Colin parks Posted February 13, 2010 Author Share Posted February 13, 2010 Thanks to Karabuni and Simon, Re. bindweed on fences: I've already started adding it, but was not really prominent in any pictures. Well here's some, a modest little bit and in focus - nearly (the banana vans were meant to be the subject). There are other patches and I shall try not to 'overdo it' Old Lugger, but with twenty feet of fencing it would be hard to! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
7APT7 Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 Hi Mate The fencing does look great... Who is that manufactured by...? Is it Wills...? Looks great with the Metal Drums...! Regards Jamie PS: Keep the photos coming... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Del Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 A couple of links: Brighton, Rottingdean, Newhaven Direct Railway (1880s) - plans in E. Sux record office. a proposed line that would have left the Kemp Town branch near the tunnel mouth and joined the Newhaven Branch near Piddinghoe, incorrectly described as running "west" from Kemp Town. BRNDR (Note: plans are not shown online) A place to start for someone planning an "if it had been built" layout. Somewhere I have those maps for the BRNDR, as I used to live and work in Peacheaven. A very hilly route! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin parks Posted February 14, 2010 Author Share Posted February 14, 2010 Hi Mate The fencing does look great... Who is that manufactured by...? Is it Wills...? Looks great with the Metal Drums...! Regards Jamie PS: Keep the photos coming... Hi Jamie, The fencing is a Ratio product. All the parts were air-brush painted before installing (including the netting). I used grey thread for the'barbed-wire'. The barrels are all turned brass - it adds a bit of weight to the baseboard but they're definitely round! Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin parks Posted February 16, 2010 Author Share Posted February 16, 2010 Yes we're still there. Every Tuesday 7.30 pm onwards. Feel free to come and say hello! Hi Alex, I somehow missed seeing your post! I might take you up on the offer to come along to the club one Tueday evening. I live in Mid-Wales, so I don't know when it will be. In my days at the club in the late 70's I was in the junior section which had a room up the platform east of the main station building. In those days there were quite a few of us engaged on an N gauge layout. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest oldlugger Posted March 1, 2010 Share Posted March 1, 2010 Hello Colin, Any more news about your layout? I know you're away from Wales at present, but when you get back it would be very nice to hear how you're getting on, especially with the vegetation. All the best Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin parks Posted March 3, 2010 Author Share Posted March 3, 2010 These photos show a few odds and ends that I have been busy dealing with. The class 73, now devoid of headlights, is passing the new swathe of willow herb. The curved end of the layout now has grass, bushes and other vegetation along the back edge. This softens the join with the pale blue back drop. The telephone box has been changed for a K8 type, I wish the lettering was better! The barrows and seats are also complete, giving a little more BR(S) flavour. Tonight I shall be filling a scratch-built rubbish skip with a load to place in the station yard. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin parks Posted March 4, 2010 Author Share Posted March 4, 2010 Hello Colin, The Willow Herb looks perfect! The 'phone box looks good too (was this scratch built?). All the best Simon Hi Simon, The phone box was beyond my skills to scratch-build! It came from Shire Scenes and is an etched kit (a bit tricky to fold up, but makes a nice little model). Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin parks Posted March 6, 2010 Author Share Posted March 6, 2010 A few platform details, ready to install. The barrows and seat are Shire Scenes etchings. The seat can be compared to the one pictured on page 3 of this topic - a bit of a fiddle to make but worth it I think. I apologise for the 'fish-eye' look of this shot. I've worked out the focus function on the camera but the lens is too large for real close-ups. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted March 6, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 6, 2010 I apologise for the 'fish-eye' look of this shot. I've worked out the focus function on the camera but the lens is too large for real close-ups. No fish-eye this - and no apology needed, either! All you have here are diverging verticals - the eternal penalty of being forced to point the camera down to obtain the necessary view. This is the opposite of the effect we all get when snapping a tall building - it appears to be falling over backwards, because we point the camera up, so the verticals converge! Only a very specialist camera with a moveable back, or a DSLR with a tilt or shift lens could avoid what you have here. As for the content of the shot, Colin, you don't need me to tell you it's super attention to detail, as usual! Well done! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin parks Posted April 21, 2010 Author Share Posted April 21, 2010 Well, it has been a long time since I have any pictures to post: The 2 BIL is now repainted in a lighter shade of green! At first it seemed too light, but since weathering the finish down it looks like the right sort of colour. Huge amounts of humble pie have been eaten re. original colouring of this unit!!!!!!! In the hazy distance is a Mermaid wagon which has had its load replaced with a fresh ballast load - the first lot went green. I suspect that either the PVA glue or the Fairy Liquid caused this effect, but fair play it did take 25 years! Other (mundane) changes on the layout include changing all the Grampus' tie-bars for metal ones as the plastic had distorted - a bit tedious, but definitely worth the effort. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Evil Bus Driver Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 Hi Alex, I somehow missed seeing your post! I might take you up on the offer to come along to the club one Tueday evening. I live in Mid-Wales, so I don't know when it will be. In my days at the club in the late 70's I was in the junior section which had a room up the platform east of the main station building. In those days there were quite a few of us engaged on an N gauge layout. Colin Heh not much change then, the hut's still there. They've refurbished the station building too. There are at least 3 layouts on the go at the moment. An irony for you, I went through Newhaven yesterday with a number 12 (ex 712) bus... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackrob Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 The telephone box has been changed for a K8 type, I wish the lettering was better! Looking great! Although if you want better lettering you could invest 20 quid in a program called supercal for your computer. It enables you to make your own water-slide transfers. But it'd probably take a bit of time. Then again, you could use it for anything. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin parks Posted April 22, 2010 Author Share Posted April 22, 2010 Heh not much change then, the hut's still there. They've refurbished the station building too. There are at least 3 layouts on the go at the moment. An irony for you, I went through Newhaven yesterday with a number 12 (ex 712) bus... I just might get there to a club night one day. I was down in the area two weeks ago, but didn't make it to Brighton at all! Even more ironic is that the bus through Newhaven was a 12. It seems to have gone from 12 to 712 and back again in the thirty-five years since I left. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin parks Posted April 22, 2010 Author Share Posted April 22, 2010 Looking great! Although if you want better lettering you could invest 20 quid in a program called supercal for your computer. It enables you to make your own water-slide transfers. But it'd probably take a bit of time. Then again, you could use it for anything. Hi jackrob, Thanks for the tip about lettering for the phone box. I have had some text for it from artwork sent by my brother since the posted picture The box looks tidier now with the word' telephone' printed on thin paper then carefully cut out and stuck on. I seem to have spent most of the year so far changing things like this on the layout that weren't up to scratch. Digital photography picks up every imperfection. I like the idea of making waterslide transfers though, I shall look in to that. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin parks Posted April 24, 2010 Author Share Posted April 24, 2010 This 'warts and all' shot shows the traverser on the layout, taken at Aberaeron show in 2009. I had forgotten about taking it! Also in view are two cassettes these can be placed either in front of or behind the traverser deck, which can be moved to clear the front or back line. This allows for a ballast train to arrive with loaded spoil wagons at the back and later re-appear coming back out the front, in an anti-clockwise direction. Since this picture was taken, adapted door bolts to align and locate the tracks/cassettes have been added. The other trains and EMUs go backwards and forwards onto the traverser. The trusty 2HAP is on track one, waiting for the 'off' to the station. As can be seen, the tracks curve round at 90 degrees towards the station area. If I had the space, and with hindsight, it would have been better to have fixed sections of track at both ends of the traverser and not just at the end nearest the camera (out of sight from this angle). The way things are now, several light engine movements into the station yard are needed to release locos from their trains in the fiddle yard. The cassettes themselves, when needed, rest on the tops of the drawer runners which guide the traverser. The drawer runners are wired up to the track with one being positive and the other negative. At each end of the cassette there is a phosphor-bronze contact underneath, wired to the track on the cassette in such a way that the polarity always agrees with the rest of the layout. The cassette becomes energised when put in position. We have never dropped one of these cassettes (yet)! An operating sequence has been devised which takes an hour for two operators to complete all train movements. This involves empty and full ballast trains, a banana van train and a spuriously composed train of Dogfish and a Shark ballast plough brake which I don't think would have been used on third rail sections. The beauty of running EMUs for the passenger services is that there is no uncoupling and running around to worry about, leaving time for shunting wagons about! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianwales Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 Hi Colin It has been a while since we heard from you, any more updates on Newhaven? Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin parks Posted September 24, 2010 Author Share Posted September 24, 2010 Hi Colin It has been a while since we heard from you, any more updates on Newhaven? Ian Hi Ian, Yes it has been along time! Well, since my last post in April I have been embroiled with the building of a Bulleid 2HAP - as you might have seen in the 'Kitbuilding and Scratchbuilding' section section of RMweb. That took all the spare time I had from May until July, but was very enjoyable. Having made the 2HAP, I now have a unit exactly right for the period of the layout. ('At long last' - some might say!) In June the layout was photographed for an article due to appear in the Railway Modeller early in the New Year. Steve Flint took plenty of photos, which I have 'captioned' already. I also had to write an article for publication of course. Since then I have had my workshop roof rebuilt - with generous funding from the EU - via the Welsh Assembly! This meant that the layout was temporarily homeless, so it has been stored in my mother-in-laws' guest room for the past two months. The building work is now complete (hooray!), so I am back at work (boo!). This weekend, coincidentally with your enquiry, am going to start work on new supports for the baseboards. Despite having a lot more space in the upstairs loft space, the layout still doesn't all fit in -unless I lay it just 12" off the floor! So the end board (as in the one nearest the camera in the very first post) can only be added when the layout is at an exhibition or if I hire a room at the local village hall. Not the best situation, but it will encourage me to take the thing on the road more often! I have also been invited to attend a (scarily) large exhibition next March, so all efforts will be made to get the whole layout back together somewhere and make sure everything still works. A new running sequence (or timetable, if you prefer) has to be devised to take account of the fact that there are going to be at least four EMUs available. Anyway, thanks for your continued interest Ian, I'll post any further news as and when. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin parks Posted October 22, 2010 Author Share Posted October 22, 2010 Hi there, Just a short message at short notice to say that the layout will be at the Carmarthen 0 Gauge Group show tomorrow (yes, I got in again somehow). I will be able to take some more photos of the layout and post anything interesting in due course. This will be a tough test of the stock, track and electrics as there has been no chance to run the whole lot since before the Spring. Therefore everything in the way of small tools, glues and even paints are being taken so running repairs can be made. It is amazing how much damage is done with running or handling things. I suppose every portable/exhibition layout suffers from wear and tear. I did have one curious bit of luck in that the missing air horn from the 4 CEP rolled out from behind the signal box when the station baseboard was carried down the stairs! It will be the first outing of my Bulleid 2 HAP on the tracks, hopefully the recent re-wiring and decoder installation will cause no problems. Tonight will be spent working out an operating sequence to incorporate the three EMUs that can be run. The poor old 2 BIL is having motor bogie troubles and is out of period too, so it will stay in the box. Should any of you be in the area, the venue is the further education building in Furnace Road right behind Carmarthen Public library. I am packing the cattle prod just in case the boy who started to use the fiddle yard controller without permission last year turns up again. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin parks Posted October 29, 2010 Author Share Posted October 29, 2010 Well, the Carmarthen show went fine. The rain held off and the layout performed without incident (once the fiddle yard end was levelled up - do not trust seemingly level parquet floors! Martin Dalling, who took photos of the layout last year, has taken some more and they are used with his permission. He is going to refine the images, so I shall include one or two as a taster. The Bulleid 2 HAP was not running, due to lack of time to test and fit the decoder. Towards the end of the day the class 33 played up and still I don't know why. I think the gear tower or whatever is in there is binding - more maintenance to do. The class 73, which hadn't run for four months, started the day a little roughly but ran well once warmed up. The 2 HAP sitting on the track with the power off, I hasten to add, so this is a bit of a cheat. There is one window in the motor coach to correct, it didn't show at the time. At the end of the day the 2 BIL skulked out too! Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ark Royal Posted October 29, 2010 Share Posted October 29, 2010 Hi Colin, As always it's a pleasure to see new photos and it doesn't matter how many times you visit this thread you notice something you've missed before. Great work, nice to see your HAP has made an appearance on the layout. Keep it up Mark Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southernboy Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 All very nicely observed, the atmosphere is spot-on Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackBlack Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 any chance of a trackplan? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin parks Posted October 30, 2010 Author Share Posted October 30, 2010 Hi Colin, As always it's a pleasure to see new photos and it doesn't matter how many times you visit this thread you notice something you've missed before. Great work, nice to see your HAP has made an appearance on the layout. Keep it up Mark Hi Mark, Good to hear from you! I am getting the etch out tonight. I must finish that HAP. Last week's spare time was spent cleaning wheels for the exhibition. Re. Things that you notice you've missed: The leaning lamp; the wonky compartment window in the 2 HAP and the crude script on the control panel perhaps? I only see these things after the pictures are taken... All teh best, Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin parks Posted October 30, 2010 Author Share Posted October 30, 2010 any chance of a trackplan? Well, JackBlack, I have this one: It's only a hand-drawn sketch, but it's the best I can do at the moment. I must get some software for this sort of thing. Colin Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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