The Strogaloft - Construction Begins... Again!

[GROTLAND]

Nice! Do you know what kit it is? I still want to see that weird kit built shunter in there though

[bizzyd6405]

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....

nice purchases i look forward to seeing pictures of them on your layout as a NSE fan i'm trying to get my hands on a these two DMU's as they would fit perfect on my layout and i guess they don't have dcc sockets, so are they easy to install the decoders?

cheers

Darren

[egroeg93]

Looking good mate, did you use a lighting kit on the Great Western HST??
And is the deisel depot shed a kit??

keep up the good work

[DrStroganoff]

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

Yes, good idea Ian. I'll wipe the roof, and just maybe give it a once over with the airbrush !

Nice! Do you know what kit it is? I still want to see that weird kit built shunter in there though

No idea what make the kit is! I did have a look, but theres no markings. I think the 2 grimy shunters will look good lurking around outside it once its on the layout !

nice purchases i look forward to seeing pictures of them on your layout as a NSE fan i'm trying to get my hands on a these two DMU's as they would fit perfect on my layout and i guess they don't have dcc sockets, so are they easy to install the decoders?

Hi Darren, I have fitted a decoder to the 159, I'm still waiting for the 166 to arrive.... both of these units are powered by the centre coach... which is good because theres plenty of room to fit the decoder, and its very easy to do, I can point you in the direction of a very comprehensive guide that I found online. The only problem is lights in the end cars... if you do nothing to them, then they will all be on all the time at both ends (red & yellow).... the options are putting a decoder in each end car for the lights, or running wires through the unit to the decoder in the middle car.... dont fancy the 2nd option, so I think it will be a decoder in each car !

Looking good mate, did you use a lighting kit on the Great Western HST??
And is the deisel depot shed a kit?? keep up the good work

The HST is a Lima body on a new Hornby Railroad chassis, so the lights are pre-fitted, although theres no red light for going the opposite direction.... something to think about...

The diesel depot is a Pikestuff kit... It took a while of trawling the internet to find anyone who carries them in the UK. You can get them from a place called McLaren Models.

Thanks for the comments chaps !

[trainsandco]

that round house looks fantastic, dont suppose you'd want to sell it jks

keep up the good work and weathering

Ben

[DrStroganoff]

Cheers Ben !

I think I'll pass on selling the shed.... it hasnt even been on the layout yet !!

Ahh well... the Mrs was supposed to be leaving for Florida this afternoon, leaving me home alone for 2 weeks, was gonna get some serious loft-time on the go !!! But alas.... that has all been scuppered by this volcanic ash palava

[Durseytu]

Ah yes ash, turns to cement in the engines! I'd rather not be flying if that were the case.

On a slightly less life threatening note, I had the fun of washing my car yesterday! I wondered why it was proving a bugger to shift the dirt since it seemed to be forming a cement type consistency and took two washes to completely clear it. I then went and bought a paper and thought 'ahh'.

Went out this morning to discover that my lovely motor is covered in ash again!!

Stuart.

[trainsandco]

Ah yes ash, turns to cement in the engines! I'd rather not be flying if that were the case.

On a slightly less life threatening note, I had the fun of washing my car yesterday! I wondered why it was proving a bugger to shift the dirt since it seemed to be forming a cement type consistency and took two washes to completely clear it. I then went and bought a paper and thought 'ahh'.

Went out this morning to discover that my lovely motor is covered in ash again!!

ouch unlucky, in my area we haven't had it rain ash.....as of yet.....

that must be really weird, whats this stuff coming from teh sky? is it rain? snow? no...its bloody cement....

Ben

[Durseytu]

Ah yes ash, turns to cement in the engines! I'd rather not be flying if that were the case.

On a slightly less life threatening note, I had the fun of washing my car yesterday! I wondered why it was proving a bugger to shift the dirt since it seemed to be forming a cement type consistency and took two washes to completely clear it. I then went and bought a paper and thought 'ahh'.

Went out this morning to discover that my lovely motor is covered in ash again!!

ouch unlucky, in my area we haven't had it rain ash.....as of yet.....

that must be really weird, whats this stuff coming from teh sky? is it rain? snow? no...its bloody cement....

Ben

Well it hasn't rained as such; today was mostly sunny with the odd cloud in the sky. Thing is the ash cloud is there you just can't see it. It does however cause very tiny amounts of ash to fall like dust being blown about which you start to notice on say the roof of a car. Particularly a recently cleaned one!

Look out for good sunsets!

But yeah the idea of it raining cement is a bit scary!

Stuart.

[DrStroganoff]

I was half expecting to wake up this morning to a sea of ash outside... ah well.. maybe tomorrow... the mrs flight is rescheduled for tuesday now... we'll see

I have just descended from a quick hour up the loft... The 159 and 166 are working perfectly ! I hadnt tested them since hard wiring the decoders in.... especially since I did the 166 a couple of hours ago after a few pints All good !!!

I've also found a home for the roundhouse, should be good.... unfortunately SWMBO has run off with the camera... so no photos

Have a good weekend all !

[DrStroganoff]

Ooh, have a squizz at this.... my mate has been building this massive kite,, and sending his camera up to take aerial shots.... this particular picture looks like a model to me !!! what ya think ??

[BR125]

At first glance it seems to be a model but on closer inspection,lighting ect. it's not.......I hope!

Regards
Daz

[CraigB192]

Ahh, tilt-shift photography. I love the look of it. It can be faked in Photoshop with a normal photo, which beats spending £600 on a lens!.

[DrStroganoff]

I ventured up the loft earlier, to figure out where I'm going to put this roundhouse.

Still not quite sure where I want it. The best place it fits is like this:


It will work there, but its a shame that its facing the viewer side-on, rather than face-on, if you get me!

The only untouched area is still the board on the opposite side of the layout:


Just need a lot of points to get as much storage space in as possible... and then I can connect up the mainlines !

Here are the 2 new arrivals !


I have DCC fitted them... but the power cars also need decoders to control the lights... so they are all on for now!





And heres a couple of girder wagons that I've built!


I have taken the catenary down, so I can paint the masts before I get too carried away. They look a bit silly all green and unpainted. Think I'll paint them a light grey, and then weather them.

Oh and to finish, here is a picture of the Knightwing industrial shunter I am building, running on a Tenshodo Spud. I plan to paint the top of the bonnet, and the roof a light grey. Then give the whole thing a good weathering.

[DrStroganoff]

Me again. Have made a good bit of progress today, so thought I would share.

Firstly I've wired up my first point motor ! I'm controlling all the points digitally, so I have a point decoder hidden under the warehouse. Only did one today as I need more wire, but it works, and I'm pretty impressed!

This week I have been painting all of my catenary masts and weathering them up. So today I have installed them on the layout, no cutting corners this time by gluing the masts in place, I have followed the instructions and screwed the mast bases to the board, and its all the sturdier for it.

And finally today I have started laying out the track on the other side of the loft. Have got 2 very long sidings at the back of the board, to take trains like the HST and Coronation. The 2 main lines are on the left hand side of the photo, and will be a long sweeping curve with a few sidings coming into the middle:


The catenary now goes from the station and down a good stretch of the main line:






And I'm finally happy with the location of the roundhouse, its going to stay in the same position as in the last set of photos. Planning to have a siding alongside the roundhouse for the 2 shunters:


The only balls-up today was when programming the point decoder, I managed to reset all of the decoders in the locos on the tracks D'oh !

With a bit of luck I'll even get a few more hours up there tomorrow, and I plan to finish wiring up these points !