Wordsworth - 00 Loft Layout

[1djspikey]

well i dont know were to start only that is one brillant layout

spikey

[slackbladder]

Hi Mike, been a while since I looked in on you and Wordsworth. Wow! all is looking well there and the D.L.I. is on my wanted list.
I too have the BR 4MT. cracking good loco and a jolly good runner too and decoder fitted as you say for that price! how do they do it.

The spread sheet looks spot on there. What more could you want?

Still nobody spotted the "top" mark then..

Please visit my little webby sometime Mike, I have a photo on there of me 4MT please excuse the somewhat shabby appearance of me layout however. lol

Wordsworth has to be one of my favourite layouts to watch. Thank you for sharing sir.

slackers

[trainsandco]

your shed is looking very good and looks very well made.
Sir Charles Newton, its a fine machine, nice and powerful

T&C
(p.s. its just voices in your head )

[Black-Marlin]

Tight indeed! Do you have any GWR locos, and if so, do you know if the gap can accommodate their outsize cylinders?

Otherwise, looking excellent mate! Love your buildings!

Gavin

[mikem64]

Hi again,

Those voices, they keep calling to me.........

I'm happy people like the progress of this layout as I'm very happy with most of it, pitty about some of my measuring as my test measurements never had the shed that close to the track, but now the ballast is glued I'll have to live with it. Good job the HSE don't visit Wordsworth as they might close the shed down !

Tight indeed! Do you have any GWR locos, and if so, do you know if the gap can accommodate their outsize cylinders?


Gavin

I do have two Castle class locos that haven't been test run on Wordsworth yet as I haven't got round to fitting the decoders

Please visit my little webby sometime Mike, I have a photo on there of me 4MT please excuse the somewhat shabby appearance of me layout however. lol

Wordsworth has to be one of my favourite layouts to watch. Thank you for sharing sir.

slackers

Followed your link to Langley Bridge Model Railway, very nice, should keep one busy.

Bad weekend just gone as I only had a few hours working before slipping into day dream mode again, I then went to print off some more Scalescene brick paper for an idea I had for the canal section of the layout, a bridge over the canal where it enters the basin...total horror when the printer flashed up cyan toner cartridge empty, so I swapped the cartridge for a new one when I got another error message saying sensor fault.

After a few hours & losing all my cyan toner powder I traced the fault to the cyan drum, new one ordered along with a complete set of new toner cartridges, talk about and arm & a leg for payment.

So for those photo hungry people out there here are just a few pics.


Put the last bit of ballast down leading to the turntable


Cut the base down for the diesel fuel point so it fits the gap I left & test fitted in place, might have a go at weathering this, that should be fun as all my other attempts have failed.


Thought I give the Teddy grass another go, looks quite good from eye level & at a distance, but loses it's effect from above, I believe a little more green fabric dye is required, if I'm still happy I'll glue this into position.


Some more detailing around the fence has gone in using little clumps of under brush


Slightly different angle showing more bush detail.

Don't know if I'll get anytime during the week to have a few hours up in the loft, you can never tell, if not roll on the weekend.

Catch ya later.

Mike.

[trainsandco]

Put the last bit of ballast down leading to the turntable


Thought I give the Teddy grass another go, looks quite good from eye level & at a distance, but loses it's effect from above, I believe a little more green fabric dye is required, if I'm still happy I'll glue this into position.

GRRR......I want that engine lol


Teddy grass?? I'm guessing it was made out of an old teddy?

[mikem64]

Hi everyone,

Another little update at Wordsworth.

Put the last bit of ballast down leading to the turntable


Thought I give the Teddy grass another go, looks quite good from eye level & at a distance, but loses it's effect from above, I believe a little more green fabric dye is required, if I'm still happy I'll glue this into position.

GRRR......I want that engine lol


Teddy grass?? I'm guessing it was made out of an old teddy?

I'm afraid you can't have that Loco's, it's taken me sometime searching out this model, and now that it's been oiled and run round the layout a few times it's starting to really grow on me, the oil must be doing it's work as it's a lot quieter now than when it first arrived on Wordsworth. I'm sure you'll get your own soon.

Teddy Grass ? Still not sure if I can live with this, it is actual Teddy bear fur that's been stained slightly with fabric dye, still not glued in place yet as that would make it permanent & I'm not ready for that just yet.

In the mean time whilst I'm still waiting for my Laser printer parts, ordered last Saturday and still not arrived I've used my back up ink jet printer to print off some Scalescene Tarmac paper. fixed this to some 1mm card and then glued down in position below the coal drop. I've painted the floor area of the coal drop and then got round to fitting the planked walk way next to the rail on the coal drop.

Whilst the road surface was drying I took the time for a little box rumaging & I came across a Faller town / Platform detail kit, so I had a go at putting some of this together. Being a plastic kit I had to paint some parts, as I say this is not my strong point, but the end result as far as I'm concerned will do, all the adverts are in a foreign language so it was back to may computer and using the sizes from the supplied sheet inside the kit I downloaded some new images and made my own, also downloaded some new clock faces.

After the road surface was dry I used some Jarvis dry stone wall I found in one of the boxes from under the layout, funny stuff to use as it looks as if it's foam that has just had ballast glued onto it, but it does look the business, this was glued down between the track and the road. Once this was down I then stuck some under brush down the other side of the road against the coal drop wall, made up two new bushes using my tried and tested method of lichen & scatter. Stll needs some more detailing work, but it's slowly taking shape on this side of the layout.

So a few pic's showing my efforts.


Clock tower and some advertising boards from the faller kit with my new posters & clock faces.


Another advertising board, not quite steam era, but I like the look, and with my new posters it will fit in.


The scalescene Tarmac paper glued down, not much to look at just yet.


Here's a view showing the stone walling and some bushes, also shows the planked walk area & some foam that's been painted black, this will have some neat PVA glue placed on them and then I'll cover them in real coal.


Last photo for this evening showing a view down the coal drop area.

Time to sign off & have a nice cuppa.

Mike.

[mikem64]

Hello again,

Yes it's that time for my little update so I can bore everyone to death. I've been carrying on with the Scalescene Tarmac sheets and have glued some more areas down.

I've completed the Goods yard area at North Fangore, and I'm making the entrance into Wordsworth Shed area, just a bit tricky as I have two tracks to cross to gain access which is near the Turntable, not completed yet just a few test pieces to make sure Locomotve can still run, and then I'll cut the proper sheets & glue them down.

I've also had to move all my own designed houses from North Fangore hill as I needed to glue it into place now I'm happy, so not much to show as it actually meant taking off, and not adding.....still it had to be done as I've reached the point where scenic detail will be going in soon around this area.

So whilst the glue was drying I had a go putting houses around the Castle on the other hill, my original idea for this area was just to have the Castle, a church and a large open area for Gala's etc etc, but I wanted to see what it might look like with not the full Castle but only the two towers with Wordsworth village wrapped around it. I've taken some photos that I will use for future reference to help make my final choice.

I then moved onto the main road bridge that brings traffic across North Fangore Goods Sidings into the village, unlike me I decided whilst having a cuppa to make an attempt at drawing the design before actually starting the build, it gave me some visual idea of what I was trying to build rather than straight from my mind.

Borrowed some of the idea from another Bridge that's being built on another layout within this forum so I hope he doesn't mind..... It's all been built using 6mm MDF as the main structure and a mixture of 2mm & 1mm card for the bridge sides. The bridge will carry the main road and twin pavements along each side.

Still a far bit to do as it still needs the road surface, the two pavements and most of all painting. I was thinking the usual grey colour, but I fancy a very dark green as I remember some old steel bridges of this design from my childhood in this colour, OK they were over canals but I think it will still work.

So enough blah blah blah, just a few photo's to finish this update off,


Tarmac into the Goods yard, still the feeder road to go in yet.


Test fitting the road into Wordsworth Engine shed area, the white paper are templates I'll use when cutting out the card later.


My attempt at scale drawings ?


Test fitting the newly made sides before I glued them into position


Once one has finished your cuppa you can then use the cup as a test bed !


Last few photo's showing the bridge in it's final position, only temp as still work to be done which will be easier at the bench.


Straight on view also showing the Tarmac road sheets below.


Making this the last photo's as I dont want to go over kill and show the castle area with all the houses round it which would really bore everyone .....

Another week end closes but I'm very happy with the outcome. So with that in mind it's time to sign off, have a quick read of the forum for a while, then movie time....... Under Seige 2, lovely train theme all the way through the movie.

Catch ya later.

Mike.

[beerandpies]

Love the bridge.. That's given me some great inspiration for a part of my layout, thanks!

[dl32249]

Hi Mike,

What can i say, such a great layout, given me some great ideas as im just starting mine off. Looks really good, hope i can do as well as that. Keep up the good work.

Dave.

[Zebra]

Completely agree with the above posts.Very inspirational stuff.
Love the bridge too.

Steve.

[mikem64]

Hi Again to all the forum readers,

Glad I could help with the pic's, I like browsing the forum myself for interesting photos, like that old saying " A photo can say more than a 1000 words" in my case that's true.

Had a very bad weekend, I tried my best but I'm not firing on all thrusters if you know what I mean, I've got a stinking cold and just can't get the nose to stop running, makes it look like snails have been crawling all over the grass...... only kidding

I spent half the morning cutting the cardboard that will form the road surface & then forgot to allow for the curves at the junctions....... Start again, so I designed some better looking ones that gives that standard curve you get at the kerbside when you approach a junction. I was going to use the Scalescene ones that came with the housing kits I've downloaded, but I've decided that I want this hill top village just to contain kits I've designed myself using brick paper that I've put together myself. This is so I will always have a reminder that I thought these looked good when I first made them, might even put these designs onto my web site for you all to download......they will be free....Can't even give them away, problem is at the moment they are in Microsoft Word Format which everyone hasn't got access too, maybe convert them to PDF if I can find some free converting software.

Anyway went off topic slightly there. After getting all the cardboard cut it was time to test fit it all together before the Scalescene Tarmac sheets get glued on. I throw in some road traffic and some trees just to see if it all comes together, which I think will look quite good.

I have to confess at this point I did turn on the power to the track and had an hour or so just watching the loco's whiz round, I find this very relaxing, there's something about the whole thing just seeing a Locomtive pulling a train load of goods wagons or carriages.....gets me everytime.

So just a few pic's so anyone that can't understand my waffling can see where & what I'm doing.


This view is looking from the roundabout focal point down the main high street.


Same area but ariel shot. I'll have a pathed area running up between the two rows of houses


Main road bridge into North Fangore


Going through some more of my boxes i came across a load of box vans and Guard vans, so I picked from the 50 the ones now on the layout


Here a class 08 shunts two NE box vans, another 10 identical ones I've left in my box for later


N2 loco pulls a good train through North Fangore.


Last post of the day is a video clip just as some light fun something I've put together, It's a big file this one 10Mb about 2mins.

So as they say in the busy, That's all folks..... maybe next week I'll be feeling better and can crack on.

Mike.

[villan]

How do you find the Scalescene tarmac sheets. I've got to the stage on my layout where I need to get some roadway down and I don't know whether to go with the sheets. Don't know whether to try scatter or polyfiller and paint. Its looks ok on your pics but are you happy with the finished article?

Your layout is coming on great. Wish I could get on with mine just as well.

[Rammy]

Villan

I know you weren't asking me, but I have used the scalescenes roads and find them to look great. I did a bit of playing around with them in a graphics program to get exactly the layout I wanted and to eliminate the obvious changes from one sheet to another but I think it was all worth it in the end.


The only problem I have had over winter is condensation in the loft dripping onto the sheets, but I think if I had applied the matt varnish (as instructed!) they may have survived. I will certainly be using the scalescenes ones again.

Dave

[villan]

Wow...that looks ace.