We had to have a stainless steel liner put in our colonial fireplace. I’m saving the leftover 6’ piece for a tunnel.
At the ECLSTS we looked at some really nice, and expensive bridges, and my wife (land baron) came up with this one: “You have so many 4x4’s left over. Why not router out the sides to look like steel plates riveted together, and paint the wood to look like rusty metal?” I can make some REALLY long bridges that way. That is tops on my list!
When I get that one done, I will post on tracks and trestles.
Tom Ruby said:
Steve, love that tagline
I stole it fair and square from Mark Twain. I try to change the tag like frequently, to keep all y’all on yer toes.
With the US national mid-term elections only a week away, I will be scrounging campaign signs after the polls close on Tuesday (for Republicans, Wednesday for Democrats ;-).
Not the printed trash bags, but the corrugated solid signs and the wire frames. Free building materials.
David Hill said:I used those one year. Trouble was, the buildings started leaning--some to the left, others to the right. :)
With the US national mid-term elections only a week away, I will be scrounging campaign signs after the polls close on Tuesday (for Republicans, Wednesday for Democrats ;-).
Later,
K
how ya gonna wash off all the mud and other smelly stuff being tossed around this year, some of them signs oft to be mighty dirty :lol:
I was planning to SPEND some time on them to GRAFT the panels to each other and and hold them together with TACKS to use as a BASE, then COVER UP the outside with siding and roofing.
Sadly ALL the local Pol’s are using the bags on a wire bail for signs this year. Last nights Tornado watch was not severe enough to blow those away though.
Chas
Found another thing to use for bendy handrails and grabirons - the metal handles that came on our cardboard container of rice from the Chinese restaurant!
It’s not free this way, but you can buy corrigated plastic from sign shops. They stock it in 4X8 sheets (handy for making really big stuff) in a variety of colors. The “grain” looks a bit like metal siding and it paints well. Those dress snaps are made of brass and you can solder wires to them. I’ve used them for years as MU connectors to electrically couple my diesels. Note that the female connector is to the right when facing. This way, no matter which way a unit is turned, they’ll hook up. (Young guys, Take a lesson from us older dudes-- FEMALE IS ALWAYS RIGHT)
(http://i1030.photobucket.com/albums/y370/olebob3/MU.jpg?t=1296675013)
For those with indoor layouts, NO commercial scenic materials were used on my Miami layout(see thread–NOT NEW TO LARGE SCALE). Feel free to email me if you see something there you’d likt to know about.
I used a 10 liter (say 2 gallon) plastic paint container as the basis for my water tower, yes its big, but is in scale. here is a photo, with a Bachmann climax for size
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/peterbunce/_forumfiles/completea.jpg)
The pot is covered in styrene and the rest is plastic or cheap roofing felt for the roof. It is 2 foot tall, and about a foot diameter. I am at present making another, much smaller version - that is from a large size pill/capsule bottle
Peter ,
I like the look of that , looks like you had fun making it .
It does raise a question in my mind , you say it is correct scale----and I have no reason to doubt it-----but what diameter and height are the norm ? I look at plenty of rail stuff on the 'net , but not many water towers are shown in detail . So when I made a tower , it was largely guesswork .The governing factor was that it had to be tall enough to suit the locos , the rest sort of fell into place . So , where is there a site dedicated to lineside features ?
I like your trees too , very nice .
Hi Mike,
Agreed, I have the book ‘Structures of the Early West’ and that has a drawing of Baker Tank on the DESP, now preserved as the railroad has long gone. That is a 30,000 gallon version, and was used for the tank. The result is large as can be seen, but for my purposes it was and is perfect! I agree re what is satndard - there werte some massive versions, much larger - one thing narrow gauge allows is smaller versions of some items.
The photo is somewhat old now: those trees have been moved to the back of the village and are still growing, in their place will be a machine shop (2 foot square) to partner the boiler shop, the bungalow on the back of our house provides the dense Leylandii hedge that provides a suitable backdrop, (yup, I keep it cut on my side) but we have some clematis growing up it to provide some colour in the summer - ah well can’t have everything!
Meanwhile another building is being made for the track that will run along the back and in front of the hedge: so that(dead end) track will be the industrial area eventually.
Peter ,
You have a very nice setup there by the look of things .
Isn’t it strange how the non scale support tiles actually add to the effect ? (I mean the half round ones in the foreground) . It must be that they add to the bucolic effect of the background , the area pictured being framed quite nicely , forcing attention to the layout .
Or put it another way , I like it .
Anyway , it is good to see pictures of attractive setups . I wonder if you will be posting more ?
Regards ,
MikeWell ! I found a use for some of the million tons of lava that is all over the place. Busted some up into small sizes and put them in a tender. Don’t look too bad so I’m going to load a gondola or two. Hey it’s close enough for my eyes and the price is right…
Oh ya ! TOF in Hawaii
With summer coming up it was time for my newest recycle. I got two 110v computer fans off an old newsroom server. I didn’t want to pay Aristocraft’s price for a fan for the Train Engineer and wanted one for the TE and the power supple.
I wired one and added it to my power strip. Now when I fire up the power strip I have a fan cooled shelf for the power supply and TE. And it was free! And we are on solar, so it’s really free!
Howdy
I used the top off a old plastic porch light for an interesting roof for tower on a warehouse I built.
I use those craft hobby/ wood stirring sticks in all sorts of applications.
Pen barrels or the tube from a barbecue lighter for chimneys.
Steel cans tossed into a fire will burn and rust to a nice look for barrels and water containers, tanks etc… Tomato paste comes in small cans while beans or even whole tomatos for sauce come in larger.
One of my first builds was an open top water tower around a plastic coffee can and it has a spout made from plumbing bits.
Any scraps of wood left over from projects can be left around the bases of say bridges and trestles to form clutter that was often left behind by workers. it was cheaper to leave it than haul it away.
Old extension cords with beat up ends that can be cut off make for good wire to bring power to other points of the layout.
Yard sales are a great source of items. I once picked up a herd of horses for a couple of bucks and the seller said do you have a daughter? Nope I have a RR. it took the next 5 minutes to explain.
I forgot to add to my list of recycled stuff that I used some plastic slats from window shades that were cut to the window length to make 3 small ore cars. These were not mini blinds, the slats were 2 inches wide and maybe 3/16 thick. I cut a square of wood for the base and simply attached the slats to the sides and painted the whole deal black/brown. An old truck with the tongue long ago cut off served for the wheels. They look good sitting derelict on a siding.
Bird houses are a good usually cheap find at yard sales.
Todd
And don’t forget, in conclusion since this thread appears about done…
Old martini glasses make excellent containers for holding mixed paints, handy handle too.
Silver cocktail shakers for mixing paint.
Caviar tins for parts containers.
Gold coins from Uncle’s collection make great medallions on buildings and come in various sizes.
Silver ingots can be melted down to cast many small parts.
Cuban cigars placed inside smokestacks, lit and provided with an airflow, can provide a half hour of fine smelling smoke for industries.
Hundred year old cognac makes a great paint thinner.
Small rubies and emeralds are swell lenses for traffic lights.
No matter what your station in life you can always find a way to save…
Seriously though, a great bunch of very useful ideas in this thread.
Richard Smith said:
And don't forget, in conclusion since this thread appears about done... Old martini glasses make excellent containers for holding mixed paints, handy handle too. Silver cocktail shakers for mixing paint. Caviar tins for parts containers. Gold coins from Uncle's collection make great medallions on buildings and come in various sizes. Silver ingots can be melted down to cast many small parts. Cuban cigars placed inside smokestacks, lit and provided with an airflow, can provide a half hour of fine smelling smoke for industries. Hundred year old cognac makes a great paint thinner. Small rubies and emeralds are swell lenses for traffic lights.No matter what your station in life you can always find a way to save…
Seriously though, a great bunch of very useful ideas in this thread.
Damn, and all this time I been throwing that stuff away…iffen I’d only known…