Laundry Lane

[stevegant]

Finally solved the mystery of my second hand Hornby 121 that would not run on DCC.  Upon close examination the 8 pin socket had solder tracks that were bridged on the underside.  Removed the socket and all the wiring and hard wired a decoder in.  Just need to look at fitting lights now.  It's actually not a bad runner (not in the same league as a Bachmann 108) but considering the price (second hand at a show) I am happy. Having removed the huge couplers I may now turn this into a little detailing project.

 

 

Then decided to find something to fill the empty billboard that's been sitting in the corner of the layout for a while :

[bobster]

Nice weathering on those wagons - Great layout, look forward to more.

[Pete 75C]

Don't know how I missed this one... looks absolutely terrific.

[class37418stag]

I know layout is 10 feet x 7 feet but how far of width layout

[stevegant]

I know layout is 10 feet x 7 feet but how far of width layout

 

The layout varies in width on various sections.  Anything from 2 foot deep down to about 16 inches at the narrowest point.

[ess1uk]

any recent photos?

[stevegant]

Well, it's been a while but in recent times I have started to get back into the modelling.

 

My office block had always looked empty and I had never added lighting as that would have highlighted the empty shell.  So, I managed to produce some strips to represent an office interior in the late 1980's (ish!).  This was made from a number of images flipped to create these strips that were assembled into Excel.  Yes, in Excel which made it easy to drag the individual images around:

 

 

 

Once printed these were attached to some backing card and then placed behind the windows in the building.

 

 

Some lighting was put together.

 

 

The pictures aren't the best (quite difficult to photograph this) but gives an idea of the overall impression and it looks better than an empty shell!

 

 

 

[stevegant]

I have also been busy with some small additions ......

 

[stevegant]

And finally, nice addition to the wall of the room ......

[stevegant]

After 10 years I decided that it was time for a small extension to Laundry Lane.  My plan was for a couple of extra sidings for my Railtrack class 121 and Windhoff.  The sidings can also be used for my engineers wagons etc.  The extra board would only be 15cm wide as the middle of the room is used for storage when we decorate other bedrooms.  At the back of my mind had been the fact that one of the point motors would need to be surface mounted and being at the front of the layout I really did not want this to be too obvious.  I decided to do a quick and dirty test of mounting a Gaugemaster surface mount motor upside down and partially embedded. 

 It’s not pretty but it works fine and brings it almost flush with the sleepers.

[stevegant]

Having satisfied myself that I was good to go I then removed a section of track ready for the first new point (no going back now!)

[stevegant]

As I operate live frogs I needed to supplement the surface mount motor with a juicer to control the frog polarity.  All wired up and quickly tested.

[stevegant]

Then off outside to build the small section of baseboard.

[stevegant]

I’m not a carpenter but eventually did a reasonably neat job of cutting a recess out of the board for the surface mount point motor.  As the boards are 12mm ply it was just about possible to chisel through about 6mm layers of ply.

Edited August 31, 2021 by stevegant
typo !

[stevegant]

Then inside for a test fit of the new board section.

[stevegant]

Point motor starting to be blended in to the landscape.  A small former made and covered with plaster bandage.

[stevegant]

 

Some work then commenced on the hard standing. This is made from some off-cuts of Karndean flooring turned upside down.  The slight texture on the back was partially sanded before building up some layers of paint.  This will need final weathering once installed but won’t be fixed down until the ballast is done.  (I’ve also just fixed the slightly bent rail joiner that I spotted in this photo!).

[stevegant]

And how things look at the moment. (The yellow Armco barrier is just a mock-up and will be replaced with something to scale!)

 

 

[stevegant]

Well, a couple of months down the line and things are progressing well with the scenics on the small extension.......... 

[stevegant]

... and a slightly more distant shot..... 

[stevegant]

For the last 10 years or so the lifting section of my layout looked like this.  In the back of my mind, I had always felt that any trains passing over were a little vulnerable.

[stevegant]

 

Work has started on adding a wall to provide a safety net.

 

 

[stevegant]

Over the last few evenings, I have started to work on some Bachmann SSA’s that I have had for about 10 years. Having looked at many pictures on-line I decided it was time to make them look somewhat more used and abused.  I want to run these as a small empty rake so wanted to create the effect of rust inside as well as to the exterior.  Thiis was completed with powders and a touch of hairspray (borrowed from the wife – don’t tell her!)

 

 

 

[sb67]

Great work @stevegant how did you get them looking like that, did you mix the powders with the hairspray?

[stevegant]

25 minutes ago, sb67 said:

Great work @stevegant how did you get them looking like that, did you mix the powders with the hairspray?

Thank you!.  Well it was a bit of trial and error. I basically sprayed some hairspray liberally onto an old metal baking tray. I then dropped on some light and dark rust powders onto the tray and mixed it aroud. Was applied to the models with a mixture of cotton buds a cocktail stick and a fine brush.  When dry I put some neat hairspray on a brush and went over the weathering to blend.  When fully dry I used a fibre glass pencil to remove some of the powder.    I was a bit worried that the powder may not stay put but the extra hold hairspray has done a good job and seems to have fixed the powders well.  Hope this help. I'm no expert but this approach seems to have done the trick!