Some extra movies

Here the links to 2 extra movies after I digitalized the little one:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIOg6TFUKZ4

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZy_bRN-2uw

See how it crawls the track!

Working on my rolling stock

Past weekend there was a big trainshow here in the Netherlands called "Eurospoor". I was there Saturday and Sunday with friends from a Dutch internet forum called "Beneluxspoor.net". I have several building threats there and these days I demo-ed the building of styrene rolling stock.
This is what I managed to do in ample 2 days:

Me at work:

The 3 cars I completely build:

And the cattle car I already build with some other stuff displayed:

It was very nice and I learned a lot these 2 days off building from scratch. Further I met a good Dutch friend who is very experienced in scratchbuilding with styrene but also with remotering projects. He opted that I could use motors from cdrom or dvdrom drives and that these motors are almost the same as the original Rivarossi motors. He took my 4-4-0 that was on display and took it home to re-motor. At night it was ready and he opted that I would do the rest of my locos (the Rivarossi ones). So thuesday I went to the secondhand store and bought 2 old drives for approx. $7,- . Later at home we (my son and I) took the things apart to harvest the 2 motors in them:

The drives:

And what we harvested:

The first motor on its place. Glued with acc and hot glue:

But testing showed that it sat to high in the tenderfloor:

Then I cut a small strip out of the floor and glued the motor in place again:

And see; it sits much lower than the first attempt:

I was very satisfied and made a testrun: http://www.youtube.com/nlron#p/a/u/1/R_uR8QttOEs  And it runs much better then the original. But could it be digitilised? Yes, it could.... I put some 50 grams extra weight in the tender and put a Lenz Silver+ on the bottom. 

And it runs good!: http://www.youtube.com/nlron#p/a/u/0/vVUDGt4YEFk  This was untuned and a not cleaned loco. Further tuning is necessary but I'm on the right way I think!

I also did the other painted tender I already had rebuild:

More to come!

Making ties

Made a batch of ties today. I make them from sticks we use for meat etc. I can make 5 of 1,5 inch length out of 1 stick, there are 100 sticks in a bag so in half an hour I produce 500 ties!:

The legs

Today I made the legs. I still had a set of 3 from a previous project layout:

Me with the layout. Not looking amused, but that is not the case. I'm very happy with it. Maybe I am camera-shy....:

I made a mock-up from some cart material and a photo as reference:

And on the module:

I think the dimensions are pretty good. More in the coming days when I will make the other 2 buildings (the middel high one and the one with the locoshed attached to it).

More construction

Today I went on with the construction of the first module. The idea here is to make the "roof" with the lights removable for transport. That way I can "box" the two modules for transport.

Here the front bottom fascia is made. In two pieces, its made of left-over material from a previous project:

With background:

And the first roof-carrrier (not quit straight mounted yet):

All three of them, together with a mounting strip for a tube light:

I used temporary support for mounting the roof and for lining out the 3 carriers:

Twin bolts hold the carriers:

And ready with the roof straight over the module:

And it can taken off quickly:

The inside with the way how the tubes will be placed:

More in coming days!

Working towards a new project

Hi all,

In English only....

The diorama has had its debut and had good respons:

I went with three layouts; mine (Cornfield Yard) in the front, second the Civil War diorama and last the small layout of my wife, "Halte Padjarakan" with a Indonesian theme:

At the show I found also some cheap loco's... 6 of them! 1 Rivarossi, 2 Bachmann's, 2 Airfix and a Rivarossi Bowker:

And at home they al wheretested and all ran very good. 

I now want to do the layout itself. There lies a invitation for a exhibition in 2013 in the railway museum in Utrecht Netherlands (www.spoorwegmuseum.nl) where this layout will be a focal point of the show.
Long have I thought of what to do.... Alexandria, Aquia Landing, City Point. I didn't know it, all the subjects are interesting enough to build. In further searching I found some very interesting photos of Nashville Tennesee:

I reworked a map of it:

Oke, how to proceed? At first I made some hardcopy photos of the subject I also downloaded some templaates of normal switches at "Fast Tracks" (www.handlaidtrack.com), printed them and cut them out :

Then I made my plan with the templates and some stripes of white paper. For the idea; this will be the second (right) one of 2 modules. The left one will be the station as on the photos, the right one will show the Chatanooga depot with some spurs and a road that crosses the srailway:

From a previous project made long ago I still had the modules of 135 by 60 centimeters. Because it had softwood framing I demolished that and saved the masonite decking:

Tonight after dinner I started with construction. Left over woodwork from also another project (yes, I started some stuff!!) was used as stratingpoint. My current exhibition layout is build as modules that have its lighting already in it. I buid it as a sort of "U-form". This time I will do a "L-form" without the lighting because that way I can transport these two modules somewhat easier and with my current car.

I start with this:

The back is a strip of 60 centimeters long. The bottom is 50 by 10 centimeters:

That is screwed and glued together with a extra 10 by 10 centimeter piece:

And all 3 ready; one on each end and one in the middle:

Tomorrow more construction work!

Almost ready! / Bijna klaar!

I let speak the photo's for itself / Ik laat de foto's voor zichzelf spreken:

From this / Van dit:

To this / Naar dit:

Only some painting of the module and some stuff on it / Alleen nog wat schilderwerk aan de module en wat spul wat er op staat.

This module is to see on Euromodelbouw2011 in Genk Belgium, Europe coming weekend (8/9 Oct 2011) in the "Limburghallen" there..

Deze module is te zien komend weekeinde (8/9 Okt 2011) in Genk Belgie op Euromodelbouw 2011 in de Limburghallen aldaar.

Landscaping / landschap

Some pictures of what I did today / Wat foto's van de werkzaamheden vandaag:

Raised the building / gebouwen verhoogd:

Landscaping / Landschap:

What we are aiming for / Wat we uiteindelijk willen:

PS; in the photo's all is still wet / op de foto's is alles nog nat.