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The Wednesford Chronicles

A blog by wombatofludham in RMweb Blogs

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The highs, high-rises, lows and low-reliefs of constructing a West Midlands set fictional AC electric layout in a shed.

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Welcome to Wednesford...

First post on the new blog recording the progress on the shed layout. Funny to relate, I first started planning the "shed layout" just after Bachmann announced their revamped Class 158, and expected to have it all done in time for it's arrival in the shops. Amazingly, Bachmann beat me to it when they released the 158 back in December. I purchased the shed off eBay from a company in Bassets Pole near Sutton Coldfield, who delivered and erected it free of charge as I was within their 15

March 16, 2020

2

A Prefab Sprouts...

I don't normally do reviews of models, frankly opinions are like backsides, everyone has one, and like backsides, usually spout a load of hot air, but I thought I'd make an exception for these kits. I found them on eBay and was immediately intrigued - three models of different post-war pre-fabricated bungalows! Not the most common subject for a kit model, they gave me an idea for a scene on the new Wednesford layout, where the "back story" involved the town having been badly bombed during

March 31, 2020

7

Grayling was right: Electrification sucks...

There's a title I bet you never thought you'd read, but after installing OHLE to the layout today, I've gone right off electrification and am happy to wait for pixie-fart or bionic unicorn dung powered trains to de-carbonise the railway. Don't get me wrong, once you've worked out how to clip the wires onto the masts and their correct spacing, the Dapol system is pretty good, it's just the fiddle of getting the wires onto the masts, when you are 57, with sausage fingers and reaching over 20"

August 6, 2020

9

Layout photos

If you managed to stay with the introduction to the layout, here are some photos of the overall work in progress currently underway. The "Town Tunnel" showing the Old Courthouse Square, which largely survived the blitz of March 1941 which destroyed the rest of the town. A mix of RTP buildings from Hornby, Bachmann and SD Mouldings together with a kit built American IHC "Colonial Courthouse" bought s/h off TatBay "Phoenix Square" rebuilt in the 1

March 16, 2020

3

Facebook shocker

I know Facebook is about as popular round here as a Garry Glitter-Rolf Harris comeback tour, but it has just reminded me of this little item I posted a while back: "Question for the sparkies out there: I am right in thinking you can't use eco-lighting with dimmer switches? Only I've got this mad idea for the new model railway shed of having three dimmer-controlled lights, orange at each end of the shed and a daylight bulb in the middle, to "mix" to create sunrise to sunset lighting "ambienc

wombatofludham in Blog

July 7, 2021

4

Today's Shed Talk: Park Life.

As the weather has been quiet again, and with the help of a small fan heater, work on the layout is progressing nicely. Despite My Herpes having lost track of a roll of instant lawn for the layout, I found I had sufficient to finish off the park area so I decided to do the park, after having weathered down the roads on the Poplars estate with neat black powder paint. Really, I should have ballasted the track and installed the OHLE before doing the park, but apart from a couple of trees, everythi

wombatofludham in Blog

January 23, 2022

3

The Wombourne Identity

Helped by calm and relatively mild weather I've been catching up on the rebuild and have now moved onto the revised Wombourne. I also discovered a few more pieces of the Kibri office block I managed to demolish before it could be used on the Civic, so have been able to stretch the Aunty Edna's confectionary admin offices and development labs. A quick post out by the Model Tree Company from where I bought the half depth trees has meant I can finalise the backdrop. In reality,

wombatofludham in Blog

March 20, 2021

1

More video.

Funny thing, model railways. Some enjoy the hobby by building and hand knitting their own stock or buildings. At the other extreme, some enjoy a "roundy roundy" train set on a board with some sidings and scenery. Those who enjoy exhibiting will adopt a more "theatrical" style with well made scenery, and a non-scenic back stage so that it looks like you are trainspotting and instead of the train going on to Glasgow or wherever, it's just run round the corner onto a plywood plank. Having done s

wombatofludham in Blog

May 8, 2022

2

Forget the bus on a bridge. How about a bus station on a tunnel instead?

One of the features of the layout which has been there in all versions is the raised area hiding the curve back to the fiddle yard. Originally it was because I would need a very tight curve at that end and as I'm not a fan of "trainset" curves, I thought it would be good to hide it under a "town square" as in real life many towns are lumpy. Think Birmingham New Street or Walsall where the station entrance is higher (although in the case of Walsall the Rugeley annexe is at street level), and the

wombatofludham in Blog

February 19, 2022

0

On the Fiddle and Wombourne v3.0

A relatively calm day before the storm has allowed me to further refine the layout. For some time the drawbridge giving me access to the shed without having to learn to limbo was causing me issues with track, and current reliability, so I bit the bullet (I do like chomping down on ordnance it seems...) and screwed it down. The height of the layout - sort of nipple height - means I don't have to bend too much to get in and I thought it a reasonable sacrifice for better running. The drawbridge

wombatofludham in Blog

May 19, 2021

0

Regaining my Mojo

Having had a bit of a pause from modelling, the past couple of days have seen me laying cork ready for track laying. However, this afternoon, I decided to have a day adding scenery to the area behind the Swan Centre before recommencing the corkfest. Having found a slightly wider offcut of 9mm ply I had a shuffle round of the scenery boards and track and calculated I could accommodate the offcut as a base for the flats, prefabs and a bus turning bay and have enough clearance for two tracks

July 16, 2020

2

Weathering, take 2

You wait months and two blog entries come together... Having experimented successfully yesterday with neat paint pigment powder as a trackbed weathering medium, today I turned my attention back to the rolling stock, to test a possible source of significantly cheaper pigment: Ladies eyeshadow. Yes ladies, your eyeshadow will now be under threat from the modeller in your life. My brother, an expert sci-fi modeller, suggested this hack, so I bought a pack of 6 Goth-like shades

wombatofludham in Blog

July 2, 2021

4

Weathering

It's been a bit quiet on the blog, but not on Wednesford. I've turned my attention to weathering, I had a go at weathering some rolling stock with Tamiya weathering pigments, which my brother had pointed me in the direction of. I've really enjoyed weathering using these powders, although my brother has pointed out that ladies face paint is a similar pigment but can be bought at a fraction of the price. It seems that rust, road dirt, toilet effluvia and brake block dust are this year's eye sh

wombatofludham in Blog

July 1, 2021

0

The Summer of '66

The prolonged nice spell has enabled me to progress some bits and bobs on the layout, but the main works have been an extra heavy clean, stock sorting and a rethink on the backscene, to make it easier to remove for access to the fiddle yard behind. However, I've also been doing some work on the stock. Today, I repaired and converted a DC Kits AL1 in 1966-7 livery, which I had bought many moons ago and which was fitted with a Black Beetle, to which I fitted a DCC converted Hornby 86 chassis

wombatofludham in Blog

April 29, 2021

2

More Progress

Past couple of days have seen me doing a major tidy up in the shed, mainly to stop me breaking my neck tripping over various boxes and other bits of wood, but also some track cleaning and some more scenic work. I used some "mud" texture paint to coat areas which will end up looking like neglected wasteland, which dried to a pleasant coffee colour, ideal for the slightly sandy soils I wanted to simulate. It needs a bit of weathering, which I'll do with paint pigment, and a bit of spare ballast

wombatofludham in Blog

March 7, 2022

1

Where are we?

Having 3d printed the platforms, I can't say as I'm completely happy with them, so I decided to bite the bullet and buy some Wills kits to replace them, so pending their arrival, track laying is on hold. So, I've been thinking of how to do the platform signage. As said before, as the layout will be in a shed, it will be subject to possible weather affects, so I want to remove as far as possible paper based signage which might be affected. So, I developed my own design. The idea is Wednesfor

May 14, 2020

5

AC Electrics announce the closure of their Wednesford factory...

Looking at photos of the layout can sometimes give you a different perspective and show things that just don't quite work. Way back when I started "Wednesford" and had a working Aldi 3d printer, I designed some gable ends in an industrial corrugated concrete or metal style, which were intended to look like a factory wall on top of the retaining wall. They printed out to a scale 43 ft high and 44 feet wide, so were an impressive "ultra low relief" factory gable, about 1 cm deep. They printed

wombatofludham in Blog

March 18, 2021

0

And now, from Wednesford - it's the vid of the week!

Bit of an experiment to try out video filming on the layout. Viewers of the erstwhile "Bescto Television" will recognise the ad break at the start, as Wednesford TV also used Pearl and Swine for their commercials... https://youtu.be/hT_LYj3nxBo

wombatofludham in Blog

April 28, 2022

2

The Scenic Mantlepiece

Continued relatively quiet and mild weather has allowed me to move at pace with the scenic "modules" on the shelf which will now run behind the track. I bought a number of A4 sized 3mm deep plastic sheet offcuts from Tatbay which have rigidity and the weather resistance needed for the shed, so I have broken down the developments along the back into A4 sized lengths, roughly. Unfortunately the "mantlepiece" isn't quite A4 width, so I've had to wield the Dremel to the boards to cut them down a b

wombatofludham in Blog

January 31, 2022

1

Gwneud y pethau bychan

Our Patron Saint, David, would almost certainly have been a railway modeller. Why? He exhorted his followers to "Gwneud y pethau bychan" or do the little things. It's odd how little things can transform a model, so as the wind is still too much for comfortable shed work, I've been doing little things. Little things like adding parapets and Armco to Euneda Highway. The parapets are some moulded wood trip I filched from a friend who no longer needed it, painted with Posca paint pens

wombatofludham in Blog

February 20, 2022

1

It's all gone quiet over there....

You may be wondering why things have been quiet at Wednesford. Or not. The reason for the long radio silence is I've decided on yet another rebuild. Having already rebuilt the main layout after the original plan of an island platform immediately posed problems with track cleaning, threading a rubber between platform structures and the OHLE, I then rebuilt it to have a single platform at the back. Trouble is this introduced a nasty reverse curve under the raised scenic board, which has c

wombatofludham in Blog

November 22, 2021

0

House arrest 3d printing

Whilst "doing my bit" and staying home (actually, "social isolating" is nothing new to me being a mildly sociopathic misanthrope who frankly would happily relocate to the top of Cader Idris so long as I could still get mail delivered. My idea of bliss would be a desert island with high speed broadband, online delivery and no neighbours...) I've been giving the Aldi 3d printer a workout ready for some serious layout building. The second low relief factory to go on the re

March 23, 2020

0

Wombourne, Take 2...

I have had to re-hang Wombourne. The backscene which I had applied developed bubbles and creases, which I assumed was due to me using Spraymount, or the conditions in the shed, but as the Spraymount had cured by the time I found the backscene has creased, in a fit of temper I decided to try again, turn the backdrop round, and this time use double-sided tape to stick it on. I decided to go for Gaugemaster's 9 inch "village" backdrop, and duly stuck it on. I also gave the access track a

September 9, 2020

1

Figures, figures, figures...

It's been a while since I did an update, mainly because of a number of niggling changes I have had to make, mainly to make the fiddle yard Heljan 86 proof. Having tested the old fiddle yard successfully in the summer with Heljan 86s which are by far and away the most temperamental locos in the fleet (although the Hornby Class 153 gives it a good run), and both propelling and pulling a range of stock, to total satisfaction, last week the little ****ers started throwing themselves off on curves,

wombatofludham in Blog

October 18, 2020

1

More fiddly work and nearly supergluing my fingers together...

My order of additional OHL masts hasn't arrived yet so I concentrated my efforts on the concrete troughing, re-installing the lineside cabinets, a couple of test runs and trying out the knob pin spacers to raise the scenic modules enough to allow me to add lighting at some point without the wiring snagging on the baseboards. Considerable amounts of superglue were used, some of which nearly welded my fingers together. Concrete troughs. With a wider than average six foot, they've been

wombatofludham in Blog

March 8, 2021

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