new year new layout 1990s container terminal and tmd

[DJ Dangerous]

5 minutes ago, Fowler4f said:

Sean, where did you source the container flats and what brand are they ? I need to start building up a fleet of containers and wagons. Rails are the cheapest for Baccy FGA + there is a Bell container, also Megafret set. I can’t find Dapol FEA-B Spine sets yet !

 

They were probably the last of the IRM Spoil wagons, now sold out at IRM.

Marks Models still show some in stock.

[Sean]

Yup thats exactly what they are, you can unclip the spoil boxes and refit them later so the wagons are actually multi purposed.

[Sean]

On 17/5/2022 at 12:41 PM, DJ Dangerous said:

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.

was actually mulling this over for a while since you originally posted the drawing, in hindsight it would have been the thing to do as my needs have changed, hence the removal of the turntable, but practically i just dont want to do it because  it would mean more reconstruction than i would like and now the rest of the room has been designed around single track running.

 

i may make the loops slightly longer in order to allow me to hide a point motor within the tunnel mouth but not just yet.

[DJ Dangerous]

6 hours ago, Sean said:

was actually mulling this over for a while since you originally posted the drawing, in hindsight it would have been the thing to do as my needs have changed, hence the removal of the turntable, but practically i just dont want to do it because  it would mean more reconstruction than i would like and now the rest of the room has been designed around single track running.

 

i may make the loops slightly longer in order to allow me to hide a point motor within the tunnel mouth but not just yet.

And what a masterpiece that drawing was!

[Sean]

With no trains running for the weekend due to a lack of points I've started to decorate the road.

 

Lake walk. Needs some coillte signage to complete.

 

Gates, signposts, just need some Irish signage for the sign post 

 

Country road, just needs tarmac and the embankment surface now!

[Sean]

Makeshift parking area.

 

gonna start the station if i can find someone with a good enough printer to do the scalescenes kit for me.

Edited May 19, 2022 by Sean

[DJ Dangerous]

Looks like a white Christmas!!!

[Sean]

Not for long though. Gonna get the hill scattered before I stick it down properly.

[2996 Victor]

Would it be worth finishing the road surface before adding scatter/greenery? That way, you can add grass and weeds growing at the margins of the road, making it look a bit more like nature trying to reclaim the land.

Just a thought!

Cheers,
Mark

[Sean]

Actually yes, but for areas like infront of the wall where theres no road and around the forest entry it will be easier to put down a layer first, plus it will be easier to get the hillside painted if im not having to be careful of painting the road.

after its stuck down, particularly  where the road meets the fence an extra layer will definitely be needed to get rid of any whites and blend it all together.

[DJ Dangerous]

On 17/5/2022 at 8:07 PM, Fowler4f said:

Cool, I’ve got Sets A&B but I may keep them as spoil wagons.

This set have been on eBay for months. I'm sure you could contact the seller and make an offer:

https://www.ebay.es/itm/354069986848

Renumbering or hiding the numbers using weathering would solve any duplicate numbering issues.

[Sean]

No scattering as of yet but things have been happening the last few days 

 

Some road stuck down other bits awaiting undercoat. Started putting brickwork on the station too. The walls are from an n guage metcalfe kit but they actually work decently here. Passengers get a lakeside view as they wait. Kinda pleased at how I have been able to play on features of the backscene to support the narrative of where I am modelling. The location is entirely fictitious but believable as an Irish location.

I also got the road work and the surface for the goods platform from that kit as well as two longish n guage platforms so it was definitely worth picking up. 

Will have the station house kit Friday. Inside the tunnel definitely needs dulling down as evidenced in these photos.

Trying my hand at the other type of hard standing. What you see at the fuelling stands at in real life. Needs another run of filler in this shot although I ran out and only got more today.

 

Using exclusively powder filler this time round as it's usually sandable the same day and doesn't set too quickly that you'll clog up the rails. Kind of moved away from using das clay altogether. Will have to see how it is in the long run. It's very cheap.

The white thing holding the boundary of the fillers square is actually spare bits from the platform kit here. So that was another kit that has shown its value in more than one way 

 

Still a bit to go but the end is in sight and I'm looking forward to being finished. Although it's never really "finished"

Edited May 25, 2022 by Sean

[Sean]

 

Slowly taking shape, it's a little trickier than then usual hard standing but should be okay after a round or two of filling and sanding.

[Sean]

 

Spent all day dreading sanding down this filler but it actually profiled quite quickly when I put the block on it using the sleepers and railhead to guide in the leveling of the surface

Couple of skim coats and standings and she will be ready to be ruined with paints , lol

 

 

[Sean]

Probably about time I put up a picture with a train in it

And probably the best lighting I've gotten for a picture so far

you still see the odd sleeper if you zoom in but that lessens with each paint coat.

Got a hedge and some stone walling installed just to add variation to the road and hide the gap a little better than the fencing could.

not much else has happened this week but it's getting there.

 

 

 

Edited May 29, 2022 by Sean

[Sean]

admiring a gorgeous new arrival this afternoon

 

I would promise that this will be the last one. Except it won't

 

The cogs are now turning for a new micro layout to suit this one. That's in the future though, need a break from layout construction once this one finally wraps up

 

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by Sean

[Galteemore]

That’s the great thing about modelling - always something else you can be getting on with ! Looking good so far 

[Sean]

Starting to get unrealistically busy in the yard. The cure for this will be to build a "depot" area somewhere out on the main baseboard using all the leftover points.

And what's this about MORE supertrain ?!?!

 

recent aquisitions have now FINALISED that the era will be very early to mid in the IR period. 

Edited June 3, 2022 by Sean

[Sean]

Well now.

It appears that I am going to be eating sawdust for the foreseeable future!

 

Yes,I know it's the wrong egv and no, I don't care until I get my hands on the right one. 

(hint hint any swaps)

I'm even almost too afraid to break that FACTORY SEAL...... Almost.....

[Sean]

It's a good thing I'm not a "collector" so.

Because these things run great!

Very smooth running and tight close couplings.

Was a little put off by the offset logo at first but now they are on the track I think they look great! 

Was that offset prototypical or is it just wrong on the model as I don't think I've seen these coaches in real life except the moyasta ones with the later livery and it's not offset on those.

 

Wrong egv however it is the right one for these which have been rolling around for a while now with no van!

I have 2x first open 5152 coaches, would anybody be interested in trading me for any other second open in any livery?  Just to add uniqueness to my rake.

 

As I have blown the entire budget on rolling stock, it looks like I will be reverting to DC until I save up for a few decoders! Not too bad as the esu decoders also work in DC mode.

 

142 and 192 await running in..just haven't gotten to them yet because I finally have a nice fleet of coaches!

142 might be for sale soon as she was bought on impulse before 192 appeared so I'm a bit over budget with her. We will see how I wing it for the next week

 

I definitely need to plan and lay depot trackage now too.

 

Next post will contain videos. It would be very unfair not to now. GoPro is working and everything.

 

[Sean]

No video as of yet. Have been on a fairly nocturnal schedule so have not had much chance to take any under good daylight....

In the mean time I have gotten to work using all my spare track to lay the "depot" section of things.

3 big coach sidings. 3 smaller loco sidings.

engines must use a headshunt. theres another siding for good measure.

freight area extended with a third siding. ballast plow siding is isolated, thats the JMRI programming track

 

Found a use for a hornby express point in the end. it can be plumbed cleanly into a second radius loop(and maybe third) without issue. makes the bend in the loop seem way less severe than it actually is.

 

finally able to test the theory of how many coaches can my station hold? the answer is four!, well four with a pilot and 3 with a solo engine.

Finally back to an empty layout so i can finish things off. 

 

ST is starting to grow on me, it looks way way better in person than it does on model websites.

[Sean]

Early morning ballast train hurtles past "the works"

 

I'm looking forward to making a few videos with DCC sound. All in good time.

Edited June 9, 2022 by Sean

[connollystn]

@Sean - Nice collection of stock on your layout, in particular, I like the Mark 2As. Never saw the Mark 2As in real life as they operated out of Heuston and it's a railway station I've seldom used.

[DJ Dangerous]

Looking awesome - both the layout and the collection of stock!

Agreed on the ST livery, has also grown on me a lot, and the models themselves look far better than they do in photos.

[Sean]

from what i can work out it seems to have been plausible for them to have popped up anywhere. but i cant find a huge amount of info out about them or even pictures of when they were in service, so its plausible that they have served my area at some point once or twice in their lifespan. I have seen pics of them pre conversion and also pics of them "preserved" at moyasta but i cant seem to find anything of them just around the time they went into service and should have held this "IR intercity" Livery... interested in seeing was the offset logo prototypical or not, and also how they would have coupled up in practice as there is only a toilet on one end of a given coach.

 

Overall I was just happy to get my hands on an RTR coach in this livery. not too clued up on prefixes so kinda just know them as EX BR's and the 2d's as aircons and use the windows as the way to differentiate them.  i dont need to get too more detailed about things for the time being, although im sure i will in time as i get more stock.

 

 @DJ I think the issue is having them under a perfectly lit white studio backdrop to try and make them look pretty kinda backfires as it masks loads of detailing and that particular livery looks way better illustrated as a rugged machine in its natural habitat. its not apparent so much on the other liveries as they are visually a lot more detailed and seem to work better in this setting as your eyes are perusing all of the painted details so you dont really miss anything like you do with the plainer sort of livery.

Edited June 10, 2022 by Sean

[connollystn]

7 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

Agreed on the ST livery, has also grown on me a lot, and the models themselves look far better than they do in photos.

All models look far better in reality than they do on websites. While I grew up in the Super Train era I find that livery quite dull as opposed to the brighter oranges of the IR/IE liveries

[DJ Dangerous]

On 10/6/2022 at 1:47 AM, Sean said:

 @DJ I think the issue is having them under a perfectly lit white studio backdrop to try and make them look pretty kinda backfires as it masks loads of detailing and that particular livery looks way better illustrated as a rugged machine in its natural habitat. its not apparent so much on the other liveries as they are visually a lot more detailed and seem to work better in this setting as your eyes are perusing all of the painted details so you dont really miss anything like you do with the plainer sort of livery.

 

On 10/6/2022 at 1:50 AM, connollystn said:

All models look far better in reality than they do on websites. While I grew up in the Super Train era I find that livery quite dull as opposed to the brighter oranges of the IR/IE liveries

 

I don't think so. I suspect that it's a contrast issue. The models that have two dull colours will naturally look dull in photos. The models with the white stripes to catych the eye will be more eye-catching in photos.

[Sean]

first go at the scalescenes station.

Leaves a bit to be desired however as it's a low relief conversion I didn't follow the instructions so I'm quite pleased with how it did turn out and should perfect it on the next go. Also ran out of pritt stick and had to switch to PVA, which was not nearly as easy to work with but it got me over the line. It's actually mostly grand except for the roof!

 

The low backscene is now annoying me but it's a nessesary evil in this loft room(slanted ceiling job)... I may be in a position to paint the ceiling sky blue which would help massively.

This part im delighted with however. Peer through the window and see the top of the fire place through a set of curtains along with a painting on the wall

 

132 collects a small ballast load for a local job.

132 bonnet first with a rake of ballasts and no ploughs has quickly become a favourite of mine to run on the layout. Makes me half regret not getting 12 gypsums instead

 

Edited June 15, 2022 by Sean

[Georgeconna]

Good effort, Beauty of these Scalescenes is you can reprint and Refine each build. I know I did!

[JasonB]

On 15/6/2022 at 11:47 AM, Sean said:

132 collects a small ballast load for a local job.

132 bonnet first with a rake of ballasts and no ploughs has quickly become a favourite of mine to run on the layout. Makes me half regret not getting 12 gypsums instead

Same here. I actually prefer the look of the 121 running bonnet first. It's a pity it wasn't seen more often.

That's the joy of model railways. You can run what you want, how you want. 

[Sean]

Very little has happened as I have been unwell. However I did manage to get in and fix up some trackwork last night.

Thought it was a bit of a waste using a curved point in a freight yard to I lifted it and swapped it for the point off to the wye. Now any point curves on the running loop are of the express type and things are running great.

Now I just have to redesign that frieght yard!

Not many trains have run as I have been deciding on whether to use DC or DCC on DC, leaving things in a half wired state as I have been evaluating what I want to do . Thankfully I'm waiting for a shipment of Lais decoders tomorrow so that issue will be put to bed and I'll be running fully DCC on DCC again. Will be nice as this has kept the terminus out of action in the meantime.

 

 

[Sean]

132 calling at the lake with the railcar on a summer heritage excursion.

Unfortunately little has happened over the past 2-3 weeks as i have been getting over some illness however i did decide i should tear up the continuous loop and start again as the thing was just fraught with derailments due to being on a terrible set of baseboards. that did give me the chance to alter the plan a little yet again and change most of the small points out for express points.

it has really cleaned up the look in particular around the hard sweeping turns into sidings which have now greatly smoothened out. it should also decently improve running once i get back up and running. It has also changed the alignment on the double tracking pulling it in to a more realistic looking distance and seperating the 2 sidings from the run around loop.

Still the same few bits to call it "finished", I have just been particularly lazy as of late.

[Sean]

 

RIP

Stripped for parts. Bigger and better coming soon

 

 

[Westcorkrailway]

4 minutes ago, Sean said:

 

RIP

Stripped for parts. Bigger and better coming soon

 

 

Almost looks like a lifted railway terminus!

4 minutes ago, Sean said:

 

RIP

Stripped for parts. Bigger and better coming soon

 

 

Almost looks like a lifted railway terminus!

[DJ Dangerous]

Outstanding cuts, Dr. Beeching.