Aldgate Box Boy

Thanks Dava, Rookie question I know but that is really useful. Starting on on a single road engine shed for the brewery today. cheers Tim

Hi second post today to ask a question. I'm trying to use foam board to construct buildings for Green Leaf. Can anyone tell me what glue they would recommend? Thanks Tim

Hi Everyone, thought I'd post a couple shots of the van I'm working on. It's a Connoisseur Kit. I've still to do a few things on it, especially the roof. I always end up making lots of mistakes but they are great fun.

Thanks Neil, that is a great suggestion, as soon as I looked at the picture again it's obvious. Thanks Tim

Thanks 73c as other people have said about routine jobs they are strangely therapeutic although I've only done a small section so I may feel differently later! Best Tim

Hi Everyone, I've been experimenting with material for the setts for the brewery track and yard. Daz and plastic card maybe other options but I saw on one of the other strands about using pizza bases - the polystyrene base not the base of the pizza obviously . Here is the result. Strip cut to size, then used the end of a pencil with the rubber removed and the metal jacket reformed, painted grey, then washed with watery black and rubbed off. At the moment it's stuck down with double sided tape which seems very firm. Any ideas on glue - there are some obvious no nos. My biggest problem will be eating enough pizza to cover the yard! best Tim

Hi everyone, modelling has taken a hit because of my broken wrist. At the moment I'm limited to short bursts of paining barrels, however at the weekend I decided to have a go at making hop sacks. did a bit of research on size and colour etc. Here is the result. my 11 year old daughter described them as looking like poos! Anyway I'll need a lot of them. They will need a bit of work and practice - as do the staff! Best Tim

Hi Sam great job could you tell me the shade/ manufacturer of that green you have used? Best Tim

Hi Peter, no problem. I've attached images of the sniffer. Yes it sits outside the box, screwed into the frame of the baseboard. On the left are the 2 wires to the bus bar - blue and white. they go around the layout with droppers (uppers?) to p/motors. again blue and white. On the right lower is the power supply, you were right this supplies sniffer, Alpha encoder and b/bar. Top right is the plug in cable to/from the encoder. So that one power supple feeds all the control equipment. I can't remember if the cable came separately, i suspect it does. The display extension is useful - its in the encoder board and you need that when addressing the points. After that it's useful to see which points you have thrown. the extension is simply plugged in. there isn't another box of tricks for sniffer. S you have lever to encoder, encoder to sniffer, sniffer connects to the 2 b/bar wires. As i said my marcways don't need frog switching so it's 2 wires. Other points will use the polarity switch on DCC Concepts ips. Take a look at their video: I don't mind you copying that's what we all do, I've learnt so much from this site, and others in the short time i've been into O Gauge. As others have said do join the Gauge o Guild, and also your local club, my one is great and has been really welcoming. Hope this helps Tim

sorry here are the images of the gubbins Also take a look at DCC Concepts' site, search for the videos https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/cobalt-alpha-main-unit/ best Tim

Hi Peter, yes mine is wired from a separate bus bar. So you would need the following: 12 volt power supply which plugs in to the 'sniffer' a sniffer which has 2 wires out for the bus bar a wire from the sniffer to Alpha encoder then as many levers as you want - max 12 per encoder. Basically you plug in you lever, attach three wires per lever into the ports on the encoder and that is the wiring. you take a dropper down from the bus bar to the point motor and insert, address the point. This is all really simple I too was a complete novice doing this in November Below are the images of my frame with the covers off this looks more complex as each lever has 9 wires - you only need 3. I was advised to have a separate control bus bar and they were right. The levers are great.

Hi Chris i would like to do that and got talking to a guy on the 7 scale stand at Reading last year. I guess if you are just starting out one want to get things running. i agree about the chairs and i can see that would be the major draw back, however that said I'm intending to embed my track in sets so it's not an issue. Cheers Tim

Hi Peter, thanks for posting looks great. couple of points. I use Marcways and I've just posted images of a LH/RH and 3 way with a ruler for scale, this may help. They are marginally more expensive but are well made, and they automatically switch polarity - you simply feed them from the toe of the point and put isolation joiners on both frog ends. No cutting, no extra wire to the frog and no third wire to the point motor. I didn't quite understand what you were doing with your point motors and switches. If you have Digital IP you can run a control bus bar linking all the points with droppers from the BB. DCC sell a sniffer and a control board which your switches very simply wire into. This is what I have done as a complete newcomer. DCC website has videos and they are excellent in terms of idiots like me asking stupid question. its very easy. Also using the above system with Marcways you just need 2 wires, no frog wire. You can see the point on my strand Green Leaf Brewery London. Happy to explain more if need to. Welcome Tim

Hi, I've seen posts on a number of strands about points. i'm attaching three images of my Marcway 3 way, RH and LH with a measure to give people scale. They are marginally more expensive than Peco but they seem to have a lot of advantages. cheers Tim

Hi everyone, well i broke my wrist a week or so ago so no real modelling for me for 8 weeks. i'm posting an image here of the shelf for the controller which sits next to the signal frame - it needs attaching. NB the ergonomically designed space for the operator's tea mug! Cheers Tim

Hi Everyone, well over the last couple of days I've pretty much completed the lever box to house my DCC Concepts switches. The box was build by my friend John with a little help from me. All the electronics sit inside the box with one wire out to the 'sniffer'. The box slides off in a second.

Thanks bgman, I'll try and keep you interested!

Yes they are great, and considering its location/ timescale I think it needs a pannier. I know they were used on trip workings to the old Guinness Brewery at Park Royal. Any idea where I could get one.....

Thanks Dava yes I have Peaty's book which is great and really useful. It would be really useful if there were other industry specific ones like this. I've got a few barrels from Skytrex and one building but I want to try and scratch build if I can. I will have to think about the wagon tt. cheers Tim

Thanks JDB. The layout is pretty fixed and I'm not sure I'm good enough for an exhibition. thanks Tim

Hi everyone, thanks for the messages. Some more photos below. The layout is 316 cm by 80 cm taking up one side of a room. I have nicked lots of ideas but the space saving idea of two three-way points is from Dutch River Dock layout which I think is great. The points are Marcway - 2 x three-way, 1 x Y point and 5 mixture of left and right hand points. The track is Peco flexi. There is cork underlay under the points as there is a height difference. I can recommend Marcway points especially to get around frog switching all done internally with the switch. Point motors are DCC Concepts operated by their Switch Levers. The layout is DCC with sound. Two locos at the moment a Hudswell Clarke and a Minerva Peckett, both sound fitted. Currently building up the wagons, I got two Dapol RTR to begin with but subsequently built a number of plastic kits and a Connoisseur Loirit. I currently on my second brass kit from Big Jim, a box van, which I'm really enjoying tackling. So a selection of images taken over the last 4 months from bare baseboard to where I am currently.

Hi everyone, well I've been lurking long enough. Having started building my layout I'm at a point where I thought I'd share what I have. Essentially Green Leaf is a busy London brewery based in the early 1960s in West London. I like beer, railways and Ealing Studios films so this is an attempt to marry all of those topics. In the late 1930s Ealing made a film about a small brewery Green Leaf being pushed out of business by a large one, Ironside. I've only seen clips of the film, Cheer Boys Cheer. Anyway, Below is the diagram and if people are interested I'll post progress. Tim