Jump to content
 

Black Sheep

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,139

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by Black Sheep

  1. Black Sheep
    Well, it's been a while since I posted anything of substance on here beyond sporadic updates, so here we go:
     

     
    As you, hopefully, can see, most of the track is laid, the one part to be done now is the banking down to the canal wharf, although this requires a little bit of packing to raise the trackbed up slightly above quayside but mainly to make the gradient a little less severe.
     
    still deciding how long the goods shed line ought to extend through the shed,
     
    also need to install droppers and power it up - however I have had my Black 5 make its way up, wrong road (less points to cross since the mechanicals for the rod in tube haven't been made so the points are a bit floppy since I've removed the springs) by holding wires to the rails.
     
    Hope to have a video up of a loco (probably black 5 again) making its way up and back sometime next week, then control pannels to make and wiring to finish.
  2. Black Sheep
    I thought I better update anyone following my blog on what's been happening since it gained it's legs.
     
    track is currently laid out along the layout, the bridge plonked in place and working on track bed and aligning things.
     
    at the moment I'm toying with the option of point motors or wire in tube (the original plan) however I don't have much distance from the rear of the layout to the first set of points to be able to get the wires below board to the toggle switches to control the points, as such point motors become attractive but expensive.
     
    I've also been trying to work out a way of turning the turntable, I was going to hand crank it but have moved away from this idea towards motorisation and to that end had taken apart an old, not really working very well Lima loco for it's motor, however this turned out to be a fruitless task as there was no way it could be mated up to the mecano gearing the Peco turntable recommended - as such a fritzinghall type motor and gear box has been acquired on e-bay, just got to smuggle it home from work (delivery address) past the wife otherwise it'll end up as a christmas present in order to excuse the expenditure.
     
    hope to get the turntable deck fitted as a result which will allow me to align the track and get the main line at least running
     
    not 100% what to do about point control, but i'm sure i'll figure something.
  3. Black Sheep
    if you didn't know, my layout is late 1940's LMS purely for wanting to run LMS stock and livery when I'd really rather be modelling early 50's in order to be showing the advent of personal motoring for the average man (brought about by cheaper and easier to run and maintain cars such as the morris minor etc) This would put me firmly into BR days, which I've now got nothing against, but at the time of starting railway modelling, I was put off by the custard/mustard colour that ready to run MK1's seemed to appear in.
     
    Recently I have developed a liking of early diesels such as Deltics, 108's and 37's and am toying with the idea of building around the time of nationalisation but pondering what would have happened had nationalisation not happened.
     
    My thoughts are the LMS twins would have developed into Deltics / 37's and livery similar to that displayed, some in crimson to match coaching stock, perhaps coming into the HST era, utilising blue and silver coronation scot style for the livery.
     
    So, is this a plausible thing to do, or just daft?
     
    suggestions welcome.
  4. Black Sheep

    Long time, new legs

    By Black Sheep,

    Well, it's been a long time since I updated this, including a house move which has seen the railway find a home in one of the rooms instead of what was essentially a corridor. I've also built some legs for the boards (no I wasn't waiting for the trees to grow in order to make them)
     

    Firstly an overall view of the layout with the station to the far left, goods yard infront of it and the coal siding coming down to meet the canal. can't remember if the station building had been plonked on a plank of wood to make it about platform height or not.
     

     
    Looking along the length, apologies for the blurry photo, was leaning over boxes of things yet to be unpacked
     

     
    starting of the embankment and viaduct, I've always wanted a viaduct on my railway, if I hadn't bothered then this layout would have been running months ago! The bridge for the road is a wills 00 gauge cattle culvert, but then again, the arches on the viaduct are rivaling Brunell's Maidenhead arches for span width and low height. (ironically, my recent house move was actually to Maidenhead)
     
    The white farm house building will eventually gain a pub sign, (does it look a bit cramped in there?) the road winding across in front of the pub and under the near arch, some bushes etc will blend the arches in a bit.
    The main line disappears into a tunnel shortly after the viaduct as the scenic break.
     

     
    Station end, hiding behind the goods shed is the turntable, standing about 6mm proud of the base due to it's flange, station building (sat on 10mm of ply to simulate a platform) roughly in position, signal box will most likely be mounted on the platform as it looks a little small and likely to not have a great view of things if a full train (the 5 and it's coaches do just fit although I can see the last coach finding it's way into the turntable pit at least once while backing on. I think normal trains might have to be four coaches with the occasional special resulting in the loco having to do a long run around right over the viaduct and back.
     
    not sure if that was ever common practice anywhere, but never mind
     
    and no, I don't know what a 27 is doing in the background, it's a bit big for making into a tram really.
     
    Next jobs now are: put supports in place for the incline, build up the canal banks (5mm ply wood) seal the MDF with PVA glue and build up the trackbed / entire board to the same level as the turntable although I have been toying with the idea of removing the turntable's flange and sinking it fully into the board removing the need to build up the board slightly.
  5. Black Sheep

    Truckin' on

    By Black Sheep,

    As you may, or may not know my layout has a canal / coal interchange siding loading coal from canal boat to the railway. When deciding a company to undertake this I spotted at work some Parkend Navigation Collieries wagons (which were bought by a customer before I'd managed to buy them) so since then I've been buying them up on e-bay, one came with weathered frames which kind of forced my hand with weathering, but then again, saying ''forest of dean'' and a running number of 330 wouldn't really work for a layout set in the peak district.
     

     
    all Parkend wagons are Peco (out of production and e-bay's supply has dried up)
     
    there are two exceptions, the 7 plank (the Parkends are 7 plank) at the right hand end in the photo is a Penistone gas company wagon (Dapol) which has gotten slightly lost, bought as it's where I went to school.
     
    The other exception is a 5 plank 2mm society kit from when I was looking into building in 2mm which has been roughly hand lettered with 'Parkend' - my aim is for it to look as though the company has bought a 5 plank wagon and to avoid it getting lost into a wagon pool has sent someone into the yard with a pot of paint.
     
    Does it look right or does it look like someone has tried to letter a wagon badly?
  6. Black Sheep
    Today I got my Peco turntable kit, it was also the last time this month that my wife will be on night shift so it is now built, painted and weathered.
     
    although I've followed the instructions carefully, when I put my black five on it for the photo and tried to turn it by hand I found it really quite stiff to turn.
     
    I intend to aquire some meccano parts and make it turn by means of a hand crank, but I'm just wondering if there is a way of making it turn smoother as every loco on the layout that wants to run round its train in the station will be using the turntable.
     
    I'm also wondering if I can wire it up using a feed direct from my control board instead of from the track it's lining up to as, in my mind, this would give less chances of a short circuit.
  7. Black Sheep

    not much progress

    By Black Sheep,

    Its been a while since I posted a new entry on progress, but there is little to tell.
     
    I've got some base board frames, there are points waiting to be paid for at work and a goods shed partly built.
     
    I've put a set of dowels on to join the two boards together and then put the plywood ends on, finding that I need to put a plywood spacer in due to a miss-calculation on dowel length and wood width, but the main problem is that I've lost my wood glue and need some panel pins from the DIY shop which will be tomorrows job before work.
     
    I'm also figuring out legs, I'm wanting them to fold to the board for storage but also wanting to 'crate' the layout, although using the legs to crate along the long side of the layout instead of the ends might be an idea so still pondering.
  8. Black Sheep
    Anyone following my blog will probably be expecting an update on baseboard construction.
     
    That's downstairs in the form of a pile of timber - just taken a break to post some pics.
     
    I've just finished building the viaduct and a bit of weathering applied to it (photos attached)
     
    but mainly I'm wondering what to do regarding vehicles. Mum got me a series 1 landrover (1948) and a caravan (two tone, very 1950's) along with the morris minor van from last christmas.
     
    I do appreciate that she's showing an interest and has gone to the trouble of getting vehicles i'll like and in the correct scale but she does know from my dad's many years of building railways that you have to be true to time - or do you?
     
    Do they go on the layout and claim that BR hasn't got around to applying the livery to the locomotives (I'm assuming it'd take a couple of years to actually re-livery everything)
     
    Or should I just claim the layout is 1950's and that nationalisation never happened?
    Thus allowing me to run the Deltic prototype I quite fancy getting
     
    What do people think?
     
    I'm also claiming that somewhere in the Yorkshire Dales there is a place called Milliedale (try and keep my wife happy with the construction of the layout) which has a canal used to ferry coal from the coal face to meet with the railway.
     
     
    The viaduct with the Ivatt and the black 5 on it.
     

     

  9. Black Sheep

    Slippery slope?

    By Black Sheep,

    As mentioned in the previous entry, the gradient for my line to my coal transfer wharf is making me wonder if it's a little bit too steep.
     
    the traffic that will be using it is about four coal wagons, on the fictional prototype they would go down the slope empty and come back up full, probably dragged up and down by anything from an 0-6-0 to an ivatt 2-6-2 tank and possibly my 4F (0-6-0)
     
    my main concern is more about possible damage to the loco than concern about accuracy - although I wouldn't want a slope that is only found on snowdon.
     
    I've attached a photo of the proposed slope (length and gradient) with a farish coach sat on the slope.
     
    Just wanting people's thoughts on it
     
    Thanks
  10. Black Sheep

    First structures

    By Black Sheep,

    Courtesy of my Gran, I've been shopping at work and bought the first structures for the layout, the goods shed, to be positioned near the station:

     
     
    and the loco servicing structures, positioned on the road / roads from the turntable:
     

     
     
    Both are Ratio kits
     
    I'm looking at changing the pointwork for entering the goods yard to a Peco setrack, it's a tighter curve, but the largest loco that will be going over it is a 4F 0-6-0 or an Ivatt 2-6-0 or ivatt tank, so should be ok, and makes the length of track I have for the coal line connecting with the canal wharf a little longer giving a better gradient.
     
    so, a bit of kit building for over christmas when I'm not working on the baseboards
     
     
     
     
    yes Richard, I do know you, I've been annoying you for the last 26 years
  11. Black Sheep

    Work begins

    By Black Sheep,

    At the moment I'm in the planning process of my first N gauge layout, the intent is to create a scenic but interesting backdrop to run my rolling stock, on an, as yet, un-named fictional layout.
     
    As I said in my post in layout and track design ( http://www.rmweb.co....d-to-end-ideas/ ) I originally started out in 00 courtesy of my parents (as I'm sure many other people did) until wanting to build a prototype based railway and realising if I switched to N gauge I could build lakeside station, on windermere (chosen mainly for the quayside that makes one side of the platform) However this would take up 8ft x 3ft without fiddle yard, something I don't have space for.
     
    Recently I got a job in a model shop, and after selling about 10 N gauge locos and chatting to the customers I'd decided my stock had sat in boxes for long enough, so I set about boring my wife about railways until she responded with "yeh, whatever"
     
    So, I'm now building something along these lines:
     

     
     
    The idea is that it's essentially a cheap to build display run for my locos and rolling stock but also interesting to run.
     
     
    The back story of it is that it's a resort town, hence the large terminus station (giving me an excuse for my black five), the turntable acts as the crossing at the far end of the station, similar to Holmfirth, the blue area on the plan is a canal with wharf for loading coal from barges onto the railway, the reason behind this is the barges can meet the coal almost at the coalface, making it cheaper to bring it out this way than building pit sidings (being from barnsley, pit sidings and pit workings aren't anything special!)
     
    so far I've got some lining paper and been slowly acquiring track from work (paid for of course) to start marking things down and a viaduct has been given to my wife to be returned gift wrapped for my birthday in early jan (although I've measured it so I can continue planning)
     
     

     
     
    Planned track so far, figuring out how it will fit on the 8x1ft board
     
     

     
     
    As you can see, it's not the biggest space living in a rented terrace house, you can just make out the doors leading left, to the stairs and lounge and right, out towards the kitchen.
     
    It should fit between the two doorways yet give enough space to get past after coming home from the supermarket.
     
    So, that's all for now, I'll update when I've got some more done and been shouted at for not doing the washing up
  12. Black Sheep
    ]As the title says really, there has been some more progress on Milliedale starting out with purchasing all the points required to build the scenic area and purchasing some solid 15mm thick MDF for the board.
     

     
     
    This has allowed for getting the track plan from the wall into reality including the pointwork around the baseboard join
     

     
     
    As you may notice in the next few pics, the board has not only been cut to shape but also the turntable has been sunk into the board and various structures built and placed where they are likely to be.
     

     

     
     
    Next on the to-do list is the washing up to avoid "you had time to do that but not to wash up" conversation and then basically build the ridge to support the board tops and the framework to go with them - a little like littlemore's baseboards, but much less ornate!
     
    hope to have a train run sometime soon!
     
    think the gradient of the canal wharf line might lessen as I build and see how it looks.
  13. Black Sheep
    The main focus lately has been to get the canal and it's cobble paths so that the bridge can be fitted in place.
     
    the bridge has been fitted and weathered (found my old airbrush and quite happy with the results using model mates weathering spray through it) and track has been laid across it.
     
    Peco points have been modified by removing the spring so that wire in tube point control can be used, I now need to make some under board parts to do this.
     
    I've also had a bit of a play with making cassettes, with some success, until it fell apart!
  14. Black Sheep
    I've chosen to switch to using a thread to show the development of Milliedale as I've seen the way that the majority of people use the forum a thread means I will get input and feedback from a wider number of people in a way that is easier for me to view when checking in from cattle class on first great western while on the way to work.
     
    I'd like to thank everyone who has contributed and commented on my random waffling here and invite you to continue in the thread http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/51959-milliedale-yorkshire-market-town-terminus-in-n-gauge/page__fromsearch__1
     
    as such, i'll only be updating the thread, not the blog from now on.
×
×
  • Create New...