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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
    • 2,776 views
richierich's Blog / D&E WIP Workbench . . .

Saturday 30th December 2023 - 4mm DCC “fun”

Started the day fiddling with my Bachmann Class 37 254 in a BR blue. Did a brief test on a DC test track to find it rather sluggish and then failing. Weird part was the centre of the roof was hot. Took the body off to find it has a Bachmann (ESU) 21pin DCC decoder. Hmmm. Faffed about and fitted a blank plug and it worked sluggishly. So stripped the bogie frames off to find one bogie was full of grease. Cleaned that out and cleaned the wheelset faces and treads, plus the pick ups. Some light lubr
richierich

richierich in DCC

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DBC90024's Blog

Making Tracks Three Christmas at Blakemere Craft Centre

16th December to 7th January 2024   As one of the volunteers at Making Tracks Three at Chester Cathedral, i was asked if I would like to take part over the Christmas period and when someone asks would I like to take my locos out for a run out through an electrified landscape, that could only lead to one answer ... hell yes ... so ... my DB90s took to the Making Tracks landscape, this time, at Blakemere, which is near to Northwich, Cheshire (CW8) ... I have been twice so far ... and had
Northumberton

Last Track Down

I have finally - after nearly five years, laid the last piece of track, an exit track from the now installed turntable. I still need to finish all the connecting up of the bus wires and a few DCC point controllers but that should not take long now. I am already setting myself some challenges for 2024, most notably the completion of the landscape surface so that all trains can be run safely.  I said a few years ago that I hated track laying, well I still do and that is the main reason for fe
Northumberton

Northumberton in Buildings

3
CJM - Rokeby Street and Central Road

New Loco on Layout

Thought I'd take a quick shot of a new loco that I got for Christmas, which is the NER E1 (J72) Tank Engine by Bachmann. I liked the look of this, and found a brand new one in a model shop down south a couple of months ago. The new tooling and printing is superb, and this was from 2019 I believe. A superb looking model for the cabinet. I have however had to lubricate it with Electrolube around the points specified by the manufacturer in order to make it run better. Very happy with it!
CJM

CJM in Locomotives

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pheaton's Blog

Keeping 26043 alive.....British Steel

We, start where finished last....     The top second-mans side window has now been fabricated and welded into place as well as the internal steelwork in this area, the cabling has also been encased in copex to protect it, these are the cables for the second mans switch panel and the brake indicator panel. More steel has been removed further up due to distortion that was being hidden by filler. Also as can be seen a steel plate has been welded on the second mans side.  
pheaton

pheaton in Preservation

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Fen End Pit's Blog

A few months work, Ivatt Class 2, J17 and loads of tiny bits for a Coronation (no not that one)

Blimey I've not put anything on the blog since August. I must be slacking...  There has been a fair amount going on but not much progress to write about.   Progress on the Ivatt has been good, however I felt that the original Brassmasters pony truck, a work of art and perfectly good product, was in a different league to the rest of the EasiChas I had been designing. Discussing with the Brassmasters at Scaleforum we decided to try to design an 'EasiPonyTruck' with the aim to making
Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit in Ivatt 2MT

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Kelvinbank, a Caledonian Railway project.

Christmas 2023, observing the signals.

Another year passes. At a first glance it might seem progress at Kelvinbank has been slow, a few wagons made and an old loco refurbished. However from the perspective of me enjoying the layout the major step forward has been the building of a lever frame and sorting out the signalling system. So some pictures on that theme.   1 class No. 2 heads east towards Kelvinbank. The home is off if a correct route is set out of the storage yard and the section switches are set properly. The dist
Dave John

Dave John in General

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The Farthing layouts

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Here's a short video to round off 2023.   I won’t forget this year anytime soon, it’s been an emotional rollercoaster. Our first grandchild was born, my brother got married, our daughter turned 30, mum turned 90, and then in September dad died.   This christmas I want mostly to do simple and uncomplicated things while pondering it all. So here’s a little project that began in our attic.   Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!    
Mikkel

Mikkel in Videos

24
Paternosterrow

BILSTON STEEL WORKS part 2

I have decided to put another removable, half-relief shed where the backscene photo of the Cooling Towers are - they can still be viewed by simply removing the new structure if desired.  The new shed is being constructed at the moment.  I have also still got a pile of work to do on the steel wagon fleet - all will need Spratt & Winkle couplings like the rest of my wagons.     The Yorkshire, sloped-sided shunter, common at Bilston was from Judith Edge.  I'm not particular
PaternosterRow

PaternosterRow in BILSTON

7
CJM - Rokeby Street and Central Road

New furniture bits for the building

A quick look at some progress on the interiors of one of the shops, currently being fabricated. The furniture has now been made, and has been painted, with 'Mrs Noch' on one of the benches to check the size is towards 1/76. There will be a few more items fabricated shortly, but the benches will need some light bleaching to remove the flat look, along with the tiles.   
CJM

CJM in Buildings

3
The Farthing layouts

The station building: Walls and gables

Here’s an update on Farthing’s main station building, modelled on the 1910 prototype at Newbury (see this post for details). This post summarizes work on the walls and gables. There have been other developments, will update on those later.   Although the structure at Newbury is still with us there have been numerous detail changes over the years. Above is a selection of those I have spotted. Most changes appear to have been made after the station was built, so I’m going wit
Mikkel

Mikkel in Structures

65
Devizes Yard

Introduction to Devizes

Devizes is a town in central Wiltshire. Now most famous for Caen Hill locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal, it was formerly served by a Great Western Railway line, which passed through a tunnel under the castle to the east of the station. Initially the terminus of a branch line which began at Holt Junction on the Wilts, Somerset, and Weymouth Railway, Devizes later became a stop on the through route from Paddington to Weymouth when the Berks and Hants Extension Railway was built to link the branch
DK123GWR

DK123GWR in Updates from Devizes

0
Brunel Gauge Workshop/Showcase

New Designs

It's been some time since I've posted in here, so I thought I'd update on my current models. I've actually been brainstorming ideas on freelance designs, looking at many steam locomotives even if it had to be in standard gauge, even going as far as looking at mainland Europe!   It was certainly a fun but quite tiring process, fortunately I have been able to create two new freelances, a Crampton Tank and a Tank rebuild of the Waverley class that would've seen service up till 1892.
isambird

isambird in Freelanced Designs

0
Devizes Yard

GWR O11 5 plank Wagon

My first useable design, although there are many details that could be added (particularly to the underframe) and I realise I haven't got the proportions quite right. I wanted to make my own GWR open wagons as I felt I could do it more cheaply than buying RTR stock. Using Dapol wheels bought from Hattons at 85p/axle and 25g (roughly) of PLA at £21.99/kg gives a cost per wagon of under £2.50 - at that price you'll have a fairly limited choice of fairly low-quality models, so why not make you
DK123GWR

DK123GWR in The Drawing Office

1
The locomotive history of Charlie Strong's yard.

ICI Ruston 88DS

This 20-ton Ruston 88DS was sold for scrap after the ICI works at which it was used ceased to use rail traffic. It had been well-maintained by the ICI fitters and, instead of being cut up, was put on the sale or hire list at Strong's. It spent some time in use as the yard shunter and also shunting the Watery Lane works of Metal Box Ltd. It was later sold for preservation but, as is so often the case, was cast aside as soon as the railway got ideas above its station and started to run an ex-
Ruston

Ruston in A

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The Strawberry Line

Cheddar P4 - December 2023 update

As another year draws to a close, modelling output has slowed a bit due to various demands on precious modelling time. But with 1 Station Road complete for now, I've been concentrating on a couple of projects that have been lurking on the depths of the modelling bench for far too long. The first is a diagram E116 B set, the origins of which were a K's plastic kit, kindly donated by Tim Venton of Clutton fame. I needed to do quite a bit of salvage work on the sides and the ends were a bit hi
ullypug

ullypug in P4

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A Piece of Eden (Wetheral, Corby Bridge and Corby Gates)

Corby Bridge

This model is an attempt to capture the Newcastle and Carlisle railway at Wetheral, where it crossed the river Eden on  a magnificent stone viaduct (Corby Bridge) before rounding the tightly curved station towards Carlisle.  The double track circuit is more or less complete and now - slowly - the scenery can begin. The centre-piece is the bespoke viaduct, made by creating a Powerpoint file of the complex stonework and having various sections cut and etched by York Modelmaking, before assembly. 
doctorsoil

doctorsoil in Beginnings

0
What happened next? A blog by Keith Addenbrooke

Learning from Wulfstan

Introduction   “The world is in a rush, and is getting close to its end.”   A sentiment many of us might appreciate.  Trouble is, when the former Archbishop of York Wulfstan put it in a Sermon it was over a thousand years ago, in 1014.  I can only wonder what Wulfstan would make of life in our always-on, 24/7 world.  Just think about how we can shop: credit cards, same day deliveries, flash sales, eBay or Facebook marketplace.  Life is lived at a pace, and aspects of railway
Keith Addenbrooke

Keith Addenbrooke in Introduction

3
Paternosterrow

BILSTON STEEL WORKS

Some months ago I came across a fantastic website - www.britishsteelbilston.com - about the Bilston Steel works in Wolverhampton, West Midlands.  This has been put together by Mr Andrew Simpson who worked there and is well worth a visit - there are some fantastic photos including a section on the Work's locomotives.  In fact, I contacted Andrew and he put me in touch with a Mr Roger Deans, a chief fitter at Bilston, who has provided me with information and a lot of stories about his time there. 
PaternosterRow

PaternosterRow in BILSTON

11
Netherport - GWR 1908 7mm (mostly wagons for now!)

GWR Horsebox N4 - part 3

In this post I describe the roof and lighting for my diagram N4 GWR horsebox, following previous posts detailing the build process for the underframe and body.   Before getting into the nitty-gritty of the construction, I want to say a few things about why I chose to light the interior of the horsebox. My plan is to be able to run Netherport, when it is finally built, in night mode - or, more accurately, dusk mode: the last light in the sky, lamps starting to be lit in buildings, and o
Playing with 1/50 scale

The 1/50 project, a second loco loco part 1

I think the battery tests have given me confidence to move on to making a second loco. Not sure exactly what yet, but ideas are forming from various photos of metre gauge stock. Back at the beginning of the project @NewFangledNonsense suggested a look at the Derby sulzers site. Well what struck my eye was an early single cab diesel hydraulic on this page.   https://www.derbysulzers.com/outremer.html   Quite modern looking for its 1954 build and fairly compact.   As

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