what are people doing on their layout right now

[JasonBz]

Im tweaking some drawings!!
Hopefully soon Ill be dong something a bit more concrete!!

[Newportnobby]

Im tweaking some drawings!!
Hopefully soon Ill be dong something a bit more concrete!!

Boots for that favourite enemy?

[dannyboy]

Removing excess ballast    (don't ask!).

[sparky]

Just spent 4 hours replacing a 24t gear in a dapol class 58 bogie...had to remove all the other gears first to replace the damaged one...couldn't remember what went where and each was blooming fiddly...got there in the end !

[GeeBee]

Martini is still at a Holt but as I need some help i think that this maybe the place If not Moderator please feel free to move it but let me know where you put it I am now the proud?? owner of an NGS EWS Inspection saloon but I am having a great deal of difficulty finding what would have hauled it and what formation it would have been in any help would be gratefully received

Graham

[Sprintex]

There's a thread here that may help:-

http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=6652.msg76178




Paul

[daveg]

Youtube vid here:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiv1yfsRUk8

and also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/975025_Caroline

HTH

Dave G

[Graham Walters]

Today I decided to tackle a truss bridge for my layout, the platelayers had been getting on to me for a couple of weeks, because I kept putting it off, they could go no further until the bridge was in place across the river.

So with a day off work, I decided to set to.

The trusses came from Peco, the  rest is made up of scrap bits of plastic I had lying around and some coffee stirrers.

After getting the measurements and deciding exactly where the bridge was going, I set the width by laminating pieces of coffee stirrer between strips on 20 thou plasticard. I glued these in place and added some 4mm triangular plastruct rod underneath to strengthen the bed.

The track bed was made from a couple of strips of wood cladding plastic, but in  00 size ! it's just the right size to represent the creosoted planking they used. I also added some strips of 20thoug card to resemble a footway.

Once all that had dried had set well, I sprayed with white primer, ( don't ask me why I do this, I just do ! ), I then got started on the painting, first mixing a steel gray, made from 50/50 Paynes Gray and Titanium white.



In this pic I've painted the one truss, and am about to  start on the rest of the steelwork.

For the wooden parts I mixed a matt black ( Humbrol 33) with a Burnt Umber, in about equal measures, this produced that dirty black/brown colour that you get with weathered creosote.

This was applied to all the wooden parts.



As a first attempt at scratchbuilding and painting a bridge, I was quite happy with my work, but I knew it looked "too new" and would have to be weathered.

Sorry about the out of focus pic !

To start the weathering I first made up a black wash, from Humbrol 33 Matt Black, and using a large brush spread this all over the bridge, after waiting about five minutes for it to partially dry, I picked up the pools of wash that were left with a dry brush.
I then applied weathering powders, and grated pastel colours to simulate rust, and the effect of the sun bleaching the boards on the bridge base.



I'm very pleased with this effort, not sure what others will think, but once it's installed on the layout, with some weeds and bushes, it should look as though its been there years.

**
These bridges are always show in catalogues with the trusses underneath, so some may think  I have built it upside down. On the GWR  ( Grahams Wonderful Railway) we do it this way, because we think it looks better 

[railsquid]

And today's plan is:

• remove non-track stuff from layout
• relay tracks carefully up to/including level crossing
• mark track outlines
• mark location of holes for point wires/isolating sections
• make aforesaid holes/channels
• work out how to solder feeds to isolating sections
  
  • take soldering iron out of packaging
  • work out how to use it (haven't soldered anything since about 1988)
• lay track again 
  
     
  • connect point switches in order (label!)
  • don't add isolating fishplates to isolating sections yet
• add 2nd main power feed
• work out basic wiring for temporary control panel

And if I get tired/frustrated/stuck with the above...

• go out and buy jigsaw thingy
• make trackplan in SCARM

Let's see how much I can get done...

[D1042 Western Princess]

Martini is still at a Holt but as I need some help i think that this maybe the place If not Moderator please feel free to move it but let me know where you put it I am now the proud?? owner of an NGS EWS Inspection saloon but I am having a great deal of difficulty finding what would have hauled it and what formation it would have been in any help would be gratefully received

Graham

I don't think this will help you much but I only worked an inspection saloon train once (as Guard) and the motive power was a Gloucester RCW Class 128 (either W55991 or W55992).
Admittedly this was way way back in BR days, 1987 (July) a few weeks after qualifying as a Guard and with all those senior officers on board I was, frankly, frightened out of my wits at putting a foot wrong! 

[railsquid]

And today's plan is:

• remove non-track stuff from layout DONE
• relay tracks carefully up to/including level crossing DONE
• mark track outlines DONE
• mark location of holes for point wires/isolating sections DONE
• make aforesaid holes/channels DONE
• work out how to solder feeds to isolating sections
  
  • take soldering iron out of packaging DONE
  • work out how to use it (haven't soldered anything since about 1988) DONE
• lay track again   DONE
  
     
  • connect point switches in order (label!) DONE
  • don't add isolating fishplates to isolating sections yet DONE
• add 2nd main power feed
• work out basic wiring for temporary control panel

(...)

Let's see how much I can get done...

Not bad going. Lost some time fixing up some poorly points; one needed the connections on its built-in solenoid resoldering (not as painful as I feared, apart from the odd drop of live solder flying about) as they'd come loose (which would also explain some electrical oddities with the section after that particular point); another is somewhat stiff and sometimes doesn't throw properly in one direction (I'll probably need to replace it and use it somewhere less critical if I can't fix it...). Anyway all the wires are now hidden and I can operate the points electonically, yay  Need to think more about the other electrickery but have a better idea of what to do.

And even better I'm starting to get the feeling of having an actual layout, rather than an ad-hoc collection of track and trains 

[Bealman]

Very impressive.  'On ya, mate! 

George

[daveg]

If you'd been in the UK I'd a told you off for missing the opportunity for a short, meaningful lunchtime session down the local pub. Like wot I just did. 

As it is, well done RS! That's a fair days work there.

Dave G

[andy.t.south]

Wiring up points to the control panel etc but have just discovered that my newly installed train parking siding is slap bang in the middle of where the piers for the overhead junction is going DOH,DOH,DOH!!!!!!!!!!  Mind you it has relieved me from this mind bending spaghetti unravelling!!  Track planning seems more interesting than colour coded bits of wire!!!!   

[railsquid]

If you'd been in the UK I'd a told you off for missing the opportunity for a short, meaningful lunchtime session down the local pub. Like wot I just did. 

As it is, well done RS! That's a fair days work there.

Dave G

Ta, first weekend in a long while where I've had a decent run at it. Though I hasten to add the points are all from the Tomix Finetrack range - similar to Kato Unitrack, i.e. with the motors built in, none of this fiddling about with motors mounted under the baseboard. Still, quite a major step forward for me, it's only taken a year to get this far

As far as the pub session goes, had I been living in the UK I could have come and joined you, as I used to live in Droitwich.