SUNDERLAND NORTH DOCK, BANK TOP YARD AND SHED

[tom shaw]

Some progress on the coaling stage

 

 

 

Everything needs dirtying and rusting of course and a couple of water cranes adding but it looks quite good on the layout and makes a nice backdrop to the yard and shed. I've had to add more corrugated iron to the ends than the prototype South Blyth had but this was to hide the internal supports for the roof. No two stages seemed to be the same so I'm not worried too much. 

 

I'm hoping to start working on the layout again now the weather is improving. I have heating in the garage but for some reason I don't like working in there in the winter, must be a mental thing.

 

Regards,

 

Tom

[Sludger]

Hi Alan,

Hornby have just announced they are producing a Q6 in 2016 (which probably means late 2017). Put me down for two or three. Now come on Bachmann, do a J27. My Q6 and J27 are Dave Alexander kits and have no problem with 30" curves as I've always used this as a minimum radius but I don't think the Q6 will handle anything less. I have just finished the Q6 but it is still in primer awaiting painting and weathering, at least it has a sound decoder fitted and works well. It only took about 7 years to get this far, not because of the kit (which is excellent) but because of my chronic short attention span.

 

The main thing I have to watch for with regard to the 30" minimum radius is the setting of the DG couplings, the buffing plate of which need to be proud enough of the buffers so the stock go around the curves but not so proud to make the gap between wagons unsightly. Everything is a compromise.

 

Tom

Hi Tom,

 

great layout idea. As a man from Northumberland this type of layout always gets my attention.

Does your J27 have sound? If so where did you acquire the sound files from and which combination

of decoder/speaker do you use?

 

Trev.

[tom shaw]

Hi Tom,

 

great layout idea. As a man from Northumberland this type of layout always gets my attention.

Does your J27 have sound? If so where did you acquire the sound files from and which combination

of decoder/speaker do you use?

 

Trev.

Thanks Trev,

 

my J27 doesn't have a sound decoder fitted yet but for others I have mainly used Loksound chips with files and speakers from Olivia's. I recently modified a Dapol J94 into an NCB austerity and managed to fit in a Zimo MX648 micro sound chip and sugar cube speaker, it has a mainline setting and a shunting setting and I'm quite impressed with the sound quality.

 

As for the sound files themselves I'm not too pedantic about them as I only have a very vague recollection of the real thing and each engine had it's own personality anyway, so long as the cylinders and wheel arrangement are the same. The Q6 uses a Super D 0-8-0 file from Olivia's, probably completely wrong but it sounds good to me (I asked for the wheeziest one they had). When I get round to sound-chipping the Hornby Q6's I will try the YouChoos version for one but would look for something else for the other so it sounds different.

 

Regards,

 

Tom

[North Eastern]

Thanks Trev,

 

my J27 doesn't have a sound decoder fitted yet but for others I have mainly used Loksound chips with files and speakers from Olivia's. I recently modified a Dapol J94 into an NCB austerity and managed to fit in a Zimo MX648 micro sound chip and sugar cube speaker, it has a mainline setting and a shunting setting and I'm quite impressed with the sound quality.

 

As for the sound files themselves I'm not too pedantic about them as I only have a very vague recollection of the real thing and each engine had it's own personality anyway, so long as the cylinders and wheel arrangement are the same. The Q6 uses a Super D 0-8-0 file from Olivia's, probably completely wrong but it sounds good to me (I asked for the wheeziest one they had). When I get round to sound-chipping the Hornby Q6's I will try the YouChoos version for one but would look for something else for the other so it sounds different.

 

Regards,

 

Tom

Digitrains do a generic two cylinder NE sound file which I use in my 7mm J27's.

 

 

 

Regards

 

Chris

[Sludger]

Digitrains do a generic two cylinder NE sound file which I use in my 7mm J27's.

 

Craster 3.jpg

 

Craster 1.jpg

 

Regards

 

Chris

Thanks Tom/Chris.

[tom shaw]

The coaling stage has been weathered over the Easter holiday. Firstly mixes of various browns were roughly added:

 

Then a light grey was dry brushed on to blend everything together.

 

I think a very thin wash of black or dark grey will be required to finish off but I'll let it dry for a couple of days before I do that.

 

Tom

 

 

[waggy]

Hi Tom.

 

Love this layout, any updates, please

[tom shaw]

Thanks Waggy,

Your post has finally persuaded me to put fingers to keyboard and admit my failures. I got the layout working about a year ago but hit some trouble with the wheel back to back measurements on some of my stock, some being too narrow and others too wide. While these work with Peco track and points they do not work on handbuilt points to OO-SF standards. Unfortunately the stock I used to check things while building all worked well, it was only when I started unboxing the rest I found the problem. Having read up on the various standards over the years I originally fancied going EM but in the end didn't fancy changing/modifying all the wheels and thought OO-SF worked with stock straight out the box (not in every case obviously). My 9F has nearly 1.5mm difference between the drivers and these are quite hard to alter without getting a wobble, they have to be completely stripped down and that was something I didn't want to do with all locos. I also found that using a track rubber to clean the track actually moved the rail and crossings etc. in the chairs and this affected the gauge, although this was not obvious at the time. This caused rolling stock that had previously worked ok to suddenly not work. Being easily discouraged I was discouraged and couldn't face the layout for many months. In retrospect I also think the trackplan was too ambitious for a first attempt at 00-SF and I should have built soldered points.

 

My thoughts eventually turned to a new layout but this time using Peco points and the new bullhead track. I have experimented with improving the Peco points with new filed rails for the switch rails and they look much better than the hinged ones. Consequently I dismantled this layout and I am building a new layout using the baseboards and fiddle yard from the this one, funny how it takes such a long time to build something but only 5 minutes to dismantle.

 

I have also started a small shed layout using the shed building and the coaler I built for this one.

 

Thanks to all for the kind comments and help with this layout, I intend to start a new thread soon about the new layout and hope you will all drop by.

 

Best regards,

 

Tom

[RBAGE]

Tom,

 

Good to hear the sound of you fingers on the key pad.

 

It all sounds very familiar. I dabbled with OO-SF and was seduced by the claims that it would the best solution for RTR back-to-back variations. It should accommodate everything and no adjustment needed. Ha! Ha!

 

Needless to say, I quickly reverted to OO universal. I'm happy to overlook the larger gaps on pointwork and the occasional clunk at the crossing but at least I don't have to check and regauge every wheel.

 

Good luck and best regards,

 

Bob

[RAF96]

If you are near Roker Marina drop into the Snow Goose Cafe.

They may still have the Sunderland maps wallpaper up. Total details of old Sunderland north and south of the river, showing in particular buildings and trackage of the era circa ???

I regret not taking any photos when I was last in there a couple of years ago.

Rob

[tom shaw]

If you are near Roker Marina drop into the Snow Goose Cafe.

They may still have the Sunderland maps wallpaper up. Total details of old Sunderland north and south of the river, showing in particular buildings and trackage of the era circa ???

I regret not taking any photos when I was last in there a couple of years ago.

Rob

Rob,

if you like old maps (as I do), try

 

https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/

 

search for Sunderland (or any other town you want) and pick a map. There are maps from different dates but the 1955 one is at a scale of 1:1250 so quite detailed. If you want a print then print screen, paste into the paint program, crop to suit and save as a jpeg. You can then print out, although it does have a watermark it's not too bad. You can join for £9.99 a month and I think the watermark is removed. You can certainly make out track layouts and even size buildings etc.

 

Regards,

 

Tom

[Ian Smeeton]

Not  quite such a large range, but the National Library of Scotland has similar maps, and it is free!

 

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=5&lat=56.0000&lon=-4.0000&layers=102&b=1&point=0,0

 

Regards

 

Ian