jetmorgan

Well it is now time to fix a mistake. I had originally thought that the archway on the Metcalfe bridge kit would be wide enough for the double slip and the pair of points to pass through but now I had some of the track pieces arrive I discovered an error in my design and the archway wasn't wide enough. So it was out with the chopping up tools and cut out the archway and keep the bridge abutments and go for an idea that I had had when first planing the layout and build a plate girder bridge and make the gap wider so there was enough room for the track work. Once it was cut out I tidied and squared up the cut ends with some thick card. This would also act as s support for the new road decking area and make a top section to a cosmetic box section bridge deck for the side girder pieces. The plate girder sides made up from thin-ish card and will be glued to the top of that new decking section installed and held in place by the new road way made as the bridge is now longer. Still some detailing work to do and clean up odd corners and the plate girder sides and the box section deck need a proper coat of paint on top of the coat of grey they have already had but I need some more paints for that which will have to wait until after all this isolation is done with. Still got some work to do on the station building but the roof is nearly finished.

Trackwork finally arrived...now I can make a start on some laying

Taken a break from construction on the station building to do my self isolation Sunday project. The retaining wall kit for the front part of the backscene. I could only get one kit and I'll need another one for this baseboard and several others for the second baseboard. Bar some painting and a bit of dirtying up it's all now in place. I have some track turning up next week, a double slip and right hand medium point (Peco code 100 Streamline) so I can start laying some track soon...at least on this baseboard.

A little bit more progress but not much. Finally decided on the ground floor windows so got them drawn and cut out as well as the archways for the entrance out of the building onto the platform. Window sills done on the top floor windows. And in today's post came the Superquick roofing slates so I can at least get that done and the chimney stacks glued into place over the weekend and Metcalfe's retaining wall kit so I can make a start on finishing off the backscene. Also Metcalfe's brick sheets so I could finish off the roadside faces of the walls .

A real pity but perfectly understandable in the circumstances. Was looking forward to the chance for a trip out of the flat. Will look forward now to 2021.

Still very much planning to visit Saturday. And if the show is cancelled I think we should all turn up anyway and have a massive custard pie fight instead.

While I'm still dithering about deciding what to do about the windows in the ground floor I finally made the decision to have the first floor so made a start on that today. So the walls got cut out along with the smaller square windows front and back. also the chimney stacks were finished off, except for chimney pots and a chimney flue wall (I've no idea if it has a proper name) to the outside of one wall.

It's Saturday for me all the way. I have to drive over to my dads house in Carshalton/Wallington as the Redhill Tonbridge line is still closed while its still under repair.

Sorry I don't know why the photos in the last post are out of order but no matter I hope it's understandable with what I have written. Anyway, the actual roof is now built including a couple of chimney stacks. I've ordered some Superquick yellow brick paper...yes I know all the Metcalfe buildings are red brick so a yellow brick station building might look a bit odd but I wanted a bit of variety in the look. I'll probably do the platforms in yellow brick as well but as the layout is set in the 1970's-ish I may dirty them up a bit to hide too much yellow, I could also make a start on the ground floor of the station building. Just the end walls at the moment as I don't plan for them to have windows. Next job is to design some windows for it and well as some decorative arches for over the doors and windows.

Apologies for another update on the same day....sadly no I'm not working this quickly, just been a while since I did updates and didn't want to inundate everyone. Time to start on the station building now I have gone as far as I can with the backscene. I'm using Kew Bridge station as my basic inspiration, just with a porchway entrance and an extended exit to the platforms. Building and platforms will all be on the same level unlike Kew Bridge which has a staircase down to platform level. A floorplane was cut out of very thick card. I then started to cut out a ground floor out of thin card as a guide for size and design. This card won't be used for the actual model as it's too thin. But it did show that I really ought to increase the height of the ground floor on the model. I also built a upper floor but I wasn't too sure about this as it looks too high but just keeping down to using the ground floor looks too low. So I think I'll stick with the 2 floors. As I was still humming and haaing over the number of floors I decided to start on the proper roof.

Parcels/freight building now all but complete. Just need some boxes and packing cases to add some detail. I scratch built the platform section out of thick card and used Superquicks paving sheets rather than the Metcalfe paving as I think it just looks better. One problem though was on the platform ramp area where I couldn't get a colour match between one sheet and another so I'll have to hide that line somehow.

Progress update on Ball Spond Road. The last gap has now been filled up on the back part of the backscene so that is now all complete. Now making a start on the front part of the backscene. Using a couple of Metcalfe's small factory kits to make one long low building that will form the parcels/freight siding. The building was cut down to a narrower width to give enough room to get a siding in adjacent to the platform lines.

Opening scenes from The Mind Benders starring Dirk Bogarde. The usual Talking Pictures TV recording. I would think most is stock footage and you get a continuity error when GWR King class 6015 King Richard III turns into and LMS 4-6-0, either Patriot or Royal Scot on what looks like a postal service, you can see the roof of what looks like some sort of van, possibly 6 wheeled in the train. Then it turns back in to a Castle class but this time 5056 Ogmore Castle/Earl of Powis.

Nearly finished on the bridge that will hide the baseboard joint. First job was to fit the parapet wall that was in the kit but this looked too low for the sort of thing I was looking for so I cut some narrow strips of thick card so I can add a decorative stone layer. Using the brick sections from Metcalfe's platform kit I raised the height of the parapet wall, added some more of the narrow card strips as a decorative stone capping to the wall and some thinner card cut to decorative stone shapes to help hide joints. With all that done I could also build the roadway that will slide along slots I have built into the wall. Once the baseboards are joined together the road can be slide in to hide the joint. The road was made from the thick card cut to size with some narrow strips covered in Superquick paving sheets. So nearly finished I just need to get some brick sheets to cover the inside of the parapet wall and then that will be one thing finished.

Further progress on getting the back scene made for Ball Spond Road. Metcalfe's small factory and warehouse kits kept flat and and with just the windows fitted. Stuck to the back wall. I had to sit it on a raised platform as it looked too low when just placed against the wall at the baseboard height. I want to have the impression that the station area is surrounded by tall buildings. The warehouse kits was also built flat although with some parts I wanted them proud of the backscene to have a bit of relief so it wasn't just a flat image. To help hold the windows in I cut some thick card into strips and sections, painted them black and glued into the back. Painting them black also avoids the look of plain cardboard through the glazing. That building also got glued into place but I still have a gap of about 13inches left to fill so another small factory kit is certainly needed. The platform part of the small factory kit will hide the raised platform section as will Metcalfe's retaining wall.

Well those nice people at Hatton's sent a couple of card kits through the post so I can now make a start on some more scenery. in this case make a start on the backscene. The small factory will form part of the parcels and freight siding. i'll need to build a larger platform area so I'll need a couple more kits for that but I do have Metcalfe's platform station which I'll use to extend the platform area. The warehouse will form the back scene behind that but there will be some depth to the building but not much...only half inch at the most.

Hit a bit of a slow spot with Basket Shed but I did decided to get a bit of colour onto the building. Hide that white of the evergreen I & H beams, so a couple of coats of Revell Leaf green. It's a bit GREEEEN green but it will get a wash of Humbrol dirty black as well has some dark and light rust patches as well as smoke stains. I also want to build some ventilation troughs for fitting in the roof so I need to get some wood plank effect styrene sheets as well as some strips of styrene to make some roof beams for the roof windows. Still plenty of work to be done on the inside though so need to get more Wills brick sheets as well to finish that off. Have no fears about the H beam upright that is at an angle...when fitted to the baseboard it slots into a hole and straightens up. I also need to start making some roof vents, I had planned to modify Hornby engine shed roof vents but have decided to build my own from the same wood plank effect styrene sheets.

Not sure if this is the right section for questions about SCARM and how to use it so if not then please move to the right place. Making a start on designing my very first N gauge layout, Blue John Gap, and rather than just making it it up as I build it I thought I would try to do some planning and design. So I downloaded SCARM for a second time (the first time it made me wet myself trying to figure out how to use it) This time I went through some tutorials on youtube to figure out the baseboard and also laying the track. But I've come to an issue that is making my ears bleed. I want a pair of curved platforms either side of the double track. SCARM seems to be fine for putting square platforms along straight track but I can't figure out how to finish off a curved object using the polygon object tool so it keeps trying to draw a line. Once you have drawn your curved platform how do you end the drawing so you can get onto the next bit....I'm sure the answer is very easy but I can't find it or figure it out.

I thought I had posted these on here but looking no sign of them. Scenes from the Avengers series Noon Doomsday episode (IIRC) I'm sure I posted these somewhere and someone came up with the location but can't find that info anymore

Just a few little jobs today on Basket shed. A few more floor areas done to finish off what I can there and some more detailing jobs on the shed building. First off was some extra brickwork pieces to the bottom of the outside walls to make it look a bit more normal. Secondly....I wanted some sloping brickwork for under the windows. Wills don't seem to do anything like packs of shaped brickwork so I used some of the strips of shallow ridge tiles and glued a strip of L shaped plastic strip to it so it will sit against the wall at an angle. Decided rather than just a short section directly under the window I'll have the shaped bricks at the top of the new sheet of brick work I fixed on earlier.

So the shed was fitted into place and some of the strips fitted around the inside walls of the shed. The shed was then taken away and the remaining base frame work was glued into place. I wanted the flooring to extend beyond the doors of the shed so that loco crews have clear footpaths to walk along rather than going straight onto cinders. Once the framework was glued into place, I still have some bits to do on that as I still need to do bits on the shed building, I fitted the shed back into place minus the roof so I could start cutting the sheets that will form the actual floor. I was hoping that the flooring pieces would be a simple cut to size and glue into place however the framework was quite high enough so I ended up having to cut a notch along the rail side edge of the card so it would fit over the chairs on the sleepers. But so far it's looking quite reasonable. Next job will be to get the last bits of the shed finished off...including the glazed side of the northlight roof and the ventilation towers (I need to find some old Hornby engine shed kits for that)

More work today, I seem to be getting on with this one after nothing much happening. Now onto the floor for the shed both inside and out. I wanted the look of a concrete floor and looking at various products including Wills building sheets I could find anything that looked really suitable. However I've had various sheets of card of various thickness sitting at work trying to find a use for them. I have sheets about 2mm thick and test fitting some offcuts they are about the same thickness as the sleepers are on the track. So the plan has been to cut the 2mm thick card into strips and glue them down to the baseboard around the outline of the shed to make up a base frame to which I'll glue a slightly thinner card will will make up the actual flooring.

AS I had made a bit of progress I thought as a reward I'll have another play with the trains. Change of era first off, BR Blue with my 03 and 45. Then back in time for a parade of my Great Western and BR Western tank engines

Well tis the season to be railway modelling and as I have a bit of time away from work and some of the work has stalled on my other projects I decided to get a bit of work done on the shed diorama. Been having a bit of a struggle getting the roof all done. Simply because although I had an idea in my head I didn't plan things very well and built things ad hoc and also cutting out the northlight gables was a bit of a struggle and they weren't all quite the same size, the downside to the Wills kits. But I have the sheets of slate roofing on the backside of the northlights done and I have added some sections of plasticard to fill up some gaps. I've also now cut out pieces of plasticard to start forming the glazed side of the northlights. Each had to be individually cut because of the light differences in my cutting and measuring. Next job will be to cut out openings in the plasticard for some glazing. Then I can get on with a bit more detailing and hopefully finishing off then I can get on with other jobs like the ballasting.

Well a bit more on the engine shed now as nothing has happened for a while. Time to start the roofing so using the Wills slate roof tile sheets I've cut pieces out to fit onto the back side of the northlight roof. These will eventually have some smoke vent towers fitted to them from old Hornby engine sheds but I need some more of those. Because the gable ends had to be cut individually they aren't all, not quite of the same size, so each roofing piece is slightly different and when I was building up the roof it isn't quite square so some adjustments will have to be made here and there. At the moment I do have a weak spot that keeps breaking so I've glued sections of I beam to the interior to hopefully strengthen the roof as I plan to have it removable so I can do an interior. The roof probably won't have an interior at the moment just a coast of paint to hide the white plastic. But I might try something at a later date. The front side of the northlight roof will get some sections of corrugated plasticard to represent clear window sections in between sheets of old asbestos roofing.