Crymmych Arms

Hi All.
Most of you are familiar with our previous layouts, so I wont bother to post them here, unless requested. For people not familiar, three of us in West Wales are modelling stations from the old Whitland and Cardigan Railway.
We have already built and exhibited Cardigan, Kilgerran and Boncath in 3mm, Login in 00, and the latest project is Crymych (Paddington called it Crymmych Arms - and Kilgerran instead of Cilgerran).
We chose to do Crymych in N gauge so that it would be more manageable for transportation, and also to enable a tail-chaser instead of end-to-end, as the previous ones are.

Pictured below is an early photograph of the station:



The track plan, as published in MC Prices book 'The Whitland & Cardigan Railway' :


And our paper plan, as close to scale as possible.



I made up three boards in the time honoured fashion from 9mm ply and 19 x 45 framing. Glued, screwed and varnished.



Track being laid by the gandy dancers at one of our weekly get togethers



Final picture for this post is of the completed track laying, prior to point operations being installed and ballasting:



Track work is a bit of a mixture, with Peco points, Italian Flexy track, Peco setrack curves, and some pieces of 009... whatever we had available really.

Our modelling philosophy is to only spend when we really have to, as Merlot/Syrah/Granache take priority!

More details in the next post.

ATB
Shaun.

 

Thanks for the comments chaps. In answer to a couple of queries -

Tom: There are three, occasionally four, of us OAPs meet once a week at each others houses, consume a lot of red wine, and intend to do railway modeling...
We have a blog - Google 'Chufferduffers' - that should find us.

I (we) moved house last year, from a rambling farmhouse with lots of barns/sheds, but fortunately the new house has a very large spare bedroom, where us Duffers have room to build. Also a large garage, so we can store our three exhibition layouts.

Gary: It's a diamond crossing - should be a double slip, but we were lucky enough to be given a lot of track, points and stock to go towards the Crymmych Arms layout, so we go with what we have.

Points on the front of the layout are wire in tube, worked by DPDT switches, which electrically connect to the point blades. We didn't do that on previous layout, and pay the price...

The fiddle yard, which will be hidden by a backscene, has a CDU and SEEP solenoids.
Fiddle yard control panel:



The DPDT switches for the station (four on this panel, two to go down the other end):



The three boards join together with cabinet makers dowels and split hinges, and electrical continuity is maintained by a patent method devised years ago by Mr Dickson (AKA Chubber)

Sketched below. Self explanatory, really:



Thats it for this post - back to ballasting

On previous layouts I was able to use fine washed sand from one of our local beaches, but in N gauge I had to buy ballast... cost two bottles

Cheers,
Shaun.

 

Wot 'e said! Fairly standard stuff, and not much to go wrong... (until the next time out!)

 

Bit of a time lag there... Sorry!

Since my last post - Ballasted all the 'public' track - sprinkled fine grey ballast everywhere, sprayed it with 50/50 meths/water, then applied dilute PVA with a plastic pipette. When it had dried I cleaned up all the odd bits and then liberally painted it with matt varnish to provide extra hold.

We then set up the three boards and had a test run:



All seemed to work to Colins satisfaction, so the boards were tidied up ready for further work.

I scrounged a length of 3mm Foamex from our local sign-writer, and fixed it up temporarily as a back-scene:



Hopefully it will be painted by my wife who kindly did our back scenes on the previous layouts.

Next stage, I wrapped the back-board in cling film, and then formed the scenic contours with a can of expanding foam. I forgot to photograph the amazing result, but here is a shot of a corner before cutting:

Sorry! I hadn't uploaded it. Moving swiftly on...
We sliced the expanded foam away in slices to give an acceptable landscape:



And then today it was given a covering of Modroc plaster bandage:



Thats it so far!

ATB
Shaun.

 

I can't agree more Chris - but the opposite happened with me. Like you, it was a can that I had bought over two years ago.

I started spraying, and it looked very disappointing - not behaving like previous experiences with the stuff. I persevered, and sprayed more. Returned an hour later...

I just wished I'd taken a picture! It was a different brand to ones I had used before, so obviously different characteristics!

Two bin bags full of off-cuts instead of the expected one.

 

I've been a bit tardy with posting anything in the last few weeks, but I'll try and remedy that.
We left off in the last pic of bare Modroc...

This was given a couple of coats of 'Marty's Gloop' - a famous landscaping mixture known to many here on this forum.
Basically mix together PVA, filler powder, any old emulsion or acrylic paint you have hanging about, and then slather it on...



When it was dry I got to work on the platforms and scenery. I'll put up more later today, as I'm just adding this post from the laptop, and I don't have access to the other pictures.

Get back to you later'

Shaun.

 

Thanks for following chaps.

Pete, (Jakesdad) the backscene is removable. At the moment it slots in between the scenery and some angled supports temporarily made from spare Foamex. The intention is to fix it permanently, but you could quite easily have a removable one.
Pic below of layout without the backscene:



Buildings are in the process of being added. At the moment they consist of John Jones and Sons, who were seed and grain merchants (a grand-daughter survives) and next door was W H James, Farm supplies and Ironmongery. They are still extant, but moved up into the village.



The sheds have yet to be bedded in...
Colin has built the signal box, and Pat constructed the goods shed and down platform waiting room. These have yet to arrive - probably tomorrow at the next Chuffers meeting.
Meanwhile I managed to make the station and bridge.





Fortunately the goods shed and station are still there, but have been altered quite a lot. Mainly we have had to work from old photos, and make extensive use of the 'Disused Stations' website.

I guess that is more or less up to date.
I can't honestly say I'm enjoying this one - N gauge is not my cup of tea - I really admire the likes of Marty who model in it.

However, we soldier on. Deadline is July 8/9, when we are due to exhibit at the Login Station Annual Weekend 'do'.

ATB
Shaun.