Time for some point motors!

Still getting over the shock of having managed to connect up all the track power feeds without any issues (so far!) on the baseboard that I am working on from My Last Project 00 gauge layout, I am now dealing with the point motors. I pre-prepared them by fitting an extension pin to the activating rod.

That done I also attached the Peco mounting plate which makes fastening the motor to the baseboard much easier. 

With that done it was time to wire up the first one so that it can be attached to the baseboard. Much easier to pre-wire them on the bench than struggle once they are fastened to the baseboard. Working smarter not harder as I get older! I use a three core wire from Gaugemaster which again makes life easier and the only additional wire I need to add is a small loop between the two common returns on the two sides of the motor's solenoid.

Hopefully fitting the motors to the baseboard will follow on from the ease of the connecting of the power feeds! 

 

Power feeds complete!

Miraculously, the wiring of the power feeds on the baseboard from my My Last Great Project 00 gauge layout is complete! Whether it all works remains to be seen but I have a level of confidence in my work although I am not sure how low on the scale that level is!

I just need to add the point motors and their wiring next! Oh joy!

Making sense of a spaggetti!

Time to start on the wiring of another baseboard on my Last Great Project Layout. Two have been completed leaving two to do so I guess I could claim to be half way through but it doesn't feel like it! at least when I laid the track I did solder on the wires to it and fed them under the baseboard ready to be sorted out at a later date - something I am too good at!

First thing to do was to clear all the trains off the baseboard.

With that done the remaining tracks that ran over the baseboard joint were cut through and it was time to lift it up and see the underside!

That is going to take a lot of sorting! I think I will be busy for the next few days/weeks!

Formulating a plan!

Back to model railway layout building and in particular My Last Great Project which needs to move on a bit faster than it has. To that end I am looking at the station baseboard where there is a small urban station in front of the hidden sidings for the two main lines. Unfortunately the hidden sidings are just not hidden yet! So, work has started!

The plan, always good to have one of those even if I don't always do that, is to have a wall behind the station area hiding the hidden sidings with something on top. I do have a plan for that as well but as yet it is still in formulation! However to further formulate I need to at least start on the wall.

Starting with my favorite brick paper from Metcalfe, some measurements indicate that I can make full use of each sheet.

Having cut some mounting card to size I cut some brick paper sheets to suit.

I used Spray Mount to stick it to the card. Great glue but it needs to be used in a well ventilated environment like outside! So, outside I went and I used a clothes peg to hold the brick paper as I sprayed it - just hope Mrs. Woody doesn't notice!

Back inside the sheets were attached to the card.

Just to see how things looked on the layout it was temporarily place in position.

It looks a bit basic but in my mind I can further formulate that plan now!

Half the time!

I did manage to sneak an hour in the Man cave to create another length of cable trunking. Whilst the first length I built took 2 hours to make this latest length was less than an hour! That's half the time for the job!

And talking about halves and time and jobs, Mrs. Woody was pleased to note that the previously half painted bathroom door featured a few days ago...

has now been painted....

and on both sides!

Just wish that job had taken half the time of when I only painted half of it!

A fraction of the price!

Still working on the cable trunking with a bit more file work to mark the vertical joints.

Then it was time to paint with some concrete coloured paint.

I sprayed this as it was easier than painting.

Looking good - in my view anyway!

So how does it compare with the Wills kit parts? Well lets have a look!

I think it compares well and at a fraction of the price - now that is nice!

DIY Cable Trunking.

On most real railways these days the vast array of colour light signals, point motors and general communications systems are controlled and linked by electrical cables. In the old days, (when I was a lad!) there used to be telegraph poles that carried telephone lines and most points and signals were controlled by mechanical linkages with a nearby signal box. In the modern World the various cables that now do these important functions are protected from damage by concrete cable trunking.

In the model World you can buy various kits to make this trunking and I have used the Wills version myself.

You get about 24 inches of trunking and some junction pieces.

When I bough two of these kits a couple of years ago they were about £4.50 each. Looking through a few sites today the cheapest I could see was £6.61! I need about 10 feet of trunking and possibly more which means that the cost is a minimum of £33 or £3.30 a foot. That is a lot and I got to thinking there must be a cheaper way - and there is!

Evergreen strip No 188 3.2mm x 4.8mm. You get six 15 inch strips (for £5.20) which equates to 7.5 feet length in total . 

Add some 0.5mm square strip at 15pence for an 18 inch length (from DMG Electech) and for a total cost of £6.70 I can make 7.5 feet of trunking which works out at about 90pence a foot! Bargain! So how do I make it?

First off, to make the lip of the covers I glued the 0.5mm strip to the side of the Evergreen strip.

With that done I constructed this jig.

The jig allows me to slide the trunking through it and every 12mm, see the mark on the bottom of the jig, use a saw to cut a grove to simulate the joints between the individual covers. 

With the saw cuts done I used some needle files to add some depth and relief. Once painted and weathered it should look a lot more defined.

It took me a couple of hours to sort out the method of making the trunking and constructing the jig but I think I could now do a 15 inch length in about 30 minutes so it is not that time consuming. There is also the possibility of some additional details but that is for another time as in the meanwhile I need to get some more of this DIY trunking made.. 

Taking stock!

Having finally finished the tunnel scenic sub-base, it is perhaps time to sit back and take stock of what else I need to be getting on with in the future to finish this particular baseboard section of my 00 gauge Last great Project Layout.

This is the baseboard in question. 6 feet by 2.5 feet in size. 

The wiring and point motors have been installed but need to be fully wired into the as yet to be built control panel. The scenery is basically complete with the various sub-bases. There will be additional details to be added but these can be done over time but there is nothing major to be done, apart from over the tunnels. That though will depend on what I do over the hidden sidings so that is on the back burner at present.

One thing that does need detailing is the Metcalfe goods shed that I built about 25 years ago. A great kit but looking at it now there are a couple of areas that could do with some detailing. The flat cardboard roof with printed slates could do with having a new roof laid on it with some relief in the tiles. In addition it could do with gutters and downpipes and finally a good dose of weathering would enhance it.

Then there is a small amount of track to be laid from this point that is supposed to allow for future expansion of the layout -0 if I have the time, space and inclination!

Then all the track needs ballasting.

The end of the goods yard needs ballasting and details adding.

And once all that is done I can move onto the next baseboard!

Maybe I shouldn't have taken stock - there is still a lot to do!

My Last Great Project Carboard Butchery - The video!

The long drawn out saga of the tunnel sub-base is recorded to some degree in this YouTube video. The WMD film crew have carried out their usual magic in producing this visionary delight which you will either find fascinating or as a sure blown way in which to cure insomnia!

Painting, weathering and shattered whilst Mrs. Woody has a spa day!

8am this morning Mrs. Woody went off for a spa day. That was nice! It left me to my own devices so instead of enjoying a day of pampering I got down to some painting of the freshly plastered bathroom. Luckily the plaster had dried over night so out came a watered down undercoat followed by top coats with the only part of the room escaping paint being where the tiles will go above the bath. By 2pm I was done - in more ways then one! 

Shattered i still went for a bike ride and then off to the Man Cave to weather the tunnel sub-base that has been an ongoing model making saga!

I airbrushed a misting of thinned down brown paint over the brickwork and then some black as soot coming from the locomotives above the tunnel mouths.

I think it looks good but then I would! Mrs. W, having returned from the pampering of her spa day, thinks the bathroom looks good although not sure what she might make of the tunnel! I could do with some pampering after today - maybe a spa day would be good!

Key moments!

A few key moments at WMD HQ today. Firstly the tunnel scenic sub-base is just about as finished as I need it to be at the moment. Just a stretch of coping stones to add and some weathering and I will be calling it a day on this for the moment. What goes on top of it is still open to debate, which is a polite way of saying I am not sure yet! It very much depends upon what I do on the next baseboard when I cover the loops at the back of the layout. However a key moment in that it is back in place and despite of my card board butchery of the last few weeks the trains still run through it!

The second key moment is that the bathroom was plastered this morning. The plasterer arrived at 8am and was gone by 11.30am! I have every admiration for those with the skill to plaster. My attempts usually end up as a pile of plaster on the floor or even if it stays on the wall it ends up looking like a lunar landscape! Once the plastering is done you feel as though things have turned that corner where the destruction becomes construction. A key moment indeed! My next key moment will be painting it after it dries. Oh joy! More painting!

Coping?

Much as there is a lot going on at WMD HQ and in my life I do tend to cope with these although Mrs. Woody may have a different view especially having travelled to the Bingham Model Railway Show only to find I was a month too early! 

Enough of that for now and in this instance, the coping I am talking about are the coping stones that I am adding to my tunnel scenic sub-base as this long drawn out project slowly steams into the port of completion!

I needed to build up a the top of the piers so that they straddled the wall along the top of the tunnels. Fabricated from card these were quick to put together.

These were then covered in brick paper.

The brick paper was then trimmed after the glue set and the pieces glued to the rear of the existing piers.

With theses now in place I could add the coping stones which are just strips of card cut from the backing sheet of a pad of paper (never throw useful stuff out!) and marked up in pencil. I taped the strip of card to the side of one ruler and that enabled me to read of the measurements and draw the lines at the required separation using another ruler and pencil.

Still more to do but these two pictures give an idea of how these additions make the plain brickwork look a a bit more interesting and whilst these details are a time consuming activity, it is something that I can cope with!

Adornments!

The tunnel scenic sub-base is beginning to look a little more interesting with some adornments to the previously flat brickwork. These bits take some time to make and add but do enhance the look. Just a lot more to do yet before I can say it is finished - just like the WMD HQ bathroom at the moment!

A level of sanity returns!

In Mrs. Woody's view, sanity and me are not words that you associate with each other! However, in the case of WMD, a level of sanity returns with me getting out into the Man Cave and doing some model making activity and inside of the WMD HQ the bathroom is now fully plaster boarded and looks a lot better even if there is much more to do!

Lets deal with the model making first and I am still working on the tunnel section of my layout with the installation of the various supporting piers that are needed. Although I had previously made some of these, because of the need to alter much of the main structure these no longer fitted so there I am having to build new ones.

This is where the above is going to fit.

And fitted, it tidies up that joint nicely!

The next one is now under construction so hopefully with the return of a level of  sanity to model making it will be completed shortly!

Meanwhile, the sanity level returns, in part, to the bathroom with plaster boarding complete and things tidied up. Next step is plastering next week. That will be nice!