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Amblethorpe


chris
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  • 1 month later...

I didn't get much done on Amblethorpe through December. An accessory decoder which controls 12 points has developed a intermittent fault, which is vexing me somewhat...

It was nice Sunday morning and the forecast was good so I painted some backboards. By 2pm it was overcast with some light spitting so they were rushed back into the shed, still wet. They need another coat, which I'll do when I have an hour free.

I will need to sit down and start doing some planning of the scenic elements, at the moment I'm slowly building up a collection of buildings and features and it's time I work out where they are going to go.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Colwick Station got some attention Sunday. Currently this is the only scenic section of Amblethorpe mainly because it lives in the conservatory. It only gets taken outside on days when the weather is definitely set fair so I don't have to worry about it been weather proof.

One day last summer we had a massive cloud burst, and a small, but significant, amount of rain got into the conservatory through the slightly open windows. This wasn't a disaster, but Colwick wasn't looking at it's best.

I relaid the cardboard platform surfaces which had lifted (more glue was required) and fixed some of the columns on the overall roof. It wasn't much work, but it's looking great again and ready for spring.

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  • 1 month later...

With the temperature rising and the evenings getting lighter I'm finding the time to get lots of little jobs done on the railway.

I made some improvements to the baseboard of my removable station (Colwick). I've attached a couple of bolts to the underside, these slide into slots made in the supports outside. A penny washer and a wingnut allow me to secure it in place once I've got it aligned. I worked out the arrangement a month ago, I even had all the bits and bobs needed, I was just waiting for the weather to improve.

With all the recent improvements to Colwick Station and with new rolling stock to try I just had to have a running session :)

It was my first chance to stretch the legs of my Network Rail 31 and Scots Guardsman, both looked great running round on Amblethorpe. I can see why so many people model the steam/disel changeover.

Couldn't help but notice that the 5 roads through the shed are starting to fill up and with plans for a couple of Pacers and Container train I think I may need to build stabling sidings in there.

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Chris,

nice to hear that some of you are managing to surface from the winter. Just the odd run can get your spirits up.

Know exactly what you mean about sidings filling up. I don't have too much space, but the temptation to see as much variety running on the tracks mean you are always pushing a train off the main line and into waiting sidings. On my railway, the loops and sidings soon fill up and then the juggling begins. The early sessions are usually best, when you can shunt a train or two about the station...but then comes..."What if I dig out that old tank engine and see how it runs with those old coaches" syndrome.

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chris said:

....Couldn't help but notice that the 5 roads through the shed are starting to fill up and with plans for a couple of Pacers and Container train I think I may need to build stabling sidings in there.

A familiar story Chris. Although I've been more or less out of action since late last year I've still managed to accumulate a lot of additional stock and I haven't a clue when I'll ever be able to use it all. You'll never have enough sidings!

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York has been basking in sunshine today and I've made the most of it.

One of the frustrations of my running sessions so far have been the lack of stations for trains to call at so today I set about building my second station, and the first one which will be outside permanently. Amblethorpe station is a terminus at the end of a short branch in front of the shed.

The baseboard and track have been in place for the best part of two years and from time to time I've placed my hornby platforms next to the track, but I only had enough for the one platform so the other track looked a bit left out. The aim was to build a large U of platform around the both tracks.

I'm always keen to reuse stuff I already own so a few weeks ago I went up into the loft and searched around for anything that could be turned into a platform that would live outside. After a good bit of hunting I came across a couple of old cassette tape cases which looked like a good fit. I offered them up to the hornby platforms and they were ideal. I took a few measurements and worked out I needed 48. Not a problem I had hundreds. But it turned out I did once have hundreds, before I threw then out, (which I don't remember doing) I now had a handful.

I put out requests to friends and family and a few came in. While I waited for more to arrive I played around with CD cases. A CD case was the width I needed, but only 10mm high. I CD single case placed on top got it to platform height. An evening of faffing around with empty CD boxes turned out to be a waste of time when another trip into the loft turned up some Play Station game cases which measured up very nicely. My earlier faffing had taught me somethings and I found away of linking the cases together to make a very nice 1.3 metre platform base.

The other reused item were floor tiles left over from a Bathroom fitout 6 years ago. These are 30cm square, adhesive on the back and a very slight texture on the top. Perfect for a platform surface. All they needed was a spray grey and to be cut to size with a stanley knife.

Putting it all together...

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I got some more done after I snapped this pics, but I still need some more cassette cases and I need to fashion the platform ramps before I can finish it all.

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I got hold of some more empty cassette cases, but the new station is under a cover so I'm waiting until I've got a full afternoon free before I do more work on it.

I had an hour or so in the garden and laid 2 metres of double track. These were trimmed to length so a point fits on the end of them so I can have a tempory single track running after that. I'll pop a platform next the single track and that should make running sessions much more interesting.

Photos were taken. I'll post them tomorrow. May be.

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Looking really good Chris. I agree with IanR, the embankment looks very nice and I'm looking forward to seeing the application of pan scourers.

The photos of your stock items are also very realistic - excellent stuff.

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Having a permeant canopy over part of my railway means I can be a bit more adventurous with the scenic elements in that area. As i started building my first our door station I decided keeping the rain off that area would be a good idea. Using bits of redundant framework and sheeting I've developed a cover that can be removed, or replaced in less than 30 seconds.

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Nice cover. I hadn't thought of the drainage issues. I may have to drill some holes in my baseboards around my platforms, or water will creep into places and start the rot going.

I looked at all your pictures, you have a very nice layout coming along. As to the right side wrong side issue; it looks like the train was waiting on the right side to me. Actually here we see trains run on either side if they are trying to wriggle a train past other trains.

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As things stand I've set all my trains to have forward in down direction. This is helpful with multiple units and my HST, but less important on my two loco hauled trains. A present Scots Guardsman is stored on the up main in the shed, but is facing down. These means it is basically pointing in the wrong direction. Although reversing it and running it on the down main wouldn't be hard.

Amblethorpe is currently a DMU railway. The other trains I have don't make much sense on it at the moment. Even the HST is too big, with only one platform long enough to accomodate it. I need to get a loop completed before I sart running my steam specials and freights (when I've bought them), and the good news is that I've finally worked out how I'm going to get the loop to work.

The problem that most of us have is that we have to have access to the garden and the railway gets in the way. Building on a shelf-system I don't have to contemplate tunnelling under the lawn, but I will need a lift-out section over the path and the path isn't in a convenient location. I'm going to have to cut out about a metre of Phase One baseboard where the loop rejoins the main line and replace it with a large board containing the junction and a 90º curve.

Here's a pic of the plan, the dark green is the old and the light the new.. It's twin track so the lines represent tracks not rails.

Amblethorpelift-out.png.124d9d5121afbb75d4b2468e2841caf8.png

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NIce steady progress. Some of us :oops: plod along and do very little, some (doublecee for eg) are able to get up an running in no time but Amblethorpe just 'ambles' along getting better all the time.

I love the new gallery shot of Scots Guardsman 'waiting wrong line' with the DMU in the distance.

Elevated layouts, whilst prefereable for operating, pose the problem of garden access and a lift-out or hinged section is required to enable continuous running as you mention. It's this fact that deters me from running much above ground level as I would find it difficult to blend a high level layout in with my current garden and provide access to the central area. I imagine it all depends on the specific location but in my case I would have a very wide frontage, as well as a lengthy side section, that would be totally exposed and on view from the living room. I need it to be much less obtrusive.

Looking forward to seeing how you deal with this.

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mick said:

NIce steady progress. Some of us :oops: plod along and do very little, some (doublecee for eg) are able to get up an running in no time but Amblethorpe just 'ambles' along getting better all the time.

Thanks Mick.

At the beginning of 2010 I decided I needed a hobby and Amblethorpe is the result. I've got into a routine of spending most of Sunday working on the railway and the last few months have produced some very consistant progress.

I decided at the beginning of this year that my priority had to be making Amblethorpe look like a railway rather than just trains on tracks. The key to that would be stations for trains to stop at and a few scenic areas for trains to pass through. But by the end of March I should have my stations ready and some nice scenic bits, so I'm starting to think that the original plan (made in spring 2010) of completing Phase 4 in 2012 may still be possible. I've reposted the sketch of my phases for clarity.

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