At a Crossroads, and yes it is finished.

Hello, it has been quite a while since i last posted and many things have changed, some good some bad.  I have been working hard in the house and garden since the start of the year, so all modelling has been put to one side, which is sometimes a good thing.

So i have being doing modelling of a different kind, there is still a few bits to do, a paving area, decking and a fence to build,  But it is starting to really take shape.  One big change will be the new shed that will replace the old one in the picture.  I have a rough size of 2.5m by 3.5m to play with, which is a good size.
I am at a bit of a crossroads,  I am not sure if i should build a static layout in the shed, or build it as a workshop and build modular layouts i could take to model shows.  It will be well into next year before i have the shed built so i have time to plan out what i want to do.

I was in Germany in March and picked up a DCC Sound Soo Line loco in HO for 120 Euro's, and since then i have been looking over Ebay and managed to pick up quite a few.  I like the colour scheme of the Soo line with the White and red.   I have also picked up some CN loco's as alot of the Soo line stock was bought by the CN and repainted,  but again i liked the colours.

Well as most people know i have been building a N Scale Carpark for over a Year now, and i am pleased to say its finally finished.  All the lighting, cars and people are in place and it looks pretty good if you ask me.








To fill the carpark with cars i use the bags you can buy off Ebay, they contain 50 cars of different colours.  and i picked them up for under £10.  Now some of the cars in the bag are twisted a little, these i put it in the places where the would not be in full view, but i would say they are definitely worth the money.

 You can see from other posts how i put the lighting in each floor,  I also replaced the plastic lights at the top of the carpark with working ones.  If i had know about the cars you can now get with the working head and brake lights, i would have used them.  But i am happy with the the over all effect.

With all the lights in the room off, it really shows the lightning in the carpark off well.  All the wiring for the lights runs along the roofs and into the stairwell, where i drilled out a hole in the floor so the wires can pass through.

 Once the carpark is in place, be it on a static layout or a modular exhibition i will add more detail on the outside help help it blend into its surroundings.

This kit was a pleasure to build, the Instructions are very clear and easy to follow and i think it will look great on any layout.

As for my next build i think it will be the shed out the back, but i do have a load of kits to get on with, there is the full Kato High Level Station, we will see.

Its nearly there

Most of the floors are in now apart from the top two.  I have managed to pick up some working lights from a club mate, so I can lose the plastic ones.

 

 

 

 

The finished build is just around the corner, honestly....

Back in the attic.

It has been a few months since I posted and nothing has been done really.  I have been looking over track plans and looking over the web for some ideas.  But the House and Christmas took over.

I have been looking into Automating the layout using Rocrail or JMRI, I am not sure which one to go for, so I will need to read up more about each.

http://wiki.rocrail.net/doku.php

http://jmri.sourceforge.net/

I don't believe you can do much shunting in N Gauge, so watching long passenger and freight trains will be the way forward, and being able to run the layout from a PC appeals to me.  So I am moving back into the attic for the time being.

With a revised track plan, the Ground Level below will be the only part of the layout with buildings and details on it.  The Upper level will be large yards for loco storage and sidings.


The picture shows the mainline station at the bottom which can hold an 11 car train (there is an 8 car N700 on show to make sure I have the size correct).  I am going to use the Kato road plates to create my city streets. As you come out the Station you will pass the carpark I am building on the right which will be attached to a shopping mall via a bridge over the road.  As you pass through the city you come across the Football Stadium, opposite the mainline Station.  From there you will pass into a smaller station.  When into a tunnel, where the scenery will end onto the Helix to take you up to the Upper level staging.

As you come up the Helix you will head Left passing the siding which can hold a 16 car Shinkansen, the down into the first of the staging area's.  Loop down the bottom an back up to the top of the Helix, I will be using this siding mainly for freight and the few odd ball locos I have, such as the Snow blower.  Heading around the Helix and down into the High level Sidings where I plan to keep my passenger stock.  The full layout has be designed as a dog bone allow continuous running, and all the sidings can be passed as there is a loop around each.

As I am looking to run the layout automatically using Rocrail or JMRI this should give me enough sidings to store loco's and a huge mainline to run loco's.

Its good to get back into design and building this layout again, it will be good to blow the dust off my loco boxes and give them a run.

Merry Xmas all and have a Merry new year when it come to you.

Bo'ness Chainsaw Massacre. (Carpark Update)



Tree Huggers look away now.......

 

Having finished the lower section of the garden, I made a surprise attack on the top level where my railway shed will be located.   With the weather changing the billion sparrows that use the trees at the top of the garden as a Launchpad, to get the thousand or so bird feeders in my next door neighbour's garden, it was time to move out. 

 

 

 

 

At the back of the garden I have 6.5m by 6.5m space to locate the shed.  I also found a telegraph pole in there, which I need to leave access for.

 

 

 

 

Having cleared the rubble, and bought a big saw, myself and the misses attacked the tree's.  After been bitten to death by Midges the tree were down. 

 

 

I now have 7 big stumps to be dug out.  And a large pile of trees and branch's to be removed.  And a huge space to be filled by a railway shed.

 

With the telegraph pole at the top right of the garden and the support wire coming along the back fence line. I am losing about half a meter off from the back fence and to the right for access.  So I have about 6 meters square to put the shed on.  I will draw the back garden up in AutoCAD to scale and design the layout so I can get as much shed and a less grief as poss.

 

The next stage here once the trees are away, is to get the hut moved forward and the walls built along the sides and the back, and a nice concrete floor.

 

 

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Carpark build update.

 

I have 3 more levels built with lights and cars added.  It has been slow progress on this but time has been against me.  I think I am going to have to pick up more cars as I have close to 100 on already.

 

I am hoping to get more of this built on Wednesday night, at least get a few floors put in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wee Update



The  modelling has completely stopped, so I am re-modelling the back garden instead.

 

 

8 ton of soil later and I have a big hole.

 

Walls now built to take the slope out the garden and make it level.

 

Steps started will need to build an extra 3 to take them to the new level

 

8 ton of soil almost put back to back fill the ground, for the new level

 

We had new Windows & Doors put in at the same time, managed to save the best window and door for the railway shed that will be built up the back of the garden. 

 

Top half of the Steps complete and all soil levels correct.  The ground cover is now down, ready for the bark.

 

Fence all finished bark all down, and misses new washing line in.

Well that's the bottom end of the garden finished, apart from 2 ton of stone.  Weeman has his gang hut and shoot and even a paddling pool if you can believe it for Scotland...

 

 

 

Stage 2.....

Now that the I have completed this part I have permission to move to the back of the garden and the railway shed...   I have started to draw up plans of the building, and once I have a confirmed internal size I can start designing the layout to go with in.

 

So this is what I have been all through the summer,  I hope to get back to building my Carpark soon also.

 

Well its all for the change...

Over the past month I have been working hard in the back garden, trying to get it into a better state so my boy has somewhere to play, so all modelling has completely stopped.  We have also seen temp's up in the high 20's and its to get hotter.  The attic has been a no go area, as soon as I go near it I start sweating.

We have a 10 foot by 12 foot shed in the garden at the top corner.  So while I have been working away I have been checking to see if there is room to build a bigger shed in blockwork along the back. 

After taking a few sizes the Area at the back of the garden is 6.5m wide, and 6m from the back fence to the edge of where I have built the play area for Lewis.

So lots of room for a block shed/Railway room.  With a small shed attached to the side for the garden tools and bikes.  After a little gentle persuasion with the misses I got full permission, (as long as I change the attic into a storage room).

So the attic train room is no more.

I am sticking to N Gauge, and I should be able to build a room about 5m by 4m to take my layout. with a smaller shed on the side of it.  I have just had new windows and door installed, and managed to save a door and a window, which can bee used in the shed.

This will be about 3 feet shorter than the attic, but will be double the width.

I will still be building my kits at the clubrooms, and collecting more buildings, track and scenic's.  As I now have a bigger area to fill.  I will update the build as I go along.

Car Park Part 2 - More progress

When at the club last night I managed to get a bit more done on the car park.  With the ground floor complete and two of the side walls on, it was time to start putting together the upper floor together.

The instructions are very well laid out, and so are the spur's.  You don't have little bits left here and there, as you complete each part of the instructions you empty each spur.  Which is magic for me, as I have a habit of losing bits.

Every Building on the layout will be lit,  one to show off the detail inside, and two am basing this layout in the evening about 8pm (I know, pretty precise).  The reason for this, is the football stadium, will have a match just about to start.  That way it would be normal to have fans still coming into the Stadium, so it can be nearly full inside and have fans outside.  As all the loco's and most of the coach comes with lights this will also show of them as well.

 The car park will be in the city near the station, I have decided it will be late night shopping night in the centre, so it is going to be full, as there are 200 spaces, its a lot of cars, and lots of people about.

A friend of mine Ross, has shown me his way of lighting N-Scale Buildings.  So this is how I will do it here.  Each level of the car park is split with an upper and lower floor per level, but both sides connect to the stair column at one end.  In the top picture above you can see I have drilled some holes to take the wires from the lighting out under the base.

I have started with the floor straight above the entrance to the car park and felt this would have the most light, as this is where you enter and pay to leave.  I first cut away part of the ceiling ribs to allow the LED light strip to be fixing to the roof as flat as possible.  The lighting strip is in Sets of three lights with each set already having a resistor attached.  The back of the strip is self adhesive, but Ross informed me that when the strip gets hot it has a habit of un-attaching itself, so I added a little super glue to help keep it in place. 











I cut away a small area to allow the wires to come from the lighting strip to the stairwell without being seen.  The lighting strip his two points marked to show you were to attach the wires.  As I had not soldered in a while I was hoping not to blow any of the lights by adding too much heat, but I am very pleased to say that all went ok.

 The LED lighting strips can be bought on E-bay for about £10 for 300 LED's in lots of different colours, the one I have used here is warm white.  If you require the lighting to be a bit more duller, you can add a resistor in the size you require to achieve the affect you want.  As the above photo shows I didn't kill the LED's and I think they look pretty good.

The next step was to add the barriers and cars to the level.  I will be adding people to this building, but as I am still moving this around and nothing is attached I will add them when I come to fix the levels in place, so they are less likely to be damaged.  

I then did the same for the level above, but I used less lighting strips, only 2 sets of 3, instead of 4 sets of 3, so there will be a little less light on the floors above.

While I was flying along, putting the barriers in and cars I forgot to add the arrow decals on the floor, so I will have to add these in before I get to carried away.

I am very pleased with my progress so far on this build, and look forward to completing the rest of the floors.



More will follow as the build moves on, until then I wonder if its possible to built a car park like this on the layout?????