Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

G`day Gary,
I was thinking with the building backgrounds as they are, to try and simulate another street behind the kit built buildings, however your suggestion is certainly worth looking at and re-appraising the whole thing.....
Yes the tree solution helps to hide a multitude of sins....

I have a small portable 1 Terabyte hard drive that stores all my pics, videos etc. etc. plus duplicate stuff on the PC hard drive.....but even so I don`t trust digital storage for important photos.
Anything worth saving is worth printing in my book.
Printed photos can last easily 100 years and paper can last many hundreds of years.......so who knows exactly the potential life for these things.
I have family photos from my Mother`s side that were taken between 1880 and 1900 and more of my Grandfather from WW1 which have survived in good condition, photos of my Father and Mother`s families from 1900 right through to present day
Our photos are our family history and they are labelled to explain when and where they were taken
Our photo albums won`t crash or get corrupted or get a virus or fail to run on obsolete software.......they are future proof and our legacy to those that come after us.
Gormo

 

Thanks Phil,
I would like them to be a bit sharper, but the mirror has a role to play there, however the different angles are a bonus....
Gormo

 

Thanks for your insights and observations Jim.........
Gormo

 

G`day Paul,
Yes I am aware of them through Gary..........I think I looked up their site once a good while back but don`t remember much of the details.
I like your crazy idea..........and might just get around to it one day.......thank you...
Gormo

 

With respect Gary,
I know all that stuff..........I`ve been playing with computers and operating systems since they first became available for the home user.
I`ve installed, uninstalled and re-installed more operating systems than most people have had hot dinners and even with that, and probably, because of that knowledge........I don`t completely trust digital storage.
So whatever system folks wish to employ for their storage is fine, I`m happy for them whatever they do and I hope they get great enjoyment and peace of mind from it, but for myself, I will do my own thing......always have and always will..... and I will leave it at that my friend....
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Back at Bamford country terminus talk is buzzing about electric light coming to the station and the town.
In other words, I`ve been putting in the lighting bus for the buildings.
It is a continuation of the bus that runs under GCJ and around under the loco yard.
Where it`s necessary to ensure that the cable does not droop, yet remain accessible or even partially removable, I employ a method with springs and hooks and cable ties that I learnt from another forum many years ago.
So I`m working backwards from the far end of Bamford ( right hand side ) so that I can tension three separate sections one after another until I meet the end of the cable from GCJ which is not under tension, as it`s not required in that case.
Here you can see right angle hooks anchoring the springs which are under tension.......to drop the cables you simply slide the spring ends off the hooks. The bare cable gaps will be closed up when I part each cable five times to accept lighting cable feeds from buildings above the baseboard. The cables are about 50mm apart to ensure we don`t get any shorts and obviously, one cable is positive and the other negative





This is the middle section of the cable run......these two are anchored to hooks on the right hand side and springs on the left hand side to keep the tension.
These two are above my sliding yard so it`s important they don`t droop down and foul the rolling stock




And the final piece of spring tension cable located just behind a block instrument. The cable feeds down under the baseboard here to link up with the feed from GCJ.
You can see clearly here I use two cable ties on each loop of cable just to make sure the loop does not slip. The ties are as tight as I can get them so that they bed into the wire insulation.





Once the bus was connected to the main system I just used some jumper cables to test that it works before moving forward.





I then drilled through the station platform to feed wires through for Bamford Station building and Parcels Office.
I add single strand copper wire cable to the last couple of inches of fine wire feeds from the buildings. I strip about 20mm of insulation from the single strand wire end and wrap that tightly around the appropriate bus wire where the insulation is parted. When parting the insulation I offset the positive and negative to avoid accidental shorts





All good so far








So the next stage is to finalize the positions for the shop buildings and once that is done I can send the wire feeds to the new bus.
More as it happens
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Back to the scenery of sorts once again.
I`ve put down the road base today, made from distressed wet & dry paper ( 1200 Grit ).
I decided to just cover the whole area instead of trying to cut intricate shapes to fit in between paving on opposite sides of the street.
The buildings can be just plonked on top and then paving put down to finish the whole lot off, and there will be green spaces and trees to compliment it as well.
So this vast grey / black area of tarmac will be gradually reduced to a thin strip of road eventually.





Foam board has been used at the end to partially support the station building. Today it was glued permanently into position and the top of it received a sheet of brick paper which matches the platform .





The extended foam board part of the platform......most of it will be under the building





A set of steps will be created, or scavenged from something ,to create an entrance at the rear side end of the station building. Some fencing will also be added to the road side of the low platform to prevent passengers leaping onto the road.





This end platform will form a connection between the goods platform ( still to be made ) and the passenger platforms.
More detailing is still required to finish this off properly.




Anyhow folks.......it`s beer o`clock here......the workers have knocked off and the shed lights have been turned off.......more exciting updates to follow....
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Work creeps along slowly, but slowly is forward and stuff is getting done........
I`ve found myself a suitable background today to show a road going off back into the countryside away from the station and town area.
It is actually just one part of a much larger image and I`ve just used what I want.
This sort of exercise requires that the end of the road becomes the horizon ,regardless of how the image is taken. Therefore if the horizon is too far above the base of the image, the road will look like it`s going vertical where it meets the back of the baseboard.
The image I`ve used is hump back bit of road that suggests the road goes off and disappears to who knows where into the countryside. The curved stone wall goes a long way to helping the image suggest that this road is a hump back section
You can see that where the road dips away ( horizon ) that it`s not very far at all above the baseboard....this is ideal...
Eventually, the wet & dry road base will be coloured where it meets this little back scene in an attempt to blend the two together.





This is another one of those images that play tricks with your eye.
If you look at the image above, the road veers off to the left.
If you look at the image below, the road veers off to the right......same image.....go figure that one...





I did an experiment with this image before I sealed it......the road colour was considerably lighter than what you see here.
I thought I could colour it in with a standard pencil to about the right shade, but running a pencil back and forth to colour it would leave a series of lines that would not look good.
After some experimentation on scrap paper, I found a good solution. I scraped the lead in my pencil with a blade over the area to be coloured. The resulting powder was then brushed over the surface of the road in the direction of the road. The brushing leaves no lines and blends the colour into the paper very well.





A model car to give it some scale





Then moved onto putting in footpaths or pavements if you like?.......this area is now glued in place and under weight for 24 hours or so.?
The straight edge is a helpful guide to help get it right.




Well it`s beer o`clock again.......actually I just finished my beer whilst typing this lot.......that was the last cold one too.......never mind ....I`d better re-stock the fridge.....
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Still moving forward
So I`ve put down more paving for the shop fronts to butt up to.........this build has removable buildings.
If I choose to up sticks and start all over again, the buildings can be re-used.





Shops are now set up in their final order and holes have been drilled under each one to take the wiring through under the baseboard.
The buildings sit much better now that the wires are out of the way.





It`s starting to come together but still lots to be done detail wise. I will be running a narrow strip of paving behind the shops and up against the back scene just to help the illusion of depth.




With buildings in place and holes drilled for the lighting feed wires, it was just a matter of connecting them up to the bus and switching it all on.









Note the chap in the right hand window above Natalie`s shop




My two little engineers are staying over tomorrow night so we should be able to squeeze in a running session or two before their parents pick them up on Sunday....
Gormo

 

OK back to normal,
My two little engineers have had two good running sessions passing trains back and forth through the system yesterday afternoon and this morning.
The older of the two also helped me with the cooking on the BBQ last night.......these kids are growing up.......we had Honey Soy Chicken done on the barbie......very tasty...
My Grandson took over the cooking whilst I took care of a beer......you`ve got to have a beer with a BBQ....it`s just not quite right without one..........
After dinner and dessert we settled down to The Italian Job 1969 movie.......it`s suitable for children.....not like the new version.........and now I`ve got two little blokes who are big fans of old Mini Coopers...... and this morning I`ve heard " I told you to just blow the bloody doors off " a couple of times as well....oh dear....their Mum won`t be happy.....
Anyhow, as you`ve guessed, we`ve spoilt them rotten and then sent them home to Mum and Dad.....
I`ve just grabbed a spare moment this afternoon to connect Bamford signal box to the lighting BUS......a project done a little while back and one that has been sitting quietly for a while waiting for the power to arrive.
Pics below








Our trusty signal man on the job









More as it happens
Gormo

 

Thanks Paul........
Yes there are all sorts of systems that can be employed to store your data safely. Your system sounds very good.
I have duplication at home on my PC and a portable hard drive........a basic system that probably should have at least one more backup.....a third element.
For family photographs though, I have the ultimate storage that won`t crash or be lost in cyber space. It is the simplest of all........it is just printing the photographs.......simple and safe.....
People these days seem reluctant to do this......I guess because we now tend to take thousands of photographs on our phones or cameras,and I guess the thought of sorting through them and deciding what to print and what not to print is quite daunting.
Our photo processing guy told us recently that 90% of his work now is film.........there seems to be a move back to it for those seeking a better quality print.
I must say our pictures taken with our SLR film camera were far superior to any digital camera that we have ever owned, although the digital cameras have been click and shoot or phone cameras, so not up to the same standard and quality.
This is a photo of my Grandfather taken somewhere around 1900 to 1902.......it is still good quality after 123 years, so for me this proves that printed photos are a safe way to store images and require no maintenance or updates......by the way this is a scanned image therefore not the same quality as the original.





So folks can put their two bob`s worth in and tell me all about the wonders of digital storage and safe backups and multiple backups of the backups, but it won`t change my mind about how I do things.
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
I`ve decided to add an end panel to Bamford.
Instead of the village going off into oblivion with nothing at the end, I`ve decided to try and give a visual representation of something that seems logical.
The end board has two purposes, the obvious visual aspect and also it will stop trains doing the leap of death onto the floor.........unlikely, but it could happen......





Also with the end board project, I`ve decided to replace the fascia I had in this area with a new design. Firstly it`s about 40 mm above baseboard level now, whereas before it was flush.This new height will be developed as a brick wall beside the buffer stops. It also prevents trains doing the swan dive onto the floor.
Secondly I`ve improved the access to the track underneath by raising the fascia about 30mm........doesn`t sound much but it does make quite a difference when you are trying to get your hand in there.





This is the image I want to fit into this small section, it suggests the village continues on much further than the arrangement I had before.





This fascia will be painted flat black and I`ll do some new numbering for the tracks below......you can barely read the original labels now that are set above the buffers





A second coat required and will probably be done this evening.





The end board has had two coats of Sky Blue but still requires a second coat of Black on the back.
Back scene buildings are cut out and trimmed to fit and ready to be applied, but we`ll give the blue paint a bit more time to dry first.




More as it happens
Gormo