7mm East Dock Shed

FiftyFourA

Western Thunderer
As I mentioned in my thread on my 54E layout, since my accident I have been unable to do much in the way of serious modelling and that lead to some 'chaffing at the bit'. I had already bought a couple of Heljan diesels to run on friends layouts when a chance conversation at an exhibition about the lack of 'modern image' layouts set me thinking. I had my test track in my workroom that way lying idle so why not convert it to a layout? All I needed to do was improve the points, put down some ballast and a few buildings and hey presto! What could go wrong? Mmmm!

Well, the first thing was that it needed an extension board for the fiddle yard end; luckily a friend of mine, Steven Foxton (an excellent wood worker both in 12" to the foot and 7mm to the foot), built it for me.
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Next the buildings. It did not take me long to realise that the accident had severely restricted movement in my right hand and the buildings were rubbish. Then up stepped another friend, Gavin Thirkell of Stoneybridge Structures, who is also a fellow volunteer at Locomotion. He laser cut me the shed and bridge and all I have had to do is stick them together. I tell you, without friends you get nowhere.

Anyway, now for the geography. Like all my modelling it is set in the Wearside area. The shed building itself is based on Sunderland South Dock, cut in half. This was originally a steam shed which was used for keeping bland blue boxes out of the cold North Sea air at night until the late 90s, so is fine for my period in the late 70s when the place was simply a fueling point/signing on point ... what used to be called a sub-shed in steam days. The road bridge is based on the one at Villette Road over the Durham coast line to Hartlepool. The rest ... no idea yet.

Progress is slow but at least there is some. Hopefully you will enjoy the photos and I will update as the layout gets more 'bits' added ready for its first outing in October ... hopefully :thumbs:


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Peter
 

FiftyFourA

Western Thunderer
Well, I now know that my wrist will get no better so I just have to get on with things as they are. Ho-hum (or other more colourfull expressions!).

Anyway, there has been some progress on the shed building. The inside has been fitted out with various shed 'furniture' as you may be able to see in this piccie.
East Dock Shed.JPG

A bit too clean for an ex-steam shed in the north east in 1977 so here's what it looks like now -
East Dock Shed Interior 2.JPG

Now to the roof. Alot of searching through the internet and with the help of friends in the Armstrong Photographic Trust tracked down some photos showing the roof and smoke ducts for the shed and have knocked them up. The first photo shows one section in place in the roof space (temporarily fixed with BluTack) to check clearances etc., while the second shows the 2 completed smoke hoods in primer.

East Dock Shed Smoke Ducts 1.JPG Shed Smoke Ducts.JPG

The last picture is taken on my loft layout at roughly the place where the NCB exchange sidings will be - a long term project.

Next job is to fix some of the dodgy workmanship, paint them and then fix them in place. Then to install the lamps, finish the roof, finish the bridge, finish balasting the track, complete the backscene, make a front 'screen' and find time to volunteer for the Flying Scotsman bash at Locomotion ... as well as the usual eating and sleeping stuff (and going to the pub) :confused:

Will it be ready for its first outing in October? Mmmmm .......
 

FiftyFourA

Western Thunderer
While waiting for the smoke hoods/ducts to dry I thought I would do a bit more on the bridge and fix it in place.

East Dock Bridge.jpg

Still a bit of work too do, not least on the road desk/pavement, but getting there.

Then, I couldn't help having a bit 'play' with a couple of 37s.


Class 37s on shed 2.JPG

Ah, I see I have missed a bit (well a few bits) on the shed front. Still, better now than later.
 

FiftyFourA

Western Thunderer
You got it in one!

Although it does seem to have gotten quieter in recent years. Perhaps they have seen the error of their ways. No, thought not!

Perhaps I should put one or two of the natives on the bridge :headbang:
 

FiftyFourA

Western Thunderer
Probably moved south to British West Hartlepool. Am I still allowed to call it that?

Done a bit of work this morning on the shed roof and top coat on the smoke hoods; hopefully ready to fix in place later today.

Now I need some lights before the roof itself goes on, basically I am looking for ones like this one. InteriorLamps.jpg

Anyone any ideas out there about who does something like the original - complete prototype fidelity is not essential.
 

FiftyFourA

Western Thunderer
Well, the first smoke hoods/ducts are in place -

Shed Smoke Hoods 2.JPG Smoke Hoods 2.JPG
Used a few blocks of wood to get the right height and EvoStick to hold everything in place. I am a bit chuffed as I think it looks quite effective, especially with a loco underneath. It will be better for a bit of North Sea weathering (that goes for the 37 as well!).

Unfortunately the other one fell apart when I was getting it into place - that'll teach me to bodge. So it's back to the bench to file the sections to get a better fit so the glue will hold.
 

FiftyFourA

Western Thunderer
After a bit of a 'detour' to complete the extention to my other layout (Londonderry Goods) ready for Shildon MRC show next month, I have been able to get back to working on 'East Dock'.

The roof lights are in place (grain of wheat as I couldn't get what I wanted in LED form) and wired up, made up and fixed the drain pipes in place and I have started painting individual bricks to give some 'life' to the building. It looks too garish at present but after another couple of passes with blended shades of the basic colours I am using and a bit of weathing/blending, it should be OK. That is IF my sanity holds out :headbang:. This is a mind-numbing job and possibly also likely to result in a visit to Specsavers (other opticians are avaliable).

Next do fix are the 'outside' lamps on the building; they are wired up but I have already broken one doing the painting so they are being left until the building (and maybe even the backscene) is finished. I tried to source 'yard' lights for the sidings area over the weekend at Telford but it seems that there are none ... and no-one seems to do the red/white limited clearance signs, so I suppose its out with the printer.

Once these tasks are finished its on with the ballasting and trying to sort out what to do about a backscene ... oh yes, and finishing the alterations to the Heljan 37s and fitting sound to the second one, not much really :eek:.

Peter
 

FiftyFourA

Western Thunderer
Hi All,

Well, the layout has just had its 'debut' at a local exhibition in Spennymoor (Co. Durham) over the weekend and most things went well - apart from the feet (mine that is!). Oh, and the fact that they put me right next to where they were cooking the bacon sarnies. Temptation :headbang:.

Shed Front 1.JPG

I added a small detachable shelf to the front for the oil tank and fuelling point which still have to be finished off along with the addition of many small items of detail but the main issue seems to be with the variable wheel profiles of Heljan diesels.

The Peco points blades are modified to 'throw' to fine scale distances which should displease the class 47, but I expected that as I already knew they closer to NMRA standards than the GOG ones, but that one went through fine, its the 37s that were the problem and the floating end wheel on the 40. Still, a little tweak here and there will sort that.

View From Tunnell Mouth.JPG

The diesels need crews fitting to some, the cabs painted in the right colours and weathering. I shall also be looking into modifying the lamps so that I can switch off the tail lamps when required.

The major problem was that the Bachman 08 (replacing the missing Dapol 08) developed a strange fault on Saturday after 3 years of faultless work. While slowly travelling along the track the sound suddenly went off and would not come back on. The loco still works ultra smoothly. Anyone any ideas? I have checked all the usual suspects - loose wires etc.

Anyway, I am happy with how things went overall.

Peter
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
I have checked all the usual suspects - loose wires etc.

It's not a dry joint on the speaker or decoder?

You could try and read the decoder if you have access to a decoder reader e.g. Sprog to see if it reveals anything. Otherwise try resetting or even re-blowing the decoder?

The only way I've lost sound is where I accidentally shorted the sound connections on the decoder - never to be repeated though.
 

FiftyFourA

Western Thunderer
Hi Dave,

Tried all of those (and don't forget that the decoder worked perfectly after the sound went off) then cut the speaker off the sticky pad holding it down and it worked while I had hold of it. Put it down and it stopped. I should say that the speaker is in a sealed enclosure so I can't get to it, so basically the simple pressure I was exerting holding it in my fingers was enough to get it to work. Obviously the speaker is the problem so I rang Digitrains where I bought it.

They told me that, basically, these small speakere in our models (costing less than a tenner) are not of the quality of those beloved woofers & tweeters in our HiFi systems (does that show my age :eek:) and due to the constant movement of the diaphram it will, at some point, fail.

On thinking about it I see their point. The chip costs £80-£100 and the speaker less than a tenner (actually £6.50). Anyway, I have ordered another from them to be picked up at Wakefield (us pensioners have to save where we can you know) and hopefully that solves that.

Peter
 

FiftyFourA

Western Thunderer
While I'm on I thought I would post a couple of pictures taken by a mate of mine (Gavin of Stoneybridge Structures) of the layout. I think his camera is a bit better than mine.

The first is the modified Heljan obviously waiting for the foreman to signal him out of the shed.37073.JPG

This one shows the layout in all of it's huge size :)) , all 6ft of it (excluding the fiddle yard).

Layout View.JPG

Peter
 

FiftyFourA

Western Thunderer
Replaced the faulty speaker and the Bachman 08 is noisey again. So is the Dapol one as well, with the correct lamps.

Unfortunately modelling is a bit of a problem at present due to .........





100_0974.JPG

22 weeks old, full of mischief and dead keen to 'help' dad in his modelling ... even though dad doesn't need help!

Anyway, Londonderry Goods layout has had the gremlis fixed (famous last words :eek:) since its last outing ready for Perth Green show in March so its back to the detailing work on East Dock - that's IF I can get Molly out of the way or interested in something other than model railways.

Probably need to change my picture as well (is it called an avatar or am I barking up the wrong tree?)

Peter
 

allegheny1600

Western Thunderer
Hi Peter,
This is just lovely, what a good idea! I'm out of 7mm now but if I wasn't, I might be tempted to emulate you.
Great choice of location but best of all for me, is the cat/s!
Molly is just gorgeous as are the ones in your Avatar (yes, I still call it that).
Cheers,
John.
 

Jordan

Mid-Western Thunderer
Unfortunately modelling is a bit of a problem at present due to .........
View attachment 62944

22 weeks old, full of mischief and dead keen to 'help' dad in his modelling ... even though dad doesn't need help!

Peter
:rolleyes: oh dear, yet another modeller finds out the hard way the folly of using kitty-litter for ballast :D

What's the factory scenic flat behind the moggy, though? It looks most effective. :thumbs:
 

FiftyFourA

Western Thunderer
Hi Jordan,

The factory flat is laser cut by Gavin Thirkell of this parish (Stoneybridge Structures). It is half of an original in Sunderland, the other bit is removable and covers the baseboard join (post 13).

I find I cannot cut multiple windows etc as accurately as Gavin can draw them on his computer (same with any package) so I concentrate on the stickig them together, adding details, painting & wethering.

Peter
 
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