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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
    • 3,272 views
Blog entry

45157 Glasgow Highlander

R30226 or R2449 – both in fact?   Hornby Glasgow Highlander R30226 top left R2449 bottom right 2024 and Hornby have released an updated version of Black Five Gordon Highlander.   Hornby Glasgow Highlander R30226 My first Hornby Gordon Highlander, product number R2449, arrived in 2020.  I was probably late in the day judging by the product number and I am guessing that the model had been released around 2012.   Hornby Glasgow Hig
Silver Sidelines

Silver Sidelines in Blog entry

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Tunnels

Hastings Line Tunnels

Perhaps the most notorious gauging situation on the railways.  As is well known, part of the Hastings line of the South Eastern Railway was constructed by what one has to say was a fraudulent contractor who built the tunnels without proper lining. This page https://tonbridgecommuters.org.uk/trouble-with-tunnels-the-railway-investment-legacy/ gives a decent overview of the events and subsequent action. Briefly the always impecunious SER, having received quite inadequate compensation award
JimC

JimC in Tunnels

1
Building Construction

Refuelling Canopy

I built the refuelling point from plasticard and strut, I bult the frame for the canopy and placed into position to see that the sizing was correct and had enough clearance over the locos. With the frame built I installed LED 12v strip's onto the plasticard and wired between, I planned to put corrugated aluminium over these and cut around the struts with apertures cut in to hide the wires and most of the strip. Installed two O gauge refuelling points purchased from eBay which were painted yellow
Tommyp81

Tommyp81 in Building Construction

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Build

Planning details

I tested a couple of ideas for detailing around the buffer stops, fuelling point and walling to see what worked and gave me the look I was after. I am after a dated look for the depot so wanted the look of grass and plants growing from the ballast. Once I was happy I continued placing clumps of small static grass randomly around the layout especially the buffer stops and fuelling point. I purchased some Railway Laser Lines yard tower lights to give some height to the scenery, these don't come wi
Tommyp81

Tommyp81 in Build

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Pre 1850

From McDermott, History of the Great Western Railway, Vol1, pub GWR1923

P65 on.  This is from Brunel's July 1838 report to the board.  To my mind the report contains some special pleading and rather mixed logic!  At this stage Brunel is envisaging carriage bodies set between large diameter wheels, and there is no thought of mixed gauges.  He notes that larger track gauge does not necessarily mean a larger loading gauge.  It appears that the concepts of loading gauge and structure gauge are still somewhat loose at this time, although Brunel i
JimC

JimC in Pre 1850

3
Barton St David - Modelling GW and SDJR 1930s

1939 Dia. H33 Restaurant Composite

Hi folks, time for an update on the H33.   I was fortunate enough to have a week away in Wales, visiting some fab narrow gauge lines. I’m now back, and of course cracking on with what’s on my workbench.    My H33 is coming on leaps and bounds, as an evenings work has seen lining and lettering completed for one side of the vehicle, as well as an initial coat of grey on the roof.   There comes a point in projects like this, where suddenly everything is drawing t
All posts

Up and Running

It's been a busy couple of weeks, both in terms of real-life - my best friend getting married, plus the usual work concerns - and also on the railway front. I've got the entire track laid and wired, and (so far) it is working well. One of the things that was worrying me most about the tracklaying was the need to modify points, and bring down some sort of dropper from the frog. Turns out, I'd been reading guides for oo track, and Peco's N gauge range points don't need any of this! All you need to
Station

Station

My original layout had a terminus station that came in the form of a wooden Santa 🎅 present that alas has disappeared through time. My mainline station was of the ready to use Hornby variety. I decided this was the way to go to recreate the feel of Glasburgh. This time using the Hornby overall roof ( many of) These were all purchased second hand and are in the form of two through lines and two bay platforms. Based loosely ( very loosely) on how Dundee operated back in the day.  When complete I
Tay Bridge

Tay Bridge in Station

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Update

An important loco 27 024

An important loco ( to both me and my friend Ken Joy ) has been acquired! 27 024 means a lot as Ken put forward a successful package to buy 27 024 and I contributed a very small amount at the time. 27 024 is still in working order at Caledonian Railway and runs in green livery ( although the model has no D like the current real version.  Ken’s train set is 1:1 scale!  I have recently had a couple of cab rides with Ken at the controls… a long time since our bashing days! Now the bad news…
Tay Bridge

Tay Bridge in Update

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Update

Construction commenced

Baseboards have been constructed and track has begun to be put down. The complication being two circuits of DCC to run my rolling stock ( BR modern image) and… ( the train set bit!) my Dad and brother’s European stuff on analogue… It works! It is fun… the main purpose to enjoy seeing trains running and a return to childhood memories.. progress…
Tay Bridge

Tay Bridge in Update

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46444 Blog

Shunterama!..A BR Blue Class 09 and something from Reading..

Lurking on the shelf in my modelling room for a number of month's has been an Hornby ex-Mainline-Class 09 which was previously finished in aircraft blue with silver logos.    The logos had been removed previously with Humbrol thinners. More difficult areas were removed with fine grade sandpaper and a glass fibre pen.   Using Tamiya masking tape, the wasp stripes on each end were covered over along with cabside windows and doors.   Halfords grey primer gave a blank c
46444

46444 in 46444 Blog

1
J17 Build

More of Stratford's finest

I've been backdating the J17 and producing more variants. You'd have thought that locomotives would get more 'different' as the fleet got older but it seems the G.E.R. did things the other way around and the further back you go into pre-grouping the more variants there seem to be.   The original G.E.R. F48 were built with a round-topped firebox, these were all replaced with Belpaire fireboxes by the early 1920's. Quite why some classes of G.E.R. locomotive designs went from round-toppe
Motor Cars

Edwardian motor cars (1): De Dion-Bouton 1904 

I’ve built some Edwardian motor cars in 1:76 scale for my Farthing layouts. Here's the first instalment, focusing on a 1904 De Dion-Bouton made from a modified Scale-Link kit.     Caption: 1902 Wolseley 4 cylinder. Source: Getty Images, embedding permitted.   In 1895 there were 14-15 motor cars in Britain. In 1900 there were 7-800. Then it boomed. By 1909 there were 48.000 cars and in 1914 there were 132.000. (Sources: National Motor Museum and “The Motoring Age: T
Mikkel

Mikkel in Motor Cars

57
The 1/50 scale project

The 1/50 project a sector plate, part 1

That layout idea does require a sectorplate, so I fancied having a shot at making one. A simple structure from 6 mm ply forms the base, the moving part is similarly formed with deep sides to create a U section.         The pivot is a bearing which came from a scrap photocopier. Seems to act well as a thrust bearing.         At the other end a bracket holds a pair of ball bearings which run on a hard plastic surface, Very low friction.
Building Coketown

Track Position Sensors - June 2015

Once I had built some signals and was able to control them from my JMRI computer through the NCE system I was using, I needed a way of triggering the signals to change. Since the track layout was finished and relatively stable I did not want to cut a lot of rails to create blocks in the track so that I could detect using current sensors. I tried out some magnetic sensors and found a magnetic triggered transistor that I could embed in the track and which created a pulse when a magnet went over it
Building Coketown

Signals - February 2015

Since Coketown was a modern mainline station the signalling needed to be 4 aspect with red, yellow, two yellows and green.  I decided that if I made my own signals I had the option of them having working lights or, if I couldn't get the lights to work, make them dummies. I drew the basic signals using simple shapes in Sketchup which at the time was free. It's now part of Autocad but I still have a copy from 2017 which is about the last free version available. I had the files printed by Shap
Build

Continuation of the scenery

I purchased some trees and bushes from Primo Models after seeing their stand at Warley, really impressed with the quality and look of these. Started adding these in to see some progress on the scenery and also adding some additional details, it was time for some H&S so installed some safety railing around the depot. I started on weathering the ballast and rails to make the depot look more dated, I used weathering powders with a mixture of brown and black to give the desired effect around the
Tommyp81

Tommyp81 in Build

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Build

The back scene

I wanted a retaining wall with a back scene, I had chosen the Slaters O Gauge Dressed stone for the walling. This was fixed to the rear sheet and sprayed with Halfords primer grey, I painted individual stones on the sheet multiple tones of grey which was then given a wash of Ammo Mig dark grime. This gave a nice finish to the stone wall so I continued using this method, I built some retaining wall buttress which were added to the wall and were painted in the same way, these were then added to th
Tommyp81

Tommyp81 in Build

1
Build

Starting the scenery

With the ballasting in place I started building up the scenery locations, these were initially PU foam blocks cut and shaped to the contours I wanted. These were glued into place and covered with two layers of plaster cloth to give it strength and then a layer of sculptamold. These were then painted brown ready for static grass to be placed on top. A few additional depot buildings were purchased from Railway Laser Lines and Intentio, I planned to put a retaining wall at the back of the depot and
Tommyp81

Tommyp81 in Build

0
Build

Continuing the build

With the scenic section built I needed an off scene area for trains to run to which would enable running of the layout. The off scene section needed to be small enough not to take up too much room on my work bench but large enough to provide enough interest in running, I added a section which routed to 3 sidings along my work bench and terminated at the far end. In time I would construct an off scene section if I was ever lucky enough to the layout to an exhibition but for now this would enable
Tommyp81

Tommyp81 in Build

0
Build

The beginning

After helping my dad with his OO Gauge layout, I decided that I would like to build myself an O gauge layout that could be taken to an exhibition. I wanted to continue with the DCC control and automation using iTrain as this was part of my enjoyment of the hobby and I thought it would allow visitors to an exhibition the chance to actually control the layout themselves. I was restricted with room within my workshop to be able to build and run the layout so decided on a small depot layout, the the
Tommyp81

Tommyp81 in Build

0
Building Coketown

Lessons learned - Some Foreshadowing and Controller Details

Once the layout was largely wired the lessons of how to wire a layout reliably and for continuous operation in a show environment started coming home to roost. Before continuing with the building of the layout I have to detail a bit more about how the control system for the layout has ended up.  A lot of this blog entry happened once the layout was largely finished but since all of these decisions flow from making the layout control better it is better to put them all in one place.   T

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