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Chris_nicole

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  1. Chris_nicole
    A couple of weeks ago we visited the Great Central Railway at Rothley station in Leicestershire.
    The station is run as it was in 1912 with gas lights and coal fires.
    The station staff made us very welcome and were happy to answer all our (mainly Jenn's) questions.
    As I've mentioned before, Jenn is hot on social history and how people actually lived and do things.
    We were very impressed with the set-up there and spent much of the day just exploring a relatively small station.
    At some point we'd like to go back and might even take a train to the other stations!
     
     
    Back home and work on Jenswell continues.
    We have the track fixed down, wired and working nicely.

     

     
    I made a start on placing some of the proposed buildings.
     
    We have some already built, like the waiting shelter and scalescenes coal office.
     

    This is an Alphagraphics card kit of a NER waiting shelter.
     

    This is the Scalescenes coal office/ weighbridge.
     
    I bought a ready to plant coal staithe at Doncaster as I was not happy with the card one I built earlier.
    This has real coal, useful as it's front and centre on the layout.
     
    I have a GT Andrews crossing keepers cottage from Alphagraphics.
    It's made up as a very nice model, except it's too big for the space available and stone where I could really do with a similar design in brick.
     
    I also have a Scalescenes arch bridge made up as a scenic break.
     
    There are a few little Hornby line side huts from the train set that may yet find a place on the layout too when they've been painted.
     
    Trying to fit these all in around the track layout got rather crowded.
    When I start figuring in the embankment for the bridge it gets even tighter.
     
    I started to wonder why I was building the fiddle yard into the layout ?
     
    As I planned on using loco lift / fiddle sticks operating outside the carcase via mousehole doors, it suddenly made sense to take out the fiddle yard altogether and use all the space for the scenic layout...
     
    With the extra space we could add a small station house and a signal box too, (free with the Railway modeller at Christmas).
     

     
    The station house here is a Super Quick kit and just a place holder until I find something more suitable.
     
    I have a Builder Plus kit for a small GWR station that could be adapted to our area.
    Replace the tiles with slates and paint the woodwork green...
    Only problem is, it looks best from the back where it won't be seen!
  2. Chris_nicole
    Between Christmas and building and decorating work in our house, Jenswell had been put out of the way for a while.
    Now we've got room to set it up again and do some work.
     
    The points are operated using MSE wire-in-tube.
    The w-i-t's were initially pinned to the slab.
    I have now stuck them down with self adhesive address labels.
    These work on the ply deck but came unstuck on the painted foam slab. i willhave to try some PVA to stick the sticky labels down!
    Strangely they seem to stick pretty well to the unpainted slab beneath...
     

     
    At the moment it's just a matter of pulling or pushing the wires to operate the points.
    I have a couple of ideas for operating levers...
     
    Last night I sorted out the track wiring.
    I had already soldered dropper wires to each length of track before we laid the track.
    Initially I used single core bell wire, but after a couple of pieces broke off I replaced the droppers with flex.
    The dropper wires were punched through the deck and pink slab when we laid the track on doublesided automotive tape.
     
    Last night I soldered the dropper wires to copper tape stuck to the slab underside.
    The self adhesive copper tape is a product intended for wiring dolls houses.
    It came with fairly comprehensive instructions if I ever need to wire a dolls house.
     
     

     
    Obviously using a soldering iron on polystyrene needs some care!
    I have a temperature controlled solder iron.
    With a little experimentation I found it worked best at 240'C using Carrs solder cream.
    The foam slab melted a little directly under the copper tape but does not appear to have suffered much ill effect.
     
    I have wired all the Yard tracks together regardless of point setting.
    As I only expect to run one loco at a time this shouldn't cause a problem.
     
    After i'd finished soldering I couldn't resist getting out a loco and controller to check if it works.
    Around about midnight, my Dapol Sentinel shunter was puttering along quite happily and going through the insulfrog points without hesitation.

     
    Incidentaly, Hull Model Railway show 2012 will have three layouts (including Jenswell) depicting the North Holderness Railway.
    Not bad for a line that was never built!
  3. Chris_nicole
    We are Chris and Jennifer Nicole, modeller and better-half living in Hull.
     
    We visited Hull MRS's mini show at Paragon Station in August where Jennifer won a Blue Highlander Hornby train-set on the raffle.
    One of my colleagues in Hull MRS challenged us, "If you build a layout with that, we'll show it."
    They know too well my tendancy to get enthusiastic over a new project then run out of steam before achieving much.
    I have too many ideas and no decision.
     
    Jennifer is made of different mettle. When she decides something will be done, it gets done, and usually very soon.
    We accepted the challenge.
     
    Soon afterwards, we visited Railex North East where Jennifer had chance to look at a load of excellent layouts and pick up ideas for her layout.
     
    One very helpful layout and operator was Croft Depot. This is a small shunting layout built into a neat cabinet.
    The operator was encouraging visitors to have a go at shunting the yard.
    Jenn had a go, asked questions and took photos.
     

     
    Another layout was Foston Mills. This is a 7mm layout with a lot to recommend it.
    However, it was the layout's 'history' that took our interest.
    Foston Mills is based on the North Holderness Light Railway, one of those railways that were planned but never built. In real life they started a bus service instead.
    North Holderness is practically our backyard and has featured in some of my previous planned layouts. This gave us a potential background for Jenn's layout.
     
    Well supplied with ideas and enthusiasm we headed home to make plans...
     
    More later.
     
     
    Jenswell has just received an invite to Hull MRS 2012.
  4. Chris_nicole

    Jenswell part 2

    By Chris_nicole,

    Whilst our initial goal is to have a layout ready for Hull Show, we also want to have the layout usable at home. This means it needs to be fairly small and tidy when not in use as a railway.
     
    Croft Depot suited both requirements, also the way it was operated from the front with plenty of opportunity for interaction with show visitors fitted our view of railway modeling as a social activitY.
    We decided to build something similar.
     
    We were looking at a small shunting layout built into a four foot x two foot cabinet subdivided like a rabbit hutch between a scenic area and a storage/fiddle area.
    Access and operation would be from the front using a controller on a wander lead.
     
    We wanted to use as much of the equipment from the Hornby train-set as practical.
    It would be based on a what-if Holderness / South Riding railway rather than a real location.
    We wanted to include realistic scenery for our location.
    Jenn is particularly hot on scenic and social detail in model railways.
     
    The scenic area would be about three foot long with a fiddle/storage area big enough to take a Peco loco-lifter for cassette operation in the remaining space.
    I thought we might have mouse-hole doors in each end of the cabinet for through running on occasion.
     
    Another station I have an interest in is North Grimston on the Malton Driffield Railway.
    I had made plans for this in N-Gauge, but reckoned I would need at least six foot just for the station area.
    It occurred to me while we were planning that North Grimston had all the features we were looking for and I could fit most of them into our three foot scenic area!
     
    One of the influences on our layout is a photo from the Malton Dodger showing a farmer loading a southern railway open wagon with hay form his horse drawn farm cart.
    The railway wagon must have taken several cart loads as it looked like a haystack on wheels.
    They must have sheeted the load before moving but I don't know how they got it through the loading gauge!
    Any way, Jenn wanted a scene like that on our layout.
    I have a loading dock, I still need to find and build the hay cart.
     
    I dug out my plans book and started making sketches...

     
    These plans were derived from North Grimston, compacted to fit, except the third plan down which was Croft Depot for comparison.
    It gave us a single track through line with platform and passenger halt at the back and a small goods yard in front.
    We were looking at the fiddle yard on the left with the through line exiting on the right under a road bridge.
    The first two used a sector plate for transfer between sidings. I soon dropped this idea for simplicity and room needed.
     
    When I started to layout set-track I realised we were not going to get the fine angles envisioned.
    So I tried a couple of different arrangements to give us the through line and three sidings we wanted.
     

     
    The smaller plan at bottom right is the one we've gone for with modification...
  5. Chris_nicole

    Jenswell Part 2a

    By Chris_nicole,

    A very quick follow up to our last post
     
    I started setting out track and points on a slab of pink foam to see what we could fit in.
    Extruded foam from B&Q packs of four sheets each 1200x500x50 mm.
    This will be the base board for our layout with a light-ply deck for the track.
     
    I was rather pleased to find that the three sidings gave us a classic 5-3-3 Inglenook.
    This makes the layout more usable as a shunting puzzle.
     

     
    We have photos too !
  6. Chris_nicole

    Jenswell Part 3

    By Chris_nicole,

    We angled the track layout so it's not running parallel with the board edge.
    This also helps us get a bit more in and seems to make better use of the space.
     

     
    We have decided to use wire-in-tube for the point control.
    I have some bits from MSE already.
     
    Electrical wiring should be very simple, as I expect to run only one engine 'in steam' .
    The yard is completely seperate from the through track. If we want to transfer stock, we will have to use a loco-lifter.
    I intend putting in a two way switch to change control between the yard and the trough track.
    I have soldered dropper wires to the track joiners so I should have an electical connection to each section of track.
    Both set track points are insulfrog.
     
    I want to run DCC and DC as most of my existing locos are chipped for DCC.
    I have the Bachman Eazy DCC controller which is usually okay for our needs except it tends to run hot so has to be rested after a while.
     
    Jen wants us to use the Hornby controller that came with the set and the unchipped Caledonian pug.
    We will just plug in whichever controller we need for the loco in use.
     

  7. Chris_nicole
    Most of my posts on Jenswell blogged so far actually occurred before we got the Hull Show invite.
    I still have a fair bit to recap before I get up to date, including buildings built, vehicles acquired and track laying/laid.
     
    However, I thought I would take this opportunity to post our latest progress before I forget about it.

     
    Between two weekends and four days off work for Christmas/New Year I was hoping we might get rather more done than we achieved.
    Ha! So much for that idea!
    But we have made a little more progress...
     
    A trip to Lidl for groceries found a LED light bar which looks ideal for lighting the layout, at a very reasonable price too.
    They had an Ultrasonic cleaner too, but I've already got one.
     
    I had chance to test my wire in tube point operating system.
    I had been worrying that it was too sloppy and would need constant adjustment.
    Actually trying it out in situ, it works fine. I can stop faffing about with it.
    Result!
     
    Currently, the W-in-t's themselves are just pinned down to the board between the points and the lever.
    I was looking for a way of fixing them more securely.
    I have a hot-glue gun as recommended by MSE but have not tried it yet.
    It occured to me that sticky paper address labels would do the job very neatly and I can paint or glue over them too.
    Result!!
     
    Left to my own devices I can waste a lot of time trying to decide how to solve minor problems.
    One I was struggling with was how or when to build the rabbit hutch carcase around the layout.
    At some point over Christmas I had an epiphany.
    Think outside the Box!
    Leave the carcase til later.
    It can wait for better weather whilst I work on the pink slab without havine to fiddle around inside the box.
    Result!!!
     
    Not a lot of practical work done but three more hurdles overcome.
     
    I'm a happy bunny.
     
    Happy New Year.
     
    Black Hat & Jenny
  8. Chris_nicole
    There has been a useful thread in the card structure modelling forum.
    I have been working on the free Metcalf signal cabin from RM Jan 2012 as a gate box for Jenswell.
     
     
     
     
    Source: Free Signal Box from Railway Modeller January- Lets see them.
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