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About this blog

An O Gauge BR Branch Line Terminus Model Railway set around 1980 in or about Somerset. Ish.

 

The lock-down diorama kind of got out of control.

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Entries in this blog

End Of The Road - On Here

Unfortunately this site has a member, posting under at least two identities, who seriously needs to get a life, seeming to think this his private empire to rule as he pleases. He recently started contributing, unhelpfully, to a two-man discussion thread under his other persona (though blatantly him from the start), right from the off trying to goad a reaction - stalking really. When one's contributions are belittled it takes away the fun. Hope you all get through these hard time in one piece and

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Miserable in End

RBO Ready To... And Fishplates.

The poly stuff for RBO turned up, so much spraying of dilute PVA and sprinkling of leaves, and light leaves too, has ensued. It's sitting with the glue drying while the Engineering Dept. ponders on actually planting it. It all gets a bit real when your actually going to have to try The Plan out. It will work. He says.   Here's a coupe of pics of the Permaway fishplates, which highlight the quality of the fishplates and the not-terribly-goodness of my track laying skills. Fitting them t

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Miserable in Track

Lighting The Layout - And Pliers

Progress on the banner repeater hasn't for a couple of days due to exciting family based distractions, but while suffering the weekly shop I found something that solves my layout lighting problem - the problem being lack of daylight in the loft and poor artificial lighting making seeing anything difficult. I was aware of LED strips from art installations I've assisted with, but I've not been able source them at either a sensible price or with adequate explanation of what you get for your money,

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Miserable in Layout Lighting

Laser-cut Signal Box Kit (by LCUT)

In the six years or so I was going manic on the music front a lot changed in model railways, the arrival of laser cut MDF/carboard kits being one of them. Confusingly all the makers have very similar names, but after a lot of time on the web trying to work out the pros and cons it was decision time and I opted for LCUT's B 70-13L O Gauge Small Signal Box - with left hand stairs. I did consider kit-bashing the laser cut model of Pewsey signal box into a replica of my old box, or it would have bee

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Parkside BR 12T Pipe Wagon Kit Build

Having had some paint problems,  mostly very slow drying (maybe temperature related, it's not that warm in the loft at this time of year), the SR van is parked to one side while things go off. So to avoid practicing I've started the BR 12T pipe wagon kit. With a bit of luck I can do one while the other's paint dries and so on.   The box is what you'd expect - a box really. Inside there's somewhat less a number of parts compared to the SR van - and no need to pre-paint stuff.  

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Miserable in Rolling Stock

Weathering Ballast : Conclusion

So, 24rs later than advertised, I've tried the Railmatch acrylic thought the spray pot. It didn't go well, the sprayer kept blocking. This might have been caused by the enamel paint trial, but it might have been not liking acrylic paint, who knows. It's certainly a lot easier to use, as in it washes off hands easily... As it turns out, the acrylic diluted 3:1 works very well when stippled on, the paint doesn't stick to the ballast like enamel so there was a lot less grief with inadvertently pull

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Miserable in Ballasting

Ground Frame.

At last I can start moving on from point rodding and signal wires! Nearly. Until I start the other end. The pullies bit has had the wires threaded through and dollop of paint (still wet in the photo). The Signal is fixed in place and when the paint is dry the aforementioned pullies, wires and signals will be affixed to the other. If The Plan works it should be simple. Ha ha.   Starting to look past The Beam Of Doom, I've sorted out how the totally unnecessary ground frame will work. As

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Parkside SR 25T Brake Van Kit Build

With the banner repeater finished and the stone walling on order, another sub-project as mentioned is needed. To this end I've secured a spray gun that actually sprays, but as yet can't find the marble cutting board I use as a known flat surface to make sure all is square. A trip to Wilko on shopping day may be in order. I'm attempting to order a set of wheels with roller bearings for this, as I'd like to see how effectively loose shunting can be reproduced, since it was such a major part of rai

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Miserable in Rolling Stock

Northward. And Ballasting.

While waiting for tree canopy stuff to turn up attention has moved to the north end. The builders yard has shuffled up a bit to make way for ballasting. I'm doing the, cough, reception road which should be ballasted (if not very well) as opposed to ash/mud. The grey ballast will get a varying coat of grime sprayed on to take away the newness, possibly some patches of lighter at rail joints for a bit of variety. Work has started on the totally unnecessary platform to near signal box barrow crossi

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Miserable in Ballasting

Painfully Slow, But...

Finally, "all", there's still a run the run-round points when I've decided what's going where, the point rodding is in place. I have to say the results make the effort worth while, but it's not exactly over-exciting doing it - and it holds up so many more fun things (like ballasting!). The rods at the south end have had the attentions of the P&D dept. For this I went with Halfords grey primer sprayed into a can lid and then applied by brush. This is a reasonably match for new but dulled galv

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Parkside SR 25T Brake Van Kit Build - 2

And on to actually making it. The first thing I did, as I intend to paint the inside faces of the verandah as the instructions suggest, was to prepare the ends, side and chassis bits. Nothing overly exciting, just cut away some flashing and file mould marks flat. Where they will be visible I've removed the circular marks from the injection process (at least that what I hope they are!) , I've put 'as is' next to tarted up. This is probably a bit OTT since with the verandah doors shut you'd have a

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Miserable in Rolling Stock

Weathering The Ballast...

After the last post, back to more mundane reality. Much as the nice clean shiny ballast, grey and black, looks good, it's somewhat unlikely a fair chunk of Soddingham would have been re-ballasted all in one go. Yesterday. With all the other projectlets stalled due to waiting for stuff I manned up and faced the one task I've been dreading - weathering the ballast. The effect I'm looking for is oldish, but cared for. At the Long Siding headshunt I've brushed on Railmatch Sleeper Grime with some ve

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Miserable in Ballasting

Parkside SR 25T Brake Van Kit Build - Supplemental

Alas Wilko were out of their 350 x 450 x 40mm granite cutting boards, so a smaller local shop provided a glass one for a whopping £2. It's nice and flat, but being basically a bit of glass (I assume some form of Pyrex) so it's survival chances are probably not very long term. But it will do for now.     It's sadly not full of stars.  

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Miserable in Rolling Stock

Signal Kit Build

Whilst painting and decorating, fitting fishplates and the final bits of rodding and signal wires proceeds in stops and starts (they aren't my favourite activities) I decided building a nice kit would be a pleasant diversion. Though I'm itching to build the 43two1 Models BR 20T brake van kit (I built one a few years ago, a delightful kit) reason suggested making the MSE signal kit for the platform would be more practical.   Those of the tidy workshop persuasion might like to go and hav

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Miserable in SIgnals

Actual Point Rodding

I've put it off as long as possible... it's a bit fiddly, but so far so good. The bent rod connecting the square runs to the cranks idea has proved rather more durable than I thought for just a plain soldered joint - that bit's been putting me off, I admit it! So, some Plastruct square rod has gone under the rails (to ensure no short circuits) and the rest dropped into it's respective stools. I still managed to miss one out... Basically I super-glued the end to the crank, let it go off and then

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Ballast And Clay.

With no tree stuff yet, I've made a bit of an effort on the ballasting and claying front. Neither are overly spectator orientated activities, the ballasting progresses which is a Good Thing, but I've also clayed up what I'm calling the 'parcels' siding. It's called that because the end is going to be a parcels platform - because I want to have a couple of BRUTE trollies I found a kit for. It's also a general siding of many years standing and the ash ballasting has basically converted to rather s

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Miserable in Ballasting

The RBO Is In Place. And Barrow Crossings.

In between bouts of fitting fishplates, which I do while waiting for glue to dry etc as it's a tad tedious, the RBO has been planted. Rather to my surprise the papier mache holds it ok without any Engineering. Some shuffling of branches needed, and a repair, but all good. I'm not entirely sure about this yet, it's growing on me (yeah, ha ha ha). At least now the Tree Construction Sub Group site is/has moving/moved, the houses have emerged into the light. Need to think how exactly the run down st

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Miserable in Scenery

Adventures In Cork. And Clay.

Again it's been a while. Faced with some delays imposed by being the now ex, and brief, owner of a Vauxhall Zafira, things got a tad hectic. Peace and a certain amount harmony now reigns. I ran out of pullies rather quicker than expected so the remaining wires still await fitting, but the barrow crossings and path between are now complete. More ballasting and gluing is done too. More of the construction clutter has moved along making things look a lot more stationy.   The siding, forme

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Miserable in Scenery

Tree!

The first tree is fully planted, and had some slightly lighter leaves added for effect. The tap root and sideways roots for balance seems to work, and stops it looking quite so "stuck in the ground". Brown and black acrylic mixed with PVA painted over the 'roots' which have had very soggy small bits of paper pushed into the gaps provides the fixing for this one (the paint's not dry!). A little static grass for effect and a touch of 'autumn leaf fall' around the trunk to get that "not so hot gras

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Signal Kit Build - 2

On the way to the workbench I passed a flock of newly arrived tail lamps making their way towards their traditional nesting habitat; to whit some buffer stops. Beautiful plumage.   And so session number 2 with the signal kit. The next step in the instructions is to make the arm. All quite straightforward, but in the absence of any non-soldery pins to hold things square I did this by lying it face down on a bit of wood with a hole drilled for end of the pivot wire. Then looking do

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Miserable in SIgnals

Of Telegraph Poles

Whilst it's not been over busy due to musicy stuff,  I've attended to loads of small bits and bobs - as well having a nice game of telegraph poles.   The small stuff has been putting in the remaining cranks for the point rodding, filing in ballast around the point tie tie bars and some general adding of splashes (?) of grass here and there. The dummies have been weathered and their counter-weights painted black (no idea why I painted them white in the first place!), just need to add th

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Ballast 2 - The sequel.

So it seems having cork under the track causes problems with my 'mix wall paper paste with the ballast' approach. Basically the paste flakes won't stick to the cork, and rather than soaking into the baseboard (always chipboard back in the day) it just sits there and expands if the ballast is re-wetted, say for tinting with a wash. . So for everything else (so far, anyway) I've reverted to placing the ballast dry and then misting on a 20% PVA solution with a sprayer - from a safe distance so the

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Trees!

Ok, so I admit that back in the day I was in the bright green flock and trees made of sponge on sticks persuasion somewhat. This time I'm quite keen on making a bit of an effort, so ... to google. What's out there, how do trees 'work', and of course - how much? The 'how much' was a tad eye-watering, so out went off-the-shelf (not that any of them, in 7mmm scale were all that suitable anyway, a definite US bias there), and the various kits available either didn't do it for me, or were far to

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Banner Repeater KIt Build

As I mentioned earlier now seems a good chance to build this kit, or rather the second one of the two in the kit. The instructions are essentially a nice sketch of how it goes together together with some drawings of various possible formats. I can't remember if there was another sheet with this giving dimensions, but I do remember having to to a lot of research as to height and such. From there I'm essentially guessing by extrapolating the drawings for things like how high the platform sits on t

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Miserable in SIgnals

Banner Repeater Kit Build - 5 (And A Bit Of Lighting)

So with the ripples of quantum uncertainty passed, back to the train set. The operating rod has been added, so the signal now 'works'. It's awfully cramped but it all went in. This was a bit of a pain with having to take it out each time to put the kinks in so it goes down through the centreline of the platform. It works nicely.  I'm thinking that drilling the tell-tale on the back of the lamp might have been unnecessary - no one can see it with the post in the way. I'll probably blank it.

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Miserable in SIgnals

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