Well, after about a year of pondering, I've decided to bite the bullet and scrap my existing layout and start again in the loft.

 

The old layout 'Abercaldy - 1980's Fife' was in my garage and in attempt to not take up the whole of the garage had some pretty tight curves. This was leading to a lot of derailments, difficulties in reaching the fiddle yard and the garage in anything but summer was not a nice place to be.

 

Following an enforced loft clear out to sort a water tank problem I started thinking it was a better place than the garage for a layout and also much better temperature. A really good space was available with about 20 ft x 8 ft being available depending on precise shape.

 

At the same time I was starting to become bored with modelling Scotland after 15 years of false starts on different layouts and so with better ranges of rolling stock available I decided to make the plunge and sell off my ScR stock. To my surprise quite a few items made some decent profits over what I had paid for them.

 

After lots of research, I was heading down the lines of something that resembled Landudno Junction, but felt like I was forcing it in - partially due to a restriction of where the loft hatch was.  However, I kept coming back to spending hours browsing the fabulous Llanbourne on this forum. Eventually it struck me that just because I had a good amount of space, I didn't have to had a tail chaser/circuit. A terminus would offer much more flexibility and I wasn't trying to bring 2 fiddle yard entrances around corners, this also gave me a longer running section.

 

The layout takes it's inspiration from a combination of Holyhead and Landudno as well as Llanbourne - although didn't want to be just a copy of any. The year will be 1986, this allows class 20, 25, 31, 33 the odd 37, 40 (D200 and departmental), 45 and 47 along with a good selection of DMU's. I was fortunate in acquiring one of the Modelzone sealed beam class 45's at a sensible price for my early 80's Fife layout - it was numbered as a 46 but is a 45 which maybe why it slipped under the radar! This was the biggest gap in the RTR market so I'm happy to have at least one - Now come on Bachmann, surely you can't go wrong by announcing one - I need more.

 

I drew up some essentials and realised I could fit them all in without feeling too cramped. Decent size station with at least 4 platforms and an overall roof, some reception sidings, a small Speedlink depot, an Engineers Yard, a branch line and a loco shed.

 

The station will resemble Llandudno although compressed, the approaches probably more Holyhead around the shed/signalbox area. Operationally Llanbourne gives the best feel with all the main traditional North Wales services bound for Scarborough, London, Cardiff and Manchester/Chester and the branch seeing Nuclear flask, explosives and possibly chemical traffic as well as a DMU service. The Engineers Yard will ensure plenty of class 25 and 40 action in in the summer of 1986.

 

The Following plan was eventually devised in Empire Express - I'm sure it will evolve but a good starting point:

 

 

 

After what felt like forever boxing out the edges of the loft and insulating, I finally got some baseboard frames up and boards loosely laid out, now to roughly lay out some track and see if the plan looks ok in reality. Early stages but some photos attached and it seems to work. The rest of the insulation still needs finishing but I wanted to make sure I was heading in the right direction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst playing with track plans and selling Scottish things, a few essentials have come up so I have started building up some new stock, the main purchase was a Trains4u original Provincial 150/1 and a blue 33, I already had D200 and a splitbox 40 that has been renumbered to 97405 along with 20, 25, 45 and 47s as well as a DC Kits class 120. I also managed to get a new chassis for my broken blue 31 that has been in a box for 10 years - hadn't realised it was dead until i moved house a few years ago, annoyingly just after Hornby stopped sending out new chassis.

 

Progress is likely to be leisurely but hopefully there will be some interesting rolling stock projects.

Welcome to my current project. This has been adapted from my previous layout plan, owing to having a space 16x5ft the previous layout was shelved as over half of the area was being taking up by fiddleyard. This new plan is end to end fiddleyard to terminus. 

 

The basic history is based on a line built to the coastal town of Saltfleet which then grew into a seaside resort. Being one of the lines in Lincolnshire to have survived the cull of the 60s and 70s it carries on. Based in the late 80s early 90s it still boasts a healthy timetable with trains to Boston, London, Nottingham and Sheffield. Traffic is a mixture of 105s, 156s and loco hauled mk1/2 stock. 

Construction is at a point now where the track is down, point motors are being installed as are track feeds. The boards have had a rough coating of black paint. Wood for the platforms is in. 

Given my interest in signalling and electronics the layout will be fully signalled and that signalling will be prototypically interlocked with the point work with a mixture of relays and SSI circuitry and worked from a signal box panel, initially IFS but moving to NX as time allows.  

 

This may be of help, photo courtesy of Paul James.

Snapped from the old cross station footbridge at Liverpool Street station, a Cl31 and 47 stand on the buffers stops in Platforms 11 and 12.

This is just a quick introduction to my current project, Horncastle. 

 

Horncastle was a branch terminus on the edge of the Lincolnshire wolds. Whilst the line was very successful until British Railways took over, the branch closed to passengers in 1954 and freight in 1970 when the Lincolnshire loop line closed.

As my internet is in the BR blue period, I decided to build it as if the loop line was still in use, which in turn kept the Horncastle branch open.

As this layout was designed to fit in a bedroom at our old house, the layout is limited to 12'x 2', with some modifications to the prototype track plan.

I have envisaged that a grain silo and UKF fertiliser depot where opened on the site in the late 60's, and I've used these buildings to hide the fiddle yard. The original goods shed was taken over by a tyre distribution company after the line closed, and so I have modelled this as if it were still the case. 

The station building has recently been constructed by Howard Leader, http://bespokemodelbuildings.co.uk/index.html and has done a magnificent job at creating a wonderful building, many thanks Howard!

Will leave it here for now, but will post more in the near future. 

 

Simon.

The design period for Friden took some months, firstly getting to grips with Templot and then transferring the output to my CAD program. As I've mentioned before on my p87 thread, CAD drawing is now such an integral part of my modelling projects that I don't know what I would do without it. I quite enjoy the challenge of working out how to construct something by drawing it out first. It should, and in most cases does, make the construction easier. Aside from the basic track plan, I was able to map out the other key features of the layout, including the position of the road bridge and the basic shapes of all the buildings. All of this was done before any consideration of baseboards and the like. I suppose that it might have been slightly easier to imagine things if I had drawn it in 3D, but that's a whole different ball game for me and not something I can profess to at this stage. Maybe some day?

 

As I said earlier, the layout is designed primarily for home use and has to fit into a somewhat confined space in my workshop. The space isn't rectangular and it's blessed with various bits of extraneous plumbing and pipework on the walls which reveal its previous use as a utility area. I wanted to keep these facilities intact in case we want to sell the house in the future, so the design has to allow for these. Also, I have various workbenches and bookshelves in there, so the main run of baseboards would have to sit on top of these, rather than being supported by conventional legs.

 

Space to move baseboards around during construction is also at a premium, so partly because of their odd shapes, the boards had to be relatively small for easy handling. I was also conscious of the need to position the baseboard joints carefully to avoid difficult track configurations, and the locations of turnout operating units, point motors and uncoupling magnets were also determined at this stage.

 

The first picture below shows the eventual design of baseboard layout - 6 boards in all, with the Middleton fiddle yard at the left hand end removable for normal access to the room. Taking each baseboard in turn, I then  began to draw out the parts for laser cutting in 6mm birch ply. The basic carcass is 90mm deep, which allows for installation of Tortoise motors in the future, if I decide to stick with these. Baseboard ends are formed of a double layer of the ply, with the holes for pattern makers dowels being cut in the outer layer. All around there are access holes to allow easy routes for wiring, and in most cases there are diagonal braces to strengthen the structure. When completed however, the final boards are very light and strong.

 

The second picture shows a cutting plan for one of the boards. From this you will see that much of the construction is on a 'tab and slot' basis. The colours used reflect the three stages of cutting on the machine. Blue is the first cut of what I call 'surface marks', essentially a line drawn on the surface of the ply for track centrelines, backscene locations, etc. Red is the second cut to remove sections within the overall shape of each part, principally the lightening holes but also the locations of uncoupling magnets and tiebar mechanisms. Finally comes the green cut, which separates all the main parts from the sheet. It's vital that the cutting is done in this order, otherwise the parts would start to move on the cutting bed before the detail is cut.

 

Assembly of the boards is done with PVA glue and large numbers of squares and clamps. A flat surface is helpful and it's also important to ensure that there's not an overtight fit to the tabs and slots, which might build distortion into the final structure. There's then a final sand down, especially important where you have dimensionally critical joints.

 

For the boards that sit on top of the bookcase, adjustable rubber feet have been fitted to each board for levelling purposes. The first four boards are now virtually complete, and will have a coat of Danish Oil before final installation and the laying of cork and trackwork. 

 

That's all for a later post! Hope you found the above informative and helpful.

 

A view of the road side, which will face the layout's viewing side.

 

Sadly the platform side will be largely hidden by the overall roof.

 

 

This is the end that is still extant, without the outbuilding to the left. 

 

 

The station building is all but finished now. I was absolutely knocked out to see it complete for the first time on Monday.

 

 

Upgrade of a Lima PWA wagon using decal artwork kindly provided by James (jessy1692), etched trusses from jonhall and Stenson Models Fast Freight bogies.

 

Before:-

 

After:-

 

 

 

 

 

Only seven more to do...

 

Cheers

 

Darius

I've been looking into the freight services on the Barnstaple line in the mid 1980s, with a view to starting a model "inspired by" (but definitely not an accurate model of) the line in the mid 1980s. I know about the following flows:

Fertilizers to Lapford - UKF private owner PWA pallet vans

Timber from Lapford - OTAs

Cement to Barnstaple - PCAs

Resin to Barnstaple - Ciba-Geigy private TTA tanks

And some loco hauled passenger trains and parcels traffic too, besides DMUs.

There was also the ball clay trains from Meeth which finished in 1982, also milk tanks from Torrington which finished in 1978 and fertilizer to Torrington if I stretched the timescale somewhat.

- which all seem eminently modelable and (dare I say it ) more varied than the china clay traffic I originally set myself on to!

 

These websites have given some useful info

Cyberheritage (Steve Johnson) Really Good Trains (Andrew Bartlett) - I'm also hoping Ken Baker's Fotopic site might be resurrected at some stage

Some images of Barnstaple yard on the Cyberheritage site have really got my interest though - Grainflow Polybulks plus what seems to be a ferry van. Another Polybulk - nice short train. And some OCAs possibly loaded with big fertilizer bags (but why wouldn't this have been dropped off at Lapford?)

Now the questions!

1. Can anyone cast any light on the Polybulks - I seem to remember a vague mention of grain traffic somewhere?

2. Also, does anyone know of any pictures of Lapford sidings in the 1980s - I've only seen images of the actual station. I know the former dairy building was used as the fertilizer warehouse, but I'd like to see where & how the timber was handled. I know traffic picked up from Lapford had to run on to Barnstaple as the signalling at Lapford didn't allow for a runround in the loop there.

All help gratefully received. I can't guarantee any immediate progress to show for this research, but it all adds to my knowledge base....

Oh and if anyone knows of any Lima or Hornby UKF livery PWAs being available I would like to know!

Apologies guys, a bit of a pic-heavy post coming!

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

I've just completed my first batch of ZKV 'Barbel' wagons, made up from the old Parkside (now Peco) kits representing the rustbox vacuum-braked survivors that lasted on spoil trains until the turn of the century. 

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

These used to be a regular sight at Didcot in my early spotting days and I always used to think of them as like the 'troublesome trucks' from Thomas the Tank Engine! They were such a throwback to the days of steam, and a huge anachronism to see these being hauled around by the likes of shiny red EWS Class 37s!

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

The starting point was the Parkside kits, now coded Peco PC63, really easy to assemble wagons that can be just thrown together, but with oodles of care taken to ensure they are built straight. I use a piece of glass from a picture frame to ensure the wagon sits flat for the body and the four wheels sit flat without a wobble!

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

Some little extras were added including Accurascale spare sprung buffers (not that they're sprung by the time I've glued them in and made a mess..!), some Smiths instanter couplings plus some brass wire bits to have a bodge at some of the brake pipework underneath, its not quite Pendon quality but I've got about 40 of these to do eventually  

 

My modelling eye has spotted that the axleboxes on many of the surviving Barbels are slightly revised since either version supplied in the kit, but having trawled parts suppliers and scratchbuiling options I'm conceding that I'll live with these, for now at least!

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

The next stage was having assembled each wagon in the batch, to move onto the fun messy painting stage. There appears to be two types left running in the late '90s - battered BR Dutch grey & yellow, or even more battered Bauxite! One of my absolute favourite ones pictured online still had the 'Iron Ore Tippler' wording just visible on the centre bodyside, what a relic!

 

While the grey ones were simple to do, using fade shades of yellow and pale grey, the rusty brown ones I had some challenges getting them as dark as they needed, until cracking out the extreme dark browns, dirty black and Virgin Trains dark grey..! Lots of mottling and drybrushing took place until the wagons started to generally look like the prototype pictures in front of me. 

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

Next, each wagon was weighted down with a layer of liquid lead, each one weighs the same as a Bachmann MFA wagon for guidance! Wagons positioned at the head of the train will have slightly more weight added to compensate too. 

 

The individual weathering stage was the most fun part!

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

Niche Canadian alternative synthpop is prescribed as the recommended music to accompany ZKV Barbel battering! 

 

The amazing thing about these wagons is of course every single one is unique and we are gifted with so many pictures about online these days to find prototypes to model, even of a wagon that disappeared from the network a good 20 years ago now. Photo collections to check out include Andy Jupe, Martyn Read, Paul Bartlett, John Dedman and Simon Bendall's plus many more, either via respective owner websites or across Flickr and Smugmug. 

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

DB386317 shown here in the original brown shades, it look a bit of time trying to get the different colours showing through and the numerous patch painted areas buried under the grime and rust of all the years service.

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

DB386397 in modelled in the classic Dutch livery that covers the larger majority of the fleet by the late '90s, though the rust on this example was bubbling through the paint, likely caused by the panels being pushed out from the load and the outer paint flaking away allowing water ingress underneath. 

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

DB388411 is looking pretty good for its age! Only a little bit of light scratching, presumably from unloading by grabber at various worksites across the Western Region. 

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

I couldn't resist modelling a graffitied version! DB385821 is based on an example photographed on Flickr at Didcot in 1999 so there was no way it wouldn't make it into the collection!

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

DB388875 is really losing the battle to rust! Covered in scars, these were modelled using a combination of scratching the bodywork with a craft knife before painting on & wiping off paint to highlight the damage, and some touching in using fine paint brushes, the shades being most used were Humbrol's 62, 186 and 113.

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

DB386056 shown here in another patchy livery of brown and touched up shades, modelled on an example again in Didcot Yard before the turn of the century. 

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

Here's the favourite one! DB388196 shows its old Iron Ore Tippler lettering just about through the layers of rust and grime, a superb survivor from 1999. The fresh blue axle boxes were also a nice touch too. 

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

DB385919 is an average example with some scratching on the side but clinging on to life before withdrawal and replacement with more modern air-braked spoil wagon conversions coming on stream such as the MHA 'Coalfish' and MTA wagon designs.

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

Another favourite, DB388691 in a patchy brown livery, the underframes on these wagons are a combination of browns and dark greys mottled on to the underframe and the occasional dry brush with gunmetal to highlight raised detail where needed. 

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

DB388548 had a number of deep scratches in the bodyside, again presumably a result from some over enthusiastic grabber loading! 

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

Bringing up the tail end of the first batch of 11 Barbels is DB386309, interesting as it had a different kind of buffers to the others which have more of a mini-Oleo style, these are big and chunky old school ones! Accurascale do buffers which look like good ringers of each style, these are available in the spares section on their website. 

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

That's all of the first batch for now, I thought after many years of hoarding these wagon kits from different shows, picking up two or three wherever I saw them, the lockdown was the perfect excuse to just get on with them! 

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

The only downside is that despite taking up a lot of time, they are really small! These used to be often appearing in big long trains and I've got about 40 to do, which will sit nicely behind an EWS 37 for the ultimate late 1990s juxtaposition!

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

These were great fun to do, and in the meantime if you have any more 1990s 'Barbel' pics that haven't appeared on the web so far then please do share and I will be sure to cover these off in the next batch! 

 

ZKV Barbel wagons by James Makin by James Makin - Account 2, on Flickr

 

As a bit of a teaser for later this year (I have long lead times!) I have this weekend just cracked open a whole load of new diesel projects, quite a few Bachmann 37s and 47s being tarted up before my old 2010's pre-pricerise bargain stockpile is finally exhausted, so these are on the go, while work elsewhere is advancing on something more 'high speed'! 

 

Cheers,

James

 

 

 

Below are the changes I have made to the default values of the model as supplied.  The first two mentioned below are included for completeness.  I have included the possible CV ranges for each variable, so that you can find a value that suits you.  The original CV values are also provided.

 

Check Powerpack settings (as detailed in the Accurascale website)

Index CV                               New CV value                      CV range                           Original CV value

N/a                                         CV113 = 127                         n/a                                      n/a

CV31 = 16, CV32 = 0           CV363 = 31                           n/a                                      n/a

 

Turn on Drive Lock (as detailed in the Accurascale website)

Index CV                               New CV value                      CV range                           Original CV value

CV31 = 1, CV32 = 1             CV267 = 32                           n/a                                      96

as above                                CV268 = 2                             n/a                                      76

CV31 = 16, CV32 = 8           CV372 = 128                         n/a                                      32

as above                                CV373 = 64                           n/a                                      0

as above                                CV374 = 0                             n/a                                      32

 

Reduce Master volume

Index CV                               New CV value                      CV range                           Original CV value

n/a                                          CV63 = 160                           0 - 192                               192

 

Reduce Headcode and tail light brightness

Index CV                               New CV value                      CV range                           Original CV value

CV31 = 16, CV32 = 0           CV262 = 0 (headcode)        0 - 31                                  20

as above                                CV270 = 0 (headcode)        0 - 31                                  20

as above                                CV278 = 36 (tail)                 0 - 63                                  42

as above                                CV286 = 4   (tail)                  0 - 31                                  10

 

Note for non-WIPAC fitted models, the use of F22 and F23 will increase the brightness!

Other lights and associated CVs are detailed here (same index CVs as above, range 0 – 31):  Accurascale lighting functions CVs

 

Have cab lights auto turn off when moving

Index CV                               New CV value                      CV range                           Original CV value

CV31 = 16, CV32 = 3              CV497 = 6                              n/a                                      4

CV31 = 16, CV32 = 4              CV270 = 10                            n/a                                      8

 

Improve slow speed running

Index CV                               New CV value                      CV range                           Original CV value

N/a                                         CV2 = 2                                  1 - 255                               1

N/a                                         CV51 = 20                             0 - 255                               0

N/a                                         CV52 = 70                             0 -255                                0

N/a                                         CV116 = 50                           25 - 200                             100

 

 

Steve

Remove the bogies

Remove the wheel sets and the clip in brake moulding.

Thin down the sides in the centres of the brake mouldings

Slit down the middle of the brake moulding.

Glue in place the half brake assemblies. Be aware that if you move them too far out the back of the wheels will touch the curvy rebate for the couplings.

Deconstruct the stub axles

 

Reduce the length of the stub axles by 1.15mm, no less as the metal bearing can’t be pushed out but could be bent in for a slightly shorter axle.

reassemble the wheel sets securing with Loctite stud lock. I went with standard EM 16.5mm back to back and Bachmann flanges cause no issues.

 

 

 

 

I have spent some time being obsessed with trying to get the decoder settings optimised for my taste. I've now reached something I am really happy with and thought I'd share, so if anyone wants to tweak their settings this may help.

I started by trying to work around the rather quick start with the sound equipped 37s (compared to when the sound is turned off). If you have one of these thrash machines, you'll notice that at speed step 1 the brake release sounds, but nothing else will happen until you get to speed step 8 (assuming 128 Speed Steps selected). Once you get to SS8 the revs will increase ever so slightly and the loco starts to move, but too quickly. You can then throttle back to SS1 to get it to slow down and crawl. The moving off at SS8 appears to be baked into the sound project so not easy to counter. In the attachment you'll find two options. Option one is a simple CV change that will make the loco move off at SS1, but doesn't alter the fact that the engine revs don't increase until SS8 i.e. synch between movement and engine revs at very low speed is lost. The second option has many more CV changes, but will result in a crawl at SS8 (i.e. same speed as SS1) with appropriate engine revs.  If anyone has another solution please share. 

I also slowed the acceleration rate (giving longer thrash!), which then needed a change to the "light load" setting.

Tweaks were made to the lighting settings along with a few other bits and pieces, including moving the dynamic brake from F29 to F2.

All changes I made are detailed in the attachment, along with the original settings.  Of course you don't have to change all the settings listed, you can also introduce your own values for a number of the changes.

 

If it all goes horribly wrong, then writing CV8 = 8 will reset it back to the original AS values.

 

 

Steve
 

Accurascale Class 37 decoder settings.pdf