I am grateful for the patience shown by my followers, while I have been wrestling to make progress on 3D modelling, against a background of many distractions!
In my previous post on this subject, I described my progress in understanding how ‘slicer’ software turns a 3D computer model into a file suitable for 3D printing. This enabled me to make a few test prints by downloading 3D models from the web.
3D printed carriage from downloaded STL file on the web
I am very grateful for the appreciative comments on my recent posts and very pleased to know that some of my earlier posts are still considered to be a useful resource. I confess that I am still finding it hard to adapt to the ‘new’ (well, fairly new) RMWeb format and don’t seem to dip into here as much as I used to do – it’s an age thing I suppose.
Progress with the 3D printer continues to be slow – two small grand-children do take up a fair bit of my energy resources and I have ma
Five years ago, I came across JCL's splendid thread about the Silhouette cutters at an appropriate time for dropping heavy hints before Christmas. This resulted in my acquiring a 'Silhouette Portrait' machine and loads of ideas for making my own coaches and buildings.
It proved very fortuitous since, only a few months before, I had decided to return to railway modelling by re-furbishing my old small layout and turning back the clock to the 19th century period. The cutter was a great
It's been a cold, wet, dull, Spring and I have been finding it difficult to gain much inspiration for modelling. I got somewhat bogged down in the intricacies of what Amy Wilcote calls those 'old broad gauge things'. I have, however, been enjoying viewing the splendid work shown by other modellers, in various threads on this site. So, in an attempt to get my own ideas flowing, I have been wandering around some of the less familiar parts of North Leigh.
The creamery is not a very attr
I realise that I left matters hanging with the tender for No.184, in my post of almost two years ago!
The awful truth is that I rather lost interest, when I found that I had made the frames of the locomotive too wide, so that the outside cranks tended to bind. I simply couldn’t face starting again from scratch until, quite recently, I hit on the idea of simply cutting off the folded edges of the plate which supported these frames and fitting new support members, made from short lengt
Some time has elapsed since I first decided to paint the wagons red on my GWR 'North Leigh' railway but I still look out for any further information that may shed further light on when and where this colour was used.
My 1st edition copy of 'Great Western Way'(GWW) stated: "it would seem to be about the end of the 1870s that wagons and vans first sported a standard pattern of painted lettering. It was about this time, too, that the change from red to grey as a body colour
In my previous entry, I mentioned some of the research that I have been doing into Brunel's 'Broad Gauge' railway. There are several old books that provide a detailed survey of the early days of the GWR. One that I found particularly useful is the 'History of the GWR' by G A Nokes (2nd edtion, 1895). The preface begins: "I would remind the reader that it is 'The Story of the Broad Gauge' that is here chronicled, so that while in the first thirty years or so of the Great Western Railway's existen
It's been a while since my last entry in this blog - lots of summertime activities getting in the way of modelling! I've also had that common modeller's problem of having so many things to do that it's been hard to decide where to start.
I'm afraid that I have, once again, ignored Blanche's petulant pleas for new dresses and got down to the more mundane task of building a tender for No.184. I produced an outline drawing for this tender by starting from a side-on photograph of what ap
It's now over two years since I built my first locomotive from scratch, using brass sheet. It's still looking quite good and helped to inspire me to continue with building lots more scratch-built stock. For more information about my model, see 'Railway Modeller', July 2014, "Simply Victorian".
My model of the GWR 'Queen' class
It really was simple to build - basically a brass tube over a brass plate, with a very simple 'chassis' to hold a set of wheels at the right
For the last couple of weeks, I have been dealing with various track issues and tidying up bits of scenery, none of which makes for very interesting blog writing! I noticed, however, in Mikkel's workshop thread some comments about Witney blanket trains, which reminded me of a photo that I had seen of a GWR 'Queen' class 2-2-2 heading such a train. This seems a rather unlikely combination but I eventually tracked the photo down to Colin Maggs' book "The Branch Lines of Oxfordshire" (Amberley, 201
I have mentioned in some recent posts that I intended to work on the scenery of my layout and, in the course of doing that, I found some problems with the narrow-gauge track, where it climbs from the station area, up over the main line towards the quarries.
What followed has been a frustrating few days, when my little railway has been showing its age! I suppose it is hardly surprising that some of the track is giving problems, as it was first laid in 1979.
Th
(the following explanation is intended to help any new readers to find their way around this blog)
Since I started this blog in 2013, I have used it as a diary to record my progress in creating a Victorian GWR branch line. Since the blog follows the meanderings of my mind, it has no real structure and this 'introduction' is, therefore, an attempt to help a new reader to find his/her way around.
There are two main strands: firstly, the documenting of my exploration of the
Last Saturday I visited my local model railway exhibition - AbRail 2015. I was looking for ideas on scenery and there was a good number of interesting layouts. Several featured canals and water and, of these, I particularly enjoyed the 'Aldford Brewery' (Wimbledon MRC) and the canal-side inn at 'Mulldale' (Letchworth MRC).
I also thought that there were some impressive trees alongside 'The Abingdon Branch'. Initially I thought 'Highclere' (Julia Adams) looked rat
I know that this is a model railways website but I also have no doubt that many people visit because they enjoy looking at the photos of other people's layouts. Thus, it is inevitable that photography plays an important part in communicating what we are doing. There are lots of excellent photos on this website but I thought that it might be of some interest to show some of the techniques I use when photographing my small layout.
The word 'photography' is derived from two Greek words
When I decided to base my layout around the never-built line to Witney through North Leigh, it was simply a whim, derived from a map shown on Martin Loader's website about the Fairford branch.
As I have got 'drawn in' to the scenario, I have begun to learn more about the area and have found, to my surprise, that some of my 'fiction' is closer to the truth than I thought. My layout incorporates several 'features', including a quarry, saw-mill, and.lime kilns.
From s
I've read that some people like blog posts to be fairly substantial, so I'll include a resumé, in this post, of the story so far, before showing photos of my model of GWR No. 184. There are more details in the earlier posts in this series.
Background
I chose this prototype since it was one of the first standard-gauge engines to run on the GWR, following the absorption of the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway (otherwise known as the 'Old Worse and Worse'). No.18
I had hoped to have moved a lot further with No.184 but, unfortunately, have made a very elementary mistake! I knew that one of the problems with 00-gauge is that it is, in fact, a narrow gauge, with implications for fitting the boiler, etc., between the wheels. I think this had lulled me into a false sense of security with the outer dimensions, but these do become rather important in the case of an outside-framed locomotive with outside cranks! I 'got away with it' on my earlier scratch-built '
I have written before in this blog about the Wilcote family, whose activities formed such a large part of the social life of North Leigh in the late 19th-century. Any regular readers will know a little about the younger daughter, Blanche, but her sister, Amy, was a far more serious character.
Like any well-educated young lady of the period, Amy enjoyed practising her artistic accomplishments. Remarkably, some of her work has survived and come into my possession, so I am fortunate to
Although this may seem a short post, it represents a very big step for me! I had been seriously concerned that I would not be able to construct a chassis with sufficiently well-aligned axles, within the constraints of my own abilities and my lack of any real workshop facilities - just a desk and Dremel drill on a stand.
My work-desk
When one builds a kit, the designer has already made lots of difficult decisions for you. A scratch-builder has to think out eve
I feel it is time for an update on progress with my model of GWR No.184. After a rather static period, when I did little actual modelling but thought quite a lot about the details of this engine, I have at last been cutting metal.
In fact, apart from the fact that it is now made of brass, I have made few changes to my initial paper template. My method of construction followed that used on my first scratch-built model (GWR 'Queen'-class - described in Railway Modeller July 2014). In s
Time flies! Back in August, I wrote about the 'DCC Concepts' oil lamps that I had installed on the platform at North Leigh. Various events have conspired to limit my modelling activities of late, but I have finally got around to wiring up these lamps.
The enamelled copper wires attached to the lamps are extremely fine, so I mounted small printed circuit boards carrying block connectors, onto which I soldered these wires. This proved a rather cruel test of my eyesight since, although
Being somewhat of a back-water in railway history, the Witney branch via North Leigh became home to many unusual vehicles, rarely seen elsewhere. I have already shown the standard-gauge Tilt Wagon ('Hat Box') but a particular claim to fame for this line was that it became the 'stamping ground' for William Dean's experimental 4-2-4 express tank engine, shown below entering North Leigh station.
William Dean's e
Part 4 already, and I've not actually touched any metal yet! My thanks to all who have given encouragement by their 'Likes' and a warning not to expect any 'model engineering' in this thread - it's more like cut-out scrap-booking - but I enjoy it and it might lead to a working model.
Since my last post, I've re-visited the cab area, so that it can accommodate the rear pair of drivers. On my paper model, I've cut slots in the front of the cab and floor, to allow for the 14.4mm back-to
I've re-titled this thread, so that it doesn't read as though I'm building a whole fleet of engines - one at a time is enough for me!
My first attempt at scratch building was a 'Queen'-class 2-2-2. I chose it on the grounds of simplicity, since building an uncoupled 2-2-2 is little different from building a wagon. My first step was to draw the constituent parts and then cut these out as a series of paper templates, so that I could check the fit of the parts and explore different asse
My first post in this series described how I produced a working drawing for a model of GWR No.184. Now, it's time to consider the tender and, for this, information is less readily available. Wet and windy weather has kept me indoors, so that progress has been rather quicker than I had anticipated.
The various photographs of No.184 show it partnered with a variety of different tenders, so I decided to try to model the tender shown together with its 1893 re-build. I have not found a br
