Bankside - The Module

[cromptonnut]

There's a little stream (well, the River Till apparently) in the middle of Winterbourne Stoke on the A303 that sounds exactly like the sort of thing you're trying to represent - you should find it on this Google Map link  if you go to street view it's around that point in the field next to the pub.  You can't miss it   If you look carefully you even have a "prototype for everything" of a couple of swans on water that seems far too small to have anything on it.

 

Might give you a little inspiration. A tree or two might help as well.

 

Don't forget the reeds - I use Woodland Scenics Field Grass in the shade I want, take a small bunch and cut about an inch off and then tie a bit of green cotton around the middle of the inch bit tightly.  Then a few drops of superglue on the cotton and allow it to dry so it's all solid, then cut across the bunch where the cotton is and you have two tufts, if they're too big cut each tuft in the middle.  Make a suitably small hole in the "ground", then a drop of PVA into the hole and shove the tuft into it, allow to dry. 

 

Random tufts along the edge of the river including the odd one or two in the water, and it can add a surprising amount of realism for little expense and little effort.

[Andy Reichert]

I like to think of the 'standard' as a work in progress.

 

As I, and many others have stated many times, every existing modular standard would have gone through the very same growth pains before becoming as popular as it is today, and I bet that when each standard was proposed, there were cries of "but why not do it our way as we have something that already works".

 

We will learn, we will adapt, we will find out what does and doesn't work for us, and hopefully have fun in the process.

 

UK railway operation is very different in many ways and our standard needs to reflect that.  That's the one main reason we haven't just adopted an American standard because it simply could not work for UK models.

 

But you HAVE adopted an American, or European , or Asian, or for that matter anything, anywhere, 16.5 mm gauge standard. There is NOTHING British whatsoever, mandatory or recommended, mentioned anywhere in it.

[cromptonnut]

But you HAVE adopted an American, or European , or Asian, or for that matter anything, anywhere, 16.5 mm gauge standard. There is NOTHING British whatsoever, mandatory or recommended, mentioned anywhere in it.

 

Sigh... this isn't the thread for this sort of discussion.  But as you raised the issue (again), the first line of the standard says "OO".

 

Ok it may be 16.5mm gauge track which is compatible with HO scale but as OO gauge is (almost, if not) exclusively MODELS OF BRITISH TRAINS then by inference it's UK prototypes.

 

Unless you know of an extensive range of OO scale models (4mm scale running on 3.5mm scale track) of some sort of continental or American prototypes, that I don't.

[Andy Y]

Sigh... this isn't the thread for this sort of discussion.  

 

 

Agreed; Andy please leave the point there, it's not fair to distract Steve's topic.

[cromptonnut]

I'm certainly finding it interesting to see the progress of a similar "modular novice" to myself going through pretty much the same challenges as I am in the bits I'm trying to build.  I've got my third module "in progress" but haven't actually finished any of them as yet for some reason.

 

Certainly looking forward very much to the first "meetup" - wherever it may be - to see how things work.  If the other modules people are making are up to this standard I think we have a very promising future ahead of us with ... whatever it finally gets called.

[PaulRhB]

Coming along nicely and very fast

Where you were worried about the cement plant defining the era you could build a low concrete wall around it and have an alternative industry drop in on an identical sized base that sits inside the wall. You get enclosures around many tanks to contain the product if there's a spill. Various types of oil tank, vertical or horizontal are an option to change era

As to control as long as you make it clear that the controls are only accessible from one side it's not the biggest problem for the planner. I'm using my control panel but it sits on top of the cabinet so can be accessed from both sides and my adaptor board will have the controls on top where they are easily reached from both

[Steve-e]

Coming along nicely and very fast

Where you were worried about the cement plant defining the era you could build a low concrete wall around it and have an alternative industry drop in on an identical sized base that sits inside the wall. You get enclosures around many tanks to contain the product if there's a spill. Various types of oil tank, vertical or horizontal are an option to change era

As to control as long as you make it clear that the controls are only accessible from one side it's not the biggest problem for the planner. I'm using my control panel but it sits on top of the cabinet so can be accessed from both sides and my adaptor board will have the controls on top where they are easily reached from both

Thanks yeah the benefits of working 4 on 4 off if you dont mind loosing the set weekends the 4 off is great and loads of modelling time   .

 

That sounds an idea for the cement area with the oil tanks it was on the other side of the boards to where I'm currently working so will do some research into different industries.

 

Here are some pics from this morning the River is starting to form now rather than soak into the sand and some tufts / trees planted I have only done one side of the bridge yet the other just has the Grass and river bed so I had the colouring matched I'll start on that side once I spin the whole thing round. 

 

 

 

 

Cheers 

Steve

[cromptonnut]

I'm sure there's a picture of me somewhere as a kid having a paddle at that location.

[Mike 84C]

Steve, just found your blog,its all looking rather good and swift progress so keep it coming.  Mick

[Steve-e]

I forgot to add this one in my last post this is an image of how I hope to disguise the join to the next module...

 

Now I think I have most of this side of the module covered except for a space approx. 14 inches by 7 inches in between the River Scene and the Paint importers (Control area) the other side of the Control area to the end of the board is covered and will be a farmers field....

 

Here are some images below of the space I'm stuck with .

 

The stone wall is just placed into some kind of shape and I was thinking of a Rural Bus stop where the Red Bus is parked as I have no over bridge on which to park a bus   but I'm open to suggestions, really I want to keep it something low so you can at least see the train go by as there is a large shed opposite and the control area is a large structure so you wouldn't see anything if it were too high.

 

 

 

 

It also really needs to be something timeless and British I was thinking the rural bus stop with a bit of road and either a Cemetery, Football kick about area ... jumpers for goalposts and kids on bikes etc, or take the front wall away and put a roadside garage with interchangeable cars for different time zones... or even just a Car Park again same principles of changeability but am open to any other inspiration.... 

 

 

Cheers

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PaulRhB]

A cemetery would look a bit odd with no chapel or church there. A playing field sounds better

The bus stop side looks a bit contrived with the dent obviously being just for that, why not make the river end narrower so it runs parallel to the other wall? You could model the bus stop as a layby with the pavement curving in and something like a phone box on the edge of it where the wall is at present. Also think about moving the wall next to the track away by an inch or so to allow a cess for the railway line plus it will improve the view of trains

 

Very rough sketch,

[Steve-e]

A cemetery would look a bit odd with no chapel or church there. A playing field sounds better

The bus stop side looks a bit contrived with the dent obviously being just for that, why not make the river end narrower so it runs parallel to the other wall? You could model the bus stop as a layby with the pavement curving in and something like a phone box on the edge of it where the wall is at present. Also think about moving the wall next to the track away by an inch or so to allow a cess for the railway line plus it will improve the view of trains

 

Very rough sketch,

image.jpg

 

Had a play with the walls today looked at the shape and hit on the idea of .......

 

 

Allotments

 

They can be seen to this day so are timeless, are not region specific, are very British and fit the low profile and space requirement.

 

I'll do some research.

 

Thanks for that.

 

Steve

[cromptonnut]

Perfect solution.

 

I've got a vegetable patch on the garden of the house of the module I'm building at the moment but I reckon you can get a good allotment space in there.

 

Noch do a variety of vegetable plants, there's a number of shed and greenhouse kits available as well as garden tools, wheelbarrows etc.  I'm using cocktail sticks to represent bean canes and some green thread for the vines.

 

I know you can get ready made allotments to "plonk in" but where's the fun in that

[Steve-e]

This week I've made a start on the Allotment area. I'm still waiting for some Sheds to arrive so have only roughly marked out the space required on some Card but have made a start of the boundary wall, the track side and have made a kick-a-bout area against the wall of the control area/building using the age old technique of painting the goalposts on the wall...

 

Here's some images, I tend to take images at regular intervals to spot areas that can be improved or don't look right that my crap eyesight tends to miss...

 

 

This image shows the cardboard template to see where things will go.

The brown 'parking area' is fine ballast. The kickabout area to the right is starting to be layered up.

 

Some new signage made on the PC added to the wall and the goal posts painted on.

 

The 'Bus Stop' area outside added and starting to put some vegitation around the wall. The walls are really nice I wethered them a bit more and you can easily hide the gaps the gap visible in the wall behind will "disappear" once I start on the allotment shed area.

 

I used some rubberised horsehair for the weeds the otherside of the wall this will give the trackside a rundown feel.

 

 

These two pics show where I'm up to at the moment ... still waiting for the Sheds to arrive.... I found a nice tree in a draw that I was going to use on one of my APA photo boxes but it provides a visual break in he corner of this scene.

 

 

Cheers 

Steve

 

 

[cromptonnut]

Brilliant stuff.  I particularly like the goalpost on the wall

[Steve-e]

Yeah I was trying to make it cover many eras and since football was invented kids gave been kicking balls against walls  .

 

The fun part with this module I'm finding is the research spending ages on Flickr and such like looking at social scenes throughout the ages.

 

Even been looking at L.S Lowry paintings which is where I found out he got his inspiration from a guy called Valette hence the sign for the paint importers.

 

Don't know if anyone has said it before but "Every day's a School day on RMWeb."  

Steve

[Steve-e]

Probably last update for for this week as I'm back at work tomorrow.

 

The Sheds arrived at lunchtime     so have had a go at fitting them in and making an allotment out of DAS clay never used it before but it's looking OK.

 

So will leave it to dry and then paint it up and add some scenery.

 

Here's some pics

Left will be rows of flowers, 2nd left a Pigeon loft with paving, 3rd shed with rows of ... lettuce  and nearest well should be cabbages but close up look like a field of pasties...

 

Should be alright when painted, I may keep the ones on the right as the pasty field...

 

 

It should blend in when painted..... hopefully 

 

 

 

Steve.

[Steve-e]

Did some more work on the allotment area yesterday painting it up, adding some detail and people starting to move in. Found some Allotment signs in an old issue of Hornby Magazine which finished it off.

 

Here are some piccies.

 

Top down view showing how it all fits in to the original plan (see above posts to see how its evolved). 

 

The Bus will be replaced with something a bit more rural..... the hikers have just got off it and contemplate their next move.

 

The cub scouts do their 'Bob a Job' duties watched over by their leader again trying to choose something that covers a large date range. 

I hand painted the figures from the Modelscene range tools are from Noch.

 

'Sally' waits for her washing to dry while catching up on the latest news. A general overview of the allotments.

 

09002 passes along the branch line past the former Bankside Goods depot. The tools in the gardens are from Noch. All signage is just attached with 'Blu Tack' so I can amend depending on era I want to depict. 

 

 

09002 Ambles down the line, the signage from the Hornby Magazine on the side of the shed adds to the scene.

 

 

Overall not a cheap scene but the detail adds loads to it.

 

Next we move down the module to the Farm area.......

 

Steve

[cromptonnut]

I thought you might have made a good job of the allotments.  How wrong I was.

 

You've made a fantastic job of it.  Well done.

[PaulRhB]

but close up look like a field of pasties...

You gotta leave that in as it's an RMweb module

 

May not be cheap but it's worth it, all the detail can be reused on another layout one day too if you ever finish with the module.

 

My three weeks of free time to build, while d'boss is away, has been somewhat curtailed by extra work as leaf fall season has kicked in hard! Hoping to grab some daytime hours to get the big and noisy work done so I can then just grab half an hour here and there.

[Steve-e]

So moving down the board were onto the Farm area, this will form 3 areas the Yard, middle field(Hay area) and Bottom field and again its a case of layering.

 

1st up it was a case of painting the base a "Loam Brown" then adding the stone walls and randomly scraping some DAS clay on to give it some texture.

 

This was then painted 50 shades of brown..... well 2 shades.... ummm you can smell the ....... 

 

Next up adding some bushes to the outside of the wall and straw coloured scatter by Hornby to the "middle field"

 

Then adding some grass to the "bottom field" this will be a lambing field with sheeps eventually once I've made a gate to stop escapes.

 

The whole lot was then "hoovered" to remove the excess and further detail added around the edges of the walls to hide the joins of the walls and the bases of buildings and walls.

 

These two photos try to show how I've tried to make it non year/era specific. The buffer stops are just temporary and are the Hornby clip on style so can be removed depending on track layout required.

 

All the vehicles aren't stuck down and neither are the Hay Bales as they have evolved from Hay Stacks to Square Bales to Round Bales and we seem to be back to Round Bales and Square bales this year.... so with a box of farm bits we can change the era/year for a module meet..

 

 

And this is just the top down view so you can see how it all fits in.

 

 

So thats the basics for one side of the module I need some more people to give it some life and it needs a tidy up after all a layout is never finished but I think its achieving "Britishness" so far. 

 

Oh and theres a reason I haven't ballasted the track yet... It's to do with the layering principal in my mind which seems to follow a logical path from bottom up so as the River 1st as that was the lowest point then upwards and the Farm etc... were there before the railway, I had to put the track down to get the spacing right but the ballasting will come near the end as thats the last thing (highest point) to be built... hope this makes sense... 

Cheers

Steve

 

 

 

 

[Steve-e]

So plodding on with one side of the board I decided to add to the control area by adding a Lenz LA152 adapter plate as it appears that the Lenz system seems popular for meets and this would enable operators to plug into my board when walking around. They didn't seem to badly priced in Hattons for £18.00 http://www.ehattons.com/10747/Lenz_Digital_80152_LA152_XBUS_Adaptor_with_Faceplate/StockDetail.aspx so bought one while getting some other bits.

As I only use a Bachmann Dynamis system I'm unable to check how it works but fingers crossed its Ok.

 

Just a case of cutting the hole to the template supplied.

 

Checking it for fit.

 

While I was doing this I thought I'd give the board a coat of Black as per the specs.

 

and were getting there.

 

 

Cheers 

Steve

 

[cromptonnut]

Looking good

 

There's nothing to "get right" - or wrong, for that matter - with the LA152 faceplaces.

 

Basically they receive their power from the control bus, and you basically have one connection to the faceplate next left, and one to the faceplate next right, leaving a spare connection for a compatible controller.

 

Although not recommended it's "good practice" to have a couple of cables of your own to help connect to the adjacent boards. 

 

I have picked up several of the following

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-PIN-MIDI-DIN-MALE-PLUG-to-PLUG-CABLE-1-2m-1-5m-2m-2-5m-3m-5m-6m-Lead-/331276714410?var=&hash=item0

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DCC-Cable-Lenz-XpressNet-Digitrax-Loconet-NCE-/320804885419?var=&hash=item0

 

As you can see they are both DIN and RJ12 variants.

 

I've also picked up a couple of the Lenz LY006 cables which are DIN to RJ12, in case there aren't quite enough of the right cables to go round.

 

The LA152 is a bit like a four way mains extension socket - it doesn't matter which things plug into which on the front.  There's a couple of RJ12 sockets on the back which are "handed" for in and out but I generally don't bother to use these - but they can be used if accessible.

 

One possible suggestion - put the LA152 "upside down" then the small LED is above the sockets, meaning you can see if power is reaching them without having to move cables out of the way.  But it's not a big deal.  I tend to remove the faceplate from the LA152 and repaint it anyway so you could "hide it".

 

Another little, irrelevant to faceplates, thing I've done is a small (half a square inch, square) red "blob" on the side of the board that has the red wire going to it, so you can see which is the red side and which is the black side which helps if boards are 180 degrees orientation to the adjacent board, it'll help with connecting.

[Steve-e]

Ah yes I see what you mean about the little light.

 

It did come with one cable but as you say worth getting some spares to go with my box of bits Clamps, spare leg adjusters etc...

 

 

Cheers

[cromptonnut]

For both the DIN and RJ12 cables, I got the 6 metre ones (24ft) which should be more than enough to reach the next plugin point - I'd envisage cables connecting along boards that are purely scenic, and the "controller points" (faceplates as above, or similar manufacturer) at stations and other locations where control such as shunting is required. 

 

You can, of course, make up your own DIN or RJ12 cables fairly easily.  For DIN you just buy the cables and four core wire, and RJ12 you can get a roll of wire, the end bits and a crimping tool to finish them off.  But one of the downsides of the Lenz xpressnet system is that either DIN or RJ12 are perfectly acceptable so there's always a risk of having the wrong amount of connectors.  Although an expensive option, a loose LA152 that can be placed anywhere, particularly as a 'converter'.

 

Why nobody has made a male/female RJ12 to DIN plug and socket (in both ways) adaptor cable, I don't know ... shouldn't be difficult