Speech End

[ParkeNd]

I’ve been fine thanks Jonathan - just more outside than indoors. I’m in awe of anyone who can make convincing trees but suspect I would be underwhelmed by my own attempts - probably come out looking like the foliage on trees in a Florida swamp. I still don’t have a natural feeling for scale in OO. I understand the maths but can’t yet judge if something is going to look real when it’s in place - I still have to look at the Coleford GWR Museum building to feel comfortable with how much bigger a GWR goods shed is than a DFR station building when you get both on a layout. 

[ParkeNd]

Promised photos of new "ground" around the goods shed area.  First photo is BEFORE.  Second two photos are AFTER.  Haven't decided what  to do with the space immediately behind the goods shed and up to the two main lines - it's an unnatural space created by the feed in from the fiddle yard - think it needs some trees in it and obviously something to with the goods operation - it is the Forest of Dean after all. Still thinking.

Edited October 5, 2021 by ParkeNd
words added for clarity

[ParkeNd]

During the last few rainy days I've added more gravel at the back door of the Goods shed and around "Smokey Fuels" plus grass detail and two trees to it's left hand side. At the other end of the layout I have added fencing and two trees to the station car park, and a small tree by the signal box. Grass and vegetation has been added in both these locations. Something else I was dodging was the gap between the two main running lines and the undulating ground with the stone buttresses and around the approach to the station - mostly because of the point wires - but I've bitten the bullet and used short grass and vegetation - but so I can still remove bits of the modular slope to get at the DCC controllers.  Next job is the RH back corner of the layout - this is going to be forested but not looking like a "stadium" - I have an idea.

[ParkeNd]

The “idea” for the back corner of the layout is in progress. Just because the tracks have to turn 90 deg right onto the fiddle yard I didn’t want to bend the embankment around to follow it so it looked as though the lines ran around the inside edge of a football stadium. Thus I’ve let the embankment lose height along the length of the board and down into the centre of the board. This also keeps the overhang of OO gauge stock from snagging on scenery. The construction is hollow balsa built on the fly so I could manage and support the compound angles as I went. Scenery fo be built onto this next - essentially the end of the walled embankment flowing into forestry. 8 more 140mm broad leafed trees of two species are on order and I anticipate planting firs behind them. My mind on backscene now. 

[ParkeNd]

Some more work done adding grass, vegetation and trees to my balsa construction to work into the corner of the layout board. Next area to tackle is from this piece of "forest" forward over the bare MDF. What I plan is a representation of the DFR line side clearance teams work - to minimise fire risk and prevent branches hitting carriages.

[LittleWesternModelRailway]

What a fantastic little layout you have! I've recently found this thread and spent the last hour and a bit going through your progress! Amazing detail and scratch builds! I have a question regarding some of your locomotives, you mentioned some of them being older, have you had any running issues with the Code 75 trackwork at all? 

[ParkeNd]

I’ve had no issues with running the 6 I’ve added DCC chips to as a result of the track. This ranges from a Pecket W4 through to a Class 42. However, the current Dapol Class122/121 Railcar occasionally derailed on the 2nd radius curve out of the fiddle yard. At first I suspected this was the track but eventually found that the front coupling fouls on the underside of the buffers and a pipe right in the middle of the underside fouls the bogie. Removing the little pipe both ends of the loco and removing both front and rear couplings totally solved the problem.  I don’t intend to try Lima locos though. 

[ParkeNd]

Doug Johnson of DFR has published some excellent photos of what the Lineside Clearance Team face every week. These have been a great help to me for finishing the top RH corner of the layout (well apart from some beasties to wander under the trees!!). So that team appear now on the layout cutting down a tree, clearing brush and scrub, with old rails and olde sleepers under brambles, plus some metal scrap still to tackle.  Right now I'm building a kit - yes a kit - passenger footbridge. It comes with a 25mm extension piece, but is already too long to cover two tracks at standard spacing. So I've had to swerve mid build and remove 25mm and hope that the latticed panels will still fit - with one less panel each side. Probably won't attempt to fit the roof though. Fingers crossed.

[ParkeNd]

The passenger footbridge is now completed. I had to shorten it by 25mm - in it's maximum length it would cover 4 tracks at standard spacing. As a result I have left the roof off - no DFR footbridges have one anyway. It also lets the end of the station building show through with it's charms like bashed dustbins!!  Next job is covering the electronics in the foreground - then a back scene - then loads more detail.

[ParkeNd]

During Christmas Eve I prepared to add newly purchased DCC chips to 4 steam locos - none were successful. There was insufficient room in the Andrew Barclay to fit even the smallest of chips (unless you left the body off) and the recommended chips for the small prairie, pannier tank, and Class 08 bought mint secondhand turn out to have no sockets after all. However the two car Derby Lightweight now runs beautifully, and the EFE J94 in LMR livery with its Bachmann improved motor and Next 18 socket behind its magnetic smokebox door is a triumph. I had one more try at getting the dead on arrival weathered Sentinel to come alive but without success. But 9 locos now run with 6 more to have chips fitted that I am confident about having unboxed them and checked physically for sockets. Of the 9 that run 2 diesels Class 42 and Class 21 need new couplings fitted before they can “carry passengers”. 

[ParkeNd]

A couple of photos of progress to date.

[ParkeNd]

Can't really believe this myself. I have managed to get the Hornby Railroad Sentinel running. I found a dry soldered motor wire, and risk desoldering it. Then I went through the Instruction Sheet which essentially said "If you want to know anything ask your Dad". Finally the internet told me the original spare part number for the 4 pin controller and I risked buying one from Amazon along with some Kapton tape at an offer price. Fitted the decoder - the instruction sheet spouts incorrect rubbish about orange wires and pin 1 - and programmed it. Tested without refitting the body it would just move about 1/2" - but encouraging. Next step - there was no lube anywhere - bone dry - so fixed that with a pin head and Dapol lube. Finally, found that the front wheel spacing on the axle would let one wheel drop inside the rails - so fixed that with intrepidation. Then it ran - hesitantly at first but a bit of running in has improved it no end. So essentially it was just chucked together when new, no lube added, and lousy DCC fitting instructions. This feels like an achievement.

[ParkeNd]

Today I started work on covering the DCC Controllers at the front of the layout. The plan is to construct a plywood cover over the units leaving a 30mm air gap over the heat sinks with the front curving to follow the curve of the track, with both front and rear open. I purchased an A2 piece of Daler board this morning and have made a pattern for the 9mm ply cover. I've carefully matched the front curve to clear the widest wagons, and "lived" with the pattern piece in place for a few hours to make sure I'm happy with the idea. Next I shall trace around the pattern onto my piece of ply and cut it out with my jig saw. Not sure if I will "scenic" the top surface or make it a control panel with track plan and point nos. 

[ParkeNd]

Over the past 5 days I've got another three locos running under DCC control - but it hasn't been easy. I've found out the hard way that retailers knowledge of which decoders fit which locos can't be relied on. The only solution for me is to take off the loco bodies and physically look at the blanking plugs and their dimensions - especially the dimensions. My Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 is a victim of that - trying to put the die cast body back on with the recommended decoder fitted cut through the motor wires. The decoder recommended is too big as discovered by a You Tube reviewer - but not found by me until it was too late. For two Heljan small locos with 6 pin direct sockets I've tracked down 2 x Gaugemaster DCC93 decoders which are on the way in the post. Worth knowing. 

[ParkeNd]

I've just received from Olivias Trains an immaculate pre-owned Bachmann Limited Edition slope tanked small Prairie 45XX in BR lined green with DCC decoder fitted by them. I already have a GWR green similar item without decoder but 'DCC Ready" I have found requires two coils to be removed from a PCB and four decoder leads to be soldered to 4 points on the PCB. An early concept of "Ready".  I'm not ready for this level of bravery yet. The Olivias Trains model runs superbly. Now that I have 10 locos including a 2 car DMU running I can see that some more room would help. So I purchased a small quantity of timber this morning to extend the L shape the full width of the room. Gives me an extra 36 inches. Photos soon.

[ParkeNd]

The framework to extend the L shape is constructed, varnished, and bolted into place and the top surface marked out and ready to cut before fixing in place and track laying. However, I have found that using 3rd and 2nd radius curves I can bring the two main lines down the other side of the room - and using 1st radius curves onto a 13' wide base board the two goods lines running short locos and wagons will also run down the other side of the room. So I'm making the layout U shaped which allows the fiddle yard to be on the wall opposite the current main layout area. The trains run so well that I want to see them run greater distances. 

[ParkeNd]

Rather than more boring words, here are two photos of progress of the extension of the running tracks. I haven't measured it but the distance trains can travel once more track is laid is comfortably more than doubled - but no more points being added - just running track. I think it should look quite neat too once more scenery is added - it will just be countryside with possibly some "country structure" in the extra corner - maybe a barn?

[ParkeNd]

New track slowly appearing - trains run beautifully to the very end. Have run out of cork so little progress today other than pencilling in the 15" radius curves for the little goods locos. The trains are going to run between grassy banks under a canopy of Model Tree Shop trees passing a gate into a colliery before arriving at Speech End. 

[96701]

7 hours ago, ParkeNd said:

New track slowly appearing - trains run beautifully to the very end. Have run out of cork so little progress today other than pencilling in the 15" radius curves for the little goods locos. The trains are going to run between grassy banks under a canopy of Model Tree Shop trees passing a gate into a colliery before arriving at Speech End. 

Do you need more cork? I have some spare. Send me a PM, maybe we could arrange a handover?

[ParkeNd]

16 hours ago, 96701 said:

Do you need more cork? I have some spare. Send me a PM, maybe we could arrange a handover?

Thanks for the offer Phil but I already had some more on order that arrived yesterday. Back laying track today.

[ParkeNd]

Track now laid on cork on extension, and ballasting started although not in these pictures. I have four more tracks for trains "to come from, and go to". I've started scratch building a ruined colliery winding house to stand amongst the trees in the new corner. When more materials arrive I can fit the balsa countryside to run under the window - this will be covered in Gaugemaster GM21 matting and bushes from The Model Tree Shop. The order also has 14 more 100-120mm trees.

 

I have also fitted chips to a Bachmann Class 03 shunter, and a Heljan Pannier tank. Both run very smoothly until the axles shift and the wheels lock up. As a video review showed neither have a definite way of aligning the axles - it's a case of just diddling with the screws to get the least bad setup. The chips were very easy to fit though. A few people and a platform sign added - kits arrive to build a bracket signal and a water crane. I have to say that I'm delighted that Peco have rethought their build strategy since I built both in N gauge - no longer have they reduced every nut and bolt to scale size to make it torture to build, but whole assemblies best moulded in one piece are now moulded in one piece. Heaven!!

 

Photos - before new ballasting - from my phone only.

 

 

[ParkeNd]

I had forgotten how arduous ballasting and painting the sides of rails with Sleeper Grime is. But this is progress to date. The countryside through which the trains travel to arrive at the station is started using sanded balsa and grass matting (bushes and small trees to add), the cover over the DCC controllers at the front of the layout now has "lumpy" grass courtesy of sanded balsa pads under it (weeds to add), and the station now has a telephone box. Note the Lamp Hut hiding Point No1. The small prairie is shown at the new limit of travel - it takes 65 seconds at heritage railway speed to travel the full length of the layout. I don't know how that translates into OO Gauge Time but whatever it is I don't expect someone at the station would see it's approach or departure for longer. Heljan 1366 runs but can be subject to axles locking up due to lousy location and no real bearings - needs to be taken off the rails occasional and axles pressed in and out to free up.

[ParkeNd]

The last few feet of the layout extension will be a fiddle yard for now so a part equal to the length of the longest train the station can cope with (prairie plus two coaches) remains unballasted. I want the trains to enter the scenic part of the layout and then run through countryside to the station but by starting the journey at some notable feature. So I'm building a girder bridge under which all trains will pass and "emerge" out the other side. In a bid to make life easier I'm using Wills kits for the girders and the abutments. The girders part is straight forward enough but the picture on the kit showing two girder runs and claiming 320mm length had me fooled - I've had to order another girder kit because it should more honestly be advertised as 2 x 160mm.  The abutments "kit" is more a collection of parts which you bend to your will to create the notion of a road arriving at the side of the tracks and emerging on the other side of the layout - all in 380mm of layout width.  The first one took me ages to construct the notion of a truncated road for the abutment to melt into. I've used Daler Board and an infill of packaging foam which cut and glued beautifully to be my section of embankment. They still have to be painted and grassed but I hope these three photos show what I'm up to. There will be a brick pier in the middle to support the long span - I have Wills brick sheet to make this.  Until these modules are trimmed and put in place I'm holding the last couple of feet of scenery groundwork.

[ParkeNd]

The road bridge build continues - it's not the easiest thing I've built though. The middle support is now built, both sides of the plate girder are built, and this morning I started to assemble the bridge span using a balsa jig to keep the whole thing the right shape. I'm using what I hope is a realistic structure with I-Beams to support the roadway which will be sanded black 0.75mm styrene sheet.  The 3rd photo just added shows the paper pattern I've made so I can get the road surface of the bridge deck to go right up to the plate girders.

 

Taller 140mm trees have arrived, as has some better line side fencing so I can add the Noch mountain bikers to make some more of the second forested corner.

Edited March 18, 2022 by ParkeNd
3rd photo added

[ParkeNd]

Don't know if photos work yet on here, but this is where I've got to with the new part of the layout. Loads to do yet - probably another year's work.