Scenic details

Just a quick update to show the progress over the last couple of days. The greenery has sprouted, with more ground cover and bushes, and I've added some fences - could do with more though. The people and details I've been painting have been finished and added. The wagons in the yard are those I have been working on too - just could do with some lead weight. Finally, the workbench is still busy - I've got some more wagons and coaches out of storage, for paint touch-ups and new couplings, so have been very busy. Just two evenings to go before the show, and I've not actually test-run anything yet! (well, not for a while!)

Layout Supports

Finally I got around to making the layout support trestles. This is something I have given a lot of thought to, as I wanted a support system that could be used for future layouts as well as this one. It has to be stable, easy to transport and errect, and capable of being built by me, as my carpentry skills are no more than average at best!

So I came up with a plan for two trestles, with two "beams" between them to support the layout. Made from approx 2"x1" (44x21mm) planed timber, with some 3"x1" and MDF, the legs pivot into each other using a bolt, and are held apart by a hinged beam hooked onto a screw. Simple, but it seems effective. Hopefully the photo's make clear how they work and how I made them.

I borrowed a power mitre-saw from a friend at work, which was fantastic as I had to cut some of the wood at an angle of 14 degrees. Yes, I had resorted to trigonometry! So that's why high-school maths is useful ...

Assembling the legs. I always use posidrive screws, drill a pilot hole and countersink. Powertools rule! The MDF was glued with no-more-nails too. MDF was cut outside with a power jigsaw.

As well as the layout supports, I made a bolt-on shelf for the back of the fiddle yard.

The design of the trestles is quite simple, seems pretty stable though. They are about 2' (60cm) wide, open to about 20" (50cm), and are about 43" (110cm) tall. This gives a reasonable viewing height for the track.

The legs assempled with the support beams, and the layout on top, note the shelf on the right-hand trestle. The beams are 4'4" (13ocm) long, so with some overhang they could support a layout up to 6' or 7' (about 2m) long. The layout just sits on the beams, with the fiddle-yard overhanging to the right.

The top of the trestle, with the rear beam (MDF strengthener upward) and front beam (MDF downward) bolted in place. Obviously they can be bolted anywhere to the trestle to suit different widths of layout, here the layout is only half the depth of the trestle. The MDF rib stops the layout sliding off. In theory the layout could be levelled by adding washers or packing between the beams and the top of the trestle.

The shelf is simply a piece of MDF with wooden blocks underneath it, which fit between the bracing on the legs. Useful for tools, spare locos, coffee cups ...

Click on the pictures for larger images. Don't ask me why the formatting has gone a bit wierd on this one, with lots of blank space ... anyway, on with the scenics ...

Painting

Once again I'm posting a blog from an Hotel room, this time in Germany! So not much progress this week, although I guess it does give me chance to update the blog! As I indicated in an earlier post, I have managed to do some painting recently, even just an hour or so of an evening means that some progress is being made. I thought I'd say a few words about my painting techniques, though I am not especially good at it! And all I know is what I have read or been told by those much better at it!

I generally use enamel paints, though I do use artists acrylics for scenic work, weathering etc. Enamels stick to most things with minimal preparation, but whitemetal and brass gets a coat of Halfords primer in the garage first. I always buy matt paints, well - usually! I never stir or shake the paints, instead I extract some of the pigment from the bottom of the tin using a matchstick, and mix in a suitable container, the Ferro Rocher chocolate boxes are ideal (you will need to eat the contents first!). This means that different colours are easily mixed, and the paint can be thinned as required with enamel thinners - I have a big tin and use a pipette (from Squires of Bognor). The big advantage though is that the paint does not go off, as the pigment stays unmixed under the oil, the tins last for years without drying out. I use dry-brushing, though it doesn't always work that well for me, I also do a lot of weathering using washes of well-thinned acrylics - after all, if it goes wrong it can be washed off the enamel base-coat easily!

The picture below shows this technique in use. The lower photo shows what is being painted at the moment - the collection of wagons seen earlier, the lorry and also a trailer and cart, and the people I got for Christmas. There are also some packing cases for the factory and some other details to be painted. Also in the picture are some Microtrains couplers I've been making up for the wagons, and a plasticard jug I use to assemble them.

Chaos at home ...

It's been pretty manic recently. After a plumbing leak a few weeks ago, we've had the decorators in doing the lounge, and the house has been turned upside-down. While it's nice not to be doing the decorating myself, it has still meant limited work on the layout. Having said that some evenings forced to sit in the dining room has provided the oppotunity for some painting! Also we bought a new Computer just before Christmas, which was great apart from a persistant fault. After weeks of wating hours on the phone to technical support, we've sent it back (tip - don't buy a Dell!) which has meant another distraction from the layout.


Before the builders moved in I did get chance to realign some of the uncoupling magnets, which should make them more reliable. If they are off-centre to the track both couplings swing the same way, rather than apart. While I had the board on it's back and the hot-glue-gun out, I tidied up the wiring. I used bits of wire tags, dozens of which seem to be used to attach children's toys to their card packaging, though the sort that come with freezer bags or just offcuts of wire would do. Attach them to the board with a spot of hot-glue, and when solid twist around the cables. This prevents them getting snagged when the board is moved, and keeps things tidy.

Last Saturday I took my little boy to the Brighton Modelworld show. It's the first time I've been to that show, and from a model railway point of view it isn't great. The layouts are scattered through the multiple crowded halls of the venue, however there were some nice layouts (including the Sussex Downs group's Everleight - sorry I didn't have time to help out guys!) and the other models - cars, boats, planes - were interesting too. My 2-year-old loved it, though I got pretty tired from lifting him up! Also taking photos was pretty difficult, so here are just a few shots to give you a taster.

Unfortunately, with a family do this weekend, and another business trip next week, I might not be able to do much on the layout. I do need to pull my finger out though, as the show is on the 7th March! I haven't even made the layout legs yet - but I have bought the wood!!

Cassettes

As mentioned last month I have also being working on the cassettes for the fiddle yard. I already had some from Pen-Y-Bryn Quarry but I need more, particularly for the longer trains on Awngate. I also had some of the trunking left over. This had originally come from Focus DIY, sold as trunking to hide central heating pipes it is plastic, about 1.5mm thick and around 50 x 25mm U section. This gives ample clearance for 009 trains, and would probably be suitable for smaller 7mm scale stock too, certainly 14mm gauge industrial stuff.

First job then is to cut to length. I marked with a square (which didn't turn out to be that square but never mind!) and cut with a junior hacksaw. A new blade is well worth having! Then clean up with a stanley-type knife and a big file, just to make sure the ends are reasonably square and tidy.

I made 2 train-length cassttes of 30cm (so I have 3 in total), 1 standard loco cassette of 9cm (4 in total), 1 longer loco casstte of 12cm, and a full-length cassette of 42cm to allow any train to be made up including loco. I also have 3 of shorter 21cm train cassettes, which will be fine for short passenger trains or railcars.

Next cut some PCB sheet to pieces about 5cm by 1cm, these should fit inside the ends of each cassette as shown and may need trimming to sit flat. These are glued in place with Bostik.

The track is then cut to length, here it is PECO 009 flexi-track. Using set-track wouldn't be a bad idea as it is dead straight! Note that the end sleeper(s) are cut away to clear the PCB.

To get the track central I had made up some 40-thou plasticard jigs when I made the original cassettes. These fit tight into the cassette and have notches to fit over the rails, such that the track is dead central in the trunking. The track is glued in place (again with Bostik) and aligned with these jigs, ensure that the track is straight and that the rails are flush with the end of the cassette.

Finally the rails are soldered to the PCB strips at the end of the cassettes, and the copper-clad surface of the PCB is cut through between the rails to prevent short-circuit.

As previously shown the fiddle yard entrance has a similar arrangement with brass wipers that make contact with the PCB, so a cassette is simply pushed in place and electrical contact is made. Where 2 cassettes are used together only the cassette joined to the lead track has power, which is fine as that is the loco cassette when leaving the fiddle yard, and when a train is run in it runs through the train cassette and stops when the loco runs onto the loco cassette at the end.

For alignment the cassettes are pushed against the back edge of the fiddle yard, or they can sit between strips of wood or plastic L-section.

So that is not the most accurate cassette system, but it is one of the easiest to make, and works well.

Recent progress

So the recent distractions included clearing and decorating the second bedroom for Son. I did find time one evening while getting the decorating stuff from the garage, to make up these two wooden "spacers" to sit on the front top corners of the layout and lift the lighting bar/pelmet another 2 inches higher. This obviously can't be done at home (see picture below!) but will make it easier to view at exhibitions.



You will also see they, and the rest of the visible woodwork on the layout, has been varnished to match the rest of the furniture around it. (I made use of the empty, uncarpeted bedroom!) Now it fits into the room quite smartly! The cable for the lights is normally tucked behind the layout.



Finally there is a picture of my "portable" workbench. I have started making up kits for a few wagons, there's a WHR van, 2 Glyn Valley opens, and a Welshpool sheep wagon. I've a few more to make up if I get time before the show. Behind them are my Christmas presents, a selection of whitemetal people from Montys, which have had a visit to the garage to be primed with Halfords primer, along with the lorry mentioned previously. It

looks like the pain shops will need to get busy soon!

Toronto and Niagara

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, here I am updating my blog from a Hotel room on the outskirts of Toronto, Canada. No, it's not a Holiday, I'm here to do some work, but since flights are far cheaper if they include a Satuday night stay, and as I've never been to Canada before, I have had a day exploring. So here are some pictures of Niagara falls, the CN tower in Toronto, and a Toronto Tram! (well I had to get something Railway-orientated in!)

As expected I didn't do much modelling over Christmas, but I have done a few bits and bobs since, although between other distractions and I've not had time to update the Blog. Since I can't do much modelling this week (though I did smuggle some couplings to make up into the suitcase!) I have a couple of updates lined up. Watch this space!