brossard

Quite right Michael. When the board is bare of scenery, moving it single handed may be OK, even if you do drop it - no harm done. As it gets more developed, you may wreck the scenic items if you drop it (how do I know?). I did mount my boards on a workmate vertically to do the wiring. Trying to wire underneath and on your back is one of the levels of Hell that Dante didn't mention. Yes, my layout is in the basement so there are stairs to negotiate. I let other more brawny people do the lifting. John

Baseboards are pretty heavy, but awkward as well. IMO, it wouldn't be wise for one person to move boards, especially up and down stairs. You should phone a friend. I made end plates for mine that bolt on to protect rail ends. These have handles. John

I think we can learn from other scales. John

Just caught this thread. My primary interest in not pre grouping but my fried has a strong interest in NBR. I like building kits so we have some carriages: These are 0 gauge from 62C models. Carriage sides are indeed crimson lake. Brake end is vermillion. Other carriage ends are CL. I am building a second 4 wheeled brake, but gas lit this time. Another shot showing the brake end. John

I note that in an earlier post, low relief industrial buildings were mentioned. I've just been doing that on my 0 gauge BLT: These are all from Scalescenes and cut back as needed. From left to right: T002b (Free) Low relief warehouse, modified, T024b Boilerhouse, T026a Factory Warehouse. Between the water tower and creamery (also Scalescenes) is an ultralow relief T024c Workshop. I have to do a lot of work for Scalescenes to work in 0 gauge. My track plan for what it's worth: John

Good, I really like Scalescenes for the variety and cost. I'd be interested to see how you get on and can answer any questions. I don't know anything about your experience but I would suggest you try something small first. There are a couple of freebies. John

I've been painting models for over 30 years in 00, and lately in 0. My methods are simple and suit my needs. If you were painting professionally or for museum use, you might need to get more sophisticated. Painting starts even before the model assembly is done because some areas may not be accessible afterwards, so you need to watch for that. Once ready for paint, I use either grey or red oxide primer as an undercoat. These are widely available at DIY and car places. Use grey for top colours like black, green, blue etc. Use red oxide for top colours like red, brown etc. Leave the primer to cure at least over night. I don't usually use an airbrush for the top colour, but when I do, I generally use acrylic (lots of people swear by enamels so it really is a personal thing). For the top coat of goods wagons, I'm happy to brush paint. My wagons all get weathered so, to me, no need to get fussy about exact shades. Coaching stock is a different matter. You need to get the right colour and will get best finish with an airbrush (although I have managed to paint my 0 gauge coaching stock by brush and acrylic paint to a high standard). I cheat and use lining transfers, which it has to be said are not easy. After you are happy with your wagon or coach, spray on a coat of gloss varnish. Lots of brands out there, I used to use Testors Glosscote but now I find Krylon works for me. Transfers should be applied to gloss surface (matte has microscopic pits that make it hard for a transfer to stick). Once the transfer is on and dry, spray on a coat of matte varnish. John

Looks good, a far cry from what we used to get. Be careful, Gresleys had the vacuum pipe on the solebar. BG's had a Guards Brake mechanism which can be seen on mine. John

I bought these for my Gresley kits. Very useful drawings, however, next to no info on underframe detail. John

Here's my 0 Gauge Kirk Gresley BG with super detailed underframe: Anyone who has done a Kirk kit will know that provided detail is sparse. I did a lot of research to get this result. Apart from the major parts, much of the fiddlyness is scratch built. I used the Kemilway manuals extensively to understand the details. Sadly, Kemilway seems to have gone. I have the manuals as PDF. Warning these are biblical in scope. There are a number of bought in components. When I was doing 00, I detailed quite a lot of older coach underframes, all LMS, using Comet parts. John

Excellent! I do have a soft spot for pre grouping. Looks like the opportunities for stock are getting better. I have built a pair of NBR coaches (62C) with a third languishing until I get more time. There's a Connoisseur (Claymore) NBR J83 on the to do shelf as well. These are not for me but for a friend who is passionate about NBR. John

The internal switch failure is not uncommon. There's a video: I opened all my Tortoises and found several with dodgy switch wipers. I repaired some using small nuts and bolts and others, that were loose, with general purpose glue. John

Thanks Hal and Schooner. That was the vision I had. John

I am excited to debut my Balmoral Road in 0, see link for my thread. John

I have done this a few times. The only thing is the adhesive sheets are quite expensive so you will want to make sure you get the most out of the sheet. Another thing I have done is glue the print to the self adhesive sheet using a glue stick. A good way to use up left over adhesive label. John

Agree with Nick and his work is very inspiring. My layout is somewhat bigger at 21' long. There are many examples of small layouts here. Go for it! By the way, I did 00 for 30 years then switched to 0 when Dapol started producing affordable and excellent models. Best decision I have ever made. John

Two weeks on and I have been manically trying to get stuff done. The show (GBTS) is a month away but the deadline seems to be approaching at express train speed. The street again, this time with the gates open and a J50 going through - iconic. I made the gates openable to extend the shunt from the end of the crossover. I have been wafting paint on my buildings with an airbrush. Very simple, a layer of earth to start, then a layer of black. View of the factory/warehouse towering over everything. To the left is the boilerhouse. I mentioned last time that I was making walls to frame the railway. You can see these here. My wall construction is pretty simple, 5mm foam core with brick paper glued. Posts from double thickness foam core. Capping is from various Scalescenes kits. More walls to complete the framing job. Finally a grotty engine shed. John

When powered by DC, Tortoises are on all the time with the motor stalled out. My layout from years ago had DCC but DC Tortoises and ISTR they were pretty noisy. Using DCC, as I said, they are only on when switching so mostly silent. As for signal levers, this is the next step for my layout. DCC Concepts levers and encoder are on order. Right now, I have green momentary buttons on the fascia on both sides of the layout enabling operation from front or back. You are right, there should be a signalman controlling most of the turnouts. I do have have one turnout, that would have been manually operated, to the cattle dock and coal yard which will retain it's fascia button. John

In my post above I agreed that 3A controller would be fine. However, I don't think one should worry very much about powered turnouts. I have only a handful on my layout. They are actuated with Tortoise motors and Wabbit stationary decoders. These decoders only take power when activated and run for just 3 seconds. The rest of the time they are idle, taking no power. John

I don't think there is a specific controller for O gauge. Some locos that take a lot of amps may require a large decoder. Most modern O gauge locos (from Dapol, Minerva, Heljan for example) will be happy with standard 00 decoders. All my locos have sound and all have standard decoders. The type of controller you need boils down to the size of layout. If your layout is as you say then the controller you describe will be good. My controller for my 21' long O layout is NCE with 5A smart booster. Overkill I suspect. John

I've been busy titivating the layout and continuing with the industrial building project. First off, I finally got around to making gates for the Goods Yard. These are only installed loosely at the moment. Construction was Evergreen. Main structure is 0.040" sheet, scribed for planks and sandpapered to get the grain. Framing is also plastic strip. Bent 0.090" wire for hinges along with split pins. I applied Tamiya Panel Liner enamel wash and when that was dry rubbed most of it off with white spirit. Still need to straighten my lamp posts. A representation of a boiler house using Scalesenes Workshop from the factory set. It was made more challenging because I had to change the brick finish. Chimney is tricky to get right and I had to face it twice. Ultra low relief workshop. Same kit but the other end essentially without doors. I did try to make the window from the print provided but I'm pretty useless at that. I made it from scratch with Evergreen strip. Next phase of the project is to construct walls to frame everything and separate the railway from the industries. John

Did that, see the relevant post. HTH. John

Interesting you say that, I have one Loksound decoder and, when installed, the loco performance was poor on start up. I discovered Autotune. At the time I had a very good explanation but can't find it now. Here is a concise procedure: "Running Auto Tune Set CV 54 to the value of 0 (zero) (Load Control Parameter "K") Leave programming mode. Press F1. The locomotive should begin travelling down the track: It will launch at full speed in the last direction of travel, so ensure it will go the right direction before beginning the process." Pretty alarming to see the loco takeoff, make sure you have enough track, at least 3 ft I recall. It got my loco running properly. John

Functions tend to mostly the same on sound decoders, and up to 20+. Make sure your system can access all these. Like Peterm, I have standardized on Zimo although my locos are 0 gauge. I have bought my sound decoders from Digitrains. John

I make a lot of Scalescenes buildings in 0 gauge and foamcore is ideal for the structure. It is easy to cut and if you make a mistake, fixing it is relatively easy. I get the foamcore and regular card (1mm and 2mm) from an art supplies store because the quality is good. Foamcore can also be obtained from office supplies places and maybe even Walmart. My most recent project (Scalescenes T026/T026a): The platform structure is also foamcore. John