Freight Connection

Loco lighting has come on so much in this scale, looks good... Sound just brings a whole new dimension too, won't be surprised the day I see a coach door open with DCC. Seriously though Graham thanks for the updates as always. Different viewing angles make things more interesting, especially as detail progresses. Regards - Steve

Have got most of the lower level tracks in on the first board, the sharp curves will eventually sit under a bridge and the station roof... Code 80 again. Was happy with the paint and ballast from earlier on in the thread, and intend to repeat. EWS is a little bit late for my chosen period, but a few years ago I followed a really nice layout build called Old Warren and that had these tankers on it... That gave me the confidence to convert my 1980s Farish tankers ( Remember those wheels..) I never ran those 6 tankers much because they looked so toy like. Home made transfers, and its easier to take weathering washes and powders to my own repaints than to a new model. Any way I dug them back out after the recent release of the Revolution models, and have picked up 4 more Farish ones to repaint now I room for a longer rake. I don't have any EWS locos, and so the Load Haul will have to do. Obviously a poor imitation of the stunning Revolution TEAs , but a step up from the original shiny red Total tankers they started out as... Limitations with an Inkjet and difficult to match transfer background colour against the paint, so I just went for white and dirtied the models up. The transfers relative thickness tends to catch paint and washes on the edges, but they turned out reasonable... Thanks for looking - Steve

Very nice Stephen The value bags are handy to fill the gaps between the Shapeways and the Oxfords etc, and like yours are good for altering. I shaved back some of the flash around the door posts on the white ones and put some homemade transfers on and they looked like decent police cars. The roof transfer with the ident number etc even had the blue light bar printed on, rather than with Plasticard. I think? You did some transfers on a delivery van some time ago, it was that van and the N gauge Ring Road layout (bmthtrains) that made me have a go at my own. Thanks for the updates, always interesting.. Steve

Hello to all ... Have finally got round to having something to actually update. The contract I was on at work was always going to finish at Christmas, and so with the next job starting mid Feb, this period was always going to be a chance to get some work done on the layout. All sorts of layouts on the Forum of different scales and eras have continued to give me inspiration during the last 6 months. How can you not be impressed with a Tormouth signalman that moves in his box ? The other major factor was the balance between pastimes and family life. The layout currently sits in the front room, the house was bought with that room in mind to house a large Meccano collection, Guitars, and my boxed up N gauge stock. I started to think of moving it either into the garage or the spare bedroom. Despite the smaller space, the spare bedroom seemed more appealing. So that's the point i'm up to. Keep a guitar or two should the interest arise again and rationalise the Meccano collection. I want to use the spare time I do get more constructively. IE modelling. I stripped the layout of reusable points, solenoids and track with an L shape in mind and decent open top scenic section. I was also aware I'd crammed a lot in the first time, was happy with that but the container yard down the front edge left me little scenic space. Those straight lines had wiped out the flow of the layout as well. The first two boards don't differ too much from the original plan. Oval extended to sort of folded figure of 8... However, converting the Garage seemed less appealing as time went on. So the Scenic section has to be shortened and eventually come back round. As shown.... New boards 1 and 2 with provision ready for board 3.... The original intention was to run my 80s & early 90s stock in a reasonably believable fictitious N/W come WCML setting, and that hasn't changed. Have kept away from ultra tight curves again, and I'm aiming to cross all joins at right angles. Keep the gradients gentle. To keep the elect connectors down i'm keeping point panels etc local to each board, just jumping the 12 DC 16 AC and a few section switches across boards ( And I'm supposed to be an electrician ) Oh and apparently the NSE sign can't stay in what will become the living room . Something to do with wallpaper... Seriously, the room has become a dumping ground at times, desperately trying to get organised and improve my modelling. Regards - Steve

Very neat and square Steve Can I ask, how you stick clear sheet to Plasticard? I've had the odd window come out over the years, have left bigger windows loose inside frames to stop the glue misting up the clear sheet etc... Have tried liquid poly, and UHU so far, or do I have to accept they are just fragile? Probably a question for another part of the Forum, but wanted to say good luck with Tanners Hill, it's one of those layouts I look back at for detailing ideas / inspiration Regards - Steve

Currently on the I-Player in the UK until tomorrow afternoon, just search " North West Tonight " (21 minutes in ) The clip will no doubt appear elsewhere. Err, Stunning... Always a joy to see Steve

Really great work, Scenery looking excellent, I know the bridges are much earlier work in this thread, but they look so right. The scenery blends them in well. Nice touch with the bus repaint. Gone are the days of a windowless P & D Marsh Leyland National on many N gauge bridges ( And mine) Great update. Good Luck with the run up to the show Regards - Stephen

Stunning Simon... Superb setting, masts look great. I always look forward to these updates Regards - Stephen

Can only echo the above comments. Superb modelling in any gauge or scale, never mind N. Simply stunning. Regards - Stephen

Superb setting Simon... The variation in the ballast is impressive, as is the detail and scale look of the headspan. Agree with all the above, and always look forward to the updates. Stephen

Very neat Graham. One of the first layouts I built had a top level terminus down to a reverse loop / oval, on the same size board. But with so little scope ( One loop and back and no storage ) I lost interest quickly. My platform ran down the back edge, so only room really for the new Farish 101 at the time. This has plenty going on below and a nice platform length thanks to the diagonal by the look of it, the walls definitely give it a ' Son of Smithdown ' look. Some good coaching stock moves possible looking again at the track plan. My layout had been described in a special ( I think) and most of the mag was devoted to the build. I think there may have been a N gauge version in the same mag as I remember the Minitrix hoppers in a pic. Steve

Thanks Mark, I should have explained in the text, I knew that I didn't have enough singles and didn't want to cut a second vehicle up. That was also the reason I didn't use two Tomytec vehicles, but on reflection the Wikings won't see any use again, so watch this space... Many thanks - Steve

As a small side project that can be completed relatively quickly I've been meaning to tackle this one for some time now. In an effort to vary the vehicles on the layout I decided to have a go at an Eight Wheel Tipper. An article from Model Rail June 2012 was the inspiration. The cab is from from a Tomytec rigid and the wheels from a Wiking lorry. At 160 scale the Wiking looks well out of place next to Tomytec and Oxford diecast, but the wheels sizes are almost identical. The holes in the cab roof held the original wind deflector, these will be covered with some warning lights. The fuel tanks came from Pola crates. Still some details to fit, such as the ladder and cover roll arms etc... Not sure on the livery yet, but I'd like to put some homemade transfers down the sides. The same article also covered flat trailers, and one of these is also on the "To Do" list. Thanks for looking... Steve

So much to admire about this layout, love the Youtube updates and tutorials and have followed for a while now... Just superb Regards - Steve

Thanks for that Neal, Two layers of balsa ( 16th of an inch I think) The first comes up to sleeper height, the second then covers the sleepers. Really well stuck down, was going to use card but the balsa thickness was ideal. Primed and gently sanded to hide the grain and keep just below rail height. I scribed in the expansion joints and painted the whole thing in Tamiya XF-55, weathered around the joints with pencil and washes then dry brushed Humbrol 147 over the whole lot. In truth the expansion joints are a little over scale but it looks ok. I did a few test patches from various ideas on here and in the magazines and settled on this. The base to the front of the pic got a final weathering with pencil smudges. I think I'll be using scalescenes downloads in some parts of the layout, as I'm trying to get a varied look to the whole thing. I was thinking of Polyfilla or a Plaster PVA type mix for the container yard, but will now probably stick with balsa.... I still haven't run anything properly on these bases yet, but the best advice I picked up on is to keep just below rail height, so that whatever base you use doesn't get scrubbed off with track cleaning. Regards - Steve

Hello to all... Just a few small updates, work on the layout has took a hit due to the job and some gardening. Determined to keep on through the summer, even if only in small chunks. Have continued with the road lining, edge lines still required on one side... These tunnel mouths won't really be visible once the dual carriageway is fixed down and modern concrete supports fitted. Hoping they just help hide the rest of the curve. The second hard standing area is now in, slightly different shade to the first. Apologies for the graffiti, just ideas pencilled in for ground cover etc. A few droppers still to go in prior to ballasting. The Peco shed still to be replaced with another scratchbuilt effort. Thanks for looking - Steve

Excellent, really starting to take shape now. Look forward to more vids. Steve

Many thanks for the comment... A small container yard was my main goal and this was the easiest place to put it. As soon as I started track laying, the parallel tracks along the front baseboard edge did seem to undo the flow I'd managed to the rest of the plan. It was tempting to keep adding track and as you have said, I started to realise the balance with the scenery would suffer. If I can complete the layout there is a plan to extend it to a central operating well and so the other sides wont need to be as track heavy. I liked the idea of the yard to the rear with container stacks forming the background, but this gave me a little more room to get a reasonable amount of wagons in. Steve

Added road markings and a grass verge tonight. Barriers still to be painted and possibly road edge lines if I can get them thin enough. The roadbed is still removable at this point to allow close up work on it and bridge supports to be fitted. A fence and hedges will line the field, the other side will get a wall. Worked from a street view picture of a typical dual carriageway for the white line length and spacings. Didn't notice the jockey wheels on the trailer until I took the pic, and they don't hinge Also changed the layout title slightly, will drop the oval when I can come up with a North West sounding town. When I drew up the plan on Anyrail I originally saved it as Bridge Rd. Steve

Grahame, Thank you for that.... Like others I think the more layouts you build (Or Start in my case...) at least improve your modelling. I cant see why this one wont progress, it's not too big so I haven't become disheartened like before. I would also urge any newcomers to pick up a copy of your book, it certainly got me to look more closely at detail.... The cover alone should inspire. Many Thanks - Steve

Hi Kosta, Thanks for the kind comment. The curve they are on isn't too harsh and so they didn't need too much persuasion. I gently ( Very gently ) flexed them by hand after putting notches every 15mm or so in the horizontal supports to the rear. The plastic starts to go white at this point. It doesn't finish up as a true curve, but was fine for this purpose, a few track pins helped as the glue set to keep the shape. I think I snapped one in the process. For edge clearance on the curve I rolled a Mk1 & Mk3 coach and a Cargowaggon coupled together up and down a lot until I was happy with the gap. More updates next weekend hopefully. Regards - Stephen

Great work... I thought my ballasting had improved, but this is a whole new level, I think the effort on the Platform will be worth it as well. Watching with great interest. Steve

Many thanks... Hopefully this time round, posting pics will enable me to see the progress and so keep at it. That coupled with looking at other layout updates and ideas makes me more determined to complete. An overall shot below and one more depot photo to check scale etc, before building the other shed. Both sheds will be copies of 00 versions, I wanted somewhere to display the locos, even when inside and so went for the open front option, as per an article in Model Rail. Steve

Have fitted pits to the first shed and a balsa hard standing area up to the rail edge. First attempt at a concrete effect, Tamiya XF-55 seems a common choice so went with that. Second shed base to come next week and then ballast up to the edges. Track plan for the freight area also needs to be finalised. Steve

Just had a read through Graham, and realised how useful those set track curved points can be. Loved following Smithdown, and looking forward to seeing this one progress as well. Tanners Hill in the RM is one of a good handful of layouts I flick back through for inspiration at times. Steve