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Finnsbay Late 80s ScotRail


jono26
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For those who follow my ScotRail 1987/88 workbench thread will have guessed from some of the rolling stock photos that I also have a layout under construction.

Finnsbay is a large loft layout which has been in planning for many years with work finally starting in late 2017 and progressing slowly, interspersed with rolling stock projects.

 

I could start from the very beginning with step by step progress but as most of this is run of the mill track laying, wiring and testing I thought I would skip this bit and jump right on in at the scenery build. All I will say about the initial build is it went close to the original plan, I learned a lot and actually enjoyed the design and build to meet the final operating objectives. My initial plan had a double road carriage shed similar to Inverness but this would have been too cramped in the space so this was reduced to a single road shed. I also widened the right-hand side of the layout to match the left-hand side thus allowing more room for the oil/diesel storage tanks and depot entrance.

 

Specification for the layout is;

Total length 25’ / 7.7m with a scenic section of approximately 23’ / 7m

Hidden minimum 90cm radius curves at each end

Roundy round so I can watch scale length trains slowly trundle by

DCC, but no sound (yet) as this is too noisy in the loft while I am trying to listen to sport or music on the radio, this is also about escaping and relaxing.

Code 100 track and electro-frog points on visible sections

Large radius points

Two large core bus wires have been run for track power and every section of track and points have droppers.

Remote uncoupling will be via hidden Kadee 308 magnets

Carriage servicing area big enough for a 7 trailer HST set

Carriage shed / Washer and fuel point accessible from both directions to aid the flow of carriage rakes through the depot

Base boards are homemade 2”x1” timber frame with 12mm ply tops, each board is 4’ x 2’ (120x60cm approx..) but widen out at the right and left hand ends an additional 4” / 10cm.

Loft is insulated and plaster boarded out though I could do with a velux

 

The era is late 80’s, 87-88 to be exact, based on my days travelling the length of the country by rail to and from work in the North Sea via Aberdeen, so most of the rolling stock I travelled on will be represented, some rakes accurately depicted, others with a little modellers license.

The location is fictitious but essentially Aberdeen–ish, track planning took inspiration from Aberdeen Clayhills and also Longrock Penzance which are smaller servicing depots where trains terminate, which with a bit of license was scaled to fit my available space. Clearly I have also been influenced by Aberdeen Kirkhill Exhibition layout. The station will be a fusion of Aberdeen and Dundee, still working out the finished design, but I like the idea of bits of the 80’s Dundee station building somewhere in the mix set against an older granite station building.

 

432307514_FinnsbayPlan.jpg.694d498e2136e5ab83835f7071cba685.jpg

 

Some earlier photos below showing the basics, I have mocked up the road and station building area over the platform end as well as the dual carriageway flyover bridge at the south end of the depot to get an idea of space and proportion.  During the track laying I also built the inspection pit for the HST/Carriage shed and the wash plant concrete base.

 

370494455_Layoutoverviewbasics.jpg.f4f2806b56b9cec7b35ecc87f7f045f9.jpg

 

More to follow, there is a fair bit to show to get to the current state of build 

 

cheers

Jonathan

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Wash Plant base

 

The carriage wash plant is modelled on the original 80’s installation at Clayhills Aberdeen. Having found a few suitable photos (there aren't that many online) and taken some approximate measurements from google earth and with a little modeller license I came up with a design. So far just the concrete base/bund has been built.

 

The starting point for the concrete base was a Peco inspection pit with the pit cut off leaving just the upper track section with chairs. This was glued onto a base of 0.02 (0.5mm) plasticard to form the base of the drainage channels. Into this I drilled holes and mounted the drain covers from the peco pit which were cut out as square sections and glued underneath. This was then mounted on 0.04 (1mm) plasticard with sections removed to allow the drain cover sections to fit flush with the base.

The washing units will be mounted on a raised concrete section either side of the track which I constructed from 0.04 plasticard. The picture below shows 4 sections of 4mm mdf fitted in each corner to allow the unit to be screwed down to the baseboard and minimise potential warping. The screw heads will be hidden by the washing / rinse units. I decided I would have these at both ends with rotating brush units in between to allow bi-directional use. The last image bottom right is the base section with a coat of primer ready to be painted up in concrete.

 

347906143_washplantbase.jpg.e5f5db948b6ba47b3f6bff59444aad3d.jpg

 

The concrete base for the wash plant has been painted and weathered before installation. I used Humbrol Enamel Matt paints white 34, light grey 64 and mid stone 84. A light coat of white was sprayed on followed by a wash of mid stone. I then sponged on light grey and mid stone and worked the paint ‘trial and error’ with thinners until I was happy with a dirt stained concrete look.

The track was sprayed with Phoenix Precision sleeper grime and a light wash of matt black,  finally, I used thinned gloss varnish to get a damp/wet look.

 

1496756870_washplantbasefitted.jpg.57a4fbb1d60683a2b31e29db47a33531.jpg

 

I will build the washer units once I have the bridge/dual carriage way in place as I don’t want to risk damaging them. There will also be a water storage tank and pump/control unit to go somewhere close by.

 

Next up the carriage shed inspection pit

 

Jonathan

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Inspection Pit

 

I have been ambitious with the carriage shed and made this as long as possible for the space available while having access at both ends. Result is a 5ft long single road shed with an inspection pit running the full length. At the North end of the shed I have used the Peco kit but added side access pits onto this from plasticard. With the additional of a 1mm plasticard base support, I cut out a section of the base board and fitted a section of ply underneath as support. All rail sections have dropper feed wires, I also painted the track with sleeper grime and added black and a little dark brown for oil staining.

 

170499025_Inspectionpit.jpg.b74308a82a030d1a29124b90b69e06bf.jpg

 

The peco pits are set into a 3mm mdf guide which will form the base for the shed floor which will eventually be coated in plasticard, bringing the floor up to rail level.

Note I replaced the short Peco track lengths with longer code 100 sections

 

Jonathan

 

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Wiring

Not every ones favourite part of the build and have to say I was not looking forward to wiring this plan up, especially all those electrofrog points. But taking it in small steps and learning along the way made it not too bad. However, I really wish I had built this layout to be in removable sections that way I could solder the boards on their side in the study rather than laying on my back soldering upside down in the loft.

I have tried to keep the wiring as organised (colour coded and neat) as possible and tested all connections and functions of the Seep PM1 motors one at a time as fitted to minimise the risk of future problems. As you can imagine this took some time considering the number of points and track sections but fortunately it has all worked to plan and appears quite robust. I have used a Gaugemaster MCDU to power the point motors as this comes with its own transformer and have to say I am very pleased with the function of the switching.

wiring.jpg.a8a9aaf679b070dc19f6fd8785e2bb76.jpg

 

You will also see from the control panel that I have incorporated a section of DCC programming track into the layout using isolating fish plates and a DPDT switch.

1648176078_ControlPanel.jpg.95c5c52609e94a357c3c1e5991241139.jpg

The remaining 2 holes in the control panel on the station section are for push buttons to control the kadee electro magnets which I fitted in place when laying the track.

803220302_Controlpanelback.jpg.0ace39ef39b24ead9d81d6d1c1ac1582.jpg

 

Jonathan

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44 minutes ago, jono26 said:

However, I really wish I had built this layout to be in removable sections that way I could solder the boards on their side in the study rather than laying on my back soldering upside down in the loft.

I was fortunate enough to learn that the hard way when a lot younger!  It does make for more complications laying track and extra wiring for inter board connectors but I wouldn’t do it any other way now.

Paul.

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11 hours ago, Legend said:

Very nice indeed . Might I ask what you have laid the track on ?  It looks like a nicely coloured ballast strip

 

Thanks.

I use standard cork sheet but painted with left over diluted grey match pot emulsion before laying the track, just to add a base colour if/where I have thin ballast. I also paint the cess with a dark brown wash before adding fine ballast.

One other thing I did was to cut out a small section of cork below the point actuating bar and add a layer of ballast so that you don't see cork under this area, I also cut down the bar as I am using peco dummy point machines. The slotted sleeper ends were also removed and additional sleeper lengths glued in place onto which the point machines are glued.

778859286_pointballast.jpg.a34504b08a46f88dd42d949a6fb20920.jpg

cheers

Jonathan

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17 hours ago, jono26 said:

 

Thanks.

I use standard cork sheet but painted with left over diluted grey match pot emulsion before laying the track, just to add a base colour if/where I have thin ballast. I also paint the cess with a dark brown wash before adding fine ballast.

One other thing I did was to cut out a small section of cork below the point actuating bar and add a layer of ballast so that you don't see cork under this area, I also cut down the bar as I am using peco dummy point machines. The slotted sleeper ends were also removed and additional sleeper lengths glued in place onto which the point machines are glued.

778859286_pointballast.jpg.a34504b08a46f88dd42d949a6fb20920.jpg

cheers

Jonathan

 

Thanks for replying . Its one of these relatively simple, why didn't I think of that answers .  It looks quite effective

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Track Painting and Trunking

Having completed all the wiring and given the whole layout a thorough testing and some minor fixes over many weeks I was eventually convinced it all worked as planned.

Next step was giving the track a coat of sleeper grime (Phoenix Precision) but first I had to rig up an extractor fan as I was spraying this in a confined loft with no natural ventilation, I also used a appropriate rated face mask. I used an air brush rather than rattle can to give better control and masked off the concrete sleeper track sections and sprayed only the rails as I will be hand weathering the concrete before ballasting. During spraying I masked off the point blades and springs and hand painted these areas.

2030500079_Trackpainting.jpg.a411bef5b36c641cf9877fdda8035ec8.jpg

Before starting the line side concrete trunking and junction boxes I drew up a plan of where I thought this should go based on point machine and heater transformer location and a rough signalling plan. I was OK with the fact I would probably have to make changes later when the signalling plan was complete but having the main line side runs right was important to define the cess for ballasting.

 

Due to the scale of the layout I have a requirement for approximately 25ft of trunking, so to keep costs down I scratch built from plasticard, a combination of strips cut into scale lengths and U sections again cut into scale lengths. Cut sections were stuck onto card with double sided tape, sprayed with Halfords white plastic primer, then washes of Humbrol 64 and 84 applied until I was happy with a concrete look. This will get further weathering once in place and I have a better idea of the level of track and ballast weathering.

2010199545_concretetrunking.jpg.5eda3b879449b8f8d9ac72b3ccdb2c69.jpg

 

Below is the station throat which has since had additional work with orange pipes and junction box re-positioning. The signal box will be located top left so once in place I will make some further modifications to tie the cable trunking into the box (I am basing this on the power box at Aberdeen), for now I think it is fairly close to being OK. For sticking this down I used rocket card glue which seems to do the job. 

1136512199_linesidetrunking1.jpg.1a2cb182bc864d8fd051b826e743a0aa.jpg

 

Next up, a lot of ballast

 

Jonathan

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Ballasting begins

Another one of those marmite jobs which I put off for too long and dithered over the choice of ballast worried that I would make an un-prototypical mess that would be difficult to correct. Having made a layout for my son and ballasted this with a popular ‘medium’ grade ballast I was not happy to use this on Finnsbay. Over many months, in between other jobs, I conducted trials on off cuts of track testing out different mixes and sizes of ballast.  One conclusion I came to was that the Peco sleeper spacing of code 100, being too close together, makes the medium scale ballast I had previously used look the wrong size/over size as you get fewer grains per sleeper gap when compared to prototype pictures. If the sleepers are re-spaced correctly it doesn’t look half bad. However, there is no way I am going to re-space all the sleepers on Finnsbay.

I eventually settled on Green Scene 4mm ballast for the main line which I think looks about spot on, with 2mm ballast in the cess. Ballast was applied in the usual diluted PVA method and left to dry 48 hours. A quick tidy up followed and additional ballast added in places to make it look less uniform.

Because of the size of the layout and need to crack on with scenery I have concentrated on the mainline, station and head shunts and left the carriage servicing yard to a later date, this will be a different grade of ballast.

I have used a light grey ballast for the concrete sleeper track and the wooden sleeper track and station throat sections a medium grey to show some variation in age and maintenance. This has been given thin washes of black and brown acrylic paints to weather it in and to take away the plastic look to the concrete sleepers. I think the trick here is to be patient with the washes and assess how it looks once dry. In the station area I applied heavy black washes and also some neat black acrylic and brown washes to represent heavy oil staining.

The cess ballast is also weathered to make it look less like coarse sand paper.

 

1339538697_trackballasting1.jpg.111d7a8bc04e571f4e5be0a73776c7aa.jpg

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Before ballasting the station I marked out the platform edges using the mdf bases I had cut way back when aligning the track, I then ballasted upto this which should leave a small gap into which I can fit the platforms and then tidy up the ballast afterwards. So with this in mind next I will show how I did my platforms.

 

Jonathan

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Platforms

When laying the track, I made the wooden base of the platforms so I could get the correct spacing of rolling stock from the platform edge before fixing down the track. I used 11mm ply (I measured it at 11mm but assume nominal 12mm) as the base with a 3mm mdf top over hanging 2mm.

1899781256_platformsbuild1.jpg.91653a9837cabc0f722bf8c434bdbbed.jpg

I glued Slater block work plasticard to this using Evostick contact adhesive.  Edging slabs were individually cut from 1mm plasticard and glued in place against a templated reference line draw along the length of the platforms on each side. Platforms then given a coat of Halfords plastic primer.

I was careful to plan the final height of the platform to match images I had of Aberdeen referenced against rolling stock.  Both platforms are approximately 2m long and follow the curve of the track in the hidden corner section.

1667315027_platformsbuild2.jpg.54b1f1b1223263d315bad205bee213fa.jpg

 

Painting and weathering the block work was based on photos of Aberdeen in the 80's showing stained/blackened block work on the platform sides which I have tried to reproduce. Also had a play around with varying grades of wet and dry paper to see if I could match the weathered tarmac look of platform 5/6 at Aberdeen. I settled on 1200 grade and thin washes of grey and /or white emulsion (old tester pots) see picture below. Once dry I have found I can vary the colour depth by giving it a light rub with another similar grade wet and dry paper.

98438929_platformsbuild3.jpg.a514ee076a0828ec08c48e0591491cfd.jpg

 

Two platforms are now finished and installed on the layout. I followed the previous described method and applied multiple washes of grey paint to get the tarmac tops something close to the pictures I had. I lightly sanded each layer between coats. One thing to note is that tarmac changes colour depending on moisture levels/rain and light so really there are no right or wrong shades of light grey to dark grey. I attempted to represent older tarmac with newer sections and patched up areas including a channel down the centre of the platforms which had been dug up to install lighting power cables. Note I only did this as far as the canopy. I also noted that the platforms at Aberdeen had bitumen applied between the edge slabs and the tarmac.

A 2mm white line was painted on the platform edge starting from the top of the ramp.

 

Couldn't resist filling up the station with some rolling stock to get a feel for what it might look like - London bound HST, class 37 arrived from Inverness and rake of Mk3a coaches in a push pull formation from Glasgow. 

1520660546_platforms01.jpg.b9396714bae6aa1d16d449dd25ac34e2.jpg

 

204189828_platforms02.jpg.f190586f6a6febeb6f0aa0e16598ee35.jpg

 

The gap between the existing ballast and platform is then filled in using a thin layer of PVA brushed on and ballast sprinkled over, this seems to work OK. Note I didn't go for the diluted PVA method just in case the ply sub base of the platforms expanded. 

 

Next up a little more permanent way detailing

 

Jonathan

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Line side cabinets

A while back I bought the two sets of line side cabinets from Will kits, built them and then set them aside while I got on with the layout build. Having developed the track plan then worked out where point machines, heater transformers and signalling would go it occurred to me I would need around 20 lineside cabinets. That’s a lot of money on kits which could be spent elsewhere if I could scratch build all these from plasticard. I decided to mix up the types of boxes to try represent upgrades to the PW and different uses, for example the point heater transformers are all tied back to the same type of cabinet. I used drawings found on the internet for approximate sizes and cut panels from 0.5mm plasticard. I built 6 of each type, 18 in total which were quite easy in the end and reasonably quick as a batch build. I think these turned out OK and will pass muster once painted to simulate weathered galvanised steel and fitted on the layout/seen from viewing distance. The 4 on the right-hand side in the picture are the Wills kits.

cabinets.jpg.21fcbffeef8992fe7bc74492accb05f6.jpg

 

I finished the cabinets off with a wash of light grey then a little ageing with rust especially the hinges – it’s the salty sea air up here, causes early corrosion. Rust is a mix of Humbrol 62 and 32 mixed in various ratios and applied with a cocktail stick. I still have another 6 plus the Wills kits ones to weather for the signals.

799712839_cabinetsfinished.jpg.43f2f479a3bb431c3dfe9b51283c59da.jpg

I had a go at point heater transformers/mushrooms but I wasn’t happy with the results so invested in some Shapeways 3D printed ones (above). These are not the smoothest of prints and required some filing and sanding to get a flat steel look rather than the pebble dashed (or harled for Scottish readers) look I got when given a coat of primer straight from the packet. Still not happy with the close up of these but from viewing distance on the layout they look OK. I added cables either side glued into a small hole drilled in the underside.

 

Point Detailing

On all the points I cut down the stretcher bar and added extended sleepers for the point machines to sit on.  I am using the over scale Peco ones which represent the HW point machine. As some may have noticed in previous ballast pictures I cut off the solenoid motor fixing slots on the side of the Peco point and then added the extended sleepers. I noted on several PW pictures that the motor is often mounted onto a flat steel section with what looks like a shimmed section with bolts. I replicated this with 0.25mm plasticard and for the bolts I cut these off the sleeper chairs on code 100 Peco track. Bit of a fiddle to make but adds another level of detail.

474196046_pointmachinedetailing.jpg.366706f4c143cd644b833402ca353481.jpg

Also mounted 0.3mm wire onto plasticard to represent the blade actuating bars, these were then glued on the underside of the dummy motor housing. I mounted these lower and dug out some of the ballast so the bars sit below the rail bottom.

Point machine cabling is coated 0.2mm Black Wire from Railwayscenics, perfect for the job as it is fine enough to be realistic and easily bent to shape. Where the wires enter the trunking I drilled a hole at 45 degrees into the trunking side to feed the wires into with a spot of superglue to hold in position.

 

And finally pictures of everything in place, no cabinets for signalling, these will be positioned when I get around to the signals.

412615781_PWstation1.jpg.4c4d2365e819910a4dee288581c62600.jpg

 

1938415594_PWstation2.jpg.025e3ed033c6ef25401b201e604f2e9f.jpg

 

Jonathan

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A great series of "how to" postings, thanks Jonathan.

I'm just about to launch into some baseboard building, so your postings will be great inspiration.  I look forward to seeing many more ;)

 

 

 

Steve

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Great job, and already looking good at this relatively early stage in the build! Love the attention to detail for the trunking etc.

 

I'm watching this with particular interest, as I have a similar space planned for a roundy roundy - (21' long and around 2' wide, widening at each end to accommodate curves). If you get chance it would be good to see a track plan with the hidden curves on it.

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Thanks Neil, hidden curves are just parallel on the south end with minimum radius of 95cm, picture below is the North end with the station approach from the off scene side. I think the minimum radius here is 92cm on the head shunt and I used a couple of curved large radius Peco points. Some people don't like these but they were laid with great care and attention and after many years and numerous rolling stock passing over I have had no problems with derailing.

902741094_NEcornercurves.jpg.088167ade785c9bc0ea6b564ed42f953.jpg 

 

Jonathan

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