Brandon - ideas for a N Gauge retirement layout

[stivesnick]

18 hours ago, 298 said:

Double ended spurs are entirely possible, but if your area is laid out on a grid pattern then so would the buildings be, and from memory I'd expect the loading docks to be straight, even if they could only hold one car at a time.

 Thanks for this. 

 

Had a bit of a rethink. I can add a spur to the side of the fruit packing factory. The loop will be kept to allow run around moves and it can also act as additional space during the main fruit packing season. The roads have been straightened up. 

 

Revised mock up photo enclosed.

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

I have been working on the GN bridge over the river this week. The bridge is a Walthers kit on scratch built supports.The bridge deck allows track to be threaded through, although Walthers do not say which track it is based on. I found that Peco code 55 was not a great fit, so I filed off the deck chairs and just laid the track on the deck. The track is now complete up to the start of the fiddle yard. 

 

Wiring to be done next.  I came across the Micron radio control system for DC trains at the N Gauge Society Yorkshire Group open day yesterday. It was being used on one of their modular layouts. It looks like a good way to control such a large layout and walk around the room to follow the trains. Equipment will be ordered and lets see how it works.

 

Bridge photos enclosed.

 

Nick 

 

[stivesnick]

As mentioned in the previous post, I have ordered some Micron radio controllers for DC controlled trains. The items arrived during the week and the first controller/receiver has been installed for the interurban line. The items are designed to be fitted into  battery powered engines in larger scales, but can be used for normal DC model railways and connected to a 12 DC power supply. 

 

I found a old plastic box to act as a tray to house the receiver and this was fitted next to the main control panel. The controller has a 9V battery to power it. You press the "bind" button that programmes the controller to the receiver and off you go.

 

Photos show a SRTC freight leaving Brandon and then about a minute later doing some shunting at Russell around 8 feet away. The radio controller certainly make shunting easier at other parts of the room.

 

I will wire in the Great Northern line controller during the week and hope I don't get the radio signals crossed. 

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

On 14/12/2023 at 06:20, Johann Marsbar said:

 

The main station building almost suffered the same fate as Greater Anglia wanted to demolish it, but it was "saved" after an extensive campaign, though it currently looks like this......

 

 

...which is totally enclosed in a wood an scaffolding "fortress" that you can't even see the original building hiding behind!

Whether the place ever gets restored is another question........

 

My Great Uncle was Stationmaster there at one time during his lengthy Railway career - I think in the late 1950's.

 

There was a general meeting in the town last week regarding the station. Standing room only. Much more positive attitute from Great Anglia - so something might happen - cafe, community spaces, Thetford Forest visitors centre etc. 

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

GN line radio controller and receiver wired in this morning followed by a test session. As the fiddle yard track is not yet installed, trains were made up on the main line track. Typical journey time around 3 walls in the room is around 2.5 minutes. Was able to run a typical through freight train with 2 locos, 15 cars and a caboose. Photos enclosed. 

 

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Two and a half minutes is a good run - well done!  Keith.

[stivesnick]

23 hours ago, Keith Addenbrooke said:

Two and a half minutes is a good run - well done!  Keith.

Thanks Keith 

 

Although the journey time sounds impressive, when looked at in terms of train length, the layout suddenly gets a bit smaller. 

 

The thrid photo in the previous post shows the locos at the end of the scenic section and in the future cross the lift out section into the fiddle yard. At this point the rear of the train is only just clear of Brandon Station. On the other side of Brandon, it is around 2 train lengths until you get to the turnout at Russell (First photo). The fiddle yard is just after the Russell spurs. 

 

Once the continious run is complete, I will get the Revolution Trains Pendelino out - a  quicker journey time is expected!

 

Nick 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

6 minutes ago, stivesnick said:

Thanks Keith 

 

Although the journey time sounds impressive, when looked at in terms of train length, the layout suddenly gets a bit smaller. 

 

The thrid photo in the previous post shows the locos at the end of the scenic section and in the future cross the lift out section into the fiddle yard. At this point the rear of the train is only just clear of Brandon Station. On the other side of Brandon, it is around 2 train lengths until you get to the turnout at Russell (First photo). The fiddle yard is just after the Russell spurs. 

 

Once the continious run is complete, I will get the Revolution Trains Pendelino out - a  quicker journey time is expected!

 

Nick 

Perhaps the trick when watching a train run is to focus on a particular spot and watch the whole train go past (as if railfanning in N-Scale), rather than follow it, as you’ve still got room for a decent length train (for a model railroad) to stretch its legs, Keith.

[stivesnick]

The benchwork for the fiddle yard has been installed and the track layout marked out. 

 

The interurban line will have 4 tracks that can take a 7 40 foot cars plus loco and caboose. The GN line fiddle yard will have 8 tracks, comprising 4 through lines and 2 dead end tracks in each direction. The GN tracks are raised slightly higher than the interurban tracks as the GN line rose slightly to cross over the various rivers on the layout. 

 

In marking out the track, the entrance to the GN fiddle yard needs to move by around 150mm to enable the pointwork to fit in and have a short section of straight track between the points and the curved track in the corner. I am thinking of having a diagional backscene at the entrance of the fiddle yard as the interurban line does not need to enter the fiddle yard so soon. 

 

Progress photos enclosed. 

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

The final bit of wood-workery - the lift out section across the door. 

 

Tried to use left over bits of wood. Therefore the base is  70 x 18mm softwood as used in the general baseboards with some hardboard sides. Fixing is a simple plastic connection block. Need to get some more track and points before laying the GN fiddle yard tracks. 

 

Progress photo enclosed. 

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

I am applying for a Rule 1 waiver for the following locomotive to run on the layout.

 

https://se.pinterest.com/pin/17381148543035701/

 

It appears that some Swedish and Danish Diesel locos were repainted into Great Northern livery for a film. See link to picture above. 

 

The loco on the left looks nothing like an american loco, but the one on the right looks like a F unit although with a cab at each end. 

 

Anyway - Kato are bringing out a limited edition version in N and an order has been placed with Rainbow Railways. Given the lack of other suitable models being issued at present, this looks like a suitable loco for the layout. It also means I can have a trains terminating at the station without the need for a wye. Original Danish and Belgium versions are also available. 

 

 

Will this confuse or upset american railroaders? 

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

Edited June 26 by stivesnick
technical error corrected

[Johann Marsbar]

1 hour ago, stivesnick said:

I am applying for a Rule 1 waiver for the following locomotive to run on the layout.

 

https://se.pinterest.com/pin/17381148543035701/

 

It appears that some Swedish and Danish Diesel locos were repainted into Great Northern livery for a film. See link to picture above. 

 

The loco on the left looks nothing like an american loco, but the one on the right looks like a F unit although with a cab at each end. 

 

Anyway - Kato are bringing out a limited edition version in N and an order has been placed with Rainbow Railways. Given the lack of other suitable models being issued at present, this looks like a suitable loco for the layout. It also means I can have a trains terminating at the station without the need for a wye. Original Danish and Belgium versions are also available. 

 

 

Will this confuse or upset american railroaders? 

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

 

I wouldn't worry about it!

CNJ ran double ended Baldwin diesels for a while, so there is a precedent for such things in the US.

 

I've got 3 Kato Japanese electrics pretending to be North American ones on my N layout, not to mention the Modemo Japanese Interurban cars.....

[stivesnick]

1 hour ago, Johann Marsbar said:

I've got 3 Kato Japanese electrics pretending to be North American ones on my N layout, not to mention the Modemo Japanese Interurban cars.....

 

So have I! The interurban cars are Kato and the box cab electric is a Microace model. I also have some Kato locos somewhere in one of the boxes. One of the reasons why I model US interurban's is that they are very much a "prototype for everything" dream as many lines built or modified their own rolling stock. Should people be a bit more precise for a US Class 1 railroad? Perhaps not. However turning up at say the GWR society with an incorrect locomotive may be a capital offence!

 

A good reason to model an overseas prototype.

 

Nick 

[Johann Marsbar]

2 hours ago, stivesnick said:

 

So have I! The interurban cars are Kato and the box cab electric is a Microace model. I also have some Kato locos somewhere in one of the boxes. One of the reasons why I model US interurban's is that they are very much a "prototype for everything" dream as many lines built or modified their own rolling stock. Should people be a bit more precise for a US Class 1 railroad? Perhaps not. However turning up at say the GWR society with an incorrect locomotive may be a capital offence!

 

A good reason to model an overseas prototype.

 

Nick 

 

A couple of quick shots on my layout.

 

The Interurban cars.....

 

 

 

One of the mainline electrics......

 

 

...the Bo-Bo one being remarkably close enough to these as far as I'm concerned........

 

 

The prototypes were both built by English Electric around the same time period!

 

I've still got to get round to finishing off the overhead gantries in the station area on the layout though.

 

 

[stivesnick]

Johann 

 

Thanks for sharing pictures of your layout - it looks very interesting. I like the 90 degree crossing and the sharp curves on the interurban line.

 

Nick 

[Johann Marsbar]

16 minutes ago, stivesnick said:

Johann 

 

Thanks for sharing pictures of your layout - it looks very interesting. I like the 90 degree crossing and the sharp curves on the interurban line.

 

Nick 

 

It's been an ongoing project for the past 8 (!) years and after a house move in 2020, it has attained its final form, though there are still a lot of things to finish off on it - which explains the lack of vehicles, people, catenary masts etc, but at least I can run trains on it now - as and when I get time, which has been somewhat lacking over the past 18 months!

I did start a couple of threads on it on the N Gauge Forum in the past, though they haven't been updated lately.

 

Assuming anyone can access them without joining that particular Forum, this is the general one.....

https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=36574.0

 

...and this is the buildings thread, as I didn't want it to be populated with Walthers/DPM/Life Like/Bachmann stereotypes.....

https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=36373.0

[F-UnitMad]

On 26/06/2024 at 10:30, stivesnick said:

I am applying for a Rule 1 waiver for the following locomotive to run on the layout.

 

https://se.pinterest.com/pin/17381148543035701/

 

It appears that some Swedish and Danish Diesel locos were repainted into Great Northern livery for a film. See link to picture above. 

 

The loco on the left looks nothing like an american loco, but the one on the right looks like a F unit although with a cab at each end. 

 

Anyway - Kato are bringing out a limited edition version in N and an order has been placed with Rainbow Railways. Given the lack of other suitable models being issued at present, this looks like a suitable loco for the layout. It also means I can have a trains terminating at the station without the need for a wye. Original Danish and Belgium versions are also available. 

 

 

Will this confuse or upset american railroaders? 

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

A bit late replying to this, but the right-hand loco (called a NOHAB I think??) was indeed very much an American loco - built by EMD and very related to the classic F-Units, although somewhat smaller for the EU loading gauge.

No American modeller should be confused or upset!!! 

 

Re your radio control set up, I take it the receivers have been used under board, wired to the track? An interesting application given the scale. It obviously doesn't give the usual 'dead rail' advantage of R/C, but nevertheless has the advantage of a wireless throttle. (Pertinent to me having just had a multi-train operating session on my layout with my friend, and trying not to tangle our NCE handset cables!!)

[stivesnick]

10 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

Re your radio control set up, I take it the receivers have been used under board, wired to the track?

 

Hi Jordon - you are correct. The receivers are connected between the power supply and the track. I have a lot of old locomotives so not ideal to convert to DCC. You will see from the photos, I have put yellow or red insulating tape on the controllers so I don't get them confused, but still manage to do this.

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

I could be heading for a possible scenic disaster.

 

Whilst waiting for some more points to arrive to complete the fiddle yard tracks - I did some work on the river at the other end of the layout.

 

On a previous layout I used Pouring Medium from an art shop to create the water with some depth to it. The advantage of this material is that you can include underwater rocks and vegitation within the river. Having not much of the bottle left I purchased what looked like a similar produce from Hobbycraft - but I am now not convinced it is the same stuff. 

 

This is the "river" after pouring.

 

It is meant to go clear in around 24 hours. However after 2 days it is looking like this and there are cracks in the surface which it is not meant to do. :

 

 

It may be that as the "water" is deeper than on the previous layout it is taking a bit longer to dry out. At present it looks good as a frozen river. I will leave it a few more days and then I may have to dig the whole lot out if it still has not set. 

 

A bit fustrating as I can not lay the track across the lift out section if there is a risk that the track and bridge will have to be removed to remove the existing river. 

 

In more positive news, the Danish/GN diesel is on it's way. Good work from Rainbow Railways for getting it ordered and delivered in a few days.

 

Hopefully the next photos will show a clear river and the contrast in front ends of the Danish/American diesels. 

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

All

 

My new fake American diesel has arrived and as you would expect from a Kato model it ran well straight out of the box. Being part of the Kato European range it is not obvious how to fit a knuckle coupler as a spare coupler was not included in the box. As I have a few coaches and wagons fitted with normal N gauge couplers, I will likely use the loco on the day passenger train which does not involve any shunting. Oddly the loco does not have a number and the roof is GN green rather than grey. 

Photo shows line up of locos with contrasting nose styles, new loco at the front. 

 

 

The fiddle yard track is now laid and will be wired up over the next few days. 

 

 

The "river" showed no sign of becoming clear so has been ripped up. The bridge and track over the river was removed to avoid damage. This means I can not complete the track until the river is "flowing" and the track restored. 

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

 

 

[Keith Addenbrooke]

32 minutes ago, stivesnick said:

The "river" showed no sign of becoming clear so has been ripped up. The bridge and track over the river was removed to avoid damage. This means I can not complete the track until the river is "flowing" and the track restored. 

 

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

 

 

Reads to me just like it would in real life when a bridge and tracks are washed away in swollen river following heavy rain storms, Keith.

[stivesnick]

Second attempt at the river this week. Results are better but still not right.

 

I picked up some plaster cloths at the Buxton Show last weekend for a good price. Not used these before but found them quick and easy to use to create the new river bed.

 

 

Having painted the river bed brown, I then added some Woodland Scenics fine talus is various colours onto the base. For the "water" I used Woodland Scenics Easy Water. Two packs were required given the area to be covered and to achieve a suitable depth.

 

The Easy Water hardens up very quickly so there was hardly any time to add the reeds and smooth out any defects on the surface. The results were a bit of a mixed bag.

 

Some parts turned out all right and the end result looked quite good.

 

 

In other areas the "water" did not level out properly so there is a bit of a strange edge to the water that does not look right.

 

 

In one area there was a lot of air bubbles and the effect was very odd.

 

 

According to the instructions, it is possible to reheat the resin with hot air, so I will give the water the hair dryer treatment so see if that makes any difference.  (not sure how long it would take to liquify the resin again) I am not sure what I did wrong, perhaps I should have heated the resin up for longer to increase the temperature so it would stay liquid for longer. Any suggestions welcome. 

 

If the hair dryer does not work, I may be able to use some filler to re-profile the river bank so sort out the water's edge. Not sure about the air bubbles - I amy have to put an overhanging tree or two over that bit of the river. Overall not impressed by the WS Easy Water although it was over a large area. I would be tempted back to using artists pouring medium if I can get hold of the right stuff. It is around the same price, pours better and allows you to pour in stages and gives much more time to sort out any issues.

 

Nick 

[stivesnick]

A bit of a golden spike day today (or perhaps golden track pin). Having sorted out the river the best I could, the hair dryer was not hot enough, you need a blow torch to melt the resin, I put the bridge back and then liad the track over the lift out section to complete the circuit around the room.

 

The connector blocks used on the lift out section do give a bit a movement so I may need to think of extra measurers to get the track to line up properly. Have been running a few trains around the room to check that it all works. 

 

Progress photos enclosed. The next step to get move more stock out of its boxes to see how a typical daily train operation works. It will also act as a check to see how much more stock I can justify buying.

 

Regards 

 

Nick 

 

 

[stivesnick]

I have been working on a draft schedule for Brandon. I started with the original 1950s schedule for the Willmar to Sioux City line. I have added a second passenger train and a couple of extras. The result is shown below:

 

 

A total of 10 trains per day. Once this is working I will need to add in the interurban schedule so that interchange cars can flow smoothly between railways. I have enough cars for this schedule, but could do with some more CB&Q cars as that was the major interchange at Sioux City. 

 

Nick 

 

[stivesnick]

The first batch of a series of photos taken during a trial running session using the schedule in the previous post and with trains running on the interurban line as well. The entire sequence took around 90 minutes to complete and started last night and finished this morning. 

 

The first train is #420 a through freight that runs non-stop through Brandon.

 

 

This is followed by the mail train #51 that drops off a baggage car at Brandon

 

 

A little later, SRTC passenger train departs the car barn ready for it's first run of the day.

 

 

 

Sequence to be continued ....

 

Regards 

 

Nick