"Caleta" semi-fictional Costa Brava in N

[Stubby47]

One thing I've noticed about the sky is that it gets a lot whiter nearer the horizon.

 

Porthreath, on a windy day.

 

 

[The Stationmaster]

One thing I've noticed about the sky is that it gets a lot whiter nearer the horizon.

 

Porthreath, on a windy day.

 

20160309_123828.jpg

 

20160309_123918.jpg

 

I remember an adage from years back that the blue in the sky gets darker (perhaps 'more noticeable' is a better description) the higher your line of site is above the horizon.  Thus exactly teh same but going the opposite way - but still something that needs to be taken account of in colouring 'sky' on backscenes.

[Guest]

Thanks for that. Looking inland, I genuinely don't have a clue where the horizon will be. To the far left of the layout will be the rocky headland that carries the coast road around it, and moving farther right there will be quite a long row of 3 and 4 storey apartment blocks tight up against the backscene. I don't honestly think there will be that much backscene left! For that reason I'm tempted just to leave it an overall blue until I know what goes where. If there's very little backscene on view, I'll leave it alone... if there's more on view than I thought, I can "dabble".

[Guest]

Spent a couple of days marking out the track plan and cutting trackbed supports etc. Getting the storm drain right was a little tricky but it should be worth it. As this is a rebuild, at least I've done something similar before so don't have much to complain about.

One thing I have learnt with N gauge is that if you don't get the track absolutely "bang-on" level, bad running seems to be magnified x10 compared to OO. A little time spent now should pay dividends. Still not a great deal to see... this is the end of the layout that will feature the rocky headland and main road running around it. The track will disappear under a road bridge and then immediately into a tunnel, just like Calella. I'm just looking forward to connecting the oval and getting something running!

Finally, a gratuitous shot of the Alco. The cab at the "blunt" end is unusual and not something I'm overly familiar with.

 

[Guest]

A little more slow progress. Although I'm keen to "join up" the oval and get a test train running, I really need to scenically sort out the overgrown storm drain first. With the odd angles etc, trying to do this after the track is permanently fixed would be an absolute nightmare.

The base is in place and has been coloured and lightly weathered. One of the sloping sides has been cut to fit and just needs to be painted. I'm still mourning the loss of Plastikote's excellent "Suede Touch" tan aerosol paint. Concrete-in-a-can it was. Taking advice from rob D2's excellent "Appleton Yard", a little jar of Railmatch concrete will have to do. I dislike brush painting large areas but have little choice. The sloping sides are cut from Evergreen's "V Groove" sheets and should do a decent job of representing a modern(ish) concrete slab wall once washed and streaked with weathering powders.

The actual rail bridge needs more work, not least it needs to be "beefed up" as it looks far too flimsy for the length of span. Additional girders will be added and a couple of central upright supports will be made. The storm drain in Calella which this is loosely based upon is also used for vehicle access to the beach car park so I may as well do the same here... it's ample wide enough. There is (or will be) a scale 12ft of headroom under the bridge. That seems quite generous, but I'm wondering whether to add a vehicle height restriction sign on the right of the bridge and a no entry sign on the left. I haven't got a clue what a Spanish height restriction sign looks like, so I'll have to Google that one.

 

[Guest]

Just a gnat's whisker away now from getting the track down and seeing something running. The centre supports have been made for the rail bridge over the storm drain and the bridge itself has been weathered ready to fit.

 

I'm probably getting a bit ahead of myself here... but thoughts have turned to whether I should bother with catenary. My inherent laziness says no, but there is an awful lot of nice N gauge RENFE stock with pantographs that would look ridiculous running pan-down. Also, the area I'm leaning on for inspiration is electrified. I've discovered a modern RENFE-pattern mast that's available in N and it's actually a very very good likeness (see below). One thing I absolutely don't want to do is run wires. The masts (if fitted) will be cosmetic and the wires will have to be imagined. Is that taking believability a step too far or is it acceptable in N, whereas it might not be in OO/HO? Thoughts are welcome, as I'm a bit stuck on this. Knowing sod-all about catenary doesn't really help, either...

 

 

 

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[Zomboid]

It's your trainset, but I'd be OK with only having the masts. In N the wires, if done to scale, would be almost invisibly small, and having wires that are a scale 3 inches thick would be a bit of a compromise.

And if you find it bothers you, there's the option of adding them later.

[Guest]

It's your trainset, but I'd be OK with only having the masts...

 

Thanks. I'm sure the lack of wires would be very noticeable in a larger scale, but I'm fairly sure just having the masts will be ok in N. I'm a little unsure about spacing. Absolute prototypical spacing just looks wrong. The masts look WAY too far apart. I also know they need to be closer together as the curves at either end of the layout tighten up. Just need play around, I think. Perhaps one of those "if it looks right, it must be right" scenarios.

 

Managed to get the centre bridge support in place. The armco-type barriers are from a sprue of Kato fencing. Just need to pin some flexi track down and play around with the gentle curve before fixing it in place and seeing what the bogie oil tankers and Talgo set looks like running around.

 

[stivesnick]

^Pete

^{Like the drain and bridge detail.}

 

^{We don't bother with overhead wires on Horseley Fields, and nobody has complained - it does make track cleaning a lot easier.}

 

^Nick

[Guest]

Finally, track down and trains running, but not without issues.

The Arnold Alco in Comsa livery is a sweet and quiet runner and makes light work of the Talgo set. The Talgo happily runs through all storage roads without any issues. At 10 coaches, I think it's a reasonable length. Shorter, it would look daft and much longer, it would probably erm... look daft.

The 308 in Tecsa livery by Startrain is a sweet runner too, just noisier, although this may improve with additional running in. Disappointingly, it wouldn't pull the skin off the proverbial rice pudding though. 10 bogie tankers? Fat chance. It will manage about 6. The train I'd originally envisaged being pulled by the 308 is a breakdown crane and a couple of support vehicles, so that's probably at the limit of what it will pull without slipping. The Comsa Alco will no doubt end up on the tanks when I get something more suitable to pull the Talgo. An electric, maybe a 252, is favourite for this job.

As this is no more than a DC test track which will have some scenery thrown at it so I can have a practise in "the smaller scale", I'm quite happy. Should I ever make a bigger double track main line in N (maybe in the garage in Spain *), I will definitely go a little easier on the radius and use Streamline medium radius points in the fiddle yard instead of the Setrack used here. DCC with sound will probably be the way to go as well. For now, the ancient trusty old Gaugemaster Series E analogue controller (temporarily wired up in the corner) will do fine. I'm none too keen on trying to shoehorn a decoder in N gauge locos right now! I need more confidence with the fiddly stuff first.

Finally, there's a long shot showing pretty much the whole of the scenic board. At the right-hand end will be a little pedestrian tunnel leading to the seafront, and a Woodland Scenics culvert is spot-on dimensionally. Ballasting at some point in the near future and then I need to mock-up the scenic breaks. Road bridge and tunnel at left-hand end, and God-only-knows-what at the right-hand end.

 

 

Edit: * That throws up another conundrum... if I have a whole garage to play with (and it's a big garage), I may want to try Spanish HO. Christ-on-a-bike... I really need to make my mind up!

[Satan's Goldfish]

If you're interested in a respray job, i have a pair of those Alcos (1 powered, 1 dummy) with the blunt end cab sat spare. I think they're of Ibertren origins and they are in NSW liveries rather than anything Spanish but i believe from my investigations into them that they are the same/similar loco.

 

Looks a nice little layout!

[roundhouse]

Pete

 

Put some brackets on the walls and build the HO one above or below the N scale one.

[Guest]

Put some brackets on the walls and build the HO one above or below the N scale one.

 

Not a bad idea Ian. I need to draw a line between what is actually achievable and "dream on, buddy" though... Using the latter, I'd already drawn up plans for HO with a bit of metre-gauge thrown in, and why not one of those gauge changing stations for the Talgo set...? Back to earth, I think!

[McGomez]

Pete.

A couple of pictures from Miranda de Ebro back in August as I know you like your series 252 electrics.

 

This is a 1 coach Inter City service from Bilbao to Vigo that takes a leisurely 11 hours.

 

It combines at Miranda with the Inter City from Irun that is a huge 3 coach consist.

 

These combine and go forward as a 4 coach train.

 

The coaches were produced 2 or 3 years ago by a new entrant in the Spanish market called Ferromodel but there were problems with bad running and the company seems to have disappeared.

Nice looking coaches and short prototypical consists, perfect for modelling!!

 

[Guest]

Excellent photos Andy - thanks for that. Loving the first shot. 252 + single coach. You couldn't make it up, could you!? "Prototype for everything" indeed.

[Talltim]

Totally agree. When I get around to it, the Czech layout will, I hope, capture the flavour of the country and time rather than be a slavish copy.

 

Rob

Did you mean to make that pun?

[colin penfold]

Did you mean to make that pun?

Thanks for Czeching

[NHY 581]

Did you mean to make that pun?

 

Finally...........

[Guest]

Bit slow there Rob, sorry. I'm normally a day or two behind, but 9 weeks??? Well done to Tim for waking us up...

[Marcus 37]

Sorry for all the notifications but just had a very enjoyable read of your thread. A great layout in the making by the looks of things.

Really looking forward to seeing it progress. Seeing the palm trees reminds me of a driver who used to be at Banbury depot who had a large American layout set in California. I walked in the mess room one morning and he was on a cover turn. He was sat there making etched brass palm trees that looked absolutely superb. Unfortunately he left and we have lost touch as I had moved to another company and hadn't realised he had gone to pastures new. His layout was also set along a costal route with lots of palm trees so very similar to yours giving that lovely warm sunny atmosphere. Perfect layouts for a dreary wet day.

Shall be following along now with interest.

Cheers

Marcus

[bensanchez43310]

Wow, thats long! Im from near Vigo in spain and am from up the line in A coruna. I am currently in london but i know A coruna to barcelona takes the best part of 15 or so hours by sleeper. Think it combines witha vigo train or ECS at Monforte De Lemos though

[petertg]

Hi all! I don't usually read Forum threads and,be truthful, I have not read all of this one but, since I have lived in Spain for over 50 years and saw the mention of Calella, it drew my attention. I don't  know wether anyone has mentioned this, but Calella is not on the Costa Brava. The Costa Brava starts further up the line. The author of post 74 mentioned Vilanova i la Geltru. I have lived in Cubelles, the next stop down the line for 25 years and, from 1992 to 1998 I was a week-day commuter to BCN, where I worked. In that period of time the services were firstly 440's on a Regional Services. Then the Minister Borell introduced what he called the Metrotren and we got the double deckers in push-pull combination with an electric locomotive. These finally gave way to the genuine EMU's with three and six coach units, the latter having a power car at each end. Over the last couple of years the new Civis units have also been introduced with four and five car units. The modernisation also brough services every half hour.

Prior to moving here, we lived in BCN but had a second home in a small village just inland from Roses at the top end of the Costa Brava. During the summer months the family was installed there and I travelled up on Fridays and back down again on Sundays. One alternative was to get a stopping train to Vilajuiga (29 stops between stations and halts (apeaderos)) and a scheduled three hour jouirney for 150 km could easily extend to four. A quicker, more expensive alternative, was to catch an express to Figueras, but then my wife had to come 15 km to pick me up. This line ran inland via Granollers, Massanet, Caldas and Flaça among other points.

Long before I built a layout, we had purchased some Lima HO stock but, when I finally got started on the layout, the price (and weight: I have a suspended layout from ther garage ceiling which goes up and down) led me to opt for Metcalf card kits, so the scenery is basically UK and I also purchased some OO UK stock, being a  regular client of Hattons, with odd purchases from other UK sources.

In Barcelona, as well as Rocafort, there is Palau in the city centre. I have also purchased on line from Zaratren, in Zaragoza and another place in the north of Spain.

What I have not done is gen up on RENFE documentation.

Finally, as a comment, one of my daughters has a small place just 50 yards from the St. Pol station cited in post 43.