Progress (or otherwise) on Jeff's new layout

My word you have made a lot of progress Jeff,
The railway is really coming together.
I am glad Toby is still keeping manners on the trains for you!

regards,

Derek

A quick video (taken on my phone) of the Hornby 2 BIL unit in action. I have added yellow first class section stripes and yellow warning panels on the ends but there is a little bit of touching up and tidying still to do. The black inverted triangle that should be on the driving van end (on the DMBS vehicle) is yet to be added.

The roofs and underframes could really do with some weathering too but that is still on the agenda for later.

I decided to replace the temporary 'place holder' bridge for the upper level over the underground lines. I found a piece of MDF that was exactly the right width for what I wanted and cut it to fit the location. I also cut a new support to run parallel to the underground tracks.

The next stage will be to cut the plate girders to suit the new configuration and mount some 'H' girders underneath those. There will also need to be a middle support and all supports will need to be covered in embossed brick sheets (Vollmer card or Slaters plastic - either will do but all support piers will need the same textures).

Here are some initial views of the work in progress. The side girders are only propped there to gain a rough representation of the final appearance.

I'm still waiting to see your 'replica' of the Oxted bridge… :lol:.  Looking good Jeff.

Cheers, Gary.

Thanks Gary.

The Oxted bridge does actually appeal to me but I can't find any kits that would resemble the British ironwork - the excellent German made kits have a fair variety of styles but none comes close.

:hmm

So does that mean you are not going to get busy with several packets of Evergreen Styrene angle and strip ?? :lol::lol::lol:

Cheers, Gary.

Maybe not tonight!
:thud   

[user=321]SRman[/user] wrote:

 

As a civil (sometimes) engineer, I have to say that the plate girder is insufficeint to carry the load. 

 

Sorry, too much Pinot ! :lol:

That's why there will also be a couple of large H girders running longitudinally, some smaller H or I girders laterally and a central brick pillar support as well.

This is only the beginning …
:cool:

I like the bridge Jeff but, rather than a supporting wall in the middle, why not have a couple of round columns with a heavy "H" girder on them.  It would allow a better view of the rear tube line and let more light in.  A supporting wall might make the rear tube line look like a tunnel entrance. :roll:  Yes - I know tubes run in tunnels but not here …………:lol::lol::lol:

Hi Peter. That's not a bad idea. None of mine are set in concrete so I am open to these suggestions.  :cool:

A slight variation on that would be to do like I did with my old layout's over-line building at High Cross. I used a series of 'H' or 'I' section girders to act as supports along the length (or was that width?) of the raft supporting the building and road.

You can see some of the supports in this photo.

That's almost exactly what I mean Jeff - as per the supporting columns on the left hand end of this scene  although, rather than having a row of them, make them slightly bigger and just have 2 or 3 at most.  2 should do it because it's only carrying a single carriageway road.  The bridge span will be no more than a double track so any "standard" overbridge would do the job - except of course, a masonry structure which would need an arch……………………:roll::roll:.

Yet another video of one of my sound-fitted locos. This time it is of my Bachmann Freightliner class 70, fitted with Howes' sounds on an ESU LokSound v3.5 decoder (reblown from a Bachmann class 47).

The train has container wagons from Dapol (FEA-B, Megafret and KQA 'pocket' wagon), Realtrack Models (FLA) and Hornby (KFA), while the containers come from the same sources plus C=Rail.

Once again I apologise for shaky camera work as I was working the controller and the camera at the same time - that zoom right near the start was accidental! At least this time I used the 'proper' video camera and a tripod. :cool:

My second Bachmann green 4 CEP unit arrived from Hattons today - one of their bargains I couldn't resist at £69. This one is numbered 7128 while the previous one was unit 7126.

I also purchased a Lenz Silver 21-pin decoder to go in the new unit so, after a quick test on DC, I fitted the decoder and set 7128 off in multiple (consist) with 7126, with the green Motor Luggage Van (MLV), 68006 bringing up the rear.






 Of course, this train is really too long for the Underground tracks but will look more at home when the main lines on the upper level are complete. This isn't the first time I have done this though: here is an earlier shot of a similar train made up with blue and grey stock, this time with MLV 68009 leading units 7113 and 7114.

At the same time as the new CEP unit arrived, I had also ordered three of the Bachmann 1930s semi-detached houses, to complement the Hornby Skaledale detached houses already in the village.





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Further fiddling with the bridge and its near environs: I am reusing second-hand components at the moment but will buy new stuff once I work out what I need. The plate girders are, I think, the Peco Wills vari-girder kit(s). I have broken the existing ones down a bit and reassembled the bits into something nearer what I need, and for the moment simply Blu-Tacked the bits into place.

The lower girders will probably have to be a bit deeper than the depth of the MDF forming the bridge base.

I have also added a little of the Vollmer embossed brick sheet to lead into what will be brick arched viaduct. As I envisage it, there will be a small rise in the ground to the foreground and up the base of the brick wall, making the area of brick shallower than in the photos. 

For the last one I removed the ProCab to improve the view. The controllers will eventually be moved to a lower and different location when I get the control panels in place.







This is intended to give some impression of what I have in mind.

It's looking good Jeff - I'm glad the bridge sides are only blu-tacked in place ……………….:shock::shock::shock::shock:

The foreground will look much better when you get some contour into it as you've suggested and the bridge will improve no end once you've got some kind of pillars around the half-way point.  I'll be inerested in seeing what you have planned for the control panels.  I'm still pondering mine ………………

For the control panels, I intend printing the track diagrams on my colour laser printer and mounting them behind some perspex/clear acrylic sheet. Any switches, contacts, LEDs and so on will be mounted in drilled holes at the appropriate locations.

For the viaduct section I have bought some Scalescenes print-it-yourself viaduct files but I am never entirely happy with the lack of relief in paper/card kits, at least for the longer term (I happily use such things for place holders).

Recently I spotted a Vollmer HO kit for a brick arched viaduct, single tracked with three arches in the kit. What's more I found some in Miniatur Wunderland's online shop for half price so ordered two (after ascertaining that postage was reasonably priced too). I then ordered a couple of the extension arches from another German dealer, with a view to hacking these into a four arched double tracked viaduct.

The extensions arrived first, today, so I set about experimenting to make a singe double tracked arch, just to see if it could be done. This has only the basics in place and none of the extra walls or the supporting piers yet - the piers will need their height cut down a little to suit my location. I would deem the experiment successful!

The German kit comes with parapet railings but I will make some brick walls up to replace those, in due course.

The arches are a little narrower across than I really wanted but the brick texture is so much better than printed paper can provide. I may well order another couple of the three-arched version to extend this one. As I haven't done the supporting iers yet, a couple of recently constructed containers are providing support, coincidentally, at just the right height!!







Because of the way I have used the side walls/arches, I will end up with one spare from each arch (I'm using three walls per double track set). The spares may well provide arches further down the track.

Is there any way of not using the inner wall/arch section shown in the middle of the bridge in the 2nd pic ? It would be a good way of extending without the added cost…

Cheers, Gary.