Gloucester Road

Right time for an update. First comes some scenery side: The roofers have visited the pub and done some work. Saw the containers from Scalescenes and decided to give them a go. This is a much cheaper option than buying the Dapol or Farish ones, and with a very simple construction and a few hours work finished seven. Here is the first one There seems to be a bit of a scale issue, not sure if its a factor of printing or a true difference of scale. Starting to stack some of my containers, the size difference goes away if you dont see the containers together. Ok onto the track. All the track on the lower level has been set down, wired and painted and trains are running on the lower level. Freightliner was the first service to arrive for what will be the cement terminal. It then reversed its train into the sideing. The locos was then uncoupled and moved out of the way. The track was then painted, sidings a rusty colour and the freight line a black. Yesterday was devoted to carpentry. Construction was completed on the upper level track, the section were the station and the raised scenic country section. Today we wired it all up and "hurrah" it works first go! So track laying and wiring is completed. He says hopefully. Raised country section, country station and branch to the "off scene" power plant. Here is where the main upper level station will be, on the right is the freight avoiding line. Two overall shots. So thats where we stand. Time to go and plane trains for a bit. Stephen.

So not an update to the layout as I am out flying on the west coast of the US. So here are some pictures of the US prototype. Landing in San Jose CA you fly over the CA Trains serviceing centre, how many locos can you count? Up in Seatlle, right next to the runway the tracks lead into a BNSF facility and container unloading area. Looking forward to get home and do some modeling.

So, now that all of the baseboards are built i have ordered the track to finish off the track laying phase. It should arrive in the next week or so. I have also been thinking about shunting options and some industries on the lower level; there will be the container terminal served by GBRF and freightliner, an area for off loading used ballast/virtual quarry served by EWS, and a cement off loading facilty served by EWS and Freightliner. This might not be completly accurate but it will give chances for shunting and playing trains. This will be the cement terminal: Looking now at the last board i needed to figure out a track plan. So most off this is going to be the upper level and will include a small country station, a branch line that heads to the power plant that is off scene and generally be more country than urban, a viaduct will conect it to the rest of the upper level just outside the station. FGW is seen entering the station as is the class 170, the class 66 is returning from the power station. There is a pencil line behind the EWS train, that is were the lower level line comes to and end. The town scene saw a roof added to what will be the corner shops. stephen

Sitting in front of the tele watching Top Gear reruns on BBC America and figured an update was inorder. Board two has been all wired up and ready to go. There are several sections that can be isoloated; however i have had the for thought to wire this up in case DCC enters my future. nudge. nudge. The legs for boards three and four have also been completed so they are all done. Next step will be to finish off the upper level bit and work on the backscene. Here are some pics. Right now thats finished we need to order some more track....... Stephen

Been awhile since there has been an update but slow progress has been made. Work and homelife seems to have a way of working into modelling time. However, here is what has been accomplished: ballasted and wired the upper level of board 1, track has been laid on lower level board 2 (needs wiring) started laying track on upper level of board 2. Worked up the road and pavement area in the town aswell. Card was used to raise the pavement and then scalescenes.com pavement and road surface was test fitted. Here is the ballasted upper section, im going to leave the area closest to the retaaining wall empty untill the final wall is installed. A Voyager was the first train under power on the upper level Here is where board 2 is at, lower track down awaiting wireing and track laying on the upper level. Pavement and road surface. Right thats it for now, off to go find a drink. Stephen

Decided it was fine time to build the legs for the second board. So out came the pen, paper, rulers and calculator; some mental gymnastics and doodles on paper came up with this. Sat down with scraps of wood from the last set of legs and realised that some of those could be cut to meet my requirments. With that hurdle past we (my youngest) jumped in the car and headed off to the lumber store. Some 1x3x6 and 1x4x6 boards were purchased and then cut to meet the lengths needed. Back home, out came the saw and we cut the scraps to size and assembled the tools and pieces. In the "train room" we started assembly, the legs and end braces then standing with the side braces added top added and then slotted into place. My one concern was that when measured there was a difference in height between the two boards, however when next to each they were the same height. Success. Maybe that can be attributed to the legs settling into the carpet any way ill take it. When some track was placed it was at the same height too. Figured things were going so well that i should stop and bask in success. Right thats it for today. Stephen

It was very timely as Feb. Model rail came in the post today. So worked on my signal box and did the weathering and some more grass planting. Used a download from CG textures and found some plywood which was used to close off the window, some graffiti from Blair lines was added and then it was all weathered and workers placed. Then used some card and plaster and built up a small hill area. Grass, static grass and flock was then added Here is the aerial view of the area. Then 67027 showed up with a rake of TTAs To answer some questions: Simon, the fencing is from Gold Medal Lines and the "dirt" is just brown ballast Kris, the houses are going to be that way as they are a left over from "gloucester road" Thats it for now Stephen

Thanks for the info, have now started planning the roads. Was allowed to have a modelling day today and got quite a lot done. Planned out were the hill would go and roughed in the raised section for the road. Then used scalscenes tarmac again, started planting grass and added some details. I decided to try out the static grass, I used a balloon and generated a statc charge while the grass was still wet and presto. Not bad. A curious on looker showed up, This attracted the boss to come over and investigate. "Do you have a any ID sir?" So here are some close ups of the static grass. Then decided to make a dirt road out to what will be the abandoned signal box. This is where we stand tonight. Tommorrow hope to work on the signal box and make it look abandoned and being readied for demolition. Stephen

Will have a look there too, thank you. On a different note, how wide would folks recommened makeing roads in n, specificlly a two lane road? Stephen

The signal box will indeed be weathered and either boards or "Aged Corrugated Iron Texture Sheet" from Scalescenes to block out the windows with a demo team there too. Some weathering was done on the ballast today. the overall shot the wagon road. the headshunt. the local shunter was caught fueling. Next we need to ballast the upper main line. Stephen

Spent the last ten days down in West Palm Beach FL, sounds nice till you realise I was there for my annual recurrent training. Now that i am current in the Piaggio for another year it was back to doing some modelling (of the train variety). After having left the books on the hardstanding whilst I was away it was good and glued down and ballasting could continue. So Real Rocks ballast was put down, glued in the usual way, and then weathered a black and grey to show where locos would stand and grass was added to some places. Here is an overall shot with some areas weathered and grass added, towards the top you can see where weathering still needs to take place. A close up of the hardstanding Area to be weathered Locos show up Now to do some more weathering. Stephen

Had quite a day of modelling today. The boys got what they wanted; after several hours playing in the snow they played on the WII and DS while Dad headed into the train room. After seeing Kris' coment went back and worked on weathering the ballast. Got it to a colour that was better, so worked up a plan for my time in the train room. Step one was to paint the track. So off came the buildings stock and anything else that would get in the way. Out came the rust applicator and off we went, track both in the shed and upper main line were painted. This was allowed to dry and then another coat was added to touch up areas that were missed. Next was to attack the buffers and in particular the buffer boards and their colour. Per a prevous post i did a google search and came up with different images; decided to do some all red ,some off white and some a combination of both colours. So here are two pics looking each way. Two closest are the fuel point and headshunt followed by the two shed lines and another headshunt. Then we have the wagon storage line, headshunt and loco storage line. So next step was to mess around with ballast/weathering around the first fuel point. So down went some ballast. This was then glued down with the usual mix of PVA glue, water and liquid soap. Followed by various washes off black paint and some straight black paint, then some green, tan and brown ground cover. Once this was all dry and track cleaned a class 66 took a test run to check that rails were all clean and clear. All was good, so started to glue down the hardstanding and put the shed and TMD back together. It is now being weighted down by books and various other heavy objects, so we'll se how it looks in the morning. Stephen

Did some more on the test ballast this afternoon. This is the peco track with concrete sleepers. If you look carefully you might be able to make out that the righthand side has been weathered abit and then down front some grass and dirt added. I think that for the shed area the grey will need to be toned down, something close to what is on the right and the main line will be cleaner like that on the left FGW 156 on the test track My class 08 I then moved onto the atlas track to see what the rust and ballast would look like on the non concrete track. I think i might have gone overboard with darkening the ballast as it looks darker than that of the peco. Not sure if i like it that dark, though it might be effective around spots locos would sit ie fueling point. Here is a 66 on the altlas track. So where do we stand. I am happy with both the rust effect and the ballast (just need to work on colour) so next step is to paint the rails on the shed board. Maybe tonight once the boys are asleep. Stephen

Simon, They are Herpa models; i picked mine up through N Scale Supply company. (http://nscalesupply.com/HER/HER.html) try this link. Stephen

Evening all Went around to the Post Office today and discused delivery. They were insistant that they were unable to deliver my package the other day due to the snowstorm, even when I let them know that they HAD delivered the mail that day. So we back and forth about this and clearing the snow from mail boxs; ours was and is the only one that is cleared so that the carrier cab drive their vehicle up to it. Anyway they had my package and i hurried home with it. Here are its contents: Ballast and squeese applicator: rail paint applicator and rust paint: weathered black paint, and two paint dyes: Now a shameless plug for Joes Model Trains; the paint appilcator should have been thought off long ago and the squeese ballast applictor, genius. OK, down to business. Out came the test track and the paint applictor. This is a neat idea, included are 6 foam wheels (different sizes) and two clear applactors (different sizes). There is a paint holder and a screw cap with a tube that leads to the foam wheels or clear applactor. The instructions say to use the clear applicator for code 55 track. After adding paint and the correct clear wheel you simply prime the tube and wheel; out comes the paint as you roll it against the rail. Presto rusty rails, genius. Before and after photos of the rust applied. Neat and clean. Ballasting is just as clean and simple. Cut off the tip and gently puff the bottle and a controllable trickle of ballast comes out. You can puff it into place and gently build up the depth; why didnt i do this before. Here is the bottle with the tip cut and ready for appliction. Now some shots of the ballasted and painted rails waiting to dry. The light grey ballast is a little light, so will be toned down with the weathered black paint after the glue dries overnight. Couldnt resist the posing of some stock. It took 45 minutes to this point that includes opening and reading instruction and minimum cleanup. Fantastic. Night, Stephen

Not very satisfied with the US Postal service at the moment. I ordered paint and an applicator to paint the rails of the shed from Joes Model Trains. The products have shipped according to the postal website and have even arrived at my local post office. Then there is a snow storm (20 inches of snow), post is still delivered. Now the website says a note was left in the mail box and they were unable to deliver the post due to the snow. But it was delivered and no note. So waited another day to see if would come in today. Nope; but post was delivered. I see a trip to the post office tomorrow. Whilst waiting for this deliverey i started work on the pub. This is going to be the scalscenes small corner shops. Im building both a left and right hand version and then will put them back to back, on the right side is the pub and the one on the left will be a corner grocers. Some pice. Here is the pub and grocery store with no front wall The front walls On the workbench In situ. Front walls are just temporarily in place as there is much to be done before walls are fixed in place. Now what time does the Post Office open........ Stephen

Happy New Year to all. Kris, yes the shed is removable. Have finished asembling the shed and started work on the small corner shops. Here are some pics of the shed, I am resonably satisfied with it. Needs to be sealed and weathered. Also did a "back of napkin" sketch of buildings and roads for the shed doard. All of the buildings will be scalscenes products including the new theater and high street, lots of bulding to do. Stephen

In between sledding, skating and snowball fights with the boys have managed get half the roof and other front wall on the shed. Here are 2 pictures. front wall roof Stephen

Hey Trevor, Fueling points and storage tanks are from scenecraft by Graham Farish, and yes they are weathered. Purchased mine through a certain store in Liverpool. Stephen

Ok back from flying for another week. Spent Christmas in Tampa FL, but the missus made a video and we were able to Skype so i watched the boys on Christmas morning. On the modelling front I have sort of come to a stop as i am waiting for paint and ballast to show up. However my fueling point and storage tanks finally showed up so they have been plonked in place. The storage tanks and fueling points The fuel point 08921 being fueled Just had a foot of snow arrive here in New Hampshire so that needs to be moved off the drive and put somewhere. Winter in New England. Off to play in the snow with the boys before it gets really dark and cold. Stephen

Kris, The bottom two lines are not running lines. Line closest to the camera is for the fueling point (awaiting delivery from a certain store over there) and the next line is the headshunt for the wagon storage line and entrance to the shed area. Did some work with Scalescenes cement and ashpalt surface and finished off the hardstanding area. Happy with it; again its not stuck down as i need to paint the rails and weather the ties, but you get the idea. Some more work on the shed with an entrance in place and internal bracing done. 37419 in the shed Thats all for now Stephen.

Had a bit of a rethink on the hard standing, so i took it up. I was only using one layer of card so it was not even and things were starting to sag. My rethink involved tracing paper and two layers of card. The tracing paper was used to trace the area between the running lines and the area between the seperate lines. Once this was done a layer of card was cut and fitted, so far so good. Then another layer of card was added on top of the previous to cover up the ties. Here you can see the two layers and how the lower card is slighlty smaller than the top layer. None of this hard standing has been clued down yet as i am waiting for and order from Joes Model Trains. It includes the rusty rails paint and applicator and some weathering dyes to paint the rails and weather the ties. Have finished all of the hard standing and wiil tackle the cement and ashpalt from Scalscenes next. A close up of the hard standing. some views of the shed area. then overall and with the unfinished shed insitu Finally a class 08 doing some clearance tests. Next some experiments with cement and ashpalt courtesy of Scalscenes. Stephen

Not sure what i did but here is the rest of my previous post. Here is the storage road; first bare card and then with Scalescenes.com road surface. Thats it for now Stephen