Deffors O gauge 60cm x 244cm (2' x 8')

[sir douglas]

ive got volunteered for a small show a few miles away by my dad. no problem as i get to exhibit my layout. 27th April Upton Methodist Church

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Upton+Methodist+Church/@53.5993666,-1.3695782,11z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x48796c58617ac3a7:0x5ef2e15d99187d6!8m2!3d53.6134613!4d-1.2823943

[sir douglas]

with a show coming up in 3 weeks instead of just 3 months ive made a start on the cattle dock. the cardboard base was warped and wasnt going to be a solid base to work on so it was replaced by 2mm MDF, this has been covered by Wills setts with styrene edging.i did get a new pack of wills  but managed to mostly use a bag of offcuts from a late friend. the posts will be 6x6mm rockets sticks but i havent decided on the bars between them nor whether the gates will be wood or styrene. 1 mistake is that ive got the orientation of the setts wrong on the small triangles which should be 90 degrees from the rest. there is still some edging to do on the right and replace the blue foam steps. The ramp on the left has been cut back as i now think it didnt look right.

 

Tony had rebuilt Green Ayre pens from the Long Preston ones so these pieces that i cut from that are already painted and weathered might be what was left over from LP.

 

the board isnt stuck down yet to work on it at my work bench and will only be stuck down after its finished and i'm happy with the backscene in that area

Edited April 9, 2019 by sir douglas

[sir douglas]

well, to begin with, apparently Upton asked my dad for my email which he texted them it but  i havent had any contact from them so i dont know if im going or not, which bothers me that its only 2 weeks with nothing known for certain.

 

anyway last nigh at the club we were going through a pile of stuff that had built up over the years so space could be cleared for layout building (not mine) a big box of scenic material was rummaged through. I brought home 3 packets of dark grey scattering for the goods yard but my spidey senses are telling me that it might be the same ink based stuff as already in the yard so a small amount is in a plastic lid and will be forgotten about on a window cill for a few weeks to see it it goes pink

 

The cattle dock progresses with some of the fencing, 6x6mm firework stick with 1.5 dia' steel wire but i havent got enough to do all of it

 

[sir douglas]

Upton is confirmed so i'm still making some last minute improvements to the layout, still working on the cattle dock which i've now started on the pen gates, the yard crane has been repaired and some-what repainted with some additions for missing parts, and 2 extra little jobs that have been put aside for a while.

 

This yard crane which looks like a midland was bought second hand about 2 years ago already built and painted, it had some bent areas and some missing parts. these being the rotation gears and the 2 crank handles to work the crane. the gears were replaced out of my gear collection, these ones being white plastic from Squires, the large one are 2 30mm dia' stuck together to give the thickness as shown in prototype photos. this is stuck onto an 1/8th brass rod which is stuck into a hole up the under side of the crane. The small one is a 9mm dia', stuck onto the surviving locating stub. the handles are 3x9mm bits of brass with brass wire soldered on, the additions have been painted with grey and rust to match the rest apart from the all the gear teeth and around the bearings which are now in black gloss for old grease. some grey has been randomly applied on to reduce the coverage of the rust, in the setting of the layout its and old crane but still in use so there would some minimal maintenance such as putting on some grease every now and then. the chain and hook were already with the crane so i havent bothered changing it

 

2 figures needed attention for a while which was done last night, the one on the left had his right elbow cut away to fit into one of my narrow gauge locos, this has been replaced with milliput, the same with the missing left foot of the walker which for strength has a steel wire up into the leg

[sir douglas]

all packed up and ready to go

[sir douglas]

[sir douglas]

a packet of hooks from ebay came last week. these are for hanging the lighting posts on the back of the boards. ive forgotten to mention these.

 

one of the main things left to do on the layout apart from all the scenery is to do a lighting rig. for 1, improve layout lighting to not rely on my room light. 2, exhibition manager prefer layouts with their own lighting and 3, you dont know what the lighting is going to be like at a show so have your own. a few months ago i put together 3 posts, 6 ft tall that fold up on 2 hinges. 2 pieces for the upright and 1 on top horizontal, which sits on a mitre join and stay in place by gravity so no form of clips or bolts are needed. this would have 8ft of white pvc gutter hanging from it of 2 pieces of 4ft length hinged in the middle. i made the posts a few months ago and bought the LED lighting strip and transformer plug at the Pontefract show back in January. the posts were originally going to hook onto the back of the board and have brackets with hooks to go onto the bottom of the legs, for stability. now i have the hooks i can start fitting them. the whole layout has been turned around and 4 inch pieces of wood are being glued into the inside of the board back to give screw purchase. because of other bits of wood in there, they have been sited about 4 inch in from the board ends. this going to be more work and more weight to something im trying to keep simple and light so ive removed the bottom half of the post and just the top half will be hooked onto the layout.

 

The original idea for the posts, folded and upright

 

The 3 posts now with the bottom half removed, the yellow is spray paint because they are cut from building site survey posts but will eventually be gloss black

 

the goods yard end post clamped in position to show how it will go

 

While the layout is wrong way round to do the lighting posts, i can do some work at the right hand end (now left) making the fencing along the end and finally got around to painting the gates while painting the fence, which is made out of fire work sticks painted with a watered down dark brown. the hooks mentioned are shown to the left of the glue bottle and the wood to go in the board on the right which 1 of them is now glued in

 

Posts glued in along the end and importantly not entirely parallel to the edge, it goes away from the edge slightly and after where the furthest post currently shown is it'll turn to the right and go at an angle to end at the front pf the board. 

[sir douglas]

i under estimated the size of the clips when ordering it so they wont fir on the posts as they are, so extra timber has been glued on and the clip is screwed in to a 5mm deep recess so the post sits flush against the layout. of course the recess is double length so the hooks and slot into each other

 

[sir douglas]

With the clips on my next thought was of securing the posts laterally to stop them from leaning side ways, lengths of 8x17mm have been glued to either sde of the clips for the posts to site snugly between

 

a post in place

 

the posts were then give a base coat of matt black then top coat of gloss black, the aligning timbers were also given this. while was painting, the backscene was lightly sanded down and given a new coat of gloss

[sir douglas]

the webpage for middleton is up

https://www.middletonrailway.org.uk/index.php/special-events/model-railway-exhibition

[sir douglas]

while talking to people recently including a guild forum friend about accessibility of the layout as in being able to see it, which reminded me of when i exhibited at wakefield 2017, a lady in a wheelchair complained that she couldnt see over the hill at the front. not long after i cut back the hill at the right hand end not just as a viewing angle but the curved sloping int he landscape looks better. yesterday i was just going to turn the board back around the right way after having them facing the wall for a few months while i worked on the back. While the boards were down i decided to cut the length of the legs down about 3 inch and also wanted to change the arrangement of the joins to move the adjustable feet out for better stability, this was done but i also had to move the travel lock blocks. the layout is now about 3 inch shorter and is a lot more stable. I'm now going to try to do a last minute flurry of things on the layout which should have doing for the last few weeks but forgot.

 

the new legs ends consist of the old cross member with the half-laps cut off and it is joined back on sandwhiched between 5mm ply glued and screwed either side, the screws are off set for another pair in on the other side

 

the feet on  the middle leg have been moved in to not fol the other when folded

 

bridge parapet extensions glued in, 2mm ply covered in DAS then scribed

 

the goods yard will get some work, painting over the filler in the fence footings and a covering of that black stuff i got which didnt fade purple at all ont he window cill

[sir douglas]

a coat of scatter on the goods yard and a coat of paint on the bridge extensions. the un painted bit will be hidden behind a shed

[sir douglas]

good day playing with a footplate ride on matthew murray in the afternoon

[sir douglas]

the layout behaved its self except for a fiddleyard track selecting knob coming off which was easily put back on and the screws tightened up. being in a small hole under the footpath doesnt help so im going to cut a rectangle out of the board below so i can get at the screws from underneath with a screwdriver. the moving apart of the adjustable feet has done wonders for the stability

[sir douglas]

the remedial work was done straight away after Middleton, as said a hole was cut in the board under knobs so i can get to the screws, while i had theat board, the broken power plug bracket was strengthened and moved, it was on a joining block in the front of the board but its now on a n angle stretcher closer to the rest of the wiring.

 

The bracket used to be on the block top left now its ont he strecther int he middle, you can see the new hole below that on the left

 

[sir douglas]

Last week i felt that it was about time to uprgade the house at the front from just a card mock up.

 

a shell made of 2mm styrene

 

This time instead of having to cut the windows myself i bought some, but the upstairs were cut and shut down to 4 panes from 8

 

the windows were set into the inside with frames of 2x2mm to give wall depth and doors made up of 3 layers; frame, door and panels. The house was then covered with embossed sheet except for one side which will be painted black to go at the layout front. care was taken so the mortar lines of stonework in the windows and doors lined up with the rest. Although it should have been by design, it was complete fluke that the bottoms and tops of the windows match up with the mortar lines

 

Chimney also made up and covered. A based coat of tan with a base coat of brown on the doors and windows brings it up how the progress is currently

[sir douglas]

Work has also started on a large brick shed to cover the 2 point levers infront of the station building, i started tring to carve the opening to match the fascia as best i could but it was going to be easier the other way round so the edges of the lever surround was cut and planed straight and wood was glued on around it, a rebate was cut out with a chisel to match the opening in the shed. the bottom of the opposite wall had to be cut away a small amount to clear the cardboard covers. the rebate is mainly because i know that i cant get the shed to match up prefectly with the fascia so having something behind the gap painted matt black willl hide it

 

 

[sir douglas]

The station forecourt is coming together now with the new building now having brickwork and a roof (minus tiling) and the pavements have been laid minus the curbs

 

Elsewhere, The water tower finally has a ladder, this one being laser cut wood bought at Telford. the tower also now stands on a new base and just needs the hose to finish it off

[sir douglas]

The house now has glazing but the roof pieces had to be re made to fit better, they're on now with fascia

 

a few weeks ago i made a new control panel which is a bit smaller and the face is a shallower angle which is easier to use. the insert is the old panel face now set into a wooden frame and all the electrics are completely untouched from before. its also built much stronger than the old one

[sir douglas]

Some good progress made with the cattle dock and some fencing added to the platform.

 

making the gates

 

the dock itself has had a lot of work, the dark grey base coat of the sets was covered over with a cream then a light brushing over with light grey. doingt he grey while the tan was still wet it would be taken off on some sets to show the dark grey underneath wich good colour variation. a mix of pve dark brown and cut up brush brisels made a muck and hay mix to go around int he corner of the pens, a small pile was also placed ont eright behind the right hand pen but since it dried and the muckying up of the sets you can hardly see it so i might do a nother mix to make it bigger, eventually there will be a man stood there with a barrow and shovel. left over brown/pve mix was brushed over the left end of the platform against the bridge and grass scattered over it and dry brushed into the sets. the same was done down the right hand edge with some random tufts glued against the posts. the posts themselves were first painted in sleper grime and then randomly brushed over with white and making sure not to go near the tops and bottoms. the bars will eventually also get some rust on them

 

Elsewhere, the platform now has Fencing. a short piece across the right hand endegainst the end of the gents supported by a wooden post, and at the left hand end goes across the end of the street and fills the gap next to the house. there will eventually be a gate across the remaining gap. while working in this area, a ramp was put in between the pavement and platfrom which are at different heights

[sir douglas]

With the gates on and painted, the cattle dock is just about done now apart from the cattle of course, and a figure has been painted to be a farmer watching over them un/loading

[sir douglas]

so now i havent done anything at all to the layout for 14 months and i'm loosing interest, i have some theories as to the cause but I'm definitely not doing anything further to the layout in any constructive or destructive way until i can pin-point my problem. i'm only using it as a test track and photo background, the fiddleyard is a storage space full of half built wagons, locos and boxes of bits

[sir douglas]

One of the ideas is to completely rip up and start again as an industrial, only keeping the fiddleyard the same, ive been occasionally messing with Templot trying to include as many sidings as possible but without it looking to cluttered and forced

[jdb82]

I think option B or D offer the best balance between operational interest and clutterdness

[sir douglas]

my best one yet, though would require major work to the board and the middle leg to cut out for the lower yard.

Edited January 16, 2021 by sir douglas