Brush47337

Jerry, I handled the transition curves by trial and error. I enclose a photo from back then. I used 12mm MDF for my bases with 6mm cork tiles. I then cut a small piece of MDF to use as a transition piece. The large ramps were then a single strong piece and the smaller (easier to adjust) bits were then fettled. The 6mm cork sheet then ran continuous over the joints to smooth out the different angles of the base MDF. In the picture below you can see that the main incline coming in from the right is steeper than the transition bit. In the picture you can also see adjustable feet. This allowed small level adjustment by screw thread. I then ran a Class 47 with underbody tanks back and forward till it cleared - like I say trial and error. From memory - at the bottom of the ramps I cut a tongue of 6mm cork and packed underneath this with offcuts and card bringing it up to the level of the sloping MDF (and I may have reduced the lower part down to only 6mm MDF to make it less of a drop onto the level board)- again the thick cork smoothed out the joints. After all these words - you deserve a wee picture! Hope this helps Stuart

Dave, Good to see your layout again. Soon you will be back where you deserve to be. . Most watched. . Most Favorited . Most downloaded . Most drooled over Now you are back in BR Blue - will we be getting a Push Pull 27 set? I will be shopping at Warley for another 27 and some Mk 2 coaches - not worked out which Mk2's I need yet though. Stuart

Thanks Agentskj - now you are just spoiling me with not one but two questions. Low loader came from Oxford die cast about 6 months ago and about ??18. They come in a few liveries and the bed extends telescopic stylee. I mentioned on my old thread that I plan to have a scrap line at the back of my depot with a few faded blue locos being cut up on site. The road in front of the arches finishes inside gates and will be a fenced off rail connection where this low loader is either rescuing a loco or delivering it to it's fate. In my time period depots did not have much scrapping going on so I will just use modelers licence - but I will have to have at least 1 fire damaged Class 27. I have owned two now for a year - prototypically at least one should have spontaneously combusted by now - and I remember there always seamed to be at least one crispy 27 parked up at Eastfield and Motherwell and Haymarket ...... Polmadie .......and .........Glasgow works ......and..... Hope that gives you some info (if not please say) Chips wise - I was advised to use Lenz Silvers and have found them 100% perfect (but dear). I tried 3 Bachmann ones for ??10 each and managed to melt 2 in one week. I have a lot of Heljan 27's + 26's and 47's plus the Dapol cleaner. At 1amp draw Heljans need a decent chip - not a cheapo (all in my opinion + the opinion of 2 piles of smokey plastic goo) Stuart

Wow 3 responses - thanks guys glad someone is reading these and thanks for the kind words. Road Stone. - the inclines are steep! - I think they ended up at 1:30 and they rise about 85mm. Visually they are far too steep but practically - everything sails up no problem. I can make my sound fitted locos crawl up and at the top they slow down to a crawl and I throttle up - for extra thrash - which I think is fairly prototypical. Have to remember to throttle back down or they zoom away in the flat! - As with real life it is not the gradient - it is the transition curve between slope and level that gives problems. When planning out leave a good few inches top and bottom for transition - long locos and fuel tanks will jar on the top or "bridge" at the bottom - and lose power / get stuck. I decided the practical advantages of high and low track - outweighed the train set like "hills" - I suspect others might have found that a compromise too far.

Attempting to load a link to my latest video (below) If you wish to play this it shows 27 105 coming onto my depot. Fitted with a SWD sound chip. Spent 2 hours today trying to fit snow ploughs and discs to a Heljan 26. Not easy and now done and looking good - but derailing on every point. Will have to get scalpel out and hack off more from the front Bogie! :icon_frustrated: If you follow this link you can see 3 other videos each taken earlier in the build Heljan 47 (SWD sound Bachmann 20 (standard sound) Bachmann 37 (SWD sound). Stuart

Now then Mr Bristol Boy. I am going to give you the benefit of several Doubts here regarding your denigration of God's Country. Let's start with believing your sadness relates purely to the lack of real trains up here - or I may have to come down and sit on you. Then you may not get to become Bristol Man. Stuart (many happy memories of Bristol in the 80's maybe 10 day visits - but never left the station.)

Update 3 of 3 then and bringing things up to date as of mid October 2009. These photos show the build up of levels around the Outside loop as the track goes under the station. The layout is a looped figure of 8 with each train making two circuits of the room. I have made the station, upper street and retaining walls - demountable and the sequence of photos here can be reversed when "the Law of Sod" dictates that things will only ever get stuck - in tunnels. The twin main lines under the station are just too big a target for "Mr Sod". Wall to gable of street added at high level Curved retaining wall added on left Hanging basket liner + two "proper hairy cows" When I get the Ballast I will take some video from this angle as the loco lights coming under the station, out the tunnel, round the bend and back into a tunnel (behind depot) look very pleasing (one of the wee cameos I mentioned earlier) - feels like a different layout when I am used to sitting in the fat controllers chair and seeing things from the middle. Thanks for watching Feedback welcomed Sorry about the carpet - again! Stuart

OK Round 2 Thanks for the nice words Lokomotivefuhrer (not easy to spell) Some photos may get slightly muddled date wise - managed to include a ballasted fuel point shot by mistake - just in case anyone was wondering how I got all the ballast up again so neatly! A few shots now showing how messy I found the standard 50 / 50 PVA and water spray Ballast thing. Nobody had warned me how wet everything gets - the guy that invented this technique must have been brave / mad or clever. These shots show wet, wet close up - then 2 days later and nothing ruined - magic! Depot Ballast still needs to be weathered down, oiled and given that lived in look. I will be hunting for oily messy stuff at Warley later this month. Next up are 4 photos showing the upper station area. (Managed to lose most of my record photos for the station area construction) but I think these give a taster. Couldn't resist the huge statues -- my homage to WW11 soldiers from both sides. Now almost up to date and my current AVATAR Image shows 50 035 coming onto the depot past my chain link fence and an overview of the layout from the door (again) Signing off again now One more post to come which brings me up to date and shows some detailing to the tunnel mouth at the door - new Scalescenes retaining walls and some grass - trying to find a Glasgow stockist for Iron Ore Ballast by Woodlands Scenics - bought 2 tubs of brown by mistake. Speaking of mistakes - nearly forgot to mention the carpet. Whole house had these 6 years ago when we moved in. managed to leave it in just one room - just as well I never drop anything! - lost for good down there. Thanks for watching Stuart

Fingers Crossed and hope this works I am going to attempt a 2 year summary of my Layout progress since it started in January 2008 on RMweb 2. I have grabbed about 40 photos from the old thread and will try to include these with some text as we go to allow anyone jumping into this ongoing story a chance to catch up. Good news is you get to skip all my inane ramblings - unless you go back and read the old stuff and see the other photos and videos. Here goes after 15 hours of photo finding. CONCEPT A roundy roundy BR diesel era layout set in my trainspotting days of c1978 - 1982 - not region specific. I wanted a good through station, depot and some sidings and then tried to think of different levels and wee cameo scenes where I could sit and enjoy trains passing and maybe one day these areas might look good in photos. That day is not here yet. Anyway - time for some photos. (Maybe) Very rough Track plan.[/size] [/font] Me and my boys - Layout may not have changed much in 18 months but my eldest boy is now an inch taller than me at 6 foot 2 and only 15 years old! Loads of discussion about gradients and maximum climbing later. First overview from door to room. Layout is OO and in a dedicated 11 foot x 9 foot room. Have to work hard to find excuses not to model - and RMweb is a great distraction. During 2008 I made progress on some electrics (but layout is still only connected by 2 wire) just as well it is DCC. Got started on Depot area and inspection pits and lighting - fuel and towers by Express Models. Layout is Lenz DCC and will have lights fitted as I can afford them. As the time went on I worked on the Depot area and on the retaining wall and workshops beside the depot access road. Scalescenes Downloads are great and this first post finishes with a long view along the workshop arches and a night depot shot. The next batch (follow on post to this)will show more of the station area and a start on scenery and ballast. Thanks for watching - this has been a long enough post. Please feel free to ask any questions Stuart

Welcome Back Are you planning a Layout Blog or old stylee Topic Stuart

Classic stuff Peter Thanks for sharing. Takes me right back To me this is exactly the type of Layout RMWeb is all about - I must have missed this in the old site - and wandered in tonight and found this! Thanks Stuart