Years before the B&MC became a podunk tourist/branchline, the town of Matthysen Junction had a small tilt dumper to send coal down the bay to local coal suppliers when coal was still used for heating a good percentage of Eastern Shore homes. Ten cars a week came to this noisy, dusty beast and few tears were shed when it tossed its last load in the spring of '63.
Based on plans on page 79 of the long out of print "Bridges and Buildings for Model Railroads" and remeniscent of a time when there were far fewer kits available, I've wanted to build this thing since I first read the article over thirty years ago. Robin's work took me back to my own beginnings, when I made my models with the same materials and nothing but a straight edge razor, a scale ruler cut from a magazine and paper matches for paint brushes.
I started by turning the bull wheel by first rough cutting it on a band saw. Then I placed a finishing nail thru the center and then nailed it to a scrap piece of wood. By applying even pressure as I turned it against my sander, I was able to produce the proper sized disc and make it perfectly round. Because the plywood used was much too thick, I simply split the disc on my bandsaw, then sanded it flat.
Based on plans on page 79 of the long out of print "Bridges and Buildings for Model Railroads" and remeniscent of a time when there were far fewer kits available, I've wanted to build this thing since I first read the article over thirty years ago. Robin's work took me back to my own beginnings, when I made my models with the same materials and nothing but a straight edge razor, a scale ruler cut from a magazine and paper matches for paint brushes.
I started by turning the bull wheel by first rough cutting it on a band saw. Then I placed a finishing nail thru the center and then nailed it to a scrap piece of wood. By applying even pressure as I turned it against my sander, I was able to produce the proper sized disc and make it perfectly round. Because the plywood used was much too thick, I simply split the disc on my bandsaw, then sanded it flat.