Chuffnell Regis

[Graham T]

I've taken some more photos of the various light combinations now that there's less daylight in the room.  As I mentioned, there are a lot of possible combinations.  And things get a little more confused by the fact that the remote controls for the two different LED strips interfere with each other!  Anyway, the first three pictures here are of the new strip at 3k, 4.5k, and 6k, with the older 'blue' strip also running at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T

[Graham T]

And here's the second set of three with the new light strip only, at 3k, 4.5k, and 6k.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I've now got to make a decision - aagh!

Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T

[Graham T]

For a bit of light relief (ahem) I've been fiddling with the fiddle yard instead this evening.  The strut idea seems to work, although it's perhaps a couple of mil too long, but that's an easy fix for tomorrow.  Nice to have that bit of extra room; now I can run up to a 12 wagon goods or a three-coach passenger train, if I want to.  There will be a tunnel mouth and a short cutting at the end of the scenic section to break the view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T
Missing words

[chuffinghell]

Just now, Graham T said:

The strut idea seems to work, although it's perhaps a couple of mil too long….

 

a couple of mil is nothing, unless you work in a bank

[Graham T]

You know what they say Chris, a million here and a million there, pretty soon you're talking about real money!

 

In this case the couple of mil actually does count, as it raises the far end of the fiddle yard slightly above horizontal.  (Yes, I do occasionally use that spirit level!)

[CoombeTown]

23 minutes ago, Graham T said:

Nice to have that bit of extra room; now I can run up to a 12 wagon goods or a three-coach passenger train,

I'm jealous, I've only just managed to extend enough for 2 coaches!

A very elegant build though, nice and simplistic.

[Graham T]

Thanks    It's all down to the modular units from Scale Model Scenery to be honest; they're really very good.  And probably not that much more expensive than buying some (decent) timber and building it myself.  If (when!) I build another layout I'll seriously consider using ready-made baseboards.

[Graham T]

Fiddle yard firtling is complete. for the time being.  A little bit Heath Robinson, but it works, it's more or less level now, and I can take it down quite quickly when I need to (i.e. when the boss tells me to...)

 

I need to come up with a tidier solution for the wiring, but am waiting for some plug-in connectors before I figure that out.

 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T

[Alister_G]

16 hours ago, Graham T said:

And here's the second set of three with the new light strip only, at 3k, 4.5k, and 6k.

 

 

 

 

So I've now got to make a decision - aagh!

 

The 4.5k looks right to me, but again that's through the lens of your camera, it may be different to you.

 

Al.

[Graham T]

11 minutes ago, Alister_G said:

 

The 4.5k looks right to me, but again that's through the lens of your camera, it may be different to you.

 

Al.

 

That's the setting that looks best to the Mk 1 Eyeball as well Al.  I've already taken down the original set of light strips, and will properly install the new ones this afternoon.  Nice to be making some progress here and there.

[Graham T]

Changing tack for a moment, the more I look at it, the less I like this pair of ground levers.  It just doesn't look right somehow.  I'm wondering if a two-lever ground frame might look better?

 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T

[Graham T]

I guess that would also involve a little more point rodding - hurrah!

[Graham T]

I decided to bash together a ground frame, cannibalising one of the previous ground levers.  It's based on a hodge-podge of several prototype photos.  It still needs some tidying up before I can paint it, and I'm not sure if the levers are right.  I'm wondering if they should be more like the ones in a signal box?

 

This photo was taken under the new LED strip by the way, set to 4500k.  I'm quite pleased with the light that it puts out, it has a natural look to it I think.

 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T

[Gedward]

27 minutes ago, Graham T said:

I'm quite pleased with the light that it puts out, it has a natural look to it I think.

 

Yep, the temperature looks very natural from where I'm sitting.

[Graham T]

I've been playing trains doing some testing, so here are some gratuitous shots of the fiddle yard in all its glory.  I'm pleased to say that (a) the strut hasn't collapsed under the strain, and (b) I was able to realign and connect to use the second track without the train falling off the first track

 

I think I will get a second one of these, and then add some shelf brackets to the wall so that they can be stored away when not in use, so that the doorway isn't permanently obstructed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T

[Nick Holliday]

12 hours ago, Graham T said:

I've been doing some testing, so here are some gratuitous shots of the fiddle yard in all its glory.  I'm pleased to say that (a) the strut hasn't collapsed under the strain, and (b) I was able to realign and connect to use the second track without the train falling off the first track

I'd be inclined to add a bit of side protection to the fiddle yard. If something does fall it could drag the whole train off, and possibly onto the floor.  It doesn't have to be substantial, perhaps a strip of card or plastic pinned or glued to the side would be enough to prevent a catastrophe. 

[Graham T]

Nick, you're right - I'll do that.  Thanks for the suggestion.

[Graham T]

In an attempt to keep things moving forward on a few different fronts, I've also done a little more to the goods shed.  This is based on Fairford, and I'm thinking of adding the coal store that you can see in this scanned photo.  It looks like it's made from breeze blocks to me, but would the 1930s be a little early for those?  Also it's not clear to me what the flat roof is - felt perhaps?  There's also a ridge along the top of the main corrugated iron roof, which I'm assuming would be some sort of flashing rather than tiles; anybody have an idea?

 

As to the construction of the kit itself, I've obviously opted to have the doors open!  The kit offers this as an option but doesn't mention that, if the doors are opened, they have to sit on top of the brick plinths around the base of the walls, so you also need to add a fillet of material to the wall near the top of the door so that it hangs vertically.  And then the door runner also needs a filler behind it so that it sits far enough out from the wall.

 

Time to paint and ballast some track now I suppose

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T

[Alister_G]

2 hours ago, Graham T said:

I'm thinking of adding the coal store that you can see in this scanned photo.  It looks like it's made from breeze blocks to me, but would the 1930s be a little early for those?  Also it's not clear to me what the flat roof is - felt perhaps?  There's also a ridge along the top of the main corrugated iron roof, which I'm assuming would be some sort of flashing rather than tiles; anybody have an idea?

 

Hi Graham, The coal store looks like masonry blocks to me, as you say, it's a bit early for breeze blocks. Slaters 4mm Dressed Stone would do the job, I think.

 

 

The flat roof could be felt or even wriggly tin, it's difficult to tell. I don't think it looks thick enough to be a concrete slab, which might have been an option.

 

The ridge on the main roof is probably just V shaped bits of Iron, like this:

 

 

Al.

[chuffinghell]

1 hour ago, Alister_G said:

 

Hi Graham, The coal store looks like masonry blocks to me, as you say, it's a bit early for breeze blocks. Slaters 4mm Dressed Stone would do the job, I think.

 

 

The flat roof could be felt or even wriggly tin, it's difficult to tell. I don't think it looks thick enough to be a concrete slab, which might have been an option.

 

The ridge on the main roof is probably just V shaped bits of Iron, like this:

 

 

Al.

Al’s got a ‘thing’ for wriggly tin 

[Graham T]

2 hours ago, Alister_G said:

 

Hi Graham, The coal store looks like masonry blocks to me, as you say, it's a bit early for breeze blocks. Slaters 4mm Dressed Stone would do the job, I think.

 

 

The flat roof could be felt or even wriggly tin, it's difficult to tell. I don't think it looks thick enough to be a concrete slab, which might have been an option.

 

The ridge on the main roof is probably just V shaped bits of Iron, like this:

 

 

Al.

 

Hi Al.  Thanks for that, I think I'll go with stone then, and a felt roof.  There's going to be a much smaller lean-to store at the other end of the shed, next to the office, made from old sleepers and wriggly tin.

 

And of course the main roof is also wriggly tin, so there'll be plenty of it about!

 

I'll need to check one of your threads for painting tips in due course.

[Graham T]

All the track in the goods yard has now been painted - a bit more carefully this time!  I was sure not to get paint anywhere near the switch rails, and cleaned all the upper surfaces as I went along.  I'll give the rails a quick going over with the track rubber tomorrow, and hopefully all will be well.  I also got some of the ballasting done, but there's a limit to how much of that a chap can stand in one day!  As a bit of an experiment I used a mix of light and dark grey on the headshunt; not sure what I think of it yet.  Everything will get weathered in due course anyway, starting with a wash of sleeper grime I think.

 

Perhaps a little bit of sheddage this evening before I call it quits for the weekend!

 

 

  

 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T

[Graham T]

There is no such thing as a quick ballasting session.  It lives in the same place as unicorns and honest politicians.

[Graham T]

As promised, a bit more sheddage for you, of the goods variety.  Although this isn't a bad kit all in all, it needs quite a bit of firtling.  The main issue is that the wood used is very thin, and so everything warps, as you can see from this brick plinth.  So I added card backing to all the main parts of the structure, and I'm going to replace the roof panels with some Wills corrugated sheets.  There's quite a bit of detail missing too; no corbelling (I think that's what it is anyway) on the chimney, and no gutters and downpipes.

 

But I'm sure it will turn out ok in the end

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T

[Graham T]

Some more hot shed action from Chuffnell Regis!  I've been working on the office, and particularly the steps up to the door.  As you can see the kit provides a half dozen pieces to laminate together, but that's still much too narrow for the steps, I thought, so I added some card sections in the centre.  Now I will need to make up some risers and treads.  From photos it looks like the risers were vertically placed bricks, so I think I will probably scribe some plastic card for those, and then just have plain slabs for the steps.

 

There's a noticeable joint in the brick plinth to the right of the office, but that will be covered by a small lean-to that I'm going to add.

 

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T