Mike140

Two new additions to the station building roster. Starting small. A local news agent has taken early advantage of the stations development and has set up a kiosk before the station has even been opened to the public! And the shell of a new signal box has been erected. Still awaiting the glazing (kit stuff was yuk!) and the interior to be fitted. Apparently the electrician will be around tomorrow to wire in the lights! Really pleased with this little kit (excluding the windows!) it really looks the part sitting tucked away in its corner. Painting is definitely my favorite thing to do so far.. wiring.. not so much.

Few more bits done over the past few weeks. A wall has been built to stop people falling off the platform in to "world" Very simple design, just a bit of brick paper with some spearhead fencing behind it. Fitted a water crane to the platform, another left over memory from the days of steam. Not sure on the colour scheme though! And as revealed early in the water crane picture, there is now lighting on the station! Lights are from Kyteslights, who delivered them in under 24 hours! The lamps seem a tad too tall, possibly over-scale, but for the price I am happy with them. They're far too bright for my liking though but this may be my doing. I have them wired in series, with a (supplied) resistor before each light on the positive side, to a 12v DC 500mA adapter (I have no idea what any of that means, I am literally just reading it from the adapter) The building lights are in a series of five, no resistors, this gives them a nice low light warm glow. They're connected to the same adapter as the lamps. I was thinking I need to either replace the supplied resistors on the lamps or look for an adapter with a lower 'mA but don't know if this will affect the building lights. Any help on that would be much appreciated. I am far out of my element! I am a little nervous about leaving the lights on for a long time as I have held one of the lamps between my fingers and it did feel hot. I don't want to burn them out! Early apologies for bad pics. Horrible camera and dead batteries do not mix. Next : Bits and bobs for the station. That's it for now. Mike.

Now open for custom! Busy making buildings yesterday. As promised, here is the water tower. This was done a few weeks ago. The owner of the cottage isn't too happy with the new view from their front bedroom window... The ladder needs a bit of a trim to shorten and straighten it. It'll be rusted and weathered quite heavily. A matching water crane, which needs painting, will be placed on the platform as it seems way too short to be on the ground. Memories of the steam era The station now (finally) has buildings! The back scene is still bare in this section as I have no idea what I want to be on there yet. I was quite worried after placing the buildings that they gave the layout too much of a "GWR" feel to allow me to run a class 27 without it being out of place. They are "A classic Brunel style medium sized station building" after all. So I had a look on Google images for some "Highland railway stations" and to my surprise one image caught my eye which took me to a website for "Brora Village", situated in the North Highlands, which has a railway station... The canopy edging is extremely similar to that of my buildings, and I think with a bit of paint and a lot of weathering powder I could produce something similar, and hopefully convincing enough to pass as a fictional Highland station. So hopefully my 27 won't be making huge freight trips south in the future. Well that's all for now. Mike.

Scenery! Some before and after shots.. Seeing these images together really does allow me to realise what can be achieved with some wood and glue. Some general scenic shots.. The cottage. Wouldn't mind living there.. This was the scenic test corner. Ironically this corner came out far better than the rest at first and I spent most of my time trying to match it. A few moments ago 27032 arrived with a passenger train and is now using the head shunt to begin to run around its train. A lone Ford van, now empty, waits to be taken away with the next goods train. The random twig is a test tree in development. The space to the right of the 27 will be home to a rusting water tower, which is tonights project. Waiting for the signal..... and a station to be built For whatever reason the signalman has thrown the point

Update time! Been doing little bits over the past few weeks. Got ballast down. Looking at it now I do wish I had got some N gauge stuff but I had a tub full left over from my 00 diorama so I just used that, ah well. Painted the base a nice earthy brown to give a look of soil or mud in any patches my scatter might miss. The signals will be going missing in the future. I have decided to go back in time a bit so I can get some early diesels in green, the coaches and goods stock from that era have a bit more variety than the blue era, and so I'll be looking for some semaphore signals. Got a couple of bags of scatter to go down soon and a bag of bushes to throw around randomly. Next job will be to paint some trees on the back scene and then the scatter will go down. All I need now is a few building kits - Station buildings, signal box, line side sheds etc, and the main scenic area will be nearing completion. The goods shed on the right side will be my first attempt at scratch building and I am looking forward to that. Card kits are good for quickness but after seeing some of the amazing detail that can come from scratch built items I definitely have to have a go. On a side note. Hattons have a very impressive TMD layout on display in their shop window, the detail on it had me standing outside for quite some time! Unfortunately 5 or more minutes passed after telling myself to remember the layouts name. Edit : Once again the back garden proves useful. Spotted a dead stringy plant so thought it would come in handy.... Not bad! Hopefully more to follow very soon. Mike.

Good to see you back! Already watched your video on Youtube the junction looks good and pleased to see trains on the move again. I look forward to your next update. Cheers, Mike.

And then there was light! Had a great day out at the Preston exhibition today. Loads of brilliant layouts there. I managed to pick up a couple of signals... I think they are Berko (?) £6 each, second hand but only a bit of wood and glue on the bases. After a lengthy Google search when I got home I went on the hunt for a 12v DC power adapter.. and found one! The signals came ready to wire so I used some connector blocks to wire them to the adapter and some switches I had in the spares box and then had the big turn on.... They worked! Well, the red did. Then I switched them to green... and quickly realised I didn't really look at the LEDs very well... Amber?! After a very short 'uh-oh' moment I gave it some thought and realised that the track ahead would be a very old, run down single line. So maybe a low speed limit would be put in place. The trains enter and leave the scene very slowly anyway, The one on the siding grants access to the main line leaving the area only. A ground signal will be made for access to the yard. I also want two ground signals in the yard itself and one in the head shunt at the far end of the station. I plan on making them myself, using fibre optic cables going under the board to a few LEDs. Looking at the wiring for two signals I am dreading seeing it for the four ground signals! This is my first time wiring up anything other than track so I am really quite pleased. All this talk of resistors and such makes my head spin. I have some homework to do. Well that's all for now. Mike.

Clear skies today 27032 has just shunted some VBAs into the siding. The flash from the camera spoils the photos, I think. I have borrowed some cameras and a tripod from a friend so hopefully I can now get some high quality photos up starting tomorrow. I have also finished the station platform. It has a few gaps that need touching up but over all I am happy with it. Next step is ballast, which will be getting started on one end tomorrow. I've decided to try my hand at laying concrete in one of the sidings, I think it would look good going into, and form a good foundation for the future shed. I must admit after painting the back scene I am a little excited. What was once a couple of shelves on my wall is finally starting to look like a model railway. Cheers for now. Mike.

Easi-shunt conversions complete! Magnets are all down. Four wagons were converted to 'easi-shunt / Rapido' others in the centre of a rake remain 'Rapido / Rapido' and I am pleased to say they all work flawlessly!! The conversions were very easy once I got the hang of it and I think if a Dremel were to hand the conversion would take no more than ten minutes per wagon. Only slightly longer with a couple of files. Spring replacement ( on the first two ) took slightly longer... The good thing is that all of the wagons have been completely unharmed, no butchering, as it is the couplings themselves that are converted to sit in to the standard boxes. ...The fiddle yard works just fine, by the way

Operation "Loft invasion" was a great success this morning. Producing plenty of long, forgotten artefacts. Most of what I found would fall in to the "Would have come in handy a few months ago but I'll keep them around just in case" category. Track cutters with no more track to lay. A finer soldering iron than the stone age relic I was using.. Of course soldering was finished before I found it. Paired with the soldering iron are Johnny five's arms. A bag of lichen that I am afraid to touch but will come in handy for bushes later on. An air brush that I have no idea how to use. and finally a Hornby Select controller. Which I find far superior to the Dynamis. The dial gives a lot more control to acceleration and speed and the trains seem to be running a lot smoother with it. Slower crawling speeds, less jerkiness, etc, but that could be down to a problem with my Dynamis as it was on its way out for quite a while. Very happy with it. After collecting dust with my knees I took a trip to Hattons. Normal length easi-shunt couplings. Uncoupling magnets. and some buffer stops. After popping the couplings in to the 27 and its coaches I fitted a magnet to the platform line. That was around 4pm. I have only just finished playing to write this. Lots of fun! Here are a couple of videos to show the more basic operations on the layout. Apologies for the low quality, budget phone in low lighting... 27032 arrives with some VBAs and shunts them in to the (invisible) goods shed. (Dynamis) ​Market day! 27032 arrives in the morning with a train of three MK1 coaches. Detaches, shunts forward, runs around its train and departs back down the line towards the market town. 1 hour later a two car BR blue class 108 comes to the aid of the few that missed the early morning train to market. A few hours later a second 108 arrives, this time BR blue & grey. (Select) In between these few runs there will be freight coming and going. Now that things are moving I can really see how far I've come with the layout. It may be basic but it is certainly keeping my amused. A few more magnets to fit tomorrow and convert some goods to easi-shunt and then it's time for scenery. Cheers for now. Mike.

Playing around with the class 27 tonight and ended up butchering its snow ploughs so I could fit them. The ploughs cannot be fitted if couplings are on both end, as mine are, as they slot in to the NEM pockets on the loco bogie. I hacked through the moulding behind each of the side ploughs, filed them down flat and glued them ( carefully! ) on to the side of the coupling block. ( Again, the pull out bogies are genius! The loco was placed a scale mile away from the glue ) At first I thought they looked a bit too big and high up but a quick Google search put those doubts to rest... Mine are obviously too small... While I was at it I had a mess around with the easi-shunt couplings that came with it ( lost a spring off one on day one ) and started to wonder if they could be fitted to my goods stock, which don't have NEM pockets. Dapol do make a conversion kit which involves slicing off the standard coupling pocket entirely... no thanks. I did manage to fit an easi-shunt coupling to a VGA though by filing two grooves in to the shank of the coupling and sliding it in to the standard coupling mount, gauging the height by eye using the 27 and then applying a dab of glue. Despite it having no spring to keep it locked it actually stayed coupled while I ran it behind the 27 a few times. I did the same with a VBA, only with a fake coupling, not really sure what they are for, and even that worked so I assume the easi-shunt couplings will work too. Hopefully if all goes well, fighting with Rapido's and knocking over entire trains will be a thing of the past That's all for now. Mike.

Soldering finished and wiring almost done. Temporarily at the moment. Managed to get my Dynamis to work for just over five minutes, a new record! and grabbed the nearest potato and started recording. Now I know it all works I'll be going on the hunt for a new controller and then scenery will be getting done. Mike.

'ello all. It's been a while! Not really an update but work has finally restarted on the shelf after five months of collecting dust Had a nice clean up and started tinkering. Extended a siding and cleaned the stock. A pair of 108s wait for the off while 27032 waits for the road to leave with its goods. The shunter waits for the 27 to clear the way so it can continue its duties for the day. A Ford van, probably carrying spare parts for a local dealership, and three vans wait to be shunted from the siding in to the newly extended line, which will one day have a goods shed built over it. Soldering droppers still needs to be finished, then wiring. A plasticard back scene will be made. The station will be next and then finally ballast and scenery. I'm going back to basics and not installing point motors, instead having manual, hand operated points. Going through the hassle of fitting and wiring motors isn't really worth it on a 7" wide layout Well that's it for now. Hopefully the next pictures will contain much more scenery and far less bare wood. Mike.

Thanks Taking a few steps back today and drilling holes for point motors. Regretting not doing it in the first place

Been messing around with some of the card kits I have and have come up with a platform style I quite like..

Hi all. I've been working on the station platform after finding some Balsa hidden away in a box full of model boat stuff which turned out to be perfect for the platform. Here are some pics... Not the best quality though as I was losing the light.. Note the leap of faith between loco and coach .. The soft Balsa allowed me to have a nice soft slope on each end.. Also found plenty of card kits hidden away from a previous layout that were never used which will be used for the platform tops.. I still need to finish the soldering and wiring and filling in and painting the back scene before I can get the platforms finished though. I've also made plans to turn the layout into a box with a hinged top, mainly to keep dust off, possibly with lights in to illuminate the layout and a perspex front

Looks brilliant, love the 37. Glad I found you on here, I've been following you for a quite while on Youtube Mike.

Soldering time! I've been putting in droppers and soldering them to the track and thankfully nothing has been melted! I've been focusing on the fiddle yard so I can get that working and put up the last of the back scene. Here are some droppers... And here is some solder... I believe this was my first time soldering... Be nice And finally 27032 on test duties... Now that the fiddle yard is working I will be finishing the back scene and getting it painted. That's all for now.

Right well a bit of a bitter-sweet moment here... I was having a mess around with the 27 - the pull out bogies are genius! - and one of the wires from the head/tail lamp pcb on one end simply popped off its solder So the picture above is the last time anyone will see tail lamps on that end of the loco! The sweet part is that I cannot stand seeing locos running with their tail lamps on when they have a train and until tail lamps become a function (hint hint!!) I prefer to either mask them up or disconnect them. The sweetest part is it wasn't the head lamp wire

New Stock! I found these two VGA speedlinks online and couldn't resist. I ordered them in the early hours yesterday and they arrived this morning! I wasn't sure about the factory weathering but once I opened them I fell in love with them. This brought on a Hattons run... Most importantly this little beauty... I love the head lights on it... With all the new stock today my BR Blue era fiddle yard is at maximum capacity... The VGAs and VBAs won't be on the layout all at once, unless I mix and match the rakes, and most of the time they will be parked in the terminal siding which gives me more than enough room to use the fiddle yard. Just a few more locos and a third coach, which aren't in stock yet, and my BR Blue era collection will be complete!

Thanks Graham. I made sure each line has power running through it. I was just concerned that something silly was not quite right. All the turnouts are electrofrog. Forgot to mention that. Cheers. Mike.

I've decided to plan ahead and draw out where I need to solder droppers to my track. Can someone check that this is ok? I am a little too unsure to get the soldering iron out and start melting things yet Red and Black dots are wires and Grey dots are insulating joiners. This has to be wired for DCC use. Thanks. Mike

Thanks Steve. I am pleased with the VBAs, the detail on them is very good but the couplings are a weak spot. They are in need of NEM conversions then I can close-couple them too. Cheers, Mike.

Thanks Graham, I'm glad you like it. Hopefully once I get the track wired up I can get some scenery done so there will be less pictures of bare wood and actually something to look at Cheers, Mike.

Lots of hammering, banging and swearing today. I've been laying track and got it ready for wiring up. Station and terminal head shunt New point layout. I find this slight alteration has freed up the track work a bit and made it a bit more interesting. It looked like I had a fiddle yard throat in the scenic area I've also got rid of the shunter's siding as it just took up space and looked too cluttered. I'm sure the driver won't mind parking it at the very end of the head shunt and walking a few yards to the terminal Fiddle yard and terminal sidings. I've decided to take the freight terminal right up to the wall to give a couple more inches of scenery around the middle of the layout. Finally the two head shunts. The upper is just long enough to allow a 37 or 47 to run around a very short hauled service. The lower is the head shunt to the freight terminal. I've curved this around to give an impression that it was once a loop and connected back up to the the branch line off scene. Next step is soldering on some wires and then I can finally get the rest of the back scene on and painted. I have to find a new DCC controller as I set up a small test track last night to make sure my DMUs still work only to have my Dynamis take a fit on me. It had fresh batteries in it and started selecting everything in its memory and making the speeds go mad. I tried a factory reset, which fixed it for about 20 seconds then the same thing. I think the 4-way trigger has had it I think there is a Hornby Select in the loft so that will do for such a small layout and I prefer the dial control. I never liked the Dynamis anyway