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Chesterton Road sidings and TMD


Midnight-Freight
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Ok so I retract that previous statement.  After ditching the solid copper 1mm2 wire I was using for 0.75mm2 stranded this is a lot easier to work with.  My technique has improved and the whole process become a bit more streamlined.  I've finished wiring up the first board, (which also happens to have far more connections than the other two) and tested continuity at each join and various other points with no issues.  As can be seen the wiring could do with a little tidying up but overall i'm happy with the progress.

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  • 1 month later...

It's been a while since my last update but now that things have progressed to the point where it gets a bit more interesting hopefully there will be something worthy of posting a bit more regularly.  All the track is now wired up.  As the only loco I currently own is an old Hornby class 58 I purchased a Hornby analogue controller off ebay for peanuts so I could test both the loco and the track.  Initial powering up was met with a disappointing silence but with a prod and a poke of the loco it stuttered forwards before dying again. A quick clean of the wheels and things improved slightly but inevitably lead to a complete strip down and rebuild.  With a half decent controller I think it could be an ok runner. At least I know the track is all good.

I've also been practising track weathering and ballasting on a couple of off-cuts.  I think my ballasting needs a little more practise before I start on the layout proper.  I have given everything a coat of Railmatch sleeper grime and am undecided whether to do any more or leave it as is. I quite like the effect and don't want to over do it.  I can however see the obvious benefits of owning an airbrush...

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I've made a start on ballasting, starting with the 3 sidings which will be a little bit overgrown once finished. Therefore a perfect finish wasn't so critical and hopefully by the time I get to the main lines I will have perfected my technique :-)

I've added a few pics showing a bit of progress. No-one is quite sure how a Railfreight liveried class 58 came to be in charge of a rake of EWS ballast wagons but strange things happen in the world of model railways... 

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  • 2 months later...

Ok, it's been a while since I last posted anything but have been working slowly on the ballasting which is nearly finished.  I just need to finish ballasting the last few points and touch up any areas that need it.

 

I'm starting to think about how best to weather and tone down the ballast as it doesn't look great at the moment. I gave the track a covering of Railmatch sleeper grime before ballasting. I have used Woodland scenics fine grey, kinda wish I had mixed in some medium to give it a bit more texture but oh well. 

I had read about watering down some acrylic rusty colour paint and washing over the ballast with that which seems like a good/easy idea.  Has anyone tried this and got any results they can show me? Also any suggestions as to which colour would give that rusty/dusty effect normally seen in the real world?

 

Also I acquired a rather nice pair of Hornby class 37 EWS locos, the pack with one powered and one dummy. They do look nice apart from the usual shortcomings of the Hornby class 37 and i'm not sure whether to keep original or make a few improvements.  The one thing I don't think I can live with is the glazing (what were Hornby thinking!?)  I have seen these: http://www.petersspares.com/flushglaze-windows-se13-Hornby-class-37-diesel-oo-gauge.ir 

Has anyone tried these?  Was also thinking of just using some clear plastic blister packaging material to make my own glazing (I have done this in the past with ok results)

Any other suggestions of easy improvements that can be made?

 

I will try to add a few piccies later :-)

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Looking good.

 

I shall follow this topic with interest, I too grew up no more than two miles from your chosen location :imsohappy:

 

Shawplan & A1 made some detailing parts for the Hornby models IIRC, some carefully applied details & weathering can do wonders for a loco's looks.

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With the majority of the ballasting done and just a few bits to touch up I couldn't resist trying out my recent purchase of a pair of Hornby EWS class 37's. Gave the track a quick clean with a track rubber and set it up.  Apart from a few minor alignment issues no problems at all, no dead areas on the points from glue or ballast which was  a relief.  The locos were soon trundling happily back and forth and ran amazingly smoothly at low speed, even with my cheapo Hornby grey box controller.

 

A couple of dodgy pics:

 

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Edited by Midnight-Freight
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I need to build some legs for the layout to get it off the ground so will start thinking about that.

Although not great quality pics the ballast looks awful in them.  Looks slightly better in real life but wish i'd spent more time looking for a colour I was happy with.  Will play around with different colour washes to see if I can tone it down to a look i'm happy with.

I'm thoroughly glad to get the 2 most tedious and time consuming jobs out of the way (wiring and ballasting) and hopefully now it will all become a bit more interesting.

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Well after getting a bit frustrated with how things were going I turned my attention to improving the look of the ballast. I had some matt brown paint lying around so thought i'd try painting the ballast in a small, inconspicuous spot.  I thought it looked ok so quickly got carried away and now this is happening:

 

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It's very close to the colour I wanted to achieve and kinda makes me wish i'd used brown ballast in the first place but I quite like the grey showing through here and there. Definitely an improvement I think.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Ok so this being my first proper(ish) layout it's a bit of a learning curve and although I don't expect it to be anywhere near the level of most on here I want it to be something I am happy with. With that in mind I had gone back and given the ballast and track a coat of sleeper grime as a base colour with a view to adding a bit more detail once I've experimented a bit more with other colours. I have started adding a little detail here and there but nothing of much note.

One thing I was never happy with was the track joins between boards. Initially I had cut the track about half inch short on adjoining boards and was going to use small fillets to bridge the gap. In reality trying to line up 4 or 5 fillet pieces while setting up was near impossible so as I had already wired up the track rather than removing and re-doing the track I just cut small pieces to extend where I had cut the track short at the end of the boards. This didn't look great but I hoped once ballasted etc it would look ok but I kept wishing I had done it properly.  So i've now decided to chop out the end pieces and add in some new track which will be a bit of a pain but given how much ballasting etc I've already done it shouldn't be a massive ordeal and should look much better. 

Hopefully then I can start making some more significant progress with adding scenery etc..

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  • 3 weeks later...

Your layout is excellent.  The ballasting and track weathering is brilliant, something I am dreading attempting on my layout.  I think I will do a few test runs on some old pieces of flexi track I have kept.  I like the EWS 37's, the 58 and the combination of locos and plant machinery.  It's about time someone resurrected a 58 for mainline use!  Keep up the good work!

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Your layout is excellent.  The ballasting and track weathering is brilliant, something I am dreading attempting on my layout.  I think I will do a few test runs on some old pieces of flexi track I have kept.  I like the EWS 37's, the 58 and the combination of locos and plant machinery.  It's about time someone resurrected a 58 for mainline use!  Keep up the good work!

Thanks!  I have to admit even on my small layout the ballasting was incredibly tedious. I would definitely recommend practising on some old track. I found it pretty straight forward but the one thing I would say is take your time and if you're not in the mood just walk away and come back when you are.

I know the Hornby cl58 is pretty poor by today's standards but it was my first loco as a kid and I love them.  I've improved it a bit more recently so i'll add a couple of pics soon.  I've never seen one in the metal so that would be amazing. Not sure what state the one owned by the cl58 group is in now...

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Not too sure of the details but 58008 has recently been moved by two class 56's (i think from Eastleigh to Barrow Hill).  I may be wrong, seen something on another website but can't see all the details because I am not a member.  I hope it's for a overhaul and not to break it for parts ans scrap.  

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Ok time for a bit of an update as had a bit of time to spend on the layout and made some slow progress...

 

First job to finish was cutting out the sections near the board joins and replacing track, ballast and re-painting.  This is now done and looks a lot better.  Just a couple of pics I took after cutting out the old sections.

 

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Next up just an overview of the whole layout (In my bedroom where it all happens)

 

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This is how the ballast now looks, i'm quite happy with it:

 

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And lastly a pic of how my Hornby class 58 now looks.  I've added a bit more detail, painting the side hand rails as well as painting all the grilles black, given the bogies and fuel tanks a light coat of railmatch sleeper grime and removed the couplings.  

 

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I feel like i'm actually getting somewhere now and have begun thinking about the scenic side of things, what there is of it anyway, I did cram quite a lot of track into a small space!

Edited by Midnight-Freight
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So after a Xmas eve trip to the excellent Trains4u in Peterborough I managed to limit myself to just a few bags of turf, foliage and ballast so I can get on with a bit more scenic work over the festive period.  I could have got myself into serious financial trouble in there with Hornby 60's & 56's and Bachmann 37's to name but a few that caught my eye.

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Edited by Midnight-Freight
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I have to say, I love the look of this layout so far! I will certainly be using your technique to ballast. Did you use any special equipment to ballast or just position it hen watered down PVA glue?

 

Look forward to seeing your progress!

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