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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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Lora's Park

Back in time

For some reason fifteen years have been taken off the layout and a couple of SECR locomotives have been running round:     The C Class was a fortuitous eBay purchase; the terrier was actually bought as new. I've picked up a couple of sets of Wellington Brown birdcages when the sales let them go really cheap.     At this scale, If I can't see the running numbers I don't need to renumber them. Should any of the Little People's Accountants on the railway co
PeterStiles

PeterStiles in Layout

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Lora's Park

Signal Box, Bufferstops

From the small collection of signal boxes, I've decided to use the Peco one.   All it needs is some paint, and it'll look the part:     It looks much better at a reasonably viewing-distance, and when I print the name off I'll tidy up the name-plate.   Yeah, I'm quite happy with this. I used Rye Signal Box as a reference for the colours.   I'll put a nice garden round the back, those Busche flowers coming into play again.    
PeterStiles

PeterStiles in Layout

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Lora's Park

Wiring and the long and winding roadways

My back has been playing up more and more and so I decided that I'd be best off trying to find a way to avoid getting down on the ground to plug the power cabling in. I drilled some holes in the rear-side of the baseboard when it was up against the bookcases one weekend, and then I spent a week looking on the internet for "extension" cables with plugs that would fit Kato Power and Turntable controllers. Grr. Arg. Eventually found suitable cables and, with the help of a straightened-out coat
PeterStiles

PeterStiles in Layout

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Lora's Park

Church End

One of the things I built for our coffee-table layouts was a church and surroundings ("built" is stretching it really as its another Liddle-End building)   I feel this will look really good on the layout. I've got a crossing-keepers house (which is, of course, completely the wrong orientation for the position its going to be sited on, an Oast house (so that puts the layout in Kent) and a Scenecraft school.   Yes, that's the Metcalfe stables buildings in the far-corner. I know
PeterStiles

PeterStiles in Layout

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Lora's Park

Building up the bits without buildings

Woodland Scenics Foam Putty is a wonderful material. It fills. It's light. It's finger-friendly. It paints up nicely.   So I've built up the area around the turntable with some foamcard and the foam-putty. And various brown paints.     The fencing around the side seems a sensible H&S approach, and I just had a pack of the white flexible fencing around that I'd seen going cheaply on ebay.   I'll eventually apply various floor-covering materials, i've a
PeterStiles

PeterStiles in Layout

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Lora's Park

Canopies

Time to get the passengers some protection from the elements. I'd accidentally bought a Ratio Apex Canopy kit so I put it together and realised it was perfect for my skinny platform as it is held up on centre-posts.   I drilled small holes in the end of the posts     Introduced them to small pieces of wire (cut from paperclips) and then drilled matching holes into the platforms and applied UHU, then stand clear and don't wobble them for a few hours.  
PeterStiles

PeterStiles in Layout

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Lora's Park

Baa none

Now its time for the second corner to get the scenic treatment. More concrete fencing, more grass, but this time we've got a field of sheep, and there are some more colours, so some flowers growing near the fence.      
PeterStiles

PeterStiles in Layout

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Lora's Park

I blame Peter Denny

Gasworks Corner.   Here's a confession. I love the Liddle End buildings. Lora liked them too - she always thought that resin buildings have a heft that makes you think of Quality (she watched Snatch enough times to understand Boris' maxim "Weight is quality"). Its possible that there have been some Liddle End buildings offered on eBay in the past year that I've not bid on but not many,   So I realised I had the whole Gasworks set and also a Gasometer (I always call them
PeterStiles

PeterStiles in Layout

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Lora's Park

Scenery.. Hmm..

First I tried out various pieces of scenery to see what would work well. Should I attempt to hide the back-straights behind a retaining wall or row-of low-relief houses...         My first pack of Concrete Fencing on the corner there.   I don't have room for much in the way of platforms, which could stress some people out, as the platforms and station building really should be positioned where the controllers are. Maybe if this finds a permanent position
PeterStiles

PeterStiles in Layout

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Lora's Park

More on wiring

As I've done all the track wiring, I can complete the base board construction I pin more 3.6mm ply to the underside. Its another 6' long piece but split into three pieces, two short ones at each end and then third one turned 90 degrees to give me a small shelf to fit the controllers on. It just fits the three controllers (two power, one for turntable). Small holes in the shelf allow me to feed the power-cables to the controllers from beneath.     At this point I'm runni
PeterStiles

PeterStiles in Layout

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Lora's Park

Laying the track out.

Laying the track on the board, at this point I know my wife would have looked at the wires and she'd give me a look and I'd promise they'd be hidden...     So time to cut some holes in the board and add some bracing and get the wiring underneath.     The gaffer tape (and clampage) is holding the wood whilst the glue sets - I don't consider Gaffer Taoe as being "load bearing"   The turntable is now embedded and all wiring out of site. I can feel
PeterStiles

PeterStiles in Layout

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Lora's Park

Construction

Sheet of ply from B&Q. 25mm x 25mm timber along sides and ends, pinned and glued.   12mm holes drilled at 4" spacing along one edge of the 25mm, this is more of a guess than a real idea of where I'll need acces for wires :)     From behind:     There are going to be more 25mm x 25mm across to give more support to the board.   Supported by trestles I got from Homebase (with added green-felt feet so that they can't scratch the
PeterStiles

PeterStiles in Layout

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Lora's Park

Lora's Park, less a hobby more a necessity

Lora's Park   Why This does not pretend to be a perfect Model Railway. It doesn’t pretend to be anything other than a layout with which to Play Trains, but more importantly this is a bereavement layout, its main purpose is to give me purpose, give me something constructive to do instead of spending my time wailing at the injustice of the world.   My wife fully supported my Railway Hobby and was a great one for ideas and suggestions, her pride was the Whomping Willow she
PeterStiles

PeterStiles in Layout

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Chesworth - Horsham MRC's 00 Finescale project

Picking up again

It's been a while since I last updated this blog. Admittedly the Christmas break had something to do with that, but also that much of our efforts since the Dorking show have been on dull things like maintenance or on finishing off things already reported on. Our minds are now being concentrated on the fact the club has an open day of April 6, and that means we need to organise ourselves better.   One major issue we had on returning from Dorking is that between the exhibition and the ne
whart57

whart57 in Monthly Reports

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western viscount's Blog

Bachmann Autocoach bits and bobs

I am building a model of a prototype location in Wrexham NE Wales. Caia Road goods was a small set of sidings along the Wrexham - Ellesmere Cambrian branch.  Before closure in 1962 the mainstay of passenger traffic was made up of 14xx and autocoaches.    Here is a airfix coach being upgraded using the MJT detail kit... A BR(w) auto coach I built using the comet kit... And a bargain from Rails of Sheffield bought not so long ago... I have copied the bits and bo
Stevethomas6444's modelling blog.

Last one from Hattons

Hello!    The news of Hattons closing down has no doubt shocked a majority of the model railway community. The topic has been extensively covered by a lot of people so I won't rabble on! They will be missed and I wish the team all the best.    With the sale on I made an impulse purchase of a second-hand Bachmann Class 168. This is well outside my era/area which is usually SE London around 1991-1995 but I do have my reasons, not that I need to justify it! 😂   Back in
Fen End Pit's Blog

Little Grey Fergie

Techy bit ----   So this weekend I took delivery of my shiny new Anycubic Photon M5S Pro and a Wash-and-cure station. This was ordered direct from Anycubic and arrived 5 days sooner that the original delivery date. The printer has a 10" build plate so it considerably larger than my old Phrozen Sonic mini 4K. It also has the advantage of wifi connectivity so I can monitor progress in the garage from my warm workbench in the house. The printer also comes with a heater which means I don't
Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit in Fen End Pit

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MikeOxon's Broad Gauge Blog

3 - BG Wagons - Sheep, Coke, & Coal

I shall round off my modelling of the early wagons, produced for the GWR during the formative years before 1840, by considering three types intended for specific duties, rather than the ‘general purpose’ wagons described in my previous two posts.   Sheep Truck 1840   A sheep truck is one of the types mentioned in Whishaw’s ‘The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland’, published 1842. He described these ‘trucks’ as having high sides, four wheels, and to weigh 8,237 lbs. Apart f
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in General

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western viscount's Blog

Dapol Kitmaster Presflo uplift 2

I am of the habit to start a project enthusiastically and then to gradually abandon half completed projects.  This time I am determined to complete and have powered on to complete the construction side of things... The side pipe was attached (on the wrong side initially as is the custom) and handle attached to the hatches. The catwalk located holes were filled ready for a scratchbuilt replacement.  The side pipe is .8mm brass rod. It is linked to the gauge using fuse wire. B
Modelling the 1840s in HO

Using PECO 009 couplers for magnetic uncoupling

A couple of years ago I started using PECO 009 hook-and-loop couplers, as the buffer beams on 1840s models are much lower than the beams on more modern stock and the usual 00/H0 solutions don't work. Gluing the plastic shafts of PECO GR-101 couplers to the bottom of the beams worked okay,  but I decided to try a more organised approach to  coupling and uncoupling stock.  I recently read that the 009 Society recommends setting narrow gauge couplers 6 mm above rail height, and I decided to experim
Barry Ten's Blog

Two new bargain restorations

Following the theme of the last entry, here are two more cheap and cheerful vehicular restorations.     The 3.4 litre Jag is a Lesney model that was in a very tatty state. I flush-glazed it from the outside using Glue-n-glaze as I didn't want to faff around getting into the rivetted interior. It worked surprisingly well although I've not always had success with glazing big gaps like the windscreen. The model was repainted. The Lesney wheels were retained, but I swapped the o
Barry Ten

Barry Ten in GWR

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western viscount's Blog

Dapol Kitmaster Presflo uplift.

I haven't used the blog section for a while and thought I would show what I have been up to this weekend.    I enjoy kitbuilding rolling stock, particularly wagons. Here are a few "improvements" I have made to the Dapol/airfix/kitmaster presflo wagon... A few changes include... Drilling out the sole bar mounted end steps as they are solid on the model but open on the prototype.  Some additional brake rigging detail An object which looks like a tie bar.  Lanark

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