My layout
 

Hi,

Just thought I'd post a couple of photos of my N Gauge layout. I started it in January this year and as you can see it's very much a work in progress. It's changed three times since I started but I think I'll stick with this one for now. The others were rather complex as I wanted to include bridges, tunnels, loops and several sidings. They suffered from running problems and nothing seemed to work properly. This layout is much better and probably rather simple but it works just fine. You can probably see where the last layout was from the painted area on the righthand side.

As you can probably see it is in a garden shed and measures 5' 7" by 3' 4". There is the potential to add another 4' by 3' down the right hand side.

The top of the hill comes off to allow access for any possible derailment in the tunnel. I'm slowly working my way from left to right with the scenery. The points are still manual although I fancy trying the new Pecolectrics system I saw in last months Railway Modeller.

Buildings are mainly Kestrel Design with a couple from Peco. Vehicles are P and D Marsh and Oxford Collectables. My engines all came from E-bay, except for a Dapol 4-4-0 M7, which was a birthday present. Rolling stock is mainly Peco kits built and painted by myself.

I'l post some more photos later.

Alex

Great stuff Alex. It's good to have another N Gauge modeller on the forum. The scenery is looking good and it's certainly a sensible idea to provide some kind of access to the tunnel. No matter how good your trackwork is sooner or later you will have a derailment.:)
Look forward to following your progress.
Incidentally, what is the new Pecolectrics system?

Hi,

It's supposed to be an easier way to wire up your layout. It involves a Turnout Switch Module (PL-50) in which you push down a plunger, insert the wire from your turnout motors and release the plunger to lock the wire in place. PL-26 switches slot into inserts on the module and once you wire it up to your power supply, away you go.

As I'm not too hot on electrics it sounds like a good idea to me. I only have 4 points on my layout so I may give it a go.

Some more piccies of my layout. The wagons are Peco chassis and I've scratch built the bodywork.

Alex

Thanks Alex.
I know a lot of people are put off modelling because of the electrics so anything that makes life easier must be a good idea.
I like the wagons. Nice conversions and the weathering really finishes them off.

Hi John,

I had a look through your website at the weekend. I must say I am very impressed by your layout. You must be very pleased with the way it is turning out.

I see you have a similar problem to myself. 'If I change that and move that over there, or add this here....':)

Another photo, this time a brake van. My ficticious railway has the company colour of yellow, although other railway companies can be seen from time to time.

Alex

Another nice paint job Alex. What type of paint do you use?

Hi John,

I use good old Humbrol enamels. My method for painting hasn't changed much since I did wargaming many years ago.

Undercoat wagon in black (or dark grey if the finished colour is yellow or red). A heavy dry brush with a darker shade (ie dark blue) of the top coat follows, then dry brush on the top coat (ie light blue). A final dry brush with either white or light grey to pick out the detail. Pick out any further details such as hand rails with a fine brush. Then the entire wagon gets a wash of black to pick out the plank detail.

Sometimes it works, somtimes it doesn't but that's the fun of doing it yourself. I don't have any bought RTR wagons yet but if I do get some then they will get that heavily weathered look.

Alex

Your wagon look great Alex. Very impressive.

Best wishes,

John H-T.

I also use Humbrol enamels although recently I have started to use Tamiya and Vallejo acrylics. I like the smooth finish that these acrylics generally give and being able to wash brushes in water but I still think enamels give a more durable paint job.

Your weathering technique seems to work really well Alex. I just wished I had the courage to try it out on some of my locos and rolling-stock. Even Swiss trains aren't always clean:D

John H-T,

Thanks for your comments. The only part I don't relish at the moment is painting the figures. I have a couple of hundred on the 'to do' pile. I think for these I'll use a light grey for the undercoat. This should bring out the colours more than a black undercoat would.

John,

You'll never know until you try. Don't you have an old engine you don't really use? I have a brand new Dapol 4-4-0 M7 that's just crying out to get down and dirty. ;)

A photo of my clean M7. The board joins will soon disappear.

Alex

Hi,

Some more photos of my wagons.

Two Peco kit cattle trucks converted to beer wagons. The one on the left has still to get its black wash. I usually wait until I have several to do at once.

Two parcel vans and a pallet van, all Peco kits.

My milk van is simply a Peco kit cattle wagon with the sides cut off and replaced by scratch built sides. Inside are several milk churns. This is usually seen at the end of my passenger train.

Sorry, just noticed pic 3 is not my milk van. Each plank was laid individually. I've showed this wagon before. I built it with the intention of loading it with hay bales, but couldn't firgure out how to represent N Gauge hay.

Alex

Ahhh......now that explains why I couldn't find the milk van.:D
Great looking wagons Alex. Will you be lettering them for your railway?
I love the idea of the hay wagon but wouldn't it be a bit risky transporting it on an open wagon hauled by a steam loco?
I can appreciate the problems you are having trying to recreate N Gauge hay bales. I've got a similar problem trying to create bales of squashed PET plastic bottles as loads for some of my wagons.(quite a common sight in Switzerland:))

Hi John,

I saw either a photo or a drawing of hay being transported in a 7 plank wagon with a tarpualin cover. This cover didn't come down all the way and a good quarter of the hay was exposed. I though about doing something similar with my hay wagon.

I'll letter all my wagons once I find suitable decals/transfers. I need 4-5mm sized letters, mainly E, F and R in red, yellow and white.

My milk van. Sides were made from .5mm x .5mm plastic strip. Ok, so there's no door but from a distance it looks ok.

Also a photo of the level cossing keepers house and garden. The hut and greenhouse are Kestrel items. The aviary was scratch built the same way as you would make one in real life. Build the framework (.5mm x .5mm plastic strip) first then add each plank (1mm x .5mm) one at a time. Again I don't know how to replicate wire mesh in this scale, that's why there are no birds in the aviary at the moment, they all flew the coop.:D

The green house has some hedges cut to size and painted with small spots of red to look like tomato plants.

I'm hoping to get some more scenery done tomorrow.

Alex

What I'm thinking of doing for my "plastic bottle bales" is to create the basic shape using modelling clay such as Plastiroc, coat it with PVA glue and then cover it with a mixture of those coloured powders that they sell in the craft shops for greetings cards etc.
Could you do a similar thing for your hay bales but with suitably coloured scatter materials?

I was a big fan of the Letraset rub-on letters for this sort of work but they seem to be very hard to obtain nowadays.

Can't think of any way to replicate the very fine mesh used in aviarys either other than possibly very thin perspex lightly etched in a crisscross pattern using extremely fine grade wet/dry paper.

Hi,

Being Fathers Day I received a surprise from my two kids. I got two Fife coal wagons from my son and my daughter gave me two Wemyss wagons. After an hour they were looking rather worse for wear.

A pic of one of my cattle trucks, complete with cattle.

Alex

Nice surprise Alex.
The wagons look great and I can almost smell that cattle truck:)

Great weathering Alex and you obviously have very thoughtful children!

Best wishes,

John H-T.

Hi guys,

Thanks for your comments. I've been busy with some scenery over the past few days. Can't post any piccies yet as my picture editor doesn't seem to be working at the moment. It won't open up any of my photos, so I can't resize them.

Alex

Hi Guys,

My photo editor is still not working so I've added some photos in the gallery, hope they work ok.

http://www.railwayforum.net/gallery/...00&ppuser=2801

Alex

Hi Guys,

Just a short update. I have finished my Wemyss Private Railway Brake van. It's based on a photo I saw in a book.

The WPR received a couple of ex-MR brake vans. Peco do a kit of this brake, NR-47. However I bought a LMS Brake kit, KNR-48, and converted it to the WPR brake. Going by the photo the windows at the end are too long, so I fitted some inserts to make them shorter. I also drilled out the smaller middle window. Also the support struts for the foot boards were not fitted to the WPR brake so I cut those off and most of the upper foot board as well, leaving just two short steps.

Again once I get the appropriate transfers it will be lettered WPR No3.

Alex

Another useful addition to the WPR stocklist.
Great conversion, Alex:)

Hi guys,

I've finally done some work on my layout, piccies below.

The general view shows additional work to the church area. A new semi detached house at the bottom with two large gardens. Just to the right can be seen some work done at the end of the station platform.

A new bus garage is also under construction at the other end of the layout. It's made from 5mm balsa wood with some plastic strip detail.

Last but not least my WPR J94. Not sure of the exact colour. I know the WPR engines wore various colours from Caledonian Blue, Army olive drab to two tone chocolate. But at least I now have a representational WPR coal train.

Alex

Thanks for the progress report Alex. I particularly like the bus garage. Although I use quite a bit of balsa myself it doesn't seem to get mentioned very much in railway modelling circles nowadays.

Alex,

Well done, good progress and hope the video was of some relevant interest. I'll be assisting with the excellent "Alloa" at the Model Rail Scotland exhibition in Glasgow in late February next year. It's well worth a visit and Alloa is an outstanding model. (I've had no hand whatsoever in its creation but I'm on the list of "qualified" operators for exhibitions). If you're there, drop by and say hello. (We're also booked for Doncaster last weekend in January.)

Mike

Nice layout Alex and you've manage to attract almost 1000 hits!!
Dont forget to fill in your beds between the sleepers and make a shoulder, it will hide the depth of those sleepers which together with the height of the rail must be a scale 3 feet nearly!! It will give your already impressive rolling stock pictures that added touch of realism, as you get where the grass bank obscures the track in some of your pix.

Hi guys,

Thanks for your replies, very encouraging.

Swisstrains

A couple of my scratch built wagons were made from balsa wood. I've always made stuff from balsa as I find it a very versatile product. If it wasn't for the fact there there is a lot of kits available I would have made more of my own buildings. Getting too old and lazy I guess.

Mike

I may go to Glasgow next year. Will you be going to Dundee next month?

Klordger1900

I'd thought about adding ballast to the rails but I know I'm going to change the layout at some point. I would like to continue the layout all the way round the inside of the shed and raise the level up to about 4'. Everyhting on the layout is pinned at the moment so it will be easy to lift off. All the house's have track pins in the corners and are simply pushed into the expanded foam boards. Likewise the hedges, fences, walls, etc are the same, so if need be it can be dismantled in a matter of minutes.

Alex