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Kelly

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Blog Entries posted by Kelly

  1. Kelly
    Over the weekend of 7th/8th October Hornby Magazine held their annual model railway show. Once again it was at the impressive British Motor Museum, near Gaydon. Natalie and myself were invited to help out over the weekend with two DEMU layouts, Rannoch Moor and Bere Banks. Unfortuately as it turned out we weren't really needed…… Continue reading The Great Electric Train Show – 7th/8th October 2017 – British Motor Museum, Gaydon
  2. Kelly
    Over the weekend of 7th/8th October Hornby Magazine held their annual model railway show. Once again it was at the impressive British Motor Museum, near Gaydon. Natalie and myself were invited to help out over the weekend with two DEMU layouts, Rannoch Moor and Bere Banks. Unfortuately as it turned out we weren't really needed…… Continue reading The Great Electric Train Show – 7th/8th October 2017 – British Motor Museum, Gaydon


  3. Kelly

    Scalefourum 2017

    By Kelly,

    The weekend of 23rd/24th September 2017, saw Natalie and myself return to Aylesbury for the 2017 Scalefourum show. For those unaware, Scalefourum is the main show of the Scalefour Society. I was eagerly looking forward to it after last years excellent show. Layouts booked: Brettell Road by Jim Smith-Wright. Industrial byway in the West Midlands…… Continue reading Scalefourum 2017
  4. Kelly

    Scalefourum 2017

    By Kelly,

    The weekend of 23rd/24th September 2017, saw Natalie and myself return to Aylesbury for the 2017 Scalefourum show. For those unaware, Scalefourum is the main show of the Scalefour Society. I was eagerly looking forward to it after last years excellent show. Layouts booked: Brettell Road by Jim Smith-Wright. Industrial byway in the West Midlands…… Continue reading Scalefourum 2017


  5. Kelly
    After a bout of  illness and being busy with preparing for and dealing with a new canine arrival to my other halfs house, I've not been to any shows or done much modelling as a result. However, I did manage (with assistance from members of the Scalefour Society and the Templot Club forum) to finalise…… Continue reading Finalising plans and choosing a name.
  6. Kelly
    After a bout of  illness and being busy with preparing for and dealing with a new canine arrival to my other halfs house, I've not been to any shows or done much modelling as a result. However, I did manage (with assistance from members of the Scalefour Society and the Templot Club forum) to finalise…… Continue reading Finalising plans and choosing a name.


  7. Kelly
    Whilst updating posts on the P4 layout planning, thoughts turned briefly to the Nuclear Flask Terminal I'd been wanting to build for a while. Thoughts turned to it being made as a self contained extension to the P4 Layout plan, adding between 3 and 5ft extra to the 9ft length of the P4 Layout in…… Continue reading Returning to other ideas briefly.
  8. Kelly
    Whilst updating posts on the P4 layout planning, thoughts turned briefly to the Nuclear Flask Terminal I'd been wanting to build for a while. Thoughts turned to it being made as a self contained extension to the P4 Layout plan, adding between 3 and 5ft extra to the 9ft length of the P4 Layout in…… Continue reading Returning to other ideas briefly.


  9. Kelly

    Evolving the plan…

    By Kelly,

    As with all such things when designing a layout, plans evolve and change. A quick run down on what has occurred: Boards have been given a coat of while emulsion to protect them from damp (living in an old '60s council house it is a bit of a problem in some parts). All boards have…… Continue reading Evolving the plan…


  10. Kelly

    Evolving the plan…

    By Kelly,

    As with all such things when designing a layout, plans evolve and change. A quick run down on what has occurred: Boards have been given a coat of while emulsion to protect them from damp (living in an old '60s council house it is a bit of a problem in some parts). All boards have…… Continue reading Evolving the plan…
  13. Kelly
    Not done a great deal on the P4 layout plan due to other committments recently. However, the plan has evolved a bit more to better reflect the prototype location and avoid problems with carriage siding being too sharp. Adding an extra 1 ft x 2ft and 1 ft x 3ft boards shouldn't cause a problem…… Continue reading P4 Layout changes, MERG, and shows


  14. Kelly
    Not done a great deal on the P4 layout plan due to other committments recently. However, the plan has evolved a bit more to better reflect the prototype location and avoid problems with carriage siding being too sharp. Adding an extra 1 ft x 2ft and 1 ft x 3ft boards shouldn't cause a problem…… Continue reading P4 Layout changes, MERG, and shows
  15. Kelly
    The Scalefour Society AGM moves around the country each year, with the North London Group hosting it this year with a small show. DEMU were invited to the show and so Natalie and myself set off to set up the stand on what proved to be a very hot day. The show was fairly quiet…… Continue reading Scalefour Society AGM, Watford 18th June 2017


  16. Kelly
    The Scalefour Society AGM moves around the country each year, with the North London Group hosting it this year with a small show. DEMU were invited to the show and so Natalie and myself set off to set up the stand on what proved to be a very hot day. The show was fairly quiet…… Continue reading Scalefour Society AGM, Watford 18th June 2017
  19. Kelly
    Once again first weekend of June came around and that means DEMU's premier event Showcase, showcasing the best of Diesel & Electric modelling (sometime termed Modern Image by some, though personally I hate that term). Layouts in attendance this year included: Acton Parkway (4mm OO) Alderford (4mm OO) Cripple Sidings (4mm OO) Deadmans Lane (4mm…… Continue reading DEMU Showcase, Burton-Upon-Trent June 3rd-4th 2017
  20. Kelly
    Once again first weekend of June came around and that means DEMU's premier event Showcase, showcasing the best of Diesel & Electric modelling (sometime termed Modern Image by some, though personally I hate that term). Layouts in attendance this year included: Acton Parkway (4mm OO) Alderford (4mm OO) Cripple Sidings (4mm OO) Deadmans Lane (4mm…… Continue reading DEMU Showcase, Burton-Upon-Trent June 3rd-4th 2017


  21. Kelly
    I've been trying to get my head around using the various software available for planning and controlling layouts, namely Templot and JMRI.
     
    I've mostly figured out Templot now I think. A rough plan has been drawn as below:
     

     
    I've been trying to figure out making it a bit more condensed (due to space restrictions) by using a crossing/slip, but haven't quite gotten it as one bit is misaligned. Being full of cold I'm not able to concentrate now to fix it,but I'm getting there at least! I'm not 100% sure which works best at present though. Seeing as I'm going with EM Gauge, I wish to keep the number of points as low as possible as I've yet to attempt to build any, so the double slip/crossing might be more complex than i can manage to build. We'll see though.
     

     
    I have been looking into affordable ways to go DCC and have found the possibility of a SPROG 3 + Raspberry Pi + JMRI.
     
    I already have a spare Raspberry Pi left over from when I upgraded to a Pi 2 for my media centre, and JMRI is free. So only the SPROG 3 (and possibly a wifi dongle and power booster) to buy at around £60, which is about affordable if I scrimp for a couple of weeks. The SPROG will also be useful as a programmer at a later date when I hope to get an NCE PowerCab.
     
    Figuring out JMRI will take a bit more time I think, but I think I've partly gotten the hang of how bits of it work, but until I have some kind of controller to go with it I can't make much more progress.
     
    Finally I've made the decision that getting the boards laser cut by Tim Horn feels the best bet as I'm not really that confident of my woodworking skills, and haven't really the space for that sort of working to some extend. The prices Tim's quoted are affordable if I spread a module out over a few months or so at least, so I can get one board started then order another later, knowing they'll interlink. The plan is still to keep the boards plain with all buildings and signals etc removable for safer storage. I'm thinking of getting the boards double depth to allow storage when in use for setting up items for the fiddle yard. The plan is to use cassettes rather than have a dedicated fiddle yard board made up, thus saving cost of some track.
     
    UPDATE: It seems that a new Rapsberry Pi Model B 3 has been released, featuring same chip and graphics as the Pi 2, but with built in wifi n and bluetooth 4.0. That could well be just the ticket with JMRI and mean no need for a seperate dongle for the wifi. A bargain at £35 too!
     
    UPDATE 2: there is now a layout thread for this layout here. There is also a thread for what I'm working on atm here.
  22. Kelly
    I attended (with Natalie) the Diesel & Electric Show on the 19th and 20th of February, the first time it has been held and first time I've been to the Telford International Centre. We were there helping out on the DEMU stand all weekend. On the Sunday I started working on my 465/2 conversion from Hornby spare Networker (466) bodyshells, but more on that later. First a quick report.
     
    The show itself was good I felt, though I felt it could be improved in a few areas. Parking (particularly attendant/security communications in relation to directing etc) was a bit of an issue on the Saturday, but less of an issue Sunday. Aside from that the quality of layouts on show seemed good, with a good mixture I felt. The balance of traders could have been a bit better, would have liked to have seen a few smaller traders (reasons have been given for why this wasn't possible on the thread for the show on rmweb, which seem reasonable). I didn't buy anything model wise, but just a few tools and some books that were a good price for second hand.
     
    Glad to have attended and the DEMU stand was fairly busy for most of the weekend, with a number of queries and interest. What was nice was to see a good number of children interested and parents asking questions about how to get them started etc.
     
    On the Sunday I took along the parts for the Networker conversion I'm working on and made a start on one of the center cars (the non-toilet one). Part of the initial reason for taking the items along (I forgot to grab them for Saturday and detoured back home on my way back Saturday evening) was to ascertain which parts I'm still needing (one non-toilet bodyshell short!) after talking with Paul Wade (LyddRail) who had kindly sent me plans and detail drawings for the Networkers which will prove helpful as I progress. Hopefully I can manage to track down some more bodyshells (ideally I'd like to make 2 465/2 units (which means I need another 4 or 5 bodyshells)), they do come up occasionally on eBay, but seem to attract some silly bids at times.
     
    My efforts on the 465 center car were fairly productive, with the parts for one of the center cars cut out and temporarily glued to the rest of the body so as to get the underframe lined up. I managed to glue the end on the body a little out of line, so it'll have to come off anyway. the underframe was cut ever so slightly too short on one half, so a gap will have to be filled. I am however considering making a new underframe from plasticard due to the difficulty of getting the underframes (I can get them but they're a bit expensive now at nearly £10 each!).
     

     
    For the other car I am short a bodyshell (non-toilet car) to easily make the end of the center toilet car, and with how difficult it is proving to get extra bodyshells now, I am thinking I might have to cut up parts from the left over shell:
     

     
    Having scale plans will certainly help matters now (thanks to Paul Wade (LyddRail)), I will have to print them off and reduce them down to 1/76th from the 1/25th scale they're drawn in. I only wish I could find any plans for the 376s so I could have a stab at scratchbuilding one, suspect I might have to do that from photos/eye etc.
     
    Thats all for this update. Hopefully won't be so long between posts, but life (particularly my health) has rather gotten in the way in recent years.
     
    Attached are a few photos of the progress.
  23. Kelly
    So, in the last post I caught up a bit with what was planned and what had stalled plans etc.
     
    I've been researching baseboard construction recently and come up with a couple of ideas now as a result.
     
    Construction methods:
     
    i'm suspecting I'll go with plywood on a frame rather than my original thought of a foamboard base with thin plywood on the sides.
     
    This won't likely commence until the new year due to other committments, but now a few things are out of the way (boyfriend moving house, getting a new mobility scooter and having to replace all the white goods in the flat) I should hopefully be able to make a start on the baseboards, finally!
     
    A trip to B&Q in the new year I think.
     
    Modular is the key:
     
    Plan is for the building of 2-3 3ftx1-1.5ft boards and a 2ftx1-1.5ft board for the level crossing.
     
    The decision really is how wide I want the boards. As the layout is effectively not much more than double track with no stations etc on it and a single siding going off to a dock or similar I'm wondering whether 1ft width might be sufficient, but 1.5ft might be better. 2ft might be better for the planned rat run behind the scenery though. What will decide this really is a) the size that will fit into my car (05 plate mondeo estate) and b) the size of the area I could store the boards.
     
    Dual or single?
     
    The other decision is whether to have dual levels or not. By that I mean the main boards having space underneath for storage of units, in a traverser format, with corner boards allowing access by raising/lowering height. I'm in two minds about it after talking with Natalie.
     
    Storage/fiddle yards:
     
    In terms of fiddle yards I plan to use cassettes of no more than 4 car length, with some being enough for 1 carriage/loco and some for 2 carriage/locos. Avoiding point building is a part of that decision, and easier to store/transport in my opinion as the cassette should be able to be put straight into a suitable storage box without handling the units/stock.
     
    Control:
     
    DCC is a given really I think. When wiring the layout I think I may try to allow for being able to run in DC mode, but that might complicate things too much.
     
    As for controllers, I had thought after consideration with Natalie that going with an NCE PowerCab unit would be best as Natalie being left handed found others difficult or 'odd' to use in comparison. Unfortuately as things stand at present it is unlikely I shall be able to afford one, so I am thinking either:

    Hornby eLink + laptop, or
    A SPROG unit with JNRI on a laptop.

    I might give both a try at some stage, and will investigate other methods. I know computer/tablet/phone control would be good I think. I am rather tech savvy and unashamedly a geek when it comes to tech/computers, so such control methods appeal to me. I am not short of suitable devices at least, having one or two spare laptops and a tablet laying around as well as a spare desktop computer lurking somewhere in the flat.
     
    Another option is using a raspberry pi/arduino to control the layout as I already have a raspberry pi to hand (well I will do when i upgrade to a raspberry pi 2 for my media watching on the telly).
     
    Signals and points:
     
    Signals on the layout will likely be 3/4 aspect colour lights as that is what exists on the prototype location.
     
    However I would like to be able to at a later stage change the era to around the 1920s/1930s or WW2 (can't go beyond 1925 due to 3rd rail) as that could give some interesting future stock opportunities (and WW2 interests me historically). The starting era will be 1990-1994 or so (the changeover period of the EPBs and Networkers). With this in mind the buildings will be changeable, and ideally the signals too so that semaphore can be added. How feasible this turns out to be is another matter though! experimentation needed perhaps.
     
    Control of the points/signals by a lever type panel would be good i think. I'd like some kind of link between the signals and points and train detection to change signals after a train passes. A recent article in Hornby Magazine has made me think of using a MAS-Sequencer by Heathcote Electronics for control of changing the signals, which signals I use I've yet to decide.
     
    I suspect DCCconcepts point motors/controls will manage the points on the layout by DCC. As there aren't going to be many points (3 visible in total iirc) hopefully that should help keep costs down a little. If needed any points in the non-visible areas can be manual (by switches/panel) to start with perhaps rather than DCC.
     
    Track and gauge:
     
    The gauge will be EM, and I've been a member of the EM Gauge Society for just over a year now. (I'm sure the templates that came with the membership pack will be very useful when plotting out the layout on a board!).
     
    I will likely use C&L Finescale track.
     
    Final thoughts:
     
    That concludes a rather lengthy update post really. I don't think there'll be much updates this side of the new year, but I hope to get started by the middle of January, and hopefully make a start on the conversions/kits also.
     
    Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome
  24. Kelly

    Long time no update

    By Kelly,

    So I haven't updated these blogs for a fair while as life has sadly gotten in the way of thinking about any kind of modelling. That and my nature for being easily distracted by other things!
     
    I haven't forgotten about this layout plan, but money hasn't been available sadly to make a start on the boards for it. The plan thankfully is pretty simple at least so shouldn't require too much work track wise beyond a couple of points being built (it will be EM).
     
    I'm toying with the idea of it being dual level, with the lower level for storage of cassettes, but am in discussion with Natalie about the feasability of this at present.
     
    Hopefully in the new year some progress will be made.
     
    A 4EPB (BR built) and an 465 are in progress to some extent however, but no photos to share at this stage.
     
    A rough idea of the proposed plan is below. It will likely have a rat run behind some scenery to allow running around behind the scenes, as well as possibly curving around to a lower level at the sides for cassette fiddle yards with storage underneath, but none of this is final yet.
     

  25. Kelly

    Not updated in a while

    By Kelly,

    Plans for working on the layout have taken a back seat again due to funds and lack of space to store any boards sadly. Hopefully in the summer I'll be able to get a shed in the garden sorted out which will allow me to store some layout boards. Obviously stock would always be kept inside.
     
    Talking of stock, I'll hopefully get the extra bits I need at Ally Pally from Replica to be able to make another go on the 4EPB project again.
     
    I've also managed to source 4 more bodies (3 toilet, 1 non-toilet) for my 465 project so should be able to make progress on that soon. With the 2 bodies minus cabs I already have I should have more than enough to make a complete 465, though think I'll end up needing to make glazing so it looks uniform. 1 465 and 1 466 should be enough initially.
     
    The plans have sort of changed a little to try to make it possible to be in (almost) any 2 track electrified area of the SR. As well as the Woolwich Dockyard are, Addiscombe Park is being considered too, with possible plans for a terminus added at a later date. Kidbrooke is also being considered.
     
    Thats all for now.
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