St. Simon Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Hi, This thread is one that will continue on from a thread in the 2011 Challenge forum for my entrant Roads A-C Building Thread: http://www.rmweb.co....7312-roads-a-c/ Summary Thread: http://www.rmweb.co....5446-roads-a-c/ For those that don't want to trawl through all that, Roads A-C is a accrurate representation of Chiltern Railways Traction Maintanence Depot at Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, where Chiltern under takes the maintanence of it's fleet of mulitple unit and coaching stock. The layout represents Roads A, B and C of the main Depot building and their approach throat, along with a junction to Roads D onwards. The layout will be set at night, the time at which the Depot is at it's busiest and will be fully lit Here's the track plan for the layout: The too large half round tanks are sections of the 2 large storage tanks that exist at Aylesbury (see here), the white block is a double portacabin (with illuminated interior), the gren circles are trees, and the brown block is a section of a builders merchant. Here's a 3D representation of the layout drawn in google sketch up: So far, the two boards need to extend the existing board are built (both are the same size of the existing one 20" x 11" so that they can be stacked), with one board having track on, the orginal board and the middle board are wired up, the electric connections are being placed on the backscene, so there's no more laying on your back to connect the boards and helps easy fault finding. They look like this: Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures. Overall the layout will be 8ft long, a 5ft scenic section with 3ft fiddle yard (the maximum that can fit in my new bedroom) and around 18 inches wide with a cassette at the rear. The track is PECO invidulay track with concrete sleepers, Pandrol Clips and code 82 rail. The points are PECO code 100 rescued from another layout. Here's what they look like with stock on: Hopefully I will be able to get some Cheap MK3's to spray into Chiltern Livery and of course the Hornby 67 will hopefully make an apperance in Wrexham and Shropshire Livery. The layout will not have any logos on it, allowing me to run different multiple units on it, not just Chiltern Stock. The layout will be exhibitable, and will appear at Thames Valley Model Rail Expo 2012 on the 19th May at Knowle Hill Village Hall. However I will not be looking to take it out to many shows, maybe one or two a year. Thanks for looking and Comments are Weclome! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevblokey Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 I think the concept behind this is brilliant, looking forward to it developing. Kev Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted January 16, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 16, 2012 All being well I look forward to seeing it at Knowle Hill Simon - it's coming along nicely. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsforever Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Pity you cant a representaton of our space age footbridge which runs behind the depot ,will you have a model of the shunter as its quite a nice loco? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Simon Posted January 16, 2012 Author Share Posted January 16, 2012 Pity you cant a representaton of our space age footbridge which runs behind the depot ,will you have a model of the shunter as its quite a nice loco? Hi Yeah, it's a shame, but to model that, I would have to built the Depot inside and I'm not insane enough (yet) to cut the track supports needed! I have a model of Lesley: It's a Sliver Fox Models Class 07 body kit on a Bachmann 03 chassis that has been painted up to look like Lesley, the actaul differences between the 2 types of Loco are small and not worth bothering with if I'm Honest! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsforever Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Lesley looks good . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Simon Posted January 16, 2012 Author Share Posted January 16, 2012 Lesley looks good . Hi, Thank you, it's still got Wasp Stripes, Glazing, Buffers and Couplings to be put on, but I think it's come out pretty well, just need to find some nameplates I think the concept behind this is brilliant, looking forward to it developing. Kev Thank you very much, I think it'll be something quite different, I haven't seen many layouts that have been permernantly set at light, plus being dark will help to disguise Backscene and Baseboard gaps. With the sodium lighting, I think it'll look pretty good! Will on the subject of lighting, I spent a good half an hour at my club tonight wiring up the lighting circuits ready for lights. Now I've got to paint the final board, then finish track laying and wiring, which should take no more than a few hours and I should be able to start on scenics! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Simon Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 Hi, Well, this afternoon, after school, as well as last night I managed to get quite a few things done on the layout! Firstly I managed to paint the woodwork of the final board painted black (I primed it yesterday), tomorrow the wooded area will be painted earth coloured and hopefully track will be laid. It has been on the middle board that has had the most attention, all the rails have been painted rust coloured, so now this board is ready for Ballasting. I have also added some mod rock to make a small embankment were the car park meets the raised track bed, tomorrow, that'll be painted earth coloured as well. Also in that area I have painted the base of the fuel tanks concrete coloured, I've now got to get the walls up and the tanks made! Meanwhile, at the back of the board, I have primed a 20ft container (A Ten commandments resin model from the St. Albans Show) ready for painting. I have also spray a Knightwing portacabin kit in white ready for assembly, however, the parts have warped and twisted, so I'm going to have to see how it goes before I decide to put it on the layout. I will post up some photos when i have done a bit more, I promise! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Simon Posted January 21, 2012 Author Share Posted January 21, 2012 I will post up some photos when i have done a bit more, I promise! Hi, Famous last words from me there! I failed to keep my promise because of a coupling things, chief among which have been a rather bad week at school has rather limited my modelling time and mojo to be honest. However there was a reason I didn't show anything and that was because when I went to paint the mod rock embankment and the car park, one I found that I hadn't enough paint to do it and two, when I went to clear up the mod rock, it simply came off in my hand, so I decided to paint the surface again and do it again another time, this meant I ended up in the same state as the last photos I thought it be rather embarrassing to show basically no work! So today being a day off and with hopefully the problems behind me, I started again. First of all I looked at some images and ariel views of the Depot and found that the white storage tank nearest the Depot is close enough to the track to be modelled (or at least half of it), so I decided to add this to the layout, this meant that the red storage tanks are shifted to the left a bit, but then it's current state, there would be no room between the portacabins and tanks to model the car park and gas storage area. So I had to move the portacabin along abit, but the problem came with having to cut out a section of the board which had already been screwed down, so 2 hours with a saw, a chisel and a hammer had that section taken out, I almost ruined the baord in the process, but I managed to save it, just! This change has meant that the cabins are closer to their real position at the Depot Also while looking through some superb photos taken by Matt Wickham (Bluebell Model Railway), I also discovered a small building around the back of the portacabins (one you can't see on ariel photos) as well as a Gas storage area. So I will be modelling all these as well, so a bit of scratch building will be needed tomorrow! Anyway, on to todays work, I managed to get out and buy some pine strip wood to create the walls and to get a panel for the layout, which I'll be wiring up tomorrow! Currently, the walls are stuck in place and primed ready for painting in concrete paint. The final board is still not ready for scenery. The track hasn't been laid because I've run out of sleepers, by about 10 ), so that's a job for tomorrow. I've tried mod rocking the embankment again, so hopefully it'll work: Above you can see the new cut out section (compare it with photos at the top of the thread) on the final board and the portacabins roughly in position, they've still got interiors and lights to fit before they can be completed. The white area will be painted black tomorrow an then mod rocked. The track isn't stuck down The middle board is almost ready for ballasting and scenics, you can see the mod rock in place and the wall, the white thing in the background is the Ten Commandments 20ft Container. Plus an overall shot: Questions and Comments welcome! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
A1X Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 liking the layout so far (a bad week at school ,same as me mine was with exam results. ) but keep up the good work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Simon Posted January 22, 2012 Author Share Posted January 22, 2012 liking the layout so far (a bad week at school ,same as me mine was with exam results. ) but keep up the good work. Hi, Thanks, it wasn't exam results, it was mainly other things. But anyway, alot of work on the layout today meant that progress has not been very swift! There is alot of work, but when you look it the layout, it doesn't seem like much has happened. So here's what happened: This morning the first thing I did was to paint the walls and floor around the tanks in Railmatch concrete paint as well as painting the primed area on the final board black. This is how the middle board looks at the moment: You may not be able to see it, but I've also added a base for the yard lamp between C-road (nearest the back) and B-road (the middle one). Next up was the control panel, well actually it was rewiring the lighting circuits on the final board because I had done them a bit wrong (it must of been along day! ), but that only took quarter of an hour. I've drilled and fitted all but one of the switches needed, however I can't wiring them up until I have all the track laid and wired and I get some more chocolate block connectors: The top switches are section switches; A-road and B-road are split in two by the board joins (they will be cut back to elimnate the gaps closing up with heat) and C-road and the off scene road are one section. As mentioned in the last post, I made a start on the little building behind the portacabin, this is scratchbuilt out of plasticard and is currently sprayed in primer: It is very simple building, with lights and in it, the windows will allow the light out onto the track and car park, so it'll added to the atmosphere, and help to improve my scratchbuilding skills To go alongside this building, there is a cut out in the embankment surrounded by brick which has a green tank of some sort in it, so this and the tank have been constructed, there are still hand rails to go around it: This is how the buildings go on the final board, the track still isn't stuck down! I have finished mod rocking the embankment, but I'm going to leave it a couple of days, before I paint it, just to make sure it's total set, so any work on the layout will be on the scratchbuilding! Also I have managed to secure a cheap Mk3 FO from a friend (thanks Daniel! ) to spray into Chiltern Livery, and while research to make some transfers, I came across this photo of the perfect train for roads A-C: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitkat37118/6382383839/in/photostream A Class 67, a single Mk3 and a DVT, will fit very nicely on the layout, and I've seen that the Wrexham & Shropshire DVT is due soon! On the same research mission I found some curious photos. Firstly from another photographer is this photo of the mis-spelt signs under the ground signals protecting the depot: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36593372@N04/6178916630/ This clearly states '11 tonne axle loading max & Multiple Units Only' (only spelt differently ), how ever this photo cropped up: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitkat37118/6394188549/in/photostream This one shows 67013 pulling a MK3 set out from A-road I suppose the MK3's have an axle loading less then 11 Tonnes. So I'll sue this photo as my excuse to run coaches into the Depot! Oh and for those who are interested, Aylesburys Depot plaque is this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitkat37118/6199768135/in/photostream Quarking, isn't it? Sorry, I had too! Comments and Questions welcome! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold SouthernRegionSteam Posted January 22, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 22, 2012 Looking good Simon! Pleased to see you're expanding upon your original challenge entry - mines languishing on top of my shelf at the moment looking a bit forlorn. Eventually it will hopefully find a home somewhere...! I think the portacabin will look good when finished, as well as the brick bund and tank. Will be interested to see what you do (if anything) for any internal detailing of the portacabin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Simon Posted January 22, 2012 Author Share Posted January 22, 2012 Looking good Simon! Pleased to see you're expanding upon your original challenge entry - mines languishing on top of my shelf at the moment looking a bit forlorn. Eventually it will hopefully find a home somewhere...! I think the portacabin will look good when finished, as well as the brick bund and tank. Will be interested to see what you do (if anything) for any internal detailing of the portacabin. Hi, Thanks Jam! It was my plan to extend it all the way through challenge, because i knew my big bedroom layout would be going, so i need something i can fit in the new room to play trains on, and I found that an extension to 5ft scenic section and 3ft fiddle yard would fit length ways acroos my room with around 3 inches to spare! The portacabins will have interiors, i had a nice chat with Chris F and iL Dottore of this parish at the St. Albans show about doing interiors. so I now know how to do it. The only problem is that I don't have a clue about what the cabins are used for, so a lot of guess work is needed.The bottom one wil probably be a mess room for shunters / drivers and the top one will probably be an office of some sort. Not so sure about an interior in the little building, I don't know whether you'll be able to see in, any suggestions? By the way SRS, I thought your entry looked very good, and the Old Road is coming along nicely! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold SouthernRegionSteam Posted January 22, 2012 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 22, 2012 Hi Simon, I like the way you have your priorities sorted for the new room! 8ft is still a decent size for a bedroom layout, especially when you think that The Old Road (a shed layout) will be 8' x 10'. Just wide enough to get a scale platform length of a rural station on as well as a sizeable amount of scenery. I have to admit, I don't think I've ever done an interior for any building - I think I should give it a try though, particularly as I am thinking about lighting some of my scratchbuilt buildings up. And yes, guesswork has a lot to do with railway modelling - I should know, I've already made some wrong presumptions on mine! I guess the best way to test if you can see anything in the little building is to put a temporary roof on and try and look through the window - if it is barely noticeable it probably isn't worth putting interior detailing in and you can just put a frosted window on it. Thanks too for your compliment on the Old Road and my challenge entry - your entry definitely deserved the recognition it got! Jam Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Simon Posted January 23, 2012 Author Share Posted January 23, 2012 I have to admit, I don't think I've ever done an interior for any building - I think I should give it a try though, particularly as I am thinking about lighting some of my scratchbuilt buildings up. And yes, guesswork has a lot to do with railway modelling - I should know, I've already made some wrong presumptions on mine! I guess the best way to test if you can see anything in the little building is to put a temporary roof on and try and look through the window - if it is barely noticeable it probably isn't worth putting interior detailing in and you can just put a frosted window on it. Thanks too for your compliment on the Old Road and my challenge entry - your entry definitely deserved the recognition it got! Jam Hi Jam, iL Dottorre said that you can do interiors on Microsoft Power Point, because you can specify the width and depth of a box to milimetres. You the print them out and stick them on to plastic to be cut out. It does really add something to a building if it's light and got an interior, I recommend Maplins LED strips, you can get them in 5cm lengths and there only around £2 a strip, of course no connection, just a happy costumer! Yeah, I'll do that, I carry on with building the little building tonight at my club Thanks, I was quite surprised to get 2nd place in the category, but a well deserved winner! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Simon Posted January 29, 2012 Author Share Posted January 29, 2012 Hi, It's been a little while since an updated, but because of catching up school work, I haven't been able to get on to post. But I have done quite alot of Roads A-C Firstly, I spent some time up at my club on Monday finishing the little building and managed to paint most of it: I decided to put a representation of a metal steel plate over the end window, saves me having to put an interior in! It is painted in railmatch concrete with the roof in Revell Tar Black. I still have to paint the uprights orange and the window frame white. I have painted all the black bits that need painting on board, mainly the car park and wooded area, as well as the embankment: Next came putting some grass down onto the embankment between the tanks and the track, I chose to use a darker shade of green for the grass, instead of my usual bag of super bright green , I think it looks quite good: In the background of the above too photos you can see the biggest change to the layout, this is it's backscene fiddle yard. I created it yesterday to allow trains to be run off the line coming off C-road and around the back, allowing more shunting operations. It's made up of 6mm MDF off cuts from dads layout, where the baseboards taper along their length, which allows a kickback siding that I can store locos and shunters. The tops are braced with 1" x 1" timber and are detachable from the layout using bolts with captive nuts in the baseboards: The cut outs are for the interboard connections that are on the back of each board. The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that they are not at trakc height, and your right, because I'll be using cassettes from my other exhibition layout Hythe Parkway, these are based on 12mm MDF so should bring it up to track level, a 12mm plywood piece will be put on where the cassette ends: The last thing I managed to get done yesterday was to label up the control panel, using electrical tape and some staples sticky lables! (other brands are available!): I've still got to get a toggle switch to finish the lights, a couple of SPDT switches for the position light signals (still to be purchased) and a plug for the controller. The section switches are not yet wired up, but all the light switches are wired up and awaiting the lights to complete the circuits! That's all for now, going to the cinema with a friend later on, so no more work today! Comments and Questions welcome! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
A1X Posted January 29, 2012 Share Posted January 29, 2012 looking good Simon keep up the good work . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Simon Posted January 29, 2012 Author Share Posted January 29, 2012 looking good Simon keep up the good work . Hi, Thanks, I'll try to! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Simon Posted February 4, 2012 Author Share Posted February 4, 2012 Hi, I'm writing this post while watching a video of the F-35 Lightning II, so sorry if I go off topic! But anyhow, there's been more progress on Roads A-C today, well more in the spending department, but there has been progress! Another difficult week at school (it sounds like I'm making excuses but I'm not, honest!) rather put pay to my modelling mojo last week, so not much has been done until today. This morning we went down to our nearest well stocked model shop, the Alton Model Centre, it's a bit of a trek from High Wycombe, put it's a nice drive and we like the shop. We realised we had to go to today due to the probabilty of snow arriving tomorrow, which it has already and we needed some stuff to get on with both Roads A-C and dad's pre-grouping layout. We arrived there to find the place heaving, we thought nothing of it until we over heard "we've come from the exhibition", we knew nothing of the exhibition, so we brought what we needed from there and then went along to the exhibition, where we found some items we needed later on, so our wallets took abit of a beating. The things I got from the model shop where ballast and a knightwing fuel tank to make the white fuel tank. This evening, I got on with making it, as well as a signal for dads layout. The making of the tank required building up the tank in full, then chopping it in half horziontally so it'll fit on the layout, which is actually quite alot of work to do, this is how it looks at the moment: It still has to have a platform put on and then be painted white, but the bulk of the work has been done and I think it'll be quite effective! Also tonight I have managed to do 90% of the wiring using some chocolate block connectors that i got at the exhibition. I also managed to get the lights that run along the side of the track from Kytes lights as well as a 12v supply, I've got to say Kytes have superb costumer service, the gentleman on the stand helped us a huge amount, even leting us have a small bridge rectifier for nothing, great service! Usual disclaimer, no connection, just a happy costumer! I told abit of a lie at the beginning of the post, the past week i have done abit of the layout, the first among which has been building an interior of my portacabins, this is the bottom one, a mess room: So far I have a kitchen worktop with Microwave (non working) - in the bottom left corner, a table - centre, a signing on desk - top left corner and a tele on a stand - top right corner. I have still got interior walls to go in as well as chairs, magazines on the table and maybe a water cooler in the corner, plus a cupboard to stick on the wall. I have also made a start on the fencing around the wood area and builders merchants, this is ratio security fencing: I've still got the mesh and wires to go in yet, so it's far from finished, I have also managed to finish the trackwork and stick it down, however, I drilled holes for the point mechanisms in the wrong place so now I have no way of moving the points remotely! So abit of thinking on that front is required Anyway, that's it for now, comments & questions welcome! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
A1X Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 looking good as allways Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Simon Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 Hi, With confirmation that Roads A-C will be attending Thames Valley Model Rail Expo on the 19th May, I have been getting on with the layout! On Sunday, due to the 12cm of snow here in High Wycombe, I spent a long time at the dining room table doing bits and pieces not only for A-C, but also for dad's layout Loughborough Road, mainly some signals. However, back on topic, first I had to paint the black pan lights I brought on Saturday sliver because that's the colour of the ones at Aylesbury. I have left one black for the builders merchants: The sliver is Revell Aquacolour Aluminium. As stated before there'll be lights in the two portacabins. The lights on this board aren't stuck down nor wired up, but the lights on the other board are. Next I decided that I could ballast some of the middle board. The Ballast is Woodland scenics Fine Grey, which is what I used on the original board (I think): I ballast using a different method from the usual, first I lay neat PVA around the tracks and sprinkle on the ballast, I then wait until that dries before I ballast the centre of the rails using the usual PVA / Water / washing up liquid mix. I have since run out of PVA so no more ballasting can happen until I get some. I can't do too much ballasting anyway until I lay the road coming off C-road to the rear of the layout. The last thing I did was to install the flashing amber LED's into the original board above A and B-roads ( C-Road doesn't need one as the doors are closed), sorry about the poor quality photo: I wired them so one feed is going through the brass tube, with the other leg soldered to the actaul tube (with heatshink tubing on the inside feed to stop them shorting out). I haven't got them to work yet as I need to get a 3V battery and holder. Oh and if you are in Princess Risborough on the 18th Febuary (under 3 weeks away), please come to Risex 2012, I'll be there helpng to operate dad's layout Loughborough Road on it's exhibition debut, it's a pre-grouping layout, which is a much different period to me! But still come along and say hello and if you want ask questions about Roads A-C! That's it for now, comments and question welcome as usual! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluebell Model Railway Posted February 6, 2012 Share Posted February 6, 2012 Some nice progress there Simon... More than me at present Didn't know the Risex exhibition was on the 18th as well, shame, as i'm at the Milton Keynes one... but if that falls though Ill go to the one in Risborough instead. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
A1X Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 cannot wait to see this finished its going to be a brilliant layout,how do you make your track? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
St. Simon Posted February 7, 2012 Author Share Posted February 7, 2012 cannot wait to see this finished its going to be a brilliant layout,how do you make your track? Hi James, Thank you, I hope it will be! The track is made up from PECO individulay components, which are like hens teeth to find, but Kernow Model Centre is the best place I have found (disclaimer, no connection, just happy costumer). The track consists of Code 82 nickel Sliver Rail, sets of 6 concrete sleepers and pandrol rail clips, which all have to be brought seperatly. What I do for straight track is build the track off the board, the sets of sleepers are celotaped to a piece of wood around 5mm apart, then I thread the track clips on to the rail, spaced them out and finally glued them on the sleeps using poly cement, then I repeat for the other rail. For curved rail, I did the same, but stop at the outer rail and then glued the track down, using a pot of stones and drawing pins to hold the position of the track, once that has set, I thread the track clips on to the inner rail then space then and glue to the sleepers, using a track gauge to keep the track at 16.5mm apart. The track looks so much better than PECO Set or streamlined track, but I personally would only recommend it for simple layouts such as this, bigger complex layouts might be on the limits of this track. Hope this helps! Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsforever Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Coming on nicely the builders merchants are now closed so you could have a nice bit of dereliction as the grass and weeds are growing well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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