Great Chesterford Junction Part Two

Well thank you Richard,
I must say I do enjoy creating the little scenes and I`m never quite sure exactly how things will pan out
Gormo

 

Thanks Pete,
I guess that`s the look I`m going for.?.....never quite thought of it that way before.....
Gormo

 

Thanks Mike,
Yes the Mojo thing visits us at all at some point whilst building our model railways. In my case it comes and goes like the tide in and out.
Some days I go out into the shed and just can`t face starting something, whilst on other days you can`t get me out of there.
So I don`t know what the answer is, but it must come back to the fact that this is a creative type of hobby and I don`t think it`s in us to be 100% creative every single minute of the day.
Creativity, for me at least, comes in waves of inspiration, and in between those waves are the Mojo`s, the Doldrums where nothing happens.
At the moment I have a personal high tide, this fencing, which is leading into the next Gormo`s Shed, but once that is done, more thought will be required to determine where I go from here.
Fortunately, somehow, some idea will arrive in the old grey matter, but until it does, I may be back into Mojo-itis
Gormo

 

Ah Hah !!!.....
You may not believe this but I was thinking along the same lines myself. I was wondering how many children I have spare in my little box of little people.???
....Hmmmm....that sounds a little sinister.?
No children..... Gormo does not keep real people in a box.....just little plastic model people.
Yes I was thinking children near the fence, more so to emphasize the size difference between them and the other bits and pieces. A bit like forced perspective in a way.?
And the Preiser people would be HO wouldn`t it Gary???....even better if so.
Gormo

 

OK ...,thank you......I see a trip to Woodpecker coming up.
Gormo

 

Well folks,
I managed to drop into Woodpecker this morning,
They didn`t have any of the Preiser children you mentioned Gary, but I managed to get some schoolboy trainspotters.
Their role has been adapted to my scene, so that they were on an historical school excursion for the day to the Great Chesterford stone circle, but some of the lads noticed the airfield next door and decided to pop over and have a look through the fence. Boys will be boys.!!!
The last section of fence was also fitted today.



Teacher will be wondering soon where they`ve gone.?




Unfortunately, teacher and assistant are so busy photographing and documenting the characteristics of the stones that they are unaware that the boys have slipped away.




And a view showing the two areas.




I need to now determine building locations and how many buildings and how many planes for the airfield and lock them all down. Paving near the buildings is also on the list along with some figures placed strategically in the area.
More as it happens
Gormo

 

Thanks Richard,
Yes one has to consider the consequences of ones actions, and in this case, it may have sent the wrong message out there to some of our colleagues, who may in turn have felt that is was OK to scale airfield fences, based on seeing my small cameo of the boys trying to do just the same thing.
Therefore, not wishing to set a bad example for those colleagues, I went with a more conservative approach for the cameo.
Tempting as it was to have electrified children hanging off the airfield fence, we are a family friendly forum here and we don`t really want to give parents any new ideas regarding discipline for their naughty children.......
I must admit that I had already planned the screaming child sound track and the welding LED in behind the fence and I was thinking of placing a smoke unit in there too, so I could have smoldering children on the wire, however common sense prevailed????.....best to keep it simple....
Gormo

 

Point taken.......
Gormo

 

G`day Folks,
Well..????....back in the saddle again.
I`ve started working on a prototype for home made yard lighting.
It`s coming along nicely and I`ve just today, painted up the mixture of parts and basically confirmed that it will look OK.
There are at least two or three other ways to set up the actual light part of the yard light, but this is my first non working attempt to prove the concept.
This model could be considered an old time universal style yard lamp for want of a better description.



The main advantages with this type of build are cost, approx 40 cents per light, ease of build, availability of parts and a very flexible pole.
The light is built from a 3mm White LED, a nylon screw cap, a cocktail (thin) drinking straw, a pin with a ball head, masking tape and a 3mm shaft rivet.




This particular light has been sprayed with dark green enamel. I may do black in the future.





I will make this the subject of the next Gormo`s Shed once I`ve filmed the processes required to build the light.




The main advantage with these lights, compared to a commercial version, is the fact that they can be bent over to about 75 degrees away from vertical and they will bounce back up to vertical unharmed. You would not want to make the bending a regular pastime because eventually you will break it, so common sense and care required as usual around these delicate structures, but if you do break it, you won`t break the bank replacing it.
I also have some other parts on order for the light covers. The new parts are untested so we will have to wait until they turn up from Hong Kong, however if they work they will simplify the process slightly.
So stay tuned folks and we`ll go through the process properly on Gormo`s Shed.
Gormo

 

G`day Gary and thanks,
There weren`t any signals on Murray`s boards, just the sockets in the places where they would have been.
You can use whatever you want for the poles and build it pretty much how you want.
This model is just to show the budget version that requires very little to get it going.
Of course the main benefit of it is that it`s very flexible, which would be ideal on a layout that takes a few knocks and bumps here and there.
Gormo

 

Thanks Toto & Pete,
I agree, I think these will be popular.
I`ve filmed a new build yesterday, but today the light needs to go to the paint shop ....Black colour this time. Then fit a resistor and then fit it onto the layout.
So factoring in paint drying and video editing, it will take another couple of days to present the finished article properly.
This time I have used the inner fitting of the screw cap which is slightly smaller than the outer, so the light will look a little different to the prototype.
Yard lights are not that expensive to buy and most people would not bother taking the trouble to build their own, so this method will appeal to those who like to do it themselves and also to those of us on a tight budget.
Gormo