Inspired by Brent June 1947

[The Fatadder]

With a low of -1 forecast tonight once again I didn’t fancy doing any scenic work, to many times things haven’t cured properly at low temperatures.

 

instead I was planning a running session, typically this required a lot of track cleaning and a lot of tidying of the fiddleyard.  So in the end no running happened and two failed solder joints on copper clad points have been identified and now need fixing.

 

on the other hand the fiddleyard is now clear of junk and ready for action once those two rails are fixed.  One big problem I have is that there is no where in the garage to work.  In the original plan the rear of the layout (where the Avon bridge is) was to be a work bench, but in the end I decided to go with a scenic section.  

Once the local recycling centre re opens there is a lot of stuff (including a scrap 5ft baseboard) which needs to be dumped, which will at least give me room to move.  I will also need to decide what I’m doing with the remains of Kites Croft which take up a fair bit of room under the fiddleyard.  I really need to clear out the junk and fit in a proper bench to work on...

 

 

As for the fiddleyard, it’s nice to see it almost fully stocked.

From back (Up) to front:

1 Berkeley Castle on the sleeper, behind it is a grange with 3 npccs vans (which may or may not stay depending on how I find operating with a shared storage road)

2 Up Riviera with King George V

3 another road with two formations, the Kensington Milk (with Eynsham Hall) and a short PWay train with the 42xx). This is easier to work with as the PWay set will always end up held in the loop 

4 a Laira - Bristol freight with 4855

 

Down

5 King Richard I with the down Riviera

6 28xx with a long mineral train 

7 West Country with an M Set, there is space behind it for a pannier and a short pick up goods, but I’m thinking about swapping into 5 to get extra length in the empty space there.

8 currently the NW set, but this will get the TPO once painted.

 

Still having silly thoughts about building a  terminus station in the foreground eventually, even if will significantly increase the fiddleyard cost having to buy decent flex track for it.  Going to be having a play in templot at the weekend

The first photo shows one of the big issues with the lack of work space in the garage.  I will only spray near to the garage door (the extractor pipe on the spray booth gets fed out the open door).   To this end I have a chest of draws which I use as a bench, and a stall as a seat.  However all paint mixing has been done on the end of the baseboard (hence the multi colour mess of spilt paint).   In the third photo is the programming track (and a decoder test board), the latter will get moved inside when I finally sort out a Sprog interface.

Edited March 9, 2021 by The Fatadder

[Neal Ball]

9 hours ago, The Fatadder said:

With a low of -1 forecast tonight once again I didn’t fancy doing any scenic work, to many times things haven’t cured properly at low temperatures.

 

instead I was planning a running session, typically this required a lot of track cleaning and a lot of tidying of the fiddleyard.  So in the end no running happened and two failed solder joints on copper clad points have been identified and now need fixing.

 

on the other hand the fiddleyard is now clear of junk and ready for action once those two rails are fixed.  One big problem I have is that there is no where in the garage to work.  In the original plan the rear of the layout (where the Avon bridge is) was to be a work bench, but in the end I decided to go with a scenic section.  

Once the local recycling centre re opens there is a lot of stuff (including a scrap 5ft baseboard) which needs to be dumped, which will at least give me room to move.  I will also need to decide what I’m doing with the remains of Kites Croft which take up a fair bit of room under the fiddleyard.  I really need to clear out the junk and fit in a proper bench to work on...

 

 

As for the fiddleyard, it’s nice to see it almost fully stocked.

From back (Up) to front:

1 Berkeley Castle on the sleeper, behind it is a grange with 3 npccs vans (which may or may not stay depending on how I find operating with a shared storage road)

2 Up Riviera with King George V

3 another road with two formations, the Kensington Milk (with Eynsham Hall) and a short PWay train with the 42xx). This is easier to work with as the PWay set will always end up held in the loop 

4 a Laira - Bristol freight with 4855

 

Down

5 King Richard I with the down Riviera

6 28xx with a long mineral train 

7 West Country with an M Set, there is space behind it for a pannier and a short pick up goods, but I’m thinking about swapping into 5 to get extra length in the empty space there.

8 currently the NW set, but this will get the TPO once painted.

 

Still having silly thoughts about building a  terminus station in the foreground eventually, even if will significantly increase the fiddleyard cost having to buy decent flex track for it.  Going to be having a play in templot at the weekend

 

Morning Rich, Its always good to see peoples off-scene fiddle yard area.

 

Do you leave the stock out all the time?

[The Fatadder]

8 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

 

Morning Rich, Its always good to see peoples off-scene fiddle yard area.

 

Do you leave the stock out all the time?

 
Yes I do, mostly because I prefer to handle stock as little as possible to avoid damage.  I am starting to think I should have taken it all inside for the winter though (something to remember for next year.)

 

I am in the process of sorting out a dust cover for the whole of the fiddleyard which will also help with storage. 
 

 

in the mean time, a King has been given a coat of Klear and will soon start to be weathered.

 

while 5798 has been fitted with a lamp and couplings and can return outside (all be it I haven’t got a clear slot in the yard.

 

[The Fatadder]

Some idle doodling over lunch today and I am starting to think that my fiddleyard plans might work as intended.  Instead of adding the 5th road to the down fiddleyard, the plan is that I would add a short (3 inch or so) removable backscene 10mm to the front of the nearest storage road.  

 

I then have a track plan which takes elements from Bodmin General, giving an engine shed, 2 sidings, platform and run around loop.  This will mean that a 45xx can arrive with a B Set and run around in advance of returning to Brent.  A freight can either arrive, run around and then shunt to rearrange the wagons before returning, or can go straight into the long siding and have a different loco take the return working for a bit of variety. 

 

One length of track that has already been laid is going to need replacing with bullhead, while the points will need building as opposed to using code 75 Peco as originally planned.  But I think it will work, naturally I have no plans to do any scenic modelling on this for a long time (its more a case of having something else to do once Brent is complete).  But the lack of branch fiddleyard is somewhat more of an issue now that the slip is working and the branch can be used.  My plan is to draw it up in Templot over the next couple of evenings and then lay out the plan on the baseboard to check clearances.  The track will then end up being built over the next few months.  

[Neal Ball]

12 minutes ago, The Fatadder said:

Some idle doodling over lunch today and I am starting to think that my fiddleyard plans might work as intended.  Instead of adding the 5th road to the down fiddleyard, the plan is that I would add a short (3 inch or so) removable backscene 10mm to the front of the nearest storage road.  

 

I then have a track plan which takes elements from Bodmin General, giving an engine shed, 2 sidings, platform and run around loop.  This will mean that a 45xx can arrive with a B Set and run around in advance of returning to Brent.  A freight can either arrive, run around and then shunt to rearrange the wagons before returning, or can go straight into the long siding and have a different loco take the return working for a bit of variety. 

 

One length of track that has already been laid is going to need replacing with bullhead, while the points will need building as opposed to using code 75 Peco as originally planned.  But I think it will work, naturally I have no plans to do any scenic modelling on this for a long time (its more a case of having something else to do once Brent is complete).  But the lack of branch fiddleyard is somewhat more of an issue now that the slip is working and the branch can be used.  My plan is to draw it up in Templot over the next couple of evenings and then lay out the plan on the baseboard to check clearances.  The track will then end up being built over the next few months.  

 

That sounds great.... an ever changing railway... also sounds a bit never ending... 

 

Good luck, it will be great to see it develop.

[The Fatadder]

A little progress on the layout tonight, with the ash glued down for the first half of the up platform (finally) and the core polystyrene glued into position which will form the bank at the rear of the western end of the platform.  This will get a mesh layer before covering in plaster later in the week.  The first support of the Station Road bridge has also been glued into position (although I am nowhere near coming up with a design for the truss bridge).  

The platform will eventually end up close to the width of the stone section that has been painted on the ramp, eventually getting wider as it nears the waiting room.  the latter will have the small garden along the west side.

I have deliberately made the ash area wider than it needs to be, once the excess is hoovered up tomorrow I will add grass to get it to the required thickness.   

 

With that done there wasnt a great deal more that could be done on the layout until the glue dries, so instead I have been looking at the fiddleyard.

 

I cant get exactly what I want in the available space (the distance shown by the blue arrow), mostly because of the platform width needed to fit in a station building.  The station has to be along the near side edge of the board (as per Kingsbridge) in order to get the right destinations on the coaches.   I plan on using the waiting room, goods shed and signalbox from Kites Croft (maybe the bridge as well)  Mostly because the layout wont get finished and I may as well make use of it.   Vees / Switch rails may also be recovered (although these may end up stored for Laira).  It may need some redrawing to take a Peco double slip (if I can get a drawing of the bullhead version).  Not sure which of the two spurs on the left hand side will have the goods shed (the other being a loco stabling point or possibly an engine shed.)  The middle line on the left hand side continues curving round to the left in a 180 degree curve into the bay at Brent.

I think the solution will be to add a small triangular extension to the baseboard and rotate the whole thing to get the upper most siding to fit.  There is a fairly wide operating well, so losing some space wont be the end of the world.  Its already hard work adding stock in the fiddleyard (and I find it easier to add it on the lift out section) so the extra width making access to the storage roads isnt a major downside. 

 

If the print out of the plan works the next step would be build the core, likely comprising of the crossover at the right hand side, and hte point on the station approach.  Temporary sections would infill the double slip and the left hand point to start with, that way the immediate need to get some sort of fiddleyard active would be solved.  Then a year or two down the line when Brent is much more complete I will set about the scenic work for the station (which more likely than not will end up called Salcombe for obvious reasons).

 

 

 

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by The Fatadder

[The Fatadder]

As mentioned a few times, cold temperatures have played havoc with getting on with all of the various "drying" jobs that need doing on the layout.   A potential solution is to get stuff done in small batches in my lunch hour, (which also serves as a good thing to force me away from the laptop screen and the inevitable working lunch. 

 

So today I made a start on the bank along the rear of the east side of the up platform.  I couldnt find my usual roll of plaster mesh (and to be honest it is probably best saved for the bigger areas the other side of the bridge). So instead covered the polystyrene core with strips of masking tape, the logic is that once solid the mod-roc is structurally sound so whats underneath doesnt really matter too much.

 

So here it is:

 

still having a lot of issues with the back scene lifting from the wall.

 

There is still a little more work needed around the Station Road bridge, it needs to have the embossed stonework added to the side of the bridge before adding the final strips of mod-roc to blend it into the rest of the bank.  Naturally this means that I cant add the grass to this side of the rear bank until I get the bridge supports in place.  And I cant really do anything with the bridge supports until I have a design sorted for the bridge itself.

 

The problem is that the bridge is incredibly complex, and as far as I can tell there is nothing available from the trade which matches it. 

All of the trusses are of the below profile with open beams.

__________

XXXXXXXX

 

The below photo from ebay gives an indication as to what the bridge should look like

 

The closest I have found is something like this 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/00-Gauge-28-711mm-Single-Track-Arched-Girder-Railway-Bridge/

Modified to remove the outer section on each side, with the wall added along the inner edge and additional cross beams under the deck.

 

It wont have the right type of beam, or for that matter the right design of cross braces.   One alternative would be to laser cut my own, but again it would suffer from not having the right beam type.  So the only way I can see to do it properly would be etching.

So for now I am thinking the solution would be to modify the ebay bridge for the moment, with the intention of eventually replacing with a more detailed etched bridge.

 

Once the bridge is finalised The core terrain for the near side of the bridge is one of the more complex areas of construction, sloping down from the road into the yard and blending into the cattle dock.  It will be good to get that into position as it is going to make a massive difference to the look of the layout

 

 

Edited March 10, 2021 by The Fatadder

[Bluemonkey presents....]

2 hours ago, The Fatadder said:

A potential solution is to get stuff done in small batches in my lunch hour, (which also serves as a good thing to force me away from the laptop screen and the inevitable working lunch. 

 

You have to be very strict with yourself though. I know if I started I just wouldn't go back lol.

[The Fatadder]

2 minutes ago, Bluemonkey presents.... said:

 

You have to be very strict with yourself though. I know if I started I just wouldn't go back lol.

There is always the temptation, but its offset by the thought that the work will still need doing when I finish so it would just mean working ridiculously late to catch up.   There are certainly limits though, I'd love to be able to take advantage of the time to do a bit of spraying.  But there is no way that I could get everything set up, spray a reasonable amount of stock and then do a full clean on the airbrush in the available time.   I miss having Friday afternoons off!

[The Fatadder]

Well the bridge I thought I had found is too long, so it’s a choice between a  bridge with the wrong number of panels or a complicated scratch build.   More thought is required...
 

the ash has now been laid along the eastern half of the up platform.  I realised there was a small area of ash needed near to the buffer stop at the west end of the platform, which prevented any grass laying.   Instead a few other minor jobs were finished: adding the remaining point rodding bases to the east of station road in advance of maybe ballasting at the weekend; and adding the ballast on the remaining two signals.  
 

The next two jobs will be grassing the rear bank to the west of the station and ballasting (the mainline to the lifting flap and the final section of the yard) 

 

 

[kandc_au]

Rich,

You are adapt with CAD. Why not draw it up with that and is a silhouette cutter and laminate it together.
That way you get the bridge you want without all the near enoughs.
Just a thought.
Khris

[Siberian Snooper]

For a master class in bridge building you need to have a look at Ron Heggs work.

  Unfortunately he has not been active for some time.

 

 

[The Fatadder]

6 hours ago, kandc_au said:

Rich,

You are adapt with CAD. Why not draw it up with that and is a silhouette cutter and laminate it together.
That way you get the bridge you want without all the near enoughs.
Just a thought.
Khris

I had thought about that (I am fairly sure I have previously drawn up a first draft of the bridge outline (all be it the drawing is lost on my old laptop).  Certainly will be worth another look, I have looked into potential materials and Plastruct do something which is close enough to the lower beams. while the upper beams could be formed from 2 bits of C section and plasticard centre.  But the uprights & cross braces with the X bracing would need to be very complex.   One option may be 3d printing (all be it a rather costly one), though just using the Evergreen / Plastruct bits to scratch build is not exactly going to be cheap given how expensive plastic strip has got.  

 

Almost wish the current girder bridge had been installed sooner!

13 minutes ago, Siberian Snooper said:

For a master class in bridge building you need to have a look at Ron Heggs work.

Unfortunately he has not been active for some time.

 

 

That is some very impressive modelling!  A couple of very handy bit on building some similar beams.  

[The Fatadder]

Checking yesterdays work at lunch today with the intention of applying some static grass and I found the ash I glued last night was still wet.  Thinking about it I think it might have been water running off the mod-roc that was put down yesterday lunch time.   After leaving the heater on for the afternoon it now all seems to have dried.  

So with the garage now warm I was able to get the grass down along the left hand side of the rear bank.  

I really love just how much of a difference just the most basic coat of grass makes

 

A driver has been fitted to an Oxford Diecast Armstrong Siddeley  Lancaster, who is now taking his brand new car out for a spin around Brent.  We had one of these (in this colour scheme) as our wedding car (along with my old 1500 Spitfire) so its nice to get it onto the layout.

 

 

I have printed off the fiddle yard layout plan and test fitted on the layout, moving the station building to the end of the platform rather than the side, allowed me to halve the width of the platform.   Potentially this means that I can build the branch station without widening the baseboard (if I loose a siding).  Testing with some stock and it all seems to work ok, so I think I can glue the templates down and look to start sourcing some track.

 

 

 

 

The backscene will be fitted to the rear of the "layout"  roughly through the middle of the mk3

The station building will be at the rear, platform along the right hand side.  I really need to get that old baseboard stripped of track and sent to the tip, along with getting some more brackets on the wall to store the skis.  Not to mention really needing to get that insulation stuck back onto the garage door!

Edited March 11, 2021 by The Fatadder

[The Fatadder]

One thought I’d did have was to fit a retaining wall along the length of the station, it would serve as a convenient scenic brake between the real fiddleyard and the hybrid layout/fiddleyard, and also give a good reason for the station being so narrow.  
 

not sure of any country prototypes along those lines though.  The steep grass bank of Kingsbridge will take more space than I have available.  

[St Enodoc]

50 minutes ago, The Fatadder said:

One thought I’d did have was to fit a retaining wall along the length of the station, it would serve as a convenient scenic brake between the real fiddleyard and the hybrid layout/fiddleyard, and also give a good reason for the station being so narrow.  
 

not sure of any country prototypes along those lines though.  The steep grass bank of Kingsbridge will take more space than I have available.  

Do it. Your station has no prototype so don't worry!

[The Fatadder]

The back of the layout looks a lot better after clearing up the loose grass at lunch, along with tidying up the ash.  I think this finishes off the main scenic work for the moment.   So back to ballasting as soon I think, along with the fiddleyard track repairs.   I also want to get on with fitting fences to the remaining areas on the hills west of Vicarage Road.  

The templates for the scenic fiddleyard are now glued down, the aim is to lift sleepers from the scrap baseboard that is currently on the floor so that track can gradually be built over the next few months.  Will try and get over to Derails once shops have reopened to buy the straight track. 

The foreground needs a little more work, the radius of the curves in the original plot don’t quite fit with the surrounding track or the position of the goods shed.  It will eventually be done freehand I think, in order to get the right alignment.

Edited March 12, 2021 by The Fatadder

[The Fatadder]

Back to ballasting at lunch today, again trying to make use of the daytime temperature to get the ballast to dry.  I should really have prepped in advance, as a lot of them was wasted tidying up the ballast.  The missing length through the goods shed is now ballasted, as is the first 8 inches or so out of the platform.  The slip is a little trickier, needing to protect all those moving parts plus somehow ballast around the sliding sleeper tie bar.  It still needs a bit more tidying up before completing the Klear 

 

I also made a start prepping the ballast for the remaining sidings, i will get the prep on the is finished tonight ready for Klear tomorrow lunchtime.

[The Fatadder]

Will sort a few more photos later, but the ballasting is progressing nicely.  After preparing the ballast last night the second half of the slip, along with the whole of the lower siding.  The latter is probably going to need more work, watching the Missenden video on yard ballasting where the ballast & track was overlaid with ash looked really good and I am tempted to do the same once the 2mm foam is applied to the rest of the yard.  

 

The next job is going to be continuing the mainline ballasting round towards the fiddleyard, I have 3/4 of a tub of Carrs left so there's a good chance there is enough left to ballast the whole way to the start of "Kingsbridge"  Hopefully this can be completed this week so that attention can move on to getting the core scenic structure in place at this end. 

 

I am hopefully going to get the "Kingsbridge" flex track ordered this evening, with the intention of getting started on enough track building to get at least a working single road fiddleyard.  Although when I do I will really need to give some thought to installing some sort of work bench.  I am now thinking about adding some draw runners and a sliding board coming out from under the layout, or a fixed bench at the plymouth end under Brent.  Either way, one job once the weather has warmed up a bit (and lockdown has ended so I can go to the tip) will be clearing out under the layout.  Get rid of the old baseboards and assorted other junk, as I would like to see if I can get away with setting up my modern layout under the fiddleyard.

 

 

[Neal Ball]

Good luck with the clear out Rich.

 

I also need to clear things out that won’t see the light of day at Henley.... although I’m thinking of a whole load of items going onto eBay to coincide with our (hoped for) trip to the uk in the summer.

 

Would your old baseboards find a home from someone just starting out in the hobby. About 3 weeks ago there was a plea on a local Facebook forum asking for help with getting the husbands baseboard and track purchase up and running. At the time we were completely locked down, so I advised via messenger and he got his railway working over the course of a few days.

 

One mans rubbish is another mans etc.

 

Just a thought, good luck with the new area, I look forward to seeing Kingsbridge emerge.

[The Fatadder]

The I need to have a good look at the large board as it may yet end up as a base for my next modern layout (or an expansion for Wheal Imogen) once “Kingsbridge” and Brent are done.   The other is of foam board construction and I wouldn’t inflict it on anyone.  Thinking about it some more it could be used as scenic material on future layouts (and once the plywood is removed it should fit nicely in the garage loft.  Particularly since in lockdown one I emptied it of car parts from my old Spitfire and stuck them all on eBay.

 

I have found the station building which will be used for Kingsbridge, all be it a prototype from the Strawberry rather than Primrose line.  I think it looks better reversed so will need to add the missing windows and stone work.

as previously intended. 

reversed to better fit the space

 

As well as ballasting the next section of track, Brent has also had a tidy up (and Kingsbridge is now covered in trays of grass etc).

I think I’ve found a match for my 2mm foam on Amazon so should be able to get some more done on the yard.  But I can’t finalise it until I have the goods shed built.

 

The extents of the ballasting.  I should get this completed round to the edge of the lift out section tomorrow.  I still need to work out if the track on the  will still be scenic.

 

 

another area I am pondering is in front of the goods shed.  I have roughly positioned the canopy with the two bits of fence.  But I am unsure if there is enough room for vehicles to access from the right (there is access to roads on both sides of the yard).

 

the issue is caused by about a foot of space removed from the right hand side of the goods shed, meaning the track is a lot closer than the prototype.

 

the blue line is the route it should take, the purple is the alternative, crossing the track just past the point.   
 

would welcome feedback as to the better option here (and whether there is sufficient clearance going with the blue route)

[Neal Ball]

Morning Rich, Re the goods shed.

If you placed a horse and trailer in front of the goods shed, how easily can it manoeuvre without coming up against the back road.

 

Is there any space to nudge the goods shed along its road, even if it’s a little bit? I see in the overall shot there is a point further up the shed road, is there any space to nudge it up?

 

Failing that it might just have to be something to live with.... 

[The Fatadder]

There is maybe a third of an inch until the switch, so possibly it can move up a little further.  I will test a short lorry in the loading bay later, but I think there is enough room once you add on the inside section.

 Part of my concern was that if there is anything being loaded, it would completely block the access.

 

the problem is that throughout the design process I worked with the walls outline and completely forgot about the canopy!

[The Fatadder]

I forgot to take the Klear out with me tonight (while lunch was spent driving to Bristol to take the spare keys to my wife who had somehow locked herself out of her car).

 

instead I have been prepping the ballast which is now ready for the rest of the main baseboard

the finer ballast for the cess and between the tracks will be the next step.

 

I am still undecided about the final lift out section.  The original plan was for a representation of Marley Tunnel (where the wood is below), I might still do that but the difficulty is fitting in the branch (and the transition with Kingsbridge)

 

the area ballasted tonight should make for some good photos given you can take them with the flap up.  Potentially you could get some good images of trains entering or leaving the tunnel with the camera resting on the branch track.  A mock-up is called for I think.

[kandc_au]

14 hours ago, The Fatadder said:

 

I am still undecided about the final lift out section.  The original plan was for a representation of Marley Tunnel (where the wood is below), I might still do that but the difficulty is fitting in the branch (and the transition with Kingsbridge)

Rich,

Would it be possible to have the start of the tunnel there ( where you propose) with the branch into a cutting on the tunnel side?
I'll try to explain:

Approach the whole area with a cutting. the cutting disipates away to the front while the hill actually gets rather steep towards the back, so the tunnel works and the branch only goes through a small section of cutting.

 

Khris