Noel

Nice photos as ever. My hint of OCD for colour matching, patterns and symmetry balks at the sight of mixed and incompatible liveries (i.e. 207 hauling intercity)

Hi Tony. Your welcome. I've just added a few extra pics in the post above showing before and after. I used Peco code 100 track. However, I bought our track 23 years ago when much RTR stock still had pizza cutter wheel flanges so would not run over code 75 track, but if I was starting off again today I would have gone with code 75 because modern RTR stock for at least the past 15-20 years has wheel flanges that will run over code 75 track. The lower level inner branch line loop which has not yet been laid will be code 75. Noel

Hi Tony Two pics below of woodlands before and after the airbrush was used to weather and blend the ballast, rail and sleepers. As you can see, before looks hideous and toy like, but the after looks dulled and less contrast. Air brushed using railmatch sleeper grime thinned 50% with acrylic thinners. It might also save you having to hand paint the rail sides as a separate step. Before After Hope this helps. This is a pic (below) of the ballast still wet just after I had applied the water PVA glue mix to it using an eye dropper. I first gently sprayed tap water on the dry ballast after it had been positioned, to wet it so PVA mix would flow through it, and then used an eye dropper to apply PVA/water mix (50/50%) (few drops of fairy liquid in mix) and allowed it to dry for 24hr before painting. You can see from pic below its fairly wet but when PVA/water has dried it is clear with no visible PVA.

Hi Tony It should look a lot better when its weathered in. In the sample below I used Woodland scenics 'buff' coloured 'medium' ballast which looked hideous straight out of the container, but after it had been weathered with a single spray of 'sleeper' grime, which btw painted the rails sides, sleepers and ballast in one go, it looked a lot better (see below). The 'buff' like the 'grey' is very bright straight out of the container and contrasts too much with the plastic sleepers, but the overspray of sleeper grime on top of the lot blends it all together. I will try and dig out a photo where I used 'grey' medium ballast. Woodland scenics medium buff ballast after the ballast, sleepers and rails over sprayed once with RailMatch sleeper grime. The overspray does a lot to blend the whole lot together removing stark contrasts. The track in the pic above in on a 3mm track bed which would be suitable out in the country side to create a shoulder, but in the environs of railway stations not needed as it would all have been fairly flat (i.e. like photos of Omagh North). Perhaps make the ballast area just a little wider than the track in your photo. In my case I did not pre-paint the track work, nor rails, I just over sprayed the lot in one go once the ballast/pva/water mix had dried. Before the overspray the buff looked ridiculously bright compared to the unpainted sleepers. TIP - How I removed paint from rail surface: After over spraying the track, ballast and rails with sleeper grime (50% thinned), while it was still wet, I used my index finger tightly wrapped with a small piece of kitchen paper to run along the top of the rail and removed most of the paint just from the top of the rail, being careful not to come into contact with the top of the rail sides, sleepers nor ballast. Than about an hour or two later before the acrylic paint had cured, but was touch dry I used a cotton bud just dampened with methylated spirits to run along the top of the rail to remove any residual paint. It comes off much easier at this early stage before it has had time to fully cure.

Thanks John for posting the above. PM sent. Noel

+1 Don't scratch the rails with rough materials because the abrasions will collect track dirt ever after

Superbly informative post JB. Many thanks. Noel

Well done Kieran completing that fleet of new rolling stock. Love the interesting and diverse colour schemes. Respect.

Cheers JB + Kieran. Well learning. The main thing is it has opened up another aspect of the hobby for me which I am enjoying. Looking forward to weathering the IRM ballasts later this month when my order is delivered. I added some background rail noises to the video which was interesting. I'm thinking of making up an app to play selected background sound mixes in a loop.

Love the flying snail. She looks really well.

Hi Guys In light of my ongoing learning curve painting old RTR coaches, I am wondering if I could ever become proficient enough to use etched brass sides to convert or improve RTR stock (i.e. laminates, bredins, etc). These are probably questions for specialists like John M, and/or others who have successfully used brass etched coach sides with RTR or plastic coach kits. The questions are: How does one successfully use etched brass coach side overlays but avoid the sometimes seen air gapping between the roof along the sides in places, and also avoid the sides sitting flush or even proud of the roof, which instead should often overhang the coach sides marginally (i.e. often with a drip rail)? . How does one ensure the brass sides do not finish short of the roof ends or coach ends (i.e. finish either flush, or have roof ends very marginally overhand the coach ends)? . How does one form the tumblehome without specialist tools, or do some suppliers of etched brass sides supply the sides with tumblehome pre-formed? . Is it better to have the sides fixed to the roof and coach ends with removable chassis and under frame, or visa versa (fixed to the chassis and ends with removable roof)? Does the latter risk air gapping? Many thanks in anticipation. Noel

Hi Richard. She looks really well with very nice crisp paint finish. As a matter of interest what paint did you use for the black? Noel

Finished lightly weathering 25 wagons. On next batch will try some alternate methods like washes and powders. This is addictive. Wagons after visit to varnishing shop - Humbrol Acrylic matt spray can varnish Wagons back on the layout CIE Decals from Weshty Video of rake of recently weathered wagons. Some sound editing to add to the DCC sound coming from the loco. I just love the diversity of loose coupled goods trains of that era.

Hi Tony. Apologies I missed this question last week. Top picture used: Ballast = Javis Granite Chippings (extra fine) REF JXG7 7lb Static Grass = Heki Nr 3360 Sommerwiese 100g (ie Summer Meadow) Bottom picture was Woodland scenics medium buff ballast. Both top and bottom were lightly airbrushed once with Railmatch acrylic sleeper grime diluted 50/50% with acrylic thinners. The airbrush made one pass for each rail side, one for the sleepers between the rails, and one for each ballast shoulder. Did you use a paint brush or airbrush for the rail sides?

Hybrid - Multiple independant physical and cloud backups on multiple media stored on multiple sites (ie: fire/theft/radiation/magnetic/emp protection). The other big problem on the horizon is cloud or hosted photo libraries and videos that become effectively lost when someone dies, unlike the old days when families found family photo treasures in picture frames, physical photo albums and boxes stored in an attic. Nowadays few family members know the deceased's passwords nor even where their cloud service might have been. I advise my pals to store their important passwords in a sealed envelope with their will, especially their email passwords as they are the key to retrieving most lost accounts. Given human mortality is hovering approximately there or there abouts consistently about 100%, its advisable to ensure somebody can retrieve family photos and video from cloud storage and electronic media, when one eventually passes through to the next life.

PM sent

Hi Tony. What you have done above so far is really excellent progress and appears built to a very high standard. It looks really well and your track work is immaculate with lovely flowing curves and ultra neat joints (not a single kink or angular joint in sight). Perhaps you are being a little hard on yourself. As your original objective was a goods shunting layout, this will look fabulous when filled out with lineside detail, scenery, backdrop, etc, and yet allow you to shunt and juggle clusters of wagons from sidings to shed which seems long enough to have two wagons loading internally and a few more outside on goods platform loading area, not to mention direct loading from trucks on sidings and horse/carts. As suggested perhaps a pair of points near the platform mouth adding another run around loop for goods wagons. Perhaps parking a passenger coach on one of the platforms with a few figures will add still leave enough room for the loop to operate with goods wagons, while adding the perception of a busy station. If using steam locos then obviously non-tender locos may offer more flexibility (i.e. tank engines). Don't loose heart to early. Wishing you all the best whatever direction your layout takes. Noel

Hi Tony, would it help if you added a pair of cross over points between the two platforms ends so that you would have a longer passing loop? It might act as a loco release for running around wagons. Noel

A slightly more entertaining video clip of pseudo CIE 1968 goods train. I'm finally learning how to use some of iMovie's features. Best viewed in full screen with the sound turned up. Enjoy

Good grief Popeye that is absolutely stunning. And the motor setup looks like a precision performer.

Hi Tony. What loco are you using and does it have a sound chip. A sound chip on a very smooth low speed loco can make shunting operations seem very interesting and realistic, with pauses as wagons are coupled and uncoupled, horns and whistles, slowly moving a wagon or two from one end of a yard to another, buffer clashes, flange squeal, etc. Once you have track ballast, ground scenery, and a back scene, the loco will have the illusion of travel once it has a mini world to travel within. All the best. Noel

Short video clip (phone) of late 60s, early 70s CIE goods train with 23 wagons many recently weathered lightly. Wagons are a mix of converted Bachmann GWR/LMS vans, Lima vans, BR mineral wagons (poetic license), cattle wagon, MIR cements, IFM beat + brake van, and Valve design 3D beat wagons on Dapol chassis. Initially I didn't like the 3D beats at all, but now they are painted and weathered @ €33ea finished on Dapol RTR chassis they don't look too bad considering the compromises and errors, and personally pass my 'duck test'. I have weathered about 10 other wagons, so now time to move on to some loco kits and more passenger resprays.

Sorry to hear that Kieran, that's a real bother, but nothing you can do about it, so no need to apologise. Your workbench and layout photos are epic, and will be a loss. Perhaps while they are still available to view, you could transfer a few choice ones to another host and re-posted them in a KJ archive posting.

JB, I don't know which is best, but I've used airbrush to "kill two birds with one stone", by lightly spraying 'railmatch' acrylic sleeper grime onto ballasted track in one go (i.e. weathers track, ballast, and sprays a layer on the sides of the rails to loose the shine and give them a dull grime effect. I tried hand painting the rail sides with a paint brush, and also one of the specialist marker pens, but found it somewhat tedious and time consuming. I found the Peco 'rust' pen colour too bright and orange looking. A very thin dull brown colour like 'sleeper grime' seems to look more natural. Have fun.

Hi Paul, I don't know, will look in the attic later, we would have to ask the 'Oracle' JB if something like this would pass muster as a repaint candidate. It's a much finer model than the Hornby toys I have used so far. Or, I have some of these in GWR livery, but not sure either look like any of the stuff CIE ever ran Cheers, but I think not I'll stick to playing with my model trains.