Somewhere on the County Down

[Patrick Davey]

Totally amazed by the steps Alan!

Edited July 13 by Patrick Davey

[Patrick Davey]

Just admiring this magnificent building again Alan.  I definitely think it’s my favourite one of your many wonderful creations, probably because I know the prototype building so well.

And bearing in mind your comment about the signalman’s tie, I can safely say this one Trumps all other signal cabin builds.

[Tullygrainey]

Track is now laid, wired and tested on Kilmore's scenic boards.

 

Droppers are 7/0.2 multicore wire. The bus wires are single core copper mains lighting cable. I used to lay the track then fit the droppers but now I solder these to the rails before they go down. Far fewer melted sleepers this way. Phono plugs and sockets take care of inter-board connections. Track on the scenic section is Peco OO Code 75. The non-scenic bits are a mix of Peco and Hornby Code 100.

 

The whole layout footprint is now 11 ft by 6 ft. The only place I can set it up without throwing furniture into a skip is the garage. Putting it all together allowed all the connections to be tested and some tweaking of the track ends at board joins. Some of the locos needed a bit of encouragement too.

Of the BCDR stock, diesel No.2 is finding the 4th radius curves on the linking sections a challenge and sits with its wheels spinning with more than two or three wagons in tow. More weight needed maybe. The 0-6-4T dock shunter No.29 derails on these sections and will need a bit of work to make it behave. The rest of the stable manages ok. 2-4-2T No.7 happily pulls 2 coaches, 12 wagons and a brake van.

Video of some of the first runs...

 

 

 

A way to go yet but we're making progress.

Alan

 

[derek]

I can't view that download, but I am sure it's great. Sigh.... Just ordinary uploaded videos for me

[Patrick Davey]

Simply superb Alan - and impressive progress too!

[Dunluce Castle]

A wonderful sight to see trains running, just give us a glimpse of what to expect when the scenery is complete, brilliant!

[David Holman]

I'm sure garages should be renamed Railway Room. Far better use for them, as long as there is a driveway to park the car.

[Tullygrainey]

Work on Kilmore over this last week or so has focused on the track - points rodding (2 sorts), ballast and paint.

Points rodding 1: In the interest of keeping it simple, I've avoided points motors and opted for simple rod operation using 2mm brass rod and some bits from choc-bloc electrical connectors. It works well on The Stone Yard and I hope it will here too. This is the basic arrangement...

 

... and here it is installed under the board. The rod exits through the back board and terminates in a wooden knob.

 

To paint the sides of the rails, I used a method described by Chris Nevard in Model Rail - Halfords matt black and red oxide from rattle cans, sprayed at a low angle across the track until a satisfactory colour is achieved. Shouldn't work but it does a remarkably convincing job of representing old rust.

 

Points rodding 2: Cosmetic representations of the real thing using Wills plastic kits, laid before the ballast went down. This was the hardest thing I've done in a long time. Fragile and nightmarishly fiddly to assemble. I broke a lot of bits, lost others to the carpet monster and some of the finished results are a bit approximate. Give me an etched brass coach kit with no instructions any day! 

Ballasting: Not my favourite activity. Placing the ballast is fairly satisfying - all that dusting it into place with a little paint brush whilst humming quietly to oneself - but gluing it down and then picking grit out of flange ways and points mechanisms isn't. And vacuuming up the stray particles only to find great chunks coming adrift because it wasn't glued down properly or you didn't leave it to dry for long enough. Then there's weathering the stuff...

Anyway, here's the state of play to date...

 

Grassy hillsides next. Pastoral landscape has been noticeably absent from my previous layouts so new ground to be explored, new mistakes to make. 

 Alan

Edited Saturday at 19:00 by Tullygrainey

[Mayner]

Very nice! the "Streamline" look of the Peco Code 75 track with its HO sleeper spacing helps to disguise the narrow gauge look of OO gauge, point rodding modelled complete with a facing point lock (fpl) seldom modelled adds to the overal impression of realism.

[David Holman]

Got a lot of the necessary evils out of the way there, Alan and to very good effect as well. Love the rattle cans idea, and while really must try to embrace my air brush more, it is such a faff.

 Static grass machines much more fun.

[Mol_PMB]

Super work in lots of areas there!

I particularly like the use of the choc block parts to provide an adjustable connection between the point tiebar and operating rod. 
You did well to persevere with the point rodding and it looks superb. I hope it’s not so fragile now it’s fixed down. I wonder whether there’s a brass equivalent, for next time?

I’m looking forward to seeing this develop and it is inspiring me to make some progress on a layout myself. 

[Tullygrainey]

Thanks everyone. 

1 hour ago, David Holman said:

 Static grass machines much more fun.

I'm hoping so David. I used a puffer bottle on The Stone Yard, which was perfectly adequate for the small amounts of grass in odd corners there but I've got a proper gadget for this one. Haven't tried it yet!

53 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

Super work in lots of areas there!

I particularly like the use of the choc block parts to provide an adjustable connection between the point tiebar and operating rod. 
You did well to persevere with the point rodding and it looks superb. I hope it’s not so fragile now it’s fixed down. I wonder whether there’s a brass equivalent, for next time?

The arrangement for using choc blocs, I picked up from someone else on RM Web though I've adapted it a bit. 

As regards modelling the prototype points rodding, DCC Concepts marketed a system of working points rodding which I think was in metal. It still seems to be available from Rails of Sheffield but I can find no mention of it now on the DCC Concepts website so they may have discontinued it.

Model Railway Journal 260 in 2018 carried an article by someone building points rodding in 2mm from self-designed etches! I suspect witchcraft was involved

[Tullygrainey]

6 hours ago, Mayner said:

Very nice! the "Streamline" look of the Peco Code 75 track with its HO sleeper spacing helps to disguise the narrow gauge look of OO gauge, point rodding modelled complete with a facing point lock (fpl) seldom modelled adds to the overal impression of realism.

Yes John, the lower profile of Code 75 does give the impression of being wider, especially once the ballast goes down. This is the first time I've used it and I'd do so again. It's not any more fragile to work with than Code 100.

The illustrated instruction sheet for the Wills points rodding gives a very clear indication of what all the bits do and how they connect together. Actually doing it is quite another story so there are a few fudges in there which no-one will notice I hope and suspect.

[Mol_PMB]

2 minutes ago, Tullygrainey said:

there are a few fudges in there which no-one will notice I hope and suspect.

Just don’t tell anyone, or mention it on the internet…  

[David Holman]

In 7mm scale you get whitemetal castings for the stools and wire for the rodding = much more robust. One wonders what they do (if anything) in 2mm scale. Tame spiders maybe?

 Am sure you'll enjoy the static grass machine, though the puffer bottles are still useful for small areas and tight corners. A good tip is to put down a layer of scatter crumb first and then static over the top of that. Never use a single colour either. A blend of several works best and experimenting is very addictive!

Edited yesterday at 06:14 by David Holman