RMweb Gold big jim Posted May 25, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 25, 2012 Very little progress on the layout, all i have managed to get done is to cut the holes and fit the seem point motors to the 3 way point and glue down the cork mat on the mainline bit I have also spent a bit of time using the sleeper spacing tool on a few more lengths of track so they are ready to be painted with rail dirt/rust before i fit them to the boards, the beauty of the steel sleeper track is i can just paint the lot rusty and then simply clean off the railhead Here is my chief engineer checking tolarances on the incline Got a few days off so hopefully if the weather stays nice i may get the painting done and fix the mainline down The only thing ive not even thought about yet is how to wire the whole thing up, beig as its going to be dcc it should be a nice simple bus wire arrangement with droppers to the various sidings Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted May 27, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 27, 2012 Thought while the weather was fine i'd spray up the track with my new iwata airbrush, got everything ready, compressor up and running, paint ready etc only to discover that the fitting is a different size to the one i have been using for my now defunct badger airbrush! Anyway, decided to hand paint a short length of the track i have modified with the sleeper spacing tool to see how it would look before i commited myself to painting all 6 lengths With the track having steel sleepers i have simply painted the whole lot with railmatch acrylic dark rust Takes the plastic shine off it, here it is compared to the on painted section So what do you recon? Should i carry on, is the shade of rust ok? With the wooden sleepered track im going to paint it with sleeper grime and rust up the track edges, a bit more time consuming than the steel stuff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted May 27, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 27, 2012 Jim Looks fine to me. By the tie you then do a thin weathering over the ballast and track it will all tone down a bit Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted May 27, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 27, 2012 Ive. Itten the bullet and painted the rest of the steel sleepered track and i think it looks fine, as you say roundhouse once its ballasted and wearhered a bit more it should look good Picked up an aerosol can of railmatch sleeper grime from trident trains in dagfields earlier, was going to airbrush it but the spray can is as easy, only going to be using it on the wooden sleepered track, i have only respaced one length of it so far so i used that one to see how it came out The next conundrum i have is do i simply leave it with sleeper grime all over or do i paint the sides of the rails with the rust colour too Again here are some pictures to compare, i think it looks alright just grimy personally? Rusty sides.... Grimy sides...... Your opinions again would be helpful Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted May 28, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 28, 2012 Jim Top phot looks best IMHO. Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold CovDriver Posted May 28, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 28, 2012 I've also taken the plunge of spacing out the sleepers on my concrete sleepered track on my it makes one hell of a difference but on mine I cut off all the excessive plastic on the webbing between the sleepers I just wondered if your going to do the same as it does make a significant difference to the final appearance. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread it's lloking really good so far. Colin (cov guard) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted May 28, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 28, 2012 I've also taken the plunge of spacing out the sleepers on my concrete sleepered track on my it makes one hell of a difference but on mine I cut off all the excessive plastic on the webbing between the sleepers I just wondered if your going to do the same as it does make a significant difference to the final appearance. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread it's lloking really good so far. Colin (cov guard) I did cut the webbing on the first piece of Track i did, i have put some pics in another thread i started about the tool i used in the ph designs area of the forum, agreed it does look a lot better than just cutting between the sleepers but it makes doing each length of track an hour to do Im hoping that once the ballast is in place it will disguise the fact i've not cut all the plastic off, with any luck i may be in a position to start fixing the track down this week Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted June 3, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 3, 2012 huge progress with the layout today, after a trip to demu this morning i decided to crack on with a bit of track laying, ballasting etc had a chat with pete harvey who gave me a few pointers on the track laying amongst other things, anyway, loads of pics so i'll leave those to do the talking first up i opened up the existing slots i had drilled with a hole cutter i found in the garage, it came with a set of reversing sensors i fitted to a car a while back, just the right size the next thing i did was remove a few steel sleepers and refit the track with wooden sleepers as a transision between sleepers on the back of the point then i lined up the track in readiness to ballast i put a couple of pieces of wood along side the area to be ballasted to stop overspill when i spread the pva glue (note lemmy on the young ones, bambi, on the ipad!) i glued a few sleepers down to the cork before i added the pva, 2 reasons, one being they are placed where the track joins are and the other being it helped me lining up the track once stuck to the pva the pva and ballast ready to roll i spread a thick layer of pva down.... lined the track up, he pva tub is holding the track down on the incline then i poured the ballast over the lot and let it set i used a controller and the pva tub to hold down the rack while it set once it was set i removed the wood i had put in place to stop overspill and dysoned up the excess ballast, obviously emptied the vaccum first so i could pour out and reuse the ballast its looking good already in my opinion, i've only ballasted as far the points for now though i was going to leave it there for the day but there was still a bit of light left so i carried on laying the yard too, i set out the track as i want it and marked up the point motor holes and drilled them out i also cut the track to length for each siding, can't do much more with it for now as i need to space out the sleepers on them as well as grime them up and paint the rail sides i will paint up the point rail sides tomorrow and make a start on the sleeper spacing, i dont think i'm going to lay cork in the sidings, going to be minimal ballasting too as i am going to put walkways between the lines i've also built up the 2 peco inspection pits for the shed so ive got to cut the slots out for those tomorrow as well one final bit of advise needed, i have put insulating fishplates on all the V's between the points, does it look right, the points are all electrofrog, it looks right to me, i cant see any shorts, not that i've even started thinking about the wiring yet in all a very productive day Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitbull1845 Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Blimey Jim, that is a productive day as you say. Sometimes a visit to a good show works wonders with the motivation. The wiring looks ok to me too, insulators at every V so should be fine. (famous last words) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium newbryford Posted June 3, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted June 3, 2012 Just caught up with this - looking good Jim. Standard advice when it comes to insulating gaps - don't be afraid of putting more in than you think you need. It's easier to add an extra feed wire later, rather than cutting a gap. Cheers, Mick Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted June 6, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 6, 2012 done a bit more this morning while the kids were out.... first job was to ballast in the points on the mainline, covered over the point motor holes first then i spread the glue put the points in place ballasted brushed the excess back a bit, making sure the ballast wasn't in between the blades etc i have brushed it back a bit more and made sure the point blades are able to move, just letting it set now before i go back to it later, i have also ballasted the incline too, pics to follow Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted June 27, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 27, 2012 bit more done today, never seems to look like ive done anything but the layout is pretty much ready for wiring now after a trip to trident trains in dagfields for supplies (5 seep point motors, platform edging, and a bit of plastistruct i got down to work first bit of work today was to weather up the track for the yard, used railmatch sleeper grime in an aerosol, really quick job doing it that way, was going to fire up the new iwata airbrush but decided against it in the end started with the points, covered up the switches to stop them gunging up once dry, removed the masking tape then scraped the paint off the rail top and then painted the sides rusty similarly did the same with the flexitrack, i've decided not to space out the sleepers on the rest of the track, no other reason than i just want to get trains running asap as i dont get much modelling time to sit doing the job as it is! next job was to mount the point motors in the yard, i pre wired them the other week to make it simpler when i get round to fitting the accessory decoders etc i've fixed the points down with a single pin so i can make sure the wiring is working ok before i commit to fixing permenantly and ballasting, the point motors are all fixed in place and i have cut down the pins already as a very temporary measure i have simply looped the wires from the point motors over the rails, again to make sure ive got the wiring right before soldering anything, the points are all electrofrog so i have wired the seep's to change the polarity when the points are switched, something ive not done before so its a learning curve for me! the next job is to drill holes for the droppers from the sidings and fit a bus bar below the layout then wire the lot in and see what happens! i've definatly decided that this layout is going to be purely for home use, not an exhibition layout this time so im not going to cut the track between layout sections, hopefully when i get my shed i will be able to simply remove the fiddle yard end and lift the whole lot (with help) from the garage. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardEyre Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 It might be a bit late, as I've only just stumbled across your layout, but the point on the crest of the hill looks like it might cause you problems. Have you test-run any trains over it? Other than that, all looking great. And ballasting when you glue the track down... why didn't I think of that?! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tender Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 Hi Jim. I've notice all the Bachmann Sub Terrain (seen in earlier pics) has disappeared,did you have a change of plan or has it all got covered in something? I've just been starting to use this on my spare room layout but like Richard suggests you do get a bit of a hump on the crest where it changes from the incline to flat. I was going to try to sand it down a bit before laying the track but not sure how the foam will take to this. Ray. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted June 28, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 28, 2012 It might be a bit late, as I've only just stumbled across your layout, but the point on the crest of the hill looks like it might cause you problems. Have you test-run any trains over it? Other than that, all looking great. And ballasting when you glue the track down... why didn't I think of that?! the mk3 coaches and 67 run fine over the crest of both the mainline and carriage sidings, the 165 seems to cope with it too. i fixed the track down that way after aving a chat with pete harvey, it seems to work ok but i made the mistake of not tacking the track down before i ballated, a few areas have lifted a bit so i need to reglue it, i might do the yard differently, try the traditional method this time round tender: the only bit of subterrain ive used is the hill to the sidings and the station, i switched to the wooden bases to reduce the height and inclines a bit as well as having a good base to fix the track to Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardEyre Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 Good to hear about the crest. I did wonder if it might alter the geometry of the point but it seems you've managed to keep it true. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted June 29, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted June 29, 2012 decided to have a couple of evenings doing a bit more layout work but didn't fancy sitting in the garage, last night i measured the area where i want to build the shed and drew the building footprint out on a bit piece of paper, used the measurments to work out how much plasticard i'd need to build a shed. got a few more supplies from trident trains, 5 sheets of plasticard, plastic weld and some plastistruct angle i fancied doing a shed on the lines of wembley depot basically offices on top and the shed lines running below them anyway got a bit carried away while measuring and cutting so i didn't take any photos of the build! i have basically made a shell which i will cover with wills box section here is the shell, part way through the build with a temporary cross member and missing the rear wall, the curve of the roof was done with a dinner plate for the big roof and a breakfast bowl for the small one as i dont have a set of compasses!! i then made some roof struts to replace the temporary piece and fitted a piece of plasticard across the rear of the big part of the shed to keep it square (as i under estimated the number of complete sheets i needed!) i bought a single pack of the wills sheets which i fitted to one side of the shed to see how it looks, i think it looks really good, once the whole shed is covered it should look pretty smart, just need to decide how to do the roof as you can see its a pretty big building compared to the unit and van parked inside, should look quite imposing once sat on the layout in all a very good evenings work, took about 3 hours to do Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob D2 Posted June 30, 2012 Share Posted June 30, 2012 Looking good. I like scratchbuilt sheds, give it an individual touch. I tried re spacing pecorino code 100, but keeping the sleepers at right angles was a nightmare and also as I didn't want to touch the points they looked wrong with the track Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted July 2, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted July 2, 2012 Here is the shed placed on the layout, should look good once completed, im going to cut full height windows for office area (upstairs) and add a 1/2 width floor and internal walls which will become offices, mess room etc, doing it that way will still leave me access to the tracks should any stock come off inside the shed Im going to make the roof removable on both sections as well At the rear i will add a box section "porch" linking the shed with the Hornby bridge for "pedestrian access" to the shed, i will of course continue the rear wall right up to the roof gable now i have some more plasticard As well as the above i will be adding some sort of chute exiting the shed into a skip for the swarf from the "wheel lathe" then there is stuff like guttering, a/c units etc Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted July 2, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 2, 2012 Jim Its all coming together nicely. Where does the bridge continue that goes over the exit to the fiddleyard? Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted July 2, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted July 2, 2012 it just goes into the backscene for now, but i might cut the rear board down flush with the bridge deck and add a flat board across the top as it is set forward a bit (can be seen on the first picture) then i can make a car park on there if you see what i mean the other side of the bridge will have the "porch" joining it to the shed, wembley depot has a bridge at one end going into the shed area Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold roundhouse Posted July 2, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 2, 2012 Jim Just had a look on Google maps and see what you mean! Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted July 4, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted July 4, 2012 had a couple of hours modelling time this morning so i cracked on with the wiring in the yard, may not look much but now have a fully wired (and as a bonus, working) yard area first thing i did was fit a couple of chocolate blocks below the layout to fit the bus wire into, i then stretched the wire between them, the brown one needs tightening a bit though next up i drilled the holes for the droppers and soldered them to the track, ive had to loop one of the wires on the outer siding rails from the 4ft back under the sleeper as the track is mounted right above the wooden batons as i discovered when i drilled the first hole! at the other end it was just a case of fitting a single (+) wire from the rail between the 1st of points to the rail between the furthest set of points points to power up all the stock rail, i basically soldered a length of wire between the point motor track wires on both sets of points which has worked perfectly a couple of temporary measures.... first up i attached all droppers through a choccy block and into the lenz, wanted to check it worked before i solder to the bus wire! the other end i have soldered a wire to the incline so i can run locos down the hill to clear the points testing was carried out with a class 67 and class 03, the 03 runs fantactically over all the points with no stalling what so ever, it does need running in though as bryan only finished sound chipping it for me yesterday, so pleased to get the layout running 1st time next up is wiring up the 3 way point and mainline Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted July 7, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted July 7, 2012 had 1/2hour to tinker with the layout again today, have been having a few thoughts about what i wanted to do with the backscene, wanted to do something with the bridge i have above the exit to the fiddle yard, in the end i decided to cut down the left hand side backscene level with the bridge deck, however looking at it again i decided to cut it higher so the wood could act as the retaining wall here is the backscene before cutting down and after i cut it down cutaway for the bridge bridge in place the piece i cut off the top has been used to make the roadway behind the wall leg glued in place and the road deck fitted (temporarly) in place, i recon it will become a low relief car park Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold big jim Posted July 10, 2012 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted July 10, 2012 done a bit more on the shed this evening, got a ruck of cladding from haslington models so have cracked on with that as well as cutting the big window for the office and mess room got some brick embossed plasticard which i've added to the bottom of the shed office window, clad with some bits from the wills box section pack office floor area, will add a rear wall with doors to an imaginary corridor! got to finish the rear, probably going to cut some smaller windows in the top, also got to line up the porch between the bridge and building while on the layout Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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