Following on from the fitting crews and fire irons to various locos it's back to some rather more fiddly modelling in the form of the injectors for my Ivatt Class 2 tank. These injectors have quite a distinctive shape and I am not aware of any commercial source of realistic representations of these items. To overcome this lack, I decided to try and represent the injectors and their mountings using multiple layers of custom etchings, produced to my sketches by Rumney Models. I use the word "fiddl
I'm running out of jobs to do on recent layouts, have virtually run out of space to anything new.
Even difficult to find storage for my last little demonstration and test piece.
Not quite desperation, but sitting in my garage after some 10 years is a small roundy-roundy that I call St Oval.
The name is simply what the original plan was a Set-track Oval. This has been in constant use since I first had
it fully live, simply because being a roundy-roundy I ca
Having bought 2 of the Hornby "Limited Edition" (cough) Royal 67's in EWS livery, the plan for a long time has been to renumber one as 67005 Queens Messenger. At first glance it would be easy by just sticking new plates onto the loco and changing the cab end numbers. This is actually the first time I've tried this on locos. Despite modifying and renumbering rolling stock etc, I'ev been reluctant to do it on more expensive locos.
On doing research the main problem was found - the EWS
Using a Hornby Class 66 Motor bogie to re-motor a Hornby Ringfield Class 56 - and exploring the concept for future upgrades.
About
The motor in my Lima Class 60 has seized and is in need of replacement, I have seen all of the topics about using CD/DVD Drive motors but I'd rather have a motor rated for 12v. Although, if the need ever arises to re-motor some of my other stock I may have to look further into this. I decided however to complete my Hornby 56 first as
Well not long before my 2.5 months in Hospital over the Christmas period (a good excuse for me not to buy any presents BAR HUMBUG) I managed to secure another bargain Jubilee. As usual this poor loco was in a terrible BR Green livery, I have no idea why the manufactures keep doing this, I mean they cannot be popular can they?
My plan was to repaint the poor Jube into a decent LMS livery, and jut before I could do this I ended up staying with the fantastic NHS, since I have been home
Not done an update in ages on Norramby for a variety of reasons, one being the goods yard was holding 3D printed railway goods 148 times bigger than they should be but I digress. Found some organisation now for those.
The gutters and downpipes are a job I've been putting off as they are to be honest a bit of a bore for me to do but finally they are out the way. The Kestrel down pipes were about 2mms fat in some areas,never seen a 1 foot fat down pipe before so a 0.7mm rod gives about the
With the Nailsea Show fast approaching, the first public outing of the NWR looms, so I've been giving a lot of thought to the display.
I've long wanted to make my own version of the NWR logo as described by Awdry, here's my current attempt.
"Per saltire azure and vert, Two gloves argent saltirewise
in fess a rose of Lancaster proper
1st Azure a wheel or winged of same
dexter vert a fleece argent, sinister vert a mattock argent hafted or
base azure herrings naiant argent
Following WW1 the Caledonian, like many other railways, were short of locomotives. They therefore hired 53 surplus Robinson ROD 2-8-0 s from the large pool available locally at NBL . They ran 1919 to 1921. A comprehensive thread is available on the CRA forums
Really it is a decade out of my time period, but Hattons were selling them at low prices so I bought one ( BR, ex GWR version ) just to see what I could do with it.
First off loco chassis. I could buy all the stuff a
My lack of blogs may suggest that nothing has been happening but that is only partly true! It is really just that nothing interesting has been happenimg but that has all just changed! Last Saturday morning I loked at a £2.50 sheet of 10 thouh Nickel Silver and thought ' I know what you shall become' and a week latter.....
Maybe not quite a complete whim as I had a second Mark Clark 3d printed Simplex chassis spare, the first working very well on a Wrighlines protected body, but neede
Hi all! Since before Christmas I have been able to do nothing. The Christmas period was spent in part away from home and then occupied with family events. Then in January I had vascular problems in both feet and the specialist had me shut up in hospital for twelve days. I still have problems and difficulty in walking due to a constant pain in the lumbar region. The cold weather and lack of a suitable heater make working in the garage difficult. However, since this web is for airing modelling t
Inspired by @toboldlygo's effort on “A Nod to Brent”, I have dug out my model of 4855 to get it finished off.
Previously I had cleaned up and painted the 3d printed oil tank for the tender but not done a great deal else, so the loco still needed more detail on the oil tank (pipework), renumbering, along with cab side modifications.
Renumbering was a simple job, the loco hadn’t been varnished after I previously renumbered it so the etched plates were prised off with a sc
If you've read my other blog, you'll know I ruined a couple of other projects this week. Ruining the other projects kind of dampened motivation to do much else, so 'this week' has literally been 'tonight.'
One of two, I had picked up an accessory kit from Bandai, a stand for figures, that also establishes itself as a base for special effects accessories.
The translucent purple parts are intended to represent some kind of explosion or radiation. All six sections are mo
Some more ramblings from Speedlow. Whilst I have not been doing much with the layout boards I have been slowly planning and developing the quarry buildings that will be a distinctive part of the appearance firmly setting it im the limestone area of the Peak District. My original plan was to build customised versions of real buildings that I come across on my travels. But I soon realised this would be rather costly and potentially time consuming to do. Whilst I pondered what to do Christmas 2014
I’ve started adding some polystyrene to the foam board experiment to create some topography. Boscarne junction is cut into a hill side so at the rear there is a fairly steep bank. While to the front the same hillside falls down to water meadows and the river.
The whole exercise is turning into a little diorama and I shall experiment further with the surface dressings I might use on Bosmelin. Thus I shall need to include some ‘water’ and of course trees both of which I am less confident about.
I see TTA tank wagons when I visit Ipswich station and look down on the refuelling point from the footbridge. The wagons always look like a tank with an underframe welded on underneath rather than a chassis with a tank sitting on top. I have wedded a Lima tank to a Lilliput chassis to try to recreate this appearance in model form. The overall dimensions are close to those of a scale model (within a millimetre) but some of the details on the solebars are wrong or missing altogether.
Two entries on two nights, and both poor showings.
I've mentioned earlier in this blog that I had two locomotives fail during the Christmas season, my Terrier and 14xx. Tonight, I attempted to take them apart to ascertain what failed, and what I could do to remedy the issues.
First, I attempted the Terrier. Completely mangled the thing. One of the clips just would not let go, and by the time it did, I had bent one of the coupling rods, lost a coupling rod pin, and
I've made a start on the girders of the river over-bridge at the Cavendish end of the station. This bridge is still there but one of the girders has been removed. There are two distinct bridges, one with very conventional plate girders which supports the running lines and another bridge with really odd cast girders which supported the original coal siding, removed by the time I'm modelling.
One of the difficulties that I'm facing is that, as is inevitable, I
I have put blue spots on some plants to represent flowers or fruits as well as my second railway item (a stack of sleepers behind the engine on the left side. Creative I know) I have fixed the rest of the figures in place including a man by the water wheel who is "waiting for the train" and trying to wave it down. Plus some other things but not an awful lot
I had a go at making my own wagons out of balsa wood after a story one of my high school teachers told me. I wont explain the story yet unless anyone asks to hear it as it is a little boring and won't really add anything to my wagons.
It took me about a week and a half to make all three (as it was my first go and I was a little slow) they run quite well and are very small. However because of the metal wheels they weigh more than Peco's SR 4 wheel wagons.they aren't the best looking things
Close on the heels of the BR Std Class 2 tank, I've now completed the finishing touches to my Fowler Class 3, 2-6-2 tank, which has remained almost finished for some years. The work required was the same as on the Standard, namely adding coal to the bunker and a crew in the cab, together with fixing the cab roof.
Having said these are the finishing touches, I realise that I still need to add fire irons to the rests on top of the RH tank. This also applies to the Standard and to the tender o
Last time I took my Jubilee. 45701, to run on the NLG test track, it refused to move and showed a fault message "AU5" or "AUS" on the controller. I thought at the time that maybe a pick-up had moved in transport or that there was a chip fault. Anyway, try fiddling with the controller I could not get it to move so it was put away for a future time.
Last weekend, I was chatting to "Barrow Road" at the Leamington show and the subject of a visit to run suitable locos was mentioned. Now, a Jubil
After the very rare occurrence of getting home at a sensible time during month end reporting, I have managed a little bit of Monday night modelling.
First up the J12 sleeper, this has now been fitted with vacuum breaks (including the brackets) which had been removed from a Bachmann mk1 BG that had been converted to air brakes. Battery boxes were added from an ABS casting, but it still needs the dynamo (a casting that needs fitted to a few of my coaches) and a second small electrical
I've managed to mangle two projects tonight. I've taken no pictures, in absolute shame.
Firstly, I had done a very rough cut of a baseboard for my shoebox layout. General idea was that I could build the whole of the layout on the plywood, so that I could work on it without destroying the box. Problem with my cutting the baseboard myself is I only have a ripsaw, triangle, and tape measure handy. Nary a sawhorse in sight. Also, the sheet I started with wasn't square in the
Thanks.
I suppose that there must have been similar rules in place for other companies Paul. Certainly applied verbally and by habit even if they were never officially written down.
Yes. The core baseboard of 'Shelf Island' works as a stand-alone layout, as it should really - it is the plan of the "Gum Stump & Snowshoe Railroad" by the late Chuck Yungkurth. The 'Fairport' board would work as a stand-alone micro too, and in fact the fiddle yard this works on its own as a loco depot without embellishments. The SR layout would work on its too. Connecting the lot together makes 24 feet of run on two sides of a spare bedroom, and 24 feet means around 80-90 seconds of maximu
I've posted some info from Tony Atkins' book in the forum thread:
Thanks. I suppose that there must have been similar rules in place for other companies Paul. Certainly applied verbally and by habit even if they were never officially written down.
Yes. The core baseboard of 'Shelf Island' works as a stand-alone layout, as it should really - it is the plan of the "Gum Stump & Snowshoe Railroad" by the late Chuck Yungkurth. The 'Fairport' board would work as a stand-alone micro too, and in fact the fiddle yard this works on its own as a loco depot without embellishments. The SR layout would work on its too. Connecting the lot together makes 24 feet of run on two sides of a spare bedroom, and 24 feet means around 80-90 seconds of maximu