Virney Junction - Scenery ongoing

[Andrew P]

Looking very good Ray, very nice mate.

[Ray H]

All the signals are now working from the lever frame after I spent best part of today banging my head against the proverbial brick wall only to find the solution in front of my eyes, so to speak, just as I was about to pack up for the day.

 

I must now turn my attention to modifying the timetable to take advantage of the extra platform in readiness for a potential operating session or two over the holiday period.

 

But first I'd better sort out someone's Christmas present!

[lmsforever]

I like your signals they look right and compliment your trackwork you deserve a rest this holiday period after all that work trying to get them working ,also if you want to know more about Bodgers have a look at the museum in Aylesbury they have a marvelous exhibit .

[Ray H]

 

I've spent the last few days fitting head and tail lamps to all the relevant stock on the layout. Some lamps have been super-glued in position where the lamp bracket is moulded on the body whilst others have had an hole drilled in the base and the lamp placed on the lamp bracket and held in place with Tacky Wax.

 

Unfortunately this means that both engines and brake (vans) have lamps on each end as I don't consider it practical to routinely change the lamp positions in 4mm scale (and the brackets themselves probably wouldn't last too long either with constant use).

 

I've also fitted (intermediate) corridor connections made of thin black card to the coaching stock, including DMUs. The tops and bottoms are open but this isn't too noticeable when the trains are moving. The connectors do a good job of disguising the "gap" between vehicles.

 

I also want to fit loco crews as well but am struggling to find an economical way of doing so.

 

Happy New Year to everyone.

[Andrew P]

311217_2.jpg

 

I've spent the last few days fitting head and tail lamps to all the relevant stock on the layout. Some lamps have been super-glued in position where the lamp bracket is moulded on the body whilst others have had an hole drilled in the base and the lamp placed on the lamp bracket and held in place with Tacky Wax.

 

Unfortunately this means that both engines and brake (vans) have lamps on each end as I don't consider it practical to routinely change the lamp positions in 4mm scale (and the brackets themselves probably wouldn't last too long either with constant use).

 

I've also fitted (intermediate) corridor connections made of thin black card to the coaching stock, including DMUs. The tops and bottoms are open but this isn't too noticeable when the trains are moving. The connectors do a good job of disguising the "gap" between vehicles.

 

I also want to fit loco crews as well but am struggling to find an economical way of doing so.

 

Happy New Year to everyone.

Looking good Ray, I use Bachmann and Model Scene Crews, depending on how well they can be seen.

 

Coaches look superb.

 

Happy New Year to you all.

[Ray H]

All has not been dormant at Virney Junction. The remainder of the loco (and DMU) fleet that is currently spending its time on the layout has now been fitted with sound decoders - there's not too many locos left without sound now.

 

Experimentation with some of the smaller YouChoos sugar cube (curved green enclosure) speakers was worthwhile. However, the sound was not as deep as that from the more conventional Zimo sugar cubes, so I swapped over to the latter last evening.
 
I've also made a start on some of the houses in Station Lane (or whatever it finally gets called) at Buckinhum. The semi-detached houses - not too different from the shops that have already been built - will each have a garage and it is those garages shells that have recently been built. I'm hoping to cover the relevant parts of those shells with embossed plasticard later today. Most of the structures in the lane are individual because of the slope of Station Lane from the overbridge down to the station as can be seen in post 478.

[Andrew P]

Good to see progress Ray, I wondered where you had got to, hahah.

[Ray H]

I'm still around but seem to keep being side tracked to other layouts at the club.

 

Thanks for checking

[Ray H]

 

Just to prove that I haven't been over-run with projects for the club (and others), here's a picture of the first of three low relief pairs of detached houses with garages. The garages just need something on their flat roofs to represent the customary felt whilst the houses require a bit more effort. I also need to get active with the paint brush in both cases.

 

The railway boundary fence, just visible on the left of the image will be extended further down the road as each set of houses/garages is "finished".

 

One of the garages for the next pair of houses can be seen on the right hand side of the image.

[Ray H]

 

The snow obviously hadn't reached Buckinhum when the above was taken.

 

An couple of hours in the garage this afternoon were enough despite it being integral to the house and having a (small) radiator linked to the central heating.

 

I've all but finished the significant work on the first of the three pairs of detached houses. The garage floors need to be levelled and the doors added - although as the garage doors will be closed, I'm not sure whether I shall worry about the floor. The house windows will be prepared on the Silhouette Portrait cutter along with the windows for the other houses. Hopefully I can use the same artwork that I prepared for the windows in the shops. The front doors will be from one of the Scalescene kits I now seem to be amassing. Oh, and I've also got the chimney pots to add.

 

The houses will not be weathered to the same extent as the adjacent shops on the basis that they have to be fairly new builds to qualify for a garage at a time when cars still weren't something that the majority had. Mind you I think the house builder could see the writing on the wall because cars would definitely be needed once the railway closed!

[Ray H]

Forgot to add that the roofs of both houses and garages also remain to be done.

 

The garage roofs will probably come from (dry) wet and dry paper, the house roofs will again be produced using the cutter as I did with the shop roofs.

[Andrew P]

That looks good Ray, nice very neat job. Well done.

[Ray H]

I've just finished the first pair of detached houses in Station Lane. There is another couple of pairs to go before we reach the station.

 

I even managed to get the fencing contractor to extend the fence a bit further down the lane. He won't get rich quick based on the time he has to wait between my requests for him to  visit!

 

[Ray H]

We're back from a short break and keen (?) to press on. I'd "finished" the second pair of detached houses and was well over halfway through the third and final pair before we went away.

 

The next job most likely to be tackled (after the houses) will be the lever frame for Buckinhum. Consequently and before I resume work on the last pair of houses I've tidied up the signalling diagram for Buckinhum to give me a few days to re-visit it off and on to see whether I can come up with any alternative.

 

 

No. 14 trap point have yet to be installed. This will involve the replacement of a short length of rail and a few (SMP) sleepers and their replacement with a few pcb sleepers and the blade and stock rail. Funny how one of the first things I look for on anyone's track diagram is whether there are trap points where I think they're needed and then I go and then I go and forget the most obvious one on my own layout. Doh!

 

The servo to control the trap point is most likely to live in the locking room of the signal box for no other reason that the baseboard that is is on has no easy access underneath. That said, there is another possible option and that is to remove a length of the existing piece of track instead of just one rail and build the trap point on a small drop-in piece of plywood with the servo underneath.

 

Although there are two shunt signals numbered 13 - one for each direction - I'm wondering whether both are necessary. The one at the bay platform end seems more necessary than the one in the siding. Moves from the siding could be deemed to be on the authority of the signaller's flag.

[Sandhole]

311217_2.jpg

 

I've spent the last few days fitting head and tail lamps to all the relevant stock on the layout. Some lamps have been super-glued in position where the lamp bracket is moulded on the body whilst others have had an hole drilled in the base and the lamp placed on the lamp bracket and held in place with Tacky Wax.

 

Unfortunately this means that both engines and brake (vans) have lamps on each end as I don't consider it practical to routinely change the lamp positions in 4mm scale (and the brackets themselves probably wouldn't last too long either with constant use).

 

I've also fitted (intermediate) corridor connections made of thin black card to the coaching stock, including DMUs. The tops and bottoms are open but this isn't too noticeable when the trains are moving. The connectors do a good job of disguising the "gap" between vehicles.

 

I also want to fit loco crews as well but am struggling to find an economical way of doing so.

 

Happy New Year to everyone.

One way of getting crews is to use Airfix military figures cut about.

The RAF and Luftwaffe ground crews are full of good stuff.

You will have to commit GBH on them and, they will never up to the standard of the exquisite bespoke stuff available, but they are very useable.

Airfix also provided me with The Highlander to stand on the footplate of Clan Macleod!!!

I Know, I Know but I couldn't resist!!!!

                          Chris.

[Ray H]

Well, Bob the builder has finally finished the three pairs of detached houses (and garages) in station lane and his mate has also been and erected the fencing on the opposite side of the road.

 

 

The solitary signal in the distance is from a Ratio kit and is simply a marker for where the Inner Home signal - made from MSE kits/parts - will go.

 

The station building is still absent but I fancy a change so I will either crack on with building Buckinhum's lever frame or try my hand at building a colleague's Easibuild O gauge coach kit (or none of the above).

 

 

[Andrew P]

Houses look great Ray, I recon you need to be careful building an O Gauge Coach, you know how quickly that BUG can spread mate.  

[Ray H]

Houses look great Ray, I recon you need to be careful building an O Gauge Coach, you know how quickly that BUG can spread mate.

 

Thanks.

 

I've already got three locos operable locos, a Lima (?) loco to convert and a Derby Lightweight railcar to finish. The club has a large O gauge layout and I'm often round m mate's house helping him operate his layout that extends from the garage to the garden.

 

I'm toying with the idea of building a small terminus to fiddle yard layout at some stage although I haven't really got anywhere to store it. The idea of building the coach is for me to dip my toe in the water because I reckon I'll need at least (a loco and) one coach as an occasional substitute for the railcar.

[Ray H]

The O gauge coach kit hasn't advanced too far 'cos I keep distracting myself!

 

First it was trying to work out how best to apply some selective signalling when the lever frame is installed.

 

Next (and most recent) was the overlooked trap point in the factory siding.

 

I'd convinced myself that there was no way that I could get some copper tube (as in Mercontrol) from the front of the layout to the siding so that I could fit the trap point's operating servo along the front edge of the layout as I have managed to do for all the other points.

 

I came across the requisite copper tube again yesterday whilst doing something else so thought I'd try to prove myself right (or wrong). To my surprise and after a few attempts I persuaded the copper tube to mine itself a route under/through the foam that covers the baseboard top.

 

The next obvious thing to do was to build the trap point.

 

I decided to remove the SMP sleepers from the track where the trap point would go. I was then able to scrape the ballast out of the way - the ballast and track had been stuck down using a vinyl adhesive. Then I generated the relevant (copper clad) sleepers, trimmed them to length and then positioned them under both rails.

 

The rail nearest the signal box would remain (uncut) so was soldered to the new sleepers. The other rail (which would be cut) was soldered to the two left and right most new sleepers. This rail was then cut and with the aid of a Tracksetta gauge, soldered to the sleepers with a (track) radius of 36".

 

The blade was then cut to fir the space, filled and it two secured in place.

 

Finally I soldered the blade to a further piece of copper clad sleeper having drilled a hole on the other end so that I could hook it up to the drive from the servo. The ballast was laid and, this morning, secured in place with diluted PVA. I shall paint the sleepers and rail(s) once the PVA has dried.

 

[Ray H]

I hadn't realised that it was two months since I last updated this thread.

 

I haven't been idle and certainly not so over the last few weeks where I've been investigating and revising some of the function mapping on the sound decoders fitted to the motive power on the layout.

 

Anyway by way of a change I thought I'd see how I could address a nagging problem, scenery wise, along side the bay platform at Buckinhum where the (house) garage's sole brick pillar has all but kept me awake at nights!

 

.

 

The Will's garage kit was an impulse buy many months ago and has lain against the backscene almost ever since in the hope that I could work out how to add a (model) garage to that part of the layout.

 

Over the last few days I've hatched a plan and I actually made a start on that plan today. The shell of the garage has been built but not in a way that might be envisaged.

 

More tomorrow or whenever!

[Ray H]

This was the state of play by close of traffic yesterday. I'd gone from a kit of parts to parts of a kit.

 

 

My attention then turned to how to roof the structure having decided that I'd put the side wall panels adjacent to each other rather than across from their neighbour.

 

The four Wills roof parts are presumed to represent corrugated iron. They'll be enough for the one full length side of the building but they'll leave the rest of the roof open to the sky - not a good idea with our climate!

 

I ruled out both slates and tiles as they would probably be too heavy for a wooden structure.

 

I could order some of the relevant plasticard but that would take a while to arrive, I'd have to pay postage on it and I'd think of something else I'd need no sooner had the shop posted my purchases back to me!

 

I also looked at the relevant Scalescenes builder's yard sheets. I haven't totally ruled them out but at the moment I'm thinking of trying to represent a pitched felt roof using strips of wet & dry paper. That would avoid anything but the "natural" joins.

 

Both felt and Scalescenes paper will require a roof of flat "panels" and those panels will have to both rise to their respective apexes and have one edge shaped so that it is a snug fit against the curved backscene. I doubt that will be a five minute job.

 

Oh, and of course the said roof needs to be supported along its length and across its width (with only one side wall to support it).

 

Watch this space.

[Andrew P]

That looks a nice interesting Building Ray, very neat mate.

[Ray H]

The building now has a roof (of sorts).

 

 

There will be a fence along the edge of the raised ground (on which the garage stands), The path between the fence and the garage will ultimately lead to the factory which is rail served by means of a siding which is accessed via the bay platform track.

 

The garage will probably be modelled with one or both doors closed.

[Ray H]

A little more done today.

 

 

The fence is removable if (absolutely) necessary. Currently it is only in place up to the baseboard join, two thirds of the way along the garage. The rest of this type of fence is prepared and just needs the necessary holes drilling to hold it in place. I shall probably cover the grey paint on the footpath - and maybe towards the end of the road - with PVA glue and a sprinkling of chinchilla sand as tarmacadam still wasn't as widespread towards the end of the fifties in rural areas as it is today.

 

I'm unsure how to "paint" the wooden walls of the garage. Although the illustration on the Wills packaging shows a light colour, I can't help but think the wood is more likely to have had numerous coats of creosote.

[jcarta]

Ray

 

The scenery is starting to take shape... I have found a picture on the web that illustrates that garages sometimes started painting the wood in in different colours i.e. green, white .... I suppose what ever was lying around.....

 

 

Jim