Banbury in N scale - A great time at the Abingdon in March 2024

[roundhouse]

The new 66 looks great!

Its now a little bit dirtier but the body sides have been left virtually untouched.

 

I have fitted the Dapol magnetic couplers but as they drooped way too much (as they were catching the rails) I used a bit of PVA in the NEM box and tipped the loco up side down so the couplets set level.

 

A Bachmann 6 pin deoder has also been installed.

 

Maybe some pics tomorrow.

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

This morning I managed to capture 66709 behind a coal train heading south through Banbury.

[roundhouse]

No modelling tonight but did have a little play around with tbe camera and some stock

 

First up is a a now dated scene with a couple of class 57's on the move North with containers.

 

Next we have another old scene with an ex SR brake van sitting in a siding all by its self

 

Moving a bit more up to date is Oliver Cromwell on an ECS charter move in the Up goods loop

 

And now looking into the future for this Easters diversions around Reading

Edited January 10, 2013 by roundhouse

[Eggesford box]

And playing around at Banbury yesterday in a slightly larger scale

Dropped 0Z47 around the back of the North box to wait its path north to Birmingham whilst having to work the box for a couple of hours.

[roundhouse]

David

 

Thats a different angle.

Nice shot.

 

A bit better lighting than I had last night in the garage.

When I looked at the photos on thr camera and uploaded them directly they looked fine but I think I can get better ones so might try redoing them tonight

Edited January 29, 2013 by roundhouse

[big jim]

another one for you to model, ews liveried 67023 has replaced 029 on the banbury set from tomorrow morning, passed it on wembley earlier

[roundhouse]

Thanks Jum.

 

I have a few EWS 67's so will have to look through which numbers I have.

 

However some of them are unpowered.

 

Ian

[Eggesford box]

 

Thanks Jum.

 

I have a few EWS 67's so will have to look through which numbers I have.

 

However some of them are unpowered.

 

Ian

Thats all right, you can always pretend it has run out of fuel!

[roundhouse]

Ah yes a prototypical scenario!

[roundhouse]

The layouts first show this year will be Tonbridge in February, so fairly soon I will start working on the layout to add a few more details.

 

However, the stock has been having attention of the past few months.

 

A lot more stock now has the Dapol magnetic couplers with a few Farish locos converted by opening out the rapido box and glueing in a magnetic coupler. These seem to have worked fine hauling trains at TINGS back last September so more will be converted.

 

The class 67 fleet is now 12 strong (2 are unpowered though), with Cheltenham Models to blame for the two recent EWS liveried additions as they were selling powered ones for £60 each at the Leamington and Warwick show last weekend. They now need decoders fitting, weathering and detailing.

 

A few more FEAB  container flats have been added to the fleet. These run well on the layout once the Dapol magnetic couplers have been glued into the NEM box with a bit of PVA to stop them bouncing and uncupling. The Dapol megafrets will be withdrawn as they don't like the fiddleyard curves.

 

The layout has recently been invited to attend the Banbury show in September 2013 although this wont be the first time the layout has been to its namesake town as we stopped of with the layout at the station for a short break (a more interesting stopping point than the motorway services)  back in October 2011 when it was on its way to its first ever show in Barrow In Furness!!

 

More photos to follow shortly.

 

Ian

[Douglas G]

A fantastic layout, even though I am not a MI fan.  I think one reason it works so well is the choice of colours—not too bright in the background—so everything blends in and there is a real sense of distance towards the rear of the layout.

 

Douglas

Edited January 23, 2013 by Douglas G

[roundhouse]

Thanks Douglas

 

I still neef to add some buildings to the backscene as its s bit too countryfied. However its gettibg the photos at the correct angle to get the perspective right.

 

One way I could do it is to use the Parrot quadcopter with its built in camera as it can hover at about 20 feet off the ground. Not sure how the station staff and public would take to me flying it over the station though!

[Douglas G]

One way I could do it is to use the Parrot quadcopter with its built in camera as it can hover at about 20 feet off the ground. Not sure how the station staff and public would take to me flying it over the station though!

 

You could always hire a mobile access platform ;-)

 

Are you working from photographs of the real thing at a distance when painting items on the layout?  I think this helps.

[roundhouse]

I am using both detail shots snd some distance shots to get the size position and weathering of the buildings track etc.

 

 

There are a couple of aerial shots (link in one of the early posts on this thread) which have vern invaluable.

 

Ian

Edited January 26, 2013 by roundhouse

[robrailltd]

And playing around at Banbury yesterday in a slightly larger scale

0Z47 Banbury 10.01.2013.JPG

Dropped 0Z47 around the back of the North box to wait its path north to Birmingham whilst having to work the box for a couple of hours.

If thats 47500 you've done wel as it dies this afternoon in manchester in news worthy fashion after derailing and going up in flames blocking all traffic west out of both manchester victoria and Piccadilly except for CLC services.

[bridgiesimon]

If thats 47500 you've done wel as it dies this afternoon in manchester in news worthy fashion after derailing and going up in flames blocking all traffic west out of both manchester victoria and Piccadilly except for CLC services.

 

More details here -

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/manchester-train-fire-derailed-heritage-1237448

 

mega ooer!!!!

 

I love this layout, a most excellent model and it rums as well as it looks.

 

Simon

[roundhouse]

Thanks Simon

 

It does run OK now but we did have quite a few problems with stock detailing to begin with.

 

Now just need to sort out the operator errors and that includes me!

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

A couple of shots taken a few minutes ago from the loco hauled set.

 

With all the snow melt and rain Kings Sutton looks like it should have the suffix ' on sea'!

 

Just passed the blue grey loco hauled set heading North.

[big jim]

i have announced kings sutton as "kings sutton on sea" in the past!

 

will have a look later but it will be dark by the time i pass there

Edited January 27, 2013 by big jim

[roundhouse]

Jim

 

That's probably were I got it from!

 

A lot of water around Aynho Junction aswell.

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

The two most recent additions to the loco roster for Banbury.

These have been fitted with the long version of the Dapol magnetic couplers.

 

Both will see action at the Tonbridge show in a few weeks time.

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

Over the last few evenings I have been working on the  track plan in JMRI Panel Pro. It had been drawn for a while but it wasn't done very well, so now with a little bit more knowledge of how this part of JMRI software works, it has been tidied up a lot.

 

I now need to set the layout up and assign or the turnout adresses to the track plan and then hopefully it will be working on a touch screen allowing for easier operation of the turnouts. The idea of this graphical display is that we will be able to see more clearly which way each turnout is set, particularly those which are at the other end of the layout to each operator as incorrectly set turnouts is now the biggest issue we get now that most of the rolling stock is running better.

 

I hope to have this working at the Tonbridge show in just over a week although I am hoping to spend some time this weekend doing some more scenic work.

 

Ian

Edited February 7, 2013 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

Yesterday I spent a good part of the day fitting Dapol magnetic couplers to some of the wagons and fettlng other stock.

The Children's railway liveried class 66 has had some lead weight added to the underside of the roof. Each piece of lead has been completely wrapped in insulation tape to avoid it shorting on anything inside. Hopefully this Dapol loco will now be able to pull 21 loaded coal hoppers by its self.

Also spent some time fine tuning the JMRI track panel by adding the turnout addresses.

I ended up wasting quite a bit of time trying to get the all in one pc to install the drivers for the Locobuffer interface but despite trying to change the settings in the Windows 8 configuration (the keyboard will not work when in those settings) I might just reload Windows XP back onto it.

 

So no scenic work done over the weekend but still hoping to do some in the evenings before Tonbridge show this weekend.

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

Last night I decided to change the keyboard on the ll in one pc but I still couldn't alter the start up settings in Windows 8 so no way of installing the Loco buffer drivers correctly.

So I decided to set up the original JMRI laptop as a Loconet server withe the Windows 8 machine connecting into it.

At last I had the track plans on the touchscreen, working. It worked well being able to change the turnouts by touching the circle over the turnout on screen.

 

This morning I decided to set up the windows 7 tablet for the other end of the layout. That is now working but I think I need to slightly increase the track plan to fill the screen but i's main job is to show which way the turnouts are set which it does fine.

 

However upon switching on the all in one Windows 8 machine, it lhad now ost the connection to the JMRI server and I just couldn't get it working again. Nothing to do with JMRI but it just wouldn't see the other laptop in the windows folders view.

I think I might wipe Windows 8 off it and put XP back on it but that might have to wait till after the Tonbridge show this weekend.

Ian

Edited February 12, 2013 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

Last night after a few pints of a decent ale, I decided to have another go at the All in one pc.

 

Those pints worked as I have now figured out its the antivirus / firewall blocking the connection to the laptop running JMRI. Whilst I have not been able to sort the issue out properly yet, I can get the system to work by first manually opening a file on the laptop via the all in one PC  then launch JMRI on the all in one and it connects to the laptop and all runs OK.

 

Tried this method again this morning under more sober condtions and all is working. So we will be using the track plans in JMRI this weekend at Tonbridge.

 

 

Tonight should be a big push to complete a number of jobs.

 

Still quite a few Dapol magnetic couplers to fit. WIll do a Farish Freightliner 66 so that I can test a whole container train fitted with these couplings.

 

Also hoping that I will have the new Dapol buffet coaches to run in the Wrexham and Shropshire sets by the weekend. They will just need the longer fixed knuckle coupling fitting (no need to use the magnetic coupling on these as they run in fixed sets) and a light weathering. At soem future point I will correct the window arrangement to suit the prototype.

 

Ian