December since I last posted about Bodminish, the run up to Christmas was busy and with retirement looming due to the hours my shifts were I was getting too tired to do much else, plus I had a few jobs outstanding prior to the carpenter coming to fit new doors downstairs. I had a weeks holiday the week before last and supposedly another 6 weeks until retirement. That was the plan before Boris stepped in, now on furlow till the 1st of May when I retire
Well the past 2 weeks I have bee
A few more doors and windows fitted, the chimney stacks are in the process of being fitted and the canopy at the front has been made by cutting and splicing two kits parts together
Stink pipes fitted but gutters and down pipes will have to wait for the roof to be finished. Also other thing like posters and various boxes still need fitting
I am still putting off the canopy roofs which need quite a lot of kit bashing, they are not the easiest things to build an
The platforms have been extended windows and doors being fitted, a small amount of extra work has been done on the roof.
The canopy hs been in my thoughts, I have 3 from the station kits and one free standing one. It will be a U shape and will extend past the buildings, keeping them in the air is the next issue. Each station kit comes with one very substantial casting and the free standing kit has 6 much slender single posts, I may try buying spares from Ratio
The other t
Now I am happy that the turnout off the main road and slip are what I require I have printed off their plans and stick them on to a building board, next up will be cutting and fitting the timbers, hopefully Christmas will provide the time to build it
Progress has slowed up owing to another project taking priority. I now have laid the closed cell foam track bed for the two main roads and engine shed entranceI have moved the turnout which gives access to the goods yard on to the next board, but I think it still needs to co further back a couple of centimeters. I also think the goods yard needs moving a couple of centimeters further away from the station platform as the track is too close to the platform and the rear wall of the goods shed nee
I have done some more on the roof, the sections are in place and before I get the filler out it needs to dry out first, think I have enough chimney stacks, but I guess they are in the wrong position
I have carried on with the painting adding colour to the stones. Again the paint needs to harden then I will start to apply some weathering.
The station forecourt roof was the last to be cut and fitted, again waiting for the solvent to harden before the filler com
Made a start on the roof, thought I would first try using the parts in the kit, if this fails I will move on to tile or slate plasticard sheets
The station forcourt elevation roof will be quite tricky to form with all the gables and roof lengths
Also made a start on the painting, base coat of mid stone on the walls, sand around the doors, windows and corners, tomorrow will start picking out stones in differing shades
The station walls have been primed ready for painting, these two photos show the forecourt and rear of the building
This is the platform area and the primer hides the joins and the small amount of filling. Next up will be my laughable efforts in painting the walls.
Half of a standard canopy kit has been built, I was worried that being 1/2" narrower than I expected would make the platform too shallow, as it happens its not too bad. I have 4 kits t
The rear of the station wall is next up, on the left the selection of wall pieces from the kits available/suitable. On the right the pieces have been trimmed so they all but up together
The rear of the station wall after being stuck together. I have altered the left hand end gabel from a large window to a slit window, a bit of filler and paint should hide the join
On the left the station forecourt elevation with the revised left hand gabl
I noticed that I had made an error with the station forecourt elevation
There should be a window one window on the right of the door, there also should be 2 windows on the left of it as well, so if I alter the gable end window I might cut up the left hand half of the centre section with several splices to alter the configuration and positions of all the windows and doors
This is the platfor8 side of the same building, 8 splices in all, the cent
I have made a start on my interpretation of the station building at Bodmin General, I am using the Ratio station kit for the kit bash
The first job was to look at what parts (from 2 kits) could be used in making each elevation, top to bottom :- station front, station front platform side, platform building rear, platform building front.
I knew I needed an additional canopy and I managed to buy on eBay a third station building kit for the price of a canopy kit. This have giv
This afternoon I have continued to experiment with Peco platform faces, faced with slaters brick embossed plasticard and the platform surfaces being Wills sheets. progress looks to be promising
The Wills sheets need the joins hiding, I have had a go with a couple using Milliput, seems to be OK. I was going to have the second platform a bit shorter, but decided to have both the same length. at a rough calculation I need another 3 packs of paving
A
As I was working yesterday I had a late start today, first I looked at as many photos of Bodmin General station as I could just to get the general arrangement of the building with doors and window placement just to see how I can kitbash a couple of Ratio stations into a similar size and style, certainly not an exact replica
I have started to lay the trackbed with 3mm closed cell foam from C&L next up is to build the platform. I will be using Peco platform edging. Rat
I have been doing a bit of what Gordon S loves doing with his Eastwood Town layout which is printing off track plans, my efforts are nowhere near to his standards, thought I would see how everything would pan out in full size,
I have also been looking at how close I can get the platforms, plus looking at how I can kitbash a couple of Ratio stations into something similar to Bodmin
This is the start or engine shed end of the second board, I changed the turnou
For once a major step forward, Thursday I visited the timber yard and got a sheet of 9 mm ply stripped down. Only one error in getting too many of the 3" strips cut in half, thankfully a had an offcut at home which I could cut 2 strips from. Thursday was a preparation day and made one board yesterday and the second today
A full length view station area top left, entrance to the engine shed bottom left and goods yard bottom right. The Templot plan is a bit of a mess, its
A Stephen Poole 54xx loco kit has now joined the queue of locos to be built for Bodmin,
I went to my clubs local show and there on the members sales stand was a Stephen Poole 54xx box, being priced at £15 I wondered why no one else had bought it
I had a quick look and saw it had hardly been started and at £15 was worth buying without a another thought
All the body parts are there, looks to have been superglued, so will be easy to dis
I have finally started the trackwork, at Scaleforum I bought a bag of part used Exactoscale turnout timbers, which equated to the best part of 3 complete frets, I have in my cupboard a box of PSM code 75 NS rail and a few bags of C&L 2 bolt chairs. I also bought a pack of C&L baseboard alignment dowels and time has come to start building the layout. In addition I have a 2 meter pack of Exactoscale EM fast track bases
First up will be the platform trailing crossover. Temporari
Far too little to report as I have not achieved mu goal. As the loft is a little cooler I managed to retrieve the plain sleepers and some rail, I also bought down some loco kits and went through my chassis box, the latter failing to realise what I need for a G6. On the plus side I have a Southeastern Finecast M7 kit which can be rebuilt to EM standards. I really need to get my kits out of the boxes and find some GWR locos
Packets of plain sleepers, mostly 8'6" but I also have some 9'. I
The timbering has been finished, but my thoughts turned to an eBay purchase of a Southeastern Finecast 02. Bought it as a part built 00 gauge loco, badly painted and in 00 gauge with a M7 box and a few parts from said M7 not the 02. Still did not pay too much and missing parts plus a new chassis etch and box ordered from SEF( The M7 box can hold one of my Wills M7's)
Anyway back to the 02, the Body was badly painted in grey and had a few traces of black paint. Chassis removed and the body wa
As it happens I do have a few scrap bits of wood in the shed and found a suitable scrap piece of ply (old draw side which happens to be of high quality wood),a nice wide strip of pine beading was stuck to it, then a slot with a razor saw was cut at right angles
A start was made on cutting the timbers, as it happened I had to stain a few timbers as several lengths of thicker ply had got mixed up with some thinner ones. Anyway a few mins work and all will be cut
A new etched chassis f
Should be going to B&Q but decided to take another look at the track plan, I think I have something which looks about right. It's never going to be an exact replica as the real turnout has a smattering of non GWR chairs. I have decided to build the engine shed to a slightly different style, more like the original but 2 roads and the signal box will be from a suitable kit.
Anyway it will keep me on track so to speak to at least cut some timbers tomorrow
Not much going on other than I will model the engine shed area as it is now. The turnout to the shed needs a bit of alteration, as the length of the switch is fine but the crossing needs to be a smaller angle which in turn will then need to be curved slightly. Have been too busy to work on it.
I have found both some stained turnout timbers in thin ply to match some EM gauge Society 8'6" sleepers along with plenty of Exactoscale and C&L 2 bolt chairs.
I bought a Southeastern Finecast
Looking at the old plan I was sent whilst the details are different I am assuming both the running line and the engine shed positions are the same
I have altered the size of turnouts and added a coupe of trap rails, I guess I should extend a couple of the timbers which the outer catch point is on
Overall shot of the area, will try and see if this matches with the photos of the actual turnout
Been given a copy of Bodmin (historic) station plan, which is a great help
Obviously similar but not quite the same as today's layout, but then I am not copying it. Thrown a spanner in the works as I was going to start the right hand turnout, still have visitors coming to see us tomorrow so my plan of having Thursday as my modelling day has not even lasted the first week
Close up of the engine shed area, the trap points are after the turnout not in it. However the I have the ar
Alternative plan with a turnout as per Bodmin now instead of a slip, but with old style goods yard layout
Platforms, buildings etc
Close up of the initial area to be built
A quick lash up of the trap point, will be done as per prototype though
