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Soddingham-under-Piddle
Actual Point Rodding

Actual Point Rodding

I've put it off as long as possible... it's a bit fiddly, but so far so good. The bent rod connecting the square runs to the cranks idea has proved rather more durable than I thought for just a plain soldered joint - that bit's been putting me off, I admit it! So, some Plastruct square rod has gone under the rails (to ensure no short circuits) and the rest dropped into it's respective stools. I still managed to miss one out... Basically I super-glued the end to the crank, let it go off and then
Miserable

Miserable

0
Dad-1's Blog
 

Back to wagons again

For the last few months I've been busy on layouts. Both for the club and while intending to get some club input the Corona Virus shut down has left the option of do nothing until the club rooms open again, or do it myself. All interesting and keeping me busy, but apart from the '0' brake van I've not touched a wagon. Couldn't go much further without making something with wheels !!   What's in stock - too many, but the Cambrian GWR/BR 18 Ton Sleeper Wagon caught my eye. T
Dad-1

Dad-1

6
On Ravensers Bookcase
Waste Not, Want Not

Waste Not, Want Not

I have to confess that I've slipped off the straight and narrow (no, I'm not modelling the Nullarbor Plain as 3'6" gauge...)    The plan was that I was going to systematically work through the litter of stalled unfinished projects on the bookcase, to clear the decks , clear my head , and achieve a maximum of result for a minimum of effort . No new projects!   However I've come off the wagon, fairly spectacularly..   There were two catalysts. Firstly, there was the e
Ravenser

Ravenser

0
Highland in 2mm
Scrap Tank - safety valve

Scrap Tank - safety valve

The photo below shows the safety valve "saddle", as well as the tank filler caps (which were straightforward turnings from brass rod). The saddle was made in the same way as the new dome, with a thin flange squashed on to a rod. I soldered a spigot up inside it, and used this to hold the assembly while drilling out the three holes on the Proxxon milling machine. The front hole is for the whistle.   The two main valves (not sure of the right terminology!) were made from 0.8mm bras
antyeates1983

antyeates1983

0
Highland in 2mm
Scrap tank - new dome

Scrap tank - new dome

As I mentioned, I wasn't happy with the over-thick flange on my original dome, so I made a new one using the "squashing on to a tube" technique that worked quite well for the chimney. Here we see the squashing stage in action, after drilling out and thinning the bottom flange.   The resulting dome has a much finer and more realistic flange, as well as a better cylindrical shape, as you can see in the following two comparisons:   Notice that the dome cracked
antyeates1983

antyeates1983

0
Highland in 2mm
Scrap Tank - chimney

Scrap Tank - chimney

Apologies for the lack of updates recently. I've continued to make progress but not got around to writing it up. The next thing to be tackled was the chimney. Again I made a rough sketch guessing the dimensions from photos and Peter Tatlow's drawing. Since the chimney has a very thin skirt around the base, I decided to adopt the "squashing" method instead of the "filing" method used with the dome. In particular, I first drilled a hole up the middle of the chimney, then cut the top of the flange
antyeates1983

antyeates1983

1
Soddingham-under-Piddle
Adding The Poles

Adding The Poles

As ever, having made the telegraph poles it was time to position them. First step - how far apart should they be? Well, to be scale, it would appear that 1.1m or so would be right, but mocking it up they just looked like they'd been planted randomly. Clearly telegraph poles, or at least the distance between them, don't scale at all well. So I just went full aesthetic  mode with them. I'm happy, so all is good.
Miserable

Miserable

0
Soddingham-under-Piddle
Of Telegraph Poles

Of Telegraph Poles

Whilst it's not been over busy due to musicy stuff,  I've attended to loads of small bits and bobs - as well having a nice game of telegraph poles.   The small stuff has been putting in the remaining cranks for the point rodding, filing in ballast around the point tie tie bars and some general adding of splashes (?) of grass here and there. The dummies have been weathered and their counter-weights painted black (no idea why I painted them white in the first place!), just need to add th
Miserable

Miserable

0
Once More Unto The Messy Garage
Welcome back COVID modelling

Welcome back COVID modelling

With level 2 restrictions returning to NZ, my planned weekend at my local heritage railway ended before it started. Instead, I retreated to the garage in the face of worsening weather.   Photo Plank The first thing I did was carry on building my small photo plank, called The Paint Shop. So far the track has been painted and blasted. I continued working on the concrete pad, painting the plasticard deck tan and building it up around the track. One the land was build up I proceeded t
willsheldrake

willsheldrake

1
Aussie National
Starfighter!

Starfighter!

Another wee project moving closer to the finish line. Revell's kit of the Lockheed F104-G Starfighter. It's been a long time since I tried an aircraft kit. This one was a bit different to the (mainly Airfix) ones I remember, the fuselage is in 4 bits not 2, and getting them to join neatly wasn't easy. Would like to blame Revell, but its probably me...   This will be painted up as an F104-G of the Italian Aeronautica Militare. Italy was an enthusiastic user of the F104, only retiring th
D6150

D6150

8
MikeOxon's Pre-Grouping Blog
A Standard Goods for North Leigh - part 4

A Standard Goods for North Leigh - part 4

Never become complacent! After a long spell of trouble-free printing, I started to encounter problems a couple of weeks ago. First off, the old problem of lack of adhesion to the printer bed returned. I had become lazy about replacing the blue masking tape and the surface had become worn. After replacement and re-levelling, all seemed well again ... until the heat wave struck. The next problem was uneven printing.  It was too hot for me in my work room, so I left it alone while I got on with des
MikeOxon

MikeOxon

6
Fen End Pit's Blog
Stour Valley Dream - Strange grain loader

Stour Valley Dream - Strange grain loader

During the 1950's a grain loader was built on loading dock. Lorries (or tractors and trailers) were reversed down the dock and the grain tipped into the shed through the large doors. A vertical auger lifted the grain up to slide down the chute into the waiting wagon.     It looks to me that the construction was of corrugated asbestos with a box section rather than corrugated iron, the section looks too big for that. I tried drawing up a template to try and judge the size.
Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

1
5&9Models' Blog
Build a Bodmer competition (not)!

Build a Bodmer competition (not)!

In 1845 the Swiss engineer John George Bodmer constructed a pair of 2-2-2 locomotives at his Manchester workshops for the Joint Committee of the Brighton, Croydon and Dover Railways. Born in Zurich in 1786 and later apprenticed to a millwright, the young engineer showed much promise and a strong talent for innovation. He moved to Lancashire in the 1820s but continued his connections with Switzerland and Baden in Germany. His particular invention was that of an opposed cylinder steam engine in wh
5&9Models

5&9Models

12
The Wednesford Chronicles
 

In a change to our advertised programme...

Today was a little too sticky to be laying track, so I decided to have a bit of a tidy up, and build a signal box.  I decided that Wednesford, teetering on the brink of partial closure back in the 60s, would probably have been excluded from the West Midlands power box control scheme and kept an adapted mechanical signal box instead.  There's precedent for this - the Potteries loop and the Trent Valley both retained older boxes - so I figured that, as I had a bit of space, I'd adapt a Wills ARP s
Shelf Island
Power distribution for control circuits

Power distribution for control circuits

Hoping to avoid soldering under the baseboard of "Shelf Marshes" I have made a circuit board to distribute the 12V DC supply to the ancillary circuits:     Power enters at the connector bottom right. Above this are outlets for the circuits the layout needs all the time: 1. Lighting rig, expected to be around 1.5A constant 2. Servo controller and relay driver, 1.5A surge at start-up, 60mA quiescent, more when servos move 3. Analogue controller (if fitted), outp
47137

47137

15
Soddingham-under-Piddle
All Moved.

All Moved.

So that's everything moved across. Just need to figure out how to get pics into the blog post listing rather than the default snazzy designs.    Back on the layout, more ballasting has been done, all but the RBO trees are made and placed, though not fixed yet. The signal wire posts are fitted and the point rodding chairs painted, the remaining cranks fitted. Ballast has been quarried for the point rodding to pass under the rails. Quite a lot of fencing to do, but that'll have to be wor
Miserable

Miserable

0
MikeOxon's Pre-Grouping Blog
A Standard Goods for North Leigh – part 3

A Standard Goods for North Leigh – part 3

In my previous post, I showed the brass components that will form the ‘hard’ skeleton of my planned model of an Armstrong Standard Goods engine. The fireman’s side of No.661 is shown below to complement my previous illustrations of the driver’s side of No.31:   Armstrong Standard Goods No.661   Now, I shall describe my procedures for producing 3D-printed parts to form the ‘flesh’ of the model, which will carry the details of the outside frames, footplate, boiler cladding,
MikeOxon

MikeOxon

8
DBC90024's Blog
 

Johnson Street IEMD: a week of progress - 6th August 2020

6th August   Its turned out to be a pretty good week in the life of all things DB AC, Johnson Street IEMD and my nicely developing DB stable. Firstly, in the real world, DB Cargo are putting the final touches to returning Malcolm Rail 90024 to traffic, I am buzzing (pardon the pun) at the news of this, it's my favourite 90, well, its not hard to see why!!! i love the great outdoors and wildlife and all that comes with it, the WCML interacts with our great outdoors in a big way and the
DBC90024

DBC90024

0
MES Body & Paint
8th Army 2

8th Army 2

More progress on the 8th Army fellows.  Mostly blocking in major colors.   Skin left, then washes.   If what he has is to be an Enfield revolver, I feel bad for him.   Horrible things to shoot.     I'd love to shoot the Boys sometime, though.   Like I said, skin & wash.  Then, bases.   I'll get there.   We'll see.
AlfaZagato

AlfaZagato

0
The Wednesford Chronicles
 

Grayling was right: Electrification sucks...

There's a title I bet you never thought you'd read, but after installing OHLE to the layout today, I've gone right off electrification and am happy to wait for pixie-fart or bionic unicorn dung powered trains to de-carbonise the railway. Don't get me wrong, once you've worked out how to clip the wires onto the masts and their correct spacing, the Dapol system is pretty good, it's just the fiddle of getting the wires onto the masts, when you are 57, with sausage fingers and reaching over 20"

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    • PaternosterRow
      GWR weighbridge office

      By PaternosterRow · Posted

      Beautiful little piece of workmanship.  I had no idea about Silhouette cutters, are they easy to operate and how much are they etc?  Whatever it is, it’s done a brilliant job on those windows and tiles.   The prototype pictures are wonderful, but that image of yours of the two wagons beyond the weight bridge is just so enticing of what is yet to come.  Lastly, how have you created those brilliant cobbles for the yard?  Meticulously executed as per usual.    Mike.
    • Dave John
      GWR weighbridge office

      By Dave John · Posted

      Wheelbarrows Miss Prism.    If the weight is not what an experienced yard foreman might expect then what else is under that tarp ? 
    • Miss Prism
      GWR weighbridge office

      By Miss Prism · Posted

      Marvellous images - I've seen them before, but was unaware embedding was permitted. (I guess that's Getty Images way of accepting they never really owned the picture copyright in the first place!)   Just a thought though - what would be the point of weighing a cart with stacked up cases on it (whose contents would be known in the cartage instructions)?        
    • Mikkel
      GWR weighbridge office

      By Mikkel · Posted

      Found this lovely photo today. Paddington Goods 1926. Looks as if the horses in the foreground are being carefully manouvered to avoid the weighbridge. Note the absence of a rail alongside the weighbridge. It does not seem to have been a requirement, especially in the pre-grouping years.   Source: Getty images. Embedding permitted.   I have been browsing photos to see if I could find any evidence of the GWR's own horse-drawn vehicles ever being weighed. No luck yet. I s
    • Graham Radish
      Improving The Bachmann 37

      By Graham Radish · Posted

      I've already done all the lighting, now it's on to the sound. As i mentioned the square enclosure type sugar cube speakers sound amazing for their size, Roads and Rails sell these pretty cheap and they are guaranteed to fit all Bachmann 37's without cutting up your model, however there is a simple mod you can do to this speaker to make it sound even better and gives  a few more Hz in the bass response, this is simply done by taking the back off the speaker carefully, then fit the speaker to its

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