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John (Re6/6) visited today and we had a few pleasant hours shunting some wagons around Callow Lane. I put all the completed buildings up, which give a bit more of a flavour of what I hope it will eventually look like. Bagnall ('Jinty') 47276 shunting a few wagons into the yard: The new cottages are almost finished, in the distance, with just the ridge tiles, chimney pots and guttering/drainpipes still to add: 'Lord Salisbury' waits the road back to Frog Lane pit, a mile or so from Callow Lane: 47276 sits with its train outside the Taffson Evans works: The shunters cabin:

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 when there are 152 of them! Next - the lights. I bought some ready made pendant lights from Express Models (very prompt service - I got the package only 2 days after ordering). 8 of these will hopefully bring up the interior light levels for some good shots of the locos. Comments most welcome.

Last time I was getting to grips with the major bodyshell conversions. This time, I've finished the valve gear. Yes, it's very crude. It uses components from the donor A2 model, and a spare set of Bachmann V2 valve gear I had squirreled away. Does it work? Surprisingly, yes. It works quite well. I have managed second radius curves with the model in its current state quite happily. I've been making modifications to the boiler - removal of certain boiler bands, and a complete redoing of the firebox end (not finished yet - new washout plugs, handrail and similar to fit). The smokebox is next on my agenda, however, as it needs the extended superheater headers fitted before the smoke deflectors I've been working on. I've also sorted out the tender connection, so the whole model is now mechanically complete. Onto the aesthetics and paintwork in the next few weeks! Until next time.

Hello. I like fiddleyards. I like the form and function of them, the way they are designed and built with no scenery in mind, just to do a job and nothing else. The way they are (usually) as simple as possible, just enough to do the job they have to do and nothing more. Well, thats my thoughts. I know that some fiddleyards are, in what I feel far too over complicated and why? As I mentioned above they are there to do a job, to hold trains ready for displaying on the scenic part of the layout. Progress on Highclere is still moving at a snails pace. The fact that my mind has been elsewhere recently hasnt really helped the situation, but spurred on by the impending Abingdon Exhibition (4th March, White Hourse Tennis and Leisure Centre, Abingdon) where Highclere will make its next appearance (along with Witney Euston), I am determined to get the fiddle yard ready in time. The solitary wagon has been pressed into service as a test vehicle for the trackwork on the rear cassette board. The aluminium angle in the foreground is used for the cassettes to slot into. I have added some Beryllium Copper contacts to each side to aid electrical contact which will be electrically fed directly from the bus bars underneath the layout (hence the eyelets but no wires yet!) I have had a bit of trouble getting all the track and cassette heights correct but with the help of some plasticard shims everything now slots together nicely. EDIT: Here is a plan of one end of the fiddleyard, the opposite end is identical (but just a mirror image) Missy

Whats all this about? Believe me I have never been to a horserace in my life (sheltered upbringing & all that!). HOWEVER, with the proposed chages to 'Upton Dene' scalewise I now have to justify the presence of rakes of 'main line' coaches appearing at Ambridge ('Raceday Specials' etc)! It will also be a good excuse to get on with the 'D&S' horseboxes my wife bought me for Xmas... Might even consider upgrading the route to a 'Blue' route to allow the odd 'Manor' or 'Hall' to run! Regs Ian

Some progress this weekend on the western end of the layout. This is the area of the goods yard, separated from the station by a road bridge. I say 'goods yard' but, in fact it was nothing more than a short siding alongside the line to Hallatrow. The yard was equipped with a short loading platform and a two ton crane. On the model, this area is much reduced in length to fit on a small removeable board across the room doorway. The photo below shows this section looking east. The foam base shown in the previous entry, "Camerton in pink foam", was covered in sculptamold to form the rough surfaces of the various slopes and embankments. These areas were painted in browns and greens to provide a background for the later addition of vegetation. The yard and road surfaces were covered in lightweight filler and painted grey. The road surface, intended to represent a loose surfaced country road in the early years of the 20th century, was then covered with chinchilla dust. Some patching will probably be needed later. I'll also be using this material with various grades of ballast to surface the goods yard. Tracklaying has started on this and the station board. I need to finish the crossover between the platform line and loop before the goods yard is complete. This crossover has been moved a few feet to the west relative to the prototype so as to avoid the join between the boards. I thought at first that this might cause problems with the siting of the goods platform in the yard, as the siding here is much reduced in length compared with the prototype. However, careful examination of a couple of photos of this area show that the platform did partly overlap the crossover. A wagon placed anywhere except at the west end of the platform would foul the crossover and any traffic using the loop. Today was mostly spent ballasting this short section, though not entirely satisfactorily. After a couple of hours carefully tamping the ballast with a soft brush, the misting spray decided to do an impression of heavy rain rather than mist. This undid much of the previous work so I anticipate some patching will be necessary when the PVA is dry. Finally, a start was made on a part of a small bridge at the west end (foreground in the above photo). Further painting and weathering will be needed, but it is useful practice for tackling the more substantial bridges on the layout. Below is part of a typical surviving bridge on the Cam Valley line with red bricks and blues for the corners. This is, in fact, the bridge that will appear at the far east end of the layout. The photo gives an indication of what I'll eventually be aiming for. Of particular note are the extra large capping bricks in blue. The idea for using chinchilla dust for the road surface came from this post by Doug (Chubber), though whether I'll get anywhere remotely near his standard of modelling is an open question...

The buffers and their shanks haven't been painted. The Bachmann LNER spares come in that colour. Therefore they are as springy as the day they were made. The resin components have actually got a coating of grey undercoat underneath the black. Yes, the valve gear works. Yes, after a fashion (hence the word "crude" used in the blog post). The A2 crossheads are spares I obtained from Bachmann and have been shaped to match the V2 set so that a correct fit for the V2 valve gear can be obtained. Is it good looking? No not particularly, but it works. It's not perfect, I never claimed so, but it works and I am content enough with that. I have said previously that I haven't the skills yet to tackle a full conversion of the valve gear, and that I will in time do so when I have the skills. The V2 valve gear was cheap, fits surprisingly well, and works when combined with a few A2 bits and pieces.

With snow falling outside the modelling indoors continues in whichever corners of the house are nearest to a radiator. In my last post, http://www.rmweb.co....re-forestation/ the one thing in the bridge diorama that is looking a bit shabby, and letting the side down is the bridge itself (herself?). This is soon to change, the twisted concoction of MDF, cardboard and cocktail sticks is to get a new face, printed from a Google sketchup design, with all the nuts, bolts and embossed lettering that appear on the real thing. Work has begun: With all of this layout progress, I have been spurred on to reawaken a project not seen since a previous incarnation of RMWeb, the 15XX pannier project, with Dapol Ivatt 2-6-2 chassis and butchered Farish bodyshell ingredients. The real thing (1501) is being put back together at Bridgnorth and hopefully will be seen over the real Victoria Bridge soon, better get the model ready in its honour! Some brass embellishments ('N Brass' GWR mixed traffic bits) And on track, this picture shows quite effectively the degree of 'stuck-up-ness' possible with the static grass balloon method mentioned last time.

That's more like it! Hi All. After the first failed attempt to paint the Carriage and Boiler shop, a much better green has been found in the form of, appropriately, Railmatch Malachite green. I suppose I should have considered this in the first place, what with the MHR being deep in SR territory....! Suffice to say, I'm much happier with how this looks in comparison to the previous colour! High-vis man in giant 50p find. Now, onwards with the roof! Cheers all, Tom.

Having said I'd probably not be doing tooo much to this project... Well I just couldn't resist! Having spent most of the day on carboard mock-ups of the 'Ambridge' baseboards, I needed something different. Plus it gave me a chance to try out my new avatar, coutesy of Paul Martin from the 2mmSA. Several inches of snow (which kept me at home) also helped! So what progress today? 1st - renewed m Association membership (its that time of year!) E-mailed PM following BCNPete's suggestion - result at top left! Ordered 5 5-plank PO kits + chassis & wheels etc from the stores. Then decided I need a track-panel to try them on. A quick blat with 'Templot', doublesided tape to hold it to the ply and then attack rail & sleepers with a soldering iron. I've been 'lurking' in 2mm for a coupl of years now - almost made the change from 'N' to '2mm' - but went for 'EM' instead - so I have got gauges, rail etc ... Just got to wait for the wagons now. Still it will give me time to research the liveries in use at the quarry. Right, back to 'Ambridge' and the 'Big Big Trains'! Regs Ian

Many thanks for all the continued comments regarding the layout, in particular the recent 'backscene crisis'. I decided to reprint option 1 as that seemed to get the most votes and I think the differences are quite subtle but worth it. Although I realise it may not be to everyone's taste, I am grateful to Mike to raise the issue, which prompted debate and actually got me to rethink it and change it albeit in a subtle way. Thanks Mike. I confess I was starting to lose a little interest again with the layout and the enthusiasm was starting to drop off, so I felt I had to take a decision and keep moving. I am also mindful that both Gary and Glen both gave their time freely on this element to help and that is not something you turn your back on. Many thanks again fellas' if you are reading this. In terms of attaching it I used a mixture of spraymount and photomount...only a mixture because both were on their last legs and apart from a heart stopping moment where they both coughed and spat....we got through it. The wall and bridge have now been glued in position too. So with that done, it was time to turn my attention back on the station building. I have acquired some of Ian's (scanman's) self adhesive slates for the roof so last night I have prepared the roof profile (the gaps will be adjusted once the glue has set) and I will now start the cladding on the walls using, I think prescribed thin card, painted before application. Then the door and window frames will be added separately, again pre-painted. A different approach this for me as I am quite an impatient modeller so I need to try and relax and let things dry before moving on. I attach a couple more photos. I think the scale of the building seems okay relative to the size of the layout...and if I can manage some nice detail it may help lose that backscene to fulfil its roll as backdrop... From the roadbridge end...am playing around with my camera settings still trying to improve shots... An overall view...

looks good, you seem to be getting a good atmosphere, I need to get a layout and play trains sometimes.

Hi Stephen, looks impressive. You mention the two white stripes alog the car, have you considered decals? Both Fox Transfers and Microscale do packs of white stripes in various thicknesses. Nick

Hi Will the 1500 really captures the 'chunky' look. Also looking forward to seeing the 'new bridge' - must be a lady, getting all dressed up! Regs Ian

Green with Envy Tom... That looks terrific.

That looks bang on for the pic you posted previously. Worth persevering!

It maybe the camera . Your front buffers are reaching for the sky. I had the same problem on mine it was due to the resin casting being too long where it meets the chassis,. As a result it was pushing the front of the footplate upwards. Easy cure cut the bottom off the offending resin part, there is enough resin left for the securing screw. In case you dont know DMR do the smoke deflectors for £2.00

Continuing the trend of starting a lot of projects (and finishing none) I've been wanting to get on with this one since finally finding a cheap loco to use for the project on ebay. Inspired by this blog by Nick (Buffalo), This will also be getting a High Level chassis, along with the Mainly Trains detailing kit, new washout plugs (following Nicks method) and a scratch built cab interior with an open door. The inspiration for the project is a 1949 photo in steaming through cheddar showing 5813 on a E140 B Set. Work so far: The first job was to prepare the basic shell, removing the boiler, cab roof and coal, and getting rid of the Airfix chimney and smokebox door. The model had been fitted with etched number plates (poorly) which has damaged the side slightly. this has been smoothed off with a bit of filler (with the rest covered by the new plates) The missing underside of the boiler has been added, I started removing the plastic from where the bottom of the smokebox extends back behind the splashers. Next a length of 40thou plasticard cut to the inner width of the smokebox, this was glued in flush and formed the base onto which the rest of the boiler was built. Next another identical piece of 40 thou was added on, with a 45degree cut on the sides to form the basis of the curve. Onto this I glued progressively narrower lengths of 10 thou, before filing to the correct profile and adding a final top coat of filler. 5813 does not have a top feed, so this was carefully chopped off (and the auto fittings will also be chopped off once I know exactly what needs removing. The cab roof was next, My earlier research has indicated that the summer of 1947 was particularly hot. As such I want to model the majority of my locos with the roof vents open. After carefully cutting a hole, I added the cover in the retracted position from plasticard. If Mainly Trains service is anything like what it used to be, more detail parts will be arriving on Monday...

I think it depends on the effect you want with the grass, with a powerful homebrewed (fly-swat/cattle prod) device you can get each strand of static grass standing to attention in a very regular fashion. I suspect even more so if you invest an a proper contraption. However, if you are content for your grass to be a little more haphazard, with some bits sticking up, some sideways, and some still sat sideways: a bit like real grass blown by the wind with mulch and dead grass lying in amongst it; a party balloon worth at most a penny or two will suffice. Simply sprinkle the grass onto a bed of fairly dilute pva. Inflate a balloon, rub it repeatedly on the carpet or wooly jumper for just a few seconds, then wave it over the bed of grass. You need to get close. There will be a noise like rain on a tin roof as some of the bits of grass are torn from the glue and stick to the balloon, but a good number of them will do the trick and stand up. You will get a thin covering of grass strands on the balloon itself, and these are hard to reliably harvest back into the packet, so this might be a part of the method that is wasteful. It does work more effectively with quite long strands of static grass, the shorter cut variety maybe needs more of an attractive force. I will try to get a closeup pic to show the effect, not the full 'static grass' experience, but maybe perfect for a number of scenic applications.

I made further progress on the BG on Sunday but the weather has been terrible so Photos have had to wait until today. I have assembled the underframe trussing and the solebars and made a start detailing the underframe castings - adding cable to the dynamo etc. The battery box looks to be quite a crude casting with no back as is usual with cast battery boxes. I am still trying to decide whether to make a new one out of brass or just make a back for the cast one. No further progress with the 4mm one but they are now more or less both at the same state of assembly. I have taken a couple of together shots and until you view them together you don't really get an appreciation of how much bigger all round that O gauge is.