Gresby - N Gauge Great Central (MS&LR 90s-2000s)

[MrSimon]

Thanks Mark!

 

I thought I might use the Kestrel kit, but I didn't have enough space for a semi there, even with making a smaller house I'm pretty sure I will need to carve a bit out of the hill so it sits right in the landscape.

 

The only structural things I have left to do on the front of the house are putting the tiles on the curved bit between levels and building the front door.  I might put a bit of filler around the edges of the wet-n-dry rendering too - I'll see how it looks in the flesh rather than blown up massive on screen...

 

 

 

I've also painted the drive way, it needs toning down slightly, and I need to tone down the exhaust mark on the garage door - maybe I should have done it with powder instead of paint?  I've also started to finish the downstairs interior bits, the glazing is currently setting and when that's done I can get on with the interior.

 

I still haven't decided about the top-lights...

 

Also, today I did some more work on the coach body:

 

The bauxide needs toning down, and the roof dirtying up.  I think I've gone as far as I can with enamels on this, it's time to attack it with acrylics and powders and stuff.  First though, I want to build some supports where the structure is being shored up on one end.

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited July 5, 2017 by MrSimon

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

I've been busy - the pre-christmasy rush so I can get everything fitted to Gresby over Christmas.  I'm even going to try and take more pictures this year... I didn't take many pictures of this lot as I forgot to charge the camera

 

First up, I finished the coach body in time to take up to Warley for Dad:

 

 

I wish I'd used Rizlas instead of wet-n-dry on the roof, the patches are a little too thick.  But here it is, padlocked and ready to store stuff on Rise Park.

 

Next, the bits I ordered from York Model Making arrived... decorative tiles for the front of the house:

 

I'm measuring up another building at Christmas which will also use the rounded tiles.  The tiles are slightly shiny so I will have to matt varnish these.

 

The door is the last part to be build for the front of the house.  I have built it as a module with the doorstep, which was all glued in together, for strength.

 

All of the front of the house is now complete.  I've painted all around the gutters and weathered the brickwork.  The only thing left to build on the house is the interior bits in the back (the bit that will be facing outwards for people looking at the layout from the end)

 

Next post: the fuel unloading area.

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited July 5, 2017 by MrSimon

[Southernboy]

Great stuff Mr Simon,

 

Everything so full of character and as far as you can get from out-of-the-box!

 

The interior details really add that finishing touch. You'll have to come up with the back-stories of who lives where and what they get up to 

[MrSimon]

Thank you Mark!

 

I like think about who lives in the buildings, it helps me to decide on the details that make it seem like it's someone's home.  It's times like this I'm glad there are only 4 houses...

 

I'm looking forward to bedding this into the landscape, it'll need quite a bit of building work to turn the hillside into what I want the back garden to look like, but that's a job for Boxing Day.

 

The main transformation over Christmas will be fitting the big plates of scenery I measured out last Christmas.  In my mind I was going to be organised and make them last January and be on to something else by now.  I've done the land-forming work and all the bits of wall, the only thing left has been the pipes.

 

 

My main problem was that I'd cut up the scenery in to small sections so I could take it up on the train, so I would have to build in a load of joins into the pipe.  To get round this I put rings around the ends to disguise them, as well as for all the valves that I think should be there and for the fillers.

 

 

This is the join where I decided to double the pipe capacity halfway down the train.

 

The pipes go under the small cabin that I have't built yet.

 

I'm not very sure what happens when fuel is delivered, but I decided there should be some sort of valve with a meter/flowmeter kind of thing.  As this sounded quite hard to model I decided they should go in a cabinet at each unloading point, and they look a bit like this:

 

 

Two per wagon.  They each have a on/off handle, a digital display, a door to fix the bits inside, and a nozzle for the hose from the wagon to attach to.

 

 

Here they are installed.  When I get home I will build the scenic sections together using the pipes to hold it all together, then stick in all down as a single section.

 

At Warley this year I picked up a ladders/platforms kit from Severn Models:

 

 

I'm seriously impressed with the quality of these etchings, the inspection platform went together like a dream with just a bit of superglue... then I cut some bits off it to modify it to fit what I needed it for.  

 

 

Not sure why I painted it red.  The yellow wheelie-bins are "spill kits", four bins will definitely be enough to mop up 400T of oil.  I'll make sure I take plenty of pictures when I fit these at Christmas.

 

I've done loads more, I just need some more battery...

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited July 5, 2017 by MrSimon

[TomE]

I picked up a set of those ladders & platforms for Ropley, and they are indeed fantastic little kits. 

 

Tom. 

[1977joey]

Fantastic Simon as always,

 

The detail your putting into this layout is so intricate I wish I only had that sort of patience, but your building work is stunning 

Have you run any trains on Gresby lately?

 

All the best ,

Mark 

[shanks522]

Hi Simon,

 

 Looking forward to seeing all these creations added to the Layout.

 

Graham.

[MrSimon]

I picked up a set of those ladders & platforms for Ropley, and they are indeed fantastic little kits. 

 

Tom. 

I've got my eye on the greenhouse kit, not sure what I'll do with all my ladders...

 

Fantastic Simon as always,

 

The detail your putting into this layout is so intricate I wish I only had that sort of patience, but your building work is stunning 

Have you run any trains on Gresby lately?

 

All the best ,

Mark 

Thanks Mark!

 

I thought I'd run trains on Gresby pretty recently, then I thought back and realised it was last Christmas... I've got some track fix/relay this Christmas and then I'll be able to run.  I'll take plenty of pictures / videos to put on here

 

Hi Simon,

 

 Looking forward to seeing all these creations added to the Layout.

 

Graham.

 

Hi Graham,

 

I can't either, I always panic that they won't fit, or look wrong.  I need to make a few changes to the hillside for the house to fit.  It's not ideal making the buildings so far away from the layout, but it does mean I can focus on them and not get distracted "testing the track works".

 

 

Hello everybody!

 

 

This is a building that I know fits, it's been sat in the box for years waiting for me to finish it.  When I went north in the autumn I fitted the raised base I made for it, this time I'd like to get the building itself fitted.  I've repainted the brickwork from lurid orange to ugly buff, dirtied it, and fitted the glazing.  I've also added bring and a base inside it so I can glue it down.  

 

 

I'm not sure what this tank is for, but it's fenced off and it's white.

 

Today I sat myself down and built the interior of the back rooms of the house:

 

 

I painted it straight away to get it fitted:

 

 

I need to touch up the flashing on the roof, and add some chimney pots, but the house is complete!  Hurray!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just the garden to build now... 

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited July 5, 2017 by MrSimon

[James Makin]

Simon,

 

Just found your thread for the first time - wow - the first thing I see is a scratchbuilt kitchen, for the back of a house interior, in N gauge...incredible stuff! Now following your thread and looking forward to catching up on the last 32 pages!

 

Cheers,

James

[Boco_D1]

That house is such excellent work and then you see its siting on a tin of humbrol to me it becomes outstanding, keep up the good work.

[Southernboy]

Exquisite detailing inside / outside / and even tucked away in places some people may never even see.

[grahame]

It's always a pleasure to catch up on this thread.

 

A super level of modelling and detailing - congratulations.

 

G.

[Les1952]

Caution- Mr Simon at work...

(or not, this was taken during a break to nurse his head due to the crossbeams being at banging height - I clear them by a millimetre or so))

 

 

The plain boards at the far end are Croft Spa (or will be) while Hawthorn Dene is on end behind them and No Place on the workbench to the left.   Two of the trestles for Croft Spa are in the conservatory to give a little working space.  What looks like a computer screen is actually a fan heater.

 

S will no doubt post pics of progress eventually.  In the meantime I'm keeping out of the way.....

 

Les

Edited December 23, 2016 by Les1952

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody

 

I was quite busy on the layout yesterday, firstly I had to get it working - I didn't know if I'd had a full on points failure on the station junction.  After a lot of prodding I found that the problem was that when the layout got damp the other year some of the dampness got into the one of the wiring ports - and corroded through one connection, which unfortunately was the power feed to the main point on the layout.  Luckily, I had spare pins that I'd wired up as blanks on each board so I could re-route the wire and run a joiner across in the control panel:

 

 

Unfortunately, this was after I'd ugly-soldered a new feed on because I'd thought that's where the problem was.  It's going to take some hiding...

 

 

Anyway, now it runs.  There are a few quirks, and I need to do some work in the fiddle yard to lengthen one or two section breaks so I can run Voyagers, and I need to reset the board joins on the outer track - but I need a flat level floor to do that.

 

 

 

 

 

I brought two test freights up with me this time, Gresby wouldn't be Gresby without coal trains going through - so this time I brought the MGR train up with a 58.  Here it is on test on the outer track.  Strangely, the wagons were a bit 'jumpy' on curves at the end and the one behind the engine derailed quite often... but they were fine on the smaller radius inner track.  Weird.  Anyway, the second most interesting thing in these pictures, the actual subject of the pictures, is the blank strips of baseboard and massive trench between the mainline and the siding.

 

This is the strip that the pipes-and-bank-thing (see posts above) were built to cover.

 

 

 

Here we are resting in place, once I was happy (and nipped out to buy contact glue) I glued the four pieced into one, and glued them to the baseboards. 

 

 

I have a lot of bedding in to do, there's a slightly larger gap than I would have liked...

 

 

This might be one of my new favourite views on the layout.  I've never been fussed about standing on platforms, so I mostly see trains over fences and walls, going over or under bridges, and through hedges/bushes, which is what I've tried to achieve on Gresby - even though I'm 6'2 so have to crouch right down to see it that way

 

Finally for this instalment, I got my first change to run my Revolution tankers.  Here is the first fuel train to use the new facilities:

 

 

 

I have fitted one with a Dapol autocoupler, and they work, they're very free-wheeling so I won't be uncoupling them on the fuelling road until I've built a bufferstop.  Later, when I have some better daylight, I'll make a video of the fuel train coming and going.  But first: a slightly grainy and shaky video of some trains running last night.

 

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited October 17, 2021 by MrSimon
Embed video

[MrSimon]

It's always a pleasure to catch up on this thread.

A super level of modelling and detailing - congratulations.

 

G.

  

 

Exquisite detailing inside / outside / and even tucked away in places some people may never even see.

  

 

That house is such excellent work and then you see its siting on a tin of humbrol to me it becomes outstanding, keep up the good work.

 

 

Thanks guys! It's been a fun building to make - normally I'd admit that putting as much detail into the rear of a building is pretty bonkers (OK, OK, it's a bad habit of mine), but it had to be done! There's always new nooks and corners to look in!

 

 

Simon,

Just found your thread for the first time - wow - the first thing I see is a scratchbuilt kitchen, for the back of a house interior, in N gauge...incredible stuff! Now following your thread and looking forward to catching up on the last 32 pages!

Cheers,

James

Thanks James,

 

Welcome to Gresby! I love your stock thread and Loftus Road, I live right by Olympia and you've captured my bit of west London perfectly

 

Cheers

Simon

[MrSimon]

Evening everybody!

 

Hope you're all having a very Merry Christmas

 

I've had a pretty quiet busy Christmas Eve, but still got out to the shed to do some work on the layout - everybody knows Christmas engineering waits for no man...

 

Last night I laid the trunking down the mainline, I didn't take a picture last night so it missed my post this afternoon.  Two coats of grey paint later here it is:

 

 

Here we see where the trunking swerves in to the alcove (?) where the signal will stand, ably modelled by one of the older locos in my fleet - Original Farish Regional Rail class 31, with the new loco-hauled regional train.  None of these coaches have been on the layout before, so I brought the train up to test weather close-coupling was practical.  Those tests are later in the week, but at the moment I'm thinking "no".  I have one more coach to paint in this rake, a sure fire way to get regional rail Mark 2a's from Bachman next year.

 

In the not so distant past I would be out drinking until 2 on Christmas eve, stagger home with a kebab, and fall in to the Christmas Tree on the way to bed.  This year I was back home by eleven, sober, and glued down the ballast that I spread earlier.  Sad times. Hopefully this will be dry by the morning (/tomorrow evening I think).

 

Here is the plot the house is going in.  Side on, slightly facing the mainline - right at the front of the layout.

 

Like this.

 

The problem I have with this plot is that when I was rushing to get the layout ready to exibit back in 2012 I slopped a load of newspaper and plaster in a hill-like shape and painted it brown, without any thought to what British people do to their back gardens, given half a chance.  This afternoon I carved out space for the other half of the patio, a lawn/beds, steps up, a shed, a veg patch, another lawn, and maybe a summer house.

 

I'm a messy gardener.  My Mum said her godfather used to live in a house in Nottinghamshire where the building was just above the road level, then the back garden went up a massive cliff-like hill; I don't think he lived there when I was told about it, but I always looked on the way in to Nottingham - and it gave me an example of what to do with that ridiculous hill...

 

When I cleared away the debris I started building the walls to stop the garden sliding into the dining room.  There's going to be a lot of new plaster being put down - but that's a job for tomorrow.

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited July 6, 2017 by MrSimon

[shanks522]

Hi Simon,

 

 Merry christmas, 

 

 Close coupling, Don't know if its any help but on some of my older Farish coaches (mainly mail vans) i removed a coupling from one end, took the spring away then glued the coupling directly to original mounting, with this done one end has a sprung coupling and one is fixed, as long as there all coupled in sequence i.e. sprung to fixed they run fine round first radius curves.

 

Graham.

[MrSimon]

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

Here's what Santa bought me; fresh off the special offers stand at Warley

 

These did not affect my choice of trains to bring up to test at all...

 

Hi Simon,

 

 Merry christmas, 

 

 Close coupling, Don't know if its any help but on some of my older Farish coaches (mainly mail vans) i removed a coupling from one end, took the spring away then glued the coupling directly to original mounting, with this done one end has a sprung coupling and one is fixed, as long as there all coupled in sequence i.e. sprung to fixed they run fine round first radius curves.

 

Graham.

 

Merry Christmas Graham!

 

It's definitely helpful, thank you - I've got a mail train back home that I've been ignoring while I thought of what to do, and a longer Regional Railways train made up of the old version Bachman and Farish Mark 1s, I'm definitely going to try this in the new year!  Do I need to take any buffers off?  Are they alright on radius 1 reverse curves (My fiddle yard is a bit of an over-sharp set-track nightmare on the inner track)

 

The train I brought up is made up of the one new MK1 and three new MK2s:

 

 

I brought some of the short shank couplings up with me to try, but I can't do any of that while the ballast is still wet

 

 

The gaps between the coaches look pretty uniform, maybe I reckon 1 long and 1 short should be ok, but I want to test it on both lines.

 

Cheers

Simon

Edited July 5, 2017 by MrSimon

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

After everyone had gone I slipped back out to the shed to do a bit more gardening. 

 

I made the extra bit of patio, the retaining walls for the next level of garden, and raised the level of the house up to match the patio (and look better in the landscape) 

 

Next, starting from the top of the garden, I started making steps down from the flat(ish) near the top of their garden where I think they will have a summerhouse/chalet.  I would put money on them next having made it to the top of these steps with a full cup of tea.

 

These were landscaped in with some filler.

 

 

I also worked on the front, which has included a front wall, new verge, pavement and I smoothed over the lawn to meet the new house level. 

 

The ballasting is pretty much dry, so tomorrow I am going to drill out the fenceposts around the fuel road/hard-standing and then grass the bank.  And if the filler has set in the garden, crack on with the landscaping...

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited July 6, 2017 by MrSimon

[porkie]

Looking great Simon. Been a while since I last read this thread.

Keep up the good work

[Les1952]

Rather surreal reading RMWeb to see what is going on in my own workshop.....

 

Though I did get a quick peek this morning while looking out some grass matting to make a lawn, and failing to find a cat in my people box to park outside that cat flap.

 

Les

[MrSimon]

Hello everybody!

 

Hope you're all having a happy Boxing Day.

 

I started the day by trying the short couplings on those MK2s. 

 

With one long and one short I it works fine around the outer track, but the inner is too tight and the coaches lock and de-rail on the corners.  I'm pretty sure I saw someone printed some slightly longer short ones, I'll have to have a look.

 

There's been a lot of work going on on that back garden.  The stairs of doom have been finished, I don't think I'd want to climb them, or drag the lawn-mower up, but then it's not my house...

 

 

Everthing I did in filler last night got a coat of brown acrylic.

 

The bottom end of the steps of doom were easier than the top.  I was able to use poly-cement to build the entire flight from the wall halfway, after the cement set I bedded it in with more filler.

 

 

I used some grass matt on the front and top-lawns.  I don't remember it having red in it... I might have to get the Mach 3 on it, give it a trim.  As soon as the filler gets a bit firmer I'll stick down the middle lawn.  I've got quite a few fences and things to build, as well as some of flower kits dad said I can use.  I don't think the house will be finished this trip, but I can go back home with measurements for the chalet and a garden shed.

 

While the filler in the back garden was setting I also worked on the first layer of grass around the fuel road.  I was really excited about fitting the gates on the fuel and hard-standing roads - so excited that I left them on my desk in London.  I brought some fence up though, so I was able to measure up the holes for the fence.  One of the posts looked a little close to the track, but I gave it a bit of a test for gauging:

 

The 67 on the other end cleared it too, I reckon it'll be fine. 

 

After drilling holes all the way down I fitted the panels I brought up with me:

 

I need 7 more packs.

 

Then I put down the first layer of foliage:

 

 

The cocktail sticks are to keep the holes clear of glue.  I want to add more bushy foliage to the bank, but I think this needs to wait until I've fitted the rest of the fence.  I've just got a little bit left to do behind the wall/tank.

 

Obviously I had to distract myself with testing the track, including a visiting Voyager from Dad's cabinet: 

 

 

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

Edited January 5, 2020 by MrSimon

[shanks522]

The layout is really coming together Simon, House on the hill is looking at home and the Fuel unloading point, Fantastic!

 

When i get a sec i'l photograph my mail vans to show the gap between them.

 

Graham.

[Southernboy]

You've done a great job fitting that house into very awkward space. I'm sure plenty of foliage around will help disguise the steepness of the back garden / bed it in nicely.

 

As to the steps: Where I live is a four-storey block of flats and one resident loves to repetitively run up and down the stairs as a keep-fit exercise.

 

When your house goes on the market I reckon it's long and steep flight of garden steps will appeal to a similar keep-fit fanatic

[MrSimon]

You've done a great job fitting that house into very awkward space. I'm sure plenty of foliage around will help disguise the steepness of the back garden / bed it in nicely.

 

As to the steps: Where I live is a four-storey block of flats and one resident loves to repetitively run up and down the stairs as a keep-fit exercise.

 

When your house goes on the market I reckon it's long and steep flight of garden steps will appeal to a similar keep-fit fanatic

 

Thanks Mark

 

I think that would be a bit of a killer exercise!  I used to live on the 7th floor and once tried to race the lift, never again!  The new owners would probably do aerobics in the chalet too...

 

I've not completely finished the garden, but it's pretty much as finished as it can be without all the its I haven't made yet (see chalet, etc....) The third lawn was fitted earlier, as well as the verge - they do the good citizen thing and mow the verge, but only as far as their power cable reaches...

 

The owner likes a floral display...

 

I need to think what goes in the empty bits on the 'death-drop' side of the path.  Maybe some fruit trees?  Or some rhubarb? (I think I saw a kit for Rhubarb, I'm not going to scratchbuild it...)

 

After I gave all of the new garden walls a rub over with some powders/pastels I decided it was time to permanently fit the house.  It's always pretty nerve-wracking doing this, but the other three buildings and the fuel road were OK, so I might actually be getting the hang of it!

 

Because of the funny slope on the drive I had to put some impact glue in the hole under where it goes and then when I stuck the rest of the house's baseplate in I had to put a load of superglue between the edge of the old filler and the driveway to hold it in place until the other glue had set. 

 

After I held the house in place for about 5 minutes I got out the filler and built up the bits of baseboard underneath the garage down to the pavement.  I might still get a caravan to park on this bit.

 

Here's the view from the chalet - the owners will be able to sit back, with a half-spilled cup of tea, and watch the coal trains.  Paradise.

 

This morning Dad handed me a packet with some shrubby, sticky, things in - I gave them a try at the end of the fuel road and in the back garden, what do you think?

 

 

Lots to do!

 

Simon

Here's

Edited July 4, 2017 by MrSimon