Lawndale RR

Piermaster · Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:20 pm Post subject: Lawndale RR

Hi all,

At 55 years old, wearing varifocal glasses and recently got a very nice bonus from my employer - No, not a City Bank type bonus, more of 'Build a new layout' type financial bonus! I decided to go to a scale where I can actually see what I'm modelling!!

Took a look at O Gauge and thought yes until I saw the prices and said no! Took a look at O-16.5 and nothing went wow to me, looked at On30 and it ticked all my boxes.

Got a 3'-6" x 8" oak plank and planned out my On30 Project - now named Lawndale RR, after my latest Bachmann acquisition - a ventilated boxcar in Lawndale livery. Yes, there was a Lawndale RR in North Carolina and one of their boxcars is preserved at Metcalfe, NC http://www.lawndalenc.org/images/01.jpg

My Lawndale RR has no resemblance whatsoever!

Designed this layout so it can be stand alone or incorporated as a module for CRM (or any other) On30 group's layout.

The 'through' track is at the rear and the yard activity will be at the front.

L to R: The curved roof caboose beside the base of the Bachmann 'Plasticville' Track Shanty - this will be either a Flag Stop or a caboose crewmen's shanty; Davenport gas-mechanical switcher on through track; Ventilated boxcar in short siding before base of Bachmann 'Plasticville' Freight shed.

Close-up of ventilated boxcar and base of freight shed.

'O' scale is a big scale to work with so, there will only be two buildings. Looking closely at US NG, I don't think there is any need to overballast OO track as the American sleeper spacings (even on NG) are so close, I reckon I could get away with it 'as is'.

Because of its modular potential, I have to take into consideration other peoples locos and the freight platform will have to be set well back from the through line to allow a 58mm wide 'Consolidation' steam loco to pass.

A bit like this for clearances:
http://www.michiganrailroads.com/RRHX/imagesRRHX/Stations/AAYumaDepot%5BAlanLoftisColl%5D.jpg

Recently spent a wet and windy morning (yes, it does rain in East Anglia, its rare though) cleaning up baseboard, glueing down the cork overlay (using 'No More Nails') and laid out the track to the final configuration and secured in place with double-sided carpet tape (this time 'no more track pins').

Tested the connections with a brief running session and OK, now the mucky work will start.

Sorry, no more photos at this stage, nothing to really photograph yet.

More will follow - soon.

Don't worry about Walmington Pier Tramway, it has to outlive me and gets all the TLC it needs!!

Cheers,

Dave
_________________
Piermaster
http://www.walmingtonpier.co.uk
It sticks out half a mile!

Korschtal · Joined: 20 Aug 2007 Posts: 354 Location: Stuttgart

Good to see you building...

Looking forward to see what you make of this scale. Please keep posting pictures...
_________________
Andy in Germany
More railway misadventures on:
www.korschtal.wordpress.com

Piermaster · Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2009 11:07 pm Post subject:

Thanks Andy, the two-year-long 'modellers block' has gone!!

Spent the morning in the garage and still nothing worth photographing yet as I complete the last bit of track weathering and painted the components of the two building kits.

Will soon be starting on the ground cover and 42" x 8" baseboard equates to approx 170ft x 32ft which means that for such a small area there will be little scope for variation.

Lawndale RR has its first exhibition booking in June 2010 already!!

Cheers,

Dave
_________________
Piermaster
http://www.walmingtonpier.co.uk
It sticks out half a mile!

Piermaster · Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 6:46 pm Post subject:

Been working from home today, did get quite a bit done workwise and spent part of Saturday and this afternoon back in the garage.

I've joined the coffee stirrer brigade and decked out the shanty base and weathered it with all kinds of paints and thinners. Southern Pacific Lettering Grey looks good on buildings!!

A much repainted Bachmann 'Plasticville' freight depot with loads of weathering powders ground into the platform surface.

Time to play trains:

Start of the 11 step sequence to move the stock to the yard and the loco out to the through track. Sold the curved roof caboose on eBay for more than I paid and got a real caboose.

And another 11 steps back to the start!!

Going to be very busy up to New Year so there won't be much more progress until then.

Dave
_________________
Piermaster
http://www.walmingtonpier.co.uk
It sticks out half a mile!

Jim Thompson · Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:04 pm Post subject:

Nice stuff! Very Happy

Peace,

Jim

Ken · Joined: 19 May 2007 Posts: 386 Location: East London

Vey nice layout Dave. In case you ever wanted another use for that hut, how about the smallest post office in the U.S

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/14154

Looking forward to more pics
Ken

Piermaster · Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 9:21 pm Post subject:

Thanks Jim and Ken,

America's smallest Post Office? Worth thinking about....

In France for Christmas and working over Christmas Week, but will try and squeeze some time in on the project.

Cheers,

Dave
_________________
Piermaster
http://www.walmingtonpier.co.uk
It sticks out half a mile!

Ken · Joined: 19 May 2007 Posts: 386 Location: East London

I thought the caboose could be switched alongside the "post office" and receive a bag or two of mail, whilst that open goood shed looks like it might be some kindof fruit shed, and the box car is ventilated, a type the Atlantic Coast line used for fruit, so local farmers bring boxes of peaches...I know it's your layout and it is coming along nicely, but I also think you are capturing that "down South" look.

Enjoy Christmas
Ken

Piermaster · Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 5:23 pm Post subject:

Thanks Ken,

Sorry I couldn't reply sooner, been on business in Cleveland (NE England) and Northern Ireland, now snowed up back in Suffolk. I've never been to the southern US states, but thanks for the compliment, all I'm doing is just cobbling it together.

Hope to start the ground cover soon and that's the bit I start by enjoying - mixing various proportions of different scatter (including clean ballast) in a bucket until I get what I think is the right colour and texture, coat the board with diluted and un-diluted PVA and empty the bucket over the baseboard and spread.

The bit I don't enjoy - about an hour later, tip the board of excess and level out in track areas and points.

Watch this space for the action and the mess!!!

Dave
_________________
Piermaster
http://www.walmingtonpier.co.uk
It sticks out half a mile!

mog · Joined: 31 Oct 2006 Posts: 221 Location: Mansfield Notts UK

Nice start Dave.
Never done anything serious in On30 yet..but been bashing and kit building.
There's a nice little project to bash a caboose from a Gnomy one here...
http://on30center.com/on30/library/articles/pd/gcb.html

(must take some pics of mine)

look forward to seeing developments on this one..
_________________
Martin Hogg

Mogtrains at:
http://freespace.virgin.net/family.hogg/
Mogtrains2 at:
http://mogtrains.blogspot.com/
More railway stuff at:
http://photobucket.com/albums/b160/mogworld/
phew!

Korschtal · Joined: 20 Aug 2007 Posts: 354 Location: Stuttgart

giles b · Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Posts: 306 Location: London

[quote="Korschtal]
At last Someone else ballasts in the same way as I do. The 'Diluted PVA' idea never worked for me- I'd get two grains staying on the board and a vacum full of scatter material.[/quote]

Looks like a case of "more PVA needed in the mixture" - paticularly true with coarser ballast or O gauge sizes. Either that, or two applications. Another way problems can arise is if you're laying track on a porous surface (e.g. the old softboard that pin-boards used to be made of). That drinks the glue and none is left to stick the ballast down. Remedy is to prime the surface with emulsion before track-laying.

Dave, the layout's developing nicely. Might you extend it to another small module? That little hut is cute; think I might get to making a copy in G scale shortly.

Giles

Piermaster · Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:50 pm Post subject:

It's all going horribly wrong!!!

Just before the snows came, I spread PVA all over the board and emptied my scatter cocktail all over it, then left it.

Three weeks of snow, wind, frost and down to -8 C in the garage it was cold, very cold!!! A week after everything thawed, I lifted the board to remove the excess asnd guess what? Nothing stayed on the board.

Damn, blast and bu99er - wait till it warms up and try again!!!

Dave
_________________
Piermaster
http://www.walmingtonpier.co.uk
It sticks out half a mile!

Jim Thompson · Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:07 pm Post subject:

Ya-a-a-a-ahrrrrrrr Exclamation

Where is that global warming when you really need it??? Cool

Good luck!

Peace,

Jim

Piermaster · Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 11:18 pm Post subject:

Took a look at the 'congealed mess' that no longer resembles anything seen in the previous photos and only the buildings can be salvaged.

Starting to lose interest, but might be rekindled through a 4ft x 6in board that could be a 'Tuning Fork' style layout - I've done 'Inglenook', 'SLT', 'Minimo' type layouts before, but never a 'Tuning Fork'.

If only it would get warmer and I can work in the garage!!

Got my first exhibition in June!!

Dave
_________________
Piermaster
http://www.walmingtonpier.co.uk
It sticks out half a mile!