A popular layout back on YMRC

Another day - another couple of hours work.  The lighting is going in and the road surface is slowly being reinstated.  It's a multi-stage process requiring the soldering and taping of electrical connections, gluing the taped blobs to the sub-surface, holding the wires in position with PVA and then adding the roadway (fine ballast) in two or three thin layers each in turn sprayed with dilute PVA and allowed to go off before the next goes down.  New weeds have been added alongside the road.  The new lights are seen in working order though the focus hasn't done me any favours.  







Also in the same work session the down platform loop track has been ballasted and a few other spots made good; this is all glued except the patch at the platform end where the bracket signal has to go back.  That in its turn has shown itself to be beyond re-use having been knocked and broken multiple times over the years and will be replaced by a kit already in stock.  The paint can and other heavy objects on the up platform are to hold the plastic down while the glue goes off and hopefully holds it back flat against the baseboard.  The latest Bachmann class 47, newly arrived here and lightly weathered, hauls a short rake of Mk2 carriages through the down platform loop where some buildings have been temporarily replaced to give a sense of progress to the works.

B*****y council they are always digging up the road!!!

Was it not possible to drill right through the layout and wire from underneath?

Looking good but who ran into that traffic light?

[user=1938]The Q[/user] wrote:

B*****y council they are always digging up the road!!!

Was it not possible to drill right through the layout and wire from underneath?

If functional lighting had been on my agenda eleven years ago when the layout was built then maybe I could have wired from underneath.  The road bridges the fiddle yard and is now inaccessible from the underside.  I can get a hand in to clean the hidden tracks (just) but not to carry out delicate and upside-down tasks like drilling small holes and wiring.

The original lighting was non-functional but I decided to fit working ones when I had to do replace the first road surface.  That was printed card which had been munched by slugs.

[user=644]Campaman[/user] wrote:

Looking good but who ran into that traffic light?

A number of people have suggested it's been hit.  I could create a little scene with a crashed car up the pole but I already have something similar elsewhere with the van run away downhill into a dry-stone wall.

The bent pole is actually to improve both sighting and clearance at an awkward spot where the road narrows for the bridge.

A couple of hours this afternoon saw the roadway brought back to a much-improved state though not yet finished.  Yes, that's a bus on the bridge ;-)



Some new Peco hedgerows in the fields opposite the pub and a general refresh of the groundwork as well as the road itself.



While the road surface mix was out I also relaid the car park surface at Penhayle Bay which was starting to crumble away.  I'm not happy with some of the white lines; these need to be re-done.  The open-top bus is on its last week of operation for this season; after Easter Monday it retires for the winter (here) until November.



After ballasting the track yesterday the new platform facings were glued in today.  These are stone rather than brick.  Mk1 used stone, Mk2 and Mk3 used brick.  I happened to have far more of the Vollmer stone than the Faller brick sheets in stock so with enough to complete the job in one go I opted for stone once again.

The road is back in and the pub forecourt and car park surfaces are reinstated though not yet white-lined.  At least the outdoor table for the thirsty can go back into position though it might gain an umbrella before too long.



In other news the up platform has been shaped, fixed and has its facing stone sheets glued on.  For the first time ever platform 1m the branch bay, which faces away from the viewer has fully-modelled stonework.  In all previous versions it has been been left as bare plastic or wood on the grounds that it cannot be seen.  It can be seen by a camera or a mirror!

The workbench has been busy with new Shire Scenes brass etches for the totem nameplates blackened, a delivery of Dart Castings ground disc signals likewise and numerous other bits and pieces of signalling kit have been spruced up.  The Dart Castings will have the discs painted white (with a red band and two coloured spots for the lenses) before they go on the layout to replace less durable Wills / Ratio plastic versions of the same.  

New self-adhesive pre-cut totems are awaited from Trackside Signs which should be an exact fit on the etches.  The platform surface card sheets are also still awaited but once arrived should go down very quickly.  With the platform surfaces down everything such as lights, signs, buildings and people else should be able to go back equally quickly and the station can re-open for traffic.

A little more go done today.  That "bent" traffic light doesn't look quite so odd when seen from the approaching driver's point of view.   



Footpath starting to go back into place - first fit of a card-print Metcalfe product cut to shape.



And there's a welcoming light in the bar once more.



The first of the Dapol working semaphores has gone in.  All three have had their arms shortened and consequently repainted to ensure the white / black bars are in the right place; posts and ladders have also been painted to remove any "plastic effect".  It's not yet wired up though the job looks quite simple.



Clearance is quite tight but adequate.  The tracks here are on a gentle right-hand curve meaning more clearance is required to the left than the right to manage rolling stock overhang.

Today's effort has been frustrated by the non-arrival of the platform surface sheets.  I need those to go down before refitting everything above platform level.  There's a lot of other jobs to attend to however including the installation of the Dapol signals.  Of the three locations planned it has not been possible to fit them in two; one is too close to the edge of the board and would require a long bore through (and weakening) the supporting strut for fitting and the other is in a location where the line is carried on a box riser which cannot now be broken into without doing major damage.  So one is up in the sand dunes as planned, one is now the Treheligan up section signal alongside the clay works as shown above and the third is now Treheligan up main home.  

The latter has been test-wired, illuminates but does not lower and raise.  I probably have the wrong sort of switch - the instructions say a "push to make" which equates to "passing contact" in my mind but maybe I'm wrong.  Here it is visibly showing its red aspect through the lens and with some idea of the works going on around the station which are progressing well - apart from needing a package to arrive!  Just visible in the "six foot" is one of the new Dart Castings white-metal shunting discs which has replaced a damaged Ratio one.



The roadway now has its footpath laid in formed of several layers of card topped with stick-on Metcalfe pavers.  The pub beer table has a new umbrella.  The white rocks have returned to their places.  All that remains here is to detail the greenery around the footpath, build up the road surface alongside the kerb and to mark some white lines.





In all this work the actual running of trains has not been forgotten nor have the pretty pictures!  A single-wagon load hardly taxes St. Blazey-based 37669 as it leads the Polybulk homeward into the evening sunlight.

The roadway has been fully restored.  Passengers may safely await buses, sheep may safely graze.  Well all right - cows may safely graze.  Detailing today included painting white lines, brushing some weathering powder onto the footpath to remove its paper-like appearance and relocating the various dramatis personae





The view below shows how this scene bridges the fiddle yard which is hidden from view if looking at street or track level (seated or crouching for us 12" : 1' scale folk) but is readily accessible when standing normally.



There's nothing odd about that traffic light now, is there?  It all depends upon where the viewer stands.



Other work has included weathering the track which was disturbed in the rebuild (and which still requires a little final detailing in a couple of places).



and sundry other patches such as the new groundwork around the Dapol signals.  This one is the Treheligan up main home.

That trackwork and ground looks fantastic!

Thank you Mike.  

I just took a look back and compared yesterday's view in post 189 with today's in post 190.  Quite a difference.  It shows what weathering does for a model.  

All that's left to do is wait for the sprayed PVA to dry at the platform ends, which have had fine black ballast laid to represent oil / ash drop, and brush that over with grimy black powder.  Then just a dash of weedy green alongside the down platform loop where the ballast meets the bushes and Hey Presto!

I now have seven days at work so don't expect a lot more to be done in that time.  Next Monday and Tuesday I hope to be able to get the platform surfaces laid, brushed over with weathering powder and then I can re-fit the lighting.  Once that is in the buildings and signs go back and we're in business once more.

Looking good Rick :thumbs


Ed

Thanks Ed

We're almost back in business!  The station may not be complete but the track and groundwork almost is.  Trains can run once again.  The branch junction, the goods and the new main line signal post with the branch goods passing by







And for the first time in months there was a Western idling gently to itself at the clay works

The railway is looking rather splendid Rick and I've only just noticed how the clay-works and the associated weathering works really well. In fact, the weathering of stock and buildings generally on Penhayle Bay contributes greatly to it's appeal. 

You must be pleased and also to be working trains again. Well done.

Bill

Thanks Bill.  It's been a great boost to once again have trains running around the full circuit after much of the summer season here when they have been confined to out-and-back runs over half the layout or to lapping via the fiddle yard to avoid the station works,

The fiddle yard itself needs a little attention but that is lower on the list as it's not part of the scene.  It is partially visible by visitors but even that might change by next summer.  I have a vague plan afoot to cover it with easily-removable poly-blocks which will act as heat insulation, dirt and dust protection and possibly carry some scenery.

If I do that I then have to concoct a system to identify the location of each train within the yard; currently that's done by sight alone so if they go out of sight ………

Of three newly-fitted Dapol "working" semaphore signals only two actually work.

It took me a couple of attempts and a little help to understand the wiring - which isn't really complex but more a case of the instructions being less than 100% clear for a wiring idiot - after which I found the following:

One signal worked as it should.
One lowered the arm but the motor would not raise it - the motor was heard trying to lift it and it could be restored with the lightest finger touch.
On made no motor sound and does not work at all.

I now have two correctly-working signals and a dead one.  The one which would not raise the arm has been fixed by backing off the plastic lock-nut by a quarter-turn beneath the baseboard.  Having that securely tightened seems to have just pulled things out of line sufficiently to prevent correct motor operation but is now rectified.

In order to run trains until I obtain a replacement for the dead one I'll place a man with a flag beside it to represent a failure.  

I'm not overly impressed with these signals and it seems others have had similar experiences.  Common complaints are that they don't work or cease to do so after a quite short time.  They don't look quite as realistic as the Ratio kit ones they replaced in two cases though are an improvement on the ancient die-cast Crescent one which featured in the third location.

Working semaphores on Penhayle Bay.  This is the one which didn't replace to "on" until its mount was tweaked.

For the non-working Dapol signal this is the current method of passing trains …..





This situation is likely to remain for some time as I quite like the added ouch of reality and I'm not in a hurry to repeat my experience with these signals though this one does need to be swapped for a working version.

Bet that chap's arm is going to ache by lunchtime Rick


Ed