10800

Signal kits have arrived (from Rotomagus, based near Rouen). Instructions are a separate download.

This will be fun ...

The website www.rotomagus.com has some useful YouTube links, not for the construction itself but the mode of operation using DCC and various servos to rotate the signals. I imagine you could adapt a Tortoise or similar to do the rotation, but that's more expense and there may be a rod/gear/twiddle stick solution. 

On 29/01/2020 at 18:50, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

I see in the Peco Spring Newsletter that Wills are to do tuiles mecaniques or, as they strangely call them, lozenge tiles. But if in their usual small format, probably not big enough for a station building.

Ah good, so you haven't seen the join on mine using the pantiles ...

Dropper positions drilled and wires poked through prior to soldering (having checked they were not conflicting with any of the board cross-members beneath). The wire colours do mean something, but I was also using up some scraps of thinner gauge wire for this. As long as they are all annotated on a plan and underneath it doesn't really matter. This will be DC cab control with about 5 sections, but it's pretty simple compared to other layouts I've wired.

Common sense prevailed and I decided against turning the three connected boards all as one unit on my own. So I'm separating them to do them individually. And yes, I did remember to cut through the rails at the board joints first! I used a razor saw for this, making use of the slight gaps between the boards for guidance. This allows for a neater cut without the wastage that you always seem to get if using a minidrill and slitting disc. You can put a sheet of thin card between the boards of the same thickness as the disc if you want to do it that way, and then removing the card so that the rails close up nicely, but I'd forgotten to do that anyway. None of this bit is specifically French of course ...

2 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

Will you be using the full depth of the boards, Rod? I wasn't sure how to deal with those ribs that come down the back on mine, so in the end I built the backscene forward an inch or so, concealing the ribs but at the same time losing a valuable bit of layout width, which irked a bit.

Good question! There will probably be a mixture of full and partial relief buildings and some trees to help disguise them, but I haven't yet come to a complete solution to it. Your method is interesting, but as you say losing one of the valuable 18 inches depth isn't ideal.

Tracklaying now all done apart from the extreme ends (I haven't worked out the fiddle yard arrangements yet) and the back siding which will be built around the buildings and not the other way round.

Next I will rotate the whole thing 90 degrees forwards in order to fit all the droppers on the plain line (points are already done), then another 180 degrees which will show the underside at the front so I can get on with wiring and point motors. Then it will be testing that it all works before ballasting, and after that catenary.

21 hours ago, ejstubbs said:

 

If you can transfer it to DVD then it should be a straightforward job to rip it from there to MP4.  There are a number of freeware offerings available for that kind of task.  You need a computer, and a DVD drive (an external USB drive is fine) and some software to do the ripping.  I use Handbrake and it really is very straightforward to use: point it at the DVD in the drive, tell it which programme on the DVD you want to rip and click start.  You can experiment with picture quality settings and the like as well but the basic process is very simple.

 

I reckon that, done properly, the quality would be indistinguishable from digitising directly from the VHS.  Since the video on the DVD will be in digital form (mpeg video) anyway at least you're not adding another analog-digital conversion in to the process, just transcoding from one digital format to another.  Assuming that the DVD would be created from the VHS by recording from one to the other, I would hazard a guess that the main determinant of quality in the final product would be the circuitry that digitises the analog video signal from the VHS player and puts it on the DVD.

Sadly the original tape has gone missing 

How's your house Joseph?

A bit more tracklaying today. Other things are keeping me busy so it's a question of getting the odd hour in when I can.

Another building, somewhat smaller this time - a Midi lamp room/WC from 'Architecture et Passion'.

The other 'typical' bird in the area of interest is the black redstart, including nesting at the gite where I stay. I don't know if that's just a hotspot or if they are quite widespread. But not dramatic enough to model! Rollers would be nice, but I've only ever seen them in Africa and Pakistan.

Guest appearances welcome in SW France John, even if the FE4/4 has to be towed with the pans down!

Brilliant, thanks BT!

I am planning a transition from these ogives to conventional masts, but I don't recall seeing any storks in the area I am basing the layout on. I will inquire of my friends.

What they do have is hoopoes, so I ought to have one or two of those ...

Now painted and pretty much finished - roof slightly weathered but I won't finish it until I have all the layout buildings done so they can all be weathered consistently. And I will have to add the name to the end walls.

I can see your point, but they're on now and will have to do. They are better than the very flat sheets provided in the kit anyway.

Also from Architecture & Passion was this for a barrière roulante, laser cut (!) in what looks like the same card material as the station details, but 1mm thick.

On 01/01/2020 at 18:25, 10800 said:

 

What do you think the colour scheme should be? Typical photos suggest light cream with pale blue/grey for the woodwork, but I'm open to suggestions. What about the corner stones and door/window surrounds? Existing structures are often in a pale pink base colour, but I don't know if they are original or repaints after line closure.

  

I just received from Architecture & Passion (in Labouheyre in SW France, and very efficiently) another laser-cut kit for a Midi toilet/lamp room (ref. 874021). As well as very nice colour photo instructions, they helpfully provide three options for Midi building colour schemes (although is this pre-PO and pre-SNCF? I'll ask them).

These are

Option 1 - light grey walls, white stonework and details, medium brown doors and windows

Option 2 - off-white walls, medium grey stonework, brown or medium grey doors etc

Option 3 - very light ochre/ochre pink walls, light grey stonework, medium brown doors etc

For now I have the acrylics for option 3 (Vallejo), but it can always be repainted later if wrong.

Canopy now fitted and roof draped on. The roof uses Wills pantiles rather than the etched ply included in the kit. At the moment the roof is only glued along the ridge line. The benefit of putting all the rafters on (supposedly 'optional') is clear. There is a slight bow in the roof on the main building - this will be straightened when it is completely glued down. The ply roofs will come in handy for the nominal interior.

The canopy at the left end (below) didn't quite fit perfectly and was standing out from the wall by about 1mm; some small fillets from the fret waste of the same material was cut and inserted - from this picture you can't tell.

We just need a big bridge to join yours and mine together John 

Station building now finished apart from roofs, canopy, basic interior and final details, and painting.

Thanks Ian, I think my PLM building is OK, at least there was nothing there that made me wish I'd got one of those instead! I notice they do kits for the rolling level crossings though ...

That's an option - I had thought about using them as a template for something.

Some more progress on the station building kit - which, one or two very minor issues aside, grows in my estimation.

There is a full-length canopy, although not one like the UK where it reaches to the platform edge, but just enough to keep passengers dry or out of the sun as they exit the building. The structure of the canopy is in some plastic material, 0.9mm thick, and the ridges in the sheeting are done very finely in the 0.35mm white card material.

The support brackets are laser cut in the same 0.9mm plastic, and despite their fineness are quite robust. Gluing them works fine with the PVA recommended for the whole kit, along the guide lines provided (they are not regularly spaced)

The kit even provides guttering, folded from parts half-cut in the 0.35mm card material; and a representation of downpipes, cut in the 0.9mm plastic.

I think the downpipes are a step too far, and I'll probably use Wills plastic ones or maybe try the new ModelU products.

Meanwhile, I've been doing the rafters - in stages, to give time for glue to go off, and also doing them alternately to stop my fingers knocking the ones I've just attached. These have to be glued to minimal landing on the longitudinal joists - there are guide marks but no 'notches' to assist alignment. According to the instructions these are 'optional', although you would then miss out on the view of the ends of them under the roof which would be a shame.

Hi Joseph

So if you have a double track coming in from the right, closing into a single track, what is protecting that hazard? Or other hazards off scene to the left?

Not to worry John, I'm going to buy one of them to look at from Atelier CJ together with some masts.

Cheers

Rod

Atelier CJ Models also do the correct masts, so that's another issue solved!

https://ateliercjmodels.com/epages/631c379c-594e-4ae7-bdda-fdf984f11fd8.sf/fr_FR/?ObjectPath=/Shops/631c379c-594e-4ae7-bdda-fdf984f11fd8/Products/"CJM 608"