MANCHESTER MRS' EXHIBITION
I'm getting a bit long-in-the-tooth now for taking layouts to exhibitions but I can still manage a bit of demonstration work.
Next weekend, 5th & 6th December, our 2015 exhibition takes place at Manchester University's Barnes Wallis Building, close to Piccadilly Station. Full details are available at www.mmrs.co.uk.
I shall be on the demonstration stand from 10.00 to 12.00 hours each day, and possibly some other times too, dependent on staffing; please
We P4 modellers are frequently seen as being humourless, and many are also seen as elitist and less than friendly. Possibly true for some in the fraternity but I do my best to be neither.
As part of my efforts to cause a smile, about twenty years ago I built a
scalefour-standards 'Thomas'. When I say "built" I mean that I built a chassis to fit under a totally unadulterated, genuine Triang-Hornby body in bright shiny blue/red/yellow.
The chassis was a test bed for me to try out one or t
Hello dear reader; sorry I've been so quiet recently but a couple of worn out brains and bodies have been much less active than is the norm. The result has been plenty of armchair modelling and video watching. However we did manage to make the recent running day of Roy Jackson's 'Retford'; - a lovely day out among good friends.
Some modelling has taken place and below are two pictures of the last building for 'Bowton's Yard'. the first pic was posted a few posts back.
It was only by tha
Edited version at 1753 hours:
The extended hidden sidings are now in use, but not before some re-thinking.
This blog started as a report on my building a super-lightweight layout - Wheegram sidings but has drifted from that purpose. However in an early edition of the blog, I described the cassette system developed for 'Wheegram'.
For Bowton's new hidden siding I decided to copy that idea but raise the adaptability level by having two types of cassette, - loco and train. That's what I have
I recently reported that I was carrying out general maintenance on my three layouts while the ambient temperature allowed working in the layout room (garage!), but suddenly total madness came over me and I decided that the hidden siding at the Guidebridge end of Bowton's Yard needed modification.
It started life as a single siding, which led to a lot of "fiddling". Some time ago a turn-out was added so as to give two roads, but in order to get a reasonable train capacity in this new road the
Re. my last submission:
No comments?
That is surprising!
Have another look at the company name boards.
My all-singing-all dancing, new camera saw what my naked eye did not; I should have spotted the error in CorelDraw when I drew them; I should have spotted when they came out of the printer; and when I cut them to size; and when I fixed them to the building; and when I airbrushed with slightly mucky matt varnish; and when I dry-brushed and weathering powder brushed; and when I again clear
My layout Bowton's Yard, originally thought up in 2000 and having been underway, among other work, ever since, has at last reached the stage of building the last mill type building, the sum of which make up the layouts back scene.
There are in total nine buildings, all typical of Lancashire textile industry in the vicinity of the Lancashire- Cheshire border area known locally as Tame Valley. All are in card plus some foamboard (ex supermarket adverts and totally free!) with Scalescene's bric
Well not actually a strike, but the spring and early summer months always see my visits to the workshop to actually carry out modelling work, are shorter and less frequent.
I could report here how well my tomatoes, sweet peas, Dahlias etc are doing but it's hardly model railways is it? To keep to the modelling theme I could report on all the bits of layout maintenance I've carried out, but we all have to do those jobs and it would be an uninteresting report.
There then are my excuses for
It seems no one has changed their destination blinds on their Bachy DMUs! -(see last posting)
There are of course two problems:-
(A) - removal of Bachy's destination,
(B) - production of the replacements
My unit will run between Manchester London Road and Hayfield. There were at least two routes used and I wanted that which stopped at Guidebridge. My research suggested that these read "Manchester via Hyde" and "Hayfield via Hyde" and in both cases the "via" sat above the "Hyde".
Me
Well the Derby Lightweight is running, but the correct back-to-back for P4 is not easily obtained. The replacement wheels on their axle stubs have a length of the stub turned down to a slightly smaller diameter; i.e. a step against which the plastic, insulating muff comes up against. In every case, my wheelsets ended up with a B-B figure of 0.701".
From memory the top limit for P4 is 0.699" and the bottom limit for S4 is 0.701". My aim is for 0.7" and I have found this to work well with eith
Ok then; one of our traders does offer a conversion set for Bachmann's Derby Lightweight! Thanks to those who guided me to Branchlines.
While I was waiting for delivery I set off to have a tidying session of ''T'Tank', and in the course of this came across the two Kitmaster cattle wagons that I started to convert from OO to 18.83 last year -can't remember why I stopped that project but the bits were in a box in a corner of the 'Heavy' bench' abandoned rather than stored!
They now have ne
Well! At long last the two new chassis are running acceptably.
At least they are running far better then ever in their long history. On 'Birch Vale' they operate as well as my expectations. They are not so good on 'Bowton's Yard', but that is more due to my track making skills than my chassis making skills.
When I was building 'Bowton's Yard' I deliberately used several track making methods in an effort to decide on what I thought to be the best method to suit my needs. Remember that this i
"Rest Box"? Strictly speaking the word "rest" can here be applied in any of several ways:-
1. The modelling project is having a rest while I think up methods of progress. e.g. 'can't think up how to ..........
2. I'm having a rest from the modelling project because I'm making a hash of the da** thing!
Obviously it's the project's fault not mine!
3. I've been fired by enthusiasm for some new idea and have totally lost interest in the current project.
4.
Hello again everyone.
In my last posting I told you how I intended to fit the roofs to those two CG brake vans, - a plug-in system that would allow the roof to be removed without damage, thus allowing access to the verandas.
Hence the title, - “The Best Laid Plans….” Well those mice & men certainly had a good go at me!
I have now got the idea to work but it cost a lot of frustration and much use of those Russian words that always seem to accompany my frustrations.
I had intende
It’s been great to be back in the workshop and actually doing a bit of model engineering and using eyes, fingers and brain to design and make things without the aid of a computer and a computer-driven device. That digital card cutter and its associated computer programs have taken a lot of learning time and I’ve missed being in the workshop environment.
I knew I got pleasure out of designing, fabricating and machining, but building the two chassis for those computer-produced brake van bodies
Yes, we've had a fair bit of snow up here!
I set off for Dean Hall (MMRS clubrooms) this a.m. and had to turn back as local roads increasingly were white covered as I climbed. OK at home, we're about 600'ASL, but within less than a mile from home I reach about 800' and by the time I reach the Pennine Way crossing of the Greenfield Road, perhaps three miles, we're at about 1500'. I gave up at about the 850' level, on new, wet, white snow, - with still well over thirty miles to go it seemed most
Nearly a month since my last post, but this Christmas thing does interrupt modelling projects! Also the well being of the aged bodies of both my wife and I leaves something to be desired.
However I certainly should take time to acknowledge Nick's input about cadstd; sorry for the delay Nick.
I have used cadstd in the far distant past but was given a copy of CorelDraw X5 two or three years ago and I was directed to its use for producing drawings for an etching company who accepted .cdr drgs sen
Hello all,
Sorry its been so long but various things have kept me away from this blog.
The Silhouette cutter and all the problems of computer programs that refuse to talk to each other is slowly driving me up the wall.
The drawing program that comes with the cutter is really of no use for the type of engineering drawings we use to draw for our scale models.
Some people are managing to drive the cutter like a printer, direct from their chosen drawing program; I just can't get my set-up to do
I've hardly been in the workshop in the last week or two; I've been scrabling about on the computer and spending a lot of time on the web.
Not quite as wasteful of time as one might think because I've been reading about CAM - computer aided modelling!
Mr Christmas (Margaret) arrived early with a computer driven cutter and it has produced bits of immaculately scribed and cut styrene sheet which MEK allowed me to weld together; the result is:-
Not too bad for a first attempt and using pre
That second Saturday in December is getting too close!
Both chassis are now running at some-where approaching an acceptable standard. But what a struggle I’ve had.
One would think that with all the experience I’ve had, - about 1965 when I made my first scratch built loco; (C13, No.7402, which is one of the subjects in this project) – I should be able to build a simple chassis in an evening almost.
But not so! I seem to have learned nothing about bogies and how to attach ‘em to an ot
The more maintenance I did, the more seemed to be required. I’ve already spent so much time on this and on layout improvement(?????!!!!!) that production of new stuff this year currently stands at next–to-nowt and at a recent visit to Dean Hall (MMRS HQ) I was asked what I was putting in the competition.
Because MMRS is not holding a show in 2014 the member’s competition will now be in a different, simpler format and at the club’s Christmas Bash on the second Saturday in December.
As the
It’s over six weeks since I last posted and while the garden and domestic commitments have pinched a lot of time I’ve still achieved a fair bit of modelling.
Mainly this has been layout and stock maintenance and repair. The work I carried out on the double slip on Bowton’s Yard got me in a track making frame of mind and caused me to add another road in Guidbridge hidden sidings which will make operation a little easier and stock/loco handling a little bit less.
A small shuffle of the layout po
Back again after a pause
The weather warming up each spring tends always to a change in hobby activity at the Booth household. First, the garden starts to call for attention, and as the outside temperature rises it also becomes more comfortable to work on the layouts.
These; ‘Birch Vale’, ‘Bowton’s Yard’ and ‘Wheegram Sidings’, all live in what is actually our garage which, while certainly being some-what up-market and much larger than the run of the mill garage, has only back-ground ce
I’m back to virtually re-making this chassis. The wheels have been on-and-off their axles far too frequently for their good grip; nearly all the crank pins have been unseated; the wheel shifting has affected the electrical continuity between wheel rims and the stub axles; …..in fact throwing all in the bin and starting from scratch again would be easier.
Of course, three total lock-ups of a working chassis should really be expected to produce a good amount of peripheral damage, and it certai
