I purchased a Proxxon Cut off saw a few weeks ago to enable accurate cutting of the brass and nickel silver sections required for the roof girders and eventually the roof trusses [ the likely follow on project after the girders ].
I did send the first one back after discovering a problem with the on/off switch - it tripped the RCD each time I switched it off! The replacement appears to be alright and I have used it to produce all the diagonals for the lattice girder with pleasing results.
There are a lot of small buildings and structures in any shed yard not least those associated with the ash disposal plant. My latest efforts have focused on two of these - the small concrete building used by staff working the ash pit and a brick built shed which I believe housed the ash plant controls. Both are shown in the following photo.
The first model to be attempted is the concrete shed, the dimensions of which are scaled from photos in my collection, which is prob
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
Just in time for Christmas here is D41 plus four Bachmann Mk1s on the first test of the Up Main from Lawrence Hill Junction through the storage sidings. The Bachmann Peak runs on a Rumney Models chassis courtesy of Justin and the Mk1s run on Bill Bedford bogies courtesy of Morgan - thanks to you both.
Happy Christmas and New Year to you all.
Robin
I hope you have all had a good Christmas.
I thought I'd share a few photos of the trackwork added during a quiet hour on Christmas Eve.
Well nearly complete. All the track on Board 21 is now in position with just the sleeper staining - Jacobean Dark Oak - and the droppers - Palatine Models - left to do. The track has now crossed onto Board 20 the track ends being soldered to 12BA brass screws which are screwed through the ply rivets. I use a pair of ply sleepers on each side of the trac
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
Having got past the summer break and all the house and garden work I have spent the past few weeks working on the third and final roof pitch for the Roundhouse. This required a modification to the assembly jig as this roof pitch is sectioned to permit viewing of the inside of the shed.
This morning this pitch was test fitted and a few photos taken.....................
Next task - to make a jig for the Workshop roof trusses.
Edit Monday 9th.
The jig and the f
I have just received a disc the some photos of the layout taken during S4N a couple of weeks ago when it was populated by locos and stock belonging to myself, Morgan Gilbert, Dave Holt, John Darch and Paul Hutfield - thanks chaps, I've never seen so many locos on shed.
John's freight on the main line looked particularly impressive as did the Gloucester passenger with Morgan's coaches.
The following photos are credited to the Scalefour Society courtesy of David Brandreth.
I have been looking through my collection of photos taken in and around Bristol Barrow Road shed during the 1950s and 1960s and have noticed two photos of what I believe is the shed breakdown train in the sidings alongside the shed. Is anyone able to assist in the identification of any of the three vehicles, one of which appears to be a modified clerestory of Midland Railway origin whilst I have no idea on the other two.
Ivo Peters 1957 - the three vehicles are in the road behind the Mog
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
Scalefour South West is approaching in August and when I was invited to bring Bristol Barrow Road to the show I realised the trolley system I have for transporting the layout was not really suitable for this venue. The trolley is suitable for sports halls but not for Wells Town Hall where the main display hall is upstairs and the lift is not big enough.
With much of the trackwork now in place the ends of the boards needed protection to prevent damage to the track. Similarly some of the board
More progress on the trackwork this time on the engine sidings alongside the roundhouse. In addition to the two main lines there are five other lines which cross the board joint at the throat of the sidings. Track fixing across this joint, as all board joints, is by positioning ply sleepers adjacent too, and across the joint and inserting 12BA brass bolts into pre-drilled holes in the ply sleepers. I usually do this on two or more sleepers either side of the joint.
One length of rail - 120f
More progress this week with the completion of 6 turnouts - droppers; TOU base plate and all the cosmetic chairs in position - what a job Yesterday I stained the sleepers using
Colron Wood Dye - Jacobean Dark Oak with pleasing results.
I have now started on the three way turnout leading to the shed sidings......... still not half way there yet
Anyway here are a few photos taken before the stain was added.
C8 crossover on the main line with the north exit leading to a double slip
For those of you who might be wondering about the lack of any post for the past couple of weeks the answer is I am on an enforced break from modelling due to the need to redecorate two rooms in the house
It's not all decorating as I have found some time to investigate how I am going to make replacements for the mdf roof trusses as supplied by York modelmaking, not that there is anything wrong with their laser cut items, it's just that I have decided the roof will need to be removable in ord
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
As mentioned in my earlier blog I now have a Bachmann 7F 53809 to add to the locos available for the shed. Of course it will now take it's place in the queue for conversion to P4 but for now here are some photos taken on shed the other night.
I wonder if Ultrascale will do a wheel conversion set.
I should have removed the Bachmann couplings - sorry.
After the interlude with my diesel conversions I have returned to work on the baseboards to fabricate some more inspection pits.
The first selected are the four inspection/preparation pits alongside the shed, one for each siding. Two of these pits were rebuilt in around 1956 [the two nearest the shed], while the other two were new. Unlike the pits inside the shed, photos show these pits were made using concrete not brick.
This view was taken in Oct 1965 & shows locos over the two new
For those of you who have seen the MRJ 200 thread you will see it contains an article about my layout. It was originally intended to include a second article on the laser cut/etched buildings but this has been held over to a forthcoming addition - hopefully MRJ 201. If this is the case it will fit in nicely with this years Scaleforum where I will be demonstrating part of the layout with other members of the Glevum Area group of the S4 Society.
As promised here are some more photos of the she
Having been effected by the Volcanic Ash Cloud - I should be in Canada - I now find I have time to start the inspection pits inside the roundhouse.
The task has been made easier by a set of laser etched sides and bases from York Modelmaking such that the task is reduced to one of colouring and assembly. The pieces are sprayed with primer, coloured and assembled using a jig and clamps.
Strips of 4 x 2mm plasticard were first added to the top of the side walls to form the timber baulks on
I have spent some time assembling the front elevation of the shed but needed to wait to collect some amended parts - my fault - as I found a photograph showing an additional window by the office block. This window was only noticed when I enlarged a photograph of the shed interior - of course once observed it became very noticeable and I had to add it to the building.
The exterior view of this window is obscured partly by the office building itself and partly by the porch entrance to one of i
I managed a bit of time today to carry out the test colouring of the end wall of the sand furnace. For a colour guide I chose to use some of my own colour slides from October 1965. These were taken using Agfa film which was always a little on the blue side so I have corrected this using Photoshop.
I have used an assortment of Berol Karisma crayons of various brick shades, some for the engineering brick and others for the more common 'red'. Having fixed the corbels I realised the crayo
I managed to finish cutting and positioning the ply sleepers for the single slip and turnout this afternoon. The last sleeper is on the guillotine ready for cutting to length it's position shown by the pencil in the foreground.
Part of my workbench also showing, in the top left, a variety of ply sleeper jigs for soldering up crossing vees.
Time to put the building together...
Here are the front and side elevations in their painted state with the glazing and doors added.{non available for the end elevation - I must contact the supplier}
The internal structure is made from 2mm mdf, slotted together and glued. I have given the viewable internal walls a coat of grey primer.
The corners of the walls are mitred together at 45 deg... here is a shot especiall for Missy - to show the corner joint.
The ro
