Violet Valley - Simple Addition .

[CourthsVeil]

Greetings,
me again with yet another idea!

 

This time I fancied a four-sqfoot-layout with a 90°-curve leading into the background. A bit like Giles Barna­be’s proposal Les Tramways de Sarreau (2^nd topic), but with another environment and less crowded. Another examp­le – and this time really built and in full H0 – is the famous Brooklyn: 3 AM, by Prof Klyzlr (but this layout overspreads 4x2 feet, a bit too much for my taste).

 

Later I settled down on an idea stolen / borrowed / copied from Shortliner Jack from the Highlands: Violet Alley – see here (post #18 !). Credit where credit is due! However, I had in mind not an L.A. business district, but a bucolic landscape: much green and a lot of trees along the background. A bit like JAMO’s n-scale-shortline, Westbrook, to name just a couple.

 

This makes for the name of my new layout: VIOLET VALLEY. I see it populated with German as well as with US stock ^*)

 

The preliminary track plan (I just added another siding to the left) looks like this:

 

 

 

In addition this would be a nice opportunity to give the already finished station ensemble “Deinste” a de­cent place: 

 

 

 

Its build thread can be found there.
 

No other buildings are envisaged.
 

This layout will be quite different from all my earlier attempts. I’m already curious about my learning curve re. making trees – esp. conifers.
 

How often I will update here will depend on how much interest it gathers…

 

Regards

  Armin
 

^*) well, a Small Prairie too may creep in, or an Autocoach… the environment is kept neutral and open to many styles.

[Steam_Julie]

What is a fiddle stick?

 

Julie

[CourthsVeil]

Good morning, Julie.

The term "Fiddlestick” has been coined (as far as I know) by Jack aka Shortliner and means a fiddle “yard” consisting of a single track on stripwood – detachable. One might also call it a cassette, a lenghty loco lift or a “train lift”.

See also these links: klickme1 & klickme2 and Fiddlestick switch job.

HTH and regards

  Armin

 

PS: and my own earlier version: there.

[CourthsVeil]

Technicalities

 

Baseboard is 3cm foamboard (aka “Styrodur” – you know, that stuff in a nasty colour, often pink).

At the DIY stores here these usually are sold as ~122x60cm (48x24in) slabs. If I cut such a board lengthwise in half, I get – without much effort – TWO 4-sqfooters. (Btw: cost is around 6€ per slab – could not go chea­per.)
 

When I started my former project Enigma Sidings  I cut off a rectangle measuring 30x95cm – leaving an L-sha­ped rest. Now, this L-piece is exactly what I need to make Jacks proposal reality. That it now is a GIANT   five-sq­foot ba­se­board doesn’t disturb me too much. I just want 1) this trackplan because I love it and 2) to get rid of that ugly piece of foam­board and finally use it.

 

Now some technicalities:
Scale = H0 = 1:87 = 3.5mm, gauge = 16.5mm
Power: plain DC with a handheld controller.
Track­work: “Piko A” flex track + Tillig points (the cheaper ones – as they are shorter).
Points: operated by Rod-in-Trough; frogs live.

No fiddle yard planned, instead my trusted train lift (you also may call it a “cassette” or “fiddle stick”) with stock entering from the l/h end. At the other end I fancy a mirror (thanks Marc Smith!).

 

Motive power will be a small steamer plus a diesel shunter and a railcar, e.g. these:

 

 

 

or maybe others… ?

 

Please note: This layout has a focus on atmosphere rather than high accuracy and tends to follow a 'less is mo­re’ approach. That's not a judgement on other approaches to modelling, this one just happens to suit my inter­ests best. Therefore if you search for prototype fidelity, you quite sure won't find it here. It’s a fic­ti­tional or 'run what­ever' layout as I just wish to run trains for pleasure (and to enjoy a lay­out that does it without problems).

 

Regards

  Armin

 

 

PS: here a pic of my version of a train lift:

[CourthsVeil]

Making Hills

 

I had begun this project already two years (!) ago: cut the baseboard, glued some “hills” along its rim and laid track…

Unfortunately there was bad planning and – in addition – I didn’t treat the points very well. Result: very rough running – if anything was running at all.

So I stored it away in the cellar. Where I stumbled over a 70x50cm masonite sheet and decided to use it for another layout: Port Chambre.

Which now is basically “finished”… Time for a clean up in the cellar. Opportunity to dedust the mis­treated Violet  baseboard and to have a close look at its prospects.

Didn’t look bad. So I ripped all the track and ballast off:

 

 

 

As already said I want a lot of trees along the background and in the corners to enclose the scenery and hold it all together.

The terrain should not be flat as I had it in my earlier layouts. To give it some contour I grabbed a few hand­ful of foam beads. When making another layout (Three Tiers) I had learned that holding them together with hot glue is not so good an idea: all these styro foams melt when heated. So I let drip a lot of PVA on the stuff.

This then can be treated the usual way: covered with paper towels coated with PVA:

 

 

 

The green cover is a leftover of gift wrapping paper, pliable yet very sturdy. This all later will be covered with soil, flocks and cork dust… In the background some paper maché can be seen; I will add much more of this stuff.

 

This all makes a lightweight yet sturdy terrain.

 

These styrodur boards are stronger than styropor, but still rather weak. This layout will not be carried to exhibitions or the like, but within our house from room to room/cellar (mind, it is a micro layout and as such should be portable). So, it seems better to pro­tect its edges. Usually I use stripwood (see there), but here I tried just double sided carpet tape, the strong protective cover remaining at its place (see last pic). We’ll see whether this is sufficient…

 

Your comments or suggestions are welcome

  Armin

 

 

Btw: we had a sunny and very hot day today, but now we have hailing thunderstorms and a cruel drop in temperature…

[CourthsVeil]

Trackwork

 

Made a new start with trackwork. It’s Piko A  code 100 flex combined with Tillig points/crossing. Test runs – powered by the 0-5-0 shunter – showed no problem spots:

 

 

  

The points have electrofrogs, powered via point blades; the crossing, however, has plastic frogs. After some soldering to se­cure the continuity to the rails behind the heels I first tested power with my little polarity detector.

 

After that I got the rattle can out and sprayed the track a light brown (Tamiya ‘Nato-brown’). To protect the contact areas I stuck small pieces of grey card between stock rails and switch blades:

 

 

 

Works a treat!
 

At the moment the tracks are fixed with pins (they hold so well in the 3cm baseboard).

 

 

 

 

The following test runs (now powered by real current) proved satisfactory – with the exception of certain railcars: those where the wheelbase equals the distance between the crossing’s frogs. But, much to my sur­prise, all my small four-wheeled diesel shunters negotiate the crossing without any difficulty – despite its in­sulated frogs.

 

The points at the moment are still switched by the Hovering Crane aka Deus ex Machina…

 

By the way: at this stage the whole thing tips the scales at no more than 1024 gr (2¼ lb).

 

Regards

  Armin

[Steam_Julie]

What's an 0-5-0 shunter?

 

Julie

[CourthsVeil]

The same 

 

What's an 0-5-0 shunter?

Julie

 

 

The same as a Hovering Crane or the Deus ex Machina: my hand.

 

Regards

   Armin

[Zomboid]

Love this idea, and hope one day to shamelessly rip it off (probably in HOe).

[CourthsVeil]

You're welcome !

H0e - that sounds interesting.

Pls let us know...

 

   Armin

[CourthsVeil]

Control Panel

 

To operate the three points I keep things as simple as possible. Just my well tried Rod-in-Trough design.

 

Along the front of the baseboard I glued a length of stripwood, this serves as base for what I call “Control Panel”. A high flying word for nothing more than a length of L-section which is fastened with two screws to the stripwood:

 

 

 

I cut a few rectangular holes opposite the resp. points and bolted DPDT-switches underneath. Brass rods are bent and cut to length, then at the throwbar end a bit of guitar string glued in a hole:

 

 

 

Wot – no W-loop, no choc-blocks etc.??? No: just a switch, a rod and springy wire – that’s all. K.I.S.St…      

I admit: one needs patience and precision to align it all and make it work flawlessly. As the Italian says: tutto molto difficile!

But it pays: what’s not in can’t go kaputt…      

 

In order to put the points again exactly to the right positions I made marks with black fat felt pen:

 

 

 

Down left also one of my uncoupling magnets can be seen; there are six of them buried under the track.

 

Let me know what you think.

 

  Armin

[CourthsVeil]

Going astray

 

I'm a self confessed butterfly, so from week to week you can expect me to be working on something completely different as my interests, motivation and even health change.

 

So here we go then: the other day one of the discounters here offered drinking straws; they are made from Polypropylene (PP). In a German modelling thread I found the proposal to use these straws to make a load of steel tubes. Only problem: PP is known to reject every kind of glue. I tried CA – didn’t work, as expec­ted:

 

 

 

Then I gave old­school Uhu a chance – know what? until now my tubes keep holding together ^*):

 

 

 

By the way: I learned that this stuff is very electrostatic – which led me to another application…

 

Until next time

  Armin

 

 

^*) ...at least as long as they remain in their confinement and I don't touch 'em!

 

 

edit = better pic

[CourthsVeil]

Next step was to attach droppers to the track. Again this follows the KISS concept: just power between the two points in the foreground (red/blue), one additional dropper each to the respective sidings (white) to cut off power according to points setting:

 

 

 

As you see, the soldering was done with the tracks taken away from the baseboard – saves you a lot of trouble… Thereafter:

All track now being laid out again, the switch wires threaded in the throwbars (as already said: precision plus patience ! ), and all fixed to the foamboard with a combina­tion of pins and double sided carpet tape. These allow to patch any kinks or not (yet) fitting sleepers, etc. See there – no kinks:           

 

 

 

Next step was a lot of test runs. No, I don’t write (and then strike trough) “playing”, ‘cause I don’t get a “playing” feel as long as there is no more than bare foamboard and no hint of atmospheric environment. It was simply test work, no play.

But without any problems: all the locos I want to use on this layout quite happily inch along over the points as well as the diamond crossing (insulfrogged).

Result: chuffed!      

 

Made a stock of ground scatter: went to the bed in the garden, got a few spoonful of soil which then under­went a thor­ough wash to remove the organic float. Then into the baking oven and sterilized at ~150°C.

Next step was sifting through a set of sieves with meshes of various fineness (down to 0.18mm = 7thou).

Result: a nice assortment of ground cover – from pebbles down to dust:

 

 

 

As usual I did some inglenooking – just to ascertain whether everything still is ok. Discovered that one of the uncoupling magnets has no effect. Seems to lie a bit deep under their sleepers. Must either replace it or raise it…

Model railroads do everything to keep us busy…        

 

More to follow - watch this space! And your comments and questions are welcome.

 

Regards

  Armin

 

 

edit: uncoupling magnet fixed within a few minutes

[CourthsVeil]

Bushes

 

As a start into tree making (better said: ReStart, ‘cause I had done several deciduous ones a few months ago) I turned to bushes. I took enamelled wire, cut a lot of 1” lengths, put bunches of eight each which I kept to­gether by drilling them:

 

 

 

These were dipped into latex and immediately sprinkled with fibres. These are either the well known aqua­rist’s filter stuff or – what I prefer – sisal fibres cut down to some 6mm.

After curing they got a puff spray mount and were dipped into modeller’s foliage – various brands to provi­de some variety:

 

 

 

They are not yet planted – first comes covering most of the flat terrain with chinchilla dust and other scatter.

 

More to come...

  Armin

[CourthsVeil]

Sculpting ground

 

Bushes with leaves now:

 

 

 

At left with the well known filter fibres, the others with sisal fibres – gives some variation, as well as the differing leaves.

 

Some ground sculpting: I had made some papier maché (kept in the fridge) and now positioned it liberally over the “landscape”. Here around the track leading into the background:

 

 

 

When it was dry – several days later – I mixed up a greyish brown and painted it; I did this rather sloppily since it all will be hid­den by trees in the foreground – hopefully… Thereafter this all was sprink­led with the above mentioned ground scatter from the garden.

 

 

Lacking experience with commercially made trees but wanting to get rather quickly a forest-like background I checked the offers of the usual suspects (Busch, Faller, Noch, etc.). And ordered a lot of the conifers I found there – various makes (you see: I’m after experience). What I got is not even fit to be hidden in the back­ground. (Yes, I know, for a few bucks per tree one cannot expect much, but I’m not in a position to pay 19.90 per tree… Or twice that…) What I learned, amongst others, was that the images depicting those trees must be quite small, so that the venerated customer has no chance to get a correct idea of what he will pay for. E.g. for green coloured bottle cleaners...

 

As said, I wanted to have a kind of background, although a very provisional one. So I planted a first lot of them into a corner. Look here:

 

 

 

This shows quite well the need to learn how to make my own trees. Eventually – as the time and my health allow – I will get to the level I achieve and then will rip these little monsters off and replace them with my homemade stuff.

 

So watch for what will come

 

  Armin

[CourthsVeil]

1^st Fir

 

What a difference:

 

 

 

Quite steep and long learning curve ahead…  

 

Regards

  Armin

[CourthsVeil]

Bushes in situ

 

The first bushes are planted now, they adorn the rocks leading into the background:

 

 

 

 

  Armin
 

[CourthsVeil]

Platform

 

For the platform I had (two years ago) already two cork sheets ( 5mm each ) glued down. I wanted its surfa­ce to look like grit, so I tried a sheet of emery paper (I think it’s 1200). This glued onto the cork – looked much too dark. Next step was light grey  pastel chalk powdered and rubbed in with a thick soft brush. This gives an uneven look which I prefer.

The edge then got a cover of paper printed with “Aged Clapboard” (Scalescenes). After all, the scene should look rural. And H&S had nothing to say at the site/time…

 

 

 

Then the ways leading to the station: I brushed latex along the ways, then sprinkled with chinchilla sand. Repeated to raise the level a bit. Then ground limestone (ASOA #1209) to flatten it:

 

 

 

 

A wash of light grey acrylics will follow. Or anything else? Do you have comments or suggestions?

Would like...

 

Regards

  Armin

 

 

[CourthsVeil]

Driveway

 

Greenery is starting around the platform: first somewhat in the middle of the driveway to the left. These show what I want there:

 

 

 

And this may give an impression of the atmosphere I’m after:

 

 

 

It’s just the beginning – quite a lot to do there.

 

  Armin

[CourthsVeil]

Birch

 

Whilst I’m waiting for grass to dry, I revitalized a birch tree I had tried some time ago. It didn't satisfy me, it looked like some wires with flights of rare leaves. Just the stem was alright - for me...

Disappointed, I lost all motivation.

Yesterday I dedusted it and did a new start:

This time I added some foliage (a fleece with leaves). It now looks better than before, but I think it should be a bit denser…

 

 

 

What do you think?

  Armin

[CourthsVeil]

Pasture

 

Whilst I’m trying to make various forms of trees (for the time being only presentable to very, very relaxed and polite company…) I started planting the area along the curve to the background:

 

 

 

First a base layer of short olive fibres, then (after drying, of course) a thin and irregular layer of 2mm fibres of vivid green colour; this makes the main body of the pasture. It gets another “coat” with longer (4mm) grass of a bit subdued green – also irregularly spread. However, I do not paint the area I work at with streaks of glue, as can often be seen in video clips. Since I have never seen such streaks of dark green etc. colour in nature; no sharp boundaries there. But rare (!) pillows of high grass are possible; on the other hand some dry, sandy spots. And smooth blending to drier, fawn grass far away from any shadow or wetness:

 

 

 

A few brambles will follow here and there… Then I also will lift the small strips of masking tape I had laid down to spare little footpaths along the track:

 

 

Yes, I know: the needles stand out like sore thumbs, but I want to test all the trackwork (esp. the points) thor­ough­ly before sticking it down with ballast, so it can be easily lifted for tweaking (or major surgery!).

 

Now waiting for the latex to dry... 

 

Regards

  Armin

[CourthsVeil]

As I said above, I want my birches a bit denser. So I did another one quick’n dirty just to try this aquarist’s filter stuff:

 

 

 

This is what came out after sprinkling it with light green leaves:

 

 

 

Now both in comparison:

 

 

 

Somewhere in a thread re. tree making I found the words “Every tree is a surprise”, followed by Jos’ (aka Grove Den, one of the undoubted Deans of Tree Making) answer “That’s still the case with me!”

What a relief…!!!  

 

More to do and to follow...

 

  Armin

[CourthsVeil]

Present state of the pasture – some sheep are already ordered:

 

 

 

No comments?

 

   Armin

[Zomboid]

I have nothing of value to say, other than "looks good"

[CourthsVeil]

Trees

 

You should not think I’m lazy… 

 

 

 

And here you see my Trial Tree:

 

 

 

I use it to try out various methods of adding fibres to represent twigs, and flocks and other “leavery”; upper part still free for experiments.

As you see, I am making trees – well, with mixed success.

However, this fir certainly looking a bit better than what I did show here three weeks ago:

 

 

 

Ah, this learning curve; reminds me of the myth of Sisyphos…

 

Then I could not resist and mocked some of my new treasures up at their place:

 

 

 

 

Btw: I think I have done enough trial runs playing alone and with the grandsons to convince me that the points will work reliably and that I NOW CAN START BALLASTING !!!

 

To get rid of these nasty pins, finally.       

 

Regards

  Armin