Inspired by Brent June 1947

[The Fatadder]

The slip has now been test fitted into position, holes drilled for the tortoise motors and plastic sleepers added to the approach.

 

strangely it was about 5mm too short (which implies that I had the vees too far apart originally.)  this needed further copper clad sleepers adding to allow an inch length of rail to be soldered in.

 

 

initial testing through the reverse curve into the platform was successful with a pair of B Set coaches that used to fail, so it now needs gluing in place and testing under power 

 

(it would also help if I isolated the sleepers as well...)

i also need to find another sheet of 20 thou to finish raising the height to match the rest of the track plus for the remaining sleepers.

[The Fatadder]

With the slip bearing compleation, there is one more area of track that potentially needs attention.

 

It refers to the left hand point next to the cattle dock in the below image, it should be located as shown in red.

As is

As it should be

 

As previously mentioned I had to shorten the station by a foot or so to make it fit.  The area cut out is to the left of this photo.

 

 Can’t remember the reason for this point being in the wrong place, I think it may even have just been a lack of information as I only found photos of this area a lot later.  Or it could be that I removed it to ensure the proportion of the approach to the goods shed was maintained 

 

The problem is a knock on impact on the cattle dock, with the point vee and check rails etc getting in the way of the concrete infill (plus the need to stop a van for loading over the point)

 

One way or the other I need to make a decision in order that I can get on with track painting & ballasting 

[checkrail]

On ‎13‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 10:14, The Fatadder said:

Once done it was time for some testing, a Kernow Models 1361 was the perfect choice combining a poor chassis design, close coupled 6 wheel chassis and the fact that it doesn’t have a motor making it ideal for the job. 

 

A motorless loco!  Seems our friend KNP has started a trend.  Actually, I've often thought that a motorless Bulldog would be great plonked in front of a King as pilot over the south Devon banks.  (Though obviously I'd rather prefer one that could pull other trains too.  Come on Bachmann!)

 

John C.

[KNP]

What me......no!

They are not motorless loco's rather they are photo props that happen to look like a loco!

[The Fatadder]

15 minutes ago, checkrail said:

 

A motorless loco!  Seems our friend KNP has started a trend.  Actually, I've often thought that a motorless Bulldog would be great plonked in front of a King as pilot over the south Devon banks.  (Though obviously I'd rather prefer one that could pull other trains too.  Come on Bachmann!)

 

John C.

 

1364 was a bargain buy from last year's members day, for about £30 I couldn't resist it.  I had hoped it was just a non runner (they had unpainted ones which others managed to get running), but in this case it has no motor or gears (and looks harder than I would like to get running).  Instead it proves useful for track testing, if one day I actually build a layout for it I will add a replacement chassis.

 

Funny you mention unpowered Bulldogs though, as a cost saving measure there is every chance that my Finney bulldog will be built without a motor / gearbox at least initially.  Given that you are talking the best part of 80 quid for a Mashima, High Level gearbox and a decoder, its all a bit of a waste on a loco which will 99% of the time have another 4-6-0 behind it

[The Fatadder]

No photos yet given the work is not exactly photogenic, but I have so far managed an hours work on the layout today.

 

The first job was gluing down the 20thou base for the new double slip, this is now weighted down with the usual old Lima ballast weights while the glues sets.  The actual point will be glued into place later this evening (depending on the level of consumption during the rugby).

 

The bigger job was to prepare the walls for the backscene, lots of nails to be recessed before plastering the gaps between sheets of plasterboard.

 

Once all of this has fully dried, I should be able to glue the photo backscene into position (so hopefully it will be dry by tomorrow.) 

 

This will help when applying the plaster coat to the remaining embankments / hills, ensuring a good transition between land and sky.

 

Given my Manor project has stalled due to issues fitting the body to the chassis, hopefully I should manage some good layout progress over the next week.

[The Fatadder]

More progress on Brent, 

The double slip has now been glued into position, and the missing sleepers have been fitted.  This was followed by soldering in the missing rail length connecting up to the yard points. 

 

At this point the slip was left to allow the evostick to fully cure, while I set to work sanding back the plaster applied to the joints in the plaster board this morning ready to apply the backscene tomorrow.  (I made sure to have the heater on full power the whole time I was out there to ensure that the plaster was fully cured in time for gluing tomorrow.)

 

Next it was back to the slip to start testing, I haven't fixed the power supply so this still had to be done by hand.  The focus was on the Kingsbridge Branch No1 B Set and a 45xx (with a few tests using a Hawksworth BTK to test a longer bogie.   

 

Unfortunately it was only about 50% success, I traced the problem down to two potential issues: insufficient clearance on the blades (I had soldered them slightly closer than normal to avoid shorting between the two blades), and that the wheels were not fully over to the right hand side.  My solution was simple, reposition the left hand approach rail to tighten the gauge and force the wheels against the right hand rail.  This has done the job as it ensures that the wheel is in the correct position, retesting had a 100% success rate including testing at high speed.   As a result I am happy that tomorrow it can be fitted with tortoise motors and have the electrical isolation gaps cut in the sleepers, if all goes to plan I may even get the Powercab fixed and do some live testing.....

The Hawksworth tender was used for the first test in lieu of a loco before switching to 4547.

Still a lot of work to go to get this fitted out with chairs etc

A rough idea as to how it will look once the scenery progresses, once the bridge is in place along with the ramp down to the yard.  As you can see there wont be much of the slip visible.

 

Edited March 16, 2019 by The Fatadder
Add photos

[The Fatadder]

OOn to the backscene, for this I have used a grey sky print (on vinyl) from ID Backscenes, a custom job to get it printed as a 30ft length rather than the usual 20ft.  I was not sure if it would be ok to use the self adhesive backing on unpainted plaster board (the instructions specifically said not to use it on hardboard which made up 2ft of the backscene).  So I decided to attach with carpet adhesive spray.  

 

The first problem is that there is no indication as to which is the top and which is left and right (or part a and part b), just the image on the box.  This is fine for a landscape or the blue sky with clouds they sell, but on my overcast sky it was hard to tell which way it went.  After a long look we thought we had the right combination and started sticking it down.  The second sheet had a large area chopped off to clear the hill (this was reused to add in the area under the Avon bridge).  For the corner I added a 1 inch radius curve to avoid the harshness of the room's corner.  

 

King George V with the up Cornish Rivera Express crosses the Avon returning another load of grockles back to London, again it shows some of the rough fit between land and sky which will eventually be blended in with plaster before I start work with static grass.  Before then the Avon needs at least one more (possibly two) bottle of deep pour water as it is no where near deep enough.

 

It was when I started on Pack B that I realised the mistake, clearly I had got Pack A the wrong way round as there was a huge difference in shade between the two parts at the joint.  There are two options to fix, dig out the airbrush and spray a mix of blue, white and grey over the joint to blend the two together.  Or buy an new pack A and redo the affected area.

 

Moving further down the layout there is one annoying mark (about an inch and a half long) where I touched a tiny bit of excess glue and spread it over the vinyl (another touch up needed).

 

Once done I was pretty happy with the look, until I turned the garage lights off and discovered a load of air bubbles in the vinyl which I cant do anything about (given the glue had cured).  I was rubbing the whole area with a cloth as I was applying trying to avoid this but no luck.  Thankfully you cant see it too badly in photos and in the flesh (with the lights on) it is invisible to the eye (hence missing it while I was applying.

 

Ignore the huge gap along the bottom, once the platform has been installed and I have added the bank to the rear this will be completely hidden.  Poor accuracy on my part when aligning the first sheet unfortunately.  With each additional sheet the problem was made a little worse.   The platform is the next job on the hit list, so hopefully I will soon have a bank in place to hide this gap!

 

Edited March 17, 2019 by The Fatadder

[drduncan]

On 07/09/2016 at 13:07, St Enodoc said:

Yes please!

 

On 07/09/2016 at 12:58, The Fatadder said:

So the file basically uses a list of data containing direction, 8 cells breaking down the formation 60ft sections, along with source, destination, and details about the service.  It also includes a column categorising the service (eg express passenger, branch freight etc)

 

there are 10 separate lists which contains all the locos for each service type (duplicating where necessary), a randomiser picks a row from the respective class depending on the details in the time table.

 

Happy to send the macro enabled workbook if anyone wants a proper look.

Yes please!

drduncan

[81C]

On ‎14‎/‎03‎/‎2019 at 20:11, The Fatadder said:

Do they have a gold for coach lining?

sounds worth a try

I'll ask SWMBO to pop into Rymans to get one if they are in stock I can then let you know. those train sheets you have produced look very nice what programme are they running

on they look similar to mine done on Excel if it's no trouble I would not mind a copy .

Edited March 18, 2019 by 81C
fat fingers

[The Fatadder]

Will be interested to hear how it goes.

 

pm me your email and I will send a copy of the file.  It’s a macro enables excel so can’t be attached to a PM

[The Fatadder]

It has been over a year since the last train ran on Brent, and the layout was really starting to show it.  Lots of tools, offcuts of foam and plasticard, along with coaches in various stages of repainting.  So it was time for a bit of a tidy up, so the layout is now looking a little more like a layout and less like a scrap yard.

 

The reason for the lack of running is that I somehow managed to break the negative wire on the power feed into the Powercab.  Rather than waste another £18 on a replacement board, I chopped the the end of the power supply wire and soldered directly to the PCB.  King George V had the honours of taking half the Cornish Rivera set up into Brent station.   I then went to use 4576 to test the double slip forgetting that it was not wired up, nor had I completed the electrical isolation.  The latter was a simple job to break the sleepers, but a bit more tricky to isolate the wing rails through the vee (as the Dremmel wasn’t to hand).  This (along with the wiring) will need to be tonights job.

[81C]

Thanks for the spread sheet Rich it looks very interesting and way beyond my humble efforts I will have a play if I get a quiet moment.

[81C]

Here we go this is what I found on Ebay, Rymans said the don't do gold but there is a golden ochre.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Staedtler-Triplus-Fineliner-334-All-Colours-Single-Pens-Box-of-10-/222614234026

[The Fatadder]

After buying a couple of cans of Halfords Camouflage Brown after work today, tonight I made a start on the painting of the track.  One can has covered 2/3 of the layout, I would have got the rest sprayed if it wasn't for the fact that I have forgotten to add chairs to the check rail on the approach to the new double slip I would have sprayed the rest (this will be tomorrows job).  At this rate I may even get the ballasting started soon...

 

First I need to get those platforms built..... 

 

Edited March 20, 2019 by The Fatadder

[The Fatadder]

Another evening's work and I have got the rest of the track painted, unfortunately I rather jumped the gun with this as I hadn't quite finished working on the double slip.  I had not yet wired it up, and as a result I hadn't done an electrical test.   It does however look rather good in my opinion, its amazing how much of a difference something as simple as painting the rail sides has on track work.

 

Once the paint had dried and the rail surface had been fully cleaned up, the first job was to cut the isolating gaps between the Vee unit and the rest of the point.  Once the Dremel had done its job, I checked the resistance between the two outer rails on the multimeter, and was alarmed to see that they were connected.  Visual inspection of the sleepers identified that the right hand side of the slip hadn't been isolated, so out came the Dremel to cut some gaps.  Thankfully it now was fully isolated...  Once it has been wired up I will give the slip another quick dusting of brown paint to blend in the sleeper gaps & wires. 

At this point I should have got on with the wiring, but instead decided to have a look at the cattle dock.  It needed to be repositioned slightly further to the left of the prototype location (another result of that compression in length.)   I cut the concrete infill to make a 3 section length, before gluing in position.  This now needs to be painted in situ before I do any ballasting. 

 

Finally I have been placing weights, tools & lumps of wood to try and put in place some of the key structures.  The spirit level will be the eventual home of the down waiting room, off cuts of wood fill in for the platforms, while the Ratio signal box has its length extended to that of the Brent box for when I eventually scratch built it.  (Incidentally I ordered the etched "Brent Signal Box" plate it will need from Narrow Planet yesterday.)

 

Edited March 22, 2019 by The Fatadder

[The Fatadder]

A little more work on the slip tonight, it has now been wired up.  I have checked the point motors and found they are part of a batch I purchased from an O gauge modelled which have been fitted with 1mm diameter actuator arms.  Good job I used 1mm ID washers, although they did need a little solder removal.  In the case of one this resulted in a joint failing, so this was fixed while the soldering iron was out

this just leaves the final job, actually fitting the motors, which can wait for tomorrow

 

 

elsewhere on the layout have been looking at buildings, while looking for a supplier of the Ratio water cranes (which handily come with the fire devils), I spotted the large water tower. I’m not sure if it’s a new kit (or more likely I’ve never noticed it) but the tank looks like it might be useful.  Just need to cross check it against my drawings....

 

given it’s the only building needed to complete the Plymouth end of the layout, the water tower is a high priority building...

 

i have also  been thinking about signalling, and decided that for the moment at least I will go with Dapol signals where I am able, and take it from there.  But I certainly won’t pay 30 a signal so instead I’m picking them up 2nd hand for a max of half that.  The square post signals will be modified in line with @checkrail‘s approach on Stoke Courtney, mentioned again in this months BRM.  Did Dapol do a platform mounted signal as I will need one.  I am going to need 3 distants (of which I have one square post), 5 homes (one of which is platform mounted) and 4 bracket  home pairs.

 

now I just need to confirm how many were round post and how many were square.....

Edited March 24, 2019 by The Fatadder

[The Fatadder]

This is my current thinking, though a lack of dates and some poor quality images leaves things a little unclear

 

those in blue I think are square, red are round and uncoloured I can’t find in photos (or can only find in BR days with round posts)

 

Edited March 25, 2019 by The Fatadder

[The Fatadder]

I have been looking again at the signals and updated the above image after confirming that the bracket signal on the down main approach to Brent is a square post.

 

I am still unclear as to the up and down starters, I think they both should be square post but I cant be 100% sure due to a lack of dates on photos.  Likewise the signal on the Plymouth side of the yard (branch starter?) appears to be a round post but again I cant be sure.  

 

I have no information on the distant signals, which to scale would be off layout and unsurprisingly don't feature in photos.  Likewise the branch bracket signal, in early BR days it was a round post at the same time the other was a square post.  however I have no 1940s photos to verify this (though to be honest I have very few 1940s photos full stop so that's not surprising)

 

[Siberian Snooper]

Not many photos were taken during the war, except for official ones and I doubt that there were all that many taken shortly after either.

 

 

[checkrail]

21 hours ago, The Fatadder said:

The square post signals will be modified in line with @checkrail‘s approach on Stoke Courtney, mentioned again in this months BRM.  Did Dapol do a platform mounted signal as I will need one.  

Hi Rich

 

The bad news is that, no, unfortunately Dapol haven't done any platform mounted signals.  The good news is that the long-awaited bracket signals look to be much better than the earlier single post types in terms of appearance and finish, so that all the jiggery-pokery described in this month's RM (and earlier on RMweb) might not be needed.  I'm hoping that when these finally appear I'll be able to make a couple of them 'platform mounted' by somehow burying them in the platform (if I can do it without making too big a mess), to replace the current non-working Ratio branch platform signals.

 

John C.

 

 

[The Fatadder]

Thankfully after further checking I only need one platform mounted signal, on the down side it is one of the square post brackets.  I am going to have a look at ways to mount it inside the platform, I have a plan starting to come together.  The idea is to cut a hole in the baseboard the diameter of the motor, surround it with strip wood to the thickness of the platform.   Cut a rectangle out of the platform top, there should be a 5mm exposed edge between the platform surface and edge of the strip wood.  Finally cut the rectangle in half and remove a square to match the post and linkage.  This will fit into the hole and the hole thing will be covered with the loose gravel surface.

[The Fatadder]

A day off work looking after my youngest today has me killing time before swimming this morning, the only answer was a little shopping...

 

With attention starting to turn to the platforms, I have bought a pair of Ratio 413 water cranes with fire devil which will be fitted to the ends of the platform.  I have also gone for a Ratio 551 large water tower.  This is going to need some major modification to the lower half (most of which will be replaced with plasticard) but the tank appears to be perfect for Brent's water tower.  I also got a couple of packs of Ratio GWR ground signals, these will be used for the foreseeable, eventually they will ideally be replaced with a working signal. 

Finally the real bargain of the day was a bottle of deep pour water for £20, which will allow me to finish off the river.

 

I have also placed an order from TMS via eBay for a couple of sheets of stone plasticard which will complete the platform edging 

 

The last bit of shopping that's going to be needed will be stocking up on ballast & ash ballast, but given the weight I think this is best left to an exhibition (not to mention that I need to decide if I will continue with my usual Carrs ballast or go for an alternative.)

 

Now its just a waiting game, I cant wait for all of this to arrive as its going to open up a lot of modelling.  Getting the water tower built and in position will make a big difference to the Plymouth end of the station, while getting the river poured will allow me to make a start on adding grass!  I am keen to get the length of track over the Avon ballasted & get at least a basic covering of grass down as it will give a perfect area to take photos of stock.

 

 Finally last night I did manage a little more work, finally making a start on the vicarage road bridge.  Each girder will be formed from two sheets of plasticard (one solid and one with the lattice work) along with Evergreen strip to add the ribs / beams underneath.  Unfortunately I didn't get the settings right when I cut this on the Silhouette cutter at last year's Members day, so I will need to do another version.    Which will be a perfect task to be getting on with after we get back from swimming.   Again getting the bridge span in place will be a big step in getting this side of the layout looking a lot more complete.  

[St Enodoc]

12 hours ago, The Fatadder said:

I also got a couple of packs of Ratio GWR ground signals, these will be used for the foreseeable, eventually they will ideally be replaced with a working signal.

You can make the Ratio ground signals work. It's fiddly but not difficult, although I don't bother about moving balance weights.

[The Fatadder]

4 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

You can make the Ratio ground signals work. It's fiddly but not difficult, although I don't bother about moving balance weights.

Interesting, how would you go about powering them?   

 

Even if they are not connected to a motor straight away, modifying them so they are capable of working would save a lot of time later on.