Andy Ross

12 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Painted with Humbrol enamel, if I recall an item in the Railway Modeller correctly.

I think it was Don Townsley that told me the same. 

So it begins at the clubrooms tonight. 

Everything lose has now been removed.

All the doors have been removed.

And the roof for the wheel shop.

The doors and the roof are now at home and these will be painted first and put in to storage while the main structure is done.

Also tonight, Alan Smith brought to the club the Jubilee he is building for me from a David Andrews kit. I have realised I would not have time to build this with everything else I am doing.  Bahamas was rebuilt at Hunslet and there are several pictures of it in the yard when completed.  

Andy 

The painting trails are moving on and I think I have got to the point where I am happy to move onto the actual structure. 

As previously stated I as well as the upright blue, I had also got a more suitable colour for the crane tracks, although I was not going to repaint the track beam on the mock up, but on reflection, it just had to be done, as I need to be 100% sure I have this right. 

This is a lot better but I was still unsure but it looked a lot better when I took the masking off. 

The next job was then to tone it down. I will not call it weathering as that's not what it is, mucking is more appropriate as it is mostly inside. 

Army Painters do a range of washes that are really designed to be put onto figures to bring details out and add shading. Jill had some of these as she paints all the figures on the layout and other details, so why not try these through the air brush and it worked out ok in my opinion. 

You will see on the photos one of the uprights is darker than the other. Although  I was happy with the first application I thought it would not hurt putting another coat on, and to be fair, I think this is better.

As in the previous post I have put a photo together of the real structure and the model and I do not think I can get much closer.

We also have to take into consideration that we are working with pictures that have been scanned from old photos, printed over 30 years ago, of structure that may of faded in time. So I think we have a reasonable representation that no one can really question.

I have also done some trials on a scrap door panel - I did not do a lot of preparation on this, as it was only a test, so there are some odd bits of contaminants on the face. 

This is a paler blue and I did a light coat of wash on the inside and much more on the outside face and again I m more than happy with this.

So the next thing to do is get the layout ready for blasting and painting. It is still at the clubrooms so while I have chance I am going to take the doors off and the lose sections of roof and bring them home and paint them first. 

Before I start on the structure I need to solder on some tube to use as conduits for the wires that feed the crane tracks and the lights and remove all the walls that were temporarily fixed in place. 

I think we are now at the point of no return but with far more confidence than I had a few weeks back. 

Andy 

Although I was more than happy with the process and all the equipment, I was not happy with the colours. In particular the blue for the stations. I had Identified an alternative colour and by chance a local wargaming shop had some in stock. I didn't know this was even there until recently. 

So when I got home from work I masked the structure again and you can see the results below which is no ware near as bright.

The orange is still a long way out and I do have another colour to try which I will try on a spare beam. But on the split photos attached the new blue is almost spot on to the original and I am sure once the dirt is applied will looks just the same. 

With this level of success there is a good chance the base painting will be done by the end of July.  

Apologise for all the updates so close together. 

Andy 

The confidence is now building for the painting. 

After the success yesterday with the blasting and etched priming the test structure, it was time to move on to adding the colours. In the past I have had issues with paint not sticking or pealing when removing masking tape. Hopefully the use of the blaster and etch primer will prevent this.

So I decided that the best order to add the colours was to paint the roof section beige first. I am using Army Painters products and they do a range of coloured primer aerosol cans for war gaming and this is what I used first for the top of the structure. 

Once this had dried I masked this section up and using an airbrush I painted the crane track orange. 

Again this is another Army painter colour using the airbrush thinner they supply. 

I was really pleased with how this covered. 

It also dried really quickly and only 2 hours later I was masking this up so I could apply the blue.

Now before anyone says anything, the blue I ordered has come out a bit brighter than I had expected. This is always the problem with colour charts etc. The Army Painter range however do different shades of the same base colour and I am ordering a different shade to do some more trials. As with the orange, the blue was applied with an airbrush.  

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What I am pleased with is the processes worked, I removed all the masking and the paint has not come off and the finish is excellent.

All we need to do now is get the blue right I then want to try spraying some dirt wash on which will also tone it all down. 

So after last weekends frustration, this has been a far better weekend and some good progress. 

On saying this I do have to be a realist, then main structure is far more complex than the test piece, with the boiler shop and wheel shop roof being removable it should help with access for the airbrush. The roofs can also be painted separately and are only one colour.  

I think the biggest job after the blasting and priming will be the masking for each colours. 

But at least it now looks like we should be able to get the structure at least, painted before Guildex in September.

Andy 

After a ride over to Hull on a 158 for the exhibition this morning, I still had time to try out the new Badger blaster that had arrived during the week. 

This went a lot better this time and I managed to blast all the test structure without any blockages. Its not easy to photograph but you can just see the prepared surface. 

I have also etch primed the structure. 

All being well I will start with the colours tomorrow, its just a case of deciding what order to do them in. 

The blasting will be a horrible task when I come to do the main structure as it is just so dusty. I do think if I start early enough, I should be able to do all the structure in one day. However, I have identifies a couple of jobs that need doing first such as soldering on some tubing to use as conduits for the cable for the lights and the power supply to the crane tracks. At the moment these cables are just tucked in behind the uprights and held in place with blue-tack. 

After the frustrations last weekend I am feeling far more positive again with painting.

Andy 

So this weekend has been somewhat frustrating. 

The plan was to do some trials blasting and hopefully priming the test structure. 

I have bought a good quality compressor with an air tank from Machine Mart as recommended by Peter Kirmond and a long time back. bought a blasting gun. 

When I came to use it I followed all the instructions and use the aluminium oxide grit that came with it. But every time I try it blocks up in seconds. I have checked the pressure I am using is correct. The gun and the grit have been kept in the house so there is no moisture issue I can see and the air line has a water trap as well.

I have seen mixed reviews on line and in some cases it works fine and others it blocks. From some messaging I have done it appears that the main issue is the hole in the nozzle being too small so I will try to make this bigger, although it is very hard material in the end of the nozzle as you would expect. 

I am looking at other possible ways to prepare the steel work for painting, but I will preserver for a bit longer with the gun.

I might have some more look next weekend. 

Andy 

Modeller. They have agreed November so we can refer to Leeds exhibition.

Thank you for your comments. 

When I say grit blasting this is not on an industrial scale. I have bought a unit similar to the one in the photo below.

It uses fine aluminium oxide. I have not used it before, but Mike Edge I believe uses this process to prep all his locos.  Part of the reason to make the mock up section was to see how this worked. 

This will be better for the baseboards rather than using washing solutions as I can not remove the steelwork from the board. 

The plan is then to use a etch primer from a rattle can, then airbrush the colours.  

Andy 

The open day went well with several visitors. I also had a visiting DCC Sound fitted Austerity  on the layout. Built by one of our club members. The Leeds club has several O Gauge modellers. 

I have also finished taking photos for a magazine article so in the next week or so the layout will be packed up and taken home.

We have now come to the point of no return, the next job is to paint the steelwork. With Guildex at the beginning of September I need to 100% confident that I can strip back the layout, paint the steelwork and then refit all the walls etc. during the summer.

One of the issues issue is that the steel work is three different colours as can be seen in the attached photo.

So I have made a small test section of the structure to carry out a painting preparation and paint trials.

I have already got a small grit blaster and airbrushes and I have ordered some acrylic paint from Army Painters range.

I also need to work out the best order for masking the different colour. 

Wish me luck.

Andy 

So just back from a week away. 

After spending a few weekends taking photos, the layout is still up in the clubrooms for the Open Day this Saturday. 

Along with my layout the club OO Layout,  O gauge layout will be in operation. See details below. 

I hope to see your there. 

Andy 

Over the last few weekends, I have been taking photos of the layout set up in the clubrooms. This has been going OK and I have been learning a lot about photo stacking.

However, I have come across a problem taking pictures just outside the workshop doors. The door panels are built up from layers of etches bonded together with double sided adhesive sheet. On one of the doors, I got the outer layer slightly out of line. I thought at the time I had managed to reposition it, but one of the panels keeps lifting and the rest are not as flat as they should be. No one has made any comments about this but I had noticed, so I had added the outer panel etches on the my last order with PPD with the plan to replace it when I removed the doors for painting.

The problem is that it was very noticeable in the pictures as can be seen in the marked up photos. 

So, Friday afternoon I called into the clubrooms and took the plunge and removed the door. To remove the door it has to come out through the bottom of the baseboard and this is not straight forward due to the cross bracing and took a little while to work out how I got it in. 

Once at home it took quite a while to remove the old panel and all the adhesive left behind. Which is good as it means the panels should not delaminate in time.

The new panel was fitted very carefully, and I managed to get it in line first time.

Saturday I refitted it and it looks so much better. It also still works but there is a small amount of tweaking required when I am next at the club. 

As you can see the pictures are now far better. 

I still have a few more to take, but that will have to wait until after the open day on the 18th May. See previous posts for details of the open day. 

Andy 

I have finally got around to taking some photos at the clubrooms with my new Canon R50 Camara. 

This has the ability to take several photos at different focal points using the screen on my iPad to position the focus. I have then put these through what they call stacking software, this merges all the photos together so it is all in focus from front to back. 

I am still messing with this but I think I am getting there.  See one of the set ups I have done which is similar to a real photo also attached. 

The photos below is from around 1972 with the locos for Sri Lanka. 

We are getting there but I still need to make so much more clutter. 

As detailed in the previous quote if you want to see the layout it will still be set up in the clubrooms for the Leeds Model Railway Society CIO open day on the 18th May.

Andy  

The Layout went down well at York with some positive comments and a lot of general interest. 

When I brought the layout back to Leeds, instead of taking it home, it has gone to the Leeds MRS clubrooms. This is for two reasons, I need to take some photos for a magazine article and on the 18th May it is the open day at the club. 

I have spent the last two weekends setting it all up and doing a couple of repairs. 

During the York Show we found the crane at the boiler shop end started rocking diagonally as we got near the end of the track and stalling. 

On closer examination in the club I noticed that one of the special support columns must have come out a bit high - this was always a risk with a lot of etched layers. It would be impossible to reduce this so I have broken the joint on the opposite standard column and added two pieces of packing and soldered it all back up. The crane now runs to the end without issues. 

Something else I managed to get done just before York was the cab for the Scunthorpe Bo Bo. 

I was really pleased with this as it went together first time with the roof meeting the cab sides with no gaps. 

When you drop it on the loco frames it shows how impressive this loco will be in O Gauge. 

I also put the etched Snowdon cab together which also went together but it was far more fiddly.

Since York I have also put the radiator casing together.

This is also more complex than it looks. 

I am again pleased with how it all fits into the frame just like the real one. 

If you didn't get to York and you would like to see the layout, it will be fully operational on the open day on Saturday 18th May. See Details below.

Andy 

Based on the comments above I have cropped and adjusted the two images. 

They look quite convincing. 

Photo of real shop below.

Hi 

You are not Mistaken.  It is 4083 which had collided with a bus on a level crossing. 
 

it was the first passenger vehicle we did any work on at Hunslet. It lead to a lot of similar work for London Underground and we also refurbished the two prototype Tyne and Wear units. 
 

Andy 

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

They've just released a new vaccine over here, for over-65s. I've had my first shot with a follow-up due two months later.

I have to wait another two years for jab.  

I was lucky as I did not get it on face. But 10 weeks in and nerve pain has not gone away. 

Quote

 

Last push for York.

So apart from crating up the main board and repacking all the loco parts etc. for an operating layout rather than a demonstration stand, we are all ready for York at the weekend. 

As seen in the previous post, Jill had made a name plate for the layout but were to put it?  The simple solution was a plate stand and for it to sit on the fiddle yard. 

I also want to continue running the slide show - so were to put the screen? 

Again this can go on the fiddle yard, but the original support leg fowled the track - so this was shortened and I printed a support on the filament printer.

The only other thing I wanted to do was mock up how the floor is going to work with the wood block and concrete floor. 

I had done the drawing for the parts last week. I had also engraved a sheet of 2mm ply with the block work. I then cut the parts for the walkways and under the benches from this sheet. To get to the 5mm track level there is 3mm foam board under the 2mm ply. At the moment this is all held in place with double sided tape

This has come out far better than I expected. Obviously once it is in place for good it will all be weathered down. It will now be interesting to see how this will look with all the kit in the shop. 

As I have said before if you come to York, please say hello and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask. 

Andy 

Apologies for the lack of posts recently. There has been some activity but at a reduced rate due to ongoing issues recovering from Shingles. 

I took the test track board to Narrow Gauge North at the beginning of the month and this was well received.

We are now on the last push to get the complete layout ready for York which is less than a week away. 

All the wiring is (I believe) complete and there will be a final test on Tuesday. 

One of the main jobs still to do was to get some sort of lighting into the Boiler shop roof. 

This also means I had to sort the removable section by cutting the longitudinal beams and finding a way to secure it in place. 

It's been a long time since I had this much access into the main shop. 

The roof lips under an angle on the wall side, and the solution on the other side is magnets. 

The magnets are mounted in some special sections I made on the filament printer. 

In the bottom edge of the roof panel is the opposite magnets but these are behind a 2mm layer of plywood to stop them locking too tightly together. 

The LED light strips are mounted on another 3d Printed section that positions them behind the top of the roof truss. 

From the viewing end these should not be too noticeable.

The top section will be glazed.

You will also notice the roof panels are all done with all the layers of ply for the inner structure. These take hours to cut.

I have also been fitting chips into a couple of locos and I am still on with getting the MOD loco working but more on that later. 

We also realised we did not have any sort of name plate for the layout. 

I mention this to Jill and when I got home form work on Friday she had come up with a design based on the Hunslet works plates. I cut some ply to mount it on and Jill used the Cricut to do the rest.

If you come to York over Easter please say hello. We will be on the first floor mezzanine with the demonstrators as we are still very much a work in progress. 

Hope to see you there. 

Andy 

Over the last few weeks there has been various activities across the layout, see below. 

I have been drawing parts to help fill different areas of the layout. Most of which have already been produced with the 3d printer. 

1. Wheel sets for the wheel shop . 

These are for the big Scunthorpe Bo Bo. What I am particularly please with is that I have cracked drawing gears. 

2. Fiji Loco frame 

This will fill a corner in the boiler shop. 

3.  300hp Mines bogie frame

These will go in the erecting shop.

4. Blocks, angle frames and bed plates.

These are needed for the boiler shop and will be used to position fabrications. 

I have also been working on motorising one of the MOD locos so it can be lifted onto the test track and run up the yard on test. 

The motor will fit up int the fuel tank. I have had to be a bit brutal with one of the ballast weights in the frame.

Still a bit more to do but I am getting there. 

I have also made a start on the wiring.  Compared with some layouts there is not a lot to do and at the moment I still have to finalise control panels. I need to operate all the layout to understand what needs to be on each panel or if we can do it all on one. 

Some can be done properly now such as under the layout. 

I have also worked out how to switch the rails to the power on the test track. This now has a rotary switch.

Position 0 - Turns all the Test track off 

Position 1 - Standard gauge and 5'6" gauge 

Position 2 - 2' gauge 

Position 3 - 2'6' and 3' gauge

This will be mounted for York in a temporary enclosure. 

I have also been looking at the boiler shop roof and I think I have a plan to get some lighting added to this area. 

More updates over the next few weeks. 

Don't forget the test track board will be at Narrow Gauge North at Pudsey Civic Hall on the 9th March.  

The complete display will be at York over Easter. 

Andy 

And a coach for it to push.

Slow progress over the last two weeks in garage due still not being 100% well. But I have managed to solder the rails in place, and today I found and fitted the strip for the check rail across the joint. I also took the opportunity to Ballast this short section. God knows how long it is going to take the glue to dry with the cold weather. 

In parallel with this I have been busy doing drawings to send for etching to help add to the variety of parts in the boiler and erecting shop. One etch is just general parts for the structure etc, but the second is far more interesting with cabs and casing parts for two very different locos - can you work out what they are?

If you want to see the layout in various stages there are a couple of outings coming up. 

Narrow Gauge North is on the 9th of March at Pudsey Civic hall, Leeds. I will be putting on a demonstration stand which will be based around the narrow test track board. I will not be taking the main board with the cranes etc. but there will still be plenty to see.

Easter at York will see the first show for the complete layout, all be it as a work in progress. On saying that it will all be operational. This will be a major milestone in the development of the layout.

Andy 

Just before Christmas I picked up the fiddle yard base board from my good friend Peter Kirmond. The intention was to get this up and fitted over the holidays and get the track laid.  I thought I had the rail and sleepers to do this, but this was not the case so this was put on hold while I ordered the parts. These took longer to arrive than I hoped and in the meantime I was taken ill which stopped almost everything for a couple of weeks and to be fair I am still not 100%. 

Despite this, today with Jills help, we managed to put the board up and later in the day I glued all the sleepers down. If its not too cold tomorrow I will fit the rails. 

This board is 1m long making the total layout length 4m which almost fills the garage. 

I had also decided that as this is only to run locos and the odd wagon on and off scene, most of which will be rigid six or four wheelers, there was no point messing with sector plates or point-work, as we can just lift the stock on and off as and when we need them. 

This will also be left open to view so the different loco types can be seen when they are not on the test track or in the erecting shop. 

The screen for the slide show will also be mounted on this board. 

Andy