Family 8x4 OO layout - Trains running again.

[LongRail]

Coming along very nicely

[Jaggzuk]

Cheers for the recent comments/support guys.  Keeps me motivated and stops me sitting at the PC researching ;-)

[vulcan product fan]

looks good mate the colour on the ballast i like the shoulder you have made on the edge of the track 

[Jaggzuk]

Something new tonight, weathering Metacafe kits (apart from a very quick job on the PWay hut) this was on the red brick retaining wall panels to the flyover approach.  These need to be done before they are fixed in place.

 

I used a mixture of acrylic paint and Woodland Scenics Green undercoat. A muddy water wash, follows by darker stains and green algae growth followed by by white calcite marks and soot stains.  

 

I think a much better toned down look now, will obviously get better as I do more.  But happy with the basic look.

 

Left panel un-weathered.

 

Edited September 8, 2022 by Jaggzuk

[Alister_G]

Really nice job of the weathering, I particularly like the calcite marks, not often modelled and done really well here, really looks the part.

 

Al.

[Jaggzuk]

Yes Al, I am really please with how the calcite marks came out.

 

I found these two images on the web that gave me the idea for using a long retaining wall leading up to my flyover, I just looked the look.

 

http://www.lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/images/donations/Andrew%20Stopford/Dewsbury/Jack%20Lane%202.jpg

 

http://www.lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/images/donations/Andrew%20Stopford/Dewsbury/Dewsbury%20GN%202.jpg

 

Taken from http://www.lostrailwayswestyorkshire.co.uk/Dewsbury%20Loop.htm as I am not sure of the copyright of actually posting the image.

 

Quite like this look and feel too http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2094370

 

 

Plus, I see a lot of bridges, structures and infrastructure in various states of condition out on the railways with my work.

[Alister_G]

Yep, you can't beat examining the real thing to get inspiration for modelling, particularly large structures like bridges, tunnels and retaining walls, but any building really.

 

It's funny how since I started modelling again, I find myself examining buildings and structures much more closely, at one time they were just an unnoticed backdrop as I went about.

 

I really enjoy trying to match the colouring of the stonework round here, its millstone grit, and it weathers in all sorts of colours.

 

Here's a goods shed from my Bakewell layout:

 

 

and in contrast, a limestone barn:

 

 

 

 

 

Really enjoying your work, mate, I'll be following with interest.

 

Al.

[Jaggzuk]

Wow, those are stunning, not sure my weathered Metcalfe kits will come anywhere close. I love the feel they create and the lichen roof is perfect.

 

Have been a silent follower on your Bakewell layout as your scenics and detail are a great inspiration. But somehow I completely missed the fact that you are planning a new layout now, so I am having a big read to catch up. Looking forward to your progress.

 

Cheers for the comments.

 

Paul

Edited October 14, 2016 by Jaggzuk

[Jaggzuk]

So as I travel on my daily commute by train through a bit of North Yorkshire, I am looking at the Autumn turning landscape, muted colours, not much colour in the trees yet and I am wondering, which season to set the layout in?

 

Each season brings specific modeling techniques and I am not sure which one to go for. Any sugestions, and dare I say the easiest?

Edited October 14, 2016 by Jaggzuk

[Vecchio]

Very interesting thread - and I am impressed by your speed and ingenious ideas. Well, you have some help, which I don't have (Boy is already out of the house...)

Need to speed up now with my stuff....

 

Vecchio

[vulcan product fan]

So as I travel on my daily commute by train through a bit of North Yorkshire, I am looking at the Autumn turning landscape, muted colours, not much colour in the trees yet and I am wondering, which season to set the layout in?

 

Each season brings specific modeling techniques and I am not sure which one to go for. Any sugestions, and dare I say the easiest?

my fav season is summer as the sunlight and deep greens look great but autumn has the better variety of colours or some ware between both .

[Alister_G]

 

Each season brings specific modeling techniques and I am not sure which one to go for. Any sugestions, and dare I say the easiest?

 

I find that the bright greens of summer don't necessarily translate well in scale, and can look too garish for my tastes. For that reason I tend to go for more muted colourings, as in the photos above. I quite enjoy the autumnal, miserable look - I always think I'm modelling cloudy, rainy days not bright sunshine - most of the time.

 

Al.

[Jaggzuk]

Cheers Vecchio for the comments, I have quiet enjoyed playing around with ideas and trying out techniques.  The layout, apart of being for the boys, is also a playground for improving my modelling skills; which I am really enjoying.

 

Al and Vulcan Product Fan, thanks for your suggestions,  going to have to have a look another layouts on RMweb and see which feels the most realistic to me.  I have to say Autumn, damp and gloom looks the easiest to achieve. I would love to do winter and snow, saw a layout at Shildon MRS and the snow effect was very good.  Summer is lovely and I am always impressed by modellers that do fantastic flowers and bushes in bloom etc, but the time I do not have plus would be too delicate for the boys.  Jury out still.

 

 

Back on the ballast front, oh no!!  I have finally achieved a good buff coloured real granite chip ballast.  This is using Peco medium grey.  It was covered in a uniform light grey dust, but once washed looked much better and varied in tone.  Still too bright in shade, so I paint washed with a mix of my two brown acrylic paints and the result is just what I have been after for my countryside areas.  Mixed with pink and a touch of Guagemaster grey the look should be right.

 

 

Buff, left, original  Peco grey right.

Edited September 8, 2022 by Jaggzuk

[Chris64B]

Great progress! I'm looking forward to seeing the retaining walls in situ - that's a job I need to do on mine (there are a lot!) and I'm undecided about whether to use card/card kits or plasticard.

 

Your new rolling stock 'bargins' look great too - I always seem to struggle finding affordable second hand stuff like that and always feel bad when I have to say to the kids "no we can't by those new locos they are X hundred pounds!", you've done well. My son would like a few steam engines and exta carriages on the layout - I keep trying to dissuade him as it doens't fit the time period but he's too little to understand or care about that so I'll have to give in soon!

 

Cheers, Chris

[Jaggzuk]

Well it all done and in place, both sides of the incline up to the flyover, now have weathered retaining walls.  Really pleased with the results and it really helps to set the scene with the lower tunnel and the curve up on to the flyover.  I am also pleased that the transition from the retaining walls in to the rock hillside cutting works too and will so much more once I add grass and bushes etc.

 

 

 

So this is my first real effort in to weathering (only second to the PW hut seen earlier), and I have to say it is really satisfying work.  Both with the real world research and then working out how to apply paint to replicate things.  

 

The wall leading up to the tunnel was my first effort and was all brush applied paint.  The base coat was a watered down acrylic brown wash and then I used Green Earth Colour from Woodland Scenics for the algae stains.  I found the WS paint (liquid pigment) was really good as it was not too thick and allowed the depth of colour to be built up slowly; no obvious dried edges.

 

For the other section of walling around the loop from the flyover, I used the same method of stain and calcite application, but I use my airbrush to apply the base brown wash.  For this I used Vallejo Model Air paint Dark Earth.  I think I prefer the second attempt and found the airbrush really fun to use and gave a nice dappled shade of brown over the card print.

 

Top - all brush applied, Bottom - airbrush base colour with brush for stains, my favourite section is the 2nd from the right

 

 

Now a few scene shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oops forgot to remove my camera pillow!

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure about the stone tunnel portal now, may needs a brick one instead?  Any views on this?

 

 

The next task will be to fill the gap behind the walls and the polystyrene track base.  Then ballast and scenics.

 

 

Edited September 8, 2022 by Jaggzuk

[steve22]

It's lovely to see this layout evolve.  Family involvement, great layout plan, lots of stuff for us all to see, learn from and enjoy. 

[vulcan product fan]

I like the contrast between the brick and stone i think it help that the other end has stone leading up to the brickwork  . great work on the weathering it looks very real wish i could have the courage to do more of it . Again nice work.

Andi

[Alister_G]

Cracking job Paul, really good  mate.

 

You often see brick cuttings with stone bridges or tunnel portals, so it's not out of place, but maybe the portal could just be weathered darker to make it fit in?

 

For something like that I would make up a dilute wash of Humbrol Acrylic 91, apply it and then dab most of it off again with kitchen roll, to give a browny-green stain.

 

Cheers,

 

Al.

[Jaggzuk]

It's lovely to see this layout evolve.  Family involvement, great layout plan, lots of stuff for us all to see, learn from and enjoy. 

 

Thanks Steve, I am enjoying doing it, learning new techniques and then sharing it all here on RMW.  I guess as I have for so many years been a silent reader, it is nice to give back.  One thing I do find hard is that fine line between spending too much time in the fine detail vs general scenic progress for the boys; like I really need a station and platforms!

 

 

great work on the weathering it looks very real wish i could have the courage to do more of it . Again nice work.

Andi

 

Well Andi after reading other peoples topics on weathering and watch quite a few online tutorial videos, it was just a case of saying to myself "oh just get on with it.  And if all goes wrong, just make another kit up"  Mind you, when it comes to weathering up that very clean looking Class 37, that's another matter ;-) .  For me it was also about looking at as many real-life examples to get the feel in my head of what I was trying to create.  I will post some example photos later.

 

 

Cracking job Paul, really good  mate.

 

You often see brick cuttings with stone bridges or tunnel portals, so it's not out of place, but maybe the portal could just be weathered darker to make it fit in?

 

For something like that I would make up a dilute wash of Humbrol Acrylic 91, apply it and then dab most of it off again with kitchen roll, to give a browny-green stain.

 

Cheers,

 

Al.

 

Ok, sounds like I can stick with the stone one.  None of the tunnels are finished yet anyway, as they are all missing the parapet/tops and as you say needs a good weathering.  Thanks for the tip.  Will also try warm up the grey to be more like grit stone and do it such that the stones look a bit more 3D in relief; might be a big ask though for this Metacafe flat card.

[Jaggzuk]

Here are a few of the infrastructure images I used as a reference for my retaining walls.  Hopefully, these show what I was trying to recreate with the calcite staining.  I think in model terms less is more, certainly with the first one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going to have a change of scene and look at the station and platform area and decide which station kit I am going to go for: Metcalfe, Superquck Scalescenes or other make?  The main thing it has to be a kit for speed of build.

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2022 by Jaggzuk

[Chris64B]

Looking great Paul!

[Jaggzuk]

Not the longest platforms in the world, but this is the best we can get, which I think looks OK.  With a footbridge in the middle too that should hopefully hide the shortness issue.  The platform overlap with the points is unavoidable really, well, it is only an 8x4 after all.

 

 

 

I have plumped for the Scalescenes Medium Station (R004) and will also go for the R007 Footbridge.  I have not used Scalescenes yet, so this is a good opportunity for a trial.  The main reason I went for this station was I wanted a town looking building in red brick and this looked the part.  Plus, I have already got red brick platforms; which I've had a long time, see diorama comment below.

 

I am working on the single track platform being 12 feet wide, with all structures being at least 6 foot from the platform edge; based on the general view here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/56653-how-wide-should-a-platform-be/

 

The plan will be to add some nice curved canopies at a later date, probably using some laser cut parts.  But this will wait till the boys are a tad older and bit less clumsy ;-)

 

Talking about already having the platforms kits, made me hunt out a photo of my one and only previous effort at scenics, which I sort of forgotten I had done.  A little 12" diorama for my Dad back in 2014 when he was in a care home.  It included Metcalfe platform, static grass, a bit of ballasting and a tiny bit of weathering.  I also made the two wagon loads, including real coal, see my old Blog on how .http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/469/entry-13100-mgr-wagon-haa-making-coal-loads/.  A nice memory.

 

 

 

So the next stage is going to be to build the platforms and then the buildings.

Edited September 8, 2022 by Jaggzuk

[Jaggzuk]

Accident forces scenery mod!  

 

Following the meeting of the floor and the recently bought Christmas present for No2 son, which as out on a bit of a run-in, the addition of a robust kerb has been the focus of today's layout progress.

 

Fortunately the railroad Flying Scotsman is quite robust, my heart was not at the point I saw it jump the points on the other side of the layout and disappear heading to the floor with a terrible crash!  But the only damage is the buffer beam and pony truck.  As the snapped bit of the buffer beam has not been deformed in any way it can just be glued on back on using liquid poly; I have tested the plastic for suitability, so that is good.

 

 

To be honest test running the loco post the crash and without the front pony truck, it is actually a better runner and a lot more quiet.  I think it was actually the pony truck that caused the initial derailment.  So, odd as it looks being a 0-6-2, for now I think it will be much easier for the young fingers putting it on the track if it is left off especially as the back pony is fixed and flangeless.  With only the six driving wheels to have to get on the track, I think it will be much easier for them.

 

But the accident did make me think.  So, I have now added a new scenic edge along the back of the layout in the form of a raised edge of about 3/4 inch.  Along with a bit of a battered slope this now sort of gives the impression of the track being in a cutting.  Hopefully, this should reduce the risk of stuff going over the edge if it derails 

 

 

New edge timber with chamfered inner side.

 

 

Cork tiles used to create a battered slope

 

 

 

The other progress made during the last week, has been the island platform.  Not yet finished as it is missing edge flags and a good weathering.  But it has really helped to give some idea of the station area.

 

 

A quick shot to show the island platform, will look much better once set in with ballast etc.

 

On with the Scalescene station next I think, then I can make the station platform.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2022 by Jaggzuk

[Alister_G]

Sorry to hear about the accident, but it looks as though you got away with it, just, and maybe it's better it happened now than on Christmas morning!!

 

The edge strip is a good solution, and you've managed to make it look like it belongs there, it really looks good with the retaining wall and tunnel mouth.

 

I realise your island platform isn't finished, but the clearance of the bottom of the ramp looks awfully tight in that photo, might you have to shave a bit off the corner?

 

Cheers,

 

Al.

[Jaggzuk]

Yes I was lucky Al as it could have been damage to the driving wheels and mechanisms!

 

The platform was not very well placed for the photo.  I have sized it running all my longest stock past the ramp and it was ok, but will check before applying edging flags.  I noted in your topic that you used the Class 156 as a gauging train, as I have just got one of these Lima/Hornby versions for Son No,1 I used that too. As the curve is quite tight round the platform I have had to leave quite a gap which is a bit unfortunate but at least most stock is well clear.

 

Gauging, as I am finding, is a bit of a nightmare on model railways!  You think a structure is ok, have test it with what you think is the longest, biggest over swing rolling stock etc and then gone ahead and built things.  Then you go and buy something new or run an item you did not consider to be a problem only to find it is!  Fairly recently I have discovered that the Hornby Railroad crane I have had since before the layout was started will not run under the flyover as the jib is too high when resting on the support truck, how did I miss that one?  I now have  to modify the truck to make them fit, and we now have two of them as well.

 

Thanks for the obs though, I will check the clearance.