Much Puffindun

[ColinH]

Thanks everyone for the 

Much Puffindun is set in some when some where and features steam loco's. Although there are a couple of Blue diesels.

As I said in the Welcome topic all the stock and track is at least 10 years old and some of it almost double that. The idea was to have a station, goods yard, loco shed and tailchaser to watch the trains run round.

This is the second incarnation of the layout. It started life in a bedroom alcove atop a pair of chest of drawers but after 6 months came downstairs into the hobby room and was slightly extended. My wife is very much into 1/12 scale dollhouses and has a room full of them and roomboxes. She kindly gave up her modelling table for me and deigned to share 'her' space.

Here is a pic of how the trackplan started
 The board is approx. 6 ft x 30 ins Sundela mount on a 2x1 framework. To give a bit of interest I have raised the centre area leaving only the outer tracks at the original board level Buildings in this photo are just placed to give a feel of what I was trying to achieve and the backboards are from a previous layout in the small bedroom (hence the cut outs at baseboard level) that had to be dismantled when the room was needed when Mum-in-law came to live with us. They have been stored in the loft until about 18 months ago when that had to be cleared for improved loft insulation. There is nothing in the loft now but it would need a lot of work to convert it.

With such old stock the layout is obviously not DCC and power feed is via wires soldered to the sides of the track. I decided not to use point motors or other remote control for the points relying on the good old finger. Less to go wrong 

Next job was to wire up the control board so that I could control more than one train at a time. IRJ's were used to create various blocks and point blades relied upon to feed power over the frogs  As 9 year old grandson says "would be good if you didn't have to keep pushing it granddad"

I am using Gaugemaster controllers in the basket under the layout. This just pulls out slightly so I can get to them. One is a twin track that feeds the station, front sidings and run round track. Each block can be powered by either controller. The second controller is a single gaugemaster that powers the Goods shed and Loco area. The two switches that you may spot above the control panel are to switch polarity on the single slip crossing giving access to the loco area.

I have done more but think this is a long enough post for now so the next instalment will follow shortly.

ColinH

[scotsoft]

You have a brilliant start with that layout Colin 

I am so pleased you have worked out how to post pictures as you now have no excuse for not keeping us all up to date with your progress   

cheers John.

[dodger112958]

 
Look forward to seeing and reading more about this layout.
Ian

[Newportnobby]

Excellent groundwork there, Colin

[ColinH]

Following on from my last post outlining the construction of Much Puffindun.

By the way the name comes from my reaction when doing anything creative - there's an awful lot of huffing, puffing and general *!**&*  . when things don't go right.

Here you can see more of my old scenery items unpacked and roughly positioned before any permanent scenic work is started. Terraced Houses and retaining wall are by GF. I was aware that they had been taken over by Bachman but was surprised when I could not get any additional new kits of these. The trees and bushes in the polystyrene in the top left corner are new and were a Xmas present from the missus. They will not be staying there.



Track is a mix of recycled Peco flexitrack and set track with electrofrog points.The sides of these were 'rusted' with Humbrol paint once wiring up was completed and then the process of ballasting the track was started.



On this pic the selection of trees/shrubs can be seen more clearly and there is also an example of the free download low relief warehouse unit from Scalescenes that I tried just to see how I got on kit building.



Still trying to decide the best way to construct the Town area covering the lower level track. Obviously I need this to be removable so that I can get to any stalled or derailed trains easily. Here I've changed from a sheet of ply to polystyrene sheeting. The terraced houses are no longer Farish block and cover construction but have been replaced with Scalescene small terrace houses with yards and a recently purchased Oxford Diecast Ford Anglia has appeared in the street. The retaining wall has also been changed to Scalescene retaining wall. A weathered Class 31 - 31 005- by Lima sits in the bay platform. To the left of the picture a partially built house sits atop the polystyrene blocks that are awaiting the application of plaster layers to form the hill between the running track and loco shed area.



A different view of the hill where the 'village' will be sited and the loco shed area. The two buildings in front of the Church  (right hand front) are part of the original station building kit but I felt that with the waiting room/ticket office area that sat between them and is still on the station platform the structure was too large for the setting. I therefore carefully separated them into 3 buildings. The thought was that one would be a modern bungalow and the larger building was sufficiently grand to be the vicarage next to the church.



A different view of the 'village' area with a GF  LMS tank 16389 to give some scale perspective. So much clutter on the shelf at the back that is has actually slipped from the level position on the stud wall.

[ColinH]

So here is a bit more about my layout.

The last post finished with lots of polystyrene blocks making the hill for the village between the running line and loco shed area. The 'village' consisted of a church and a couple of buildings that were originally part of the station buildings together with a plastic model shop.

Next step was the messy job of shaping the polystyrene


and covering with a layer of plaster. For this I used a cheap decorator's filler powder mixed (polyfiller type) to a reasonably smooth constituency with a drop of PVA added to it and a splash of acrylic paint so that if it gets chipped it wont be white.


You can see from these two pictures that the height of the hill has been reduced as it looked too overbearing for what I wanted to portray. The roadway along the top of the hill is a layer of the 'polyfiller' suitably coloured.

The application of scatter material was next followed by the application of some paints to represent the rocky outcrops on the hillside. A couple of the shrubs were placed on the embankment but more need to follow and possibly a tree or two.


Eventually the hill side ended up looking like this


I decided to change the position of the church and set about constructing a walled churchyard on a separate piece of polystyrene so the church would be lifted above the level of the roadway. I incorporated an open grave complete with earth box awaiting the arrival of its forthcoming resident and my daughter bought me an Oxford hearse and limousine for Father's Day. Took me three months to get the money out of her. The shop did not take credit card and she had no cash at the time!! I have now purchased the white metal pall bearers, coffin and minister set by Langley models but still need to paint them.


After putting the churchyard in position I added a tree and scratch built the lychgate. Also added some steps from the roadway and a gravel path to the porch door.


The next task undertaken was to complete the backboards. Sky paper had been temporarily clipped to the hardboard for several weeks, so I reckoned it was time that this was stuck on and the town/country scape placed in position. After much moving of furniture in the room so I could get the layout away from the wall this was the result after it had dried overnight.


Complete disaster and waste of money and effort. Nothing for it but to strip it all off. A quick trip to the workshop and hunt through the left over emulsions brought a half tin of blue emulsion to light left over from painting the grandsons bedroom ceiling, The bedroom has a seaside theme with blue sky and white fluffy clouds on the ceiling with a shining sun on the ceiling mounted light shade. Having done clouds in the bedroom how hard would it be to do clouds on the backscene? Judicious use of white emulsion and some kitchen roll to dab it on with proved quite effective. The addition of some black acrylic paint into the white emulsion provided some darker clouds. Having cut out and temporarily positioned the scenic papers acrylic paint was used to provide additional distant hills in shades of green and mauve/purple. The goods yard area behind the station has also received a layer of grey filler. The area between the tracks is filled with a strips of card painted in a matching shade and then glued to the sleepers. I must admit that the gap for the wheel flanges does vary in width along the length of the rails. I can't cut or saw in either a straight line or vertical line to save my life.


The idea is to have the goods yard accessed by a sloping road entering through the bridge at the rear of the yard. Access to the station is via another tunnel just behind the platform and station building.

More to follow. Will try not to leave it as long until the next post.

ColinH

[Sprintex]

My you have been a busy boy

Excellent work Colin, some great scenic work and pictures there


Paul

[ColinH]

My you have been a busy boy

Cheers Paul I didn't think so. These photo's were taken over seven months. Just seems quick work putting them all on here at the same time. Am very hit and miss at spending time modelling but it is a hobby to be enjoyed 

ColinH

[Sprintex]

Still good going in seven months

Am very hit and miss at spending time modelling but it is a hobby to be enjoyed 

Exactly! A hobby is something you do to fill in the time inbetween other more important things, however little that may be


Paul

[ColinH]

So here is a bit more of my progress with Much Puffindun.

Turned my attention to the station next and used a Ratio covered footbridge kit for passenger access over the double line. Unfortunately my kit building is not that brilliant and I think some remedial work may have to be done to this to rectify the very dangerous looking step supports on the left  . The station fencing is Slaters M.R. station fencing. This I painted and glued together then drilled holes in the platform edge to position the uprights. Another mistake here as I intended the station to have three platforms and as you can see I managed to get carried away and fenced off the whole length of the third platform. Removed the offending length of fencing but now have holes along the platform edge that require filling.


I wanted a more rural feel to the village and was not happy with the buildings that I had temporarily placed there. I found it very difficult to source any cottage kits and settled on the Metcalfe railway workers houses and the Metcalfe shop and cafe in grey stone as the nearest thing I could find to what I want. I tried the semi detached houses in different formats to give a bit of variety. Two of the pairs of semis are built with the front porch as per the instructions but I used watercolour paint to make them look different. The second pair of semis I turned into a terrace of four without the porch but with a canopy over the front doors.
The hedging along the road to the village is cut from pan scrubs but still needs the addition of some scatter material to try and alter the colour a little more. I have also extended the area over the running line to give a larger scenic area for the village. This is removable just in case there are any problems in the curved tunnel.


Finally the two points at each end of the front passing loop are now both positioned in tunnels and can no longer be operated by the hand of God. The solution was to cut a slot in the side scenic boards and straighten a paper clip to use as a remote operating lever.


That is about as far as I have got with the layout to date but I hope to get some more done soon. It is my intention to finish the layout and improve its operational performance. Much Puffindun will soon be moving to a new home in the loco shed in the garden. In reality a 12ft x 10ft garden shed that I have insulated with 25mm polystyrene on the walls and 50mm polystyrene on the floor and ceiling. The walls and ceiling have then been faced in 9mm MDF and the floor with 11mm ODS. I have today finished emulsioning walls and ceiling in white and have fitted 2no separately switched 5ft fluorescent lights. Next job is to wire up five double sockets and then connect all to a power supply through a garage circuit box with RCD and circuit breakers.

I have lots of offcuts of MDF and polystyrene left over so Much Puffindun will revert to DC to accommodate my old stock and will be joined by a new DCC test track layout for a while. That is until I can save enough to start my next project which will be a DCC layout based on Harrogate station together with Darley and Pateley Bridge stations on the Nidd Valley line. The whole will be set in the mid 60's period to cover the end of steam and introduction of Diesel/Electric. Lots of research and planning to do on that though before I can start, and the need to incur the 'what if' principle to keep the Nidd Valley line operational to be running in the modeled time frame.

Thanks for reading and for the encouraging comments you have all made so far.

ColinH

[matt94]

Looking good. I've been working my next plan to a 6' by 30" board also, so it's good to see just how big a layout can appear even in this relatively small size.

What have you used for your platforms?

[ColinH]

Hi Matt

The platforms are the plastic ones (Ratio?? - sorry so long since I bought them and have no packaging now). They were a bit of a mess from their previous use so I used the Scalescenes Models platform paving slab print to cover them.

You can see a side view of an untreated platform section in the 4th photo of my 14 Nov post. Hope that helps.

ColinH

[Alex]

What a cracking looking layout, well done.  Keep the updates coming.

Alex 

[ColinH]

It has been a while since I updated this thread so thought I would let you know what has been happening over the last 6 weeks or so.

The new shed to house the layout is now completed and the general landscaping completed, although there is minor planting still to do.



Much Puffindun has been settled in and appreciates the new surroundings (the trackwork seems to be working much better than when it was sat next to the radiator in the hobby room).



As you can see unfortunately the layout has to share the space with other stored items - the go-kart is the grandchildrens but they only visit about 6 times a year. At the other end of the shed the wall is lined with shelving (you might just be able to make out the blue front upright about halfway across the far window in the first pic. These shelves hold all the essential things that have to be stored in a shed - half-full tins of paint, bent rusty nails, rusty screws bolts and nuts and of course the rock hard paint brushes that are just waiting for the brush restorer treatment because dinner was ready before you could clean them the last time you finished using them six months ago. 

Not that I need the space until I build my new layout and then judicious rearrangement of the shelving units will mean that they will become the baseboard support and I will be able to utilise all the 12ft x 10ft space for track. 

Back to the model. The track has had a good clean with a Peco track rubber and trains will now happily trundle over all of it with without requiring a push, especially if they are given a couple of warming up laps before the real running session starts in earnest. Without putting a jinx on the thing the power continuity seems to be excellent even though I am relying on rail joiners and switch rails rather than droppers on every piece of track.

I unboxed my full stable of DC loco's and gave them all an extended test run with the result that four have been relegated to the cripple track, and possibly the scrap yard, as they may not be worth spending a lot of money on to repair especially the LMS tender drive that is in poor physical condition as well. Here are the miscreants in the shed area at the moment.



Ten engines are more than happy to trundle around the layout and so received some attention mainly to stop front pony wheels derailing and to clean the wheels to improve pickup.



Further running will be carried out to establish running speed parameters on the controllers and they will be treated to some lubrication to hopefully improve matters further.

Problems were experienced with the track in the goods yard leading to the derailing of wagons and loco's so this whole area has now been stripped out and will be relaid. Poor alignment of the track horizontally and vertically appeared to be the problem although it was alright when I first laid it - honest  otherwise I would not have ballasted it and surfaced the whole area.

The plaster surfacing of the yard was a bit of a pain to get up but I was not to be beaten.





I may also take the opportunity to revisit the town area as well whilst I am remodelling this area.

[Newportnobby]

Thanks for the update, Colin. It's good to know the layout has settled into it's new accommodation