Distillery yard micro layout - back out on the exhibition circuit

[Kevin Johnson]

Luke the Bachmann class 22 or little warship is my favourite loco. Yours looks at home on the layout with great pictures.

[sulzer27jd]

1 hour ago, luke the train spotter said:

So some special deliveries for the layout. Firstly, I’ve purchased a class 22 which was used in the speyside region in Scotland. 

1

 

Unfortunately Luke the class 22 was a Western Region diesel hydraulic loco. The nearest they got to Speyside was being built in Glasgow. You will need to wait (like the rest of us) for the long-promised Dapol class 21.

[luke the train spotter]

9 hours ago, sulzer27jd said:

 

Unfortunately Luke the class 22 was a Western Region diesel hydraulic loco. The nearest they got to Speyside was being built in Glasgow. You will need to wait (like the rest of us) for the long-promised Dapol class 21.

Sorry yes that’s what I meant. I decided to buy the 22 as to me they look quite similar to the 21. It is likely that I will buy a 21 when they come out but until then the 22 is standing in its place. 

[luke the train spotter]

Some advice needed guys. I was cleaning my Pecketts pick ups (basic maintenance and all that) and by bending one of them back a tiny amount it snapped off. It was pushed back probably 1.5mm and just snapped cleanly. Because of the rather serious modifications I’ve made to the Peckett I’m not very keen to dismantle it and also the modifications would certainly exclude it from the warranty from Hornby. (I’ve heard that a few of their recently released locos have had problems with poor pickups so maybe it’s something to do with the material/design). Any advice about different ways I could add a replacement pick up without serious surgery? I’m aware that you can use phosphor bronze wire but have any of you used it and was it successful? TIA.

[luke the train spotter]

So an update on the Peckett now christened Douglas. I have fitted some homemade pickups made out of 0.4mm phosphor bronze wire. They work a treat and it’s great to have Douglas back running again. Here is a picture of how everything is set out prior to insulation.It was a lot simpler than I thought and works a treat. In fact it worked so well and wasn’t even that difficult  I plan to re do the pick ups on my 009 roco loco to improve reliability of running. Thanks for looking guys.

[Kevin Johnson]

Nice work on the pickups Luke. I bet it makes a big difference in the running reliability of the Peckett.

[luke the train spotter]

Someone boil the kettle? 

[Kevin Johnson]

Hi Luke your layout just seems to get better and better with the small items you keep adding. 

[luke the train spotter]

4 hours ago, David jennings said:

Hi Luke- just found your thread and love the layout. Can I ask a question - the stay alive unit in the Peckett : I’ve heard mention of these but know nothing about them - do they only work with DCC or do they also work on old fashioned dc? Thanks 

So a stay alive unit is basically a block of capacitors that act as a small rechargeable battery to provide power when the loco doesn't pick up any off the track for reasons like dirty track. You get different sizes of capacitors and I used high capacity ones in my peckett which provide around 30 seconds of power once i remove the loco off the track which is much more than I need but is very useful because I think my peckett has only stalled once or twice in the 7 months that I've had the stay alive fitted. As far as I'm aware, stay alive only works with dcc and no equivalents are available for anologue users. I had to fettle around with the CVS on my peckett to get a smooth power discharge from the capacitor unit and o actually had to disable the anologue running CV so I'm pretty certain that it wouldn't work on DC. 

[luke the train spotter]

Well distillery yard is now over a year old and its age is beginning to show! A combination of moving the layout around and the cat has resulted in some rather flat static grass. Keen to redo it and also upgrade my current static grass gear I invested in a woodland scenics static king. Running off a 9v battery only gives you average results but it's definitely worth investing in the additional power adapter which gives some fantastic results! Certainly not cheap as i spent £100 overall on the applicator and power adapter but I reckon it's the best applicator on the market and the results are simply fantastic. I began by removing the trees on the embankment running the length of the layout closest to the viewer then covering the track/buildings/some stock with newspaper. I then worked my way from left to right adding a second layer of static grass over the flat existing layer. For this I used a combination of woodland scenic static grass fibres (4mm dark green and a 7mm field mix I think) as well as some 4.5mm Polak mid green fibres which were originally used on the layout. The glue I used is mod podge. The excess static grass was then collected to be re used. I've still got to do the other side, replant the trees and add scenic details like shrubbery and horse bushes etc. Here's a before and after photo. Im very happy how it looks and it definitely looks rougher and longer like I originally wanted it too. Much more rural Scotland than manacured lawn. 

[Oncomin5torm]

I have just sat here for an hour reading all 16 pages of updates and I am in awe of your layout.
I remember reading about your colliery layout in railway modeller and I had no idea you had made another layout since then.

This is incredible and in such a small space too, I love a good bit of shunting and I love little shunting locos, I have the works green peckett and I am close to ordering the sherwood b2 as well, on top of a jinty, 03 and 08 (last 2 in BR blue), I've got a nice little idea for a layout in a smaller space than this, I may use some of your ideas for things such as point control as it looks like it works well, I have gone off the idea of electrically controlled points on layouts of this size.

my hat goes off to you, I will endeveour to be as awesome in my layout building as you are in yours.
Thank you for the cracking layout posts.

[luke the train spotter]

So a new loco has arrived to join the fleet! Couldn't resist rails of Sheffields bargain price of 40 odd quid so just had to pick one up. Here it is on the layout, it's even smaller than the peckett!

[AMoonRabbit]

On 19/09/2019 at 21:45, luke the train spotter said:

Well distillery yard is now over a year old and its age is beginning to show! A combination of moving the layout around and the cat has resulted in some rather flat static grass. Keen to redo it and also upgrade my current static grass gear I invested in a woodland scenics static king. Running off a 9v battery only gives you average results but it's definitely worth investing in the additional power adapter which gives some fantastic results! Certainly not cheap as i spent £100 overall on the applicator and power adapter but I reckon it's the best applicator on the market and the results are simply fantastic. I began by removing the trees on the embankment running the length of the layout closest to the viewer then covering the track/buildings/some stock with newspaper. I then worked my way from left to right adding a second layer of static grass over the flat existing layer. For this I used a combination of woodland scenic static grass fibres (4mm dark green and a 7mm field mix I think) as well as some 4.5mm Polak mid green fibres which were originally used on the layout. The glue I used is mod podge. The excess static grass was then collected to be re used. I've still got to do the other side, replant the trees and add scenic details like shrubbery and horse bushes etc. Here's a before and after photo. Im very happy how it looks and it definitely looks rougher and longer like I originally wanted it too. Much more rural Scotland than manacured lawn. 

I spy SKLR. The Kerr Stuarts are fun to drive there.

 

That whickam trolley is very nice. Speaking of bargains, Hornby had Oxford Rail Janus shunters in bargain bin for £50 a pop.

[luke the train spotter]

3 minutes ago, AMoonRabbit said:

I spy SKLR. The Kerr Stuarts are fun to drive there.

 

That whickam trolley is very nice. Speaking of bargains, Hornby had Oxford Rail Janus shunters in bargain bin for £50 a pop.

SKLR?

 

Ah I saw them but decided to put a pre order on a ruston instead. Tough decision though!

[1722]

That is a little tiddler isn't it?! 

[Oncomin5torm]

That thing is tiny, does the little wagon behind it have pickups?

[luke the train spotter]

It certainly isn't big! Yes the wagon that it's pulling does have pick ups (in fact it is all wheel pick up) and it also houses a very small coreless motor. 

[DMU]

Very nice Luke. The trolley looks great on your distillery layout.

[AMoonRabbit]

22 hours ago, luke the train spotter said:

SKLR?

 

Ah I saw them but decided to put a pre order on a ruston instead. Tough decision though!

Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway, was Bowaters. Narrow gauge line used for the papermill. Oldest narrow gauge line in kent still in use. 

[luke the train spotter]

3 hours ago, AMoonRabbit said:

Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway, was Bowaters. Narrow gauge line used for the papermill. Oldest narrow gauge line in kent still in use. 

Ahhh very nice! I'll check that out. 

[luke the train spotter]

Well the rest of the scenery is now done and I'm very happy with how it's looking. I used the same method as before expect when I was rebuilding the forest I found that some of the trees just wanted to fall over so some barbeque scewers sorted them out. Photos below of the method and application of the new scenery. I've got some photo edits to share later too.  I'm incredibly pleased with how it has come out with the grass having much more depth and texture which just adds to the scene. So much better than before. Thanks for looking. 

[luke the train spotter]

As promised some photo edits...

[1722]

Some splendid photos there, Luke. 

[Oncomin5torm]

That looks superb, Luke.

[sb67]

You've done a good job with the scenery Luke, nice photo's 

Steve.