Model Railroading > Kit bashing large locomotive back shop.

Dear TOs,  I started this kit dash of two Walthers Railroad Shops(23x17). I have e-mail walthers asking to purchase 2 foundation bases of the kit if they have the parts, no reply yet. I can also purchase the car shop kit same size foundation base and i can yous the "saw tooth" roof. I have tried e-bay for parts no luck. I also thought of scratch building a base but not thrilled about that, more like not sure how to have groves for track. If you can advise i would apreciate the help.  robert

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The area it will sit in.
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> Dear TOs,  I started this kit dash of two
> Walthers Railroad Shops(23x17). I have e-mail
> walthers asking to purchase 2 foundation bases of
> the kit if they have the parts, no reply yet. I
> can also purchase the car shop kit same size
> foundation base and i can yous the "saw tooth"
> roof. I have tried e-bay for parts no luck. I also
> thought of scratch building a base but not
> thrilled about that, more like not sure how to
> have groves for track. If you can advise i would
> apreciate the help.  robert

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That's quite a project you have going! If I understand right, it seems the base parts you need more of are the mostly flat pieces with the grooves for the rails, correct? The two pieces shown in one of the first photos? If so, those would be fairly easy to duplicate with Evergreen styrene shapes. For example -- and I don't know the dimensions on your parts so these are just "for example" dimensions -- you could start with a base of .040" flat stock, followed by layers of .030" or .040" stock and strips to build up the flat areas adjacent to the rails. The rails can be glued down with Walthers Goo applied to the rail base, let it dry, then with the rails held in place, a brief soldering iron application warms the rails, melts the glue and secures the rails when the metal cools and the glue solidifies. You could probably find all kinds of Youtube examples of this process.

If what you need to duplicate is the inspection pit type piece in the last photo, that will be a bit more work, but the general procedure is the same.

To make a large base like that solid and stable, and this is just one guy's opinion, I'd visit my local retail plastics supplier and try to buy a chunk of sheet styrene perhaps .030 or .040-inch thick large enough to cover your entire enginehouse base. Next I'd glue down the two base pieces you already have on the large sheet stock sub-base, then start the build-up with the styrene stock as detailed above. The use of the large sub-base would create a single base that keeps all the smaller sections together and lined up as they belong.

Jeff Johnston
www.trainvideosandparts.com

Thanks Jeff, You got it!  That is what i just might have to do. I did find two other whalters kit with same size foundation.  Might use them. as for the inspection pits i dont need them.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/20 14:57 by robert162.

Try sheets of Plexiglass. Comes in different sizes and thicknesses.

I suppose you could duplicate the base you have in resin, provided you do it just for yourself. But you might have a mininmum investment of about $100 by the time you buy the resin components plus the rubber mold material.  You would basically build a four-sided form to start you rubber mold. In the end, you would have a two part rubber mold, made from the base you have as a master, and just pour the resin mixture into the rubber mold. It would be important to decide which side should be down in the mold. But the most important thing would be to determine if you have enough rubber and resin components before starting. It really isn't difficult or that time consuming, just probably cost more than what you would want to spend.

If it were me, I would just scratchbuild out of styrene, duplicating what you already have. Various sizes of styrene put together, available to the modeler could be use duplicate the pits, steps, etc. I don't see that difficult,  provided you can measure the thickness of the detail items and the base. I think I could do something like that in an evening after I had made all my measurements and purchased the material. 

But perhaps you are hoping that someone has an extra base, which I understand.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/20 12:51 by wabash2800.

robert162 Wrote:
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> Dear TOs,  I started this kit dash of two
> Walthers Railroad Shops(23x17). I have e-mail
> walthers asking to purchase 2 foundation bases of
> the kit if they have the parts, no reply yet. I
> can also purchase the car shop kit same size
> foundation base and i can yous the "saw tooth"
> roof. I have tried e-bay for parts no luck. I also
> thought of scratch building a base but not
> thrilled about that, more like not sure how to
> have groves for track. If you can advise i would
> apreciate the help.  robert

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Alternative:  if you can find a cheaper Bachmann Car Repair shop (selling for around $23), it will provide you with the grooved base for rails, 3-track wide that you are looking for. An e-mail to Bachmann might get you just the base. If not, you will have plenty of background structure walls (metal groove, not brick).

John

thanks!! John have one already too much cutting

Robert -  Just sent you a PM.