Captain_Mumbles

Two more points nearly done. Made from the templot track plan.

They have the gentlest of curves and that is surprisingly hard to do. I chased one of them for hours but got there in the end.

Back on the Mumbleton after a break due to a combination of work and an urge getting my toy aeroplanes flying again.

I'm more creative in winter as well.

oooooooooooh

Any chance of seeing some more consists with some of the crimson and cream Gresley and Thompson coaches and brake vans for inspirational purposes?

Gday all.

Gluing down some flex track. Its great that if cut carefully, the templot templates also make really good templates for the flex track. Weirdly, after placing the track in the slot you have just made, you can push the flex track up against the paper and it mostly straightens it out for you and gets it pretty close to the shape needed. I think starting to glue down some track lets me test future turnouts when they are made as it slowly grows along. It is also a morale booster having some rolling stock parked on it.

Cheers!!

21 hours ago, Dr.Glum said:

I will enjoy watching this layout grow. Your philosophy matches mine; let's watch the big trains go by! Unlike me you're icing your cake with scenics, but once I'd settled for using my conservatory the concept had to be four tracks all the way round. Keep up the good work.

It is just a bit daunting at the moment but I am still enjoying it so far.

17 hours ago, John Besley said:

What scale

1/35th

Inspiring!!!

The turnouts get more reliable each time. I am starting to cut out the foot print area and set them in. After drilling some holes for the turn out mechanism and for the frog dropper wire.

They fit pretty good so I am wondering if I should just drill a hole and stick one track nail in there instead of glue so that removal could be carried out easier if it ever needed to be...

I also trialed giving them a ballast of sand before placing them in as I think it might be easier to do that off the layout where it is intricate where possible.

Cheers!

Ben

I love the Jacarandas!

In a few weeks time maybe not so much!

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

That looks a very nice model of one of the Port of Par Bagnalls in your profile photo. Can you tell us more about it please?

Gday! Its a modified Bachmann Bill. I built a new more correct shape cab. Shortened the boiler by cut and shut. Did a small amount of detail work like hand rails and coal. Removed the mechanism for the moving eyes and made a new smoke box door. It is still a tiny bit too big. From memory I think they were close to the height of a 7 plank wagon but these would be still a bit more than that.

It still isn't finished as my new layout has taken precedence. I would love to have the pair make a cameo on my layout double headed on a rake of plank wagons or even just as shunters.

Apologies for the Hijack but I hope you like it!

What a beautiful layout.

These are small practice samples of track to help me establish the colours and techniques for the track work. The camera and the light dont show it but there are a few different colours here to help me chose how to paint it all. Of course, the colours will also vary around the different sections of the layout. The ballasting will also change, especially around the engine shed. what I have done here is simply drop sand through my fingers on top of wood glue. Vacuum/displace the excess once dry. I can never get the ballast hopper tool, spray alcohol water dropper with soapy watery wood glue to work. No matter what I do, the ballast never sits right for me. So I like how this has turned out. I also like the idea of painting the ballast, this means I dont rely on any pre mixes and ect. It might also be just me, but even off the shelf fine ballast looks way too coarse for steam era, and fine sand is getting close enough to the right kind of look. It is also very robust. i can really push the paint brush into it and it doesnt break bits of ballast off...

Rattle can undercoat, and just browns and greys with a dark wash. More layers of dark wash on the track and chairs help complete the effect of shadow and rust/brake dust ect. A light dry brush to make the detail pop.

I also have started gluing my turnouts to some cork. I hope this will help me glue the last bits of timber while also gluing on some chairs in a way that do not interfere with the switch blades. You could imagine these chairs, cut in half and glued on would not really work without the cork holding the timbers in place. These will be more superficial and not really structural. This will also allow me to carefully sand the underside of the cork in case I get height issues between the different track work. I took delivery of some track and brass chairs from DCC concepts and I can see that I might run into an issue between track height. It is only about 5-10 thou, but I think the cork, sanded as appropriate, will help me get away with it. I should be able to cut out the appropriate shape in the cork on the layout and drop this in once the holes are drilled for the point actuation and the dropper wires. Home made and bespoke settrack maybe??

Id also like to thank @Martin Wynne yet again for putting up with me/us. I just dont know how he does it.

What drove me absolutely bonkers was the Big Grizly P2 pony truck just going over the switch blades like they werent there. The problem ended up being that I had used the check rail guide also as my guide for setting the switch blade position on the Tie bar/spreader bar and this looked really good, but it was not enough gap. This caused the wheel flange on the pony truck to follow on the wrong side of the switch blades as these were too close together. With that solved, more turnouts in production!

Thanks for looking!

Ben

On 07/11/2021 at 14:20, PaulRhB said:

Nice plan and the coaches are very effective too 

On 07/11/2021 at 20:05, Benjamin Brady said:

Good Morning, 

I have just come across this layout and I'll be looking forward to following your progress. The coaches look excellent you have done a really good job. 

 

 

 

Thanks!!! I have covered these coaches in the modified RTR section, but here is just some better pics of what I am doing with them. They are mainly just the trainset coaches modified or just painted for effect. Cant wait to see em going around the room.

Perfect project for wet and rainy day.

Things happening pretty slowly at East Mumbleton at the moment.

Hmmm yes the July invasion of the diseasels.

Always inspiring mate, cheers!

The 4th home built turnout getting just a little bit tidier each time, and after much procrastination the beginning of the embankment that becomes the viaduct and one of the centerpieces of the train set.

the viaduct will not be this long of course. It is built like this to keep some kind of standard and also allow it to fall where it needs to as the scenery materializes. This way, I can put it where it looks best. I judged the length of the arches somewhere between what looked good with the height, and after studying thousands of photos, something about the length of a pacific steam locomotive. There are quite a few where I found the length of an A4 was just about the length of an arch on some viaducts which also helped my inspiration. The spacing also allowed me to keep it quite level, and sturdy with my limited wood working skills. Keeping it level by the laser. The viaducts were foam on my last layout. Even though I was very happy with how that turned out, I like the idea of pretty much being able to stand on this one.

PS: even though my life's work is measuring and making things work in real life from drawings I have managed to produce a Viaduct that is consistently 2mm too low across its full length. At least it is consistent!! Considering this a gift, I will make up that extra height with some cork of the appropriate thickness.

@martin_wynnethank you for that insight. it has been something I often wondered. Although I tried to stick to the drawings I think you can tell by my hand made 'timbers' I wasn't really sure. I'll need to stock up on those sizes. 

Cheers. 

Ben

Hahaha I like that. I chose these few bits of pointwork to start with as they are at the back of the layout and I hope to be 'on the right track' by the time I get to the fore ground stuff. The CL 3 bolt chair sprues are probably as stop in the near future. I don't know that much about the chairs only that it would be 3 bolt chairs on my era of choice most likely not to mention my point work is a little on the heavy side at the moment. Things seems to push and roll through them quite well though. Locos under power need to be tried yet thought right.... 

Templot also looks like draws the sleepers around the point work a little wider that it is on plain track? Leading me to believe that the timbers in the point work were heavier?? Add on top of that my slightly inconsistent copper clad with (yes I am working on that) making plastic sleepers in the point work look a little odd. Would still be passable under some paint and in some ballast.

Ben

16 hours ago, brossard said:

Not quite sure where you're going here.  I assume you will fill the gaps with plastic timbers and chairs.  Not something I have ever done, but it has crossed my mind to raise the rail with brass strip.  You will have to use half chairs since you can't thread them now.  I shall watch with interest.  Yes, it does take a few false starts to get turnout construction.

 

As to soldering, a couple of points:

 

1)  I use desoldering copper braid to remove excess solder.  It wicks up the solder when heat is applied.  There are probably other methods.

 

2)  To control the amount of solder I apply, for years now I have cut tiny pieces of solder off the roll, picked them up with the iron and applied to the work.

 

John

 

I should also say that the turnout layout looks good to my eye.

 

I would suggest you complete at least one turnout to make sure everything is working out as you expect.

 

As you have said, I am reluctant to do any more due to not being able to cut the frog to isolate it at this point, until the new saw comes in the mail. You have given me some good ideas about the soldering.

I have tried to make my job easier by ordering some DCC concepts brass chairs to try only to find out the Peco bull head track I am using is a different spec and does not work. Hopefully I can get some of their track as well.

In the mean time, I tried some ideas on filling the gaps. I tried cutting and shutting the plastic sleepers, which looked OK, not exactly happy with it, but it could pass. I had to be careful, with the peco sleepers spaced out to 16.5mm or maybe even a touch more, I had to cut the inside part of the chair claw off so it doesnt push the 16.2mm track work out too hard and make my beautiful point look like an old rickety piece of track. The Peco chairs clip/snap back on by pushing up into the inside chair from underneath with a sharp pick. I did have a lot of success cutting the chairs off the sleepers as well.  So they could be used on some 1.5x3mm pine that I have. So there are some options.

Ben