I've been expressing my dissatisfaction with the chassis and mechanism of the Hattons/DJM 14XX for some time now and I have finally started to do something about it.
The background to this is that I need a 14XX as the 'signature' loco for my new 'cameo' shunting layout 'Bethesda Sidings', which is a fictitious location on a proposed-but-never-built GW route between New Radnor and Rhyader in Mid-Wales. With the addition of the outrageously improbable 'Vale of Radnor Light Railway' joining the
I've returned to the cobbles for the last couple of weeks and tonight, I finally finished the last section of the planned cobbled area. Here are a few photos taken this evening, most (but not all), to show the cobbling (or granite setts).
The effect I'm aiming for is that the larger vehicle turning/parking area will have been tarmacked sometime after the war, but done 'on the cheap', and is now beginning to wear off, so the edge where the cobbles meet the tarmac is not regular and even, as s
Greetings all,
I'm afraid that there's still no modelling to report on, but by way of an update, here are some images taken on the Harz narrow gauge system last weekend, on the occasion of a holiday in that part of Germany. We had a trip on the section of line on the Brocken (the highest mountain in northern Germany). The whole narrow gauge scene there in the Harz Mountains is quite superb.
Waiting departure from Drei Annen Hohne:
Old fashioned railcar forming a regular service trai
There was quite a lot of debate on the Class 22 thread a while back about how one might convert it to EM or P4. I think that the EM gauge fraternity generally decided that the existing wheels could be pulled out slightly on their existing axles, and I hope that this has worked out for them.
This wasn't going to work in P4, and the original wheels could only have been used if they were turned down to P4 profiles. Some folk have suggested fitting P4 tyres to the existing Dapol wheels,
The doors and sash windows of the latest row of cottages have now been done (albeit door handles and letter boxes still to be done), which provided another excuse to put them on the layout for some photos and play trains for a few moments:
The windows weren't so easy to see against a light background, so I placed a cutting mat behind them (they will have a back wall and darkened interiors when they are finished, like the adjacent row):
Over the last few weeks, I've been doing a little cobbling now and then. It's been quite relaxing in fact, especially after a busy day at work dealing with the aftermath of the recent flooding on the railway.
Now I've got to the stage where the main areas for cobbling are now complete, namely the section between the goods shed and the nearest running rail of the in-laid siding, plus the 'four foot' area of the siding itself:
The remaining work is to scribe three rows of cobbles para
The project to replace the chassis on my first Hattons/DJM 14XX is now almost complete.
Following the replacement of the number plates and the minor repair to the steam heating pipe arrangements mentioned in previous blogs, I have now painted and weathered the chassis and re-assembled it.
The chassis, minus the driving wheels, was first brush painted with Halfords red oxide primer (sprayed into the aerosol lid). I didn't want to remove the motor and all the associated hassle of excessive
Well, as I mentioned in the comments section of the previous blog entry, I was getting uneasy about the size of the box, as compared with the smaller size of the lever frame. Even with the gate wheel, I decided that the box was too big for the location, and I started thinking about how I could re-build it to a smaller size.
In the meantime, I constructed the 18 lever frame (from Smiths etched components) and placed it in the original box...
As you can see, it left rather a la
I finished the second row of Howard Scenics cottage fronts the other day, and finally took some photos out doors today while the sun was out (well, mostly):
Here is what they look like from the back, posed on the layout:
I've finally knuckled down and made a start on scribing the granite setts in the area around the back of the goods shed on Callow Lane. As mentioned in previous blog entries, the section of 'grout' immediately next to the outer faces of both running rails is extra-white fine Milliput, the larger part of the area is Tetrion filler, applied over several layers and sanded smooth.
I've been doing around 45 mins - 60 mins per evening for the last four days, and progress is painfully slow, but thi
Having used Johnsons 'Klear' (original formula) for fixing virtually all of the ballast on Callow Lane, I've been having mild doubts about it's suitability in the long term to hold everything in place.
Whenever I've done any work in the vicinity of any ballast, I've often found bits of ballast coming loose, and the overall impression I've got is that the body of ballast is slightly brittle and fragile.
I'm keen that I don't get ballast coming loose for a pastime, when the layout starts t
Recent work includes the completion of four Cambrian 'Herring' ballast hoppers in P4, which will be used on 'Callow Lane' (and in due course, my planned Forest of Dean cameo layout) and also on Re6/6's 'Parkend Marsh Sidings' layout:
Here are the four Herring so far completed. All are unsprung and uncompensated, having established (prior to recent lockdowns) that this format runs OK on Re6/6's Marsh Sidings layout.
As 'Callow Lane' isn't se
Further work on the chassis has seen a rolling chassis, now powered by a Mashima 1220 and a slim flywheel and the High Level gearbox 'lash-up' that I described earlier.
Pick ups haven't been fitted yet, so the chassis has been tested on the still-embryonic 'Bethesda Sidings' with some very thin wander leads attached directly to a hand-held controller:
I'm pleased to say that I have now finally got the nice, smooth, slow speed control that I have always wanted for this loco. Th
Having got to the stage where the loco was running more or less to my satisfaction, it was time to finish the work on the body, paint the loco and weather it.
Part of the cab floor area had to be removed to accommodate the High Level gearbox:
Even though this probably wasn't going to be too visible, especially once a portly driver was installed, I decided to box the gearbox in with plasticard, to represent a kind of 'control desk':
All very basic stuff and it was indeed scarcely vi
Having received my most attractive-looking 14XX from Hattons last week, I have finally got round to running it in, as per the instructions provided with the loco.
I have added lubrication to the two locations under the chassis keeper plate, and also to the coupling rod bearings, as per the instructions.
I did test it briefly yesterday, but it wasn't a particularly good slow speed runner 'straight from the box'.
I have cut out a circle of Daler board this morning, to lay my circle of
I put 'Engine Wood' up for testing this morning (it is normally packed away at home), to ensure that all was well for a forthcoming session. The testing regime normally consists of running a loco up and down all roads, in all configurations, ensuring that the signals work etc.
This time, apart from my usual pannier test loco, I deployed 82044 on the layout for the first time. This loco, which is a combination of Bachmann body and modified Comet chassis, featured in some of my earlier blogs
Until a few years ago, I wasn't really much of a diesel buff. Pretty much preferred kettles to diesels, to be honest. After all, the S&D was a steam-only line when it was open and before that, my interests were more for the Great Western in the 1930s.
However, all the diesel releases of recent (and not quite so recent) years haven't been in vain and have begun to make a bit of an impression. So much so, in fact, that Callow Lane will be my first layout to have a 100% diesel sequence, whe
John (Re6/6) visited today and we had a few pleasant hours shunting some wagons around Callow Lane. I put all the completed buildings up, which give a bit more of a flavour of what I hope it will eventually look like.
Bagnall ('Jinty') 47276 shunting a few wagons into the yard:
The new cottages are almost finished, in the distance, with just the ridge tiles, chimney pots and guttering/drainpipes still to add:
'Lord Salisbury' waits the road back to Frog Lane pit, a mile or s
In my increasingly desperate attempts to find excuses not to get the DAS clay out and get on with the scenery 'proper' on Callow Lane, I've been working on the Hornby Skaledale water tower, which has appeared in one or two photos in a previous blog entry.
The model appears to be a pretty decent representation of the actual structure that still stands at Ashchurch, Glos. The prototype was built in yellow brick, but this would not suit Callow Lane, where a red brick predominates. Even so, I th
For a variety of reasons I've done no modelling for over two years, but yesterday I managed to arrange things so that I could at least test a scratchbuilt OO point, that I'd built prior to that. The aim is to incorporate this and other copper clad OO points that I have available in a small new OO goods yard layout in due course.
It's not currently possible to put any of my existing layouts up at home for any length of time, so it would be good to have something a bit smaller, that I can run
The small rail-served factory unit for Callow Lane is now more or less complete:
The building is a branch premises of the small engineering firm Taffson Evans, which had a long history of occasional locomotive building back into the 19th century, although the Callow Lane premises was only ever responsible for the production of smaller, individual components.
When it was first founded, the firm was known as Taffson, Evans & Jenkins and they were responsible for
I've not had a lot of time for much modelling since late summer, but have finally got round to doing a few conversions etc. to P4. I've also built a couple of Ratio clay opens (non-hood fitted), as a kind of experiment to look at what kind of standards we want for the new DRAG layout project, although these will certainly see use on 'Callow Lane'.
Here are a few photos.
First up is D7042, which I bought second-hand a few years ago, and finally got round to converting a couple of weeks ag
Glaciers may have moved faster than my modelling efforts over the last few weeks, but this is what I've been doing. It's all a load of old cobbles, or that's the plan, at any rate.
Inspired by the output from Brian Harrap, I bought a tub of this:
Brian actually uses Tetrion tile grout, as it's harder than most other types and, therefore, ideal for individually scribing the cobbles on with a steel pin in a pin vice, but I couldn't find any locally, so settled for Tetrion filler instead.
I've no objection to rolling roads, and I do use one myself, but I do like to give locos a good running in on track as well. A few years ago, I made up a circle of P4 sectional track, using identical curved lengths of flexitrack (SMP, in this case), with the curve held in place by some copper clad sleepers soldered in place. Fishplates were also soldered on, and the result is a 7' 6" diameter circle of track, that can be dismantled into 16 seperate curved sections for storage.
It takes a whi
This coming Saturday (6th November 2010) sees the High Wycombe model railway exhibition at John Hampden School, High Wycombe. 'Bleakhouse Road' will be there, and should be located right next to Chris Nevard's lovely 'Combwich'.
Chris and I have been discussing how we may effect some kind of 'through running' between the two layouts. Due to the time constraints and logistics, however, a permanent link during the show was ruled out quite early on. The solution, hopefully is a 'Transfer Casset
