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Eastwood Town - A tribute to Gordon's modelling.


gordon s
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Hi Gordon,

 

What an amazing project! The bit you have already built looks terrific, especially that flowing trackwork.

Unfortunately your layout plan doesnt show up particularly well, would it be possible to post an enlarged version?

 

Looking forward to following the progress on this layout.

Many thanks,

Dave.T

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Apologies, I should have said....icon_redface.gif

 

The layout is 4mm, 00 gauge.

 

The lower level is all code 83 Tillig plain track from the previous layout.

 

All the visible track is code 75 rail, SMP plain track and hand built PCB pointwork using C & L components.

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Anthony, just to make it clear, the buildings were made by Alan Downes for Great Northern, a fellow RMWebber, who was rebuilding his Peterborough layout. Not having the necesary skills to make buildings of this quality and the fact that were ideal for my layout, helped my decision to buy them when they came up for sale. I shall focus on the woodwork, trackbuilding and electrics which is more than enough for me....

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Without Templot software I'm limited to screen shots

Hi Gordon,

 

Some ideas and videos about preparing screenshots from Templot track plans are at: http://85a.co.uk/for...=878&forum_id=1

 

Print to a PDF generator and then make a screenshot from your PDF Reader.

 

regards,

 

Martin.

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Hi Gordon

As yet I still have scenery to do on my layout, and I do need some retaining walls similar to yours, can I ask whose, what, etc., are the ones you have on your layout.

Nice Clan by the way.

 

Great to see a class 66 going one way and an old steamer the other way......just like on my model railway or "train set" as the grand kids call it sometimes..!!!

 

Bob

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Hi Bob, good to hear from you. The walls and pillars are fairly straightforward to make. Whilst I can do woodwork, track and electrics, I have never done any scenic work at all, so this was a first attempt. I'm pleased with the overall result and believe me, if I can do it, then most should be able to get an acceptable result without too much effort.

 

The pillar is a piece of 18mm ply with a strip of 6mm mdf added to form the step as per the pic. The card is Slaters embossed card #415 7MM Dressed Stone. After a few tries, I found the best result was doing the face that is going to be seen, last, so would stick the card on both sides flush with the front face. Once set, cut a piece of Plasticard wider than the pillar for the front face, so it that it overlaps the sides. You will need to make sure the courses line up, but that's pretty straightforward. Stick it in place and once set, turn the pillar over and trim the excess from the front face with a scalpel. I use No Nails as an adhesive. Looking from the sides you will see there are gaps from the embossed card, which I fill with No Nails using the good old fashioned finger. Fairly simple painting covers the filler and a multitude of sins...

 

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Likewise Gordon...I love tracklaying, but I'm not too hot with my woodworking skills, and as for scenery, well only time will tell.!!!.

 

I have just bought some artist board, its white, about 5mm thick, foam centre, smooth outside...I had thought of using that to stick brick paper onto....I shall have a look at the plasticard idea, it will give more texture.

 

Thanks for those pics, I had always puzzled how I am going to do those chamfered pillars, now I see, you dont make chmfered pillars at all, you just angle the wall on square pillars. I told you I was no woodworker, but I dont mind admitting to my failings, people mostly then explain it more simply for me.

 

Thanks again...............Bob.

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The hidden spiral and traverser is Tillig which I rescued from an earlier layout attempt. All the visible plain track is SMP. The pointwork is all hand built from Templot templates and C & L components, Code 75 bullhead rail and pcb sleeper construction. Ballast is Woodlands scenic.

 

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Oh My Word.!!!!!!!!!

That pointwork is a work of art.

 

Reason for my question was this....a colleague of mine is entering the hobby for the first time, in his sixties, inspired by my layout too.

 

But, he wants to go down the C & L finescale route.....and has bought track and points from a shop in sheffield, forget which.

 

So he has this track which is CL Finescale code 75 bullhead........BUT NO RAILJOINERS......what should he do to join up his track Gordon.??

 

Bob

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So he has this track which is CL Finescale code 75 bullhead........BUT NO RAILJOINERS......what should he do to join up his track Gordon.??

Hi Bob,

 

Peco N Gauge rail joiners work quite well on code 75 bullhead rail. However, many users of such rail don't use any joiners. The track panels are carefully glued down in alignment with each other. Etched dummy fishplates are then glued over the rail joints. Alternatively, the Exactoscale plastic locking fishplates can be used and look good, but are very fiddly to use.

 

regards,

 

Martin.

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  • 1 month later...

My Pal finally got round to trying some Code 75 rail joiners which work well.

 

Gordon.......another question on your walls......what did you do for the top of the walls(capping), and also the top of the pillars.

 

Bob.

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My Pal finally got round to trying some Code 75 rail joiners which work well.

 

Gordon.......another question on your walls......what did you do for the top of the walls(capping), and also the top of the pillars.

 

Bob.

 

 

The pillars themselves are 18mm ply with a strip of 4mm mdf glued on. I start with a strip 500-600mm long and just slice it into 18mm wide pillars. The rest is just made up from strip balsa. The string course is roughly the same width as the wall thickness and just scribed by applying pressure with a scalpel blade every 10mm. The coping stones are again strip balsa about 3mm thick and scribed by the same method. The top stone on the pillar is just sheet balsa glued on the top of the pillar and then trimmed to shape. These were first attempts so so could be improved. I just cut a slight bevel edge to them and they're OK but could be better...

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Gordon

 

Great to see this back on the new forum and not as a blog. I recall you were debating how best to tackle the extensive walls. They look excellent and the track flow is wonderful to see. The Downes buildings will compliment your own work.

 

May I ask ??“ is the Noble stored under the layout so to speak!?

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Oh how I wish! Sadly the years have caught up with me and whilst I still love fast cars, I have lost the ability to get in and out of a small, low slung two seater, without virtually falling out onto the pavement. Comfort seems to have taken over from raw thrills...

 

.....and not being able to afford one was another reason. icon_e_wink.gif

 

The M12 was one of my dream supercars and it was made in Britain....

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I have actually been working on the layout over the past few weeks on a succession of projects. I was concerned about the size of the power bus as the length of run over each level was approaching the 30' recommended maximum in each direction. I also found that relying on fish plates for electrical continuity was really not a good thing, particularly in areas which are hidden from view and not easily accessed. The decision was made and each section of board was removed one at a time and droppers added to every piece of track. I also took the opportunity to increase the bus size from 1.5mm to 4mm and wired in the reverse loop module and the first of three circuit breakers.

 

Having experienced a few shorts in the past, I know that tracing a short can be very time consuming, particularly on such a large layout. Each level now has its own breaker and the length of track is split into 3m sections, each of which has its own isolating switch. Locating a short is now a simple process, with the circuit breaker kicking in first and then by switching out/in each section, the locality of the short can now be limited to a specific 3m section.

 

I have never built a control panel before, so took the opportunity to build a small panel for the lower level return loop, which has a a pair of power supplies giving +12v/0v/-12v. The 0v rail goes to one side of the Tortoise motor and the +12v and -12v to a SPDT switch, with the output going to the other side of the Tortoise. LED's are then fed in parallel across the switch to give route indication. This means just one wire per point motor going between the control panel and the layout.

 

The panel was made up from some odd bits of ply and mdf that were left over from earlier layouts. I printed the plan out using WinRail and then laminated this with some clear plastic sheet. Holes were drilled for the switches and LED's and the whole thing wired up. Had a few minor mishaps, but they were soon corrected and everything now works. The panel now sits on a small shelving unit with the NCE Pro Cab and a short length of programming track.

 

This has been a worthwhile exercise and I will follow a similar mode of construction for the main terminus panel. That will probably be 600-900mm long with over 30 switches and I guess, 100+ LEDs for route indication...

 

Happy days....

 

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Having experienced a few shorts in the past, I know that tracing a short can be very time consuming, particularly on such a large layout. Each level now has its own breaker and the length of track is split into 3m sections, each of which has its own isolating switch. Locating a short is now a simple process, with the circuit breaker kicking in first and then by switching out/in each section, the locality of the short can now be limited to a specific 3m section.

And there is everyone trying to convince me that with DCC you can throw away all your section switches and manage with only 2 wires ;)

 

It is great to see this layout progressing again. I still think that trackwork appeared out of a box overnight ;) Very professional.

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Your welcome Mark. Just noticed this could be a spot the difference competition.

 

The last pic shows the second version of the panel. I cocked up the first one on two counts. Firstly I brought the wires out the wrong side and secondly, drilled the hole too big for the DIN connector, hence the mdf patch.....icon_redface.gif

 

It was really buggin' me and had to make a new frame, which is shown in the last pic, so hardly that professional....icon_e_biggrin.gif

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