Plumtree Cross - The Hundred of Easwrith Light Railway

[Nick C]

One step forward, two steps back...

 

I laid two roads on the sector plate, then thought I'd try re-gauging the Terrier that'll be the main loco for the layout. 2mm axles from the EMGS are a very tight fit into the existing wheels, though I'm not convinced I've got them concentric, but the original axles aren't a consistent diameter, they're about 2.2mm in the middle. Which of course means the drive gear is a loose fit. The existing axles I don't think will be long enoughto re-use.

 

Has anyone converted a new tooling Hornby terrier to EM? If so, what did you use?

[Nick C]

It was warm enough to get out to the shed last night, so I made a bit more progress, and started laying wire-in-tube control for the points - I got three of them working correctly, but the one at the far end of the loop doesn't have enough movement to throw the point, I suspect the PTFE tubing is flexing too much. That's the only one running under the board, so I think I'll try re-laying it on top and see if that helps.

[Nick C]

Over the last two evenings, I finished the w-i-t for the last point, and wired the track. My EM stock is rather limited at the moment, so it was tested with the E1 chassis on it's own!

 

I also received a box of trees from MBR Model in Poland - and they look amazing! I've not unboxed them yet, to keep them safe, so here's some trees in plastic bubbles - positions still to be decided...

 

Next jobs are to get on with some stock, and to build at least the shells of the station building and platform.

[Nick C]

Started on the station building, based on that at Northiam:

 

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Nick C

[Nick C]

A bit more progress on the station building 

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Nick C

[MrWolf]

Looking wonderfully low budget and wriggly tin already.

[Nick C]

A bit of an update, as things have changed a little - the track has shrunk a little for a start! It's now OO-SF, so I can run all of my stock instead of needing a dedicated fleet for this one layout...

 

 

Station building has proceeded a bit too:

I started detailing the back as well, then realised it'd be hard up against the backscene, so there's no point!

Edited April 8, 2022 by Nick C

[Nick C]

Ballast! (or at least, a start...)

 

 

The running line at the back is Woodland Scenics' Fine buff, to represent the shingle ballast often used on lighter lines in the south, and the siding in the foreground is GeoScenics 'siding ballast', to represent ash. I'm not entirely convinced by the latter, but hopefully with some weathering it'll look better.

[MrWolf]

I spent more time toning down the ballast in the sidings than we did ballasting the rest of the track. 

So I wouldn't worry about having to adjust the colouring and texture.

[Nick C]

Ballast done! Still in need of weathering, admittedly, but certainly a milestone reached! I've also built the structure for the platform, from foamboard and card - I'm thinking of fine sandpaper painted appropriately for an ash surface, though I'm not sure how fine to go - I've got rolls of 120, 180 and 240 available. 

 

[Nick C]

Spent the day today playing with a 12" to the foot shunting puzzle. Everything takes a lot longer than in 4mm, and involves a lot more walking! 

 

Also, 3 miles uphill in an 08 with 6 mk1s takes a surprisingly long time - 9mph flat out!

[Nick C]

Well this is odd...

 

I decided to have an operating session on the layout this evening, to check it all worked after ballasting. It doesn't. It has a short - or rather, several. After a visual check of everything, and some prodding with the multimeter, I tipped the board up and started disconnecting feeds. Ended up cutting the lot - short still present. Checked all the cast crossings, all fine, no continuity between them and the adjacent rails. 

 

Then jabbed the probes into the ballast - and at about 2mm distance, enough continuity to trigger the buzzer... So I think I have conductive ballast? Has anyone else seen that? Am I going crazy?

 

It only happens with the geoscenics siding ballast - doing the same with the woodland scenics on the running line shows open circuit, and indeed those rails don't have a short. Both were glued down with WWScenics ballast glue.

[MrWolf]

That is bizarre. Have you tried dunking a magnet into the loose ballast material to see if it has any iron slag content? 

The only other thing that I can think of is that the material is still holding residual moisture from the ballast glue and hasn't quite dried yet, whereas the Woodlands material has?

 

Just my $0.02, I may or may not know what the hell I'm talking about....

[Nick C]

So with the layout on hold until I decide what to do about the ballast, I decided to try my hand at weathering, using some of the techniques from the first couple of chapters of George Dent's book.

 

The open is a Cambrian model, on which the varnish went white on drying, so I've tried adding in some replacement planks, followed by a brown wash - it needs more work to tone it down once dry. The van is a Dapol one, done with the brush-on-wipe-off technique. Thoughts and constructive criticism welcome!