Cramdin Yard

[7APT7]

Hi Dave

 

This is a GREAT LAYOUT... with some excellent pictures, the scenery in great and I love the great selection of loco?????s...

 

Keep the photos coming...?

 

Regards

Jamie

[Shadow]

Eldavo,

 

Thanks for the "Behind the scenes", good to see the unseen bits

[eldavo]

Bit more progress. All 3 points are now wired and operational, or at least they were before I attacked the board with some spray cans this afternoon! The black paint has been splashed about a bit to start to finish things off while paint on the track is drying.



The track has been given a spray of Halfords red oxide acrylic primer followed by a hefty squirt of Halfords Rover Russet brown to give the sleepers some colour. Getting a good coverage of the copperclad can be a challenge.

Prior to painting the copperclad gaps were given a thin scrape of Yellow/Grey Milliput. I didn't take too much care with this as all you need to do (IMHO) is disguise the gaps. They only really stand out to the eye if they are obviously regular. Here's a fairly close up shot so you can see the effect. It's a bit of a toffee colour mess as the paint is still wet and a bit glossy. The gloss will disappear with a bit of ballast and weathering (I hope).




The gaps are still visible in places if you care to look hard enough. You need to leave something for the anorak and backpack expert brigade to comment on otherwise they'll feel deprived.

Here's a shot of the interleaved turnouts. Now which pillock was sanding down some primed timber "after" spray painting the track? It just adds to the texture.




Amazing how the proportions of the track are suddenly enhanced when you paint the side of the rails. After ballasting I will slop some different rust colours on the rails and pseudo chairs but this should be a good solid base when it dries.

Should be up for assembling the beast and a bit of "testing" tomorrow.

Cheers
Dave

[Scale7JB]

Looks great Dave, very nice indeed...

 

JB.

[mason]

very nice indeed dave, whats next??

 

regards

 

neil

 

 

[7APT7]

Bit more progress. All 3 points are now wired and operational, or at least they were before I attacked the board with some spray cans this afternoon! The black paint has been splashed about a bit to start to finish things off while paint on the track is drying.

 

 

The track has been given a spray of Halfords red oxide acrylic primer followed by a hefty squirt of Halfords Rover Russet brown to give the sleepers some colour. Getting a good coverage of the copperclad can be a challenge.

 

Prior to painting the copperclad gaps were given a thin scrape of Yellow/Grey Milliput. I didn't take too much care with this as all you need to do (IMHO) is disguise the gaps. They only really stand out to the eye if they are obviously regular. Here's a fairly close up shot so you can see the effect. It's a bit of a toffee colour mess as the paint is still wet and a bit glossy. The gloss will disappear with a bit of ballast and weathering (I hope).

 

 

 

The gaps are still visible in places if you care to look hard enough. You need to leave something for the anorak and backpack expert brigade to comment on otherwise they'll feel deprived.

 

Here's a shot of the interleaved turnouts. Now which pillock was sanding down some primed timber "after" spray painting the track? It just adds to the texture.

 

 

 

Amazing how the proportions of the track are suddenly enhanced when you paint the side of the rails. After ballasting I will slop some different rust colours on the rails and pseudo chairs but this should be a good solid base when it dries.

 

Should be up for assembling the beast and a bit of "testing" tomorrow.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Hi Dave

 

Yes... I agree what a bit of paints can really bring the track to a bit of realism...

Nice bit of track and starting to look better already...

 

Jamie

[Brush47337]

I know some call it Chaff - but it would be rude to have fun and learn so much reading every page and not say "thanks" and "brilliant stuff" so.......

 

"thanks" and "brilliant stuff"

 

Stuart

[eldavo]

More progress today. Track is down and wired so it has to be tested! All appears to run pretty much OK. One class 66 took offence to one of the points but I think that is a loco problem that needs investigating. Here's a shot of some of the fleet checking out the new stabling area. Not a lot of space.




No time to waste so I cracked on with the ballasting. Tedious job as we all know but a couple of hours work and quite a lot of Klear floor polish later and it's all done. Cleaning up to be done when all is good and set along with the inevitable unsticking of the points.






Day off to play trains at Bristol tomorrow so no progress.

Cheers
Dave

[7APT7]

Hi John

 

Great bit of track work there mate...

Looks great...

 

Jamie

[Lukasz]

Nicely coloured trackwork there. Well done. Looks nice and flowing aswell.

 

Lukasz

[Markmiller2008]

Looking great there, ive followed this layout for months and it is one of my favourites.

 

Dont suppose you fancy Exhibiting it at Warwick in March (6th) Do you? Ive got a space about the length of the layout to fill and it would be great to see it in the flesh.

I'd PM you but everythings down for repairs i think.

 

Thanks

 

Mark

[eldavo]

... Dont suppose you fancy Exhibiting it at Warwick in March (6th) Do you? Ive got a space about the length of the layout to fill and it would be great to see it in the flesh. I'd PM you but everythings down for repairs i think. ...

 

Unfortunately I can't help you out with the Warwick bash. Sorry but that is the week before Basingstoke and I'm already pushed to get everything up to scratch for that.

 

Cheers

Dave

[eldavo]

Cramdin Yard NOT appearing at the MidHants Freight weekend, 6th and 7th February

 

My apologies to anyone who was thinking of venturing to the MidHants Railway (Watercress Line) this weekend, 6th and 7th of February. Due to changes in venues and arrangements Cramdin Yard will not be on display.

 

Cheers

Dave

[eldavo]

Finding myself with a free weekend and no SWMBO at home I thought I better get on with something. A short break to go and look at trains and drink beer in Alton with the gang of five but otherwise pretty much undisturbed modelling time.

A few things have changed in teh new extension. Backscene has had a dab of paint, track has been weathered and rusted (a couple of times), Chinchilla grit has been liberally sprinkled on to PVA to give some ground texture, bufferstops have been installed, hanging basket liner has been glued on in places to give some rough foliage ground cover, static grass has been puffed about and a hedge has been created using lichen. That's probably about it. Oh and a couple of fuel storage tanks have been built from a Knightwing kit. That's the first structure on the layout that hasn't been scratch built but I couldn't face faffing with the railings and pipework required.

Here's an overview shot. It's not really very big at all.




The storage tanks are a bit bigger than I really intended but I think I can make them fit. They've just been stuck together with solvent and then given a blast of Halfords grey primer so far and are just plonked down to get a feel for things. Unfortunately that bufferstop is going to have to be lifted and moved further back as the siding is now too short to comfortably fit two TTAs.




Looking the other way you can see a fair bit of wet PVA in evidence and it's becoming clear that the weedkilling train doesn't get near these sidings. The bufferstops are all Peco jobbies messed about with.




It's unfortunate the sidings aren't longer as they look fine when they are empty but not so good when things are parked up. Here's a shot of a Gronk pushing a TTA around, it's in the headshunt having pulled the tanker out of the kick-back fuel offload siding.





Can't resist playing to see what photo opportunities are opened up by this extension. Here's a different angle.




That Gronk again!




Finally one of the mucky tractors that inhabit Cramdin yard parked up in the stabling sidings.




I now need to summon up the courage to take a saw to the backscene of the original section to open up the view down the layout!

Cheers
Dave

[PhilH]

Flippin''eck Dave that's good!

[gordon s]

Good grief Dave, you've done all that since we were there, less than 24 hours ago....

 

At 3pm yesterday, there were no trees/bushes, the storage tanks were a pile of bits in a poly bag and no ground cover at all...

 

Is speed modelling about to become an Olympic sport? We may as well give you the gold medal right now...

 

...and what have I done? Painted a pillar....

[mason]

cool, thats looking really smart, the foliage is fantastic and the buffer stops look like they have been there forever, nice work

 

regards

 

neil? 

 

 

[SouthernRegionSteam]

Oh my word! Now that's what modelling is supposed to look like.

Stunning results there Dave - despite the amount of track it still looks spacious. The overgrown look is spot on, i'll be looking forward to more. I must say I have been following this thread for a long time and it gets better the more you post! I'm off to have a re-read of the entire thread.

 

Jam

[mason]

my thoughts exactly jam, this is one of the first threads i ever followed when i joined the forum and its still fantastic and its always worth another read through, and its nice that the layout is still growing, great work and thanks for the hrs of enjoyment its given me, one day ill see it in the flesh, so get your self over the east midlands, anglia area? 

 

regards

 

neil

 

 

[eldavo]

OK the famous five (less one) yesterday visited Cramdin and gave me useful advice like "have you got a circular saw", "hand me that jigsaw", "it's only a bit of MDF" and other gems. So I finally summoned up the courage and performed surgery on the backscene of the original part of the layout to open up the view onto the new extension. Five minutes with a pad saw and a craft knife and...




... it seems OK. No damage done and everything cleaned up. Scary bit overwith I took a couple more shots of the new view and am now off for a lie down in a darkened room. It's quite pleasing that you can see over the fueling point, across the bridge and just see the end of the new sidings. The telephoto doesn't flatter my track laying!




It does rather leave the road overbridge hanging in mid-air but I guess you can't have everything. From a slightly different angle....




Finally the view from the extension back clearly showing the next challenge on the list.




I've also ripped up the fuel unloading siding bufferstop and dropped in 3 more sleepers and a couple of small bits of rail. Hopefully this will give a more usable length siding.

I think it's time for a sit down with a glass of something now. The sun must be below the yardarm somewhere by now.

Cheers
Dave

[Pete Harvey]

Dave

 

I think what you have added looks great only one thing have you missed the circled item in the two attached pictures?

 

 

 

Keep it up Dave it looks great :icon_thumbsup2:

 

Pete

[eldavo]

Ha ha, eagle-eyed Pete. Bit of movement in the track during ballasting that needs some attention. I had spotted it but hadn't got round to sort ing it (yet).

 

Cheers

Dave

[spacehopper100]

Wow..! really impressed with this, something to aspire to

 

love the grass growing over the tracks in the latest update!

[James Hilton]

The overgrown effect on those sidings is really great Dave - superb! Just the effect I'm hoping to get with Paxton Road (this summer when it's warm enough to work on it again!).

 

Question: Where is the tank wagon from? Is it a Bachmann general release or special edition? I need a few for my new project

 

 

 

[eldavo]

... Question: Where is the tank wagon from? Is it a Bachmann general release or special edition? I need a few for my new project

 

I'm pretty sure it was a special edition from one of the box shifters but I can't remember who. I picked it up at Warley a couple of years ago as the price seemed right. I don't buy special editions of anything normally. Need a few more myself now.

 

Cheers

Dave