pirouets

On 14/04/2020 at 23:55, grahame said:

Hopefully, the scenic area will be around 10' by 3'6"

So I see a trend in your layouts then. When I came back to the hobby about 20 years ago you had Hedges Hill cutting (In the foyer of the Farnham MRC exhibition) which overall was about 5*3 and not sure what the scenic area was, but then Stoney Lane Depot came along with around 7 * 2 (I think - couldn't find the copy of the toddler in the shed) for the scenic area and 10*3 overall (I think) and the scenic area is doubling again this time so based on this in 100 years time if we apply what I will now call the Hedges layout growth law that the scenic area doubles every 10 years, you will have 30,000 sq ft to play with.

Any idea's what you could do with that? :-)

Seriously though, what I find most impressive is the consistency of the models in terms of their build. I guess you will need a fair few people to populate this layout so it will be equally interesting to see how the various cameo's come together when it gets to that point.

7 hours ago, Richard Holland said:

I completed construction a purpose built shed over the winter approx 65ft long

Richard - You can give a man serious shed envy with a statement like that :-) I think your view of taking 6 years sounds like a wise plan but what you showed above looks good

Mr Sheffield Midland, i'm off to have a peek at your facebook pic's assuming you haven't moved house again which does seem to be a theme. 

Grahame, I have scanned through the thread but could not see this. What is the size of the layout when you start given a few pages ago you showed the area modelled?

I'm going to have another scan as I did notice it looks like you have include St Olaf's House at the edge of your build which was an office I used to visit in the early 90's. It must be hiding somewhere in the 62 pages :-)

7 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

Could you explain a bit further about how you see the layout working and the era and area you have chosen for the signalling

As Homer Simpson would say - Doh!! I thought it would be so simple to copy from the main layout thread but obviously all the context is there in other posts. Must try harder.

The plan is based on Oldshaw which I have seen at multiple shows over the years and is operating in the early/mid eighties. Oldshaw has semaphore signalling but as the layout may time travel to run current day as well I am going colour light. The available space between the point to the sidings and the spur at the right hand end is long enough to allow wagons to reversed into / collected from the 2 sidings and the idea is they serve a couple of industries at either end of the layout which are off scene. 

Norton Rd is the 2nd station on the layout as on the other side of the shed is a Minories terminus called Dinfield, so passenger services run from Dinfield, through Norton Rd to their own fiddle yard sidings, whilst the freight is all held in loops which sit behind the terminus. The main thread is here

So I see 3 main movements apart from shunting in and out of the siding.

- Simple passenger through the station.

- Freight held in the loop whilst a passenger comes through in the opposite direction.

- Freight has picked up some wagons and leaves to set off - that could be in either direction obviously.

Thanks

Looking at the trademark itself  - UK00003110943 (I know to much time on my hands at the moment) they have only registered 3 variants of Network SoutEast but it does not look like they applied for Network SouthCentral as well which is in the picture. Looking at the guidance on trademarks that needed an application as well as I read the examples.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/trade-mark-series-applications

I also posted this in my layout thread and have knocked up a powerpoint of how I think the signals should be from what I have read so far but I stand to be corrected. Key question whether I have understood how to control the loop correctly with the ground signals and the signal at the left edge of the layout? As the sidings will be on manual levers there will be no signals there. Apologies for my awful representation of ground signals.

Been thinking about the platform today. I found some Peco components and having seen what can be done in other threads I was thinking do I try this. Instead I went back to various sheets of Scalescene and made a couple of sample pieces.  The one on the right was made 1st and that got me thinking about how to do a better ramp so I knocked that up. I have to say I think it turned out OK given its off-cuts and the surface is an un-used sheet from the bus depot.

I decide I will go ahead with this so the platform will be 50 mm wide is the flagstones taking 8 mm and the station building will sit on 80 mm depth. I also learnt lay the main surface, then the flagstones and you get a much better join in the paper. On the left you can now see all the 16 mm strips for the sides which then allows 2 mm for the surface to be added.

The only thing that may be an issue is my new supply of card is slightly thicker than mount board so I may will make 1 more sample to see how well it shapes for the ramps

In doing this I also sorted all the Scalescenes instructions I have and spare sheets in to a folder to make things easier to find. If i'm not careful i'm going to end up with a tidy shed.

I'm no twitter expert so trying to follow all the replies was a bit confusing but it does look like he then apologised for confusion (1:24 today), though in truth I read the thread and lots of people hadn't grasped what he was trying to say either. As Andy says though if anyone is selling something they did, then you need permission. 

Think both any of those would look good. Out of interest how much of the land between the fence line and the golf hole will they take up

A quick drawing in powerpoint of how I think the signals should be from what I have read so far but I stand to be corrected. Key question whether I have understood how to control the loop correctly with the ground signals and the signal at the left edge of the layout? As the sidings will be on manual levers there will be no signals there. 

31 minutes ago, John Harris said:

Blimey, just as well, I was thinking of excuses for the chainsaw and MIG welder I picked-up at Lidl with my bread & milk.

John, you may have hit on a new thread idea - what is the most un-necessary/weirdest item you could pick up as part of a supply run? I can't top that but it will be bugging me for the day 

Bit more playing around. For some reason rather than bring the kit in to the house where its cooler I have been popping in and out of the shed which peaked at 96F today. On the flip side the glue dries quickly and the cottages are progressing nicely so I have thoughts on how to place them.

Option 1 has them across the end of the layout with my thinking that there would be some form of allotment then in front of them, However the issue I realised with this is there is no space for a road to run down the layout.

So option 2 has them running down the layout. The idea here is the road will run along the front and either a 2nd set of cottages will placed next to it, or I have a garage scene before the road arrives at a pub that backs on to the railway and faces the canal. Behind the cottages will be about 30ft of garden backing on to a narrow path by the line side fence.

Anyway, enough for today and I really need to go and create a 1st signal plan which will most likely be wrong and the wisdom of RMweb can correct me.

Electrics do make me wonder sometime. Earlier I had said the point motors were wired in and working and now 2 of the motors are doing nothing. Hmmmm. Hurt my knee so will be w while before I go bending under the boards to investigate.

In other news I have now applied the railmatch grime along with a grey overcoat for the boards. As I think there will be a reasonable amount of asphalt surface in places in the layout whilst its a bit dark, it does mean the base layer is better than plain board.

Before I get to carried away I am starting to try an list all the main things I need to do, the aim being to try and do things in an order so I don't find myself having to work round problems of my own making by doing something to soon. 

So between gardening and card games been having a play with the track sample. I've used a black ballast on this which turned out OK and I think will be used on the layout itself. Down the centre between the 2 tracks is garden brown scatter (aka mud from the garden) and then had a go at trying to do small areas of static grass. I could do with something longer as well but as a start I think this turned out OK.

I did learn that you can't put a wash in to the clay as mortar line and wipe it off because even dry clay is still porous so will have a think. Pained 2 areas and this bit does have flint grey dry brushed over the top but if I am not careful the mortar course will disappear.

Also got the wood treatment out and gave most of the door and window side a new coat. They get blasted by the sun and were not in great shape but looking better now.

Ok, google is no help or I am misunderstanding the wikipedia article. You companion is a Bower Bird? Is that a case of a bit of a collector of things?

Thanks and might have a look for a pack as I do have a fair about of stuff poorly stored at the moment.

Thanks Paul. My thinking is there will be a bridge on the end of the layout against the backscene so it will hide the fact I may take 2 of the points out, or option 2 but not so keen on is a warehouse on the the inside of the track again blocking what you see. A key consideration is whether I model the road behind the station as I want to ensure I can access the storage loops behind if needed.

Overnight the ballast test has dried and I will definitely be going for spray the track then ballast. I will have a little play with the test piece first to see how I can add more weeds down the edges.

One of my kids got out the DAS clay to make a Madalorian head which gave me the idea of trying out something for the yard, so on a small board create the image below. Its a bit cruel close up and needs to dry before I can paint it, plus I need to ballast the track.

The thinking is that I will have cobblestones along side the canal and butting up to the siding closest in the picture below and I don't think I will wrap the cobblestones round both sidings. I think the area between the inner siding and the line will have a couple of huts but be a bit overgrown.

Its not your PC Gordon as I had the same issue but as you say, fairly straight forward to follow and thinking where might I be able to try that. 

Scott, 2 truly important questions

- How many takeaway's got eaten to store your scenic materials?

- What is the take way of choice for Stockrington? (Here at Pirouets Palace it would be Curry, Chinese or Thai in those)

More importantly you get a good sense of scale of what you are working on from that picture as well which sometimes gets lost when zooming in to a small area like the green.

Bit of a rubbish photo but something I am wondering on the Dinfield side of the layout. Its built based on Minories a previously stated but as there is an off scene connection to the rest of the layout, could I / should I take out 1 set of points to make the station longer? That is not from the point of view of a longer train, but just so its not quite such a squeeze.

All the sleepers and card of fcuts are in the off scene area and it would be the middle points that would come out. That way you come in on the correct line for platform 1 crossing the points and leave via the correct line going straight out. Any thoughts?

Thanks and now I am puzzling when I last went through Doncaster but pretty sure you can't help with that. :-)

Thanks Rob and will give that a try. I have a spare 31 I bought as a non runner which I have sort of working that I can try things out on 1st.

In other news after a day of proof reading a set of T&Cs followed by a 3hr video call I decided I needed to get out more, so after a stressful 9 yard trek I found the shed where I have expanded the fiddle yard sidings across the end of the shed. This means I can now store most of the trains and if I choose to run Dinfield as a layout on its own.

Also time for a new challenge. I mentioned ballasting in the previous post so knocked up a test sheet and for the 1st time I am weathering the track. Each piece will ave a different approach to the ballast and weather so will see how it goes.

In terms of approaches the 1st one has the sleeper grime on before the ballast (many videos showing this) , the 2nd will have the grime sprayed over the ballast (Think that was a guy called MarklinofSweden video on youtube) and the 3rd will be once the ballast has been glued, add various other details for dirt and weed whilst the glue is still wet. (Think that was woodland scenics)

I saw these words above one picture and had to check I was still in the same thread - "Speeding across the viaduct"

Seriously has anything ever sped anywhere in Little Muddle. Seems like the sort of place where when Bill's pipe break takes less than 10 mins people think he's in a rush.

Enjoying the sheer range of shots you keep finding for us.

So whilst I think about how to ballast the track I have bought a set of cottages of Scalescenes. If you scroll up to the 1st picture in the previous post, the idea is they will run from near the end of the layout towards where you see the cut out for the canal. I've decided that the canal element I will model will be a basin off the edge of the canal, and if I had a wider board the canal would have run all the way along the front, not just the 6ft you can see. This means the 2 sidings are now on the old basin yard which used to serve the industries round here but ceased to be needed many years before.

I have also had the top off my 31 as it started screaming the other day. Gave it some oil and a good run, but I wonder if its the rotating fan bearing that is actually making the noise as its still there.

Fingers crossed I have the last point I need turning up tomorrow which means I can finish the storage roads at the end of the shed and there is also some Railmatch rail grime in the pack. I've been watching loads of ballasting video's so will make up a short plank to try 2 in particular. Its not the laying of the ballast I have an issue with, but more how to weather and enhance the rails, sleepers and ballast once down.

Gordon, given your Sea Eagle post above and the memories it brings back and the scrapping in 64, if you could have saved 1 loco, is there one that stands out had you had the time and money?

Also fingers crossed Mr Snooper's comment about a breakdown crane hasn't sense you scurrying back to Templot as I think what you have come up with for the shed looks good, so how just how many loco's would it take of the collection or will there still be things in boxes?

Ahh, now it becomes clear. I would hate that hole as it appear to be suited to the fade which is a mythical shot I never mastered.

Out of interest Scott, what course is that as I wouldn't mind having a nosy on Google?

Maybe next time you go to the optician, get him to lower the prescription a notch in each eye and you'll never see things like that

Either that or in a couple of days time we will see some ingenious solution, just don't go all Bernard Cribbins and decide that there wall is gonna have to go.