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The boiler and carriage shed are now starting to look a lot more like a workshop rather than just a few tools lying around. The racking has been finished and put into base colour for the boiler shop unfortunately I have run out of a few required colours for completing inside the sheds. Clutter will build as my spares grow again the road bridge has been a task I’m looking to do next along with the footbridge at the alresford end of the station which needs some repair work carried out. I hope to get boards 3 and 4 finished after Christmas fully detailed and the headshunt done shortly after. I will start posting a bit more often as ropleys Work rate increases

 

Chris

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I have gained a bit of free time to continue work to the layout in the boiler shop. At last I have taken the plunge to sort the floor out so after a bit of re levelling and removing the majority of scenic details within it has had its first coat. This is the emptiest I have The shed in a long time but also opens opportunity to more detail work to happen. The first two photos show the work in progress. The third shows schools boiler sat on another board awaiting its move back in but the big question is do I make it a permanent fixture again? Any thoughts guys would be appreciated. Photo two shows the next stage which will be a repaint on the carriage shed floor and some more detail to be added before the shed frame goes back in. Ropley goes up in full on the next week to allow the new fiddleyards to be built soon hopefully a running session might be on the cards and some new photos.

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All I can do today just playing around with where to put everything and have more of an order. The floor will be weathered tomorrow to tone it down and look like it’s not recently laid and work has happened in the boiler shop. It’s amazing how a different floor colour makes all the difference.

 

Chris

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Not much too report ropley is back after it’s time away. Fiddleyards are now built and being wired and boiler shop is now finished. The road bridge had been drawn up for replacement as I am not happy with it. Next job now is to complete the carriage shed then get part of the layout up to sort areas all at once.

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At last, some progress made. Ropley has had a lucky opportunity in getting a place to be put up for a two week slot.

As you can see we made some progress with having it up in full (we don’t have the space to do this after, all it is now 32x12 and ready to go back out on the exhibition circuit).

I started by biting the bullet and building the last frame for the sheds. I knew this one would be the hardest so put it off. Built on a jig using evergreen plastics it took a day and a bit to do.

 

The wiring and fiddleyards are now 90% complete.

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The new fiddleyards are a lot better with a wider radius curve. Best decision yet!

 

New grass was added and even built s new signal

 

 

Here a comparison for the Work still needed on the headshunt

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The shed roofs will now be the next task and headshunt.

 

Ropley is out on the 15th on show at basingstoke open day although I will not be able to make it due to work and it’s also out at the Newbury show in October

 

More to follow shortly

 

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  • 2 months later...

Well another show down so it’s back to the workbench.

Ropley recently attended Newbury model railway show and lots has been achieved to be ready in time for the show. post-14552-0-85025700-1542605544_thumb.jpeg
a general view of the yard

Since my last post Ropley had been setup In a hall for a few days so we could finally test the electrics through. A job that had overrun my timescales. Maybe something I should have predicted as the layout doesn’t go up anymore than 8ft at a time due to space at home. (Why did I ever make a layout this size)! the plan with the re-wire was to simplify the control panel. one job also done was the overrides. there are 3 of these built into the system to enable smoother and more realistic running, rather than matching speed setting between two controllers. one controls a run out from the yard into the station and the other 2 (1 for each fiddleyard) allow trains to be taken out into either platform then switched over to take the other train out. 

 

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45379 enters Ropley station for a train to Alresford.

 

Other jobs to be completed for Newbury was the scenery. the layout looked a little tired so a refresh was in order. new grass scatter was done to brighten up the layout as well as fixing damaged areas on the layout. the biggest change was trees. I finally bit the bullet and made up about 40 trees (not just one nights work) and the transformation I have to say was amazing. really brings the layout to life now.

 

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73096 rests in a very empty yard

 

a Job a while back I said I had been up to was lights. I still have a little way to go with these as I now need to wire in all the platform lights I recently purchased when helping operate Tidworth at Andover for the weekend a few months back. the yard lights as well as those attached to certain building now work as well as an arc welder. 

 

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37905 rests under the platform lights. note the yard lights in the background.

 

After Newbury a jobs list was made. as always lots to do. my main issue at the show was stock. I guess I should have seen this coming as it doesn't get used very often. on the workbench I have started tackling these issues, some of the normal bits like pickups and wheels as well as the odd coach that seems to lock on a corner something I need to find a solution for as I seem to have this with only 2 Bachmann mk1's. Anyway the worst loco at the show was the peak 45132. for some unknown reason it didn't like the curves. the only thing not to??? after a while I spotted the problem. a while back I have re glues the buffer beams to the bogies rather than the body. this meant when going round the curves the tarpaulin nose end would derail. this was due to the straps I had made to make it look more realistic but had tied to the buffers. I decided rather than just cutting them off I would be a bit more creative after all both diesels out of use at this time I have only modelled under tarpaulins. so removed the tarpaulin from the nose and the nose itself and made up another restoration project.

 

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45132 now showing what lies under its nose.

 

now with the layout back at home work can now start to focus on finishing the many incomplete jobs on the layout and really go to town on the detail side. 32ft of layout for one person to do is a big task hence why made the layout at basic first to give the impression then build from there. after all getting to this stage is well over 5 years on. 

 

last photo I have attached is for the diesel fans. its not often I post a few diesels sitting in the yard. 

 

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The blue 37 is to become 37324 Clydebridge 

 

some more posts of more upcoming projects to come :)

 

 

Edited by chriscleveland
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I have seen a few models of supposedly preserved/heritage railways, but they never had the right atmosphere, which should, of course, include a whole load of part dismantled, tarpaulined and disintegrating stock. Your model or Ropley will certainly have the right feel to it. Keep it up.

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  • 1 month later...

Not much has gone on as of late on the layout mainly playing with sorting jobs out on locos cleaning wheels putting coupling on etc. However another little project on the bench is the coaling digger. Ropley uses a jcb adapted to load coal into the locos. Here we see the assembled model. Now time for a few custom parts prior to painting and adding final details. I went out and bought some new paints today for some weathering projects. There is also a new loco soon to arrive for another project to commence. Watch this space.

 

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Edited by chriscleveland
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So more work slowly continues on the workbench. Feels like a never ending job at the moment! Seems to be one job finished another handful to start. On the bench currently we have Wadebridge, 27007, swanage, 4 wagons and a bubble car all awaiting weathering. 828, Douglas, 76017, all awaiting some more detailing as well as the bubblecar which needs headcodes added, And 34096 to be changed to Braunton. We also have the digger now in its first coat of yellow. Hopefully the digger will be a job done by end of play tomorrow. Hopefully some photos of the layout and locos to come soon.

 

 

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Chris

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Work is progressing at the moment with all the stock for the layout. The main focus has been adding transfers to stock as well as making them look worn. My recent project has seen the engineers train being worked on with 3 new Rudd wagons joining the fleet it was time to get everything to look rusty. The Wickham trolley finally has a p-way team added too.

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  • 4 months later...

Not much has happened on Ropley recently due to an unexpected problem elsewhere. The next job is to change Trevone into braunton. We are hoping to get the layout out soon as it doesn’t fit in its current home in full and get some better photos as well as getting the layout detail that bit better and hopefully start making some appearances at shows or hopefully in a magazine.

 

 

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Edited by chriscleveland
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