Progress and planning

As I was packing up the old layout in Sydney I kept a few bits and pieces out to play around with ideas for the new layout. Below is one of the plans that I got the most advanced in mocking up. Although I ultimately went with a different idea, I thought it might be useful to anyone out there trying to plan a model railway in a small space. The below industrial/yard concept measured 130cm x 45cm.

Below is a sketch of the concept I'm currently working on. It's booked into the Hobson's Bay exhibition in four months time, so I'll leave a lot of the final pictures until after that exhibition, but here's the concept so far.

The layout needs to be able to fit under a bed (if it and I want to keep living in the house), so I've designed the legs to fold up underneath. Still need to put a few more spacers in there for ease of transport and to protect the legs from country roads, but it's working well so far.

Once set up, it's pretty rigid. The baseboard measures 140cm x 35cm.

Layout height is always a vexed issue and it seems that more and more modellers are thinking about a "what's comfortable for me" approach rather than the former trend for waist-height layouts. Whereas the track height on my previous layout was around 140cm above the ground, I found that this wasn't visitor-friendly. With a public audience in mind I've lowered the layout to around 125cm above the ground, mainly because I want the finer details to be a stronger focus of people's attention, but also to to inspire some confidence in newcomers that a convincing layout doesn't need to be huge.

For now though, I need to go and actually build that convincing layout. Have I mentioned I'm sick of carpentry?

'Til next time,

Ben

In the loop

At the end of 2015 we moved house again, so luckily now we're both in the same state. Less driving, more trains.

Before I packed up, I took stock of the progress to date and I found I was frustrated that in two years I was only just up to laying the underlay. Part of that is the pressures of life and juggling those with modelling time, but another part I have to admit is that I got bored with the design. Once I had positioned the track on top of the finished underlay just before we packed up the house, it became apparent that nearly all of the shunting I wanted to do would require the loco to 'exit' the layout at either end. For me, part of the fun is being able to see what is going on, and this is an element I'll factor into future designs.

Before we handed the keys over my brother came and picked up the layout to store at his place. It's a lot of work that I'm confident I can incorporate into a future layout, so I will be holding onto it. Here's the layout after it reached it's new home.

Due to limitations in car sizes, one of the return loop modules found a new home at the local tip.

Recently two things I've read in model railway literature have shaped my mind on what I want to do next. The first is a post by US small layout builder Lance Mindheim (here), which talks about designing something for your lifestyle. For example: if you only have time to run your layout for at best 30 minutes a day, by yourself, don't build a double-garage-sized behemoth which requires six operators. Smart man. Also makes me facepalm myself for not recognising this in my own design for a room-sized layout I only had time to play with on weekends.

The second was seeing the ad in the December AMRM for the Oz-32 competition. This is a great idea for attracting new blood (as well as fresh, Australian-themed layouts), and a great way to demonstrate achievable designs to newcomers. Also, if you enter, you have to finish the layout to keep your promise to exhibit it at the Hobsons Bay exhibition in July, made when you enter the competition.

Perfect.

My next project then will be a 140cm x 30cm, urban shunting layout. It will still be NSW-based, still set in the 1970s. I haven't seen many urban layouts, so hopefully this will add something different to the exhibition scene. I won't share many (if any) photos of the layout until it's displayed at the competition to save the surprise, but I will still share posts here about the other facets of modelling I'll need for the layout between now and then - after all, it's still modelling NSW in the 1970s.

Cheers,
Ben

P.S. Thanks everyone for your comments over these past two years and your suggestions for improvements - it has been much appreciated.

Weathering PCC cement hoppers

Living between two places for work means that all the modelling gear isn't always where you need it when you want it. Today was one such occasion when I found that after getting settled to start a day of putting together one of the new Road and Rail Resin milktainers, I had left my toolbox back in Sydney.

So to make use of the day, I decided to finish weathering a PCC cement hopper I had started a while ago.

The methods are the same as for the WHX's I mentioned a little while ago, with the only difference being the preparation stage. I didn't mind the colour of the wagons as-new from Casula Hobbies as a base, so I sprayed this one all over with dullcote to give the powders something to bite. I then masked the wagon code, "roller bearings" markings and other markings.

Next I applied a light grey powder all over. Normally I'd start darker, but these wagons were an early 1970s build and I want to depict something between the shiny-new look and their later 1970s look.

Using photos on the internet as a guide, I then draw weld lines using a scrap piece of paper to stay as straight as possible. I'm glad I did this pretty much straight after the morning coffee - it's patience-testing to say the least, but worth it for the overall look later.

Next the masking tape was removed and the whole model given a coat of medium grey powder.

From the period photos I found, the end of the round tanks all had signs of either rust or weathered brown steel, so the next step was to mix up an appropriate colour from the red and lighter browns I had and apply a light smattering on the ends.

I then added some more light grey on top of the model to represent spilled cement, as well as some medium grey over the brown to tone those areas down a bit.

I've included a shot of the original below for ease of comparison.

The last step I want to do is replicate some caked cement on the top of the model in small groups around the hatches, but I need to get some more supplies first. After that and treating the wheels, it'll be ready to go back on the layout.

Overall, pretty happy with how it turned out.

Cheers,
Ben 

New underlay progress

After I had taken the layout back to bare boards I grabbed the Trackrite underlay foam I had picked up at Liverpool and did a bit of a test to compare sound. I used a few Trainorama FWH's as a 'control' wagon for this test to produce a consistent result - nothing better than mass-produced wheat wagons for conformity! The first one was track on baseboard, the second was laid on Trackrite, the third was track on Trackrite with another layer of Trackrite under that to try to replicate a similar effect to Gary Spencer-Salt's efforts on Spicer's Creek. (Though recognising that it isn't the same because his isolates the underlay from the scenery foam and then has trackrite on top). To me, the second one (baseboard + Trackrite + track) sounds the best.

For now I've decided to use the larger roll of Trackrite foam to wrap the timber baseboard to achieve the same 'isolation' as Gary has, but I'm not sure yet whether I'll then lay individual pieces of Trackrite on top of that layer or just put the track down onto it. Whichever way I go would require this first step, so today saw the first break from procrastination for a long time.

I positioned the foam roll on top of the baseboard with around a 30mm overhang on the far side to ensure I'd have enough to attach to the sides once folded over. I then cut the closest side to the same dimensions.

After I'd spread Selleys No More Gaps coloured caulk, I lay the foam as per Gary's instructions here. I didn't have enough tacks, so I improvised slightly. Well, almost entirely improvised.

Got the muse back, so I hope to have this phase completed shortly.

Cheers,
Ben

Removing the rubber underlay

Today I took up the underlay. I re-read Gary Spencer Salt's blog entry on laying track and underlay, as well as the AMRM article mentioned in the last blog post and made my mind up. Here's the last look at the layout before it went back to timber:

To remove the track I had already laid, I brushed water over it and left it for a few minutes until it had soaked into the glue. I'm not sure how much this loosened the PVA glue, but it had the advantage of higlighting where the glue was so that I didn't dig' too much in the wrong area with the paint scraper.

Sliding the paint scraper under the track lifted it fairly easily. This is the first time I have both laid track with PVA glue and pulled it up and I have to say I am a convert. No risk of driving the track pins in too far and breaking the sleepers, and no risk of damaging the track trying to get them out again. Once removed, I dried the water off each piece with a cotton rag and set them aside. If you're worried about the effects of PVA on the plastic sleepers, you needn't be. Here's how they look once pulled up:

I mopped up any remaining water and set to work tearing up the rubber from the underlay. It took less than five minutes to get the whole lot off the layout.

 

Then I brushed this stuff on the now bare baseboards:

If you decide to do this, work in a well-ventilated area. I also recommend a mask - it's fairly strong. Once applied, leave it for about ten minutes and then remove with a paint scraper. It comes off in a goo.

I found that the glue came off with the glue-rid a lot easier on the surfaces I had painted. On the other surfaces I applied a second coat and had another go, before finally wiping it with mineral turps and then sanding it.

All up, the whole process took around two hours, with the slowest part being the scraping.

Going to pack up my gear now and head back south to start work in the morning. Aside from a few wagons I'm weathering I've also picked up an Austrains S wagon underframe to fit to a Camco CW (they're both 10ft underframes, so hopefully it'll be a straightforward mod), and I'm finally going to finish the NRY I started years ago.

The next work on the layout won't be until next weekend now, but I'm please that progress is being made.

'Til next time, happy modelling!

Underlay revisited

Until recently I've been dabbling in weathering as a means of getting at least some of the rollingstock up to the standard I want when the layout is up to running trains. With uni just about done for the year and work backing off, I am so looking forward to getting back into actually building the layout. Being at the AMRA exhibition at Liverpool on Saturday was good both in terms of getting some supplies but also for motivation.

A few posts ago I talked about building a set of Fast Tracks points, and while I still think Fast Tracks is an exceptional brand I need to rebuild that turnout from scratch. The point rail and the stock rail just don't join well enough for reliable running. I've ordered a StockAid tool from Gwydir Valley Models (damned if I'm paying $30 for freight from North America with the current dollar) so that should improve the overall quality of the next build.

The cattle-yard siding was intended to come off the goods siding (left of pictured track) and rejoin the main, as per NSWGR prototype. My original plan was to stick to prototype as much as possible to give the feel of a NSWGR theme. While I was placing that curved turnout on the layout and mocking up where the second one would go for the cattle siding/main connection, I found the the overall plan just didn't seem to work at that end.

If I kept the second curved turnout for the cattle siding, the angle of the curve coming off the layout was going to be too tight for the off-stage trackwork. Although the plan in AnyRail was showing it as physically possible, for whatever reason it just wasn't happening in 1:1 scale. I tried instead using a Micro Engineering #6 turnout (below).  

All of the track seems to join , but I'm still not 100% sold on it. The dire shortage of ME Code 70 #6 turnouts in the country at the moment is conducive to further contemplation.

At the other end of the layout I've cut all of the track to the lengths ready to fix in position, but the first section I've glued down on the return loop module hasn't turned out how I would've liked. I've used PVA to fix the track to the rubber underlay and Selley's Kwik Grip to glue the underlay to the baseboard. Although the sound of trains running through the loop is amplified by the loop being in a wardrobe, it is still way too loud. The sound of the wheels alone is going to distort the sound of the DCC-sound equipped locos.

David Baillee's article in the August 2015 edition of the AMRM answered the problem for me. Without ruining the article, in my circumstances the timber baseboard plus dense rubber, plus track glued onto dense rubber equals sound transferred straight from the track to the baseboard, because the rubber isn't soft enough to absorb the sound. To fix this I need to add soft, spongy foam between the track and the baseboard.

I've toyed with the idea of putting the foam straight onto the rubber, but I'm not convinced I will be able to find a glue that will both bond to the rubber and not eat away at the foam. The other concern I have is how high the track will sit off the scenery. Keeping in mind that this is a yard and most of the landscape will be flat, I also don't want the track sitting proud of what would have been flattened land.

The track closest to the camera is the goods siding. About where the CLX is I'm planning on putting a gantry crane on the goods siding, so getting the landform looking like this (Bowen Creek):

Or this (Burrowa):

...is pretty important to me.

My current thinking is to take the track up, tear up the rubber, sand the rubber/wood glue back, lay the foam in it's place and the track on top. All-in-all, about a day's worth of work to change course and get it back to where it is now. Normally I would see this as a waste of about $110 and a few weekends, but I'm ok with it - if we didn't experiment in the hobby we probably wouldn't have things like the amazing realism of static grasses. Every so often something is going to fail. You learn from it, and that's ok.

More photos once there's more progress.

Happy Modelling!

Weathering an On Track Models GLX

When I started this blog last year the first photo I posted was a Bob Winch picture from 1979 of a short goods on the Oberon branch line. Even though it's the late 1970's, the van has been looked after well and the only signs of major weathering are on the bogies. This is a slightly different photo from the first one I posted, but it's the same train in the same location.

I wanted to achieve a similar, subtle weathering on an OTM GLX I have. It's also the only one I have, and the lowered lamp irons versions representative of my era are sold out. Pressure not to stuff it up!

As the weathering was going to be subtle, I didn't need to undercoat it in the Krylon brown like the other wagons, so I removed the bogies and couplers and sprayed the body with Dullcote, letting that dry before applying the ground-up pastel powders. The methods were the same from this point as with the WHX's: apply pastels, spray with 100% isopropyl, wait a few minutes for it to dry, apply powders. Here is the van with the just the rust pastels applied to give you a comparison.

And with the rest of the pastels:

Finished product:

I toned down the dirt and rust on the body by going over it lightly with a dark grey to retain the cleaner look of a NSWGR wagon. Pretty happy with how it turned out, but the test will be getting it home and running it under the layout lighting.

Looking forward to getting to the cement wagons soon.

Cheers,

Ben