Last Friday I met Jon Fitness at Langley Mill railway station and collected the signals he's been building for me. So over the weekend I cut six pretty large holes in the baseboards and fitted all eight aspects.
Only issue is that I miscalculated with the length of servo wires and didn't order enough extension leads. A quick eBay order was placed last night, so hopefully all should be up and running for Mansfield this weekend!
The bases need blending into the scenery, I hope I
Some of you may have been following Jon Fitness' signal topic and I am happy to say that the GWR signals he has just completed are for Fourgig East. As they are now ready I thought I'd better get the MERG control boards built. Today I fitted them, wired into the DCC feed from the handset - before the block cut-out, so they will still work even if there is a track short.
to the left of the pic you can see I have modified a Black Cat Tech LED dimmer to include 5 plug and socket connectors
SWMBO was out at a meeting last night, so the kitchen was requisitioned for the purpose of train set work.
First he camping coach steps were sunk into the cinders and then glued in place. I hoovered up all the cinders scraped away into a handkerchief for re-use. The coach was then screwed to it's mountings. The mountings consist of a long 8BA screw through each bogie pivot into a nut soldered to the sleeper beneath. A solder tag sits under the head of each screw so that power can be passed i
Work continues to get Fourgig to at least a basic state of scenic completion ahead of the Mansfield Show in march. last night I fitted the buffer stops to the headshunt and loco release road. To maximise available space for loco release I've cut the stop to suggest that it's been built through the wall. There are plenty of examples out there where stops are buried in walls and platforms, so I figured it was okay
The plan is to have weeds etc popping up all over the area, but for now the
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
Quick job tonight, added some thin card to the front edge to neaten it up, then a good going over the walls with my "dirty wash" to tone down the paint and to highlight the crevices etc.
Final task was to pva some hanging basket liner shiny side up
I thought I'd better get something done ahead of the Mansfield Show ( http://www.mansfieldmodelrailway.co.uk ) so last night I made up the triangular piece that fits in the two main boards at the front, covering the cut-aways needed to allow for the curved backscene corners when the layout is packed away. Some Ten Commandments walling mitre bonded to a card and polystyrene base with an initial covering of concrete coloured emulsion.
I've ordered some sheep to place in this little corner
Managed to grab an hour this afternoon to get the shorter platform section glued down. I needed to have both boards joined together so that I could make sure it all lined up. The capping was also added to the walling and I took the opportunity to pose the camping coach in it's eventual home
I also "wooded" the corner by the signal box - starting to come together now
Wednesday evening consisted of putting the cinders down on the board I ballasted on Monday then a frantic tidy up
The signal box has been fixed down but the platform will wait until I get chance to join both boards and I can make sure the two halves line up!
Here's both boards first thing this morning side by side
So, there we have it, basic groundwork done, now for lots of toning down, weeds, grasses, flowers (a shrubbery!) oh and signals and point rodding and .
Day two and another board to ballast, this time just two simple points. After sticking the double slip up yesterday I took more care and oiled all the moving parts including the underside of the point blades, so far so good ..
I just had enough ballast, although I had to cheat and use a bit more cinders than planned around the rear of the good shed, no matter, only the operators will see that
I've also added the walling to the other board ready for it's cinders tomorrow.
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
Thanks to houseman for showing the Smart Models signal box and interior kits here I now have 16 levers for the Fourgig East 'box
Still some touching up to do (can't get the grey felt pen into the nook between the lever and latch and the white levers need some paint) but should do the trick once fitted to the Scalescenes 'box I made a couple of years ago now.
Also Thanks to beast66606 for his continued signalling advice sorting out lever order based on the signalling plan he has also
Yesterday I put all the boards together in the lounge (just!) and let my scenery expert and arranger of sheep (SWMBO) play with the box of trees I bought from www.themodeltreeshop.co.uk . She expressed her approval of these product and armed with some Screwfix Mitre Bond (known as "man glue" in our household) most were planted. Lots more ground cover, weeds, flowers etc needed but it's starting to look like a landscape now
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!
The polystyrene sheeting I ordered on Monday turned up today, so with a spare hour, a sharp knife, PVA and carpet tape I now have this
The vertical edges will be faced with Scalescenes walling (already downloaded some ashlar brick in O gauge) and the sloping bits will be smoothed out etc
Onwards!
Got the whole backscene print fitted to the layout. Went on really well, can't fault the approach at all. OK it cost £44 for the whole 16ft print, but it does look good
Next step is matt varnish over the main board scenes (the fiddle yard board has already been varnished) when we have a warm windless day
Anyway, here's a few snaps
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
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
Whilst SWMBO was decorating at one of the MIL's properties and the kids were being good (yeah, I know!) I managed to get the hanging basket liner down and the cinders laid around the engine shed.
The water column is not glued down so I can remove it to paint later.
Hopefully it will all be dry tomorrow and I can rip the plastic backing off the liner to pull up some nice long grass
UPDATE:
and now the backing is removed - here's a few staged photos with my Sentinel. Bac
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
Following a couple of weekends finishing off the study DIY (and a happy SWMBO) I managed to sneak in some work on Fourgig before the kids came back from Mum & Dad's yesterday.
Following advice from Chris Nevard I have rough ballasted the concrete infill area before applying the DAS clay - some left over aquarium gravel applied using the age old 50:50 PVA and water mix.
Once set I'll remove any loose and too high ballast before pressing the clay into the gravel.
Now where's t
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
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
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
