Peco Plan 2: BR Branch Line - Ballasting

Time to start ballasting!

I start a bit last weekend with a the two sidings, trying out the DCC Concepts Legacy N gauge ballast to see how it looked. I did a bit using the light grey blend and adding in some dark grey blend at the ends of the sidings (where coal wagons etc would stand for long periods, and just general accumulation of dirt and less activity to remove it).

Next I'll show the process of how I ballast, using the runaround section in front of the station.

First step is to dish out some ballast in the area you want to work using a teaspoon or similar utensil. I then use a medium (4) brush and work the ballast into the area, tidying up the inevitable strays that accumulate.

The above shows the effect achieved, the with the shoulder to the left still to be done.

The above is after all the ballast has been laid dry, with a tiny bit of the dark grey blend in and around the magnet (assuming this is where steam locos may have stood for periods).

Finally, the above shows after applying the PVA mix. I use a small spray bottle with water first to wet the ballast (from a suitable distance to avoid disturbing it too much!), and then I apply a 50/50 mix of PVA and water with a drop of washing up liquid using a large syringe. Then leave for 24-48 hours to set. 

The final task before trains can run again is to hoover up any loose bits, or apply more ballast if there are gaps where it's missing, and then clean the rail tops which would've been covered in some of the PVA mix.

I'm hoping this weekend I can get the rest of the layout done, or at least all the sections of track between points which take a bit more patience to ensure no ballast gets between the mechanism. 

Peco Plan 2: BR Branch Line - Metcalfe vs Peco

A slight diversion, I recently finished building the platforms and station building using the Metcalfe N gauge card kits for my Peco Plan 2 layout.

However, the station building was bloody massive. Definitely overscale, and too big in any event.

  

 

No room around the back, and not enough room on the platform. Oh well. I can save it away for another layout perhaps.

 

So I set about finding a replacement - the Peco plan suggested using their own naturally, so I gave that a shot.

 

 

 

Much better I feel - and I have space on the platform for some outdoor shelter/canopy with some seats. The kit itself was perhaps easier to build than the Metcalfe also. Naturally I'll need to weather both it and the platform to make the differences in brick colour less noticeable but I'm happy for now.
 

Testing FS2004

So having got my XP machine all set up and running, it was time to install FS2004 and see what it ran like; first of all I needed to update it using the 9.1 patch, and then to make life easier, apply the No-CD patch too.

Next I set about installing the following addons to start with:

• FSUIPC
• FSPassengers
• FSNavigator
• ActiveCamera
• MyTraffic 2006

I then went about trying to find another program from this era; Nvidia Profile Inspector. I found it was still being updated until fairly recently, but all of the versions on GitHub refused to run in Windows XP, complaining they weren't a 32 bit program. So I had to do some digging to find an older version... this took a while. None of the usual sites had old versions or links that worked (Guru3D, Techspot, TechPowerUp, MajorGeeks, etc). So I had to go trawling through the wayback machine to find the old website, and version 1.9.7.1.

This worked a charm as can be seen below - 

My settings for the profile are pretty simple:

 

And the result is shown below: 

This is running at 1280 x 1024 (to match my monitor when it arrives), 40% traffic setting, running at 4x speed with basically all settings maxed out. Though note, this is before installing any further scenery or airport addons.

Still, pretty good for barely any cost. I suspect FSX would only give me 15-20 fps on the same hardware, if that, for basically no improvements. 

Installing Windows XP on newer hardware

To install Windows XP on slightly modern hardware like I am (Ivy Bridge, SATA hard drives, etc), you will need to use a different program to that usually recommended; Rufus. No matter what I did I couldn't get it to create a bootable USB drive with the XP SP3 iso I was using.

Instead I had to use: https://www.winsetupfromusb.com/

And after mounting my XP iso, simply pointed it at the drive and let it do it's thing. After about 10 mins the flash drive was ready to use, complete with any drivers XP might need to recognise a non-IDE hard drive. Neat.

My next task was to find drivers, or their XP equivalents, wherever I could.

The Vostro 270s was released in 2012 with Windows 7, so Dell don't even supply XP drivers. It's a case of identifying the hardware, and then finding the XP drivers individually.

Fortunately it didn't take too long - 

That's intel chipset drivers for the B75 Express, Realtek GbE LAN drivers, Realtek Sound Drivers, Dell nVidia Quadro drivers, and the last are drivers for the Dell Wireless 1506 card included (sidenote, they don't actually work - if you try to connect to a wireless network, XP bluescreens, one to try and fix at some point).

Initially I installed some later nVidia drivers (321.01) but these gave me weird artifacts in FS2004. The Dell drivers are 270.71 from 2011 and work much better.

With these ready on a couple of USB sticks it was time to go; simply plug the XP SP3 USB drive in and let the install run as normal, it's just a case of using the Auto-detect option (1) in the GUB4DOS menu that appears before XP installation will start:

 

After that it's plain sailing just as we did 20 years ago.

  

Heatwave Diversions

Whilst it's been hot, I've not had much interest in model railways - but another hobby has taken hold!

From an early age, I was obsessed with another mode of transport - airplanes.

I remember going many times to the visitor centre at Manchester Airport growing up, watching planes arrive and depart. Classics like the PIA 747,  Delta 767s, BMI 737s and everything in between. I was obsessed.

Naturally when we first got a computer (a big beige box running Windows 95 gifted by my granddad), one of the first things I installed was Flight Simulator 95, and with some horrible late 90s Saitek joystick, I was hooked.

New versions came and went, and I remember one Christmas getting FS2000 in the big box with that amazing picture of Concorde on the front. Then FS2002, followed by FS2004 and later FSX.

Of course, MSFS 2020 and 2024 have come and gone. And I enjoyed them for a while, when I could stand the problems with mapping controls, internet connectivity, making my PC sound like a hoover - but they never quite captured the enjoyment that came with the earlier versions. Not to mention the cost of all the addons.

So I recently bid and won an auction for a Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick. I was never lucky enough to have one when it was contemporary, I had made do with the inferior Precision Pro 2 for many years before upgrading to a Thrustmaster T16000. Sadly I recently discovered that was basically broken (throttle slider didn't work, no rudder).

After giving the FF2 a good clean up, tested that it all worked, I set about picking a new simulator. I tried MSFS 2020 and 2024 again but they were a pain in the ass. X-Plane 12 looks great these days, but again makes my PC go into overdrive even with FPS limited. So back to FSX I went initially, until all the problems with that came back to. Then I found my boxed copy of FS2004 again. 

Installing it on Windows 10 was surprisingly straight forward, and within minutes I was enjoying flying again.

Then I started installing some addons I had from decades past, which were less than happy with Windows 10.

So within a few days of that, I'd bought some more stuff from eBay to build a FS2004 Windows XP machine:

• Vostro 270s (i3-3220, 4GB RAM, 250GB HDD) - £25
• NVIDIA Quadro 600 (1GB DDR3) - £5
• New Dell USB keyboard + mouse - £10
• New Philips 19" 5:4 LCD - £15 

It later turned out that the Vostro actually had 8GB RAM and a 500GB HDD installed, but neither here nor there for these purposes. Most of the above has arrived, but I'm still waiting on the monitor to delivered - when it is and I've set everything up, I'll be reviewing some of the classic addons from the time that I own.

I may also do some reviews of my other XP-era games from my collection: C&C Generals, Rise of Nations, etc. I was big into strategy games around that time! 

Converting N Gauge Couplings to NEM

Here's how to convert N gauge couplings from Peco/Graham Farish/Dapol to NEM pockets using the Dapol conversion kit.

In my case I converted some Graham Farish wagons but the process is much the same for other brands. 

First you'll need the Dapol Conversion kit which includes the outer box, inner pocket and some shims to alter the height if it's too low. It also includes a tool with multiple uses, including height checking the pocket, wheel back to back, easishunt pin height, etc. You'll also need a length of track and the wagon you want to convert.

Step 1 - remove the couplings already on the loco. In my case these are the older spring loaded Farish mechanisms, which pry out of the wagon will relative ease. Mind the spring so it doesn't fling off into the abyss!

Next use a suitable knife or scalpel to remove any plastic nubs protruding from the underside of the wagon so that you're left with a flat surface to adher the outer coupling box to.

The photos above show the process of locating the coupler to the underside of the wagon. This is all covered in the instructions which come with the Dapol kit, but you simply line up the wagon with the tool until it won't move, then place the guide over the top against the buffers. Then you place a coupler (take care to make sure it orientated correctly, thin side up) in the space on the tool, apply glue to the top and the bottom of the wagon. Then place the wagon over the top and press down taking care to ensure it's a good fit and the glue starts to bond. It's recommended to use an epoxy glue but I stuck with cyanoacrylate which works fine. As you can see in the pictures above, there is a difference in height which meant the farish wagons ride up to go over the coupling box. At first I thought this would present an issue, but as you can see below, it matches the height of the newer NEM-coupling fitted Farish vent fine.

Here's the final result before fitting the couplers - 

Three down... 20 to go!
 

 

Peco Plan 2: BR Branch Line Progress Update May 2026

A quick update for the bank holiday weekend - 

The wagons and 3d printed loads I mentioned in the last post arrived to add some more variety:

They're nicely made and can be easily swapped between wagons. You can also see another new addition above - a Sonic Models 56xx.

Unfortunately this arrived with some damage, which the seller was quick to part-refund to account for, but in addition I also found it had a slightly split gear. Sam at Sonic Models was quick to reply but unfortunately they don't have any spares for these now. So I've glued it with some AC and it seems to be holding for now. We'll see how it goes.

I've also decided I need some more magnets for the easishunt couplings - one in the fiddleyard, and one here in the runaround -

This will just make operations easier in the long term I think for shunting wagons back into the two sidings.

Otherwise that's it for now - I have a list of NEM pockets and couplings I need to buy to convert the rest of my rolling stock so that's my job for the rest of May I think whilst the weather is improving.