Tag Archives: Lcut creative

Canute Road Quay

Making Quay progress, Canute Road Quay nears completion… if such ever happens..

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Since my last post showing progress on Canute Road Quay, with respect to the concrete road area and inset trackwork along with making the grass ‘grow’  I have been busy completing the rest of the buildings and adding a mix of details.

The left hand front office building is yet to be affixed to the layout

The two main front buildings have been assembled from the excellent laser cut card components from LCut Creative these have now been initially painted and external details such as gutters and downpipes added from a mix of Peco LK-78 buifdings details pack and Wills SS46 Buildings Pack A. These buildings are not yet permanently affixed to the layout as I am still to add the internal details and also some lighting.

The main warehouse loading platform also has a representation of its underside wooden support beams. Photo taken before the gantry was fitted

I gave the LCut Creative buildings a coat of Humbrol grey acrylic primer prior to dry brush painting the brickwork using a pallet of  brick work colours from Precision Paints mixed with a little dirty black and also picked out slightly different brickwork such as the window brick arches a slightly lighter colour.

The gantry and A frame has been added to the right hand warehouse

The main warehouse loading platform has been made using Wills floorboard building sheets rather than the LCut Creative card items as I was making the platform quite long and the Wills plastic sheets are larger and stronger. This has been painted a weathered greyish brown colour.

To give access to the upper floor loading doors I have created a gantry hoist supported on the quayside by an ‘A’ Frame. The block and tackle / pulley would run on the smaller section ‘H’ girder mounted below the main cross girder, to either lift items to and from open wagons and or in theory the girder would be cantilevered over the quayside to lift items from moored vessels.

Another view of the warehouse and freelance gantry hoist

I have made this somewhat freelance design from scratch using two different sizes of brass ‘H’ section soldered together with some corner bracing details added from thin brass sheet embossed with a number of rivets.

The engine shed nestles in the roar corner of Canute Road Quay

The engine shed tucked away in the back right hand corner assembled from Skytrex Model Railways resin parts is now complete and suitably painted. The inside floor of the shed has been painted to represent a concrete floor and outside the shed a mix ash, using real ash from my wood burning stove, ballast and coal around the coaling platform, a Hornby Scaledale product,  have been glued in place using the usual method of diluted PVA glue. The water crane is a Kernow Model Centre commissioned SR style made by Bachmann Scenecraft.

USA tank No 72 crosses the quayside access road

A few people and black wing gulls have been suitably positioned around the layout from Langley Models, I have also used their etched drains and drain covers in suitable places. The SR barley twist post style gas lamps, from Gaugemaster, are yet to be wired in although the transformer, voltage regulator and input wiring is already place to do so.

The end of the right hand warehouse and loading platform

Other details items such as wooden crates, oil drums, sacks and fish crates have been added from cast plaster items from Ten Commandments suitably painted.

In my last post about Fisherton Sarum attending the Epsom and Ewell exhibition last weekend, Canute Road Quay makes its first almost public appearance this coming Sunday at an RMweb forum members event in Taunton. I would like to thank all those readers of this blog who came by Fisherton Sarum at the excellent Epsom and Ewell exhibition, it was good to speak to you all. On the whole from the layouts perspective the show went well despite a couple of electrical niggles, and I am looking forward to hopefully a good day with Canute Road Quay on Sunday.

An overall view of Canute Road Quay showing its curtrent state of progress
Canute Road Quay, General, Kernow Models

Further progress on Canute Road Quay, buildings and inset track start to take shape

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A weekend at home for a change has seen some progress made on my new little timesaving / timewasting project Canute Road Quay. This post brings you up to date with that progress, further buildings have been added and a start made on the inset quayside trackwork.

The ‘Waterloo Tavern’ has been added which is a Bachmann Scenecraft low relief building

Firstly taking on board an excellent suggestion made by a friend and fellow Southern enthusiast Ian (Olddudders) on RMweb  of adding a pub into the scene to be somewhere to quench the thirst of, and allow some of the cash be spent on pay day of, the hardy dock workers; I have therefore sourced and added a couple more suitable Bachmann Scenecraft low relief buildings next to the bonded warehouse.

A further view of the low relief buildings including what is now a stores building

The first one being the ‘Waterloo Taven’ and another being a stores building that was originally a garage, but I have already removed the petrol pump and branding but haven’t touched up the paint work up yet. A small alleyway is between these buildings behind the gate.
I have also removed the platform from the bonded warehouses to lower them in height and also due to the fact that I am locating then facing on to a roadway rather railway line.

Work on the insert trackwork has started as well as the LCut Creative office building

I have made a start on the inset quayside trackwork, which will represent a concrete finish once complete. Firstly I added check rails inside the running rails, by super-gluing lengths of rail to the sleepers. The first layer of 2.5mm cork has been glued down either side of the track, and also a strip added between the check rails. The next stage will be add a second layer of 1.5mm cork on top of the base layer that will also extend right up to the outside surface of the running rails totally covering the sleepers. Any gaps will be filled using filler before scribing section lines to represent the panels of concrete and expansion gaps then painting a weather concrete and weeds and such like added.

A view of the work in progress on the front quayside warehouse and loading platform

The front buildings representing a quayside office building and a larger warehouse and loading platform have also started to take shape. For these building I am using laser cut card components from LCut Creative. I have been very impressed with the quality and detail of these kits, they assemble very easily, using PVA woodglue and as they come in sections of common key dimensions they are easily adaptable to suit the location, as I have done here using a number of different kits combined to give the effect I am after.

The small engine shed and coal stage can be seen in the back corner of Canute Road Quay

These are currently still in sections with the upper floor of the warehouse building and the loading platform just being rested in place until I have added the internals floors and partitions, but the effect they give is starting to take shape.

In the very back corner can be seen the small engine shed with its Hornby Scaledale coal stage and Kernow Model Rail Centre SR style water crane, the shed itself is taking shape from a resin kit from Skytrex Model Railways.

I hope to make further progress over the Christmas break; with continued progress on the buildings, inset trackwork and the fixing of an overcast sky photographic backscene; and will keep you suitably posted via this blog.

Canute Road Quay, General

Quay Points… an update re Canute Road Quay and / or improving Peco turnouts

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My new little timesaving / timewasting project Canute Road Quay has progressed slowly over the last few weeks. This post brings you up to date with that progress and also the details the modifications that I make to Peco electrofrog turnouts to improve both the appearance and the electrical performance that is especially important as I am using  Peco short radius turnouts including Y’ turnouts.

Canute Road Quay is starting to take shape

From the pictures left you can see that I have now completed following: painting of the baseboard with matt black paint to all the external fascias, leaving the inside faces and underneath white, the trackwork is now laid and glued in place (I actually on the recommendation of a fellow modeler simply used superglue for this) the LED lighting is in place (more of which anon) also the brickwork of the quayside along the very front edge has also been added.

Another view on progress so far.

Although not visible from the picture the DCC Concepts Cobalt point motors have been installed, and initial track feed and frog wiring completed. This has not yet been taken back to the control panel (which I have also made up, but more about this in a future post) as this will itself be mounted on the small bespoke fiddle yard module on the left hand end and I am still awaiting this from Tim Horn Baseboards.

The next steps will be the initial weathering or the track sleepers and painting rail sides in track colour, the addition of the check rail for the inset trackwiork sections and the construction of the remaining buildings. In addition to the low relief Bachmann Scalescene bonded warehouses, I have opted for using Skytrex Models resin components for the engine shed and the two warehouses / loading docks located at the front using laser cut components from LCut Creative.  Once in place I can make a start on the various ground covers.

Improving Peco turnouts

With respect to the Peco turnouts there are a number of improvements that can be made especially electrically to ensure better running which includes:

A diagram showing modifications to Peco points from underneath

Firstly, I always recommend  switching the frog polarity using the built in micro switch on the point motor (or a separate micro switch depending on the motor type you are using, the DCC Concepts Cobalt point motors convenient have two built in switches) and therefore not relying on the switch blade contact, which can be unreliable if any dirt gets between the stock rail and switch blade.

The Peco short radius ‘Y’ turnout does not have wire links so requires the actual rails to be cut between the frog and links between the stock rails and the switch blade (just visible)

This requires any electrical link between switch rails and the frog to be cut, and as such is made simple on most Peco points as there is an exposed wire link underneath the point that can be cut. However on the short radius ‘Y’ points this wire link does not exist and therefore requires the actual rails to be cut between the switch blade pivots and the frog.

A diagram from above

Secondly, I electrically link each switch blade to its adjacent stock rail with a short wire link as this ensures good electrical continuity. Conveniently Peco leave a gap in the sleeper webbing, on most of their turnouts, to ease the soldering of this wire link, which is then hidden one ballasted etc.

Hopefully the diagrams / images to the left help to show this more clearly.

Picture showingthe tiebar has been cut either side and the spring and housing removed

To improve the turnouts visually I also remove, by simply cutting them off the hand operating lugs either side of the tie bar and as I am using DCC Concepts Cobalt point motors that are of the stall rather than solenoid type that hold the switchblades in the required position the non prototypical Peco spring housing and spring can also be removed, these are held in place by a metal clip that can be easily unclipped from underneath the turnout.

I hope that the above post is of interest and use especially with respect to wiring and improving Peco elctrofrog points and clarifies the issue on the short radius ‘Y’ point where the wire links underneath are not provided by Peco.

Watch this space for further updates on Canute Road Quay over the next few weeks.