MrSimon

Hi Paul,

I've got the pack somewhere but not applied any yet - its in storage with the rest of my possessions so I can't check the number! Do the yellow lines go on ok?

Thanks

Simon

Hello everybody!

Thank you for your comments and suggestions, I think I'm going to do some experiments with various shades of grey, but not mirrors (just because if I were to get down to the eyelevel on the layout I'd see myself!) but I'll give the LEDs some thought (I could do with maybe one or two inside the station and the house/pub and theres another 12 arches to build under the platform end)

Which way would the curve go Mr B? I'm assuming along the back wall, but with the curve going horizonally or vertically? I'll give it a go and see how it looks!

Hehe Pete I'm aiming for most of the businesses in the Gresby area to have that dodgy look about them - maybe there'll be some nicer parts on the extension

Hi Ben, I've got a few more cars to be for sale and customer/staff cars parked in front of the arches, I've not put any of the extra detail on the front yet, it will come when the arhes are finished internally and stuck down - hope it should be enough to take the attention away from the back wall!

Hi Justin, The TPSW grids are from TPM set 1002; I've not opened the packet yet but the etch looks really good I had lots of problems masking the ribs on the clam so what I've started doing is painting the whole side yellow and then drawing a fine pencil line accross the wagon where the yellow stops and then with a fine brush and thinned paint painting up to the line:


The one on the right isn't finished (probably not even started because I went back through all my clams and moved house halfway through) and shows the pencil line. The one on the left isn't a very good example of a finished one (and might not be one) they all need transfers putting on! The model master transfer sheet for the clams has yellow lines on but I've not tried them yet - in my head the line doesn't look long enough to go round the ribs but I'm sure it is!

I've only got a few days of building time left before packing it all up and moving again so I'd best get cracking!

Thanks again everyone

Simon

Hello everybody!

Thank you for your comments Theres still plenty to get done so I think maybe Christmas is a bit optimistic - New Year maybe! I'm not sure what I'm going to do for the back wall, its not too noticable in the garage or the office units:



But I do need to get something in place for the showrooms:


It needs to look like the arches are a lot deeper, but I'm not totally sure how to do it - I think a pair of perspective drawings would be hard because the vanishing point would vary depending on the angle the arch is being viewed at - maybe white fading to grey? Its too late to take up the trackbed and cut a hole in the wall!

The cut in half car was a bit of a surprise to me too - I thought I'd have enough space to get a whole one in - it seems to work alright though.

I've been a bit busy making wagons since I put the cars in, I bought a grampus and clam at Loughborough Show so I could take my time building them this week, and then accidentally finished them both on Sunday night! (they're still unpainted and posed on the layout above) Then I accidentally built set of five CRail coal containers... its only Tuesday oops The chassis for my next project came in the post today, so watch this space!

Lots to do, and thanks again

Simon

Hi,

Thank you for your comments! I'm not sure about 20:20 - everything starts to blurr after a while! I googled the pirelli calendar, and the workshop wall is a bit far from the door to be able to see it but I'll keep the images on file for the next building. I was never allowed to watch Not The Nine O'clock News, but there's only one swivvel chair hehe (I'm trying to work out how to do legs for the pair of chairs for the buyers to sit in)

Today was quite good if a little chilly at Loughborough show, I didn't find the wagon I was looking for (So the birthday money is safe for another day) but I got some TPSW grids, point levers and some wagon kits. I also got a car for surgery


I don't know if anyone has ever cut one of these in half with a modelling saw, but the diacast bit is the chassis and its really hard to cut through! I made some jacks for it and painted the front end red (waste not want not)


The car on jacks in the workshop. I need to see how much can be seen through the door before I see about some work benches.


The workshop from the front - I got the H&S signs on good images.


The door held open by the fire extinguisher


The two sales arches - I didn't realise just how much of the desk would be blocked by the pillar in the window


Sherwood motors from behind - its almost ready to stick down now.

Oooo 100th reply - time for a pint!

Simon

Hi,

It doesn't swivvel, but it is a swivvel chair...


I've stuck the keyboard and phone down now too and I just need to paint the chair and add some papers to the desk and it'll be ready to stick down in the garage Looks like he's left RM web on while away from his desk.

I'm going to give myself the rest of the night off, and its Loughborough show tomorrow so I'm not sure when it'll all be finished, but I'll put pics up when it is

Lots to do!

Simon

Hi Ben,

I've got the weathering powders primed and ready to go when I've got the last of the detail stuck on, it all needs a good going over! I used a mix of buffykhaki and grey for the bridge piers so I'll probably use the same for all the blue brick to keep it consistent.


Here's what I've been upto tonight - I can't quite get it in focus (its a bit dark for the camera and a bit small) and the camera wouldn't even pick up the computer I made, so I'll get it painted when its all set and try again in the daylight - hopefully it should all look better by then!

So much to do

Simon

Hi

It was indeed a cocktail stick. I use them for painting with enamels either to make really firm but thin lines (I can't get them to work with brushes) or small details like headlamps. I also use them for glue (epoxy and evostick) to keep it neat while not wrecking a brush. The paint doesn't really flow, I sort of use it like a bingo dibber, dotting the paint into place with thicker paint or nudging thinner paint around until its where I want it. I dibbed the bus stop lettering and pushed the yellow paint on the car number plate.

For the windows I used the plastic insert from a Dapol box and I scribed the window frames on with my scalpel and then sort of blobbed the paint up to the line - it acts like a gutter so the paint doesn't seep over (The paint was pretty thick and old though) and then I used my small brush for the matt varnish.

Most of my stuff is in storage while I camp out at my parents so I don't have all the brushes I'd usually have available, but I would definately reccommend giving a cocktail stick a go

Good luck!

Simon

Hi,

I gave it a coat of matt varnish and kept the slightly run down look Yesterday I started on the glazing, painting it in with a cocktail stick, today I matt varnished it to match the fascia:


The door is modelled open and the fuzzy red stick which shouldn't be in shot is the fire extinguisher thats holding the door open! Tonights job is to finish the fire extinguisher, fit the windows and make some office furniture for the sales desk. Sunday afternoon I shall be cutting an Oxford Dicast in half and then I should be ready to glue this viaduct side to the viaduct!

Hmmm N Gauge swivvel chairs...

Simon

Hi,

I had another look at the green and decided to go for a slightly darker shade:


Freightliner Green! I'm not sure if it will need a second coat or just some matt varnish and weathering, but it looks better already

Simon

Hi

The orange trunking is Evergreen StripStyrene number 210 0.030" ROD; painted Humbrol 132 orange I should have bought evergreen shares before I started building this!

I got a bit done yesterday - firstly I stuck the first two units into their arches:

I had to add a 4mm section of wall because it was slightly too short


I'm a bit worried that the green is a bit too green, but I've not done any toning down or weathering or detailing yet so it should disapear into the background!


The front walls are just plasticard with the wooden planks scribed on, todays job is some sort of background to go in the arch... which has got me pretty stumped. I think I need to either get shorter cars or cut a corner off one to make it fit; I'll see what I can pick up at Loughborough show this weekend. On todays to-do-list are a sales desk, the front windows for the show room, backgrounds for the three arches and all other details so I can stick it down by teatime.

Lots to do!

Simon

Haha well I'm glad I didn't go too far down the extra mile last night making light fittings and chip'n'pin machines etc for the ticket office because when I finally managed to wrestle it in place (I forgot to measure the hole it had to come through underneath and had to lift one end of the trackbed and slide it in) it became clear just how little would be seen, if any


At certain angles you'll be able to see the man through the doorway and the monitors and his legs should be visable down the stairs!


I got the orange pipe things fitted for now I am definately ready for ballasting...

Simon

Hello everybody!

I've been a busy boy again today


Here is the side of the house, I think the painting is pretty much finished and just needs weathering and detailing and sticking together, but I'm not sure when I'll get that done.

I've made a start on the booking hall of the station, after working out exactly what would be visible I decided not to go crazy on the detail:


Here are the walls and floor ready to stick together.


I decided to make a ticket office a bit of a cross between the ticket office at Ravenscourt Park and the ticket office at Manchester Victoria.


I'm in two minds about departure/arrivals monitors for the bottom of the stairs - I think they might be visible but only from the back, so they might not have a front

Lots to do as always!

Simon

Hi Pete,

The layout was originally designed to fit in my tiny flat in London and the extension was initially designed for when I had more space, I thought I was moving to a much bigger flat but it fell through so the extension is sort of on ice. I'd love to extend before the first two boards are finished though!

Thanks

Simon

Hehe thanks Kris, I sort of made a rod for my own back with the street/station bit and now have to force myself to make the rest to the same standard - hope it will be worth it in the end!

Thanks Porkie, I'm hoping it survives being ballasted - I've not ballasted anything in about 10 years and I don't remember it going too well... something I need to practise I think

I got the units painted today and they're ready for glazing and detailing. I seem to remember someone making aircon units, but I can't remember who - anyone know?


I've got three more to go - but they're a car dealers so will be different - and then I can stick the viaduct side down. I've done a bit more work on the house but I've not photo'd it and I might have to redo it when I see it in the daylight tomorrow and I've started the inside of the station (which is visible unfortunately) and I'll get some photos of this up tomorrow.

Lots to do!

Simon

Hehe Thankyou!

It was a good afternoon out, I'd not been for about five years... they even had one of my favourite trams in service:


I'd never been on it before, it was a pity non of my other favourites were being used but you can't have everything!

I got a bit of work on the layout done yesterday and this morning:


The first two business units underneath the arches! I need to get them finished pretty quickly because they won't be easily accessable when I've got the house finished.

Simon

hi,

Thanks for your comments

The hydrant is indeed home made, its a short strip of Evergreen Scale Models stripstyrene number 124 0.5x2.0mm strip cut and filed to shape, painted with Humbrol 154. I left about 2mm extra on the thin bit so I could plant it into the pavement... I didn't think I'd ever get a picture of it in focus!

I did a tiny bit of work on it this morning, I got the little blocks of plasticard to hold the pointmotors level painted grey - but I didn't take a photo of it. I've been spending the day doing birthdayish things at the Crich Tramway Museum and when I got back I found that my dad had bought me this:


They use it for railtours in the week right?

I'll maybe do some more tonight!

Lots to do

Simon

Hi Graham and Carl,

Thank you for your comments; I'll certainly look into TPWS for the platforms rather than ATP... if I end up sticking with ATP I'll certainly make sure everything clears them before sticking them down (although I probably won't stick either down until I've ballasted)

The dummy point motors are just the Peco SL-347 dummy point motors - I'd had a few suggestions of which to get and then saw these on the wall in Total N gauge in Hucknall.


Here they are waiting to be glued down, I've also glued the relay cabinets down and the under-the-track-orange-cable-pipes are drying. It all needs a good weather and some weeds!

Today I decided to cancel the repaint of the Yellow Tomytec car after seeing two in Newark Morrisons, but I did paint the rear number plate yellow... then I stuck it down where the rear number plate will probably never be seen!
 

I'm not sure how many different cars I've posed in this spot, but now I've got a car of my own I couldn't really park it anywhere else! I think at the moment its still my favourite viewpoint on the layout.

Lots to do!

Simon

Hello everybody!

I didn't get much done yesterday, I seem to be flagging after last weeks push to get the bridge done

My next little project will be sorting out the trackbed around the station throat, I want to get it ready for ballasting before I have to pack everything away. I've been painting bits ready to be stuck down (maybe today or tomorrow)


Relay cabinets (I think these need a second coat and maybe a spot of weathering and some signage)


Dummy point motors (I'm going to have to find some pictures of these online and see what detail they should have)


AWS ramps - 88p bargain from Grantham show! I'm not entirely sure where these should go, it says 12" from the signal but I don't know how this would apply to signals at the end of terminating platforms

I got a bit of non-trackbed work done too, I painted the Tomix couplings on the 158s and ended up picking out the whole underframes in a sort of dirty paint:

It doesn't show too well here, but it looks quite good and i think just needs a waft of weathering powders to finish (Then comes weathering the bodysides and roofs but I'll save that for a rainy day)


The light red brick paint didn't work too well, its a bit too red and makes the house look like my old studnet house in Preston which isn't the look I'm aiming for! I'm going to have a go at mixing a slightly orangybrowner colour and applying it differently... I'll tidy up around the windows when the walls are painted.

So much to do!

Simon

Evenin' all!

I gave one of the N-Brass relay cabinets a go:

Its come out alright, I must admit I'm not a big fan of folding brass, especially as my favourite brass folding pliers are in storage, but I think these cabinets are just the ticket.

I never did paint that car...

Simon

Hello everybody!

Leammington was good yesterday, show in the morning and a mooch round town in the afternoon. The leyland national on the Bachmann stand looked just the ticket for the layout, even if I have to repaint it into a local livery... and I'm going to have to find a home for a rake of the JPAs they had on show!

I came out relatively unscathed trade-stand wise, I bought two cars from Japan Model Railways (and I wish I'd bought a truck too) relay cabinets from N Brass (which I reckon I can model with the doors open) and two shades of brick red paint. Who knows, maybe one day I'll exhibit there...?

My Dad bought a pack of the Tomix scharfenberg (spelt wrong I think) couplings that fit a normal coupling box - a whole pack and he's only got one 158 and won't be buying more - so it seemed right and proper that I fit them to my 158s too!


My Japanese is a little rusty so I used the pictures to guess how they went together. I'm assuming no glue is needed!


Here are the couplings fitted to my Transpennine set, I'm not sure why dad bought grey ones so they'll need a spot of black/mucky paint on them - but they look loads better than the rapidos.


The main reason for fitting them rather than just normal dummy scharfenburgs was that the Tomix ones couple to the couplings used by Dapol on the 156 and 153 (and hopefully the 142 too) they leave a bit of a gap between the units, and one day I might investigate mounting the coupling a bit closer into the coupling box, but I'm not too worried about it. One thing I did find out was due to the way the close coupler works on the Dapol unit and the absence of a close coupler on a Bachmann unit, the inside wheel on the Bachnamm bogie derails on some tight curves (I tested on some of Dads tight unitrack as an extreme) I think its because there is no 'pivot' in the Bachmann System and the Dapol being body mounted and pivotted required non matching stock to throw furthur than it ordinarily would... if that makes sense? [i could produce a set of better explaining pictures if anyones interested]


One thing I've thought of doing for a while was the front valance modification to the 158. It does look loads better, however it doesn't seem to work too well with the coupling still in situ - even a Tomix one - so I'm not sure whether to detach the coupling box and body mount it (in which case I'm not sure how that will affect the performance of the couplings) or file it a bit on the back so everything works well and try it on a gentler radius of track. I'm not going to convert any other units just yet, I'll decide what to do when I've made an extension to the layout and know what the minimum radius curves the units will have to traverse.

Seems odd not writing about scenery! I'm off to repaint one of my Japanese cars now, I'm not sure if that particular shade of Japanesey yellow would go down well in north Nottinghamshire!

Lots to do!

Simon

Hi,

Thank you for your comments, its been a bit of a crazy day getting it all fitted! I'm not really a fast modeller - I've been working on the viaduct walls on and off since March and it all sort of came together in the last two weeks. My main problem is prevarication; I'll put off difficult jobs for as long as possible. I couldn't really put off the bridge for much longer because it was starting to hold up other work, like the platform and trackbed

There'll be plenty more to keep me busy with over the next few weeks, the layout is 7ft by 12inches and I have finished a 3 inch strip (excluding the trackbed above) and now I'm going to have to do the rest to the same standard! I'll definately keep the pictures coming

Thanks again

Simon

Hello everybody!

Here are a few more pictures of this mornings work - everytime I see pictures I see things I need to fix - like a cross on the pavement between someones legs I think the next packages of work will be the platform edging and booking hall/steps, ballasting and detailing the trackbed, finish off the house, back garden and yard, I'm not sure which to do first...


The fire hydrant!

Two gauging runs over the bridges. When I last test fit the bridge sides class 66s hit the parapet thing, I've not done anything to them but now they miss by about 5mm... spooky! For some reason the bridge side looks like its leaning back - I'm going to have to check to see if its some sort of fisheye effect on the camera or if it is actually leaning.

Leammington tomorrow!

Simon

[Fourth hour]

Well the line is back open for traffic and now the pavements are furnished and installed. Apart from the bus stop sign post and a tiny bit of touching up the sides of the billboards its done! Wooo!


Two Bachman people... she has to stand still to send a text and he wants to get back to the car - the eternal dilemma haha!


A Manchester Airport service wais to depart Gresby, on street level the pavement outside the station door is finished, the blond lady is watching a brawl outside the pub accroos the road (to be constructed). I've also put down the last bit of the road surface.


The station entrance from the front of the layout.


The bus stop (awaiting post) with two people waiting for the bus. Note cable box and fire hydrant.


The bus stop again. A spot of weathering and touching up are needed but this section of the street is just about done.

I might have a rest this afternoon...

Simon

[Third hour]


The works foreman took a nap while I double checked the clearances, I then cemented the bridge sides away from the track to ensure they don't warp back over to foul passing trains.


I test fit the pavement to check where I wanted things like the hydrant, cable box, bus stop and people.

Lots to do!

Simon

[second hour]

Its been a bit longer than an hour but it seemed best to wait until things were glued and drying before posting...


First up, I test fit the road, marked its absolute final position and then glued it. You can sort of see the cant, but its N gauge so it doesn't need to be massive!


I didn't get any pictures of wrestling the bridge pieces into place, it went better than I thought it would but was definately a one way trip! Here is the street as soon as it had been fitted, I wasn't sure if the bottom was sticking out or the top was being pushed in. On furthur investigation I found that the girder on the rear bridge was 1mm too long.

 
There was some damage to the side with the fat lady, but they can be easily fixed and weathered away


All works were overseen by the works forman.


Pushing the station entrance so it stood straight.


Repaired side, I've got some posters to go over the line - and a spot of paint! 1mm was taken off the side girder here.

Everythings drying at the moment, the next job is double checking that stock is still able to cross the bridge, finish the cable box and finish off the under bridge parts of the pavements so they can be fitted later.

Lots to do!

Simon