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Shelf Island (British H0 and H0n2.5)



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H0 Scale for British Railway Modelling

Posted by 47137 , in editorial 18 March 2018 - * * * * * · 133 views

H0 scale as we now know it was developed in Britain in the mid 1920s by members of the Wimbledon MRC as 3.5 mm/ft on 16 mm (later 16.5 mm) gauge track, and eventually adopted by almost the whole world but not by the country where it began. This blog post is a simple account of the milestones in the development of H0 scale, written up mainly for modellers...



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British 1:87 Scale Modelling Resources

Posted by 47137 , in editorial 02 February 2018 - - - - - - · 1,783 views

Friday 2 February 2018
The best resource on-line for information about RTR models of British railways in H0 is British 1:87 Scale Modelling (www.british-ho-com) . In broad terms, the content of the web site is consistent and technically correct, but some models seem to be missing. Monday 26 June 2017
I am enjoying browsing a blog called The Chippe...



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Transport Preservation Activities

Posted by 47137 , in editorial 25 January 2018 - - - - - - · 104 views

Shelf is, somewhat inevitably, the home to a group of local railway enthusiasts. The pride of the group is of course, their S160. The engine remains in its original, free-steaming and first-class condition, and has recently had a new boiler. The group is pleased with the low cost of the new boiler. They saved a lot of money by making it themselves from up...



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Introduction to Shelf

Posted by 47137 , in editorial 25 January 2018 - - - - - - · 326 views

Foreword  Shelf Island is the third autonomous island in Irish Sea, located roughly half way between the Isle of Man and Sodor. The island is a British crown dependency - a self-governing possession of the British Crown. It therefore has the same political status as the Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey, and the Isle of Man. The island is usually per...



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Traffic and Traction, June 2012

Posted by 47137 , in stock, editorial 15 January 2018 - - - - - - · 175 views

At last, I feel I have gathered up enough rolling stock to turn my project from being a 'railway layout' into a 'model railway'. There are links to some of these models (and more) in the side bar. "June, 2012"  Local freight services are short, to let the engines cope with island's gradients. The railway uses its class 11 and class 33 diesel loc...



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British Road Vehicles for 1:87 Scale

Posted by 47137 , in road, sea & air transport 10 January 2018 - - - - - - · 438 views

There are many dozens of models of Continental vehicles I see on Britain's roads, but sometimes a native subject helps to set the scene for a layout. I think this is especially important when a layout is to an unusual scale. This post is a list of commercial models of British road vehicles I have found useful for my 1:87 scale layout. 
- To qualify "...



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Scale (my move to British H0)

Posted by 47137 , in editorial 10 January 2018 - - - - - - · 756 views

Some when in the Summer of 2016 I realised Shelf Island should be a British H0 layout, with occasional 00 visitors, instead of the rather vague "00/H0 avoiding scale models near the lineside". The tipping point was reworking the Fleischmann Warship and getting a really nice-looking model ... and the realisation I possess more British H0 wagons and coaches...



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Plan of the layout

Posted by 47137 , in baseboard & infrastructure 26 December 2017 - - - - - - · 1,059 views

"Shelf Island" is my model railway layout, and it represents the railways of the eponymous location. The layout is in the mould of a typical British narrow gauge project but built as a standard gauge line. And in 1:87 scale. The layout has a fiddle yard (which rather resembles a motive power depot), but the long-term plan is to create a model of a se...



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ICA ('Zanfs') 90-tonne slurry tank (Modellbahn Union)

Posted by 47137 , in stock 10 September 2017 - - - - - - · 596 views

New models for British H0 are few and far between, and we have never had a RTR tank wagon for the scale, so it seems doubly good to be able to write about the new china clay wagons from Modellbahn Union GmbH of Dortmund.   The models depict examples from a batch of 90-tonne slurry tanks, built by Arbel Fauvet in 1989 to Diagram E.934 (possibly,...



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Muir Hill rail tractor (Branchlines)

Posted by 47137 , in stock 21 July 2017 - - - - - - · 1,818 views

7 June 2017  My new project is to build the Branchlines kit for a Muir Hill rail tractor in H0 scale - something a bit different for the layout. This kit is unusual in that, as well as being labelled as "00/H0" it really does build up into a passable model for either scale, though you have to decide which before starting. The prototype is so small th...



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BRCW Class 33 - part 5: Performance

Posted by 47137 , in stock 17 April 2017 - - - - - - · 191 views

I have devised some performance parameters which I can repeat for other engines. I expect there are more formalised test protocols somewhere, but I don't know where they are. I did the speed tests on an oval of Kato Unitrack, and the drawbar tests on a length of Peco Streamline code 75. Test equipment
Non-feedback controller - Morley Vector (current...



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BRCW Class 33 - part 4: Structural completion

Posted by 47137 , in stock 11 April 2017 - - - - - - · 379 views

I added these details to finish off the rebuilding of the Lima model:
a. Cab bulkheads
b. Ballast weights
c. Buffers beams and buffers
d. Corrected exhaust port
e. Driver figure This makes a working engine I can use on my layout. Other details can follow later. Step numbers follow on from part 3.  32. I added bulkheads to put boundaries...



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BRCW Class 33 - part 3: Underframe

Posted by 47137 , in stock 10 April 2017 - - - - - - · 302 views

I tackled the tasks for the underframe of the engine in this sequence:
a. Bogie side frames
b. Visible sides of the frames (I call these 'valances' for the model)
c. Mechanical mountings for the body
d. Couplers
e. Fuel tank and battery box
f. Auxiliary cylinders I haven't mentioned the buffer beams and buffers here, these will be part of the body sh...



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BRCW Class 33 - part 2: Chassis (Proto 2000 Alco FA-2)

Posted by 47137 , in stock 03 April 2017 - - - - - - · 452 views

I can imagine three chassis options for my reworked Lima class 33 :
a. A narrowed version of the Lima chassis, with both original bogies
b. A narrowed version of the Lima chassis, with one or two modern motor bogies
c. A complete chassis replacement using a more modern arrangement with a central motor and cardan shafts My model had a burnt-out motor...



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BRCW Class 33 - part 1: Introduction and body shell

Posted by 47137 , in stock 06 March 2017 - - - - - - · 559 views

The Lima class 33 is readily available secondhand and makes an excellent general-purpose workhorse for a British H0 layout. The model dates from the 1970s, and this write-up shows how to rebuild the engine into something more realistic, with a modern mechanism. The total cost of the project will be about £50, plus the cost of a donor engine. The donor eng...



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Drawbar performance tests

Posted by 47137 , in editorial 18 February 2017 - - - - - - · 337 views

Some drawbar performance figures for my engines. Test Rig
The test rig is a length of straight track with a freely-rotating drum at one end. The drum is arranged with its top in line with the couplers on the engines. The track matches the track on my layout, which is Peco Streamline code 75, so the coefficient of friction with the wheels should be s...



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Bristol Lodekka (Lledo)

Posted by 47137 , in road, sea & air transport 08 January 2017 - - - - - - · 408 views

At last I have tracked down an H0 scale bus for the layout. I don't have a road bridge for the bus to stand on, but I do have a Peco/Merit bus stop and a bus is a nice known quantity to set the scene. The bus is the Lledo model of a Bristol Lodekka. I spent ages studying model buses at a swap-meet today, and with plenty of 1:76 ones on offer I finall...



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Sleeper-built coaling platform (Poppy's WoodTech)

Posted by 47137 , in structures 06 December 2016 - - - - - - · 975 views

I spent some time admiring the timber kits by Poppy's WoodTech, weighing up the pros and cons of trying out an overscale 4 mm kit or an underscale 3 mm one. The coaling platform appealed in particular, it looked more realistic than something I could make from strips of wood or styrene. After a while, I wrote to them and asked if they could do a 3.5 mm (H0...



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66 747 (5-door / low emission class 66) (Mehano)

Posted by 47137 , in stock 16 November 2016 - - - - - - · 1,156 views

Published 6 June 2016 (before repaint)
Revised 16 November 2016 (after repaint)  I want a modern engine to haul my air-braked stock. This is a repaint of the Mehano class 77 into a representation of one of the low-emission class 66 engines as it ran with GBRf in their interim livery.

 The paint job is by Andi Walshaw of Cairns Road Works , a...



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A harbour tug boat (Kibri slightly modified)

Posted by 47137 , in road, sea & air transport 13 November 2016 - - - - - - · 884 views

Published 12 Nov 2016
More pictures added 13 and 15 Nov 2016  I have made myself a tug boat for the harbour. This is a Kibri kit which I have Anglicised with a more subdued paint scheme. This is my first-ever scale model boat and probably my first Kibri kit too.
 The kit is of a high quality with the parts cleanly moulded and hardly any flash...



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Contents

Welcome to Shelf Island
1 Inspiration
2 Preamble
3 Test Facilities
4 Baseboard

 

5 Trackwork - Standard Gauge
6 Point Motors
7 Wiring
8 Testing

 

9 Domestic Installation
10 Lighting - part 1 and part 2
11 Backscene
12 Trackwork - Narrow Gauge

 

13 Basic Railway
14 Mock-ups and First Structures
15 Loading Gauges
16 Uncouplers for Kadee Couplers

 

17 Underneath - Bottom Cover

 

Keiy Pabyr (the quayside)
Quayside and Slipway
Workshop - Base

 

Creg (the passenger halt)
. . . waiting for modelling

 

Cab ry Cheilley (the mine connection)
. . . waiting for modelling

 

Fairport (the processing plant)
Fairport Mk2 (current project)
Original version (now dismantled)

 

Connecting Areas
Main Line - Tunnel Portal
Cronk noo Olave (Saint Olaf's Hill)

 

Appendices
Lightweight Construction
Hinged uncoupling magnet for Kadee couplers

 

... stock has its own contents block ... below ...

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