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War Department First World War Narrow Gauge Layout O-16.5 WDLR

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BGM 4 short

Much as I hate truncated text speak Baldwin Gas Mechanical is a bit of a mouthful so BGM it shall be. This is from the Neil Sayer kit which is although not particularly cheap is complete except for couplings so there are no nasty add ons such as wheel, motor and gearbox which slyly manage to make most kits at least as expensive as this one - a lot a no where nearly as well designed as this one as well! The have been a couple of very good blow by blow accounts of the build of this kit already so
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The Thomas Coupling Affair - a perplexing mystery

Having survived the crowds (and cancelled trains), involved in getting to, and getting around Warley show I have a loosely connected (honestly, I didn't mean that as a pun!), mystery.   I shall explain. As has become a tradition in these parts, our rail friendly friends came over from Hertfordshire with their little girl and her collection of small push along Thomas toys. Now, these toys have a very interesting feature which I am wondering if there is any use for in our pursuits, but I am at
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3

Exhibition Debrief

Well, that is the second exhibition done and dusted and on the whole things went a lot better than the first but still found dome things that I will do differently next time (Nottingham in March). Biggest problems, again seemed to come from the fiddle yards - both of them this time. The smaller yard at the far end which is laid with two ordinary OO Peco small radius points gave problems, just couldn't seem get any stock one side of the Y point which effectively meant I had only one road to play
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3

Best in Show!

Second show done. Was wondering, at 5 o'clock this morning as I got up and after spending pretty much all day yesterday packing the layout and cleaning track and wheels est. , if any of the punters paying their £3 to get into the show would appreciate it. Well, it looks like they did and I have a trophy to prove it! A huge amount of work and absolutely knackered now but worthwhile and what it is all about really.   Big Thank You to Andy for putting together a surprisingly extensive show and al
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8

An unusual wagon load

I started this entry about half an hour ago but thought I would try to find a proper copy of the image that inspired this and a little corner of the layout. Well, I didn't find the image I was after but did find loads of other stuff to distract me. Back to the subject. Have had this in mind for a while as an unusual wagon load and to have a go at getting the flavour of the scene. The stretchers and figure are white metal castings from PLM and the cross beams are from copper clad strip. I did try
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2

Loco Clinic

Am now in the last few days before the layouts second outing (Weston on Trent on Saturday), and compared to the mad panic and VERY late nights before the first one, things are positively serene here! I guess I have not been completely idle in the last two months and most of the niggles have been sorted but have finally got down to sorting out some of the loco issues. Simple one today was to tidy up the sound installation in the second open 40hp Simplex which was long overdue. Sorry not managed a
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4

A little Deutz

Couldn't resist this little 3D printed Deutz model when I ordered the Joffre a few weeks ago and have finally got around to sorting it out. Pretty straight forward really but as with most of these things ended up taking longer than I anticipated. So here we have the basic body with a 24mm Tenshodo moto bogie fitted. 24mm wheelbase gives you an idea of how small this actually is - would be small in 4mm but in 7mm...... Still, I have managed to fit a sound chip in without too much trouble;    
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6

Lakes, Gearboxes, Excitements and Disappointments!

A week of very mixed fortunes - and it has certainly cost me a fortune! Am afraid there is little actual modeling to report but lots of inspiration. An exploding gearbox on the M40 put an early and very expensive end to our attempt to get to the narrow gauge show at Swanley last Saturday. Very disappointed my self but even more so for my unfortunate companion and Trevor whom I was meant to be helping with his layout. Anyway, half term trips to the Lake District was then disrupted by my other car
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0

A sound investment.

I know that this entry is going to leave most of you rather unfulfilled due to a) really having to viewing the layout to appreciate it and my lack of initiative in not doing a video (I will get around to it honest!). I also realise that there is a lot of scope here for making myself very unpopular with other exhibitors at shows. Yes, I have finally managed to wire the layout for ambient background sound - and I think it is rather good!   The hardware was simple - a basic PC sound system with
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4

Making Hay!

Well the sun was shining for a bit at least this morning. Not that that makes any difference as started this projectet yesterday. I thought it was about time that I made some more wagon loads and page 59 of the new WDLR album gave me the inspiration. I am getting this in quickly to counter any possible questions - yes, they did have bails of hay a hundred years ago!   After a bit of hacking away at a piece of balsa out of one of those bargain bundles I had a bunch of suitably sized blocks and
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2

Going Underground

Little Iz swears it was her idea - personally I am not quite so sure (she would probably have preferred Wombles living under there anyway!), but here we are with a little underground distraction.   Firstly a foamboard box split into three compartments     Then some paneling. Note that I quickly grew board of gluing each one so applied some double sided tape to the walls and stuck the coffee stirrer planks to that.     Then a bit of wood stain.     And some furniture from scraps
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8

Hudson Hold Up

Firstly a big thank you for all the fine comments on the pictures in last post - is good to know I am doing something right! But now onto less conclusive matters.....   Having had a bit of a busy spell with work progress has been a bit slow on the KB Scale Hudson but have been managing to do a little bit each day and have made it to here;     I know the boiler isn't fitting correctly but that is because I haven't cut off the spare length of motor shaft yet and may not get around to doing
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0

Photofest

Have finally got around to taking some decent pics of the layout so as they will make up for a thousand words I shall just let them do the talking!
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9

Hudsons and Deltics

Hudsons and Deltics may sound like an odd mixture but all will be reviled shortly.   The Hudson is the other little project that I alluded to last time. This is the KB Scale kit originally produced by Roy Link. Etched brass, white metal and a fiendishly designed compensated chassis. Am very annoyed with myself as I forgot to photograph this rather complicated item before I installed it in the frames as I consider it quite an achievement that I managed to construct successfully and in fully wor
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4

Blood, Sweat and Cheers!

Having got a bit bored of fiddling about with all the little odds and ends of problems that were thrown up by the first exhibition I just couldn't resist the primal urge to build something new for any longer!   At the TTTT show the chap next to me had a whole display of 3D printed models and on going through his shop on Shapeways when I got back, found that there were quite a few things that would fill gaps in my roster. A few days later a remarkably light parcel arrived from Holland. First up
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6

Still fiddling around

Yes, still fiddling with the fiddle yard - just taken all week, so nothing to worry about! Really don't know why it has taken so long and unfortunately not totally convinced I have even got it right. Have persevered with the Conti board sandwich the principal of which should be evident here;     It is relying ob the slidyness of the plastic facing on the plastic facing. Big advantage though is that it means that the vertical track alignment is spot on across all of the roads - something tha
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3

Letting things slide!

In truth we probably have - had friends staying this weekend and it took almost all week to get the house into a decent state - but that is not what this is about! Top of my list to sort out for the next outing is the traverser fiddle yard and have mad a bit of a start here. Have decided to look at a rather more low tech solution and as an experiment I knocked up a test slider from some laminate shelving.     Actually seems to work pretty well now but will it with loads of weight on it and
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3

Things that need sorting and more pics

Another day of domestic duties so no physical progress to report but did manage a bit of a brain storm about what really needs doing before next outing. The trick now is to prioritse them to make the most of two months especially as I am honour bound to reapply myself to various DIY tasks which have already resulting in me dismantling the cooker and the Dyson (twice!).   So what needs to be done;   1) Fiddle yard needs to work reliably. Andy managed to get it working OK on Saturday but, poss
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0

I Survived!

Well here I am, after my first (3 day!), exhibition and everything went perfectly and nothing at all went wrong - if you believe that you will believe anything! Of course things went wrong but in the best of British traditions we carried on and there was always something running but not necessarily what I had planed. To be absolutely truthful it didn't really matter what was running as it was not a model railway exhibition as such but a themed addition to a much larger and very impressive weeken
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9

All set for first exhibition!

Well that is what I keep telling myself! Having completely ignored any domestic or work duties for the last five days I may have it cracked. Got wagons (most of them work), got locos (most of them work). got the layout (most of it works) - are you getting a picture here? I just did not have enough time for the exhaustive running session I promised myself so will just have to wing it.   Car is ready outside with top box fitted (that is a story for another day), and everything is ready for loadi
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4

Lots going on

Despite the lack of posts there has been loads going on and lets face it - it needs to! Less than a week now to the first outing and still loads I want to get done. Unfortunately I have to work this week end but after that everyone has been given notice that I am 100 percent modeling - no washing up, no school runs, no shopping (except for model bits!), you get the picture!   The Baldwin problem seems to be sorted although haven't run it yet. Managed to get the shorting wheel off and excavated
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1

Help! Romford wheel shorting.

Despite the lack of post (too busy panic modelling!), there has been a lot going on with only a matter of days now to the big show debut. Last thing I need then is one of the locos throwing a wobbler on me. This is the Baldwin that I threw together a few weeks ago and was working fine but..... Was just giving it a quick run when it stopped amid a cloud of smoke and shorted right out. I have tracked the problem down to one of the insulated wheels which isn't! Dead short across it and yes, I have
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0

No Picnic!

Some friends came to visit yesterday with their small child of similar specification to ours with the intention of going out for a nice country stroll and the usual wasp inflicted snacks. Not what I had planned! So, while the girls disappeared I subjected my long suffering pal Al (at least it wasn't the garage roof this time!), to what turned out to be a four hour session of getting the fiddle yard to work properly. I have to admit that I have rather ignored this task when I have erected the lay
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Holiday work

Apart from lots of driving and being ill I did manage something constructive while we were away in France. I carefully packed just the body castings from some Wrightlines D class wagons, small soldering iron, flux. solder, files, knife... you get the picture! Quite a lot of stuff really as well as lots of pre stained balsa and my invaluable balsa stripper.   I started off one lazy afternoon on some A frames and in my now customary fashion I placed precut strips onto a sheet of templates overla
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The Big Push!

Finally back from that annual ritual of the Summer Holiday and have just about survived the over optimistic schedule, leaky cars with wobbly wheels and dodgy stomachs and now have to go hell for leather for a couple of weeks to get everything as ready as it can be for the first outing. There was a bit of progress in the week before we went but was just too busy to write it up and manage to take a bit of stuff with me so shall up date on these soon. Right now it is write a big to do list and d
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