Easton, Isle of Portland

[Oldddudders]

8 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

I see you have a small spray bottle for the isopropyl alcohol - does using that move the ballast around when wetting it ?

And how do you intend to work around the point tie bars ?

 

I was recommended eons ago on here to use chinchilla dust for ballast. For reasons that now escape me, I ended up with 15kg. Spraying water, from near or far, even from a dinky little bottle with a mister, does dreadful things to the carefully placed ballast. Plan B is yet to emerge.

[Mick Bonwick]

3 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Spraying water, from near or far, even from a dinky little bottle with a mister, does dreadful things to the carefully placed ballast.

 

Whilst I appreciate that chinchilla dust is somewhat less dense than Woodland Scenics medium ballast, I thought I'd show how I approach the disruption problem that bedevils ballasters.

 

I am using an atomiser bought from Sainsbury's and it is held about 18" above the baseboard and pointed along the track rather than down at it. The mist produced then falls into the ballast.

 

 

 

 

[Mick Bonwick]

I was going to do some more ballasting work this afternoon, but there was something in the way. It'll just have to wait until tomorrow.

 

[Mick Bonwick]

Absolutely nothing to do with model railways, unless you include the use of JMRI as a control system, but the Mrs and I have had many problems with computers this last week. Both laptops have suffered from excessive CPU use for some reason, resulting in overheating. 'Hers' got so bad I decided that it ought to be replaced, being over 10 years old and 95% full in the hard drive department. 'His' was used to do some backing up and research work. The replacement arrived and was configured and all the software installed, but then we discovered that the keytops were all but invisible when it was used as a laptop, as opposed to a desktop on the desk. If you see what I mean. The whole thing was silver, and reflected light meant that the contrast between the keytop and the surround was nowhere near enought to make the letters stand out. The answer came in the form of stick-on letters in white on a black background.

 

'His' was returned to the workshop and connected up as the control system (JMRI) and turned on. No screen display. Reboot. No screen display. Somewhere in the house there is an old monitor, so I can use that if it's plugged into the HDMI port. But it's got a DVI connector, that's all! "Send for a cable from Amazon", I thought, and duly did just that. Old monitor successfully connected to the laptop using new the cable and, lo and behold, vision was restored. The laptop has now lost its space saving status and takes up as much room as a desktop.

 

Check and install where necessary: 

 

BIOS updates

Driver updates

Windows updates

 

Now the hard drive is working frantically to so something, but nothing will tell me what. No clues in either task manager or resource monitor, and things are getting hot again. Mostly me, around the collar. How about checking the boards inside? Correct screwdriver found and things disassembled. It's all about things smaller than my little finger, which I burnt on the hard drive, so that's not going to be much help. Online searches of manufacturers' websites, software websites and user forums reveal nothing but gobbledegook - I'm sure these used to be written in English. I can't play trains again until my replacement laptop arrives. The one with the black keys and twice as much disk storage on a disk with no moving parts. I wonder how I'm going to connect all the peripherals with the wrong types of plug or socket . . . . . . . . . . .

 

I'll be able to get on with some ballasting for a few days.

 

[nickwood]

That sounds almost exactly like the experience I went through many times before finally going over to t’other side and living happily ever after in the Apple orchard. 

[Tallpaul69]

Hi Mick and other readers,

While a happy user of Apple phone and I pad, I don't think Apple products per se are a solution to Mick's (or anyone's IT problems!

 

My laptop also some 10 years old is suffering battery and power problems, so it is probably on borrowed time! However, the thought of getting all the software and files transferred is taking the edge off thoughts of the potential benefit of increased speed and storage capacity.

I won't go on any further:- after all this is a railway modelling thread, but Mick, please keep us fellow sufferers posted on your technology preogress?

Best regards

Paul

[Stubby47]

Make sure the cooling fan/s blades are clean of dust & muck, and the vent holes in the case are clear.

 

If the hard drive is nearly full,  this will also mean the pc is overworking just to run itself.

[john new]

Sympathise.

 

Trying to back up a 2tb drive this weekend which under Apple is getting flaky as the drivers are not now supported so also fighting IT issues. I have Windows 10 under Parallels, that still runs the drives but data transfer is sooooooo slow.

Edited March 22, 2021 by john new

[NHY 581]

Nope, didn't understand any of that. Not a sausage. 

 

 

 

[Stubby47]

1 hour ago, NHY 581 said:

Nope, didn't understand any of that. Not a sausage. 

 

 

 

The farmer is trying to take all his sheep to another field, but the gateway is quite narrow and the sheepdogs are all sitting on the tractor.

[Mick Bonwick]

1 hour ago, NHY 581 said:

Not a sausage.

 

Correct.

 

[NHY 581]

53 minutes ago, Mick Bonwick said:

 

Correct.

 

 

Phewe.

 

Thankfully I'm back in the pen thanks to Stu's explanation. 

 

Still tricky typing with hooves though. 

 

 

[bgman]

[Mick Bonwick]

After all the IT excitement I went back to ballasting and completed another metre or so, sat back and admired the result. I thought to myself, "This is going well, quite a pleasing result." Packed up and went indoors for dinner and some TV. Midsomer Murders last night - Series 4 epsode 3.

 

Returned this morning, checked the status thus far, and prepared to start the next bit. Then I realised that the additional metre I did yesterday had not had the sleepers airbrushed first. You might be able to see that the sleepers to the right of the arrows are a dull sleeper colour, while the sleepers to the left of the arrows are a shiny brown plastic colour.

 

 

Do I now:

 

• try and brush paint the shiny sleepers a dull sleeper colour without getting the paint on the ballast?
• pretend it never happened?
• create a complicated card mask to airbrush just the sleeper bits that need it?
• get out the Testor's Dullcote?
• have another go at fixing the laptop screen?

 

Edited March 22, 2021 by Mick Bonwick

[Oldddudders]

28 minutes ago, bgman said:

My laptop liked that.

 

[Oldddudders]

I think the quick application of a small brush on each sleeper will achieve most of the effect you seek.

[Mick Bonwick]

42 minutes ago, bgman said:

 

Core! Yours has been got at, too!

[Stubby47]

Just unpick all the ballast and then spray the sleepers, then relay the ballast.

 

Better still, I've fixed the ones on the left for you.

Edited March 22, 2021 by Stubby47

[bgman]

5 hours ago, Mick Bonwick said:

create a complicated card mask to airbrush just the sleeper bits that need it?

 

If you know of anyone who has access to a Silhouette cutter then a mask cut on one would be a solution.

[Gilbert]

I often do a light over spray of a track dirt shade after ballasting etc is done so if you do that you can blend it all together anyway. My observation is that from many angles real track does lose its definition. The whole issue also seems very important at the moment but once you move on to other stages of the project it will probably not!

[sb67]

The Testors seems the easiest option although I've never used it on trackwork. Maybe a light dusting of weathering would help as Gilbert suggested. 

[Stubby47]

Sleepers are sleeper coloured, be that fresh, old or inbetween,  but track is a general colour over sleepers, chairs, rails & ballast.

 

Would you be better just laying the ballast first, then wafting shades of rust/grime/grease/dirt over everything, varying the combinations according to usage ( eg loco standing point).

[Mick Bonwick]

Many thanks for all the suggestions, they'll all be considered as I stumble omwards.

 

The Dullcote has been used and the sleepers have lost their plastic look. I'll leave the colour as it is and see whether it needs changing later on.

 

The colours have already been chosen, based upon a colour photograph of Easton in this post from page 33:

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/151137-easton-isle-of-portland/&do=findComment&comment=4329729

 

There will be an element of muck shades added later, also based upon colours chosen in accordance with photographs found. I'm quite sure that by the end of this week I'll be slapping it on all over the place and not really caring too much about where it goes or how it looks.

[KNP]

It's good building by committeetee!!!

 

 

[Mick Bonwick]

Still doing experimenty things. Lots of ideas about the surface of the goods yard, including this one consisting of silver sand. Stuck down into a layer of PVA and left to dry, it will then be coloured with something or other to represent the compacted surface layer of generic goods yards. I don't have a colour photograph of Easton's goods yard surface, for some reason.

 

 

 

Edited March 25, 2021 by Mick Bonwick
Photograph added, having intimated that there is one . . . .