Veja Megstra - RhB Nm layout

[MrTea]

Finished R-W flat wagon with drop sides. 
 

 

Quite pleased with how this has turned out for a first 3D printed wagon. It’s a real testament to Jim’s skill with the CAD software and his persistence with the printer. 
 

I need to look at the practicalities of swapping the couplings and sorting out a final top coat of the right grey and some logos and lettering. 
 

I also made some progress on the other wagon but I’ll do a separate post about that. 

[Frutigen]

Really nice work there by both you and Jim

[MrTea]

On 23/05/2021 at 20:44, MrTea said:

Made a start on the next stage of the scenery this afternoon:

 

 

It's good to finally see the cardboard being covered up! The tunnel mouth is now fixed in place after a good coat of varnish to seal the photo print.

Here’s a similar angle taken this morning with the plaster bandage work completed and a layer of Smooth-It covering the gaps:

 

 

The tunnel mouth itself has come together pretty well and I reckon captures the dark feel of the real location quite effectively. 
 

 

There will be a backscene of painted trees along the blue board with some actual trees on the slope above the portal. I think the ground slopes away more steeply on the right hand side in the real location but the overall landforms here I hope are fairly believable.

 

A little bit of ballasting next time I’ve got a spare evening, I reckon. Then we’re on to trying to replicate week-old snowfall!

[MrTea]

So, the other rolling stock project I’ve got going on is slightly-left field. Again it’s based on one of @JimFin’s 3D prints but this time I started by filing off quite a lot of the printed detail on the side:

 

That’s because the prototype wagon the build is based on is another R-W flatbed but this time with the sides dropped down. 

 

 

The next step was to file the two skip attachments off the wagon deck. 

 

Then I added a thin top layer of styrene sheet and panels (styrene strip again) to represent the folded down sides. I know the folded down sides should really be slightly taller and further from the deck but this seemed a good compromise, which would still allow the bogies to rotate freely, especially on uneven track work.

Edited March 10 by MrTea
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[MrTea]

The reason for going to all this trouble is that I’m hoping to replicate the Google Streetview truck:

 

 

Those of you who’ve been following the thread for a while, will know that ‘Streetview stalking’ of the RhB’s lines became a minor obsession of mine during the lockdown last year. So it only seems right to replicate part of my inspiration for the layout in 1:150 scale!

 

The next and most complicated aspect of the build has been to try and replicate the platform, seat and camera on the wagon. Armed with some stills from the video above and a Blog article from the scanning team I set about figuring out the size and position of the customisations. 
 

 

H-section styrene installed as a base for the camera platform. 
 

 

Close-up of the latest work showing the camera guy’s racing seat and the surrounding lighting and power equipment. 

[PaulRhB]

Great idea!   Short train too. 

[MrTea]

On 27/05/2021 at 06:58, MrTea said:

Finished R-W flat wagon with drop sides. 
 

 

I need to look at the practicalities of swapping the couplings and sorting out a final top coat of the right grey and some logos and lettering. 

Made a bit more progress on this last night after purchasing some suitable Revell enamel paint in the appropriate RAL colours. 
 

Can anyone help me track down an image of the top surface (deck?) of these wagons? I think it’s unlikely to be the same silver grey as the metal under frame but so far I’ve only managed to track down side-on or 3/4 views of these wagons. 
 

From what I can see on RhB stations this is actually an Re-W or Re-t type flat bed wagon:

https://rhbstations.co.za/goods-wagons/r-class-wagons/re-w/

Edited June 18, 2021 by MrTea
Added link

[PaulRhB]

The ones I’ve seen have various aged plank decks, sometimes with a few fresh ones to replace rotted ones I guess. 

[PaulRhB]

Here we go

 

 

 

[JimFin]

Given they are all variants of the same base chassis, this might help - http://webcam.schmalspurbahn.ch/filisur/webcam/a210521191823318

 

[MrTea]

 

 

The Veja Megstra p-way team completing a training session away from the layout. 
 

Hopefully I’ll get an hour or so to finish the weathering on the digger and add a layer of dirt to the deck on the Re-w flat wagon over the weekend. 

Edited March 10 by MrTea
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[Glorious NSE]

Couple more that might help with interior colour - 65403 is a Re-t, 8245 an Re-w.

[MrTea]

20 hours ago, Glorious NSE said:

Couple more that might help with interior colour - 65403 is a Re-t, 8245 an Re-w.

Thanks so much for these. Really helpful!

 

It looks like there are a couple of options for the drop side panels too: aluminium or brown?

[MrTea]

The Mobilbagger (and crew) hard at work near Veja Megstra. 

 

Edited March 10 by MrTea
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[MrTea]

Managed to get some time last night to do a bit more landscape work on the layout. 
 

 

First job was ballasting the track between the bridge at Crestas and Plaz tunnel. 
 

 

 

I’m always amazed how much better Unitrack looks once it’s had a ballast shoulder added to blend it into the landscape. You can see I added a bit too much washing up liquid to the PVA mix last night - it was all a bit green for a while!

 

I also added a fascia of mount board to the front of this section, which has tidied up the look a lot. Then finally I spent an hour or so on the plaster bandage layer on the adjacent board. 
 

All in all, a productive evening’s work. 

Edited March 10 by MrTea
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[Glorious NSE]

3 hours ago, MrTea said:

Thanks so much for these. Really helpful!

 

It looks like there are a couple of options for the drop side panels too: aluminium or brown?

The 654xx series look like a more modern build, assuming the 82xx are aluminium too conceivably not so different under the crud? 

[Mike Beard]

18 hours ago, MrTea said:

Managed to get some time last night to do a bit more landscape work on the layout. 
 

 

First job was ballasting the track between the bridge at Crestas and Plaz tunnel. 
 

 

I’m always amazed how much better Unitrack looks once it’s had a ballast shoulder added to blend it into the landscape. You can see I added a bit too much washing up liquid to the PVA mix last night - it was all a bit green for a while!

 

I also added a fascia of mount board to the front of this section, which has tidied up the look a lot. Then finally I spent an hour or so on the plaster bandage layer on the adjacent board. 
 

All in all, a productive evening’s work. 

 

I'm using Kato track on a Japanese themed layout. I too have had green ballast only it stayed that way which was annoying so now I use Kato's own ballast which I wet using Surgical Spirit using a dropper tube and then I use "Ballast Magic" on top of that. It nevers eems to quite go off which has the advantage that if, like me, you want to change a turnout you can actually dig the offender out without too many problems.

 

I'm really enjoying this thread. Keep it up!

[PaulRhB]

22 hours ago, MrTea said:

looks like there are a couple of options for the drop side panels too: aluminium or brown?

They all start out aluminium but they get a covering of dirt and brake dust which gives them the brown look. It was easy to see on the silver doors of the vans too. 
 

If you look really closely you can just see the black RhB on the door as the sliding door used to be silver!  

 

 

 

[Mike Beard]

It's funny that the brake dust colour is the same in the UK as in Switzerland. Here we have a couple of 4 wheeled vans at Arosa in 2003.

Keep Safe.

[MrTea]

Managed to have the first running session for a few months this morning. 
 

First run of the newly arrived Bernina Express panorama carriages. Here it’s a southbound service hauled by GE 4/4 ii 631 Untervaz. 

 

Overview of the station area looking south east. 

 

Northbound Bernina Express bound for Chur. 

 

Passing services. 

Edited March 10 by MrTea
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[Frutigen]

Detailed, atmospheric and so pleasing to look at. Great layout. And the Bernina coaches are a really nice addition. 

Edited July 5, 2021 by Frutigen

[MrTea]

Here are some recent pictures from the 'less finished' side of the layout:
 

Approaching the bridge near Crestas.

 

Above Bergun.

 

Approaching Plaz tunnel.

Edited March 10 by MrTea
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[Keith Addenbrooke]

Had some free time this morning (my day off) and have throughly enjoyed having a read through the thread from the beginning - really like how the layout has come together with such care and detail.  Easy to forget how small everything is. Thanks for sharing the journey, Keith.

[MrTea]

Well, hasn’t time flown? Can’t believe it’s 2.5 months since my last update! Hope you’ve all had an enjoyable summer. 

 

The weather in Berkshire wasn’t up to much on Sunday morning and having got through most of my urgent domestic chores on Saturday it meant I could grab a couple of hours to work on the layout. I decided to continue the landforms on the Bergun side of the layout. Mostly this consisted of adding a layer of Mod-roc (plaster bandage) to the card hillsides but I also took the opportunity to fill a few gaps with Woodland Scenics Smooth-It (essentially just fine filler) and add a fascia to the right hand side front of the board. I don’t know why but there’s something oddly satisfying about a nice edge to the scenery where it meets the edge of a baseboard. 

 

 

 

I’m quite looking forward to the next stage with this side of the layout which will be a thick coating of white mush to represent the snowfall followed by an attempt at representing the mountains and trees on the skyline above the trackside. On the Veja Megstra side I was pleasantly surprised at how well the backscene turned out give it was a first attempt with water colours. I think it helped that I had a good selection of reference photos and that I’d gone for a fairly neutral mount board as the base colour. 
 

 

This isn’t the best photo as the sun was getting low outside but you can see what a difference having a uniform surface across the whole board makes to the overall look. 
 

Like others on the forum I’ve had a few recent additions to the loco and rolling stock roster courtesy of Kato’s latest RhB releases but I’ll cover those in a future post. 

Edited March 10 by MrTea
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[MrTea]

Made a start on the backscene above God tunnel the other night:

 

 

Rough outline of the mountain sides and a cluster of distant pines. 

 

 

Starting to thicken up the forest. 
 

This where I’ve ended up. It’s starting to look the part and I reckon it will give the right sort of impression once there are a few 3D model trees planted in front. 
 

I’ve got a mix of reference photos to work from. Some are screen grabs from Google Streetview, some are grabs from one of Fabio’s cab rides I found on YouTube and the rest are photos sourced online. It’s difficult sometimes to find the right angle and time of year in a photo but hopefully when this is complete it’ll give the right impression overall. 
 

One thing I have noticed since I took these photos is that I’ve probably made the trees a bit too bushy. But hopefully it won’t be too noticeable. 
 

If I get chance over the weekend I might try and add some more filler to simulate drifts either side of the tracks here (I think this is in shadow, being north west facing, a lot of the time). 

Edited March 10 by MrTea
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