Offerston Quay - 7mm Inglenook Plus

[Fastdax]

A bit of electronics

 

I had set up the frog switching using the Megapoints recommended method, where the servo arm operates a microswitch:

 

 

This did work (and was cheap), but it sometimes left the servos buzzing as they fought to keep the microswitches pressed.

 

I recently noticed these new frog-switching products from Gaugemaster. At about £13 for three, they looked to be good value. I ordered six (five for the five points and one spare) for £28 delivered.

 

 

I fitted them by removing the microswitches and soldering the 2 rail feeds (it doesn't matter which feed connects to which of the two "R" pads) and frog wire (to the "F" pad) of the Gaugemaster units and gluing the units where the microswitches used to be. I could probably optimise the wire runs a bit, but this was the simple way of doing it.

 

With the layout back the right way up, a test run showed that they worked as advertised, with no fuss. You can hear a tiny click as the self-latching relay switches over, when a loco runs over the frog in a different direction to last time. As I understand it, the unit senses a (very momentary) short circuit and snaps the frog polarity over before it is detected by the DCC controller. Certainly it runs with my NCE PowerCab with no problems.

 

Sorry about the grainy photo. It was taken under the layout with not enough light.

 

 

While I was under there, I also installed an NCE input card, so that the state of any switches (I intend to fit stock-sensing reed switches) can be read by the DCC controller.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

A Bit Of Automation

 

OK, last push to get this kit of electronic parts to work together.

 

The intention behind this is to get an automated train shuttling back and forth on the high-level track, disappearing behind a building at one end and arriving in one of the two platform lines at the other end, pausing, then returning off-scene. All this under computer control using DCC.

 

I'd had a simple, timed program shuttling my Dapol 08 and a few wagons back and forth. This was OK for a while, but the train tended to "drift" towards either the left or right-hand ends of the layout because of the vagaries of timing and the fact that the program didn't actually know where the train was. But with my NCE POwercab plus its USB interface board (and a program written for JMRI PanelPro) it worked like that.

 

So I got hold of some small reed switches to allow the system to detect locos and wagons which have a magnet fastened underneath. I experimented by waving a magnet near the reed switches and found that they operate best when the magnet is towards one end of the reed switch rather than in the centre. So it soldered them up into parallel pairs to improve reliability of detection (I hope) and to allow the magnet to pass off-centre of each reed switch.

 

 

I glued the reed-switch-pairs between the sleepers of the upper-level track and ran wires back to the input board.

 

 

Here are the connections to the NCE AIU input board. Green is common and the three yellows come from three switch-pairs situated one metre from the ends of all three ends of the upper-level track. I made the reed switches a consistent one metre from the ends so that a timed slow-down-and-stop of a loco should put it in the same place every time.

 

 

So I tried it and, of course, it didn't work :-( My work is in the electronics and software arena, so I'm quite used to things not working first time. Time to put the coffee on and start investigating.

 

A bit of surfing established that the NCE AIU input card would not work with Powercab versions prior to 1.65B. Mine said 1.28C at switch-on so I ordered an upgrade chip from DigiTrains. Their usual superb service saw it arrive the next working day and it was fitted by carefully levering out the old chip and pushing home the new one. I used my attractive grounded metal bracelet to prevent ESD mishaps.

 

After that, the JMRI program could actually read values from the NCE AIU and I modified it to detect the loco and control its speed and direction based solely on the reed switch inputs. Now the loco shuttled back and forth as before, but stopping in the same place (plus or minus a couple of centimeters) every time.

 

One final bit in the web of electrickery: I wanted the JMRI program to have control over the single turnout on the upper level, so that the train could be shuttled into each platform line alternately.

 

I have a Megapoints servo controller to drive the turnouts. These use the closing of a switch to change a turnout. In order that the program could close a switch under computer control, I got a special DCC accessory decoder board from this chap which drives four SPDT relays. This board is wired into the DCC bus so that the Powercab or JMRI program can use DCC accessory addresses 1001 to 1004 to open or close the relays. Then it was simple to wire one of the relays in parallel with the existing turnout-operating switch so that by controlling accessory 1001, the program could change the turnout. It means that the existing turnout switch must remain open while the program is using this turnout, but that's OK by me.

 

Here's the 4-relay accessory decoder:

 

 

So finally I have an 08 shunting back and forth on the upper level, with all appropriate sounds of acceleration, braking, etc. and with lights swapping ends as the 08 changes direction, arriving at each platform line in turn with the turnout changing when the loco is stationary off-scene! Whew!

 

Now I just need some passenger stock so that I can have something believable to arrive in the station. And I need a station ...

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Here's a quick time-lapse video of the Dapol 08 plus a 12T box van shutting back and forth on the upper-level track.

 

Edited July 27, 2017 by Fastdax

[Fastdax]

Signals

 

I built a couple of BR(M) tubular starter signals from MSE kits. They went together very well, although I did substitute 14BA nuts and bolts for the fixed wire axles, as per Jon Fitness' method. The Adlake lamp castings were drilled for 3mm warm white LEDs.

 

 

The front one has the balance weight gubbins hidden behind the retaining wall parapet, but I made the weight and crank work for the rear signal, as it will be seen in action.

 

 

Each signal is powered by an ultra-miniature servo which is glued to the underside of the baseplate. These servos are so small that they fit inside the thickness of the 9mm ply trackbed!

 

The servos are driven by the Megapoints controller and the switch inputs for these channels come from a DCC relay decoder as detailed earlier, so that my PC (via JMRI and USB) can throw turnouts and change the signals as well as driving the trains.

 

This is all in the name of getting some more progress on the upper level. Here's the blank canvas where a station will one day stand:

 

 

I already had my Dapol 08 shunter shuttling back and forth on the upper level under computer control. By adding a magnet under my Connoisseur Jinty to trip the reed switch detectors, I could write an amended JMRI script to shuttle this back and forth as well, arriving in alternate platforms, with the appropriate signal cleared before setting off, with the various sound effects available from its Loksound decoder.

 

 

Everything in this video is computer-controlled. As I type, Jinty is shunting back and forth automatically. The program even turns on the blower when stationary and opens the drain cocks (for "four chuffs" as I was told when driving 47327) as it starts off.

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Platforms

 

My brother Jim spent the weekend here and we managed a couple of modelling sessions either side of the traditional curry-and-beer night.

 

We started building up the core for the two station platforms out of 5mm foamboard. The uprights are 22mm high. Together with a 5mm top and an allowance of 1mm for a final surface, this brings the total height to 4 foot off the ground, or 3 foot above rail level. The platform sides are 25mm back from the nearest running rail. This allows a 7mm overhang of the platform edging to achieve the G0G-defined 18mm clearance.

 

I checked with a long bogie coach that this should be achievable without anything interfering. I'll also have to keep running the 08 through, as it's my widest loco.

 

 

The platforms curve and taper, so many of the internal spreaders had to be individually measured and cut.

 

 

By the end of Sunday afternoon we had the bones of both platforms in place and surprisingly solid. It's all glued together with a sticky PVA glue designed for card-making and other hobbies. Don't use contact adhesive as it will eat the foam!

 

The rear platform will step down from 12 feet wide at the buffer stop end (to allow a footbridge to be added one day and still allow the mandatory 6 foot minimum platform width) to 6 feet wide near the ramp end. This allows room to squeeze in a signal box behind the platform, which I want. We left the rear upright of the 12' width floating somewhat, so that it can be cut to an exact size when I know where the signal box will end up.

 

 

The platform nearest the arches would have been only a few (scale) inches below the top of the retaining wall - not good for health 'n' safety. We decided that a 2 foot wall (7 courses of bricks), topped with 4 foot of diagonal-slat Midland fencing, would provide "lemming" protection for the passengers.

 

The additional wall taking shape here is more 5mm foamboard with Slaters English bond brick Plastikard. This gives a scale 9" thick wall. It's glued to the back of the arches.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

More Platforms

 

Just a quick entry to show that I have fitted the foamboard platform tops.

 

I decided not to step the rear platform from 12' down to 6' but rather to build up the whole triangle behind to the same level to make it easier to see from the front.

 

 

I guess the signal box will now have to be the type that sits on the platform.

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[ffayolle]

Thanks for this sharing

Nice layout

[Fastdax]

Factory Wall

 

In my usual "no plan - whatever I feel like attacking next" mode of working, my eye fell upon the bare bit of plywood that acts as a sight-break at the left-hand end of the layout.

 

Here's an old picture, taken before cobbling and ballasting that area:

 

 

My eventual aim is to build a fiddle yard to connect to the middle of the three Inglenook sidings and this will need an exit from the scenic part into the FY proper.

 

I decided to build a gateway in the ply wall, as if it leads to a private siding in a factory.

 

The first step was to cut an arched opening big enough for any potential rolling stock, plus a safety margin. I clad the ply with Slaters brick plasticard.

 

 

At this point I must show you a happy discovery I made - Mister Sticky's Fast PVA glue from Eileen's Emporium. The bottle says it contains some solvent as well as PVA to make it grab and set faster than regular PVA, which it certainly does.

 

 

However, to me by far the best property of this glue is the wonderful smell!

 

To me, it smells just like this:

 

 

and takes me right back to the 1970s.

 

So either the glue contains bubble gum, or (much more likely) the bubblegum contains truckloads of the same organic solvent as the glue.

 

(No connection here - just a happy and probably slightly solvent abused customer!)

 

Anyway, back on track I used Mister Sticky's finest to fix mountboard stones to the brickwork face and the inside of the arch.

 

A strip of 5mm foamboard along the top of the wall will do for cap stones.

 

 

Rather than plain stones, I wanted to represent the type of "edge dressed" stone you see in these parts, where the outer few inches are dressed flat and level but the field of the stone is left rough.

 

I masked off the outer edges of the stones with thin Tamiya masking tape and stippled moist DAS clay onto the rest.

 

 

After drying, sanding and a basic coat of paint, you can see the sort of effect I'm after:

 

 

 

A bit of highlighting using dark weathering washes and dry-brushing of a lighter stone colour and here's how far I got:

 

 

 

I also painted the bottom few brick courses to represent engineering blue bricks.

Edited November 17, 2017 by Fastdax

[Fastdax]

More Factory Wall

 

This is how I create a brickwork effect. I rub white DAS modelling clay into the painted, dirty-washed and sealed brickwork (sealed with Testors spray matt varnish).

 

You have to smear it in firmly, then wipe off the excess with a damp cloth. The more you wipe, the less remains in the mortar courses.

 

It can leave a pleasing (to me anyway) random patchwork of mortar. Some is well-pointed, some has fallen out altogether.

 

 

A final wash of dirty black tones down the bright DAS mortar. In the following picture you can see the sort of effect that this produces.

 

I knocked up a little plaque with carved initials (a mashup of my initials!) on. This is 0.7mm square nickel-silver rod (7mm scale point rodding) cut, bent and soldered to a scrap of brass sheet.

 

 

I attached it to the keystone, filled the edges with Milliput and painted to match the rest.

 

Narcissistic perhaps, but a formerly well-to-do Victorian factory may well have had a bit of grandeur about its railway entrance.

 

The gates will be considerably more time-worn.

 

 

Here are the bits which I'm starting to build the gates from. 1.5mm black plasticard forms the backing and coffee-stirrers make scale 9" planks.

 

 

I built up the back with more black plasticard to the level of the arch liner, to give me something to attach the gates to.

 

 

More soon.

 

[Fastdax]

Factory Gates

 

I made the gates and finished them firstly to represent old, weathered wood. The bottom edges are a bit ragged where rot has set in. Blackened brass pins represent round bolt heads.

 

 

This was followed by a coat of Chipping Solution and some BR Maroon acrylic.

 

 

When the maroon was just about dry, I rubbed gently with damp cotton buds and scrapers to flake away some of the maroon where sunlight would have attacked it, exposing the bare wood colour.

 

Here's a station cat's eye view of the result so far. I will spot some rust onto the bolt heads.

 

 

I'm not happy about the patchiness of the brickwork so some vegetation may appear, to hide the worst of it.

 

 

 

[Fastdax]

Control Panel

 

My control panel (such as it is) had a 5-lever Brassmasters frame controlling the 5 points via a Megapoints board.

 

I now have 2 signals as well so I put together a second lever frame from an identical kit that I scored from ebay many moons ago.

 

 

The new one is on the right.

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

New Loco

 

Here's the latest addition to Offerston Quay.

 

 

It's a late-BR-crest unnumbered version from Rails of Sheffield (my local model shop).

 

I put in a Paul Chetter sound file on a Zimo decoder, plus a twin speaker enclosure and a whopping big stay-alive capacitor array, all from Digitrains.

 

I plan to turn it into a push-pull equipped version, number 47480, and run it with a pair of Ian Kirk coaches.

 

See my Workbench thread for more details.

[Corbs]

That warehouse door looks great! I really like the detail of the crest.

[Fastdax]

I was playing with my new toy - a Mobius M2 action cam. I told  that it would be great for walking or skiing holidays, but really it was for this:

 

 

It's a quick trip down Offerston Quay from under the high-level station towards the factory gates at the end of the goods yard.

 

Motive power is my Dapol 08 with Zimo and Chetter sound. The Mobius is sitting on a JLTRT 1-plank Midland wagon, whose buffers just make it onto the wide-angle shot ;-)

 

You will notice the Hachette Mallard that I'm building for my brother and a Connoisseur Lowmac ready for the paint shop.

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Goods Yard Buildings

 

When my brother Jim comes for a boys' weekend, we always seem to make great leaps forwards. This weekend we carried the left-hand half of OQ down to the kitchen table and started mocking up the goods yard buildings that will provide a sight break for the upper-level track.

 

 

The material is all 5mm foamboard in A3 sheets.

 

To avoid a "slab" of brickwork, all parallel to the back edge of the baseboard, we plumped for a trio of buildings.

 

A big goods warehouse fills the back left-hand corner with a Mansard-roof "flat iron" building on the right, with its base angled the other way. A flat archway panel with a pitched roof fills the gap between the two.

 

 

The warehouse has the beginnings of a lucam which allows goods to be hoisted to the upper floors. It will be cut a bit higher when I know where the planned canopy will be.

 

 

There are lots of interesting levels and angles now.

 

 

 

[Fastdax]

Warehouse

 

To move the warehouse forwards, I spent a while perusing the LCut Creative website and ordered a big pile of assorted wall, door and window panels.

 

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Warehouse

 

After a bit of plotting (and scribbling out, as you can see) I worked out how to best fit the window and door modules together.

 

 

I started gluing panels together. This is the top right corner.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Warehouse

 

Here's the assembled facade, with all window and doors panels and one thickness of horizontal and vertical details bands. The plain column up the centre of the building will have a lucam attached.

 

 

We put in a smaller (goods office?) door round the corner from the loading platform. This will need steps up to it.

 

 

Here's a laser-cut window frame in place. It's a one-layer cutout with plant-on framing and opening light. I'll paint these separately and fix to clear glazing material, then trim to size and place in each aperture. I've left the foamboard backing just slightly smaller then the window apertures to give me something to glue the window frames to.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[brossard]

Nice work Duncan.  I like your method of getting mortar in brick courses.  I've been tinkering with LCUT kits myself, I think they are very good value.  However, I can't see how the mortar lines can be done effectively so I'll watch what you do.  My method is to cheat and wrap the card with scaled up Scalescenes brick paper.

 

John

[Fastdax]

Warehouse

 

I wanted to spray the laser-cut fibreboard and foamboard backing with my usual red oxide primer base coat, but a quick test proved that this cellulose-based paint dissolved the foam out from inside the foamboard!

 

So I treated the exposed foam edges with acrylic based black primer, put on by airbrush, and also did a bit of pre-shading to highlight the relief in the brickwork.

 

At this point it looked like the aftermath of a particularly nasty warehouse fire!

 

 

I then got out the spray can of red oxide, only to find that the nozzle was completely gunged up. I couldn't unblock it and I didn't have a donor nozzle to hand, so I carefully punctured the can and drained the paint into a container and applied it by brush.

 

Happy accident - it looked pleasingly streaky. More so than a spray coat would have been.

 

 

 

There's a bit of filling required to some bricks, then I can get on with the mortar courses and weathering.

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Warehouse

 

I clad the loading dock platform in Slaters plasticard - English bond for the wall and slabs for the top.

 

 

The top got a coat of Vallejo primer and then I tediously picked out the slabs in 50 shades of grey.

 

 

The main building had a bit of filling, then a black wash over its brickwork and on the platform. Most of this was quickly wiped off again, leaving muck in the corners.

 

 

A top coat of acrylic matt varnish sprayed on will seal the wash against the mortar, which will be added next.

 

Unfortunately the masking tape I used to stop grey paint getting on the brickwork did pull off some of the red oxide primer coat. I hope this will look like spalled-off brick faces one it's all mortared up.

 

 

Meanwhile, batch production of windows is happening.

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Thunderforge]

Whoa, what an amazing railway! The textures are really well done, the peeling paint on the door, the bricks, the cobbles, all of it. I’ll follow this with interest!

[Fastdax]

Whoa, what an amazing railway! The textures are really well done, the peeling paint on the door, the bricks, the cobbles, all of it. I’ll follow this with interest!

 

Thanks a lot Thunder!

[Fastdax]

Warehouse

 

A bit more progress.

 

The brickwork has had my usual scrubbing with DAS white, followed by wiping off the excess and then washing with a dark grey/brown wash of acrylics, which soaks into the dried DAS.

 

 

 

The brick arches are highlighted using coloured pencils in a "dry brushed" manner.

 

The window frames are painted in Woodland Scenics "Concrete", which is a suitable cream colour. The outside frame trim is in RailMatch maroon.

 

 

In these pictures, the windows are just resting in place. The stone capping to the walls has been started (5mm foam board) but needs finishing. I must think of something to do with the window cills.

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Warehouse Steps

 

<Stands up> Hello, my name is Duncan and I'm a gadget freak <sits down>.

 

So I got a 3D printer. It's an Anycubic Photon and it's the sort that pulls a model slowly upwards from a vat of liquid resin. it uses UV light projected on the transparent bottom of the vat to cure a layer of the model, one slice at a time.

 

I hope this will be useful for printing small parts for the railway.

 

The first thing I designed (with Tinkercad) was a set of concrete steps for the warehouse side door. Tinkercad is easy to use but a bit limited compared to the full-fat CAD packages. It's fine for simple items like this although I wouldn't like to design a Gresley A4 using it. It is free though.

 

Here's the raw printed item, It's not perfect, due to my inexperience with 3D design and printing, but it's close enough for jazz, as they say.

 

 

I also printed some tiny (3mm dia) flanges to hold the handrail ends. I printed 14, got 11 off the printer intact, the carpet monster ate 2, one exploded when I drilled it, but I ended up with 6 decent ones which were drilled 1mm to take the brass handrail.

 

Here's the Tinkercad design. The reality is too small to photograph successfully.

 

 

The steps and handrails, assembled and painted up:

 

 

... and resting in place:

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.