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About this blog

Previously documenting the recreation of a small sliver of Oxfordshire in miniature finescale with regular deviations into the rolling stock being built as a distraction this blog has been renamed to reflect the decision not to finish Littlemore in the near - mid future.

Entries in this blog

Seven Up

I felt I had free reign when I set up my workbench again to get out and start or re-start whatever I liked. The bench is temporary for the moment, because I want to rearrange the furniture to move my groaning bookcase next to a supported wall. I have been good though: most of the items on it were part finished when I packed them. The only 'new' items out are some 4 wheeled coaches and I'm convinced that it is much better to build these alongside some other short coaches that I started a long tim
richbrummitt

richbrummitt

29

Stab, Stomp, Sizzle and Have I Become Totally Inept? (updated)

No pictures today because I don't know where I last left the cable and they aren't very interesting anyway, just a pile of mangled nickel silver underframe parts that were looking lost on my bench.   Those that read the 2mm VAG might have noticed that I decided to concoct my own RSU from a leftover car battery charger. I rewound the secondary coils to give three outputs similar to the commercial units (Don't ask me for any more details because I'm not electrically qualified and the moderators
richbrummitt

richbrummitt

18

Does It Offend You, Yeah?

A picture heavy blog post to ask a fairly simple question. If it is possible to have a poll on a blog post I can't work out how but it would be useful in this instance.   I had previously consigned myself to the replacement of the unsatisfactory toggle switches, which had only been bought because they were available in 3PDT and 4PDT flavours, with banks of linked slide switches. With the TOUs coming out as well I figured I would change these too.   Having played with the S4 Society lever fr
richbrummitt

richbrummitt

17

The Realisation I'm an Idiot

A New Year means that exhibition season is under way. It used to start earlier back in the North but there isn't a lot locally until January and then it's St Albans, Southampton and then it is busy through until March until it's over for another year. Returning from St Albans the realisation hit me of what I had done to myself. Then I get an email from an exhibition manager to confirm details for next year that very much confirmed it. I am an idiot. I unwittingly talked myself into this over a y
richbrummitt

richbrummitt

15

I enjoyed playing trains

I had an enjoyable but tiring weekend. I was surprised by the quantity of layouts in attendance, including some that I had not seen before (even excepting the challenge layouts). The layout was transported and erected without problems and ran pretty well too. I had problems all day Saturday transferring from the layout into the cassettes with almost everything derailing, but the so far not very scenic section only has a few niggles. The problem with the cassettes is with the haste of constructi
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richbrummitt

13

Frankenpannier

Way back when Chris Higgs offered me a test build of the conversion chassis for the Farish pannier tank I always knew that it should have a new footplate. Alas I've had an almost complete chassis under an entirely unmodified body for around a decade. Moreover for my intended time period I also knew the body would require some changes beyond detailing to represent one of the predecessors of the 57xx class.    The photograph below shows how far I got in two days. Day one was spent machin
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richbrummitt

13

Time Travelling Equine Transport - Back Dating and Detailing The N Gauge Lima Horsebox - Part 4.

What might have been the last vaguely sunny evening of the year was used for getting the undercoat sprayed out in God's own paint booth. I am still working on a representation of the lake livery, which I personally think should be darker than most renditions I have seen. A mixture of a dark brown and deep red from the citadel range was used in this case.   I thought I had all the details added and then, upon opening the white(ish) colour for the roofs, I realised there were no rain strips on t
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richbrummitt

13

4FO+1UFO

If you were hoping for Southern MUs then you might want to leave now ;-)   I've been trying very hard to finish some of what I have started. The amount of visible desk (zero) had become an impossible situation, especially considering that our spare bedroom has three lengths of worktop in it and SWMBO only has a small portion of that. In attempting to paint more of the items I had built but not painted I had a growing pile of stock that was 'finished' awaiting couplings. Progress was being made
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richbrummitt

13

Making an Exit

After the emotional strain of the switch surgery I needed a break and considered what else needed doing soon. I wanted to plan out the right hand end of the board and make sure there was space for the planned signals to fit around the major engineering structure that is Sandford Rd overbridge.   I measured up and comparing to photographs in my reference books marked and cut out a portal from mount board. This was duplicated by using this as a template. In my memory the road wasn't particularly
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richbrummitt

12

Time Travelling Equine Transport - Back Dating and Detailing The N Gauge Lima Horsebox - Part 1.

Amongst the many other things that I alude to on my workbench in previous entries there have been a selection of horse boxes growing in number for some time. I am currently (still) working on a pair of GCR and an M&GN item from David Eveleigh along with a pair of Lima GWR items, that are the subject of this entry. I know they are branded LMS but from what I can gather from published books and photographs they are meant to be a GWR vehicle to diagram N16 and the LMS didn't have a vehicle anyt
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richbrummitt

12

Frankenpannier II

Following discussions on the previous entry I reasoned to construct a cab before making a decision about the tanks being close enough to the right size or completely unusable. I also went looking for a suitable engine in RCTS i.e. one that would have the potential to be on the lines of the ex. B&HER, on which more another time. The 645 and 655 class were originally Wolverhampton engines and most of them stayed 'North'. From locomotive allocations I've got 769 and 1804 at Bristol, which is a
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richbrummitt

11

Double Heading

I'm still working on having things moving on the layout at Expo with under three weeks remaining.   Several weeks ago a pleasant suprise landed in my inbox, an opportunity to test build two new locomotive chassis kits. A short exchange of emails later and a subsequent jiffy packet arriving through the letter box and we were away.   The chassis are to fit the GF 57xx body and the Dapol 0-4-2T     Also included was a jig for assembling the frames     First the frames are bushed befo
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richbrummitt

11

No Further Objections

Thank you again to everyone who voiced an opinion last week. It is now too late to change my mind because the levers have subsequently been installed at the up/Thame/left-hand end of the layout and I'm not planning on taking them back out, ever.     The front profile of the board has also been finalised to be a gentle slope downwards from the road overbridge to below rail level at this end. The ground is not below the rails at Littlemore but I think this makes most sense for incorporating t
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richbrummitt

11

Close Coupling in an Instant

I'd done quite a bit of thinking and head scratching how to make an instanter link for some time. The shape is not easy to make around a former. Indeed my first few attempts failed to make it off the formers. The process still makes some duds during the cutting and final shaping stage but on the whole I am managing to make some slightly better than triangular links most of the time.   This evening whilst clearing the workbench of assembled DC underframe etches and drilling headstocks to fit co
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richbrummitt

11

Why I'm Ripping My Track Up

I've started work moving the layout forward again. Here's a photograph of progress since I got back from Peterborough. Progress has gone backwards to move forwards. I've printed out and mocked up the main railway buildings, the station and signal box. I want to get these started, and they can be worked on and completed before being incorporated into the layout when it is ready. That bit is all fine so far. You will see that a large chunk of the rear siding has been removed.     It seems fas
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richbrummitt

11

Better Luck Next Time?

First of all I must apologise for the lack of pictures tonight. I have finished updating the etch artwork that was the subject of the last post. This has taken a little longer than I thought due to having issues with swelling of my right eye for no particular reason not helped by a misdiagnosis the first time I visited the doctors. After several days off due to pain and problematic vision I got about sorting out the issues identified in the test builds. I included a chassis with a sliding centre
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richbrummitt

11

So Far So Bad

The gingerbread man caught me in one. I've been working on some etch artwork for 6 wheeled siphons on and off since 2005. I got them pretty much finished for hatching and sending to be etched in 2007 and then didn't get around to it (like most other things in the hobby room...). Finally I pulled my finger out, bit the bullet, got around to it, or whatever and sent off the PPD (usual disclaimer, no connection &c.) for them to be turned into something that might just make up into a model.  
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richbrummitt

11

Travelling in Style

Apologies for anyone who's been holding their breath: this entry has been a while because I keep getting distracted any time I come on rmweb and run out of time before I get to updating this. Sorry.   This expands on a thread in the 3D Printing and CAD group on my experiment in 3D printing model railway items. I have a job that uses a 3D CAD system extensively so I have a 'leg up' (as one person kindly put it) on the skills required to create a file for printing. Having used similar technology
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richbrummitt

10

You've Been Tangoed - GWR Modelling Cliché No. 1 - Part 1

After an offer to Rabs of a file to try on his (then new) printer rather a lot of time passed and after an almost near miss with the postal service a little package arrived through the door recently with a bright orange one of these in it.     The detail is comparable to some of the finest stereolithography that I have witnessed from professional bureaus. I know Rabs has spent quite a lot of time tweaking and practicing, refining the machine and the process and it has been worthwhile. The n
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richbrummitt

10

How to Not Letter Wagons

For the first time in several months I had very very little on this weekend. Apart from a plan to get the first BBQ of the year in, that got rained off both days and is rescheduled for this weekend ), and a short visit to some of our significant others family I had a good chunk of time to use. Like many modellers I have more than one stash of stuff that I'd like to make one day. There are others that I would like to start soon. I have further stashes of stuff that I bought that is likely to rema
richbrummitt

richbrummitt

10

Back from the Dead

It's been a while, 6 months I see from the last entry, but like buses three come along at once. Various real life (what model trains are not real life?) issues prevented much (any) progress with things for a long time. A couple of exhibition visits of late have really got me motivated again and after I treated myself to a frankly ridiculous desk light that Precision Paints had on offer at the Watford show I had to have a test.   I've been working on the trio of Bachman Macaw Bs that were acqui
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richbrummitt

10

Unfinished Business

Sometimes it will be the case that when you post a photo of your work on RMWeb there is a helpful person who will kindly point out what is wrong with it. That was the case with my MR coke hoppers. What was missing?     The handrail at the right hand side of the wagon. Now they are finished?   I was waiting on some more container securing chains from N Brass Locos to finish off the GC machinery/implement wagon. They arrived earlier this week and I probably spent as long cutting the hooks,
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richbrummitt

9

Switch Surgery (Not for the Faint of Heart)

No update last week because after I had fitted the first of my revised TOU mechanisms and feeling good about it I moved on to the others only to discover that the rebates in the other board were not as deep by 0.8mm!   Oh-oh!   I had to make the rebate deeper somehow and really didn't want to be rebuilding the switches. Inspiration came to me quickly and I was able to achieve the unthinkable in a reasonably short space of time.   I used a 3mm graver for the one nearest the board edge wh
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richbrummitt

9

Bricking It

Aside from running out of ideas and being in desperate need of linking a lever frame with my TOUs so that I commence scenic work I have been slowly putting brick after brick individually in various walls.   I have a plan to produce my own brick paper 'kits' for the three station buildings (station building, signal box and weighbridge hut/goods office) on the computer using photographs of actual bricks arranged to proper bricklaying practices in as much as I understand them before printing them
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richbrummitt

9

Good things come to those who have extreme patience

It's been six months again. Much to deal with in the real world has meant not much time for modelling, coupled with the fact that this project has really done my swede in. This weekend my mojo must have connected with my body because I've finished off adding the 400+ individually cut 1mm wide timbers to create the load. I shall not be doing a load like this again for a little while. The time investment to add each piece individually cannot be underestimated!   This Macaw B is of Graham Farish
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richbrummitt

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