Industry Lane

Welcome to Industry Lane...

A little lie...

Industry Lane is actually a 7' long plank, that is 5' of scenery and 2' of removable fiddle yard (sector plates).

History...

Toto (our glorious leader ) set a challenge for me (back in 2012). Could I build an industrial based layout ?? Hmm, not sure, never even attempted one before. But I'll give it a go... The name 'Industry Lane', was decided as I have a road bridge which is part of the scenic break...

Industries...

The layout has 3 individual industries showcased, although one is off scene. A small cement siding (Tunnel Cement) occupies the front left corner and behind that is a factory/warehouse siding. The third industry is oil/fuel. This is the off scene industry, but small oil/fuel trains will enter the scenic section, shunt about, then be relieved by a smaller loco which will take the wagons to the oil siding, the second fiddle yard...

Baseboard...

The baseboard was made reasonably light weight, as I'll be exhibiting this layout in the future. The baseboard is made from 18mm x 11mm pine dressed in 3mm ply, top and bottom for rigidity. All the wiring (DCC) is sandwiched between the 3mm ply casing.

Track...

All the track is Peco code 75 using 4 x small wyes and one single slip. The rest is flex track. A track plan will follow soon.

Control...

Locomotive control will be via the NCE Powercab. I have 3 sound locos to use on this layout, a Class 08, Class 22 & a Class 25. If I can get sound into my Sentinel shunter (Esso Petroleum livery) I will..., one day !

All points/slips are operated via 'wire in tube'. The less wiring, the better ! The switching is done with small slide switches, which also cahnge the frog polarity.

Fiddle Yard...

The fiddle yard, as described above, is actually 2 sector plates. One sector plate has three sidings whilst the second sector plate has two sidings. This way I can have two waiting trains and one empty siding on the three track plate and one waiting train and one empty siding on th two track plate. Sounds confusing, but relatively simple !

Buildings/structures...

All buildings are Scalescenes. Whether that be made as they are or kit bashed. More on this will follow at a latter posting. Some other bits and pieces have been scratchbuilt from styrene or card.

Well, that's the introduction and there will be pictures coming soon. Stay tuned.

Cheers, Gary.

 

Sorry for the late reply... photo posting issues as I wasn't aware that the PC had two functions, IE and Firefox...

And an apology to Matt for letting your popcorn go stale...

This is the thread of how Industry Lane got to here :



...from the very start ! Read on...

So, a few images/photos to accompany my initial post...

The track plan...



With all track plans, it looks good and works on paper, but a few adjustments will be made as I go along.

The reasonably light weight baseboard. Made from 3mm ply and 11 x 18mm pine frame.



This is what I have envisaged early on. This gives a good feel to where the layout is heading. The drawing was done using the Windows Paint. The track here is a mix of new code 75 elctrofrg points & slip and old code 100 flex.



After getting all the track in place and wiring the layout up, I gave it a test run before the baseboard was properly secured. The Class 08 is great for testing due to its short wheel base.



Th points are activated via wire in tube connected to small slide switches. The slide switches also provide the frog polarity switching.



So, that brings the pics up to date.

As can be seen in the third picture, I have already built two Scalescenes bridges and partially the Scalescenes Low Relief Warehouse/Factory. I chose two single bridges instead of the double track bridge as the tracks were further apart. They also help hide the fiddle yard somewhat as the visuals through are narrowed down. The two bridges had to be joined together. This was done by eliminating the corner plynth stones and making it one, twice the size. Also the addition of an extra butress to join the two, or atleast to hide wher the two meet...



The warehouse/factory was also completed...



...but it was extended to fit the layout better. As the track is laid on a slight angle, this allowed for a little more relief in the extended section of the factory... A corner was built into it and rather than more doors, I opted for a solid brick wall.



Whilst wearing the card building cap, the retaining walls for the back of the layout were constructed. Thanks to Doug Dickson (known as Chubber on other forums), he gave me his plans for the wall construction, which I adapted to suit Industry Lane.



I did manage to build some retaining walls from card to line the canal, but I won't show those pics... To tell the truth, after sealing them with matt sealer, I installed the walls, gliued them in place and a day or so later I started the pour of PVA for the stream... Guess what happened next...?? The inks ran out of the printed paer into the soup of PVA !! A pink stream was made. This had to go ! Yes, I know you are all asking for a pic of the 'pink soup'... I blurred it deliberately..



New retaining walls were crafted in styrene. I had some stone face sheets stored away that I had purchased a year or two ago. The capping stones are styrene strip that was scribed and edged with a scapel.



Both sections were then suitably painted before installation.



The floor of the canal was also painted, this time a darkish green...



There we go, looking better already, apart from the slightly out of focus picture... Anyhow, I better stop here because I'm unsure how many pics can be loaded into the thread in one go...

Cheers, Gary.

 

Although the picture of the extended factory in the previous post shows a back board in place, you could say that I have jumped the gun with my photos. The backscene is made from the same 11 x 18mm pine which has been clad in foam board. Again, this does keep the weight down.



The lower strip of pine also is the fixing point for the NCE powerplug and a programming road. The programming road is hinged so that when not in use, it isn't a hinderance. I have a DPDT centre off switch to switch between the layout and the programming track.



Now the back board is in place, I can concentrate on filling in the retaining wall and building up some ground profile. Also at this stage, play around with a few very low relief buildings that I made.



Below, styrofoam embankment carved up and glued down.



Before I get too carried away with plonking buildings here and there, a suitable backscene was needed. I purchased a backscene from Antics. The backscene chosen is a Townscene one, 'Town Roofscape Gasworks BS2' This had to be cut out very carefully due to all the chimneys and spires.



Having such a thin or narrow vista, I had to rethink what buildings I could use on the layout. Now, the buildings have to be taller, not necessarily single storey with roof.
I ended up buying Scalescenes T005 Low Relief Factory to help fill in some backscene space.



As can be seen above, I didn't think about the height when I built it, so out came the Stanley knife and it was reduced in height. Again, just like the other Scalescenes low relief factory I previously built, a little kit bashing came into play. I put a return into the right hand side and built another section of wall, this time only two sections wide. The interior of the building has some form of interior. I cheated here by 'googling' factory interiors. I found a few, copied, resized, printed and stuck inside. The 2nd pic below shows off the interior, which has been lit up by a pocket torch.





I felt that where the building sat, the angled top retaining wall did not fit, or I dare say did not look right. Out came the scapel again ! A return was put into the retaining wall of approximately 110*, to the left of where the canal is. This then returned left and continued for a short distance parallel to the railway line.



Now I could set the low relief factory in place, but I now need to fill the gap to the right ! A little bit of modellers license comes into play here and I carved up a narrow building. This time, something a little different.



This building once set in place was a little high and the rear door needed a set of stairs. Some layered up card and more Scalescenes brick paper came to the rescue. You probably guessed that I'm a fan of Scalescenes !



Once put in position, The area directly below the building lacked something... A hard landing area with another set of stairs was made of card. This fits neatly into the scene and provides a fire escape.., straight onto the railway line ! Actually, the neighbouring property.



The little details like handrails and accumulated junk needs to be added.

There we have it and that's your lot for tonight, as I have some sleeping to do !

Cheers, Gary.

 

Thankyou Ron, Ian and Toto.

I'd say my next post will be on Boxing Day as tomorrow night we are out to a bbq with close friends. Tonight, I'm catching up on all the other great stuff happening around the site !

Cheers, Gary.

 

The BBQ last night was great. Good food with good friends.

You 'Northeners' have a wonderful Christmas, and keep warm..., whilst we in Sydney experience a grey overcast day with possible showers, but 24*C...

Sound just like Edinburgh in summer !

Merry Christmas,
Gary and the Family.

 

Thanks Toto.

Yes, it was great talking, especially on Christmas Day here in Oz. A welcome conversation as we have never spoken before. Thanks again and all the best for you, Lynne, Gypsy and the rest of the Toto family.

Cheers, Gary.

 

OK, Christmas is done and now it's time to keep updating this thread...

When I played around with the backscene, I found that the Townstreet backscene are not long enough, well, not long enough for my layout. Luckily, the larger factory sits higher up than the backscene background'skyline and this helped to reduce how much of backscene used. Still, the backscene was still short in length by about 1 1/2". Hmmm, what do I do...? The only option is to chop the scene and fill the missing gap with another structure.

Ok, sounds simple enough. I measured the scene up and where the best place to cut the backscene. It became evident that it had to be where it wouldn't split the scene too much and look out of place. The area where it is cut is directly down a Northlight factory, afterall there was no limit on how long these buildings is. The building in the foreground looks a little strange, but it will not be seen.



^ The cut in the backscene and below, how the bottom half of the backscene is hidden by the factory/warehouse.



Now, to fill the gap... As we know, a lot of these buildings had ventilation rooms sitting atop of the building. So a small low relief structure was knocked up and covered in Scalescenes paper etc, then glued into place. Perfect !



After gluing the backscene to the back board and fixing the 'shortfall', I needed to blend the bridge/roadway into the scene. This did take some trial and error, but in the end, it all came together. Selecting a pic from google images, I had to manipulate the picture to get what I was after, that is, making the scene seem endless with no real join in the scene.



This picture above gives a clue to where it is heading. Note the large roofed building in the background, it does not look right.

A little more playing around on the computer and the results start to change somewhat. Note that I have changed the low relief building to the left hand side as I needed to blend the roof lines into the original backscene.



As can be seen in the photo above, some of the clay infil has been completed. This was applied right throughout the layout and where I needed a higher profile, some styrofoam has been glued down. Again, oversize styrofoam was glued down and when cured, it was filed back with a wire brush.



The high side towards the right will be an access road to the cement siding.

Below, the cement siding end.



Below, the whole layout covered in either styrofoam or air dry clay.



Now the layout seems to be moving on...,

but... after soom research, I have discovered that the railway track in the cement siding should not run directly under the cement hopper... Doh ! So, some drastic changes are needed to rectify this. This is what it should be like..



All the styrofoam that was laid down at the cement siding end had to come up. This was a fairly easy task to complete. This picture below shows how much the track needs to be realigned to allow the cement hopper and associated building to fit the scene.



This next pic shows the track after realignment and part of the crossing installed. The cement hopper is going through a transformation to make it look more prototypical. More on the cement hopper can be found here : http://p1mrc.com/p1mrc/view_topic.php?id=146&forum_id=30



Noting that the styrofoam isn't the best surface to produce a concrete road on, some more removal of foam needs to be undertaken. A larger portion of foam has been removed and a MDF section has been cut and glued into position. The MDF sits up at rail head height, hard up against the sleepers.



After the MDF had cured in position, I had to scribe the top to look like concrete. Randome straight lines were drawn then scribed into the MDF, first with the pointy side of the knife, then the backside of the knife to help clear any furry edges and sawdust. Cracks were also scribed into the MDF.



Card was used to form the pavement. The card was cut to shape then the individual sections scribed in. Below shows the pump house control room and hopper in place. More air dry clay was used to fill in between the MDF and the rail.



The surface requiered a lick of paint and a touch of weathering.



By blackening in the expansion joints and cracks first, followed by a suitable conceter colour and then some tyre wear and moss, the results aren't too bad.





As can be seen above, the clay along the rail has not been painted yet, as more touching up with clay is necessary.

An area needing visual interest is below the larger factory, where the embankment exists. The area in contention is circled below. A platform of some form is warranted here.



The platform below was made from a piece of pine, cut to size then dressed in Scalescenes paper. The whole factory was removed and a piece of timber was put in place to make sure the base of the building and the platform are consistant



Now, what I do here will have to wait until the next post...

Cheers, Gary.

 

Ok, the loading platform wouldn't be a loading platform without a crane... So, I remembered that I had some angled frame bracing in my scratchbuilding box of tricks, but not enough bits and pieces to build a complete crane. This is where 'modellers license' comes into play, or I should say scratchbuilding.

This pic below shows the crane under construction. The grey pieces are the frame bracing and all the rest (white) is Evergreen Styrene.



The end results...



and a close up...



Something I didn't touch on earlier is the cement silo office/control room. This is a card structure wrapped in Scalescenes breeze block (we call it bessa block in Oz) paper, a piece of corrugated card for the roof, Tichy Train Group windows, which needed cutting and shutting to fit, and some Evergreen Styrene for the gutters and downpipes.



Ok, having the crane knocked up and having to know what my idea is for the loading area, I then took the oppotunity to install magnets between the sleepers for uncoupling. I use 3 x rows of five, 3mm cubed neodymium magnets for this purpose. I use Kadee couplers on all of my stock, either No.18 or No.19 NEM type. The three rows of magnets is enough for uncoupling Kadees. Yes the narrowness of the uncoupling area maybe tight, but at the same time, I shouldn't have wagons uncoupling when I don't want them to.

This pic shows the magnets burried between the sleepers. Some paint over the top and they become invisible.



My next step is to weather the track. All the sleepers were hand painted rather than airbrushing as it saved me masking all the buildings up. I took to google images and found some great pics of Bristol Harbour Railway, which provided some great clues to track colour.

Having painted the sleepers grey first, a wash of a light pinky-brown was applied to give a sun beaten, bleached look to them.

The rails were next. Mixing up some burnt sienna, burnt umber and raw umber, I found myself a suitable colour that matched photographs. Several coats were applied to the rails and the chairs. Giving plenty of drying time between coats and afterwards, the rail tops were then cleaned down.



Being a small layout, painting the track was done reasonably quick. If I recall, all was done in less than two days.

Also in the pic above, you can see that the six foot was also painted grey. This helps to conceal the air dry clay, just incase any ballast works loose...

Which brings me to ballasting. Some people loath ballasting but I don't mind it, providing that I don't rush it. I chose two colours of ballast, a reddish/brown and a grey. I use Chucks Ballast or Matts Ballast brands, only available in Oz, but it is to scale, unlike a lot of HO/OO gauge ballast.



A blend of red/brown and the grey was appllied to the lead in tracks (from the fiddle yard) upto where the track diverges, before it crosses the canal. The rest of the layout was done in grey. You could say teh mixed colour is from where the line had been ballasted from the main line...

More to come...

Cheers, Gary.