D9JEF Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 (edited) Hello all, Welcome to my new layout. For those of you who followed my Buxstone tread, this is not dead - just slumbering! I have helped to operate the excellent Oulton TMD over the last 6 years or so. Although this layout, on first inspection, appears to be a roundy-roundy, it is actually a combination of end-to-end shunting layouts. These are the cement works (my personal favourite), the oil terminal, ballast sidings, front sidings and the station. Not forgetting the original TMD section – which 3 of us used to operate! All operate individually but utilise common areas of track. I believe this is the magic of the layout. Originally I always wanted a roundy-roundy but operating Oulton made me think differently. I also really enjoy operating at exhibitions. The result of all this is Manor Road. The basic premise was a layout that can be easily transported in my car and be operated by 2 people (me and my son). Initially many designs were created and finally I settled on one that fits on a space 12 feet by 18 inches and breaks down in to 3 x 4 feet boards. All 3 boards are scenic with the fiddle yard hidden behind a retaining wall on board 3. The front of board 3 consists of a freight transfer shed. When building started the layout increased to 14 feet as I felt this would aid operation. Board 1 consists of an island platform with 2 lines. Rationalisation has been slow in coming to Manor Road as Platform 2 still has run round facilities. In front of this is a shunt neck and a 2 road reception area for speedlink trains. The idea is that regular workings bring vans for unloading in the transfer shed. Operation Passenger He station is served by a mix of DMU’s and loco hauled trains. DMU’s of classes 101, 108, 143, 150, 153, 156 and 158 in blue-grey, Provincial, Metrolink, Merseyrail and Regional Railways will be seen shuttling in and out. These will be supplemented by 4 coach loco hauled sets in blue-grey and Regional Railways liveries. Typical haulage will be 37/4 and 31/4 with the occasional 47/4 Freight I have assumed that the transfer shed on Manor Road is connected to the Speedlink network. As such a wide variety of locos will be seen bringing vans for unloading and transferring to road transport. This will include VDA’s, Cargowaggons, Pallet Vans along with covered steel wagons. Inbound trains will also include a variety of other speedlink wagons as part of trip workings. Parcels As I also like Parcels trains there will be a regular parcels working leaving from Manor Road. Maximum load will be 5 vans but this will include a variety of liveries. Fiddle Yard The fiddle yard is a mix of fixed lines plus a road that will attach to cassettes. Hopefully this will lead to a greater variety of stock seen on the layout. I think that is enough description for now. Here are some photos of progress so far…. Overall View looking down the layout. Control Panel showing schematic track diagram. Red = Fiddle Yard Black = On scene Green = Station Platform 3 Overall Views A few views of the transition between layout and fiddle yard Finally, a few views of the goods transfer shed. This started life as 3 Metcalfe goods sheds. These have been modified and a scrachbuilt roof added. Stillto be added is a roller shutter door at the far end to allow HGV's to reverse in and load up with the unloaded "stuff". Hope you all enjoy what I have posted so far. I will take a few pics of the underside (wiring stuff) and post tomorrow if anyone is interested. Cheers Jeff Edited December 20, 2013 by D9JEF 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew P Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Nice one Jeff, I always think that scenic's in front of the fiddle Yard is a real bonus as it adds valuable length to the layout as I did with one end of my Deesdale Road, well done and keep the build pics coming. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ess1uk Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Looks good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Temeraire Posted December 20, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted December 20, 2013 Evening Jeff, you've been busy! I've been toying with the idea of a portable layout too but not got past the thinking stage as yet. Looks good so far so I will watch your progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
class"66" Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 Very nice build Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdw7300 Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 (edited) Looks like this will be a cracking layout. Great start Jeff. Will be watching with interest. Cheers Edited December 21, 2013 by sdw7300 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d winpenny Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 Looking great looking forward to following this David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D9JEF Posted December 21, 2013 Author Share Posted December 21, 2013 Evening all, Thanks for the comments. I have had a productive day and have completed spraying the track with sleeper grime and I have also built the superstructure for the bridge which covers the entrance to the fiddle yard. Next on the list is completing the raised area at the front of the layout. I have decided to have a factory unit here partly obscuring the view of the track behind it. The idea is to make the layout viewer have to peer round the building. Hopefully a bit like real life. I will post pics tomorrow when I have built the ground up for it to stand on. Regards Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D9JEF Posted December 23, 2013 Author Share Posted December 23, 2013 Hi all, Didn't manage to complete the raised area for the factory but spent time working on the Distribution / Goods Transfer Shed. Not sure what to call it. I have completed the woodwork for the wall behind and placed the wall sections to give me an idea what it will look like when completed. I have also completed the raised roadway between this board and the centre board covering the entrance to the fiddle yard. Pretty pleased with progress so far. First visitor to the shed was 37 409 Loch Awe shunting a couple of loaded Cargowaggons... I also promised a picture of the wiring... The layout is wired for DCC wih a traditional mimic panel for the points. Blue and brown wires are the Power Bus and Red, white and black for the point motors. All under board wiring is complete except for the wires from the tag strip to the inter-board connectors. However this has all been worked out and I just need to spend a couple of hours with a soldering iron. Stock Cheers for now Jeff 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D9JEF Posted December 29, 2013 Author Share Posted December 29, 2013 (edited) Hello everyone, I have been busy with Maor Road over the last few days. The Mimic Panel has been completed and the connector wires added to link it with Board 2. See Pic below - very proud of this I was busy wiring the rest of the inter-board connectors today whilst waiting for a new dishwasher to arrive. The old one went bang on xmas eve so I had to wash up all the xmas dinner stuff - not good... Carried on with it until I broke the wire stripper - a piece of metal shot out today when I was about half way through Board 2 (centre board with most connections). It made a shwing-bump sound... A trip to Maplins for a new one beckons tomorrow before attending the Leicester City match. As I couldn't continue with the wiring and I have the modelling mojo in abundance I spent this evening building the station platform.. This is a Metcalfe kit and if anyone has thought about building one I would recommend it as they are a lovely kit to build. A couple of pics of it being held in postion by mugs full of water acting as weights for the glue to go off... The station building is a Bachmann one that I feel is just right for what I am trying to achieve. It looks particularly fine next to the Pichet du vin (wine jug). I aim to detail the building a little bit more so that it doesn't look straight out of the box. Hope you all enjoy the update. Jeff Edited December 29, 2013 by D9JEF 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdw7300 Posted December 29, 2013 Share Posted December 29, 2013 Looking good Jeff. Neat wiring on the control panel. A panel is next on my list.... Happy modelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D9JEF Posted December 30, 2013 Author Share Posted December 30, 2013 Evening all, Finished the platform including adding the edging stone. I have also been completing wiring up the interboard connectors using 15 pin DIN sockets. There are 2 of these connecting the Panel with Board 2 - each has used 14 pins each as there are 14 point motors and subsequently 28 wires. In addition there is the common return to complete the circuit. I have still to complete the connectors between the noards - each have 7 wires each. I am looking forward to finishing these and then I can do a "test" - i.e. a bit of a play... A couple of pictures showing progress... 47 492 Enterprising Scot at the buffers: And finally, an overall look at the station platform. The left hand side is the reception sidings for freight to the transfer shed... Happy New Year to you all. Jeff 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D9JEF Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 Evening all, Set up the layout tonight to test the point wiring. There are one or two gremlins affecting the routing. I will need to test the connections in the next few days to rectify them. It is never simple... Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d winpenny Posted January 1, 2014 Share Posted January 1, 2014 Looking good hope you had a good new year David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D9JEF Posted January 1, 2014 Author Share Posted January 1, 2014 Cheers David, New Year was excellent thanks. A bit more progress has been made with the hard landscaping and I have also completed the roller shutter door that allows access for HGV's to the distribution depot. I have built the landscape to position a factory unit lower than the road level which will have terraced houses along one side of it. Access to the factory unit will be by a slope down either a cobble or concrete road that slopes down - not decided which one I choose. Ideally I want cobbles but it is a relatively modern factory unit so I don't know if it will look right. Any ideas?? A couple of pictures to explain View of the road which will have terraced houses down one side. I also plan to model a corner shop - model shop is my preference at the moment a bit like The Signal Box in Anstey (my local) Opposite the houses will be the entrance to the factory unit. I am unsure whether to model the slope down in cobbles or as concrete. Ideally I want cobbles but as the unit is relatively modern I am unsure. What do you all think?? Finally a couple of views of the rear of the distribution depot. I have modelled a roller shutter door where lorries would reverse in to have freight transferred from rail to road and vice versa. Still to be added to the building are gutters, drainpipes and lighting. An earlier view before the shutter was added Regards Jeff 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D9JEF Posted January 4, 2014 Author Share Posted January 4, 2014 Spent the afternoon fault finding with the point wiring. Turns out I managed to solder 1 row in a DIN plug backwards. I will fix later. I also need to add extra buttons for the double slip as it doesn't make sense at the moment. Other than that it should all work - fingers crossed! Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D9JEF Posted January 4, 2014 Author Share Posted January 4, 2014 (edited) Hi all, Spent today checking and rewiring. I had to add two additional buttons for the double slip to make sense. I had tried to make the 3 way point work with just 3 buttons but can't seem to make this work.. I had wired button 1 to up and up, button 2 to up and down and button 3 to down and down but it doesn't seem to work. My plan is to add 3 extra buttons so that you have to press 2 separate buttons for each direction. If anyone knows how to make this work I would be very grateful for any advice. Regards Jeff Edited January 5, 2014 by D9JEF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D9JEF Posted January 18, 2014 Author Share Posted January 18, 2014 Hi all, All wiring is now complete and tested. Thankfully all is working well. I have spent some time building the houses that straddle the tunnel entrance to the fiddle yard. The corner house is a chip shop. All these have been built from Metcalfe kits and I am really pleased with them. My plan is to complete these and build this area as a detachable board that fits over the baseboard join. I also took delivery of a Sentinel shunted which will be named James and I need to decide what number it should be. I will take some pictures and post later. Jeff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D9JEF Posted January 25, 2014 Author Share Posted January 25, 2014 Hi all, Work has continued but I have had problems trying to upload photos as my wife's laptop had a few problems. So for I have added a 6 inch wide extension on the distribution depot board and moved one of the tracks, I have also completed the hillside above the retaining wall that hides the fiddle yard. It is progressing well and as soon ad the camera/laptop thing is working I will post some pictures, Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdw7300 Posted January 26, 2014 Share Posted January 26, 2014 Looking forward to some pictures Jeff, when IT permits! Happy modelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D9JEF Posted February 7, 2014 Author Share Posted February 7, 2014 (edited) Evening all, Finally managed to sort out the IT problems and I have been able to upload a few photos to show progress on Board 3. This board has the distribution depot with a stone wall behind and a grassed hill above. The hill hides the storage sidings and is made from plywood formers covered in Modroc and a Noch Grassmat that was a xmas present from my wife. I belive she bought it as a joke but I aam very happy with it. I have added numerous layers of flock, bushes and I will add static grass as well. The Disttribution depot stands on concrete which was constructed from Polyfilla and finished with Green Scene textured concrete paint. I still need to add gutters and drainpipes to the building to finish it. I have also finished building the houses and Chippy that straddle West Street and Nicola Street. Built from Metcalfe kits and they sit above the fiddle yard entrance and also the tunnel throgh to the distribution depot. Only the chimneys to complete. Finally I have bought a Sentinel Shunter that has had the NCB decals removed and I have added a James Nameplate and I will add the running number - 12 - and weathering. I hope ypu enjoy the updates Jeff James the Shunter West Street Chippy Views of the distribution Depot And finally, the exit from the depot Edited February 7, 2014 by D9JEF 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d winpenny Posted February 8, 2014 Share Posted February 8, 2014 Looking good David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D9JEF Posted February 19, 2014 Author Share Posted February 19, 2014 Evening all, I have finished the scenics above the transfer shed and completed painting and weathering the retaining walls. The hillside covers the 5 track fiddle yard which is hidden underneath. I also completed the concrete pad and added the ballasting fo the yard area. This is N gauge ballast and I have glued down with dilute PVA in the usual fashion. I need to add the grass and weeds around the bufferstops and also need to complete the scubland area that is the area between the ballast and the front of the layout. Final things to complete this area will be: - Ground signals - Bed in the shed to hide the join - Lights A few pictures to show the progress: Thanks for looking Jeff 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naturol Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 First class project. I Can see some striking similarities, the transfer shed roof in corrugated styrene looks very authentic, and the class 47 shots have plenty of atmosphere. Keep up the good modelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew P Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 Hi Jeff, its coming on well, I like the transfer shed. Very nice so far, well done. :locomotive: :locomotive: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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