Aberdeen Kirkhill T&RSD

[Bob Reid]

Judging by the state of those ends Glenn, 5152 and the rest of that sets in desperate need of a bit of hand bashing!

 

Fine attention to detail.....

 

Good to see the layouts still moving forward.

Edited February 26, 2012 by Bob-65b

[P.C.M]

Hi Glenn,

Always good to see an update, the latest locos look great I do like that class 26. The stock looks great too it has that wintery look about it.

The frost on the sleepers made me feel cold just looking at it. I brought back memories of slipping around Easleigh yard as a shunter back in the day. I think the baby powder option looks a bit better for the frost effect though I do like the geoscenics snow it has that fluff like the real stuff.

 

Cheers Peter.

[Dunedin]

I've been doing some further research and found another material to simulate snow which I really like on

http://www.009.cd2.c...ow_to/snow.htm.

 

Microballoon is an amazing material: it's 600 micron glass balloons which are used by the lightweight aircraft industry to make very lightweight filler. That means it's much finer than the Geoscenics or Woodland Scenics "snow" products which I found were too coarse when it came to giving the cleaning platforms and roofs just a light dusting. I don't want to bury the layout under feet of the stuff because that would ruin it. Instead, I just want to suggest a dusting and a hard frost. I've used the Geoscenics snow mixed with baby powder on the ballast and foliage, then the microballoon on the platforms and then fixed the whole lot with hairspray.

 

I was beginning to wonder if I was doing the right thing when all I had was the Geoscenics and the talc, but now I'm much happier with the result. So much for my words; the pictures will give a better idea:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only the one board has had the treatment so far, but once I'm happy with it, I'll start on the others.

[Dunedin]

Another news topic is that Aberdeen Kirkhill is now on Facebook: http://facebook.com/aberdeen.kirkhill

 

The page needs much more work - in particular I think it needs a better selection of photographs and links, but it's a start.

[P.C.M]

Hi Glenn,

Thats looks pretty good to me, love the foot steps. Can't wait to se the rest done with a bit of stock sat about the place.

 

Cheers Peter.

[ess1uk]

Love this layout

[Flood]

With Wigan Exhibition looming very soon the layout should be completely set up again next weekend (for the first time since early December). Obviously we need to make sure that all the electrics are working fine but there are a few of other jobs which need doing as well.

 

The snowploughs have gained an extra class 37 so we need to make sure that they still fit in the sidings and sequence from last November. The HST sets now have powered power cars at both ends (to help with the shunting for exams in the shed) so some practice on forming and de-forming consists on the Prodigy is definitely needed by me. Glenn only has to add the slight snow covering to the last two boards but he wants to make sure that all the boards match up in the amount of frost and snow present. We obviously haven't a light dusting on one board and heavy snow on the next but the amounts on each board do need to be consistant along the layout. Finally we have three more carriage cleaners (I have finally finished painting) to add to the layout as well.

 

So apart from the above it'll just be getting back into the swing of operating the sequence (we tried operating after a couple of glasses of wine a few years ago, not recommended!).

 

As always a big thank you for all the kind words and support from everyone on the forum. If I remember I'll take my camera and tri-pod to do a few snaps of the complete layout with snow and stock otherwise it will be a pleasure to see as many of you as possible at Wigan in 3 weeks time.

[Dunedin]

Another item which received attention during the last week has been the wheel lathe shed. I had a problem with the cladding which became terminal: when I built the shed, I bonded the Evergreen styrene sheet onto the plywood with Bostick - which seemed to work when Graham built the maintenance shed. With the wheel lathe though, after a short while, the styrene started to deform and de-bond, leaving it in a sorry state. I made various attempts at bonding new styrene sheet onto the frame but the same thing happened and the shed was really beginning to look a mess.

 

So a week ago, I decided to do something about it:

 

All the cladding was removed and as much of the old glue as possible. Then the shed was painted with undercoat - something I didn't do two years ago which might have been the significant difference between the lathe and the maintenance shed. It had to be painted prior to our first exhibition because it wasn't clad.

 

This was the shed last week:

 

 

This weekend I set about re-cladding it with more Evergreen sheet, but this time I also used solvent-free Bostick. This is how it looks now:

 

 

 

Hopefully this time the combination of undercoat and the solvent-free Bostick will work, but time will tell. It needs painting and the signage and lighting replacing, but it should be ready in time for Wigan!

 

The final two boards now have snow applied - I hadn't realised until tonight how appropriate that is for this exhibition - it just wouldn't have been the same without snow would it?

[Flood]

Well in my last post I did threaten to take some photos of our now snowy layout.

 

With Wigan Exhibition coming up this weekend I popped over to Glenn's for some last minute fettling (including adding some transfers to a new item of stock) and I remembered to take my camera along as well.

 

The new arrival needs weathering by Glenn over the next couple of days and will be available to view at Wigan. I'm sure he'll post some photos early next week for all those who can't make it this weekend.

 

In the meantime here are a few snaps I took tonight showing the current state of the layout (complete with some stock for once). Enjoy.

 

 

The snowplough 37s (now a pair instead of just the one)

 

 

 

The Inverness rake with blown snow on the underframe after coming from Inverness

 

 

 

A now rather cold "Man with dog"

 

 

 

A view of the sidings and stock (which doesn't, in fact, show up the snow at all!)

 

 

 

Turning the house lights down low (if only we could do this at exhibitions)

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by Flood

[Temeraire]

Morning Graham

 

That last pic under the lights makes me feel cold!

 

Unfortunately can't make Wigan on account of it being too far 'oop Norf', have you any bookings 'darn sarf' this year as it would be good to catch up with you guys again?

Edited June 12, 2012 by Temeraire

[Flood]

... have you any bookings 'darn sarf' this year as it would be good to catch up with you guys again?

 

Sadly not at the moment. We were down to go to Letchworth in November but the travel arrangements haven't worked out. You'll have to have a word with any contacts you've got in Wiltshire/Hampshire/Sussex/Kent... wink wink.

[mudmagnet]

Really like the second photo (with bridge) - certainly portrays a 'cold' day - when the cold wind bites!

[Dunedin]

I thought I might as well post a few photos of our new item of stock for Wigan:

 

Surrogate DVT Power Car no. 43123:

 

 

 

 

It wasn't the original intention to have this ready for Wigan, but then Graham realised that having motorised all of our HST power cars, bringing in the "failed" set with a Class 47 could prove difficult with powered vehicles with different performances either end of a long rake. Of course, the easy option would have been to take one of the newly motorised power cars and put it back on a dummy chassis, but when have I ever taken the easy option? I had wanted to make a surrogate DVT for some time because they are very different, I had last week off as holiday, so how hard could it possibly be? The fact that it's only been finished tonight probably answers that...

 

It's a bit of a bodge in places, but essentially it is a carved Lima body, on a Hornby dummy power car chassis, both being appropriately modified for the buffers, drawgear, air hoses and electrical jumpers and sockets, followed by repainting where necessary, which is where the bodge factor comes in: ideally it should have had a full repaint, but there wasn't time for that - maybe later...

Edited June 14, 2012 by Dunedin

[RedgateModels]

Big question is how late are you going to turn up on Friday night?

[P.C.M]

Great set of pics guys, the snow effect is fantastic. The man with the dog must be a bit of a spotter to be out in cold, though I don't blame him there is plenty to see.

 

Cheers Peter.

[Flood]

Really like the second photo (with bridge) - certainly portrays a 'cold' day - when the cold wind bites!

Thanks for that. The layout looks even colder in reality, we're both very pleased with the results.

 

Big question is how late are you going to turn up on Friday night?

Hopefully we can get there for about 8 o'clock, all depends on the M6 traffic really!

 

Great set of pics guys, the snow effect is fantastic. The man with the dog must be a bit of a spotter to be out in cold, though I don't blame him there is plenty to see.

 

Cheers Peter.

Always good to hear your feedback Peter. Actually it's the dog which is the rail enthusiast, he just has to drag his master out of bed to write down the numbers.

[clagmonsterrail]

I'm liking 43123! Very nice Cracking depot layout, hopefully I will get to see it in action at some point, particularly like the rolling stock represented.

 

I think you should definitely consider an orange stripe for that HST though and a number with another "4" in it ... *gets coat*

[Flood]

I think you should definitely consider an orange stripe for that HST though and a number with another "4" in it ... *gets coat*

I think we'll leave Grand Central livery to the younger members of the model railway fraternity.

 

We do have another spare Lima body and another spare Hornby dummy chassis. Chances are that we will make a model of 43090 in rather chipped blue and grey in the last months of it carrying that livery.

 

See http://www.railphotoarchive.org/rpc_zoom.php?img=0681011512000

 

Strictly speaking 43090 was repainted in November 1987 and 43123 didn't work on the Eastern Region in DVT form until April 1988 but I'm sure we can be allowed a little flexibility. In fact as both are dummy power cars the new sequence ensures that they will not be on the layout at the same time anyway.

[Dunedin]

I've begun an experiment to fit lighting to some of the stock on Kirkhill. First attempt is DBSO 9708 which is chipped for the head/tail lights and fitted with a strip of LEDs for interior lighting of the saloon. It still requires a fair bit of refinement - not least in tidying up the wiring so it can't be seen from outside the coach.

 

I added pickups to each bogie by supergluing strips of veroboard under the bogie to which I soldered phosphor bronze wire to act on the backs of each wheel. Wires were then run to another piece of veroboard inside the guard's compartment to act as a junction box:

 

 

The head and tail lights were a modified Express Models set of lights which I bought and never used for a Hornby Class 47 some years ago (before I switched allegences to Heljan!). These are fitted into the nose and the roof:

 

 

Interior lighting is LED string which you can buy on Ebay (5 metres for under £10 which gives you 300 LEDs). They come in a continuous ribbon, but you can cut them into blocks/multiples of three, so I used two strips (6 LEDS):

 

 

The LEDs are permanently fed from the track, although they could be controlled via the dcc decoder and switched on/off. The decoder I used is a very basic Gaugemaster which isn't too good for loco control, but makes an adequate function-only decoder for head/tail lights. It doesn't have the additional function outputs that I would need for the interior lights though, so these are fed by a recitfier which was unused from one of the electromagnetic Kadee uncoupler units. It's a bit chunky, but was quick and easy to use here:

 

 

The finished result with headlights:

 

 

...and tail lights:

 

 

As I said, the wiring needs tidying up but the main priority is improving the pick-ups so they make good contact but don't cause too much drag due to the friction on the wheel backs. I think this needs rather more research to get the optimum result because I can imagine a long rake fitted with pick-ups like these could become extremely stiff. Fewer contacts would help, but this could cause flickering of the lights. The Bachmann Metro-Cammell Pullmans and the DMUs use the bearings for current collection, so that could be an option worth trying.

 

I do like the interior lighting effect - particularly for a layout such as Kirkhill, so I'm going to keep trying - especially as I still have well over 290 LEDs left!

[Flood]

Over 3 months since our last post on the layout and we still haven't done much in that time. The lighting in the Mk3 rake still needs finishing off as does the painting of the four Mk2e TSOs. Glenn has been busy all summer and he's the owner of the airbrush - that's my excuse anyway. In fairness I still need to finish lining a loco and there are probably other jobs I can do as well.

 

This post is really just an advert for the Manchester Model Railway Exhibition which is this weekend. Please pop over and visit if you can; if you have any questions about the wiring of the layout, the scenery, the stock or anything else then we are more than willing to help.

 

After this weekend we have a nice long break until early next year at Ally Pally so this time we must try to organise all the jobs that need doing and finally finish them. We can then spend all our time cleaning loco wheels and track.

[definate maybe]

Will hopefully be able to get to Ally Pally next year. Hope the Manchester show goes well for you.

[carlw]

 

 

After this weekend we have a nice long break until early next year at Ally Pally so this time we must try to organise all the jobs that need doing and finally finish them. We can then spend all our time cleaning loco wheels and track.

 

Mmm Ally Pally.. might just have to make sure i turn up there then!

 

Carl

[Jack P]

Only just found this thread, but I LOVE it! Sensational!

 

- Jack

[cromptonnut]

I had forgotten about this one till I saw it "bumped" - hadn't realised you'd winterised it. Absolutely brilliant.

 

Just a thought re lighting, I'm not sure what you're using without going back through the whole thread but if you get some 'cool blue' theatrical lighting film for your lights, it'll add a blue tint to the lighting which will make it look colder still, and perfect for a Scottish winter

 

If only I had the room for a layout like this - it's different from the norm and in a good way. Must not think about doing it in N gauge...

Edited October 5, 2012 by cromptonnut

[Flood]

Thank you as always for your kind comments. The Manchester show went extremely well and everyone was very impressed with the snow on the layout.

 

I actually managed to watch the layout myself for about 15 - 20 minutes and I realised that some of the viewing issues I have with the layout when I am running it are not as apparent to the viewing public. This has actually made me feel a lot more positive about the layout as a whole, which is a nice feeling to have.

 

Crompton: your comment on cooling the colour of the lights is an interesting one. I presume you mean the tall yard lights and gantries and these consist of individual leds so I don't know whether we could alter those. If you mean overhead layout lighting then we don't actually have any!

 

For all our followers in the sunny South we have had a conversation about attending the East Beds Model Railway Exhibition at Biggleswade next February. We still need to confirm this but hopefully that will be two trips south of the Midlands in successive months. We will keep you all informed.

Edited October 8, 2012 by Flood