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

[roundhouse]

With RMweb being down over the weekend I managed to concentrate on Banbury.

 

Quite a few detailing items now added which by themselves are not very noticeable but the overall effect has been quite good, weel ar least to me as I knew they were missing!

 

There is a bit more backscene done so there are hills all around the scenic bit now. Just need to add the closer buildings such as the oil depot etc.

 

Another area tackled was one turnout off the Up good sloop that had a broken tie bar when building the layout. This was removed and rpealced yesterdya plus adding the longer sleepers arond the tie bar ready for the point rodding. The goeund signals were also added.

 

All turnouts asre now wired to hex frog Juicers bt the fiddleyard ones are yet to be alterd.

 

More work to do this week before the Epsom and Ewell show.

[roundhouse]

A fee more photos showing some recent additions. The ground frame is yet to be sunk into the ballast but it's going to be a tight fit with clearances as I put the tracks a bit too close together as didntvresljse that they were slightly. Further apart than normal. Also the catch points in the old disconnected loading docks have now been fabricated along with the disc less ground signals.

[roundhouse]

Last night was another fairly productive one.

 

The ground frame next platform 1 is now in place after testing clearances and further modifications. Alos the chainlink fencing in front of the network Rail offices is now in place with further signalling cabinets and ballsted areas tweeked a bit.

 

A start has now been made on nadding the fencing and gas bottle cage on the old cattle dock just to the south of the station platforms and should be in place tonight.

 

I was hoping to get the Chiltern Railway portacabin type offices constructed but not looking likly to be done in time for this weekends show in Epsom. They do need quite a bit of work to get them right as there is a lot of detailing to them including a ramped walkway and air con units so may leave this area as concrete hard standing till I get enough time to do them justice.

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

Spent last night and an hour this morning working on the old cattle dock fencing. There is a modern ramp up to it with a handrail - this was constructed and fixed in place last night.

 

On the cattle dock there are an umber of enclosures. One has chicken wire fencing and is used by network rail to sstore variuos lineside equipment. These will be added tonight with any luck.

 

The palisade fenced area has something in it but not sure what it is so will remian empty for now.

The gas bottle store is a bit harder to construct so will be left off till I find a suitable way to make it and have the time to make up the gass bottles.

The timber lamp polse are also in place but still require the ladders and lights added to them.

The fencing was painted this morning and will require a bit of fettling and weathering tonight once dry.

 

Tomorrow night the boards will be boxed up and loaded ready for NESCOT this weekend.A couple of other photos show the now installed ground frame and further fencing next to the network Rail offices. Need to vaccum up the left over bits of ballast!

[Dave Searle]

Hi Ian,

 

Excellent detailing - it's adding layers of depth to the model.

 

I like the chain fencing - what are you using for it? I need something similar, but with a very fine horizontal square mesh for a couple of foot bridges - at the moment I'm considering using stiffened stretched nylon tights!

 

Looking forward to seeing you at NESCOT this weekend.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

[roundhouse]

Dave

 

I think it was either N Gauge lines or Fleetline - can't remeber their name. I got it at Ally PAlly show. Their stand was in the carpeted hall. You get two lengths, each about 12" long for about £7.50. Its delicate but it does look good with the barbed wire at the top.

 

If you are after horizontal mesh I think 4D models in Leman St not far from Tower Gateway station in London, does some but it is a little coarser.

 

The problem I found where some USA fencing kits include nylon mesh is that its tricky to get flat onto the posts and when using superglue it sticks much better to your fingers than the posts!!

 

I really wish I could get the Chiltern offices done. Only got as far as printing out the photos to start working from them.

 

See you Saturday.

 

Ian

[Dave Searle]

Hi Ian,

 

Thanks - I'll see what N Gauge Lines have at the show.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

[Gloucester Road]

For chain link fence ive used some made by Gold Medal Models, available online through N scale supply.

[roundhouse]

Yes have used the Gold medal fencing on other layouts. Over here in the UK, the fencing I have used on Banbury is quite a lot cheaper as there is a longer run of it in the pack.

 

last night soem more detailing and weathering to the old cattle dock was carried out and soem more fencing erected just beyound the network rail offices.

 

This morning finished off a number of areas by applying the electrostatic grass. Hopefully it will be set this evening when I get home and will then seal it with soem odourless hairspray my other half got for me in Poundland.

 

A tiny bit more of frncing to go in the area behind the South signal box and a couple of cut down containers there. Then its boxing up the boards and loading ready for NESCOT tomorrow.

 

A parcel arrived from Hattons yesterday so the REAB freightliner wagons were weathered last night and the weathered containers will go on some of them tonight.

 

The DRS class 57 which also arrived yesterday has been weathered but it needs a decoder fitted before it can be run on the layout.

 

Also two 5 packs of Dapol's new couplings need fitting to some of the stock over the weekend.Still cant make up my mind as what rolling stock to fit them on yet!

 

Ian

[Revolution Ben]

Also two 5 packs of Dapol's new couplings need fitting to some of the stock over the weekend.Still cant make up my mind as what rolling stock to fit them on yet!

 

Ian

 

Hi Ian

 

Doesn't matter! The joy of NEM couplers is that they just snap in an out, so you can experiment to your heart's content!

 

Have fun at NESCOT. When I lived in Surrey (Motspur Park) I was a regular visitor, but unfortunately I am working this weekend so probably won't be able to make it!

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[roundhouse]

Ben

 

Thats very true. I will have a play on different stock this weekend. Might put some on a rake of WSMR Mk3's and DVT and others on some freightliner container flats.

 

Cambridgeshire is a bit of a trek for you anyway.

 

Ian

[Revolution Ben]

Hi Ian,

 

You're right but I went last year - managed to combine it with a family trip to see my sister in Kingston!

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[roundhouse]

A few more details were added tonight before packing the layout up and into the car ready for tomorrow.

 

A final task was to find out why my Digitrax DCS100 command station was not working last weekend when used with 'Roundhouse' at the De Havilland clubs show.

 

I could only get the display on the throttles showing anything when the command station was set in ops mode but nothing in run mode.

 

Turns out that when I went to purge the command station (remove all the selected locos from a previous operating session), I reckon someone must have tried to set turnout  number 1 (switch 1). In ops mode this action changes an important setting in the commands stations configuration.

 

I thought the command station had developed a fault but now its all working fine, ready for tomorrow and the back up command station can stay as a back up!

 

Always something new to learn with DCC.

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

First day of NESCOT show now over. The layout started off with a number of gremlins with freightliners derailing and locos that had worked fine last how failing this time including 60007 frying it's decoder despite working fine at the start of the show.

 

By lunchtime everything was running fine and the freightliners wagons were generally fine after replacing the rapids with the new Dapol buckeye couplings. However the Dapol FEAB s without containers still derailed so looks like tomorrow they will get containers glued on to add some weight to them.

 

It was good to chat with a few fellow RMweb members.

 

Ian

[big jim]

Dunno if this is any help to you regards the shenker 60, a vid i quickly grabbed tonight during a station stop at leamington, nicely timed!!

 

 

As it says in the video description i didnt note the number but it was the one called "spirt of tom...."

Edited April 29, 2012 by big jim

[roundhouse]

Jim

 

Thats 60 007 which I have modelled but failed on the layout Saturday morning.

 

I am going to swap chassis with IKB so hopefully it will be running again today.

 

Thanks Jim - I can now run it legitimately on Banbury!

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

The layouts 4 the show is now over. We had some new rolling stock yesterday. The photo below shows the High Speed track recording train. On its Fridays only run Northbound.

[roundhouse]

The layout settled down quite nicely with mainly operator errors (including me) and the occassional derailment from the container flats.

 

I have now fitted the new Dapol knuckle couplings to most of one set of container flats and this generally stopped the uncoupling and derailments but the Dapol megafret flats still gave us grief until we did some modifications to the bogie pivot point. The two with the new couplins seemed to perfom much better after the modification but the one with the Rapidos still derailed, so some more knucle couplings will be fitted. Generally pleased with these but really need the ones that will replace the older style non NEM coupling box.

 

Some of the WSMR Mk3 push pull sets have been running since the first show with the fixed knucles supplied with these coaches in a separate bag and have worked very well so more of the ocahes were converted over the weekend. These all performed well even if coupling them up is a bit harder. The rest will now be converted to these fixed knuckle couplings.

 

6007 had the chasis swapped with IKB so it was running well all day Sunday on the 6E55 Theale to Lindsey tanks as per Big Jims Video link posted on Saturday.

 

More of the Farish class 168 Chiltern Clubmans had the bogie pick ups hard wired to the decoder which makes a massive difference to their running qualities. More were done last night after getting everything unloaded at home, leaving jsut one set to do plus two others that have yet to have decoders fitted.

 

The AWS ramps on both main running lines at the North end of the canopies bought from N brass at the show were fitted Sunday morning. Some of their brass mesh etchings were also purchased. These will be used to make up the gas bottle cages on the old cattle dock. I also bought some of their really fine mesh which will be cut up and painted light blue then mounted on a concrete bases to represent the drain covers found between the main running lines and also next to the UP goods loop.

 

Plenty still to do for the layouts next show, SIlverfox in Milton Keynes in August but I will have a few weeks break to work on my old layout 'Appledore' which will be going to its last show down here, at the Bluebell Railway. After that it will be heading North to do shows up there under the care of Phatbob.

 

Now I have managed to get the photos off my camers, here are a few more from thew weekend.

 

Ian

[Dave Searle]

Hi Ian,

 

Many thanks for bringing Banbury at the show, I'm just sorry I was so busy that I didn't get a chance to spend as much time watching it as I would have liked and only spoke to you briefly.

 

There are some positive comments about Banbury on the N Gauge Forum.

 

Cheers,

 

Dave

[roundhouse]

Thanks Dave.

 

I realise how busy you must have been as doing your own clubs show always is.

 

I will have a look on the N gauge forum.

 

No doubt see you at a future show.

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

The last few nights I couldn't resist working on te Farish class 168 Chiltern Clubmans. All sets that had a decoder fitted have now had the bogie pickups hard wired to the decoder so they now run much more reliably. I also converted another 168 to DCC and hard wired the decoder to the bogies on this one aswell. This leaves the last and 8th set to be converted from DC.

 

This week I may wll start weathering the underframes picking out the detail in the process.

The next stage is to change the couplings on these sets then install head and tail lights.

 

Ian

 

 

[beast66606]

Last few vids from the Banbury area uploaded Ian, that's my lot as I left the company* - back in May 2011 - that gave me the reason to visit Banbury.

 

*One of the happiest days of my life !

[roundhouse]

Some great videos there. Thank for mentioning them

 

Ian

[roundhouse]

A couple of photos of one of my class 168's after modifying the front valance. When built the valance went under the coupling but these days this bit has been rmeoved.

 

Easy modification with a sharp knife on the Farish class 168's.

 

next task will be to close couple the cars.

 

All the Farish 168/1's I have have now been fitted iwth decoders and the bogies hardwired to the em.

 

I now have the whole fleet of Chiltern 168/1s' (both 3 car and 4 car units) and now i am looking at doing the 168/0's and 168./2' when more Farish 168's are obtained along with the extra centre coach to produce the 4 car units.

 

The 168/0 cab fronts will be an interesting challenge unless anyone knows of some one who makes them.

 

I have cast resin cabs on my FGW 165 but they are solid and really need the windows drilling out which is quite a bit of work.

Edited May 3, 2012 by roundhouse

[roundhouse]

I have decided to replace the Atlas curved track that is still left at one end of the fiddle yard as I think this was not helping with the derailments we were having at NESCOT show a week ago. Got the Peco code 55 flexi track this morning so should be ble to replace the track tomorrow.

 

I have also decided to start instalting Hex FrogJuicers to the fiddle yard turnouts as we did have one or two just before the entry to the scenic area where the polarity switch on the SEEP solenoids were failing to make proper contact. This will also improve things when the fiddle yard is set up ith Santa Barbara.

 

Ian