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

[peter220950]

The week has been a bit fragmented as the final push was on to get the kitchen units finallly lined and levelled, ready for the granite arrival on Monday, so progress has been a series of minor steps forward on several fronts.

 

Firstly the chimney was sprayed and ladder fixings were attached, (small staples fitted into pre-drilled holes)

 

 

 

 

 

On the shunter front chequer plate was added to the footplate, adjacent to the cab, where the cab had been narrowed. The footplate has has buffer beams drilled for buffers, using Pete Harvey's nice little fold-up drilling jig, and a coat of black paint sprayed on it. the wasp stripes were masked off, and will be retained.

 

 

 

The body has had handrails removed, holes drilled for new ones, and the filling is just about there, just needing a final bit of wet and drying. It's currently in oxide primer, ready for a coat of maroon paint. The headlight was drilled out at the back and an LED fitted, and a couple of holes were drilled in the rear of the cab, washers added, ready for a couple of 2mm red LEDs, and buffers and a spare horn were dug out of the spares box.

 

 

 

 

and three pieces of grille etch have been cut to drop into the front, once painted.

 

 

Last night saw a test fit of the framework designed to fit the layout into the Club stand, and after cutting off a couple of small pieces from the front rail it dropped in perfectly, giving a rigid base that ties the stand into it. Cross pieces of aluminium slide over the bolt heads to give support over the full depth of the layout.

 

 

 

 

I want to paint the frame, but I'm not sure I could get it all back together if I took it to pieces, and even if I label the pieces I'm likely to paint over the markers, so the jury's out on this at the moment.

 

Storage for the boards in transit also came in for a few minutes of thought. The kitchen wall units came with some nice corner protectors which, although a bit wider than I was going to use, are just the job for stopping the protecting pieces getting caught. On the strength of these pieces some 6mm plywood was picked up from B&Q, cut to the requisite 285mm needed for the new end and side plates. Once the weather is better I will get the chop saw out to cut the pieces to length.

 

 

 

Today, after stopping the stop-valve leak and fixing the sink unit, I moved on to a bit of fiddling about with buildings. The structure in front of the fiddle yard has been finished, except for the roof finish, (still to be decided) and gutters, but it can now be painted.

 

 

Similarly the engine room is ready for paint, having had roof coverings and gutters fitted,

 

 

a holiday internet purchase has arrived and will be motorised and fitted, probably a bit too old for the 1960's, but the factory owner is a tight-wad.

 

 

Next on the agenda will be the fitting out of storage boxes for the buildings and layout, as it's now getting to the point where leaving them lying around renders them liable to damage, so it will be out with the foamboard and lining material.

 

 

[Mike Bellamy]

 

Peter

 

David Rae has converted an old Atlas loco into a Hibberd Planet . . . . . . . .

 

Details here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/60529-atlas-plymouth-to-hibberd-planet-conversion/

 

 

.

[Simond]

Made a Mavis out of mine...

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/97814-7mm-modelling-down-under/?p=1930650

 

Best

Simon

[Dava]

PeterDavid Rae has converted an old Atlas loco into a Hibberd Planet . . . . . . . .Details here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/60529-atlas-plymouth-to-hibberd-planet-conversion/.

Since Exported to Martin Hartley in New South Wales!

Dava

[peter220950]

Peter

 

David Rae has converted an old Atlas loco into a Hibberd Planet . . . . . . . .

 

Details here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/60529-atlas-plymouth-to-hibberd-planet-conversion/

 

 

.

 

Made a Mavis out of mine...

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/97814-7mm-modelling-down-under/?p=1930650

 

Best

Simon

 

Thanks for that gents, I had wondered about a Hibberd, but didn't want to get too involved on something that was just bought on a whim to get a cheap shunter.

 

I was originally looking for the 0-6-0 that both of these are based on, but hadn't seen the 0-4-0's before, the chassis block and motor is totally different in mine, and would probably be a lot less work to convert than the 0-6-0, as I don't think there would be any need to cut anything but plastic about.

 

Once I see how it performs I might keep my eyes out for another, though I suspect I might have to wait some time.

 

Peter

[L&Y]

""a holiday internet purchase has arrived and will be motorised and fitted, probably a bit too old for the 1960's, but the factory owner is a tight-wad.

 

 

Thats fantastic. Would like to know how you get on with making it work! Had a look at there other items... interesting. This is going to be great! 

[peter220950]

Would like to know how you get on with making it work! Had a look at there other items... interesting. This is going to be great! 

 

 If you think about it it's not that different to loco workings, the cylinder will be sleeved with a brass tube, and the plummer blocks will be drilled out and lined with brass, other than that the most complicated bit will be the crankshaft. It is likely to be motorised from below, probably just a friction drive to the bottom of the flywheel, and I've already ordered a miniature motor for the motorising of the centrifugal regulator!

 

How hard can it be.........................

 

Thre's actually room in the Engine House for two, so Telford might be even more expensive, I've just started to put the engine together so I'll keep you updated as it gets built.

 

 

The 'cheapie' loco has now got some buffers, and will now start to get final paint and detailing.

 

 

Today was spent sorting out the boxing for transporting the layout, the new depth plywood sides were cut to length, and drilled to take the locating bolts,

 

 

brass strip was cut to cover the 'Magnet' logo, and provide a spreader plate to screw fixings into blocks on the inside of the corner protectors. These are now firmly (I hope) attached to the end plates, and push on as one piece once the side plates are in place. 

 

 

The only question now is how easy it will be to move the completed box. It's currently just under 20kg's so it's not too bad, and there's not a massive amount of landscaping etc. to increase this much.

 

I'm just debating whether to add handles or cut out's to the sides to help get a handhold for moving it, and I will be investing in a portable sack-truck to wheel it about.

 

 

Granite worktops arriving tomorrow, so probably nothing happening on the layout for a day or two now.

 

Peter

[peter220950]

Another slow week, due mainly to work on the kitchen, but also because I have become side-tracked on the mill engine (as is my way).

 

The only other progress was sorting out all the windows and spraying them with etch primer ready for painting, and playing with the soft white LED strip for the kitchen as a means to light the buildings, but this only took a few hours. The main distraction was the horizontal steam engine, the more I looked at it the more it seemed that motorising it was going to need a bit of work.

 

Actually reading the instructions it does state that the engine can be made to work, but I think there's a difference between getting something to work and getting it to work for several hours at a time, so I started to have a think about it for a day or so.

 

I'm not a great fan of whitemetal, and even though it can be sleeved out with brass it's a pain to drill and fix, so I have made even more work for myself by re-casting most of the large significant pieces in resin, it's easire to file, fill, drill and tap.

 

First off the slide bars were cut in half

 

 

then the cylinder and valve chest were assembled into one unit, the plummer blocks, the bases of the slide bars, and the cylinder suport were also fixed to the engine base.

 

 

Hindsight and reading the instructions later on have made me realise that the plummer blocks will need too be removed to fit the main wheel axle later on.

 

The whitemetal masters were secured in a plastikard box and RTV was poured in. When set resin was poured to give me resin parts that I could work with more comfortably..

 

 

 

 

Firstly the new resin main cylinder block was drilled out and brass tube was inserted in the main cylinder, the valve chest, and the spindle hole for the governor. A governor was made up out of some small beads and wire, this drops through the floor and will be motorised

 

 

a spare handwheel was fitted to the base, to replace the whitemetal one.

 

 

Having made the cylinder suitable to take moving piston rods and the like I moved my attention to the horizontal slide bars, again the kit ones are a whitemetal casting which I had cut down and used the bottom section to cast in with the engine bed.

 

Four pieces of brass channel were cut to length, and driled at each end.

 

 

A pair were used as templates to drill into the engine bed, and 10BA screws were tapped into the holes. The bottom plates were added, followed by a nut, and the heads were cut off the bolts.

 

 

 

The remaining pair of plates were dropped in place and further nuts added, replicating the whitemetal slide bars with brass.

 

 

Next I need to cut a new big end and bearing,and the piston rod, slide support, and valve operating gubbins. It's almost become a scratch build, and will take a disproportionate amount of time to get up and running. What's more it's not likely to be seen as it's at the back of the layout, but what the heck, I'll know it's there.

 

The real worry is that I've already started setting aside a second set of parts as there's room for the other engine in the room, so I could be paying Mr Duncan a visit at Telford to get the bits for a second one, I could just cast another, but it doesn't somehow seem quite right, so I will use the bits and pieces from a second kit then put the whitemetal bits into the spares box for another day.

 

Peter

[peter220950]

Well here we are again, over a week on without much happening to move the layout forward. The horizontal engines in the engine room have been the principal cause of delay in anything other than peripheral stuff.

 

On the layout front the only thing that has happened is the acquisition of a roll of plastic from a fellow Club member, which might solve my backscene requirements.

 

 

It’s about 1m x 2.00m and 1mm thick, and is close to being front silvered, which is what I wanted, to reduce the ‘line’ between reflection and reality. Because it’s been stored for some time there’s a small area of distortion, but at least I have managed to identify a source for the material. I will have to fix it to a solid board, but it looks to be the biz.

 

 

 

 

On the mill engine front I have sent off to China for motors to drive the engines and governors. First to arrive, and actually too small to be of use, were these little beauties – mobile phone vibrating motors, as used also in T gauge loco’s.

 

 

They really are small! – the thing that still puzzles me is how they can make five of these and post them to me for £2.01?

 

 

I am holding out more hope for the geared motors which are still on the way, and should prove powerful enough for the main engines as well as the governor drives.

 

For actual progress,  the first thing to be done was the mounting of the new resin cylinder, for this a hole was drilled in the base and cylinder, and the cylinder was tapped 10BA to locate it securely on the cradle.

 

 

A guide for the valve rod was fabricated next, from brass tube, and located in a hole drilled in the machine base.

 

 

 

Next a slipper was fabricated to slide on the slide bars, and to guide the piston rod, and a joint fabricated to join to the connecting rod.

 

 

At the other end the plummer blocks were drilled out for brass tube to act as bearings for the main wheel shaft.

 

 

And a connecting rod was fashioned from square rod, rounded off by hand.

 

 

 

Having got this far a second engine was started to make it quicker to batch build components, and it was brought up to the same point.

 

 

Experiments with both the resin and white metal flywheels gave a feeling that neither were going to be satisfactory, so an alternative was planned and sourced.

 

Next for attention came the slip eccentrics that drive the valvegear, brass tube and solid rod were dug out of the metals box and along with a bit of flat plate the ring and hub were made up on the lathe.

 

 

 

For the building itself, which had never been designed to hold the engines, a bit of cutting about and hiding ragged edges was undertaken, along with provision of floor tiles and wall brickwork.

 

 

And the engines started to get some paint.

 

 

The cunning plan for the flywheels was the purchase of a pair of Mamod traction engine front wheels, which are of a suitable diameter, though a bit to wide.

 

 

The wheels will run in slots cut in the engine house floor,

 

 

Initial thoughts were to friction drive the protruding wheel

 

 

But this has now changed to a Delrin drive. As noted above the wheels looked a bit clumsy as bought

 

 

So it was back out with the lathe to narrow them down a bit, engineers should look away now as I have no skill with the lathe, and get results more by luck than ability.

 

 

Fortunately the wheels are alloy, which turns easily, they are still quite wide, but look better to my eye, there was also quite a large boss on one side of the wheel, which was cut off and tidied up, to make room for a spacer and Delrin cog.

 

 

 

 

Next for attention came the valvegear eccentrics, which were fabricated from rod and bar to replace the whitemetal ones.

 

 

The crankshaft was fabricated next, holes were drilled in 4 pieces of flat plate, all soldered together, and they were then filed to shape, and rods were soldered in for the main axle.

 

 

A big end was cut out of brass, a connecting rod sleeve was attached, and it was drilled and a bearing soldered in, the bearing was put into place and the other axle was inserted and soldered up.

 

 

The centre of the main axle was then cut out with a piecing saw, the whole thing is a bit rough, but will be cleaned up if it works!

 

 

 

To attach the main drive shaft the plummer blocks had to be removed, holes were drilled at the bolt positions to re-locate them once on the axle is inserted.

 

 

The blocks were put onto the axles, and have been temporarily fixed with 1mm brass rods and a glue gun for testing purposes. The flywheel and slip eccentric was fitted and the whole thing starts to look something like. It’s not the finest bit of modeling but it has to be remembered that the engines are going to be inside a building at the back of the layout, and probably not seen!

 

 

Most importantly the engine seems to be capable of motorizing, the governor will get a small drive motor, which I haven’t yet sorted out the mechanics of.

 

 

And the main engine and valvegear appears to work well enough to drive from the Delrin once I get some more bits from Telford at the weekend.

 

 

 

Today I spent a bit of time adding some lights to buildings, using offcuts from the 12v strip bought for the kitchen. The rolls of led’s are 5m long, and can be cut into multiples of 3 lamps and fed by soldering wires to the exposed pads at the cut ends. It’s a cheap and flexible way of lighting buildings, I have both soft white and bright white led’s and small in-line dimmers to give a variety of brilliance and hue. The lamps will probably be switched on and off at random on various places to give an impression of life going on within the buildings.

 

 

 

 

 

Nothing much more is likely to happen this week, the Dapol Terrier is arriving tomorrow, don’t quite know how I came to get that, I don’t need it and it doesn’t fit in with anything I model, but it did look nice! So I am likely to be playing for the next day or two, and it’s Telford this weekend, so Saturday and Sunday  will probably see some serious wallet damage.

 

 

[Giles]

absolutely delightful Peter! I love the stationary engines - a lovely thing to do. (The Unimat 3 is an extremely useful little mmachine isn't it? - I've had one for thirty years for small bits and pieces....)

[peter220950]

absolutely delightful Peter! I love the stationary engines - a lovely thing to do. (The Unimat 3 is an extremely useful little mmachine isn't it? - I've had one for thirty years for small bits and pieces....)

 

Yes, it's just a pity it's diverting me from finishing the main event, but as I'm more interested in making things than 'playing trains' I suppose it doesn't really mattter. I'm trying not to get too 'gimmicky' with things on the layout, but there is a degree of theatre in an Exhibition layout, and what I'm adding generally probably won't be noticed by the majority of people.It's my view that it's no good having a working layout if everything else is sterile and motionless, I just can't find room to run lorries - there's nowhere for them to go! (Should have spent a bit more time planning.)

 

The Unimat is useful in it's ability to sit under the workbench most of the time, without the need for a large workshop, and it's more than enough for my limited needs and abilities, mine is also getting on for 30 years old, and the only real issue I have with it are the rubber belts, as I think it might be better geared, but then again I would probably break it when I jam to cutting tool in too fast, at least the belts slip!

 

Peter

[rue_d_etropal]

internal doors are probably underrated as cheap and easy baseboards. I have used them for various uses for many years. I don't rate them very highly as doors though.

I started to build one large scale narrow gauge layout using a door , well over 10 years ago, but when I tried to move it I found the size , with buildings and scenery made it too bulky, and heavy (plastter!!). Anyway I tried to cut it in half , damaged the track, and scrapped it. I did not really want a 2 part layout anyway.

But the name stuck, I had called that layout Etropal (French for 'door', backwards) and this evolved into 'Rue d'Étropal', the name I use online. It also links back to the way my surname was cruelly twisted into references to doors at school, so hopefully I am the one with last word.

I have also built a layout on an inverted pasting table. As it uses LGB track and a lot of infill, it is very heavy, but the base folds and the buildings and scenery clip on to it, so it is at least portable and has been to several exhibitions.

As long as boards are no bigger then they will easily fit in most cars, and can in theory be carried by one person. My preference these days is box type layouts (eg Ikea APA ) which are no longer than a metre long, as these are easy to transport and store. I also like the challenge to see how much I can fit in, especially in G scale or Gauge 1, possibly even bigger scale.

 

 

Reading through this thread, and one thing I would not describe it as is a 'quickie'. Nice layout,

[peter220950]

Reading through this thread, and one thing I would not describe it as is a 'quickie'. Nice layout,

Thanks Simon,

 

Errr yes, guilty as charged.

 

It was intended to be when I started the thread but a lot of other things seem to have got in the way, doesn't bode well for the main layout. Still it has been invaluable for trying things out, and hopefully now all the structures are complete it will move on a bit, I must say I under-estimated the time taken to build 8ft of buildings, there's a lot to be said for a Branch Line Teminus and a tub of flock powder.

 

The other thing I have to consider, as you have noted, is the weight, I'm not getting any younger and bolting the boards together face to face has made a bit of a monster, particularly when it has to go downstairs. Fortunately the buildings will mainly be in separate boxes so can be carted around separately. Next task is to see if it will all fit in the car.

 

Peter

[peter220950]

Two weeks on and a quick update on progress, or lack thereof, though in fairness a weekend at Telford took a chunk out of it, and my wallet. The first week started badly with an impulse purchase that doesn’t fit in with anything I am doing, but it does look rather nice. As soon as I get it chipped I will give it a trial on the layout to see if it will run the curves.

 

 

The rest of the week was spent in weathering the link building over the exit to the fiddle yard,

 

 

 

and playing with the LED strip that I’m fitting to the kitchen.. This is a mock up of the new control panel that takes advantage of the Minx Microdrive ability to switch a point with a single wire per point and a common. I have purchased single throw double pole switches that allow half of the switch to be used to power LED’s for the appropriate roads, as long as it’s kept to groups of three lights it works well. I shall put a cover over the backplate which will have the trackplan and holes for the LED’s. Because the whole panel only needs 6 wires to control feed it I am working on the revised principle of a portable panel to allow control from different points on the layout.

 

 

Telford saw two days that were hard on the feet and the wallet, most spending being on small items that were needed for the layout, except for the Minerva Peckett order.

 

On return the first thing tackled was a coat of paint to the chimney. I seem to have forgotten how to paint plastikard brickwork, so quite a bit of the time was spent re-learning techniques. I’ve finally settled on a coat of sand coloured acrylic followed by sponging pan pastels to colour the bricks, followed by a spray of fixative. I’m still debating on re-coating with grey/black draughtsmans’ tints to darken the mortar down, particularly as the chimney will need to be sooted up quite a bit further down the line.

 

 

 

The loading dock to the front of the turntable has also been weathered with acrylics and powders.

 

 

Next up the remaining Minx Microdrive controller was fitted to the fiddle yard board and all of the track wiring and frogs were fired up and tested, surprisingly the layout performed well with the Fowler, the first time I have had a play for some weeks. The wiring now needs a final tidy up and labelling to feeds and wires to aid fault finding if there’s a problem in the future.

 

 

Fencing for the sub-station was purchased from Peter Clark Models, two packs were needed to supply the requisite amount, of posts and fencing panels. A panel of foamboard was cut to size to drop into the space on the board later on.

 

 

 

Stone slabs were laid to provide a path and walkway around the transformer, and a panel was framed up with plastic angle to form a pair of gates. Posts were soldered to the fence, with only one melting incident, which will be disguised with some shrubbery later. Electrical cabinets were made up from boxes cut from a Lima diesel shunter some years ago and put away for a rainy day, the ground will be treated with ballast later on and kept reasonably clean, as these sub-stations are usually kept tidy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The barbed wire supplied with the kit looks a bit coarse, so some 1/48^th military modelling stuff has been ordered.

 

 

The view blocker to the fiddle yard exit was tackled today, using angle girders bought last weekend, a tower was built using four sections and four pieces of angle section.

 

 

This was followed by a three sided cable/pipe trough and a single girder vertical support.

 

 

 

Although I had tube section plastic for the pipes across the tracks I was a bit stuck for bends, I have sent for some Knightwing pipe sections, but they are 00 and will be too small for the main runs, however a handle purchased from Homebase has provided appropriate sections,

 

 

I will be wrapping one of the pipes with aluminium foil tape to simulate pipe lagging, and further bits of wire and plastic will be used to add to the general clutter. A length of Peco ladder has also been added to distract the eye from the view of the turntable.

 

 

It’s starting to look the part, here’s a brief clip, which also shows the boiler room in the basement that is where the steam comes from for the engine house..

 

 

On the electronics front the bits of equipment, ordered from Hong Kong, have arrived, and comprise some switches that turn on and off, reversing the voltage too after a set period,

 

 

And some straightforward on/off timers for random light switching in the buildings, at around £2.00 each they provide a cost effective way of providing some automation on the layout.

 

 

Some 1:1000 geared motors have been ordered for the steam engines, though I actually have one for the  currently working engine. At Telford I picked up some cheap geared motors with right angled drives from Squires, and these are for powering the governor on the steam engines.

 

 

A pair of sub bases of plastikard have been cut to form bases for the steam engines and the two types of motors were attached with the glue gun.

 

 

 

A length of Delrin, and a gear, obtained from Telford, were then linked up and the whole thing was given a first test run, it’s yet to be refined and painted properly, but it seems to be what I was aiming for, I have now obtained a second engine for ancillary parts so can get on with completing the engine room.

 

 

Next week it’s down to moving these items on a bit and starting to fix some of them down to the baseboard, the transformer to the sub-station will be left loose as it’s a large lump of metal to cause damage if it comes loose in transit.

Edited September 12, 2015 by peter220950

[peter220950]

Just a brief update, it’s been a week of bits and pieces, with the usual three steps forward two steps back.

 

On the backwards steps the chain linkage on the tippler has broken for a second time, so quite a bit of time has been spent thinking about what to do. The angles the chain went through are not really ideal, and the best answer would be to motorise it, so the current thinking is to move the operating bits to the front, to avoid the 180 degree bend in the pull mechanism, and have high breaking strain nylon fishing line instead of chain on both sides, which will wind onto a powered shaft, something to keep thinking about and gather bits together, I’ve already dug out some limit switches so watch this space.

 

Secondly as an end and backplate were cut and fitted it became apparent that the T nut inserts to the front and back of the boards were not going to work. These are designed to have the nut on the other side, in this case inside the door, but this is impractical and I hammered them in from the outside, fine for the protective ply box sides, but not for chipboard panels where they tended to pull out. New screw in inserts, the same as at the ends, have been ordered, (from Ebay seller Hussain-Bolt!) and will be fitted once received.

 

The positive works have involved a bit more painting and weathering to buildings and structures and some works to the sub-station. The transformer has been dirtied up a bit, the fencing painted with Metalcote, and the posts given a concrete colour. The new barbed wire arrived, and the difference to that in the kit can be seen, though it’s a pain to fix, and very fragile.

 

 

 

A gravel base was put under the transformer and some finer fill was put around the paving. The whole thing will get a weathering spray to tone it down, and some weeds, once the base is fitted to the layout.

 

 

 

 

The chimney has been dirtied down and the factory lettering added to the front, I thought it was probably a bit too dirty until I looked at old 50’s and 60’s photo’s of buildings and realised just how filthy everything was before smokeless fuel diesel loco’s, and central heating. The weathering gets less the further away from the boiler house you get.

 

 

 

Because I’m starting to get over-run with buildings, and damage is being caused to part finished bits, the next item on the list was to fit out the box for the fiddle yard board buildings. Foamboard was cut to support and restrain buildings and the transformer. When I’m not working on the buildings they can now go into the roof without getting damage. The next project will be to do the same for the buildings on the other board, in a box that’s twice as big.

 

 

 

A start has been made on detailing the fueling point, with some weathering of the tank and fitting drainage gratings to the base. My cheapo bridge camera isn’t getting very good photo’s, and some of the buildings look a bit different on the photo’s, I think the work-rooms red wall and poor lighting is not helping, but it does look better in real life honest! I am addressing layout lighting at the moment, trying to choose between safe and sure 200w halogen spots and new fangled LED’s, I’m just awaiting a reel of high power stuff from Hong Kong to see how it goes.

 

 

The link building behind the offices has been given some subtle bits of vegetation to the ledges and gutters, and some experiments with lighting and the mirror back wall are coming out as well as I had hoped. I had bought a lot of office furniture from Telford and this will be painted and fitted once the newly fitted windows are glazed.

 

 

 

 

 

The buildings masking the turntable are now starting to come together a bit, the problem now being the need to adapt the top floor of the building to the rear, to allow the pipes and services from the boiler house to land. A suitable hole was cut into the wall, and a corbel course added to hide the joint between floors, as the top floor will lift off for travel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To the front of the offices kerbs have been laid and slabs cut ready to pave, once the building is fixed.

 

 

Friday was spent using some of the South-East Finecast sheet that I bought at Telford, a sheet that is a three storey industrial frontage, with window openings, and decorative features all moulded in. The last remaining bit of space on the boards is at the far left hand side, and a section of walling has been cut to size and stuck to a foamboard backing to close the gap.

 

 

One item that I’ve been thinking about for a few weeks is the window in the chimney base, it backs straight onto the turntable and the only real thing I thought I could do was to dirty the windows and obscure the glass, however last night I put a strip of LED in, put a false wall about 15mm behind the window, and popped a picture of a corridor in. It seems to fit the bill, once the window is glazed, and has a bit of dirtying up it should disguise the fact that the building has no depth. It’s another bit of detail that probably won’t be seen as the window is under the overhang from the floor above, but it was a useful learning exercise, I have a similar problem with one of the ground floor office windows, which has the fiddle yard behind it, so I might try the same thing. 

 

Edited September 19, 2015 by peter220950

[peter220950]

First job of last week was the monthly tidy-up of the workbench, it’s a day spent without modelling, but has to be done, as I get to a stage where I can’t find anything and spend even more time looking for stuff than the tidy-up.

 

 

Thoughts then turned to the mirror end panel, the roll of mirror plastic I had been given had a curve in it from being in store for years, I tried a heat gun to smooth it out, but this proved to be a dead-end, causing even more distortion.

 

 

I cut a piece to size and glued it to a panel of chipboard with contact adhesive.

 

 

 

 It has proved the concept, but there are still minor imperfections which give tiny distortions and it’s very heavy, so once the sizes have been sorted out with new screw-in inserts I will be sourcing front silvered Perspex cut to size. The idea seems to work, and on that basis I am continuing with it as a means of ‘stretching’ the apparent size of the layout and losing the end panels/supports to the Club stand.

 

 

 

I am beginning to fit windows to the buildings now, and first off this week was the building to the rear of the turntable exit road.

 

 

Continuing the theme of lighting buildings and giving apparent depth to spaces less than  20mm deep I installed two lengths of LED strip and fitted a timer to one section. The building houses one of the Minx Microdrive control units, and masks the fiddle yard, so there’s not much space in the building. Once again boxes were built behind the windows and pictures of plant rooms were installed.

 

 

 

 

The new inserts arrived to replace the T nuts that were failing, and these were screwed into the front and rear rails of the doors.

 

 

 

The assembled storage box was now found to be much more rigid and strong, but at around 20kgs it’s a bit of a handful for an old bloke, so thoughts were given for a few days to moving it to and from the car.

 

 

On the layout itself, now that the end panel has been tested out the road was put in, it’s only half width, but the mirror takes care of that. The kerbs had previously been installed, and a card sub-base to the footpath cut and fitted. A timber along the mirror gave the camber to the road and the surface of the card was cut out to take the inspection chamber covers and gully gratings, there were then chemically blackened ready for incorporating into the surface.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had been given some plastikard strips ready scribed to the correct size for paving slabs, and these were cut to fit the footpath and kerb line,

 

 

until I had a sudden thought - in over 40 years in construction I haven’t noticed slabs laid longitudinally to footpaths, so the strips had to be re-cut at right angles to the road.

 

The strips have been fixed to the sub-base, and holes drilled for gates and fittings. The only thing I’ve forgotten is the provision of wiring to the street lights, but that will have to be addressed with a bit of keyhole surgery and springy wire.

 

 

After that it was back to work that’s necessary, but not very productive, in getting the layout completed. The box for the buildings on the turntable board was lined with foam cored board and partitioned to take the buildings and some fixtures. They can now travel without damage (I hope), and be stored in safety.

 

 

 

A similar box was then fitted out for the control systems and transformers, which are dedicated to the layout and only used when it goes out

 

 

two more boxes will be required, one for stock and one for loco’s, again dedicated stock. These, along with the large box for the factory board buildings, should see all that’s required on the layout in a series of boxes that will make it easier to see if anything is missing before it goes out anywhere.

 

The only thing I now have to address is how far to take the provision of back-up for the control systems. As a dedicated OCD planner I usually like to have a plan B……….and a plan C……….and a plan D etc. There’s a spare 12v DC transformer already stored, for the Microdrive and lighting control. I have the main controller, a booster and hand-held, with two 16vAC transformers, so in the event of failure of the hand held, the controller can cope, if the booster or a transformer fails a quick re-wire will see the turntable running off the main controller but not able to turn 180 degrees, (not the end of the world, and sorted in emergency with a DPDT switch), but that still leaves the ZTC base station, should I carry a spare? decisions, decisions.

 

Then perhaps saddest of all is the dedicated box with the bolts, spares, and tools specifically required for the layout. It may seem organised but I do worry sometimes, I looked at a line of washing I had put out the other day and found every item had a pair of pegs the same colour, it now takes even longer to hang out washing as I have to make conscious decisions to get a random mix of colours, - think I probably need to get out more.

 

 

The Office building saw the name boards fitted that hide the dodgy joint between the two halves, and which locates the top floor.Again partitions and lighting have been installed, the rear half of the building being occupied by fiddle yard sidings.

 

 

Finally, after a couple of days thinking, and looking through bits left over from the kitchen, a pair of plates were cut from some surplus metal drawer dividers, these can be bolted across any of the pairs of bolts which screw the layout together for transit or storage. The first plate was fitted with a spare drawer handle, and gives a strong lifting point. The second was fitted with a pair of nylon wheels and makes the whole storage box a bit like a big suitcase, which should help to wheel it out to the car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It won’t be much use on anything other than concrete or tarmac, but time will tell. I may also do a second handle plate to enable two people to carry the box, as the new inserts are much stronger and will enable it to be picked up easily, it’s intended to be a one-man operation, but I’m not getting any younger, so a helping hand may be required.

 

Off to Weston again for a few days now, so there’s not going to be much physical progress  this week, but I shall doubtless be thinking stuff through, like how it’s all going to fit in the car.

 

Peter

[peter220950]

Forgot to mention the 'significant' birthday last week (the RMWeb name might give a clue) that took a day out from modelling and was spent exploring Birmingham for the first time for about 10 years, - didn't recognise anything, I remember when it was all green fields.

 

However I did get a nice new toolbox from my daughter.

 

 

I've eaten most of it by now!

 

Peter

[peter220950]

This weeks fortnights excuses for lack of progress,  I’ve been babysitting in Weston, I’ve got man-flu, and worst of all I’ve completely knackered my back loading floor tiles into the house, and can hardly walk, so there’s not as much progress on the layout as I would have wished for.

 

Fortunately before I was reduced to a static vegetable I crated up the layout, slid it down stairs, wheeled it out to the car and loaded it, to satisfy myself it was all going to fit in the car. It all seemed to work well, the handles and wheels working well enough. I’m not sure I will be able to fit the whole of the Club Stand in as well, but that’s not a major issue.

 

Next up was a start on finishing buildings, as I want to make a start on fixing them down where appropriate. The etched window frames to the offices were primed and painted in ‘works green’ and then glazed and assembled. The opening windows proved to be a pain as the glazing had to be completed in 5 pieces, and the tilting portion then has to be secured, half a dozen times, so I did the plain ones first! The factory name boards have also been painted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The factory name was then applied.

 

 

Having fixed the paving slabs to the road, or so I thought, I realised that I hadn’t put in the wiring for the street lighting, but fortunately the double sided tape failed and I found the slabs had started to lift, so they were all ripped up and the wiring was installed before re-fixing the slabs.

 

 

 

Next up came the lamps that I bought from Duncan’s Models, I decide that I wouldn’t be able to paint the corners of the lamp glass, so I cut pieces of 1mm brass angle to length, and stuck them to the ‘glass’.

 

 

 

The lights were then assembled and painted, and lengths of brass tube fitted to the footpath to give additional support.

 

 

The footpath and road were then given a coat of grey undercoat but I decided that permanently fixing the ground floor of the offices would pose a problem if I needed access later, so I decided to bolt it down. A length of threaded rod was fixed to the loading deck,

 

 

 

 

And the office was fixed down with a 6mm nut and washer.

 

 

The lights were fitted to the footpath, and a start was made on painting the individual slabs. The pavement joints will be filled with weathering powder once the whole path is painted.

 

 

 

The first floor was then given a layer of weathering powder.

 

 

The corrugated iron shed was next up for treatment, a coat of  Metalcote and some weathering powders  have toned it down a bit, ready for fixing.

 

 

Having got the offices and link building almost finished I moved on to the main factory building, The windows were painted, glazed, and fitted, and the roof completed with a base of foam cored board. Gutters were fabricated and painted, and next up is the boring job of painting individual bricks prior to weathering. A finish for the roof has still to be determined.

 

 

 

 

 

The last bit of infil at the end of the layout came in for attention next, the basic South Eastern Finecast sheet had already been attached to foam board, but not cut out, so this was completed. The windows I had obtained from Invertrains were a bit short, so cills were cut from thick plastic strip and fitted, to reduce the size of the opening.

 

 

So it’s beginning to come together, with only the loading deck canopy to make.

 

 

 

 

 

The office and factory buildings are beginning to reach stages of completion that mean they need protection, so as with the ones from the other board, a start was made on fitting out the main box with foam board to house and protect the buildings, they all squeeze in just about, but I’ve yet to sort out where I can store the loading dock canopy, It may be that a second 24 litre box will have to be used.

 

 

Hopefully a combination of pain killers and heat will get my back sorted and I can get on with the layout next week, until then it’s strictly sitting down modelling and no lifting of base boards.

 

Peter

 

 

[BG John]

Shame about those opening windows. I was hoping they'd be a failure, but it looks like I'll have to have a go at making some opening ones using my Silhouette cutter, when I get that far!

[asa]

Looking fabulous Peter.I enjoy your updates.

[peter220950]

Shame about those opening windows. I was hoping they'd be a failure, but it looks like I'll have to have a go at making some opening ones using my Silhouette cutter, when I get that far!

 

They are an absolute pain to assemble, and I can't claim any credit for their design, as they were designed by a felllow Club member, but I am pleased with the way they have turned out. If I were really keen I would have used glass microscope slide cover slips for the centre opening bit, as it's thinner than the plastic (0.1mm), but it's a pain to cut, and this is, after all, supposed to be a 'quick' layout.

 

One of our other Club members has a Silhouette cutter that he is using to make windows, and I can confirm that it's perfectly well suited for the job, it's just that I needed a lot of windows and went for the brass option. The cutter should also be able to cut out the middle section of the glazing and make it easier to assemble a window, rather than gluing 5 pieces of clear to the back of the fret.

 

Peter

[BG John]

I was planning to cut a load of 4mm windows for the Scalescenes buildings on my OO layout, but as something rather drastic is happening to that I won't need them. So I'll probably need 7mm ones first, depending on when I replace the mock-ups on Cheapside Yard. That's where I'll be doing my experimenting/learning. Cutting the glazing with the Silhouette should, as you say, make it easier.

[peter220950]

A few choice words have been flying around Droitwich in the last couple of weeks, mainly due to having to pick 1kg of not quite set RTV mould compound out of 3 lots of casting boxes. I think the rubber was old, or I screwed up on the hardener quantities, the net result was gooey mess to clean out of all of the masters, as it hadn’t set after a week. New RTV purchased today and it’s already set, so I’m back on track for windows and office interior fittings.

 

On a more positive note I started to hack the tippler about, in order to motorise it. A couple motors were extracted from the store cupboard and tried out for size,

 

 

the Mashima and box were best, as the works could be contained within the bottom tray,

 

 

but try as I may I couldn’t get the fold-up gearbox to mesh properly so I’ve gone for the cannon with a nice gearbox, which will stick out at the front and be slightly above ground. I’m thinking a small hut will cover the protrusion, and am now waiting for some fishing line to arrive to provide the pull. Bearings have been fitted to the tray, and a silver steel 3/16^th axle will run from the motor and gearbox. The silver steel was drilled to take nylon thread to pull the tippler mechanism, it's dreadful stuff to drill, having used about a dozen drills on the two holes, but it seems to be a viable mechanism.

 

 

 

 

Next for attention came the painting of the remaining paving slabs, the cracks need filling and a bit of weathering, but I will be doing this once the road surface is completed.

 

 

A bit more work was done to the hacked about Atlas shunter, it’s now got a top coat of corporate red, and will get a rub down and dirty up once the paint has hardened. Below the footplate has been painted and weathered, keeping the original wasp stripes.

 

 

Timber baulk platforms have been made up to cover the Minx Microdrive motors, and can be removed should maintenance be required, dummy point levers and other bits and pieces will be fitted on top later.

 

 

The final task over the last couple of days has been a start on the last structure for the layout, the loading bay canopy. This has been left as it was a new structure method for me, a curved roof, and I have tried out a method I will be using on the main Cadbury layout, where I have several large corrugated iron curved buildings to make. Having failed miserably with Plasticard before I was a bit apprehensive on using this material, particularly with the corrugated sheet, which I have melted before. Following a thread elsewhere on the Forum I obtained some Limonene from Hobby Holidays, which is less aggressive than Butanone.

 

Formers for the front and rear of the canopies were cut from 40 thou sheet and framed up with girders and an 80 thou base.

 

 

 

Corrugated iron Plasticard  was scored to sheet lengths and cut into strips of sheet width.

 

 

 

Two layers of card were then clamped to a former at one end, and after a wash of Butanone they were wrapped over the former and clamped at the other end.

 

 

A bracket was attached to the office wall to locate the canopy, and underneath housings for columns were made from old cotton reel ends, these are hidden by the canopy but give some rigidity to the column fixing.

 

 

 

 

 

Once the base was dry, the corrugated iron strips were then stuck onto the other two layers, using the Limonene, which apart from smelling like a Lemonade factory, does the job well. The finished sections were then cut to size, applied to the canopy bases, and the front sections have been clad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tidying up and painting is next on the agenda, along with permanently locating the loading deck surface.

 

The point control box has also seen some progress with the arrival of some new LED strip. The new stuff has twice the number of lights per length, and looks more suitable for the lit trackplan. The idea is to use the point control switches to switch the track lights as appropriate, and the whole thing will be put behind a cover sheet of clear acrylic painted to indicate the layout of the track. The new strips were cut to length and attached to a piece of 80 thou plastic, which in itself will sit in a clear plastic box I am using to give me the ability to plug it in and move around the layout.

 

 

 

With the point control and 12v power there should still only need to be 6 wires to connect to the baseboard, so a plug in should be simple with something like a DIN plug.

 

Finally I have come to a decision on what Mattam’s make, the layout was originally designed as a brewery, and I was veering towards an unspecified engineering works, but for a number of reasons I am going for the chocolate/confectionery option. It will mean I can run Cadbury loco’s and stock as they are built and justify it by saying that there’s been a take-over.  So it’s out with the gear wheel on the name board and in with something more appropriate when I source it.

 

Peter

 

 

 

[peter220950]

Not much to report this week, as the kitchen floor tiling has been the main focus of attention, and on the layout things have gone from bad to worse.

 

Last week I was up to Mk3 with the control panel, I cut a front sheet out and marked it to drill holes over the LED’s only to find  the lines of tape weren’t straight, so it was onto Mk4.

 

This time I used some planked plastic card to get parallel lines of tape, this was then backed with 80thou card for rigidity.

 

 

 

Once wired up sections of 80thou were put around the LED’s to provide spacers for the front panel.

 

 

A further 80thou piece was marked out and drilled over the LED’s, and though there was some light bleed around the holes it seemed to look better.

 

 

 

A coat of primer and paint has cut out the light bleed and now it’s functioning as intended. I was going to lay masking tape down the track lines and spray the rest of the panel but the track seems to stand out quite well without, so I’m leaving it for the present.

 

 

 

A bit of experimentation with coloured paper got me thinking that I might differentiate between the fiddle yard and the visible tracks, so coloured filter gels are on order to mount behind the front plate.

 

 

6 Way plugs and sockets were obtained, which fit into the panel box perfectly, and two sockets were mounted front and back of the boards to enable control from either side. 

 

 

 

 

It was at this point that it all went pear shaped, because Mr Thickie can’t wire two six pin sockets together pin to pin, and didn’t notice. Having wired the boards up for the switch control of the Microdrives I tested, all seemed well at first, until I put the controller into the second socket, when all number of weird behaviours took over.

 

The net result, before I found the problem, was one actuator wrecked and one control module walking wounded, it will work manually but not on the auxiliary switch, so an order has gone off for a new set of kit. It will give me a spare actuator and a partially working controller as spares in case of exhibition breakdown, the up side is the bits are very quick and easy to change.

 

So several days spent messing about with wiring and not quite finishing it, but when it worked it did seem to be functioning well, it means that once I get the new bits I can play with the layout, and start ballasting the track, now all the wiring is complete.

 

Finally the postman brought more bits from China that were part of the decision to change Mattams to a chocolate factory, they are small enough to mount on the signage and road vehicles.

 

 

 

The only outstanding Chinese bits now are the relays for the tippler, once they are to hand I will try to get that working, just got to work out the wiring with the limit switches, I think I can make it operate with one push button for either direction, but it needs sitting down in a quite place for an hour or two to think about. Meanwhile back to tiling and grouting.

 

Peter

[BG John]

Meanwhile back to tiling and grouting.

I bought my house from a plumber, who left some large buckets of grout behind, and certainly far more than would be needed for any tiling I do. So I'm hoping it may have potential for more important uses!