St Martin-sur-Orb - H0 Midi layout

[Neils WRX]

Sorry to hear about the stroke, looking forward to seeing regular updates again.

 

Stay safe,

 

Neil

[Middlepeak]

Best wishes Rod. I have found modelling to be a great therapy for the mental stresses caused by dealing with my wife's long term illness. I'm sure it will do the same for what must be a mix of physical and mental difficulties in your case. Take your time though, and make the most of the little successes!

 

Regards,

 

Geraint

[Wagonmaster]

All the best Rod, been missing your posts, but am looking forward to future progress. Stick at it!

[Pacific231G]

18 hours ago, 10800 said:

Thanks guys, considering I came out of hospital with my left arm basically a dead weight hanging off my shoulder the brain has done a good job rewiring itself Terminator-style. Could have been a lot worse. I can't quite do really intricate stuff yet but with the assistance of as many jigs as I can lay my hands on I hope to do most things and be back to 'normal' in a few months. 

Really sorry to hear about your stroke Rod. I'm sure, with your skills,  you'll soon be back to full on modelling. 

 

[10800]

Apologies for the hiatus, I've been up to other things! But I have been buying more stock (!) and making some progress on the buildings. Most of the photos in this topic were lost, and I'm not intending to replace them - rather, I will be posting new ones over the coming months as the layout gets ready for its debut at the RMWeb Taunton show next April.

[10800]

At the moment I'm working on half-relief buildings along the back wall of the layout. These are all laser-cut kits from Architecture & Passion, but I've been modifying them by changing their identities, removing storeys, creating inset balconies and reducing their depth to make them fit better with what I want/need.

 

 

 

 

Believe it or not, the balcony here is laser-cut in card. You can get similarly fine ones in etched brass from Decapod, but it seemed a shame not to use the A&P ones. I've not seen laser-cutting so fine in the UK; in France it seems routine.

 

[10800]

The Tim Horn baseboard modules are great, but it's a pain (literally) to work at the back of the layout. Now that I'm on to ground engineering I was getting fed up with having to bend over and stick my head under the pelmet, and my back was strongly in agreement!

 

So I decided to temporarily remove the pelmet assembly on two of the boards. At the join of two boards I pre-drilled the hole for later reassembly with a bolt and nut, then marked a cut line - the cut on the adjacent board is to the left of the hole so that when reassembled it forms a lap joint of sorts.

 

The end of the board is a bit more of a significant surgery. This involved cutting the pelmet itself, near enough to the end to avoid the LED lighting strips.

 

Here's the result of cutting one of the end boards. I'm hoping not to need to do this at the other end and work from the end of that board when it's disconnected. But I can do the same at that end if needed.

 

The middle board cut, showing the Japanese saw that made easy work of it.

 

The boards reassembled, showing the resulting ease of access.

 

And ease of photography!

 

This is a new station building from Architecture & Passion. The old one from Bois Modelisme was fine, but represented a PLM building rather than a Midi one (the learning curve is still quite steep!). Beyond is the toilet/lamp room building, also a Midi structure from A&P.

 

The slots cut in the ply platforms allow for a slight degree of flexing to fit the trackwork properly. Brass-rubbing the track and then jig-sawing the ply was never going to be totally accurate! 

 

 

 

[Barry Ten]

Nice idea, I totally agree that the pelmets can become a curse during actual modelling. And the layout

is coming along very well.

[10800]

After some clearance tests the platforms are now fixed down, but just with countersunk screws so they could be removed if needed. I still need to fill in the exposed slots, cover the surfaces and weather them in.

 

As you can see from the photos above, there is a back siding that will run along the road on inset track, and then off-scene to an agricultural/wine/commercial facility of some kind. Traffic will be covered vans so your guess is as good as mine anyway!

 

Removal of the pelmets is making it much easier to work on this. Rather than clay/grout of some kind i'm using Evergreen strip and cork to define the roadway, and probably self-adhesive textured cobbles (and textured paint). It then occurred to me that in amongst the buildings, trees and behind the catenary keeping the rails clean will be a nightmare. So ... I thought that with only one dedicated loco (a Roco 030 locotracteur) I could make that loco radio-controlled so I wouldn't need to worry about it. Should be fun, watch this space.

[10800]

Self-fitting the radio control is beyond my ability/dexterity, so I've arranged to have it done by Micron Radio Control http://www.micronradiocontrol.co.uk/index.html, so in the New Year I should have loco, controller etc. done and able to go anywhere on the layout (on or off the track) - or anywhere else come to that 😆 . It also means I can weather the inset track railhead without worry about pickup.

[10800]

I have a visitor tomorrow who wants to see the layout, so I tidied up and placed some trees and other bits. The crossings and barrières roulantes are placed but not fixed yet. Starting to look pleasingly French!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 24, 2022 by 10800
typo

[TT-Pete]

Très bien!

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by TT-Pete
accent

[Vinedusk]

Hello, I'm not sure where you're at with this currently.  I have 20 cents for you:

 

PN Sud Modelisme makes PLM kits and detail objects.  I haven't bought any, so can't comment on the quality.

 

REE Models and LS Models have done PO, Midi and PO-Midi models in HO. 

I have Jouef 2131 - 232-540  electric loco from a few years ago now. Also a handful of cars.

 

I'm trying to acquire one express consist from each of the major pre-SNCF companies to mix and match with my ever expanding CIWL fleet.

EST is proving to be problematic...

 

 

[10800]

Thanks for that Vinedusk 😀

 

It's coming along ... Needs to be because I'm showing it at the RMWeb Taunton do in April!

 

My Midi and generic buildings are from 'Architecture & Passion'. 'Bois Modelisme' and 'Decapod' also do useful kits and bits. I didn't know about PN Sud Modelisme, thanks for the link, I will look through what they have. Similar appearance and prices to A&P and Bois Modelisme, which in my experience are very good.

 

REE and LS - oh yes, very familiar. Prices once seemed very high, but these days they are not much more than Bachmann/Hornby products. Nonetheless my wallet just gave a sharp intake of breath ...

 

My locos are all Roco and Piko, simply for quality of running. I also have three static model autorails which I'm going to motorise at some point with High Level/Mashima mechanisms.

 

[TT-Pete]

16 hours ago, 10800 said:

 

It's coming along ... Needs to be because I'm showing it at the RMWeb Taunton do in April!

 

I shall look forward to seeing it!

 

[Pacific231G]

On 25/01/2023 at 16:35, Vinedusk said:

Hello, I'm not sure where you're at with this currently.  I have 20 cents for you:

 

PN Sud Modelisme makes PLM kits and detail objects.  I haven't bought any, so can't comment on the quality.

 

REE Models and LS Models have done PO, Midi and PO-Midi models in HO. 

I have Jouef 2131 - 232-540  electric loco from a few years ago now. Also a handful of cars.

 

I'm trying to acquire one express consist from each of the major pre-SNCF companies to mix and match with my ever expanding CIWL fleet.

EST is proving to be problematic...

 

 

Roco did a four  coach Est set incuding   a buffet. It's not as detailed as the latest offerings from REE and LS but nevertheless pretty good. I have one but it's lettered for Ep III (pre-UIC markings) SNCF Region 1 (Est). I'm not sure if they did it in CF de l'Est livery.

Edited February 2, 2023 by Pacific231G

[10800]

Je crois que l’ambiance qu'on veut se développe

 

[TT-Pete]

18 hours ago, 10800 said:

Je crois que l’ambiance qu'on veut se développe

 

Petit à petit. :^)

[10800]

Oui, c'est ça!

[10800]

There's a building in Mons La Trivalle (the inspiration for St. Martin) that is ideal for use as a view blocker for the exit of the back siding. It's trapezoidal in shape and the kind of structure that you would never invent - there has to be a real one. On St. Martin the siding would run past the front of the building, and the station is to the right.

 

 

 

For the model I've just used leftovers from the Architecture & Passion half-relief buildings for the carcass, and the door and windows (huisseries) from A&P accessory sets. There are no quoins so the corner seen will be masked by a downpipe. The walling and roof is from Redutex textured sheets. I will paint the door and windows - what you see is otherwise how they come. It would be nice to find something for the lantern, both here and elsewhere (they don't need to work).

 

 

I've also been preparing some typical railway fencing, also from A&P who do a wide variety of designs - this is a PO one. The laser cut 'fret' also includes posts that you glue each side to give it some 3D 'presence'.

 

[10800]

An X2800 autorail stops at St. Martin-sur-Orb, whose station building has acquired nameboards. There is also a backscene, by Bois Modelisme but bought from Jura Modelisme. It's the closest I could get to the hills behind Mons La Trivalle. There will be trees and bushes along the rear of the layout to avoid the impression that the ground falls into a valley before rising again.

 

Some boundary fencing has appeared along the edge of the nearer platform, as has a pedestrian walkway - yet to be painted (together with the platform edges). 

 

 

[10800]

Another building based on a real one, and made from Architecture & Passion leftovers and Redutex surfaces. The quoins are from a Scalescenes download printed onto heavyweight paper. It's been shuttered up for a while and the roof is sagging. The wall is also from Scalescenes glued to A&P carcass leftovers - there will be a French style railing on the top of it, otherwise it's starting to look more like Derbyshire but with more trees 🙄

 

 

 

Painting of details and weathering will come eventually. This is the building that inspired it, with its tiny door and ground floor window at street level. It's in Minerve, near Carcassonne.

 

 

Meanwhile the station has acquired a new building. The toilet/lampisterie was a bit isolated, but there wasn't enough room for another building without making it looked cramped (you can't win). So I added a bit to the platform and now have this, another A&P kit sold as a 'bureau du chef de district'. It's a PO rather than a Midi building, but it can be a small goods/parcels office or something similar. There will be some trees in the gaps.

 

 

 

 

[Vinedusk]

On 02/02/2023 at 22:35, Pacific231G said:

I'm not sure if they did it in CF de l'Est livery.

I overlooked this bit.  I have one REE post van and one old EP2 France Trains port-lateralles 1/2 class. 

I saw a 7-peice set a few months back in one online store, all with EST markings, but it disappeared pretty quickly. Not sure what brand it was now.

[10800]

A neglected orchard has appeared behind the wall. Those gates haven't been opened for a while. The shuttered-up half relief building needs toning down.

 

 

 

I need to touch in the scrap of extra backscene behind (to cover a grassland area). The apple trees are hanging over too much to fit a railing in, but it looks OK.

 

[10800]

Board 1 is now scenically finished - well, not finished but finished enough to justify moving on to Board 2 (of 3)!