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Big jim’s Garage conversion and layout thread


big jim
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  • RMweb Gold

Metcalfe gatehouse finished now, next up I’m going to do a couple of small towers then the curtain walls 

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might try and get into the garage on Sunday and Monday and crack on with making the plinth for the castle to stand on 

 

 

Edited by big jim
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  • RMweb Gold

And roughly placed on the layout, I think one more pack of curtain walls using a 45 degree corner at the rear left of the main building will look good, the main town board will run out from the front of the gatehouse 


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the 009 line will loop round the castle, first running into a tunnel over the mainline, then climbing round the castle and levelling up on the same board as the castle before heading off to the left and dropping back down a gentle embankment back to mainline track level 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • RMweb Gold

Finally swapped the cardboard template for wood and placed the castle on top, also the slightly lower area where the 009 gauge lien will swoop round 

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you can see in the above picture 2 bits of wall sticking out from the main castle walls, I’ve got to cut the edge of the higher board back a bit so the extra wall is sitting on the lower board where they will be replaced by this, a tower with a passage through the wall for the narrow gauge tracks 

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ive made it from the ‘gate house’ kit, one side basically made normally but the other (and centre part) are scratch built using components of the gate house


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Then with the bits I had left over I made an ornate tunnel entrance, the box is the spare towers strengthening box
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Don’t even know if I can use it yet but hopefully I can! 

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • RMweb Gold

Bit more done this evening, put a card track bed down on the polystyrene risers, filling the gaps over the track too

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Then loosely placed some DCC concepts powerbase magnets on the incline, need to get a couple more packs for the final bit of incline and a couple of other inclines 

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and with the castle back in plate, still need to cut the edge of the wood off to get the gatehouse level

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Had a think about how it’s going to come back round, the two bits of card on top of the containers will be the height of the town scene, the track can run through a park/castle grounds 

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it can then start to drop down in a cutting between the town scene board and park board (represented by the card pieces) it will then end up at mainline track level opposite the double slips 

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the town scene will be the width of the 2 back lines as far as where the double slips are then curve back in (so I can reach the points) before it can come back out in the corner where the church can sit 

 

I’ve got a bit of motivation back to actually do something with the layout, once the track is layed on the spiral then I can fit the castle down and that corner is up and running, I might try and get the mainline station area laid and wired up in the coming few weeks, can’t decide whether to fit an overall roof to the station though

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Edited by big jim
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Bit more done

 

moved the castle out of the way

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Measured a new piece of wood for around the castle folly

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Which gives me more room around the outside of the castle and a square tunnel mouth entrance

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Then took up the tracks in the station area 

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The Baldwin this time trying the folly entrance for size 

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The narrow gauge line dropping down between the castle grounds and higher town area

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Got some more castle walls to build to extend the castle grounds, these ones are the existing walls just placed elsewhere 

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A few trains in the station, DRS push pull set and NR 950, the heritage line is to the left, passing loop at one end to allow 2 trains in the station at once, also the Baldwin climbing the narrow gauge line to the castle 

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run out of insulating fishplates site can’t do much more until I get a couple of new packs, then I’ll wire up the various tracks and see if I’ve got the insulated fishplates in the right place! 
 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • RMweb Gold

Couple of day worth of work, mainly around the castle area preparing to secure the top town board 

 

First up was for a baton to the wall and strengthen the board to stop it warping 

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Then it was adjusting the height so the 009 line wasn’t too steep, the board will be slightly angled forward to keep the incline smooth

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ive had to cut a bit more wood away behind the folly as it’s not got quite enough depth for the line below, I will simply put a piece of card over the edge of the hole when I come to fit the track above it 

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the final part of the spiral incline will also be card from the riser to the folly 

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so that was a few days ago, I forgot to upload the pics, so on to last night

 

first up was to secure the power plate bases down with pva glue 

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Then once dry i fixed down the track with pva and track pins 

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I can now finally see it with proper narrow gauge tracks in place 

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And with the castle back in place 

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I’ve shortened the tunnel mouth building down a bit so it sits on the top board with the tunnel mouth sides over the edge, doing that means I can have a bridge over the heritage line 

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I’m glad I put the power bases in as they make a huge difference, only been experimenting with magnet placement but on the roco 009 shunter it is brilliant just with the magnets held by tape 

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They will obviously be swapped for smaller ones as and when I do them properly 

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Here is a video of the powerbase in action

 

I did start experimenting with the Bachmann Baldwin but the tiny pin/screw came out of the driving rod so it’s unusable, I will most likely have to send it for repair as I can’t find the screw!

 

a good evenings progress, couple of bits of wood to cut again, the main thing is the track is in under the town board so I can crack on with securing that, maybe Saturday, 

 

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  • RMweb Gold

But more done on the spiral, smoothed out the levels a bit as it was rough across the join between the flexi track, then I experimented with more magnets 

 

first up was the L&B loco which as you can see from the video wouldn’t get up the hill, magnets added and leading wheels removed as they were causing friction and it went up lovely 

 

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I then added weight and magnets to the colas class 70 

 


 

 

Edited by big jim
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Not encountered this thread to date but have to say I like the look of this. You have packed so much into that scene without it looking cramped. I love the way you can mix modern mainline / heritage line and then a narrow gauge. Will follow with interest. Love the castle.

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  • RMweb Gold

Not much progress recently as I’ve been too busy in work and playing with car stereos etc but today had a tidy up in the garage, put freshly acquired locos and boxes away in the storage cupboards (no room to display the locos unfortunately!)

 

That gave me a bit of space on the layout to do the drop down bit for the 009 tracks 

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Hopefully be able to do a bit in there over the next few weeks if I get a chance 

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  • 2 months later...
  • RMweb Gold

nothing yet, i have got a load of scenics from the classifieds on here that will spur me on to get on with it but with the nice weather and my new bike ive been spending the evenings out cycling and (trying to) run

 

 

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  • RMweb Gold

Being as it was raining this morning g I actually did something to the layout!

 

the MOD sidings along the back wall were a bit limited space wise so I had been having a think about how to get a bit more room in there, originally the branch line and sidings had 2 bridges planned and the branch climbed up on risers to what will be a high level station, I’ve decided to do away with the bridges and raise the whole lot up about an inch as well as widening the board 


original idea

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new board underneath ready to be marked and cut with the original board as a template for the track edge part 

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raised the whole lot on a baton (very temporary!)

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and the board cut down and placed in its rough position 

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I also removed the points and double track at the bottom of the incline and made it a single line which will have probably have points off toward the siding, not decided on the final track layout yet really 

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forgot to take pics of the other end but the siding runs into a nice longish headhunt to set wagons back into the fan of sidings and the separate adjacent station line runs off at an angle from it, again the wood needs to be cut but it should give me a nice bit of room around the station for some scenics 

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  • 2 months later...
  • RMweb Gold

I’ve done absolutely zilch with the layout for months, to be honest I’ve been going out on the bike when I’ve got free time and the weather is good, no doubt when the nights draw in I’ll get a bit more done, the other thing is there is a lot of big boxes in the garage with scenics, buildings, locos etc in that I need to find room for to be able to move about the room a bit easier, I can work round them but it’s annoying!

 

 

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I had a bit of motivation to make some room this evening after the last post so I have put all the buildings in one box and managed to get that and the scenics box under the layout which has freed up the floor space in front of the sofa, the foam board have also managed to go under the layout too so I now have room to move 

 

still bits of wood on the floor but I don’t want to throw them as they are useful sizes 

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while i was in the mood I started a quick project that’s been sat around for a month or so, an MXA ‘Lobster’ wagon from a 3D print off eBay, I had a spare DBA wagon that I’ve married the box upto, unfortunately when the print arrived it had snapped in half, I got sent a replacement but that was also snapped but I’ve used it anyway, I’ll most likely put a load in the wagon so it won’t be seen anyway, just need to prime it and work out what colour halford can I can use for DB red 

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The wagon itself stripped down nicely, all the below solebar bits came off as one panel so I just need to spray the top red and refit them and job done (apart from decals)

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Hi Jim, great to see you back modelling and tackling a Lobster! I did 4 a few years ago from scratch…I found VW Mars red a good match and it’s readily available being a popular colour. I started a thread to suggest Halfords (or other) rattle cans which match railway colours, with pics where I’ve used them. Link below:

 

 

Looking forward to seeing your finished wagons!

 

Thanks,

Jack.

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