Collingwood - A Privatisation Era Southern Region Layout

[JackB95]

Morning Simon. Just stumbled across this thread. Somehow missed it out during my flick-through of the layouts sub-forum. Been following your 3D printed stuff for a while now, so it's really good to see how this layout has come together and looks absolutely incredible as a result of your custom prints.

 

Your trackwork is just fantastic, and is really inspiring to ol' fatfingers here who's taking his time. I may pull a finger out and crack on with the track detailing myself.

 

Following with interest!

[St. Simon]

2 hours ago, JackB95 said:

Morning Simon. Just stumbled across this thread. Somehow missed it out during my flick-through of the layouts sub-forum. Been following your 3D printed stuff for a while now, so it's really good to see how this layout has come together and looks absolutely incredible as a result of your custom prints.

 

Your trackwork is just fantastic, and is really inspiring to ol' fatfingers here who's taking his time. I may pull a finger out and crack on with the track detailing myself.

 

Following with interest!

 

Thanks for kind comments about the track work Jack, this is probably the best job I have done with it, there's a couple of places where the ballast isn't perfect but that's at the back and not too noticeable. The only thing I know is not good is that it is all too clean, but I'm not sure how / if I'll tackle that!

 

Simon

[JackB95]

1 hour ago, St. Simon said:

 

Thanks for kind comments about the track work Jack, this is probably the best job I have done with it, there's a couple of places where the ballast isn't perfect but that's at the back and not too noticeable. The only thing I know is not good is that it is all too clean, but I'm not sure how / if I'll tackle that!

 

Simon

 

Not a problem mate. Looks absolutely fantastic. Too clean is something I find myself saying about my work, but then don't have the guts to cake it in crap. Oh well... #yolo as they say

[Fincra]

Only just seen this. Its looks great so far! 

Edited January 28, 2021 by Fincra

[St. Simon]

Hi,

 

In between waiting for other things to happen, I have been going through my stock and re-working what I can ran with what.

 

The reason for this was to place an actual time period on the layout rather than just the ‘2000s’ I have described previously, this was basically to try to put a lid on stock purchases!  

 

So, the time period is now between 2003, the point at which the Class 450’s were introduced (and before the Class 205’s were withdrawn), and 2017, the point at which South West Trains turned into South Western Railway.

 

As part of this, I made a timeline to correlate my rolling stock to see whether I had any ‘impossible scenarios’:

 

 

The coloured blocks are where I actually have the stock, whereas the arrows with grey text are where I have gaps in my stock list which I need to cover.

 

As a result of this correlation, I found that I needed to change a few things around in terms of consists and locos, plus I have got a couple of extra rakes which I haven’t shown before. Plus, I’ve now made some graphics for the formations rather than using photos of the stock, the trains highlighted in red are pieces of stock which I haven’t got (if you have any idea where I can get them, just say!)

 

Passenger Trains

 

 

The major services through Fareham are South West Trains services between Southampton and Portsmouth & Southsea (local stopping services) and between Portsmouth Harbour and London Waterloo via Basingstoke. The local services are in the hands of Class 450’s, whereas the London services are normally Class 444’s, but are fairly regularly Class 450 based.

 

I have also added Waterloo to Weymouth services operated by Class 450s which are diverted via Guildford, Havant and Fareham if needed.

 

When reviewing my sequence, I found that I needed an extra service to use the Bay platform just to make it more operationally interested. So, I have added a local service between Winchester and Collingwood operated by a Class 158 (to be re-livered from an old Bachmann Class 158). This is an actual timetabled service, but is a very early morning service.

 

 

The Southern services are the ones which really can’t be modelled accurately! The vast majority of Southern services are in the hands of Class 377 units (of both legacy and next generation types) as well as the odd Gatwick Class 387. Until a Class 377 appears (I really hope soon!), I’ll use my normal excuse of my 4-CEP and 4-VEP ‘heritage’ units covering for a failed unit! I’m also hoping that Bachmann revive it’s plans to re-tool the Class 171 units which would do me for the moment.

 

Brighton to Southampton services have also been known to be handled by Class 313s which are normally only seen to the East of Portsmouth. At the moment I have a 3D Printed kit for one, but I might get another as I need a pair to run my sequence. Again, until I get a full complement, I’m using my Class 205 Thumpers as cover.

 

 

There are a number of ‘Western’ long distance services through Fareham, such as Brighton to Great Malvern, Bright to Cardiff and Portsmouth to Cardiff. I have decided to model the Portsmouth to Cardiff and return services as these seem to the most common.

 

During the newly defined period, there have been three TOCs operating the services. Initially it was Wessex Trains, which normally used Class 158 units, but also used a pair of Class 31’s top and tailing 4 Mk2 coaches on a Friday only service for a couple of years up to 2003. I would like to model that, but I think a Class 158 would look better.

 

When First Great Western took over from Wessex Trains, they continued to use Class 158’s, but I also have photos of both Class 150/1s and Class 150/2s. I already have a Class 150/1 in FGW purple, but I might get one of KMRCs Class 150/2s in FGW purple to make a 4 car set.

 

Finally, I have a Bachmann new tooling Class 158 in GWR Green to cover the final portion of the era before Class 16x units took over.

 

 

First up is the Cross-Country services, these aren’t generally found at Fareham apart from Diversions, although under the layout ‘story’, the engineering works at Southampton Airport Parkway mean that services have to be diverted so that they reverse in the Bay Platform at Collingwood.

 

I have settled on a single Up (Southampton to Manchester) and a single Down (Newcastle to Southampton) rather than try and model the range of different Cross Country Services.

 

At the moment I only have a Virgin livered Voyager, so I’m keeping an eye out for an Arriva livered one (or wait until a re-tooled one at some point in the future).

 

Regular Freight Services

 

Fareham doesn’t have a lot of regular freight, apart from engineering services, but there are regular diversions for lots of different types of freight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The vast majority of the ‘regular’ timetabled freights through Fareham are the Mendip Stone trains from Westbury. Some of these continue through the Aggregate Terminal at Chichester, but a few are bound for the Terminal at Fareham.

 

Fareham is served exclusively by Mendip Rail services (previously EWS / DBC, but now Freightliner), but I have pretended that Collingwood Aggregate Terminal (owned by the fictious ‘Ocean Aggregates) is served by Mendip Rail (using Accurascale PTA tipplers), Freightliner (Dapol HIAs) and GBRF (Dapol MJAs and Accurascale Shorty HYAs).

 

 

 

 

 

As the layout’s ‘story’ relies of there being a track renewal at Southampton Airport Parkway, then there needs to be lots of engineering trains on the layout.

 

To this end, I have three trains which cover the whole era of the layout and the broad spectrum of the types of trains. I have some PNAs which will be loaded with spent spoil, a train loaded with track panels and sleepers and finally a train of fresh ballast.

 

The sequence will also simulate these entering the possession at Eastleigh and leaving at Southampton or visa versa.

 

The interesting thing I realised quite recently is that the majority of the engineering trains through Fareham are to and from Tonbridge, but I can’t fathom out how they get from Fareham to Tonbridge, as there is no direct routes and I can’t find an obvious place to run round (presumably at Redhill). So, if you know, please say!

 

 

Test Trains are quite regular through Fareham, they are powered by a variety of motive power, but most common seem to be Class 73s. I have based this formation of a photo taken at Fareham on Flickr.

 

 

The final ‘regular’ freights through Fareham are Rail Head Treatment Trains, the majority use Windhoff Multi-Purpose Vehicles (MPVs), but RHTT wagons are also seen. My choice of motive power for my RHTT set is not entirely prototypical, but I had the locos ‘spare’!

 

Diverted Freight Services.

 

 

The major diversionary freight through Fareham is Automotive Trains between Southampton Docks and Daventry, which normally run via Basingstoke to Reading, but get diverted via Fareham, Havant, Guildford and Wokingham to Reading.

 

Obviously these are normally quite long, but I’m restricted to just 8 wagons, which should give a good impression of the trains.

 

 

Up until 2017, when Fawley Oil Terminal stopped dispatching goods by train, the Fawley to Holyborne Oil Tankers were regularly diverted via the same route as the Car Trains.

 

This time, I’m limited to 6 wagons due to their length.

 

 

There are occasional services to and from the MoD facility at Marchwood, for the most part these are containers, but also have loaded Warwell and Warflat wagons. I don’t have any photographic evidence that these services were diverted via Fareham, but I can’t find a good reason as to why they wouldn’t be (presumably they never ran on the day’s that the diversions were in place).

 

My Military train consists of 4 of the Hattons Warwells.

 

 

This may be a slight odd sort of train to model, but it did run for a very long time. As advised by this post on this thread, the Quidhampton to Willesden Ball Slurry Trains, made up of a short rake of ‘Sliver Bullet’ Wagons was diverted via Fareham on a number of occasions.

 

‘Special’ Trains

 

 

This is mostly included as I had a couple of Heljan Cargo Wagons and a spare KFA knocking about. I can justify it as Eastleigh is used quite often for Wagon Repairs.

 

 

During 2012, London Midland sent some of their Class 350 ‘Desiro’ units to be tyre-turned at Northam Depot (main maintenance depot for SWTs Desiro Fleet) near Southampton. They were hauled by Class 67’s with KFA (plus other) barrier wagons.

 

Again, I have no photographic evidence that they were diverted via Fareham, but I see no reason as to why they couldn’t be.

 

 

Okay, this one will require some imagination!

 

This rake has come by purely because I took one look at the EPs of the Accurascale MK5s and decided I had to have a rake! I discovered that these entered the UK via Dollands Moor, so I think it is entirely plausible (if some what improbable) that a rake was sent from Dollands Moor to Eastleigh to be tested alongside the Class 73/9 conversions which seem to spend a lot of time there.

 

 

My final ‘special’ train is my Railtrack Bubble Car. I’m using it as a Asset Survey Unit, as it has the Omnicom Engineering Logo on the side, and is carrying out surveys for a re-signalling scheme.

 

Simon

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by St. Simon

[muddy water]

https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/H08670/2021-03-29/detailed#allox_id=0
 

This might be part of the route taken to get from Tonbridge to Eastleigh. Over the years the coastline route from Hastings to Southampton has be modified for multiple unit working. Involving reversals at Eastbourne and Brighton. So no good for freight trains.

[Ilambie]

On 09/03/2021 at 09:34, St. Simon said:

Hi,

 

In between waiting for other things to happen, I have been going through my stock and re-working what I can ran with what.

 

The reason for this was to place an actual time period on the layout rather than just the ‘2000s’ I have described previously, this was basically to try to put a lid on stock purchases!  

 

So, the time period is now between 2003, the point at which the Class 450’s were introduced (and before the Class 205’s were withdrawn), and 2017, the point at which South West Trains turned into South Western Railway.

 

As part of this, I made a timeline to correlate my rolling stock to see whether I had any ‘impossible scenarios’:

 

 

The coloured blocks are where I actually have the stock, whereas the arrows with grey text are where I have gaps in my stock list which I need to cover.

 

As a result of this correlation, I found that I needed to change a few things around in terms of consists and locos, plus I have got a couple of extra rakes which I haven’t shown before. Plus, I’ve now made some graphics for the formations rather than using photos of the stock, the trains highlighted in red are pieces of stock which I haven’t got (if you have any idea where I can get them, just say!)

 

Passenger Trains

 

 

The major services through Fareham are South West Trains services between Southampton and Portsmouth & Southsea (local stopping services) and between Portsmouth Harbour and London Waterloo via Basingstoke. The local services are in the hands of Class 450’s, whereas the London services are normally Class 444’s, but are fairly regularly Class 450 based.

 

I have also added Waterloo to Weymouth services operated by Class 450s which are diverted via Guildford, Havant and Fareham if needed.

 

When reviewing my sequence, I found that I needed an extra service to use the Bay platform just to make it more operationally interested. So, I have added a local service between Winchester and Collingwood operated by a Class 158 (to be re-livered from an old Bachmann Class 158). This is an actual timetabled service, but is a very early morning service.

 

 

The Southern services are the ones which really can’t be modelled accurately! The vast majority of Southern services are in the hands of Class 377 units (of both legacy and next generation types) as well as the odd Gatwick Class 387. Until a Class 377 appears (I really hope soon!), I’ll use my normal excuse of my 4-CEP and 4-VEP ‘heritage’ units covering for a failed unit! I’m also hoping that Bachmann revive it’s plans to re-tool the Class 171 units which would do me for the moment.

 

Brighton to Southampton services have also been known to be handled by Class 313s which are normally only seen to the East of Portsmouth. At the moment I have a 3D Printed kit for one, but I might get another as I need a pair to run my sequence. Again, until I get a full complement, I’m using my Class 205 Thumpers as cover.

 

 

There are a number of ‘Western’ long distance services through Fareham, such as Brighton to Great Malvern, Bright to Cardiff and Portsmouth to Cardiff. I have decided to model the Portsmouth to Cardiff and return services as these seem to the most common.

 

During the newly defined period, there have been three TOCs operating the services. Initially it was Wessex Trains, which normally used Class 158 units, but also used a pair of Class 31’s top and tailing 4 Mk2 coaches on a Friday only service for a couple of years up to 2003. I would like to model that, but I think a Class 158 would look better.

 

When First Great Western took over from Wessex Trains, they continued to use Class 158’s, but I also have photos of both Class 150/1s and Class 150/2s. I already have a Class 150/1 in FGW purple, but I might get one of KMRCs Class 150/2s in FGW purple to make a 4 car set.

 

Finally, I have a Bachmann new tooling Class 158 in GWR Green to cover the final portion of the era before Class 16x units took over.

 

 

First up is the Cross-Country services, these aren’t generally found at Fareham apart from Diversions, although under the layout ‘story’, the engineering works at Southampton Airport Parkway mean that services have to be diverted so that they reverse in the Bay Platform at Collingwood.

 

I have settled on a single Up (Southampton to Manchester) and a single Down (Newcastle to Southampton) rather than try and model the range of different Cross Country Services.

 

At the moment I only have a Virgin livered Voyager, so I’m keeping an eye out for an Arriva livered one (or wait until a re-tooled one at some point in the future).

 

Regular Freight Services

 

Fareham doesn’t have a lot of regular freight, apart from engineering services, but there are regular diversions for lots of different types of freight.

 

 

The vast majority of the ‘regular’ timetabled freights through Fareham are the Mendip Stone trains from Westbury. Some of these continue through the Aggregate Terminal at Chichester, but a few are bound for the Terminal at Fareham.

 

Fareham is served exclusively by Mendip Rail services (previously EWS / DBC, but now Freightliner), but I have pretended that Collingwood Aggregate Terminal (owned by the fictious ‘Ocean Aggregates) is served by Mendip Rail (using Accurascale PTA tipplers), Freightliner (Dapol HIAs) and GBRF (Dapol MJAs and Accurascale Shorty HYAs).

 

 

As the layout’s ‘story’ relies of there being a track renewal at Southampton Airport Parkway, then there needs to be lots of engineering trains on the layout.

 

To this end, I have three trains which cover the whole era of the layout and the broad spectrum of the types of trains. I have some PNAs which will be loaded with spent spoil, a train loaded with track panels and sleepers and finally a train of fresh ballast.

 

The sequence will also simulate these entering the possession at Eastleigh and leaving at Southampton or visa versa.

 

The interesting thing I realised quite recently is that the majority of the engineering trains through Fareham are to and from Tonbridge, but I can’t fathom out how they get from Fareham to Tonbridge, as there is no direct routes and I can’t find an obvious place to run round (presumably at Redhill). So, if you know, please say!

 

 

Test Trains are quite regular through Fareham, they are powered by a variety of motive power, but most common seem to be Class 73s. I have based this formation of a photo taken at Fareham on Flickr.

 

 

The final ‘regular’ freights through Fareham are Rail Head Treatment Trains, the majority use Windhoff Multi-Purpose Vehicles (MPVs), but RHTT wagons are also seen. My choice of motive power for my RHTT set is not entirely prototypical, but I had the locos ‘spare’!

 

Diverted Freight Services.

 

 

The major diversionary freight through Fareham is Automotive Trains between Southampton Docks and Daventry, which normally run via Basingstoke to Reading, but get diverted via Fareham, Havant, Guildford and Wokingham to Reading.

 

Obviously these are normally quite long, but I’m restricted to just 8 wagons, which should give a good impression of the trains.

 

 

Up until 2017, when Fawley Oil Terminal stopped dispatching goods by train, the Fawley to Holyborne Oil Tankers were regularly diverted via the same route as the Car Trains.

 

This time, I’m limited to 6 wagons due to their length.

 

 

There are occasional services to and from the MoD facility at Marchwood, for the most part these are containers, but also have loaded Warwell and Warflat wagons. I don’t have any photographic evidence that these services were diverted via Fareham, but I can’t find a good reason as to why they wouldn’t be (presumably they never ran on the day’s that the diversions were in place).

 

My Military train consists of 4 of the Hattons Warwells.

 

 

This may be a slight odd sort of train to model, but it did run for a very long time. As advised by this post on this thread, the Quidhampton to Willesden Ball Slurry Trains, made up of a short rake of ‘Sliver Bullet’ Wagons was diverted via Fareham on a number of occasions.

 

‘Special’ Trains

 

 

This is mostly included as I had a couple of Heljan Cargo Wagons and a spare KFA knocking about. I can justify it as Eastleigh is used quite often for Wagon Repairs.

 

 

During 2012, London Midland sent some of their Class 350 ‘Desiro’ units to be tyre-turned at Northam Depot (main maintenance depot for SWTs Desiro Fleet) near Southampton. They were hauled by Class 67’s with KFA (plus other) barrier wagons.

 

Again, I have no photographic evidence that they were diverted via Fareham, but I see no reason as to why they couldn’t be.

 

 

Okay, this one will require some imagination!

 

This rake has come by purely because I took one look at the EPs of the Accurascale MK5s and decided I had to have a rake! I discovered that these entered the UK via Dollands Moor, so I think it is entirely plausible (if some what improbable) that a rake was sent from Dollands Moor to Eastleigh to be tested alongside the Class 73/9 conversions which seem to spend a lot of time there.

 

 

My final ‘special’ train is my Railtrack Bubble Car. I’m using it as a Asset Survey Unit, as it has the Omnicom Engineering Logo on the side, and is carrying out surveys for a re-signalling scheme.

 

Simon

 

Love the consist diagrams, what did you use to produce them?

[St. Simon]

48 minutes ago, Ilambie said:

Love the consist diagrams, what did you use to produce them?

Hi,

 

They are drawn using a CAD software called Microstation that I use normally to draw Scheme Plans at work. 
 

They are produced using basic shapes, so could be done on a more basic graphics package, it just so happened that I had spare time whilst working to draw them!

 

Simon

[5BarVT]

Only just noticed that they’re all Maglev trains! :-)

I need to get round to doing something like this for Traincontroller so it’s good to see how simple shapes can be mixed to get a surprisingly good outcome.

Paul.

[St. Simon]

Hi All,

 

Apologies for the long wait since the last update, again it has been a problem of always being in the middle of a job that isn’t finished enough that I’m prepared to show it. So it has been a while, but a lot has been done!

 

The Christmas & New Year period saw little activity, not because of any festive activities, but simply because I ran out of stuff to do other than wait for signalling components or the next baseboard to arrive.

 

However, after Christmas, I did design some ‘interface’ modules (ZGU, Special Signal Unit, in signalling speak ) that inverses the MERG CBUS output signal so that I can control the common negative Absolute Aspects. The module consists of a LM324 Integrated Circuit (I’m not exactly sure what it is, but that seems to be common part code) on a PCB with ‘input’ and ‘output’ sides. I have had 12 of these made up with the help of one of my operating crew, at a total cost (including shipping from China) of £25. I have been advised that I should use a different type of CBUS module for the signals, but I have decided to carry on with the standard output module and ZGU for consistency:

 

 

 

Just to prove that it all works:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next big bit of news was that the backscenes and coffin boards arrived from Tim Horn in the middle of January. I had to cut a few holes in them to make way for the cables to and from the layout before painting them and then applying the backscenes from ID Backscenes. I opted for trees rather than a town or village scene as that would fit with the rest of the scenery on the layout.

 

 

Frankly, I don’t think that the backscene works, I think the trees are too tall in relation to the buildings etc on the layout and actually I think the backscene is too tall in general and the colours are too strong compared with the rest of the layout. I’m looking at cutting down the height of the backscene and using a plain sky scene instead.

 

Along with the backscenes and coffin boards from Tim was the third baseboard, this goes on the end of the junction board and carries the bulk of the aggregate yard.  Despite the simplicity of the track layout, it is quite a complex boards with 2 input and 2 output modules along with 7 track circuits.

 

 

 

 

 

On this board I have installed some of the key operational equipment for the layout. The major piece of the equipment is the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) readers (at the bottom of the image) and MERG concentrator:

 

 

 

The RFID is used as a way of automatically identifying the trains for inputting into the signalling system. How this will work in relation to the operation layout I’ll describe in a future post.

 

Once I had got it all wired up, I laid the track and connected it up, it all worked first time, although it took a few attempts to get the track circuits reporting the correct section! Having learnt a few things from the track circuits on the previous boards, these ones worked slightly better first time off.

 

After testing, the track was painted and ballasted before the third rail was installed (look out for a few blog posts on a Cornish model shop site on the subject by me), in quick succession. I also fitted my 3D Printed details:

 

 

The picture shows a different type of Impedance Bond on this type of board (in the centre). The type shown is the BS3000 type impedance bond, whereas the bonds on the layout so far have been BR Type 3s. The difference is that the BS3000s are used with TI-21 Track Circuits. These AC type track circuits use one of six AC Audio Frequency electrical signals transmitted along the track to a receiver. The work in exactly the same way as any other AC or DC type track circuit, however the use of AC audio frequencies means that they can be used to create jointless track circuits and can be used in AC electrified areas (as AC electrical signals with different frequencies don’t interact with each other). I assume that the BS3000 type bond can be ‘tuned’ to allow it to filter out certain frequencies, which is why it is different. This is prototypical for the Fareham Area, bog standard AC vein circuits with BR type 3 bonds in S&C and in the station area whilst everywhere else is TI-21 TCs with BS3000 bonds.

 

As can be seen with the above photo, you can see some scenery has been done on the board:

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously the scenics on this board are very well advanced, with only the scenics on the top of the hills at be completed (low relief houses at the very back and trees in the middle). I also need to complete the interiors of the portacabins and install the yard lights along the stone terminal platforms.

 

The signals for this board, the most expensive and complex on the layout, are currently on order with Absolute Aspects.

 

I’ve got a couple of things to clear up on these two boards before I finish them, but the biggest is to build a third rail substation to fill the empty area you can see next to the Faller engineering building. My plan, once I finished finding some drawings and details (I’m looking to build one of the Modern Siemens Stainless Steel ones), is to get it printed rather than scratch build it!

 

Then, I can start on the final scenic board, to which I’ve made a radical change. I’ve decided to straighten out the layout so that it is linear rather than walking stick shaped, so now it will look like this:

 

 

 

This is a very recent change and actually started as an idle thought about why I had designed the curve in. I originally had designed the curve in to try and fit the layout into a room, but I realised a year or so ago that when modelling modern multiple units, no layout is going to fit into a house. It wasn’t until the weekend that I thought that actually, it would be a lot easier and simpler to make the layout straight. The advantages are:

 

• No sharp curves (and not having the difficulty of laying them!), even if they would be sort of prototypical
• I can use a shorter 4ft board, which makes transportation easier (as previously I was going to have a single 4ft board rather than a pair)
• I will actually have a greater scenic area, as the track will take up less area.

 

There’s not that much difference in what will be on the board, although there will now be 2 single track viaducts rather than a single large double track viaduct. The only big change is that there will be a supermarket, taking advantage of the Gaugemaster / Faller Lidl Supermarket kit which I brought to give me something to do over Christmas (although I’ve one built a small part of it so far).

 

The change from curvy to non-curvy has had a small affect on the signalling, there now being no need for the Banner Repeaters for CD810 and CD813, which does save a little money but means a slight change to the signalling data.

 

I have tried to add a bit of a curve into the tracks to keep some form of resemblance to Fareham and so that the layout is completely straight (although, it should be pointed in that from Knowle to the end of the Platforms is arrow straight!).

 

Not much has changed on the Rolling Stock front, I have got some bits to convert some FEA Spine Wagons into Network Rail Point Tilting Wagons and, thanks to a very good deal and some left over credit, one of the Kernow Network Rail Class 57’s has found it’s way down here.

 

As ever, any questions, just ask!

 

Simon

Edited March 31, 2022 by St. Simon

[imt]

Gosh! Seeing all that wiring reminded me of why I went to DCC - just 2 wires you know!  Joking apart - that is very neat, and I wish my "two wires" were half as neat.  Mind you it's all about add ons, the last being block detection and interlocking.  Wreaks havoc with the original wiring plans!

[St. Simon]

15 minutes ago, imt said:

Gosh! Seeing all that wiring reminded me of why I went to DCC - just 2 wires you know!  Joking apart - that is very neat, and I wish my "two wires" were half as neat.  Mind you it's all about add ons, the last being block detection and interlocking.  Wreaks havoc with the original wiring plans!

Hi,

 

Thank you, although it could have been slightly neater if there was so much bracing (not that I would get rid of any of it!)

 

I have to admit that when you get into block detection, there is much the same amount of wiring as in DC analogue!

 

Simon

[St. Simon]

On 23/06/2021 at 22:57, St. Simon said:

 

After testing, the track was painted and ballasted before the third rail was installed (look out for a few blog posts on a Cornish model shop site on the subject by me).

Hi,

 

The first in a series of posts is now live:

 

KMRC Skrifa - 3rd & 4th Rail Systems - Part 1 - The Background and Design (kernowmodelrailcentre.com)

 

Simon

Edited September 2, 2021 by St. Simon

[St. Simon]

On 09/08/2021 at 18:21, St. Simon said:

Hi,

 

The first in a series of posts is now live:

 

https://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/pg/202/KMRC-Skrifa---3rd-and-4th-Rail-Systems---Part-1---The-Background-and-Design

 

Simon

 

Hi,

 

Now the second of three is available:

 

KMRC Skrifa - 3rd & 4th Rail Systems - Part 2 - Modelling Guide (kernowmodelrailcentre.com)

 

A big update on the layout is coming, just got a few things to finish off

 

Simon

 

 

[Andrew P]

Hi Simon, Your Table that you posted on 9th March, (its a pain not having Post Numbers to refer to) has been of great value, as I'm looking to merge Southern and Western into one Layout spanning 2005 - 2020, a big gap, but modellers licence will have to make do.

I have taken a copy of your chart for my own use if that is o.k. with you please.

 

Great thread, cheers.

[St. Simon]

41 minutes ago, Andrew P said:

Hi Simon, Your Table that you posted on 9th March, (its a pain not having Post Numbers to refer to) has been of great value, as I'm looking to merge Southern and Western into one Layout spanning 2005 - 2020, a big gap, but modellers licence will have to make do.

I have taken a copy of your chart for my own use if that is o.k. with you please.

 

Great thread, cheers.

Hi Andrew,

 

Please do, I’m more than happy for people to use that idea, I have found it very handy!

 

Simon

[St. Simon]

Hi,

 

As promised, a big layout update!

 

The last update saw the bulk of the grass etc. done for the stone terminal board, and I was about to get on with the detailing the top of the hill at the rear of the layout. I had originally planned to model the ends of a couple of rows of houses, but then I spotted the Bachmann ‘Low Relief Municipal’ houses and thought they would look a lot better:

 

 

As you can see from the photo, the next major job completed is the backscene and lighting rig. As talked about in the last update, I changed the backscene to get rid of the over height trees. In the end I kept the height at 15 inches and used another of ID backscenes scenes, this time the ‘into the town’ one as that was the closest to what I wanted. It did take three attempts to get the backscenes onto the back boards, first I managed to rip one when trying to reposition it, then I used the wrong spray glue on the second board (note, using Spray Mount results in peeling, always use Photo Mount!).

 

 

 

Whilst on the terminal board, I’ve now fitted the lighting and interior into the portacabins, the top one being an office and the bottom being a mess room (okay, you can only just see the interiors in this shot, but they are there!):

 

 

Next the signals arrived and needed installing, which is a bit of a pain on this board. Whilst the Absolute Aspects signals are fantastic, the only thing I don’t like about them is the installation. As they are designed to plug straight into the PCB, they require a large square / rectangular hole cut into the base board. It takes a good half an hour to drill and file a hole in 9mm thick plywood! It is also the design of the signals that presented me with a problem (one of my own making it must be stressed!).

 

Where the signals are to be positioned, is also very close to all the below board bracing so I can’t fit the PCB underneath the board to mount the signals. So, instead I’ve had to mount the PCBs away from the signals and create extension cables between the signals and the PCB, not a massive issue and I would have to do it anyway for the Platform 3 Starter on the final board as that’ll be on a viaduct, so it has been a good proof of concept!

 

 

The next thing I needed to do was to hide the hole as it is larger than the provided base. I could have just fit the signal and filled the hole, but I want to be able to remove these signals later on if I need to without damaging them. So, I extended the concrete base using plastic card, attaching it to the signals themselves. I then had to bend these in with a thin bead on glue covered by ballast around the edges which will hold the signal in place but should be easier removed if needed:

 

 

It took a little while to get the signals working correctly, but that was more about correlating between what the interlocking data was asking for, what the CBUS was outputting, and which output each signal aspect was connect to (despite me being very carefully in wiring it all up!!!).

 

However, once I got that working, I would carry on with some static grass application (using a new static grass applicator as I accidently threw the old one away!) and other scenics:

 

 

Over on the junction board, I’ve made a major change:

 

 

I’ve now removed the engineering building. This stems from a slightly uneasy feeling I’ve had with the positioning of the building for some time as I feel it was a little bit contrived and just didn’t seem to be ‘natural’. I then watched a video on YouTube of a rear-view cab ride from Southampton to Chichester through Fareham, and I concluded that the layout wasn’t as close to looking like Fareham as I would like. So, I decided to remove the engineering building and remodel that area to represent the Third Rail Substation, Relay Room and GSM-R Node along with the storage facility behind.

 

Going from left to right, first is the GSM-R Node. Fareham actually has one of the old-style nodes with the lattice work frame mast, however, I liked the look of this 3D Printed Kit from 3D Printing Corner:

 

 

It was only when I built and primed it that I saw how beautifully detailed the model was, it really is a nice little model, in fact I’m tempted to get a couple more and just build them as they are so nice to look at!

 

Next along is the container storage facility behind. This is based on Scale Model Scenery Kits, with a couple of existing plastic models to bulk it out a bit. This also has the purpose of hiding the access road, something which always look odd in the previous design.

 

 

In front of the storage facility is the Relay Room. This is scratch built using Wills Sheets and some plasticard, and I’m very pleased with it. It being my first scratch-built building that has come out half decent. I must admit that it’s not based on any real dimensions, only those which I could guestimate using the cab-ride video and comparing them to distances on the model / in my flat!

 

 

The reason I didn’t model the relay room originally was that I thought it would be odd to have the relay room present when the signalling would be controlled by a new signalling centre and interlocking room across the tracks. However, I now think that it provides a good comparison between old and new systems, all I think I need to do is paint a green cross on the doors to make it look as though it is to be pulled down (as seen on some location cases that are due for recovery!). Also, the brick walls make a better background for photographing stuff on the junction.

 

The next set of buildings are also based on pure guess work and estimating. These are the Third rail Substation Buildings:

 

 

These are 3D printed by 3D Printing Corner to my own stl files. I know that a lot of people would say why bother the expense of printing them when they are just bog-standard rectangular buildings, but the fact is I wouldn’t be able to build these nicely, so I got them printed instead. Don’t ask me what each building contains or does as I haven’t a clue!

 

Moving up towards Southampton, I’ve retained the road rail access point and I’m going to model it as if a possession is in the making:

 

 

The RRVs are from Master Diecasts in America (purchased via Accurate Diecasts Ltd in Lancing) and are 1:87 scale. Although they are technically too small, the fact that they are chunky and positioned at the rear of the layout means that it shouldn’t be too noticeable.

 

That brings an end to the work on both these boards (other than minor detailing), the next board is in progress with Tim Horn, so I’m hoping to have that soon.

 

Simon

Edited March 31, 2022 by St. Simon

[5BarVT]

40 minutes ago, St. Simon said:

all I think I need to do is paint a green cross on the doors to make it look as though it is to be pulled down

I wouldn’t even do that.  I’m sure that some telecoms equipment will need to remain in the building, or the generator etc so that the building needs to stay.

Paul.

[JackB95]

That's bloody fantastic! Love the bumper update. That GSM-R mast is on my list of 'to buy' and I'm glad it looks as good as that - 3D printing has come on rather well.

 

Great work Simon!

[St. Simon]

On 26/10/2021 at 16:53, 5BarVT said:

I wouldn’t even do that.  I’m sure that some telecoms equipment will need to remain in the building, or the generator etc so that the building needs to stay.

Paul.

Hi Paul,

 

Lets go with that as the reason, rather than I can’t actually get to the doors anymore to paint them!

 

On 26/10/2021 at 17:11, JackB95 said:

That's bloody fantastic! Love the bumper update. That GSM-R mast is on my list of 'to buy' and I'm glad it looks as good as that - 3D printing has come on rather well.

 

Great work Simon!

 

Thanks mate, yes I would thoroughly recommend the 3D Printing Corner kit, it is incredibly nice!

 

Simon

Edited October 27, 2021 by St. Simon

[ess1uk]

16 hours ago, St. Simon said:

Hi,

As promised, a big layout update!

Over on the junction board, I’ve made a major change:

 

Going from left to right, first is the GSM-R Node. Fareham actually has one of the old-style nodes with the lattice work frame mast, however, I liked the look of this 3D Printed Kit from 3D Printing Corner:

 

 

It was only when I built and primed it that I saw how beautifully detailed the model was, it really is a nice little model, in fact I’m tempted to get a couple more and just build them as they are so nice to look at!

 

 

Simon

Great update.

the GSMR REB is great, shame they have that odd “vent” on the roof that the real thing doesn’t 

Edited October 27, 2021 by ess1uk

[Andrew P]

Terrific update, Cheers.

[St. Simon]

On 27/10/2021 at 08:40, ess1uk said:

Great update.

the GSMR REB is great, shame they have that odd “vent” on the roof that the real thing doesn’t 

 

Hi,

 

Thanks, I didn't know it was not meant to have the vent (never seen the very top of a GSMR Node!), but I suppose it adds a bit of character!

 

On 27/10/2021 at 09:16, Andrew P said:

Terrific update, Cheers.

 

Thanks Andy!

 

Regards,

 

Simon

[ess1uk]

6 minutes ago, St. Simon said:

 

Hi,

 

Thanks, I didn't know it was not meant to have the vent (never seen the very top of a GSMR Node!), but I suppose it adds a bit of character!

 

Regards,

 

Simon

Reference pics here

[jamespetts]

Gosh, how have I not found this thread until now? I am very much in favour of realistic signalling control for model railway layouts, and am currently building my own layout along similar lines (albeit with TrainController rather than JMRI).

 

I shall very much look forward to seeing progress on this layout and perhaps seeing it at an exhibition one day.