Rich Papper

A little tinkering with this this evening. Centre car for the thumper. Body missing some jumper cables and needing a little more filler here and there, but otherwise ready for some paint. Chassis needs couplings and through wiring. Rich

Good Evening, A few bits of progress over the weekend. Upper level now has power throughout. Had a few gremlins with one of the points, but think I have it solved. DCC Concepts ADS8 controlling Seep point motors with a Hex Frog Juicer sorting the frog polarity. About one time in ten startups one of the point motors buzzes lightly as main power comes on, but stops if I move change it. Not sure why, possibly misaligned. Things can now run in and out of the platform lines though. Glorious and Iris doing the testing tonight. Only thing that seems to have trouble up there is the new TTS HST annoyingly. Still investigating. Stabling area that kicks back from Platform 1. Runs parallel to the entry line but on the level. 50007 and 33207 parked up. A long view. Apologies as usual for the terrible lighting. And we're entering the season where I'll only get to go in here in the dark. Finally, local control panel. As mentioned somewhere earlier, I decided to go with small local control panels given that the PowerCab wire is long enough for me to stand anywhere in the room to operate. I prefer changing points this way, but might one day learn how to set routes so this lets me do either. Top row is the upper level, lower the lower. Holes at the top are for the two platform starter signals (won't go in until I've done enough of the surrounding scenery not to risk snagging them!), lower ones are for the pointwork on the way into the DMU depot. Not connected yet as haven't built it, and may have to shuffle some of the points slightly when I do. Have a good evening. Rich

Hello I had the same issue. In the end I put the chip I wanted to use in a 21pin loco, programmed it, then took it out and put it in the TC. Not had a problem since. PITA though. Rich

Thank you. I'd been a while without a layout and just worked on the odd piece of stock when I had the time, all of which ended up just sitting on my desk. The layout was originally just supposed to be a glorified shelf to stick them on, but we all know how these things get out of hand. I did find a few random old pictures in the computer the other day while looking for something else, so here's a selection. Apologies if I already posted them and have forgotten. Rich

Very kind, thank you. Size was very much dictated by the very small flat I lived in when I started it. Home layout now has a whole converted garage, so naturally I have tried to fill it. Wrongly. It'll never be finished, but it will be fun! Rich

Hello Have been playing with the inside of a Hornby HST this evening. Picked up one of the Valenta TTS packs in Swallow livery. To be honest I wasn't that bothered about the TTS sound, I was really just after the PCs in this livery and have been kicking myself since the last lot that I didn't pick some up that time. As discussed on the Hornby thread elsewhere, the TTS sound can be a little tinny. These also have the issue that they've tried to reproduce the turbo scream and it just all comes across a bit 'hissy'. Someone mentioned that there was a bass reflex speaker that would be a good replacement for the pre-fitted one which didn't require any surgery to the loco, so sold. Original speaker is bottom left. This is my idea of rewiring - cut red and black wires, attach new red wire to red wire, new black wire to black wire. Just about within my skill set. Now all I need to do is bring my 25 year old rake of Lima Mk3s up to this standard. How hard can it be? Rich

Hello Have a done a speaker switch today to see the difference. Fitted a square megabass speaker that arrived this morning from Roads and Rails (no connection - satisfied customer) as recommended earlier in this thread. Picture below. Still not going to be a 'close your eyes and you're at Paddington moment', and it isn't as good as legomanbiffo's, but it does sound a lot better - especially for only £9. The main thing is it seems to have got rid of the hissy / tinny noise that was bugging me. Also, no surgery to the power car, just needed to trim the mounts off the speaker enclosure - 10 seconds with a razor saw. Rich

Good Evening. Just a small update tonight. Station area looking a bit better as have made some progress on platform tops. Top is 1.5mm ply. Have used Peco concrete edging for the main part of the station - this ply is just the right thickness to top them - and have then made edging for the extension using Wills brickwork and scribed some plasticard strips for the edges. Small amount of swearing as the extension is on a gently curve, making ply cutting all manner of fun, but fits now. Hopefully will look a bit better painted up. Have decided not to fix ply top on just yet as will need to route wires for lights and work out how canopy will attach. Just strikes me this would be easier if I could do both nearer the front and lower down and then just drop it into place. More soon. Rich

I've received my 50033. Happy enough with the paint colours but build quality is a bit poor. Had it apart to DCC yesterday, everything present but it's all just a bit sloppy. Body clips are not as tight as older models leading to a little play between it and the chassis, wires are not as neatly routed around the circuit boards and bogies inside. Moving louvres had unclipped. Nothing is broken, it's just not as good a job as my older ones. New factory / old tools? Rich

I picked up a set, not for the sound, just been looking for this livery having missed out last time. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks it's a bit tinny. Would love to replace speakers if this would help. Will be keeping an ear out if anyone comes up with a good fix. Can't afford the full chip replacement. Rich

Hi Peter, Well it's taken me about a month to work through this thread, but definitely time well spent. Congratulations on a fantastic layout and particularly love your attention to detail with the rolling stock. Trying to work out how I could justify a 40 now, although might be bending rule 1 further than I have before. More of the same please! Rich

Good Evening All. Expensive week. I may have to mortgage the cat. 50033 arrived, shortly followed by the Intercity HST pack. Apologies for lack of lights on this one, DCC off as haven't chipped Glorious yet. Have waited for this one for a while. Slightly galling to be paying £50 more for a loco identical to the first Hornby 50 I bought about 15 years ago when there have been no improvements made to it whatsoever, but such is the world these days. First impressions were that the double arrows and NSE wording were quite large, but a quick Google showed that it carried this style and the smaller lettering at different points. In fact the first picture I found was of it pulling a vac-braked corridor Mk1 pretty much where I grew up so mustn't grumble. The HST is very nice, despite the slightly flat cab profile and weird rear coupling. Rather glaringly it does have the latest style overhead warning flashes which I'm sure must be wrong. Have had a little play with the TTS sound, but can't give it the full beans as small people are asleep upstairs. Does sound a bit tinny, and does seem to have a continuous whistling sound which I'm not sure is supposed to be turbo scream or just the effect of really cheap speakers. One day I'll upgrade. Have a rake of Lima Mk3s to upgrade which I've had forever. Add to the list. Looking at these I really should stick more pictures of trains on this thread. (and perhaps finish off another area enough so I can take pictures somewhere else!) Rich

Hello No problem at all. Funnily enough I have done that before. I have an exhibition layout (doesn't get exhibited much these days if anyone is interested!) which is on two levels: depot above and Underground below. I had originally built the Underground layer onto the Ikea shelves themselves, but there was just a little too much 'play' between them, even with latches to hold them together, so I rebuilt and slung the baseboards through the Ikea legs. Hopefully picture below is clear enough, note these are the narrower (30cm) width legs, my home one uses wider (50cm) ones. Alignment dowels and latches were used to hold them together, and I just screwed a little wooden ledge (off-cuts of MDF I think) on the inside of the leg for it to rest on. Very stable when all attached together. I'm sure you could do the same with a fiddle yard, although obviously your baseboard width would be limited by the gap between the legs. Don't see why you couldn't get round with one of the corner ones too. Only possible issue is finding straight sets of legs in Ikea. Some in the shop will be distinctly banana shaped. I always take them down and lay them on the concrete floor, turning them over to all sides to make sure they don't rock. Sometimes you do have to go through about 10 before you find a good one, but the result is worth it and they are cheap. Good luck! Rich

Good Evening, Finally things are starting to slot back together. Hopefully the mess will start to get sorted too. First view today shows rare picture of what is holding everything up. Ikea Ivar legs attached together at the top by a pair of battens running the length of each side of the room. This means that I can use the Ikea shelves and cupboards underneath (to keep it tidy!!) and allows me to unbolt and shuffle the boards up and down and rotate them onto their backs at a sensible working height. There is also a gap where Oxford Road sits beneath. Board two going back on. Connections for upper level visible. Two views in the other direction from roughly the same place, first with top off, then on. Second one really shows how terrible lighting is at the other end of the room. One day I will get this sorted. Have had a quick test with a multimeter, all looks good. All points and Irdots responding correctly. May have to have a little test tomorrow. Have a good evening. Rich

Good Afternoon. Got fed up with brick painting, so decided to do some wiring. I do find wiring quite therapeutic after a long day at the monkey house, but the mess this has created taking apart multiple levels to tip up the boards is making my OCD itch! Does afford the occasional glimpse of hidden bits though. These are the main lines beneath the station. There is a loop on the inner that will accommodate loco+4. Can't see entry or exit so have put some IRDOTs at one end so I know if there's anything there. Hopefully a tidier update soon. Rich

Looks brilliant. Quite feel your pain with exhibiting. I arrived at my first ever with Oxford Road and only having set up and stood behind a very tall layout I had only ever operated from the front did it occur to me that having a fiddle yard might be really handy! Rich

Good luck with it Mike. I hope you get a few moments to step back and appreciate being there with this masterpiece. Rich

Mike the layout looks fantastic, looks more than finished to me - it looks real! Hope the show goes well, too far for me but would love to see it one day. And if it's any consolation to your misplaced mojo, it inspired me to go and tinker with mine this evening. Good luck. Rich

Hi Pete. There's an article about the widened lines in today's Rail magazine (860) that has a couple of pictures of Kings Cross Suburban. Probably nothing you haven't found in research, but interesting. Rich

Fantastic video, thank you. Still a bit torn between this and waiting for the Bachmann one. Rich

Hello Peter, Just chanced upon this thread and had a thoroughly enjoyable read through - as others have said, great work. Will have to read about Llanbourne now, although that might take me a bit longer! Rich

Good Evening, Apologies for the gap - life getting in the way (holiday, small people with chicken pox, exploding computer). Hope everyone is having a good summer. Managed to get an evening in the man cave, so back to the bricks. have now got the effect I was after (having failed at every other potentially quicker ,easier and cheaper method!!). As usual will preempt this with 'photos taken on phone camera' excuse. So am going with: Stage 1: Whole wall two coats of mortar colour. Have varied this slightly so it is slightly darker at the bottom, but this can be further adjusted with washes in situ later. B&Q tester pots. Cheap. Stage 2: Dry brush whole wall with basic Burnt Umber acrylic. Got it in the Works in local garden centre. Also cheap. going at it at a 45 degree angle seems to work well on the Wills sheets. Stage 3: Pick out some individual bricks in different colours. Have found through trial and error that don't need to do too many, just enough to give variation close to. Think I did about 15-20 of each of 4 different colours on each arch. Regular readers will know that I don't have the skill or steady hand (or patience!) to do this with a tiny brush, so paint pens. Those with plastic style tip can easily colour one brick at a time even with my level of ham-fistedness, those that came with a fibre tip like a felt-tip pen just got carefully whittled with a scalpel to make the tip brick sized. Relatively cheap, as they will last a long time. They don't all show up brilliantly in the photo but: Stage 4: Dry brush over with Tamiya XF-10 Flat Brown. Tones it all down and evens it up a bit, so from a distance looks uniform, but close to you can still tell there are variations in brick colour. Just about what I wanted, and I think about as close as I am likely to get. Will also dry brush some streaks of black where particularly dirty, off-white where mortar is being leached out. Drainpipes last, and then foliage growing over any bit I've messed up! Have gone under the bridge already. Only another 14 feet to go.... Put the kettle on. Rich

Good Evening, A small update. Been on holiday so no time in the man cave. Fed up with looking at bricks so thought I'd start on a bit more landscaping so I knew where I could attack more..err bricks. Sidings going in too. Living nearby I'm looking for something of the effect of Gloucester Horton Road depot sidings in it's dilapidated 70s/80s look. More styrofoam in evidence. Will definitely look like something. More soon. Rich

Thank you for that - have seen similar on a video somewhere too, but hasn't worked for me this time. Very good tip about emulsion pots though - hadn't thought of raiding them for colours other than the blue I use for the sky and the brown I use for the baseboard undercoat. Rich

Good Evening. Still on the bricks. May be for a while yet. Apologies for the lack of updates. Been trying to come up with a suitable base colour for grotty London brown brick. Some experiments thus far: 1. Various offcuts of Wills sheet, various colours. Also got a few different colour paint pens to see if I could pick out some odd bricks with these, but the nibs are a bit too big and my hands not as steady as I'd like. May come back to them. Think one of these was an aerosol can from B&Q, two were Tamiya, one Humbrol. 2. But couldn't really decide. I know they will need the mortar adding, which changes the look, and heavy weathering as its urban grot. Eventually settled on Humbrol 29 at the kind suggestion of Pete75C. 3. But then the mortar. Good grief! When I did the walls for Oxford Road about 12 years ago I painted the mortar first and then dry brushed the red. I remember if taking forever and thinking there must be an easier way, and had seen someone using Humbrol washes to add mortar so thought I would try that. About a month of swearing at irregular intervals later, not got anywhere. Have tried enamel and acrylic, have tried varnishing wall first, have tried wide variety of paints and consistencies, have tried adding washing up liquid, IPA etc. but always seems to end up like picture below. A beige soup. Annoyingly - often looks good, then leave to dry, then looks terrible. Even more annoyingly, it looks worse in real life than this picture! 4. Then, while watching youtube videos (mostly American - many really interesting) very quietly over breakfast so as not to wake the family before going to work - saw a tip about using filler or chalk. Tried both. Filler seems to work better, get finest filler you can, small blob on brickwork, rub in with finger. Does seem a little bit bright - slightly concerned that I'll end up with weathered bricks and clean mortar. Might be a way of colouring it first. Other slight concern is that I can't see how I'd manage to get it in with the same technique around all the fiddly bits on Wills retaining arches. Big fingers. 5. Final one is dry brushed with mortar colour first. This is the only bit that has given me any confidence yet. Think I might do the next test bit by painting a range of mortar colors, then dry brushing the same brown over the top to see if I can create variation that way. I think darker mortar near the bottom of the wall, and where water would run would look right. So still not that sure. Any and all suggestions welcomed. Have a good evening. Rich