In response to a request from Tim here are a few photos of the saw. I have just used it to cut the other 5 pairs of 'T' section for the top and bottom of the 46' girders hence the brass 'dust'.
There is a yellow safety cover for use during cutting - photo 2 - but it is removed in photo 1 to facilitate accurate lining up for the saw cut - once lined up the cover is put back in place for the cutting operation.
As these 'T' sections are 179mm I was not able to use the stop fence - see photo 3
Earlier this year I came into possession of a Proscale Princess which was originally built by Alan Sibley. The model,46200 Princess Royal, was DC with a Portescap motor and I have converted it to DCC for use on Barrow Road - not strictly prototypical but I like the model.
Alan obviously was sparing in his use of solder to assemble the kit as I had to re-attach a lot of small parts which fell off when I breathed on them!!!
Hope you like the video
46200 Princess Royal
Having decided to use the new Cobalt digital point motors with the Brian Morgan TOUs I thought a few photos would be in order to explain how I have decided to fix them to the underside of the baseboards.
The Cobalt motors are attached using M3 screws fixed into M3 Rivet Nuts, positioned in the baseboards using the rivetting tool shown in the photos.
The position of the 4 holes is marked using a home made jig, whilst the hole for each TOU has been cut out using the Bosch multitool.
I am still waiting for the two Masokits etches so I've made a start on an EM GWR Metro tank kit I promised to build for a client a while ago....... feeling a bit guilty about the delay.
In the meantime here are a few photos, as promised, of some of my locos taken around the shed yard.
All the locos on view, apart from 75004, are Bachmann and Hornby origin which have been rewheeled to P4. I have another 40 odd RTR and kits in the stock cupboard
Before I show the PHD buffers here are a couple of photos of the nearly finished set of buffers in position at the end of the head shunt.
Two sets of buffer stops on Barrow Road are very similar to the design catered for by Pete Harvey's etch, which consists of a set of suitably shaped brass plates and rail jigs.
The following series of photos give an idea of the build sequence.
Two pads of double sided pcb have been added to the beam in order to
For those who follow this blog you will remember that after attending the RMweb members day at Taunton in 2011 I purchased a number of P4 locomotives that were painted in LMS livery.
One of these was Patriot 5535 in full crimson lake livery and after much thought I made the decision to strip this livery in order to transform the engine into Bristol Patriot
45504 'Royal Signals' in lined British Railways lined green.
The loco has spent the last 8 months with Ian Rathbone awaiting its tur
In 2013 I wrote an article for LMS Review on the then new Bachmann 4F. One of the two I purchased was 43875 which visited the Bristol shed.
My intention was to convert it to P4 for the layout and a couple of years ago I purchased an Easi-Chassis kit from Brassmasters and started the conversion. This ground to a halt early in 2017 pending a decision on which method of pick-ups to use. Over the past week I have completed the project - not the easiest conversion to attempt - and
Bristol Barrow Road now has a full set of baseboards - 21 in total - to enable the layout to operate as a continuous circuit with Up and Down main lines and a 20ft plus fiddle yard. All the baseboard construction is the work of my friend Chris Yates who has made all the additional boards over the past 12 months. The curved boards at both ends of the layout have proved to be an interesting exercise the sides formed from three layers of 3mm ply glued and clamped around former jigs. Board 19 lifts
A bit more progress over the past week with Boards 18 and 20 sorted today. This leaves the lift out section to wire followed by a start on the wiring for the cobalt point motors.
Board 18
Board 18 top view
Boards 17 and 18
Board 20
Over the past couple of months I have had to make some modifications to the Dunster House shed building in order to make room to fit the fiddle yard boards down the back wall. This has entailed making cut outs in the two short walls that protrude into the building. After much thought and deliberation I made a decision to add a 6" x 3" wood beam across the two inner roof 'trusses' in order to add strength to the roof. These two beams were supported using 'permanent' acrow props which have now bee
The additional Masokits etches arrived in the post this morning so work on the Metro tank ceased temporarily - I need some extra information on it anyway....
I have now made up the remaining 17 lever slots for the frame and now have the complete 47 positions for the levers which will, hopefully, be added tomorrow.
Here are a few photos of todays work.
The layout is not operational at present as all the power supply units, NCE equipment and circuit breakers are elsewhere for fitting into two power boxes than are being made for me - thanks again Chris!
In the meantime I decided to make a start on the B7R and B7L turnouts for the storage sidings. I am using 4mm wide x 1.6mm thick copper clad strip for the sleeper timbers and Nickel silver bullhead rail.
These series of photos show the latter stages of construction. The timbers have been
It has been a while since I posted anything on the forum. I have just received a John Brighton built DJH Crab 42778 from David Clarke which is fitted with sound and the attached video is a trial run on a section of the down main line past Barrow Road shed.
Before anyone comments I have noticed that the front bogie is off the rails!
Since my last post my lockdown modelling has come on leaps and bounds. The viaduct is now almost finished and has been clad with coarse stone courtesy of Mr Wills
All 47 levers are now in position so here are a few photos:-
This one shows the frame in position inside the box - trial fit only at this stage.
The instrument shelf has been fabricated from nickel silver strip. the shelf is laminated from pieces of 3/4 & 5mm x 0.3mm strip whilst the supports are made up in a jig from 1mm x 0.3mm strip. The round part is formed from modified High Level 2mm CSB etches... the only thing of appropriate size I could find in my metal stock.
The lever frame is now satin black and the signal levers red - what a difference a spot of paint makes
The remaining levers will be painted over the next few days after the paint dries thoroughly.
Just a quick update on the storage sidings. The total of turnouts built is now 11 with ten now fixed in position in the storage sidings and three of the sidings laid. The turnouts are all constructed using 1.6mm thick double sided copper clad sleepers whilst the sidings are K&L and C&L lengths of flexitrack board joints strengthened using copper clad sleeper strips.
Over the hot weather I have checked all the rail joints on the turnouts and board joints and where necessary I have wid
I have had a quiet week on the modelling front due to son number 2 going for a job interview and the mother in law going into hospital..................................
However on the positive side I now have a copy of George Pryers book 'Signal Box Diagrams of the LMS - Bristol Area' which gives details of Lawrence Hill Junction Signal Box for 1950. The book confirms that the frame is at the back of the box and that a M R tappet frame with 6" centres was installed in 1938. It also shows the
The kit of parts from York Modelmaking included a set of their self adhesive tiles of the type I used on the shed sand dryer and office complex. I could have used them again on the box but using at the available photos to measure the size of the prototype tiles I found they were 9 or 10in wide, whereas the self adhesive version are a scale 12in.
I decided to use my tried and tested method using 5thou plasticard and set about making a plasticard jig to assist cutting individual tiles to a cons
Having finished the lever frame and instrument shelf I decided to start the assembly of the box side panels. So far I have glued the rear and two ends to each other and to the mdf sub base and left the front off in order to fix the interior detailing.
Apparently the floor covering in most Midland signal boxes is linoleum so I cut a piece of 5 thou plasticard and painted it 'lino colour' before fixing the instrument shelf and lever frame in position at the rear of the box.
The two stoves [unfi
I set up the full layout in preparation for a visit by the Glevum Group earlier this week and took the opportunity to position the box on the layout - I have since decided it is not in the correct positon - to take some photos.
In the photos the roof now has all but the final couple of layers of tiles, but these have since been added. The finials are from MSE and the two chimney stove pipes are from brass tube. Following a discussion at the meeting about the ridge of the roof and a subsequ
I have spent most of the day painting the second coat on the four elevations of the signal box - a bit fiddly in places as there are three main colours and rather a lot of 'colour joints' which required a lot of tidying to achieve a reasonable finish. I have also painted the floor a linoleum colour and the interior white. On reflection I think the lower wood panels of the interior should be a dark brown - can anyone confirm this?
The box nameplates are particularly pleasing being laser etche
Since compiling the set of drawings for the box guess what - yes I have found a better photo of the front of the box and yes there are a few differences.
First the lower windows are higher up and second the toilet is bigger - must have had large signalmen Thanks to Paul for pointing this out as it's better to know before rather than after.
The new toilet is scratch built using the internal formers provided by York Modelmaking.
A few hours work and the modifications are now complete with
After a call out this morning to sort out my son's car, I managed to do some more on the box this afternoon.
Both ends are now assembled and have been test fitted against the front elevation. The corners interlock very well with the front elevation and are a stepped design to form an overlap with the four laminated layers of each piece.
Next the rear elevation......
Before getting on to the construction of the walkways here are a few photos of the 'stench pipe' fabricated from 1.5mm brass tube bent to a suitable shape with the connection to the loo added for good measure!!
After much thought I decided to make the walkways from nickel silver strip and wire in order to give it a degree of strength and to minimise any accidental damage.
Looking at the set of drawings of the 20ft box in Midland Record No 2 there is a good drawing of the handrail cla
The PCB board inserted into the roof is courtesy of my S4 Glevum Group colleague Dave the groups electronics guru - thanks Dave.
As mentioned in a previous post I ran out of LEDs and sent for a pack of 3mm Protowhite [Golden Light] from Bromsgove Models. I also decided to try out one of their DCC Concepts LED/Lamp Control boards.
Two of the new LEDs have been fitted to Dave's circuit board without the 'flourescent tube' and a further LED has been fashioned into the exterior gas lamp at the
