Cramdin Yard

[ElDavo]

I just happened to pick up a copy the other day and was surprised to see that photo. Not sure my wife would agree that building smaller layouts is a top tip for saving money.

Cheers
Dave

[montyburns1982]

Too cold to do much in the garage so have been tinkering with the weathering on 37114. Not entirely happy with it yet but it's getting there. I did venture out in the cold to take a couple of snaps though...



Cheers
Dave

Hes just gone out and taken a picture of a train. I swear..

Looking damn good!

There's not enough holes and rust for it to be a real 37!!

In all serious though, this layout is excellent, keep up the good work.

[ElDavo]

It's been make or break time for the Traverser on the scenic section at the front of the South fiddleyard. The very crude mechanism I built worked but only just. The mechanism was a bit heavy for the motor which was an elderly and crude 3-pole Triang job. The whole thing was noisy and difficult to use reliably. It had to go.

So what to replace it with? On the old forum thread several folks had suggested using the mechanism from a flatbed computer scanner or photocopier. These things have stepping motors that allow accurate positioning and also a mechanism that ensures the scan head stays orthogonal to the scanning direction. So off to ebay we go to look for a suitable candidate. For the vast sum of £2 I obtained a Packard-Bell USB scanner and then set about wrecking it.

Here is the base of the scanner next to the existing traverser mechanism. Bit big really!



The mechanism relies on spring pressure of the scan head against the lower side of the glass to keep the moving carrier level so when I removed the glass and attendant gubbins of course the carrier flopped about in a rather useless fashion. The two strips of white plastcard are my normal sophisticated answer. These rub against a couple of plasticard pads stuck to the underside of the scan head carrier and keep it vaguely level. It doesn't have to be perfect.



Next up was some fairly serious surgery to the fiddleyard baseboard to fit the mechanism. A chunk had to be carved out of the longitudinal frame. Not pretty but it fits.



The base of the traverser well was then bodged onto the mechanism. All glue, MDF and bolts. Very crude!



In order to transfer the motion of the scan head carrier to the traverser bridge I bent up a bit of piano wire and gled it to the scan head carrier with epoxy. In this shot you can see that at one end the wire appears as just a vertical and at the other it bends round to run parallel to the traverser bed.



With the traverser bridge in place you can sort of see how some of this works. The bent end of the wire sits under the bridge and a U shaped section extends below the bridge and engages with it. At the other end a U shape section sticks out from the end of the bridge and engages with the vertical. This latter U shaped section needs replacing as it is too deep at present. This all allows the traverser bridge to be lifted off easily for travel and or maintenance.



Today I assembled the whole thing under the baseboard and wired it up. Amazingly it worked! There's still a lot to do.



The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that the stepper motor has been replaced with a standard cheapo DC motor. The thing is controlled via DCC so hopefully I can set it up to be easily controllable from the throttle and as I'm no electronics whizz I didn't feel digging into the required circuitry would be a quick solution. The new motor drives the original gear train so if at some point in the future I feel more adventurous I could refit the stepper.

Cheers
Dave

[Bigglesof266]

Too bloody clever by half! Interesting project and good pix illustrating it all there ElDavo. Ta for sharing them with us.

[ElDavo]

With a pretty much working traverser I can now crack on and some scenic work on the front section of the fiddleyard. Today track has been laid, wired and tested and the approach road to the traverser has been ballasted with Chinchilla grit and Klear. Here's an overall shot of the area:



Looking in the other direction back towards the main baseboard things look like this:



After having laid the track it was then given a rather extreme test. If the traverser can move a Heljan tubby-duff then it will have no problem with a Hornby 08 and a wagon. In practice a loco as big as a 47 can't get to this section of the layout as the clearances around the buildings are very tight. Special instructions require the use of an 08 or smaller loco in this section.

Here's the Duff arriving...



On to the traverser bridge she goes, only just fits! Away we go...



Landed.



Finally off she goes into the frontmost wagon works road.



Me thinks some work on the backscene and some buildings will be next.

Cheers
Dave

[ElDavo]

More progress on the new scenic section today. The 3 sidings to the extreme left of the layout have now been given a sprinkling of Chinchilla grit and Klear so should be down and solid in a couple of days. Yesterday I roughed out the basic core of a couple of buildings in MDF glued with contact adhesive. At the far end of the layout is a large half-relief works building that spans all the tracks. At the end nearest the main baseboard is a smaller building that abuts the existing ramshackle brick and corrugated iron structure. Here's a couple of shots of the area.





The smaller building has seen some attention today and has been clad in several layers of plasticard. It's intended to be a brick-built structure and, as it's fairly tall, would look odd as a slab-faced wall. This is a bit more complex than my previous buildings and I'm trying to get a bit more detail into it. It's all freelance and based on things I have seen around. Each side has recessed bays so an overlay was cut out with the openings for the recesses.



This bonded to a backing layer of white plasticard and then onto a further layer of brick to form the recesses. Lintels were cut out above the door and windows and bits of plain pasticard cut to fit. Here's the state of it so far. The corner joins are pretty crude and will be disguised with rain water downpipes.





Here's a shot of it on the layout showing how it sits in relation to the traverser:



Finally a view down the layout showing how it sits behind it's ramshackle extension. Not sure how I am going to disguise the gap between the new "old" building and it's extension. Also not quite sure what they do in this building but it seems to have something to do with wheels and the existing building obviously wasn't big enough.



Cheers
Dave

[lmsrail]

It could be a store room of some kind

[ElDavo]

The building has been attacked by the paintbrush. Not quite as I want it yet...



Cheers
Dave

[sishades]

You should be ashamed, posting such amateurish modelling. Hang ones head in shame!!

[sheep21]

as usual the quality of your work is brilliant. I really look forward to seeing how this extension pans out.

[ElDavo]

Heck it's nearly a month since I posted any progress. I guess that's because there hasn't been a lot of visible progress and also that I've been distracted playing with other things. Anyhow after a bit of fiddling this weekend I think there is something to see. I have actually been doing odd bits and pieces on the new section in front of the fiddleyard it's just that they didn't make much difference but over time things are getting there.

This weekend I gave the backscene board a blast of colour and built a wall to try and produce a natural break. With this in place I've started to add some odd bits and bobs of vegetation to bed it all in. The traverser pit has also had some atention over the last few weeks and now has brick walls that have been painted and weathered. The bridge itself is still stark white!

Here's a pic of the general area I've been tinkering with.



Not sure about the pics on the backscene yet, the jutu is still out. Closer up things look OK I think. My favourite Gronk has crept into the picture and this is one of the distractions having been fitted with a Howes sound chip.



Heck of a lot still needs doing!

Cheers
Dave

[cwignall]

Hi

First i just wanna say that this is one the best layouts ive seen - real inspiration for my (several) designs!!!

would like to know how you did the chainlink fence? is it a kit or scratch built?

ta

[ElDavo]

would like to know how you did the chainlink fence? is it a kit or scratch built?

The chainlink fence is scratch built but very simple if fiddly to do. The mesh is a product from someone like Greenscenes (can't remeber exactly who). This is cut into a long strip and super glued to bits of code 75 bullhead rail planted in holes in the scenery/baseboard. For some bits I threaded cotton along the top edge to try and represent the support wires. Everything else is down to the paintbrush to make it look approximately the right colour.

I couldn't get it to be neat and tidy so I made it look as though it is falling down by adding bushes and ivy. Sort of being pulled down by the weight of the plants.

Cheers
Dave

[ElDavo]

Blind panic has set in. Over the last couple of weeks I haven't done very much to Cramdin using the excuse that it was too cold in the garage to do anything serious. No problem, the first outing for the layout is in March so plenty of time. NOT! In a minor moment of madness I agreed to make the layout available for a Mid Hants Railway (Watercress line) freight weekend on the 16th and 17th of January! That's 18 days away! Oh dear.

This morning I decided I better get cracking and sort out a few things like making a list of the huge number of things that need doing. The first obvious problem is that the large half-relief works building sat at the front of the lefthand fiddleyard board is little more than a shell. Time to set to with some plasticard and solvent. It's now gained a roof, complete with rather decrepit looking clerestory ventilator...



It's also gained some concrete pillars in the main entrance way aloing with some concrete flooring and a hotch potch small store or somesuch building alongside.



Quite a lot of detailing work needs doing, some of which won't get done before the outing. Just as soon as I finish this post (and my cup of tea) it's back to the garage to put in some windows.

Stepping back a bit for an overall view there's quite a lot to do. The bright white traverser deck needs completing work and painting but more worrying are two completely blank bits of baseboard either side. I have some ideas but this may be a case of building it on the fly.



Sorry can't stop, a bit busy...

Cheers
Dave

[ElDavo]

Bit more progress on the large works building and its surroundings. It almost looks as though it should be there now though there are still a lot of detailing bits needed. Here's a shot to contrast with the last post.



Windows have been fitted and the building has spent an hour or two on the painting table. Looking at this close up of the smaller section it needs a few minutes more of paint work as there are still bits of white plasticard showing!




A general view of the area shows a bit of greenery and odd bits of extra ballasty stuff have been added to try and bind it all together. I'm reasonably happy with it and it'll pass muster if I don't get round to doing any more but I will continue to tinker with it over time to mellow it and add details. The front of the main building is still rather blank/bland and needs some ventilation ducts and general clutter.




Todays challenge is the traverser. I got the files out and adjusted bits and pieces so it is now working but the bridge needs detailing and painting.

Cheers
Dave