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As mentioned in previous posts I have decided to use the Brian Morgan turnout operating units for all the pointwork on Barrow Road. Brian has produced some superb etches for B & C switches in P4 which can be obtained from the Scalefour Stores. His main interest is the GWR and whilst the original units were designed specifically for Great Western loose heeled switches he has also produced the other version for non GW railway turnouts. The TOU etches, one for the standard B, C switch, the other showing one half of the double slip. Brian also does a single slip. Here is a close up of the underside of the TOU for Barrow Road north exit. It shows the base plate, tufnol operating bar in it's guide, and the operating crank on it's etched mount. The crank gives 12mm clearance under the board but Brian also provides a 15mm version as an extra. I have chosen to replace the 8BA crank nut and bolt with M2.5 as this allows the use of a M2.5 nyloc [ to be added] rather than fixing with loctite or nail varnish. A close up of the top side of the unit The north exit unit An overall view of the underside of the north exit TOU. The strips of 6mm wide black card have been added to minimise the contact surface for gluing to the baseboard and assists future removal of trackwork without damage. Credit for this idea goes to group a member Graham Turner who, unknown to me, incorporated it in the original build of Brinkley. It is well proven as some of the track on this layout required relaying and was removed without damage and relayed. The advantage is the card can be cut to remove trackwork. Here is the Brian Morgan etched jig showing an tufnol operating unit with 10BA bolt and brass tube inserts for the switch droppers Having built the north exit unit I found that the spacing of the Brian Morgan jig at 16.5mm meant that the spacing between the switch and stock rail looked too wide. Brian gives the required spacing as 1.45mm but I think 1mm looks better. Discussion with others, including Morgan Gilbert, resulted in a new specification of a 17.5mm spacing a a new drilling jig - thanks Morgan. Here is Morgan's new jig with the 17.5mm centres for the droppers. The centre hole is for the 10BA bolt for the operating crank.

Good morning, Little bit more progress on the station building however watching 'catch up versions' of Spooks 10 has got in the way a little (two more to finish next week...no spoilers please!) The station is a reduced version of the building as the prototype is significantly longer and probably to scale would stretch to meet the fiddleyard, so this is trying to capture the essence of Kyle. Whilst I am not trying to replicate it to the exact detail, if when I finish, the model can be recognised as Kyle, then I will be happy I have used the evergreen sheeting cut into strips with a small 10 thou spacer between to try and create the sill and give the elevation some relief. I used a piece of clear perspex as a base to overlay on and the idea was to create the windows on this perspex but I will think that one through again as I have a little MEK-PAK creep. The base profile is in place and now I will look to add smaller framing details, chimneys, canopy and windows and doors. The station has been in various liverys(?) over the years including Blue and Green however I think the one that suits my period is a rather dull grey More to follow when I have it...quick pic below... Base shell in plasticard...excuse the twist in the canopy which I only noticed after photographing

This week has been dominated by the removal of our oil fired central heating - so not much railway modelling. The single track junction is now ballasted: I think the track was laid before the rest of the layout was completed and access to the ends of the sidings now requires great physical stamina and not a little patience! Hence the Blog title 'A stretch in time!. As usual I have provided card bases for the Goods Shed and Engine Shed: A picture with work in progress and then another showing the buildings in position. There is a coaling facility planned for the siding to the right of the engine shed but that will have to wait for another day (year) The junction is supposed to represent somewhere in mid Wales where a single track ex GWR line meets up with another single track ex LNWR line. This allows the use of a range of Bachmann / Mainline BR (WR and LMR) rolling stock:

The other day I was browsing the blogs seeking inspiration and stumbled across SNCF Stephen's excellent litte 3D printed Drasine project. This got me thinking about a small is beautiful approach to N gauge modelling. After all, 3D printing costs depend purely on cubic centimeters of 'stuff' used rather than complexity.... ...so a small, fiddly model seems to offer the best value! A while ago I bought three Dapol Terriers with an eye to using the chassis for some unspecific project, at some stage. My thinking for using them will leave one as Dapol intended (it seems rude not to!), with a little detailling while another of them will become: http://www.flickr.co...157616968231861 Great Western Railway 0-6-0 saddle tank locomotive no. 813 (formerly Port Talbot & Docks Railway no. 26) http://www.gwr813.org/ Tonight I set to work with a disassembled Terrier (I tried running the superstructure-less chassis and adhesion is a predictable problem, the printed new bodyshell will need some voids for lead shot!) and began work using Google Sketchup. I have found myself progressing with suprising speed:

Hello This seems like an ideal time to look back at the progress on Highclere. Im sure everyone is familiar with the layout by now so I wont bore anyone with the reasons why, what it is, etc, etc.. Anyway here is where I am... The layout on the whole is comming together slowly. All the major bits and pieces are there and done and now its time to look at some of the fiddly detail bits (the bits I like) I still have the backscene to do which is scaring me right now plus another bit I really need to look at sometime soon is the rest of the boards for the fiddle yard and stuff. I have figured out how to do the grass type stuff. Its a mixture of static fibres applied with one of the 'fly-swat grass' machines. After a bit of tweaking with a paint brush I am happy with the results (plus it feels great too!) There is plenty more to stick down though which I am looking forward to The buildings are comming along well although as with everything else are taking a long time to do. I am happy with how they look so far and have figured out a way to do them with a handy laser cutter. I still have the goods shed, platform waiting shelter, cattle dock, and a little lineside hut to do. The electrics still need a bit of work. Its not one of my strong points and as yet nothing has actually worked on the layout! This is something I NEED to get sorted soon. Who knows, the whole thing might not ever work! Trying to make everything light up and work doesnt help either, it just adds to the wiring. Fiddly bits, these are the bits I enjoy doing. I really do like a challenge and luckily there are more to do. Now if I can just figure out how to do ground signals.... Rolling stock is also comming along well. As this stuff cannot be bought from a shop I am not getting a huge collection of stuff. I have one or two more tank wagons to go to get a Fawley tank train (plus a 9F kit too!). I enjoy building this stuff, its what I did before Highclere came along. So there you have it! I think I have come a fair way in the past couple of years but I am more than aware that its not going to finished anytime soon but one thing for sure is I am really really enjoying making Highclere so watch out for more posts soon Missy

Hello OK, so its been ageess and aggeess since my last post and I apologise. It does seem to be normal now for me to stop modelling for a month or so around this time of the year and this year has been no real exception. I havent totally stopped but there hasnt really been anything worth posting recently. I know things will return to normal at some point though. One thing that hasnt helped is being without any broadband here at home. For some reason my original ISP decided to cut my broadband connection a couple of days after I asked for my MAC code! but now I have a shiny and new BT connection... Anyway, as I mentioned above there isnt really anything that warrants a post on its own in the way of modelling but there are a couple of things I will mention... Firstly I have done a little more on Elvis the railcar. I have been slowly working through the bogies for the railcar and have managed to rewheel it to 2mm standards by making my own axles with pinpoint ends to keep the original electrical pickups. I have now moved onto fitting the sideframes but I havent quite figured out how to do it yet! Its certianly making me think for sure... Secondly I have been dabbling once again with etching and thanks to Pixie I got a prototype narrow gauge chassis etched. I designed it to be soldered together from four layers to reproduce the 'I' beam section which also allows some pockets on each end for couplings. The wheels are held in place with 2mm SA pinpoint bearings and the whole thing went together really well without any problems. I have now tweaked the design a little to make the chassis as small as possible and I hopefully will be getting some more etched soon. Missy

Thanks Kris Aliens Now you have really spoilt it Jon! Thanks - The twist is just a bit of delam between the the two slivers of plasticard - A paintbrush and a glug of MEK PAK should sort that. Gatwick Sky Grey - Like it...Like it...You should talk to Wilko about a new range of matchpots...

I thought I would introduce South Yard by concentrating on what it is for so here is a picture of South Yard set up in the holiday cottage that we rented last week for our half-term holiday on the North York Moors. I don't claim any originality in any of South Yard's ideas (or the title of this posting) - the main inspiration came from David Mallott's 'Chapel Wharf', particularly his idea of having a layout that could easily be taken on holiday to provide entertainment in case of inclement weather. Fortunately we didn't have very much inclement weather, but the nights are drawing in so there was plenty of opportunity to run some freight traffic. There might have been passenger traffic too if I had remembered to take the bubble car. South Yard was conceived a long time ago - probably about 2001 as a 'quick' ultra-portable micro layout. I'd partially built a bigger 2mm layout some time prior to this but a house move left it with no suitable place to live. If the 2012 RMWeb challenge is for the longest time to build the least amount of layout then I reckon I'll be in the running. South Yard is set in the back streets of Plymouth. The fictional story is that the LSWR wanted to gain their own access to the Royal Naval Dockyard at Devonport and so built a line off their Stonehouse Pool branch to reach the southern portion of the dockyard (which really is called South Yard) and gain access to the yard's internal rail network via a gate in the yard wall near to the rope walk. A small station was also provided to cater for the yard workforce and local populace. This fiction probably has quite a few holes including some questionable gradients and the elimination of several streets near the yard, but is perhaps no less plausible than the real thing which involved the burrowing of a restricted height tunnel on the internal railway between the various parts of the dockyard. The setting and built environment draws much from David Mallott's inspiration - the Turnchapel Branch, although I've lifted bits of Turnchapel station rather than the wharf and grafted them onto a track layout mostly inspired by John Spencer's Ruyton Road. The dockyard gate was originally inspired by the entrance to Coypool depot from the Marsh Mills branch, although you'd be hard pressed to spot any similarity now. The road bridge and scenic break is from further afield - Exeter Central, the story being that a road widening scheme required replacement of an older bridge. The provender store was recycled from my older layout and was based on the photos of Barnstaple cement depot in the first MRJ Compendium. Finally, the coal merchant's office is based on a photo of the back of a building at Welshpool and pure speculation regarding how the front might have looked. My original definition of 'ultra portable' was that it should fit into a single compartment of a flight bag (not that I ever intended to take it on a flight). This dictated the 10 by 16 inch area available for the layout and also that it should pack down into something not more than a couple of inches in height. There is no fiddle yard, just an adapter that allows modules to be plugged in. The other ends of the modules are supported by a book of suitable thickness. Here's the layout just back from holiday and still without any of its removeable scenic bits. South Yard has never actually travelled in the flight bag as originally intended because I was given a rectangular brief case for which I had no real use other than as South Yard's new carry case. This also allowed me to postpone the construction of the originally planned protective case for South Yard. It would be nice to say that South Yard packs down into a nicely designed box complete with integral storage for stock and buildings. It would be nice but it wouldn't be true. The layout itself including buildings, scenery and fiddle yard modules all pack rather untidily into the brief case. The briefcase then travels in company with a Morrison's shopping bag containing the somewhat bulky power supply (also recycled from my old layout), controller, locos and stock plus a small toolkit and a box with whatever projects I'm optimistically planning to work on while I'm away. Speaking of which, here are the products from three separate weeks' holidays during the summer and Autumn. Happily, South Yard has completely fulfilled its original purpose and has been taken on holiday on several occasions as well as playing its regular role as the permanent test track in my study/workshop. There is still plenty more to do - the bare bones of the scenery is done (which is a major achievement compared to my previous layouts) but there is plenty more work to do in terms of detailing the coal yard and adding more vegetation. The dockyard could use some actual gates plus an extra module adapter to allow trains to be shunted through them.

This is how it looked before, the area to the right in the picture:

I was very pleased with how many people read my first blog entry yesterday. A big thanks to those people who commented. For the member who wanted more pics I am happy to oblige. Yesterday I described how I had started building my layout, based loosely on the preserved station at Goathland on the North Yorkshire Moors. One of the first scenic areas I have completed is the embankment which carries the footpath towards the location of Darnholm. Here are a couple of pictures of the completed the structure. This first picture gives an overview of the embankment, complete with trees and footpath. As you can see, some of the stone scatter material wasn't stuck down well enough onto the footpath and it has started to come off revealing the grey paint underneath (see bottom of the picture). I will have to repair this at a later date. This second picture gives a low level view of the embankment and footpath taken from the bottom of the enbankment. More developments Being a teacher the progress with Skaleby seems to go in "fits and starts". During term time the workload often prevents me from doing any scenic work, although I do find time to run the occasional train. But during the holidays things seem to move much quicker. The baseboards were only completed back in March. The track layout was experimented with during the Easter period before it was finally pinned down during the June half term. The "Darnholm embankment" was completed during the summer break along with the bases for the station buildings. As this week is my half term things are moving forward once again. I have turned my attention to the "Pickering" end of the layout where trains will leave the station under a road over bridge. The bridge has been placed "in-situ" and the embankments for the associated cutting has now been started. As before I built up the area using the polysterene blocks from Skaledale buildings. These were glued down before screwed up newspaper was added on top to create a basic shape ( as seen in this picture). I once again cut out strips of cardboard and stuck this on top of the newspaper to provide a firm base for the road. The whole structure was then covered with plaster bandage. I also added a cardboard base to the top of the enbankment for the pub which will stand here and overlook the station. I have placed the pub in the correct position for this shot. The building is the Skaledale "Mason's Arms". This whole area has now been left to dry. You may notice that on one side of the bridge the embankment has a "recess built in" (where the paintbrush is on an earlier shot!). This will house the signal box and a lamp hut. For those of you who know Goathland station you will realise that this is the wrong side. At the real location a water tower sits here. Sadly, space prevented me from placing the signal box in its true position on the near side of the line. Had I tried to put it there I would have had a very short platform or no goods yard, and both were important to me. Also I do not like the ground level signal box at Goathland, nor its associated Hornby model. I have therefore used major artistic license and moved the signal box location, and changed the style of the box too. The box I will use is actually Bachmann's model of Highley signal box from the Severn Valley Railway. Ok, ok I know it is not right for the area, but like I said previously...it is my layout so I will choose what I like! Besides as Skaleby is on a fictional preserved line I could easily invent a story to suggest that the original North Eastern box has been demolished!!! Anyway I like the Bachmann model and had to use it somewhere! I have placed the Bachmann box in its location for this shot which was taken of a Hornby West Country (Clovelly) whilst on test prior to be placed on EBay. Not sure why I bought this model. I think I had some spare cash and my local model shop was having a sale! Anyway moving on! With the bridge cuttings drying what is next?? I still have a few half term days left and I am sure there will be a bit of modelling time to be found amongst the decorating of the baby's room! So what are my plans? My next projects will be: * Permenantly pinning down the track in the fiddle yard. * Build a hidden storage siding to expand storage space in the fiddle yard. * Paint the cuttings in brown base paint. * Begin to add scenery to the rear of the far platform. Oh and I still need to connect up the track to the main engine shed scene and add scenery around the single road shed too. Watch this space!

For quite some time I've been intending to upgrade my Chivers 'Harlech Castle' to an outside framed version, using the newer Farish 08 chassis. I eventually bought one earlier this year, and it has been sat awaiting attention ever since. The whitemetal body had been originally fitted to an old inside framed chassis, which was a bit dodgy in its running qualities, being rather old, with minimal pickup. A few weeks ago I set about dismantling the body (it was unly superglued, so easy enough to 'snap' to pieces) and cleaned up the joints. I intend to solder it back together. I then made a start on adjusting the chassis plate to fit over the new motor assembly. I also decided that if it was going to be properly framed, it should also have the jackshaft drive, and I spent many hours at work trying to figure out how I would go about creating such an arrangement, thankfully, RT Models came to the rescue with their own conversion kit! One was ordered and after studying of the parts, instructions, chassis, and instructions again, I finally plucked up the courage today to take tools to the nice new chassis! The conversion kit is fairly straightforward, and, providing the quartering of the cranks is done, should run well once assembled. The instructions recommend glueing the cranks to the axle, but I chose to solder them, even though they are a very tight fit (a small tap with a hammer need to put the axle through the hole in the crank) for extra security. In order to return the Farish frame mouldings back into place, a new axle hole has had to be made for the jackshaft, but that was fairly simple, as was removing all of the extra details (sand boxes and steps) as they are all just glued in place, so a quick twist with some pliers and its all done! The chassis has been running around my oval of N Settrack for the last hour to check for binding and it seems fine in both directions, so now I'll have to get on with the boddy work! Any comments or questions are welcome J

Thanks, It is a tiny work subject, but not too fiddly, and the only surgery required on the Farish chassis itself is the removal of the coupling rods and details. RT provide a replacement keeper plate with the holes for the jackshaft marked in it, so no drilling of the chassis block is needed. A very well thought out conversion set! Cheers J