Finally gettiing out of my system.

Thank you Peter.

Terry

[user=711]col.stephens[/user] wrote:

Anyway, back to the goods shed.  How to cast a smidgen of light onto the front of the shed?  What if I could redirect some of the light coming down from the pelmet? Maybe a small mirror to reflect the light? How would I fix it in position so that it wouldn't be seen?  On the rear of a building?  The mirror idea was a non-starter simply because of the difficulty in obtaining one so small.  In any event, I didn't want a building obscuring the view of the goods shed.  


If not a building, what?  I needed a small structure which was large enough to hold a small reflective surface of some kind.  I was thinking laterally by now and the answer came to me - ballast bin!  Would it be possible to make a lineside ballast bin which could hold a small strip of reflective material?


A quick search of the RM Web revealed a thread on 'chippings bins' in which the prototype measurements of a Southern Railway bin were kindly provided.  Out came the card and it was a quickly built and given a coat of acrylic paint. And the reflective surface? A strip of very shiny silver plastic from the bag in which the LEDs were packed! Recycle and save the planet!

I cut a small gap in the low embankment at the front of the layout, opposite the goods shed and glued the bin in place.  A small amount of ballast was glued at the base of the 'mirror' at the front of the bin.  Here is the bin in position looking from the rear of the layout…

And the contents of the goods shed gently lighted. Not brilliantly lit but just enough to see the goods…

More soon.

Terry

Sheer genius!!!

Doug

Praise from 'The Master' is praise indeed!

Thanks Doug, much appreciated.


Terry

Apologies for not posting here since December last.  There have been one or two changes recently.  I was pondering over the goods yard wondering how I could introduce a cattle dock to add more interest to the layout's operation.  But where to site it?  I realized that, if I moved the goods shed towards the end of the siding, I could put the cattle dock alongside using part of the baseboard where the goods shed had formerly been sitting.  Fortunately I had only applied glue to two diagonally opposite corners of the goods shed and had made pencil notes on the blank rear of the shed to remind me which were the corners in question.  It was a simple matter to push a small flat-bladed scraper under the shed and gently prise it off the baseboard with no damage.  The shed was resited.  


 I made the cattle dock from card covered with Scalescenes' papers.  The fencing and gates are a commercial item which I had picked-up from a second-hand stall at a show.  The fencing adjacent to the ramp at the rear was made from styrene strip with wooden posts, left over from the post and wire fencing previously used on the layout.  I must admit, it is all very cramped but then the scenic section is only six feet long, but it will give me an excuse to run some cattle wagons.  I am toying with the idea of making a false floor with cattle thereon, which could be placed in position or removed as required when a cattle wagon visits, in a similar way to the coal heaps previously modelled for the coal siding.
 
Previously, I had only installed uncoupling magnets in front of the goods shed.  Now, of course, another set would be required in front of the cattle dock.   I retrospectively fitted the magnets as I had done once before much earlier in this thread.  So, this is how things were looking…

Of course, moving the goods shed meant that the small reflective ballast bin previously modelled, also had to be moved and the resultant gap in the scenery made good.

The thought then struck me that I might fit a yard crane somewhere in the goods yard. But where?  After pondering the problem I decided that the solution would be to move the coal office to the rear of the layout, ironically it's original intended position, and site the crane in the vacant space.  

After a struggle I managed to remove the coal office without causing too much damage.  The rear at the foot of the building suffered some damage from the tools employed but it is not visible from the front of the layout.  It was glued in place against the rear fence of the yard and I am now thinking that it probably looks better in that position.

I finally put the finishing touches to the painted backscene.  You might remember that I had decided to paint the backscene on a roll of canvas using acrylic paints.  Basically, it's a nine foot long scene.  This was a first for me and I wasn't too sure how it would all turn out.  I gingerly put the completed backscene in place and was disappointed to see that it tended to dominate the layout.  I decided to remove it again and cut one inch off the bottom in order to lower the horizon and I feel that this has greatly improved the look of the scene.  My intention was to give the feel of the land rising towards gently rolling downs in the mid-distance.  Hopefully the backscene gives some impression of this.  I must say, if nothing else, it's nice not to keep looking at the shed windows as a backdrop to the layout. The absence of 'corners in the sky' is rather refreshing too.  As to holding it in place, I simply resorted to pinning the top edge to the rear boards and secured it to the end boards with small bulldog clips. 

        The next job is to get the yard crane constructed and see whether it fits into the scene.

More soon.

Terry

Somewhere there is a museum that needs work of this quality….

Douglas

Thank you Doug, very kind of you.

My wife says that I belong in a museum!

Terry

This has shaped up very well! Your foggy backdrop is beautifully real-looking.

Thank you.  The foggy look is more to do with my rubbish phone camera than any artistic endeavour.

Terry

The yard crane has finally been constructed.  It is a Wills Kits crane on a card base covered in Scalescenes' brick paper.  After much thought I decided to put it on the site formerly occupied by the coal office.  This involved removing the loading gauge as it would obstruct the (imaginary) swing of the crane jib.  The only place with space to take the loading gauge is the goods shed siding, just near to the cattle dock. However, I assume that most goods departing from the goods shed would be loaded into vans, therefore no requirement for a nearby loading gauge.  I may remove it altogether.  Here is the yard crane in situ…

Hi Terry,            What an excellent model.I've just discovered this layout and I can't believe that two of my favourite layouts on here are now Southern(yours and Gwyvers),as I'm a staunch GWR/LMS man who barely tolerated the LNER and SR.I must be mellowing with old age I suppose! :lol:

Cheers,John.B.:thumbs

Thank you John.  Very kind of you.

Terry

Hi Terry.   Now I realise that it is not as good as making your own, but, have you seen DCCconcepts working point rodding ? And it isn’t so much fun either, let alone  the cost.  Best wishes Kevin 

Hello Kevin.  Yes, I have just come across the DCC Concepts point rodding.  My first impression is that the cranks are a bit overscale, but I may be mistaken as I haven't seen them in real life.  As you say, it would be fun to actually operate the points prototypically.

Best wishes,


Terry 

Hi Terry.  Thank you for your reply. I must have put my comma in the wrong place. I actually meant that it was more fun to make your own, as you regularly show in your threads. Best wishes Kevin 

I decided to abandon the idea of having a loading gauge.  That has now been put away for another day and another layout.  However, I have been making progress with the point rodding.  It isn't quite finished yet but I thought I would report on the progress so far.  Strictly speaking, as far as I am aware, being a Southern layout the point rodding should be of the round type, they originally being gas pipes as apparently, Stevens & Co. were originally a gas company before becoming involved with the railways.  To my mind the best looking point rodding on the market at present is the Wills' product.  It is probably slightly oversized for 4mm scale and is very fiddly to work with but looks good when fixed in place.  Unfortunately for Southern modellers, the rodding represents the square type (in reality an inverted U shape).  But life is too short to spend the rest of it fiddling around with point rodding so I opted to use Wills' product.  And very pleased I am.  Here are some pictures to give a flavour of the work.  Obviously it hasn't received any weathering yet.
 
The facing point lock looks so good that I decided to leave the cover off. Shame to cover up all that detail.  Whilst I was at it, I removed the spring and plastic cover from this Peco point which I think improves the look of it.  I must remove the ends of those ugly fat sleepers and get rid of those holes.


A compensator inserted mid-way along the run of the far rodding.

 

The problem of how to take the rodding across the baseboard joint.  I inserted small pieces of styrene beneath the rods and splashed solvent over them.  A dab of paint will soon render them invisible, although in real life they are not very noticeable.


The compensator for the nearer rodding.



So as not to have to model the array of cranks in front of the signal box I opted for the dodge of covering the rodding with a walkway.  1mm card painted with brown acrylic paint.  Job done!


General view of the point rodding snaking its way along the layout.  The sharp bend near the point doesn't look so sharp when viewed from the front.

More soon.
 
Terry

More icing on the cake Terry and it's looking simply scrumptious in a most delightful way.

 Wonderful modelling.

Best,

Bill

Thank you Bill, very kind of you to say so.

Terry

Nice work Terry…. the backscene is great. I’ve stood on platforms with that kind of view.

Hi Terry.   I possibly may have said this before? But, to me I cannot see any compromise with your layout. I have been Faffing around for five years, admittedly I haven’t been concentrating on Inglenook Junction ( which has seen many changes) ,but, I have never built a layout with scenery on it before. Just plain track running round in circles with a siding .   Best wishes Kevin 

Thank you both.

Terry