Church Norton

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Hi Guys,

Well we had an enjoyable day at Goodwood on Saturday and I was spoilt for choice as to what car to buy, it was either old school.



Or something a bit newer.



Anyway back in the real world, today I managed to build the last baseboard which just needs the plywood top fixing on and then it's just a case of working out how to build the lifting section.





Regards,

Martyn.

 

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The first piece of greenery has now been installed down on the private sidings, I thought I would try and experiment on that part of the layout as I intend it to look in a state of disrepair.

It's nice to put some colour down as the ballast and ash looks very drab on its own. This was the first time of using a ( electronic grass applicator ) for me and I was amazed at how quick you can get a good coverage, I was so amazed that the goods yard looked more like the turf at Wembley! So lesson learned " less is more ". It might sound a bit of a waste but once the glue had dried I literally " plucked " around half of the area back up with a pair of pliers, and that gave me the look I was after in the first place.

Now that I have gained a bit of confidence with the applicator, I think I will enjoy this part of the hobby.





Martyn.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Hi Martyn, what method have you used to ballast the track? It looks excellent and just the effect I will be after!

 

[Osgood]

….So lesson learned " less is more ". It might sound a bit of a waste but once the glue had dried I literally " plucked " around half of the area back up with a pair of pliers, and that gave me the look I was after in the first place…..

Do you feel the result might actually be better than if you had stopped the application earlier? Thinking you might have felt it looked too thin overall at that stage and hence applied some more?

 

[Scale7JB]

Looking fantastic Martyn!

JB.

 

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Hi Guys,

Hi Martyn, what method have you used to ballast the track? It looks excellent and just the effect I will be after!

Basically it's mostly kiln sand which is a very fine sand, mostly used to bind block driveways together with. Then I just use some small chippings either 2mm or 4mm light grey ballast and sprinkle a small amount over the top of the brushed in sand and then the usual washing up liquid/pva/water mix to glue it all down in place.

But, now becomes the soul destroying bit, if you thought ballasting was bad well you have seen nothing yet. To get that certain ash/ciders colour you need to paint the set ballast. I use a Matt emulsion tester pot that you can buy in B&Q called '' slate grey '' or '' cashmere '' is also not bad. This I water down to around 60/40 so it can seep under the rails. Now the good bit, basically you have to paint all the ballast, the only good bit is that by using emulsion it is easy to clean up and wipe off if you accidentally paint the sleepers. See below the sand and paint,

Do you feel the result might actually be better than if you had stopped the application earlier? Thinking you might have felt it looked too thin overall at that stage and hence applied some more?

Most definitely, when I first applied the grass it looked like someone's well manicured lawn, but it is better to let it set and then just thin it out by plucking it with some pliers. The photo from above probably shows this better.

Looking fantastic Martyn!

JB.

Thanks JB,

 

[Scale7JB]

Btw, kiln dried sand is what we use for sand on the full size too.. Stops if congealing and rusting the insides of the sandboxes..

JB.

 

[mswjr]

I do like those sleepers as well,much better than the look i have got,and yours is the look im trying to get

 

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The sleepers are just the standard C&L plywood , originally I was staining them with Colron Jacobean dark oak wood dye, but like most things nowadays it's been tampered with as it's to dangerous in its original form. Needless to say the new recipe Colron use is rubbish, the dye is too thick to soak into the timber and the colour itself is different.

So believe it or not I now use Halfords black satin paint in the good old aerosol, I spray them and then after a couple of days I gently rub the sleepers with thinners to dull the black creosote look down a bit.

Regards,

Martyn.

 

[Scale7JB]

That's an awful lot of work Martyn, but does the job beautifully!

JB.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Thanks for spending your time giving a thorough explanation Martyn. I'm still not decided on building my own track, but this is tipping the balance

 

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Thanks for spending your time giving a thorough explanation Martyn. I'm still not decided on building my own track, but this is tipping the balance

After reading some of your build topics, track building should be a walk in the park for you.

Martyn.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Thanks !!

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Hi Martyn,
Sorry for a thread hijack but I have just read your excellent account of building a Slaters milk tanker. I noticed that you hadn't used their sprung axleboxes. As you built it a few years back, have you noticed if it runs ok through pointwork and curves with fixed axles?
I'm about to buy a few and it would make a considerable saving not using them
Thanks Richard

 

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Hi Richard,

Funnily enough they were runnning around my layout this afternoon, there are no problems with them going through any of my pointwork, you will find there is a fair amount of sideplay already built into the kits.

I did put some added weight in the tanks, and this is important in my opinion as even now I wished I'd of added even more. They are quite noisy when running and if you do decide to use sprung axleboxes I think they would probably help suppress the noise. When I have a couple of minutes spare I might actually pack some form of light grease into the boxes ( just like the real things ) to see if that helps. I mean it's not that bad, I'm just a fussy sod .

Regards,

Martyn.

 

[Pencarrow]

Talking of noisy stock, I'm thinking of putting a block of foam or sponge inside the next few box vans I build. The existing ones do seem to be noisier than the opens.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Hi Richard,

Funnily enough they were runnning around my layout this afternoon, there are no problems with them going through any of my pointwork, you will find there is a fair amount of sideplay already built into the kits.

I did put some added weight in the tanks, and this is important in my opinion as even now I wished I'd of added even more. They are quite noisy when running and if you do decide to use sprung axleboxes I think they would probably help suppress the noise. When I have a couple of minutes spare I might actually pack some form of light grease into the boxes ( just like the real things ) to see if that helps. I mean it's not that bad, I'm just a fussy sod .

Regards,

Martyn.

Thanks Martyn.
A note for you and Chris.... I did hear of sand being used in the tanks. It quiets them down and evenly distributes the weight, might work for box wagons too, the sand could be in a sealed bag?
Ps: nothing wrong with being a fussy sod....it's when they prefix with 'old' that I get grumpy

 

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Hi Guys,

The one thing that really concerned me was how to keep my rolling stock safe when I had the lifting section raised, this problem has caused me loads of head scratching but I think I got there in the end.

I did put up a photo of the lifting section but I couldn't rotate it around the correct way, grrrrrrr. So you will just have to try and visualise the scenario.

As you can see it's a fair drop to the floor, anyhow I started off at the hinged end. I used the sprung terminals of an old standard lamp and two little off cuts of nickel silver too make or break the connection, the track feed goes dead around 18 inches away from the hinges and this has proved important as my friends class 33 rolls on for at least a foot before stopping.







Hopefully the photos above explain how it all works.

As for the other end of the lifting hatch, I have used a micro switch wired to the first turnout in the fiddle yard to cut the power, and this is just operated by a scrap piece of nickel silver, see below.





Well it all seems to work okay, so time will tell ( fingers crossed ).

Martyn.

 

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The Permanent way guys have been busy over the weekend on Church Norton, after finally renewing their supplies from Telford.

Since taking the last photo the down line is now complete, although it looks like the end of the head shunt could do with some tlc.





ATB,

Martyn.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

The headhunt looks great
That looks like a Connoisseur brake van parked up......the first etched wagon I built, must get another