stivesnick

Both track feeds to the inner track need to be at the toe end of the point as the feeds are to the outer track. Track feeds A and B are then should be switched with the point motor to power the frog and the next section of track - hopefuly that will cure the problem. Nick

All Work has started on the scenery around the workers cottages. The cottages are modified Petitie Properties kits. The original kits are low relief, and I intended to mount two kits back to back to create a full building. However, the resulting building was far too shallow effectively just one room deep. So I created a new shell out of plastic sheet and just used the front of the kit. The back of the building is a a blank wall. Walls are covered in Scalescenes stone paper. The rear walls are 1mm card covered in the same paper. Wooden gates to be added. Will need to sort out the rear gardens - not sure if they would have been totally paved or just a path with some flower beds. Any thoughts? Finally sone Woodlands Scenic trees added behind. I will need to sort out what happens behind the cottages as the gap to the backscene reduced to nothing. Photos enclosed Regards Nick

Scenery work continues with the next layer of materials in the vicarage garden and the swan hotel. The hotel has also gained some lighting and some stone swans to greet visitors at the entrance (OO gauge from Noch). Looking at the phots some of the lights need adjusting as not very vertical. The next steps for the hotel will be add some tables and chairs on the patio and some trees. The layout trees are likley to be done all at once. I have over hundred trees from the previous layout to sort out and select for the each location on the layout. Progress photos below. Regards Nick

I have used the rare earth magents successfully in the past, but using the microtrains uncouplers. To get them to work, I mounted the magnets on a small peice of steel ( the metal weights used in wagons are ideal) and placed the assembly under the track with the magnets just inside the rails rather than outside as shown the picture. The metal plate enhances the power of the magnets and don't forget the have the north pole up on one side and the south pole on the other side. Someone, I can't reacall whom, used to sell kits with the magents and metal plate which is where I got the idea from. These days much cheaper ot buy the magnets directly and find a piece of steel. Nick

The bridge doe slook the part, shame about the stone courses not lining up, normally Faller kits get those sort of details correct. One question, is there enough clearance at the side of the stone piers to allow for some sort of handrail, it looks tight. Regards Nick

Hi Andy Half releif buildings will help solve the problem as long as people are not able to view the backs of the buildings. Some photos enclosed of the petite properties building and the new sides and back that I built. If you are a member of the N Gauge Society, there was an article about the construction in the N Gauge Journal 5/20. Regards Nick

Hi Andy The town mock up looks fantastic! My only concern would be regarding the width of the buildings. Not clear how deep they actually are. Narrow buildings will distort the roof profile. I had a problem on my layout when I tried to put two Petite Properties low relief buildings back to back to create a full depth building. It just didn't look right, so I had to build a new end section to form a realistic building. Unless you have actual buildings to copy, it would be worth thinking about how these buldings would be set out with stairs, landings and various rooms. Hope this helps. Nick

This looks an interesting idea for a layout with lots of operational potential. One question. How will you operate the line to the smelter? In the original plan, there was an exchange siding and the plant could have its own loco that could reach this siding but not the rest of the yard. In the new plan the private loco could in theory access any of the freight yard sidings. Not sure the BR authorities would like that. One option would be to have the gate at the end of the smelter line, so the BR loco would push wagons onto this line to be collected by the works shunter. Nick

any model railways are based around the idea of "what if....". So how about this idea. The Great Western Railway did not undertake any electrification projects, but what if there was aline with steep gradients or long tunnels that prompted them to experiment. Would the result look like this... Some Japanese electric locos built in the USA during the 1920s. The locos are intended for my american interurban layout but look good with chocolate and cream coaches. They also run very well, far better than my Dapol 45xx locos. So tempting. If I did follow this route, how many GW fans would be amused or outraged? Regards Nick

Over the last two weeks packages from Peedie Models and Scale Model Scenery have arrived with various walls, fences and other details such as lights. These parcels along with some bits salvaged from previous layouts have enabled a start to be made on the next part of the scenery. First up, some stone walls from the previous layout. I can not recall the firm, but I brought these off a small trader at the Folkestone how many years ago. The stone walls have been used around the Church and the house at the top of the hill (vicarage perhaps?). The area beyond the house will be covered in trees. Next some Peedie Models stonework walls and pillars for the big house. I also have the company's etched fencing to go on top of the wall. It 's a shame they don'y do some matching gates, so a bodge job using the fencing is likely. Sitting in front of the house is a Metcalfe foutain kit. Looks a bit on the large side for the side, but it will stay as a nice feature. Buildings not yet stuck down. That will be the next task, once touched up any piantwork and added any final details. Progress photos enclosed. Nick

Hi Andy If you are not sure how to do the town, I would spend some time on internet mapping sites looking for a suitable town on the south coast where the railway (if actually provided or not) would enter the town across the river. Having found somthing that might be suitable. Then look at how the town was many years ago, using the maps on the National Library of Scotland web -site an old photos. It may take a few attempts, but I am sure you will find some inspriation somewhere. Nick

Hi Layout looking good so far. What are your plans for the area behind the station building? There is plenty of space for a decent station yard but also rooms for some own buildings to give a suitabel backdrop for the station. Regards Nick

Thanks Andy It was seeing your signal box that lead me to the Severn Models web-site to buy the kit, and some others in the first place. Like you, some of the paint has come off exposing the primer underneath. I used white primer to save painting the windows later. The kit does not come with drain pipes but I will make some from thin plastic rod in the next few days. A general comment I have with this and many other kits is working what each room would be. I think the kit should have more windows as there are large sections on blank wall. They can not all be due to the staircase. I will add a foul drainage pipe with connections to the kitchen and bathroom and hope I have the right rooms! Nick

As noted previously - the answer is no and this is taking Rule 1 too far! Nick

Previous work in progress photos had shown a Hornby detached house on top of the hill up from the station. I wasn't totally happy as the building dominated the site and did not leave much space for a garden area. I am going to change the building for a Severn Models detached house which is a etched brass kit. Having struggled with fiddly brass wagon kits in the past, I found this kit much easier to make. Put together using UHU glue rather than the superglue recommended to allow a little to time to make adjustments. Following construction, a good clean in a bath of general cleaning fluid, white spay primer and then a coat of grey. I have started the weathering with other shades of grey and brown applied with a sponge. A bit of paint touching up, glazing, and downpipes needed to complete. Regards Nick

Some new motive power has arrived. Apart from the lack of electrification and the wrong type of braking system, something doesn't look right. Regards Nick

Hi Andrew The overall effect of the finished layout looks great - the photos with the real background show how effective and realistic the colouring is. Regards Nick

Some more progress with the Swan Hotel. The dormer windows that came with the kit were a bit on the small side, so I have added a much larger continious dormer. This is the second attempt, the first used the smaller windows that were supplied with the kit, but they were too small. This version uses some left over windws from some Kestrel kits. Having completed the build, I noticed that the third window from the left is a newer design from Kestrel, although the same size overall, the frames are much thinner and this shows in some of the photos. I am not going to chnage them! I did a mock up of the hotel on the layout with some trees taken from a previous layout to judge the overall effect and to see of much of a view block was created by the trees. The final trees to be used will need to be slightly bigger. Work has now started on the Hotel grounds. The patio in from the hotel is OO gauge brickwork to represent paving slabs. I have also created the paths using 0.75 x 0.75mm platsic strip to create the edgeing. The curved path is one continous length. The first line was added, then I used a off-cut of plastic sheet to act as a pat gauge to mark out the line of the other edge. A line of UHU glue was added along the marking at and the second line stucjk down. That part worked much better than expected. However, I realised I had made the trade entrance gate too narrow for the delivery vans so this had to be corrected ( 10 seconds work with some snips) and a wider path provided. The first lot of scatter has been added. Progress photos below: Nick

Hi Looks a great plan and I like the urban setting. Look forward to seeing progress. What rolling stock is planned? Nick

A happy new year to everyone. Over the Christmas period, I managed to get finish the basic landform on most of the layout and paint these areas, The main road now has a tarmac surface thanks to some fine wet and dry paper, with a dusting of grey and brown car spray. Next task is to add the pvements. Paving slabs in the town itself, with tarmac out on the main road - I am think of a 4 foot pavement on one side of the road only - does that feel right? After that, its wall and fence time - there is already around 8 foot of wall on the layout with around another 16 feet to go! Some general progress photos enclosed. Comments and suggestions always welcome. Nick

Hi Kris Thanks for the comment. It was the height of the roof, that made me think twice about including it. The kit includes some dormer windows which helps explain the height. I will add these to see what the effect is. If still not happy, I will have to design my own lower pitched roof. I guess this is the problem in using kits, the buildings are never exactly what you want. For example with the kit, the building is too narrow. if you imagine, each window represents the room, the rooms will be a bit small for hotel rooms. However the thought of having to cut out and create all those windows, made the kit too tempting to ignore. Regards Nick

Some more worK done on the hotel and an opportunity to see how it will look in its final posituion. Having stuck the sides together, the building shell was placed on the layout. I also put taped the roof sections in place to see how it looked. Not a bad as I had feared, the roof will go in rather than have a flat roof building. With the building in place, more work can take place to develp the hotel grounds. Although the basic scenery is mad up of 12mm and 25mm blocks of polystyrene, I also have a roll of 1mm polystyrene liner which is useful to create more subtle changes in the level. This has been used to create a gentle slope up to the hotel. The hotel walls have been added and the final part to to start constructing the steps up from the road. To speed up this process, I have used 2mm scribed plastic sheet and used the lines to save on whole load of marking out and to help line up the treads. The whole process only took a few minutes. Photos show work in progress, the steps are not stuck into position yet. Nick

The last of the major buildings to be constructed is the large hotel behind the station. I am using the Faller school building kits (#232382) as a starting point. The Faller kit is 9 windows wide and includes some basement windows. As the hotel is being built in a rocky area, I felt the building woudl not have had a basement, so these were cut off from the kit sides. I have then spliced two kits together to creater a larger 15 window wide building. Others feature of the kit is a rather large roof including dormer windows and printed detail on the wall sections. As a roof of this size would dominate the scene, I am going for a flat roof so a parapet was added to the front. The colour scheme did not look very british so this is being painted out. Photos below show the original front section and the revised front pieces. the second photo shows the current state of affairs with the front and side walls with a first coat of car spray. Next step is to build a portico to provide a more interesting entrance. Nick

The first bit of scenic scatter (the term flockage is used elsewhere in the forum) has gone down. It makes a big difference. The main task for the break is the build the large hotel behind the station. I have a couple of Faller kits for this purpose. They will be spliced together to make a longer building. I did consider making it 3 floors but decided that would make te building too dominant. The room lighting and the light from the window, shows that the first few coats of varnish have been added to form the river. 6 months since the start, I am happy with the progress made. Regards Nick

The PD Stirling depot adjacent to Mossend Yard has 3 tracks in classic Inglenook style, although they can take 8-10 wagons each. There is a picture of the sidings dated 1988 in the Freight Only Vol3: Wales and Scotland by Michael Rhodes and Paul Shannon. The text in the book says the sidings handled a wide range of traffics including steel. china clay, coal, lime, liquid nitrogen, food and government stores. Plenty of scope here for a lyout. Nick