devondynosoar118

Another satisfied NCE Powercab user here. It’s done everything I have ever needed to do with it including programming lots of accessories and locos. Don’t forget second hand, it’s out there if you persist and can save you money. Good quality decoders are a good investment.

Having got the basic shell done I guide coated it in Army Painter “ Skeleton Bone “ intending to use the beige as the base for my mortar tones. This was all I had done when we last saw the buildings in my previous entry. Most of my painting on this was done at night, since that’s the only time there is peace and quiet in my place since lockdown. One of the key things I was looking to reproduce from the prototype is the very grey granite used on the stonework, vs the more brown “local” stones used on the goods shed and other structures. I have some photos taken when the building was demolished for reference but as I didn’t take them they don’t always have the detail you would want as a modeller. I tried dry brushing over just the beige primer, but this looked wrong and I ended up with a very dark, slate like finish. Mixing the right grey was proving difficult. To solve my mortar tone problem I used a wash of white acrylic paint, applied over the whole stone work with a broad soft brush. I then rubbed over the surface with a pad of kitchen roll to leave just the “mortar.” I think a white/beige base would have been better so if you make a model of this building be sure to start with white primer. In larger scales I think you would want to tone the mortar down, it’s hard to make out the colour on the prototype but I suspect it was much more flat grey than my paint. I also wanted to paint the platform stones, they were primed black to give grime between the stones. No amount of careful sweeping by the station staff can get rid of that! Here it is with the base grey complete. I treated the roof the same as on the engine shed, it was based with GW “Charadon Granite” which I have stock of, they helpfully changed all their paints making continuity of colours much harder. The dry brush is done a bit unevenly to start the streaking on the tiles. Then darker streaks were added with a damp brush coated in Tamiya weathering powders, just a mix of black and brown. Those were lightly smudged with cotton buds to soften the edges. The roof lights were dry brushed white then sooty grime added with powders. Window washing is not a priority in wartime! The beige primer and dry brush residue provides a good base for slightly battered GW door paint. I am sure the local staff kept up the highest standards possible but I can’t imaging the passage of hundreds of extra service personnel and tonnes of stores through the station plus wartime paint shortages did much for maintaining pre war GW paint. With that in mind I wanted a degree of fading and some subtle variation in the doors. Window frames were just done white, some have dirty corners, particularly ones facing the yard. Doors were painted Precision GW Stone as a base. Once that was dry I dry brushed all the panels with a light stone and a touch of white. I then mixed a custom slightly pinker GW Dark Stone, as that is what happens when it fades. I left some tonal variation on the palette to add variety to the wear. For example doors under a canopy or on a north facing wall won’t sun bleach as much. The notice boards were applied after, I used Ratio etched ones for that. No idea where they came from, I had a single etch with just enough on it. In this photo you can see the dry brushing on the light stone, giving a bit of weathering to the paint finish, and a few chipped areas where the light stone is visible through the dark. GWR used light stone as the base coat so any damage to the dark stone will reveal that before the wood beneath. You can also see my point about the less correct mortar in close up. Most of this is less visible from viewing distance. Here it is with glazing added. I have simulated black out paper on the roof lights with a light coat of black paint on the glazing. I am sure this would still have been present in 1943-44 when my layout is set. I have found less evidence for other black out measures like white washed building corners and blacked out canopy skylights. I suspect blackout curtains were fitted to the station but you can’t get close enough to see them in 2mm scale so I left them off. I put my milk cart and pony down to get a sense of scale on the platform elevation, I think it’s OK. Next phase is building the canopy and finishing the platform detail painting. I will also be adding ridge tiles.

Thanks Mikkel. I had a show deadline originally but as they are currently closed I need to think of a new way to make the last push. Currently there’s a months work to get it running. I also need to design and build a fiddle yard.

Thanks mate. It was motivation that was the problem! I need deadlines to make me keep going.

I realised this week it has been over 10 years since I started this layout, which was a bit terrifying. Life has a way of making things take longer than expected and the model of the station building at Kingsbridge is no exception. Thanks to those of you who have been with me since the beginning and all the commenters along the way, you have all helped keep me moving forwards, even if the pace has been a bit non existent! Last time we left the building at the elevations stage, I matched the plans to my kit bash as best I could and tried to keep everything proper. I got through 3 station kits in total I think. With that done it was assembly time. I needed to get all the dividing walls in the right place, Dad had done his best guess at the floor plan from site pictures and book research, so I copied that. I used the internal dividers from the kit and made the wider ones for the original building using styrene sheet. I forgot to take any pictures until I got the roof on, I got a bit carried away. This is the front elevation, original building on the left, extension on the right. Windows and doors were from Churchward, Ratio and Peedie Models etches. Some came from the Ratio kit. I am not sure all of them are absolutely correct but I had no way of checking. Yard elevation. Chimneys are modified from the kit ones. I wrapped them in Slaters stone sheets to match the real ones. The big holes in the roof are for the very tricky roof lights, which are a big part of the building. I used Peedie Models industrial windows etches for these, plus some scrap from the station kits. I thought about the side louvres and decided only a maniac with binoculars will see them from viewing distance. Here are the etched parts soldered up. Next I made a surround and added some plastic at the ends, which hid some shoddy fit and made them a bit more rigid. They are a shade “heavy” vs the prototype but it was a compromise. I couldn’t resist dragging the platform out of storage to test fit everything. I think this is looking about 80% like the real location, it is a bit further back from the platform edge than I would have liked but if I bring it too far forward the bay platform will be too far behind the table end, which will not look right. This is a result of me not thinking about the station area as a whole model when laying out track, it was the first (so far only!) station I have ever modelled and the mistakes are legion. It was also the second baseboard I ever made. So there it is, somewhere for passengers to alight at last. Next will be painting, I have already finished that IRL since I stayed up til 2am the other night working on it! So what are my future plans? I really need help with the back scene now, I need a 600mm high one about 12 ft long in total and have photos to use. The new Peco modular one is quite good for Devon hills as an alternative. Any thoughts on who could print me a photographic one? I also intend to put the whole layout together to make all the board connections and get the second station board working, which needs a very large space for several weeks.

D1059’s backscene was better, you have a couple of overscale trees......

Very nice. I imagine some cabs can be a bit more “weathered” and “authentic” than others, just like any shared workspace. Attention to detail in any project always makes me happy, that loco is about 10x the size of the largest thing I have rebuilt and painted. Good to see that repaint went well beyond a quick external tart up. Tidy trains are good for the public image of the railways and it’s good to see some freight operators really making an effort with their locomotives, even if they can’t usually control how grimy. the stock they pull is. From a modelling perspective the contrast between more careworn wagons and shiny locos is interesting. Obviously a few older, scruffy and characterful locos are fun to see too, your photos always provide a good range of both. Looking forward to seeing the results from the new camera.

Looks like Hornby have made the finish a little glossy on the above release, surely they don’t look that clean in “real?” On the plus side the trees against the back scene look very good. All silliness aside the team in the works paint shop did a cracking job on that, almost a shame to get it grubby with work. Was the cab as shiny inside?

Why not just run on DC if you never intend to run more than one or two loco’s? You can wire points and use a bus type set up to be DCC compatible later and just include a couple of isolating sections if you want to park a second loco or have more than one controller. If you later want sound and DCC all you would need to do is turn the sections on. Some very old stuff with cast chassis blocks and no isolation can be more difficult, but there are plenty of newer examples on eBay if you want a small engine which will take a chip more easily. The Dapol pannier is just a plug in. Some second hand ones may already be chipped, saving a chore. As Nigel has pointed out there are very few locos in N you can’t fit a decoder to, it just requires more creativity in where they go and more eye straining to solder them in. You can get sound and a chip in an 04 shunter so using a wired decoder as opposed to a plug in one should be fine in 009. Be aware that white metal bodies will need extra care as the decoder can short itself to death on anything conductive!

Materials wise you would just need the correct thickness of clear acrylic sheet. Make a template and keep producing them. The other option is to make the drawings yourself in a free CAD program (lots of suggestions in laser cutting forum I imagine) then get a hack space or RM web laser cutter or silhouette cutter to make you a bulk batch. It’s a trade off, cheap will cost you time to do, or you buy from someone who has done all the hard work already. Depends on how much you value your time.

I never knew Hellifield had such a spectacular canopy and wealth of railway infrastructure. Somebody needs to get the strimmer and weed wand out on that platform and the bay looks like it’s more planter than platform. Is anyone using the building at the moment? I know steam services have used it before.

For people unaware of local geography Newton Abbott is some distance from Buckfastleigh, a stroll between the two would take several hours.

You cannot easily use capacitors in that way on DC, since in one direction the output will be the wrong polarity. You can get around that but because the voltage into the loco varies on DC you will have to run at high speeds to charge the capacitor to a level where it will make any difference to a disruption of the track feed. Perhaps radio control with a battery in the loco might be a better solution in this case?

I would avoid cheap track too, in my experience it causes more trouble than the money saving was worth. I would rather build sections more slowly using better components, either new or good second hand, than fast and using bargain basement track. You will get much more reliable running that way, which is more time spent playing trains, less time cursing poor track, which to me is the aim of the game, running trains! None of the areas need to be scenic to begin with, as long as the track has a decent base and is well laid you can come back to scenery at any time, that way you focus spending on getting moving models, with one skill set at a time to (re)learn as opposed to trying to do all of it at the same time.

AA was used to protect supply dumps, not always successfully, from air attack. Destroying facilities beyond the reach of artillery was a prime objective of both air forces, especially in 1917 when the British and Canadian narrow gauge lines were at their height. Most depots were kept large, to minimise transshipment. The other option would be a forward dressing station, or maybe a rest area. The Germans managed to bomb several major yards, including sidings full of ammunition, many of which were well behind the front line. One raid in 1916 hit Audruicq, a major RE base near St Omer. I have a dual lighting rig planned, with the Kerr Stuart and a Simplex doing afternoon turns, then lighting shifting to evening when the steam engines were starting to set up their supply drops after sunset, with a “moon” type lighting for the steam trains to run under. My main aim right now is to get the track layout right, so it’s as close to operationally correct as I can get it, then I can alter details of the back drop. I think the levels will work with the river at the lowest point, rising to the embankment.

The fiddle yard will do that, I can’t fit three points in the scenic length and have 2nd radius curves, or the board join ends up on the curve. Sidings tended to be simple spurs on all the pictures and plans I have seen. Not seen how they laid out loops or wether they just put one train away in a simple siding then let the other pass.

That has prompted me to fill the empty space, thank you. I have decided on some British “Archie” in the form of an AA detachment, protecting the road and the railways from enemy aircraft. That will give me some options for vehicles, including the AA truck, and a few bigger QF guns, plus ancillary kit and servicemen. Anyone got an answer to the sidings conundrum?

What happened was the preservationists negotiated to buy the Kingsbridge line, but the ministry in London had already signed a scrap contract for the infrastructure which they wouldn’t go back on, thus preserving it failed and the people involved in the Kingsbridges scheme transferred their money and efforts to the SDR. One died, the other survived. The SDR used Totnes BR station for a time until BR changed the rules or the layout (can’t remember which) and the SDR had to develop Riverside and the bridge to Totnes entirely at their expense. The two books on the Kingsbridge line are well worth reading, lots of interesting stuff in both, plus many photos of the branch.

I am guessing it hadn’t gone before the minister.

Hi all. I have been planning something to put my Bachmann Baldwin on. Having secured a good value pack of 009 track and points from EBay I have been trialling the idea I had for a small ish layout that will likely go out on the exhibition circuit. It will be subject to my unique presentation style, but that doesn’t change the basic requirements. It can be up to 6 ft long in total, the viewed area is about 36” by 24” and I envisage a basic three road traverser hidden behind on a 12” extension, with two 1ft extensions on the side of the main board to take some of the curve, giving me a 6x2 total set up, not sure how best to divide it up. Here’s a picture of the 3ft scenic section mock up. I am looking for the front main track to be part of a continuous loop, the standard gauge section will be worked by “flying fiddle yards” over the NG line on short cassettes, as I am planning only 0-6-0 and a few wagons on there, possibly the Hattons ROD special edition. The continuous loop will mean I can solo operate without getting in a mess, I envisage a maximum of 3 NG formations, a Baldwin, Hunslet and a Kerr Stuart providing motive power on 3 wagon long trains. That leaves the following questions- What to put in the area marked “?” How to get the radii right for the curves so stock can go round reliably, will I need to use a longer main board? If so would a simple 5ft or 6ft by 2ft work and allow me to go 2nd radius or slightly tighter with the track set back from the board edge at the front? All advice welcome. The siding connections are both ways to allow setting back by trains running in both directions on the single line. If that’s not going to be prototypical, all I have read says 1 engine in the line, direction immaterial, visual separation if travelling the same direction was the norm, should I just have a double trailing connection? Less visually interesting that way.

Less than I want, more than I need.

Layout operators with this installed are going to have to provide opera glasses for viewers to see it working.

I have used textured spray paints for roads lots of times, it’s also handy in the finer grades for simulated flat roofs on 60’s buildings. It can be used to do yards as well, you can tint it with inks and paint or highlight it too. My Squeezebelly Lane thread has pics on how I did most of it.

The station building at the Kingsbridge terminus was used by the GPO after the closure, it sat semi derelict behind warehouses on the site but visible from the road for many years. It was reputedly on a temporary listing to protect it, although I have no source other than local chatter for that. Over the course the of a weekend (supposedly to avoid scrutiny from planners or the listed building officer) contractors moved in and knocked the whole lot down. The original canopy brackets were sold off as was any decorative parts that could be re used. The rest of the stone was largely dumped on site and has been steadily dwindling away ever since. Only a section of the platform right in the corner of the old site remains, plus the goods shed and the wall behind the signal box. The rest is hidden by industrial buildings or gone. Thankfully the goods shed is in good order but the loading bay canopy has been removed recently. I have pictures of the demolition but they are not digital and the photographer who gave them to me did so on the strict proviso that I didn’t share them on the web, since he was given permission by the contractors to take the pictures but they knew what they were up to was a grey area legally, so asked he not share them. Several RM Webbers have seen them, I have taken them to the Taunton members day in the past too. I can probably set some up with a private link on Google Drive if people are interested. Here is the end of the platform as it is today, the station building was to the left beyond the caravan.