Wordless Wednesday HBS non revenue

Courtesy of Tim Stuy from his collection

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HBS 701 at Bethlehem Shipyard 27 August 1960

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HBS 701 27 August 1960 14th Street Yard

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HBS Track Plan 2013

From Department of Planning, R.O.W. Division, PoNY RR

More information is coming out of th PoNY Planning Department this evening. An initial pass at the HBS track plan gives us a pretty good idea of where they are heading. Looks like the planning document from yesterday was followed pretty closely. Notable differences include a larger single dock extension at the Holland America docks at lower left. Lipton Tea has been moved (obviously some cleanup work is needed on the overlapping tracks), and the Seatrain pier has been re-oriented a bit. The Erie yard is looking very doable at this point. Looks like most of the work will be interchange traffic with mainline off of the Weehawken Branch via the RO-RO as seen in the previous bench work drawing as well as several docks to work.

I think the RO-RO could be positioned further down right as the A/D track in the yard, this way the trains that have drops or pick ups could be worked right on the RO-RO. This sounds interesting.

As configured, this means that another (8) 2'x4' dominoes need to be constructed for the center peninsula. More as it develops.

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HBS No 500 Submitted for Printing

The SketchUp! model of the boxcab. After modeling (and correcting, and re-correcting) the file was exported to a Collada file (.DAE). I believe this option is only available in the Pro version of SketchUp! I modeled just the basic shape - I will add the details using brass, styrene, etc. after printing.

I've made the second step towards scratch building the Hoboken Shore no.500 GE/IR boxcab. I sent off the model to Shapeways for 3D printing in a flexible and strong plastic. It took a few attempts to get the model accepted because of wall thickness at a couple of spots on the model. The printer's "resolution" only allows for wall thicknesses .7mm or greater. The rounded roof was originally thinner, but hopefully the printed model won't suffer for being a few tenths of a millimeter thicker than I intended. My latest build is in for manufacturing, and I could still get errors returned from the shop when they actually try to print. If all goes well, I should receive it in a couple of weeks.

From HBS.railfan.net

I worked off of pictures from the excellent HBS.railfan.nethbs.railfan.net website, the Benjamin L. Bernhart book Hoboken Shore Railroad, and Train Shed Cyclopedia No. 43.

From Benjamin L. Bernhart's excellent reference book Hoboken Shore Railroad, 2006

For the details, I plan to model in AutoCad and print on a Makerbot Industries Thing-o-Matic 3D printer. I might need to use Shapeways again if the detail doesn't come out as well as I want with the Makerbot, as Shapeways offers finer grade plastics as well as metal laser sintering in stainless steel or alumide which may yield better results in some cases. I've seen N scale side frames 3D printed to good results, but I'll check if there are any ready-mades that are close. Railings and such will be wire, and I'm thinking the Archer rail car rivet decals for, well, the rivets.

The model after being uploaded to Shapeways.

The plan is to use Northwest Short Lines Stanton drive(s?) to power this 300 h.p. baby boxcab. Choosing a decoder will be interesting, as no one has recorded sounds from a prototype, yet. There is some discussion about which sounds that are available are closest, but it boils down to a normally aspirated 1st generation engine: a Baldwin 608 Na, although I will have some Baldwin switchers in the Erie yards already, or maybe a Galloping Goose is more in the appropriate horsepower range? :)

Any ideas are welcome, as always.

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HBS Mostly Wordless Wednesday

Publicity shot with Bill Billings in the middle locomotive No.500 (Collection of Tim Stuy)

14th Street Yard in some morning sweet light. (This one is taken by Randy Brown in December 1972)

Another publicity shot of the 44 twins. This one was used in the real estate brochure I have from 1955 when Webb & Knapp were trying to sell the railroad. See the top menu for the entire report. (Collection of Tim Stuy)

More from Tim Stuy! Tim is really generous sharing these photos. 

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HBS Photos

14th Street (Coming behind the Stahl Soap Factory, August 1972, from the Jay Held collection)

More from Tim Stuy. The first is a great shot somewhere along 14th street where there are a lot of industries served. The gates are really interesting to me. I'm thinking that operators will need a key to unlock and lock the many industry gates along the line. I'll have to look closely at the maps to see if I can identify from the track and building shapes exactly where it is.

Car float (HBS 701 at the float bridge on October 24, 1964; Rich Taylor photo.)

Next is a signature shot of the care float slip and approach trestle with the Empire State Building in the background. From an excursion trip.

The builder's card for the IR-GE boxcab.

I still need to add some details to my SketchUp model and replace my first 3D print with a completed model. I use Shapeways to print, and the level of detail has gotten fine enough to print rivets. 

Thanks to Tim for letting me post these, and there are more items from him to post later on!

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HBS 701 11 11 1974

Creative Commons Licensing in collection of author.

In front of General Foods at the turnout to the engine house in 1974.

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HBS Benchwork progress

Adding a 4" extension (clamped portion) to make the backdrop modules into benchwork modules.

Without really trying, I accomplished a goal before the end of the year (it wasn't a real deadline or goal, but I'll take the accomplishment as if it were one of those "I'm going to do this before the end of the year" kind of things). I started converting the modules I acquired earlier this year into benchwork for the Hoboken Shore portion of the layout in the main layout room. 

4" extensions clamped (and glued, Tom!) up ready to attach to backdrop modules.

To begin with, I added a 4" extension to make the modules a full 4' long which resulted in a 20"x48" module. I ripped a 4" strip from several 2'x4'x18mm Luan plywood pieces from the local big box home improvement store. The 4" strips were then turned into the 4" extensions in short order and added to the existing backdrop modules.

Existing backdrop on bottom with extension piece to far left and an existing 1'x4' module on top to create a combined 32"x48" benchwork module.

These modified modules were then added to existing 12"x48" modules to create a new 32"x48" module. New legs to put the top of benchwork (TOB) at 50-3/4" above finished floor (AFF). This height was arrived at from my reach experiments on the 149th as these pocket yards are a little deeper than regular 2x4 benchwork dominos. I see it as a compromise from my preferred height that is up around 54" and a lower height that may be more comfortable for shorter operators.

Legs and feet (knees and toes). Adjustable feet in 2x3s.

Something of interest I'm doing is using 2x3s for legs instead of standard 2x2s. At my local big box home improvement store, they only had pine 2x2s and no oak 2x2s which David Barrow uses on the CM&SF. The oak is strong and straight, the pine are a cheaper, inferior, but perfectly useable alternative - except when the only thing left are the dregs that are warped, split and worthless. So in steps the 2x3s that are only about 50 cents more than the 2x2s and a lot cheaper than oak. They are labeled Spruce-Pine and smell pretty good, plus they were really straight and tight-grained and strong. The extra heft is pretty nice (at a very small premium), so I'm going to look to continue using them at this point.

So I managed to convert and install 4-1/2 dominos - I need to make a 12"x48" piece for the last one - and get one entire side of the layout benchwork in. I'm using the 1/4" Luan plywood from the backdrops on the legs to provide a uniform skirt that will cover up a lot of the clutter in the room underneath the layout. Much easier than actually taking care of the stuff is to just hide it in place! The plywood is blue (these were sky backdrops), but I will paint a dark color - perhaps a very dark Erie Green or even black.

Clutter soon to be hidden under the layout. Unfortunately, the "Eastbound Trains" sign (from the Erie's Goshen Station) points to the West.  Not sure where I am going to hang it so that it doesn't confuse operators.

I've got three more backdrop modules to convert and a couple of more 18"x48" modules, which need legs, and then I only need to build a few feet of new benchwork to complete the HBS portion. I'm not planning on laying track here immediately, though. I still want to do another pocket terminal next to start to prove out the idea of having scattered, lightweight and easily moveable yards serviced by car floats to begin with.

149th with new cars indicated by their car cards.

The 149th is sporting some new cars picked up from the annual train show, and it is close to being presentable to visiting operators. I would like to get another yard up before having an official session. I realized that with the regional convention slated to be in Austin in 2014, I should set a goal of having operating sessions for the convention. This means I need to pick up the pace. Deadlines do help move things along...

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HBS Yard Change

Plan showing areas of reconsideration

Proposed changes in track arrangement

Sometimes you have to kill ideas that you hold near and dear. When I started this project, the Erie Railroad held a large portion of the focus with Croxton Yard's being the generator of all the traffic on the layout. The latest plan called for only the Weehawken Yard to provide traffic to the HBS, and in a previous version, I was thinking about replacing Croxton with Jersey City (maybe an expansion over the desk area later?). I've been researching the Erie for several years now, and it still garners a lot of my research efforts, but it may be time for it to go from the main part of my layout. (I still will have Erie and other pocket yards.)

Operating areas

While looking at the space dedicated to each operating job, I noticed that there was going to be an overlap in space if two people were to try to operate the HBS yard. While the Erie Weehawken Yard would have enough space, I am eliminating it in this iteration to concentrate the layout on the HBS. This will allow me to keep the closet, which I can't decide is appealing because I am lazy or because it seems like a good idea to have a closet. Losing the Erie operation is a difficult decision, but the difficulty actually indicates it is the right choice. I will still have an Erie switcher at the interchange.

At this point, I can have 5 operating spots on the layout that are pretty well out of the way of the others. There are two in the yard and three out on the main line. These jobs can be handled by 4-6 operators (two yard and two main line trains of 1 or 2 man crews). I also plan to have one pocket yard just outside the main room with 1-2 operators there. Max 8 spots, but optimal number is 5 operators. From recent experience, finding 5-6 operators is really the most that can be comfortably found on any given night in Austin.

The job duties:

Yard Master - In charge of the railroad. Dispatches industry jobs and assigns duties to Yard Switcher. Handles interchange with Erie, makes up inbound and outbound traffic on east side of the yard.

Yard Switcher - Helps Yard Master as needed, switches 14th Street industries and piers.

Industry Switchers - Load and unload Lackawanna car float as well as serve Bethlehem Steel, Maxwell House and the Docks as needed. I am thinking there will probably be two trips to each area during each session by different people.

Pocket terminal - Operates car float to and from yard. Possibly two trips per session. Pocket terminal will rotate from session to session.

So, with Erie dreams scaled back (at best postponed), I've got some odds and ends to do on the bench work before I can start laying track on the HBS "soon."

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1955 HBS Track Plan

From the HBS Real Estate Report, 1955 in collection of author.

Enlarged view of HBS Yard

This track plan is kind of buried in the HBS Report, so I thought I would post here for Bruce, Mark and all the folks following their Hoboken Shore layout construction at Railroad Line Forums. The enlarged view shows the location of the double slip switches in the conversation. There is a nice post on page three of that thread which has images of a brochure probably from the 60s.

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HBS 701 27 August 1960

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HBS no 500 Shell Arrives

I received a well packaged shipment from Shapeways 3D printing service Monday night as scheduled.

Right off I am both pleased and disappointed with my first Shapeways print job. Overall, this is quite the rush to materialize an object that comes from a personal desire to create it out of thin air. More on the differences of modeling satisfaction later...

Being a little more critical, the roof is rippled with regular lines running lengthwise. This must be do to the resolution coupled with a slightly curved and pitched section. The ends of the roof are just fine, and I can easily sand the ridges flush. I thought I had opted for the polished option, but alas, I did not, so I'm not sure if that would have taken care of the roof or not. As a result, the model is a little chalky, and the polished option is supposed to be silky smooth like a molded plastic part. There is also a little deflection at the bottoms of the long sides which results in a curved bottom edge. I can probably sand this level. Part of the learning curve, this may be due to the length and narrow wall thickness.

Some of the confusion with the polished option occurred because I had to revise my model several times to fit within the tolerances of their equipment and ended up re-ordering several times because of its being rejected when it went to printing. The last time I ordered, I must have forgotten to add the polished option.

Resolution for the material I chose, "White Strong & Flexible", which is PA 2200, a selective-laser-sintered (SLS) process, was listed at .2mm and wall thickness at .7mm. I had modeled the mullions for the windows to the .7mm tolerance, but I found out this doesn't work for unsupported elements. These I will add with the details, which I can actually get printed as separate items, or simply use styrene or brass which will produce better results anyway. The windows and end doors have an inset of about .2mm to test that detail. It seems perfectly acceptable. Walls were modeled at about 1 mm. A different material may yield even better results. The minimum thickness and detail level is very comparable to injection molded locomotive shells. In fact, I think I will beef up the wall thickness on the next one.

I had to remove the mullions from the final version to get it to pass pre-printing inspection.

I opted for the standard plastic material that is "White Strong & Flexible" which is the least expensive at $1.40/cm3. The cost is based on amount of material used, not the overall size of your object, so my total was about $24 for a 4.5" long locomotive shell. There are many other materials you can print with ranging from this basic plastic to stainless steel, an elastic plastic, silver and now even ceramic. I will probably try the "Frosted Ultra High Detail" Multijet Modeling (MJM) material next at about three times the cost, but the resolution is .3mm for the walls with a .1mm tolerance for details. Maximum size is 12x18x15 inches. This is not as strong as the SLS material, but with some increased wall thicknesses, I think a locomotive shell would be just fine. This will allow me to model the roof detail parts on the main model. If this is successful, I will be very excited...

Not to say I am not now. I am thrilled with the project so far mainly because it allows me to take advantage of my virtual 3D modeling skills to create something that is exactly what I draw. This is not always the case when my human hands start cutting styrene or wood. The precision is a seductive element, plus the magic of creating something on a computer screen and having it show up at your door a few days later in physical form is unreal. A very similar (and dopamine induced) feeling as seeing a building I design emerge from the ground into reality. That is the rush a designer works so hard for. 

This process of 3D printing speeds up the satisfaction while reducing some of the pain of physically crafting an object. Because of this, the satisfaction is different than crafting a model by cutting, assembling and painting. Modeling in the computer is a much more intellectually satisfying transformation from concept to realization while the completely hand crafted process is a little less of the intellectual (maybe because the design is usually rendered two dimensionally for assembly purposes rather than three dimensionally with a full realization of form and spatial qualities?) combined with the visceral activity of hand manipulation in scratch building. 

Now there is still plenty to do in hand finishing this particular model, but I imagine this will feel more like detailing a store bought item than truly building something from scratch. Not necessarily a better or worse thing, it is just a difference that is worthy of thinking about.

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Previous HBS Versions

A viewer wrote in this week about his own Hoboken Shore Railroad project, which thrilled me to no end. Always nice to have fellow travelers on a journey. I will be posting some maps and any other stuff I come across over the next few days that might help him in his track planning stages.

So, I thought I'd post probably the least helpful items first (sorry). These previous versions just happened to be the first things I ran across and are for a former house with an 11'-0 x 15'-0 office space that I was going to use for my railroad room. We moved before I could even start, but it was a good exercise.

They are iterations of the same ideas that eventually carried over into the current, larger version. Those ideas are about modeling as much of the entire railroad as possible while trying to follow the geographic twists and turns in general ways. Much of this is accomplished pretty well even in this smaller size, which is a good lesson (something about size not mattering that much?). Another interesting realization gleaned from re-examining these, is that the form factor doesn't matter that much in terms of being able to fit a track plan into this regular shape or my current room configuration.

The constraints are going to occur at the same places - the corners and turnback loops. Straight track on straight bench work is a no-brainer, but working out where the corners fall in a track arrangement is something to really consider. There is probably an article in there about strategies for using corners and turnback loops cleverly. Let me know if anyone writes it before I get around to it...

An interesting note is that the viewer will be using a vertical staging device to replace Weehawken Yard similar to my planning to use one to stand in for Croxton Yard before it gets built out. Great minds, I guess. I'll dig up my vertical staging article from the LDJ at some point as well.

Anyway, more useful items to follow under 'separate cover.'

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Hand drawn HBS plan revisited

 

My First Attempt at a Plan

So I revisited my original plan for my Hoboken Shore Railroad, and I believe I may like it the best. After doing an article on the RO-RO staging device in LDJ38, I very much like the idea that it can act as the connection to Croxton Yard and provide all the Erie Railroad traffic to and from Weehawken Yard. Six foot long trains are plenty long enough for the amount of room I can dedicate to the yard.

I also like the way the track plan mimics many of the twists and turns that the prototype took. The HBS yard has the same curved track as the real railroad that lead around the waterfront to the service yard and Seatrain docks.

I am becoming enamored with the idea of having the Bethlehem Steel facility almost completely modeled on the large bump-out. I have found photos at the Historic American Builds online site that detail a few of the buildings which would make scratchbuilding much easier.

Every spot is accounted for in this plan for the entire railroad, which is one of the things that got me interested in the railroad to begin with. It also has provision for that Dial-A-Yard idea that would allow me to have several other yards.

What to do next

I'll need to work into the plan my office and a guest bed or two somehow. The bench work will be need to be high (50"+) so I can fit desks and beds below. There will probably be bookshelves below, but there is also an opportunity to have a couple of shelves at the ceiling line because of the 9' ceilings. This could provide the foundation for valence and lighting, too.

To progress the plan, I'll start on a SketchUp! model soon. I'm inspired by the work of Alan Cooper, whom I saw a few photos of his SketchUp! work on his own layout from the last convention. Since space is critical, and some innovative solutions will be called upon to solve specific space issues, I don't have any problem spending a good deal of time working up a detailed vitual model first. I might also make a physical model to double-check what kind of clearances and access I will have to the additional functions in the room.

I will post progress on these plan developments...

Original web postings on the LDSIG web site.

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HBS 701 post 1960

HBS 701

Sometime after 1960 with an EL boxcar in tow at a favorite photography spot in front of General Foods.

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HBS 701 Photo

A new old photo of HBS No.701 in front of the General Foods building on the left and the Standard Brands smokestack on the right. The image is from a 616 black and white negative taken on 17 September 1968. The 44 tonner is a couple of decades old by this point and looking pretty good. I wonder if they ever repainted any of their locomotives...

*Edit clarification: The HBS changed the paint scheme on the 44s between 1947 and 1954 (see page 11 of Bernhart's Hoboken Shore Railroad book for original paint scheme). What I am wondering if they did any maintenance on the paint over the ensuing last years of the railroad.

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New HBS Banner

 

Hoboken Shore [model] Railroad banner

I took a few moments to create a banner for the railroad for use in forum signatures. I just wanted to get something out there to start building an identity for the railroad. Ironically, it took a similar form of the later GE 44 tonners paint scheme for #700 and #701 that used yellow lettering over green field. Totally done by accident, but I had just looked at my photo collection that includes images of these locomotives. Careful what you look at - it is going to influence you.

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