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War Department First World War Narrow Gauge Layout O-16.5 WDLR

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Yate show and more loads

This was going to be Happy Christmas message, then things got hectic. Then it was going to be a Happy New Year message, but I got ill. January has been a blur so here it is - Happy February!   I couldn't put it off any longer as at some ridiculous hour tomorrow morning (Sat), we are heading off down the M5 for the Yate show - anyone in the area please do drop by.   I have been playing with various projects recently, mostly restarting and even finishing a few stalled ones. I have been taking

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Wired for Sound

Spent a little session on the Hunslet this morning fitting the DCC decoder and wiring up the speakers. I had already fitted the speakers into the tanks and the chip went in the bunker. I am only going to wire up one speaker, the other is there as a spare as although it would be possible to get to them it would not be easy. The only thing that won't fit in the bunker is the capacitor which I have put up in the top of the fire box. I have run the wires below the foot plate inside some black heat s

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Why I hate fitting couplings.

There should have been a picture of the Simplex all finished and sprayed in primer at least tonight but instead you have two cats looking very comfortable together on the other chair. The reason for this (apart from the heating having gone off two hours ago!), is that I have spent most of tonight fitting couplings and still not finished. In truth I am not that far away now but when I came to take a pic the various spring loaded bits shot off somewhere into the mess that is my current modelling t

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Who Said Hornby Didn't Do 24.5mm Track?

As my posts on this project have been a bit few and far between I think a quick catch up is in order - 7mm scale Dudley trams running on 24.5mm track and starting on the rolling stock first. Although I am quite prepared to hand build the real track I really needed something a bit quicker and simpler for to test out the tram chassis design. At the end of the day if we can't get the trams running properly we will not proceed with the project. Set track would be ideal but unfortunately Hornby don't

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Where to get 9mm NON insulated wheels

My plans for building the ultimate pony truck for the (and all the others that are to follow!), Baldwin has hit a snag - the wheels are insulated from the axle thus making split chassis pick up a bit difficult. I know it is possible to add a bridging wire to the axle but as the axle is only 2mm that could be interesting.So, does anyone know where to get non insulated 9mm wheels? Another though I had was to just drill out the wheel to accept the bearing and then mount them on a stub axle but I th

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What's cooking and some new goodies.

Had a busy day today but a bit about what I achieved last night first. Thought I would tackle another small project and pretty much finished the construction of the PLM field kitchen. Another bit of unusual detail that should add a bit of extra interest to the layout. Very straight forward really and just need a little bit of detailing and then painting which shouldn't be hard.     Now apart from taking little one to a bowling party first thing the rest of the day was spent at the O Gauge G

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What a difference a backscene makes.

A quick trip to the slightly smaller than usual Telford show started the weekend off, unfortunately accompanied by an unusually moany little girl which did make it a pretty quick trip. Good thing though was that I didn't get the chance to spend much money! As it wasn't raining when I got back another start was made on fitting the backscene and wow, does it make a difference! It is not perfect yet as I shall explain but heaps better.   I have recycled the 2x1 from my mark1 legs which has been v

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Weston on Saturday

I am afraid that this probably isn't going to be the most exciting post ever as nothing really very exciting has happened! The Welshpool show went well with loads of help from Trevor, Geoff and little Iz. It was a pretty impressive setting with the layout set up underneath a huge painting in absurdly ornate frame. Not entirely sure the fact it had been on the wall for years was reasuring as it just meant it was closer to the point it would fall down and crush us all! Sadly, I don't have a pictur

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Westinghouse & Dick Kerr

So here we have the finished Westinghouse and Dick Kerr. Another couple of interesting points since the last picks are the bonnet vents made by pressing a screw driver bit into brass sheet with the Proxxon pillar drill and the and the bonnet exhaust turned up by me on the lathe - yes I can do something with it! Only a basic weathering as was rushed out for Nottingham;     It is fitted -in rather rudimentary fashion, with a Diditrax 64bit sound decoder and a stay alive which has resulted in

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Welshpool this weekend and rant warning!

I just don't seem to have stopped at all in the last few days and much of my activety has been centered about this Saturday's show in Welshpool. Had thought I might leave the rant until later but hell, might as well just get it over with! Hence I just (expletive!), hope that the visitors (and organisers!), appreciate how much work is involved in turning up to a show! Apart from all the stuff that I promised to do to the layout after the last show, the mere act of cleaning track and wheels and pa

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Welshpool Show Saturday

It's show time again but very difficult to type this as desk is literally covered with rolling stock all newly fitted with my new home brewed couplings. The complete couplings saga will be related soon but it has not been an easy journey and have not seen bed until 3am two days on trot now.   So Saturday 27th Oct, Welshpool Town Hall. It is looking like a really nice line up of layouts put together by a very competent exhibition manager. Cannot do better than the little blub in the back of Na

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Welcome to 'Up the Line - 1918'

You know in job adverts when it says 'need someone who works best under pressure and to targets and deadlines' - well that is me. Amongst several other directionless projects I have been gradually building War Department stock with the eventual aim of building a layout. For anyone who might not know there were extensive 60cm narrow gauge systems in use by both sides in the First World War. In February I noticed a request for military layouts to display at a special event at the Apedale Light Rai

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Waiting for glue to dry

Having spent the last few days being very busy but not actually sure with what, the Dick Kerr has not come along quite as quickly as I would have hopped. I rescued the motors from my previous chassis which was condemned due to a dodgy gearbox and fitted new Markits 50:1 boxes. Then I found these wouldn't fit the chassis. Managed to remedy this by milling out a portion at the top but got abit carried away on side. Will be hidden though so only we know! I have wired it up directly to a power suppl

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Wait to you see the back drop!

Am amazed (and pretty pleased!), at how that last post seemed to go down and all for a very simple bit of Photo Shopping. Well just wait until you see what I plan to do for the back drop! Oh ! (have just found out you can't say bug ger!). Have just committed myself to something else! I actually have quite a few more unusual features that I want to build into this layout but I did decide not to let on until I have a good idea that they will work so as not to look too foolish. well, I do know my b

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Up hill - but not a struggle!

Managed a bit more on my little hill today. Firstly I built up a couple of areas with decorators caulk as the picture I am working from shows a very defined gully which looks like it has been used a short cut many times and has worn a distinct groove in the bank. When this had set(ish), a good old dollop of chocolate ganache - well that is what it looked like! Plaster, brown paint and PVA in reality. I then made up some basic forms for the hedge that sits atop the rise out of various bit of wire

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Two Ends Are Nigh

I have long thought that if you stare at a problem for long enough the solution will eventually arrive all by itself. On this occasion the problem was how to accurately build the framework for the end windows and the time thinking about it was considerable! The solution was satisfyingly low twch and obvious. The little montage should show my basic but effective jig and if I had thought it was going to work so well I would have used a better bit of wood. As it was, I stuck the plan view of the en

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Two Discoveries.

In a rather 'round about way I made two discoveries yesterday - one potentially more interesting than the other! Well - my little one spent he day Bell Boating with her school (why they are called 'Bell Boats', I have no idea as appeared to be two canoes roped together). All of this entailed delivering, and picking her up from the nearby town of Droitwich. Running concurrently with this I had a problem of how to couple my skips together. I had always intended to run all seven as a rake with just

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Two boards finished!

It seems to have been a long time coming but have now pretty much finished two boards and only have a very small patch to do on the others ans I am there! OK, don't get too excited, there are quite a few more details I want to get in there but it will very shortly be fit for public display. The final push involved a new shell hole to give a reason for the damage to the cafe and the building up of a bank (in very traditional manner by the barn Then went on to make a very long low wall at the fro

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TTTT3 and magnets

On the Tracks to the Trenches 3 web site there is a doomsday clock clicking down, guess it is not actually ticking down to doomsday but feels like it right now!   Just after the last show over three months ago I decided to ditch the Zamzoodle couplings and go for something else. Unfortunately much of these three months was taken up with deciding which ones leaving precious little time to actually fit them. I will leave a description of the (highly modified), couplings for another time but in o

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TTTT2 and some Deja Vu

Those of you with a longish memory may remember a similar post 18 months ago just before the first Tracks to The Trenches event at Apedale which was the raison d'etre (there seems to be a lot of French going on tonight!), for the whole layout. However, the ticking clock was a cause of some alarm then - what a difference a year and a half makes! Last time I think I averaged three hours sleep a night in the week running up to the event desperately trying to get things ready but now , nine exhibiti

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Troublesome Trucks

Managing very effectively to divert myself from my aim of getting the actual layout finished I have addressed the problem of rolling stock. This came about as I needed some wagons to test the Baldwin with and it turned out that I only had three that were serviceable - not enough for a layout! I managed to resurrect two quite quickly, coupling had fallen off one and bogie off the other, giving a slightly more respectable five. I did take the opportunity to modify them even further though. I have

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Track, Cobolts and wiring

A very busy day but got a bit late and dark again so no pic of progress again I am afraid. Finished off the track this morning and right on cue a box of six Cobolts arrives. Great service from http://www.modelrailwaysdirect.co.uk/ only ordered yesterday, very good price and very reasonable postage. Have fitted most of the motors which was very easy and seem to work well from an old mobile charger.   Have actually managed to run some trains although the wiring is not complete yet and is unfortu

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Track on traverser

Managed to get a fair bit done today despite a couple of setbacks - ran out of wood and found big sheet of foam board I had in stock was 3mm not 5mm as is being used for track bed. Both easily sorted but trips to DIY and art store do eat into available time.   Main tracks are now laid and wired on traverser, not sure exactly where the in road will come in so am leaving that for now. Realised that need the other points sorted out before I can lay track on adjacent board so set about that tonigh

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Track Day!

Feeling rather proud of my self! Have actually made some significant progress pretty quickly. Only on one out of three scenic boards it has to be said but is looking good for the others. Due to our current heat wave, I was able to set up the air brush and compressor outside and gave all the track a good coat of dirty brown. Actually I went over the exposed foam board with a wash of brown acrylic first very quickly and roughly. I then airbrushed the rails in a slightly rusty colour (I hate the or

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Track almost finished

Firstly a thank you to the very helpful comments about the point motor dilemma. Solution is an order of six Cobalt (I know, I spelt it incorrectly before !), is winging its way here right now. I think I will make up a temporary control panel and do the clever stuff in stages just to make sure I am walking before running as although I have a basic understanding of electronics putting it into practice is another matter.   Managed quite a lot today although no picture as was pretty late and dark

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