Leaderboard

With apologies for the substantial delay, welcome back to the SSLR! Before we focus on the construction of the scenery of the layout, I felt it important to dedicate a blog entry to a crucial step in building layouts; mock-ups! For those that have seen the video on the Taunton SWAG event, whilst I talked about how important sight lines are, I neglected to mention the use of paper/cardboard mock-ups (as well as 2D and even 3D drawings) during the planning stage; hence why I thought I'd write about it here instead, as it is something that I feel more people should consider doing when planning their layouts. In a way, it's sort of the town planning equivalent of the model railway world; much in the same way an architect or town planner would try and mitigate the impact of a building to its surroundings, I find it incredibly important to get buildings/structures on a model railway to "sit right". The difficulty comes when you consider it's not really a quantifiable subject; it's more of a "What looks and feels right?" kind of deal. That said, that doesn't mean it's a difficult thing to master, and since there are many ways of doing it, there'll be a method that will surely suit you most. Why bother with mock-ups? Efficiency - Helps you work out the best use of the space before committing money and time to an idea that may well be wrong yet entirely avoidable with a bit of planning Visual Balance - Makes sure elements of the layout don't overpower or block (or perhaps the opposite depending on your goal!) the overall picture Money Saving - Reduces the chance of a costly mistake early on! Plus, mock-ups can be made from whatever off-cuts of paper or cardboard you already have lying around. With Sandy Shores, there have been quite a few areas where mock-ups and similar have proven invaluable; all despite the layout being so small. But why? Well, to answer that question, it's a case of thinking about how best to make use of the limited space, and being careful not to overpower the layout by cramming in too much, or by having structures that (visually) unbalance the layout. Don't be afraid to throw out the rulebook! Sometimes, the well-recited "rules" or "trains of thought" (if you'll excuse the pun!) of model-making churned out by even the most talented and experienced modellers can be broken for the better. Sandy Shores' lighthouse is a good example of this; a tall, imposing structure right at the front of the layout is more often than not discouraged. But actually, by doing exactly that, not only is there a really big focal point that makes the layout stand out from the other end of an exhibition hall, but the view blocking that is created makes people naturally hunt for more interesting angles to view the layout from. As an added bonus, this also means no immersion-breaking shadows are cast on the backscene; and with the lighting pelmet extending a few inches beyond the board edge, the lighthouse remains well lit from the front. Options for mock-ups: Paper/cardboard mock-up using masking tape, and a fine line pen A 2D sketch on paper or on the computer A 3D model on the computer using a modelling program (i.e. Sketchup) A mix of stuff, including old track/track templates, buildings from previous layouts, bits of rolling stock, etc. What you choose to do your mock-ups with is mostly irrelevant; the core intention here is that you experiment with different configurations until you find the "best" choice! Let's take a look at a few examples from Sandy Shores, and how and why they were used, starting off with one of the (many) early mock-ups; the initial layout planning. Initial Layout Planning: For this, I often find that the most useful approach is no.4 in the list above; that is, to find whatever bits I have lying around from old projects, and use them to roughly figure out what I might be able to get away with in the space. I tend to make my own point templates by drawing around existing points; it's a nice cheap way of doing things! As you can see, at this stage it was important to decide the average length of train, which in turn determined the length of headshunt (on the far left) and the diameter of the turntable (top right). Usually you'd also have a run-around loop which would also need to hold a whole train, but Sandy Shores won't have one as it would take up too much space: By taking an "aerial" photo, I can use free software (in this case Paint.NET), to annotate the image, and roughly mark on the position of the proposed board edge and backscene. In reality, after more detailed mock-ups, the layout ended up being slightly different; as the tiny tracks in the fiddle yard (top) were never added as they were too small, and the backscene was straightened on the right hand side to follow the tracks there. But even in this bare-boned state, you can already begin to visualise where the scene might be heading: Terrain, Buildings & Structures Now that the general board shape and layout has been worked out, it was then time for two things; firstly, to mark out the terrain onto the polystyrene base, and secondly, to start making mock-ups of the various buildings. With regards to the former, making the top layer of the board out of a thick piece of polystyrene (or similar) is something that I find particularly useful as it allows me not only to draw the location of features, but also play around with different depths with relative ease. Looking at the photo below, it's easy to see where things have been changed; for example, the black pen shows the first attempt, whereas the red pen shows the second. Note how the angle of the track and position of loco shed and the grounded carriage have changed to allow better lines of sight: You'll also see how the position of the backscene has moved; the initial black line at the back has moved further back to the new blue line, so that more of the pond and rearmost sand dunes can fit in. All this moving around means that the most efficient use of space has been achieved with no extra cost; the headshunt now has more distance from the backscene; allowing for more room for the trestle bridge feature, and the grounded carriage has been shortened from the original so that there is more space for scenery around it. The fact it is all on a polystyrene base means that when it comes to working out the height of the terrain, it's easy to take off a little bit at a time to check for "balance" as you go. For the buildings and structures, I turned to another low-cost method; paper/cardboard models. This is where checking the visual balance of the layout comes into play. As I mentioned earlier, the lighthouse is an unusually large building to have at the front of the layout, which would normally upset the balance. However, by positioning it as far away from everything as possible (i.e. at the front centre of the layout), it actually creates a pleasing view block, and almost forces you to look down towards the rear buildings, which are much smaller. As I've placed the buildings at either end of the layout, a nice triangle is formed, which subconsciously draws your eye to different parts of the layout. In fact, you can quite easily ignore the lighthouse once you get close enough, which in itself forces you to look past/around it: Note how, whilst the grounded carriage and waiting shelter are relatively detailed with pen, the lighthouse is a much rougher and altogether more basic shape. That tells you how important it was for me to get the right height and shape of lighthouse, as I knew spending time making a detailed mock-up was pointless given that it was likely that I'd need to go through many variations before I settled on the final design. Something immediately apparent with the mock-up above was that the lighthouse was just slightly too tall, and there needed to be a more obvious taper towards the top to reduce its overall impact. I'd also like to focus on the platform shelter, as it's a structure that also changed size during the planning stage. The original (at the back of the photo below), was, whilst appearing fine on first glance, actually far too big. It dwarfed not only the locomotives, but also looked too imposing. It also didn't help that it was a scale 1m too tall, as I forgot to allow for the height of the platform! By keeping the proportions but reducing the scale somewhat, the end result was a structure that "sat" better in its surroundings, and one that a tatty seaside railway would easily manage to build on the small plot of land available: Testing Scenic Techniques But it wasn't just the overall layout, and the structures that needed to be mocked-up or trialled before being built; I also found it important to do a small scale test of scenic techniques away from the layout. To that end, I decided it would be worth producing a tiny portion of the terrain using offcuts of wood and polystyrene. Using the montage below: 1) The basic shape was determined by a tiny piece of plywood I had on my desk that I had been scribbling notes on, which then had a piece of polystyrene cut to shape (with a hot wire cutter), and glued with PVA; before being left to cure overnight. 2) The final shaping of the polystyrene could then be carried out with the hot wire cutter. The plan was for a tiny section of sea on the left, building up to an embryo dune, and then a "yellow dune" at the furthest right (complete with an abandoned section of track). 3) Air drying clay could then be rolled out (with the small rolling pin seen in the background), and then applied with PVA. Smoothing of the clay was carried out with a bit of water on the end of my thumb. 4) This is where the mock-ups come into their own as the first technique I tried (pressing in small amounts of sand) failed to produce a good representation of sand. This meant further trials were needed. So, following the next photo montage: 1) The new idea was to paint over the whole of the clay (including the sand) in various colours and shades to try and get the look I was after. Whilst getting closer to my goal, I still couldn't trick the eye into seeing the sand as a whole rather than its individual grains. 2) So the next step was to cover the dunes in a layer of PVA and sprinkle play sand on top. Unfortunately, this left a very blotchy sand dune! 3) However, after further painting (with the "wet" areas of sand painted a slightly darker shade), the blotchiness started to disappear. The only trouble now was how to represent the compacted sand that forms on the pathways? So: 1) In order to try and smooth out the sand a little, filler (in its unaltered powdered form) was liberally sprinkled on top of PVA brushed onto the existing painted sand, and then painted. 2) Which left a need for a proper path boundary, which was simply achieved by more PVA and a sprinkling of sand. 3) Once painted, and with a couple grass tufts placed and a few layers of PVA to represent the water, it actually looked like a proper sand dune! Which just goes to show the importance and usefulness of carrying out trials and mock-ups; had I not done any, I would've wasted time, money, and effort producing things that would've looked entirely wrong or otherwise unbalanced. So there we have it; Before you fire on all cylinders, and steam ahead with your plans, (sorry/not sorry for the puns!) consider taking a more leisurely and risk-free approach to model-making; it may just save you from making a steaming mess of things! On slightly more serious note, I hope that for some of you at least this will be an informative read, and may even encourage you to do the same. Unlike most aspects of our hobby, mock-ups is a tool that actually helps you to save money in the long run, and it also helps you to create a better layout in the process. And remember, lines of sight are one of the most important things; particularly for a small layout. Imagine you are a photographer looking to find exciting and pleasing angles. Can you add a bridge that forces you to look up at the locomotives crossing it? Or perhaps you can create a view block as I have done to force unique angles. Can you position a building to hide the hole in the backscene? Don't be afraid to break the "rules"; every now and then you may come up with a more interesting scenario because of it! That's it for today, feel free to discuss or ask questions in the comments below, and I'll be back soon with the next instalment! Happy model-making!

With apologies to XTC... On and off the workbench these last couple of weeks has been a new GWR outside-framed 4-4-0, following my earlier exploits with a City class. I fancied building one of the Bulldog/Bird/Fllower types with smaller drivers, so an order was placed with Branchlines for their excellent mixed-media kit (also the basis of the City), only this time specifying the 5' 8" driving wheel options. All the other variations are already catered for by the very well designed etch, including deeper frames as needed for a Bird. The chassis is nearly the same as the City, but the smaller drivers caused me to use a different motor/gearbox orientation, horizontal compared to the underslung installation on the City. Pleasingly, there's a lot of room above this motor for weight in the firebox and boiler, so adhesion shouldn't be a problem. The City will pull six kitbuilt coaches, after a bit of prototypical wheel slip, but the Bird should be a real slogger - I hope! The main work, as it was for the City, is on the plastic body, where at the very least handrails and moulded details need to be removed and then reinstated. On the Bird and Bulldogs, the boiler band and safety valve positions are different as well. Additional work is also needed to fill in the heavy cutaways under the boiler which suit the large splasher diameter of the City, but not the much smaller ones on the Bird. All good fun, though - and very much in the comfort zone if you've done any military modelling, etc. Names? I think it's going to be a toss-up between Bullfinch, Chaffinch and Kingfisher...

Ouch, almost 2 months since I last posted. I've not been exactly sleeping at the wheel. A few more wagons into the fray. I didn't think I had many Lowfit wagons and decided to have a shot at the Parkside kit. Initially I was a little miffed by instructions saying they were all wooden solebars, but that was me forgetting that while BR made steel chassis versions LNER had kept to timber on their version. These are very light and quite simple, I was past the making before I dug my camera out. Belatedly I took a couple of shots where I was fitting lead sheet into the small voids on the floor mouldings underside. Before decalling they were put behind a locomotive and reversed several times around a layout with some 1st radius curves. They were pushing 19 other wagons, these were No.20, & 21 some load ! yet not a single derailment. Now Decalled, both from a ModelMaster sheet included with the latest Peco 'Parkside' release. My other kit was an earlier one without decals. Note the use of Peco 'Parkside' PA34 mounting blocks into which I always use Bachmenn narrow tension-lock couplings. Construction is now moving onto Parkside GWR Mink 'A' wagons. I liked the look of one made for the club back in November and now have two others well on the way, with another two currently not started. So many options louvre end vents, bonnet vents, fitted, unfitted, GWR, or BR liveries. I have a mixture in mind That's enough at present, more later some time. Dad-1

Afternoon All! Welcome to this first edition of the Derails Diary! I hope this will become an informative, informal, fun diary surrounding interesting things going on here at a retailer; a little bit behind the scenes, but mostly use messing around! This first post revolves around the garden railway side of our business and our visit to the UK's largest (and best, in our opinion) Garden Railway locomotive manufacturer, Roundhouse Engineering Co of Doncaster. Leaving the Forest at 8am on Sunday, after a traffic and road-work free 3 hour trip to Donny we pulled into their car park. They're based on an interesting industrial estate, with a fishing tackle shop on one side and a gym on the other! The Roundhouse 2019 model is the iconic Ffestiniog Double Fairlie, never produced 'en masse' in 16mm scale form before. The prototype loco's were designed by Robert Fairlie in the early 1860's and despite what you might think, they weren't actually first seen on the FR - standard gauge versions were produced first. The first Narrow Gauge variant 'Little Wonder' was delivered to the FR in 1869 and Fairlies have been in constant on the railway ever since. The Roundhouse model is a £4100 fully working model, gas fired with a twin-boiler setup. The only common connection between the two boilers is the steam regulator and the gas regulator, both of which consist of one central valve controlling both boilers - in fact you are effectively steaming two locomotives. Now I've been asked a lot how Roundhouse loco's are actually built and my answer has always been the same simple one liner; "Hand-made in Doncaster Sir" - but now I can elaborate further. So here is a simplified production timeline surrounding one of the new Double Fairlies! Step 1 - Design! A - Design Shop by Derails Models, on Flickr Design is done in a 3D format on a CAD software from scratch, only using measurements and 2D line diagrams - no scanning parties here! Once design is completed the designer will head into the machine shop and start to make the prototype model himself. If you look on the screen on the right, you can see a more advanced stage of production - setting out the etchings. These have to be sent in 2D format to the etcher for production. Step 2 - The Machine Shop! B - Machine Shop by Derails Models, on Flickr C- CNC Machine 1 by Derails Models, on Flickr So, in our simplified version of production, our prototype model has been extensively tested and any changes have been made. We're now producing our first customer model! Here, the CNC machines are running almost autonomously, machining all of the parts needed to build the models. Above, we see the Cylinder Stretchers (nope, I don't know what they do either) for the Double Fairlie being machined from a block of brass - this machine can produce this part in 1-2 minutes! Here's the finished piece: D - DLG Cylinder Stretchers by Derails Models, on Flickr There is a vast stores of parts here, here we see cylinder blocks and thousands of wheels! E - Cylinders by Derails Models, on Flickr F - Wheels by Derails Models, on Flickr Step 3 - Part Assembly Cylinders by Derails Models, on Flickr Individual parts are now assembled into working parts of the model - items like the cylinder. The pic above shows the seperate parts and the stages required to machine them, and the finished item at the bottom there. At this stage the body etches (which we saw earlier on the design screen) are delivered to the factory and soldered together. Step 3 - The Paint Shop G - Paint Shop by Derails Models, on Flickr This room is where the parts that need to be painted, are painted. Roundhouse use an industrial grade two-pack paint that is very durable and gives a great gloss finish! Here we see a Double Fairlie body being painted into Crimson Lake. Step 4 - The Chassis Man H - Frames by Derails Models, on Flickr I - Chassis Testing by Derails Models, on Flickr I've always though that the Roundhouse Chassis assembler must be a skilled man! If you've seen my other blog, you'll know I'm building a loco using their chassis. Can I get the timing correct? No I can not! Here we see some Fairlie chassis being constructed. Due to the small size, these are tight loco's to build and Marlou (the chassis man) informs us that they are incredible fiddly! Step 5 - Final Assembly J - Final Assembly by Derails Models, on Flickr K - DLG Assembly by Derails Models, on Flickr L - Derails Alco by Derails Models, on Flickr Where all of the hard work pays off! Four gents sit around a table and hand-assembled the finished loco. In the first pic you can see the layout including the "Lazy-Susan" of parts in the centre. Pic 2 shows a Double Fairlie in various stages of construction. Last but not least, you can see an Alco with the body on and one with the body off. The Alco on the left, wearing the War Department livery, is actually a loco bound for us here at Derails - we'll be welcoming it into our stock in a couple of weeks time! In fact it was good fun going around the factory and seeing our name on different cards.... Step 6 - Testing M - DLG on Track by Derails Models, on Flickr Each Roundhouse Classic Series loco, such as the Fairlie, are steam-tested to ensure all is well. Here we see one such locomotive on test on the showroom track. The loco is towing an estimated 20lb, and was handling it with ease! At this point the loco is cleaned, packed up and label before the dealer is informed it is ready. We then arrange delivery to it's new owner, and the process is complete! It was really good for us to meet to meet the guys and girls at the factory and seeing how things were done, seeing things behind the scenes and finding out how much work actually goes into one of these locomotives - in-fact, even if you're not really that interested in Garden Railways, if you're in the area around their next open day I really would recommend going along. There's a buffet lunch too, if that's an incentive...... The return trip istelf was uneventful (apart from the fact we may have driven into one of Doncasters 'bus-gates' - here comes a fine!) and we arrived back in the Forest of Dean at around half-past four; enough time for a cup of tea before dinner! We hope you've enjoyed reading this, and we'll be back soon with our next tale! Cheers!

Odd how you sometimes think you are going to tackle some part of layout building and then you end up spending a few weeks doing something totally different. I had been thinking about backscenes, but somehow I just fancied doing something a bit scenic. Generally scenery isn’t my strength but I keep seeing so may layouts on here with wonderful rural scenes which tempted me into having a play about. So I had a go at the harbour scene. Which by the nature of harbours requires some water. I have tried some of the the fancy scenic waters in the past but without good results, they seemed prone to cracking and expensive. So having read up about it I went for the standard layers of pva and paint followed by layers of varnish method. I’ll let you judge whether it does look like the muddy esturial waters at the confluence of the Kelvin and the Clyde, but I’m happy with it for now.