Progress (or otherwise) on Jeff's new layout

Hi Jeff.  Back in the day, there was one job that I was never happy with, that was preparing an electric train on a shed road, which of course meant unplugging the overhead leads. Not necessary on a model Railway. Best wishes Kevin

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

Not resting on my laurels (yet!), I have constructed a couple of low brick walls to raise the Ratio carriage shed. Each wall is made up of two thicknesses of plastic sheet, and two layers of Slater's plastic brick sheet. They have 5½ rows of bricks, and any gaps at the bottom will be hidden by landscaping textures once I get to the scenic side of things. I still need to add some wall capping between the support pillars.

Why am I thinking Titfield Thunderbolt?!
Looks a lovely model.

I'm not sure about the Titfield Thunderbolt, Alan. It was shown on TV here just last week, though.


When I built the carriage shed for my old layout, one side was against an embankment wall, so for some reason I left off two support pillars. Since I never throw any spare parts away, they must still be hiding somewhere in all my boxes or drawers. At present, one side of that shed has five pillars, the other (showing in the photos) has only three.

[user=1801]Passed Driver[/user] wrote:

Hi Jeff.  Back in the day, there was one job that I was never happy with, that was preparing an electric train on a shed road, which of course meant unplugging the overhead leads. Not necessary on a model Railway. Best wishes Kevin

Mine will be even more dangerous eventually. I intend running third rail into the carriage shed and the two roads beside it, plus along the line on the left of the engine shed too, to allow class 71s to enter an leave on their own power - there is one parked there in the photos. It is tempting to model a short section of tramway overhead for that, but I think I'll stick to the more robust third rail, which will be less prone to damage from my clumsy hands and elbows.

Hi Jeff.  Thank you for your reply. Exactly my point, and that is why “shed lead” were provided, but as long as all the compressors, mg’s etc were switched off no problem. Best wishes Kevin 

On the subject of the carriage shed, I have added some wall cappings and painted the brick parts a brown colour. I'll give an impression of the mortar courses later and weather it all down in due course.

Hi Jeff,
You definitely get the most out of our current lockdown in Melbourne  :lol:

[user=2172]Claus Ellef[/user] wrote:

Hi Jeff,
You definitely get the most out of our current lockdown in Melbourne  :lol:

Well, that plus retirement! 

Alan W - I deleted your post re Titfield Thunderbolt etc & you placed a photo direct from the internet & while it looked good in preview, when actually posted, it was full of characters.

If you find a photo, save it to your computer first then upload into YMRC Gallery.

Thanks Ron,

 Let's have another go!

In the film The Titfield Thunderbolt the villagers moved a train shed by hand over the tracks for the train to stable under overnight. Looking at the clips it's not quite the same - no side walls, but the general structure was close enough to trigger my memory.




Taken from the website:


The Titfield Thunderbolt 1953 | Obscure Train Movies (wordpress.com)

Mine is the Ratio product. The clearance for the trains was just too low, and I had two choices to fix it: lift it up a bit (which is what I did) or remove some of the front valance at each end. The latter would have been more difficult to do with the kit already made up.

I do like the curved roof Ratio provided, and that does resemble the Titfield Thunderbolt version.

A new video I did this morning. It highlights a few minor problems to iron out, but overall I am quite pleased with it.

It gives a driver's eye view of each of the lines in the motive power depot and goods sidings, and also shows trains being driven into the appropriate roads for storage.

I edited out the big hand from the sky changing the points throughout the video session.


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Work has started on building a hill in the far corner. This will be a little lower and more gently curved than the initial shape suggests. It will give the road along the back of the engine shed somewhere to go (marked by a couple of lorries and cars approximately where it will go, in the photo), with a bridge over the railway line. The temporary scenery along the back will be revised and a more permanenet solution added eventually, with the narrow road meandering along up a gentle slope towards the bridge. That whole area between the level crossing and behind the yards will also slope very gently up towards the back, leaving trains mostly visible along that stretch, apart from behind the embankments leading to the road bridge.

That's the plan. It's a long way off completion, though! 

Jeff,

great video and amazing progress you've made since I visited you, towards end of May.

Colin

Hi Jeff.  Bravo! Bravo!   Another good video, which I suspect will get a few thousand views, or more. Best wishes Kevin

Thanks for the compliments, Colin and Kevin.

Having sat down and looked at my own photos and video, I went back to the train room and fixed up a few of the problems and glitches highlighted in those.

The dead point frog was traced to a loose wire - I may well have disturbed it while I was still poking around under the layout before. I repaired it with a dab of solder then tested with a Hatton's Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST and it passed with flying colours.

There were two rough spots of track where I had left small spots of solder; a flat needle file took care of those.

I removed the baseplate on the Heljan 07, pulled the wheels out and tweaked the electrical pickups. I replaced the wheels and ensured the pickups were all touching the wheel backs properly, even on their full side to side play, and then tested that through all the points. Again, it passed with flying colours. I still have to check the Arthur's pickups, but that can wait.

Then to those board joins and rough spots on the roads in the goods yard and level crossing areas: a bit of DAS air-drying clay has been spread around the bits that needed filling. Once dried and painted, they will look a lot better.
 







And finally, just to show how the video was done, here are a couple of shots of the SLW class 24 D5000 with the camera wagon. D5000 was allocated to Hither Green on the Southern Region for a few years from 1959.

Hi Jeff. Another reply, seeing your 2 HAL in action reminds me that I am yet to purchase a decoder for both my 2HAL & my 2BIL both 8 pin, after leaving the choice of decoder to Hattons staff when they fitted the Bachmann “ Motor Luggage Van “ for me, can you recommend a better decoder.  Best wishes Kevin

[user=1801]Passed Driver[/user] wrote:

Hi Jeff. Another reply, seeing your 2 HAL in action reminds me that I am yet to purchase a decoder for both my 2HAL & my 2BIL both 8 pin, after leaving the choice of decoder to Hattons staff when they fitted the Bachmann “ Motor Luggage Van “ for me, can you recommend a better decoder.  Best wishes Kevin

Lenz Standard+ for the Hornby BILs and HALs.

Lenz Silver+ 21 for the Bachmann units (EPBs, CEPs, MLVs).

Better  still, equivalent Zimo's. MX 600 eight pin and a small 21 pin.

Hi Jeff.  Thank you for your reply. I will get on to that. But, while I am here I have noticed your Q1 class, when I asked the forum, most members seem to have a poor opinion of them?  Best wishes Kevin