Dave, my ballast is as it came from the bag - Noch #09350 Ballast Gravel  for HO & TT. I got my at a good price as the owner of the shop was getting rid of it - 500gms for under 1 pound - so I got 7 bags.

Now no longer available but it looks similar to Noch 09372

 or even 09371

Another late night again last night as I experemented with my first ground signal. Construction was simple enough and when I have perfected them I will proberly do a little tutorial. To make the signals all diffrent I decided to change the artwork on the PC slightly. So a blank panel was inserted under the signal covering the numbers and direction arrow. I then added some new arrows in diffrent directions and added new numbers so that they were all diffrent. Just a shame that when printed the numbers were in a diffrent place that they were on the screen! I then laminated the sheet before cutting out the artwork. This was then stuck onto a strip of plasticard and the holes drilled. At this point the laminating came off so note to self next time dont bother laminating! Now the frustrating bit. I first drilled down through the baseboard for the fiber optics. Once I had glued the fibers to the signal then passed them through the baseboard I tested them with a torch. No light. So next I opened the holes out and fitted extra fibers ( 3 per lamp) and drilled the baseboard at an angle. Tested again no light. When the fibers came away in my hane it occured to me that the glue had melted through the plastic fibers. DOH!!! So the last soloution was to glue the signal head in place then pass the fibers through and secure them under the baseboard with some duck tape. Sucess. Heres the proof also note the intresting paint effect on the sleepers….







Now that I have a working prototype I now have to refine it!

Dave, neat signals & yes please, a tutorial is a requirement, nay, a necessity !

Dave, yes please let us know how you did all of this, especially the fiber optics. i have been reading some articles in using fiber optics and it seems interesting. Is it possible to do all lighting on a layout with fiber optics? What about the cost, is it comparable to wire and LED's?

Wayne

Just uploaded part 3 of the garden railway to you tube. Hopefull it will give an idea of the scale of the project! The animation could be better but I can live with it as it's my first go and it was a nightmare to fit with the music. Must have used about 400 pic's. Heres the link……

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gEMh6db2_JM

Enjoy.:thumbs

Dave

That is a fantasic video you have made there very pro looking video

Your railway should be featured in the railway magazines it would give a lot of people inspiration to have a go outside with 00 gauge

you should send hornby mag and model rail an email with a link to that video and photos

cheers Brian

Wow, Dave! Original music too! Very enjoyable and well put together.  I still like that canal.

P.S. I have some original music composed [if that's the right word] on Music 2000 on the PC and Playstation. I might steal your idea and put some to a video one day, but it won't be in the same league as yours!

 Mike

Thanks guys taking all the pics for the video was fun but uploading them to the software one at a time was boring! Having said that now I know that I can do time lapse using an ordanary camera I can see some more coming on!

Well big changes at the heatherburn took place yesterday as I decided that it was about time I got all the hard landscaping done. So out came the shovel and away went the lawn for ever. Great no more mowing!! Also to go was all the plants that we inhereted when we bought the house. These were mainly plants that spread underground and poped up wher they liked! Once dug out the rear beds were built up using soil (frozen clay!!) from the excavated lawn. The plan is to replace the lawn with a patio area so that when we have visitors over we can sit out and have a BBQ whilst watching the trains roll by. As you can see from this first pic I need to dig down about a foot to give me a level area……



The next to are taken from the fence looking back across the garden…..






The white cable that is visable is the 6 core 'bus' cable for the down line colour light signals. This will be rerouted along with the repositioning of the junction boxes. I have also repositioned the paving slab behind the station so that I have someware to mount the waterproof box housing the bits to operate the level crossing. ;-) 

Major work there Dave and at the mercy of the weather. Hope you get a few fine days so that you can get the bulk done.

Well looks like my layout may suffer now, as seeing you develop this sounds very interesting, so looking forward to it.

Phill

With the weather overcast for a second day work outdoors has ground to a halt. Last night I fitted the relays for switching the power to the parcels depot, albert dock branch and the up main line. This morning I did a bit more balasting and left it to dry. Will take some pics later. ;-)

Took a few pics of the area in question just wish I glued it all down last night as now I have to wait for the goo to dry. First is looking back to the parcels depot. This still needs finishing as I started this last year!



The relays can be seen sticking out of the balast. Again these will be hidden with buildings…



The large area in the background is where the flats will be built. These will be based on trellick towers with the wooden support timber to the right being discuised as the service tower and will have outside walkways…..



The last two show the tracks curving round towards the terminus.





 The last one shows the water in the pva mix distroying the bridge wall!! Just as well this side is not normaly visable as the brickpapers used were actualy scalescenes misprints that came out the wrong colour! :roll:

My G……………………..d that's some layout that you are putting together, how long have you been building it, and I hope that you don't move house very soon, but it's all looking good, I can see you have the same problem that I have, where you can't finish one area before starting another.

 

 Do you have any living space in your house Dave, as your  layout seems to go on for ever (wish it was mine):hmm

 

Dave

Your layout is coming on superbly and some serious engineering going on outside too.  I should think the recent weather has been a real test for the outdoor bits.

Bob(K)

Dave,
       Thats a great layout,and the video tells the story of how the line was built! Brilliant!
       And the music was better than most on professional train videos.Great Stuff.

Loved the shot of the signal box under snow!!!

Cheers,John.B.:thumbs

Thanks for all the feedback. Ok now the balast is down my attention moved over to the big space in the background. So yesterday I did a bit of designing on the old computer and produced this…..








Want to see it being built?

Click the link below…..

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BnSig9zgRuM


Forgot to mention click watch in high quality as the sound is better. Now to start part 2 ! ;-)

Dave, since your that fast at doing this sort of thing, why don't you stop by and give me a hand? Just wave your magic wand and make it all appear!

What a VIDEO! How do you do that? I must be missing out somewhere. :roll:

At least it gives me lots more ideas!

Great job!

Wayne

It is certainly very effective, so simple too.

Dave

A very good video showing how a large area can be sorted with a little effort and not a large amount of money.

cheers Brian