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Railway Modelling Ramblings

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Remains of the Wissington Railway - more old photos I found

Back in the early 90's I drove up into the wilds of the Fens and found a few remnants of the Wissington Railway. The photos came to light again as I was sorting out my drawers so I thought I'd share them.     Turning off the A10 north of Southery and you could still find the remains of rails in some of the concreted field entrances.     In other places you just had to imagine where the railway once went along the size of the drain.     Here the railway once ran between the concret

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

Quality control

One of best things about modeling with a group of friends on a Friday night is help in the area of quality control. There are those times when you have worked so long on something that you convince yourself it looks ok but you still aren't sure if you are ultimately just kidding yourself and in the end it isn't quite good enough. On these occasions a second pair of eyes and a word of encouragement or even confirmation that 'no it isn't quite right yet' makes all the difference. I'm lucky that I

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

Progress on railway room

Blog postings have been a bit lacking over the last months as the house becomes a building site. We have now got walls, a roof and windows and things start to progress on 'first fit'. I can see the size of the railway room, as well as the other bits like new master bedroom and study for my wife. It is all quite exciting but taking a long time! Still we are making progress and at least have use of some of the house even if the kitchen has no ceiling and the kids have nowhere to sleep if they come

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

Progress on multiple projects

I've managed to get a fair bit of modeling in over the last week working on a variety of projects.   The major project was getting the Stour Valley P4 layout back up on its own new legs. It was previously on the legs used for Fen End Pit so I had to dismantle it every time I went out to a show. Getting the 3rd baseboard up then encouraged me into some track laying, this went well but threading Exactoscale chairs onto rail is even harder than normal when your finger tips are tingling from chemo

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

Progress on laser-cut mill

Over the last week or so I've made some good progress on my model of Ebridge Mill. The lower building is almost complete now, the roof got covered with Wills sheet and I'm reasonably happy with the colour. It probably needs some Woodland Scenics putting into some of the troughs as lichen. The rain water goods have had quite a large effect on the look too with the guttering made from shaped 40thou plasticard and the down pipes from 1mm plastic rod.     When you zoom in you can really see the

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

Progress on D16/3 livery

I've put a spray of gloss over the cab side and tender side so that the transfers would slide. I had the usual fun and games trying to get 5 numbers to line up and sit square. The spraying has also just 'lifted' the colour slightly so it doesn't look quite so matt and uniform. I also got around to fitting the balance weights on the driving wheels and painting the rims which greatly improves the overall look.   I've got a couple of pictures from Colour Rail to help with the weathering.    

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

Progress on an Ivatt kit

I've been working on a chassis and detailing kit for a Bachmann Ivatt class 2 2-6-0 tender loco for several years now with my friends from Brassmasters. Progress has been sporadic but we recently received another set of test etches from PPD and this time we got two copies, one is being build by one of the Brassmasters team using the full Easi-Chas approach using the Bachmann motor and gears and mine is being built using a High Level gearbox and motor. This later option allows you to fill in the

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit in Ivatt 2MT

Progress on a possible J17 kit - part 3 - the tender

During the week I assemble the chassis for the J17 tender which went together well apart from me drawing the holes for the brake hangers in the wrong place. Artwork correction took marginally longer than drilling 6 holes in the right places. I've stuck two pieces of copper-clad sleeper strip down the inside of the chassis and soldered the pickup wire onto these. While I have metal brake blocks and hangers on the etch I thought it would be interested to try 3D printing them and see how they worke

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit in J17 Build

Progress on a possible J17 kit - part 2 - self quartering P4 wheels anyone?

In my previous blog on this subject I mentioned I'd 3D printed some wheel centres to fit into Alan Gibson 4'10" tyres. I put these into my test chassis and got it working but I was not entirely happy with the result. The issue I believe is that 'Gibson Style' wheels rely on having the centre molded out of a fairly 'grippy' plastic, the hole through the centre is designed to be a good tight fit on an 1/8th inch axle. even so most of us have had a wheel be a bit loose at times and some people reso

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit in J17 Build

Progress on a possible J17 kit

Since I built my J17 by scrapping most of the parts of a PDK kit and making my own etched and 3D printed bits I have been thinking about the possibility of turning the result into a kit. A first draft of the artwork was turned into nickel-silver by PPD with help from my good friends at Brassmasters. (If this turns into a kit that will be where it will come from). The intention is the use etched metal for the chassis and thin bits like the cab and foot plate while 3D printing the complex shapes l

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit in J17 Build

Preparing for the Palace

That's Alexandra Palace and the London Festival of Model Railways next weekend.   So, time to take Fen End Pit out of the cupboard under the stairs where it resides and do a few 'pre-fight checks'. Fortunately the whole layout goes up in our back room with the kind permission of the domestic authorities.     A quick bit of scenic work with a hoover, removing the spiders, was followed up with a new coat of paint on the backscene and on the facia panel. The work then turned to the stock, fi

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

Preparing for ExpoNG

As next Saturday Fen End Pit is off to Expo Narrow Gauge at Swanley this afternoon was spend checking and preparing the stock. Several couplings needed adjustment, lots of wheel cleaning but nothing serious in need of repair. I had realized I was one driver down so have also been trying to convert 'Larry the Lister driver' into 'Sidney the Simplex driver'   I took the opportunity to take a few photographs and a short clip of the Simplex 40S with the sound chip.   http://www.youtube.com/watch

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

planted signal, with bounce

Well the bouncing signal got painted and planted, at least temporarily. I've still got to 'matt it down' a bit and add the green spectacle glass.   I've slowed the bounce down from the first attempt on the starter, the shunt signal is still a little on the fast side.     David  

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

Planning J39 drive - rebuilding tender chassis?

Well the time has come for serious thinking (some would say I should have done this before).   The North Yard gearbox I got from Branchlines runs very smoothly, and sticking a mini-drill on the back turns the wheels quite nicely! However this isn't exactly the most prototypical drive so I need to work out how to get a universal joint through to the tender and mount a motor.   First problem is that the shaft of the gearbox comes out only slightly below the cab floor. I think I'm going to have

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

Plan of layout

I realized I hadn't posted a plan of the layout on the blog yet and thought folk might be interested.     This afternoon I painted most of the remaining track on upper level. Unfortunately I had run out of the ballast I used on the first part and have had some fun trying to match up the colours. Note to self, next time make sure I have enough to do the whole layout before I start.     An F5 approaches Empire Basin hauling a short parcel train. The works of National Motors and Switchgea

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

Pipes, handrails and steps on D16/3

Alan Gibson handrail knobs got used for their intended purpose over the weekend, i.e. holding handrails rather than 'continuous springy beams'.Trying to bend the handrail for the front of locomotives with a continuous handrail is always a pain. The large pipe down the right hand side was held in brackets made for thin brass strip and soldered through holes in the boiler.   Finally this evening I fitted the two footsteps on the curve of the valance. There are also two more tiny ones to go on th

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

Pictures of 'The Works' - ON14

While sorting out the new railway room I came across a packet of old photographs including several of my old 14mm narrow gauge layout called 'The Works'. This was a cement works that featured lots of skips, war department bogie wagons and even 3 feet of standard gauge with an Impetus models Hudswell Clark. I sold the layout about 10 years ago to a chap in Essex (Romford I think) and I was told by a couple of his friends at a show a few years back that he had sadly died so I have no idea if it is

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

Penpits sprung chassis - with video

After several evenings of fun, and I guess something about 20 hours work in total I have now got to the point of getting the replacement Penbits bogies under my Class 24. The initial 'rolling test' where you leave out the gears so you can just roll the locomotive along was great fun! I had used Black Beetle wheels in the original conversion and these went back into the bogies with no problems. Being insulated on one side only they made opting for what some people call 'the American System' of pi

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

Penpits sprung chassis - progress on a springy diesel

I spent most of this afternoon with soldering iron, files and a 'hold and fold'. My 'Traction Ears' now slide smoothly in my 'Traction Horns' and even the job of dismantling the Bachmann chassis and modifying the gear drive was only made difficult by not being able to find a sharp drill that could cleaning cut the rather soapy plastic of the bogie easily. So far I am vary impressed with how this is going together and I'm looking forward to the 'rolling test' to see how the springing works.  

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

One step forwards - and a few backwards

Progress on the Slaters Simplex took a step back , a combination of 'Chemo lethargy' and 'cock up'. I was dismantling the loco prior to getting it ready to prime the body work and decided to try and test run the chassis having slightly increased the back-to-back to make it run through my points correctly. Unfortunately disaster struck and the DCC sound chip let the magic smoke out. A repair/replacement is on its way I hope thanks to Digitrains.   I also decided to revisit my decision to abando

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

North lights on Scalescene warehouse

A Bank holiday seemed like a good time to do a bit of building work and finish off the roof of the big warehouse behind the viaduct. The Brassmasters etchings made the northlight units quite rigid though cutting them all to a different length to match the profile of the backscene was a bit of a faff. I had decided that one end of the building would house the lift shaft so this got a block house on top to house the lift mechanism.     From track level the building now looks quite impressive.

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

Norfolk interlude - with added diesel thrash!

A day trip out in Norfolk culminated in sitting by the River Yare at Reedham with a beverage of choice. The swing bridge was open to river traffic and it was a quiet and peaceful evening with nothing to disturb of peace except bird song, the clink of boats in their moorings and a rather unremarkable band setting up for their gig in the pub. The bridge started to close and maybe ten minutes later an even more unremarkable 158 or such unit trundled over heading to Norwich from Lowestoft.  

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

New toy!

A delivery from Kernow Models this morning now waits to be rewheeled to P4.   David    

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

New parcels additions

Over the last couple of weeks I've rewheeled a Bachmann LMS 50 Brake and a BR GUV, two more additions to my parcels train. Actually it is probably going to end up as an 'Up Parcels' and 'Down Parcels' as the fiddleyard won't be long enough to hold all the stock! I did a bit of a foolish thing with the GUV, I brought one in Rail Express Parcel livery as the Maroon wasn't available and then tried to strip it and repaint it. By the time I got around to trying to line it and number it I found I cou

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

New 3d printer - Ender 5 Pro

My clever wife bought me a new 3D printer for Christmas (how did she guess what I wanted?)   I was a bit concerned because the box was shipped direct from China by FedEx via what appears to be a puddle at Cologne Airport. Creality customer service were very helpful and we decided it was worth trying to build it and just replace any bits if we found they had been damaged. In the end everything went together very easily ( about 30-45 minutes assembly to first print) and I managed t

Fen End Pit

Fen End Pit

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