2024 January - New Year Progress

It's been a busy final quarter of 2023 and we're already into the New Year of 2024, wow - where does the time go?  We want to thank our customers for being so supportive of us during the last year and really coming out during the last three months to the conventions and supporting our new products.  We'll start this OwlMtModels Update as a continuation of the announcement from November of '23, with an update about the Owenyo Structures.

Owenyo Structure News

The research for the structures at Owenyo has been progressing.  I'm hoping to get a more complete Bulk Conveyor Loader (OBCL) and Water Pump House (OWPH) drawings together soon so we can get quotes and pre-production test prints made.  Some minor delays on details for the Water Tank (OWTank) have pushed it back, but I think some recent research finds should allow that and the Owenyo Oil Pump House (OOPH) and tanks to move forward too.

In the mean time, I've sent the proof drawings for the Owenyo Transfer Track Ramp or OTTR over to the 3d printer as a proof of concept or test for all the trestle related projects.  Can we make them?  Will they be good enough?

Newly drafted Owenyo Transfer Track Ramp used to load Narrow Gauge equipment onto Standard Gauge flatcars.

One of the smaller structures at Owenyo, but still very much a signature cornerstone of the railroad facilities to support the SP Narrow Gauge operations was this little ramp for loading the narrow gauge steam engines onto the standard gauge flatcars for their annual trips to visit the Bakersfield shops for heavy servicing and regular repairs.

Owenyo SG-NG ramp - Rich McCutchan  - owensvalleyhistory - slim rails63_sml

The ramp is drawn to go down into the sub-grade and after reviewing the photos of the prototype, I'll be modifying my module to fit the changes to the ground profile.

First Test Pre-production

Early test print, several minor changes to come before we get to 'production' level quality.

The new year continues the Owenyo Structure's project with our first prototype 3d print for the Owenyo Transfer Track Ramp (or abbreviated OTTR).  Note that this print still needs some minor cleanup on the bottom of the main beams, and the bents aren't in final position at this point.  Two of the support beams are doubled up at the left end of the trestle to make it more level for this photo. 

Revised version 2024-01-10

1/16" magnets installed in bents and caps.

I want to be able to remove this ramp deck section from the demo layout when it needs to be moved or the modules worked on.

South-west corner of the ramp with Code 40 rails and wooden retaining boards installed.

This model needs two wooden 2x10 strips cut 9ft lock to be installed on the dirt side of the Bent 2, at the south end of the 'ski-ramp'.  I pre-stained them and also pre-painted the 3d printed Bent 2 part.  The Code 40 rail sections are glued in place with thick ACC cement. 

South-east corner of the ramp with rail and wooden strips for retaining boards installed.

About 1/8" of rail extend on the abutment end, which will be fitted with half-rail joiners.  The transferring southern end extends about 1/4" past the last tie, which matches the prototype photos, allowing it to span to the deck of the flatcars.

The ramp is dry fitted on the layout, which has a 1/4" depression for SG track.

Prototypically installed ramp would be partly buried in the ground at the left end and the Standard Gauge track in the pit to the right accounting for the high bent at the right end.

Here a F-70-10 flatcar spotted against the ramp to check the relationship.

The whole OTR will need to be sunk into the layout surface another 1/8" or so, including dropping the SG pit another 1/8" as well, maintaining the spacing height of the top of the OTR and SG track.

Owenyo Transfer Trestle (OTT)

3/4 view of the new 3d test prints of the southern end of the OTT, only the basic structure was test printed.

Probably the biggest single project I've ever worked on is the huge transfer trestle and ramp.  But it's also going to be one of the most challenging in multiple ways.  Since I publicly revealed that I was working on the CAD design for it in November of 2023, I've put out some basic quotes for the big Transfer 'Dumping' Trestle and put some requests for quotes for some of the parts. Sadly some adjustments to the plans I was hoping for in November's update are going to be changed due to availability and current cost of materials/productions. Some of the R&D of the main trestle parts will have to be delayed for a couple of months for a new printer to arrive.

In the mean time, I printed out a full HO-scale side elevation drawing and showed it to a couple friends, everyone was shocking to see the size of it! Those early renderings that I posted in November didn't last a week before I went through a complete redesign to make the CAD model more accurate.

Several more weeks of working through photo references and detailing the drawings came to a nearly ready pre-production CAD model, but then over Christmas to New Years weekend and some peer-review with a couple of trusted friends (thanks guys!) found several issues that all would resolve towards the same solution, I was convinced that the best thing for the project would be to do another heavy redesign of the CAD model to make some further corrections.

Honestly, these changes and 'delays' are a blessing in disguise.  It's better to make the changes now while I'm only 'inconveniencing electrons,' than to wait and find it out on the pre-production models after $100s spent in development.

The rough conclusion from the quotes is that the HO models are going to MSRP for at least $600+ for the full set and S-scale versions are MSRP of at least $900-1000+, but will also require the new 3d printer's larger printing bed to be produced.  The brass handrail material is basically unavailable, which I didn't know in November.  During the quoting process, even to have brass hand rail stanchions for the full HO model will add at least $300+ to the MSRP price, which I think will push the model well outside the economical range of most of you wanting to reserve one.  So I'm re-evaluating much of the project's scope.

A higher angle view of the test printed sections, with one slope-sheet section. Note middle bent isn't detail painted yet in this shot.

Personally, I'm realizing that a major chunk of my layout's total cost to build will be tied up in this one structure, even with only 80% of the dumping section and minimal approach ramp section actually modeled.  I won't hold anything again of our reservation holders for backing out due to the pricing point that we're looking at.

I'm open for email correspondence from those of you who already have expressed interest in the reservations if this is still something that you're committed to having produced.

Next Injection Molding Project

With the delays in the Owenyo Transfer Trestle (OTT), we're switching to working on our next lumber load tooling, so keep an eye on our upcoming announcements here for that.  Hopefully it will be as popular as the 3002 and 3003 kits from October 2023 were!

Decals

The new decals for 2024 are coming along, and I hope to be making some announcements about them in the next update.

OwlMtModels' new #1220 Routing & Grading Cards decal sheet.

Some price changes have been made to account for pricing changes in the manufacturing, etc.  Thanks to everyone that has really bit into the OMM 1220 Routing Card Decals.  We're having to put in another re-order for the 3rd time in four months due to their popularity!

Also, we're rearranging the artwork for the 1224 and 1225 SPMW decal sets to produce solid sheets of them, which will be more efficient and able to better match the orders we're receiving.

Thanks everyone for ordering these decal sets and making them one of the highlights of our product line in the 4th quarter of 2023!  

OMM 1221 Owl Mountain Lumber Company decal sheet.

Also a small shameless plugging reminder that we'll be including a free set of the OMM 1221 decal sheets in every order of $100+ of the 3000-series Lumber Load kits.  We hope you enjoy them and find good use for them on your lumber loads or even other places around the layout, such as on your local lumber yard and mill or lumber shipping company who's loading the cars with lumber!

2-8-0 Conversion Project

Lastly, I should give everyone that is patiently holding reservations for the 2-8-0 Valve Gear (4012) sets an update.  We're waiting for the remastering of the investment parts, hopefully January or February will see the new proof parts being cast and start into production.. I know we've already said that this time last year...  (wow how time flies when things keep breaking!)... but hopefully this time we'll be able to get them made, and get the project re-railed.  Thanks to everyone who is still supporting us pushing against the wall to get this project moving forward again.

Edit 2024-04-14: Latest update from the molding shop is that they're recutting the mold for the 4012 invest parts as of early April, and hoping to have invests to the foundry to make test casts around the middle of the month.  I hope that these will turn out so we can go into production, and then start making 3d printed cylinders and fill all the back-ordered reservations from the last 6 years!  As I've said before, this project shouldn't have taken this long, but we're still working on it when possible.

Happy New Year!

Minor photoshopped picture from January 2018 LMRC 'Winter on Tehachapi' TT/TO session.

Here's to a Happy New Year of Modeling to all of our friends and customer's who make OwlMtModels possible through your continued support of our products.

Jason Hill &

the OwlMtModels Family