mudmagnet

Hi Mudmagnet

The last lot of photo you have done look amazing ! , one thing that i have noticed is the coulor of your rocks.

Being as it it set in devon ,the rocks round here have a lot of iron in ,and have a dark rust coulor to them .

Keep up the good work and keep the photo coming mate.

All the best

Darren01

Hi Darren

Glad you like the photos.

I will have a look at the rock colour. The rocks round here do vary from area to area and certainly redder the further south you travel. Should not be too much of a problem to wash some colours into the rocks, although they are not too red around here.

Next job is to add some grass along the front of the layout close to where the office has been positioned - cue 'grassmaster'.

Richard

The latest pictures present a lot of atmosphere and capture the 70s/80s look of the railways. The first image of 25095 and the last image with the light reflecting off the bodyside of the 47 are my faviourites B)

Thanks for comments. The first picture is only possible with just this one board - i.e. putting the camera where the baseboard joint is and aiming towards the depot. The last photo was taken with the layout in my hall-way, the light coming in from the side - certainly casts an interesting light!

Andy,

Coming on nicely - all looks very good and I particularily like the weathered stock. To my mind 'clean' rolling stock and locos do not look right - yours look very good indeed.

Look forward to seeing the sidings / shed area develop.

Richard

Hi

A very productive couple of days. SWMBO away for the weekend, so brought the layout indoors and used the dining table to set up one of the boards as this is easier (and warmer than the garage) to work on. Finally managed to cross a few jobs on the list - (1) reclad the brick work on the depot building, (2) add pipe work from fuel off-loading to storage tanks, (3) added fencing along rear above rock work and (4) additional office building. I have attached a few photos. Whilst one board was on the table, I took the opportunity to take photos not easily accessible normally when the layout is assembled.

There are few details / bits and pieces to add around the office building. I will probably add some 'low-relief' tress behind the depot building and still need to finish into the corner of the board at the end of the factory building and will likely be the next task.

You will find the Power Cab a lot more logical and easy to use compared to the Dynamis.

 

Pete

Hi Pete,

Although I have been pleased with the Dynamis as a starter set into DCC (this was purchased before NCE offered the powercab starter set at a sensible price), there are a few limitations (as mentioned on other threads so won't repeat here). I have not found any problems with loosing the signal due to interference, but did have a slight problem when exhibited the first time, where I did not incorporate a shelf on the layout to sit the receiver. The receiver was balanced on a few boxes and not very practicalbe as occasionally the receiver was nudged. Part of the reason for going down the DCC route was to minimise the use of a control panel or additional parts to carry to an exhibition. I operate the 4 points via an accessory decoder, using the Dynamis and found a little awkward, but workable.

As far as hands on use - I do find that you need two hands to operate comfortably and that the joy-stick took a little time to get used to. However, my 13 year old son had no problem (could be something to do with Playstation / ExBox). The NCE can be used in one hand, which is a help when operating.

I will stick a piece of Velcro on the back, with a couple of corresponding pieces on the layout - I have used this with DC hand controllers and is very useful when you want to put the controller down.

The NCE will also give me the flexibility to operate from the front of the layout, sat in front of the fiddle yard, but will need to change the Bachmann couplings to auto-matic / semi-automatic couplings (Sprat and Winkle / Alex Jackson / etc) so that I remain seated at an exhibition. Ir have not yet decided which to use. I will not use the Kadees, as in my opinion not appropriate visually for my rolling stock - these do work very well, but best suited to an American outline.

The additional functions on the NCE will be helpful - e.g. being able to read the CV's. I have also found, with limited time to operate that the NCE operates the locomotives more smoothly (all fitted with Bachmann 3-function decoders). In future, I will likely use TCS or similar. the first one to change will be the Bachmann class 08 as I feel that this would benefit from a better quality decoder. I think that the Bachmann decoders are good value for money and operate fine on Dynamis, but perhaps limited when using a better DCC system.

Richard

Hi

Not much progress to show on the layout at the moment, but have made a start on the pipe work from fuel off-loading to storage tanks and hope to get most of this finished over the weekend.

I have also now bought a NCE PowerCab as an upgrade to my Dynamis and need to set it up - i.e. fit socket panel etc.

Hi Marc,

Your buildings capture the look of the steelworks very well. Look forward to seeing these weathered (up to your usual standard no doubt) and then in place on the layout. Do you have any photos with these placed on the layout or are you saving this for another time?

Richard

Layout is looking good, I have been browsing as I am building a new layout and looking for inspiration, I have also decided to scratchbuild my depot building in order for it to look different. Do you intend to exhibit at some stage? Keep up the good work.

Mike.

hi Mike,

Thanks for comments. I decided to build my own depot, mainly so that I could build something individual (although the Bachmann shed (s) look OK, you do see a few around now) and that I couldn't find anything that fitted in to what I wanted to achieve. I also enjoy scratchbuilding as much as possible.

I have exhibited Orchard Road earlier this year at my local club show (last July) in its un-finished state (when is a layout ever finished??). Due to show again next July at the club show when OR will be more or less finished. I also have a couple of invites within the South West for next year, but always open to offers!!

Hope your own depot building goes well.

Mudmagnet

Hi Mudmagnet, layout looking great , excellent scenics with some nice pics ...i can`t wait to do some greenery on mine ,this is the sort of effect i`m after with the old looking buffer stops ect with the grass and bushes ..cheers YVM

hi YVM

Thanks for your comments. glad to read that I can provide some inspiration. Does help to use a Grassmaster for the long grass though (I borrowed one, which I need to do again for more grass).

Mudmagnet

Orchard Road, circa 1979 .....

Finally for now, a photo recently found in an a collection, taken by a local trainspotter, circa 1979 .........

With the layout now re-located to the garage from the shed, I can now get to other end of the layout, thus giving more photo angles. I have attached a couple of views below. Please enjoy and let me have your comments.The last view is taken from the bridge.

Hi

I have attached a photo showing the two loaded skips, now glued in position. One has a couple pieces of corrugated sheeting and a few bits of wood. The other has been loaded with scrap iron of various shapes (plates, tubes, angle etc), plus an old oil drum. The wood peices being cut from some strip wood and lightly stained using Citadel / Games Workshop washes. Everything else has been cut from offcuts of plasticard or Evergreen angle or tubing / rodding. These have been painted grey, then drybrushed with various 'rust' shades - all acrylic or Citadel paints.

Hi

I hoping to be able to post a few photos tomorrow, but have been working on a couple of changes to the layout. As mentioned previously, the factory bricks have been replaced by brick plasticard, all painted, weathered and now glued back into position. The brick base for the deopt need to be done next, but will need to wait until I can get some more brick plasticard (I can't get any from my local model shop), so will wait now until I go to Warley at the weekend. A start has been made to the pipe work from the fuel off-loading to the storage tanks and plan to weather these parts and bed into the scenery.

Just catching up on your thread. The point rodding certainly adds to the realism of the model - the low-level view of your 47 looks great. Those 33's look very good as well.

Hi Dave,

Will you be bringing this (and any others) to Warley? Would be good to see this running (albeit completely wrong scale etc) - Darren would probably be keen as well!

I can vouch for Dave's loco building - everyone that I have seen runs like a dream.

Stu,

Thanks for the update photos. I had forgotten how effective your layout looks. I do like small shunting layouts, particularily when they are so well modelled. Gives me a few ideas. Good to see so many good small layouts on here, proving that you do not need a great of space to build a convincing and realistic model railway.

I building the depot on Orchard Road was anything to go by (and is considerably smaller than yours), I got through quite a few packets of Evergreeen 'I' beams and 'H' beams and still have the roof framing to do sometime! Although the Evergreen is a little on the expensive side, I think that the quality is very good. It certainly glues together very well using MekPak.

I have also been looking a various lighting options and can't find anything either, so will be interested to see what you come up with. Although quite effective, I don't think that the LED strips give the right effect for shed lighting pre 1990's (before flourescent stip lighting seemed to become the norm).

Continuing to follow with interest.

Hi Marc,

Have you looked at the tube sections avaliable from Evergreen, not sure what the largest diameter is though.

Richard

I really like the way the buildings nestle into the back scene. Great work.

Hi,

I've not made any progress on the layout worth showing in photos, but have been working on a few things. There are still a few jobs to get sorted.

The layout has been moved from the shed to the garage, partly to create more space to work round the layout and partly because working in the garage is a little easier. I will also be able to finally built and fit the fiddle yard extension which I need following experience at the first exhibition. I will also be able to build the lighting frame and pelmet. Finally, I can get around all sides of the layout, which is not possible in the shed.

I need to replace the brickwork sheets on the shed and factory at the end of the layout, as these have severely faded - I think due to the photo paper not being best suited to my printer ink (I use an HP printer with HP ink and probably should use HP photo paper - I used a cheaper alternative). So now have the 'fun' job of removing the paper and replacing - complicated by the fact that the buildings are glued down, although the factory should come out with a little bit of assistance. The shed, however, is firmly fixed!

Following this work, I still have the pipe work to add from the fuel off-loading to the fuel storage tanks. I did make a loading platform, but when placed on the layout during building, it just looked too large, so will need to make something much smaller.

I have, however, been working on other projects - a couple of Cambrian Mermaid wagon kits, now sprayed black (using Warhammer Citadel chaos black aerosol - which has given a very good finish), ready for decal application and weathering. I will post photos here when finished. Next wagons to follow will be a couple of Cambrian Dogfish wagons. I have also been making a couple of buildings for the new club layout - a signal box and station building and will post photos separately later.

Have you thought about using MJT compensating W-irons ( http://www.dartcasti...mpensationUnits ) ref 2297? I've done this with quite a few of the Cambrian air-braked wagons; it certainly improves running, but don't fit Bachmann split axle wheels sets as I did on one....

Thanks Brian, that's a good idea. I think that I may have a few W irons in the 'spares' pile.

Hi Marc,

Will be interesting to see how you get round the swivel on the wagons - I have a couple (OCA / OBA) with a similar arrangement, but have like you put them in the 'must sort sometime pile'. Must have a look at them again.

Richard

The attention to detail and overall scenary is great. I still cannot believe that this is 2mm scale! Do you have any plans to exhibit this one, Dave?

indeed - the way the track and basic structure appearance and painting makes me think this is worth watching even at the 'plywood acres' stage.

Russ, thanks for your comments.

I was in two minds whether to wait until I had made more progress or start posting now. Progress will be sporadic and will update when I get a few more things completed. However, doing it this way enables me to describe things as I do them, rather than perhaps glossing over at a later date. There are techniques / methods used that we take for granted and other newer modellers do not have any experience and is certainly worthwhile sharing when given the opportunity.