Dale Junction in HO Scale

[benjy14]

On 10/08/2020 at 23:07, St Enodoc said:

This might be totally irrelevant but I have a 00 model of a GWR 12-wheeled 70-foot parcels van. Because of the long bogie wheelbase and the large bogie centre distance, it won't go round curves of less than about 30" radius as the outer faces of the outermost wheels foul the inside of the solebars. Now I know why the Dapol/Hornby LMS 12-wheel dining car has big cutouts in the solebars.

 

Sorry for not replying sooner, have been very busy with work. Thank you for your reply and,as it turns out, not irrelevant at all!

 

I managed to get the problem resolved and it is exactly as you write above. I closely watched the coaches travelling through the sharper radius curves and I could see where the wheels were jumping off. So rather than pull the coaches through with a locomotive, I thought I would push them by hand; it was then that I noticed that it as the radius tightened, the coach started binding in the curve. I turned the coach over and soon realised that because of the longer wheelbase of the bogies, they could not rotate enough to properly negiotiate the curve; no wonder they would always jump off! 

 

To cure this problem, I have performed a bit of surgery on the bogies, which rather conveniently are screwed together, that has allowed me to install a washer between the bogie and chassis. This little bit of extra height has provided just enough swing for the coaches to navigate the two sharp curves. I also followed the adviced given by @Andy Reichert and I checked that the bogies could tilt, which they can, to overcome the twist they experience as they traverse those bits of track.

 

I am very relieved to have this problem fixed. I had tried configuring iTrain such that the Streamliner trains avoided the track with the sharp curves but I found that very quickly, the layout became jammed because the Streamliner came into conflict with another train in the Helix.

 

I really must now crack on and finish the wiring but I am having too much fun running trains!

[benjy14]

Something I have wanted to do for a while is capture a "cab ride" video on the layout, so I have purchased a suitable mini-camcorder from a well-known online retailer and I have now published my first video of footage taken using it:

 

 

I am really pleased with the result for a first go  I have added some captions at various points to explain what's going on and ran some trains to pass the "camera train". Enjoy!

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

22 hours ago, benjy14 said:

Something I have wanted to do for a while is capture a "cab ride" video on the layout, so I have purchased a suitable mini-camcorder from a well-known online retailer and I have now published my first video of footage taken using it:

 

 

I am really pleased with the result for a first go  I have added some captions at various points to explain what's going on and ran some trains to pass the "camera train". Enjoy!

 

 

A really enjoyable watch - thank you for sharing.  Great to see how the vision is coming to fruition.

 

I’m afraid the electronic wizardry is beyond me - but I did recognise the H&M Clipper unit (don’t tell us it powers the whole thing!).

 

Inevitably there’s quite a lot of footage of ascending and descending helixes - I don’t know if you saw the recent Model Railroader Canadian Mountains project layout, but they seem to me to use a similar design? (I no longer have the magazines to check, sorry).  Watching those sequences made me think it must be how an Engineer feels approaching New York’s Grand Central Terminal through the long tunnel under Park Avenue? A very enjoyable twelve minutes, thanks, Keith.

[St Enodoc]

23 hours ago, benjy14 said:

Something I have wanted to do for a while is capture a "cab ride" video on the layout, so I have purchased a suitable mini-camcorder from a well-known online retailer and I have now published my first video of footage taken using it:

 

I am really pleased with the result for a first go  I have added some captions at various points to explain what's going on and ran some trains to pass the "camera train". Enjoy!

 

Wonderful stuff and totally mesmerising. Thank you.

[benjy14]

9 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

 

A really enjoyable watch - thank you for sharing.  Great to see how the vision is coming to fruition.

 

I’m afraid the electronic wizardry is beyond me - but I did recognise the H&M Clipper unit (don’t tell us it powers the whole thing!).

 

Inevitably there’s quite a lot of footage of ascending and descending helixes - I don’t know if you saw the recent Model Railroader Canadian Mountains project layout, but they seem to me to use a similar design? (I no longer have the magazines to check, sorry).  Watching those sequences made me think it must be how an Engineer feels approaching New York’s Grand Central Terminal through the long tunnel under Park Avenue? A very enjoyable twelve minutes, thanks, Keith.

 

Thank you very much Keith!  I still have to pinch myself sometimes that I have a room in which to build this layout... As for the H&M Clipper, I was exceptionally lucky to be gifted a Norfolk & Western Y-3 by a very good friend of mine. It's current DC and in ATSF livery, but is now with a professional modelmaker who is DCC-fitting it and changing it to Union Pacifc guise (a number of western railroads in the US purchased second-hand Y-3s from the N&W and C&O in 1945). As it had never run, it was running-in on my rolling road under DC power, hence the clipper. When the model comes back, I'll put a fuller post up about it.

 

The helix climbs do take up some time; I was thinking that I may speed them up in the next video, although I must get on with construction rather than playing soon!

 

8 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Wonderful stuff and totally mesmerising. Thank you.

 

Thank you very much! Would love to see you do something similar on your spectacular layout  

 

[St Enodoc]

49 minutes ago, benjy14 said:

Thank you very much! Would love to see you do something similar on your spectacular layout

I'll see what we can do. I haven't got a suitable camera but I'll ask Charles, who does all the videos for the layout, if he has any ideas.

[benjy14]

2 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I'll see what we can do. I haven't got a suitable camera but I'll ask Charles, who does all the videos for the layout, if he has any ideas.

 

If it helps, this is the mini-camcorder that I purchased to record the footage:

 

https://shop.runcam.com/runcam2/

 

I'm in no way affilated to the manufacturers!  As you can see, the video quality is pretty good. The only thing that has been disappointing is that none of my PCs recognise it when it is plugged in by USB, which means that I have to take the SD card (which is not supplied) out and plug it in to the PC directly; I am fortunate that I have a card reader slot on one of my computers... I am going to try contacting them to see if there is a solution.

[benjy14]

Last weekend was a bit of a milestone in the life of the layout because we welcomed our first visitors of the year (as part of our "extended household") to stay; my wife's cousin and her husband, who is almost (although not quite) as mad about trains as I am. It was therefore a perfect opportunity to demonstrate the layout operating to an interested third party for the very first time. I spent the few days in the run-up to their arrival working very hard to get everything running as smoothly as possible. I have been able to resolve the issue with the 85' baggage cars as previously discussed. In addition to that, I made a number of tweaks to a lot of the freight cars, performing jobs such as replacing couplers with Kadees, using over- and under-set shanks to get them at the correct height where appropriate, and fitting the excellent car stablizers that @Andy Reichert was so kind to supply me (i can confirm they are very effective!). I have now reached the stage that I am resaonably happy that nothing is derailing or uncoupling, and I can relax a little more when iTrain is running the layout in fully automated mode.

 

And so it was that we found ourselves spending several hours operating Dale Junction and overall, it was extremely successful. Watching iTrain automatically driving the layout was really quite something and every train ran except for one (4014 and 3999 are currently away for repair). On top of that, it was also the first time that I have mixed manual and automatic operation; I gave my cousin-in-law a controller and he drove one of the trains, whilst I set the route for him and dispatched other trains (under the control of iTrain) around him. It was absolutely brilliant  

 

Since their visit, work as slowed somewhat. It is actually nice to take a rest from the layout (I am already months, if not years, ahead of where I thought I would be in the build), so there is no rush and I do not want to risk "burn out" doing too much, too soon. In addition, there was the unexpected and welcome news that the Welsh Highland is operating again and I was very lucky to get a turn driving NGG 87 last week on the "Back to Beddgelert" service.

 

 

 

It was a splendid day out, although we had to terminate at Rhyd Ddu due to the ballast shoulder being washed away by Storm Francis the previous day.

 

Today, I found myself back in the railway room as I have list of jobs that need doing before the track laying and wiring will be finally finished. The first job was to sort out a nasty hump in Track 2 on the upper level. So up came a length of track and after some work with the sander, the hump is gone. The replaced track is held down with drawing pins for testing and all seems well, so I will glue it down, together with another panel, in the near future to complete the track laying. As a picture of a plain piece of track would be rather boring and I needed to test some trains, here is a shot of #844 heading east with a reefer train on the relaid track passing #4023 on a westbound manifest freight.

 

 

 

I also took the opportunity to capture a head-on view of #4023:

 

 

 

#4023 is about to turn into helix B to decend to the middle level, so it is possible to stand and see this view in person. It was very important to me to have one place on the layout where trains can be seen "head-on", as the effect is quite stunning, a layout design principle that I learnt from Michael Watts.  At the other end, here is #844 passing the caboose of #4023's train:

 

 

 

Once the track panels are down, the final two wiring jobs are to connect the MP1 point motors at the top of helx A to the DR4088 (for detection of which way they are thrown) and then connect all of the droppers on the upper level, which will be a time-consuming and boring task, although absolutely essential to ensure reliable running in the long run. With the Bank Holiday tomorrow, I may get some more work done but it's a marathon, not a sprint...

Edited April 23, 2022 by benjy14
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[benjy14]

I've realised that it's been pretty much a month since my last post...

 

Things have been a little quiet on the modelling front as I've been doing quite a bit on the 2', including a once-in-a-lifetime turn driving Welsh Pony to Beddgelert, the first time it has made it to that station in more than 80 years!

 

 

However, some work has been going on slowly and today, I reached a milestone having completed the wiring of the track on the upper level by connecting up all of the pre-installed dropper wires. A bit of a tedious job but absolutely essential to ensure good running. With that done, I decided to have a go at fitting the first of the backscenes on the upper level:

 

 

These are made from 4mm plywood, which has curved nicely with the egde of the layout (the photo does not show it very clearly). However, installing them is a difficult job to do single-handed and I had a rather scary moment where I thought I had damaged some of the track (fortunately, the rail just snaped back into place in the chairs, so no harm done). I think I will probably wait for reinforcements before attempting to do any more curved sections. You can also see that I have fitted the brackets that will eventually hold the supports for the lighting rig and fascia for the upper level.

 

Finally, I had rather a nice surprise a couple of weeks ago. I am a subcriber to Model Railroader magazine and I had submitted my YouTube cab ride video to the "User Videos" section of their website. Not very much happened and I forgot about it, but then my weekly newsletter dropped into my Inbox and look what was featured:

 

 

I was thrilled and not unsurprisingly, I have received a huge spike in views (nearly 2,500!).

 

Next job will probably be to tackle the very last wiring job on the layout and that is to put in the detection of the points at the top of Helix A. It shouldn't take long and once done, I want to go around the whole layout and tidy wires; whilst I am not too worried about perfect neatness as some people can achieve, I do want to ensure that all wires are secure e.g. ensuring all wires on the underside of the baseboard are not dangling.

Edited April 23, 2022 by benjy14
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[benjy14]

A bit of unwelcome news this evening... 

 

My MTH Big Boy has stripped one of its driveshafts and having contacted MTH in the US, I am not able to order a replacement   I am therefore looking for a way to fix this and have started a topic:

 

 

If anybody reading this topic could help, I'd really appreciate some help!

 

Ben

 

[mdvle]

1 hour ago, benjy14 said:

My MTH Big Boy has stripped one of its driveshafts and having contacted MTH in the US, I am not able to order a replacement   I am therefore looking for a way to fix this and have started a topic:

 

First, if you do find a source, get more than one if possible just in case.

 

So some research reveals the MTH parts list for the Big Boy(1), which gives us a part number - EH-1602007000

 

Clicking the link in the PDF takes one to the MTH parts website, which you say is out of stock(2)

 

The parts website has a find it locally, revealing a possible source in NJ (3).

 

Then, a search in Google for MTH and the part number gets us a web retailer claiming to stock MTH parts (4)

 

1 - https://mthtrains.com/sites/default/files/download/exploded/80st10760e.pdf

 

2 - https://mthtrains.com/part/EH-1602007000

 

3 - http://216.214.83.119/external/panel3.asp

 

4 - https://www.trainz.com/collections/mth-train-parts?page=45

 

If none of that helps, then put an automatic search into eBay for both the part number, and an MTH Big Boy, and hope with time you get lucky - perhaps someone will sell off a broken Big Boy cheap that you can salvage the part from.

[PaulRhB]

If you measure their diameter and then trim the spigots back flat you can carefully drill through the centre with a tiny drill then open it out to the correct size with a larger drill. Find plastic rod of the correct size, evergreen rod selection or similar, and trim it to length and glue in. 
It requires a bit of bravery but as they are broken anyway if you take it very carefully you should be able to do it to a close enough tolerance. The similar ones I did on a diesel had much smaller diameter spigots and I had to use wire as the styrene was too soft but I was worried about that wearing the sockets long term. 

[Allegheny1600]

12 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

If you measure their diameter and then trim the spigots back flat you can carefully drill through the centre with a tiny drill then open it out to the correct size with a larger drill. Find plastic rod of the correct size, evergreen rod selection or similar, and trim it to length and glue in. 
It requires a bit of bravery but as they are broken anyway if you take it very carefully you should be able to do it to a close enough tolerance. The similar ones I did on a diesel had much smaller diameter spigots and I had to use wire as the styrene was too soft but I was worried about that wearing the sockets long term. 

Yes!

I had this exact same problem on one of my locos only I used a piece of a very small drill bit shank to replace the spigots. Probably better to use plastic if possible to avoid excessive wear, as Paul says.

I think I filed a small flat on my driveshaft to get my drilling started as the engineering plastic it is made from is quite tough (my spigots had gone completely!).

Good luck!

John.

[benjy14]

Thank you to everybody who has replied!

 

20 hours ago, mdvle said:

 

First, if you do find a source, get more than one if possible just in case.

 

So some research reveals the MTH parts list for the Big Boy(1), which gives us a part number - EH-1602007000

 

Clicking the link in the PDF takes one to the MTH parts website, which you say is out of stock(2)

 

The parts website has a find it locally, revealing a possible source in NJ (3).

 

Then, a search in Google for MTH and the part number gets us a web retailer claiming to stock MTH parts (4)

 

1 - https://mthtrains.com/sites/default/files/download/exploded/80st10760e.pdf

 

2 - https://mthtrains.com/part/EH-1602007000

 

3 - http://216.214.83.119/external/panel3.asp

 

4 - https://www.trainz.com/collections/mth-train-parts?page=45

 

If none of that helps, then put an automatic search into eBay for both the part number, and an MTH Big Boy, and hope with time you get lucky - perhaps someone will sell off a broken Big Boy cheap that you can salvage the part from.

 

I made contact with the shop in NJ but no luck; MTH stopped selling the driveshafts years ago and they do not have any left in stock. I have tried a number of others, including tranz.com, without any luck.

 

16 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

If you measure their diameter and then trim the spigots back flat you can carefully drill through the centre with a tiny drill then open it out to the correct size with a larger drill. Find plastic rod of the correct size, evergreen rod selection or similar, and trim it to length and glue in. 
It requires a bit of bravery but as they are broken anyway if you take it very carefully you should be able to do it to a close enough tolerance. The similar ones I did on a diesel had much smaller diameter spigots and I had to use wire as the styrene was too soft but I was worried about that wearing the sockets long term. 

 

3 hours ago, Allegheny1600 said:

Yes!

I had this exact same problem on one of my locos only I used a piece of a very small drill bit shank to replace the spigots. Probably better to use plastic if possible to avoid excessive wear, as Paul says.

I think I filed a small flat on my driveshaft to get my drilling started as the engineering plastic it is made from is quite tough (my spigots had gone completely!).

Good luck!

John.

 

Trying to repair the driveshaft is definitely an option and I appreciate your suggestions. In addition, Paul Martin of EDM Models (who is a friend from the Ffestiniog) has kindly offered to make me two new ones from metal. I appreciate the comments about the damage this may cause to the female components, so in addition to his kind offer, I am going to try to affect a repair once he's made the replacements; this then gives me options. I am not 100% certain but I think the female parts may also be made of metal but I would need to check to be certain. 

 

Thanks again for your input!

[benjy14]

It's been a little while since my last update but lots has been going on...

 

On the layout, I have completed two major jobs. The first is that I have sprayed the track dull grey to weather it in preparation for ballasting; it is amazing the visual difference this has made. The second is that I have completed installing the backscene on the upper level. As part of this, I decided that I wanted to use the space inside the top of Helix B to make a scenic feature. I have therefore curved the backscene from one side of the helix to the other to create an area between the backscene and track; in this area, I'm going to create a scene depicting a down-at-heel homestead, complete with windmill and outbuilding. This will create a really nice focal point on the layout when you first enter the room, with the dual track mainline stretching into the distance where the main area of the layout is.

 

Below is an overview of the railway room showing most of the installed backscene on the upper level.

 

 

Below is an overview of the new scenic area for the homestead scene, which is mocked-up to give a flavour of how it will look:

 

 

Below is a side-on view of the homestead scene.

 

 

On the locomotive front, the big news is that I have purchased two new Broadway Limited Big Boys direct from the States and they arrived on Friday. I have run them in and speed calibrated them in iTrain, and they are now pulling trains. The first is #4020, which is seen below passing the homestead:

 

 

The other new engine is #4023, which duplicates my existing Precision Craft Models Big Boy. I have decided to keep the old #4023 but have it renumbered to #4012 to match the picture hanging on the wall above the layout. Whilst it does not have as many lights, the detail on this loco belies the fact that its 15 years old now and it runs superbly, so it would be a shame to sell it!

 

Speaking of changed identities, I recently took delivery of my renumbered 4-8-2 Mountain which is now #7028 (the very last operational Mountain class locomotive on the Union Pacific). The work was done by S H Modelmaking and Simon has done a superb job, including changing the tiny numbers either side of the front headlight.

 

 

#7028 is seen above at the site of what I have decided will become Sherman station. Now that the layout is fully operational, I have found that during automated running, the computer will quite often stop trains here to allow another train to exit Helix A (there is the crossover at the top of A to allow trains to ascend on the outer track and then cross to the inner track). I therefore needed a reason for trains to stop, so having a station here provided the perfect excuse! By pure chance, I found on eBay a laser cut kit for a UP depot; I have never seen something like that before, so snapped it up! Of course, Sherman should have a more complex track layout in the period my layout is set but it's too late to change it now, so I am going to suppose that the track simplification has taken place now that helpers are no used (Sherman was where they were cut off their trains). I may model a representation of the turning wye.

 

#7028 is hauling a short mixed train, which they were frequently used on at the end of their service lives having been displaced from more high-profile trains. As far as I can find, no such trains ran over Sherman Hill but plenty did ran on other routes, such as south from Cheyenne to Denver. I am therefore going to use a bit of modeller's licence to run this train as an extra service stopping all stations across the Hill.

 

Finally, other chance find on eBay has allowd me to complete my breakdown train.

 

 

Shown above is Light Mikado 2-8-2 #2499 pulling the completed consist, which comprises an old heavyweight coach for the crew, two silver maintenance-of-war box cars, the brakedown crane itself, and a silver caboose bringing up the rear. I have not found any photographic evidence of the consist of these trains, so this is a "best guess" as to how they would have appeared and I'm really pleased with it; it's not just about the big locomotives and the big trains!

 

So next jobs are to paint the backscene and start the long, tedious job of ballasting. It has dawned on me just what a big job this is going to be and I imagine is going to take weeks, so I think it will be essential to break it up with other jobs (such as completing the last wiring job on the layout, which is to wire in the detection for the points on the top of Helix A). But the layout is really starting to look how I'd imagined it would and I'm really pleased with the progress; the backscenes and weathering have started the transition from trainset to model railway.

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by benjy14
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[benjy14]

So a little while since my last post but work has been going on with Dale Junction. It is also two days short of a year since the first wood was cut for the baseboards for the layout, so a lot of happened in that time and the layout has developed much quicker than I ever could have expected...!

 

Yesterday morning, my lovely local carpenter dropped off a load of 4mm plywood cut into strips of various widths using his table saw; far more accurate that I could ever accomplish by hand. This wood will be used for the backscenes on the middle level, the light valance and fascias. I have made a start on fitting them. Below shows an overview of the railway room with the lighting valance for the upper level fitted:

 

 

I have also started on the fascia for the upper and lower levels, below:

 

 

I have been trying to figure out what to do where Track 3 emerges from Helix B. My intention is to model the cutting immediately before the sweeping curve into Dale Junction (I think it is called Archer's Cutting). I have therefore extended the 4"x2" upright up to the level with the upper level, which will give me an anchor for a larger fascia.

 

I have also made a start on the very long job of ballasting and so far, I've managed about two-thirds of the middle level, including all of Dale Junction. It needs a bit of tidying up and weathering before I'll be happy with it.

 

Finally, on the buildings front, I have put together a kit to represent the water tower that stood for a short period of time on Track 3. It's painted and ready to be weathered. Unfortunately, a couple of the sections that make up the tank moved whilst the glue was setting, so it's not quite as good as I had hoped. However, I intend to disguise this using some UP "Shield" transfers, wihch will also liven it up a little. Also in progress is a lazer-cut wood kit of Sherman depot for the upper level, which is being constructed by a good friend of mine. He's making a stunning job of it (far better than I ever could have) and I hope to collect it in the coming week once the lockdown here in Wales is lifted.

 

Stay safe!

Edited April 23, 2022 by benjy14
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[benjy14]

This morning, I took delivery of Sherman Depot, which has been beautifully built and painted for me by Glenn Williams (of Boston Lodge fame - the man who paints and lines the locomotives and rolling stock by hand) from an American Model Builders laser-cut wood cut. As the photos below show, he has done a stunning job of it:

 

 

 

 

As mentioned in a previous post, the reason for modelling Sherman is that I have found that eastbound trains will quite often be stopped by iTrain to wait for a westbound train to climb the helix on the outer track and then cross to the inner (right-hand) track. I therefore needed a reason for the trains to stop and providing a station was the obvious solution. The kit itself was a chance find on eBay and I'm very lucky that I had a person of Glenn's skill to build it for me.

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by benjy14
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[Keith Addenbrooke]

On 12/11/2020 at 21:41, benjy14 said:

This morning, I took delivery of Sherman Depot, which has been beautifully built and painted for me by Glenn Williams (of Boston Lodge fame - the man who paints and lines the locomotives and rolling stock by hand) from an American Model Builders laser-cut wood cut. As the photos below show, he has done a stunning job of it:

 

 

 

 

As mentioned in a previous post, the reason for modelling Sherman is that I have found that eastbound trains will quite often be stopped by iTrain to wait for a westbound train to climb the helix on the outer track and then cross to the inner (right-hand) track. I therefore needed a reason for the trains to stop and providing a station was the obvious solution. The kit itself was a chance find on eBay and I'm very lucky that I had a person of Glenn's skill to build it for me.

 

Hi Ben, this looks great.  Weirdly, I saw your post last night after I’d been playing around with some boards I have for another project, a Station kit I’ve just finished, and some rolling stock I’ve been given but not yet attended to - just to see what it looked like.  I think your depot looks a much better ‘fit’ in the space than mine:

 

 

 

 

Edited October 5, 2022 by Keith Addenbrooke
Reinstating pictures

[benjy14]

3 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Hi Ben, this looks great.  Weirdly, I saw your post last night after I’d been playing around with some boards I have for another project, a Station kit I’ve just finished, and some rolling stock I’ve been given but not yet attended to - just to see what it looked like.  I think your depot looks a much better ‘fit’ in the space than mine:

 

 

 

 

Hi Keith,

 

Trust me, it's a total fluke!  I just saw the kit and decided to go for it; very glad it fits as well as it does!  I think there's relatively little other infrastructure, so it will be quite a lonely place...

 

In terms of your building, I do see what you mean. I think this issue is that the train is much to close to the building, especially one of that size. If you removed that Y point, you could move all of the tracks to the right as we're looking at, giving you more room.

 

Cheers,

Ben

[benjy14]

Over the past few evenings, I've done some further wotk installing the fascias on the layout and I think the upper level is now complete. Below is an oveview of the railway room:

 

 

As part of this, I have had to consider how to frame where Track 3 emerges from the middle of Helix B. Below shows what I've fitted so far:

 

 

I want to be able to see the trains in the helix (as it is quite mesmerising) but i always wanted to have a clear demarcation between the scenic part of the layout and the helix... The next step is to add a "floor" beneath Track 3 and above the scenic window, and then I can add the fascia to form cutting from which the trains will emerge.

 

It really is amazing how adding the fascias is transforming the appearence of the layout. Of course, I now realise how much painting I'm going to have to do!

Edited April 23, 2022 by benjy14
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[benjy14]

Over the weekend, I've managed to finish installing the fascia and backscenes on the middle level of the layout. Below shows the exit from Hermosa Tunnel:

 

 

In real life, the tunnel portals are at the end of a long cutting, which I am not goiing to be able to model in any length. The best viewing angle for this bit of the layout will be best viewed from ther other side, which is easily reached via a duck-under. However, I am considering constructing a removable backscene for this section.

 

Moving round, below shows the main part of Dale Junction itself:

 

 

This photo clearly shows how deparately I need to get some lighting sorted out, especially for the middle level. This is in hand and I have two Digikeijs DR4050 LED lighting units on order with DCC Train Automation (I mentiod them purely as a very satisfied customer). Moving round again, below shows the sweeping curves on the east side of the junction:

 

 

This photo also shows that ballasting has been advancing and about two-thirds of the middle level is now done. I want to get the lighting sorted before returning to this!  Finally, a look at where Track 3 emerges from the Helix:

 

 

I am rather pleased with how this has turned out; I think it will make a very nice scene. I will install lights into the lower scenic window as it's now very much in the dark!

 

Next job is to complete the fascia for the lower level, and on the window-side of the middle and upper levels; I do not expect this to take too long. I also want to do something about diguising the supports in the helix; this will probably simply be vertical strips of 3" 4mm plywood. 

 

The lighting syste, should arrive this week and I am looking forward to getting it installed.

Edited April 23, 2022 by benjy14
Re-uploaded images

[benjy14]

Every once in a while, I get some done on Dale Junction that takes it to the next level...

 

Following a chance remark on Facebook, I purchased the Digikeijs DR4050 LED lighting system and installed it on the middle level over the weekend. The effects it creates are nothing short of astonishing. Not only does it have normal daytime mode, but evening, morning and nighttime modes as well. It can automatically cycle through them or be controlled via iTrain. The night mode, in particular, creates an astonishing effect, although it's very hard to photograph.

 

Now that I have some better lighting, I can finally show the work that I've been doing doing on the ballasting. It's taking a long time but getting there slowly, and the middle level is now about 2/3 complete. The photo below shows Big Boy #4023 coming off Track 1 and on to Track 2 to drift westbound down the hill to Laramie. The lighting was set to evening mode, hence the slightly subdued colour palette.

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by benjy14
Re-uploaded images

[benjy14]

Day and Night

 

Today, I completed the installation of the lighting on the upper level of the layout using a second DR4050. It is so nice to see the complete layout fully lit and what a difference it has made. The fist picture below was taken from the far corner of the room (accessed via the duck-under) and the layout is in daytime mode (the main room lights are switched off):

 

 

The DR4050s were running in automatic mode and after a few minutes, the transition to nighttime mode was finished:

 

 

I've made a short video demonstrating the transitions between its various modes:

 

 

It really is a fantastic piece of kit and a huge thanks to James at DCC Train Automation for suggesting it (mentioned purely as a very happy customer!).

 

 

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, benjy14 said:

I've made a short video demonstrating the transitions between its various modes

"When a deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls
And the stars begin to twinkle in the night..."

 

Very nice.

[benjy14]

With the layout lighting completed, I've been able to take some properly lit photographs; I'm going to try not to get too distracted from constructing the layout!  Here are some first photographs, chasing GP9 #252 leading two GP7s on an eastbound manifest freight.

 

 

Above shows Extra 252 crossing from Track 1 to Track 2 at Dale Junction. The ground is really starting to shake because coming the other way, below, is Big Boy #4020 on a westbound manifest freight leaving Track 3 and heading on to Track 2 to descend the Hill to Laramie.

 

 

Below shows #4020 again heading through the points.

 

 

A few miles further east, Extra 252 is cresting the summit at Sherman:

 

 

Coming the other way is Big Boy #4023 on yet another westbound manifest freight.

 

 

I have some woodwork to finish and I'm then going to return to ballasting... There is a lot to do but it really does start to bring the whole scene to life...