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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

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
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17

Fifty Shades of Colourful Language

So here it is. TOU Mk2 and yet another moving sleeper with a difference. The shaping has made a lot of use of the milling machine. In fact the only part that I used a saw for was cutting the milled channels to length.   First I milled some channels to receive the sleeper tie bars in whatever this material is?     These are sized to fit into square section brass and were cut into 20mm lengths. The thickness is 2.5mm leaving a 0.5mm for the tubes that are soldered to the sleeper and a shim
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8

Eleven Months and Counting

I don't agree with the idea that Deadlines = Motivation but a deadline does require a certain work-rate and focus for it to be met. For the next eleven months I need to maintain focus combined with a reasonable work rate to complete the work required to transform the bare wood and pink hills into something resembling a small part of Oxfordshire all those years ago. I feeling quite motivated at the moment however.   Below the baseboard I have the TOUs issue to resolve once and for all along wit
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6

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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11

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
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15

Batch Building Coaches Part 1 - Bogies

I've a good stash of passenger coach kits and to make a start it seems sensible to begin at the bottom and work up. Many of them are in firmly in the no longer available category, having been shot down from larger scales. (I am aware of plans to try and get one of these ranges reintroduced - fingers crossed.) These are bodies only and require the Dean type of bogie, which was not available anywhere, and so I had my own etches made to compliment the kits. The remainder of the coaches are Mastercl
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8

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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9

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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13

Dirty Half Dozen

These wagons have been hanging around between the layout and the workbench for a long while appearing in the background of previous photographs of models.   I bought a few Mathieson models wagons to see what they were like, with the idea to convert them quickly and easily. They are really good models for RTR with crisp fine detailed mouldings. The length and width is comparable to the 2mmSA 1907 RCH body but the height is noticeably greater, despite also being 7 plank wagons. To use 2FS wheel
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5

Time Travelling Equine Transport - Back Dating and Detailing The N Gauge Lima Horsebox - Part 2.

More work on the horsebox. I had hoped to make some more progress but it has been too hot and sticky to spend time upstairs in front of a window that looks west on an evening! I did manage to get some of my UPOs (un-painted objects) undercoated as a result of the hot weather allowing access to the garden without fear of disaster so it's not all bad.   The end steps were added next. I thinned down some styrene angle to something like the correct dimensions so that steps could be cut uniformly t
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3

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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12

Staying Focused

From this post forward you will (I hope) notice a marked improvement in the quality of photographs. This is a result of a generous bonus from my employer this year and me treating myself to a camera so that I don't have to use a phone any more!   I have been working on improving and back dating a pair of Lima horse boxes, at the same time as finishing a few other horse box kits from other companies. These were going to be the subject of the next post but as is usual I have got distracted onto
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4

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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10

Back of the Queue - O13 Milk Van part 2

In between eating, drinking, partying, visiting, more eating, more drinking, more... (I shan't go on because I imagine we've all had to go through the same thing) I've wangled a day off and managed some time at the workbench. I really wanted to get the underframe finished on this milk brake van so that it was at the stage for painting. The roof and details will be added after the body has the base colour on. This allows me to easily paint the inside - essential where there are windows present.
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2

Thinking of TOU

Work is ongoing on the station platform. The construction method comprising a 5mm foam board core edged with PECO brick platform mouldings seems to be working well. The ramps have been made with some creative slotting and mitres from the straight pieces to produce the desired angle for the length of slope.   I have also taken some time re-organising the mess in my area of the hobby room. The milling machine has been set up and tried out, although running and cutting at 20,000rpm is quite noisy
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7

Quickie presents Westlife ft. Gratuitous Milk Van

The track bed for the back siding is now raised up and I've cut some foam board to fix the platform edging to. I think I might have overcooked it and made it a bit too high. What follows are a few pictures from different angles, some of which will be similar enough to those presented previously.       Above: A couple of views looking approximately south over the east end of the platform.   Below: Another view looking east similar to some of the photographs from the last entry. Apologie
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2

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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11

What Have I Done?

Oh dear. I had a day out on the 2mm association stand with Littlemore today and the conversation went something like:   "Are you going to exhibit your layout then?" "Yes." "When do you plan to have it ready for?" "If I have it in a somewhat presentable state within a couple of years I'll be reasonably happy." "Would you come to such and such exhibition?" "Er..." "When is it?" "I'm not sure I want to commit to anything right now." "Usually January." "Oh, okay." "Shall we say January 201
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8

Int Milk Brillyant

I guess some of you might have been wondering how the kit design was going. If not then maybe you will be interested enough to read on anyway. I've now built enough to know that all the permutations will work and only some very very minor changes will be needed before I reach a final version. Here's the proof     Left to Right: Diagram O4, Diagram O6 (O5 with end door conversion), Diagram O1. I stopped building when I ran out of parts. Everything else will need to be begged bought or otherw
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5

More Unfinished Projects

Things continue with the siphons. I have the second test etches and the previous corrections have turned out a pair of decent (IMO) kits. The other items that I added to the sheet second time around remain to be built because I am now out of top hat bearings. An order is into the association shop but I needed something else to do.   What I thought would be some quick wagons turn out to take rather more effort. I bought a few Mathieson Models wagons at the 2010 Expo in kit form to paint up with
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2

Trigger Happy

A little update regarding my RSU woes: I got hold of aforementioned Carr's solder paste and have successfully constructed a couple of RCH wagon underframes without the problems encountered previously. It amazes me how little solder paste is required to produce a solid joint. My only issue now is the dispensing of the paste from the syringe. Even the most gentle momentary squeezing, it seems, will produce a string of the stuff oozing out of the nozzle after I put it down. I've taken to leaving it
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7

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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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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11

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
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18

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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