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Beginners OO 1950's Banff


aardvark
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On 28/03/2021 at 12:46, St Enodoc said:

Yes, that should work.

 

Yes, it did!  Here's the Banff station pilot (on loan from the Eastfield depot :jester:) on the treadmill.  Borrowing a page from gordon s, it's getting at least 15 minutes (sometimes I forget) in forward and reverse at half- and full-speed.

 

P1160802.JPG.ed2cf9af369d7d31b2d38e1e6ab0f721.JPG

 

... and here's the external DCC controller.  I wire the DCC bus across baseboard joins using EC3 connectors, so it was just a matter of making a DCC-to-DC adaptor, and plugging it in between the board and the controller.  Easy-peasy, except that I did it wrong the first time - which is why multimeters were invented :read:.

 

P1160804.JPG.e83fcb0161e9d2950106dd5b701cbb32.JPG

 

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As dull as photos of locos on a rolling road are, I’ve decided to chance another one, hoping it might be of interest.

 

P1160806.JPG.1af9278e7ce83f6b11d2e74890c9e65f.JPG

 

It’s a Replica Railways powered chassis.  I understand some use these in DMU’s and EMU’s (no, not the bird), but in my case it will (one day) go into one of my 57’ non-corridor coaches to model gravity shunting.

 

Interesting engineering:  two motors drive all four axles, and it’s DCC-ready.  I can’t speak highly enough of their customer service.

 

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Progress is slow at chez Aardvark, but that's nothing new.  Nevertheless, progress there is.

 

This morning, I have a servo that waggles* a turnout backwards and forwards - this baseboard only has the one turnout to control.

 

P1160814.JPG.938b98daa9f43b4ee9a882f83e8da4da.JPG

 

The  technically allergic should avert their eyes from the following paragraph.

 

I’ve gone with a servo on MERG mounts, driven by an Arduino R3 through a PCA9685 PWM driver card.  I’ve written a small program (Arduino calls it a sketch, but it’s a program to me) that allows me to exercise the servo from the laptop keyboard to determine the required servo values for both turnout normal and reverse positions.

 

Lots yet to do:

  1. Write an accessory decoder program to control the turnout from my DCC controller.
  2. Install a DC bus to power the electronics from an ex-laptop power supply (2-wires becomes 4), as I'd rather reserve my limited DCC power for things like locos that absolutely have to have it.

Respect for all those that tackle such activities upside-down beneath fixed baseboards.  Being able to stand my baseboards vertical as in the photo is a definite blessing.

 

* technical term.

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The turnout on the board shown above is now functioning from my DCC control, and the second board with 6 turnouts is progressing well.  The hold-up is some nuts and bolts to mount the electronics under the boards.

 

In the meantime, my thoughts turn to “What’s next?”, and I think the answer is “buildings”.  In the first phase, I’m talking about the station building, signal box, goods shed, engine shed, water tower and Scotstoun cottages. Other buildings may follow later.

 

This is all new to me, so I’m making it up as I go along. (Anybody with experience is welcome to chime in.)  The following is my plan: it’s good to have a plan, as at least you know where you’re deviating from it.

 

I’ve never been much good with colours, so I’m inclined to avoid the more exacting painting scenarios (and associated expletive usage) by using “brick” papers where appropriate. I think I’m talking about things like brick and stone walls.

  • “Brick” paper buildings: station building, engine shed, water tower bottom, Scotstoun cottages.
  • Plasticard buildings: signal box, goods shed, water tower top.

I’m inclined to start with the cottages, being smaller without being fiddly, and lesser detailed.

 

Someone smart said that you should start with a building’s windows, and here starts one of my difficulties.  I’m probably being overly pedantic, myopic, or simply wrong, but I struggle to find decent candidate model windows.

 

For instance, take the main engine shed windows, 3x6 panes which I estimate to be 3’ x 6’6”. 

 

932642482_BanffES2-window.jpg.855cc6296070d204e986b1492ffd49fa.jpg

 

Allowing, say, 3” for top and side frames, 6” for bottom frames and 1” for muntins, this would leave a pane size of roughly 9.3” x 10.6”, or, in OO scale, 3.1 x 3.5mm.

 

It would seem that I might need to build the windows myself, which is, I suppose, what scratch building is all about.  Old-school built theirs from acetate sheet and address labels, while Paul Bason’s Scratch-Built Buildings advocates plastistrip frames and glazing beads drawn in paint.  I must admit to being tempted by the purchase of Silhouette cutter, attracted by the possibility of neater windows than I might achieve by hand.  There's threads on RMWeb detailing the trials and tribulations of their use in cutting plasticard.

 

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38 minutes ago, aardvark said:

The turnout on the board shown above is now functioning from my DCC control, and the second board with 6 turnouts is progressing well.  The hold-up is some nuts and bolts to mount the electronics under the boards.

 

In the meantime, my thoughts turn to “What’s next?”, and I think the answer is “buildings”.  In the first phase, I’m talking about the station building, signal box, goods shed, engine shed, water tower and Scotstoun cottages. Other buildings may follow later.

 

This is all new to me, so I’m making it up as I go along. (Anybody with experience is welcome to chime in.)  The following is my plan: it’s good to have a plan, as at least you know where you’re deviating from it.

 

I’ve never been much good with colours, so I’m inclined to avoid the more exacting painting scenarios (and associated expletive usage) by using “brick” papers where appropriate. I think I’m talking about things like brick and stone walls.

  • “Brick” paper buildings: station building, engine shed, water tower bottom, Scotstoun cottages.
  • Plasticard buildings: signal box, goods shed, water tower top.

I’m inclined to start with the cottages, being smaller without being fiddly, and lesser detailed.

 

Someone smart said that you should start with a building’s windows, and here starts one of my difficulties.  I’m probably being overly pedantic, myopic, or simply wrong, but I struggle to find decent candidate model windows.

 

For instance, take the main engine shed windows, 3x6 panes which I estimate to be 3’ x 6’6”. 

 

1116506694_BanffES2-window.jpg.7b4e4b53bed84e692ded65060317e917.jpg

 

Allowing, say, 3” for top and side frames, 6” for bottom frames and 1” for muntins, this would leave a pane size of roughly 9.3” x 10.6”, or, in OO scale, 3.1 x 3.5mm.

 

It would seem that I might need to build the windows myself, which is, I suppose, what scratch building is all about.  Old-school built theirs from acetate sheet and address labels, while Paul Bason’s Scratch-Built Buildings advocates plastistrip frames and glazing beads drawn in paint.  I must admit to being tempted by the purchase of Silhouette cutter, attracted by the possibility of neater windows than I might achieve by hand.  There's threads on RMWeb detailing the trials and tribulations of their use in cutting plasticard.

 

Where possible, I use ready-made windows such as Grandt Line, Ratio, Peco or Dornaplas. If I have to make my own, I like to use old CD covers for the glazing, as it's nice and rigid, then paint the frames with a bow pen and Humbrol enamel. You don't get the relief that you do with a proper moulding but it works for me at the proverbial normal viewing distance.

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13 hours ago, aardvark said:

Someone smart said that you should start with a building’s windows, and here starts one of my difficulties.  I’m probably being overly pedantic, myopic, or simply wrong, but I struggle to find decent candidate model windows.

 

For instance, take the main engine shed windows, 3x6 panes which I estimate to be 3’ x 6’6”. 

 

1116506694_BanffES2-window.jpg.7b4e4b53bed84e692ded65060317e917.jpg

 

Allowing, say, 3” for top and side frames, 6” for bottom frames and 1” for muntins, this would leave a pane size of roughly 9.3” x 10.6”, or, in OO scale, 3.1 x 3.5mm.

 

It would seem that I might need to build the windows myself, which is, I suppose, what scratch building is all about.  Old-school built theirs from acetate sheet and address labels, while Paul Bason’s Scratch-Built Buildings advocates plastistrip frames and glazing beads drawn in paint.  I must admit to being tempted by the purchase of Silhouette cutter, attracted by the possibility of neater windows than I might achieve by hand.  There's threads on RMWeb detailing the trials and tribulations of their use in cutting plasticard.

 

It might be worth looking at Tichy Trains stuff, here: https://www.tichytraingroup.com/Home.aspx Perhaps best to start with the catalogue, rather than the online shop.  One difficulty is that the openings are given as decimal inches, not millimetres, so it isn’t straightforward to see if they do something suitable.  However, I did use some of their products quite a long time ago and they are very fine mouldings.


 They do some assortment packs as well, which basically give you a sample of the various window mouldings they produce, or that’s what it was when I got them years ago.  I think mine came from Micromark.com, as I ordered some tools from them at the same time.  I did though later order some specific mouldings and kits from Tichy.  At the time both delivered to the UK, but don’t know if they still overseas (they are both USA companies).

 

There is/was another supplier of plastic window mouldings in the uk, but their name escapes me just now.

 

Hope some of this helps!

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19 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Where possible, I use ready-made windows such as Grandt Line, Ratio, Peco or Dornaplas.

 

6 hours ago, 26power said:

It might be worth looking at Tichy Trains stuff, here: https://www.tichytraingroup.com/Home.aspx

 

Many thanks to you both for your considered replies.  None of these names was new to me, yet I've found two possible candidates for the engine shed windows in the Tichy range - so that has raised the Hopefulness Coefficient significantly.

 

In hindsight, I may have been guilty of bouncing around like a pingpong ball in a tumble dryer, jettisoning one unsuccessful search to fit one particular window for a search for a different window, all without positive result.  I may also have been dissuaded from a decent search of Tichy by their units, and certainly didn't look in their catalogue.

 

I feel a spreadsheet coming on ...

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24 minutes ago, 26power said:

Yes, a spreadsheet for Tichy window sizes in mm would be useful.

 

Hmmm - I don't think I'll be going that far.  Just the ones that suit my needs.

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14 hours ago, aardvark said:

I've found two possible candidates for the engine shed windows in the Tichy range - so that has raised the Hopefulness Coefficient significantly.

 

The Hopefulness Coefficient has taken a tumble.

 

When I sat down to start the spreadsheet, I realised that both of the Tichy HO-scale 9/9 Double Hung Windows  (#8054 & #8056) , which fit into 0.54" x 1.07" and 0.47" x 1.11" openings, respectively, are both Framed Windows, and would require some amount of hackery to make them suitable for a stone engine shed.  Oddly, Tichy have no 9/9 windows in their Masonary Windows range. Price is US$3.50 + US$10.00 postage just to see whether they'd be suitable.

 

The search, and the spreadsheet, continues.

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On 17/06/2021 at 11:48, aardvark said:

The turnout on the board shown above is now functioning from my DCC control, and the second board with 6 turnouts is progressing well.  The hold-up is some nuts and bolts to mount the electronics under the boards.

 

In the meantime, my thoughts turn to “What’s next?”, and I think the answer is “buildings”.  In the first phase, I’m talking about the station building, signal box, goods shed, engine shed, water tower and Scotstoun cottages. Other buildings may follow later.

 

This is all new to me, so I’m making it up as I go along. (Anybody with experience is welcome to chime in.)  The following is my plan: it’s good to have a plan, as at least you know where you’re deviating from it.

 

I’ve never been much good with colours, so I’m inclined to avoid the more exacting painting scenarios (and associated expletive usage) by using “brick” papers where appropriate. I think I’m talking about things like brick and stone walls.

  • “Brick” paper buildings: station building, engine shed, water tower bottom, Scotstoun cottages.
  • Plasticard buildings: signal box, goods shed, water tower top.

I’m inclined to start with the cottages, being smaller without being fiddly, and lesser detailed.

 

Someone smart said that you should start with a building’s windows, and here starts one of my difficulties.  I’m probably being overly pedantic, myopic, or simply wrong, but I struggle to find decent candidate model windows.

 

For instance, take the main engine shed windows, 3x6 panes which I estimate to be 3’ x 6’6”. 

 

1116506694_BanffES2-window.jpg.7b4e4b53bed84e692ded65060317e917.jpg

 

Allowing, say, 3” for top and side frames, 6” for bottom frames and 1” for muntins, this would leave a pane size of roughly 9.3” x 10.6”, or, in OO scale, 3.1 x 3.5mm.

 

It would seem that I might need to build the windows myself, which is, I suppose, what scratch building is all about.  Old-school built theirs from acetate sheet and address labels, while Paul Bason’s Scratch-Built Buildings advocates plastistrip frames and glazing beads drawn in paint.  I must admit to being tempted by the purchase of Silhouette cutter, attracted by the possibility of neater windows than I might achieve by hand.  There's threads on RMWeb detailing the trials and tribulations of their use in cutting plasticard.

 

These might be pretty close for your needs:

https://yorkmodelrail.com/shop/00-scale-ho-scale/windows-louvers-00-scale-ho-scale/00-103-square-window-frames-4-per-pack/

Although some trimming and joining might be necessary, but I suspect these are about as close as you will find without resorting to making them from scratch?

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17 hours ago, aardvark said:

 

The Hopefulness Coefficient has taken a tumble.

 

When I sat down to start the spreadsheet, I realised that both of the Tichy HO-scale 9/9 Double Hung Windows  (#8054 & #8056) , which fit into 0.54" x 1.07" and 0.47" x 1.11" openings, respectively, are both Framed Windows, and would require some amount of hackery to make them suitable for a stone engine shed.  Oddly, Tichy have no 9/9 windows in their Masonary Windows range. Price is US$3.50 + US$10.00 postage just to see whether they'd be suitable.

 

The search, and the spreadsheet, continues.

I’ve recently been reading some old (Approx. 10 years old) American model railway magazines.  I think in some of the building articles they just cut off the frame of the framed windows?  And possible used them inside out and upside down?  Sorry, just a passing recollection.

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On 17/06/2021 at 20:48, aardvark said:

I’m inclined to start with the cottages, being smaller without being fiddly, and lesser detailed.

 

In regards to the cottages, I'm inclined to start construction with the SmartModels RES03 Cottage, a print-it-yourself "kit".  The kit includes print-on-acetate windows, but SmartModels also offer laser-cut windows, which solves that problem very neatly.

 

The RES03 is not completely correct for Banff: the Scotstoun cottages must have had higher ceilings, as they lack the roof detail around the doors.  However, I think the kit would be a good introduction to scratch building with "brick" papers as they come with detailed instructions and all parts included.  In the end, even if I throw the result away in favour for something more accurately scratch-built, I will have learnt more than I have lost.

 

PopUp Designs do a couple of cottages in 3mm ply, but these have incorrectnesses (!) of their own, and would require me to paint stone walls, which I would like to avoid, at least in the beginning.  I'm not aware of anything similar from other vendors.

 

12813991_844301315692415_1875936554566864161_n.jpg.75815b918b1b90fceb16c510d68f71fc.jpg

 

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33 minutes ago, clachnaharry said:

My then girlfriend rented one of these cottages in 1984.

 

I have never been so cold inside a house in my life!

Surely you had something to keep you warm?

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1 hour ago, aardvark said:

 

In regards to the cottages, I'm inclined to start construction with the SmartModels RES03 Cottage, a print-it-yourself "kit".  The kit includes print-on-acetate windows, but SmartModels also offer laser-cut windows, which solves that problem very neatly.

 

The RES03 is not completely correct for Banff: the Scotstoun cottages must have had higher ceilings, as they lack the roof detail around the doors.  However, I think the kit would be a good introduction to scratch building with "brick" papers as they come with detailed instructions and all parts included.  In the end, even if I throw the result away in favour for something more accurately scratch-built, I will have learnt more than I have lost.

 

PopUp Designs do a couple of cottages in 3mm ply, but these have incorrectnesses (!) of their own, and would require me to paint stone walls, which I would like to avoid, at least in the beginning.  I'm not aware of anything similar from other vendors.

 

12813991_844301315692415_1875936554566864161_n.jpg.570b05347357adcf4977b1e7db40e35e.jpg

Have you had a look at the resin cast  models that I am producing? I’m refining the models to make them available as kits but I still have some finished models for sale and can provide them more cheaply in white primer ..

C0D5A419-679F-4BF5-B45C-1AE40F3C265F.jpeg

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On 24/06/2021 at 19:58, brylonscamel said:

Have you had a look at the resin cast  models that I am producing?

 

I hadn't, but have now - breathtaking!  I certainly admire your craftsmanship - a "gold" standard that I might aspire to, should I live so long.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've no idea whether this is of any interest to the few that bother with this rather comatose thread, but I guess I'm about to find out.

 

On the weekend, I had the fortune of a ride on the SDSR "Downs Explorer":

 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 17/06/2021 at 20:48, aardvark said:

The turnout on the board shown above is now functioning from my DCC control, and the second board with 6 turnouts is progressing well.  The hold-up is some nuts and bolts to mount the electronics under the boards.

 

It's taken a while (as does everything), but finally, I have all the hardware and software in place and functioning to control 7 turnouts across 2 baseboards.  Here's the underside of board #4 which has 6 turnouts.

 

P1160815.JPG.405271e08f38de8a32412820b5742916.JPG

 

The heavy horizontal wires through the middle are the DCC bus, while those at the bottom/back are the DC accessory supply, so four wires instead of two.

 

As previously considered, I think buildings will be next, although there are other activities available when I'm waiting on deliveries.

 

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Today, after the memsahib departed, Aardvark took possession of the garage and setup the layout for a running session, with the intention of proving that the frogs had been correctly wired by the technical crew.  We had one operator in attendance, and despite the poor turn-out, did prove correct functioning of all turnouts, thereby avoiding punishment of the long-suffering staff.

 

The pictures don't really add much, except please note the cunningly crafted "urban detritus" backscene.

 

P1160817.JPG.0cdb62ad96611988823b653836a46ba3.JPG

 

The long-awaited Tillynaught-Banff express arrives (backwards) at Banff at 14:21.  You can tell it's the express as it's out of focus

 

P1160818.JPG.aed895511afcf0d52abb7d97ed8af250.JPG

 

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On 24/06/2021 at 18:49, aardvark said:

I'm inclined to start construction with the SmartModels RES03 Cottage, a print-it-yourself "kit".  The kit includes print-on-acetate windows, but SmartModels also offer laser-cut windows, which solves that problem very neatly.

 

The laser-cut windows for the RES03 arrived from SmartModels, and I was surprised to find that they're a 3-layer design that require laminating.  I shouldn't have been, as their website clearly shows the 3 parts.

 

Puzzling over how best to laminate the parts, which I measure as 17.4 x 10.1 x 0.43mm, I found this post showing the use of small magnets: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/127712-kings-cross-in-a-cakebox/&do=findComment&comment=2935791

 

Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Surprisingly, and perhaps uncharacteristically, I may have done some actual modelling.

 

I bought some 5x2x1.7mm neodymium magnets, which I used to hold the RES03 window parts while laminating.  The parts are held together with the magnets, then tacked with a spot of glue and weighed.  Later, the parts are glued all round and again weighted.

 

P1160819.JPG.2997c1c76873760cbce9a95066ad073e.JPG

 

I think that the after close-up shows a good result.

 

P1160826.JPG.4da2efba7e5351ada2822b61165761bb.JPG

 

 

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Aww - gee - 3 people gave me a "craftmanship/clever" for the previous post - I am taken aback :O

 

In the meantime, lockdown is beginning to bite and I feel the need to communicate with someone other than my wife and the postie.

 

I had my boards out recently, and decided that I was sick of looking at the copperclad sleepers at the baseboard joins.

 

P1160916.JPG.55a7b9e0b26becf83a1e5ef958c088e5.JPG

 

So I fished out my little pots of paint and an equally little paintbrush.  Now, I did this with some trepidation, as I don't think I've ever painted anything smaller than a bedroom wall, but the results were unexpectedly pleasing and give me an excuse to attempt communication.

 

P1160924.JPG.133ac92b1535ed7f14073639fd9626da.JPG

 

Based on this success, I'm eyeing the areas beside the tracks (which probably have a name), and have started thinking about doing something to them, which might actually result in this looking like a model train set layout.

 

"Started thinking" - no need to rush - this is lockdown, after all.

 

However, nothing's ever easy, is it? Turns out the base colour in the little pot is darker than the supposedly identical paint in  the spray-can. And while I was there, I discovered my small collection of RailMatch paints, which I bought while in the UK in 2015, have settled (who would have thought?), so a stirring session in the garage will follow.

 

I might try storing the little pots of paint in the drawer underneath the washing machine.  Alternately, a friend recommends inverting full-sized tins of paint on a monthly basis to avoid settling.

 

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