Another Goods Shed Shot

For the sake of it.

The Station Building

Here is some further progress, I’ve just cut put the basic shape of the roof. There is an awful lot more work to be done but it gives a good impression of how it’s going to look now that a basic roof structure is in place.

Getting an eye for things.

With little to do at present I decided to take some of the semi built structures out to the shed to get a good look at how it’s all coming along. The photos show the goods shed and overly tall grain silos on the bench with all of the track in its appropriate position. The grain silos need to have about 15cm chopped off!

Goods Shed Progress

Work is slowly moving ahead with the goods shed. This is it’s current status. It appears I’ve made it a little to high but my only references were photographs and google earth so I’m not to fussed.

Weathering Track

My first attempt at weathering track. I have read a million write ups on the net but figured the only way to learn how to do it was to actually do it. I’m happy with the outcome. After lightly brushing the sleepers with white paint I then brushed on a brown color, I then chose a lighter brown to paint the side of the rails. This was the outcome. Note; I haven’t yet cleaned off the tops of the rails.

Boredom Buster with Scenery

As a result of my current financial status the project has been on hold for a few weeks while I muster up some more cash to feed my addiction. In the mean time I have been fiddling around with some minor details. Tonight I sat down for about an hour in my shed and put together a little diorama to test my skills. I have never attempted to create scenery for a model railroad before so I figured I may as well see if I can actually do it before I tackle the immense task of beautifying the entire 9 square metres of table in the shed. From a few scraps I managed to scrounge from boxes of childhood toys I managed to knock up this little scene, there is much improvement to be made as I venture further into scenery but for a start I am pretty content. I used a small off cut of peco code 75 flex track, painted the sleepers with rail brown and touched up the sides of the rails with a brown rusty colour, I then used some old sand from a modelling kit to ballast the track, plastered the rest of the ground, the plaster was coloured with an oxide and flocked the rest of the scene with some fake grass i found lying around. after rummaging through some tool boxes I found some small plastic parts which i used for the drainage pipe for the little culvert under the track for the creek bed and used bristles from a paint brush to construct some reeds. and rusty nails as fence posts. The outcome is shown below, I’m pretty content at this stage with the results

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Track Planning

I Have begun cutting sheets of 900mmx 700mm sheets of 3mm thick cork to the shape of the roadbed for the station yard and am measuring the track to fit. I started by positioning the points in their approximate positions so I can measure the lengths of flex track needed to fill the gaps. All up there are 17 points in the yard the entrances to the yard are all Peco code 75 large radius turnouts and the crossovers along the length of the yard are medium radius. Each point is powered by a PL10 point motor and will have an accessory switch to switch the frog polarity to enable good dcc running on the layout. The points are buried in holes cut through the foam, the underlying baseboard is drilled through to feed the cables. When the wiring is complete I will cover the holes with either card or more cork so they can be ballasted. On the cork i have roughly measured the path of the flex track to assist in laying straight lengths. I have also marked the position of the uncouplers which are yet to arrive in the mail. I will be using Kadee electromagnetic uncouplers there will be two in each road through the yard at each end of the yard as well as ones positioned at the entrance to the cattle siding, in front of the goods shed and at the end of the grain handling siding. Below shows the current progress. The first picture is the point motor attached to a peco turnout and the hole in the foam, the second photo shows the points positioned onto the cork and the track markings, the round black marks represent the position of the uncouplers at this end of the yard. The final photo shows the long straight section of planned track that runs between the goods shed and railway station building.

The Makings of a Bridge

I have decided to construct a bridge over a large creek loosely based on south Australian terrain and infrastructure, my design has been stitched up with reference to three spots around south Australia, Hamley Bridge, Currency Creek and the old Eden Hills viaduct, the later having been torn down over 80 years ago. The bridge itself will be an open deck plate girder bridge painted in the typical red of the SAR. It will have 4 concrete piers and concrete abutments constructed from wood. The terrain is constructed out of 4 sheets of 50mm thick extruded polystyrene stacked up on top of one another. The creek is a deep ravine very similar to the geography of currency creek on the Strathalbyn/Goolwa railway line to the south of Adelaide. The creek itself will be very small but the ravine will have thick trees and shrub. This is the current progress, and a photo of the prototype at currency creek !

Further Experimenting

Here are a few more shots of experimentation with space and position for certain structures in the yard. Here im trying to get an idea for the grain silos, where they will go and how big they need to be. The silos are constructed from 100mm diameter PVC pipe so far only a rough shell has been cut they need further tweaking to get the height right. I wil use card and foam board for the rest of the silo structure.

A Rough Idea

I set this shot up to get a rough idea of the space required, here we see the railway station building and goods shed in their approxinate position with the tracks in between. The up and down main then the 3rd and 4th  reducing roads and the goods road are seen here. I’m using regular HO scale track not HOn3 so again there may be prototypical issues but for me I’m just having some fun!

Un-Prototypical

I know these broad gauge diesels didn’t pass through Jamestown but im yet to build a collection and this is my only south australian rolling stock/loco to date. I hope to get my hands on some 830s soon with the mustard pot livery and eventually a Garratt. Again if anyone wants to be picky the one i have in my sights is the Eureka AD60 NSWGR garratt which i know is different to the SAR garratts but for me im just here to have fun and it will do. I certainly wont be counting the wheels. Similarly the nswgr 50 class steam loco will suffice for me as a T class. Haters gonna hate

Extruded Polystyrene

I decided the best option was to use a 50mm layer of extruded polystyrene on top of the particleboard base so i could model terrain above and below the level of the track. Extruded Polystyrene was a much better choice over regular expanded polystyrene because of its texture and extra strength ideal for weight support and fireproof, safe for running electrical cables through. Point motors and uncouplers will be buried inside the foam. After much frustrated searching i had found only 2 places in south Australia which sold extruded polystyrene. One of the companies i contacted was very unwelcoming and cold on the phone and when it comes to public service the first thing that turns me off purchasing any goods is the treatment received from staff. The second place however was much more accommodating and within a few weeks they had cut and delivered the sheets. This is how they looked after some final trimming. Eventually hey will be glued in place.

The Railway Station

Using some photos from an internet website and rough measurements from google earth i have begun constructing the Jamestown Railway station building. It is made from sheets of foamboard purchased at office works cut and glued together and covered in a thin layer of airdry clay. I experimented alot with ways to create the stonework of the building hoping to find a quick easy solution that looked good but to no avail. Using the clay takes a while longer than pasting coloured paper to the sides but i think it looks much more realistic, it will eventually be painted to resemble large limestown blocks in a random ashlar style. The small bricks used for the corners and windowsills are red but i think may also pass as a painted cream colour. For the roof i used matchsticks and plain white card, I then cut strips of tin foil and wrapped them around a screw to get the corrugated iron look. Once everything is glued together and painted fingers crossed i get soemthing that looks like a railway station!

The Benchwork

The bench work shortly after completion of the main Railway station section of the layout, I was using some old HO scale roco track to get an idea of space for the layout, i obviously have plenty. The shed for many many years has been used to store old furniture which i had to rearrange to find the space to start the construction. The room i have between the end of the bench and the side of the stored furniture is not very much so working conditions aren't ideal! The layout is a dog-bone on L shaped bench work with two levels. The main section of the table is 7000mm long by 900mmwide, the end past the foreground of the above picture drops below the top deck 200mm and does a full 180 turn and then returns to the other end on a lower level. The far end has another bench which branches off to the left of the photo (not constructed in above photo) this similarly does a 180 turn and drops down 200mm to the lower level. Each end section of the table is 1300mm x 1300mm allowing for a 180 turn with 22″min radius. The entire bench work is constructed from materials from Bunnings. Structural pine was screwed to the framework of the shed with large metal brackets, atop the brackets is more structural pine creating a frame which supports the particleboard sheets, the offcuts from the sheets are used as a backboard which will later have scenery painted onto it. There are three sheets in total along the main section of the table and one for the far end. The lower level is skirting board pine 200mm across supported by small brackets attached to the underside of the framework. It is wide enough for 3 tracks.

My first post.

I’m new to blogging, easily a facebook veteran but I’ve never tackled a blog before, I am doing this because i have recently undertaken the challenge of model railroading and am currently in the process of constructing the Jamestown narrow gauge railway station in my back shed. Don’t ask why, i suppose its like a bug that bights you and you can’t seem to stop the itch. I figured i might as well document my project so i can share it with others.