jamest

Hi Simon, I did not consciously use the scheme you mention but I'm sure there are influences at the back of my mind. I wanted a bit of interest while using up points I had bought for other ideas that did not see the light of day. Because I'm using insulfrog stuff and DCC - something i forgot to mention - the wiring is pretty easy. The points are controlled by seep point motors - but no need for frog switching. Regards, James

Hi Richard, I think I got them from amazon.... I'll check later. They do work perfectly well, you need to get the poles opposing one another on each rail side so there is a "magnetic flow" across the rail to pull the coupling. There is nothing wrong with the kadee undermagnet but it is more expensive and requires a relatively big hole. I think the round ones are easiest as you just need 4 drilled holes. Regards, James

Hi, This thread will be the story of my layout constructed during 2020/2021 when I attempted to use up my excess spare wood and code 100 track. I’m not really one for variety as I already had a BLT and I’m currently doing a similar thing in 7mm. I have since sold on North Molton so I could then move this layout off the floor and continue with it. I will use the first few posts to catch up to where I am with some construction photos….but looking back I’m disappointed to learn I was not always great at taking said pictures. The basic original layout on a 6 foot by 18 inch board. I used softwood from one of my kids old beds for the board frame and bought some sheet material for the top. Code 100 track…..insulfrog points. Left to right…sidings off the single slip (run around)…..Platform road….Bay platform. The track is pinned straight to the board and has been sprayed with sleeper grime. I have tried to balance the head-shunt length, run around capacity, and the desire to have the entry point-work on scene so I can runaround in plain sight. I use kadees a lot in OO so I have buried magnets at strategic points for uncoupling……using rectangular and round magnets. After some further thought, always a dangerous thing, I decided that I would like a little scenic run before the fiddle yard so I schemed out a 2 foot section with a canal crossing. I bought a wills viaduct kit to span the canal and I planned to have a road bridge behind to hide the canal hitting the backscene. I used wills point rodding and got all that down prior to ballasting. These photos are taken after ballasting had started…..obviously! I have also painted the rail sides a rusty colour. That’s it for now but I hope to keep updates flowing over the next few days. Regards, James

Hi all, The layout dried off after my soak and hoover session and I have now applied the grey medium woodland scenics ballast. It does look quite stark, and will require toning down more than the courser stuff. I think it was worth the effort though. I have not done the left hand siding below because it will be filled with finer wood burner ash. Regards, James

Hi Kevin, I hear you on the curing. It’s not too warm here either. Not stopped raining this year yet!

Hi Kevin, I lay the ballast and make sure I go around with a paintbrush and remove all ballast from the rail sides and sleeper tops. This was definitely easier with coarser ballast! I then spray the ballast with a mist of water with a bit of washing up liquid. I think it is very important to get a mist here as a sprayer that is too powerful will disturb all your good work. Lots of sprayers will drip as well as spray which is also a problem. I then use the pva flood method with 50/50 pva and water with another drop of washing up liquid. I think, especially with finer ballast, you will still get a few areas where you missed initially or where ballast is picked up by the flood and deposited where you don’t want it. You need to be prepared to clean up with a knife and hoover afterwards. But the clean up process should be minimised by following the above steps. Hope that helps, James

Hi Phil, Thanks for sharing those photos, I think my finer WS medium ballast is closer. Hi bluestag, Yes, I think it would be better if you only ballasted once! Lol Your layout looks great. Regards, James

Hi, Thanks for the feedback. It is medium woodland scenics. It is very light but I will weather it. It’s all about getting the right size. I did try to lay it over today but some of the corse ballast is relatively high with regard to the sleepers. So I put my big boy pants on and soaked and lifted all the existing ballast! I will let everything dry overnight and re ballast from scratch. Lesson learned…..it’s better to err on the small size I think. regards james

Ok, Ballast question..... I've put some woodland scenics stuff over the javis and I'm now thinking this is a better option? And I could lay it over the existing courser stuff. I will weather it, its more a question of size.

Hi again, Few more updates on the progress. I hope to make more steady progress this year as I’ve changed my working pattern to work my hours Monday to Thursday and not work Fridays. Trouble is I’ve also heard about some sort of list my wife is compiling! I have laid some 2mm card in the yard area to enable me to create a surface close to sleeper top level. I did it before ballasting. I plan to use a fair price models carcass as a base for a low relief warehouse against the end. I think it works and provides a good blend/block with the end of the back-scene. The kit is a good base and includes doors and windows. I’ve used brick sheet and some plastic strip for the lintels. I’ve also used the side shop as a extension with no windows which will sit further along the back-scene behind the buffer stop. I’ve painted the brickwork my brown mix and sealed it with Matt varnish ready for washing and wiping the mortar courses. Here is the result. Started the tiling with thin card strips (it will be painted). The fascia boards need a tidy up on the edges when fully cured. regards, James

Hi all, Happy new year. Got some work done over the Christmas break and started the ballasting. I’ve used some javis medium but I think it is more like course in other ranges. I did have some medium woodland scenics stuff that seemed too fine. I plan to weather and mix in ash so I hope to disguise any overscale look. I have also added some signal wires roughly based on the pictures above. I opted to have a bent thick piece of wire with thinner wire superglued to it after winding it around. it is difficult to see below against the dry ballast. When it dries it darkens a bit, but I plan to weather it further. You can see the contrast between neat and PVA applied and dried below. Regards James

Hi, Point rodding looks great - along with your figures. I wouldn't want to do it after ballasting - I had enough trouble with it without the ballast! Are you scraping away patches or going straight on top? all the best, James

Hi all, Happy to report the layout will be moving to its new home next week. Had a set up, clean, tweak and play session this afternoon to check everything is OK. That's the beauty of small layouts..... Not much to go wrong! I grabbed some photos... Some better than others! Regards, James

Hi, Now sold pending pickup/payment. Regards, James

one question…. I have zoomed in on here and it looks like a vertical L section with horizontal rollers attached?

Hi Phil, Thanks for taking the time to take those and share them. They will be very helpful when it comes to painting…..and I haven’t found much on signal wiring, so that will be very useful too. It does look thin though, I might have to compromise on what I use for that. I want to have two wires heading off scene under the bridge. regards James

Hi Kris, It helps illustrate I am no-where near replicating it! Seriously it does help thanks - I can keep it for reference. I don't think I'll include a point lock on my points - but it is good to see it all in the flesh. thanks, James

Hi, I would really appreciate some views of signal wires, posts, chain as I haven't had much luck searching on the net. Perhaps I can paint my sleepers according to the info you share above (concrete or wood). Thanks James

Hi all, Thanks very much for the likes and comments. To bring you up to speed..... I've added the lower fascia boards and added the basic landscape on the longer scenic board. First I finished off the internal walls on the bridge and added a basic road surface and wall capping. The capping is 2mm thick scribed card. The surface is attwood aggregates Road stone. Here is the fascia added... I then added celotex layers glued together with a product called stixall. The rear one is still removable as one so I can carve it easily. I then carved the insulation when stuck. The rear one between the bridge and good shed at the rear looks a little odd at the moment. I will blend it better with greenery and trees. Regards, James

Hi John, I'm going to leave ballasting as long as possible this time. I've seen this done on other layouts and I'm interested to see how it goes. Like you, I like the Scalescenes downloads, which in my OO work has dictated when ballasting should occur as I tried not to mix card and water/glue. All my platform faces have been printed paper up to now. You really don't want to do point rodding in any scale after ballasting.... Unless you have to! Regards, James

Hi, Here is update number 2 fencing and point rodding. I've used the peco spear fencing which is very good. The stools, rodding and cranks are from MSE and are raised on cut up sleepers pre ballasting. The layout makes logical sense to me but I'm sure it's not 100% right. I've used plastic rodding under the track to avoid shorts. Regards, James

Hi all, Sorry for the lack of updates. I’ll get you up to speed over the next few days. First of all here is the platform surface going down. I experimented with sprinkling talc on wet paint but I can never seem to get that right. I also used some fine road stone I’ve used in OO but that didn’t look right either. I decided on sticking down some medium abrasive paper (I don’t think sandpaper is the right term). I then painted it with a mix of my white and black acrylics…. More updates to follow on point rodding and fencing. Regards, James

Hi, The original photos in the layout topics thread are mostly missing now. There should be 10 other photos of the finished item in the advert. I did get a friend to check and they are there. I’ve attached some here too. regards, James

Hi, That's strange, the pics are there for me. The trouble is I can't look as someone else. I was going to use the old advert but didn't because those photos were gone. I can send you some photos if you want. Regards, James

Hi all, Here we are a year later and I haven’t really touched the layout, or run anything on it. So I have decided to re advertise it at a lower price. I’d rather it was used and it would free up funds and space in my shed. Details in the classifieds section. As all the pictures have disappeared here are a few to remind everyone what I’m talking about. Regards, James