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 🙂
So, a day off work produces instant progress!
I've added the Scalescenes concrete floor to the engine shed and produced a nice boarded infill between the "concrete" and the rails with, yes you guessed it, McDonalds coffee stirrers.
looks a bit bare in there, will need some "junk" to make it look occupied
Bufferstop has also received it's "sleepers" from the same economic modelling resource. Will add some rivet heads using spare Archers transfers left over from the Sentinel
This week I have mostly been building the "WH Smiths" kiosk from the Scalescenes Station Structures kit. Again enlarged by 175% on my printer to make it O scale.
As it's O gauge, I have put a bit more into this kit to add relief detail and have popped a cheap eBay figure sitting on a left over doll's house chair.
Not sure his reading matter is suitable for an Ivor the Engine event though
also a bit of self promotion, quite proud of that mag cover
The roof w
So the goods shed is done, save for some much needed weathering and fitting out etc.
Here's a couple of snaps of it in place on the Templot plan.
Next step is to get some Peco flexi and a couple of wagons to check clearances etc
Cost? - a 20 ml tube of UHU - £1.50 ish, 2 36g gluesticks - about £1. Scalescenes download £4.99 Card was salvaged from work and the prints didn't cost me owt either
Ahead of the Wycrail Show I have been adding more details to the layout. First off I've made some flower tubs from the cardboard tubes you get round the business end of a new spark plug cut in half and painted white. The flowers are from www.themodeltreeshop.com and come ready to "plant" - a bead of PVA run round the inside of the tube and the flowers just popped in
Next that very nice man Jon Fitness sent me a spare length of ladder which duly painted sits very well against the y
Those of you who were at the RMweb Live event and took a peek behind the layout would have seen the lash-up that was the control panel/programming track. I realized VERY late that I needed my OO rolling road/NCE power panel for the DCC demo
so I cobbled something together from an old ice cream tub and a bit of old kitchen kick board. I had a spare panel and autoSW for the programming track. A short length of Peco flexi completed the arrangement and it all worked well at the show.
Th
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
The wife, kids and mother-in-law left at 10am today for Great Yarmouth. Not set to return until sometime on Friday, so the whole house is my workshop
The left hand board as the public view the layout had it's external woodwork painted black (saves you a job Pete ) and left out in the sun. It's now sitting in the living room annex on two of the layout legs hardening off.
The centre board was the focus of today's efforts. Duly set up in the middle of the living room on it's legs, complet
So my modelling fest is about at an end - for tomorrow I must tidy up!
However I am very pleased with the results and the magnitude of my efforts over the last three days. A few tweaks here or there, but Fourgig is about ready for RMweb Live!
Here's a few snaps
Over the last few lunchtimes I've been busy with some free card and the Scalescenes Goods Shed kit, again the OO kit blown up to O gauge on the printer.
Here's how it stands at the moment, with mug to give an idea of scale
rafters are glued to the card and are drying under a box of paperwork (knew there was a use for it )
There's a lot more corrugated card in this one than I normally use, and the main walls have been made a lot thicker than designed to give a bit more rigidity
A quick snap of the PH Designs fencing installed. I intend to fashion a padlock and chain to dangle from one of the gates and maybe a cat creeping through the open gate?
The Network Rail van is a very cut down modelrailwayscenery.com delivery van with the logo changed in Acrobat. It's not fixed in place yet as I'm waiting until the station buildings are in place for final positioning.
Next steps will be adding some undergrowth and blending in of the scenics. Must order the platform
I am Christmas crackered but the woodworking is all done for the new lighting rig. I moved on from the last posting by adding the pelmet that for Fourgig East sits to the left of the public
You will see that the support is set in 9" from the edge so that the bottom of the legs will not stick out beyond the nominal footprint of the layout - I have had them kicked too many times by neighboring operators to leave it as it was!
I will have to add some packers to the key points on the under
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
I thought I'd settled on the final track plan - until Ian Allen posted a 1:5 double slip in O gauge on the Templot forum. Why didn't I think of this in the first place? When Martin advised me that a 1:4 would not be practical I went for a 1:6.
So, have a go I thought. This meant that most of the layout had to be redrawn, including the position of the 1:5 turnout leading to the goods shed and of course the run-round turnout was made a 1:5 too.
here's the final, final plan. It's got to be
I managed to get a couple of sessions in this weekend and with the warm weather, the PVA dried off quickly and we have the basic landform done. Couldn't resist a few wide angle shots in the back garden today with my new phone
Can't put of that ballasting for much longer!
After a very pleasant afternoon at the Huddersfield Railway Modellers Open Day I got home and started wiring up!
I've gone for simple and chained the tracks on the surface - well it is all going to be painted black.....
Just got the deck to wire up then connect all the bits underneath
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 .....
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
Thanks chaps, as no-one offered any kind of therapy following my decision to model the rodding exits from the signal box I found myself ordering cast wire pulleys, 0.11mm stainless wire and another etch of pully wheels etc.
Slow progress mainly due to the fact that the pulley castings are not the best and need to be drilled out to allow the wires through - I am getting through a lot of 0.5mm drills with the brass castings .......
I've done a run of 4 wires from the 'box to the foot cross
So at last the lighting rig and supports are complete, here's a couple of snaps of it in Fourgig East mode:
and here's it for Summat Colliery - must get a new sign made!
The shelves at the back were made from some off-cuts of UPC cladding I had lying around (as you do)
So then as it was sunny etc I decided to get the static grass out and detail up the shed area
Finally a shot of the shed/fiddle yard board in place
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
I'm please to say the rodding on the first and most complicated board is done. Aided by my new toy - an LED head torch. I now have light wherever I look
A few snaps of the completed rodding including the cross rods to the double slip and the first set of compensators
I've removed the chance of the cross rods shorting out the track by copying a bit of prototypical trackwork and added an insulator between the rails - a small rectangle of double sided PCB that the rod halves are
I said I wasn't going to do this, the plan WAS to hide the lack of wheels/cranks/wires and rodding exiting the signal box with a wooden walkway so why have I made this over the last few nights?
the crank leading to lever 8 is even shown as pulled to match the lever for pete's sake. Have I any idea of the September deadline to get the layout finished!
I need counselling.
Thanks to all on here and the Templot Club for advice, some of which was ignored but hey, it's all good.
The solution is somewhat of a compromise as is often the case and I have gone all round the houses to arrive at the obvious.
here's the current plan:
I have gone with a GWR 9ft heel #6 turnout which gives 10" of total track length from switch tips to the 11 ft marker, take an inch off for a half buffer and I will still have enough room for the largest "home" loco on the layou
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
