The good news is on Monday, I spent the afternoon cutting all of the parts needed for the balance of the station. The bad news is that, while cutting the last part on the table saw. I also cut my left thumb with the moving saw blade. It required 5 stitches. So, I will be out of action for a while.
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Randy Harrison posted:The good news is on Monday, I spent the afternoon cutting all of the parts needed for the balance of the station. The bad news is that, while cutting the last part on the table saw. I also cut my left thumb with the moving saw blade. It required 5 stitches. So, I will be out of action for a while.
Ouch!! Heal quickly. 5 stitches sounds better than the alternative though...
In the future, set your guides and use a push rod. 
George
Also Randy,
I think the idea of dating the thread isn't to start a new thread. You just add on to the old one, then use the Manage Topic link at the top of the screen to update the title of the thread with the date.
George
Though I have an immobilized left thumb and thought that more table saw work was not a good Idea, I stained the small wooden parts that I cut for the station ticket office and the train information desk/dispatch board. When the parts dry, I will glue them together and spray them with Testor's Gloss Coat. Photos will follow when the assembly of these parts comes to fruition.
Randy Harrison posted:Though I have an immobilized left thumb and thought that more table saw work was not a good Idea, I stained the small wooden parts that I cut for the station ticket office and the train information desk/dispatch board. When the parts dry, I will glue them together and spray them with Testor's Gloss Coat. Photos will follow when the assembly of these parts comes to fruition.
Knew you couldn't stay away from it.
Anyway, I hear the hobby is good medicine while you are healing.
George
I made another small step toward the completion (which is still many steps further) of my Union Station model. I gave the parts for the ticket window and the information counter/dispatch board another coat of dark walnut stain. A suggestion that I offer as a result of making the mistake myself, is to stain any parts before gluing them together. If you glue first and stain later, any glue that gets on the surface of the wood to be stained will seal the bare wood parts an will not accept stain causing an uneven, blotchy finish.
I also created framework for around the perimeter of my arch-top windows. The unframed windows can be seen below.
I cut a form out of 1/2 inch plywood. I tried soaking and bending 3/8" bass wood sticks, but, the bend was too sharp and they broke in the bending process. So, at my brass musical instrument repair shop, I had a small inventory of 3/8" square brass rod. First I annealed the rod to soften the metal for ease of bending. Once the straight rod had cooled to room temperature, I cut the rod to appropriate Lengths to go around the plywood form that I made. Then I bent the rods around the form. The end result is below.
These (I still have one more to make) will be trimmed to size and glued around each window. as in the photos below.
The brass will remain unpolished in that it will be sprayed with the same stone-textured paint as the rest of the building. For contrast, the photo below shows the same window with no frame.
The two side windows will also have a decorative sill as do the front windows in the photo below.
Stay tuned. There will be more in the near future.
I stained and assemble some of the interior details for the station today, the information counter/dispatch board and the ticket office. There are still a few more details to be added such as the sign and bars for the windows.
The information counter in front of the dispatch board was made from 3 pieces of Home Depot molding glued together on a stained piece of 1/4 Luan plywood. The dispatch board was made using Microsoft Word forming a text box and selecting a black, background fill for the text box with white font color. It was printed on a B&W laser printer, glued to a solid black, Gator Foam board and glued to the back of the information counter.
The ticket office is also made of 1/4 inch Luan plywood and Home Depot molding. It was stained, assembled and will be sprayed with Rustoleum clear gloss. Other details to be added to the ticket office is the fabrication of bar-cage-like windows similar to that of an old bank tellers window. The cage will be made out of 16 AWG aluminum wire from the jewelry department of Michael's craft store, cut, assembled using Sinbad glue, sprayed gloss black and inserted into the two window openings. Interior lighting will also be installed.
The following are photos showing the intended location of ticket office and dispatch board inside the station structure.
The marbleized floor also was found at Michaels in the decorative paper aisle of the scrap-booking department. Craft stores are a GREAT source for structure detailing items.
More photos will follow as further progress is made.
Today, as my injured thumb is still healing, I spent almost 1/2 hour assembling a two-sided wooden bench on which the stain had dried. It reminded me of the large waiting room seats in Pennsylvania Station. Baltimore, Maryland when I was a smaller child (I am a big one, now). I also made parts for the roof of the station and began assembling them. This is minor progress but not enough to photograph. I will have more to report tomorrow with photos.
Though my injured thumb is healing but still causing me some restriction, I still made more progress on Union Station. The roof is built. It will be hinged so that it can be tilted back to show off the interior.
The top of the roof is removable for access to electrical circuitry (yet to be installed) for lighting of the main waiting room and ticket booth interior.
The interior is rather close quarters, so, these are the only shots I could get of the train information desk/dispatch board.
The ticket office is complete but did not lend itself well to photos while installed in the building.
The bars on the windows of the ticket office are from a cut section of Model Power O Scale Wrought Iron Fence. When Model Power went out of business, I bought up quite a few sets of the fence. It has many potential uses.
The next step is to cut to size and install the bent square brass rods to be frames for for the arched windows. This will be followed by a white primer coat of paint to seal the wood grains.
Stay tuned. There is more to come.
I've had two finger problems with my power tools. One with a table saw, the other with a jointer. Both times I was lucky. No more pushing wood through either one by hand, only with push sticks. We are both lucky.
Very cool 
trainman129 posted:I've had two finger problems with my power tools. One with a table saw, the other with a jointer. Both times I was lucky. No more pushing wood through either one by hand, only with push sticks. We are both lucky.
We are both VERY lucky! Unfortunately, sometimes we learn the hard way.
Randy - WOW! Love the train info board! One of your camera angles really makes me feel as if I'm inside the station looking at the board. Really nice job!!
Anther way to get the curve\arch sections and small pieces cut is with a laser cutter. Bending the wood is done with "living hinges" cut into the wood. Next time, I'd be happy to cut them for you on my GlowForge.
I find I'm getting to old to cut small pieces on my band saw without endangering my fingers.
Randy,
How did you make the benches? Everything looks great!
George
Randy any chance you've got a sketch or two, maybe even a dimensional drawing? Pretty please! 
Looking good. I can one up you on the table saw stitches game, my left thumb took 6 stitches! Russ
Russ: I am sorry. The whole thing was built from pictures in my head. So, I have nothing on paper. I can send you pictures of my head if you want them. Also, you win. My thumb only required 5 stitches. unfortunately, it is still not fully healed so that I can use it normally.
George: The double-sided benches are small, laser-cut, wood kits from Berkshire Valley Models. They can be found at https://www.berkshirevalleymod...roducts/show/8063201. Stain the first before gluing so that any excess glue will not get of the bare wood, fill the wood grain and won't take the stain.
Alan: I am very interested in laser cut parts. If your E-Mail address is in your OGR Forum profile, I will contact you off-line to discuss details and cost. Thank you for the offer.
Looks great!
Thanks but I don't need any head pictures! "not fully healed" it was about 3 months or so for me. I now have an 'armor' glove when table sawing (can't one of those fancy sawstop machines). Again thanks for the reply. Russ
Randy
Your head-shot would not translate well into a scalable vector graphics file (.svg) that I could use to laser cut. Do a drawing with dimensions. OR use your cell-phone and take a picture with a tape measure tape stretched across.
AlanRail posted:Randy
Your head-shot would not translate well into a scalable vector graphics file (.svg) that I could use to laser cut. Do a drawing with dimensions. OR use your cell-phone and take a picture with a tape measure tape stretched across.
Alan:
I can send you a drawing (done by hand) with measurements. It may take a few days before I can get to it. For the station, I have already glued the bent brass rod into place and I am committed to that method for this building,. But, I plan to use the same windows for several other buildings in the future including my hotel building which is next on the block after the Union Station. So, laser cut window frames with inscribed stones with a key-stone at the top would be GREAT. I would like to attach them to an E-Mail. I sent you an E-Mail inquiry to which I did not receive a reply. Is E-Mail a good way to communicate with you? I can also send you one actual window for more accuracy if you will send me your mailing address in an E-Mail reply.
Thanks again for the offer.
emailed back
Though no pictures today, I sprayed the outside of the building and the roof with white primer. I also primed another test piece with a section of Laun plywood that has a column and a sample of every detailed molding glued to it. Today, I picked up a 4 ounce bottle of Woodland Scenics' Cement Top Coat. Tomorrow, I will brush paint the test piece over the dried primer to make sure of the color as well as to see that it allows all of the details of the decorative molding to be visible. If that succeeds, I will paint the building with the Cement Top Coat paint and post some photographs then.
If it’s the one I have, you will either need to thin the top coat or either way it will be too dark. The color is more like dark wet cement.
George
The entire statio building is now under white primer and ready to be painted.
Below is my test board with the final paint coat I have selected.
Randy Harrison posted:The entire statio building is now under white primer and ready to be painted.
Below is my test board with the final paint coat I have selected.
That’s nice. It looks like marble. The station really looks great!
George
George S posted:Randy Harrison posted:The entire statio building is now under white primer and ready to be painted.
Below is my test board with the final paint coat I have selected.
That’s nice. It looks like marble. The station really looks great!
George
George:
Thanks for the feedback. It is actually a granite type fleck stone paint from Rustoleum called "Pebble". I am trying to get the effect of a large city building made of either granite or marble.
Your progress is looking great Randy! Love the Fleckstone paint look!
Another day has been and gone and I have made more progress yet. I masked the building to ready it for painting. Masking is a pain in the posterior!!!!!! I then sprayed the building with the finish coat. Here it is drying in my make-shift spray booth (AKA: large cardboard box) in front of a space heater.
I sprayed it with Rustoleum stone paint. Pictures of the can are in the next 2 photos.
It is best, when spraying flecked stone paint, to spray from at least a foot away for best coverage. If you are too close to the item being sprayed, the concentrated force of the propellant moves the flecks away and leaves bare spots that need to be touched up later.
After the building dried sufficiently, I temporarily assembled all of the outside parts. The final result to date is in the next 2 photos.
The window and door masking protecting the interior is still in place. The building will look much better once the masking is removed and the windows and doors are painted, glazed and installed.
Stay tuned. There is much more to come a I approach completion.
Another set of small steps have been made toward Union Station completion. I have painted all of the windows and doors in gloss black and have highlighted the the door handles and other door ornamentaion with Testor's metalic gold paint (sorry, no photos). Also I primed and painted the letters for the front of the building. The photo is beleow. Do not worry. The letters are not glued in place as of yet. They will be straightened when they are finally glued into place.
The letters are from OGR Forum advertiser, Todd Architectural Models and are available at https://www.toddarchitecturalmodels.com/letter-sets. I have been searching for years to find a letter set that would be compatible with O gauge buildings. Bravo to Todd Architectural Models for finally offering such lettering in such a great variety of type faces at affordable prices.
Stay tuned. There is more to come.
That's going to look great!
George
Hey Randy, I love this. Enjoy your updates. John
Very impressive! I’ve picked up a lot of great tips reading your updates. Thank you!
I’m looking forward to seeing the interior once it is lighted.
bigtruckpete posted:Very impressive! I’ve picked up a lot of great tips reading your updates. Thank you!
I’m looking forward to seeing the interior once it is lighted.
Thank you. I am temporarily stalled on the lights, but, hope to be making and reporting more progress in the near future. I am also currently glazing the windows and doors. That is a tedious process with my 69 year-old hands that have lost some touch sensation.
The Great Northeastern Railway puts the safety of their passengers first. Today, the brass railings were intalled in the new Union Station.
I used small brass rod for the raillings and bent them with needle-nosed pliers.
Great idea and great job Randy! Looks terrific! It's also good to have hand rails to keep potential law suits at bay
Today, even though I have only glazed one door and have the rest of the windows and doors to go, I couldn't resist doing a preliminary assembly by snapping the windows into place to get a feel for how the final outcome will be. I am now debating on the best way to power my strip LED's so, once the roof is put on in later photos, there is no adequate internal light. The first 3 photos, the roof was left off so the interior is visible through the windows and doors.
Note the polished brass ornaments and door handles. It is actually Testor's glossy metalic gold paint.
Before I put the roof on for the next 4 photos, I propped up a small LED flashlight in the corner so some of the interior can be seen. Once LED lighting is installed, I hope the interior will be MUCH more visible.
I am very pleased with the outcome of the lettering on the front of the roof. Bravo to Todd Architectural models for making the laser-cut sets of lettering that made this possible. I was originally going to glue the letters in place. But, the letter sets have peel-off backings that exposed self-stick adhesive backing. I was going to use glue because I did not think the adhesive backing on the letters would hold very well with the rough granite finish on the building. I was wrong. The self adhesive backing worked like a charm. They were quite easy to apply.
Hey Randy - FABULOUS!!!!!
It really looks great, Randy!!!
Mark:
Thank you very much. It is coming along. I have enjoyed working on this. When the station, it will be an incentive to finish putting the layout back together. It is currently in shambles.
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