The Yard - A small industrial layout in 7mm

[Greengiant]

Work has been progressing on installing a camera into the gantry crane.

We have managed to cut down the antenna that transmits the camera picture back to the handset screen, this along with the transmitter is located in a cabinet on the rear of the crane cabin. Just need to add a short length of plastic pipe over the lower section of the antenna to the cabinet and thinking of just blackening the final top section.



Designed and 3D printed a mount for the screen at the front and the camera receiver at the rear, the mount just clips to the top of the transmitter. This set up is purely to test the concept and a custom controller box we be designed and built to house all the necessary hardware and electronics.





Initial testing is encouraging once you get used to the concept that when operating the crane in normal mode, you stay still and the crane moves, when using the camera the ground moves, felt odd at first, but after a while we soon became accustomed with switching from one mode to the other. We just need to change the camera/screen 'ON' time from 5 seconds to 10 seconds.

Martin

 

[Greengiant]

With the SWING show now fast approaching on the 18 May, 2019 attention has turned to building a Bedford TK artic. We have been very fortunate with Giles kindly loaning us his lorry for a number of shows, but we really do need to produce our own one.

A Bedford TK was acquired and a start made on scratch building a flat bed trailer.
The bed and under tray was laser cut from 1.5mm ply, this will give us a pocket to house the battery, mounting system and wire runs.



Brass angle and channel was cut and taped to an assembly jig which had been laser cut from 2mm MDF.



When soldered the framework was removed from the jig, quite a fragile structure so had to be handled with care for the time being.



The battery housing recess was laminated from two parts, they also encapsulate a chassis mounting bolt which was superglued in place, to stop the bolt breaking loose in the future, a short section of wire was glued in a recess and groove in the bolt head.



A new rear light housing beam was made from brass channel and drilled to accept LEDs.



Then soldered to the rear of the trailer along with a lower protection bar, or whatever they are called.



Next I fitted the trailer socket, but stupidly had not allowed for the trailer swing when in use!



So rather than try and unsolder the beam and risk the whole front coming undone, a patch was made for the old hole and a new central hole was cut for the socket.



The trailer bed now located with the chassis, held in place by the captive bolt behind the back axle and a clamp and captive bolt near the front. The chassis was filed down on top of the rails to give the final amount of space for the battery.



Trailer framework has been painted dark green, the cab will be too when alterations have been completed and the bed itself has been painted and weathered.



The trailer then had the battery and wiring installed. Here you can see the battery sandwiched between bed and chassis, on top of the battery and between the chassis rails is a 3D printed tray which houses the charging socket and on/off switch, this has tabs that rest on the chassis rails, clamped in place by the battery and bed.

Wiring for the LED lights is in place, the thicker shrink wrapped cable at the front goes through a groove near the fifth wheel swivel and to the central socket which is itself in it's own 3D printed mount which allows the socket to be slightly recessed into the front beam. This means the trailer contains the bulk of the electrics, easily separated from the tractor unit with one plug.



Martin

 

[Greengiant]

Now on with the tractor unit.

We managed to get hold of a batch of motor gearbox units with a simple diff unit and axle shaft. This was fixed in place with Milliput, the piece of ply clamped to the chassis is holding the motor unit level until the top application of Milliput cures.



A view from underneath with the lower application of Milliput.



Unfortunately the knurling for the worm on the axle was not that good and eventually released losing drive, so the whole lot had to be stripped back to parts to get the motor and gearbox out so a better fixing of the worm could be carried out. I increased the knurling rather crudely then fixed the worm back in place with the aid of some super glue.



Back to a pile of bits! Here can also be seen the 3D printed front axle unit and bearings Neale 3D printed after some development collaboration with Giles. Also in the wheels can be seen 3D printed bearing holders that clip into the rear recess of the wheels. On finally assembly the carriers will have a very small amount of CA wicked in to hold them firmly.



The tractor unit also needs working lights on the rear mudguards, so the old lights needed to be removed, a hole created over which a small light unit mounting plate will be added. Here the righthand light pod has been cut out.



Small Nickel silver plates have been made to mount the LEDs, these will be chemically blackened. To give an idea of size the holes are 1.8mm diameter.



While the main tractor unit has gone off to Neale for wring and final RC install, I need to make new mudguard brackets that clear the motor gearbox unit, these will be fabricated from brass rod. Once the tractor unit comes back to me, final painting in corporate two tone green will take place along with some light weathering.

Martin

 

[Greengiant]

The TK tractor unit rear mudguards needed new brackets fabricated. The half round section above the light pod needs to be removed and flattened to the mudguard itself.



Some suitable size brass rod was tack soldered to brass bar, this ensures it can be held firm in a vice and ensure the ability to file a parallel level flat the width of the mudguard at each end.



One of the finished brackets.



Both brackets glued in place, next stop the paint shop.



Martin

 

[Greengiant]

We also had a Morris Commercial spare that was ripe for conversion. So steering, motor, lighting and RC where rigged up for testing.
This worked well, so now all the bits had to be accommodated within the body and chassis.



We had a nice large battery for this one, to install while keeping the same bed height, the chassis and back of rear mudguards were filed away to make room. A plastic bearing block was glued in to stop the crown wheel moving along the axle. A new lighting beam was made and mounted onto the chassis with the original light boards removed from the cast bed moulding. This enables all wiring to be contained on the chassis and none on the bodywork. A pin system on the back of the cab locates the front of the bed, while the bed floor clamps it and the battery down with one of the original mounting screws at the rear.



The new lighting beam with the bed in place.



All fixed in place with the two battery leads ready to be routed to the front of the chassis.



Lorry now with Neale to do the electrics, install lights, on/off switch and charging socket. Then it will be back for the final painting, this will then give us three lorries for operating on The Yard.

Martin

 

[Greengiant]

The electrics have now been completed on the Morris.



An underside view showing the 3D printed rocking steering mechanism, battery plug and charger socket unit, on/off switch and N20 motor power unit, above the motor and rear axle is the battery.



A short video of the lorry on the workbench.

Martin

 

[Greengiant]

The TK eventually got a new coat of paint and lines up with the other two lorries.



All was going fine until the worm on the rear axle broke free, it appears the knurling was not up to scratch, so no option but to hack out the Milliput to get the motor, gearbox and axle out!

Some would say it ended up looking like a drugs bust.



I ended up soldering the worm gear, shouldn't slip now.



A short video of a test run.

Martin

 

[Greengiant]

...Five months later, October 2019.

The Yard will be at the Chelmsford show along with a number of other narrow gauge layouts.

We have been working on solving a problem we were starting to have with the gantry crane hook twisting as it was lowered, this could make loading a bit of a challenge and took some of the fun out of operating.

Several sizes of snake chain were tried but none would bend small enough to go around the hook pulley. I have quite a selection of small chains, collected over the years as and when I saw them at shows. By chance one of them worked very well and reduced the twisting to a very small amount, but still not spot on.

Looking at the whole assembly it was thought the current loop of wire and acetate guides were doing the job, nearly, but were hit and miss on adjustment, so in an effort to improve this a new guide was designed which had a much more precise adjustment facility.

New upper and lower guides were 3D printed, these had radius slots to guide the chain and four holes to enable mounting with lengths of 8BA threaded rod.



The new guides assembled and ready for mounting in the crane chassis.



To enable the small amount of adjustment we required, the lower guide rod mounting holes were elongated on a radius so the plate can rotate around its centre. This is then clamped in position on the rod with nuts and washers.



This is the MK1 version when we did not have the elongated holes, we thought this would have worked, which it did, but not exactly enough so hence the adjustable bottom plate was then 3D printed.



When mounted in the crane it is barely noticeable.




In an effort to reduce the number of packages we need to take to exhibitions and the safety of the removable bits and pieces, we have fitted out some flight cases to hold these items.
The crane is now packed in it's own case along with the charger and lifting loads, as well as spare chains should one break!



Another case has three of the handsets, the third case has the the three lorries, the fourth controller and chargers.



Martin

 

[Greengiant]

January 2020 we were at the Longfield show in Kent with The Yard. Little did we know at the time, this would be the last show for a number of years for us and many others!.

Not knowing when The Yard will next be out at an exhibition, time felt right to make a start on that list of jobs to be done on the layout.
I have never really been happy with the main baseboard joint, we tried some thin foam with paint on, but the paint quickly flaked off.



Rather than try and disguise the joint, why not make it a feature?
To this end I drew up some grills in two rows, the join between them will be the baseboard joint. They will be laser cut from 2mm MDF.



They took a while to cut on the Emblaser 2, but a lot quicker than trying to do it by hand! These were then primered, painted grey and topped off with some gunmetal and buffed up.



With the boards apart, the true joining edge was set using a scrap of MDF clamped to the baseboard frame end. This then gave me a stop to place the grills and score where the cobbles will need to be removed to allow the grills to bed in level with to cobbled tops, in theory probably should be slightly lower, but I did not want to have a step that might affect the lorries as they pass over the grills.



Carefully the cobbles were cut away, using the grills to check fitment as I went.



A few hours later they were all in place, stuck down on a bed of PVA.



The other board was done the same, then offered up, separated by a strip of paper and the opposing grills glued in place.



I used a syringe and a micro bore tube to squirt in some matt medium, onto which I sprinkled some dried and sieved garden soil to effectively grout these in.



That is as far as I got with them, work had got busy, so put a stop to things.
In parallel to this I have been working on some pipework for the factories, will do a separate post to detail that.

Martin

 

[Greengiant]

It has always been the intention to add pipework, cabling and the odd box or two on the walls of the factories.
A start was made cutting out a selection of brackets, these are done to suit two sizes of Evergreen tubing. They used up some of the offcuts from previous jobs in 2mm MDF.



I experimented with various methods of bending Evergreen tube and found a hair dryer with bending pliers was the most successful. However, I could not get the bend as tight as I would have liked before it started to kink. The pipework is to be flanged pipework, so I also cut pipe flanges to fit from Trotec laserable sheet.



The brackets will enable me to create some nice pipe runs.



Some pieces of tube roughly placed to try and get a feel for potential pipe runs, but it became clear this would be easier if I could plug in some 90 degree elbows.



There seems very little plug in pipe fittings available to fit the Evergreen range, well not that I could find anyway (early 2020). However help was at hand via a friend of a friend in the USA who has a Shapeways shop with this very product, but not for the larger size tube that I also wanted.

A couple of emails later he is now working on the elbows for me. Initially he drew and sprued them up for Shapeways printing.

The elbow drawn in Sketchup.



How they would appear on Shapeways.



In an effort to reduce cost, he knows someone who has a Formlabs printer, so reworked the drawing to make best use of the Formlabs route. The elbow needed to be as a three part assembly.



To be printed like this.



This is one the first 12 test prints, early impression are good, they will be sending 6 in the post to me to review before running anymore.



Martin

 

[Greengiant]

...Roll on a couple of years to September 2022!

Crew badges ready for ‘The Great Electric Train Show early in October, our first exhibition since early 2020.
We were very pleased to have along as operators, Giles and Di, Giles also brought along some of his latest projects to run on the layout.



The Yard was scheduled to appear at The Great Electric Train Show, at the approaching weekend.
I have had months, if not a year to finish off and fit the extra pipework detailing and service the stock. Here I sit having done neither, is it just me or do others leave things to the last minute?
One thing is for sure, the pipework will not get fitted, but the stock must get done.

Martin

 

[Greengiant]

We are now in July 2023.

We took The Yard to the Letchworth show, pleased to say it ran well and very happy with the plaque they award us, voted for by the visitors.





Martin

 

[Greengiant]

Finally bringing this up to date now.

It has always been my intention to add signage and pipework to the buildings, something I had planned to do over winter in readiness for Ally Pally next March. But the day job had a project that had been delayed over a week, so I had some time on my hands, I split this with the garden railway, so made a start on the signs and pipes.

Guttering was first on the list, some old umbrella arms came in handy for the guttering, just needed some brackets. End caps were made from plastikard.



Brackets I used to laser cut from Trolase, but lately I have struggled to get a clean cut, so these ones are cut from 0.9mm PolyBak, this is a resin impregnated board available from my local laser material suppliers of Hobart's. I bought in a stock and some in 0.6mm. I am really liking this material, very impressed with how fine I can get it with strength still remaining.

One gutter bracket with a spigot to fit into a hole in the wall.



It did not take long to get a batch.



These were initially stuck in place with CA, then boosted at the rear with epoxy resin to give strength and hold things in place when bounced around on the way to a show!



For downpipes I used S&D castings and Evergreen tube, using foamboard to hold them in place while the Epoxy set.



Sprayed with Halfords grey primer, the black part is for a sign, more of which later. Top coated with acrylic paint, then weathered before installing.



Martin

 

[Greengiant]

I have always been a fan of building signage, especially industrial, I know, I must get out more!

I had five to make, but only had time to do four. Three of them I mocked up on computer over photos of the buildings, then printed laser roughs to try on the model to see if I had got them right.
No mystery to the company names, they are all operators of the layout.







The first one I made was 'Brodie', this was the easiest, made using I think are Coopercraft moulded letters glued to the tank side. They were then weathered using oils, here in the photo I have nearly finished the top line. I am working on the last two panels, the technique is more about what you take off than what you put on using thinners in a dry brushing technique in reverse. Originally I wanted to use rub down lettering, but did not have the correct size in stock.



Martin

 

[Greengiant]

Next up was 'Jackson'. this sign is mounted on the roof, I really like these type of signs with their support structure.
I made up a kit of parts consisting of Slater's letters, some brass square tube and brackets and framework laser cut from PolyBak.



Assembly was straightforward, if a little fiddly, using wicked in superglue later beefed up with epoxy.



Sprayed with Halford's black primer.



I scanned the letters, traced them in Adobe Illustrator, spaced them out, flipped them so the read back to front and printed out the result. This then became my positioning template to which the letters were taped to, then a thin line of epoxy applied where the cross beams would locate, then put them togther and left to dry off. This insured I got the spacing, spelling and orientation of the letters right first time.



The end result. The letters looking like they are leaning over is lens distortion.



Then the fun bit, painting and weathering a WIP here, mounted on some foamboard for ease of handling. The framework was eventually treated to some AK Interactive dirts filters.



It was then fitted to the roof using 14BA bolts, not the easiest to do, especially when I forgot about strengthening pieces in the corner joint of the roof inside, you can guess where two of the bolt holes came through.



You can just make out the hole about an inch from the end of the timber, right at the edge. I spent over half an hour carefully carving it away to get a nut on the bolt without damaging the building.



Martin

 

[Greengiant]

Next sign was 'Castleton', for this I cut a template mask from PolyBak, I could have used card, but felt PolyBak would stay flatter and more resilient to usage, plus it was already loaded in the laser.

In this photo are the positive and negative masks, plus tape to form the bottom of the panel edges.



Then it was a simple task of removing each letter in turn, affixing small blobs of Blutak and refixing the letters using the template as a guide for position.



Once all the letters were in place, it was a simple task to remove the template and finishing the tape masking.



Armed with neat Valejo white acrylic, a small flatty bristle brush and some tissue, it was a straightforward task of gathering some paint on the brush, removing most of it on the tissue, then gently stippling until the desired result was achieved.



Ten minutes later I was left with this.



The final sign was 'Coombs', similar to 'Castleton' but in the reverse format, so very quick to mask and do.





I forgot to photograph the pipework, it was made from our own resin printed and laser cut originals to fit Evergreen tubing.
These are a few photos of the end result which is starting to improve the look of the factories. There is a lot more pipework to do, along with electrical cable runs, lights and more signage etc.







Martin

 

[Phil O]

Martin,

I think your girder needs enhancing a bit.

 

[Greengiant]

It is that time again!
An exhibition booking is looming, The London Festival of Railway Modelling, Alexandra Palace on 16 and 17 March.
A start has been made on the 'To Do' list.

I left the layout assembled in the workshop rather than packed away and covered up, over the Christmas period into January.
When I ventured into the workshop I was treated to a surprise, the layout has mould!







Some IPA and make up removing pads (having a wife and three daughters has its advantages), soon got rid of it.

Martin

 

[Greengiant]

Back to the plot.
I have always intended to add one more factory building to the layout, it is to occupy the space behind the tank building and close the gap at the rear to the currently last building.
The basic drawings had been done for while, just couldn't be bothered to get on and build it.
Not the easiest of spaces to deign a good fit, the adjacent buildings are not square to each other and it has to span the road that goes to the fiddle yard.

A template of the footprint was cut from some scrap plastic sheet.



The roadway was notched out to accommodate the walls. Since this photo was taken, more notching was required.



A kit of parts was laser cut from 2mm MDF, 0.9mm PolyBak and some resin Port Wynstay windows I had in stock.



With the other buildings removed, test positioning could take place.





It was sprayed with some of Halfords finest red oxide primer with acrylic stippled on when dry.



Grouted with fine filler tinted with acrylic.



Which was wiped off until I was happy with the result.



Now planted in position. Looking at this photo I have just realised I have forgotten the RSJ that goes across the roadway to support the building above, oh well, back to the work bench!



Martin

 

[Greengiant]

Alongside this I have been working on some scenic details for the 16mm narrow gauge Industrial project in the planning.

Mainly extractor or air con units, I scaled some down to 7mm, thinking it would be good to have some of these on The Yard.

An early test in 2mm MDF of a grill, quite impressed on how fine my diode laser will cut.



This one is in 0.6mm PolyBak.



I made a kit of parts from 2mm MDF and 0.6mm PolyBak, although the support brackets are not shown here.



Which made up into this unit.



I quite enjoyed doing this and have an ever growing list of things I wish to cut.

Martin