4mm Learning On The Job...

Tom Insole

Western Thunderer
Update: 10/10/20.

Sorry, it has been a little while. Work has been... Mh...

So, a fair bit has happened since my last post. The last we saw was the installation of the platform lights. I have been playing with some more lighting and wiring. I have added 2 signals. With almost all layouts these days being DCC, I wanted to have something that would work with DC. I managed to source some on/on switches. And, with some head-scratching, I managed to get them working :) View attachment 131310

In addition to the signals, I have taken some kits and used them to kit-bash a tunnel/bridge. I really wanted some textured brick. I am pretty happy with the end result
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Where I wanted to fit the second signal, right near the foot of this bridge, Sadly, it was a little close for comfort. This meant moving the track, and problems. I widened the baseboard to allow for this. A small addition to this end that will make some interest this end of the layout.

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This also affords me a little space for a future signal box between the 2 lines leading into the platform. and of course, a small siding to allow for another loco to sit in and be isolated for running sessions.

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More practice with some weathering... Not too bad...

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A package arrived a couple of days ago, and the fun really began. Some much-needed supplies within :)

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Some more lights for the platform... Getting them wired up here.
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Lights in place and some shrubbery. Not overall satisfied with the look, so this will change. Its the next step in my learning, making scenery look 'natural'.
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Let me know your thoughts?

I am going to have some time on my hands with work's 'shenanigans', this it is currently being faced with. Some more scratch building to come, to keep me busy :)

Cheers,
Rich

Looks like your delivery wasn't the only one... is that a class 04 rolling up on the back of a lorry in the yard behind the fence?
nice lights. I've had some similar fun with some LED's on my little brake van, just a tiny bit bigger... I don't envy the fiddly stuff on such a small scale. I don't think my fingers would manage 4mm these days.
 

Richard Insole

Western Thunderer
The truck was, the 04 was not. That was the last train I bought as a kid lol. in like 2006 of something.

It is rather fiddly but, so worth it :)

Rich
 

Richard Insole

Western Thunderer
The one at Earls Court road is still open for virtual tours on google street view.
Google Maps

Click on the street arrow into the box for the Streetview tour.
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Ah yes, This is when Matt Smith was the Dr. I didn't care too much for Peter Capaldi too much. I did, however, like the colour scheme. I could be biased as I went to it in Capaldi days :) It's truly amazing at the level of detail they went into with the tardis sets.

Cheers,
Rich
 

Richard Insole

Western Thunderer
Layout update time...

Sorry, it has been a little while. The work situation has been a little on the downer side, awaiting a fate of unknown proportions.

The layout has been a very welcome distraction to get on with and keep a little bit of sanity.

So, what has changed since the last update? Well, a few odd jobs have been done. Tidying up some rough ends and adding to the layout. I have tried throughout the build, to decide what I want to do with the limited space I have, and to an extent, I have been seeing what happens as I go along.

I have always toyed with the idea of having a crossing here so, it was time to take the plunge and cross this daunting task. I had my mindset on a car-park of some description. I drew up on some sketches and then on the board itself and was pretty happy with how it would work.
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This side of the crossing will be a bus stop for the footfall to the station area. on the other side of the line, a small retail and living area and the large-ish all-important, car park.

After the level crossing, I started with paths and bus stops. I realised that I would have difficulty hiding the grain and other obstacles/gaps on the road surface so, I took a break and had a think about what I would do for that surface. I had a look around and saw that various different methods could be used and, I will let you know if I think I picked the right one or not but, I decided to use the same filler/plaster.

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Oh the filler... The sanding needed would be unprecedented (lol)

After some extensive sanding, I was fairly happy with the end results. I wanted it to look patchy and undermaintained like most UK roads.20201011_171621.jpg

I was fed up with this task, so I moved off to a distraction.

Some scratch building was in order. I cheated a bit using some stashed away foam board as the main base layer. This was my first venture into scale buildings being scratch built so, it will look fairly rough. Using the foam board meant for me that it would be quick and easy to throw out if I got it that wrong and wasnt wasting valuable plasticard or other materials. I had some brickwork card prints that I had printed from work. This was stuck over the front of the foam board.

I somehow managed to miss out the first steps of this process the late evening that I had started this build. So the next image is a bit of a jump and you can see that I have mounted, cut, and started on the shop fronts.20201012_005722.jpg 20201012_005704.jpg 20201012_005712.jpg 20201012_003940.jpg

After some unfriendly words and some missed photo opportunities, I had the start of the end product. You can see that the end unit has been painted. I was trialing a dark grey but, I feel its too dark. this will have to be changed. All the detail is lost in the dark colour.

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Once I had this, I stopped at this point to plan the next steps of this build. I would like to put some flats above, hence the balcony above the shops. I took this inspiration from a couple of local shops we have.

It's a bit scrappy.. but, not a bad first try. This can still be cleaned up and crimes are hidden.

Cheers,

Rich
 

Richard Insole

Western Thunderer
After some considerable time sanding, filling, smoothing - I had made some headway with the paths and roads and put the building in its place I had also painted the crossing and road on the bus stop side of the layout.

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I had to remove the fence to get into the tight space without damaging the fence. I got away with leaving in place the fence running adjacent to the platform.

Here is the end result of painting up and replacing saif fences. I had also applied some texture (cork dust) that was glued down and then airbrushed with a nice earth brown. The fence running into the siding/branch line has also been reinstated here. Some much-needed weathering is still needed to distinguish the paths from the road etc.
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Painting the crossing and grassing the space between the bus stop and track. Some sort of fence will be needed to stop trespassers but, I want to keep it looking fairly open as to not lose any interest that this little area gives. So some thought will be given to this area yet.
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Ballasting to the remaining section of the track here as well as a before shot of any grassing with the cork dust glued in place and painted the before mentioned earth brown. I have also constructed a small chainlink fence for some gardens that will be yet to come. That crossing is way too black at the moment. This will be taken down to look more authentic.
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Bushes! 20201014_212921.jpg
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Ah, this blends some of the harsh edges and creates a little bit of a more real feel. I really liked how it looked against the 170 here. :)

I also liked the look under lighting, which brings us more or less up to date with the progress to date. I took a risk on some cheaper lights I had ordered some weeks previously, to add some lighting to the non-railway areas. I am going to have some experimentation with the lights themselves to see if I can create a filter of sorts to alter the colour of the lights. There is a lot of white light on the layout now. They were supposed to resemble a warmer white but, I will update what, if anything, will happen here.

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So, overall some good progress. Still, lots to be done. Looking forward to watching this space grow and change. I fear a small break is on the horizon whilst I wait to find out my fate of employment...

Would love to hear what suggestions on the space so far?

Cheers,
Rich
 

Martin Shaw

Western Thunderer
Ah yes, This is when Matt Smith was the Dr. I didn't care too much for Peter Capaldi too much.
This makes me feel very old, the Saturday my parents first had a telly was also the very first episode of Dr Who with William Hartnell as the eponymous hero. That aside I'm liking the way this is going especially since my artistic side is completely dormant. Good luck with your progress.
Best wishes
Martin
 

Tom Insole

Western Thunderer
Just in case Jordan (@Jordan) is AWOL whilst searching for Tiffin "up the Kyber", how did the lorry driver get that unit and trailer out of its predicament withour re-arranging the fence and greenery?
Would be a tight turn with a rear steer trailer. Mind you I've seen the stations some of these delivery drivers drop preservation railway loans. They're pretty tight carparks to get into :)
A bit of a dink in the fence could be a cool little edition to the layout @Richard Insole
 

Richard Insole

Western Thunderer
Small update.

Not much has happened to the layout in a little while. Some other more pressing things and distractions have kept progress away. That said, I am having a go at a little signal box.

I still have some work to do here. I am currently scratch building an interior so, that will appear on here as soon as some bits start coming together here. I have just put my first attempt at painting a slated roof. Pretty happy with it so far.

Please ignore the green (too dark and a bit messy lol).

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Cheers,
Rich
 

Phil O

Western Thunderer
Some HGV drivers are pretty good, there is/was a store in the 'yard that had an entrance only 2ft wider than the trailer and the available road was about 25ft wide, a few drivers would just pull up and blind-side reverse a 30ft trailer straight in, others could take up to 20 minutes of shunting get the trailer in. If we were outside our amenity centre awaiting instructions from the boss, the good drivers got a round of applause and the rubbish ones got stick.
 

Allen M

Western Thunderer
When I was but a lad in the mid 1950 I worked at the Stourvale Works, Kidderminster of Richard Thomas & Baldwin. Most of the steel was delivered on 8 wheel (4 axle) rigid wagons. They pulled up into a long road along side the building that was just over wagon length wide and reversed the 90deg turn into the unloading bay. However the was one driver also had a 4 wheel trailer attached, the type with one fixed axle at the rear and a steering axle at the front. He used to reverse in without uncoupling. How I do not know but was first time virtually every time.
Regards
Allen Morgan
 

Richard Insole

Western Thunderer
It was a few years ago now but, in 2014 when the line between Barmouth and Harlech was partially destroyed by the sea. They had Class 158's that were not able to pass and otherwise 'stuck'. In order to get them on the correct side of the damage and back into service, a plan was put into place to move them by road.

This was the best photo I could find...
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I am not sure of your knowledge of the wee town of Barmouth. A very quaint and mountainous town. The high street in question that was probably the biggest hurdle, due to the impassable low bridge under the mainline across the bay, forcing the highstreet as the only option.

There are a couple of videos that you can find of this move on YouTube. I have dropped a link to the video below.


It really shouldn't have fit! but somehow, it did. Rather remarkable :)

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One of those few occasions where the delivery men are not mistaken on whether it would fit or not.

Previously unconfirmed from me, in my case, the flatbed was being driven forwards from beside the shops adjacent to the station as on the west end of the station is a wider road (one day when the layout has room to grow in that direction, this will be added) and would have driven forwards across the level crossing on back onto the main route out of town.

Cheers,
Rich
 

cbrailways

Western Thunderer
Two lovely bits in the video. Firstly the lady sitting calmly on a bench seat whilst this great big truck is heading towards her around the corner, and the steering 'bogie' on the rear of the truck.
 

Richard Insole

Western Thunderer
Getting more adventurous...

I am going for a 'disused' and therefore not updated crossing barriers/gates. After a small bashing session, I have simply propped the gate into situe to see what it looked like.
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I couldn't stand the idea of this being a fixed feature and after some head-scratching of what I could use to create some working hinges and some trial and error. I used a tin can of pop that I had been drinking prior to fashion some hinges. I was drawn to this idea from dad's previous use to create a small bucket for his scratch-built 16mm shunter.

PERFECT!!

Well, if you excuse the temporary pin. This is still not a finished product. Some neatening up and aging is needed here. I was just too excited when I took this photo.

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Additionally, I have started playing around with a row of houses.

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They have come out OK but, I am not fully happy with them. Dad has kindly slid some mounting board my way so I can get stuck into a better version of this. Looking forward to that.

Cheers,
Rich
 

Peter Insole

Western Thunderer
I'm pretty sure that some special young boys and girls would very much appreciate a little model of their own, or perhaps even nan and grandad's house to appear on the railway - if that is not a bit too close to home for you...?!

Pete.
 
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