The Sky at night

 

For once I'm trying to build this bit of railway in a roughly sensible order so I thought the next bit to do was to fit a backscene. I didn't want it to have a right angle in the sky so I bought a sheet of hardboard with a white side. I didn't know you could get such a thing but it turns out you can. I should have bought two sheets as I couldn't finish the job but the I did the tricky bit.

Plan A is to get a printed backscene to go here.

Meanwhile in Parrott Cutting there is a footbridge to get access to the UFO club

I spent a couple of happy evenings sofa bound modelling converting the famous Russian mediaeval rowing boat into a little fishing boat.

 

Clarice now complete with nameplates.

Siding sliding

It has been a busy week at work so I didn't get out to the layout very much but I did get some virtual modelling done in my head. One thing I did do was to marry up the fiddle yard from the exhibition version to the new version... basically it will need considerable work as it was round the other way and had to lines entering it before. Not the end of the world as it should all be re useable.

 

The fiddle yard

 

Having started wholesale dismantling of the old beach board I have tried this building next to The Parrot Inn. I really like it and so the bakery has crossed the street which also scales better there.

 

I had originally planned to have the siding for the lighthouse coming from a point immediately by the join to the fiddle yard but looking at the whole picture I decided that it would be better as it has ended up in the picture below. I have also moved the mainline a couple of inches onto the board which will help the fiddle yard alignment and also allow the back scene to have a space behind it so that the light switches can be operated.

Points installed and all wired up - needs a small control panel now

The view past the pub to the lighthouse

Lighthouse halt

Oh, and I wiggled the light over the gents and it came back on... hurrah.

And what's more...

Two posts on one day! Outrageous.

 

Anyway, I got a chance to pop back out to the garage and in that time I decided that the passing loop was a step too far and so I just laid two meters of track which gets me almost to the fiddle yard join.

 



 

With the power reattached to the track a quick test with the MW and all is good. Fun with scenery and a rebuild of the fiddle yard next. Sadly I have to go to work tomorrow...

Board by the sea

I had to take a day off work today as the immersion heater had packed up but with an early start I got that sorted by 11.30 so I decided to crack on with the layout.

 

So the next phase is to add the replacement beach board, I've tried to find all sorts of ways to incorporate the original, exhibition unit but it is about a foot too long for the space available and it needs to go round a right angle bend to access the fiddle yard. I also needed to remove the sharp reverse curve that was hidden by the tunnel as it was too sharp for the L&B Manning Wardle. So out with the Dremmel and a hammer and it was demolition time. It always seems a bit radical and drastic to be chopping up scenery but I've got quite good at joining up the old and new bits. Fingers crossed anyway.

The hill as it was...

The hill as it is now





Next came my least favourite bit of layout building, the woodwork. I've been planning what to do for a while so it was just a question of chopping up some wood and screwing and gluing it into the vague shape I had in mind.

It all seems to have gone quite well and now I have a baseboard to play with. The beach will slope away to the back as before but there will be slightly less of it as the hill needs to continue and then turn into the beach.

Plan A was to have a passing loop at the end of the scenic section so that I could still operate the layout without the fiddle yard attached but this reduces the running line even further so I think this is going to get ditched. The halt will have a siding for the lighthouse though.

The new baseboard, quite exciting.



Lights, camera, action!

I've finally bitten the last wiring bullet and added a few more street lights and illuminated The Black and White Cat pub. I'd always planned for it to be lit internally so had lined it with black card and left some windows clear so it looks like some rooms are occupied and others not. I put a strip of three LEDs inside and it is quite effective. The only problem with all these lights is that they all need wires to them and it caused a bit of a rats nest.

The Rat's nest

 

The newly lit up pub

 

With all the wiring in place I have been able to restore Station Road and glue all the buildings etc back in place. Some new greenery and a bigger tree next to the skool have improved the look of the area so now I can move onto the next bit of scenery and add plaster bandage etc.

 

 

 

The road less travelled

After getting a blister on my thumb from the appropriately named hot glue gun, I had a bit of sulk and didn't do much. However I had a couple of hours this morning with time to kill so I popped out to the garage.

I realised that somehow I'd managed to cut a wire feeding power to the quarry points so I started the day with some excavation of scenery as I had a feeling that I had snapped a wire in my enthusiasm. It turned out I was correct so after a quick mend, all was well.

Being careful not to glue my sore thumb again, I put the scenery back together again. Back to square one.

The  next thing to do was to start joining the old road to the new bit. I've been hoarding some textured stone set sheets and so I cut those to size and shape and with a few more squirts of glue gun it was done.

Cutting and flashing

I don't know, you wait ages for an update and then three come along together.

 

I had a day off today so I took the chance to advance the scenery on the new joiny bit.

 



The backscene wood in place

Some basic polystyrene glued in place

3D planning with buildings etc

 

The scenery taking shape

 

I spent some time with the hot glue gun and foam board and so the town of Underhill spills down the hill a bit. The building on the far side of the railway is The UFO nightclub which I made age ago and never found a home for. It has flashing coloured lights inside and a band on stage and young folk dancing.

An idea of the narrow streets of Underhill

Again the narrowness shows up but I don't think it's too narrow compared to York or Brighton etc

The UFO club in action

Preiser figures are miniature works of art

Playing trains!

 

In an almost unprecedented spurt of activity I moved the quarry board to the garage and installed it next to the Town board and the new bit.

 

Next came the control panel attached to the baseboard, unfortunately something was awry in the wiring so it didn't work at first. However a bit of a rummage behind the original panel showed up one of the truncated wires shorting out to another, so with a bit of judicious pruning all was well

 

 

Next came the joining track which I was pleased made a nice smooth sweep. The three boards all needed a bit of chiselling and sanding to make a level transition which was a bother but will pay dividends in smooth running in the end.

Track layed

The first test train, a Baldwin and some L&B bogie coaches

 

After that it all needed some proper testing so I had a jolly good play including getting my rebuilt Heljan Manning Wardle out. The motion stayed in one piece and it ran very smoothly, I will need to widen a few clearances here and there and the PECO set track curves will have to go as it just won't go round those but otherwise I think it's going to be a useful and attractive loco.

 

One unforeseen benefit of all the upheaval is that the wall lamp behind the gents bog now works.