Scrayingham

[jaymzhatstand]

The exhibition over the weekend went pretty well, a few cases of dirty wheels and stroppy stock, but these were easy to solve as I went along (stock that didn't want to play didn't and wqent back in the box!)  As the weekend progressed I found myself slipping into an operating sequence, which had just enough movbement to keep it interesting for me, and nothing to stressful that I could be wholly distracted if anyone wanted to chat (I hope!)

I think I could do with at least one more loco, as the five I had were pretty much coinfined to their duties, and the ability to swap them and have on in the shed area would add to bot the viewing and operating interest.  This will hopefully be solved one day as I've got a Backwoods Double Fairlie on my workbench as well as the start of a railcar which will also increase my operating capacity, and over-fill my fiddle yard!  I also found that despite my efforts, not all of my couplings are at the same height, and so not all shunting moves worked, so this is something else to address.

Scenically I recieved a fair few favourable comments (mostly about the backscene, which even led to Puffers of Pickering selling one of them, no commission for me though!)  People didn't believe that it was pure chance that the scatter I had used matched up well with the colours on the backscene, but I had done most of it before fitting the back boards so it was nothing but luck (I'm rather grateful for it too!)

I took a few photos of the layout in action at various stages of the operating sequence so you can get an idea of how it ran.









One of my FR brake vans even found its way onto the Whitby MRCs layout 'Streonshalh' on Sunday afternoon and was seen at various parts of the layout on a Lowmac, and on the back of a lorry!



Hopefully I'll get to take it out and about again as it is rather enjoyable to operate, and it'll encourage me to keep working on it too!

Cheers

J

[jaymzhatstand]

Wow!  It's been over two years since I posted on here, so I guess it's time for an update!  With an exhibition in September, I decided a month or so ago to put the layout together and see how the scenics had held up to a house move and a long time stored in my secret room!  The grassed areas had begun to look a little worn out and the hedges have always been a bone of contention for me.  I have begin the process of tidying and tweaking various scenic aspects thus far; the grassed areas have had a second coat of scatter and now look a lot more healthy, the station has a new fence along the back, a couple of trees have been started (I'm just waitng for the foliage to arrive before they get a bit of green life on them) I have also begun filling out the hedge along the back which I think is a vast improvement on the flexible foam one currently in place!



Below are some photos of the various changes, taken using the same angles and stock in the previous post for comparison.






















And finally a few photos of the various plantlife appearing around the layout!






Still a fair way to go, and Ive got a few stock projects on the go as well, but just under two months to go, everything should be fine!  As long as I don't keep getting distracted be 'testing'!

All comments and questions/suggestions are welcome!

Cheers

J

[MickT]

Good to see you back Jaymz and that the modelling is still progressing! Hope you are now able to post regular reports!

Mick

[clayliner]

Only just caught up with this but liking it already... keep us informed with progress!

David.

[jaymzhatstand]

Thanks very much, I'lldo my best to keep it update. Once my trees are looking a bit more alive I'll certainly post again! Hopefully there'll be a steady flow as the show gets ever closer!

Cheers

J

[jaymzhatstand]

I've finally got the new layer of scatter down over the whole scenic are, there was a bit of a delay as my supplies were running low and I had to find a matching colour and as I long ago got rid of the original packet, that wasn't as easy as it could (should) have been!

Never the less, it now looks a lot tidier, and should be added to a little more with a few clumps of static grass and small clumps of wild flowers here and there.  The trees to the back of the hill have been dressed with scatter, fixed with hairspray and one has been airbrushed to become a copper beech, although In photographs it looks a solid purple, in reality it is a dark purply-reddy-greeny colour which is as close as I could mix to the real thing.  The other two 'main' trees have had their trunks painted so the white blobs of dried superglue are now hidden, so they are ready for their foliage now too.

Here are a couple of photos to illustrate the new expanded wood area and foreground tree sitting in place.







Still just over a month to go until the exhibition (Sept 20th & 21st - New Earswick, York - www.railscenetoday.com) so I've still got plenty of time for tweaks and enhancements, no need to panic, yet!

Cheers

J

[jaymzhatstand]

Today I dug out the fidle yard to make an adjustment I'd meant to make before it's last outing, but not had the time to do.  I also found that a couple of the bits of brass pipe used for the locking/current transfer had come unsoldered so that was an extra little job to sort out, but better now than the day before the show!


Here is the transition between the fiddle yard entrance and the sector plate as I found it





And the necessary bits, which fortunately hadn't gone missing





And after a few minutes poking about with my soldering iron and some fresh flux/solder





Now, on to the orginal task I had set myself.  The non-layout end of the sector plate was open, which as you can visualise was just asking for trouble!  The previous show I exhibited at (Goathland, courtesy Whitby MRC) I only had one cascading disaster, but a few near misses.  My intention was to fit a small barrier to prevent any runaway stock leaving the relative safety of the layout and being rapidly introduced to the floor!


Before, it does look like there is a barrier, but that is the framework for the fiddleyard.





After, the new barrier has been fitted and can be seen with some of my VoR stock acting as a test train.





Hopefully this will prevent any further accidents or near misses!


Cheers


J

[jaymzhatstand]

This time in a month, the Scrayingham will have (hopefully) completed a day's exhibition running and will be not far away from the second day commencing!  One little niggle that has been at the back of my mind is a slight variance in the track height between the two main baseboards.  It isn't enough to affect running badly, but the smaller wheelbased locos do tend to judder a bit at times, especially as the day wears on and the track gets dirty.  I have made a short video to show the issue and it is to be found below...

http://youtu.be/1GUfA-qMabI?list=UUOpCq0DaAFf-tl_GpDGX-Ww  (sorry, I don't know how to embed videos!)

The difference in height is only on the rail nearest to the camera, and despit the appearance in the video, the boards are closely joined (the bare wood is from a small gap in the scenics which will soon be rectified!)

My initial idea is to separate the boards and add a small shim of plasicard below the trackbed on the affected side to raise it in line with the other as I don't really fancy lifting the whole section this close to a show and having to re-ballast etc!

Has anyone else had similar problems and found solutions to them?  I may opt for a brass shim as that would probably be sturdier and less prone to compression than plasticard.

Any help/advice greatly recieved

Cheers

J

[Elmgate]

Since the change in level is only on one rail, I think your proposal sounds good, and is the only real way to do it. I have an inter-board section where two tracks (4 rails) cross, and it was necessary to make similar adjustments to get all four rails to align. Whether you use brass, plastic card or thin cardboard is up to you. I do not think that "softer" materials will necessarily be compressed. You may be able to get some adjustment by inserting track pins either side of the track, and pushing one side down harder than the other, if you use cardboard (visiting cards are a good source of thin card.)

I note that you have used copper clad sleepers at the interface between the layout and fiddle yard, but it is not clear whether you have done the same at the layout joints? If you have, it may be possible to lift one rail by de-soldering, and then adding your sliver of brass beneath the rail?

[jaymzhatstand]

Thanks to Mozzer over on NGRM, for pointing out the obvious about heating the solder on the copperclad sleepers and lifting the rail slightly, I gave it a go and it seems to have worked pretty well. It may still have a little jolt, but I think the majority of that is just the track joint now.


Again, I have made a short video to highlight the work done and the results


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix9bDvT2K6A


Next on the agenda is to experiment with static grass, the applicator is ready to go and I've got some short grass to test it with. I'll need to get hold of some longer stuff for the area around the barn at the back, and some items to clutter it with possibly a rusty skip and some bits of waste farm equipment, a tree trunk or other such detrius.


Time to see what I can find in my 'never throw anything away box(es)'!


Cheers


J

[DeadHorse]

If you were to stick a strip of foam onto the barrier of your fiddle yard at just above coupling height (and thicker than coupling length) would save any inadvertant damage to your stock from 'runaways'. A 'not so dumb buffer' I think they call it. :-)

[Brian Mosby]

Thanks to Mozzer over on NGRM, for pointing out the obvious about heating the solder on the copperclad sleepers and lifting the rail slightly, I gave it a go and it seems to have worked pretty well. It may still have a little jolt, but I think the majority of that is just the track joint now.


Cheers


J

Glad it helped

[jaymzhatstand]

I have begun the process of 'planting' static grass, beginning at the station end of the layout.  I have to say the visual improvement is very noticable and indeed pleasing, as it does give a great deal of extra body to the area so treated.  I will mix in a darker colour as I progress further back or the whole thing might start to look a bit toy like.  After the initaial application to the area near the water tower, I found the bigger clump of undergrowth looked a little like a bad toupee so using a bit of brushwood I have created a tree stump in the middle, which seems to give the area a much better appearance.





I have begun to make the station signs, one for behind the fence, the other for the small grassed area in the middel of the run round loop.  In the photo the signs with test print signs in place.  The actual ones to be used are on the sheet below, waiting to be printed out and stuck on, but that will have to wait until a second coat of 'NER Red/Brown' has been apllied.  The Red/Brown has also bee painted onto the relevant areas of the station building, just the cream for the window frames remains to be done now.







The rear hedge is now up to half the length that it needs to be, so should be completed fairly soon and the back area's appearance should improve greatly.  The production of the bushes became much quicker when I realised that I'd been trying to use varnish as a fixative as opposed to spray mount!





Less than a month to go until the signal drops on the exhibition, so I'd best keep going!


Cheers


J

[clayliner]

Looking good, J - especially that grass. Are you using a posh applicator or a home-made one? - mixed fibres or is it one colour? (though it looks mixed, which gives less of a 'monoculture' look). I have tried adding interest by lightly brushing patches with watery acrylic paint to vary the colours of mine, with mixed results (it can result in serious hair loss if done too vigorously!)

My eye keeps being drawn to those metal silos on the farm on your backscene. I'm not sure what era Scrayingham depicts, but would they have been there, I wonder?

David.

[jaymzhatstand]

Thanks Clayliner, the static grass wand is a home-made one from a tea-strainer and fly swatter costing about