Ighten

Trying to get a new image of the weathering on the shed.. needs a little more work (could not decide if the chimney would be metal silver and sooty or should be a black pipe for this period) and some sealing in with matt varnish. Also need more interior work now I have added leds inside.

Bit of weathering on the goods shed planks and roof plus some (for some reason it's upside down when I post it) - signage added to the fence line. Also weathered down the oxford rails BR cattle. Slowly getting there day by day.

Practically rush hour this morning at Tunstead Sidings. 1365 finds its on duty to return a cattle and a van back to Tunstead.

Another quiet morning here at Tunstead Sidings.

The staging area or traverser is coming along. It's a 4 track affair that can just hold a 0-6-0 and a couple of wagons as it's all that fits in the space. To be honest it's adequate for traffic that these sidings ever see and its designed in such a way as its easy to remove the top moving section and replace with a longer one if needed. Electrics are simply with power from one line being constantly fed to all the matching lines in the traverser, and after much thought I scrapped the idea of using electrical isolation for each line through switches and instead went for the simple copper tube and pin to line up the track and power it. Just need to tidy up the top of the wood which looks a little rough in photos - add the other two tracks - and finish the electrics - but on test runs all seems to be working ok.. The sliders are rectangular dowels which are fixed into position in a routed slot on the base of the traverser with a matching routed slot on the sliding section.. I then added a .3mm copper or brass strip on top of the dowels and in the routed slot which when oiled moves with just the right amount of friction.

Thanks.. nigelcliffe. Think that's a solution for me..

My fiddle yard is a sliding 4 track traverser and I have taken one positive feed from the exit line of the layout to the positive line of the fiddle yard)and soldered them... Then from here I have run this on with soldered wires to supply the same matching positive line on each of the other 3 (ie one line of every track is always powered).. My plan is to wire the other tracks in the same way but so that only one line is ever powered at a time (in the traverser) I want to control the power with on off togggle switches with built in LEDs.. So I assume I take the feed from the exit line through a switch and then on too the next switch etc.. But here Im stuck.. the switches have power/acc/and ground solder points???? Help My guess is that two come from the accessories 12v (But why is one called ground) and one is the power feed from/to the track I want to turn on and off but I could be way off so thought I should check first....

Got a few summer cruises out of the way so its back to find some modelling more again. None of the buildings have yet had any paint applied. So after priming I gave the roof of the goods shed a first attempt. It does look a little lego like at the moment but I'll wash and tone it down more and more. Ps it's not bent.. must be the lense. The other job I'm concentrating on now is the traverser which will be a simple 4 track slider. But that's for a later post when I have ironed out the electrics

Ive just realised an obvious flaw - the leds will dim and brighten as you power the train --- DOH

On a small layout its great - you can run accesories from the 16v dc and the train runs from the 12v dc via lets say a gaugemaster W So is it possible to also use that 12 v DC at the same time to power LED strip lights ?

A grey morning on Tunstead Moor

Its been a bit quite recently on Tunstead Moor - a little modelling mojo seems to have slipped away and theirs quite a lot of other projects going on in the garden. You may remember a few posts ago I experimented with the magnetic coupling idea for close coupling but found they really didnt work.. So I have been busy fitting everything out with Kadees which work like a charm.. Yes they dont look very prototypical but even before i fitted the magnets they made a shunting life so much more pleasurable than tension lock tangles. In case your curious I used 18s on the engine - 19s on the Oxford wagons though you do have to take action to stop any droop (the NEM slot on the Oxfords seems quite baggy) otherwise they catch on the spring box on the points. Bachmann seem to need 20s though as the NEM pocket is set really deep especially on the TOAD.. Perfect close coupling - no buffer lock - a huge improvement..

Superb shop - in fact one of the best I have ever visited....

Thanks Dungrange - that was what was confusing me though your explanation seems simpler than DOGAs which was confusing me (must have missed the FAQ though as that would have answered it simply)

OK simple ? -- If I replace the RTR Lima wheels on a class 42 with one of ultrascales finescale sets does that work for code 75 or is it referring to finescale as in handbuilt track

Is this a simple swap or are particular tools needed.. I can strip and service a Lima motor - I dont think I have ever tried removing the actual wheelset from the axles before though.. Other than a back to back tool is anything else needed.

A little bit of time mocking up buildings - Again nothing prototypical the idea is they just fill the space and give some purpose for to the why? to what is a simple inglenook / Diaroma layout.. Also had some visitors to demonstrate how the layout will try to avoid being to rigidly fixed in one era... lol.. Actually this is a weathering/detailing project Im about to start but lets say its 1972 and this particular hydraulic finds itself stabled at Tunstead sidings after the usual failures caused it to be removed and replaced at Tunstead branch.

Decided to dig one out and use this to practice some weathering with my new airbrush.. But it got me thinking as I try to detail it - Has anyone ever had a go at making the front valance though for these models - not sure where to start other than cutting off the couplings - plastikard or clay type material?

Dont need one will probably have to have one -- looks excellent

Theres possibly not s lot to see where the windows are as the corridor could have/form barrier wall to the engine room.. Not a lot of pics but you get the idea from this vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPU0aF8cP4M of a 66 or you could take it a stage further and search through WNXX http://www.wnxx.com/images/scrap/index.php?level=picture&id=8555# and see if you can get more clues from the scrapping photos

So just a small update and mainly this is about the lighting which I am semi happy with now.. A schoolboy error in the actual build of the backscene and side boards created a small problem that I noticed as soon as I took a look at Alxs photo.. So the issue is that I built the back scene and side boards at the same height as the bottom of the fascia frame - this means even the leds were visible slightly protruding from the ceiling of the layout.. So I routed out a channel for the leds to slide into to get around this.. I still need to remove the first and last cpl of LEDs to stop the spotlight effect down the sides but other than that it seems to have worked well.. Next job is to paint up the boards - and fix them permanently in position.. The whole thing can now be disassembled as a lid, back and sides leaving the base - each piece carries its part of the fascia with it. A few more items are being built up such as water towers and yard cranes and positioned to test before painting.. And I added a few more foilage bits, mainly clumps of longer static and some reeds for the stream side.. (Water method yet to be decided)

"Good Luck"

Nicey nice....

Are you all lighting the layouts just from the front - the middle the rear or both...