Tullygrainey

Perfect shot!

I usually glue track down directly onto the baseboard and solder rail ends to gapped copper-clad strips at board joins. That has worked ok for me. I've been thinking about using an underlay with the current project. I know cork sheet is regularly used for this but I've been looking at the dense foam membrane normally laid underneath wood flooring. It comes in various thicknesses from 5mm down to around 2mm. Has anybody tried it? Generally, what are the pros and cons of flexibly mounted track? Specifically, Would flexibly mounted track help or hinder locos' electrical pickup, particularly ones with rigid chassis? Would it cause problems keeping track lined up accurately at board joins? How might you secure these to avoid damage during transportation? Cheers Alan

I've obviously followed the same thought processes as you did David. Yes, I'm in the middle of building trestles for the scenic bit and the traverser. All being well the curved link sections, which will be bolted on at each end, shouldn't need more than a brush staff or similar prop halfway along, if anything. The whole thing is already looking like a challenge to fit in the car. I have 3 BCDR six-wheeler etched coach kits in a drawer waiting till I have the mental strength to tackle them!

Thanks for this. An idea worth considering. I'll know better what's possible when the thing is up and running. That might be a while yet!

My original intention was to put cassette fiddle yards on each end of this layout. However, if it's to go out to exhibitions, which I hope it will, it could be quite challenging, not to say tiring, to operate so that there’s fairly frequent movement. There’s also the risk of damage as cassettes are changed or turned around. I know from experience that my locos don’t bounce when dropped. Thoughts turned to a continuous run with off-scene curves and a traverser at the back to reduce the amount of stock handling and that’s what’s been using up my time and stock of abusive language. I think it’s going to work ok but it’s just about doubled the intended footprint of the layout. Traversers are tricky things. I’ve made mine using ball race drawer runners laid on their sides rather than upright as they would be in a drawer. It just seemed easier that way to get the levels sorted. It’s probably over-engineered - I’ve seen more elegant designs - but I wanted it to be robust and to cope with reasonably sized trains. No track or wiring yet but it will have 5 roads each of which should be able to hold a loco and 5 coaches. (I have lots of locos. Coaches, not so many. Yet.) The curved joining sections are made to take 4th radius set track. It took a fair bit of trial and error to get everything to line up. The job was a trial and I made the errors. I was going round the bend, literally and metaphorically. I don't actually have a big enough space at home to lay it out. This is the front hall. I may have to throw out furniture. Of course the whole thing now needs some form of support to get it up to a good viewing level so that’s the current job. Alan

Describes my situation perfectly! I agree with every word of this David.

!! That's patience Derek!

And who wouldn't

Sound practice. It's clearly a well thought out and designed etch that allows all the soldery mess to hide inside where it can't be seen Lovely work.

Many thanks. I hadn't thought of laser-cutting. Another technique not yet in my skill set

You're right about the level of detail resin can produce David. It amazed me the first time I tried it. I did consider resin casting for these at one stage but in 4mm scale each one is 12mm by 8mm and I wasn't convinced I could even make a reasonable master either in plastic or clay. Also, if I made only one stone, the business of casting copies would be beyond tedious but if I tried to make a master row of them, consistency would be the challenge. The originals, being concrete casts, are all exactly the same. The paper versions have worked better than I expected but they're not as robust as plastic or resin would have been. I've sprayed them with artist's fixative but a coat of matt varnish might also be a good idea. Some survivors on the remains of the platform at Ardglass station. Photos I took last year.

A bit more progress with the layout. A station platform made in two bits because it will cross the join between the two baseboards. I used mounting card for the structure and after a failed attempt to use chinchilla dust for the platform surface - it ended up looking like congealed porridge after the glue went on - I settled for 180 grit sandpaper glued to the top surface with wood glue. Many of the stations on the County Down had cast concrete coping stones, 3ft x2 ft, along the platform edge. These had distinctive diagonal cross hatching, 8 lines in each direction. Deciding how to model these held me up for a while. 3D printing might well be the solution but that's a mountain I've yet to climb. Even base camp is still over the horizon. I managed to draw one coping stone to scale on the computer then copied and pasted to get what I wanted. The result was printed onto paper which I'd pre-painted with a suitable mix. (I'd already tried printing first then painting, only for the nice printed lines to disappear under the paint, despite using water colours). The printer survived being fed painted card. Phew! After painting the sandpaper with various shades of artist's acrylic, the coping stone prints were cut into strips, scored and folded then glued down along the front of the platform and wrapped over the leading edge. Wills Coarse Stone (SSMP200) was used to cover the platform front, sanded back a bit and wiped over with filler. Paint did the rest. The station building will bed down into a shaped hole cut for it in the platform. It's still sitting a bit proud in this photo. A bit of weathering will also help to blend building and platform together.

Just brilliant! The buses and the buildings are wonderful but so are the road surfaces. Perfectly observed and totally convincing. Lovely work.

Thanks Derek. Yes, I leave the clay to dry completely before scribing it. If the clay is soft, there's a tendency for it to move away from the scriber and create raised bits either side of the scribed line - more like ploughing than scribing. When the clay is dry, it's possible to get finer scribed lines and they stay where you put them. I use a hardened steel centre punch which has a fine point but anything sharp and pointy would do. As to yellow/green weathering, steal away. I'm fairly sure I nicked the idea in the first place after seeing it somewhere - possibly in a magazine article by Gordon Gravett. Alan

Not a kit build. A transformation. I had a car like that once - more filler than metal. Terrific work Darius

Thanks David. The Comber goods shed which I used as inspiration appears to have been built in sandstone, possibly from the nearby quarries at Scrabo - there was a rail link from the BCDR Donaghadee branch line in the 19th Century. However, what I've ended up with looks more akin to limestone, like the harbour at Donaghadee where I often walk and which coincidentally also had a BCDR rail link.

After a racing start, this layout ground to a halt whilst a spate of engine building claimed the bandwidth. Now that there are enough locos to keep the works fitters in full time employment for a while we can get going again here, this time with a goods shed. After faffing about with various kinds of embossed plastic sheet and getting nowhere, I settled on a foam board shell covered with DAS then sanded smooth and scribed. This is my second attempt. The first one was just wrong but it's been useful for experimenting with paint and colours. For this attempt, I used photos I took of the surviving BCDR goods shed at Comber as a guide to the shape and size of the building and the stonework though it's not a slavish copy of that building (now the town's fire station). Quoins and arches were scribed first then horizontal course lines were penciled in and scribed. These help guide the scribing of individual stones and keep things under control. I have scribed stones in the shape of pillows in the past. Next, a thin wash of a pale colour and some individual stones picked out in stronger colour got things started. Painting was all done with artist's acrylics, mostly raw umber, titanium white and mars black. From there, more thin washes and retouching of the feature stones gradually built up the colour. A bit of black into some mortar lines and some dry-brushed yellow/green added a bit of weathering. I started out using the same ready-made roofing slate sheets that I used on the station (see above) and though they worked perfectly for that building they just didn't look right here- too small and too neat for a slightly decrepit goods shed. So it was back to the paper strip method using strips cut from grids drawn up on the computer. They're glued onto a plasticard base here. The method produces a slightly irregular effect - well it does if you're not too fussy about it - which I think suits this building. The danger here is that individual slates can curl up in a most un-slate-like manner as the paint dries. They can usually be glued down again. The roof isn't attached yet. I have some window frame etches on order and need to fit those before gluing it down. Gutters and downpipes are next. Back in harness, somewhere on the County Down. Alan

All your effort has produced a fine bridge Patrick but did it take a toll on you?

Glad to see you're coping Patrick

That's an impressive to-do list James. Take your time over it and enjoy the process. Be prepared for it to be challenging and likely to go wrong occasionally but keep at it. Most things are remediable, especially brass kits and the more we do, the better we get at it. Your weathering looks good. I especially like the wagons - subtle but suitably decrepit! Alan

Moist eyes here too Patrick. Lovely video.

Thanks everyone. Number 12 brings the County Down roster to 7 locomotives. The fitters are saying they've lined out enough locos to do them for a while. Me too. Back in September 2024 I started out to build a small exhibition layout for this lot to run on but got distracted. I probably should get back to that. In the meantime, new arrival No.12 is stretching its legs. Alan BCDR No12.mov

The differences are fairly subtle but I think scratch building the body on version 2 got it a bit closer to the look of the prototype. I wish now I'd just scratch built a chassis while I was at it. Wouldn't have been that much more work in the end!

Thanks David. Yes, I took these pics a couple days ago. Version 1 with adapted Adams Radial bodywork and unmodified chassis on the left

The BCDR bogie tank is almost done. At last. The bit that should’ve been no trouble, the ready-to-run chassis , fought me every inch (25.4mm) of the way. Part of that was my own fault for hacking and filing bits off without protecting the motor and gears from metal filings. It still makes odd noises going backwards. However there was also an intermittent short circuit which took days to track down and fix. The big hammer was close to deployment more than once. Seems ok now. I settled in the end for Number 12. One of the of the first batch of 5 bogies tanks (“Series A”), it was built by Beyer Peacock in 1904. Still needs a coal load and maybe some more weathering. After taking the pics I managed to destroy one of the tank side number plates so a new one is getting made. Body bits bolted together after painting and lining ... ... and chassis fitted. Crew hide the lack of inside cab detail, as usual. Alan