Phew! I can imagine having a few interesting nights in getting to the bottom of that...
7mm Crook Street
- Thread starter Allan
- Start date
paulc
Western Thunderer
Thanks Allan , unfortunately I have sprayed the spilt milk so i will have to brush some grey paint back in the appropriate places .
I have started my lining life with a parcels coach , an old plastic kit ( brand name starts with an H ) that I bought cheap so if I make a complete botch of it I won't cry too much . So far it's coming together fairly well .
Hi All,
A liitle bit on the corridor connections that might be of interest. I was never satisfied with my efforts up to now, in fact my arc roof composite didn't even have any, which always ranckled in the movies. So for these coaches I thought I'd put some effort in as well as retrofitting my existing coaches.
I had the supplied Sidelines ones that unfortunately have a habit of sagging so the top protrudes and the bottom recedes. I also had the old Chowbent solution on my toplight third, which modelled the side strapping but in a rigid form. I wanted to model the side strapping which is quite visible in the form of an 'X' the full height of the connection as well as have a flexible connection that actually connected. The rakes would be semi-permanently coupled so there'd be 4 'ends' and 8 mid-train connections. I decided to make the 'ends' solid and the mid-train ones flexible.
For the ends, I used the Chowbent ones where there wasn't a nice door to be revealed:
...and made up a couple of open ones using frames supplied with the Worsley Works kits where there was a nice door:
For the in-train ones, I used the Sidelines paper bellows and made a couple up in addition. Uncoupled they look ludicrously long:
...but once coupled using my standard 'bent rod to represent brake hoses' ruse, they behave themselves quite nicely:
The side strapping was initially made from brass strip salvaged from the scrap bin until I ran out and resorted to plasti-strip. Both efforts are rigid and very flimsy but make a reasonable representation of the real thing.
Last but not least is the top covers. I used kitchen foil as they need to roughly hold their shape but not be too rigid when traversing curves. Again, quite flimsy but they seem to do the job so far. Here's a picture, the left one being painted matt black and the left one unadorned:
I think that's it for the coaches, I might do a bit of weathering on the ends... but then again, I might not...
I've been holding off doing a movie as I wanted the coaches to feature in it but we're off on a trip to (ideally) climb some mountains in the Alps but the weather is looking particularly unfriendly so it might be some soggy trudging instead. Still - good for clearing the mind and planning new and devious ways to fit yet more model railway into the already full cellar...
Cheers
Allan
A liitle bit on the corridor connections that might be of interest. I was never satisfied with my efforts up to now, in fact my arc roof composite didn't even have any, which always ranckled in the movies. So for these coaches I thought I'd put some effort in as well as retrofitting my existing coaches.
I had the supplied Sidelines ones that unfortunately have a habit of sagging so the top protrudes and the bottom recedes. I also had the old Chowbent solution on my toplight third, which modelled the side strapping but in a rigid form. I wanted to model the side strapping which is quite visible in the form of an 'X' the full height of the connection as well as have a flexible connection that actually connected. The rakes would be semi-permanently coupled so there'd be 4 'ends' and 8 mid-train connections. I decided to make the 'ends' solid and the mid-train ones flexible.
For the ends, I used the Chowbent ones where there wasn't a nice door to be revealed:
...and made up a couple of open ones using frames supplied with the Worsley Works kits where there was a nice door:
For the in-train ones, I used the Sidelines paper bellows and made a couple up in addition. Uncoupled they look ludicrously long:
...but once coupled using my standard 'bent rod to represent brake hoses' ruse, they behave themselves quite nicely:
The side strapping was initially made from brass strip salvaged from the scrap bin until I ran out and resorted to plasti-strip. Both efforts are rigid and very flimsy but make a reasonable representation of the real thing.
Last but not least is the top covers. I used kitchen foil as they need to roughly hold their shape but not be too rigid when traversing curves. Again, quite flimsy but they seem to do the job so far. Here's a picture, the left one being painted matt black and the left one unadorned:
I think that's it for the coaches, I might do a bit of weathering on the ends... but then again, I might not...
I've been holding off doing a movie as I wanted the coaches to feature in it but we're off on a trip to (ideally) climb some mountains in the Alps but the weather is looking particularly unfriendly so it might be some soggy trudging instead. Still - good for clearing the mind and planning new and devious ways to fit yet more model railway into the already full cellar...
Cheers
Allan
paulc
Western Thunderer
It's not that brilliant Allan as the crumpet that built it and i bought it from didn't cut the windows out to the correct size and i didn't notice until i started lining it and thought i should fit the.droplights . Why didn't i think of it before painting , i have no idea . Youthful exuberance, haha at 73 .
As my first proper attempt at LNWR lining though I'm reasonably happy .
Ref corridor connections, i have to admit to using rubber ones and i also use MagClik for coupling up corridor coaches .. My excuse is that you can't see them under the bellows anyway .
Have a good trip .
Thanks Kevin, that concept of the scenic plank has lots of potential to the space constrained modeller!
That's a very good question, it did have a small coal bunker on one side of the cab and I guess most of it's work pootling around the yards would be quite low consumption - maybe a visit a couple of times a day? I'm guessing, perhaps those with greater knowledge on here could advise. On fictional Crook Street, one of it's duties is to 'work the bank' in the coal 'ole, so it would be able to acquire a quick top-up as without much interruption to it's schedule. Of course, back in the day most shunters spent most of their time standing in sidings!
paulc
Western Thunderer
Is there a George V kit ? You could use that and change the splashers .
Don't think so. Tamerlane was a David Andrews kit, which make superheated and un-superheated Precursors as well as Georges. I did call him as I'd like an un-superheated one and he's only selling off old stock. I don't know of any other kits.
Cheers
Allan
Hi All,
I've long had ideas rattling round the empty space that should be filled with brain about ambient sound and maybe some chuffing sounds for Crook Street. Until recently I haven't been convinced by the available sound chips for steam (always been good for diesel) but they really have come on leaps and bounds. A while back I devised a scheme and bought some cheap-as-chips speakers and MP3 player boards as well as a timer that I'd need from ebay.
I'd admired the excellent Norwich Central layout on the exhibition circuit recently and they used DCC sound in the foreground goods yard and DC without sound on the high level passenger station at the rear of the layout - not unlike Crook Street in 'sound area' terms. The lack of sound on the upper station was not obtrusive at all as there was plenty chuffing going on in the foreground.
For a home layout and one that gets filmed, I needed some ambient sounds as the real world is full of it. You don't tend to notice it if, say, you're watching a preserved steam loco, but you do notice it when it's absent. So I figured I needed station sound, steam shed sound and (for Deansgate) warehouse sound to get me started.
Next thing I reckoned was to have push-button triggered shunting sounds (wagons clanking and groaning) for both Crook Street and Deansgate (same sound). And finally, I'd bite the bullet and fit sound chips to the two shunters.
The trickiest bit was how to provide chuffing sounds for the main running lines. To answer the obvious question of why I didn't go for sound chips for all locos is that it's a lot of effort and expense and I wanted the extra bass you can get with stand alone speakers. Anyway, I figured I'd need two starting locations, the station or the yard as well as two valve gear types (different exhaust beat), Joy or Stephensons (Straight Link, if you're an LNWR man). In addition the sound needed to travel with the train, so I also needed an exit speaker that could play either sound file. So after a bit of gear grinding in aformentioned sparsly populated brain space I came up with a switching and file selection process that made it all work. I'll spare you the details but I can spell it out if anyone's mad/interested enough.
Here's one of the MP3 players:
I found that the functionality is quite restricted, most importantly that it won't remember settings on power down, so I'd need one player per sound file and I'd need 4 sound files: Joy Start; Link Start; Joy Depart; Link Depart. At around a fiver each, no one's complaining!
Left to their own devices, the little beasties would simply play the files repeatedly forever unless you press buttons, which I didn't want to have to do, so I needed a timer to power them off every time my train had finished chuffing:
Again, el-cheapo and is quite useful and has a few modes which suggests itself as an alternative to having to furkle around programming Arduini and Raspberry Pi. I can do that but to be honest, I rather build railway stuff!
So I ended up with a board containing all the relevant bits and bobs and some choc block contacts to enable some thuggish wiring to avoid the delicate contact blocks on the units. Electronic engineers (I know there's a few of you out there) may want to look away at this point...:
I also needed some switches, one to select the start location, station or yard, and one for the valve gear type. Additionally I wanted a play button, which starts the timer, which in turn starts the selected players:
I housed the speakers in some ply boxes, which improves the sound immesurably. Don't worry hi-fi manufacturers, you can sleep easy in your beds I'm sure...:
Last but not least are the sound files themselves. I'd been collecting sounds from various internet sources and my own films at heritage lines for years so I'd accumulated quite a few appropriate ones. I edited them together using the same Shotcut editor I use for the movies, just saved as MP3 files. The BBC sound archive is a wonderful resourse! For the chuffing moving with the train, I simply had the same file (one for Joy, one for Link) and faded the Start File at the end (timed to coincide with the train passing under the bridge) and the Depart File faded at the beginning.
So, next steps are to acquire some sound chips for the shunters and let's see if it works in the movies
If it works and I ever get round to building the steelworks, I have a whole cacophony of sound lined up for that!
Cheers
Allan
I've long had ideas rattling round the empty space that should be filled with brain about ambient sound and maybe some chuffing sounds for Crook Street. Until recently I haven't been convinced by the available sound chips for steam (always been good for diesel) but they really have come on leaps and bounds. A while back I devised a scheme and bought some cheap-as-chips speakers and MP3 player boards as well as a timer that I'd need from ebay.
I'd admired the excellent Norwich Central layout on the exhibition circuit recently and they used DCC sound in the foreground goods yard and DC without sound on the high level passenger station at the rear of the layout - not unlike Crook Street in 'sound area' terms. The lack of sound on the upper station was not obtrusive at all as there was plenty chuffing going on in the foreground.
For a home layout and one that gets filmed, I needed some ambient sounds as the real world is full of it. You don't tend to notice it if, say, you're watching a preserved steam loco, but you do notice it when it's absent. So I figured I needed station sound, steam shed sound and (for Deansgate) warehouse sound to get me started.
Next thing I reckoned was to have push-button triggered shunting sounds (wagons clanking and groaning) for both Crook Street and Deansgate (same sound). And finally, I'd bite the bullet and fit sound chips to the two shunters.
The trickiest bit was how to provide chuffing sounds for the main running lines. To answer the obvious question of why I didn't go for sound chips for all locos is that it's a lot of effort and expense and I wanted the extra bass you can get with stand alone speakers. Anyway, I figured I'd need two starting locations, the station or the yard as well as two valve gear types (different exhaust beat), Joy or Stephensons (Straight Link, if you're an LNWR man). In addition the sound needed to travel with the train, so I also needed an exit speaker that could play either sound file. So after a bit of gear grinding in aformentioned sparsly populated brain space I came up with a switching and file selection process that made it all work. I'll spare you the details but I can spell it out if anyone's mad/interested enough.
Here's one of the MP3 players:
I found that the functionality is quite restricted, most importantly that it won't remember settings on power down, so I'd need one player per sound file and I'd need 4 sound files: Joy Start; Link Start; Joy Depart; Link Depart. At around a fiver each, no one's complaining!
Left to their own devices, the little beasties would simply play the files repeatedly forever unless you press buttons, which I didn't want to have to do, so I needed a timer to power them off every time my train had finished chuffing:
Again, el-cheapo and is quite useful and has a few modes which suggests itself as an alternative to having to furkle around programming Arduini and Raspberry Pi. I can do that but to be honest, I rather build railway stuff!
So I ended up with a board containing all the relevant bits and bobs and some choc block contacts to enable some thuggish wiring to avoid the delicate contact blocks on the units. Electronic engineers (I know there's a few of you out there) may want to look away at this point...:
I also needed some switches, one to select the start location, station or yard, and one for the valve gear type. Additionally I wanted a play button, which starts the timer, which in turn starts the selected players:
I housed the speakers in some ply boxes, which improves the sound immesurably. Don't worry hi-fi manufacturers, you can sleep easy in your beds I'm sure...:
Last but not least are the sound files themselves. I'd been collecting sounds from various internet sources and my own films at heritage lines for years so I'd accumulated quite a few appropriate ones. I edited them together using the same Shotcut editor I use for the movies, just saved as MP3 files. The BBC sound archive is a wonderful resourse! For the chuffing moving with the train, I simply had the same file (one for Joy, one for Link) and faded the Start File at the end (timed to coincide with the train passing under the bridge) and the Depart File faded at the beginning.
So, next steps are to acquire some sound chips for the shunters and let's see if it works in the movies
If it works and I ever get round to building the steelworks, I have a whole cacophony of sound lined up for that!
Cheers
Allan
Hi All,
Well, here's the first movie with the new sounds, does it work I wonder...? I found that while the sound is fine for me in my operating position, when the camera (phone) is on the layout, of course the speakers aren't aiming at it and the sound has to travel through the baseboard. I increased the volume of the chuffing for departures but I reckon I need to increase them more.
I added to the movie plank by making some cutting walls, so it can now masqurade as numerous places down the Roe Green line, which was in a cutting from Hulton Junction all the way to Monton Green. It's made from foamboard and the grass is hanging basket liner, my favourite for the rough grass on the railway side of the fence. Here's a picture:
That's it for now - back to building engines...!
Cheers
Allan
Well, here's the first movie with the new sounds, does it work I wonder...? I found that while the sound is fine for me in my operating position, when the camera (phone) is on the layout, of course the speakers aren't aiming at it and the sound has to travel through the baseboard. I increased the volume of the chuffing for departures but I reckon I need to increase them more.
I added to the movie plank by making some cutting walls, so it can now masqurade as numerous places down the Roe Green line, which was in a cutting from Hulton Junction all the way to Monton Green. It's made from foamboard and the grass is hanging basket liner, my favourite for the rough grass on the railway side of the fence. Here's a picture:
That's it for now - back to building engines...!
Cheers
Allan
James Spooner
Western Thunderer
Hi Allan,
I do love your videos but cant help agreeing that there is a distinct lack of chuff at any point where the loco is having to do any work. When leaving a station, especially with a train, the loco will be exerting its maximum effort and is likely to be chuffing quite hard. As soon as it reaches the desired speed, the regulator will be eased back and there will be much more of a quieter soundtrack. Whilst your soundtracks have demonstrated quite a lot of hissing steam, there hasn’t been much actual chuffing and the addition of that (in the right places) will really add to an already great production.
Nigel