Upcoming O gauge sale - End of the line at Marsh Lane

[Jintyman]

John R Smith and BG John, I tip my hat to both of you, for that exceptional work, and your obvious accurate perspective shown in the above photos.

 

Rich,

I make up my crossing vee's exactly the same as Don and Simon mention above, it's good fun and you save money in the process!!!

 

Jinty

[Simond]

Yes, I'd add my "Respect" to those that built working point & crossings without the benefit of Templot & Debs' gauges & my own jigs.

 

But believe me, I reckon it's easier with these new fangled accoutrements!!!

 

Best

Simon

[BG John]

Yes, I'd add my "Respect" to those that built working point & crossings without the benefit of Templot & Debs' gauges & my own jigs.

 

But believe me, I reckon it's easier with these new fangled accoutrements!!!

 

Best

Simon

Mine was built in 1986, before these newfangled accoutrements were invented, although I did have a set of Broad Gauge Society and EM Gauge Society P4 gauges.

[MarshLane]

I'll echo the comments to all from the guys above.  That trackwork is superb!  Well done.

 

I'm about to see if i can get the track glued down to the depot base, and maybe, just maybe, even try on a spare piece of MDF making my first moves with DAS clay this evening.  My idea, if I can get it so I'm happy with it, is to use DAS clay to replicate the brick floor, which will cover up the sleeper issues etc.  Also, now have some acrylic black water based paint, so i'll see if i can come up with something that I'm happy with for 'dirtying' the whitewash internal walls.  Wish me luck!  It feels like the shed building has stuttered a little in the past few days, but its doing all the necessary bits away from the shed its, that will make the shed work, that is taking the time!

 

Also, I know i've said this before, but thanks to everyone whose supporting this thread, through viewing, comments, suggesting etc.. Its amazing how much it spurs you on to carry on and do things, and how much support you feel you have when a problem or query occurs.  Much appreciated guys, i tip my hat (well i would if I wore one!) to all of you - your modelling is inspirational and sets the bar very high for us newcomers to try and get anywhere close!  I've spent time reading Steve Fay's Cardiff Canton thread the past couple days.  Wow if I can get anywhere close to that - even half way as good - i'll be happy!

 

Cheers for now.

Rich

[Donw]

 You are not really in a minority John.

When I first built 0 gauge track I used a table of leads from an article by the P4 lot on Bodmin. The new fangled plastic track parts from Alan Gibson (later  became the C+L stuff). Made the crossings on this Jig 

used some bendy wood to mark the track centre line and built it all direct onto the baseboards. As I used the same crossing angle for all the turnouts I used the same lead for them all except I found it needed to be shorter for a wye. It all worked well since then I have learnt more about track and how to do wyes curved points  and double slips. 

 

 

Don

[John R Smith]

While we are at it, and not wishing to hijack Rich's splendid thread and his really terrific engine shed (which I seriously admire) it may interest you to know how low-tech our methods were on the track gang at Newton Abbot back in 1973. We just had two precision tools - our track gauge made of mahogany and brass, which Eric the ganger would let nobody else use, and a cant gauge for measuring super-elevation. But when it came to packing, levelling and slewing, Eric's old-fashioned Mk 1 eyeball was the judge, and we did it all that way, by judgement and just sighting along the line. The aim, as always, was to get a good "top" to the rail and a smooth line through the curves.

 

John

[MarshLane]

While we are at it, and not wishing to hijack Rich's splendid thread and his really terrific engine shed (which I seriously admire) it may interest you to know how low-tech our methods were on the track gang at Newton Abbot back in 1973. We just had two precision tools - our track gauge made of mahogany and brass, which Eric the ganger would let nobody else use, and a cant gauge for measuring super-elevation. But when it came to packing, levelling and slewing, Eric's old-fashioned Mk 1 eyeball was the judge, and we did it all that way, by judgement and just sighting along the line. The aim, as always, was to get a good "top" to the rail and a smooth line through the curves.

 

John

 

 

Hi John,

Thanks for your kind comments!  Feel free to hijack away with such gems ... always a pleasure to read them!

 

Had an hour, before I needed to finish off some business work (it always gets in the damm way!) but managed to get the track off the Templot template and glued onto the shed base.  Really pleased with how its worked around the pit area.  Apologies if this is a somewhat large image, due to being portrait!

 

 

Also had a play around with some Acrylic black and white paint, mixed into a very dark grey then watered down. Brushed over the plastikard (which had previously had an inch thick area spray painted matt black to represent the four foot bottom base) then dabbed and wiped all over with some cotton wool to create an uneven smoke, dirt and grim effect on a whitewashed wall.   Not perfect yet, but not bad.  Think it needs to be more watered down to be honest, perhaps a slightly lighter grey as well?  Personally, I think it looks better in reality than it does in the pictures lol! But its a bit too heavily covered for what I wanted.  Another test piece necessary...

 

 

Rich

[John R Smith]

Rich

 

That is coming along nicely, and as you say it is a test piece, not the finished item. I would say that the grime is a bit overdone, perhaps, in my memory the white part was pretty white. And the demarcation between the white and black needs to be crisper.

 

John

[MarshLane]

Rich

 

That is coming along nicely, and as you say it is a test piece, not the finished item. I would say that the grime is a bit overdone, perhaps, in my memory the white part was pretty white. And the demarcation between the white and black needs to be crisper.

 

John

 

 

Thanks John,

Yes, my view entirely.  Originally i'd just sprayed the black to see what the coverage was like - but i need some better masking tape before doing the main walls.   Also I should say that the bottom black wasn't masked off at all when practicing the top bit tonight. Once i can get the weathered whitewashed to come through better, then I think that will be done first, mask off and spray the black base of it.  

 

But, thanks for confirming it was overdone - i'm trying to find a way of getting it, shall we say minimal! Im actually wondering if paint is the right thing ... charcoal power very lightly dry brushed is something that has occurred to me might be an alternative way?

 

Rich

[MarshLane]

Hello Rich

 

Well, I'm probably in a minority of one here, but I have never used a template. So my methods may well seem a bit unorthodox these days - all I have ever done was just sketch out a track plan on paper but not to scale. Then I drew the centre lines of the tracks on the baseboard using a springy thin batten to get smooth curves. Next step was to cut and glue sleepers and crossing timbers to the baseboard using a spacing gauge (I used balsa, but ply seems to be the thing now). Plain track is easy, just thread the chairs and lay it using your track gauge. For points and crossings I laid the outside rail (stock rails) first, and where the inside rails intersect I built my crossing - then you just lay all the other bits to fit, as it were. Not very scientific, but I did some very complex track for "Maristow" this way and it all worked just fine. I used Peco rail and chairs.

 

I know, I know, you will all be shaking your heads in disbelief and horror and of course you would be right by today's much higher standards I am sure. And also of course I have never had the slightest clue what my crossing angles or leads were, or curve radii come to that. I just did it all by eye and if it looked right that was good enough.

 

John

 

 

Hi John,

Apologies, I asked you a question earlier, and just realised I never responded to your answer.  That all makes sense now!  Full of admiration, I thought points and the like would be hard enough with templates, computer aids and track gauges, but to draw it all out by hand and build without a template - wow! But well done for what you achieved, that really is superb.

 

Thanks

 

Rich

[MarshLane]

Evening all,

Well work has hampered progress the past few days, but a number of areas have moved forward this evening.  Firstly the new packet of rail from C&L arrived - with correct 7mm bullhead included this time after i managed to order 4mm on the last occasion!  So some progress has been made on the shed trackwork and base, details in a moment.

 

You may recall earlier in the thread that there were a number of question, queries and comments about how the inner walls of the shed should be portrayed.  Thanks to input from various members, along with studying the images that are online and in a number of books i've got here, it was decided that the walls should be whitewashed, with perhaps a thin layer of grime from years of steam locomotives within, while the bottom 4-5' of the wall would be black.  The latter part does not cause any issues, and can be easily accomplished with some matt black spray paint that I already have, but getting a white wall that had the effect of being dirty, rather than 'covered' in dirty has proved challenging.

 

Several test pieces later, and my father hit on the idea of using cotton wool to gently wipe a very watered down light grey acrylic paint over the whitewashed wall (white plastikard) then gently using a kitchen pan scrub to remove the excess paint and in some cases, remove most of the paint, leaving a wall that looked mainly white but with a light covering of grime.  Personally, I think it worked quite well, so he undertook to do one of the inner side walls yesterday and see how it came out, see bottom wall below:

 

 

The top wall obviously hasn't been touch, and both have only loosely been placed on the MDF side walls.  Also, of course, the black bottom section has yet to be masked off and sprayed.  However, we were both quite pleased with how it came out, so this afternoon, he undertook work on the other side wall as well - he's got the job for dealing with the two ends too!!!

 

 

This evening, i've managed to push on a little bit with the trackwork as commented earlier.  You will have seen the trackwork around the pit area on Road 2 of the shed, completed with Peco rail, well i decided to wait for the new C&L rail to arrive before tackling the trackwork on road 1.  The Templot template was cut out closer to the track, with the pit area also being cut out this time, and things seem to becoming together a bit better.  Only one rail done, but its straight, the rail clips are in the right way, and they are on the outer side of the track this time!  Second rail will be done tomorrow, following which the electrical connections will be soldered on - i decided on the three, one at either end and one in the middle, to ensure a good conductivity - before the track is weathered.

 

 

 

Elsewhere, thought to the brick base is progressing.  John advised earlier in the thread that the brick floor would have been paviours, which are slightly bigger than normal bricks, so I have been trying to come up with a way of replicating these.  Having acquired some DAS modelling clay from The Works (it was on sale at 50% off!) my first attempt wasn't too bad, although id managed to roll the clay too thin!  I need to find a way of accurately representing the brick flooring for a shed, but part of the problem is the photos I have only show a small part, and its difficult to see how it would have worked across the shed floor - around rails for example. If anyone has any photos - please feel free to post them on here, all help is appreciated!

 

I have however come across some superb moulds for creating cobbled 'setts' which Im aiming to acquire and try for the shed yard, away from the running lines, but where the entrance from the street would have been.  We'll see what happens!  Thats it for this update.  

 

Rich

Edited June 15, 2016 by MarshLane

[Andrew P]

Coming on really well Rich, really nice work  so far.

[MarshLane]

Evening All,

Bit more progress on things this evening.  Andy thanks for your kind comments. Yes, I do feel some progress is now being made, although I'm lightyears behind your speed!  With the second road being laid yesterday, tonight was spent adding the electrical connections to the trackwork, ready for when it goes on the layout (which is the next thing to be started on).  I went with two connections on each road in the end, one at either end of the pit.

 

Having done those, the whole shed board was masked over with newspaper ready for the track to be weathered.  In some cases this is a non-job as once the shed floor is in the track isn't going to be seen, but i wanted to make sure there was no rogue bits of rail glistening away in photos!  Final job this evening was therefore to spray the entire thing in rail match red rust ... it will also get a light dusting tomorrow of grime, but the inside part of the track, especially over the pits will be further weathered as the project progresses.

 

My father has also had a go at weathering the exterior walls and, while its not turned out quite how we thought it would, its done a good thing of taking the brightness out of the red colour!  Pictures tomorrow hopefully on that one.  In the meantime, here's today's efforts....

 

Rich

 

The masked off trackwork.

 

 

Electrical connections.  Normally these will go under the track, but as this won't be seen side soldering was easier!

 

 

All covered and now drying....

[HealeyMills]

Hi Rich,

 

You're making a lot of progress.  However...... erm...... I have one question..... erm....

 

Don't the keys (wedges) go on the outside of the rails?

[MarshLane]

Hi Rich,

 

You're making a lot of progress.  However...... erm...... I have one question..... erm....

 

Don't the keys (wedges) go on the outside of the rails?

 

 

Hi Lee,

 

Well if your going to let conventional thinking into your mind and allow it to cloud your judgement!  hehe!

 

Yes they do, and yes they should.  I c**ked it up made a critical miscalculation when having threaded all the chairs on, i then put the left rail on the right, and the right rail on the left while compiling Road 2!  I put it down to a newbie idiot making a mistake. Unfortunately this miscalculation wasn't discovered until after i'd glued all the chairs down!  Normally, i'd probably have prised everything off, and started again, but decided it was a first attempt, its within a shed, everything will get painted, it wouldn't really be noticeable and hopefully won't affect the locos running quality - i've tried a couple of wagons, and a Class 08 being pushed over it, and all run fine!

 

I can confirm that the chairs do follow conventional thinking on Road 1

 

Rich

[HealeyMills]

... Unfortunately this miscalculation wasn't discovered until after i'd glued all the chairs down!  Normally, i'd probably have prised everything off, and started again, but decided it was a first attempt, its within a shed, everything will get painted, it wouldn't really be noticeable 

 

I like your thinking

[Donw]

The Midland railway did use inside keys for a time. 

Don

[MarshLane]

Thanks Don,

Not sure what the management would have thought of MR practices being used on the Eastern, but if anyone askes ..... Lol!

 

Rich

[MarshLane]

Just a quick update, as I'm suppose to be doing some work, but just haven't got the incentive today!

 

The weathered track looks good (shame in some respects that it will get covered up!) and will avoid any bits of nickel silver poking through!  Still trying to find a decent picture of brickwork floors or paviours, with which to deal with the shed floor, so that's being held up a little at the moment.  Swapped to working on sorting the pits out, so things are progressing, but nothing worth taking any pictures of yet!  I've got a few days away coming up, but once back i'm hoping that I should be able to get the building put together and the whole model moves a step closer to completion!

 

Rich

[MarshLane]

Well I've managed to get almost a full afternoon working on the shed building today, for what feel like the first time in ages!  I'm really pleased with how the trackwork has come out, and i've been playing around with the DAS clay, trying to sort the flooring out.  Not there yet, although I think today's effort is the closest I've been yet.  Just forgot to do some pictures to get people's thoughts!  Ah well, next time!

 

The wooden base for the shed has been created today.  Regular readers will recall that out of the blue, I acquired an A2 Pacific recently, the chimney of which is a bit taller than a Class 40!  The result is that it wouldn't go through the shed doors!  So the answer, has been to raise the shed by 10mm throughout, which has been achieved using some 10mmx10mm wood dowling (or whatever its called!) to form a frame, the inside will be (has been) spray painted black, so it matches the brickwork directly above, the outer side will be covered in weathered Plastikard brick, which I think will look ok.

 

The base can be seen here, just roughly put together before painting, during a trial fitting of the sides and back.  I've also acquired some decent masking tape this afternoon, so one of the next tasks is to mask off the weathered internal sides to the shed, the bottom of which can then be painted black, and fixed to the inside of the walls.  The core building can then be erected, and the whole project will move a major step forward.

 

 

 

The frame was then put together with overlapping joints, secured using the wonderful 'No Nails' glue

 

 

 

So not much progress in all, but plenty of work!  The sides of the pit walls have also been heavily weathered this afternoon, so that should allow me to actually pull all the bits together to build the pits next week!

 

Rich

[MarshLane]

Oh, one other thing, I forgot to mention.  The wagon rolling stock fleet grew by another two vehicles today.  First up is this BR liveried Plate Wagon, complete with load.

 

 

The wagon was acquired from a well known auction site at a very reasonable price, and will join the general freight set, which is starting to grow nicely now.  It will be good once the layout baseboards are constructed next month, to be able to to actually shunt vehicles about!

 

The other addition, is a Parkside Dundas 20-ton NE two-axle brake van plastic kit.  Having never really built a kit before, and wanting to put a rake of 21-ton coal hoppers together, I decided I needed to take the plunge, so this is the first addition.  The kit arrived today, and will be started once the shed building has been completed.

 

Rich

[muddys-blues]

Well I've managed to get almost a full afternoon working on the shed building today, for what feel like the first time in ages!  I'm really pleased with how the trackwork has come out, and i've been playing around with the DAS clay, trying to sort the flooring out.  Not there yet, although I think today's effort is the closest I've been yet.  Just forgot to do some pictures to get people's thoughts!  Ah well, next time!

 

The wooden base for the shed has been created today.  Regular readers will recall that out of the blue, I acquired an A2 Pacific recently, the chimney of which is a bit taller than a Class 40!  The result is that it wouldn't go through the shed doors!  So the answer, has been to raise the shed by 10mm throughout, which has been achieved using some 10mmx10mm wood dowling (or whatever its called!) to form a frame, the inside will be (has been) spray painted black, so it matches the brickwork directly above, the outer side will be covered in weathered Plastikard brick, which I think will look ok.

 

The base can be seen here, just roughly put together before painting, during a trial fitting of the sides and back.  I've also acquired some decent masking tape this afternoon, so one of the next tasks is to mask off the weathered internal sides to the shed, the bottom of which can then be painted black, and fixed to the inside of the walls.  The core building can then be erected, and the whole project will move a major step forward.

 

 

 

The frame was then put together with overlapping joints, secured using the wonderful 'No Nails' glue

 

 

 

So not much progress in all, but plenty of work!  The sides of the pit walls have also been heavily weathered this afternoon, so that should allow me to actually pull all the bits together to build the pits next week!

 

Rich

 

WOW .... that just stirred up memories of the mid 70's, watching my Grandad "who got me into trains" making doll's house for my sisters, and a car garage with a ramp and car par park on top for me   .

 

Craig.

[MarshLane]

Hi Craig,

Funny how you remember things isn't it - I had a wooden garage with a car park on top!  The showroom bit below had wooden doors that would slide open if you pushed them hard enough!!!  Happy days!

 

Rich

[PjKing1]

Excellent stuff Rich, just caught up with all this, love the engine shed and great work with the track.

 

There's a Marsh Lane 10 minutes from mine, used to have a coal yard in the steam days but just another station on the Mersey Rail network now (Bootle New Strand).

 

Looking forward to more

 

Cheers

[MarshLane]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the comment. Yes, its coming on, been putting the yard track plan together in Templot, so that I might be able to get trackbuilding in the next week or so!  Got a few days away with work at the moment, so hence why nothing is happening. But want to get pushed on a bit and actually run a loco!

 

Ive been thinking about whether to do the baseboards, normal mdf/chipboard top with a good solid frame underneath, or whether to go for an open approach to make the scenery more interesting.  Any thoughts/comments from anyone?  Also i've been trawling around but cannot really find much on building open top baseboards on rmweb - does anyone have any suggestions, pointers or can recommend any threads?

 

Rich

Edited June 28, 2016 by MarshLane