Dock Green

[chaz]

Three of the four baseboards are now "finished" (I'm sure a few more details and finishing touches will creep on before the Warley show).

 

Spent some time today adding weeds to the base of the railings on either side of incline. Getting close to the effect I want although I may well add a few more patches of green.

 

 

 

 

Another piece of detail, added to the oil store in the factory yard. I'm sure those taps would drip and  and the blokes would get oil on their hands and leave smears on the drums.

 

 

Chaz

[81A Oldoak]

Chaz,

You need some litter and other fly-tipped refuse to add to the unkempt appearance. This picture of Glossop station is a nice example and the scrub is inspiring too.

Chris

[chaz]

Chaz,

You need some litter and other fly-tipped refuse to add to the unkempt appearance. This picture of Glossop station is a nice example and the scrub is inspiring too.

Chris

 

Possibly, Chris. However I think that the refuse all over the track in your Glossop picture was probably donated by passengers, and there are none of those in Dock Green yard.

[81A Oldoak]

Possibly, Chris. However I think that the refuse all over the track in your Glossop picture was probably donated by passengers, and there are none of those in Dock Green yard.

Donations could come over the bridges and retaining walls and from locomotive cabs and brake vans. Litter does get everywhere.

[chaz]

Donations could come over the bridges and retaining walls and from locomotive cabs and brake vans. Litter does get everywhere.

 

That's a fair point. I will add it to the list of finishing touches...

[chaz]

Heavy metal visits Dock Green...

 

 

The picture was taken by David, one of the team, during one of the two day testing and operator training sessions we just held. One of my operators had not seen the V2 so I put it on the layout and gave it a run. It's really much too big for the layout and a most unlikely visitor to a backwater like Dock Green. The sessions showed up a number of minor faults which I will remedy over the next few weeks. My operating team also made a number of suggestions for improving the  operating which I will adopt - they naturally saw things from a different point of view to mine.

[chaz]

A bit of a hiatus...

 

The running on the first day of our two day test session was pretty bad, with frequent stalls even though the track and the loco wheels were cleaned in advance. In fact the running was much poorer than it had been at the Wimborne show - probably attributable to the ballast down-grade and particularly the subsequent painting. Indeed in places the railhead showed obvious watermarks (the ballast was painted with thinned artists' acrylics) despite the use of 2500 grit wet and dry to polish the rail. I cleaned the track again before the second day and the running improved but it was still not quite up to the standard I will accept.

So I plan to put each baseboard up in turn on to the rotating supports - this will allow easy access to the rails despite the fences, buildings etc as the angle can be set to present the section to be worked on at the ideal angle. The rails will be polished again, with particular attention being paid to the inside edge and then I will treat the top surface to a trace of graphite from a soft pencil. One of my operators has a NG 7mm layout with some very small, light motive power (Listers) and he is an advocate of this. He tells me that he hardly ever has to clean the track - the graphite is a conducting layer which mitigates the effect of dirt - possibly it reduces arcing at the wheel-to-rail contact point which is a recognised cause of problems. Apparently only a trace is required: he said "If you can see it you have put too much on."

 

As you might appreciate I would really like one more test session after all the various small jobs and the big track clean but before Warley. However this requires total occupancy of the kitchen so will have to be negotiated. Fingers crossed!

 

It may be possible to do the testing piecemeal with just pairs of boards thus...

AB & BC

BC & CD

CD & DE

...as I can set pairs of boards up in my workroom, but the DCC system is usually installed under board BC so the third combination will require a temporary lash up of the wiring.

 

Chaz

Edited August 27, 2013 by chaz

[81A Oldoak]

A bit of a hiatus...

 

The running on the first day of our two day test session was pretty bad, with frequent stalls even though the track and the loco wheels were cleaned in advance. In fact the running was much poorer than it had been at the Wimborne show - probably attributable to the ballast down-grade and particularly the subsequent painting. Indeed in places the railhead showed obvious watermarks (the ballast was painted with thinned artists' acrylics) despite the use of 2500 grit wet and dry to polish the rail. I cleaned the track again before the second day and the running improved but it was still not quite up to the standard I will accept.

So I plan to put each baseboard up in turn on to the rotating supports - this will allow easy access to the rails despite the fences, buildings etc as the angle can be set to present the section to be worked on at the ideal angle. The rails will be polished again, with particular attention being paid to the inside edge and then I will treat the top surface to a trace of graphite from a soft pencil. One of my operators has a NG 7mm layout with some very small, light motive power (Listers) and he is an advocate of this. He tells me that he hardly ever has to clean the track - the graphite is a conducting layer which mitigates the effect of dirt - possibly it reduces arcing at the wheel-to-rail contact point which is a recognised cause of problems. Apparently only a trace is required: he said "If you can see it you have put too much on."

 

As you might appreciate I would really like one more test session after all the various small jobs and the big track clean but before Warley. However this requires total occupancy of the kitchen so will have to be negotiated. Fingers crossed!

 

It may be possible to do the testing piecemeal with just pairs of boards thus...

AB & BC

BC & CD

CD & DE

...as I can set pairs of boards up in my workroom, but the DCC system is usually installed under board BC so the third combination will require a temporary lash up of the wiring.

 

Chaz

Will you be needing your man for humping the boards?

[chaz]

Will you be needing your man for humping the boards?

 

If you mean yourself Chris that's a kind offer. I will let you know. Presently I have AB up on the legs so that I can finish weathering the bridge and warehouse. Once they are suitably filthy I will clean the rails and apply the graphite. Then a few more weeds and maybe some litter!

 

Chaz

[81A Oldoak]

If you mean yourself Chris that's a kind offer. I will let you know. Presently I have AB up on the legs so that I can finish weathering the bridge and warehouse. Once they are suitably filthy I will clean the rails and apply the graphite. Then a few more weeds and maybe some litter!

 

Chaz

I'm off to Zurich on day-job business for the next couple of days. Might be able to slide over on Friday afternoon. 

[Ruston]

The rails will be polished again, with particular attention being paid to the inside edge and then I will treat the top surface to a trace of graphite from a soft pencil. One of my operators has a NG 7mm layout with some very small, light motive power (Listers) and he is an advocate of this. He tells me that he hardly ever has to clean the track - the graphite is a conducting layer which mitigates the effect of dirt - possibly it reduces arcing at the wheel-to-rail contact point which is a recognised cause of problems. Apparently only a trace is required: he said "If you can see it you have put too much on."

 

Graphite makes a huge improvement in running, IMO. It's a tip I picked up from Giles, of this forum, and I too have hardly cleaned the rail tops since using it.

Edited August 27, 2013 by Ruston

[chaz]

Graphite makes a huge improvement in running, IMO. It's a tip I picked up from Giles, of this forum, and I too have hardly cleaned the rail tops since using it.

 

Thanks for that, Ruston. It's always good to hear from someone who has experience of the thing you are about to try.

[chaz]

Mindful of comments made in earlier postings I started adding some litter to the track, cutting and tearing tiny bits of paper and sticking these to the trackbed with PVA. I used newsprint, tissue paper and brown parcel paper.

 

 

First reaction once the glue had dried was that the result was rather too obvious. I called in my artistic adviser (Sue) who said, "Hmm......it's a bit too obvious." So I got the black artist's acrylic, an old saucer to thin it out on and a small nylon paint brush.

 

 

I painted the paper fragments with a dab of well thinned paint (not much more than dirty water), varying the tone between a pale grey and almost black.

 

 

The rubbish, now toned down, looks much more acceptable. Real paper litter (there wouldn't be much in the way of plastic bags in the late fifties - most litter would be paper) would quickly get just as grubby as everything else in a working yard. Like a lot of little details I think it important that they don't shout "look at me" but just do their bit to add to the overall picture.

 

Chaz

[marc smith]

Yes, I think we don't see litter modelled enough
When looking at reality, we are so accustomed to seeing it we seem to almost "edit" it out of the scene
unless it really is heaped up, or in some beauty spot...
I find I take photos, and only spot the litter when looking at the photos on the computer screen...

However, it can also be overdone
It can pay off, just to think how the litter may have got there
Yes, it's everywhere, but often collects where an engine driver may stop, say at a signal
or where workers pause for a sneaky fag behind a shed...

Don't forget, litter is also blown against structures such as fencing,
and can collect in certain corners etc

A couple of years back, there was an interesting article in one of the mags...
If only I could find it, or recall which mag......

Marc

EDIT: I meant to add, nice work on toning it down too Chaz

Edited September 16, 2013 by marc smith

[alant]

A couple of years back, there was an interesting article in one of the mags...

If only I could find it, or recall which mag......

 

Marc

 

EDIT: I meant to add, nice work on toning it down too Chaz

It was an old MRJ Marc, I had previously sent the number to Chaz when he first mentioned litter.

[chaz]

Yes, I think we don't see litter modelled enough

When looking at reality, we are so accustomed to seeing it we seem to almost "edit" it out of the scene

unless it really is heaped up, or in some beauty spot...

I find I take photos, and only spot the litter when looking at the photos on the computer screen...

 

However, it can also be overdone

It can pay off, just to think how the litter may have got there

Yes, it's everywhere, but often collects where an engine driver may stop, say at a signal

or where workers pause for a sneaky fag behind a shed...

 

Don't forget, litter is also blown against structures such as fencing,

and can collect in certain corners etc

 

A couple of years back, there was an interesting article in one of the mags...

If only I could find it, or recall which mag......

 

Marc

 

EDIT: I meant to add, nice work on toning it down too Chaz

 

Thanks for that comment Marc. You make some useful points but I would caution against adding too much rubbish on pavements or kerb gutters. I well remember the blokes (street cleaners) who use to wheel their two-wheeled square bins around and wield a broom and pan, keeping the London streets tidy. Never seen that modelled - I wonder, anybody know of a good photo?

 

Chaz

[chaz]

I put Baseboard BC on the legs set up to rotate it. It was held at a steep angle with a couple wood stops to allow easy access to the rail tops in amongst details such as the point levers.

 

 

First step was to polish the rail tops with 2500 grade wet and dry. I made sure that the inside edge of the rail was dealt with.

 

 

I prepared a piece of thin brass by bending one edge over to form a narrow flange. This I used to protect the check raills so that the paint should be left intact. I polished the "V" of the crossings with a fibreglass pencil which made it easier to avoid taking the paint off the wing rails.

 

 

Once I had polished all the running rails on the board I added some graphite. I used a 3B grade Caran d'Ache "GrafCube" which I bought in a local art-materials shop. I think any soft graphite pencil would do. The "GrafCube" is 9 x 10mm in cross-section and a groove soon forms in the end making it very easy to keep it on the rail top.

 

 

 

Incidentally the ballast in the photographs looks a lot shinier than it does to the eye. It's a result of the acrylic paint I used to colour the sand that I added to downgrade the ballast. A friend commented that it looks like it has been raining. It's tempting to add some puddles to exploit the effect. A possible addition for the future?

Edited September 17, 2013 by chaz

[hartleymartin]

Have you thought about coating the heads of the rails with graphite?

 

Basically, the graphite gives the Nickel-Silver a colour more closely resembling steel, and prevents dirt from sticking to the track. It will also coat the wheels of your locomotives and rolling stock. A 6B or 9B artist's graphite pencil is all you need to do it.

[chaz]

Have you thought about coating the heads of the rails with graphite?

 

Basically, the graphite gives the Nickel-Silver a colour more closely resembling steel, and prevents dirt from sticking to the track. It will also coat the wheels of your locomotives and rolling stock. A 6B or 9B artist's graphite pencil is all you need to do it.

 

Yes I did. Have a look at my posting #871 above!

 

However I'm told that just a trace is best, especially if you have any gradients on the layout - graphite is a very good lubricant.

Edited September 17, 2013 by chaz

[chaz]

A squalid little corner.....

 

 

"Must 'ave a word with 'Arry. This place is a dump."

 

 

"Maybe not, he'd just give me a ******* broom."

 

 

"OK, time to go home."

[81A Oldoak]

A squalid little corner.....

 

 

"Must 'ave a word with 'Arry. This place is a dump."

 

 

"Maybe not, he'd just give me a ******* broom."

 

 

"OK, time to go home."

Very nice squalor and lots of opportunity for oxymorons. Perhaps a small, rusty and dented oil can would add a little colour.

[greenglade]

loving your work chaz....fantastic attention to detail.... great stuff..

 

Pete

[Giles]

Interestingly, I just put loads of graphite on - as I did on 'The Loop' which had a savage curve on a gradient - though admittedly only ever with four trucks and a loco. i never had any slippage problems. Of course it may be very different climbing a bank with 'twelve on'.

 

When laying track now, I always polish it with 'Duraglit' silver polish (or similar) which gets rid on any manufacturing c##p and any teeny scratches in the surface where dirt can hide and build up in the future. A treatment of graphite then makes it next-best thing to maintenance-free. I now try to avoid anything remotely more abrasive than polish if I can possibly help it, and by and large it seems to work quite well.

 

Incidentally, it is soooo nice to see wing rails and check rails rusty....!

[chaz]

Very nice squalor and lots of opportunity for oxymorons. Perhaps a small, rusty and dented oil can would add a little colour.

 

Now, stop it, Mr Klein! That's quite enough.  

 

Seriously though, the opportunity is there in the 16 x 2 feet of Dock Green to add lots of little touches and I'm sure that this will happen from time to time. However I will always bear in mind the need to avoid a cluttered look. I might even be able to find a place for the legendary Ixion bucket (maybe on a hook on the side the hut)....

 

Chaz

[chaz]

loving your work chaz....fantastic attention to detail.... great stuff..

 

Pete

 

Thank you, Pete for your most encouraging comment. Appreciated!