Chivers Finelines Posted January 3, 2010 Share Posted January 3, 2010 Ever since the challenge was announced I had pretty much decided that I would enter, but what with?!? I had the last challenge layout led around, but it wasn't what I wanted, far to small. The missus had said I could build a layout on the dining room wall, which is 10 feet long, but that was to short for another layout I had laying around. So it is recycle time!! I managed to remove the track, points and electrics from the latter of the layouts, Which contained hand built points! Now came the thought on what track plan to use, and this is where I always went wrong, I always adapted some elses track plan into the space I had thinking it was what I wanted cause I liked the layout. And that was it, it was the layout I liked, and I wanted to copy it, which is why I think I've never completed a layout!! This time I thought I'd do things differently. I have spent many hours going through pictures looking for ideas for a layout and I have finally come up with something! The layout it's self will be 4mm scale with 00 gauge track, Branch line terminus based in the 1980's down on the Southern area. There is inspiration from lots of areas of the country, from Salisbury and Pwhelli, these being the most noticeable. I will sketch a track plan down and post it up. As the Timber place I get my wood from has been shut over the Christmas and New Year I haven't been able to build the new baseboards, which will be 7' of scenic area and 3' for a fiddle yard by 14". The Scenic board will be split into a 3' and a 4' board and will be build completly out of 3/8" ply. More on this in the next couple of weeks when I get all the wood. While I have been waiting I have been building myself one of the Ratio timber signal boxes for the layout, here's a pic for tasters... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted January 4, 2010 Author Share Posted January 4, 2010 Well here is my plan, it's rather basic drawing, but you get the idea... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
18B Posted January 5, 2010 Share Posted January 5, 2010 Hi that signal box looks like it's crying out for an interior kit, Looking good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted January 5, 2010 Author Share Posted January 5, 2010 Cheers for the reply. Well the signal box can cry all it likes!! where it is sat you can't see the front from the viewing side. I am most likely putting a light in it to give a glow. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted January 8, 2010 Author Share Posted January 8, 2010 Well, I've finally got my plywood!! and glue, and screws, So I can finally build the baseboards for the layout. I will hopefully have them built this weekend so I can begin the track laying. I will take pictures of building the boards as I go. Now, I have also had a change of heart on location, thanks to Heljan, I was reading a topic on here about locos that had been sat for a while and the bodies warping (not sure they where Heljan), me in a panic got all my locos out and found my Heljan 47 to have banana'd chassis which had ripped it's way through the body!! After a good search on the old RMweb I discovered a lot have people have had the same! I have totally lost heart in Heljan, and as they produce the only class 33 available, I won't be buying anything else from Heljan! So I will be relocating the layout to the Northwest possibly North Wales, does mean I can run my other fave loco, the class 25!! Anyway I have wood measure! update asap! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted January 10, 2010 Author Share Posted January 10, 2010 Well I have been very busy over the course of past couple of days with the layout, I have finally got the skins of the baseboards built..... I'm very happy with the build of them so far, very light and seem very strong. They are mainly 9mm ply with a bit of 18mmx30mm softwood. They need a good sanding off, braces across the width and then painting, then there done. Before I continue with the work on the boards I could not resist the urge to place some track on to get a feel of how it may look in the coming weeks. Here is a picture of my Class 25, at the the first point as it would be leaving the fidddle yard past the signal box.... An ariel shot of all the track laid out across the boards, all clearances look fine to me... Looking back towards the signal box (hole still to be cut into the backscene!!).... Well Back to the wood after lunch, I hope, get them finished!! Comments most welcome. Enjoy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted January 16, 2010 Author Share Posted January 16, 2010 Well I have moved on a little bit since last weekend, I have laid cork tiles down, cut the hole in the end backscene board and sanded over the entire boards, so were ready for track laying!! ish! All I have to do on the boards is drill the aligning holes and some holes in the braces, yes I know I should have done this before I glued and screwed the boards together, opps. While I was doing this I ordered some Solder Tag strips off 'e-of-the-bay' from a very useful ebay shop called Railroom Electronics, I found them very quick in shipping, it was a next day job even in the snow!!! So big thanks to them . Will get some more pictures up very soon! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted January 23, 2010 Author Share Posted January 23, 2010 Take 24!! Progress..........Track being laid I am a bit further than this, But with the recent forum problems I can't get anything posted!! Grrrr!! But it does mean I'm spending more time on the layout. Track will be complete today and hopefully I can get some more pictures up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted January 30, 2010 Author Share Posted January 30, 2010 Well another week and still going strong on the project, weeks are going fast though, we only have less than 9 months left!! More photo update.... The last pieces of track have been laid... I couldn't resist getting my Class 108 out of the box and putting it on the layout and placing it where the platform is going to be, at this point there was no power to the tracks... Then I began work on the electrics, after many hours of work... after a good tidy up...... Then it was time to test it, but I ended up looking into DCC, after doing some research and some biding on ebay I ended up with a brand new Hornby Select for ??44.50 delivered!! Which I thought was a bit of a bargin for starting out in DCC. I picked up some decoders today and set everything up ..... It worked and all I can say is wow!! How good is DCC!! I have spent the entire afternoon shunting three of my locos up and down and all over the layout, and that is without having the point motors hooked up to the switches, job for tomorrow morning. I totally hooked on DCC!! So apart from the point motors being fed power to switch them, I can say I have a running layout, here is a shot with a class 47 and 31 with the lights on, I had just shunted the 47 up to the 31... Comments or questions welcome. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allegheny1600 Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 Hi Matt, Nice progress! I see you've even filled and sanded your screwheads, well done! Yes! You can't beat DCC for getting a good realistic feel for how things run and QUICKLY! I know it's perfectly possible to get things running very fast in DC but with LOTS of switched sections???? I like the look of your trackwork too, is that your recovered hand built stuff? I'm only using Tillig which is H0 but your proper British track looks much better! Keep up the good work, it's an inspiration to me, at any rate! Cheers, John E. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted January 31, 2010 Author Share Posted January 31, 2010 Hi Matt, Nice progress! I see you've even filled and sanded your screwheads, well done! Yes! You can't beat DCC for getting a good realistic feel for how things run and QUICKLY! I know it's perfectly possible to get things running very fast in DC but with LOTS of switched sections???? I like the look of your trackwork too, is that your recovered hand built stuff? I'm only using Tillig which is H0 but your proper British track looks much better! Keep up the good work, it's an inspiration to me, at any rate! Cheers, John E. Hi John, Thanks for your comments. Although its only a little layout I would have had another week of evenings spent wiring the 12 switches in, and I reakon and it would have limited where I could park up locomotives. Yes the trackwork is the recovered handbuilt stuff, it fitted rather well into the plan I have here so I was very lucky, in fact all the track apart from one length was recovered from the old layout. I am very excited about starting the next stage of the layout, the senics, as believe it or not this will be the first layout I will have done from the start! I've doe bits and bobs on previous layouts but never finished one. Cheers, Matt. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted February 7, 2010 Author Share Posted February 7, 2010 Well with the track laid and all the electrics working its time to start on the foundations of the scenics! I have decided to start with the platform a topic I have been studying for the past week. I have decided to build it like the platform at Pwllheli, all concrete, which was rebuilt in the 1970's. Looking at all the available options of platform edging it was looking rather slim that I could get something off the shelf to create the look, then I noticed Peco's LK60 which is platform edging with a stick on brick effect sheet. Now if you discard the stickers it gives you the smooth concrete face, I'm sure once painted and weathered it will look the part. Now looking around I have found that the platform height is an average of 3' from rail top, which equals 12mm in 4mm scale. Which has hit me with a problem, Cork!! the thickness of cork I have used makes the platform height to 15mm. I didn't fancy cutting down the platform edging, so I went with removing a channel of the cork, in the process I realised why didn't I check this before I glued the cork down, I could have left the section out or at least used less glue! Yes it was well stuck down, I had to chisel it off. Now just like the real thing my boards go up and down slightly (I ment to do that, Honest ), and it now average's 12mm. It does look low, but I would pefer it to low than to high, I can get away with low. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted February 26, 2010 Author Share Posted February 26, 2010 Thought I'd do a little update on progress on the project, no green stuff yet though!! The layout has been put up in its new home across the dining room wall, a place which my missus suggested, so before she could change her mind I bolted it to the wall!!! Here the pictures show it on the wall with early construction of the platform.. I was toying around with the signalbox scene....Yes the oil tank is a scale 600gallon single skin tank on brick piers... Anyhow I decided to build one of my Chivers MDV kits, fell together with ease...... only one more to go...then paint..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted July 13, 2010 Author Share Posted July 13, 2010 I may be behind, but I'm not out, just yet!! I've very slowly been working on the currently name-less layout. Here is what I've been up too.... with a little detail added... Now I'd really like to know what your thoughts are on the above photo's, I'm unsure if it looks right, and the missus says it looks like it has a tint of green to it, the concrete that is, although there was no green used!! Thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold SouthernRegionSteam Posted July 13, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 13, 2010 Now I'd really like to know what your thoughts are on the above photo's, I'm unsure if it looks right... It looks fine from here! Do tell us how you went about it. Can't see any green in the concrete - might just be the lighting in the room it is in. See what it looks like with a desk lamp shining on it. I've got a whole heap of 'concrete' to do and getting the tonal quality right is pretty impossible! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted July 13, 2010 Author Share Posted July 13, 2010 Thank you for your reply, I'd be happy to tell you how I did it... I used a similar method to Andy Y, which can be found here My linkhttp://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php/blog/1/entry-44-inset-trackwork-on-keyhaven/, but I put my own twist on it. 1) Like Andy's method I laid cork down in the area of the concrete, making sure that the cork was lower than the rail height, to allow track cleaning without taking the paint off. Unlike Andy, I filled up the gaps between the sleepers with card to reduce the gap height when filling it in. I also filled in the sleeper gaps between the rails, to the level of the sleepers. 2)I then filled in the gap between the cork and the rail with a plaster mix, plaster + water + PVA glue. I made a tool to aid the spreading of the mix which I made from plasticard which when spreading leveled it lower then the rail height and sloped off to the cork. I skimmed plaster across the cork to fill in any holes. Once dry I lightly sanded it all down to a smooth finish. 3)Using plasticard cut to size on an engraver, I filled between the rails, which is a lot lower than the rail height, this is to allow cleaning the rails without touching the paint and damaging all the hard work. 4)Then came the paint, having used the many different concrete colors available and being un happy with the finish, I took a tip from Chris Nevard and used different colors. I placed a base coat of Railmatch Railfrieght grey (all I had in the box).... I then lighty sprayed Railmatch primer(creamy color), these where very light coats, enought to allow the grey to come through from underneath. The best pic I could get... 5) Once allowed to dry for over 24hrs, I drew on with a sharp pencil, line to represent joints. I then painted between the concrete and the rails with railmatch acrylic sleeper grime, making sure I wiped away accidentle concrete splashes with a tissue, allowing a little to look like staining. Then with some railmatch acrylic matt black, washed over the concrete wiping it off as I go, basic weathering. I dipped the brush into the black and then straight into some water and then painted it on, I didn't go straight from pot to model. That was it! Many thanks Matt. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold SouthernRegionSteam Posted July 14, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 14, 2010 Thank you very much Matt - that is a very useful tutorial. Ideal for when I've layed all the trackwork. Like you I have been unhappy with various colour attempts at concrete. Now I know what to do in the future. Many thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted July 14, 2010 Author Share Posted July 14, 2010 Thank you very much Matt - that is a very useful tutorial. Ideal for when I've layed all the trackwork. Like you I have been unhappy with various colour attempts at concrete. Now I know what to do in the future. Many thanks. Your very welcome. I'm glad you like it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted July 14, 2010 Author Share Posted July 14, 2010 arghhh those damm weeds!! I turn my back for five secs and the weeds are already growing in the concrete joints!! All I did was very carefully put a line of PVA on the pencil lines which represent join lines, and sprinkled on some very fine scatter over it, dab down with a finger and blow the rest away. I will be placing some more weeds along the edge where the fence is with static grass. Plus as you can see, I've begun ballasting this area!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted July 27, 2010 Author Share Posted July 27, 2010 Well I took my time, but I have finally named my layout, after the model starting out life as SR and nearly hitting the Lakes, we ended up in Northwales in a fictional place, but where? Thats what I had to find out!! Well after searching google earth for a possible locations I ended up non the wiser! So sod it, simply, I made it up, Llan Heli translates to 'church they gather', it's some place in the North of Wales!! So Welcome to Llanheli. Croeso i Llanheli. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alcoRS1 Posted July 27, 2010 Share Posted July 27, 2010 Well I took my time, but I have finally named my layout, after the model starting out life as SR and nearly hitting the Lakes, we ended up in Northwales in a fictional place, but where? Thats what I had to find out!! Well after searching google earth for a possible locations I ended up non the wiser! So sod it, simply, I made it up, Llan Heli translates to 'church they gather', it's some place in the North of Wales!! So Welcome to Llanheli. Croeso i Llanheli. very creative naming, I like that, I think made up names are better, makes it easy to model the area, as scenic and atmosphere instead of having to worry about the people complaining it is not a facsimile of the real deal. I have been to Llanheli (I know it is fictional), nice little place, lovely church there. near some slate quarry, which is now a beautiful lake, late summer the heather flowers purple leaving the surrounding area looking purple, instead of green, and any lonely tree ends up as a green monument, in a sea of purple (I seen valleys like this driving from Bala to Betws-y-coed). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chivers Finelines Posted July 27, 2010 Author Share Posted July 27, 2010 very creative naming, I like that, I think made up names are better, makes it easy to model the area, as scenic and atmosphere instead of having to worry about the people complaining it is not a facsimile of the real deal. I have been to Llanheli (I know it is fictional), nice little place, lovely church there. near some slate quarry, which is now a beautiful lake, late summer the heather flowers purple leaving the surrounding area looking purple, instead of green, and any lonely tree ends up as a green monument, in a sea of purple (I seen valleys like this driving from Bala to Betws-y-coed). Yes the slate quarry and surrounding area is now part of the Snowdonia National Park, there are some fantastic walks around that area. After the manufacturing boom of the area came to an end in the mid/late 1980's, due to the outdated factories and slate quarries which were inefficient and no longer viable to keep open, the town of Llanheli went through some hard times in the early 1990's. This soon turned around with the local council pushing towards tourism! The Place is so different now, it's a fantastic hub to access all of North Wales, I can recommend the local ice cream cafe "Cadwaladers" on the high street! I love the coffee ice cream in a sugar cone!! There is little left of the train station now, just a single platform and single line, the sidings and loops have all gone and the factories have all gone to make way for a holiday village. Luckily you don't have to stroll to far out of town to end up in the beautiful valley's of Wales. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
will5210 Posted July 28, 2010 Share Posted July 28, 2010 I like the weeds & grass growing through the concrete very much! Looking forward to watching the layout progress. Will. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkea1 Posted August 10, 2010 Share Posted August 10, 2010 Matt, The concrete looks very good - will be watching this one with interest. Please keep the updates going. Cheers Al Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
invercloy Posted August 10, 2010 Share Posted August 10, 2010 Standard gauge...??? I like the tutorial for the concrete, thanks for posting that Matt! Looks very effective, i'll have to remember that for future reference. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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