Construction Update #20 - Working Gates, small details, and roads areound Westmoreland

Working Gates

I tend to work on several projects at a time.  While working on the roads around Westmoreland I have also been detailing the propane dealer on the west end of  town.  I noticed, at my local hobby shop the Electric Train Shop in Burien, WA, that Woodland Scenics has added several fence styles to their extensive line of products.  One of them is a pretty nifty set of chain link fencing.  I bought several sets to go around complex  While not included with fencing, I decided that a working gate was in order to access the spur within the complex.  The gates turned out to be a quick and easy way to add interest during an operating session.  It took less the 15 minutes to make the gates and about 10 minutes to install them.

I used a section of Woodland Scenics fencing along with two sizes of  Evergreen Styrene telescoping  tubing and a short section of plastic rod that matched the size of the fencing material (Photo 1).  I cut the gate, shown on the bottom right of the first photo from a section of fence shown in the top left of the photo.  Then I cut the diagonal brace to length from the styrene rod, painted it silver, and glued it in place with medium viscosity ACC (Photo 2)

I cut the smaller diameter tube to about an inch in length and slid it over the small pin extending from the bottom of the gate.  I glued it in place with ACC.   The tubing serves two purpose.  First, when inserted into the larger piece of tubing, it rotates freely and second, it serves to protect and strengthen the soft metal pin.  After the initial application of ACC had cured, I placed an additional bead of glue around pin where it slides into the tube.  The larger section of  tubing was then cut to size.

Two holes were then drilled in the scenery base and the larger tube was glued in place.  I built up the area around the tube with ground cover, sealed it with matte medium and slid the gates in place.  The resulting gates move freely with a uncoupling pick but retain enough friction to stay in place once they are opened or closed.  Other methods can be used to open and close the gates from beneath the bench work.  I that case, the length of the telescoping tubing could be cut longer to reach through the bench work.  Finally, if one of the gates gets damaged or broken, it can easily be replaced.

Other Details

 

The speed limit drops from 30mph to 20mph on the approach to Westmoreland.  These speed limit signs are available from JL Innovative.  They add to the scene and operations.

 

Details West makes a number of neat track side details to include a dragging equipment detector.  The white metal kit takes a couple of hours to build, paint, and install and adds a lot of interest to the scene.  After I was done building the detector it occurred to me that it could easily made into a working model by using a piece a brass tubing instead of the cast pole.  The wires for a LED or bulb could then run up through the tubing to light the red lens at the top of the pole.

Roads around Westmoreland

 

The roads around Westmoreland are built using a method developed by Lance Mindheim.  The roads were laid out with a black felt pin and strips of Midwest cork roadbed were glued down to raise the level of the road above the surrounding terrain and closer to the top of the code 70 rail head.  A pattern was then made using plain printer paper and the roadway was then cut from .0040" black styrene.  The Rix Products sidewalks, were applicable, were cut to size and glued to the edge of the roadway.

 

 

 

 

Two shades of gray were used to paint the roadway and curbs.  Both will darken up a bit with weathering.

 

And here is the street after weathering.  The weathering is a little darker than I planned.  It looked about right until I sprayed some matte finish over the Bragdon powdered pigments which darkened things up considerably.  The joints in the concrete and cracks were done with a pencil, the white lines were masked off and painted with a cosmetic sponge.  I still need to work on blending the street color into the backdrop.  The warehouse on left is a stand in for a group of storefronts on the workbench.  In addition a fence on the left side and some foliage and maybe a tree on the right should help the foreground blend into the backdrop.

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