bensanchez43310

Just found this thread, excellent stuff. Has anyone put together a 377/378 in N? Was it an easy build/ what chassis/motor did you use.

Ben

Quite surprised that there is a second model entering the market, seems to have motorised pantographs, awfully fine detailing and their take on a stay alive unit? a combo of accurascale and djm will cover all the numbers I would eventually like anyways...

The high speed Talgo S-102 by Electrotren has finally arrived. I really do like this and find it very iconic. How appropriate it will look crawling through the station is something I will worry about on another day...

 

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As feared, there is a problem that has to be fixed. Platform clearance is extremely tight which is my fault entirely - I really should have left an extra couple of mm. In the case of the S-102, a couple of mm might not have been enough. If anyone remembers, the height of the main platform changes and the overhang of this unit "rides up" in one direction. In the other direction, it pretty much rubs along the platform edge which simply isn't good enough. Even though the curve is slight, I'm going to have to rebuild the main platform a little further back and keep it at one constant height. That will be the next job, then...

 

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Having made the decision a while back to definitely add overhead wires, some new stock has appeared in the form of EMUs which will be the everyday "normal" for this layout.

 

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I also managed to pick up a 3-car Class 592 DMU by Electrotren which has been out of production in this livery for years. I managed to find a new one in stock in a model shop in Athens of all places. Dating from (I think) 2009 it was heavily discounted and proved a bit of a bargain. I'd never really thought of Cap Llevant as a junction station, but I can imagine the DMU laying over in the loop platform before heading back to some imaginary non-electrified destination.

 

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Good fleet there, all looks great, I must get my hands on an s102...

keep it up, ben

oh god sorry to hear that.  I still have nightmares about school exams and i'm 42 now.  only thing I can say is that hard work at school / university paid off and working life is way less hours / stressful than education and you get paid for it.  something to look forward to in a few years!

 

M

haha yeah it has its ups and downs, but the more work I do now the more monies I will have for the hobby in theory. Back to the topic, is it worth buying a rake of IDA's? its tough deciding between Bachmann multifrets and these for the next container rake.

Ben

Been playing around and come up with another plan which I really like. It has all the elements I'm after although I do worry I've fallen into the trap of trying to cram as much track into the space available again. If it works out as per the plan it would give me the space I want for the tmd, ballast loading area as well as some space for offices etc.

I had originally put a 3 way point for the tmd and siding but they are quite pricey and assuming I am able to re-use my current track I won't need to purchase too much new track.

 

As always opinions are greatly received.

Both looks good, just depends what layout gives you more play value and interaction with the layout itself, nice to see the progress, looks great.

Ben

Keen to see where this leads

ben

a back-to back gauge will do it but so will a pair of Vernier calipers which you can get for a few pounds and will find other uses too.  there is a bit of debate around exactly what setting should be for OO but on some of mine they were out by miles and getting them close to 16.2 - 16.4 mm (i think... this was a while ago and all my stuff in storage at mo) got them running well.

M

Back to back for OO is usually in the 14.something range. I use 14.5 for Peck code75

 

Cheers

Mick

Cheers both, I will get out the Vernier caliper when I get a break from a levels

ben

Ben I had one megafret that continuously derailed - resetting wheel back-to-backs resolved.  If I recall correctly they are not easy to adjust as they aren't like normal wheels and I seem to recall I destroyed at least one wheelset in the process... however on one of my wagons the B2B was way out and that seemed to be the cause of derailing.  I never got this far with debugging IDAs but could be same simple issue (or other common problem - coupler action).

M

Hey Matt, do I need a B2B gauge sorta thing to fix this issue or is there other ways.

Ben

Quick Question, how do your megafrets run now you have made all the mods to them?  

The same sort of issues plague my megafret rake, anyone found a solution to the issue on either wagon?

Ben

Evening James, Did you ever finish the transfesa/ford train, was after more details as I may have a stab at it myself...

Ben.

Had tpmwait in with mam for her annual medical MOT and instead of watching needless QVC programmes ( other shopping channels available) took aölong the MPV and now lightly weathered ready for Epsom

looks great, what day is the epsom show, I will pop down after work...

Troutons has a new shutter. Also my retirement gift from my work mates. I like the dark blue but all references to NCB will have to go and will become a little more careworn before hopefully it's first appearance at Chelmsford. It appears Troutons is going 'south" to Epsom, probably in 2018.

Ooooh Epsom, cant wait to have troutons within 20 mins of me...

Cheers, Ben. I was going to ask for recommendations for stock at some point. There's a nice Network Rail 08 on sale at my local model shop that I was tempted by yesterday so was thinking about starting with that and a few wagons.

 

My plan for the MR yard is to have it as an engineer's yard similar to the one North of Durham station. It's a simple, relatively short, one-siding yard and like you said can welcome an array of stock. The siding and fiddle yard can (on paper) take a loco and three MK2 coaches so I was thinking about getting/making some test coaches as I've seen a few three-rake test coach trains in prototype. I was thinking about putting in a loading siding to the top left of the layout too and have a couple of forklifts parked up. My backstory for the yard is that it is part of what used to be a large WRD so there are remnants of this time dotted about the site. Again, I'm not sure if this would be seen in prototype, but my view is if it makes the NR engineer's lives easier then they would keep it rather than demolish it.

Well you built it so you can include what you want. Regarding test trains I have seen smaller rakes, now I'm not to sure but I think some trains run with one or two coaches on calibration runs, not entirely sure though. A nice NR 08 would suit btw!

Ben

Fully recommend a Dapol 68 or Bachmann 47...I was wondering if because it is a conjoined DRS and NR owned area, maybe use the top most siding as something more for a virtual quarry or small engineers yard to add interest, allows host of wagons and locos, have you already though of this or do you have other scenic planned here?

DRS locos are nice, you could say as I'm in London I get abit of them all with ews and db, colas, freightliner, drs and then the odd dc rail and the odd gbrf appearance...

Ben

Hi Ben,

 

believe it or not, this is actually a reduced version as the previous had two single-point turnouts! The loop at the bottom serves as a runaround/headshunt for the class 08s when shunting stock into their respective sidings. I wanted there to be the opportunity to run locos simultaneously so included the runaround at the top too so that a train can leave siding 1 as a new one enters siding 2. Is there an alternative you would suggest?

Cant suggest an alternative, the trackplan is actually very clever in that respect I didn't see it like that.

Ben

Although its abit late on i do have some shots from hayes and harlington, looking at my photos from about London, they do seem to be mixed in with other workings, some are mixed in with the crawley and purley portions to acton and onwards to merehead or whatley, some going out to Dagenham dock.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/trainsbysanchez/34214723034/in/datetaken-public/ one shot with what I believe the HOA's are.

Good and I'm good too thanks.

 

Track is a right mixed bag. Years ago when I had my first layout all of the track was Hornby but now I use Hornby, Bachmann and Peco track. All of the points are now Bachmann or Peco. Straight track is a mixture of Hornby and Bachmann. The curved track is mostly Hornby I think.

 

The Megafrets are a bit hit and miss. Sometimes their will be no derailing and others their will. I think they derail if the loco/s have mucky wheels. I now try and run these with locos that have just had their wheels cleaned. I think the bad conductivity with the train wheels and track can cause jerking and jolting which derails them. I also play as safe as possible with the Megafrets by letting them run around the outer circuits of track where the yard is. This significantly lessens the amount of points that they go over and lessens derailing.

Yeah I found this aswell, just wanted to see if you had any similar problems...

Any station on the GOBLIN line also works really, crouch hill springing to mind, great freight and the 172 DMU can be reproduced in N using Electra overlays, I believe he makes them?

]

Ben

The 4x2 should work easily, search up sarum town by shanks522 of this forum, you can see his 4x2 n gauge layout for some inspiration. I'm thinking a station like Kensal rise off the top of my head would possibly work nicely, as it is on a curve already...

Ben

Hi Ben,

 

Hope your ok?

 

The first photo which was the test photo is the entrance to the depot area. This has changed slightly since this photo was taken. The small siding close to the camera with the buffer on is now a full siding which goes down the side of the depot building. This siding can now hold eight or nine locos as opposed to two. I will show the developments and changes as we go along.

Ahhh I see, yeah I'm alright thanks yourself mate?, what track do you use and how to the megafrets run on them?

Ben

Looks great, however, i do question what the 3 way point is as it seens to connect what is already connected and reduces siding space...

Ben

Is that of what will be the scenic side of the board or is this the fiddle yard area?