Diesel Hydraulics at Portencross

[teedoubleudee]

Great pictures HD

[Hound Dog]

Hi Everybody,

Didn't make much progress on my layout during the Summer months due to many other priorities, with any time spent in the railway room being occupied with fitting sound chips to my Diesel Hydraulics ( must do a video as the Western's sound awesome) and the odd running session. However since the nights have drawn in, I have been able to steal an hour or so of an evening to try to get things moving again.

The previously referred to running sessions highlighted a frustration that I had nowhere really on my layout to run freight to, or a yard where I could shunt and marshal trains - the sidings that I had created at the North end of the layout were closed end and the routing thru the station relief line and past the depot was far from ideal. I decided that I needed more real estate and that my planned Railway Heritage centre would have to be sacrificed, and so a new extension piece was added to the layout and work started to build a 5 road marshalling yard.........like everything on my layout compromises had to be made and the new yard features arched sidings, entry to which at one end is via a series of the "dreaded curved points"

The yard merges nicely into the branch line at one end, whilst the other end required another curved point fashioned into the existing down mainline just opposite St Meddans Signal box - if I say so myself, I am especially pleased at how this section came together as I feared that this part had the potential to be the death of the project ( still could be when wired up !)

All the track is now down with dropper wires soldered and so fitting point motors, switches, LEDs etc, and connecting everything up is the next fun stage ahead - no major rush as I enjoy overcoming the build challenges almost as much as running trains, but would be nice to have this complete for Christmas.........additionally, I now have a clear line of sight to what I want to do with rest of the layout, which after this stage will be all scenic work which I especially enjoy.

Pls see below a couple of shots of the yard - excuse the drawing pins and wagon selection as everything else is currently packed away...........The front two sidings are kind of temporary until I source a decent goods shed and figure out a final configuration.

As always any comments or feedback welcome - cheers Richard

PS - Still haven't settled on a name for the yard, so any suggestions welcomed.

[Bandit Mick]

This is going to be superb.

[bulleidboy]

Great pictures - love your trees. BB

[cheshire lines]

Coming along nicely.
The trees help blend the modelled area in with the backscene.

[Hound Dog]

Hi Folks,

Been slowly progressing with wiring up the new marshalling yard ( imagine about half the speed of Steve M with both his hands tied behind his back - LOL), but I also took the opportunity to rewire an adjacent control panel to utilise new double pole circular on-off-on rocker switches which let me switch the points and change the panel LED's in the same movement, as previously this was done using the one of the switches on the Cobalt point motor. As a consequence I have cut out several long runs of wire underneath the base board and freed up the aforementioned point motor switch to control signals that I plan to install adjacent to the points. On the yard itself I now have around 8-off Seep point motors to install and the power bus to finish up wiring and then we should be operational and free from wiring - I quite enjoy wiring when starting from scratch, but hate crawling about underneath the boards altering or adding to something that was originally neat.

Given that I am almost finished with track and electrics, my mind is starting to turn towards more scenic endeavours and this will probably kick off with track weathering and ballasting etc, which leads me to the reason for this post.......... To date I have always used a mix of predominantly brown ballast with a very slight hint of red oxide and grey ( sounds hideous but actually looks ok - see picture below) and for sure I will stick with this for the few bits of the mainline and branch which have not yet been ballasted, however I feel I would like to introduce something different to the layout and the new yard seems the ideal opportunity.

Questions :-

a) Any experience good or bad in mixing ballast types / colours on a single layout ?
b) Is this at all prototypical ?

My sense is to introduce a light grey or granite coloured ballast ( I already have two unopened bags) and then weather it down ( oil, grime rust and weeds etc) to reflect a working yard.

Appreciate any thoughts - thanks Richard.

[Steve M]

Hi Richard, thanks for the ‘nod’.

It’s quite prototypical to have stretches of different ballast, even if only because the new stuff is clean. Personally I think it looks odd and try to avoid it if possible. In any event different areas will have different levels of weathering which, in my opinion, provides sufficient variety. Others will disagree.

As for your yard, bear in mind they can be very grubby around the areas where locos stand. Admittedly mine is a steam yard and much dirtier than a diesel yard, but I use a very fine powder that I bought from Hatton’s. You brush it in to completed and ballasted track to fill up the gaps between the stones before adding a few drops of dilute PVA.
Once dry the usual weathering with paints and powders takes place and you will never know what the colour of the original ballast was.

I have also used a dry mix of plaster and playpit sand to create a grimy yard base as well as lots of DAS clay to simulate concrete.

[bulleidboy]

Great picture Richard - I do like your trees - I have a box of Gaugemaster Seafoam trees which has yet to be opened - it's on the "to do" list
The cottage etc., merge very well with the backscene - great work.

[glencairn]

Lovely pictures, Richard. As BB says the cottage merges in with the backscene very well.

As for ballast colours. Steve is correct to avoid new if possible. Personally, I would use the light grey ballast on the main line and branch. Giving the impression of new track being laid and new ballast added. For the yard, continue using the brown ballast etc.

Just my thoughts Richard.

Looking forward to seeing the progress.

Glencairn

[Hound Dog]

Two Unique liveried locomotives Western Champion and Western Pioneer rostered on Passenger services today at Portencross.

https://flic.kr/p/2mW8adG