Oncomin5torm

This looks right up my street. Such a great look and feel nothing too complicated but looks like a good eye catching layout.

Lots of little jobs done on the layout but this is one I'm particularly happy with. The lights are by layouts4u, they run off 12v supply (once supplied resistor is wired in) It was a bit of a job to get the wires through, I had to use a 3mm bit to drill through the building, it's made of laser cut mdf) and through the backscene, but there is a void inside the buildings so I had to make the rear hole wider to allow for locating the wires. Next step is lash up testing, as I'm installing a lot more lights all round the yard, and the road by the station.

Yesterday I spent my day rebuilding the bridge that sits at the now scenic join between the boards. As you can see the original one was not finished on the rear due to it being against the original scandic break. Following a similar design, I rebuilt the bridge using mount board, and I will clad this one in embossed brick plasticard. As you can see above the original bridge was paper wraps and in red brick. This time round I am going to do it in blue engineers brick to break up the wholly red brick on the layout. The old disused line on the bridge will return, but now hopefully due to the fully straight design of the new bridge I might be able to complete my goal of making a slide in and out section which will have a line still in use for the steam era I will run this in also.

Even though I've been under the weather these last few days, I have managed to do some modelling. Sculpted the landform and covered it in sculptamould, then painted it, now it looks a bit "brown"

Thank you. It's actually the name of an area about a mile away from me, I walk past it every morning with the dog, it's just a farm these days.

The basic landform is taking shape. A gentile hillside at the front, a natural little valley the railway builders of old used. The rear will be a bit steaper but still well like real scenes I've seen on the current network.

I've been busy since the last post. I've finished all the trackwork, painted the backscene of which I also redid the original colour to match as I mix my own greys together to get a tone I want. I spent a bit of time working on the low relief terraced houses from fair price models, love their scratch aids. In this one I have done most of the major work, and applied the whole thing to a mountboard base, this way I can work on it away from the board and then install it once I am ready. I gave the cobbles mr blobby syndrome, and then weathered them down. Still long way to go on this portion of the extension, but its coming together nicely. I have added lighting into 2 of the houses and the third has no lighting, and all curtains drawn, so they are having a lazy morning whilst the trains go by. Ballasting has been completed, I used the same calci sand I used last time, to keep the same feel across both boards. The stage its at right now, It might look quite serve, but it will become a rolling hillside on the front section, with a raised bit for the road to go over a nice little bridge. At the rear I will be using inspiration a friend of mine gave me for how to get away with not using a retaining wall. He lives in cornwall and has recently been on the line between Luxulyan and Par, which goes though the Luxulyan Valley, and has a great bit of scenery and a very close edge of steep hillside which I managed to find a clip of on youtube and got a photo of it. I plan on trying to replicate the area to the top right on the curve in the line.

I got a delivery of some "new" wagons yesterday. On closer inspection I found 2 of them had the railfreight logos painted over and one had some graffiti on the side. I tried enamel thinners, I tried acrylic thinners, nothing shifted it an inch. Until I realised it was flaking off like old nail polish, when scraped with a blade. Grabbed the mothers nail polish remover and the results can be seen. Thankfully I have some railfreight transfers spare from another sheet from the OAA I adjusted earlier this year, so all is well.

After delays due to mail strikes the low relief 3 terraced houses have arrived. The kit is by fair price models, the same as the warehouses on the layout. These will sit as the main focal point of the scenery on the extension. Some yards or small gardens behind will look good.

Whilst not related to this build entirely there is a chance it could run on the layout with a 31 or 37, big bit of traction for this layout. I sent off my old EWS inspection saloon to Squirrel Rail and earlier this week it came back in its new Regional Railways livery. So happy with how this has come out.

Busy couple of days. I manged to wire up the 2 sets of points on tuesday and wednesday (before work) and today I have installed the lefthand point that leads into 2 of the sidings. Whilst at it I installed the cross board join of track, using DCC Concepts Legacy sleepers. The track leading into the existing section of board is actually just lined up and glued in the correct place, I did not want to disturb the existing ballast to add rail joiners, this means the section of track between the baseboard join and the existing track is not powered currently, I will have to work out the best way for me to sort that out going forward. I had to remove the bridge so I could access the area a bit better, the entire bridge will need a rejig and work doing to it as it is no longer the scenic break but part way through the scene. Now the trackplan is begining to take shape and I can see what I am aiming for.

Well I can finally unveil the start of the extension to the Layout which has also had a new name as I was not happy with the one I picked originally. I built the Grange & Hodder baseboard about a week ago but due to work and spending the weekend at GETS I did not get chance to do anything until today. I have added the alignment dowels between the 2 boards to keep them straight, and I have used the adjustable clasps on the front and back to hold them firmly in place. Using offcuts of 9mm ply I had in the shed I installed the 18" scenic section backboards onto the new baseboard. As I used a sheet of 9mm ply to raise the original boards height I had to use another on the new board to get the trackbed to line up, as the new board is also slightly lower (9mm in fact) than the original I had to use 9mm shims to raise it up to the correct height. I have placed the pointwork and track onto the board to see how they look. The plan is to have the shot rear line merge via the medium point onto the middle line, which then exits onto the fiddle yard, the font line goes straight out onto the fiddle yard. On the fiddle yard the 2 tracks coming off the scenic section join up at a short Y point and then become 1 line, which may or may not be used as a cassette type to change stock, but I may just have a single line for shunting back and forth, with a programming or running in track at the rear. The whole plan is based on a low natural valley that the original builders of the railway utilised for housing their railway, so when the higher line, now disused, was constructed it cut off the ends of the low hills as they were coming to a natural conclusion. on the low ground. So the idea is to have 2 low hills on either side, with the front one being a bit lower so it will allow for viewing of the trains coming in and out, the rear one will have a row of 3 terraced houses (rear low relief ones) sat on it, with their yards heading to the top of the hillside. Glad to be back working on this build as It is expanding on what I already "finished" The whole scenic section is now 42" long or 3'6" which is well within the size for a micro layout as it is no wide than 12" on the original board, and 14" on the new. I cant wait to dig into the scenics on this layout. Finally the new name, I have decided to name it after an area by me, Windle Hill. I saw it whilst looking at maps online and it stuck with me, the area used to have a railway running right though it up until the 60s when it was lifted entirely and it is now a footpath/cycleway. I am taking some licence and saying my layout is what could have been, and gone with that.

I saw the layout at Liverpool last year, superb and well worth the win if you ask me.

I've got my delivery of the expansion board. Made by Grange and hodder it is laser cut and really light. Currently I am letting the final side glue in overnight. The board is slightly wider than the original one, but I have decided to use that for a bit more scenic variety, the intention is to add a row of terraced houses on the 18" I will be using scenic as the rest of the board will be fiddle yard. It is in a fluid place at the moment with plans changing and being made as they form.

The layout has been sat for a while with nothing having been done, but a slightly updated plan has been formed. I am going to add a 4ft board on, with only 18" scenic to allow for a nice flow from the fiddle yard into the main layout, and a 30" fiddle yard, still well within the 4ft micro range, I have had a lot of events and birthdays go on so I have been unable to purchase the boards I want for this build. I have started another build which is something I have never done before and started a station, on a 4x2 board I had in the loft from another build that got abandoned earlier this year. I will post updates when I have any.

As happens many times, I build a layout and get my fun out of it, and then move onto something else. This has happened and ScrapNook is now up for sale. If anyone is interested give me a message on here.

Nothing to show for an update at the moment, due to lots of things going on I have had minimal modelling time. I have come a decision on DeeSidings, it will be slightly extended. The yard area itself will remain as is, but I am adding a 3ft board on the left to with 1ft being scenic and 2ft fiddle. This will allow for a much easier transition to the fiddle yard, and allow me to fully utilise the rear siding better, also I can have a bit more scenic stuff going on, 1ft may not seem like much but its plenty and keeps the layout well within the realms of micro.

I dont mind at all, glad to see the results. As my layout was inspired by yours, its good that I can inspire you as well.

There has been a little bit of time travel today. DeeSidings has been transported back to the era of steam. Nothing too fancy, but I feel I could do with a couple more vans like this to make it feel more used, plus a mainline type loco like a Jinty, as I am operating in a former LMS area.

Thank you. The fiddle yard needs to be reworked, as I have found the current version isnt the best and I may opt for a more traditional one

While the layout is "finished" (are they ever fully) I have been working on weathering wagons, getting some small pieces to help clutter up the yard itself. First things i've weathered are the railfreight OAA wagons by Hornby, they were technically coded as OBA which was incorrect for the lack of high ends on the models, so I got some transfers from Railtec and sorted that out, I then followed the same process I used last time to weather the vans, apply paint, wipe it off, different tones and then an enamel panel line wash thinned down. I know the wagons have the horrible white wheels still but that will be addressed in the future. I bought some 3D printed accessories on a certain well known auction site. A pack of pallets, shipping crates, and barrels. Quite happy with how I have painted these, just flat block colours, drybrushing and washes used.

If you search the site you will find smaller ones too if you want less established ones.

I got them from this website https://www.modelscenerysupplies.co.uk/model-railway-baseboards/Christmas-gifts-for-him/Buddleia-Tall

Well funny you should say that 😆 It was taken exactly during that a few days ago.

I also painted up the skip I bought online This was just done with the colours I had to hand, and then once dry an agrax earthshade wash was heavily applied over the top, and then bone white drybrushing to bring out the edges, and an overall black drybrush to tone it all together. As I will