mk1gtstu

Hi all, time for another progress update. I've been finishing off building some of the security fencing, making & adding some more water pipes..

View of the colliery buildings

I've been back at scratch building some more buildings for the layout.
Small hut made from card & brick papers

Next up I've been scratch building a single road engine shed to go in the fan sidings. Again made from card & brick papers, Etch brass window frames & some plastic 'H' section for the girders. I've done some inside detail using bits from Scalescenes downloads I had & done some weathering on the insides. Also put some LED lighting in there, lamp shades made from bits of old Airfix kits I found in the scrap box.

I've made a roller shutter door for this one I can open & close

That's all for now.

Cheers, Stu

Another job I've made a start on is adding, tufts of grass, shrubs & bushes scattered about in readyness for the static grass stage.

Nice to start adding a bit of colour to it I think.

That's it for now,

Cheers, Stu

Hi all, again, thank you for the kind comments.
 Time for another little update, I've been constructing some more security fencing & adding some gates.

Added a water pipe across the river & some more random odds & ends at the old stone bridge area of the river

And a few more shots of the river
 

That's it for now,

Cheers, Stu

A few more jobs I've been doing, putting up various fences

A big feature of the layout is the river that runs through the middle & almost from one end of the layout to the other. I was a little bit worried about how well it would turn out. I haven't attempted to build a large section of river on a layout before, on my Porthkerry layout there are only small streams & a waterfall.

I wanted this one to look as if it is a fairly fast flowing river. The base is made up of various stones & gravel, I then used Woodland scenics water. Once dried I've used a bit of matt white paint around some of the stones/rocks in the river
Here are a few photos of the results so far...

I have noticed the water has gone a bit milky in places, I have read it sometimes reacts with the PVA glue used to stick down the base gravel & rocks & the cloudyness disappears over time , so hopefully that will happen here soon.



Cheers, Stu

Some crash barriers I've made from some plastic extrusion, painted & fitted in place

A few more photos of my scratchbuild colliery structures, all now glued in place (apart from the removable ones  )
Very pleased with how these have turned out so far.

That's all for the time being,

Cheers, Stu

I had a slight disaster with the backscene, I accidentally touched the backscene with a paintbrush loaded with some brown paint which left a splodge which I couldn't remove   (No photo of this as this was one of the photos lost)

On the plus side I managed to carefully cut out a bit of spare backscene with some trees on I had & glue it over the top to disguise it as best I could, It's turned out a lot better than I'd hoped, the extra bit of hillside gives it more of a 3D effect I think.  
Photo of the result

Here is a view behind the fixed colliery buildings with access to the mainline

Hi all, I've had a bit of a disaster with the laptop recently as the hard drive failed & I lost a load of my photographs so haven't posted on here for a little while. All back up & running now though so I thought i'd do an update with some new photos of the colliery building & structures I've been scratchbuilding for the layout.
 
This collection of buildings, tanks etc fixed on a piece of strong card base reinforced with some wooden strips to stop it bending. This I've made to be removable to have access to the hidden mainline behind for track cleaning & derailments etc

The platform walls for the station halt given a top made of card then painted

Weathered down the colour of the stone bridge a bit

Pleased with how the bridge, track & rails are looking so far

Cheers, Stu

Some more photos of the layout progress so far...

A coat of grey paint for the road & pavement

A second coat of matt black paint done for the siding areas which has improved the look of them I think

3 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

You’ve sort of come up with the solution.  A 37 or any BR loco will not in any case penetrate into the NCB’s yard beyond an exchange siding that it can access directly from the BR running line; it will certainly not get anywhere near the Dros y Bont fan.  This will be worked by a smaller NCB loco, Austerity in the 70s and possibly early 80s, and industrial diesel after that; s/h 03 or O8 are suitable, not sure what small industrials are available in 2mm.  An 08 or pannier are less suitable because of length; every mm will count here!

Cheers, yes sounds like a plan! I had already planned to put an NCB engine shed in the fan sidings, then the remainder of the sidings there can be used as a storage area for internal user NCB wagons & possibly a few BR empty minerals. The class 37's could then pick up & drop off wagons in the main yard. Ideally I would have liked larger sidings & the exchange sidings separate from the main washery area but again lack of space puts a stop to that unfortunately.

As for shunters at the moment I have a heavily weathered Pannier tank, an 04 I did a repaint into NCB colours a while ago for my boxfile layout, also a handful of 08's I could use. I'll have to look into later on once the layout is built what other small industrials I could use as shunters, I think some 3D printed bodyshells are available now which could be used when fitted to a suitable chassis.

Cheers, Stu

On 06/02/2020 at 10:36, Duncan. said:

Hi Stu,

How do the fan of four sidings (going over the river bridge) work? Once you have a loco on the headshunt there isn't any length on the headshunt to hold any wagons, or am I missing something.

Cheers

Duncan

Hi, Yes, you are correct, the headshunt is only long enough to hold a class 37 loco unfortunately due to lack of space on a 4x2 baseboard & as Johnster says the hidden running line behind restricts how long the headshunt can be. But there is just enough space to fit a Pannier tank or shunter plus 1 or 2 mineral wagons in the headshunt so I will be able to shunt some wagons into the fan sidings 1 or 2 at a time. Not ideal really but I couldn't see another way of doing it in the space I have.

Cheers Stu

Time for another update on the progress of the layout.
Some fine sand glued down for the trackway over the bridge

The sidings area here then painted matt black

Cheers, Stu

Hi all, another update. Bridge sides on the mainline now in place.

Girder bridge sides for the sidings in place

Road bridge now in place & the road surface made with Das clay

And finally for now, some landscaping around the stone bridge done

Cheers, Stu

5 hours ago, tomparryharry said:

Looking good, Stu. I think you've caught that long retaining wall to a tee. Shades of Hafodrynys or Blaenavon, perhaps?

 

Nice work, anyways.

 

Cheers,

Ian.

Thank you, Yes elements from those places & also Maerdy Colliery in the Rhondda.

Cheers, Stu

Lastly for now, I've used a photograph of some colliery winding gear which I've stuck onto the backscene. It's the only suitable one I could find for the style of colliery buildings I want & could only use part of it due to there being wagons & track in the photo which I had to cut away. The gaps in between I'm going to infill with some scratchbuild low relief buildings to disguise things as best I can...

Finally for now, put some ballast down on the high level section of track.

Cheers, Stu

I bought a small stone type bridge off ebay to fit against the backscene, I think it will look better to have somewhere for the river to disappear under rather than it going straight into the backscene

View towards the bridge & backscene, still lots to do here scenery wise to finish things off & hide the joins where the backscene meets the bridge etc

A few more photos of the layout. I painted & weathered the road bridge ready for fitting. More plaster & Das clay added around the sidings trackwork & buffer stops added. Also fitted the backscenes in place.

Cheers, Stu

I'll add a few more photos later on & update this thread for those that are interested.

Cheers, Stu

A few more photos. 

The layout is basically an oval of track so I can run a train continuously & colliery exchange sidings in the centre