Dinfield Sidings

[pirouets]

Rather than wreck the surface I made a small board to try and weather the ground surface. I had a play with various poster paints to come up with something Iiked and then tried 2 ways 

 

- On the right of the picture I painted it on and then dabbed the surface with some kitchen towel. This leaves it fairly lumpy and gravelly which is not quite what I am after

- On the left I simply painted on and let it dry in to the surface which seems to give a more cracked asphalt look. I think a 2nd layer could then be applied to reducing the cracking in some area's

 

The only other question is do I try and tweak the colour further so its not quite so close to the ballast.

 

[pirouets]

After much playing around with shades of grey (should have played the Billy Joel song whilst doing this) I've got the ground sorted. I went to Ali Pally yesterday and bought some Skytrex barrels so wondering actually whether this becomes a brewery building which doesn't change the operating to much.

 

 

I've also fitted the remain ground signals which need to be powered up.

 

The other idea I may try having had a chat with Clive Mortimer yesterday is to operate the lower part of the layout using playing cards rather than a timetable so its a bit more random on the freight & parcels. My thinking is have the passenger trains left at 1 DMU per hr along with the suburban train every 2 hrs, and then in between use the cards to decide how many moves in between and what comes in. I'm not working at next week currently so should have time to try this out along with working on the drinks company building and road surfaces round it.

[pirouets]

The station yard has been bugging me but I wonder if the Dinfield Drinks company would fit well at the end of the yard. In truth I made a mistake though with the building so I may start again. In fact there are 2 which are bigging me

- The fact that I forgot to put window sills in and wrap the brick work round the card in the windows.

- I could have made the base so the floor and ramp is all one piece rather than adding the loading area/ramp to the main building.

 

I'd rather have something I can look at without regret in truth but it forms a good placeholder on the layout for now to work out the overall scene. 

 

 

I've vastly simplified the timetable since the Ali Paly show which reduce the number of moves by about half and it still takes a good 90 mins to run through. The upper line seems to fit well with the playing card approach but as there are only 6 trains in the fiddle yard I simply use a dice.

 

Anyway, back to the working week tomorrow - oh joy.

[pirouets]

Well, summer has been and gone and until recently very little had changed but since holiday a few weeks ago things have started clicking. Firstly I have tried out some free downloaded houses along the back to complete the scene. I'll need to work out how to blend in against the houses I made for the corner but its a start and if the worst comes to the worst I can just put a new piece of back scene in. 

 

 

Next comes repainting the tarmac area by the station as it was to light and blending in to the ballast. I will have a play on google to see about any markings I need to add.

 

 

Finally, I downloaded the boiler house and workshop kits from Scalescenes. You can see the water town behind but not 100% sure if that will make it on the layout and certainly not in that position as it blocks the signal box. I'm seeing these 2 as a local garage these days with cars out front and back and have made a list of possible models to try and get hold of.

 

 

That's all for now except wondering whether to go to the Woking exhibition this weekend.

 

 

[pirouets]

So a first for me today. I have now got some cars and lorries for the layout but fresh out of the box they are somewhat shiny. So popped in to Hobby craft and picked up a pot of dark wash. I have some old wagons from my dad so got one of them out and have applied a 1st coat which dulled it down and once that had set added a few dabs to create splodges on the side. So far so good and since taking this pick I have added a 2nd thin layer lower down so it starts to have a more graded effect.

 

I'll have a go at couple of other old wagons and then take a stab at the box vans I have. I also need to get hold of a couple of cheap tanker wagons to play with as well to learn how to do oil streaks.

 

Must go though as strictly is on so i'm off to the shed.

[pirouets]

So a fair amount of running but no real progress on the modelling side. In truth I am starting to think about what's next as the niggles do get to me. In a nutshell because the layout grew organically rather than off a proper plan I have the following issues

- Have not thought the backscene through when doing the initial plan

- I put to much track in to the lower part of the layout

- There are problems with the boards themselves so in truth the need replacing

- I have a better idea

 

How ever, before I rip this up I am setting myself 2 challenges. To finish the scene round the house I built including putting a small allotment in is the first where I have created the earth area. In the second picture below the challenge is to create yard scene I like.

 

 

 

And as for the new idea, I have seen Underhill Road and have the idea of how would that work in a roundy roundy scenario. Roomey who is responsible for that also built Ting Tong yard which was also something I was wondering could be adapted in to a larger layout. I know the centre of the layout will be based on that but at either end I get the chance to create a scene and I have that quite clearly in my head for now.

 

I've been reading up on trip workings as dropping off and picking up would need to be scheduled, but the principle remains that at one end of the layout it will disappear under the edge of town. At the other edge of, my wife has challenged me to have water, so my thinking is to use a canal at the edge of the factory. I can then move in to that rough country that borders somewhere like this including adding a lock keepers cottage and try allotments again. I've seen this on a couple of points on the Kennet & Avon canal in my travels and there is somewhere I can take pictures of town butting up to the canal to get an idea.  

 

The line itself what ever era is a secondary main, so fastest I see would be a 37 with some Mk2's, whilst freight would be 24, 25 & 31 mainly. The other risk with this layout is that I could got back to steam as I have always had a thing for the Standard 5MT and can just picture that with a dirty freight through this.

 

The other thing about this that will keep me out of mischief is the number of buildings to create.

 

[pirouets]

So started on both the garage and allotment scene. For the garage scene I need to work out where everything will go as I have purchased a car lift along with various garage tools. Key challenge is how to get everything in the building. It may mean I look at remaking the buildings again including a base or my other thought is mark up the space of the garage, then fit everything on the ground and place the building over the top. We shall see

 

As for the allotment I have started mocking this up as can be seen below. With the veg I need to look at what other colours  I need to try so with the mock up I will dab a small amount of glue on to these and then sprinkle some purple for cabbages. The poles for pea's or beans are from toothpicks and I think they are to thick even after a bit of whittling. I will see how they turn out when I add some green to represent the plant.

 

 

[pirouets]

A little bit of work on the garage. I've been scouring the internet for pictures and most car lifts I could see look way to polished. For now i've built the lift and put an initial black coat on so once dry I will add something to tone it down. No one will ever see it that closely (See the 2nd picture and you will see why) but its more about learning to do this. I've also got some piles of tyres and wheels but will be leaving the yellow and red ones out.

 

 

The garage has come together and I am using 2 parts of industrial buildings set. The car lift will go in the right one but you can see a shiny concrete floor which again will need toning down. I also need to add some work bench and tyre storage to the building as I have a set of tools and acetylene gas canisters that need a home

 

 

Whilst the paint dries i'll go back to the allotment and try adding some colour.

 

I also had one of those REALLY moments. I fixed the fiddle yard points motors in and when I tried to run a train, nothing worked. It was late so I left it and today it all works fine - go figure.

 

[pirouets]

Not a huge amount done or have I. Doing the fiddly things takes time. So far the allotments have started being laid out using what materials I have. I need to look at gluing some growth on to the frame and I am trying to find a simple shed kit or at least choose the right materials to make it out of.

 

Alongside this I have also been working on the Garage and its starting to come together. The lift is in and some interior details being added which don't show on this photo.

 

 

Also being running trains to the timetable I created sometime back which makes things more interesting.

[pirouets]

So not much more will happen now other than running stuff as my own beeching act will fall from the 27th of March. I am starting a new job on the 6th of April and have a week off before hand so I have 2 approaches

- Start clearing the shed over the next 3 weeks so it is ready for that week

- Run trains for now and then go mad for a week.

 

In truth I think I may aim for something in between but we shall see. In terms of new plans, I have 2 ideas to work on in the mean time. One of the things I have been thinking about is how to make the most of a 12*6 shed so the future idea will be a scenic section on either side with 3 or 4 storage roads behind. That way I can create a contrast of scenes.  Each scene would be a max of 8ft in length and between 16 and 18 inches deep depending in the number of storage roads behind. At the moment ideas for scenes are

 

- Alevscott or another country wayside type scene on one side

- A variation on Oldshaw or Underhill Rd in a more urban setting

 

I have a rough draft in Anyrail based on Alvesott and Oldshaw below. You can't see the storage at the bottom as its only the free version of Anyrail, but om my current layout, 4 storage roads take 6.5 inches. Each road would be around 8ft in length. As for seeing where a train is, my thinking is as long as I can see the head or the tail of either end, then there should be no crashes. 

 

[pirouets]

So my kids have thrown me a challenge - Dad, could this layout also work if it was set today? I think the lower station will as it can still be a backwater line with some industry needing to be served along with single and 2 car DMU's

 

The single line based on Alvescott though is a no, so I came up with a new idea. Newhurst was in RM a while ago and whilst it is modelled in O when reduce to OO with some slight trimming I think it will fit. having had a play around in Anyrail though I am going to tweak the plan so the right hand end of the layout curves very slightly backwards as that will align the single slip better. I can then see DMU's and maybe a Voyager running through this along with class 66's on various types of service. The common 3 I see from my window at work are container, aggregate and tanker though I would imagine having modern clay tankers.

 

The branch line then is imagined linking to the Oldshaw plan below and off scene would be the clay works.

 

 

 

I know I said I would probably run trains for the next few week but all the loco's got boxed up so I am starting to clear with a view that by the time I get a week off I can start on the new boards so may be its time to close this thread and move on. The larger station will keep the Dinfield name but not sure what the branch line will be though I could go back to Wycliffe or Cumberland Rd which have been names used in the past.

[pirouets]

So more shed clearing and the old layout is gone. The 1st photo show's just how much rubbish i have accumulated over the last 5 years and it was a pretty full car that went to the tip.

 

 

The second photo shows the 1st boards of the new build in and the shelving being moved to the end of the shed. I've also made a key design decision in that the left hand board in the photo will now be 19 inches and contain the model based on Oldshaw with a single track running behind the back-scene. The other board is 24 inches and when I start laying I will just lay the fiddle yard and leave the space empty in front whilst I decide what to do.

 

As previously said my eldest has suggested could it also be a more modern layout so there is an idea of Minories in front of the fiddle yard capable of loco + 4 coaches or a Voyager depending if its running in BR Blue or near current day. 

 

 

I hope to get all but the centre board for Oldshaw side finished next weekend and then I need to think whether I will add a canal in the model as my wife thinks I should have water in the layout.