As promised I have finally found time to record recent progress, and inspired by Jon Teal a short video of the branch goods.
An overview of the two mostly done boards, which now just need scenic fettling and fun stuff.
The branch goods running into the station throat.
Close up of the new overbridge on the scenic board and hand made trees.
Crosssing the underpass seen in my prototype posts. Have a picture to add to fake the tunnel!
Seen from the opposite side of the underpass, the p
As the weather has been sunny this week I have finally got the backscenes done for the first few boards. They will be sent to a printing co. for finishing to the right size, 18" high, 2 curved fixed and 1 straight removable piece of hardboard to form the structure.
Just a brief update, further to discussions about the backscene, this is a picture of the test one on the scenic board.
This was an offcut of hardboard I found at work. Its 15" high but I may have to cut this down a bit to fit the crate or make it removable.
Has anyone done a removable backscene? This board is flat so should be ok as there are no curves in the backscene.
I must apologise for my slow progress but house repair tasks have taken all my time at the moment! Progress on Kbridge since last time has been confined to;
Wiring completed on the throat board and the ballast and yard surfaces laid. All the point motors were tested too and amazingly everything worked! Thanks to all those who contributed solutions from here.
Backscene added to the scenic section- this is currently a trial size as I am unsure wether it will all fit in the crate I have design
I had time for some photography, but ended up with a mixed bag of subjects, so I split this into two posts, one from the layout and another from the real railway.
The “Noch off†static grass applicator. Total cost less than £10. Made from an electric fly swat, an icing sugar shaker, with removable screen. Also shown is the fine nozzle made from a cut down plastic kitchen funnel and some mesh.
Some of the effects produced using a mix of 2mm and 4mm fibres.
Managed a walk along another section of line when it wasn’t raining. As I have been trying to push my compact camera a bit more lately I thought I’d do a few shots in B&W.
Here are just a few pictures of the remaining bits of infrastructure lurking in the undergrowth.
Crossing gate hinges
Crossing lamp (red glass removed)
Sleepers next to the track bed.
Line side fencing
Unknown post/sign
Remains of the bridges
Kris’s “Avonwick†brid
Fresh from holidays I didn't feel like wiring so I did some scenery on the single line board instead. I have used a mix of fine scatters for the grazing land as even 2mm static grass is a bit long. So far only 1/2 the planned texturing has been completed as trees, hedges and fencing etc is still to go on. I have more clump bits and static fibres to apply to the embankments too.
whole board
Branch passenger train in the entrance to the cutting. Little line of bushes is the start of the hedge.
Uncouted costs and grey hairs after beginning I finally ran my first fully digital train yesterday!
Thanks to help from here I fitted the decoder myself, it was nerve wracking but worked in the end. I was slightly annoyed to find that my Lenz Compact only let me alter 7 CV's, even on the programme track. If anyone knows a way round this I would love to know as I was hoping to do some more tweaking to the CT chip I put in.
I am going to be pretty busy this week as I have to get the Van ready fo
I got all the pictures done yesterday, as well as nearly completing the throat and testing my first point motor!
This is the track, weathered, using acrylic drybrushing on the rail and chairs, followed by two ink washes, with the lineside grit/ash/mud done as below. Ballast was dried and seived grey builders sand I found in the yard.
The lineside area, stage 1. Fine playsand dyed with ink and PVA
Stage 2, Grey drybrush- Dark first, then light
I felt this was too bright, so
I said I would update today, sadly no pictures- will add them to this block as soon as I can take them.
So far-
Controller has arrived- I can now test some wiring and scrimp for a decoder.
The ballast is all laid on the scenic section and I added the finer cinder edges around the track. This was then dyed with black indian ink added to the PVA mix, which will form the basis for paint fx- Will try to illustrate this with my pics.
The tricky join between the curved throat board and the mai
Despite my slowness with the wiring the track work is slowly coming together, all the sections laid so far have their droppers soldered and the points have now all been converted for DCC. The scenic board had its track sprayed and track bed painted ready for ballasting. I even managed to run a few trains on DC to test the joints and it all worked, which was a nice surprise. The big stumbling block is now cash for the remaining points and then fitting all the point motors. I am still looking for
Am currently wiring and soldering everything! Apart from trying to find an all encompassing idiots guide to code 55 point conversion all suggestions from here have been adopted for the wiring, so thank you for encouragement.
I will hopefully have a day modelling on Tuesday so will post some more pictures of the track development. I hope to complete the simple tracklaying on the scenic base pretty quickly so I can experiment on it with ballast.
I was able to get the landscaping finished today including the bridge area pictured in my prototype pics post. Have now completed all the plastering as well, so its onto track and wiring next (gulp!) Here's the pictures from today.
all 3 boards together on temporary stands.
Finished third board and unshaped second.
View up the finished scenic board
Plastering the second board having shaped the underpass.
Have done a few pictures today!
Only the goods trains are started as Dapol aren't producing their "B" set coaches at the moment and I can't find any for sensible money. as my setting is the 1940's much of my stock is weathered to give it a more dirty and battered appearance as befits a railway which is busy with the war effort and where resources for maintainance and cleaning are limited.
Dapol 45xx pulling a mixed train of Farish and Dapol wagons
Dapol 20t Loco coal and 45xx
GWR 7 plan
Just thought I'd add a few pictures from the line as it is now.
Bridge arch under the terminus
Not the Pw Hut- the weigh house!
Loddiswell station
Looking down the line from Loddiswell towards Kingsbridge on the 1:50 gradient to Sorley
The initial plan was: Kingsbridge terminus plus some single line scenic sections in a modular system to enable me to alter the running length. Later put in more scenic sections and the passing station.
Period to be wartime as this had the most interest for operating and as an escaped wargamer I could still put in a few tanks.
to summarise about 6 weeks of frantic activity-
I found out how expensive it was going to be! All purchases would have to be carefully planned and I'd have to stop an
