what are people doing on their layout right now

[stevewalker]

Just been out today to buy polystyrene insulation sheets, to continue building up the raised section, upon which will be part of a town, with an N6.5 narrow-gauge line running through it, so that I can make progress on laying the Z-gauge track for that part of the layout.

Very early stages yet, but I've made a start. I wanted to get the Z-gauge line laid, as that'll have an effect on everything around it (road/level crossing, bridge, etc.)

There will be houses and shops on the top and a church a possibly a playground at the front.

The whole thing is just one corner of the n-gauge layout and will be lifted into place and glued down when complete.


https://youtu.be/OrzKuko7umE

The loco is the Peco body on a Marklin chassis, while the coaches are Shredded Wheat ones fitted with Z-gauge bogies. See https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=47325.msg602512#msg602512

[PGN]

Sounds like a Herculean task but it does look very good.

Seconded ... that looks really good.

As for me, I'm procrastinating, mostly. Just playing trains for a bit. I know what I NEED to do next, though:

* finish weathering the roofing tiles for the well of Well Cottage
* finish off tidying up the Down end embankment
* finish the landscaping of the Up end entry / exit point
* finish off the goods yard by installing the gates, a weighbridge and hut, adding a little bit of greenery round the edges and generally making it look "lived in"
* create the landscape behind the station
* install the cattle dock and loading bank, and finish the ground round them
* finish the station by laying the tarmac platform surfaces, adding fencing, advertisements, seats, lamps, name boards and waiting passengers, landscaping the front edge and installing the access steps (don't like the ones I've got ... but there's a nice looking 3D print on Shapeways that I might use)
* add telegraph poles and wires
*landscape the area in front of the station and add the last few buildings (stationmaster's house and pigsty in the garden, and the blacksmith's cottage and forge)
* add the canal boat and its two line from the tow horse
* add the cattle dock and unloading bank cameos
* add the hunt scene cameo (cubbing ... this is autumn) in the riverside meadow and green lane behind the tracks
* finish the roofer cameo at the Old Ship inn
* replace the water tower ladder
* fix all road vehicles in their desired locations
* add the front fascia and back & side scenes
* make black floor-length curtain and attach hanging points
* make and attach front spectator barrier

Golly gosh ... did I REALLY think I could get all that done in under a year? Meh ... I think I'm going to play trains for a bit instead ...

[Greygreaser]

I've been struggling to fit SEEP point motors in exactly the right position to get the pin travel and switch operation matched to the point throw.
I'm sure this is not uncommon as a challenge so I'm sharing the details of my jig, relinquishing all copyright and offering unlimited technical advice if you want to copy. Here's the picture


It's made from 15mm water pipe (£2.12 a length from Screwfix) cut with a slight taper to push between the coils. The 'U' is made by another cut down the length.


It's time consuming as it took me 1 min to find my glasses, 1min to find the junior hacksaw at least 30 secs to measure the length and 1 min to drill the 1.5mm hole and the rest to 5min total sawing and trimming to fit.


The hole is offset from the centre line to correspond with the point throw so no other jig is used when fitting the motor to the baseboard. I do fit one screw only at first, nearest to the point, so that i can align the motor with the point throw.
It's a universal jig and will fit switched and unswitched SEEP motors

[drekly]

Testing track for final time before ruining it all with my first attempt at ballasting.

[Platy767]

Testing track for final time before ruining it all with my first attempt at ballasting.

Good luck with the ballasting. I've been wasting time procrastinating on track colour and ballast for a couple of weeks. I've only ballasted 1 previous layout, about 30 years ago and was not satisfied with the result. Here's a couple of combos I tried, these are Noch ballast.
Noch Gray


Noch Profi Basalt and Granite


Noch Brown


A Noch mixture


Noch Profi Basalt, Granite, Gneiss and Brown


I think I'm going with the Profi Basalt.
Mark

[drekly]

Good luck with the ballasting. I've been wasting time procrastinating on track colour and ballast for a couple of weeks.

Thank you Mark

Great to see your photo's and has given me more food for thought. I have a few different ballast colours to try so I might also procrastinate a while longer!

[Bigmac]

Good luck with the ballasting. I've been wasting time procrastinating on track colour and ballast for a couple of weeks.

Thank you Mark

Great to see your photo's and has given me more food for thought. I have a few different ballast colours to try so I might also procrastinate a while longer!

just need to do it creckly.

[Train Waiting]

Testing track for final time before ruining it all with my first attempt at ballasting.

That's a super looking layout.  I hope you enjoy the ballasting.  The trick seems to be not do attempt to too much at one time.  And masking tape helps give a nice definition to the ballsst shoulder.

Best wishes

John

[emjaybee]

Testing track for final time before ruining it all with my first attempt at ballasting.

Good luck with the ballasting. I've been wasting time procrastinating on track colour and ballast for a couple of weeks. I've only ballasted 1 previous layout, about 30 years ago and was not satisfied with the result. Here's a couple of combos I tried, these are Noch ballast.
Noch Gray


Noch Profi Basalt and Granite


Noch Brown


A Noch mixture


Noch Profi Basalt, Granite, Gneiss and Brown


I think I'm going with the Profi Basalt.
Mark

I can thoroughly recommend using a Proses ballast spreader. Other brands are available, but frankly I wouldn't use them. You get what you pay for, and it turned ballasting from an unpleasant chore into something close to a pleasure.

[drekly]

That's a super looking layout.  I hope you enjoy the ballasting.  The trick seems to be not do attempt to too much at one time.  And masking tape helps give a nice definition to the ballsst shoulder.

Many thanks for the masking tape tip John,

I certainly won't try too much at a time (found I had bought the ballast in 2004 so it's not a rush job!)

The layout is really my first scenic attempt and is destined for a coffee table. If ballasting doesn't turn into a complete embarrassment I may start a thread in layout construction section.

Best, Richard

[LAandNQFan]

I finally bit the bullet, took off all eleven scenery modules and the two track modules to expose the sub-level baseboards and their storage roads (Carmarthen and Aberystwyth).  That allowed me to rejig the point motors for the sticky double-slip, and use the Realistic Water to finish the Teifi gorge.  When I re-fitted the track modules I used new rail-joiners on the joint between two pieces of Flexitrack on the 9" 3% curve which has derailed engines too many times to count.  I aligned and squeezed them, and now all my locos run round in both directions with no trouble!
Perhaps now I can start running the timetable without the stoppages!

[zwilnik]

Finally got my week off work and after sleeping solid for a couple of days, cleared the rubbish off my layout and checked the 'Up' line (that I'd previously got wired up and tested successfully) still worked by test running the Azuma that had been sat there for 2 months.

Then I took the plunge and wired the 2nd controller up to the Down line. Short. Turned out I'd wired one of the droppers in reversed. Fixed that and tentatively ran the GWR 800 around, which found a couple of spots where the scenery was impinging on the inside of the curves a little. Hacked those back but decided after a somewhat stutter loop it needed cleaning first.

So stuck the Tomix track cleaning wagon on in front of a Warship and set it off around. Caught another couple of bits of recent scenic plaster that needed clipping back, no problem. Then right near the end of the loop the cleaning wagon decided to keel off sideways around the end loop at the exact point I hadn't thought would ever be a problem that is underneath a layer of board and too far back to reach. Of course, that's a bit I hadn't cut any access holes for either :/

Oh well, the Warship made it back in one piece, so tomorrow I'll be looking at hacking some plywood away to get access to that bit

[zwilnik]

Hurrah. Some fettling with a saw, pliers and a hammer and I now have access to the bit I missed and recovered the track cleaner. A few more laps of that with the warship and I was able to connect up both lines and run two trains simultaneously for the first time on the layout

[jpendle]

I'm watching one of my Pendolino's repeatedly bounce off the track as it detects every track pin that is standing slightly proud of the track 

John P

[Alcazar]

I foolishly greened two of my fiddle yard modules during the last lockdown. Now it looks like we are actually going to have a module weekend again sometime in October, so now I have to green the other two. Still, with a deadline to meet, it might actually get done. This afternoon I spent a couple of hours rusting rails.

Peter