Ashwood Dale - Lockdown and an itch that needs to be scratched

[eldavo]

More work has been done on the curved section to the fiddleyard and both tracks have been laid, wired and ballasted.  The curve is still pretty tight.

 

 

 

Nonetheless the flatiron, which is probably the longest fixed wheelbase of my fleet, can successfully run round the curves and my 54ft coaches also run fairly reliably.  A bit of adjustment to buffers and corridor connections and all will be well.

 

 

 

Rather than crack on and do the hard work of wiring up the new track at the other end of the layout I have, as usual, been doing some distraction tasks!  The laser has been busy again and chopped up more 2mm grey board.

 

 

 

There are 6 identical pieces that are laminated into 2 groups of 3 to make the end walls of a pedestal coaling shed.  With the carcass assembled and covered in a stone texture and a fairly crude pedestal built it looked something like this:

 

 

 

I can't find a drawing of the typical twin derrick crane the midland used so I'll have to make something up based on photos.  The gorilla glue is standing in for now!

 

The building is a tight fit alongside the turntable but it'll have to do.

 

 

 

I've also been fiddling around with the paintbrushes, glue and textures in the loco shed area bringing things together.  The shed even has rainwater goods!

 

 

 

Today the coaling shed gained the start of it's roof.  Needs slates added but I have fixed the wonky upright!

 

 

 

All good fun but I'll have to sort the wiring out at some point!

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by eldavo

[eldavo]

More work on the coaling shed sees it structurally complete.  Tiles/slates have been added along with leadwork and rainwater goods. Now I need to sort the crane/hoist and get the paintbrushes out.

 

 

 

I think it will fit into it's planned location ok.

 

 

 

 

 

Onward.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by eldavo

[eldavo]

I seem to have spent rather a lot of time digging around trying to find info on the Midland pedestal coaling shed cranes.  A lot of them look to have had a twin jib arrangement but there are very few clear photos and I can't find any drawings.  I've hacked the start of something together based on photos of St Alban's and Buxton along with looking at what others have done.

 

 

 

The cogs and pulleys are 3D printed (what a surprise) and the rest is cobbled together from bits of plastic, card and wire.  Thank goodness for strong super glue!  More to do including adding the chains.  Next is back to the CAD program to create some coal bins that I can 3D print.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by eldavo

[eldavo]

Finally got my whatsit in gear and drew up a coal bin in my CAD program. Didn't take too long and is probably good enough.  First batch off the printer...

 

 

 

 

There are a couple of compromises and they are missing the door release lever and a grab handle.  I may be motivated to add the missing bits on at least those that are visible in the murk of the coaling shed.  With a touch of paint I think they will pass muster.

 

 

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by eldavo

[eldavo]

More coal bins have been produced and paint, weathering powders and coal have been thrown at them.  The crane has had chains added and been painted.  It's still an approximation but a much better approximation after help from some Midland Railway Society members.  Being the impatient soul I am this have been glued in position almost before the paint has dried (the PVA holding the coal hadn't!).

 

 

 

 

With the layout arranged as it is at home I can't see any of this detail!  With the shed in it's position on the layout I have to use the selfie camera to get a look at it.

 

 

 

I really should stop tinkering with this now and get on with some wiring.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by eldavo

[Dave Hunt]

Just discovered this thread, Dave, and it's really taken my fancy so this won't be the last time I visit by any means. A crackin' job as my Grandad would have said.

 

Dave

[eldavo]

More wiring has been done which involved lifting (or scrabbling underneath) all 6 scenic boards.  Just to add to the fun I realised I had missed out catering for the goods headshunt which can be switched between different control areas.  Additional feeds had to be strung between board 2 and the control box and extra work done in both sections of the control panel.  Not too arduous but...

 

Some of the boards are getting quite busy.  Still signals to add!

 

 

 

 

Having the boards up gave the opportunity to address a couple of issues on the snagging list.  One or two of the connections to the servo control boards have proved to be a bit flaky so I've rewired them all. 

 

Another issue is that occasionally some of the servo control boards will flip the orientation of throw of their turnout.  Annoying to say the least.  I suspect this is because the ATtiny85 chip is sensing the configuration pin has been grounded.  The way you change the orientation, if you actually want to, is to short the 2 pins at the bottom of the board.

 

 

 

To try and prevent this I've added a pull-up 10k resistor between the input and the 5volt supply.  Unfortunately I hadn't catered for this on the original board design so it's a bit of a crude fix.

 

 

 

 

Time to look at other things.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by eldavo

[eldavo]

Having pretty much completed the coaling shed I've created another problem for myself. Originally I was going to build a fairly small affair along the lines of the one at Leicester but somehow it grew into something rather larger like the shed at St Albans.  With the larger shed I've sort of run out of space for a bufferstop on the coal road.  Certainly no space for a standard Midland rail built stop.

 

 

 

 

After posing the question on the Midland Railway Company thread Dave Hunt came up with a photo of a wooden stop at Whitwell.  My first thought was to build something like it out of coffee stirrers but I ended up back in the CAD software and giving the job to my 3D printer.

 

 

It's a tight fit but it should stop wagons ending up in the turntable well!

 

 

 

Of course as with all these things you can't really see it properly.

 

 

 

Is not wonky, now!  On to the next problem...

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by eldavo

[lezz01]

Looking good Dave.

regards Lez.

[eldavo]

Having finished wiring up the recently laid track and tweaking the servo controllers it was time to go back to working on the top of the baseboards.  Some "testing" has been carried out which has resulted in some track fettling and then it was on to ballasting and painting.  30 odd feet of track takes a while to ballast (if you are picky like me) but it's done now.

 

 

 

 

I'm also trying to finalize the goods yard layout and have printed a couple of templates from templot.  Not entirely convinced by my current plan and may leave out one of the sidings.   I think I need to build a goods shed and see how it looks in the space.

 

Having laid the long goods siding it needs a bufferstop.  I've got some white metal kit jobbies but not enough so I thought it was time to scratch build something.  Initially I thought I would build a sleeper-built bufferstop, based on a Midland Railway drawing, using coffee stirrers.  Cutting stirrers is a bit of a fag so I ended up sketching out the core structure in 3D CAD and printing it.  Some bits of bent rail, fishplates and a bit of timber and it's mostly there.

 

 

 

Painted up, bedded in and a turfed soil pile added and it looks like this...

 

 

 

 

Up close you can make out a printing anomaly but standing back a bit it doesn't look too bad.  It's had a bit of weathering since I took the photos and I think it will do the job.  Clearly I'm not working fast enough on this project as the grass is growing!

 

 

 

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by eldavo

[eldavo]

After a bit of pondering of photos and drawings of goods sheds I've knocked together the basic shell of a shed.  This looks about the right size for the layout and let's me finalize the track plan for the goods yard.

 

 

 

Originally I was going to put a cattledock at one end of the shed but this would make the yard too cramped for my liking.  I will move this to the short platform road or omit it completely.  I will retain the same number of sidings but one will become a short stub for dumping brake vans and odd bits rather than for cattle.

 

To access all this I need a couple more turnouts and I was looking at a simple pair of B6s.   Nothing ever stays simple on this layout and these have morphed into an all right-hand tandem turnout with the smallest being a B5.5.  just need to get it built and working!

 

 

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by eldavo

[lezz01]

Have you tried pushing stock through a 5.5 turnout Dave? You need to make sure you can push through that without getting buffer lock mate. 

Regards Lez.

[eldavo]

Well I think the radius of the 5.5 route on the tandem should be ok.  Templot suggests it has an effective radius of 73 inches but I did check it with a couple of wagons once I got the stock rail in place.  I just need to make sure I don't put too tight a radius in further down the siding!

 

The assembly has been installed and I've laid some plain track in the goods shed siding.  As ever my estimating skills have been found sadly lacking and I've run out of rail and chairs again.  Orders have been placed but I'll have to look at other things for a while.

 

 

 

No shortage of things to do as I need to build some more point actuators/servo mounts and servo control boards amongst many other things.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by eldavo

[eldavo]

Still waiting for rail chairs to arrive so my focus has turned to the goods shed.  Rather than draw the whole building in a 3D CAD program as I did with the engine shed I thought I would wing it.  Things were going well till I came to bed the building in to the baseboard at which point I realised it was a bit too low.  The old adage of measure twice cut once is all very well but you do have to measure the right bit twice!  Somehow I had managed build the walls 10mm too short.

 

As you can see the walls now have a 10mm plinth around the base to get things back where they should be.

 

 

 

I also decided to add an office at one end...

 

 

 

It's getting there but it still needs doors, windowframes and a roof before I add the fiddly bits.  No time for that in the next few days as I will be eating and drinking too much as seems to be the norm for this time of year.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by eldavo

[eldavo]

Duplicate post

 

Edited December 24, 2021 by eldavo

[eldavo]

No huge progress but I've been tinkering with a few bits and pieces.  Knocked together a Slater's kit for a 4-wheel passenger brake coach that seemed to drop into my last order for rail (must have clicked the wrong button 😮 ).  This has been sprayed up along with another coach and is currently being lined out.  Quite nice to work on a fairly simple kit for a change.

 

I've also been making progress on the goods shed.  The office building now has windows.  These are one of the few bits of laser cutting on this building.

 

 

 

 

The roof is currently under construction and I'm working on the tedious tiling bit.  The slates are also laser cut.  I've got a whole stack of slate strips somewhere but I'm blowed it I can find them so I had to cut some more.

 

The large doors have also been sorted along with some basic internal details which are of course invisible when the roof is on!

 

 

The roof lights are awaiting glazing bars which are currently sat on my workbench.  The shed is capable of taking 3 wagons so it's a reasonable size but I think it will fit in the space quite nicely.

 

 

 

 

Hopefully I'll have the roof work completed in the next couple of days and then I need to build a crane.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by eldavo

[eldavo]

It's a landmark day today.  The last of the track on the scenic part of the layout is now complete all bar fettling and detailing.  I could probably have missed out the brake van spur to make the goods yard a bit more spacious but hey ho it's down now.

 

 

Better get on and wire it all up.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by eldavo

[eldavo]

The goods yard track has now all been wired up and seems to work, mostly.  I need to fettle the pointwork a tad as a couple of wagons are a bit jumpy.  In the mean time I have been doing some ballasting of the new track and bedding in the goods shed.  I decided to add an area of stone setts on the road vehicle side of the shed so I've started an experiment with DAS clay.  It's the first time I've used the stuff so who knows how it will come out.

 

 

The clay is laid on a 1.5mm card base to bring the level up.  I coated the card in PVA so hopefully the DAS won't break off.  I decided to scribe a pattern into the clay while it's half dry.  It's a bit crude but it might work.  We shall see.

 

 

Onward.

Dave

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by eldavo

[eldavo]

The DAS experiment seems to be progressing OK.  The clay has dried without cracking (yet) and I've thrown some paint at it.  Looks vaguely sett like.

 

 

Given that this isn't even visible from the public viewing side of the layout, it's good enough.

 

I've also been working on more ballasting and an access road into the goods yard area.  Trying to replicate the way prototype track is practically buried in ash ballast is a bit of a challenge given the flange sizes etc of finescale O gauge.  I've tried to give an impression using tile grout.  It might work.

 

 

Lots to do.

 

Dave

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by eldavo

[eldavo]

What with the RMweb machinations and working on the club layout as part of the build up to Ally Pally not much has occurred on the layout.  I have though been having a bit of a stock building session.

 

At the start of lockdown one of the Winchester railway modellers decided to have a clear out of his kit collection and so money changed hands and I ended up with 6 kits.  You might ask why I was mad enough to buy a bunch of Janick kits when I have been warned about them many times.  I think the most flattering description I heard was "they can be made up into decent vehicles but...".  They were for interesting prototypes that nobody else makes so...

 

In fact the body etches aren't too bad and go together in a fairly straightforward manner.  Some of the details are a bit sketchy as are the instructions.  Bits of the wrong diameter wood dowel for the cylinders are far too crude but can easily be sorted with a bit of 3D printing. I also have all the key books so can fill in some of the missing detail.

 

The bogies though were another matter.  The kit has a bunch of etches and white metal castings. None of the castings fitted and the etched construction was seriously flimsy. I ditched them.

 

I had previously done the CAD work for a 3 piece Clayton 10ft bogey so modified this for these kits.  The central framework and bolster are printed as a single piece in rigid resin while the sideframe assemblies are printed in a tough flexible resin.  If I had printed the side frames in the rigid resin the footboards etc. wouldn't have listed 5 minutes.

 

 

Assembly is simple. Insert bearings into the sideframe position the wheel sets and bang it all together with super glue.

 

 

They aren't overly detailed bogies but they look ok to my eye when under the coach.

 

 

I have four of these 48ft clerestory coaches to build and so far one is completed.

 

 

In the photo above you can also see a mostly completed MSE horse box kit waiting for the paint shop.

 

Lots to do.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

Edited May 13, 2022 by eldavo

[eldavo]

Definitely in need of some calm warm weather.  Getting a bit of a paintshop backlog!

 

[eldavo]

Well the weather was warm, and more importantly dry, today so good progress made.  Managed to get 3 coaches and the horse box through the grit blaster. That cleaned them up a treat.  Although it was a bit more blowy than I would like in my spray booth (the compost heap) I managed to get a coat of etch primer, a coat of red oxide primer and a top coat of Ford Burgundy red applied to all of them. Also sprayed the horse box underframe with satin black.

 

 

These will be left to harden for a day or two before I start the tedious bit of adding the black panel lines by hand.  I've also finished building the interiors and painted them so all in all a productive day.

 

I may have to take a trip to Halfords soon though as my rattle can collection has taken a bit of a hit.  The dead men...

 

 

Cheers

Dave

[eldavo]

The crimson paintwork looks to be pretty good so I've set about adding the lining.  First up all the beading is painted black. Up till now I've always done this freehand using a 5/0 paintbrush which is a slow and tedious job.  After reading posts by folks, who know what they are doing, I decided to try doing this with a lining pen.

 

Rather than trying to get the thinnest line possible which is what you normally do with a lining pen, in this case I need a fairly wide line.  Fortunately in my collection of lining pens and assorted bits I have just the right tool.  Some considerable time ago I invested in a couple of pens to experiment with.  These came from eBay and were vastly expensive (£1.50 for 2).

 

They do the job fine and as these are Clayton period coaches with square panelling I can use a straight edge for almost all of the work.

 

 

Why did I not try this method sooner?  It is so much faster and easier!    Onward.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

[eldavo]

Starting to get some gold paint on now. This time I'm using a much finer pen that came in an old set picked up from an "antiques" shop. No idea who made it but it can produce a pretty fine line (in the right hands!). Sometimes I can get a good result but I'm inconsistent. It'll take some rework but should be ok in the end.

 

 

Cheers

Dave

 

[eldavo]

First stage of rework is a bit of a step backwards.  Some of the gold lining is a bit ragged or too wide so needs to be trimmed up. I could overpaint with crimson but getting red paint to cover gold is a challenge especially when it has to be decanted from a rattle can.  My usual approach is to gently scrape back the excess using the point of a craft knife.

 

This is a bit of a tricky job and is very easy to overdo it.  There are a couple of patches where I've been a bit heavy handed and will have to touch in the red.  Other slight scratches should(!) disappear when the coach is varnished.  I tend to solder in the door handles and grab handles so the paint has to be removed from these at the same time.

 

Next up I have to touch in some of the black.

 

 

Cheers

Dave