SNCF stephen

I installed Cork on my layout. I originally tried laying the track without but the Cork makes it easier to tac the track down. It also reduces the running noise which, although not huge, is quite good. I laid the track first and then created the dividing walls between the fiddle yard and the scene. This meant that I had a bit more freedom when laying the track.

Hi Peter and Seth, Thanks for your kind words. It is indeed N gauge. Its still a bit rough around the edges (literally in some cases...) but it is certainly getting there. I have a huge amount of Lego in storage at my parents house from when I was a kid so finding bits is not a problem. On most of my structures I am not too keen on adding lghting to every window so this works quite well (in fact on this one it works very well because it will allow me to have a better decorated shop interior). However you are right in that if you want lights on several windows the original Lego structure has to be carefully designed. Lego do or did manufacture entirely clear bricks (proper construction type bricks and not windows or windscreens) for some years and if enough of them could be sourced then it would allow you to light up many more windows. Since there are such a large range of bricks then there are a large variety of solutions to this problem. If sourcing specific bricks is a problem then either Ebay or the Lego store might be of some use. Thanks for the digital designer link. I have the basic structure for the next model pretty much built, but if any future structures get built (either on this layout or the next) it will be used. I have to say that using a cheap source of Lego has reduced the costs of producing a building. I would imagine in larger scales it could significantly reduce the cost of production. Cheers Stephen

Hi John, I always found that I could not get the sides to match up properly if I used just Plasticard. Using the Lego removes the need to laminate the structure and as you say it does make it very strong. Plus the benefit is that you can make a structure in a variety of sizes. My next layout may feature some sort of high rise building and to have a solid structure like this as the basis to do that on would be useful. The windows were very fiddley and some came out better than others. Stephen

I have decided to take a break from the 323 project (it is getting there though!) to concentrate on the layout and today I decided to have a quick go at building a small shop building out of Plasticard but instead of using just Plasticard I used Lego as the basis of the structure and glued plasticard to the outside of that structure in a similar way to the previous building I have made. Below is the Lego structure constructed for the building. It is not solid so that lighting can be incorporated at a later date. This one shows the first wall constructed to accommodate a set of windows donated from an old Faller building. I have only stuck 3 walls onto the Lego structure so far the last one requires some sort of window display to be incorporated before it gets stuck so it is remaining open. The pictures below show the building from the 2 most complete looking angles. I have also been working on the layout itself with the road being extended in two locations (the small new housing estate and onto the removable baseboard extension). As well as extending the road I also repainted the entire length of the road to give it a more uniformed and lighter colour. It dried a bit lighter than expected but I am quite pleased with the result and it certainly has removed a big hurdle to carrying out more work on the layout. I also tested the position of the new building in situ, although this was before the sides were stuck down. Thanks for reading. Stephen

Well I have spent most of the morning (and a small proportion of the afternoon) removing the front end of the 159 donor unit and replacing it with the class 323 brass etching. I was quite pleased with how well the front came off and in the end I had nothing to fear really. The pantograph bay has also been almost completed with just a small hole needing to be drilled before I can complete the work on that entire carriage. What did surprise me, with regards to how problematic it has been, was the air dam that I have decided to attach to the main body. I think that when I was folding it into shape I must have got the proportions wrong for the front as it does not sit very well and I am consdiering removing it and building something out of plasticard using the Electra rail graphics as a means of decorating the exterior. Although it wont have the same feel as the etched part does I think it might be easier for the motor end to consider doing that. The above picture is before the air dam was attached and before I reattached the front because I was unhappy with the angle at which it had stuck. Putting the vinyl onto one side has really given me a big incentive to keep going. It really looks the part and I cannot wait to get the whole thing done so I can give it a good run. I expect to have the unit mostly completed by early next week. The above picture is after the air dam was attached and also after the intermediate carriage had the pantograph bay pretty much completed.

No not a seaside resort with a terrible name, but a small update about how the pantograph bay is coming along. I spent most of the day filing it out and it has come out about right. I believe its about half a milimetre too long but I shall rectify this wil some milliput when I install the brass pantograph bay. This will be done after I have drilled the hole for the pantograph which was donated from an old Farish class 91. Some pictures of the before and after treatment of the bodyside paint removal (all done now bar some small bits and pieces)! I would be keen to hear any feedback or hints. I think that tomorrow might be the day when I "make the cut" and remove the cab ends. Before that I need to decide whether to paint or use vinyl overlays on the front air dam. I think a coat of paint wont do me wrong since I can then add the overlays if I am unhappy with it. I am also trying to work out how to make a decent windscreen for the unit. I am currently thinking of using a piece of acetate.

I was going to ask about the motor blocks and if you had purchased some to just run this one. It is car boot season at the moment, have you thought about checking around to see if you could get some more Playmobile kit so you could have some dedicated motors for some of your locos?

Its taken a little longer than I expected to get all the bits and pieces to get this project moving but I have been making a bit of progress on converting the Farish Class 159 into a Centro Livery class 323 EMU. I have started painting the brass etches and I am looking at how best to colour the air dam at the front. The Electra Grapics could be used to cover these areas but I am not sure whether it might be better to paint them white and see what that looks like first. I started stripping the paint off the trailer car in the 159 set which required about an hours worth of work to get it pretty much clear. I might need to go back to this one though as there were a few stubborn parts of the paintwork. One thing that I forgot to consider when buying the donor unit was the roof colour. Unfortunately the South West livery on the units goes onto the roof and this meant that I have had to respray the roofs grey. This is probably a blessing since the grey I chose to respray the roofs with looks a little more prototypical. The section I am least looking forward to doing is the removal of the pantograph bay. I am worried that my filing will not be accurate enough and that copious amounts of Milliiput will be required for filling my mistakes!!! I intend to do another coat of paint on the etches and it will take a few days worth of work to get to the next stage which is cutting off the front ends with a razor saw. This is another bit I am worries about because I am not certain of the best technique to cut the front ends off. I suspect it will probably go awry but since I could get replacement bodies off ebay for about a tenner I am not too worried, but I would prefer to try and get it right first time... At the weekend I had a good session on Nevic Entier, I decided to see how much of my SNCF stock I could get onto the track with the idea that I might run it a bit like a preserved railway, it also gave me a chance to try out my new Roco carriages which are SUPERB!!!!). It was good fun and I took a few pictures: I also took this view of the main fiddle yard and the scenic side showing the small station halt. In the coming days I shall be doing a bit more scenic modelling on the small extension section as well as tidying up the town area. I now know what kit I need to almost finish the town section. Once the road has been extended and repainted I will start considering adding some people to the town. Also I shall be starting the work on the next set of scratchbuilt buildings (I am actually really keen to get started, which is funny because I was moaning about not doing it again a few blogs ago!!!). Thanks for reading Stephen

John, Your work rate is astounding and I am always impressed by your creations. I think this loco will look spectacular in your back garden and I have to say that your posts has definitely made me consider having a garden railway myself (although perhaps in the more distant future). I look forward to seeing how this one progresses. Stephen

I think the front end shape is very well done. It certainly looks the part and I am certain it will be a very popular model. Its interesting that the prototype had pretty similar colours to the 86 in Freightliner Green.

I like it, I will be very interested to see how this comes on. Of course these units are actually designed for a very wide range of operations including options to use them for on street running as a form of Tram Train.

Hi Steve, Thanks for the comments, they are always welcome. The road is not one of the better pieces of the layout so far, but I have plans to repaint it in the near future after I have relaid a small section in the town. The reason it probably looks like its moving is that I gave it a wash with a thin layer of white paint after the initial base coat dried too dark. The shrubs around the woodmill were there largely to hide the join between the grass paper and the modrock. I added extra to give a better degree of cover, but I tend not to think about how much to put down. I have to say that modelling countryside scenes are a lot easier for me than urban scenes as I find that the imprecise nature of real life is something I am better at modelling wheras precise lines and measurements I find quite difficult to model. Cheers Steve

I have made some progress on my Oxford Die Cast box building and also have been painting the other building (that has taken a silly amount of time to get this far... The construction of the box building was relatively simple, although the odd corners and dimensions did throw me a little and some minor surgery was needed in one corner to allow a little extra room on one of the walls where I cur it too short. I have painted the insides of the plasticard black so it can have lighting at a later date. I had to add a small amount of plasticard to the top of the box to allow the supports for the sloped roof to sit better: And now it completes the row of 3 buildings for this part of the layout. I had to trim away some of the ground to the left of the picture to get it to fit and I will rework this with either some mod rock or I will make some sort of supporting wall structure. The other building, which has now been painted a dark yellow (not entirely sure about that colour but I have seen buildings like that in France so it can stay...) needs the roof painting, some window shutters and the drain pipes fitting. The box building requires painting, I intend to paint the windows brown, the bricks a shade of grey and the roof a similar colour to what it is currently but perhaps a shade darker. After this I intend do try another way of scratchbuilding that builds on the method of using the preconstructed box method. I am going to try my hand at using Lego as the basis for the building. This could open up a whole range of possibilities for future scratchbuilding. Its not perfect but the edges are square and it can be built to a range of shapes, including shapes that leave the interior hollow for lighting and the like, plus its pretty solid!

After what I said the other day I was surprised to see myself picking up the scalpol and eagerley starting work on the next building for the layout. Indeed the work seemed to be a bit easier and (perhaps) a little better. As posted previously I am using an Oxford Diecast plastic box as the base which the plasticard structure will be added. I have so far made the 4 walls in plasticard and established that a piece of 80thou plasticard at the top is enough to counter the box's slightly tapering sides. I am waiting for these to dry before I stick them down. Here is a picture of what it looks like right now: I also did a few other small pieces around the layout that have not been done due to laziness on my part... Just a bit of laying scatter materials. Most of the trees in the village are just there temporarily because I have yet to install them properly. I am constructing some smaller ones as well as these. Due to me being ill people are being very kind indeed. My dad has been especially kind with buying me a small fleet of Oxford Die Cast's range of buses. He has purchased me 2 Bedford OB's and PD3 as well as another bus (the name of which has escaped me). He keeps telling me that they are on a long road trip from the UK or that they could be used as restaurants.... These will be likely to see more use on the next layout, but until then here is a picture of them on this one in front of the scratchbuilt building. The first scratchbuilt building is in the process of being painted and will receive its main coat of yellow paint in the coming days. I also intend to paint the roof soon and then I get to think about weathering this and the other buildings on the layout. I am thinking of some subtle and light shades of black to take the edge off the buildings. After my last post saying how I was not going to scratchbuild again I find myself in a situation where I may want to due to the severe lack of French made kits in N gauge. I need to construct a shop (a Boulangerie) which was always the intention to have on the layout. I think the moral I have learnt is "never say never." Until next time. Stephen

Thanks Jam, I appreciate your kind words. Since I have plenty of materials left I may indeed have a go at doing a smaller building. If I was going to do another building about this size I think I would try and work my way up to it and improve my skill first. I did enjoy making this one (and its got a fair bit of stuff to be added on yet...) but I just seemed to lose the will to keep going with it because of the inaccuracies that had accumulated due to slightly misshapen cuts and the like. Still I will be doing another one (I intend to start next week) so maybe that will change my mind?

Its taken me long enough, but I finally made a roof for the building I have been scratchbuilding. Like the rest of the building it is not perfect but I am content with it since it is my first effort. To be honest though, I am not going to continue scratchbuilding. I have given it a go and found that I am not accurate enough to make the cuts in the right place. In fact I find that my hands are quite like blunt instruments when doing work like this, so unfortunately after the first two buildings have been done I will be resorting to kits or other forms of buildings to continue to make the layout better. In my next layout I will probably kit bash than scratchbuild. I am not done with this yet but so far I have to say it has been quite enjoyable to have a building that I can call wholly my own. I just wish it was a bit better.

I saw one of these sets in Hobbyrail in Sutton Coldfield and asked if he had a ballpark price for it. When he told me I almost had to sit down. Still the guy said that there was a set that did not include the tram and also the tram is available on its own. It looks absolutely superb. Personally I am continuing the construction of my own tram track. Its a fraction of the price and its not too difficult. Still with Tomix and Kato now producing their own sets of track and with Tomix in league with Dapol maybe we will see both sets more readily available and MAYBE the competition could drive the price down a little.

Hi David I will look forward to seeing how this one develops over time. Just out of interest though, how many layouts will you have once this one is constructed? And also, how is the tram fleet coming along? I saw, in the flesh, for the first time the Kato trams recently. They are really superb pieces of kit. Its a shame that Worsley Works Metrolink Tram Kit is only in 3mm and 4mm as that would have been perfect for your new project. Good luck. Stephen

Its been far too long since I managed to do any modelling. Unfortunately this is mainly due to my health at the moment, its been up and down but I appear to be on the mend and after a nice energy drink today I felt up to doing some of the tasks I had set myself last time. One thing that I wanted to do was to find a quicker way of scratchbuilding structures out of plasticard. I found that laminating things added another level of complication for me and I wanted to try simpler methods. Luckily my dad has been buying me several Oxford Omnibus Bedford OB's (he loves older buses and keeps telling me that they are on a trip from the UK to the Limousin...). He also bought me a Morris Minor from the same range. These are lovelly vehicles but what do they have to do with modelling a building from scratch... Well the boxes that they come in are clear plastic and almost perfectly square. With a little modification I can use these as the basis for some slaters plasticard bricks to create a building in quicker time than if I were laminating it using the older method. I will still use the older method because these boxes are not always going to fit, but at least for the next building I have a rough idea of how it will work. The picture below shows how the box fits with the current building (in the making). I scrounged the window frames from a SAI kit (and luckily because the box is clear it means no need for glazing. Talking of the SAI kit I constructed one of the 3 houses (the glue made me feel weird so I called it a day after the one). It looks pretty nice and just needs the drain pipes to be added to make it complete. A series of 3 of them will be going on the hill with a small road leading to them. I will need to cut into the hill to make them sit flat. When I am doing the road I will relay the road in the centre of the town where it is currently looking quite poor. I took up some of it today and put some supporting walls in but I am not happy with all of them and will relay these later. I have also been making some Woodland Scenics trees. They are not the best efforts of mine but they will do for the background of the forest and I shall either purchase of construct some higher quality trees for the foreground. I left them on the platform before I place them. And finally on ebay at the moment the Del Prado railcars seem to be going for slightly cheaper than they were and I got a relatively cheap one. I was going to make a trailer car out of it but I have neither the knowledge now the expertese to do it justice right now so I think I will obtain another Tomix Chassis from Japan and use that to make another railcar. I might consider reliverying it as this particular railcar does not have the best paint job.

I have really enjoyed reading these blogs. Its a shame you are only there for 2 weeks. Have you thought about making a small model to remember your time at the depot? With Farish making a CHiltern 168 and Dapol making the Wrexham and Shropshire sets you could have a nice little shunting plank in N.

Hey John, After your recent forrays into G I was certainly not expecting an N gauge layout next. Still its my gauge of choice at the moment and with plenty of new stock out or due out there is plenty to keep you occupied. Having seen your layout I would say one thing from experience. On section where the line is climbing to reach the bridge to cross over and go back over the viaduct I would advise that you test it very thoroughly, if possible with a slightly longer train. I say this because I had a similar set up on a previous layout (that never got to the scenic stage and I kept finding that because of a slight angle at one point a train of wagons would uncouple and role back down the hill. I am certain your track laying skills are better than mine but it is always best to iron out these difficulties (which expose the Rapido couplers flaws...). I look forward to seeing how this progresses. Stephen

When I saw your layout at the RMweb meet up last year I thought the way it was run was just right. Seeing the customised trains running through a few times was good because they are not stopping and since there were 4 tracks there was always something different running through. I hope to see the layout again sometime so if you are in the Midlands I will try to come and see it in all its glory.

The etches are very well done (Kudos to Etched Pixels). I got a few tins of paint today but I need to return to the model shop on Monday for a few more bits and pieces before I can begin to butcher the 159. I believe that a less complicated method to do a conversion could be done since the Electra graphics have a full front end in vinyl. However I think it would not look as good as having a proper new front end fitted. I should be able to make a fair bit of progress over the coming weeks so I will keep posting updates.

Well with working on the layout being hard for me at the moment I have been acquiring the bits to start work on conversion kit produced by Etched Pixels for converting a class 159 DMU into a class 323 EMU. Aside from a few bits of kit like paint and filler I am ready to get started on this project, plus with it being a sit down job then it might not be so bad for me at the moment. Indeed this is a total break from the SNCF layout I have been constructing for some time now, however I have always had aspirations to build a modern era British layout based in the Midlands. In the above there are the following items: Graham Farish class 159 - Donor unit for the conversion. Brass front ends conversion kit - 2 kits actually, I will probably make some sort of mistake. Graham Farish class 91 body shell - Donor pantograph Electra Railway Graphics vinyl overlays - excellent detail, should look good on the side of the unit. I have no idea how quickly I will get around to completing this project but I would like to think that it would be quicker than some of my other (still finished) micro projects.

I am about to have a go at making Etched Pixels 323 conversion into a 323 (health permitting...). I will be posting a blog about the initial bits of kit I have acquired for the project in the coming days. It looks like an interesting conversion and I have been meaning to have a go at actually making it for some time, the only problem was sourcing the donor unit which was finally resolved this week (its a class 159 btw, but a 3 car class 170 will also work but apparrently requires a bit more filing). One question that has always intrigued me about your RingRoad project is how do you store the base boards? Can they stack on top of each other or do they go vertically for easier storage? Having all this time off work has made me start thinking about serious track plans for a modern image layout and I want to consider the storage element very early on. thanks Stephen