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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
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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

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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

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

GWR Horsebox N4 - part 2

Continuing from my previous post, this time I describe building the body of the horsebox, including the groom's compartment interior. The main etches for the body are in two parts, each with a side and an end, to be folded up to make two 'L' shape pieces. There are overlays for the sides of the compartment and the ends, to create the different layers of panelling.   The first stage was to put on the overlays, and then add all the details such as hinges, door strapping, and so on:
MikeOxon's Pre-Grouping Blog

GWR N6 Horse Box - 2

In my very first post in this Blog , I referred to the need for plenty of horses and the facilities to support them. As part of "Turning Back the Clock", I decided that an essential railway vehicle would be a Horse Box, so I chose to build the Wizard Models/51L etched brass kit of the GWR diagram N6 box.   Inspired by @magmouse description of his 7mm scale model, I decided to restore my own early post about my 4mm scale model.   Although at that time (2013), I had not started
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in general

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

GWR Horsebox N4 - part 1

Well, it's been a while since the last post...   It's not that I haven't been doing any modelling, it's just that this horsebox has been a bit of an epic, as you will see. I'll describe the build in three parts:     the underframe     the body, including the interior     the roof and lighting. It's worth noting that I worked on each of the three sub-assemblies in parallel, so this won't be a completely chronological account of the build, but hopefully it wi
DBC90024's Blog

Loco update - 2nd December 2023 - Latest DB90 to arrive

Christmas is on the nearby horizon and in light of this, Santa Claus's sleigh accidentally dropped a couple of new arrivals in to the Johnson Street stable.   One of the Skodas I had been looking to add to my stable for some time was Christine, in DB red. 90037 had been going to Toton along with 90039 for new liveries. 90039 had been going for Grand Central liverying. It was all set to become the fourth of five DB90s into Bumblebee livery, when the news broke that the plan to operate p
What happened next? A blog by Keith Addenbrooke

When I were 'lad

When I were 'lad - Introduction They say nostalgia ain't what it used to be, and who am I to argue?  Memories of times past, when life was simpler and days were longer, trousers were short and knees were grubby, pockets were for train spotting books and paper railway timetables; those memories can all have a significant influence over us when it comes to our modelling choices.  I wrote in my previous post about the desire to recreate childhood memories.  I'd like to take that thought in a d
Keith Addenbrooke

Keith Addenbrooke in Introduction

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MikeOxon's Pre-Grouping Blog

Early GWR 'Absorbed' Engines

I wrote a Forum post about some of these ‘absorbed’ engines back in 2014 but it has now been archived and has lost its illustrations, so I thought it was worth restoring these in this blog post, which is partly based on my original text.   Some time ago, I acquired a bound set of the RCTS "Locomotives of the Great Western Railway", mainly to learn more about the various pre-grouping designs by William Dean.  I had tended to skip over the volumes on 'Absorbed Engines' but later found my
MikeOxon

MikeOxon in general

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

Errors/Inaccuracies etc

Mistakes. We all make them, and if I was immune I wouldn't have to publish this errata sheet for my [hopefully first] book.  https://www.devboats.co.uk/gwdrawings/errata/GWRlocoDevelopmentErrataFirstEdition.pdf   At the moment I've been going through some of my sketches for the book, improving some of the older ones where I think I can do better now, and adding some new ones where I can. I reuse everything I can, so coming to do a 79 class (1858 0-6-0) based on the Ahrons drawing i
JimC

JimC in Miscellaneous Musings

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What happened next? A blog by Keith Addenbrooke

The Dream, the Marshmallow Test and a (small) win on the Premium Bonds

Introduction - Part 2 One of my favourite layouts on RMweb is @ian's HO scale "Die Ercallbahn" in the German Railways Forum.  Drawing on childhood memories of the Marklin 3-rail AC system, Ian has brought those memories to life once more, creating the kind of system layout I'm sure many of us dreamt about when growing up.  I find it tells such an absorbing story that the first time I saw a video of the layout in operation, I was surprised when the doors of a small railcar didn't open on arr
Keith Addenbrooke

Keith Addenbrooke in Introduction

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pheaton's Blog

Keeping 26043 alive.....lets see what's under the dome....

Nostalgia alert, as with all these blogs things are fairly depressing....       The glory days.....pre covid...pre inflation...pre quite a lot really...     Last week..... fireman Sam has been busy with his white paint brush and now all of the air pipework is picked out in white, the conduit (which was just floating has been removed and the wiring now enclosed in modern copex, temporarily draped downwards away from welding operations....  
pheaton

pheaton in preservation

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Chesworth - Horsham MRC's 00 Finescale project

Reflections from back at base

The Dorking show was an interesting experience, and back at base we had time to reflect. One surprising area of interest for visitors was our timber work. The Club chairman had offered us a curtain to modestly cover the baseboard legs but we turned it down, thinking that the "layout under construction" tag was better met by having everything open. It turned out to be a good decision. Many people asked about our designs.   The baseboards were discussed in an earlier blog, but as a remin
whart57

whart57 in Monthly Reports

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What happened next? A blog by Keith Addenbrooke

An Introduction

Introduction Railway modelling is mainly a Spring and Summer hobby for me.  Autumn and Winter bring busier times, and as much of my modelling takes place outside (benchwork, paint spraying and big sticky jobs), or inside with the window open for ventilation (gluing and painting), free winter evenings are often spent on research and reflection.   I enjoy exploring fresh ideas, dreaming up new projects and shopping around for bits and pieces.  I've discovered I also enjoy writing ab
Keith Addenbrooke

Keith Addenbrooke in Introduction

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Playing with 1/50 scale

The 1/50 project, Batteries and another loco

I was looking for batteries for my old phone on the cheap end of the net. The direct from china end. This thing popped up and I had one of those “hmm, I wonder” moments. Add to basket.   Essentially they are Li batteries stacked to form a pp3 size with all the gubbins for charging inside, even has a bi coloured led to say when they are charged. Twin pack with a neat twin usb charge lead for 12 quid. Easy to lift the lid off a loco and swap them out.     But are the
Dave John

Dave John in The 1/50 scale project

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Up the Line - 1918

Bogieing On Down!

My last post concerned the WDLR Bogies I had designed for my 30 odd 7mm Narrow Gauge wagons and several marathon sessions to get the ready for the Cardiff exhibition. It was traumatic but I did manage it and layout, exhibition and bogies went well. While playing at the end of the second day one of the Hunslets managed to pull a load of 16 fully loaded wagons which proved the point of the whole exercise. After a suitable recovery period and to keep Andy happy, I will now turn back to the long run
KH1

KH1 in Up the Line

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Broad Gauge Workshop

Old and New

And my pain is over (not really).   I have just finished my most favorite and most proud of model of any Broad Gauge locomotive, the Rover class! I've been building this for weeks, and I've shown my progress in my previous blog post about it.   I don't really know what else to say so here! Left: New Right: Old
isambird

isambird in Great Western Railway

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pheaton's Blog

Keeping 26043 alive.....No1 end.....Show me the good metal..

First a bit of nostalgia :)     26043 2 weeks off the production line from BCRW and at the time was on commissioning trials, as 26043 is a series 1 class 26 it never had cab droplights fitted, we see the tablet catcher recess, and its front connecting doors, we also see that like all 26s its boiler fitted. Note it does not yet have the opening window instead it has a boiler filler hatch.   26/1s incorporated a number of weight saving measures, such as the cantrail
pheaton

pheaton in Preservation

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