Deep Deane station and depot - New Modern Image DCC Layout

[413x]

Hi all, I have decided to build a new layout, there will be a large TMD and a small station, I intend the layout to be between London and Manchester so I can run a variety of Locos such as the class 66, 70, 153 and the new 350 from Bachmann. I have a track plan and holes for point motors will be drilled later today. I have bought the back scene which is 3mm MDF and I was wondering what the best possible method for attaching it to the baseboard is.


Alex

Ps. Updates should be frequent and images shall follow

[413x]

Managed to get the backscenes on using angle brackets, screws and wooden blocks on the back of the MDF. Quick question, I'm relatively new to making a full layout and I was wondering whether Hornby of Metcalfe tunnels can take OHLE and pantographs.



Alex

[keith73]

Hi sounds like a good layout am big fan of modern era having built one myself. Especially a TMD my fav. Any chance of some pics.
Keith

[luckymucklebackit]

Managed to get the backscenes on using angle brackets, screws and wooden blocks on the back of the MDF. Quick question, I'm relatively new to making a full layout and I was wondering whether Hornby of Metcalfe tunnels can take OHLE and pantographs.



Alex

Think you may have to look to the prototype on this one Alex and lower the height of the catenery through the tunnel, you might want to look at the Scelescenes tunnel as an option, I think it has a more elliptical option and therefore more headroom.
Best of luck with your project, I like layouts with OHLE.

Jim

[413x]

Hi all this is the third time doing this as it constantly deletes it so I'm doing this elsewhere and copying and pasting. Trackplans, red is bridge, brown is shed, grey is concrete, white/green is hill, green is tunnel mouth, and blue is station. Backscenes, it is 607 mm wide by 305 mm high and altogether 2531 mm with a split 700 mm from the edge for a base board joing the hole is 120 mm wide by 100 mm high and 30 mm from the baseboards edge. Next is the model zone haul, scale scenics fine and medium cinders ballast and their plaster cloth, 2 revels light blue paint and a tube of glut and some zap, zip rail 2 track cleaner. Finally ballast ing from today.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9497770896/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9494968595/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9498111354/
The snap chat original
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9495211449/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9495211495/
Baseboard markings
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9492551889/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9492552015/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9492552133/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9492552231/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9492552337/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9492552441/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9495211551/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9494953281/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9494953437/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9494953595/

I plan to run the trains from the tmd out wrong line as there is not enough space left on the layout to add another cross over

Alex

[413x]

Spent £3.99 today and bought the scale scenes tunnel portal.

Wow, seriously

Such good value for money, so easy to create, really good quality and a good time waster. Considering I want to run OHLE on the layout I adjusted the template to allow for pantographs. My plan is to run the masts up to the tunnel mouth, with something like cotton string as wire and just let that run through the tunnel.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9503227070/

The template printout and my personal design seen with the extended sides and corners in the top right.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9504105206/

About an hour and a half later and it's beginning to look like a tunnel. I added in the rear support arch as the card and tunnel inner were not keeping shape.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9504898806/

2 hours after staring here's the finale piece. I'm really pleased with how it's come out, I know there are a few gaps and I will be filling those with redos of pieces tomorrow.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9504898918/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9504899016/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9504899130/

Like I've said I know it looks rough and all but I will be trying to fix that tomorrow and will try to weather it somewhat. It looks much nicer in real life.

Tomorrow I am going to be building up the landscaping and laying modroc onto, I want to mainly get it very hilly above the tunnel and slowly dropping in height next to the TMD and along the backboard, hopefully I will also put some in front of the station too.

Day after I hope to be painting the back scenes and the hills, the day after maybe getting some base scenery done or laying down the fake concrete in the TMD. Scenary will be the likes of lots of clump foliage, static grass and trees above the tunnel mouth and along most of the modroc-ed areas, most of the extra space will be filled in with static grass, if anyone has a link for making a good static grass applicator please tell, thanks. I plan to use some Scalescenes inspection pits I got in a freebie a while back, and put them inside the TMD shed. Instead of having two sheds I now plan to have just one, in front of the station and put the Knightwing maintain acne walkway there instead, also the Knightwing feeling point will go I front of the shed in the exposed two lane siding at the front of the baseboard. Behind the fuelling point up against the back scene i hope to put some of Scalescenes low relief factory fronts. I then plan to get some of Dapols catenary masts and install them on both lines down to the station, over the short siding at the end of the second mainline and down into my Peco shed in front of the station. Finally I will also install the Scalescenes concrete bridge through the middle of the layout.

Alex

[413x]

Did the modroc base base scenery today. Very easy to install however my back aches from having to kneel all the time, must invest in some legs.

http://s1025.photobucket.com/user/413x1/media/image-7.jpg.html

Started of today by heightening the tunnel mouth came out quite will I thought. I can hardly see a difference up close and from normal distance.

http://s1025.photobucket.com/user/413x1/media/image-5.jpg.html

I then filled in the hillside using the recommended balled up newspaper. I got the original idea to do this method after seeing Everad Junctions YouTube how to videos and seeing the amazing results he got. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL2K_50JRho (hopefully this is the right link)

I then cut up and pasted on the modroc which took a good hour and a half and I'm extremely please with the results.

http://s1025.photobucket.com/user/413x1/media/image-3.jpg.html

Side on.

http://s1025.photobucket.com/user/413x1/media/image-1.jpg.html

From the station.

http://s1025.photobucket.com/user/413x1/media/a553d824-f86b-4564-85d7-1434ccc104bc.jpg.html

View from the roof of the engine shed.

http://s1025.photobucket.com/user/413x1/media/image-2.jpg.html

http://s1025.photobucket.com/user/413x1/media/image.jpg.html

Quick mock up with my treasured 66135 inspecting his new surroundings.

http://s1025.photobucket.com/user/413x1/media/e2c6fe4c-624c-44d4-a0a3-f03fbafd3c2f.jpg.html

Trying out the height for the pantograph with the Pendolino in the Peco engine shed. Are the Pendolino pantographs normal height? Because it seems to be cutting it very close to the roof. I think it might just be that the track is on cork.

http://s1025.photobucket.com/user/413x1/media/image-8.jpg.html

Height I've got to play with in the tunnel, seems adequate enough for decent OHLE, I don't know how accurate the tunnel is but who cares right?

Above the tunnel I plan to have a lot of bushes along the capping as that the let down of the whole build and along the sides of the buttresses to hide the gaps, oh and lots of trees and possibly some grey rocky parts down on the left hand side of the tunnel as the gradient is a bit sheer.

Hopefully I'll be able to get a good amount of the TMD covered with OHLE so I can run some electric Locos around. I might even instead try third rail into the station area instead what would you guys recommend?

I think I have also come up with a name, 'Deep Dean' or 'Deep Deane' which one seems better?

I'm having trouble uploading pictures straight to the site, Flikr and Photobucket both use the Aviary editing system and I'm putting in 800 and 799 for width, I don't know if its pixels I have a feeling it's not because it's always coming up with the error message, help please.

Alex

[HARRYMALLARD]

I think the issue is the overhead wires would push the pantograph down lower, and since there aren't any yet it is springing up further.
Harry

[413x]

Part 1
Harry if you mean the weight/ force of the wires would push down the pantograph no I don't think so it's the Hornby pendolino and it locks into position with very little or no movement.

Popped down to model zone again this morning and bought some more Woodland Scenic plaster cloth and some of their medium green clump foliage, for £11 pounds I was happy.

1

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Returning home I knew I was going to finish the hill and extend it across the rest of the baseboard to the edge, it would look ugly if there was just balls of newspaper so I built up a wooden front scene. Built out of 3mm MDF and made using a free hand design with a crafting knife.

2

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The bracing was made using spare 2"/2" pine I think rods which were excess from the base board, I cut roughly to that I wanted and lined it up 3mm in from the baseboard edge, drilled some guidance holes and put 2 screws straight through it into the baseboard. I also cut a cube to go at the top of the MDF and join it to the backscene the first piece I had made the guidance hole too small and the screw split the wood, the next one I made I rushed and the guidance holes were to the equivalent of being on mars when you wanted to be on the moon, this final time on the same block of wood I measured it up so there were no ugly overhanging prices of wood and everything was flush.

3

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Both brackets

4

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I know it looks like there is an overhang and that's because there is, there's all of 1mm difference so I don't know whether it makes enough difference to warrant the effort.

5

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[413x]

Part 2
I then scrunched up yesterday's newspaper to make the hillside on the right and the left.

6

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The right side was half filled with old cardboard tubey, square like things I had knocking about, attached them to the backscene with some duck tape, the one thing in life that will never give up on you.

7

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Then I laid on the mod roc, touched up some areas that were bait loose from yesterday and 'Je suis fini!'

8

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The cutting area is coming along nicely, don't know whether I should extend it all the way along the backboard.

9

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I tried to line this area up as well as possible and I'm pretty pleased with the results

10

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Tomorrow I will hopefully be painting the hillside and backscenes and maybe starting on some base scenery


Alex

[HARRYMALLARD]

Ahh ok then well I have never seen a pendolino in real life.

[413x]

"The next station is Deep Deane, all passengers alight as this is this trains final destination"

Hi all, I have decided on the name, nice bit of alliteration and works with the landscape on the layout, with the hill seemingly cut out of the way with a finger from God leaving deep sides for the trains to pass by. I painted the layout and I am extremely pleased with the results, when I say painted I don't mean that the ballast is blue (?) or that the whole baseboard has been painted green with pink rails, NO I only mean that I painted the hillside, it took me all of an hour, YES! One hour that's got to be the shortest job so far ever, and another hour later to paint the backscenes, only because I didn't mix the paint and it was the wrong colour so I had to paint over it again and another time because it still wasn't right

I'm going away on holiday tomorrow so probably nothing will be done on the layout but I may buy some gear for the landscaping and scenery of the layout.

1

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I gave the hillside a nice dark brown, earthy colour as per the instructions from Everard Junctions YouTube how to videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFX5-SAoYhQ I'm going to follow his videos as much as possible, just need to make the static grass applicator, I was thinking on going along the electric fly swat technique.

2

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I used just simple ready mixed brown paint poster, I did two layers of this as I found lots of white plaster bandage still sticking through. I used some of Revels Aqua colour light blue paint for the backscene. I didn't want a printed backscene or cloudy or hilly as it would take your eye away from the layout. I just wanted something that would do the job of giving a sky colour. I applied it all using a 1cm square brush which did the job adequately.

3

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It was all going perfectly until BAM! The tub of blue paint got caught on some of the duct tape I have covering the tracks and spilt everywhere, it was ALOT worse than in the picture, I cleaned most of it up using some kitchen towel but I lost about a third of the tub. Hopefully I can save the track by using nail varnish remover or painting it all back.

4

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I really liked this shot with the sun glinting in from the window showing maybe a glimpse of sunlight on an otherwise overcast day in the real world as it is on Deep Deane. It's also very good at showing what I've missed by leaning over the layout to paint. It would have been perfect except for the bloody prit-stick ruining everything and the fact it's not a very dark or very long tunnel.

5

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Anywhoss... I patched up the tunnel and made it a tad more realistic by removing the glue stick and adding some more cover. 66135 and 390 012 having a look, this is the sort of set up you can be expecting on Deep Deane maybe with out the Pendolino (Harry this is what it looks like (Virgin Pendolino) you're welcome mate) and replaced with a London midlands class 139 people mover which just looks awesome or a class 153 or 170 turbo star and hopefully a 350 desiro which I just really, really, really want, it's probably the main reason I want the station to be London Midlands.

The next job when I get back will be to fix the paint spill and strt on the wiring. I'm going to have lots of droppers and I didn't do the ballast ing very well around the points and its all fine ballast so not very easy to remove as its all in the tiniest places, also build the static grass applicator and apply that and my bag of clump foliage, which has gone missing suspiciously to the hillside. Future plans are to get some plasticard and Pecos concrete platform edging and build the station. I was also thinking on creating some big triangle factories like Everad Junction has behind the station and/ or retaining walls, I'm definitely going to have some brick plasticard retaining walls on the left hand side of the station all the way across and put in maybe some stairs upto a hypothetical station above it, I don't know how realistic that would be so your suggestions are always helpful. I've also got to concrete the TMD as per Everad Junctions how to video out of polyfilla (you guys are probably thinking I worship him or something ) paint that and static grass most of the extra areas.



Alex

P.s I do apologise for the poor photography when I learn how to upload better quality pictures through flikr or photobucket the terror shall end

[413x]

Hi all, little update.

Back from my holiday and spent part of today mocking up a bridge that will cross the whole layout. I measured it to be 607 mm long but it turned out to be a bit more than that, meh who cares its just a mock up, right. I was thinking the roads to be 30 mm wide with a 17mm pavement. This gives a real life size of 2.28 meters. How realistic is that?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N07/9610295218/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N ... otostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N ... otostream/
It's 12cm tall and comfortably allows the catenary of my Pendolino under so alls good.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54925489@N ... otostream/
I managed to cut my hand open twice when I slipped cutting open an old deodorant can to mock up bridge supports. Don't ask, I know it was stupid. Ignore the little calice at the top of my hand, thats from riding bmx for 4 hours. That put me down for two days in which time I bought the equipment to make the bug zapper style static grass applicator.

All seems to be on track (if you'll excuse the pun) on the layout.

Alex

[grippets]

Coming along nicely mate, your making good progress

[413x]

Grippets - thanks a lot,

Not much of an update, just what shall be happening as nothing has happened really. I'm half way through building my static grass applicator. Proving difficult and the presoldered bits have all broken up. I've drawn up on paper some basic ideas. 2 warehouses and a retaining wall. Only permanent mind you. Tomorrow I hope to work on the baseboard and just strengthen it up with some 2X2 and then send off an order to express models for either the full layout wiring kit or a stripped down (if you'll excuse the pun (stripping wires)) version. I don't need. Everything in the full kit like the H blocks or the red crimps but the crimp tool would be handy. The stripped down version would be £16.16 and the full version is £27.50 I think so I dunno what to choose.

Alex