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Depot #8 by Riverbank Railways (fictional 1980s / early 1990s depot)

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Adrian

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Oh wow, what a response! Thanks for all the comments and encouragement everyone :)
 

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how did you get from the rails being completely covered over to the neat channels in the later photos?

Hey @David Holman, with lots of learning! I cut along the inside of the rails with a scalpel and then used a metal ruler to cut along the channel, then dug it out with the scalpel, then I learned that the channels were too narrow which caught the wheels and I had left the surrounding clay a little too high which bumped them up and broke the contact (this is after spraying :( ). It was fine for stay alive fitted locos but not good on older ones. I had to resand and make the channels wider and respray again (which actually worked out well as the concrete ended up with two different textures). Then after weathering I learned that you gotta clean the inside top of the rails as well, as the locos were depending on that for contact (especially older Lima wheels which are not flat but at an angle). Then I learned not to let the varnish pool too much or it would lift the wheel again as it passed over lol.

So trial and error on the first attempt but once figured out, the second hardstand went much smoother. I'll have a video up soon which shows the technique so will plop a link down here for ya :)

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thats awesome Adrian you are quite tallented, i get terrified when i see the wiring diagrams but i guess im gona have to figure them out. thats exactly the idea i had for my own command center as such again didnt think there was gona be so much wiring lol i never soldered a thing in my life but i got one today from the amazon man so im gona practice on some fine cable before i touch resisters and cable for the lights and such before i move onto points and important stuff,

love the layout so far man i look forward to following it

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43 minutes ago, Geeb said:

thats awesome Adrian you are quite tallented, i get terrified when i see the wiring diagrams but i guess im gona have to figure them out. thats exactly the idea i had for my own command center as such again didnt think there was gona be so much wiring lol i never soldered a thing in my life but i got one today from the amazon man so im gona practice on some fine cable before i touch resisters and cable for the lights and such before i move onto points and important stuff,

love the layout so far man i look forward to following it

Thanks dude! I was the same, never soldered anything before this time last year, there's a bit of fear at the start, but as you say, if you start practicing on random bits of wire, getting a single LED working etc you'll be flying. That's what I did anyway - here's some of my earliest experiments... :)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VfP7U8AKyb8oATDx9
https://photos.app.goo.gl/NhUH1XjLJSMfHEwh8

Quick tip, when soldering flux makes everything easier :)

 

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@David HolmanHere's the vid for cutting out the grooves in the rails - one thing to note, they need to be 1.5 to 2 times wider than what you're seeing here - as I learned!

 

 

Edited by Adrian
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I just subbed up to your channel bro I’ll blast trough them all tomorrow evening before I attempt and of the delicate work, and yep have the flux ordered that’s due tomorrow, the post man must love me these days 😂 thanks again Adrian 🤙🏻

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12 hours ago, Adrian said:

So trial and error on the first attempt but once figured out, the second hardstand went much smoother. I'll have a video up soon which shows the technique so will plop a link down here for ya :)

Got the videos organised and have them in a playlist for easy watching - they're quick and to the point - 15 mins in total - have fun! :)

Posted here: 


 

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Oh I’m loving this! Evening time at the depot after fitting the MM 071 sound chip and the IRM A class EMD sound chip to my new MM 073 and IRM A class 017 - the sound quality is way better than I expected, full of bass and sounds even better in real life - the rail squeal effect is my favourite :)

 

 

Edited by Adrian
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Yep, maybe so, the 071 just does it for me cos it’s the one I remember most from being a kid and getting the train in the 90s (born in 1980 in Carlow so didn’t see too many A classes) - for me that’s “the” train sound  and gives me goosebumps :)

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Having fun with ballasting, first section is gluing now. I love the creativity you can unleash :) 

Going for a brownish mix around the main areas of the depot with plenty of variation, second pic shows an oil tanker siding a bit away from the main track work, so different ballast mix

0019B47B-07D7-4772-AEF4-22C911D2580F.thumb.jpeg.5f925582e7dbe4310f648dda3d377e1c.jpeg

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Wow that's an amazing return to the hobby after 25 years.  I returned in 2014 after a similar absence and found things had moved on so much since I had left, so much new stuff and materials to learn. Well done, progress so far looks excellent. Layout looks fab. Btw, those carpentry skills looked spot on too. Enjoy layout, its like gardening, and will never end nor complete, but the journey is so enjoyable. 

I suspect none of us would have got into or back into the hobby without Patrick Murphy's successful business endeavours.

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1 hour ago, Noel said:

Wow that's an amazing return to the hobby after 25 years.  I returned in 2014 after a similar absence and found things had moved on so much since I had left, so much new stuff and materials to learn. Well done, progress so far looks excellent. Layout looks fab. Btw, those carpentry skills looked spot on too. Enjoy layout, its like gardening, and will never end nor complete, but the journey is so enjoyable. 

I suspect none of us would have got into or back into the hobby without Patrick Murphy's successful business endeavours.

Tis he who got me back into it, having abandoned it in my very early 20s..... I just had to have a 141. Up to only a short few years ago I was more than happy with a large collection of German and Austrian narrow gauge! "Dugort Harbour" was actually originally conceived (baseboard-wise) as an 009 set-up..........

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On 27/1/2022 at 10:30 AM, Noel said:

Wow that's an amazing return to the hobby after 25 years.  I returned in 2014 after a similar absence and found things had moved on so much since I had left, so much new stuff and materials to learn. Well done, progress so far looks excellent. Layout looks fab. Btw, those carpentry skills looked spot on too. Enjoy layout, its like gardening, and will never end nor complete, but the journey is so enjoyable. 

I suspect none of us would have got into or back into the hobby without Patrick Murphy's successful business endeavours.

Thank you very much Noel, appreciate those comments! Especially the carpentry which was never my strong suit 🤣

Just finished a video series on creating oily, grimy ballast at the fuelling point - if you're interested check it out over in the tutorials :)


 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Phase 2 is complete! So in this phase I concentrated on getting the ballast in place with a base level of weathering and some trackside details. I've gone for a really dirty, oily 1980s depot look, with lots of spilled oil around the tracks as well as oil leaks from the locos along the most used routes in the depot. Things are much cleaner nowadays but they really didn't bother cleaning anything in the 80s! Have included a set of reference photos as well that I was working from.

I also experimented with point motors, manual levers and point rodding to see how it would look - it turned out great but the point rodding was very fiddly (especially as I had already laid the ballast and had to dig some of it up). In the end I decided that in our depot, the last of the old point rodding was about to be removed and replaced with manual levers, and some of the previous point rodding was just lying around, rusting with time. This will eventually be overgrown with grass and weeds etc. in the next phase.

Honestly, I'm delighted with this result :) One thing I found as well is that as most phones have cameras at the top, if you hold the phone upside down you can get a much more realistic perspective :) Also, reversing the camera and placing the phone in unusual places can give you great, normally unseen shots looking out from the back of the layout - just a quick tip for any folks reading this :)

In the next phase (Feb - Apr) I hope to complete: 

  1. Backscenes
  2. Fuelling point
  3. Level crossing road surface
  4. Static grass and overgrown areas
  5. Weathering of the sheds
  6. Practice weathering on some old locos and body shells that I have - no way I'm starting on my lovely Irish locos!

As always, I welcome any feedback / thoughts / ideas people have - enjoy the photos and the short video at the end!

 

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Reference photos I was working from:

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Looking across the depot from the fuelling point into the setting sun (got this shot totally by accident when the phone looked directly at the light bulb :) )

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Looking through the engine shed with light reflecting on oil stains

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#183 in the headshunt with old rails and the last of the point rodding still in place before being replaced in our fictitious depot

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Obsolete point lever frames and rusty point rodding, with manual point levers, a relay box, manhole and rusted rails

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This siding in the foreground will be a little overgrown and used for fuel tanker deliveries - I'll probably add some fuel pumps into the ground for pumping fuel from the tankers to the fuelling point

IMG_3413.thumb.JPG.4e25383fa458e5be57b6ea55b9c9e95b.JPG

 

#073 sitting on the fuel point, with oil stains reflecting the light

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The other section of the layout (initially just for loading locos out of sight, but I decided I might as well practice here too and make this section more modern) has electronic point motors, with cable trunking emerging from a (future) tunnel and exposed wiring to the motors and relay boxes

IMG_3339.thumb.JPG.63c8f69b71fa10db319c4b962afdf139.JPG

 

Note the oil stains where locos idle, waiting for release from the sidings, between the sidings will have some weeds and static grass added in the next phase. The rusty siding to the lower right is no longer used and will be totally overgrown.

IMG_3340.thumb.JPG.ab06bc0dc17c58a9dca098206befd6c6.JPG

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Cable bundles running from the trunking to the relay boxes, these will also be overgrown with weeds

IMG_3442.thumb.JPG.402c870e446c0d9aeace568f84cb56f4.JPG

 

Another unusual perspective, I love the foreshortening effect on curves when seen from this angle :)

IMG_3409.thumb.JPG.a79b33133bee9d6b73a4f730844ceda6.JPG

 

 

Murphy Models class 071 #073 on a short move from the headshunt into the fuelling point



 

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