Eastern Region themed mainline

It has been several months since my last post and progress has been slow. Although I have done a little more work around the station area, my main focus has been on acquiring the track, laying it and then wiring points in the fiddle yard. Without this I have nowhere to store the longer passenger trains and operations are a problem without removing trains from the track. The work on the fiddle yard is now complete and this marks significant progress for me.

 The fiddle yard is designed to take the longest trains – 8 – 10 coach passenger services behind a big A4 or A3 Pacific, as well as local trains of shorter length. I also had in mind that in the future I might turn this area into a mainline station and thus I have configured the tracks to allow eight platforms, some goods sidings and a shed area.

  Â Here is an overview.

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  All the points are wired in and this has created a significant bank of Kato point levers. The track diagram is for Tempsford; I am working on another for the fiddle yard:

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Thoughts are now turning to finishing off the scenic station area and starting on the landscape.

    Bob K
  

Gulp - that's some switch bank Bob. :shock::shock:

Looks very professional and tidy too.  Not a bit like my switches ……………:oops::oops:

I like the size of the yard - gives loads of potential to stop any tail chasing, although I suspect that's not such a problem in N gauge. :thumbs

like the size and layout of the fiddle yard you should get loads of enjoyment from it
:thumbs;-):cool:
Owen

Impressive, Bob.  :thumbs

Yes quite a row of switches. There are five spare, which will allow for some point work in the shed area once that is developed. Kato do make it easy. The points are pre-wired and a single lead from the point simply passes under the board, resurfaces and plugs directly into the switch. The point switches in turn plug into each other to form a bank and the complete bank of switches plugs directly into the controller.

So it is just one wire from each point and no wires from the switch to the power source.

The points themselves are super smooth and as a bonus if they are set incorrectly a trains running against them will not derail; it simply stops just short of the junction.

Although expensive, they are not too bad when you think there is no need to buy a separate point motor.

Bob

That fiddle yard will make a grand station Bob. Glad to see you are making steady progress.

Aren't those Union Mill's locos strong performers?

[user=19]Marty[/user] wrote:

That fiddle yard will make a grand station Bob. Glad to see you are making steady progress.

Aren't those Union Mill's locos strong performers?

Yes, they are excellent and very smooth too. Price wise they are good value compared to the, admitedly better detailed, Farish and Dapol offerings.

Bob

Time for an update. The main effort has been to revise the area of Tempsford station by bringing the land up to the level of the platforms. This was achieved using a combination of foam board and filler. The pictures below show the revised area; the chalk marks defining the edge of the tarmac:

Still watching, Bob.   :cool:

Looking forward to seeing the scenery develop around the station Bob. What have you used for the tarmac surface, just grey latex paint?
cheers

Marty

[user=19]Marty[/user] wrote:

Looking forward to seeing the scenery develop around the station Bob. What have you used for the tarmac surface, just grey latex paint?
cheers

Marty

Hi MartyAt the moment the surface is painted with grey emulsion from a DIY store sampler pot. I am not sure yet how I will represent the tarmac. Putting down grit in N gauge does not work too well, so may well find a good matt paint and weather with powders etc. Would welcome any thoughts.
Bob

Bob, I use a dark grey acrylic from a sampler pot & then with various grey weathering powders, smudge it after it is dry - seems to look OK to me.

I've used a similar process to Sol…. although my choice is acrylics which I blend black, white, burnt sienna and cobalt blue. Once dry, I brush weathering or chalk powders over it until I get what I think looks right. Crushed dry tea leaves and saw dust make a good leaf litter for road edges if you feel like it or vegetate over the edge of the road. 
You did a lovely job of the N scale layout you made in Liberia… I'm looking forward to more progress on this one. 

cheers

Martin

[user=606]Sol[/user] wrote:

Bob, I use a dark grey acrylic from a sampler pot & then with various grey weathering powders, smudge it after it is dry - seems to look OK to me.

Looks good Ron - that is the kind of effect that I was thinking about.
Bob

An update, following some work on the scenic area around the station. Following Sol's suggestion I have coloured in the tarmac areas using pastels and chalks, added some fencing and vegetation. It is beginning to come alive at last:


The coal yard:






The goods yard


The station forecourt:

It looks good, Bob.   :thumbs

Yes ,looking the part now Bob.

Beginning to build up the land.

I have begun to make a start on the land around the station, which I would like to depict as rolling hills, with a small stream or river. For the base I am using sheets of expanded polystyrene, cut to shape using my trusty old hot wire cutter. This is an excellent device that allows this material to be used without making a huge mess:



I have laid about a third of the foam, which will be smoothed off using a cheap filler, after which it will be painted with cheap DIY emulsion:

That will save some work - and some weight.   :cool:

Nice station Scenics… I'm quite :mrgreen: as I'm still to get a station properly bedded in after over 10 years of modelling.
Hot wire cutter… hmmmm… off to surf the interwebs for a "how to make your own". Shouldn't be too hard.

Keep it coming Bob, your making me think. 

Cheers

Marty