Jerusalem Works - Withdrawn

[Pinkmouse]

Well, time to throw my hat into the ring!

 

This project was first strted a while ago and was documented here, on the old RMweb. Virtually no progress has been made since the last post in that thread, and this competition was a suitable kick up the bottom and encouragement to get on.

 

So, I started by buying Templot, (previously I was relying on the help of others for track layouts, but decided it was time to become self sufficient, especially as the bit I'm working on now has some tricky alignments.), a great program, and worth every penny. After a day or so playing, I was able to get up and running, and tracklaying has recommenced. Here's a couple of pics of progress so far:

 

 

 

 

Those familar with the old thread will notice I've added a placeholder for a works narrow gauge line, I may add a little FY for it so I can shunt small works trains on and offstage. Still not sure what gauge to build it, protoypically they seem to be 18", but I may well go for 009, we'll have to see what budget and practicality allows.

 

 

There's still lots to do, but hopefully all fully achievable within the contest timeframe.

[Pinkmouse]

Well, tracklaying is mostly finished, so I can start thinking about other things:

 

 

One thing I wasn't happy with was the rock outcrop, so as you can see, it's gone! This obviously meant removal of the disused stairway/store, which is a shame as I was quite happy with it, but to fit the new rockface it will require much modification, and I'm not sure if it might be easier just to start again from scratch rather than a rebuild job. We'll see.

 

For the new rockface, I've been experimenting with the Woodland Scenics rubber moulds. I like the effect, but as the budget would only stretch to one mould, a little cut and shut job will be required:

 

 

I've also been thinking about practical operation, and you can see the start of my experiments in memory wire here.

[Pinkmouse]

Well, rubbish TV tonight, so I've got a bit more done. The rock face has been assembled from bits of three full castings and fixed in place with hot melt glue. Once the gaps are filled and it's painted, I think it will look rather good!

 

 

I've also cut and test fitted the removable fourth wall. I'm really quite happy with the sense of inner city claustrophobia that's developing here. The white foamboard will be a low relief wall for another works shed, with a little bit more stone retaining to add some depth. The L shaped white paper cut out on the middle siding will be a single road shed for the works shunting engines, probably a wooden structure to add a little variety.

 

[Pinkmouse]

Hmm, so over 350 views and no comments? I won't be winning then!

 

Anyway, I'll keep posting regardless.

 

So as I'm stuck at home at the moment due to my car breaking a cam belt, (don't ask, the estimate just keeps going up every time I speak to them... ), I've been distracting myself with a little building. Those who read any of my old postings on this layout will know that I initially had a "placeholder" two road engine shed just below the turntable. This was way too big, and didn't really fit the idea of a repair works, so out it went. But, I still needed some sort of feature building for this corner, and all the ideas I had just didn't work for some reason or another. So, I finally went back to the idea of a shed, but just a single road one, for the two shunting locos that move stuff around the yard. I wanted a timber structure, to add variety, and after going through all my LMS books, found a couple of prototypes to base my model on. I also added a lean-to, as a mess room and toilet for the yard staff and engine crews.

 

So yesterday, the brickies were in, and built the stub walls and lean-to structure. The chippies got held up on another job, so the yard foreman had a couple of his labourers whitewash the walls whilst they were waiting:

 

 

The chippies finally arrived, and firstly laid the distressed timber flooring inside the shed, then cracked on with the framing:

 

 

Tomorrow, roof trussing may go in, or the weatherboarding might get started, depending on what I feel like.

[Mikkel]

Hmm, so over 350 views and no comments? I won't be winning then!

 

 

The lack of comments could also just mean that we're speechless with admiration!

 

This is coming along very fast and I really like the trackplan and workmanship. I look forward to seeing how you tackle the rood trussing as I'll be doing something along those lines myself. Please keep it coming .

[Pinkmouse]

The lack of comments could also just mean that we're speechless with admiration!

 

That's what I would like to think!

 

The timberwork all went fairly easily, the secret is to make up card jigs so all the bits are identical. Here's the one I made for the stud walls, and the one I'm in the process of making for the trusses:

 

[NeilHB]

Hi Al,

 

I really like how the layout is coming on, the rockface looks very good, and I do like the look of the shed that you're building at the moment! I'll be following this one with interest.

[Pinkmouse]

Well, the chippies haven't turned up yet, so the quarry tiles were laid in the loo, and the plumbing started:

 

 

The bowl and cistern were carved out of plaster offcuts from the rock face, (never throw anything away!), then dipped in Klear. You can't really see it in the pics, but they look very porcelain like. The seat and downpipe are copper wire, blackened with a Sharpie. Still to add, copper supply pipes and a chain flush. The quarry tiles are scribed paper, spayed with red oxide, then a couple of coats of Klear to give a satin finish, and finally a grey wash to pick out the grouting.

 

I also need to make up a stench pipe and a big sink for washing up after shift end. I may also add a few lockers. Anything else anyone can think of?

[Steve Taylor]

Excellent stuff. Glad you've decided to carry on and move over to here. I was enjoying this over on the old place. Best of luck with it and any chance of a synopsis posting of the build of the turntable over here?

 

Cheers

[Pinkmouse]

Thanks twa_

 

I'm currently considering control options for the layout, I want to go DCC, but due to the car problems, it's likely that this will be put off for a good few months due to the cost involved. I've also designed my own memory wire TOUs, and when I start looking for appropriate accessory controllers to drive those it's likely I'll revisit the control options for the TT and traverser to make it all compatible, so that would seem to be the time to cover those. It will happen, just not yet!

[Pinkmouse]

I really don't know how architectural modellers cope. Glue takes sooooo long to set compared to soldering!

 

Progress as of first thing yesterday morning:

 

 

As you can see, the build has all gone a bit random, as I can only work on a little bit at a time whilst the glue sets up on another bit.

 

Still, it's starting to take shape. You can see in this pic the beech veneer planks, all cut individually to size and applied to the stud framing. Pencil marks help align the cladding as it goes on, and those uprights will be trimmed off with another layer on top to make them neat and flush with the weatherboarding.

 

And how it stands now:

 

 

I dropped it in to place just to see how it would look, and I'm quite pleased with progress so far. Much more to do though - finish cutting more planks, frame up the roof vents, and decide on a roof covering. I also need to work out what needs to go in the mess room, notice board, lockers, table and chairs are obvious, but I'm sure it would have a stove for making tea and other stuff besides. I need to find a suitable prototype to copy.

[Pinkmouse]

Whilst waitng for the glue to dry, I've also been doing a bit more on the rockface and walls:

 

 

The rockface is coming together well, just a bit more varigation needed then it'll be time to soot it up. I also decided to rework the walls. I was originally going to use the same style as so ably demonstrated on the excellent Tetleys Mills, but I had in the back of my mind a nagging doubt, it just didn't quite look how I remember it when I was little in the West Riding. The solution came when I was over my mum's for lunch the other day, and I actually looked at her wedding picture, taken outside a church in Morley, near Leeds. What was very obvious was that the stone and mortar started off as black, and the stone highlights were actually from the soft millstone grit spalling of the surface of the stones with the effect of the weather. So, out came the paint and a black undercoat was applied, and so far it's had a few washes of brown and grey to get a suitable sooty base colour. I'll drybrush some browny yellowy whites on to get the effect I desire later on, but I've made up a test piece to try that out on first. Stay tuned.

[Guest jim s-w]

Looks great so far.

 

For the lockers have a look at the unit models range. They do all sorts of useful little bits like that. click here for their website

 

HTH

 

Jim

[Pinkmouse]

For the lockers have a look at the unit models range. They do all sorts of useful little bits like that.

 

Excellent, thanks Jim.

[Mikkel]

The timber built shed is looking great - I'm learning a lot from watching the way you did it, especially the trussing.

 

You mention that the shed is based on a couple of LMS prototypes. Out of interest, can I ask which ones? (Although I model GWR myself it's always interesting to pick up ideas for non-company buildings.)

[Pinkmouse]

Hi Mikkel

 

Well, the design is very much osmosis, but main influences are Seaton, Thornbury, and Charnwood Forest, all old Midland sheds. As for the framing, it's a very basic representation of what would actually be there. I couldn't find any pics of interiors, so I very much designed the framing in the way I would have built it in real life, but with lots of bits missed out that wouldn't be that noticeable when finished. I still need to frame out the smoke vents, but decided to do that as a separate assembly that I'll add later.

 

Here's another gratuitous pic.

 

 

 

 

If you're thinking of your goods shed model, you might need to go into a bit more detail, as it will be so much more visible, but I'm more than willing to advise when you get around to it if you don't have prototype pics to copy. I'd also consider using a more fine grained wood than the balsa I used, it'll be less obvious with a good coat of grime in my shed, but yours will be cleaner and therefore you'll need to pay a bit more attention.

[Mikkel]

Thanks very much, I certainly could do with some advice on the framing/trussing, and would very much appreciate it when I get to that point - very kind of you.

 

BTW, I know what you mean about waiting for the glue to dry in this kind of project, it's very painful! The obvious answer is to model something else in between, but I often find that if I work on several projects at once the quality goes down on all of them .

[Rob Pulham]

Al, if you want the glue to dry quicker could you not use the hot melt glue gun? I haven't tried it myself but seem to remember reading about using one on wood in a routing magazine some time ago

[Pinkmouse]

Hmm. The glue guns I have would be way to big and clumsy, but the theory is sound. Now, I have some constantin wire somewhere, I'll need a hypodermic needle for dispensing the glue, a lump of copper or ally to act as a heat reservoir, some sort of spring tensioning thingy to feed the glue stick....

 

I'll get back to you on this one!

[Pinkmouse]

Well, at last the cladding is done! Phew!!!

 

 

I'll give it a day or so to set up before I trim out the door and windows just to make sure it's all nice and solid. Before I put in the last boarding I ran a couple of lengths of copper wire into the roof voids to make it easier to add lighting later on, it was easier that way then trying to fiddle it in afterwards.

[Pinkmouse]

As I said, I've been leaving the shed for the moment to make sure all the glue is dry properly before I proceed. So, one of the next jobs on the list was to sort out the wiring. Santa has decided I'll be getting a DCC system this year, so first thing I did, (after stripping out all the rough test wiring), was to run a DCC bus with 2.5mm flex around three sides of the baseboard. Individual connection are then run off from the bus using 16/0.2mm to the individual droppers. I also used 16/0.2, (in yellow), to connect up the switch blades and vees. These will be run to microswitches attached to my memory wire TOUs.

 

 

I've done enough wiring in my time to know that neatness is everything, especially when it comes to problem solving, so all connections are run in a very organised manner, and tacked in place with hot melt glue. I'm not letting the cable fairies near this one!

[10800]

Al, you have seen the Eridge control panel haven't you?

[Pinkmouse]

Well after a nice family Christmas, it's time to get cracking.

 

Santa lived up to his word, and a brand new Dynamis system was delivered to my stocking. I fought through the heaving masses at the Signal Box in Rochester yesterday, and picked up an accessory decoder, and a couple of the cheap Bachmann loco decoders. I'll pop one in the M7 later, and the other will be used to fire up the T/T. Not quite sure how yet though.

 

First thing I did this morning was to go through all the wiring with a multimeter, checking for continuity and shorts. None of those found, but I did find one length of track that I had inexplicably forgotten to put droppers on!

 

 

So the soldering iron was fired up, the oversight sorted, and connections made to the bus for the point decoder and T/T. Then I attempted my first programming. This was to set the address on the point decoder, and change some CVs so it provided constant voltage for my memory wire TOUs. Fun then ensued, as the Dynamis instructions said to refer to the instructions provided with their point decoder, and the instructions with the Hornby unit assumed you were using a Select controller! However, using two 12v grain of wheat bulbs, (wired in series to cope with the 15V output of the Hornby unit), for testing, and much faffing around, the objective was achieved.

 

Now, do I chip up the M7, or have a play with the T/T. Or I could make and fit the TOUs. Oh, I don't know!

[LBSC123]

I like the progress Pinkmouse,

 

Its looking rather good I'd say, I am abit worried because my plan is very similar to yours (well it has a traverser). I just hope I ccan match your superb stanadrd of modeling.

 

 

Will

[Portchullin Tatty]

Al,

 

Great to see you back in action on Jerusalem Works. Certainly DCC does make the wiring much easier on a shed; way, way, way easier! Are you going to start working on the Eridge chaps........?

 

Have you conquered the traverser yet?

 

If you want more variety on the rock face, either look at cork bark (that is the basis of mine on Portchullin) or go and get some big lumps of coal and make rubber moulds from these?

 

The proposition that I gave you in respect of Jerusalem Works some months back is still there by the way..........!!!!!

 

 

 

Mark