Kelgh - A layout for the boys

[Kris]

Project "Goods Yard" - Update. 

 

An hours further work this afternoon on the goods yard has seen some dirt and bushes appear. The photos show the process in the way that a thousand words could not. When the last photo was taken there was still a lot of glue to dry so things looked rather white, maybe it was frosty. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In further news the fish pond is developing. I think that one of the home owners must have a bit of a thing for fish as it is rather large compared to the garden. Still you will be able to see the fish in it.

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Kris
Re-adding photos

[Kris]

The neglected ends of the sidings in the goods yard now looks better. The glue has dried out.

 

That's a big gap at the bottom of the wall, photos show up the most inconvenient of things. Still, a pavement and some undergrowth should sort that.

 

I really must paint the chassis of that wagon. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Kris
Re-adding photos

[Kris]

Whilst waiting for bits to print for my main layout, I have done a little more work in the goods yard. For this section I have been making the garden for the station masters house. My children have helped to design it (part of a home schooling project). 

Plants need to be added, something one of my sons is particularly excited about. I must rummage about in my wife's sewing box to see if their are any suitable pins that I can steal to make into cabbages or lettuces.

 

The shed is home designed and printed.

 

Adding this section means that there is less plain wood visible on the layout. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Kris
Re-adding photos

[Kris]

Project goods yard update. 

 

Only a very small update as I have been otherwise busy however I have been keeping an eye on the deadline that I set myself to get this area completed, so...

 

The ground cover for this area is now all in place. I have gone for a stoney base using some n gauge ballast that I have had for 20+ years. Once the glue has dried there will need to be a lot of dirtying up to make it look more "lived in". The amount of wood baseboard that can been seen on the layout however is steadily diminishing which is a great thing. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Kris
Re-adding photos

[Kris]

Not much progress to report. Very limited actually but the "soil" in the garden for the station masters house has been added. 

 

 

In further news, the Rocket will not take 5 coaches up the gradient from the station to the goods yard (1:50). It does a lovely line in wheel slippage after grinding to a halt about half way up, even with a good run up. Never mind. 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Kris
Re-adding photos

[Great Eastern Lady]

Maybe you should have Locomotion on banking duties 

[Kris]

Footpaths have started to appear. These are Scalescenes ones and need some finishing to make them blend in. 

 

 

I have also put the final bit of ballast around the last set of buffers in the goods yard. No idea why I had not already done this with the rest of the ballasting. 

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Kris
Re-adding photos

[john new]

Like it, too many modellers forget that a well done train set style layout is a good stepping point. 

[Kris]

After several months of not doing much, I have made some progress. I have spent a couple of afternoons working on the "engine shed area". This has gained a couple of low relief warehouses and I have decided that the old engine shed needs to be replaced with something better. Time to break out the Scalescenes kits I have. 

Whilst an engine shed next to the warehouses is unlikely, it is what one of my sons wants. He also wants the warehouse to be the "mountain warehouse". Not wanting to go for that shop I have slightly modified the name and created a logo. I hope he likes it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Kris
Re-adding photos

[brossard]

I only just discovered this thread.  I'm not a train set guy but this all looks great Kris.  I'm just wondering whether this is really for the boys or perhaps as much for dad.

 

John

[Kris]

31 minutes ago, brossard said:

I only just discovered this thread.  I'm not a train set guy but this all looks great Kris.  I'm just wondering whether this is really for the boys or perhaps as much for dad.

 

John

It's for them, trying to build an interest. I think that it has worked with one but the other is far too interested in cars. It's the wrong scale for me and I like modelling real locations. Look at the link in my signature to see what I model. 

[Kris]

The unlikely engine shed is now nearly completed, it just needs a couple of bits adding and the some edges colouring in. Then it will be on to completing the "concrete" ground cover. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Kris
Rae-adding photos

[Kris]

The station building for Kelgh has been a Hornby model from the mid 80's (at least that is how long I have had it) in a stone wrap. It was tired and showing its  age so I felt that it was time to change it. Unfortunately my youngest son likes it so it had to stay, hmmm. After a little negotiation it was found to be acceptable to renovate it, phew. Off I went to find out how other people have done this. Whilst it has been done before evidence is limited. Discussion about this also fell to the fact that the building is a little too high for a single story and too low for two stories. Do I cut it down to size? or do I find another solution. After much pondering I went for extensions and alterations rather than cutting as I felt that I would end up with a building that had the wrong proportions if it were cut down. 

 

So this was the victim at the beginning before the renovation started. 

 

 

 

 

First this that was done was to strip the building removing anything that could come off the original, windows chimneys, barge boards canopy etc. This left me with a blank canvas. Wrapping the building brick paper seemed to be the best option so it was off to Scalescenes I went with a credit card in hand. Once done I started measuring the building and creating a plan to drop the bricks onto.

 

  

 

I decided to get around the lack of height for two floors that some roof light windows were called for on one side. I went for one side only as this seemed to give a more interesting building to my eyes.

 

 

I also looked at the window size on the roof extension. This was far too large, larger than the double doors so I shrank it. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Kris

[Kris]

I then continued to tile the roof and create new barge boards and plinths to replace missing items. 

 

Lights were then added to the building to add to the play value of the layout. 

 

A new chimney and 2 new chimney tops were built. 

 

It's not finished quite but it is nearly there and looks very different (and hopefully better) than what it was before.

 

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Kris
Photos re added

[Kris]

I've spent a hour or so trying to come up with a list of what needs to be done on this layout to make it complete. I have come to the conclusion that there is not a lot in terms of cost, more so in time however. 

 

Jobs to do to complete 

 

• New station car park (The existing one is badly printed)
• Edging on RH side of layout. (To protect ware house building)
• Edging at rear of layout near bridge. (To protect ware house building)
• Rebuild the central housing area to make the base more stable. (The existing is just a layer of expanded polystyrene sheet that has become damaged due to the thickness of the sheet in some places -Replacing this will also allow a slight rethink in the layout of the housing and road in this section). 
• Trees and bushes on hill (Some of the existing bushes were soaking up moisture from the air and transferring it to the layout - I removed these last week and could have wrung them out). 
• New roads (The existing ones are badly printed)
• Pavements (replacing the roads will mean that this needs to be done).
• Retaining wall tops around goods yard
• Build a new pub - (ScaleScenes pub purchased and ready to print)
• Add house lights to… (These will be modified Christmas light strings and are already purchased). 
  • Pub
  • Goods shed
  • Warehouse
  • Signal box
  • Detached house
  • Semi 1
  • Semi 2
  • Weigh bridge hut
  • Hut near loading dock
  • House near level crossing
  • House near goods yard
• Facer
• Add cars
• Add people
• Add animals
• Add signals? Would need purchasing and I wonder how long they would last.

I wonder how long it will take me to complete these jobs?

[Graham T]

34 minutes ago, Kris said:

 

I wonder how long it will take me to complete these jobs?

 

I'd guess about twice as long as you expect, at a minimum!

 

[Kris]

7 hours ago, Graham T said:

 

I'd guess about twice as long as you expect, at a minimum!

 

Well, redoing the station carpark has taken longer than it should. Printed out the carpark only to find that the white lines were about 1/3 too short. Time to get editing and making sure that there would be room for a car to get into all of the spaces. 

[Graham T]

I'd have thought it would be more realistic if a car couldn't fit into the spaces?

[Kris]

1 hour ago, Graham T said:

I'd have thought it would be more realistic if a car couldn't fit into the spaces?

Not when the front wheels couldn't be in the space at the same time as the rear wheels. I do agree however about spaces being smaller than they should be in real life. 

[Kris]

In between playing devils advocate on other threads, I have been doing some modelling. 

 

The carpark is now relaid and 2 more houses have had lighting added. I'm not to happy with how one has turned out so will likely be redoing this one. My children however were very excited when I turned the lights on in the houses and could see interior details such as beds chairs and tv's. At the moment the houses are just placed on the layout any will be bedded in to prevent the light bleed under the walls once I rebuild the area around them. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2023 by Kris
Photos re added

[Kris]

Gosh it's been a long time since I updated this thread. 

For the last year or so little or nothing had happened to the layout other than out being played with (mostly by me). Over the past couple of weeks however I have been poking more at the scenic side. Given that this is principally for children I am not so fussed about the greater depth details that I would love to see on my layout. 

I have added to the gardens on the small estate in the middle of the layout, there are now a lot more trees to be seen. Some hedges have appeared, as have some pavements. There are a few small details as well, can you spot them.

 

 

[Kris]

Today, in another small bit of progress I have mainly been gardening. Some tiny turnips and a lot of flowers, along with various bits of grass clumps have all been planted today. 

 

It's certainly nice to be getting to the stage where small details are being added. It's a long time since I have had a layout get this far. Feels good.