spenc Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Hi cromptonnut The 33 sounds great think i might have to put sound in mine before buying another loco ?.One of the side grills came of mine i glued it back on with Deluxe Glue 'n' Glaze if that helps. Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 I'm going to investigate some 'bass reflex' speakers as it does sound a bit too "top heavy" too me and not enough rumble that you'd expect (although admittedly it's not as much as say a 37 but it still sounds a bit tinny. I picked up a 3.5XL chip second hand, sent it to Howes for a re-blow (and bought their 'standard' speaker as one is not supplied with the chip) and that cost me about £30. It's not the easiest of installations - it's not just a "plug in" like OO chips - but there are chip fitting services available from various suppliers including Howes themselves. I still need to get transfers for the 33, then weather her up, but at the moment just enjoying her sitting on my 3ft of functional track chugging away merrily. Not convinced the wife will be quite so chirpy about it after a couple of hours of it in the background mind you. It's given me an incentive to get on and get some trackwork completed, I've been playing with painting people this week inbetween; it's not something I've ever done before and I'm finding it suprisingly non-difficult considering I have the artistic skills of a grapefruit. Sound chips make a huge difference (although they aren't cheap of course) and the "bulk" of O gauge gives it much more of a presence, plus there's plenty of space inside for speakers (the speaker for this one fits in the fuel tanks) and extras such as Peter Clark's smoke generator (which may well be a future purchase...) But I'm sure you don't need me to persuade you that sound fitted is a good way to go Incidently, I also have a Bachmann 122 which has been in bits for a long time, and as that's only a single motor, I have a OO sound chip fitted in that as the power consumption is low enough for it to cope, but the 33 definitely needs the Loksound XL chip being twin motor. My little diesel shunter which I should get back in a few weeks is also a small motor and has a OO sound chip inside it as it's also low consumption. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted January 13, 2013 Author Share Posted January 13, 2013 Hi everyone a little update and a little advice required please. I've been playing with a little scenic section today as a distraction - this bit is going to be a small culvert. Obviously it's incomplete and I've only done the base layer so will be adding bushes, scenic grass, a fence etc to it. However, my question regards the tree. It's actually a 4mm Hornby Scenics tree of which I have several hanging around. Do you think that it looks wrong, even to be a "small tree" The effect of "view blocking" I am trying to achieve, to make the layout look bigger than it actually is, is based on some discussions in the "Osney" layout thread (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/56870-osney/?p=897792) but I'm just not quite sure that this tree has enough "bulk" to not look silly. I would probably 'tweak' the tree slightly so it doesn't look identical to the other one I'd also use, if they pass the test. My backscene is 12" high but these particular trees scale out at about 20ft or so. I have no idea what the Hornby trees are meant to represent, but according to the Woodland Trust website the average Ash tree is 30m, the average Oak tree is 25m and the average Sycamore tree is 30m so you can see it's quite "underscale" to be a mature tree. Over to you guys... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSB Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 I suspect that tree would look underscale even in 00. Model trees in general tend to be a bit on the small side. There are a number of people producing ready-made trees for 0 gauge although the quality is not always as good as it could be. There are some listed on the GOG traders list (you don't have to be a GOG member to view it). The picture below shows a tree in the background which I made for Ramchester some time ago which is around 16" high if memory serves although it doesn't actually look particularly tall! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted January 13, 2013 Author Share Posted January 13, 2013 One of the problems of "ready made" trees of course is that as the best ones are often handmade rather than mass produced like the Hornby one here, they tend to be rather on the expensive side such as the 50ft oak tree here for £36 http://www.internationalmodels.net/acatalog/Trees___Armatures___Hedge.html I guess if I want a decent job at a reasonable price I'll be making my own - although I think perhaps some Seafoam bushes might be in order, I have several boxes of it needing using up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltic17 Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Personally I think the tree looks perfect - not all trees are big trees - in any case big trees were all small trees one day! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted January 16, 2013 Share Posted January 16, 2013 Hi, Got the two bass reflex speakers for you. See you at the Bristol show. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike knowles Posted January 17, 2013 Share Posted January 17, 2013 cromptonnut - mind you, we don't always get modelling injuries on the bus! Stephen When I was a young lad (a long long time ago) and into slot car racing, I bought myself a new Xacto craft knife. On the way home youthful impatience got the better of me and the knife was removed from the package so I could have a play with it. This resulted in a deep cut to one of my fingers (I still have the scar) and when the bus arived at my stop I had to walk the full length of the bus (you always sat at the back) with blood pouring down my hand and arm! It drew quite a few strange looks from the other passengers! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted January 20, 2013 Author Share Posted January 20, 2013 Just a small update with the new bass reflex speakers fitted on the Heljan 33, getting a little run up and down my current 8ft length. I hope to soon be able to sort out the next point which will "complete" the gap and enable me to use all three sidings properly, hopefully gaining some real experience of three links - or deciding to change to some other form of coupling! Excuse all the junk on the board behind the running line Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Much better sound, got some low end bass to it now. If yiu want more of the same speakers I gave you, they are from SWD. As for the back drop, perhaps the toilet roll is very apt. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted January 20, 2013 Author Share Posted January 20, 2013 It's kitchen roll... this is O gauge after all and things are bigger Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
two tone green Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 The bigger roll is even more apt. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
KTM Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Just a small update with the new bass reflex speakers fitted on the Heljan 33, getting a little run up and down my current 8ft length. I hope to soon be able to sort out the next point which will "complete" the gap and enable me to use all three sidings properly, hopefully gaining some real experience of three links - or deciding to change to some other form of coupling! Excuse all the junk on the board behind the running line That is a fantastic sight and I find myself indulging in the sound to the extent that the background mess becomes invisible! I will be adding sound to my 33 too, although green ones do sound better Jon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted January 20, 2013 Author Share Posted January 20, 2013 That is a fantastic sight and I find myself indulging in the sound to the extent that the background mess becomes invisible! I will be adding sound to my 33 too, although green ones do sound better Jon It may appear "mess" but in the cover image from the video we see: Tub of goldfish food = ballast Tub of Pilau rice = dark green foam ground scatter "Drench" bottle that looks like it contains milk = diluted PVA for scenery/ballast fixing Kitchen roll = mopping up overspill from above bottle It's basically "lack of space" meaning I need to have stuff "on the board" when I'm using it on a regular basis, and as I use things up like buildings I do get more space PS - the sound is even better in real life, not the greatest recording device I'm afraid. If I ever find myself in the Horsham direction (possible - wife's family from Godstone) then I will PM you to see if I can pop by with sound fitted 33 so you can hear it for yourself. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrushType4 Posted January 20, 2013 Share Posted January 20, 2013 Sounds great and your rake of wagons I can see look pretty good too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted January 21, 2013 Author Share Posted January 21, 2013 Only one has been 'finished' so far, waiting for time when SWMBO is out for long enough to be able to get the airbrush out and weather them up Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted February 24, 2013 Author Share Posted February 24, 2013 Well it's been a few weeks.... and an unexpected twist means that the layout in its current form is likely to be scrapped and started again. No massive disasters but it looks very likely that in May we'll be moving, and one of the sweeteners is that the second bedroom of the new location - 13ft 6" x 8ft - is allowed to become a modelling room as long as the single bed remains in there and the room is still useable as a guest bedroom when required which I don't think is too bad a compromise. The general principle and major features of the layout will remain but the track plan will be tweaked slightly and I'll expand to 2ft 6" boards to give me a little extra scenic depth enabling me to better organise the scenery, and now I'm feeling a bit more confident about my O gauge experiences so far I hope that some of the frustrations I've experienced along the way will be alleviated. It'll also help that I have a working loco now to test from the first piece of track being laid instead of using a half-built wagon and hoping. Talking of locos, my 33 featured above has now been numbered - 33050 - to reflect my two favourite classes of loco, 33 and 50 (no money for a hoover yet!!!) which was helped by discovering this image of said loco working a service to Exeter in 1981 in blue livery which of course suits the time period I had in mind (although I had several pet 50's, I never had a pet 33 for some reason so finding a number that meant something to me was difficult). I know later on this one went into construction livery and was named "Isle of Grain" and was allocated to HG but that doesn't matter I've numbered her up this evening so that's drying, tomorrow I'll give the numbers a coat of clear varnish to seal and protect, then unless I can find the time before the move I'll leave weathering until afterwards. Much of what I've already laid including the pointwork (the expensive bits!) will be salvageable so really the main cost will be new boards but that shouldn't be insurmountable as in the meantime I can use XTrackCAD and Templot, and settle on a suitable plan for everything to get in some of the features that the current plan didn't allow for. The biggest waste will be about 2 sq ft of grass fibres but that isn't the end of the world. I'll report back when I have something to report but it's not likely to be for several months - lots of boxes to fill assuming all these things fall into place. I'll still be around here though of course in the meantime. Happy modelling. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
switcher 1 Posted February 25, 2013 Share Posted February 25, 2013 Good luck with the move. (You'll be getting a size similar to me.) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcf Posted February 26, 2013 Share Posted February 26, 2013 Hi Cromptonnut Hope everything goes smoothly with the proposed move. In the circumstances I won't hold my breath for the trees! At least you will have two feet more than I've got. Rob Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted February 26, 2013 Author Share Posted February 26, 2013 Good luck with the move. (You'll be getting a size similar to me. ) Got a trackplan? Always curious to see what others come up with in the same sort of space. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
switcher 1 Posted February 27, 2013 Share Posted February 27, 2013 My plan is a secondary line terminus with a main platform face (2 car dmu), a bay platform for vans/SUD/PDU, 3 sidings so as to have shunting with a Cl 02 shunter, running a Cl 101 2car dmu to 2 different destinations (like a junction), further SUD/PDU to be added later for variety. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pandora Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 As an ex S&T worker, I have plenty of knowledge as to points, I used to strip/rebulild them. I have never seen a model point which has anything in common withe the real thing, in fact I doubt if it can be done at all in even in gauge 1 How about point machines/clamp locks? Stretcher bars / back drives, detector rods/drive rods, oversails, chog bolts/ chog plates, point heaters, there are dozens of different types of graduated rail chairs alone for points, terms I have never heard from point builders. I would say simply build a workable point, ie one that throws reliably and does not derail your trains, install it on the layout and hide it under an overbridge so no one can actually take a detailed look at the thing! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 Well I have come up with a workable plan that goes round the outside of the room - just under 4ft radius curves which I know are tighter than recommended but definitely doable with the stock I am using - but it will require building of about a dozen boards in total of three different sizes, and of course a large space that needs filling. It'd be great to have a continuous run for stock, an opportunity for some decent 'thrash' from my sound fitted stock, but the large expense of building the boards and the time required to fill them with scenery and track may be beyond the "immediate future" budget of me as a lone modeller. I may well revert to the "one wall only" original plan but I don't want to get bored with a small and simple layout as well. Ideally I'd like something "inbetween" but that isn't really an option unless I go back to 4mm which, having invested in some 7mm stock, I don't really want to do. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Donw Posted March 18, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 18, 2013 I would make the boards for one side and start building the layout on there. Make two plain boards to act as temporary fiddle areas with a piece of plain track. Then as you build extra boards these move round and end up being scrapped when you join up the circuit. Don Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cromptonnut Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 The only problem Don is that the boards themselves will be three completely different sizes, three 4ft x 12", four 4ft x 2ft and two "corner pieces" that are 2ft 6" x 2ft but trimmed back to make smooth lines round the edges of the layout, so "temporary fiddle yards" don't necessarily work that well - although I could start in one corner and work round the room. But for convenience I'd rather get all the wood cut in one go - saw a video which I now can't find that showed framework made out of 3" strips of 1/2" ply and should be lighter than my usual 2x1 bodge. Unfortunately the way the track plan works is that I start from the fiddle yard which is in the middle of the rear wall, then work outwards from there to meet in the middle on the opposite side of the room. I've got "approx" locations for the various bits of pointwork and buildings etc but don't fancy working out everything to millimetre as often what works well on paper doesn't look quite right once it's laid on wood - although of course you have to plan to make sure things all fit. There are three distinct parts to my layout - the fiddle yard, the station area, and the sidings of the rail served factory unit. Scenery will be on 2/3 of the boards although once the track is laid much of the scenery is fairly simple and progress shouldn't be that bad. I guess I know what I should do (keep it simple and just use one wall), what I want to do (make the most of the space and build a great layout filling the room) but it's reconciling the two as well as keeping SWMBO happy by keeping the room useable as a second bedroom should it be required for any guests. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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