If there's a bustle in your hedgerow...

...don't be alarmed now!

Once the clumps of grass are fully dry (overnight), they can be peeled carefully from the foil with tweezers. However, with some, I wanted to try and emulate weeds and undergrowth. The grass was sprayed with photo-mount adhesive and then various shades of ground foam flock were sprinkled over. This was done on the foil and then removed when dry:

The results are quite pleasing, but I'm sure other variations and developments are worth pursuing:

Also, in yesterdays post, the longer fibre strands arrived. Some test pieces were made up with these too:

The fibres come in plastic bags inside a clear perspex box. You will note from previous posts that I have decanted the fibres into old plastic sweet tubs. I also have a couple of spare tubs for mixing the fibres to get a range of shades and lengths in one batch.

Homegrown

If we ever get raided by the drugs squad it's gonna look all rather fishy; tubs of chopped green herbage:

Lines of "grass" growing on pieces of tinfoil:

With a view to making "weeds":

This is all rather fun! Various bits of scenic glue are dotted and scraped around the piece of tinfoil which is, of course, electrically conductive. Then grass fibres of varying lengths are scattered with the electrostatic shaker and left to dry. Once dry, shake any excess back into the tubs.

Next post, I'll be converting some of these grass clumps to weeds...

Rip it Up and Start Again

The backscene is almost there; one more end panel to fit (where the cutting exits the scenic area). I've now turned my attention to some more scenery. I mentioned last time that the ground foam was coming up and I intended using grass fibres. The first steps were taken on the right-hand scenic board. The outer embankment and fields have been started:

Meanwhile the left hand board and the cutting are getting a radical make-over. Not only have I removed the ground foam, but the cutting has been reprofiled; the section behind the bridge has been improved. Additionally, I have made the gullies, especially the outer one, more pronounced. Now you can see why that last backscene panel hasn't gone in yet! When this section was originally constructed I used powdered plaster mixed and coloured to remove the whiteness. I find this Polyfilla type product awfully awkward to use; it's either to runny or too stiff, it likes to slip down embankments, and so on:

Now I am using a premixed lightweight patching filler, available from builders merchants in handy 2.5kg tubs. It is substantially easier to use and much lighter as well as being easier to carve/drill when solid.

It became apparent when using the grass fibres that the base colour of the scenery played an important part in the end result. Much of the layout is darkish brown from spraying the track, but the embankments were pretty rough from removal of foam. I've being using varying colours of acrylic paints to underlay the fibres. The back of the goods yard is straight onto the sprayed brown:

Similar fibres on the field to the left are over a base of Raw Sienna and Burnt Umber and as a result seem much lighter:

With a little practice the static shaker (a cheap version from Greenscene) is remarkably easy to use. Progress is being made at a pleasing rate. I am also working on making off-scene tufts of grass and weed for subsequent "roughing-up" of the grass areas. More soon...

Can You Tell What It Is Yet?

Once more into the breach. Well into the study anyway. As you can see, the whisky has been replaced by coffee, but otherwise the song remains the same. These are the left-hand panels being finished:

Suitably dry, they're offered up to the backboard and trimming measurements taken:

The right-hand panels are already in place. Except for the curved bit at the end; that awaits a final piece of support on the outer face of the layout where the return curve is:

Two panels in place from tonight's efforts. It is important to let the panels dry before butting up the next one, to minimise shrinkage gaps; it's a bit like wallpapering your room:

The more eagle-eyed of you will notice some removal of ground cover. Foam flocking has been removed and this will be revisited with static grass; shaker gubbins were acquired at Oxford and flock is in transit as I type. More on that soon. I hope!

Paint it Back

Last night I made a start on the back-scene alluded to in the previous post. This will be watercolour on a fairly heavy and slightly textured paper. I will need to use two pieces of paper for each board, so there will be several joins. I will need to be careful that the painting over the joins is consistent and that the overall effect is fairly even. Here is the piece for the central board underway:

Better Late Than Never

Wow! That was good wasn't it? Expo, I mean. 50 years? It seemed like there were nearly fifty layouts.

Well done to everyone who contributed in whatever way.

Now I know, I haven't blogged for what appears like fifty years. But so much gets in the way of modelling sometimes. Suitably encouraged by Expo, where Brafferton performed reasonably well for much of the time, I press on.

For Oxford, I painted two part backscenes to relieve the mass of hardboard that would have otherwise formed the backdrop. On my return, I've started using these to sketch out what the backscene really ought to look like:

Also, the 04 finally got chipped and seems to be running well in it's new DCC state.

The legs on Brafferton were commented on quite a lot over that Expo weekend. These were substantially the idea of Edward who also helped with their construction. Indeed Edward and Alan Smith have contributed greatly to the legs and baseboard side of things on Brafferton; thanks for your support guys:

How long to the next blog? Soon, soon...

20th Century Boy :: 21st Century Schizoid Man

The dawn of a new decade! (Unless you're a pedant and propose waiting another 12 months.) New resolutions, new dreams, new aims!

Hang on a minute. I didn't complete a single layout in the last decade. And my previous effort was completed in the last Century. So much for focus and drive...

I really must make an effort to get Brafferton finished by 2020. (Diamond Jubilee Layout Challenge, anyone?) To have it something like presentable by July would be a great bonus and progress is currently steady but sure. To alleviate the boredom of wiring, I'm also pushing on with the scenics. The station buildings need resolving; there is not a scrap of the original buildings remaining and I have three photographs all showing much the same detail all at oblique angles.

Using some fairly rudimentary drafting skills, counting brick courses and extrapolating measurements from the photos, and also using various written commentaries, I cobbled together some elevations for the main buildings. These were then copied, pasted to card and rough mock-ups made. Satisfied with the proportions of these, I roughed-up some platforms with a view to getting the best placement for the buildings:

As you may be aware, the full size station was dead straight, but the model is on a constant curve. I'm not sure that making the buildings as a curve would particularly work (!), so some compromise is necessary. Original plasterwork has had to be carved back to give sufficient space for the buildings. You can also see here that I've reworked the rear of the scenery to accommodate the siding more subtly:

Down on the floor, some impression can be gained of the effect aimed for. The road bridge seems suitably distant:

This is one of the few photos I possess of the real thing; in this instance, kindly sourced by Andy Hanson. If anybody has a couple of dozen unpublished shots of the the station, I can arrange a trade-in for beer tokens:

Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends

Having fallen off the railway modelling map for some six months, I am now managing to get some modelling done. Our business purchased a second outlet in July and needless to say, this has taken up much of my time!

Anyway, back to more interesting stuff. The priority is to get the layout fully functioning by EXPO 2010 (you haven't forgotten about that, have you?). The second and third boards needed wiring and a bit of trackwork completing. To ease myself gently back in, I started with the third board which only has two points forming a crossover. After a few teething problems (mainly me not reading the Tortoise instructions; the switching contacts aren't Left/Common/Right as I'd assumed, but Left/Right/Common), everything seems to work well on here. The temporary loose wires will be replaced by plugs and sockets at each board joint.

On to the second (middle) board now. This need a few bits of plain trackwork inserting before starting the wiring. Here are the three scenic boards assembled. Looks like I need a bigger house...

Brafferton Update 25: Coaching Stock

The improvements in ready to run  N Gauge stock has been phenomenal in recent years. First Farish moved their production to China following the buyout by Bachmann and then Dapol came onto the scene. The overall bar continues to rise. Those modelling post-grouping era will more than likely find some RTR stock to satisfy their requirements and on the whole the work required on it tends to be minimal.

Of course, wheels must be changed to conform to 2FS standards. Mick has covered the reprofiling of the Farish and Dapol wheels, but as I mentioned before, I had lost the wheels from some of my Farish coaches. They have been running on 6mm disc wheels with 15mm axles, though today I received from Shop 2 a nice parcel. The 7mm disc wheels on 15.2mm axles are designed to fit the new Farish bogies and I must say they run rather well. Additionally, for me, they are visually far superior to the original wheels (even though they are a giant leap over what was available a few years ago). You decide for yourselves:

Apologies for the clunking great N couplings still in evidence! They will go. And soon!

Brafferton Update 24a: Still Baseboards!

After I'd posted my last missive, I realised I'd not photographed the interesting bit! So here it is:

Now; back to the modelling desk!

Brafferton Update 24: Baseboards

When I started "Brafferton" I thought of it as a "small" layout. It soon became apparent, having built the baseboards, that it wasn't. When scenery and backscenes were added, I quickly realised that moving the layout around safely would need some careful thinking about.

With three scenic boards and two non-scenic, I decided that two scenic boards could be moved together and the remaining three boards would group together.

End frames were cut and drilled to coincide with the baseboard joining fitting. Where each board end meets the frame, the male part of a dowel locates into the frame and a wheel-headed bolt secures through onto a lock-nut.

The frames extend wider than the boards and above and below to afford some protection to edges of scenery etc. Finally, I have left a long extension on the top and incorporated hand-holes for carrying. Using this system, I can now fairly easily manhandle these two scenic boards alone, even to the extent of taking them down the stairs.

Brafferton Update 23: Stock

These a bloggers, they a crayzy! No blogging for a weeks and then a two come along together!

Well dear reader the answer is quite simple; I've been stumped timewise. First came Easter, then school holidays (don'tya just love 'em) then I went and got ill! In my occasional less-delerious moments I had to try and get my VAT return done to keep Mr HMRC happy. So there!

Today I thought I'd better push things forward a bit and, with a half hour to spare, extracted the wheels from the 108 DMU and the 04 Diesel and whisked them away to Mr Solloway for reprofiling. At the same time I took a look at some of the Farish coaches with a view to sorting the wheels out on these. Two coaches had replacement 2mm wheels in and I thought I'd try to find the original N wheels and get them reprofiled as demonstrated by Mick Simpson.

Bad idea! One hour later I still hadn't found the wheels. My 2mm stores are now nicely organised however, so I guess ever cloud has a silver lining!

Whilst digging around, I found my original Cl108 DMU; BH Enterprises body, Farish motor bogie. Here it is sat next to my new Farish 108 (which by this time is wheel-less): 

Some more proper modelling next time. (I promise!)

Brafferton Update 22: Adventures in DCC Pt 2

A spiffing time was had at York show over the Easter holidays; operating Edward's layout "Niddbeck Bridge", looking at the various other excellent layouts and spending a bob or two.

Following my last post, I got some very useful feedback from those members who actually know what they're talking about in DCC. As a result the DMU was reprogrammed with one address for both chips and the lighting problem fixed quite painlessly. However, I was made aware how convoluted it can be programming a chip via a handset; the limited number of buttons on the LH90 for example make changing anything quite a chore. So with a little good homour intact, I dug deep and bought a Sprog whilst at York.

These wee beasties ain't cheap and they take some setting up (put the CD ROM in your computer which then tells you to download the software from the internet; what's all that about then?); however once up and running it was a revelation! Stick the chipped loco on the track and use the computer program to "read" all the settings; the program can even assess the kind of chip used. Store these on your PC. Change any setting; address, reverse mode, motor profile. All a simple and obvious click on the PC. There are some nice pages with graphs for acceleration profiles. I've not tried these yet, but as I become more proficient, I can see they will be useful. So all in all money well spent.

Brafferton Update 21: Scenery

Earlier today I did a bit of work on the scenic side of the layout. First up was to attach the backscene to board No2. I did this with board No1 attached to try and get as neat a join as possible between the two bits of backscene:

The uprights are glued to the backscene board and then gradually screwed to the baseboard:

For the final upright I had to remove the protection board from the end of the layout. There is a slight overhang at this end which will be planed and sanded off (the upright is already flush with the board end):

With this backscene in place, I can now commence putting the landscape on board No2. Same process as before, but more fiddly between trackbases. A sheet of 10thou styrene sheet was slid in after a while to stop the plaster setting as one whole:

All told a good days progress!

Brafferton Update 20: Adventures in DCC

Having successfully forced my way into the Farish DMU yesterday and installed a Lenz Silver, I today set my mind to programming. A second chip was inserted in the trailer unit; this seems a rather expensive option just to control the lights. However it seems to be the most straightforward so I'll just gulp and accept it.

The chips were then given consecutive address numbers; 0405 for the power unit and 0406 for the trailer. I must be getting good as I then worked out how to join them in a multiple unit. It went a bit downhill after that; the two ends display the same colour lights at the same time! The power car is correct, but the trailer is wrong. I'll need to work out what to do next; presumably altering the direction CV will correct it. Unfortunately, at that point the kids arrived home from school and any pretence at concentrating was lost!

A job for an evening perhaps. For now, though, here is the Liverpool service coming toward you:

Brafferton Update 19: Point Control Pt II

Onward, onward!

Having prepared the Tortoise machines and the baseboards as mentioned last time, I proceed to fit the two together. This proves fairly straightforward although the template provided with the motors was of no use; I found I had to position an actual motor and hold it whilst making sure the throw either way was sufficient. I then marked its position before drilling and screwing. 

Four in on board No2, two more on this board and a further two on board No3 (which still awaits track):

The motor control will not, I have decided, be DCC. Instead a small panel will be mounted on the baseboard to control the points mimicking the lever-frame on the prototype.

Although curved boards are excellent for forming a circular layout (how else would you do it?!), the boards individually can be a bit awkward. Edward Sissling kindly manufactured two "ends" to be affixed to a single board whilst work is underway. This makes them more stable and also protects trackwork and board edges from "knocks":

I also today chipped my Cl108 DMU. All fairly easy apart from the initial removal of the power unit body; it seemed to be tack-glued to the motor unit.

Anyway, more progress tomorrow. I hope!

Brafferton Update Pt. MCXXII - Pointwork & Drives

It goes like that doesn't it? You do very little for a goodly while and then, all of a sudden, you do lots of things often in a very short timeframe. In these instances I reach for my Latin Dictionary and exclaim "Carp Dime!"; or something like that...

Anyway board No.1 is sort of moving along under its own momentum, so back to board No.2 and get the trackwork sorted. I've been cleaning the soldered elements of trackwork using a copper brush mounted in a mini-drill. This was suggested to me by Bob Jones at a recent NEAG meeting, and it has really helped clean the track and reduce the excess solder thereon.

At the same time I've been preparing the Tortoise Point Motors for fitting. Suitable holes were drilled in the baseboard so that the actuating wire could reach the switch. Several unsuitable holes were also drilled, but I'll refrain from telling you too much about those!

The motors have eight PCB type contacts on the bottom; two for the power to drive the motor and six contacts for a DPDT switch. As I'm using DCC, I reckon I'll only need one double throw switch to alternate the polarity on the crossover of each point. To avoid having to solder the motors into the baseboard, I've fitted each with some screw terminals wired onto the PCB. Each unit can then be screwed physically into position and wired using the screw terminals:

By having a couple of spares available, any failure can quickly be remedied without a soldering iron. That's the plan anyway!

Going Green Pt II (?)

Help! My layout is too big!

Well I've known from very early doors that it technically didn't meet the criteria for the Golden Jubilee Challenge. Did that bother me? No; the Challenge provided suitable impetus to start the layout and from there it just sort of took charge itself!

Seriously though, the layout is of such a size that I cannot assemble two of the five boards in the study; to do this I have to comandeer my son's bedroom and even this will struggle with three sections. I can fit one board on the study desk to work on it, but the size has limited what I might do over the winter months. Now spring is in the air (hopefully), I can decamp to the garage and work with more available space:

What I have been doing is making a scenic start on board No. 1. This operates well (as it should being just a single stretch of track) and having finished the bridge, I have now started bedding it in and commenced grassing:

On Sunday, James and I visited Keighley Model Show. This is a fine show of modest proportions and featured some extremely nice layouts. Andrew Cox was present with Cotstart East and deservedly won one of the show prizes. 

At SiSt Trees we purchased some more flocks and scenic scatter and some very nice ready-made trees; bargains at 70p - 90p apiece! Visit www.themodeltreeshop.co.uk for more info.

Going Green

Yes, this will most definitely be an organic layout. Already you can smell the country:

The moral must be; be careful where you store your layout. I thought mine was safe in the loft area, carefully boarded out and safe from small hands. Unfortunately birds, have made a nest under the roof and have been flying around the loft space. They are now evicted, but just to be on the safe side I'll be covering the boards with polythene when they're up there!

Grasses & Gasses

Nice to see some comment and query on recent posts; thanks for the interest guys! 

Pete M asks about the grass mat. On the bridge, I used the Gaugemaster rough grass, autumn brown (?). It's actual made by Noch and no doubt Gaugemaster are the UK distributors. I will also be using other products to represent ground cover including Greenscene, Noch and Woodland Scenics as well as non purchased items such as soil, tea leaves and dust (!). I expect that the Noch grass mat will be usable in fairly largish patches; it could perhaps be used for a crop field with suitable treatment although not in my case. Here is the product in its package:

Questions were also asked about painting and weathering to achieve certain effects. I still like enamels for model painting and I have several pots of thinners, in various states of disrepute, to thin and weather colours. Here is one of the nastier pots, there is currently more sediment than thinner, but I will dilute it rather than clean the pot and start again:

No doubt this is barred under various EU legislation; usually the same sort that stops us knowing who our fellow members are and where they live! Don't get me started on that again...