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Croydon North Street - NSE 3rd Rail 1980s/90s


Pete 75C
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Thanks I hadn't seen those. They could be useful but, unless I am doing something wrong, the shipping is extortionate (9 euros for one little plastic item).

 

Yes it is, but I have found that if you multi-order, the shipping stays the same. I have just ordered four different items and the postage for the lot is still 9 ecus. You should find a few extra things on there that would suit your layout era - they are much more accurate dimensionally than any mainstream stuff, especially the AWS ramps.

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The road and pavement layout at the station forecourt end of the main board is now 90% complete. It took longer masking the area than it did to weather the roads and pavements! When it's all finally finished, there won't be so much raw pavement - there will be a few buildings on the high street and also the low relief station building. I have lots of fencing to fit and also the gate across the freight-only line. After that, it's just a case of touching-up areas of ballast and adding a few weeds. The "fun" bit will come last... platform lamps, a modern waiting shelter, ticket machines and of course some people... all the "clutter" that seems to make a model come to life.

 

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Looking very good Pete, can't believe how quickly you have built it!

I have a static grass applicator if you want to borrow it?

 

Thanks Russ. Tempted, but I wouldn't have a clue how to use it! I'm a bit of a dinosaur that's only just embraced DCC... static grass applicators are a technology that's a complete mystery to me. I might give static grass a go on an offcut in the near future, ready for the next layout. This one's far from finished though... I still haven't even begun to ballast the other board.

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Pete,

 

Just seen your 'ad' in classifieds, if you have no luck, why not fashion a similar shape form plastic etc. and cover it with a yellow 'out of service' hood?

 

That way it need only be of the right proportions and not exactly the same.

 

btw liking the layout, you could have given me the kick I need and some would say I deserve.

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Thanks Andy. If I need to, I'll make another but I'm just being lazy!  I picked up one of the Bachmann Station Packs a week or two ago as I'd been thinking about ticket/permit to travel machines etc. I saw the ones in the pack and there's no way I could have done any better from scratch. There are some things in the pack that I won't use, so thought the "exchange" ad was worth a try. I certainIy don't want to waste a tenner buying another pack just for a car park ticket machine.Lazy and tight!  :secret:

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Well, so much for not getting hung up on detail. I've been fiddling about with small stuff when I should really be making a start on the second board. There's just about enough room behind the bay platform for a billboard and I downloaded a card kit which, in all honesty, I was disappointed with. Yes, the relief once it was built was nice, but it just didn't look right. I know billboards are a little on the large size but this just looked way overscale to me. Also, the ads it came with were not suitable for something supposedly set around 1990. A quick web search turned up a Ford ad from 1990 which I thought would fit the bill (pun intended). Whilst messing about with Paint Shop Pro (I'm not clever enough to understand PhotoShop!), I decided to go the whole hog and make up the entire billboard surround. Once printed, the lack of relief is not noticeable and I'm actually happier with it this way. It's also about 20% under size compared to the downloaded kit and this looks better to me. Semi-gloss self adhesive photo paper worked well, but I also tried it on standard copier paper and then thin shiny card and it looks fine. Supports were made from Evergreen plastic strip. I've made up some extra ads to suit 1990 (Fiesta RS Turbo) to pretty much present-day and if anyone can use the file, they're welcome to download it... just click on the image and then save the full-size version. If you do decide to print it out, make sure your printer scales it to 100% and selects "borderless" if possible. Anyway, it was a nice diversion...

 

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Edited by Pete 75C
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Thanks for your kind comments guys. It's still far from finished and to be honest, I might as well finish this board scenically before starting on the scenic section of the fiddle yard board... there are lots of things I will do differently next time, but that's the beauty of this hobby (for me). If you try something and it fails miserably, you learn from it and the next layout is hopefully just that little bit better because of the mistakes you've made. One thing that I will do is add a little 12" extension board to the left hand end so I can have a full cross section of the high street with shops either side. The layout could in theory be extended to allow continuous running over the freight-only line but due to a lack of space, that's not going to happen, so I think I'll just make do with a little bit more high street! An RMWeb member who turns out to live just a few miles from me has kindly offered to let me test to destruction practise with his static grass applicator (thanks russ p), so having finally got into DCC after years as a DC luddite, grass that actually looks like grass will be next on my agenda.

When I do get round to starting on the fiddle yard board, there's enough room for a concrete hardstanding, low-relief maintenance shed entrance (I fancy chopping an old Lima Class 09 and having just the nose end poking out through the roller shutter door) and a small carriage servicing platform on the adjacent siding, so lots to do. I must admit that I'm enjoying building this one immensely so it should keep me going for a while yet!

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Pete

 

It's fairly easy to get the hang of the grass gun so so so sure the layout will soon be full of weeds and long grass!

 

It's looking superb steady as it is.

 

The Ford Capri brings back some memories from years gone by. I had two Capris before getting my first company car.

 

Ian

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You had to be posh where I grew up to have a Capri! My first car was a little Fiesta Popular like the one on the layout down by the shunter's mess room. I seem to remember mine had a decent bit of rust around the arches (and the wings, and the tailgate, and the bonnet, and the sills etc etc etc). Even though it was a piece of cr*p, I've liked Fords ever since. One day, when I have a garage, a Mk3 Cortina might live in it. Brown with a brown vinyl roof and beige velour, naturally! Ah, the 70s... the decade that taste forgot.

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You had to be posh where I grew up to have a Capri! My first car was a little Fiesta Popular like the one on the layout down by the shunter's mess room. I seem to remember mine had a decent bit of rust around the arches (and the wings, and the tailgate, and the bonnet, and the sills etc etc etc). Even though it was a piece of cr*p, I've liked Fords ever since. One day, when I have a garage, a Mk3 Cortina might live in it. Brown with a brown vinyl roof and beige velour, naturally! Ah, the 70s... the decade that taste forgot.

I had a Fiesta before getting the Capri's. It was beige with a brown interior IIRC. I usde to drive it inot and around Croydon quite a bit back in the 80's.

 

I have been keen on Fords. Just dont like the dealers not that I necessarily like dealers of other manufacturers when they try to rip you off for things that didn't need doing!!

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