FraserClarke
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Everything posted by FraserClarke
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Well you've pretty much described either Didcot or Cholsey :-) Attached is a layout for a simplified Cholsey-type station with only the slow lines included. The heritage railway uses the former bay platform, but is completely disconnected from the main running lines. Cholsey station itself has the fast lines 'below' the station (not serving it), and you could probably fit those in if you wanted. As you want it imaginary, I've brought in elements of the branch to Faringdon and the station at Uffington Junction. This was always just two roads. It has the advantage of a nice overbridge to cover exit stage left... In former times, the small goods yard was off-scene beyond the bridge. You could use a footbridge as the other break, and as other say suggest that the platforms continue off scene. I've made a very simple modern rationalised plan with no pointwork on the main running lines. If you wanted an earlier era, you could I think connect up the branch, add a cross-over near the bridge, and have the occasional cameo of goods trains stopping on scene in the station, and then setting back into the yard off scene. Grids here at 6", so all the boards are 2ft, except the bottom which is 2'6", and the right (over your hatch) which is 1ft (could be narrower). It would clearly benefit from some more flowing design, and more considered baseboard shapes :-) There seems to be space for 3 road fiddle yards on both the up and down mains (not detailed here), and a 'swap' road in the middle to change from one loop to the other if needed. The small heritage railway has just two roads, but that's enough to cope with even the most extensive gala events I can give you the anyrail file as a basis if you want.
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Not really. I've finished off the basic landscaping behind the station, painted the rocks, and made the base of the tunnel portal on the far side -- but I had to pack the layout away to make space to paint some doors, and then work has been so hectic it's not come out again. Things should calm down after July!
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I've had Charlestown on my 'long list' for a while too - doubt I'll ever do anything about it though I don't think I've found any pictures beyond the ones already mentioned here. There was an interesting looking iron foundary just 'up' from Charlestown, presumably accessed by a reversal in the station/yard. I always thought that would make a nice cameo layout, but I can find little/no information about it. I think most of the building are long gone, though I remember some unidentified ruins in the woods beside the burn. I grew up just north of here, and regularly fished the lower reaches of the lyne burn in the early 90s - can't say we paid much notice to the 'MOD property' notices :-\ There was a proper set of gates just the other side of the burn though, so we didn't cross that! This is all long after Charlestown as you're interested in was gone of course...
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Some more double headed action, including a sneaky view of the footplate...
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A bit of work on the platform, which I need to size and site before I can finish off the landscaping on the road behind. It's a simple mounting card structure, with a recess cut in for the small station building to sit in. The yard is based on Rannoch, but the station there is too big, so this one is based on Arsaig/Morar instead... Mock-up of the station building for sizing Tried to be fancy with edging slabs and the sloped concrete 'cornice' underneath. Not sure it worked! We'll see how it all looks once painted up as concrete... The rest of the platform top will have a gravel covering in due course. Finally an overview of the station area, framed with some randomly-place-for-picture sea foam trees the kids made a Pendon last summer. A set of mainline blood-and-custards has just left! Don't worry, they'll be back round in about 5 seconds...
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Many thanks Chris. Yes, the point is - or rather was - close to the edge. Might not be obvious in the last set of pictures, but I've done a 'cut-and-shut' on this part of the boards, taking a triangle from one side and fitting into the other. This makes it look much more reasonable, and gives a much nicer line to the baseboards. Thanks for the Rannoch link, not sure I've seen that one...
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Well I've been very slowly trundling along with this layout. The kids don't seem that fussed about trains at the minute, so I'm not going to push them. I'm just using it as a bit of a test bed for various things. Roughly half of the major scenery structure is done now. The layout has a central 'spine' road to divide it. The hills are made up of extruded polystyrene insulation boards 'grip filled' together and carved to shape. The road is made of mount card, and will be painted and 'tarmac'd' at some point. The overbridge is a scalescenes kit I built years ago for another layout and never used. Once all the major forms were in, I covered it in sculptamold (which is relatively expensive, but seems to work very well), and then painted it in generic matt brown paint from the clearance shelf in B&Q! The far board is awaiting me sorting something out with the tunnel mouths... I scattered some chinchilla 'dust' into the wet paint, let it dry, hoovered off the excess/unstuck bits, and painted over with more brown paint to give a bit more surface texture. The 'dust' was quite a bit larger than I was expecting (would make quite good ballast I think!), but perhaps the bag had settled and all the fine is at the bottom. The white areas here will be painted grey to represent rocky outcrops/cliffs. The picture below shows the station area. No platform yet, just a mock-up of a west highland-ish station. The brick bridge is not very west highland, but I already had it...
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Very much so! It's such a good exhibition that we ended up with two threads and a calendar entry! Thanks for all the extra photos in here. Hope to see some of you at the show on Saturday. I shall be variously operating "Didcot A" and/or the Club Stand in the afternoon according to the schedule... come and say "hi" if you are attending. :-)
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A ping that the Abingdon show is happening on Saturday. A slightly revised list of layouts due to some last minute pull outs unfortunately. For more details see: http://admrc.org.uk/exhibitions/abingdon-exhibition-2019 Layouts: Three Points 7mm / O ADMRC Porlock 4mm / OO Kevin Grace Inselbahn Langeoog N+Nm Piers Milne Kidmore South Yard N David Mitchell Dock Green 7mm / O Chaz Harrison Trewithick 4mm / EM Graeme Vickery Llanfair Caereinion 4mm / OO9 Andy Cundick Canute Road Quay 4mm / OO Graham Muspratt Ryders Green Wharf 4mm / OO9 Peter Cullen Nippon Tetsudo Z Peter McConnell Oil Drum Lane 4mm / OO Terry Robinson Didcot A N ADMRC Manningthorpe N Matthew Oszczyk A bridge too far 2mm Peter Thorpe Foxfield Wharf N Peter Hughes Ilfracombe East 4mm / OO9 Brian Key Bridgebury Gate N Russ Hobbs Kamiak Falls HO Antony Quinlan Sodor 4mm / OO ADMRC Traders: JB’S Model World Squire’s Tools Sunningwell Command Control Freestone Models Ceynix Artistree Double-O Scenics Neil Cresswell Model Railways Kytes Lights Brunswick Railways Ltd Kevin’s Trains Cheltenham Model Centre Societies: European Model Railways Pendon Museum Medway Queen Preservation Society Didcot Railway Centre / Great Western Society
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Abingdon MRC's annual exhibition is on Saturday 16th March this year. We have a great set of 20 layouts to enjoy, and the usual selection of traders to part you from your money. We're in the Abingdon and Witney college again this year. For more details see: http://admrc.org.uk/exhibitions/abingdon-exhibition-2019 Layouts: Three Points 7mm / O ADMRC Porlock 4mm / OO Kevin Grace Inselbahn Langeoog N+Nm Piers Milne Kidmore South Yard N David Mitchell Dock Green 7mm / O Chaz Harrison Trewithick 4mm / EM Graeme Vickery Llanfair Caereinion 4mm / OO9 Andy Cundick Canute Road Quay 4mm / OO Graham Muspratt Ryders Green Wharf 4mm / OO9 Peter Cullen Brymbo 7mm / O Oxford and District MRC Oil Drum Lane 4mm / OO Terry Robinson Didcot A N ADMRC Keats Sidings 4mm / OO Jon Potter Manningthorpe N Matthew Oszczyk A bridge too far 2mm Peter Thorpe Foxfield Wharf N Peter Hughes Ilfracombe East 4mm / OO9 Brian Key Bridgebury Gate N Russ Hobbs Kamiak Falls HO Antony Quinlan Sodor 4mm / OO ADMRC Hope to see some of you there!
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Event Name: Abrail 2019 - Abingdon and District MRC exhibition Classification: Exhibition Address: Abingdon and Witney College,Wootton Road,Abingdon.Oxon.OX14 1GG Day 1: 16/3/19 Opening times Day 1: 10:00-17:00 Prices: £8 for adults - accompanied children free Disability access: Yes Car parking: Yes Website: http://admrc.org.uk/exhibitions/abingdon-exhibition-2019 Organising body: Abingdon and District Model Railway Club Abrail 2019 will be held on Saturday 16th March, 2019 from 10:00-17:00 . We are again at Abingdon and Witney College, Abingdon Campus, OX14 1GG. Entry is £8.00 for adults, with accompanied children free. Layouts: Three Points 7mm / O ADMRC Porlock 4mm / OO Kevin Grace Inselbahn Langeoog N+Nm Piers Milne Kidmore South Yard N David Mitchell Dock Green 7mm / O Chaz Harrison Trewithick 4mm / EM Graeme Vickery Llanfair Caereinion 4mm / OO9 Andy Cundick Canute Road Quay 4mm / OO Graham Muspratt Ryders Green Wharf 4mm / OO9 Peter Cullen Brymbo 7mm / O Oxford and District MRC Oil Drum Lane 4mm / OO Terry Robinson Didcot A N ADMRC Keats Sidings 4mm / OO Jon Potter Manningthorpe N Matthew Oszczyk A bridge too far 2mm Peter Thorpe Foxfield Wharf N Peter Hughes Ilfracombe East 4mm / OO9 Brian Key Bridgebury Gate N Russ Hobbs Kamiak Falls HO Antony Quinlan Sodor 4mm / OO ADMRC Traders: JB’S Model World Squire’s Tools Sunningwell Command Control Freestone Models Ceynix Artistree Double-O Scenics Neil Cresswell Model Railways Kytes Lights Brunswick Railways Ltd Kevin’s Trains Cheltenham Model Centre Demonstrations : European Model Railways Pendon Museum (TBC) Medway Queen Preservation Society (TBC)
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Well 2018 was a very quiet year for Junction Dock - I did precisely nothing! No, sorry, I take that back - I fitted one piece of ~A4 card to complete the curved back scene in, I think, April... Club commitments, and 12-inch-foot commitments, mean I've not done much 'home modelling' this year. I have had fun with a few wagon kits, so I thought I'd round out the year by posing them in front of the half-finished 'goods shed' on Junction dock. From left to right, an LNER Fruit; mostly done, awaiting more weathering, a GWR V16 Mink; awaiting a second go at decals, and weathering; an LNER 5 plank open, awaiting details, decals and weathering, an LMS 3 plank awaiting a general going over and tarting up. All are parkside(-dundas) kits. The buildings behind need detailing and the roofs sticking on! Pushing the wagons about was useful - the trackwork is simply not good enough. I have serious gauge narrowing at the tips of the point blades (all hand filed, probably not finely enough, and with not enough set), the steps between sections are very noticeable, and the turnout mechanisms aren't positive enough. This is the real reason I've not done anything on the layout for a while - the fear that the fundamentals are not quite good enough... That and the terror at trying to cover the entire lot in scribed DAS setts! My initial idea - misguided I now realised - was that I could mask my first attempt at trackwork in setts. The ugly soldering, lack of chairs, mis-shapen sleepers etc would all be hidden. Of course the opposite is true - if you're going to encase your trackwork in clay, you'd better be damned sure it is up to snuff first! So I think Junction Dock needs some serious rework on the fundamentals. A shift of EM is appealing, given I feel I'm unlikely ever to have/want a big empire populated by a stable of RTR stock. Perhaps after a year dormant the project should be marked 'DNR' and I should consider something more classical? The good news from 10 minutes of pushing wagons is that I do still like the concept of the layout, and can see what I want. So perhaps it is not DNR but WIFLI - When I Feel Like It ! After all, the rest of life is stressful enough there really is no point getting worried about a lack of progress with little trains :-\
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Yeah, Penicuik is a great little prototype. I have boards ready for a model based on Penicuik - but have done so for the past two years and made no other progress so far Another one, slightly further down the Esk, is Polton; https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=18&lat=55.8718&lon=-3.1379&layers=170&b=1 It's even smaller than Penicuik, with a through goods line to the paper mill behind the platform, and an interesting reversal through the small goods yard to a works. Looks like Iain Rice did the planning for it, though there is not quite a three-way... All in a heavily wooded valley, with a nice river in front of it... I've wanted to build this one for at least 15 years now. I think it would work brilliantly in 'S' -- but that would be a very major commitment, and I need to figure out how to model faster than a lethargic snail first :-\ Both Polton and Penicuik would have been served by the V1/3's in later years, or the C15/16s (aka NBR M/L) in earlier days... goods presumably on the ubiquitous J33/J34/J36. In 4mm, RTR now covers the LNER/BR needs fairly well, but NBR times would need a fair bit of kits/scratch building I think.
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Caledonian Basin - railway-in-a-box diorama
FraserClarke replied to brylonscamel's topic in Layout topics
Cracking stuff all round I also had to pull out the maths for the hipped roofs, and I put it into an excel sheet. I hope you don't mind the liberty of me attaching it here if others might find it useful?? If you put in the length, width, and angle you want, it calculates the cut dimensions for a flat piece to fold up to the right size... (edit seems to work now : HippedRoofCalculator.xlsx). I'm very much enjoying your build. I'm trying to do something similar at the other end of the canal, but at much slower pace and with considerably less skill I fear... Fraser -
Scalescenes Industrial Boxfile
FraserClarke replied to JohnR's topic in Card structure modelling forum
His email (though not website) does say he's planning an N gauge version... -
I'll mention it Mike... I'm (a lowly) part of the group that looks after the "currently out of service" engines in the main shed, but I'm not sure if the broad gauge stuff has a similar arrangement. Perhaps we should take them under our aegis if not.
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(disclaimer - I volunteer at Didcot) I suspect you'll find that those cans are deliberately there to provide some protection for vulnerable things like oiling points etc, such that when it does reach the top of the overhaul queue it's a *bit* of an eaiser job as the oil reservoirs won't be full of water... Not elegant I agree, but probably effective. Of course, like anywhere, there are always the odd visitors who will just leave their rubbish lying about too :-\ I don't know where else it could go to get more protection though -- the broad gauge road is full, so something has to be at the open end of the shed.
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How about running the main line round the back, having the exchange sidings/loop inside, and then running a tighter 'industrial' line round to some industry. You could have the shunting/inglenook aspect on the industry side.. Attached image is a rather inelegant version which would benefit from considerable refinement! I hid some storage roads behind the industry site, but access might be too tough there... depends on the height of the layout probably... Deepest board is 2ft..
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Apologies Sam! Trouble of matching forum names to real world names You did a good job -- I was back in on the Sunday, and things were again only looking green in the right places
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You'd perhaps be surprised quite how quickly things get dirty in there - one of the authentic steam shed aspects I guess :-\ There is a group, which I'm a member of, who do look after the engines in there. We clean and lubricate them on a monthly basis, do assorted 'conservation' jobs, and try to keep things looking nice for the public and as accessible as possible. Still, they always look a bit grubby the next month. You'd be very welcome to join and help out if you'd like -- we even have proper cleaning equipment... PM me if you're interested. The engines probably looked particularly dusty a week or so ago -- we'd been rubbing down and repainting 5572. It turned everything else in the shed green!! Unfortunately there was no option but to do it in the shed... edit - smiley killed most of the message first time!
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Hayfields turnout workbench
FraserClarke replied to hayfield's topic in Permanent Way, Signalling & Infrastructure
Assuming it's dominated by the expansion of the rail itself (according to google, plywood has an expansion ~1/4 that of nickel silver so it's a reasonable assumption), then for nickel silver rail you get ~18 micrometers expansion per meter per degree... So, for a 60ft panel (240mm in 4mm) over a 30 degree temperature range (5C to 35C?) you would need a gap of >130 micrometers (~5 thou) at the coldest temperature to avoid them touching at the warmest temperature. Steel rail would be about a factor of 1.5 better (i.e. 3.5thou gap for each 60ft panel). If the rail section is longer, you need to leave a commensurately larger gap. Perhaps more usefully as a rule of thumb, if you lay track at 20C, and want it still to work at 35C, then you should allow total gaps of ~0.3mm per meter of rail to be safe. I have no idea what the stresses on the chairs are if they are bonded to the rail -- though the stress will be worse for longer sections. -
New layout limited space (Signalling Help Required)
FraserClarke replied to chuffinghell's topic in Layout & Track Design
Looks like a nice concept. I like David's suggested changes to the headshunt -- gives that slightly 'drifty' feel to the end of a BLT... I wonder if you've thought about the height of the layout? I haven't seen it mentioned? Could you consider mounting the layout relatively high (say 1.4m+ 4'6"+)? That would offer the potential of usable storage space under the layout (or maybe a workbench?), and enable you to have a fold down (rather than up) fiddle yard (or a flat table to slide cassettes on) -- which might be less intrusive to the domestic view when not in operation? People have personal preferences on layout height of course, but I think high layouts look good -- as long as you can reach them! -
Did you use the hammer for the kits??
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Bumping this up, as the show is tomorrow. Hope some of you might be able to make it along. Make yourself known if so
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A quick bit on the wiring, which is mostly done... Wiring diagram was done in a rather manual fashion -- drawing on an overlay of the track plan! I found it a surprisingly effective way of sorting out the wiring actually, but it does need converted to a proper diagram at some point... The number of tracks cross the baseboard joint is a bit of a pain, and leads to quite a large connector for the size of layout (I think 20 wires, if I wire the isolating sections back to the control panel; TBC) Layout is split into three sections; 1) Main loop + yard, 2) Station 3) Shed. It's designed for DC operation, but compatible with a change to DCC if/when I go that way (have no DCC stuff, or budget to buy any, just now). I've gone with dead sidings when the power controlled by the point direction, but because the sidings basically all sit across the baseboard joint, it will be fairly easy to swap it to live sidings if needed in the future (i.e. for DCC). Wiring underneath is colour coded by section / common-return / function. There will be control panel in the corner, and probably I'll try to keep the option open of having a second handheld controller too... (two kids, two controllers... what could possibly go wrong!?!). The wiring underneath is 16/0.2 for the main bus wires (overkill for this size I think!), and 7/0.2 for the droppers and point feeds. Cable between boards is short and sweet, using DSUB-25 I had in hand. I've now twisted the cables up to make them a bit neater, but didn't take a photo of that. There is space in the connector if I decide to run the isolating sections through; current thought though is just to leave the on local switches near the sections. The points are all insulfrog, and operated by hand. I have however taken the precaution of pre-wiring the frogs so I can convert them to pseudo-electrofrog points if the blade connections start to get dodgy...
