new year new layout 1990s container terminal and tmd

[Sean]

Very little has happened for about a week now as i have been away on london and in awe at how cool the underground system is.

 

I ended up making a big earth mound in order to try and sort of 3d the background a little instead of it being totally flat image, this approach has some limitations given the compact nature of the baseboard. it should be okay, and the base of the hill is going to tightly integrate into the beginning of the platform  to tie it all together.

I was experimenting with using a curved bit of sky to take out the last of the corner feeling alright but as of yet havent done so.

its going to have a field with cows ontop to add a little bit of interest and distraction from the railway. next step will be to scatter it and preparing for said scening as a field. i have bought fences and stone walls in order to have variety to experiement.

have held off on ballast wagons for a while now due to not being able to get these so I was delighted to see a small restocking of them on the site,  along with some of the other classics that must of gotten lost down the back of the warehouse sofa for the last while  ,  was a little dissapointed to see the IR version sold out with only the IE remaining, but whatever a minor detail i ordered it anyway. was only delighted to see the IR version turn up today anyway. so a happy mistake :D.

IR ballast pack A is now on the way from marks along with some more scenics to keep things progressing, the next couple of evenings should focus on getting a good thick layer of scatter onto the newly built earth mound.

 

Edited March 3, 2022 by Sean

[Sean]

the hill itself is nothing special, i just got the basic structure built out of polystyrene bits and built up a layer of powdered filler,badly painted green with random poster paints, then painted again with an extremelly thick layer of pva for the scatter application.

 

Brown scatter does not seem to be available to buy, and at this stage most people seem to use sieved garden dirt, Instead ive been using sieved coconut coir which to me seems like a much easier option to work with as it does not disintegrate when it gets wet, less mess and just wipes away from the backscene when wet without leaving any skidmarks! Coco bricks are available as bedding for reptiles in most pet stores and as a soil mix in garden centres. it is a sustainable alternative to peat and compost made from coconut shells. 

 

it also wicks up moisture, including pva glue, so its easy to apply in thick coats , covering up any craters left behind in the filler build up stage.

After the initial application onto the wet layer of glue we applied earlier I spray over the top layer with watered down pva so that the adhesive wicks through the entire application of coco and it all sticks nicely together, the mess on the backscene then just wipes away without any fuss and you can pat down the coco edges with your fingers quite easily.

looks a bit dark and messy but that will only be temporary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

after a couple of days its drying out to a nice earthy colouration(like coconuts!) ready for scattering, fences, cows and lichen. I dont do static grass just yet. have used this exact same procedure to great effect on my n layout so im confident ill have a nice little corner here when im done..... most of the coco feels solid now but some areas still feel a little loose, so another dusting with pva water and hoovering away the excess when dry should be all i need to do to have a nice little hillside in just a few evenings of an hour here and there.  

otherwise not much has happened i have been lazy about relaying the track, as im still thinking about making the jump to peco electrofrogs all around so no trains have ran. I'll be making a push to finish off the hill as the cows etc are on the way and i have scatter and lichen here to finish stuff off. need to get the finger out and wire for DCC. 

 

a carpenter friend has been comissioned to build a simple turntable mechanism based on a h0 design from youtube, chances are it will remain hand cranked, although with my new foray into the digital world im going to fully motorise the points using cheap servo motors so you never know i might come up with some sort of motor solution in due course.

Edited March 5, 2022 by Sean

[Sean]

I must admit, as i have been a bit too preoccupied with things that are happening abroad , I totally forgot to document the scatter phase. A sure sign that I need to get trains running again to distract me!

Oh well, at least it's lookin good.

 

And the next care package of bits has arrived, cows, fences , walls and platform and some new wagons to keep things working. Not pictured is a selection of backscenes to work with. They are cheap so definitely worth buying extra ones.

 

I can now put together the field as well as walling off the yard from.the street and finalising where everything will go.

 

And so a whole gaggle of pway vehicles have arrived onsite in order to get construction moving. Remember, I'm building a 90s themed railway in 2022, so era does not hold any relevance just yet

 

Track relaid minus turntable point as I just want to run trains now and the table is off being worked on elsewhere anyway so it's no Biggie for now.

 

The other half of the layout is still bare but now for long.

 

The only facility I haven't really done any work on yet is the fuelling area but that will be basic and mostly scratch built so more to come from that area soon.

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by Sean

[Sean]

moo!

 

the hill runs straight down onto the station platform, need to disguise the transition a bit better though, its grand for now! some sort of back wall for the platform will be needed here. that should add a bit of depth between the station and backscene

 

a sizable enough station has been built for the size of the layout in fairness,and it will allow for some interesting passenger movement. a 2 coach and loco affair can serve the station on its own without issue, when the rpsi steam specials arrive the third coach wont fit into the loop so therefore as the steamer moves off to the turn table a pilot will have to step in and pull the coaches forward to clear the loop to allow the steamer to couple back into the back of the train.

 

For GAA Days its possible to squeeze a 4 coach special into the station, however the additional coaches must be brought with the last passenger service the night before as the set needs to be split and shunted into a siding and then reassembled the next morning at the platform.(i have yet to try this but why not!)

 

messing with the dapol shop to see how a station building might look, i think larger and low relief might be the way to go here though. its a big platform.

 

looks like theres even room for the signal box! 

 

trying a different backscene from the range, its great that they all line up with one another, not glued down yet but it looks like a goer!

getting ready to fence off the loading platform after a few incidents involving drunk fellas getting off the wrong side of the train after a few too many at the GAA!

there is also ample edging left over from the platform kit that we can put to good use here. 

 

Edited March 10, 2022 by Sean

[Sean]

 

Had a spare couple of hours tonight so I decided to make up the loading bay using leftover bits from the platform kit. Needs a few tweaks tomorrow to hide white bits but overall I'm pleased.

Think it may be the first time that I've made a "thing" from scratch on the railway!

I need to refinish that shed and then I'll be able to leave this end of the layout alone for a while until I get to the ballast. Ballast is probably the very last thing I'll do though since I want to add point motors later. 

Wiring will have to come soon though as I miss driving trains again!

 

I think it is safe to say we are into one of my favourite parts of a layout build now, where we see the transform from a blank white Scape into something that actually at least half resembles a half realistic scene.

 

also that siding track is filthy now, may have to liberate some clean track off the fiddle yard to replace it 

Edited March 12, 2022 by Sean

[Sean]

The last number of updates have focused on one end of the layout, mostly because nothing has been happening on the other end. Until now. Might as well show you what else has been going on.

Slowly this end will populate now.

Got a start on the street

Site of future turntable, must contact my carpenter.

Site of filling facilities 

Another corner to hide.  Not really sure how just yet. I was going to just stick in a low relief building but I kinda want that carpark to exclusively serve the train station for reasons I will allude to later. Might have to settle for another hill or just leaving it as is.

Evergreen left behind with a hot box

 

"Drone shot" of a station overview. Buildings are just temporary. I have interesting plans for this area.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Sean

[Sean]

Little has happened over the last few days. 

Set myself a little ultimatum of you've got a nice layout built up so calm down on scenics for a little while, get it wired and play trains for a bit. You've been watching the news too much again anyway! 

I also really need to appraise how well the design works and make any nessesary changes before scenic stuff becomes more permanent and difficult to change.

Midway through the wiring process, during a test session of running different rolling stock it was quickly realised that the original trackplan was unviable. As the series of points leading into the middle siding was causing all sorts of weird derailment issues with most stock.

A quick alteration to the track plan was made and things have been running much better now as a result. I can't take rolling stock into the loop still but that's not really the end of the world once every other movement is reliable.

So with that all said and done and the track given a good clean it was time for an IR driver and shunter training day. The aim was to assemble the ballast train on the loop with a component from each of the sidings, this allowed me to give the new pointwork a good running test to see if there are any more hickups, and bar one everything seems to finally be running lovely. 

 

Not much of the session was captured on tape however the instructor did manage to get out for a short clip near the end of the session.

Seeing her run that slow over hard standing for the first time definitely brings a huge grin , as did being able to run trains like this for over an hour with very few technical snags that will be fixed by the time I do another track cleaning.

 

Next up turntable. I'm getting the boss and turntable pieces cut out tomorrow so that won't be long in coming together! 

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by Sean

[DJ Dangerous]

If you were to move the road and buildings highlighted in red, at the left hand side of the board, say about 90cm to the right, that would give 20cm extra functionality to each run of track.

If you moved the station 20cm to the left, the road would arrive perfectly beside it.

Not a criticism in any way, it just seems like the board is 20cm shorter than it could be due to the location of that particular road and those buildings.

I know that you're building / have built a hill in the top right corner of the board, but maybe swapping that to the other end of the board would work.

[Sean]

 

I dont want to move the station as its sort of "built in" to the side of the hill i have made and i have a nice plan to integrate those, i also like having the bit of space to show off a few model cars.

 

as for the buildings though do you mean moving them into the blank space between the fuel and hard standing? in reality on the layout that bit is all covered by the freight yard, however your comment has given me a little idea.

I do want to expand the bottom siding a little which would give trains a proper straight run to couple up to 3 flats. to do this i would probably have to delete the buildings, moving the road off to the very left hand side. 

 

the main purpose of the buildings is to disguise the transition where the train leaves the layout, but in practice i need bigger buildings. 

 

what i might do is build a new embankment on the left hand side. a bit wider this time and with a road on top. the road can run over the top  and it can ramp down and meet the platform that way,  this would give plenty of room to display a few cars whilst also covering up the trains route in and out of the layout. 

 

it would also completely bypass the sheer annoyance of having to keep the road closed for long periods of time  whenever a train was shunting in and out of the yard, a practice which was sure to enrage most of the locals before long!

 

[David Holman]

This latest version looks a lot tidier and flows better. The overbridge will hide the exit to the fiddle yard nicely, though beware making a ramp down to the yard too steep - even a 50cm slope will give a gradient of more than 1 in 10.

[Sean]

Once again little has happened since the last post as I have once again been lost in DCC land...

 

 

I did however do the street delete and cut out the turntable.

 

Definitely makes a huge difference to this end of the layout and the transition is hidden much better now. A slight oil siding extension is being added but only to preserve the original length of the siding.

 

To deal with the gradient I am imagining a very steep climb to hump back bridge style layout as is built at arklow and that should fit okay within the given space without it being too vertical looking.

[Sean]

Then there was two!

And JUST enough space to run a double 

[DJ Dangerous]

Hi Sean.

Sorry to reply so late, but I've been busy lately.

I had been going to suggest something like the attached image - forgive the crudeness, but I only had a moment to scribble something down.

In the image, I've shown the roads with a kind of orangey-brown highlighter, I've omitted the turntable, and I've left the left hand side of the run around loop off-scene, allowing you run longer trains in and out, and simplifying the pointwork a little. This would mean running two tracks through the hole instead of just one, but I think that you have two tracks just outside that hole, so you lose a bit of functionality by having only one track entering anyway.

All only suggestions, so no offence is intended.

Also, rather than an embankment on the left hand side, how about archways? You can still run the road along the top, as I get you, the cars need to be shown off, too. But, you don't lose much space on your board, and you get to run a dummy line out through one of the arches if you like, where you have the Evergreen with the hot box in one of your photos.

I know now that the hill in the right corner is pivotal, and staying, so maybe a tunnel cut into it?

 

 

Edited April 18, 2022 by DJ Dangerous

[Sean]

I had considered the archways DJ but decided against them as they feel a bit too urban to me. Never really see them in Ireland either. 

What I have in mind is more of a rural backwater depot at the end of a random branch line somewhere.

 

That being said I have made a cutout at the end of the embankment so that siding can be just that little bit longer....

 

Picked up this javis tunnel mouth today at the show however when I got it home it was massive and completely unsuitable. 

Spent the evening in the shed doing some cut and shut magic until I arrived at what you see here.

Pretty pleased with that. Definitely a little tempted to mix up some filler and getting to work forming the hillsides now.

 

 

 

[Sean]

Some more construction was definitely needed so filler had to wait.

The wall now marks the slope of the incline coming upto the bridge.

 

Not sure how it's going to turn out around the retaining column just yet. Trying to make it not too steep as I don't want a overpass wall blocking the trainspotters view but I also want it to be a rolling embankment where it does stretch down into the yard so I'm probably just gonna wing it and so how it goes. Maybe some rock face will be there by the end of it.

 

On the other side I'm cheating and the bank is lower than the retaining wall so it just looks like a standard wall for the road.

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by Sean

[Sean]

A few hours later....

 

[David Holman]

Coming on nicely, though would be tempted to ease the ramp up to the bridge. Looks about 30 degrees, which is 1 in 2, or twice as steep as the steepest road in normal use.

[Sean]

I am definitely considering that however in hindsight i have not left myself enough space before reaching the platform so a little bit of a compromise will have to be reached.

 

thats the only part left on the baseboard that i havent actually surfaced with filler just yet. so it does look slightly steeper than the finished product will be when its done.

 

The sort of overpass im looking to create is similar to like the one at Arklow. which is quite a steep climb condensed into a fairly narrow space and over a hump ontop. in the end this will be a bit steeper but im hoping it should pass in model format once the severity of the start of the hill is taken out with filler.

[David Holman]

See how it goes - modelling is often all about compromising and perhaps the steep slope can be partially hidden by fencing, a boarding or some such.

[Sean]

Something completely different has been happening!

Why yes, that's a ten foot base board.

Nothing special it's literally just some boards that are screwed together in order to let me run round and round trains. It won't be modelled all that much except for placing the odd building around it in due course. A nice branch line track plan has been established as I don't really want a double tracked main line as it would feel a bit too tail chasey and go against everything else I've modelled so far.  in practical terms it could be seen as the mother of all fiddle yards.

As usual the timber is all scraps that someone was getting rid of so this lot has been done for a grand total of zero, directly mounted onto two old bedroom dressers so I guess that's somewhere to put my growing collection of small green cardboard boxes......

And once this last connecting board is in place I'm ready to lay some track!

Loads to come this week. Supplies have been procured for the final phases of the terminus, and all the track for the baseboard is in the post.

Edited May 3, 2022 by Sean

[David Holman]

Enjoy!

[Sean]

We are the mods! We are the mods! We are we are we are the mods!

 

A suspicious seargent prepares to take a U turn..........

[Sean]

Freshly laid and almost ready to go, ran out of straights for the last two sidings but that was anticipated.

 

A PILE of new containers. Won't live here permenantly but will be on and off trains.

[Sean]

Finally managed to get my hands on a high tech hopper loading machine from 1987

Fuelling area is built, I can paint and detail it at a later time.

I've been trying to find an accurate representation of this forklift yoke in oo but to no avail. Everything is just too small or too modern. Or both.

Took a punt on this yoke for £10 off hattons and although it's hilariously overscale it does lift to roughly the correct height so once the cage is cut down and a 1/76 cab is sourced and fitted I think it might fit the bill just nicely. 

[DJ Dangerous]

8 hours ago, Sean said:

Freshly laid and almost ready to go, ran out of straights for the last two sidings but that was anticipated.

 

If you got yourself two lengths of flexible track for the sidings, you could give each a gentle curve to look better alongside the mainline. Not necessarily parallel, but with a better flow.

[Sean]

theres actually a few spots where i wanted to use flexi but unfortunately due to a certain retailers policy of only selling it by the boxload online i unfortunately could not get a hold of any until i get to there shop in person.

[DJ Dangerous]

6 hours ago, Sean said:

theres actually a few spots where i wanted to use flexi but unfortunately due to a certain retailers policy of only selling it by the boxload online i unfortunately could not get a hold of any until i get to there shop in person.

Will Hattons or Rails not ship individual lengths?

[Sean]

Probably, although I'll wait till I need to make a bigger order. Siding isn't final either. few sets of points left over that i need to do somthing with.

 One of the more straight forward things I've put together the auto reverser is in action.

the terminus is isolated and wired through a dual channel relay module which triggers from a hall sensor wired into the feed, as soon as a train enters the section and creates a short. The switch happens fast enough not to be noticeable by the loco which carries on as normal..

 

now trains can enter the terminus travelling in either direction. You can hear the relay flipping polarity in the video as the train enters and leaves with incorrect polarity

 

Edited May 13, 2022 by Sean

[Sean]

 143 passes on its way to a ballasting job

130 and 133 are on liner duty 

 Coupling up, cuts short as the cameraman has to change his tape at the worst of moments.

 

 Departing and powering through the curve.

 

plan is to do some more modelling to the terminus over the weekend. Track plan has changed again lol  delaying ballast till the very end has been wise indeed.

 

 

Edited May 13, 2022 by Sean

[Rob]

Looks great- a lot of potential for sure.

The sound in that last one are like what you'd hear down Alexandra Road-  very realistic!

[Sean]

funny that, a few of the reviews ive read on these criticise them for being a little squeaky, to me the timbre of the squeak adds to the authenticity as its just like a scaled down representation of the real sound.

[Sean]

All of the containers must be removed from the layout in order to facilitate further modelling works..

A decision was made to move all of these containers by rail. It will comprise of approximately four train loads.

Due to space constraints the train must stop at the newly under construction slaney junction station and shunt into the siding to drop off one of the flats. This is okay though as it will be needed later on in the job.

 

 Arrival at slaney lake.

 

Ready to run around and shunt in, but not before the driver takes a well deserved tea break.

 

 

 

[Sean]

Trusty hyster on loading duty 

 

 

GoPro found and charging. Video quality about to improve tenfold over this potato phone 

Edited May 14, 2022 by Sean

[Sean]

Old track plan 

 

The 90's brought with it the demise of the turntable to allow for slightly longer trains.

For my sanity. These points are being changed for all peco this week.

The ones that are "loco only" are fine to stay as they are, but between loose springs and the deep well problem the standard hornbys have a mind if their own. 

[DJ Dangerous]

Looks much better with the turntable gone, lovely flow to it, love it!

Would you not consider having a double track running off stage rather than just the a single?

It'd mean more operational flexibility and less pointwork.