Martin & Michelle McDermott (Mr & Mrs Pugsley) came for a visit yesterday, and whilst the ladies were keenly plotting some new cake recipes for the Taunton Members Day, Martin & I slipped into the next room and had a bit of a play around on Callow Lane. I'd earlier put all the buildings and other structures up on the layout; here are a few photos I took afterwards. In deference to Martin's preference for diesels, I kept the kettles in their boxes
A couple of weeks ago - or thereabouts - I noticed on the Ultrascale website, that they were developing a drop-in conversion wheelset for the Hornby Sentinel, in both P4 and EM. One of the features of both P4 and EM sets was the fact that narrower than normal/scale wheel treads had been used, which enabled the drop-in sets to be used without having to remove the outside frames and create more space.
For some reason, I read into their wording that these wheelsets might be available already, s
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
One of my little 'conceits' with Callow Lane, in terms of it's putative location, is that the link to the old Coalpit Heath area collieries was re-orientated to run directly into Callow Lane, enabling a colliery tripper to run. The Coalpit Heath pits were all closed by shortly after the second world war, but in my world, one of them - Frog Lane Colliery - was modernised after new deposits of good coal were found. The NCB is now in charge, of course, and their locos are authorised to run onto BR
In the previous blog entry, I described the construction of a card 'very low relief' factory fascia, to go immediately in front of the backscene. There were a number of unresolved issues with this, not least the fact that the 'northlight' appearance end-on to the viewer, somehow didn't satisfy, as it would only really be convincing if viewed directly 'head on' from 90 degrees.
There was also the question of how to merge the road ('Callow Lane') into the backscene, once it had crossed the pri
In the previous blog entry, I mentioned that the next job on 'Callow Lane' would be the production of a low-relief factory, based on the new Scalescenes 'northlight' engine shed kit and this has now been completed.
I have previously described the construction of the Taffson Evans lineside factory, which is built in part-relief, and is partly about providing a bit of background detail in lieu of a flat backscene. This was also based on a free Scalescenes warehouse kit, albeit fairly heavily m
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
When I saw someone else bring their model of the Heljan Class 128 into DRAG one evening (still in OO), knew that I was going to have to concoct a plausible excuse to run one in the Bristol area, so that 'Callow Lane' might see one of these beauties in due course.
I did manage to pull together some reasonably convincing lies historical accounts as to why one might have been running to and through Callow Lane, but I'm blowed if I can remember what they are at the moment....
Anyway, I duly
I've not had a lot of time for modelling over the last few weeks, for one reason or another, but I've been doing a bit on 82044 here and there, and having got the running sorted out, I finally got the airbrush out last weekend to weather it.
To recap on the story of this loco, a couple of years ago I thought to detail, re-number and weather a Bachmann R-T-R 82XXX in time for Railex at Aylesbury in May 2011, when I took 'Engine Wood' to the show. Problems with a poor-running Bachmann chassis
I'm having one of my 'OO interludes', so work on the layout is temporarily on hold. The main job at the moment is to get the new chassis for 82044 (in OO) finished. I started this a couple of years ago, and have modified a Comet 76XXX chassis kit to fit the 2-6-2 tank. The reason for this is due to the original Bachmann chassis refusing all attempts to get it to run smoothly.
The process of building the new chassis has not been without it's frustrations, requiring a complete strip down once
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
Whilst waiting to pluck up courage to go out to the shed and turn the hot air heater on - in order to spray the new Skaledale water tower red oxide - I've built one of the last remaining structures needed for the layout, a part-relief corner of a factory, to go up against the backscene. The location of this structure is shown on the layout plan below:
The factory is meant to go right alongside the line from the chocolate factory, which in turn is hemmed in by the end of the row of cottages
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
Hmm, the other night I was wondering what to do next on Callow Lane...
More of this, perhaps? It needs doing, but I could do with a bit of a rest from it, to be honest...
Then again, there's this that I've been thinking about recently:
So, what's it to be?
No contest!!
Very basic conversions to P4 of the Bachmann Presflo. The wheels (a mixture of Maygib and Exactoscale) just slip right in. A bit of extra weight under the axles (roof lead),
OK, so it's back to the cobble scribing, and now I have to scribe the area on the opposite side of the siding. This is the main area where road vehicles arrive, having come down the approach road to the goods yard, and is a pretty large space, if considered purely in cobble-scribing terms...
So, I was always going to depict the majority of the area has having been (rather crudely) tarmacked over, with just a small(ish) are of cobbles remaining immediately next to the track (the reasoning bei
I got a bit tired of cobbling (or 'setting') a few days ago, and the unexpected receipt of a very kind gift of a Mainline bogie well wagon from a friend got me thinking about rolling stock again, so I dug out a number of other recent purchases, albeit this time more recent Bachmann productions.
Notwithstanding the relatively unpredictable excitement of running things on TT2, I've found that completely unsprung and uncompensated short-wheelbase items do stay on the track when running on Callo
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
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
The last few days have seen little modelling done, but what has been achieved, finally, is the completion (more or less) of the laying of Tetrion filler in the area around the goods shed and the Down Sidings.
Only the area between the in-laid track and the goods shed, plus a small portion beyond will actually be scribed with granite setts, the remainder of the white surface area will represent a tarmac type surface.
Here are a selection of photos taken today, with all the railway buildin
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.
Following on from my previous blog entry where I had started work on a Midland Railway wooden post, lower quadrant signal for Callow Lane, I have now more or less finished the signal, bar a little bit of weathering, plus planting on the layout and connecting to an operating system. This was another MSE/Wizard Models kit, and very good they are too.
I've also finished the painting of the water crane ensemble, again, bar a little weathering:
Also built a Ratio loading g
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
I've made a start on the next signal, which is the Down Inner Starter for Callow Lane. This one is going at the end of the Down platform, adjacent to the water crane that featured in the 'query' post I put up a couple of weeks ago. It is a Model Signal Engineering kit for a Midland Railway wooden post lower quadrant semaphore signal. The kit can also be made into a distant signal, should the builder wish this.
What is unusual (for me, anyway, as I've only built GW and L&SWR/SR signals be
I've almost finished the first of the three semaphore stop signals for Callow Lane. This one is an LMS period replacement for an earlier Midland wooden post signal. The Western Region have got their hands on it and painted the post silver.
I've still to touch in one or two parts of it, such as the back-blinder, and also add a bit of weathering. Despite it having only recently been painted by the W.R., I reckon there would still be a few rust patches coming through on that steel tubular post.
With the Hartlepool show out of the way, I've started doing things on 'Callow Lane' again over the last few weeks, (and when not making sandwiches and serving bananas at CamRail... ).
One of the tasks I wanted to get done, was the ballasting of the section of track that will normally be inside the removeable goods shed. The ballast had to be exactly the right width, to ensure that the goods shed seated itself correctly when put on the layout (you may recall from a previous blog posting that
