Cramdin Yard

[eldavo]

Cramdin has been laying dormant in the garage all packed up after returning home from it's first show in Basingstoke way back in March. As it has another outing at the Kermow/YMR exhibition down in Cornwall in September I really need to get on and make a list of things that need doing. So today saw an extended "testing" session with the layout rigged. Strangely enough almost everything was still working but something odd seems to have happened to the rollingstock!



I'm sure when I last ran the thing the deseasals all had EWS or Freightliner written on the sides now they nearly all seem to be green and have BR totems! Truth is PhilH dropped by with his "green diesel" collection and we had a play. He also brought some appropriate stock so here we see a collection of 13ton tankers in the fuel offloading point which makes a change to rather boring grey TTAs.



He did seem to paint himself into a corner with rather a large number of locos on the layout at once!



Onward and upward. The traverser has stopped working again so I need to get on and fix it (permanently).

Cheers
Dave

[Pete Harvey]

Still Looks great Dave.

 

Pete

[Arpleymodeller]

Bring back EWS!!!

Its good you can operate different eras with no structures set in a specific period of time so you are free to set the layout in whatever time frame you want - steam/early diesel, br blue or privitisation

Regards

Lewis

[eldavo]

Actually got stuck in and started preparation work on Cramdin over the last week. There's a whole list of little jobs to do sorting odd niggles and finishing things off. There are also a couple of fairly major items as well. One is the backscene.

When I took the covers off a few weeks ago I realised the backscene really was not in a good state. Way back I realised, and several people commented on it, that the backscene was too overpoweringly blue. I took steps to tone it down but even so it was still too in your face. In addition the left and right fiddle yards were built at different times and really did not match the centre board. To add to it some nasty marks had appeared through problems with securely locating the covers and transporting. Basically it needed a repaint.

So how do you replace a backscene that is welded into the layout? You don't, you respray it with an airbrush with all the scenery in place! Yes the lunatics have taken over the asylum. Nobody in their right mind would attempt to respray a backscene with all the scenery in place, would they?



Yes.

The backscene has a number of printed building images pasted to it so all these were given a blast of matt varnish (Ronseal, it does what it says on the tin) to try and protect them from overspray. In fact I relaised these had never been sealed and some had taken damage from the damp of water-based paint and glues!

Everything was then blasted with white emulsion paint to try and get it back to as flat, smooth and white as possible. I didn't get it back to completely white or as smotth as I would like but near enough.



With a couple of coats of white in place a very pale blue emulsion was then airbrushed on starting from the top and trying to grade it down to white at the bottom. This wasn't entirely successful as my airbrush wasn't really capable of a wide enough spray so I then had to mist on more white to even things out and tone down in areas. Eventually I ended up with something passable. It aint perfect but at least all three boards are now consistently mediocre!



When this was all good and dry I cleaned off the overspray on the printed building using a damp cloth then sealed the whole lot with a coat of matt varnish. Now to repair all the damage from overspray etc.

Cheers
Dave

[Jenny Emily]

Interesting technique for revitalising the backscene. I'm faced with a similar problem and have been summoning up the courage to try much the same.

[eldavo]

Having finished messing with the backscene there were a few bits and pieces to repair and generally titivate, in particular the greenery along the backscene. One item I have never been entirely happy with is the tree that sits in the corner behind the fueling point. It's quarter profile due to its location and it was one of my first attempts at tree building. It looked a bit lame so I have been doing some work on it and generally beefing it up a bit. Not brilliant but it'll do I think.



As you can see the layout is still travelling through some kind of time warp. We seem to have got as far as sector livery! In fact this is the only loco I have in sector livery and it's been sitting in a cupboard unloved as it came from Bachmann for a year or two now. It's completely out of period for Cramdin but I felt like doing a bit of weathering so out it came.



I really should flog it as I don't have a use for it but after messing with it I quite like it. I suppose I could use it as an excuse to buy more locos and build up another fleet.

Cheers
Dave

[ColinW]

Interesting to see how you have re done your back scene Dave, our club layout is needing anew back scene so we may just copy this idea. Will be looking forward to seeing Cramdin Yard at Tonbridge next February.

 

Colin

[will5210]

I've just read this from start to finish & its fantastic! I particularly like the ballasting & the clever extensions.

[Andrew P]

Brilliant work on the back scene, well done and a very brave move. The coal sector 37 looks very insirational and takes me back to my Kingsmill days (see galleries). I have just found a NEW Heljan 47 in Res livery and will be adding sector livery 47 and 37's soon ready for my next project Dees Dale Yard which will be pre EWS. Keep up the good work and adding more pic's. Andy.

[eldavo]

Trying to get some scenic details finished that have somehow managed to remain undone. A few minutes of tinkering with some wire and solder and we have this weeks mystery object.



Does a close up help?



Cheers
Dave

[Stubby47]

Hydraulic pipe work for the traverser, or more pipework for the oil depot ?

 

Either way, looking forward to seeing this again!

 

Stu

[mudmagnet]

Dave,

Although sector livery isn't my modelled period - your weathering looks really good. Fits in well in the siding.

[eldavo]

Anyone who figured the bits of wire were part of the pipework for the fuel unloading point go to the top of the class. On second thoughts, go to the bottom of the class as you are definitely spending too much time reading posts on web forums!

More work on it today sees it installed and painted. Also a ramshackle corrugated iron shed thing has been constructed to hold all the valves and pumps. That'll save modelling the difficult bits!



From a different angle.



I've also added the point levers and so this board is pretty much done as far as I am concerned. Once the paint has dried I need to repair a bit of track damage at the board joint and then this one can be packed away again so I can get my car back in the garage.

Traverser next I fear!

Cheers
Dave

[mudmagnet]

Dave,

Pipe work looks great. I am planning to build my own 'shed' for the pumps on my depot - again making all the pumps etc could be a bit of a pain!

[eldavo]

Pre-show titivation continues on Cramdin. The fuel storage/loco stabling end of the layout is good enough now I think so attention has moved to the other end and the traverser. At the first outing at Basingstoke earlier this year the bloomin' thing wouldn't work having got shaken about and got out of alignment during transportation. It had to be a "scenic feature" for two days. Not good enough and it needs to be fixed. This weekend saw work on it commence.

This shot from a while ago also belies another problem...



It all looks fine but in actual fact some bozzo has built the control cabin too close to the tracks! Some rollingstock actually fouls the roof of the control cabin. Time for a few adjustments.

The cabin was carefully separated from its platform with a craft knife and an extension fitted so that it could then be refitted 9mm further away from the rails. A couple of extra bits were added to extend support brackets etc. Simple enough but then I needed to modify the handrails that carefully terminated against the sides of the cabin. A couple of steel plate pieces were added (they are obviously part of the cantilever support for the cabin platform!) and an extra vertical stanchion was added. Done.



Part of the problems with operation were actually to do with the pair of wires that run from under one end of the bridge and engage with the vertical driven pin. These wires were too thick and crude meaning they fouled the slot in the side wall and generally messed things up. Rather than widen the slot and make it more obvious I elected to build a new locating bracket from thin brass. This can be seen nearest the camera in the following shot.



With the new brass widget the platform moves much better and is a bit more controllable. It's still not good enough and I need to add some additional step down gearing to the mechamism under the boards. I have a selection of plastic gears that will do the job but I can't find them anywhere. It may have to do for the next show as it is if I can't find them in the next few days.

A lick of paint and some weathering applied and we have this.



It does move honest!



Cheers
Dave

[Pete Harvey]

Very Very nice Dave.

 

Pete

[eldavo]

Kind of a boring detail added today. The larger half-relief works building at the extreme left of the layout is removable and consequently can't be snuggly fitted into the curve of the backscene in the corner. This left a rather obvious gap that needed disguising. To try and hide it I've added some clutter to the roof of the building including a largish ventilator thingy and a few smaller vents. The larger jobby quite nicely disguises tha gap that allows the building to be removed.



Cheers
Dave

[SouthernRegionSteam]

Looks fantastic, Dave.

I like the subtle shades of weathering on the roof - really looks the part.

The traverser is very good and yet again it's the weathering on it that really stands out to me. Despite all the extensions you have managed to successfully merge them all as if they were there all along. Two other things that stand out to me are the attention to detail in your modelling and the atmosphere.

 

It's all coming along nicely. I take it now it is just all those little adjustments that need to be made and most of the scenic work is now complete?

[torkardlane]

Looks fantastic Dave, the traverser is something else. Re traverser cabin nice that you admitted your mistake makes me feel normal with all the cock ups I produce .

 

Tom

[eldavo]

Big clean-up day today as I realised I'm rapidly running out of free time before the Kernow/YMR show next weekend. The layout has been assembled, vacuuumed and all track cleaned with lighter fluid. In addition all the locos have had a wheel clean and all rollingstock couplings have been sorted and adjusted. Must be about ready for the off then.

The green team have a little amble about the freshly cleaned layout. It's called testing!



Cheers
Dave

[mudmagnet]

Dave,

 

I'm looking forward to seeing this at the weekend, shall be visiting on Sunday, with camera, so will come over for a chat and take a few photos.

 

Richard

[eldavo]

I'm looking forward to seeing this at the weekend, shall be visiting on Sunday, with camera, so will come over for a chat and take a few photos.

 

Jolly good. If you want to play trains I'm sure something could be arranged.

 

Cheers

Dave

[JohnDMJ]

Lighter fuel leaves a greasy deposit on the rails! For your gauge, that may not cause problems but it causes me havoc in T Gauge!

 

Best Wishes for Kernow!

[mudmagnet]

Great to see Cramdin Yard in the flesh today and had a good chat with Dave. Looks even better up close and personal.

[Penlan]

....... and had a good chat with Dave. Looks even better up close and personal.

Well, Dave's OK, but .... B)