As promised I have finally found time to record recent progress, and inspired by Jon Teal a short video of the branch goods.
An overview of the two mostly done boards, which now just need scenic fettling and fun stuff.
The branch goods running into the station throat.
Close up of the new overbridge on the scenic board and hand made trees.
Crosssing the underpass seen in my prototype posts. Have a picture to add to fake the tunnel!
Seen from the opposite side of the underpass, the p
Thanks to the dreaded SQL I am typing all this again, so pardon me if I am not totally detailed or spelled right!
Inspired by the Pendon mineral train In MI4 I decided to do some work on a Mathieson Models PO coal wagon. This is how I did it, using easy techniques and no airbrush. I have one but its a pain cleaning it all in the middle of the night and using the brush mean I can work in the living room.
The pristine model, better scale dimensions and brake gear than the other manufacturers
After 6 months of trying and failing to get anyone to make a laser cut kit from my Autocad files I have decided to take matters into my own hands and sort the station once and for all. I saw Ratio now produce a William Clarke style station building, which I thought might make a starting point for my kitbash. They also make an etched roof light, so I gathered my raw materials.
This approach would surely meet with Mr Clarke’s approval as he was essentially an early proponent of design and
Continuing with rolling stock, I won 3 Cavendish coach kits on the usual auction site, £25 for a 70ft compo, 57 FB and a Siphon H. There were one or two bits misplaced, but nothing serious. These kits are still available in improved format, from Ultima.
I thought I would start with the full brake. Here it is still in the box, carefully glued back together by the seller.
I laid out all the components, these use printed sides, which saved me doing the lining out and the lack of relief is
I have set myself the aim of exhibiting Kingsbridge this year. I am not sure if this is a good or bad thing. Here's the job list I think it needs to be OK (not finished!)
Complete station board, including the major buildings and structures. I might ignore a few secondary buildings if I run short of time
Get the second loco converted to DCC with a digihat
Complete the third scenic board
Complete wiring of boards.
build a control panel- stud and probe for now
get backscenes printed
build
I have finally got round to sorting out some more little jobs. The first one was re-numbering and dirtying my Dapol 45xx. I got some Modelmaster brass plates that were great, and some fox buffer beam numbers finished it off. All that is left to do is sort out the disgusting rapido coupling and do the front and back dirty to match the sides. Any comments appreciated as I haven’t varnished it yet. The real 4561 continues to be on static display in one of the museums (Swindon?) but I am hoping fo
Have done a few pictures today!
Only the goods trains are started as Dapol aren't producing their "B" set coaches at the moment and I can't find any for sensible money. as my setting is the 1940's much of my stock is weathered to give it a more dirty and battered appearance as befits a railway which is busy with the war effort and where resources for maintainance and cleaning are limited.
Dapol 45xx pulling a mixed train of Farish and Dapol wagons
Dapol 20t Loco coal and 45xx
GWR 7 plan
I am amazingly a little bit ahead of schedule. I am sure this won't last!
A few hectic hours work and another dent in my credit card completed the trackwork in the yard. I also did a temporary goods shed from the metcalfe one. Here's the track, which has all its droppers soldered on and is ready to paint and wire.
It always looks so blocky and clumsy before painting but having seen the work involved I am glad i didn't have to build all those sets of points!
The goods shed is a compromise,
Having had a successful test at Taunton with one Prairie shunting well all day I have started getting all the track works and building placement in the yard area sorted so I can fix all the track. I intended to do this today but the warming of the weather has dried out my contact adhesive!
To start with a series of photos of the buildings, in place on the boards. All of these are designed to be fixed in with the yard covering filling the gaps.
An overall view from the king point
T
Just a brief update, further to discussions about the backscene, this is a picture of the test one on the scenic board.
This was an offcut of hardboard I found at work. Its 15" high but I may have to cut this down a bit to fit the crate or make it removable.
Has anyone done a removable backscene? This board is flat so should be ok as there are no curves in the backscene.
Well, it has been a while since I did an update for Kingsbridge. I have not been entirely idle on this model, but progress has been limited to tweaking the track layout, adding length to the sidings, and trying to get the trackside structures done in case the sidings need moving before ballasting.
With this in mind I bought the Ratio carriage shed kit, thinking of bashing it to resemble the corrugated structure on the branch. As soon as I looked at it I knew this plan was not going to work, the
I have finally got the back scenes on, but not glued permanently. Aside from one or two spots where I need to put some strengtheners i.e. on the joints and ends of curves, I think it has worked out quite well.
Here are the 2 station boards.
Its made a big difference to how the layout flows, now its on to track weathering and fixing, plus wiring the bus and point motors!
I might even get to start the engine shed thanks to help from you all with the measurements.
Having joined the 21st Century a bit more this month, with the heady speeds of fibre broadband arriving at home and a wireless printer scanner to go with it, I decided it was time to scan my only set of pictures.
Some context- The station building was demolished some years ago over a weekend in slightly dubious circumstances, the site is still just empty (very annoying.)
A friend happened to be passing and took these shots from inside the fence with permission. They show a lot of detai
Fresh from holidays I didn't feel like wiring so I did some scenery on the single line board instead. I have used a mix of fine scatters for the grazing land as even 2mm static grass is a bit long. So far only 1/2 the planned texturing has been completed as trees, hedges and fencing etc is still to go on. I have more clump bits and static fibres to apply to the embankments too.
whole board
Branch passenger train in the entrance to the cutting. Little line of bushes is the start of the hedge.
Despite my slowness with the wiring the track work is slowly coming together, all the sections laid so far have their droppers soldered and the points have now all been converted for DCC. The scenic board had its track sprayed and track bed painted ready for ballasting. I even managed to run a few trains on DC to test the joints and it all worked, which was a nice surprise. The big stumbling block is now cash for the remaining points and then fitting all the point motors. I am still looking for
Just thought I'd add a few pictures from the line as it is now.
Bridge arch under the terminus
Not the Pw Hut- the weigh house!
Loddiswell station
Looking down the line from Loddiswell towards Kingsbridge on the 1:50 gradient to Sorley
As the weather has been sunny this week I have finally got the backscenes done for the first few boards. They will be sent to a printing co. for finishing to the right size, 18" high, 2 curved fixed and 1 straight removable piece of hardboard to form the structure.
I had time for some photography, but ended up with a mixed bag of subjects, so I split this into two posts, one from the layout and another from the real railway.
The “Noch off†static grass applicator. Total cost less than £10. Made from an electric fly swat, an icing sugar shaker, with removable screen. Also shown is the fine nozzle made from a cut down plastic kitchen funnel and some mesh.
Some of the effects produced using a mix of 2mm and 4mm fibres.
Wow, its been a long time since I did a blog entry!
I recently decided to start work on Kingsbridge again, as it has been living in crates in my workshop long enough. Sorting through the spares box and rolling stock I came across a Python kit from Chivers Finelines. This was the second one I bought, as my dog, then young, had chewed the first one the minute it arrived on the door mat. I have since trained my excellent postman to leave the parcels somewhere else and trained my dog not to eat
I realised this week it has been over 10 years since I started this layout, which was a bit terrifying. Life has a way of making things take longer than expected and the model of the station building at Kingsbridge is no exception. Thanks to those of you who have been with me since the beginning and all the commenters along the way, you have all helped keep me moving forwards, even if the pace has been a bit non existent!
Last time we left the building at the elevations stage, I matched the
Bloody hell, for the first time ever the whole layout minus fiddle yard is together, supported entirely on the leg units. Only took 11 years.
As you can see from the thumbnail there was a degree of shock about this.
All the boards. Each modular board is 3’6” long, with the two larger station boards individually sized.
The classic view from above the signal box.
Vs reality
Side by side, I didn’t get quite the same angle, but close enough.
O
Having got the basic shell done I guide coated it in Army Painter “ Skeleton Bone “ intending to use the beige as the base for my mortar tones. This was all I had done when we last saw the buildings in my previous entry.
Most of my painting on this was done at night, since that’s the only time there is peace and quiet in my place since lockdown. One of the key things I was looking to reproduce from the prototype is the very grey granite used on the stonework, vs the more brown “local” stone
Managed to steal an hour or two today to get this done, ready to install a station building and the engine shed. The back scene is next but budget is lacking, I could afford the sheet of 9mm MDF for this job. This allows me to keep the whole platform as a separate piece that I can complete at home then drop into the baseboard ready for final tinkering. I chose 9mm because it allows for a close to scale height after taking into account my clunky non fine scale track and won't look too low from ty
Well I got time this week to paint up the shed, here are the results with a brief pictorial stroll through the process.
Having started with a black undercoat I put some rust tones randomly across the roof, looking at the pictures from the 50's.
There are 2 brown shades and a dark metallic in there. I wanted some faint rust visible through the grey base.
The base grey was put on with a heavy drybrush.
After 2 lightening tones on the grey I put more careful rust marks o
I had to take a difficult decision today. Despite great patience from the exhibition manager I have reluctantly decided not to debut the layout over the May bank holiday.
The reasons for this are:
The station building and platform is unfinished
The control system is not finished- all switching would be via hand of god method.
I have 2 chipped locos, but key items of stock are still absent, despite offers of loans from Kris I feel I will not be able to do justice to the traffic in my chase
