jamest

Hi, Thanks for sharing the build - I have two hymeks that I have yet to pluck up the courage to convert. Do the bogies come bent and 'dry assembled' as per you picture above? Or have you already done that yourself? Regards, James

Hi, Good luck with the show - I have seen this layout in the flesh before - but when/where escapes me. Looking forward to seeing the 'new' layout at Taunton. The new section looks like a great scene for watching the trains go by. I like the un-made road/track in the foreground of the new extension - I will be photographing that and picking your brains on it if I may - it looks great....along with the bridges and everything else! Regards, James

Hi all, Thanks for the 'likes'. I have fited the front fascia. I decided to buy a piece of 6mm ply for this as I didn't have a scrap piece that would do the job in one go. I have made the side walls thick enough to help disguise the exit points and made sure you can't look straight down the road at the right into the backscene. There is a bit of 18mm X 44mm along the top (that the five screws go into) of the front to support the front better. The rest is glued and pinned. A view showing the overall effect well. There will be an angled retaining wall from the brige down onto the platform - I think the platform access will be from behind the platform in some way - steps down from the road would take up too much room I think - but noting is definate yet! There will be some tress/bushes to obscure the exit this end Next job is to sand and paint the platform and fix it in place so I can landscape and finish the ballasting. Cheers, James

Hi all, I mentioned above that I had already clad the bridge when TechnicArrow suggested Bidford-on-Avon - and here are the photos. Since the post I've poured over my options for inserting a waiting room or store room in the brickwork under the road - but I think it might not be possible as it stands as I would like to have a more traditional angled retaining wall so I can put greenery behind it to blend with the back scene. I did consider taking it apart and re-cladding it without the pillars right to the floor/platform surface - that would bring the 'room in the bridge' towards the track a little - but I have decided against it. The Bidford-on-Avon pictures will still provide inspiration and guidance on how the track, bridge and platform will blend into the landscape. So here is the bridge clad in scalescenes papers - dark red brick in a helical pattern on the inside of the arch - cream brick for the main structure: I used the template from my scalescenes tunnel portal to mark out the bridge opening and arch You can see with the finished bridge that I don't really have the depth to add a waiting/storage room under the road. Next job is to fit a fascia on the front so that I can form the terrain against it. I will fill in the gaps with paper and cover in plaster bandage. Thats all for now, Cheers, James

Hi, Great work there - can I ask what you use to scribe the clay? Apologies if you've already said. Regards, James

Hi, Welcome to the Forum. Look forward to seeing your efforts. All the best, James

Hi TechnicArrow, Some great advice there - I was leaning towards a road but I was worried about the double road in quick succession you mention above. A rough track, or un-made road sounds good. A river/stream was going to be more difficult to blend with the back-scene. I know roughly what I want from this but I always hit stages where I need to stop and think because my overall plan needs a bit of detail. I've hit such a place here but your link to Bidford-on-Avon has provided a great deal of inspiration and solutions to some of my thoughts. I have actually clad the bridge in stone (the pictures here need to catch up), but it would be easy to adjust (the beauty of card and paper) to suit the prototype you have suggested. The vertical lines on the bridge face in the last picture above show where pillars are so any door/window in the bridge face would have to be further in - but it could definitely work. I also like the overall look of Bidford with the shelter/store it really does look similar to my minds eye of what I wanted - spooky. How Bidford sits in the landscape is also very useful as I plan my mirror image of undergrowth and landscape. My time frame will be 60s/70s and maybe a little later so it would be run down with the facilities closed and a lone battered shelter. Thanks for taking the time to post and point me in that direction - thats the beauty of RMweb...and the people who use it. Regards, James

Hi all, Started to build up the terrain around the track - I plan to use up a platfrom kit I have lying around. Still not 100% on what will go under the bridge - water or road. Whichever it is I will bend it a little before it hits the back-scene to make the end of the world a little less obvious. I've also made a start on the overbridge for the other end - it will rest on the platform and suggest the platform edge is off scene. I will cover it in cream brick papers from scalescenes. Regards, James

jrb, Right....that makes sense - common sense to match them like that (not so common in my builds!) - I suppose with the randomness of the pattern it is definately best to do it that way. It all goes back to my admiration of the planning and execution of the job! Regards, James

Hi, Great work there. I am impressed how you have worked around the stone/cobble sheet sizes to keep your joins to a minimum. That said the mitred external corner of the bridge under the plate girder portion looks excellent - I assume you have taken your time to fill in any gaps and file them down? Did you file an angle on the edges first to lessen the gap? anyway - top work - following with interest. Regards, James

Thanks. The bridge is: WILLS SS49 OO SCALE DECKED GIRDER BRIDGE I got it from a local shop - it shouldn't be hard to find. Regards, James

Hi all, Some progress has been made... I have painted the rail sides in Tamiya hull red - left over from modelling ships, but looks about right to me. You can just see it below along with the freshly painted bridge. I've used Tamiya paints here too - deck tan for the stone and buff for the darker capping and quoins (is that the right term?). The girder/fencing is medium grey dry brushed with white. The mortor lines in the stone is enamel white painted on and wiped away: Before I takle any foam for the embankment, or any other major structures, I wanted to fix the backscene in place. I like the gaugemaster range - my local shop has a good range of them and they are relatively cheap. I glue it in place only around the edges - this is through painful experience of multiple bubbles when attempting to glue too much! It only needs to be held lightly in place and the land form and greenery will do the rest. I like to radius the corners a bit to reduce the corner effect - I usually try to draw the eye away from the corner with scenery and fascia boards later as well. The one draw back with my method is you have to be careful further down the line as it is easy to puncture the unsupported radiused surface. Quite pleased with the basic result: Thats all for now. Cheers, James

hi, I like picking actual places, or blends of actual names, from around North Devon - even if they were not actually served by rail in any way. I'm leaning towards 'Hiscott' - my son's girlfriend comes from there and I like the sound of it. Regards, James

I agree, The background is subtle and the overall effect/picture looks great. Nice job.

Hi all, One of the reasons I did not take up Stubbies advice is I had already moved on a little and glued down the track. Here is a catch up.... I have used tracklay a few times on layouts - upside down and the right way up! I believe it gives the best effects adhesive side up with thinner sleepers - thats not to say it looks bad with thicker sleepers such as code 100 - I just think it is more suited to thinner sleepers such as the SMP track I'll use here. So I laid out the tracklay sticky side up and placed the track on top - this is the full 'one and a bit' lengths for the whole scenic length - I have sprayed the track with sleeper grime and the track join will be hidden under the bridge plating: Then spread the ballast on top (woodland scenics medium grey): Then turn upside down and hey presto: The track is then glued down using copydex: No tinned tomatos, spaghetti hoops or pineapple on the menu tonight! Cheers, James

Looks good. I'm amazed you are so organised you can incorporate the track support while producing the baseboard pieces. If only I could be that focused when planning and building - mine tends to be more a gradually evolving concept!! regards, James

Yes! I see your point - I would normally slant the track or curve it, but I don't have a lot of depth and the parallel track is almost a must. I will try my best to disguise it and draw attantion away from it. Regards, James

Hi all, Here are some images showing the track support glued and screwed down and the bridge sides resting in place. I have some SMP track that I'd like to use - I was experimenting with the accompanying plastic point kits from marcway, but I'm not sure about the long lasting quality of my build - hence the pointless layout! Cheers, James

Hi, I didn't mention the fiddle yards in my first post - because I've not decided how I will run them yet. They will probably start out as simple 'fiddle sticks' for 'testing' purposes. Further on I will have to decide on traverser/sector plate/cassettes or a fan of points - I'm thinking I only need three roads each end. I ended up using cassettes on a previous layout of the same style (Braybridge) after initially using a traverser and sector plate. I found that swapping the locos from front to back was fiddly with the mk1 fiddle yards and cassettes meant I did not have to touch anything. Perhaps I will use a cassette for the loco hauled road and use a simple siding for the DMU road. cheers, James

Hi all, I seem to be increasingly lurking here recently instead of my old regular haunt 'Layout topics'. Inspired by many of the great efforts on here I have decided to take a break from my other layouts and freshen my mind with a micro. I have plenty of spare track, wood, underlay, scenics, buildings, etc laying around from 10 years of overspend collecting - and the opportunity arrived when my daughter re-modelled her bedroom. She had no need for an old shelf and I had it in my spare pile of wood waiting for inspiration. I've toyed with several ideas but I like the idea of a simple single line, halt and bridge with the track raised off the baseboard surface. Here is the shelf - nice and thick and just over 3 feet by 8 inches. It looks warped in the second photo - but it is not: I've raided the scrap bin and got some 6mm ply for the back and sides - I like my layouts to be a 3D picture so I will add a fascia cut to the front land profile later and add a lighting pelmet (is that spelt right?). I have angled the sides up to the lighting bar height, and you can see the 'level' of track that I am planning. I want to use a wills girder bridge on the left, with trees/shrubs hiding the exit - on the right the platform will be behind the track and I think I will have a road overbridge with a path down to the weathered old shelter. A river/stream will run under the bridge. The last picture shows the feet I have added to the bottom of the shelf - not my best photo! Thats it for now. All the best, James

Hi, I'd love to see this in Taunton - I did not know you owned Bicsdale too! I've liked that layout since I saw it in a special layout compilation magazine (was it model rail?) - I see it is in your avatar picture now I'm looking properly! - I got to see it in the flesh at Minehead last weekend - very good it was too! All the best, James

Hi, I can only echo the other comments above - it was worth the effort tweaking it to suit. It looks wonderfully 'industrial', links the buildings well while hiding your exit, and has that 'complicated' appearance that draws the eye to it. Top work. regards, James

Looking forward to it. See you Saturday.

Hi Steve, Thanks for the kind words. I've only just realised that I was following your layout metcalfe yard - great layout - I'll keep an eye out for your other layout too. I've used the Gaugemaster polarity switches (DCC80) - you can one in the second picture of the underside in my post above, fed by a green/white/yellow wire. It detects the need to switch polarity as the loco runs over the point before the chip/controller senses a problem. They are about £5 to £7 each so more expensive than setting up a micro switch against something that moves - but it is much easier in my opinion. Two bus wires (green and white) and the frog feed (yellow) in....and it deals with it all. Edit - this method will only work with DCC. I had started with seep point motors - which have a polarity switching function - but after ballasting they didn't work too well (which is more my fault than theirs) - and to be honest I prefer the feel of manual operation. None of my layouts are that complicated! cheers, James

Hi, Managed to miss this one so far. Fantastic layout and you have made great progress in a relatively short time. I like your choice of buildings, their placement, and how you have blended the scenery into the back scene. Lots of nice BR Blue action too - I've got a lot of BR blue stock myself but have been modelling earlier stuff recently - makes me want to go back to this run down, sparse era! Thanks for sharing. Regards, James