Well, it's finally finished, running and painted, although I might try and tidy up the black lining and give it some light weathering. Nice sunny day here in Donegal!
I can't believe its nearly a year since I last posted on this blog. In the last nine months I have:
Built an incline connecting the fiddle yard to the low level section that will house the MPD. This also involved modifying the removable bridge section that carries the tracks across the doorway.
The track for the MPD has been built, laid, ballasted and wired up. The base for the MPD including inspection pits was also installed at this time.
The coaling stage/water tower was built.
A couple of progress shots. This is the Branchlines IoM kit which is being modified to represent this particular Beyer-Peacock loco which started life on the Ballymena & Larne Railway in 1880 and ended up on the C&VBT in 1928 where it lasted for 5 years before the line was closed.
There were various differences from the IoM locos, the principal ones being the fitting of a skirt to one side only (the tramway ran alongside the road and the loco was presumably always facing the same way
The little Beyer-Peacock is finished at last. The Westinghouse brake casting from Alan Gibson was waiting for me when I got back from my hols (you can't see it as it's on the other side!), so that was cleaned up and fitted along with the associated plumbing. Branchlines chopper couplings were also added. It was then primed, filled, reprimed and painted.
There is some doubt as to the colour it carried while at the C&VBT but the concensus is that it retained the LMS crimson lake livery it
After a pleasant break over Christmas, when I was able to work on my rake of coaches for 'The Cornishman', it's now back to work on County Donegal Railway Projects. The 5.5mm/ft model of Killybegs station building is now finished and painted and is just awaiting chimneys (and the train shed) - I must get around to taking some new pics. Having knocked off a lot of 4mm wagon kits, I have now started on locos. I have 2 Class 5's and 2 Class 5A's to build which should keep me busy for a while but I
I had a a couple of locos back into the workshop for repair today. The first was a County Donegal railcar that 'needed a loose wire resoldering'. True it did. In fact I think it had been rewired so many times, the wires were too short to make new connections, so I replaced them. As the front pony truck was only held in place by the remaining wire, I repaired that as well. However, when I applied power ..... nothing! A quick investigation revealed that the motor shaft and gear were securely arald
After goodness knows how many hours No.12 is finally finished (all bar a bit of coal and some crew). It has been a long road and one which I don't think I would choose to travel down again. However, at the end of the day she doesn't look too bad and runs quite smoothly.
As a break from working on Killybegs Station, I have been working on the large number of vans and wagons that I need for Worseter. I have been experimenting with different painting and weathering tecniques to get a reasonable representation of the variation in colour found in any train of vans. This batch (all Parkside Dundas kits) were sprayed with Halfords red primer then weathered with Railmatch acrylics. I used a variable mix of 'frame dirt' and 'roof dirt', well diluted with water, brush ap
I haven't been able to do a lot of work on Peter's layout since the summer due to holidays and work commitments. However, the ballasting to the front scenic section is finished bar weathering and I have done a bit more planting. On Phase 2 the track is laid and wired giving 12 long storage sidings for rolling stock and a fan of short sidings, served by a Peco turntable, for locos. Peter has stock covering the period from BR steam to the present day and some of this needs storing when not in use.
The trainshed roof and outer wall are now one unit. The jig to hold everything firmly in place while the two parts were soldered together was quite simple in the end. 3 lengths of brass tube that were a tight fit in the square tubes of the columns were let into the board to hold the wall vertical. 2 larger diameter tubes were notched vertically to be a tight fit on the wire cross bracing of the end trusses then let into the board in a position where the foot of the rafter butted against the ins
It is pretty amazing that, while you poor guys in the UK are suffering the most horendous weather, we have clear blue skies here in the north west of Ireland.
In between working on the train shed for Killybegs, I have been getting on with building wagons and vans for Worseter. Some of these are due to see service on Clinkerford at York next year when Kempenfelt of this parish (the new owner) is hoping to run the layout in BR guise on at least one day, so that's given me an incentive to get o
While looking for something else (that I haven't yet found) I did find these old pics of my Kingham Junction layout that are well over 20 years old. I wonder if it's still around somewhere! The second attempt at a back scene looks a lot better than the first, rather bright, one!
After much blood sweat and tears the Hornby body and Malcolm Mitchell chassis have finally come together. Once she has received her new identity, Totnes Castle will be very lightly weathered. I think the Malvern Hills make a very suitable backdrop!
Well to be more precise building an etched chassis to a Hornby Castle.
I had been waiting for Brassmasters to release one of their fold up chassis conversions for the Hornby Castle, but it seems that this has been put on the back burner while they concentrate on LMS locos. So I dug a Malcolm Mitchell kit out of the cupboard to see if I could use the chassis from that as a short term fix.
The Mitchell kit follows the prototype very closely which may be OK in 7mm but in P4 it means that cl
This weekend Clinkerford was put up for the last time at home to be checked over for its final outing to Manchester in October, after which it passes into new ownership. A sad day! I couldn't resist the temptation to take a few last shots, mostly from the side the punters don't see. Hope you enjoy them. See you in Manchester.
Well Donegal really. Just taking advantage of another sunny day (that's nine in a row) to take some pics of some recently refurbished stock. The coaches (Comet) have had their bogies replaced by Bill Bedford's and now glide beautifully through the slips in the fiddle yard. The cosmetic sides were removed from the old Comet bogies and, after having the rear faces opened out to allow the springing to work, were epoxied to the new bogies. The coaches have also had a bit more weathering applied and
In response to comments on my last blog, here is a B&W quickie showing progress on the rake to date. Two coaches are yet to be detailed and are sitting on 'bare' bogies. The last two are sitting in the cupboard! I intend to leave all the roofs to be painted at one go. Must get that embankment finished off, not to mention most of the low lvel part of the layout!
It's only a rake of nine coaches you say, shouldn't take too long. That's only 18 sprung bogies with 36 axles, 72 wheels, 72 pairs of brake hangers and 144 brake shoes to assemble. Don't forget the 36 cosmetic sides. Then there are 18 Kadees to assemble and fit (after modifying the coach ends to take them), 18 corridor connections to assemble and fit, 9 sets of underframe detailing to cobble up, 9 roofs that need all those strips removing. Numbers to be changed, bogies and roofs to be painted, s
The outer wall now has cladding and windows and both sides of the upper roof now have their louvres complete. Next job is to clad the ends, these have quite a lot of decorative work on them. Once they are finished, I will get the airbrush out, after which I can think about doing some slating and finishing off the glazing. Then I will need to do some weathering, build a bit of platform, make a few seats, some fencing ..............
After much blood, sweat and tears, the Class 5 is finally running reasonably smoothly under power (that's tempting fate!). Electrical pick up from the track is not perfect, I think partly due to the rigid chassis and maybe to the mazak wheels. I don't know what mazak is like as a conductor and the treads seem to get dirty pretty quickly - they were filthy after 45 minutes on the rolling road. I'm waiting for couplings before doing much more. It all comes apart for painting.
