A new start! BR 1990ish.

[40 058]

I’ve been busy with work the last few months so progress has been leisurely again!

Some more scenic work carried out though.

 

First things first though. Given the weather and time of year I decided it was about time to do something to the floor in the shed. Last winter when I was in there it could get pretty chilly! All it was was the basic wooden shed flooring, not particularly warm at all but because I’ve raised the whole shed up off the ground on blocks & wood framing it also means there’s quite a draft coming up through the floor boards at times. Good for keeping everything dry and rot free but less good for keeping my poor feet warm!

So I’ve cleaned everything out of the shed off the floor, hoovered it out and then laid some 7mm fibre board underlay sheeting over the entire floor. That should keep the draft down and the warmth in, plus it’s levelled out the floor. Then on top I’ve fitted some hard wearing short pile carpet tiles. I got these off eBay quite cheaply and they fitted really well and went down quick. It looks 100% better now but has also significantly improved comfort and noise levels in the shed now.

 

 

With that sorted it was back to trimming the polystyrene contours for the hills etc. After I was happy with that I mixed up some polyfiller with a bit of pva added and applied it to the hills etc, then smoothed it out with a soft paint brush and water. Finally, once that had dried (which takes ages this time of year!) I splashed some old green poster paint on. It looks a bit ‘radioactive’ green but it’s only a base colour to get rid of the bright white colour of the plaster. The plan after this is to apply layers of flocks, scatters and static grass to build up the ground cover. I will probably be investing in a new static grass tool this time too if anyone has any recommendations?

 

 

Ive also stuck down more polystyrene sections along the strip under the windows, then made up some shorter brick retaining walls and pillars. These are just Wills sheets cut to size, then a coat of Railmatch cement added/wiped off leaving it in the recesses. The pillars are just made up from the off cuts. These walls are slightly angled backwards too just to look a bit more realistic and match the cast plaster larger walls further along.

 

 

 

 

At the far end corner, up on the raised section I’ve added a few bits of thin polystyrene, plaster and paint to get rid of the flatness of the area, and used some mounting card to create a roadway and forecourt for the petrol station. I’ll add some Metcalfe. Self adhesive paving later here to finish it off. The area where the Hornby ‘modern house’ kits will go has also been very slightly raised. This was to give a better effect than just a dead flat area with everything at the same level! It looked a bit lazy without doing it, so now the row of three houses sit slightly above the road level with driveways sloping slightly down to the road. Again, the ground has been skimmed with filler to level it off, painted green and awaits the scatter & static grass treatment.

 

 

The houses themselves have had the brickwork painted, cement courses added and windows etc painted. Just need to finish these off. I’ve added a few interior walls on the sides that will be seen and will ‘decorate’ these out before final positioning! I quite like these kits, despite being pretty old now and a little basic! They go together well and look the part once painted.

 

My plan, I think, is to continue doing as much of the ‘dirty’ work as I can around the entire scenic section just to get everything done to the same stage and standard. Then I’ll gradually work my way around the layout adding the actual scenic materials, static grass etc etc as I go. I think it’ll be easier that way and get all of the actual building of the basic ground contours etc done in one hit. 

Its coming on. Slowly but surely!

 

 

 

[Adrian Stevenson]

Looks very smart indeed.

[Rich Papper]

Hello. Just chanced upon this yesterday and have enjoyed a read through of everything so far. Really like the plan and the stock. As for static grass applicator, I'd recommend the Green Scene Flockit. No connection, etc and it is the first and only one I've ever owned or used, but I picked it up about a year ago and so far I haven't managed to do anything wrong with it.

Looking forward to more.

Rich

[saxokid]

Coming along realy well

[vulcan product fan]

Great work on the floor mate hope it keeps you in more comfort and the layout is coming along very nice keep the updates coming .

[40 058]

5 hours ago, vulcan product fan said:

Great work on the floor mate hope it keeps you in more comfort and the layout is coming along very nice keep the updates coming .

 

Nothing worse than numb toes!!

[40 058]

Got a little bit more done this weekend. Saturday was minimal as it was freezing out in the shed, I’ve had a cold recently and just didn’t fancy more than doing a few little bits and bobs! Today was better though so I’ve got a bit more of the basic ‘construction’ work done.

 

As I said in a previous post, I want to get as much of the basic structural work done for the scenic area first before starting to put any greenery down, so I’ve moved up to the station area end of the layout.

First job was to raise the very end of the station area up a tad. I wanted this area next to the platforms to be the station building and car park site and I think it looks better level (or near enough) with the platform height. Easily done using an off cut of 9mm ply cut to shape and glued and screwed down on top of the existing baseboard. This was then faced with thick mounting card to get a nice surface for the car park. Just needs painting and a bit more work for the base/foundation of the building.

I've ordered some fencing for the platform/car park edge, and some suitable street lights for the car park. And a set of self adhesive vinyl road and car park markings to make those a little neater than trying to hand paint them.

 

Similar treatment for the loco fuel & stabling point, though this is staying at the lower baseboard height without being raised. Once the glue holding the mounting card down is fully cured I’ll score it to look like the big cast concrete panels of many yards, then paint and weather it to suit. The bare ply edge where the car park is will be hidden by a little retaining wall and security fencing on top.

I might reposition the fuel tanks and building yet, I’m not sure.

 

Finally, some more woodwork!

To create the scenic break at this end I’ve opted for another road bridge over the tracks and platforms but with a retaining wall across the end of the car park area. This is another off cut of 9mm ply for the bridge top/road bed and some off cuts of 2x1 softwood for supports. It’ll eventually be faced with some 5mm ply on the scenic side so there’s something to glue the brick sheets etc to, and the top road surface covered with mounting card again.

On the island platform I’ll build a dummy support column from Wills brick sheets, as the span is a bit long for my liking without, plus, it’ll help obscure the scenic to non scenic divide!

 

Heres how it looks at the moment, with a few cars and the obligatory bus dotted around for effect! And a couple of Wills brick sheets etc loosely placed.

 

 

 

 

Starting to come along now!

 

 

Edited November 17, 2019 by 40 058
Spelling.

[40 058]

I’ve done a few bits since last update. It’s not a huge amount, I seem to be struggling to get stuff done in comparison to some of the layouts on here!

 

The road and car park surface have been given a coat of grey. I had to do this twice actually as for some inexplicable reason the first try I mixed up some black & white paint, painted it on and the next day after it’s dried it was streaked with white lines!? It looked fine when wet but the paint must have somehow not mixed properly. Second try I warmed the paint up and mixed it much more thoroughly and it seemed fine. Never had that before!

The depot area has been given a first coat of concrete yellowish grey, more to do here though, but it’s all roughly the right sort of colour for now.

Then I moved on to the scenic break bridge. I’ve been using Wills brick sheets and plastic card to build up the bridges walls, the tops of which have a plastic card (white bits in the pics) sections added which will form the concrete load bearing sections for the bridges deck. I’ve also made up some similar retaining walls and pillars for the area behind the station where the two low relief tower blocks will go. It’s more or less ready for painting now then can be glued in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One other little job I've done in the shed is to get myself a couple of display cabinets. I got these off eBay, and for the price they’re not bad. I wanted them to display my growing collection of 1/43 model cars and military vehicles!

 

 

 

I think they look pretty good. I’d been buying the models for some time but they were all just being left in their boxes dotted around the house not really being seen so with these at least I can have them somewhere I can see them! I’ve separated them into US/Europe cars - just cars I like and ones I’ve owned 1:1 scale versions of or do own now!

The other cabinet is for Soviet Union cars I like and military trucks/vehicles I’ve got an interest in.

Certainly takes the plain-ness off that back wall anyway!

 

more soon...

[saxokid]

On ‎19‎/‎01‎/‎2020 at 21:51, 40 058 said:

I’ve done a few bits since last update. It’s not a huge amount, I seem to be struggling to get stuff done in comparison to some of the layouts on here!

 

The road and car park surface have been given a coat of grey. I had to do this twice actually as for some inexplicable reason the first try I mixed up some black & white paint, painted it on and the next day after it’s dried it was streaked with white lines!? It looked fine when wet but the paint must have somehow not mixed properly. Second try I warmed the paint up and mixed it much more thoroughly and it seemed fine. Never had that before!

The depot area has been given a first coat of concrete yellowish grey, more to do here though, but it’s all roughly the right sort of colour for now.

Then I moved on to the scenic break bridge. I’ve been using Wills brick sheets and plastic card to build up the bridges walls, the tops of which have a plastic card (white bits in the pics) sections added which will form the concrete load bearing sections for the bridges deck. I’ve also made up some similar retaining walls and pillars for the area behind the station where the two low relief tower blocks will go. It’s more or less ready for painting now then can be glued in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One other little job I've done in the shed is to get myself a couple of display cabinets. I got these off eBay, and for the price they’re not bad. I wanted them to display my growing collection of 1/43 model cars and military vehicles!

 

 

 

I think they look pretty good. I’d been buying the models for some time but they were all just being left in their boxes dotted around the house not really being seen so with these at least I can have them somewhere I can see them! I’ve separated them into US/Europe cars - just cars I like and ones I’ve owned 1:1 scale versions of or do own now!

The other cabinet is for Soviet Union cars I like and military trucks/vehicles I’ve got an interest in.

Certainly takes the plain-ness off that back wall anyway!

 

more soon...

Looking forward to another fab update now..

[40 058]

On 09/04/2020 at 03:20, saxokid said:

Looking forward to another fab update now..

 

Ill try to get an update up over the next few days... I promise!

[40 058]

Sorry chaps, I’m not good at updates with this am I!?

 

Things really do seem to be going at a snails pace, but it’s getting there! 

Most of the work I’ve been doing is on the building of the four bridges and surrounding scenery on this layout.

The first, being the station end scenic break. This was ‘in hand’ in the last update but is now nearing completion. Being over the station and near what will become a more urban area I’ve gone for a multi-lane high street style roadway over the tracks. Most of the supporting brickwork is now about done, the road surface finished, complete with road markings and pavements, and I’ve even added a pedestrian crossing!

The main thing left to do here is the actual walling along the bridge surface, which will be the Wills brick bridge/parapet stuff. Just needs paint and gluing in place.

 

 

 

Next, bridge number 2.

This one is a little further down the layout just before the curved section. This one is just a standard road bridge, a little less urban than the other. This ones had its brick supports and retaining walls built and added, then I’ve used Wills varigirder for the road deck support mid section. This has been made to look wider, as a heavier style bridge, with an extra section under the varigirder made from plastic sheet and other off cuts. In reality, this bit just hides the thick edges of the plywood bridge/road surface. Looking at it afterwards, the span looked a bit too long and unsupported for my liking. So I dug out some odd bits from the scraps box to see if I could cobble something together that looked better.

Luckily, I had a pair of matching Hornby bridge supports - I’ve had these years! I remember being given them as a complete pack as a Xmas present as a kid, which was probably about 1988/9 sort of time! Good job I don’t throw things away isn’t it! These actually look pretty good as supporting columns, so I’ve used these mounted on a brick/concrete plinth as a centre support. I think it looks much better. Again, the road has been painted and decorated with road markings and a pavement. Just needs some finishing touches and brick pillars at each end now.

 

 

 

 

And now for bridges 3 and 4!

These two are actually side by side, forming the scenic break for the other end of the layout. A double bridge with wing walls, and a single without. The double over the mainline is a Wills kit, needs painting yet. The single over the branch is an old Triang/Hornby bridge, which I thought looked ok still, so used it! I’ll obviously paint it and add a bit of detail but it looks good to me for such an old model!

These two bridges are much more unfinished at the moment as I’m still building up the surrounding ground contours etc, but they will be for a country lane once done. The scenic break itself is 5mm ply cut to size and glued into place, then the polystyrene blocks that form the hills glued in place around them and the bridges. Hopefully tomorrow will see these given a plaster surface ready for green paint, then scatters/static grass etc etc. The two bridges are actually both different heights so this should go well with the country lane look I’m going for as it’ll mean the cardboard road surface will be a bit less ‘flat’ and level than in other places.

 

 

 

 

The next new thing can be seen in the last few pics!

I wanted a big warehouse type structure for the rail served industry in the corner so set about knocking something up. This is just assorted bits and bobs and loads of Wills building sheets and plastic strip & sheet. It’s not 100% finished yet, but fills the corner to my liking so far and allows the surrounding scenic groundwork to carry on. I’m going to have the siding the class 31 is sitting on as an overgrown siding and the office building as a yard area, with a few cars and vans parked up out front. I want this area to resemble a half relief decent sized industrial site, but a bit down at heel as much of the country’s heavy industry seemed at the time!

 

So, still lots to do but it’s getting there slowly!

My aim is to get as much of the dirty work (making hills, structures etc) done first, then try to do the ‘green’ bits all together so it all matches better. Also, once the bridges, cable ducting etc etc is in place I can add in any extra ballasting I need to then start weathering the ballast and track - ideally before the green stuff starts going down.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 18, 2020 by 40 058

[40 058]

Couple more pics of the warehouse etc.

 

 

 

Last job I did today was adding two short sidings into a spare bit of space in the hidden storage area. Just about big enough for a loco or unit, but every little helps!

 

 

[saxokid]

56 minutes ago, 40 058 said:

Couple more pics of the warehouse etc.

 

 

 

Last job I did today was adding two short sidings into a spare bit of space in the hidden storage area. Just about big enough for a loco or unit, but every little helps!

 

 

Still coming along treat...

[Unit basher]

On 22/09/2018 at 17:18, 40 058 said:

Today I’ve been digging out more locos etc and test running the layout.

Everything seems to be working fine track-wise, just needs a few slight alignment changes in a few places to smooth out a few bits.

Im not 100% decided on control yet. I’d thought about going DCC, however I’ve got lots of locos and chipping them all will be very expensive! So I might just stick to old fashioned DC?

 

I’m also undecided about wether or not to use cork under the track. The only real advantage to it is getting a slightly raised track bed as apposed to sound deadening. I’ve never bothered with it before now but if I’m going to do this I need to decide now.

The next job will be to drill holes under all the points for the point motors now I’m pretty much settled on the track plan, then the lovely task of ballasting!

 

Here’s a few pics from today’s running.

 

Storage area starting to get busy!

 

31544 ‘Keighley and Worth valley railway’ on an engineers train.

 

 

I have also found a few of my locos have suffered a bit from years in storage. I think the factory grease in a few of them has dried out resulting in some rough running and squealing so I’ll have to open them up and give them a clean and a drop or two of oil. It’s only Hornby locos that seem to have done this. So far anyway.

 

Here’s a few of the worst offenders!

 

 

 

I have a Hornby 56 that's doing the same. Its cakes in dried white grease. I've cleaned it but still loads hummed up in the drive train so it squeals terribly

[40 058]

43 minutes ago, Unit basher said:

 

I have a Hornby 56 that's doing the same. Its cakes in dried white grease. I've cleaned it but still loads hummed up in the drive train so it squeals terribly

 

Yep, I’ve got a couple of 31’s, a 56 and a 60 that do this to varying degrees. I think your right, it’s the old white grease drying out and clogged things, but also might be the gears running dry. 

Ive actually just bought a can of GT-85 spray, it’s got ptfe in it and I heard someone on another forum had success with it on squeaky Hornby loco’s so I’ll give it a try.

[saxokid]

On ‎18‎/‎04‎/‎2020 at 23:54, 40 058 said:

Sorry chaps, I’m not good at updates with this am I!?

 

Things really do seem to be going at a snails pace, but it’s getting there! 

Most of the work I’ve been doing is on the building of the four bridges and surrounding scenery on this layout.

The first, being the station end scenic break. This was ‘in hand’ in the last update but is now nearing completion. Being over the station and near what will become a more urban area I’ve gone for a multi-lane high street style roadway over the tracks. Most of the supporting brickwork is now about done, the road surface finished, complete with road markings and pavements, and I’ve even added a pedestrian crossing!

The main thing left to do here is the actual walling along the bridge surface, which will be the Wills brick bridge/parapet stuff. Just needs paint and gluing in place.

 

 

 

Next, bridge number 2.

This one is a little further down the layout just before the curved section. This one is just a standard road bridge, a little less urban than the other. This ones had its brick supports and retaining walls built and added, then I’ve used Wills varigirder for the road deck support mid section. This has been made to look wider, as a heavier style bridge, with an extra section under the varigirder made from plastic sheet and other off cuts. In reality, this bit just hides the thick edges of the plywood bridge/road surface. Looking at it afterwards, the span looked a bit too long and unsupported for my liking. So I dug out some odd bits from the scraps box to see if I could cobble something together that looked better.

Luckily, I had a pair of matching Hornby bridge supports - I’ve had these years! I remember being given them as a complete pack as a Xmas present as a kid, which was probably about 1988/9 sort of time! Good job I don’t throw things away isn’t it! These actually look pretty good as supporting columns, so I’ve used these mounted on a brick/concrete plinth as a centre support. I think it looks much better. Again, the road has been painted and decorated with road markings and a pavement. Just needs some finishing touches and brick pillars at each end now.

 

 

 

 

And now for bridges 3 and 4!

These two are actually side by side, forming the scenic break for the other end of the layout. A double bridge with wing walls, and a single without. The double over the mainline is a Wills kit, needs painting yet. The single over the branch is an old Triang/Hornby bridge, which I thought looked ok still, so used it! I’ll obviously paint it and add a bit of detail but it looks good to me for such an old model!

These two bridges are much more unfinished at the moment as I’m still building up the surrounding ground contours etc, but they will be for a country lane once done. The scenic break itself is 5mm ply cut to size and glued into place, then the polystyrene blocks that form the hills glued in place around them and the bridges. Hopefully tomorrow will see these given a plaster surface ready for green paint, then scatters/static grass etc etc. The two bridges are actually both different heights so this should go well with the country lane look I’m going for as it’ll mean the cardboard road surface will be a bit less ‘flat’ and level than in other places.

 

 

 

 

The next new thing can be seen in the last few pics!

I wanted a big warehouse type structure for the rail served industry in the corner so set about knocking something up. This is just assorted bits and bobs and loads of Wills building sheets and plastic strip & sheet. It’s not 100% finished yet, but fills the corner to my liking so far and allows the surrounding scenic groundwork to carry on. I’m going to have the siding the class 31 is sitting on as an overgrown siding and the office building as a yard area, with a few cars and vans parked up out front. I want this area to resemble a half relief decent sized industrial site, but a bit down at heel as much of the country’s heavy industry seemed at the time!

 

So, still lots to do but it’s getting there slowly!

My aim is to get as much of the dirty work (making hills, structures etc) done first, then try to do the ‘green’ bits all together so it all matches better. Also, once the bridges, cable ducting etc etc is in place I can add in any extra ballasting I need to then start weathering the ballast and track - ideally before the green stuff starts going down.

 

 

 

 

More lovely modelling work again

[40 058]

Update time!

Slowly creeping along, although in my defence I’ve been doing other things! And I got a bit fed up of building scenics so I’ve simply been running trains. I think sometimes it’s easy To keep building, doing scenery, messing about with rolling stock etc etc, sometimes you end up doing all that and never actually using it!

 

Since last time, I’ve smoothed out all the polystyrene blocks that made up the hills at the scenic break end, then got a coat of plaster on them, smoothed out, then once dry given a coat of radioactive green paint! There’s only a few little areas now where I need to use the plaster and green paint to cover the scenic contours, then I’ll be into static grass-ing and laying scatters etc etc.

I also need to Finish a few small areas of ballasting then weather The ballast a bit.
 

 

Ive also painted the big industrial warehouse building. A coat of Halfords primer, then various paints to finish. It’s also had a bit of weathering, paint thinning and rusting added to look a bit more realistic. It’s also had a few other bits added around it to finish that little areas buildings off, and a corrugated iron fence added along where the back scene will eventually go.

Some concrete hard standing areas have been added too, these are just card cut, glued and painted and will become the sites car park and loading area for a few vans etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[40 058]

Another little job I’ve been doing between waiting for paint and glue to go off...

 

Years ago I had two of the first release versions of the Hornby 31. One was 31110 in Dutch livery, this suffered from the chassis rot issue of the first three versions. Luckily I caught it early, got the body off before it did much damage and got a new chassis from Hornby under warranty.

The other was 31270 in blue. This one I did not catch early! When I eventually did check it, the chassis was in a bad way, but the body was destroyed! Hornby had also stopped Sending out new chassis or vouchers by then so it went on eBay for spares and that was that.

Ive wanted another though, and given this problem, the early release models must be getting rarer now, so I bagged a really good 31270 body off eBay and a set of buffer beam cowlings to suit. Then kept an eye out for a good chassis or a complete 31 I could take the chassis from. In the end I got a discounted complete brand new 31 in the DCR green livery. This became the chassis donor.

 

 

 

Basic fit seems fine, as you’d expect.

But, unbeknown to me (until now!) it seems Hornby have changed the 31’s chassis lately! The lighting is now different to early versions being a seperate Lighting unit instead of part of the cab interior unit. The fan is no longer powered either (which I don’t really care about!), and I’d expected the buffer beam cowlings to be a simple screw on part - they’re not!

I could have bought the 31102 model (Which already has cowlings) in blue to use as a chassis donor but couldn’t find one cheap enough so had to make do. 
First job was to carefully remove the lighting unit. Mine came out of the green donor shell easily. 31270 doesn’t have a high intensity headlight so the plastic light lense for that was simply removed. Then the unit was carefully fitted to the old 31270 body, held in with a couple of dabs of superglue.

 

 

Next task is to offer up the buffer beam cowlings.

These very clearly won’t fit! The new chassis is from a refurbished 31 so has the chassis framework. This gets in the way of the plastic cowlings and there’s no screw holes in this chassis version either. So to get them to fit, Ive chopped off the two screw hole lugs on the cowlings, then carefully used a razor saw and files to cut away the outer edges of the chassis buffer beam frames.

 

 

 

[40 058]

Here’s the edge of the metal casting getting chopped! It’s only a very thin slice that’s needed.

 

 

And with a bit of filing down of the cowlings and chassis the cowlings can be made to fit.

 

 

The cowlings are held onto the chassis with superglue applied to the sides where they were cut. They seem solid enough so should be ok without their original screws.

The next obvious thing is refitting the buffer, and painting them and the buffer beam black.

 

 

Test runs show it runs very well (it’s brand new underneath so it should!) and all the lights are working too.

So, proof that I can do some actual modelling not just buying ready to run! No idea why this was so far up my priority list but there we go! This now gives me back the model I lost ages ago, but with the latest chassis.

 

Ill freely admit I’ve got a thing for 31’s, I’ve got lots more, some of which will be in for work and paint in due course!

[Powerhaul 70 Pey]

Following this layout.  That corner with the warehouse is taking shape nicely and those bankings dropping down from the bridge have potential to be stunning and add some nice height.  What a collection of 31s. . . . I got given a free TTS sound chip for a 31 so I am looking to get 1 in the future.

[40 058]

11 hours ago, Powerhaul 70 Pey said:

Following this layout.  That corner with the warehouse is taking shape nicely and those bankings dropping down from the bridge have potential to be stunning and add some nice height.  What a collection of 31s. . . . I got given a free TTS sound chip for a 31 so I am looking to get 1 in the future.

Cheers!

The plan for that back corner, is to add some scatter & static grass, and build it up with trees to hide the joint to the wall/what will be backscene, running up along the edge to the bridges. Where the corrugated iron fence is, I plan to do similar but with greenery coming up from behind the fence as if there’s an overgrown yard or something behind, again, to hide the end of the layout a bit.

Its actually turned out to be an interesting little area this corner, adding a little bit more operating interest and some more interesting scenery than just a hill!

 

The 31’s...

Yeah, I’ve got a few!! By no means all of them have been in this thread yet either. I’ll dig them all out and get some pics. Some are standard models but there’s quite a few modified/repainted ones too. And a good few duplicates I’ve stocked up on for renumbering etc.

Funnily enough, I’ve just discovered(!) another red stripe railfreight sound fitted one I’d forgotten I even had. I normally take the sound gubbins out and sell it as I don’t use DCC, I was surprised to get this one running up and down and finding it’s still got sound fitted!! There’s two or three spare bodies laying around somewhere too.

Told you I had a thing for them!

[1977joey]

Really like this layout & the era. Consider me another follower

 

Cheers,

Mark