Meanwhile, on another part of the layout…

…I started working on the creek behind Dutch Wonderland. It’s January 16 and because Eric cut his hours back to being a part-timer back in April of 2007 and Earl past away in August from cancer, I have my work cut out for me.  Eric’s now working three days a week as opposed to five last year and whether he knows it or not, he’s got a lot of work to do in a short amount of time.  So while he’s in the train repair workshop getting all the motive power cleaned, greased and ready to run come March 15^th (by the way, this is the earliest that Palm Sunday will be in my lifetime!), I’ve decided to get to work on ripping the creek out behind Dutch Wonderland. Our plan is to re-track the HO at Dutch Wonderland and rebuild the Lady Gay riverboat mechanism.  We found that by having the water level in the creek too high, the water actually leached up the side of the creek bed and made the plaster and all the scenic material wet and look really crappy.

So here I am, on top of the display sitting on the scaffolding, chiseling out the fiberglass and plaster creek that’s been in since 1971.  Up until a couple of years ago, we used fiberglass boat resin and fiberglass cloth over plaster to make our creeks.  WHEW!  What a smelling and nasty job that used to be.  Without lots of ventilation, it was really easy to get a “buzz on” while doing this work.  Now, in my younger years, that wasn’t such a bad deal.  Go to work, get high on fiberglass resin fumes, go home!  Of course, I’m not sure how many brain cells I’ve killed, but I really tried not to inhale!!

The plan of attack is to tear a 10-12 foot section of the old creek completely out, do the work on re-tracking the HO at Dutch Wonderland, then put in a new creek.  It’s that simple!  Of course, that’s not counting all the added little bonuses we get into which ALWAYS happens whenever we start some major ripping and tearing of old parts of the layout.  What you have to understand is that when my dad built things, especially in 1971 which was the last huge addition to the overall size of the layout, he wasn’t thinking of what we would be facing 37 years later when we were going to re-build a section.  Drywall screws were only a thing of the future at that time.  So it was nails, nails and more nails, which held things together.  My dad was in the decorating business prior to opening the Choo Choo Barn in 1961 and he laid a lot of Masonite flooring as a subfloor for linoleum and asphalt tile.  So he had this big bucket of what we always called “screw nails”, nails that had ridges all around the nail so it would “pop” when the floor was done.  Take my word for it, “screw nails” are not made to be taken out easily.  He used them everywhere he needed to fasten ½” plywood.

So, once I got the old creek torn out, and the top level of fiberglass off the rest of the creekbed, it was time for Eric to start work on the new creek.  To help with the water level problem, I decided to make a trough for the river boat to float in instead of damming up the water to get the proper depth for the boat to float in.  Here’s a photo of the hole that was made after the creek was torn out.  We ended up with a lot of wires that had to be loosened and/or relocated, which is part of one of the “little bonuses” I spoke of earlier.  The new creek had to be constructed in such a way as to allow my boat mechanism to pull the riverboat back and forth across the water.  I hadn’t even started to think about how I’m going to accomplish that feat except for some rough ideas that I figured wouldn’t work anyway. 

Eric finally got most of the trains ready and came out to work on re-tracking the HO line that is used as the kiddie ride at Dutch Wonderland.  After tearing all of the track out, he cleaned the top of the plywood off with a wood chisel to make a level surface for the new track.  Since I wanted to make the riverboat move ten feet instead of three feet, that meant that the HO line couldn’t cross the creek anymore.  That was all part of the plan anyway because the track work at these points was a place for problems anyway.  At this point, Eric thought it would be a good idea to extend the HO line closer to the Amish barn raising so he could get the proper radius curve for the track.  This also allows for future growth for Dutch Wonderland.  In comes as no surprise that dad used two different thicknesses of plywood on the North side of Dutch Wonderland where it meets the Amish barn raising scene.  Another “little bonus”!  Eric finally did some hacking and got the two plywood levels to match, sort of, at least good enough for government work. 

Once the track was laid and ballasted, and Dutch Wonderland was cleaned, we covered it with some clothes we had for this purpose and moved on to other things.  Eric at this point had to make a new creekbed.  A trip to Home Depot was in order where he bought some good, straight 1X4’s.  We screwed the 1X4’s to the sides of the old super structure that was built in 1971.  This gave us a trough without a bottom to make our new creekbed out of.  We determined how deep we wanted the trough for the new Lady Gay riverboat to float in, calculated how thick the plaster would be for the sub-creek (is that a word?), measured some more odd and obscure stuff and came up with what we though were some good number we could live with.  Eric then bought some small angle brackets at our local hardware store and a sheet of ¼” Masonite.  He screwed the angle brackets to the sides of the new creek bed, cut the masonite to lay on top of the brackets, covered the masonite with good ole’ wax paper, cut screen to fit over the whole mess and stapled the screen in place.  Here’s a picture:

Eric worked in three foot increments while standing in the hole that was made when the old creek was torn out.  The old creek only left a 12” wide open trough to maneuver in.  Try it sometime, it was not the easiest thing to get in and out of let alone work in for hours at a time.  Once the first three foot piece of screen was stapled, Eric mixed up some Structolite plaster and covered the screen.  Then it was on to the next three foot section of Masonite, screen, etc.  This took him three days to finish.  I decided to let the plaster dry really well before I was going to cover it with epoxy, so everything sat for five days.

Okay, the plaster’s dry so now it’s time to coat the creek with PC7.  It’s our epoxy of choice for creeks and ponds and anything that we went to hold water.  Here’s a photo of me on the scaffolding doing just that.

It took me a couple days to epoxy because I didn’t order a big enough can, twice!  I finally finished and then turned things back over to Eric to paint the sides and bottom of the creek that can be seen.  He painted the sides of the bank brown, to simulate dirt and mud and the bottom a swirl of greens and blues. 

While all this was taking place, I was working on the boat mechanism that would move the Lady Gay up and down the creek.  My plan from the beginning was to have the Lady Gay travel at least 9 or 10 feet, instead of the three feet it always did.  This not only meant that a whole new mechanism had to be designed and built, but it also meant the Lady Gay would travel up behind the Amish barn raising scene.  That part was okay, the actual Lady Gay travels further on the Conestoga creek than the actual park owns anyway.  The interesting part was ‘How to make a new mechanism to make a boat travel 10 feet’!

So, off I went to Lowe’s again.  I bought four 6’ X 1” X 4” yellow pine boards.  Yellow pine is much harder than white pine and still easy to work with.  I also bought a ½” X 2’ X 4’ sheet of good grade plywood. I search both piles of lumber for nice straight 1X4s and plywood and headed for home.  Things sat around for about two weeks, getting in the way, until I finally decided it was time to start thinking about this new mechanism.  I pulled out my box of sprockets and found two 4” ones that used ¼ pitch chain.  I also grabbed a couple smaller ones that I could use as idlers, if needed.  After searching the Internet, I found a place that had 10’ lengths of ¼ pitch chain for only $14.25 plus shipping, so I broke out the AMEX and placed an order for two 10’ pieces.  Here’s the web address if you’re interested: www.thebearingstore.com.  While waiting for my chain to arrive, I worked on the model of the Turkey Hill Minit Market, but that’s another story!

Chain’s here, time to get back to the boat mech!  I cut the one 1X4 five feet long.  I took the remaining foot and used it to splice the 6’ and 4’ pieces together.  Did I mention that the date is March 1^st and we reopen on the 15^th?  I thrive on stress!  I work better with looming deadlines!  Well, it seems that way.  Anyway, a couple years ago, I bought some chain guide for another animation and I had a bunch left over for ¼ pitch chain, lucky me.  I took four pieces of ¾” X ¾” X 1/8” angle aluminum that are 6 feet long and proceeded to splice a six foot and a four foot piece of aluminum angle together to make a 10’ continuous piece.  I used this as a support for the chain guide which is actually made out of a Delrin type plastic material to guide roller chain.  I needed the chain to stay straight and level to “pull” the boat back and forth.  I fastened the aluminum to the chain guide using #8 X ¾” sheet metal screws.  I then took steel angle brackets and fastened them to the aluminum so I would have a way to fasten the whole thing to my wooden frame.

I cut the plywood into 10” wide strips, then cut these strips into 12” long pieces.  I screwed the 1X4s together, to make 2 pieces that were now 11’ long.  I was very careful to make sure that the edges of the 1X4s were lined up perfectly.  Everything was glued and screwed together with drywall screws.  I then sat the two 1X4s on edge and screwed the 10” X 12” pieces of plywood to the edges of the 1X4s.  (See the pics, they give a better understanding.)  I then screwed the chain guide to the plywood so the chain went down the center of the mechanism.  The chain guide is actually on its side so the roller chain can follow the sprockets.

I took the one sprocket that was to be at the non-powered end of the mech, a length of ¼” steel rod, two bearing blocks and a couple ¼” Du-Bro collars and fabricated an idler sprocket for the one end.  With that in place, it was time to fasten the motor.  This is usually a challenge, especially in an animation of this size.  I use

Dayton

gearmotors on a lot of the larger animations.  www.grainger.com is the place to buy these if there isn’t one close to you.  Just go to their website to find the closest one.  I get most everything via UPS, even though there is a store about 10 miles away from the Choo Choo Barn.  Who has time to go looking for a motor when I can call them and it will be delivered to my door the next morning?  Certainly not me!  Well, actually, I had the correct motor in my box of motors, so I didn’t have to buy one, at least not yet.  I fabricated a motor bracket out of angle aluminum and fastened to motor to the wooden unit.  It actually took me about 4 hours to design, make and install the bracket to hold the motor.  Oh, one more thing, a couple years ago, I came across a True Value hardware store that was going out of business and I bought all the aluminum angle and aluminum bar stock they had, at 60% off retail.  I also bought all of their steel angle brackets along with Ts and Ls at the same price.    Lucky me!  These are the things that come in bubble packs that are made by National.  I also have a great supply of sheet metal screws, drywall screws, etc., etc.  I like to be prepared in my workshop.  They also had a bunch of those little drawers that we all look through when we go to Lowes or our local hardware store.  They had a great selection of little nuts and bolts that I just had to have.

I got the motor and bracket installed, got the chain out, cut one to the correct length, treaded it through the chain guide, around both sprockets and fastened the two ends together.  Time to see if the motor speed was correct.   The motor I used was a reversible, 110 volt motor.  It uses a capacitor to which two of the three leads from the motor are attached to.  One of the leads is common, which is hooked to one side of 110 volts and the other side of the 110 volt line is attached to one of the capacitor terminals.  The direction of the motor is determined by which terminal of the capacitor the 110 volts is connected to.  By switching the lead going to the capacitor, you can make the motor reverse direction.  This can be done with a single pole, double throw switch or some sort of electrical or electronic gizmo to achieve this action.  Since I’m not going to sit in the control tower and throw a switch whenever I want the Lady Gay to start and stop, I had to come up with a method of reversing the direction of the motor automatically.  But first, let’s make sure the chain works like it’s supposed to…

Well, as luck would have it, the motor was shot.  How it got put back into my box of motors, I’ll never know but I can guarantee you it will never happen again.  Landfill, here it comes.  The next day, I grabbed one off the shelf at the Choo Choo Barn and left a note for Eric to order another one the next time we place an order with Grainger, preferably, before we open.  We have at least one extra of every motor we use on the layout as a spare. 

Now to make it go back and forth…  I needed a method of attaching string or cord to the chain so I took a 6” piece of ¼ pitch chain and using my Dremel tool, I ground down one of the pins on the roller chain.  I flipped the chain over and ground down the other side.  I only ground it down to the connecting link.  I popped the pin out using a small punch.  I took a piece of steel wire the same diameter as the pin I popped out, tapped it through the two connecting links and through the roller link.  I basically replaced the link pin with a new one that was a lot longer.  (The only thing that I could find that was the correct diameter was a piece of steel wire that is used by contractors to hold insulation between floor joists.  I have a box of 24” and 16” that were left over from an addition we put on a few years ago.  I told you before, I throw NOTHING away.)  I bent this at a 90 degree angle, about 1/8” away from the chain and silver soldered the rod to the connecting links on both sides.  I thoroughly cleaned the chain with flux-off AND I scrubbed the chain with hot, soapy water to make sure all the soldering flux was off the chain.   Now, when the chain is traveling in the chain guide, this piece of steel rod will stick up at a 90 degree angle from the mechanism.  This gives me something to fasten my string to.  (Keep reading for further explanation)  I got my box of timers and switches and found four lever action micro switches with long levers and a couple different timers.  I use timers that are made for the burglar alarm business.  They are multiple volt, reliable as heck and very easy to use.  I attached two micro switches at each end of the chain guide.  The first switch controls the length of travel of the chain, whereas the second switch is a “dead man”; e.i., if the first switch doesn’t stop the motor and start the timer, the second switch will shut the whole thing down.  I ran wires to a point on the mechanism where I planned to attach my timers, drew out a schematic of how the timers are to work, wired everything up and plugged it in for a test spin.  PERFECTO!  I next found a piece of brass bar stock, K&S Brass, cut a ¾” X 3” piece, drilled a hole in the dead center a little larger than the diameter of the steel rod, silver soldered a ¼” Du-Bro collar at this hole, drilled two 1/16” holes 3/16” in from each end and placed this on the steel rod.  This piece of brass is what I will attach my string to.  But what do I use for string that’s both super strong and semi-invisible?  I ended up using Spider Wire which is fishing line. 

Now, how do I get the string up through the creek bed from underneath and attach it to either end of the Lady Gay without emptying the water out of the creek?  It was actually fairly simple. 

This diagram, though confusing at first, may shed some light.  The thingy on the left side of the diagram is made from a piece of brass tubing and an angle bracket.  The top pulley must fasten to the brass tubing in such a way as to allow the string to go down through the center of the tube.  The tube is soldered to the angle bracket.  This gives you something to fasten the whole unit to the plywood.  The bottom pulley is fastened to the angle bracket so the string coming down through the tube follows around the pulley and eventually is fastened to the brass piece we made above.  I tied the string to the end of a weak spring then put the other end of the spring into the hole that was made in the piece of brass that’s attached to the steel rod.  I did this on both side of the string.  It was actually easier to attach the spring under the display once everything was put into place that it would have been to try and tie the string. 

Once everything was done, the motor tested so it started and stopped, the brass rods with pulleys fabricated and screwed in place and all the electronics were attached to the unit, it was time to take it to the Choo Choo Barn.

We found out really fast that we (Eric and I) were probably going to try and stuff an 11 foot long hoagy into a 5 foot long bun.  This 11 foot long mass had to maneuvered around legs that hold the display up, 110 volt cables and conduit, a big bundle of low voltage cabling and a couple dozen miscellaneous low voltage wires that run house lights and trains.  I eventually had to drop a 110 volt outlet and reposition a huge bundle of control wiring and cut the water supply that feeds all the water tanks and re-pipe it in another position to get the unit in place.  We did this during the last week before opening.  It was very interesting to say the least, but the end result was well worth it. 

Like a dummy, because time was of the essence, I didn’t get any pictures of us installing the unit under the layout.  We were really pressed for time!  I did get the following pictures after were got open and everything working.  I had some real problems with the creek leaking this year.  I was in too much of a hurry and obviously didn’t take my time with the PC7.  The first two weeks we were open, the creek leaked five times.  That means we have to suction the water out of the creek with a wet/dry vacuum and thoroughly dry the creekbed.  I wanted to use more PC7 for a more permanent job but I also didn’t want the riverboat not running because it looked so good.  So instead, I used black roofing pitch.  It’s stuff I got at the hardware store to make quickie repairs to a roof.  Of course, I had to do this on five separate occasions until I finally got all the problems patched.  It just goes to show you that we’re not perfect either!  The first two pictures are of the brass tubing that goes up through the creekbed with a pulley attached.  Notice the string comes up the center of the tube and follows around the pulley and heads horizontally for the boat.

The next picture is a shot of the electronics that are attached to the unit.

Here’s the motor.

This is an end shot.

This is a picture of the brass rod with the pulley under the creekbed.  If you look closely, you can see the string just above the chain.  This is headed for the upright that is attached to the chain that pulls the string back and forth.