Rotten cold, don't dare doing anything, or it'll go wrong.
Still, nice to just run a train around, and video it.
I have loads of trees to add, but welcome to my small cornish backwater.
Dad-1
I'm running out of jobs to do on recent layouts, have virtually run out of space to anything new.
Even difficult to find storage for my last little demonstration and test piece.
Not quite desperation, but sitting in my garage after some 10 years is a small roundy-roundy that I call St Oval.
The name is simply what the original plan was a Set-track Oval. This has been in constant use since I first had
it fully live, simply because being a roundy-roundy I ca
I know I'm not alone. Most of us start things that get left behind, sometimes for years while others
get priority.
Back in August when I took the clubs new layout home to work on it I'd already started a Dapol
BR brake van kit. It has sat on my small 'coupling height' track section ever since, quietly mocking
me.
Well club layout gone, so time to finish ?
Now added a TrainTech motion activated tail lamp. I can now finish if and when I find the rest of the kit !!
At Beaminster Exhibition on 12th January the new 'West Bay' will have it's first outing. Currently still in my shed, but with the Kadees almost behaving, lighting fixed and functional, even a couple of wagon kits finished except weathering (That may not get done in time) I'm no longer stressed !!
As I write the fiddle-yard board is in my kitchen for a few prettying jobs. Why ? It's a fiddle-yard ? Ahh you should see how hard visitors will try to see what's behind the scene - Been there
At times I feel they are not fit for purpose when it comes to British Outline wagons. The wagons are too easily drawn along out of an uncoupling position by 'magnetic creep' Many of us have spent ages getting our stock to run VERY freely with thoughts of long goods trains. This is the path to absolute failure, mass has little influence, the pressure needed to open the knuckles is not reached before your wagon rolls along !!
Well the only answer to my mind is adding brakes to one axle on ever
You can see why I'm not very good at online postings, but into Pt.II on my old and clogged up system.
West Bay hasn't changed that much and needs a lot of grass and gravel surfacing, hence being essential to move somewhere where it can be left undisturbed for days if necessary.
The yard end where it joins Marsh Barn Lane, once a gated road.
Station building and signal box made by another club member. The garden is still there today, but we need to get planting !
I have
What happened to July, August and September ? Not a lot, yet I seem to have always been doing something, although often not a lot to look back on.
First following my last posting our club exhibition was a great success, always a worry when you change venues. I ended up winning the Best in Show award, that has a dark side as I'm told it's my duty to be back with Castell Mawr next year to defend my top slot. I was looking forward to doing some demonstration modelling, no need for a hired van,
Apart from the weather acting as a disincentive to do much, I'm now looking ahead to my clubs Summer Exhibition, a new venue in the Bridport Colfox Academy, I still tend to call it a school - how old fashioned !!
I'm taking my big layout Castell Mawr which in all honest will probably never be fully finished, although the casual onlooker probably won't notice. It's not been out for 8 Months and I've been cleaning all tracks, making certain all points work on the DCC addresses allocated, and t
I always rush on with my ideas, then when it's 90% done I tend to leave and start something else - Just like a kid in a sweet shop !! This is the diorama from my posting of 23rd April, getting nearer, but also shows in the siding another reason for being so slow. Not only the birdcage brake van of recent postings, but also this Ratio 12 ton Southern van. It was another of my friend Derek's kits, but I have replenished some kit stocks so I shouldn't go 'stir crazy' if we have a few wet weeks this
Well I've been away for 3 days, but the postman brought my HMRS decals on Saturday, there waiting on the floor when we got home this afternoon.
Job done - I suppose not really finished as it needs a varnish seal on the decals and a light weathering.
Modelu rear lamp on.
Not an easy kit and as you can read decals have been a real problem, yet I've thoroughly enjoyed making this kit
Even if you bang your head against a wall sometimes it still remains fun.
The HMRS LN
O.K not quite a finished NER Birdcage Brake Van. That's where the trip comes. The decal sheet was 'dead', a press-fix and for anyone who has used them there should be a protected surface film on the underside. When you cut out your required marking this adhesive is what you press onto your model to hold it in place, then when located correctly you add water to an over tissue. This water both releases the over tissue and activates the permanent adhesive which is included with the tacky film. Sorr
I'm known for being almost a wagon addict, I've always got at least one on the go, but there comes a time when space is running low. In a casual conversation with my local buddy I said I only had 3 kits left in stock and might not buy any more with my 'yard' containing around 450. Next thing he offered me a Cooper Craft, Ex-Slaters NER Birdcage brake van, would I make it for him ? With it's 19 pieces of brass wire not an easy build. Here it is as I'm beginning to paint.
Still a ways to
My last missive was creating a suitable interior for my Wills greenhouse - nowhere to put it, just a bit of creative fun. Move on a few days and when in the garage I uncovered a scrap of ply, slightly mouldy and warped. It crossed my mind to make up another diorama using the greenhouse and a cottage I'd built out of plasticard for a club-night 'How I Do It'. A good rummage through other odds laying around and everything required was on the bench !! Spares boxes are SO very useful.
Still
As this is the premier modelling site I tend not to regularly post, just when I've done something a little above my normal modelling. I've had a Wills greenhouse and cold frames kit kicking around for years. Recently uncovered I decide to make up for no other reason that I wanted to do something different. Also with a requirement for another club diorama by the years end any scenic props might be useful.
Again collected years ago it really was time to use some of my 'Stuff' that included flo
I've always made models from as far back as I can remember, the actual subject not a real priority. Here we have my latest diorama without anything on it, just an East Anglian dyke with railway & road running alongside each other.
I will be standing on a J50, sheeted wagon and a brake van, have a Spitfire Mk.1 behind the security fence and some sheep on the road. Those though are all just additions to a quiet country scene.
Animal tracks in the grass, signal wire and supports so
Back around 2010 I started a small roundy-roundy layout in the garage. It's rather neglected as far as working on it is concerned, but frequently used for running-in and although it uses some 1st radius curves my liking of small tank engines means it usually works O.K. Now my local buddy is a 'petrol head' and for the last 4 years has been pointing out my little garage needs a car ramp. At last I've bought one, Langley do the 4 pillar car ramp at just £5.80 unpainted. Just 10 pieces of white met
I ask that as an exhibitor. Running ones railway at an exhibition can be quite hard work. Certainly any layout consisting of several base boards need thorough checking for any damage that needs repair from a previous outing. All electrical circuits need checking, track cleaning, then the quandary of what rolling stock to take, sorting and packing and in my case the hiring of a van to get it there and back safely.
No wonder that more & more exhibitions consist of smaller layouts, and that
I've been very busy, but not actually having anything much to show for it. I've added this, a follow on from that last posting in July. We added a glowing brazier between two sidings and just a little rubbish, not enough really as it's still too clean. This amused me - simple enough to make me smile .....
a paraffin can, even a box of matches resting on the clay pipe !!
Dad-1.
November, Oh my what have I been doing !! I have this thing, you could call it a problem, of trying to "sell" the hobby. Now you don't do that with loads of threatening "Do Not Touch" signs. I agree that when you're showing a multi thousand pound layout the last thing you want are people poking at things - like a lady who once knocked a signal box off my layout onto the floor. But when you do exhibitions it's a risk you take.
About the time I last posted my buddy and I decided to make a shun
Almost 3 months since my last posting, although I've not idle during the ensuing period. There are so many little slow jobs, the worst from that point of view has been making up Ratio signals, basic making no problem, but painting is so fiddly and 18 of them ........... that is without a currently unspecified amount of ground signals, 20 currently on my table.
I've also added working platform lights, noting as I did so that I must add bodge tape over all my hanging wiring to secure ther
I still have so much to do, but my tenure of this large garage is coming towards the end and I need to split for some work. I may not get a chance to do more videos, but with metal wheels now in all these old Hornby coaches the rake rattles along well at a scale 50 mph. Of the 5 videos I took on 4th September this one is my favourite, I almost feel the draught of this express passing.
Dad-1
Having access to this garage has given me the chance to see it all together and catch up on so many part done jobs. Mind you still loads more to do and I only have until around the 26th September before I have to remove from here.
Today's videos
Shame the 14XX is so distant and in the darker reaches at platform 3.
Back now for more play ..... Errr.... work.
MKMRS Exhibition in February still seems VERY near. I have loads of signals to make. Those white paper squares you may
We're rushing towards the 5th birthday of my Castell Mawr layout. I'm in no real hurry to finish because what will I do then ? It is however booked into the Milton Keynes exhibition in February 2017, so I really do have to get a move on. There is a window of opportunity open at the moment as a large garage has become available for me so I can join all together to double check the extent of work needing to be done.
Thought I'd include the odd picture since my last Blog posting back in June ..
When I see some of the so called Art I become more and more convinced that railway modelling is very much an art form, yet one that we don't explore as much as we should. Good clear photographs are great to see in detail what is being presented, but are not exploring the envelope of art presentation. In short we could all do better for artistic pictures.
Today I was taking what was intended to be one of those good clear photographs to show my newly made GWR speed restriction sign. The camera
Sometimes although not everything is on top form a photograph shows exactly the ambience you're looking for in a layout scene.
Self indulgent I know and the straggling fencing wire behind my coach detracts, but I really like this. No doubt when those raw fence posts are painted it'll look better but .......
Dad-1
