The following is a transcript of a conversation I had last month with the Police. For simplicity I have translated it from Spanish to English…
Bcnpete: Good morning, I would like to report a robbery.
Police: Good morning Sir – What exactly has been stolen?
Bcnpete: A viaduct.
Police: A viaduct Sir?
Bcnpete: Yes…but not a complete one….only one bay of the viaduct.
Police: One bay of a viaduct? I'm not sure I follow.
Bcnpete: That’s right…but not a full size bay…a scale mod
Update
Whilst there is a flurry of activity on Paddock Wood at present, this is a small update to show that work is continuing on CJ-M albeit at a slower pace.
The last entry which covered some of the recent detailing of the Moorswater buildings touched on some other works, namely the buildings to the adjacent area. This has changed of recent since becoming a cement terminal but research shows there were 4 small buildings, a mix of huts and a portakabin in this area. Using pics and drawi
Update - This one is not very upbeat I am afraid - I was hoping to have cracked the cladding last night...and not my mojo
On the high point - after Scott's excellent descriptive piece about china clay dries and Moorswater, I thought I had better redo my homework. Out came the photos of Moorswater then and now and sure enough I had missed off the step in the building to allow the conveyor to pass from one to the other
I think this oversight was because there is a lot of 'kit' outside
...since I last updated...
Despite having a very severe attack of 7mmitus this last month, I have not lost focus on trying to make some progress on CJM this year.
Various small things have been tackled...all of which individually I had been putting off, so I decided to bite the bullet and get stuck in with them.
1 - I have permanently glued the two main dries buildings in place Whilst it would have made far more sense to complete them, paint and weather etc, before attaching, I kno
Good evening all,
Readers of a nervous disposition may wish to advert their eyes now...no rolling stock has been harmed in the coming update but layouts have been
Since the BH 2013 exhibition I have been relatively quiet on the forum for a number of reasons: post exhibition blues (is it just me?) stupid hours at work, general loss of interest in the hobby (could be the hot weather) and oh, planning an international family relocation from BCN to LDN...
In a previous post I had hinte
Update,
Good evening - Following the status of the two dries buildings I knew it was time that I could no longer put off the need to tackle the inset track to the sidings area. This was not something I was looking forward to, and comes a close second to fence and tree making in the tedium tasks.
I had pondered for a long while whether to do it 'dry' in card or 'wet' in clay. For my sons 4mm china clay Blue diesel layout (no brain washing there then ) I did the inset track in grey artists
Update - Still suffering from Expo fever and thanks to all the encouraging comments from my last post of my first wagon etch chassis build, I was keen to progress it.
The body is a Parkwood kit and a number of modifications were required to get it to fit better on the chassis. Firstly, the width of the buffer beam was reduced as this would have made the wagon too wide. Secondly, the overall length was trimmed to fit better. Thirdly, the moulding on the buffer beam was removed and a 2FS coupl
Update - It's been a strange time of late...
The following tale of woe's hopefully describes what's been happening here in sunny economic disaster ridden Spain.
Having remade the mini sliding traverser beneath the dries covered area which serves as the loco release, this was wired with a very Heath Robinson kind of affair, which thankfully will be hidden from view and work then turned to redoing the inset track...again.
Having failed last time using a clay product I found in an art s
Update
For those wishing to see something upbeat, please look away now
I spent a few days scraping with a tooldriver and a little sanding in a bid to get things running again in the dries area. Nothing got past the turnout on first pass, so my initial thoughts of gentle scraping of crud turned to some quite severe scraping. Finally the class 25 ran up and down, but it was not great and even my 37 entered the dries area and the wheels parted company with the rails and performed in skatin
My fellow Americans
Whilst a little more detailing progress has taken place the last few days, I will wait until I return from the UK to add a blog entry to cover those.
Meanwhile, when I first found and joined the RMweb (circa 2009 I think) my very first entry to introduce myself and the layout gave a link to a freebie website that I had previously set up. As the addiction of RMweb gradually followed the website was neglected in favour of a RM layout thread which eventually became this
Update - Just back from a flying visit to the UK to see my family, drop into the Uckfield model railway exhibition and collect the latest pile of railway bits accumulating at my UK address (aka my parents house) and I thought I would share them as part of my blog...
First up is 5 No Peco ECC CDA wagons which now gives me a rake of 8. I would have preferred to do my own weathering but I had them for a good price. These will receive new 2FS plain disc wheels and DG's to replace the rapidos wit
Update - Those familiar with my efforts know that my blog entries usually fall into two categories: or
Unfortunately...this one is the latter...
Following progress with the base layer of the scenics last reported, I felt it was really time to tackle what I had been avoiding...that being get some trains running again in the dries area on the infilled track. This had worked fine prior to the card and filler and paint applications, so after much scraping, sanding and swearing the tracks
Update - Modelling work is continuing tonight on the dries with first attempts at cladding the rotary dries building - am hoping to continue tomorrow evening and will post some pics on progress. Meanwhile...
I made brief mention last week that I had finally managed to track down author and railway photographer John Vaughan, whose knowledge and photographic record of cornish branch lines is vast and enviable. Having compiled a numer of books by John for reference purposes, particularly china cla
Update - Good afternoon,
With the 'Outlaws' safely dispatched during the middle of the week (after almost 2 weeks here ) it was time to do some modelling....a sort of reward for my tolerance if you will
The first task was to apply the first coat of Sculptamold to the ground contours. Lovely stuff to work with (as ever, thanks Julia for the tip ) and surprisingly not that messy either...the only downer is when I step back and look at it, I have a sudden craving to eat a bowl of porridge
Update - I thought I would give the hoods a break tonight
What follows is an idea that started brewing around the Expo weekend. I am not sure if it was influenced by discussions with Bryn on future layout plans, Kris's decision to adapt Avonwick into a roundy roundy or seeing the long trains running on Fencehouses.
I had been thinking for a while now, how to resolve the problem of running in my new locos. Both Coombe and Kyle are not suitable so for now I have been using a loop of old
Update - Progress on the third board scenics has been delayed whilst I await for a package of wiring to arrive from the UK and all those fantastic shots from the excursion last weekend got me thinking about another train to model, as short of passenger workings tripping to and from CJ to the fiddleyard and clay hoods to Moorswater, there is little additional rolling stock required for the layout in the era chosen.
So...the idea is to create an 'enthusiasts special' but sort of backdate it to
Update - Following the setbacks from last time, and slight loss of mojo, I retreated from the layout and immersed myself in a string of christmas parties and the final season of 24, which provided about 10 evenings of time to reflect on my way forward taking into account the helpful comments and suggestions received and the conclusions to date.
Last night, I returned, determined not to send any euros winging to the swear box (tis the season of goodwill after all) and started by cutting out p
Update - Answers on a postcard which Bond movie Roger Moore uttered that line (where's the smilie, with one eyebrow raised when you need it ) Tonight saw a little bit of progress on the moorswater board namely as the title implies to do with the automated uncoupling. As I am no electrician I decided to continue with the use of permanent magnets which seemed to work without problem on my boxfile layout of Kyle. The only difference this time is that I have buried them beneath the track whereas pre
Update
The Prisoner has ESCAPED
By popular request...or perhaps the last dose of comments I decided to remove the white balls. They have served their purpose but its fair to say they were stunting progress a tad.
So to help move things forward I have started the scenics. Beginning with sloshing around a bit of grey paint to see where the road is. Not the final surface or colour but it does help focus the mind and flush out the nasties. The next move was to slosh on some brown paint
Update
Good evening - following on from last time, it was time to progress the inlaid track area. Not really something I was looking forward to again, as last time it became obvious that it was a two part process, however, the base coat to the remaining area of the dries had to be done, so best get on with it.
A few changes from last time to note.
Firstly I wanted to try and get a reasonably clean edge, especially to the front edge as looking at the prototype, the concrete has been
Good evening,
Further to Smokey Bacon Steve's request for more info on how I lowered the Bachfar 37, I have put together a quick step by step. There is another option that Ian of Mercig is undertaking which involves cutting the bogie sideframes off and relocating closer to the body as seen here
Before I start this method, I should just like to say that it was Steve Nicholls (Pixie) who first lowered his 37 last year, and he kindly shared his method with me so all credit is due to him fo
Update
Good evening - As mentioned in the last update, work has been progressing on the cladding for the dries building. The roof and walls have had their basic covering using the method of preparing each elevation on a card backing sheet (so as to work on the flat) and then each applied to the building. The conveyor has also been clad and I have now applied trims to the corners to replicate the corner cladding capping pieces as well as disguise the thickness of the evergreen sheet.
This
Update - Some more progress since restarting the layout again...
Firstly, the backscene has had a first coat of blue paint. I am going to keep it simple and use the same technique as my diorama by adding some foliage at the base and then a screen of trees in front of it along the length of the layout. It needs some sanding and smoothing where the joins are but I have run out of the paint so will redo next month. Perhaps some clouds added after but overall its a plain blue sky painted using W
A very good BH Monday afternoon to you all,
Yes, you did read that right...now that Kyle is near completition (bar some additions to the rolling stock) my thoughts turned to my next project. I had assumed I would drop straight into 7mm but perhaps I will hold off a little longer as there is unfinished business to attend to
Seeing Graham's recent terrific blog upload on Trevanion Dries and some very helpful conversations with Nigel Cliffe on DCC/sound also got me thinking...so armed with
Good evening - finally I have time to migrate from the old to the new forum so I will give a 10 slide refresher on my Coombe Junction 2mmFS project.
Originally, the idea to build this layout had been floating around in my head for 20 years or so but 18 months ago, it was time to stop being a 'paper modeller' and start it. Upon commencement, shortly after the 2mm Scale Association announced the Golden Jubilee Layout Competition scheduled for the July 2010 Expo and I realised that my three boa
