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Yes, Huws Gray, being a builders merchants, are exceptional. I bought 20 lengths of 2"x 1" from them and not one was warped in any way or form. They are expanding their area of stores but have not reached Sussex yet. An Anglesey success story.

For OO gauge Shipstpn on Stour I used MDF skirting board material available in France and it worked well. But Gauge O needs something larger, so it looks as though I will be using 16mm MDF for the cross members and 10mm MDF for the back scene, etc. the L girders could be made of Aluminium, that is worth looking into. "Alu" is a very common building material used in southern France.

Paul

I would not use mdf, it's very heavy and does not the strength to support itself. Even red plywood would be better. Even if the sheet is warped, it's not going to be a problem when cut into strips. The angles I would also do in ply, glued and pin 12mm would be ok. Or a 6mm box section would work well.
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I have visited a few local bricolages and it seems that their mode of displaying plywood products and most timber is to prop it on its side or end. Never flat! The smaller pieces of 16mm plywood suffer less than anything else so that may be the best material for the framework. It is also heavy though. I am putting this problem to one side as I have plenty of things to do on Legge Lane and the rolling stock for Penmaenpool.

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I imported American Valspar paint from the UK for my apartment. I ran out of brilliant white and switched to Dulux Valentine, now German, it was no where near as good. Brushes, the same. Yet power tools are often cheaper and better than in the UK. You win some lose some.

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I would not use mdf, it's very heavy and does not the strength to support itself. Even red plywood would be better. Even if the sheet is warped, it's not going to be a problem when cut into strips. The angles I would also do in ply, glued and pin 12mm would be ok. Or a 6mm box section would work well.

I agree with you Peter, MDF is rubbish for most modelling applications, its not stable in a temperate climate and the formaldehyde used in its make up can be a big risk to health. That being said a lot of the processes and materials we employ in modelling can carry some level of danger, of course it's up to individuals to asses the risk involved. I'm a plywood man myself.

Regards

 

Guy

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Three Oswestry 89A locomotives are waiting at Legge Lane for transfer to Penmaenpool.  The latest addition, ex-Coachmann's 57XX, appears to be wreathed in smoky haze caused by lens flare from the morning sunshine through the window.

 

post-20733-0-27892300-1495373499_thumb.jpg

 

A discerning observer may also notice that some scenic work has been started on the shed roads, particularly under the pannier.  The brown ballast will be toned down with sooty weathering fluid, while a fine scatter of ground up (real) coal will also be added, along with greasy texture down the track centres.  The first of two inspection pits has also been painted and weathered.

 

My rust paint is from Polly Scale and appears to be too light on the nickel silver rails.  Perhaps North American rust is a different colour?

 

The Pannier needs DCC sound and I will use a Southwestern Digital GWR Group 1 chip.  This is the same as in the 14XX, the characteristics of which I have now come to understand - f8 before starting to open cylinder cocks, leave on until the loco stops.

 

Other activity has included more coach construction with four Sidelines bogies on the go (two almost ready for priming).  These could be infrequent visitors to Penmaenpool being used on holiday specials from Lancashire and Cheshire via Chester and Ruabon, but they are actually part of the Midlander rake.

 

An earlier version of this post has been deleted by accident.  You may have seen it earlier this morning.

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As an experiment for Module 1, here is my latest post on Legge Lane:

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1565/entry-19446-scenic-trials-at-legge-lane/

 

But to save the trouble of clicking on the link, here is a photo:

 

post-20733-0-34807100-1495475678_thumb.jpg

 

I am not entirely pleased with the effect so far but the pulverized coal I collected from open cast French mines does soften the granular Woodland Scenics products, along with some liquid weathering products.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Today, after a long wait in line at the local post office, I received the sound decoder for the 57XX pannier.  Now installed it runs and sounds just like it should and is identical to that in the 14XX which will make operating them easier.  I have not hard wired it but have installed an 8 pin socket so that it can always be removed easily, should that be necessary.

 

Other Penmaenpool activity has been limited but I have purchased the 15mm plywood for the cross frame pieces on the first module, the engine shed.

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Another sign of progress. This morning I sent off orders for a dozen yards of Peco bullhead rail track and also some plastikard for the various corrugated iron buildings including the bulk of the engine shed.  I probably have all the track now for Penmaenpool thanks to some trades of 4mm locos etc. for unwanted points, etc.

 

Another rethink on the baseboard modules.  I am going with a substructure of 15mm plywood stiffened with quarter round fillets and a road bed of MDF and cork.  Additional 15mm x 30mm bracing will be used where needed.  The entire framework will still sit on an L girder base once the modules are completed, joined together and actually have a home.  The L girder base might be fabricated out of the modern equivalent of Dexion Angle  (when a youngster I had a Meccano set but also a few pieces of Dexion courtesy of a workshop in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter which were much more fun to work with!)

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The Plastikard arrived this morning so I may start to build the Penmaenpool engine shed, or at least the associated outbuildings (office, toilet, etc.)  However, I am now well into the Legge Lane engine shed which will reside on my (rather elaborate) test bed for locos, etc.  This is proving to be a useful apprenticeship for Penmaenpool.  So, perhaps there won't be a flurry of postings here just yet!

 

I am managing to confuse myself with three active threads.  The Workbench seems the ideal place to post current projects that will eventually run or sit on either Legge Lane or Penmaenpool.  So I have a possible solution - if the engine shed in on my workbench and I am detailing some facet of the design and assembly, then it goes into the Workbench thread.  But if I place an item on the layout, then I will copy that photo (and a link) to the appropriate layout thread.

 

This leaves the design and build of the layouts themselves and that aspect will not be detailed on the Workbench.  It does seem to be a rule I have been loosely adhering to.

 

Is all that as clear as mud?

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The Plastikard arrived this morning so I may start to build the Penmaenpool engine shed, or at least the associated outbuildings (office, toilet, etc.)  However, I am now well into the Legge Lane engine shed which will reside on my (rather elaborate) test bed for locos, etc.  This is proving to be a useful apprenticeship for Penmaenpool.  So, perhaps there won't be a flurry of postings here just yet!

 

I am managing to confuse myself with three active threads.  The Workbench seems the ideal place to post current projects that will eventually run or sit on either Legge Lane or Penmaenpool.  So I have a possible solution - if the engine shed in on my workbench and I am detailing some facet of the design and assembly, then it goes into the Workbench thread.  But if I place an item on the layout, then I will copy that photo (and a link) to the appropriate layout thread.

 

This leaves the design and build of the layouts themselves and that aspect will not be detailed on the Workbench.  It does seem to be a rule I have been loosely adhering to.

 

Is all that as clear as mud?

Funnily enough, I reduced my threads to just one covering Carrog. I figured it was pointless building something on a WB thread for Carrog if people missed it.

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And today I am already suffering from the problem noted above.  I started to measure up the first module for Penmaenpool and realized that I had better be sure of the size of the engine shed!  It is long gone but several photos give a good impression of the front dimensions and the rake of the roof, so the width of the shed was easily scaled to be 241cm in 7mm scale.  The length was not so easy, but the old maps do give an idea of the ration between width and length.  This suggested an approximate length of 540cm but by testing this against the larger tender locos, it seems that a little compression is possible, down to 450cm.  That is about the same size as the two road shed at Legge Lane, though the two designs are very different.

 

So I started to think about how best to construct the shed and came up with topics best discussed on the workbench topic.  So they will be there before too long.

 

The photo below shows how I determined the size of the shed front, using Illustrator to scale the photo and produce a simple outline that will be used to construct the framework under the skin of the shed (wood, corrugated iron and tiles). The brass strips, available at my local bricolage, should form a strong substructure.

 

post-20733-0-62923400-1497089091_thumb.jpg

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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 the list of "to dos".

 

To this end, and because I have just finished one wall of the engine shed for Penmaenpool, I think it would be good to complete it and have something tangible.  Other module 1 buildings can follow in due course.

 

Also posted on the Workbench and Legge Lane topics.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have been in contact with Dave Sharp, owner of Modern Outline Kits, and have ordered a 64XX kit to be collected at Telford.  This will be slightly modified to be a 74XX (the only external modification I am aware of is the the angle between cab and bunker is a right angle of the 74XX, curved on the 64XX).  Photos show that 7405 was the resident loco at Penmaenpool shed in the late 1950s.  It was mainly used on the Barmouth-Dollgelley locals and would be at home over night.

 

With other, larger, locos seen on shed in daylight hours, it seems that light engine workings were fairly common, either from Dollgelley or from Barmouth Junction.  The later triangle was used to turn main line tender engines.

 

In many ways the shed at Penmaenpool is a simple anachronism due to its location at the pre-1922 boundary between the Cambrian and the Great Western.  That it survived 43 years years after the Grouping seems to be quite remarkable.

 

The model of the shed, by the way, is well under way, details on my workbench.

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I have been in contact with Dave Sharp, owner of Modern Outline Kits, and have ordered a 64XX kit to be collected at Telford.  This will be slightly modified to be a 74XX (the only external modification I am aware of is the the angle between cab and bunker is a right angle of the 74XX, curved on the 64XX).

The later 64xx panniers, I think from 6430 onwards also had the square angle between the bunker and the cab back plate.

 

Obviously you will not want to fit the auto gear to a 74xx but be aware that the 64xx has a screw reverse rather than the lever fitted to the 74xx.  Although it is in the cab, GW reversing levers were quite prominent.

 

I need a 74xx but have decided to wait for the ex Lionheart version which is due for release from Dapol in the not too distant future.

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As an experiment for Module 1, here is my latest post on Legge Lane:

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1565/entry-19446-scenic-trials-at-legge-lane/

 

But to save the trouble of clicking on the link, here is a photo:

 

attachicon.gifIMG_0469.JPG

 

I am not entirely pleased with the effect so far but the pulverized coal I collected from open cast French mines does soften the granular Woodland Scenics products, along with some liquid weathering products.

This picture reminds me of one of Dad's photos

post-14351-0-61799900-1499275789_thumb.jpg

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The later 64xx panniers, I think from 6430 onwards also had the square angle between the bunker and the cab back plate.

 

Obviously you will not want to fit the auto gear to a 74xx but be aware that the 64xx has a screw reverse rather than the lever fitted to the 74xx.  Although it is in the cab, GW reversing levers were quite prominent.

 

I need a 74xx but have decided to wait for the ex Lionheart version which is due for release from Dapol in the not too distant future.

 

Thanks for the heads up on the reverse screw/lever.  I think I have an etched brass reverse lever somewhere.

 

I had thought of the Dapol option, but I enjoyed building the MOK 14XX so much I decided on doing another.  Dave Sharp's kits have an excellent fit (tabs everywhere) and are all nickel silver etches, a delight to solder together.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The Engine shed office is almost complete so I thought a photo here would be appropriate.  Penmaenpool is alive and progressing slowly on the workbench.

 

post-20733-0-01994300-1500497183_thumb.jpg

 

A start on Module 1 should still commence during September after I return from Telford with a bag of goodies.  Any and all work on the actual module will feature here.

Edited by Focalplane
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Ray

 

I have had a quick look and the photos are really useful.  Thank you very much!  I am entertaining family for the next two weeks but after that I will take a close look and see what new material can be used.  I think quite a lot from a quick review.

 

Thanks again, Paul

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Everything continues to be on hold here with Penmaenpool but a few ideas are being thought through.  One is to add the second siding in the goods yard which was lifted by the late 1950s.  Having two sidings should make operating a bit more interesting, though it till seems to be that the shunting loco (on a pick up goods) would still need to have access to the main line while sorting out wagons and vans.

 

I also plan to be at Telford on Saturday September 2nd.  I have a list of items to purchase but will also have time to chat.

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Everything continues to be on hold here with Penmaenpool but a few ideas are being thought through.  One is to add the second siding in the goods yard which was lifted by the late 1950s.  Having two sidings should make operating a bit more interesting, though it till seems to be that the shunting loco (on a pick up goods) would still need to have access to the main line while sorting out wagons and vans.

 

I also plan to be at Telford on Saturday September 2nd.  I have a list of items to purchase but will also have time to chat.

Due to lack of headshunt at numerous goods yards on the line, shunting must have been carried out under the watchful eye of the signalman. The lever frame was facing the back of the signalbox, but you probably know this.

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The family visitors have left and I have been relaxing while enduring the dying embers (so to speak) of a 40ºC "canicule" or heatwave.  It is one of those days when I would actually consider air conditioning, though that has been the reason I have suffered from West African bronchitis over the years - mold in the ducts.

 

Anyway, my research has been on trying to determine possible Manor Class locos to fit my time period of the late 1950s.  I have a very good photo of 7800 Torquay Manor with a clear 89A shed code on an express at Penmaenpool.  But why would an Oswestry loco be on the Ruabon-Barmouth line?  Well, why not, because it means that almost any ex-Cambrian Manor resident could be seen on almost any ex-Cambrian main line.

 

My favourite Manor, though, if there is one, would be 7822 Foxcote Manor, currently in heritage service up the line at Llangollen.  It was also an Oswestry 89A loco in 1959.  So the presence of 7800 at Penmaenpool helps to explain why I could choose 7822.  Strangely I do not remember 7800 at Oswestry, though I am sure I copped it at the time as I went around the shed on numerous Sunday afternoons.

 

My choice of a 43XX mogul is also difficult as all those in photos seem to have been based at Didcot according to the available databases.

 

My 2MT mogul will stay as 46512 because it definitely was an Oswestry loco at about the same time.

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