For any of you if have read my blog, you may remember that I'm planning a little bit of slatey Welsh Narrow Gauge at the back of my layout. The story is that the whole line (standard gauge) was an extension of the Corris Railway north towards Brithdir, approximately built on the route of the Corris, firstly in 2'3" gauge then standard gauge. Along the way, yet more slate branches sprang out from the line. One of these met my station at a point to the south of the road bridge where there were, or
This photo shows most of what I've done this year, apart from adding DCC, to the layout. The buildings in the background are easily lift-outable to allow access to the narrow gauge storage siding underneath them, and also to make it easier to work on them as it quite a long reach across the station and yard. Much remains to be added; ground surfaces, some trees, detail on the buildings, detail on the platform, etc etc, but I am quite chuffed with progress so far. I've not taken a layout so near
I'm posting this to show the gradual pace of work on the buildings and to reassure myself that they are getting done! Thanks to all who have encouraged me!
I'm currently trying to develop the area behind the station yard; there is now a goods shed which is nearly finished, and a row of buildings which will be butted up against the backscene. Cunningly concealed below these latter is a new storage track for the future narrow gauge development! Eventually the narrow gauge slate line train will emerge, apparently from behind these buildings, in fact from beneath them, into a tiny yard next to a dressing shed and road entrance/transfer yard made necess
I've finally bitten the bullet, bought an NCE Powercab from Coastal DCC and a sound decoder equipped Lionheart pannier to keep me going while Coastal DCC fit decoders to my 48xx and 4575. The Powercab and the pannier are incredible! In spite of the not very ergonomic design and the not very intuitive menus the Powercab gives fantastic control, and the Lionheart pannier is wonderful. I've fiddled around with the sound levels having read the old threads on here from Martyn Welch, touching on th
The huge pile of sandbags are still allowing river water to soak the ballast below the road bridge. Temporary buffer stops are due to arrive soon, though, realistically, the GWR are not going to restore the rest of the line to Machynlleth.
Away from politics and back in the world of toy trains, here's a photo taken about five years before I was born, in my imaginary version of Mid Wales. It can be seen that the line beyond the bridge has had very severe flooding and the arch has been sealed with dozens of sandbags to protect what's left of the railway. Scaffolding has been put in place to enable repair work on the underneath of the bridge.
To those of you who have said such nice things about my layout in the past, I'm sorry I haven't posted for a while. I've been busy with other things, like becoming a grandad again and other everyday life stuff. Meanwhile back in railway land i've just started finishing (?) the platform, with paving slabs in the area of the station building, coping stones along the platform edge and I've armed myself with a container of pepper! to do the rest of the platform surface; if it's good enough for Gordo
I've added all the perspex laser cut barge boards now and I'm quite chuffed with how they look. I think I must get on and do the doors next as it is difficult to picture how the whole building will look without them. I'm struggling a bit with the paint scheme - I've looked at some obvious sources on the web, but there seems to be quite a bit of leeway for variation, and, as my layout is set in about 1947 and bearing in mind the run down condition of the (imaginary) line, it's reasonable to as
I've now fixed on the first of my laser cut barge boards. I got the profile of the finials cut at the same time, my idea being to form them from 3 laminations and then shape them a bit with a file afterwards, but this has proved very difficult with the extremely delicate bits of perspex. It may have been a better idea to get them done in plastic card (styrene sheet). Live and learn.
I've done a bit more work on the roof, as can be seen in the photo. I've also been researching ways of making gutters, and the most interesting idea I've come across is this from RMWeb member Dava on this page:
using old drink can metal, pressed into a groove, so I'm constructing a simple jig for bulk gutter production.
Here's a picture of progress so far on the station building. It's built of card, covered in DAS, with one lamination of the walls being thin perspex to make the windows easier. The windows are printed onto self adhesive label paper, stuck onto the perspex and the glass areas cut out with a sharp knife. The raised mouldings (mullions?) are styrene attached with solvent - no problem forming a bond with the paper. The roof slates were drawn up in Adobe illustrator printed firstly onto adhesive
I am shortly to start building my station building. It's going to be loosely based on Llanbrynmair, in a mirror image, with the house on the left as viewed from the platform. I've had to reduce the size of the station building to fit the space available, but I hope to capture the feel of these ex Cambrian stations, other nice examples being Carno and Caersws. I particularly like the decorative barge boards at Llanbrynmair, so I'm going to experiment with methods of making them. I have considered
This will be a brief entry, but more to follow shortly. I've just been building a few wagon kits from Parkside Dundas and Slaters and having fun with weathering. There are probably lots of technical errors with brake gear and so forth.. sorry!
I've started on the road surface of the village street. I remember Gordon Gravett recommending the use of pepper for giving some texture to ground surfaces, but on raiding my kitchen I found only course black pepper, which was no use, so I resorted to some fine sand. More work still to do I think on this!
As you can see, I'm currently restoring the road surface next to the cottages. The bend in the road as it disappears round the corner is more or less flat on the back scene; you can make out the line where the road is split between the back scene and the board in front of it. The road doesn't suddenly become vertical: I've tried to make the transition smooth and curving upwards, so that there aren't really ugly visual jolts as you move about and look at it from different angles. There is also
I'm now in the process of trying to make the cottages look at home in the street, - the gardens have to move from 2 to 3D. I'm going to build one or two (3D) trees to plant in the gardens, partly to block the view behind the cottages where they merge into the flat surface of the backscene. There's quite a lot more to do here!
This picture shows the view of the cottages that most layout viewers will see: other angles will be blocked off by strategically placed buildings and trees etc.
This is the view that shows the true shape of the buildings; they are butted up to the backscene normally.
This view shows the strange shape of the roof tiles, which were cut in strips after being printed on to card. They were originally drawn up in Adobe Illustrator, but the version i have (CS2) doesn't make it easy
Since my last post I have radically revised the backscene, so there is now a street passing under the railway bridge and disappearing into the backscene. The cottages I'm building at the moment go from fully three dimensional to completely flat in gradual stages, as you can see in the picture. Working out the angles was complicated, and largely trial and error with a paper mock up before I started in earnest. There is still a lot to do in this scene; the back gardens of the cottages will be
I've been planning to do a backscene for the layout for a long time, but back trouble in the last few months has put me off doing any major bending and stretching. However, I'm a lot better now, and have made a start as can be seen here.
It's painted in acrylics on MDF, and eventually will go down the whole length of the layout.
It's meant to suggest Mid Wales though the precise location in the area to the North East of Aberllefeni is fictitious.
I've been busy making a model of St Fagan's Forge, which is going to be located near the bridge over the road featured in these photos.
The forge is going to be squeezed in front of the embankment on the left of the bridge. The layout is set in 1947, so I am having some fun figuring out how the forge would be used by that time. I'm leaning towards the idea that its owner is doing some repairs to motor vehicles, as I fancy having a rusty old tractor or lorry parked outside.
There is no gang; it's all me....
I've built my first two points from C&L bits and pieces on Templot templates to 31.5mm gauge - they seem to work very well, as do the Tortoise motors i've fitted below the boards.
I've built some mock up buildings to help get a feel for the layout of the finished station:
I've put together a catch point to protect the main line from activity in the yard:
My next job is to build the engine release crossover which (in my fict
After quite a struggle I've finished brush painting my Tower Brass 4575. The finish is not immaculate but it seems to have some realism, which I shall try and increase with some restrained weathering and adjusting of the levels of gloss - not yet though - I have a lot of track to build!
I'm in the middle of painting my Tower Brass 14xx and wanted to see what it would look like crossing the (future) road bridge having emerged from the tunnel mouth....
Here it is:
There is a long list of jobs to do still on the engine including GWR insignia, cabside number plates, buffer beam numbers, lamps, crew, fire irons on the back, brake rodding, firebox and ashpan sides missing from the Tower brass design, various levels of gloss, satin or matt in varnishes, a little wea
