Stockrington - Mojo ignited. Thanks, Heljan!

[jukebox]

With the scrapping road tracks almost ballasted, I needed something to stop trains running off the end of those tracks.

 

Buffers.  That'd do it.

 

 

Thanks to Dave Franks at Lanarkshire Model & Supplies, a little more than a week after I ordered them, some very nice NER buffers are now waiting my attention, having winged their way halfway around the globe from Glasgow.

 

He sells other religions too, besides NER - highly recommended!

Edited July 28, 2017 by jukebox

[jukebox]

So I had a great idea; when undertaking ballasting, I need consistency with my materials, as it's done piecemeal, but needs to look continuous.  The PVA is an issue, as I've just been diluting 15ml at a time in the squeeze bottle - so I decided to make up a layout sized batch of diluted PVA.  One Schweppes Dry Ginger bottle later, I've ~500ml of premixed PVA ready to decant into the squeeze bottle as I go:

 

 

So I'm starting with the avoiding lines.  The logic is, if things dont go as planned, these will be hidden behind Stockrington station in the most part.  I used the exif data from the photos to track how long this process was taking.

 

 

10:34am  Start by leaning in and filling the back cribs:

 

 

10:45am The run a bead of glue down the far edge to part the foot of the ballast (this is in place of using masking tape)

 

 

10:53am  Then spoon on the ballast:

 

 

10:55   I use a spatula, run along the rail to, to ensure the ballast has fallen back into the cribs behind the rail.

 

 

By 11am, I knew something wasn't quite right.  I could see the PVA is wicking up in the ballast - as it had with some of my test sections.

 

I had been leaving the coffee ballast overnight to set, as the vacuum has been lifting the glue when I tried to remove the loose ballast too early.  But I knew if I did that with this lot, I'd be left with a real mess.  So I bit the bullet and tried to vacuum as much up as I could.

 

 

I won't know how bad it is until it dries tomorrow, but the glue mix is not right and I need to solve that issue.  So I've made myself some more test sections to go back and retry with the bulk batch of glue.

 

What I need to end up with before I continue, is batch of glue of the correct consistency, large enough to ballast the whole layout.  I suspect this batch may be too watery for the stone ballast, which is quite dense, and it's sinking in and displacing the PVA upward, flooding the crib higher than it did with the coffee...  Or is it not watery enough, and so too much glue is sitting in the crib before I spoon the ballast on?

 

And how will this compare when I try and use the Woodland scenics blends....

 

I have some work to do!

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[jukebox]

So my ballasting day was shot.

 

Let's do a buffer tutorial, instead.

 

Start with a box of NE buffer parts from Lanarkshire Models & Supplies:

 

 

You'll need to get the five parts ready to use - yes, they are handed, so pick the correct ones.  These castings are nice and clean, and just need a little fettling with a small file to remove the casting burrs.  Some spare sleeper strips will come in handy to set the spacing for the buffer.

 

 

Start by soldering the brackets to the insides of the sides.  The instructions suggest glue, and to be honest, you need a brass pair to do these using low melt, because they are very fine and there is no room for error.

 

I used some butterfly clips to position the sides, then generously fluxed the place where I wanted the low melt to run.

 

 

The clips act as a stand as well, so I would look through the loupe on my anglepoise, and get in and out quickly.

 

 

Getting the cross bar/buffer in a place I could solder it was not simple.  I tried using the clips, and managed to get it into a position where I could flux and solder. 

 

 

I did one side, then saw I'd soldered the buffer on the wrong way - the pads face outward.  I had read the instruction.  Dave is explicit about getting them right.  I just forgot.

 

 

To be honest, at this point it was just as easy to hold the buffer, so I re-fluxed, used a little heat to liquify the joint, and it let go.

 

I turned the buffer around, and soldered it on the right way.

 

 

Dave suggests using paper and epoxy to glue the buffer on so as to avoid a short circuit, but I had a different approach.  I'll leave this assembly gapped from the powered track, but I cut one of the white metal cast rails, so any stock coming to the buffer will not make a circuit with the left and right hand rails at the same time.

 

 

Nice additions - and if you're not confident of soldering, glueing will work just as well.

 

I only need two right now, but I'll batch build the other four shortly and then paint them all at once, so they are done and ready to plant.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

Edited August 1, 2017 by jukebox

[Sasquatch]

Am interested to see these painted mate. Clever idea staggering the rail breaks!

 

Regards Shaun

[jukebox]

So the buffers got batch built.

 

I had a touch too much bravado, and did damage two of them soldering the buffer beam onto the supports.

 

The solution was to salvage the parts from both and *very* carefully solder them together to make one complete buffer; the remaining one, I built using the "alternate" buffer LMS provide - representing a large wooden buffer beam.  I'll site this one at the end of the coaling stage track.

 

Here's the five in primer.

 

 

After I took this photo, I realised I'd muffed up two of them by soldering the wrong sides on - the 2nd and 4th from the left do not have opposite pairs (look at the crank on the vertical support columns). So I carefully unsoldered the errant sides and swapped them.

 

I've given them a first coat of paint - I need to patch a few spots, and also give them a weathering wash to bring out all the bolt detail that can't been seen under the flat colours.

 

 

I'll plant the first two on the layout later this week.

 

***

 

The ballasting of the avoiding lines is progressing - I sorted out how to get the stone ballast glued down properly - but I'll wait till I have enough done to take some photos.  It's not the most riveting of photographic subjects.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

Edited August 6, 2017 by jukebox

[jukebox]

Hmmm... has been a little while since I last updated.

 

To be honest, I didn't do a lot in August - lost my mojo down the back of the couch, and mass ballasting wasn't the thing to bring it back.

 

I did plant the buffers - here's how they look:

 

 

 

Nice one, LMS Dave!

 

Cheers

 

Scott

Edited September 30, 2017 by jukebox

[kandc_au]

Hmmm... has been a little while since I last updated.

 

To be honest, I didn't do a lot in August - lost my mojo down the back of the couch, and mass ballasting wasn't the thing to bring it back.

 

Scott,

What you do is turn the couch over, pull the staples out of calico, and then pull your mojo out then restaple calico!

 

Khris

[jukebox]

I did eventually get back into the ballasting.

 

As I always knew, it was going to be a brain numbing task - and the only real way to tackle it is regular, short sessions.  Too long and the tedium builds - esp as I have about 60 track metres to ballast.

 

Not much to say about the plain track, so I'll let the pictures tell the story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the avoiding lines are done, the platform tracks done, half the Eastern mainline is done, and I'm working on the junctions at the east and west station approaches.

 

This involves ballasting six turnouts at each end, and it was here that I faced the dilemma of marrying in ballasting thick sleepered Peco turnouts with ballasting thin sleepered C+L flex track...

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[Kelly]

The buffers look great. Nice ballast work too.

[jcredfer]

Amazing how the Balast makes such a difference to the look of the layout.  It may not be over exciting to do and easy to overlook as it such a ubiquitous feature, but the effect is quite dramatic.

 

 

- I sorted out how to get the stone ballast glued down properly - but I'll wait till I have enough done to take some photos.  It's not the most riveting of photographic subjects.

I confess to a moment's concern about your method there.    ...... 

 

Kind regards

 

J

[davefrk]

Hi Scott, the railway is really coming on, like what you've done with the bufferstops and thanks for writing it up for others to see.

I'm at the same stage with my layout Wharfeside, the ballasting is tedious but doing a couple of feet of double track every few days will get it done - eventually.

 

Hope you can hold onto your mojo, it is important for one's mental state or so I'm told.

 

All the best,

 

Dave Franks.

[runs as required]

You're absolutely right !

Those lovely sweeping ballasted curves speak for themselves.

dh

[jukebox]

...so about those turnouts.

 

Once I had the station tracks ballasted, I needed to tackle the turnouts.  I knew from the work Gordon has done on Eastwood Town that the extra thickness of Peco sleepers would be an issue.  When I tried ballasting the same way as straight track, the PVA shrinks as the water evaporates, and leaves the cribs with cavities - sometimes tidy, mini canyons, other times like rabbit holes.

 

 

 

I was patch-filling these, and whilst the results are acceptable, they aren't great, so I needed to find a better way.

 

I had some areas on my baseboards where the joins in the foam trackbed had gaps, and I was using PVA to fill these.

 

I noticed that this had a quite handy side effect - the PVA dried in a meniscus,taking the hard edge off the join, and when I then re-ballasted over it, this all but disappeared.

 

That gave me an idea...

 

Scott

[jukebox]

I thought I would experiment, by filling the cribs in a turnout, but not ballasting it, and instead letting it dry.

 

The PVA would flow in and under the sleepers, but most would remain, and then I could come back the next day, refill the cribs to the top again, and ballast as normal.

 

 

Here's the West junction underway.  I left the area around the blades clear - this is one place I am happy to have the ballast sitting low in the cribs.

 

After it dries, this is what it looks like:

 

 

(continuity alert: the rest of the photos are from the East junction, that I worked on this weekend)

 

This is where the needle bottle applicator come into it's own

 

 

Using a thick PVA mix, I refill the side cribs. Then I run a bead along the sleeper ends

 

This is viscous enough to stay put, while I quickly fill the six foot with a thin layer of glue.

 

It's hard to photograph because it is all gloss white, but other than the 5mm or so off the sleeper ends, the glue is in a very thin layer - the curves it forms as it self levels are very natural, but you need to work quickly, or the glue will level out from between the cribs

 

 

As soon as I have done gluing, I sprinkle a layer of ballast over the top

 

 

Once the ballast is down, I immediately vacuum up the excess, collecting the waste with a stocking for re-use

 

 

Here it is immediately after application.  It *does* shrink a little more - but not enough to spoil the effect.

 

Here's the thin-thick sleeper transition close up

 

 

There is a slightly visible PVA meniscus remnant you can see under the rails to the right - it's a glossy patch that I will try dusting with matt varnish to make less prominent.

 

For the ballast under the point blades, I *very* carefully used the needle point to apply a thin layer of glue in those cribs; they sit noticeably lower, and well clear of the moving parts, and look the part.

 

And the sequence once more, on the edge of the turnout:

 

 

 

 

The end result - a nice and tidy double junction

 

 

 

This is a complicated area; there are three different ballast colours coming together here.  Part of the fun was blending them in onto wet glue.

 

They do change tone appreciably as the glue dries - especially the real stone used on the avoiding lines, which goes quite dark - but I'm confident the end result will look pleasing when it's fully dry after a few days.

 

It's been a big push to get this junction done across the weekend.  I'll target the western junction next weekend.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

Edited October 1, 2017 by jukebox

[jukebox]

Sunday night here down under, and it's been a productive weekend.

 

East Junction

 

Stockrington Station

 

 

West Junction

 

 

Not much to say, really - it's ballasting.  I have used a series of different mixes of ballast, to try and suggest differing grades of track - some of the colour differences are quite subtle, but the camera has picked them up.

 

 

 

 

 

It's a great feeling to have broken the back of the ballasting.

 

I'd guess I am more than halfway now, and have about 10m of double track mainline to do.

 

That should be about a fortnight of on-off evenings, faster if I push.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[jukebox]

Nope, I didn't push.

 

It didn't take long, once I got back into it, but the mainline was only finished last weekend.  To be honest, I'll be glad not to see any more ballasting for quite some time.

 

I have a small section of the loco arrival road to do - which I started today:

 

To put this in context, the plywood on the floor to the right will need to be lifted up, and this is where Northmoor MPD will be -  but I need to complete the scenic works at the back, as once the board goes on, my reach will be limited.

 

So I've given these three turnouts the infill treatment, and shall return to them in a day or so.

 

Around the rest of the layout, there are some "corrections" to do to the ballast.

 

These are mainly in the areas of the lighter Woodland Scenics product, where any light coverage shows the trackbed underneath:

 

There are also some areas around the bridge, where I had gaps in the trackbed, and the glue has settled leaving empty cribs:

 

I'll get to these as a break in some of my other activities, which may or may not include terraforming...

 

 

Cheers

 

Scott

Edited November 4, 2017 by jukebox

[jukebox]

With a bit of a tailwind knowing I wasn't ballasting, I set to playing around with some heavy corrugated card formers and styrofoam to start roughing out contours.

 

It dawned on me some time ago that my "0.0" datum at the river was about 15mm below water level; to try and make that up with plaster would be horrendously expensive and time consuming.

 

Luckily, a friend furnished me with a large volume of styrofoam sheets, and so I've made a start on laying out the immediate riverbank and nearby floodplain levels.

 

Whilst my plan is to do all the area behind the tracks first, I wanted to do the whole river area as one, so I can keep continuity.

 

In progress:

 

Paused tonight to contemplate what it looks like:

 

I'l still need to flow plaster in, around, and under, the bridge, but the bulk now can just be plaster dipped cloth.

 

I will have to have a look at the water options... but the Woodland Scenics brew that gets melted in a pan seems to suit my needs.

 

But that won't happen till the bulk of the hills and fields around are formed.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

Edited November 6, 2017 by jukebox

[Brian D]

Hi Scott - great stuff, it is really coming on now.

Re your comment "I will have to have a look at the water options... but the Woodland Scenics brew that gets melted in a pan seems to suit my needs" - that is the stuff I used.  It's fine but beware, the area you pour it into has to be perfectly flat and non porous/contained otherwise the "hot stuff" will escape!

Regards,

Brian.

[jukebox]

Hi Scott - great stuff, it is really coming on now.

Re your comment "I will have to have a look at the water options... but the Woodland Scenics brew that gets melted in a pan seems to suit my needs" - that is the stuff I used.  It's fine but beware, the area you pour it into has to be perfectly flat and non porous/contained otherwise the "hot stuff" will escape!

Regards,

Brian.

 

Thanks Brian.

 

I had a revisit of the Woodlands page - after reading some comments I started to think about about just how hard it might be to transport the hot liquid from the nearest stove up the stairs, under the lift up, across the room, and then try and get it in the right spot...  luckily, they have a new product that is a two part polymer of some sort - and it can be tinted.  So that may be the first choice to play with.  But yes, as you mention, a watertight watercourse will be essential. 

[jukebox]

Armed with a staple gun and a roll of chicken wire, I've been starting out terraforming.

 

It's been an interesting process - I have always been aware I'd need to think and plan this part carefully, as I have a long way from front of layout to back of baseboard, and my reach is not infinite.

 

So the way forward is to do as much on the far (back) side of the tracks, the whole way around the room, then come back and complete the foreground.

 

So we have half a cutting:

 

 

The off side of an embankment

 

 

another embankment

 

 

This is a late addition - a cut away eventually for a signal box at Stockrington West Junction - plus you can see how I will create a visual break to disguise the down ramp to the storage yard.

 

 

The embankment above the MPD, where there will be a row of low relief terrace houses

 

 

This corner was interesting; I'd always envisaged it being lower than the track, and the trains running around an embankment onto the big bridge.  But I had a moment of clarity today: the low relief terrace houses need to lead to some full 3D terrace houses in this corner, to give it a stronger sense of grimy NE living - think Easington - So I've carved up some styrofoam to build the area up, and need to populate this with some Scalescenes buildings.

 

 

This makes more sense geographically, too - the embankment just keeps wrapping around the corner

 

 

This will get a layer of chicken wire and plaster cloth cover in the short term.  I'll just make it flat, and build over the top - possibly off layout and plonk into place.

 

Last Road To Damascus moment was when I looked at the slope going down to the storage sidings - too steep - so I can see I'll need a 45mm high retaining wall along here. I'll attach those pine timbers and stick a pre painted plasticard laminate over the top.

 

 

And yes, those turnouts are now ballasted - phew! - so it's just the corrections to do on that count.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

[David Todd]

Can't find your % s of dilution of your PVA bottle.

[jukebox]

Can't find your % s of dilution of your PVA bottle.

 

It depends on the type of ballast, dt;  the Woodlands Scenics stuff, which I understand is dyed crushed walnut husks, is light, and so I was diluting it by about 3:2 (3 parts PVA, 2 parts water) and it worked fine.  The coffee grounds were the same - they tended to "float" on the PVA as it set.

 

When I went to lay the Chucks/Matts ballast, it is actually crushed stone, so a lot denser - the first section I did on the back of the avoiding lines, sank into the PVA, so I was left with ponding PVA on the surface as capillary action wicked it into the ballast.  To combat that, I dropped the water back to 1:9, and the PVA didn't wick anywhere near as much, so it dried looking "loose".  It was, however harder to use - with less water, it didn't flow as freely of course, so was less self-levelling and self-spreading.

 

I have a 1L bottle that I'd diluted 3:2, and was filling the needle applicator bottles from that...  By the time I'd gotten half way, I was able to judge the thickness pretty well, so would part-fill the applicator with the dilute mix, then top it up with neat to get a thicker batch for the stone ballast.

 

 

The PVA I use here is the leading brand stuff, Selleys "Aquadhere", in a 4L bulk bottle.  I have to say I was surprised how watery it seems even in its neat form; as a kid I always found PVA a lot thicker...

Edited November 19, 2017 by jukebox

[danstercivicman]

Great work!

[jukebox]

Progress update: last weekend I sliced up 5 sheets of Slaters stone plasticard, and stagger-notched them to disguise the join in the courses, and stuck them to the pine lengths.

 

The problem was, even one length, at 1200mm is hard to manage to laminate, harder still to fill, file, and paint.  Glueing them into one looooooooong length was out of the question.   So I overlapped the stone sheets, and set them up so they could be mated on the layout.

 

 

I also topped the wall with oversized 0.5mm plasticard paving stones.

 

 

Then I set to painting them, starting with a battleship grey acrylic to give me coverage, then blending in a variety of tones, being careful to paint both sides of the join at the same time, so they matched.

 

 

I brought the pieces together on the layout, and filled, sanded and painted the last gap in situ:

 

 

There's 9 joins along the wall, and I'm really pleased how closely you have to look to spot any of them.

 

I also added a short return to the wall, to box in the storage sidings.  You can see in this last shot, I've just used filler on this last corner, and will need to sand it down and paint it once it dries.

 

 

With the wall out of the way, I can continue working around the layout, setting out the chicken wire skeleton.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

Edited November 24, 2017 by jukebox

[jukebox]

Apologies for the hiatus - life has rather gotten in the way of hobbies as the year drew to a close.

 

I had three major closures to manage over October to December, which kept me away from Stockrington, but did let me get some lovely shots like these:

 

 

 

 

 

I had a clean up around the layout, as I want to complete the chicken wire skeleton all the way around, then move into plastering - not have to "swap trades" every few days.  I've bought a few extra lengths of pine and will make the frame for the large hill in the North East corner, hopefully this coming weekend.

 

I have two weeks annual leave starting from Friday, and so that should hopefully see a nice push into new territory.

 

Cheers

 

Scott

Edited December 23, 2017 by jukebox