Following two consecutive weekends helping out on other's trainsets I have unashamedly nicked sought inspiration from Ian Morton's shake the box for track plan and Chris Nevard's Catcott Burtle for the water feature at the front and have come up with the new, bigger, improved 4gig
I've got to extend the depth of the current 4ft board by 6" and make another 4x2
I'm currently cobbling together a Scalescenes goods shed, again the OO kit enlarged on the printer to O scale to ensure it
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
Following Brain Harrup's excellent example here I've made my first V
It's a 1 in 6 - taken with a similar one from a Waverley point kit (the Waverley is the one at the top)
Nose is a bit blunter than I'd like, but it should be okay.
Right, one more #6 and a #5 to do then it's onto switch blade practice
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 .....
Having a small son has it's advantages sometimes. I mentioned that I needed a few coffee stirrers for an idea I had about a free set of coal staithes. A couple of days later he presented me with a good handful that he had "collected" on his last trip to a well known fast food joint.
So, here's my McStaithes
A coat of weathered wood and then some dirtying down should do the trick 🙂
Had a play at lunchtime with Anyrail and one thing that is certain, standard Peco track will not do! I need much tighter rad pointwork for my little harbour
Thanks to help from Martin at Templot the Marcway 48" point kits might do the job but ideally I want pointwork down to 32" which gives me approximately setrack type curves which my little Pug should handle okay. Looks like Martin will be getting an order from me
Had another play last night arranging all the bits I have so far made. Here's a few pics for your enjoyment.
SWMBO took one look at the items littering her new kitchen floor and said "Ooooh, Ivor The Engine"
Can seee what she means though. Now, how do I convert the Pug, a sound chip would be good
"Par par!"
After a lot of searching, deliberating etc I have finally come up with the name
Fourgig East
for the layout and station
Countdown fans will no doubt easily spot where it comes from
Picked up this monster print from Acorn Signs in Mansfield yesterday - a 16' x 10" digital print of Andy Y's Staffordshire Moorland panorama (see panorama photo stitching thread in the photography section) printed onto sticky back vinyl with a protective clear overlayer.
The plan is to paint the backscene boards with gloss white paint then I can "float" the print into place on a soapy film and squeegee all the bubbles out before it dries.
Can't praise Acorn Signs enough, superb
Kids at my parents, did my duty round B&Q helping SWMBO spend too much money on bathroon fittings and fancy "feature" tiles so I earned a couple of hours modelling this afternoon.
400g of DAS clay applied to the hardcore. It does not look it but there should be just enough clay left to finish the job as there's a big area under the loading dock for the goods shed that will not see the light of day, so I won't waste clay on that bit!
Think I'll hand paint the turnout
After what seems an age I have a working MERG DCO6 block cutout pcb up and running. The previous versions I have put together and are successfully working on Summat Colliery used my own etched PCBs but this one is using Trevor Stockhill's "stealth black" pcb - double sided, plated through holes, gold flashed and black solder resist.
There are however a couple of problems with version A of this PCB - there is a resistor missing from the remote shutdown input circuitry and the legend for
Was playing last night arranging the various buildings and completed track on the kitchen floor and it struck me that the roof of the waiting shelter stuck out like a sore thumb being a red/brown tile rather than the grey slate effect that all the other buildings have.
So, it was promptly ripped off and replaced with tiling from the station building, that's the beauty of the scalescenes kits - you can just print out a bit here and there.
Here's the modified shelter next to the station -
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
Finally the hardstanding area is complete, painted and the goods shed stuck down, that's one big storage box in the recycling bin.
Note how the right hand track is not straight through the turnout - I guess this should be classed as a wye - THE advantage of Templot and home made pointwork
I've also edged the raised polystyrene landforms with thin card (cornflakes packet) and painted them a nice earthy brown. Some sheep have been bought and are in the process of being pai
SWMBO has taken the kids and the MIL to the seaside for a few days, so while the house is my own, it's kinda turned into a workshop
The long put off task of getting the track ballasted has took a huge leap forward with the end board having all the track ballast done. I've also fixed down the tracks for the camping coach to sit on.
The steps for the camping coach have been offered up and found to be good - note I'm using the OTHER coach so as not to damage the finish on the act
Took advantage of the sunny afternoon on Friday whilst the kids were swimming and knocked together my first ply construction baseboard.
I'd salvaged the material from work ages ago and cut it up into a 4ft x 2ft board and then lots of thin strips for the sides. It is 15mm packing case ply and not particularly good quality, but it was free and as it's never going to be subject to a damp garage etc I think it'll be okay
The track I built at the Mansfield show is shown roughly in place
For once I've managed to make better progress than the big boys! - My platforms are finished and fixed down
Here's a few snaps of the layout as it stands with some temporary trees to show roughly how it's going to look.
Keen eyes will see that I messed up the measurements for the overbridge - got to extend it by 30mm or maybe make a new one
Might get some more ground cover done over the weekend - area where the Scooby is will be cinders and good old hanging basket
More progress on the fiddle yard. It's all wired up and tonight I cleaned off the black paint from the rails and then soldered the buffer stop to the end of the engine shed road - spilling half a bottle of flux all over the board during the process! Hope it doesn't attack the ply!
couple of snaps, first the fiddle yard
and the public side, before the buffer stop and flux were applied!
Next I need to add the concrete apron/floor to the engine shed. The card for this is lamin
Got the chance to do some more trackwork on Fourgig, this time it's the checkrails for the inset trackwork around and in the goods shed.
Not much rail left now, just got to add the flares for the checkrails on the adjoining board and that's the track done - scenery can start in earnest
(once the inset track is sprayed black)
UPDATE:
flares added to the ends of the checkrails leading to the engine shed. Note Isebrook sat over the illuminated pit - Black Cat Tech universal li
Tonight was a milestone, the track was laid on board #2 completing the plan for the main body of the layout.
The only remaining trackwork to do is the engine shed road on the (yet to be constructed) fiddle yard board #1. Most of that is over the inspection pit, so not too much soldering left
I am going to concerntrate however on getting boards 2 and 3 operational for the Member's Day, I have Monday off work and the plan is to wire up and test (including all the remaining TT300
Bit of progress, all the track is laid on board #3 and it matches up to the original trackwork on board #2
and in a fit of enthusiasm last night I stuck the final turnout plan to the workboard and laid the sleepers ready for some soldering action tonight
I really need to get on and wire up board #3 - TT300s ordered from Bromsgrove Models and components in hand to build the block cut-out boards.
Once all this electricery is done then I'll start with some scenics, pot of bro
Finally drummed up enough courage and with an hour to spare this afternoon I got the backscene on the fiddle yard/engine shed board. A good spray to the ply with soapy water and it floated on with little difficulty.
Once it's really dry I will stick the edges round and then trim off the slight excess at the top edge. A coat or two of matt varnish will finish the job
So here are the Vees ready to go. Two are reworked from the 1:6 ones I made earlier and two brand new ones.
Now to get some switch rails etc prepped, not forgetting all those sleepers
I'm in two minds with the trackplan. At the "dead end" of the station area I currently have a very short 1:4 point to maximise the length of loco that can clear the switch blades and run round the train. This has resulted in an ugly curved section with a pretty tight radius between the point and the double slip as the slip is based on 1:6 diamonds. If I replace the 1:4 with a 1:6 and make the section between the point and slip straight it looks much better, but I'll only ever be able to fit an 0
Had a day off today so started to remove the bits of 4gig mk1 that are no longer needed
The platform will be reused but the cinders are in the bin. I was relieved to find the pva softened easily with water - still made a mess of the kitchen though!
