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About this blog

I'm a fidget so always a new project coming.

Entries in this blog

Wow, no postings since March !

Well although I've not been posting it dosen't mean I've not been working on anything.   I started a small diorama in January that was finished by the Spring Equinox. The idea was similar to Andy Y's 2011 competition in as much it was in limited space. In the end I settled on 9.1/2 inches wide by 15 inches long and made to represent a corner of a small town quay. By trying to be non-specific it allowed me to 'set the stage' with anything I fancied. These small dioramas allow experimentin
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Work Progress on the big layout - The 13 foot 4 inch 4 board section.

Having added my diorama in Dorset I checked back to see what was last posted about Castell Mawr. I've probably moved forward enough to post a couple of photographs. This layout offers a 45 foot twin track oval with a scenic substitute for a fiddle yard in the form of two sidings beside each line, these are long enough to hold 2 trains in each although not if running an 8 coach set.   Here we go showing the two central siding boards :-       Today I started adding some grass on the lev
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Winter, time for a garage modeller to move indoors ....

I have this thing about wagons, I don't think there's a locomotive here I wouldn't swap for a clutch of good wagons. But wagons have/had a tough old life and the 'as bought' condition tends to turn me off any layout, they just spoil the effect. I think it strange so many modellers spend a fortune on re-naming and re-numbering locomotives yet put up with basic factory finish stock. Not all thank heavens and we do see some superb weathering.   My latest play is some Dapol 21 ton coal hoppers,
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Winter Ends - Almost time to look in the Garage !

Winters more or less ended and I can at last spend a few hours in the garage without freezing ! Mind you , can't show what I'm doing there because it's still too early in the building stages for these hallowed walls !!   What I've enjoyed doing this winter is another diorama. What I like about these is the short span from start to finish. The ability to be creative with modelling ideas at minimal cost and little difficulty in finding somewhere to keep them. So here is an almost finished '
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Why Do Old People Moan So Much ?

I'm talking about Moaning and not Groaning, the latter always arrives with age and most noticeable when having to return to standing after sitting down for a while. I think we moan more than younger people because we've been around a long time and seen things done better. When you're young it's easier to accept crap as you don't know better. Please discuss and comment on any supplementary reasons.   Decals, transfers ? be more specific Waterslide Transfers. The use of Am
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Why ? Well I just liked the photo.

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
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Where has the last month gone ?

Nothing posted since the first week of January. In truth not a great deal of railway modelling done since then. Getting settled into a new home after some 35 years in the old one takes longer than expected, in fact still a long way to go. My new garden shed arrives later this month and I've been struggling to demolish the old leaking rotten one that came with the bungalow. Nothing to do with the shed, but more the weather, we live just 1 mile from the sea at West Bay & driving rain and
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When Bored, make a video ?

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
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Wagons Rolling Again

My last posting, after our exhibition was stating I'd be back to wagon building. While I build too many I do so often move on before weathering and gather a backlog of almost there projects. After getting some secondhand kits I decided to make up the Airfix Presflo. I already had one made in 2015 still unfinished, well at least without weathering and these did get very dirty with white cement dust.   At last not only the new build, but my old one made to look like a work
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Under the bridge ...............

Following my last posting here is the other side of the main road bridge.     Road painted, but awaiting white lining. Heavy traffic on a busy holiday wekend. I use several vehicles to judge if the road width gives me what I want. One day, after grassing all the embankments this side I'll be able to start on the river. I wonder how much resin water this will take !!??   Dad-1
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Try to be Tidy !

Oh dear, I'm on here as I can't continue with my conversion build - modelling's better than computers !!   The story is thus :- I bought a Killin Pug conversion kit from Dean Sidings, the build up went easy to start with, but if you've ever used a Hornby 0-4-0 then you'll understand their running tends to be doubtful ! So much time & effort went into sorting the chassis. Now I want to continue I can't find the cab floor and firebox ....... looked most places, even moved furniture 'just in
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Time to tidy up

What's a skeleton in a cupboard ? .......... For too many railway modellers it's hidden, half, perhaps in some cases completely forgotten project and, probably half built !!   Well a recent one of mine was and still is a Parkside PC86 Z2 gunpowder van. Started towards the end of April, but bypassed by the recent multi build of V12 - 16 vans shown in the last two blog entries. While watching the 'test' train circle slowly my eyes fell on this part finished wagon. Last eve
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Time to show some activity to prove I'm still alive !

The Wagon Works has been active since the end of January when I last posted in my Blog thread. I'll have to check through exactly how much as once a project is finished, or nearly finished I just get on with the next thing and forget what's already gone under the bridge.   One I have done half-cock as per usual is a Cambrian 10 ton ballast wagon. I thought I'd add some spoil from a small job, but was too impatient to await weathering first.     I sho
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Time For New Skills

My butterfly personality means I like to switch from subject to subject, at times without always fully finishing a previous project. For that reason I have a siding full of wagons awaiting weathering, but heck I've done that and got the 'T' shirt. My two little Roxey yard locos are done .... to a level where they work fine doing what I want, weathering ? that can wait.   I've plans for a local yard layout, this will need tight dock & factory yard turnouts. They must however be live-frog
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Things took longer than expected - now have something running.

My move to a new home has had it's problems. The broken down removal lorry that split my delivery in two, part 1 arriving next day as expected on the 3rd, part 2 coming 2 days later. Then when the man came to fit a water meter it indicated a leak. The water company dug a couple of holes and then decided it was leaking under the bungalow. We have cut off the old supply pipe & laid in a shorter more direct one and have stopped the water loss.   At the same time I was trying to board out t
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Things get left and lost

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 !!
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The sun came out, for almost a whole day ......

I can make excuses, but a little sunshine gave me a chance to start the final base boards. I needed the space outdoors to arrange the swap around, stripping the two high end boards out and getting the two low end boards on legs in place. That started with a small garage clear up. Now I have to cut the track-bed board and risers of 140mm on which the track-bed will be fixed.     This should enable me to get track wiring in which will not link between these two boards. It would seem that fe
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The Nightmare boards begin.

So far 'Castell Mawr' has proceeded at a steady crawl, but those gentle steps now give me 10 working layout boards with all 7 point decoders fully functional working my selection of points. The last posting shows the North end cutting taking on it's base plaster in preparation for adding grass and asorted other greenery. What I have done is to forget the Southern 180 degree section on two boards that sit just shy of 6 inches lower than the rest of the layout. On these I want a resin river, wate
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The Last of my 2019 Club Diorama.

Well I suppose you can always add a little touch here and there, but as far as this one goes it's reached the end. Today I brought in from the shed to add reeds along the back of my pond. The PVA still wet, but by tomorrow morning it'll be back in the shed until later in December when it'll be entered into the clubs annual diorama competition.   A bit Photo heavy. Out of interest this 'picture' has cost me just over £5 for the bridge, everything else was laying arou
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The Big day over - Now to recommence wagon building

It was a once a year outing, Castell Mawr back in the shed again. While it does everything I wanted at the time, it has become something of a white elephant. Too big to have up and running at home. I can just assemble on our patio which is high and catches wind, easily enough to take stock off !! I really don't know what to do with it ? Jamie one of the original group of 4 builders/planners came down to Dorset from Cambridge just to run it for a day, he had a great day and so
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The 'New' Peco Parkside BR 13 Ton Coal Hoppers

Because I grew up in the days of King Coal and was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne it's not surprising that I fancied a few of these new coal hoppers. They didn't last too long in the required sector, but were used for many other products, even sugar beet ? In my opinion a super little kit, very little to complain about and I'm currently running 2 without any decals. Must road test before finishing, partially while trying to decide what loads to add, be it sand, coal, iron ore,
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Stuck in Slow Jobs.

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
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Still not finished, but creeping along.

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
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Still much to do

'Fifi' the 0-4-0 yard loco together and passed a running test. It is strange though how it runs much better in reverse than forward. How can that be ? a 24.5 mm wheelbase had me expecting stalls on insulated frog points, however it crosses fine at a very low speed in reverse, but needs quite a bit more 'welly' when going forward. A lengthy train, way beyond anything this would be expected to pull, or push makes no difference. It'll work with 10 wagons no problem.   Here it is alongside my 0
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Still just playing around on Two Short Planks

Dug out the Bachmann 3 car 108 DMU, it runs so smoothly I did a nice gentle pull out from North Quay terminus, platform 2. I have a key-fob video camera, but not enough light in the loft to get acceptable videos of cab rides into the tunnel. The result is more simple videos from the small digi camera.     I don't know if I ever told the story behind the layout being Two Short Planks. I started when I knew nothing and in model railway terms was as thick as two short planks. It was als
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