Highball Sim

Here’s the finalized parts list for the CK Holliday semi-kit.

The kit totals at 141 parts made of hard plastic and laser cut birch wood.

You can have a look at the list here (PDF file).

The pilot deck is cut out from styrene sheet using a pattern from the plan.

(By the way, if you have the plan book, you might notice that there’s no drawing of the pilot deck. If you want this drawing for study or your own project, you can grab the plan book’s addendum here).

A long strip of styrene wraps around the edge of the deck to form the apron. Here’s the underside. I signed my name with a little drawing of a boat I sailed on, the Lady Washington. This is just one of the many Easter Eggs scattered throughout the model!

Here’s the deck fitted in its place.

The smokebox braces are added and the entire front details painted gloss black. The circular flanges have three “bolts” instead of five like it should because I couldn’t fashion bolts small enough to fit on the flange. Now I know I should have pressed the flange with metal point to create false revit. I use this technique later on the boiler apron.

Next, the cab’s window frames are drawn on a styrene sheet. Each window gets two frames, one inside (painted green), one outside (painted red), and of course the glazing pane in the middle.

In all, there are eight windows, four of which are operable by the cab crew (but not here).

After much tedious cutting and painting later, the windows are fixed into the freshly painted cab.

True to Disneyland Railroad’s tradition, I left all the operable windows opened. The cab crew needs all the ventilations they can get in the cramped space so you’ll rarely see the windows closed.

I fixed the windows in at about 90% opened to give them a sense that they are operable.

Next in the engine finishes, the bell. I bought it from tracksidedetail and it is wonderfully detailed. It’s part number TD10 and the bell itself is slightly larger than what’s required, so the model would wear a 13″ bell instead of 12″ but this is not visually noticeable. The yoke, however, require minor modification.

Here’s the yoke, casted from brass, painted dark red.

And here’s the bell. It also comes with its own striker!

Ok. Earlier I mentioned the boiler apron. It also gets cut from styrene sheet. And as I said earlier, I used metal point to press into the sheet to create false revit pattern.

The cab looks pretty realistic with the windows opened up.

And finally, the front shot of the nearly completed model!

The air compressor is one of the appliances included in the kit, and comes completed as one piece. The only thing left to do is add some details to it and mount it on the boiler.

Here’s the compressor painted gloss black. Since the compressor operates on steam, the top part, where it receives the steam, gets hot, so a lagging and jacket is added to protect the crew. You can see the circular jacket at the top.

Then the brass bands and the builder’s plate (middle) were added. The brass lines on the side are steam condensation drain lines.

The headlight brackets are fashioned from the drawing in the plan book. If you have it, you might note that the dimension given for the bracket’s height, 11″, is given as the finished and curved height. (The front view shows that the bracket curves with the front of the smokebox.) So, simple math is used to obtain the actual height of the bracket, before the curve: the arc length is the radius times the angle of the arc, or:

s = r * Θ

Remember that Θ must be in radian!

Plugging in the values from the plan, the radius of 15.539″ and the arc angle of 44.72 degrees, or 44.72/180*pi radian, the arc length is 12.128″. So, starting with 12.128″ high bracket, bending it around the smokebox will give a finished height of 11″.

Taking those values and scaling them 1:20, the brackets are then drawn on a styrene sheet then cut out, and then mounted on front of the smoke box.

Meanwhile, here are some shots of the base and the beginning of cab painting.

The model is getting close to finish. Next week, I’ll work on posting detailed information like the parts included and price for the kit.

While I’m working on the train, my girlfriend, Lynne, was inspired to try her hand at making a model, too. I suggested that she could make the base for the engine. It would need to have a custom track laid on a wooden base. But instead of having a plain base, we thought it would be a good idea to make a diorama scene.

From there, we decided to model the scene roughly after the DRR sidings in 1955, with its bare decomposed granite ground, gray track ballast, and “ranch style” wooden fence along the track.

So, after planning out the scene, she got to work. Here’s Lynne’s progress on the base:

The tracks were dry laid just to see how it’s all coming together. The ballast is still being tweaked.

The fencing was built to be about waist-height, so that it doesn’t block the view of the engine. The next steps will be making the vegetation and weathering.

After the footplate and the sidesheets, the running boards then get set on their supports. The boards were cut out directly from a template made from the plan. With some money, the plan could actually be sent to a waterjet cutter and have meticulously cut running boards. But in this case, the template was traced over a sheet metal and cut with a pair of sheers. Then, brass strips were attached for the edges.

The detailing on the model will even include major plumbing. The first line to be installed is the air line from the forward air tank to the air brake stand in the cab.

Here’s a section from the plan with the air line highlighted.

The line gets stubbed up from the bottom into the cab and turn right into the brake stand.

Seen along in this shot are the first two valve handles to go in: the dual try-cocks. Also, the firebox door, handle (unpainted), and the oil-can shelf.

And on the left side the first line installed is the outside portion of the blower, which goes from the cab to the smokebox.

Here again, the line is highlighted.

Time to complete the rest of the framing. The footplate lays at the rear of the engine across the frames and forms the floor of the cab. Here, a thin sheet metal is being fitted.

Then the two sidesheets make up the side walls. The left sidesheet is metal plate like the foot plate, but the right is styrene because it makes cutting the arc for the reverse bar easier.

Those three sheets complete the “well” at the bottom of the cab. Also under the footplate is the rear air tank.

Then I went ahead and dry fitted the running boards and the cab just to see how she’s coming along.

It looks like pretty complete but there are a lot of details left. Plenty more of work to do.

Okay, time to update the model! I know it looks like there hasn’t been a lot of progress, but there’s just a lot more of the little details to put together rather than the large pieces. But today’s update is certainly a big one: the boiler finally gets set on the chassis, and the model now look significantly like the Holliday.

First, I realize that the lighting is not great. I’ll update the…the update…with natural daylighting later. Anyway, the above shows the mainly completed chassis, including the engine brace, forward tank, rockers and links, eccentric rods, saddle, and a simplified spring and equalizing system. But, All it’s all hard to see with everything painted black.

Here the drivers and pilot truck are fitted into their places.

And the boiler set onto the chassis.

The boiler jacket is painted a special gloss black with a drop of silver. In the daylight, the color is a dark gray with hint silver speckles–pretty convincing I think.

You might notice that the sand and steam domes don’t appear to be parallel, but I think that’s an illusion in the pictures. They seem to be upright in the real model.

When I was building the computer model, I posted the same milestone update when the boiler was set on the chassis. For comparison, here’s the computer model I posted in that update:

So, hopefully the next update will be the running boards set in and preliminary plumbing. Then, setting the cab should be about the end of the model.