Speech End

[ParkeNd]

Station roofing nearly completed. Considered which slate roof brand to fit. Dismissed Wills sheets which might have been easiest because they are not long enough and are far too hard and thick to cut. So I’ve used Slaters 4mm scale slates which have to be cut in strips from A4 sheets comprising of two regions - a plain row and a slate embossed row - which are overlapped working from the gutter upwards to the ridge around all four faces of the hipped roof - alternate rows staggered to mimic the real thing. This is not quick! Purists have already commented that the slate thickness is over scale but it’s easier to see the effect with old eyes. I fitted all three brick chimneys first. Now waiting for Evergreen 0.156 angle strip to make the hips and ridge sections. Will photograph it next when roof is in grey primer prior to final painting, fitting of gutters, drainpipes, steps, and air grills. 

[ParkeNd]

Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance 2 starter pack arriving today - at last. Just time to finish station building before I have to learn about the DCC area which is the greatest mystery to me - points control and how to connect the green wire I’ve soldered to the modified points, and to which type of points motors/ polarity reversing kit. Also now must start the addition of DCC chips to the pre-owned (mostly) locos I bought little by little in the summer when no-one wanted them. 

[ParkeNd]

Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance 2 arrived and roof of station building reached primer stage. I've left the masking tape on the chimney stacks because it took a long time to put on and I have the slates to dry brush now.

Edited December 13, 2019 by ParkeNd
missed word

[ParkeNd]

Final stage of station building construction today with painting of fire buckets, dustbins, and station luggage trolleys - I have fitted floor and narrow protruding “apron” under the building as with my later more detailed N gauge buildings on Parkend. Even in OO gauge (I’m older now!) fitting handles formed from thin wire to 4 white metal fire buckets was a challenge - I didn’t swear even once, it was two or three times. Photo soon

 

Next job is temporary storage of platforms and station building (made to tread water whilst DCC controller on order) and turning layout board upside down to install and connect wiring. If I think about the whole wiring job it feels daunting (“no more complication, just two simple wires to connect” my eye!!). I figure if I install the DCC bus first and connect my red and black wires from my already soldered 10 points on the rails, whilst saving the complication of 13 points decoders and motors for later, I might survive. I just hope I’ve put insulated rail joiners in the right places. My plan is to use Brian Lambert’s online tuition. I’m guessing that the few pairs of points that need to switch together every time will reduce the number of Cobalt decoders required?  At the moment I’m thinking of Peco points motors including a couple of surface mounted ones in places. 

Edited December 30, 2019 by ParkeNd
correcting a name

[F-UnitMad]

12 hours ago, ParkeNd said:

I didn’t swear even once, it was two or three times.

 

[ParkeNd]

Started 5th October 2019 and finally finished yesterday 1st January 2020.  Coleford GWR station building resurrected as the station building for Speech End. Now on to the wiring at last.

 

 

[ParkeNd]

I’ve been building an LMS signal box kit in the evenings in front of the TV because I can do it on my lap on a Humbrol Work Station. The continuous adjacent windows uninterrupted on three sides don’t fit with my established scratch building methods so again (used one on N gauge Parkend) I’ve opted for a kit. The Ratio kit is very well thought out and needs a lot of pre-painting of sub assemblies and components at regular intervals. It’s looking incredibly neat - too neat in fact - perfect straight lines and edges, perfect corners, in fact perfect everything. So it’s going to need some roughing up at some stage so it looks more organic like the station building. 

[ParkeNd]

The signal box is taking a lot longer to build than I thought, given that I want to start the electrics. The build instructions say that most of the time will be taken up with painting, and so it is. I’ll post a photo soon, but painting and weathering components by dry brushing before assembling each stage is succeeding in roughing up the appearance to make it look more natural. I’m fitting out the interior before adding the big rake of side windows and find the instruction leaflets way of glazing windows before fitting doesn’t work, so I’m fitting windows first by carefully sanding them to fit the apertures, then cutting glazing material from paper patterns, then fitting it inside the frame using Glue N Glaze which doesn’t fog the glazing material like kit glue would. 

Edited February 4, 2020 by ParkeNd
Photo added

[ParkeNd]

Finally the signal box is completed and I can move on to the electronics which will involve cutting two broad pieces from the left over MDF to span the frame, cover with towels, and turn the whole board upside down. Then to terrify myself by reading up how to instal the power bus, and connect the wires I spent ages soldering to the track.

 

In the meantime this is what the signal box looks like. I modified the window frames to be more like most prototypes in this area, and fitted a full interior complete with two Dapol grey plastic figures that I hand painted under a magnifier. The catwalk boarding was easy to fit neatly but I proved incapable of fitting the handrail tidily even after threading the tiny plastic "pins" onto the wire first - it looked terrible so I removed it all.  I've also relocated the box to a more realistic location - couldn't see how the signalmen were going to walk all the way across the tracks to my planned middle of the layout position. 

[ParkeNd]

I’ve delayed turning the layout board over because now the points motors and associated electronics are not available - but they are on pre-order. So reluctantly I’ve started the scratch built goods shed. This is based on Cinderford goods shed but 20% shorter - just 4 windows on the track facing side instead of 5 because that’s all the space I have. At the moment it’s drawn out on Daler Board but I won’t cut it out until Scalescenes windows arrive. I used these for the back of the station building and, based on laser print on clear plastic, they actually look better than brass etchings. 

Edited March 21, 2020 by ParkeNd
Add photo

[ParkeNd]

The layout’s progress has been slower than I’ve wanted, there’s no denying that. The ScaleScenes windows arrived this week after a 32 day trip from Queensland in Australia. So I now know that I won’t have to change course to other windows like etched brass or lasercut wood I have cut out the core pieces of the two basic boxes for the main shed and the office. I was saved from a strong desire to find new windows when I thought that my chosen windows were lost in Air Mail by an event that resulted in a forced break and some very skilled component insertion just after Easter involving 4 stents - 2 hours wide awake!  Returning to the layout - I have had to order more 7mm brick Slaters Plastikard (I like to see my bricks) because having originally believed from unsharp black and white photos the buildings were stone blocks - this is the demolished GWR Cinderford goods shed not the still existing Coleford one - I hadn’t bought enough brick stuff. So more delays but hopefully not long. 

[ParkeNd]

Not surprisingly I suppose the additional Slaters Plastikard I needed has not been quick to arrive. However, two days ago a young lady phoned from Slaters to sort out a shortage of one of the materials I had ordered. Nice move from Slaters, sorted out very easily, and what I needed arrived this morning. Great initiative from Slaters. So now I have no excuse but to get on with the Goods Shed. Quite a lot of the interior will be visible from outside so both sides of several of the pieces will have to be clad.

 

I already have my mind on making a footbridge next because the pre-ordered DCC points motors (made in China?) are still not available and I want to do all the wiring in one go followed by ballasting and painting the sides of the rails.

[ParkeNd]

At last it moves forward a bit. 

[ParkeNd]

The shape of the pile of pieces continues to evolve. The etched brass office door to be painted and fitted next and then the two basic boxes that form the core of the goods shed can be assembled. But there’s an awful long way to go yet. 

[ParkeNd]

The accumulation of parts is slowly changing shape and being added to as I work out how to progress through the build - no instructions like a kit!  So I've added brick pillars to the two end pieces to add detail, increase the strength of final building, and aid construction. The inside walls of the main shed are now covered in brick Plasticard, as yet unpainted, and the loading/unloading floor constructed. I didn't have enough Plasticard planked flooring to cover the top surface with one piece but figured that "tiling" it with small pieces might look more realistic since it would probably have been repaired several times during it's life. So far the main shed and the office are each in two L pieces which will be pushed together and glued when I've decided if I will paint the main shed bits beforehand. Still thinking it out. Anyway, here are two pics - the side with the four windows faces the track.

[ParkeNd]

The interior walls of the two big L shapes, and the loading floor have been painted now and glued together to make a solid building. I was concerned that the loading floor and it's platform front wouldn't fit if I glued the L shapes together first, so I held my breath and kept my sticky fingers off the outside walls (mostly) and applied glue to all the joint faces and pushed and held the whole lot together in one go until the glue set enough to take my hands away - quite scary in case it went wrong. I'll wait before posting the next photos because I want to paint more and add more before then. At the moment the office exterior is coming in for attention with detail at ground level and the stairs up to the office door - these are a lot of work for a very small assembly!!.

[ParkeNd]

The external painting of the bricks in the main two boxes of the goods shed has been completed. What comes next is the roof with tiling and chimneys, then the small detailing including window ledges, gutters, drainpipes and handrails , and then the canopy over the goods inwards door, and finally the main doors. I am thinking of sliding doors at the rear, and goods inwards, and two hinged doors at the front - because that's what will fit in the space available.

[ParkeNd]

There's still loads to do - the whole roofline (slates, bargeboards, gutters, downpipes), doors on one end, detail around the office entrance such as the handrails and finish on steps etc, plus more "clutter" detail and weathering of woodwork - but it's progressed a bit more from a white sheet of Daler Board with pencil lines.

[ParkeNd]

Roof slates are on now, long job using overlapping Slaters Plastikard 4mm slates which have to be cut into strips first - pairs of plain bit to to be overlapped and embossed slate to show. Used kit gel glue this time since liquid glue applied with hollow needle applicator was too hit and miss on station roof. Will post pics when tiles and chimney stack painted. Moving on then to make office hand rails (fiddly but masochistically addictive) and front wagon doors which have to have two sided detail. Still not able to turn board upside down to do DCC wiring because DCC surface mounted points motors and controllers still on pre-order - can’t do irreversible track and landscaping until I know trains will run. If the delay goes on then I have a footbridge to make. 

[Captain Kernow]

That's a stunning job you're doing there, I really like it.

 

[ParkeNd]

Finally after spending huge amounts of time on garden projects (because there was a need - not because I'm a gardener) a 2/3 length entirely scratch built recreation of Cinderford GWR Goods Shed is sitting on my layout. More detail around it will be added like boxes, barrels, more people etc but this is for later. Just two comments - it's 2/3 length because that's all the space I have - and the hardest part of the job, believe it or not, was the little assembly with the steps up to the office and the railings. The Cobalt SS DCC addressable points motors and their controls and wiring arrived just last week having been on order for most of this year. Now I'm terrified because I have to move out of my comfort zone and turn the top board upside down to fit the DCC power bus, and all the ancillary DCC controls. Then locos can run and I can get on with ballasting, painting the sides of the rails plus scenery.

[ParkeNd]

I’m sure I have read many times how wiring for DCC is child’s play compared with analogue. Not true.  After modifying the points and laying all the track a while back, I find that I need 3 connections to each point from the Cobalt SS controller - red and black from the same place as the new bridging links in addition to the green wire from the frog. So after turning the layout board over ready to instal the power bus and track droppers I’ve had to abort that, turn the board over right side up to do more soldering with track already laid. Insert swear word of choice here. I reckon if I solder the extra leads one sleeper forward but before the break gap in the rails I might be able to do the job without melting the previous soldering. Not looking forward to it though. 

[ParkeNd]

Soldered two leads to one point as described above and it worked - the adjacent soldered links one sleeper back didn’t melt. So will start tomorrow with the rest. 

[ParkeNd]

Well here we go with the electronics. It’s a system- honest. Red and black wires to power bus, red and blue wires with green frog wire to Prog Power terminals on Cobalt SS controllers etc etc. The plan is to minimise crawling under the layout. This is not in my comfort zone. 

[ParkeNd]

Because of the framework and cross members under the inverted board I’m working the wiring inside 3 squares I traced with a thick felt tip pen. First I have installed the DCC bus and now, one square at a time I’m wiring in the droppers. I’m using a multimeter to check continuity as I go, and I am using choc blocks to cut down on connection to the bus with scotchloks. I thought about soldered connections for all of 5 seconds before abandoning the idea!  Next comes the fitting and wiring of the Cobalt SS Controllers to the modified points and surface mounted points motors - these are really tiny - 1/3 the size of Peco motors. I haven’t worked out yet how to position the points motors whilst connecting them to the SS Controllers whilst being able to see what I’m doing - maybe with the board angled at 45 deg.