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goldngreen

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  1. goldngreen

    Subdued Colours

    By goldngreen,


    Weathering
    I was pleased to get a comment from Mikkel on the subdued colours I had used on the engine shed. Despite not achieving his amazing standards I thought I would share how I do it. Subdued colours are something I am aiming for on the layout as I always like the layouts with subdued colours at shows. On the engine shed I used The Gimp to subdue the colour of the printed Scalescenes Red Brick, however on the other areas and all over the rest of the layout I use pastels. I have two sets that I rely on:
     

     
    The Black to White set is from a high street branch of The Works having seen a recommendation from BRM's Phil Parker. I picked up the landscape set at a show such a long time ago that I do not remember who sold it to me. It used to be available from Amazon but I have not been able to find it there recently. I did find one on eBay. Fortunately I have a spare!
     
    On all painted surfaces and the scenery I paint using standard colours and then dull down using similar coloured pastels. I often use a few and then blend them on the surface with a dry brush. I like the finish not just for the colours but also the soft edges and the very matt finish. It works particularly well on ground cover and stone surfaces. They clean up well using the vacuum cleaner extension and can be sealed using a spray varnish if necessary.
     
    The signal box was finished this way after being painted with Precision Paints GWR light and dark stone, plus Humbrol brick red and slate colours. 
     
  2. goldngreen

    Weathering Cows

    By goldngreen,


    Cattle Dock
    It is not every day that when I am asked what I have been doing that I am able to answer "weathering cows". I had that opportunity today so I grabbed it with both hands. 
     
    My original plan included the possibility of a cattle dock. The time has come. The cattle dock is going in the original planned location at the back to the right. 
     
    I want to make most of the features on the layout either scratch built, or made from less familiar kits, in the hope that it will look a little different. I therefore considered scratch building a cattle dock. I looked at how to make the fencing and came to the conclusion that an etch would be the best option. For the gates I thought plastic but it is difficult to fashion such things from scratch in N gauge. As for the platform there are many options but Peco platform edgings seemed like a good option. As I reviewed the options I realised that I was pretty much describing the Ratio cattle dock so this time I decided to swallow my pride and buy the kit. 
     
    The kit goes together easily. I did however find the lights difficult to make. The posts are very delicate. I managed to snap 2, one while clipping off the sprue with clippers designed for the purpose, the other with a paint brush. I managed to fix them both with Mek Pak! Perhaps 2mm is  bit beyond me these days with my aging eyes. The finished kit is shown below plonked on the layout in the intended position. I will have to fix it permanently to deal with the gap at the base. I used a slightly unusual configuration for the gate positions to ensure cattle could be loaded from both pens on this very short siding. It is weathered in a lime washed state complete with weathered Graham Farish cows. The photo tells me that I will also need to blend in the lime washed state to the track and hide the join between the steps and the platform.
     

  3. goldngreen

    Point Control

    By goldngreen,


    Control
    Last year I was asked a question about how I intended to actuate the points. Unfortunately I missed that question and so have only just responded. Apologies to Jack Benson for that. Here is the explanation I promised. I am using stiff push/pull wires under the baseboard as shown here:
     

     
    The other components in the design are choc-box connectors. The brass insides of the choc-box connectors are used as joiners for the wire to allow the system to be re-configurable (see 1). The consequence is that it can, in theory, be reconfigured to operate from the front or the back by undoing a couple of screws and connecting the handle to the other side. Another brass choc-box-inside is used directly under the point. A groove is filed in to the side of the brass connector into which a vertical wire is soldered. This engages with the point via a hole in the baseboard (see 2).
     

     
    The wires are guided by brass tube which is held in place using the plastic outside part of choc-box connectors (see 3).
     
    I have one side of the double-slip mounted in line with the Y point. The consequence is that I needed to divert the control of the Y point sideways past the double-slip actuator. This is done using more choc-box-internals with filed grooves and soldered wires to effect a horizontal bridge (see 4). I needed the double bridge with tension on the wires to make it stiff enough.
     
    A similar approach is used to operate the switches required to complete the double slip electrical continuity (see 5).
     
    The wires stick a short distance out of the front of the layout. They are covered with small plastic handles.
     

     
    Label 6 shows one of the holes for the alternative rear operation configuration. I cannot have these permanently setup since at home it is against a wall.
     
    The use of the adjustable screw connectors makes it easy to fettle the system to get the right tolerances. It is also easy to fix if something goes wrong although it has been working reliably since installation.
    I think I got the basic idea from a BRM article which, unfortunately, I cannot find now.
  4. goldngreen

    Control

    By goldngreen,


    Control
    I opted for DC rather than DCC for a number of reasons including:
     
    I have a number of older locomotives that would be more difficult to chip I felt that DCC was unnecessary on such a small layout – although I am now in two minds and I ended up over-engineering the DC anyway!  
    I chose cab control as described in Wiring the Layout Part 2 (my copy is about 40 years old but I do not think cab-control has changed much) mainly because it is what I had done before on a previous larger layout. So despite its small size the layout is divided into 4 sections. This does have the advantage that I am not relying on the points for isolation. I have used the common return approach to minimize the number of wires under the baseboard and between the layout and the control panel, with a view to using some old 5 pin din leads to connect the layout to the control panel; 4 sections means 5 wires, one for each section plus one for the common return.
     
    Here is a view under the baseboard.
     

     
    Figure 1 shows one of the droppers from the track. The droppers are terminated immediately under the baseboard into choc-box connectors. This makes it easy to reconfigure if necessary and also means that the wiring does not pull at the droppers. The droppers are fixed to the underside of the track by first removing a small section of the track plastic webbing, then filing the underside of the rail with a needle file to provide a rough surface to bond to. About 4 mm of the dropper wire was stripped and about 2mm of the stripped section bent at 90 degrees. This right angle section was soldered to the underside of the track. The droppers were poked through the drilled holes when laying the track and then connected to the choc-box connectors.  This makes the droppers completely invisible from the top side.
     
    Figure 2 shows the central bank of connectors for all of the sections. The wires are colour coded, yellow for common return with a different colour for each section. The central bank is connected to the 5 pin din edge connector (3). Figure 4 shows an alternative connector at the back of the layout which is currently not used but could be wired to the central bank in the same way as the front connector.
     
    I now wish I had included isolated sections at the end of each siding. I might try to incorporate them later but it will mean some droppers that are not as tidy as those that were put in before the track was laid and ballasted.
  5. goldngreen

    Yard Crane

    By goldngreen,


    Yard
    To yard crane or not to yard crane. That is the decision facing me now. Am I going to start building this yard crane today and, if I do, will it have a place on the layout? 
     

  6. goldngreen

    Control 2

    By goldngreen,


    Control
    In control I explained how the underside of the layout is wired. Now for the controllers and control panel.
     
    I decided on two controllers. This is perhaps more than necessary for a layout of this size but I wanted two controllers to get optimum control of different loco types. I find that the older locos and some recent ones respond better to PWM feedback controllers. I used the now defunct ECM controllers on earlier layouts many years ago and found them to be highly effective. The modern locos with coreless motors respond badly to PWM controllers and can be damaged by them, as explained here.
     
    The PWM controller is a Gaugemaster Model DF. It includes 2 PWM controllers and importantly 2 transformers (required for common return wiring). It also has a 16v AC output.
     

     
    My other controller is a Gaugemaster Model W hand held, powered off the AC output from the Model DF.
     

     
    I also need a control panel to mount the section switches. I decided that this would be the central hub so the Model DF, the Model W and the layout would only be connected to the central hub. This avoids a mesh of wires between different components keeping things tidy. For the hub controller I wanted a simple box with switches, sockets and a track diagram.
     
    Carpentry is not my strongest suit so I looked for a practical solution. I puzzled for some time before remembering a trick we used as radio control boat modellers in the 70s to protect the expensive radio control gear. The components were mounted in Tupperware containers with small holes for control wires. The top could be flipped off easily for access. Although not providing a tight seal due to the holes, this kept splashes off the electrical gear. I did not have the water proof requirement but a readymade plastic box seemed like a good option.
     
    I looked around for a suitable plastic box and found my best option at The Range.
     

     
    It is a robust black box with a semi transparent lid allowing my printed track plan to show through when mounted on the inside. Power comes in to the box from the Model DF via two phono sockets on the left, one for the controller and one for the 16v AC. The handheld Model W is connected via a 5 pin din socket on the right hand side which provides power out and control back in. Four switches are mounted at the top of the box to control the sections which are colour coded on the diagram. The switches are 3 way, up for one controller, down for the other and centre off. Control to the layout leaves via a 5 pin din socket at the back.
  7. goldngreen

    A Diversion - Stamford Engine Shed

    By goldngreen,


    Diversion
    I came across a model I made some time ago just for interest when I did not have a layout: Stamford Engine Shed in N gauge based on the Prototype Kit:
     

     
    I scanned in the original Prototype kit and then used The Gimp to replace all of the brick surfaces with a Scalescenes equivalent. The roof tiles were replaced using the same technique with a home made slate paper made from a photo of the roof of the school at the Beamish Museum. The water tank sides were drawn from scratch in The Gimp. The kit was then printed on similar thickness card to the Prototype kit and built the same way as the original using the supplied windows. It was finished with Ratio guttering and chimney pots made from plastic sheathe stripped from electric wire. 
     

     
    Looking back at it now I can see many rough edges but I think the original building is a great prototype. It has no place on my GWR Marlott though so back in its box!
     

     
    This is the original prototype kit which I believe is still available from Freestone Model Accessories.
     

     
    I thought I had done a post on this some time ago but cannot find it. Do old entries in these blogs get archived after some period? Anyway, if you had already seen this then apologies for the duplicate.
     
  8. goldngreen

    Coal Merchants Office

    By goldngreen,


    Yard
    My most recent project is not very ambitious: a coal merchants office for the yard. It is based very closely on the Scalescenes kit, however I modified the window to suit a prototype I found on the far right of a picture of Kings Heath Station, just because I liked it. I realised having completed the build that it is quite similar to a OO gauge kit given away by Metcalfe on the front of the Railway Modeller a couple of years ago. The brick work is just the Scalescenes original however I put the arch in over the window using The Gimp. The roof is home made from a photo, squared up and joined in to a larger sheet also using The Gimp. The chimney pot is a white metal casting from Langley. I can only find the OO gauge ones on their web page but I picked the N gauge ones up at a show. The gutters and down pipes are Ratio. The overgrown ivy is Woodland Scenics.
     

     
    The coal merchant will fill a gap at the back of the yard.
  9. goldngreen

    Tree

    By goldngreen,


    Scenics
    My inspiration for model railway trees dates back to the 1970s. We always believed that, no matter how good the track, stock, buildings and scenery were, model railways were always let down by the trees. There did not appear to be a good way to build a realistic tree. Then I saw Pendlebury by Bert Topping in a couple of magazines of the day. There is a picture of one of his trees here on rmweb. Page down through the post. As I remember it, his methods involved blitzing (using a blender) dyed, frozen, wet, foam to make the leaf cover; this was the big difference. It was held in place using rubberized horse hair. One of the features I liked in the Pendlebury trees was the observation that many trees have trunks split quite low and progress to the canopy as two trunks. I wanted to model this in my tree. 
     
    Another more recent inspiration, as for many, is Gordon Gravetts Modelling Trees Part One. 
     
    I was not going to achieve these standards but inspiration is really important.
     
    Now Woodland Scenics and other manufacturers make foam based foliage for us. No messing about with dying and blitzing! My method for this tree was to use stripped 13 amp flex & solder for the trunk and Woodland Scenics foliage for the leaves. My layout is set in late summer so I need predominantly green scenery. The method was nothing special. First one end of the stripped flex was soldered to lock the strands together. Then the branches of the canopy were formed by twisting out the strands of the copper flex in to a tree shape. Each branch node was soldered to hold it in place. Once I had formed the shape I applied flux to draw in to the remaining parts of the tree shape and then applied solder to hold the whole structure firm. At this point many apply a texture but I decided the small scale meant this was not necessary. The solder had already done the job.
     

     
    This was then spray pained to a dull grey/brown colour.
     

     
    Since the model is set in late summer I applied a dense cover of Woodland Scenics mid green foliage teased out as finely as possible, using PVA to hold it in place. It was finally given a spray of Scenic Cement to firm it up.
     

     
    Plonked on the layout
     

  10. goldngreen

    The Yard of God!

    By goldngreen,


    Other
    My 9 year old daughter has a new name for the fiddle yard. We have talked about the "hand of God" descending on our layouts for years. The fiddle yard is the natural home of the hand of god so it has now become known as "The Yard of God" in our house thanks to our daughter Eleanor!
     
     
  12. goldngreen

    Best Intentions

    By goldngreen,


    Planning
    A short list of best intentions I would like to adhere to for the layout:
    Diorama presentation controlling the viewing angle Continuous backscene with curved corners Effective hidden lighting Lightweight rigid ply wood baseboard Analogue control - too many N Gauge models of the type in which I am interested would be difficult to chip Peco code 55 track Mechanical remote point operation Only large radius points Try to get the colour consistent across the diorama Use weathering effectively An effective fiddle yard to allow switching between trains of the length accommodated by the platforms & sidings  
    Large radius points are an unusual choice for a micro layout. The normal recommendation is to save space by using the shortest possible radius points however I prefer large radius so I will have to try to make it work. The track plan will therefore have to be considered carefully to meet this requirement. Perhaps it is over ambitious.

    The fiddle yard will need to be cassette, traverser or a combination of the two. There is not enough space to accommodate points in the fiddle yard even if I made a compromise on radius off scene.
  14. goldngreen

    Grafar!

    By goldngreen,


    N Gauge
    So pleased to find this reproduction of the 1973 Grafar (Graham Farish) catalogue. The models were so basic compared to the amazing ready-to-run that we get today but in 1973 when I was still a child, making the first move in to N Gauge, this was the first I saw of what was available. It was very exciting at the time. I ended up with a 94xx pannier which, despite the original plastic chassis worked very well; it ran reliably for years and had excellent slow speed performance. I also got a Hall (Burton Agnes Hall) that unfortunately did not work well. There was a short rake of the "GW" mainline coaches as well which I still have today. 
     
     
     
     
  15. goldngreen

    Platforms

    By goldngreen,

    The platforms use Peco platform edging with a cardboard top. The fact that this is a terminus means that the platforms meet at one end. To avoid joins in the surface, I cut all the platforms from a single sheet of cardboard using a template marked on tracing paper laid on the baseboard. The surface is airbrush painted with a Humbrol grey and then weathered using pastels.

  16. goldngreen

    Track Laying

    By goldngreen,


    Track
    The track is glued to the foam board cover on the baseboard using water proof wood working adhesive. Testing was completed bit by bit as the track laying continued.
     

     

     
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