Godstone Road - Platforms and 3rd Rail

[Lacathedrale]

I realised after the above photos that there was no way I could have the very long gradients I wanted on the sidings, so they're a bit more steep. I've finally got the cork glued down however, this time using kids PVA instead of Diall decorators PVA. I was making life very hard for myself by using the latter as it's got almost no tackiness and takes ages to go off. Kids glue had it all down within half an hour and no faffing. I am hoping if all goes well that I will have the rest of the track down tomorrow morning, and then maybe, finally, I can run a train! It's only taken a year, three failed planks and four different scales to get there

[sb67]

Hope you get that train running soon William, I like that point when building a layout.

Steve

[Lacathedrale]

Here's a video update, but if you'd prefer to read this is what I've been up to today:

 

 

 

The long rolls of cork are not perfect thicknesses all the way through, so right at the baseboard join I've used card as a shim. I needed to lay cork on the station board in order that I can lay the flex across both boards and get a smooth alignment. In order that the rail joins are solid, I've removed a sleeper on either side of the join for each track, and have soldered them to the rail (I had to pack another card shim to bring them up to the correct height). I am planning to encase the whole edge in araldite to make it more firm, and will be using the PCB sleepers as electrical feeds by laying copper tape along the inside of the module joins and soldering a jumper onto the sleeper top, at the rear of the rail.

 

2EPB 6225 en route to West Croydon waits for a green signal on Platform 1

 

The plan has always been to solder up the two pointwork formations on the throat board, leaving expansion gaps between each and the board edge joins and each other and this has worked nicely, there's just enough flex for minor adjusments. On the station board, the flex will be fed from either end and unsoldered in the middle for expansion too. Despite a number of unsoldered connections, crocodile clips right up at the tip of the layout power everything without any issue at all (apart from the hateful trainset controller I'm using - no way to reset a short other than to stand around like a pillock for an indeterminate amount of time, it seems.

 

Another EPB about to couple up with it's parner on Platform 2 to form a 4-EPB to London. (This picture no doubt take from a crane on the construction work where the old goods yard was sited)

 

After the video concluded I shoved the flex around a little on the station board to introduce a curve and I think it's much nicer. As I said in the video I don't think this is particularly realistic because railways would want to build things as straight as possible, but it is more visually appealing. One thing I am always conscious of especially on narrower planks is when the track is totally perpendicular to the board edges, so it was important for me to avoid that.

 

33056 looking a little careworn on Platform 2 at the head of a BSK-SK-CK-BSK rake of Mk1's

[73c]

I'm guessing '6225 waits for a green signal' you mean for one to be actually installed 

[Lacathedrale]

I'm much happier with a subtle curve on the platform and carriage siding, prototype practise be damned. Here's a shot with it all laid and wired up.

 

[Lacathedrale]

I was finding it hard to stay motivated with the 4mm stuff when the 2FS projects and bits were going so well, that I had considered selling all of my OO/EM bits entirely and rebuilding in 2mm/ft. On the face of it, it seemed like a fairly simple task but actually below the surface was a mish-mash of out-of-production kits and RTR that was either very rare or ancient.

With that in mind, this is the state of play yesterday morning:

I got one of my spare boards into the loft and roughly in place - perfect height while sitting on a little piano stool:

My goal for this weekend is to sort the benchwork to support the extant Godstone Rd baseboards and get the track laid on the traverser. If the layout ends up as a permanent fixture then I will be replacing it with a standard fan of sidings that I can computer-control - but for now I just need to get this in a functionally complete state! 

Edited February 1, 2019 by Lacathedrale

[Lacathedrale]

After a full day of soldering, snipping, gluing (and lots of swearing), the boards of the layout have been wired up and the last few bits of track on the traverser and station throat were laid and wired up. I also knocked up a couple of simple legs so the layout can be set up in it's final (?) position. 

 

A pair of bauxite PGA wagons sits roughly where the gravel shed will be, while the 37 drops off some coal hoppers at the Charringtons siding.

 

Looking towards the city, and a nice view of the traverser

 

Here's a short video showing the layout in action for the first time:

 

There are some obvious teething problems that already need to be addressed but for now, I'm just very happy to have SOMETHING running. 

[Lacathedrale]

I think the next and most urgent step is to get a backscene and some lights on there - I've ordered an id Backscenes self-adhesive one, so I'm just thinking about actually finding it. I'm thinking 4 or 6mm plywood up against the back of the modules, with vertical uprights screwed in from behind. I guess those uprights can just be 1x2's every foot or so, right?

[sb67]

Always good to see something running William. Your guess for the backscene sounds about right for me, I'd prbably go for 6mm ply though,

Steve.

[Geep7]

I'd echo the 6mm ply choice as well. When you talk about uprights, do you mean for the lighting?, as the 6mm ply screwed to the back of the layout should be fairly self-supporting.

[Lacathedrale]

Thanks @sb67 , I know it's not much yet but I'm hoping it develops.

 

I'm very much focused on getting this done as a discrete unit, but fixing valances/etc. to the roof-beams requires some forethought around any potential future extensions. The width of the room means that it's possible to have a U-shaped terminus to fiddle yard design if the boards are flipped left-to-right, due to the loft hatch blocking the side currently opposite the traverser - so that's the first step. I've always found it much easier to mentally fill in the blanks on a framed composition without lots of clutter in sight, so today's other project is to get the top valance and lighting sorted.  

 

@Geep7 thanks for the thoughts on the ply - I wasn't sure about how tall the back scenes were until I got the tape measure out this morning. I think I'm looking at about 15" above the surface of the baseboard - will that still be rigid enough to be self supporting? Additionally then, I will need about a 10" tall top valance on top (which seems huge but given the roof angle!).  This will give a 15" viewing letterbox and allow me to mount the arrays of LEDs for lighting.

 

I'm not sure the best way to fix the top valance to the roof. My current thought is to use wedge-shaped 'chocks' of 2x4 screwed through the hardboard and into the rafters, onto which the fascia is screwed either directly or with angle brackets. Any advice?

 

Edited February 4, 2019 by Lacathedrale

[Geep7]

3 minutes ago, Lacathedrale said:

@Geep7 thanks for the thoughts on the ply - I wasn't sure about how tall the back scenes were until I got the tape measure out this morning. I think I'm looking at about 15" above the surface of the baseboard - will that still be rigid enough to be self supporting? Additionally then, I will need about a 10" tall top valance on top (which seems huge but given the roof angle!).  This will give a 15" viewing letterbox and allow me to mount the arrays of LEDs for lighting.

 

I'm trying to remember if my backscene is either 9 or 12" high. But it uses 6mm ply and they seem fairly stable, plus they're not likely to take much load (except me bending over them at exhibitions).

 

At 15", hmm, I think you would want to start adding some uprights, or maybe go for thicker ply.....

[Lacathedrale]

Thanks @Geep7 - I normally go for 18" backscenes but I've realised that if I do that, then the front of the layout projects almost all the way to the middle of the room, and I do need SOME space for myself in the loft. 12"  seems reasonable. I think I will see if I can carry the remaining 3" up onto the roof and fade into white. 

 

Boards flipped to the other side of the room - lots of space to get in and out of the loft hatch and should I choose to, I can replace the traverser with a horseshoe curve and add another 30' feet run. Better than before, where there was no room to expand even if I wanted to:

[Joseph_Pestell]

Looking at that pic of your loft, I think that you need two backscenes: one for the loft and one for when you take the layout to a show. Ditto for the lighting.

[Lacathedrale]

@Joseph_Pestell I think I'm going to keep Godstone Rd for home, and use my 2FS layouts to exhibit - the latter is just a whole deal more practical I think - smaller, lighter and easier to handle. That said, I'm going to ensure that the core of Godstone Rd as it is now remains as modules, and items only get bolted onto it rather than screwed and glued - so that option is open to me.

 

Speaking of semi-permanent things, I got the top valance cut and some lighting tacked in and it's looking a good deal better:

 

 

 

I have ordered an ID Backscenes roll which matches the Caterham/Purley area really well, and I have the ply sitting in my shed waiting for it. 

 

For now the valances are just tacked on with one small screw in each corner to see what it's like - I'll bind the bottom and joins with some trim.  I think I will also need another 5m of LED lighting as what you can see here is barely sufficient, but I will wait until the backscene is in place before making any further changes. Here's a quick video going over the above:

 

 

 

 

 

[TJ52]

Pleased to see this layout back, I feared that you were going to abandon it in favour of the 2mm stuff. Hope it progresses well, I shall look forward to developments. Good luck.

 

Terry

[Lacathedrale]

@TJ52 to be honest, I was close to it - it felt like everything was pointing me at 2mm. Given the layout was only a few hours away from being trackwork-complete I decided to roll the dice and finish it, and to pick up the Bachmann 37 you can see in these shots, as something of a final 'hail mary'. I was pleasantly surprised at the 3-4 hours required to finish the track, and absolutely floored by the running quality of modern OO. Despite my dodgy track joins the layout 'just works', and there is something to be said about that alone.

 

One imminent change I am considering is the inclusion of a crossover between the long platform road and the carriage siding. This was initially going to be on an additional board on the right, but the more I think about it it makes sense to include it here - otherwise, I am limited to using the traverser as a runaround, and propelling stock onto the layout. Thoughts? I kind of wanted to keep that side of the layout fairly accurate to Bromley North, but Bromley North isn't known for it's operational interest

Edited February 5, 2019 by Lacathedrale

[TJ52]

I think the crossover makes a lot of sense. As for operational interest, I know it's a bit late in the day, but how about a smaller version of Day's Aggregates at Purley? Given that Purley was originally called Godstone Rd it would be quite apt!

 

[TJ52]

Sorry William - just realised you looked at the aggregates option right from the start. Doh!

 

Terry

[Lacathedrale]

3 hours ago, TJ52 said:

I think the crossover makes a lot of sense. As for operational interest, I know it's a bit late in the day, but how about a smaller version of Day's Aggregates at Purley? Given that Purley was originally called Godstone Rd it would be quite apt!

 

 

The genesis of this plan was a 2FS version of the 'back' of Purley with Day Aggregates and the engineering siding, so the DNA is definitely there (indeed, that's where I stole the name). I'm going to be modelling the storage bins and overhead conveyor from Purley, but the building from Ardingly (see this post: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/138419-godstone-road-running-for-the-first-time/&do=findComment&comment=3368451)

 

I would imagine loco-hauled passenger traffic to be very much in the minority compared to multiple/TC units, but as I'm expecting to shunt both the coal concentration depot and the aggregate shed, not having a runaround (or that runaround being made up of interlaced pointwork in the middle of the station throat) was suboptimal, so thank you for the advice. So with that in mind, I've done some measuring up and this wide-angle photo shows roughly where the loco would uncouple and set away from the train were there a crossover in place:

 

 

Using the throat pointwork as a template, I have transposed the crossover to this end of the layout. The Class 37 is in the headshunt, and the Mk1's are set back so they don't foul the notional crossover. As if by some amazing fluke, the BSK-CK-BSK rake train fits perfectly inside the limits of the platform road. While it would be nice to have more space, this does help to reinforce the operational maximums of the layout. 

 

The track order duly submitted to hattons.co.uk, and I had to exercise extreme control to not start buying lots of fun stuff too but managed to restrain myself to just some platform facing.  Instead, a trip to Halfords for white spray primer and wickes for some grey paint, and pine beading to marry up the edges of the valance.

 

 

Edited February 5, 2019 by Lacathedrale

[Lacathedrale]

Apologies for the glut of updates, having a few extra days off work provides lots of time for working on the railway. Particularly important is the time available to run down to the shops - Screwfix, Jewsons, Wickes, Halfords. 

 

I was a bit disheartened at quite how dodgy the valance looked despite it being only a mock up, so found some quarter "cushion" beading at Wickes, and have used that to neaten the edge. You'll see I've used tape at the top just to fully mask out the light bleed due to the wavey hardboard ceiling - that'll get painted the same colour as the baseboard. 

 

 

I think you'll agree it already looks miles better

[Lacathedrale]

 

I've got the backscene boards cut and attached and the fascia boards painted. Here's a couple of test shots with the room lighting off to validate the lighting rig as it stands. Clearly, there needs to be more light at the front - so I'll get that sorted - but overall I'm much happier with how the scene is framed. Here's my newly chipped 2EPB:

 

 

 

The other direction with the turnouts for the platform crossover in their rough position:

 

It's amazing what £20 of plywood adds, isn't it? Especially with some cheap self adhesive LED strips! 

 

I'm a bit sad that the length of the platform road gets visually cut up by the crossover, suddenly that part of layout looks really small again!  Ultimately though, this isn't an era that can support a pilot loco, so the stub-ended sidings of Minories (wherein the plan originated) can't remain unless all I want to do is run a shuttle service. 

Edited February 6, 2019 by Lacathedrale

[Siberian Snooper]

What's to stop trains setting back after off loading the passengers, to allow the loco to run around and then propel the stock back into the platform for loading of the outbound service.

 

 

[Lacathedrale]

Yes, I think that it'll have to happen - I meant more visually - there was lots of unbroken plain track (just like the real thing) and now not so much! 

 

I tacked up the back-scene and took a few photos, it's really nice - there is no post-processing at all in these photos, not even to fix the white balance.

 

 

 

 

 

The 'town' bit of the backscene is right in the middle of the length - so I need to order the adjacent set - right now they're just tacked up with masking tape, but look neat, huh?

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

The backscene, valencing and lighting have worked magic.  Looks superb already.  I should look at backscenes... are yours from ID?