EXPO-NG 2008

I had a great day out at EXPO-NG today. This year I was not exhibiting a competition entry, or any other layout or stand for that matter! So I could enjoy the show. Some superb layouts as always, and plenty of 009 layouts. You can see all my photos here

It was good to meet some friends too, and see the competition entries for the 40x25 challenge. I didn't hear who won, but there were some original ideas as always.

I picked up a few odds and ends, but I didn't spend too much money. Well, apart from one thing that is! I put a deposit down on a Paul Windle Hunslet 0-6-0. The down-side is that Paul is so busy that I will have to wait until next May before I see it! In the meantime, here's a picture of the "demo" model:

Backscene and factory yard

As the picture above shows, the factory and yard is largely complete now. The Metcalfe buildings have had a fair bit of work (painting visible card at the corners etc.) but they do look good, I think. The wall and yard gate are made using the extra brick-paper and doors supplied with the kits, the gate-posts are styrene and painted to match. A gate across the siding will be fitted at some point.

Mike Beard pointed out that the cobbles should run parallel to the tracks, however being a cramped and oddly-shaped site this would have been very fiddly to arrange, plus the track is not quite straight. However the cobbles are parallel to the buildings and those between the rails parallel to the rails, I think it looks OK. And I took great care to ensure the surface is just below the rail tops - even outside the rails! They were painted grey with enamels and then given a couple of washes of green/black acrylic, wiped away to represent dirt between the setts.

Both pictures show the completed backscene, using Townscene backgrounds. Some of the foreground buildings are mounted on card and stand slightly proud of the backscene proper. Any edges are blackened. They do seem to blend well with the buildings as I had hoped, although the town is looking larger and more important than I had envisaged!

Let there be light!

I've just had a week off from work, and although having a small toddler to look after and some family days out (I continued his education with a trip to the Bluebell Line) I have managed to find some time to work on the layout, and make progress on several fronts.

The most obvious is the lighting. This consists of two 30W tungsten strip-lights inide the pelmet, as shown in the photo. The ply wasn't thick enough to screw in to, so I stuck them in place with a hot-glue gun. The tin foil (pre-crinkled to diffuse the light) reflects the light and prevents the wood getting too hot. I left the lights on for several hours and the ply was just warm to the touch. They are wired to an in-line connector so the mains lead can be removed, then to one 3-amp fused plug.

The lighting may be simple, but is very effective as the picture below shows. Tungsten light gives the impression of a bright, sunny day, but that matches the blue sky! Othe progress that can be seen is that the ground contours have been built-up, at the back using card to raise the houses and yard areas, and with expanded polystyrene at the front of the layout. I also carved drainage ditches into the cork beside the track. Although essentially a flat area, the subtle changes in level are important to avoid the flat-board look!

On Saturday I went to the Worthing MRC show in Lancing. You can see some pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/campbellsonline/2008_09_Lancing#
There were some good layouts, some average and a few looked unfinished. Trade support was the usual Hornby and toy cars etc., no Squires this year, but I did manage to pick up some odds and ends - chimney pots for the station, some second-hand books, and another Townscene backscene. This has some house and shop-fronts that will enable the backscene to come together, so that is my next job.

One year on!

So, here I am exactly a year on since I started this Blog, and just over a year since I cut the first sod (wood) on this layout. Despite the distractions of family life, and other commitments I have (like going to work), progress has been reasonably good. The photo's below show that the track is laid, painted, ballasted, wired and working (you'll have to take my word on that, bar one or two gremlins). Also the sky is in place and I expect to have some roofscape shortly, the main buildings are all but complete (except the engine shed), and I've just started cutting Wills granite setts for the factory yard. I expect the inset track will be fiddly!

So how much remains to be done? Well other than finishing the structures and backscene, the scenic ground cover is the obvious thing. Gravel in the yard and by the goods shed, a slight grassy rise to the house-backs, over-grown waste ground to the front of the layout. Also walls, fences, gates, etc. Then it's down to the details - packing cases, a crane in the yard, lamps, road vehicles, people! In addition I still need to fit the lights into the facia, stain/varnish the plywood, make up further fiddle-yard cassettes, and possibly even make legs to support the layout for exhibitions.

While the layout is being built for home use it has been designed with exhibitions in mind, and indeed has already recieved it's first invitation. Well, OK, it is the Sussex Downs group members' day (7th March next year - hope to see you there!) but nonetheless it gives me a deadline. After 2 previous attempts at the EXPO-NG challenges I said I'd never build to a deadline (ha!), but at least it concentrates effort! Actually the layout should be fairly complete by then, even if lacking in some details. I'll also need to find time to service / paint / build some stock too!

Now, as for the blog, well it has been rather enjoyable posting the occasional updates on progress, plus a few other topics. I try to do at least one update a month, and that is another factor in encouraging progress! It seems that the blog has had nearly 3000 different hits since I started tracking it, so obviously there are a few of you out there taking an interest! (I don't think it's my Dad looking at it 10 times a day!) so thanks for your interest, and your comments. Though I am still waiting for inspiration for a name for the layout, so give me your ideas please!

Experiments with magnets for uncoupling the microtrains couplings have not come to a conclusion yet. I have found that the cupboard latch magnets from Homebase are weaker than those from B&Q, so I need to pop to B&Q at some point! I also need to see if I can widen or extend some of the oblong holes in the ply baseboard under the track - not an easy job now the track is laid!

I recently bought some tiny (2mm diameter x 2mm long) Neodymium magnets off the web (www.first4magnets.com). These are very powerful for their size - but not powerful enough! I hoped to place them in the ballast between the sleepers but the field is not strong enough. Bigger magnets would work I'm sure but would be harder to hide, plus the postage rather prohibits experimenation.

Still I have made some progress by painting the rail sides - I'll need to give the sleepers and ballast a wash of dirty brown too, but I will have to touch up some of the ballast first. Now I just need to clean the rail head!

I have also made a start on planning the townscape on the backscene. I have some Townscene town-scape prints which need cutting around the skyline and pasting onto the sky. The photo below shows them mocked-up (not properly trimmed!) to see what works. I'm not sure how best to stick them on, avoiding bubbles as I had with the sky. Pritt-stick, wallpaper paste, or spray adhesive?

Holiday Snaps

The last post rather gave the impression that I spent 6 weeks wiring up the layout! Actually it probably took around 10 evenings of work, between 1-3 hours at a time. Still a fair ammount of time I guess, but at least the layout is small enough to be up-ended on a small table in the lounge and worked on sociably / in front of telly.


There have been other distractions in the meantime, not least a weeks holiday in Wales back in June. We took rides on the Ffestiniog (of which I am a member and used to volunteer many years back), and the Padarn at Dinorwic, we also took a trip up the Great Orme by cable tram, though as you can see from the photos I managed to snap a few other lines in passing.

Wiring Complete

Well, finally the wiring was completed last week. There were a few teething problems, the main one being that I had forgotten to cut the copperclad on the sleepers at the baseboard edge! Other than that a point motor going the wrong direction, and a couple of forgotten wires, were easily fixed!

At the baseboard joint I didn't want to have to have a plug and socket - apart from the extra hassle there simply isn't space, the way the main board slides snugly into the alcove. So I soldered to the ends of the final extra-wide sleeper a couple of brass squares, the ends folded down and the inner corners folded up to a Vee. On the fiddle yard I soldered brass wires to the copperclad sleepers to make contact with the brass plates when the boards come together, the way the board slots into place makes this work surprisingly well.

Also on the fiddle-yard I soldered brass sheet strips to the cassette-end of the lead track, this makes contact with the copperclad strips accross the ends of the cassettes.

So all works well? No, not quite. Test running has shown that while the Microtrains couplings flick over as they pass over the burried magnets, they don't actually uncouple when coupled up! I've used these magnets under the track fine on Pen-Y-Bryn Quarry, but not here. I'm not sure why, perhaps the granite ballast is too dense? I've chipped some away but little improvement. Maybe the Homebase magnets are weaker than the B&Q ones? I don't know how to address this problem yet ...