Scalefour Forum

While I've been regularly posting on rmweb about the P4 layout I thought that those here who don't both with that site might like to see progress. I now have the five main baseboards which feature Clare station built and the track down and wired. This weekend I had fun playing trains and produced a quick video on youtube to prove that you can model in Scalefour without trains falling off the track.

A Cravens DMU (Bachmann) arrives from Cambridge.



An E4 and pair of Gresley coaches arrives from Long Melford.





Hope you enjoy it.

If you want more you can always visit the blog at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/186-fen-end-pits-blog/

David

Hello David,

That video has cheered up a wet Sunday afternoon!

All the best,

Colin

Aahhhh....recognized. I believe we recently spoke on YouTube. I'm Sparkshot there.

Looking forward to seeing this progress.

great voice over ... loved it

Double Aahhhhhhh

Hence the question about radius and potential P4 layouts, as per another thread on here.
I'm dropping down to about 40" at the tightest spots, getting a continuous run in the room which is ~19'x9'

Unlikely to see a Pacific but a 4-6-0 is a possibility.

David

David.
Providing you allow sufficient side play on the centre drivers and enough sideways movement on the bogie, I don't see any reason why a 4-6-0 cannot traverse a 40" radius curve.
My earlier efforts, including a WD 2-8-0, a Fairburn 2-6-4 tank and a BR Standard 5 4-6-0 were all able to negotiate a 36" reverse curve, with no transition, test track; and that's on flexitrack with no gauge widening.
Limiting issues tend to be bogie wheels rubbing on front steps and loco to tender spacing - I like to keep this to scale, which can cause problems on sharp curves. The step issue can be solved by moving the steps outwards, slightly. If not over done, it's hardly noticeable in the finished model.
Dave.

Some further work has resulted in the second line in the fiddle-yard getting wired and the two turnouts at the ends of the cassette roads being worked with servos. I've fitted these with 'Pocket money Kits' controllers from the MERG which cost only around £2.50 each. These just have a 12v input and three trimpots to set the start and stop location of the servo and its speed.



The result is more trains going round and round and there is some more on Youtube to show it works.



I was surprised by the name check in Scalefour News... The honour - I am not worthy

David

Satisfying playing trains for the first (or nearly first I appreciate) time isn't it!!

Keep up the good work!

That looks to be going very nicely - congratulations. I do like the weathering on the freight wagons. keep up the good work.
Dave.

Hi Dave, Nice video and good to see the full extent of your layout. You have a steel? locking plate and slide bolt in the corner near the houses - is this home made or a bought in item. The reason I ask is I am looking for something similar to lock and align the lift out section on my layout.

Keep up the good work.

Regards,

Robin

barrowroad wrote:Hi Dave, Nice video and good to see the full extent of your layout. You have a steel? locking plate and slide bolt in the corner near the houses - is this home made or a bought in item. The reason I ask is I am looking for something similar to lock and align the lift out section on my layout.

Keep up the good work.

Regards,

Robin

Hi Robin

I've got a couple of bolt-like alignment dowels, they are just home-made out of K&S tube.
These tend to work ok, the only issue is where I also want the bolt to conduct power, you'd think two concentric sizes of brass tube would conduct electricity but it ain't necessarily so. In those cases I find having a bit of sprung wire against the bolt then helps.

David

Thanks David I thought you may have fabricated them. I did something similar with the fiddle yard on Sheep Pasture. I was hoping you had found some I could buy off the shelf.
Regards,

Robin

I thought I'd post a few more pictures as I know not everyone here follows the updates on my rmweb blog.

The first area of countryside now has its first layer of static grass on it. This needs a lot more work to get a variety of textures and colours but it is coming on.



I made the first sections of post and wire fencing, using some laser cut posts and EZ-line.



I added Woodland Scenics 'deep water' to the river and completed the bridge with some 3D printed girders.



I started making little bushes using string, PVA glue and scenic foam.



I've started work on the Colchester-bound platform, lots of laser cut MDF.



So I then sat back and ran a couple of trains just for the fun.

The pickup goods left the layby siding and headed towards Long Melford.



And then 'Eric the E4' arrived with a passenger service to Cambridge.



As always more details on rmweb at https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/blog/186-fen-end-pits-blog/

David

A great set of progress photos David .... don't frequent RMweb much so thanks for uploading. Looking forward to watching this progress

I haven't said much as I got nothing other than 'firework reactions' to contribute but great to see sone greenery on it at last. Looking forward to the next YT update, asuming there will be one.

I just managed to print off and paint a lever frame for my box. It took two goes to get the support structure right so that the levers came out straight but I think the result is not bad.

This was printed on my Anycubic Photon at .05mm layer height.

The route is set for a train from Clare to leave for Cavendish.



I managed to paint the levers (just) - they are damn small!





Now I have to draw up some block and tablet apparatus.

David

They look brilliant.

I love my Photon too. Brilliant bit of kit.

I can imagine those levers being ruddy fragile though. Get em glued in the box quick.

For those who haven't seen Brassmasters' blog or my blog on RMweb I've been making progress on a EasiChas kit for the Hornby J15. The first test etches have been put together and I now have a running sprung Hornby J15. The brake gear and tender chassis needed some changes and I've made these to the artwork now.





A quick video on Youtube shows it go.



David

I've been working on the platform waiting shelter for platform 2 of Clare over the last few days. This followed the normal form of brick counting photographs and transfering into TurboCAD. I had several goes at cutting the brick quoins as having chatted to Alpha Mill on Saturday at Scaleforum I wanted to try using thin card to get nearer a scale thickness than the previously used ply.

The prototype is still well preserved and currently has a notice in the window stating 'model railway coming soon' but I have no more details about when or what is being built. Platform 1 houses a very nice cafe for the country park.



The bulk of the building is laser cut in 3mm MDF with the windows cut in 1mm MDF, the quoins are postcard thickness card.





Next up is to laser cut a load of slate strips using sticky labels. I'm going to have a go at drawing up and printing the guttering and down pipes and see if I can 3D print them on the Anycubic photon.

David

Looking excellent ... the shiny point rodding looks great too

Hi David,

That looks very nice indeed. A lovely reproduction of such a typical Stour Valley building. Looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

John.

This layout build is one of my favourites to follow lately, loving your YouTube vid's too.

Wish more people would do explanatory vlog type video's, quality ones are rare to come by. P4 almost non existent.
I find your vid's to be a breath of fresh air on the Tube.

Looking forward to whatever you have next.

Friday night saw me sticking strips of slates onto the roof and then I thought I'd have a go at 3D printing the ridge tiles.



I also drew up and printed some Ogee section guttering.



I still need to finish the guttering (another hour of printing on the Photon) and touch up the painting on the barge boards.



I also need to get a bit more variation into the colour of the slates.



Thanks for the encouraging comments.

David

Over the last couple of days I managed to get platform 2 built, together with the decorative walls which form the back of the platform. I also managed to make some chimneys, though the single chimney needs to be taller.





and I've noticed I positioned the roof on the wrong way around so it is meant to be at the other end!

David

I've just put up a video of the interlocked lever frame on youtube. This uses a SHAG frame with servos to provide locking on each lever. The interlocking is implemented directly using some circuit boards from the MERG which means that it doesn't require a computer to run.

Thanks to Keith Grovenor for the help with the locking table and advice.


David