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

[Revolution Mike B]

I forgot to add these earlier, they're the up to date overall layout progress pictures.

 

 

 

There's not a lot more to be done except add the station lights, furniture, signage, people and road / car park markings. 

 

 

The farm bridge has been removed so that I can glue my fingers the copper clad joins to the boards and again, there's really not much more to happen here except finish off the road, add grass, bushes, trees, and more trees! There's also some more of Justin's excellent chain link fence that needs to be erected and some security palisade fencing adding around the virtual quarry. The signals won't be added unless there's a show due to the fact that they're quite fragile and I don't want to keep breaking them!

 

On the running side, apart from one track joint, trains fly around everything at warp factor 7 - an achievement in itself so I'll have the soldering iron out later in the week to remedy the issue.

 

Yesterday, I spoke to Matt Taylor at Gaugemaster to confirm our attendance and if anyone can't get to the Worthing show, you'll be able to see it at 'The home of the Engine Shed' for free! You'll even be able to see some guest operators from another well known modern image masterpiece running my trains correctly.       

 

 

[AdeMoore]

Well I stuck to my word and left the layout well alone for a few days to avoid taking two steps forward, three steps back!

 

In the meantime I did this.....

 

Dirty XC.jpg

 

Dirty FGW.jpg

 

Weathered JNA.jpg

 

Since taking this picture, the JNA has had some further work on it and it doesn't look quite as blotchy now.

 

And finally, for those die hard HST fans (ignore the wayward foliage that's fallen off the bushes).......

 

Off to Plymouth.jpg

Some railway room you have there or use of? Metal electrical trunking around it and a proper fire door! Tidy space to have by the look of it. Oh and the modelling ain’t bad either like what your doing keep it up.

Cheers

[Revolution Mike B]

Some railway room you have there or use of? Metal electrical trunking around it and a proper fire door! Tidy space to have by the look of it. Oh and the modelling ain’t bad either like what your doing keep it up.

Cheers

 

Cheers Ade

 

It's taken a while!

 

The modelling room is an empty workshop kindly loaned to me by the manager of our business centre, until they let it to a customer.......this is probably the 5th one I've been in now and I consider myself very lucky to be able to use them.

 

Mike

[Revolution Mike B]

This is the first time I've posted a video and it's nice to show that trains do actually run!

 

 

Hope you enjoy it.

[Bogie]

It would be pointing out the obvious to note that the video is very short - but hey I enjoyed it.

 

I hope it is the just the beginning!

[SouthernMafia]

Watched that at work I thought I was watching live CCTV of Castle Cary! Looking great Mike, I've always been impressed with your colour palette and surrounding scenics too. Hopefully whatever follows Portland will be to your standards!

[Revolution Mike B]

Watched that at work I thought I was watching live CCTV of Castle Cary! Looking great Mike, I've always been impressed with your colour palette and surrounding scenics too. Hopefully whatever follows Portland will be to your standards!

 

Flippin' 'eck Rich?! There's not much wrong with yours!

[Revolution Mike B]

I took another day off from the layout today as it's getting a bit tiresome spending 3 hours at a time wiring stuff up and gluing my fingers together, so I decided to do some more work on my bargain MK1s.

 

 

These two are in different states of updating, the one on the left with a trial fit of some Replica Railways seating, and the one on the right with a darker roof and the bogie detail finished.

 

I need to find a paint colour that matches the Hornby maroon colour as it's very close to the West Coast livery. The Railmatch maroon is way dark and sticks out like a sore thumb!

 

Ok, they lack the detail of the Bachmann MK1s but these RailRoad coaches really were great for the money and owe me £17 each including the Bachmann bogies. I managed to pick up a choc /cream one for £15 which seems to be about the cheapest I've found lately. I could've gone the whole hog and cut the steps off  the ends but I've not quite got there yet. It's such a shame they never made them in cream / crimson as they'd save me a fortune.....but I've a cunning plan up my sleeve if I can fine some more choc / cream ones at sensible money 

Edited April 12, 2018 by scoobyra

[andi4x4]

If you are still looking for cheap coaches, keep your eyes on ebay for the Hachette coaches that were part of the Model Railway Village partwork they did. I have half a dozen waiting to be detailed, however, they are good just as they are so long as you don't try to propel them - they don't like that !  I bought some of the Bachman rigid couplings to connect the rake together which improves thing a fair bit.

 

I paid an average of £6 per coach for my six, but, they sell for quite a bit less occasionally - last one I was watching went for £3.50 !  

 

This is one - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BR-Mk-1-Coach-Maroon-OO-Gauge/192499501896?hash=item2cd1dd4b48:g:7qIAAOSwsTdawdXQ

[Revolution Mike B]

Cheers Andi

 

They’ll be ideal to repaint!!

 

Mike

[Revolution Mike B]

18 days until RotaRail   

 

Things are moving forwards, just 8 more point motors to fit and wire up, and then the fiddle yard will be fully automated. I spent most of yesterday playing trains, which isn't overly productive, but it made me feel good watching them whiz round and round quite happily without issue (apart from the Pullmans that wouldn't stay on the track), and it went quite a long way to proving reliability. There's still a couple of rogue board joints that need attention and some of my home made Code 75 to Code 100 converters leave a lot to be desired so they'll need to be sorted out at some point too.

 

The rest of this week is going to be spent road painting, grassing and tree building! 

[Revolution Mike B]

Two weeks to go and the layout still looks like a building site, so if you're attending RotaRail 2018, try and look past the lack of road signs, station signs, non working signals and other details that'll be missing!

 

So far I've managed to get a fair bit more ground cover down, rewired some suspect bus wires, fix 90% of the rouge fiddle yard track work, and get started on an operational plan for routing trains......I've also acquired some of these..

 

 

These are from an ebay seller called Dorspring and cost a fiver for 100. I'm not sure of there origin but with a bit of work, they're quite useable, if not a little on the large side (so unsuitable for MK2 coaches and there's some odd shaped women!) After doing a bit of research on surgical procedures, I got the scalpel and cutters out and did a bit of plastic surgery (I'll get my coat....) to make them look more reasonable, and not 8' tall!

 

 

My painting skills on platforms may be a good standard but working with these clearly showed I was in need of a bit of practice at figure painting! Apparently, the guy on the right looks like me......but needs to have more grey in his beard!

 

Here's my modified people next to a Bachmann figure....

 

 

 

The Bachmann figures are pretty tall so I'm going to look at some HO scale ones to get a more varied assortment in height.

 

.....and finally.....

 

Edited April 13, 2018 by scoobyra

[James Makin]

Looking good mate!

 

If it helps, you can get the people a little cheaper next time as well!

 

 

Just got to search “1:75 figures” and they’ll show up on eBay!

 

Cheers,

James

[Revolution Mike B]

Looking good mate!

 

If it helps, you can get the people a little cheaper next time as well!

 

DBB23B7C-A6B1-4A6B-A0DF-693D3A7553DF.png

 

Just got to search “1:75 figures” and they’ll show up on eBay!

 

Cheers,

James

 

Now you tell me!    

[Modelling Mike]

I’ve just been catching up on the last few months progress on this thread, and have to say this is promising to be a belter of a layout! The station area is looking fantastic. Just enough of a hint of Castle Cary, but with its own unique Somerset flavour. I thoroughly enjoyed the video. Nothing quite like an HST at full pelt through a sleepy station to get the blood racing!

 

I was hoping to head along to the Gaugemaster event in September, work permitting. Now I know Oak Road will be there, that's even more incentive to make sure I can get along...

 

Keep up the good work, and best of luck for Rotarail!

[Benjamin Brady]

Morning 

 

  As the last one said , this layout does have atmosphere , and it is Modern image !!!!!!.

 

 Pity we live up North , love to see this layout ,  

 

 Good luck at your next exhibition .

 

  As from a previous thread , your layout does have soul .

 

  Well done  

[Revolution Mike B]

I spent most of the day at the workshop today doing bits and pieces.

 

First up, some more fence posts for the chain link fencing....

 

 

 

This is the same as the fence I used at the other end of the layout and was supplied by Scale Model Scenery. It's a bargain considering how much you get in a pack and comes with a cranked tops, but as I wanted straight posts I cut them off of the others, and Justin sent me this lot through with straight posts. I'll get the mesh fixed on at some point this coming week.

 

The other thing I managed to get done was a bit of shrubbery....

 

 

 

 

.....this takes forever!

 

The good thing is, it fills the blank spaces up fairly quickly and it'll make the layout look more presentable, even though it won't be finished. I've run out of microfibre now so I'll have to go and buy some more tomorrow!

 

 

[d winpenny]

Looking great as ever keep it up

 

David

[Mike K]

This is the first time I've posted a video and it's nice to show that trains do actually run!

 

 

Hope you enjoy it.

 

I had to do a double take on that video for a moment, very realistic - and realistic speeds for the trains too.  Superb layout, well done.

 

Mike

[sb67]

Just came across this thread and been reading through, got to say that it's a fantastic layout! It looks stunning and I love the video of the HST's, they look so real speeding through the station. I love your attitude and perseverance to modelling as well, I'm looking forward to many more updates. One question and apologies if I've missed it but what did you use to get your sleeper spacing? I've tried it but found it difficult to get consistency.

Steve.

[Revolution Mike B]

Just came across this thread and been reading through, got to say that it's a fantastic layout! It looks stunning and I love the video of the HST's, they look so real speeding through the station. I love your attitude and perseverance to modelling as well, I'm looking forward to many more updates. One question and apologies if I've missed it but what did you use to get your sleeper spacing? I've tried it but found it difficult to get consistency.

Steve.

 

Thanks Steve

 

When I first started, I mad a little plasticard jig but that eventually went out the window because I did it all by sight after a while - you kind of get used to what the spacing should be. I think it also helps with the track appearance as the spacing isn't uniform.

 

Mike

[tjf4375]

This is looking superb Mike - I love the 2nd and 3rd shots in your post yesterday. Perfect looking tarmac, and that cable trunking in the 3rd shot is brilliant. Keep up the great work

[Revolution Mike B]

This is looking superb Mike - I love the 2nd and 3rd shots in your post yesterday. Perfect looking tarmac, and that cable trunking in the 3rd shot is brilliant. Keep up the great work

 

Cheers Tim. If you're referring to the tarmac on the road - it's not finished yet! I'm not sure about the trunking either as it's a bit too wide.......but it can stay for now as I don't have time to rip it up and replace it.......but watch this space for the September show 

[Revolution Mike B]

Well I've run out of Polyfibre so that's the end of the bush making until the Postman arrives! Still, it'll give me a chance to get some more decoders fitted! 

 

Here's a few pictures from yesterday evenings antics.....

 

....the footbridge is starting to look quite at home now..

 

 

...and this is one of my favourite views....

 

 

The camera of death highlights the rather large coloured scatter!

 

 

There's a fence that needs to be fitted to the platform on the left hand side but I'm struggling to find a mesh that's small enough without paying a fortune for it! If all else fails, I'll end up using some more spear fencing!

 

 

.....and here's a view back the other way. The area in the foreground will be more bushes and, surprise surprise, more fencing    Alan is printing the station light heads today and I'm really looking forward to adding these as they make so much difference to the ambiance of the platforms. 

 

 

Time really is running out fast now and there's still so much to do - the area to the right of the Ansford Road bridge definitely won't be finished but it'll allow me to explain the plans for it. The main focus is making sure the layout runs reliably and doesn't cause any issues and luckily, the exhibition is 2 miles from my office so I'm not worried that I've not made any end plates yet - if I need to make two or three trips to transport it then it's not the end of the world. I just need to make sure I don't break anything!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cherrham Junction]

The layout is coming along nicely indeed. Scenery looks superb!