Virney Junction - Scenery ongoing

[Ray H]

Thanks Andy.

 

I hoping to do a Larry and cover the green areas with the Woodland Scenic vinyl matting. It certain looks good an Larry's layout without any enhancement and it'll give me the chance to gradually develop smaller areas without worrying that the only thing visible in most other places other than the track is the bare baseboard.

 

I'm half minded to build the platforms next so that the 4mm scale passengers have somewhere to alight when I have an operating session and worry about the bridge a little later.

[Jock67B]

Ray,

Looking forward to how the grass mat works for you - it should save quite a bit of money, and certainly less trouble. I guess it all depends whether or not you like it when it's done!

Kind regards

Jock.

[georgeT]

 Go for it Ray, really changes a layout with some scenery on it...

[Ray H]

Thanks George.

 

The matting has been on order for a couple of weeks but I'm told it will arrive this week - just when other things seem to have contrived to delay my ability to go and collect it from the shop.

 

I've spent the morning extending the "green area" so that it is now all but up to the edge of the track and covering the bare baseboards seen in yesterday's images. It's had one layer of plaster cloth and will hopefully get the second tomorrow or Tuesday.

 

The plan for the rest of today is to fit sound decoders to a Bachmann Class 03 and if there's time to a Heljan Park Royal railbus. I'm told the latter is an absolute p*g to do with high failure rates because the wiring to the motor is so slender.

[Andrew P]

Thanks George.

 

The matting has been on order for a couple of weeks but I'm told it will arrive this week - just when other things seem to have contrived to delay my ability to go and collect it from the shop.

 

I've spent the morning extending the "green area" so that it is now all but up to the edge of the track and covering the bare baseboards seen in yesterday's images. It's had one layer of plaster cloth and will hopefully get the second tomorrow or Tuesday.

 

The plan for the rest of today is to fit sound decoders to a Bachmann Class 03 and if there's time to a Heljan Park Royal railbus. I'm told the latter is an absolute p*g to do with high failure rates because the wiring to the motor is so slender.

Good luck with your Sound Chip fitting Ray, its one job I enjoy, I have 2 Warships and a Western to do and also a Class 50, but that one will be for another day.

[Ray H]

I've been having fun with the sound decoder for the Class 03. It was quite erratic to start with and all but refused to change direction after it has stopped. I subsequently noticed a bent coupling rod that I straightened and I also add the merest touch of oil to the crankpins. In addition I removed what looked like and excess of grease from the axles and substituted oil. in the limited time since I did that the loco seems to be running better but time permitting I hope to give it some more testing this week.

 

 

I've also been experimenting with the Woodland Scenics vinyl ready grass that I'd seen used on Larry's Ellesmere thread. I admit to not necessarily having the correct heating tool - i.e. one that gets hot enough - but I have really struggled to get the mat to adopt the contours of the underlying form. I've also struggled to stick the mat down despite using the B & Q equivalent of "No More Nails". Consequently I turned my attention to building some shelving to accommodate the excess of wagons that I have on the layout. I've been meaning to tackle this job for a while now.

 

 

I've built two units, one for either side of the mains socket, the edges of which are just visible in each image. The shelves are about 60mm deep because I had several pieces of 15mm plywood that wide. This allows wagons (at least) to be angled with the result that I can get an extra wagon on the shelf of the longer unit. There's no track on any shelf and the 3mm plywood front has been added to minimise the risk of stock falling off the shelf.

 

 

Ideally the shorter unit should have been about 25mm longer - the two units were cut from a single 1200 x 600mm piece of MDF with the larger one's length determined by the maximum space available. As a result I can't fit a 2 car DMU on shelves on the shorter unit.

[Ray H]

Time for an update.

 

Much of the earlier part of the month saw me stricken with a bug that seemed to take great pleasure in giving me ailment after ailment save that so far I appear to have dodged a cold.

 

I had a saw throat, followed by a lost voice, then I was washed out for 24 hours and that wasn't the end because then I had an eye infection that has taken nearly two weeks to be shot of. To cap that I awoke yesterday with a severe attack of finding that bending my left knee was uncomfortable bordering on the painful. Luckily that appears to have been a 24 hour problem as well.

 

As a consequence the Class 03 still sits on the bench although its running has now improved. It awaits modification to the interior of the cab to fit the decoder prior to being re-assembled.

 

In the meantime I've slowly been making my way around the layout infilling the bare baseboard areas with polystyrene chamfered to give a shallow climb up from track level.

 

I invited a colleague round this morning to give me some ideas of how to attack the scenery on those areas where I haven't so far ventured with the polystyrene. In the process we ran one of the locos round the layout to sample the sound decoder. Said loco took a dislike to remaining on the track in the vicinity of the recently modified baseboard when the road will pass under the track. We decided there must be something wrong with the track after the third derailment.

 

Closer inspection revealed a 150mm long section where the inner rail had become dislodged from the chairs and was sitting atop of said chairs. The rail had also become all but permanently attached to the outside of the chair moulding. I did manage to free the rail but a close look at the chair mouldings revealed each to be damaged beyond repair.

 

There was nothing for it but to cut out the affected bit of track, lift the upper layer of foam and replace foam, track and ballast. I can but assume that I must have damaged to track when I was working on the scenery in the area, possibly when I was experimenting with the heat gun and the vinyl mat (which I have now decided not to use).

 

 

All is now back together save that I haven't added droppers to the new rail section - nor the remaining part of the original length that was remote from where the original droppers were attached. I'll attend to that task if I get any problems.

 

My colleague has suggested that I build up the ground level behind the station/platform and add a few low relief dwellings - terraced houses for the staff and something a bit more up market for the station master.

 

To that end I've extricated several offcuts of plywood and temporarily laid them at the back of what will be the station. The platform has yet to be built and will be about 3mm higher (and nearer the track) than the raised area shown.

 

 

I shall screw them all down and extend the "sheet" material to cover the blocks at the left hand end of the picture. The ground will climb up slowly further left to mimic the "extension" track level. I've yet to decide how this will be achieved.

[Removed a/c]

Just caught up with this thread. looking good so far !! 

[georgeT]

Looking good Ray, love the selection of stock..

[Andrew P]

Racks look good Ray, glad you sorted out the lifted rail.

[Ray H]

Looking good Ray, love the selection of stock..

Thanks George & Andy.

 

Shhhh! Don't tell anyone, there's another ten vans heading my way later this week courtesy of a certain Internet auction house after I tried to set out the trains for a day's timetable in the fiddle yard yesterday and found that (as I'd indicated a few posts back) I'm desperately short of vans.

 

I've also discovered a further possible traffic flow (which will keep some vans busy!). I'd planned to have a factory at one station and a warehouse at the other to generate traffic over and above that using the goods yards at each station. I've just realised that I can generate even more traffic if both warehouse and factory belong to the same company. The factory will receive raw materials and despatch finished products. Some of these will head to the warehouse for storage and the rest will head out direct to retailers/customers. In due course the excess will also be despatched from the warehouse to other customers.

 

The downside of all this extra stock is that I now need some extra storage space. There's no space left over the fiddle yards and I don't want any on shelves over the scenic area of the layout. Consequently I shall incorporate a few shelves/trays under the layout at the far end of the main fiddle yard.

Edited November 23, 2015 by Ray H

[Andrew P]

Thanks George & Andy.

 

Shhhh! Don't tell anyone, there's another ten vans heading my way later this week courtesy of a certain Internet auction house after I tried to set out the trains for a day's timetable in the fiddle yard yesterday and found that (as I'd indicated a few posts back) I'm desperately short of vans.

 

I've also discovered a further possible traffic flow (which will keep some vans busy!). I'd planned to have a factory at one station and a warehouse at the other to generate traffic over and above that using the goods yards at each station. I've just realised that I can generate even more traffic if both warehouse and factory belong to the same company. The factory will receive raw materials and despatch finished products. Some of these will head to the warehouse for storage and the rest will head out direct to retailers/customers. In due course the excess will also be despatched from the warehouse to other customers.

 

The downside of all this extra stock is that I now need some extra storage space. There's no space left over the fiddle yards and I don't want any on shelves over the scenic area of the layout. Consequently I shall incorporate a few shelves/trays under the layout at the far end of the main fiddle yard.

What you REALLY MEAN is out of sight from Her Indoors, hhahaha

[Ray H]

Andy

 

I've absolutely no idea what you're talking about! ! !

[danstercivicman]

Andy

 

I've absolutely no idea what you're talking about! ! !

 

What's worse is when the parcel that should arrive on your rest day arrives when your wife is around,...  thanks Ha**ons  And the box is slightly bigger than 'its just a couple of bits of track'...

 

Dan

[MikeHemmings]

Like this delivery,

 

[lmsforever]

Well done with that bit of track amazing how these problems can wait to come to light ,the stock shelves look good a safe way of keeping things away from being knocked over.Might try the grass mat if I can pinch the wifes hair dryer when she isn't looking! How are things going at club long time since I was down there?

[Brian D]

Hi Ray,

As you no doubt have guessed by the number of "Likes" etc I've just spent an agreeable half hour or so having a catch up on your progress.  Despite me being one of your "Follow"ers, your layout thread doesn't appear on my list of followed topics - I must have a look at my settings.

I'm sorry to hear you were laid low for a few weeks but pleased that you now seem to be over the worst.

If I recall correctly, you mentioned in one of your posts that you were unsure about the size of the Metcalfe Brewery.  The dimensions can be found on the Metcalfe models website here http://www.metcalfemodels.com/brewery-72 but apologies if I have misconstrued.

You are making fantastic progress Ray.  Keep the posts coming.

Regards,

Brian.

[Ray H]

Well done with that bit of track amazing how these problems can wait to come to light ,the stock shelves look good a safe way of keeping things away from being knocked over.Might try the grass mat if I can pinch the wifes hair dryer when she isn't looking! How are things going at club long time since I was down there?

I'd recommend getting the smallest size vinyl mat as a trial. I went for the 8' by 4' sheet and much of it seemed to disappear in the relatively small area I tried it on probably because the area was against a curved backscene. I'm not sure what I did wrong because other's efforts produced what I could only dream of. You need a minimum of 300º heat according to the instructions. I used that and a lot higher and still couldn't get the results I'd hoped for. It seemed to me that you needed to do two mutually exclusive things simultaneously. It seemed as though you needed to fix the edges down before you applied the heat so that the mat stayed put but as part of the mat needed to be "stretched" over the uneven ground I couldn't see how that was possible all over.

[Andrew P]

I tried one on our Club Layout and gave up Ray, you've done well with it so far, (as has Larry on Elesmere North), I've gone back to Mod Rock, Green Paint and Flock. 

 

Your doing a super job mate.

[Ray H]

Hi Ray,

As you no doubt have guessed by the number of "Likes" etc I've just spent an agreeable half hour or so having a catch up on your progress.  Despite me being one of your "Followers", your layout thread doesn't appear on my list of followed topics - I must have a look at my settings.

I'm sorry to hear you were laid low for a few weeks but pleased that you now seem to be over the worst.

If I recall correctly, you mentioned in one of your posts that you were unsure about the size of the Metcalfe Brewery.  The dimensions can be found on the Metcalfe models website here http://www.metcalfemodels.com/brewery-72 but apologies if I have misconstrued.

You are making fantastic progress Ray.  Keep the posts coming.

Regards,

Brian.

Thanks Brian. I hadn't thought to look there - which I've just done. Although I have the kit it remains unopened and looking at the dimensions is probably far too big for the space I have available - I might end up using well under a half.

 

The space I have can be seen in post 240. The rail loading facility will be against the left hand end of the track in the foreground and the rest of the building - towards the right - has to hide the inclined track behind.

 

I don't want the incline to be hidden until just after the end of the centre siding (just visible in the same image). Angling the building and making it quite wide will help with the illusion that the track "doesn't" curve! The front face of the building will probably be straight so the foreground track will curve away from it. I think I'll try making a very rough mock-up of what I am trying to achieve.

 

I'm toying with the idea of having a road bridge across the end of the foreground track with a mirror that will make it look as though at least the ground floor of the building continues onwards even if wagons can't pass through the mirror!

[Jock67B]

Evening Ray,

Pleased to read that you are over the worst of the bug. Well done on sorting the track problem out, these things aren't always obvious at normal viewing distances which is why there really isn't any substitute for test running. After your experience with the vinyl mat, I certainly won't go down that route. Luckily an MPD yard doesn't call for a lot of grass! Keep up the superb work,

Kind regards,

Jock.

[Ray H]

Cheers Jock.

 

I can't believe that Woodland Scenics would market a product that didn't "work" and I know from Larry's thread - which is where I got the idea from - that he has achieved excellent results with it. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything on the Internet that showed it being actively put down and the instructions on the packet didn't seem too comprehensive to me. Even the WS website didn't seem to have a video for the stuff - at least not one that I could find - which struck me as a bit strange.

 

I fear it was me rather than the product that was at fault.

[Ray H]

Apologies to those who tried to read this post as it was being composed. Somehow I managed to shut the editor down before I'd written the text. Some might appreciate that!

 

Anyway I've been doing something I don't recall doing before - knocking up some mock-up buildings to get the feel for the possible options for blocking out the extension as it climbs and curves beyond the larger of the two stations.

 

 

The first image shows something like the original idea I had where the brewery (as it was going to be) is alongside the siding track and long enough to block out most of the curve. I added the road bridge that I mentioned a few posts back at the end of the siding and the piece of silver foil is my poor man's attempt at a mirror!

 

This was very much the first attempt and it soon became obvious that the building was too long and the visible corner with the back wall was too close to the running line track (extreme right). One option would have been to reduce the length of the building but that started to expose more of the curve on the incline than I wanted to.

 

 

The next image shows the building shortened slightly by the temporary expedient of moving the bridge sideways (rather than hack the building [at the stage]). The increased visible length of the curve will be noted.

 

 

Then I considered putting an angle in the building about half way along the length so that the two halves weren't in a (dead) straight line. This allowed me to return to the original building length and got that back corner away from the incline.

 

 

A full frontal view of the building with the "bend" in the centre.

 

 

I had a re-think overnight. I put the loading bay inside a smaller building across the end of the siding. I could probably get a second wagon inside the building with this arrangement. I cut the length of the original building down and butted the two together (to form a single "L" shape). The resultant roofs will take some interesting working out! This allowed me to move the larger building further back from the siding track and still keep clear of the incline (at the opposite end of the building) although reducing the larger building's length slightly would provide a slightly better separation between building and track.

 

 

A slightly different view of the same arrangement. I've come to the conclusion that the plywood cover over the wiring & servos (and visible along the front of the baseboard) needs to have its length cut back a bit.

 

 

I then had the crazy idea of putting a bridge in front of the buildings. This would further help to disguise the curve of the incline and would solve the problem of how vehicles could get into the goods yard from the station building side of the track. The road layout on the far side of the bridge is undecided yet because there needs to be a road down to the station building forecourt. I can't help but feel that the junction between bridge and station approach should occur almost as soon as the bridge has cleared the extension track. I might even add a bend at that side of the bridge back towards the station before the junction.

 

 

I quite like the latter idea save that I have absolutely no idea how to hide the (currently still visible) part of the inclined track beyond the bridge from view or how to fill the "corner" beyond the bridge and on the outside of the curve. I did wonder about bringing the building up to the bridge and have the entrance to that building off the pavement across the bridge but got no further than that.

Edited November 24, 2015 by Ray H

[Andrew P]

Excellent work Ray, your mock ups are better than my final finished models.

 

Brilliant idea and looking really good.

[Ray H]

Apologies Andy for the lack of the descriptive text when you saw the post. Hopefully everything is clearer now.