The Strogaloft - Construction Begins... Again!

[DrStroganoff]

Hey guys.

Didnt actually get around to going up the loft until tonight. Managed to get a short run of catenary up to see how it looks. I quite like it, I'm sure once the tracks are ballasted it will all start to look better.

A nice suprise in the post this morning, a parcel came with 2 kits for me that I'd completely forgotten about! A pikestuff 2-road diesel depot, and a loading ramp/platform. The ramp is going to be used for the Motorail Terminal, when I get around to doing the station. They both kept me busy this morning anyway!

ALL of my locos are DCC chipped now! Even the Non-DCC Ready ones which I had previously said were doomed to the sidings! Must be getting handy with the soldering iron!

Anyway, heres a couple of pics of the catenary etc.... Now I need a loco with a panto ! Ahhh wish I still had my old APT ! I've managed to resist buying a Heljan 86 so far..... but its only a matter of time I think.. I really like the look of the heritage blue one.





Heres the diesel depot (Unpainted of course):


The Motorail loading ramp (needs a good bit of work yet!):


And the last loco is chipped! I put off doing the Jinty until last, but it turned out ok! I've now got 5 of the clerestory coaches for it to haul. All being fitted with flush glazing and Kadee's! I think they look fab together, and its a very sweet runner too.


Thats all for this week!

[Eastern]

I like the caternarylook - be alot betterwith a class 86 though!

Bumped this from earlier -

Thing is, I'm a bit of a numpty when it comes to soldering... and the thought of going under the baseboard to solder the droppers... well, its not happening. Which is why these clip type droppers sound perfect for me!

My soldering needs alot of work......How is the world of DCC going for you? I am also transitioning off DC to DCC and was wondering if you ever did the auto clip type droppers or soldered the droppers to the bus wires? Any other DCC advice gratefully received

[DrStroganoff]

How is the world of DCC going for you? I am also transitioning off DC to DCC and was wondering if you ever did the auto clip type droppers or soldered the droppers to the bus wires? Any other DCC advice gratefully received

Hi Eastern,

The changeover to DCC has been pretty painless really, and I'm definately glad I went for it. I think it makes operating the layout much more interesting.

As for the bus wire... I ended up using the clips, or scotch-locks as I believe they are called. So the droppers are soldered to the rail (messily), and then clipped on to the bus wire under the baseboard. I'd read that you should have dropper wires on every piece of rail, but I've been a bit slack, and just dotted them wherever I felt like... probably about 8 droppers on each of the mainlines, and I havent had any problems with performance so far (surprisingly!)
I still havent got my DCC controller yet... I keep bringing the Hornby Select home that I use in the shop, just so I can have a 'play'.

My biggest concern initially was that a lot of my locos werent DCC ready... but as I've said previously, this was easily overcome.... Decided to have a crack at doing the Bachy 08, 4 blobs of solder later and it was DCC'd !!

I think the Heljan 86 is going to have to wait at least a few weeks until funds allow..... unfortunately

[trainsandco]

Whats that, to the right of the lowmac??!!?!?!?!

Looks like a rather 'Interesting' remake of a bogie bolster!!!

YOur catenary's are looking brilliant!

and those clerestory coaches are looking pretty awesome too!!

Keep up the good work!!

Ben

[DrStroganoff]

Cheers Ben !
Well spotted.... The wagon to the right of the lowmac is a 'BR 40Ton Armour Plate Bogie Flat Wagon'.... its a Genesis kit, that I havent built particularly well ! The problem with it is that the bogies are really small, and I had trouble putting them together, they wouldnt go nice and squarely, so it tends to derail quite a lot. So its sitting in the sidings until I decide to investigate !

I'm really pleased with how the catenary looks, although the masts could use painting and weathering. Hopefully this weekend I'll get some more done !

[DrStroganoff]

Evening chaps.

Yesterday I had a friend demonstrate some dry-brushing techniques for me... So I this evening I've been sitting here, watching The Krays while doing a spot of weathering. Lovely.

I thought to start off, I would have a crack at the 3 black locos that I have, as I felt that the airbrush-finish didnt show up enough detail. So they have basically had a 'dirty wash' with the airbrush (ages ago), and now I've tried to bring out some detail with a bit of rusty paint, dry brushed. See what you think of the results !









And finally, I brought a class 90 home today, just to see what it looked like 'under the wires' !


I wonder if Hornby will do a super detail class 90 to go with their new DVT, that would make for a nice train I reckon !

Hope everyone is having a good bank holiday weekend !

[GunnerBill]

That's nice weathering there, add some water/rust runs and some of that addetive staining (like you see on the Bachmann models) and it'll be a done deal.

The class 90 looks very good under the wires, do your wires travel the whole of your main circuit? (I can't browse back to check as pictures load real slow out here on this rig!).

[DrStroganoff]

HI GunnerBill, thanks for the comments.

So far I've only put up about 3ft of catenary, to see how it looked. I'm quite happy with, so I think I will go ahead and install it around the outer-mainline. I've got all of the gear, just a matter of setting it up.

I agree about adding some water stains on the Super D, those white streaks are quite a common sight on steam locos from what I've seen.

I'm doing some weathering for a customer on the weekend, so I thought I'd best have a good practise beforehand... dont want to balls up his lovely deltic

[GROTLAND]

The weathering looks great Gareth! The picture with the 2 shunters and the Super D gave me the idea that you should have a roundhouse with such filthy loco's in it.

[trainsandco]

rather you than me regarding the Super 'D' I would chicken out

although getting results like that would really make me change my mind!!! They all look fantastic!!!

but I think there might be an error towards the end of the page, there's a picture of your layout and for some reason it has a class 90?!?!?!

Ben

[DrStroganoff]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Ben, the class 90 was no mistake! You see I needed to check the height of the catenary with a loco under it, because all of the catenary stuff is HO.... didnt want to install it everywhere to find its too low or something !! Just need to decide what electric loco to get for the layout now....

Andrew, your right, those locos do like they belong in an old roundhouse! I've been thinking I need to have some kind of area to store the steam locos... some kind of preserved railway... But as all of my boards are max 2ft wide, having a turntable is a bit of a no-go. I've seen the American kits for roundhouse sheds. Maybe I could do a 3 road one, with a 3-way point leading into it.... might work !

I'm itching to join up the mainlines now to have a continuous run... but I need to actually design whats going on the other side of the layout. I do need some kind of storage area, for trains like the 4 CEP and HST.... To the drawing board !

[DrStroganoff]

Well I managed to get a few hours up the loft this evening. I've had the idea of doing a curved station platform at the top end of the layout, so I've just crudely laid it out with Hornby platforms until I decide on how I'm going to go about building the platforms.
Also installed some lights in the Knightwing station building.

Overview of station-area:


Motorail access for cars:


Deltic had a run today!


And I gave the HST a weathering too:


Next job, get some more catenary done!

I forgot to mention that I've built one of the Knightwing Loco kits, the small 0-4-0 industrial diesel. I happened to have a Tenshodo Spud motor bogie handy that was exactly the right wheelbase! Its in primer at the moment, ready to be painted. I keep forgetting to take a photo of it though, so I'll try to remember next time...

[Lewis Nash]

Hi
Construction has started again!!!
Superb weathering,is the layout DCC or DC?
Regards
Lewis

[DrStroganoff]

Evening chaps, just a quick post really....

Since Grotland put the idea of a roundhouse in my head :

The weathering looks great Gareth! The picture with the 2 shunters and the Super D gave me the idea that you should have a roundhouse with such filthy loco's in it.

I did a toy fair in Carmarthen on Sunday, and the trader next to me had this roundhouse shed sat there on his table.... it took all of 2 minutes before I snapped it up off him ! Then a bit later, my mate comes back with a big box of points that he bought, and what do I spy on top? A 3 way point with 2 motors ready fitted..... yoink !!

No idea where its gonna go on the layout yet.... But I think it migth need a good clean and a repaint... all in good time...

So heres a pic of a couple of filthy locos posing on the dining table with it !


And that was all I bought from the show... which I felt was very restrained of me....... so as a treat I've bought a Bachmann Class 159 DMU and a Class 166 DMU, both 3-car, and in NSE....

[iankemp]

i would just wipe the top a wee bit! the rest looks ok saves you weathering it too much!