A little progress…
R.E. Mington has been busy this weekend. He was able to get all the lumber for the engine house milled to the proper dimension other than final length. He got the side walls framed and glued together.
He hopes to get the roof rafters framed tomorrow.
Great Start!!!
napkins? what napkins?
i think, what he uses are Reb-kins… 
More progress today. With the help of Uncle Munson, R.E. Mington was able to get all the rafters cut and some framed. He is still waiting on the glue to dry on several of them. When asked by Mr. Paws why he did not finish them all, Mington explained he ran out of clamps.
Just goes to show… You can never ever have to many clamps.
Mr. Paws has been anxiously waiting to get a feel of how his new engine house is going to look. So after R.E. Mington got a couple rafters out of the glue up, he mocked up the structure. Mr. Paws was quite pleased.
Very nice start and I like the framed construction.
There was a RR meeting today chaired by Mr. Paws. He had gotten word that someone had been talking about his RR and its new engine house without his knowledge. Although the RR’s plans were no secret, he prefers to review all correspondence before it goes out. He said he would be present during all future discussions.
Mr. Paws presiding over the meeting.
Another item on the agenda for today’s meeting was the mockup that had been done a few days ago. Mr. Paws explained to R.E. Mington that the engine house mockup was not satisfactory without an engine in it. Mington explained that he would rectify the mockup shortly. Mr. Paws and Uncle Munson discussed the schedule and Uncle Munson assured the Chairman that the new structure would be completed on time. Mington brought up the fact that he would need another load of corrugated roofing from Taylor Tin Works out in New Mexico.
After the meeting concluded, Uncle Munson and R.E. Mington returned to the construction site and backed the new shay into the engine house. Uncle Munson now understood why Mr. Paws wanted it done this way. The engine gave a better perspective of the look and function of the structure.
Looking really good so far Dan. I wish I had developed the 3D Cad skills you have. I played around with SketchUp last winter but I am severely spatially challenged. I’d draw something that looked fine from one angle, but when rotated the pieces were not even close to being connected (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)
Being an engineer, I have had to learn to utilize 2d and 3d systems. Sketch Up is the easiest of the 3d programs I have used. Take note; I said easiest, not easy by any means. I found the best way to figure out the 3d stuff is to start with small objects. A simple box, then rectangle, then put the two together. Now add a circle to the box, then turn the circle into a hole. It takes a lot of time but you can do it. If you can use Visio the way you do, you can get the hang of Sketch Up. Now, what I wished is that I had the imagination you and most of the other folks on here do. I love modeling, I just struggle coming up with some of the ideas I see here. But I am learning and I thank all of you for that.
Loving it. Glad Mr. Paws is riding herd, otherwise who knows where the cows would stray.
Dan, I’m looking at your pictures and saying to myself, “This can’t be right; there’s no room to work on the locomotives in that engine shed. It’s too narrow for any work. He’s got his all wrong.” (I’m building an engine shed myself, so I’m following your build with great interest.)
So I look around on the internet and in some books I have here, and what do I find? Some narrow and tight quarters for engines, indeed:
In fact, the only examples I found of single- and double-track engine houses with plenty of room to work and shops attached were actually models, not prototypes:
So there you go. Looking forward to the next set of pictures.
I think the its all in the name. An engine shed is just that shed for storage. An engine house may accommodate both storage and shop. I would think on a larger operation there would be a separate shop for maintenance and repair. But I am shooting in the dark, I really don’t know.
From the looks of it, it’ll be a really good build no matter what, really attractive, and I can’t wait to see the next steps.
What really scares me is Mr. Paws. That cat has a very intimidating look about him and reminds me why I’m a dog person!
Looks pretty roomy to me… You should try getting around the WW&F shop with two engines in there! Just barely room for a set of she’ll especially for paint and parts and space to walk by the engine.
Keep up the good work. On my project list is a two bay engine house. The tracks are laid I just need to start framing!
The only question is. Will my cat fit? He has put on weight this winter! I would say he’d 16 pounds. He’s also 16 years old.
The engine house is quite narrow. I developed the measurements based on the dimensions of the shay and 10 scale feet metal roofing. I couldn’t make it any wider without either overlapping the roofing material vertically or reducing the slope of the roof. I didn’t like the flatter roof and I prefer a single sheet versus overlapping. I am adding a small workshop on the right side of the building to store the preventive maintenance tools. The original intended purpose for this build was 1. provide a place to house the shay and 2. provide a place out of the weather for the crew to perform general PM. Well … I guess the most important reason for the build was to participate in the build challenge for the first time.
Rest assured John and Doug, Mr. Paws is the boss. He generally oversees everything I do around the house. He is about 25 pounds of all muscle. He got his name because his paws are huge and he is not afraid to give our labs a good swat when they need it. He keeps R.E. Mington in check too. The one he gives a wide birth to is the CVG (Chief Varmint Getter), Shatzi. Mr. Paws may be the Chairman, but it is only because the CVG hates office work so she relinquished all the managerial work to him.
Ok … back to the challenge.
I have been pondering what to use as siding for this build. I see a lot of board and batten engine houses and see some with corrugated metal as shown in the pictures John posted. I was also thinking of lap siding. Anyone have an opinion or another idea?
Dan Hilyer said:
The original intended purpose for this build was 1. provide a place to house the shay and 2. provide a place out of the weather for the crew to perform general PM.
And that is about as prototypical thinking as it comes.
Well this is your engine house so it really should be what you like; but since you asked. . . and I am always looking for a reason chime in. . . board and batten is timeless. I am luke warm on lap siding. Now one thing you don’t see often is a rock wall made from round river stone. something like this would be cool
It could be done with a lot of work the same way I am doing the cut block by slicing pieces of pink foam board and then carving the design into it. It cold go all the way up to the eves or half way and then board and batten above. How about brick made the same way?
This are made from 1/4 inch slices of pink foam the the grout lines cut in with and exacto knife. thinned black paint then dry brushed with brick red.
Devon, I like the rock wall idea. It would look great and would actually fit in with the overall theme that I have in my head for the layout. I just don’t feel I have the skills at this point to carve/paint/weather stone, especially in the time frame we have for this challenge. But I will keep that in mind as an upgrade to the engine house after the challenge is complete. I enjoy learning new skills and carving stone is close to the top of my to do list.
Now that I think about the stone a little more, one thing I might try is to use real stone. I have access to some field stone left over from a project at my office. I could cut off thin veneers and make 1:20.3 scale stone and use a dry stack method. That would look cool too. Still not sure if I have enough time for this phase of the project. I don’t have to make a decision about the siding just yet so I will let these ideas simmer for a few days.
Thanks for your input Devon.
