Ophir General Merchandise

I recently completed my model of the Ophir General Merchandise kit by Banta Modelworks (https://www.bantamodelworks.com/).  This kit was a challenge to bring to completion owing to a lack of information in the kit regarding the arrangement of the railings, stairways, and ladders on the decks and catwalks.  However, I made use of Mike Blazek's plans (http://blazeksplan.com/) for the structure, photos from the Rio Grande Southern Story, and parts from my scrap box to complete it.  I also found an adhesive which makes installation of the non-peel-and-stick shingles included in the kit much easier.

The Ophir General Merchandise store in HO scale.  This front view shows the gas pump from my scrap box, and the 3/4" thick pine block glued to the underside of the front porch to eliminate a warp.  The building is located adjacent to the track, with a road to the left climbing a steep grade.  The ladder, catwalk, and stairway shown in front of the building will be installed after the building is installed on the layout.

The left side of the Ophir General Merchandise.  The catwalk will be located between the second story doorway and the roadway.  The stairway leads down from the road to the front porch.

The right side of the Ophir General Merchandise, showing the tarpaper siding and basement wall.  The building is located on a sloped site, so the block in front will be hidden,

The rear of the Ophir General Merchandise.  The platform on the right will be accessed by the ladder (on the left).

Scatter Grip, the adhesive I used to attach the non-peel-and-stick shingles.  The material is painted onto the surface and allowed to dry.  It remains tacky for hours, so there is ample time to complete installation of the strips of shingles.  I found this to be much less frustrating and annoying than attempting to use spray glue to attach the shingles.  The product is available from Amazon.  Search for Deluxe Materials Scatter Grip.

Rio Grande Southern T-19 Number 20

I recently added an additional Rio Grande Southern locomotive to the roster.  I purchased this locomotive a Precision Scale T-19, back in 2014 at the National Narrow Gauge Convention in Overland Park, Kansas.  I added a Soundtraxx Tsunami-2 Steam Decoder, the TSU-1100, a Soundtraxx Currentkeeper, and a Mini Cube speaker.  All of this equipment fit into the small tender!  The headlight is illuminated with an LED made by Evan Designs (www.ModelTrainSoftware.com).  This LED operates on 7-19 volts AC, DC, or DCC.  It includes a tiny bridge rectifier, which I was able to install in the smokebox.  The leads are simply soldered to the F0 function leads from the decoder, which are the white and blue wires.  There was no need to calculate the size of resistor necessary, as it is included with the LED.  I added window glass, painted the tires, axle ends, and journal boxes a weathered white, and installed a coal load made from real crushed and sized narrow gauge coal.

The Rio Grande Southern T-19 Number 20.  

Electrical Plan for the Rio Grande Southern

Attached is the electrical plan for the Rio Grande Southern railroad.  This diagram shows each of the power districts, reversing sections, and the programming track.  The railroad uses the main NCE Power Pro command station, two NCE Boosters, eight PSX circuit breakers, three PSX-AR auto-reversers, and three OG-AR auto-reversers.  The Ridgway, Telluride, and Pandora portions of the layout have not yet been constructed, so the electrical components for these towns are not in place.