Coombe Town

[MrWolf]

I would expect the fence to run around the boundaries of the railway property. The only time I think that you might get a fence down the middle of a goods yard is where you have two separate railway companies yards in the same place, or rather side by side and connected by a spur.

An example would be where the GWR and S&MLR ran into the outskirts of Shrewsbury.

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2022 by MrWolf

[CoombeTown]

Thanks @Andy Keane  @MrWolf, no fence in the yard it is.

 

The plan is to part a hedge along the edge of the track at the top of the embankment and then another hedge along the backscene with a fence in front. I think that creates sufficient boundary to the railway owned land.

[CoombeTown]

A little bit more progress post band this evening as well.

 

All the cranks, signal pulleys for the ballasted area now painted. Along with the first ground signal

 

I'll add some glue and glaze to the lenses then colour with Tamiya translucent paint, then it's ready to install!

[CoombeTown]

So it's all in, LED mounted in the ground signal, paint touched up. The disc itself is a bit luminescent which I will look to resolve for the other two. But I'm pleased with how it's turned out.

 

Fully painted, with lenses coloured.

 

Close-up with the signal wire pulleys and cranks for the point in-situ.

 

Finally, I couldn't resist a nighttime shot with the Christmas tree Railcar. Still need to work out how to dim the lights on the output there...

[CoombeTown]

Ended up playing with my phone and 1668 in the yard, finding a few more artistic views.

 

 

[MrWolf]

Good shots, they give an idea of what you are aiming for. 

It's making me think that I ought to do some similar shots on my own layout, just for motivation and morale purposes.

[CoombeTown]

It's definitely worthwhile Rob. I'd be the first to admit that sometimes I forget it's a hobby.

Finding views like the shot through the shed remind me what I'm trying to achieve, and that I am getting there.

My trainset growing up never had a completed scene which always gave me a bit of kicking.

It may have taken 3 years, but Coombe Town is starting to feel like a true scene, at least in the Goods Yard...

[CoombeTown]

A bit of a Pannier tank change to the fleet. I've always fancied a 64xx in Lined Green, but missed the boat at the first opportunity.

 

Yesterday I spotted a bargain, at least against current RRP, at Model Railways Direct so drove over to Portishead to collect 6421.

 

As a result, 6417 has now been decommissioned, returned back to its analogue state, and will be hitting eBay on Sunday night, unless there is any interest on here.

 

Dom

 

[CoombeTown]

The phantom double posting strikes again.

Edited November 5, 2022 by DRoe96
Seeing Double

[CoombeTown]

I managed to get sculptamold down on the embankment on Sunday, and with a bit of help from a fan heater, we have progress!

 

Earth colour painted on, dirt down for the track to the edge of the baseboard.

A BR lorry is posed where a Springside Cattle Lorry shall eventually reside.

 

Down the lane.

 

And across the yard.

 

 

 

[CoombeTown]

Now we're getting somewhere!

 

Just waiting for a Geoscenics delivery to put the yard surface in before grassing the embankment and adding the other hedge.

[CoombeTown]

Well I was having an enjoyable evening playing trains with the new scenery around, now including a fence, in the right place!

 

 

Unfortunately, within the mere minutes of each other, 1668 seems to have died completely and 4157 is no longer producing sound.

 

I've had the speaker out of 4157 and put it back in without any improvement, yet the firebox glow still works properly, I've tried factory reset and all.

 

1668 is proving a challenge.

Any hints for fixing either would be appreciated, for now though, I'm calling quits!

[CoombeTown]

So after a while away, including a house move, I've found a little bit of modelling time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In between cleaning the old place and unboxing in the new, I managed to sneak in a trip to the Clubhouse. Many thanks to the Holly Junction team who let me give my Gas Turbine and Torbay Express rake a good run around. It's a nice sight to watch a proper length rake that I don't have space for!

 

I've also managed to finish ballasting the small scenic board this morning, which will now be left to dry over the festive period.

 

Images below as they seem to corrupt when inserted into text!

Merry Christmas everyone and may 2023 bring you every success and many trains.

 

Dom

 

Edited December 23, 2022 by DRoe96
Fixing Images

[Chris116]

In the second photo I like the way that Thomas has been put out to grass!

Edited December 23, 2022 by Chris116

[CoombeTown]

As I'm away for the Christmas period, modelling time is non-existent. However, I have made a decent start on the design of the Station Master's House, based on that at Crowcombe Heathfield.

 

The front:

 

And the back

 

My plan is to create a cardboard mock-up when I return and to start looking at the landscape in that corner.

 

The downside of now operating from by the control panel is that I look at the unfinished end of the layout so I'm trying to make some progress down there.

 

 

 

Edited December 29, 2022 by DRoe96
Fixing pictures, again…

[CoombeTown]

Happy New Year all!

 

It's been a productive start to 2023 at Coombe Town.

The tracked ballast before Christmas has now dried and is running well. As seen with the Autotrain on a departure.

 

I've installed the micro-led into the Goods Shed, but like the Ground Signal, it needs a 3V adaptor to dim the light. Although a bit of translucent paint has made some improvement.

 

 

I've also mocked up the Station Master's house and put it in position on the layout. The overall footprint seems about right, but the height seems a little too close to the height of the Station Building. There being only a 5ft difference between the two - does this seem reasonable considering the second floor of the station master's house is supposed to be somewhat in the eaves?

 

 

However, the presence of the building does seem to be helping the overall feel of the layout.

What do others think? Is it alright or should I be returning to the drawing board, literally?

 

Dom

[Andy Keane]

10 hours ago, DRoe96 said:

Happy New Year all!

 

It's been a productive start to 2023 at Coombe Town.

The tracked ballast before Christmas has now dried and is running well. As seen with the Autotrain on a departure.

 

I've installed the micro-led into the Goods Shed, but like the Ground Signal, it needs a 3V adaptor to dim the light. Although a bit of translucent paint has made some improvement.

 

 

I've also mocked up the Station Master's house and put it in position on the layout. The overall footprint seems about right, but the height seems a little too close to the height of the Station Building. There being only a 5ft difference between the two - does this seem reasonable considering the second floor of the station master's house is supposed to be somewhat in the eaves?

 

 

However, the presence of the building does seem to be helping the overall feel of the layout.

What do others think? Is it alright or should I be returning to the drawing board, literally?

 

Dom

To my eyes it looks a tad large? Maybe that is the height? Could you sink it in to ground a bit?

But the whole layout is looking very nice and spurs me on to make more progress on mine.

Andy

[NHY 581]

13 hours ago, DRoe96 said:

Happy New Year all!

 

It's been a productive start to 2023 at Coombe Town.

The tracked ballast before Christmas has now dried and is running well. As seen with the Autotrain on a departure.

 

I've installed the micro-led into the Goods Shed, but like the Ground Signal, it needs a 3V adaptor to dim the light. Although a bit of translucent paint has made some improvement.

 

 

I've also mocked up the Station Master's house and put it in position on the layout. The overall footprint seems about right, but the height seems a little too close to the height of the Station Building. There being only a 5ft difference between the two - does this seem reasonable considering the second floor of the station master's house is supposed to be somewhat in the eaves?

 

 

However, the presence of the building does seem to be helping the overall feel of the layout.

What do others think? Is it alright or should I be returning to the drawing board, literally?

 

Dom

 

 

That's looking rather spiffing, Dom. The cattle dock/goods shed area in particular really looks the part. A nice corner with some good photo opportunities to come, methinks. 

 

Rob. 

 

 

[CoombeTown]

12 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

To my eyes it looks a tad large? Maybe that is the height? Could you sink it in to ground a bit?

But the whole layout is looking very nice and spurs me on to make more progress on mine.

Andy

 

Cheers Andy,

 

I guess you've sort of answered my question, it certainly doesn't need to be taller! I think it might be a perspective thing with the SM's house being 10mm higher in the land.

 

Putting them side-by-side looks more like this.

 

Would making it shorter make the 2-storey building too close to the single storey Station Building?

 

Cheers,

Dom

[CoombeTown]

9 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

 

 

That's looking rather spiffing, Dom. The cattle dock/goods shed area in particular really looks the part. A nice corner with some good photo opportunities to come, methinks. 

 

Rob. 

 

 

 

Cheers Rob, It means a lot coming from someone with your model-making prowess.

 

It's certainly starting to come together after 3.5 years... a bit of a slow burner but hopefully at least that corner will be mildly finished before the year is out!

 

Dom

[Andy Keane]

46 minutes ago, DRoe96 said:

 

Cheers Andy,

 

I guess you've sort of answered my question, it certainly doesn't need to be taller! I think it might be a perspective thing with the SM's house being 10mm higher in the land.

 

Putting them side-by-side looks more like this.

 

Would making it shorter make the 2-storey building too close to the single storey Station Building?

 

Cheers,

Dom

Could you lower the ground level or is that too difficult at this stage?

[Andy Keane]

On 02/11/2022 at 22:05, DRoe96 said:

So it's all in, LED mounted in the ground signal, paint touched up. The disc itself is a bit luminescent which I will look to resolve for the other two. But I'm pleased with how it's turned out.

 

Fully painted, with lenses coloured.

 

Close-up with the signal wire pulleys and cranks for the point in-situ.

 

Finally, I couldn't resist a nighttime shot with the Christmas tree Railcar. Still need to work out how to dim the lights on the output there...

Dom

I have just laid my ModelU rodding bases and am now thinking about the rodding. I think you put your ballast down before inserting the rodding. if so what did you do about painting the rods themselves? I cannot tell from your photo above if you have painted them a rusty colour or not. being a bit ham-fisted I worry that if I try and paint after installation I will get paint all over the ballast while if I paint before inserting they will not go into the bases. The alternative I am thinking about is ballasting after the rods are in and painted. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

regards

Andy

[CoombeTown]

On 02/01/2023 at 22:21, Andy Keane said:

Could you lower the ground level or is that too difficult at this stage?

Not too late Andy that whole section is yet to be set out properly. I'll have a play at somepoint when I get a chance, the current modelling project is to fix the rather Martian like yard surface. Thanks for the input though.

 

2 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

Dom

I have just laid my ModelU rodding bases and am now thinking about the rodding. I think you put your ballast down before inserting the rodding. if so what did you do about painting the rods themselves? I cannot tell from your photo above if you have painted them a rusty colour or not. being a bit ham-fisted I worry that if I try and paint after installation I will get paint all over the ballast while if I paint before inserting they will not go into the bases. The alternative I am thinking about is ballasting after the rods are in and painted. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

regards

Andy

 

I've laid it all out and glued the rollers onto the rodding. The next steps will be to blutack it all to some card, spray with primer and paint with Humbrol Gunmetal (53). Then I'll give them a brush over with rust weathering powder away from the rollers. Then super glue is probably the best friend to get it all stuck down for good.

 

Hope that helps,

Dom

[Andy Keane]

11 hours ago, DRoe96 said:

Not too late Andy that whole section is yet to be set out properly. I'll have a play at somepoint when I get a chance, the current modelling project is to fix the rather Martian like yard surface. Thanks for the input though.

 

 

I've laid it all out and glued the rollers onto the rodding. The next steps will be to blutack it all to some card, spray with primer and paint with Humbrol Gunmetal (53). Then I'll give them a brush over with rust weathering powder away from the rollers. Then super glue is probably the best friend to get it all stuck down for good.

 

Hope that helps,

Dom

Ah! I had not thought of gluing in the rods to the rollers BEFORE sticking the rollers down, which is clearly a good plan. Unfortunately I have already glued my rollers to the board.

Thanks anyway

Such is life.

[CoombeTown]

Well prompted by @Andy Keane’s questions I started painting the point Rodding over the weekend. Just needs finishing off with weathering powders and installing now.

 

I’ve also recovered the Martian yard surface sufficiently to the point where I could add the base layer of static grass on the embankment.

 

 

The big question now is, should the yard ash surface continue all the way to the ballast, or should there be some sort of grassy area in between?

 

Hopefully not too long until the next instalment…