Loxley

[MartynJPearson]

Having asked a few questions here I thought it was time to share details of my layout. I'll say straight off that progress is likely to be slow, due to other commitments (family, work etc), inability, indecisiveness and general procrastination

 

So, Loxley as it's name suggests, is a fictional location somewhere around Nottingham. I'm fortunate to have a railway room - well, a 12' x 10'8" office with permission from SWMBO to use it as a railway room as long as it still functions as an office. The layout is in two parts - a roundy roundy that goes all round the edge of the room to a depth of a foot (actually I snook it out to 15", shhh) with a spur off to a terminus station that is based on Minories, albeit simplified slightly.

 

Stock represents the 80s and 90s that would be seen in the area. Passenger-wise, I have an 8 car blue and grey HST set, along with some Mk1s, and DMUs in the form of 108s, 150's and a 156. Freight is coal (MGR) and oil (TEA) behind a 56 and a 47 respectively. Some of the stock is recent, others date from my childhood days around 30 years ago!

 

At present, the terminus part is more advanced, with track laid, Scalescenes platforms built, and some scenery and ballasting done. The round the room part is still under construction, with my lack of woodworking prowess making that a slower process!

 

What I've not been very good at so far is taking work in progress photos, but here are a few of the scenery so far.

 

[Ronnie MB]

Sounds and looks promising - I will follow with interest.

 

Good luck!

[SparxD428]

Looking really good so far Martyn. I will be following progress.

Cheers,

Stu.

[Doughnut]

Looks good... platform looks great..very realistic. Is it scratch built or a kit? 

Loxley, by the way (Of Robin Hood fame) is in Sheffield, not 2 miles from me.

 

Dave

[stevescan]

Looking great Martyn.

[class"66"]

Wil follow this,great work so far

[MartynJPearson]

The platforms are Scalescenes, with the brickwork darkened with Humbrol Dark Eart weathering powder. That was done strategically to cover where the colour had run from the ballast glue

 

Ballasted the other two platforms now, and once again despite spraying with matt acrylic varnish (which made them go chalky white) the liquid from the ballast glue has caused the colours to run, so will be doing some more weathering to sort that out

 

Next steps for the station are some buildings on the island platform - trying to find something that will go with the Metcalfe red brick country station which will be alongside the single platform. Currently thinking towards something completely contrasting - a modern pre-fab sort of construction a bit like at Newark.

 

[MartynJPearson]

Realised a whole year has passed with no updates so thought I'd better make amends! Progress has been made on so many fronts, it's difficult to know where to start. Of course, when I say progress, I mean that I have done as much in a year as Andy P would do in a morning.

 

 

All track is laid on the roundy round part, with two storage tracks running around the outside. These are hidden from view by retaining walls and cliff faces - at present there is nothing on top of the majority of the storage section but over time this will be covered over in such a way that access can still be had when something comes off the rails (see my other despairing posts on other threads about Hornby MGRs having an allergy to staying on the rails). Because it will be hidden, my intention is to use a USB webcam to monitor trains entering the storage area. Once in there, they are controlled by some software I've written which interfaces with JMRI running on a Raspberry Pi.

 

In effect, the storage consists of two queues of trains, one in each direction. When the front train is moved out to run round the scenic section, the software advances the trains round to fill the gap, thus leaving space for the train to return on the back of the queue. It does this through having a "learning" mode where by for each train that has been removed from the front of the queue, it moves the trains behind it along until it is told to stop, such that they have advanced the right distance. Then, in normal operation removing a train from the front of the queue moves the trains behind it for that "learnt" period of time.

 

The scenic section is a twin track loop with a slightly contrived fuelling depot, born out of wanting somewhere to have loco's stood but space was at a bit of a premium.

Some of the scenics have started, been having fun with Woodlands Scenics foliage, trees and rock moulds.

 

All points are motorised with Seep motors, controlled using the excellent MERG DCC kits. At present, only one signal is in place, and that is controlled using a PIC microprocessor. A section of about 15 inches just beyond the signal runs through another MERG kit which sends a signal to the PIC when a loco is in that section. When a loco enters the section, the signal is set to red. Once the loco leaves the section, a timer runs and cycles the signal back through yellow, double yellow and to green. There are also "red hold" options, where any facing points that are set against the train will cause the signal to be held at red.

 

 

The terminus station also joins onto the outer circuit now, still more to do on that too but some ballasting has been done and lighting has been added to the platform. This photo shows most of the setup, please excuse the mess that the room is always in!

 

 

Some pictures of the terminus too....

[MartynJPearson]

Destructive day today, the bulldozers have been in and all of the terminus station is gone. The roundy roundy part still stands, just the spur off it is no more.

 

There were a number of niggles that I had with the Minories-esque terminus, the legs on the boards were too cumbersome, the platforms had discoloured where splashes had made the inkjet printer ink run (even though it had been sprayed with varnish), operationally I wasn't sure whether it was what I wanted, and most recently the wife accidentally knocked one of the station buildings off. That wasn't a big issue and would have been easy to repair but it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

 

At the Peterborough show last year, I thoroughly enjoyed watching Emsworth and took inspiration from that. So, I have a new design that I've toyed with, a cut down terminus station and a diesel depot alongside. Would welcome any comments or thoughts on the design...

 

[MartynJPearson]

Whilst deliberating the terminus part, added some Ekcon ground signals to the roundy round part, but was not very happy with them, The use of clear plastic light tubes seems very hit and miss, both in terms of light bleeding and actually transmitting any light.

 

So, ordered some 0805 SMD LEDs from ebay (10 for 97p!) and set about replacing the light tubes and the assembly underneath with the LEDs. Soldering wires onto the LEDs was easier than anticipated, hardest part was gluing the LEDs in place, had to resort to UHU which is my least favourite glue when it comes to small detail due to the stringing, but it did the trick. Once dry, a bit of Milliput was used to prevent light bleed as best I could.

 

Very pleased with the results, wired to an output of a MERG constant output accessory decoder (one output, using a NOT gate to alternate between the ON and OFF aspects - could have used two toggling outputs but too tight to waste outputs!!). Pics below show both aspects.

 

[MartynJPearson]

OK, failed miserably to post a picture

 

So, a year since last posting! In that time, the Minories based terminus has gone on the grounds that it was occupying too much space. Instead, a small high level end to end layout has been built over an area of the roundy roundy where there would have been no scenery.

 

A six lane traverser serves a single platform station (where the sprinter is), oil offloading point (where the TTAs are), fuelling point and single lane Scalescenes depot building.

 

Edited January 25, 2019 by MartynJPearson

[MartynJPearson]

After the mock up carried on building the bridge arch and retaining wall, anyone spot the deliberate mistake?

 

 

Gluing them face down meant I lost track of the orientation. Thankfully the glue was still wet enough to easily make amends once I realised. That, coupled with the fact that I broke the handle of my craft knife meant that it wasn't the most positive of evenings. Daren't run any trains for feaar of pranging them! At least as well the second attempt didn't have the arches upside down or anything!

Edited January 26, 2019 by MartynJPearson

[danstercivicman]

Looks good