Staining more Sleepers

Progress is being made in trying to create sleepers for the three sidings at the front of the layout. I’m starting to hone the technique in staining these sleepers but I don’t think I’m there yet. I feel the colours are not quite right but it’s starting to feel I could achieve a reasonable representation of old weather worn sleepers.

Once they have been embedded in ballast, chairs and rail added, along with a modicum scattering of static grass applied around them, they might look OK. A little more practice and track laying will commence…

Power Districts and Staining timber

This week has been spent on two main area

1. Pondering the wiring of the layout got me thinking about Power Districts.
2. Staining sleepers prior to track laying.

Firstly on the subject of Power Districts I’ve decided to have seven. You may wonder why I’ve gone for seven on such a small layout but let me explain my thinking… I’ve only had the privilege of operating a couple of DCC layouts but one of the main issues I experienced was electrical shorts. On one layout the short brought everything to a standstill, on the other it shut big sections down that in essence stopped much of the layout functioning. My thinking is that there will be a number of locos drawing current simultaneously, not all moving but with some a sound element running e.g. quietly simmering away. With more locos on the layout there might be a greater chance of a short. The aim of the seven Districts is that in the event of a short the offending District can be quickly isolated either automatically or manually so that it will not affect other areas where locos might be live. This should keep the effect of the short on the overall operation of the layout down to a minimum. With the seven Power Districts there will be a good chance that locos will still be able to move on/off the shed or around the shed while the short is being rectified. 

Well that’s the plan…

 

Note on sound: the intention is to try and create a subtle soundscape. A soundscape that will convey the experience of viewing the engine shed from afar on a hot August day. If it ever gets to an exhibition the hope is you will have to be within a few feet to hear any sound emitting from the layout (not from the other side of the exhibition hall). Possible easier said than done me thinks…

Staining sleepers has progressed reasonably well with a good 1000 stained but I’m not getting all the results I’m after. I’ve been using a number of colour references in books by Peter Gray and Hugh Ballantyne published by Ian Allen. Colour reproduction and type of film used aside, the pictures in these books do show a generally darker shade than I would have expected.

 Above is a sample selection from three different batches of stain that I’ve concocted. I’ll be using these mainly for the Engine Shed area and possibly the main line but I’m after a different colouring for the sidings at the front.

I decided to visit our local Preservation Railway Line to gather photographic references (see below).

These are the colours I would like to achieve for the three sidings at the front of the layout: sleepers that have probably seen better days but were deemed good enough for use in lightly used sections of track and storage sidings. I’ll be trying to portray sleepers that have faded in colour to something like the above photo. I might even try to create a few splits in some of my sleepers with moss/weeds poking through.

To try to achieve something like the above I’ve ordered a few samples of stain that is used to distress furniture or wooden planking for internal walls. These stains have the exotic titles of: Mushroom, Storm Cloud, Gunstock, Tudor, and Gunpowder. Hopefully these will arrive during the week and more sleeper staining trials can continue.

Track Foundations

The original track plan had to be discarded as it was in too poor a state due to being used for constructing the baseboards. So during this last week I printed out and pasted together another full size track plan. This will be pasted to the baseboards and used to position the turnout along with laying all plain track in situ. First task was to make sure the new track plan fitted… Hmm overall the fit was not too bad but there were a couple of very minor tweaks to be made. I’m putting the slight misalignment's between the two track plans (the one used to cut the plywood and the new one) down to the difficulty in pasting all the sheets of A4 together. Also even though I’ve calibrated our two printers there seems to be a very slight twist in the printouts from them both. Only a very small difference but over such a large area it has had an effect.

 

The above photo shows state of play a few days ago with the three sidings at the front having cork underneath and the new plan glued in place ready for track laying to start. At this stage the rest of the plan was only taped in position in an effort to check the fit before cutting the cork underlay. After redrawing a couple of areas to get the track to get a better alignment, with inspection pits and the rise up the coaling stage ramp, it all fits a lot better.

I discovered that Templot has the ability to print out the cess at the track edge. This assured me that I’d cut the plywood for the mainline track bed to the correct width which should allow a small shoulder on the ballast. Phew! I’m not too concerned about the rest of the track as most of the shed area will be reasonably flat with possibly no shoulder to the ballast edge.

 

As of this morning the entire track plan is now secured in position. Due to the size of the baseboards I think most, if not all, of the turnouts will have to be built on the bench. This may cause a few minor problems with track alignment if I lay too much plain track first. So bearing this in mind I’ll have to get to grips with turnout construction pretty soon.

Two areas I need to think about soon are:

1.  How am I going to lay the track within the running shed? Is it to be embedded within the running shed floor or laid on top?
2.  Also, before I lay too much track, thought needs to be applied to cable runs for applying power to the track, as well as how many power sections to create which will help diagnose any electrical shorts that I’m bound to experience with DCC.    

 For now though I feel the need to stain some timbers…

New Skills to Learn.

To learn more about how I can use Servos to control turnouts and signals, a few days ago I joined MERG (Model Electronic Railway Group). What a revelation the last few days have been. The response on the forum to my initial post has been fantastic. I’ve never built a circuit board let alone studied electrical components (apart from long forgotten schoolboy physics some 40 years ago).

MERG have a number of starter kits for newbies like me. So to get myself started with circuit board construction I placed an order for the three Pocket Money Kits pictured below for the princely sum of £5.60 inc. p&p.

 

I was extremely surprised to have them arrive the following day within 24 hours of placing the order. MERG have a lot of information and resources available for its members and there are more than enough kits available for my current needs. I just need to learn how to build them. You’re never too old to gain new skills and this is another one this hobby is leading me to learn.

The purists may scoff

Just arrived this morning is a reproduction of the shed plate carried by locomotives that where allocated to Penzance (Long Rock) Engine Shed. Yes, I know Rospeath Lane is not a model of the facilities at Long Rock but in my alternative history it would have been the primary Engine Shed for that area so would have been allocated 83G as its shed code.

I wait for the derision from the purists, then we'll see if I'm brave enough to display the plate on the layout if it ever goes out to exhibitions...

 

Progress on the Two Main Baseboards

Hopefully the photos below will depict my progress over the last few days

Last few sections being glued in place on the second board after checking on the turntable for position, height and alignment

View from the front with the last fascia being fixed in place

It all looks OK, ready for the different sections for the baseboard tops to be cut and glued in place.

 

Checking all the cut-outs for the inspection pits, also the position of the boards that will support the mainline and head-shunt to the coal stack sidings

All baseboard tops fixed in place with two coats of primer/undercoat. The piece resting on top will be the continuation of the gradient up to the coaling stage.

 

 

 

Next task is to lay the cork underlay then, to gently break myself back into building track, I might start laying the sleepers and rail for the three sidings at the front.