Gateside and Northbridge

[Signaller69]

Good stuff Jim. Yes its annoying having to do jobs twice, I know the feeling!

 

And THAT pink bufferstop, definitive Peco for sure, a remnant from NSE red days, now rather faded, presumably?

 

Atb,

Martyn.

[luckymucklebackit]

Back from what turned out to be an interesting trip to Holland.  Once the work was done I headed back to Ede-Wageningen station for the train back to Amsterdam, highlight of that trip was this beauty which was being hauled towards the west

 

 

Anyway back to Allenshaw tonight and I finished off painting the track, a tedious but worthwhile task, I then gave the ballast a general coat of Railmatch Brown Paint

 

 

Some stock on the layout, this will be the "start point" for any puzzle, with the trip freight having arrived behind a Clayton which has uncoupled and moved into the loco siding and the shunter then drawing the train forward into the headshunt

 

 

There is a bit of a puzzle within a puzzle, in that the brake van is not part of the main Inglenook shunting puzzle, but still has to be at the back of the outgoing train, it is easily done once you work it out - any guesses??

 

 

Hopefully will get started with buildings on Friday!

 

Cheers

 

 

Jim

[Signaller69]

There is a bit of a puzzle within a puzzle, in that the brake van is not part of the main Inglenook shunting puzzle, but still has to be at the back of the outgoing train, it is easily done once you work it out - any guesses??

 

Gravity shunt the Brake Van into the siding would be the easy answer - if there is a gradient allowing such a possibility - but I'm guessing that's not the correct answer.....and it probably wouldn't work well on a model!

 

Only other thing I can see is the Clayton returns to the Brake Van, then pulls it into the loco siding; the 05 then shunts it to the B/V siding?

 

All good fun in either case!

 

Looking good Jim.

 

Martyn.

[luckymucklebackit]

Only other thing I can see is the Clayton returns to the Brake Van, then pulls it into the loco siding; the 05 then shunts it to the B/V siding?

 

All good fun in either case!

 

Looking good Jim.

 

Martyn.

 

Spot on Martyn - I can see that you have done some minimum space shunting in your time

 

Jim

[Zomboid]

Only other thing I can see is the Clayton returns to the Brake Van, then pulls it into the loco siding; the 05 then shunts it to the B/V siding?

Or the shunter takes the whole train up the headshunt and then the train engine can collect the van from the back of it, and park it in the appropriate place itself.

Easy.

[Signaller69]

Spot on Martyn - I can see that you have done some minimum space shunting in your time

 

Jim

Can't beat a "simple" shunting puzzle for ending up tied up in knots when it goes wrong.....great fun!

[luckymucklebackit]

Hi All - with all the track painted and ballasted, time to start the buildings.  First up is the Walthers crane gantry kit which turned out to be quite tricky, there are a lot of parts that you need to ensure are kept square and level, and it only takes the smallest sliver of flash to knock things out of true.  I built up the main gantry and legs and the main parts of the crane, as you need this to gauge how far  apart the rails need to be.

 

 

Also marked out the end of the building to check proportions

 

 

With all looking good, I removed the crane to safe storage to let the glue fully set before painting and gluing in place so that I could make a start on the loading bank, this is just built up from strips of wood and a sheet of ply, it has a couple of slots cut to tack the crane legs, these slots will be closed up when I put on the top sheet of card

 

 

The buffer stop is a modified Peco, as per a prototype I spotted on here somewhere, need to find another one, there is one somewhere in my scrap box I'm sure

 

 

That's all for now, looking out my "kiss me quick" hat as I am off to Sunny Blackpool next Friday!!!

 

Jim

[Signaller69]

Looking impressive Jim! It occurs to me that the gantry crane gives a substantial and imposing "full size" industrial presence without really taking up much valuable track space, in a way that "full"(as opposed to low relief) buildings cannot achieve without taking up said space. A very handy ruse I might tuck away for future use!

[luckymucklebackit]

Hi everyone - I felt that I did a lot tonight but don't have a great deal to show for it!!  Spray painted the crane structure, stuck down some Scalescenes dirty concrete paper on the crane base and the loading ramp and holding to my promise to myself to try plasticard brick instead of brick paper to give this more texture.

General view of the foundry yard now with a little less plain white card

 

 

The crane supports have been slotted into the loading bank, wanted to get this as neat as possible but pushing the flimsy structure into the slot needs to be done carefully to avoid snapping the thin crossmembers

 

 

My first attempts on doing plasticard brick, one strip looked OK the other was not so good.   I just gave the plasticard sheet a coat of red oxide primer then cut the section out and glued it to the card.  Next I gave the section a wash of light acrylic grey and wiped off using my fingertips (this is the bit that I find a hit and miss), lastly I picked out some bricks in a brown and a lighter red - still need to darken it down and weather.  I am using 7mm brick plasticard as suggested by a friend, as I agree with him that they look better!!!

 

 

The not so good one in place, the wash wasn't as effective on this section

 

 

Just to show that Allenshaw is still part of the main layout

 

 

That's all for tonight

 

Cheers

 

Jim

[luckymucklebackit]

Not much done over the past week, having been away from the layout "enjoying" (or should I say surviving) a weekend at Blackpool, but I am back home and recovering!  I made a start at the low relief foundry building, by applying the "corrugated metal" cladding using plasticard, with a brick plasticard lower section.  The idea is to portray a building that has seen better days, so lots of rust type weathering is in order.

 

 

 

The corrugated sheet was given a Humbrol Grey/Green base coat and left to dry, then once dry cut into strips and stuck in place.  Around the edges a dark brown Acrylic was brushed into place, and then a general dirtying with weathering powder.  I was reading through some old posts on weathering and picked up a tip about using pastel chalks - I can confirm that they work a treat, bought a set for £5 out an art shop and they are really good for dirtying things up.

 

Still a lot of detail to put In place, the upper two small doors will have a stair added up to roof access platforms, and doors and other details yet to be added.

 

That's all for now

 

Jim

[luckymucklebackit]

Very slow progress but the foundry building is creeping closer to completion, tonight I fitted support girders behind the doors, fitted sliding doors to the smaller door on the loading platform and a "roller shutter" door to the door with the access track.  Started the access platforms but this is one of these tricky jobs which need a small amount built then set aside to allow the glue to set before proceeding, these platforms now need handrails fitted to complete.

 

 

Crane is now partially built and painted,  Needed it done so that I can set the rails the correct distance apart

 

 

With that done I set it aside to set and went to make a start on a Ratio water tank kit that I had picked up on Ebay, unfortunately I find that there are three major components missing, so I have messaged him to let him know

 

Jim

[Signaller69]

Some nice progress Jim, the rusty corrugated shed certainly looks like it could be a part of the Peacock Cross foundry.

 

Cheers,

Martyn.

[Legend]

Very nice Jim. Reminds me of industrial Glasgow in the 60s . Used to pass lots of factories on the route in from Paisley , I’m particularly thinking of the factories that bordered the railway in the Shields Road area. Lovely

[luckymucklebackit]

Good night up in the loft tonight, amid the usual bangs and crackles of November 5th   The foundry building is now complete, with the handrails on the walkways in place, the main features of the plank are also glued in place, so I am now working on some detailing features. 

 

 

 

On the loading bank I have added a Knightwing Silo, this has been painted with Halfords Khaki which I bought at the weeked along with a tin of Camouflage Brown, appears to be a good buy, as I used a bit of a mixture of these two to paint a bunker, made from coffee stirrers and matchsticks.  One will be filled with scrap metal and the other will be foundry sand.

 

 

To maintain the exact length of siding for the inglenook puzzle I have removed the coupling from this old Lima 7 plank wagon and glued it to the back panel of the building

 

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Further down the plank, I am kitbashing this tank structure, the legs were surplus from the St Margarets Shed Dapol Tank which was built on a brick structure, the tanks are the Ratio Fuel Depot kit, still in the early stage of assembly, and I also want the appropriate pipework to connect to the foundry building

 

 

It is quite good having multiple small projects to work on, as you can set one aside to let paint dry or glue set and work on another.

More updates later in the week

 

Cheers Jim

[luckymucklebackit]

Hi all - Latest addition to the plank is the Bachmann small water tower, bought from Hattons big sale, think I will do a plinth to mount it on as I need just a little more height to run the pipework to the building.

 

 

Most of the evening was spent adding detail to the loading bank, I added material to the two bunkers, one has "refractory sand", which is a lump of DAS clay covered with Peco fine rust weathering powder.  The other is filled with scrap, which meant scouring the bits and pieces boxes for all the bits of girder, rod, some old wheels etc and tossed them in an old plastic tub and tossed them while adding red primer and a couple of shades of brown, them sprinkling in weathering powder while the paint was still wet, to simulate swarf, I spray painted hanging garden material brown.  I then found some workmen figures that I forgot I had and stuck them in place

 

 

So in the best tradition on British workers, Pat gets stuck in while Tam and Jimmy lean on their spades and offer advice, meanwhile over to the left Wullie had had a night in the pub and that beer needs to go somewhere eventually!!

 

 

The fuel tank is making slow progress, to be honest I am not sure where I am going with this and so I am taking my time putting it together, note behind it a bonus thanks to the Railway Modeller which is giving away the Ratio grounded van body with this months issue.

 

 

Cheers

 

Jim

[Signaller69]

Very, very nice Jim, some super detailing techniques there re the sand and scrap especially. Really coming together well.

[luckymucklebackit]

Thanks Martyn - I have been working on the Fuel Tank Tower tonight.  I had been staring at that photo and thinking it didn't look right and it dawned on me today what is missing, as it is a fuel tank it needs bunding, so tonight I added a primary bunding at tank level which in the event of a tank rupture would prevent the fuel from flowing all over the place, and then a secondary brick bund at ground level to contain the spilled fuel.  Need to add a top walkway and some more pipework.  I bought a Wllls Lamp Hut kit which will act as the pump house to offload the fuel from the wagon and pump up to the storage tank, hopefully look good when finished.

 

Jim

[luckymucklebackit]

And the fuel tank is completed at last!!  It has been a true kitbash, with Dapol (main support), Ratio (Tanks and some pipework), Knightwing (other bits of pipework), Slaters (plasticard), Wills (pump hut), Plastrut and Evergreen (girders).  Last job was to fit the intake pipe between the pump shed (Wills Kit) and then apply some weathering

I picked out the valve wheels and some bits of the handrail in Railmatch "Oily Steel" paint  and added a couple of lights.

Final stage will be to link the fuel tank to the main building by elevated pipe, this will be threaded through the steelwork for the water tower where it will ne joined by a water main, the two pipes will then be carried by the crane girders

Onwards and upwards!!

Jim

[luckymucklebackit]

I quite liked the little Metcalfe hut that I acquired recently and it fitted quite well on the plank, however I had decided that the plank would be a "card finish free zone", so I raided the plasticard junk box and found enough brick and slates to clad the hut, the brick came up great, thanks to a little thicker mix of the mortar coloured paint.

 

 

The roof is not great, need more practise at applying slate, and unfortunately I need to get to the shops and get some dark "slate" grey, everything I have is too light.  Gutters and down pipes have also been added.

 

 

Other small touches are to use up the brick tank cradles as a  redundant tank site and to start running the pipe lines properly

 

Jim

[luckymucklebackit]

Here are a couple of photos of the other side of the layout, showing the pipework that connects the fuel and water tanks with the building, been a bit slow and bitty over the past week having been away, however I have a window of opportunity next weekend to get a lot done as my wife is away with her sister for a weekend away so hopefully get the ground cover done.  Still wondering if I was to make this a "standalone" shunting plank whether this should be the front of the layout or the back, both have advantages and drawbacks.

 

 

 

 

Eagle eyed viewers will note that the point levers are in place.

 

With that done I turned my attention to the railway water tank, my experience with Ratio kits is that they are not good for handrails, the signal kits don't have any at all, and the water tank kit has this crazy idea of plastic filament for the uprights and handrails, totally flimsy and chances of successful completion very low, especially as you are provided with the filament in coils which is almost impossible to straighten.  I decided to revert to my tried and tested use of dressmakers pins and ware, but the base is a bit flimsy and I have used a block of wood as a jig with holes drilled right through the block to support the assembly,

 

 

Going to be a slow process but much more likely to offer a good outcome than the kit instructions!!

 

Cheers

 

Jim

[luckymucklebackit]

Last night it was back to the Ration water tower, this is really a difficult kit to complete, with many little components and fairly poor instructions to follow, I finished off the access walkways, not the best of jobs but it will have to do, the suggested method on the kit was a non starter!

 

Following on from the photo in the previous post, I attached a second wooden block and glued the dog-leg section of walkway in place and drilled out the holes accordingly.  Once everything was set I then soldered the top handrail in place,

 

 

That done I pressed the wood down on a metal base which as the pins passed through and jutted out slightly, forced the assembly away from the block enough to get the Dremel in underneath and slice through the pins, the assembly was then clear and I tried it in position on the tank.

 

 

Hopefully it will look better with a coat of paint on the wire and pins.  I then turned my attention to the other small parts, very difficult to work with, the pulley assembly is partially complete but the water level indicator frame broke as I tried to release it from the sprue, and I had to use a small piece of thin plasticard to reassemble the broken bits, not going to affect the finished look as there is a cardboard overlay which then is glued in place over the plasticard, but very time consuming.  Going to take a while to finish this kit.

 

Thanks

 

Jim

[26power]

Are these Ratio handrail stanchions different to those supplied in the kit?: https://peco-uk.com/collections/lineside-scenic/products/handrail-stanchions-single-rail

 

Rather vaguely aware that these (and the similar double rail ones: https://peco-uk.com/collections/lineside-scenic/products/hand-rail-stanchions-double-rail)are relatively new products but have no personal knowledge/experience of them. Also don’t recall seeing them mentioned in model articles.

 

Perhaps a better product than that supplied though?

Edited December 4, 2018 by 26power

[luckymucklebackit]

Are these Ratio handrail stanchions different to those supplied in the kit?: https://peco-uk.com/collections/lineside-scenic/products/handrail-stanchions-single-rail

 

Rather vaguely aware that these (and the similar double rail ones: https://peco-uk.com/collections/lineside-scenic/products/hand-rail-stanchions-double-rail)are relatively new products but have no personal knowledge/experience of them. Also don’t recall seeing them mentioned in model articles.

 

Perhaps a better product than that supplied though?

 

Hi - Considering Ratio make the ones to which you have linked (I used the double rail ones on the fuel tank and they are excellent) what is supplied with the kit is frankly a joke.  You get two lengths of plastic filament supplied in a coil, one slightly thicker than the other, the instructions are to cut the thicker filament into lengths about 12mm long for the stanchions then head the end over an open flame to make a "blob" for the top, then superglue the thinner filament to these blobs to make the handrail, you then apply the second handrail half way down.  As the filament is in coils it is almost impossible to straighten and the whole exercise is so fiddly I gave up very quickly, the kit is not cheap so I went for the pins instead of  buying another handrail kit to complete.  I don't think that I am alone in having problems with this part of the assembly, as I have seen the tank either modelled without the walkway or with a fabricated roof put in place instead.  The pins are not the best but it should look OK when painted.

Supplying material in coils is something that Ratio has addressed when it comes to metal wire, as the signal kits used to have a coil of wire for the pivots, arm to counterweight connections etc, but later kits had the wire supplied in straight bunches which are so much easier to use.

 

Jim

[luckymucklebackit]

Start made to make the track a bit more representative of an old yard, added sand and some Peco fine rust, with dilute brown acrylic paint dropped on top.

 

 

Still not quite right, I want to make it a bit more muddy looking, any suggestions as to how to achieve this welcome, I thought of trying to sprinkle polyfilla over the area and spray misting water over it then colouring, might try that when next up

 

Jim

[Signaller69]

Totally agree on the Ratio handrails, I bought a GWR post and wire fence kit (no.423) some years back where the same horrible coiled red/brown plastic filament was supposed to be fitted (straight) against marks on the posts using solvent, which turned out to be virtually impossible as it frequently dissolved the filament - If not the strand I was adding, then the one below that I had added previously. I ended up drilling out the posts and using fine nickel silver wire instead. Given that Ratio kits are not exactly "budget priced" it does seem a shame to cut corners on what is the most fiddly part of the kit.

 

Anyway I digress, nice work Jim!