grahame

Marley pretending to be a tyrannosaurus rex:

I've been making a little progress on my layout recently. I had to get some of the previously made buildings and structures in place to check positioning and working out the track bed board sizes that needed to be cut. Before clearing them away to be able to get on with the wood mangling (sawing, gluing and screwing) I took a few snaps. Although I posted them on my layout thread I doubt many visit it (being N/2mm and mainly third rail electrics) so here's a couple of them that might be of interest to Tony's followers:

All this low pressure weather (which has been causing the wind and rain we've recently been having) has been playing havoc with my arthritis. I'm finding it painful to grip anything and even lifting the tea pot to pour a cuppa is difficult and requires both hands. Consequently I'm going to have a rest from modelling until things improve a bit (both weather and joints). Perhaps I'll wander down the local later this afternoon.

Before clearing away the unfixed buildings and model structures, so that I can get on with some more sawing, gluing and screwing, I took a few quick snaps that might be of interest:

It's stopped raining and the sun has come out but it's phenomenally windy so I've spent a little time jiggling buildings and structures in to place to check on positioning and space, and to be able to cut the station board to fit. The room available for the terminus platforms is quite restricted and will need quite severe compression - but then I knew that compromise and compression would be necessary and the layout is only a representation. Here's a couple of snaps:

I've got the slope section (down to the lower level terminus station) temporarily in place and tested that a train can run up it. I used a small loco as it's not long enough for even a four car train. The NGS hunslet ran up and down okay, so fingers crossed for a complete train otherwise some drastic re-think and track bed surgery will be required. The slope section is effectively the station throat and will need to be removable as it will contain the points. Next is to get the terminus station board cut and in place and all the track bed boards will effectively be done. They'll just need some final fettling, positioning and securing to be ready for track laying. Snag is that it is currently raining so I can't do any sawing (as I like to do it outside to prevent huge amounts of sawdust in the shed).

I'd have thought that it doesn't really matter how long the wires are; long or short, you've still got to make a connection (probably soldered) at each end of them.

I've managed to get the necessary timber today, ready for some more wood mangling. However, I'm out again tomorrow working on the other layout I'm involved with - undertaking a load of wiring including lots of soldering (odd as I thought that DCC was supposed to simplify and reduce the wiring); not my favourite thing. Consequently this layout will be DC. So here's a pic showing the recently made layout edge buildings in place in front of the viaduct. Note the partial viaduct wall three arched sections just resting in place on the left which are cast resin from a mould I made a while back (see pic of master and mould below). I obviously need to cast more of them and paint them. Also the top part of viaduct (with the parapet wall) needs to be made as a master and a mould made to cast them. I ordered the necessary chemicals to make the mould and castings which has recently been delivered. Plenty to be getting on with.

The layout is looking a bit like a messy building site - well, I guess it is ATM. And I need to go out for some more timber for the lower station track-bed supports. Here's a shot taken through the end window down the length of the entire scenic section of the layout.

Chris Nevard?

Yep. Doing her usual strip and dance moves.

Is that a magazine photoshoot? Care to elaborate?

Can I claim anything for seeing Lemmy when in Hawkwind and Richie Blackmore in Rainbow. I can also claim seeing Ray Dorset in Mungo Jerry at Greenwich 😄 and the Temperance Seven on the Isle of Dogs.

A little more wood mangling today and the run through lines track bed is nearly complete. I need to cut another west end section (where the points are at the other end of the through platforms) as I'm a little out by about three sixteenths and to arrange its supports and side locators to hold it in place but also to allow it to be removed. Unfortunately I'm out tomorrow, working on another layout. Therefore, the next update won't be for a few days yet

Having been to Wickes yesterday I've now got sufficient ply for the viaduct and station track deck, and I've made a start on cutting the viaduct track bed. This area (not the far curved section that leads off-scene to the right) will effectively be the station throat with the point-work so it will be a removeable section for any maintenance or point motor replacement required. To the left it will slope down gradually just a little to the lower level terminus part of the station. The through station section decking is already cut and ready to fix. In mid June it will be a year since the shed was completed and I was able to occupy it. The main baseboard and off-scene return loops baseboard construction is complete and hopefully by then (end of June this year) the viaduct track bed will also be complete and I can concentrate on track laying and electrics.

A lot of commercial cat food now seems to have vegetables included as if it's a trendy healthy thing although cats are obligate carnivores and need to eat meat to stay healthy and alive. They can't synthasise taurine (an necessary amino acid from animal protein) from veggies although there is generally no harm for them to eat some veggies (but not anything from the allium family) My cat, Marley, doesn't like the veggies in his food and picks them out, leaving them to one side, particularly peas and green beans, although he will eat a little carrot if it is very small pieces and smothered in gravy. I have to be careful when cat food shopping and check what is in it otherwise some of it is wasted.

In order to keep this thread alive, it's well over a month since I posted anything, here's a gratuitous pic of my slow progress. I've got the warehouse and shops block effectively completed and have made a start on the slum clearance/bomb damage demolition site scene. Then, with the building models complete for the layout frontage, I can get on with the viaduct construction and track laying at this end of the layout.

Some floral wallpaper now on. And a few details added but so much to do and so time consuming. Here's a helicopter view;

That's right. That's why I didn't add the wallpaper to the ceiling line but left a section just plain painted above where the picture rail would be. Having looked a dozens of photos of part demolished houses I was surprised by how little of wall fittings/decoration, like fireplaces, picture rails, skirtings, built-in cupboards, cornices, etc., remained. It's almost like someone had gone in and stripped them out before demolition or they all came down when the ceilings and floors were knocked out.

A little slow progress - some gutters and down pipes added to the warehouse, frontages now on the Bermondsey Street shops, chimney pots on the derelict under demolition houses, wall paper added, fireplace mantle made, etc. They don't make big obvious progress but they take time and gradually improve things . . . .

Just a gentle jog and some climbing exercises for Marley today:

I've now got some rough and ready paint on the inside section to represent old internal decoration. It needs detailing and touching up. And making and adding all the rubble, bricks and timber. As well as adding chimney pots and doors off their hinges and broken window frames and stairways. Such a lot to do.

Today I've added some filler over the card and wooden spatulas to form the undulations and disguise the sharp angles. This will form the basic more gentle landform that will need decorating with old brickwork, building materials and vegetation that has grown through it. I've also given the filler a coat of 'earth' coloured paint that I purchased today. Oddly it looks very similar to the desert yellow that I sprayed the brickwork in (my go to colour for the base of London yellow stocks brickwork). I'm going to need to darken the 'earth' with some browner colour.

I've got a bucket grab excavator, built from a GHQ white metal kit, that I'll probably use when completing the scene:

I've now got the basic gable end wall in place - it will be the only 'complete wall of the row/scene - and given everything a coat of grey primer. Next will be the remnants of the front walls and the front yard walls. The view will be from the rear of the building showing the innards so the inside walls will need to be dressed (plaster, wall paper, etc) rather than just brick, meaning more modelling effort. I'd already included a smooth plaster representation for the inside of the gable end wall except the loft area.