Goodbye Awngate, hello Hexworthy

A big event happened at the weekend. Awngate has moved on to a new home. It's been growing on my mind for some time that I would have to dispose of the layout in order to make room for Hexworthy, I just don't have space to keep it safely. So when someone at an exhibition last year commented how they'd love to buy it if I ever sold, I said I'd give them first opportunity when the time came. And that time has come.

These are the last photos I took of the layout in the condition it sold, with the original cassette fiddle yard. I have to say I've been very pleased with the way Awngate turned out, an excellent home layout with plenty of operating interest in a small space, and has shown that a small well-presented layout can reside in the house, it has also proved a good exhibition layout.

In fact it was my first "proper" exhibition layout, rather than a micro or Expo challenge, and although primarily intended as a satisfying home layout it was designed with exhibitions in mind. The plaques show it has attended a good number - including some of the top NG shows - though I think there's at least one plaque that never got attached, and a few shows without plaques. Who knows, the new owner may exhibit it too.

Awngate was also the seed that started this blog, with the idea that blogging as I went might encourage me to make better progress. I think that's worked, and it's been great hearing from people who say they read about the layout on the blog. It's also nice that many people have commented at exhibitions or online about how they like the layout - that's a great encouragement.

So maybe I should feel sad about moving on from Awngate, but I don't. I've had my enjoyment from building and showing it for the last 11+ years, and I am happy that someone else can get some enjoyment from it, rather than it deteriorating, being broken up, or worse - ebay!

Meanwhile the shelf in the dining room has been filled by Hexworthy. Out with the old, in with the new. Hopefully this will mean faster progress with the layout?

Awngate in BRM

Awngate is featured in this month's (well, September) edition of British Railway Modelling. It's always nice to see my work in print, in this case 6 pages featuring some fine photos taken by Phil Parker.

SWING Narrow Gauge & Industrial show

Yesterday I took Awngate a short trip down the coast to Littlehampton for the SWING industrial and narrow gauge show. I was ably assisted by my chief train driver.



We did suffer some problems with the fiddle yard, the wiper contacts are not working too well. I may have to re-think that, but I don't yet have a better solution. There were also the few troublesome trucks, but mostly the layout performed well, and received some nice comments.

The show was at a new venue, the Littlehampton Academy, which meant all the exhibits were in the same hall, a big improvement over the last venue I thought. The style remained the same, a varied collection of layouts covering narrow gauge and industrial themes - though there was even an Irish broad gauge layout - and good trade support including NG specialists and both 009 Society and 7mm NG Association society sales. I did get a few photos although unfortunately I didn't get a program or list of layouts, so I don't remember the names or builders of most of them.



Both the trophies - voted for by exhibitors, and by visitors - went to this live steam SM45 layout Hambleden Valley Railway. Most live steam layouts are all about the trains with some token scenery, but this was a detailed scenic model railway that happened to use actual steam power, running was smooth and realistic by radio control too. I guess you could say it is more prototypical than most layouts.



Bridge over the Blythe is a model of the Southwold Railway prototype, and a fine example of railway in the landscape modelling, it's hard to believe this is 2mm scale.



I liked this US industrial layout, Red Hook Bay, full of finely detailed scenes and the waterfront is superb.



Another type of waterway, this canal lock on this 7mm scale layout called (I think) Mulldale.

More photos can be found on Flikr here.

Lighting with LED's - experimentation

I've been looking into LED lighting for layouts for some time, with the build of Hexworthy underway. They offer distributed light in a light-weight flexible format, with low power consumption and heat output. There are potential pitfalls though, I've seen layouts far to dimly or unevenly lit, or worse still, with an unnaturally blue light (I've even seen a layout actually lit with blue LED's!).

One problem is that "white" LED's are not often white, the options seem to be "cool white" at the bluer end of the spectrum (6000K), or warm white (3000K) which is much more yellow. I find the cool white is too blue, and while the warm white is more preferable it is rather too yellow - more Mediterranean than British! However I recently found that it was possible to get "Natural white", which at around 4000K is somewhere between the two.



So here's what I bought:

• Natural White 4000K SMD 5050 LED strip, 60 LED's per meter (link)
• A 12V 2A Power Supply Adaptor, which should be good for about 2m of LED's (link)

The adaptor came with a socket fitted with screw terminals, allowing easy connection of the LED's. I cut about 50cm of the LED strip and stuck it to a strip of foamboard to experiment.



This assembly was then roughly taped to the lighting beam above Awngate, at a slight angle towards the rear, to see how it looked.



The result looks good, the colour does look "natural" to me, and while far less yellow than the tungsten strips used on Awngate, it does not have the blue tint of cool white LED's. Placement may be better - objects near the front are in shadow - and shadows are a little harsh, but otherwise light distribution looks OK.



The effect in a darkened room looks good to me. I wasn't sure if it was bright enough at first, so how does it compare to the existing lighting?



This shows the layout lit with the LED strip on the left side, and the existing 30W tungsten strip lighting the right hand end (the one at the left end is switched off). The difference in colour balance is obvious, the tungsten light is much more yellow - cheerful and summery perhaps, but less realistic. Brightness seems reasonably consistent to me, although the LED light may be less well spread, and shadows are perhaps a little sharper. So a 12" deep layout may be adequately lit by a single strip of LED's, but using more lights and possibly use of reflectors and diffusers might spread the light better.



I also got this dimmer switch (link), mainly because it was so cheap. I wonder if it may be helpful if adding more LED lights to dim down to what is needed. Also I suspect that the small power supply I got will do for very small layouts, but I may need to get a bigger power supply for larger layouts. More experimentation to follow, but I am happy with the colour balance of these lights.

Awngate at the Wealden Railway Group Show

On Saturday I took Awngate along to the Wealden Railway Group exhibition, held this year at the Lancing Parish Hall. As usual it was a friendly show with a good selection of small layouts, and lots of friendly faces to talk to as well. Actually between talking and running the layout I didn't take that many photos - at least, that came out well. Still, here's a few of my highlights.

Nice to see Chris Ford's Art of Compromise, built with a few compromises but it's a refreshing change to the usual GWR branch-line, and would make the basis of an interesting home layout. Chris has managed to achieve his usual less-is-more deserted backwater feel. I think it's deliberate but maybe he just doesn't like adding figures? Anyway, it works. 

Giles Barnabe's Salop Street packed a lot of operational interest into a small space, with a dose of pre-grouping character, another OO layout that is very different to the typical - and I'm sure the better for it. 

I do like Simon Hargraves' sewage works O14 layout, but then I like short trains of skips with small i/c locos. Nice textures too. The photo might have looked better if he'd remembered the backscene though!

Another layout I like and haven't seen for some time is Felsham Lane by Greg Dodsworth. O-16.5 but in a surprisingly small space while fitting in plenty of interest.

There are a few more photos over on Flikr, including the Loo branch (groan).

As for my layout, I had to contend with a few gremlins. A couple of isolating sections didn't isolate - that is they were on whichever way the switch went. Still at least they failed on, dead track is harder to work around. Also some of the wiper contacts to the fiddle yard played up too - yes I should have cleaned them beforehand but they worked in testing! Still neither was fatal and other than some misbehaving wagon couplings the trains ran well enough.

On a more positive note, one of the friendly faces took some serious photos for a potential magazine article - it's flattering to be asked, so I shall have to write something I guess!

Awgate exhibition prep

With an exhibition coming up for Awngate some preparation was needed. The large exhibition fiddle yard relied on brass wiper contacts to the layout, while this works fine for the small slot-on home fiddle yard they proved vulnerable and unreliable for the larger one. So I'd decided to add a wired connection.



As you can see, both layout and fiddle yard had an RCA audio socket fitted, which have 2 coaxial connections and are easy to solder wires to. They screw into thin panel material so I had to mount them in some plasticard and screw that in place. The connection is then made with a short lead; the lead and sockets can be bought cheaply. My plan is to fit the same connector to Hexworthy and to Hexworthy's home fiddle yard too, to maintain fiddle yard interchangeability.



The layout got a good vacuuming, to get the dust off the scenery (surprising how it builds up) and spiders off the fiddle yard (from storage in the garage). Then some extensive playing testing was endured to check everything worked. Running was surprisingly good* without cleaning the track thanks to graphite previously applied, however I've added a little more graphite to make sure.



*If you don't believe me I've posted a video of a loco (with an old style N-gauge chassis) running slowly when I hadn't cleaned the track or added more graphite, or in fact run the layout properly for many months!

As for the exhibition, well if you are near Lancing this Saturday drop in to the Wealden Railway Group show and say hello!

Pevensey Bay Heatwave

At the end of last month I took Awngate to the Pevensey Bay exhibition, and how remiss of me not to have reported back! Generally the layout performed well, but I did have an unusual number of unplanned uncoupling incidents - something the Microtrains couplings don't normally suffer from. It was a fine summer's day, which meant it got rather warm inside the village hall, and I wonder if that was a factor - weakening the springs or reducing the friction perhaps. At one point I also had an isolation switch which was on in both positions... but was working normally a few minutes later.



No problems with the locos though, and here's the new Hudswell Clarke making ready to depart with a passenger train.



Although not a large hall it was packed with layouts. Next to us, and the winner of the public vote, was Salzgrabe, an HOe salt mine scene, by Andrew and Simon Chant. It had 4 separate circuits with trains running on each, plus loads of details and working features. My son commented that it wouldn't be interesting to operate (I've trained him well!), that's true but it's an exhibition crowd pleaser and nicely done.



Eastbourne Remembered was a very small, simple, but interesting tram layout of the long-gone Eastbourne trams, by Derek Smith. I didn't even know they had trams! Although listed as OO it's clearly 009, and I notice from the photo that the controller is built to look like a tram controller!



This fine P4 layout is a model of Seaton by Simon Harris. The scenery is well done but really could do with some kind of backscene, the locos and stock is excellent.

That's just a few highlights, there were lots more excellent layouts and I was happy to see Narrow Gauge well represented, so feel free to browse more photos of this event.

In The News

A good few months back I'd responded to an appeal for articles for the 009 society magazine, 009 News, by writing a short piece about Awngate. I'd forgotten about that until I opened a brown envelope today to find my layout featured - including the cover photo!

Also featured in this issue is Edge, by my friend Chris Ford, so it's a good month for small layouts. The 009 news is a top quality magazine, so if you're interested in narrow gauge modelling in the smaller scales do join the 009 society!

Getting Dirty

With the body colour airbrushed I opted to brush paint the remaining colours, it really didn't seem worth the effort of masking up when the job is easy enough with a brush. Smoke-box, footplate, hand-rails, and chassis frames got a coat of matt black but with a little grey and brown added to soften it. I find the Humbrol black doesn't harden well either for some reason, so mixing it with other colours helps get a good finish. The red bufferbeams were painted white first, to give a good base for 2-3 coats of red (which typically gives poor opacity). The inside of the cab was painted a slightly dirtied off-white. Finally a little dry-brushing of gunmetal on the handrails and cab steps gives a little life. The colour still seems bright though.

The first step of weathering is a dirty wash mixed of black and brown to taste, and well thinned. This is liberally washed over the model, and within a minute or two lightly dabbed or wiped away with a piece of kitchen roll or cotton bud. This leaves oily shadows around details like the boiler bands, and can be used to create streaks and accumulated dirt, it also darkens the colour (depending how strong the mix and how many coats are used) and can tone down a shiny finish. A little dry brushing can emphasise some streaks.

Looking better already, but for more depth and texture I use weathering powders, stippled on and worked in, then brushed off, with a stiff (cheap) paintbrush. Sooty black is applied to the tops of the tanks, boiler, smokebox, and cab roof, while a grey/brown is applied to the lower edges of the body panels and worked up. The direction of brushing can cause streaks, while working powers into crevices can add effect - such as the coal dust around the bunker and the gap between bunker and tank. Applying the powders is easy and quick, they can be repeated or wiped off to get the effect you want. At this stage the appearance is very dusty, and slightly over-done.

The final step is the coat of Testors Dullcote varnish. I find the stuff excellent, and easy to get a good finish. As can be seen the weathering powders are toned down a little, but also sealed so they do not mark or come off with handling. The varnish gives an even, flat, almost but not quite matt finish that is most lifelike I think.

Finishing involved assembly of the frames and the cylinders to the chassis, then the chassis assembly to the body, which was surprisingly fiddly. I checked the piston rods moved freely and coated them with graphite, and ensured the chassis was running smoothly at each step - at one point the flywheel was rubbing on the cab front but I don't think the chassis was aligned properly, there's now a piece of card between motor and cab to ensure it doesn't happen again. The cab roof was fitted with a few spots of PVA glue on the tabs I'd soldered to it, though it doesn't seem to want to sit perfectly over the cab sides, the vacuum pipes (which I'd painted separately) were added with a spot of superglue. Finally the worksplates were stuck on (with PVA) and a crew added - Dapol figures that I'd painted at the same time, and treated with a dirty wash wiped off to give shadows to clothing.

It's surprising how much the paint has darkened and the loco has taken on life as it has been weathered and detailed. The end result looks at home on my layout, and the Minitrains chassis runs sweetly too, so I can see this being a popular choice with the loco crews (even if it isn't clean!).

As a close, while I was checking the layout and locos for the Pevensey show this weekend,  I couldn't resist a line-up of the locos used on the line. The Hudswell Clarke is centre front, with the other non-tramway locos, the centre and rear lines have the skirt-fitted locos. There are a mix of shades of green as well as other colours, and different levels of weathering, but somehow they all fit well together.

Awngate at Pevensey Bay

Next Saturday (23rd July) I'll be taking Awngate to the Pevensey Bay MRC Exhibition. I've not been to that show before, but from the website there will be a good few layouts, and lots of narrow gauge!

Time to check out everything works, including the exhibition fiddle yard. If you get along to the show do say hello.

A New Camera

I had a minor disaster over Christmas. My camera slipped out of my hand while I was sitting on the sofa - but it hit a lamp stand with it's lens on the way down, and that was the end of that. Grrrr...

So I went camera shopping, though the January sales were disappointing there were some offers. While a DSLR or bridge camera would be better for model photography I need a versatile compact camera to serve as the family/holiday camera too, and a limited budget, but there are some good compacts these days with many features previously only found on more expensive models. In the end I chose a Canon Powershot SX710 HS; the 30x zoom lens (yes, really) will be nice when out-and-about but the manual control options are useful for photographing models. Not that I know how to use them!

Of course I had to have a practice, and here is the new camera pointed at Awngate. I don't often use a tripod, but to get some good shots of the layout it's very helpful. As well as the layout lights I've set up a florescent lamp; good light is really important for photography but using the flash really doesn't work well here. I mean it when I say I don't understand all the settings, but I've picked up a basic understanding, so here I've played around with exposure times around a second, and a low ISO number for image quality, while adjusting the manual focus, and letting the camera do the rest.

And here are some of the results. I'm rather pleased with them, particularly the depth of field (that is, the range which appears in focus), which is always tricky with model photography.

However, don't get high expectations for the pictures on this blog, a new camera does not a professional make, and anyway the Auto mode works very well too!

Awngate at the Croydon Show

So, how did it go? Well, the new fiddle yard did play up on the Saturday. After some confusing symptoms, I think the main issue was just the nut coming loose from the pivot bolt, which is also an electrical connection. It certainly worked fine on the Sunday, and was much easier to use under exhibition running than the cassettes it replaced.

The layout ran well though with little attention. The new locos got plenty of running, and other than some couplings playing up (despite extensive testing some will always misbehave) there were no stock issues.

The show was nice and friendly, with a good selection of layouts. I do like Portchullin by Mark Tatlow, the scenery is superb and it has real atmosphere, despite being a P4 standard gauge diesel DDC with sound layout!

Narrow gauge was well represented, with 5 layouts in total. Puero Pasco in On30 by Giles Barnabe is a little different, being based on an imaginary Caribbean island, making for rather busy operation.

John Thorne's 009 layout Bottle Kiln Lane is always popular at shows, and is packed with little details.

There are more pictures here.

Now with the layout back home and set up in the dining room I've reverted to the compact version of the cassette fiddle yard. I don't operate intensively at home, and my wife had made comments about the larger fiddle yard...

A Coach and some wagons

The upcoming exhibition at Croydon this weekend, to which I am taking Awngate, has pushed me to finish some projects that have lingered on the workbench.

A little while back I briefly featured a coach I'd started building. It's a Five79 kit RC810 for a Dundas Tramway coach, nicely moulded and went together very easily - until I got stuck with the couplings. A bar is provided to attach Bemo type couplings to the bogies, but that wouldn't work with the Microtrains couplings I use. I didn't need them attached to the bogies as the couplings pivot, but the wheels are so close to the end of the body mounting the couplings behind the buffer beam would foul them. So the kit sat half-built while I pondered what to do.

As is often the way with these things the solution was simple. I added a "coupling block" to the buffer beam from plasticard, which provided something to mount the coupling on so it didn't foul the bogies. Such "outboard" coupling blocks were not unusual on narrow gauge stock, even the screw protruding slightly gives the impression of a coupling pin.

The coupling mounting arrangement is clear seen from the underside. In front is one of the four bench seats for the interior - a nice moulding that if available separately, could be put to many uses!

After the couplings were sorted it was a simple job to complete the build and paint it, weathered to a slightly grubby state. It could do with lamp tops, and passengers of course - but for now it is serviceable. It's a moderately tall vehicle but not long, and fits well with on the layout - ideal for mixed trains I think, with a few wagons and a goods brake van.

Talking of wagons a few have been knocking around the workbench - another RNAD van and Bagnal open, plus a couple of opens from the second-hand sales stand, they're less detailed but provide variety. I like NG goods trains to have a mix of wagons.

But I don't like wagons to be too clean! A few minutes work with a wash of acrylic "dirt" and a dusting of weathering powders really tones them down, the opens could now do with some loads. I'm working through fitting couplings, and checking/adjusting them on much of the stock ready for the weekend.

Attachment

A few more pictures of the new fiddle yard, showing how it's attached to the layout. I'd managed to make it the same width of Awngate (20% by design 80% luck I think), so I was able to use the split-hinge method. These make a very strong and rigid join, provide good alignment, and are quick and easy to join and disconnect.

One hinge is attached to the back of the layout, quite high up, and at the front another was attached lower down - this explains the "pillar" at the front corner. I removed the "wing" from Awngate to fit it - it will be refitted over the top.

The original fiddle yard made electrical contact via wire wipers touching contact pads on the layout, so it made sense to use the same method for the new fiddle yard. I've used strips of brass, though I'm not convinced they are strong enough, but seem to work for now.

Finally a view through the fiddle yard towards the layout, I've allowed plenty of finger space between each track. The front track is aligned, meaning the back of the deck is only just clear of the wall to the right.