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
Right, back to some modelling. I have said painting is not my forte, add full size painting to that too. Anyway, a scotch derrick. I made this a long time ago for the previous layout, but I haven’t got round to fitting it since its a bit vulnerable as it is towards the front of the layout.
Scotch derricks are a simple crane, they were used in large numbers throughout the railways and industry in general. Drawings of the size preferred by the CR were published in “The true line “ and
Well, it has taken a while but there it is. Number 729 is running and in service. As I have said I find painting and lining difficult but it does look reasonable from normal viewing distances. I am pleased with the way it runs, smooth and with quite sufficient tractive effort for my needs. Watching it in motion I think that the closed doors do make a difference, if I make another tender engine I will repeat that bit.
Anyway a few pictures .
Much has been said about couplings over the years. I like the Alex Jackson coupling, simple, unobtrusive, cheap and reasonably reliable. Yes they get out of alignment and sometimes get bent beyond repair, but what coupling doesn’t. The hassle with couplings in general isn’t coupling them, its uncoupling them. I have been thinking about this. My layout is traverser to storage yard, and I want to run around at each end. then some sidings , and a shunting back move off the main line. Thats 32 pla
There are times when I can see the appeal of BR unlined black. About half way through decorating the No. 252 was one such occasion. However bit by bit it all came together. The final result is a bit bright, but the brass does tend to develop a patina of its own over time. As ever close photos show errors the eye misses and it needs some builders plates as well.
A few pics ;
Or
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
Ah, thats better, a bit of wagon building. Nice relaxing stuff. In this case its a pair of D59 wagons from the “true line models” kit, available from the CRA. Many thanks to Tony Brenchley for making the range available. Resin body, my usual type of chassis. As ever full history in “Caledonian Railway Wagons’ by Mike Williams. These two have the later 1905 style end door. Thought I would have a go at weathering them a bit, that coal dust gets everywhere.
And just a bit of a pano
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
There we are , a completed signal box. I am happy with the way it turned out, a fair amount of modelling involved.
So some shots of the box in general.
I have tried to make the inside reasonably detailed. All those windows make it very visible and I think it was worth the effort. I may have got some of the details wrong, but given the information I have it looks the part. I also found a photo of a locking frame and put
For various reasons this one has taken a while to finish. I had a bit of a fight with the lettering, harsh closeups show my errors.
I wanted to weather it as photographed in the wagon book with the lime getting well into the grain of the timber. That was done with rotring white ink and powders, my lack of weathering skills shows up, but it gives the right overall impression I think.
A few pictures in the on the layout;
Well, my name is Dave and I am building my second layout themed on the Caledonian Railway in the Edwardian era. The first was called Kelvinbank, and since I live 200 yards from the river kelvin which flows through the west end of Glasgow I think I shall stick to the name.
You may well ask, if he has built one already why is he building another? Simply put, the sky fell in. Not the real sky, but to the 4mm scale figures on the layout half a ton of victorian lime plaster falling from a
All things considered the modifications to the body were straightforward. It all comes apart easily and the plastic seems to work well. The list of things which need to be altered to make a Caledonian version are as follows;
Replace buffers with continental style ones. ( these are from shapeways)
Fit westinghouse pump, smokebox rhs.
Remove safety valve cover, fit ross pop valves.
Square off and slightly reduce chimney height.
Reposition and fit single whistle.
Following WW1 the Caledonian, like many other railways, were short of locomotives. They therefore hired 53 surplus Robinson ROD 2-8-0 s from the large pool available locally at NBL . They ran 1919 to 1921. A comprehensive thread is available on the CRA forums
Really it is a decade out of my time period, but Hattons were selling them at low prices so I bought one ( BR, ex GWR version ) just to see what I could do with it.
First off loco chassis. I could buy all the stuff a
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.
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
At last, a platform building with a roof on it. I’m reasonably pleased with the way it has turned out. Close up photos show the odd bit that needs a touch of paint, that always tends to be the case these days. The final position will depend on how the stairs from the upper building work out but thats pretty much in the right place. I have learned a lot along the way, particularly with regard to messing about with photographic textures and some of the finer points of using the silhouette. I wil
I did a bit of tidying up around the goods shed. It looks ok from a bit further back, closer up it seems a bit over enthusiastically pointed. Somewhere I have a set of doors for it. Somewhere.
It is a bit smaller than it should be, I will perhaps have a go at a full scratchbuild later on .
I pondered a bit about the inset track, then ended up using some old peco N gauge rail as the inner. Under the cobbles its soldered to some copperclad. To cope with any expansion the "sleepers" unde
I made up most of the tender body and then spent a while getting things level. Set the buffer heights and shim the compensation beams so the footplates are lined through. Then place the loco and tender on the tightest curve I have ( about 48 inch radius ) and that gives me the minimum length for the tender - loco drawbar. The Caley coaches tender kit includes these, but the size I needed was between the two. Easily adjusted. I put the whole thing together and ran it up and down for a while. Tend
As I mentioned in the last blog I have been building some CR ballast wagons.
These were built using my usual methods, styrene bodies, copperclad sub chassis to take the W irons. The outer pair are from the 1890 drawing, the middle one is a pre-diagram version from the photo. The drawing makes no mention of canvass covers for the axleboxes and without a reference photo I can’t tell whether they were so fitted. I added them to the pre -diagram wagon which did have them. I suppose if a
Here we are, a diagram 24 wagon painted, lightly weathered and in service. The sheep spars were removable so that these wagons could be used in general use, but I don’t know to what extent that was done.
I don’t know what happened to the sheep, but the Caledonian pup is asleep under the viaduct, from which direction comes a slight aroma of mint sauce……..
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
These are made from the latest True Line Models resin body produced by the CRA. Many thanks to all involved.
The description pre-diagram means that they were built bfeore the introduction of the official diagram book and therefore don’t have a diagram number. More details here;
https://www.crassoc.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1479
I have built them in my usual way, copperclad sub chassis, rocking W irons, internal sprung buffers, all the bits from 51L
Sometimes you have to treat yourself. All the better if it supports the hobby as a whole. So I think a bit of loco building is in order.
One of these from a caley coaches kit.
Many thanks to Jim of Caley Coaches for getting it to me so efficiently, and to AGW and High Level for wheels and gearbox.
The 670s were built in two lots and had a varied history with several rebuilds and swapping of tenders. Numbering is the usual Caley nightmare, indeed N
It has been good pup walking weather, but I have done a bit of modelling. The CR used a variety of point levers at different times and in different places, but in one photo of the area I think I can vaguely see a lever which I vaguely think is a McNee's pattern one. All a bit, er, vague, but sometimes period modelling is for want of a better word, vague. As it happens Southwark Bridge Models do an etch, though they label it Macnees point levers. Close enough given the passage of time. They are
Sometimes its good to set up a scene, it reassures me that all is coming together as a concept and reminds me of what I am trying to make in the longer term. The bridge now looks a bit bridge like, so I decided to set it up with a few bits and take a couple of pics from the east, since when in place it won't be seen much. Of course it wont be fixed in place, It just clips into the abutments. The columns which hold it up on the station platform are circular with an egg and dart moulding at the to
