I was going to link to a Facebook video but it didn't work.  All I get is white screen with sound.  

John

Brossard said

I was going to link to a Facebook video but it didn't work.  All I get is white screen with sound.  

John

From “Post #287,649”, 3rd May 2023, 9:51 PM

Think this is one for Jay breakage , John.

For YouTube videos you just past the link and it embeds in your post.


Ed

Brossard said

I was going to link to a Facebook video but it didn't work.  All I get is white screen with sound.  

John

From “Post #287,649”, 3rd May 2023, 9:51 PM

Can you send me the link to the facebook video and I'll do some testing - suspect FB embedding may just not be supported but I'm happy to take a look.

Enough wingeing for now.  Here's a pleasant interlude:

I have in mind to build a small layout based on Scalescenes Canal Dock kit.

I decided a suitable loco was needed and found one at a very good price:


Dapol's lovely Sentinel.  Came with DCC sound and is very good.  I put a stay alive in it.

Well, not quite, the livery is wrong for what I want to do so….


I repainted and lettered it

John

Thanks for that Breakage.  I wanted to comment on the video content.

First the loco, not mine but my friends and bought second hand.  It is from Lionheart and is of metal.  I tried to make it look like it may have appeared ion the early days of BR.  I added a smokebox number and painted out the buffer beam numbers.  When received, it did not have topfeed and since locos at this mostly had the feature, I added.  The dome was made by making a plasticene mold from another pannier (my friend likes panniers for some reason) and using epoxy.  I also had to add the piping.  I have pictures of panniers well into BR that still had the GWR branding.

The wagons are mostly kits from Parkside and Slaters.  The Iron Mink is RTR from Minerva.

Note the turnout in the video.  You will see that it switches slowly as a result of the Wabbit stationary decoder.  Also note that there are two tiebars which is prototypical.  Turnouts are mostly handbuilt.  I used actual wood timbers from Intentio and chairs from Peco.  Chairs adhere to the wood timbers very well using MEK.  I got the tiebars originally from JLTRT but they're gone now.  The JLTRT range was picked up by MM1 but that site is also down now.

There is one Peco Y turnout at the layout entrance.  However I modified it get rid of the silly box (not every turnout was FPL) and add the correct tiebars.  The blade spacing was also improved.  Blade spacing is the worst feature of Peco turnouts in O and OO but I suppose they have to cater for everyone.

Couplings:  one of the frustrations when modelling in OO was the terrible couplings.  I standardized on Kadee because it seemed to be about the best in terms of reliability and ease of installation.  I am delighted that in O I can reasonably used 3-link, instanter and screw link couplings.  It's still a bit of a faff sometimes but the appearance makes up for it.

John

I can't see the video


Ed

Ed said

I can't see the video


Ed

From “Post #287,691”, 5th May 2023, 6:20 PM

It's working fine for me on all browsers and mobile Ed.

Ed said

I can't see the video


Ed

From “Post #287,691”, 5th May 2023, 5:20 PM

Working for me Ed.  Both Edge and Firefox.

John

Got it working.

Browser Settings, Tracking Permissions. has to be set to 'Balanced'.


Ed

Just come across this thread, John. Brilliant trackwork. Just as well you're too far away to get dragged round to my place. :-)  Layout as a whole is looking really good too.

Thanks Pete, it's taken me long enough.  I tend to go in fits and starts.  Just now I am manically trying to finish ballast and add other features.

Amazing what an incentive a deadline for a show gives you.  I will exhibit at the beginning of June at a local venue.

John

I set a goal that track related work would stop at the end of this week and that is what has happened.  Ballast has been finished (for now) and the track has been weathered.

I took some pics this evening:


This shows the scenic break.  Making the over road was huge challenge (for me anyway).  Basically a Scalescenes scratchbuild.  My friend insisted the road be curved and had I known how difficult it would be I might have pushed back more strenuously.  Still it looks pretty good.  The grass is preliminary and more needs to be done, including static grass.


The upgraded dairy/creamery.  I increased the width so that it is close to the backscene.  Also added the sign so we know what we're looking at.  The back wall does look a bit sparse so we discussed today the addition of retaining walls between the extant wall and dairy and between the dairy and Water Tower.  This might not get done immediately but will go on the list for the next tranche of work after the June show.


Not much to report here except again the sparseness of the rear of the scene.  Discussion today was to make a kind of berm to raise the ground and add some fencing.


This shot shows the station and also the repositioned and reconfigured cattle dock.  Also note the yard crane which is from Peco and turned out really well.


A view of the Goods Yard complex.  The crane again.  Also the coal merchants office.  I need to fix the wonky sign.  The old goods store (modified Scalescenes kit) and the new goods shed that is from the LCut kit using Scalescenes elements such as bricks and roof.  It has gutters from Evergreen half round and downspouts from brass tubing.  Weighbridge in the right foreground.

My buddies have been on at me about how they hate the backscene boards.  Today we looked at some photographic backscenes and discussed repainting the board tops with light grey/white to simulate cloudy sky.

John

I am going to try to focus on the station for the next while.

Today I made up a couple of station seats:


These are, as you can probably tell, are etched brass.  All the components had to be sweated together to make a double thickness.  The bench legs are actually triple thickness with a thin etch with the GER logo sandwiched between two regular thickness etches.

A bit fiddly but at least I got it done.  I struggled a bit because my soldering iron tip was on it's last legs and it wouldn't transfer heat very well.  Happily I have a new one on stock so I hope we're good to go.

Two more to do.

John

I want to talk about lights.  Some while ago I realized that I didn't have any lights for the layout.  So, I set about getting some.  Now, I'm not one for working lights.  My operations are all done in the daytime so no need for illumination.  However, I realized after looking around that you will have a hard time finding non-working lights.  Some of the working lights I found are shockingly expensive.  However, I found Layouts4U and discovered their lights are really not at all expensive.

I have 4 types of light:


Street lamps for my village scene.


Double headed yard lamps


Single headed yard lamps


Station platform lamps.  These last are stunningly fine.  I tried to build up some Kemilway etched station lamps a few days ago and gave up in disgust.  I found these lamps quickly and they look remarkably like the ones I was trying to build.

The lamps are brass construction so quite robust.  I don't like leaving things sticking up on the layout when it is being transported but it looks as though I will need to install the lamps permanently.

I was puzzling over how to connect 3V LEDs to the DCC bus but I watched a video where the chap said that it can be done with 2K resistors in series.

He also mentioned a power distribution board and I found one on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07RXQZJB3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So, I will be venturing into undiscovered country.  I'll try to put the lamps in but wiring will have to wait until after the show at the beginning of June.

John

Platform seats are done:


Nameboard is made from the Scalescenes customizable station signs pack for Eastern Region.  There are other packs for more regions.

https://scalescenes.com/product/r001a-station-signs-and-posterboards/

John

Looks great.

More pictures to update my progress over the last while:


I completed this NE water crane today.  It is from Mike's Models and is very good.  Also very heavy as it is cast white metal.  Not sure of the availability of MM these days but I note Skytrex has similar models in 4 and 7mm.  The "bag" is a length of heat shrink tube.  I didn't like the black cloth supplied.



I'm not sure if I showcased the lovely Dapol signal before.  I added a stationary decoder so it works off DCC.  The performance is great and the arm actually bounces when falling to "danger".


Here is my second water crane.  We had a discussion and decided that it should be platform mounted.  I couldn't find a platform example so I cut this down.  It took a few goes with putty and sanding to get it right.

I made a box to hold it and cut a slot in the platform so it can be inserted.

Also visible is the canopy from Lcut, a fiddly exercise.  I made the station sign from Evergreen strip.  The print is from Scalescenes customizable signs pack.


Finally!  On the home stretch for the level crossing.  Just a few more details - like the road.  Need to decide whether to fix the gates permanently open to road traffic.  The line past the crossing is abandoned as part of BR rationalization.

The gates towards the rear are scratchbuilt since the kit (Skytrex) only included one pair.


I don't think I've shown these buildings properly before.  They are Scalescenes terraced houses and corner shop.  I used foamboard for the structure which is easier to work with than thick card.  House windows and doors are bespoke from Intentio.  Doors and windows for the shop are scratchbuilt from Evergreen strip, a very tedious job.  I STILL need to add chimneys - no excuse really I have them.  Need to do something with the shop interior too.

I added spear fencing to the platform.  This is from Fretcetera but I only had one pack which is not enough.  More on order.

John
 

I put 4mm instead of 7mm

All looking good, John. So much detail can be got with 7mm. I like the heat shrink tube idea for the water crane.