Offerston Quay - 7mm Inglenook Plus

[KevinWalsh]

Thanks Kevin!

 

I will take your tip about wear on the setts. In your experience, does this make the worn setts lighter or darker? And more to the brown or the grey side?

 

Duncan

 

Duncan,

 

They seem to take on a dark grey hue with hints of black in it. Tyre rubber wear over the area and work boots with hob-nails on the soles does appear to act as a cleaning agent, keeping the mud and general detritus down.

 

If you look at photos of the setts in the main public areas of the ironbridge gorge museums show the sort of wear pattern and colouring that I'm referring to.

 

Kev

[Fastdax]

Duncan,

 

They seem to take on a dark grey hue with hints of black in it. Tyre rubber wear over the area and work boots with hob-nails on the soles does appear to act as a cleaning agent, keeping the mud and general detritus down.

 

If you look at photos of the setts in the main public areas of the ironbridge gorge museums show the sort of wear pattern and colouring that I'm referring to.

 

Kev

 

Thanks Kev. I'll try something along these lines for the more heavily-travelled areas (when I know where they will be!)

 

Duncan

[Fastdax]

More Cobbles

 

I tried a dark grey wash of dilute emulsion paint, wiped off immediately but then sponged back over the more heavily-used parts.

 

I think the colour is much better now.

 

 

 

I'm also experimenting with grouting the setts with ash from the log-burner. This probably needs a bit more wiping-off to reduce the over-bright effect.

 

The bit nearest the camera hasn't been ashed yet.

 

 

 

[KevinWalsh]

The cobbles are starting to look the dog's danglies Duncan

[Fastdax]

Track Colouring

 

In the yard, the sleepers will be old and weathered.

 

Whilst stuck in the YouTube zone one day (we've all been there ...), I chanced across Joey Ricard's tutorial on track weathering:

 

http://youtu.be/DrHmPf62A_g?list=PLDxWql2l6eMK19t0yWstA4MTqvqMRn1UC

 

This simple method seems to give a great effect of old, bleached but grimy wood sleepers, so that's what I'll try!

 

After the basic matt back all-over base coat, the next step is to paint the sleepers with a light grey-brown colour, not being too careful about where it goes. Joey uses pre-mixed "suede" colour but I mixed it up from white, back and brown acrylics.

 

 

 

The next step is to liberally brush on black weathering powder. I made some by grating up black artist's chalk sticks.

 

It now looks a bit too black, but I can always rub off a bit of the black powder to reveal some more "clown makeup" (see the video above!) beige underneath. Spraying ballast glue around will change it as well.

 

 

This picture also shows the 3mm ply board I'm going to use as the end wall of the goods yard. It's screwed onto small wood blocks glued to the edge of the baseboard.

 

I'm also PVAing down more cardboard to act as a base for the cinder ballast.

 

 

I haven't done the rusting step yet as I want to ballast the track and spray water diluted with iso-propyl alcohol  around, which may wash off the rust powders.

 

I did try the rust-coloured chalk in IPA mix on another section of trackwork though, just to see how it turns out.

 

This is the dark orange rust mix, applied over matt black paint and toned down with a bit more black powder when dry.

 

I think this is going to look OK.

 

 

Duncan

 

[Fastdax]

Ballasting

 

Ballasting the goods yard with cinders is nearly complete.

 

 

I didn't know exactly where the back edge of the ballast would be, so I knocked up a temporary loading dock from 5mm foamboard to give me an idea of where this will sit. It's as long as the straight part of the rearmost siding at 540mm, which is enough for 3 standard 10' wheelbase wagons plus a buffer stop..

 

The cinder mix started out as Carrs Ash Ballast (C1180) but I only had a small pot and it looked like it was going to run out. I topped it up a couple of times with a 50/50 mix of Woodland Scenics Fine Cinders (B76) and grey ash from the log-burner. This has given a varied surface which I quite like.

 

Duncan

Edited December 7, 2016 by Fastdax

[Fastdax]

Real Wood Sleepers

 

As a diversion from ballasting, and while I was in the garage making wooden toys for kids' Xmases, I knocked up a tub of real wood sleepers for use in making lineside objects.

 

I found an old drawer front, made from a mahogany-type hardwood, in my pile of "useful bits I'll save for later".

 

 

A few passes through the planer-thicknesser got it down to 5.25mm (9" in 7mm scale).

 

 

... and produced a pile of nice brown shavings. I wonder what I can use these for ... ?

 

 

I set the bandsaw up to take 3.5mm slices (6" in 7mm scale) off the edge of the blank.

 

 

The slightly rough sawn edges were sanded.

 

 

Finally, the strips were ganged together and passed under the chop-saw with a stop-block set to 60mm (8' 6" in 7mm scale), resulting in a fine pile of raw wood sleepers.

 

The little offcuts may do to mount point rodding or levers on.

 

 

Now I just have to find a use for them!

 

Duncan

 

[big T]

Hi Duncan,

 

Really liking your progress, in particular the cobbles and the weathering, which are superb.

 

I also like the look of your newly cut sleepers - I think we all hoard stuff, awaiting a time when we can make use of that container or strip of wood etc!

 

Cheers

 

Trev.

[Fastdax]

Illuminated Buffer Stop

 

Just for fun, I converted a solid-state Peco buffer stop to LED-illuminated.

 

 

This uses a pre-wired tiny SMD red LED, which is plenty bright at 2V.

 

 

The wires are so thin they can be routed discreetly round the back of the buffer stop and hardly show at all when it's all painted black.

 

There is a tiny bit of light bleed through the back, so a bit more paint is obviously in order.

 

If anyone's interested in how I did this, I can post some pictures of the next one I convert.

 

 

I dry-brushed the horizontal rails white, but does anyone know what colour they would have been in reality? (BR Midland region, 1962).

 

 

A bit of rusty weathering powder, followed by some black to tone it down, makes it look a bit more "lived-in".

 

 

Duncan

 

[ThePurplePrimer]

Some fantastic work there

 

I will be keeping an eye on this thread I think

[Fastdax]

Track Weathering

 

As per the Joey Ricard track weathering method mentioned previously, I started splodging a mix of ground-up chalks and isopropyl alcohol onto the rail sides and chairs.

 

 

This is definitely the "clown makeup" stage!

 

It was complicated a bit by the sections that I'd ballasted, but I was just a bit more careful round the finished bits.

 

 

As a test, this picture shows the raw rusty chalk effect on the near rail, with the same thing but toned down with black chalk powder on the far rail. Not half so in-yer-face!

 

Next will be painting the (unballasted) sleepers with a lighter shade, which will brighten them up and tidy up the messy edges of the rust mix.

 

I need to hide the uncoupler electromagnet core a bit better as well. Perhaps a carelessly-dumped bucket of ash ...

 

 

Duncan

 

[Fastdax]

Happy New Year to all!

 

Lights and other electrics

 

I installed a lighting switch panel under each of the two baseboards. This seemed easier than bringing the wires to the turnout-control panel on its flexible lead. It also allows independent power supplies with no need for a cross-board-joint connector.

 

Each panel has a master switch (the big one labelled "3") connected to a 9V plug-in wall wart power supply and will supply power to the layout lighting. The smaller switches ("1" and "2") will be used to turn off individual lights which I may not want on all the time.

 

A bit of solder tag strip is there to attach wires for the lamps. I will be using LEDs, not grain-of-wheat bulbs, because of their longevity.

 

 

I also attached an NCE USB interface board under the front edge of the layout. This will allow me to operate the whole layout from my PC as one big USB peripheral.

 

 

The arch fronts gained some nice brass floodlights (ebay, China) which use small warm-white LEDs. These are wired in parallel but via a small preset potentiometer on the back of the arch board to set the brightness.

 

 

 

The garage scene in one of the arches was also lit with 3 hanging ceiling lamps, a light in the office, one in the anglepoise desk lamp and one in the loo. More preset pots allow me to twiddle individual brightnesses.

 

There's a flickery blue LED in the inspection pit, as an arc-welding simulator. This is controlled by the "1" switch on its lighting panel so that it doesn't have to be on all the time.

 

This scene needs completing and has returned with my brother Jim after Xmas for final assembly and detailing. That's a ModelU 3D print of Jim, in his Guard's Van pose!

 

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Latest Addition to Offerston Quay Roster

 

Here's the latest addition which arrived just in time for New Year - a Dapol 08 shunter in green, with late BR crest and wasp stripes. It has a Paul Chetter ActiveDrive Zimo 644, twin speaker and stay-alive capacitor array from DigiTrains.

 

 

The sound is superb!

 

 

It's from my local model railway emporium, Rails of Sheffield. I picked it up in person which gave me a chance to open the box, inspect and test run it on the shop's test track. Lucky I did so, as the first box opened had a loco with half a coupling at the front end and no coupling at all at the rear! (And no loose bits in the box - strange). The Rails staff simply took it away and brought me another to check. Top service!

 

 

I love the slow running. Just as a test, I set it to propelling five wagons from under the high-level board and into the frontmost siding, at speed step 1.

 

This journey of 180cm took 1 hour 45 mins! I would post a video but it would appear almost stationary :-)

 

Needless to say, a few wagons have been moved somewhat aimlessly around the goods yard, using the JLTRT Midland 1-plank wagon as a runner until I fit Dinghams to the 08.

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

The 08 has now acquired Dingham couplings and has been used to do some shunting round the yard.

 

The coupling swap procedure is documented over on my workbench thread.

 

Now I really need another couple of wagons to make up the full eight required for an Inglenook puzzle!

 

[Fastdax]

On 06/01/2017 at 12:10, Fastdax said:

 

Now I really need another couple of wagons to make up the full eight required for an Inglenook puzzle!

 

 

Well I made another wagon. 7 down and 1 more needed for the minimum set.

 

This one is a Slater's steel open:

 

 

It's built as per the instructions, except for a rocking axle unit at one end and the lamp brackets have been repositioned according to a prototype picture I chose from Paul Bartlett's invaluable web site.

 

I also ran some brass strip between the W irons.

 

For a plastic wagon kit, there are a satisfying number of etched and cast brass parts, which all help "the look".

 

So for the next wagon I have a choice of 2 on the shelf - a Slater's Vanwide or a Slater's Conflat. Hmmm - choices ...

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

CCTV

 

Now that the fronts are on the arches, it's difficult to see where to stop the locos under the high-level section before they slam into a brick wall.

 

 

So I fitted a small camera like this under the high level board. It's colour, not that you would know it as the infra-red LEDs kick in and reduce everything to black-and-white on the display. The lens is threaded and can be focussed very close.

 

 

A 5" LCD screen similar to this one hangs under the layout.

 

A single 12V 1A wall-wart powers both devices and is plugged into one of the multi-way extensions fastened under the layout.

 

 

It's attached (via a single screw to allow it to turn to face the operator) to a block of wood that pushes into the gap in one of the plywood beams. Hopefully this means that the screen could be relocated to the back of the layout if the need arises.

 

Here's the Jinty on the rearmost of the two tracks.

 

 

It's now a piece of cake to stop the locos accurately within an inch of the wall.

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Garage Scene

 

The middle under-arch scene came back from Jim's and a cracking job he's done on it!

 

I'll post some pictures now, as it will be harder to see when the arch fronts are on and some windows and doors installed.

 

The basic box is 5mm foam board, with Slater's brick plastikard walls and arched ceiling. The contents are a mixture of plastic kit and scratchbuilt.

 

It depicts a 1960's back-street Citroen specialist garage, with an eldery model under the tarp (baby-wipe soaked in dilute PVA) and a 2CV undergoing the usual chassis welding.

 

 

The blue light is from a flickery blue LED to represent arc-welding.

 

In the back left-hand corner is an indoor outhouse, complete with toilet made from Das modelling clay.

 

 

The office is lit by a ceiling bulb and angle-poise lamp (scratchbuilt by Jim).

 

 

A couple of mechanics are from Preiser, one thinking about sawing something in half and one lying under the 2CV, welding.

 

The "Citroen" sign on the back wall must have a broken fluorescent tube as it constantly flickers!

 

 

I can't take any credit for this scene, apart from installing the LED lighting and providing some of the parts.

 

Thanks Jim!

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Inglenook!

 

I decided to build the Slater's Vanwide next, as I only had one van so far.

 

Here it's half-done but, importantly, with wheels, buffers and couplings, and a bit of weight inside, which means that it could be shunted by the 08.

 

 

This means that I now have the 8 wagons necessary to run a full 5-3-3 Inglenook shunting puzzle for real, for the first time!

 

 

As is traditional, some scribbles on Post-It notes allowed me to shuffle the deck of 8 cards and stick 5 to the canal, next to the 5-wagon siding where the train will be assembled.

 

I ran through a couple of Inglenooks and it's just as much low-speed, gentle fun as I remembered!

 

Now to finish the Vanwide if I can stop playing testing ...

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[KevinWalsh]

CCTV

 

Now that the fronts are on the arches, it's difficult to see where to stop the locos under the high-level section before they slam into a brick wall.

 

2017-01-23 009.JPG

 

 

Now those setts look the dog's danglies and mirror what I see when doing roadwork    

[Fastdax]

Now those setts look the dog's danglies and mirror what I see when doing roadwork    

 

Thanks Kevin.

 

I have found that the more I rub the surface of these DAS setts with a damp thumb, the better they look.

 

Next I will model some patches of damage and repair.

[Fastdax]

Garage Scene

 

To finish off the archway front of the garage scene, I fitted the LCUT windows, glazed with Evergreen 5 thou' styrene sheet.

 

Rather than use the LCUT one-piece opening door, which would have obscured some of the lovely interior detail, I made up a folded steel door from plasticard, with a galvanised hood over, all suitably "back street".

 

An extractor fan box and a garage name sign with light completes the new frontage.

 

 

Whilst stuck in the eBay zone one day, I came across these tiny geared motors for under £2.50 each:

 

 

They are truly miniature!

 

They are sold as coreless, with planetary gearbox, run on 3V - 6V and turn at 48 - 120 RPM.

 

 

So, of course, I had to do this:

 

 

The motor is a bit noisy due to the huge gearing, but I've got it connected to an under-board switch so that it doesn't have to run whenever the lights are on. A preset potentiometer behind the arch frontage controls its speed and is set for the minimum at which it will reliably run. It draws as much current as a couple of LEDs.

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Upper Level Trackwork

 

I built the final turnout for OQ. This is a right-hand semi-curved A6 made up from C&L timbers, chairs and machined switch/vee rails. Much cheaper than buying a kit-in-a-bag.

 

 

Where the two lines into the station cross the board joint, I did a slight variant on what I did on the lower level and used cropped-off brass screws to hold the ends of the rails in alignment.

 

These were filed to the right height and the rails soldered to them.

 

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Upper Level Trackwork

 

Once the track was laid across the joint, and sleepers cut to fit round the brass pegs, I think it will look OK once ballasted and weathered.

 

 

As you can see from the scribbles on the ply baseboard, I measured the length of the platforms (1 meter) plus a 1-in-8 slope, which comes almost exactly to the joint between the two baseboards. Perhaps I can use this to disguise the joint ... ?

 

I'll also need a couple of platform starter signals. I was going to put a single signal either side of the toe of the turnout but space behind the track is a bit tight (35mm from board edge to rail top) so I may need a bracketed double starter where I've marked a cross. Not knowing much about BR(LMR) signalling, I need more research or advice about this.

 

Finally, here's a "work in progress" picture, just to show that I'm as messy as anyone else!

 

The rest of the upper level trackwork is now laid and wiring is in progress.

 

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[two tone green]

Very impressive. Superb detail.

[Fastdax]

Very impressive. Superb detail.

 

Thanks, Two Tone.