The Oak Hill Branch - LBSCR / SECR 1905ish - New layout starts on page 129

[Compound2632]

What rail have you used / is it designed for? (I have no idea if the Peco bullhead rail is the same profile as that supplied by C&L, although from something I read recently it may all be made by the same firm.)

[BlueLightning]

It's designed for, and I have used Peco Bullhead, my 3 way point is made with C&L and that happily fits in the Peco fishplates, so I expect the profile is close enough that either could be used

 

Gary

[BlueLightning]

Well it's been a while since I updated here hasn't it!

 

FIrst off, I took one of my test prints from the inspection/ash pit into club and can confirm that C&L rail fits the chiars quite nicely, so although I havent gotten around to converting them to EM or P4 yet, I will be doing so.

 

Now, back to the layout

 

The shed got inspection and ash pits on both lines, and I'm glad it did, as it does look good!

 

and with that done, I turned my attention to the water tower, which as you'll remember has been represented by Oak Hill 1's old tower until recently, to make the tower to the height I wanted I decided I would try and print it, unsure if my laptop would be able to manage designing it, never mind fitting it on the printer! The laptop just about survived drawing it, and it just fit on the printer, but the test print sprayed with some brick red and placed next to the shed does look good (even if it needs a new tank, and windows)

 

 

Happy with that end of the layout for now, I went and had a play with the station end and got the platforms in place, these are the Peco platform fronts faced with SE Finecast embossed bricks, behind them the bulk of the platform is ply left over from the baseboard construction, and filled with polyfiller to bring it upto hieght, I still have to do the surfaces, but I am happy with how it looks so far, the buildings are sunk in by 1-2mm so no gaps under those either!

 

 

 

and I finally placed an order with London Road Models, so I now have the Cowans Sheldon 42' turntable which will allow me to finish the tracklaying properly! I got the full kit from them, with the vacuum formed well and motorisation kit.

 

 

then finally yesterday the jigsaw came back out, and the well found it's way into the baseboard

 

 

To do this I cleared out under the layout so that I didn't cover everything with sawdust, so it seemed as good a time as any to run some new plug sockets under the layout, so now there is a set of plugs where I want the controls, handy that, suppose it can't be too long until I have trains running now!

 

Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed,

 

Gary

[BlueLightning]

Well I should probably update this slightly more often, I've being doing some work on the underside of the layout recently, and a bit of work on one of my terriers, meaning this happened the other day! (Make sure you have sound on)

 

 

I'm very happy with how this is all going, I'd best get some couplings on my Hornby not Stroudleys!

 

Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed,

 

Gary

Edited September 3, 2023 by BlueLightning

[Matloughe]

It looks like you are making some great progress on Oak Hill v2.0; I am loving Leadenhall with DCC sound. When I replace my DCC Controller I definately think that DCC sound will be on the cards - what chip did you use?

Kind Regards,

Gary

[BlueLightning]

Thanks Gary,

 

Yes the layout is coming on nicely and is quite exciting, have started work on the London Road turntable kit now, will be nice to get that in!

 

The sound is great, it was a Zimo chip supplied by YouChoos, I spoke to them at Ally Pally and knew exactly what it needed and supplied the chip, speaker, and instructions to fit it, I thought it was going to be a lot harder than it was given the size of the loco!

 

Gary

[J-Mo Arts]

Excellent development! Keep up the great work! 

[BlueLightning]

I'm starting to think I should be updating this thread more often!

 

 

To start this on a bit more of a personal note, that may well happen. For those that don't know I no longer own a model shop, and while I still do modelling related things as a second job, railway modelling is no longer my main job. This is due to a number of reason, but mostly due to the fac that over the second half of last year the shop became less and less enjoyable to own, and more and more stressful, and destroyed my enjoyment of the hobby. It was sold just before Christmas, after a couple of months of doing nothing, I got a new job outside the railway modelling industry, and this has helped my mental heath greatly, to the point that over the last couple of weeks the motivation to play trains has returned!

The layout has been fully wired for powered, the signalling has been planned, servos have been purchased for point and signal movement, and I am slowly building a number of Scale4 Society lever frames to operate them, there will be 30 levers on the layout in total, including one to switch between DC and DCC operating modes, and several isolating sections.

 

 

 

I currently have enough kits for 20 levers, so by bypassing the DC sections I can get the layout wired up and working. Providing I can work out how to program the servos, they look easy enough.

 

On top of this there has been a sudden rush of scenic activity on the layout, the station area is moving forward quite quickly, and the goods shed has appeared and is in primer, paint coming soon!

 

The good shed took me about a week to CAD, the initial test taking an entire Sunday, and then the bank holiday Monday and a few evenings to add the details too once I knew it worked

 

 

and doesn't it work beautifully, I am so happy with this concept, I have been able to picture it since I initially came up with the idea, but I did not expect it to be this good! I'm looking forward to getting it painted, getting the "stuff"  in there permanently, and adding some people (it also needs some filler and roof tiles before it gets paint)

 

The area around it has gained a 5 ton crane for unloading larger loads, such as containers

 

At the other end of the goods yard there are coal staithes now in the coal yard, and wagons have somewhere to be unloaded

 

We can also see the station itself looking more complete, I have some enamel signs to add to the fence still, but my 3D printed running in board and benches giving a nice touch to the platform, they just suffer from my poor paintwork!

 

You can just about see in that image the point rodding running along the front of the platform, this is again 3D printed, and is accurate to the Saxby and Farmer rodding used by the LBSC, it has been fitted everywhere on the layout, and its small presence makes a huge difference to the overall look of the layout in my opinion

 

and finally to end this post, some buffer stops, also 3D printed, and accurate to LBSC designs, now sit nicely on the end of every siding

 

I hope updates will now start coming more frequently as the mojo seems to be back in full swing,

 

Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed,

 

Gary

[Mikkel]

Nice to see progress on Oak Hill, Gary.  The goods shed works nicely, and I like that trackwork.

 

Congrats on the new job. Sounds like it was the right move.

 

 

[BlueLightning]

Thanks Mikkel,

 

The goods shed idea was very much inspired by your depot, I just hope it looks half as effective as yours once it's finished!

 

The trackwork is Peco Bullhead, except the 3 way turnout which is built from C&L parts to Peco geometry, painted with Railmatch Sleeper Grime and Dark Rust, I'm very happy that the 3 way seems to fit in nicely with the Peco as it was my first ever attempt at building track!

 

Gary

[ChrisN]

Gary,

Glad things have worked out in the end.  I can imagine it is difficult working in modelling, then going home and thinking, 'What shall I do to relax?  I know, what I have been doing all day!'  Maybe not.  Are you still selling 3D prints?  I am not about to send you a big order, but I have just primed to two kits you sent me, so watch this space.  No, not this space, my space.

 

The layout is looking good.  Interesting idea with your signal levers.

[BlueLightning]

Hi Chris,

 

Yes, still selling the 3D prints, there are currently no plans to end that, in fact I have quite a bit waiting to launch.

There were a few different reasons that the shop had to be sold, it is a shame as I did once see it as my forever job, but I'm much happier now than I was this time last year.

 

Gary

[Nick C]

21 hours ago, BlueLightning said:

The layout has been fully wired for powered, the signalling has been planned, servos have been purchased for point and signal movement, and I am slowly building a number of Scale4 Society lever frames to operate them, there will be 30 levers on the layout in total, including one to switch between DC and DCC operating modes, and several isolating sections.

 

 

I currently have enough kits for 20 levers, so by bypassing the DC sections I can get the layout wired up and working. Providing I can work out how to program the servos, they look easy enough.

You can reduce the number of levers by at least two - 8&9 and 4&10 can both be worked as crossovers, off one lever. If the Brighton were as stingy as the SW there would probably be only one signal for leaving the yard too, applying to both loop and yard (remembering that 11, 15-17, 19 and 20 would in reality all be hand-points)

Edited May 13 by Nick C

[BlueLightning]

You're right I probably could, and I may well do so, however rather than removing levers I'll be adding spares, as the kit comes in blocks of 5, so knock out a few more and you can save me some money 🤣 I suppose I could knock out lever 3, since that signal won't actually exist on the layout, but I like the idea of operating it as part of the sequence regardless.

 

I've only got the frame built up to 15 levers so far, and only actually got the first 5 levers in it, and currently it's no where near the layout, so there is still time for revisions

 

8 & 9 do share a rod in the cosmetic rodding, so it at least shows the box on the layout is correct.

 

Gary

[Nick C]

2 hours ago, BlueLightning said:

You're right I probably could, and I may well do so, however rather than removing levers I'll be adding spares, as the kit comes in blocks of 5, so knock out a few more and you can save me some money 🤣 I suppose I could knock out lever 3, since that signal won't actually exist on the layout, but I like the idea of operating it as part of the sequence regardless.

 

I've only got the frame built up to 15 levers so far, and only actually got the first 5 levers in it, and currently it's no where near the layout, so there is still time for revisions

 

8 & 9 do share a rod in the cosmetic rodding, so it at least shows the box on the layout is correct.

 

Gary

Well, distant would probably be fixed at a branch line terminus, and I'd suggest you don't need the shunt ahead from the platform either- so dropping 3, 9, 10, 14 and 18. To be really Brighton you could also have 6 and 7 selected on points 4 (I.e. one lever works either signal depending on the lie of the points)

[Compound2632]

There was an erudite discussion with a bit of a Brighton bias around @Skinnylinny's lever frame and locking; among other things, I recall being disabused of my assumption that a terminus like this would inevitably have a fixed distant. 

[BlueLightning]

On 13/05/2024 at 20:41, Nick C said:

Well, distant would probably be fixed at a branch line terminus, and I'd suggest you don't need the shunt ahead from the platform either- so dropping 3, 9, 10, 14 and 18. To be really Brighton you could also have 6 and 7 selected on points 4 (I.e. one lever works either signal depending on the lie of the points)

 

Thanks,

 

As Stephen said, I do believe on a Brighton line even a terminus like this would have a worked distant, and the shunt ahead signal existing was based on a photo from the correct period, so those 2 I would like to keep, plus the shunt ahead despite being a ground signal was mounted on the signal arm, so gives something a bit different looking that you don't see modelled often, so that's a plus.

 

6 and 7 being combined into 1 lever is interesting though, I will look into seeing if I can work out wiring that up, my A level electronics should manage it, but I'll need to be more awake than I am now.

 

Gary

[BlueLightning]

Well getting back to regular updates was a nice idea, but this might stop me for a few weeks......

 

 

Nothing serious, but doing anything with that arm is currently very painful, so reading rather than modelling for a couple of weeks, still, I suppose I'll be able to pose some nice new Kernow wagons at some point (I'm glad I had heard in advance so could have money aside for them)

Gary