Although I've been calling my layout "Sherton Abbas" for at least a year now, the name hasn't appeared anywhere on the layout apart from on the signal box name plate. The platform definetly needed some name boards so passengers had a clue as to where they had arrived at! :-) I made the name boards using Slaters Plastikard sheet, microstrip and a set of their styrene lettering. Fortunately Slaters manufacture their sheeting in a variety of colours, so I used black as a background colour which con
I've mentioned in previous posts in my blog, that although I was happy with the basic construction of the station building body shell, I wasn't sure how to best tackle the awning brackets or valance. William Clarke's station buildings have a distinctive valance style, which I wanted to capture in my model. The canopy brackets are also quite ornate, some of his designs had a monogram of the railway incorporated in them. The first thing I needed was a decent photo of the bracket style, ideally a
Considering the diminutive size of William Clarke's station buildings, they have one heck of a lot of windows and doors! I've been busy with the micro strip and plastikard and the results are below.
I'm going to try using slide glass in the windows of my next loco, but for this building I've used a clear plastic sheet for the glazing. The glazing bars are held in place with a tiny drop of liquid poly, applied with a 00 brush. I find capiliary action, rapidly bonds the bars to the glazing m
Nothing much new to say, just some pics of todays progress. The chimneys are now in situ and the roof is ready for the application of slates. I must admit I'm releived that the brickwork inlaying is finally finished!
Platform view
Forecourt view
Additional views
Loads more still to do!
Dave
Its been a couple of weeks since my last blog entry, so I thought I'd post a progress report on my station building project. Thanks to information provided by Buffalo and Tim V, I've got a much better understanding of how Will Clarke's buildings were constructed. The main body shell is nearly complete, window sills and corbels still need to be added. The next stage is to start construction of the ornate chimneys that adorned the building, before moving onto the roof and then the platform awni
I've been meaning to fix my station building in position on the platform for a while now, unsightly gaps around the base of model buildings are one of my pet hates and spoil any illusion of reality in a modelled scene. William Clarke station buildings have quite large windows and these allow a lot of light into the waiting rooms which I'm sure was much appreciated by the passengers, but in my model just showed up the lack of interior detail! Something need to be done to resolve this before the b
Well it's been a long time coming, but here are some pics of the finished William Clarke station building. Its painted using Humbrol and Railmatch enamel paints, with the colour being built up in a number of washes and then followed by some dry brushing. I followed the discussion on the forum about GWR window colours in the Edwardian period with great interest. I found the evidence presented highly convincing, so have consequently painted the windows chocolate. To my eyes the black and white pic
I'm sure you all gathered from my last post that I was not entirely happy with my station building project. Although I'm happy to accept that the main building doors would have been an imposing 8' 6" tall, setting the right impression to the Victorian passenger, Im not so convinced about the Porters store room / Gents Toilet situation. Buffalo's information about Camerton's, (another William Clarke building) doors being 6' 6" for the store and 6' 9" for the toilet sounds far more likely in my
One of the few good things about a wet Bank Holiday weekend, is the opportunity to get some modelling done! I've long been a fan of William Clarke's buildings, I think they have great proportions and just cry out to be modelled. Paul Karau's combined edition of "Great Western Branch Line Termini" contains a good drawing of Abbotsbury in 2mm scale so I used that as a starting point. I enlarged the plan using a photocopier to the required 7mm scale, I find it much easier to measure directly off
The snows have melted and spring has definitely sprung at Sherton Abbas! I've thought for a while that although there are plenty of trees at either end of the layout, the centre is looks somewhat sparse.
Centre section of the layout
I made some more trees using wire armatures, artex powder, postiche and Greenscene scatters as outlined in a previous blog entry https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/17699-trees/
These w
Close up of torn canvas on a Slaters Plastikard Cattle wagon
I've had a few positive comments about the torn canvas on the roof of one of my cattle wagons, along with a request for the method I used to model it. I'm not sure how well the method would translate to smaller scales than 7mm, but this is the technique that I used.
1. The area on the roof where the canvas is to be to torn is scribed with plank detail using a compass point or needle, held against a steel ruler.
2. A fibre
While looking around the internet I came across this picture of the restored gates at Tetbury station https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Restored_station_approach_road_gates_of_Tetbury_G.W.railway_station._-_geograph.org.uk_-_1527592.jpg and thought something similar might make a nice addition to Sherton Abbas station forecourt. I find cutting plastic card into perfectly parallel strips fairly tricky, so bought some assorted sized pre-cut strips at the Bristol O gauge show.
Evergreen st
Once the construction of the signals had been completed, I needed to install them on the layout. At a recent local show I had seen Derek Mundy demonstrate working signals that had a rather nice "bounce action" to the semaphore arms when they were returned to danger. They were controlled by a module from G F controls and powered by miniature servos. I was really impressed with the setup so decided to use this method of operation for my signalling. I placed an order with Geoff and Frank at G F con
During the time that I've spent pottering along doing my point rodding, as a bit of light relief I've been making progress with the signals that I need for the layout. In part 1 of signal construction http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1131/entry-14441-first-signal-for-sherton-abbas/ I'd built the Platform Starter, but needed to tackle the construction of the Siding signal. Parts were once again used from the Model Signal Engineering range of components. I needed a signal to contro
Before I could begin painting the signal box a number of detail components needed to be constructed. The gutter down pipes included in the kit were of course designed to fit a ground level type box so were no longer long enough to reach ground level. The pipes were extended by inserting sections of suitable diameter plastic rod between the moulded down pipe fittings included in the kit and then attached to the building using liquid poly. A name plate was made using 2mm Slaters Plastikard letteri
Before I moved onto step and handrail construction, I decided to make a start on the roof. The roof components that the kit provides were assembled together with Liquid Poly and once dry tried on top of the signal box. To my eye the overhang on the roof looked much too wide and gave the building a strange continental appearance.
Overersize roof
I measured the overhang and calculated that it worked out as a scale 18 inches all round which sounded far too much. I decided that the easiest wa
Well its been 10 weeks since my shoulder operation and I'm pleased to say that I've more or less got two functioning arms again! The operation went well, but I found being stuck in a sling for six weeks was a very frustrating experience. I've still not got full mobility or strength in the joint, but having regular sessions with a fierce, but very pretty Physiotherapist is definitely helping my recovery!
It's still uncomfortable reaching across the layout baseboards, so I've decided to have a
Look what the postman delivered!
Thanks to Cygnet Magazines for publishing my article and to Jerry (queensquare) for his excellent photos.
I guess that although we aren't allowed to go out during the bank holiday, at least we're still allowed to read!
Best wishes to all during these unusual and difficult times.
Dave
Delighted to say that Sherton Abbas is appearing in the April addition of British Railway Modelling Magazine! Photos and video by Jamie Warne.
Thanks to all at BRM!
Best wishes
Dave
I've been toying with the idea of DCC on Sherton Abbas for a while now, adding sound to my locos is something that really appealed. The final push came when a friend offered to sell his Prodigy Advance controller to me for a very reasonable price! I had a very enlightening chat with the people at Southwestdigital during the Bristol O gauge show back in January and left their stand armed with a sound decoder, a sugar cube speaker and the rather handy adage " Red and black to the track, orange a
I'm still busy building pointwork for the proposed layout, 4 points completed so far and I'm about halfway through the double slip. The C & L timbertrack bases, preformed crossing vees and milled switch blades, really help speed construction up. I was never much of a fan of building 4mm pointwork and viewed it as a "necessary evil," drilling sleepers and tapping in rivets wasn't much fun in my opinion! I'm now a convert and find 7mm track building very satisfying and almost pleasurable!
Well I've seen the consultant and been told that I need to have surgery to fix my damaged shoulder :-( I'm on his waiting list, hopefully it's not too length a wait! I've wanted to start forming some scenic contours for the layout for a while now, but the limited movement in my shoulder means that I can no longer reach the back of the layout with my right hand. Now I don't like having my modelling plans thwarted at the best of times, so I needed to find a way to overcome this problem! I had
I've continued to work on the layout's scenery, laying more static grass fibres at the back of the layout. I want to have a hedge running alongside the lane that leads down from the road bridge into Sherton Abbas, so armed with some rubberised horsehair I made a start. The horse hair was cut into strips and then teased apart to make a loose open latticework of fibres.
Rubberised horsehair after teasing apart
In order to represent fine twigs, 6mm long static grass fibres were applied to
I've thought for a while that in order to add a bit of variety during operating sessions, Sherton Abbas could do with a few wagons from companies other than the GWR. The layout is set in Dorset, so likely candidates would be from the S&DJR, MSWJR, and Midland companies. During the weekend exhibiting the layout at the Telford O gauge show, I bought a couple of kits from Furness wagon works ttps://pregroupingrailways.com/wagons/ in order to build a couple of S&D examples.
F
Well its been a long time coming, but life is beginning to return to some kind of normality after the Covid 19 crisis! I've had my three jabs, caught the retched virus and recovered, so hopefully I'm full to the brim with antibodies I've really missed going to shows both as a spectator and as an exhibitor, so knowing that exhibitions are once again possible is very pleasing! I've definitely suffered a lack of modelling motivation over the last year, exhibition deadlines are great way of reki
