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A first Foray into O Gauge

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Details, details ....

Ahead of the Wycrail Show I have been adding more details to the layout. First off I've made some flower tubs from the cardboard tubes you get round the business end of a new spark plug cut in half and painted white. The flowers are from www.themodeltreeshop.com and come ready to "plant" - a bead of PVA run round the inside of the tube and the flowers just popped in       Next that very nice man Jon Fitness sent me a spare length of ladder which duly painted sits very well against the y

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DCC Shelf!

Those of you who were at the RMweb Live event and took a peek behind the layout would have seen the lash-up that was the control panel/programming track. I realized VERY late that I needed my OO rolling road/NCE power panel for the DCC demo     so I cobbled something together from an old ice cream tub and a bit of old kitchen kick board. I had a spare panel and autoSW for the programming track. A short length of Peco flexi completed the arrangement and it all worked well at the show.   Th

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Pway Volunteers Save the Day!

Now that the dust has settled on the RMweb Live event last weekend I had to turn my attention to a track failure that occurred early on Sunday morning. The rod that links two of the tie bars together underneath the double slip had come adrift. My assistants on the day qucikly came up with a cumming double shunt move to enable the day to continue but as Wycrail is looming on the horizon something had to be done.   Lots of options were considered, including drilling under the slip from the back

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Lighting the Way

Whilst arranging the figures on the platform at the weekend it occurred to me that something was missing - lamps! An order was placed for five S&D Models GWR gas lamp kits with stems. I also ordered a stem extension to convert one to a yard lamp for the Goods Shed area.   So here's the lamps all built up waiting for the paint shop. I hope to get these ready to plant when I set up at the Ricoh for RMweb Live!     I've also made up some station/camping coach safety notices that will aga

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Population Explosion

OK, here's where the O gauge on a budget goes right out of the window. If you were doing this at home dear reader you could use cheaper imported figures and paint them up but this is an exhibition layout and I have a very tight deadline!   approx 100 quid spent on Preiser figures but the layout is starting to come to life           The camping coach is now illuminated too. I really must get on with that coach .....  

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One or Two Details

A couple of items on my desk this lunchtime:     First off a much waited for Black Cat Tech lighting strip. Stephen's been out of the market for a while but I'm glad to see his products starting to filter back into his eBay store   This will be used to light the inside of the camping coach.   Secondly two name boards for the platform, printed out on my laser printer and glued to 1mm greyboard. Left overnight for the glue to set and then cut out leaving a 1mm border. I will glue to scra

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RedgateModels

Home Alone (again) Day Three

So my modelling fest is about at an end - for tomorrow I must tidy up!   However I am very pleased with the results and the magnitude of my efforts over the last three days. A few tweaks here or there, but Fourgig is about ready for RMweb Live!   Here's a few snaps                  

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RedgateModels

Home Alone (again) Day Two

First on the list today was to get the signal operating wires fitted to the centre board. This was done by lunchtime although I ran out of wire so one run from one end of the board to the other will have to be fitted at a later date. Andrew at Wizard Models had kindly agreed to swap a spare pack of rodding for another pack of wire - top man     I've also got the black paint on the woodwork for the left hand board, so that is currently in the "paint drying annex" ready for tomorrow.   Thi

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RedgateModels

Home Alone (again) Day One

The wife, kids and mother-in-law left at 10am today for Great Yarmouth. Not set to return until sometime on Friday, so the whole house is my workshop   The left hand board as the public view the layout had it's external woodwork painted black (saves you a job Pete ) and left out in the sun. It's now sitting in the living room annex on two of the layout legs hardening off.   The centre board was the focus of today's efforts. Duly set up in the middle of the living room on it's legs, complet

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Attention changes to the centre board

Now that the l;eft hand board has all it's rodding and wires in place I've put it to one side and put the centre board on the legs in the workshop. Today I have soldered up the PH Designs security fencing for the rear of the layout, just need some sun to spray it grey!     I've also coaled up the coal staithes, pretty pleased with this. looks most convincing     I have all this week off work to get the basics nailed ahead of RMweb Live! - I'm going to be fed up of train sets by Friday

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Wires, wires and more wires

FINALLY I have completed the signalling wire runs on board one. The last to be connected to the 'box were oddly the signals closest to it!   here's a quick snap showing how I have, maybe unconventionally used a pulley wheel on the post of the main signal. I added Woodland Scenics fine cinders to the base of the signals before adding the wire runs by just applying PVA to the base with a brush then sprinkling the cinders over the top. A quick hoover with a hanky over the en of the nozzle cleared

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Another Signal Connected

Managed to grab half an hour last night after sorting someone's X04 motor (got to pay for all these signalling components somehow!) The platform fixed stop with shunt ahead subsidiary is now connected to the 'box     I made a large wheel up from the MSE etch secured it to a bit of Weatherspoon's coffee stirrer (they are wider then the McDonalds ones) and glued it into a hole cut in the card platform edge. The operating wire was wrapped round the wheel a couple of times and secured with a dr

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RedgateModels

Signal Wires, Pulleys and "Horses"

Thanks chaps, as no-one offered any kind of therapy following my decision to model the rodding exits from the signal box I found myself ordering cast wire pulleys, 0.11mm stainless wire and another etch of pully wheels etc.   Slow progress mainly due to the fact that the pulley castings are not the best and need to be drilled out to allow the wires through - I am getting through a lot of 0.5mm drills with the brass castings .......   I've done a run of 4 wires from the 'box to the foot cross

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RedgateModels

Fencing

A quick snap of the PH Designs fencing installed. I intend to fashion a padlock and chain to dangle from one of the gates and maybe a cat creeping through the open gate?     The Network Rail van is a very cut down modelrailwayscenery.com delivery van with the logo changed in Acrobat. It's not fixed in place yet as I'm waiting until the station buildings are in place for final positioning.   Next steps will be adding some undergrowth and blending in of the scenics. Must order the platform

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RedgateModels

Rodding, board one - done.

I'm please to say the rodding on the first and most complicated board is done. Aided by my new toy - an LED head torch. I now have light wherever I look   A few snaps of the completed rodding including the cross rods to the double slip and the first set of compensators       I've removed the chance of the cross rods shorting out the track by copying a bit of prototypical trackwork and added an insulator between the rails - a small rectangle of double sided PCB that the rod halves are

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Rodding rodding everywhere!

An unexpected reprieve from loft insulation allowed me to get the rodding from the 'box up to the barrow crossing completed     I'm pleased with the way the #8 rod dips down to the point crank then continues on to the far end of the double slip, with rod #9 running in front and over the crank     Finally a close up of the 'box gubbins  

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Signal box gubbins

I said I wasn't going to do this, the plan WAS to hide the lack of wheels/cranks/wires and rodding exiting the signal box with a wooden walkway so why have I made this over the last few nights?     the crank leading to lever 8 is even shown as pulled to match the lever for pete's sake. Have I any idea of the September deadline to get the layout finished!   I need counselling.

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RedgateModels

Reading Matter

This week I have mostly been building the "WH Smiths" kiosk from the Scalescenes Station Structures kit. Again enlarged by 175% on my printer to make it O scale.       As it's O gauge, I have put a bit more into this kit to add relief detail and have popped a cheap eBay figure sitting on a left over doll's house chair.   Not sure his reading matter is suitable for an Ivor the Engine event though     also a bit of self promotion, quite proud of that mag cover     The roof w

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RedgateModels

Lighting rig complete, and some gardening!

So at last the lighting rig and supports are complete, here's a couple of snaps of it in Fourgig East mode:       and here's it for Summat Colliery - must get a new sign made!       The shelves at the back were made from some off-cuts of UPC cladding I had lying around (as you do)   So then as it was sunny etc I decided to get the static grass out and detail up the shed area         Finally a shot of the shed/fiddle yard board in place  

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Belt and Braces?

Something had been bugging me for a while. A couple of times in the past I have dropped part of my other layout Summat Colliery when packing away. This was caused by carelessness and the fact that the leg assemblies can tip sideways if sideways pressure is put on them.   As the centre section of the supports now becomes the key foundation to the whole set-up I wanted to add a cross brace from one leg assembly to another to eliminate the possibility of another board ground interface issue! An h

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A Sign of the Times

Fourgig's name board arrived in the post today     It's attached to the centre lighting pelmet by velcro so that it can be swapped for Summat Colliery's when the need arises   The lighting rig supports need a final coat of paint then the wiring can be sorted

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The light at the end of the tunnel ....

Found some time over Easter to paint the lighting pelmets, satin black on the outside and gloss white on the inside. A trip to Maplins and 60 quid later I had the LED lighting strips and power supply etc.   I hooked them up one evening just to see how bright they were, blimey!       Once the paint was dry, they were fitted and tested     All that is left to do is finish painting the supports white and do the final wiring

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Lighting done (well apart from the actual lights!)

I am Christmas crackered but the woodworking is all done for the new lighting rig. I moved on from the last posting by adding the pelmet that for Fourgig East sits to the left of the public     You will see that the support is set in 9" from the edge so that the bottom of the legs will not stick out beyond the nominal footprint of the layout - I have had them kicked too many times by neighboring operators to leave it as it was! I will have to add some packers to the key points on the under

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Lighting continued .....

So, this morning the centre pelmet that the other two will hang off was finished     Pretty pleased, all lines up and the pelmet just drops onto two dowel pegs - no other fixings.   Now for the two side ones

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Let there be light

I have a couple of days off this week whilst SWMBO takes the boys to camp and thought turned to the lighting rig for Fourgig.   I wanted it to be easy to assemble at a show and also needed to be modular so that most of it could also be used for my other layout Summat Colliery. As the layouts share the same legs modification of the legs to take a cantilevered lighting pelmet seemed the way to go.     I started by making new longer top cross members for the lauout supports then fixed some b

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