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Model Railway

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Re: Model Railway

Postby timewizard » Mon Oct 10, 2011 12:15 am

Coming together nicely!

Of course you realize that if you cut a portal into that wall on the right side, you could extend the double track into another station, right? 8)
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Re: Model Railway

Postby Spack » Mon Oct 10, 2011 7:45 am

If I cut a portal I could extend the track into the front garden! :P
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Re: Model Railway

Postby timewizard » Mon Oct 10, 2011 2:52 pm

Now that would be cool!
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Re: Model Railway

Postby Spack » Tue Oct 11, 2011 8:02 pm

Tonight managed to get the track on the left gradient laid, but it looks no different to the last pic so no new pic of that. Tomorrow I'll try to get the bridge frameworks up so that my son can run his trains again.

What I did do was check that his new train runs ok on the track laid so far, and that it would fit in the large siding and the station area. Another month and he'll be able to run this round:
IMG_0124.jpg


There's just enough room on the track that can be isolated between the points at the left of the station and the mid curve at the right to squeeze in one more passenger coach, as he's now got a 1st class coach (R4224) and a standard brake coach (R4240) the remaining MK2 FGW coach from Hornby is the open standard coach (R4225) which seems to the rarest of the 3. I'll have to keep an eye out for one popping up used on eBay, don't mind a slightly damaged one as it's for my son and won't looked after particularly carefully.
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Re: Model Railway

Postby Spack » Sun Oct 30, 2011 11:50 am

Just realised I haven't updated this for a bit. So for anyone still interested (who's snoring at the back?) here's where it's up to now.

The double arched bridge was made out of hardboard. From my 1:1 printout from Google Sketchup I was able to draw the outline and cut it out pretty easily (although my jigsaw broke part way through so I had to finish off with a cutting blade on a Dremel :(). The sides then had hardboard strips glued on the inside upper edge to help hide the gaps on the sides of the bridge (even with a jigsaw I can't cut perfectly straight), and to make the bridge looker more bulky from above. These were then covered with card printed with a brick pattern (and in hindsight I should have made the bricks larger and with a contrasting mortar colour as they're difficult to see now the bridge is in place) and glued into place. Finally card printed with a brick pattern was cut out, the edges cut so they would fold to overlap the edges of the arches, and then the pieces curved and glued to the underside of the arches.

Image Image Image Image Image Image

Last night my son ran the trains in the dark so that the signal lights were much clearer, and I decided that a few streetlights might be useful. This morning I made some out of orange LEDs and black straws, they're not switched yet so they're on all the time and I don't know if they'll be bright enough in the dark but I'll find out tonight. I'm also starting some pavements (the white card in the pics below) which will not only make the road (which is going to be repainted nearer the station) look better but it will also cover up the grooves I had to cut for the streetlight wiring. I've already scored one so that when painted grey and then washed with black they'll have a slab pattern on them.

Image Image

I'll get the road painted later today and post up some more pics when the pavement is in place. The grey station building is going to be a pub - with beer garden next to the water, and possibly even a few locals having an argument along with a copper trying to break them up :)

EDIT: Most of the pavement is done, but the black wash didn't work so they just look dirty grey at the moment. I'll try again tomorrow. I did get a pic with the street lights on, beginning to think I should have put a couple more in ...

Image

Still need to sort the bridges over the roads at the back, build up the tunnel, and get all the grass, bushes, and trees in place, and add ballast to the track, but it's now fully functional and can run two trains at once.
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Re: Model Railway

Postby timewizard » Sun Oct 30, 2011 8:54 pm

Spack wrote: but it's now fully functional and can run two trains at once.


Meaning that a cornfield meet is very possible?! :twisted:
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Re: Model Railway

Postby Spack » Mon Oct 31, 2011 7:15 am

Had to look that phrase up ... yes, it's possible :)
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Re: Model Railway

Postby KInG » Mon Oct 31, 2011 1:45 pm

wow. how do u have time for all that amongst your 40k modelling and terrain building? ;)
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Re: Model Railway

Postby skywalker » Mon Oct 31, 2011 4:33 pm

Its looking good Spack, if your son gets the model railway bug big time you will need a bigger room for the layout
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Re: Model Railway

Postby Spack » Tue Nov 01, 2011 1:49 pm

Tweaked it again last night - the signal light switches also now control isolated sections of track in the station, so the trains will automatically stop at the station platform when red. Luckily I'd already used DPDT switches the signals so it just needed 2 wires adding to each switch, and a gap cutting in the track. I didn't take into account inertia of the rolling stock though, so if a small train with lots of carriages hits the isolated section too fast it'll slide through the unpowered track section ... still, I guess it means that the train driver (ie my son :)) will have to watch his speed!

skywalker, my plan is that this will keep him going at least a year or two, and by then I should have cleared out most of the garage which can take a bigger layout, it's around 20ft x 8ft. I've learnt a lot building this track, the next one will have powered points, more lights, longer straight runs to take larger trains, more passing areas, and whatever else I can throw into it. Might even end up with multiple layers as inclines are a pain to get right, esp at 5% gradient is about the limit the trains can manage, and most people seem to recommend around 2% max, the ones on this track are about 3.5% - 4% as I couldn't get them any lower without a thicker baseboard so that the bridges would be more level and the road/water would be cut deeper into the base.
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Re: Model Railway

Postby mattjgilbert » Tue Nov 01, 2011 2:19 pm

skywalker wrote:if your son gets the model railway bug big time...

I'm still not convinced it's his son who has the bug
Spack wrote:my plan is that this will keep him going at least a year or two

Shall we put money on this happening a lot sooner when Dan realises he wants to BUILD IT NOW!?
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Re: Model Railway

Postby timewizard » Tue Nov 01, 2011 3:10 pm

mattjgilbert wrote:Shall we put money on this happening a lot sooner when Dan realises he wants to BUILD IT NOW!?


Well, let's see. He just has to clean out the garage (about 2 weaks worth of trips to the trash bin) so he can build the 20 foot by 8 foot layout.

That will indeed give longer straight runs for longer trains! (Picturing Spack in an engineer cap watching a 20 foot long train chug up a modest 2.5% incline! :D )
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Re: Model Railway

Postby Spack » Sat Nov 05, 2011 6:03 pm

And so the work continues. The pavement isn't glued down yet as I needed to figure out exactly where to put it, and still need to make some more (mostly to run up the left side road). Using my basic Photoshop skills I was able to knock up a simple building shape and drop in photos of various shop fronts, and now it has a police station, fire station, and row of shops, as well as a couple of single storey shop buldings. The blue/grey building that will be a pub has moved to the right side of the water area, and will be getting a fenced off garden area with seating.

Image Image Image

The sharp eyed amongst you may have already noticed the incident on the high street. For those that haven't, a boy racer in an offensively bright orange ricer has hit a lamp post, and is the police and an ambulance are attending the scene. A fire engine is also en route. At the right a construction firm is busy preparing the ground for the new tunnel, and have already erected the entrance (yes, I know a tunnel would be cut into an existing hill and not built up, but I'm making this up as I go along).

The station platform nearest the camera is now longer too - this will mean both carriages of the passenger train that will be arriving at the station in 2 weeks will be able to disembark passengers (although they won't be able to assault ;))
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Re: Model Railway

Postby timewizard » Sat Nov 05, 2011 6:27 pm

Spack wrote:The station platform nearest the camera is now longer too - this will mean both carriages of the passenger train that will be arriving at the station in 2 weeks will be able to disembark passengers (although they won't be able to assault ;))


They will if you make the carriages open topped! :wink:
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Re: Model Railway

Postby ruffian4 » Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:22 am

The last train to Spacksville departs at 4.55 and features a buffet car and assault ramp.
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