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Ted-ish

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Posts posted by Ted-ish

  1. Sorry, I should have said my layout (WIP) is based around Shirebrook maintenance depot in the late 80's. Coal obviously features heavily.

     

    However, I wanted offshoots to other areas in the Midlands represented by production facilities, terminals, yards and the like.

     

    I'm moving house later this year and will have substantial, dedicated space. Hence fortunate enough to be able to incorporate many areas (in N gauge).

  2. 57 minutes ago, BR traction instructor said:

    Route learning maps such as these give a good insight into prototype layouts etc.

     

    Watching Utube videos on Absolute Block etc will give a good grounding on the most common form of period signalling system…

     

    BeRTIe

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    19 minutes ago, BR traction instructor said:

    A period Sectional Appendix for your chosen region is valuable…

     

    These look excellent!

     

    Hopefully I can find one for my area and era. Thank you for sharing images, very interesting and helpful.

     

  3. Hi all,

     

    I'd really like to understand the nitty gritty of freight operations in 1980s.

     

    Sources, destinations, stops in-between and why. How signalling and hump yards functioned and their involvement in the process.

     

    How it all came together.

     

    In essence, I need a book or three (or video, website reference etc) that explains it so I can port that behaviour to my layout plans.

     

    Thanks in advance!

     

    ps: I've seen the waybaill and car cards used in the US, not sure if there's a similar system in the UK

  4. I've been experimenting with pre-colouring ballast.

     

    To be honest, I think it looks better than colouring ballast that's already glued down. I would of course weather the rails, and airbrush over the top of this to weather it down.

     

    This is just acrylic paint mixed with water, about 80% water in fact.

     

    Bottom of the plate is standard Scenics N/fine ballast. In reality, it's a bit 'blue' to the eye. Top of shot is a darkened version, it takes a little blue off.

     

    ballast-test-with-paint.jpg.ffa5d5226d1c6cf08683a181fd2ff1b4.jpg

     

    Next is more colours but with bathing sand, far right is Gaugemaster ballast (I don't like it).

     

    Obviously it needs sieving but the effect is really good. It looks more natural to me and has a very good mix of fine grains.

     

    ballast-test-with-bathing-sand.jpg.bc63da20b5c220de3a0a1475d84c7fad.jpg

     

    I need to ballast some actual track to test, but what do you think?

    • Craftsmanship/clever 1
  5. Brace yourselves - another thrilling update!

    • Blocks are all wired for this section, I tried to be neat and label things
    • The twisted bus wire is now gone as I don't need a traditional 2-wire bus
    • All track droppers are wired for the Cobalt point power

    Just waiting on my accessories bus wire to arrive, to complete the install

    blocks-are-in.jpg.e4e7033b577bc36ca8ece91fd67c9f69.jpg

    • Like 3
  6. 11 hours ago, rob D2 said:

    N gauge ? No way ! That’s O or a real one !

     

    Thank you Rob. This was my first loco weathering attempt, the first time I've aimed an airbrush at one too!

     

    I have to say I'm very pleased with the result, it makes me excited to do more.

     

    Which is good news... I also have a few hundred wagons to weather! :D

     

    11 hours ago, Model Railway Noob said:

    Very impressive and a great area to model. I admire people who work in N gauge. I am working with a mixture of 009 and 00 and the 009 is so tiny. It's made me want to do 0 gauge next time :)

     

    It's frustrating (I drop so many small pieces and spend an hour looking for them) but rewarding. I just love the scale and minute detail. You have to be more precise, that's for sure, but you can fit so much in to a layout! I don't want to offend 00 here, but to me personally - they feel toy like in comparison and less like a model. That's not to say I don't appreciate 00 models, because I really do  - I'm just keenly biased towards N. :drink_mini:

    • Like 1
    • Agree 1
  7. Finally I have finished the laying of this 5ft stretch - the 'Shirebrook approach'.

    It's take me ages because a) I'm slow b) I start over if it's not perfect and c) there are 22 blocks on this part of the layout alone! Completely OTT perhaps, but I want detailed reporting of where locos are and also the ability to shunt and stack with great accuracy.

     

    216383665_Closertocompleted.jpeg.7b9abcc04babec7fbf6a409054f9a820.jpeg

     

    Next, wiring... 

    And then filling all those gaps with sleepers! 

    • Like 6
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