OO Photo Plank - Bearley Yard

[TechnicArrow]

It was about a year ago I started my Eastnate Dairy diorama, and with Alexandra Wharf nearing completion I thought it was time for another micro-layout for an interlude...

 

This was mostly - nay, completely - inspired by the recent Scalescenes freebie, R002 Small Goods Store. Scalescenes kits are so good that I can never pass up the opportunity of a free one, even if I didn't have anywhere for it to go - so here we go!

 

First up, a quick tip - to save wasted card and ensure all the parts are securely glued down, I cut the parts out first before fixing to the card. This means I have to cut everything out twice, but can drastically reduce the amount of card I need to use. You can also see that most of the components are the same colour as the carboard!

 

The pier frame were very tedious to cut out...

 

...but they do look the part when assembled. I've also attached the wall frames, which give the flat walls some nice texture.

 

Now all the walls up, coming along nicely...

 

And a short while later it's fInished - and I absolutely love it! It's a superbly designed kit as usual, made even better by the fact the door is loose and able to slide open and closed.

 

The other side has some neat detail on the hinged doors, so I posed one of them open; although I don't think it'll be seen that often!

 

Very soon was the obvious question: where to put it? Clearly, I need to build a new layout, a rural goods yard this time... 

 

I considered a boxfile, and even bought a y-point and some track to test it out, but although I liked the (very simple) operation that would be possible I couldn't compose a seen that looked believable. Rural goods yards tend to be very spread out since they have a lot of space available, so a compact yard didn't make sense.

 

So I've taken a leaf out of @Kevin Johnson's extensive book and settled for a photo plank. I realised that by raising it up slightly and leaving a space beneath it, it can sit neatly over the base of my monitor without taking up too much desk space! As you can see, it's dead simple - a doube-length of track glued to a card base, which as usual is a layer of cereal box card covering a thicker corrugated card base.

 

Hmm, still a bit messy back there... maybe it needs a backscene. That's better!

 

Oh and a name tag too. I've named it Bearley - the real village did indeed have a railway [https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/bearley.htm] , a junction between branchlines no less, and should be pronounced "beer-lee". But with a bit of modeller's licsence I've nicked the name, since if you pronounce it "bear-lee" then it's close to "barely", and it really is barely a yard!

 

The end of the siding is protected by a Peco Code 75 bufferstop, bodged a little bit to fit on the Code 100 rails. The road area will probably have an entrance gate or yard lamp or something.

 

The other building on the layout is a yard office building; this was built from a kit two years ago (https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/154853-green-lane-wharf-oo-in-a-shoebox/?do=findComment&comment=3989725) and is based on a Midland weighbridge but. I think it complements the goods store nicely, the size and roof lines just look right to me.

 

Finally here's the goods store again, with the door wide open this time. Given the internal walls are all detailed it's crying out for an interior lamp!

 

So there we have it. Clearly I need to add ground cover, find a backscene image, and add other small details. I'm also planning to try some proper lighting, with an LED in each building and one or two exterior lamps too to give it a nice night-time feel in the evenings.

What do you think so far?

[Jerry1975]

I really like Eastnate dairy and this is looking just as good.

I like the less is more approach and look forward to your next update.

 

Jerry. 

[The Bandit]

Simple but effective. I like it!

[ess1uk]

Looks great 

[Sweet pea]

Hi you are building a nice photo plank. I like to build these planks mainly because of space restraints but also because they are plain and simple and you can model whatever theme in a nice small area.

Your building looks great nice work, I will be following with great interest. 🙂

[TechnicArrow]

Cheers @Jerry1975, @The Bandit, @ess1uk and @Kevin Johnson!

 

Where did those two weeks go? Maybe they slipped down behind the sofa...

 

Anyway, exams are now over (forever, whoop!); just a dissertation to research and write over the next 3 months before I go into the real world.

 

In the meantime, I've been experimenting with LEDs -  let there be light!

 

When I saw that the Scalescense goods shed had fully detailed interiror walls, and that I could do similar for the office, I realised I'd need lighting to see it properly. And I thought about using my old battery-powered christmas LED set, but it's on it's last legs and a bit flickery - so I pulled it apart.

 

It's a slightly better one, since rather than using two AAs and applying the 3v directly across each LED it has 3 AAs and a resistor to manage the current flow. However it's still got each LED in parallel, which is less than ideal - any subtle variations between LEDs will cause a current inbalance and they start blowing up. Either way, I pulled 4 LEDs off and started installing them.

 

Both buildings have two LEDs, one interior and one exterior. In the office, the wires come up in one corner, with one glued to the ceiling and the other poked through oever the doorway:

 

For the outside LED, I used a hacksaw to cut off the inverted-cone end and then sanded to hide the LEDness inside. I also used a card hole punching to make a cap, carefully painted black. It looks quite smart, if a little oversized:

 

Then I did similar with the goods store, although I reduced the number of wires be combining the negatives. Just to confuse me I also painted the red wire black where it might be visible through the doorway.

 

 

And then it was on to wiring them! I determined that in the original battery chain, each LED had approximately 4.5mA. To replicate this with just 4 LEDs I borrowed my housemate's resistor collection and got testing. But what power source? I could use the original battery box and eat through AA batteries, or I could use a handy spare USB plug that I have floating around... an endless supply of 5v, from my laptop, the mains, or a rechargeable power bank, anything!

 

What you can't see in the above photo is the dodgy mess of bare ends and resistors powering the whole setup! I'm still experimenting with resistor combinations so haven't soldered anything other than the back of the LEDs.

 

But it looks pretty good though - now I just need to add actual interiors!

 

[Jerry1975]

I like the night shots,  very nice and effective. 

 

Jerry. 

[TechnicArrow]

Bearley Yard? More like barely any time...

 

This weekend I've finally found time to pay to modelling, and decided to attack this diorama somewhat.

 

The plan was to fix the buildings to the base and start the ground cover. So first of all, I needed to add some interior detail to the office, since this wouldn't be accessible once fixed.

 

Nothing extravagant, since the window and door openings are all quite small. There's a fireplace in the corner under the chimney, a small desk (made from a pallet) and a noticeboard on the wall (card and paper). Only this rear wall has any detail, the others are never visible so don't even have wallpaper!

 

Then the two buildings were fixed to the base, and the fun could begin!

 

The ground cover of choice is cheap-as-dirt soil from the garden. Carefully sifted, sieved and dried I find it to be an excellent material - there's nothing better than soil to represnt soil! Also, even when sifted there's still a good variation in particle size, meaning it takes the watered-down PVA very well (can you tell I'm studying geotech for my Master's 😛)

The first layer went on very well, and remarkably didn't warp the surface too much.

 

Looking better already! Then this afternoon I took it outside (far easier to dispose of errant soil) to touch up some bald spots, especially around the sleepers - given the nature of the siding I wanted the soil to be at least level with all the sleepers. Towards the end of the siding I built it up further around the bufferstop and a little in front, as a rudimentary crossing to the "rest of the yard".

 

The built-up area is best seen from the "yard entrance", which was meant to be the rear of the diorama but is increasingly becoming a favourite view of mine...

 

(And why yes, I am enjoying this house having a far better garden than my previous one). So overall, things are looking up, or at least better than they were before!

 

 

It's a very simple thing but I'm really pleased with how this area has turned out, the bufferstop sinking into the soil looks great to me. Probably need to paint it though, it's the same colour as said soil so doesn't really stand out!

Oh, and the lighting is of course still in place... not yet wired up though, this was running straight of the 5v supply which is almost certainly terrible for the LEDs.

 

Which brings me to what's next.

The main concern will be to properly wire up the 4 LEDs, for which I will need to determine what resistors I need, and source them. If anyone's got any tips I'm all ears.

Then it's just more scenic work; potentially a wall or gate at the left hand end to denote the yard entrance, and I'm thinking a largish tree in the back right corner. It also needs more greenery; I'm planning to use this as a test bed for static grass, although that might have to wait until I have money to spend again. So don't hold your breath for the next installment, but you never know!