Ted-ish

Ed, Edward or Ted, either works for me! Here's the image, unfortunately it's not the best quality - looks to be a scan of an old photo. Hopefully you can work with it. Happy to discuss weathering, a good distraction and I'll certainly be talking about it here in the future! My technique was relatively straight forwards: 1) Mask windows 2) Apply a thin layer of Humbrol satin coat - allow a few hours to dry 3) Apply a slightly thinned MIG dark (pin) wash around shut lines and details 4) Mix a light yellow, pick out the top edges on the nose on edges the sun would hit (less is more) 5) Leave to dry for 24hours 6) Now I use oil paints to filter the sides and roof. My choice is "Wilder weathering oils" - they dry well and are less greasy than most. I pick 3 colours to suit the direction I want the colour to go. For example, for the BR blue I wanted a sun faded appearance. That means I used a white, light blue and blue grey/steel. I would then put tiny dots of these three paints all over the sides, like a polka dot! Then, using a small amount of thinner of a clean brush, I would drag these colours from top to bottom. The idea here is to create a very subtle 'filter' over the base paint, you shouldn't see each colour, just a changing tone. Very subtle, to the point you don't realise it's there. As these are oils, I'd give it at least a day to allow them to dry before doing any additional layers of filters. Even after a day, they're very easy to remove. Less is more! 7) The roof is pretty easy. Dark oils, lightly brushed side-to-side. Thinned with a clean brush where you want less grime. The opposite of course for lighter areas. You can treat good quality oil paints with a dry brush, moving them around softly. Doing this with a sweeping brush motion creates a very, very smooth finish with absolutely no brush marks. You can work with the oils for hours before they start to dry. If I were airbrushing, I'd just use Acrylics! Which brings me to step 8) airbrush grime and mud lightly over the sides (not see in my photo as that was pre-airbrush). 9) Add grease and oil marks where appropriate on bogies and tanks. Oh and another tip I stumbled across was to first airbrush a light mud colour on the sides. This is 'dried' mud. Then airbrush a much darker shade sparingly lower down. It looks super realistic, I'll get a photo of my 25 at the weekend to show you the end result. Obviously this tip isn't much use for people modelling the summer, but great for winter and autumn. 10) Apply a final layer of varnish if you wish - however, being oils it's not needed as they dry hard and durable. Depends on how clumsy you are when handling your models!

Steady, but solid progress. What's slowing me down a touch is that every piece of track and point is a block. Including additional 'toe' blocks in sidings, so iTrain can register each loco and stack them in any siding. I've also create a very small drop at the rear for the two rails as per the real thing. It's only a few feet in real life, so quite subtle but I'm pleased with the effect.

I am working on the layout, honest...

More work to do this weekend! Thanks to @WIMorrison for his advice, and James at @DCCTrainAuto too.

Some progress today, just making sure the track and wiring actually works. Best way to do that is to thrash the 37.

Here's one video, pretty straight-forwards!

There are several people on YouTube using it with the Digikeijs 5000 and various other none ESU systems. Probably the simplest (and free) is to run JMRI WiFi Throttle. I will be having a dedicated PC for running iTrain, so it makes sense to have the WiFi Throttle on there.

ps: I've actually opted for a Dijikeys 5000, iTrain 5 Plus and 5088 railcom detectors. If I hadn't gone this route, the ECoS would have been my next choice. I've committed to going fully automation.

Thanks for the insight. I've just had a new one swapped out (next-day by Kevin at Coastal) and I'm happy to report, the clonking and internal rattle has gone. However, the rattling function keys are there - clearly a 'feature'. To be honest, these are a bit naff... but I'm sure with time, I'll get used to them. All said, this is better for sure, I'm less concerned now and happy it works.

Thanks chaps, I bought it from Coastal who are reputable - I've contacted them for a replacement. I wanted to be sure this wasn't 'how it is' - thanks for the feedback.

I do wonder if I've somehow got a Friday afternoon build with mine. There's even a paint scuff - albeit small - on the finish of the throttle dial!

Hi guys, I just received my brand new ESU Mobile II (50113) and I have to say... I'm a little underwhelmed by the build quality. It rattles, the innards are obviously moving around. The keys on the sides and top are really quite awful. They float and rattle around? Not a positive feel to them at all. For £300 I was expecting more. I'm glad I didn't get the ECoS with it. Can any Mobile II owners on here confirm their units are the same?

Nigel, you've been very helpful and so your comment makes me feel awkward that I've somehow offended you by posting here too.

Nigel has been very helpful over on the NGauge forum, for ref: https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=49568.0 I'm not sure it's a problem posting here as well, the community is different - I'm simply trying to garner opinions to assist my progress!

I was about to start soldering and gluing track to my new open-frame, and then I remembered my requirements: I wanted to control 1 train myself I wanted to schedule/automate everything else including shunting Setup is DCC and I want to run TrainController™ (or iTrain if it does the job) Handset is NCE Powercab - this will be replaced, I think with an ESU ECoS Electrofrog points using Cobalt IP motors with adjacent semaphore signals I wanted to double-check a few items specifically around the block detection. Questions for your experienced thoughts please: 1) Am I right in saying you only need to insulate the negative lines at start and end of the each block, and that all positive can be joined? 2) I'm thinking of using insulating joiners because they are accurate, keep the rail-to-rail join aligned and are invisible. A cut - I believe - is visible to the eye and also has the potential for the rail-to-rail connection to be out of line. Agree/disagree? 3) Are DR5088RC my best option because they do both the block and the loco (decoder) detection? I understand that the DR4088LN are inadequate because they only provide block detection and nothing more. 4) And finally, am I right in saying blocks are best on their own DCC power - with turnouts/points on another. I.e. 2 DCC power circuits/buses, entirely separate and therefore requiring 2 power supplies? If yes, how do they communicate? 5) Can DR5088RC detect multiple locos on one block? Or for a siding full of diesels (as seen at Shirebrook in the 80's) would I have to have diesel locomotive length (15cm) blocks? As ever, thank you for your input and assistance!

Thanks Duncan, I wanted a uniform structure for strength. I thought I would just cut notches for any point motors (I use servos). Should be okay!

Today, woodwork in the sun. I'm an amateur so this is definitely woodwork and not carpentry! 9mm hardwood ply from timber merchants, not the god awful B&Q rubbish (all their wood is warped). Tomorrow, start cutting out the track runs and then hopefully, jigsaw the risers down to size/contour of the landscape.

Thank you Phil, appreciate the words of encouragement. For anyone reading - I've been testing weathering a roof of a Peco shed. It's not going on my layout, I use it to test. The left side looks far more realistic (right side if pre-varnish step), to get the effect: Flat grey acrylic, nice and simple Very mild/light streaks with acrylic thinned, dry brushing at times Brushed on matt cote varnish with 1 part white enamel - just slap it on! Hairdryer blast for 15 seconds, then give it a few minutes and it's ready for the impatient modeller to continue MIG dark weathering was then applied around the edges and dragged down with thinner Finally a grey and brown mix was sprayed over edges and lightly across areas of the roof, this blends the manual brush work In the daylight at viewing distance, it looks very convincing. I'll certainly be using this method in the future.

Thanks Ian, you make a good point and one I failed to mention. With 15+ wagons on the 3% incline, I could hear the motor/gear whine. It wasn't pronounced, but it was certainly more noticeable than usual. It was clearly under more strain. A 2% didn't exhibit the same strain, so I'm far more comfortable at that gradient. For anyone else reading this: if you were doing a short run at 3% I'd be less concerned. But an entire helix? Not a good idea!

Today I scratch built a cable rack... (not sure that's the technical name). It's slightly over-scale simply because when I tried it smaller, you couldn't even see it. Weathered as per the prototype images I have. Ready to plonk on the layout and bury in shrubbery. I'm pretty happy with the result. I've left two cables running out of the rear, those will connect to the relay boxes that were located next to this signal box.

I had a happy accident, Bob Ross style. Applied a varnish, ran some MIG weathering fluid over it and... woah, way too dark. Especially on such a small model. I did remove loads of it with thinner, but it looked grubby and 'over-scale'. After observing the prototype, I decided instead to use the mess as a pre-shade layer. I blew another slightly lighter layer of signal box colour over the top. I say 'signal box' colour, it's actually approx 70% mid-grey, 9% white and 1% mustard yellow.

Thanks chaps. I have some Mirco glaze Klear to hand actually, but.... I do actually want to be able to shunt. I know, what a paiN! The plan was to have electro magnets. Also, if you make the couplings fixed the weakest point becomes the coupling at the loco end, unless you guys fix that one too? All being said, I'm pretty confident a 4th degree at 2% will eradicate the problem. I'm not a betting man - but If I were... *famous last words

That's a good comparison shot. 4% is quite the gradient isn't it. 2% looks like child's play in comparison!

Okay, so the helix is a bust for my requirements. It works fine with up to 15 wagons, even up to a 3% gradient. The locomotives (diesel BoBo and CoCo) are more than capable of pulling, stopping and starting on a 3% with up to 20 wagons. However, the resistance on the couplings at 17-18+ just creates random uncoupling events - going UP the helix. Down is not an issue. This is what testing is for. I will now (pending getting some more MDF) go from 3rd to 4th radius, dropping from a 6mm to 3 or 4mm MDF. Those few mm give me a comfortable 2.1% gradient, but with an more open - lower friction - curve. For ref, here are my helix calculations:

An overwhelming sense of deja vue! As soon as I get the wood, I've given myself a month to construct and get the track laid. I think I can turn it out relatively quickly, the scenery on the other hand - we'll see! I am tempted to build two 5x2ft main boards instead of 4x2ft, I'd get the whole bridge to viaduct (start) on those. I think 5ft is still a safe size to manhandle? edit: although I don't think I'll be able to squeeze a viaduct in on this section, I might have to move that around the corner - not true to prototype, but if I'm careful in the future, I could remove the end fillet and connect the viaduct section in parallel to the back section (thinking of a future space/house).