These models are more than a bit naff, but for the price they are great for static displays. I had to strip down the Mallard one and reglue the wheels straight and rejoin the wobbly bottom half of the tender. I also did a little bit of weathering on the Mallard. You know I often wonder why Airfix/Dapol never made these part of their plastic kit range.
I've only bought the Flying Scotsman and Mallard issues and now wish I'd have purchased at least six of the Mallard one
Battle of Britain Class pulls in to the station. Winston knew it was an InterCity (INCIT in Newspeak) and was reserved for upper party officials only. Passes to travel to other cities for outer party members were rare indeed. Only the upper party and proles could freely use these trains.
I've included another shot of the Prole area showing an armoured car this time. This is an Airfix model and I made the very same kit 35 years ago would you believe. They say that there's no co
Anyone familiar with my models will know I’m a bit of a ‘Shed’ nut and this is another one. In response to an article in Railway News last summer I’d set my heart on a depiction of a locomotive works once my Barrow Hill layout was finished. The fact that I also grew up in Birmingham has something to do with a fascination for factories. It seems the industrial areas of my home town have left an indelible mark that just can’t be ignored even though I now live in rural Ireland.
Horwich
The Roof is more or less complete and so is the front. Here are a couple of shots of the layout.
The shot above shows how the roof detaches and how the end gable wall slots out. In retrospect I wish I had made the back wall detachable, but it does have viewing arches so a camera lens can be pushed through.
It would be pretty rare to have diesels in the same shop as steam locos, but it did happen. Anyway I couldn't resist uploading this picture as it sho
Had some fun with another Dapol 9F kit. I've tried to emulate the scene below from British Railways Illustrated (August edition). The prototype photo shows a 9F being fitted with a Crostis Boiler in March 1955 at Crewe. My take, however, has to make do with a standard boiler.
This is a shot from the other side.
A final pic of the welder at work on a stripped down 4MT
Over the last few nights I've been knocking up the following Class 13 Slave unit out of an old Lima Class 09 shunter. Bought a copy of a special edition of Modelling British Railways about all the TOPS Diesels - really brilliant and haven't been able to put it down. When I saw the section about making a Class 13 out of a couple of Hornby Class 08s I started watering at the mouth! 'I have to have one, I have to have one' became my mantra around the house for a few days. Always on a budget,
The 3mm leds arrived today from Express Models. Really are superb quality lights - relatively cheap and very easy to use. Their service really is an express one and these have again, like all my other orders, arrived very timely indeed. I've stuck a couple in the ends of short pieces of plastic straw and used them as directional lighting (tiny spots) to highlight the front of the 9F. A couple have also been stuck down a couple of the smoke hoods to simulate the sunlight coming down them as i
The much awaited package from Express Models arrived on Friday so I got beavering away on Saturday evening and have just finished. I used their pendant lights on my Barrow Hill model so was familiar with the electronics involved. This time, however, they made up a bespoke dimmer switch so I can play around with the light levels. A few pics so far.
This last shot is a close up of the elevated works office at the rear. The steps are from Scalelink and were eas
The picture of the real thing (Mike Morrant Collection - Fowler 2P) that started the journey on this layout. I've managed, after many hours messing about with a spotlight and my Panasonic Lumix, to capture the streaming sunlight effect I wanted. Just wish I could photoshop some steam into the shot - I'll just have to put up with cigarette smoke for now!
A couple of sepia images of a Duchess in LMS war time black. I really like this loco - the streamline
Iv'e gone with LMS upper quadrant signals after taking Dave's advice. These should now match the BR period depicted. Instead of rushing these, I should have researched Semaphore signals properly - alas, that's how we learn!
A class 31/4 waits on signal.
A HST speeds past the junction on the main line. This is a much beloved Lima set and it's great to see it run around and around.
An old, detailed Lima 50 pulls an old Hornby class 86. The 'Freigh
Just a quick update on progress so far. Upon showing the first pictures to my wife she said that the layout looked too rural for it to be Perry Barr. Whilst the there is a Park to the north of the station there were obvious signs of it being in a suburban, Green Belt area - it was right next to a Shopping Centre (Lynton Square in the 70/80's) and the original site of the Dog Track Stadium - but these could hardly be seen from the station as the ground sloped off rapidly behind the station. Ho
I happened to mention to SWMBO that I might build a Tinsley Micro plank so that I could take pics of my Lima shunter to Class 13 conversion in an appropriate setting. This sparked off the inevitable debate about the amount of time I spend modelling. However, seeing how SWMBO spends her time in the evenings watching all of the soaps (television I point blank refuse to watch) I countered that the micro could be done in an equivalent amount of time over a week or so. We finally agreed a ten hour
The latest effort is a plan to recreate a part of the great Carlisle Citadel Station for my collection of steam locos. I want a half station scene with a mirror doubling up the length on the internal section. It'll be another one of my wire roof schemes. The tracks beyond a middle platform with act as a run through so that the station can be linked up to a future run around planned for my loft space. Station buildings on the middle platform will hide the hole in the mirror. However, I figured th
In the lead up to Christmas I wanted a break from the next phase of making the control panel for my Barrow Hill Yard layout - wiring just ain't fun enough! So, whilst perusing the internet during this let up period I came across David Shepherd's magnificent painting called 'On Shed' - this features a dirty 9F awaiting its next duty. This really got the juices flowing so I put together a quickie layout for a Shadow Box scheme (I've had a Bachmann 9F for Christmas which I'm eagerly waiting for the
Hi all,
Just bought the splendid Bachmann Ivatt Class 2MT but don't like the trailing DCC wires to the tender. I'm an analogue runner so have no need for the chip interface in the tender. Does anyone know how to get rid of these wires - found that if the plug is removed from the tender it wont run? I have no understanding of DCC electrics so if there's an easy way to remove them I'd be really grateful for info. It also judders when running slow - is this normal and will it go away after
Spent a great day out yesterday at the Chester MRC's event in Blennerville, County Kerry. The group have generously donated their model of the Tralee and Dingle Light Railway to the centre. This will hopefully provide a great boost to the fledgling Irish Railway Society that have recently started up.
Some pictures of what is an already well known and highly crafted layout.
John Campbell and Neil Ramsay were also in attendance with their fabulous collections of 16mm live steam and
Stage 1 of the roof covering. Scale scenes corrugated roof texture has been photocopied on to 160 gsm light card and window openings cut out. I thought I might get away with just one layer with the texture on both sides, but it leaks too much light. Another layer will be applied - another lot of windows to cut!! The openings have been covered over with a transparency which has had the same texture copied onto it - this nicely emulates dirt that has collected in the corrugations as on a real
Another update. The platform buildings and footbridge is now complete. All that is needed now is to create the links with my loft runaround scheme. The followings pics are all early BR.
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I very much doubt that 46151 ever hauled the Thames Clyde Express, however, other members of the class did work it North of Leeds.
Smoke Hoods are now all in - phew! I actually do think it looks better now, but comments/suggestions always welcome.
Been experimenting with a roof finish also. On the last model I used 160gsm light card that was photocopied with Scale-scene's corrugated texture on both sides and transparencies with the same pattern as the windows, but it never looked right. This time I've used 1.5mm card with cut out window openings - the papers have been pasted on and transparencies with the corrug
I have decided to put another removable, half-relief shed where the backscene photo of the Cooling Towers are - they can still be viewed by simply removing the new structure if desired. The new shed is being constructed at the moment. I have also still got a pile of work to do on the steel wagon fleet - all will need Spratt & Winkle couplings like the rest of my wagons.
The Yorkshire, sloped-sided shunter, common at Bilston was from Judith Edge. I'm not particular
The Bachmann 9F arrived yesterday - Yipee!!! It's such a detailed model that I was quite frankly nervous whilst handling it. The detailed pipework is amazing and I'd have expected to have paid much more for something as finely produced. I couldn't wait to get it into the Shadow Box for a few pictures though.
So nearly there - a comparison shot with David Shepherd's magnificent painting - I need to get another LED spotlight on the front yet.
This shot shows how the mirror d
The goodies arrived from Hattons yesterday. I've taken advantage of their bargain section and got these two smashing beauties for only a little over £110!
These are my birthday present and were therefore a legal purchase for a change!!!
The first pic of an Ivatt Class 4 Mogul and was the prototype for the BR Standard 4MT. Note the double chimney - this was reduced to a single when it was found that they could double the boiler pressure with the new arrangement. This pic (June 1949) was t
I've finally buckled down and decided to build a layout based on Barrow Hill's Service Yard. At first I'd made great plans to somehow incorporate this with my layout of the Roundhouse, but reason has prevailed and I've decided to just model the yard which will butt up against a low relief version of the Roundhouse.
The coaling stage and ash plant, heavily modified versions of the Super Quick models, are just for scale. I made these at the same time as my 'D' Shop model during the brie
A few update photos. The bridge (scenic break), platform, walls and fences are now in.
The walls are made from DAS clay and match the small Skaledale section at the rear - these were quick to make. I used the ends of paint brushes with the hairs removed and just kept stabbing at the clay to get the stone effect. They were then primed with grey and given a couple of black washes to complete. I wanted to achieve that broken down and badly repaired dry stone wall effect you often see i
The roof panels are now complete. A couple of pics to show different light levels achieved by altering the camera settings.
A first shot showing the Stygian gloom on an ordinary indoor setting (candlelight).
The next shot on a sensitive setting at a longer exposure. Quality is compromised on this type of setting.
I'm not entirely happy with some of the openings - they are not all flat, but this is because of the thinness of the card used. However, what can you expect whe
