A 'Quickie' out of doors - now Palin's Yard

[peter220950]

Peter,I find scoring PCB with a sharp blade several times and snapping over a straight edge works well for me.

If it's double sided I score both sides.

I'm really enjoying your layout build and with the addition of the tippler it's going to be a great little layout.

All the best Al.

 

Many thanks for that Al, I might have a go with a Stanley knife, I think they do a hooked blade.

 

I did score the deck with a Scrawker tool and snapped it off, but even then it knackered a blade just doing that, it's pretty dreadful stuff, but it was available!

 

As for the layout, it's a lesson to us all, a 'quick' 8 ft layout with only 3 points has taken 9 months so far, I get much more modelling time than many, yet it's still only at the track down and running stage with some buildings part built. It's so easy to underestimate how long these things take and although it has diverted me away from the main layout it is proving invaluable as a test bed.

[peter220950]

Well today has seen the baseboard marked out for the tippler, a paper template of the plan area of the unit was traced onto paper, and the track entry points marked carefully onto it. The template was cut out and the rails of the siding were severed at the appropriate points.

 

 

One advantage of having internal doors as the baseboard is that they can be cut with a few passes of a Stanley knife blade and a few swift bashes with a chisel, because this was a late addition to the finished track the use of a jig-saw was out of the question.

 

 

Once the surface layer was cut out, and the internal honeycomb of cardboard removed, the unit was dropped into place, and as suspected, was too high. A bit of further work with the chisel, to remove the blobs of glue from the bottom layer of the door, managed to get me a couple of millimetres more depth and meant the rails of the tippler were by now only about a millimetre high, so rather than cutting out the underside I decided to live with it and slightly raise the track either side, by adding a strip of card between the track and the underlay.

 

 

 

The track was lifted for about 300mm either side of the tippler, and card was inserted, now that the mechanism is located the boiler house and associated factory unit can be designed around it, the close proximity of the tippler to the turntable means that the means to empty the coal from the hopper can probably be hidden inside the building.

 

 

Thinking cap back on to finalise this area of the layout, remembering that there’s also got to be a bl**dy great chimney close by as well. Meanwhile its back to fitting a kitchen and I will have a think about what goes where while I’m working.

 

 

 

 

 

[L&Y]

If the test bed is this good I can't wait to see the real thing! Great work. 

[peter220950]

A further quick update. Even though most of the time has been spent working on the kitchen re-fit I have done the odd bit of work on the layout.

 

Firstly a re-fuelling point has been put together using the tank from an Airfix 00 tank wagon, purchased for a pound at an exhibition.

 

 

A pair of brick piers with concrete caps were fabricated and fixed to a small piece of foamboard. Two lengths of large section rail were cut to length as bearers and stuck on top of the  piers.

 

 

 

An outlet pipe of bent brass rod was fitted into one end, and a hose arrangement fitted to a section of sleepering. A section of signal ladder completes the facility, along with a couple of drain covers, there should really be a bund wall to contain spillage, but this will have to wait until installation is complete.                      

 

 

 

When completed the fuelling point will be located between one of the turntable exits and the front siding.

 

 

The works manager has also cobbled together an internal user fuel tank wagon for the system, to enable the tank to be filled, and provide a further wagon movement.

 

 

The facility will be needed more since there has been a further addition to the motive power depot.

 

On the tippler front I realised that there was no wiring to the tracks so a couple of very fine wires were soldered to the track and up and around the pivot point, and from there back down under the counterweight. These wires are very thin and light and will ultimately connect to a small plus to power it from the adjacent track, hopefully there shouldn’t be an issue with using them with DCC, it’s what I use to connect pick-ups to decoders. I must remember to run a couple of track feeds across the cut out in the track for the tippler.

 

 

 

 

The building that conceals the turntable has been developed a bit further, a section of the board has been cut out adjacent to the tippler and will house the end of the boiler, with a doorway exposing the end. A couple of firebox flicker led’s will be used to fire up the boiler. There’s just a bit of room for a chimney in the remaining space.

 

 

 

The main building over the loading deck was next on the list, rather than split the ground floor from the first, as originally intended, I decided to make the whole building up as one piece. It will be no bigger in one piece than two as the main supports ran down to board level anyway. Columns between the wall panels were fabricated from balsa section, covered in plasticard and the whole façade was finally glued together. It’s now more urgent that I get the window etches sorted so the building can progress.

 

A start was also made on the adjacent building, which will hide some of the board joint, this will be a mixture of foamboard and resin.

 

 

 

 

 

[peter220950]

Nothing much happening on the layout again this week, some progress on buildings that I will post another day, but by and large it's been the motive power depot that has seen some work and additions.

 

 

The No 2 Fowler was going to be weathered but I decided that the base paint finish wasn't too hot, and another coat of paint would lose even more detail so it's had a dunk in Wilco paint stripper. For the first hour or so I didn't think it was doing anything but after a couple of hours and a quick scrub it came out quite clean.

 

 

Just as well as there were at least three layers, mid green, blue and GWR green being evident.

 

There was still some paint left in the grooves and corners

 

 

 

and without too much falling off

 

 

A couple of hours have been spent this afternoon scraping paint from all of the corners and producing quite a bit of debris

 

 

Next on the list was to replace the whistle that had been fitted, with a horn, as the chip had been ordered from Paul Chetter with a horn, as opposed to the klaxon on No 1.

 

 

Followed by the addition of some steps to replace the one poor set that had fallen off in the paint strip. These were fabricated from some old signal laddering and were soldered to the footplate.

 

 

It's now ready for fitting the decoder and keep alives, and a decision on paint colour, probably Cadbury/MR maroon/brown shade and weathering.

 

 

Also added to the fleet is an LMS Pug, which will likewise get a spot of dirtying and a sound chip shortly.

 

[peter220950]

A bit further on over the last couple of days, firstly the LED striplight for under the kitchen units has been commandeered for a trial as layout lighting, using a 3 coloured strip, not as yet received, I should be able to adjust the colour temperature with an RGB controller, still not sure if there’s enough light output, but multiple strips could well be the answer to an exhibition lighting rig. If nothing else the lights can be used inside buildings, and best of all they are very cheap, a 5 metre strip costing around a fiver. The strips can be cut every three led’s and wired up separately, and run off 12v.

 

 

The Fowler has had a coat of etch primer, and a bit of filler to correct a couple of blemishes in the whitemetal.

 

 

And the office building and main warehouse have had their base coat of terra-cotta paint.

 

 

Today a couple of hours were snatched to paint the rest of the bricks on the link building between the office and warehouse, and corrugated iron sheeting has been cut and fitted to the profiles of the abutting buildings. Once the brickwork is weathered it will start to blend together and the indivudual bricks become less prominent.

 

 

 

 

The artwork for the window etches has also been completed by a colleague at the Club, and is now just about ready to go off for etching.

 

 

Some thoughts have also been given to a name for the business over the last few weeks, I was originally going to call it Gravett’s Yard, in homage to the layouts’ designer, but for reasons that will become apparent I wanted something that would read the same backwards as forwards, using letters that were reversible.

 

I resisted using the name of my former employer (Aviva), as the last thing I want to be reminded of is working for a living! so for the moment MATTAM or MOTTOM look to be favourite, and why?  well in order to get depth into the layout and make it look wider I intend to make use of mirrored acrylic on the ends and rear, multiplying the size of the buildings and layout visually.

 

 

Early experiments seem to indicate this to be a viable option and I didn’t want signage on the front of the offices and the works chimney to look wrong in the reflected images. Front silvered mirrors are not that easy to come by but will help reduce the visibility of the joints at corners and board surfaces.

 

[MarshLane]

Peter,

I have to say I'm very impressed!  Have just spent a lovely couple of hours reading through this thread and inwardly digesting it as they say!  Congratulations - I shall be monitoring more in the future!

 

Rich

[peter220950]

Peter,

I have to say I'm very impressed!  Have just spent a lovely couple of hours reading through this thread and inwardly digesting it as they say!  Congratulations - I shall be monitoring more in the future!

 

Rich

 

 

Rich,

 

many thanks for your kind words, hopefully it shows that you don't need huge amounts of money to model in 'O', however it does seem that the thread is mis-named, as it's anything but 'quick'. It just goes to show how long it takes to produce even a small layout.

 

Today I have been working on the link block, the corrugated sheeting was finished and lace pins inserted to replicate the fixing bolts.

 

 

The roof was given a base coat of grey acrylic, prior to weathering.

 

 

and the brickwork had an all over brush with weathering powder to blend the individually painted bricks in a bit more.

 

 

 

It's surprising how much the finish of the paint has altered, I was a bit uncertain about the pinkish tone when I put the base coat in but it's becoming far closer to the colour I had in mind. In reality the individually painted bricks are even less prominent than the photo.

 

[MarshLane]

Peter,

All good things come to he who waits .. or at least so I'm told!  That certainly seems to bear fruit with your layout!  Im actually looking forward to getting back on with things with my layout - although as ever that constant activity called work is getting in the way!  If only I could get rid of it!

 

Given your comment about the individually painted bricks being more evident on the pictures that to the naked eye, do you feel its something worth doing? Even if it just breaks the monotony of the bland brickwork?  I once did some brickwork from Slaters sheets, painted it red, and then once dried went over it lightly with a dark grey paint, which while wet was wiped off with kitchen paper, the result was the grey filled the 'gaps' and gave a mortar look to things.  Comparing your images to my brick sheet, both have a realistic view and have their own qualities i think. Not sure there's a winner, but yours may have the edge ... just

 

Rich

[peter220950]

Peter,

All good things come to he who waits .. or at least so I'm told!  That certainly seems to bear fruit with your layout!  Im actually looking forward to getting back on with things with my layout - although as ever that constant activity called work is getting in the way!  If only I could get rid of it!

 

Given your comment about the individually painted bricks being more evident on the pictures that to the naked eye, do you feel its something worth doing? Even if it just breaks the monotony of the bland brickwork?  I once did some brickwork from Slaters sheets, painted it red, and then once dried went over it lightly with a dark grey paint, which while wet was wiped off with kitchen paper, the result was the grey filled the 'gaps' and gave a mortar look to things.  Comparing your images to my brick sheet, both have a realistic view and have their own qualities i think. Not sure there's a winner, but yours may have the edge ... just

 

Rich

 

Rich,

 

thanks for that, it doesn't take that long to paint the bricks, and is strangely thereputic, I only did it to try it out a lighter coloured brickwork, having previously relied on a coat of red oxide, a wash of mortar coloured enamel, and areas washed over with shading and some weathering powder. The problem I faced was that it was all a bit 'samey', and for the huge amount of brickwork on this layout I felt something different was worth a try. It would also enable the patterning that was often put into brickwork, though I've yet to go down that route. It's also quite hard to get the bricks 'random', I find I keep going back to even things up even though the real thing is totally inconsistent.

 

As with most things there's no right or wrong, just what suits you, it's the result of trying a base colour that was a bit too pink, so I had to do something about it, and the result feels slightly more interesting for me. It looked horrendous before the wash over with weathering powder, but has blended nicely into something I am happy to continue with for the first three buildings on the layout, but then I probably get more time to play nowadays than when I was working.

 

The focus over the last couple of days has been on the link block, some weathering was applied to the corrugated iron roofing and a length of copper tube was bent to form the rainwater pipe to the valley gutter, (after 3 attempts!)

 

 

and brass strip was soldered on to form the fixings,

 

 

 

plasticard was used to form a hopper head for the valley gutter, it's only loosely in place at present as I've run out of cyno.

 

For roof tiles I have cheated, using Slaters pre-embossed card, as a shortcut to cutting individual tiles.Using this method I can't put the correct tile and a half at the end of the rows, but it's end on and only the builders amongst us will notice.

 

Firstly plastic angle was cut to form the bargeboards, then the strips of tiles were cut and fitted to the ply roof.

 

 

 

 

a ridge capping was made from the same angle as used for the bargeboards, and strip applied to make the individual tiles.

 

 

 

Finally the roof has been given a coat of dark grey acrylic prior to weathering, all of the buildings will finally be weathered together when complete, to give some cohesion to the whole.

 

 

 

The DXF file for the window etches has also now been received, so it's off to the etchers tomorrow, the roof to the main office building is next on the list, I think I've got enough card strips to complete it, so again there's no cost, just a reduction in stock that probably won't be replaced.

 

I'm also getting to the point where the buildings are becoming a nuisance. The intention is to fix the ground floor of the office block but for the rest they will remain removable. It's now getting to the point where I can't move for buildings, and they are increasingly vulnerable as details are added, so some thought has to be given to storage, I will probably go down the Really Useful Box route, though I am hampered by the size of the warehouse, which is 2 foot long, restricting me to a choice of about 3 boxes.

Edited June 8, 2015 by peter220950

[peter220950]

Well the answer to the storage of the buildings arrived yesterday, in the form of a very large Really Useful Box

 

 

which seems to be the right decision as I can get the main building in comfortably

 

 

and though I was a bit uncertain it allows about 5mm under the lid, to give some room for foam protection, a learned lesson for the main layout is to plan how you are going to transport the buildings, as a slight adjustment to building size would have given a much more flexible set of solutions.

 

 

Fortunately I can fit some buildings within others, and hope to get all of the main buildings into this one box.

 

 

Meanwhile a start has been made on tiling the main office roof

 

 

 

and the mock-ups of the buildings on the other half of the layout, and which hide the turntable, are transforming from cardboard shells

 

 

 

into foamboard and plastikard final buildings, made up with layers of 3mm and 5mm foamboard

 

 

 

 

and finally some base coat paint has been applied to the office building to the lintols, entrance area and 'goods inwards' roller shutter, in corporate green paint, chosen as the main paint for the buildings.

 

 

 

 

[peter220950]

The link block fascias and downpipes have been painted in ‘Corporate green’, leaving it really only now needing windows and final detailing/weathering with all of the buildings.

 

 

Over the last few days I have been pondering on the new section that is being put around the office building, to hide a not very good joint amongst other things. The usual trip to Hobbycraft has helped a bit as usual, it produced a couple of sets of buttons or charms that looked quite promising.

 

 

The clock hands (?) look as if they might be useful for mouldings, the clock itself will probably re-surface somewhere on the site,

 

 

and the cogs have given me the company logo I need. It hints and engineering type work, but isn’t too specific.

 

Plastikard fascias were cut to fit and this gave the required size for letters on the signage. Hobbycraft procured some letters, but they were a bit too modern, in the end cake decoration letters from the Internet have been chosen. Firstly the fascia had the end details fitted and some representation of mouldings were added from dowel, stripwood and plastikard strip. The logo’s will just fit to the ends.

 

 

Next to be tried were the letters, laid out with the provisionally chosen Company name and the mock up was tried on the building.

 

 

 

The ideas on mirror usage to give apparent depth to the layout were also tried out

 

 

 

and the roof tiling was completed.

 

 

Next it was back onto the building which masks the turntable,

 

 

window linings were added, along with cills and head fillers.

 

 

Then a further layer of foamboard was cut to beef up the structure

 

 

And a section of additional thickness brickwork was added to the lower part of the walls adjacent to the boiler house. I have decided a further loading/unloading dock at the end of this building will give additional scope for traffic movement.

 

 

The curved brickwork over the window heads was tackled next, this was made by scoring two circles, of appropriate diameter, on plastikard using a small Olfa cutter.

 

 

The bricks were then marked out on the perimeter and scored with a knife blade

 

 

and appropriate sections were cut and stuck onto the walls.

 

 

 

 

The next few days will be spent dealing with my Bệte Noire, the cut ends of pastikard, it’s probably a bit picky, and can’t be seen at distance, but this looks better to me

 

 

than this

 

 

On the motive power front, the ‘metal’ Fowler has had a coat of red primer, ready for its top coat of rusty red.

 

 

Finally the rest of the week is likely to be spent writing out 1000 times

 

I must stop going on Ebay

I must stop going on Ebay

I must stop going on Ebay

I must stop going on Ebay

I must stop going on Ebay

I must stop going on Ebay

I must stop going on Ebay

I must stop going on Ebay

I must stop going on Ebay

I must stop going on Ebay

 

 

 

 

It's for my grandson honest! (the fact that he's only 4 months old is irrelevant)

[peter220950]

As well as experimenting with the red/green/blue LED’s, warm white LED’s, and white LED’s in the kitchen, which may well make an appearance in buildings and layout lighting, I also stumbled across these on Ebay.

 

 

Electronic tea lights, for the princely sum of £2.99 for 6, which comprise a button  3v battery, a rudimentary switch, and an LED which flickers when lit.  The reason for this extravagance? – I ripped 4 of the LED’s out, soldered them together, added a diode, and put them in one of the salvaged tea light bases ready to incorporate into the layout, fed from the DCC track power.

 

 

This assembly was then put into the back of the boiler, in the basement of the building concealing the turntable.

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the day it’s hardly visible, but provides a little point of interest tucked away, to add something else to the layout. It also explains why everything is taking so long, I keep getting distracted by pointless whimsy instead of getting on with the basic layout construction, but what the hell rule 1 applies!

 

The fret for Giles Favells’ sett stamper arrived earlier in the week 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/96274-denton-brook-7mm-industrial/?p=1882592 

and gave the opportunity to spend a couple of hours cursing and burning my fingers, but the finished result is well worth the effort,

 

 

I can now get on with the paved area of the yard. Many thanks to Giles for sharing this gadget with us mere mortals.

 

Finally the Fowler has had its top coat today, and will give me a chance to have a go at weathering once fully hardened.

 

 

 

[Guest Isambarduk]

I love the sticking up coupling links :-) most impressive!

[peter220950]

It's a problem I have living in Droitwich, the centre of the Universe. - No Gravity

 

Unless I sprayed it upside down first   Good job I will be fitting Sprat & Winkle couplings soon. (What's worse was that I hadn't even noticed!)

[Beatty 139]

I presumed is was induced magnetism due to the some what huge output of the BBC LW transmitters beaming R4 across Europe... Funny things happen round those parts!

[peter220950]

This week has seen some progress which has resolved the final placement, sizes and details of the remaining buildings on the second baseboard.

 

Firstly the base of the chimney, adjacent to the boiler house, was made up in foamboard  to infill the small area between the front kick-back siding and the incoming track from the turntable. This also helps hide the exit to the fiddle yard,

 

 

the building was then clad with brick plastikard and a concrete slab roof was modelled to form a chimney support base.

 

 

Then the link bridge was set out, a foamboard base was cut to size and the temporary card structure added to get an idea of the final layout, a permanent structure will be made once the final building is completed and the ends can be tied together.

 

 

The auxiliary store at the end of the main warehouse building was progressed next, this is a cobble-up of sections of an old engine shed and new foam-board centre section, the ends are a bit wobbly but hopefully won’t look too lousy when it’s all completed.

 

 

 

This just left two buildings to be constructed, a water tower and an engine house.

 

 

Clearly the water tower needs to be quite tall to give a sufficient head of water to supply the works, it also needs to be quite substantial to support the loads exerted by a large tank of water.

 

A foamboard front was made, piers added, and brick cladding started, along with the unusually shaped mock-up of the engine house.

 

 

The building hiding the turntable came in for some additional work next, with the roof and connection to the link bridge coming in for a bit of design development. The roof has actually been chopped down a bit to enable it to fit into the transit boxes. A bit of thought and compromise at this stage has saved problems of storage and transit later down the line.

 

 

The second storey of the engine house was added next, creating the last structure of the whole layout.

 

 

The water tower windows have been cut out and the support for the water tank panels cut to size.

 

 

And finally the secondary loading dock in front of the turntable was clad with brick plastikard, sett top area, and protective corner edging.

 

 

While there’s till a long way to go it means I can work on one building at a time now, safe in the knowledge that it should all fit together into the remaining spaces on the layout.

 

The main outstanding decision to be resolved is the shape of the chimney, the mock up is square, but I am also considering circular and octagonal ones, the main problem being the increased complexity of either one. A tapered circular one will require each course of brickwork to be fixed separately, while an octagonal one will create twice the number of corner joints and some nifty tapered angle joints in foamboard. The next few days will see some test pieces and a final decision.

 

 

 

[Simond]

if you fancy a challenge....

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=chimney+dundee&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=74-SVbLVLqad7gbi94DgAw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg&biw=1360&bih=667#imgrc=5bL2rQqq1N_MaM%3A

 

 

Simon

[peter220950]

if you fancy a challenge....

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=chimney+dundee&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=74-SVbLVLqad7gbi94DgAw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAg&biw=1360&bih=667#imgrc=5bL2rQqq1N_MaM%3A

 

 

Simon

 

 

Thanks for that Simond, maybe a bit OTT for my little works yard!  I'm currently looking at an octagonal one, similar to

 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/510736413967735210/

 

It's at an early stage, with a card mock up looking promising and the sides and formers marked and cut out in plastikard. Hopefully it will not be too painful glueing all the junctions up at 45 degrees,

 

 

 

I did do a test piece, scribing individual bricks onto plain plastikard, but life's too short, along with my skill level, so it's going to be down to brick plastikard and ignoring the inaccuracy of coursing the bricks at the corner joints.

[Beatty 139]

Hi Peter,

I have been following this thread with intrest, and it's largely inspired my efforts in G1 with what I have now christened 'Prudence Works' as a test bed for some 10mm scale ideas.

If you have any cad skills drop me a PM as I would quite happily help out laser engraving the chininey for the material cost, I too have been pondering on the square, round or other shape option while lurking around the back streets of Birmingham and the black country.

[peter220950]

Many thanks for your kind offer, sadly my CAD skills are virtually non-existant so I have to rely on a fellow club member to sort out my etch artwork, in exchange for the odd paint job.

 

I did seriously consider getting some brass etched to do the job, but when I went for the octagonal option things get a bit complicated, for a start I don't think laser cutting can chamfer the ends at 221/2 degrees to form nice joints, and in brass, face soldering the last bits would involve quite a lot of cleaning up.

 

As this is meant to be a quick layout I don't want to get into a major operation, so I will stick with plastic as I can clad it with bricks once the shape is sorted, but thanks for the offer anyway.

 

For a square chimney I would think laser cut MDF  is the ideal solution, and could cope with a small taper on the chimney.

 

I spent a few minutes tonight getting the kit of parts cleaned up, and in a relatively short time managed to get the basic structure stuck together.

 

 

 

The hole up the middle is to allow a 15mm copper pipe to be fitted, should I wish to fit a smoke unit at any time, the last piece in had to be shaved a bit to fit but it's good enough as a base for the finishes to be applied to.

 

 

A further square base part has been fabricated which may, or may not be incorporated into the final design, along with the cotton reel cap, which is just a trial at the moment.

 

,

 

 

Off to Cornwall for a few days on Thursday, so that's probably as far as it's going to get for a couple of weeks.

Edited June 30, 2015 by peter220950

[asa]

That's looking great Peter,nice work.

[peter220950]

That's looking great Peter,nice work.

 

 

Thanks for that, one last bit of work today before the hols, I managed to scrape up enough card to start on the cladding, the top section is to be based on this tower, and I can hide the first join under the decorative corbel courses.

 

 

 

The pieces were cut to size and temporarily attached with double sided tape until all were cut and trimmed to fit

 

 

Then they were cleaned up and solvent welded on

 

 

a further layer was then started with a full sheet size, which should lead to only having one more horizontal join, which I should be able to hide in the mortar course with a bit of knifing stopper.

 

 

 

the vertical corner joints don't seem as if they will be too much of a problem, the sections were filed to a chamfer before fitting, so there isn't much cleaning up to do, a coat of paint will show up any glaring discrepancies, and if there's a real problem anywhere it's going to be turned to face the back!

 

 

 

It's turned out to be much simpler than I thought, but that's often the way, it's the ones you think will be easy that turn out to be the problem.

 

Being a series of pieces the finished thing will still fit into the proposed storage box, even though it's now almost 600mm tall, the provision of holes to put a copper pipe up the middle also means it can be threaded into a spindle which is secured to the baseboard, providing some stability.

Edited July 1, 2015 by peter220950

[Simond]

Delighted to see your workbench is as tidy as mine habitually is...

 

Best

Simon

[peter220950]

Delighted to see your workbench is as tidy as mine habitually is...

 

Best

Simon

There's barely room to work, and the room is just as bad, as soon as the building carcasses are all complete I can fit them into their box and excavate the dust and debris from the room, perhaps that should be the first job when I get back

 

Edit

 

That's also something I have learned about working with foamboard, it produces sacks full of waste and needs acres of flat space to cut it up.

Edited July 1, 2015 by peter220950