Elwood East - late 70s, N gauge, parcels & engineering traffic, very average

[Dave777]

The connectors are from Rapid (http://www.rapidonline.com/), but they don't do them anymore unfortunately. I bought these years ago and tried to stock up again a while back and they were discontinued. Shame because they're nice and chunky so you don't have to faff about too much with alignment (unlike, say, D connectors where you have to watch bending the pins).

 

You should be able to find something similar in here: http://www.rapidonline.com/Cables-Connectors

[artizen]

I know this suggestion is way too late now but I have a similar layout size in progress. I decided that the actual track and scenery should be accessible from any side during construction so I could reach things easily. So the backscene was a removable piece that can be added at the last moment or left off for detailing. It also means that I can photograph the layout from both sides to get images that are impossible any other way. I also construct as much of the buildings and scenery offsite as modules that can be plugged in when finished. This allows me to make a real mess without it getting all over anything else already finished. BTW don't stress about the ground colour - it will almost all disappear under the scenics anyway. I used a mix of black and burnt umber water colours blended with dark brown concrete oxide powder to paint my basic scenery shapes and the only place I can see it is between joins in the grass mats or around the edges. It looks like damp earth when dry.

 

So far your layout is looking really good and I wish Aldi or someone here would sell those trestles!!!!

[d winpenny]

layout looks great i like it,

 

david

[Lee m22]

This looks brilliant

 

Can't wait to see more !

 

 

 

Regards

Lee

[Dave777]

More soon.

 

Yes, and by 'soon' naturally I meant 6 months.

 

So here we are with ballasting and the greenery pretty much complete. Apologies for some of the poor photography on show here (particularly colour balance), I'm still experimenting with my fancy camera to get the best results.

 

Ballast is sieved silver sand and I tried switching from a PVA/water mix to Copydex/water. It seemed to flow a little bit better, and drying time seemed equivalent, again perhaps a bit quicker. Ballast glued the PVA way is like concrete, whereas with Copydex I found you get a more rubbery, pliable ballast. The main reason was to reduce running noise a bit, although I've yet to really try that out.

 

I had planned all along to take the slightly bonkers approach of individually painting each sleeper (in N gauge!) as I really wanted to try and get better looking track than I had achieved in the past. These are pretty cruel close ups (and there's still some static grass to vacuum out despite it having had several passes).

 

 

 

 

 

Satisfied with the result, but I think for the next layout I’m going to tinker with the sleepers of Peco track. Plonking commercial track down just doesn’t seem to provide a good enough finished result for me now. I don’t want to build my own, least of all build points, so it’ll either be a combination of Peco points and Easitrac or Peco points and modified Peco track. Either way, this is probably my last N gauge layout to utilise RTR trackwork ‘as is’.

 

 

Onto the greenery, there’s nothing special on show here, I claim no great scenic techniques (as the final results testify!), just applying what I’ve seen, read and learnt from others. So this is just hanging basket liner with static grass applied. There's still a fair bit of trimming required, you can see the odd bit of long hanging basket liner still needing trimming (it's a bit of a 'Forth Rail Bridge' job - you trim a load, vacuum it up, the force of the vacuum makes a few more bits stand up, so you trim those, vacuum them up...). The brown floor covering is Earth from Treemendus.

 

The whole look is meant to be a run down, neglected area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the shop back yard with knackered poster. This will be fenced off soon.

 

 

 

Some random stock shots:

 

 

 

 

Overview shot from the normal viewing angle to end with:

 

 

So next steps are various fences and walls around the place, a bit of touching up of the scenics here and there, add the engineer's coach that will sit permanantly in one of the sidings, and then all the detailing bits.

[d winpenny]

very impressive

 

david

[Guest oldlugger]

Excellent work Dave; it's all looking very promising! I really like the atmosphere you've created and the colouring you've used. One of my favourite photos is the building with the advertising hoarding which is very effective. This is one of the best N gauge layouts on RMweb in my opinion.

 

Cheers

Simon

[Kris]

The catch point is very good.

[ColinW]

You have done a great job with the layout.

 

Colin

[Dave777]

This is one of the best N gauge layouts on RMweb in my opinion.

 

Ooooh steady on now, let's not get too carried away!

 

The catch point is very good.

 

It's 'okay', I should have used thinner strip really, but that's something to work on the next time I build one. The idea was always to 'suggest' a catch point and not make a finescale model of one. That's a pretty cruel close up above, at 'normal viewing distance' it looks satisfactory.

 

 

Thanks for all the kind comments though.

[Revolution Ben]

Hi Dave,

 

Thanks for the update - I am a big fan of the "urban decay" look, and this is a superb rendition. The ripped advertising hoarding is a particularly nice touch.

 

You've also done a very skillful weathering job on the Dogfish.

 

Please keep the images coming!

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[eldavo]

I like the way you've achieved a really nice air of decay and grubbiness. Great stuff.

 

Cheers

Dave

[Dave777]

Not a very exciting update I'm afraid, but it's all (slow) progress. So this was about finishing off all the various walls and fences around the place.

 

Down at the right hand end things are now all boxed in.

 

 

 

A corrugated wall with pile of rubble, suggesting some building work going on behind.

 

 

 

Green fencing either side of the bridge.

 

 

 

And a bit of brick wall in the corner (bit of a gap between the bridge parapet and green fence on the right that I need to fill I think).

 

 

 

I've also added a post and wire fence alongside the line, and a right pain in the bum to build it was too. Not the neatest of jobs really, I may make some adjustments.

 

 

 

 

 

It's a bit dilapitated in places to suggest it's old & knackered, plus I added a few signposts for the old yard.

 

 

 

 

Down at the left hand end I've fenced in the backyard of the shop.

 

 

 

The Transit van was meant to appear later but I got carried away and stuck it in place.

 

Across the road I put in some brick & railing wall to suggest a park, and next to that I had an odd gap due to bad planning on my part, so I filled that with some wooden fencing adorned with suitable 70s concert posters.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, my trap point was bugging me. The previous version was always designed to 'suggest' a trap point, but it was starting to grate on me that it was all a bit chunky, so I've taken it up and replaced it with some 'I' girder cut in half. It's still very much a 'representation' of a trap point, but the new version at least looks a bit more like rail now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up is the addition of the engineer's coach sitting in the siding and then it's detailing time. I'll be adding a lot of these over the next week or so with a bit of luck, so the next update should be soon. It should start to 'come alive' a bit more then.

[IanLister]

Inspiring. Understated colours, great weathering, very atmospheric!

[eldavo]

The fences look good and the trap point is huge improvement. Looks much more in keeping.

 

Cheers

Dave

[cromptonnut]

Didn't see this topic the first time round, very impressed with what you've achieved in a relatively small space. It's just the sort of thing I was looking for with something I have in mind at the moment which only exists in my mind and on XTrackCAD.

 

Going to go back and have another read through, thanks

 

Did you stick with a 5ft scenic section? What's the width of the scenic bit?

[60091]

Just caught up with this topic and have enjoyed reading it all. There's so much I like about this layout including, the urban decay,a disused station and a simple but realistic track plan curving gently across the baseboard..... Any further thoughts on a location?

Will be following Elwood (definitely not average) East from now on..

[branchie]

Brilliant stuff Dave. Can't wait for the next update!

[Simon Moore]

Excellent piece of work there, I like the sex pistols flyers on the walls they look great.

 

Simon

[millerhillboy]

superb stuff, glad this was bumped back to the top as well, the colour palette you've used is spot on, just that nice level of urban colours mixed together to gain the correct overall effect.

 

can't wait to see some traffic on the layout

[Dave777]

Many thanks for all your kind comments everyone.

 

Did you stick with a 5ft scenic section? What's the width of the scenic bit?

 

Yes, I didn't actually mention the width now I go back and read. It's the rather odd figure of 15 inches, I've no idea how I originally arrived at that, but there we go. So 8' x 15", with the scenic section being 5' long. Bear in mind though that if you wanted to build something similar you could lop 15 inches out of the length by going with a traverser instead of siding 'fan' for the fiddleyard.

 

 

Any further thoughts on a location?

 

It's sort of North London, ex-GNR, Wood Green area ish, but I'm running a Class 03 shunter about (which I think are more Eastern based in the 70s...?) so it's a little vague really

[cromptonnut]

Thanks for the info - am working on a two level layout, lower level being railway and something quite similar to your plan although double track might work well. The upper level is an urban street scene with a working modern tram winding its way throught the streets a bit Croydonish, although the tram is actually heading to Hiroshima according to the roller blind (its a Japanese prototype...) and I reckon it might just fit although I probably have about 10 inches for the lower railway so tightening it in a bit and using your embankment idea should just about go together more or less.

 

Mine will be set late 80's/early 90's as that's most of the stock I have; also I have found a great kit for an Aldi Supermarket of which the first UK store opened in 1990 (albeit Birmingham - something that might suit the fantastic Ring Road layout which has been more than a little inspiration....) which I think will look great perched on the embankment not dissimilar to your building with the knackered billboard.

 

Incidently, how was your billboard achieved?

[Dave777]

Billboard is a square of card with strip borders, then I painted it up a suitable woodey plywood colour (varying shades of brown). The posters were just random images off the interweb which were cut up, PVA-ed on, then gently ripped and sandpapered to make them tatty. I originally had authentic 70s posters for Babycham and the Ford Cortina and left the woman's face and the front of the car, but it looked a bit contrived (like it was trying to look like a ripped poster too much). If you're only leaving bits of colour it doesn't really matter what the original picture is I found.

 

I would say that the final result is about 30/70 design/accident! The only thing I would say is to build & paint the billboard and get that looking like an empty billboard first, and then worry about the actual posters.

[artizen]

Definitely not average!

[cromptonnut]

Here's my take on your basic plan which I'm hoping will come to fruition over the next year.

 

 

Basic area 8ft long x 26 inches wide (need to make some 24 inch boards grow...) but a double track which suits my needs, in an oval.

 

The platform is the black square lower left, and the shed bottom right is likely to be a small Royal Mail depot.

 

The track shown is at 'ground level' , the area behind the blue border and the backscene is going to be an upper level street scene with an in-street modern Tram system - the track bits arrived from Japan this morning so I haven't yet worked out how I'm going to fit that in.

 

The station will be above the tracks at 90 degrees low relief against the backboard, with a road/bus/taxi section in front.

 

Other features will includ an Aldi supermarket - seen a nice kit - and some 'urban decay' as well as shops and flats, but at the moment I haven't even dug the boards out of the spare room yet. Depending on their state I might just as well make the boards a bit larger if I have to buy wood to make new ones and go up to 30 inches. That extra couple of inches in N makes a lot of difference.

 

On-scene trackwork will be Peco code 55 with setrack points and curves for the off-scene and fiddle yard.

 

I don't want to hijack your thread too much - I'll make my own once I have something to go on - but I thought you might be interested to see how your layout has inspired me to finally get something going - and with SWMBO monitoring my spending on "frivrolities" I'm hoping that the inevitable nag for lack of progress will spur me on.

 

I've started my own thread here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/47952-n-gauge-urban-layout-90s-ish-as-yet-unnamed/