A new (unnamed!) London Station. A portable layout built in EM

[AnotherEMU]

Hello all,

 

After about 10 years away from the hobby, earlier this year I decided to make a return (partly brought on by having not a lot to do during the lockdown earlier in the year!). Also because of the wide variety, and quality, of the products available today to the 'modern image' modeller. As my username suggests I have an interest in EMUs and there are so many more options today to able to create all of the many classes of unit out there.

 

Although I'm from the midlands and lived very close to the midland mainline, I'm very much interested in the railways in and around London. I like the urban look with big retaining walls, buildings, tunnels etc. Particularly the Thameslink lines around Farringdon, and how the trains switch from AC to DC. This layout will a representation of a fictitious new station somewhere in that area north of the Thames, and will see mainly EMU traffic. Third rail will be a feature and maybe overhead AC in the future.

 

On to the specifics; Fully portable (hopefully exhibit one day), 12ft long built on three 4ft x 14 inch boards. End to End style, where trains will exit a tunnel from a hidden staging area down to a 2 platform station. It will be DCC controlled. And the track will be EM gauge, mainly for the look of the track width but also to have long smooth hand built points.

 

So going back to April now (progress has been slow) I bought some wood and started baseboard construction. Although there are some very nice boards available on sale I actually quite enjoy this part. Some 5mm Ply and 2x1:

 

 

This was then chopped up into 4 inch blocks and strips:

 

 

And then glued together to make the long sections of the board frames:

 

 

 

Then with some more blocks and shorter strips, the ends were made:

 

 

 

A 5mm ply sheet was then glued and screwed on the top. One more to go:

 

 

A little bit of planning going on:

 

 

I chose 5mm ply because I wanted to keep the boards lightweight. And each one in their current state weigh in at just over 3 Kgs each, which I was very happy with. However, the 5mm ply does warp a bit too easily, in fact most the sheets had a curve in them when i got them from B&Q. So some bracing will be put under the top sheet to try and keep them flat.

 

Track plan wise, I haven't finalised it yet but you can get a rough idea from the pictures above. Currently getting my head around templot at the moment, the full plan will be made with this and printed off.

And finally, I haven't actually decided on a name yet either, seems to be one of the hardest parts for me, especially when its a made up place too.

 

Thanks for looking,

Jonny.

Edited December 24, 2020 by AnotherEMU

[LDM34046]

Welcome back after 10 years!

 

Loving the progress so far, the baseboards look good! 

 

Look forward to seeing new photos in due course.

 

LDM

[muddy water]

Great!

is the grey EMU going to be a class 377 or similar?

Nice to see people doing these conversions of class 170s!

[AnotherEMU]

11 hours ago, muddy water said:

Great!

is the grey EMU going to be a class 377 or similar?

Nice to see people doing these conversions of class 170s!

 

Thanks!

Yes it will be a 387 eventually, either in Thameslink or Gatwick Express. The innocent 170 you can see will be harvested of its parts to help with the build, leaving the body shells for something else.

Really pleased with the prints though, quality stuff:

 

[muddy water]

Very nice indeed!

Is the class 387 a complete 3D print or just ends stuck on to a modified class 170?

[AnotherEMU]

On 03/12/2020 at 09:57, muddy water said:

Very nice indeed!

Is the class 387 a complete 3D print or just ends stuck on to a modified class 170?

 

It is a full 3D print yes, made by a trader called CMAC railways, I think there's a thread on here somewhere.

 

 

No layout progress for now, however I've been working on one of the projects i had going years ago, a Class 442. I had all the bits from Hurst models to make the conversion, but spotted a new 3d print cab front on eBay. Certainly looks the part when compared to the resin cast:

 

 

I was going use the Bachmann 170 drive for the electrostar but it's too much hassle cutting it down to size. But without too much modification will fit in a Lima mk3 to power this project instead. This will be the MLC coach, powering the train like the real thing:

 

 

Layout progress should step up next week..

 

Cheers, Jonny.

[ikcdab]

Looks excellent. Although it seems to be fashionable to say that one is no good at carpentry or that the best part is buildijng the scenery, building baseboards is my favourite bit! I just love gluing, cramping and sawing up bits of wood and ply and making baseboards. Yours look really good and similar to the ones that I have recently built. The good news is that I still have more to do!

Ian 

[AnotherEMU]

Small update today, I was making progress with the boards.. however my drill motor decided to burn out (buy cheap buy twice!) so a new one will need to be ordered so I can the holes drilled out for alignment pins and bolts.

 

Anyway I 'think' I have decided on a track plan, its changed many times and using templot is beginning to drive me mad so I need to go firm with it.

 

 

The aim is for the layout to be run at home with just the three boards here, at an exhibition with a storage board on the right side and possibly in the future as a continuous run, having 2 through lines.

So the main points:

• Right board; three platforms, two terminus for now, through in future, one bay for the branch track (uppermost line).
• Middle board; A branch track disappearing into a tunnel to a hidden siding. Access from the mainline to the branch. And a Scissor crossing, so trains can in and out of platform 1+2 when operating as a terminus, although it'll be a challenge to build it allows the necessary crossover on one board with long smooth points (1 in 12).
• Left board; A head shunt siding, and the two mainlines exiting into a tunnel.

Welcome for feedback on the plan, I've just made it up, it's not based on any particular plan or real location, so hopefully it'll provide enough interest in either setting. 

Cheers, Jonny

[dasatcopthorne]

10 minutes ago, AnotherEMU said:

Small update today, I was making progress with the boards.. however my drill motor decided to burn out (buy cheap buy twice!) so a new one will need to be ordered so I can the holes drilled out for alignment pins and bolts.

 

Anyway I 'think' I have decided on a track plan, its changed many times and using templot is beginning to drive me mad so I need to go firm with it.

 

 

The aim is for the layout to be run at home with just the three boards here, at an exhibition with a storage board on the right side and possibly in the future as a continuous run, having 2 through lines.

So the main points:

• Right board; three platforms, two terminus for now, through in future, one bay for the branch track (uppermost line).
• Middle board; A branch track disappearing into a tunnel to a hidden siding. Access from the mainline to the branch. And a Scissor crossing, so trains can in and out of platform 1+2 when operating as a terminus, although it'll be a challenge to build it allows the necessary crossover on one board with long smooth points (1 in 12).
• Left board; A head shunt siding, and the two mainlines exiting into a tunnel.

Welcome for feedback on the plan, I've just made it up, it's not based on any particular plan or real location, so hopefully it'll provide enough interest in either setting. 

Cheers, Jonny

 

Building a scissors could be a problem. I would favour the first point in from the left to be a double slip and then replace the scissors with the facing crossover.

 

I have also found very large radius turnouts to be unnecessary on  smallish layouts and something equal to peco large radius quite acceptable.

 

Dave

Elbow Lane.

[BenHenry]

Following with Great Interest! Cant wait to see what you do  

[AnotherEMU]

6 hours ago, BenHenry said:

Following with Great Interest! Cant wait to see what you do  

 

Thanks a lot! I can't wait to see how it all turns out too.

 

And Dave, appreciate the feedback on the plan, I've yet to build any turnouts so I'll see how one of the smaller ones goes first!

 

I've made some progress on the boards over the last few days, hijacking the dining room at the girlfriends house while at home on leave . Too much thought has gone into how I was going to go about doing this but its starting to take shape.

The problem with the warped 5mm plywood showed when it came to mating up the boards, with a couple of the ends not being straight at all. So I got some stronger (and straighter!) 12mm Ply to use as a face between the boards. Heres a picture showing the gap that would have been, a 1mm thick slice of card easily falling through:

 

 

To make more use out the 12mm ply I decided to integrate support for the back scene and overhead lighting into each end piece. Heres the join between boards 2 and 3:

 

 

 

Between boards 1 and 2 there will be a short tunnel, with the front side of it open for viewing, so the beginnings of this were added into the board. Some jigsaw action later:

 

 

These are glued and screwed onto the end, 3 down 3 to go! The two outer ends will also have faces like these, to finish off the support for back and lighting.

 

Thanks for looking and a Merry Christmas! Jonny.

Edited December 23, 2020 by AnotherEMU

[AnotherEMU]

Happy new year, and hopefully 2021 will see a lot of progress made.. and maybe I'll think of a name too.

 

Little update today, board 3 has been taken to my room at work to see how it fits in the space available:

 

 

Which it does nicely, the whole thing had been designed to fit in this area one board at a time while away from home.

Also in this picture you can see the 12mm ply end piece (on the right) has been jigged out and screwed on, the large square opening is purely for weight saving and will be filled with a thinner lighter sheet to make the back scene.

And the two track opening below is for future expansion, where the main line will disappear into a tunnel.

 

I have also installed the alignment dowels from DCC concepts between boards 2 and 3, these worked pretty well, not as perfect as I would have liked but that could be down to my ropey hole drilling. Theres still the other join to be done yet and hopefully do a perfect job.

 

 

 

Aside from the layout, I've been working on the Electrostar project. My wheels have arrived from DC kits so I've been working on the bogie frames in order to get the train on the rails.

The Bachmann 170 bogie sides are close to electrostar ones but don't look quite right in my eyes (I actually think they're lifted straight from the 166 model). The yaw damper is too low down so I've chopped the centre out of a Bratchell side, filled the down the middle in the 170 frame and glued this section in place.

Some work with filler is yet to be done before its finished, then I'll make a mould and cast enough for the train:

 

 

Cheers, Jonny

[kipford]

Jonny

Just found this (busy building a 5" gauge loco so I do not trawl as much as I did) and welcome to the EM club. The layout is starting to look good. Your track plan is not a million miles away from Brighton Easts and that has proved a very entertaining layout operate both at home and at exhibitions over the last 7 years. Here is Brighton's track plan

 

Quote

Building a scissors could be a problem. 

 

I had never built a scissors before, but had built ordinary turnouts. So I started with the scissors and It proved was no more difficult than building a single unit, just take your time. Mine also straddles the baseboard joint and was built with board joints already made. It has now done 30 odd exhibitions and never given a problem. Some pikkies of the scissors to hopefully give you some encouragement. Keep up the good work.

 

[Rich Papper]

Hi Jonny,

Just chanced upon this. Looks like a great project. Woodwork looks neat and professional. I like the EMU plans too.

Good luck with it.

Rich

[Southwich]

Looking great this Jonny. As a fellow modern image EM’er I’m looking forward to further progress!

 

Kind regards,

 

Will

[AnotherEMU]

On 12/01/2021 at 19:56, kipford said:

Jonny

Just found this (busy building a 5" gauge loco so I do not trawl as much as I did) and welcome to the EM club. The layout is starting to look good. Your track plan is not a million miles away from Brighton Easts and that has proved a very entertaining layout operate both at home and at exhibitions over the last 7 years. Here is Brighton's track plan

 

 

Thanks very much Kipford, really appreciate the encouragement and your pictures. Yes I have seen this layout in a few YouTube videos, and just today found your thread on here. It looks brilliant, the track work is impressive and I like the plan, mine definitely has some similarities. I am right in saying the scissor is all built with flat bottom rail?

If so what did you use for a filing jig as the EMGS one says for BH rail only? Thanks.

 

On 18/01/2021 at 06:54, Rich Papper said:

Hi Jonny,

Just chanced upon this. Looks like a great project. Woodwork looks neat and professional. I like the EMU plans too.

Good luck with it.

Rich

 

Thanks a lot Rich, I find the woodwork part of building a layout a really satisfying stage!

 

On 18/01/2021 at 16:10, Southwich said:

Looking great this Jonny. As a fellow modern image EM’er I’m looking forward to further progress!

 

Kind regards,

 

Will

 

Thanks Will, there doesn't seem to be many modern EM modellers, hopefully we can get some more people inspired. I have had a good look at your layout thread and its looking really nice mate.

 

 

Progress wise this week i should have the second board join completed, so I'll be able to get them all bolted together for the first time. And my EMGS membership has come through too, time to start buying in some track building supplies.

Cheers, Jonny

[kipford]

Jonny

Yes the scissors are all flat bottom using Peco Panderol chairs. The vees for the points were filed using the filing jig, the rail head should fit into it upside down. It just needs a bit more filing than bullhead, If I remember correctly it was about 12 years ago! The scissors vees were assembled on a wooden jig made using a Templot print as a guide because they are a non standard angle. Where you will need to do truck loads of filing and the rail will get a bit flimsy is to relieve the bottom inside web of the stock rails where the switch blades contact. The switch blades where filed by hand, the flat bottom rail will not work in the blade filing jig. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[AnotherEMU]

Afternoon all,

Overdue update time! Some progress has been made on the boards:

 

 

 

Heres a view of boards 1 and 2 lined off together, the jigging out of all the end plates has been finished, very pleased with the result. In the first picture you can see the end of board 1 where the station will be and an opening is there again for future expansion.

You can also see on the middle board the top support beams have been screwed in place, these make it all quite rigid and will also support the lighting at some point. And its now quite easy to carry!

Alignment pins and bolt holes between these boards to come next.

 

Thanks, Jonny

[AnotherEMU]

A little update on the Electrostar project today as well.

 

First off bought myself a new toy:

 

 

Seeing as I'll have a lot of soldering to come I thought I'd better get one that will last.

 

I've made a start with making the wheel frames, these come from Stenson models (very quick dispatch btw). Should be very straight forward to go together, however the solder became increasingly reluctant to melt onto the iron, making many little solder balls (see in the picture!!) much to my frustration!

 

 

I got there in the end, but needs to be neatened up a bit. I don't know what I was doing wrong tbh, I've not soldered in a long time. The tip became very black after a while and did not want to transfer heat well.

I'm not sure if the solder is leaded or not, does this make a difference? Also would a larger tip help? It came supplied with a very narrow point tip.

 

 

Anyway here's the result with the black beetle wheels from DC Kits loosely installed, the wire springs need soldering up to a small pcb strip for a wire to then be attached. 6 more to go!

The cosmetic bogie side is also nearly ready to have a mould made for many more to be cast from, update soon!

 

Thanks again, Jonny

[lezz01]

The tip just needs cleaning and tinning properly is all. They all do that when they are new.

Just stick the hot iron in the bottle of flux and it should come out clean. Then just re tin the tip and away you go. You are using flux right? You need to use flux no matter what solder you use even if it's multicore, in fact especially if it's multicore. The black is usually burnt resin, lead free solder is the worst idea ever as well, it might be better for the environment and indeed the operator but for soldering metal to metal it's pants. It's one of the prime examples of bureaucrats knowing nothing about the thing they were regulating. Get some proper solder and open a window. As for flux the best for what we modelers need is dilute phosphoric acid. Carrs green label used to be the favorite but there are many equivalents buy a big bottle as it's cheaper. Make sure you clean it all off though it's an acid afterall. 

Regards Lez.         

[PaulCheffus]

45 minutes ago, AnotherEMU said:

A little update on the Electrostar project today as well.

 

First off bought myself a new toy:

 

 

Seeing as I'll have a lot of soldering to come I thought I'd better get one that will last.

 

I've made a start with making the wheel frames, these come from Stenson models (very quick dispatch btw). Should be very straight forward to go together, however the solder became increasingly reluctant to melt onto the iron, making many little solder balls (see in the picture!!) much to my frustration!

 

 

I got there in the end, but needs to be neatened up a bit. I don't know what I was doing wrong tbh, I've not soldered in a long time. The tip became very black after a while and did not want to transfer heat well.

I'm not sure if the solder is leaded or not, does this make a difference? Also would a larger tip help? It came supplied with a very narrow point tip.

 

 

Anyway here's the result with the black beetle wheels from DC Kits loosely installed, the wire springs need soldering up to a small pcb strip for a wire to then be attached. 6 more to go!

The cosmetic bogie side is also nearly ready to have a mould made for many more to be cast from, update soon!

 

Thanks again, Jonny

Hi

 

Did you tin the tip before using it?

 

To tin it you apply solder as it’s heating up wiping off each application of solder. This should then leave a coating of solder on the tip.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[AnotherEMU]

29 minutes ago, lezz01 said:

The tip just needs cleaning and tinning properly is all. They all do that when they are new.

Just stick the hot iron in the bottle of flux and it should come out clean. Then just re tin the tip and away you go. You are using flux right? You need to use flux no matter what solder you use even if it's multicore, in fact especially if it's multicore. The black is usually burnt resin, lead free solder is the worst idea ever as well, it might be better for the environment and indeed the operator but for soldering metal to metal it's pants. It's one of the prime examples of bureaucrats knowing nothing about the thing they were regulating. Get some proper solder and open a window. As for flux the best for what we modelers need is dilute phosphoric acid. Carrs green label used to be the favorite but there are many equivalents buy a big bottle as it's cheaper. Make sure you clean it all off though it's an acid afterall. 

Regards Lez.         

 

Thanks for the tips Lez, it cleaned up well once it had cooled down and I rubbed it with fine wet n dry!

I am using flux yes, maybe the wrong type, I felt like dipping the iron in it was increasing the blackening?

This is the stuff I've got:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tinner-Solder-Paste-Clean-Formulation/dp/B077T15STS/ref=sr_1_8?crid=2893YTH6O2HOQ&dchild=1&keywords=soldering+flux&qid=1613143507&sprefix=soldering+flux%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-8

Maybe best to get some Carr's stuff! I'll definitely be getting some leaded solder too, I think mine might be unleaded, I remember now it came with an Iron kit I bought from B&Q year ago.

 

21 minutes ago, PaulCheffus said:

Hi

 

Did you tin the tip before using it?

 

To tin it you apply solder as it’s heating up wiping off each application of solder. This should then leave a coating of solder on the tip.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

 

I did yeah, at first it was tinning okay and the first few joints (the pin bearings) turned out alright. But as I went on the solder was refusing to tin the tip! I guess the blackening was preventing this.

 

Cheers, Jonny

[AnotherEMU]

So I took onboard the advice given and a swift Amazon delivery later and I've got some 'Weller' leaded Solder on the bench. Had a bash this afternoon to make a couple more wheel frames and the difference is just night and day! Soo much better to use, it tinned properly, flowed properly and made the task enjoyable instead of enraging.

Here's the results, comparison between my first attempt (on the right):

 

 

Underside corners joined together so much easier:

 

 

And a quick mock up with the body shell:

(Using the Mrs's new iPhone 'portrait' mode on this one, now I want a new phone!)

 

Still several more yet to be put together, looking forward to getting the whole unit on the rails.

 

Thanks, Jonny

 

 

[lezz01]

Works much better than the unleaded stuff doesn't it Jonny?

Regards Lez.