My model of Drewry 04 Tram D2201 was originally built back in 1996. It’s given sterling service on several layouts over the years but I noticed when I photographed it some time ago that the cab wasn’t properly seated, and once I’d noticed it, the eye kept getting drawn to it. It was originally built using an Impetus conversion kit for the Dapol kit, running on a Bachmann 03 chassis. Although the incorrect wheels were hidden by the skirts, it somehow never sat right. Eventually the mechanism beca
Sometimes, the construction of models doesn’t go quite as planned. In a recent experience, at every stage in the construction of a model building for Diddington, something felt “not right”. I tweaked it to try and improve things, hoping it would be all right in the end, but as construction progressed things clearly weren’t to be, and I scrapped it. I’m currently thinking about starting it again. Sometimes however, the accident can be turned to advantage, and as a result I discovered some techni
Looking back through my blog entries I realise there’s quite a lot involving wagons. I like wagons. In recent years there have been quite a few nice rtr wagons. I’ve had a few , and no doubt will get some more. However, converting or improving an older model, or building a kit allows me to put something of myself into a wagon model. Plastic kits are inexpensive, and a number of my models use older models, many of which can be obtained second hand for a modest price. They don’t even ha
There’s a lot of variety of potential loads for open wagons, so here are some examples:
Sheeted open – this uses a Smiths printed tarpaulin. A base is made inside the wagon the shape of the load, or the tarpaulin bar if fitted. The tarpaulin is folded over that. The tarpaulin itself can be pre-treated by screwing it into a ball to crease it up. The ball is unfolded and the sheet dry brushed. Securing ropes are lengths of thread fixed to the back of the tarpaulin with pva or UHU. They can be ret
I’ve been checking over Diddington’s wagon fleet, which has led me to consider the wagon loads. There’s been quite a lot published about wagon loads, and I have got a lot of inspiration from Iain Rice’s wagon books, and the series of articles on weathered wagons by Martyn Welch in MRJ a few years ago. Later in this blog I’ll give some examples of loaded wagons, some of which are copies of Martyn Welch’s ideas, the difference being that his were in 7mm scale, and mine are for 4mm scale.
Minera
Some of the traffic at Diddington is generated by an agricultural light railway, which leaves Diddington and proceeds to a terminus out on the fen. On the model to date there has been provision for the arriving light railway train, and I made a hole in the backscene for the line to leave Diddington station.
I've now started work on the extension proper, with the construction of a joining section which will link Diddington to the terminus.
I gave some thought to the construction of the board
Scenic work at Diddington progresses, with the addition of a small coal merchants premises in the goods yard.
I spent some time thinking about the buildings, and finally decided on a small coal office, with a disused container as a store, and a set of coal cells.
The office building was made from the Wills kit. After assembly, the brickwork was painted with red-brown Tamiya acrylic, and some individual bricks were picked out with different shades of Tamiya acrylic. Once dry, the brick areas
I've wanted to make an RB19 for years. A long time ago I purchased a cast kit for one, which sat in its box on a shelf while I periodically took it out and studied the parts and instructions. Eventually Ledo announced a die cast one, which took my interest, and I ended up buying one.
Having received my new purchase, I studied it with a view to detailing it a little. The basic size and shape were fine, but I felt that the detail of the model could be enhanced by additional painting, and a more
Back in 1963, Diddington featured heavily in that report, and not in a good way. Despite this, Eastern Region carried on looking at ways they might improve the services at Diddington. Viewers of my gallery may have noticed the attempt to use a redundant Wisbech and Upwell diesel tram on the agricultural tramway back in 1967, but before that they tried using an AC cars railbus on the passenger services. I've found some pictures of this event, which are attached.
The truth is, I found an old
I'm doing this as part of my Diddington blog, though it might be the precursor of a new blog in the future, or even a layout thread.
I've aleays like the idea of insdusrial railways. They've got a lot going for them as they are ideal for small space modelling however, I've always been distracted by some of the larger stuff.
There's an industrial/light railway spur at Diddington, and I've had a number of ideas for developiing it over the years. Sor far it's got as far as a few items of ro
I've been building a few wagons over the past few months, and I thought I would share some of my efforts.
First up is a Prestwin Twin Silo wagon from the Airfix/Dapol kit. It's assembled pretty much out of the packet. A bit of weight (to bring the total weight up to 50g) was put inside before the silos were finally assembled. Some of the components, such as the ladders, were thinnned down a bit, and the moulded grab rails on the platform round the silos were replaced with new grab handles
I havent done a blog entry for a while. I suffered a detatched retina in my left eye a couple of yearsago. I recoved from that, was about to post a blog entry, and I suffered a detatched retina in the right eye, so everything has been on hold until I could see the keyboard.
I have managed to do a bit of modelling though, although I've got a number of unfinished projects where I can't yet see clealrly enough to do fine work, such as the EE type 3 which has been awaiting bogie brake cylinders for
At the entrance to Diddington station is a small loco yard. It has a small shed, and in steam days had coal, water an ashpit and turning facilities. The original idea was to model the depot as it would have appeared in the 1950's, with the loco shed in use and a small turntable to turn the steam engines. I brought the period modelled forward to the 1960,s, by which time the loco depot had been downgraded to a daytime stabling point. The shed is used as a store, and the turntable bridge has been
As the railway line enters Diddington station, it passes behind a cluster of farm buildings. I put a photograph of the barns in my gallery a little while ago, and was asked if I had some more pictures. I took a few, and have added a few notes about the models themselves.
The buidings are situated at the front of the layout to act as a view block, and to balance the river scene, with the boathouse at the other end. Here's an aerial view od the group:
The buildings are made from card. The weat
46444 has been building some wagon kits. He brought some round last night, so we posed them in Diddington yard for photographs. I'll leave him to comment on how he made them.
Hes also made a horse box. Not an unfitted wagon, but a nice model. Here it is in a passenger train in Diddington station.
One of the feauture of the railways in the Fenland were the numerous timber bridges, built by the Great Eastern Railway. In reality they were fairly rickety affairs, often with severe weight restrictions, and caused the Railway Inspectorate to despair.
We modellers run things over them that would probably have resulted in their immediate collapse in real life. Here is a case in point. 46444 brought his Bachmann 9f round last night, so we took a few pictures of it on the bridge at Diddington. He
Billy Connelly once sang a song, called, I think, "3 Wee Women". It was about 3 ladies in Glasgow who were waiting for a bus. Eventually "along came seven buses, every one a 42". Diddington blog entries are a bit like this. Nothing happens for ages, then two come along at once.
I was playing with the camera last niight, so I took a couple of pictures of the goods yard. There's no trains in the pictures, but I thought the buildings and scenery might be of interest.
First up are the goods sheds.
Work has progressed on the scenery behind Diddington Station. Here is an update on developments.
Once the plaster earth mix had dried, the completed structure was blended in to the backscene with a mix of artex and PVA. Once this has dried, the completed structure was given several coats of burnt umber acrylic paint, and the back board was touched up with matt white emulsion.
The scenery looked like this at this stage.
Next job was to finish the ballasting of the Bay and private siding.
There's been a bit of a hiatus in work on the layout. At the end of last year, I suffered a detached retina. It's all been put back together now, but immediately after the event I couldn't see to do anything and then until my eyes stabilized there was a mismatch between the two which meant I couldn't do close work (this was brought home to me when I found I couldn't judge the distance to put the brush in the paint jar) So.. I started a lot of projects which still await the finishing touches, suc
Inspired by Mark's (46444) blog re his wagons from old Airfix bodies, here are my takes on the same subjects.
First up the D1927 ex LMS 3 plank. The body started life as a Bachmann one. I made mine up in early BR livery. It is a fitted version. I was inspired by a 3mm model in MRJ some years ago. It was made while on holiday in France and I've never got round to fitting buffers! The chassis is Parkside, as is the container load. Livery is unpainted wood, with body Ironwork painted BR bauxit
I've been playing around with 2-8-0's. I took some pictures of the events.
First up is an 8f, from Kettering shed. It's a modified Hornby, but 46444 built it, so you'll have to ask him for details. Its got DCC sound, which I rather like, and I've been experimenting with adding sound to Diddington, but retaining the option of DC control for the locos which aren't sound fitted, and never will be due to cost.
Next is a WD 2-8-0. This should be from March shed, but I'm not sure if the number'
Work on D5579 has continued. I've been looking forward to painting this one as the colour scheme is a bit different. I considered a number of different ways of finishing it, but in the end I adopted the following method:
The body was painted in Railmatch Goden Ochre, and Fox transfers were applied. The body was then lightly sprayed with Tamiya clear varnish let down with thinners. The thinned varnish dried almoost matt, which is what I wanted, although it is actually sold as gloss.
One dry,
I thought I'd model something a bit different( for me) this Christmas. Years ago I brought a Bachmann class 46 when it was first upgraded. The intention was to use the bogies and motor in a class 40 but that never happened. The Bachmann class 46 languished on a shelf until earlier this year when I decided to resurrect it. I bought a Craftsman conversion kit to convert it to a class 44, and some Fox etched nameplates.
I followed the Craftsman instructions for the conversion. When it came to
I've always liked the Brush type 2 (class 31). They were the first main line diesels I remember, and I've always had a model of one, be it Triang, Triang TT, Triang-Hornby, Airfix or the current Hornby model. I'm pleased with the current Hornby model, particularly the running, and I like the revolving fan feature. However,to my eyes there is something not quite right about the end view. I think the problem is that the centre window is slightly deep, and the geometry of the outer windows has b
I've been doing some more work on D6723 and have got the painting and weathering to a point where I thought a further update was appropriate.
I painted the ends first with Railmatch yellow, and when this was dry masked it off and sprayed the body with Railmatch BR green, followed by grey for the roof. The areas for the markings were painted with Klear,and Fox transfers applied. The body was then sprayed with a couple of coats of Humbrol varnish, the second with a drop of Humbrol dark grey
