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chris
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I don't have any motivation to exhibit. But with the tramway I have something "that will generate a lot of interest among the viewing public." The practicalities of going on the exhibition circuit are beyond me because I don't drive... I should be able to talk a mate or two into assisting me if I do book for the occasional show.

A friend and I have big plans to build a modern image layout of Morecambe and Heysham and to exhibit it. But he is suffering from a chronic illness so all we can do at the moment is plan.

The main idea behind taking some of Amblethorpe to the Coffee Shop is to get my station on show, with a few DMUs moving in and out. If we keep it simple the only extra boards required would be for a station throat. IMG_3848.jpgDSCN4376.JPGDSCN4378.JPG

I'm meeting my mate John at lunchtime in the shop, I'll see if he's got any any enthusiasm to get it on with it.

 

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  • 3 months later...

Started running Amblethorpe again this week. For reasons that are beyond me, my laptop doesn't want to connect with my DCC system. Will have to come up with a solution so full iPad control can return. 

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Hi Chris, very nice job you did on the covers for your station well done, I be very happy when I build Sydney Central station turn out like yours,, Sydney has one big main cover that covers the plaza area of the station and the platforms are early 1900 stile design, the station was started in 1906.

I am like your friend have a Chronic illness and  have to  have a yearly medical for my licence coming up in June, thought I was going to be grounded when I had to have a nerve testing done on my legs in early May, the nerve issue not as bad as I thought specialist said ok to keep driving , eye site is an issue as well, on top of my problems have a disabled son to look after , my wife is stating to have women  issues .

My layout is coming along, have shifted the spiral to the car port where I can gain 6 inches in height to the double deck bridge, 18inches  clearance to the water line now., so I can fit a Finn lines RORO ship under it 298mm's from water line to the top mask of the ship, modelling Finn Breeze.

Be interesting what you and your friend come up with designing a show layout.

Tony from down under keeping on moving ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I've been fettling loco's recently, stripping down motors, adding pickups to wheels and installing DCC chips. Working with my mate John we have turned several locos from the 1970s and 1980s into good runners again. 

I'd upgraded a couple of Lima Class 66 previously, including a whole motor replacement, but they still improved their running after a fettle.  The improvement was big enough that to my surprise, the Freightliner 66 could pull my intermodal train.  

Knowing that the real thing passes my house around 6 o'clock each evening, I hatched a plan to film them both runnnig at the same time.

 

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Hi Chris pure awesome, did well doing a video of your train  and the real train passing by that green colour sure  stands out, I have added two British diesel locos to my loco wish list and that loco be one of them, once I have my trains up and running this year some time, I be modelling a RORO port complete with  RORO ship, got side view plans to the ship, have asked the people that did the PDF drawing if they have any more PDF drawing of the ship.

The ship takes containers as well as trailers and other cargo, this ship is a Chinese built ship, Finn lines has the same ship as DFDS Tor line do, nice looking ship, mine be a water line model, I have noticed that the RORO ports don't have those massive container cranes, the newer cranes are on truck wheels and has two cabs., I have video clips and pics on my post of the ship, a side line hobby to model trains.

Is it warming up your end of the world, cooling down here, we are having a cold snap coming in this week to kick off winter, slow me down, days are shorter as well.

I like the scene at the corner of your layout with the cranes and the houses are they only a half house kits.

Tony from down under keeping on moving ahead.

 

 

 

 

 

DFDS_increases_RORO_activities_between_Europe_and_the_Baltics_web  a.jpg

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  • 3 months later...
  • 7 months later...

The long winter has dragged through into early spring reaching all the way to April showers. Not the weather for our hobby. I have wintered mainly on a diet of my model tramway and building On30 stock,  the later is for my next garden railway which will at ground level, below the Amblethorpe shelf. IMG_6391.thumb.JPG.a38025b457c5d59b1eed442e5b53c565.JPG

Work on Amblethorpe has been focused on two areas, the conversation of a BR Mk2 coach into a Network Rail DBSO driving coach and prior to that, exhibiting Amblethorpe at a show!

My wife, Sarah and I own a small coffee shop. For over a year me and my mate John have been taking about putting on a mini model railway show in the shop. This winter the 3 of us actually did it. We had two layouts, my tramway and an indoor version of Amblethorpe. John provided most of the baseboards and track, I supplied the station and most of the scenery. Colwick station lives on it's own board, baseboards were added to this and a station throat was built. Half a dozen of my scenic sections were then placed around the track. It was all cobbled together, but created a good overall effect, if a little cramped when compared to the normal space my trains run through.

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At the construction stage, on the lounge floor.

Working to a deadline was good for removing procrastination. 1 large and 3 small scenic sections needed to be built, just for this one off show. I didn't have time to muck around getting things perfect, yet still came out with very impressive results. This is a lesson I need to learn in railway modelling (and in life).

The event was very successful. We allowed children to drive the trams, which was hugely popular. The magic of the model railway still works on children in the 21st century. There was plenty of awe and amazement from the locals.

Several of my scenic sections got a good spring clean for the event, which has them looking at there best this weekend as I finally started the 2018 running season.

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Morning Chris, what a great idea, get good feed back from your customers , don"t see that much over here now.

I like the castle on the hill, any chance of taking a closer pic of your castle, I am thinking the same on my layout with a tunnel to protect the point from the sun  on a 6 ft  curve after the bridge, good size hill, be a good lookout for the bridge.

Do you have a working snow plough, love to see a model one in action.

Tony from down under keeping on moving ahead.

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Amblethorpe gained some unintentional notoriety yesterday. Occasionally I write articles for the CityMetric website. My recent one was a series of ideas on how Pacers could live on beyond their 2020 deadline. Needing to illustrate the article I decided to use pictures of my trains on Amblethorpe, some of which I staged specifically for the article. Because the pictures were clearly of models, I failed to mention to the editor that the pictures were of models.

A New Pacer Life was published yesterday. And it didn't take long before a reader took to twitter to ask "Where is Colwick station?"

I replied "It's a terminus on my Model Railway."

my editor, Jonn, then gasped "but... the picture... what... explain"

and from there it went viral.

Jonn was live-blogging and interrupted his blog to write about it https://www.citymetric.com/transport/new-rail-timetable-thameslink-chaos-britain-live-3926 look for the entry at 1350hrs 

I ended the evening taking requests on twitter for which train to run next on Amblethorpe and then posting photos of them in service. It was a lot of fun.

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  • 6 months later...

I'm starting to plan a new display layout based on Colwick station. 

It will be very simple. The I will run my DMU fleet into the 4 platforms from some sort of off scene traverser or fiddle yard. Operationally it will be rather boring, so I'm thinking about a form of automation so trains can keep moving without an operator having to keep doing dull repetitive train moves. The main interest will come form the model and from the lights on the trains which are more advance than I have seen at a show.

The main change will be to take a baseboard designed to attach to my outdoor railway and connect it up to a traverser or the like.

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  • 2 months later...

I spent yesterday adding LED lights to Colwick station. The first job was to add red lights at the buffer stops.

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Sorry its a bit dark. The baseboard was upside down at this point.

The next job was to add lights above the platforms.

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I bought some indoor tree lights that have solid core enamelled wire which worked out at about 6p per LED. They are wired in parallel. This means it is very easy to cut individual LEDs off the run with two 10cm wires connected.

I rewired them into series and bent the wires to the profile of my station wall. I then came across a problem which took some time to get my head around. Once I had a series of 8 wired up they no longer light up. I tested all the solder joins and they were good. Eventually the penny dropped when I notice that I could light a run of 4 but not 5. Light Emitting Diodes still have the properties of a regular diode. They only pass current in one direct and have voltage drop across them. Diodes were literally my first lecture in my electronics degree. It turns out that with these LEDs the voltage drop is around 3v. My test 12volt supply would power 4 in series but not 5. I'm using my DCC track power at 16 volts so I can stretch to 5 in series.

This made wiring more complex. I needed to feed from the middle as well as the ends. My platform construction technique came to my rescue. I use electric cable conduit as the base. This allowed me to pull the top of my platforms off and run the cable though the conduit. I still need to hide a couple of the riser wires, but all the wiring at high level will be exposed as it so often is on the prototype.

The light fittings are screw caps which I've trimmed and glued to the wall.

I need to repeat this for the other external wall. Then work out a similar system for a run along the middle of the station.

 

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Hi Chris, are you using solid wire for your LED's, I might have the same trouble, every foot on the road deck of of my bridge in the middle double road lighting, what do you suggest which way to go, they have their on power supply , be doing the same on my ship build project single LED's .

That brick wall looks very good, how did your layout cope with the winter come through ok .

Tony from down under

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I've used solid core and very thin multicore. Solid core allows me to bend the wire around structures as you can see in the previous picture. The thin stranded wire is easier to glue to plastic with superglue. 

As long as LEDs are wired in parallel there isn't a problem with voltage drop and the run can be as long as you like. My issue came because I wanted them to be wired in series.

They could have their own power supply, but I'm using track power. I use a diode to half-rectify the supply and a 91ohm resistor to limit the current. It's a very simple circuit.

I've not tested the outdoor railway yet, but visually things look OK. They problems I've had with the station stem from my construction materials.

Serval years ago I started making platforms using cable trunking:

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and bathroom floor tiles that I cut and painted:

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the tiles are on the rear platform.

But with time some of the self adhesive tiles lift, bending up at the edges. if you look on the right in the next picture you can see a gap between the trucking and the floor tile.

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Having ignored this, that last picture is three years old, I've set about fixing it. 

I used double sided carpet tape, it didn't hold.

Yesterday I lifted the central platform and spent the morning removing the adhesive form all the surfaces. A very messy and sticky job. I've reattached a couple of the tiles with evostick and weighted them down. I'll give them 50 hours before I lift the weights and hope that that will be good enough to hold the tiles in place.

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Thanks Roddy. Improvements continue, these do not currently include plans for grime or poo!

Having lifted the water bottles off the platform the tiles appear to be very well adhered to the the trunking. I need to pop to the shops to buy some more Evostick to complete the job.

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I agree with Roddy, the station does look very realistic and you've exhibited great attention to detail. The added LED lighting will lift it to another level. We don't see enough of Amblethorpe!

Have you used Gorilla glue before? I used it for the first time when the parapet walls of my viaduct became dislodged. It states it's suitable for outdoor use and from my experiences to date I have to agree with what it says on the tube. The exterior 'Evostick' I used previously began peeling away but the Gorilla glue is still holding solid. It seems to stick anything and it's a bit less messy than evostick.

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Still working on the station, but took the opportunity that the early spring weather presented and had a little running session this afternoon. A once-over the tracks with the garyflex block and trains were looping round Amblethorpe. I had the usual detrainments in the usual locations. Things will need tweaking around the lift out sections, but they always do.

Forecast is good for the next couple of days so I plan to have things moving again. I may even take photos.  

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