Progress (or otherwise) on Jeff's new layout

Gary, it would be possible if I made a support to the same overall shape out of card or plasticard. I'm not sure I can be fussed when the thing went together with no modifications to that part. 

The only mods made were to shorten the two base plates (which will also be necessary when I build the support pillars) and to cut one edge off each of the top track beds.

I didn't know Minatur Wunderland had an online shop Jeff …………….must have a look at it …..;-)

The link if you want it: https://shop.miniatur-wunderland.de//

When I emailed them to check postage before ordering, I got a very nice reply in English (I apologised for my lack of German). I have now ordered a second pair of the full viaducts so I'll end up with seven double tracked arches for the main one and possibly three more (from the spares) for around the bend, where I'll need to do some extra work anyway.

Essentially there are four parts per arch that I need to cut to make the double-track version and these are all nice straight cuts where I can use the score-and-snap method.

Of course, there are more cuts to be made on the supports, again nice, easy straight ones, to shorten them a little. I haven't yet tried this to work out how much I need to trim but it is not going to be difficult; it will be between eight and twelve cuts per arch (one for each side of the supporting pillars for each single track arch).

The cutting and hacking continues! I found I had rather more pieces than I originally expected to cut down on the piers because of the brick overlay panels on the sides. I worked out that I needed to remove eight courses of bricks from each panel and side to get the correct height. However, I did stuff up one of the inner sides by miscounting and removing nine courses! Still, it doesn't seem to have weakened the structure at all and I can easily fill the gap and weather it as it will be mostly hidden anyway - it can be seen on the far side of the pier in the first photo.


Of course, I will have six more arches to do this way when the main viaduct kits arrive - I ordered another two from the Miniatur Wunderland shop to follow the first two, making a seven arched viaduct in all, when I'm done!

It will be an impressive viaduct when it is finished then Jeff.

That does look very good. How many more arches are to go in ?

Cheers, Gary.

There are six more double-track arches to do, although I don't necessarily have to use them all.

Following on from my previous post, I cut one row of bricks to successfully fill that gap I mentioned. I was expecting the single row to curl up as I cut it but that didn't happen, thankfully, making the job much easier.

What are your thoughts on what will go under the arches? 

Hi Aaron. I was thinking of mainly wasteland with a concrete drainage ditch and a trickle of water, as well as the usual LT paraphernalia like cables and cabinets. A wasteland can take just as much modelling as anything else to do properly, I think.

I don't want to block off the view through the arches so it all has to remain fairly low. Mud and brambles, a rusty hulk of a car, perhaps, a few kids playing (or maybe smoking!!). I may do some filled arches with a different style for the curved part at the other end of that stretch (meaning I won't have to deal with the actual arches themselves on a curve!!), then some more open ones to allow for photography through the arches, looking along the LT alignment.

Nothing is finalised, it is all just ideas at the moment, so any suggestions will be welcomed and taken on board if they are do-able for my set of skills.

Jeff, I have the same concern about underneath arches with my viaduct  http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=8469&forum_id=101&page=2#p159060

Hi Ron. Yours has reminded me that I haven't even thought of refuges. I must include a couple of those too. Very nice, by the way.

 :thumbs


For my urban environment open fields would look out of place and a river has nowhere to go to or come from but a drainage channel can be fed from a pipe discharging from under the LT tracks, so that's where my thinking processes are coming from.

Hi Jeff,

One option is to place a 6' chain wire fence between the arches and fill with typical railway refuse/junk, even something like a fettlers/gangers shed for the LT line…

Cheers, Gary.

well here are a few ideas then,

• overgrown, with mostly ivy and wall creepers to the walls of the viaduct, and long grass, bushes and small shrubs on the ground
• I do like the drainage ditch idea, maybe a over flow/ flood plain mash, with a few reeds and litter in the water
• Flytipping is also a good one, like you said a rusted out car/ maybe burnt out, and a pile of old washing machines and bricks
• garages/sheds/businesses that only occupies the lower half of the viaduct, as your viaduct is quite tall, these could be used by LT or public

Gary and Aaron, you are both thinking my way here. :)

I ordered some mesh fencing a few days ago and already have some ivy from International Models (Mini-Natur, I think), as well as the Woodland Scenics fibre matting which makes good brambles (photos from my old layout to show the idea).

Now that I have a bit of an idea of what I'm doing with the viaduct double-track conversion, I have commenced work on the second arch. It is posed here resting on those containers (again!) because I haven't done the next supporting pier yet. The photos cruelly show the rough spots, particularly the inner arch lining on one half having slipped - I'll have to trim it and reseat it.







You may also see that I have been levelling out the station canopy. I finally got some Slaters paving to finish off the platform surfaces - not yet painted but it does mean I have been able to pack and level the individual buildings to get the canopies aligned.

I have been on school holidays for the last two weeks and have made a small amount of progress with the layout building, although not as much as I had hoped/planned for!

I have done some further levelling and grading of the polystyrene landscaping at the village end. I am generally happier with it now. No photos of that to show at this point but I will take some soon.

I have been fiddling with the track diagram for the LT lines and have now printed it and laminated it, ready to mount behind some clear acrylic (also shown in the photo). I will then drill holes where he switches will go. Normally the track section switches will be left on for DCC but sections will be able to be isolated for DC analogue running. Apologies for the reflections.



Gary: I have been giving further thought to the Oxted line bridge. I have not found any suitable bridge kits from the kit manufacturers (Faller, Vollmer, Kibri, Walthers, Atlas, etc.) but I hit upon another idea; the Ratio Pratt truss signal gantry! I am ordering four such kits to play around with. Each gantry on its own would not be sufficient to support the bridge span (in real engineering terms) but two or three side by side should look the part, in conjunction with some plate girders … I hope.

Google Earth street views are quite helpful in visualising this, if anyone wants to look.

Great news Jeff, I knew you wouldn't give up on Oxted Bridge ! ;-);-) 

Model railways are funny things really. If we have our hearts set on something in particular, it's hard to shake it off ! Looking foward to the build of the bridge as it sounds like you have the materials sorted.

Cheers, Gary.

 

I have been laid low with the bad back but am starting to improve now. My first modelling task since then has been to experimentally swap the station buildings from the Hornby Skaledale Italianate style to the Bachmann art deco style. I didn't really intend to use this building here but I think it looks rather good. It will be linked to the platforms by a footbridge (Ratio modular covered footbridge on the way from Hattons right now for experiments to commence!).

The lighting was not the best and the white of the all that polystyrene swamped the camera a little, although I have tweaked the photos a bit to compensate.










Another thought occurred to me while I was laid up: I have a large Kibri modern tower building that has close to the same footprint as the large Tudor hotel in the existing photos. If I am careful with the scenic surrounds I may be able to swap them from time to time to suit a more modern image period. I had a similar idea way back at the planning stages for the main line station: have two interchangeable modules, one with platforms in use (1960s or earlier), the other with derelict, weed-grown platforms to fit more modern settings.]

Hi Jeff,
Very SR suburban art deco feel now to the layout.
Sounds like you are on the improve.
MArk

After some discussion and quite a few suggestions in my almost identical thread on RMweb, I have now come up with some signs for the station name.

The name has not been finalised yet but suggestions included variations on the words falcon (or faulcon), based on the 1973 Ford Falcon I have in my garage, and Newton, based on the name of my friend Doug who did the baseboard carpentry (most of the hard work!) to start with.

Doug suggested, tongue in cheek, Newton Broadway after someone else had added 'Broadway' to the list of possible place name qualifiers, like 'Green', 'Road', 'Lane', 'Park', 'Wood', and 'Bridge'. I made up some LT 'bullseyes' to a size that matched the EFE LT station seat and name board, using Microsoft Word and the built in shapes of circles and rectangles. The basic shape is made up of two filled circles, one red on the bottom layer and one smaller white one added concentrically on the next layer up. A dark blue rectangle is then placed over the top of those circles. All shapes were grouped before being copied multiple times.

Text was added with a text box set to have no fill and with the text set to white. I tried two different fonts, Arial bold and Gill Sans MT bold, centred, and duplicated eight of each name in each font. Font size was set at 5 points, except for the 'Newton Broadway' Gill Sans which had to be reduced slightly to 4.5 points to fit. The text box is 



This was printed onto ordinary paper but the final print will be on glossy photo paper to simulate the enamel signage of the real thing. The dark blue bar needs to be lightened slightly before I will be happy with it.

For anyone who hasn't tried this sort of thing in Word before, the document can be 'zoomed' into to allow you to see what you are doing. To set these smaller font sizes, select your block of text, go to the font size and actually type in the font size (Word doesn't offer anything less than 8 points in its drop-down list), followed by hitting the [Enter] key.