SRman's Current Layout - Newton Broadway

[SRman]

Thanks Rick. I will have to get a couple of the Bachmann SR type CCTs too. I currently have a mix of Wrenn (ex-Hornby Dublo), K's and Parkside kit-built ones in service, plus a couple of Hornby's van 'C' in green and crimson. I may be able to retire some of those once the Bachmann ones come along to put them to shame. 

I have a good variety of bogie parcels stock (NPCCS) besides those, including the old Triang-Hornby gangwayed bogie van, Hornby and Ratio Bogie 'B' vans, BR BGs in various liveries, one each of Hawksworth, Stanier, Thompson and Gresley types, and a couple of BR GUVs.

[Gwiwer]

As you know Jeff I also have a fair selection of NPCSS in blue, maroon and some in green, all also in various shades of dirt.  I've just emailed Kernow MRC to pre-order one each blue and late green SR CCTs.  

[SRman]

Inspired (and shamed) by Peter's (P.C.M.) rapid progress with his scenic break bridge (see his post at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/1560-llanbourne-north-wales-in-the-80s/?p=1939133, here is my progress report on building up the plate girder bridge sides, using the Wills vari-girder kits. I bought quite a few of these kits with a view to replacing those temporary, recycled sides which were acting as place-holders. I have used up two complete kits so far, plus a few sprues from the third kit. 

The nearest sides are virtually complete, but the other, longer side is single-sided so far. I have to duplicate the panels to provide the double thickness, then add the top plates.

I am using some 40 thou plasticard to form a lip at the bottom, to allow a little overhang at the sides of the bridge. At this stage, I am thinking that I will probably use some half-height panels for the lower overlays, to be attached directly to the wooden sides of the bridge deck.








Note that I changed the topic title as the layout can no longer be considered "new"!

Edited July 4, 2015 by SRman

[SRman]

Continuing the work on the plate girder bridge sides, The next photos show how I have added the plasticard base and the Wills top plates. I'm no civil engineer, but I thought the very long span on the far side should have extra support or bracing to be realistic, so added an extra layer of the top plates. The first photo shows the side without the top plates fitted, and the plasticard base only partly fitted.




The next two show the sides tack glued in place with Blu-tack to hold them while the glue sets.






The next two show the upper sides in what I hope to be the final configuration, but as yet unpainted. 

I also cut one Wills panel in half to see what that would look like as another layer along the sides of the wooden deck. It is only Blu-tacked in place here. An alternative idea is to do a 'U' or 'L'-girder with the flanges facing outwards horizontally. The jury is still out on this! Either solution will require a little rebate cut into the brickwork to represent a support buttress.






Edit: Another thought occurred to me: I could use some of the Wills panels sideways, so they would be shallower but longer between ridges. That would be easier as cutting all those panels accurately in half is a little daunting!

Edited July 5, 2015 by SRman

[P.C.M]

Hi Jeff,

I am glad my bridge has inspired you to crack on with yours. It's looking good too though I am not sure girder section under what you have done will look right. Too much of the same if that makes sense. Thing is I am not sure what else you could do.

 

Cheers Peter.

[SRman]

Hi Peter.

I think it needs to be a girder of some sort, although not necessarily the Wills style plate girder. It could be a much plainer 'H' section girder, although to disguise the thickness I would use only a very thin 'U', so it would be as if we were looking at only the outer side of the 'H'.

Anyway, here's that last idea illustrated:

[SRman]

Taking a break from the bridgeworks, I decided to improve the realistic photographic opportunities by improving the tunnel and blocking off the background visible through it. There is still much baseboard work to do so this is by no means the final solution, but it does what I want for the moment.

The tunnel mouth needs to be opened out very slightly to clear modern 23m stock, particularly the class 166 set I use as gauging vehicles. I have used a crude internal wrapper of card with Superquick engineers' blue brick paper glued inside. I also painted the wooden support behind that and positioned it as best I could to block off the view of the white wall behind it.

The first photo shows the 'behind the scenes' clutter and bodgy bits ( ) while the other two show the scenic side, with the BR E4 0-6-2T hauling parcels stock in the last one.

[SRman]

Freshly arrived this morning is a Hornby 700 class 0-6-0, 30315 in late BR livery.

I ran it for an hour in each direction on DC power on my rolling road, then fitted a TCS DP2X-UK direct plug-in decoder. 

It ran very sweetly indeed with the TCS decoder, with only the inertia/momentum settings tweaked, as is my norm. I used CV3 = 25 and CV4 = 17.

It ran in service for the first time hauling a parcels rake of mixed four-wheel and bogie vehicles. There were no clearance problems with my third and fourth rail installations.






All in all a very pleasing purchase. 

I spotted the crooked tool box in the tender in the photos. I had to reglue it because I knocked it off while adjusting the tender drawbar to the closer setting. I have now straightened it up again. Sometimes these photos can be useful for showing such things where they would not otherwise have been noticed for goodness knows how long!

(I posted this entry in the Hornby 700 topic as well - if you thought you'd read this before, you were probably right!).

[P.C.M]

Hi Jeff,

30315 does look very nice. Now stop playing and get back to that bridge. lol

 

Cheers Peter.

[Purley Oaks]

Like the Bulleid Hal btw

Mal

[Guest]

Like the Bulleid Hal btw

Mal

 

Yes... I spotted that too. V. nice indeed.

[SRman]

For Mal and Pete: the Bulleid 'tin' HAL is the Ayjay Models kit running on a Hornby 2 BIL chassis. I bought several of the cheap BILs from Kernow to allow multiple running with the Hornby BILs and HALs without the hassles of different motor characteristics entailed by using the Black Beetle motor bogie previously fitted to the 'tin' HAL.

I would love to fit flush glazing to the Bulleid HAL but have not the patience at the present time.

There is also an unpainted Bulleid 2 HAP in the background of some of my photos, from the same source and utilising another pair of Hornby chassis.


For Peter (P.C.M):    

[DougN]

SRman I will perform an inspection if you are not careful.... Time to get on with that bridge and what about the rest of that layout? I thought you were going to have a go at more running track!

[Gwiwer]

As soon as I'm back on two feet I would also seek to perform an inspection

 

Having said that things are improving to the point that I was outside briefly today - long enough to weather a pair of 2Bil units.

[P.C.M]

As soon as I'm back on two feet I would also seek to perform an inspection

 

Having said that things are improving to the point that I was outside briefly today - long enough to weather a pair of 2Bil units.

Hope you are ok Rick?

 

Cheers Peter.

[SRman]

SRman I will perform an inspection if you are not careful.... Time to get on with that bridge and what about the rest of that layout? I thought you were going to have a go at more running track!

 

 

As soon as I'm back on two feet I would also seek to perform an inspection

 

Having said that things are improving to the point that I was outside briefly today - long enough to weather a pair of 2Bil units.

 

Help! Andy, they're all ganging up on me!!!!    

 

Doug and Peter, I think I'm running out of time to get the upper level going before the August meeting.

 

Rick, I hope you can make it to the meeting too, and I'm glad you are starting to feel a little better.

 

8)

[Gwiwer]

Jeff - thanks I am starting to turn the corner and have made it to work most days though haven't been good for anything else.  Most of the past three weeks has been spent resting or asleep.

 

Peter - It's been a nasty attack of the seasonal lurgies with a lost voice, flu which developed into bronchitis and now an ear infection.  Having a low immune system after my treatment five years ago doesn't help recovery.

 

I don't have the date for August - if someone cares to let me know I'll compare with my roster and check if I can make it.

[SRman]

Saturday, August 15th, Rick.

[Gwiwer]

Cheers.  Looks like I'm on a 06.45 - 14.45 that day so it's a maybe later, maybe not scenario. 

[DougN]

 

Help! Andy, they're all ganging up on me!!!!    

Doug and Peter, I think I'm running out of time to get the upper level going before the August meeting.

 

 

Really, do you need a hand to get it cut and in position! You know I am around this week. I'm happy to give you a hand... Though clearing the top foo may take the longest part of the time! I have the trailer so I can pick up more MDF if we need too.

[SRman]

A little more refinement to the plate girder bridge: an initial coat of paint has been applied to hide the white plasticard, and the brick support pier has been trimmed to better suit the bridge layout. The Vollmer embossed brick card has been trimmed and folded to suit, and a temporary infill piece of brickwork added to cover the gap left between the pier and the stone retaining wall.








I have also done a little more with the level crossing but no pics taken yet.

[P.C.M]

Jeff - thanks I am starting to turn the corner and have made it to work most days though haven't been good for anything else.  Most of the past three weeks has been spent resting or asleep.

 

Peter - It's been a nasty attack of the seasonal lurgies with a lost voice, flu which developed into bronchitis and now an ear infection.  Having a low immune system after my treatment five years ago doesn't help recovery.

 

I don't have the date for August - if someone cares to let me know I'll compare with my roster and check if I can make it.

Sorry Rick,

Didn't see your reply until now. Hope you are  well now, I have to be careful around Leanne at the moment as she is having Chemo and also has a low immune system.

 

All the best Peter.

[Gwiwer]

Slowly improving thanks Peter.  Baby steps.  Still only missed three days at work though Sharon tried very hard to get me to stay home for a couple of weeks.  Little things like I can sometimes hear something in the left ear again or I don't cough quite so hard today as yesterday .....

 

If there's any question we should probably keep our distance for a few weeks yet with regard to Leanne's condition and I certainly wish her well on that road.  All too familiar I'm afraid.

[SRman]

Another new addition to the parcels stock is this Hornby Magazine (Dapol) six-wheel Stove R van in BR crimson. I am aware of the well documented faults with this model but it still makes an unusual addition to the variety of stock I have available to run. On receipt, I immediately immobilised the rotating end wheelsets with a couple of lumps of Blu-tack, oiled all of the axles, then placed it in service and it runs with no problems at all. It fits into the 1950s to early 1960s era in this colour scheme.






Later on, I will weather it and the CCT from Invicta Models. I may consider modifying the wheels to 14mm and doing a few other jobs at some time in the future. Such modifications are fairly well documented in the modelling press and online.

Edited July 19, 2015 by SRman

[SRman]

I decided to resurrect my Hornby Stanier Black 5, which had been playing up last time I ran it. I tested it on DC analogue after removing the Hornby decoder and it ran perfectly for several hours on the rolling road. I added a Hattons decoder and that ran perfectly.

Next, I decided to continue with the weathering process I started before it played up. Doing the dirty bits is not difficult; the problem I have is with matt varnishes not drying matt. I have used several different brands, all shaken and stirred thoroughly, but the results are very unreliable. At present, it is still not right but looks reasonable (only reasonable, not especially good!).

Here it is on the late 1950s/early 1960s parcels train at Newton Broadway.