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It's a long time since news of this layout whcih has been in the making over 10 years, has appeared here! Progress is slow due to lack of time and other household jobs that always need doing.

So I thought I would reload the original plan and images before posting the latest details.

The layout is set on the Braintree branch which has gained a fictitional station at Black Notley which in reality never had one being served from White Notley or Cressing. Because the intermediate stations on the line never had much in the way of an interesting track plans (Cressing had one siding) we need to imagine that Black Notley was a somewhat more important location than it is. I could have planned in a light railway to the Black Notley Hospital - shades of Hellingly in Sussex - and my yet build that as a separate mini layout.

The layout should allow a mix of traffic including freight for Crittalls and we are also assumng that the link to Bishops Stortford did not close so we can run bananna trains and diversions whcih will explain away the somewhat questionable variety of motive power!

Anyway here is the plan - Photos follow

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Edited by pwr
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That looks similar to the size of layout I'm planning (once I get the loft cleared). Main board would be about 16" wide but widening at each end and possibly 30' long. Its good to see what can fit in to an area. Thanks for posting and keep us updated.

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This is how we do the ballasting and these are the raw materials.

 

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I like to mix in a tub and the basic mix is coarse granite, finer granite with a large sccop of Excamite (cascamite), and two scoops of black powder paint with one burnt umber. The scoops are those that are found in a baby milk tin so relatively small. The cascamite scoop is more akin to a table spoon.

 

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Anyhow this is all mixed into the tub and then placed roughly on the section of track to be done. Brushed away from the sleepers, once all is ready the whole lot is sprayed with Mr Muscle Shower Shine (other brands are available!).

 

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The reason I use this is that it contains some form of agent that breaks down the surface tension. You could use a sprayer with some fairy liquid in as an alternative. The track is liberally wetted and this will cause the glue to mix with the ballast and paint. Then I drop diluted PVA from a syringe - this needs to be the consistency of milk until the whole lot is covered.Then I spray a drop more shower shine. Don't worry about getting ballast dust on the sleepers, it will disappear once wet.

 

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Once dry the whole lot should be a reasonably dirty ballast. The photos also show the treatment at the end of the board using card.

 

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Finally a shot of the finished board which has had the rails cleaned and shows a Heljan 47!

 

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Now the job of doing the other boards. I'll hopefully make progress at a much faster rate now

 

 

Paul Rowlinson

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The layout is set on the Braintree branch which has gained a fictitional station at Black Notley which in reality never had one being served from White Notley or Cressing. Because the intermediate stations on the line never had much in the way of an interesting track plans (Cressing had one siding) we need to imagine that Black Notley was a somewhat more important location than it is. I could have planned in a light railway to the Black Notley Hospital - shades of Hellingly in Sussex - and my yet build that as a separate mini layout.

 

The layout should allow a mix of traffic including freight for Crittalls and we are also assumng that the link to Bishops Stortford did not close so we can run bananna trains and diversions whcih will explain away the somewhat questionable variety of motive power!

 

 

I remember White Notley well ( I had an ex girl friend live there), it even had an old 1940's style road sign 'to the station', which I often threatened to pinch, well into the '80's, as I lived in Witham for a few years.

You could also run sugar beet trains from Felsted.smile.gif

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Paul

 

I have a lovely photo of a WD 2-8-0 at Braintree on sugar beet so that should make an appearance and I am contemplating the RoadRailer trials - have to scratch build that lot though. No old kits in O gauge like there is in OO

 

Paul R

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I like what I see and appreciate the tips on ballasting. Preumably the combination of cascamite asnd PVA makes the whole thing a bit more stable when traqnsported.Jamie

 

 

The ballasting is certainly rock solid! An alternative I have used in the past is to sieve some cascamite dry over the ballast mix before wetting it. It doesn't need the PVA then but Cascamite is very expensive stuff these days!

 

 

Paul R

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Guest jonte

Hi Paul.

 

Wonderful ballasting job - may I ask where you acquired the various grades of granite?

 

Wouldn't mind experimenting with this method myself.

 

Many thanx,

 

Jonte

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Hi Paul.

 

Wonderful ballasting job - may I ask where you acquired the various grades of granite?

 

Wouldn't mind experimenting with this method myself.

 

Many thanx,

 

Jonte

 

 

Jonte

 

I have to say that some of this ballast I have had in stock for a number of years and the source now eludes me. However the coarse stuff came from Trinders in Banbury whilst the latest finer ballast was supplied by The Hobby Box in Uckfield. The problem with this stuff is the weight and model shops seem to sell in small quantities only. Trinders sold much bigger bags and at the time I had to visit Banbury regulalry on business which I am sad to say is no longer the case. I think they do advertise in Railway Modeller or at least used to.

 

Paul

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Guest jonte

Hi again Paul,

 

I'll have a route through the pages of Railway Modeller as you suggest.

 

Thanks for replying.

 

Jonte.

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Guest jonte

The quality of ballasting, Paul, flatters the Peco track. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that had it not been for your preliminary photos, I could easily have mistaken it for C&L/Exactoscale.

 

Amazing!

 

Jonte

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On the sbject of Peco 'O' Gauge track, especially points, I've often wondered whether the box containing the retaining spring can be removed without recourse to too mch surgery?

 

Jonte

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The quality of ballasting, Paul, flatters the Peco track. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that had it not been for your preliminary photos, I could easily have mistaken it for C&L/Exactoscale.Amazing!Jonte

 

I am quite pleased with the way it has turned out although sometimes to photos can show things better than the orignal! I don't think I am going to get much done in the next couple of weeks but when I do I will put another photo up

 

regards

 

Paul R

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On the sbject of Peco 'O' Gauge track, especially points, I've often wondered whether the box containing the retaining spring can be removed without recourse to too mch surgery?Jonte

 

 

Jonte

 

The box just unplugs and you are left with a tie bar and an overcentre spring so I don't think any surgery would be needed. There is a ring in the middle that supports the spring so you could trim this up, remove the spring and rely on the spring in the point motor (if you use SEEP motors).

 

On another thought, if the PECO curved points had been available I would have used one of these in place of that at the level crossing end of the layout as the track has to be un prototypically wide spaced there to get the curve in which extends the crossover,

 

I have to say that as I get older I become more fussy about the track and if starting over would use C and L. Hopefully though once complete and point rodding installed, it shouldn't look too bad

 

Paul R

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Many thanks, Paul, for the instruction regarding removal of the rather conspicuous 'box' from Peco points.

 

To be frank, I've considered using them for a layout I've had in mind for sometime now but with some reservation, not least, the box we've discussed which is probably more appropriate to modern image layouts rather than steam based ones. Removal makes them instantly more appealing.

 

Coincidentally, I also intend to use the new curved points - if the layout comes to fruition - to form one half of an engine release cross-over which was situated on a curve on the prototype on which I'm baseing it. My problem is two-fold: to facilitate the traversing of a loco from one line to an adjacent in order to run round its train, will the points have to be of opposite hands as they are faceing i.e. right hand to left hand rather than the right hand to right hand or vice versa of standard points? Also, does the geometry of the lines leaving the curved points allow the tracks to remain in parallel so that when they meet the straight points at the other end of the engine release, the gap between the points is maintained i.e. no widening or narrowing of the gap required.

 

Additionally, would I experience 'buffer-locking' on the curves?

 

Out of curiosity, I wrote for advice to Peco earlier today for clarification so await a reply which I hope will resolve the matter.

 

I've also considered having the curved points - and even the whole cross-over section - custom built and was quoted £125 by Marc Weaver of Marcway only a couple of weeks ago. Again, I have some reservation here as Marcway track, excellent although it is, lacks chairs, not so important in the smaller scales but a little more consicuous in O gauge - whilst the jury is still out, this aspect alone puts the ball firmly in the court of Peco which, when suitably painted, weathered and ballasted - yours being a case in point Paul - looks as good as any.

In fact, your trackwork is very much reminiscent of that fabulous creation: 'Ditchling Green' by Mr. Gordon Gravett. 'Nuff said, methinks!

 

Look forward to more photos of developments when you have time.

 

Jonte.

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I've also considered having the curved points - and even the whole cross-over section - custom built and was quoted £125 by Marc Weaver of Marcway only a couple of weeks ago. Again, I have some reservation here as Marcway track, excellent although it is, lacks chairs, not so important in the smaller scales but a little more consicuous in O gauge .......

 

Jonte

 

For an alternative quote, you could try Stephen Freeman at BorgRail

 

http://www.borg-rail.com/track.html

 

(usual disclaimer..)

 

Tim

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Many thanks, Paul, for the instruction regarding removal of the rather conspicuous 'box' from Peco points.To be frank, I've considered using them for a layout I've had in mind for sometime now but with some reservation, not least, the box we've discussed which is probably more appropriate to modern image layouts rather than steam based ones. Removal makes them instantly more appealing.Coincidentally, I also intend to use the new curved points - if the layout comes to fruition - to form one half of an engine release cross-over which was situated on a curve on the prototype on which I'm baseing it. My problem is two-fold: to facilitate the traversing of a loco from one line to an adjacent in order to run round its train, will the points have to be of opposite hands as they are faceing i.e. right hand to left hand rather than the right hand to right hand or vice versa of standard points? Also, does the geometry of the lines leaving the curved points allow the tracks to remain in parallel so that when they meet the straight points at the other end of the engine release, the gap between the points is maintained i.e. no widening or narrowing of the gap required.Additionally, would I experience 'buffer-locking' on the curves?Out of curiosity, I wrote for advice to Peco earlier today for clarification so await a reply which I hope will resolve the matter.I've also considered having the curved points - and even the whole cross-over section - custom built and was quoted £125 by Marc Weaver of Marcway only a couple of weeks ago. Again, I have some reservation here as Marcway track, excellent although it is, lacks chairs, not so important in the smaller scales but a little more consicuous in O gauge - whilst the jury is still out, this aspect alone puts the ball firmly in the court of Peco which, when suitably painted, weathered and ballasted - yours being a case in point Paul - looks as good as any.In fact, your trackwork is very much reminiscent of that fabulous creation: 'Ditchling Green' by Mr. Gordon Gravett. 'Nuff said, methinks!Look forward to more photos of developments when you have time.Jonte.

 

 

 

Jonte

 

Peco used to produce paper templates for their track at full size for the scale in which you are working so you could ask them for some that you could photocopy and use to plan the layout. I think you do have to have different handed points to make a crossover.

 

I don't think you should experience buffer locking, the radius is too large, you are more likley to get it on straight points although this is something I never experienced on a previous layout.

 

Thanks for the comment on Ditchling Green - this layout has been a real inspiration to me and if I can get half as good as Gordon and Maggie Gravett I will be really pleased. Have you seen Pempoul from the same stable - absolutely stunning!

 

regards

 

 

Paul R

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Guest jonte

Paul,

 

Thanks for your reply and valuable input - hopefully Peco will forward a template or two in their reply? If not, I'll have a lok around for some.

 

I'll also have a look at the website referred to.

 

Although I've not seem Pempoul in the flesh, I've admired it on Youtube and various websites and it is indeed a fabulous piece of work. Who knows, you could be well on the way to achieving something similair with 'Notley' !!! You've definitely made the right start. :D

 

Jonte

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