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Ian Holmes

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Blog Entries posted by Ian Holmes

  1. Ian Holmes

    Photoshop fun

    By Ian Holmes,

    I am not the greatest photoshopper in the world. Unlike some members of this forum who add snow and smoke and even themselves to their pictures.
    My abilities stretch to cut and past and crop and tweaking colour a bit.
    But that doesn't stop me wanting to have a go and do something really neat on the backscene.
    The only part of the backscene that really needs some detail is the section with the road between the two buildings. So for a while now I've been looking around for suitable scenes, which is not as easy as you'd think. Most roads into industrial parks are four lanes. I've only got enough space for two lanes. There is one road close to work that I two lanes. So I used that for a starter.

    So. I just sat down measured up, cut and paste, flipped things and copied things.

    and I ended up with something not unreasonable. All good practice. Proving that photoshopping is not all that difficult.
    The section is only about 8" x 4" so any dodgy pieces of cutting copying are not that noticeable.
    It will work for the moment though but I think in the long run I'll wait until the spring and the grass is greener before I produced the finished item.
  2. Ian Holmes
    I had a vision of a small layout came into my mind at work today and filled full of admiration for the latest iPad works of Art by David Hockney I thought I'd try sketching it using the Adobe Ideas App. I've been messing with Adobe Ideas for a while off and on and I'm starting to get the hang of it. I'm still "drawing" using my finger rather than a stylus which can be a bit annoying when the line doesn't quite go where you want it to.
    The idea is basically Purfleet Quay in Kings Lynn http://binged.it/yaTLNr

    So this is a test of the technique to see if it works and to see if you can actually understand what I've drawn.
  3. Ian Holmes

    Guyers

    By Ian Holmes,

    Guyers is yet another one of those soulless concrete structures that are absolutely essential to re-create if you are going to accurately model the modern scene.
    The structure is called Guyers, but Guyers as a tenant have been gone for several years I believe and the rail connection to the rear of the building gone even longer by the looks of the pictures. Guyers were a builders suppliers so this building is principally another warehouse structure. When I was out walking past there on Friday workman were in cleaning and doing construction work. So perhaps a new tenant is on the way. (Yes, every time I see that communications tower behind the building there I think "they peel them with their metal knives")

    The face of the building presented to Xenium lane. Another feature worth noting here is the landscaping outside. The trees do look very nice in the summer. It's all there to make an attractive proposition for potential tenants.

    The Southern face of the building alongside the railroad. You can see the severed connection to the railroad and a steepish grade up to the siding along the building face.

    Further along the building there is an addition where the material of construction changes totally. Makes a nice change from the endless concrete.
  4. Ian Holmes
    Today it happened. I put knife to foamcore and started construction on the structures for the layout.
    The research pictures I've posted earlier in the week have shown that the structures in the area are all big concrete boxes faced with diiferent materials so construction of those is going to be pretty simple. Todays mission then, was to cut all three shells in preparation for facing them with styrene sheet. Really it was just a question of cutting the foamcore to size and fitting the shells in place and seeing if I was happy with the finished result. So after a couple of hours of measuring, cutting and sticking I got to here.

    Overall, I'm liking what I see. The structure front left could be a little less tall I think. Perhaps it was a bad idea to measure it up against an excess height box car. The rear of this building will be a spot for a boxcar. You will be able to see its roof when correctly spotted like in this view. I'm thinking that the office annex added to the main structure should go too.
    The structures at the rear feel OK.
    The main structure rear right is planned to be a steel distribution company. Watching the local steel distributors from my office window I have seen that deliveries come in flat cars and coil cars. With my artistic licence I'm adding a loading door on the outside wall to give another spot for switching cars to. With another spot (or more) "inside" the structure. That gives three (or more) spots for cars to play your switching games. Another thing to consider is that more than likely a hulking big Class 1 railroad locomotive would not be allowed inside the building so a reach car would be needed to access cars inside the structure. Your reach car could be anything in your freight stock collection
    The principal reason for the tall structure at left rear will be to hide the operating mechanism for the Atlas #5 turnout in front of it.

    Oooh... Now look here. I like this view. A lot. The road receding at an angle is a very powerful device from this view and will benefit from well created perspective on the backscene. Working crossing lights will look pretty effective here. Also in this view you can see that the grain hopper makes a very believable view block hiding the entrance of the trains into the scene.

    This view looking towards the right side shows the grain hopper view block works well. Perhaps an excess height box car would work better. But I like my excess height boxcars and would be loath to cut one up.
    There you have it then construction underway. Time to check my supply of styrene for cladding materials.
  5. Ian Holmes
    I've mentioned more than a few times in blogs and postings about how my office building overlooks a rail served Industrial Park. So I thought I'd get out and about and photograph some of the structures and the locale to give you a feel for the area.
    First up here are a few views of Deltak. Deltak make heat recovery and pollution control equipment. It is a rail served industry but it is actually quite difficult to photograph the rail side of the structure due to trees and bushes surrounding the property. I have seen extremely large loads on flat cars in the yard but it's been nigh on impossible to get pictures. I also think they have a trackmoblie on the premises too... (Think... It's winter now there won't be any foliage on the trees)
    I just took a peek at the structure on Google Earth and the factory floor part of the building is about 525 feet x 120 feet, with the offices addition an extra 160 x 130 feet. So a H0 scale model would be about 1.8 metres long. Not small by any measure but with plenty of scope for selective compression and certainly a very simple structure to model.

    West side of the structure that faces Xenium lane

    North west view. The north face is alongside the tracks there is also a siding in the yard along the north face of the building.

    South side of the building has the offices and in this view you can easily see the big HVAC ducts on the roof.

    The bushes and trees hiding the premises. the curving road accesses the property.
    The structure being so basic is an easy project and with these photos and the dimensions I've given you, you could get started right now.
    Incidentally,Deltak actually has some significance for me, for when I had my first job in the USA working in a local sign shop I installed some of the signs on the premises (No, not the big lettering on the building side)
  6. Ian Holmes

    New Year, New Start

    By Ian Holmes,

    Another year and I'm going to start off with the best of intentions of keeping a layout building blog going on RMWeb. I haven't done terribly well at that in the past.
    To set the scene, in the middle of last year I discovered the APA box from IKEA and presented it as a possible model railway baseboard structure. It's fair to say that many modellers have jumped on the product and are using it. So I thought it was about time I got in on the act.
    I was also recently asked to be a part of the Micro Model Railway Cartel blog project. Which has also fired up my enthusiasm for the APA project.
    So, when one member of the Cartel recently presented an APA box scheme. It immediately grabbed my attention as it reminded me of several schemes I'd got in my pile of sketchbooks from the past so I adapted it to incorporate some of those ideas.

    I was interested enough in the idea to reach into my spares box for old structures from previous layouts to verify if my 2D thoughts translated into 3D as well as I thought they would.

    This first mock up above was enough to convince me that I was very probably right. I could see that the structure on the left was too tall and too dominant . So I reached into the spares box for something lower...

    A big improvement on the overall effect I think you'll agree. Using half a car as a view block on the right is also going to work well I feel
    So that's where the project sits at this point in the day. As you can see I've cut some holes in the side walls of the box so I think there's really no going back now.
    My New Years resolution was to use RMWeb more I'm off to a good start...
  7. Ian Holmes
    Too long. Almost 7 months since I made an entry on here. There was a time when I'd post all over the forum - daily.
    Not that I haven't been doing anything. Far from it. I've been working on projects that fire my imagination without making any concrete progress on a proper layout.
    To that end I'm currently working with Z scale . For what started out as a bit of fun to go with the T scale layout, I'm actually finding the scale quite rewarding. Which quite surprised me to be honest.
    This layout started out as nothing more than a fun display to go alongside the T scale to illustrate the difference in size between the two scales. But having watched the layout at a recent show I found that I was getting more from it than that.
    I think Z is stepping in to fill a modelling need I have. I like my HO scale shunty plank but it doesn't allow me to run long trains like I see on the main lines around here which as time goes on I find myself wanting to do. So I'm carrying on working with Z right now trying to find out if this is right for me.
    Flitting around all these scales may seem like a pointless exercise (and waste of money too perhaps) but when it comes right down to it model making is model making be it 1:450, 1:220 1:87 or whatever takes your fancy. So skills are skills. Skills that I had working in 4mm scale have been sharpened working in 1:450 and are starting to come together in 1:220.
    I don't doubt that at some point I'll want to slide back into 4mm scale British outline at some point like in the sketches I posted almost 7 months ago, but not right now.
  8. Ian Holmes
    After a period of inactivity caused by various other things like an entire summer and some marathon running. My mind is going model railway haywire.
    Perhaps you'd think that's unsurprising now that my company has located to an office overlooking a small switching yard.
    That's not the reason.
    A while ago, I came across a page on the West Somerset Mineral railway website and it sat in my mind, like these things do waiting for the most inopportune time to strike before the visions start flooding out. Which is right now.
    This page is to blame nothing too innocuous there you'd think. Probably not to most people. I mean, there is that attractive Nielson "box" loco but that shouldn't get things going.
    I'm an atheist but I have an interest in chapels and churches but that shouldn't spark the creative process, certainly not over a model railway layout.
    Perhaps it's that section of the trackplan there then with the standard gauge/narrow gauge interchange.
    Who knows? All I know is the visions come thick and fast.
    So, what form do these visions take?
    I "see" the layout. Like it is already built. I can navigate around all sides of it. It might as well already BE built. I have to draw what I see. Luckily I went to art college for 4 years... So I now have a series of sketches relating to this new layout but showing them off will have to wait until later.
    So where do I go from here?
    Is it practical to translate these visions in reality? I mean I've got a great idea here but will that great idea translate into a small compact layout that I could take to shows?
    We'll see. I will report back...
  9. Ian Holmes
    It appears that I am driving myself into a corner that I might not be able to get out of without some kind of layout construction.
    It all starts here somewhere in Cornwall thread. Northpoint had discussed the problems with the overhang of the trees on his rather super looking layout. I passed comment on an idea that I once had but hadn't acted on for a sloping backscene that could be covered with a depth of tree tops without taking up any layout space.
    I'd also mooted this idea for the wilds of the Lincolnshire coast for a model. Here the depth of the sloping backscene would be greater and be taken up with a "forced perspective" scene in muted tones to make the layout look much deeper than it really is.
    Now this opens up a whole new and exciting can of worms.
    If your layout itself is non-commital in design and scenic treatment by the changing of the sloping backscene from say a forest to a flat coast or even urban development you could in effect change the whole layout.
    How many folks could change the backscene on their layouts to create a new one?
    This idea needs some thought and exploration. Perhaps being explored on a Proto87 model?
  10. Ian Holmes
    I've been reviewing this section of my 4mm scale agonies blog
    http://4mmscaleagonies.blogspot.com/search/label/plans
    I can't believe that in the space of less than 2 years I came up with 20 schemes for layouts.
    Looking at them all again after not having seen them together in a year makes me realize that I'd still like to model them. All the concepts, Nuclear flask terminal, scrapyard and of course the Haven.
    Sometimes I wish I wasn't so creative
  11. Ian Holmes

    gotta baseboard..

    By Ian Holmes,

    These two baseboards were built with the P87 project in mind but I'm not averse to using them on the P4 layout.
    Makes for a total layout length of 5' x 19" at the deepest, with the shorter dimension being 13".
    Built from 3/16" ply strips 3" deep on the sides and 1/4" ply on the tops. They are rather light and strong.
  12. Ian Holmes
    What indeed.
    Protocrastinations are the ramblings of a frustrated finescale railway modeller. It will be an amalgam of my external blogs "4mm scale agonies" and the "Protocrastinator" which cover my so far unsuccessful attempts to build a finescale layout in 3.5 and 4mm scales.
    It's tough being a finescaler in the USA. You guys in the UK have it so easy with your P4, EM, S7 and even 2mm area groups. You can all meet once a month and share ideas and get personal contact with like minded modellers.
    Not so I. I think there's a P4 society member in Chicago 10 hours away and there's rumours of a P87 modeller in the south of Minnesota. So contact is not easy.
    That is where all my grand projects fall down flat. No personal contact. Should I join the Minnesota Garden Railway Society there's more chance of my garden Railroad getting finished before my P4 or P87 models.
    Anyway enough of me feeling sorry for myself. Where am I in either project?
    I've got a very nice pair of baseboards, suitable for either project. Plus P4 track and turnouts to build a layout. There's a re-wheeled 08 and quite a bit of freight stock in kit form, as well as a tin chapel kit built.
    As for the P87 project, there's lots and lots of stock ready to be re-wheeled and turnouts waiting to be converted. Getting hold of the wheels and turnout conversion units is turning out to be an issue though.
    I could go either way at the moment. I'm just immensely frustrated at the lack of any progress anywhere
  13. Ian Holmes

    Talking T

    By Ian Holmes,

    Well time to report something happening on the T scale layout - Gonou, this time. The layout has 3 weeks or so to its exhbition debut so I'd better crack on and get things done.
    You can read about it here http://more-t-please.blogspot.com/ and to give you a taster to take a look at the other pictures here's a shot of the layout

  14. Ian Holmes

    Deltak traffic

    By Ian Holmes,

    Yesterday my plan was to take a stroll alongside the tracks in Plymouth to see what I can see of the rear of Deltak. As I left work and walked across Xenium Lane I could see a large load had just left the Deltak yard. I set off in hot pursuit . A pursuit that I lost and had to settle with grabbing a few shots with the zoom lens set at its 255mm maximum


    A short train only a Geep, a tank car which is probably a barrier car and the load itself, which might be a large radiator.
    With that disappearing under the Hwy 55 bridge I turned my attention to the Deltak yard

    Here's a view of the East face of the building and you should be able to make out a couple of large loads in the yard.
    The dead trees around the yard did make it very difficult to take shots and shooting into the sun didn't help. But here goes:


    Some kind of long girder set up on a 12 axled flat car which will likely be of interest


    This last couple of shots shows some kind of oversized storage vessel. I'll be keeping an eye out to see when these loads depart to see if I can get more pictures. If the snow doesn't come first that is...
  15. Ian Holmes
    A bit of a stop press development here.
    I was looking at the layout with the structure shells in place and it suddenly hit me how daft the building front left is going to look like it appears in the above picture. I felt like it was wasting valuable space on this tiny layout. So I thought it would be an interesting feature to actually use that area to model the inside of the building. A warehouse with sheves and forklifts and all other kinds of "warehousey" things. I also plan to model an open loading door in the end wall So the viewer could catch a tantalising glimpse of the car as arrives and leaves. Just another feature to try and raise the layout above the norm...
    I'm still looking at the office annexe there on the side of the building.
  16. Ian Holmes
    I love that word. Paradigm. Makes me sound so intellectual.
    Yes, so a bit of a change of tack in the construction phase. Nothing too serious, nothing that will radically alter the project. But the way things have been developing made the change happen.
    As you will have seen in the previous days I've been posting pictures of the buildings around my place of work. All with a regard to actually copying them and placing them on the model.
    The way things started to develop in my head it became apparent that the best place for the 1105 Xenium structure was to be rear left so that would only be a small section of the building modelled. I had some parts available to me from a Walthers low relief structure I'd used on a previous layout so I used some bits to get a start.

    just a foamcore shell that will be clad with the corrugations from this Walthers warehouse and some Plastruct brick below.

    Here's the rear of the building just a foamcore shell. the cutout in the bottom will be for the turnout operating wire.
    This then got me to thinking that perhaps I should use up more of the bits and pieces that I have laying around. I have a Pikestuff kit that's perfect for the front left a nice single story warehouse kit. So I dropped it in place to see what I thought.

    You can see it in place here. I'm really liking the way this is coming together. The rear structure will likely still be influenced by Deltak. I've even made this new mock up somewhat taller than the previous one. Things are pulling together. I like the way the roof lines lead you around the scene. You start front right with the train entering behind the freight car. The trains motion leads you to the slightly taller structure front left. Behind that the still taller warehouse and across the road from that is the even taller Deltak building.
    An eagle eyed viewer will look at this shot and compre it to an earlier one you'll see that the turnouts have changed from Micro Engineering to PECO. Give me the choice and I will always take PECO. I know and trust them implicitly. I know the product will work and if I look after them I know they could find service on layouts years from now. As nice as the ME and Atlas products are, when I hold them in my hand I don't get that feeling.
    Anyway that testimonial for PECO is getting off track ('scuse the pun). The layout is coming together nicely.
  17. Ian Holmes
    Having been presented with a day off work due to the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday and being rather fired up over my APA box layout concept. I devoted my day off to some serious construction work. Principally the structures.
    The first one to be worked on was the small low relief at left rear. It was already well on the way to being finished and some plastruct stone cladding, a Pikesfuff door and a scratchbuilt fire escape (which might just get re-made) coupled with some kind of a/c unit on the roof courtesy of Walthers modular bits and pieces and it's ready for a visit to the paint shop

    Hopefully to end up looking something like this:

    Next up is the building front left. This is the one that I plan to cut away and have an interior for people to view. I already have in my possession a Pikestuff kit that I had made rather unremarkably so I dismantled it and re-assembled it around a .5mm styrene shell. A loading door was also cut into the shell and the Pikestuff wall sections were fitted around it.

    The interior to this point has a loading dock and flight of steps in place. Roof beams and some sort of supporting steelwork is also likely as well as a rollled up door. Perhaps a truck pulled up to the loading dock as well. I don't know just yet.

    This view of the outside shows the patchwork of previously painted, primed and unpainted sections that have been used to make up the shell. I doubt that much detail will go on this wall as no-one will be able to see it.
    I'm thinking there's a good six hours work invested in these structures today and while glues have been setting on these projects I've also been messing around with the major low relief structure rear right.
    But that's a story for another posting.
  18. Ian Holmes

    1105 Xenium

    By Ian Holmes,

    1105 Xenium is another large modern structure on Plymouth Industrial Park It's 730 x 380 feet or so. It's basically a big warehouse. The only tenant here currently is Office Depot. Fed Ex have recently left. There is a rail siding at the rear of the building and a line of truck loading docks at the front of the building. Currently the rail siding is not in use.
    I like this building. I think it has a lot of character with the block construction of the lower half of the building and the corrugated steel siding at the top.

    This nice close up of the rear wall should enable you to gauge the height of the building.

    Close viewing of the rear wall reveals a couple of wagon loading doors.

    In the summer this is some very nice looking landscaping.

    This last couple of views show the front face with lots and lots of truck loading docks
    If you're interested to know more those frightfully nice people at Carlson Real Estate have a pdf of the building available for prospective candidates.
  19. Ian Holmes

    As a bonus...

    By Ian Holmes,

    I have mentioned many times the industry of Deltak, now Hamon Deltak, across the road from work. Here's some film of the UP delivering a flat car to the premises. Notice how delighfully scenic the location is for being in the middle of a major industrial park.
  20. Ian Holmes
    It's the 4th July. American Independence day and as a result my email inbox has been full to overflowing with emails proclaiming all kinds of wonderful holiday deals. The one from Caboose Hobbies bit me. So I bought some PECO code 75 track for the forthcoming project. (Is my typing of PECO in all caps indicative of some kind of brain-washing from the Pritchard Patent Product Co.? That's the way I've always seen the word courtesy of Railway Modeller. It just looks wrong written any other way. Peco, peco... ) So anyway, 6 yards of code 75 and a turnout are on the way.
    I was looking at the first picture on his page the other day http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/m/moss_halt/index.shtml Moss Platform, Moss Halt or whatever name it goes by. I just love the way the buildings stack up on the hillside behind the station there. It's something worth featuring on the layout. Don't know if I could pull it off in the triangular baseboard I have allotted to this project. But not to worry I have other ready built baseboards that it would likely work on...But thats a scheme for another day.
  21. Ian Holmes
    There's always a certain stage in layout construction, that when you reach it. You say to yourself.
    "Yes. That's it. It's feeling like a layout now. "
    I reached that stage today.
    It happened when I fixed the ScenicKing background in place to get a feel for how the light colored structures would stand out. This background works quite well, much of the wheat field (for this is the "wheat field" background) will be hidden behind a high wall and other structures. The hole in the wall exit to the "fiddle yard" will be hidden by trees. It's a nice background. It was the cheapest in the store so I lucked out there. It came as a pack of sheets which will stretch out to about 15 feet by eight inches. Eight inches being perfect for the APA box interior the way I have things set up. Fifteen feet means I have plenty left for other APA layouts
    Still fiddling with the layout of the structures and how to make the hopper loading work , but overall I'm feeling quite pleased with the way things are going

  22. Ian Holmes
    Ever since I started the construction of this APA box layout I have had the belief that the structures would be sufficiently anonymous to enable the layout to be operated using British outline OO scale stock and US outline HO scale stock. I think the two attached pictures back this opinion up.


    The backscene might be a bit of a letdown for the iron range of Minnesota as I would plan for this layout (a few more trees and no wheat fields) but other than that I think it's OK.
  23. Ian Holmes

    Enforced absence

    By Ian Holmes,

    The last entry on this blog was back in October. It was shortly after that that my father in law was taken ill and ended up sadly passing away just after Thanksgiving. The layout has lain untouched since the last entry. Hopefully the new year leads to a new start. The layout is booked at the Granite City train show in St. Cloud, MN on March 1st.
  24. Ian Holmes
    I said yesterday that today I'd work on the lighting and paint the frontage. As good as my word that was what I did. In the end I opted for a light grey to paint the display rather than a black which I thought would be too overpowering. For the photo I also knocked up a quick nameplate on my computer. It looks OK. The lighting is not so good in the basement where I work usually so please excuse the darker lighting but it does show how effective the IKEA "KOMPLEMENT" lighting strip is at lighting the scene.

    A peek behind the pelmet shows the KOMPLEMENT strip fixed in place as per the fitting instructions. Though I did use some slightly longer (3/4") fixing screws instead of the 1/4" screws supplied.

    If I'm being hyper-critical the lighting strip needs to be angled a bit because there is a slightly darker strip at the very front of the layout. But that will be less noticeable in the exhibition hall, I expect.
    A few more bits and pieces and I'll have a very presentable layout for Saturdays show.
  25. Ian Holmes
    More years ago than I care to remember I concocted an imaginary Scheme for the East Lincolnshire Light Railway. A line that ran along the Lincolnshire Coast from Saltfleetby to North Coates and the RAF base there.
    Years have come and gone, and schemes for the layout have come and gone. From micro layouts to layouts 8 or 9 feet long. Nothing ever got built.
    Perhaps until now.
    You see, six years ago I experimented with a baseboard constructed of white polystyrene foam. entirely of white polystyrene foam.

    I built a baseboard 14" x 32" with the intention of building an 0:16.5 quarry scene on in. but interest faltered (as is usual with me) and I threw the baseboard into the garage where it sat though six freezing cold winters and stifling summers.
    Until Tuesday, when I was having a tidy up in the wake of getting my classic cars ready for the summer and I found the baseboard. I looked at it.

    It was still solid, flat and level. I was surprised and intrigued. I had just been laid off from work and I need something to occupy my time. I also need something with little or no expense as I don't think my wife would look kindly on me spending my severance on a model railway.
    "Seems a waste not to use it as it has lasted all these years I thought"
    My mind came back to the old Light Railway concept.
    The baseboard has a dropped section front left. Like a river bank. Perhaps this might be a way to model my favorite part of the concept. Saltfleet Haven.
    I began messing around throwing track down to see what I could come up with.
    I've been putting together Haven trackplans as long as the concept has been in my head. All kinds of schemes. This one owes something to Neil Rushy's classic "Shell Island". But there's only so much you can do with the space and the track I have in hand (PECO code 100).

    This track layout appealed to me. Cramped, so wagons could only be shunted one at a time. It should present some operations fun and games. I let the layout sit like this for a couple of days, studying it intently. Right now it suits me. As you can see I've accumulated stock and structures suitable for the layout, so it's almost like assembling a kit of parts.
    We will see how things go from here.
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