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  • SouthernRegionSteam

    Coastguard Creek - 15 months of planning!

    By SouthernRegionSteam

    Hold on to your socks - this is going to be a lengthy one! (In fact it's so long, I've now split it into 2 separate posts - the next will be up soon...)   I think it's fair to say that you are all long overdue an update on Coastguard Creek. Due to other commitments, no real progress has been made since the last post way back in March 2021; almost 15 months ago! If anything, things went backwards for quite a while, as I kept finding more and more inspiring locations that I really wanted
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The 1/50 project, making tracks.

I decided to have a think about making track. I have a number of reference photos, including the excellent one of Corsican track kindly uploaded by  5&9 models earlier in the blog. So, timber sleepers, medium weight flat bottom rail held down with track screws.   Firstly sleepers. These are cut from some old mahogany, pretty hard but it saws well.  A scale 2.1 m long which seems like a reasonable average from the info I can find.     Track screws next. Sometime

Pearson 4-2-4T – Part Two

n Part One , I wrote that “this engine had several very unusual features” and, in regard to building a model, “I had to start somewhere and, with so many peculiarities, it was hard to choose. As a ‘gentle introduction’, I decided to start with the two bogies.”   I intend to continue, as far as possible, to follow a line of ‘least resistance’ but before going any further, I collected as much potentially useful information , photos, and drawings as I could.   In his book

MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

Dapol/Airfix BR Prestwin Wagon Build. The Raunds Apprection Society....

'Hello. Welcome and Good Evening' as a well known TV presenter who once lived in Raunds, Northamptonshire might have said.   Sat on my workbench for a number of years have been two partially completed Dapol/Airfix Prestwin wagon kits.   These kits stem from Airfix, being released in 1964. However, Rosebud/Kitmaster originating from Raunds had been taken over by Airfix in the early 1960's.   From memory the current incarnation of this kit from Dapol has soft recycled

46444

46444 in 46444 Blog

Episode 7: Loose Ends, Last Orders and a Fresh Challenge

Our planned house move is now likely to happen in the Summer.  With more time to get ready, an Easter update makes sense.  There's a new challenge to report on, as well as some modelling progress.  I'll start with loose ends being tidied up:   Loose Ends:   Left over from my American HO project last year was my incomplete Walthers' Grain Elevator Kit.  I've been keen to build this for a good while, so even though my plans have changed it was nice to get it finished.  

Keith Addenbrooke

Keith Addenbrooke in 2024

3. More Station Progress

Just a few more photos of progress on the station buildings.   The roof will have to be removable to allow for track cleaning and dealing with derailments etc. Amongst other things I have added 10mm wide horizontal beams for the roof to sit on - not prototypical but necessary, I think, for the rigidity of the model.   There's a bit of a gap to fill in yet between the roof and the underlying superstructure.     I have tried to make the facilities at the st

Curlew

Curlew in Progress

Pearson’s 4-2-4T – Part One

In a comment on my previous post @Mikkel wrote “I never know what's next on your blog Mike”. Actually, I feel much the same – I never know where a whim will take me next!   A week ago, the thought of a Bristol and Exeter Railway (B&ER) engine was nowhere in my mind and then @Annie posted some splendid photos of Pearson’s magnificent 4-2-4 Broad Gauge tank engines.   B&ER No.42 4-2-4T designed by James Pearson   It wouldn’t be true to say these engines hav

MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

County loco build 4-4-2T

This is the new page for my County loco build.   This blog will describe the build of a Great Western County 4-4-2 tank loco. The chassis is by SE Finecast which will sit under a body from a Dean Sidings / Phoenix kit - the latter being a Resin based model. The instructions suggest you use the chassis from a Hornby 4-4-0 County loco, but by going for the SE Finecast option, I am hoping for a better loco.   As an aside the Hornby County 4-4-0 loco is going for something like £

2. Another Peek

I have laid out a full size plot of the station area.       The plain lines to the right of the sleepered track represent the alignment of the sea wall.   I have also started work on a station building based on heavily butchered Peco parts. This will largely sit under the overall roof.     The roof for the single storey bit will actually be flat. The peaked roof is for use elsewhere and is just holding the station walls together for the p

Curlew

Curlew in Progress

Steaming

Some while back as part of the work on the Winchester Railway Modellers Redbridge Wharf layout we decided to add smoke and steam effects to a model of a TID tug.  After a bit of research we harked upon cheapo piezo electric mister units as used in humidifiers.  These can be obtained in various sizes and with various control boards from all the normal sources.   The unit we settled on was a 16mm disc connected to a control board that takes a 5v input.     This was r

1. Introduction

I have long been fascinated by colonial and other offshore railways like the Jersey Eastern and British-run companies in Latin America. This will be a small, experimental project, a bit of fun, to model something of the happy-go-lucky style of the more eccentric type, free from the attentions of the British Board of Trade and its successors.   You have to imagine a pier with trains and trams. The train part will be loosely based on the trackplan of Shrewsbury Abbey station, formerly pa

Curlew

Curlew in Intro

West Drayton Coke Ovens 1839

Background   Almost 10 years ago, I made a model of a lime kiln as a ‘scenic accessory’ on my North Leigh layout. For some reason, I never wrote a blog post about its construction but did write a short article for ‘Railway Modeller’, published in November 2015.   I have, however, described how my model was based on the kiln at Fawler that originally had a siding from the Oxford Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway. Fawler is close to the real North Leigh, on which my pre-gro

MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

A new-old pannier for Bethesda Sidings

Some folk may be aware that I recently bought two whitemetal kit panniers from @Tony Wright, which he was selling on behalf of the builder and previous owner, Peter Lawson. I understand that the ex-GW locos listed on Tony's thread are only a small selection from a much larger collection, most of which (if not all?) I gather are to be sold, due to the unfortunate ill health of the owner.   Anyway, the two panniers arrived here at Kernow Towers a few weeks ago and were posed on the layou

New (old) beginnings

I think I may have started one of these before, but I can't find the original entry.  I've got a very healthy (or unhealthy depending on your viewpoint) pile of part made and unmade kits and projects which have been sitting around for the best part of a decade. A visit to the Festival of railway modelling at Doncaster last month provided a much needed boots to the modelling motivation, so in recent weeks have cracked on with a couple of projects.   Firstly go round to painting the

Stuart A

Stuart A in Rfd Wagons

loco update - 90035 - 14th March 2024

Loco update - March 2024   Latest DB90 to join Johnson Street IEMD   90035 was one of DB's active 90s during their tenure of the contract to provide traction for MALCOLM Group. 90035 was, during this time, repainted from tired EWS livery with faded decals into new DB red but unlike matching classmates 90019 and 90028 wasn't named.    One of my first DB90s to join my fleet was 90028, named Sir William McAlpine, nicknamed "Bill", named at York's National Railway Museu

An early CR horsebox, part 2

The 1870 horsebox is now painted and in service.  Once primed I liked the overall level of detail, the top hinges and the dog box end show a slight bowing out but not severe enough  to merit a substantial alteration.  I think it would be in plain coach brown by the 1900s, compartment interior off white and a simple bench seat added. Lettering is from the HMRS sheet.  Some light weathering to bring out the details.   A couple of posed pictures.        

Dave John

Dave John in General

59. Wagon purists look away now! or, how to make a Bachmann BDA look like a XVA Trestle wagon.

Despite Mr David Larkin confirming for me the floor of a XVA wagon is an open frame-work, compared to the BDA steel bolster wagon's wooden platform, I am determined to have a means of conveying over-size steel from the manufacturers up north to a small ship-yard south of Atherington East Yard, at Tilling Docks.  The wagon would be conveyed at the head of the goods train 'passing through' my goods yard, so I need not consider load handling in my little general sidings.   What decided me

BRDatabase availability

Once again, my website is unavailable, but this time it is thanks to facebook. I don't fully understand this but facebook is indexing my website over and over again (it's a known thing) and has consumed all of my bandwidth for March (and it's only the 13th!) The hosting company wants me to go to a dedicated server which is like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. The cost of running it would triple from $18 to $48 per month (and that's just the starter offer). I can't afford that and I can't

Iron Duke

Another train to talk about, and one of the more known broad gauge locomotives, "Iron Duke"   I have actually made one of the Iron duke classes, which is Lord of the Isles, though it was inaccurate in basically everything. I have it shown on my entry about my 'finished' Rover Class.   I've planned to make Iron duke after I finish the North Star, which never did since I started work on Iron Duke immediately when I was satisfied with North Star's progress. Though I was hes

LNWR 4-plank wagon (diagram 84)

I have just finished making an LNWR 4-plank open, to diagram 84. This was meant to be a "quickie", as a relaxing diversion following the complexities of the horsebox and before getting my teeth into a brake van. However, it has taken three months - partly due to a lack of modelling time recently, and partly because it turned out to be a bit more involved than I had expected. The starting point was the ABS whitemetal kit. My first impression was - it's enormous. The prototype was 18 feet ove

magmouse

magmouse in Wagons

Western National-Tavy style. EFE Bristol LS detailing.

Lurking on the work bench have been two EFE Western National, Bristol LS' which I have been detailing. Both were picked up for less than £10 each secondhand.   Inspired by the Lincolnshire Road Car Bristol LS on Tony Wright's Little Bytham I asked Ian Wilson at Pacific Models to make me up some printed destination screens for this pair.    I supplied Ian with the dimensions of the screens, destination and route numbers. In this instance services which would have originated fr

46444

46444 in 46444 Blog

North Star

It's been real quiet since the last entry, and I do apologize for that. Didn't have time to work on stuff due to school and personal life events but nonetheless, I'm proud to show one of my almost-finished projects, the North Star.😀 -   For those who want some info on North Star, read the Wiki articles below.   The Great Western Railway (GWR) Star Class of 2-2-2 broad gauge steam locomotives were used for passenger train work. Designed by Robert Stephenson, the cla

NER P5 hoppers with automatic working bottom door

should start by saying that about 10 years ago I produced some 7mm kits for both a P4 and a P5 coal hopper and R2 and R4 coke hoppers. These were resin with brass strapping over layed onto them. With the moulds dying last year I decided to see if I could upgrade them to be a one piece 3D print. This was achieved pretty quickly. But then I had the idea to make them work ie make the bottom doors open and close automatically. Easier said than done. So starting with the P5 hopper this is how far
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    • Well I thought I'd finished the PWA, but as I was fitting the excellent railtec transfers, using Humbrol DecalFix (which is a first for me and found it much easier), using the reference pictures on @hmrspaul superb site, I realised the underframe has plates over some of the gaps.  Just contemplating to try and use painted inkjet acetate sheets.... The bogies supplied seemed to be too narrow so have used English Steel ESC-1 from the N gauge society - which I don't think are 100% correct, but
    • I agree, it is very hard to produce anything other than an 'outline' from those drawings.  Beware, I have also found several inaccuracies in those drawings, many of which emanate from 'The Locomotive Magazine'.   I also find it difficult to interpret more detailed drawings, mainly in trying to work out how various parts were orientated in three dimensions.  The underside is proving particularly difficult.
    • Mike, having read your latest, and referred back to my “primitive “ efforts of 4 years ago, I can plainly see why your approach of “Research first” speeds up modelling with accuracy! My model was based almost entirely on the side elevation in Mike Sharman’s book.  Your cross section drawings have clearly demonstrated the deficiencies in this method!   So, back to the CAD.  Fortunately I keep stl files of all components, but it’s still a lot of interesting work - already started, at the
    • Very informative, Mike. I find these early engines quite instructive, because they show off more clearly the fundamentals of a locomotive.   And I like those external suspension arms, very stylish actually - especially in your rendering. 
    • That's a good idea. Bud's Trucking Company looks very suitable as one of those buildings that both give a purpose to a couple of sidings and at the same time serves as a facto backscene. A good choice by Walthers for a kit.  
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