Layout dilemma

The hill and incline materials are coming together nicely. After totally divided opinions on the building materials we went with what we've got available i.e. polystyrene sheets covered with papier mache (kitchen towel and PVA). We also visited a model rail fare in Darlington as pictured (topping up our caffeine intake) where we picked up some bargains identified on our google+ wall post...

Today we collected our parcel - 75th anniversary Hornby Mallard WITH bevelled LNER which our previous mallard train was lacking causing Andrew sleepless nights. Now we are faced with a new dilemma. What era do we interpret through our model layout and which station should our layour centre around?? The problem lies in that the Duchess is LMS and majority of other locos followed the LNER route. Options we have considered...

a) Not to run the Duchess on our layout at displays. Heart breaking.
b) Squeeze in multiple geographical areas in one 00 gauge layout which reflect on LNER & LMS routes. Overly ambitious. 
c) Develop an imaginary steam heritage station on which a variety of steam trains can run. Unrealistic. 

So far option c seems to have several advantages - less pressure on reflecting on a snap shop in history, we get to create our own moment in other words, more freedom. It is a sort of compromise as we can be quite fastidious when it comes to getting things right and prefer to have a point of reference.

If anybody has any ideas or experience of layouts which celebrate the age of steam we would love to hear from you! Alternatively a station which all of these trains may have passed in an era when all of them were all of theme were active - calling all historians! Did the LNER / LMS route ever meet?

Current loco status

• Sir Nigel Gresley
• Mallard (x2 as we repurchased a 75th anniversary model to get the beveled LNER font)
• Golden Plover
• Duchess of Sutherland
• Flying Scotsman
• 2009 Hornby Collector Club 43209 Loco

Devil's in the detail

This afternoon and early evening was spent building the Metcalfe steam engine shed and eventually got it finished! Final result? It looks fantastic! Nikola wasn't convinced by the Metcalfe steam engine shed on first impressions at a model railway fare - thought it looked really flat and unrealistic. It may well have grown on us during the building phase or the actual product may be a more recent version of the kit, Metcalfe are known to have made a quality upgrade over the past 20+ years.

However we did add some modifications of our own to the kit. We took to acrylic, we painted the inside and tops of the chimneys, this gave them a blackened/coaled effect, exactly as a steam engine shed would have been!

This kit was easy to build, but was time consuming, with two people it took around 8 hours, so I imagine 10-12 hours would be needed if you were building this kit on your own. First off what we don't like:

• It is card, so requires a lot of effort to avoid it looking flat, unavoidable on close inspection.
• Metcalfe do have good instructions, but some more clarity on pretty important aspects would have been good - simple and brief is more in many cases.
• The stress of making a total and utter mess of it all.

But what about what we do like:

• For the money, the finish is fantastic, it also goes really well with the Hornby waiting room and booking hall;
• The finish does indeed look 3D, really excellent;
• The way the card fits together is super impressive, the people at Metcalfe are genius;
• Comes with a few optional extras, and as is typical for Metcalfe they have included extra card incase you make mistakes and ruin the overall finish.

Overall overjoyed, this WON'T be our last Metcalfe card kit. 9/10!

Nails could also do with a lick of paint!


Devil's in the detail.

Building Metcalfe bridges

Our initial idea was to build a viaduct bridge at the back of the layout for the inner most loop which inclines. I really loved the idea of being able to look through the arches to see the passenger steam trains race around the outside track loops. We chose brick to keep the building material consistent though out the layout. Unfortunately (somebody) didn't measure the bridge and the product of my hard labour was unsuitable for our steady and sensible incline. Too late to cut the legs of the viaduct and even if we did, it would be far from a 00 gauge proportion.

Solution - buy another bridge. This time we risked our layout by of picking a stone finish and my does it complement the existing brick features! I also find that the stone finish has more depth. We had the option of supporting single or double track on the bridge but in attempt ration as much space as possible for scenery we chose single track. The fact that it was going to take less assembly time was a bonus. We worked to together on this one start to finish. The end product is exceptional and we are really happy to have completed another piece for our layout. The arch gives enough clearance for a train to go through. In our layout the trains will enter a turn table after passing the arch, it will also disguise a tunnel entrance at the back of our layout. The Metcalfe sets are relatively inexpensive but you compensate for it in time, which if you're anything like me is time well spent.

Next stop double steam engine shed. As for the viaduct, I will probably use the face of it as a background feature to avoid wastage.

BBC Full Steam Ahead

Thursday nights won't be the same, we have just sat down to the final episode of +Full Steam Ahead on BBC Two. We've learn't so much about how steam has shaped Britain in the 19th century and thoroughly enjoyed the enthusiasm of presenters Ruth Goodman, Alex Langlands and Peter Ginn! The comparison made between train operations and the internet was music to my ears and I am already looking at how I can incorporate this into my lessons!

I was especially captivated by Ruth's splendid fashion sense and Peter's demanding work as fire man. All episodes recorded for future inspiration when working on our model railway scenery. For any one out of the loop the episodes are available on BBC iPlayer.

We also ordered our own copy of 'Our Railways' wall poster from the +Open University to decorate our guest room turned model railway workshop.

Cutting track with Xuron 2175b

Singing along to the Carpenters, waiting for Mr Postman to deliver the +Xuron 2175b track cutters we ordered on Amazon. Without them no further progress can be made on our track and the wait is excruciating. The parcel fit through the letter box and without hesitation the cutters were put to the test.

Attempt number one 
I measured the length of track by comparing it to an existing +Hornby Model Railways piece, marking off a line with my pencil. Cutters horizontally in line as advised by numerous experienced model railway individuals from the fare we attended in Pickering.


Yes                        

No





Tight grip, eyes shut (for extra safety precaution). The track pings of my upper lip and I realise that additional safety precautions are necessary. Out come the swimming goggles, finally seeing the light of day. I peered into the bathroom mirror through the dust ridden lenses and in my reflection an uncanny resemblance to Boris the Animal (Men In Black III). I feel a bit better about having rarely used them for swimming, perhaps they would serve me better at Halloween. I was most pleased to see my best impression receive a twitter like response from Rick Barker, the creator of this terrifying costume.

Further attempts

Seeing the potential of these rather innocent looking cutters, the goggles did not increase my confidence. The track ends were relatively easy but I found cutting though the middle a little more challenging.  Further attempts weren't as even and flush as I would have hoped. Using a steel file helped me even out the lengths and flatten the metal ends. 

Provided that the track is flush the fish plates (rail joiners) slide on relatively easy with some force and a pair of long nosed pliers purchased in +Maplin Electronics Ltd. I was at first worried about the grip on the pliers, fortunately this feature did not cause any damage to the fish plates and if anything helped secure them in place.

Cleaning Hornby track with an abrasive Peco rubber

With +Hornby Model Railways track pieces old and new we finally finished our model railway layout hooraah! We put our trusty freight locomotive to the test, only to find it stopping and jerking in several places along our track. Thinking caps on. The loco only stops on the second hand slightly grubby looking pieces of track and so the process of elimination begins. Our best friend Google suggested three possible solutions to clean up the track and raised several issues with each method:

a) solvent liquids - can damage plastic tracks

b) oil based cleaner - difficult to remove oil residues and can accumulate more dirt

c) abrasive rubber - scratches formed in the rails make future oxidisation more likely

We came to a conclusion that using rubber abrasive would solve our problem for second hand pieces of rail. To avoid scratching the metal too much or spreading the oxidisation we will use solvent based track cleaner for future track maintenance. 

Here is the result of how using a +PecoTrain  abrasive rubber helped clean up the track allowing the loco to move through the track.

Building a table for a model railway

Our aim when building a model railway table was to make it easily portable and more manageable. 

We wanted to make full use of a 244x120 plywood sheet for our table and had it cut into 4 even sections. The frame to support our plywood sheet would split into three sections and be bolted together, allowing us to dismantle it into three separate tables when necessary.



We discovered that our plywood needed better support as it collapsed at the joins. We added more support beams directly under the plywood joins.

   

The finished frame looked like this, standing 1 meter tall. We could have taken more care to keep the legs straight but overall the structure is solid.



To prevent the plywood from warping with exposure to moisture I painted it with PVA glue diluting it as instructed on the bottle.



The finished product

What we needed to build the table

• 244cm x 120cm of 9mm plywood (cut into four 60cm x120cm sections)
• 2"x4" timber frame (six 80cm sections and nine 113cm sections)

• Four 2"x4" timber legs (we chose 1 meter height) 
• Eight 2"x2" timber legs of the same height for all inside legs.

• 120mm wood screws for frame
• 90mm wood screws for legs
• 130mm M8 bolts, M8 wing nuts, M8 washers to hold the three frames together

• PVA glue to seal the plywood