SRman's Current Layout - Newton Broadway

[SRman]

Back to the new viaduct: I have been painting the brickwork and weathering a bit (more needed), and painted the main girders. It is looking close to completion now, so once I have weathered the bricks a bit more, I can cut it into the existing layout, replacing the Wills viaduct and part of the adjoining girder span. trimming the latter will be a little tricky but with care I should achieve a good fit.

 

 

 

[SRman]

A mixed bag to report on today.

I attended the Diamond Valley model railway exhibition in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, on the British Railway Modellers of Australia stand on Easter Sunday. While I take things along to model, it really is more of a P.R. exercise to get like-minded people interested, and to chat to the public. I did achieve a little bit on converting one of two Dapol Turbot wagons to London Underground style, using 3D printed parts from Kim Durose (12A Models). I only did the main support parts and the end handrails, because I didn't want to lose the tiny bottom hinge parts; if any of those went pinging off into the distance, I would have no hope of ever finding them again at the exhibition, whereas at home I would at least have a chance of recovering them. Very conveniently, the holes in the ends left by removing the spill trays are exactly 13mm apart, which matches Kim's specifications for bending the end handrails. The photo was taken after I got home again.




Unfortunately, after I had lunch and went for a wander around the exhibition, I fell backwards, landing fairly heavily on the wooden floor. I have jarred my neck, shoulders and back, but fortunately I didn't hit my head (not that there's much in there to damage!). I was quite shaken so that was the end of my modelling for the day.

I have been refining the paint and weathering on the viaduct, and I am happy that it is ready to plant. There is still some scope to do a little more, but that can be done in situ. I will have to work out how to support the two adjoining girder spans before I do that though. I actually got it to this stage the day before the exhibition, but being rather stiff, sore and shaky after my fall, I have deferred trying to put the viaduct in just yet.

 

 

Today, I had two parcels arrive simultaneously, one from AJM and one from Rails. Dealing with the Rails one first, it had the answer to a storage problem I had with the Roco Swedish IORE LKAB locomotive. this is a twin electric pair with a ribbon cable connection between the units to supply the second motor and lights from one decoder. That ribbon cable dislodges very easily while the loco is being handled, so now, with four of the new-style Peco loco lifts locked together, the whole loco can be easily lifted onto or off the layout without putting any strain on the inter-loco couplings and connections.

 

This is what it looks like out of the cradle.

 

 

There were a couple of other items in the Rails package for future use - several packs of Hornby coach wheels to convert the remaining Heljan locos with brass wheels, and some chain mesh fencing with a specific location on the layout in mind.

Now to the remaining package: that had four of the Accurascale BR Mk 2B coaches. There are two TSOs, one in NSE livery and one in blue and grey with NSE branding, one FK in NSE livery, and one BFK in blue and grey with Inter-City branding, which I intend to remove and replace with NSE branding. I may or may not renumber this one in the future, but when all is said and done, who actually reads the coach numbers when they are travelling around at normal viewing distances? I have already experimentally replaced the tension lock couplings with Hornby's short magnetic couplings, which close up the inter-coach gap very nicely. The first photos show them with the original couplings in place. These coaches have not yet been run in a train, and have only been just placed on the layout for photos to be taken. More photos follow in the next post.

 

 

 

[SRman]

These photos show the lighting and the coaches as they are with the magnetic couplings installed. The lights are a little bright for my taste, but I don't know if there's an easy way to dim them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[McC]

There are also included magnetic couplers in the accessories. Hth!

[SRman]

44 minutes ago, McC said:

There are also included magnetic couplers in the accessories. Hth!

 

I hadn't opened the accessory packs at that particular time, but had the Hornby ones handy in the train room. I may swap them over later. 

There are a few other bits, like air brake pipes, in the accessory packs I have to investigate whether I can fit them (or some of them) and run on my curves. I might also swap the buffers on just the end coaches, as soon as I finalise the formation. There's another coach to come yet, and later on, a Mk 2C TSOT to go in the middle of the set. At present I have left the improved Hornby coach in, but it does stand out just a little now, against the  Bachmann and Accurascale coaches.

 

[John Tomlinson]

4 hours ago, SRman said:

A mixed bag to report on today.

I attended the Diamond Valley model railway exhibition in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, on the British Railway Modellers of Australia stand on Easter Sunday. While I take things along to model, it really is more of a P.R. exercise to get like-minded people interested, and to chat to the public. I did achieve a little bit on converting one of two Dapol Turbot wagons to London Underground style, using 3D printed parts from Kim Durose (12A Models). I only did the main support parts and the end handrails, because I didn't want to lose the tiny bottom hinge parts; if any of those went pinging off into the distance, I would have no hope of ever finding them again at the exhibition, whereas at home I would at least have a chance of recovering them. Very conveniently, the holes in the ends left by removing the spill trays are exactly 13mm apart, which matches Kim's specifications for bending the end handrails. The photo was taken after I got home again.




Unfortunately, after I had lunch and went for a wander around the exhibition, I fell backwards, landing fairly heavily on the wooden floor. I have jarred my neck, shoulders and back, but fortunately I didn't hit my head (not that there's much in there to damage!). I was quite shaken so that was the end of my modelling for the day.

I have been refining the paint and weathering on the viaduct, and I am happy that it is ready to plant. There is still some scope to do a little more, but that can be done in situ. I will have to work out how to support the two adjoining girder spans before I do that though. I actually got it to this stage the day before the exhibition, but being rather stiff, sore and shaky after my fall, I have deferred trying to put the viaduct in just yet.

 

 

Today, I had two parcels arrive simultaneously, one from AJM and one from Rails. Dealing with the Rails one first, it had the answer to a storage problem I had with the Roco Swedish IORE LKAB locomotive. this is a twin electric pair with a ribbon cable connection between the units to supply the second motor and lights from one decoder. That ribbon cable dislodges very easily while the loco is being handled, so now, with four of the new-style Peco loco lifts locked together, the whole loco can be easily lifted onto or off the layout without putting any strain on the inter-loco couplings and connections.

 

This is what it looks like out of the cradle.

 

 

There were a couple of other items in the Rails package for future use - several packs of Hornby coach wheels to convert the remaining Heljan locos with brass wheels, and some chain mesh fencing with a specific location on the layout in mind.

Now to the remaining package: that had four of the Accurascale BR Mk 2B coaches. There are two TSOs, one in NSE livery and one in blue and grey with NSE branding, one FK in NSE livery, and one BFK in blue and grey with Inter-City branding, which I intend to remove and replace with NSE branding. I may or may not renumber this one in the future, but when all is said and done, who actually reads the coach numbers when they are travelling around at normal viewing distances? I have already experimentally replaced the tension lock couplings with Hornby's short magnetic couplings, which close up the inter-coach gap very nicely. The first photos show them with the original couplings in place. These coaches have not yet been run in a train, and have only been just placed on the layout for photos to be taken. More photos follow in the next post.

 

 

 

 

I hope you are recovering from your fall. I'm afraid that, particularly as we get older, such events take a bigger toll and it takes longer to shake off the effects.

 

I wasn't aware of the Peco carrying units, or if I was I'd forgotten (another ageing thing). Sounds just the ticket for my  Rapido APT-E which I'm quite frightened to dismantle. Could well be useful with other units that are tricky to assemble without damage, such as some of the longer emu's, so many thanks for the post.

 

John.

[SRman]

I'm still a bit shaky today, but I decided to bite the bullet and start on installing the viaduct, after joining the two halves together once and for all. That meant removing the adjoining bridge complex to its left (facing the front of the layout). I carefully marked the line I have to cut first, then removed the angled bridge complex, and then the Wills stone viaduct. The new one slid into place easily enough, and having slightly narrower footprint, allows more clearance for the Underground lines behind.

I started cutting the track, then the wood and plastic floor and girders on the adjoining bridge, then tested it briefly, before trimming a tiny bit more off part of the joint. I am ready to put it all back together, once the glue sets from repairing the supporting girders on the long diagonal span over the Underground lines - they got dislodged in the manhandling involved with the cutting operations. All easily repairable, and anticipated in any case.

So, the photos show the new bridge in its new location, and the adjoining bridges on the dining table awaiting the glue setting on thee first bit of the repairs, before I can glue the bottom support and remaining girder in place.

Overall, I think this will work very well and achieve exactly what I had hoped - you can see just how much more visible the trains and station are behind the arches. I will have to relay a section of track along there, keeping an eye on clearances at the right-hand end of the viaduct, but that's not a huge task at all. There's 8cm of double track to replace on the end where the gap is.


 

 

[SRman]

I got energetic for a while and got everything back together and running again. The outer track alignment needs a minor adjustment, more for appearance than anything else. Everything runs nicely on the new stuff, and the Underground S Stock has more clearance on the other side at the lower level (it was very, very close to the pier caps on the Wills viaduct before). 

 

Video posted to YouTube:

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 3 by SRman
Getting video link working.

[Southernman46]

On 02/04/2024 at 08:03, SRman said:

 

 

Today, I had two parcels arrive simultaneously, one from AJM and one from Rails. Dealing with the Rails one first, it had the answer to a storage problem I had with the Roco Swedish IORE LKAB locomotive. this is a twin electric pair with a ribbon cable connection between the units to supply the second motor and lights from one decoder. That ribbon cable dislodges very easily while the loco is being handled, so now, with four of the new-style Peco loco lifts locked together, the whole loco can be easily lifted onto or off the layout without putting any strain on the inter-loco couplings and connections.

 

 

S' a great idea 👍

[SRman]

Test running and minor track improvements have continued. The older bridge that runs diagonally over the Underground tracks is refusing to sit down properly at the inner end, creating a bit of a bump upwards for trains on the inner circuit. I have ground the rail heads down a little, and packed the adjoining track end up slightly. That has improved things considerably, but there is still a slight but noticeable bump as trains travel over it.

All this testing also allowed me to test the close coupling arrangements on the Accurascale Mk 2B and Bachmann Mk 2A coaches. I have swapped the Accurascale ones to their own provided magnetic couplings. The Bachmann pair caused more problems though: within the pair I used a matched pair of Hunt magnetic couplings, but the join between the Bachmann and Accurascale coaches was more difficult due to the differing heights of the coupling pockets and also the different distances they have between the pockets and the outer edges of the corridor connections. I tried a pair of Hornby magnetic couplings, one short and one long, but that caused the accurascale bogie to lever upwards and derail on certain curves. The current arrangement has one medium and one short Hunt coupling, which seems to be able to cope with the slight height difference better than the Hornby set did.

 

 

 

 

 

The coaches do look good with the close couplings, with almost no gap at all on straight tracks.

 

 

 

 

[SRman]

While photographing the track, coaches and couplings, I also swapped the class 56 off the NSE coaches and put a Hornby class 50, 50 035 'Ark Royal' in Large Logo blue. I had actually intended to use an NSE liveried 50, but that hasn't been run for a while and was playing up just a little on curves, with pickup problems - that could be a loose wire somewhere. As I have a meeting here on Sunday, I can't spare the time for fiddly repairs to the loco, preferring to make sure the layout will run reliably while I have visitors. 56 120 is now on a mixed freight (Speedlink?), replacing 92 009 'Marco Polo', which posed for a photo just before being removed from the layout.

Firstly the track shot.

 

 

 

92 009 'Marco Polo' on the goods train taken over by 56 120.

 

 

 

50 035 'Ark Royal' on the NSE set.

 

 

 

43XX 5320, visiting Newton Broadway, has picked up a couple of Southern CCT 4-wheel vans, possibly to carry more bananas than would fit in the dedicated banana vans. I should add some milk tanks to provide some cream to go with the bananas! 😅

 

 

 

[SRman]

I didn't intend doing the next stage of the viaduct conversion until after Sunday's meeting, but I changed my mind, thinking it wouldn't be too hard. While it didn't turn out to be really difficult, it did need a bit of manual labour, which my still very sore neck and shoulders didn't like. The main part was removing a little bit of the mdf track bed from the curved end bit to make room for three full arches of the Wills viaduct.

The viaduct itself is being modified to have two arches in a straight line, and a third arch at an angle to lead the track into the end curve. This means I have to fill a gap in one side (the outer side) and also in the track bed. I haven't decided what to do with the pier under the widened bit, yet. There are three possibilities:

1. Cut the pier down the middle and widen the outer end and fill all the consequent gaps;
2. Add a section to the outside of the pier and blend that all in;
3. Build an entirely new pier, using the old one as a guide to the style.

Anyway, I have it all in place, but unfinished, so all trains are suspended and a replacement bus service might (or might not) be running. I can guarantee that currently any long bogie vehicles will not clear the side walls of the viaduct at the curved end. I'll have to anchor the track carefully, and also probably lower the ends of the side walls.

The photos show the stage it's at now, but I had to suspend operations because my neck was causing me problems and I was getting too shaky to continue (try positioning fishplates with very shaky hands ... it's a recipe for the Chinese bamboo under the fingernails torture, using fishplates instead of bamboo needles!. 😂😂

Work will resume once I have rested a while.

 

 

[Rich Papper]

4 hours ago, SRman said:

 

 

 

 

Hello. Have you tried the cranked version of the Hunt ones? The NSE coach above looks like it has a straight one in. I’ve found the cranked ones work a bit better on the Bachmann Mk2s as the straight rubs on the lower edge of the buffer beam. I’ve not tried connecting to the Accurascale yet though.

Rich

 

 

Edit: sorry, tried to add link, looks wrong but seems to go to the right place: https://westhillwagonworks.com/hunt-couplings-elite-oo/474-additional-pair-of-hst-powercar-buckeye-elite-couplings.html No connection etc. 

Edited April 5 by Rich Papper

[SRman]

1 hour ago, Rich Papper said:

Hello. Have you tried the cranked version of the Hunt ones? The NSE coach above looks like it has a straight one in. I’ve found the cranked ones work a bit better on the Bachmann Mk2s as the straight rubs on the lower edge of the buffer beam. I’ve not tried connecting to the Accurascale yet though.

Rich

 

Hi Rich. I haven't tried the cranked Hunts, and don't actually have any here. A pity I didn't have that in mind when I put a recent order in with them for lineside items.

What I am finding is the slight angle of the straight one caused by the Accurascale being slightly lower seems to alleviate the rubbing problem between the Bachmann and Accurascale coaches. I did note a slight scraping with the two Bachmann coaches but it doesn't seem to affect the running of the coaches at all.

 

 

Edited April 5 by SRman

[saxokid]

On 05/04/2024 at 07:52, SRman said:

I didn't intend doing the next stage of the viaduct conversion until after Sunday's meeting, but I changed my mind, thinking it wouldn't be too hard. While it didn't turn out to be really difficult, it did need a bit of manual labour, which my still very sore neck and shoulders didn't like. The main part was removing a little bit of the mdf track bed from the curved end bit to make room for three full arches of the Wills viaduct.

The viaduct itself is being modified to have two arches in a straight line, and a third arch at an angle to lead the track into the end curve. This means I have to fill a gap in one side (the outer side) and also in the track bed. I haven't decided what to do with the pier under the widened bit, yet. There are three possibilities:

1. Cut the pier down the middle and widen the outer end and fill all the consequent gaps;
2. Add a section to the outside of the pier and blend that all in;
3. Build an entirely new pier, using the old one as a guide to the style.

Anyway, I have it all in place, but unfinished, so all trains are suspended and a replacement bus service might (or might not) be running. I can guarantee that currently any long bogie vehicles will not clear the side walls of the viaduct at the curved end. I'll have to anchor the track carefully, and also probably lower the ends of the side walls.

The photos show the stage it's at now, but I had to suspend operations because my neck was causing me problems and I was getting too shaky to continue (try positioning fishplates with very shaky hands ... it's a recipe for the Chinese bamboo under the fingernails torture, using fishplates instead of bamboo needles!. 😂😂

Work will resume once I have rested a while.

 

 

Layout progress looks great once again..

[SRman]

With the BRMA meeting due at my house in less than a fortnight, I am continuing to tidy the room up and complete small improvements, while all the time trying to ensure that nothing will stop the trains from running on the day.

I have tweaked how the track sits on the revamped viaducts, keeping an eye on the very tight clearances at the curved end of the Wills viaduct. I removed a short section of the wall capping and filed a slight downwards slope on that end of the wall, but I will have to do something better with it later on. For the present, everything clears it properly. I also adjusted the rail lengths to eliminate a couple of excessive gaps at the joints.

 

 

 

On the other end of the layout, I have added more railings alongside the goods yard to protect the main lines. I have used some modern key clamp style fencing, which is bright safety yellow, but I will eventually paint it all in a more neutral grey or silver-grey to suit the 1960s, which is basically what the layout is intended to represent. For the modern image stuff I'm currently running, the yellow is correct.

 

 

 

 

Also in the last couple of days, I have printed out a track diagram for the upper level control panel, laminated it, and cut a section of acrylic sheet to mount it on. While there is no way I'll have any of the point motors wired in and connected for a while, I will be able to mount the Dapol signal control buttons in the panel. At present, they are hanging loosely off the edge of the layout below the running lines to the left. With the Underground control panel, I mounted the laminated sheet behind the clear acrylic, but that was prone to collecting the swarf from drilling the holes for the point control between the laminated sheet and the acrylic sheet. This time, I intend to mount the laminated printed sheet outside of the acrylic, so the acrylic being clear becomes a little academic; it's there purely for support.


 

[SRman]

First go with the control panel for the upper level: I rerouted the Dapol signal wires and buttons and drilled the necessary holes to mount them. A couple of holes didn't quite line up properly because of the makeshift arrangement I used, but the principle is great. I had in mind that this first attempt would be expendable, at least for the laminated diagram. I can very easily print another and laminate it, and use this one as the guide to get all the holes in exactly the right places. That will eliminate a few wrinkles in the laminated diagram. I'll also find a way to mount the diagram on the acrylic a little more firmly.

Eventually, after a lot more wiring, there will be metal studs for point control in the diagram as well, plus a few more signals - whether they be semaphore or colour light is yet to be determined.

 

 

 

 

[SRman]

I decided to do a bit of troubleshooting and a minor overhaul of a Network South East class 50 (Hornby 50 045 'Achilles'). It was intermittently shorting on left hand curves and any slight humps in the track, but not consistently, plus there was a hint of bearing shriek coming from somewhere inside. I traced the short to a pickup wire having dropped off the bogie tag and touching the chassis just occasionally. To fix that I had to dismantle one of the bogies, which also meant I could lubricate it properly. It also resulted in much swearing until I realised the wire was caught up inside the chassis and left a little short at the bogie end. I fixed it once, then fixed it again!

 

I oiled the motor end bearings and the worm drive bearings as well, then put it all back together, and this time it ran beautifully. While I was working on oiling the bearings, I removed the fan drive belt but left the fans in place. I suspect they were responsible for a bit of drag on the motor drive shafts and also for the bearing noise. There's no sound in this one, so it runs very quietly.

The Mark 2 coaches are mixture of Bachmann Mk 2A and Accurascale Mk 2Bs, and the magnetic close coupling can be seen to good effect here.

 

 

 

[SRman]

Continuing my drive to replace non-sound decoders with sound ones over time and as funds allow, I have fitted a LokSound 5 DCC decoder to my Dapol class 52, D1030 ' Western Musketeer', and loaded the free ESU/SWD class 52 sound file onto it. I tried an Accurascale Accurathrash speaker in it, which meant breaking away the moulded speaker well along one side to get it to fit. However, the result was a tad underwhelming, so the next step was to look up Roads and Rails fitting guides to see what they had used: a 25mm square x 7mm deep speaker was duly substituted, and that sounds somewhat better. I can't say it sounds the best it could, yet.

I'll persevere with this one for a while, and if I don't think it cuts the mustard, I'll try a pair of them in series next - they are 4 ohm impedance speakers. I did tweak the bass and treble settings, which helped the sound quality as well.

 

 

[SRman]

And hot on the heels of fitting sound into the class 52, I have now done a Hornby class 50, 50 045, the one that featured in the last video I posted. This one has an 8-pin interface, but the speaker wires are pre-attached to the decoder, so soldering a speaker to them is not really a challenge at all. Speaker choice this time was a double iPhone speaker from Roads and Rails, and the sound quality from it is very good. The ESU/SWD sound file has some very good sounds and also a few rather naff sounds. There is a very thin, reedy spool down from the turbos at some points, and the top end thrash is a little inconsistent, but the spooling up sounds and thrash are really evocative.

I had to cut away part of the fan mechanism's housing to fit the speaker in easily.

Seeing as these are unlocked files, I may be able to do a few edits and tweaks further down the track. For the time being, it will do nicely.

 

Edited April 15 by SRman

[SRman]

Still with the upcoming BRMA meeting on Saturday 20th in mind, I decided that I must add the backscenes along the western side of the layout. With assistance from Mrs SRman, and a little bit of swearing, I turned the train room into a shambles for a while! I did succeed in getting them into place, and am quite pleased with the effect. I did also manage to scuff a part of it as I manoeuvred the boards into place in the very narrow confines behind the layout.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[John Tomlinson]

If you were aiming for something like the rolling hills of the North Downs, then that's exactly what's happened.  Looks great!

 

John.

[SRman]

A couple more photos of the backscenes: one a more overall view of the room, the other the end piece I added this morning. I was working single-handed this morning as my wife has gone to her quilting group, and the alignment slipped slightly. there are only four screws involved, but I needed a break, so straightening it up can wait a little longer. The apparent shadow in the back corner in the first photo is actually caused by the angle it slopes away from the camera as the right-hand scene is actually curved to clear the window sills and curtains.

 

 

 

 

 

[SRman]

I have been modifying the Wills viaduct to suit its new location. It is almost right now, just needing a couple of stone infills on one pier and the join (or rather, gap) where the end arch goes off at an angle. I widened the departure end to give more clearance on the curve by combining bits from two of the arches, utilising the leftover arch from its original positioning - it had four arches originally but only needs three here.

I placed it all back on the layout to test the clearances, but it will come back up again for finishing work. In the meantime, the layout is runnable again. After some adjustment to the lateral positioning, I had to move the signal on the lower level by a round 1 cm, but that was easy enough seeing as it was only Blu-tacked in place! 😁

 

The DSB/DB double deck coach is HO scale but it is one of the longest vehicles I own and has deeper underframe/'tween bogie detailing than any of the British stock. If that can clear the parapet walls then anything can.
 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 18 hours ago by SRman
Spacing photos out

[SRman]

Continuing the last post with more photos.

 

 

 

 

On the rolling stock side of things, I decided to run a couple of items that haven't been run for a while. First up was my old Hornby Black 5, which I had weathered heavily. I wanted to de-weather it a bit, so gave it a few thin washes of coal black. I think it may need one more wash layer. These show the before and after effect so far.

 

 

 

I also chose to send the Swedish LKAB IORE twin electrics for a trundle around the layout.