Building a Grade Crossing using Styrene Sheet...

Well over the last two days I decided to tackle a concrete grade crossing that forms part of the scenery on the L&T.  This grade crossing is formed in a crossover formed by two #6 PECO turnouts.  I have used styrene with great success with the JL&T module and decided to use again for this grade crossing.

The difficult part that was concerning me was trying to form the styrene strips so that they would fit in between the rails, form naturally around the guard rails and would look prototypical.  Also I wanted to make this as painless as possible and not be tweaking them for hours to get them to fit, the plan was to make templates once and then use them over again when needed.

This is were a little planning and thinking before doing has paid off in spades.  When I was looking at how to achieve the templates my initial idea was to stencil the tracks onto some tracing paper, then transfer this onto the styrene to form the template.  Then it occurred to me and I had one of those great moments, PECO have on their website some very accurate stencils that can be used when laying track work or designing track arrangements.

My idea was to cut out the sections of the template and then glue these onto the styrene and use these as master templates.  I had to mark the PECO template with enough clearance in between the inner rail and the styrene/concrete form so that the truck wheels ran through without grabbing.  The styrene crossing was formed using two thicknesses of sheet.

The first series of strips is 0.75mm these are cut to a width of 12mm and are placed in between the inner rails, and in between the tie plate details.  Then another sheet of 1.0mm thickness is added on top, this then places the crossing just under the top of the rail.  This allows the track to be cleaned with a track cleaning block and not take any of the paint or weathering off the crossing itself.

The 0.75mm packing strip installed & the 1.0mm Top Strip ready to be installed...

Once the packing strip was installed I test fitted the top strip to ensure that there was clearance for the wheel flanges passing between the strips and the inner rail edge.  Once this was all good I then glued down the top strip to the packing strip, care has to be taken that you get perfect alignment before the two pieces of styrene touch.  Once the two pieces contact each other with the CA there is no time to re-align things if needed.

First piece installed and ready to be tested with a piece of rolling stock...

Checking the flange clearance through the grade crossing...

The next series of pieces to be installed were the diverging route, straight section of unloading siding and the small section in between the two turnouts.  These sections went really well and I suspect that this was because the templates were a better fit than first one, they only required minimal trimming and the clearances were much better.

Straight siding installed, packing strips installed in between turnouts ready for the top piece...

All rail top pieces installed and cork road bed installed and ready for styrene road surface...

All installed and ready for painting and weathering...

Showing the finished level of the grade crossing finishing just below the top of the rail...

Overall this has been a great and fulfilling project to complete, not only because I found a workable solution and fairly easy method of cutting and installing the section.  But because it also marks the start of more scenery for the L&T albeit the current crop of structure.

The next stage will involve finishing off the remaining loading dock area and the metal fabrication siding to the right of the grade crossover.  When this is finished it will be time to paint and weather the crossing and rails, I will do another blog post for this.

Hope you all enjoyed this and get something out of it, and as always look forward to your comments and questions.

Cheers,

Jas...

Another structure nearly completed for the L&T...

Couple of quick photos of the progress made tonight, will do a more detailed run down later (it's early hours in the morning)...

The overall background building...

Building roofs and how they are transitioned against the backdrop...

New curved turnout installed, and another building ready to be rail served...

More to follow shortly as I detail the build.

Jas...

Next Structure for the L&T begins Construction...

Well I had another good couple of hours the other day to make a start on the third structure for the L&T.  This structure needs to be completed so that I can begin and complete all of the scenery in the corner that is at the start of the L&T and tot he right of the JL&T module.

To be able to progress with the scenery I need to complete this section.  This structure also forms part of the "hiding" of the entrance hole through the backdrop from the JL&T centre peninsula to the JL&T module.  The structure itself will form part of the Appliance Manufacturing Plant.

I have decided to add a single car siding to this structure as well, after getting the bulk of the structure in place the area supports it quite well.  And I did want to have a siding here too, there will only be single 50' boxcar unloading into this siding.

The entrance from the west side of the centre peninsula onto the L&T branch, the switch will be operated via a Tortoise...

The building will have a truck loading dock to the left...

Shot showing the entrance from the centre peninsula into the JL&T module...

Cheers,

Jas...

Cladding Finished, Details to go...

Hi All,

Well today I had a little time to finish the cladding for the metal fabrication plant.  The last remaining cladding has been installed along with the roof sheets, capping and side corner capping.

Roof sheeting & ridge capping installed...

Ridge line and roof sheet profile...

​Overall shot of the plant with cladding & roof complete...

​Cheers,

Jas...

Metal Fabrication & Stamping Plant

Hi all,

Well today as part of broadcasting the JL&T via webcam streaming I decided to make a start on building the Metal Fabrication Plant for the Appliance Manufacturing Company.

This building is just a background relief building, that serves the small siding that will unload gondola's containing raw sheet metal in coils.  Due to the tight space I decided to build this out of Evergreen Styrene, however I needed some way of making the structure rigid enough and not prone to breaking easily if removed.

So the idea came to use a piece of plywood for the internal part of the structure and skin it with styrene, this allows the structure to be removed at anytime, and it would also be quite sturdy.

The base is a piece of 19mm (3/4") plywood...

The next step was to cut out an opening that would allow the travelling crane to traverse back into the structure from the outside unloading siding.  I also had to cut it out so that any of the plywood cannot be seen when looking through the opening.

Showing the entrance & opening for the traveling crane...

Once this was cut it was time to measure and install the metal siding, the siding in Evergreen "Metal Siding" and is glued onto the plywood with latex caulk, the same I use to install the roadbed for the track work.

The sheets of Metal Siding cut to fit the opening for the traveling crane...

The siding covers each side of the plywood so that you cannot see the plywood through the opening.  Depending on the effectiveness of the whole scene and depth, I may actually cut into the backdrop and frame to increase the depth of the internal scene.

Taken from an angle to show how the styrene covers the internal plywood base...

Front and right side siding installed, roof and left side siding to go...

Shot showing the corner flashing detail, and the plywood base before the roof is installed...

The building to date...

More to follow of the next week...

Jas...