bigwordsmith

Great thread guys - wish you lots of luck with it Peter

Thanks Brian Glad you're impressed, I had planned to spend Christmas getting a proper roof on the shed, but a large DIY project has arisen instead! Heigh Ho, let's hope everyone has a good one! Peter

Hi David Very much the same to you. Glad to see you're back 'on the tools. If anyone's interested, I've just posted a discussion around Hacking The Hornby P2 into a 'what might have been' http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79857-its-not-even-out-yet-but-what-else-could-we-do-with-hornbys-p2/ Hope you all have great Christmas - Maybe we'll all get the odd day to 'play trains!'

If anyone's still watching, I've just posted a discussion around Hacking The Hornby P2 into a 'what might have been' http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79857-its-not-even-out-yet-but-what-else-could-we-do-with-hornbys-p2/

Does anyone know it you'll be able to see hem at Warley?

Thanks Ian I hadn't thought of that, I'll look at it tomorrow!

Holyrood, thanks for the kind comments about the track work - it's all Peco 100. I think the secret is only using 5 foot radius points, and taking care over track joints - I always leave one sleeper gap between the tracks and fill this in with a single sleeper before ballasting. Annoyingly, even with five footers, if you try and back a Bachmann Peppercorn through an s curve with its tender close coupled, the tender binds and she falls into the 'cess! AFter much trial and error, I found the solution - only drive them forwards through sequential points!

Ian she looks lovely and a beautiful bit of work. I used to hit the same seam problem with the top of Hornby A3 boiler barrels when I was into detailing and repainting them some years ago. After I'd done a fine job of creating a boiler barrel that looked like it have been underneath the Penmanshiel tunnel collapse, I found the easiest way to remove them was with slow, painstaking wet/n/dry using a balsa block as a backer. by using a wet approach I was able to feel any imperfections and once all dried out and sprayed they disappeared. SOmewhere I have the nameplates for Trimbush , so one day I'll have a go at that, but really need a cheap one to get my hand back in.

Thanks for the kind comments folks - indeed 60028 should be Walter K Whigham, but this was the first example of a repaint an line out that I ever did on a pacific and I had bought the nameplates and stuck them on with Superglue before realising the error! Sadly this is one of the original Hornby tender drive A4s, and the wheels are a bit too coarse for the track and ballast that I've laid - all the modern stuff runs fine, but this, together with my A3 Pretty Polly, which is actually a reliveried early Hornby apple green Flying Scotsman complete with XO4 motor, now run really poorly as their wheels are getting lifted slightly off the track by the ballast - of course part of a loco shed is the ballast being quite high in places, but it seems these venerable old girls are going to have to spend the rest of their lives static! While updating my stock list I also discovered that hidden away in a box somewhere I have a blue liveried Bittern in heavy weathered condition courtesy of Messrs. Bachman, so I suspect that will be my next airbrush project. David you're absolutely right about variety - Still boxed and not yet out to play are a J39, J72, N2, Flying Pig ( don't ask) 2 x Standard 4 tanks,, a K3, 2 B 1s, and a brace of V3s, and a few interlopers from the west including an 8f, Black 5, and rebuilt Patriot and a handful of BR standards! And of course waiting int he wings, the oily purr of dieselisation! Unfortunately despite over an hour of programming the Heljan Turntable seemed to have a fatal memory loss, but fortunately the kind folk at Heljan have promised to fix it in return for me sending the bridge and the control box back to them in Denmark - better move those three racehorses over the TT before it goes out of action!

Been play8ing trains today..http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/73196-waverley-shed-somewhere-in-edinburgh/page-2&do=findComment&comment=1204478 David, Are you going to the NEC?

There comes a time in every modeller's life when you just have to day "s*d the scenery, I'm playing trains!" And I'm afraid that, apart from building the scenic bit for the West End and sticking some stonework together, is pretty much what I did today - the roll call includes: 60537 Bachelors button 60534 Irish Elegance 60144 Kings Courier 60147 North Eastern 60161 North British 60028 Sea Eagle 60061 Pretty Polly 60019 Bittern 60039 Sandwich 60035 Windsor Lad 60862 V2 and here's the evidence...

Actually David, they're all green - I just use the TOPS numbers because I got so familiar with them when I ran the Transport Publishing Group which at the time included The Railway Magazine and Railway Gazette!

DAvid - I think I might have one in the boxes somewhere - strangely enough I actually have two of the blue one! I also have a Peak, a Class 40, a 37, 08, 25, 26, Falcon Prototype, Kestrel Prototype and even a yellow ochre Western! I may even have DP2 somewhere - I really must get around to opening up all the boxes and cataloguing stock! Talk about catholic tastes!

Thanks Mallard - brilliant idea! David I wondered what had happened to you - good luck with the decor list I know how these things take priority The shed is a total cheat it's made up of Wills walling bits with their supplied windows - I've used 7 bays down each side and added extra brick layers to suggest the plinths and buttresses. All up I think it must be around 1100mm long x 190mm wide. I've decided to paint the girders in new RSJ primer colour and leave the building open - the idea being that it is actually in the process of conversion from a steam shed to a diesel stabling depot with the old roof having been found to have been corroded by years of acrid smoke, so is in the process of being removed and a new steel framed roof due to go in. As you know, BR was very good at never finishing projects before one of the Head Shed had a new brainwave, so this is perfectly prototypical. With the pressure to stable overflow locos from 64B the shedmaster seems to have thought "S*d it, it's perfectly safe, so we'll carry on parking locos there in the meantime!"

Hi David More progress on Waverley Shed if you're interested... I really think I ought to call it 'fifty shades of soot' http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/73196-waverley-shed-somewhere-in-edinburgh/?p=1191123

Right, another few weekends on the scenery, and moderate results to show for it! The bridge and ramp coming down to the car park were made out of bits of scrap plywood, with the stonework coming from Faller in the form of 'Dekorplatte' sheets which are actually pretty effective, and easily cut to shape. Amazingly there's about thirty hours' work to get this far, not that it seems like it, but when I got to doing the parapets on the ramp, I realised that the only way to finish the returns, was by slicing the individual stones off the sheet and glueing them on. How deeply am I now impressed by those people whop make their own stones and stick them together - just like the real thing. Equally I have to be honest and admit that I just don't have the time to go for that level of painstaking detail, but by the time it's all had a few washes of black poster paint to give it that whole 'dirty steam era' feel, who's going to notice. I've not decided yet what to put in the car park area. I was thinking there should be a booking on office and a load of bike racks, so eyes peeled for suitable buildings and accessories. Hey ho. all comments welcome - well good and helpful ones that is! This one shows looking up the ramp over the car park, towards the overbridge - you can see the backs of the Faller walls, which I've yet to paint out, and about halfway up you can see where I've done the painstaking returns on the stonework. Still much to finish. The lighting here is pretty pants, this was actually taken from the overbridge, so is a pretty good trainspotters' eye view! This is a side-on view showing all the scenic work so far... Apologies for the 'soft focus view here, but I actually balanced the iPhone on the parapet at the top of the coaling stage to show what it would look like for an operator up there looking down on the yard. One day it will be full of steaming locos....

Hi David How big is the loft - If you're looking at 4.2 metres in length it sounds like a 13x13 square if you have a 1920s house it's probably quite substantial with a good amount of headroom? I built a very practical layout in the loft of a 1950's 3 bed detached - nothing like as dramatic as the one in my parents' bungalow which gave us a 50 foot run, but still do-able. The secret I found was to do one side as the 'busy' bit and the other as the country lines giving a spot of playing trains. The challenge is that with a loco Shed you need somewhere for he locos to go - may be daft, but what about another 'shed' on the other side of the loft? Sp you could Have Haymarket at one end of the line and Perth at the other?

Just came across this thread for the first time and have spent a very enjoyable hour reading it - what outstanding workmanship Congratulations!

If your track is robust enough and securely fixed, I would certainly recommend 'jointing the track', including all of the additional rail joints through pointwork. I have done this on my layout http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/34460-whinburgh-and-slitrigg/, which uses SMP code 75 plastic based and paxolin track construction, stone ballast fixed with diluted PVA, which results in a rigid base. The effect is superb. I must work out how to upload a sound video to demonstrate the effect for you. I did this on my last 'big' railway - we had a 24 foot length of double track and cut notchesinto the line at 12" intervals - as we were using Peco flexible it meant two cuts er yard of track, which near enough equates to 6-' in rel life. The sound, especially when running a rake of Wrenn pullmans was amazing.

David have you thought of using the rafters as part of the construction? You might find it a lot easier to pre-cut the form and take it up the loft in bits so you assemble it up there?

David it all depends on how portable you want to make it, 2x1 with 9mm ply is almost an industry standard. I've used chipboard, MDF and even fibreboard, but always come back to the old tried and tested solution The ideal approach is to do a grid out of 2x1 with the ply giving rigidity. Personally I'd go for slightly bigger boards - 1200 x 600 works well if you plan to run them all along in a line, but on your proposed approach you could end up with breaks in both lateral planes - not good for track laying! If you're thinking of exhibiting, 1200 x1200 could potentially be a tad heavy and not easy to maneouvre in and out of the average estate car, so another thought would be to mix your materials which is what I've done at Waverley. MY central board with all the track and running area is made up of ply over softwood and is about 800mm deep. Behind that I've built up a big block of polystyrene insulation board - which actually sits directly on the trestles so can be lifted off to allow the board to hinge up. To the front of the board I've glued another layer of polystyrene to the front of the main board, which I used a hot wire to cut to 100mm x 50mm. That brings the total depth of the railway to just under 1200mm, but by using polystyrene for the scenic bits to front and rear, I've made a massive weight saving. The Polystyrene is built up out of 2" thick wall insulation boards purchased from WICKES and with 4 of them glued to each other it's incredibly strong but weighs very little IF you look at this pic you can see the different surfaces The grounded coach bodies and the cork insulation are actually on the 100mm deep polystyrene at the front of the board, and the stonework to the rear right of the shed is resting on the front of the rear polystyrene which will make up the back scene. I made the mistake on past layouts of laying track to the edge, so with this one a key requirement was a decent scenic area to set the layout into - I suspect with your magnificent building you'll want much the same. Good luck Peter

Hi Chris As promised this is the control panel with the two guagemasters sitting on the board - I need to find some clips for them as I keep knocking them off, and once the scenery is on there won't want to park them on the running board anyway!

Hi Chris It's totally analogue! Having a print background I split the layout into four sections 'C M Y K ' named after the technical names for the four colours of process printing ( Cyan Magenta Yellow black Each section is controlled through a gang of H&M MUltipack switches which have been screwed up underneath the front edge of the baseboard. In addition I have the 4 'spare' switches of the 'K' (black) multipack set up to switch control of the sections to either controller 'A' or 'B' so you can have cab control for all loco movements. THe track diagram shows how it is wired - where the line is bold it means that it is either permanently 'live' or depended upon a point being thrown to provide power. The big red numbers are the point switch numbers - it was logical, but when I widened the board and added siding roads I had to use the switches where they were not in logical order! The one on the top left is actually number 15 ( I number from the left of the gang) I did think about DCC, but with 60 odd locos to retrofit, and many that wouldn't have taken it, the costs and practicality didn't equate. I'll take a shot of the control decks shortly.

Hi Gilbert - I've been off line for a while and don't know if you solved your slipping A4 problem, but if you've got any suggestions on dealing with the same challenge on Bachmann Thompsons / Peppercorns, I'd love to hear it! I'm also just starting out on a model of an Engine Shed called Waverley, loosely modelled on a mix of Haymarket and St. Margarets. I have started a thread on here so if you or any of your friends would like to drop by and give me any hints I'd welcome them - please drop by to http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/73196-waverley-shed-somewhere-in-edinburgh/ Apologies for the lengthy pre-amble on the thread - there are a fair few pics as you scroll down, but it's still very early stages! ATB Peter

Thanks Andy - it's amazing the effect you can get when you lay an iPhone on the track to take pics!