I went out early this morning to cool off from the current heatwave hitting southern France and had a hard think about modelling priorities for the next few months. Lots of people are promising to show up and even one extra baseboard module is going to be an inconvenience within what is a not very large apartment, so I have decided to delay baseboard construction until October and focus on smaller projects such as coaches, locos and buildings for Penmaenpool. Legge Lane can also be included in
More ballast has been added, completing the left side of the turntable. So now I need to finish and add the engine shed, already started several months ago.
The structure is shown here placed roughly in position but minus the bothy on the left hand side:
I have ordered some plastikard paving to add to the floor under the shed. This will allow the shed to register with the baseboard as it will be removable (for obvious reasons). Once that is installed later this week (hopefully, it d
More scenery added to Legge Lane over the past few days, including track painting, ballasting, ground cover and now an embankment.
This track is the entry/exit road to the rest of the railway.
A shot of the latest loco, destined for Penmaenpool, sitting on a short spur off the turntable. The two adjacent roads access the engine shed and inspection pits and are suitably ballasted with cinders and real coal dust.
Although Penmaenpool is now my main future layout (even if it doesn't have a home at the moment) there is every reason to continue with what is essentially my kit building test track - engine shed - turntable apartment layout. Penmaenpool had a small engine shed, so scenicing Legge lane is a good test run.
Here is the latest attempt at ballasting the shed roads:
There's a lot of Woodland Scenics cinders there, but sprinkled on top is some real French coal dust.
A new loco arrives at Legge Lane:
Ivatt 2MT 46512 arrives at Legge Lane from 89A Oswestry Shed. A San Cheng brass loco, painted by Coachmann, and one of his Gauge O locos for the aborted Oswestry layout, it will now run on Penmaenpool. It runs well and the sound file is excellent. it will look just right agead of a local passenger train consisting of a GWR B Set, or on a pickup freight. A future stable mate is Collett 14XX class 1459, also transferred from Oswestry where it was stor
I have spent parts of the past three days installing a lighting system above Legge Lane. Here are two photos showing the progress so far:
The long stretch over Legge Lane to the opposite wall needs an extra ceiling support, so that will be done once I buy the parts. With a full 24 watts of LED lights I can see what I am doing without breaking the bank. Win win!
After a long hiatus, there is reason to add an entry. Poor lighting of a model is an important reason for not being as active as one might be. Certainly the current setting of Legge Lane only works at certain times of the day, so some additional artificial lighting is very necessary, particularly during winter time.
I decided on a wired system but finding a good source proved to be difficult. The local bricolage stocked a few items by a German company Paulmann. Finally I tracked down a s
A quick note to direct anyone following this blog to my new workbench topic:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/117178-focalplanes-workbench-mostly-7mm/
This blog will from now on only contain posts relating to the layout, not the locos, coaches, etc. that will populate it.
Over a week ago I left France and the 14XX in an almost finished state prior to painting, etc. The remaining parts will be fitted later this year when I return. These include the buffer beam piping, auto train parts and various pipes and conduits. Otherwise, there is not much more to do. I was tempted to try to finish these additions but good sense prevailed. Why rush?
The following black and white images (I think they look better than the coloured versions) give an idea of the current
The lost wax brass castings on my work bench are slowly disappearing. Yesterday I built up the backhead, ready to insert into the cab interior which was also masked off and painted.
Later in the day I painted it, scratched off some of the paint to reveal copper pipes and dirty brass gauge frames, and added some prints of gauge faces.
A pleasing day on the work bench, aided by lovely weather that allowed the spray booth to be set up on the loggia. The photos also appear on Tony
Back to the current kit building project, the GWR 14XX. This is slowly progressing with most of the etched parts assembled on the body but there still remain dozens of brass castings to the added, including the add on auto gear kit from Peter Roles.
The first photo was taken a week ago and hows the beginnings of the body taking shape. The boiler is made of two pieces of thick brass tubing, ready to solder together:
The brass requires a lot of heat and I switched to my Weller 40 watt
Having successfully uploaded one sound demo, here is another. It's a Lee Marsh Jubilee, 45688 Polyphemus, one of the famous Bushbury Jubilees that pulled the Midlander in the late 1950s. It came with a DCC sound chip which has a number of interesting features. First the classic Jubilee whistle, second a very authentic coasting "clank" that is featured in this video. To obtain the coasting sounds I had to accelerate hard, not at all prototypical across a turntable! Please forgive me.
The
Coachmann (Larry Goddard) is having great fun with his new indoor outdoor layout, based on Oswestry. DCC sound features prominently and as he says, with good sound you can "drive" a train far more realistically. His latest video is of an LMS 4F and it sounds very good. My own sound chip is different (Digitrains Zimo) and has some original 4F recordings included in the sound files. Both sound authentic but, as with the actual prototypes, their sounds can be quite different.
The following vide
As promised some "current status" photos:
First, the chassis. Two views of the nearly completed chassis. The motor and (4) pickup wires need to be soldered to the 8 pin sicket and it needs to be fixed in place roughly where it is. The decoder will be fitted in one of the tanks and plugged in as the body and chassis are mated.
Now for the body. The cab structure has been fitted to the basic tab-in-slot underframe. Next will be the tank sides and the boiler/smokebox (machine
A quick post to update on the progress so far. The chassis is nearly complete, just need to wire up the plunger pickups. Running in has started and the compensated suspension seems to be working OK on the Poppy's test rig.
The body has been started and here the tab and slot technique really comes into its own. The design is quite superb with solid square assembly even before solder is applied. With solder it feels almost bullet proof.
Photos to follow, sooner rather than later I hope
Officially, summer is over. In the South of France the school holidays are over and most French holiday makers have gone back to work As is often the case in northwestern Europe, the following week can have excellent weather and our thermometer revealed 36ºC at 8 p.m. This is hardly perfect conditions to restart kit building, but I was ready to open a new box.
The kit is my first from Modern Outline Kits, a.k.a. David Sharp. The 14XX is a departure from my LMS focus at Legge Lane bu
Since penning the half year report I have managed to do very little modelling. This has been due to many visits from family and the need to close down my work bench, etc. But the urge is definitely there to continue once they all leave!
Meantime I will miss Guildex Telford. So that means Reading is the next Gauge O meet I can attend.
I have started on the Just Like the Real Thing coach kits and have been learning their approach to kit building. Roket super glue is certainly a well re
As the end of June approaches I have had some time away from modelling to reflect on progress so far this year. Having just read my end of 2015 entry with plans for 2016, I see I am ahead of my planned schedule for Legge Lane Gauge O.
Essentially, I have one and a half locos done so far, the turntable has been completed and run in, and the track has been laid and wired up. With three locos running, the shed is already getting busy. I have mixed emotions about having a layout with no points,
A good place to stop and report on progress. The Sidelines Kitchen Car has been sitting on one side for too long so this past few days there has been a concerted effort to get it advanced to the current state - fully primed, ready for final painting inside and out, glazing, lining and adding a final few items. This may take a while as I will need to assemble a few necessities and also research the interior design (as far as it goes, the kitchen is glazed with privacy glass).
The build has
As I think I mentioned a week or so ago, I had noticed that some Just Like The Real Thing's Mark 1 coach kits were no longer available. I was able to buy one of the last, a TK or Corridor Third, complete with etched BR1 bogies. But don't be overly concerned if you need one, there will be more available in a year's time with upgraded castings, etc.
I opened the box to check the contents and all seems to be well. The parcel arrived in perfect condition (I think France's La Poste gives an e
My great great grandfather was a Birmingham brassfounder, his son followed suit as did his son. My father broke with tradition and became a metal finisher (electroplating, anodizing, etc.) but still was associated with brass as the substrate of many items being finished. So it seems quite possible that there is some brass in my genes and this often shows when I visit the hardware store/bricolage as I usually make a bee-line for the brass rod/strip/angle display.
This natural need to have b
With a locomotive recently completed I decided to do some scenic modelling for a change. The engine shed seems a good place to start as it really is the focal point of the layout (although some would say that would be the turntable). A simple 2 road shed with LNWR/LMS credentials was the plan and I have gained a lot of useful ideas from Jack Nelson's LNWR Portrayed. But as I am modelling the mid 1950s, there should be some later LMS influences. So, for example, a cast iron pillar might be retain
I had started to notice some problems with poor running of the two Connoisseur locos when moving slowly on the turntable bridge. Various red herrings seemed to get in the way, but with some on line help from Tony Wright and friends I think I have found out the problem. The rails on the bridge are slightly uneven and the wooden planks either side may have been too proud. This caused both locos to stutter. When I removed the body of the Jinty it seemed to run better and this caused me to think
The 4F is just about finished and ready to add to the Legge Lane roster. 44571 is the prototype and was, during the time period being modelled, a Saltley 21A locomotive. So after two Bushbury engines we now have a representative from the old MR side of the West Midlands. The period photos show several departures from the normal or standard LMS built 4F, the most obvious being the replacement of fluted connecting rods with Stanier's higher quality steel rods that didn't require fluting. It also h
