Leaderboard

I've no objection to rolling roads, and I do use one myself, but I do like to give locos a good running in on track as well. A few years ago, I made up a circle of P4 sectional track, using identical curved lengths of flexitrack (SMP, in this case), with the curve held in place by some copper clad sleepers soldered in place. Fishplates were also soldered on, and the result is a 7' 6" diameter circle of track, that can be dismantled into 16 seperate curved sections for storage. It takes a while to set up, and currently needs to be on the floor. This in turn needs old magazines (Radio Times is quite good) to be laid down and taped to the carpet, to reduce the chances of hairs and other undesirable detritus getting into the loco mechanisms. Due to gradual 'creep' as the locos run round the circuit, the track is also taped to the magazine sheets. Here is 1650 having it's first serious running in session, at the time of writing it is probably about half way through today's session, with 3 and a half hours of running under it's belt so far (this includes changing direction and the loco being turned round). This process does seem to help smooth out minor imperfections in the running of a loco 'just out of works', although it won't normally get rid of major problems affecting smooth running, for which the loco will need to go back to the work bench. Due to the time and inconvenience of setting this circuit up, I'm now planning to get an 8' diameter hollow circle of plywood cut out by a friend who has the right gear in his workshop to do this. I will probably cut the circle into four segments for storage, and glue the track to it, effecting board joints by use of stout hinges that have had their central pivots removed.

Good evening, Time for an update on PWIAB. In short, the original idea was for the layout to be exhibited in May 2014...but this was far far away so it has been brought forward to May 2013 After much sketching again at 35,000ft en route to UK recently for our week in sunny changeable Cornwall, thought was given to the baseboards as I wanted to get these underway before crimble. Particularly, lessons learnt from Kyle when it used to reside in a boxfile. This time a decision was made not to use foamboard as they twisted and were also too light, tending to want to move everytime you slid the dpdt switch for the turnouts. I recall that Anthony Yeates had used 3mm ply on his inspiring Inverneuk boxfile layout so something similiar was sought. Not being a gifted wood worker and lack of workbench/garage also shaped the decision and I found a product in a model shop here which was wood like in appearance and 3mm thick...and it was reasonably priced. It cuts with the grain with a SM 10A scalpel blade and requires a little more work across the grain but is has allowed me to work on a cutting mat on the dining room table. Having worked out the maximum dimensions, I knew I had to extend the width by a slither but this was necessary to allow the trackplan to fit. The pieces were cut, numbered and laid out and then glued with PVA. Another lesson learnt from alignment issues was to incorporate a hinge and this will be visible on the front and may/may not be covered by the front fascia. The boards will be then unfolded and bolted through on the inside, again to iron out problems previously arising. Finally, the last thing was to incorporate the folding section. You may recall that in order to add a little more operational interest a through line has been added the other side of the bay platform and this is provided by a folded section so as to sit within the depth/width of the boxfile. A strip has been formed secured with hinges and Araldite (I may add screws later for belt and braces) and once unfolded this is kept in place by a timber base which has recesses to incorporate switches for the turnout and signals to be added at a later date - More on that in the future as its presently in the sketchbook/my head at present. In terms of signals there will be a two aspect starter for the bay platform and a four aspect with feather for the through line. I am currently in extended dialogues with Matt from Absolute Aspects (formely Roger Murray) and I must say that he has been extremely helpful in his way of working as we try to work together by exchange of emails with the minimum depth of the baseboards (only 30mm) It may be that the two signals are removable and Matt has engineered the 'below baseboard' stuff to fit with the 'above baseboard' signals potentially 'plugging in'. Finally, thanks again to Chris (EastWestDivide) for sending some more photos recently which are helping with context and train formations. As always, a few pics to better describe all the above The first is a reminder of the idea showing the through line which folds for storage... And gives extra width to the boards... Baseboards folded and located within depth allowing for scenics... Once removed they look something like this... And on the underside, this... The edges unfold to reveal the hinged section... The baseboads unfolded give this...hinge on front face as not to interfere with folding mechanism.. Looking down and at the rear, we see the through line folded in stored position... And once unfolded, they increase the width to allow the through line to fold up against the platform face... Final zoom in showing recess which will incorporate switches and DIN sockets etc... Next I need to order some more Easitrac components and cut the slots for the signals...until the next time...

Right so finally, (I hope) my tanker train is ready to roll. I was a bit annoyed with some of the older club members when I first brought my tanker train which at the time was complete. I had spent alot of hard work and time into getting them ready. I will admit to using the same wheels as the kits which was a mistake since they didn't go well with the smp track. But I felt that their critisam wasn't very constructive unlike other memebers whyo were happy to dish out advice. Anyway, b****y rant over. I went away huffed and puffed, felt better, remained with the club and go on with life. Alot of you are already aware of the brake vans and intended barrier wagons to which I have added some extra weight to aid adherence to track. I still wanted to have my tanker train running at the next exhibition so I wasn't going to consign these tankers to the cripple yard. I puruchased some parkside dundas wagon whells from the york exhibition and have fitted them to the tankers. Also as I am planning to run them as a block rake I have fitted some simple loop and hook coulings to majority of the rake with only two dedicated outer wagon reciving NEW pockets from Chivers to fit some Bachmann tension locks. I re-added some under frame detail which I had removed previously for the old couplings (I wish I had, had the hindsight to relasie the trouble I was going to go through) and painted it all up. I also touched up the paint work too as there was some chips and scratches whilst they were in storage. As you can see the new couplings have closed the gap between the wagons but they do still go around 2nd radius curves. As soon as I can get them on the club layout I'll show you them with the 9F.

A few spare minutes at the end of todays session allowed me to take some snaps so that you can see what's going on (and what's not!). Some photographs of the signal box were available on Fotopic before it went under, so I'm posting a few pics here in case anybody may be interested. View towards the station showing the North Wales Coast mainline disappear into the distant clutter. Just off to the right is the entrance to the ballast sidings. The box has yet to be fitted with fire buckets, door handles and other things. Lets get a bit closer...below are the doors giving access to where the point rodding mechanisms would once have been. The entrance looking through the door... Inside can be found the kitchen and leading off is the small bathroom. Just behind us is the old frame with instruments. The bathroom window is open...something must have died! Note the extractor fan. The ballasting is almost finished, yet to be sprayed the correct colour when the track gets the same treatment. Here are a couple of views looking from the platform, I don't think the scale of the stuff looks too bad: Things will start to look better soon(ish). Hope you all like it.

I love hanging basket liner - it's the best thing ever. While I accept that it is best viewed as a basis for further texturing, rather than an end in its own right, its sufficiently grassy looking, in its natural state, to fool my eye into thinking that some definite progress is being made. Rather than endless hours faffing around with glue, paint and Kermit-coloured scatter materials, you can cover dozens of square inches of model landscape in seconds, giving that instant gratification of seeing scenery begin to come alive. I had not used it before working on the S&D layout, but once I started, I become so sold on its merits that I made sure I bought enough of the stuff to see me through to the end - even if my local garden center should suddenly stop stocking it. I paint the underlying plaster with burnt sienna, so there are no white patches likely to show through, and once that's dry - a few hours - I then apply PVA or Copydex and press chunks of HBL into place. In case you have not used this stuff, it is very forgiving, being sufficiently stretchy and compressible that you don't need to fit shapes together with tremendous precision. And once two pieces are fixed down adjacent to each other, they can be blended together by coaxing the fibres from one to spread across to the other and vice versa. Later, after applying scatter materials, static grass, etc, you won't be able to see the join. It even works pretty well between two scenic modules. In the lower picture, below the 4F, you can make out the right angle join where the removable module sits in its gap. But it's far from obvious in the flesh and again will not really be that apparent once additional texturing has taken place. Cheers again...

Last night I had a bit of a play weathering a foster yeoman liveried 5 plank, trying to get a finish suitable for cheddar I've used various greys and browns to faid and distress the paint, and give a dusty finish you would expect on an old mineral wagon A few replacement planks need more coats in different shades to complete the effect I also still want to add rust to the metal work, and a bit more distressing around the diagonal metal work Of course as with every other wagon I own it needs buffers, and is also lacking a break leaver on one side that I think aught to be added,

A busy time at work so little time to model and post any updates. Further filling and sanding of the 3d printed model has proved to me that a complete single part body is perhaps not the best way to go about it so I'm currently investigating a 'flat-pack' kit type of solution which I will reveal in the 3d printing and cad forum soon. The partially smoothed model is shown here. However, I still needed to prove the model will work on the Hornby chassis. Looking at the chassis we can see that the motor is screwed to the chassis and the weight sits around it. Taking the weight off reveals a small spring contact beneath to the wiper strip. Power is transfered through the weight to the contact at the top. The weight needs cutting as shown by the masking tape. The front part of the weight will also foul the base of the smokebox so it's easiest just to cut right through with a hack saw as shown and discard the front. Next the locating lugs need to be removed from the back and the back corners chamfered. Some material needs to be filed away between the pony truck and driving wheel as shown - this is to allow space for the tank connecting pipes. Next the front coupling is removed and the front of the chassis needs to be cut off immediately forward of the guard irons. Finally I needed to remove some material from the back face of the cab as the Hornby motor protrudes into this area. On the finished kit I will leave this as is to accommodate anyone who wishes to replace the Hornby motor with something smaller. With all this done the body could be placed on the chassis. My chassis is DCC fitted so the additional wiring to the chip (in the smokebox) meant that the body was sitting a touch too high. However, the chassis with body combo ran well with no issues and really looks the part. Some more material will need to be filed from the top of the weight or alternatively it may be better to discard the weight altogether and replace it with some liquid lead or similar. If so the contact will need soldering directly to the motor connection. The working model is shown here attached to some Gresley subs.

Jon, hi - Thanks - its called plancha tilo...which translates as 'grilled lime' Don't think its balsa as it seems stronger and I wouldn't have taken it otherwise - lets see as you say...glad the sun came out...hope it stays too. Thanks Tom - Yep...2 years and I was in danger of faffing so its good to bring it forward a year...if the track is down by crimble then maybe Santa will leave a 56 in the stocking...

Nice work Pete, as Jon says very tidy! Looking forward to watching this one develop. Nothing like a deadline to kickstart the modelling mojo! Tom.

Very tidy work, as ever Pete. What is the material? It looks like Balsa. Hopefully it'll not warp when you come to work it... always a worry with new materials. You've got me thinking though... I'll have to start thinking too. The ballast on my depot has not withstood the recent warmth... (yes we had some, again just as we got home ) so I'll be starting again and need some thoughts. Maybe I need to put myself at altitude to think it through Looking forward to seeing this develop!

I like the weathering on all the wagons, and especially the oil tankers - very effective indeed. The tankers must look pretty impressive when running in a block train.

Following initial function testing of the control panel, I have connected up the panel and two boards to check a bit more, including the yard controller connection points. To my consternation, feeds to the second board (the one with the coal drops) and the DC input were completely dead. Everything on the first (station) board appeared to be reasonably OK (see later) and the DCC input and local point operation/LED's on the second board worked. A slight sense of panic set in as I frantically checked various tag connectiones and continuity. Then, with a massive feeling of relief and realising what a silly mistake I'd made, I noticed that I had only connected one set of jumper cables between the two boards - the other was still neatly held in its clips! Phew!! I sheepishly connected the second jumper and heaved a sigh of relief as everything on board 2 now worked. Well, actually, I found that a slight re-thinking of the wiring to the Tortoise point motors was required. I had followed one of the wiring suggestions from Tortoise and used a switched half-wave rectified feed to one side of the motors and one side of the 16 v AC supply to the other. The siding point and associated LED's on the second board worked OK, if a bit slow, but the platform release cross-over, involving two motors and three LED's would only work in one direction. I found that with the LED's removed from the circuit, the motors worked perfectly, so the LED array must be causing too big a voltage drop. I could solve this for the local controlled points by swapping the switches to have an extra pole but the panel mounted switches for he two other cross-overs already were the maximum number of poles available. Mmmm... Then I decided to try wiring the LED's in parallel with the motor feeds instead of in series. I attached jumper leads to try it and thankfully it worked, so it was then a case of rearranging the wiring and connecting on side of the LED arrays, via a resistor, direct to the 16 v AC side which the motors are connected. All now appears to work as intended. Next step is to start work on wiring the last scenic board - the one with most of the station throat point-work - that I've been putting off. No more excuses, so I'll just have to knuckle down and make a start.

Here is the first attempt at a tree armature, following Gordon Gravett's methods (with a few variations in method) shown in his new book. I can't recommend this book highly enough as the definitive 'how-to' work on tree making. I couldn't have achieved anything without it's guidance. This is an attempt at a 'grisly' old oak. The small lumps need removing from the thinner wire bits. The 'greenification' is still being worked on for the right formula. We'll need a large quantity of various trees for Balcombe Viaduct, including some old large oaks, elms and some smaller silver birches. The GG method ones will be at the front and then blending into lesser ones, probably using quite a lot of sea-moss built ones.

Well, everyone has at least several planned out in their heads, as I have. Whilst many are out of the question, some of them would certainly be well worth looking into to. Idea One: Large Tramway Museum Preservation layouts. Something I love and hate with a passion. Whilst many are good and done well, I can't help but feel some just don't have the right stock to fit on the layout, ie having several big locomotives for a small station terminus isn't really that convincing. Throw a Austerity (pseudo British Railways livery or not) and a rake of multicolored Mark 1's onto it and it'll satisfy me. As someone with a passing interest in trams, I've visited the museum at Crich several times and been thrilled everytime I go. The fact that there are so many examples on show, although most fit the feel of the line, helps to recreate a time when such vehicles were commonplace. In model form, it's something you could do freelance. Perhaps even take inspiration from Blackpool or Beamish for a general feel of how to do it? Regardless, you could "prototypically" run trams from several areas and have a modern setting to it. This is one I'm really looking at doing in the future, most likely in OO. (16.5mm track gives you just over 4ft as a track gauge, not too far off from the gauges many systems used.) Idea Two: Wisbech & Upwell Tramway Preservation Group Trams again! Although this time, it's fair to blame the late Reverend W Awdry for creating Toby The Tram Engine, a character who is an instant favorite. Inspired by a holiday, the Reverend managed to convince The Fat Controller to bring one to Sodor. So far, this one could easily be done. I've got a already modified Dapol 04 body, which would simply need side skirts, and two K's J70 kits. I'm tempted by the Silver Fox offering, so I may compare the two and how they build. Stock wise, there is the old D&S coach kit range, comprising the four wheel and bogie stock, but I'd either bash Bachmann USA's Henrietta or create a 3D printed model. I've enough reference material to start working upon this idea, and setting it a few years in the future may be the best bet. There is already a J70/Y6 replica underway, in the form of a rebuilt tram locomotive at the Nene Valley Railway, and one of the 04 locomotives is still in existence. You could easily have the preservation group using two locomotives alone, possibly in addition another loco (perhaps a Austerity or something similar) based on the line too. One to wait for when I have more room, as I'd prefer to do a full blown scenic layout. ______ Well that's about it on the idea front for now, so I'm going to go and think them over. I could rather easily convert over to tramways altogether, but I've enough to do modeling wise right now. Jack Source