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About this blog

Marlott

Entries in this blog

Planning

The Project

This blog will cover the development of a very small diorama type N gauge model railway. The subject matter is to be the ubiquitous Great Western branch line terminus. It was chosen due to space restrictions, some existing stock from a previous layout years ago and the wealth of information available on the subject.   It is a pilot scheme. If time allows, all goes well and my re-kindled interest from childhood actually results in a finished working layout then I may progress to somethi
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Yard

Coaling Stage

The coaling stage is built from the excellent Poppys Woodtech laser-cut wooden kit. Despite the small scale the kit goes together very easily. The fact that it is real wood makes painting and weathering easy. I used a combination of water colour and pastels. I just need to get some coal on it now.  
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Other

The Yard of God!

My 9 year old daughter has a new name for the fiddle yard. We have talked about the "hand of God" descending on our layouts for years. The fiddle yard is the natural home of the hand of god so it has now become known as "The Yard of God" in our house thanks to our daughter Eleanor!    
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Other

New Modelling Tool

My latest little investment is shown here. Despite appearances, it is not a phaser! It is a small vacuum cleaner for cleaning up the layout, amongst other things. For years I have struggled to clean the layout with a larger vacuum attachment. It works but it is easy to break something along the way. This is rechargeable via USB, quite small (it is sitting on n gauge track) so easy to manipulate, and works really well.    
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Scenics

Scenery

The size of the layout means that scenery is at a minimum. I do however want some different levels in the ground, raised behind the station building with a slope down to the yard, raised behind the yard and raised more to the right where the trains disappears back stage.   I have used two approaches. The raised areas behind the yard are so small that they do not warrant traditional methods like mod-roc. Instead I have built them up using DAS modelling clay, glued down with PVA.  
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Planning

Best Intentions

A short list of best intentions I would like to adhere to for the layout: Diorama presentation controlling the viewing angle Continuous backscene with curved corners Effective hidden lighting Lightweight rigid ply wood baseboard Analogue control - too many N Gauge models of the type in which I am interested would be difficult to chip Peco code 55 track Mechanical remote point operation Only large radius points Try to get the colour co
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N Gauge

Grafar!

So pleased to find this reproduction of the 1973 Grafar (Graham Farish) catalogue. The models were so basic compared to the amazing ready-to-run that we get today but in 1973 when I was still a child, making the first move in to N Gauge, this was the first I saw of what was available. It was very exciting at the time. I ended up with a 94xx pannier which, despite the original plastic chassis worked very well; it ran reliably for years and had excellent slow speed performance. I also got a Hall (
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Scenics

Laying Grass

Following up on Long Grass, here are some shots of the messy business of laying the grass. Looking back at my inspiration again:     I see a greener layer under the straw coloured grass.   With anything that is not stuck down removed, I marked out the boundaries of the grass lightly with a pencil, making clear the areas that should remain as path. I then started by laying a short green layer first painting the area to be grassed with PVA and then using the Flockit t
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Other

Stirling Engine

A bit of a diversion. Here is a little video of a solar powered Stirling Engine that sits on the window ledge next to Marlott:    
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Scenics

Long Grass

In my last post I said I was aiming for long grass in the foreground. These were my inspiration shots from a walk in late summer:     Armed with a mid-green for the base at 1mm and a straw colour at 6mm, here is how I got on. First a close up attempting to show the detail:     A wider shot:     One thing I learned is that it is not easy to get a photo that reflects the actual colour of the grass. It looks a bit more vivid in the photos
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Scenics

Marlott on a late summer Friday afternoon

A new picture for no better reason that it is a Friday. Not a train in sight!     Below is a photo I took of some long grass during a cross country walk in the summer . It is my inspiration for what might go in the foreground in the above image.  
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Control

Control

I opted for DC rather than DCC for a number of reasons including:   I have a number of older locomotives that would be more difficult to chip I felt that DCC was unnecessary on such a small layout – although I am now in two minds and I ended up over-engineering the DC anyway!   I chose cab control as described in Wiring the Layout Part 2 (my copy is about 40 years old but I do not think cab-control has changed much) mainly because it is what I had done before on a pre
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Yard

Yard Crane

To yard crane or not to yard crane. That is the decision facing me now. Am I going to start building this yard crane today and, if I do, will it have a place on the layout?   
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Yard

New Roof for the Coal Office

I am working on a new roof for the coal office. I have succumbed to the point of view that says, "a viewer sees more of the rooves than anything else" so I have decided an upgrade is in order. The tiles are 2mm wide which makes them 12" to scale. I have tried to make some of them slightly uneven to make it look more natural by slipping some by 0.1, 0.2 or 0.3mm. This is the effect so far:      I still have the ridge tile, painting and a new sign to do.   If this wor
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