Inbetween building the goods shed and drawing up the artwork for the station building, which has now arrived, I've been building a twin set AEC railcar set for Cheddar. This is from a set of etches from Worsley Works. To be fair, they are sold as a set of scratch aids, but I've found it all quite a challenge. Unfortunately the etches contain a number of errors which regrettably I didn’t discover until fairly late on.
Notably, the windows in the rail car sides are set too low, with the exceptio
The goods shed has been finished and duly plonked on the layout. It's removable as it spans a base board joint. The internal platform is stuck down because it doesn't.
most of the area around this will be subject to some terraforming, either subtle ground levelling, goods dock or a barrow crossing.
Quite pleased with how this has turned out so now onto the station!
Please to report the goods shed is nearing completion. A few bits to fettle and awaiting ridge tile tops from Scale Link, but it's nearly there. Goods shed detailing will be limited to a crane and a few loads on the platform. Just need to paint them up.
Evening all. It's been a while since I updated this blog. Still not too sure about the new software and I haven't had either the time or the inclination to go and update all the previous entries and their photos links etc.
I've been working my way through the drawings for the goods shed, to the point where it's now ready to cut (I hope). In the meantime, the station board's been put up, ballasted and the point rodding stools added ahead of the platform sides. There's a lot to do on this boa
Along with a few others, the end of the year seems like a good time to take stock of modelling progress over the previous 12 months.
I set out this year to make progress with Cheddar, having previously been distracted by other projects and any excuse to avoid the wiring.
Well I think it's safe to say 2018 was a year of ups and downs on a personal front. However, from a modelling point of view I've achieved what I wanted to; wiring was finished in March and track testing even resulted in some
I know it's only been a week since my last confession, but I've reached the point when I can transit onto the next board. Progress this weekend has seen the point rodding installed to boards 3 and 4, board 3 finished and board 5 duly dragged down ready to start. I still need to break up and detail the large strawberry patch as it's a little too uniform at the moment. Probably needs more scenic variation. This is where it gets interesting. I've mocked up the permanent way hut; an odd little buil
After the distractions of the Triang bogie brake, I've found time to return to the scenics of board 4. I've mocked up the market gardeners cottage based on the limited information I have. I think it's a little too large at the moment but I'll ponder that one. The rest is a repeat of previous boards; basic ground cover is static grass applied through a Flockit, additional cover is postiche and scatter, trees are Woodlands scenics armatures and more postiche, fencing is EZ line, strawberry patches
Work has moved this month onto the 4th board, which has seen the half chairs added, rails painted, ballast applied (correct type first time this time), rodding stool bases stuck on and one of the line side fences posts planted. How to sum up in one sentence what actually took a few weeks to achieve! The rail half-chairs take ages. Painting another couple of days. I spent considerable time laying and tamping the ballast this time. The effect is much better. Pity it's taken until now to perfect.
Now that work is virtually complete on the first two boards (barring the buildings), I've put the first one to one side and begun work on the third one. Although I can erect 6 boards at a time in the garage, they're spanning other layouts and junk meaning they're too high to work on without standing on some form of platform or stool. And one day I'll fall off! Instead I have an area off to the side where I can work on a couple of boards comfortably. Anyhoo, the third board contains the lime dust
This week I have been mostly planting apple trees and making GWR line side fencing. The fencing is made from Evergreen 1.5mm square strip, cut into 20mm lengths to represent the 5ft posts. I worked out some time ago that if you cut this with a pair of Xuron track shears, you are left with one flush and one pointed end either side of the cut. Perfect for forming the top of the post with a few strokes of a file. Some of the post bases are then drilled 0.5mm and brass wire inserted to act as a pin.
So I've sanded back the road to represent a metalled surface. I do have a bag of mendip roadstone which should be suitable! The retaining wall's been painted in a selection of acrylics and pounced with talc and quarry scenic dust. A bit more weathering and dry brushing is required yet. More hedging has been laid and I've been adding a selection of ground cover, mainly using postiche covered with foam. The second board has had its initial covering of static grass and I'll be working my way down t
After a break for a relaxing holiday away, I've turned this week to the first board at the Axbridge end. I'd mistakenly put the stone loading siding up adjacent to the wing walls of the over bridge so this was corrected and the groundwork adjusted to suit. Then I've tried playing about with the location of Fiveways Farm. Presently I'm looking at a forced perspective type arrangement to disguise the fact that it really isn't wide enough to fit properly. Still pondering that one. Then I've dug out
So it's been an interesting week. Having ballasted the first three boards for Cheddar following the same procedure; using Klear as a wetting agent then applying diluted PVA, I wasn't really happy with the outcome. A chat with the Attwood Aggregates people and Gordon Gravett at the Minehead show last Saturday confirmed that the ballast indeed was too dark for the Dulcote Stone it was supposed to be representing. I purchased a couple more bags and and when I got home made an unpleasant discovery.
With the work on the 43xx almost done and some unexpected time at home, I've been working on the layout again. Since the last entry, I've painted the previous landscaping along what will be the back of the layout. This week I've removed and turned round the 3 boards nearest Axbridge so I can make the landscape formers and apply paper mâché as previously. I've also added the retaining wall on the down side which supported the stone siding, along with the loading point itself. Both walls are from
Since the last entry I've been mainly terra-forming the landscape around the Axbridge end of the layout. The sub-structure is a mixture of whatever I had to hand, namely off cuts of foam and cardboard strips which are then overlaid with some mesh material I had kicking around in the garage. It was left over from when the house was re-rendered. I knew it would come in handy one day. The final layer is good old fashioned paper mâché. I could have used mod-roc but I want to keep the weight down whe
Some more videos:
Who says P4 doesn't work?!! I spent an enjoyable day on the layout today, running a selection of stock to check alignments on everything. This was the stock from Wheal Elizabeth which I knew worked on that layout. So any problems would be the new layout not the stock. A couple of board alignment issues came to light that hadn't previously but a quick dab with soldering iron sorted that out. After a while I was prepared to try the propelling move from the down main in
I'm a very happy bunny right now. Having put the remaining boards up, I've finally managed to get them wired up and working. There was an annoying fault with one section that took a bit of time to track down. It was an errant strand of multi-strand wire forming a short circuit in the plug for an as yet un-connected ground signal. It only shorted everything once it was attached to the adjacent board. There was a lot of head scratching and frustration until I finally found it. But today! Well, eng
After a couple of weeks of distractions and other modelling projects, I've managed to set up the layout in the garage where I can get 6 of the 8 boards erected at any one time. Today was all about making a set of supports for the panel and connecting boards together. Pleased to report that everything towards Wells is now working, after one or two wires had to be swapped round (caused by the change in colour code scheme I mentioned in an earlier post). There'll no doubt be a few bits of track to
Coming thick and fast now, helped by the thinning out of track as I approach the Wells end of the layout. This latest board has taken very little time to wire up and (whisper it quietly) that should be all of them now done. I've just one board to check as it was done some time ago and I can't remember what state it had got to. I've certainly changed the colour coding for the wiring since I wired it up! I daresay there'll be the odd plug to wire up as well but that shouldn't take too long. Hopefu
Nothing particularly exciting to write home about, but the next board has been wired up in fairly short order. Only logical as there were no points and as I'm getting towards the end I'm running out of things to have wire up! The good news is that just leaves one to go. Then I can start assembling things and testing in earnest. I'd discovered since I built the track that there was a vehicular access route through the down yard to the goods shed which required a couple of crossings with check rai
I've put the two latest boards together and after a little bit of fettling am properly playing trains. It only represents a quarter of the layout but by golly is it fun! I'm really enjoying shunting wagons around. Just playing for 5 minutes puts me in a better mood. Must be something in this hobby malarkey. It's quite interesting how the odd wagon derails occasionally for no apparent reason then when you really, really look, you see some tiny defect that explains why. Oddly satisfying. I've tak
First of all, happy new year to everyone! Hope you had a good festive break. As we start 2018 I thought I'd do a brief review of progress on Cheddar. I spent the year wiring the s8dding thing. Seriously, that's it. Oh and doing battle with the lever frame, which is connected to yet more wiring in the panel. And I hate wiring. This may be why I was so easily side tracked building an engine for Clevedon and the PDSWJR brake van and embryonic cameo layout to match, and building a few wagons, and so
So the good news is a week on and the panel and board have been connected up and duly tested. Trains have run, generally in the directions they were intended to and generally without falling off, though there is one rail in the slip that needs glueing to the slide chairs as it's wandering a bit. The only real issues were frogs wired up incorrectly to the tortoises, but that was a matter of moments to swap wires around. I can start fettling the track and test in earnest, though I really should le
I'm glad I started to put the year in my blog updates as progress has slowed! Pleased to report that the panel/frame for Cheddar has reached my 'that'll do point', for the time being at least. I finally managed to get the MSE lever frame into some semblance of working order. I think it is probably one of the worst things I have ever had the misfortune to make. It certainly shows it's age and the fact that the art work for the etch was hand drawn If I was starting down this path again, I would us
Work on Cheddar is so slow at the moment. I seem to be doing quite a lot but for minimal signs of meaningful progress. With the wiring on board 4 finished, I've started on the control panel that will be attached to the back of the layout at this point. I'm using 2 lever frame kits from MSE; one is of considerably older vintage than the other. I really liked having levers on Wheal Elizabeth, though that was only 5. Cheddar will have 25. I'm wiring the turnouts and signals to be independently oper
