GWR/LMS OO Gauge DCC RR&Co

Looking forward to the results of that Kevan.

Thanks for all the comments.

Not sure if I fancy attempting much embossing although for smaller areas I think it is a great idea. As it happens I may have to do some because on one section the card is ever so fractionally higher than the railhead :twisted: so I will have to apply some pressure!

Been pretty wet here (after all it is the rain forest) so quite a bit of progress in the last week



I relaid the 4th siding to create a proper road entrance and …..finally…..completed all the infills. I have stuck with the setts all more or less lined up although of course every photo I look at now has them as per Peter……..although in reality once in situ it will be quite difficult to spot

The kadee magnets are a bit of an eyesore but the layout will be in the  far corner and hopefully worked fairly intensively.  I really dont have  sufficient confidence in my track laying to rely on a single upstream  uncoupler

Like most of my modelling its been a good news, bad news story. The  short term bad news….taking a photo with a derailed van…..pas de  probleme. The more permanent bad news …..I managed to grab an earlier  print sheet of cobbles and fitted it (naturally) in the most difficult  area. The fit is near perfect….the colour match much less so …..I am going to live with it……



In fairness the photo is worse than real life and hopefully some  weathering, which I still have to do, will level everything off a bit.

You can see in the foreground I have added some scalescene  concrete…….the legend being that this was added in the thirties when  the Big Four started going after container traffic. The gantry is avery basic manual   Langley kit rescued from the Timber Yard in Granby II…..the plan is to  add an operators platform and engine housing using some bits I have   left over from the Ratio Signal Gantry Kit.

I am hoping that the concept of a (relatively) recent addition will  allow me to also install the more conventional crane. This is another  Ratio kit (which needs to be rigged) that I built originally for the  canal warehouse but it got bumped by a gibbet crane! Its a nice model  and in keeping with the Victorian set up. Comments appreciated






I am struggling a little with the less is more approach……once I am  operating most of the sidings will be occupied anyway but I do want to  include some road traffic and those clusters of little buildings that  all railways the world over seem to generate…….on the other hand I  dont want more to become less!!

One of the other areas of concern, which I may have already mentioned,  is integrating the module into the existing very flat rather pale back  scene



So to the next project…..I have laid some ashpalt and temporarily some  pavement…..hard against the wall will be a couple of town scene  cutouts …….in front will be a yard wall and then an office and weigh  bridge hopefully this will create some depth and a sense of life beyond  

It's coming on well John especially when the rolling stock is added.  Shame about the colour mis-match, but there you go! Some grime should blend things a little better.

Very entertaining, John, watching with interest as ever. I don't think the different colour cobbles matters at all, as long as there is a transition of a bit of dirt/wheel marks linking the two it won't show. Remember, you will always see it…For your 'flat bit' a very low relief building as you suggest would do well, but adding a canopy on the front with a photo-shopped scene of open doors/arches might help assauge your laudable constant desire to get everything 'rill-istik'!

 

Doug

I think the scene is looking really great, John. Just a thought for the Kadee magnets, have you considered glueing the Scalescenes cobbles to them? I t shouldn't make any difference to operation, and it might blend them in a little.

[user=422]Geoff R[/user] wrote:

I think the scene is looking really great, John. Just a thought for the Kadee magnets, have you considered gluing the Scalescenes cobbles to them? I t shouldn't make any difference to operation, and it might blend them in a little.

Kadee instruction have it that the magnets are to be 1/64th of an inch above rail height - presumably so the delayed action works better so unless the cobblestones normally are above rail height, the change in level maybe noticeable.

Using the rare earth magnets like Perry started with & what I use, that problem goes away so cobbling over the lot would perfect visually.

It really is looking extra good, John.

I've seen Sol's magnets in the flesh.  They work really well, being rare earth magnets and unless he points them out, you can't spot them.

They could just be the ticket under the cobbles.

What a great idea Geoff……why didnt I think of that:shock:

I was a bit worried about the additional height…….some of my earlier converted stock have low hanging couplers but it seems to works so I will give it a go:thumbs

I was intrigued with the idea of rare earth magnets but as you can see I already had a fair sized inventory of  Kadee (notice the absence of  a Y Ron:lol:) so I am sort of comitted

Looks like you made the front page John - good on ya!

John

 

Wow……..thanks John………I am embarrassed to admit that I hadnt realised that I was up for a nomination:oops::oops:…….the canal saga took quite a while and I had clean forogotten about that shot

It was very good of Peter to nominate it……..he has always been a great fan (despite a recent difference of opinion about cobblestone alignment:lol:)…….but right now he should be focussing on UXBs 

Boom boom !!!

A worthy selection John. Congratulations. :cheers:cheers:cheers

p.s. I thought I'd leave out anything in colour …………………………………….:roll::roll::roll::lol:

Ta-Dahhhhhh!  :thumbs

 

Doug

Hearty Thanks to the French Connection…….. Doug and Peter

To celebrate both the Header Photo and finishing all the detailing on the Goods Yard here is another, more recent, Black and White shot




Bearing in mind the viewing distance I have probably spent too much time on the detailing…….but it is the bit I really get a kick out of……………so its all done …..people, bollards, point levers,lamp standards, clutter, cranes and buildings.

As I write this I am waiting for my son in law and grand daughter to help me lift the module into positon…..then all that remains is to hook up the power and run some trains

Here is its permanent home







and its ;present temporary location





………..that protruding rail stub can be really painfull………..not been a lot of room the last three months



This shows the yard entrance which will link to the back wall





Its a bit theatrical above but not quite so bad in real life……the buildings and backscene have still to be bedded in




The weigh bridge (complete with guard rail) is from Granby I  …….but the building itself was too small so this yard office is a heavily modified Scalescene small station.


The Ratio yard crane is now rigged





The gantry previously looked like this :





Rather too basic………………….so I added some more girders and a walkway surplus from a Ratio signal gantry





This doesnt bear too much close examination but hopefully will look the part from a distance





Here's one of those unique features of the GWR ( they were usually a little bit different) ………the yard pilot was invariably coupled to a shunters wagon , or runner.



Health and safety…….risk assessment?

No headlamp code on the front of the loco  because runner and loco were treated as one unit……with a single red light (unlike the red and white lights on Station Pilots)




The wagon itself is a Cambrian Kit…….probably one of the first I ever built……..and I am afraid it shows! Its a bit fragile and not very well built. Having done a few test runs I am a bit dubious about using it for prolonged automatic shunting………….but I did enjoy researching and detailing it.

Continuing with the theme of moving wagons about the yard………..I took Doug's advice and used Air Gun pellets as bollards!

Quite the performance buying them from a locked cabinet in the Hunting Section of Canadian Tire!





I only needed 8 so if any one could provide a good home for 292 hollow point .177 pellets please send me a PM


The wagons were moved, via the bollards and, in this case, a single capstan using steel ropes and  a short length of chain that hooked on to the sole bar of the wagon









Of course when all else failed……in those days…….two guys with pinch bars

Fabulous, thanks John.

Thanks John. Enjoyed that. I like all the small details.
A really good idea those air pellets.

Great work John - love the photo's:thumbs

Well done indeed! You said you had probably 'over-detailed' but like you it's the bit I like best and even subconsciously I'm sure the mind absorbs the details and uses them to help build build a sense of realism.

Looking forward to meeting up with Les tomorrow, for a serious discussion on 4mm telegraph pole insulators, or several cold beers, whichever seems most appropriate…..[It's about 80F here in Alicante at the moment…]

Doug

That's an absolutely fantastic result John.

It's a real hive of activity - as it should be.  I don't think you can ever "over-detail" a scene like that .  It calls for plenty of bits and bobs when you think of all the comings and goings when labour was so cheap.

Wagons arriving to be off loaded and trans-shipped.  Lorries taking goods out to the customers and briging packages in for onward shipment.  A tally-man making sure everything ends up in the right place and all the shouting and clanking of metal on metal.  You've created such an atmospheric scene. :thumbs

It's such a pity it's in a back corner.  Certainly good enough to make a stand-alone scenic feature. :pathead

I won´t keep piling it on John but I agree with everything that has been said. Brilliant effort.

Thank you all so much for all the kind words…….much appreciated.

 I probably spent rather too much time on this project…….but false modesty aside, I must admit I am pretty  happy with the end result…….When I started I had an image in my  minds eye of what I wished to achieve……and, in general, I think I  have been able to include all the elements I wanted and to create that  elusive atmosphere.

As you may have seen in Shunters Return this will be my last post for a while as we head off in the boat on Monday.

I thought I shouldnt leave you in suspense until September!

Yes the module fitted into the baseboard like a glove………..

There is no reason why it shouldnt have because it was built on the cut  off from the main line baseboard…..but I will confess to a frisson of  anxiety as my Son in law and I dropped it into place with grand daughter  below guiding the wiring loom.

So here it is with the main lines from Birkenhead sweeping into the Junction at Granby with the branch from Cynwyd



There were only a couple of issues……at some stage I must have  decided to re arrange the points in a more logical numeric  pattern……but omitted to renumber them …….so  there I was entering Point #73…..hearing the zzzzz of the Tortoise  but not seeing the blade of the point move…..for far too long I  thought the blade had jammed……finally I watched below the baseboard  and saw that #73 was totally static and #76 was moving  sweetly…….grrr….a swift reprimand to self for gross carelessness, a  couple of amendments and we moved on with everything now functioning  correctly

Sadly paper on the uncoupling magnets didnt survive contact with the  enemy……as Ron foresaw the hook on some of the coupling was just  sufficiently low to scrape the paper off

Final snag was revealed when I put the warehouses back in place




Actually its not too bad in this shot but in real life the roof of the  warehouse and the frame of the backscene are definitely not parallel ……..the  module is absolutely level and I now vaguely remember that the frame  was slightly (?) out of true when I glued (!!!) it in place some years  ago……………never thinking at the time there would be such a long  continuous datum line so close beneath it!

The next job is to add some more backscene to connect everything up…….guess whats in the modelling box on the boat!