Tunstead Moor Sidings - A scenic shunting layout

[Ighten]

Thanks for that MoK will order a pack of 18s and 19s I think to start and take it from there... 

 

Im still concentrating on the right hand side of the layout at the moment cutting up yet more of the granite cobblestones and adding a little more detail in the form of fencing.. etc 

 

 

The other thing that needs addressing are "other buildings" - I think they should be small and spread so I have placed an old lamp shed in various positions trying to get a feel for where it best sits - though I think perhaps something like a very small office building may be better suited..

 

 

Its also drawn my eye to how I'm going to deal with the right hand side of the backscene.. 

[ManofKent]

Looking great - the fencing really adds to it.

 

Unless you've got non-oxford wagons, or your locos have NEM sockets very far forward I'd forget the 18s - you can't physically couple two 18s with oxford wagons unless you remove the buffers. With one 18 and one 19 you can connect but the buffers almost touch and I found you could only use this combination on straights. 19s still give a very close couple.

[Ighten]

A little more scenic work - though before that I decided to have a look at how the whole light box - diaroma - fascia boards(whatever you want to call it ) will look just to get an idea of the scale etc.. I now cant imagine building this size of layout without framing it as I do think its important to force the viewpoint to where you want it to be.. People can spend years sometimes building layouts only for the whole thing to loose just a little something in immersion because everyone is stood staring at it from above watching roofs go by.

 

 

So you can probably also spot a few more details such as gorse and slowly starting work on the left hand side of the layout. Checking the positioning of the bridge etc...

 

 

The Gorse was a start /stop and scrap affair before starting all over again.. I initially started using Lichen I had left over and some Javis yellow powders which I soon discovered were not entirely colour locked once wet - it just looked like rubbery Lichen with  yellow paint on it so I used Woodland scenics Briar in the end and some of the same brands yellow foilage.

 

 

Anyway a quick over view for now I need to get back to finishing the ballasting/rear landscape on the left hand side - and then painting the buildings etc etc

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 21, 2021 by Ighten

[TechnicArrow]

Your gorse experiments have definitely paid off - it looks perfect, especially in that 3rd shot with the slightly rickety boundary fence. Now I think there just needs to be a bit more of it

 

The whole scene is really coming together, and you're capturing the open, windswept feel of the location really well - it makes a good break from the heavily industrial settings I seem to be modelling. Good work!

[Ighten]

Before I tackle the buildings one thing I noticed looking back at the photos from the last update is that the scene is lacking some height and whilst I think it would be incorrect for a forest of tall pine trees to appear in the middle of the moor I have been experimenting with some smaller - half dead looking examples....

 

 

I may have play around with the positioning etc but I think they fit quite well - basically I quickly made them up out of thin wire and some bits of the briar - with a little more static grass for more thin branches added and  then the loose leaves from the briar stuck onto this..  I also wanted to find a way to hide the exit to the fiddle yard..

 

 

 

[ManofKent]

They're about the right size for wind ravaged Hawthorns.  I like them - I'd probably move the central one further to the right (It's a little central)  or add an additional one, but that's a minor point.

[Jerry1975]

Very nice layout, I like the middle of nowhere sort of look to it .

 

Jerry 

[Ighten]

Not a lot to report other than the milliput (which has been annoying me for far to long) joining the front sleeper fences has now been hidden with more gorse and some areas have had the grass lvls increased... The fascia has also had a coat of paint stolen from my wonderful wifes collection of farrow and ball (I'm sure she must have shares).. I quite like it and more importantly so does she..

 

 

I have now cut the top piece ready to fit but what do people use for the lighting re LEDS - White or Warm and do they connect separately to the mains or can I add them to an accessory line bus from the transformer.

 

Edited June 3, 2021 by Ighten

[Ighten]

A busy morning shunting is planned -- well lets say

 

 

busy for this layout  but time to check if a few track feed adjustments are working ok..

 

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by Ighten

[Alx]

Layout is looking good. As for LED's I went for the warm white option. Originally I had cool white but that gave off a blue like glare that didn't suit the scene well. The one pictured on my layout gives off 1250 lumens which to be honest, may be a bit too bright, but it'll do. I run the two wires straight to a dc plug in the wall socket. Hope this helps.

 

-Alex

 

[Mark Forrest]

I have used two strips of LEDs in a similar setup, one warm, one cool; with a dimmer attached to enable me to fine tune the light to how I want it.  Personally,  if I was going to choose one it'd be cool as that suits the look I go for on my layouts

[Alx]

11 hours ago, Sussex Yard said:

 

I love that loco! Is it US outline or Euro outline?

It's an Australian EMD T class, built for the Victorian railways. Model by Auscision. 

[Ighten]

Are you all lighting the layouts just from the front - the middle  the rear or both...

 

On 06/06/2021 at 11:36, Mark Forrest said:

I have used two strips of LEDs in a similar setup, one warm, one cool; with a dimmer attached to enable me to fine tune the light to how I want it.  Personally,  if I was going to choose one it'd be cool as that suits the look I go for on my layouts

 

On 06/06/2021 at 11:29, Alx said:

Layout is looking good. As for LED's I went for the warm white option. Originally I had cool white but that gave off a blue like glare that didn't suit the scene well. The one pictured on my layout gives off 1250 lumens which to be honest, may be a bit too bright, but it'll do. I run the two wires straight to a dc plug in the wall socket. Hope this helps.

 

-Alex

 

[Mark Forrest]

9 hours ago, Ighten said:

Are you all lighting the layouts just from the front - the middle  the rear or both...

 

 

 

Mine was lit entirely from the front; made a L shaped beam from a couple of lengths of MDF architrave and stuck the LED strips to the underside of that.

[Alx]

13 hours ago, Ighten said:

Are you all lighting the layouts just from the front - the middle  the rear or both...

 

 

Like Mark, mine is lit from the front. Just a 1 meter strip with sticky backing and extra glue to hold it in place.

[SouthernBlue80s]

The gorse and ground cover looks great.

 

[Ighten]

So just a small update and mainly this is about the lighting which I am semi happy with now.. A schoolboy error in the actual build of the backscene and side boards created a small problem that I noticed as soon as I took a look at Alxs photo..

 

 

 

 

So the issue is that I built the back scene and side boards at the same height as the bottom of the fascia frame - this means even the leds were visible slightly protruding from the ceiling of the layout..

 

 

So I routed out a channel for the leds to slide into to get around this.. I still need to remove the first and last cpl of LEDs to stop the spotlight effect down the sides but other than that it seems to have worked well.. Next job is to paint up the boards - and fix them permanently in position.. The whole thing can now be disassembled as a lid, back and sides leaving the base - each piece carries its part of the fascia with it.

 

 

A few more items are being built up such as water towers and yard cranes and positioned to test before painting.. And I added a few more foilage bits, mainly clumps of longer static and some reeds for the stream side.. (Water method yet to be decided)

 

[Ighten]

A little bit of time mocking up buildings  - Again nothing prototypical the idea is they just fill the space and give some purpose for to the why?  to what is a simple inglenook  / Diaroma layout.. 

 

 

Also had some visitors to demonstrate how the layout will try to avoid being to rigidly fixed in one era... lol.. Actually  this is a weathering/detailing project Im about to start but lets say its 1972 and this particular hydraulic finds itself stabled at  Tunstead sidings after the usual failures caused it to be removed and replaced at Tunstead branch.

 

 

Edited June 26, 2021 by Ighten

[Ighten]

Its been a bit quite recently on Tunstead Moor - a little modelling mojo seems to have slipped away and theirs quite a lot of other projects going on in the garden.

 

You may remember a few posts ago I experimented with the magnetic coupling idea for close coupling but found they really didnt work.. So I have been busy fitting everything out with Kadees which work like a charm.. Yes they dont look very prototypical but even before i fitted the magnets they made a shunting life so much more pleasurable than tension lock tangles.

 

 

In case your curious I used  18s on the engine - 19s on the Oxford wagons though you do have to take action to stop any droop (the NEM slot on the Oxfords seems quite baggy) otherwise they catch on the spring box on the points. Bachmann seem to need 20s though as the NEM pocket is set really deep especially on the TOAD.. Perfect close coupling - no buffer lock - a huge improvement..

Edited July 6, 2021 by Ighten

[Nathaniel]

Love the ground cover and now seeing it all in place really gives a great view of looking up to the shunt work of the day.

[Ighten]

Got a few summer cruises out of the way so its back to find some modelling more again.

 

 

None of the buildings have yet had any paint applied. So after priming I gave the roof of the goods shed a first attempt.  It does look a little lego like at the moment but I'll wash and tone it down more and more.

 

 

Ps it's not bent.. must be the lense.

 

The other job I'm concentrating on now is the traverser which will be a simple 4 track slider.

 

 

But that's for a later post when I have ironed out the electrics

[Jerry1975]

It's looking fabulous,  I like it a lot. 

 

Jerry. 

[Ighten]

The staging area or traverser is coming along. It's a 4 track affair  that can just hold a 0-6-0 and a couple of wagons as it's all that fits in the space. To be honest it's adequate for traffic that these sidings ever see and its designed in such a way as its easy to remove the top moving section and replace with a longer one if needed. 

Electrics are simply with power from one line being constantly fed to all the matching lines in the traverser, and after much thought I scrapped the idea of using electrical isolation for each  line through switches and instead went for the simple copper tube and pin to line up the track and power it.

Just need to tidy up the top of the wood which looks a little rough in photos - add the other two tracks - and finish the electrics - but on test runs all seems to be working ok.. The sliders are rectangular dowels which are fixed into position in a routed slot on the base of the traverser with a matching routed slot on the sliding section.. I then added a .3mm copper or brass strip on top of the dowels and in the routed slot which when oiled moves with just the right amount of friction.

 

 

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by Ighten

[Ighten]

 

 

Bit of weathering  on the goods shed planks and roof plus some (for some reason it's upside down when I post it) - signage added to the fence line.

Also weathered down the oxford rails BR cattle. Slowly getting there day by day.

 

 

Edited September 15, 2021 by Ighten

[Ighten]

Trying to get a new image of the weathering on the shed.. needs a little more work (could  not decide if the chimney would be metal silver and sooty or should be a black pipe for this period) and some sealing in with matt varnish. Also need more interior work now I have added leds inside.