Wall painting complete

Walls done..

Last night after my quick update I got stuck into painting..
4 litres later, the walls now all have 2 or 3 coats and the ceiling has 1 coat of paint.. Then I ran out of paint.. (as expected)..

Here are a few progress pictures.

Yes the back corner brick looks odd.. However, it will be covered by the hidden staging and helix section of the layout..
Now to get some more paint to finish the ceiling.

Stay tuned.

Room build complete

Tools down, the room build is complete..

No time to mess around on the computer to do updates.. The room build was completed on Friday..
Now Michelle's chores are done its time to paint..

Have found the 4 litre tub of Levent blue.. and off to bunnings to get a roller tray and its painting time..

Stay tuned.

More railway room build progress

No point standing around.

As I have all the materials I need, I was able to get cracking over the last 3 days and have now installed the ceiling, moved the fluro light from the garage ceiling to inside the railway room and have installed 70% of the sheets on the walls.
I was able to install the sheets in such a way so that the holes for the screws in the sheets from the old shed are not going to be in the view of the new layout. (well 99% of them anyway.)

The other task completed today was a sheet of heavy duty plastic was installed on the ceiling or cut out section under and near the roller door. While the door will rarely get direct rain as it is facing east, it will still get wet. So the intention of the thick black plastic is that if / when the door gets wet and is operated, then the drips will fall on the plastic and then run down the outer wall rather than pool and come through the ceiling above the layout.

The first 3 pictures are the ceiling progress

The following are the progress of the walls.

Now I just need to install a few narrow pieces around the door way, a sheet against the brick work and the lower 2 sheets.

Then it will be painting time.

Stay tuned...

Let the construction begin!

Time to cut some timber!.

Now that winter is approaching and it is getting cold and the rain is coming, the front garden is complete, the 40m long x 1m high retaining wall is complete, the side access drive is complete its time to get going on the railway room build.

As I have most of the materials thanks to the deconstruction of the old railway room at the old house, it has been fairly cost effective to get going.
Over last weekend, a bit during this week and a bit more time this weekend, I have been able to complete the frame of the railway room within the garage.

The garage is 6m x 6m and the railway room will take up 6m x 2.95m (less a bit of space to enable the roller door to function).

I have now installed the front wall next to the roller door and the main dividing wall in the middle of the garage. I also needed to find space out of the way for the work bench so I built that into the wall as well so that when it is folded down, it is out of the way and will still enable 3m wide clear access for the car. This workbench is now in its 3rd home as it was at the last 2 houses.. Hopefully this will be the last move for it and I for some time.!...

You will note that the garage is fairly full of materials such as 6mm MDF, 3mm MDF, 9mm ply etc, so it has been an exercise in moving stuff around to enable access and build room and slow use up the materials within the space I have that is also storage for it.

Here are a few progress pictures:

Now that the false ceiling is all but done, now I just need to get the MDF on the walls and the 9mm ply on the ceiling.. Then it is painting time!.

The back brick wall will be in the area of the hidden staging and helix so the door will no longer be used and the brick wall will remain as is as it wont be seen..

Here is the current plan..
Not much has changed. Just a bit of tweaking..

Lower staging

 Main deck and heilx

 Upper deck

Till next time.. Stay tuned.

The last days of the SFRSD

The end of an Era.

Last night I visited Rod Warrens SFRSD for the last session on his layout before it is to be pulled apart and then moved to a good friends house..

It has been a great pleasure to work on and operate the SFRSD since 2003 when I first got involved.

Rod and the layout have been a great inspiration to me over the time.

Here are a few shots of a last night with some D&H power on the point..

A great night was had by all and thanks for the memories of the SFRSD in Bayswater.. Looking forward to seeing it in its new home in the future..

Minor updates to the plan

Just massaging the plans a bit

Over the last few days I have sought feedback from various people both locally and also from "The RailWire"forum.

I have made some minor mods to enable more isle space.

Here are the updates.

Here is lower staging

Here is the main deck.
Note that the loco facility is off tot he right and a fair way from the main yard.
Whitehall is actually like this so is prototypical..

Here is the upper deck.

Any feedback is welcome..

I can hear some saying.. All good.. Just get on and build it..
Yep thats the plan, however, as we are in a new house with literally tons of gardening to do.. I need to manage Michelle's job list also..

A new house and a new home for the D&H

A new beginning for the D&H

A fair bit of water has gone under the bridge since my last update in June 2015.
We have moved out of the old house (July 2015) travelled around Australia for 10 weeks (21,000km) and built a new home.

We moved into the new home at the end of Jan 2016 and now I'm busy planning the next incarnation of the D&H Champlain division.

The new layout space will be significantly smaller than the last version. This time it will be in half of the 6m x 6m garage with a dividing wall. So the layout will be 2 levels in a 2.60m x 5.90m room within the garage.

The room will have its own ceiling so I can use the ceiling as storage space within the garage.

The concept of the layout is similar to before in that it will be the Champlain / Saratoga divisions of the D&H or the North End. The town names in the area will be used but there will be modellers licence in terms of the locations of the industries and the complexity of the towns.

The main deck will be 1300mm to 1400mm from the floor with 4 towns or distinct switching locations and then the main line will climb a helix and then run around the parimiter of the room at 1600mm to 1700mm from the floor.

The top deck will be a narrow shelf of no more than 200mm wide. (the main deck is 300mm wide).
As the main deck is busy with towns and industry, I wanted to ensure that I captured the feeling and the scenery of the area around Lake Champlain as it is quite spectacular and would be a shame to not model this area.

The layout will effectively be staging to staging with return loops at each end of the 2 staging locations with single main line between the two staging areas with passing sidings along the way.

The train lengths will be similar to the old layout in that 2 locos + 18 to 20 x 50Ft box cars + caboose.

Here are the plans as they stand.

Main deck plus lower staging.

The main deck showing the main deck and the helix.

The upper deck showing the upper staging

The layout, as per last time will be managed by Digtrax DCC with JMRI and full CTC or ABS signalling.

Any feedback is welcome.