Ideally you'd design and install an operating level crossing at the early stages of layout construction, but things don't always work that way. When I built the boards and put in the track for the layout, I hadn't really been thinking about servo motors and so on, regarding such things as far beyond my ability to work with. Once I got further along with the model, and started gaining more experience, I began to think it would be nice to have operating gates, so while there wasn't yet a plan in m
Purists, look away now...
The Triang-Hornby Class 37 was a favorite model of mine as a kid, stemming from a Christmas present around 1973 or thereabouts, and whenever I had a layout (we moved house a fair bit, so that wasn't always the case) the "Co-Co" diesel was always one I enjoyed running, usually at high speed, with an unlikely assortment of wagons and coaches hitched behind. It was in BR blue, numbered D6830, and I still remember the excitement of taking it in and out of its red box th
My wife was unwell yesterday, so rather than retire to the railway room, I did the chivalrous thing and brought a modelling project down to the living room. While she watched tennis, I busied myself with files and drills. Several hours later, I was the happy owner of a spruced up Hornby 14xx, courtesy of a Mainly Trains detailing kit and some bits and bobs from the scrap/detailing box.
The main alterations to the model concern the boiler fittings; the smokebox door is replaced, as is the chi
Couple of shots of the removable cattle dock:
In place:
After removal, showing the gap into which the Provender store module
should drop:
You're probably wondering why I didn't just make the entire area in front of the dock part of
the same removable part, and to be honest that's probably what I'd do if I were starting
again, but at the time it was a bit hard to visualise how to arrange everything, especially
as I didn't have the fascia in place.
Work has been progressing on the alterations to the station area, with more of the ballasting done. Still some tidying up and painting of rails and sleepers to be done, but it's getting back to where it was before the works begun.
When I originally built the station area, I wanted to use the old Hornby GWR footbridge but I had a lot of trouble finding even a second hand example. I used the Ratio kit as a stand-in, but while it's a nice model, it's (I believe) based on a Southern protot
Now that I've sensibly put aside all thoughts of a revised bridge arrangement (thanks, all, for the candid feedback) I've been freed to push on with some the jobs that were in limbo while I dithered over this and that. One of them is to relay all the point rodding that was ripped out last year, when I added the trailing connection to the goods yard.
I went with the Wills product originally, but I was very dissatisfied with the end result, considering it overscale and far too fiddly for the r
I wasn't sure whether to post this here, or over in the S&D blog (and increasingly wondering why I felt that two blogs were a good idea in the first case, given my distinct lack of modelling focus). Anyway, I mentioned on the S&D blog that I was thinking of renovating this old model of Abbotsbury:
The model was built in 1982, using the plans in the Paul Karau book on branchline termini. It was one of the first scratchbuilt structures I ever made, and while dimensionally accurate
Sometimes a really useful product can slip under the radar a bit ... at least in my case. My 4mm layout was never intended to be anything that a glorified test track with a bit of scenery, and so I wasn't overly concerned that the fiddle yard capacity was rather limited. There are six storage tracks, but only three are of what I'd call a decent length, and two are really only comfortably long enough for a B-set or two car DMU. I was fine with that - it's only a single track cross-country line an
Gosh, this is a rather nice piece of kit, isn't it? What an absolute stunner of a model - thank you, Bachmann.
I've been playing around with a "moonlight" mode for the spring module, using an inexpensive anglepoise LED lamp, to which I've added a home made blue filter. Most of my trains don't as yet have coach lighting, though, and the Bachmann 108 DMU, while a lovely model, has quite faint interior lighting which doesn't show up particularly well even in night shots. The BP Is a different b
Here's the finished 2721:
HMRS transfers, Fox numberplates, Springside vacuum pipes and lamps and some light weathering with Tamiya powders. I also added lamp irons and some footplate details such as a bucket and fire irons.
Digging around on the PC I spent a few minutes looking through some of the better pictures of my old layout. For those that remember, it was the one I was developing when I first started on RMWeb, although by that point it only had a year or two of life left in it. For most of its existence the layout didn't have a name but towards the end it was officially Wyvant.
The layout fitted into a 14 x 6 room and began as a much smaller project, only about 8 x 6 in size. This utilised the boards bui
Here is a Lima siphon G on a pair of Blacksmith bogies. The bogies go together very nicely, and mine are running on the Bachmann coach wheels, via Gibson bearings.
I had a lot of hassle getting a satisfactory ride height. The Blacksmith bogies come with mounting plates but these only increase the gap between chassis and bogie. In the end the penny dropped and I realised I needed to cut rectangular slots in the floor of the Lima chassis, one per wheel, to allow for flange clearance. This
Here's one of several projects that I'm trying to get finished and off my workbench. I haven't posted anything in ages so I thought an interim report would be better than waiting for one of these albatrosses to reach completion.
The 2721 is an old-stager in the Hornby range and by no means up to the standard of recent RTR but it's a characterful model that offers a bit of Edwardian charm with its delightful open cab. The main problem, aside from the usual issue of ride height and (I think)
Just a quick update from me - here are some summery snaps of a "quickie" layout I've been knocking together since Christmas. The idea was to have something other than Cogirep to exhibit this year, and to plunder the scrap box and general leftovers from my old layouts to the fullest extent. For a long while I've also wanted to create a compact, valleys-themed terminus on which 56xxs and panniers can potter about happily, and which gets away from the chocolate box look of so many GWR branch line t
Back when I showed this pic:
I mentioned that I was thinking of adding lights to the coach. Last week I ordered a pack of DCC Concepts wheelsets, which cleverly incorporate pickup springs as part of the design. There are twelve wheels in the pack so enough for three coaches, and I thought that the auto-coach would be a good starting point, since I had a good idea of its construction.
Swapping the wheelsets is a doddle, or it would be if you didn't already have the extra brake gear u
Bit of a long-running saga this one, in that this pair of coach sides must be getting on for 30 years old or more, and I'd imagine they've been painted and stripped down four to five times each, with every attempt at lining being abandoned.
Suitably impressed with Wenlock's 7mm carriages, I decided to have another go. Out with the paint stripper, spray on a dusting of grey primer, then GWR coach cream from a can, followed by brush-painted chocolate. The latter was Railmatch chocolate but it
French RTR at its exquisite best here, with this REE 231K ex-PLM pacific on "proving trials" at King's Hintock. Sound-equipped, and with pulsed steam (with emission controllable from both chimney and cylinders), it's a stunner of a model. I haven't tested the smoke yet, but it runs a treat on DCC.
Purchased as part of the long-term plan for a larger French layout, after testing the waters with Cogirep. With the new Roco and Jouef models of both steam, diesel and electric prototy
Couple of long-term projects here: the Centenary coach is one of two that I'm doing with Comet sides on the Airfix/Hornby body - the other will be a restaurant third. The underframe and roof detail is a mix of Comet parts and plastikard/microstrip.
I used Railmatch spray cans and Tamiya masking for the paint, followed by Fox lining. I don't think Coachman will be losing sleep but it's about as good as I can achieve and will look OK in a train, I think. Still be done is final letter
The Hornby King is not that bad a model, really - it looks the part from most angles, has some very fine detail, and runs superbly. Perhaps some manufacturer will announce a new version, but for the time being the Hornby one is what we've got to work with. The big let-down, for my money, is in the side-on view, which is particularly an issue with my layout set at eye-level. The excessive gap between the front frames and the bogie is distracting, and an ugly throw-back to the tender-drive model o
I'm sure there are knowledgeable folk who can help with this one.
The track plan of the station area of the layout is very simple - a passing loop, two platforms, and a goods yard on what we'll call the "up" side of the line.
Trains arriving on the up loop can easily work the goods shed without a run-round move, just by backing into the yard - if necessary, leaving part of the train on the up line.
To shunt from the down line, an engine would need to detach from the train, run a
Some close-ups were kindly requested, so here are a few recent shots of the Spring module.
Tree with enclosure around base of trunk, inspired by one I saw from a train on the Severn Valley Railway:
Close-up of the tree with Preiser horses:
An attempt at tall, unruly grass in the meadow around the abandoned barn. I used Woodland Scenics long grass, glued down in clumps, then trimmed with scissors once it was dry. Finally, I hit it with some household bleach to try and tone d
Following high level discussions with PMP, there's a chance these two cheeky chappies may make an appearance on Albion Yard during its Railex showing. Both are suitable for the Forest of Dean although I make no claims for appropriate loco shed allocations, etc.
The 94XX has featured on my blog in the past but it has now received a little more work and a touch of light weathering, hopefully to suggest a loco that could plausibly be running in early BR days, despite retaining GWR colours. I wa
Here's my first loco kit, the DJH C2X. More blood, sweat and tears have gone into this model than any other I own, but at the end of it all I have a reliably slow running goods loco which will happily plod around the layout at a crawl, and which is heavy enough to handle all I ask of it. But it hasn't been an easy route to get to this stage, and the saga's still not done!
I started the loco in 2000, having consumed the collected works of Rice, Wright etc - trying to do it all "by the bo
The Bachmann model of the Highley yard crane is quite an attractive little model, but let down by the solid resin castings of what should be spoked wheels. The computer generated pre-production images showed the wheels as properly spoked, but by the time the model came out the decision had presumably been made to do them as rather crude solid wheels. Incidentally there isn't a lamp growing from the top of the crane!
My initial plan had been to cannibalise some replacement wheels from on
Before the Parkside kit was announced, I fancied a pair of gunpowder vans via the established route of elderly Ratio Iron Mink kit plus Shirescenes etched brass sides. Unfortunately I cocked up the painting of the first van so it sat in a cupboard gathering dust, until I needed to get the Modelstrip out for another project. Having stripped and resprayed one van, I thought that was as good an incentive as any to do the second one, so another evening was spent with the Ratio and Shirescenes parts.
