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londonbus

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  1. londonbus
    Also something i’ve spent time on is getting weathering right for my hoppers. I’ve been experimenting a lot on the Dapol 21T hoppers before I move onto the Accurascale, Bachmann and other (more expensive) types and i’m now happy with the results.
     
    Basically it’s a tried and tested method well documents here and elsewhere - burnt umber and a lighter rust coat on first. Hairspray. Maslow dabbed on with a ragged sponge. Let it dry for 30 minutes. Coat of light grey (all Vallejo acrylics so far). Leave for 30 minutes, take the Maskol off. Wet the wagon and lightly agitate the acrylic paint in areas where you want more rust to seep through. Varnish. Leave overnight. Weathering powders, darl rust and coal black worked into the edges of the panels. And brought down with a wide brush slightly moist with thinners. Manipulate with a smaller brush with thinners to get the effects (vertically) and areas with more paintwork coming through. 
     
    I have made my own decals with decal paper - as it’s the white paper the edges need touching up with a black pen. Also on the pictures below I have not got the ideal printer settings as I want a deeper black. I have achieved this in the past but did not make a note of the settings, so more experiments here needed in Word and the printer menu. The decals are also a bit on the large side so need reducing.
     
    Other than that I think it’s not bad and an improvement on previous efforts. My repertoire now includes heavy to light hopper weathering. Always room for improvement however.
     
    Tremayne



  2. londonbus

    2019 Update

    By londonbus,

    As I haven’t posted since RMWeb changed it’s format which is quite a while now I thought it’s time for a quick update. Still very busy with everything non layout related so progress is slow. However the track is now virtually all down, not all wired up though. BDL168 / DAC 20 boards are all wired and in place, so it should need a week of solid work to get it all powered up and ready to test properly. 




  3. londonbus
    This weekend the stars were aligned, the wife was away, I had a light week travelling and managed to get work finished for the week by Thursday evening. Tidied the railway room up and had a plan. Basically not to get distracted and ONLY lay track. This is the result. The station area is now basically laid. There are some bits to finish off in the loco servicing are (on the right) and i'm thinking about an ADM turntable (haven't done much research beyond check out the price and pictures.
     

     
    Very little is wired up, hence the droppers all over the baseboard. But these will be drilled through and connected to the BDL168 occupation detectors. The Cobalts will then be fitted (holes already drilled) and then testing will start. I've already noticed a few mistakes with some missed insulated connectors, so i'll just dremel and stick a little bit of Plasticard in to ensure the two tracks don't touch.
     

     
    I have cosmetically improved the PECO points (Electrofrog code 100) by trimming the sides. They are all wired up for DCC. Everything's stuck down with copydex and every single seperate section of track is independently wired to avoid any poor connections once the ballast is down (not relishing that).
     

     
    One of the many little projects i've been busy doing to avoid laying track is experimenting with different couplings. I've settled on Kadees for the locos and either end of fixed rakes. I will also have a number of loose wagons (parcels, vans and other) for shunting around the station's sidings and bays which will all have Kadees or at least in small rakes of three. I haven't yet settled on which couplings to use everywhere else. The cost of Kadees for the entire stock I have would be prohibitive.
     
    Travelling now for a few weeks, but do hope to speed up the progress a bit. I am quite mojo'd up to get it wired and working. Then I will be laying the storage sidings.
     
    Anybody with experience of motorised turntables I would greatly appreciate your comments. I will research fully in due course.
     
    Tremayne
  4. londonbus
    Wife's gone away to help out with little ones, leaving her other infant alone in the railway room. Attention turns to the Shinohara Double Crossover, Code 100, No.6. I bought this recently from Scalelink and it fits the purpose of the Northern Bay Crossover nicely. Peco quality it is not, however with some experimenting i've got it do do what I want. The option of butchering 4 points and a crossover would have just been too time consuming and fiddly, and probably no cheaper.
     

     
    The first thing I noticed with my continuity meter is that the entire frog and full length of the switch blades are live. The polarity is supposed to change by using a quite flimsy connector under the end of the switch blade. To add to the potential for failure the fishplates between the frog and the switchblades don't appear to give a completely satisfactory connection. Although I should point out that the crossover works fine out of the box, in my view it's only a matter of time until it doesn't. So I set about a belt and braces solution.
     
    The points are not self-latching, i.e. they don't click shut like the PECO ones do. This is not a problem for me anyway as i'll be using COBALT stall motors. The additional benefit of the Cobalts (and probably the Tortoise, although i've never used these) is that you have output to change the polarity of the frog a the motor switched the points.
     
    The points are nicely insulated where they need to be and this means I can incorporate the four occupancy detection zones with little bother. I just have to make one cut on the black line (as the red is common), otherwise the "Up" direction (The top line in the above picture) would join the two detection zone. This would have the unwanted result of showing the "Up" throat pointwork as occupied if there was a Loco or coach / wagon drawing a current in Bay 1. It's taken forever to understand this. But now it has sunk in.
     

     
    In the image above you can see how i've connected the frog rails together and also made a connection over the joint where the fishplate was the only way of conducting power. So that the wire (Excess wire supplied with the Peco three way point!) that makes a more secure connection doesn't sit proud of the sleepers I cut HALF WAY through the plastic to create a small channel. Dremel on low and very careful not to cut completely through the sleeper. The wire will then go to one of the four Cobalts to received the correct polarity power when the points change.
     

     
    I quickly clipped the sleepers where you attach point motor as they are not flush with the sleepers (just as on the PECO points too). Lastly I soldered on the droppers, gapped the rail (in the middle / top black) and stuck it down with Copydex. Hopefully it'll work and I won't have to take it up again. All in all about 2 hour work with tea breaks. Lunch break over - back to work.
  5. londonbus
    Some progress laying the south bays and also trackwork on the up lines. Droppers soldered and dropped, points doctored for DCC, "throw" mechanism taken out as i'm using Cobalts, and the sides of the points also streamlined to cosmetically improve them.
     

     
    Got the bays nice and straight with my metal rule. Also the centre to centre measurement is 50mm. When I cut out the baseboards I misjudged the width so i'm going to add some extra width on the the western side of the neck. Also as the Cobalts are powering the points the bridge might need some headscratching too.
     

     
    A little bit of fiddling getting the curves as best I can. All Peco Streamline code 100. So some head scratching and lots of hours on Anyrail to get the result I wanted. I gave up with cutting the webbing from the sleepers to space them more widely, the layout's taking long enough as it is.
     
    A friend in the UK has offered to mill out two Deltics to fit the EM2 "Earth Mover" speakers for Prototype Deltic and 55022. Unfortunately the speakers still didn't fit, so I got the Dremel out and slowly ground out a further 1mm. Also filing the roof and the speakers, it's a very tight fit, but it fits. Royal Scots Grey is done now. At some point down the line i'll put some lights in it. But that'll wait for another year. (post post edit, the dremeling below is a Cl37 I recently fitted 2 speakers in, not the deltic.)
     

     

     
    Here's a short video. Turn the sound down a bit.
     

     
    And last and not least another excuse not to lay track... playing with blending acrylics (Tamiya) thinned and blended with a brush. Home made decals will go on top and the whole lot weathered a bit.
     

  6. londonbus

    2018 Update

    By londonbus,

    I haven't posted for most of 2017, not a great year and frequent unplanned trips back for parents, extensive work etc. Although not much more track went down I have made the following progress:
     
    Airbrush out and lots of experimenting with weathering. Lots of trial and error, lots of blocked nozzles, but now at least i've got the hang of the right consistencies, my preferred media depending on the job at hand (enamel / acrylic) and have settled on Vallejo & Tamiya (acrylic), Humbrol (enamel). I have had quite a bit of success with blending Tamiya acrylics together with various shades and thinners on my hoppers to create one way of adding rust and general traffic dirt without an airbrush, i'll most likely write an entry with pictures going through how I did this. Also hairspray and various chipping media for exposing the rust underneath.
     
    I have rather a lot of the old War Ministry oil tanks and want to rebrand them in Esso for the Abbey Lane sidings which are just to the North of Leicester Central. I had a number of the 3 pack silver "A" tanks but when I started working with them noticed that they are not painted but the plastic is pre-coloured and heavily tinted with blue. Although they were to be weathered anyway I was not happy that the blue came through so had an idea to strip them down, repaint them and then individualise them with home-made decals - results are shown below and I shall be detailing how I did this and what I learnt in a seperate blog entry.
     
    Below you can see the pre-coloured blue silver plastic (in front) compared to one which I consider to be the target colour (behind).
     

     
    Even more pronounced below. Original left with factory decals, repainted with home made decals right.
     

     
    This is the final result of with home-made decals - not enough decalfix on the left as the decals haven't moulded over the rivets well enough, however the right is better. To get the white background I have two seperate decals.
     

     
    The weathering was a run with thinned enamels with the airbrush (humbrol matt leather & matt black) with some almost dry-brush thinners manipulation. I learnt that even when enamels are touch dry this was possible for several hours after application (compared to acrylic which is dry very quickly if airbrushed). dribbles of oil care of AK interactives / Vallejo Fuel enamels and also some bright orange humbrol which was then manipulated with some thinners after a while. The orange really added a nice touch, but had to be very small amounts.
     

     
    Manufacturers are bringing out a lot of Private Owner Wagons and I have been looking through quite a few old books and sites for ideas to create a late 1950's train of mixed coal wagons with faded PO liveried wagons and some that are unpainted. I got out the Vallejo paints and doctored up this old Dapol wagon as my first experiment with dirty but not yet decrepit natural wood. It still needs some decals and some weathering, i've also notice a fingerprint on the door.
     

     
    Some of the individually painted plans come out a bit too prominently here but I do like the effect of the dark wash I put on. A bit more practice and i'll be quite pleased.
     

     
    I'm still experimenting with my techniques on the 21T hoppers, but they're getting much better. The hopper below would be virtually impossible to replicate as it was one of the orginal experimental batches that I have tried virtually every technique on. Probably 4-5 different layers just painted over the previous attempt. In the end it was such an awful mess I took some paint remover to the lot and scratched away with an ear bud until I realised the result was actually quite good leaving some elements of every single different technique and also going back to the original plastic in places. Never give up, even when it's a complete mess!
     

     
    Again the decals need to be applied and the hoppers properly attached to the chassis.
     

     
    On the rare occasions when I have the house to myself I can clear off my work and get down to experimenting. This is the setup and on the table are the pipe wagons, some MGRs, various planked wagons and some of the Esso wagons in various stages of chaos.
     

     
    Something else i've been meaning to get around to for several years is resin moulds. Finally I had a stab at replicating a peak nose. This Bachmann nose is quite rare so I thought it would be a good first attempt. firstly I did the mould the wrong way around so the air bubble rose to the top ( as you'd expect) but settled under the nose leaving a heavily pock marked final mould. Hardly noticeable on the silicone mould, but very prominent on the resin cast.
     


     
    The track plan hasn't changed significantly but the engineering sidings and loco facilities / turntable area have been tweaked a bit. The different colours are the BDL168 zones to enable quite acurate stopping at the stations. Train Controller will handle reasonably accurate stopping in the storage sidings. Experiments have trains, even ones that haven't been calibrated, to stop within 1-3 cm of where they are supposed to. I have also wired the detections zone where I don't really need them to run trains automatically with Train Controller (points etc) as I intend to have a reasonably realistic Mimic Board and also for safety should a wagon / coach come off over a set of points.
     

     
    So lots of small projects have been going on but not a great deal of actually building! 2018 now is looking far more predictable. So fingers crossed i'll get double line working and the station finished.
  7. londonbus
    It's a public holiday in Germany today and the wife is away so this afforded me two rare luxuries i) cook bacon ii) spend almost the whole day pottering around with the soldering iron and drill. This electronics saga has been going on for quite a while (months) but apart from wiring up a few network cables (run out of RJ12 connectors) the job's finished and although not perfect by any means, it's a big improvement on the boards I had before.
     
    So here are all five of the BDL168 occupancy detectors, giving me 80 detection zones and also 6 of the 8 DAC20 point decoders. Although these have 24v going in, they only have 7v coming out, which as long as my old Cobalt stall point motors are recently regreased and newly oiled up (they are about 8 years old) work just about fine. Were I doing this again i'd use the new general of digital Cobalts which would save a lot of time.
     

     
    So now I just have to fix the boards underneath the layout, reattach the wires and power and it all should work. The difference being now that it will be so much quicker to complete track laying and get the points and occupancy detectors working, just plug (or solder) and play.
     
    The wall display cabinets are still up.
  8. londonbus
    Lots been happening here, but not a lot of visible progress. Nearly 200 locos have been "audited" and put into an excel inventory with information on which which DCC decoder socket, or decoder chip and all tested. A few issues after up to 12 years in boxes but mostly running smoothly after a little run round.
     
    I travel a fair bit and have built up quite a few ESU Loksound decoders which i've bought out and about. So i've been busy uploading Legomanbiffo sounds (diesels) and Howes (steam). Also have a weird and wonderful selection of 4 and 8 ohm speakers of different sizes and quality which i'm slowly fitting. It's a very slow job, particularly as i'm still trying to make progress on the layout itself. The small stickers on the cabinet doors have a significance, but I can no longer remember what each colour means. To be chipped, already chipped, Loksound 3.5 to be replaced, and sell. Something like that.
     
    Observant readers will notice that many of these locos will never have run on the Great Central. But many did. And in my world it never closed.
     
    Before new year I drove down to a small German joinery company that produces nice display cabinets for model railways which I varnished and put up. After one disaster when I hadn't drilled deep enough into the concrete wall and all my class 20's came tumbling down (few buffers broken, but easily mended). Now they're all soundly drilled in and I have again made peace with my neighbors. However when I get my two new EM2 "earthmover" speakers (£25 each - price hiked) then I fear I may need to bring more hobnobs over from the UK to keep the neighbors on side.
     

     

     
    I have also been spending some time sorting out my old wiring. It works but it doesn't look very nice. So after my first (second actually) attempt at wiring up the BDL168, PM42, PR3 and DAC20s I decided to redo them again now that I have a better understanding of what wire goes where.
     
    BEFORE
     

     
    AFTER - well it's not finished, but i've tidied up for the day as i'm off to the UK tomorrow to get ready for a trip over the Settle & Carlisle on Tornado. Hopefully more successful than the last two trips which were cancelled and then derailed (Andover Fist). Still looks much better, even the wife says so.
     

     
    Last thing i've done is finish planning the BDL168 sections and power zones (4). I thought I had 5 BDL168s but one turned out to be a second PM42 which I don't need (hence my excited note on the plan). So a quick call to Kevin at Coastal DCC and he's already put one in the post to my UK address (basically a store for stuff i've bought and never have space in carry on luggage to bring back). So all good so far. The plan has now basically been finalised. The sections are for two purposes, i) traincontroller ii) a mimic signal box display. I already know that for Train Controller doesn't need occupancy detectors on points, but I want the display to show the section occupied. I have no practical experience of all this, however it all seems to mirror the many signal box diagrams online.
     
    With the extra BDL168 I thought i'd found I added stop sections to the station area. I had previously planned to speed profile all locos and then get them to stop exactly where I wanted. This proved to be above my experience and pay grade right at the moment, so I decided that on the stops I want to be quite accurate I would have a final stop section (or indicator in Train Controller). Although I shall have to speed profile everything anyway. The stops in the storage yards will be based on measurement past the entry indicator (of the block in Train Controller).
     

     
    No more track has gone down since the past update, but it's getting wired up. Every time I had to wire up point decoders or occupancy detectors I lost my mojo to continue, so I guess by doing all the electronics boards all in one go will enable me to progress more quickly. Let's see.
     
    Anyway, thanks for reading.
  9. londonbus
    A few weeks since my last update due to work and travel, but finally I have finished off the baseboards at the running level. All the trackwork has been printed off or penciled on just to make sure everything's going to work well. A few adjustments and basically i'm happy with it. The only two elements which will need a bit more thought are some curves at both narrow ends of the room which I have not allowed enough clearance on the track plan and the wooden base is slightly too narrow. So they'll be redone.
     

     

     
    Something else i'll work out as I proceed to track laying is the distance between the running lines through the station is slightly to wide (5.5cm from midpoint to midpoint) I have done a little more research and working from the outside in I shall try to get it to 5cm or even 4.7cm which I read somewhere is prototypical. This will result in wider platforms.
     
    My next decision, and then purchase, will be either cork or depron to use as underlay. I haven't yet decided which material to use to soften the noise. I have used both in the past but not at the same time so I can't really compare. Another option would be to just glue the track down to the wood. Any thoughts out there?
     
    So track laying starts soon.
  10. londonbus
    It's been ages since my last update, there has been some work but nothing much that looks like it's moved forward so I haven't posted. First loop (up lines) finished and today I added all the up loops, (Fast, Slow, Goods and Siding) through the station and a few lines in the storage / marshalling area. Cobalts all wired up and so are the PM42 Power Districts and 2 x BDL168 occupancy detectors. It all works with Train Controller but I haven't yet wired up the point motors to the DAC20.
     

     
    The track on the right (Storage Sidings) will take a 10 coach train with loco as will the main platforms of the station. There'll be 12 or so storage sidings when it's done.
     
    This is the current trackplan showing the occupancy sections. When locos are profiled I can get them to stop automatically within 1cm of where I want them to stop (using Traincontroller) so I only need one section (occupancy sensor) per block.
     

     
     
     
    Also something else i've been trying out is weathering. Still a long way to go, but these seem to have come out OK.
     

     
    I hadn't weathered the chassis on this 21T hopper.
     

     
    With some down time from work over Christmas i'm looking forward to getting a lot more done. Better go and find the missus.
  11. londonbus
    One year ago, just as I was getting myself organised to make progress on the layout I was given a big work project. So work on Leicester has been intermittent to say the least. Travelling a lot is always good for scouring the online shops, Youtube, (Fle)Ebay. But i'm a little ashamed as I look back over the year on actual physical progress! A few weeks ago I decided that if I don't have the big blocks of time I need to get up in the railway room and actually start soldering, re-reading Digitrax instructions etc then I should get off my hind quarters at least do something on the miriad of little mini-projects i've bought the book, read the book etc.
     
    I got the airbrush out and used it for the first time (on my wife's silver coloured scuffed shoes - but a start, I didn't want to ruin anything railway related).
    I got out the paints, decalfix, thinners, mattcote, weathering powders and started to experiment (pictures below)
    I finally made a start on installing 20 V4 Loksound chips all reblown by Bryan (@Howes). Some video's of that will be posted on youtube when the Round Tuit is delivered.
     
    Also this blog was unburied from underneath the far more diligent and worthy contributors to this forum and dusted off. Here are some pictures at least. And I have August off, so looking forward to continuing my mantra of "Just do it".
     

     
    This was the result of the Humbrol channel research on Youtube - it's the first attempt,
     
    In Summary:
    50/50 mattcote / enamel thinners brushed onto the wagon dark earth, rust and iron oxide weathering powders randomly applied into the above mix while wet left to dry (mistake one) 50/50 acrylic paint (mistake two - 1st time round I used enamel) and decalfix. Paint over the whole wagon roughly (leaving the running number clear) wait to dry (mistake 3) wet and wait a few minutes scratch and score with something that has a not too sharp point to break the surface of the paint with some thinners break the surface more (this comes off easily as the decalfix in the acrylic paint has made it very easy to distress). The weathering powders should at this stage bleed out more and very fine, light, downward brush strokes should represent rust running down. (mistake 4 as i'd originally sealed the weathering poweders with enamel / decalfix - however using more thinners / scratching I was able to get down to the original weathering poweders, but in several places also the original plastic!)

    Also the running numbers on the Dapol model also disappeared with thinners. However I detail all four mistakes above to demonstrate that I am but a humble beginner, however I have at least overcome my fear of having a go. I have at least another 20+ (and the rest) of these Dapol wagons, so should have honed my weathering skills a bit more by the time i'm half way through. I also will practice with the Maskol technique for larger areas of rust and dropping small amounts of weathering powders onto the finished wagons into mattcote.
     

    I now need to get the track grime out to weather the running gear etc and match it in.
     

     
    I was a little heavy handed at the end with adding some "smoke" weathering poweder, I think as the paint hadn't dried hard I was less able to tone it down. But i'm quite pleased for a first attempt.
     
    Tremayne
  12. londonbus
    Long time no post, mostly spurred on by the arrival of the Locomotion APT-E Sound which luckily was delivered to the UK while I was there and brought straight back to Germany I have been rushing to get the first full loop of track (approx 60 feet in total) and wired up with DCC so I can try it out!
     
    Points and track are down and the rotten job of fitting the point motors lots of working under the baseboards, but the work is getting quicker. Gave up with the German glue and brought lots of Copydex back from England, smells pretty awful, but the smell doesn't last long and does the job really well. I missed one set of points completely and glued that today so will have to wait for one evening next week to fit the final point motor then we're one step closer to the first train.
     

     
    I still have several electronics boards wired up from my experimental layout, so getting the Digitrax BDL168, PM42 and the CML point decoders working won't take too long, then try to get the Cobalts wired up the right way so they don't short over the frogs. So next post will have this working with Traincontroller software. I had a lot of problems and had to install separate drivers on the old laptop when I last got it all running, so i'm hoping that with the new Microsoft 10 OS it will still work. But of course I don't need this to at least get something moving. The work project that has stopped me from making progress is settling in now, but still eating time, however I have been a bit distracted too. Once I can watch trains running round at least one track it'll be quicker just adding more.
     

  13. londonbus
    Well it's been a while, New Year now out of the way I set about redoing the baseboard supports on the main station section. Hadn't wanted to do it but i'd noticed that cross bracing on which the 8mm plywood trackbed rested had created a rolling road in the sense that coaches did a 1:76 scale Mexican Wave as they rolled along. My free wheeling Roco coaches which I always use to check track just wouldn't stay still. Anyway not acceptable. So I decided some while ago to redo it, not a job I was looking forward to as getting it level was a pain the first time round.
     
    So as to smooth out the roller coaster ride the plan was to lay two long supports lengthways (parallel to the track) rather than crossways. Lesson one learnt was that as i'd originally screwed the baseboards to the supports from the top, then laid cork on top I had to find the location of the screws cut out squares of cork and then unscrew everything. This time i've screwed everything from below.
     
    I lowered the cross supports and laid the lengthway supports on top. Also placing several other pieces of the same wood on the cross bracing in places to provide ample supports for the baseboards.
     
    Checking alignment with my long and short spirit levels took all afternoon, until the Roco coaches stayed where they put and all the bubbles were in the middle.
     
    Very pleased I did it. It was stopping me getting on. Hopefully now a bit more progress to report and track laying and electrics can recommence.
     
     

     

     
    Lesson Two was that i'd reused some 8mm ply brought over from my old layout. It's not quite the same 8mm as the german stuff, so I had some little adjustments to do to get the top surface to be as smooth as I wanted. Maybe I was just unlucky, but in future I shall always use wood from the same batch for jobs where I need exactly the same thickness.
     
    I've just also noticed one of the supports still needs to be screwed home! I left the clamp on. That'll have to wait for tomorrow now.
  14. londonbus
    Back here after a few months - basically i've not posted due to not having done anything. Simple as that - however with a few days of R&R due I shall be having a crack at it all again - notwithstanding a new year's party looming with seven Ethnic German Russians, (or are they ethnic Russian Germans?) long story. Long night, day after the hangover I dare say mojo will be reinstated and work shall recommence.
     
    Big stumbling block was that the baseboards in the station area are not really even, despite laying the supports with a spirit level quite accurately when the baseboards were laid on top there are peaks and troughs in the run through the station, I shall relay the supports lengthways rather than crossways. It'll take a bit of doing as i've already stuck cork down etc, however my overriding philosophy is to do things to the best of my ability and not put up with compromises if I can improve something myself.
     
    Anyway enough of that. More when it's done. I was in Berlin recently for a work project (the one that has taken all my take up) but managed to find a couple of hours to visit the Technical museum, I was pleasantly surprised to see a HO model of the Anhalter Bahnhof. I have included a few pictures of it here. I aged them in PS just for something to do while the wife was in one of her busy moods
    .

     

     

     

     

     

     
    And a couple of photos without me messing about (too much) with them...
     

     

     

     

     
    If you're in Berlin the museum is well worth a few hours, I didn't bother with the printing, jewelry, and other bits. The trains took about 2 hours to go through and they even have a strange collection of railway tickets from around the world... Lots, including a rather large selection of "Dog" Tickets from the "North British Railway"...
     

     

  15. londonbus

    Track Laying Starts

    By londonbus,

    A long time ago I experimented with making PECO Code 100 track look better. At the time I ordered lots of it (at least 6 years ago) so i'm sticking with it. Back then I cut the webbing out from between each sleeper and spaced them out. I tried the same thing again today - it takes ages to do this, but it's only in the scenic part of the layout. I think the extra time will pay off.
     

    Out of the box the sleeper the gap between sleepers is 4mm. I did a little research and found that a more appropriate gap would be 6mm. So I build a small jig for making the spacing a bit easier.

    Of course this does nothing for the other out of scale dimensions of the sleepers, but it's an improvement and I don't want to go to the expense of new track or putting on new scale sleepers that I know are available. I suppose OO is a compromise in itself, so no point getting too fussy.
     

    Next mini-project was butchering PECO large radius points so that the centrepoint to centrepoint measurement was 47mm (which i've read is closer to the real thing) rather than the standard PECO Streamline geometry 55mm. I have never done this before, but as with most of what i'm doing, i've read about it. Many of the points in the scenic section will need to be similarly treated, and the big test will be the double crossover on the north bay.

    I didn't bother to put rail joiners on as i'll need to isolate the frogs anyway. I think the overall effect more than justifies the time spent. I have tried to match up the sleeper spacing too.

    I am pleased with the overall effect - even if because of the experimenting I didn't get any real momentum going today.
  16. londonbus
    I've been travelling in the UK this week away from home, so no work on the layout, only more research and picking up some shopping (the wife didn't spot that the big suitcase was empty as I left the house.
     
    I have been absorbed by the signalling at Leicester Central. The plan was always to have working signalling that, as much as my modelling skills would permit, would be as representative of the real thing as possible. I've now taken delivery of a few more books on the GCR as well as my first actual copy of Colin Walker's Main Line Lament, a book i've read and reread so many times from the library - so lots of signal spotting.
     
    What I found so interesting is the array of different types of signals on the prototype.
     
    A visit to the GCR brought me face to face with the following searchlight signal, looking at the workings it's one lamp with a mechanism behind which changed the aspect. At the time I didn't give it a great deal of thought.
     

     
    The following are at Leicester Central.
     
    This is what seems to be a slightly different searchlight signal on the northern end, down platform. The signal to the left is a standard 3 aspect.

     
    This shows the two 3 aspect home signals at the northern bays.
     
     

     
    The following picture is from Nigel Tout's site (link here) the single lens searchlight is on the left. I am not 100% sure but I believe it would have shown red, yellow and green aspects. Hopefully somebody can confirm. Again I would appreciate if somebody could confirm the two smaller aspects below.... shunting signal? white?
     

     
    Moving to the southern end - more variety.... I am not sure what these are called (anybody) four aspect? But I think the bottom would display red / yellow / green and the top just yellow (the top yellow would show as a double yellow only). The left signal here controls the exit from the southern bay, the right hand signal the main "up" line.
     

     
    and two further views
     

     
    The exit from the other southern bay was controlled by a semaphore.... you can see the 2 x "four" aspect signals on the left...
     

     
    The last little surprise that I almost missed was a ground signal on the "up" approach at the north end of the station. I believe that the two far right signals control the two bays and the smaller signal at the bottom of the main line controls the access to the dead end siding?
     

     
    A little bit ambitious perhaps? Well today I spoke to the two very helpful gentlemen at G F Controls from whom I have just bought an 8 semaphore servo controller. It arrived next morning. This will control the upper and lower limits of the semaphore movement as well as a characteristic bounce (or not) I understand that not all signals bounced, particularly the ones closer to the signal box. But bounce looks good. This will be controlled by DCC with a Digirails DR4108.
     
    For the searchlight I have already found and ordered two of these BLMA models searchlight heads from the States. They come in a pack of two so the second "spare" will form the bottom lamp of the "4" aspect which i'll try to create myself. I'll control this with a Signalist SC1 decoder. Signalist appear to do this head (as well as the 4 aspect) but the info is not particularly clear how much it is or how to order one.... It's too late for this trip anyway. But i'm intrigued to know what's available. (Edit, Paul Harman has replied quickly to my email and is able to provide the searchlight and the two lens signal heads at a very reasonable cost, LEDs fitted so I look forward to receiving them).
     

     
    The three aspect signals are in the post as a Berko kit (or is it Eckon?)
     
    Semaphore signals will be a little bit more tricky, i've bought the Ratio LMS / BR and LNER advanced signal kits, have a simple(ish) MSE kit to have a go at. It might be a complete mess, but I have to start. Fortunately there are some very inspirational threads here so i'm quite happy to jump in at the deep end.
     
    I'm really enjoying the research part of this project. The subject keeps throwing up more variety.
  17. londonbus
    After waiting for the 15m x 1m roll of cork to arrive, running out of my Pattex Classic rubbery glue on a Saturday evening after the shops shut (nothing's open on a Sunday), and getting rather sidetracked building my first modest "shed" out of plasticard and trying out some painting techniques, plus tea, and some work in between, and relaxing after such an exhausting schedule, I finally added some more supports and laid the cork.
     

     
    Now the track baseboards are all complete ready to start laying the track. I suppose before I start laying the tracks I should actually spend a little bit of time sketching out the power districts, detection sections etc for the Loconet and RR&Co software. This will be a lot easier now as I built a test layout to figure it all out in my previous flat. Some of the boards are still all wired up. Although I think now I know what i'm doing I may redo them to make them tidier and more logical.
     
    The glue stays tacky long enough to do 50cm sections at a time. I have three ply boards and enough weights to put on them. By the time i've moved the boards along the one at the back has done it's job and everything is nicely flat and secure. A quick run round with a Stanley knive to remove the overlap and it's all done.
     

     
    The cork is only 3mm thick, so care was taken not to bend it too much, I found it easier to cut it into no more than 2m sections, cut with a steel rule the sections glued together nicely with straight lines.
     

     
    Anyway, this picture doesn't do the cork justice, like with every stage I have spent as much time admiring the work as I have doing it. After the obligatory tidy up and hoover (wife stands below the stairs watching the dust) I've finished for the evening.
     
    The perspective on the picture has made the station space look slightly odd. Looking forward to getting a few goodies out to run round.
     

  18. londonbus
    I heard about this method on the RMWeb just after I read the advice about not making a building until you have sourced the windows so you know the size. Sound advice.
     
    However the results here (on my first scratchbuilding and first dry brushing painting effort), although still in need of refinement, have given me some ideas to simplify and improve the process...
     

     
    First I measured the window dimensions and created squares in Adobe Illustrator in the approximate colour required, the result was just a green square to the exact size of the opening . I then drew in a white box (the window pane) and copied it four times to give me what you see below.
     
    I printed this onto self adhesive (label) A4 paper using a normal inkjet printer on the highest quality setting. Then cut out the window from the A4 sheet and stuck it onto some plastic sheet (part of the packaging from some LED lamps I bought. As the paper is stuck quite well to the plastic you don't have to cut out the individual panes of glass you can cut through the grilles from top to bottom, they will stay in place.
     
    I actual fact what I will do in future is not bother with drawing in the individual panes on the software leaving just a large box of colour with some guidelines outside of the coloured box as a guide for cutting. I found that as the grilles are very fine and after a few attempts at cutting with a steel rule and scalpel I was not able to cut accurately leaving some white on the grilles remaining. Also I will allow a few millimeters either side of the actual window dimensions, a simple error first time around.
     
    You could easily do this without a PC and printer by colouring the paper with a pen or paint.
     
    Of course I need to work on my gluing and I shall experiment more to see just how thin I can get the grilles. But for a first attempt i'm pretty satisfied. The lintels and sills haven't been painted. Roof and tiles....
     
     

     
     
     

     
    I've taken much longer on this building as I suppose is necessery, but just wanted to experiment with the different painting techniques i've read about.
     
    I don't have any slate tile sheets, although will be ordering a large supply of various Slaters products on my next trip to the UK. As an interim solution I popped into my local model shop (10 minutes walk) and picked up some Auhagen pantiles. It's thicker than i'm used to and not strictly prototypical, but looks OK. The plastic is a terracotta red and I painted Humbrol Matt 62 slightly thinned to let some of the terracotta come through. I did experiment with cutting out tiles from the self adhesive paper, but far too much work and the result wasn't satisfactory. Plastic sheet gives me the result i'm after to the standard i'm comfortable with.
     
    Here are some of my preferences and methods i'll be bringing forward to future models.
     

     
    Mortar goes on first as an only slightly thinned base coat (Humbrol Matt 103) Dry brushing goes on afterwards, (Humbrol 29, 62, 160 and I tried a little bit of Metal 53). After this some of the paint had covered over the mortar so I thinned some more 103 right down (when everything else had all dried) and with a very fine brush dabbed the paint over the required areas, the capillary action took the paint into the mortar course and added the contrast I wanted. I didn't bother cleaning off any excess from the bricks as it was so thin it marginally softened the reds.
     
    I highlighted a few bricks with Vallejo 70.818 Luftwaffe Uniform WW2 (I bought this for the blue engineering bricks on the viaducts). The contrast was too much actually so next time i'll try a lighter colour or thin it down a lot more. When it was all dry I brushed on talc to soften it down a bit and then sprayed on some acyrlic varnish.

     
    This evening i've added some Evergreen strip as the batons underneath the roof. Next mini-project will be to add some ageing to the pantiles and also work out how to get some moss on there. Drainpipes and then some overall weathering.
     
    I'm very pleased with the results and have got a great deal of enjoyment from trying out and working out how best to do things. Not every step in the layout will be covered in this detail! Nothing here is new technique wise but it is for me.
  19. londonbus
    I'm still waiting for the cork roll to be delivered so this weekend I thought i'd try my first ever effort at scratch building something. I have been scouring my books and the aerial photos to get views of the various small buildings by the turntable and sidings at the southern end of the station. I thought for my first effort i'd keep it simple. So I chose the small brick structure at the left of this picture.
     
     

     
    I've used photoshop before but never Illustrator, in the past week or so i've been learning the basics so first step was to get the plan on the laptop. I have been intrigued by the Cameo Silhouette cutter although I haven't yet bought one, it's on my wish list. As I understand it you can import files from Illustrator into their software and the hardware is like a printer, except it has a small blade that can cut through plasticard / brick sheet. So i'll persevere and work my plans digitally. I printed it off in 1:76 scale (one brick course = 1mm).
     

     
    Next I cut the outline of the building and stuck it onto 30thou Plasticard. The idea is to build a shell and then stick the brick sheet on. It didn't occur to me when I was elaborately cutting out the spaces for lintels and window sills in the Plasticard that it isn't necessery to do this very accurately, it's the brick sheet that actually needs to be cut accurately. Lesson one learnt.
     

     
    Here are all the components (except the roof and chimney) cut out. There are probably many ways of doing what i'm doing here, and no doubt shortcuts and tips on what i'm doing wrong or the long way round. But i'm having a pleasant day figuring it out.
     

     
    I very roughly cut out the brick sheet outline and trimmed it once it was stuck onto the Plasticard. I thought about how the walls would stick together and left an overlap in the brick sheet on one side of two joining walls so that I can file it down flush once it's all stuck.
     

     
    This is about as far as I got today. I have some trimming to do and when it's all set i'll probably give it a clean up, file the corners flush, put a coat of "mortar" paint on it (Tamiya XF-55, deck tan). I have not seen any colour pictures of this building and I don't think from the light tone on the B&W pictures that it was the dark engineering blue brick, so i'll probably paint it in a lighter brick colour. TBC. After this i'll paint the window sills, lintels seperately before adding to the building etc and work out how i'm going to do the windows.
     
    I also realised that although I have enough supplies to build a medium size city, I don't have any tile sheet.
     

     
    Coat of half acrylic half thinners to give the mortar course.
     

  20. londonbus
    Just a quick update, being Sunday and Germany we're not allowed to make noise. Well drilling, sawing will get the non PG Tips drinking locals in a fluster, they won't do anything much as they're all nice folk. But when in Germany, do as the locals.
     
    This evening I am uploading some of the aerial photos i've stitched together from www.britainfromabove.org.uk. It's in the gallery section.
     
    So on the menu today was printing out the track plan in 1:1 scale (well 1:76). Then sticking 76 pieces of A4 together. My wife thought I had completely lost it, I was in a similar frame of mind.
     
    The goal was to get a template for the viaduct trackbed and also the "ground level" baseboards. I'll trim the edges more tomorrow.
     
    Looking at the plan full size also gave a much better perspective for making some tweaks. I took a picture from the stairs and stitched it together. The only pen I had was a purple highlighter, so not the best for photography. And of course as it's Sunday ALL the local shops are shut. The giant fern is not a part of the original trackplan, I was just too lazy to move it.
     
    One thing I was pleased with is the radius of the curve at the south (right) end of the station. I spent some time over the past few weeks on Anyrail shortening the platforms in order to give me a more appealing curve. I can still fit a 10 coach train + loco in the station and the curve is about the minimum radius I would be happy with in the "scenic" area.

     

  21. londonbus
    The worst job so far is done, marking out and cutting plywood baseboards for the raised section, wood chips & dust everywhere. Now they're all in place, at the right height and level. Today is the first day i've really been able to see just how good a tool Anyrail is as I stuck the trackplan onto the new baseboards and it all fitted perfectly. Below you can start to visualise the south end of the station and the viaducts.
     

     
    The boards are not screwed down, i'll keep them loose until the track is down in at least the turntable area where access will be more difficult.
     
    More supports will go in over the weekend.
     
    I'm still unsure of whether to go with cork or depron. I've used both in the past. Neither has any real noise benefit over the other. I read on this forum to use a silicone based glue rather than the usual wood glue for sticking everything down as it is a better insulator, time will tell.
     

     
    This long term plan is now taking shape. Putting the boards down in the storage section will be easy. Then track laying, electrics etc.
  22. londonbus
    Pleased to report that I found some PG Tips in Edeka. So suitably fortified set about finishing the baseboard base right around the room. Joining up the two ends over the staircase I achieved a level join, it was a bit like the Channel tunnel joining in the middle with millimeter precision, except rather than champagne, I had a nice strong cup of tea.
     

     
    The supports on the right in front of the staircase is ground level, so the viaduct and whole station will be 8.5cm above this. I temporarily mocked up the height of the running lines & station in the middle of the section over the stairs just to triple check that he heights are OK. Seem fine.
     

     
    Next steps will be to print out the track plan full size (no problem with running out of paper, I bought 5 reams of German recycled paper by mistake for work, they have a green hue rather than brilliant white) and start cutting out / fixing the actual baseboard / trackbed on the storage side and then working out where the high level supports will go on the scenic side (on the right). Printing this all out in 1:1 from Anyrail is a bit of a chore, well sticking it all together is.
     
    A few tweaks to the track plan which i'll update in the gallery section. Mainly pushing the station back 5cm so that I have a slightly easier job accessing the room from the stairs.
     

     
    Looking forward to my first tidy up session now that the main base is down.
  23. londonbus
    A little bit of actual progress to show. But mainly I have taken the track plan and accurately measured everything out. The best thing is that now I can mock up the actual height of the running lines and then measured, I gain space for another 2 x storage sidings.
     

     
    The "duck under" for the cupboard is more a diplomatic gesture to the wife as one of the conditions of using this rooms was that I didn't rip out the built in cupboard. I'll use it for storing things I never use, like instructions.
     
    I have looked a lot at the large availability of pics on the net and spent some time doing some calculations on heights of the viaducts etc. I counted bricks (there are 64 brick layers to bridge clearance) As I don't know the height of a brick though I used the VW camper van in one of Nigel Tout's pictures. http://www.gcrleicester.info- it's an excellent resource as has been pointed out numerous time on this forum. By the way, I requested permission to reproduce his image(s) which he most graciously granted.
     
    The vehicle is 1.96m high. So by putting 4 of them on top of each other I calculated that the clearance of the bridge is about 5m, (66mm) The track level is about 6.5m (85mm). I noticed that Slaters bricks are 10 brick courses to 10mm. So their bricks are either a little bit on the small side (64 bricks would give me an actual height of 4.88m, or my abscure method of measuring is wrong, Either way i'm easy. It just goes to show how easy I am at getting distracted. It reminds me a little bit of the old locos and carriages stacked up at Vic Berry's yard.
     

  24. londonbus
    Since last weekend i've been travelling around Germany. Cologne then Magdeburg then back to Frankfurt. Today i've been upstairs adding more to the baseboards. Putting in the joists to be the foundation for the risers and then baseboards.
     

     
    I've finished now as i've run out of some of the wood I need to continue. Nice and sturdy, looks like i've overdone it on the sturdy factor, but it's done now and at least I can run 2.7m with legs at each end on no supports in the middle.
     

     
    It's been quite difficult to judge the actual width of the room at the ideal height for the viaducts. The higher the running lines, the smaller the fiddle yard area because of the eaves. So when I realised I'd reached the end of the wood I mocked up the heights. It all seems to work.
     

  25. londonbus
    Source www.britainfromabove.org.uk
     
    As I get older I am beginning to forget when I started making plans for this layout. I've had a couple of attempts and fate rather than lack of interest has always scuppered progress, mainly house moves. However, now i'm settled in my own property, which is near Frankfurt.
     
    I used to live near Helmdon, so as a boy (in the 1970's) I would often walk the old GC trackbed, I recall it being in quite good condition back then. Much different now. I have a lasting memory of Woodford Halse in the late 1970's and loved the blue engineering brick structures along the route, particularly Helmdon viaduct and the culverts and other bridges . This must have set off some slow burning fuse wire in my head as many years later I suddenly had an idea to recreate the Great Central, well not in it's entirety, although some of my previous plans have suggested this was in fact the goal.
     
    As i've researched through books, internet and pestering people my interest moved to Leicester as I realised it offers huge potential for keeping the operator busy, plus many regions represented with the London expresses, cross country trains from the south to the NW & NE via the link from Banbury to Culworth junction , local services, the Windcutter express frieghts, general freight, parcels and newspapers and light engine traffic, plus some interesting railtours with Butler Henderson, LMS Compound 1000, City of Truro, Flying Scotsman, and i'm sure I saw Mallard in one of my books. Locos would be replaced at Leicester and might work back on a freight or another passenger. I'm a solitary soul, and remote from the action living in Märklin land where all the clubs are AC and there is more emphasis on model people with not many clothes on and buildings on fire.
     
    I know a little about a lot, and not a lot about much but I enjoy it and that keeps me very happy. The last layout was always going to be temporary as it was rented and life plans were a bit in the air, so I decided to lay something relatively simple (for me) and learn the basics of wiring, DCC and the rest. I got trains running by computer and even started to understand some of the Digitrax instructions after 6 months or so.
     
    I'm in the fortunate position that when I set about building my first layout I acquried a lot of the kit i'll be using here. So new purchases are quite limited (saving money for more trains!) But this is what I wanted to achieve.
    DCC control
    Varying degrees of automation, depending on mood and inclination, everything from full manual control to full automation with several steps in between.
    Kit i've purchased is Digitrax, Peco 100 in preference to 75 purely as when I made this decision there weren't so many DMUs on the market and I built up a ridiculous collection of about 15x Lima 117s which I intended to bash and wallop around to look a bit like the Class 115 4-car units. They didn't like the code 75 track. In retrospect I should have gone down the other route, not bought so many and waited. Other choices back then i've been happy with are Cobalt point motors, CML, Train Controller Gold from Freiwald and the best investment i've made, Anyrail which is millimeter accurate and invaluable.
    Late 1950's to 1960's, the GCR didn't close. My interests have expanded quicker than the manufacturers ability to bring out new product, so in moments of need I have creeped right up to Network Southeast territory. Having lived in Russia, Germany and travelled a lot I have developed a rather off tangent interest in Dutch, German and Russian stock. So we'll assume the channel tunnel aspirations of the GCR came to fruition. Unlike the direct Frankfurt to London ICE service.

    The track plan changes frequently, I did recently post in a different section and had my madcap plans of lines all over the place, helix gradient mayhem brought back down to sober reality, for me the most useful aspect of posting. I also played with the idea of incorporating Leicester West Bridge Terminus and lots of coal sidings. However I knocked this on the head preferring to use the space with a larger fiddle yard and also more space for me.
     
    I bought wood yesterday, a costly affair in Germany, however it's all good quality stuff. 8mm Gabun ply, whatever that is, and it's all quite straight. I was recommended "How to Build Model Railroad Benchwork" by Linn Westcott, and use the method he describes with Girders, joists and risers. As Leicester Central is elevated on viaducts and bridges this will enable me to have the trackbed raised with the ground level, being, well on the ground, the River Soar will be river level. I think that makes sense. Anyway the frame has proved pretty tricky to build with only one pair of hands. But it's now sturdy and stable and i'll continue tomorrow.
     

    Anyway, that's enough for now. If I make significant changes to the plan i'll delete the old one and repost the new one in this initial post (providing I can edit).
     
    Today's update on the trackplan was incorporating the casette storage system I was reading about in BRM on Peterborough!
     
    Looking forward to getting this thing done.
     
    Trackplan updated 2/08
     

     
     
     
     
    Teatime, and maybe a Pils.
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