Big jim's (now dismantled) 12 x 6 shed layout

[Anthony566]

Its all starting to come back together nicely Jim.

[Marcus 37]

Hi Jim

Glad to see I'm not the only messy modeller. I only clear up in the loft when it gets to the point you can't see the floor. HaHa.

Why does it not surprise me you've got a model of McDonalds. Remember the morning you asked me to take your train from Snow Hill to Moor Street so you could walk across town to get your Double Sausage and egg McMuffin. Didn't get me one yer miserable sod!!

Only joking.

Good to see the layouts bouncing back. Looks good mate.

Cheers

Marcus

[big jim]

I've actually given up maccy d's for lent, lost about 1/2 stone already, 30 days to go!

[Marcus 37]

I tried giving up Class 66s for lent but GB weren't to happy with that idea. HaHa!!

[big jim]

Found an MDF tunnel mouth in my stock box that I may be able to utilise

 

I've been umming and ahhing about buying these from rails of Sheffield for a couple of years as they are HO scale but as I was in Sheffield on Saturday I called in and had a look at the size and realised they will look ok on the layout, basically a single shed and waiting room and bus shelter all for £39

 

I want to use the shed as a wagon shop, as it happened I needed to have worried about it being too small, it's far too big to fit in the yard as the track work stands!

 

I can get it to fit though with a minor rejig of the tracks, I'll have to add a new 3 way point to the nearest end of the yard, what was a dead end road will become a through road and one of the through roads will become a shed road with 2 cripple sidings behind the shed

 

Still not finished the mainline though!

[Toftwood]

heat is already sorted but i may add one of those low power frost prevention type heaters too and leave it running to keep damp at bay

 

had a few hours earlier, didnt get as much done as i hoped as i forgot to buy cork earlier, managed to buy a Dapol 68 put forgot the cork!

 

anyway, secured the top station boards better to stop them flexing and also fixed the new aproach board on the doorway section

 

looking at the station again i do have some nice precut cork strips that ive put in place to see how much room i have, as they are nice and straight i can be sure the platform is also parallel with the trackbed down its whole length

 

im going to run some Bachmann retaining walls along the rear wall and butt the cork up to those

 

and some more of them as originally planned to hold the town in place

 

im going to need to add a small fillet to the high level board for the inner track to run over (the one outside the tunnel)

 

the reason ill run the wall along the rear is to be able to add my Hornby canopy's to the station, i'll add a wills flexi girder across the tunnel mouth this end and continue the platform a short distance into the tunnel to create the illusion of a longer station

 

the outer edge will need some sort of plastistruct girgers adding between the uprights i'll fit, i'll actually do it so the canopy will be removable for cleaning etc, i will mount it lower than in the pics, ive just placed them on top of the wall to get the idea, basically i'll run a plasticard U 'gutter' along the retaining wall at the top of the arches (where the wall goes vertical) for the canopy to sit in, similarly do the same on the outer side between the stone uprights

 

looks quite good with a 5 vehicle train in the platform

 

even better with the basic idea for the canopy placed in position

 

the usual, "view from the door" picture

 

37401 hired in to move the translator vehicles

 

hopefully get some cork tomorrow and get the track fitted over the doorway section towards the station, maybe even roughly lay a complete circuit

 

Hi, great layout, as an aside and its probably been covered elsewhere so apologies, you will probably find if you look at stations with large overall canopies, they sit on a ledge inside the walls so that the top of the wall stands slightly proud, and under each of your canopy joints it would be good to fit an impression of a pillar/support.  

[big jim]

If you look at some of the later pics you can see where I've planned to fit the canopy into U channel slightly below the top of the wall as you suggest

 

The interesting bit to get to look right will be the 'pillar side' as the u channel will run inside the pillars

[brenn]

Hi Jim,

 

Where did you get the scissor crossover in this picture it looks like a Ho Bachmann job??

If so have you tested it and is it easy to fit point motor?

 

Cheer 

Brenn

 

[big jim]

It's a shinohara crossing, it has been used previously in the old 'hidden section' of the layout (go back through the thread and have a look) I've merely moved it forward

 

As for point motors, what a pain those are, as they are side by side I've had to adapt some seep latching point motors, basically dremel'd away part of them so they sit close together but still have the screw holes, I've managed to salvage the old ones so will simply refit them when I get round to it, I will have to do it fairly soon as the blades on the crossing are not sprung and the motors are so I need them fitting to hold the blades in place!

[Anthony Ashley]

Big Jim,

 

Just looked through the entire thread from start to finish. I have enjoyed your work and will take a few ideas from it for my N gaufe layout set in North Wales. Keep up the good work. I shall continue to follow with interest.

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/71151-north-welsh-coast-railway-welsh-dragon-rail/

[big jim]

Not much more to report, managed to get hold of 2 more retaining wall packs so they now reach the end of the platforms and give me 2 more uprights for the canopy

 

 

A fellow member has offered to send me a couple of extra uprights too so I can use them over at the end I was planning on using the mdf tunnel mouth, revert to plan A and use a wills flexi girder between the uprights

[big jim]

Just one pic of the yard with the shed roughly in place, first time I've taken a pic from that angle, the line where the 70 is sat will join back in at the top in a 3 way point as will the lines with the 20s and 08 on

 

 

On the mainline is my newly converted NMT, more pics in this thread

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/106497-big-jims-workbenchok-dining-table-37057-dbso-sgt2/?p=2666872

[big jim]

Tonight was going to be the big push, T3 possession on, last of the track laying, point motor holes cutting etc so I could have at least got the outer line up and running, made a start then realised I didn't have any fishplates! Possession cancelled, staff stood down!

 

Managed to get a bit done track wise but then did a bit more on the station area

 

First up was glue the Bachmann walls to the shed wall, no nails type stuff used

 

Up to which I glued the precut straight cork trackbeds and added the track

 

I also placed the platform down to allow me to glue the cork beds against the opposite platform face, that was it for track laying because of the lack of fishplates

 

I then glued a u channel to the Bachmann walls for the overall roof to slot into

 

Flexigirder over the end and on the inner edge of the uprights I have glued T channel brackets for the roof to sit on

 

Reglued the canopies with glue'N'glaze

 

Final piece of u channel on the rear wall, will leave that until Monday to dry before attempting to fit the roof!

 

Got 3 more of the Hornby canopies which I'm going to adapt for the outer platform

 

Simply cut them along the rear of the 'gutter'

 

So they become single canopies, the cut off bit will then be glued alongside the bigger part to make a longer canopy, doing similar with the other 2 will mean I can make a single piece 6 panel canopy the same length as the big over roof

 

But first up FISHPLATES!!!

Edited April 7, 2017 by big jim

[big jim]

Bit more done, glue dried on the uprights so test fitted the roof

 

Then added cork to the rest of the trackbed that needed Doing

 

 

 

Laid the track and points into the oil terminal

 

And over the bridge

 

The inside line needs a couple of MM taking off the length so I can move it slightly to the right of the bridge to straighten it up slightly

 

The other side of the bridge has a pair of curved points to allow trains to use the centre platform bi-directionally

 

Then it's just a case of joining up the new track work to the existing incline tracks, wiring it up and that should be it mainline wise just the outer platform road to fit and with any luck that's it's for track work, some of the points I've fitted on the high level will be manual operation I recon as I quite frankly can't be bothered to wire them up and fit point motors, some are too close to the wall to get motors in anyway with the battening below the boards

[Anthony566]

The station is coming on really well Jim and i really like the girder bridge.

[big jim]

last bit of track in

 

 

 

so now i can run trains round the whole layout again, got a bit of packing and wiring to do on the inner circuit to smooth out the transition from the incline to the flat, ive tested the incline with a Bachmann 66 and got it fairly smooth, just need to fine tune it to avoid derailments  

 

 

still need to lay the loop line through the station but that will only take a few minutes to do, couple of link wires to get power to it and hopefully that side will run ok

 

so with that bit of track done it was time to test the trackwork, and what better train to use than the NMT

 

Edited April 22, 2017 by big jim

[Boco_D1]

The new set up looks great, nicely done.

 

Jimmy

[big jim]

got the last bit of track fitted and wired up this evening

 

new loop fitted

 

 

took a video of the new line up and running and with trains running in both directions

https://youtu.be/MpHPtLlQYJ4

 

view from the door

[steve shorrock]

Good job done Jim Looking really good, Well worth the re do

[big jim]

After spotting a link in another part of the forum to L-cut creative website I ended up ordering a number of retaining wall components so I can make a nice angled retaining wall, at 29p each it want worth the hassle of trying make my own parts from card as I wouldn't get consistent sized parts

 

Bought a dozen of them

 

That conveniently, and not by design, sit the same height as the high level boards!

 

Spaced them out just smaller than a sheet of brick card

 

Took a touch more off the edge of the board near the bridge

 

Then using my trusty razor saw

 

I cut a groove for the upright to slot into

 

 

I then back filled the gap between the cork and edge with card

 

The next bit is a test piece, basically in the words of Donald trump "we need to build a wall" which I have started to do using card and held upright with peco platform fillets onto which the platform tops will fit (when i buy them)

 

 

 

That will then become the rear wall for the platform, on the outer side I am going to put magnetic tape on the face of the fixed wall and similar on the rear of the retaining wall sections which will be removable in sections so I can easily remove them should I need to get to the hidden storage area in case of derailments etc

 

Of course it wasn't all work and no play

 

 

And a vid of the 67 running round the layout

https://youtu.be/Jwx_6qzlCuo

Edited April 27, 2017 by big jim

[bensanchez43310]

I do apologise if these have been mentioned elswhere, but roughly what are the layouts dimesions and do you have a trackplan?

 

Ben

[big jim]

Little bit more done, finished the main platform

 

Extended the land above the tunnel mouth so the track isn't so close to the edge

 

And built the new outside platform

 

 

I then thought I'd see if my plan of removable retaining walls would work

 

Magnetic tape on the rear wall

 

And some on the rear of the retaining wall as well as some more l-cut wall formers

 

And voila, strongly in place

 

The offcut brick card will go on the inside of the rear wall, slightly higher than the outside (less than 1mm), I can then put some coping stones on top so the removable retaining wall can sit below it and slide out easily

 

Seems to work, will add vertical columns between the card sheets on the outside to hide the joins

Edited May 7, 2017 by big jim

[DRS Crewe On A Mission]

Looking brilliant Jim. I really like the station and platforms and the lines under the station. That's very good for stabling trains.

 

If you don't mind me asking where did you get your BR Green 37057 from with the yellow ends?

 

Looking forward to seeing more.

 

Thank you very much in advance.

[big jim]

Looking brilliant Jim. I really like the station and platforms and the lines under the station. That's very good for stabling trains.

 

If you don't mind me asking where did you get your BR Green 37057 from with the yellow ends?

 

Looking forward to seeing more.

 

Thank you very much in advance.

It's a redo from an old plain green Bachmann 37, added lights and yellow ends and Zimo sound chip

[DRS Crewe On A Mission]

Thank you for letting me know. It looks brilliant.

 

I wonder if Bachmann have the correct tooling to produce 37057 if/when it receives Colas Rail livery?

 

That would look very good with 37099.