johnteal

This afternoon I set to work on the building at the end of the downtown side of the layout. The plan was to make the straight track look like it carries on through the buildings, using a mirror. I will let you decide if it works ! I got a bit carried away a built more and more. The mirror needed packing to get it square on to the rails. Then I built the low relief building across the two forward tracks, with a corridor connection to hide the mirror top. With the lines looking straight in the mirror, I can now pose a shot with one loco looking like a 2 loco pair. Next job, reclad the end of the recycled building and start a truck loading bay Then build the units to sit on the loading bay, I was on a roll by this point Stuck in place To give an overall view ... Finally a staged shot ( I confess to use soem photo stacking software to get the depth of field in this last one) John

Im hoping its not art, mainly because art is often only appreciated once the creator is DEAD !!

Every now and again something unexpected goes wrong !!! In this case the PVA / Water for the ballast had found a joint in the MDF. Which caused the edges on both sides of the joint to swell. The joint runs back to just behind the points which resulted in them lifting, all the track work was on the same level, not any more !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Luckily every thing had risen evenly which means stock can no longer unexpectedly roll out of the spurs everything runs well over it and its quite a gradual change. So it staying as it is. In general though the ballasting has gone well. John

My layout seems to be a game of two halves, to borrow a metaphor from other peoples hobby. Work has mainly concentrated on the industrial town side or the right hand side of the shed. Last night I set to with some more vinyl tiles and some ballast. How the evening started Having read Octobers Railroad Modeller there is and interesting article at the back about freight yards that have roadways between every other track, so I thought that would make a nice contrast to the team track on the "other side" of the shed. This next shot shows how the underside of the tile is pared away to clear the rail chairs Ballast added but not glued PVA / Water added along with some weeds.. I'm not sure about the building, its recycled from a previous On30 layout on which it looked small, it may look to big / tall here? John

Could be ! I don't have any US models to populate the pavement yet !

the original baseboard level is the bottom of the storm drain. I topped it with a new piece of 1/2" MDF to give me a clean start. Trying to be frugal, I used offcuts, the rear one ending at the back face of the drain. That's what formed the idea, when the next new piece was added I just left a gap creating the drain slot, Originally the slot had straight walls, I used filler (P38 body filler from the car spares shop) Filler applied liberally down both sides then using a plasti card offcut with an angle and rad I scraped off the excess down both sides whilst still wet, leaving the wall shape. Once dry a bit of sanding , a second light filling and final sanding left the shape I have. P38 is filler plus a small amount of hardener added and only takes 10 minutes to "dry" you have to work fast or do small areas at once but not waiting for drying is a big bonus.

I have to say I don't really like the "as it comes" colour of peco track, made worse by using recycled point work that has a different colour. So having soldered all the wire links in place I let loose with the Railmatch "Frame dirt" Track wired and painted called for a bit of running, with a couple of shots... Caught this train leaving town It had to slow to cross the street at the end of town With a crewman stopping traffic, it proceeded slowly across the road Then off I know, lots of scenery to add to finish the illusion but I can see it in my mind John

Looking at the last batch of pictures I realised the back scene's were a mess, with the remnants of former hills, and a very white look they didn't give the look of a sunnier clime. So : 1 tub of dulux blue left over from the boys bedroom 1 tub of white poster paint 1 brush and 40mins of dabbing gives .. On the right On the left I think its made a significant difference, the shed certainly feels sunnier While in an artistic mood I did some work on the storm drain, last night I had sprayed it all with some "porcelain" plasticote. First job tonight was to cut a piece of plastic to a scale 10' and then use it to mark out the drain sections with a pencil. Then some Humbrol "concrete" acrylic added to suit. This next picture shows the spray base coat only on the left and some acrylic brushwork on the right. Stepping back, you will see more sections need brushwork At some future point it will get overgrown with a trickle of water in the bottom and some junk?

Progress on layout 2 Its only base colours at the moment but you get the idea? John

Looking good, as for the top of the drain pipe, I would suggest a "hopper" or small box sat on top of the pipe. Prototypically I would think the water would flow out of the roof façade through a square hole on a lead chute into a drain hopper Like this http://roofireland.com/img/imgs/051.jpg John

In my last post I showed some thoughts regarding how the layout on the right side of the shed may look. Well after my 3 days away on the girls camp and a full day yesterday at a wedding, last night I had some free time to play trains ! Here is what I got up to. The buildings are just things I had in the "recycle me" box but they give the general Idea that there will be some low relief going on along the back behind the road John

thanks Jack Lance is one of my favourite US inspirations !

Last night was my last chance to go down to the shed for the coming week, I have a busy schedule coming up which includes assisting to run a 3 day church camp for thirty 12-18 year old girls that Mrs RJR is in charge of. I get to do all the lifting, carrying and back room jobs. Not to mention the preperation work before we go. So this will be my last post for a few days. At least there is WiFi where we are going so I can come on here and browse for some sanity/ Anyway... A bit more structural work on the 1st industry A bit more paint on the barge And the reason the barge is out of the water is, the water is drying after an application of some paint to darken and several layers of gloss laquer. Some thoughts on the other side ????? And just for fun a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNjXbhO-aaU

With a house full of teenagers this evening, the only sensible thing to do was retreat to the shed.... Got plenty done and have realised that getting pictures of these smaller scales is considerably harder than G in the garden. But I thing I'm getting the hang of it. No list of done this, dome that Ill just let the pictures talk Favourite picture of the evening John

In my limited experience (I haven't used them before) they seem to work fine. I have just posted a new blog entry that includes a video of them in action Kadee and magnet part 2 (the Movie)

Having been asked if I have tried using the 3mm Neodymium magnets, here is a video to show how they work. You can just make out the magnet inside the rails as the couplers open/close. They are much better on straight track rather than curves but I think that is a general Kadee thing, I should also point out that I haven't used them before so still need to master the "kadee shuffle" The video is done using a loco and 2 boxcars, no editing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrbeP2Ue2DU

Today I've had the house to myself while Mrs RJR is out with the the youngest who is playing netball, so after getting some chores done it was escape to the shed The Barge. Rails are glued onto the surface without the sleepers / ties using super glue. I've used this method before and its handy that the plastic sleepers can be slid off the bottom of the rail and clipped on the top to maintain spacing during gluing Spacing to the next pair of rails is then done using 2mm (80thou) plasticard stuck in place Plasticard is then stuck on the outer edge of the outside track to the barge edge and a further piece stuck on the side wall shimmed 10thou up from the water. This shimming is so the barge is only sliding on the 2 plasticard batterns previously stuck across the underside. Between the rails plastic padding is applied and wiped off using a shaped template. This is to fill some of the height and further trap the flat on the bottom of the rail Last job for the time being is a start on the gantry that will support the "wet end" of the float bridge Pictures are not brilliant as I used my blackberry but hopefully they explain the progress John

Shortliner.. I had spotted them thanks, but I'm quite taken by the imagery of the gantry Southern Region.. thanks for the comments and for following along, to be fair I cant take to much credit for the concrete colour as the vinyl tiles are self coloured !

I can see setting them in slot cut in the foam working.

I've spent some time working on the float bridge tonight. In prototype terms its a lift bridge, hinged on the land side suspended at the water end by a gantry, the idea being the water end can be raised or lowered to suit water level I guess. Anyway onto my construction. Firstly I glued some strips on the underside of the barge body to achieve a level and give it smoother movement. (the current water surface will be painted and varnished so not much extra thickness) Then the float bridge construction began in earnest into the baseboard cut out. the pictures tell a better story than me. Barge sliding into position In position Concrete side walls and footings for the gantry pillars Some ballast to blend the area in I also did some more ballasting at the other end John

Ah..... but you will need a rectangular drill bit to fit those !!!

The magnets are of Ebay HERE When moving forward I have no problems with unwanted coupling now I have found the optimum position which for me is just next to the flat on the bottom of the rail and set 0.5mm below the rail head. John

My Neodymium magnets arrived today, so I have spent the evening on a crash course in setting and aligning Kadee couplers, having never used them before. After a lot of trial and even more error I finally found the best position for the magnets in relation to the couplers. I had done some internet research which had got me to the point of buying the rod magnets (3mm x 6mm) I did get to the point of wondering if I should have just bought proper Kadee magnets but as my 25 magnets only cost £2.20 getting them to work was worth the learning curve. And here are the working positioning, 3mm holes drilled and the magnets inserted, the big problem now is spotting them in operation. as the coupler approaches the coupler moves to the side I have had to straighten the headshunt as with the curve I just couldn't get the couplers to work I have set up the magnet points At first I thought i could just have magnets at the closest point in the picture but as the headshunt only fits loco and 1 car I had to fit magnets in the far positions to be able to slit strings of cars in the spurs to bring them back out. John

Thanks for that, worth the effort then, just need some better coloured veg now.

Following comments exchanged in the last post, I have reworked a section of the ballast with a lighter / sandier ballast substitute. I did think at the time of doing, the first attempt looked like it could be at home on an British based layout. Comments by James really just confirmed I didn't achieve the correct "look" Here is attempt number 2, not finished, but the basic colours are there. This is done with "calcium sand" from pets at home, ideal for your aquarium or pet geko apparently If the colour looks right its ideal for me too at 3.99 for 2.5 KG !! John