Starting again, in N, again.

[Alexander Court]

As I mentioned in my returning post, I have sold up most of my N gauge to afford to move across Ireland from Wexford to Waterville and as I knew in future I would have less room for a layout I decided to switch to N. Some may remember when I first started in N with a layout I was trying to build before called Crawford which never got very far and I ended up selling that stuff and returning to 00. Its a shame as I had a nice set of locos, especially the terrier and class 14, but at the time I did not know what the future would hold.

So having decided on N the first thing to do was acquire an engine, and having owned and loved one before I knew there could only be one candidate, the Farish J94/Austerity tank in NCB Blue, and at this time I managed to get a cheap lima wagon from marks models display cabinet second hand in Dublin. Here they are:



There was the issue of having no track but on ebay I managed to geta peco started set, older version where the circle is made up of ST-3s iinstead of ST-12s. I also managed to dig out an old red knob hornby controller, my n gauge double decker bus and the american freight wagon Sinead's aunt got me and set them up ro run:




(as you can see the cat isn't as phased by the N gauge as the first time, when he tried to eat the terrier!)

Eventually I saved up enough to afford a coach, and as I liked the look of it, I bought a BR Gresley Blood and Custard restaurant coach:


Following that I decided to do what I did the time before and buy some peco kits, I went for the NE brakevan and mixed my own paints to match the colour of the paint on the NE brakevan at the middy, and a rake of 5 16ton mineral wagons, however they have issues with their couplings being kits, partly remedied with white tack in the coupling mounts. I don't think they turned out too badly:












After those I managed to get some second hand wagons on hattons, two BR Cattle Vans and a W.Fowler wagon which interested me as it is a Norwich based PO and I'm from East Anglia:



Then, finally for this post, I mocked up a small dead end line with a metcalfe station buildiung a member on here gave me some years ago that was the station on Crawford but is a bit old and tatty now but I hope to find a use for it at some pouint. I also had managed to get a matching brake ended coach for my restaurant coach, which is what I still currently have passenger stock wise:



That's all for now, next time I will be posting about my second locomotive and getting more track and buildings, I think.

Until then I hope people will find this thread interesting, hopefully I can get it all updated to where I am now and post some ideas for plans.

Alex

[Kerluk]

Nice start. Can't wait for the next pics. With your four legs helper, things can't go wrong

[Alexander Court]

Nice start. Can't wait for the next pics. With your four legs helper, things can't go wrong

Haha well we shall see!

Next pictures, and a second loco....

So after saving up some more money and trawling ebay I finally managed to nab a used but boxed minitrix 2mt tender locomotive in BR black, it did come with instructions, none of which were in English, in fact the only words in english on the instructions were "Made in West Germany". Here it is as it arrived:




So time came to get the 2MT out of its box and running so I fixed it up with a mixed train on the floor:




Now it did look alright in BR black, and had I had another I would possibly keep it in black, but I just wanted to add a personal touch to the locomotive, and so set out a livery for the Muddleston and Siddington Light (though now fledged to a less than light railway) Railway in n gauge, and allowed myself my first chance at painting and lining an N gauge locomotive. I mixed the paints the the shades I wanted myself. Its a take on Sodor/North Western Railway/Region 'Blue with Red Stripes'. It was my first attempt, here are some photos to show it off, I hope people think it doesn't look too bad.










And Finally for this time round, some photos of the 2mt on the kitbuilt wagon rake a brake I painted:






Any comments would be welcome, does the 2mt look alright? I know some of the lining is a bit rough.

Thanks, Alex.

[Ironduke]

that was brave! Did you use a brush?

[Alexander Court]

that was brave! Did you use a brush?

Yup, what else would I use?
I'm goiing to upload another post soon if I have time before bed.

Alex

[Alexander Court]

Next to be acquired was a lima 4f cheap off of ebay, stated as needing attention I think it may be missing traction tyres and had some paint issues and has two missing buffers and a missing front coupler, one day I might source the parts to sort these issues out, here is how Felix looked when he arrived:



And after a while in the paintshop and works Felix the 4f emerged in the railway's Blue with Red Stripes, a lighter shade as its an older loco than the 2mt and I wanted to go for a sun faded look...also I couldn't get the paint mix right as I think I used the wrong blue second time round but I rather like the results:










The motor is a bit old and doesn't run great partly because the traction tyres are missing but occasionally it pulls trains, here I was testing with an empty livestock train:




I had a go at building a peco goods shed kit as well and I think it turned out ok, tried to paint the shed doors green, but the paint got on my fingers and left splodges, the kit wasn't a perfect fit either and glue ran in a few places but overall it will do:






That's all for now folks xD

Alex

[Kerluk]

NIce stuff. Thanks for the pics.

[Ironduke]

Yup, what else would I use?

Well you might use an airbrush. I thought the blue finish on the Minitrix 2MT looked pretty smooth, if a bit on the shiny side for my taste.

[Alexander Court]

NIce stuff. Thanks for the pics.

No Problem, my pleasure xD

Yup, what else would I use?

Well you might use an airbrush. I thought the blue finish on the Minitrix 2MT looked pretty smooth, if a bit on the shiny side for my taste.

Ah I suppose, not got the money, equipment or skill for airbrushing. I wish I'd had a non gloss blue at the time but I'm happy to say her crew like to keep her ultra clean and polished as an explanation.
I really need a new top spec mixed traffic loco, a new controller as mine is pants, 4 more cattle vans, another brake coach, three lighting bars and some more vans and open wagons (stockwise that is). I also need n gauge people, enough for two coaches. And some cows plus track and buildings for my plan.

Alex

[Alexander Court]

Another post playing catch up on where I am now is here, don't worry we will get to the planning part, I have a few ideas in my head I need to jot down on paper and then get pics of

So anyhoo, where was I? Ah yes, I ordered a Kestrel station and platform kit and proceeded to construct it to go alongside my newly built goods shed:




Sadly I found that the poles that are supposed to hold up the canopy are frankly awful, simply awful, but here is the station finished alongside the goods shed:




Then I put them alongside the track I had at the time:


And finally I had some fun playing trains and taking some shots:










That's all for now folks, I'll get doodling those plans and I have some more photos to upload as well soon I hope.

Alex

[Alexander Court]

Oh dear its been a couple of weeks since my last post, but I will hopefully get some plans uploaded later. I've not gained anymore new stock as I think what I have currently is sufficient for traffic on a small branch. I'll probably model a small terminus as I won't want to take up too much room. The hope is when we get a council house I might find some loft space to set up my trains, and after selling some more 00 I've decided that I want a 00 layout where trains can run round the loft continuously....while I operate a narrow gauge section on that layout, a 00 and 009 layout.

Last time I tried 009 It didnt go well as I had track but no stock. This time I've already got plenty of N gauge track to run stuff on, I've got a locomotive coming and some coaches too. I've even made a new updated version of my region's map. I've got a theme in mind for the joint gauge layout, a story of the place in my head, now I just need the space, time and money....as usual

I'd like to think I could incorporate the N gauge as a perspective enhancing background railway but the reality is that a seperate layout for the N would probably turn out better and easier to construct.

Alex

[Bufferstop]

Hi Alex good to see you getting stuck in to N gauge. If the models had been this good twenty odd years back I might well have tried it, but steeamroller wheels and dubious dimensions of the time didn't appeal.

[Alexander Court]

Hi Alex good to see you getting stuck in to N gauge. If the models had been this good twenty odd years back I might well have tried it, but steeamroller wheels and dubious dimensions of the time didn't appeal.

Thanks, I've not got round to posting pics yet but I've built a small metcalfe factory and double engine shed as well. I bought some farish points but found the fishplates were atrocious and they generally were not compatiable with peco track which I thought weird.

Alex

[Alexander Court]

I think I was a little ambitious before about a 00/009 and N layout, we are going to be in this house a fair while me thinks so I'm building an N gauge layout which can swap out its buildings for 00 ones to make it a 009 layout albeit with incorrect sleepers. I'll try get my plan up later for what I want to build (Though I have no idea where to get a baseboard out here in the sticks) but for now here's more catch up:

After building the goods shed and station and having a noticeboard ready I got to set up a little layout:


I think I've mentioned before but I'm rather fond of things from Shepherd Neame, so I just had two buy two limited edition vans:




After that purchase I saved up and bought some more goodies:


This meant that I had now two east anglian wagons:



Some shots of the set up:




Then it was time to start building the kit:


I wanted to make this kit more 'me' as it were, I knew I'd be able to see into the plain white interior through the roof so I had a little brainwave and used cotton bobbin things glued down like massive drums in pretty colours:





Testing position:


Then finally I started work on the factory warehousey bit and gave it a nice colourful interior you can hardly/barely see from outside:




Anyhoo, ordered track last night to finish the plan I'll post in a while, still not 100% certain but I think I have what I want/can live with.

Thanks,
Alex.

[m.levin]

What you can do for inside buildings on the cheap and easy, is print of pictures of inside buildings and glue them within your building.
If you think you will struggle with scale, use Microsoft word. Put a sheet of A4 paper against the monitor and make work space the same size with zoom function. Then you can use model people, by putting against the screen, to make the picture size the right size until happy.