Midnight-Freight

Well it's been 2 months and things have ground to a halt. Decorating the house has been dominating my time and after deciding that the layout would need a more permanent home I was going to board the loft out and keep it up there. With my house being a relative new build I'm not convinced I won't run into issues with the ceiling sagging (or worse) if I board out some of the loft. I'd be interested to hear what others have done.

So they did. In that case I can probably get away with leaving as is.

Not much been happening recently what with going back to work after the Xmas break and decorating. One thing I have done (and some viewers may want to avert their eyes) is replace the horrendous glazing on the pair of Hornby class 37's I bought a while back. Although they're no Bachmann I like them, especially as they are the weathered EWS liveried version. To say it was a fiddly job would be an understatement but worth the effort I think. I didn't do the cab side windows as this required cutting out the side pillar which I didn't fancy. I'm not sure how those buffers found their way onto the model though as i'm sure the class 37 only ever had oval buffers?

As if I didn't already dream of becoming a freight train driver catching up on these latest pics has re-affirmed that desire even more!

So over the festive period I managed to get a bit of scenic work done. Still more to be added but it's getting there... I'm kinda making it up as I go along although I have an idea in my head of what I want it to look like and it's heading in the right direction. I definitely need to start looking into static grass to add an extra dimension. Just the two pics which show the end board with what is some kind of ballast loading area with a rather crude road crossing. Secondly a view of the whole board with some greenery and a meandering path.

I love the pics of your Hornby MHA's, they look fantastic. I'm currently building up a collection of those along with Bachmann MFA+MEA's and while some are factory weathered some are too new and shiny looking. Whilst I wouldn't try to replicate the level of detail you have I would like to give them a more used appearance, particularly the insides. I wondered if there was a relatively simple way to achieve a look similar to what you have that you could suggest? Keep up the good work.

If you put the pva mix onto dry ballast it won't soak in so well and the ballast will clump together and you'll end up with a bit of a mess so the idea is to spray it with a fine mist of water/washing up liquid to dampen it without dislodging the ballast. I used an eye dropper to spread the pva mix over the ballast. Although the rail tops get wet you shouldn't end up with any glue on them.

Hi, No I just used the common method. Sprinkled the ballast over the tracks then used a soft paint brush to even it out between the tracks. I then used a very small brush to remove ballast from the sleeper tops and neaten up the edges. Sprayed it all over with water and a drop of washing up liquid then soaked it in a watered down pva mix.

So after a Xmas eve trip to the excellent Trains4u in Peterborough I managed to limit myself to just a few bags of turf, foliage and ballast so I can get on with a bit more scenic work over the festive period. I could have got myself into serious financial trouble in there with Hornby 60's & 56's and Bachmann 37's to name but a few that caught my eye. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

What a great thread, loads of useful information for someone like me who is just starting to think about static grass. I was going to start by building a fly-swat one but given I only have small patches here and there to do i'm wondering if just using the balloon method followed by vacuuming once it's dried a bit would suffice? I think i'll have to give it a try...

Great set of pics, love it.

Yeah I think that needs to be done as it does look good. I hadn't planned on going as far as stuff like that but oh well, it's all good fun. May make my own to keep costs down.

Ok time for a bit of an update as had a bit of time to spend on the layout and made some slow progress... First job to finish was cutting out the sections near the board joins and replacing track, ballast and re-painting. This is now done and looks a lot better. Just a couple of pics I took after cutting out the old sections. Next up just an overview of the whole layout (In my bedroom where it all happens) This is how the ballast now looks, i'm quite happy with it: And lastly a pic of how my Hornby class 58 now looks. I've added a bit more detail, painting the side hand rails as well as painting all the grilles black, given the bogies and fuel tanks a light coat of railmatch sleeper grime and removed the couplings. I feel like i'm actually getting somewhere now and have begun thinking about the scenic side of things, what there is of it anyway, I did cram quite a lot of track into a small space!

Thanks! I have to admit even on my small layout the ballasting was incredibly tedious. I would definitely recommend practising on some old track. I found it pretty straight forward but the one thing I would say is take your time and if you're not in the mood just walk away and come back when you are. I know the Hornby cl58 is pretty poor by today's standards but it was my first loco as a kid and I love them. I've improved it a bit more recently so i'll add a couple of pics soon. I've never seen one in the metal so that would be amazing. Not sure what state the one owned by the cl58 group is in now...

Great stuff. I'd like to take my son to see a few real freight trains but don't think he's really interested and when we have been to a couple of diesel galas he doesn't like the noise!! Admittedly the first time we were standing right next to a pair of class 20's as they pulled away with a train...

I really, really like this layout. I love how your son is enjoying it with you. I haven't yet managed to get my 7 year old interested, although mine is just an end-to-end affair so not as exciting. I should follow your example and move into the loft where there is more room but after popping my head up there the other day I came to the conclusion it would either be too hot, too cold and full of huge spiders, not to mention needing boarding out. Will follow with interest.

Where do you pick up these bargain locos...??

Ok so this being my first proper(ish) layout it's a bit of a learning curve and although I don't expect it to be anywhere near the level of most on here I want it to be something I am happy with. With that in mind I had gone back and given the ballast and track a coat of sleeper grime as a base colour with a view to adding a bit more detail once I've experimented a bit more with other colours. I have started adding a little detail here and there but nothing of much note. One thing I was never happy with was the track joins between boards. Initially I had cut the track about half inch short on adjoining boards and was going to use small fillets to bridge the gap. In reality trying to line up 4 or 5 fillet pieces while setting up was near impossible so as I had already wired up the track rather than removing and re-doing the track I just cut small pieces to extend where I had cut the track short at the end of the boards. This didn't look great but I hoped once ballasted etc it would look ok but I kept wishing I had done it properly. So i've now decided to chop out the end pieces and add in some new track which will be a bit of a pain but given how much ballasting etc I've already done it shouldn't be a massive ordeal and should look much better. Hopefully then I can start making some more significant progress with adding scenery etc..

What I wouldn't give to be sat in that seat and let loose on the controls...

Well after getting a bit frustrated with how things were going I turned my attention to improving the look of the ballast. I had some matt brown paint lying around so thought i'd try painting the ballast in a small, inconspicuous spot. I thought it looked ok so quickly got carried away and now this is happening: It's very close to the colour I wanted to achieve and kinda makes me wish i'd used brown ballast in the first place but I quite like the grey showing through here and there. Definitely an improvement I think.

Excellent stuff, looks great. Can I ask what method you use for the concrete areas?

I need to build some legs for the layout to get it off the ground so will start thinking about that. Although not great quality pics the ballast looks awful in them. Looks slightly better in real life but wish i'd spent more time looking for a colour I was happy with. Will play around with different colour washes to see if I can tone it down to a look i'm happy with. I'm thoroughly glad to get the 2 most tedious and time consuming jobs out of the way (wiring and ballasting) and hopefully now it will all become a bit more interesting.

With the majority of the ballasting done and just a few bits to touch up I couldn't resist trying out my recent purchase of a pair of Hornby EWS class 37's. Gave the track a quick clean with a track rubber and set it up. Apart from a few minor alignment issues no problems at all, no dead areas on the points from glue or ballast which was a relief. The locos were soon trundling happily back and forth and ran amazingly smoothly at low speed, even with my cheapo Hornby grey box controller. A couple of dodgy pics:

Ok it wont let me link to the item but it's the SE-13 flush glaze kit.

Ok, it's been a while since I last posted anything but have been working slowly on the ballasting which is nearly finished. I just need to finish ballasting the last few points and touch up any areas that need it. I'm starting to think about how best to weather and tone down the ballast as it doesn't look great at the moment. I gave the track a covering of Railmatch sleeper grime before ballasting. I have used Woodland scenics fine grey, kinda wish I had mixed in some medium to give it a bit more texture but oh well. I had read about watering down some acrylic rusty colour paint and washing over the ballast with that which seems like a good/easy idea. Has anyone tried this and got any results they can show me? Also any suggestions as to which colour would give that rusty/dusty effect normally seen in the real world? Also I acquired a rather nice pair of Hornby class 37 EWS locos, the pack with one powered and one dummy. They do look nice apart from the usual shortcomings of the Hornby class 37 and i'm not sure whether to keep original or make a few improvements. The one thing I don't think I can live with is the glazing (what were Hornby thinking!?) I have seen these: http://www.petersspares.com/flushglaze-windows-se13-Hornby-class-37-diesel-oo-gauge.ir Has anyone tried these? Was also thinking of just using some clear plastic blister packaging material to make my own glazing (I have done this in the past with ok results) Any other suggestions of easy improvements that can be made? I will try to add a few piccies later :-)