LDM34046

That’s a very interesting track plan. Looks like it could be a lot of fun to operate. Excited to see this one develop! LDM

With the buffer stops glued in place I popped to my local model shop and picked up a can of Tamiya ‘Brown’ Spray. Two light coats from different angles ensured that the track was coated evenly and then a few passes over the buffer stops at each end. The track is 99% coated with only a few areas still showing bare metal however, like on the real railway, nothing was perfect so in my books it was a job well done. Even though the can was only 100ml I’ve still got over half left so I may end up using it spray the hill prior to static grass.

The buffers have all been glued and fitted. These will be weathered along with the track once it gets sprayed.

Thank you! I’m not reliant on the blades for electrical connectivity as I’ve got droppers either side of the point and the frog however I may mask them anyway for reliable running. I’m using a spray and then painting the rails in after. A few light passes should do the trick!

With the paint ordered my next step is to fit the buffer stops. My plan is to fit them prior to weathering the track so they’re coated in the same colour before touching in a few details after such as the wooden beam and rusty bolts. Most of the buffers will be built up with small amounts of foliage and grass. Any tips on painting electro frog points? I’ve been told to mask off the blades but other than that give an even coat across the whole point. Regards LDM

Tonight’s job was to touch up a few of the electrics. An addition connection was made with a few of the droppers to liven up the rear sidings so no more unsightly temporary wire. A few of the loose droppers were then reconnected to the track. A far from perfect job but they’ll be covered by the buffer stops and barely noticeable once weathered. I still need to align the fiddle yard properly however I’m tempted to order a whole new fiddle yard. I need somewhere a bit safe to store locos when they’re not being used and the current fiddle yard is ever so slight too short. Ideally it could be 3-4 inches longer.

Buffer stops have also arrived. Simple Peco ones will do the trick. They’ll be assembled and weathered along with the track. The ballast is GM ‘Granite’ which is a lot nicer darker colour compared to the ‘Slate Grey’ I’ve used before. Certain areas will be weathered slightly darker where locos tend to stand.

A lovely package arrived from TMC last night. Great service once again. This time some more period correct rolling stock. Two fruit wagons from Dapol. Both lightly weathered from factory. Great looking models although one suffers from a low sitting coupling however a loose screw maybe the culprit. The second two are a Cattle Van and GWR Brake Van, both from Oxford Rail. I’ve not used Oxford Rail before but I’m very impressed with the quality of them both. Last night, after a lot of head scratching and tinkering I was able to work out and adjust the CV values of both locomotives to lower the speed steps so now both run a lot smoother.

Happy New Year! What a year it’s been! Little did I know at the start I’d be reigniting a hobby six years down the line. With Covid-19 sweeping the world I found myself with a lot of spare time on my hands and so a new layout was born. So much has changed in the six years I’ve been away and it’s all been a massive learning curve but once again I’ve been blown away by the support and knowledge of members on this website. Here’s to a more positive and healthier year and hopefully lots more modelling! Cheers!

More ‘testing’ today. The layout seems to be working well and providing plenty of operational interest. The TTA Wagons are current stand-ins at the moment for fruit vans and cattle vans that are currently in the realms of Royal Mail. A photo of the longest train I can realistically operate with. 41726 ready to depart with a small rake of coal wagons. The only small issue I’m currently facing is the track at the fiddleyard is ever so slightly misaligned. It should be a simple case of cutting away the PVA glue and realigning the track. Happy New Year! I hope next year is a bit more positive compared to 2020

Hope you had a good Christmas Chuff. I’ve been a bit inactive over Christmas focusing on my own layout. Your road looks superb and that whole area is looking spot on. Cracking stuff. LDM

That looks brilliant. Thank you Al. I’ll definitely give that method a go!

That looks brilliant Al The dark earth looks the treat and I’ve got a few weathering powders in my box. I’m guessing the rails were hand painted with a small brush?

That looks promising! I’m excited to see it progress!

Thanks Al The few people I’ve spoken to have said Sleeper Grime works fine however with a layout set in the steam era I don’t know if the track would benefit from a slightly darker weather.

Another fellow lockdown layout! Excited to see this develop! Have you got a track plan?

With the ballast on it’s way my thoughts now turn to the scenic elements of the layout. I’m yet to decide how to build up the embankment however first I need to weather the track. The go to method would be to use a variety of colours through an airbrush. However I’ve not got access to an airbrush so my next resort is aerosol. I’ve noticed hattons and GM have both got a aerosol available of ‘sleeper grime’ for a reasonable £7.50 which looks like it would do just the job. Anyone had any experience with it or something similar?

More ‘testing’ this morning. Still waiting on my next order of supplies so hopefully scenic work can start next week. A few photos from this morning. 41726 arrives into Lancaster Lane with an empty coal wagon with 5775 stabled in the background. 5775 relieves 41726 of the coal wagon and moves into the merchant sidings to collect the remaining wagons. The 1F then moves back to the stabling road where it awaits further orders from down the line. In reality ‘further down the line’ to me is a slightly larger yard with a run around loop to assemble trains before heading off around the South East. Something I hope to potentially model in the future. Lancaster Lane poses as a smaller yard used for more smaller businesses and empty wagon stock to be shuffled around.

Once the new stock arrives from TMC later this week I can thoroughly test the layout from an operational stand point before cracking on with the scenics. New ballast has been ordered and will be a mix of GM’s light grey and granite as I found on my old layout light grey on it’s own was a bit too dark. I also need to order some sleeper grime to weather the track. In terms of scenics there won’t be anything special, some nice embankments around the side with a stone cutting for fiddle yard. The headshunt will be slightly overrun with grass and possible a hard standing area over the merchant’s siding. Now to spend the rest of the evening playing trains!

Some different traction this evening with some BR Blue. I much prefer running steam and I’ve got some early 60’s stock on its way however it would be a shame not to run some of the new stuff I’ve had stored in the loft. A mainline liveried Class 09 brings in a pair of TTA wagons in Lancaster Lane. I picked a set of four TTA’s from my local model shop as there were a limited set from Modelzone. Really nice model and I’ve not seen anymore since. The Class 20 is a Bachmann model, one of my favourites albeit covered in loft dust. The Class 25 is a Bachmann Sound model with the sound chip reblown by legomanbiffo for more realistic sounds. It’s nice to have it sitting in the corner of the layout just ticking away.

Thank you Terry Thank you for your feedback, I might have to buy a rolling road in order for them to run smoothly or worse case just set up a temporary loop on the table to let them run in. The temporary fiddle yard is isolated so if I get a rolling road I’ll be able to run it on that. Let me know when you start your next layout, I would love to see the progress if it’s similar to mine. Tim Horn’s work is incredible. Very happy with the quality of the boards.

The joys of building a layout so small and light is that it can be lifted by one person with easy and moved to pretty much anywhere. Last nights photos were take on my bed as a temporary measure and today I moved the layout onto my desk next to the window for some nice lighting. One of the main reason of building this small layout was to enjoy a bit of modelling photography, inspired by Chris Nevard. The below photos are far from perfect but it's a start! 41726 arrives into Lancaster Lane Sidings with a couple of empty 7-plank wagons. 5775 arrives with a lone private merchant coal wagon and heads into the headhunt where it will move the wagon into the merchant siding. Two of my latest additions. Some lovely weathered 7-plank wagons by Bachmann. The detail on each plank is lovely. With the wagon moved to the private siding 5775 moves back onto the junction and collects the wagons from 41726 A final shot of 5775 from the fiddle yard looking down the line. A shot inspired by the lovely work of Chris Nevard on Instagram. Really happy with these photos as a first attempt. Hopefully they'll improve with time and once the the scenics start getting laid down.

Last night was spent finishing off the wiring, soldering all the droppers to the track and livening up the fiddle yard. I forgot how fiddly attaching wires to the rails was. In the past I’ve used code 100 so it’s quite easy with chunky rails. Having now used code 75 it’s a lot more fiddly to solder joints onto the rails but nonetheless it was finished. To my suprise everything worked including the 3-way point. The only slight niggle I found was I missed out a dropper on the far sidings leaving that whole area of track past the point dead. A job for the morning. Having gone round the layout with a multimeter the layout was finally yet gingerly plugged into the mains supply. And so Lancaster Lane Sidings were born. The evening was spent running a few locomotives back and forth with a couple of wagons along with repeatedly cleaning the track. The layout design works perfectly and provides enough operational interest, albeit with a few more wagons and trains in due course. My only slight niggle would be the length of the temporary fiddle yard which can only hold comfortably a 57xx and two 7-plank wagons. Again, this is only a temporary fiddleyard. Being new to NCE Powercab I need scratch my head a bit more about slowing down the speed steps on both locomotives. Although they run smoothly the speed increments are jumpy between 1-5. Ideally I’d like a range of speed between 1-10. My second question is the instructions mention that the locomotives should be run for 30 minutes in each direction. Obviously I haven’t got the facilities to do this, is that potentially the reason the motors are rather loud? Especially for brand new out the box locos. I’d love to hear peoples thoughts. A landmark day last night! Tonight’s jobs, more locomotives from the loft and more ‘testing’ on the layout! Cheers!

A very productive yet time consuming morning. All the points have been wired up and the droppers installed. My first ever attempt at soldering and electrics so it’s far from pretty but they’re all solid connections so I’m happy. Droppers have all been pushed through and the next step is to solder them to the rails. Once the droppers have all been connected I need to run power through to the fiddle yard via the electrified M8 bolt and then wire up the NCE Powercab panel so it can be connected to the mains. Let’s see how we get on!

A busy afternoon and the last of the heavy duty work has been completed. All of the flexi-track has been cut and glued this afternoon. Great to finally see the layout come together and now even more eager to get some trains running! To add a bit of interest to the track work a gentle sweep has been added headshunt and siding at the front. Nothing annoys me more than rows and rows of dead straight track. The final job this evening was to attach the temporary fiddle yard with M8 bolts, lay the cork and fit the track. I had run out of 2.5mm cork on the main board so the fiddle yard underlay was made up for left over strips and trimmings. It’s not the prettiest job however the main importance was making sure the track was level with that of the layout. A single length of track has been glued down over the baseboard join and then will be cut with a dremel once the glue has dried tomorrow. Power to the fiddle yard will be provided through electrified washers attached to the M8 bolts. Tomorrow’s job will be somewhat of a major learning curve. Installing the droppers and wiring up the electrics. Tonight will be spent pondering over wiring diagrams for the 3-way turnout! A very productive Boxing Day!