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Miserable

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  1. Miserable

    End Of The Road - On Here

    By Miserable,


    End
    Unfortunately this site has a member, posting under at least two identities, who seriously needs to get a life, seeming to think this his private empire to rule as he pleases. He recently started contributing, unhelpfully, to a two-man discussion thread under his other persona (though blatantly him from the start), right from the off trying to goad a reaction - stalking really. When one's contributions are belittled it takes away the fun. Hope you all get through these hard time in one piece and have success with you modelling endevours. Remember, no one is right all the time. When he reports this post Mods, please delete my account. In the mean time, I've just scrambled my password so please feel free to rant away.  
  2. Miserable

    Lighting The Layout - And Pliers

    By Miserable,


    Layout Lighting
    Progress on the banner repeater hasn't for a couple of days due to exciting family based distractions, but while suffering the weekly shop I found something that solves my layout lighting problem - the problem being lack of daylight in the loft and poor artificial lighting making seeing anything difficult. I was aware of LED strips from art installations I've assisted with, but I've not been able source them at either a sensible price or with adequate explanation of what you get for your money, so steam powered me was looking for some sort of strip lights. Cue the middle isle in Lidl. They have two types of strip, 2m and 5m. A peek in the boxes suggests the 2m version, despite being the same price (£15) as the 5m version, is a bit more industrial looking so the Brunel in me took over.
     

    This is the best the current lighting can do, without using an old standard lamp to illuminate where I'm working.
     

     
    From the always surprising Lidl middle isle. Clear white to sunset orange...
     
    What I wanted was some sort of lighting 'behind' the purlin shining down in a hidden light source effect, so sticky back LED strip is ideal. I didn't want the whole loft lit, not a good music environment (for me). Though the strip comes ready-sticky, it doesn't stick all that well to old timber, but pairs of drawing pins 'clipping' the strip works just fine. Unpacking the box reveals an instruction book, power supply, controller box (I assume!), the LED strip and a male-male connector to add additional LED strips. Plugging it all in et voilà, cycling white light. During to the time it took to retrieve the instructions from the bin it actually settled down to a constant 'white', so no need to set up the Lidl app that controls the LEDs from your phone (Bluetooth). I'll experiment with softer white settings and sunset oranges later, for now seeing what I'm doing is priority.
     

     
    That's much better :-) I'll be getting another set next week (if there's any left) for the north end of the layout. Trouble is now I can see Ineed to finish the scenery...
     
    And in other news, I found my favourite pliers. These are an ancient pair I've had for decades and the tips are just right for making loops in handrails etc. In a bit of a coincidence as I was celebrating finding them (I need them for the 43two1 20T BR brake van kit I have in the projects queue) when the previous one I built (using said pliers) appeared on eBay - according to the seller it's 'professionally built' which I'm happy to take :-)
     

     
    Is it sad to have favourite pliers?
     
    Ah well, back to the repeater I guess.
  3. Miserable

    Trees!

    By Miserable,

    Ok, so I admit that back in the day I was in the bright green flock and trees made of sponge on sticks persuasion somewhat. This time I'm quite keen on making a bit of an effort, so ... to google. What's out there, how do trees 'work', and of course - how much?
    The 'how much' was a tad eye-watering, so out went off-the-shelf (not that any of them, in 7mmm scale were all that suitable anyway, a definite US bias there), and the various kits available either didn't do it for me, or were far too small - trees are great big things as a rule. In my searches I came across a post on a US site that talked about making trees from wire, which triggered a memory of an article in Railway Modeller from way back in the day. Seems like a plan. This is how I went about it..
    Step 1 : Guestimate how broad the trunk will be for the amount of wire used. By 'screen measuring' it seems that the diameter of the trunk of an 'average' British deciduous tree is abound 10% of it's height, so through rigourous highly scientific assessment one reel of 0.4mm x 20m ought to make a six inch tree.
    Step 2: Put a couple of screws in your bench, six inches apart, and wrap the wire around them. Look forward to many happy hours untwisting the reel...

    Then cut through the wires at one end to release them, but keep them around the other. Turn it so the open end is facing towards you and divide the wire into two bundles. Keeping a little tension on wrap the two bundles round each other. Looking at pictures of real trees, stop where you want the first branches to split. Turn one of the two bunches away from trunk, divide this bunch into somewhere about half again and repeat until you get to single wires. Keep a randomish pattern to the branching, though trees theoretically are all terribly geometric, in reality deciduous have a highish random element.

    I forgot to take photos, but here's tree No.1 nearly done.

    Another terrible photo, but - making it look like a tree. The first plan was burnt umber poster paint (because I'd got some, and it's thick) mixed with PVA and applied liberally. It's looked ace until osmosis kicked it, then it reverted to nicely painted wire. Another coat improved things, bit it was going to take a long time to apply enough coats. So mixing in some DAS clay with the above was tried - it sort of worked, but getting the clay to form a slip didn't go so well. Finally just DAS clay was applied on PVA and brushed over with a wet paintbrush and finger to work it in. Success! Apart from being Trump orange. A coat of Humbrol Dark Earth fixed that, with a chalking session when dry. Principally brown and black was used, but with a tiny bit of green near then end to get the sort of mossey hue trees have, particularly on the southern side.

    Before chalking.
    In the absence of any green stuff for the top, I thought I'd have a go at a twelve inch tree next. 40m of wire! It took a long time but...

    Again, no chalk yet (ok, I forgot to take photos).
    Only another 20 or so to go...
     
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  4. Miserable

    Ground Frame.

    By Miserable,

    At last I can start moving on from point rodding and signal wires! Nearly. Until I start the other end. The pullies bit has had the wires threaded through and dollop of paint (still wet in the photo). The Signal is fixed in place and when the paint is dry the aforementioned pullies, wires and signals will be affixed to the other. If The Plan works it should be simple. Ha ha.
     
    Starting to look past The Beam Of Doom, I've sorted out how the totally unnecessary ground frame will work. As mentioned earlier, I bought the ground frame kit on a bit a whim - I wanted to have one just because... With no picture on the Wizard site I bought it anyway because I like making their ( Inc. MSE) kits. I wasn't quite what I expected, but as ever failed expectations are the mother of invention. All the ones I got to play with were a small step up on whatever remaining timber constituted the platform, so I'm going to let this into the baseboard so it suits the height of the platform, rather than vice versa. To which end I've made the platform, which is c. 10" high - less whatever ground cover goes round it). I've decided not to go overboard on the weathering, again the ones I played with were reasonably well painted. I'm still not sure about "white" levers in a ground frame but it does look a bit naff with only one lever. That lever I lost when making the kit? Two nights back I dropped something else and there it was, right in front of me. I suspect the cat.
     
    With the other bits is the phone cabinet, which will be placed with it supposedly having the token (key if you prefer) release in it. This will mounted on a post or frame, I need to see the frame in place to decide, but it's a bit late to start drilling holes. 
     
    And the speed sign is in! (The strange shadowing round the "50" is the awful phone flash again). I ummed and arrred about whether the bit under the numbers should be yellow too, and googling was inconclusive so I've gone for 'not'. Stupid it may be, but that's one accessory I always wanted to have on my train sets but never did.






  5. Miserable

    Parkside SR 25T Brake Van Kit Build

    By Miserable,


    Rolling Stock
    With the banner repeater finished and the stone walling on order, another sub-project as mentioned is needed. To this end I've secured a spray gun that actually sprays, but as yet can't find the marble cutting board I use as a known flat surface to make sure all is square. A trip to Wilko on shopping day may be in order. I'm attempting to order a set of wheels with roller bearings for this, as I'd like to see how effectively loose shunting can be reproduced, since it was such a major part of railway operation. Plus I want use blackened wheels, I don't 'get' the Slaters silver rims and they are a to paint. I don't know if a Parkside kit build it is of any interest to anyone, there's probably millions on the web, but I'll post it anyway because Friday or something.
     
    Anyhow, to the van. I'm not overly SR oriented, and this is the first wagon I've made that I didn't actually work with - probably a lot to do with the SR being fitted-only by my day. I guess some were probably still in Engineers use somewhere. I'm looking at BR decoration, as the 7mm ones for sale seem to be mostly SR. But the I have a pot of SR paint on the shelf... ah decisions.
     

     
    The box. Pretty much what you'd expect!
     

     
    The bits. And so many... The repeater is still drying down to the left (one tiny blob of back on white - arrrrgggghh), so I'll not start just now so I don't knock it off. At least the work bench is tidy. Ish.
  6. Miserable

    Weathering Ballast : Conclusion

    By Miserable,


    Ballasting
    So, 24rs later than advertised, I've tried the Railmatch acrylic thought the spray pot. It didn't go well, the sprayer kept blocking. This might have been caused by the enamel paint trial, but it might have been not liking acrylic paint, who knows. It's certainly a lot easier to use, as in it washes off hands easily... As it turns out, the acrylic diluted 3:1 works very well when stippled on, the paint doesn't stick to the ballast like enamel so there was a lot less grief with inadvertently pulling up looser bits. So the great experiment was interesting but ultimately showed that stippling with acrylics is far, far easier - and more controllable too as there's no over-spray.
     
    As to the colour. I've sat here now for some time literally watching paint dry and come to he following conclusion : The Precision Sleeper Grime, with it's red-ish tint, kind of makes it look like the track is old and isn't used much, whereas the Railmatch one looks somehow more lived in, more recent perhaps. It's purely subjective of course. I'm going with the Railmatch.
     
    As ever, some photos. The double slip is the Railmatch paint job obviously, still quite wet when it took the snap (call me Mr. Patience) and the others are an example of why I need to hide my credit card when visiting the Wizard Models site.

     

    What I actually needed was the signal wire pullies.

    What I actually wanted was the signal kit.

    What would be great but not essential would be the manhole covers.

    What I really didn't need was the tail lamps. But they are so cute :-) They will be nesting round a set of buffers as tail lamps do. A shame to do it, but all but one will be weathered as even in the breeding season they were mostly bereft of their finer plumage.
  7. Miserable
    Finally, "all", there's still a run the run-round points when I've decided what's going where, the point rodding is in place. I have to say the results make the effort worth while, but it's not exactly over-exciting doing it - and it holds up so many more fun things (like ballasting!). The rods at the south end have had the attentions of the P&D dept. For this I went with Halfords grey primer sprayed into a can lid and then applied by brush. This is a reasonably match for new but dulled galvanized steel, so the inevitable chalks came out and brown drawn on erratically to the rods. This was then rubbed with a finger a bit and comes out quite nicely. Some very dilute black poster paint was then applied to the stools to get a slightly oily look - these aren't oiled in real life, but the black looks right which is the name of the game? With the poor lighting I have some bits missed and will be touched up when the rest gets painted - along with the cranks etc.
     
    Next.... signal wires... should be fun. 0.009" guitar top E strings for these, and the telegraph wires.
     
    Oh, and the reception road trap point - completely forgot about that. As this has to be on a curve I'm going to make a simple single blade version. - rodding... Perhaps some skullduggery here I think. Still, I can get with ballasting/claying now.


  8. Miserable
    In the six years or so I was going manic on the music front a lot changed in model railways, the arrival of laser cut MDF/carboard kits being one of them. Confusingly all the makers have very similar names, but after a lot of time on the web trying to work out the pros and cons it was decision time and I opted for LCUT's B 70-13L O Gauge Small Signal Box - with left hand stairs. I did consider kit-bashing the laser cut model of Pewsey signal box into a replica of my old box, or it would have been delightful to have the model of Exeter Middle Box which is, to say the least, impressive - but both would be way too big for Soddigham. Though not specifically GWR (or BR(W)) the LCUT kit is sufficiently GWRish (the key architectural features match my old box very well) for my purposes and as it represents a box with a 20 to 30 lever frame it's probably about right for the layout.

    Above : This is what you get.
    The instructions, which you should read before starting not least as you can do bits in parallel while glue dries if you choose, are good, tough the chimney being shown upside down is a little perplexing. Not having built this sort of kit before it was nice to find that all the dimensions are bob-on, the interleaving of the bricks on the corners for example works perfectly and overlays match exactly. A definite improvement on the Superquick kits I built back in the day.
    LCUT recommend PVA glue, but I went with Evostick Timebond because; this gives you plenty of time to prepare bits and you can move them for some time after placement if you need to; it 'holds' parts together straight away (they don't slide down over time etc); you don't need more than the thinnest smear (so no glue squeezing out of joints or dribbling); and it sticks very well. The disadvantage is the glue 'stringing', but you get used to it.
    So, step 1 : Window frame overlays...

    All fitted perfectly. Put aside to go off (takes about 15 minutes), I got on with the front lower windows.

    And frame-room door

    I should have cut the part number tags off before doing these, but it doesn't actually matter. The board/card is easy enough to cut with a sharp knife. A blunt knife just tears it though.
    After a couple of minutes the brick base can be assembled

    Keen to get the first corner at 90' I employed my old faithful engineers square. It's accurate and dammed heavy. The pot of glue makes sure nothing moves - I still vaguely don't trust MDF to warp.
    Will all four walls glued, a frame is made to go inside to support the floor. Unfortunately they had supplied four of the shorter (side) parts rather than two short and two long.

    Not to worry though, I could still make a frame for the floor using these.

    You really need all this to still be flexible, but not fall aparty, to put the floor in - which much to my surprise fitted exactly.

    Mr. Square stars again.
    Gluing the window frames in place looked a little scary, but here again the choice of glue came to the rescue - pretty much just put them in place and they stay there - though I did use Mr. Square again just for belt and braces. They kind of only go in one way, sitting on the walls below, but stating whether they are intended to be flush or whatever in the instructions would have removed lingering doubts.

    The upper door fitting in the bricks here was the only time I had to resort to filing to get a fit, it was a very tight to start with.

    While that was all going off, I assembled the gable ends and... the stairs. My concerns about MDF came true here, the lugs rapidly de-laminate and are hard to get into the second set of side rails while not falling out of the other. This was very fiddly but I got there in the end without destroying anything, which is nice.

    And to the roof. As I intend to put and interior and a light in the box I made the roof as a separate assembly, as suggested in the instructions.

    The two rafters fitted. I left the glue to go off a bit, around five minutes before attaching rafters so that it acted more like a contact adhesive, so I could go straight on with the other side.

    Then fix the chimney to this, fix the ridge times and the stairs to the box and plonk the roof on. It fits!

    Clothes pegs are good things too. Stroppy ridge tiles.
    So here it is in situ on the layout. 'Just' paint, interior and lighting to add. And glazing - which for some reason isn't supplied

    Oh, and the rampy thing for going over the point rodding - I nearly missed this.
     
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  9. Miserable
    Alas Wilko were out of their 350 x 450 x 40mm granite cutting boards, so a smaller local shop provided a glass one for a whopping £2. It's nice and flat, but being basically a bit of glass (I assume some form of Pyrex) so it's survival chances are probably not very long term. But it will do for now.
     

     
    It's sadly not full of stars.
     
  10. Miserable

    Tree!

    By Miserable,

    The first tree is fully planted, and had some slightly lighter leaves added for effect. The tap root and sideways roots for balance seems to work, and stops it looking quite so "stuck in the ground". Brown and black acrylic mixed with PVA painted over the 'roots' which have had very soggy small bits of paper pushed into the gaps provides the fixing for this one (the paint's not dry!). A little static grass for effect and a touch of 'autumn leaf fall' around the trunk to get that "not so hot grass under the tree" effect. Bushes and bits and bobs going in along the back wall as I go (to keep it random).

  11. Miserable

    Now Awaiting Paint.

    By Miserable,


    Scenery
    So having settled on Railmatch acrylic Sleeper Grime... I've run out. More on order. There's a coupe of pics in different lighting of the test piece now it's fully dry. The difference in the light is just the camera being a few inches higher in one that the other.

     
    As the pullies have arrived, I've made up the three sets needed for the platform signal and dummy I'd omitted. I've used Design No.3(a-198) for these - because I'd not ordered enough. Rather than making a pair represent one pulley, I've use single ones spaced a bit. The thing is stuck into sleeper off-cut so it can be superglued rather than soldered. Just two more single ones to go... probably.
     

     
    And to the manholes. I put one on a spot of flat ground and it looked like an after thought, so I've made a surround to represent the top of the manhole which can be sunk in a bit. I did the circle one first as it seemed the hardest, but to be honest plasticard is so easy to cut that was a bit OTT worrying about it. Decoration will take place in a bit. In the mean time a spot of planning of Soddingham's  drainage system - nothing scientific, just to avoid placement looking entirely random.
     
    The signal box has also been officially planted. I moved it back a bit as the rampy thing over the rodding at the front was a tad cramped. With this in place I built the ground up to suit, and the box walls to also remove the 'plonked there' look. Some grassy bits and stuff will appear when I'm feeling artistic. I could really do with getting the shed kits to complete the signal box area set up.
  12. Miserable

    Northward. And Ballasting.

    By Miserable,


    Ballasting
    While waiting for tree canopy stuff to turn up attention has moved to the north end. The builders yard has shuffled up a bit to make way for ballasting. I'm doing the, cough, reception road which should be ballasted (if not very well) as opposed to ash/mud. The grey ballast will get a varying coat of grime sprayed on to take away the newness, possibly some patches of lighter at rail joints for a bit of variety. Work has started on the totally unnecessary platform to near signal box barrow crossing. I like barrow crossings. And making them is not ballasting. Due to the incredibly unlikely over-signalling there's a lot of (single run - phew!) signal wires to go in, along with a stretch of point rodding (and the ground frame rodding), but this time I'm ballasting first before fitting pullies/cranks. This is because I think the ones I put in after at the other end look better with the heights being set by the ballast.
     
    The assorted heavy weights are patiently holding down some cork. With 20/20 hindsight it would have been a lot easier to cork the whole thing and cut away the bits not required rather than cutting round the track. Filling the gaps back up is a non fun activity, especially with the second batch of cork I bought - despite being rolled tightly in the opposite sense and left overnight to get it to lay flat (like the first lot did) this stuff seems to be memory cork...




  13. Miserable
    The era wasn't going to be an issue : BR blue is the best train livery ever (there, I said it), not least because that was the colour when I worked on the Railway. It is going to be set in Somerset. Or Wiltshire. Or, for technical reasons, Aberdeen. Plan A was a simple wagon repair facility but...
    Technology Ramble Alert ... I had bit more room than it looked, about 14ft x 3ft, with a 4ft wide bit for the last 3ft. So, out with Templot and... well, I admit it, building one set of points was great, but I know I'd never actually do it again thus leading to Soddingham 3.0 (4.0 if you count the never-really-intended P4 edition) never actually happening. So, Peco. I thought about Marcway, but not for me, I like 'proper' chairs etc. Templot is a superb tool if are designing a layout where you intend to make everything, but it's way over the top if your are using ready-rolled points (and the Peco geometry makes template creation very long winded), so, as Martin (Mr. Templot) advises, I tried Anyrail. It won't run under Wine on my Linux laptop, but happily is ok on my Linux desktop, and it is rather better than I expected. In fact does exactly what I wanted. Enter the baseboard size, load the Peco O templates and join the gaps with flexi track. It really is that easy! One of my issues with ready rolled model railway track, well the points at least, is that, after working with the real thing and playing for hours with Templot, the 'flow' of the track is all wrong, your eye derails. So, what to do?
    After a spot of infinite monkeying with Anyrail a solution sort of presented itself: by sticking to curved and Y points (and a double sip, because that's the law) it turns out the rafter jutting itself in the way provided the solution by making me 'sweep' a bit. Using curved points not only avoids horrible-looking sharp curves but saves a lot of space too - assuming you've ruled out 'medium' radius straight ones on the grounds of looking way too sharp. I'll still have those dreadful bent sleepers Peco insist on using (yeah, there's probably a production reason or something) and the blips on the tie bars, but it's not so bad in O (I could cut them off, but taking a saw to a £100 piece of track makes the old ring twitter a bit) and I can live with it. The main thing is I think the layout has a flow to it, and that's what I wanted. Result.
    As I slipped in there, like Topsy, it just grewed. A bit. And gained a two(ish) coach platform. And the ability run-round a 4ft or so train, though passenger stock would have to be shunted from the platform to reception road to do it - not that it would fit anyaway. No Mk 1s are on the shopping list, they just take up too much room in general - as would a DMU. And DMUs don't actually do a whole lot really. It also turns out that the goods shed road has ended up about 3m long! This good news came about because I thought about how I'll actually be using the layout, which is basically a bit of shunting puzzle playing and a lot of scenery making - in between bouts, or indeed R&R from, musicing. Just me, a gronk and whatever wagons come up on eBay at the right price. I thought about a 'proper' fiddle yard, but I just know I'm not going get up and wonder down there, ducking under the aforementioned rafter, just to run-round when the point of the thing is a chill. So basically the 08 hauled train disappears into a tunnel after inordinate amounts of shunting, waits until I fancy another go.
    The final design - Plan Z-143.23/98. To me, by making everything a bit curved, this captures the spirit of the real thing. The result looks far more like it was designed on Templot rather than Anyrail.
    Back To What I Was On About...
    Unless Amazon make a spectacularly favourable mis-delivery, there will be no passenger service to Soddingham, at least that we ever see, despite the platform. Somehow the place has retained a fair amount of wagon-load traffic, some coal, stuff that goes in goods shed, and whatever goes in whatever wagons I manage to pick up. Wagons also come and go without stopping for tea, part of the Westbury/Frome/Cranmore/Radstock trip working (which was actually a Class 47 turn, the one time we did it with an 08 it took all week just to get there). For whatever mystical reason the gronk lives at Soddingham in it's own little siding - a shed would be pushing it a bit. Another bit of luck from having the somewhat transparent passenger service is that Soddingham has retained it's signal box with an implausible number of dummies (ground signals) - a relic, I'm assured, of the GWRs 1930s habit of signalling nearly every possible move. While Soddingham is a bit of a sleepy backwater in many ways, there is evidence of better days ahead. This is evidenced by the brand new points and concrete sleepered, branch line track laid in preparation for new the quarry line. Well, I had to use them! This all sounds like a done deal, but I spent and long time agonising over whether to go ahead - it might not be the worlds biggest layout, but the basics, track, point motors, an engine and a few wagons soon mounts up, especially when you are looking at RTR/built kits to buy. Cue Rails Of Sheffield. While investigating prices of stuff I wondered found a (brand new) double slip at a very good price indeed - way cheaper than eBay or anywhere else. Cool. Now I have a thing about 08s, in blue obviously, but in a lot more years than I care to remember of playing trains I'd never actually owned one - I guess when you are younger it's all about the expresses or somethng. I wonder... Yep. They had a Dapol one in, in blue with TOPS number. And, again, the cheapest in town. At 3.00am out came the card - Soddingham is on.
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  14. Miserable
    With the banner repeater done and installed (painted the hand-rails white for some reason, will have to change that), the far corner tree placed (but not fixed yet) and the footpath lamps in place all that needs to be done is:
    Fix bushes etc to hide the gaps;
    Put the foliage on the RBO (Ridiculously Big Oak) and plant it to the left of the tracks;
    Plant the other NSRBT (Not So Ridiculously Big Tree) on the right together with the tiny trees;
    Add some 'dry grass' and some darker 12mm grass here and there;
    Make the throat bracket signal (and make it work);
    Place the throat double dummy;
    Do the point rodding;
    Ballast;
    Finish the crossing (need to visit a McDonalds there);
    Point heater bottles and cage;
    Lampmans' hut;
    P-Way hut;
    Place signal box;
    Finish fencing;
    Telegraph poles! Now I've had the idea I'm not letting go!
    That's an alarmingly long list.... ah well, here's some pics of things today.

     
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  15. Miserable

    A Banner Repeater

    By Miserable,

    Whilst painting the inside of the tunnel I got to wondering about Starter signals. Plan A, not that one, the other one, was to put a Section signal at the tunnel entrance but even by model railway standards the Station Limits would be ridiculously short, especially when there's quite a lot of shunting moves that would require blocking back inside the home signal all the time (an even bigger pain in the bum on a single line with tokens going in and out all day). While perusing the Wizard/MSE site I spotted a GWR banner repeater kit. What fun! So, as ever there was no picture, I ordered one. It will look cool and make things a bit more probable. The kit requires a post, so I ordered a round signal post kit as well.

    This is banner repeater kit after removng the required parts from the etch. The 'bracket' bit has been folded. You actually get two in the pack. The post kit is essentially a bunch of appropriately size tubes. The instructions are the usual MSE sketch type of thing, great if you have a reasonable skill set but not perhaps for a starter kit. The top right circle (the front of the signal) has to have a strip of brass soldered to it to get the 'depth' of the thing. I used a centre from a till roll (the black thing) to form it, and the soldered in in stages while holding it with the needle file. It worked better than I expected! If, for some reason, I make the other kit I would use a wider strip of brass for this, the one in the kit is a tad narrow when folding up the signal head, requiring some Araldite for a filler. The kit can make a distant or stop repeater, hence the distant arm shown.

    Try as I might, I couldn't find a picture of one of these signals - there's a few of later ones but I wanted (bloody mindedness) to make the GWR one. I made the lamp work with a sub mm LED, using a slightly oversize bit of tube from the post kit to take the wires. The rear piece of 'glass' has been given a coat of slightly diluted white before assembly to get the background effect. The instructions say there should be planks to form a platform for the lampman to do his stuff, but there's no dimensions so I basically measured the size of the platform and the handrails from the sketch provided. The handrails are at the bottom of the picture, the tape holds it all while soldering.

    And here it is primed.
     
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  16. Miserable
    After a deal of uming and aring about it, the headshunt has been clayed, a bit of ballast pushed in before drying, and then painted with sleeper grime. While still wet, a very dilute black was dabbed onto get the good old oily stains. The sidings will ballasted with clay and black N gauge ash ballast, suitably smoothed where walkways go and washed with sleeper grime and any other yardy colours to hand

    The first dummy is in place too, working and illuminated (but not at the moment!). The buffer stops have also been added, with working lamp as well.
     
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  17. Miserable
    This is something that just didn't exist the last time I built a layout, but Chris Nevard's photos of it's use convinced me that it's the way to go. So, over to Youtube and see how it works.
    Obviously the first thing is getting a static grass tool. Some googling revealed news that would not impress the bank manager, so I looked up the technicalities of how it works and got wondering if there was a Plan B short of making a Van Der Graff generator. Indeed there is, cheap and nasty bug swatters from the local garage bargain bin.

    £3.99, plus a sieve from Wilko at 60p.
    Step 1 : Open up the handle of the swatter and chop the three wires going to the bat bit - this then can be discarded. The two green wires go together, leavng then long enough to reach the sieve when fitted, the white got extended to eighteen inches or so and a crocodile clip soldered on. This will complete the circuit through the 'ground'.

    The plastic insert in the sieve handle took zero effort to remove, and the end of the handle chopped of with a junior hacksaw. The two prongs fit quite neatly either side of the screw posts in the handle. A bit of tape and it's nice and secure, screwing the handle back together also traps the prongs into a nice rigid assembly.
    The green wires were soldered to the mesh in the sieve as soldering to the chromed bits is likely to be difficult. It turns out that the metal strip around the edge of the mesh is highly solderable, which made life easier.
    Then just put the handle back together, screw the screws, a bit more tape for belt and braces and all is done. Fifteen minutes or so. The switch on the handle (a little green LED lights to tell you it is 'on') is seriously cheap and nasty, the button bit broke almost immediately, but all is not lost - I carved down a bit of sleeper that fits into the switch (the switch is PCB mounted jobbie) and used that as trigger. You just have to remember where you put it when you finished a session. I've made three so far

    Putting the sieve in the other way round would have been a better idea. So I could actually see the LED without tipping the sieve contents onto the floor.
    OK, so to using it. The first thing is how to stick the grass. Videos revealed people using highly expensive glue that looks a lot like PVA, so, yu guessed it, out came the rapidly emptying PVA pot (there's nearly a kilo of PVA on the layout - so far).
    This is the process I used :
    Step 1: Paint the 'ground' with PVA, diluted or not doesn't seem to make any odds. Dump the crocodile clip (turns out he clip is a bit of an over kill, a tinned bare wire works just as well) on a soggy bit and, using the tool, spread 2mm static grass (I'm using Gaugemaster Light Green) around quite liberally, but not too much.
    Step 2: With an 'atomizer' mist sprayer, an old spray cleaner bottle will do but I have a couple of 250ml ones I got from eBay for next to nothing, spray on a light coat of about 20% PVA/water. If there's too much PVA in the atomizer won't and you just get a jet. Keeping back a bit means the grass won't fall over from the force of spaying.
    Step 3: Using the tool, spread 4mm static grass (the same colour here), but rather than an even coat add a of randomness, adding more where the ground would be damper (gullies and depressions etc).
    Step 4: Spray again!
    Step 5: Using the tool again, spread 7mm static grass. Rocky bits of ground will have less tall grass than areas with wetter/deeper so (Time Team!). Here I used the same colour grass, but also a darker green to add contrast. Later some 'dry grass' colour will be added in places to get that 'dry summer' feel).
    And that's it really. I've added some small bits of Hornby green foliage here and there to represent plans growing in planty places, and quite a lot of Gaugemaster 'brambles' which a) Look nice and b) hide gaps nicely. Very expensive but worth it I feel.
    Here's some pics taken while doing this.

    As can be seen at the top, the 'ground' over the tunnel has been one, and a start made on the fencing - Slaters GWR fencing with 0.011" guitar top E strings - while awaiting another bag of 2m grass.
    Painting the 'ground' brown (or grey, with some chalking) before grassing definitely paid off - the bare 'earth' on the steep bits was entirely unplanned but works nicely.
     
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  18. Miserable
    So this is where it ended, and this where it started. After just putting my soldering iron down to open the door to get my nice new shiny (but not very good) guitar I never went back into that side of the loft, except to round up all the 30 odd wagons (O gauge) I'd built, brass and plastic, to sell on eBay to buy a moderately seriously expensive (but gorgeous) new guitar. Not a yard of track had been laid. All that was left was a set of home made points (the Great Plan required about twenty sets - plus slips!); some track; my faithful desk-tidy tippler; an unfinished Warship kit; an unfinished 08 brass kit (I screwed up quartering the wheels) and two Peco buffer kits. Six years later... I installed a studio in the loft, in the railway side, using some of the baseboards as a bench to plug in assorted magical recordery electrical computery stuff that occasionally produces what I laughingly refer to as 'music'. This necessitated actually tidying up, and dismantling my work bench with it's nice paint pot racks and stuff. When done, I hadn't used all the 'bench' on one side, and the Warship sat there looking mournfully at me from the nice, clean, and above all empty end of the bench.
    While recording Facebook suddenly stated sending me lots of posts from the most amazing modeler Chris Nevard, the little grey cells formed a sub-committee and began pondering. While seeking musical inspiration I watched a YouTube video of a model railway exhibition that featured an abundance O gauge micro layouts, including a couple of Chris's (not O gauge), and began planning - though this time I was going to be considerably less ambitious - just one engine and a few goods wagons. And those two Peco buffer stops.
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  19. Miserable

    More trees...

    By Miserable,

    So the on-going tree project is .. on-going. The trees looked quite nice with just the green poly stuff, but driving round it looked not very typical of an English tree in summer, so I ordered some Gaugemaster 'leaves' in a summery dark green. I teased out the poly a bit more to get those fly-away ends so hated by hairdressers, then gave it a good spray with 20% PVA and then essentially tipped the leaves on - the more you put on the more sticks it's seems. It looked good, but turning the tree upside down and tipping on more really filled out the foliage and made a huge difference. Not much made it to the floor!

    These look altogether more treey than before. It would have been nice to have a second shade slightly lighter to mix in - I tried some flock, but... it looked a bit naff. The day-glow green lichen, on the right, looks a hell of a lot better for having black and brown chalk grated (with razor saw) onto it and then given a spray of water. The signalman's coal bunker is ready to go (re-painted Ten Commandments ballast bunker), the relay cabinet for the 'point heaters' is done (perhaps a bit too dark grey as I was trying to add age) and the lampman's lamp oil barrel with tap and stand is ready for his hut to turn up at some point.
    There's more trees in production, including a Bright Idea I had, namely that, as a rule, trees on model railways tend to be rather small. To this end I ascertained that a mature oak can be around 100 to 120ft tall and decided to make one. After five rolls of wire (took hours), two coats of PVA/brown poster paint (took even more hours), a coating of DAS clay (many, many more hours) a finally a coat of Humbrol Dark Earth (yet more hours) it was done. There's no way the late JC's dad did it all in six days!

    Another duff photo, but you can get an idea of the size of the dammed thing! THis was before being attacked with the chalks to 'weather' it. Plan A was to have three of these, so now it's Plan B. This will be just about the last thing to be placed on the north end of the layout, because it will get in the way of everything else.

    The lichen before and after.

    Full size trees are definitely full size...
     
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  20. Miserable
    So here we are, a nice parcel arrived... Being in big kid mode, I opened the slip first. There's just something about them, isn't there? Ok, just me then. There's not a lot else to say other than in O it's pretty impressive. And big.
    So to the 08. Sad old me had watched an unboxing video of one, luckily as it happens, because getting it out of the foam had no obvious route. The bod in the video broke his, so with some trepidation I tried tipping it out into my hand - all was good, except one rear dumb (guard) iron fell off - it'll glue back on. Probably. Having mostly built a brass kit 08 and been amazed at the detail I was kind of sort of expecting to a little disappointed, with it being plastic and all that. But lo! What an amazing model, the detail is incredible, even the old brackets the ladders were mounted on at the front of the bonnet were there, and to scale - only noticed when I stuck one in my finger. I could waffle on, but suffice to say with even the wiper arms, supplied to fit yourself, are to scale. What the other bits in the bag are for, who knows - sound fitting or something? Best hang on to them (though I'm not going down the DCC route). The sun roof is missing, but spares seem easily obtainable.
    The the track! Well, OK, two lengths joined up. Now the significant key word when describing an 08 is 'slow', and there's nothing worse than a lurching 08, so when I opened the throttle (I have a very poesy controller I picked up in a garden centre) I was a bit cross fingered. But off it went, nice smooth start and gently going to up it's max speed some distance from the speed of sound. I certainly looks about 15mph - I love that feature of the model. The Warship I was building didn't like the gizmos in the controller and had to use 'direct' mode, but the 08 is great with it. Put it in 'delay', open the throttle to full and.... after a pause the engine starts slowly away, accelerating at a believable rate to max. Put controller into 'coast' and it does, at whatever speed it started at, slowing a bit as in the real thing - closing the throttle does the same, but the deceleration is faster. Then a bit 'brake 1' to reduce the speed a bit, or 'brake 2' to slow a bit more quickly. 'Off' ('Stop') does and 'Direct' will take you back to normal control. After using any of the fancy control the throttle has to b returned to zero before it has any new effect. It adds a new aspect to 'train driving' - though I think a Big Red Button might be in order on a end-to-end layout. And the lights work, with the correct one red, one white 'shunting' arrangement (bar swapping over when to the left or right of a running line, as per brake vans). Annoyingly the cab light comes on when moving - you do not have the cab lights on while driving, just as with a car! (Seen this on so many exhibition layouts, together with red marker lights ('tail' lights) on while pulling a train - that is a potential Form 1 offence and will get a 'Stop And Examine' from any mechanical signal boxes it passes. While the marker lights may be a tiny bit bright, they are much better than the incandescent moon-illuminating ones fitted to so many OO models. The only gripes I have, which might be irrelevant as liveries varied, are that the lighting electrical conduits should be orange I believe, and more of the grab rails on the bonnet should be white. Nit picking really. Oh, and there's one bit of fun - the doors are open-able, but you can't shut both as you have to reach in through one door to shut the other! I love it.
    It's nicely finished in BR blue with the wasp stripes nicely done. Like the picture above with it sitting on the nice shiney slip, brochure photos tend to make the yellow look a bit plastic, but in real life it's bob on. The wagon I built in the first year of my degree, and used as a desk tidy for years - it's suffered a bit. This was the first time in all those years it got pulled by an engine.
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  21. Miserable
    A day sorting through bits of baseboards that started out life for one layout, got chopped up for use in another and are now doing it all again. Amazingly there's exactly enough! Had to stop when next doors kids go to bed, so it will be finished tomorrow. Even more amazingly, not one of the timbers fouls a point motor! This is in breach of the laws of physics and must be a mistake. And I had the loft so tidy...
    All done - creative carpentry rocks. No, sucks.
    Pretty chuffed that I got it all done with up/re-cycled timer and mostly re-used screws (shame about the Ikea shelf unit...). Some trial setting out of track confirms it all fits as per plan, which has to be a first. Just need the cork to turn up, and a couple of point motors, then track laying can commence - the slip goes in first as it is the key of the whole thing. Meantime the gronk and desk tidy get to travel a whole six yards!
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  22. Miserable

    The Big Move

    By Miserable,

    It doesn't seem I can just transfer my blog across from it's old home, so... rewind to the start of the great lock-down and hopefully things should catch up quite quickly.

  23. Miserable
    And back to the landscape. While doing the papier mache for the other side of the tracks it turned out that the hill was a bit steeper than intended, so another set of sleeper steps went in, glued to a cardboard former as previously.

    The flash messing the photo up again. The steps have been weathered since - you guessed it, chalks again.

    Time to un-mow the grass.

    But then I looked at the pile of bits left over from the assorted walls and got this idea of having a wall going from sound to rubble/foundations along the ridge. Lumps of DAS were placed and shaped to make the wall almost level, and then more papier mache added to raise the ground level. Further along the smaller bits of wall were cut up and some placed like rubble form a fallen wall, some representing the lower course sticking out of the ground (photo later in the static grass post).
    Also added was the sky. The join between land and sky will be hidden by any old bushes that turn up as things progress - the bushes being the remains of some sort of formal garden that used to be behind the wall sort of thing.
     
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  25. Miserable

    All Moved.

    By Miserable,

    So that's everything moved across. Just need to figure out how to get pics into the blog post listing rather than the default snazzy designs. 
     
    Back on the layout, more ballasting has been done, all but the RBO trees are made and placed, though not fixed yet. The signal wire posts are fitted and the point rodding chairs painted, the remaining cranks fitted. Ballast has been quarried for the point rodding to pass under the rails. Quite a lot of fencing to do, but that'll have to be work-in-progress over time - the Slaters fencing is great, but you only get one pair of ends per pack and it's quite pricey - I already have a mountain of unused plain fence posts. Would be nice if they did the 'ends' separately.
     
     
     

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