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Leamouth


ianmianmianm
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EDIT, 12th November 2019: I started this layout back in 2017 and unfortunately due to a move across the oceans, it had to be stripped from the baseboard and the components packed away into a suitcase. Finally, and thanks in no small part to the Layout-In-A-Box concept from Model Railway Scenery, I'm having another crack at it, using a fairly similar theme and a lot of the original scenics that were salvaged. So rather than start a new thread, I'm going to piggy back on to this one. 

 

 

Introducing my 80cm x 30cm micro which is more a working diorama than a layout. The model is in N gauge and incorporates,

the Dlr, and underground and a bit of heavy rail. I more follows next week when I get to play with a proper keyboard....

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Edited by ianmianmianm
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The layout is being built in Malta and therefore consideration of how to get it back to the UK when I return are paramount. At the moment this means it consists of four single lines... All of these abut the board edges for future extension. but for now the placement of the buildings and the restriction of the Docklands trains to single units enables them to hide behind the tall buildings on either side as view blockers. It does mean that the Dlr trains run unprototypically as two reversible line for now.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I’ve been a bit lax in updates and photos… reason is, I decide to make some substantial changes to the layout to incorporate the tomix bus system. It was going to be now or never!. So I am waiting on one further building, and the bus set, to arrive from Japan (or more accurately, customs in Italy) before completing the scenic side, meanwhile have swapped the DLR to the rear single line (where the Overground dmu ran previously) and have moved the Overground to the main viaduct to take advantage of finding a Class 170 to convert on ebay for just 41 quid. Now to get the vinyls from Electra fitted and finalise the main scenery positions. More photos will follow when the revision is done.

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  • 4 months later...

 

I’ve been a bit lax in updates and photos… reason is, I decide to make some substantial changes to the layout to incorporate the tomix bus system. It was going to be now or never!. So I am waiting on one further building, and the bus set, to arrive from Japan (or more accurately, customs in Italy) before completing the scenic side, meanwhile have swapped the DLR to the rear single line (where the Overground dmu ran previously) and have moved the Overground to the main viaduct to take advantage of finding a Class 170 to convert on ebay for just 41 quid. Now to get the vinyls from Electra fitted and finalise the main scenery positions. More photos will follow when the revision is done.

 

 

So.… another intercontinental move is imminent - stock, buildings and as much scenic as possible have been packed up into half a suitcase for rebirth later this year.... along with my Lisbon Trams and London Trams..... modelling in a country of 65,000 people and probably no other modellers. I'll update later!

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  • 1 year later...

After over 18 months stagnation, and the parts of the original layout stripped and packed away, I've finally got them all out of a suitcase on the other side of the ocean and now in Bermuda. A recent trip to Toronto has yielded some lovely Japanese stuff and the Scale Model Scenery layout in a box boards have arrived. The era is around 2006/2007, and based somewhere on the edge of Docklands.

 

Mark 2, now called "Leamouth", will be 20cm x 150cm scenic with a further 60cm fiddle yard that will fit in 3 of the 22 litre RUB boxes (I'm toying with the idea of making the fiddle yard another scenic layout in itself of something completely different.

 

Power will be DC, because of the N chassis being used.

 

While I wait for the glue to dry on the boards, I thought I would start on the new viaduct arches. There will be a double track island station atop these used by District Line D Stock and a class 313 (starting with the N train kits for both but hoping that Revolution's model makes it to fruition. Just in front of the arches, at a lower level will be a single track stub DLR station on a viaduct...(the track bed for the latter will be just a bit higher than the level the station sign is at. The arches are actually HO models and painted to have that "modernized" look.  At the very front of the board will be the tomix bus system, with a reversing loop at each end off stage. This one should, I hope, move very quickly as I have most of the scenics in as well as the stock......

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Better one of the station. I was going to make an internal structure for this, but at the moment am planning to hide some of the point and section switches under the viaduct, so will try that first, with an interior from a photo for now. The large glass frontages will probably have some form of kiosks or retail behind them. 

 

 

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More stuff arrived so more playing around.

 

I have an old MRS board from another diorama (which has been trimmed down a bit to fit the RUB box and will eventually be the fiddle yard board). I'm using it here for the mock-up while the real boards dry.

 

The first picture shows the configuration I plan to use with the Tomix bus system - the big office bock will either be on a raised deck (can anyone help on whether that is architecturally viable in real life if I simulate a supporting structure underneath? clearly not from the lean!) or will have a through access road on one side of it (preferring not to do this due to cutting the tomix product), allowing the bus to run underneath. The loop will now run under the viaduct and emerge on the next board from under a road bridge. This block is slightly too wide for the board, but does have the beauty of being sectional which means I can remove the top bit for storage. There will need to be access apertures in the backboard.

 

 

I'm committed to the bus system now, but had I not been, then the temporary mock up I did with some small RUBs to support the viaduct station yielded something interesting - 2 small boxes (eventually will be my stock boxes) fitting beautifully under the station viaduct (PIC 2) which would have allowed me to have integral storage of stock (the plan would be to slide them in from an aperture at the board end. Including this right now as it may inspire someone to do this in their model. ? Has anyone ever done this before with stock boxes??

 

The station entrance has also gained a small canopy, made from one of the bus shelter sections. (PIC 3). I got very excited at how this turned out!

I need to either trim or colour the top edge of the sign. The roadway will be level with built-up landscape, and between the current roadway and the front of the arches, slightly lower that the high level Silverlink Station will be the DLR station. I've ordered some 3-D printed modern viaduct sections (PIC 4 -  next reply) I'm REALLY hoping, with these, that they will print grainy, so they colour up well as concrete. I also have escalators, lift portals and platform ready, and HO scale Faller modern bus shelters to use as DLR station canopies. 

 

 

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Board 1 is on its way to completion. The first train ran in today - a 2 car train of A stock....

 

The bus lane covers the Tomix road sections, I am hoping that all chassis can pick up through this paper - the one I have will, but not sure about others. It disappears round the back and does a full loop under the station viaduct, with the bus stop set for it to stop at.

 

You can see the two DLR viaduct piers loose fitted and ready. The Spar convenience store is a cheap little Tomytec product. 

 

Both the platform canopy and the dark grey part of the office building unclip fort storage as they are too tall for the storage box. I might replace the platform one with something a bit more spartan. In the end the building was fitted this way round as there is a tempting gap just in front to continue the DLR line out of stage left. 

 

The backscene is problematic - being such a short height I decided against trying to depict any London scenery within 1.5 inches. The concrete walling is temporary for now while I figure out what to do - it doesn't look too bad considering , but it simply would not be there on a viaduct. I tried plain sky but that didnt work either. 

 

Big shout to Scale Model Scenery's laser cut little baseboards, the sum total of 10 minutes with a tube of glue to put these together. 

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Apologies for disjointed posting due to typing on a PC but uploading from a phone. Board 1 is the focus of my attention, I also built a rough fiddle yard which can attach onto this, (and eventually board 2 instead) and have run some trains. I decided to create a small ticket hall which has ticket windows, machines and escalators inside, but this is not lit yet. Also changed is the platform shelter, which has been scaled down a bit to something more minimal that doesn't hide the trains.

 

There's a hold up at shapeways printing the viaduct pieces for the DLR at the moment, and this is slowing me down a bit. I think that rather than overwhelm board 1 by placing the DLR station on the viaduct outside the NR one, I might stagger that to board 2, and even try and drop it to nearer street level to make it more interesting.

 

The track and station lifts out to give access to the bus track underneath - the change in platform surface was not by design but a cock-up when painting. I'm going to hide it by having a part of the office building cross the tracks. I've also left a gap for the DLR line to pass just under as well - not sure if this will work out. It's a tight fit when you are trying to get all this onto 21cm. 

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So I've always been a bit lazy when it comes to doing interiors, tending to stick something on the inside of the window instead. I.m pleased I took the plunge this time - it looks better than I would have hoped. Have just ordered up some sets of bedroom furniture from Shapeways to try doing some hotel rooms for the Premier Inn. After all I have purple paint already.....

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Over the last couple of weeks, the locals of Leamouth have noticed that the District line has been extended under their feet. This results from me noticing that the boards can be made to sit neatly on each other (don't worry, I'll add some connecting braces).

 

I had most of the station walls already printed from an earlier project, these were originally made up in Powerpoint using the TFL design manual elements screenshotted and Calibri bold font. So I just needed to add some finishing touches (benches were 3-D printed, and vending machine from one of the Kato kits, with the front printed and stuck on.). Work still in progress on the track - need to finish painting and apply the 3rd and 4th rail.

 

This will be lid by LED strip.

 

2 more boards now on order from SMS to form the fiddle yard for the tube (to the right of this) which will have a single point and 2 roads which will probably have to be extended out of the boards. And also board 2 for the trains. It does mean my two N-Train 3-car D stock units can now run as a 5 or 6 car and just about fit in the platform (last doors cut in). I've always fancied running full length tube trains, something I could never do in OO, and which the original plan, mixing them with the Silverlink stock, would also have not been easy due to platform and board lengths.

 

By the way - does anyone have one of the short-live Radley Models N gauge A stock units they would be interested in selling? Would like to make my 3-car up to full length. 

 

It also means that the upper station will be restricted just to Silverlink units, I have a Class 150 with Electra vinyls, and an N-train 313 kit. So Revolution, if you are reading, I need you to do your 313s! I have a whole layout designed for them. 

 

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A few more of the tube station on one of the SMS boards, with a couple of cross-beams at the front from balsa (how lucky are we on an island of 70,000 people that we have a craft and model shop that has balsa). I am hopeless at lining up things when they are stuck on, so the walls were done as a single print with everything printed on (posters, maps etc). Reduces the 3D effect (but benches and fittings help with that) but at least its all straight. And another objective fulfilled - the void behind the station wall holds 2 storage boxes for stock etc, thus reducing off-layout volume required for storage and helping with packing for when I eventually have to travel this layout back home.. it's wide enough to fit the control box in there too! I will do similar on the tube's fiddle yard board, and on the upper level, there will be space under part of the arch viaduct as well. The 73cm board length is just a bit short for 6 cars of D stock, it will however hold 7 cars of A stock, in both cases one set of doors has to be cut in.

 

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Edited by ianmianmianm
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Lots of frustrating waiting for stuff to arrive by mail, which probably now won't show up till January. In the meantime, I needed an instantly gratfiying job to keep the spirits up, so mains-wired LEDs bought locally here in Bermuda, and fitted for the underground platform, (At Bermuda prices - ouch!)

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Trying to get the 3D printed DLR stock front ends to look vauguely right. I'm farting about with a test model and so far, the only way that works for me is a silver sharpie, a print onto paper, and some black paint. The N-train model has some ridges to guide painting but once primered and painted, these are not an easy follow. Surfaces are too small for decals or tape. The "eyes and nose" part is definitely only going to be done as a print and so far I've managed to find one very lucky face-on straight photo to work from. Will match the print red to the spray paint once I have sprayed the final models. This looks better from a normal viewing distance by the way and will not be seen end-on on the layout.

 

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Concrete viaducts from Shapeways are on their way, along with some more DLR car bodies. So I did a mockup and made some finalised decisions - firstly am going to terminate the DLR at a station on the front of the arches. Fit is tight, but in reality it would not have terminated further away. Also going to run as single units for now, although unlike the real thing I will future-proof the potential to extend to 2-cars. I had planned to try and sneak the line past the grey building so they could hide behind it, however there is not enough tolerance for the unit to turn easily when it emerges - also would need a fiddlestick at the left hand end which I am trying to avoid.

 

I'm using more Kato platform pieces (also imminently arriving) and going to try to use the Bachmann OO gauge bus shelters in blue, as the DLR canopies. I plan to use lots of blue and on handrails etc, with the contrasting aqua signage.

 

The lift shaft has been built in balsa and brick paper. Also on the way are some of Simon Paley's excellent lift doors from Shapeways, looking forward to slotting these into the openings made. Ticket machines in my usual method of printing a photo and sticking it to a Kato machine fitting. There will also be some steps from the platform, more Shapeways prints, not sure yet if I will run them down from the left next to the lift shaft, or from the opposite end of the platform - there is space to do the latter.

 

Apologies fopr the hybrid unit and my rough modelling. 

 

 

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Edited by ianmianmianm
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