luke the train spotter

1 hour ago, kevo said:

Hi  Luke  the build is really looking the part . can i ask  track plan wise is it a  right  hand and two  wye  points 

It is indeed a right hand and 2 Y points. Here's a picture though it's difficult to get a top down angle without the lighting blocking some of it out. There is a 30cm ruler for scale. 

Base layer of grass down and fence weathered. A shot of the layout, all 2ft of it. 

Been working a bit more on the layout this evening. My focus has been the other back corner of the layout with the rough hill shape created out of foamboard and plaster cloth. On top of that is a texture paste made up of paint, plaster and a dash of water. Then I started on the fence that runs against the backscene. This is just coffee stirrers glued and taped together from the rear but is removable for now so I can paint / weather it. The billboard is tactically angled to hide the corner in the backscene and I think it suits the space. 

20 hours ago, Andrew D said:

On a similar subject Luke, do you wire the point blades and switch the frog, or do you leave it down to the point blades making good contact and not worry about the frog because they are dead end sidings? I’d like to use wired-blade electrofrog points with a switched frog, but manually controlled. The frog switching stuff I’ve seen seems to rely on a point motor to switch it. If you do wire the blades and switch the frog, what do you use to switch the frog (and where can I get one?!) I’m a DC dinosaur by the way :) 

Cheers,

Andrew

So for the points I wire the blades and frog separately. The frog is wired to a simple SDPT switch which are widely available and very cheap. I think I purchased a bag of 200 for about £3 a couple years ago on eBay so that's plenty of layouts! I use switches like this one below. The switch has 3 contacts, the middle is wired to the frog and the 2 outer contacts are wired to the positive and negative rail. The contacts need to be the right way round for the frog to change to the right polarity if you're connecting these to the wire to pull the point blades across. 

In terms of modifying the point blade you might want to refer to the quick diagram I made below. Essentially you want to remove the presoldered wire between the point blades and frogs, I normally lever these off with a screwdriver. I then solder a thin piece of wire between the exposed point blade contact and the outside rail so the point blades are now always live and are not electrically connected to the frog. At this point I wire up the frog to the switch. Note that it is very important you use insulating fish plates on the outside of the frog otherwise you may get short circuits else where. 

I hope this is of use. I find that this is the most robust way of wiring electrofrog points together and I've never had any failures. I do refer to this method in my YouTube video on wire in tube point control which you may find useful. 

5 hours ago, davidparker172 said:

@luke the train spotter are you using dc for this layout?

Are you using insulefrog or electrofrog points?

I use DCC with the NCE Powercab system. Track is all code 75 electrofrog peco points controlled with wire in tube. 

Thanks for all the nice comments, much appreciated! I've started work on the YouTube video so had the camera out today. Here's a snap with the sentinel coming off shed. Big fan of the low down camera angles.

1 hour ago, Oncomin5torm said:

Loving this build on here and Instagram.

Your an inspiration my good man Luke.

 

 

Where did you pickup the loco shed from? 
Your initial post said something about laser cut but I dont remember where you said it was from.

Thank you! The loco shed is a kit from Stoneybridge Structures who attend a lot of exhibitions in the North East but also sell online through their website. I'd highly recommend their kits, they just go together like Lego. 

Well it's been a productive couple of days with lots of little jobs now completed. First up I have finished painting the bridge and lightly weathered it. Hopefully the brick work looks colour matched enough. One thing is bugging me is the bridge doesn't have a ceiling (probably sure that's not the right word) so you can see white space above the trains which will need to be fixed. 

Another little job that I had wanted to get done was finish off the super low relief warehouse building. This needed its brick work painting and toning down as well as a roller door sorting out. A long term goal for this is to have a working roller door and a fiddlestick behind it but currently that's a bit too much. I had tried painting my door but it looked pretty messy so instead I've used a fantastic download from scalescenes.

The background of the layout is somewhere around Newcastle & Gateshead in the 1970s so I thought a fantastic way to set that as the location and era is with a billboard. I wanted a billboard that was advertising the soon to open Tyne and Wear metro which is easier said than done but I stumbled across an image file of a promotional booklet cover which I think works well as a billboard advertisement. Printed of, matt varnished and mounted on a frame of weathered coffee stirrers and  match sticks I think it looks the part. I'd love to find a billboard advertising some Newcastle brown ale so if anyone can point me in the right direction I'd be very grateful. 

And I managed to exceed my own expectations of progress on the layout by getting some ballast down. This was just on the extra point and siding I added a while back but it feels good to be getting the base scenery finally sorted. I'll weather the track and ballast once its dry. With the ballast down all the structures also were stuck down with wood glue so it's all coming together now! Hopefully in the coming weeks I'll record a running session and get it up on YouTube. 

A quick progress update for today. I've been working on the bridge to hide the fiddle yard entrance. The base of this bridge is the one used on the left side on my old layout Finlarig Halt. To fit this layout it needs extending in both directions and the gap for the track widening to allow loco clearances when traversing the point. This is just done with plasticard and some card scraps as capping stones. I don't want it to sit flat against the baseboard either so playing with some subtle angles, the left hand of the bridge sticks out 1.5cm more than the right hand thanks to some foamboard spacers. Think this should help reduce the boxy look you can often get on small layouts. Here's a picture with the 08 checking the clearances. 

Thanks everyone! Not much more progress to report but been playing around with some different photo angles so here's a shot looking in from the fiddle hard entrance. The track here is still to be properly laid and ballasted but I think it has potential. 

I'd say that overall the release is a bit underwhelming but I do not normally spend much money on new Hornby stuff so that isn't an issue. What I was really hoping to see was a retooled LMS pug which would slot in perfectly with their range of small industrial locos. Instead the same old tooling gets pumped out which really summarizes this years announcements. New liveries are nice but not enough to get my wallet out. 

Well it's been a couple weeks and back up at uni now so layout progress can continue! Whilst I was at home I made the most of tools and wood to cut out the fascia for the layout and sort out the lighting. The layout is illuminated with a kitchen under cabinet light, the same type that I use on Distillery Yard and Cronton. I think it gives it a really warm look and should mean that the photos I now take are a lot better. You may notice an 08 in the yard which is coming to the end of a long restoration project with 5 years of procrastination. Looking forward to continuing work on the scenery next! 

Thank you, I'm surprised the difference myself! I think spraying a lot of the scenery with water and scraping up the static grass has been a key step to try and get everything down to a flat and level baseboard like it is now. I am now home from uni now for Christmas so there won't be any progress on the layout for a few weeks sadly but here are a couple different shots of the hardstanding in the loco shed area. It is just DIY plaster filler smeared on then painted with washes once dry. I personally love the look of the concrete effect between the rails.

The photographic backscene blends so well into your scenery I can't believe it's that small!

I wonder if some off cuts of sprue could be used with some plastic scraps to bodge one together. I'll have a look what's in my spares box when I get home.

Thanks for the likes and comments guys. I had considered a pipe bridge, I may look into that a bit more, I was thinking that if I did a girder one I could reuse the bridge I built for my micro Finlarig Halt which is slowly in the process of being dismantled. 

Here is some progress from last night though. I have previously forgot to say that all trackwork is peco code 75. I have added another point behind the first Y point and wired it up. Testing was very satisfying and it can just about hold a class 24 or a couple of wagons, here a peckett checks the clearances between the tracks. A start has also been made on the retaining wall using some Wills plastic sheeting, I still need to sort out the structural elements behind this and coping stones but it is a start. 

Pretty funny but I actually am from malton so have spent many hours train spotting and traveling from the station! I have to say that those buildings are super accurate and look spot on! I had wondered about modeling malton before but didn't have the courage to take it on so great to see someone else modeling it! Looking forward to more updates :)

Looks fantastic!

Well doesn't time fly! This layout was invited to the 2022 Ebor model railway exhibition (due to be held in February) but was postponed to the 2/3rd July which are dates fast approaching! For those interested in attending here is a link to all the details:

https://ukmodelshops.co.uk/event/23684-EborGroupofRailwayModellers_Exhibition

It's a really fantastic little show with  great atmosphere, layouts and second hand stall. It's quite exciting for me since this will be my first exhibition exhibiting at since pre-covid too so a show I'm very much looking forward to. But distillery yard needs some work doing to it first! A couple things on the job list include sorting out and fitting a new layout name board, brighter and better lighting, repainting the fascia and extending the scenery into the fiddle yard to give the impression of a much larger system. 

I have started the later today by building a foam board extension of the bridge (currently removable so I can scribe the stones into it), building up the landscaping and ballasting. Nothing too serious just to create a nicer backdrop for viewing than looking directly into rows of stock. 

I hope to share more photos of the scenery developing so you can see the difference it makes. 

Great video, a very enjoyable watch!

The warehouse buildings look fantastic! There is so much life and atmosphere captured its great to see. Definitely a very inspirational layout. It would be great to hear more about your rolling stock. 

Looks excellent! The weathering really brings it to life. 

So whilst I plan a slightly larger micro to fit into my student house (hopefully more on that another time) I thought I'd rebuild this tiny layout. I can't wait for the Bachmann quarry hunslets so when they come out I'm sure one will end up on this micro. Before leaving for uni I had stripped the baseboard (if you can really call it that) and rebuilt the loop of track. My KBscale rail bender (available through Light Railway Stores) was essential for this as I removed the rails, bent them and rethread the tracks back through the sleepers. Now the trackwork it perfectly in gauge compared to the first iteration of this layout. Ballast was woodland scenics fine grey and test runs have been completed by a Kato 11-109 chassis with a 3d printed railbus body from ebay. The plan is to keep in with the light railway vibes with maybe a small halt or a parked up landrover in the centre with a small tree or two for some height relief.