Once happy with the alignment of the paper template, the "flow" of the point work and I'd glued the cork underlay in position, permanent track fixing could begin. The paper template was cut from under the points and then each point was put back in position on top of the cork. When building the points I deliberately left the rail over long, to allow for some fine tuning of the point's relative positions.
Point and Double Slip with over long rail
The rail was trimmed back to the correct
When I built the original fiddleyard for Sherton Abbas, the plan was to have a 4 foot six diameter "turntable" that would avoid having to touch the stock during operating sessions. The reality was that it was just too unwieldy, heavy and cumbersome to spin right round, so ended up just being used as a sector plate. I've been considering building something lighter and more manageable for sometime now, but other modelling projects were always much more interesting, so it remained a "get round to
A previous blog entry described the building of these wagons http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1131/entry-21530-coal-wagons-for-sherton-abbas/
Once I’d finished building the four wagons they need painting. I’ve tried using acrylic paints in the past but still much prefer working using enamels. The insides were painted in a greyish yellow base coat to represent unpainted wood, this was then dry brushed in browns and gunmetal to represent wood grain. The under frames, i
Just a quick blog entry to show that a water trough and some horse poo have been added to the scene:-)
The water trough was built from 40 thou plasticard sheet, then "distressed" using a rose head bur in a rotary hand piece to give it some texture. The water is a represented using a clear sheet of plasticard painted on the underside with a dark green/black colour and held in position with a dab of epoxy resin. Once painted the trough was sat into the yard surface and some weeds around the ba
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
Since the last update, some progress has been made, albeit at a slower pace than I'd planned! The point rodding is now a rather fetching vermilion colour, it will need a little judicious weathering as its a bit "in your face" at the moment! I've also made a start on the ballasting and installed one of two ground signals. Ballasting is one of those tedious jobs that I find you have to be in the right mood for! This is my first 7mm scale layout and I definitely found ballasting this scale far more
Once I was happy with the overall size and shape of the bridge, the underside of the arches, parapets and abutments could be tackled. South Eastern Finecast brick embossed sheet was wrapped around a curved former of a suitable diameter (Empty bottle of Aussie red wine!), then placed in a bowl of boiling water and allowed to cool. Once back to room temperature the sheet stayed in a reasonable curve and was glued to the underside of the bridge side walls. Flat embossed plasticard sheet was also cu
Time has come to start finalising plans for the "Great Railway Project." After numerous drafts and ambitious schemes, that never had any chance of ever being completed, I'm going to settle on something that endeavours to fill the following wish list.
Layout Requirements list
Great Western Railway circa 1907
7mm to the foot O gauge finescale
Hand built track/pointwork to a minimum radius of 6 foot
Branch line terminus
Station platform facing vi
Here's my attempt at resolving some of the issues previously discussed.
I'd appreciate any input as to whether a double slip would be used in this way to provide a catch and protect the main from the loop and sidings.
Thanks in anticipation
Dave
In response to the comments and advice I received from Buffalo regarding wagon numbering, along with suggestions from BlackRat and Ian Smith, that straw might make a nice addition to the wagons, I decided to get busy! Thanks for all your interest and advice guys, i hope you like the results.
GWR cattle wagon diag W1
GWR cattle wagon diag W5
GWR cattle wagon diag W3
One of the drawbacks of modelling a rural location is the number of trees needed to make a convincing landscape! There's only so much fun to be had twisting lengths of wire together and I find stippling an Artex/PVA mix onto wire armatures soon loses its magic:-) Despite all this I've managed to summon the enthusiasm to make a few more trees for Sherton Abbas! I used the same techniques as discussed in a previous blog entry http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1131/entry-17699-trees/
As a bit of light relief from track planning, I've built a couple of Cooper Craft wagons. As I wanted them in the early livery, I've changed the axle boxes and brakes for something more appropriate for the era. I've always really rated Cooper Craft kits and built most of the range in my 4mm days. I only wish the 4mm Minks were available in 7mm scale! I'm not a fan of the buffers supplied with the kits, so they have been replaced with turned, sprung buffers from Slaters Plastikard.
GWR 4
I mentioned in a previous blog entry that I was trying to to make a representation of the diamond embossed edging stones that the GWR commonly used on their platforms. I tried scribing some using a fine tooth saw on plastic card, but they didn't look very convincing I'm afraid. I thought that something manufactured by cadcam might be the answer, but quite how that was achieved was something completely out of my skill set!
At the Bristol O gauge show back in January I met Chris Ward of CW rai
I like to have a number of different projects on the go to ensure that once I've had enough of a particular aspect of modelling then there's always something else to get on with! I've found there's a limit to how much enjoyment can be had glueing static grass fibres to my layout, so decided a bit of soldering was in order! :-) Sherton Abbas station platform will be lit by representations of gas lamps, so a regular supply of gas would be needed to supply these. In the period that I'm modelling th
Archibald Freeth, "Archie" to his friends is one of the signalmen who works Sherton Abbas signal box. He resides in the small town of Ivell about 4 miles from Sherton Abbas and has recently invested in a bicycle. He's a fairly frugal chap and put off by the prices of the latest models on the market decided to buy something second hand. After much searching he found something suitable which although nearly 15 years old had been well looked after and was best of all reasonably cheap! His commute t
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
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!
I'm afraid very little progress has been made with the track laying for my project, It's far too cold, wet and windy here in Wales at the moment to contemplate crossing the garden to the workshop! I decided that a smaller project that I could build in the warmth of the house was in order, at least until the weather perks up a bit.
I decided that a little weighbridge hut would look good near to the entrance of the yard and shouldn't take too long to complete. Once again I used Southeastern Fi
Well its been a month since my last blog entry, so I thought it was about time I posted something up! Once the number plates for the Dean Good's turn up I'll post up some pictures of the finished loco. I've been promised delivery by the end of the month, so hopefully not too long a wait!
Although not much progress has been made on the modelling front, my modelling room has come on considerably. I've finished skimming and painting the plasterboard walls and laid a laminate floor. It used to f
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
I thought the building was progressing along nicely, I still needed to sand down the quoins to get them flush with the brickwork, but that apart I was fairly happy with it. All was well until I decided to place a figure in front of the building, it was at that point when doubts started to set in!
The figure is 41mm tall, which works out at around 5' 11" in 7mm scale, a fairly decent height for a chap in the Edwardian period. He appears to be dwarfed by the doorway as can be seen in the pho
Now the track laying has been completed, its time to make a start on the signalling and point rodding for the layout. Despite reading numerous books on the subject, I must confess that I find comprehending the mysteries of signalling to be one of the more challenging aspects of the hobby. With this in mind, I decided it would be a good idea to get some expert advice! Fortunately for me, Mike (The Stationmaster) was a fount of useful information and clarified what was needed during a very enjoyab
This is one of a rake of coaches that I have built to represent a branch line train as running circa 1905. It was constructed from a Slaters Plastikard kit and is to 7mm scale. I added additional detail, including suitable period figures, mirrors and advertisements to the interior compartments. The model was sprayed using my Iwata airbrush with enamel paint and then lined using a Bob Moore pen. Best described as a labour of love, the lining took me ages, but despite a few choice words during it'
It's been a while so I thought I'd show the progress on my Goods shed project. The application of the quoins did seem to go on a bit, not helped by the fact they had to be placed both the inside and outside of the shed. Working out the angle the plasticard needed to be cut at for the arched door and the round windows defeated me, I should have listenened harder in geometry! In the end I resorted to a best guess, along with a bit of judicious filling here and there until they fitted.
