Spartan Bridge - ' East Lancashire Shropshire Style'
- Thread starter marsa69
- Start date
marsa69
Western Thunderer
Spartan Bridge - East Lancashire in 7mm (Are we there yet?)
I forgot to add that the layout is to do a complete 180 with the station going up by the drum set. The fiddle yard will be in the wardrobe behind the blue door (actually its white lol, the shadows make it look blue). Now I just need John to drag himself away from his Lincoln Central model, 7mm Gresley coaches and his fire engines long enough to help me wire-up
Fair play to him he did loan me two tortoise motors for my 3-way so they can be wired over the coming weeks. I also purloined his stores for some copperclad strip for the tie-bars :
I forgot to add that the layout is to do a complete 180 with the station going up by the drum set. The fiddle yard will be in the wardrobe behind the blue door (actually its white lol, the shadows make it look blue). Now I just need John to drag himself away from his Lincoln Central model, 7mm Gresley coaches and his fire engines long enough to help me wire-up
Fair play to him he did loan me two tortoise motors for my 3-way so they can be wired over the coming weeks. I also purloined his stores for some copperclad strip for the tie-bars :
lancer1027
Western Thunderer
Spartan Bridge - East Lancashire in 7mm (Are we there yet?)
Nice one Mark
How did you find building the points? :scratch: I have points do build at a later stage (very later )
Rob :wave:
Nice one Mark
How did you find building the points? :scratch: I have points do build at a later stage (very later )Rob :wave:
marsa69
Western Thunderer
Hi Rob,
I found building the turnouts quite therapeutic once I got into my stride and really enjoyed the construction of them.
Now for an update
The station board has had the wires put in to the track for cross board feeds and for the isolating sections. Then the track was gunged in Railmatch 'sleeper grime' before being masked up to spray the rails in 'deep rust'
Whilst I was doing this it gave me the chance to get the buffer stop for the headshunt done at the same time. Et voila! Rusty rails,
Then some clumsy workman went and spilled a mountain of ballast all over two of the tracks What were they thinking? And to make matters worse whilst Larry and Mo attempted to clean it up Curly went and knocked over a lakes worth of industrial adhesive Now it'll never budge
I know that the ballast shoulder of the left hand line looks a bit of a mess but this was done deliberately. Once the platform wall is in place then the gap between the wall and the existing shoulder will be back filled.
That's the state of play for now so stay tuned
for the further adventures of Curly, Larry and Mo!
I found building the turnouts quite therapeutic once I got into my stride and really enjoyed the construction of them.
Now for an update
The station board has had the wires put in to the track for cross board feeds and for the isolating sections. Then the track was gunged in Railmatch 'sleeper grime' before being masked up to spray the rails in 'deep rust'
Whilst I was doing this it gave me the chance to get the buffer stop for the headshunt done at the same time. Et voila! Rusty rails,
Then some clumsy workman went and spilled a mountain of ballast all over two of the tracks
What were they thinking? And to make matters worse whilst Larry and Mo attempted to clean it up Curly went and knocked over a lakes worth of industrial adhesive Now it'll never budge I know that the ballast shoulder of the left hand line looks a bit of a mess but this was done deliberately. Once the platform wall is in place then the gap between the wall and the existing shoulder will be back filled.
That's the state of play for now so stay tuned
for the further adventures of Curly, Larry and Mo!
marsa69
Western Thunderer
No! The parrot has took a shine to it ;D
Once all the board has been ballasted I'll tone it all down with a very light coat of sleeper grime. Then I'll do the oily poo smears between the rails
I will also pick out the fish plates in oily black and also a few of the track keys to highlight them and add a bit of depth to the scene. The buffer stop, once installed, will be rapidly overgrown with foliage and a cat! It's an evil little bugger called Greebo that decided that the overgrown buffers was a good place to call home 
Rob Pulham
Western Thunderer
Hi Mark, It all looks great, I hope to be doing something similar early next year, did you make the buffer stop yourself or was it a kit?
marsa69
Western Thunderer
Cheers guys,
Rob - the buffer stop is a white metal kit of unknown origin. I have 3 more to make up, all bargains from the Bay of Flea.
Mike - It's not often that I inspire anyone but you're welcome
So tonights adventures with the three stooges will see the ballast re-coated in PVA/water mix and the other two lines ballasted as well (before John steals back his budgie seed )
Rob - the buffer stop is a white metal kit of unknown origin. I have 3 more to make up, all bargains from the Bay of Flea.
Mike - It's not often that I inspire anyone but you're welcome
So tonights adventures with the three stooges will see the ballast re-coated in PVA/water mix and the other two lines ballasted as well (before John steals back his budgie seed
)
Rob Pulham
Western Thunderer
Cheers Mark, I will have to keep my eyes open. I have a few of the Slaters NE pattern ones to build but they are things that you need quite a few of even on a modest layout.
marsa69
Western Thunderer
Another quick update.
The left hand line is the headshunt/yard access road hence the fairly scruffy ballast shoulder either side. These gaps will be filled with weeds/mud etc. The right hand line is the other platform and will be treated just like the first platform once the walls are in. And next to them is the biggest PVA/water dropper for ballasting work I've ever seen I got hacked off using a little dropper that started to stick after a fair bit of use and had the habit of firing out gusts of gluey mixture and launching ballast into the ether. I've found that by using the big evo-stik bottle I can mix the glue/water easier and quicker by giving it a good shake then set the twist cap to an acceptable drip rate. All It needs then is to turn the bottle the right way up every so often when it starts to get clogged. It's a lot easier and far quicker I find doing it this way 
The left hand line is the headshunt/yard access road hence the fairly scruffy ballast shoulder either side. These gaps will be filled with weeds/mud etc. The right hand line is the other platform and will be treated just like the first platform once the walls are in. And next to them is the biggest PVA/water dropper for ballasting work I've ever seen
I got hacked off using a little dropper that started to stick after a fair bit of use and had the habit of firing out gusts of gluey mixture and launching ballast into the ether. I've found that by using the big evo-stik bottle I can mix the glue/water easier and quicker by giving it a good shake then set the twist cap to an acceptable drip rate. All It needs then is to turn the bottle the right way up every so often when it starts to get clogged. It's a lot easier and far quicker I find doing it this way
marsa69
Western Thunderer
Updated track plan
The scan didn't quite show up the drawing correctly. On board 4 the lines all terminate under the station.
I've just got board 2 to finish wiring up with track feeds and cross board feeds then I can start on the point motors. I'm now needing to start thinking about signalling and for that I need to think of what signals I'll need and where to place them? I am aiming for a mix of semaphore and colour lights. I thought that colour lights for departing any of the lines from the station and semaphores arriving into the station. Any help with this would be much appreciated,
regards,
Mark
The scan didn't quite show up the drawing correctly. On board 4 the lines all terminate under the station.
I've just got board 2 to finish wiring up with track feeds and cross board feeds then I can start on the point motors. I'm now needing to start thinking about signalling and for that I need to think of what signals I'll need and where to place them? I am aiming for a mix of semaphore and colour lights. I thought that colour lights for departing any of the lines from the station and semaphores arriving into the station. Any help with this would be much appreciated,
regards,
Mark
