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Upbech St Mary, Upbech Drove and Pott Row a journey through 00 and then into EM and 009.


mullie
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Upbech St Mary was due to appear at SWAG 2020, and although I have no idea if any parts of the layout will appear in public I do have it in the back of my mind. The original Pott Row used a traverser, I like cassettes as it minimises handling of stock and retains flexibility as there is no limit on the stock that can be used on the layout unlike a traverser.

 

My cassettes are very basic and join to each other via rail joiners, a Chris Nevard idea that works. Hope you get yours sorted, thank you for your interest.

 

As I've said before I don't belong to a club or even the EM society, I make it up as I go along usually after looking at stuff online, I also look at  military modelling practice as some of the techniques they use are truly inspiring.

 

Martyn

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Not much has happened on the quay side board as I need to finish Upbech Drove first. I'm currently working on the factory area but nothing worth showing yet.

 

I have laid some mounting card as prelude to bringing the area up to track level as this will be street trackage. The buildings are all safely stored.

 

By the 60s, like the Stoke Ferry branch, some of the track work had been upgraded to take heavier locos but not this siding. The class 10 is retrieving the vans to be replaced by an ex GW van, a Siphon I think? This van is Dapol purchased years ago and desperately needs a better chassis. However because the siding is now rundown and the wagon turntable out of use the ex SR brake van and open wagons are being used as reach wagons.

 

20211107_144047.jpg.ebb5b7cd13c56f1ee279ca0596d0dabf.jpg

 

In the distant future, during the 60s period, I would like to put a derelict wagon on the turntable siding, during the steam period it will be rope shunted.

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2 hours ago, mullie said:

Not much has happened on the quay side board as I need to finish Upbech Drove first. I'm currently working on the factory area but nothing worth showing yet.

 

I have laid some mounting card as prelude to bringing the area up to track level as this will be street trackage. The buildings are all safely stored.

 

By the 60s, like the Stoke Ferry branch, some of the track work had been upgraded to take heavier locos but not this siding. The class 10 is retrieving the vans to be replaced by an ex GW van, a Siphon I think? This van is Dapol purchased years ago and desperately needs a better chassis. However because the siding is now rundown and the wagon turntable out of use the ex SR brake van and open wagons are being used as reach wagons.

 

20211107_144047.jpg.ebb5b7cd13c56f1ee279ca0596d0dabf.jpg

 

In the distant future, during the 60s period, I would like to put a derelict wagon on the turntable siding, during the steam period it will be rope shunted.

 

 

That looks smashing, Martyn. 

 

I'm far from expert on such vans but I think the GW van is a fruit D ? 

 

Rob. 

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The factory area needs something to finish it off. I have some foam board so decided to try and model a small structure to extend the factory. Both openings are loading bays as per the mill at Standon on the Buntingford branch. Still a lot to do though hand scribing bricks, including the arches was an interesting challenge. Dimensions were partly set using the original Scalescenes factory. Painting next, and doors and roof detail.

 

20211117_194949.jpg.b09d0174b741f14ae0aa6e1744ec4e65.jpg

 

20211117_195001.jpg.4624401130dce5bb751620d5e9bc6cb3.jpg

 

I wasn't happy with the performance of the Kadee couplers, not consistent enough. There is also the issue of the large magnets and there attraction to wagon axles. I took them out and have replaced them with some tiny but very powerful round magnets glued under the sleepers. I have also 'braked' some of the axles and results have improved. I have also spent time tweaking coupler heights.

 

20211023_191650.jpg.0b5769bcbf38f1e87a2047a1a76d26ed.jpg

 

The magnets had to be glued and held in place with blu tac to stop them getting together whilst drying.

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On 17/11/2021 at 20:16, mullie said:

 

 

 

I wasn't happy with the performance of the Kadee couplers, not consistent enough. There is also the issue of the large magnets and there attraction to wagon axles. I took them out and have replaced them with some tiny but very powerful round magnets glued under the sleepers. I have also 'braked' some of the axles and results have improved. I have also spent time tweaking coupler heights.

 

20211023_191650.jpg.0b5769bcbf38f1e87a2047a1a76d26ed.jpg

 

The magnets had to be glued and held in place with blu tac to stop them getting together whilst drying.

I’ve been fitting Kadees to all my stock gradually now the layout is 9/10 finished and have one section of the track I use (Trix-C intergrated track bed) with a couple of quite large 4mm x 20mm x 2mm Neodymium magnets under the track bed at the throat of the three track siding area which works really well, but and it’s a big BUT as they say, according to Kadee official site each piece of rolling stock needs a minimum weight (I think it was about 80 grams…or some such odd ounces equivalent :blink:) for the uncoupling to work effectively, I was tearing hair out before I read this, and I have like you also “braked” my stock with a small piece of foam between one axle and body to give some friction, this makes the operation very much more reliable.

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On 17/11/2021 at 20:16, mullie said:

The factory area needs something to finish it off. I have some foam board so decided to try and model a small structure to extend the factory. Both openings are loading bays as per the mill at Standon on the Buntingford branch. Still a lot to do though hand scribing bricks, including the arches was an interesting challenge. Dimensions were partly set using the original Scalescenes factory. Painting next, and doors and roof detail.

 

20211117_194949.jpg.b09d0174b741f14ae0aa6e1744ec4e65.jpg

 

20211117_195001.jpg.4624401130dce5bb751620d5e9bc6cb3.jpg

 

I wasn't happy with the performance of the Kadee couplers, not consistent enough. There is also the issue of the large magnets and there attraction to wagon axles. I took them out and have replaced them with some tiny but very powerful round magnets glued under the sleepers. I have also 'braked' some of the axles and results have improved. I have also spent time tweaking coupler heights.

 

20211023_191650.jpg.0b5769bcbf38f1e87a2047a1a76d26ed.jpg

 

The magnets had to be glued and held in place with blu tac to stop them getting together whilst drying.

 

 

Morning Martyn.

 

Timing is everything. You may have seen that I am looking at Kadees myself. I've looked into the small magnets, both round and square, to fit between the sleepers. I 'm not keen on the appearance of the big magnets, even if disguised as occupation crossings etc. 

 

Rob. 

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2 minutes ago, NHY 581 said:

 

 

Morning Martyn.

 

Timing is everything. You may have seen that I am looking at Kadees myself. I've looked into the small magnets, both round and square, to fit between the sleepers. I 'm not keen on the appearance of the big magnets, even if disguised as occupation crossings etc. 

 

Rob. 

Rob

I have worked with S&W couplings for 20 years so was used to spending time setting up couplings. I wouldn't change these on steam era stock 

 

Kadee couplers have been much more of a faff than I expected, NEM fitted stock is a problem because there is no consistency in height and our use of metal axles means the big slab magnets are a pain. I need to experiment with weighting wagons but applying a 'brake' has definitely helped. 

 

By the way, I have used a Powercab for years and have installed decoders in all sorts of chassis including a split chassis 04!

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Thanks Martyn. 

 

Before converting too much stock, I will be conducting a few trials to see how I get on with them. I have a selection of Kadees on the way and will order some of the small magnets and see how it goes. Others have mentioned the faff involved so prepped for that.......ish. 

 

As for the Powercab, I'm pretty much sold on the idea. I'm going to chip a few locos to start with, again as a trial to see how it goes. 

 

O4! Hats off to you !!

 

I've sort of got mine going now. However, long term, I can see a Branchlines chassis being acquired. 

 

Rob. 

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Sorry to hear that, like others hope you have a speedy and full recovery.

 

I have also just had it (well 5 or 6 weeks ago) also quite nasty (temp over 39c after a week) and I'm still not back to normal, still breathless, smell and taste not back to normal but keep getting a random 'phantom' smell of cigarette smoke, odd but quite common apparently.  Again double vaccinated but like you hate to think what might have happened if I hadn't been, we were pretty close to a 999 situation as it was!

 

Good to see your East Anglian layout as I am going to attempt to recreate Widford!

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12 hours ago, mullie said:

 

 

If this is what it is like after two jabs I dread to think what would have happened if we had contracted it without any protection.

 

Exactly this………keep safe and hope you both recover ASAP, and don’t rush back to work as we all usually do.

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Over the last couple of days, by working in small lengths of time I have managed to get some paint onto the brickwork. The foambard was primed using Halfords rattle can grey primer. Top coat is my usual mix of craft/artist acrylic and talc. This is quite a brutal close up, the coping stones are not as wobbly from normal viewing distances.

 

20211130_142237.jpg.9c15b38ad856810fc69b7ca8fa6442d9.jpg

 

I have prepared some Scalescenes doors, will add some roof lights from further Scalescene factory parts and add some canopies from Airfix and Dapol parts knocking around the spares box.

 

Would I scribe brick work again? I hope I have got away with it this time because the building will be in a back corner and much of it will be covered. I think I would do it again but would invest in a small drawing board to make it easier to draw/scribe lines. It does open up lots of possibilities for different brick shapes difficult to achieve by other means.

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Our intrepid photographer was down at Upbech Drove this afternoon and caught a class ten shunter on a short goods including two wagons of sugar beet.

 

20211211_113053.jpg.01bf67c5e472303b5d9e6ec26dafa68f.jpg

 

In other news, I have been working on the factory area. Originally I infilled with DAS clay but decided I didn't like it. I had some Wills cobble sheets and Downloaded Scalescenes cobbles but because the layout was designed on Templot so there is no straight track all of the above would have been difficult to fit.

 

Then I remembered that I had some thin sheets of foam. I cannibalised an old paint brush to input the cobbles, a tip I read about on the Fathing layout blog I think, using pencil, compass, some good music, a lot of patience and bad language, I began scribing a suggestion of cobbles. As the factory yard is at the back of the layout, a suggestion of cobbles will be fine. The Wills sheet in the background was used to size the edging stones.

 

20211207_210654.jpg.c41deccd47a8d091c0b51cff184d9b7a.jpg

 

To infill the track I nicked an idea from Pete Goss and have prepared some some 40 X40 thou plastic strip which will be glued in place using a track gauge and then infilled, possibly with more foam.

 

The cobbles have since been painted, more photos soon.

Edited by mullie
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My use of DAS is in no way scientific. I used it to ballast the original version of Pott Row after looking at Chris Nevard's layouts. I read somewhere that mixing it with PVA stops it cracking and also makes it easier to lay. Therefore, I use a lump of clay, mix with PVA and lay using  fingers, coffee stirrers etc. All very messy. I use small lumps so it doesn't have a chance to dry out. As my layout is in the garage that was until recently shared with the car every night, that could also be covered in sea salt anything that improved the longevity seemed worth doing. These photos show it in use as ballast.

 

1163444531_PottRow1.jpeg.a5f82cb53046922b73460589d48b1fd7.jpeg

 

1926825642_PottRow2.jpeg.41864cd1c8ab1a1a19215d5e37b4c65b.jpeg

 

My colouring methods are equally slapdash! I live well over an hours drive from the nearest decent model shop, though I do have a Toymaster where certain things can be bought. New postal rules mean it is expensive to get certain types of paint delivered and at one time due to growing family etc. I had quite a limited budget for my modelling. Therefore I have taken to using whatever I can source locally hence all my scenic work and quite a lot else is done with artists acrylics combined with inks, chalks, charcoal and the most useful tool is to use talc as a matting agent. Recently, I bought some AK grey pin wash and pigment fixer.

 

I use quite a limited palette of colours and don't use black for scenic work, mixing something close and usually working something into it such as talc to vary the hue.

 

The photo below shows the cobbles, primed with Halfords rattle can then coloured with acrylics, pin wash and talc. This was not the best use of pin wash as it soaked into the foam.

 

20211212_073027.jpg.4447de8b75a4d9f8cf227abe2d7f860d.jpg

 

 

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By the way, I don't paint everything grey! Before I paint something I research the colours either in books or online and always have a picture to hand when painting.

 

The track work photos were a work in progress, the sleepers and chairs were given more definition later and the finish was not shiny by the time I finished. As you can see from the top photo the layout was essentially stripped down when the photo was taken. I think that is when a lot of the Scalescenes buildings were removed and replaced with scratch built buildings based on East Anglian prototypes and I replaced the photo back scene with something more subtle sprayed from rattle cans. 

 

With the cobbles, if you look closely you can see variations in the colours of the stones, before a final wash was put on some were painted grey with a hints of blue, green, yellow ochre and terracotta. I always try and avoid a uniform paint finish. 

 

The signal box is ever present and is now on Upbech Drove as is the second Pott Row station building.

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