Peafore Yard - 4mm BR Blue layout shunting layout - Sold

[37114]

It's been a while since the last update as I didn't want to bore anybody with more shots of part finished points and road vehicles. So what better photo to start with than a photo of part finished points and road vehicles:

 

 

This is the second point, a left handed one this time, and as to be expected it has progressed quicker than the first one. When this is finished I can start laying the track, which I am keen to get cracking with both from making progress with the layout and also protect the finished point from damage.

 

The garage which is home to the layout has until today required the ceiling finished, so the layout had been out of the way which I put the rather large and heavy fireboard sheets up. With that finished I managed to get the layout up, first job being to fit the end board of the layout on the left hand side:

 

 

I am keen to get the layout boxed up asap to protect the track etc from dust and damage and fitting the left board is straightforward, while the right hand side is more complicated by the entry to the fiddle yard. The ends are designed to be removable while work continues on the layout. The wooden block at the top left will be hidden when finished. I have also fitted the first parts of the upper level, again removable at this stage but the saw and drill were in hand so a quick job to do

[class"66"]

More super work

 

cheers neil..

[Dannyboy2891]

Coming along Very Nicely  

Look forward to the next post(s)  

 

Best Wishes

Dan

[The Ghost of IKB]

Good work so far, followed your last layout thread, very inspirational.  I'm particularly interested in your experiences of building the points, are you using bullhead or flat bottomed rail?, I ask because I've just started using C&L components to build my EM track and with flat bottom rail the chairs break frequently when trying to slide them onto the rail!  This is so annoying that I've resorted to filing the base of the rail until it's a kind of half breed flat/bullhead, which is a real pain and time consuming.

[37114]

Good work so far, followed your last layout thread, very inspirational.  I'm particularly interested in your experiences of building the points, are you using bullhead or flat bottomed rail?, I ask because I've just started using C&L components to build my EM track and with flat bottom rail the chairs break frequently when trying to slide them onto the rail!  This is so annoying that I've resorted to filing the base of the rail until it's a kind of half breed flat/bullhead, which is a real pain and time consuming.

Good question, it is bullhead. I find gently filing the end profile of the rail to ease the chairs on although have broken a couple. I also make sure the gap at the top of the chair is present, on one chair of every sprue I have found it joined together.

 

In general I have found things have taken longer than I anticipated although to be expected with something I haven't done before. The stock I have tested the points with seems happy enough but the real test will be when it is fully laid. Being part of a club where we have a number of layouts with hand built track has helped and meant that I have been able to look at some completed track to see what works/doesn't.

[The Ghost of IKB]

It's been a while, what's happening?, impatiently waiting for updates here!  Keen to see how you're getting on! 

[37114]

It's been a while, what's happening?, impatiently waiting for updates here!  Keen to see how you're getting on! 

 

Not a lot in the last month I am afraid due to busy day job, family holidays etc, the second point is nearly finished and I have a few evenings planned this month on the layout so hopefully will be back on track soon.

[class"66"]

Looking forward to some new updates..

 

cheers neil..

[37114]

After a hiatus while various other things have got in the way I have actually made some progress on the layout of late. I have now finished the second point and want to get laying track, but have had to resist this urge and instead have to finish the below track scenic. Having never built a layout with scenery below track level before this is a bit of a new experience so, it is necessary to finish the culvert under the bridges before permanently putting track in place.

 

I had been having a dilemma as to how to "bed" the bridges into the culvert bank especially as I wanted the bridges to look like they were supported on the abutments as opposed to the surrounding land. I decided the best approach would be to build the bank and then build the bridge abutments before plastering the river bed. The bank is built from polystyrene carved to shape onto which I laid small strips of paper soaked in 50/50 water/PVA. When the PVA sets the paper is relatively hard but still needs a coat of plaster or polyfilla but at this stage it has the advantage that it can still be cut so the bridge abutments can be pressed into the bank, very much like a real bridge.

 

I decided that the bridge parapets I had built for the lower level were too chunky and too long for the look I wanted on the branch so returned to a Wills bridge SS49 decked bridge I had originally considered. A flaw in my design is the bridge has to carry 3 lines which are close to each other so the parapets are rather far apart. I will more than likely scratchbuild at least one intermediate parapet.

 

Also I have nearly finished my Lelyand cement tanker, very pleased how this turned out, some photos of the progress below:

 

 

[37114]

I had hoped to plaster the river bed tonight but the polyfilla I had in stock had gone hard so I decided to paint the stone arches for the viaduct instead. I chose Humbrol 67 as the base grey colour, having reviewed some photos I took on a recent trip to Bristol, the stone of the area being a very rich grey but with hint of red, especially that sourced from the Mendip areas.

 

As the Wills grey is a good match for a mortar colour  I used a very flat brush and brushed loaded with only a small amount of paint, so far I am happy how it has turned out. I will now follow up with picking out some individual stones in different colours, generally I will use 5 or 6 different colours when colouring stonework:

 

[37114]

I have had a bit of a push recently on the layout having enlisted the help of my friend Dave Spencer on some of the ground cover scenics, an area Dave enjoys. The river bed has been the area of focus to enable track laying to commence as the culvert would not be accessible with both bridges finished.

 

The culvert was created as thus:

- Polystyrene carved to shape to form the banks

- Small paper strips soaked in dilute 50/50 PVA/water then laid over the polystyrene to form a hard shell

- 2 thin coats of plaster applied on top and allowed to go hard

- Brown paint courtesy of tester pot my wife had bought for a feature wall in the lounge. River bed brown wasn't to either of our tastes so the layout was the lucky benefactor.

 

The banks are still work in progress and as yet I am undecided on whether to use woodland scenic's scenic water or PVA for the culvert water base (views/experiences welcome?). The plastic lid in view in the pics has been filled with some PVA to see if it dries clear.

 

The area to the right of the river bed is waste land which will have further rubbish, old bricks and an old car or 2  added to it. I had toyed with putting a factory building here but it would have blocked the view of the trains coming off the level crossing so thought it would be easier to add in the future if required.

 

The arches have been coming on, the brick work has been painted and I am now in the process of buiding the arch roofs for the 3 arches to the right of the river that will be open.

 

Below are some pics after tonights work, thanks for all the "Likes" & "Craftsmanships" so far.

Edited July 23, 2014 by 37114

[HillsideDepot]

Good to see an update Rob. Looking good, but it's rather too much like the "after closure" view at the moment! 

[37114]

Good point Adrian, I will hopefully remedy the situation over the weekend with some track laying in the yard!

[rob D2]

Looking forward to this,

I was abig fan of your previous layout , since I saw it in the flesh at the 2008 members day.

 

I'm also a great BR blue fan.

[Jon Gwinnett]

Good work so far, followed your last layout thread, very inspirational.  I'm particularly interested in your experiences of building the points, are you using bullhead or flat bottomed rail?, I ask because I've just started using C&L components to build my EM track and with flat bottom rail the chairs break frequently when trying to slide them onto the rail!  This is so annoying that I've resorted to filing the base of the rail until it's a kind of half breed flat/bullhead, which is a real pain and time consuming.

Please forgive me if I'm stating the obvious, but C&L chairs are only designed for bullhead rail. The different profile of flatbottom, means they will not fit, and will be severely weakend if the wider flat bottom rail base is forced through the chair.

 

For flat bottom rail, an easy, (if slightly over scale) solution is to use Peco's individulay pandrol clips. These are plastic and are threaded onto the rail in the same way as the chairs, but are designed for flatbottom rail (code 82 iirc). For a more true scale appearance Colin Craig is the man to search for, making scale parts in brass.

 

Sorry for going off topic, and I hope I don't cause offence, but it struck me that perhaps you were unaware of the mismatch.

[37114]

Tracks down will be good, but I like the Leyland Blue Circle cement lorry - reminds me of the end of the street here with em rumbling past looking somewhat like that a few years ago now

 

Thanks, the model I have of the more common Scammell version will also migrate on to Peafore Yard, they were everywhere when I was a kid! 

[37114]

Mammoth modelling session tonight, still no track though. For some reason I can't seem to move the text after the photos so they are all at the bottom, any ideas?

 

First up I have installed the cobbles for the small section of road on the Left hand corner of the layout. This is packed up so the cobbles are level with the top of the rails, assuming the running line once carried on over a level crossing, although the level crossing would be off scene. The red strip in the first photo will be the edging for the pavement as many of the pavements near the cobble streets in Bristol have a raised iron kerb with Tarmac pavement so I have copied this on the layout

 

Also I have started on the raising the ground level for the cement terminal, photo mount card bought on mass from the Wiltshire scrap store being used in this case, second photo shows a general view of the layout with it in place

 

I have started the framework for the Redscaff building mentioned on page 1, which the third photo show being a rather tall structure. This works for me for 2 reasons:

i) It will be the scenic break from the fiddleyard so the bigger the better

ii) The small electrical control panel will be mounted inside, accessed from the fiddle yard.

This will be clad in corrugated iron cladding but modelled with the doors shut

 

The fourth and fifth photos show the work on the wasteland. I had some leftover painted brick off cuts so decided to make the corner of the demolished building. I have never done this before but seeing something similar on PCM's Llanbourne layout I thought I would give it a go. The bricks were cut off at random steps and then 2 pieces glued back to back. The off cut bricks were separated and the edges painted with mortar colour then glued about the site.  I cut a straight line from the plaster in line with the wall and painted it grey to make it look like the building was once bigger. The scenery then had more clumps tall grass added. I have also started forming the remains of a recent fire on the site. Plenty more to do though!

 

 

 

 

[class"66"]

Coming along great i see  

[37114]

One of the niggles I had with Pallet Lane was that the fascias were separate and required assembly/disassembly each show. The system used gallows brackets (at least 1 per board) and associated pins, which took time to set up and were nearly forgotten when packing for a show. The lights were fixed to the back of the fascia's and were vulnerable to breakage (although this actually never happened by some miracle) so with Peafore Yard being a single board I decided to make the fascia's integral, with a fold up cover to protect the layout in transit

 

Up until now Peafore Yard has only been boxed in on 2 sides, the back and the left hand side as you look at the layout which was becoming an issue as the layout hasn't been well protected, especially with the scenery now being worked on. So having tidied the garage I set too making the remaining 2 sides, the front being 6 mm ply, the sides and back being MDF. I had always fancied making a proper proscenium arch frontage where viewers look into the layout so the viewing window is 7cm narrower each side than the layout. There is also a small lip at the bottom to protect the edge of the scenery. I always prefer layouts to be boxed in although I know this not to everybodies taste, I think the end result is quite effective.

 

The right hand side required the holes cut in it for the tracks to go into the fiddle yard for the 2 levels, while a 3rd hole sits behind the Redscaff building for the control panel:

 

 

 

[37114]

I have been busy shopping recently courtesy of ebay and RailWells (fab show!) and now have a cement silo for the yard and a corgi coles crane for the scrap yard. My trip to RailWells reminded me I had promised the Cheltenham web master a photo for the webpage, a some what difficult task at the moment due to the layouts bare state. To remedy that and to help me visualise the layout now some scenery is appearing I grabbed some stock and tried some close up shots on the bits that do have some scenery (see below).

 

I have also taken the plunge and used the woodlands scenic realist water for the culvert. It took 2 pours to get the right depth but I am pleased with the results and glad I chose it over PVA.

 

The Redscaff building is now clad, the building actually uses material which I used to scratchbuild some buildings for Pallet Lane but I wasn't happy with the end result so the buildings were scrapped and the material set aside for a future project, 15 years later they have finally been put to use.. The building stick lacks a roof but I am happy with the results so far

 

 

 

[class"66"]

Nice progress  looking forward to another update now...

[60091]

Tonight I've been catching up with progress on Peafore Yard and I must say it's looking good.

I enjoy seeing these small railway backwaters being modelled and I particularly like that culvert, cutting through the lower baseboard and giving an extra sense of "depth" to the scene.

[37114]

Major progress over the last 3 nights and pleased to report that Peafore Yard now has track! Not only that but the first train has run on the layout as I have put the droppers in place and managed to connect them up to the controller borrowed form Pallet Lane. Most of the track has been tested with 37009 and 03382 doing the honours. The testing revealed that to my joy/relief 2 of my hand built points worked out of the box although the 3rd required some surgery as the gauge was too narrow at the frog end for some reason, so frustratingly I decided to lift it to replace the offending sleepers/chairs to the correct gauge. I am not sure why this didn't show up on my bench testing but this has now been fixed and briefly tested back in situ.

 

Although not one for the purists, I have used rail joiners for reliability sake, sleepers will be put in underneath them and chairs added to disguise them. While I am keen to push for realism, I am not prepared to compromise on reliability and I felt it a risk too far at this stage not to use them. I will probably try to not use them on the upper level where there are less joints and less traffic.

 

 

 

[pompeydave]

Coming along nicely.Looking forward to seeing more!

[37114]

Before I progress too much further with scenic work and track I wanted to paint the base colour of the backscene. I initially chose Dulux "Marine Mist" which looked the right colour in the bright lights of the B&Q store but when applied to the layout was much too blue, the colour being very similar to that of the Lorry in my avatar picture, where as I wanted a slightly more pale colour. I had some "blueberry white" left in the paint stash from when we decorated our bedroom so applied that tonight which I am much happier with. I will wait till I can view it in more natural light to see if it stays or I try another colour

 

While the paint was drying I decided to progress some of the buildings for the layout. I have built a Wills weighbridge hut for the scrap yard and a ratio platelayers hut to be used as a store room at the cement sidings. One of the things I have done differently with the brick and stone work on this layout is use a wider palette of colours for weathering and painting, with up to 7 being used on the huts alone which I think gives a more realistic appearance than on Pallet Lane where only 3 or 4 may have been used. The Redscaff building now has a roof, a few more details to add then a coat of primer to show up the blemishes.

 

The cement silo has also been given some attention as I have managed to get hold of a good photo of the Barnstaple Silo courtesy of Simon Castens (proprietor of the Titfield Thunderbolt bookshop). While purchasing a copy of the Kevin Derrick class 24/25 book Simon gave me a postcard of a class 25 at Exeter which had a similar Silo and in conversation Simon mentioned he had a good shot of the Barnstaple Silo. The photo highlighted how the detail on the Hornby silo is either lacking or a tad crude, so I have added plate work detail (as the silos appear to be made from sections) as well as some extra pipework. Still to follow are replacement ladders although this are proving problematic as while etched ladders are easy to get hold off I am struggling to find a supplier for the safety cages.