East Coast Main Line - in the sun

Well a slightly different post today. Some progress has been made on the layout including painting and glazing the roof panels for the overall station canopy. The big news, however, is the arrival of the long awaited package from the UK. Some of the contents are shown below:



So there are coaches, pillars for the inner canopy supports, electronics from Digitrax and… and…

So a potted history. Order placed on DPD via ParcelHero on 13th March for pickup Monday the 15th PM. Email at 9 to say pickup rescheduled to between 9 and 2. Mum was out early to get back in time for the afternoon so was out at 10 when they tried to pick up. Pickup re-scheduled (at an additional cost) for Wed 16th and off it goes. Gets to Spain on the 23rd, comes out of customs only for SEUR then to mark it for return to sender. Contact DPD UK on 31st to find parcel is back in UK customs. Call again on the 7th April, parcel just released to DPD that morning and will be sent to Deliver Plus (who) for returning to sender. Check on the 8th to find it's now with DHL who have picked it up in Manchester, shipped it to Cambridge and then to East Midlands airport. Ring DHL to find what is going on - told it is already on a plane for Spain. Monday 12th get an email from DHL to say parcel is out of Spanish customs but I need to pay tax (approx £6) and tax handling charge (approx £18) before parcel will be processed futher. Finally got the parcel yesterday afternoon - phew.

Given the contents are worth quite a bit of money it's still been worth it but 1 month and 2 days and two trips to Spain it's a bit of a joke.

On the bright side Christmas has come early and I can get on with some of the stalled projects.

As Chubber would say…. “Huzzah!”
What’s first on the list to get on with?

And are you thinking filament or resin 3D printer?

Interesting journey !  UPS would have been about £35 door to door for a 40x40x40cm 2kg parcel. 3 day delivery and as far as I'm aware they only use thier own staff and trucks, no outside agency ? ( I COULD be wrong in that though)
Think you can do a drop off at a registered shop as well. I know people think they are expensive, but for an expensive parcel they are definitely worth a look as they are normally very reliable.

Not sure on tax and tax handling charge but asume this depends on whether its pulled up by customs

At least you have your goodies and can crack on with things  :thumbs

Cheers

Matt

Thanks for the comment both. In terms of 3D printer, Marty, it will be a filament one but at the moment I think I will get a new laser cutter first. 30W input, approx 6-7W output are now availabe at a reasonable price but the main thing is the 400mm x 400mm  cutting area as I am finding the 150mm x 150mm a bit restrictive. Also for some weird reason 2.5mm MDF is easily available but 2mm isn't and, you guessed it, I cut only cut 2mm even with extra passes.

From what I have read a lot of people are now being stung by this extra tax and "handling" charge for private parcels. Just a good job I only declared the parcel as being worth around £50 so it was taxed accordingly. Will check out UPS for the next one although the DHL 2nd run was also just the one company involved.

As you say at least I have the stuff. First thing is the Peco station columns and "adjust" either the wall supporting the station canopy or the canopy itself so that the height works. Did a quick check last night and I am about 3mm short on the columns. I will also fit the 2 x Digitrax combined auto-reverser and track detection modules to replace the existing Tam Valley units so I don't loose tracking on the trains. The only other issue is what on earth did I buy the multi-colour flat ribbon cable for - beats me.

Well only a little progress on the overall canopy. The supporting walls are now, in although they still need a bit of touching up. The canopy supports, which are not glued, sit in holes which stop them moving around but still allow for the canopy removal should it be necessary. Somewhere between me an the man at Peco there seems to have been a problem and I ended up receiving too few of the centre supports but more are on there way. The original idea was to fix them to the canopy but I think it will work better fixing them to the platform top so the canopy just rests on them.



So I would welcome your thoughts on which of the following options to choose, I think I prefer the second but see what you think.

Option 1 is leave the outer support legs as is:



Option 2 (the decorative panels shown are unpainted and a little thin but should give you the idea)



I think I will also run guttering along the length of the canopy with drainpipes every so often.

Hi Dave,

Your already impressive canopy takes on even more elegance with the lining of option 2 and is going to look so good with the bells and whistles added  :)

Best,

Bill

Sorry Dave but for me, there's no contest - Option 1 without the embelishments …. :roll:

It's looking really good.

I wonder - rather than the legs fitting into dozens of holez when you want to lift it off, could you fix it to the walls permanantly and have say, 3 or 4 locating pegs under the wall and lift the canopy plus walls off together…..?  :hmm  Easier to locate just a few pegs rather than all the legs and the wall would add loads of stability to the canopy structure in general.

I agree with Peter,and I think his idea regarding the walls and outer posts has great merit too.i think apart from providing a sturdier solution, the ease of replacing the two outer walls into a few peg holes would be so much simpler and stress free.
cheers,John.B.:thumbs

Hi guys. Thanks for the quick comments. Never thought of including the walls in the canopy structure, with pegs for locating would have been good - and easier. Unfortunately the walls are firmly glued down now so that isn't an option (unless I make the wall for a third time).

Dave

Firstly, may I say the canopy is very impressive - congratulations!

I would opt for version 2 of the sides - I think the embelishments finish it nicely.

Barry

Hi Dave,The canopy will be a very nice feature of your railway.  I would go for option one.

Fabulous canopy and I love how the laser cut terrace houses are starting to surround the station.
For the panel decoration some thoughts;

1. the Victorian era engineers were renowned for their design flair and embellishments. The early stations exhibit more detail and artistic flair than those built later on. St Pancreas is a good example, the vaulted train shed has had some of the roof support beams replaced during bombing repairs. The replacement beams, while conforming to shape and size, are far plainer. If your station represents a more modern, post war build I would think that the chance of having such decorations would be less rather than more,
2. will you see the decorative panels from normal viewing distance? No? Is it worth the time and effort?
3. how much more railway layout have you got to build? For you, Is it the journey or the destination? Could you add them later on as part of the never ending detailing of the layout and get on with something else now?
4. If it makes you happy to make and fit the panels then do it… that is all that matters.

Once again, envious of your developing station area, I can feel the railway terminus atmosphere growing. 

Keep it coming.

That is going to be one fancy station! Looks fantastic!

Thanks to all. Marty, thanks for the info and interesting questions. As with most people I guess, you start off with a goal - in my case, a big layout with lots of trains available all computer controlled and then you start the build. During the first couple of years it was great to get more supports and MDF installed and then the track and point motors. Moving on to getting the track detection in place and installing TrainController - all great challenges and just what I wanted. Loads of Metcalfe kits in stock ready to build so good to go - trains running through scenery before you know it. STOP. Someone then suggested a laser cutter/engraver so I bought a cheap one in Feb last year just before lockdown and now I spend all my time designing bits for scratch building. Funny how what you initially perceived as your reason for building the layout can suddenly veer off course.

Anyway back to the canopy. I think the embellishments will stay but maybe a slightly different design. In terms of Marty's questions: I think the canopy will be the main structure on the layout and at least one side of it will be clearly visible so I'll just do that side now. I have loads and loads more to do and at this rate it won't be anywhere near finished before we end up moving but I am enjoying the journey so that's the most important. As a long as I resist the urge to buy a 3D printer for designing my own fiddly bits the layout should at least move forward at a snail's pace.

That's the beauty of railway modelling Dave.  It encompasses so many facets that you can move easily from one to the other, as the urge grabs you.  If you want to dosome carpemtry today, you can, electrics ?  No problem.  "Play" trains - just do it ………..  Most non-modellers don't have a clue and think we're just grown-up children ……..

The only downside, as far as I can see, is that my desire usually far outweighs the contents of my wallet !    

Hi Peter. Not sure it's the contents of my wallet as much as justifying the purchases to the boss. Doesn't help when she remembers I have two new locos on order. The fact the Deltics have been on order with Accurascale and Rails for around two years now doesn't seem to make a difference. As you are also no doubt finding out, it can be a little more challenging at the moment getting supplies from the UK. Well more cutting to do…..

Well the new laser arrived yesterday so no doubt that's going to be modelling time on hold for a little bit. Going to make an enclosure for this one. Hopefully it does all I expect of it but the 410 x 400 workspace will mean complete building fronts can be cut in one job.

Anyway, on a totally different subject I have just been given four 3 aspect signals as the person decided his layout was better with semaphore signals. Can anyone identify the manufacturer as, although I have managed to get them working, a manual on what they can do would be useful.

Progress is very slow at the moment, the railway room is above 30 deg C so I can only cope with short bursts. Added to that, the new laser cutter arrived. An Atomstack A5 30W machine with a 410mm x 400mm cutting/engraving area compared to the 150mm x 150mm on the Neje. Given the "extra power" I decided the first job needed to be an enclosue to keep things safe.



I have to say I am a little disappointed with the performance but it's early days yet.

Other things moving forward, even it at a snails pace, are:

1) The overall station canopy now has one side almost complete. I have taken the decision to follow Petemac's advice and have removed the support walling and will fix this to the canopy with locator pins going into the baseboard. The coach is just to stop the wall warping in the heat.



2) The multi-storey car park is moving on slowly. I have to fit half a level at a time with the various waits for paint or glue to dry.



3) I am also having a go at modifying the german station kit I bought. The basic kit has gone together OK, obviously I will miss off the shutters but I just didn't like the roof sections. So I have decided to have a go at my own tiled roofs to make it a bit more British.



The jury is still out but I think it is better than the roof sections supplied as it doesn't have the massive overhanges.

Anway, hope everyone is staying safe and getting on with what modelling they can.

I think updates to the build are going to be coming a bit slower for a few weeks, It's 40+ outside this afternnon and I was just upstairs in the railway room trying to do a bit more but it's unfortunately now 34.7 deg C upstairs too. A dip in the pool may be the only answer. There is something to be said for a more temperate climate at this time of the year.

I've got air-con in my train room Dave  :tongue :tongue :tongue

Unfortunately, I'm not allowed in there until I've completed "the list" !!!

The last few days here have been hot but not oven like as you seem to be having …. :shock: