Roundhouse Gets a New Floor

I’ve never been happy with the roundhouse floor. Being made from a thick layer of ballast, it was not flat, and some of the rocks were real ankle-turners. As a result, details like work benches and water barrels were crooked. As I had the roundhouse module off the layout to protect it while working on […]

Modelling on the Road

Years ago, I worked as a consultant for a database company. A road warrior, often away early Monday morning, returning home Friday evening. It seems like other modellers are able to get some modelling done while travelling; I’ve even heard of a pilot who would build models in the cockpit during long flights. However, the […]

Water Tower Complete

I think we’ll call the water tower complete for now. I wound up printing the ladder so I could get round rungs without losing my mind drilling holes. The wooden supports for the ladder are quite delicate, and the ladder just lies in there loose so I can remove the roof and mess with the […]

Water Tower Tank

Now we get to the meat of the matter: the tank is usually considered the hardest part about building a water tower. In my case, the hard work was mostly done in OnShape. The prototype tank in Wakefield has two different types of band connectors, and they are in different orientations. I copied these differences […]

Spout Installation

It took two attempts – the first with epoxy, and the second with CA – to get the spout and frame mounted on the base. The epoxy didn’t work out because even with help from my darling wife, I wasn’t able to clamp it where I wanted it. With CA, I could hold it by […]

Ball Float

The water tower received a brass ball float and mast. The ball will indicate the water level in the tank, and I will animate it to lower when the valve is open and slowly return to the top of the mast when the valve is closed.

Water tower Spout frame v2

After the experiments a few weeks ago, I thought it was just a matter of attaching the water tower spout and its frame to the base and hooking it all up to the final model. Unfortunately, there is a surprising amount of complexity in the “attach the spout frame to the base” part of the […]

Water tower base gets sheathed

The weather was perfect this weekend for model railroading. Which is to say it was dismal for almost anything else. So, after a quick trip to Intercity Trains and Hobbies in the Far East, where I saw many old friends, I sat down with a clutch of sticks, a few tiny scraps of plastic and […]

Breaking the Water Tower

The water tower will be a nuisance to fix if it ever breaks, and so, I decided to find out when that will be. While The Boy is off at university, he doesn’t mind if I raid his Lego supply for some experimental apparatus, and I soon found the battery pack and motor I was […]

Water Spout and Sheaves

To get the water spout to pull the chain over the sheaves, I had to move its centre of balance away from the tank. To do so, I made the far end out of brass and the near end from acetal, which turns nicely in the lathe. The two parts fit together with a post […]