Elliot Friend

So after a long pause from the hobby, I’m now starting to get back to it! During the 2nd lockdown I bought a 3D printer to prevent the death of boredom. Putting it to good use at designing my own control panel for Brislington sidings. Plenty of room for all the wiring and to incorporate the gaugemaster controller.

Thanks! Made from 1mm grey board. Painted it with cheap acyclic from the works. Base coat was a dark grey then weathered it with various weathering powders to get the desired look. Sealed it with a Matt varnish to stop the powders coming off.

Thanks! Not far off finishing it.

Started to add my own guttering to the low relief houses. I found the ratio kits a little too chunky in N gauge, so opted to make my own. Made from evergreen plastics.

Started on the retaining wall roads, just one of those jobs I wasn’t looking forward too. I find getting roads right is quite hard, especially in N gauge. Tried to match the backscene as best as possible. Still might add some more patch repairs. The pavements still need a weathering touch up and tweak, but meh I’m happy with the final finish.

Edges painted black to help frame the scene. Surprising what a bit of paint can do!

Started to add scenery details to the layout. Static grass was added to help blend the bushes in against the retaining walls as these looked a bit of an eye sore against the dark ground. Bushes were also added to the front to give and overgrown look to the layout. These were a mixture of woodland scenics & javis. Customised a few by adding different coloured scatter to them.

Thanks! If you’re referring to a fiddle yard, I’m using a cassette yard designed and manufactured by myself. This will allow me to remove stock without handling each one.

Point levers received a coat of paint which now stand out on the layout to show the smallest of details which can be achieved in N gauge! I also modded some peco buffer stops as they were a little on the chonky side. These were primed, painted with sleeper grime, weathered with powders and finally sealed with matt varnish. Love the overall look of them for an old worn out buffer stop.

Thanks! I enjoy the challenges it brings to the table! (most of the time)

A huge amount has happened since the last update. I haven't been on here for a while hence the lack of updates. Here is a small list of whats happened: - Ballasted all of the track work (Attwood aggregates EX fine WE) - Ground texture added (Hattons oil spill kit) - Graham Farish Depot office bought (42-047 Hampton Hill Platelayers Hut) - Base added for office, made from Plasticard - Ground texture weathered with (Oil spill solution & Railmatch sleeper grime) - All metcalfe kits painted on edges) - Retaining wall weathered and drainage pipes added (Oil spill solution & Cocktail sticks) - Fiddle yard cassettes made and wired up (Designed & manufactured at work) - Yard signs added to bridge and office (Sankey scenics) - Back scene finished (Townscene) Photos will be uploaded shortly.

Quite a big update after 3 1/2 weeks! The Wiring has now been completed on the main board including all the point motors. I have now started on some of the finer scenery detail which need to be in place before ballasting. The points had additional sleepers glued down so the lever ground frames can rest on top. The barrow crossing was cut to size from Scale model scenery LX186-N kit. The base needed to be sanded due to the code 55 track. I then pre weathered/painted it ready for when ballasting was complete. I then took a week playing around with different ballasts and ideas on how i wanted the worn down sidings to look. I opted for Attwood Aggregates extra fine ballast in WE flavour! Dapol Easi shunt magnets were glued down in various locations to allow me to have different size rakes on the layout as the low friction and weight of N gauge makes it difficult to shunt with them. At the present time i am now ballasting and creating the ground textures more photos to come!

Spent sometime yesterday and today wiring up the point motors under the layout. The point motors are Gaugemaster PM1 and held in place with 3M command strips used to hold up picture frames. I found these give me the flexibility of fine adjusting the point motors and also replace any broken ones in the future. Another reason for using it is due to the thin material used for the baseboard. I did not want screws coming through the scenic base. All wiring is done with 20 Awg wire.

Finished the control panel for Brislington sidings. It was made from a plastic clip box which came with some boring bars at work. I was struggling to find something I could use without going out and making it from scratch. It’s small and compact which is ideal for the layout. The controller is a gaugemaster single track combi which I removed the back box and secured it to the control panel using the same screws. The 4 power switches are for isolated sections on the layout and 5SPDT switches for the points. Inside there is a gaugemaster CDU. The plug connectors are 2x 6 pin and 1x 5 pin DINs. These will allow me to unplug the control panel from the layout when not in use as the tight fit in the layout box would not allow me to have It permanently connected.

Hi Gordon, I got them from N brass locos 25667 cranked point lever https://www.nbrasslocos.co.uk/nline4.html

Whilst I wait for some supplies from rail room electronics, I’d thought it be a good time to start on some of the “finer” detail for the layout. These point levers are to date the smallest thing I’ve built. Although a little fiddly, it went together pretty well.

Spent this evening glueing down the track with copydex. Really love this stuff, holds the track like if it were nailed down!

With all the main track wired up to the main bus meant I could finally test it. The test was successful with no shorts or explosions! Still need to wire the isolated sections for 3 & 4 road, head shunt and bottom of 1 road. Really happy with this stage as the time and patience has paid off, finally running some trains!

Have made good progress over the past couple of evenings drilling the dropper wire holes, point motor holes, soldering the droppers and crimping then ready for splicing to the main bus wires.