Re-use Old Railway Scenery And Buildings To Create A New Diorama

Well seen as I am on a big mission to save money, I am trying to re-use as much of my old layout ‘Boddington’ and now it is time to re-use the ‘Boddington Parish Church.’

It was a great addition to Boddington but for the past 2 months it has been sat in my cupboard collecting dust, so now it is time to make it collect dust while on display! So when I was given inspiration from Model Town (A TV show on Discovery Shed) I decided to make a completely Non-Railway Diorama that included the parish church (My Church is a Metcalfe Parish Church Kit) this will also give my partner the chance to make some trees as she picked up one of my Model Railway magazines and saw an article on make them out of wire, and now wants to give it a go.

Measuring The Chuch For A CAD Model

Before I could get an idea for how the baseboard is going to look I needed to measure the chuch to make sure that it was going on to a good sized baseboard. So I simply used a steel rule to get all the dimensions.

Making A CAD Drawing

So using my favriote 2D CAD Program DraftSight I set about making a CAD design of the proposed layout of the diorama. I thought it best that I take this step to avoid any silly complications of sizes and such related issues. Plus when it comes to cutting all the different layers for the diorama I can have a cutting list made up and make sure I have the material to hand when I start making the baseboard. Plus it has been great practise for my CAD design skills.

If you want to download a larger size of these plans for FREE simply  click on the image to the left and right click and save as.

The Nice thing about making a CAD design of a proposed project is that you can see what the final piece will look like once finished, with a few CAD tools like Rotate, Infinity Line and Layers you can create many different aspect views easily.

I am hoping to at a later stage do a full how-to video on making these aspect views in 2D CAD.

On To The build

Coming Soon! Once I have built it!

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Recycling A Railway Layout, Part 4 ‘Recycling Ballast’

A cheap ballasting solution? YES!

Well it might seem a bit funny to do this but, given that I have saved over £40 you can now see why I have done this. But this being the last of the “Recycling A Model Railway Layout” series, I thought this was a great step to include. To be completely honest it was a really easy step that has save me money, and given that  I would recommend to anyone.

A) As you might have seen in part 1 I used a chisel to remove all the ballast and filled up a large container and a couple of Pot-noodle pots with the salvaged ballast. So simply start by taking an old t-shirt and cut the front of it out. Then put some of the salvaged ballast into the fabric.	B) Now gather together the ends of the fabric and tie off with something like a cable-tie, you could use an elastic-band of just hold the fabric with your hand.
C) Then on a hard surface take hammer and beat the ballast till it feels like all the large bit of stuck together ballast have broken down. This should take about 2-3 mins per load. NOTE: you might go through a couple of bit of fabric so have a couple of bit to hand.	D) Now empty the contents of broken down ballast into a sieve, then sieve out as much of the smaller ballast as you can. At this point you can remove any bits that you don’t want in the final ballast mix, e.g. track pins, bits of old baseboard, broken sleeper ends etc. NOTE: There still might be  large bits of stuck together ballast, just throw it back into the next load of ballast that you are going to break down. As it will probably break down next time around.
E) Now once you have beaten and sieved all the salvaged ballast then simply tip the ballast that fell though the sieve into one pot, and the stuff that was left in the sieve into another. As this will give you two different sizes of ballast, one fine and a normal coarse. NOTE: as much as I tried there was still a tiny amount of large stuck together ballast, this tended to be were I had use super glue on the track side of the old layout.	F) Now ballast your new layout! I did make a slighly different Glue/Water mix though, A ratio of 70% water to 30% PVA Glue and a few drops of washing up liquid, I used this mix compared to my normal 50/50 glue mix as the recycled ballast already has an amount of glue on it. And on a test patch that I did, it ended up having white streaks of PVA glue after it had dried on it. TIP: I found that the finer ballast that fell through the sieve work excellently between points and small track gaps!

And the final result from a great idea

As you can see the ballast looks weathered, and because it was salvaged it came out this way so no buying more scatter so I saved even more money, but I did once I laid the filling scatter add a little more green to show a lack of weeding!

I really hope I have gave some great ideas in this series and if you want to follow the rest of this layout building please go to the Voxville End TMD pages here

Build A Custom Conflat Match Wagon, A Great Tool For Model Railway Shunting!

Well I started out with a bit of a problem! The fact that I build a great new layout of a shunting yard (TMD) and I have a few HST Power Cars (dummies) that I want to use on the layout, but they don’t have any hooks on their couplings at the back of the HST Power cars, and my pair of Class 08 shunters only have one hook on each of the locomotives. So I needed a wagon on my layout that has hooks to move the power cars if the shunter’s are in the wrong position.

Now I have seen other modellers use 35ton oil tankers as barrier wagons, or a CDA wagons but in my option ‘It does not look right’ even though in real life these wagons are used. The only types of barrier wagons that I could find for sale were for  nuclear freight and a 35ton tanker with ‘barrier wagon‘ written on the side, and to be honest I did not fancy these options. Well I remember reading a copy of Traction (A British diesel magazine) and seeing an article on a little flat bed wagon use for shunting at a goods yard, so that was what I wanted to have on my layout for shunting the HST Power Cars, you can see an example of this wagon here.

But the problem I faced now is that as hard as I tried I could not find a wagon like this for sale. So a bit of scratch building was in order to make this little wagon come to life on my layout. Given that I have already built two other wagons in the same way that I was going to build this one, I had a very good idea of how I was going to build this flat bed wagon. (To view the other Article on scratch building wagons Click Here)

The ‘Shunting Wagon’ comes to life

So I started with removing the top of a small disused wagon  with a screwdriver, the wagon was a small green Hornby Lucas Wagon that I have not really used in some time so it did not matter about taking it apart.

But because the wagon is really small, without it’s container on top it is really light. So the first thing I need to address was how to add weight, un-like the Pipe-Carriers I had made I could not stick anything on top of the flat-bed of the wagon as this would compromise the look of this wagon, so the weight was going to have to go under the wagon. I had some brass tube that would fit perfectly under the wagon, so I cut a piece that would fit snug between both the axles of the wagon.

TIP: The reason for adding the extra weight is to stop the small lightweight wagon from pinging of the track as I push other locomotives to where I want them, plus sometimes lighter smaller wagons will de-rail over points so adding weight has it advantages.

So when I was happy with the brass tubes size I painted it black, then stuck it to the bottom of the wagon with a bit of NoMoreNails then painted the adhsive with black paint as to hide the white colour that it was.

Then I used a bit of card and stuck it to the chassis of the wagon with All-Purpose Glue, as you will see two other bit of card were added to give a bit of relief to the a plain flat bed. This also helped to make it look a bit more purpose built I felt. Then a yellow base coat was painted on the whole flat-bed and top of the chassis.

Now came the detailing of the shunting wagon, given that I can’t really remember the full look of the prototype that this wagon is based on, I decided on a Yellow and black Hazard striped look suited it very well (as you can see in the picture here.)

Well now you can see the almost finished product, there will be a little more detail added to this wagon at a later stage. But again given this project has cost almost nothing it is a really effective and useful addition to any modern shunting yard layout.

SAVE MONEY and Build Your Own New Wagons! Wagons On A Budget

Well with January 2012 coming to an end and still there is a lack of funds for new railway stock for quite a lot of us because of all the bills still coming in. It can become quite a depressing time with February’s issues of your favourite Model Railway Magazines coming out with all the new model railway ranges for 2012 and not having the money to buy them.

But even thought it is really nice when you get brand-new stock on your layout, you must not be too disheartened about this situation as this might just be the idea you could do with…

So why not build you own new stock?

Yes again I am talking about recycling, when I was putting my first layout together I brought a lot of Different Rolling Stock and to be honest some of it  does just not fit in with my new layout design. So I made the decision to build some new stock for my layout.

Taking Apart Old Rolling Stock

Now back when I built my first layout Boddington I brought two Hornby Railroad range wagons, the bright red Tredegar ones. Now that I have decided that these two wagons would be the sacrificed units that I would use for the new wagons, given that I have not used these wagons for quite sometime. Taking apart the old wagons was quite a simple thing to do, I simply turned them over and released the container part of the wagon from the chassis with use of a flat blade screwdriver.

I cut two bits of card to make the new bed of the wagons, as shown at the bottom of the photo

Fitting A New Bed

Now that I have a pair of chassis’s to work around I made the decision to make them flat-bed wagons as I did not have any in my collection, but have fancied making this type of rolling stock an addition for a while. So with the two bits of of card already cut it was simple as adding a bit of glue to the card and sticking them to the chassis. Then I painted the whole of the beds with some enamel paint, for the base colour I chose a matt black.

Deciding What Products The New Wagons Will Carry

Well now that I Had a pair of flat-bed wagons ‘what should they carry?’ well a quick trip into my home workshop ended in finding a length of ‘brass tube’ so ‘Concrete Pipes’ it was. So with a hacksaw I cut 8 lengths of the brass tube at a length that was a couple of mm’s smaller than the width of the wagon. Now how to hold the pipes in place? Again thinking of stuff that I already had that I could put to use, I came up with using matchsticks and painting them to resemble wood blocks (or chocks) was the idea that I came up with.

I stuck the matchsticks down with multi-purpose glue, as wet PVA might warp the card-made wagon bed. When gluing down the matchstick I put the brass tubes without glue between the matchstick to make sure that they were a tight fit with no gaps and then left them to dry.

While the first wagons matchsticks are drying I repeated process on the second wagon bed

Then the matchstick were painted with a mixture of brown poster paint and a little bit of black enamel paint, as this combination will soak into the matchstick to give a more wooden look to the matchsticks, instead of a painted look that using solely enamel paint would have produced.

The Finished Product

Well as you can now see the almost finished Pipe-carrying wagons are on there way to being finished, and I have been amazed at how good they look especially for the really low price of nothing. Well in fact they were built from stuff that I just had lying around but that is as close to nothing as you can get. So for the sake of a few hours work why not give it a go and pay a bit more of them credit card bills this month. And ultimately you will have some new stock for your layout! There are so many things you could put on a flat-bed wagon so get thinking of what you have lying around.

All that I want to do is paint the top half of the chassis red and give them a bit of  weathering

NOTE: Now some of you may have noticed that I said that I cut 8 bits of brass tube, but in the photo above there are only six. And yes this was how I decided to finish them due to I did not want both wagons to look to uniform, as the real railway is never that uniform.

Inspired To Build More

Yes building these two wagons has given me inspiration to build another wagon!

 View the whole article article here 

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Simply Doing The ABC’s In Cedar, From A CAD Design

As Like so many projects in this country start I guess “I met some one in the pub,” that was showing a bit of woodworking that some one had made. But they had quoted an extreme amount of money for this simple project. All that this person wanted was two names of their children, in a bold wood to hang on the wall of their bedrooms. Well the landlord knowing that I dabble in a bit of woodworking ask me if I could do it for cheaper, and I said yes…

Step 1

First thing I did  was to draw to scale all the letters of the alphabet, the size of the letter was determined by the material size which was 90 by 120 mm. I decided to do this in my Favorited 2D CAD program Draftsight, reason being if I was to just use word with some really large font it would not fill the whole area correctly. As most of us know a word processor program is for writing letters no for designing, so using a word processor would have been more hassle than it is worth. In this CAD drawing I made 26 boxes 90 by 120mm and then use a variety of simple geometry to draw eye pleasing Bold letters from A to Z, using the rule of “the width of all the lettering will be 20mm.”

TIP: Doing this means that I will have all the lettering to the exact scale when it come to printing the letters. Plus I will have all  the letters of the alphabet ready for other projects that I might want to use them in. 

If you wish to use my CAD design you can down load it here in PDF format and .DWG format for use in  CAD. Rember not to scale the prints as they will print to the excact size of 90mm by 120mm.

Step 2

Then I Printed out all the lettering then so I could cutting out all the required letters for this project. I used a steel rule and a snap-off blade knife for this part, as getting a perfect cut-out is paramount for the finished product to come out as the desired shape without error.

TIP: You could use scissors but when cutting out inside the shape might prove difficult.

As mentioned I only cut the shapes that were in this project to save time in the build process, I will at a later stage when I have time, go back to cut out the rest of the alphabet. I have also just use normal weight paper, as it does not really matter so long as the desired shape is cut out.

Step 3

Then using ordinary household prick-stick (or a cheap replica in my case) I have stuck the the paper templates to a scrap bit of hardboard, this will then be cut to make a jig of all the letters. I tend to use Hardboard for all my flat jigs (templates) as it is an inexpensive product at around £4 for a sheet at B&Q.

TIP: Jigs of cut-out projects can be useful, to get a constant shape every time. I have made countless jigs and never thrown one away yet, cause they can be use on so many different projects. so even thought at the time it may seem like a long winded thing to do for the first project it will save time on the next couple of projects, so they really do pay for them self’s in the end.

Step 4

TIP: Many times on different projects you will find yourself waiting for glue to dry or for materials to be delivered, well why not do something else while you wait?

Yes while the glue on the templates dry attaching the paper to the Hardboard, I set about cutting the Cedar wood into the size required on my Compound Mitre Saw. Cause the material that I had got for this project was 90mm width ways, all I had to do was cut the length down to 120mm. This process is really simple with a Mitre Saw simply mark one of the bits of material then place it on top of multiple other bits and cut, this will insure all the parts are the same size.

TIP: I have gone with Cedar due to the simple fact that it was a great thickness I found at my local wood mill, the Cedar was from a pile of offcuts all about the same size and cost a really small amount per piece. This is a great way to reduce the cost of the project!

Step 5

Well now I cut out the strait lines on my Band-Saw as this gave a very fast and actuate cut, you could cut out the strait lines using a Electric Fretsaw or Coping-Saw by hand, but personally I prefer a Band-Saw for this task. I also cut some of the curves on the Band-Saw but this job is better done with a Fretsaw or Coping-Saw, as a band-Saw is not that good at cutting tight curves.

TIP: When cutting the jig allow for the width of a pencil line, by making the whole jig a millimetre smaller, cause this will make the final piece the correct size. Not taking this step could make the jig too big for the material that you have cut.

Step 6

Now to cut out any inside parts, there are a couple of was of doing this, you could cut through the area you want to keep with a single saw line. Or you could take the step that I have taken and drill a couple of holes in the area you want to remove, this will allow a Fretsaw or Coping-Saw blade to be put through to cut out the inside of the jig as shown in the pictures below.

Don’t forget to sand all the edges when you have completed the jig!

Step 7

Now it is as simple as drawing round the jig, then cut out the shape as I did with the jig. By using the Band-Saw to cut out the strait lines and the simple curves, then using the Fretsaw to cut the remaining curves.  Making sure to cut to the inside of the pencil lines with the blade going through the line drawn on the wood, as you will remember I have made sure to allow for a pencil line width.

TIP: If you are doing a complicated shape you could scribble on the area you are going to cut out, so that you can clearly identify what is scrap and what you want to keep.

Step 8

Then I simply drilled holes in the area I needed to cut out as I did with the jig, then again using the Fretsaw cut the inside lines out .

Step 9

Then  I  Sanded down all the lettering 

Then Done!