Leith Centrl

Finishing the Bridge

So I spent the weekend putting together the second KS Laser Design Bridge Kit and getting the bridge fully joined together and ready for paint. KS Laser Designs Oxford Street Bridge Verdict: Great simple kit that comes well packed and with some well done fine detail on the spans and the underside is a work of art structurally. Goes together really easily in a common sense way with a good little guide included in the kit. I used Javis Rapid set Wood glue to stick it together. Well worth the £33 especially when something of similar size prebuilt would set you back closer to £70 For the Detailing i used my usual stone cladding from Slaters, Wills Edging Stones and Plastrut 3mm strip section to add some extra relief and help the brickwork blend with the rest of the layout. Simply glued inplace as with the retaining walls. I also had a new wagon arrive in the form of the Dapol ECC Silver Bullet in Weathered form. Nice model with only slight niggles being the large coupling hook that to me looks too big and a slight tweak required to the Weathering on top of the tank to make the white areas match up from the body on the top walkway. Overall a great model though, the data panels are worth getting the magnifying glass out for, its a fine piece of printed detail and the weathered effect on the tank body is spot on.

Building the KS Laser Bridge and ECC wagon Review

Thanks The bus is a Sunrise Kit. Silly thing with our work intranet where I can't access it from home without logging it in on a work rooter first apparently. Network Rail silliness right there :/

Short Engineers Trains

So with all the lockdown hubbub im getting alot of modelling done. Really am enjoying seeing the progress on this little corner. The ground cover is now in place and some green added to the concrete jungle. Take a look at the video for the retaining wall build and the ground cover going down. Equipment Used: Woodland Scenic Clump Foliage TP Wild Flower Bushes Gaugemaster small trees Peco Static Grass self adhesive Clumps Javis Brown Earth Scatter Humbrol light Brown Slaters embossed brick sheets Plastrut 2mm square rod Metcalfe curb stones Polycement Javis fast acting wood glue Paints for the retaining wall are the same as for the platform edges. Building out and following logical steps from the backscene here. Using the card template method for the retaining walls is something i intend to carry on for other areas of wall i need to build as it made the build up of them alot simpler and also adds an extra 2mm thickness to a wall where needed. Next its on with building and facing up Jane Street Bridge and getting it ready for priming and painting up as well as building the mock ups for the Platform 1 ramp, this will probably form the weekends entertainment for me and next weeks update. Im going to take my time over the bridge painting and i am aiming to go with similar colours to Waverley Bridge in Edinburgh (Maroon, Green and Cream metal work) so the focus of updates will shift towards other things soon but there will be a dedicated final fitting and bridge opening video eventually. Work have sourced me a laptop in the end so will be off to brave the virus on a trip to the office next week to collect it so updates will go back to about once a fortnight as i will have work to do in between working on Leith Central. In other areas i now have a basic track plan for the shunting puzzle and will be looking to make a start on this once ive got a few things ordered with the aim of getting this up and running quickly so i can do some running of some of the stock collection. Look out for that in the coming months on the channel.

Nearest facing crossover would have been Haymarket West Junction or Slateford depending on where the train approached from. So a painfully slow 5 miles bang road and alot more restrictive considering it would have put the whole sub down to single line working. This was actually considered the faster option from a pathing point of view but did make 15:45-17:45 very busy at Niddrie.

Over the past week i have been working on the back corner of board one getting the backscene prep done between the end of the board and the start of the station roof. Jobs Done/Process: 1, Fit blue sky background: Printed on ink jet and glued to Backscene board with PVA using a card off cut to smooth out any air bubbles and ridges. 2, Mounted ID Backscenes BM110 parts on 2mm card to give some relief off the backscene. These are self adhesive and go on really well if you take a bit of care. Great product both in look and timesaving. 3, Fitted troughing route and Location boxes along edge of the cork using wood glue 4, Ballasted the end of platform 3, 4 and 5 5, Fitted and painted edgings to the bridge footing. (Please see the previous blog entry for how I do this) THIS AREA IS GIVEN AN ADDED LAYER OF DARK GREY PRIMER TO DARKEN THE COATS DOWN SLIGHTLY 6, Cut the Card base mock up for the retaining wall section from 2mm card to test fit. The Bridge is from KS Laser Designs. A really nice kit that i will cover in full in the next update from building, through detailing and painting Link to The Bridge: https://kslaserdesigns.com/OO-scale/OO-scale-bridges/oo-scale-iron-bridge Away from the main video ive also been slowly chipping away at the station building scale drawings and paving in between other jobs. The Blank Paper to Building will feature in a future update at some point. Most of all at the moment I hope you are all keeping safe indoors and enjoying some modelling.

Update 21. Work Starts on the bridge corner

Drags from full HSTs and MK4 sets to Steam Locos

The past few weeks have seen work to finish off platforms 2 and 3 as far as possible completed as well as the finishing of an Alvis Stolwart and fitting of the last Point motor into place on board 1. The latest video is basically a complete run through of how i build my platforms. Equipment: Dremmel with disc file knife PVA Rular Plastic Weld Any form of weight Paint (water based). Desert Sand, Weathered Stone, Grey, white and Sleeper Grime Parts: 3mm Corigated Card 1mm Plastic Sheet PECO Platform Edges Embossed stone plastic sheets Metcalfe paving slabs track pins Steps 1: Cut Polystyrene (12mm thickness used) to size. 2: Glue to cork bed with PVA, Weight Down and let dry. 3: Repeat above for 3mm Corigated Card top to bring platform up to 15mm above board level. 4: Remove bottom lugs from PECO platform edges 5: Glue together full length of PECO edges required 6: Cut 14mm strips of embossed brick sheets to match length of edges 7: Plastic weld or Airfix glue sheets to edges 8: Prime edges 9: Build up paint finish: My order is Desert Sand base coat then weathered stone wash, next paint edge stones white and finally apply a varied sleeper grime, grey and weathered stone wash. 10: PVA and track pin edges to platform. The eyes on the top of the edges should overlap the platform top and take normal grade 00 track pins. I test fit with just track pins and run stock through to double check clearances at this point. 11: Cut 1mm Plastic sheet to correct width and length to fit platform 12: Prime tops with one coat of grey 13: Glue plastic tops to PECO edges using the eyes mentioned earlier. 14: Stick on Metcalfe paving stones behind white edge stones (Scale model scenery do a range of more modern edges you may prefer for your era) Steps still required 15: Drill Holes for lights, roof supports and the like and fit in place 16: Fill gap between paving slabs with grey scatter and use the pippet method to glue in place (as per my ballasting video). I use a plastic card to flatten this surface before hand. 17: Fit platform furniture, figures and other details and enjoy the handy work. In all i really enjoyed this part of the build and im really happy with the results. Once the platforms are ballasted in and any cork to edge gaps covered they will look exactly like i wanted them too. Next area of work on Leith Central will be the execalent bridges that have just arrived form KS Laser and building the back scene to meet the start of the roof support wall. This corner should give me the opertunity to add a splash of green to the urban jungle of board 1 one. Looking forward to getting started. Taking the one area at a time approach at the moment is making my modelling enjoyable as you see a finished product no matter how small an area your working on, Hope you enjoy the video and i look forward to any comments and feedback and new subscribers to the channel are always welcome. Thanks for Reading and Watching my musings Tom Leith Central Near Were It Should Be Spareroom Modelland LE17HC

Another Quick Update

Another idea. Single line working shunts

February proved to be a busy month a Leith Central as I got the retaining wall foot finished along the rear of platform 5. To build this i layered 4 pieces of card encased is plasticard and fitted brick sheet faces as can be seen in the video. I painted this with the safe effect ive been using on the platform side. Mixing Xtracrylix Desert Sand and Railmatch weathered stone to give a good base, the washing over with more weather stone before apply a patchy weathered effect with a mix of sleeper grime, grey and black. Im really happy with the way this layering works and plan to use it on the whole station building. Yes it takes time with 3 or 4 paint layers but you can do a good sized area with acrylic in a short time and the drying time does mean it is quicker and less high as a kite than enamel. Also this month i got the platform base cut for platform 4 and 5 and these now need to be primed, painted and edgings fitting before i mark and drill for the platform lamps which i am currently researching. This will eventually have a tarmac effect with a thin layer of scatter indicating it was recently resurfaced as part of the phased improvements to the station that i am modelling. Elsewhere more of the card and plastic coating for the platforms has been fitted and the edge for platform 1 glued to full length and i have started facing this with the same plastic sheets as the wall foot. The point motor for the platform 1 side of the cross over is also now in its permanent position The next stages over the coming month will be: Paint and fit Platform 1 Edging. Ballast the hydroponic buffer (1 & 2) area and platform 5, the aim being to have the area under the roof ballasted by the summer so work can shift to the platform detail and hopefully the roof. Test tarmacing on the road surface Fit other 2 side mounted point motors to 4/5 approach and platform 2 Adjust hole for platform 3 point motor Fix down styrine of platform 2/3 So there is plenty to be getting on with on Leith Central. This month i also visited Model Rail Scotland Exhibiting with the ELMRC with Talybont which as fun to operate. There were some fantastic layout with Hills of the North being a favourite. Managed to pick up a new addition to the fleet in the form of 20172 with its Thornaby embellishments and a nice short rake of blue/grey mk2s. Also bumped into Dave from Dean Park at the Scale Model Scenery stand and had a good chat about making monstrous roofs and detailing them

Latest update

Hi there looking for something on the rr mk2 fleet so thought best posting here than new thread. Does anyone know which coaches and types were transfered to nw and scotland and wore the hybrid livery of nse with the red stripe painted blue? Was there any other changes to the livery to consider. Looking at doing a couple to add to my RR rakes.

Oxford diecast produce one, motorising im not sure on but im sure someone will have

Bachmann MK1s a closer look

Recently did my first disused railway video Looking to see where people would like next

Then and Now at Commonwealth Pool End

I recently took a visit to the Innocent Railway in Edinburgh. Opened in the 1800s it was known as the innocent railway because it was originally horse worked through out. The information board near to Duddingston explains the history better than i could but in all its a nice way to spend a few hours doing something less well known in the Edinburgh area. Here is the details of the walk Location: Edinburgh, Duddingston Old Station to Commonwealth Pool Access: Via number 30 bus from Edinburgh Waverley North Bridge stop Length: 1.6 miles Railway Highlights: 1890s vintage steel bridge Long abandoned tunnel Undefoot: Suitable for all, tarmac through out Wildlife Seen: Blue, Great & Long Tailed Tits Jackdaw Magpie Carrion Crow Buzzard Wood Pigeon Woodpeckers Grey Squirrel Good Local Pub/Food: Auld Hoose (see map) All in all a nice little walk and ill look to doing more like this in the future, information above supports the video and there is also a nice article in the Scotsman if you google it. Next will either be Penicuik-Dalkeith Route or Longniddry to Haddington with more modern railway artefacts to be found

Expanding on the theme a bit but did a quick video to get the idea started.