richard.h

Just to add my own bit of info here I have a Peco Code 75 three way point in my Loco Depot where I need reliable slow speed running. I found that I couldn't get this with the standard point installation so I used the contacts on the Tortoise point motors to switch power to the blades as required and this greatly improved performance.

More bits arrived during the week so I was able to finish off my workshop extension to the Engine Shed. I just need to fit a couple of lights in it otherwise it will be difficult to see once it's in place. The workshop fits against the shed and the roof needs another coat of paint to match the main shed roof, but that's on order

Looks an interesting project I will follow with interest especially as I grew up in Saltaire. Just one question though judging from the previous photo how long have you got a spare bedroom for?

Wonderful building, can't wait to see it progress, will you be providing details of the other structures as you build them

And to finish off here is a video showing the sound installation of the loco plus a short running session

Here are a couple more photos of the 9F as it meets its stablemate. And then clanks trough the Station.

As a break from Shed Building here are some photos of the latest loco to join the fleet a 9F Here being turned ready for duty. And now in service on a Coke Train as it clears Low Fell tunnel and the runs through town.

I finished off the main shed building this week. Then started on the weathering, the roof vents and main building, particularly around the entrance were airbrushed with burned and dirty blacks . The roof tiles were treated with Tensocrom soot colour to give a rain streaked effect. The lighting was finished off and connected in. Sharp eyed viewers will notice a gap in the left hand side wall, I am currently constructing a workshop which will fit down that side once all the bits arrive so there's still a bit more to do.

More progress, this week I glued a piece of copperclad strip out of sight in the roof trusses to form a distribution busbar From there I can add lights wherever they are needed by just tapping onto it. Next step was to complete the first shed by finishing and painting the roof and vents. And now we make a start on constructing the second shed which will require some surgery as the tracks are already in place so the building will have to be trimmed down to align with these.

I have just spent the last few days progressing with the Shed. Firstly all the exterior walls were completed. Painted and Textured. Next step was to fit the sides together and then add the roof joists, these were painted in weathered wood although I don't know in real life if they used wood in a Steam Shed, maybe metal would be safer. Next step fit the Roof and start the tiling (that will keep me occupied for a few days while the lighting turns up). Then put it in place to see if we are on the right track! as I still have to build a second unit to make a six lane shed plus workshop.

Loco Shed Rebuild My original six road engine shed is starting to show its age now and is one of the layout buildings marked down for an upgrade, Pacific Locos don't quite fit in as can be seen from the photo and there is no room for internal fittings or lighting which is something I would really like to add, With this in mind I thought that I would try building one of the Laser Cut Kits that have become available in the last few years. The first thing to do before building commenced was to get the basic colour scheme acceptable. The brickwork detail is extremely fine so after some experimentation I found that the best solution was a first wash with sand colour paint. This was followed by a couple of coats of very light dry brushed red brick paint. So that's the base colour sorted, later on I can add textures and weathering. So now to paint and assemble the rest of the body shell and in the meantime I need to source tools for a workshop and suitable lighting to fit inside.

Here is a video I made showing typical activity seen in a morning down at the local Village Station.

Today we have a few photos of The Wolf of Badenoch as it makes its way towards Byford. This is a DJH kit with an extra capacitor wired into the decoder for "Stay-Alive" as I wanted to ensure good performance because the kit as built only has pickups on three driving wheels and the opposing three tender wheels

Continuing the trials with the new couplings I have been fitting them to different types of stock and I thought that the sternest test would be on longer heavier wagons. So here they are on a train of bolster wagons and long wheelbase plate wagons with most of them carrying loads. They are also look more effective on these wagons as they are much more visible. After an extended running session they behaved perfectly so I think that they can now be safely fitted to any type of goods wagon.

Shapeways Couplings Apart from local goods trains most of my freight stock is in fixed sets which are kept in cassettes when not in use so I have been looking for more authentic couplings to use on the sets. After seeing some details of the new 'Shapeways ' couplings I thought they might be worth a try to see how they performed. These are the two types I ordered complete with the box they came in, no wonder the postage was a bit expensive. I ordered two types for NEM pockets, straight and stepped in the shortest length available, 18mm, in order to keep the wagons as close together as possible, so here are the two types with some test painting to determine what colours would look best. The stepped type look better so I made up a train in sets of four wagons permanently coupled together with a kadee or tension lock at either end. If they do prove successful I think it might look better with some of the new magnetic couplings replacing the conventional ones. So far they are working well, they negotiate the sharpest curves without problem and have not pulled apart or broken on my normal train length of 24 trucks+ although a bit more testing is needed before buying any more.

To compliment the Deltic Video here are some photos of the Loco in action which has now been weathered in order to tone down the blue plastic look and help it blend in with my other Locos. The bodywork was first toned down with Lifecolor Acrylics, Frame Dirt to the lower parts then Weathered Black and Dirty Black to the roof panels in order to give some variation in the colouring. Then the chassis was treated with AK enamels, fuel stains to the fuel tanks and grease and oil stains to the bogies. Now I think it looks better as although all the photos I can find show it as been kept in good condition it certainly was not immaculate!

In the few years since I have been fitting sound systems to my locos there have been dramatic improvements in speaker technology which means of course big improvements in sound quality. Since I don't have a workshop with milling machinery I have always been limited by having to install a speaker that would fit in the space available so for my latest acquisition there was just enough room to fit a Boom-Box speaker. I am sure that there are much better systems available but for something that is virtually "plug and play" this is very good So here is the Limited Edition Deltic Prototype (East Coast Mainline Version) with sound system installed at factory settings, you can turn it down!

In the few years since I have been fitting sound systems to my locos there have been dramatic improvements in speaker technology which means of course big improvements in sound quality. Since I don't have a workshop with milling machinery I have always been limited by having to install a speaker that would fit in the space available so for my latest acquisition there was just enough room to fit a Boom-Box speaker. So here is the Limited Edition Deltic Prototype (East Coast Mainline Version) with sound system installed at factory settings, you can turn it down!

Over the past few months I have been buying Coke Wagons, 2-3 at a time in order to build up a complete train. The weathering starts off with the same pattern distressing the lettering on older type wagons using a fibre glass pencil and painting in some of the raves to simulate repaired sections. The next stage is to spray the chassis with frame dirt and the bodies with dirty black. Then I bring in the variations by using a blend of different colours each time, mud, oil, grease, rust etc. This particular batch have been treated with dark rust to the solebar and halfway up the body sides which is typically shown on old photos. When all the different wagons are then put together you have a set where no two wagons are the same..

There has always been a corner of the layout devoted to Mr Dibnah's Traction Engine Workshop and business has been good lately so he has gone and bought a new Land Rover. It's a bit modern for the time period but weathered down a bit it doesn't look too out of place.

Thanks for that an excellent video with plenty of helpful information, I will be to working my way through it to see exactly how you achieved your effects.

To compliment the video here are some photos of the J11 shunting. I have recently had a lot of my original lighting starting to fail so rather than just replace them I thought I would investigate using LED lighting strips instead. The brightness is fully adjustable so the you can simulate different times of day and create shadows. You can also gradually change from cold white to warm colour light or any mix in between which gives a large range of effects not just for photography but to create a different atmosphere for the layout and these two photos show the extremes of the range.

Kadee Shuffle with Wonky Uprights I filmed this video with my new camera which can record in High Definition and Dolby Sound, (that's progress!) unfortunately I didn't realise until afterwards that in this mode it uses a compression system which results in fine vertical edges becoming blurred when not in central focus, see the signal bracket and lamp posts. So I'm afraid it will be back to shooting in its MP-4 mode for indoor model railway videos in future.

Kadee Shuffle I really like the Kadee coupling system and the advantages it brings to a layout but I wanted the uncoupling magnets to be invisible where possible so as not to spoil the track appearance. To achieve this I experimented with different types an strengths of magnets. The first type, rod magnets worked OK on Locos and Coaches but the power was too concentrated for light weight wagons which the magnets tended to tip over so I used these in the Station for mainline trains, the advantage being that they could be fitted after tracklaying and are invisible with a light covering of ballast. The second type, square plate magnets proved the answer for shunting trucks as they had a larger but less concentrated magnetic field so they can be set lower into the track ballast but they have to be fitted before the track is laid. There is a demo video to follow this once I get it loaded in.

Thanks very much for the info guys it's much appreciated and will be looked into. It's amazing how things change so quickly with this virus, I was just thinking it has been 20+ years since I was in that part of the country and now with the quarantine news it is going to another year, the holiday is cancelled until 2021.