Raggs to Riches Durango Coaling Tower


M

mdcustom

Bridge and Building Dept
Started working on the Raggs to Riches Durango coaling tower this afternoon. Got the pit and mechanical room built. This is a laser cut kit that was reviewed two years ago in RMC, the reviewer took 80 hours to assemble his kit if I remember right. I do not believe that it will take anywhere near that long to assemble, while I have not built this kit before, I have built this tower from scratch an number of times and am very familiar with how it goes together. This is for a client and the only major difference from the prototype will be a change to 30" gauge on the pit rails.
 
Matt, what kind of coaling tower is this? It doesn't look like a typical railroad coaling tower.
 
Jim, perhaps tonight it will look a bit more like what you expect. In fact it should look like a common coaling tower, since the Campbell's HO scale kit was very loosely based on the D&RGW Durango coaling tower. The lower portion of the pit below the line is recessed into the benchwork, while the pit rails are elevated above the load out track. The support under the mechanical house is just there till the piece is finished to keep everything level.
 
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Some detail shots of the kit, the pit doors and a close up shot of the front of the bin showing the interlaced wall boards.
 
Thanks, Matt, that makes more sense now. I just wasn't visualizing the correct part of the coaling tower you were working. Sure looks like another sweet kit coming together.
 
Installed the brass "H" columns as the beams for the delivery rails, then started adding the coal. There are two lifts shown in these photos with the second one happening just before the photos were shot so the diluted glue still shows on the gratings. The grating by the way are from Grant Line and fit like a charm with very little trimming needed. I am planning on one more lift of coal to get the right look in the pit with a bit more coal mounded up over the grates on the far side from the tower.
 
Finished up with the coal in the unloading pit today and added the trim work about the pit. Started building the mechanism for the buckets today and the head house. Spent most of the day finishing out a shortline water tank for shipment tomorrow morning.
 
Finished the gate lifting mechanism on the unloading pit. Then worked on the track system for the buckets and the winding house on top.
 
Got the upper sheaves installed and some of the detail work around the delivery chute finished today.
 
First shot shows one of the two coal buckets which do the lifting to the top of the tower. Next is a shot showing the windows installed. And last is a shot showing some of the details including the steel tension rods which run front to back.
 
Continued with the details of the tower, the top ramps are complete and the buckets are ready. The track that they ride in had to be steamed to make the bend at the top of the tower and should be ready to complete in the morning. Since the buckets are a balanced pair only one of the them has a coal load as the other would be on its way down.
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Boy, that kit has some great details although that lift system looks like a real challenge to build. I'm going to be building a 1/8 scale model of our church over the next several months and you've been a real inspiration to me.
 
Mounted the "x" bracing for the legs, it was fun as there is actually two sets aligned with 3 scale inches between them to allow the bucket lift cables to thread down between them. The first shot shows the curved pieces that were steam bent to build the upper tracks. Then a couple of shots of the channel tracks for the buckets. Next up a shot of part of the gate lift mechanism, this is a Grant Line piece and the black "bicycle chain" is really delicate but looks so good on the finished model.
 
And last is a shot of one of the buckets in its test fit in the duel channel tracks. If the buckets were weighted it would be possible to have them animated.
 
Got the gate installed and completed the bucket lifts. Only thing that remains is going over the entire complex with a heavy coating of Brandon weathering powers, mostly soot.
 
Final weathering is done, unless I put a bit more on right before it is packed up for shipment tomorrow. Total time building this kit was 56.25 hours just a bit under my estimate of 60 and in line with what I take to do the structure from scratch. Raggs to Riches kit went together very nicely with no major problems that I have encountered with some other laser cut kits.
 
And the rest of the way around the structure. Pit rails were left off the build to allow the client to run his rails continuous across the pit. Other than that the build was straight out of the box.
 
That's an amazing amount of work in relatively short time! Not trying to pry, but how would you price such a build or something like that? Don't answer if you'r rather not. Always been curious as to how much people would pay for such work. Even charging say $560.00, it would only be $10.00 per hour for you.

In the past I've been asked several times by modelers if I'd be interested in making for them some of the models I've made. I've always replied that I wasn't interested, I do it as a hobby only. I wondered if they realised the amount of time some models would take, and if they'd really be interested in paying me a decent wage to make them one. "Sure I'll kitbash/scratchbuild you a plow like mine, are you interested in paying me $30.00 an hour to do it?" I can just imagine their reply - "Oops, I was thinking of a hundred dollars or so".

I did do a kitbash for a friend many years ago. He did freelance work for Canadian Pacific, he'd paint and decorate diesels in their colors and mount them on display bases as presents to officials, customers, and retiring employees. They wanted a model of the SD40-2F, which is a cowl version of the SD40-2 that CP had. There was at the time an article on kitbashing one in RMC, so he asked if I'd do one for them. I agreed, they supplied all of the models for the work, and a display case. I timed my work, it took me about 52 hours to complete.

Not knowing how or what to charge them, I suggested that he buy a lens for my camera on his company credit card, which he did. It would have cost me around $500.00 for the lens, so I ended up making a bit under $10.00 and hour for my work. Seeing that I was making over $25.00 an hour at my full time job, it sure wasn't a whole lot or really worth it, but I looked at it as a learning experience. I always wondered if I had charged them $1500.00 for the model if they would have balked!

Thanks for sharing your efforts!
 
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