It’s been a busy month here at the HVL. Unfortunately much of it focused on the business of making a living and not making trains. A necessary evil, I am sure that this too shall pass. Now off to the races.
Site 1: Brian Moore from Plymouth, UK – Quisling, CA
Brian has a set of images that are growing of his HO scale modules over at his Flickr site.
There’s 70 images in the set so far, and some great modelling to view as well. Enjoy.
There are two very useful sites on the board today. Both relate to operations but in a different aspect.
Site 1: The Operations SIG resources website
If you are new to the idea of model railroad (railway) operations then the OPSIG site is a great place to start. I will warn you though that there is a slippery slope downwards from here to building everything with an eye to operations after you’ve perused the pages. Plenty of fun stuff to learn about however, and all of it very well presented.
Site 2: A short course on railroading
I’ve only recently found this site. I’ve not finished reading it all yet, but what a fascinating read it is. Based on the notes and memories of L. E. Crowner and centering on the Union Pacific’s Los Angeles East Yard there is so much information here that you tend to lose yourself in the pages for hours.
Site 1: Switching/Shunting/Shelf “Small Model Train Layouts” (Facebook group)
Glenn Sanders runs a very tight-knit and helpful group over on Facebook. I’m pretty sure that you need to be a member of Facebook to view the group, and you have to be added by Glenn, but since joining I have found some of the best modellers on there. Ray O’Neill of HELM and 59th and Rust fame is just one of the great modellers on the group. It is also a great place to share ideas and plans for your industrial switching layout (ISL) too. If you get a chance drop by and see what’s going on. Very layout focused.
Site 2: End of the spur!
For those of you who might know Ray O’Neill through his 59th and Rust layout, he has another underway at the moment that I wanted to share with you. End of the spur is an industrial switching layout (ISL) set in an inner city industrial area, using combined motive power moved because there is no run-around as in the image left, there is a lot of switching to do and surprisingly a lot of space to get it done in with 12′ (feet) of run and 14″ (inches) of depth. There are some great ideas that I’ve seen in this build that I’ll be using on my layout too. Among them the switch frog polarity controller – which is genius.
Have a great Saturday.
When my son turned 10 he was desperate to get into the game Warhammer 40,000. Duly noted Dad trundled down to Melbourne and quietly bought him the starter set Dark Vengeance. For a not inconsiderable sum you get some really great models (49 of them actually) all the basic rules and stuff needed to start playing.
I’d begun to get him into modelling at this stage and he’d made a couple of half-decent models. I asked him if he’d like help to get the models built and ready for paint. To his credit he said “I’ll be alright Dad” and promptly trundled off to the modelling table and began to put them together. Then things seemed to stall. I let it ride for a couple of months and then one day got the models out and asked him if he’d like some help to put them together to get this under way so he could start wargaming. Thus the problems came to light. Turns out that he followed the instructions to the letter putting the models together – using the glue supplied in the kit. And here is where the problems came to rest; the glue was woeful. It was not boy wonder’s fault. He’d followed the detail in the instructions to the letter. But the glue seemed to not want to hold and it had crystallised on the plastic. Gripping enough to not want to let go and not enough to hold the pieces together.
So over the summer (since November 2015) I’ve been working away of an evening after meals to get these cleaned up and ready for paint for boy wonder. It has taken a little over two months of constant slog to undo the damage done to the models by the damned glue (think of super-glue that’s been hit with accelerator and gone off really quickly). The work to rebuild them included ‘gently’ prizing them apart, cleaning up the ‘glue’ residue, filing, shimming and doing what was needed to set arms and torso, smooth the glue damage and prep them for paint. Overall I am impressed at the quality of the models. And the acrylic black undercoat went on a treat from a car store rattle can.
While trying to figure out the best way to paint these models I took a long hard look at my soldering station third hand. With 49 of these models to paint I needed something that would allow me to spray lots of them as often as possible without them blowing all over the place.
What I came up with was the Dektopus (left). It’s like an octopus, but with two extra hands – thus the dek bit. I am a big fan of making the tools you need when you can. And this one came out just like I wanted it to. I bought two metres of cable. Cut enough of the sheathing off to allow for a solid connection when I soldered the cable and the Alligator clips. Cut two pieces of 2×1 for the holders and two shorter ones for the stands. I screwed the long pieces back to back, drilled 10 holes in them at equal spacings, just smaller than the diameter of the cable. I unscrewed the two pieces and then placed the cable in the grooves, applied white glue, clamped it together, and then screwed it back together. Glued and screwed the ends on and left it overnight.
So that has kept me busy the last few months of evenings. Now back to trains.
In my previous post I discussed an industry that I am hoping to add to the layout extension when that gets built later in 2016 or early 2017.
Wolfgang Dudler MMR (who passed to the great layout in the sky on 26/08/2012) still has a great site and some fabulous videos on YouTube also. In the scrap vein I feel that his scrap industry is the model to beat when it comes to realism.
Take a look at the video and the overall impact of the scene. Wolfgang was a master model railroader for a reason.
Wolfgang’s site is still up and going as of this post. I don’t know how long the site will be up so I would suggest that you head on over and take a look at the man’s modelling. It is inspirational.
Well the modelling illustrated in these videos is all about scrap.
One of the industries I’ve considered for my new (home) layout was a small scrap dealer. On the layout extension that industry will I hope get a run. On the main layout at the moment there is simply not the space needed to make even a small one. Thankfully ChessieFan2 has done almost all the hard work for me by producing two videos that take you through the stages of building the industry. Additionally he has made another video where he discusses making loads for your scrap gondolas too. Enjoy.
Watch this video through until 14:57. Beyond is talk about the layout in general.
Happy Australia Day. Don’t worry if you’re not Australian, enjoy the day with us in any case.
I’ve added a couple of pages to the layout build area of the site:
There pretty bare at the moment but I’ll be updating them as I go forward with the appropriate details. Baseboards and Legs will include a video I hope of how to build a layout baseboard using the Kreg Pocket Screw jigs and screws. I aim to get that project underway in February.
For the moment – that’s about it. Enjoy the day.
The Corio model railway club hold their exhibition each year on or about the Australia Day weekend at the tail end of January. This year it was on the 23rd and 24th of January at the Geelong West Town Hall. It is a very good location with plenty of parking locally and some great food and shopping close by. Close to public transport and easy to get to as well for those coming from out-of-town (like me).
As this is usually the first show I get to (unless i can get down to Warrnambool or Philip Island for their show at the beginning of January) my expectations are riding high and these are usually met on arrival.
This year however the show seemed to be a case of the good, the bad and the ugly.
When it’s good, it was very, very good.
This layout is a On30 layout showcasing the narrow gauge railways of Victoria. There were others apart from Puffing Billy though they all used the same or similar equipment to deliver their service. The presentation was outstanding. Well lit, presented and displayed (although a little more action would have kept people around a little longer) this was the outstanding large layout of the show. There are more pictures in the gallery available from the link above.
2. Murri (Gallery View)
Based on the Victorian South West, Murri provides a very well displayed layout for big trains running through typical Victorian countryside. I particularly liked the West Coast railway set running on the Saturday morning. For such a big layout though, there was little action happening and that downgraded it from best large layout for me. There are more pictures in the gallery available from the link above.
3. Micro Layout (Gallery View)
Tucked away in the back corner of the show, was what I consider the best layout in show.
Well presented, with a high standard of work throughout and ideal to help get people into the business of building small and interesting layouts this unnamed layout deserved much more attention from the club than it received. There were two other Micro layouts (and they’re in the picture, but they were put in the shade by this little beauty as you can see by the presentation, and the attention of the young man in the extreme right of the photo. The more you looked into the layout box, the more you got. The track plan was very simple but the level of presentation completely overwhelmed you.
What let the presentation down though was that it was not operating, and the builder was not there. The person minding the store had no idea and could not talk to you about the layout at all. Come on Corio, you have a real gem here, and this should have been shouted from the roof tops!
When it was bad, it was awful.
Rather than point fingers and show photos let’s talk about the standard of presentation. An exhibition aims to publicly display works of art, craft or other items of interest or provide a display or demonstration of a skill.
I am not sure that simply running a train on a layout is enough though. Especially when these were at very low height; which while perfect for 4 year olds do nothing for grumpy 50 year olds to whom they are of the greatest interest.
One layout in particular was very low in both height and presentation standard with cars derailing and operators not noticing. Talk about embarrassing? It was in a dark area of the hall and had no light rig to focus attention on the layout areas. I’ve seen this layout before and by comparison it looked old, dusty and tired. And not in a good way.
I was disappointed to note the layouts at the show that were not ready to exhibit. Among the problems were layouts still being set up an hour after the show opened, very poor lighting on many of the layouts, and what appeared to be constant derailments on one of the vendor’s layouts already mentioned.
More so was me apparently missing out on a range of layouts and vendors tucked away in a part of the hall – according to the exhibition guide – that was neither signed nor pointed out by club members. That was a real disappointment when I reviewed the day on my return home.
Being one of the closest non-Ballarat exhibitions the Corio show is one of my favourite exhibitions and it really starts my railway exhibition year. It’s still a 190 km round trip to see it by car but normally is well worth the effort. I’ve written an email to the club about my views and while I don’t expect a response I hope that there is a change next year – for the better.
You can find out more about the club and the next show by visiting the website at: http://www.coriomrc.org/.
Hi, my name is Andrew and I hoard model railroad stuff.
Recently while designing my new layout I worried over the shortage of turnouts on hand. I was about to beg the master of the house to allow me to get a couple more switches to get me to the end of the design. While rifling around looking for something else, what should I come across? More turnouts. These have popped up in the final layout design. In the future I aim to build my own switches and improve the look of the layout with better track work. For now though I’ll continue to use Peco code 83 turnouts and a mixture of Peco and Atlas code 83 flex track. Some of it salvaged from my earlier layout.
The layout design page is done, at least as done as I can manage for the moment. I’m sure there’ll be a tweak here and there as I get to laying out the track and the scenery. The Mk 72 design (not really but it sure felt that way) can be seen on the the layout design page along with the rationale for the design. Let me know your thoughts on the design. They always make me think about the design and inevitably make it better.
Is there no end to designing a layout? I sincerely hope not, I’m having too much fun!
I’ve added a page to the 12 foot layout modelling project for the design process. It’s been really good to check the images from a distance (and not standing at the layout board) and seeing where things could be improved. I’m going to make changes and get to the Mk III design later this week.
It’s nice to know that I’m getting closer to an ideal layout design that will keep me happy switching and let me enjoy the layout for the next few years.
Keep an eye out for updates to the page later in the week.
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