Deneside - BR North Eastern Region

[Brian D]

A fair bit of progress in the last few days!  The door has had another coat of blue and now looks OK.

Taking advantage of the dry weather this week, the bedroom (12 x 12) carpet and underlay were placed on the decking and cut to fit the shed (10.5 x 6.5).  So I now have fitted carpet in the shed and it feels quite homely now.  So much so that I have hung a couple of my photo canvases on the shed back wall - I'll take some pictures and post them tomorrow probably.  In the meantime, I have just "gray scaled" the pic of the black 5s and I will leave you to decide which image you prefer, although the black and white looks more steam age and atmospheric to me.

Original image posted here for convenience as the page has just flipped over.

Hopefully I will fit the alarm and security lock tomorrow after which I need to add some shelves and source some timered heating (I have my eye on some Screwfix items) before installing the existing railway.

Getting close now.

Regards,

Brian.

 

PS: Edit to add first image for comparison and minor grammar stuff.

Edited December 11, 2014 by Brian D

[Andrew P]

Sounds like your getting well sorted mate, both Alarm and Lock are a necessity these days I'm afraid.

[Brian D]

 

Sounds like your getting well sorted mate, both Alarm and Lock are a necessity these days I'm afraid.

 

Thanks, Andy.  Sign of the times I suppose.  I only had time to fit the alarm today so will sort the lock out tomorrow.

Regards,

Brian.

[Brian D]

There is quite a bit to report but, in the meantime.....

 

 

Regards,

Brian.

[Brian D]

I was hoping to get my existing layout into the shed before Christmas but other events have intervened i.e. second grandson arrived (my daughter and baby James are doing very well).  However, I have completed some of the "man cave" elements of the project which included running a TV co-ax aerial from the house to the shed and installing the erst-while kitchen TV therein and hanging some of my pictures on the walls.  Hopefully, after Christmas, I will get the railway in the shed.  A couple of pictures taken earlier today follow.

 

End Wall

Back Wall

 

Anyway, I feel a beer coming on.

Merry Christmas.

Brian.

[Jock67B]

Afternoon Brian, I hope you and your family are enjoying the day.

Best wishes from Jock and Joanna.

[Brian D]

Afternoon Brian, I hope you and your family are enjoying the day.

Best wishes from Jock and Joanna.

Thanks Jock.  Feeling completely stuffed at the moment and sausage rolls and sandwiches are on the way 

I hope the New Year is good for you Jock.

All the best to you and yours from Brian & Jacky.

[sp1]

I was hoping to get my existing layout into the shed before Christmas but other events have intervened i.e. second grandson arrived (my daughter and baby James are doing very well).  However, I have completed some of the "man cave" elements of the project which included running a TV co-ax aerial from the house to the shed and installing the erst-while kitchen TV therein and hanging some of my pictures on the walls.  Hopefully, after Christmas, I will get the railway in the shed.  A couple of pictures taken earlier today follow.

 

End Wall

2014-12-24 shed1.jpg

Back Wall

2014-12-24 shed2.jpg

 

Anyway, I feel a beer coming on.

Merry Christmas.

Brian.

Congratulations on the new addition to your family!

Steve

[Brian D]

Congratulations on the new addition to your family!

Steve

Thanks, Steve.  Nice times, especially at Christmas to have new born babies in the house.  My eldest son and his wife will present us with another grandchild in the spring taking the total up to three.  Guaranteed to put a smile on one's face.

Regards,

Brian.

[Brian D]

I've been thinking about the layout plan shown in post #83 and listening to the various views about traversers.  So I started thinking about using cassettes and vertical stacking instead.  This would give me much more model-able base board width on the opposite scenic side.  Having printed off the AnyRail plans for part of the layout, I laid these out yesterday on the shed floor - see below.

I really would like to incorporate a colliery on the layout and I'm now looking to squeeze one in behind the station (between the station and the shed wall i.e. on the carpet area shown in the pic).  I need to do a bit more work on the AnyRail plan to see if this is workable.  It would be great If I could especially with a rtr Q6 coming.

Regards,

Brian.

[Jock67B]

Morning Brian,

Great news about the new arrival, you'll be catching me up soon. We have six grandchildren and three great grandchildren and they all gave us lots of joy over Christmas. I of course put the numbers down to both our girls starting early - nothing to do with our ages!

I'm sure that Jacky and you will be very proud of the Christmas delivery, as well as the next one due. Joanna and I have had tremendous fun with ours over the years, the eldest is twenty-six in January, and the real joy for me is that I was still fit enough to play football with them in their young teens. I also taught them basic self defence as well as how to climb safely, and helping them all with their home-work kept my brain buzzing (especially the eldest boy from the Epping branch of the family who attended Forest School in Snaresbrook and is currently at LSE!).

I wish you both good fortune in the new year and look forward to more pics from the railway room - the plan is shaping up nicely.

Kind regards,

Jock.

Edited December 28, 2014 by Jock67B

[Brian D]

Morning Brian,

Great news about the new arrival, you'll be catching me up soon. We have six grandchildren and three great grandchildren and they all gave us lots of joy over Christmas. I of course put the numbers down to both our girls starting early - nothing to do with our ages!

I'm sure that Jacky and you will be very proud of the Christmas delivery, as well as the next one due. Joanna and I have had tremendous fun with ours over the years, the eldest is twenty-six in January, and the real joy for me is that I was still fit enough to play football with them in their young teens. I also taught them basic self defence as well as how to climb safely, and helping them all with their home-work kept my brain buzzing (especially the eldest boy from the Epping branch of the family who attended Forest School in Snaresbrook and is currently at LSE!).

I wish you both good fortune in the new year and look forward to more pics from the railway room - the plan is shaping up nicely.

Kind regards,

Jock.

Thanks for your good wishes Jock.  They are of course entirely and fully reciprocated.

Sorry for the late response, just back from snowy Leicestershire where I managed a quick photo or two at the Great Central this morning (oh, and a less than wonderful trip to Villa Park yesterday to see the Lads grind out a goalless draw against 10 men Aston Villa).  Oliver Cromwell himself no less in residence on the GCR.  I'll post some pics on here once I've had a chance to down load them from the camera and "improve" the images (very low sun in the sky and the loco and train were northbound to Loughborough).

Best wishes,

Brian.

[Brian D]

Good Evening and Happy New Year,

A very busy Christmas and New Year is now behind us - much visiting and visitations having taken place.  I thought I would do some modelling this week, rather than talking about it on here, so I have started building a Scalescenes goods shed and have quite enjoyed it.  I'll post some pictures when I've finished it.

However, today I have given the goods shed a day off and as it had stopped raining I have transferred my existing layout, Hawthorn Town, out of the bedroom and into the shed.  Unfortunately, there is good news and bad.  I had convinced myself in an earlier post that the layout and fiddle yard would fit in the shed, albeit on the diagonal.  I don't know where I c*cked up measurement wise but it doesn't fit.  So I have erected the layout minus fiddle yard along the back wall of the shed - see below.

However, it is nice to have a space where I can leave the layout set up ready to use.  So, I gave my Christmas present a test run and what a beautiful model this Hornby K1 is and it runs like a dream straight out of the box - see below.

I am now minded to build a cassette based new fiddle yard as that is the type of fiddle yard I am planning to utilise on the new layout (when I get round to building it).  I only have room to accommodate 3 foot long cassettes though so I need to give this idea some more thought.  I've probably got enough timber but will need to buy some more track.

Food for thought as I said but just great to have a layout in a permanent set up.  I used to spend about an hour and a half setting the d*mned thing up in the bedroom and another hour and a half putting it away.

Regards,

Brian.

[Ray H]

Brian

 

Could you add a curve on the end of the layout that could possibly be hinged if there's not room for it to remain up, and then have the cassettes linked to that?

[Les1952]

I would be tempted to pit in a right-angle turn of the tightest radius you can get away with and have cassettes across the end of the shed, if that means you have a little more wriggle room for the cassettes.

 

Is the new layout at the same height? 

 

Just a thought.

Les

[Brian D]

Brian

 

Could you add a curve on the end of the layout that could possibly be hinged if there's not room for it to remain up, and then have the cassettes linked to that?

Ray,

Thanks for the suggestion.  Adding a curve is an option, preferably reusable on the new layout.  That might mate with the existing fiddle yard temporarily.

Lots to ponder.

Regards,

Brian.

[Brian D]

I would be tempted to pit in a right-angle turn of the tightest radius you can get away with and have cassettes across the end of the shed, if that means you have a little more wriggle room for the cassettes.

 

Is the new layout at the same height? 

 

Just a thought.

Les

Hi Les,

Thanks for your comments.  I have about a metre between the end of the existing layout and the end wall of the shed and the shed is about 2 metres wide internally (6 ft 6 inches) so I'm more drawn towards a 180 degree curve as a 90 wouldn't give me any extra cassette length.  But see my reply to Ray.

The new layout will be at the same height as the existing.

Much pondering to be done.

Regards,

Brian.

[Les1952]

I almost suggested a 360 degree curve but thought it might be a turn too far.....

 

All the very best

Les

[Brian D]

This is the latest version of the layout plan I have developed incorporating a colliery.  

 

 

Trying to mate this to the existing BLT as a temporary measure is giving me brain ache.  I'm torn between...

(1) lashing up a short (circa 3 foot) fiddle yard to attach to the existing layout, which would give me an operating layout permanently set up in a reasonably short length of time.  In between operating this layout, construction of the new layout could commence on the opposite side of the shed although at some point the existing layout would have to go to make room for the completion of the new one.

OR

(2) building one of the curved ends of the proposed layout and trying to mate this to the existing BLT and fiddle yard.  However, this involves mating existing code 100 Peco track to the proposed code 75 new track.

 

As I've said, much to ponder and I'm in no particular rush other than to get some trains running ASAP.

Regards,

Brian.

[Andrew P]

Evening Brian, just having a catch up and your having a bit of a dilemma mate, sorry it wont fit as planned but it may be a step towards the next project.

 

All the best.

[Ray H]

I'm not sure of your planned order for doing things but . . . .

 

Could you leave the layout where it is in the short term and build the baseboards/supports on the other side of the shed? Then transfer the existing layout to that side and rest it on the new baseboards with a short partially curved temporary add-on to go between the existing station and some cassettes - with the cassettes only needing to be in place when you're actually running (although I'm not sure where you can lay them when you're not in use).

 

That would keep the existing railway running and the short curve section of, say, about 30º, should throw the line away from the shed (window?) wall to give you about another 1ft on your cassette length.

 

You'll then be free to build the rest of the baseboards at a steady pace and do all the track laying in the knowledge that when the existing layout does finally go at least you'll only need to slap some (temporary) track down to complete the loop. You can then gradually replace this temporary track with the permanent successor.

[Brian D]

Evening Brian, just having a catch up and your having a bit of a dilemma mate, sorry it wont fit as planned but it may be a step towards the next project.

 

All the best.

 

I'm not sure of your planned order for doing things but . . . .

 

Could you leave the layout where it is in the short term and build the baseboards/supports on the other side of the shed? Then transfer the existing layout to that side and rest it on the new baseboards with a short partially curved temporary add-on to go between the existing station and some cassettes - with the cassettes only needing to be in place when you're actually running (although I'm not sure where you can lay them when you're not in use).

 

That would keep the existing railway running and the short curve section of, say, about 30º, should throw the line away from the shed (window?) wall to give you about another 1ft on your cassette length.

 

You'll then be free to build the rest of the baseboards at a steady pace and do all the track laying in the knowledge that when the existing layout does finally go at least you'll only need to slap some (temporary) track down to complete the loop. You can then gradually replace this temporary track with the permanent successor.

Andy, Ray,

Thank you both for your comments.

I'm now minded to build a straight cassette fiddle yard on the end of the existing layout.  This will give me the chance to run, albeit short, trains while I finalise the design for the new project.  I'm not one for building a baseboard before I know the track plan, topography etc (it's the engineer in me  ) so I can work out how the baseboard carpentry will go together, timber required, cutting plans, bracing positions to avoid point motors, etc, etc and even including how to mate the existing BLT with the new build in phases or not at all.

Thanks again for your interest.

Regards,

Brian.

[Andrew P]

Evening Brian, the above sounds like a really good solution to your problem.

 

Go for it.

 

Trains running by tomorrow night then?

[Brian D]

Evening Brian, the above sounds like a really good solution to your problem.

 

Go for it.

 

Trains running by tomorrow night then?

Unfortunately not Andy - Monday is "Freddie Day", we look after our 4 year old grandson.  However, Freddie and I have been out in the shed for a shunt or two today    .

I need to buy some yard lengths of track for the cassettes (nearest model shop is about 20 miles drive away) hopefully tomorrow and get on with the carpentry (I think I've got enough timber.  Hopefully in a few days I'll have trains running in and out of the scenic 7 feet of BLT.

Regards,

Brian.

[Brian D]

So, after an assessment of available left over materials from lining out the shed, a back of fag packet design was carried out.

...apologies for the quality of the phone image.

A frame was built utilising the remnants of 34 x 18 par softwood that I bought to frame out the shed door.  After screwing and gluing the frame, some of the laminate flooring off cuts were joined together, the frame placed thereon and drawn around, the laminate boards "un-joined" cut as appropriate and reconnected and screwed to the frame and...voila.. I had a cassette deck.  A pair of legs, also 34 x 18, screwed and glued together were also made and the new cassette deck attached to the existing layout.

The cassettes themselves were formed from 75 mm strips of laminate board with mdf sides and a yard length of Peco track glued thereon.  A post by a fellow RMWebber (see http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/58638-cheap-homemade-loco-liftstorage-cassete/?fromsearch=1)gave me the ideal physical and electrical connection between layout and cassettes.

They are just long enough to hold 3 short coaches and a short loco (diesel or steam tank engine).

I've made four cassettes which will do for now.  They need painting (to stop the mdf disintegrating) and lifting handle added which I will press on with tomorrow.

Regards,

Brian.