Oncomin5torm

I finally got round to weathering the railfreight vans I bought almost 2 months ago. I found some refence photos online and follow them for how I would make the wagons look, this was just a case of slapping dark grey paint on, removing most of it, and then doing the same with a dark brown, once that was fully dry I went over the recesses with an enamel wash thinned down with thinners to make it flow better. The wheels still need sorting out, I need to buy some replacements.

A bit of railfreight shunting taking place. Plus the interchangeable crane, I have built 2, this one is for the later eras so its been weathered and rusted, the earlier era one has a chain and hook still.

It's by a company called Tasma, I got it online by gooogling OO gauge buddlia

It is, let me see if I can find where I got it from, had the pack for years and just used the last bits on this

Thank you, I love an overgrown siding, might not put any stock on it at this point though, although I do have a burnt out brake van I could use

The final touches are coming together now. I've finished the over bridge to hide the fiddle yard exit. I've opted to go for a very disused bit of line on the bridge. I've used different lengths of static grass, some tufts, and my favourite the buddlia at the far end to help hide the backscene.

Thanks for sharing that, is it O gauge? Looks like a nice little layout that.

I also filled gaps where I drilled the fence post holes with shrubs, and grass tufts to hide the gaps.

I Installed the WWS fencing today, broke a few when installing so I opted to make that into a feature of the layout.

I spent a bit of time mocking out the track plan today. The coaches and 37 are just for gauging the sidings lengths, the longest train I would have on here is a 37 and a pair of mk1 coaches, so this works for gauging lengths. The rear line where the stock is parked is the parcel depot proper, the middle line is release/storage, the front one is for loco stabling or random stock to be dumped. The middle line will extend to the end of the board, but not be in use beyond where the old tape mark is on the board, it will go though a disused level crossing, the front track I may angle further to allow for more use of the middle for longer stock and same for the front one.

I forgot you just inherited it. They seem a bit low, but I checked them against some wagons and they are bang on, but as you say most of the time the wagons wont go anywhere near them

Thank you I went into a blind panic thinking all I had left was 1 piece of flexi, until I found the 2nd box under my desk, phew.

I have yet another project on the go, I am a habitual layout builder haha. I recently made a big decision, which was the take the backscenes off my 8x2 layout and store the boards in the loft until I feel a need to go back to it. This left me with 8ft of 9mm ply in a pair of 4ft sheets and 2 pieces of 2ft from the ends. I have had the inspiration from another layout to build a parcels depot, as if royal mail/RES didnt loose a load of trade in the early 90s and go mostly road. The layout is 4ft long (just fits into the micro category) and goes from 12 inch to 18 inch at the other end, this is something I have never done before and thought i'd give it a shot as it opens up a different style of layout. I'm a bit of a cheap fella so I didnt want to go and buy loads of timber for the build, with that in mind I ran out of 2x1 so I had to come up with a different framing method for the boards. I opted to use the ply I had as the frame, and just use whatever 2x1 I had to hand to support it as much as I could, the board sits 100mm off the floor which is plenty of space for what I need. I have yet to finish the ends of the boards, these are todays things to do. I have track, but no points currently, just 1 which isnt right, the point is on order, it'll just be a single point layout with 3 sidings, the fiddle yard is undetermined at the moment, but it will come onto the scenic board with 2 tracks, which goes into 1 point to have the front 2 sidings, and the rear will come off the fiddle yard as one straight bit of track. The point on the boards here is just for show, as I want the front tracks to come off a left hand rather than a right hand point, the exact setup of the track is still to be determined, probably wing it. I have a skytrex resin bridge kit which I will be using to represent a bridge over the tracks, rail or road I'm not sure, I may not even model it beyond low relief. The back of the layout will be the unloading facility itself, mainly a warehouse style building, with unloading platforms big enough for a pair of mk1 coaches, I will probably have to scratch build most of the buildings, as nothing out there fits what I need.

I also named the layout DeeSidings Because I live near the river Dee and the area called Deeside, I wanted to do a play on it and opted for DeeSidings

A bit more scenics done. I swapped out the original buffer stop as it didnt fit all that well, I went though my spares box and found one of the bullhead buffers, this was already painted and weathered as I took it off a diorama I build last year and dismantled, in fact it was on this same board, so its come home. Using different lengths and colours of static grass I have built up the ground cover across the layout and mainly behind the buffer stop. I used more of the tamiya textured paint to blend the base layer together with a soil paint, then grass colours before applying the static grass. After that I used different tufts and bushes from various manufacturers to add variety and height to the layout, without adding too much to overcrowd areas. I also added the wooden bits off the older style peco buffer stops at the ends of the other 2 tracks which ended at the platform edges. Final thing I did was put together a fiddle yard cassette, this is just 9mm ply screwed together to form the cassette, one end has no upright bit so it slots into the layout where I left space to allow the fiddle yard to sit. At the far end of the cassette I attached an adjustable leg meant for a layout which will probably never get used for one, so this gives the option to adjust it when required if the surface its sitting on isnt level, but also its gives it support when using the cassette. I wont take ownership of this idea as F-Unitmad did it first, I just built my version of it.

Hyjack away, its great to see this layout anytime

Bit busy at the moment with work so I've not got loads done but here is a little bit of scenic work. So far I've weatheree the ballast, just watered down acrylics, in shades of brown mostly, with some blacks to darken down where locos would normally go. Once that was dry I added some spring 2mm static grass in some spots, mostly where the ends of the sidings are, where stock and locos don't normally end up. The buffer stop is just a Peco affair, painted up to be rusted and not well looked after.

Busy few days with birthdays and such going on, but I managed a quiet Sunday in the railway world (ok its the other end of my room) Managed to get a bit more of the bridge done, its got cladding now. The warehouses have windows in now, for some reason the kit for the 3 storey one had 1 window pane missing so I created a blanking piece out of mount board and glued brick paper to it, it isnt perfect but the infilled window would have been bricked up after the fact when they decided to do it. I accidentally broke one of the plastic sheets when installing the window, so It now looks like someone has smashed it.

Absolutely fantastic, love it.

Thats a great idea, it's intended to be a rail bridge but if I choose to make it a road bridge then it would work well, thanks for that idea.

It's been a busy few days since I last posted. Sadly not many of these busy days have been spent on the layout (new job) I have managed to get on with some smaller bits and pieces of modelling though. I have built the basic frame for the bridge end, originally I wanted to do it at an angle, but found it just took too much from the small scene, so I opted for the more traditional end on aproach. Just built out of mount board and using wills girder pieces to form the bridge itself. I will box it all in and clad it in brick paper, I decided to go down this route rather than embossed plasticard because I thought it would look out of place since the rest of the buildings are only done in brick paper, and the girder sections are giving the whole thing enough depth as well. I wasnt sure which way round to have the buildings, I am leaning towards the taller one by the bridge, just because it "hides" the fact the scene doesnt go any further. Using the same textured paint that I have got on the top of the platform I have added a lower section of road, or yard to the overall scene, this will be for loading and unloading, or just vans and such to sit and wait. Late last night I decided to get some of my vehicles setup on the layout too, so it looks like the guys in for a busy one. Quite tempted to get a skip to sit at the far end by the bridge, yes its trite but it looks good, as this layout will operate in multiple eras, I am going to make a fair few scenic items removeable, such as people, a skip, cargo, goods, I might even get a small crane, if I get a pair I can weather one up, and use that for the more modern times and the newer one still in use would be for the earlier periods.

Thank you, I will do. Ian already has a submission from me for my last layout ScrapNook

Yes it was Lyddlow that inspired me. (thank you for that) I picked up those 3 wagons for £29 at the Ludlow exhibition a few weeks ago, no idea what I was going to do with them, then this idea popped into my head after seeing Lyddlow. I should hopefully be able to run it in multiple eras with all the stock I've got, an 08 is a must though for speedlink.

After going to some questionable exhibitions this weekend I have made a start on the low relief warehouses. Using the fair price models scratch build aid kids I have applied the scale model scenery brick textures to them, windows will be next and the roof. I will also use the same brick texture sheets, to keep it all together, on the bridge abutments so they dont look out of place using embossed plasticard.

Got my fairprice models warehouses in the post today. They are scratch build aids, so just a flat pack kit (these are just the fronts) and need cladding in either paper or embossed plasticard textures. I tried emobossed plasticard last time, but found it a challenge, this time I am using brick paper printed out from the web. I also think I need to stop going to my local model shop (lol) Got this little beauty for £25, I couldnt argue or say no at that price, also picked up a queen mary brake van in S&T livery (not pictured) for £20 I also got on a well known auction site this gem. The Y1 sentinel is by Model Rail and the 16t mineral wagon is for size comparison, its so dinky and it came DCC fitted.