Wallarium, an N scale Odyssey

[AndrueC]

Robbie's story..

 

After being threatened with replacement, Robbie is back. The problem with the Spine wagons was just intractable. They don't have enough vertical movement in the bogeys and there seems no way at present to improve them. So for now they go into my spares box for later consideration.

 

With that plan thwarted I looked at another way to maximise the length of goods trains I have. The South Yard is a through run ladder yard with four sidings so the outermost sidings are slightly longer than the inner two. I realised that if I swapped locos around and had the shorter Class 33 Ashford pulling the Cargowagons I could squeeze another Cargowagon in. Barely.

 

That meant a Class 68 would be pulling Robbie. As it turned out that presented two problems. The first was that Dapol's Class 68 DRS is a stunning model. And having it stuck at the front of a manky coal train seem to be a shame. The second problem came to light as I ran the train around. The 21T coal wagons were prone to derailing at turnouts. At first I thought it was the wagons or my track. Afterall they are very light wagons at 6g and with a long train there's a lot of sideways forces involved on curves.

 

But eventually I realised that the problem was the Class 68. The couplers are mounted on the front of the body rather than the bogeys and the front swung out quite a lot on curves. That's fine if it's pulling coaches or bogey wagons but the 21T wagons just kept being pulled off the track. The lack of weight was a factor but also their couplers have no lateral movement.

 

So in the end I decided to swap the locos back round. To be fair it's probably for the best anyway. The clearance with an extra Cargowagon in the rake was mere millimetres at either end.

 

I still have ideas about replacing Robbie but choice of alternatives seems sparse at the moment as does the budget, lol. So for now Wallarium will continue to operate Robbie Coal Train.

 

🙂

Edited December 1, 2023 by AndrueC

[AndrueC]

To paint or not to paint track. A short post this time. Whilst hunting through a box for something else entirely I found some fine tipped felt pens that I'd bought once. So I decided to spend ten minutes painting some track to see if it was worth the bother.

 

Well first off with a fine tipped felt pen it's very little bother. I can just run the pen along the sides of the rail. It jumps over the chairs a but unlike the Woodland Scenics paint pens I once tried the felt tip appears to suffer little damage. Anyway this is the first coat and took me ten minutes to apply to one metre of track (outside of one rail and inside of another). You see if you think it's worth it: 

  

Before:

 

After:

 

And yes, that's supposed to be grass growing along the middle of what's supposed to be a poorly maintained access line.

 

Another coat will help but I think that works and does a reasonable job of hiding the inherent ugliness of code 80 track.

Edited December 1, 2023 by AndrueC

[AndrueC]

So more track painting. Is it worth it?

 

I've been adjusting my technique. I've now ditched the idea of felt pens because the coverage just isn't good enough. My new technique is a bit more involved but not particularly tedious. Is it worth it? Well you can judge. Here's a picture showing some track - spot the one that hasn't been painted yet:

 

The new technique has several part. Firstly I paint the rail sides black with a fine brush. I'm using acrylic paint and don't prepare the track first.

 

Then wipe clean the top of the rails before the paint dries. It doesn't matter if the paint dries before you wipe it clean as it'll come off easily enough anyway.

Then get some 'burnt umber' Vallejo weathering powder and scatter it along the sides of the rail. The idea is to try and paint the rail sides and chairs with it but with N gauge track at least that's quite difficult. After you've covered the section take a larger brush (but still fairly thin) and 'sweep' the weathering powder along the rails trying to produce a fairly even coat.

 

The final (potentially wasteful) stage is to use a vacuum cleaner - I have one with a small nozzle - and attempt to sweep the centre of the tracks clear trying to push loose powder into the cleaner. You'll pick some of it up but really it just thins the colour out a bit down the centre. You can try and recover the powder from the cleaner afterwards if you want but it doesn't seem worth it to me.

 

And here's the 'after' image:

 

The colour looks okay to my eye but most importantly it's done a lot to hide the out-of-scale look of code 80 track.

Edited December 4, 2023 by AndrueC

[AndrueC]

Scary Video...

 

So it started innocently enough. I decided to investigate why trains were stalling on one of my juiced frog turnouts. Turns out I needed to trim the hardstanding and clean the track more carefully. So that left me with one of my cargo rakes running a circuit. So I got my bubble car going as well. That's not scary because the bubble car pretty much runs on its own loop. It has connections to the rest of the layout but I rarely bother.

 

Then I though 'Why not run a passenger train as well?' So I chose Miss Behaviour (class 43 HST) and stood back to watch. I was rather caught by surprise when she entered The Interchange on one line and came out on another. I can't remember fiddling with those turnouts but apparently I'd left them set to cross over.

 

So then I had a bright/scary idea. Since I now had three trains running on three loops why not get a fourth one going. So I did. First ensuring that the interchange was set to both tracks straight ahead. Rather to my surprise everything ran really well. Okay so a few minutes into the video I realised that the cargo train was travelling too fast (out pacing the HST) but otherwise I leave you with this:

The first time I've run the full four trains at the same time. And for the record, I was able to park them all without an issue at the end.

[AndrueC]

Time moves on, so this post will bring things up to date.

 

I have assembled my signal gantries. They aren't wired up yet but everything is in place ready for when I feel like spending an hour underneath my baseboards. Three components went into the making of these.

• Ratio Pratt Truss kit.
• ModelIt ground/signal lights.
• Faller bridge fencing (left over from my first layout).

Assembling the Ratio kit was fairly easy now that I know to use solvent glue. Fixing the ladders was the trickiest part (brass glued to the plastic) but I managed it. For clarity the kit doesn't come with any kind of signals it is just the gantry itself. After I assembled them I sprayed them aluminium. The ground signals could be fed through the holes in the top of the gantry after widening them a bit with a drill. Gluing them to top was easy but oddly whilst some could be glued with superglue others fixed better with UHU. Maybe some reaction to the spray paint? Lastly the fencing was cut to size and glued between the lights using UHU.

 

This pair are at Wilf's Junction:

 

 

I briefly ran into a problem with clearance. The trusses are just the right height but I'd not realised that I wouldn't be able to bend the connector legs for the LEDs so they ended up a bit too low. I was able to fit some slivers of card under the truss legs though and as the above image shows (top most line, left gantry) the loading gauge is adequate. There is at least one millimetre of clearance :)

 

I won't be using the Plug-It connectors this time. They are okay but I found a load of spare 'choc block' connectors at the bottom of a box so will just use those instead. The connecting pins will fit in the connectors so no need to remove them or strip wires. The idea for this pair of gantries (not prototypical by any means) is that when the routes are set to straight ahead the outer pair of LEDs will be green and the centre LED red. When the route is set to cross over the LEDs reverse.

 

The other pair are sited at The Doorway Interchange:

 

 

 

Here the lights just indicate whether the route ahead is clear. This is a double-slip so doesn't have a permanent cross over ability, anything other than straight ahead will be temporary. Notice that I've added a walkway across the track. It occurred to me that part of what makes good detail is logic. If there are signals and turnout motors then someone has to be able to get to them. Engineers don't just materialise onsite next to the items they are servicing. There is soon(TM) going to be a small platform near the left facing gantry. It will be set up to service the branch line (inner most line) and the idea is that engineers can disembark there then make their way over to either gantry and cross the mainline if needed.

 

This image also shows something else I've been working on. I've laid some Peco concrete 'trunking' around the North Yard along with junction boxes:

 

 

Which is reasonably good but there's never enough trunking in a pack. So I came up with an idea. I painted some 3mm card with what I hoped was a fairly good match for the Peco stuff and was at least 'concrete coloured'. Then I scored lines across it at 4mm intervals. Then I cut the card into 2mm strips at right angles to the scoring. The result is quite passable trunking for a fraction of the cost (practically nothing). I also noticed that the scoring sometimes allowed little squares to lift off and I've seen other layouts where some of the trunk covers are left loose exposing wires inside.

 

I haven't done that yet because drawing wires in N scale is going to be very difficult but I would imagine it's very doable in larger scales. You can see the trunking here alongside the second line from the right.

 

 

One advantage over the Peco stuff is that being card means you can bend it around curves. The only thing to watch out for is that the edge of the trunking isn't painted so you need to either paint it or bury it where it can't be seen.

Edited January 8 by AndrueC

[AndrueC]

Getting our wires crossed..

 

I decided to make a start on wiring up one of the signal gantry sets. I decided to choose the slightly more complicated one - Wilf's Junction - because I happened to be thinking of my late father this morning and wishing I could call him up for a chat. It's been a couple of years now but of course I still miss him.

 

Anyway although it has more LEDs than Doorway Interchange it is actually simpler to wire up. That's because it only has two modes of operation - 'straight through' or 'cross over'. At first thought that might suggest wiring the outer LEDs to one switch and the inner to another. But actually it can all be done through one switch. That's because the inner LEDs are always the reverse of the outer.

 

If I connect red wires for the outer LEDs together with the green wires from the inner LEDs. And the green wires from the outer LEDs together with the red wires from the inner LEDs then connect all the common wires I only need one SPDT (which my Cobalt-SS controllers provide).

 

As I mentioned in my previous post I'm using choc blocks.  I've built daisy chains of wires using ferrules (two wires in each). And here's the completed choc block set for the gantry (with some paint to indicate the actual wiring since my colour scheme barely makes sense, lol):

 

 

Oh and someone asked me what the number on the post by turnout motors was. It's the accessory number. I don't know why I numbered them from 100 and 150 (I don't even have fifty turnouts) but I'm not changing them all now. The above turnout leads to my engineering yard and is accessory number 107. It just is, okay?

 

🙂

 

And yes, the left hand choc blocks demonstrate that sometimes I can't count. I knew I needed nine (three for each LED) I counted nine and I made the cut. I ended up with eight. I wasn't even drunk at the time..

 

Dad would have laughed at that and said it was typical of me.

😁

Edited January 9 by AndrueC

[n9]

7 hours ago, AndrueC said:

Getting our wires crossed..

 

I decided to make a start on wiring up one of the signal gantry sets. I decided to choose the slightly more complicated one - Wilf's Junction - because I happened to be thinking of my late father this morning and wishing I could call him up for a chat. It's been a couple of years now but of course I still miss him.

 

Anyway although it has more LEDs than Doorway Interchange it is actually simpler to wire up. That's because it only has two modes of operation - 'straight through' or 'cross over'. At first thought that might suggest wiring the outer LEDs to one switch and the inner to another. But actually it can all be done through one switch. That's because the inner LEDs are always the reverse of the outer.

 

If I connect red wires for the outer LEDs together with the green wires from the inner LEDs. And the green wires from the outer LEDs together with the red wires from the inner LEDs then connect all the common wires I only need one SPDT (which my Cobalt-SS controllers provide).

 

As I mentioned in my previous post I'm using choc blocks.  I've built daisy chains of wires using ferrules (two wires in each). And here's the completed choc block set for the gantry (with some paint to indicate the actual wiring since my colour scheme barely makes sense, lol):

 

 

Oh and someone asked me what the number on the post by turnout motors was. It's the accessory number. I don't know why I numbered them from 100 and 150 (I don't even have fifty turnouts) but I'm not changing them all now. The above turnout leads to my engineering yard and is accessory number 107. It just is, okay?

 

🙂

 

And yes, the left hand choc blocks demonstrate that sometimes I can't count. I knew I needed nine (three for each LED) I counted nine and I made the cut. I ended up with eight. I wasn't even drunk at the time..

 

Dad would have laughed at that and said it was typical of me.

😁

What a touching post. I think a lot of us are at that age where Dads may or may not be here. Mine is, just about, and I'm often wondering about the day after. So here's to Dads everywhere, wherever they may be.

 

Anyway, I've likely already mentioned somewhere that my chocolate blocks sit abandoned in a drawer gathering dust after discovering (quite late) Wago connectors. I've found them so useful and convenient. No more loops, never having to reach for a screwdriver, connections being permanent until I don't need them to be, are just a few of the many pluses I've found with them.

 

(Thanks too btw for taking the time to compare Code 55 to Code 80 on that other thread - I was no longer sure if it was appropriate to reply about that there and I couldn't for the life of me see how to send you a direct message. So, thank you!)

[AndrueC]

My Dad had a good life but unfortunately succumbed to lung cancer (due to asbestos) in 2020. He tried immunotherapy but it didn't work and after that he gave up. I think that was the only time he ever gave up on anything. My biggest regret is that he died a couple of months before I decided to take up railway modelling as a hobby. I wonder sometimes if I'd started earlier he might have been motivated to hang on a bit longer. It would given us a lot to talk about as he built a couple of layouts including one he made for me and my brother.

 

So..yeah. For everyone with elderly parents (maybe everyone with parents still alive) talk to them. There will come a day when you lose that option for ever.

 

Anyway I actually wired up almost all of one gantry yesterday afternoon. It was a bit of a pain because access is poor. That board is the one I butchered from my first layout and the legs run along the length of the board. The wires from the LEDs are hanging down about 200mm but behind the legs. I have no choice but to sit on the floor and reach across at an uncomfortable angle with limited arm movement. I may yet decide to buy some PlugIt leads because getting the plugs into the chocblocks and screwed in isn't easy.

[Davexoc]

On 08/01/2024 at 14:46, AndrueC said:

Which is reasonably good but there's never enough trunking in a pack. So I came up with an idea. I painted some 3mm card with what I hoped was a fairly good match for the Peco stuff and was at least 'concrete coloured'. Then I scored lines across it at 4mm intervals. Then I cut the card into 2mm strips at right angles to the scoring. The result is quite passable trunking for a fraction of the cost (practically nothing). I also noticed that the scoring sometimes allowed little squares to lift off and I've seen other layouts where some of the trunk covers are left loose exposing wires inside.

 

If you haven't thrown away the sprues from the Peco trunking, they can be turned into extra lengths. Take a fine toothed saw and create the covers at the same size as the trunking proper, as the sprue is a very similar size. If you then take the saw and run it down the middle of a short length longways, you get a length of trunking with the covers missing. Waste not, want not.....

[AndrueC]

14 hours ago, Davexoc said:

 

If you haven't thrown away the sprues from the Peco trunking, they can be turned into extra lengths. Take a fine toothed saw and create the covers at the same size as the trunking proper, as the sprue is a very similar size. If you then take the saw and run it down the middle of a short length longways, you get a length of trunking with the covers missing. Waste not, want not.....

Good point. Funnily enough I have been using them to mark the intended route of additional trunking but I hadn't seriously thought about trying that. Thanks.

[AndrueC]

Building a lineside hut.

 

I originally intended to build a small platform at Doorway Interchange for engineers to use but after measuring and playing around I decided it just looked too large and incongruous. So instead I thought perhaps a small hut would help break up the grass and add interest. Ratio do a kit of two huts but after thinking  about it I decided to have a go at scratch building again. After all a small hut is just a rectangle with a triangle on top - it hardly needed input from Christopher Wren or even Kevin McCloud 😁

 

Stage one was to work out a reasonable size for the main area. I settled on 25mm long by 15mm wide by 15mm high. This is approximately 4m by 2m by 2m in scale size which seems reasonable (it doesn't include the roof).

 

Stage two was to cut out the sides and ends. I used 3mm card and for the ends made a sandwich to increase the depth to 6mm. This gives me two things:

• 6mm for gluing instead of 3mm.
• The ability to indent the door.

The door was coloured brown using watercolour pencils (vertical strokes to simulate wood grain) then the outer piece stuck on top. I've even drawn a door handle on the door. I also cut out a window for one of the sides.

 

 

Stage three was to stick some Redutex brick effect onto the pieces. I had originally thought about making a wooden hut. I had a (crazy?) idea to make 'planks' out of card then glue them together. I might yet do that for another shed in the future but this time around I remembered that I had some Redutex left over from the North Yard cover.

Stage four was to cut out a base then glue the walls and ends in place. I used a glue stick as it's less messy, quicker to dry and allows for some adjustment.

 

Stage five was to create support for the roof and end gables. Since it's unlikely anyone will (or even can) look inside the hut I decided that the roof supports could be full length. Rather than use Redutex for the gables (I should probably have made them one piece with the end like the support pieces) I just coloured them to vaguely match the end brickwork.

 

 

 

Stage six was the roof. I cut out two rectangles including a notch on each for a chimney. Then I scored them lengthwise and 'hacked them a bit randomly' in a vertical direction to try and create a tile effect. Then I painted them slate colour.

 

The final stage. I cut out a chimney, painted it brick colour with a black top and inserted it through the slot. Then I painted the corners and top of the roof and placed the shed on the layout.

 

I might have to touch up the roof later depending how the paint dries but I think it's pretty good.

 

Things I've learnt from this and might do differently:

• Include the gables in the end pieces.
• Attempt to add ridge tiles.
• Add quoins to the corners.

The last two may yet get done to the shed.

 

I'd like to make it clear to any keen followers out there that the only measurements I did were for the overall dimensions shown above. The rest of the construction was 'eyeballed' as is traditional here at Wallarium.

 

🙂

 

Oh and if you're wondering about the signals from the previous post: Doorway Interchange is now wired up and working. Wilf's Junction needs the final wires connecting. My next post will hopefully be a working demo of both.

Edited January 19 by AndrueC

[AndrueC]

Signalling my intentions..

 

So as promised I've made a couple of videos showing the operation of signals at Wallarium. Neither are prototypical. They serve two purposes:

They look attractive (or at least interesting)

They tell the operator how the turnouts are currently set (or at least what their motor controllers think they are set to).

The first video is of Doorway Interchange. This is the more complex of the two junctions. That's because it's a double slip and has four configurations:

• Both lines straight ahead (green on all lights).
• One line crossing to the other one (green on the crossing line, red on the other one since the turnouts are set against that line).
• Both lines crossing (red on both lines because neither route is valid - I didn't bother to demonstrate this).

The run went reasonably well apart from a stall near the end. All the turnout frogs are juiced. so probably just unused track needing a clean.

 

 

The second video is of Wilf's Junction. Signalling for this simpler because it's a diamond crossing. The turnouts are wired up such that only two routes are possible:

Both lines straight through (outer signals green, inner LEDs red).

Both lines cross (outer signals red, inner LEDs green).

 

Running didn't go quite so smoothly on this video. I don't run the junction in crossover very often - only when I want to run trains around both the other loops in a kind of figure of eight. I also haven't juiced the frogs yet. I also discovered after the video that a couple of the turnouts don't always move when they should. So basically I need to revisit the junction and do a bit of adjusting (*).

 

 

Still - it gives me something to do this afternoon and Wilf's Junction is nowhere complete anyway.

 

(*)Right now I have an image of my Dad looking at me with raised eyebrows 🙂.

Edited January 23 by AndrueC

[AndrueC]

What's the current situation?

 

...

 

About 0.6A since you ask 🙂

 

Today I took delivery of my eagerly awaited Trans Pennine Express Mk5a coaches from RevolutioN. They are a truly gorgeous collection of coaches. Unfortunately I have yet to receive my Dapol Class 68 TPE. It's hopefully going to arrive within the next couple of weeks since the status on the Kernow order page now says 'Temporarily out of stock' rather than 'Pre-orders welcome'.

 

But of course I had to run the coaches to test them. My initial impressions were that they ran 'okay' but were not very free running. If/when the 68 arrives I'll revisit them but I gave them a lengthy outing this afternoon (towed by my manky looking class 53 because that's all I had spare). Once that was settled in I got my class 122 running. Then I thought what with the coach lighting on the TPE it'd be interesting to get a third loco running so I set my DRS Class 68 circling pulling the also slightly poor running hoppers. I made sure that all the loco headlights were on then checked out the NCE PowerCab's current reporting. It initially hovered between .57 and .64 amps but eventually settled down a bit (coaches / hoppers running in? Locos warming up?) to .52 to .58 it seemed.

 

I've attached a video here and you'll notice I don't have the signals on. That wouldn't make any difference to the reported current draw anyway because they have their own DC circuit and supply.

 

I will post a video of the coaches being pulled by a cleaner, better looking 68 when I can.

 

I'll also post some better stills for you to enjoy the sheer beauty of the TPE.

Edited January 29 by AndrueC

[AndrueC]

Anyone for a game of bridge?

 

I've been wondering what do about the land between the golf tee (not yet constructed) and the branch line loop. It's a bit of a conundrum because there are three sections of land and I don't think they should be left empty.

• Between the golf tee box and the outer main.
• Between the outer main and the inner main.
• Between the inner main and the branch.

The section next to the golf tee box isn't problem as it connects to the backscene but other two are completely cut off and neither main line could possibly have a simple foot crossing - that's ridiculous. So instead I decided to scratch build a bridge. And because it connects the two cut off areas it has to have three exits.

• Backscene.
• Land area one.
• Land area two.

Unfortunately unlike my previous bridge this one has to start off on top of the scenery with an arch that stands above the land whilst the second arch spans an embankment. I tried a few different designs and eventually came up with one that didn't seem too outlandish or two large.

 

This is the story of the building of Farmer Gile's Bridge.

 

Stage one: Creating a template for the left side. As with previous scratch builds I chose to go the eyeball route rather than use careful measurement. I'd worked out the the road bed should be about 20mm wide and knew that the vertical loading gauge had to be 40mm. Beyond that..cut trim and adjust to suit 🙂

 

 

Yes, that wagon fits under there:

 

The next stage was to print out some stone texture and glue it on. I also added the road bed spacers and the side exit.

 

Then add stone effect to the inner walls and add tarmac effect for the road:

 

Then I added concrete parapets. I cut the strips out of 3mm card then scored slots so that they could be made to follow the contours then sprayed with the concrete effect spray I've used before.

 

I've also added some strategic bushes to hide the join. It needs a the stone effect around the arches trimming and I haven't yet decided how I'm going to do the bit where the exits touch the ground but it's mostly done. Eventually there will be gates on the visible exits and the backscene will show a lane heading off into the distance.

 

Oh and one warning. I began to run out of glue stick toward the end (do they go off? the last couple I've opened have been a bit solid and difficult to use.) so I tried sticking down the road surface with UHU. That has made the ink run a bit. Luckily it's just produced some green blotches so a bit of weathering powder and I think it will be fine. This is a bridge that cattle use so odd blotches on the road surface are to be expected 🤮

 

It is slightly more 'bodgy' than I'd like and might eventually be rebuilt but for now it looks okay and seems like a reasonable addition to my layout. Given my lack of artistic ability and craft skills I'm pleasantly surprised by what can be achieved with card, glue and an inkjet printer.

 

Edited February 5 by AndrueC

[AndrueC]

Building a fence.

 

Too much rain, not enough golf. That means more work on the railway. So I decided to try and make a lineside fence. I've tried and seen different fences but they rarely look all that good and some (I'm looking at you, Peco) appear to be manufactured to annoy and confound. I mean..why did they pick a type of plastic that is impervious to every known type of glue?

• UHU - Nope.
• Superglue - Nope.
• Plastic solvent cement - Nope.

They have small plastic lugs on the ends of the cross bars that are supposed to plug into holes on the adjacent piece of fencing. A reasonable idea in a larger scale perhaps but in N they won't stay in the holes by themselves. I learnt all this on my first layout and then on one of our club layouts because we wanted to tart her up and I (funnily enough) had lots of fencing that I no longer needed.

 

So I decided to build my own. My first thought was to use matchsticks and silver cotton. Unfortunately I need very thin matchsticks and the thinnest I could find were still two thick. So instead I went for 1mm styrene rods. Still a bit too thick but I think at this scale you sometimes have to compromise.

 

I created a jig out of card. This consisted of two arms where the cotton could be fixed and a long gap for the posts. I cut three notches in the ends of each arm and slotted three stands of cotton in place. I later on learnt that it was wise to glue the thread in place. Sadly this means that the jig is single use only but it's more secure.

I'm using A4 card so the maximum practical length of each section of fence is 250mm.

 

I painted the posts brown and worked out that making them 20mm long would allow for them to be inserted into the scenery leaving approximately 12mm visible. I also decided that 18mm spacing (give or take) would be a reasonable distance apart. The spacing might be a bit too much but it makes the fencing less tedious to install and doesn't look bad. It's just another compromise.

 

So know place each post under the wires and carefully spot glue them with superglue. This sounds fairly simple (and often is) but occasionally a post will decide that it doesn't like being glued or you'll nudge it before the glue has set. I've been getting better at it but it's still one of those things that will occasionally make you sigh or even swear 🙄

 

But eventually you end up with a line of fence posts sitting in the jig.

 

So now just cut the fencing out of the jig et voila:

 

Installation is simple..but again can be irritating at times. It's not just a matter of drilling holes and dropping the fencing into place. The fencing needs some tension otherwise it won't look right. I've mostly been getting away with it but I'm going to do some searching and see if I can find silver elastic thread. I know you can get it in black but I feel that silver looks more visible.

 

Anyway here's what I've done so far. And as a bonus I've also thrown in some of my glorious RevolutioN TransPennine Mk5a coaches.

Edited February 14 by AndrueC

[AndrueC]

Fencing..there may be another way.

 

So the method described above does work but getting the fence wires taut/straight is a bit hit and miss. The problem is that if you insert the fence post by post this requires the wires to be out of alignment while you get the next post in. Sometimes you can bend the fixed post and it will spring back but other times not so much.

 

I've discovered that you can straighten the wires by putting a dab of glue (not superglue) between finger and thumb and running them along the wires to gather the slack then holding the slack against a post. It works fairly well and if there's too much slack you can put some flock down to hide it.

 

But it's a still iffy so I decided to try a different method. For this method I inserted and glued the posts first then wove the wires along the post line. If there is a curve or corner then run the wires outside the posts. The idea is to ensure that when you pull the wire it pulls against every post.  You can then add a dab of superglue. This method results in a straighter wire but can be fiddly and irritating. I've so far strung two wires along a dozen posts with reasonable success. I think I'll be able to string the third but in N scale it might be less aggravating to just run two wires with this method.

 

 

It does look better so this might become my preferred method but it can still be a pain.

 

But whichever method you use don't forget to go back afterwards and dab some paint on the top of your posts 😉

Edited February 17 by AndrueC

[Cowley 47521]

2 hours ago, AndrueC said:

Fencing..there may be another way.

 

So the method described above does work but getting the fence wires taught/straight is a bit hit and miss. The problem is that if you insert the fence post by post this requires the wires to be out of alignment while you get the next post in. Sometimes you can bend the fixed post and it will spring back but other times not so much.

 

I've discovered that you can straighten the wires by putting a dab of glue (not superglue) between finger and thumb and running them along the wires to gather the slack then holding the slack against a post. It works fairly well and if there's too much slack you can put some flock down to hide it.

 

But it's a still iffy so I decided to try a different method. For this method I inserted and glued the posts first then wove the wires along the post line. If there is a curve or corner then run the wires outside the posts. The idea is to ensure that when you pull the wire it pulls against every post.  You can then add a dab of superglue. This method results in a straighter wire but can be fiddly and irritating. I've so far strung two wires along a dozen posts with reasonable success. I think I'll be able to string the third but in N scale it might be less aggravating to just run two wires with this method.

 

 

It does look better so this might become my preferred method but it can still be a pain.

 

But whichever method you use don't forget to go back afterwards and dab some paint on the top of your posts 😉

You’re very patient doing that with your fencing. I must admit that I just put posts in and let my imagination do the rest!

 

 

[AndrueC]

2 hours ago, Cowley 47521 said:

You’re very patient doing that with your fencing. I must admit that I just put posts in and let my imagination do the rest!

Lol, I don't have much else to do. The rain is making it difficult to get onto golf courses.
 

Funnily enough though I did think today that perhaps stringing wires for my telegraph poles might be next. Trouble is that'd interfere with track cleaning.

[Cowley 47521]

13 hours ago, AndrueC said:

Lol, I don't have much else to do. The rain is making it difficult to get onto golf courses.
 

Funnily enough though I did think today that perhaps stringing wires for my telegraph poles might be next. Trouble is that'd interfere with track cleaning.

I did actually wire up quite a few of my telegraph poles, but mainly ones that were next to the roads. It was fiddly but I like the results. You can see some here (and a few of the fence posts too).

 

[RikkiGTR]

Had a good read through the thread, great layout and was nice to see it develop. One of the perks of being "late to the party" I guess 🙂

[Keith Addenbrooke]

17 hours ago, AndrueC said:

Lol, I don't have much else to do. The rain is making it difficult to get onto golf courses.
 

Funnily enough though I did think today that perhaps stringing wires for my telegraph poles might be next. Trouble is that'd interfere with track cleaning.

Quite a common ‘trick’ with N Gauge Continental layouts that need OHLE / Catenary is just to model the posts and omit the wires altogether, as too thin to actually see anyway (there are prototype photos available where the wires just can’t be seen).  
 

I don’t know if it will also work with wire fences / telegraph poles as well, but it does at least solve the track cleaning problem.  Just a thought, Keith.

[AndrueC]

It's been a scenic couple of weeks. I've run some trains (and found a few issues) but I've also rebuilt a bridge and installed some people and some animals.

 

First off the problems.

One of the turnout motors on the Doorway Interchange wasn't throwing far enough. That took a bit of fiddling to sort out. Firstly I had to work out which turnout controller was involved which meant following a rat's nest of wiring around. The controller is of course just too far for a single lead from the motor so I've had to use an extension and that means the wire goes past the controller, underneath the keel of the lift-out section across to a clip then back under the keel to the controller. It'd be so much easier if the controllers were labelled.. The adjustment seemed odd as well to the extent that I'm suspecting a fault somewhere. It seemed like I only had two choices: 'Not quite far enough' and 'a bit too far'. It clearly doesn't want the same setting as other controllers. Anyway I've left it at the latter.

 

Then I found that my Queen Elizabeth was sometimes derailing on entry to the yard (I might have mentioned that before). The solution there was to file down a blob of solder for a dropper that was a bit too proud.

 

Then I found that coaches sometimes derailed coming out of Castle Tunnel. Yet another blob of solder that needed filing down.

 

Secondly the Bridge

I always felt that the first three way bridge was a bit too large and the coping around the arches a bit too rough. So I've redone it with better coping and less material. It looks a lot better but the main section is at a slight angle so I'll need to fettle the middle ramp a bit.

 

Thirdly Animals

In addition to the existing horses I've installed a flock of sheep in the middle field.

Fourthly Platform Work

We have some people on the station platforms. They aren't glued down though as I've decided that I want to replace the station platforms. I was forced to replace the bridges. One of them fell apart while I was installing passengers and I couldn't face rebuilding them. Sorry York Modelmaking they are great kits but just too fiddly for me. So I bought a couple of Ratio platform bridges. These have the big advantage that the stairs are preformed so there are no fiddly steps to insert. I do however think that the instructions are incorrect so my next post might be what I consider to be the correct order of construction.

I've decided to relocate the surviving bridge to the North Yard Entrance/Cafe De Marche (the latter not yet even started).

 

Fifthly Railway Workers

We have workers at the Doorway Interchange (investigating the turnout motor perhaps, lol).

We have workers at Wilf's Junction.

We have a couple of odd balls doing something at the entrance to the yard - perhaps the last driver of the QE made a complaint.

 

Sixthly Installed some Junction Box Platforms

These were from a Scale Model Scenery kit (much recommended).

Edited March 9 by AndrueC

[AndrueC]

My revised instructions for the Ratio Covered Station Platform Bridges.

• Completely construct the bridge and the two towers first.
• Then connect the three items by attaching the steps and the sloping roof sections.

This solves so many problems with alignment (esp. of the roof and supports) but also the critical angles of the steps. The sloping roofs are the only weak point of the kit itself. I didn't really get any of mine correctly sited.

[AndrueC]

An update. I've been a bit remiss of late so I'd better bring things up to date.

 

I've got rid of the bridge. Some comments here convinced me that it really wasn't working so I've replaced it with a couple of at-grade crossings and a farm track. It definitely looks better:

Clearly that fencing needs redoing (think I've mentioned that in a prior post) but otherwise I like it. The gates were from Scale Model Scenery. The crossings were from me - maybe I'll do a post on them in a bit.

 

I found another turnout that needed its throw adjusting which is curious. Again I've had to set it to 'slightly too far' but it's solved that problem. I also found another motor whose linkage was fouling some of my rolling stock so I remounted that one lower down.

 

On the subject of turnouts I've programmed some macros on my controller - an NCE PowerCab - now. Each of the four sidings in the two yards has a macro to set the turnouts at either end so eight in all. Unfortunately I'd forgotten that PowerCab macros can only control accessories. I'd hoped to have also selected the loco and switched on lights etc. but sadly it can't do that. Another reason to keep thinking about replacing the controller.

 

In more exciting news my Trans Pennine Express Class 68 finally arrived! The Wallarium fleet is now complete! To celebrate here's a gratuitous photo of four trains. Although it's only a single image I can assure that it is possible to run four trains at the same time on Wallarium and it only comes to approx 0.6 amps even with one of them being sound enabled (the TPE Class 68).

 

Speaking of being sound enabled:

The engine sound is a bit meh but there's nowt wrong with her horn 😀

 

Out of desperation one rainy day (has there been any other kind in the last few months?) I tackled a job I'd been putting off for a while. I bought a cheap load of N scale figures last year and have been dreading painting them. Much to my surprise it turns out that with a set of magic hands it's an easy job. They aren't as detailed as those you can buy but they are plenty good enough.

 

The orange overalled workers are now in place to supplement the existing workforce but the rest will have to wait until I've rebuilt my station platforms.

 

I've also been constructing trees. That will probably be the subject of a future post but for now here's the upgraded corner (note - no bridge any longer!):

Edited April 1 by AndrueC

[AndrueC]

Working on a public footpath.

 

So I had a sudden desire to build more fences. Well..desire is the wrong word but it had to be done. There was already a crude path along Beekle's Bluff as demonstrated by Fred earlier in this tome. But I decided that as the swan song for this winter's work on the layout I'd finish the path off.

 

It needs fencing but only two strands this time since it's only humans being guided. It also needed some trees adding. I decided for the trees I'd use seafoam. I've had some of this kicking around for a while and in fact had used it a couple of years ago to reasonable effect. But this time I did a bit more to it. Firstly I sprayed it brown then I sprayed on diluted PVA and sprinkled some fine scatter on it. The result is actually quite impressive. One branch in particular has come out as an awesome tree however it's a bit too large. I mean, sure, trees on model railways are often too short but at 240mm high this is excessive. That would be 355m tall!

 

I also added some bushes of various kinds. Creating gorse bushes is very easy. Just plonk down some coarse scatter then dribble a few flakes of yellow very, very fine scatter on top. Red also works but obviously not as gorse. Purple very fine scatter along the ground works as heather. I did try some fine white scatter from another kit but that didn't work at all for some reason. It was almost like a powder that just blurred into a single mess.

 

Here are some views of the path, ending with a picnic area:

 

 

 

 

And finally a video of trains passing including (if you wait long enough) an overhead view of a passenger train (Miss Behaviour) passing a goods train side-by-side through the cutting.

 

 

Edited April 20 by AndrueC