My layout part 2

[Alex Crawford]

Hi Jack,

Don't know if they have a website. I did a general search for 'N gauge Fleetline' on Google and it threw up a number of stores that sell Fleetline. A similar search on E-Bay will find a number of items as well.

Alex

[Alex Crawford]

Hi,

I was looking at the various Oxford vehicles I have for my layout and noticed they were missing a vital ingredient. Occupants. They are simply held together by a single screw under the chassis. On the inside of the vehicle body there is a clear plastic lug that the screw goes into. As it is in between the two front seats I cut it out. I found some 'volunteers' and chopped them in half and glued them to the front seats. The vehicle was reassembled and as I could no longer screw it together a small drop of superglue was added under the chassis to keep the parts together.

I also have a number of the Morris vans, so I may open up the rear doors on 1-2. The plastic is quite brittle so I may just cut away the doors and replace them with plastic sheet cut to size. Buses would also look good with passengers but I noticed they appear to be riveted together. I may need to get the drill out.

Alex

[Alex Crawford]

Hi,

Well I got the drill out and opened up one of my busses. It now has several passengers. I've also added a occupants to a number of my Oxford cars as well.

I also opened up the rear doors on my BRS Parcels van. I drilled about six holes in the doors and with a sharp scalpel I carefully cut out the doors. A rear bulkhead was fitted behind the drivers seat and a floor was also added. I boxed in the rear wheels. New doors were made from plastic sheet and windows cut out. Remember I work in N gauge and the doors are 3mm x 6mm, with 2mm square windows. Just need to mix some paint to match the BRS green. Once it has a few parcels in the back it should look ok.

Alex

[Toddington Ted]

Alex

You must have the patience of a saint! Some excellent photos of your work, thanks for posting them. I can't believe that this is N gauge, I can't even manage very well with 00! Er, will you be doing commissions (in 00!)?

[Alex Crawford]

Hi Ted,

Basically I had too much free time over the Xmas holidays. It was too cold to work in the shed and the paint and glue was taking days to dry.

I haven't even thought about doing stuff for other people. I'm not sure my work would stand the close scrutiny in the larger scales. But I'm alway's willing to give it a go.

I finally finished my second set of lights at the weekend and what a pain they were as well. I just don't know what the problem was but they were wired the same way as the first set. It took me a good 6 hours to get them working. It was only four lights wired in series. I'm now working on a way to fit working headlights to some of my vehicles via fibre optic cable. Glutton for punishment or what.

My brass etch coaches should be finished by the weekend so I'll try and post more photos.

Alex

[Alex Crawford]

Hi guys,

As promised a progress report.

My carriages are now finished. First pic shows the luggage van, then the whole train being hauled by my Prairie tank just as it has crossed the bridge. The rocky cutting, or half cutting is still very much a work in progress.

Next a piccy of my complete BRS Parcel van being loaded up by the driver and his mate. The station is now being populated and the final piccy shows a guy waiting on the arrival of his train.

I'm slowly painting up my figures. I do a basic grey undercoat, then block colour in the main details. A light dry brush of light grey then brings up any raiased detail on the figure. A final light black wash goes into any crevices and brings up further detail and tones down the paintwork.

Further scenery is being worked on, but now I'm back at work the only time I can get out to do anything is at the weekend, if I have any time.

Alex

[ccmmick]

That looks great Alex well done.

ccmmick.

[Alex Crawford]

Hi guys,

Finally did some more work on the layout during the weekend. The rocky cutting is now finished and look not too bad. A couple of photos show the pasenger train overtaking the slow goods and a close up of my LNER engine.

I am now planning out the lower level track. One of the main features will be an engineering works. It still has a bit of work to done. The buildings are from Kestrel and the rest has been scratchbuilt using balsa and various pieces of plastic strip/rod. The gantry crane was built out of Evergreen H beam. I still have to work out the winch system yet. As you can see one loading bay is for the wagons and the other for the flatbed/container trucks. There is another siding which goes to the rear of the building so smaller items can be offloaded straight into stores.

One final extra detail is a parcel wagon that has had it's door cut open and an internal load of parcels installed. You can see they are about to be unloaded at the main goods depot.

Alex

[Alex Crawford]

Hi guys,

Not much has happened since my last installment. My engineering works is almost complete. I have added the rest of the railings. I've also added three fibre optic spotlights. The LED that provides the light is powered by a 9v battery and will, eventually, be controlled by a switch on my control panel.

Alex

[Alex Crawford]

Hi,

It's been a quiet month on the layout front. I picked up a number of N Gauge Society kits at the Model Rail show in Glasgow. All are GWR wagons. Four are finished, see below. A Mogo, ply side, Iron Mink and Iron Mink gunpowder van. The decals on the Mink and GPV are home made.

It wasn't my intention to run GWR wagons but I have a GWR Prairie so I thought what the heck, I'll get a rake of wagons.

I'm currently working on 2 Mica B's, an iron cattle van and a stretched Iron Mink tool van.

Alex