Melcombe Road Sidings: A beginner's inglenook

[RobAllen]

So it turns out that getting a backscene that looks right is hard!

 

I’m struggling with what’s behind the factory. Trees look wrong. 
 

I’m either going to end up with just sky or taking & getting printed my own panoramic at this rate. 

 

[Andrew D]

Hi Rob, I recently read... I think it was Phil Parker of BRM... that a vivid photographic backscene can draw the eye away from the trains and the layout. Phil (I think) prefers the good old fashioned Peco 'painted' backscenes as they don't draw the eye too much. 

 

If you do a search for the 'Brierley Canal Road' boxfile layout by Paul (Booking Hall) you'll see he has used backscenes very effectively in an industrial setting. Good luck! 

[RobAllen]

I added a Scale Model Scenery wall and iron fence today!  I need lots more practice at SMS kits though, as they are harder than they look. Or maybe I mean more fiddly. My fingers are a bit big and I don’t have the experience of using tweezers or other tools to make it easier.

 

 

 

The capstones on the gate pillars need to be re-done, but so far so good; the yard section is coming together.

 

Edited May 29, 2022 by RobAllen
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[TechnicArrow]

It certainly looks the part, especially for a wall that's at the back of the scene anyway. The yard area is definitely shaping up nicely, I'm enjoying watching this layout come together!

[RobAllen]

 

Trying to get my head around weathering buffers. I think I need more red for the rusty rails and grey for the wooden beam. 

 

Edited May 28, 2022 by RobAllen
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[RobAllen]

I took a photo of the buffers with my few bits of rolling stock to see how they looked:

 

Not too bad, Though I imagine that I'll get better with practice!

However, my eye was drawn to the RTR wagon - far too clean, so I did the world's simplest amount of weathering on it.

Firstly I scuffed up the lettering a bit:

 

and then I got out a black wash and painted it on:

 

I then painted a brown/reddish wash on the black under frame and that's it.
 

 
Looks much better!

I'm procrastinating on the fence and static grass steps…

Edited May 28, 2022 by RobAllen
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[RobAllen]

Long time no work.  A week after my last post I caught covid and I'm still not recovered. This weekend though I'm feeling well enough to do some railway modelling!

 

I was looking at the buffers & decided that there really should be some grass under them. I have a cheap static grass applicator and some 4mm grass from WWScenics, so tacked this project.

 

 

After some work, it now looks like this:

 

Possibly overdone it, but overall I think it's much better than before!

 

Edited May 28, 2022 by RobAllen
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[RobAllen]

Spent some time this weekend on my railway. Very much fits and spurts in terms of the time that I spend modelling. 

 

I've finished the static grass which now looks a bit same-y, so I think I need to do more there. Not sure what though.

 

I've also added tufts of foliage around the fence posts, though maybe too much and I now have some trees in the corner.


The trees needed foliage underneath them I think, so I've added that. 

Here's a photo with a Jinty in frame and I think it looks okay for my level of abilities at this stage in my modelling journey.

 

It's becoming quite clear that I really should have thought more about the end of the line that goes onto the rest of the railway network and I can see why people use a bridge! Maybe I'll rethink this entire section at some point…

 

 

Finally in this session, I've added some foliage behind the buffers to make that end look like a little better:

 

Of course, the shallow depth of field helps make it look better than it maybe actually is :-)

 

The next areas that I want to tackle is the yard and to add some more railway paraphernalia around the trackbed. So far, so good though.
 

Edited May 28, 2022 by RobAllen
Minor text change.

[Porfuera]

On 17/10/2021 at 14:24, RobAllen said:

It's becoming quite clear that I really should have thought more about the end of the line that goes onto the rest of the railway network and I can see why people use a bridge! Maybe I'll rethink this entire section at some point…

 

Hello Rob,

 

I've been following your build with interest and it is all looking very good. I hope you have recovered from your bout of covid now and without any after-effects.

 

For a scenic break maybe you could extend your trees to the other side of the tracks and make it look like the railway is emerging from an area of woodland - it would be a nice alternative to a road bridge.

 

All the best,

 

Neil.

[RobAllen]

13 hours ago, Porfuera said:

For a scenic break maybe you could extend your trees to the other side of the tracks and make it look like the railway is emerging from an area of woodland - it would be a nice alternative to a road bridge.

 

I like this idea. Thanks.

[RobAllen]

Seems that I manage to work on Melcome Road Sidings about once per month. This weekend I followed up on @Porfuera's thoughts and added more trees as a scenic break:

 

So far, I like it.

I also added lamp posts to the yard and some other accessories: barrels, pallets, sacks etc:

 

 

Oh, I also put in the point rodding, but when taking this photo, realised that I have done the cranks incorrectly, so will need to re-do them! I realise that the Wills rodding is a little over-scale, but I quite like how it looks. Next time, I'll do the rodding before ballasting or grass though...

Finally, I had a go at building a crane for the yard:

 

 

Placing it in position, I think it looks okay, though I need to work out how to make the base fit into the floor better:
 

 

On the whole, an enjoyable weekend's modelling!
 

Edited May 28, 2022 by RobAllen
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[RobAllen]

I visited my parents last week and my dad gave me some of his old OO locos. He moved to O-gauge ~30 years ago and as best we can tell, these locos were kit-built in the 70s.

 

I now have a Jinty, a Patriot, a Jubilee, a Black 5 and a 3F. A few of them need a little bit of attention and then they'll be all good to go. This is the first time that Black 5 5432 has run in at least 30 years:
 

 

Melcombe Road Sidings isn't an appropriate setting for 4-6-0 locos though, so clearly I'll have to start thinking about how to show them off…


 

[TechnicArrow]

For such a big loco, I think she looks remarkably at home on your layout - there's just enough free track either side of her when she's in the siding for it to fit without dominating the scene too much. I'd never get away with that on my layout!

 

Also, I never mentioned, but your ground frame and point rodding looks superb and really adds to the scene, as does the crane - I might have to get one of those, I seem to have a thing for working cranes...

[RobAllen]

3 hours ago, TechnicArrow said:

For such a big loco, I think she looks remarkably at home on your layout - there's just enough free track either side of her when she's in the siding for it to fit without dominating the scene too much. I'd never get away with that on my layout!

The benefit of not having the confidence to build buildings!

 

3 hours ago, TechnicArrow said:

Also, I never mentioned, but your ground frame and point rodding looks superb and really adds to the scene, as does the crane - I might have to get one of those, I seem to have a thing for working cranes...

Thanks! I hadn't realised before exactly how much point rodding makes a railway look complete until I put it in. I'm now doomed to have point control on every layout I build from now on! The crane works really well to give a reason for the yard area as I didn't think I had room for another building.

[RobAllen]

3 hours ago, JimRead said:

It's a very good runner as well I was quite surprised when I saw it.

May I ask which motor it's got in it and if you can determine the gearing that as well.

I was very surprised that it ran at all, let alone as smoothly as it did.

 

I need a nut spanner to open it up and find out what's inside, which is now on order with Wizard Models along with various other bits as I need to replace the wheels on the Jinty.

[RobAllen]

I haven't done much on the railway over the last 6 months or so. I have added a few people and have acquired new stock, including this lovely Peckett and a Deans Goods.

 

 

 

I'm starting to think about another layout now…

 

Edited May 30, 2022 by RobAllen

[Jerry1975]

This is coming along very nicely,  you've got some nice detail without it being to overdone. 

 

Jerry. 

Edited May 30, 2022 by Jerry1975
Spelling mistake

[TechnicArrow]

I enjoyed this topic when you were building it, and I'm glad you're still enjoying it yourself! I've just had a quick read back through the topic, and had a few thoughts.

 

Firstly, is the track Code 75, or just very well painted/ballasted 100? I'd like to try using 75, but I usually need the space-saving small radii points only available in 100.

 

Secondly, how does your Gaugemaster Combi controller behave, especially with older rolling stock? I'm trying to diagnose the abysmal running qualities of Alexandra Wharf, and given the trackwork is spotless and my locos run fine on my home layout, fingers are pointing towards the controller.

 

Finally, your grass and foliage around the bufferstops has made me think I ought to use my new photo-plank to try out static grass; any tips for cheap applicators or general technique?

[RobAllen]

15 hours ago, TechnicArrow said:

Firstly, is the track Code 75, or just very well painted/ballasted 100? I'd like to try using 75, but I usually need the space-saving small radii points only available in 100.

 

It's code 75. I used SL-E191/SL-E192 small radius points, but I have no idea if they are bigger than their code 100 brethren. I'm semi-tempted with bull-head next time for the sleeper spacing, except that there's only large radius points available. I'll need to think about that.

 

15 hours ago, TechnicArrow said:

Secondly, how does your Gaugemaster Combi controller behave, especially with older rolling stock? I'm trying to diagnose the abysmal running qualities of Alexandra Wharf, and given the trackwork is spotless and my locos run fine on my home layout, fingers are pointing towards the controller.

So far, it hasn't been a problem for me. My dad moved to Gaugemaster from H&M back in the day and so I picked them for that reason. I'm not a fan of the way the Combi is powered so that you have two cables to deal with and at some point will look at getting a walkabout - or go DCC.
 

15 hours ago, TechnicArrow said:

Finally, your grass and foliage around the bufferstops has made me think I ought to use my new photo-plank to try out static grass; any tips for cheap applicators or general technique?

As I had no clue what I was doing, I got a cheap applicator from Ebay and have been very happy with it. I didn't do anything complicated and watched a couple of videos on youtube to get an idea of what to do. Mine's a bit uniform in height and next time I do it, I'll do multiple passes with a base of very short and then overlay with patches of longer grass. Another thing I might play with is using a couple of different lengths at once. It's hard to tell what's right really as it seems to me that grass in a field is rarely longer than 10 to 15cm which would be 1~2 mm grass length. I'm not sure my eyes can really tell the difference!

It's certainly worth experimenting with.

 

[ess1uk]

Great work 

[RobAllen]

Long time, no post! I've not changed the railway and continue to enjoy it, though I'm starting to think about a new micro.

 

Recently, I acquired some more locomotives from my father which have been in storage since at least 1990. This included a couple of 0-4-0Ts which aren't really appropriate, but I've been having fun with them.

Edited July 1, 2023 by RobAllen

[davidparker172]

@RobAllen I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading this build log.

I am in a similar position to you at the beginning, a long time lurker but not actually built anything.

Although I am still struggling to come up with a plan I am happy with, your build log here has inspired me to push on.

Well done and thanks for the inspiration!!

[RobAllen]

On 04/07/2023 at 19:18, davidparker172 said:

@RobAllen I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading this build log.

I am in a similar position to you at the beginning, a long time lurker but not actually built anything.

Although I am still struggling to come up with a plan I am happy with, your build log here has inspired me to push on.

Well done and thanks for the inspiration!!

Thanks David.

Good luck with your build. My thoughts about plans is that it's impossible to come up with the right one until you've put track to board at least once. Fortunately with micros and ScaleModelScenery baseboards the fit in a Really Useful Box, it's too not difficult to build more than one of them!

 

[RobAllen]

3F number 3138 arrives at Melcombe Road, while 1706, a Johnson half-cab, idles in a siding.

[RobAllen]

Jinty 7312 has turned up at Melcombe Road to collect some empties. Another older engine that needs re-lettering and re-doing of the front coupling bar.