Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

Hi Gloria,
I may do a "How To" video for you, however it may take a while as I`m not well at the moment.
In the meantime another test video done with the little camera before before I became unwell.
I think I will only rely on the Nikon Coolpix for still pictures as the video files are only recorded in AVI which results in rather large video files for very little elapsed time.
My Sony Handycam allows me to use MP4 files which take up far less space.



Gormo

 

You`re welcome Gloria.......

 

Thanks Pete,
Hopefully it`s just a reaction to a Flu shot I had last week.
I`m actually feeling quite a lot better this morning.
Glad you liked the video.
Gormo

 

G`day Steve,
Yes I`m all good now.........I had a test for Covid 19 on Friday as I had a terrible fever on Thursday night. I got a text from the health authorities today to let me know it was negative.
I had a flu injection a week earlier and I think my fever was a reaction to that.......it`s happened before years ago......anyway...now we know and all is good....

My railway is 1 metre high at the top of the baseboard. The branch line, however rises to 1160mm.
I designed my railway to be operated either standing or sitting. The 1 metre height is perfect for that as I also have a height adjustable chair. Sitting on the chair brings you down to a level that is nice to view the trains rolling past whilst I`m sipping on a beer or yacking to somebody. The branch can also be operated sitting down and your eye level is much closer to track level.
My Grandkids can reach the railway from the floor, even when they were much younger, however they have a slight height disadvantage so I have those little plastic folding step stools for them which raises them up by about 220mm. Actually the older of the two no longer requires the step stool. Fortunately neither of them has taken a dive off the step stools, but it `s always a worry for me when they`re out there with me.
They are both careful with the railway, because I took the trouble to explain to them how fragile some of the things are. They like to do their own thing with the trains but they`ve never broken anything and if they did, I could probably fix it anyway.
I built the railway to be enjoyed by the boys so there`s no point in excluding them from the fun and I must say they have a ball out in the shed and it`s fun for me to bond with them and watch them work things out.
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Well now it`s time to see what my Market House looks like on the railway.
The details of the build are covered in a Gormo`s Bench thread entitled " Building a Market House from a card kit " and can be found via the link below.

https://platform1mrc.com/p1mrc/inde...building-a-market-house-from-a-card-kit.4971/

This is not a permanent installation yet, but rather a test to see how it fits in with it`s surrounds......a suck it and see situation. At this point the building is far enough away from me to require a stick to slide it into place. Installation will not be difficult however, as the whole town section is built on 50mm thick polystyrene board which simply lifts out of it`s position.





I think it blends in fairly well with the backscene, so I feel I`m on the right track.












I`ve taken the trouble to add lighting to the building, as I`m gradually illuminating the whole layout. I should be finished by this time 2032 if everything goes OK.....
This pic has the building just sitting on some track so that I can light it up with some temporary power source to show it working. In it`s final position the wiring will run through the polystyrene base to a BUS fixed under the base. That BUS will then be connected to my main lighting BUS by a couple of alligator clips. This system allows me to unclip the alligator clips and then remove the whole section.

The clock tower working.




Interior lighting working. The interior appearance is achieved by back lighting a printed image of a guild hall interior, that was re-sized to suit the building, and then glued behind the windows.





My camera does not deal with very low light situations very well, but at least it will give you an impression of how it looks. The pic below shows how the light from the upper floor escapes down the stairs.





There are still a couple of details to add to the building to completely finish it off, but once they are done, I will plant it permanently.

Gormo

 

G`day Richard,
It can be if required......they are two separate circuits, however when they are connected to the BUS they will all be either ON or OFF on the one control switch.
I haven`t bothered to go down the road of individually switched lighting at this stage......there will be too many lights requiring too many switches with too much wiring and not enough patience to follow it all through.........that`s my story and I`m stickin` to it !!!!.....

Gormo

 

Thanks Toto,
I think these buildings are quite similar around the UK. I have seen a couple myself, one in Ross-On-Wye and one at Market Drayton and the model would not look out of place along side either of them.
Gormo

 

Thanks Sol,
Yes at least I can be sure it will be right twice a day.........an actual working clock is a bridge too far at this stage.
Talking of clocks, I acquired a good second hand movement today which has replaced a failed one that was in my custom made Great Chesterford Clock that used to hang in the railway room.
The movement is silent with a constant velocity second hand, which will replace the replacement I had on the wall, and cancel that constant tick tock that was evident in the background on some of my videos.
Gormo

 

Right folks,
Moving right along, I have started another build.
The fact that I moved some of my modelling stuff inside the house has helped tremendously as it`s becoming a bit cold out in the shed during the evenings which is when I get most of my stuff done.
I have also acquired a fluro desk lamp which has a large magnifying lense in the center of it and this helps enormously.
My father-in-law used to use it to work on his stamp collection, however he no longer has any use for it and gave it to me....very nice...

I am currently and slowly working on a Railway Hotel build




I find the red coloured tiles on the roof a bit too red and probably will give the roof the stick on slates treatment to tone it down and better suit it`s surroundings.
The window treatment is a mixture of what came with the kit, and images I have down loaded and modified.




As this building is basically just a shell with no internal floors, I will need to do some serious sealing to prevent light leakage when the building is illuminated.
For example, the standard curtains with black center sections that come with the kit are fine, but if you light them up from behind, they look like they are lit up from behind.
So additional layers of card will be required on the back of those particular windows to totally black them out. No big deal really, you just have to plan ahead when you take some of these non standard steps during the build.

You can see the atmosphere created below, by the addition of images behind the windows rather just the standard old curtain treatment.




Anyway it`s early days in this build, so more updates will follow as it progresses.

Gormo

 

Aaaah !!!!....thank you Gloria.
Gormo