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Alexandra Wharf V2 - OO in a Really Useful Box


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Eyyy I'm finally back at it! Cheers @SteveyDee68 - settling in has been pretty busy, but I'm in now. And @Ian Holmes I'd be honoured to share it, but I should probably finish building it first!

 

Today's dismal weather and the lack of anything else pressing to do indoors was the final spark causing a day of railway-ing. I spent the morning cleaning the track, dusting everything down, and getting the uncoupler mechanisms back to working order. I quickly realised I finally need a new track rubber - the one I've got sheds little fluffy sharp bits everywhere which make the running worse until you carefully wipe them all away. Has anyone got any recommendations, especially since I've given myself the extra headache of a load of inset track?

 

The other aim for today was to get the lighting rig set up properly. I attached a couple of meccano plates to the ends of the baseboard; the L-section uprights can then be bolted on to these so they're still removable. These support the diffuse plastic C-channel, which in turn carries the LED strips. Currently I'm still using the IKEA Ledberg strips, but this might change since I've decided to use these elsewhere around my room.

1530659207_18.LightingRigSetUp(1).jpg.a5ad233bfcd94f6cff12b2bf75d79f44.jpg

It seems to work quite well! In bright light the current LEDs are a little less effective, but they do the job, especially when it's darker around them.

 

I think it's inevitable that once I'd set everything up I was going to start playing, and taking photos... so enjoy the show!

 

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D2280 draws a van out of the grain store's siding

 

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The Coles Crane sorts tends a stockpile of old sleepers

 

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A quiet period on the grain silo's loading dock

 

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Watching the shunting through the gates

 

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705 draws a short train onto the wharf

 

1194975675_18.LightingRigSetUp(6).jpg.2f9ce7dd9ef3688058a8f0632ae4698a.jpg

705 glimpsed between van wagons

 

And then I remembered about the "photo editor" in Google Photos... gratuitious black-and-white shots incoming!

 

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705 and it's short train again

 

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705 positions a wagon in front of the warehouse

 

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A view down from the loading tower

 

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Dammit the forklift's jammed again!

 

What's next? I should *really* get around to building that warehouse - I printed some Scalescenes brown brick before I came, so I just need to build the structure to fix it too! Once I've completed that I'll use any left-overs to do the dock; I'm aware Scalescenes has just released the steel barge as a separate kit, and it looks very tempting - it's just a smidge too big to fit, maybe I'll have to try that extension idea @SteveyDee68 mentioned before...

Finally, I've now received my custom "1140" plates from Narrow Planet, to transform 705 into the Swansea Docks engine. Has anyone got any tips for how to remove the factory-printed plates, and affix my shiny new ones?

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Cheers @col.stephens, I'll have to try that!

 

This morning I attacked the Barclay a little. I scraped/sanded off the printed "705" plates, and very carefully superglued on new etched "1140" plates for Light Railway Stores. I then got the paint out to cover up the mess I'd made, and "weathered" a few other areas whilst I was at it.

Finally, inspired by the photo near the bottom of the Swansea Dock's website's page on the low-level railway (http://www.swanseadocks.co.uk/docksnewsite/railwayslowlevel.html), I added a pair of "17" dock reporting headboards. The boards are hole-punch from some white card, with "17" hand-drawn with a gel pen (this took about a dozen attempts until I was happy with it!). The front one is fixed to a small unbent staple, which sits in a small hole drilled in the running plate so it's still removeable; the rear one simply sits between the lamphook and the cab wall.

And then it was posing time...

 

PXL_20211004_151730848.jpg.3856b6ec91b7cc8a8a5daf56c862173d.jpg

 

PXL_20211004_153144767.jpg.40ecded45d399f3db1ac1c9c1b3417eb.jpg

 

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That last photo's not really of the loco, but I like it so I included it anyway. The Barclay's still not finished yet - I've just ordered some proper crew figures and an "industiral loco detailing pack" from Modelu, so keep an eye out for those! In the meantime, my first lecture back is tomorrow, I guess I should probably put the layout back on the windowsill since I'll be wanting my desk space...

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  • 4 weeks later...

It's nearly a month since I last posted, although not much railway modelling has been happening. Ok, that's not quite true, I've joined the local society of model engineers and now get to play with 5" and 7.25" gauge trains, but that's not what this topic is about.

 

However now the clocks have gone back and it gets dark, I'm likely to be more in the mood to play trains. I've given the layout a few runs - although running quality is still pretty low, I haven't invested in a new track cleaner yet. Doesn't stop me taking a few pictures though!

PXL_20211030_215549194.jpg.cf3d4de9508d103957794c3686117cde.jpg

D2280 positions a wagon on the warehouse siding. No, I still haven't touched the warehouse itself yet... I'm steadily running out of excuses though, maybe it will happen before the year is out!

 

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D2280 in the cramped-looking yard, as seen from the loading tower

 

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The Coles crane unloading sacks from an open wagon. I do like playing with black-and-white photos - it disguises the models' overly-bright colours and errors, although does highlight some others!

 

I still have a list (actually written down, too) longer than my arm of things to do with this layout - most notably finishing the buildings and quayside, but all manner of other detailing things too, maybe they'll get done one day...

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  • 4 weeks later...

Yet another month has passed, and blimey what a busy one that was... I barely had time to breathe, let alone get the railway running! This afternoon however I found myself at a relatively loose end, so I took a break and got around to one of the more exciting jobs on the layout...

No, not the right-hand warehouse, do you really think I'd start that yet?

About a week ago, browisng my local cheapo-hardware shop I came across a "christmas decoration" consisting of 10 3mm yellow LEDs on a battery pack. I reckon it'd be pretty feeble as a christmas decoration, but for model railway lighting there couldn't be anything better to represent the monochromatic yellow of low-pressure sodium lights. A little digging reveals that sodium lights weren't readily available until 1965, so probably a few years to late for the era of this layout especially given how widely I've used them - but it looks so damn good I don't think anyone will notice!

603010814_21.NightLighting(1).jpg.c1fe138d2b785e5e23c213c5d1f58c8b.jpg

 

Adding the LEDs to the layout was fairly simple, just a case of poking them through holes cut/drilled in the buildings are appropriate locations. Things were a little restricted by the cable lenths and the fact the LEDs had to be pushed through the walls head-first rather than tail-first, difficult to do without creating a mess. But once they were through I carefully bent them 90 degrees to point downwards. Finally, or rather before they were threaded through, I attacked the clear plastic LEDs with sandpaper to diffuse the light a little more; it was quite directional otherwise.

1155224948_21.NightLighting(7).jpg.7115dfbc1e2ed959efefe01b646d511a.jpg

 

I started on the grain silo at the left-hand end, placing two on the outside of the loading shed and 3 along the platform - the spacing is simply the maximum permitted by the wiring.

2144924971_21.NightLighting(6).jpg.a6cec63bec738946bcd87bac0057bc2d.jpg

 

863001055_21.NightLighting(5).jpg.3b3377d90b5f5afc13042860f5d4b226.jpg

 

It's a bit tricky to get good photos of, but there's then one above the access door of the right-hand "tower" (yes, I'm aware it's lost a window, no idea how that happened), and then crosses the loading conveyor where again the spacing on the wiring forced me to put one hanging out over the tracks midway along. Not the most realistic or useful location, but it still looks good.

1872409339_21.NightLighting(3).jpg.eafe7aebbf0399bcd558981a456b5c54.jpg

 

The penultimate LED hangs out of the conveyor behind the loading tower, illuminating the gateway quite atmospherically.

563882088_21.NightLighting(4).jpg.a5985ebbb41790107a8d0df2c62fce03.jpg

 

1584761457_21.NightLighting(2).jpg.7dc52fc01a013802f9f7c3b3e33e6fcf.jpg

 

Finally the wires duck back through the tower and into the office, to provide a light on the front.

1816082072_21.NightLighting(9).jpg.1b00e58c7a5121e19fb62f911aa1dda1.jpg

 

That one LED at the front helps to cast shadows backwards as well as forwards; most of the lights are behind the trains, but having these reflective shots was a key goal here!

Clearly none of the LEDs are attached to the warehouse building or siding; that's because a) it still doesn't exist yet, and b) the gate across the track implies the warehouse is owned separetely to the grain silo and main yard area, so it would make sense if it has different illumination to the rest of it.

That's it for today; a reasonably quick start-to-finish mini-project, but one that adds a whole extra dimension to a small layout, with relatively little effort and the princely sum of £1.25!

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Nicely done - adds a lot of atmosphere to your low light photos.

 

I'd love to pick up some LEDs like you've done @TechnicArrow but I only ever seem to find either bright white or multicoloured LED strings!

 

APOLOGIES

Stupid editor crashed YET AGAIN!

 

 

 

Edited by SteveyDee68
Stupid editor crashing whilst typing
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On 29/11/2021 at 00:01, SteveyDee68 said:

I'd love to pick up some LEDs like you've done @TechnicArrow but I only ever seem to find either bright white or multicoloured LED strings!

 

I was mildly surprised when I found them too - there was a demo set on the shelf, so I just turned them on out of interest and as soon as I discovered they were yellow, I bought them! It's also relatively rare to find 3mm domed LEDs, they're usually the 5mm dimpled type.

Just in case anyone was particularly interested in finding them, this is the basic packaging they came with - but it's probably easier to find the LEDs, wiring and a battery pack individually - and then you're not restricted to the spacing on the wiring either!

976098516_21.NightLighting(11).jpg.6e6260807280108c9e50d47ffabded75.jpg

 

Meanwhile, and I'm still surprised I'm saying this, work has *finally* started on the right-hand warehouse! Only 4 months I've been saying I'll do this...

170824519_22.WarehouseBeginnings(1).jpg.423c9993f6e3749d456022a84568a0e3.jpg

 

I decided to start with the rear low-relief section, since it's less visible and thus I can make mistakes with it and learn for the more prominent full-relief one in the front. This section is also the lower two floors, i.e. the bit that will be fixed to the baseboard; I'll attempt the removable upper floors later, along with the challenge of blending the two together.

As you can see the structure is yet more ceral card (I've acrued a rather large pile again!), doubled up to get more thickness out of the piers. Brick paper was then applied, but as sparingly as possible - if it's not visible, it's not brick! But when it's assembled, you'd never know...

 

25255877_22.WarehouseBeginnings(2).jpg.57686005f61fc8d09f2be0a79dbbc330.jpg

 

It does look fairly plain, but then again it's barely going to be seen.

 

1169029948_22.WarehouseBeginnings(3).jpg.d7c78067876cdd5b1d3314adf7fce8a2.jpg

 

It does it's job, and that's all it needs to!

I've learnt two lessons so far: one, I'm still not very accurate with my cutting, so lining up the upper secion is going to be a right pain! For the front builting I will more likely build it in one go then split it afterwards. Secondly I get the feeling the brick paper is paler and less saturated than the rest of the layout, but we'll see how it looks when it's all built. It's good to be making progress again though!

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PXL_20211203_145213377.jpg.e628d2916895fa2c040fa1d7bfa2409f.jpg

"Y'know Fred, I can't shake the feeling something's missing from this new engine o' yours..."

 

"Let's compare it with the Barclay over there..."

PXL_20211203_145257088.jpg.b13d61f89883df1caf14dfe462331f05.jpg

 

"It's definitely sitting lower to the ground, got a bit of a forwards tilt to it too... odd"

 

What's gone on 'ere then? Clearly, I've bought a new Bachmann 8750 Pannier tank - or rather, the bodyshell for it. For an explanation as to why, look no further than my post from 3 months ago...

 

On 11/09/2021 at 13:16, TechnicArrow said:

PXL_20210720_164940305.jpg.e6d38283d6fb6d8cb55b990e851f2545.jpg

 

With it's longer wheelbase and extra axle, not to mention being the smoothest of my locos, the pannier has no trouble on the layout - it's just the livery is for the wrong era for this layout. Maybe I could buy a different bodyshell for it.

 

I've been having a glance at the Bay of Es to see if a new body would ever come up... and last week I hit gold! A new shell in BR livery, in good condition, for a reasonable "buy now" price and free P&P! The only thing is I'd have preferred a plain black example for a freight shunting layout rather than the lined "mixed traffic" version, but it still looks neat and I wasn't about to pass this one up. I'll be going back home for christmas when term ends in two weeks, so provided I remember to take it with me I'll swap it for the GWR shell and we should finally have a more reliable runner for Alexandra Wharf... maybe I'll even gat around to the long-promised video in the new year?

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2 hours ago, Ruston 48DS said:

This little boxfile layout is looking very good.

 

Thanks! But it's not a boxfile... :P It fits a Really Useful Box, so about 2.5 boxfiles really. Still, I'm glad you enjoy it!

 

@luke the train spotter and @Andrew D I hear you about videos! It's definitely going to be the New Year unfortunately, I haven't the time to get the layout into good running order, and film, and edit a video before I go home for Christmas. Remind me in January!

 

And as for layouts in student houses - first off I'll suggest is that you build a solid layout, or in something like the RUB that provides protection during transport. Whilst my shoebox layouts worked, they were far from stable for transport! Secondly, something about this size (70-80cm long by 30cm deep) will usually fit on most chests of drawers or windowsills, which means you can take it nearly anywhere without worrying if there's somewhere for it to go. That said AWv2 is currently living on my desk, because it's a big ol' desk, and a windowsill layout in winter doesn't get played with much.

 

Last night's mini-project was to add something to the tall empty hole of the loading tower. I stared by scouring @SteveyDee68's reference pictures for details, since the structure was inspired by the one at Ipswich. The loading mechanism seems to consist of a tall tube of circular or square profile, with various link arms to extend it forwards of the tower and down into the hull of a ship. So that's what I aimed to build!

1389308899_23.LoadingTowerDetails(4).jpg.1cb96e8cbfbaf195afe826ffa9ea6d08.jpg

 

It's kind of difficult to get photos of, since I painted it black and it's only half protruding, but it's there!

996467216_23.LoadingTowerDetails(3).jpg.a67cc0b65cbba049c4a2b89229547c9e.jpg

 

(I know the layout's a bit crowded, three locos is definitely too many, but I don't have anywhere else to put them on display :pardon:)

Here's a challenge: can you guess what it's made from? If you look carefully you can see a hexagonal profile... because it's the casing from a pen! Along with some bits of plastic strut I've had kicking around for ages, the inner pen tube for a completely-invisible tube leading into the tower itself, and a little card "hat" to top it off.

1585615293_23.LoadingTowerDetails(1).jpg.7ca237f1deecb8ba606cb0267cf583d6.jpg

 

It's built so as to be fixed to the upper, removable half of the structure; it'd be too tall otherwise. It's not exactly the most detailed or accurate modelling in the world, but given the little reference material I don't think anyone will notice!

 

Anyway, that's enough procrastination for now, back to my Uni reports - there's deadlines looming...

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Well, my thread may have provided some prototype inspiration but you have taken that and made it into a perfectly acceptable piece of reality with yet more excellent “recycled materials” modelling. Guess who will be stealing emulating you when it comes to creating my own version! :D

 

Steve S

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  • 2 weeks later...

As per usual, not a lot's been happening, turns out this Uni lark can get quite demanding on your time... there's only 8 more months of it though, then I have to enter the real world instead...

 

Despite ordering and receiving them over 2 months ago, I seem to have failed to mention I bought some figures and a "loco detailing set" from modelu; although that could be because I've only just got around to painting them and adding them. I've never painted figures before so it was a bit of guesswork, but seems to have come out quite well; I used my usual set of acrylics, blending them and trying to keep them fairly dull but not too consistent. Although when two of them are on the footplate you can hardly see them anyway!

 

The loco's running boards also now feature a rusty bucket of spanners, a plastic can, a spare headlamp and a small coal-shovel from the modelu "loco detailing" set, in addition to the custom-etched plates and dock headcode boards intended to represent the loco employed as one of the Swansea Docks shunters; everything was fixed in place using the smallest amount of superglue possible, with touching-ups of black acrylic here and there to hide the glue marks and weather it a little bit.

Photos incoming!

1798574697_Detailed1140Barclay(6).jpg.e605c2d861c680c2bab50e3734b394a9.jpg

 

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And because I can't resist it, here's a couple of black-and-white ones...

1477296804_Detailed1140Barclay(2).jpg.4900daf8c1bf431f3d45b964746426b3.jpg

 

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It's not the most incredibly detailed loco in the world, but it's certainly a step up for me. Now all I need to do is get the loco actually running as well as she looks - there's a reason that no video exists of it yet, and that's that it can't make it 1cm without stalling on this layout! Although that might also be a fault of the track...

Still, there'll be nothing from me for a while now since I'm going home for the christmas holidays; however, this little Barclay is going with me for some serious running-in on the main layout to hopefully get her up to scratch; and when I come back I'll be bringing the chassis for the 8750 pannier tank too.

So Merry Christmas to all, and here's to a video in the new year!

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Maybe a rolling road could be on your Xmas list this year, so you can run in your locos on … what … six inches of track or so? Take no room to store, but let you leave your loco running for as long as you want whilst you get on with other things (maybe even non-modelling things!)

 

Happy Xmas in advance!

 

Steve S

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7 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

Maybe a rolling road could be on your Xmas list this year, so you can run in your locos on … what … six inches of track or so? Take no room to store, but let you leave your loco running for as long as you want whilst you get on with other things (maybe even non-modelling things!)

 

Happy Xmas in advance!

 

Steve S

I'd love a rolling road but they sure do seem to be expensive in my opinion. 

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1 hour ago, Multigauge said:

I'd love a rolling road but they sure do seem to be expensive in my opinion. 


I got myself a set of four rollers in cradles - they simply slot onto a piece of track and you arrange them as necessary to fit your loco wheelbase. I nearly got six, but at the time thought “can’t justify the cost” as four are adequate for most situations, but have to say that they are an investment in getting better running for your locos. 
 

If you are talking about the fancy pants versions with sliding rails etc - well, I agree that (in my opinion) those are a bit expensive, but if you have the funds readily available then I would not begrudge anyone purchasing them. As it is, mine cost about £45 about four years ago and I think are good value for money.

 

I feel a strange sense of deja vu, as I’m sure I’ve had this exact same conversation before on RMWeb!! 
 

Steve S

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A rolling road would have been an excellent idea about a month ago, a bit late now though :rolleyes: There's always my birthday in summer...


For now I've had 1140 running up and down the main layout - as soon as she could properly stretch her legs she improved no end. With barely any additional running-in I could easily use her to shunt the yard at fantastically slow speeds - and that's built with some quite old points with large gaps.

959790628_1140Crawlsoverthecrossing.gif.6c3c1b7d824790dff62c8ebd79a3233c.gif

 

The GIF above is running at the speed it was filmed at, no trickery here! I'm still going to set the loop up at some point and give her a proper service, as well as the rest of my fleet, but if she runs this well here maybe the problem is Alexandra Wharf's track after all...

 

Still, my other "solution" to getting good running out of that layout was the 8750 Pannier - it seems the new bodyshell is the correct type, and fits my existing chassis perfectly (as one would hope!)

PXL_20211223_123657384.jpg.d9e481f77dc25ae5e07e3becc92b3f1a.jpg

 

My collection of BR-era locos is growing... and this one, being an 0-6-0, should be better at coping with whatever is causing faults on Alexandra Wharf, so that's something to look forward to trying when I get back to it in the new year.

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On 28/11/2021 at 18:05, TechnicArrow said:

Yet another month has passed, and blimey what a busy one that was... I barely had time to breathe, let alone get the railway running! This afternoon however I found myself at a relatively loose end, so I took a break and got around to one of the more exciting jobs on the layout...

No, not the right-hand warehouse, do you really think I'd start that yet?

About a week ago, browisng my local cheapo-hardware shop I came across a "christmas decoration" consisting of 10 3mm yellow LEDs on a battery pack. I reckon it'd be pretty feeble as a christmas decoration, but for model railway lighting there couldn't be anything better to represent the monochromatic yellow of low-pressure sodium lights. A little digging reveals that sodium lights weren't readily available until 1965, so probably a few years to late for the era of this layout especially given how widely I've used them - but it looks so damn good I don't think anyone will notice!

603010814_21.NightLighting(1).jpg.c1fe138d2b785e5e23c213c5d1f58c8b.jpg

 

Adding the LEDs to the layout was fairly simple, just a case of poking them through holes cut/drilled in the buildings are appropriate locations. Things were a little restricted by the cable lenths and the fact the LEDs had to be pushed through the walls head-first rather than tail-first, difficult to do without creating a mess. But once they were through I carefully bent them 90 degrees to point downwards. Finally, or rather before they were threaded through, I attacked the clear plastic LEDs with sandpaper to diffuse the light a little more; it was quite directional otherwise.

1155224948_21.NightLighting(7).jpg.7115dfbc1e2ed959efefe01b646d511a.jpg

 

I started on the grain silo at the left-hand end, placing two on the outside of the loading shed and 3 along the platform - the spacing is simply the maximum permitted by the wiring.

2144924971_21.NightLighting(6).jpg.a6cec63bec738946bcd87bac0057bc2d.jpg

 

863001055_21.NightLighting(5).jpg.3b3377d90b5f5afc13042860f5d4b226.jpg

 

It's a bit tricky to get good photos of, but there's then one above the access door of the right-hand "tower" (yes, I'm aware it's lost a window, no idea how that happened), and then crosses the loading conveyor where again the spacing on the wiring forced me to put one hanging out over the tracks midway along. Not the most realistic or useful location, but it still looks good.

1872409339_21.NightLighting(3).jpg.eafe7aebbf0399bcd558981a456b5c54.jpg

 

The penultimate LED hangs out of the conveyor behind the loading tower, illuminating the gateway quite atmospherically.

563882088_21.NightLighting(4).jpg.a5985ebbb41790107a8d0df2c62fce03.jpg

 

1584761457_21.NightLighting(2).jpg.7dc52fc01a013802f9f7c3b3e33e6fcf.jpg

 

Finally the wires duck back through the tower and into the office, to provide a light on the front.

1816082072_21.NightLighting(9).jpg.1b00e58c7a5121e19fb62f911aa1dda1.jpg

 

That one LED at the front helps to cast shadows backwards as well as forwards; most of the lights are behind the trains, but having these reflective shots was a key goal here!

Clearly none of the LEDs are attached to the warehouse building or siding; that's because a) it still doesn't exist yet, and b) the gate across the track implies the warehouse is owned separetely to the grain silo and main yard area, so it would make sense if it has different illumination to the rest of it.

That's it for today; a reasonably quick start-to-finish mini-project, but one that adds a whole extra dimension to a small layout, with relatively little effort and the princely sum of £1.25!

I've been meaning to say I think these lights have transformed this layout, the dusk effect with the lights on is really great!

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 27/12/2021 at 16:51, Karl said:

I've been meaning to say I think these lights have transformed this layout, the dusk effect with the lights on is really great!

 

Cheers! I always find lighting always adds another dimension to a layout - and being pre-wired, I really enjoyed fitting these!

 

Now, what brings me to resurrect my old topic? No, not a video, not just yet... the 8750 has made it back with me, but the track still needs a good cleaning before I'm confident to point a camera at it. Oh, and as usual for this time of year, exams are a thing again...

 

But. I've recently had a read through @hayfield's excellent thread, and thought I'd have a look at the kits since they're being used to such good effect. The size of the generic "Warehouse" one caught my eye, so I had a look at the dimensions, and found in width and depth it's a *perfect* fit for my front-right warehouse, it's only a bit shorter than I was planning... so I had to create a quick cardboard mock-up, didn't I!

 

1883347009_23.Warehousealternative(1).jpg.28df6169f6eb5e6a5496a4ce08c1dd71.jpg

 

1632088366_23.Warehousealternative(3).jpg.69fb254195628215e1dbf897b0118c1b.jpg

 

The main difference is that it's shorter than what I was planning to build - by one storey, or about 50mm. It's also a more generic, square-windowed structure, than the Swansea-inspired buildings I was planning, which might somewhat diminish the character of the layout.

On the other hand, more variance in height creates more visual interest, and the big bonus of this is that being made of wood it'll be far more sturdy than anything I could scratchbuild with cereal box card - in fact it might be sturdier than the layout baseboard itself...

 

385363386_23.Warehousealternative(2).jpg.6e1d98f4516a442fddd8bf4ba7a80138.jpg

 

I was on the fence earlier, but as I wrote this out, and looked at the pictures, the more I decided this is a good idea - so I've ordered a kit! It should be a reasonably quick build and enable me to finally get this end of the layout finished, since I've already got the brick paper on hand. That said I might try to find some better stuff, since the scalescenes one I printed a while ago came out quite unsaturated - any good dark brown brick out there?

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I've used a couple of these with Metcalfe card and I think they look rather good, but I'm tempted to use an embossed plasticard if I do another.

I've also built a low relief rear terrace but use scalescenes papers.

The kits get a big thumbs up from me. 

IMG_20211019_231821713.jpg

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11 hours ago, TechnicArrow said:

 

Cheers! I always find lighting always adds another dimension to a layout - and being pre-wired, I really enjoyed fitting these!

 

Now, what brings me to resurrect my old topic? No, not a video, not just yet... the 8750 has made it back with me, but the track still needs a good cleaning before I'm confident to point a camera at it. Oh, and as usual for this time of year, exams are a thing again...

 

But. I've recently had a read through @hayfield's excellent thread, and thought I'd have a look at the kits since they're being used to such good effect. The size of the generic "Warehouse" one caught my eye, so I had a look at the dimensions, and found in width and depth it's a *perfect* fit for my front-right warehouse, it's only a bit shorter than I was planning... so I had to create a quick cardboard mock-up, didn't I!

 

1883347009_23.Warehousealternative(1).jpg.28df6169f6eb5e6a5496a4ce08c1dd71.jpg

 

1632088366_23.Warehousealternative(3).jpg.69fb254195628215e1dbf897b0118c1b.jpg

 

The main difference is that it's shorter than what I was planning to build - by one storey, or about 50mm. It's also a more generic, square-windowed structure, than the Swansea-inspired buildings I was planning, which might somewhat diminish the character of the layout.

On the other hand, more variance in height creates more visual interest, and the big bonus of this is that being made of wood it'll be far more sturdy than anything I could scratchbuild with cereal box card - in fact it might be sturdier than the layout baseboard itself...

 

385363386_23.Warehousealternative(2).jpg.6e1d98f4516a442fddd8bf4ba7a80138.jpg

 

I was on the fence earlier, but as I wrote this out, and looked at the pictures, the more I decided this is a good idea - so I've ordered a kit! It should be a reasonably quick build and enable me to finally get this end of the layout finished, since I've already got the brick paper on hand. That said I might try to find some better stuff, since the scalescenes one I printed a while ago came out quite unsaturated - any good dark brown brick out there?

 

 

Thanks for the compliment, these scratch builders aid kits are excellent, I have 4 to date with one more coming in the post and I may well be ordering at least 4 more, three of which will be  to convert 2 warehouses and a shop from low relief to full 3D

 

Whilst they are not complete kits, they do come with quite a lot of detail, including superb window and door laser cut sheets.

 

Now I must read this thread as its one I have missed and looks to be one where I can pickup lots of ideas from

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