Vanrouge

Great modelling Stuart, had to double check at one point that I was looking at N gauge!!!

Thanks for your reply guys will look into them both Cheers Nick

Hi guys I want to get some railroad crossing road marking decals here in the UK does anyone know a source? You can get them in the States for about 8 bucks for 4 but the shipping is another 8 on top, anyone got any ideas? Cheers Nick

Thanks for posting really interesting video with informative commentary. Cheers Nick Think those Baldwins are right up your street Ray

Not sure what happened here, I posted before going to work, checked a few hours later on my phone to see if there had been any replies but couldn't see my original post, so reposted. Checked again this morning and viola both posts?????????

I undrerstand this range is no longer available, can anyone suggest an equivalent a;ternative? t

Hi guys I am looking for a replacement here in the UK for a Floquil Roof Brown (acrylic if poss) rattle can spray paint to weather my track. From Robert Smaus to Lance Mindheim they recommend it in there published work. I understand Floquil paints have now been discontinued and I would very appreciate your advice on the matter. Many thanks in advance Cheers Nick

Looking really good guys, well done Cheers Nick

Hi guys major interrupt in postings but.. Good (and not so good weather stopped play) some fairly major garden projects took precedence but truthfully If it’s nice outside I ain’t going spend time inside. However I have not been entirely idle on the Seville Ave project, I will try to do a few updates this weekend. Water Tower Progress Following receipt of some Tamiya liquid cement I commenced on stitching the two halves of the water tower together. A trial fit of the two main pieces indicated that the moulding had been ejected without being sufficiently cooled and as a consequence there had been some deformation of the moulding prior to it gaining dimensional stability. IE when the two halves we put together there were some sodding great gaps between the two pieces where as it should have been a perfect fit… bummer. Having sought some advice from a military modelling friend of mine, working up from the base I basically glued the sections together a few cm’s at a time and held the two pieces together firmly as I let them set before moving on to the next section. By following this process I was able to close the gaps together fairly well but it necessitated running a brush of the liquid cement over the joint line between the two halves in places to help fuse awkward gaps together. This resulted in loss of some of the fine rivet detail on the model, but given there was a heavy ridging in quite a few places on the joint line due to the two halves having to be forced together, that fine detail became an irrelevance. In order to counter this a serious amount of sanding was required and I used Flex-I-File Flex Pads of various grades to get an acceptable finish anyone unfamiliar with these little marvels here is a link. https://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/manufacturers/e-f/flex-i-file.html I haven’t bought from these guys before (I picked mine up at a train show somewhere) but looks like they have a good Feefo rating. They are also available as sets from the likes of Amazon. Anyway after a lot of faffing around I am fairly pleased with the result the fine detail lost is barely visible close up never mind at normal viewing distances. The next lovely surprise I got was that the moulded “flashing beacon” part was missing from the kit (not sure if it came from Walthers like this or it was a “Masterstroke” by my goodself), after a bit of head scratching I thought, why not fit an actual operating flashing light (not the greatest leap of faith) some Google time later I came up with this http://www.modeltrainsoftware.com/warningflasher.html Originally I purchased a 3mm unit but decided that this was a bit over scale and opted to get the 1.8mm unit instead - they work out at $8.05 shipped to the UK, but do yourselves a favour a work out whatever other LED’s you may need as their prices are fantastic (4.5 bucks of this was shipping) and order them all at once. I’ve tried it and they are nice and bright with a realistic slow speed flash, lots of other flash rates and colours are available along with many other types of LED’s. All in all a really good buying experience

Why not make it the bagging plant, connected to the main facility with a covered overhead conveyor? Cheers Nick

Speaking of faded paint, Lance Mindheim has an article on weathering his LAJ CF7 in Mays issue of Model Railroad Craftsman which features some serious fading of it's ex ATSF blue on the long hood as per below The results as always are awesome, BTW as you'd expect from Lance,the bright yellow paint work on the frames of this loco are entirely prototypical! I look forward to getting my copy soon Cheers Nick

Excellent work on your NYC car Daniel, the haloing of paint chips sounds scary to me, any tips on this technique, not sure if I have that steady a hand! Cheers Nick

Totally agree Mal, that faded look would look so much better. Cheers NIck

Looks like an interesting project, I agree with Dan and Supaned the team track idea would seem a better bet than the freight house. Cheers Nick

Bit of a lull on the modelling front for the past couple of weeks thanks to some good weather and a whole weeks hols. In the meantime I having been thinking of how to give the layout some more context with regards to the geographical area I am modelling, but thanks to Google Images I came up with The City of Vernon water tower There is no current kit that is anywhere near its construction however Cornerstone do this and I am happy to replicate it with this little puppy from Walthers Close enough for me for this project. Got this from Model Junction, first time purchase from them, very impressed with the price and the service Below a closer view of the seal and lettering on the water tower And a closer view yet of the lettering on the tower I tried matching the font using one of the free online resources and it came up with Extended Sans, unfortunately I was unable to get this font as a freebie However a quick search on Google Images for City of Vernon Seal and I came up with this To create the decal I inserted this image in to a power point document and set the view at 100% I then played around with the actual size until I was happy and then copy & repeatedly pasted aligning them to give me 4 images (some built in redundancy). I then inserted a text box to create the ”City of Vernon” text. I originally tried an Arial Bold font but it was just not right and ended up using Arial with a bold highlight and I am happy with the results (copied and pasted again to give me multiple images). Knowing I was going to use the photo laminating technique for buildings I purchased reasonably decent printer for around £99 quid new on ebay. It’s an HP Inkjet 7612 and I think a certain Mr Mindheim does/ did use something similar so when in Rome… Given we can pay 40 quid for a freight car today I think that’s pretty decent value. I have to say I am pleased with the results, I bought the print media from Amazon from Mr Decal Paper, 5 pages of transparent, 5 pages of white, can of gloss varnish and a can of matt for around £18. I have used only about a 6th of a page of the transparent to one I attached the decal paper to some cardboard with Blu-tac in order that it may be sprayed vertically and then gave it a few light passes with Paint Factory All Purpose Varnish. I then let it dry for 30mins and then flashed it over with another few blasts. Sprayed this outside and left in a warm well ventilated room (this stuff stinks). Will update furthur once the kit is built painted and weathered (hopefully next weekend). I have also decided to install another turnout to give me two tracks at Ancon Transportation as it will be more representative of the facility and will add to operational interest. Number 5 turnout on its way from Hattons, great price and excellent service. Cheers Nick

Not sure how I missed this thread, but will be following with interest, good work!

Trackwork pretty much laid! Only a short section of track to add in to finish off the switching lead at the E37th Ave end of the layout, extend the trackage at Ancon Transportation and construct a removable “fiddle stick” at the E. Vernon Ave (4 Season Foods) end to provide the switching lead for that All the feeder wires now in and I even did a bit of soldering (have I ever told you how much I hate soldering!!!!!) The above photo shows the thin MDF plate that I have used at the baseboard joints to connect the various hollow core “dominos” together It also shows the feeder wires from underneath. I used a long 2.5mm bit to drill through the cork and both skins of the hollow core and opened it up underneath with a larger diameter standard bit to aid feeding the wires through the bottom skin of the door (I originally tried using a Forstner drill bit to do this but it caused so much mess that I gave up on that method) Next on the to do list is, finish off laying the remaining track, install the wiring bus, connect in the feeder wires and then test! Cheers Nick

So sorry to hear your news Ray I also lost my Mum this year it is just awful.

Brilliant work as always Jacky will be studying your methods when I eventually get round to some weathering!!!!

Looks brilliant Mal, wow what a difference Static grass can make!

Just like to offer a big shout out to the Black Diamonds Group of NMRA BR / Mech models and their all,their exhibitors for a great weekend of model railroading. Would love to share some photos of the event but unfortunately my phone died 3 miles out. Fortuntely a really nice guy let me borrow his phone to check Google Maps and I made it anyway. Note to self write it down and carry a map.... Old Skoolel!!! Hope to be attending Black Diamonds next event @ Kegworth Village hall next weekend Kudos guys

Just like to offer a big shout out to the Black Diamonds Group of NMRA BR / Mech models and their all,their exhibitors for a great weekend of model railroading. Would love to share some photos of the event but unfortunately my phone died 3 miles out. Fortuntely a really nice guy let me borrow his phone to check Google Maps and I made it anyway. Note to self write it down and carry a map.... Old Skoolel!!! Hope be attending Black Diamonds next event @ Kegworth Village hall next weekend Kudos guys

Really taking shape, looking good Mal! Thanks for the updates I note some excellent work with your newly repaired Noch static grass applicator, have you or anyone else got any recommendations for a more budget version as last time I checked the Noch ones were pricey!!!! Cheers Nick

What about something like this Without the snow obviously! Cheers Nick

Here’s a better view of the mocked up trackwork. After much thought :scratchhead:I have decided to follow Shortliner/ Jacks advice to model Dapper Tire. As he so rightly points out this will be a really useful off spot whilst switching (as with the prototype Dapper will remain no longer rail served). In order to make this work better within its space constraints, I have moved Dapper to the corner end of the layout and the tracks will now run parallel with those of Cargill Foods. As a result, duly ordered I have winging towards me another right hand switch and some more Code 83 flextrack. The unmade old MDC Soo Line box may be a little out of territory but I do so love that white and red Soo livery Cheers Nick