Large Scale Central

Help with new station

Modeling
#1

Alright I’m working on my first large scale building and I need help. Not new to trains just large scale and I’m learning the differences as I go.
This model will be used outdoors and I live in the York Pa. area hope that helps.
If the pics load you’ll see I’ve started my station using 3/4" blue foam with door and windows marked in.
The back side will abut a below grade siding about 60 scale feet long. The foot print of the structure is 48" x 16" without surrounding platforms.
Now for the help. I plan on covering this with real stone, as I have a good bit of left over from a home project. I want to use thin set tile adhesive as a glue/mortar as I think the color should be about right. Any comments,suggestions,thoughts? All would be helpful.
The roof is to be made with coil stock, as I am trying to get the look of the old HO Rico station roof. For those of you who don’t know this kit the roof rolls out and up at the building line. To do this I will either tape the aluminum to a piece of 3" PVC pipe or cut a slot in the pipe to hold it as I form it over the pipe.Will I need to heat the aluminum for it to hold the roll? The only other way I can think to make this roof would be to plank the roof like a boat hull with wood strips to get the roll and I think this may be a little harder. Comments?
Once formed the roof will be covered with 30 weight felt cut to strips(maybe ice dam as it’s pre-glued)and then I want to try to coat this with granulas. Anything?
Looking forward to your responces as the building is on hold till I’m a little surer of what I’m doing

 Dave
#2

I’m not much of a building modeler so can’t be of much help there, but welcome aboard. Those that are building experts should be around shortly.

#3

Warren,
Thanks for the welcome,and I’m waiting for the others to chime in.Although you don’t toot your own horn I have been around long enough to have seen your build post on your Pie Cart and flat car,and a look or two at your site so I welcome any hints you may have
Dave

#4
david marconi said:
Warren, Thanks for the welcome,and I'm waiting for the others to chime in.Although you don't toot your own horn I have been around long enough to have seen your build post on your Pie Cart and flat car,and a look or two at your site so I welcome any hints you may have Dave
Dear Mr Marconi - If you take a look at the way the guys did it on www.ovgrs.org you will have a basis for setting your own work-plan out.

The post office structure on the IPPPW is actually larger than your proposed model, but incorporates many of the solutions to the problems you may find, particularly with regard to stone cladding of an internal structure.

tac

#5

David,
I am not familiar with coil stock. Can you explain it?

#6

I didn’t see any pictures, but welcome! I’m not sure how well the tile adhesive will hold up outside. That’s a pretty good size structure - with the stone on it, it will be heavy; this will impact your ability to move it. How thick is the stone you’re thinking about? Will you be cutting it into smaller pieces?

I’m not sure how well covering foam with stone works. I remember reading…somewhere…that it did not. I’ll see if I can find a reference. Stone is pretty neat to work with. Looking forward to your progress.

#7

Thanks again for the responses,
TAC I checked out ovgrs the only stone I saw was jigstone IPPPW I didn’t see although I did find the jigstone post office. Are you recommending plywood as substructure? Hope the Mr. goes away soon i’m only around 100 but not there yet.
Steve Coil stock is the rolls of aluminum they use on house construction to cover the exterior wood trims I don’t remember the thickness of it but it does take a bit to make it hold it’s form that’s why I wondered about heating it while forming.
Bruce I have the pics and I’ll gladly take some of the stones but I’m computer illiterate and need a lesson in uploading to this site.The stone is about 9’ x6’ course scale size. The thought is to butter the thin set onto the foam about 1/4’ thick and then imbed the stone so that the thin set fills in the gaps.therefore no need to cut it although a pair of tile nippers should work if needed.Because of the weight I will cover each wall as a single piece near to where the building will be than after each piece is in place and all glued together I’ll finish the corners.Hope that covering foam with stone is only a weight issue that I can over come.

#8

David,
You can be a tester for an article I wrote on resizing and posting pictures: http://largescalecentral.com/articles/view.php?id=96 :wink:

For building in stone, I got a lot of my tips from here: http://www.rrstoneworks.com/

#9

Bruce,
As the tester I went to your article and after reading your instructions the following occurred.

  1. I went to myfiles and deleted the copies I had already placed there for a clean slate.
  2. I use IE don’t have firefox and didn’t download resizing program as I have one and the pics are now at 340 pixels wide because they are in high def.and therefore too large. Anyway I reloaded pics and the files show in myfiles.
  3. When I click on the pic to select it for upload in myfiles it gives me a small window that saysurl is copied to clipboard,but nothing shows in this quigk reply box I’m typing in
    Dave
#10

Yeah…it works strange with IE. In Firefox, it will automatically paste, but with IE, you need to right click where you want it and then select paste.

I better update it…Sorry about that.

BTW, 340 is pretty small. 640 seems to be a nice compromise.

#11

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/dltrains/_forumfiles/station1lsc.jpg)

Bruce the right click worked. Thanks for the stone link looks like some of what I needhttp://

(www.lscdata.com/users/dltrains/_forumfiles/station2lsc.jpg)

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/dltrains/_forumfiles/station3lsc.jpg)

Dave

#12

After uploading to myfiles, you will get a box that says “Available Files.” Click on the filename you want in the post, and it will magically appear in your post. I’m like you, this computer stuff is PFM. I can see why you might have trouble with coil stock in such small sizes. I used 1/4 inch exterior plywood, coated both sides with West System epoxy, which is used to build plywood boats. After it dried, I painted the roof and then used Rust-Oleum’s fake rock paint. So far it has held up well.

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/stevef/_forumfiles/roof.jpg)

I wonder if even 3/4 inch blue foam will be strong enough to support what you propose. SteveF

#13

Steve,
That’s what I’m looking for. As you can now see I do have some center formers and I’m hoping that the solid stone will have enough self support once it’s dry. But I can attempt a test section if there is any doubt.
Bruce gave me a link to a build it with stone site and they have some instruction sheets I’m going to get.

#14

David,
What size is that stone again 9’ x 6’ scale? What scale? Either way, that seems…large?

How are you planning to do the window openings and corners?

#15

Steve Plywood won’t work as I want to get a gentle roll at the lower part of the roof. To do the roof out of wood I would have to use wood strips on the lower portion to get the roll and then have to fill the under side to fill the voids to stop deterioration. The coil stock once formed should hold it’s shape and won’t deteriorate. I can pop rivet the corners together on the roof as it will be covered with something. If anybody has tried coil stock for this let me know if it will work or not.
That takes care of the roof plans,the building corners will be covered in stone, but I don’t want to cover them until the sides are in place. If I cover up to the edges before the building is square I’ll have a visible joint where if I wait I can inter lock the stone.
Bruce My mistake that should be 9" x 6" scale stone I’m getting the pics today. When I take the new pics I’ll use a less dense setting on the camera then I’ll be able to show a larger pic. Right now the pics at 640 pixels wide load at 1.4mg and when at 320 pixels wide they load at 50kb big difference when down loading or if someone is on dial-up.
Windows and doors will be scratch built in place. Once the opening are reached with the stone I hope to use nippers to square off the stone. Then I will frame in the opening with either wood or plastic strip. Opening will then be measured and sashes and doors made to fit the opening (hopefully all the same size). The doors and windows will be backed with oversized plexi and glued in from the rear

 And let me again thank all for the input so far it really does help and I do take the time to sort through all of it. I want to do this right not over.

Dave

#16

Here are the pics of stone I plan to use

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/dltrains/_forumfiles/stone1.jpg)

(http://www.lscdata.com/users/dltrains/_forumfiles/stone2.jpg)

Dave

#17

That should work. The problem you have is that it could be a much rougher surface than you desire. I did mine the opposite ( http://www.jbrr.com/html/stone_mill.html ) so the stone was against the smooth form. Even then, it was rough. To avoid a too rough look, make sure you pick through the stones to get ones about the same thickness.

#18

Dave, I didn’t realize you were using random stone. It shouldn’t be necessary to do any cutting on random stone. The photo below might be of interest to you.

(http://lscdata.com/users/richard_smith/RRConstr2ndPhase/WheelShop01-Jun25-07-Web.JPG)

The addition on the wheel shop was done with random stone. Adhesive (Welder from Walmart) was spread over a small section at a time from top to bottom. Individual stones were set into the glue and allowed to dry thoroughly. Next day the structure was laid with one of the stone surfaces facing upwards. Dry mortar mix was poured over the stones and then gently brushed to even it to desired depth between stones. Water was gently sprayed over the wall section with a spray bottle until completely saturated. After drying the building was turned to allow the next wall to face upwards and the process repeated until all were done. I’ve sprayed a flat clear coat to seal the mortar. This building is outside all the time although only for a few months since it’s a new structure.

#19

Bruce I’ve looked at your mill before. It was why I decided to build in stone. I am hesitant in using the screening as I didn’t think I could get it flat enough for the length I’m doing, but I like the idea of not having the extra 3/4" inside.
Richard, I didn’t think about using dry morter after the fact. I was thinking of grout but didn’t want the clean up afterward. That raised bed of your’s is great. I’m surprised that you put some of your work outside as delicate as it must be. How’s that hidden track going?
Thanks for the input and like I said before I’ll be doing some thinking on all this before I get to work. Right now I’m going to start screening the stone.
Dave