Aberdeen Kirkhill T&RSD

[GWRPhil]

Any updates on the work on the layout recently?

[Flood]

Glenn is still laying the ballast. Boards 4 and 5 have been done, boards 6 and 7 to follow next and then boards 1, 2 and 3 need the main line adding before they can be ballasted.

 

We found out last week that two different containers of ballast produced a marked contrast in shade, one had a slight mid grey/brown tinge and the other was a very light grey. With a bit of careful toning with some dilute sleeper grime from an airbrush Glenn has managed to get the ballast to match reasonably well but it was initially another set back which we didn't need.

 

I am currently building the extension to the main shed of which the basic plywood structure will be finished by the end of the week. This will then need cladding in plastic card and then painting.

 

Four more electro-magnet uncouplers are sitting at my house ready to be installed and Glenn ordered all the ground and colour light signals we will need at the Derby exhibition. Finally he will be chatting to a carpenter on Thursday about the possibility of the fiddle yard boards being made for us. This will give us more time to spend on track laying and scenery.

 

I'll send him a text to say that I've posted. I don't think he'll be posting any pictures until he is satisfied with the ballasting.

 

In the meantime, thank you for the continued interest.

Edited May 17, 2016 by Flood

[Flood]

A quick update.

 

Glenn has continued with the ballasting. Three boards are now done, with the sidings on a fourth completed leaving the fuel roads and the main lines to do. I asked him whether we are then going to move onto the last three boards adding the main line but I think he wants to get as much scenery as possible done on boards 4 to 7 while they are on the trestles. To quote from his text "the buildings depot road, level crossings, Girdleness Road, Greenwell Road and Wellington Road bridge", so still a fair amount to do.

 

In order to get the depot road in place we need the buildings so here is a photo of the extended shed as of this morning:

 

 

The short, brick covered, edges still need to be glued and then the roof added. Should be complete for the weekend. The cladding has all been ordered but Eileen's are out of stock for the corrugated side cladding so there will be a delay.

 

This weekend we will be off the DEMU Showcase (as the general public) in order to buy more items of scenery for the layout.

 

We are determined not to make this all feel like a second job!

Edited April 4, 2022 by Flood

[Flood]

Famous last words as always. One of the new sides wasn't square so it didn't fit flat with the original building side. Twice I had to saw through 3/4 of the join (to change the angle of the side) so it has been glued three times in total. The whole length now sits flush with the glass coffee table so I am finally happy. The roof can be started to be glued tomorrow before work but as the roof parts are slightly warped and so are the sides then I will be clamping and gluing the ends first and lining up the long edges later. All the parts may be together by the end of the weekend, they may not. Once I am finally satisfied that it is all square then cladding can commence.

 

The reason for extending the layout to have a rear fiddle yard was mainly so that trains could run past the depot on the main line. Just to give you all an idea of what will be involved I have attached a summary of all the services that Kirkhill will now have to cater for. Those in red are the existing moves on and off the depot, those in black are all the additional moves on the main line.

 

 

I'm pretty confident it will all work! A serious shakedown of the sequence will be needed in September just to make sure.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Flood

[Dunedin]

Ballasting of the track on Boards 4, 5, 6 & 7 is now complete! Phew!

 

It's been a long job and come to think of it, I've probably done almost as much as on the original layout in total and I've still got the mainlines to do on Boards 1 - 3, but that won't be such a big job as this has been.

 

As Graham mentioned, the new ballast, although claiming to be the same shade as I had left over from the original layout, actually turned out to be lighter. I'm assuming that was due to it being a different batch, but I've had a play with the airbrush and some very dilute "Sleeper Grime" and I'm now satisfied I can get the two different shades of ballast to match, where I need them to by judicious weathering. Looking back, I should have expected this and not ballasted all of one board with the contents of one tub and started the next board with the contents of another. It would have been better to have used the different tubs for mainline, or yard etc. where you might expect the shades to be different, but that's hindsight for you! The weathering will hide it and of course, at some point, I will be adding snow again.

 

Here are some photos of progress and the finished job:

 

Boards 4 and 5 before ballasting started - note the track hasn't been weathered yet, so is still very bright and shiny:

 

 

Board 4 during ballasting, before glueing:

 

 

Board 4 just after being sprayed with the glue (this is a mix of water, washing up liquid and PVA glue):

 

 

Board 4 complete. Board 5 had also been ballasted by the time this was taken and in addition, you can see the bases for the new south end fuel points (more of these to follow in a later post):

 

 

Boards 6 & 7 before ballasting had started - you can see that the track in the yard has been weathered, but at this point, not the mainlines. Weathering is just sleeper grime, applied with the airbrush. This is mainly to tone down the rail colour and I think that sleeper grime looks better than Humbrol rust colour, but either way, it's a pain to apply by hand, so airbrushing is far quicker. For the wooden-sleepered track in the yard, it looks fine if everything is covered, but for the concrete-sleepered track of the mainlines, I needed a decent coating on the rails but wanted the sleepers still to look reasonably light. I discovered that applying the sleeper grime, then rubbing it off the sleepers, before it had fully dried, with an old toothbrush (with some bristles removed) worked quite well.

In this view you can also see the bases for the central and north-end fuel points:

 

 

Boards 6 & 7 during ballasting:

 

 

Board 7 taken this morning after completion:

 

 

 

The next jobs are to complete the wiring of Board 7 and make a start on the scenery.

 

In order to save time, we have decided to get the fiddle yard boards made by a local joiner. The seven boards would have taken us about two months to build, working at weekends, so when the quote came back looking reasonable, it was a no-brainer!

 

In order to save time / allow more time for getting the main viewing boards to exhibition standard, I've also begun to think about breaking one of my golden rules in the case of the fiddle yard: Electrofrog points and every piece of rail having its own directly soldered connection to the DCC power bus. Precise, slow speed running isn't necessary in the fiddle yard, so I reckon Insulfrog points will be ok, which means I don't have to worry about frog polarity changeover switches and all the associated wiring. As we are not ballasting the track there, I also think we can rely on rail-joiners to carry the current, at least in the short-term. The mixture I use for glueing the ballast is pretty corrosive due to the washing-up liquid. This is used to lower the surface tension of the water, so it doesn't wash the ballast away when it's applied, but washing-up liquid also contains salt, as a water softener, which makes it corrosive. Once everything has been soaked in that, it can create high resistance joints between rails, hence my obsession with everything being soldered for reliability. I think five years fault-free running with Kirkhill proves the worth of this approach, but maybe, just maybe, I'll make a temporary concession for the fiddle yard. The points can also be hand-operated initially and can be motorised later, using surface-mount motors if need be. All this will save a considerable amount of time (if we need it), hopefully without compromising performance, at least to begin with and we can improve the fiddle yard as time allows.

Edited December 30, 2022 by Dunedin
Re-inserted missing images.

[GWRPhil]

Really great to see progress and to such a great standard to. Plus I like the use of the garden pressure sprayer to apply the ova glue mix that's a really inspired idea I would never have thought of.

 

I'm looking forward to more updates and really looking forward to seeing the layout out on the circuit again.

[Dunedin]

Really great to see progress and to such a great standard to. Plus I like the use of the garden pressure sprayer to apply the ova glue mix that's a really inspired idea I would never have thought of.

I'm looking forward to more updates and really looking forward to seeing the layout out on the circuit again.

Thanks. Yes, the garden sprayer works really well. I had been trying to find something that would speed up the process: previously I had tried the hand trigger type of sprays and using a pipette but these either didn't work particularly well (the spray ended up more of a jet that washed everything away), or in the case of the pipette, it just took ages. With the garden spray, you can pressurise it before you start, adjust the spray nozzle to get a fine mist and then just spray, knowing it will stay consistent. I reckon it saved me hours, so was worth the cost of the sprayer.

[Dunedin]

More work on the layout today and Graham brought the maintenance shed extension over to try for size. You can judge for yourselves from the photo, but not bad, I'd say (but don't tell him I said that)!

 

This afternoon we made a trip to DEMU Showcase in Burton to spend yet another small fortune on stuff for the layout. We also had a chat to the folks on "Caverswall", who are also the organisers of the Crewe and Alsager Society's exhibition. The upshot of our discussion is that we won't be attending the show this year. This gives us more time to get things to the standard we want to achieve and means that our first show after completion will be Derby 2017 at The Roundhouse.

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by Dunedin
Re-inserted missing image.

[hexagon789]

I've just come across your layout while researching the ScotRail push-pull sets of the 1980s for a layout idea. It looks highly interesting, especially those mixed push-pull rakes with the magnificent Shove Duffs. The attention to detail is second to none, about the best of any layout I've seen and God knows how many I've seen at Model Rail Scotland and other exhibitions over the years. Hopefully I'll get to see it in the flesh at an exhibition some time! ☺

[Flood]

Many thanks for your kind comments.

 

Just for the record the revised Aberdeen Kirkhill will be at the Mickleover Model Railway Club Open Day and Show w/e October 1st and 2nd, near Derby.

 

We were hoping to be using the exhibition as a shake-down to running the layout in a completed form next year but we will not be anything like that far advanced. We will only be receiving the fiddle yard boards two weeks before the October show, board 7 still needs to be wired, the main lines need to be added to boards 1, 2 and 3, new scenic breaks along with new back-scenes are needed and other numerous amounts of ballasting, painting, scenery and detailing are required.

 

As such we were unsure whether to even bring the layout but one of the club members said why not show the public some of the processes of actually producing a layout 28' long - track laying, wiring, scenery etc. to illustrate that breaking the tasks down into manageable chunks ease the producing of the finished result.

 

We will have some stock on the layout able to run as well. Whether it will be able to run to and from some form of fiddle yard is a matter of conjecture.

Glenn has got some photos taken recently but as you have all waited so patiently for 3 months hopefully you can wait a little while longer. He may be able to post some teasers for you just before the exhibition.

 

We would like to welcome anyone interested in learning a bit more about our layout construction, or interested in late 1980s ScotRail, to pay us a visit and have a good natter without us having to worry about keeping to a sequence. The more the merrier.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Flood

[Dunedin]

Just to follow on from Graham's post yesterday, here are some photos taken around the fuel points:

 

The original fuel points were modified Knightwing bases, but for the new part of the layout, I decided to scratch-build the bases and then re-use as much of the old equipment as possible.

As I wasn't going to be constrained by the number of bases, I also decided on extending the fuel points and to add some additional canopies etc.

 

As a result, the new fuel points will consist of new, scratch-built bases, a mixture of existing canopies and some new ones which I've built. Whilst I didn't have any more fuel pumps etc., I decided to build another two from scratch. These will be fitted with "trigger" delivery nozzles for fuelling DMUs - the Class 150s and early Sprinters didn't have the flyte refuelling valves that are fitted to locomotives and HST power cars, so I can justify the additional canopies etc. for those!

 

To deal with spillages, fuel points generally have bunded areas to catch spills of oil, fuel and coolant which are then fed to an interceptor which separates out the contaminants from the water so as not to pollute the sewers. The bunded area is often in the form of a shallow concrete pit over which the tracks are laid and in order to provide a surface for staff to walk on etc. and avoid anyone falling into the pit, they are covered by steel grilles. I've tried to simulate this using plastikard for the concrete and brass mesh for the grilles:

 

 

The north-end fuel point (HST fuel point nearest the camera - this is one of the re-claimed ones. The second, third and fourth canopies are new and still need to be weathered.):

 

 

The south-end fuel point (loco fuel point nearest the camera, HST fuel point furthest away. New canopy in the centre, which will house a staff shelter.):

 

 

New fuel pumps right and centre, with the Knightwing original to provide a pattern left:

 

 

Pumps and staff shelters painted in primer, ready for final colour to be applied:

 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by Dunedin
Re-inserted missing images.

[Flood]

Strictly speaking the following photos don't do the layout justice but they do show the new extended length for the first time (and the large amount of work we still need to do):

 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by Flood

[Dunedin]

More progress to report on the layout from the last week and this weekend. Graham has started work on the fiddle yard boards. The boards themselves were delivered two weeks ago and Graham has been buying primer and cork tiles to provide the base for the track. He's also ordered the track, so we can expect some good progress over the next month or so.

 

I've been busy on Board 3, which is the one that was just before the scenic break which hid the original fiddle yard. Now that the former fiddle yard area has become the new fuelling point and maintenance shed area and the original bridge has gone, the scenery has had to be modified somewhat. The original hill now has the mainline running behind it, so it's been reprofiled and extended to form a cutting through which the mainline now runs.

 

Before adding the south side of the cutting

 

 

After adding the south side of the cutting

 

 

The cutting is formed from insulation foam, covered in polyfiller, painted with emulsion and then covered in Woodland Scenics "Earth blend" to give it a base. Then it will be finished with static grass, horsehair bushes and "forest in a box" trees. Finally, I'll add the snow and frost, but more on this in a later post.

 

Today, I've been laying the track for the mainline which includes the crossover which will give down trains access to depot via the south junction.

 

Looking south from Board 4 to Board 3

 

Looking north on Board 3 towards the crossover, cutting and Board 4

 

 

Looking from the viewing side of the layout

 

 

The fuel storage tanks have gone, replaced by the cutting and an internal access road linking both ends of the depot will cross the line between the fuel point and double slip via a level crossing where the cork can be seen in the foreground.

Edited December 30, 2022 by Dunedin
Re-inserted missing images.

[GWRPhil]

More progress to report on the layout from the last week and this weekend. Graham has started work on the fiddle yard boards. The boards themselves were delivered two weeks ago and Graham has been buying primer and cork tiles to provide the base for the track. He's also ordered the track, so we can expect some good progress over the next month or so.

I've been busy on Board 3, which is the one that was just before the scenic break which hid the original fiddle yard. Now that the former fiddle yard area has become the new fuelling point and maintenance shed area and the original bridge has gone, the scenery has had to be modified somewhat. The original hill now has the mainline running behind it, so it's been reprofiled and extended to form a cutting through which the mainline now runs.

Before adding the south side of the cutting

image.jpeg

After adding the south side of the cutting

image.jpeg

The cutting is formed from insulation foam, covered in polyfiller, painted with emulsion and then covered in Woodland Scenics "Earth blend" to give it a base. Then it will be finished with static grass, horsehair bushes and "forest in a box" trees. Finally, I'll add the snow and frost, but more on this in a later post.

Today, I've been laying the track for the mainline which includes the crossover which will give down trains access to depot via the south junction.

Looking south from Board 4 to Board 3

image.jpeg

Looking north on Board 3 towards the crossover, cutting and Board 4

image.jpeg

Looking from the viewing side of the layout

image.jpeg

The fuel storage tanks have gone, replaced by the cutting and an internal access road linking both ends of the depot will cross the line between the fuel point and double slip via a level crossing where the cork can be seen in the foreground.

The progress is looking really good. I like the cutting that looks really good

[Dunedin]

The progress is looking really good. I like the cutting that looks really good

Thank you. I'm pleased with it myself. I knew what I wanted to achieve - I had it in my mind's eye - but often it takes a bit of trial and error to get the effect and for it to look like it makes sense. I think it's starting to look that way and it's good that I'm not the only one.

[Flood]

More progress to report on the layout from the last week and this weekend. Graham has started work on the fiddle yard boards. The boards themselves were delivered two weeks ago and Graham has been buying primer and cork tiles to provide the base for the track. He's also ordered the track, so we can expect some good progress over the next month or so.

 

 

Just got back home from work and I've realised that whilst I've ordered all the track, I haven't bought any fishplates or track pins! Doh!

[Enterprisingwestern]

Looking impressive, shame about the gauge!

 

Mike.

[Flood]

Looking impressive, shame about the gauge!

 

Mike.

Thanks Mike.

 

I know you prefer P4 but the thing is we are being prototypically accurate, the depot at Kirkhill always had 16.5mm track

 

 

 

For those not in the know, Aberdeen Kirkhill Depot had never existed until Glenn thought of the name in 2009.

Edited October 17, 2016 by Flood

[Dunedin]

Just got back home from work and I've realised that whilst I've ordered all the track, I haven't bought any fishplates or track pins! Doh!

 

That's ok Graham. You can make a detour via Tutbury on your way to work this week; they've got plenty there - I had the same problem yesterday.

 

A few quid and a few minutes is all it will take. Sorted! 

[7APT7]

Hi mate

 

Great layout when I saw it a few years back at Haertlepool, when are you next out on the road and where...?

 

Jamie

[Flood]

That's ok Graham. You can make a detour via Tutbury on your way to work this week; they've got plenty there - I had the same problem yesterday.

 

A few quid and a few minutes is all it will take. Sorted! 

Tuesday: Expecting 'phone call from Machine Mart re: 4 more trestles for collection, track may get delivered, stick down more cork, go to work

 

Wednesday: Build 2 more trestles, clear more space in spare room, stick down more cork, go to work

 

Thursday: Paint some of the boards (I'll be fed up with cork by then), go to work

 

Friday: Day off work!!!!! Go to Tutbury, stick cork, paint boards, either to Railway Club or to yours (catch up on this amazing scenery)

[Dunedin]

Hi mate

Great layout when I saw it a few years back at Haertlepool, when are you next out on the road and where...?

Jamie

Hi, thank you.

Our next exhibition is due to be in Derby at The Roundhouse at the Mickleover Model Railway Group's annual exhibition on 6th - 7th May 2017, so we've got six months to get everything finished and up to exhibition standard. I reckon we can do it, but we may not have the signalling and control panels completely working by then. I'm planning on doing a lash-up job to get us operational, although my temporary panel from 2009 is the one that we've been using ever since, so who knows!

Edited October 30, 2016 by Dunedin

[Dunedin]

Some further progress this week on Kirkhill. I've now installed the trainwash on Road 1 of Board 3 and added a new uncoupler on Road 2 - you can just see the new area of ballast on Road 2, a little beyond the wash.

 

 

 

Just to give an idea of the changes that have taken place, here's a "before shot", taken from operator's side of the layout, after we added the extension, but before making any other alterations:

 

 

and here's the "after shot", taken from a similar angle:

 

 

Progress is a bit slow at the moment, because the glue holding the ballast is taking ages to dry with the low temperatures out there in the garage! The next jobs on this board are to sort out the scenery and amend the wiring underneath the board to take account of the track changes and the new uncoupler.

 

Edited December 31, 2022 by Dunedin
Re-inserted missing images.

[GWRPhil]

Hi all the updates are looking really good.

 

any progress in last couple of weeks?

[Flood]

I've been spending my time painting all the fiddle yard boards and today I've just bought the wire and strippers to start laying the fiddle yard.

 

Glenn texted yesterday to say that he had relaid the wash road, extended the old loco storage siding, shortened the old shed siding (which now is the sleeper discharge siding) and was just finishing laying the main line.

 

We will be at Warley (as visiters) next weekend but the first weekend in December I have a weeks holiday so I'm hoping to get quite a bit done. As we can't set up the layout in full at either of our houses we are looking to book a scout hut/community hall and have a running session around Jan/Feb to try to iron out any problems.

 

I'll text Glenn and see if he has any more photos of his progress so far.