Tony Simms

Looking good! Even by the light of the silvery moon!!

Are you bringing the layout to the Expo in June?

I've not been asked...

Thanks for the feedback folks; always most welcome.

I'm really pleased with the way this has panned out and I'm looking forward to painting and weathering the surface. That will need to wait until the cattle dock and main platform is in place though. To the right of the photos is currently a bit of a war-zone with much to be done (and undone in places!)

Missy; the photos probably "benefit" from a certain "je ne sais quoi" having been taken on a ultra high speed, in a dark garage, with no tripod. I think it's called "fuzzy"!

...but I'm back on the dry stuff for my second attempt...

What, off the beer?

Seriously, give the filler a try. I'd expect it should be fairly easy to get hold of even in such far flung places as Spain. I'll try and carve the flangeways today and post back on the same.

Cheers!

That seems fairly tame compared to others...

Yeah! Thankfully, I'm not ripping up track like Pete and Missy.

Very nice!!

Did you drill the coupling rods at the same time or are there etches?

Have you considered Scalescenes brick papers? If you can get access to a colour laser printer then you can use whatever quality paper you like?

David

David

I have several Scalescenes downloads, but find that brickwork never comes out sufficiently defined. Their roadway and concrete are quite nice.

It's really just a case of careful handling until the white edges can be coloured and then sprayed with a matt varnish.

Looks really good Tony. I share your partiality for card but cannot say the same for Pritt stick. I had problems with lumps. One good thing about card, if you need extra strength you can give it a coat of shellac (knotting).

Don

Don

The Pritt needs to be fairly hard; try popping it in the fridge before use especially if you've had it a while. It's big advantage is that it doesn't "wet" the paper.

Nice!

I honestly think you might have to let that 78mm out a bit though...

Out of interest, how big are those sheets of rubber tiles?

Bryn

About 5" deep by 12" wide; should cover most jobs in 2mm!

I reckon I should only need one sheet for all of my station buildings which spreads the cost to a reasonable level.

Looks very nice!

The trains should run a treat on that.

I'm interested in those tiles - I saw them on the Gaugemaster stand at Donny and then recoiled when I saw the price. I will watch and see how well you get on with them. I note that they do sheets of pantiles as well - useful for other areas of the country.

Andy, the pantiles are beautifully done, moreso than the slates. I'm sure you saw the brick and stone versions too; these seemed quite poorly executed to me. The rubber medium makes them very easy to work and being self-adhesive is also nice; I hope that the glue is fairly permanent!

It looks like you have cracked it this time Tony. It does look good so far especially the recesses for the windows. Everything looks nice and square which for a building like this is so important.

 

P.S. There is nothing wrong with ballasting, I have had plenty of practice and still havent got bored yet!

Thanks for the kind comment Julia. It does feel like I'm starting to get somewhere.

PS If you want to come round and finish my ballasting off, please feel free!

Done? Well done, very well done, I'd say!

You've done a very neat job on this Tony. Just one thing, did the Lentz gear fitted D49s have non-standard smokebox doors? Only the standard ones had the hinge on the other side didn't they?

 

Simon

Simon

You are right. Unfortunately, I only realised after the paint had been applied. The smokebox door is glued on. Do I try and remove it and risk the paintwork, or do I leave it in the knowledge that it will only be spotted in photos and then only by eagle eyed buffs?

Like Bryn said, this really does deserve a real good look; but one question - should there be balance/counter weights on the driving wheels?

Steve

Yes. There are quite a few "bits" still in a tiny needle case awaiting final addition. The balance weights and the tender/loco fall plate are among them.

Very nice, Bryn. It's good to crack a particular issue isn't it?

Thanks for the comments guys. The previous ballasting I did was on my son's N gauge layout and that was 'spread & spray'. The clean up afterwards was mind-numbingly tedious!

Interesting idea Tony, looks rather time consuming but worth investigating further.

Kris, I don't think there is any way to ballast that is not time consuming (alright, foam underlay, I'll grant you)! This way just makes the cleaning up easier and avoids the damage to point mechanisms and track appearance that spraying with dilute PVA tends to do.

I think you forgot to put a picture of your painted D49 up?

Patience my dear boy, patience!

Good to see you back at it Andy.

Today, I weathered my Cl24, having repaired the chip wiring on my Cl04 earlier in the week.

This is the first modelling I have done since the AGM. Must get my layout out now and move that along!

My only observation on the dries building is that the overhang from one layer to the one below does look quite significant in the photos – 10 thou is the equivalent of 3”… …perhaps a strip of 80 or 160 gsm paper may be thinner?

Isn't 10 thou equal to 1.5 inches?

2mm (scale) approximates to 80 thou (scale) which equal 12 inches (prototype).

I thought the overlap looked about right. Nice work, Pete!

Maybe your right Kris...couldn't you just replace the loop then?...which is no big deal I guess...

Guys

Unless the magnet can be physically moved away from the the track, then every truck that is pushed over the magnet will uncouple. This may or may not be a serious issue for the way you operate your layout. If you run block trains and only push over the magnet when you do want to uncouple, then that's okay.

In a fan of sidings with various switchbacks (eg Brafferton) permanent magnets would cause all sorts of trouble whilst I'm shuffling that little 04 around. There will be five or six electromagnets (made from free second hand SEEP pointmotors) dotted around the yard to provide convenient uncoupling when I do want it.

Cheers

Tony

Very nice, Julia. The chassis rebuild looks most interesting!

What cross board joint? Looks pretty good to me...

Pete

The end result may be okay, but it was very fiddly getting the tracks, integral to the drops, to align with those on the adjacent board especially in the vertical axis.

What I should have done, was to lay the approach track right across the baseboard join, incorporating soldered sections at either side of the join, before splitting it with a piercing saw. The tracks on the drops would then have only extended a few mm to align with track already affixed to the baseboard.

End result is okay, I could have made the job easier for myself!

It's looking super, nicely 'worn' but well kept - perhaps a man with a broom off to one end? Seriously, how about adding some small spillages, I'm sure not everything went down the pit and some may have been left on the surfaces?

 

On a slightly different tack, how are you handling uncoupling for the wagons that are pushed up onto the stage?

Steve

Thanks for the comments. Yes, some coal spillage will be required on the walkways. When the drops are bedded into the baseboard, I will also be extending the weathering and coal bits out into the yard. Don't be surprised to see the odd sapling sprouting out of one of the farther cells either.

Uncoupling will take place on the approach ramp via electromagnet. I use B&B couplings (similar to DG) and these allow for delayed uncoupling; a wagon or group of wagons can be uncoupled at point A, but pushed to point B without recoupling to the loco or main train due to a delay latch.

Interestingly, the coal drops were used to access the two yard sidings and to this end there was a sign declaring "Engines are allowed onto the depots". Presumably an A4 or 9F wouldn't be a good idea, but a J39 or N8 might get away with it.

Thanks for the comment, Don; although my youth was fairly well mis-spent, I only came to Jazz in my thirties. The tags on my posts designate current listening; I like to do my modelling with music on.

More on potatoes in due course!

Tony,

 

On bridges that have longitudinal timbers under the rails and curved track, the chairs 'wander' across the timbers anyway, so your solution is prototypical. There are special 'bridge' chairs which are narrower.

 

Andy

 

Funnily enough, I did flick through my "Bridges For Modellers" by LV Woods; an invaluable little tome for making model bridges etc. believable. And indeed I have filed some of the chairs to avoid excessive protrusions! Thanks for the confirmation Andy.