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About this blog

The design and build of an imaginary railway based in Northumberland. This is my second attempt at a blog following a serious rethink of the direction my modelling was taking. This time I’m trying to be less of a perfectionist as I have proved to myself that the pursuit of such traits most frequently leads to disappointment and more importantly a lack of running trains!

Entries in this blog

3D CAD

Changing my mind

If we follow a modelling idea for many years, can we change our minds and vote for something else? In my last blog I presented my nod to Cragside house based on a plastic kit from Faller. It made me look again at the other buildings I have made from Metcalfe kits; the Faller kits "relief" in the stonework and roof tiles was very impressive. The second point I noticed was that the buildings I had chosen did not have the look and consistency I had hoped for. When I first started building Metcalfe
Northumberton

Northumberton in 3D CAD

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Buildings

Last Track Down

I have finally - after nearly five years, laid the last piece of track, an exit track from the now installed turntable. I still need to finish all the connecting up of the bus wires and a few DCC point controllers but that should not take long now. I am already setting myself some challenges for 2024, most notably the completion of the landscape surface so that all trains can be run safely.  I said a few years ago that I hated track laying, well I still do and that is the main reason for fe
Northumberton

Northumberton in Buildings

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Track Wiring

Vertical track wiring and Faller Kits in Northumberton?

Hello again,   No more Metcalfe models for now, they are a pleasant distraction, however I have been spending some time on a Faller kit - see below. The more relevant news for Northumberton is the installation of the station board with tracks and wiring plus the turntable and its adjacent tracks. I'm using a Heljan turntable code 89121 but I did acquire this several years ago when the DCC version first became available, I was shocked to see the current price of this and would possibly
Northumberton

Northumberton in Track Wiring

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Buildings

Northumberton - Further Metcalfe Modifications

Hi again, a quick update and a description of some working doors I have fitted to a Metcalfe engine shed. The track is almost all down now, I want to spray this with a black/brown mist coat before finally connecting everything up. This also looks better in the tunnels where I will not be ballasting. I have been experimenting with my laser cutter (X-Tool D1 Pro) which has proved to be better than I had hoped. It cuts thin plywood e.g. 3mm with ease – examples below being the roof trusses in the l
Northumberton

Northumberton in Buildings

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Buildings

Northumberton March 2023

If you have ever considered starting your own blog I would highly recommend it to you. Even if few or any read your work, it is extremely useful for taking stock of progress and clarifying your thoughts for the next phase. I was extremely busy from about last October on some major DIY on the house, no complaints, I feel very lucky to have the time being retired. But now my thoughts return to my railway modelling. I'm pleased to say I still have a splendid picture in my head of the finished
Northumberton

Northumberton in Buildings

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Buildings

Temporary Station using Metcalfe Kits

Hi My 3D printer is on hold at the moment so in a bid to get my trains up and running I'm working on a temporary station using Metcalfe kits. I have promised myself that the proposed model of Acklington station will prevail eventually but I want to get trains fully operational by Christmas. I have found since I started this layout that approximate deadlines help to keep things moving and like most of the children I used to teach I leave everything until the last minute!   So,
Northumberton

Northumberton in Buildings

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Track Laying

Station business (April 2022)

Here we are currently up to date! I started off laying track on the station section board but very quickly realised that I need to complete some of the scenery behind it before this section is fitted.     I always knew that parts of my layout would be difficult to reach and after deliberating over this for nearly a year at the planning stage I decided to continue as having wide boards with deep scenery sections was very important to me. I have many plans for scenic featu
Northumberton

Northumberton in Track Laying

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Track Wiring

Northumberton delays! (December 2021)

I sometimes look at layouts being constructed and those that are either complete or in the modification phase on social media and wonder how everything seems to go so smoothly. Not all of course but it does give the impression that this is such a simple pleasure. I am sure I'm not the only one who finds some aspects of railway modelling more of a chore than a pleasure and for me that boils down to wiring being the worst followed by track laying. I guess this is where being in a club might be hel
Northumberton

Northumberton in Track Wiring

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Track Bed

Stepping up a level (July 2021)

Phase 2 of Northumberton involves the track bed up as far as the entrance to the station level (Phase 3). I have already cut the track bed - (see entry "Frames complete - now the track bed). I use an extended 1m straight edge/rule to measure track height from the frame work which was levelled in the early stages.     I'm rising from 1005mm to 1105mm above floor level. I was able to take the levels where track crossed the frame work from the SCARM software I'm using, (see entr
Northumberton

Northumberton in Track Bed

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Track Wiring

Long due progress! (June 2021)

I would be the first to admit to having a bit of a blind spot when it comes to DCC wiring, not the soldering or fitting point motors but my reverse loop and snubbers and all the fine points of building a reliable DCC circuit. I had gathered much research and many many peoples advice but alas in most circumstances something somewhere was taken for granted regarding my DCC knowledge - this is very bad. However, I have success, a fully functioning reverse loop with storage tracks and a separate bus
Northumberton

Northumberton in Track Wiring

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Buildings

A Metcalfe Diversion (January 2020)

From this point in my blog I am updating quite a bit as many changes to the way I wanted to progress took place. At the begining of 2020 I had to sort out a medical issue that took most of the year including recovery, but that's all behind me now and thankfully no permanent damage.   Whilst recovering I had a go at building some Metcalfe kits to pass the time, my thoughts were to use these as tempoary buildings until I could scratch build something better. I took at lot of time over th
Northumberton

Northumberton in Buildings

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Track Wiring

Catching A Bus (Wire). (December 2019)

Progress is still slow this month (January 2020) but I did have a bit of a breakthrough thanks to some very helpful people in the forum on DCC help.    This also gave me another issue regarding wiring the BUS wires back to the controller (Roco Z21) although I have to say that following some further discussions on the forum I picked up a few hints on where to go next. One thing this did make clear to me was that the DCC wiring was and is the hardest part of this build for me. Any diffic
Northumberton

Northumberton in Track Wiring

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Track Laying

Slow Track Laying On the Learning Curve (December 2019)

Well, this track laying is taking ages and I'm still on the section that no one will see! All I can say is that it has been a useful learning curve . As you may be aware I'm working on an open frame layout with Woodland Scenics track underlay, DCC Supplies PowerBase and Peco code 100 track - the latter is part of my desire for extremely reliable running and slightly easier track laying due to the strength of the track pieces. Hidden curves use Peco set track radius 2, 3 and 4, the remainder is a
Northumberton

Northumberton in Track Laying

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Track Bed

Track Bed Part 3 The Installation (November 2019)

So, back again, the first section of track bed - the lower return loop/storage siding is now in place. This did take some time as I became familiar with laying an incline, fortunately I was able to gain all the dimensions I needed from my SCARM plan. The actual loop is level at 875mm above ground level and this rises through a 1.9% grade or about 1 in 53 to 1050mm above ground level.     As I had modelled the baseboard frame in SCARM as well I was able to read off the he
Northumberton

Northumberton in Track Bed

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Track Bed

Track Bed Part 2 and Townstreet Modelling (November 2019)

Hi again, a few notes on progress. The cutting of the track bed shown on my last entry is now complete with all the edges having received a smooth edge courtesy of a 3mm rounding over bit in the router. I highly recommend this step as it has made the pieces comfortable and safe to handle. I did find using the Faller groove cutter a bit tedious as it kept overheating so I had to leave it to cool. Eventually the pin that goes through the blade broke - I've been onto Faller to see if I can get a sp
Northumberton

Northumberton in Track Bed

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Framework

Frames Coming Together (October 2019)

Good morning all. I've finally got some construction completed with the frames. This was delayed a little by adding cables and ducting for the overhead lighting,my first pic shows this in place, it carries a power lead and a data cable for the "dawn to dusk" effects. The small section of pelmet is temporary to support the cables and power socket. I've decided to leave final lighting, which I can access from the front of the layout, until after the main layout is complete. This will enable me to
Northumberton

Northumberton in Framework

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Track Bed

Frames complete - Now the track bed. (October - November 2019)

Now I have all the frames in place I can turn my attention to the track bed. As you will see below I have had my plans from SCARM printed out 1 to 1 which cost me £60 +VAT. I considered that this was money well spent as I have glued these to my 9mm birch ply to guide all the cutting work. I took some measurements of the plans before starting and was really impressed with the accuracy achieved (I used Plan Printing UK who are in Edinburgh). When I exported the drawings from SCARM I imported them
Northumberton

Northumberton in Track Bed

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Framework

The Frames (October 2019)

This section shows the frames I've been making. I'm using 100mm x 25mm PSE throughout, the extra depth giving the strength required for this open frame. The components are all jointed, Lap or half Lap, and will be glued and screwed. When I retired I bought a small table saw (actually a "site saw") by Bosch which has been a Godsend when making all the cuts and I also made a small cross slide box to help make the lap joints. This slide really helped - the base is a piece of old formica covered chi
Northumberton

Northumberton in Framework

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Backscene

I've looked at clouds from both sides now! (Setember and October 2019)

I think I said how hard can it be, this spray painting lark. Well, the answer can be very hard, in fact it's taken me ages to just get things going and following a disaster with the wrong colour backscene blue I'm finally content with the outcome. It's far from perfect but I would be the first to admit that I'm no artist, what you see is just my best efforts following much pawing over YouTube and taking some photos. The trouble is only years of practice in my hands would yield the results I'd im
Northumberton

Northumberton in Backscene

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planning

Starting off and SCARM planning (August 2019)

I need to start with a little explanation of this layout. Planning was well under way towards the end of 2018 but no start was made until August 2019 once our house move was completed and I had the time to do all those things that need doing after a move.   The layout has been on the RMWeb before but was removed due to "life" getting in the way. I really want to get back into my modelling now and share what I have been up to. My first blog entries will therefore be familiar to some as
Northumberton

Northumberton in planning

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