Northbridge - 1960s BR(WR) N Gauge

[Ch4lkst3r]

The roof has now been completed and the big road doors added into the archway.  Still not glued into place as I need to drill the baseboard for the lighting wiring but here it is again roughly in it's final resting place.

Edited April 1, 2022 by Ch4lkst3r

[Ch4lkst3r]

It's been a while since the last update and not much has happened but the brewery buildings are now all finished and in place.  Here we have an 08 shunting a couple of wagons into the brewery (and that's an Ale Van converted from a cattle van before anyone asks what are cows used for in making beer!)  There is a Dapol easi-shunt magnet fitted under the cobbles to allow the wagons to be dropped off (fitting couplers to rolling stock is yet another job on the list!)

 

Later on in the day the brewery continues working whilst the rest of the world goes to sleep!  Whilst wiring in the lights for all the brewery buildings I took the opportunity to add in a dimmer so since this photo was taken the lights have been dimmed down a bit as they were rather bright.

 

Anyway I'm now off under the baseboard to start fitting some block detection so there won't be much in the way of updates for a while!

Edited April 1, 2022 by Ch4lkst3r

[Ch4lkst3r]

I didn't realise it's been nearly 6 months since the last update so it's about time I let those interested know what's been going on.

 

So the end of last year was spent fitting the block detection to the sections of the main line and setting it all up in JMRI.  The beginning of this year saw a pause to all work on the layout whilst we had building work done so the layout was covered up with dust sheets and the railway room was off limits.  Getting back to the layout was then further delayed having a massive clean up to get rid of all the dust everywhere!

 

The first task once work could resume was to install the first of the signals.  5 have so far been installed on the left hand side of the layout where the scenery has been finished.  Left them towards the completion of that side so I don't get knocking them about!  Here's a couple of pictures of them installed.  (The Mk. 3 is completely the wrong era but it's what I use to check clearances).

 

Now I've finally got back to doing some proper scenery stuff.  No pictures of everything done on this post but I've been working on the track down to the canal wharf and finishing off the wall around the brewery.  The start of the retaining wall which will be at the back of the engine shed is in place and the upper part has had the cutting side covered in plaster bandage.  The wall on the road down to the brewery and the boundary/retaining wall top along the front of the brewery have been put into situ just needing some weathering/greenery.  The rail entrance to the brewery has been ballasted and the gates fitted so the brewery is now finished with the exception of adding barrels and workmen etc.  A couple of pictures of the brewery are below.

 

The next task is to finish off the areas around the track to the wharf that can be seen in the picture above and the top of the retaining wall by the engine shed before the starting on creating the shed area.  I'm working from the back towards the front where possible to save having to keep leaning over completed parts.

 

Hopefully this time the next update won't be so long!

[Ch4lkst3r]

Well I did hope the next update wouldn't be so long in coming but real life got in the way again.  Hopefully the next few months will see some quicker progress.  Anyway the canal wharf branch is now all ballasted, retaining walls all made and in place and the area all blended in with the surrounding scenery.  Here are a couple of shots looking up the branch from the wharf.  Firstly looking under the bridge where the mainline crosses the branch and then the view from the mainline bridge itself.

 

The first of the two shed sidings are now relaid in their final resting place and have been ballasted and today some base grass layers have been added in their vicinity.  The end of them can be seen in their un-hoovered state in the second photo above.  Shed building has now begun with the first of the card being cut out today.  As the shed has quite a large footprint it will soon fill up the big space that's currently waiting for it!

[Ch4lkst3r]

The shed build has been ongoing for the past couple of weeks.  The shed is a kit-bashed Scalescenes gable ended shed which I've made into a four-road version.  The first photo shows the side walls.  There will be an extension onto the right-hand side for offices/stores for the shed hence the painted brick section.

 

The inside and outside walls are now sat in my home-built spray booth whilst the varnish dries. The join in the outside wall will be covered by the gutter for the centre roof gulley. 

 

The walls should all be together tomorrow then the next stage is to work out how to bash the roof to fit!

[JeffP]

Just found this thread. Superb modelling.

[jonhinds]

On 24/08/2022 at 16:33, Ch4lkst3r said:

Well I did hope the next update wouldn't be so long in coming but real life got in the way again.  Hopefully the next few months will see some quicker progress.  Anyway the canal wharf branch is now all ballasted, retaining walls all made and in place and the area all blended in with the surrounding scenery.  Here are a couple of shots looking up the branch from the wharf.  Firstly looking under the bridge where the mainline crosses the branch and then the view from the mainline bridge itself.

 

The first of the two shed sidings are now relaid in their final resting place and have been ballasted and today some base grass layers have been added in their vicinity.  The end of them can be seen in their un-hoovered state in the second photo above.  Shed building has now begun with the first of the card being cut out today.  As the shed has quite a large footprint it will soon fill up the big space that's currently waiting for it!

Nothing to add except I love these two photos of the line passing by the canal. So great seeing an ‘eye-level’ shot in N, particularly when the modelling is this good.

[Ch4lkst3r]

Slightly delayed until today but the walls are now all together, gutters fitted to the wall tops and the inner gable ends fitted.  A visit to TINGS today has seen me acquire some bits that I wanted to get the roof done so next stage is to make some roof joists and install the lighting before the roof goes on.  Below shows the shed in it's rough final place on the baseboard.  The unpainted bit of ply will be where the inspection pits will go.

 

[Ch4lkst3r]

A couple of weeks from the last post which has seen slow progress. First photo shows the 5 roof trusses built with lamps installed.

 

 

The last couple of days has seen the lights wired together complete with resistors to enable them to run off my 12v lighting circuit.  This unfortunately took longer than hoped as despite testing all the lights before fitting them the final test before I soldered up the last joint the one lamp decided to start flickering before dying.  This meant I had to replace it and undo a few joints to enable it to be done.  However, they are now all joined together as shown below.

 

 

The roof beam has now been added to hide the cabling and the trusses are now installed in the shed.  Photo will come soon as it's not possible to get one at the moment whilst all the glue dries.  I'll get one on over the next few days.

[Ch4lkst3r]

Here's the pictures of the roof beam which contains all the wiring and trusses installed.  The beam has just been given a base coat of matt grey paint prior to some weathering.  The supports need to be painted still which hopefully will be done later this evening depending on whether I get other things done!

 

Here's a quick shot of the inside showing the two cables where they come through the wall and run across the truss to the centre.  Pretty much unnoticeable but I've put an extra distribution board on the wall so it doesn't matter if they are!

 

I've also made a start on the base that will be glued to the baseboard.  It's not really noticeable on previous pictures but I made the main wall sections slightly longer on the bottom than the buttresses and plinths so the building has a tongue on the bottom that will engage into the groove into the base.  The building will hopefully lock in place into the base but will be able to be removed when required for cleaning etc.  The lighting wires will have a connection in the office/stores building.

Edited September 27, 2022 by Ch4lkst3r
Spelling!

[RobinofLoxley]

I am a fan of card buildings, and these look to be particularly well executed.

[eldavo]

Some lovely work on this one.  Some of the best results from Metcalf kits I think I've seen.

 

Cheers

Dave

 

[Ch4lkst3r]

The main shed building is now complete with the exception of the doors.  Next step is to design and build the offices/stores extension.

[Ch4lkst3r]

16 doors are now made although I'm not gluing them on until the extension is completed to avoid the risk of knocking them off whilst attaching the office/stores extension.

 

I spent last evening in Inkscape creating the walls for the offices/stores just about managing to squeeze the parts onto one A4 page as shown below.

 

And the bits are slowly coming together.  I've bricked up the windows at the one end which will be at the back.  There will be a false internal wall at this end that will hide the wiring.  The previous mentioned "tongue" on the bottom of the side end walls to slot into the base can be seen more clearly in this shot.

 

Tomorrow hopefully the side wall will be complete and then I can start attaching it to the main shed building.  I'm hoping to get this building finished before I go off on holiday in 10 days time!

[Ch4lkst3r]

Here's a little progress shot on the steam shed.  The office/stores extension is now all glued to the main building and lights installed inside.  Now it's time to get the soldering iron out to make up all the wiring connections in the roof space so the roof can go on top and then the building will be finished

[Ch4lkst3r]

The soldering iron has come out and the wires are all connected to the connection which is housed in the end of the stores where the window is bricked up.  The roofers have been in and the only thing left is to do a reverse Italian Job and glue the bl**dy doors on (16 of them!).  First piece of the base has been glued to the baseboard.  Next step with the base is to cut out the base where the tracks need to go.  Then the p-way department can come in and lay the tracks before the top layer of base can go on with the concrete covering.  Finally the shed can be pushed home into the slots in the base (hence why the shed is slightly levitating in the picture)

Edited October 19, 2022 by Ch4lkst3r

[Ch4lkst3r]

So it's about time to provide a little update as to what's been going on.  Not much until recently as I was on holiday for a while then rather busy with work on my return.  Unfortunately, this was followed by me suffering with some kind of wrist injury that made twisting it rather painful but this has now thankfully recovered so work has now resumed.

 

The p-way department have been in and the track into the shed has all been laid, wired up and tested.  The card layers onto which the top concrete will be laid has been installed as well as the wiring into the shed itself.  This consists of two servo leads; 1 which has been painted red for the positive connections and the other is for the negative connections.  The two cables connect with the corresponding cables in the shed allowing the building to be removed when required.  There are 3 different circuits in the shed, 1 for the main lamps, 1 for the office and 1 for the stores.  This allows the brightness of the individual areas to be altered and turned on/off separately.

 

As I was sorting out the wiring to the shed I took the opportunity to tidy up the layout lighting wiring under the baseboard.  The lighting has now all been connected to 3 distribution boards.  These 3 boards are linked to a pair of relays.  The one relay turns on one board and provides power to the second relay.  The second relay is used to toggle whether power is supplied to board 2 or board 3.  This allows me to turn the lights on via DCC with some always on, like street lights, and the other lights on boards 2 and 3 can be switched from one to another.

 

Whilst under the baseboard I have also taken the opportunity to upgrade the turntable motor.  Previously the turntable was connected to a motor which in turn was connected to a decoder to enable the turntable to be moved using loco address 9999.  It has now been upgraded to an Arduino/stepper motor set-up from dccinterface.com with a modified mount to fit the N gauge table.  This means the turntable now works as an accessory with each road having it's own address and the table turns to the requested road when the accessory command is sent (normal puts one end of the table to the road and reverse/closed puts the other end of the table to the road).

 

And finally to enable the shunter to pull the points and to stop any runaway trains I've been building some point levers from N Brass Locos and some Peco buffer stops.

 

Next job is to get some concrete laid in the shed!

[AndrueC]

18 minutes ago, Ch4lkst3r said:

Next job is to get some concrete laid in the shed!

Just did that for one of my sheds. It'll be interesting to see what you achieve because you're clearly in a league above me :)

[Ch4lkst3r]

Just a little update for tonight showing the concrete area from the shed all laid and buffer stops installed.  Needs some more weathering and track and surrounding areas need scenics done before the shed gets plonked into it's resting place.  The two white lines that are just about visible on either side of the concreted area is the slot into which the shed fits to keep it in place but allow it to be removed for access when required.

[AndrueC]

That looks good. What did you use for the surface?

[Ch4lkst3r]

12 hours ago, AndrueC said:

That looks good. What did you use for the surface?

 

It's Scalescenes grimy concrete texture from their scratchbuilder's yard but I've darkened it in Inkscape.  It was then printed out and glued to card which was then cut to the required shapes.

[Andy_C]

I really need to look at how Inkscape functions. This isn’t the 1st time I’ve seen excellent buildings on RM using that software. 
 

What’s your process for track weathering? I am looking on here using the search function, but thought I’d ask…

 

Cheers,

 

Andy

[Ch4lkst3r]

12 hours ago, Andy_C said:

I really need to look at how Inkscape functions. This isn’t the 1st time I’ve seen excellent buildings on RM using that software. 
 

What’s your process for track weathering? I am looking on here using the search function, but thought I’d ask…

 

Cheers,

 

Andy

Andy,

 

There's some good YouTube videos on doing things with Inkscape, for example Chandwell.

 

I haven't gone too far with track weathering yet.  It's all been painted with Humbrol Track Colour (173) to get rid if the shiny rails and plastic sleepers but that's it so far.

[Andy_C]

7 hours ago, Ch4lkst3r said:

I haven't gone too far with track weathering yet.  It's all been painted with Humbrol Track Colour (173) to get rid if the shiny rails and plastic sleepers but that's it so far.

Cheers for responding. 
 

I’m still laying track, and doing wiring for my layout. I do need to ballast and then paint the track before doing other bits, once I get that far. I’ve ‘followed’ this thread and look forward to your future updates. 
 

I assume you spray painted your track?

 

Andy

[Ch4lkst3r]

2 hours ago, Andy_C said:

Cheers for responding. 
 

I’m still laying track, and doing wiring for my layout. I do need to ballast and then paint the track before doing other bits, once I get that far. I’ve ‘followed’ this thread and look forward to your future updates. 
 

I assume you spray painted your track?

 

Andy

 

Andy,

 

No spray paint.  Just brush painted prior to ballasting.