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Al's Automata Blog

Meanwhile on the Railroad...

4/10/2013

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It seems we are paying for a few mild winters with a late spring this year around here. As you can see the South Bay Railway is still buried under some ice and snow. I usually like to get out early and pick up some of the millions of cedar droppings that find their way onto the layout in the fall and winter before the ground completely thaws, but it is still too early. Still 10" of ice on the lake! 

Cedar leaves/needles are tough to rake so believe it or not I use a vacuum to suck them up, being careful not to suck up ballast as I go. I have found a blower can be pretty destructive if not handled carefully!

Forecast ice pellets, snow and freezing rain for the next few days! Generally not weather conducive to garden railroading.  Oh well one day soon...
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New Hodderville Platform Installed

8/8/2012

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This past weekend I reconstructed the platform for the Hodderville station. It is 34 inches long and 4" wide. The figures are made from cast lead.They were acquired from another railroad enthusiast. In order to keep the raccoon, mink, and other mysterious night visitors from toppling the waiting passengers they are screwed to the platform!

The platform is also lit with three light standards for night time operations.
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Now if only a passenger train would come along these folks might be a little happier. The life of a G scale platform figurine requires almost infinite patience and endurance!


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Who will help me mill the grain said the little red hen?

8/1/2012

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Well, what seemed like should be a simple project just kept on stretching! Here is the finished Mill building waiting for transport to the South Bay Railroad. What started as a new  creek lead to to a 25 foot sluice, a working waterwheel, a stone foundation made with real stones, a scratch-built mill building shown here, and a new mill pond and waterfall.  Well the only thing left is to add the lights and glue a few more rocks in the river and it's done.  Needless to say I have  spent a lot more time on this project than i had planned, but it is a hit with females guests to the railroad.

I'll post a photo next week after i assemble the fi
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Off to the Raceway!

7/18/2012

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In the photo to the left you can see the raceway wall for a mill wheel for the South Bay railway. Pieces of stone 1/4" thick are cut and placed in the mold and then quick set concrete is poured in the complete the wall. A little tedious but the result is very impressive looking. The second wall is in the curing stage and the two will be joined together with a poured base. The project is a kit from Stoneworks who sell a lot of building products for outdoor building modelling. The stone pieces were acquired form a local garden centre.

I've become a little obsessed with the mill project so no progress of significance on an automata piece to speak of!
I have seemed to recovered from the maladies mentioned in the last blog except for a nagging tender achilles. I'm down in the city for a few days, away from my shop, picking up a few needed supplies.

Great summer weather in Central Ontario this summer!
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Alan Creek

6/28/2012

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A tenacious ground ivy forced me to reconsider some landscaping on the South Bay Railway this month. Once you get started, things just seem to happen. The result is a new river on the layout. The Alan Creek when finished will be about 16 feet long and flow into a wooden sluiceway that is about another 16 feet long and will turn a water wheel on a mill before splashing into the existing St. John River on another part of the layout.

This photo is the headwater of the creek, a place that will be known as Flat Rock Springs where the water bubbles up from inside a piece of shale before running down the creek. I hope to complete the river portion this weekend and replant the construction area.

Needless to say while this is going on the automata work is getting dusty.
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The birth of a creek
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Horseshoes Under the Trestle

6/12/2012

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It seems the first few hot days have barely arrived this year and the boys are already playing horseshoes!  They didn't even take the time to cut the grass on the pitch. Unfortunately not everyone has the day off. The engineer of the passing mail train looks down enviously from atop the trestle.

When I was a child my grandfather had a cottage at Thurstonia Park on Sturgeon Lake in the Kawarthas. Every time I hear horseshoes clank I remember fondly those summer days when you could hear the sound of men playing horseshoes at the hotel ringing down the shoreline.

I am contemplating adding a stream to the South Bay layout to add a little more interest.


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A Few New Things!

6/3/2012

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Spent some time at the lake this past week and managed to accomplish a few things...

The Garden railroad finally received a name. It is now officially known as The South Bay Railway. You can catch the new logo on the updated garden railway web page.

The South Bay Railway has a new forest fire watch tower. That's Ranger Andy, binoculars in hand, scanning the layout for smoke. It seems Forest Rangers even work when it is raining as in this photo!

Several steamers in the South Bay fleet received sound cards this week. There is nothing like the sound of of nice steam chuff and long steam whistle to calm the soul!

Ripped out an original rather aggressive ground ivy planting and replaced it with more manageable perennials. Too much maintenance!

Still problem solving "Call Before You Dig".

Finally the automata on the right, "Enough With the Fish Already" was completed. I'll be adding it to the website shortly.


 
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Spring is here - maybe!

5/8/2012

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Spent a few days getting the leaf litter off the garden railway and doing the initial weeding. All-in-all things survived the winter fairly well. I had to do a little ballast repair but things were not in bad shape. The highlight of the annual opening  is donning the bathing suit and reinstalling the two submersible pumps in the lake that feed the railway ponds and rivers. If you are wondering if the water is still very cold - I'd say about three octaves cold!

The first train of 2012 ran this past weekend, a CP rail RS3 pulling a short haul boxcar and caboose. It could have been a lot sooner but the "Urban Terrorists" kept me busy in the wood shop.


While puttering away on the garden and working a few a few leftover automata bits, I was still able to start a little prototyping for my next original piece. It requires an excavator boom. In the photo you can see one of the prototypes hacked together from masonite. It is a worthwhile investment to make several mockups in that it allows me to see which adjustments make the motion most realistic and integrate with other parts of the piece. This one uses one rotating 1-1/2" disc with a pin running in a slot to move the boom and oversized 7/8" cap acting as a cam to move the bucket. Overall it gives a fairly realistic motion.
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First 2012 weeding. The plants are starting to show life?
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A mockup of a possible excavator arm
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    Why Automata?

    Automata is a creative blend of my life interests , engineering, art  and woodworking. 

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Home     Contact    About   
  • Home
  • Automata Blog
  • Automata Gallery
    • The Balsam Lake Elevator Co. >
      • A Tour of the Hoist Room
      • The Key BLEC Employees
    • DJ's Bee Bop Palooza >
      • Roles of Bees in a Hive
      • The Bee Bop Characters
    • Swimming With The Dolphins
    • Tubing The River Styx
    • A Boat, A Boy, And A Dog
    • Parking Lot Wars
    • The Invisible Audiophile
    • Black Bear Bliss
    • The Chase
    • Baa Baa Bad Sheep! >
      • Baa Baa Bad Sheep Photo Gallery
    • The Penguins' Revenge
    • Cirque de Poulet
    • I'm Thinking & Laura
    • The Bipolar Brain
    • Tempest in a Teacup
    • Inner Demon
    • Sewer Rat Symphony >
      • Musican Profiles
    • The Captive
    • Bored Out of My Skin
    • Waiting at the Clinic
    • The Diagnosis
    • Snowbirds
    • The Not So Early Bird - The Common Sleptin
    • 1 HP Heart Pump
    • The Trojan Cat
    • 7-1/2 Horsepower
    • Howdy!
    • The Bus Stop
    • Rhinoceros Racing
    • It's an Uphill Battle
    • When an MRI Goes Badly
    • A Moment of Silence
    • Who Slew the Chicken?
    • The Dentist's Office
    • Owl Hijinx
    • Horse of a Different Colour >
      • Horse of a Different Colour Features & Specs
      • Horse of a Different Colour Photo Gallery
    • March of the Penguins
    • The Extraction >
      • The Extraction Media Gallery
    • Poultry in Motion
    • School's Out!
    • Pond Life >
      • Pond Life Photo Gallery
    • Rat Co. >
      • Rat Co. Employee Profiles
      • Rat Co. Photo Gallery
    • Happy Birthday Daddy! >
      • Happy Features & Specs
      • Happy Birthday Photo Gallery
    • The Raving Fans
    • The Waiting Room >
      • Waiting Room Photo Gallery
    • Cottage Cabernet
    • Neighbourhood Watch
    • Check Please!
    • Fishing >
      • Fishing Photo Gallery
      • The Mechanism
      • Brutus the Catfish
      • Crawford the Crayfish
      • Bigmouth the Largemouth Bass
      • Buddy the Chocolate Lab
      • Gertrude and Heathcliff
    • Ian's African Lion Safari
    • Call Before You Dig >
      • Features & Specs
    • Crossing The Mara >
      • Features & Specs
    • Migrating Caribou >
      • Features & Specs
    • Rocket Pack Raccoon
    • Urban Terrorists >
      • Exploring the Urban Terrorists
      • Features & Specs
    • Top Gun
    • Miss Communication
    • Hula Hoop Girl
    • Java Jane
    • The Cranky Caterpillar
    • A Case in Point...
    • The Leafs Score!
    • Enough With The Fish!
  • Learning Centre
  • Automata Store
  • Workshop Tour!
    • Sanding
    • Drilling
    • Cutting
    • Measurement
    • Carving Tools
    • Hand Tools
    • Working With Brass
    • Work & Assembly Areas
  • Mechanisms, Tip & Tricks
    • The Why and How Of It!
  • Who Am I?
    • Making Automata
  • Contact Me
  • In The News
  • Links
  • The South Bay Railway
    • Murray's Mill
    • Rivers, Creeks & Ponds
    • Early Days Photo Gallery
    • Layout Photo Gallery
    • Layout
  • Totems
  • Some Other Small Projects
    • Misc Projects
  • Driving Home for Christmas
    • Designing the Float
    • A Penguin Prototype
    • The Human Flock
    • The Float Penguins
    • The Float Video
  • Members Page