RMweb Premium 31A Posted March 21, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 21, 2020 Ah! Capaldi's: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.956828,-1.085705,3a,75y,270h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4nXcs65PUWX-aXklFQvVjg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jack Benson Posted March 23, 2020 Share Posted March 23, 2020 Neil, This thread has been most useful for the development of Chandlers Row, your use of Code 100 has been an eye-opener as I need to employ extremely small radius turnouts due to the restricted nature of the trackplan. May I ask, do you think it possible to upgrade Setrack turnouts by making the crossing Vees conducting? I need an opposing pair of curved turnouts for the quayside loop, all my motive power is short wheelbase and needs as much electrical contact as possible. Finally, do you intend to make some of track into inset track, I will be interested how you achieve this. Thank you Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted March 23, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted March 23, 2020 Hello Jack, It's not difficult to turn Setrack turnouts into live frog examples. Pull the existing rails of the vee out horizontally to keep the fixings to the sleepers intact, carve away the plastic tip of the vee and either slide the rails back in (they may need some filing to fit) or fashion new rails from spare lengths of code 100 and slide them into place. A bit of solder to join the rails, hot iron and work quickly and the mechanical work is done. I did one some time ago and I've tackled a couple of diamond crossing too. I've tackled inset track, quite a lot of it on my Belgian layout and I've described the process here. I will be having some inset track on Northern Town too but that will be a good few months ahead. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post Neil Posted March 25, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted March 25, 2020 Though most of my time has been spent in the garden I have busied myself at the workbench too. The taxi office was a bit too garish as it was so everything was toned down with a bit of quick weathering. When dry I broke out the stencils again and did a little signwriting. 25 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Gwinnett Posted March 25, 2020 Share Posted March 25, 2020 Just oozes character. Lovely. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
backofanenvelope Posted March 25, 2020 Share Posted March 25, 2020 Just found your thread Neil and looking forward to this progressing, as an ex resident of York Is Jolly cabs building based on the rank near Micklegate Bar? Looks very evocative if nor.. Tom Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted March 25, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted March 25, 2020 2 hours ago, backofanenvelope said: Just found your thread Neil and looking forward to this progressing, as an ex resident of York Is Jolly cabs building based on the rank near Micklegate Bar? Looks very evocative if nor.. Tom Well spotted, it's one half of the Fleetways office on Queen Street, between the station and Micklegate Bar. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LBRJ Posted March 25, 2020 Share Posted March 25, 2020 Reminds me of a much bigger version of one I had to get a taxi from one New Years Day night, after getting slightly lost in Burnley Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post Neil Posted April 2, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted April 2, 2020 Next onto the workbench has been another of the GMRC buildings for rebranding and a bit of tarting up. This time more of the tarting up is required as in the rush to get ready for the filming deadline the roof finish was nothing more than some roughly applied Superquick slate paper over the plasticard base. Before starting I thought it worth taking outside to the layout to see how it would fit in with the rest of the row. Whilst out in the layout room I couldn't resist trying a train out. It shows just how much the telephoto lens compresses the view and that there's a decent amount of space between the taxi office and the lock up shop which will be rough hardstanding for vehicles. 22 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted May 16, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted May 16, 2020 Over the last month I've been busy on the layout adding point motors and wiring. It's not very visually interesting so I'll try to whizz through things at a decent rate. Before I start I need to state that I really dislike working underneath the baseboards so I'm making all the connections on the baseboard surface where they will ultimately be hidden by removable panels. This extends to the point motors too, though there will only be six of these to hide (those points which I hypothesise would be controlled from the box) all others being hand points. The rodding from motor to point runs in grooves in thin ply let into the foam underlay. Microswitches actuated by the crank of the point motor change frog polarity. Note the thin black card used to cover the point rodding and wiring runs carved out of the underlay. I will contrive concealment of the point motors, avoiding a hut by each point by adopting a range of cunning disguises. The feeds to the point motors have been brought out to a shelf out of the way of the driving positions .... .... and connected up to the lever frame. 11 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted June 19, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted June 19, 2020 Since the last update I've been slowly working away at the layout. It's been slow because the good weather tempted me out into the garden with some large things to plant and to build an arch over the front path. Once the weather was back to its normal summer setting work on the layout resumed. One thing that I should have tackled in the very early stages was the need to paint the rear of the dividing wall between layout and fiddle yard. I finally got round to it last week which has given me somewhere to fix the signal box diagram. Also receiving attention was the undeveloped side of the layout where the light railway will run alongside the river and warehouses. My first attempt fitted everything in but didn't float my boat. In these situations I know not to try and force a solution, so I shut the door and left it overnight to see what a fresh day brought. Normally when I'm unhappy with the composition of a layout I try paring it back; so this is what I did. Everything just seemed to drop in place and I'm much happier with the result. 17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium RichardT Posted June 19, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 19, 2020 On 21/03/2020 at 13:38, 31A said: Ah! Capaldi's: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.956828,-1.085705,3a,75y,270h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s4nXcs65PUWX-aXklFQvVjg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en Beat me to it! My aunt used to have the cafe on the corner of Fetter Lane & Skeldergate down from Joe Capaldi's factory. Now flattened for a car park. Hello Neil! Very evocative modelling, especially for us Yorkies of a certain age. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted June 26, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted June 26, 2020 Today I've been concentrating on the factory site to the rear of the boards, just where the little yellow diesel is in the above photo. The first job was to convert a set track Y point to a live frog example. It's pretty easy to do this by extracting the rails of the V, carving away excess plastic, filing the rail ends to suit, pushing them further home and soldering up when happy. As this shortens the V and I'm using set track curves for the tight radius tracks leading to the point then the curves had to be cut to fit too. As I had the soldering iron out I tagged on wire tails underneath so it will be ready to install. This area will have the trackbed raised up on 2x1 battens to match the rest of the yard tracks but I couldn't resist a few photos with trains just to see how it might look. 19 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Gwinnett Posted June 27, 2020 Share Posted June 27, 2020 How tight radius are you going with the Settrack curves? I’m trying to stick at R4 or above (and then only on one one curve which is tight-ish on the prototype) even “off-stage” as it were. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted June 27, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted June 27, 2020 1 minute ago, Jon Gwinnett said: How tight radius are you going with the Settrack curves? I’m trying to stick at R4 or above (and then only on one one curve which is tight-ish on the prototype) even “off-stage” as it were. I'm using the sharpest radius stuff for the factory, R2 (I think) for parts of the light railway but far gentler curves for the BR area of responsibility using flexitrack. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post Neil Posted July 28, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted July 28, 2020 Over the last couple of days I've built and painted a poster hoarding. 25 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Stubby47 Posted August 9, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 9, 2020 (edited) I made some of these for Black Country Blues, with alternative boards with various posters. Edited August 9, 2020 by Stubby47 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post Neil Posted September 1, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted September 1, 2020 Since the last post matters have moved on some. Going back all the way to June I showed the rough outline for an industrial complex in the far corner. Since then I've built its sub base, installed and wired track followed by setting the rails into concrete (DAS clay). Here's the finished section fully fixed in place and ready to be connected up to the rest of the layout. Over on the other side of the layout I had a go at blocking in the height of the structures, roads and hardstanding to get an idea of the terrain. Once happy I cleared the area and have started the ballasting process. I'm using tinted sieved sharp sand, misted with a water and screenwash mix and glued with dilute Copydex dropped in place with a pipette. Unfortunately some of the colour has leached out of the sand so I think I'll be giving it all a waft over with some more black spray paint. 25 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post Neil Posted September 28, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted September 28, 2020 The mostly good weather this last month has been good for getting the dilute Copydex used for ballasting to set. All the track which has been permanently pinned in place has now been ballasted. On a rough estimate this is two thirds of the projected total. As I mentioned in the preceding post The black spray paint has come out to darken all the track and ballast. As trips to the shops have been scuppered by the Coronavirus I couldn't go to Halfords in Aberystwyth for some of their matt black and they don't post paint. In the end I plumped for Liquitex Carbon Black which was available by mail order. It dries more slowly than the Halfords stuff and can stick the point blades in position, though they're easy enough to free off. Anyway this afternoon I was at the stage where what I'd done was ready for testing so it was out with a few boxes of trains and time to play. Citizens of York may well recognise this building. Before it was Dave Dee's it belonged to the Burley family as the depot for their wholesale fruit business. I went to primary school with Philip Burley so it'll be appearing in it's fruit format. What you see here is a quick card and paper mock up, I'll be doing a proper plasticard one when the mood takes me. Here you can see where I propose to place the flat roofed building described earlier. The K1 is picking off the brake van before shunting the train into the departure road. I'm not sure where the yard pilot is this afternoon, must be busy elsewhere. All set for the off, things are a little deceiving here as the far right line isn't really part of the yard but the approach to the factory shown in earlier posts. In the distance the coal empties are on their way while a pair of loaded hoppers have been left on the drops. 21 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted October 1, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted October 1, 2020 Testing the new software or just an excuse to post another picture? 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danstercivicman Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 What do you mix the sharp sand with to get that look? Looks really good! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted October 2, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted October 2, 2020 14 hours ago, danstercivicman said: What do you mix the sharp sand with to get that look? Looks really good! Thank you, it's black powder paint. I sieve the sand first as there's a surprising amount of larger particles in the bag. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, some of the colour leaches out of the ballast during the wetting and glueing stage so I've had to go over it with black spray paint from a rattle can. 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Neil Posted October 4, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted October 4, 2020 (edited) I've just noticed that in between some earlier posts the forum software states how much time has elapsed, 'two weeks later' or 'four weeks later'. I'm not really sure if this will act to speed me up or whether with my contrarian nature it'll slow me down, maybe in time I'll make my mind up. This week it's the bad weather which has moved things on. At the right hand end of the layout I cobbled together a mock up for a low relief row of shops to stand opposite the coal drops. The layout needs to look like it's in the heart of the city here and that the city continues past the boundaries of the modelled scene. I was happy with the proportions of the shops but there's obviously a need for more low relief stuff to close off this end of the layout. As the structure I want was demolished years ago and as this is my only photo ... ... I got the card and pens out to create this. However I thought it still a bit lacking so I borrowed another card and pen mock up from the industrial sidings area to see if it improved things. I think I'm getting there though the style of this building is all wrong. The next step will be a two pronged assault, one being to find and draw something more suitable for the Skeldergate area of York the second being to sort out the road surfaces at the end of the layout which will have to start off at the same level as the coal drops and then gradually gain height as it winds around the yard to being level with the upper surface at the rear. Edited October 4, 2020 by Neil 19 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Gwinnett Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 Some of my topics have years between posts, so I’m not sure this change will motivate me! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post Neil Posted October 13, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted October 13, 2020 Over the weekend having made paper templates of the roads and building foundations I bit the bullet, got out the saw and cut some wood up. About 90% of the groundworks are in place and firmly stuck down leaving a small triangular piece to cut and fit where the level crossing and signal box will go next to the approach tracks. 25 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now