Freight Connection Posted May 8, 2016 Author Share Posted May 8, 2016 The thread title is bit of a misnomer. It's far more than that and well worth a wider audience. Great stuff. I look forward to further updates. G. Grahame, Thank you for that.... Like others I think the more layouts you build (Or Start in my case...) at least improve your modelling. I cant see why this one wont progress, it's not too big so I haven't become disheartened like before. I would also urge any newcomers to pick up a copy of your book, it certainly got me to look more closely at detail.... The cover alone should inspire. Many Thanks - Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freight Connection Posted May 10, 2016 Author Share Posted May 10, 2016 Added road markings and a grass verge tonight. Barriers still to be painted and possibly road edge lines if I can get them thin enough. The roadbed is still removable at this point to allow close up work on it and bridge supports to be fitted. A fence and hedges will line the field, the other side will get a wall. Worked from a street view picture of a typical dual carriageway for the white line length and spacings. Didn't notice the jockey wheels on the trailer until I took the pic, and they don't hinge Also changed the layout title slightly, will drop the oval when I can come up with a North West sounding town. When I drew up the plan on Anyrail I originally saved it as Bridge Rd. Steve 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBE Posted May 11, 2016 Share Posted May 11, 2016 Really liking the look of this. I am following! I would probably not have had the front two sidings myself as that is a great spot for some nice immersive scenery but I am always a less is more modeller myself and understand that others my not always agree! Keep up the good work! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freight Connection Posted May 11, 2016 Author Share Posted May 11, 2016 Really liking the look of this. I am following! I would probably not have had the front two sidings myself as that is a great spot for some nice immersive scenery but I am always a less is more modeller myself and understand that others my not always agree! Keep up the good work! Many thanks for the comment... A small container yard was my main goal and this was the easiest place to put it. As soon as I started track laying, the parallel tracks along the front baseboard edge did seem to undo the flow I'd managed to the rest of the plan. It was tempting to keep adding track and as you have said, I started to realise the balance with the scenery would suffer. If I can complete the layout there is a plan to extend it to a central operating well and so the other sides wont need to be as track heavy. I liked the idea of the yard to the rear with container stacks forming the background, but this gave me a little more room to get a reasonable amount of wagons in. Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBE Posted May 13, 2016 Share Posted May 13, 2016 That's fair enough, I would have probably left off the diesel depot in that case then to give room at the back. As I said though it's just my opinion and what you have does of course gives far more operational variety than what I would have done. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freight Connection Posted May 26, 2016 Author Share Posted May 26, 2016 Hello to all... Just a few small updates, work on the layout has took a hit due to the job and some gardening. Determined to keep on through the summer, even if only in small chunks. Have continued with the road lining, edge lines still required on one side... These tunnel mouths won't really be visible once the dual carriageway is fixed down and modern concrete supports fitted. Hoping they just help hide the rest of the curve. The second hard standing area is now in, slightly different shade to the first. Apologies for the graffiti, just ideas pencilled in for ground cover etc. A few droppers still to go in prior to ballasting. The Peco shed still to be replaced with another scratchbuilt effort. Thanks for looking - Steve 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calnefoxile Posted May 27, 2016 Share Posted May 27, 2016 These tunnel mouths won't really be visible once the dual carriageway is fixed down and modern concrete supports fitted. Hoping they just help hide the rest of the curve. DSCF1328.JPG The second hard standing area is now in, slightly different shade to the first. Apologies for the graffiti, just ideas pencilled in for ground cover etc. A few droppers still to go in prior to ballasting. The Peco shed still to be replaced with another scratchbuilt effort. DSCF1336.JPG DSCF1337.JPG Thanks for looking - Steve Steve, Looking great. Just a quick question, how have you done your hard standing area?? Is it with Card, Balsa or Polyfilla type stuff?? Cheers Neal. P.S. The scratch built engine shed looks fantastic. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freight Connection Posted May 27, 2016 Author Share Posted May 27, 2016 Steve, Looking great. Just a quick question, how have you done your hard standing area?? Is it with Card, Balsa or Polyfilla type stuff?? Cheers Neal. P.S. The scratch built engine shed looks fantastic. Thanks for that Neal, Two layers of balsa ( 16th of an inch I think) The first comes up to sleeper height, the second then covers the sleepers. Really well stuck down, was going to use card but the balsa thickness was ideal. Primed and gently sanded to hide the grain and keep just below rail height. I scribed in the expansion joints and painted the whole thing in Tamiya XF-55, weathered around the joints with pencil and washes then dry brushed Humbrol 147 over the whole lot. In truth the expansion joints are a little over scale but it looks ok. I did a few test patches from various ideas on here and in the magazines and settled on this. The base to the front of the pic got a final weathering with pencil smudges. I think I'll be using scalescenes downloads in some parts of the layout, as I'm trying to get a varied look to the whole thing. I was thinking of Polyfilla or a Plaster PVA type mix for the container yard, but will now probably stick with balsa.... I still haven't run anything properly on these bases yet, but the best advice I picked up on is to keep just below rail height, so that whatever base you use doesn't get scrubbed off with track cleaning. Regards - Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
porkie Posted May 28, 2016 Share Posted May 28, 2016 Wow just only come across this thread. Love the depot and the concrete effect Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
class"66" Posted June 7, 2016 Share Posted June 7, 2016 Looks rather good Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freight Connection Posted June 11, 2016 Author Share Posted June 11, 2016 As a small side project that can be completed relatively quickly I've been meaning to tackle this one for some time now. In an effort to vary the vehicles on the layout I decided to have a go at an Eight Wheel Tipper. An article from Model Rail June 2012 was the inspiration. The cab is from from a Tomytec rigid and the wheels from a Wiking lorry. At 160 scale the Wiking looks well out of place next to Tomytec and Oxford diecast, but the wheels sizes are almost identical. The holes in the cab roof held the original wind deflector, these will be covered with some warning lights. The fuel tanks came from Pola crates. Still some details to fit, such as the ladder and cover roll arms etc... Not sure on the livery yet, but I'd like to put some homemade transfers down the sides. The same article also covered flat trailers, and one of these is also on the "To Do" list. Thanks for looking... Steve 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
scruff Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 Hi Steve. The truck looks really good. Have you thought about swapping the second axle for another one of the front ones you have used? The axle you have used as the second axle is a driving axle and these trucks have two steering axles, like you used for the front axle at the front because they are horrible for turning corners in! Cheers Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freight Connection Posted June 12, 2016 Author Share Posted June 12, 2016 Thanks Mark, I should have explained in the text, I knew that I didn't have enough singles and didn't want to cut a second vehicle up. That was also the reason I didn't use two Tomytec vehicles, but on reflection the Wikings won't see any use again, so watch this space... Many thanks - Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium MrSimon Posted June 12, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 12, 2016 Hi Steve, great layout so far, hard standing and the road look really good! Look forward to more Cheers Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freight Connection Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 Hello to all ... Have finally got round to having something to actually update. The contract I was on at work was always going to finish at Christmas, and so with the next job starting mid Feb, this period was always going to be a chance to get some work done on the layout. All sorts of layouts on the Forum of different scales and eras have continued to give me inspiration during the last 6 months. How can you not be impressed with a Tormouth signalman that moves in his box ? The other major factor was the balance between pastimes and family life. The layout currently sits in the front room, the house was bought with that room in mind to house a large Meccano collection, Guitars, and my boxed up N gauge stock. I started to think of moving it either into the garage or the spare bedroom. Despite the smaller space, the spare bedroom seemed more appealing. So that's the point i'm up to. Keep a guitar or two should the interest arise again and rationalise the Meccano collection. I want to use the spare time I do get more constructively. IE modelling. I stripped the layout of reusable points, solenoids and track with an L shape in mind and decent open top scenic section. I was also aware I'd crammed a lot in the first time, was happy with that but the container yard down the front edge left me little scenic space. Those straight lines had wiped out the flow of the layout as well. The first two boards don't differ too much from the original plan. Oval extended to sort of folded figure of 8... However, converting the Garage seemed less appealing as time went on. So the Scenic section has to be shortened and eventually come back round. As shown.... New boards 1 and 2 with provision ready for board 3.... The original intention was to run my 80s & early 90s stock in a reasonably believable fictitious N/W come WCML setting, and that hasn't changed. Have kept away from ultra tight curves again, and I'm aiming to cross all joins at right angles. Keep the gradients gentle. To keep the elect connectors down i'm keeping point panels etc local to each board, just jumping the 12 DC 16 AC and a few section switches across boards ( And I'm supposed to be an electrician ) Oh and apparently the NSE sign can't stay in what will become the living room . Something to do with wallpaper... Seriously, the room has become a dumping ground at times, desperately trying to get organised and improve my modelling. Regards - Steve 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freight Connection Posted February 26, 2017 Author Share Posted February 26, 2017 Have got most of the lower level tracks in on the first board, the sharp curves will eventually sit under a bridge and the station roof... Code 80 again. Was happy with the paint and ballast from earlier on in the thread, and intend to repeat. EWS is a little bit late for my chosen period, but a few years ago I followed a really nice layout build called Old Warren and that had these tankers on it... That gave me the confidence to convert my 1980s Farish tankers ( Remember those wheels..) I never ran those 6 tankers much because they looked so toy like. Home made transfers, and its easier to take weathering washes and powders to my own repaints than to a new model. Any way I dug them back out after the recent release of the Revolution models, and have picked up 4 more Farish ones to repaint now I room for a longer rake. I don't have any EWS locos, and so the Load Haul will have to do. Obviously a poor imitation of the stunning Revolution TEAs , but a step up from the original shiny red Total tankers they started out as... Limitations with an Inkjet and difficult to match transfer background colour against the paint, so I just went for white and dirtied the models up. The transfers relative thickness tends to catch paint and washes on the edges, but they turned out reasonable... Thanks for looking - Steve 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanks522 Posted March 20, 2017 Share Posted March 20, 2017 Hi Steve, Hows the new layout progressing? Graham. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freight Connection Posted March 20, 2017 Author Share Posted March 20, 2017 All good Graham.... Was due to update this week, waiting on some neoprene sleeves for the wiring. Intend to fully wire up each section this time instead of revisiting later. Have standardised colours under the board and reduced the headaches no end. As before every single piece of track is dropped, solder obvious at the moment but I know from before the paint and ballast will hide it well. Will most likely go with Micro Switches for polarity. Nothing wrong with the Peco s/w but I know from experience they oxidise if the contacts are left for some time....Although it was years with mine! ( Easily prised open and cleaned, but a micro switch won't suffer the in the same way) Section switches are so 80s I know, but it's impractical / impossible to chip a large 80s/90s Farish fleet. These panels need to be thin because of the layout width. Will continue to add similar ones as I go. Have cut the long arm down, adjusts easily and is no load at all on the bar... I think on the Neely layout? the fiddle yard polarity is switched on top direct from the tie bar, would like to do the same. This was a mock up on a test board, a bit rough but panel pins and Araldite on 3mm ply, guaranteed not to slip. ( Need an afternoon to knock out a decent batch of them) I think "little and often" was the phrase I saw recently to progress a layout, and it does seem to help. I just set small targets every few days rather than anything too ambitious. Regards - Steve 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freight Connection Posted May 13, 2017 Author Share Posted May 13, 2017 Work is busy at the moment but finally got a full day on the layout. I'd somehow managed to stray from the plan and fit a curved point instead of a straight one, that was rectified first. The six foot was restored and the track work seems to flow a little better. Not intending any high speeds through this section, but in the first pic cups of tea would have been up the windows. Before After Sundeala does have a tendency to roll off at board joins and so have filled and sealed the board edge prior to ballasting, have kept the points a little further away from board joins this time. Points and track all tested on the first board and almost ready for painting / ballast. Once the track reaches the other end of the second board it will start to rise, that open space at the back will carry the storage roads up and over the end of the station. Thanks for looking - Steve 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freight Connection Posted May 14, 2017 Author Share Posted May 14, 2017 Track laying continued today, trying to keep the number of pins down to a minimum and have started filing them down to make them less visible when the paint goes on. Previously the enamel would flake off the heads leaving large black dots, the heads are much smaller now and bare metal. Without any great pressure they almost sink into the sleeper without deforming it. Will leave them in after the ballasting to save crushing the sleepers. Have also glued the filler sleepers in at the track joins this time, the joins seem to look less clumsy now without as many pins. Will put the droppers down in the week, before deciding the best way to start the incline. Have left a generous gap between the main line and the branch in order to give me options with the masts. Thanks for looking - Steve 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freight Connection Posted August 28, 2017 Author Share Posted August 28, 2017 I should get more time to work on the layout proper soon, as a short term contract comes to an end. Have also started preparing the spare room to take the layout upstairs. Have found an hour or so each night lately to get on top of the repairs needed. Nothing new below to seasoned modellers, but may be of some use to others...(With thanks to the sites who offered the advice taken below) Since the 90s when split gears started to show I've always had about a quarter of the locos sidelined, 3 went to a model shop near Abingdon early on, only to fail again later that year. And even with new gears in, three others ran hot and sluggish at about half power upwards on the controller.... It's only these last few years since i returned to the hobby with the wealth of information available that I have finally got on top of the problems. All pics below refer to Poole items, my newer stock hasn't racked up enough miles yet to cause any problems. All gears now get reamed out slightly with a Broach and go onto the shaft under much less stress..( NGS advice and others)...I seem to remember fiddling about with a small drill bit and no pin vice years ago. I did put a few lower profile wheel sets on some years back when they became available, but generally now prefer to leave the early models on original wheels... In my younger days I assumed motor faults for the overheats and didn't realise until last year that weakened magnets could be the cause / and replaced. ( Advice from the Farish Shed)... With good articles on there on the early types of magnet likely to fail. Neo or straight replacements have both given me about a 150mA to 200mA fall in current and am now happy to use either. Affected 3 locos no longer run hot. This one is down to age really ( And maybe over tightening & poor choice of lubricants 30 years ago)... Bogie retainers and tower just crumbled tonight on my first 37 Chassis.... Intend to replace the tower and keep the brass gears. Will have to model in a much smaller space soon, the following set up aimed to reduce test leads, meters and croc clips spread all over the bench. And give me something I could carry into the back room instead of working away upstairs all the time. Having the test track able to come forward makes it easier to see close up. I bought a 47 in RES some years ago from a toyfair and didn't realise until this week when it was up on the rollers that the worm and bogie at one end had never meshed due to poor finishing on the chassis ( Which is unusual) Easily filed down though... As I said at the top, no real layout progress at the moment. But the quality and ideas of others on here ( All gauges and eras) does keep my interest up. Regards - Steve 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freight Connection Posted September 12, 2017 Author Share Posted September 12, 2017 Good evening to all.. I picked up some SSA rebodied wagons from Slimrails a few months ago and finally got round to putting them together recently. Was going to do them in EWS as per the kit, but decided to try and keep them in the 80s / early 90s. And so have rebodied them back as it were. I'm working from a photo of a Barclays blue Standard Railfreight wagon in Model Railway Constructor from 1986. Have cut the detail away from the underside of a Peco chassis and added two wheel operated handbrakes ( Round headed nails ). Just need to add what looks like an air tank to the underside and am hoping it won't look too bad...My suspension is obviously very different from the original, i tried adding a bit of filler, but it was all too close to the wheels. A few other compromises i know, but with paint and transfers to come they should look reasonable... For the age of these wagons there must be a few articles around on modelling them but nothing was jumping out at me.. Except for a pic of a superb scratch built one in N. Anyway here are mine.. Er the front one ( Bachmann take credit for the other one) Showing the removed ends... Did try plating one over, but looked too bulky so rubbed away the main part to keep the top angle protruding and the outside angle on the corners.... Curved portions of plastic from the tops of milk cartons seem popular in a few articles on scrap modelling so went for that, along with the diced up Evergreen bits..Colour is still trial and error, it looked more like scrap gold and silver on Sunday... If only Thanks as always for viewing, will put pics up tomorrow of a 37 repaint that started in the late 80s Steve 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
porkie Posted September 13, 2017 Share Posted September 13, 2017 The scrap wagons are a nice touch. I also have a rake of these to build. Although I am going for the blackadder livery. Keep up the good work fella Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freight Connection Posted September 13, 2017 Author Share Posted September 13, 2017 Thanks for the views and likes... Am getting nearer to finishing the one below, it started out as Loch Long, and I pulled it out of my bits box a few weeks ago. The transfers have been tidied up and the red insulation tape nameplates ( Er I know) replaced... I'd chosen Loch Long because it was on a poster I had in the late 80s ( Possibly called the West Highlander ).. I was unsure of the number style so changed it to Loch Lomond recently. Have kept the original colours although I did wipe over the Tamiya blue with Railmatch. The dirt on the roof was a mix of white and ashtray remains at my parents. I was limited on funds and resources as I recall then. When a lot of my locos went down with split gears in the 90s the chassis was required elsewhere, and so the body was relegated. Paint quite thick and brushed on, but I was proud of it at the time so decided not to strip it...Still a bit to do but getting there. I chipped the original Farish headcode box accidentally, and so replaced them with transfers. Model on the right for comparison... Nameplates are 3D transfers from Railtec, I still cant comprehend the amount of detail on them. Other transfers a mix of Railtec and Fox.. Was advised to use Decalfix when I asked to buy Microsol / set. Happy with the results, I may try the others when I'm a little more skilled. Either way, they seem to have pulled down well over panel lines etc.. As the man said they would.. Light bounce, and difficult to photograph but the nameplate border is a nice even colour. Room a mess as I juggle work with clearing the loft and moving my hobbies to the spare room, but nice change from track laying / wiring.. Thanks as always for looking Steve 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freight Connection Posted September 18, 2017 Author Share Posted September 18, 2017 Good afternoon to all... Change in shift patterns has given a little more time in the day, so want to get these wagons done. Have dug an old budget Expo type airbrush out of the loft for practice really, before spending on something more suitable...Bought this one some years ago for another pastime, a little clogged up but cleaned up well. Did a big enough batch to justify getting the hang of mixing / cleaning. Have got the correct blue ready for the scrap wagons, went for warning panel yellow for the ends and tops. The article and pic I worked from show a new wagon in ' Railease Yellow ' but happy with this colour. Was more about getting the paint on in light coats and thinned correctly. Went for the consistency of milk as a few write ups seem to mention. The 20s are recent buys (non / poor runners, both in green & one heavily over painted) Stripped in caustic, and going into large logo grey. Transfers all ready and plenty of real examples on the net to look at for detail. Thanks as always for looking Steve 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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