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Re: Atso's new loco works - now including my Hadley Wood layout build

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2019 11:57 pm
by Atso
Dave wrote: Wed Jan 02, 2019 3:42 pm The J3's and L1 look very good.
Thanks Dave. The L1 is out of period for me and will shortly be heading off to a new home. Despite it being a Thompson machine, I've actually grown quite attached to it over the course of its development and will actually be sad to see this one go. :(

The J3s on the other hand are mine and I'm looking forward to getting them finished. :D

Re: Atso's new loco works - now including my Hadley Wood layout build

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2019 5:14 pm
by john coffin
I got to see some of Steve's work in real life yesterday at Stevenage.

Whilst I had been impressed by the photos, seeing them in real life makes a real impact.

Somehow Steve manages to get all the detail, but also overcomes what many of us
perceive as the problems with 2mm. The newer wheels are much better than the
old pizza cutters, and the way the print comes out really does work well.

Much too small for my old hands and eyes, but really impressive.

Thanks for letting me see Steve

Paul

Re: Atso's new loco works - now including my Hadley Wood layout build

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 11:21 pm
by Atso
john coffin wrote: Mon Jan 14, 2019 5:14 pm I got to see some of Steve's work in real life yesterday at Stevenage.

Whilst I had been impressed by the photos, seeing them in real life makes a real impact.

Somehow Steve manages to get all the detail, but also overcomes what many of us
perceive as the problems with 2mm. The newer wheels are much better than the
old pizza cutters, and the way the print comes out really does work well.

Much too small for my old hands and eyes, but really impressive.

Thanks for letting me see Steve

Paul
Hi Paul,

Thank you so much for your kind words and the help and advice you have been providing to help make these a reality.

The N gauge wheel sets changed in their profile a while ago now and a little later also gave us true see through spokes as well. Alas, there isn't a manufacturer of locomotive driving wheels in N gauge and the 2mm Association ones are too fine to work with N gauge track standards. Therefore it is a case of stripping rtr locomotives for parts and very occasionally being able to convince one of the rtr manufacturers to part with some spares (although DCC Supplies is freely selling Dapol wheel sets when they're available). If I was starting again, I would model to 2mm standards - unfortunately the cost of re-wheeling my existing stock would be considerable and I wouldn't be able to use anywhere near the 12" radius curves in the hidden sections that I can with N gauge.

After we spoke, I took your advice and went over to the GNR Society stand and purchased their book on tenders. I'm looking forward to having a little time tomorrow to start reading through it.

Re: Atso's new loco works - now including my Hadley Wood layout build

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 12:52 am
by Atso
Ok, I've finally cleared the rubbish off the tops of the baseboards, put away the bits of stock that were out and disassembled the temporary Kato test track. Following this, I've been transferring measurements from my track plan and marking out the positions of various points onto the boards.

I then decided that it would be good to temporarily place all the track work I've constructed to date to get a feel for how the layout will look.

Looking south towards New Barnet:
Hadley Wood Looking South 1-3-19 Small.jpg
Looking north towards Potters Bar:
Hadley Wood Looking North 1-3-19 Small.jpg
There is an N gauge Gresley coach sitting about halfway along the scenic side - poor thing looks a bit lost!

I've learnt two things from this exercise:

1.) While the layout looks very small on the plan, it looks huge in reality!
2.) I seriously need to up the pace of my track building!

While this has reinforced that fact that I have a long way to go in the building of Hadley Wood, I feel like the first major milestone has finally been reached.

Re: Atso's new loco works - now including my Hadley Wood layout build

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2019 8:04 pm
by Atso
I managed to build another five turnouts for the fiddle yard today (only four pictured).
Turnouts 8-3-19 small.jpg
Another five more and I can start thinking about laying the eight core loops and start the lines that will eventually lead to the kickback sidings. Now I just need to build some more plain track to go with these... :roll:

Re: Atso's new loco works - now including my Hadley Wood layout build

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2019 9:22 pm
by manna
G'Day Gents

Looking good,
Track all laid for Christmas'

manna

Re: Atso's new loco works - now including my Hadley Wood layout build

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2019 8:01 pm
by Atso
I've been spending a little time deciding how I want to do the fiddle yard. As I am cash strapped at the moment, I made the decision some time ago to scratch build all of the points for the hidden section. However, this created some issues to resolve as the copper clad points are around 0.45mm lower than Finetrax. After much thought, I decided to get some 0.6mm iron on veneer and laid this onto the bulk of the fiddle yard area today. This will be sanded back to bring the copper clad points and the Finetrax to the same height. This does mean that I have committed myself to building all of the plain track in this section out of copper clad as well.

I've not sanded the veneer back yet but I have placed most of the existing copper clad track that I've built onto boards to start getting a feel for how this will look and work.
Beginings of Fiddle Yard small.jpg
In total there will be fifteen lines in the main fiddle yard section with a couple of additional kick back sidings (made from Finetrax) curving around at each end. I'd estimate that I've built around a quarter of the copper clad that is required and around half of the Finetrax. I've been fortunate that a couple of swaps with another modeller yielded another four meters of Finetrax sleeper bases and I already have rail to thread through this. This means that I probably have enough Finetrax bits now to complete the scenic track work as well as the bits that will end up leading to the fiddle yard.

It is nice to feel that the pipe dream is slowly becoming a reality and will actually be achievable! Hopefully a start will be made on actual track laying in the next couple of weeks. ;)

Re: Atso's new loco works - now including my Hadley Wood layout build

Posted: Mon May 13, 2019 6:02 pm
by Atso
Things have actually progressed a little on Hadley Wood with some of the track starting to be laid! :bounce:

It hasn't all be plain sailing though, the "super scissor" is out! It was laid on Friday afternoon and following much testing and fettling, I decided to scrap it as it would have been too unreliable. I spent Saturday and Sunday mornings building a replacement standard scissor crossing (about five hours work) and got this in place last night. A couple of points feed it into the rest of the fiddle yard at at expense of around 10cm off the planned length of the loops.
Track Laying 13-5-19 Small.jpg
Pictured above is the work to date, three of the points are only roughly positioned and not fixed yet. The plan is to build the entrances to the loops and kick back sidings on this board and then everything laid will be wired up and tested. This won't include any of the inner kick back sidings as the entrance to these will be on the middle board and will only be laid once the final position of the points feeding these has been established. Hopefully, the work to date starts to give an indication of just how expansive the fiddle yard will be.

Once I've finished laying this initial section, progress will slow as my father, a retired electronics engineer, is responsible for the wiring (and teaching me how it all works so I can repair it myself in the future!).

I no longer have some baseboards and bits of track, but instead I finally have the beginnings of a layout! Even better, the test wagons an coach have been successfully pushed over the sections laid so far! :D

Re: Atso's new loco works - now including my Hadley Wood layout build

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2019 6:55 pm
by Atso
I've not been to well again recently but I have slowly been working through some projects that should have been "easy wins".

First up is A1 2562 Isinglass.
Isinglass.jpg
This locomotive started out as a Dapol A3, Grand Parade, that was purchased as a returned item from the Dapol Open Day a couple of years ago for £35. The locomotive suffered from jammed valve gear and snapped loco/tender wires. Once these issues were put right, I removed the boiler handrails so that I could remove the super heater covers on the smoke box. The boiler pipe was transplanted to the other side and the resulting holes in the boiler carefully filled and patch painted - I've since transplanted the reversing gear as well. The original numbers and letters were removed and the areas where I'd accidentally broken through the paint were patch painted. I've also lined out the centers of the bogie wheels and painted in the black centers on the driving wheels. While it doesn't show up in the photographs, the cartazzi truck and tender frames have also been lined.

Next up is 2573, Harvester, in 1928-34 condition.
2573 Harvester.jpg
This model started from the same source as Isinglass and has been converted into a right hand drive example of an A3. The Westinghouse pump is a spare from a Dapol Terrier with a scratch build bracket and pipework. The loco and tender had not been connected when this photo was taken, hence the uneven level of the running plates.

A1 2568, Sceptre, in 1928-33 condition.
A1 2568 Sceptre.jpg
This locomotive was assembled from various spares and is still a work in progress. The chassis and running plate came from a BR liveried A3 which necessitated the repainting and lining of the splashers and lining out of the buffer beam. While in a similar condition to Harvester, this locomotive has been worked into an A1, using the same methods as for Isinglass.

A3 2796, Spearmint.
A3 2796 Spearmint.jpg
Another work in progress, and again assembled from various spares. The chassis/running plate comes from a spare chassis unit for the preserved Flying Scotsman model. I've removed the plaques printed onto the center splashers, but have yet to remove the warning flashes from the front of the running plate. The corridor tender is another spare item which I've back worked into a representation of the pre 1936 condition by carefully filing back the streamlined faring. As the tender body had been resprayed black and damaged as some point, I needed to do some remedial work before using my airbrush to paint it green today. Precision gloss LNER Doncaster Green is a pretty good match for the Dapol shade, and by mixing with a little matt varnish, it can be used to patch paint, as I've had to do on the cab sides. I've still got to purchase a spare corridor connector and boiler backhead, as well as some replacement screws, (and line out the tender!) so it'll be a little while before this one gets completed.

Other A1/A3s include Great Northern (needs nameplates), and Salmon Trout (another one assembled from spare parts) and will bring my fleet of "saved" Dapol A1/A3s to a total of twelve locomotives once they're all complete.

Re: Atso's new loco works - now including my Hadley Wood layout build

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2019 7:14 pm
by Dave
Great work as usual, still can' believe all this is 2mm, amazing.

Re: Atso's new loco works - now including my Hadley Wood layout build

Posted: Fri Jun 28, 2019 7:28 pm
by Atso
Dave wrote: Fri Jun 28, 2019 7:14 pm Great work as usual, still can' believe all this is 2mm, amazing.
Thanks Dave,

To be fair, I think that Dapol needs to be congratulated on the quality of their livery application. While there are a couple of annoying errors to correct, it is otherwise very well done and I've done my best to preserve it wherever possible.

Re: Atso's new loco works - now including my Hadley Wood layout build

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2019 11:41 am
by Atso
Spearmint's tender body got a coat of matt black over the Doncaster Green today using my airbrush. I masked the green using a mixture of Tamiya masking tape and Humbrol Maskol. I'll give the whole lot a coat of Ronseal gloss varnish (it does exactly what it says on the tin!) before turning my attention to lining it out. The lining will be a little more difficult than normal as I'll be trying to match the finish of the Dapol factory applied livery of the locomotive body as closely as possible.
20190629_111010.jpg

Re: Atso's new loco works - now including my Hadley Wood layout build

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2019 6:29 pm
by Atlantic 3279
No pressure then Steve......

Re: Atso's new loco works - now including my Hadley Wood layout build

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2019 11:28 pm
by Atso
Atlantic 3279 wrote: Sat Jun 29, 2019 6:29 pm No pressure then Steve......
Given that this one is for me and me alone, and I'm not in any rush to get it finished, there is no pressure at all on this occasion. :)

Re: Atso's new loco works - now including my Hadley Wood layout build

Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2019 5:09 pm
by Atso
Having spent the last few days building this commission,
20190707_121800.jpg
I finally dug out my box pen and made a start on lining Spearmint's tender.
Corridor Tender Repaint 7-7-19.jpg