Update
Firstly, a big thanks to all the helpful comments and the PM received regarding my inlaid disaster in my last blog.
I had already made my mind up before I posted it, that it had to go...the questions were, when and how and what to replace it with?
Earlier today, armed with a screwdriver I began to scrape the clay away at the edges of the track. Despite all those cracks it had actually set rock solid and was difficult to remove. Enter the Hammer to the equation...and the scrapi
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
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
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,
Finally got around to finishing the basic roof on the old dries building last night. When I looked further at the construction, I realised it was the same as the lower panels, and that the shadow was infact concealing small purlins which aligned with the lower ones...so a bit more tedium I have also lined the rooflight openings ready to receive some glass panels which will be added after the painting/weathering commences.
When I placed the final piece of the roof in place I real
Update,
Work on the 37's has stopped briefly as I have now managed to source a small modelshop in barcelona (conveniently part of an architectural modelmakers) which stocks evergreen sheeting...amongst other goodies
This week has seen the model railway room home office rearranged which with some shuffling of the IKEA Lack shelves, has elevated the position of the 4mm layout (in slow progress for my sons) to allow me to store the coombe junction moorswater boards in their correct config
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,
Was hoping to continue with the roof cladding this week but realised I had used up all my supplies of the Evergreen sheeting so will have to wait until next week now
Work has been progressing on 4 no class 37's required for the layout. Two of which will feature in the 80's period of running and the other two perhaps only making guest appearances as they fall outside my chosen time period.
It's a sign of old age creeping in when you need to label each loco wi
Good evening,
Whilst checking my blog settings earlier, I realised that my blog has now been viewed 10,000 times since I began, so this being my 76th entry I would like to thank you all for your support, comments, enthusiasm and motivation for this blog. Whilst there has been the odd diversion along route (Kyle in a boxfile) this layout began life 25 years ago in my head and finally got going in 2007 shortly before we left the UK.
I thought a few (some previously unseen) images to show w
Update
Good morning - A little progress Monday night, but some better progress last night, aided and abetted by Gin Tonics and this time I have taken some shots outside in natural light.
I have been progressing the old clay dries building by firstly installing lintels above the openings and secondly starting the curved roof cladding. I had wanted to represent the 'scraggy' ends to the asbestos panels but after cutting out a few ribs it resembled more like missing teeth as it was too chun
Update
Evening all - Managed to sneak in a bit of modelling this evening. Having got the first dries building to a point where I will leave it until I add further details, paint and weathering I was keen to progress the other building which is primarily of stone construction. This one is on a curve so the roof is going to be fun
I have applied Slaters embossed stone sheeting to the card carcass (using double sided tape) and after studying the prototype settled for the larger stones tha
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 - Probably getting a bit late to say Happy New Year now...but its the first 2011 blog entry so HNY all.
Was having trouble finding a way back into modelling after a 3 week break away from the workbench and despite a nice short rake of new Bachfar grey cement PCA's arriving the other week, I was still not in the right mood.
To go off at a tangent, I tried to rephotograph parts of the layout today as the second part of my write up is due in the 2mm Mag and unfortunately most of the
Update - my humour level has adjusted in line with my children's
Not much to show I am afraid...I was hoping to complete the cladding to the building this side of 2011, but work commitments dictated diverting my time making a model of an architectural project rather than for the layout.
Last week I did manage to progress the cladding a little further so now I just have to complete the roof and cladding trims prior to the first coat of car primer.
I would just like to take the oppo
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 - 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
Update - Take 3...Whilst Barca paste Madrid 5 - 0 in the background this evening, I have tried out the final (?) option on refining the cladding. Thanks to everyones helpful comments of last week, I have looked at reducing the perceived overlap between the panels and omitted the individual panels. I kept going back to the photos of the dries and despite the weathering of the panels as exists today, which clouds the issue slightly, the horizontal banding seems to be very strongly expressed which
Update - me again...but this time some modelling...rather than sketching ideas for the future.
Last night I started to clad the rotary dries building using some corrugated plasticard sheeting held in place with double sided tape and a wash of MEK along the bottom of the plastic. I want to try and make the building look, as it does in reality, slightly cobbled together as it clad in panels which have been patched over the years. I started buy cutting the plasticard into horizontal strips and
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 - Further to Mikkel's observations about visibility in the dries area, this evening I decided to pursue an idea that I had sketched out last year, as it had also been on my mind in the early planning stages of this board. I always wanted to model a snapshot of the dries area but was conscious that a lot of it would be hidden, as opposed to the excellent Wheal Elizabeth where the dries building faces the audience. With this in mind I set about creating a small 'letterbox' in the front fasc
Update - The last two nights have seen some more progress with the rotary dries, the rotary stores, loading bay and surrounding base scenics.
Again, profiles have been cut in grey artists card, to be clad in plastic sheet afterwards. I have laid on a couple of offcuts of some evergreen corrugated sheeting on the roof and I think the overlapping of the sheets will give some much needed relief to these buildings. Working from a mixture of Mark's (46444) detailed photos and my back catalogue of
Update - Thanks for all the comments of yesterday - really fired up to continue but unfortunately will have to hold off until early next week as a 'self invited' friend of my wife arrives to stay with us for the next 4 days
Been thinking again...which is always dangerous...and it's a possible 'future' extension for the layout, mainly arising from the discussions re the dries. When I originally conceived the layout on three boards, I had to make some compromises but as a minimum I wanted to
Update - The nights are drawing in here and its getting colder so the mojo starts to gather momentum again....
Firstly, a big thank you to Mark (46444) for sending me the photos taken of the dries area...coombe junction...and a cat...but that's another story
I knew that I would never be able to include all of the dries area on the layout however I am hoping that what I can show will give a flavour and imagination can fill in the pieces missing. There are various elements I wish to incl
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 - The sparks have all but been done now to the third board and bar final positioning of switches for the turnout and isolating sections it all works. For the mini sliding traverser I had tried to develop a system of wipers (using brushes borrowed on a permanent basis from my sons mini scaletrix) and PCB sleepers...but this didn't quite work out as planned. For now I have hard wired this and will resolve that a later date when I have a better solution. This will all be covered by the large
