It couldn't be put off longer.  I have completed the ballasting of the main lines and the rest of the depot.  I can now concentrate on the design of an engine shed to replace the Metcalfe kits.  While I muse on the design I have a brass etch kit of a church to build.


  

Very nice. It’s really coming along. 
That kit near the end of the video looks incredibly complex! I struggle with 00 gauge stuff!  Good luck. 

[user=2057]TeaselBay[/user] wrote:

Very nice. It’s really coming along. 
That kit near the end of the video looks incredibly complex! I struggle with 00 gauge stuff!  Good luck. 

Thanks very much Chris.  I hope the kit won't be too bad.  The main thing will be folding it accurately.  I will only get one shot at it.  Stephen

It took a while for various things to arrive to help with the build of the brass etch church.  While I waited I decided to address the look of the very front of the layout, and particularly where the wires emerge running from the point motors to the lever switches.  I also show the materials that will make the roof of the four road engine shed that I am going to scratch build.



   

In tis vide I complete the installation of the wall at the front of the layout, and the landscaping work on the line side of it.  I sent the train cam down the line to see how it looked from track level.  I also show me building the brass etch kit of the church that I bought from Severn Models.

As promised in the last video I have a go at painting the brass etch kit of a chapel.  I also removed the island platform at the main station to adjust the platform ends to stop them fouling on the 8f, which involved a lot of creaking around under the layout.  Finally I show the new buildings for the gas works which I think are more in proportion to their surroundings.
[/yt]

To bring up the century I show the emerging design for the Engine Shed that I want to build.  I also demonstrate how a Good Train is received at High Elven.  In honour of the 100th episode I compare the layout as it has developed since the first episode with the original plan.

 

The last couple of weeks have been spent refining the design and construction of the wall panels for the engine shed.I have also had a go at painting a Kestral kit of a bungalow that may well save me a lot of work in building the dwellings for the workers a High Elven.  Train cam also gets a short spell in front of the camera in response to requests for me to show what I use.

[/yt]

 

Elvenhome

(Click to enlarge)

It has been a while since I last posted in the forum, but Alan's encouragement to take a look at the revised forum has encouraged me to start posting again.  In the two years since I last posted quite a bit has changed.  This is a picture of the layout as it stands.

I am currently working at the far end of the layout on installing a canal and canal basin with a timber yard that will sit below the village of High Elven which is the terminus for the branch line.  This is a much revised area of the layout.  First the area for High Elven has been cut back.  The board for the village covered the whole area where the canal basin now sits.  I also finally had to accept the viaduct that had stood there for five years had to be scheduled for demolition. It was early scratch build  It served its purpose but it was beginning to show its age and my inexperience as a scratch builder.  Although I couldn't have known it at the time,  it had also been built with too tight a radius and was also too narrow.  As I bought new rolling stock and locomotives, particularly a 9F and a 8F, I was forever having problems with derailing or bridge strikes. I couldn't keep gently moving the track any longer.  A new bridge was built which also required a relaying of the whole curve to make all the radii gentler.

As part of the redesign at this the end of the layout I took up the Gas Works that I had installed and raised the level of the base board up to that of the surrounding area.  The Gas Works was reinstalled but this time, with more experience and confidence, I think have been able to do a much better job of it, including have it connected to the railway.  I have also been able to match, as much as you can in an N scale model the key elements of a town gas works (what I don't now now abut the process of making town gas simply isn't worth knowing).  Putting the Gas Works in allowed me to put pavements and street lights in, including some working traffic lights to control a blind bend.

Settling on the arrangements for the bottom end of the layout also allowed me to complete the depot.  In my last post I was in the process of building the Engine Shed for the depot.  That is now complete and in its place including its lighting

I also, as a consequence of the width of the 9f and 8F again, had to replace the island platform of Weathertop station.  I had already installed a Market place outside the station fitted with lights, and with the station platform needing to be replaced, and with more confidence now in fitting lighting on the layout, I fitted lights in the station together with people and other things on the platform.

I am still doucmenting the build on my channel on YouTube and putting up vidoeos roughly every two weeks. I will continue to post updates in this thread.

Finally a picture of the layuot wiht subdued ambient light so you get a sense of the lighting so far installed.







 

Good to have you back Stephen, nice pictures 👍

The links to your YouTube channel are not working in your old posts as unfortunatley they didn't convert when transferring to the new forum software, so could you post a new link to your channel please.

Ta



Ed


 

I've fixed up the last few video links - the others can be fixed or used by adding "YouTube" and removing the [yt] at the front.

I'd i can find a way to do them on mass I'll fix them all up

Great to see you back Stephen. All your videos SHOULD  be linking properly again. If anyone isn't  seeing them please let us know 👍

Cheers

Matt

Barchester said

Great to see you back Stephen. All your videos SHOULD  be linking properly again. If anyone isn't  seeing them please let us know 👍

Cheers

Matt

From “Post #287,621”, 2nd May 2023, 1:59 PM

Thanks very much Matt, that's very helpful.  

Great videos Stephen and welcome back.

spurno said

Great videos Stephen and welcome back.

From “Post #287,652”, 4th May 2023, 6:15 AM

Thanks for the prompt Alan

After my last video I continued to having problems getting the point motors at High Elven to work with the Train Tech DCC unit.  Something had to be done to bring the performance of the points up at High Elven to the consistently reliable standard of all the other points which are on a AC circuit fitted with a CDU.  But what.  All is revealed in the video.  Doing this gave me less time to get on with the scenic work in around the canal basin.  I did get something done and I am rather pleased with the result.  One of my Pannier Tank engines has been sat up at Sharkey's End station since the line to High Elven was lifted.  It is time to let it run in between two Auto coaches, and for the LMS Fairburn 4MT Tank engine to take the suburban service around Elvenhome.

I have started mocking-up the road down to the canal basin and working out how that will relate to the hillside that will sit above it.  I've also been painting some 3d  prints figures now the two gentlemen can deliver their piano to the church school.

In the last video I explained my approach to blending the raised area around High Elven with the canal basin below it.  A comment from a subscriber suggested a different approach which is simply brilliant, and I explain what I am now going to be doing.  Also, in response to my last video when I mentioned the problem with the new PECO wagons and the NEM pockets a number of people told me about a conversion kit that Dapol make.  I respond to that in this video also.  Two Sonic J50s get to run around, line astern, on the mainline, while the main running session has a Midland Pullman and the Coronation Class Duchess of Norfolk in BR express blue in service

With the arrival of the 3" foam sheet I could make what will be the main part of the quarry face to see if my idea for creating this will work.  I am pleased to say it will and I give you and idea what it will look like in the video.  This has also allowed me to work out what work needs to be done, and in what order, to complete this last part of the layout to need major structural work.  There remains a lot of detailed work to be done of course.  I have also filmed me using the Dapol 'East-Fit' NEM Conversion Kit to replace the coupling pockets on old tooling PECO wagons with NEM pockets.  For reasons unconnected with the kit itself things didn't run entirely smoothly, but it was still and easy and straightforward job.  I also allow two of my sound fitted locos to do battle.  An 8F with a rake of Stannier Coaches, and an A4 (Seagull) with a rake of Thompson Teaks.

The Dapol NEM conversion kit looks very fiddly Stephen, well done 👍




Ed