Model Railroads Page 26

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The RBRBB – A Really Big Red Brick Building

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After coming up with the genius notion of putting the Frankfort Terminal RailRoad control panel in the ceiling of a future engine house, it quickly became apparent that all the accompanying wiring and gizmo boxes wouldn’t fit, particularly if I actually intended to put engines in the engine house, too. Therefore, I devised the following:

The RBRBB Plan – 

• It will be totally scratch built, not a kit, no plans (but lots of sketches)
• The basic structure will be clear acrylic sheet (e.g. Plexiglas)
• It will be then covered with Houseworks “1/2 scale” (1/24) brick sheets and corner pieces
• and much more……..

The first rough shape was a white foam core box tested on site –
– It was later decided that the engine house will move to the west (far) end of the layout.

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2010-12-29 – Above – Some snow was shoveled and the tracks and engine house laid in place.

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2010-12-29 – Above – Then the mockup was test fitted and was too small so the flat panels at each end show the actual footprint space needed.

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2010-12-29 – Above – It does solve the problem of getting the underground wiring up on the patio and into the building.

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2010-12-29 – Above – Here are some of the gizmo boxes that need to be housed.

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Although there is no set of plans, this excellent S Scale building is the primary inspiration for the RBRBB:

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Plastic Whacking Begins 

Below – March 6, 2011

Above – The first big, actually huge, mistake – NEVER cut window openings until you have identified the size of available windows!! NEVER!! 

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The Actual RBRBB – Finally!

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Above – 2014-05-06 – Three and a half years later, the scratch-built shell is finished. As noted previously, it is a Plexiglas basic structure with Houseworks 1:24 scale plastic H8206 brick sheet siding and H8207 corners.

Hard Lesson Repeat: Don’t cut the window and door openings until you have the windows and doors in hand. Because of the almost complete dearth of available commercial 1:24 scale windows and doors. At this point I was faced with the opportunity of scratch building 44 windows with 10 individual pieces each and 2 doors. I like creative modeling, but repetitious modeling, not so much….

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Above – 2014-05-30 – The wiring enters the RBRBB through a 2″ overhang off the patio.

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Above – 2014-06-25 – On-site wiring access test. The RBRBB basement is sealed so a wiring access box is built inside the building against the back wall. I would like to figure out a bug-resistant lid for the wiring box to reduce the varmint count. I didn’t say bug-proof because outside, anything that is humanly accessible is always bug accessible.

Note the fortuitous proximity of a GFI protected 120VAC power source on-site above and, for testing inside, below.

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Above – 2014-07-14 – Back inside to install the final connector blocks and – Below Two Pictures – install the two 12VDC fans. They will be controlled by the DuoStat Temperature and Humidity Unit shown. A third fan is built into the Meanwell 24VDC power supply housing.

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Locomotive speed and direction will be  controlled by a very old, used and cheap wireless Aristocraft ‘Train Engineer’ throttle sending information to two equally old Aristocraft ART-5471 receivers – Below:

Update – I cleverly roasted one of my receivers while testing and couldn’t find an exact replacement (wonder how many are lying around in junk piles?) I did find a later model that is compatible.

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October 17, 2015 – With the Indiana winter rapidly approaching (temps in the low 30’s tonight) the RBRBB project has stalled again. The pieces that I precut for the 44 windows don’t fit well because the openings that I hand cut for the windows are irregular and uneven. They would have worked if I had made the window pieces a bit oversize. But noooo…..

I even tried to buy some 3d printed windows on Shapeways but the designer had troubles with the design and they can’t be printed.

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