draconusde

Just a quick not in passing, to update on what's been happening It's been a while since I last made a post, because it;s been a hectic few months, meaning my layout has taking a serious step into tha background. Since the last time, I have started a new job, moved house, and all the circus that involves. As my job was in a totally different town, we were limited in the choices of new house to move to, so I was worried at first about where I could put my board, and was worried it would be a case of a serious downgrade in the already small size of a layout. But.....we have a cellar yay. The house has a nice sized cellar that was, well, I can only describe it as a right mess. Last years flooding and previous tenants left a bomb site. Everything in there was covered in mould, and a mess all round. So....2 months of hard work in between shifts, along with 2 dehumidifiers working 24/7, and I have a room that while not perfect or finished, at least is usable without worry about damage to things in there. With acceptance that family crap has to be stored down there, it still leaves me with a reasonable space to put my board. Although I'm almost back at day one, at last I'm at a stage where I can get on and start to build my 'dream' first layout, which is more an attempt to make things look like something half decent. The2 ovals are now fully ballasted, the points are working, and the only damage in the move has meant replacing one piece of track and a rewire. My attempt to build a static grass applicator following the on-line instructions (using a 'poundland' fly swatter and a teas stainer) has gone better than I could have expected, and it seems to do the job, so anyone comfortable with a soldering iron I'd recommend you give it a go, it's a nice easy project. So what's to come. For now I'm looking at 3 areas. DCC, for which I'm looking into the new Hornby e-link system. It's probably going to be Christmas before I get one, but wiring up and layout is now focussed towards making it in a way that will easily be converted. Scenery, I need to plan what is going where, and how to achieve it. It's still more a planning and trial and error sort of thing, working on a sort of module style, small scenes worked into the general layout. Nothing in stone, but lots of ideas Track. I still want to take the centre spur into a raised section, ending in a decent terminal station. This will be more realistic to achieve now, as with it being in the new location, I have alot more room to play with, and the idea in my head will I think work well. The problem now is finding a workable way to raise the track, something that in all honesty I haven't settled on a method I'm comfortable with. So that's it really. Nothing much has happened, but hopefully this has been a temporary issue, and I should be able to update more regularly with something practical to say. Steam on

From my limited experience, and no doubts many wiser heads will tell you the best way, but I've found ballasting first to be simplest, mainly because doing it the other way the landscape had a habit of getting in the way, particularly if you have any cuttings planned.

lol, i've become an expert on low budget :)/ Hopefully now I should have enough regular income to actually make proper progress

I have had a couple of messages from some friends and contacts asking why I 'have been sat on my arse instead of updating my layout...' So a few lines to update these souls desperate for my failures and misadventure.... My layout is, as of right now, none existent. Or more precisely, stores up against the wall of the living room. This is simply because we are in the process of house hunting, as (thank god) I have found a new job, (or more specifically, applied for and got the job I did 10 years ago, in the same place. Some people have suggested this is a step backward, but [a] I really enjoyed working there, and [ b] there are zero jobs for someone of my background locally) However, my new job is approx 100 miles away, so we need a new home back in Sheffield, and the entire current home is upside down as we start the process of pre-packing, and my layout was one of the first casualties. On the plus side though, it does mean as it's no longer fastened against the wall, I can lay it out when the missus goes to her mums for a fortnight to ballast the rear sections of the track Although...house hunting has caused slight conflict, in that my criteria for moving has included either a cellar, spare room or large garden shed space for the sole purpose of my layout. Apparently I'm not being helpful...... In other news, next weekend (12/13 May) is the annual Cleethorpes Model Railway show, which always has some nice displays, and serious bargain hunting. Now if only I can find some money to hunt with......hope to see some of you there, it's a great day out, and only 3.50 entry. (Try the chocolate cake, I know the women who makes it and it's worth the day out just for that )

A repost of my aternate blog, about a scam aimed at fishermen http://draconusde.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/a-warning-to-all-anglers/ A warning to all anglers… Hi everyone, this is by way almost of a public service announcement, to warn you about an appalling, but legal, rip off that is in place. As you should know, annual fishing licences run out on the 31st March, and new ones purchased for the 1st April. This year, the price is being held at £27 pound, and I’m not getting involved in a discussion about the price or value (personally I think it’s perfectly reasonable, but as I say, that’s a matter of personal opinion). If your over 12, and want to fish in the UK, you need a licence. In addition to the annual licence, 1 and weekly licences are also available. To purchase them, you can either pop into your local post office, or order them from the royal mail/environment agency websites. There is no additional fee, and it’s an easy process that anyone should be able to complete without problems. The site to use is official rod licence However….. A company calling themselves the ‘Rod Licence Application Service’ is the number one link on Google, and plastered over the adverts on Facebook. Everything about the site looks official, and is easily believed to be the ‘official place’ to buy your licence. It isn’t. While this site will get you your licence, they charge you £20 pound ontop of the licence fee for doing so. By filling in the same application form as the royal mail ask, you are charged over 2 thirds of the cost of the licence as an ‘additional admin fee’. So that’s £47 pound for a £27 pound licence that has no admin charges. Don’t be caught out. This is not the first year they have done this, and the only way this can be stopped is for people NOT to use it, therefore making it uneconomical for them to continue paying advertising fees to make sure there seen as the first point of application. Please pass on this information to any anglers you know, along with the link for http://www.postoffice.co.uk/rod-fishing-licence as the place to go Thanks for listening

I have been asked by a friend why I don't buy expensive craft knifes for my modelling. It's easy, and although many people will disagree, this is how I see it. Cutting thick card is not the most delicate operation. It abuses your knives, and has a tendency to kill them. Not just the blades, but the whole thing. I have used craft knives, and I snap them. I've used Stanley knives, and it caused it to drop to bits. Maybe if I had used a top quality product, then it may have lasted longer, but it would still have ended up the same, as they simply aren't made for cutting heavy duty card consistently. So, I use cheap knives with decent blades, and even though they need replacing regularly, they do the job perfectly, and in the long term work out no dearer than an expensive one, with the benefit of not feeling gutted when it drops apart in your hands. So that's why. I can justify wrecking a pound knife as opposed to a 20 pound one. That aside, what I've been doing lately is a lot of little jobs that don't progress the layout much, but do take time. So while I am financially empty, it still keeps chugging along. This has mainly been ballasting (About half of current track done, need to turn the board now), but I have also made a start on the main tunnel section. This has meant making use of the pre-purchased tunnel mouth from scalescenes to make the first double mouth tunnel entrance. I'm not going to go through the construction again, this has been covered in more than enough detail by myself before, (if your interested it can be found here http://draconusde.wordpress.com/2012/10/02/mr-scalscene-print-and-build/ ) but I do have a few little tips for anyone building the same model. First, as always, take your time and follow the instructions. Make sure you read them through first and understand them before you begin. As long as you identify the right parts, it should be plain sailing. Don't be afraid do sand down pieces when you have finished cutting them if they aren't a perfect fit. Repeated cutting of the same parts wont mean you've cut every one perfectly. Most important with this model though is the tunnel mouth. This model is great in that the tunnel mouth can be cut in many ways to fit your layout. But... Every layout is unique. Just because you are running your track in a particular way, doesn't mean it will be in a perfect line or distance to match another layout. So don't rely on the templates to fit your own layout. Before you push ahead and complete the model, take the time once you've cut out the tunnel mouth to put it in place on the layout and check that your loco's will travel through. Take your biggest carriages and biggest engine and just run it round to make sure it doesn't catch on the tunnel mouth. If they catch, now is the time to sand the mouth to make it slightly bigger, make your adjustments now to ensure it runs smooth. The next part of the construction is to add the tunnel interior. This will fit it's shape to your opening. If your tunnels going on straight track there shouldn't be a problem, but if it;s on the curve, then it could cause you the same problems, so now is the time again to make adjustments and shorten the tunnel as needed to make sure it;s all smooth running. You want to do it now before you build up the rest, to save yourself the time and trouble of finding out too late that you haven't got it just right... And of course, the biggest benefit of the scalescene models...if you get it wrong, you can just reprint the part and try again... So personally, I now have the first tunnel mouth built and in place, with my layout trains running through without derailing or the 'tunnel wobble' of carriages rubbing up against the side of the tunnel mouth, and after a bit of weathering it will be ready for the hillside to be constructed over the top. Or at least it will when a second tunnel mouth is done, and the raising track, and the static grass, and the....... This list is getting bigger

Is moving them outside of the baseboard too much of an issue? moving the forwar a few inches so there on a seperate panel mounted to the front of the layout, thereby separating the control and the layout modelling. Does that make sense anywhere but in my head?

Well, I have begun my first attempt at ballasting and...it's going. I'm trying out the gadget from Green Scenes to help lay it, which is doing ok but not as quick and simply as the demonstrations/video's would have you believe, but then what's new. My big negative against it is the total lack of instructions, so it's a trial and effort thing, but it's getting better. Hopefully it will look ok when it's finally dry, and lightens up as it seems to have gone quite dark. Early days. If anyone out there has tips for ballasting the points, then I'm all ears Scalescenes have proved there worth to me once more, as I make a start on the scenery plans and print off some tunnel mouths. So far it is literally just the mouths, the rest of the construction can wait till I've finished moving things about to find where I want it bewfore I waste ink and effort on what may actually be unused. So I am faced with the reality that other than ballasting, lots more ballasting, moving forward is halted until I buy the insulation panels to construct the centre island area, as looking at it 90% of the rest of the scenery is going to interact with it, so can't really be moved forward until that is in place. I do however have the fun of attempting to construct my static grass applicator, although static grass would be an advantage to see if it actually works. On other news, for my birthday last week I went to the BRM show at Doncaster, and I have to say it was worth all the logistical nightmare of getting there. A great day out, with some wonderful displays and demo's (The hands on 'lesson' at weathering was an eye opener, and on my list of things to try now). Loved 'Cliffhanger' (how many trees), and it was good to see Black Country Blues in the flesh after reading about it each month in the magazine and forums. I took along my bestie who isn't a train person, and the yard stick for me was how much he enjoyed the day even though it isn't his thing. My only regret was having little (read no) money, as I could easily have spent a fortune. Next time I'm saving up. What was good for me in a practical way was the stand for Digitrains, who let me get my hands on working DCC units, letting me see the differences in units. Up until now I've only really seen the Bacman Dynamis in use, so trying different types was great. Although awkward to buy due to limited retailers stocking it, for the difference in price I am set on going forward with the NCE powercab system. It's about 20 pound more than the Dynamis, but it seems alot more for the buck. Of course at 130 pound ish it's out of view right now, but then at around 100+ so's the Dynamis so it's horses for courses.And yes, I know the NCE isn't wireless, but that's not really an issue for me. So that's how things are right now, nothing much changing but at least I can start to move forward. Or backwards depending on your point of view...

A First Impression of te Dapol Track Cleaner. So for Cristmas I recieved a Dapol Track Cleaner in 'oo' guage, but due to certain restrictions I havnt been able to try it out, the snow meaning my baseboard space has been taken up by two rabbits. Joy. But today I managed to make room to place the board on top of the table to finally give it a try, so here goes. First Impressions....it looks the buisness. It comes ready to run in the box, in 'Vacuem mode'. It seems well made, and fairly simple to use, which is good as the biggest let down is the basic insructions that come with it. You need to push the cleaner with another engine, as it has no motive power of it;s own, so for this trial run I deliberately chose a very old engine, which doesnt run that well, so it should show any improvements quite noticeably. With a bit of a jerky performace, which I didn;t know if caused by the engine or the cleaner, the vacuem ran well and picked up fluff and dust, collecting it in a hopper in the centre f the train. It seemed to do the job well, but admitedly as the board has been stood up against a wall for the best part of a month, there wasnt actually much to pick up. I'm interested in what it will perform like when I start to ballast. So onto the cleaning function. Using an included tool, you have to remove the fitted vacum part, and fit the cleaning pad. The train includes two types of pads, a grinding and a polishing. The grindng pad should only be used for really bad cleaning, as potentially it could remove the plated surface of the track. In this case, I went for the polishing pad, which is what I see as being the one used 99% of the time. A brush pad is included to brush the inside edge of the track, which needs to be fitted before use. This is included in the box, and mouns with a single screw. I dont see why this isnt factory fitted, as ince on it isnt remved, but it isnt, so you need to do it yourself, an easy job. This isnt mentioned in the instructions however, so a little logic is needed. A small resevour on top of the train is filled with cleaning solution, and your ready to go. Switched on, and the old engine pushing, around it goes. And the results? By the second loop, running performace was noticabley improved. The run was less juddery and smoother, and the track surface was shining. On stopping the cleaner the dirt on the pad under the train showed just how effective it was. On running one of the new engines, it sailed round without any problems and seemed quieter, though this could just be me. So for performance, I give it the thumbs up, and would heartely recommend every layout has one. I can see how running this as a regular routine, will improve the performance of your railway and the life of your engines and stock. Is it perfect? No. although minor, there are some issues I had with it. Most of all the instructions are very week, with little more than the most basic instructions. It's ok to get you up and running, but more is said about fitting a DCC chip than anything else. As an example, included in the packaging is a rubber O ring, but nowhere is there any explination of what it's for. (For anyone wondering, it;s a spare seal for where you fill the cleaning solution). (Talking of DCC, it is fully ready for it, but as the only actual function is on/off, it isnt by any means vital or advantageous. But it will work perfectly with either system) There are a couple of niggles with the buld, which are just my opinion, in that the collection cover for the hoover function feel a bit flimsy, but as long as your no rougher than you would be with any loco, it isnt a problem. I also think the bogies and wheels are a little small, tight, causing a few derailments switching tracks over points and making it quite akward to actually put it on the rails. I'm not sure if these could be replaced, but I think that with deeper wheels it would be alot more stable. And one real niggle.....the cleaning solution. This is not included with the main model, and I think this is a real oversight. Even if just enough to run it once, I would include this with the initial purchase. Fortunately I also got a bottle with the gift, but without it you loose one of the biggest features of the cleaner. Overall, this is something I think anyone would benifit from owning, makng track maintanance more fun, and alot easier in some of the hard to reach areas. I am suitably impressed, and think it's worth every penny of it's purchase price. Loks wise it wont look like it fits on a 1920's branch line, but thats ot the point. It does a job, and it does it well. Could you ask for anything more?

Merry Christmas to everyone on RMweb, new and old. Heres to hoping the Jolly Man brings you all your trains and wagons.

Well, I haven’t been up to much since my last post, (http://draconusde.wordpress.com/) and as the Christmas Season is well and truly in us, not alot’s going to get done in the near future either. In fact due to the needs of space for the holidays, The baseboard has been taken down to give us more space to organise furniture and such like for presents and such. Fortunately this time, due to some foresight on how I rebuilt the layout, this means a five minute job and no major dismantling, and to put it back will be a quick job in January too. However, a casual conversation has lead to a lot of thoughts about the future of my layout, and what limitations I have in place that could frustrate me in the future. You see my current plan and layout will keep me busy for a while to come, but there isn’t much room to expand it when it is eventually done. But….I knew from the start what the purpose of the layout was. It is a test bed, firstly to see if I had the patience and desire to keep on with it (which I do), and secondly to test and try things and techniques. And it is meeting this fully. Already, as it is in it’s second iteration, I have learnt alot of wrongs and rights from the first attempt. But in it's current form, there is a limit to what I can build it up to without continually scrapping and starting again, which is not something I want to do. So where do I see it going long term (and I mean long..). Well in my mind I see this first layout being always what it is now, a test bed to try new things and learn techniques. Somewhere that I wont be afraid to get it wrong. It isn’t a complicated layout, so it can easily be transferred from DC to DCC as needed, it has enough interest in it 9or at least it will) to make it worth while to do, and I will be able to look back and see exactly how far I’ve developed. And what will come after? I already have a solid idea of what I want to work towards. There are two major drawbacks to model railways that anyone who is thinking about starting needs to take seriously into consideration. Cost and Size. Railways are expensive. There’s no way to avoid this, and although there are a hundred ways to reduce the costs, without a large disposable income then you need to find a way to bring it into a realistic budget without having months and months of nothing. And size DOES matter with railways. My current layout, which is basic to say the least, takes up a board size bigger than a pool table just to allow a reasonable running loop. The more you want to develop and increase it, then the increase in size is exponential, and the more likely you would be to throw in the towel looking at large areas of blank space. So how am I going to deal with these two quite major issues. Especially when in the near future, were going to be moving back to our home town, and I don’t know what space will be available when we find a place. My plan for my long term layout, is to look at it as though it was being built for an exhibition. Instead of starting with a loop and creating a run round, I will be looking at building an ‘end to end’ layout, in sections 4ft by 2 foot. And the idea I have, which I don’t want to go into details right now till I’m ready to start working on it, will eventually be around 24ft long, not including any fiddle yards. Now I know that sounds like a contradiction and a huge size, but the way I will be working and thinking about it is just 4ft sections. Each one will be stand alone builds and scenes, and will be completed, wired, lighted, sculpted, and everything before I start on the next section. To all intents and purposes, each of the 6 sections in my heads will be worked on totally independently, but should I ever have the room, then it will join together in all it’s glory to enjoy the journey, from start to finish. Maybe one day I’ll be confident enough to take it to a show, or if not, I hope it will come together like it does in my mind, and I can say I did that, and I am proud that it’s a journey I can take. So what does the future hold for my railway? Lots of glue, lots of grass, lots and lots of trees, wood, screws, many many pounds of track, lots of time and effort, and, hopefully, a lot of satisfaction. Maybe one day you’ll get to see the finished product, and hopefully be able to say ‘what a great idea’. Or maybe I’ll be sat alone with my grey hairs watching the wheels spin as I dream of the passengers taking that journey. Either way, as long as I keep moving towards the end of the line, it doesn’t matter how long it takes, because getting there is half the fun. Merry Christmas and good will to everyone