What did you do on your layout today? (N scale)

[cteno4]

Just jump on a train down to see Paul, I’m sure he will love to have a playmate in the train shed! (I think he even has a proper fridge in there stocked with some beer!)

 

jeff

[railsquid]

The foliage crop is beginning to come through, by spring these slopes will be covered in a thick mix of green.

 

tunnel-scenery by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[Pauljag900]

1 hour ago, cteno4 said:

Just jump on a train down to see Paul, I’m sure he will love to have a playmate in the train shed! (I think he even has a proper fridge in there stocked with some beer!)

 

jeff

I sure have!and you re all welcome.😂😂👍👍👍

[Pauljag900]

3 hours ago, tavora said:

I just love it.

 

Can I play too?  

Of course you can,I ll even come and pick you up from the station buddy👍👍😀

[gavino200]

7 hours ago, Pauljag900 said:

 

Finally I ve completed the track layout and levels.I need one piece of double 248 mm viaduct track,which I m scouring ebay for now,and some single 50mm track piers to replace the polystyrene blocks. Also need some more points for the sidings,I ve got a few but hav nt laid them yet as I’m more concerned with getting the loops completed at the moment.It was a bit of messing about with the levels but I think it s ok clearance wise.

the front edges will be tidied up with foamboard and the polystyrene on the layout will eventually become mountains/ hills or on the station,brick walls.

next step is to connect the power feeds and track test.

fingers crossed👍👍😀

 

That looks like a fun setup. I hope you'll post a video when you have a train whizzing around on every loop.

[gavino200]

1 hour ago, railsquid said:

The foliage crop is beginning to come through, by spring these slopes will be covered in a thick mix of green.

 

tunnel-scenery by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

 

That looks really good. I'd never guess that just under the surface it's chopsticks all the way down.

[railsquid]

32 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

 

 

That looks really good. I'd never guess that just under the surface it's chopsticks all the way down.

 

Not quite all the way down, they rest on a layer formed during the Styrene Epoch ;)

 

mountain-supports by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[Pauljag900]

1 hour ago, gavino200 said:

 

That looks like a fun setup. I hope you'll post a video when you have a train whizzing around on every loop.

Cheers gavino,hopefully by the weekend mate if all goes according to plan👍😀

[tt0880]

4 hours ago, railsquid said:

The foliage crop is beginning to come through, by spring these slopes will be covered in a thick mix of green.

 

This looks so great. And, man, are my eyes playing tricks on me, or is this HO? It almost looks bigger than N, dunno if it's just a really good angle or what, but that's gorgeous...

tunnel-scenery by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

[railsquid]

34 minutes ago, tt0880 said:

This looks so great. And, man, are my eyes playing tricks on me, or is this HO? It almost looks bigger than N, dunno if it's just a really good angle or what, but that's gorgeous...

 

I find setting the right scene and taking the shot from the right angle makes it easier to fool the eye into overlooking clues about scale. But definitely N scale, easy to tell if you can spot  the clunky angles of the rapido coupler. Which doesn't stand out so much on this loco, which is a 1970s Fleischmann model which has stood the test of time well.

[Kiha66]

2 hours ago, railsquid said:

 

Not quite all the way down, they rest on a layer formed during the Styrene Epoch ;)

 

This reminds me of the Matterhorn mountain at Disneyland, the internal construction is pretty much the same!

[cteno4]

Squid, does remind me of Indiana Jones temple of doom. Maybe a little mine rr inside?

 

jeff

[IST]

Added an extra layer of grass, a small amount of bush, some figures and two street stalls (? I do not know what the right name is for these).

 

  

 

A club member helped me in painting road markers.

 

  

 

Put some figures inside and outside the shops, looks better than in the last week or at least figures inside the stores can be easily seen, and weathered somewhat the buildings.

 

     

 

[Kiha66]

Wow, those blue shops look so much better weathered than stock, nice work!

[serotta1972]

7 hours ago, Pauljag900 said:

Of course you can,I ll even come and pick you up from the station buddy👍👍😀

 

Hey Paul, you can rent out a couple of your loops for others to run their trains. :)

[cteno4]

Hey new way to pay for the layout Paul, start renting out train time!

 

jeff

[Pauljag900]

Just now, cteno4 said:

Hey new way to pay for the layout Paul, start renting out train time!

 

jeff

And sell cold beers from the fridge,good idea gents,if only hey? 😂😂😂😂👍👍

[cteno4]

Japanese layout and pub. Just hook up the bbq outside the shed and you can serve up ribs. New career Paul! Just don’t get bbq sauce on the train cars...

 

jeff

[beakaboy]

A little bit more progress on my NZ120 scale layout tonight. Been trying out my homemade static grass machine and made a rotary  clothes line. Trees to come!

[gavino200]

2 hours ago, beakaboy said:

A little bit more progress on my NZ120 scale layout tonight. Been trying out my homemade static grass machine and made a rotary  clothes line. Trees to come!

 

 

 

The clothes line is a nice touch. How does your static grass machine work?

[Pauljag900]

Well I did nt manage to get the trains running today mainly because I was waiting for some power feeds which have only just arrived.

however I did manage to wire up the control table so now it s a five minute job tomorrow to connect them together

[cteno4]

Grumble grumble grumble... last night I tested all the holes in our new layout girder system in the needed permutations and found a total of 4 holes off. I had repaired one but had not checked all the holes (it’s enginnered to be usable universally mostly so many holes are not used in any one assembly) and found three more a tad off. We are talking like 1/32” or an inch but its just enough to make the girder joints line up perfectly and connect firmly with just one little splice plate of wood and two threaded thin screws. All the rest of the holes were spot on as I did them (I thought) methodically in a jig in the drill press. At first when I had found one off I though it was just a bit of drill tailings behind the board in the jig that threw one off (I was being good with vac on and cleaning out the jig each time with a brush into the vac), but on measuring the drift it looks like at the end the fence may have come loose a bit as the drift was a nice gradient. Could still have just been a spread of smutz sizes...

 

lesson leanred, be fastidious about the tailings in a jig. I was doing this but I was also having to be Uber careful I was doing things properly on each respective end of the girders uprights as drilling at the same time. When multiple variables then spend twice the time double checking! I should have pre marked all the pieces to also aid in mistakes that way but I did t goof that at least, but it was a distraction.

 

but all repaired now with dowel plugs and redrill and hopefully a setup of all of it here soon!

 

jeff

[Pauljag900]

Hi Jeff,

oh no,what a pain mate.

as you say,lesson learnt.

Problem also Jeff is that you only need one slightly out and it can throw others out as you go along,at least it was only 4 and a fairly easy fix.

looking forward to seeing it set up👍👍

paul

[beakaboy]

10 hours ago, gavino200 said:

 

How does your static grass machine work?

Not very well.Haha! Its a fly swat battery model and requires quite vigorous shaking to get the grass out of the tea strainer.might have to change the strainer to slightly larger mesh version and see if it helps. My friend has a spare static grass generator? he imported and instructions on making the unit up, so will probably go that way eventually.

[cteno4]

Yeah, nothing I’ve not done before and should know better! But not horrible and fixable. Just frustrating with 90% fit spot on and 4 were off! 

 

Jeff