Impressive!

Will be interested in watching the progress.

Mmm, working mechanisms, how yummy!

Thanks for sharing this. I'm starting to wonder if a larger scale might be in my future...

Jeff Allen

Getting the Ore Bin working

With the sluice and gates added my thoughts turned to how it was going to operate. Firstly it's got to be removable from the layout for any maintenance that might be needed, so the servos need to be mounted in such a way that it quite compact.  The operating arms for the gates are mounted on the front with some guides to help keep the rods from deflecting, the sluices operate using chains with them falling into place using the weight of the sluice, extra weight was added to them to help. Some U channel brass was curved to act as a guide, this enables the chains to run freely.

     

 

 

Rock walls, tunnel and bridge

It's been a while since my last update as I've been doing some 16mm stuff, but I've have made some progress on the NKLR. The rock walls are from Woodland scenic moulds, the tunnel is made using and material called Foamex which has the bricks hand embossed into it, the bridge is made from plastic sheet and sections, and finally the point throw is modelled on some we have on my local narrow gauge line.

Impressive!

Excellent craftsmanship.  While I model neither English railways nor in 1:43 (called A scale here in America), there is much to learn from here.  Thanks!

Scott Chatfield

Up grade to the Whitcomb lights

For a while I've wanted to rework the lighting on the Bachmann Whitcomb. What I needed was to add some shunt lights as my layout is UK based, but uses American equipment that was supplied to the cement company. The practice in England is for the yard pilots to have a red and light light at each end whilst shunting. So I decided it was easier to replace the existing lights and add the new one with one I made. 

Too bad....

it's not in HO.Or how about in N or Z? Wow! That sure is an impressive bit of what used to be called work - that is now called "satisfaction". Very nice work. Very good pictures. Thanks!

Ops session on my own

With the current situation I had an ops session on my own today, mainly to test out the car cards and waybills.

worked well, the video is just a snap shop of 5 hours operating.

Running repair to Bachmann Climax

Needs must with no spares around to fix a split drive coupling on my Climax, turn up a bush that’s a tight fit over the split part.

The standard Gauge Rail Bridge

Acting as a view blocker, this bridge also gives somewhere on the narrow gauge layout to display the occasional loco. Built from an off cut of wood, some brass and plastic sheet over the last couple of days, I like it what do you think.

Gantry Crane project

I fancied a bit of a change so made a start on the Gantry Crane that's located in the main yard, the inspiration came from a precast concrete version. This is the second crane I've worked on, the previous on was salvaged from a well known large 0 scale layout, and we made it working to use on a small layout called The Yard, lessons learned from that project was everything must be flat, unfortunately that one wasn't as it was originally built to be static. So as you can see this will be flat.

Simon

Bridge abutments completed

Hand embossing the foamex takes a bit of time but the efforts well worth it, just waiting on some glue to arrive to complete a few details on the bridge before painting starts.

Simon

Gantry Crane

One of the more important items on the NKLR will be the Gantry Crane, it quite a complicated thing, but I've already modified a non working one to make it work on a small exhibition layout a small group of us have built, the first photo gives a good impression of what my one will look like.  So I know the pitfalls when building my one. Starting with the cabin that holds two of the motors, one for the winch and the other for sideways movement. So good progress so far, just need to add the winch drum and the electrical pickups.

Simon

Small Shunters

Completed most of the detailing on these three this week.

Another Shunting Engine

Whilst waiting for some materials for the next bit of the layout to arrive I've put this together.

Quite straightforward to assemble, and good fun.

Heavy metal work

Back on the Gantry Crane this week, working on the main carriage base and two of the four girders.

Simon

Loco shed and colouring bricks

Putting together the Kitwood loco shed which is a joy to assemble. New to me is is a slightly different technique to colour bricks, using a rattle can, acrylics, pencils and premixed filler. 

I don't see any problem with the Whitcab switcher.

Maybe it was brought over during the war!  And also, it was not uncommon for loco manufacturers in the states to export locomotives, either specially designed ones or more-or-less "adapted" ones of North American style.  Baldwin, for instance, was a big believer in narrow gauge locomotives as exports, and Alco, among others, was an early member of the diesel export market with several of their standard gauge RS- and RSC/D class diesels.  Who is to say that that Whitcomb diesel of yours is out of place on an English layout?

Same thoughts

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Simon

Hand Crane

Spent this week putting the Hand Crane together, location is outside the loco workshop close to the baseboard edge, so it's got a high level of details.

16mm Interlude

Doing a bit of work on my 16mm Darent models, small details.

Freelance search light signals

Playing around with some very freelance designs for signals, this is the first one for the NKLR. 

Simon

More signals

Completed all the signals, testing then painting next.

Simon

A trio of yard buildings

Looking around at the trade offerings for suitable small yard office type buildings I decided that around the £50 mark each was rather expensive, so other than some doors, windows and chimneys which I already had I spent this week putting these together. These will be used as the reception office for the Yard masters that also contain the ground frames. The walls are made from Foamex scribed with suitable brick work and coloured with a mixture of rattle cans, acrylics and coloured pencils.