Mark Pelham

Morning All, Between working on bits 'n' bobs around the house the last couple of days, I've managed a bit more on the as yet unnamed test track. First was to tone the track down a bit from the garish grey plastic. I dug out the airbrushes and compressor, thinned down some 'Frame Dirt' (nil stock of 'Sleeper Grime) and misted the track - except no mist. Tried the second airbrush - same again. Couldn't get either to spray any paint, so resorted to applying the wash with a paintbrush. Not sure if it looks too 'blotchy' or if it will suffice, I'm sure it will improve once the green and furry gets applied to the rest of the layout. Anyway did a bit of Googling and found a suggestion that the needle may have been stuck closed, so I stripped both airbrushes and lo and behold they had paint on both needles. I thought I had thoroughly cleaned them when I last used them, which was also the first time I used them! So do I spray the track again, or leave as-is? Additionally, the plaster/PVA/Paint slurry dried far more pinker than I had expected (much lighter than the last photos), so I painted neat brown paint over the top. I also realised that I should have extended the tunnels away from the clearance points from the diverging tracks, so dug out some scenery and built up some more structure with foamboard. The next hurdle was finding a tunnel mouth that would provide clearance for the stock, given the wider than normal track spacing. I printed the Scalescenes arch planner template and cut out the various options, to find they were all too narrow and/or low due to their profile. My solution has been to print them at 113.2% to give the clearance in width and height, but has necessitated further modification to the tunnel structures to increase the height and avoid the foamboard being visible at the top of the tunnel mouths. This evening I hope to assemble the tunnel mouth kits, and possibly retaining walls, before adding filler over the extended tunnel mouth structures. Here are the latest progress photos: Cheers, Mark

Hi Duncan, It's 3ft diameter. Cheers, Mark

Afternoon All, While on Furlough leave, I decided to build a small test track for running stock in, having seen Graham's (shanks522) new layout build: My version can be found below: This will at least allow my stock to 'stretch its legs' a bit whilst waiting for the bigger layout! Cheers, Mark

Afternoon All, Where's the time gone, over a year since my last post! While on Furlough leave, I decided to build a small test track for running stock in, having seen Graham's (shanks522) new layout build: My version can be found below: This will at least allow my stock to 'stretch its legs' a bit whilst waiting for the bigger layout! Cheers, Mark

Afternoon All, With the plaster dried, this morning I tidied up the track and contour board edges, and then applied a plaster/PVA/paint slurry: Next will be to fit the tunnel mouths and retaining walls, and 'make good' their surroundings; I'll also paint the contour boards black. Cheers, Mark

Evening All, Now fully plastered: Once dried in the morning I'll sand the edges, and also clean up anything on the track. Fortunately the rails are all clear which will save some time. Cheers, Mark

I've just finished removing any remnants from the track with a nail brush; as for the mess, nothing that Henry couldn't sort out! Cheers, Mark

Morning All, Two days ago I added two plies of thin MDF to provide a contour fascia around the circumference of the board, cut the profile, and then disaster struck - the board fell over top-side down and broke two rails on the outer track having snapped most of the chairs for the 'upper' rail (being superelevated) on two track sections. Anyway, after rehearsing my plethora of expletives the rail was reinserted and Slo-zap glue applied; so far so good. I then applied some expanding foam to the layout to create the scenic shape, but it didn't cover completely. However yesterday morning provided a reminder as to how much expanding foam continues to expand for a while! Anyway, another can purchased to fill in the blanks, and some drying/expanding time resulted in: Out came the knives yesterday evening to do some carving, the result being: Due to the depth of the foam, some of the lower stuff hadn't cured, and having carved about 90% away left the top part a bit soft. This was opened slightly to allow air in to help cure the lower material, and an off cut stuffed in to help fill the void. This has since had a bit more carving to make it a 'feature', rather than just looking like a cake that sank. Hopefully later today I'll get a coat of filler over it. Cheers, Mark

Morning All, I gave the layout a bit of a test run yesterday as can be seen below: Commentary was provided by 'the Boy'. Cheers, Mark

Evening All, After hours of extensive research, planning, production of wiring diagrams, and slaving over over a hot soldering iron and crimp tool, the wiring is complete: A bit late to test it now, so will dig out a couple of controllers tomorrow to give it a whirl. The plan is that I can either connect up a DC controller to each track, or a DCC Command Station to both, or one of each. I forgot to add in my first post that I’ve been trying to think of a suitable name for the ‘layout’. Using the layout shape as a theme (not very original, I know!), I’ve pondered “Twisten Curve” from the infamous Morpeth Curve, or taking a topical theme “Furlough Curve”. Otherwise it could be Scottish based “Invertedait” - a twist (no pun intended there!) on Inverkeithing as ‘Inverted Eight’. Or heading off to the South West, it could have a Cornish sounding name “Wheal Wythinaweal”, as Circle in a Spiral doesn’t really work. Anyway, Screwfix tomorrow morning for the expanded foam, then a testing session before any scenic work commences. Cheers, Mark

Graham, I'm hoping to install the wiring tonight, then I daresay I'll be in a similar position! Cheers, Mark

Afternoon All, Well, taking inspiration from Graham's (shanks522) new layout build: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/152957-going-round-in-circles/ I figured it seemed a great idea to be able to give my stock a run in a small space, run in any new stock, and have a go with the static grass gear, so after a quick couple of purchases and bit of work I now have this: Next will be the lengthy process of wiring(!), and applying lots of expanding foam. Cheers, Mark

Have a look at the "Belfield Hall Estate" layout: http://www.belfieldhall.co.uk/belfield/bher_2.html Cheers, Mark

Graham, Now look what you've made me do! Cheers, Mark

Hi Turtlebah, I've not had much chance to work on the revisions to the layout plan, although any changes to the track plan will purely be minor adjustments to the alignment. The overall scenic plan should retain the same feel as previous plans, just with a few bits moved around to 'fit' better. Below is the plan for the right hand end of the layout as it is to-date, still some adjustments to make from the previous plan, such as the catenary, then continue adding detail: For the middle section, I have made some adjustments to the alignment of the canal junction, but the plan is still largely covered in notes and reminders: I'm on furlough leave next month and July, so may have more time to review and develop the plans, and possibly look to start on something more tangible although probably nothing more than a couple of the buildings at most. Cheers, Mark

Looking back at this post: might give some clues... Hope it helps! Cheers, Mark

Afternoon All, So, it’s been a fair while again since my last update – Christmas has been and gone and we’re in to 2020. Not a great deal has happened – a few boxes have arrived with various rolling stock manufacturers’ latest releases, but possibly the most significant delivery was on Christmas Eve. Santa, cunningly disguised as the local Postman, dropped off a nice parcel from British Finescale containing: This was my two pledges worth of kits and jigs, which covers the scenic trackwork for the layout; now I just need the time, space and money to get the baseboards ordered. The previously mentioned changes to the track alignment for using the British Finescale products has led to a review of the scenic plan, and revisions to accommodate the changes. This is currently a work in progress, and probably will be for some time as it is a very time-consuming process. The Templot plan has been imported and ‘tidied up’, I am now adjusting the scenic elements around it. Some of the tweaks are just that – to fit correctly around the realigned track, some others are a little more substantial, such as re-positioning roads. The latter is part of my plan to avoid the road disappearing into the backscene, and to obscure all scenic ‘exits’ as best as possible. I'll upload some images once I've made progress worth sharing. This of course also means the scale mock-up will need revising and will probably be better to start from scratch on that; I can hopefully reuse the buildings though. Anyway, better get on, I’ve got tea to drink, layouts to plan and build… Cheers, Mark

I had considered a layout with an airport feature; it probably would have been limited to remote parking stands with aircraft undergoing maintenance. Hannants provide detailing parts for converting standard kits to something a little different, and I liked the idea of modeling a 747 from a certain monthly provider of my modeling credits with the flaps extended and engine cowls open undergoing maintenance. There is a surprising amount of detail that can be seen around the remote areas of an airport that can provide interest, and remote parking stands need little more separation from the railway than a strip of grass and security fences (both airport and railway). If you look at some regional airports, and even the likes of Gatwick, remote stands are often used for early aircraft departures for the likes of Easyjet, so no reason not to have an A320 being prepared for departure without the need for a terminal building. If you wanted a hangar, then it could be built low-relief, viewed from the non-apron side, and have the nose of an aircraft visible through open tug doors. Cheers, Mark

Indeed, the PW JT9/2000/4000, GE CF6 and CFM56 also had mid span shrouds, probably others as well, but these are the engines I’m more familiar with. Cheers, Mark

Okay, so one step forward, then one step back, but not necessarily a negative thing... I've had another look at Templot and found that I could use two of the planned AV7 kits for the branch turnouts. Well it would be a shame to lose the junction, so it's back. From this I've reviewed the kits I'll need from Wayne at British Finescale and placed a second pledge for the remainder using a second account - all legitimate as confirmed by Kickstarter themselves. I will need to assemble the crossing using copper clad strip and solder as I suspect it extremely unlikely that a kit even close to the geometry would be produced, however this shouldn't be a problem having built one previously. The branch will be modelled as if under engineer's possession with 'STOP' signs, so the turnouts will be fixed in one position, that way I won't need to disguise two tracks on an embankment disappearing through the backscene, but still keep the appearance of a junction. As for signalling, I can cheat by using a CR Signals Theatre Indicator set to display 'S' for Stour Valley to denote the main line route. So all departures towards Birmingham will show the main signal aspect and Theatre Indication, movements to the yard will show the Associated Position Light and 'YD' Stencil Indicator. Now to add in the replacement Templot prints to the full-size plan I've been gluing together. Cheers, Mark

That looks like an RB211, probably from their Tristar fleet. Too small for a 777 engine! Cheers, Mark

In case anyone is in a similar position, I found the ‘maximum’ pledge left me two turnout kits and a jig short of my total requirements. It occurred to me I could create a second account to add a second pledge, but wasn’t sure if it would be against Kickstarter’s rules. After a brief Google search I found someone had done a similar thing on another project and created a second account under the guidance of Kickstarter themselves. To verify this I contacted Kickstarter support who confirmed that it is acceptable to create a second account and make an additional pledge, so I have - initially for two turnouts and a jig, then after looking at my Templot plan again realized I could use two of the AV7 kits for a branch junction that I had removed from my plan, so an additional four kits and a jig. Hope that may be of help to some! Cheers, Mark

Hi armleyroad, The layout's progressing well, will be a nice 'railway in the scenery' layout. A suggestion for your cassettes; a friend of mine used a similar system in 7mm scale with larger diameter but shorter length brass rod/tube, approximately 10mm long from memory - the engagement of the rods to tubes was eased by filing a slight taper/bevel on the outside ends of the rods and inside ends of the tubes. You could use a countersink or drill bit for the tubes - possibly the latter now that the tubes are fitted? Cheers, Mark

Afternoon All, It's been a fair while since my last post on this thread, and to be honest very little has happened with the exception of the announcement from Wayne at British Finescale of the Kickstarter project to produce flat-bottom 'concrete' base turnout kits. The initial announcement of AV8 and CV10.75 turnouts lead me to review the track plan for Bridgtown in Templot with an aim to make use of the proposed kits. Once the geometry/Templot settings were confirmed it didn't take long to amend the plan, with the only 'major' change being to reduce the track centres to 23mm from 24mm. I also reviewed the branch line and decided that the work required to include it as functional didn't bring a huge amount of play value operational interest, particularly given my intent to have fully working signalling and the limitations with what can be achieved in this scale. So I have decided to model the branch as if it had been lifted during track renewals. The later announcement that AV7 and CV10 turnouts were to be produced then lead me to attack Templot again, but with even less impact this time around. I also took the opportunity to review the line to the steel transfer terminal and how it would sit with the scenic surroundings. I wasn't happy with the three-track viaduct, so opted to move the turnouts towards the scenic entrance, decrease the curve radius into the terminal (more in-keeping with the prototype), and also re-position the road under the railway to shorten the viaduct slightly but enable it to be modelled as a double-track width. So the current track plan looks like: Next will be to export a DXF file and import into the Xara scenic plan... If you're interested in modelling 'modern' railways I can highly recommend the British Finescale products, the earlier Bullhead rail kits were straightforward and enjoyable to construct, so hopefully the Flat-Bottom rail kits will follow suit. I would strongly recommend supporting the project to anyone considering building a layout that could make use of the kits as the appearance is a vast improvement to off-the-shelf products for very minimal effort, the only required skills are patience and forethought to achieve great results. The project can be found https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/britishfinescale/n-gauge-code-40-flat-bottom-rail-concrete-sleeper-turnouts the NGF thread https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=3280.1365 and the RMweb thread https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/65617-finetrax/ Cheers, Mark

Morning All (as it will be by the time I hit the ‘Post’ button!) Bit more progress Friday; I dug out the remaining PICs from my electrics box and got the Firmware loaded to them all. Next was to look into why the MERG FCU wouldn’t talk to the CANMIOs; after connecting directly to a CANUSB4 - bingo! Must have a problem with the CBUS connection to the Hub which contains my original CANUSB. So now when I put the CANMIO into FLiM I get the dialogue box pop up in the FCU. Next hurdle - figure out how to program them in the FCU, but at least that’s just a learning exercise. Cheers, Mark