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

[St. Simon]

Hi Scoobyra,

 

Lovely looking layout, great seeing it develop, I particularly like the unused headshunt line, very effective.

 

What are you thoughts on signalling etc?

 

Simon

[Revolution Mike B]

Hi Scoobyra,

 

Lovely looking layout, great seeing it develop, I particularly like the unused headshunt line, very effective.

 

What are you thoughts on signalling etc?

 

Simon

 

Thanks Simon

 

The signalling is fairly straight forward as there's only 5 signals on the whole layout - 3 main signals (Dorman 3 aspect with a route indicator on the bay to main) and two dummies (one to show right of way from the siding to the main and one to set back from the headshunt. The crossover on the main is controlled by a signal that would be the fiddle yard side of the farm bridge. Luckily, a very some very good friends of mine work for Network Rail, DB Railfreight and Freightliner so I've got a good back up plan if I get the signalling wrong! 

 

Mike

[Southwich]

Really coming along nicely Mike! Superb work, like the canopies and footbridge in particular!

 

Kind regards,

 

Will

[Revolution Mike B]

The scenery supply parcel turned up yesterday from Track Shack - less than 24 hours after I'd ordered it! They'll be going on the list of reputable suppliers then!   Talking of which, Alan got the light head printing underway yesterday and Justin has just received what I can only describe as an engineering drawing done by a 3 year old for the angled palisade fence at the back of the station car park. If he manages to decipher it, he's a genius! 

 

I took the fence out that runs parallel to the bay platform last night as I wanted to replace the posts and after a bit of brainstorming with the rest of the crew, it may not be going back - this will save a fair bit of time consuming work too although I must admit, I quite like it framing the bay line, even though it's not necessarily correct......time will tell.

 

This evening's job will be replacing my home made Code 75 - Code 100 transition track with some pre made stuff (good help me when I have a go at hand built track  ) to stop the trains derailing, followed by more shrubbery. 

 

Right, on with the day job!

Edited April 18, 2018 by scoobyra

[Revolution Mike B]

Well the show's nearly here and the layout isn't finished  Unfortunately, a very poorly father and trying to run a business have slowed things up more than I expected!

 

I'm going to finish off wiring the point motors on the fiddle yard today and then add a few more scenic bits and that will be it. The layout certainly looks in a lot better shape than it's very first outing at Fareham RailEx last November though and at least this time around, there's a station building to look at.

 

Pride of place will be the footbridge, and the station lights which, thanks to Alan of Modelu for making the heads, look exactly like the real lights at Castle Cary.....and are 100% to scale.

 

 

 

Here's an overview of the work so far.....

 

 

There's still loads to do but the main thing is that the trains run very well.....except the Pullman coaches which derail all over the place, despite checking the back to backs and the couplings (if anyone knows a fix for this, please let me know - it's driving me mad!).

 

 

[AdeMoore]

How much movement have you between bogies and the coach, to much play will do it. Some shim with washers etc some use foam just glued on top the bogies to take up the slack. Hope it may help.

[KDG]

Hi Mike.

 

The layout looks really very good.

 

My pullmans ran really bad derailing all the time until I replaced the Hornby couplings with the fixed Bachmann pipe style connectors that come with their coaches. No problems since. You can buy them as spares.

 

Hope this helps

[Revolution Mike B]

How much movement have you between bogies and the coach, to much play will do it. Some shim with washers etc some use foam just glued on top the bogies to take up the slack. Hope it may help.

It appears that the bogies don’t have enough play in them Ade

[Revolution Mike B]

Hi Mike.

The layout looks really very good.

My pullmans ran really bad derailing all the time until I replaced the Hornby couplings with the fixed Bachmann pipe style connectors that come with their coaches. No problems since. You can buy them as spares.

Hope this helps

Cheers Andy, I’ve got a few that I don’t use on my MK1s so I’ll give it a try

[Revolution Mike B]

Well the Pullman saga continues because they don't have NEM sockets.....I forgot to say, these are the later super detail ones with lights! So back to the drawing board with that one for a minute.

 

In the meantime, I've finished the point motors, decoders and most of the wiring, with just a couple of bits left to do this evening. As far as the scenery goes, there won't be any more done between now ad the show as I'm totally zoned out - I'm just going to spend the next few days tidying up the fascia board and checking the board alignments.

 

I'll end this post with a picture of the fence going in, which (apart from the rail side painting not matching from board 4 to 3) makes me feel the whole project has been worth while.

 

Edited April 25, 2018 by scoobyra

[jamest]

Hope it all goes well at the weekend.

 

Looking forward to Taunton!

 

Regards,

James

[GEOEng03]

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

Hi Mike,

Trawling back through the thread to find this, How did you colour match the XC set?  Which paint did you use, or did you implement trial and error! Just picked up a set and three coaches and want to try and do the same with the vents as they look much better when I place my PC against the screen and yours!

 

Weathering certainly takes the brightness off the FGW set and makes the Hornby XC grey much more appealing...

 

Excellent work with the scenery as well.  Will definitely be making efforts to travel to Taunton later this year...

 

Cheers

[Revolution Mike B]

Hi Mike,

Trawling back through the thread to find this, How did you colour match the XC set?  Which paint did you use, or did you implement trial and error! Just picked up a set and three coaches and want to try and do the same with the vents as they look much better when I place my PC against the screen and yours!

 

Weathering certainly takes the brightness off the FGW set and makes the Hornby XC grey much more appealing...

 

Excellent work with the scenery as well.  Will definitely be making efforts to travel to Taunton later this year...

 

Cheers

 

It was indeed trial and error! It's funny because the artwork on the Hornby box depicts the power cars correctly 

 

There'll be a lot more to see at Taunton 

[Revolution Mike B]

The layout is now in bits and waiting to be transported to it's first show of 2018......just in time for it to start throwing it down with rain!

 

For those of you attending Fareham Rotarail, please don't expect miracles, the layout is still very much work in progress and the pictures do it more credit than the real life images. I did give it a fresh coat of paint to make it look a little more presentable though 

 

 

 

...and I even painted the outside 'crash barriers' - although there may be a design fault with these as a MK3 met with an untimely end in a 3 foot drop on to the floor a few weeks back. Luckily, the St Buick's Train Ambulance was on call and managed to resuscitate it......it'll be in service this weekend    

 

 

With Rhys on Baby Sitting Duties, Paul eating cake and Nigel driving trains, it'll be Ian, Dave and Myself steering the ship this weekend and we're planning on having a 90's throw back day with some proper loco hauled trains including 50s, 47s, a 33 Push Pull and a Thumper just to get the local memories flowing.

 

 

[Revolution Mike B]

That’s Rotarail 2018 completed and it went a million times better than the first outing last year! There were a few hiccups, clearly to be expected, but 95% of the layout worked exactly as it should do with just two points deciding to throw a spanner it the works.....but with some running repairs we made good progress with the newly installed fiddle yard. One thing that became apparent very quickly is that a standard 2amp Powercab just isn’t man enough to run the layout! In the words of Hussain Bolt......, we need MORE POWER!!!!

 

Ian’s NSE stock provided a nice distraction from the modern stock and most of it stayed on the rails, except the 159 which didn’t like the code 75 track - even the Pullmans managed a whole lap until I crashed the kettle in to the back of Harry Patch. Someone let their child break one of the station lamps and there was more foliage on the floor at the end of the day than there was on the front of the layout!

 

There was, also an unexpected surprise - those of you that have been following the thread will remember me mentioning a lad in a green T Shirt from the show in November, who had (apologies if this isn’t politically correct) learning difficulties. Well he was at the show yesterday, his name is Matthew and we invited him in to the operating well to watch the trains whizz round. Ian cranked the sound up on the HST and sent it around at warp factor six and we had one happy little chap. The whole day was worth it just to see his reaction.

 

I need to say a big thank you to Dave for helping me transport the layout to the show, and Ian for keeping us in some sort of law and order - it could have got a bit messy otherwise.

 

Putting the small issues to one side, we had a very good show and I’d also like to say a massive thank you to Chris Thomas for inviting us (I say us because I couldn’t have done it without the team) along to a cracking show.

 

Next up, Brockenhurst at the end of May where we’ll have myself, Dave, Rhys and Rich (Southern Mafia) causing havoc and mayhem!

Edited April 29, 2018 by scoobyra

[Rich Papper]

Glad to hear it went well - any pictures? I have a Powercab on Oxford Road and never had problems on it there. When I built home layout - a similar size to yours - I went for the 5A ProCab and haven't regretted it. Also the added bonus that the PowerCab can be used as an additional handset.

Rich

[Revolution Mike B]

Glad to hear it went well - any pictures? I have a Powercab on Oxford Road and never had problems on it there. When I built home layout - a similar size to yours - I went for the 5A ProCab and haven't regretted it. Also the added bonus that the PowerCab can be used as an additional handset.

Rich

 

Cheers Rich

 

I didn't take any pictures but Ian has some with some NSE stock on the layout.

 

The basic Powercab can't cope with 28 accessory decoders that draw 0.57amp on their own and then two additional hand sets running 3 trains at a time. I'm looking at going down the Z21 route as it makes more sense.

[Benjamin Brady]

Hello 

 

  Said it before , cracking layout 

 

  Well done , sorry most of your exhibitions seem down South , will get to see it one day .

 

  Liked the story of the child , as you said it makes it all worthwhile .

 

  Thanks again , lets hope someone post a video of it running .

[Temeraire]

Evening all,

 

Apologies but I only took a couple of short videos and pics of my stock running on Mikes great layout. First up a video of the Tidworth 4-TC arriving at Oak Road after stretching it's legs on the layout.

 

https://youtu.be/Zm9ONZ8whhA

 

 

Earlier in the day the TC was pictured in the bay platform after running in on the branch.

 

 

The 33/1 is a blur as it passes a MoD train at the platform.

 

 

A closer view of the recently completed MoD containers that haven't been seen at Tidworth yet!

 

 

[richscylla]

I really like the layout Mike! I'm just off to read through the thread to find out how you did the platform surfaces - it's the next job on my layout!

[Revolution Mike B]

I've not really had much to report lately as I've been busy trying to make headway in my day job, so unfortunately, the layout has sat idle in the workshop for a week, and if I'm completely honest, I needed a break from it!

 

Justin sent me through some custom made security fence at the end of last week which matches the Wills stuff almost exactly so I'll have a look at getting it in place before Brockenhurst, along with a few other bits and pieces.

 

Anyway, away from the layout, for those of you that want a modern tail lamp with the correct 'twice per second' flash rate, and like me, aren't electronic genius's, I've spoken to Train-Tech and they're going to supply me with an updated version of their ready to go LED tail lamp. Initially, these won't be that cheap as they're going to add the cost of reprogramming it but if all goes well, they'll release it as an additional product. 

 

I guess I could build these fairly cheaply if I bought the components but I'm not particularly great with a soldering iron so I'm happy to see what they come up with.

Edited May 14, 2018 by scoobyra

[Revolution Mike B]

With the Brockenhurst show coming around so soon after Rotarail, I've not really had much time to do anything except paint (and ruin) stock.....and when I say ruin, I mean completely destroy a green HST body......which is now in the process of becoming Sir Kenneth Grange! To be fair, the layout ran very well at its last outing so with no pressure from Andy to get anything else added, it's been nice to chill out for a bit and look forward to playing more trains.

 

Justin from Scale Model Scenery has been busy creating stuff for me again and here's the fence to match the Wills stuff....

 

 

.....unfortunately, it doesn't match it at all because it's way better      This is a bespoke version of the stuff he sells in the SMS shop but with more detail and it looks amazing. It's not quite there yet but it won't be far off and needless to say I'll be removing the Wills fence and replacing it! 

 

 

 

[Revolution Mike B]

Keeping true to the form we had at Rotarail, we're having another 'throw back' theme at this weekend's Brockenhurst show with some more 80's and 90's stock, mixed in with the usual up to date HSTs.

 

I've not had a chance to any other work on the layout so we're just looking forward to running the trains. If you're in the area, pop in an say hello 

[P.C.M]

Hi Scoobyra.

Having seen a link to this thread on Ian's layout thread I have finally had a chance to catch up. You have done a cracking job the trackwork and scenics look spot on.

 

Hope all goes well at Brockenhurst next week, I am sure Ian has told you they are a pretty good bunch there, I was a member for quite a while and always enjoyed the exhibitions.

 

Cheers Peter.

[Revolution Mike B]

That's another show under my belt and more good experience gained.

 

The New Forest Show (Brockenhurst) went almost without fault and with invaluable help from Dave, Ian and Rich (Rhys was apparently watching some excuse for a football team lose in the Championship play off final so didn't make it  ), we had a great time. Shorting out the DCC control is becoming less and less as we start to get used to moving stock around the layout and nearly every point motor behaved itself! To be fair, there were very few running issues and I'm feeling rather proud of myself for managing to build a fairly reliable layout.

 

On Saturday, Ian brought some more of his 80s stock so that we could mix things up a bit from the modern day HSTs, and on Sunday, we had Rich's 90s trains providing a nice distraction from the blue and green snakes. 

 

For me personally, it was a chance to play trains at a very relaxed show, and for the crew to be able to answer questions from visitors on layout building, DCC control, scenery techniques (I'm not sure I'm the best person to be asking) and how we made our trains look weathered. 

 

Lessons learned:

a) Make sure I mark up which boards fit on top of each other for stacking together - it will save time in packing the layout up!

b) Hurry up and get the barrier for the front of the layout to stop people damaging the scenery

c) Remember to charge up the drill during the show so that it doesn't go flat when taking the layout down!

d) Try and allow enough space between the neighbouring layouts so that people don't keep knocking stuff off the track, or opening up board joints due to the layout being rocked.

e) Fix the board joint issue between the Ansford Road Bridge board and the Station Yard board!

 

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend and on behalf of myself, Dave, Ian and Rich, would like to thank the New Forest Model Railway Society for inviting us along with Oak Road and making the exhibition very enjoyable. Would we go again, or recommend the show to anyone else? Most definitely!   

 

Next up, Gaugemaster at the beginning of September.

Edited May 29, 2018 by scoobyra