Zomboid

Some more stuff worth reporting this weekend. Tracks are glued down, and I've soldered the droppers onto the rails, though not actually connected it up underneath. I'm just croc-clipping onto those wires rather than the rails... I also managed to mangle one of the rails with the drill whilst making the holes, but just so that there's a bit of a drop in it. After some testing it doesn't actually interfere with operations, so I'm just going to live with it, rather than try to rip the track up now it's glued down. I exercised my wallet a bit to get a set of 3 Accurail SP boxcars (charming silver things), and had a £50 "browse" around Model Junction, where I bought some non-magnetic axles, amongst other things (a couple of wagon kits, and the pikestuff versatile loading platform, to go on the front short spur. Still need to de-magnetise the weights and screws, but the wagons are so much better behaved on the non-magnetic axles). So I now have enough wagons to do a proper inglenook game. So I had a go, and I have to say it tied me in knots, but the (mostly) hands-off switching is a revelation after what I remember of tension lock couplers. I had to cheat by leaving a car on the points between the two shorter sidings, and even then it took me a good half hour to assemble the train I was trying to... Here's pictorial proof that I'm using old train tickets as my "randomiser". And control is from an up-to-the-minute Hornby R914 transformer... Some kind of warehouse will go where the geep box is right now. I've also made a little "workshop" track using some offcuts. Intention being to ballast it and get that all wrong before glueing my turnouts into one position. My Soo Line reefer, which I've broken bits off twice today, is currently in for attention.. Must be more careful. All stock now in use has proper kadees, though the blue GN one box needs some fettling to get them to the same height as everything else. Need to sort out point control somehow, but I'm not sure I can avoid scenery for much longer...

Awful when that happens, isn't it? Model junction is pretty local to me, too. Should go for a "browse" sometime...

I'd love to see a southern pacific cab forward running tender first. Apparently they were built in response to the train crews trying to get their locos running tender first to avoid asphyxiation in the long tunnels and snowsheds on the sp route. I imagine there would have been some huge locos on huge trains running tender first...

Liking it. The idea of not having a run round seems odd to me, but I guess switching all the industries in one go is going to be impossible due to train length constraints anyhow.

Another very minor update; I've now glued the track down, with an uncoupling magnet on the headshunt, and spent a good half hour playing testing by shuffling wagons around aimlessly. Conclusions: metal axles are a bloody nuisance, the Athearn geep runs much, much better than the Bachmann S4, and the Athearn rip-off kadees are a real let down, probably not even supposed to be magnetic (the fitting on the geep is awful too, way too high, I haven't yet had the guts to try dismantling it to put proper kadees in yet, and I doubt my #148s are going to do the job). I think I'm going to have to get some non-magnetic ballast weights and truck-attaching screws, as well, since self-propelled boxcars could get irritating. I've also discovered that the pins on my extended length peco motors aren't quite long enough to reach through my very generous baseboard and cork combo deal. Anyone with a suggestion on how to extend them yet further is welcome to make it, or I'll just try improvising something. Droppers next, so I get move on from the crocodile clips on the end of the headshunt to something a bit more "professional" looking. At least if you ignore the quality of my soldering.

Have to say I'm impressed with the rate at which you're creating buildings. You'll have a convincing urban sprawl built whilst I'm still planning my first warehouse

The Greys - Devin Townsend

I'd say if you feel you need a run round, put one in. It'll definitely be a feature of what I hope to build if I find myself blessed with sufficient space.

I caught BCB at railex, a very impressive piece of work it is, too. In fact the quality of show in general was quite something.

No photos this time, but the momentous news from today is that Southern Pacific Alco S2 1466 (or is it an S4? the current Bachmann one...) has moved under it's own power on the ZSRR for the first time. The Geep is on shed at the moment, and will be coming out to play at a later date when I can be bothered... erm... open the shed door and re-rail the thing...? My old Hornby controller, when connected to a multimeter, shows that it outputs about 15v DC through a good 60% of the range on the pot, so fine control leaves something to be desired, but unless it burns my house down it should do the job until I buy some chips and go DCC. Exciting times

How is that not an "up to date switcher"? Looks to fulfill the brief pretty comprehensively to me.

Have to say, I'm falling for O scale, thanks to this kind of thing. At some future point, when I have more than 5 feet to play with...

Some more "progress". I've stuck the cork down to the "baseboard", and used drawing pins to hold the track in place. Whilst testing spur length, it was necessary to put everything on the layout... The green bits are masking tape over the edges and joins in the cork, as I don't want it disintegrating particularly. The whole lot will have to come a little towards the camera, as the places where the switcher is sitting will just about hold 2x 40', but the headshunt has space to spare with the geep +2, so to make it a bit easier to operate i'll shuffle it along... Next thing I guess will be some "testing", if my old Hornby controller still works...

Barnham has island platforms accessed via a subway, as is Portsmouth & Southsea high level. Micheldever too, though that's only happened since electrification I think. Plenty of examples with the platforms on the outside as well, though. So anything would be believable.

That was kind of the idea - get some relatively cheap & cheerful stuff, and learn how to weather and detail on that rather than on anything new & expensive. With the added bonus of getting me going without spending a small fortune. Wanna get some kits next, that looks like fun. Though the boxcars, being simple beasts anyhow, don't look *all that* challenging...

So is that a model or some real plants? Seriously.

They're not exact the epitome of finescale, but they'll do the job for now. They're cheap and the right size, and locos aside my budget has to go on the basics right now. Things like a controller and a soldering iron and all the tools that I don't own yet... Various lairy colours will help with the inglenook game as well. I'll be very pleased if I can get anywhere near the quality in the pic you posted.

It would have been "hilarious". Never mind. The moment's passed now.

A selection of things to put on the bridge http://www.chrispcollectibles.com/mycollection/cmw/

We have some more news on the ZSRR... I've spent some more money, on an Athearn GP60, enough plain track to actually complete the layout and the cork to sit between the action and the wardrobe door. Got a couple more wagons in the post at the moment too. It'll be a bit of a mishmash of cars, because 40' cars are proving quite hard to find. Haven't managed to get an SP one yet! Very pleased with the loco again, as it's an RTR thing, which I was expecting to be a bit trainset, but it's actually got loads of details going on. They might all be wrong, but I like it, particularly the DRGW writing. My phone camera is pretty poor, so excuse the quality of the picture. Next thing will be to stick the cork down and get the track alignment sorted out.

If you mirror the whole thing they become trailing connections. Or you could just have right hand running...

There's no reason why you should pay any attention to me (as I've got nothing more than a wardrobe door with some pencil lines on right now), but I would suggest less track. Both your plans have pretty much every square inch having track in it, which leaves no space for scenery. Less siding space will also give you more to think about when operating it. I'd recommend losing one of the top sidings on your second plan, and using the space for whatever loading/unloading you might imagine would be going on at that facility.

Inspiring. You've got that urban decay thing right down. The unmaintained-looking track is particularly impressive.

Brian, The possible issue I see with the yellow section is that you have to have it switched on to run a train between the two brown parts. Therefore you can't park a loco in the yellow section if you ever want to make that move. By putting the points on one or other of the brown bits and then just the one set of points and 2 sidings on yellow you can then make the move. Hope I've explained that clearly...

To be honest, the thought of anything that might interfere with the operation of the switches makes me nervous. But that's a problem for the future, definitely like the idea.