Oak Road - 2013 to present (a fictitious place somewhere in Somerset) - Raising Money for Meningitis Research

[Revolution Mike B]

The back scene boards are on, with help from Dave (all except the bridge end piece), and I've now taken the layout down so that I can crack on with some more scenery

 

 

 

We also fixed the board joint issue that was causing the derailment so I'm now starting to look forward to the show. I've resigned myself to the fact that I may get a few moans and groans from people due to it not being finished but I'll just stick some ear plugs in and run something completely out of era / region just to annoy them even more!   

[Harry Lime]

Looks really good seeing another modern image roundy-roundy. We'll have to come over and have a play at the Fareham show.

 

Keep going with it; eleven years working on Loftus Road hopefully shows that )t will all be worthwhile in the end - honestly!

[Melangoose]

Hi Mike,

I like your clip of the FGW HST through the Station, (Ian sent it to me). Congratulations on making the circuit operable.

[Revolution Mike B]

Looks really good seeing another modern image roundy-roundy. We'll have to come over and have a play at the Fareham show.

 

Keep going with it; eleven years working on Loftus Road hopefully shows that )t will all be worthwhile in the end - honestly!

 

Thanks Chris.

 

Come over? Your right next door to me.....in fact I'm going to link the fiddle yard up to yours so I can pinch some trains!

[Revolution Mike B]

Hi Mike,

I like your clip of the FGW HST through the Station, (Ian sent it to me). Congratulations on making the circuit operable.

 

Thanks Nigel

 

I haven't worked out how to post videos on here. 

 

There'll be a choice of four whizzing round at the show, along with a voyager, a 37 short set, a dogbox, a 57 / sleeper set, a 66 with a clay train / ballast train, and a Kettle. Nothing else is finished yet! The 158 is still in bits, along with the DRS MK2s, and the 150/2, and the 150/1 is still in regional railways colours. The louvres fell out of the 50 so that's a non starter (unless Ian can repair them) and the 68 doesn't have a chip in it.

 

To be honest, I think this show is going to be more about me playing trains now than what Joe Public think. I've got Loftus Road on one side and Croydon North Street on the other so we'll be more like Side Show Bob   

[SouthernMafia]

Layout looking great. I would stop worrying about the layout being incomplete and focus on what you want to achieve for the show, but most of all enjoy it all!

When I took Portland to Brockenhurst last year I was overwhelmed by the positive feedback despite the layout being far from complete, I think you'll find folk are very interested in seeing a layout in the development stages, even more so when the quality is so high.

 

This and Loftus Rd will be ensuring my attendance at Fareham, look forward to see them both.

[Melangoose]

It sounds like you have amassed a good fleet of trains for your chosen area already. I look forward to seeing them in a couple of weeks.

Don't worry about what you can't finnish in time, by the remarks on this thread there are plenty of folk that will attend the exhibition just to see what you have created.

[big T]

Hi Mike,

 

Youve made some excellent progress since I last visited your thread.

 

Quality modelling.

 

Trev

[PaulRhB]

Or everyone bring a tree

 

Looking good Mike, again saw the vids via Ian

[Revolution Mike B]

Guys, many, many thanks for the positive encouragement - I still not sure I see what everyone else sees!

 

To be honest, I'm a bit disappointed with the layout as a whole, not because of my modelling, or that it's unfinished, but more because it doesn't really look much when it's all put together. From the very start, I had a vision in my mind as to how it would look, and even though most of it looks like I wanted it to, it still doesn't make me feel it's exciting enough. Maybe it's because I've tried to make it as close to real life as possible by modelling the bits nobody bothers with and left out the stuff people expect to see? 

 

Anyway, before I can fit the Ansford Road bridge, I had to fit some more of Colin Craig's dummy clamp locks so I spent most of last night doing this....

 

 

There's 4 on this board in total but one of them needs to be moved as it fouls on the stock - perhaps someone with some S&C knowledge can tell me if there's a set rule for locating the actuator control box?

 

I'm going to make a start on the bridge retaining walls tomorrow and also make up the girder plates for the farm access road bridges. If I pull my finger out, I may be able to get some landscaping done over the weekend.

 

 

 

 

[PaulRhB]

There's no right way mate, I had a G scale layout and rebuilt it in HOm to get more scenery in to get the landscape and run I wanted. That's created issues as the HOm doesn't run as well as the G!

Identify what it lacks for you and see if there's a way to address it. Is it the setting or operation?

I'd do the show and see how it goes. You'll learn what works and what needs addressing and see the reactions which might help identify what's bugging you

[SparxD428]

Mike it's looking great mate. So what if it isn't finished by show time? People will appreciate what you have achieved and are building towards and also how fantastic the layout looks.

Sorry I wont be there to help as I'm of the 50 tour to Glasgow as well that day but hope it goes well and if you're at Weymouth will catch up with you and the crew there.

Cheers

Stu

[PaulRhB]

Mike, I had a look at some of our clamp locks today and the grey control box can be mounted in various positions. Standing well proud of the rails if in the cess or sunk down between tracks in the 6ft with only a couple of inches above rail height.

Edited September 21, 2017 by PaulRhB

[Revolution Mike B]

Mike, I had a look at some of our clamp locks today and the grey control box can be mounted in various positions. Standing well proud of the rails if in the cess or sunk down between tracks in the 6ft with only a couple of inches above rail height.

 

Cheers Paul, most appreciated 

[Revolution Mike B]

Finally pulled my finger out and started on the bridge supports last night....

 

 

It's clear to see that the girder plates are nowhere near deep enough when compared to the real thing, and it's also a bit too high. There seems to be around 3ft clearance and measuring the model, it looks as though I can lower it by around 10mm, which should give me a scale 3ft. This may also help to disguise the plate depth a bit too.......hopefully!

 

If all else fails, I'll scratch build a new one over the Christmas holiday.

[Revolution Mike B]

This evenings exploits in full swing!

 

 

 

I've just blocked the colour to start with to show up any mistakes - it'll be sorted out later 

[Revolution Mike B]

.....and now in situ for a trial fit...

 

 

It's definitely way too shallow but there's not much I can do about it before the show. Tomorrow I'll finish of the pier stones and have a crack at the retaining walls.

[Revolution Mike B]

Had a bit of bad news today as the workshop's been let so I need to vacate by Thursday.....It's not the end of the world as I've got it running, it's just a bit of an inconvenience.

 

Progress has been really slow due to personal reasons but I've got a bit more done on the Ansford Road bridge board. Here's the farm bridge taking shape..

 

 

...ignore the fact that its a little out of square. It'll do for the show!

 

And here's how it looks alongside the other bridge...

 

 

More progress on the main bridge too....

 

 

I'm going to spend a week on this board and then tidy everything up so it looks presentable. The new deadline is Fareham RotaRail 2018!   

 

 

Edited September 26, 2017 by scoobyra

[Crofton]

Had a bit of bad news today as the workshop's been let so I need to vacate by Thursday.....It's not the end of the world as I've got it running, it's just a bit of an inconvenience.

 

Progress has been really slow due to personal reasons but I've got a bit more done on the Ansford Road bridge board. Here's the farm bridge taking shape..

 

Farm Bridge.jpg

 

...ignore the fact that its a little out of square. It'll do for the show!

 

And here's how it looks alongside the other bridge...

 

101 Dalmations.jpg

 

More progress on the main bridge too....

 

Getting there.jpg

 

I'm going to spend a week on this board and then tidy everything up so it looks presentable. The new deadline is Fareham RotaRail 2018!   

I think that you are being over critical of yourself Mike. It's looking great and looking forward to seeing Oak Road "in the "flesh". It'll be brilliant by the time of Rotarail on 28 April 2018 (www.rotarail.webs.com)

Chris

Edited September 27, 2017 by Crofton

[Revolution Mike B]

I think that you are being over critical of yourself Mike. It's looking great and looking forward to seeing Oak Road "in the "flesh". It'll be brilliant by the time of Rotarail on 28 April 2018 (www.rotarail.webs.com)

Chris

 

Cheers Chris, I think I'll always be critical because I know where I've made glaring mistakes. I'm really disappointed that it won't be finished for RailEx and even more so because I'm stuck between Loftus Road, and Croydon North Street!

 

In hindsight, trying to build a 20' x 9' layout on my own in such a short space of time probably wasn't the best idea in the world, especially as my only previous experience was the Club N Gauge one, and even that wasn't anywhere near the same as this. Having said that, I'm glad I started it as it's lead me a whole load of new 'Train' friends and I've learned a lot of modelling skills too.

 

There's certainly a lot more to building an exhibition layout than meets the eye!

[rob D2]

I admire your persistence ,

It's a nice looking layout - keep going !

[Revolution Mike B]

After a lot of huffing, puffing and swearing loads, I've made some more progress on the bridge board. Half of the cutting is in and the rest of the road bed, so at least it I can see how things will eventually end up.

 

Here's the farm bridge....it's not 100% finished and ignore the glue!

 

 

The best I can hope for is to get the polystyrene covered and flock the whole lot - that'll be it....... so if you see me at the show, please don't give me too much of a hard time!

 

From tomorrow, I'm going to fill in the missing ballast from the board joints, attempt to finish the foot bridge and paint the backscene grey/white. Obviously, I'm really disappointed to have let the show down by not having it even 75% finished but I just didn't realise the magnitude of the project, and I also didn't want to lower my modelling standards.

 

It's quite funny really that when I started out in may 2016, I had a clear plan that I would take RTR stuff and see how real I could get it to look, and now 18 months on, everything's changed and I'm scratch building all sorts of bits and pieces, and the biggest challenge now is my modelling ability!

 

After the show, I'm looking forward to sitting down and doing absolutely nothing for a month as I need to get my life back. But until then......four more days of non stop work! 

Edited October 1, 2017 by scoobyra

[birch1]

Just spotted what you called the middle picture in your update dated 26th September - liking it!

 

Seriously though, don't wear yourself out completely, the layout looks brilliant already, so who cares if it is nowhere near the finish line?

[Revolution Mike B]

Well I've just logged on to add another picture from this evening and there's now a 141 people that clearly need a trip to Specsavers!!!   

 

Seriously, I still don't get it but thanks everyone one that's taking an interest 

 

Anyway, I didn't manage as much as I wanted due to a) feeling tired, and b) Nicky needing the kitchen! So here's the progress so far...

 

 

As you can see, there's more brown paper than a Humpty Dumpty Convention!

 

Still loads to do yet but I can't really do much more until I've put the walls in that I built this afternoon. That'll be it now because I need to do other bits and pieces, as well as put some locos and units back together, otherwise I'll be running two HSTs and a pair of 37s all weekend!!!!!!!!!  

Edited October 1, 2017 by scoobyra

[Lowlander]

Well I've just logged on to add another picture from this evening and there's now a 141 people that clearly need a trip to Specsavers!!!

 

Seriously, I still don't get it but thanks everyone one that's taking an interest

 

Anyway, I didn't manage as much as I wanted due to a) feeling tired, and b) Nicky needing the kitchen! So here's the progress so far...

 

Humpty Dumptys Bandage.jpg

 

As you can see, there's more brown paper than a Humpty Dumpty Convention!

 

Still loads to do yet but I can't really do much more until I've put the walls in that I built this afternoon. That'll be it now because I need to do other bits and pieces, as well as put some locos and units back together, otherwise I'll be running two HSTs and a pair of 37s all weekend!!!!!!!!!

Hi

 

As an exhibition manager myself. Having a part finished layout is never a bad thing. People like to ask questions and offer opinions as to why and how you managed to do such and such. You might learn something new, as might they. So don't be hard on yourself. Enjoy the exhibition. And you can also be invited back when the the layout is finished.

 

Stephen

Edited October 1, 2017 by ayrmrg