Ardree Quay

[Tullygrainey]

Yes, it’s time for a digital extraction procedure 

[LNERW1]

Most of my housemates (well technically family but housemates sounds cooler) are in Galway at the moment so I don’t have any additional manpower to exploit. This unfortunately means I have to wait until later to start clearing up, but rest assured the debris removal process will begin within the next 36 hours. Or maybe days. No, let’s go with hours.

[DJ Dangerous]

6 minutes ago, LNERW1 said:

Most of my housemates (well technically family but housemates sounds cooler) are in Galway at the moment so I don’t have any additional manpower to exploit. This unfortunately means I have to wait until later to start clearing up, but rest assured the debris removal process will begin within the next 36 hours. Or maybe days. No, let’s go with hours.

Don’t forget:

 

On 28/11/2024 at 7:59 PM, derek said:

Do it all in your own sweet time. You won't enjoy anything if you do it under pressure. This is supposed to be a hobby to be enjoyed and not a job with deadlines. You will get enough of that later in life. 

 

[LNERW1]

It’s an estimate not a deadline. I think…

[LNERW1]

Progress report.

Just a quick one really. The railway room has been rescued from a suffocating layer of random debris and Ardree Quay has risen. No work has actually been done but the next project is to improve the track- soldering the track joints, painting rail sides, completing ballasting and re-doing the inset rails and quay surface in DAS clay. This is a fairly defined and straightforward task, and can be done with materials and tools I already have to hand, so hopefully I can do a little bit of this in the coming weeks, maybe as a way to decompress after school.

[DJ Dangerous]

1 hour ago, LNERW1 said:

Progress report.

Just a quick one really. The railway room has been rescued from a suffocating layer of random debris and Ardree Quay has risen. No work has actually been done but the next project is to improve the track- soldering the track joints, painting rail sides, completing ballasting and re-doing the inset rails and quay surface in DAS clay. This is a fairly defined and straightforward task, and can be done with materials and tools I already have to hand, so hopefully I can do a little bit of this in the coming weeks, maybe as a way to decompress after school.

Somebody posted a few years back on the Das clay, and I think that they said that running an old credit card along the inside of the rails provided perfect clearance and straight lines.

[DJ Dangerous]

It was @Sean posting HERE.

[LNERW1]

I do have older stock with coarser wheelsets so I prefer to use a 10c coin. Rolls along nicely too.

[meathdane]

I did it the good old fashion way, I had an old Hornby wagon with the massive wheel flanges and while the clay was wet I ran it through, cleaned off the wheels and ran it through again, did it a few times and It was perfect. 

 

Word of warning, if you're going to sand down Das, the surface layer will be dry after a day or two, depending on humidity and temperature, you want to leave it a week odd before sanding I find, to allow all the moisture to dry out completely, otherwise it's a task to get a smooth finish. 

 

Post a few pictures whenever you can, curious to see how you're getting along with this project

[Broithe]

We had inset rails all over the factory and the standard for the flange gap in the real world seemed to be just over half the width of ordinary footwear.

This meant that you could expect to walk over a track without much care most of the time.

But, if you caught it 'just wrong' and at a shallow angle, your ankle would fold under you, causing great hilarity amongst any onlookers.

[DJ Dangerous]

11 minutes ago, Broithe said:

We had inset rails all over the factory and the standard for the flange gap in the real world seemed to be just over half the width of ordinary footwear.

This meant that you could expect to walk over a track without much care most of the time.

But, if you caught it 'just wrong' and at a shallow angle, your ankle would fold under you, causing great hilarity amongst any onlookers.

My cankles are finally something to be proud of.

[LNERW1]

On 30/4/2025 at 12:18 PM, meathdane said:

I did it the good old fashion way, I had an old Hornby wagon with the massive wheel flanges and while the clay was wet I ran it through, cleaned off the wheels and ran it through again, did it a few times and It was perfect. 

 

Word of warning, if you're going to sand down Das, the surface layer will be dry after a day or two, depending on humidity and temperature, you want to leave it a week odd before sanding I find, to allow all the moisture to dry out completely, otherwise it's a task to get a smooth finish. 

 

Post a few pictures whenever you can, curious to see how you're getting along with this project

I think I’m going to try running over the clay with a lot of wet fingers. It’s a technique I’ve seen used often and it seems to work well.

[LNERW1]

When I woke up this morning, I liked birds. They are impressive creatures and make a lovely sound in the morning, and had never done anything to get on my bad side.

A few minutes ago, I was sitting at a table in my back garden, soldering together the track pieces that made up the goods shed road. I was getting a little bit frustrated. I had only managed to solder 6 track joints, they were all messy and only 3 were holding. It was becoming apparent that I didn't know what I was doing. However, I was still enjoying it and was listening to a good podcast, so I decided to keep going.

I was about to touch the tip of the soldering iron to the solder when a sound emanated from a spot about two inches from my hand. It was a mixture between a plop and a splat and came, more precisely, from the area between the loop and shed road I today scraped clean of clay. I looked up and saw a yellow-white sludge with a few black-brown nuclei sitting smack bang in the middle of my layout.

I no longer like birds.

[Mol_PMB]

On 1/5/2025 at 8:59 PM, LNERW1 said:

When I woke up this morning, I liked birds. They are impressive creatures and make a lovely sound in the morning, and had never done anything to get on my bad side.

A few minutes ago, I was sitting at a table in my back garden, soldering together the track pieces that made up the goods shed road. I was getting a little bit frustrated. I had only managed to solder 6 track joints, they were all messy and only 3 were holding. It was becoming apparent that I didn't know what I was doing. However, I was still enjoying it and was listening to a good podcast, so I decided to keep going.

I was about to touch the tip of the soldering iron to the solder when a sound emanated from a spot about two inches from my hand. It was a mixture between a plop and a splat and came, more precisely, from the area between the loop and shed road I today scraped clean of clay. I looked up and saw a yellow-white sludge with a few black-brown nuclei sitting smack bang in the middle of my layout.

I no longer like birds.

Ah, realistic weathering, if a bit over-scale!

 

On my O gauge layout based on the Manchester Ship Canal, I carefully added the seagull droppings below their perch:

[LNERW1]

Given I’m modelling a seaside location that would probably be a nice detail. Is it just a trickle of paint? Frankly if I was doing it more than likely I’d just use Tipp-ex.

[Mol_PMB]

9 minutes ago, LNERW1 said:

Given I’m modelling a seaside location that would probably be a nice detail. Is it just a trickle of paint? Frankly if I was doing it more than likely I’d just use Tipp-ex.

Yes, little trickles of white paint on the coping stones and a few streaks on the front wall. They would need to be very fine in 4mm scale though, a very fine brush would be needed.

I have five different species of gull on my Ship Canal layout and the row of dozens of them is quite prototypical for the present day but probably a bit excessive for the 1960s period I'm modelling, as there was more pollution back then. I enjoyed adding them to the layout though, and they help to set the canalside scene because I only have room for a tiny bit of water on the front of the layout. 

The bigger birds are sold for 7mm scale and are about the right size for large gulls (e.g. Herring Gull, Black Backed Gulls) but for the smaller gulls (e.g. Black Headed Gull, Mediterranean Gull) I used 4mm scale gulls. This is probably way more information than you wanted! I do like birds...

[LNERW1]

34 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

Yes, little trickles of white paint on the coping stones and a few streaks on the front wall. They would need to be very fine in 4mm scale though, a very fine brush would be needed.

I have five different species of gull on my Ship Canal layout and the row of dozens of them is quite prototypical for the present day but probably a bit excessive for the 1960s period I'm modelling, as there was more pollution back then. I enjoyed adding them to the layout though, and they help to set the canalside scene because I only have room for a tiny bit of water on the front of the layout. 

The bigger birds are sold for 7mm scale and are about the right size for large gulls (e.g. Herring Gull, Black Backed Gulls) but for the smaller gulls (e.g. Black Headed Gull, Mediterranean Gull) I used 4mm scale gulls. This is probably way more information than you wanted! I do like birds...

This forum is basically solely info dumping so your explanations of gull species are very much welcome. I do find birds in general interesting, despite having only a very basic knowledge of them. And when they're not using my layout/soldering area as a public toilet I must admit I don't have much against them.