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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

Wiring Frankenstein's Monster

Back to the layout, and it's do all the wiring time. In the absence of four point motors (unavailable anywhere!) the cables have been placed so all that is needed is to fix them whenever they can be. Starting at the far end and working towards the control panel the cables were made into a harness using small ty-wraps (and tape when I ran out of them). All the cables were idented with masking tape, with branches popping in and out as required. When the control panel was arrived at, all the leads
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Removing The New-ness

Model railways, or perhaps modelling in general, must be one of the few endevours where you take nice shiny new things and make them unshiny. To this end all the track, bar the concrete sleepers, got a good sprayed dose of Railmatch 'Sleeper Grime'. The can was six years old and wouldn't play ball to start with, but after fiddling with the nozzle for an hour it suddenly sprung into life. The rail heads were wiped off (with a little thinners for the stubborn bits) with a cloth. The transformation
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The S&T Team Arrives

During earlier ramblings the subject of signalling got raised, and with progress at the point such things need deciding it's time to be decisive. The heart wants colour light signalling, because it's pretty really. Though there are some excellent brass kits for light signals at a pretty nice price (plus a few detailing accessories), working dummies (ground signals) working are .... £45 each! The head says that it's pretty unlikely such a location would actually be re-signalled, the head also rem
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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
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Two More Point Motors

Two point motors turned up, from apparently the only people in the country left with any stock. With 'only' two more to go, when these are installed the 'North' end (the geography is starting to settle down now) will be fully electricated. The remaining section switches should arrive imminently too - nearly done so I can play trains without getting off my bum (No.1 priority). Well, when I've finished cleaning the rail heads. Ballast has arrived too, more on that in a bit. Gold dust.
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And The Signal Box Interior

The signal box it going to be lit, ergo and interior is required. After looking at several options I went for the Severn Models one. This is what you get. It's beautifully etched and the detail is amazing. The etch itself was so shiny it didn't need cleaning before soldering. It's brass by the way, the lighting makes it look nickle-silver. There's a very helpful sheet containing instructions and advice on building. The maker is pretty pro-glue, but with my involvement with glue involv
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In Go The Point Motors - Eventually...

There 's no photo to go with this really... Somewhere along the line the two curved points that these two motors drive had moved a bit - the heels were about 4mm from where the should be according to the marking out. This might not sound a lot, but when the hoes for the operating rods are 6mm it mounts up a bit and both motors would operate fine in normal position, but not quite do it reversed. Both needed their holes opening up by about 1mm. Lesson 1 : The Twistlock motors have to operate
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Signals - And Progress

Had a bit of a grumble about dummies (ground position signals for the posh) in an earlier post. In a kind of desperation, there being no picture of what you are getting, I ordered a pair of BR(M) kits from Wizard/MSE. This was on the basis that apparently the Midland Region ones were BR standard and the MSE signals I built are really nice. So, this is what you get, and very nice it is too. They do seem massive after OO! Yes, these are what I wanted. And it says on the packet they can
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The Dummy Experiment

So here's the LEDs. You can get them with the connections to the LED insulated, but they were out of stock everywhere so I went for these, warm white ones, from Layouts4You. They come ready fitted with a resistor for 12V operation - it seems to make sense to stick to one voltage so all lighting can go on one bus round the layout. Next was to add the arm/disc and the shutter on the back, remembering to add an extra hole in the shutter for the rod that will operate the signal. The lamp
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And...Ballast!

Ah yes, ballast. Now there's a topic that can run and run. I guess everyone has their favourite, and favourite way of laying it. I spent a few years wondering around on the dammed stuff and a lot of layouts use a much too big a size. I guess it depends on taste really, and as with the long point timber saga earlier not everything scales. My choice was essentially based on the observation that you can hold a lump of ballast in your closed hand pretty much. While searching I stumbled on a spec she
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To The Box (Tea Up)

Painting buildings is something I've never done before, and to be frank me and art share different universes except on occasional musical moments. So I've had a bit of a read up and looked at, seemingly, hundreds of photos of brick signal boxes. I've got it that bricks aren't all the same colour (well, weren't - modern ones seem to make more of an effort on the colour front), and the mortar has re-pointed bits and all that. Note to self : Guttering. So, Railmatch light and dark brick r
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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  
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Forgotten Paintwork

I forgot to paint the rails of the concrete sleepered section of track, and doing it after ballasting isn't easy - especially when you have to practically do a back-flip-hand-stand to get to the backs of the rails, which can be seen from the other end of the layout unfortunately. I've decided I don't like concrete sleepered track, one miss with the brush and it's there forever. With wooden sleepered track it doesn't matter! I used sleeper grime again, the various shades of rust would only look r
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What To Do With The Metcalf Houses

So what to do with the two Melcalf over-scale buildings? Plan A was to box them up and stick them on e-bay, but then I'd put lights in one. So Plan B, move them to somewhere where the distance from true scale things wouldn't be so obvious. This wouldn't work on the current layout, but I figured a raised extension would work well enough. So, the extension. The houses will made to look like they are then ends of roads where it all gets a bit badly surfaced and slips into scrubland. Betw
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Back To Concrete

This is the concrete sleepered section after going round concreting over the grime brush slips. As few bits of painted ballast to remove and all will be good.   View the full article  
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Buffer Stops

Looking to assemble the first set of buffers properly, I couldn't help but think I can get an LED in that lamp moulding. Looking for coloured 'glass' now... These buffers, being a headshunt, the platform ones and the ones at the end of the run-round will get the treatment. The ones at the end of ordinary sidings didn't usually have them, so the lamps will be cut off them. Watch this space.   View the full article  
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The Signal Box & Platform Saga

I was still not happy with the brickwork on the signal box, or the platform for that matter. A while back I ordered from Wizard Models and when rooting round their site found the only 'scenic' product they do - a set of 12 Weathering Pastels. On the basis that this seems to be a shop that knows it's stuff and they must sell these pastels because people want them, and they want them because they work , I ordered a set. I tried them on the old desk-tidy tipper, but really it's to far gon
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Buffer Stops Plan Works

Having had a good look at what is needed to light up the lantern on the Peco buffers, a coupe of holes were drilled, 1.5mm upwards for the LED to go in, and one the size of the 'lens' on the lamp (3mm?). A small hand-drilled hole, done with the pin vice, ensured the larger drill followed the correct path to Nirvana. Then, with a blob of Evostick on the wires where they go in, stick the LED in. I made sure it was facing outwards, but with hindsight having it facing the back might have
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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
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The Hills Are Alive...

Essentially just so I can ballast the headshunt, scenery has started appearing. For my terra-forming I'm using good old papier mache - not lest because you can make a bucket of wallpaper paste and it lasts days. Peco O gauge point boxes are a brilliant source of good strong cardboard. And then fix the steps in place (about half way between the slightly over-scale oil can and the wall). And add lashings of paper strips. This will get a brown 'undercoat' then flock, static gr
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The (Entirely Unnecessary) Ground Frame

For the gronks little siding I'm putting in a ground frame. This completely un-prototypical in the circumstances, but I thought it would be fun. My excuse is that's how access to Bristol Bath Road depot was done. This is a Wizard/MSE kit of a Saxby & Farmer frame. I didn't actually know quite what I'd ordered since there's no picture on the site, but I guess that adds to the anticipation. It's a very nice kit, the base folded up simple with minimal cleaning up. The etches for the
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Signal Box Complete(ish)

Having got rid of the chimney and having added the gazing the signal box has assumed residency of it's real estate. Wires are in place for the interior light and cork laid to bring it up to sleeper height. The white thing is the ramp that goes in front of the box to provide a walk way, and somewhere to hide the ends of the rodding. Oh, I did take a photo.   View the full article  
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Catching Up On Stuff

It's been a few days of doing bits and bobs, the great leap forward being somewhat constrained by waiting for an order to arrive, in which the tunnel mouth for the supposed exit stage north should be. The bulk has arrived, except the tunnel mouth which is coming direct from the manufacturer. A lot of it is stuff that's for a bit further down the line, so just for fun I thought I'd list it... I was actually only looking for a single track tunnel mouth, in stone, with some stone walling but got a
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Brick And Stone?

It has been noted that Soddingham has a mixture of somehow Midland looking brick structures and stone for the engineering side of things. Further research has shown that original earthworks were undertaken by the Thasteephill & Watbrakes Railway Company that went insolvent after the Foreman lost sixpence at a game of cards. Construction was completed by a bloke called Frank, who happened to have a job lot of red bricks going spare, on behalf of the Pennipincher & Cheapp Railway. No evide
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