The Strogaloft - Construction Begins... Again!

[Peterm]

Hello there, I've only just spotted this thread, so you may have yourself sorted out by now. Anyway, here goes.

1: Don't solder so close to your rail joiners, or the rails won't be able to slide in them due to expansion / contraction.

2: Scrape the rail sides with a screwdriver tip, fibreglass pencil, etc, to take off the muck.

3: With a decent soldering iron (mines 60 watt with temp' control, but you can use a 20 watt) and a clean tip, put a small
amount of cored solder on the tip, hold against the cleaned rail side to heat it up. When it's hot, touch the rail adjacent to the tip with the solder and watch it flow onto the rail. This is tinning the rail.

4: Strip your dropper wire back about 10mm, twist it and tin it. (You don't have to try cleaning this.)

5: With small pliers, bend the tinned wire at 90 degrees about 2mm from the end and position it against the rail side.

6: Once again, with a clean tip, wet it with a small amount of solder, and touch the wire and the rail where it's tinned. You'll then see the solder flow into the joint. Remove the iron, but don't let the wire or rail move for about ten seconds.

You don't need to remove any chairs, because as you practise and get used to it, you'll simply not do this.
By the way, I use either a 2mm or 3mm chisel tip, whichever's in the iron at the time.

[DrStroganoff]

Aidan, thanks for the links. I'll order some flux and see if that helps me.

PeterM, thanks for the advice too... I hadnt considered about the possibility of rail-movement, so thats something to bear in mind.

I'm gonna get on the case with this soldering lark as its holding back my progress !!

[traincrazy1]

I found it easier and less noticeable to solder wires to the bottom of the rail, rather than the side. Because it's flat,it's easier to clean first. However for obvious reasons soldering to the base of the rail with it fixed to boards may be tricky.

[trainsandco]

Hi DrStroganoff
You really got your work cut out here you've got quite a large amount of space there for your trains to run. You got a lot of nice stock there aswell, and very varied
you're making good progress as you've got all your track down and that Warehouse kit looks BRILLIANT

Keeep up the good work

T&C

[DrStroganoff]

Thanks T&C. I like the warehouse too... I'm sure it will look better once its painted and weathered !

I've had a good day up the loft today. Havent really done much, but I did have some luck with my soldering !! Managed to solder about another 8 dropper wires today !!! So feeling a bit more confident about my soldering skills !

I think I mentioned somewhere else that I wanted a 'Motorail' train and terminal on the layout. So I got myself a Hornby 'Cartic', and after looking at some photos of the prototype, I felt it needed a little something else... The main feature missing is the large mesh panels/grilles down the sides of the real thing. So, using some old Busch 'fencing', I have tried to replicate it on the model ! Before that mind, I changed the wheels to metal Romfords, removed the couplings, and fitted some Kadee's. And after all of that, gave it some heavy weathering !!

And here it is :





And while I had the airbrush out, I decided I may aswell have a weathering session !! So out came Kestrel, Deltic.... and the newest member of the fleet... Ethel !







This one is a new Lima 'Torpedo' wagon... which I have cut off the Euro couplings, and fitted some Kadees

I'm thinking getting another one, and then have a double-header pulling them around very slowly !

And finally, my kitbuilt Southern shunter... But unfortunately its not DCC ready... so its destined to the sidings for now along with my LMS shunter.



The first trains were run in the loft today ! I brought a Hornby Select home from the shop so I could have a 'play'... Falcons been out for a run, as has the 4-CEP (next on the weathering list) !

[DrStroganoff]

Hello guys.

Well, I just spent about 20 minutes typing a post, then decided to hit refresh and lost it all....

To summarise...

Have been building some Knightwing kits, diesel fuelling points and a station halt. Also finally painted the large warehouse, and gave it a quick weathering with the airbrush.

I managed to fit a DCC decoder to a non-DCC Bachmann Class 08... I was most pleased with myself !! A fairly straightforward task, that has made me far more confident using the soldering iron. Since doing that I also fitted a DCC chip to the Bachmann Super D... its DCC-Ready, but there are issues with it running uber-jerky on DCC. So you must remove the capacitors and resistors from the motor. Now this news scared me a few weeks ago and the loco was put away... but after doing the 08 I thought I would give it a crack, and sure enough, another job done.

Few new locos recently! A Heljan Hymek in BR Blue, a Lima Class 20 in Waterman black, and a Bachmann 25 from ebay (on its way!).

Have also ordered a Pikestuff 2 road diesel depot.... This will go where the Hornby Skaledale shed is at the moment.

So, at this rate, the layout should take years to complete... which I think is a good thing. I think the previous layouts were failures because I rushed through and 'completed' them within a few months.

Anyway, a couple of pictures to finish off !

The back of the warehouse:


Overall view of the depot. The road was put down today, running alongside the TMD, leading to the security gatehouse for the warehouse:


The lineup:


Hymek on the Motorail train:


Falcon at one of the new fuelling points:


Ethel:





Now I really must stop buying locos and get saving for this Prodigy system !!!

[GROTLAND]

You're a brave man Gareth! weathering all those limited editions. They do look a lot better for it though.
Is that Southern kit shunter a model of a prototype? I've never seen it before. Oh and nice work with the cartics; something else I've never seen done either is the caging on the sides. Like your rarities don't you

[DrStroganoff]

Thanks Grotland. Yes I do like my rarities, or oddities more like. I'm currently fancying a class 28 co-bo, but that would be a kit build jobby, I like the looks of the Silver Fox kit.

As for the shunter, its a Golden Arrow resin kit of the Southern Maunsell 350hp Diesel Shunter. Some info about the loco and the kit can be found at the Southern E-Group here: http://www.semgonline.com/diesel/maunsell-350_01.html

Right, looks like its gonna be a quiet day in the shop as its started chucking it down with snow again! So think I'll have a crack at chipping the Lima Class 20... (DCC Forum here I come...)

The Bachmann Rat showed up this morning, and I'm thinking that I will repaint it with half-yellow panels, so it will have the oddity-appeal.

[trainsandco]

DrStroganoff, Those class 28's do look brilliantly quirky!! I would love to get one, Hornby Dublo used to make them although they do cost a bit Model fair had one for £110



Ben

[DrStroganoff]

Hi Trains&Co. Yes I did consider the old Hornby Dublo model, but I doubt it would perform particularly well under DCC.... so the plan is to get the Silver Fox body kit, and then bash up a couple of Lima chassis to motorize it.

Speaking of Lima chassis'... I successfully managed to chip my class 20 this afternoon ! Quite surprised at how well an old Lima loco can perform on DCC !

[Eastern]

Dr Strog - great to see your layout coming together - you are a braver man than me when coming to weathering Though I will have a go at some point. Cheers

[DrStroganoff]

Thanks Eastern, yep I'm a hopeless airbrush-addict. I think my airbrush is the most indispensable tool that I have... saying that mind its all a bit clogged up at the minute... I think I should invest in a more high-tech one. Mine is just a Badger single-action jobby. I've heard the double action ones are the way forward.

[DrStroganoff]

Hi guys.

I've had a rare afternoon up the loft today, its been great ! Soldered all of the droppers to the main line and got it all connected up to a Hornby Select... Was great to finally be able to run some trains !

Apart from the wiring, I also laid some more roadstrips, painted the baseboards brown, and laid a black tarmac scenery mat around the warehouse area. Its finally starting to look like a layout... nearly ready to do some scenery, which is my favourite bit, so I'm looking forward to doing some static grass and ballasting !!

Newest member of the fleet is a Great Western 'Merlin' HST. Its an old Lima one, which I've fitted with a new Hornby Railroad chassis, DCC fitted and I think it looks great. I used to take the train from Bridgend to Cardiff a lot in my teens and this was around the time of the Merlin livery, so it has the nostalgic factor for me !

Out of all the locos that have had a run today, the best runners by far are the Bachmann ones, the CEP and Deltic are superb performers.

Hopefully progress will pick up a bit if today was anything to go by !

Heres a couple of photos to finish with... (I took loads, but the lighting is rubbish so only a few came out ok!)

[bizzyd6405]

some great photo's as usual love the bachmann 4 cep in blue grey, really makes me want to get one.

keep up the good work

cheers

Darren

[DrStroganoff]

Thanks Darren ! The CEP is superb. Cant recommend it enough !!

I have a question guys.... I'm thinking of installing catenary/overhead lines to the layout..... I only want to 'electrify' the outer mainline, now would this look silly? Having 2 main lines, and only one electrified? Would this be at all prototypical?

Anyway I'll find out later.... I've got this Electrotren catenary, so I'm going to take a pack of it home tonight and see what it looks like.... if it looks good of course, I'll need a loco with a pantograph! ...... so I'd better run out and buy one of the new Heljan 86's !

If I get around to it later, I'll post some pics of how it turns out.