More Progress

I've been beavering away in the Train Cave laying the grade for the Loopline from the junction round the reverse loop up to Thirlmere. Also done is Thirlmere and the beginning of the grade up to Hill Top as well as some of the hidden sidings. I plan to finish off the top deck and then do the bottom deck followed by the track work. While thinking about the track work, I thought I'd do some research on flex track prices as I certainly won't be hand laying the track in the hidden sidings. I began by looking locally for pricing on Shinohara Code 70 flex track and the best price I could get was $15.70 per metre. A quick check on the net yielded $6.70 from Walthers!! Add in the exchange rate and it's a no-brainer where I will be buying the track from. I've read around the various groups that people are often getting far better prices overseas for supplies and now I see what they are talking about. Up until now, I've had no need to purchase things overseas that could be purchased here. All the stuff I need is either only available here or overseas exclusively. People also mention about the price mark up from the wholesaler / importer and if that's the case, then I can see why people are complaining and buying overseas. I hope the wholesalers wake up soon otherwise the local hobby shop will find it difficult to compete. Anyway, here's some pic's of the current progress.

What a mess

1 in 40 all the way

Still some work to do

I'll be having a bit of a break for a couple of weeks as the salt mine is sending me away for a bit and when I get back, I'll be into some major repairs on the house that needs attention so I don't know how much work I'll be getting done in the next month. You never know.

Progress

It was brought to my attention at the Liverpool exhibition that I hadn't updated the blog for a while. I explained that I had nothing to update and therefore had nothing to say. Now I could get all "emo" or political and talk about absolute crap just to get a post up but this blog is about building Picton so if there's nothing happening, there's no posting.

There's actually been a bit happening but how much can you talk about building bench work? I've cut and mounted the bearers plus mounted some of the back drops. Check it out.

Loopline Storage yard

The grade up to Thirlmere from the bottom deck

The grade up to Hill Top

I'm slowly getting there but there's a lot to do including building the lower deck.

Liverpool was good again this year, though I must admit I did more talking than looking at layouts. I guess the layouts didn't interest me that much as the NSWGR layouts are all too modern for my tastes. Still, there was some very good modelling although one scene that made Elscotto and I laugh was a Belpaire Pig crossing a Freight Rail 81 class...yeah!!

And Mike McCormac made an entry as well!!!!! Only 5 or so years we've been waiting but good things come to those with lots of patience and the wait has been worth it. Doggies galore for Picton and I can only hope that Mike gets the support that he deserves so he can look at getting the CX and BX done as well. Just not another 5 years please Mike!!!

Also met Linton from Stonequarry Creek who was loitering around Mike's stand looking to take some Doggies for a walk too. He couldn't hang around due to some inconsiderate friends having a wedding on Liverpool Saturday. How dare they!

I'll keep plugging away at the bench work and keep updating the blog when there's something worth talking about. Unless I get all Emo and want to have a cry.

This Time For Sure

I've started the benchwork for Picton Mk II and work has been progressing well so far. I decided to use L girders this time around as it will be easier to get the grades right as well as the multiple levels for the spiral and storage yards. Ian T sent me some photocopies from Linn H Westcott's article in Model Railroader describing how to build L Girder benchwork. This article would be nearly 50 years old now but is still relevant today. One things for sure, the bench work is much stronger than Picton Mk I.
I've been spending about 2 hours a night since the last post and so far, I've built the L girders for 3/4 of the Loopline which is attached to the wall plus the top and bottom for the standalone parts of the layout. I've still got to build the cross members which the roadbed risers will attach to plus the roadbed itself so there's still quite a bit of work to go. Plus the bottom deck, the backdrops and the facias so I'll be busy busy for a while yet.
Fortunately, I've been able to re-use all the wood from the first benchwork attempt so I've not wasted anything in the rebuild except for my time.

Thirlmere is over on the back wall and the spiral from the bottom to the top deck will be in the foreground

Another view of the bench work where the spiral and the storage sidings will be

Looking down the aisle to the work bench. Hill Top used to be attached to the wall on the left

I'll keep building away for the next couple of weeks and see how it goes. Not long to the Liverpool exhibition either so lots of train action in store.

Deconstruction

As I've said in a previous post, Ian T came over and suggested I make some changes to the layout design as the current plan wouldn't have been practical as I get older and less mobile. So, in the meantime, he's been slaving away at his computer and has come with a whole new track plan and design. And it's a heap better than my feeble attempt, not that my track plan wouldn't have worked, it's just that Ian's version has something "extra" that mine didn't. The trap I fell into was the old "must use all available space" which isn't necessary if you have a 6m x 6m space. The other problem Ian has solved is where to put my work bench, now its facing the back wall next to the window and with no railway to hinder things. Here's how the new track plans look,

Bottom Deck

Top Deck

The new design has meant that the first attempts at layout building need to be rebuilt and with that, everything has come down. It's amazing how quickly things come apart compared to putting them together. Everything is now pulled apart and I've rebuilt where Thirlmere is and have moved the 2 top and bottom decks from near the garage doors, where Hill Top is on the plan, to where the hidden exchange sidings will be.

The lesson here, I think, is to vett your plans with other people, particularly people who have built a few layouts otherwise you might end up making some critical mistakes like I would have. Luckily, I wasn't at a point where it was too late.

A Big thanks to Ian T for putting in the time and effort to come up with the new plan and helping me get it right.

Paint the Town Red

I've worked out what was going wrong with the spray painting finally. I got the mixture right and the pressure right but still the airbrush was not giving the desired results. I was trying to do some weathering of my goods wagons and there was still splotches and furriness happening and it had me dumbfounded. My airbrush is a Paasche VL double action that had worked previously but I had an old Badger single action airbrush that I used to use 20 years ago so I thought, what the hell, I'll give the Badger a go. And, voila, all is good in spray paint land. So I quickly finished weathering the goods wagons (See new Goods Wagons page) and splashed some venetian red around on some passenger carriages. Now the trick will be working out what's gone wrong with the Paasche. Here's how I Paint the Town Red

BKD Prison Van

KB Bulk Mail Van

FN Second Class Car

 I ended up painting the 7 car NIB set, 2 x EHO's, 2 x BKG's, KKG, BKD and KB as well as the previously mentioned goods wagon. I'll try and finish the passenger cars soon and then it'll be on to the lining. Can't wait for that.......especially the elaborate '30's lining that I haven't worked out how to do. Can someone remind me why I model the 1930's????

Going Forward, We Need to Take a Few Steps Back

Well, here we are and it's been over a month since the last post. Some will ask where has he been the slack $%^& and others will say "oh dear, he's back to whinge again" Whatever, I'm going to tell you about the value having somebody else's eyes look over the layout and what you're planning. Elscotto has been great in this but even 2 sets of eyes can miss stuff. Enter Bob G, Es D and Ian T. The 3 amigo's dropped over last Thursday for a bit of a squizz and while they were very encouraging with their feedback, there was also some questions about why I'd done some things a certain way and what were my plans for Picton and gaining access to the top deck. One of the things they brought up was the height of the top deck and also the depth of certain parts of the top deck. So, the top deck is built for us normal height people (Elscotto and I are both over 6ft) but for shorter people, it makes it difficult to see. Also, I've built everything as a still agile middle aged bloke but as I age, I'll lose that dexterity and I won't be able to reach the places I can now. This can be catastrophic for the longevity of the layout and seeing this one will probably be the only one I build, (it'll take me years to complete it) I better get it right to be able to use it in my old age. These are things I didn't consider. Also, we talked about the access to the top deck from the bottom deck and operations. I was planning on running permanent sets of passenger cars to replicate the Mails and Expresses while there'd be shunting for goods trains at Picton as well as permanent goods trains sets like stock trains and fruit expresses. This meant that I'd need storage tracks which I'd thought about but not in great detail

It's important to keep an open mind and not be precious about your modelling as how else do you learn if you can't take any criticism or new ideas? Anyway, Ian T said he'd whip up a track plan developing my ideas which he sent me on Friday. Having seen his ideas, I can tell you it's lucky I hadn't built more bench work as I'll be doing some major alterations by the looks of it. The plan Ian came up with is heaps better than my current one so I'm very pleased and grateful that Ian and the guys are helping me out. I'll post the new track plan once Ian and I finalise it.

In the meantime, I had a bit over a week in Cairns on holidays since the last post so no train time during the break but I have been doing some weathering on the goods wagons which I've posted in a dedicated page. I'll do the same for passenger cars, loco's and scenery when I get around to finishing some.

Busy Busy

I've just taken 2 weeks off from the Salt Mine for 2 main reasons. One, it was my birthday and I don't like to work with salt on my birthday. And secondly, I wanted to finish off the the top deck or 1919 mainline for my layout. I also decided to lay some carpet in the train cave and also make another 4 bookcases so I can move all my train porn into the cave. So it was a very busy 2 weeks in the cave plus a few other odd jobs around the house like fence repairs with my neighbour Gavin and cooking for the little get together I'm having next weekend with friends for my birthday. I don't normally have any celebrations but this year is a little different seeing as my age now has a 5 in it. The good thing about the birthday was the wonderful evening I had with my wife's family and the lovely speech she made for me....I'm sure she was talking about someone else because all of the nice things she said. Some train goodies came my way as well including a NCE ProCab. Woohoo!!!

So here's some pic's of the train cave

Watch your head Fred

New Top Deck

The Top Deck meets

So now, it's back to the Salt mine after all the fun of finishing off the Top Deck. I know where I'd rather be.