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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
    • 8 comments
    • 2,858 views
Jim Champ's "Introduction to Great Western Locomotive Development"

GWR No 92 (and 342, 45, 95 & 96)

No 92 was one of five small 0-4-0STs, superficially rather similar in appearance, but which were not treated as a class.  With one exception they were late 19thC Wolverhampton reconstructions of older locomotives, and by the end of their long lives probably retained few original parts.  The first of the group was no 45, built in 1880, which was a new engine, albeit given the number of a Sharp Stewart built locomotive withdrawn a very few years earlier. It had the odd feature of a cab that w
Jim Champ's "Introduction to Great Western Locomotive Development"

GWR No 342 0-4-2ST

from an E.L. Ahrons sketch, this is No 342 in original or at least very early form. It was built in 1856 by Beyer, Peacock for the Commissioners of Chester General Station, which was jointly owned by the GR, the LNWR and the Birkenhead railway, and was bought by the GWR in 1865.         In this form it was really a slightly earlier version of Nos 91 and 92, also from Beyer, Peacock. In 1881 it was altered into an 0-4-0ST of much the same form as its cousins. The reb
JimC

JimC in GWR Locomotive Sketches

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Fen End Pit's Blog

Clare Telephone exchanges - ready to receive your call

After several weeks and lots of help from RMwebber UAX6 I now finally have the Type A and Type B telephone exchange completed. For such relatively simple building there are some subtle details which are quite difficult to get right. The slight 'pagoda' look to the hip roof of the B and the little tiles on the quoins of the smaller Type A.   There a a few very interesting websites with lots of photographs of different exchanges and these have lots of photographs of similar buildings fro
Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit in Stour Valley

1
Artful Or Compromised?

A bit of background

With house move plans back to square one, and while illness continues to knock us for six in this house, I thought I’d share a bit more of the background for my plans to remodel ‘The Art Of Compromise’ over the next few months.   When Chris Ford built the layout, his approach was to set creative limitations to work within; firstly to “use the same 12 inch width, but reorganise the plan of buildings for a better fit.” Fine; I’m ok with that - I’ll be doing quite a bit of reorganising of
JamFjord

JamFjord in planning

0
Blacklade Artamon Square

"I can see clearly now the rain has gone..."

Things are looking up a bit for Mercia Wagon Repair, and the business seems to have escaped the liquidator's clutches.....   Two or three weeks ago I was feeling more than a little hopeless about the whole thing here , partly (if truth be known) for one or two reasons external to the layout. Although there were enough problems arising within the project to cause dispondency.   In the end after a certain amount of glum staring at N gauge points, I decided to see if  the second
Ravenser

Ravenser in Mercia Wagon Repair

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Sandy Shores - A sunbleached seaside railway

Sandy Shores @ Basingstoke Model Railway Exhibition 2023

I must first apologise for not updating this blog - to be honest, I forgot it existed! Anyway, let's crack on... ...I don't know where the past few months has disappeared to, but suddenly I realised that the exhibition that I had been invited to take Sandy Shores to by the Basingstoke & North Hants Model Railway Society (B&NHMRS) was to be soon upon me!   As is typical before an exhibition, there was a list of things to do. Naturally, that includes cleaning and testing that
Mattington - 4mm Scale Layout

A small TMD - Part 2

Been working hard on this part of the layout.   Signal box - I have built the scale scenes brick signal box. I wanted a 1930s style design. This is placed on its own scenic module which is a 3mm piece of mdf (kitchen unit back). Between the module and the cork track is a concrete duct run that I am constructing to run the length of top deck layout but starting it here since ive never used it before. Basic scenery of scatters is now laid on this module   Engine shed - I have h
MattB

MattB in General

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Mattington - 4mm Scale Layout

Building the Control Panel - Part 3

A big pause on all model railway projects for several months due to 'life'. Actually I only managed to build 1 model over 3 months!   But in February I tried to remember where I had got to with the control panel. Back in October I managed to get the switches working and figured out how I was supposed to wire it all up. Essentially its a matrix on a grid where there are 12 switches but 4 switches switch on the other 8. So 4 switches are in on / off mode and the 8 are in on/off/on mode w
MattB

MattB in Electronics

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SWAN HILL

Horse Box No 88 [a little more progress]

It's taking a long time but... there is progress.  I spent quite a while not starting on the underframe because I didn't have W irons, springs, spring hangers, 9" sole bars or pretty much anything else that looked like the photo in Russell's Great Western Coaches 1813 to 1913 of Horse Box No 88 to diagram N5. I realised that it was taking me longer to not find these things than to draw them out (based on too little information really) and then cut them out with a piercing saw.  So that's where I
kitpw

kitpw in Swan Hill

26
richierich's Blog / D&E WIP Workbench . . .

March 2023 - Lima Class 156 Super Sprinter Part 1 - Bogie Frame Mods

I’ve always thought the Lima Class 156 Super Sprinter is pretty good model representation shape wise, although been a model from 1989, it’s a long way behind the Realtrack Class 156 in terms of detail and features. But these are hard to find and production runs short.    However I’ve started to have another look at what can be done with the Lima / Hornby Class 156. The following is available:- Midland Valenta Class 156 underframe detailing 3D printed kit Midland Valenta Class
Kelvinbank, a Caledonian Railway project.

A pair of Caledonian D6 brake vans part 1

The latest kit from True Line Models is for the CR Diagram 6 brake van.  Build dates range from 1883 to 1889 and cover three known body styles across possibly 55 vans.  Kits are available for two body styles, the narrow and wide panelled builds.   So  a pic of the bare etch.     You might think that these look very like the NB D33 vans. Well, the link is that man Drummond again. So since NBR developments do an etch for that it seems sensible that TLM asked them to d
Dave John

Dave John in General

3
Jim Champ's "Introduction to Great Western Locomotive Development"

GWR No 1490

Built in 1898 this odd experimental locomotive is arguably significant only as having the first set of pannier tanks. It had outside frames and an unconventional firebox, wider than it was long and  initially featuring water tubes inside the firebox. Apparently it was unsuccessful in its designed role as a passenger engine and was relegated to shunting duties before being sold off. Initially it went to the Ebbw Vale Steel and Iron Co, then to the Brecon & Merthyr at a time when they were par
JimC

JimC in GWR Locomotive Sketches

3
Methuselah's Blog

14. How Long.....?

I can't believe that it's two and a half years since I last scribbled here. So what's happened in the intervening time...? Bluntly - not enough....! Sure, there are more boxes of 'stuff' collecting dust in the loft of the barn, but, since I've still not finished renovating the house, the 'train shed' itself is still, perforce, down the list of priorities. Perhaps later this year will see it happen - but, no shed - no railway....😐😐😬        My time being in such short supply, I did commi
The Ffarquhar Branch - In Micro!

Knapford Part I - The Harbour

Hi all! Knapford is a can of worms I’ve chosen as my first step into layout building. This post will be a recap of my thinking so far, and look into what’s to come.    Knapfords track plan was never explained in detail by the Reverend although he did write in detail about some of the changes that it did undergo throughout the years. A full post about that will be made in future and will be linked here:    What is known is that Knapford has a junction station just NORTH of the Ri
The Ffarquhar Branch - In Micro!

A Wise Man Once Told Me... How To Eat An Elephant

Hi All! If you have seen any of my previous threads where the foundations of my current musings began, welcome to something that will hopefully more organized and updated consistently.   If you aren't familiar with the Ffarquhar branch, you're in for a treat. It was originally created by the Rev. W. Awdry, yes the author of The Railway Series, which for those who don't know has a large and storied lore behind it - far beyond just the trains with faces aspect. It is all fiction, but the
splodgestudios

splodgestudios in Introductions

3
Artful Or Compromised?

A couple of weeks in limbo

So, as predicted in a previous post, this blog has been pretty quiet for a couple of weeks - unfortunately not entirely due to working on this layout in the background, as everyone in this family seems to have been struck down with some perpetually annoying virus over the past fortnight, in addition to which we've finally had some progress on us moving house, which sparked a panic about the amount of clearing out we need to do before that happens! So, with that in mind, now is not the ideal time
JamFjord

JamFjord in planning

2
Jim Champ's "Introduction to Great Western Locomotive Development"

Cross-fertilisation in design... Locomotive/Marine

Browsing through Steamindex having awoken in the early hours I happened on a mention (by LA Summers) of a GWR Dean era proposal for a water tube boiler on a 4-4-0. You'd think that came out of nowhere, but a couple of months ago I was given sight of part of the Swindon drawing office register of drawings for the time when the 3521  0-4-2Ts were being worked on. One thing that struck me was the number of drawings being produced at Swindon for the GWR's ships. They clearly didn't maintain a separa
JimC

JimC in Miscellaneous Musings

0
Netherport - GWR 1908 7mm (mostly wagons for now!)

GWR 4-plank with sheet supporter and sheet

What's that you say? Another GWR 4-planker? Haven't you had enough of those? Well, if you're sure...     This is 41211, freshly turned out in 1908 style: grey paint with 25" lettering, axleboxes upgraded to oil types, and a sheet supporter fitted. All the latest features of a truly modern merchandise wagon of the new century, in fact - Swindon has played its A-game. Not so, unfortunately, the folks who have loaded it. The rather filthy sheet has been put on crooked, obscuring
magmouse

magmouse in Wagons

19
Northumberton

Northumberton March 2023

If you have ever considered starting your own blog I would highly recommend it to you. Even if few or any read your work, it is extremely useful for taking stock of progress and clarifying your thoughts for the next phase. I was extremely busy from about last October on some major DIY on the house, no complaints, I feel very lucky to have the time being retired. But now my thoughts return to my railway modelling. I'm pleased to say I still have a splendid picture in my head of the finished
Northumberton

Northumberton in Buildings

0
MikeOxon's Broad Gauge Blog

Modelling a ‘house removal’ train

I see that we’re now in the 10th year since I started writing my pre-grouping blog. Looking back, I realise how much my approach to railway modelling has changed over that period. There have been two major technical innovations and one significant change of emphasis in my interests.   The first technical innovation, which occurred soon after I started exploring the earlier period, was the Silhouette Cutter, which opened up the possibility of creating complex panelled carriage sides. Si
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

3
My version of Boscarne Junction

Could I plan the layout better?

The new "Man Cave" is an extended Dunster log cabin and in part of its construction there are two walls that protrude into the internal space of the room.   Initially I was thinking about turning Rospeath Lane into a "roundy roundy" but these two walls hindered this to some degree. Many plans were drawn but I began to realise that it would become a very ambitious layout. One that may require more time than I have left to bring to a reasonable state of completion. Also I started to
Yan

Yan in Layout Planning

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