Jump to content
 
  • entries
    116
  • comments
    26
  • views
    4,136

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.

xxxxheader.jpg

Entries in this blog

Paper Mache...

With walls in place, the general ground level sort of said what it wanted to do, so... And then... On the right of the main line there's a cardboard former that supports the footpath. It came out a bit higher than intended, but actually allowed the addition of another set of 'steps' - a fancy crossing will ensue at some point. A huge mountain of green and similar stuff should be arriving in about a week, that will really move things along.   View the fu
Miserable

Miserable

0

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
Miserable

Miserable

2

Old Metcalf Kit

Amongst the pile of stuff I didn't sell back then was a couple of Metcalf kits, one low-relief front of a pair terrace houses and one low relief of the rear of a pair. In all this time I never noticed one is stone and one is brick. Ooops. I picked these up at the that garden centre, with the controller way back when Metcalf decided to abandon O gauge (bet they regret that now!). There's probably not a whole lot of point in doing a complete build as there's nothing tricky making these kits, the o
Miserable

Miserable

0

Old Endings & New Beginnings

So this is where it ended, and this where it started. After just putting my soldering iron down to open the door to get my nice new shiny (but not very good) guitar I never went back into that side of the loft, except to round up all the 30 odd wagons (O gauge) I'd built, brass and plastic, to sell on eBay to buy a moderately seriously expensive (but gorgeous) new guitar. Not a yard of track had been laid. All that was left was a set of home made points (the Great Plan required about twenty sets
Miserable

Miserable

0

Old Endings & New Beginnings

So this is where it ended, and this where it started. After just putting my soldering iron down to open the door to get my nice new shiny (but not very good) guitar I never went back into that side of the loft, except to round up all the 30 odd wagons (O gauge) I'd built, brass and plastic, to sell on eBay to buy a moderately seriously expensive (but gorgeous) new guitar. Not a yard of track had been laid. All that was left was a set of home made points (the Great Plan required about twenty sets
Miserable

Miserable

0

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
Miserable

Miserable

0
Scenery

Now Awaiting Paint.

So having settled on Railmatch acrylic Sleeper Grime... I've run out. More on order. There's a coupe of pics in different lighting of the test piece now it's fully dry. The difference in the light is just the camera being a few inches higher in one that the other.   As the pullies have arrived, I've made up the three sets needed for the platform signal and dummy I'd omitted. I've used Design No.3(a-198) for these - because I'd not ordered enough. Rather than making a pair represe
Miserable

Miserable in Scenery

1

Not Only Signals, But Also...

On the signal theme, the LEDs arrived from Layouts4u and much to my relief the wires are long enough to reach right down inside the pole. Another happy accident! These are supplied with the resistor at the other end from the LED which is great for signals, buffer stops and the like where hiding a resistor would be tricky. So, chopping the resistor off temporarily, the wires were twisted together (makes them more rigid, but still flexible) and poked down the hole where the lamp fits - and out fro
Miserable

Miserable

0
Ballasting

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
Miserable

Miserable in Ballasting

1

No Signals. Almost.

The signal had a coat of white, where appropriate. Not overly exciting. The power supply I was using to test LEDs caused a ripple - the signal suddenly stopped working not long after glueing the lamp on... Supply the died. Replacement on the way. Ah for the days of popping down to the local electronics junk shop to rummage around for a replacement. Maybe not.   A coupe of signal wires are now in place. The castings of the pullies have gaps-ish above that, if drilled out,  would allow t
Miserable

Miserable

0

Mucho Plunder Arrives

A couple of days drift by... Much excitement! All four sets of points turn up, so up to the loft with a gallon of coffee. First to be laid was the curved points that connect the the, er, 'West' end of the double slip, forming the exit to the main line. This straight forward really, drill assorted holes as outlined earlier and there we go. Here's a picture. Above : The first curved points in place. Some sleeper shoving to do, see later. Next I decided to lay the link from the reception
Miserable

Miserable

0

More trees...

So the on-going tree project is .. on-going. The trees looked quite nice with just the green poly stuff, but driving round it looked not very typical of an English tree in summer, so I ordered some Gaugemaster 'leaves' in a summery dark green. I teased out the poly a bit more to get those fly-away ends so hated by hairdressers, then gave it a good spray with 20% PVA and then essentially tipped the leaves on - the more you put on the more sticks it's seems. It looked good, but turning the tree up
Miserable

Miserable

0

More Slartibartfast Stuff.

And back to the landscape. While doing the papier mache for the other side of the tracks it turned out that the hill was a bit steeper than intended, so another set of sleeper steps went in, glued to a cardboard former as previously. The flash messing the photo up again. The steps have been weathered since - you guessed it, chalks again. Time to un-mow the grass. But then I looked at the pile of bits left over from the assorted walls and got this idea of having a
Miserable

Miserable

0

More Signal Box...

Half way through having a go at weathering the signal box's roof I realised I'd forgotten to paint the chimney. Then it occurred to me that every signal box I went it had a stove, whereas this box would have a have a mighty chimney breast to support such a large stack. In fact, there wouldn't be much room in the box for anything else. Some googling confirmed it - BR(W) boxes don't have chimneys, they have stove pipes (with an 'H' on the end). Doubtless a raft of exceptions exist. And some one ma
Miserable

Miserable

0

More S&T - Rodding First.

Spent a long time making four, three, two and indeed 1 lots of stools and 'concrete' supports. Last time I forgot to mention about cleaning up the webs between adjacent roller stools. While it's kind of satisfying to know the webs have been cut away, the reality is that what with ballast, painting/weathering and just smallness in general it will be impossible to see the difference, so after a few I didn't bother. This week's big blunder box item was also rodding related. I should
Miserable

Miserable

0

More Paint...

Well, ok, the first go painting the box wasn't great, but I guess you have to start somewhere. It need another coat for a start! In hindsight the individual coloured bricks look nice, but in a dolls-house sort of way I think. So... Still looks a bit 'red' to me - dark brick red base with light brick red and dark earth brushed over. I'll wait for the paint to go off and then see what happens if I apply some mortar to the joints.   View the full article  
Miserable

Miserable

0

More Metcalf, Lots Of Bits...

Having built the low relief house fronts, doing the back seems like a logical next step. These were bought intending to make a whole house, but in all the time they've been lying around I'd never noticed one was stone and one was brick. Ah well. I'm not sure how these will fit on the layout yet, especially as I can't get any more to form a streetlet. Anyhow, on with the build. I photoed this one as it has a lot of bits, and I'll be modifying it a bit for lighting purposes. So, step 1
Miserable

Miserable

0

More Housing

The lights and stuff turned up incredibly quickly from Layouts4u so on with finishing the Metcalfe kit. First thing is to fit the lights. I went for small soft white LEDs, ready resistored for 12V. One got stuck to the ceiling of an upstairs back room and another in a downstairs room. I just cut 'V' notches in the floors so the wires go down the front of the back wall where it meets the extension and out through a hole in the base for one. For the other I 'drilled' a hole at ceiling level,
Miserable

Miserable

0
Scenery

Lockdown II - The Extension

So, here we are again! In what is rapidly becoming a habit I got to wondering what I might have planned for Soddingham had it been 'finished'. Extending the standard gauge layout cannot be done as there is nowhere to go. However, the idea of an O-9 (as in 7mm scale on 9mm track) 'feldbahn' supplying some exotic quarry product to the main line appeals (Youtube strikes!). In order to keep the goods shed this would mean another set of points on the Long Siding (at the front, only partly laid to dat
Miserable

Miserable in Scenery

0
Layout Lighting

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,
Miserable

Miserable in Layout Lighting

4

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
Miserable

Miserable

2

It's Finally Coming Together...

At long last The Signal is done! Hoorah! The lamp lines up with the lenses, it's fully painted, the control rods work correctly and it's installed. Now I've got a Train Set :-) It's had to move a bit though, so the dummies are a bit ahead of it - somewhere there will be a prototype ;-) This was due, again, to the underlying geology - another stratum of wrongplacius shale due to a four inch tectonic shift between the formation being created and the layout being, er, laid out. Luckily some angular
Miserable

Miserable

0

Inevitable Irrational Rationale For Highly Improbable Scenario

The era wasn't going to be an issue : BR blue is the best train livery ever (there, I said it), not least because that was the colour when I worked on the Railway. It is going to be set in Somerset. Or Wiltshire. Or, for technical reasons, Aberdeen. Plan A was a simple wagon repair facility but... Technology Ramble Alert ... I had bit more room than it looked, about 14ft x 3ft, with a 4ft wide bit for the last 3ft. So, out with Templot and... well, I admit it, building one set of points was g
Miserable

Miserable

0

Inevitable Irrational Rationale For Highly Improbable Scenario

The era wasn't going to be an issue : BR blue is the best train livery ever (there, I said it), not least because that was the colour when I worked on the Railway. It is going to be set in Somerset. Or Wiltshire. Or, for technical reasons, Aberdeen. Plan A was a simple wagon repair facility but... Technology Ramble Alert ... I had bit more room than it looked, about 14ft x 3ft, with a 4ft wide bit for the last 3ft. So, out with Templot and... well, I admit it, building one set of points was
Miserable

Miserable

0
×
×
  • Create New...