Alexandra Wharf V2 - OO in a Really Useful Box

[TechnicArrow]

My Fair Price Models warehouse kit came today, so as soon as I got home any hope of further revision went out the window...

 

I'm not in any way connected to the manufacturer, but my first impression is that it's a very good kit, with well-cut parts - definitely lives up to the brand name! Of course, I immediately had to try putting it together - it holds remarkably well without glue, although I added some tape just to keep it in place. And then I plonked it on the layout...

 

If fits! Almost. In order to fit in the box, I'm planning to cut it horizontally, just like every other building on the layout - and just above the 1st floor windows seems an excellent place to do this, hiding most of the joint with the window lintels. To drop the building down to the correct height I removed the "concrete" insetting. It's now exactly the right height as atested by the pencil marks and the ruler balanced across the box to the right, and it also brings the internal floor and doorframe level with the gound - perfect!

 

Looking neat already!

 

However, from behind, there's a bit of an issue - it's about a cm too deep, when the sector plate is swung to the forward position it'll be far too close - ideally it should be inline with the back of the boundary wall.

 

I made a template of the available floor space - it's too deep at the back-left, but could be deeper elsewhere. I considered placing the back at an angle to get it as deep as possible inside, but to keep structural integrity I'll likely just lop of the corner required to clear trains, and create a roof that's deeper than the building to imply it goes further back.

 

One final note on the kit - there's a slight chicken-and-egg situation... I was playing with the doors, and decided to model at least one open by carfully cutting around it. Whilst doing this, it occurred to me that the windows and doors should be added *after* the brick paper is applied, so the paper can be wrapped around the openings - but also *before* the front is connected to the main building because the floors get in the way. But if the front isn't connected to the main building, you can't wrap the brickpaper around the sides of the building to get a nice continuous edge...

 

I think my solution here is to add brick quoins to the outside corners from spare card - that will cover up any misalignment in the paper, and give a little more texture to the face too. We'll see - but maybe I should get back to revision first...

[sb67]

Alexandra wharf is looking good, I like the sector plate and the behind the scenes photo  

[hayfield]

1 hour ago, TechnicArrow said:

My Fair Price Models warehouse kit came today, so as soon as I got home any hope of further revision went out the window...

 

I'm not in any way connected to the manufacturer, but my first impression is that it's a very good kit, with well-cut parts - definitely lives up to the brand name! Of course, I immediately had to try putting it together - it holds remarkably well without glue, although I added some tape just to keep it in place. And then I plonked it on the layout...

 

If fits! Almost. In order to fit in the box, I'm planning to cut it horizontally, just like every other building on the layout - and just above the 1st floor windows seems an excellent place to do this, hiding most of the joint with the window lintels. To drop the building down to the correct height I removed the "concrete" insetting. It's now exactly the right height as atested by the pencil marks and the ruler balanced across the box to the right, and it also brings the internal floor and doorframe level with the gound - perfect!

 

Looking neat already!

 

However, from behind, there's a bit of an issue - it's about a cm too deep, when the sector plate is swung to the forward position it'll be far too close - ideally it should be inline with the back of the boundary wall.

 

I made a template of the available floor space - it's too deep at the back-left, but could be deeper elsewhere. I considered placing the back at an angle to get it as deep as possible inside, but to keep structural integrity I'll likely just lop of the corner required to clear trains, and create a roof that's deeper than the building to imply it goes further back.

 

One final note on the kit - there's a slight chicken-and-egg situation... I was playing with the doors, and decided to model at least one open by carfully cutting around it. Whilst doing this, it occurred to me that the windows and doors should be added *after* the brick paper is applied, so the paper can be wrapped around the openings - but also *before* the front is connected to the main building because the floors get in the way. But if the front isn't connected to the main building, you can't wrap the brickpaper around the sides of the building to get a nice continuous edge...

 

I think my solution here is to add brick quoins to the outside corners from spare card - that will cover up any misalignment in the paper, and give a little more texture to the face too. We'll see - but maybe I should get back to revision first...

 

 

These kits are so easy to kit bash, I use a Stanley knife to cut the sheets, and as I am using plasticard to cover the buildings it hides the joins 

[TechnicArrow]

It looks like my posts are like busses - you wait ages and then I post two on the same day!

 

2 hours ago, sb67 said:

Alexandra wharf is looking good, I like the sector plate and the behind the scenes photo  

Cheers! It's about as simple as you can get for a sector plate, but it works well so why complicate things? As for literally behind-the-scenes, there's a few more coming up...

 

44 minutes ago, hayfield said:

These kits are so easy to kit bash, I use a Stanley knife to cut the sheets, and as I am using plasticard to cover the buildings it hides the joins

I think I recall you mentioning a stanley knife before. Unfortunately I don't own one, so the following modifications were made with a combination of junior hacksaw and blunt penknife - a little bit brute-force, but it worked well enough!

 

Firstly I cut out the back-left corner, just deep and tall enough to clear trains on the sector plate. I filled the gap with an offcut of card, and then glued the back, sides and floors together, remembering not to affix the front so I can still get the windows and doors on from behind.

 

To see how it fits in aroudn the sector plate, have some terribly-angled photos - the layout has been returned to it's position on the windowsill so I used my phone's front-facing camera to vaguely see what I was taking pictures of.

     

 

Finally I attacked the entire structure with the junior hacksaw to create the horizontal split - an extra lip of card glued inside the upper half keeps the two together neatly in the right place.

 

And that'll do for this evening! The next stage is to apply brick paper to the outside, and then paint and fix the windows and doors to the inside. Since the kit's floors have holes in them already I did consider adding interior lighting, by buying another cheap set of battery LEDs, but I feel with the separating floors that'll be quite tricky; on the other hand the other half of the layout has exterior lighting so I think I need to add something to continue the after-dark effect.

[TechnicArrow]

It's amazing what you can get done when you find youself with a few spare days between exams and the next term starting...

 

I finally obtained some white acrylic paint, to make some progress on this warehouse. I used it to paint the windowframes before assembling them (one of them is open, just for interest) and attaching the clear plastic; I also painted the doors and hinges (one of which is also posed open), and the winch housing.

 

Then it was assembly time! I started by attaching brick paper to the front wall panels, wrapping it through the window and door openings before attaching said windows and doors to the rear of the wall. Finally the wall panel was fixed to the rest of the structure's shell. You can still see the horizontal split, but it's already much less obvious.

 

A quick close-up on that open door and window - I'm not sure this is exactly the right way it would open, but it's what I went for!

 

I then added brick to the side walls, and simple quoins over the corner joints. Next the windowsills and lintels, painted with reddish-brown and white acrylic to try to match the brick paper - it's not perfect, but it seems to blend in. Finally I used the white and black paints to "weather" the building slightly, I might need to revisit this at some point but it will be fine for now.

 

Sat on the layout, it cetainly looks the part - and what you can't tell from pictures is how solid it feels with the laser-cut wood shell, even with the horizontal split down the middle.

 

And now some gratuitous ground-level photos. Who left these crates on the rails here?

 

With them moved out the way we can couple 1140 up to the wagon...

 

...and shunt it back into the main yard.

 

Just the rear warehouse to go now and then the wharf itself, but I think those can wait until the weekend at least. This building is very different to what I first planned for this corner of the layout, but finally having detailed buildings along the entire layout's length feels fantastic!

[Multigauge]

Looking great. I particularly like the open door. I may see if i can do the same to mine. 

I have also noticed on yours the hinges on the doors. I wondered what those bits were for in the kit..... ;-)

[TechnicArrow]

17 hours ago, Multigauge said:

Looking great. I particularly like the open door. I may see if i can do the same to mine. 

I have also noticed on yours the hinges on the doors. I wondered what those bits were for in the kit..... ;-)

 

The door and window just took some careful work with a sharp blade, the frames for both aren't particularly big so you have to be careful not to break what's left over, but it's not too difficult and adds a bit more life to the building. The hinges are the tiny strips (hence why there's a few more than you actually need), it's just a shame I didn't do that good a job of painting them...

 

I thought I'd do a quick update with an overall photo of the whole layout, I don't think I've posted one for a while. You can see how the building fits in the scene - it certainly makes the big ol' grain silo look a bit plain, but I've got a few ideas to remedy that.

 

 

I'm still really happy with the scene composition - the conveyor, loading tower, wall and new warehouse work really well together to conceal the sector plate whithout completely burying it, tricking you into thinking the tracks carry on somewhere. The wharf itself does still feel like an afterthought though, but nevermind.

 

 

A higher view, I don't think I've posted one of these for a while either. You still can't see that sector plate, although clearly I need to work on the various roofs.

 

The layout's certainly not in tip-top condition - there's lots of little jobs I need to work on like the gates at the left-hand end, the aforementioned roofs, and fixing one or two of the uncouplers. Although the latter doesn't see much use at the moment because the running quality is awful, but I've bought some track cleaning fluid so we'll see if I can get it into shape!

[Sweet pea]

TechnicArrow it's great to see pictures of your overall layout. I do like the way you have positioned each of the buildings they all gel together. This is just a lovely little layout. 

[SteveyDee68]

I blame sorry thank @TechnicArrow for inspiring the rearrangement of the buildings on my own dockside micro — I moved the cross tracks conveyor to the centre of the scene after admiring the composition of buildings here!

 

Mind you, it is currently undergoing yet another rethink, and next time it sees light of day I wouldn’t be surprised to see it longer than the current four foot length. Having said that, I am planning on keeping the conveyor right in the middle, as it is so effective compositionally — and I would never have thought of that if it wasn’t for Alexandra Wharf!

 

Steve S

Edited January 27, 2022 by SteveyDee68
Reely baad Ingerlish!

[TechnicArrow]

Thank you very much @Kevin Johnson, @SteveyDee68 and @RailroadRich - the main reason I post my modelling progress on here is to get myself to do it in the first place! It's also entertaining to look back at my older projects and reminisce a little...

 

Over the past few evenings the rear warehouse has finally taken shape. I even remembered to take pictures as I went along this time, so this will be a WIP post!

 

First, what we started with - the lower half already formed, and the shape of the upper half. I started by cutting and laminating more card for the butresses, each layer is in fact two thicknesses of cereal box card to increase the depth slightly.

 

Then brickpaper was slowly added, starting with the main panels and then adding each layer of butress on top. Although you can't tell I also cut the window openings out from the card base, but not from the brickpaper yet since I didn't have a sharp enough blade at the time to do it cleanly. I find that even a slightly blunt blade makes a mess of home-printed brick paper.

 

I also continued the butresses around the top of the window panels; the brick paper isn't perfectly joined up but it's close enough. Then the top layer of butresses and gable ends were assembled and test-fitted, I kept them seperate just to be efficient with card/brick paper and not waste too much.

 

A few evenings later and I have a sharp blade again, so the brick paper could be cut and folded through the window openings. The outer butresses have also recieved their brick paper, just the gable ends to go now.

 

And there we have it, all bricked up. Again not the best of jointing between the gables and butresses, but I'll go back and add various lintels, sills and of course weathering to make them dissappear.

 

Lastly I added the windows. These were purchased from Scale Model Scenery many months ago now, and have been painted mostly white. They are push-fits into the window openings which were cut just smaller than them and opened out to let them fit, although they've been secured by the addition of glaing to the rear. Ideally they'd be recessed a little but they provide very little frame thickness to allow this, so flush it was.

 

And finally in-situ! From this angle you can see why I didn't bother with half the windows on the lower section - you can barely ever see them anyway! I'd forgotten until just now about the additional foot/pipe bridge to the loading tower, yes the same one that I originally built for Arrow Paints about 2 years ago - I think this is it's third layour now. The window it takes the place of needs a little more adjustment to let it fit but it certainly ties everything together more.

 

The overall scene is looking better for it already - no more blank placeholder buildings (unless you count the wharf wall). This final building is still quite a way from finished though; the windows need their sills and arches (included in the kit) painting and adding, the brickwork needs additional lintels etc, and the gables need decorative brickwork or just bargeboards. Oh, and I need to devise a way to hold the two halfs together and fix the bottom one to the board - it's held in place mostly by hope right now!

[Andrew D]

Looking stupendous my friend! You must be well chuffed. I’m in awe of your skills. 
 

Of course, some of us are still patiently waiting for that video…  

 

 

[TechnicArrow]

19 hours ago, Andrew D said:

Looking stupendous my friend! You must be well chuffed. I’m in awe of your skills. 
 

Of course, some of us are still patiently waiting for that video…

 

Cheers! And don't worry, the video hasn't completely slipped my mind. I recently purchased some isopropyl alcohol to attempt to really scrub up the trackwork to get the locos running satisfactorily again. After my first attempt at scrubbing it down there's definitely been an improvement, but it's far from "fault free" - the Great Sky Prodder is still required more often than I'd like. The Pannier tank, with it's longer 0-6-0 wheelbase, does seem happier than my other locos so when a video does surface it will most likely feature that one, unless I can get the Barclay to a similar standard.

 

All in all I've resolved that when I build my next layout (which knowing me probably isn't that far off), it'll most likely feature proper wooden boards, and I'll be a little more thorough in my track checking - I know that was the goal with this layout and why I chose to use electrofrog points, but it doesn't seem to have made the difference I hoped it would!

[TechnicArrow]

19 hours ago, Andrew D said:

Looking stupendous my friend! You must be well chuffed. I’m in awe of your skills. 
 

Of course, some of us are still patiently waiting for that video…

 

Cheers! And don't worry, the video hasn't completely slipped my mind. I recently purchased some isopropyl alcohol to attempt to really scrub up the trackwork to get the locos running satisfactorily again. After my first attempt at scrubbing it down there's definitely been an improvement, but it's far from "fault free" - the Great Sky Prodder is still required more often than I'd like. The Pannier tank, with it's longer 0-6-0 wheelbase, does seem happier than my other locos so when a video does surface it will most likely feature that one, unless I can get the Barclay to a similar standard.

 

All in all I've resolved that when I build my next layout (which knowing me probably isn't that far off), it'll most likely feature proper wooden boards, and I'll be a little more thorough in my track checking - I know that was the goal with this layout and why I chose to use electrofrog points, but it doesn't seem to have made the difference I hoped it would!

[Andrew D]

Yes. I’ve come to exactly the same conclusion about my next layout too. It has to be on a board. No more box files, which is a shame as I have 7 sat in the loft! 

[The Bandit]

What about building on thin ply which is placed in the box file. That way you can lay track, ballast etc without the file getting in the way. 

[TechnicArrow]

First, a little update on the warehouse: with appalling weather and all my plans cancelled from underneath me, I finally added the windowsills and arches. These are the laser-cut card components supplied with the windowframes by ScaleModelScenery. I simply glued them on and painted them a bricky colour - this has turned out much darker than the actual brickwork so it's far from perfect, but it works and as I've been saying repeatedly it's only a backdrop.

 

I also mounted the old pipe bridge structure a little more securely, it really helps to hide the sector plate area in quite a "soft" way.

 

And another photo for good luck!

 

 

But onto the elephant in the room. It's now late Feb and there's still no video. This is mostly because I just can't get the layout to actually run - it seems no loco can travel more than a cm withouth needing a prod.

 

As I've explained I tried bringing in a known good runner, the Pannier, and that doesn't help. I've also proven the Barclay can crawl happily around the older pointwork on my home layout, so I'm ruling out any loco issues as the cause of poor running. (How I've ended up with a fleet of 4 for such a small layout is a separate problem!)

 

The second potential cause is the trackwork, which I've been attempting to adress recently. I purchased a better track rubber, then when that made little change I purchased some Isopropyl Alcohol and liberally rubbed that onto the rails. But to no avail; there's a slight improvement, but it's still far short of smooth running. Besides, the track was all bought new for this layout, and has been wired to be live at all times so the point blades aren't relied upon. The only thing is it could have degraded when I painted the sides brown, but the alcohol should have cleared anything that was interfering there.

 

This leaves the contoller as the only potential cause. A standard compact Gaugemaster Combi, it isn't exactly a top-of-the-range unit, but it was bought new only 2 years ago and it ran Arrow Paints without too much issue. Ironically and annoyingly, this layout was meant to improve on running quality from Arrow Paints - but I'd say (without being able to directly compare) that it's much worse, I could actually use that layout wheras this one is effectively a static diorama at this point.

 

Part of me is considering rebuilding the boards for this layout and transferring the buildings across; I still enjoy the overall scene and composition, and would enjoy shunting it if it was actually possible so I don't want to start on a completely new project just yet.

 

Any thoughts on what else could be a problem, or the most cost-effective way to remedy this short of replacing everthing at and below ground level?

[Multigauge]

Great work on the building. The different colour  between the arch lintels and the rest of brickwork is not a problem. I often see real building which have differences like that.

I imagine the running issues are a real pain. It's something I have suffered on occasions, but I've never thought the controller would be an issue. I suppose a way to rule it out is to run locos on a separate piece of track and see how they perform.

Some other things to think of.

Did it work well before you painted the track sides?

I notice you have some inset track. Are the problems all over? Or do they occur more in the areas where the inset track is? I've found some issues where I've got wills setts butting up to the outside edge of a running rail. In some places it was a smidgen above the height of the rail and causing the wheels to lift ever so slightly.

Another to look at is your power feed connections. You say you've wired the layout to live at all times - have you looked at your main connection? 

[SteveyDee68]

I think @Multigauge may be onto something with the inset track - if any of the inset material lifts a couple of wheels from the track, that’s going to stop your loco motors.

 

I have a power testing gizmo - it’s like a piece of copper clad material with an LED on it that lights up when you test your track; you rest it across your track, apply power and the LED turns green for okay or red for a short (I think there’s an amber option if you are using DCC) - or something like that! (I’ve not used it in a while, and it is in the loft as I type this!). I think it is either by DCC Concepts or Gaugemaster?

 

My point is that it is very light and simply rests on the track - if it is lifting off then you will clearly see an issue via the LED, which will either light up RED or not at all!! 

 

Best of luck sorting this - the warehouses look super, by the way!

 

Steve S

Edited February 20, 2022 by SteveyDee68
Typo

[Andrew D]

That’s a fantastic building you’ve completed there. As for the poor running, that’s a real shame. I guess if the locos run well on other layouts then it must be the track. I play test as I go along, and I’ve found that ballasting causes way more problems than painting the rails. So it might possibly be the inset rails? My box file track is anything but level. The 0-6-0s seem to cope very well, and when 0-4-0s stall on the points it’s because the wipers have lost contact with the back of a wheel, which I intend to right by making makeshift pick-up tenders as was sometimes done for small tank locos. Hope you get to the bottom of it soon. 

Edited February 20, 2022 by Andrew D

[6990WitherslackHall]

When recreating inset track on my layout McKellar Yard (now scrapped), I used cardboard from cereal boxes. It was a bit of a job cutting up the box and laying on the track but I managed it.

 

It's a pain when you find out, after all that hard work, that your locos don't run on it properly. So you have to modify it so the locomotives can clear it. 

 

I Thought DAS clay would be an easier option so when the idea for Grosmont MPD came about, this is what I had in mind. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be but again, when testing it, locos wouldn't run on it properly. So I had to file away and rub the track with a track rubber until locos would run. That issue has now been solved.

[simonmcp]

I have had the same problem on inset tram track with plasticard sets lifting after they were fitted. All had run fine to start with and then became like yours. Eventually resorted to nailing it down.

 

[The Bandit]

I’ve used wills granite setts (plastic) and stuck them down with a smear of no nails. 

[TechnicArrow]

Thanks for your thoughts, all. I took down the layout again and had another good look to see if any of the card surfacing had risen up. However it mostly seems in good shape; when I installed it I butted it up to the web of the rail rather than the head, so it's slightly restrained by the lip of the head above it. Tricky to get a photo of this but I think you can see what I mean.

 

Nevertheless I went over it all again with the track rubber and isopropyl alcohol, applying liberal amounts of the latter to point blades and hinges to remove any wayward paint. I also pulled up a small section of the card to check on the connection from the controller to the track, but both it and all other solder joints seem remarkably sound.

 

But after all that, wouldn't you know it, something seems to have changed... still not ideal, but reasonable enough for me to try some filming...

 

This doesn't involve any fancy kit - just balancing my phone in weird places to get the shots. I use my phone since it's a Google Pixel and thus has the best camera of all my devices, including my actual camera! Keeping it upright is fun, as is repeating the same action over and over until the model performs faultlessly (or close enough I can conceal it in the edit)...

 

Then it's on to editing; I had to install a new piece of software for this, since my old one isn't available any more. After a little poking about on the web I chose OpenShot; again nothing fancy, but I needed something a little more powerful than Window's built-in editor since I like to cut out all the hand-of-god poking that's somewhat inevitable. I found the software fairly easy to use; the two main issues I had was it occasionally glitched with clips still playing after I'd removed them from the timeline, and as the video got longer it tended to crash more frequently.

 

But somehow it worked, and much to @Andrew D's delight I can finally share a video; I hope you all enjoy!

 

Although I did leave in the point changing and manual uncoupling, I cropped out all the hand-of-god pokes that were necessary. All in all there are about a dozen cuts in there; some more cleverly hidden than others!

 

Finally, I'll leave you with some more after-dark shots - I really do like these, maybe I'll have to try some dusk filming next time...

 

[Ian Holmes]

Great little video. Good view of your automatic uncoupler at work.

Enjoyed watching it.

Thanks

 

Ian

[The Bandit]

Love the after dark shots. Your auto uncoupler is great - one of the best I’ve seen. Is it a hinged rod under the baseboard or can’t you give your secret away!