The bench has been occupied by some non-railway stuff, but back to wagons now. Sheeted wagons tend to be modelled in far fewer numbers than period photos indicate that they were used, so I’m slowly trying to nudge the proportions in the right general direction.
I am still trying to get sheeted wagons to look reasonably right. Having proper tie down cleats and roping from the edge helps, but the sheets themselves really need to look like Caledonian sheets with individual numbers. I ha
With hindsight it would have been an idea to cut the holes for the uncoupling magnets before laying the track. I am making slow but useful progress cutting them all from underneath. Good job I put all those boards on hinges. So drill through from above 1mm, cut the hole to just leave a bit of cork underlay from underneath with a forstner bit, superglue in a disc of 10 thou styrene. ( guess how I cut all those )
Here is a pic of the uncouplers at the end of the storage sidings. The ext
There are some things which just don’t scale, no matter what you do the real thing looks wrong in model form. Smoke and water are the obvious ones, but I’l add another. Dust. Scaled down they are not particles, they are lumps.
So I have been enjoying running the railway a bit, collecting info and deciding what to build next. However I couldn’t help noticing that the station had become a bit dusty and once you have noticed it it sticks in your eye. Time for some cleaning, after all we
Odd how you sometimes think you are going to tackle some part of layout building and then you end up spending a few weeks doing something totally different. I had been thinking about backscenes, but somehow I just fancied doing something a bit scenic. Generally scenery isn’t my strength but I keep seeing so may layouts on here with wonderful rural scenes which tempted me into having a play about. So I had a go at the harbour scene. Which by the nature of harbours requires some water. I have t
Things are progressing slowly. Winter tends to slow modelling down, paints and glues take ages to dry, the light is bad, there is a tendency to sneeze all over what you are trying to build. Must be a lot worse for folk who model in lofts and sheds. Really a case of watching paint not drying. Anyway, thats the major sections of the platform building ready to form into a structure. All still delicate, I think I am going to have to add a top internal rail to prevent it warping over time. A coup
A good week, thats the basic structure put together. Simple really, just put some plasticard on a nice flat surface and make sure it all goes together square. I was concerned about the top edge and so decided to strengthen it with some brass strip. A thought struck me, why not use the strip to feed power to the fireplace LEDS? Now I wouldn’t want a soldering iron too close to the walls, so I soldered some sockets from a turned pin IC socket to the strip in the right places before glueing the s
An odd title you make think, but I shall explain.
Firstly the real one. The CR had large numbers of pig iron wagons, in practice used whenever a low sided wagon was needed. Another of those general types you can never have enough of. This example is built from the 51L kit, though I have used my usual method of a copperclad sub chassis for the W irons and sprung buffers.
Ok, the imaginary wagon. I mentioned that I cut some extra bits when I made
It has taken a while but I now feel that the overall scene is looking a bit more like a busy urban coal yard. Details and carts are from langley or dart, most figures are Andy Staddens. Anyway, pictures speak louder than words so I’ll shut up.
Something missing though……. Oh yes, the stock. So just for fun.
Perhaps a lot of pictures, as ever helps me to see stuff this way.
I have been thinking about urban coal. Victorian cities consumed huge amounts of coal and of course Glasgow was no exception. Statistics for the quantities mined and moved are available, but staggering though they are do not actually make me think about coal. So instead I started to look at chimneys. I live in a normal west end two bedroom tenement flat which as built had three fireplaces and a kitchen range for cooking and hot water. So thats 32 fires in this block of 8. 14 closes and 2 churche
Having had a relaxing time building a wagon its time to get back to building a layout. So, next step, getting a spot of paint on that viaduct. Well, more than a spot really, it ended up at 9 foot long so no way would tiny tins or small tubes cover it all up. Musing on this I thought about tester pots. Over the years I have accumulated a boxful, picked up very cheap as last years colours and that sort of thing. Several dozen of them in fact, so I dug them out and had a play. Most were matt emuls
I was asked for a description of the drive board shown for the tunnel signal, which I also use for ground signals. So I might as well put it on here. ( Sorry, bit of a rough sketch) It really is simple, it doesn't have any fancy speed or bounce settings. Nothing into the relay it sits at one position, 12V in, it sits at the other. The bi colour LED would change from red to green if needed. The two 5k pots adjust the positions. If you need to the relay 0v could be separate from the signal 0v , th
I have been sorting out the western end of the layout so the boards have been wheeled out for access. Getting a bit chilly this time of year so pvas do take a while to dry for the scenic stuff.
Anyway, a few pics of that corner. I’m not entirely happy with the brick gable end of the factory. I keep an eye open for something more suitable but as ever its the problem of getting a good square on photo of it.
I previously explained that I ended up making a tunnel into what used to be a dining area. So, as I munch on this sandwich, I will describe what I did with it. Sized at about 8’ by 5’ I realised that I had an effective storage area of about 8’ by 2’. Again, out with the paper and pencils. The design aim was to provide storage for 6 trains of at least 20 wagons which works out at 6’ by 15” . No way I could fit in a fan of pointwork at each end of that, so my thinking moved towards a traverser. I
Having built all the signals it seems like a good idea to install them. The first step in the process is the baseboard waltz. Way back I was asked about my baseboard construction, and I said I would post some pics when I shifted it all about. Much has been said about baseboard building over the years but it basically boils down to designing them to suit the type of layout you want to build in the space available. So firstly, castors. All the boards and for that matter the workbench and various
I consider myself to be a very lucky man. 2020 hasn’t been the best of years for me but it has been a damn sight worse for a large proportion of the worlds population. The lockdowns mean that I have been able to spend more time modelmaking, perhaps the upside of it all.
A year most of us will be glad to see the back of, so I thought I would do a few photos of the back of trains.
A late afternoon train vanishes under the bridge.
Tail end of a mixed
This started with me trying to do a backscene. Well, I almost have but it has led to other things. To get the backscene onto the backing boards I have to divide and move the layout about to get at them. Not all that difficult since it was designed to be moveable. While it’s out I might as well pave the street between the station wall and the backscene since its much easier to do from the rear of the layout. Oh, and sort out various bits, add the fixings for the station platform and stair. Of c
The signal box on Kelvinbank consists of a photo of Boness box stuck to a light bulb box. Ok, its the right style and size, but time to make something a bit more accurate.
So the silhouette has been busy. The windows are all done as a single layer, the frames both sides laminated onto that. Cutting all those soffit brackets took a while, but I’d never manage it by hand. This is the second attempt, I got my dimensions wrong on the go.
Some brickwork for
It's ok, I haven’t suddenly decided to start a revolution, tempting though the idea is. I am of course referring to the figures for the layout. These are a mix, mostly from Andy Stadden with some from Prieser and a few older ones in places they can only be glimpsed at. The men are the problem. Most of the Edwardian ladies have wide skirts and so stand up without too much of a problem, though the ones with the hemline daringly 3 inches off the floor do tend to tip up. The men will too but the sm
Time for a bit of playing. I have been working on getting couplings sorted out but it does strain the eyes so a bit of scenic messing about around the viaduct makes a pleasant change. Taking pics doesn’t half show up all the rough bits that need a second or third going over. Its also a bit difficult to get a picture of, really how do you get nine feet of track in focus? Not joking, really if you know how then tell me. Anyway , here they are with a few bits added to make a scene.
I have now got the trackwork up to a running standard, trains go all over it and don’t fall off or stall. The odd bump on pointwork, but I need to go back over the stock and check the wheels are true, they have a habit of shifting slightly over the years. Time for a sweeping generalisation; prior to the grouping the scottish companies mainly used 8’ 11 1/2 “ sleepers and laid them in an interleaved pattern. ( Now watch all the references to where they did otherwise emerge. ) CR practice was to
It has taken a while, but I am now reasonably happy with the tiling. So here is a completed bit of wall, nothing like harsh close up photos to show all the errors. The tiles are printed on photo paper then given a coat of a photo matte uv resistant sealing spray. I have no idea how stable these things are long term. Time will tell I suppose.
I think they will look ok from normal viewing distances.
This is one of those things that I thought might be straightforward, but which tripped me up a bit. This is the third go at making the sides up for the stairs from the station building to the platform. The first two attempts somehow didn't have the right proportions and I wasn't happy with the angles somehow.
I don't have any sort of drawing to work with so I have been taking drawings and photos from similar CR stairs and condensing the design taking into consideration features which tended
I have been making some more of the parts for the signal box. My idea is to generate a set of pre-painted assemblies which all sort of go together neatly at the end. Best laid plans….
So a snapshot of the main structure. Lower walls will be brick on this one. The 4 bits in the soffit are steel.
Those steel bits are there to catch the magnets in the roof section. The open rectangle they are on allows a bit of down flex at the corners .
Some progress has been made, a few more wagons are now in rakes with magnetic ajs and I have been generally fixing some of the minor details. Of course all this photography is like going over the layout with a magnifying glass, you see all sorts wrong that you thought were ok. However none of that is really interesting to the observer. Far more fun to have a session of playing trains and take a few pics of that. So here we are , just a few snaps of the faithful pug doing a bit of shunting. It
It was gloomy yesterday so I turned the layout lights on and tried running a few trains in the dark. Daft, but oddly fun.
Anyway, a few random pics of variable quality. The station in general, I need to lightproof the roof more next time it is off.
This is a lucky pic. I cant really see the from of the station building so its just done by point the cam
