LBSC123

Looking really good, out of interest, what size is the layout?

Thanks for the kind words Mikkel. My current thoughts on the backscene is to try and emulate what Chris Nevard has done here: http://nevardmedia.blogspot.com/2017/03/forest-of-dean-colliery-update.html?m=1 This would mean mostly a blue sky with a few low hills in the distance to represent the other side of the creek and other hills on the west of the Isle of Wight. Hopefully this will be blended in with some small trees, hedgerows and other shrubs. Glad you’re enjoying the updates Steve, and good to see another quay in the process of being built! I would recommend cladding foamboard in ply or some other ‘knock resistant’ material, particularly if you’re going to be moving the layout around. With regards to joining the baseboards, I only have two (or rather will), this one and a fiddle yard which I haven’t built yet. This will be built in the same way as the main board, the intention is to join it with either Dowels and clamps or coach bolts (or both). This goes through the 5mm ply on the ends of the baseboard. The track at the join is attached to a piece of copper clad. Hope that helps! P.S. sorry I’ve been a bit quiet over the last few days, I’ve been in the process of moving flats, now completed! More updates to follow soon.

I've been in the process of moving house, so time on the Layout (and finances) has been fairly limited the last week, but I managed to find some time to make some progress. I bedded the bottom of the quay into the river bed with some plaster filler, this has hidden the join nicely. Next I'll paint weather the wood and paint the plaster a mud colour prior to further seaweed effects and then the resin pour. I also made a tentative start on the rear warehouse, having roughly cut out the holes for the doors. These need squaring off and then filling (what with, I'm not quite sure). Any tips on how to construct doors would be greatly appreciated. The jury is still out on the whole building, but it's a learning process either way. More soon.

Thanks for the response @Nearholmer. There's a lot to consider with regard to the buildings at the back still. I saw this relatively low wooden and corrugated iron bash of two of the Will's 'Station Garage' kit. Loose the vents and I think this has a lot of potential to look like one of the buildings I'd posted before.... Source: http://www.p4newstreet.com/category/brettell-road

Looking good! I may have missed your previous update, but what are you planning to do in terms rolling stock/locomotives for the line? I must say this reminds me very much of Pounds Shipbreakers of Portsmouth, I remember looking out to see what was in the yard on trips to Portsmouth when I was growing up. They have a Facebook with photos here: https://www.facebook.com/Poundsscrapyard/ If you were to go more in the direction of a repair yard, you might want to take inspiration from Ridge Wharf on the Furzebrook railway. As well as being a transhipment point for Ball clay, this was also used as an area for maintaining the companies tugs and barges which took ball clay alone the River Frome to Poole Harbour. There are some good shots in the book 'The Furzebrook Railway' of boats being hauled out of the water by some of the narrow gauge locomotives. It shouldn't take too much modellers license to find a similar excuse for your layout. Hope that is of some use!

Thanks for the feedback @Nearholmer, I think a fair bit of that rings true. As I've already got the materials to build a corrugated iron shed I'll have a go at that and see how it looks. With regard to the salt-panners buildings, do you mean something like the one below? It's the best photo of something I've found from around the area. On the quay itself, the only buildings of substance are these wooden and stone affairs/and corrugated iron affairs, as shown below. I agree about the comments on the backscene, I'm thinking 'less is more' with that one, mainly focussing on the sky and a few low-lying hills, I'll use a few small trees/shurbs to hide the exit from the board and the join with the backsene. These two postcards from the 1960s nicely surmise the effect I'm hoping to achieve. Source: http://www.shalfleet.shalfleet.net/shalfleet_creek.htm Source: http://www.shalfleet.shalfleet.net/shalfleet_creek.htm More thinking required, I think!

I have been giving some more thought and consideration to the building at the rear of the layout and this photo nicely shows the problem with the foamboard shell I've knocked up. I don't think it's big enough, and in the shot above it looks smaller than the building in front of it, even though it is slightly larger. I'm not happy with the building as is, so what to do? 1) Build a larger corrugated iron building in similar style. I'm in two minds on this, I am not entirely sure if it would look 'right' being made out of corrugated iron much higher? 2) Something different. The other option is to put in place a higher brick built building. Looking at the Island there are several possibilities for contenders, such as the Tide mills located at St Helens and Yarmouth. St Helens tide mill, source: https://www.wightpedia.org.uk/detail2.php?id=125 Yarmouth Mill There was actually a mill at Shalfleet, although smaller in size and located somewhat further away from the location of the quay, however a little bit of modellers license could mean a suitable brick built building could run alongside the rear of the quay, possibly as some sort of store? Shalfleet Mill, source: http://www.shalfleet.shalfleet.net/ This is increasingly becoming a more favoured option, but what to build it from? I sadly think it's a bit beyond my skillset to scratch build something of that size and with that many windows. So that means I'm reliant on kit built/RTP options. I've not seen anything that really fits the bill, bar possibly something modified and extended from LCUT Creative. Any thoughts or potential suggestions for suitable buildings is welcomed. More soon.

After a week away in North Wales, it is time for another update on the layout. Following the completion of the quayside, I have now turned my attention to the ground that goes behind this. Looking at period photos of St Helen's quay, it was clear that this wouldn't be concrete, and looks to be a mix of ballast gravel and soil. To replicate this, I used Chris Nevard's DAS technique to create the ground around the tracks and quay. This consists of flattening DAS onto a smear of PVA until the texture is smooth and the DAS clay clear of the tracks. To get it smooth I used a paintbrush, screwdriver and an old teaspoon. I also used the same technique for the road at the rear of the layout. I'm pretty happy with how this has turned out and will wait for it to dry before I weather this, the white looks rather stark at the moment! I'm not quite sure what I'll tackle next, but contenders are either preparing the backscene for paint, bedding in the quayside wall, river banks and bed, or finishing the corrugated iron warehouse for the rear of the layout. More soon.

Hi Ray, I saw that book on a recent visit to the Ian Allan bookshop near Waterloo, it's certainly on the list of books alongside the others previously mentioned!

Thanks both for the book recommendations, I'll certainly be investing in some of these mentioned to compliment the 'Freshwater, Yarmouth and Newport Railway' and 'Isle of Wight Railway' books already in my collection.

Thanks Nick! Do you have any advice for where to get the turned ends from? Do you know which book the drawings are in? I've been gradually trying to acquire more books related to the island.

Hi Ray, You're not wrong with the need for a fair few coal wagons! This is most definitely on the to do list. With regard to traffic, I am thinking: coal, shingle/sand from dredging, fish, passenger luggage/parcels, the odd tanker wagon for parafin, Blue Circle chalk wagons, Cattle/horses, plus the occasional passenger train and P-way train. Some of that will require a bit of modellers licence, but it should give suitable variety. I'll need to get cracking on the wagons soon!

Thanks for the kind words Rob, The weathering is just a few simple washes of black, grey and tan acrylic paints. At some point I'll dry brush the planks and do some detailing work to represent nails and strapping, alongside adding seaweed, which should really bring it alive. Thanks for the photo Ray, it looks good, and certainly gives me something to aim for! Over the last few days, I've been working on the upright supports for the quayside. As I've mentioned previously these are made from 5x5mm Balsa wood. After some measuring, I chopped these into 3 different lengths, then using a Stanley knife, smoothed off some of the edges and took some chunks out of these, to give the representation of what I imagine these would look like after a good few years being knocked by various ships. These then got the same acrylic washes as the other plans and were superglued into place. Supports cut to length and painted. Gluing the supports into place. Completed quayside. There's still a lot of weathering and detailing work to do to this part of the Layout, but this has really brought the quayside alive. More soon.

Hi Ray, Thanks for the advice regarding light green slime, there's certainly a lot more weathering to do in the whole quayside area and I shall look to get some of that paint. I've also been reading the 'Country Gate' website which has some useful tips about seaweed which I will seek to emulate too: http://www.009.cd2.com/members/how_to/water.htm The photo below nicely shows some of the affects I'll be attempting to replicate. I agree regarding the O2s, I'm hopeful EFE do produce another batch, we shall see! More soon.

Following protracted problems with the wiring for the point motors, which was eventually traced to the copper tape I had used, I have been able to make some more progress on the layout. In the intervening period I have painted the ground cover in burnt umber. The next job I tackled was the quayside, the planks of this are made from 3mm x 1.5mm strip wood, and the upright supports will be made from 5mm x 5mm Balsa wood. Planks after weathering prior to fitting. I first chopped these into scale 30ft lengths and gave the planks a preliminary wash with some black, grey and dusty coloured acrylic paints. These were then glued to the wall side. The joints will be covered with the 5mm Balsa wood, weathered in the same manner, then all of this will receive weathering to tie it in together, alongside gluing a representation of some sea weed. Planks glued into place. A rough mock up of the Balsa wood rubbing strip and uprights. I quickly offered up some Balsa wood to give an idea of what the uprights will look like, naturally these will be weathered, evenly spaced and level when it comes to fitting them properly!

Just thought I should update this again to give a full account of what the source of the problem was. After glueing the motors back in place, I still wasn’t satisfied with the way they threw the blades. A fair amount of problem solving and head scratching eventually sourced the problem to the 2m long 25pin to 25pin cable, which I had been using to join the control board and baseboard. With one of the switches wired directly to the point motor the motors operated perfectly. I’ve got a shorter cable on order, but may have to re think the whole way I was connecting the baseboard and control board. So the problem seems to be wiring related and not the foamboard! Now to tidy all of the wiring up... Thanks all for the help.

Hi Mick, this was my thoughts too. I have attempted to re-mount on with PVA on the flat faces and a more extensive bead of hot glue around the edge to hold it in position while it drys, initial results suggest this might have cured the problem, but I'll wait until the PVA is fully dried before trying this on the rest of the points. Thanks, Will

Thanks all for the replies. In the intervening period the larger CDU has arrived, which was duly fitted. One of the points would switch in one direction only, but not the other, so to rule out it being an alignment issue I've taken them off and will look at this when it's a bit less hot(!) Thanks Mick, I've not got the PM1s, but have tried lubrication to no avail. The wire is also completely clear of the sides of the hole. I'm not using Hornby Switches, I'm using switches identical to the ones below, I may have used the wrong name for them. They're the same switches that I've used without problems on my OO9 layout. This is interesting, I'm currently leaning towards some servos, if I can't get this fixed! Another point I'm wondering is whether it's the hot glue I've used to hold them in place being too flexible...

Hi all, I'm wondering if you could all help me with a problem I've got getting some point motors to work, having failed to find the source of the problem myself. The problem is as follows. I've got Seep point motors fitting under the baseboard (which is 5mm foamboard) wired up to passing contact switches, 24volt AC and a CDU, frog polarity is controlled by Gaugemaster relay wired into the Point control circuit. The problem is that the motors don't seem to have enough 'go' to get the points switched from one direction to the other. On the recommendation of a friend, I've already beefed up the power supply to 24volts to no avail and have a larger CDU on its way. I've tried removing the relays from the wiring system but this doesn't seem to make a difference. The points are freely moving, and will 'throw' when you push the rod from the point motor to the tiebar by hand, they also aren't gummed up with anything (yes, I am the person who stupidly ballasted the track before checking this). I have removed one of the motors from the bottom of the board and it does throw via the switch, so it doesn't seem to be an issue of power not getting to the motors. The only remaining things I think I can of being a problem are: 1) Needs a larger CDU to give more kick to the throw. 2) Foamboard baseboard too flexible absorbing/defecting the throw of the motor, although I can't see any deflection when I try and throw the point. 3) Other unknown wiring/electrical problem Any thoughts on how best to fix this? The only thing I can think of is replacing them with servos! Thanks, Will

Found a bit of time over the last few days to make a bit more progress on the layout, namely with the ground terrain. This was made from 'Sculptamould' over polystyrene formers. I am planning to model the layout with the water at 'half tide' so there will be plenty of water for a vessel alongside the quay but still some potential for some mudflats/shore at either end of the layout. I need to pick up the latest Model Rail Magazine for info on how Chris Nevard did this. The Sculptamould is currently drying, but then I'll paint this and the rest of the ground covering in burnt umber. This will then enable me to make a start on the quayside wall and DAS for some of the areas of Hard standing on the quay. For the quayside, I have settled on a wooden side. To construct this I have obtained some 3mm x 1.5mm wooden strip and some 5mm x 5mm Balsa for the uprights and rubbing strips. I will need to chop and weather this to length before fitting, but the photo below shows some of the wood offered up, and I think it will look quite effective. More soon.

A positive development for the Hobby, I’m glad to see the DJ models J94 back in production. *Crosses fingers and toes for a re-run of the DJ/Kernow O2*

This all sounds very interesting and not fundamentally different from my reasoning to focus on the goods side of things given the small space I'm dealing with for Shalfleet Quay, which is 4ft 9inches x 18inches. Although I have got a few of the Hatton's Genesis coaches on pre order and am looking to kit bash a Ratio Midland bogie into a push pull coach...! Lepe sounds perfectly plausible to me. In fact, my understanding was that line was built there to provide closer shipping routes to the Freshwater Yarmouth and Newport Railway docks at Shalfleet. I'll look forward to further developments, I'd suggest that trying to fit a rail ferry in may not be possible. I gave it similar consideration at Shalfleet but couldn't do it without dominating the scene, but a road connected ferry would provide a nice bit of variety. Of course you'd want to ensure that in modelling that you didn't use space that would otherwise be useful to provide more operating interest. You could consider the slipway without the ferry, assuming it's somewhere in transit? It all sounds very interesting, I look forward to seeing further progress.

Spent a few hours getting the Peco Bullhead buffer stops weathered and painted up. I think they look pretty good although I'll probably re-do the red lines with some masking tape. I've made a decision to go for wood for the quayside, and have placed an order for this. So expect more progress on that and the landscape later this week. I'm hoping to emulate some of Luke Towan's work on this diorama for the river: Thanks for reading.

The Isle of Wight sounds good, although I may be biased

Thanks for the kind words Graham, I’ll be chuffed if I can get it to look half as good as Canute Road Quay. A wonderful photo and thanks for sharing. It’s going to require a fair bit of thought to capture the flavour of the marshes. It’s slightly woodier on the Shalfleet side of the Creek, so I will attempt to have some marshes blending into the trees at the edges of the board. Thoughts on how to model this appreciated!