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
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.
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
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
Some months ago I came across a fantastic website - www.britishsteelbilston.com - about the Bilston Steel works in Wolverhampton, West Midlands. This has been put together by Mr Andrew Simpson who worked there and is well worth a visit - there are some fantastic photos including a section on the Work's locomotives. In fact, I contacted Andrew and he put me in touch with a Mr Roger Deans, a chief fitter at Bilston, who has provided me with information and a lot of stories about his time there.
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
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
The Lights are in - blew one up by not using resistor when testing, but the rest work fine! Here's a smoky shot (cigarette smoke) with the lights on (I've used 8 in total).
The next shot is a smoky one with outside daylight (simulated by a couple of 100watt bulbs). I'm trying to get the sunlight streaming through the smoke effect, but just can't get it to work yet.
I've included this last picture because I quite like the mottled effect from the roof windows on the walls.
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
Finished!!
Had a play about with the stock today, but had a few problems. The usual suspects - dirty track and wheels, bad connections etc. This is the frustrating aspect of 4mm scale - especially when you've double checked the circuits and cleaned everything about a 100 times!
A few pics below - more tomorrow if I'm allowed - we're supposed to be going up some hill or other for a walk. Know what I'd rather be doing!!
Managed to capture the streak through the smoke with the inte
I was going to have a go at making the yard at Barrow Hill to compliment a previous model of the Roundhouse made about a year and a half ago. However, after much thought, I decided that the original model just wouldn't do - so here are some pics of my second attempt.
The turntable is from Walther's Cornerstone which matches the one at Barrow Hill although it's longer. Some say the model isn't up to scratch, but it was easy to put together. I did have some problems with the motor, b
Smoke hoods now in. I only intend to cover 12 roads out of the 24. I took on board the advice about lowering them closer to the locos but looking at the pictures of Saltley and old pics of Barrow Hill I noted that they are about this height anyway. I guess that when initially installed in Victorian times they suited the height of the tall stacks on the steam engines of that time. Hoods for newer roundhouses were then brought down much closer to suit later train design.
Below is a pictu
Progress so far. Walls are up - some Scalescenes papers and a few spare Brassmasters windows later and the roof still fits fine. Smoke Hoods, detailing and roof covering still to complete.
Another pic from a different angle.
It isn't an exact copy of Barrow Hill, rather a mish mash of what a Round House would look like although the roof profile is the same. I've used a pictures from Both Barrow Hill and some old photos of Saltley as a reference.
Tried a couple of smoke hoods just to see if they look okay. These are copies of the old types as used at Saltley. I tried another design first and made twenty before deciding that I didn't like them!! The ones in the pics actually look as if they are designed to do the job.
Tried a long exposure shot -
Comments most welcome because I don't want to destroy the look already achieved without the hoods. I notice that at Barrow Hill only under half the roads have hoods for
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
Just a quick update on progress so far.
The track is down and wiring nearing completion. There's been a lot happening here of late with family matters of one thing and another so modeling time has been severely compromised.
My wiring method ain't neat, but it works! All points are motored and the frogs wired to Peco switches - a lot of work but worth the effort for a yard type layout. So hopefully loco stutter will be non existent and slow running should be superb when all thing
Just a few pictures of a model of the Launch Umbilical Tower in 1/400 scale I made a few years ago. The Saturn V is a Dragon model. This is my tribute to those magnificent people that worked to put a man on the moon before 1970. I still quite can't believe that there are still people who refuse to believe in this brilliant achievement. Especially given the plethora of scientific information available on the web nowadays. I'm really enjoying the event and there has been some great stuff on t
State of play thus far with 'The Works' - new wire roof fitted before covering. The roof is designed so that it can be removed for track cleaning and loco placing. I've tried hard with this one to get everything straight and square.
I'm trying to achieve something like the roof at Loughborough Works. This photo is from The Railway Magazine (Nov 2012 souvenir issue) - it show the works in the late 80's building the Class 60. It's a former wagon works, but loco erecting shops and wagon
In response to fellow RMweb members who were interested in how I made the overall wire roof the following is an article that was scheduled to appear in a future edition of FRMR. The baseboard for the model had been completed by the end of December and the roof structure by the end of January. It was around this time I emailed some pictures to the late Bob Barlow, who in response asked me to write a short article about its construction. By the time this was sent the poor man was probably starting
The latest pics of progress. The roof is complete and a backscene of joined, white mounting card has been erected. Just a small section of some platform buildings and a LCut footbridge to install. I also need to get a printout of the real citadel building seen to the rear of the station - this will be pasted to card and placed in the correct position on the backscene.
The above looks a bit like a painting in a way. There is no photoshop trickery here -
The latest project. I've been off and on with this layout over the last couple of years. So I decided to buckle down and get on with it. The roof is still under construction and I'm very much at the McGuyvering stage. There's always a lot of niggles to sort. This is a quarter of a station scheme with a mirror at the rear to double the length. The whole layout is a mere 6.5 foot long.
This is an original Hornby Margate version of a Duchess which has been fettled wit
Another mess about with video. This is much inspired by Mikkel's Farthing Layouts although it's nowhere near his modeling standards. I'm also sure that many GWR fans will know that inappropriate stock has been used, but it is my first attempt. I hope you like the concept.
I don't think the attachment has uploaded properly so take a look at this link instead:
Winston Smith arrived this morning courtesy of Gaugemaster. I've trawled the net looking for a suitable figure, but could only find one from the Preiser Mechanics set. Although you can tell that H0 figures are slightly underscale for 4mm, Preiser still have the best range of rendered figures. They are so well painted and detailed that I personally can't resist them.
Winston looks lost under the claustrophobic concrete roof. I've also bought some East German guards (which have yet
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
