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About this blog

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

Entries in this blog

"Jurassic Models" ? Well Almost !!

My Blog tends to chart my workbench activity. With more than a few wagon builds as I needlessly add even more to the overall collection. I've decided to try and clear some inherited kits which while very good at their time of issue are now beginning to fall short of later models. However first I thought I'd add a picture of the Cambrian Dogfish in it's current decaled but not weathered state.     Right, next I started was a very old Ratio kit, one of a fe
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Rain Started Play ....... Obviously Not Cricket

I do most of my modelling outdoors - any mess is easily swept away However it was raining when I got up this morning. I decided to look at my 'New' Metclafe GWR signal box. Now there is a growing group of railway modellers who look down their noses at Metcalfe card buildings. Yes over used and the answer is that they are affordable,reasonably easy to make with first class instructions and most retailers stock them ....... just proves they must be doing something right.   The new box is e
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Pt.II Or West Bay Layout

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
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For the love of railways, or modelling ?

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
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Is Railway Modelling Art ?

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
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I've bought one at last !

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
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Blog Entry

My Wagon Works is still on Short Time

I have finished a few more wagons, usually by stripping couplings from either Bachmann RTR, or earlier kit builds. This one used a pair of long couplers that I found in a box of spares. With a longer overhang I could set the mounting blocks slightly further back to keep my closer coupling in line with earlier production.   So my Parkside PC49 LMS goods brake van :- Some 'rough' interior colour in case anyone is daft enough to try and look in.     See
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Exhibitions, worth the hard work ?

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
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Effective uncoupling by Dads Magic Wand

For years I've been looking for a better answer to uncoupling than I'd found to date.   I decided that nearly all methods of automatic uncoupling are just too limiting being at fixed locations. Even the much vaunted Kaydees will only uncouple at the fixed magnet, although it is possible to release and continue to push without recouping it's simply not as flexible as I wanted. The Brian Kirby method was something I was going to add to my layout, being cheap & effective although single
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Another Rubbish Scrap Of Ply

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
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"You said you'd run out of wagons to make" ........... Learn to keep it secret !

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
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A bit of fun - Just because we can ?

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.
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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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Kadees - Love them, or Hate them ?

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
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Reviving an antique - No space left !

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
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Current Diorama, or is it a Micro ?

I'm a fidget, I can't sit watching TV for long without wanting to do something with my hands.   Had over 35 years of scale aircraft modelling, but needed a change a couple of years ago. As with many I'd always dreamed of having a model railway, but never had the space, time, or finance. With retirement and the children all having flown the nest that just left finance, with interest rates at such low levels I thought I'd spend some money before it became worthless.   This means my knowledge o
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I started wagon kit building.

I'm not a frequend poster on here. I prefer to be working on something rather than be on-line. Trouble is I've just painted the loft hatch and can't get in there today.   Still, it's like this ...... At Warley I saw a Parkside Dundas wagon kit, one promised by Bachmann many moons ago, the 22 ton tube wagon. Having spent what seems like a lifetime making scale aircraft kits I thought why not .... it's only £9 & could be fun.   It was fun & I kind of caught the bug, purchased 4 mor
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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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No mileage in sleepless nights - West Bay getting close to finished ?

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
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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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Another of my infrequent visits

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
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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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Always something to trip you up !

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
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Shillingstones Lane Pt.II almost finished

6 weeks since I posted and in truth not a lot done. Family members are having the caravan this weekend so I had to do something with Shillingstones Lane. Pt.I shown in the last posting was all but finished however Pt.II was sitting unloved so I brought home and added some grass, fixed (although not painted) fencing around the cottage then planted a real height tree roughly a 44 footer.     I enjoy the making up of a scene, much more relaxing for me than trying to copy some existing lo
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Photos that go wrong !

We all like a funny photo ..... Tonight I was laying some grass on embankment sides and decided as I was finishing to take a few photos. This one kind of caught me out !! Have you ever seen such pretty smoke coming from a chimney ?     Brought a smile to my face.   Dad-1
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