered by the bottom of the cab.

With the light boards and leading and trailing trucks removed the chassis looks even more promising. The front of the locomotive is actually going to be more problematic than the back. The cylinders are going to have to go right in front of the drivers and they are mounted on a solid bar. The two options are to cut the top of the chassis flush with the front driver edge or file the bottom of the chassis in front of the drivers up to mount the bar underneath. Either way the front of the chassis is going to have to be cut away more than the rear.

The only other issue I can see is the front motor mount. It stretches the width of the locomotive and it looks like its going to hit the bottom of the boiler just forward of the cab. I am hopeful that it can be disguised behind air piping and whatnot under the running boards. At any rate I don't think it will be an insurmountable obstacle.

So all in all it looks like my prospects of having this locomotive on my roster one day is promising.

I've Been Remiss

This came in a couple of weeks ago, but I haven't yet had the time to look at it, much less build it.

I did, of course, open the box for a quick peek and it looks like it's going to be a fun build. There is enough interior to detail it if I want to and metal castings for benches and such.

Now I just need a good place on a layout to put it.

Incoming

I just got word today that my reserved Nn3 model of Orbisonia Station has shipped. It should be here sometime next week. This has been a long-awaited project and it is likely to be a single-shot due to the general lack of interest, which is sad, but at least it did get done.

When it arrives, work schedule and personal life permitting, I will document the build.

I just hope I can do it justice.

Orbisonia Station

Republic Locomotive Works finally has enough orders to produce Orbisonia Station, circa 1935. This is good news for the EBT fans who want a model of the station and don't quite have the modeling skills to scratch build.

Check it out at the Republic Locomotive Works webpage.