After much discussion and thought, the "Railfreight" depot is now a "Zanussi" warehouse (special thanks and credit go to Nearholmer https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/profile/26817-nearholmer/ for the idea.)
The signage was easy enough to find online - one of them is for "Zanussi Professional" - I imagine this would be the industry arm of the business.
I decided to keep the Railfreight and BR logos in situ, I doubt it's very prototypical practice - but I think it looks ok.
I wanted to share a small collection of images from this thread: (with special thanks to those who contributed.)
https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/162153-input-ideas-on-planning-a-timetable-and-creating-a-location/page/1/#comments
And the layout, fictitious though it be, now sits on the North Coast of Kent.
For some, it's "Reculver" - a real place, developed beyond its actual status by the power of imagination to a relatively busy wharf, with indus
For anyone who doesn't know, Tommy Gander was a fictional Music Hall comic, a character that featured in the 1941 British film "The Ghost Train" portrayed by real life comic, Arthur Askey.
On his way down to Newquay to start a new sixteen week season of his act at The Pier Pavillion ("Well, we'll see how I go Monday night...") Tommy gets caught up in the events that unfold in the film (or was he instrumental in causing them...?)
Years later, Tommy Gander finds himself per
I am currently rebuilding a layout from round and round to shelf format in N gauge.
I am using sections of an old bookcase (turned shelf) as the base - not the ideal material but so far so good....
I thought people might be interested to see some pics of the most recent part of the project - making Peco Uncouplers (Sort of) Remote Control.
I began by removing the small 45 degree overhang at the rear of the ramp with a scalpel, this gives the ramp much more ran
Just a few of shots of the uncouplers at work, partially obscured by protruding brass rod ends (wrapped in masking tape to avoid injury...)
Also made a template for the control panel with card. Surprised how good it looks, might try to recreate it with wood veneer.
As always, I can't get images to appear in any kind of order, apologies for that!
Discovered today that I had ordered a different track (PECO SL-300F I believe) than I usually use - SL-300.
The result was that the track on the deck was approx 1 or 2mm lower than the track on the layout. Hmm...
If I hadn't used "set track" points at the top of the traverser I could just raise the whole thing.
However, the solution was pretty simple - a (temporary) strip of plasticard of the right depth, to lift the track very slightly.
I already have s
One of the magnetic connection terminals snapped off today, where the wire meets the magnet. Despite reinforcement measures, I guess the strain on the thin metal shaft was too great.
So, I had a stab at making my own (hopefully sturdier) version of the connector. I stripped the end off some .6mm electrical cable and wrapped the exposed wire around a neodymium magnet, I then took a second identical magnet and sandwiched the wire between them.
Next, I sealed the whole terminal
Constructed and test ran a new traverser today.
The parts I used were the top and base section of a bookcase (the main baseboard is made from the side panels.)
The traverser base is wall mounted with reinforced brackets, the deck is fitted with heavy duty drawer runners.
*EDIT - 8/2/21: Magnetic connector snapped at weld, see posts for 8/2/21 and 9/2/1 for details on repair and improvements!
Power is supplied from a connection block wired fr
So the anticipated work that was going to take place has been postponed - not due to lack of materials, more to do with a surplus of ideas!
Last week I had a flash of inspiration and was thinking about adding an extra line at the rear of the layout. This idea has since developed, and now influences the course of the build...
There was a problem to begin with re: one section of track being curved away from a straight section of platform. All kinds of ideas were considered to re
Added a few bits of wire to represent the cabling that connects sections of third rail. I've no idea how prototypical it is, but it looks ok. Reference was from photos I took of actual track, or memory and from online images.
I used the wire from inside sandwich bag ties, curved into visually pleasing arrangements then primed white and later dry brushed black and white. They are held in place with tiny beads of superglue.
Quick "aerial" shot of the layout.
The main line leading in will be fed by a traverser - there is a two island station with three arrival and departure platforms.
These lines are isolated at about half way along their length and the isolated sections controlled by on/off toggle switches.
Opposite the station are three sidings, similarly isolated. Two of the sidings will, at busy times, serve as a holding areas for waiting EMU's and diesel locomotives (plus or minus coach
Just a couple of quick jobs attended to today - some timber details added to station gable ends (these are just cut card, primed grey and dry brushed green/brown) plus a couple of chimney pots - grey primer and "sand" coloured paint, weathered with black.
I also added a bit of Southern Region concrete fence erected around the old engine shed, I primed this white and then hand-painted beige, followed by a black wash and then dry brushed with beige again.
A Dapol Class 73 Diesel-electric arrived bright and early this morning - my first step towards populating the layout with more "prototypical" loco's.
(Still don't want to get rid of my Class 20 though...)
Had some fun today coming up with my first draught timetable, obviously it needs some honing - but the basic outline is there.
Here's one of - what some might call - the more "imaginative" manoeuvres undertaken:
Cannon Street service arrives (Class 40 diesel hauled) at the Holding Siding. It uncouples from the coaches, which are taken to the facing siding by my class 20. (Plenty of clearance room!):
The Charing Cross service has be
So, it's been a while! But today I finally got around to adding the Scrap Merchant Yard to the layout. It existed on a previous layout, which I decided to dismantle and "rejig."
I enjoyed doing this area of the layout today, but it is by no means finished.
The goods shed (adopted by the merchant) is just a temporary fixture, I bought this model second hand and would like to repaint it.
I have yet to add a surface to the area outside of the engine shed (also reappropriated by the
Having a clear out of old model rail acquisitions, I found a Peco brand goods shed that I'd picked up as part of a job lot eBay purchase.
It was painted blotchy yellow, with a grey roof, dark red drainpipes, gutters and doors, and - somewhat bizarrely for a goods shed - it also had scale size holiday destination posters glued to it.
I very nearly consigned it to the recycling bin. But I reconsidered and decided to take it on as a salvage project.
It had been
In order to utilise as much
space as possible, I decided a while ago that I'd like a "Railfreight" depot in low relief at the back of the layout.
I used some leftover parts from a Peco "Modern Engine Shed" kit, plus some corrugated plasticard for shutters. I cut square doors into the panels, these were spaced so as to match up correctly with the wagon doors when they were bought into the station.
The whole thing has been sprayed with grey primer, I've not bothered
Just a quick look at one of the uncouplers at work - the angle is a bit oblique because the rods that control them are in direct line of sight, and have masking tape "Flags" on them to prevent injuries.
Having noticed - when going to the kitchen cupboard - that the "Co-op" have gone back to their old logo, I got to thinking that if I could build a Co-op Supermarket - the logo off a tea bag box etc could serve very nicely as a shop sign.
A quick rumage through the scrap box later, I came up with a serviceable little low relief of the rear or side of a Co-op. I used no glue in its construction, just good old double-sided tape to construct it (and the foam padded kind to add extra de
A few pics of the points (Peco Streamline.). They are insulfrog and are wired "live" with powered fishplates.
They are controlled manually by surface mounted brass rod levers that pass through "lift off" hinge barrels. These hinges are currently glued in place but will be fixed more permanently with screws at a later date.
They work very well, and I'm particularly pleased with the one that goes through the rail bed of one section of track and another set of points, out the other sid
To get the ballast right up to the platform edges in a nice neat straight line, I needed to figure out how to apply it. Because of the overhanging lip of the platforms it was not possible to accurately sprinkle the sand or add glue mixture in the traditional way.
I opted to make some templates from card:
I marked these with a centre line and fixed them in place using Copydex glue, then went about applying ballast in the tried and tested way.
Once dried (overni
Got on with adding some detail to my "Kestrel" brand platform edges today, out of the box this particular model has plain edges with a faint brickwork pattern.
I wanted to create something a little more authentic looking, this was achieved by simply gluing on some "Kibri" textured plastic sheet in strips over the existing edging. I can't remember the particular name of the sheet I used, I would call it "irregular stone" or something like that.
The platforms themselves are about
I went about laying the "New Line" at the rear of the layout today, I don't have the "Streamline" large radius points I really want to use at the moment, so progress has halted at the point work - I have put the medium radius points in the pic for reference.
The track was laid the way I've found works well for me - positioned by eye, checked with a 6' way gauge, marked out with pencil and then fixed down semi permanently using double sided tape. Checked again by eye and 6' gauge, pressed d
Just a few quick pics of the last bit of third rail I can lay before more arrives in the post and some detail of wiring on the insulated track sections:
Laid in the now traditional way - held in place with Blu-tak and then glued at intervals with super glue, which seems to be "drawn in" to the gap between rail and sleeper by percolation (?) Some gets on the edge of the rail inevitably, but is usually quite easy to remove with a blade once thoroughly dried.
You might be ab
I thought people might be interested to know how I came up with the aged "Gander's Holiday Camp" billboard. So here's the method I used:
Firstly, I searched online for a good photo of Arthur Askey (not easy as photo's of the man himself were largely of him larking about and pulling faces!)
Having found a nice picture - I won't reproduce it here, in the interest of copyright laws - I set about drawing a passable charicature sketch in pen:
As you c
