Ah yes Pete, I do like the additional detail.  Most of the things on the layout, Scalescenes, Lcut, Skytrex and Mikes Models are available in 4mm too.

John

I'm still trying to get as much done as possible before this weekend's show.

Today I finalized the level crossing:


I decided to lock everything down since the layout has to be transportable and gates flopping about wouldn't be good.

I've also been making retaining walls:



These are simple things, just Scalescenes brick glued to foamboard.  Besides gluing, I secured them to the board by toenailing toothpicks behind.

Here's the view down the layout again:


The 3F and Cl 20 are leftover from last night's test session.  There were a few minor issues which were sorted quickly.

I will be receiving some photographic backscens tomorrow, or so the PO says.  These will look so good I think.  Also expecting more spear fencing soon so I can finish the job on the station.

I've had the bright idea to build some low relief house backs from the Scalescenes kit:

https://scalescenes.com/product/t005a-low-relief-high-street-backs/

My other bright idea is to make them 3/4 scale, just like the Coronation Street set.  Going to be interesting.

John

All looking really good, John. I'm sure you'll get plenty of attention and positive comments at the show

Looks brilliant John, really like that level crossing  


Good luck at the show.



Ed

Nice clear pictures John,i've used a couple for the puzzle.

Thanks Alan.  Just a simple and ancient Olympus camera.

Cool to be a jigsaw. :party:

John

A good weekend was spent by the club at the show.  I managed to get some pics:


Class 08 with mixed train.  SR CCT and two cattle vans.


Uncoupling for shunting.  A simple tool, steel wire with a hook on the end inserted into wooden dowel and taped to a torch.


Sentinel shunting.


Overall view of the goods yard.  Jinty is preparing to make up a train.

More to come.

John

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Glad everything went well at the show. They're some more good pic's.

Great pictures John 👍


Ed

Hmm, could have sworn I made part two of this post yesterday, must have run out of bandwidth.  

Oh and if a mod reads this could you delete the last picture in my previous post.  It is poor quality and try as I might I couldn't get rid of it.

So, on to more pics:

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Here we have a lovely 0-4-4T of the North British Railway.  A lucky find on eBay.  

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I like building kits so took on the commission to do this NBR brake van.  It is from Connoisseur and etched brass.

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The NBR goods departing.  Pre grouping wagons are hard to find and these were bought second hand.  They were in poor shape but I took on the job of refurbishing them.

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Here's the milk train, hauled by the Terrier.  The LNER  utility van is etched brass from D&S.  It is supposed to carry churns and other dairy products.

John

Today, my friend and I got on with pasting the photographic backscenes to the painted boards.  Wow!  What a difference:




Next job is to install and wire various lamps.

John

Coming along beautifully. A credit too all your hard work. 

Last week I set myself two goals.  First was to get my lamps sorted and start installation.  There are a lot of lamps and they needed to have resistors spliced in as well as extra wire length added.  All very time consuming and tedious.

Second job was to add a "faux" viaduct to the end backscene.  This was done using a blown up Scalescenes kit (R017).  The team was over on Friday and pics were taken:


This is the best I think.

Lots of ideas thrown around on how to make the end of the layout better - we'll see what precipitates out.

John

Like the lamps John  



Ed

Yes Ed, a big step forward for me to have working lamps.  They are a lot of work so I hope they live up to their promise.

John

For the last couple of weeks I've been working on the platform and the lamps for it.

I posted a poor picture of the station lamps earlier.  These came in maroon, which seems a standard colour for some reason.

I spliced sturdier wire onto them and added heat shrink tube at the base.  I then wrapped masking tape around the base at just the right dia for some brass tubing.  Holes were carefully drilled in the platform surface and the brass tube glued into the holes.  The idea is to make the lamps a slip fit into the tube.

Another big job was to rebuild the platform completely.  The old one was looking knocked about and the tipping point came when I had to shave 1/8" from the rear to stop some stock fouling.

I decided to use Scalescenes newer platform kit, R008a:

https://scalescenes.com/product/r008a-station-platform-with-shelter-and-lamp-hut/

So, today I was able to install lamps and glue the platform down.

I took a picture of the board all dressed up:


You can see the four lamps.  Painted brown and buff to make them look like GER.

I added strips of wood to frame the station building so that it looks like it is actually embedded.

Spear fencing was completed.

Note the two benches with "Balmoral Rd" on the backs.

Platform is truncated as I left the ramp separate.  The team suggests that magnets might be used to stick it down when the layout is assembled.  Another section on the right will be glued to it's board.

Finally the superb Gaugemaster backscene can be seen in it's debut.

John

Neat looking job there, John. An amazing amount of detail to be got in 7mm.

Oh I don't know Pete.  All the structures that I have used are available in 4mm.  One could replicate the scene here just as well in 4mm I think.

John

Brossard said

Oh I don't know Pete.  All the structures that I have used are available in 4mm.  One could replicate the scene here just as well in 4mm I think.

John

From “Post #288,172”, 12th July 2023, 4:01 AM

Not with my shaky hands I couldn't. :-)

The lamps look quite at home. Nice work on the station gutters and down pipes too.