Ruston Posted March 18, 2017 Share Posted March 18, 2017 (edited) Nant Y Mynydd is almost finished and with my little Judith Edge 48DS up and running I have been eyeing up the space between my desk and the lowest bookshelf. I reckon it is the perfect space to store a micro layout... The plan is 3ft.10ins x 15 ins. and If I cut a hole in the central support of the bookcase I could even screw the fiddle yard at the other side and operate it in situ. All trains enter and depart stage right, under road bridge. An old quarry face, topped with trees forms the backscene. 1930s - steam - Hornby Peckett Goods inward - tar tanks and the occasional wagon of steam coal for locomotive use. Despatch - tarred roadstone and plain untreated crushed stone in private owner 4 and 5-plank open wagons. 1960s - diesel - Judith Edge 48 and 88DS Rustons, Thomas Hill 4wDM Goods inward - none Despatch - crushed roadstone or railway ballast in 16-ton minerals, 24-ton hoppers and/or BR engineers ballast wagons. For 1960s operation the tar plant would be removable, leaving the footprint of a demolished building. Edited July 1, 2017 by Ruston 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 And I bet you'll have it finished in a couple of weeks.............................. Looks interesting. Hope you've got plenty of corrugated iron for the crusher. If you need inspiration for the loco shed I've got the 2 books on industrial sheds - but then I'll bet you have too! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rope runner Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Hi Ruston, Please document your THV build if you do one, it's in the to-do pile so any pointers would be useful Watching with interest... Paul A. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruston Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 (edited) Cutting the first sod. I still have all my fingers and thumbs after using that vicious circular saw! The back and sides are only 8 1/2inches high to fit under the next shelf in the bookcase for storage. This will mean that either the quarry face will be very low, the trees will be dwarfs, or the trees and quarry buildings will have to be removable. Once construction of the scenery gets under way I'll look at the latter as that is my preferred option. Edited December 23, 2022 by Ruston 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
avonside1563 Posted April 4, 2017 Share Posted April 4, 2017 It's nice to see projects properly thought out and finished to completion (unlike others on this forum), I really don't know how you find the time to do all this Dave. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruston Posted April 6, 2017 Author Share Posted April 6, 2017 (edited) The baseboard is now drying with a coat of paint applied. Edited December 23, 2022 by Ruston 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruston Posted April 7, 2017 Author Share Posted April 7, 2017 (edited) A slight change of track layout. The tar and stone plants can be combined in one building and are no longer split by the end of the run-round loop. The end of the loop will be inset in concrete, or just partially buried, so a loading facility for lorries can be added at the far left. Edited July 1, 2017 by Ruston 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruston Posted April 10, 2017 Author Share Posted April 10, 2017 (edited) Tracklaying has begun. The shed track has been soldered to copper-clad board to make fitting of card, or plywood flooring easier. Copper-clad has also been used for the weighbridge for the same reason. When building Nant Y Mynydd I found it very difficult to fit rail joiners on to the bullhead rail, and the special joiners that Peco have now designed for bullhead rail don't seem to be universally available yet, so I have not used any rail joiners at all. The trackwork has been lined up visually and a piece of plasticard slotted in to keep the rail ends from touching and to provide an expansion gap. Once the glue holding the track to the baseboard is dry these pieces of plasticard are removed. Each individual rail has its own power feed and I intend to make my own cosmetic fishplates from plasticard. This time around, to increase the reliability of the points I have soldered feeds to the tags that hold the point blades in.Wires feed the fixed rails between the frog and the blade too, meaning that there are no electrical connections that rely on friction. With all this faffing around I'm beginning to wonder if I should just build my own track next time... Edited December 23, 2022 by Ruston 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruston Posted April 11, 2017 Author Share Posted April 11, 2017 (edited) Tracklaying completed but nothing is as yet wired up. The first plaster casts for the quarry face have been made. Edited December 23, 2022 by Ruston 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruston Posted April 12, 2017 Author Share Posted April 12, 2017 (edited) The next thing to do will be the sub-baseboard wiring, fitting of point motors, uncouplers etc. As I don't have any of that yet I have turned to building stock for the BR period. Apart from 16-ton minerals and iron ore tipplers being used to carry limestone, I have also seen Dia 1/161 hoppers for this traffic and I quite like the look of them so I am adding more to the two that I will be borrowed from River Don Works. I aquired another two second hand wagons, one Dapol and one Mainline. The frames differ on them but the bodies are the same - both are also too long and heed a lot of work to get them anything like they should be... Not only is it too long but the body is mounted on a ridiculous plate, which is around a scale three inches thick. Stripped down. The couplings, frame and wheels are of no use, so will be binned. The supports need to be cut from the floor plate. The first razor saw cut is made adjacent to the panel join. 4mm needs cutting off the centre panel and this has been measured and then marked out with masking tape as a cutting guide. A Parkside 9ft. wheelbase chassis with independent brakes (as on a mineral wagon with bottom doors) is used for the frame sides and brakes. For some bizarre reason this frame kit does not include headstocks, although the version with Morton brake does. I have used the spare headstocks from a Parkside plate wagon, which have been narrowed. The inset photo shows the longitudinal mounts that have been cut from the floor plate and notched to fit in the new frames. The hopper body is glued to the chassis and the various supports are glued in place. Here's one I did earlier but using the frames from a Bachmann BR Dia 1/100 mineral wagon. Edited January 4, 2023 by Ruston 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruston Posted April 13, 2017 Author Share Posted April 13, 2017 (edited) The original idea for this micro layout was to have plain stone and tarred stone leaving by rail. Subsequent reading on this subject has shown that the carriage of tarmacadam by rail was rapidly diminishing by the mid 1930s, so there wil now be no tarmacadam carried by rail in either era. Plain stone will still leave by rail and tar will still come in by rail but the tarred stone will be carried by road vehicles. Pictures unavailable due to them being held ransom by the pirates at Photobucket Edited July 1, 2017 by Ruston 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 Thanks for the demo of how to adapt the hopper wagons. It's something I've had on my 'to do bucket list' for ages. I might get a couple of the underframes this weekend at York. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpplumy Posted April 13, 2017 Share Posted April 13, 2017 watching with interest ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruston Posted April 18, 2017 Author Share Posted April 18, 2017 (edited) I have finished tracklaying and 90% of the ballasting is done and the track and points are wired up and working; only the DG electromagnets remain to be wired but are fitted. A bolt-on fiddle yard/sector plate has also been made. It's a bit stiff to turn but as soon as I can find a candle to rub on the surfaces I'll give that a go. The plaster casts have all been made for the old quarry face and are now in place. Edited December 23, 2022 by Ruston 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Ruston Posted April 21, 2017 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 21, 2017 (edited) Engine shed and bridge. The outer skin is made from Wills corrugated iron effect sheet. Of course this sheet is plain on the other side, so instead of using two sheets back-to-back I flattened out a Chinese takeaway tinfoil carton and rubbed it over a Wills sheet, using a ballpoint pen to emboss the foil with the corrugations. The foil was then glued to the plain sides of the Wills sheet to form the inside surfaces. The wooden framing uses 2mm strip balsa. The quarry face is all in place now, all 4 feet of it. The mouldings, made using a Woodland Scenics mould, are an odd shape and are clearly not made to fit together, so the gaps have been plugged with DAS clay. To blend the DAS and the plaster together, and to keep the faceted appearance of the quarry face, lumps of coal were pressed against the DAS and their shape transferred to it. The whole lot has been given a coat of Woodland Scenics concrete, a wash of grey and a dry-brushing of Tamiya flat white to bring it all together. Once all the ground cover is in place the ground and quarry face will get a blow-over with the airbrush, using a suitable tone. Building up the bridge and wall using DAS. The clay was cut into strips, rolled and flattened to different thicknesses, The flat sausages, once dry, are cut and trimmed into individual stones. Edited December 23, 2022 by Ruston 20 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon A Posted April 21, 2017 Share Posted April 21, 2017 If you use the Wills clear corrugated sheet it is thinner and corrugated on both sides. Gordon A Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruston Posted April 21, 2017 Author Share Posted April 21, 2017 If you use the Wills clear corrugated sheet it is thinner and corrugated on both sides. Gordon A Yes, but the corrugations are wider to match the corrugated asbestos sheets. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon A Posted April 21, 2017 Share Posted April 21, 2017 Ahhhh.... Gordon A Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LBRJ Posted April 21, 2017 Share Posted April 21, 2017 Possibly too late for now, butI thought to mention that South East Finecast do a (thin) sheet of clear "corrugated iron". Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruston Posted April 27, 2017 Author Share Posted April 27, 2017 (edited) The engine shed is finished and has been temporarily planted. It will only be fixed in place after the scenics and greenery are finished. The weighbridge uses two Wills kits to provide two bridges and one cabin made from the two so as to give a window and door facing each bridge. One for road and one for rail. Edited December 23, 2022 by Ruston 17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon A Posted April 27, 2017 Share Posted April 27, 2017 Ruston, By the time you have two sets of weighing machine read outs in your hut you will not have much room for a table, chair, persons etc. Gordon A Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruston Posted April 29, 2017 Author Share Posted April 29, 2017 (edited) On 27/04/2017 at 15:11, Gordon A said: Ruston, By the time you have two sets of weighing machine read outs in your hut you will not have much room for a table, chair, persons etc. Gordon A No worries, the weighbridgeman is on a diet. I have done more work on the bridge. It's inspired by the one at Wirksworth quarry, where it blended in to a rock face and seemed a tight fit for the wagons that had to pass through it. I thought about making it from Wills sheet but even the random stone sheet looked too uniform and so I took the plunge and decided to build the arch properly. Using rolled DAS again, I used a van and a section of toilet roll, covered in cling film, as a support until the glue had dried. Edited December 23, 2022 by Ruston 16 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruston Posted April 29, 2017 Author Share Posted April 29, 2017 I thought I'd post this out of general interest. Whilst searching the interwebs for pictures of quarry buildings I came across this picture of Bowne & Shaw's Black Hawthorn 0-4-0ST at Wirksworth. What interests me is the load; a great lump of stone, and the fact that it is on/in a BR Plate wagon. I guess this must have been another product of quarrying that was carried on the main line into the BR period as I don't suppose it would be on a BR wagon if it was some internal movement. https://mikemorant.smugmug.com/keyword/black%20hawthorn/i-tfXLgK9/A 6 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rope runner Posted April 29, 2017 Share Posted April 29, 2017 I thought I'd post this out of general interest. Whilst searching the interwebs for pictures of quarry buildings I came across this picture of Bowne & Shaw's Black Hawthorn 0-4-0ST at Wirksworth. What interests me is the load; a great lump of stone, and the fact that it is on/in a BR Plate wagon. I guess this must have been another product of quarrying that was carried on the main line into the BR period as I don't suppose it would be on a BR wagon if it was some internal movement. https://mikemorant.smugmug.com/keyword/black%20hawthorn/i-tfXLgK9/A Looks like limestone "clunch". These are large lumps selected for use in architecture to carve large ornate building elements, or cut to size to suit. When first quarried it is soft and easy to shape/work, but dries to a more hard-wearing and tougher stone with time. Commonly used now in the restoration of Churches and period buildings. Paul A. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon A Posted April 29, 2017 Share Posted April 29, 2017 Looking at the picture there are no chains to hold the lump in place. Who was responsible in ensuring that the stone was properly loaded and secured for safe transit on the main line? If chains were required who supplied them and how were they returned? Gordon A Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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