Leaderboard

Hi everyone, I've been at it again although nothing much seems to change, I painted the inside of the cab where it would be difficult to access when the back and roof were on. I've added the buffer beams and square buffers, cab roof, water tank filler cap. the shaft and flywheel are to drive the crane turntable, this is driven by a cylinder and con rod situated in the right corner of the cab (see previous entry). In one photo I found online it looked like coal hadspilled out onto the cab floor coming from the left hand tank, I assumed that the left tank was actually a coal bunker, the capacity of which is listed as 4cwt. I formed the outside cylinders by my usual tube in tube method starting with 2mm brass tube at the core, this will take a 1mm piston rod IF I manage to make up a workable con rod with single cross head, don't hold your breath on that one though. anyway here's a few more pictures. These two pictures more or less show the additions from front and back The above picture shows the drive shaft and flywheel used to turn the crane when engaged. I had intended the crane to pivot but applied superglue in the wrong place and locked it up solid The coal bunker ready for some real coal ( obtained from Didcot Shed) once the painting's done And finally a picture of the two cylinders with a length of angle attached to make a flat area for stronger attachment to the underside. Well that's a bit more to be going on with; the engine's in the paint shop now so I post the photos when it's painted. cheers for now Roly

Yes it does come as a it of a surprise to me but I have managed to create a traverser from a few bits of would and absolutely no experience of such things! As much research as possible from the wonderful internet has helped. As you might be able to tell , I am rather pleased with myself!. It slides freely but positively, seems to be strong and is not too heavy. I used a ply sandwich for the ends the same as the other boards but made up a timber 'L' beam for the longitudinal edge which seems to be holding things together well. The table sits on another pair of 'L' beams to keep that flat. Have to put track on it now of course and work out exactly how I am going to put a turntable on the end but a 10 pack DVD box is a prime candidate at the moment. Have also just got a CDU unit for the other fiddle yard and a points direction indicator unit which is again a new departure for me so shall have lots of fun getting that to work. Really do need to work out exactly what I am going to regarding control panels. I do know that I want one at each end that is capable of doing everything so that it will be possible to operate on my own if need be. My current thinking is that I won't have any inter baseboard connectors as such but each base board will go directly to a central base unit which should make it easier to mimic the controls at each end. Got a very busy weekend ahead so probably won't be much progress for a few days but am pretty happy with what I have achieved this week and very glad that the saw dust everywhere phase is now over!

Books are good, but there are some things you only notice in real railway environments. Here's a selection of detail shots from my recent quick visit to Didcot. I know that preservation isn't the same as the actual railways, but there are still things to learn from and be inspired by, I think. Lubricated points... I don't recall seeing that modelled, but maybe I haven't looked hard enough. It would be easy to replicate, but would it look odd in model form? Track keys. First time I've had a chance to study them in close-up since I began dabbling in hand-built track. Before that I was happily indifferent to this sort of thing! I wonder just how perfectionist gangers were back in the day. Was a rotting key like this commonplace, or would it have been replaced before it got to this condition? The key on the right is centered, thus breaking the right/left pattern. Maybe to make up for rail creep? A ballast wagon to dia P15 of 1936. I see Cambrian have a kit for it. A couple of these would make a nice little project in case I decide to do a 1940s shunting layout at some point. Peeling paint, but of a very subtle kind. How to model that? Slice up the paintwork with a scalpel, maybe? Then again, that sounds like something that could go awfully wrong! Can of worms! Two P15s in different liveries. My knowledge of GWR PW stock liveries is very sketchy. As far as I remember, there is a debate about black vs dark grey, but the details evade me. I remember reading a piece about this on-line recently, but can't for the life of me find it now. Can anyone help? We never get to model wagons that are actually braked. Would be nice to do one in model form. A small removable diorama at the end of a siding with a wagon being unloaded. And the brakes on! Close up of the DC3 (I think?) hand brake. Jim Champ has done a nice intro on GWR brake types Loco Coal to dia N34 of 1946. Another interesting wagon to model, I think. Either scratchbuilt or a modified version of the (incorrect) Dapol Loco Coal. Note the cobweb here on the N34. Now that would be a modelling challenge :-) Strings of glue maybe? Problem is, once you go down that route, everything about the wagon has to be the same level of detail! Morton handbrake lever on the N34. Note weathering on the brake lever. My first "live" Iron Mink. I do like them. I have one of the old ABS kits in the pipeline for The Depot (1900s). Very nice attention to detail here. These little things are what makes a preservation scene come alive. I assume the lighter colour on the Iron Mink doors is a temporary measure, but the question arises: Did this sort of thing also happen on the real GWR at times? Or was the painting process too standardised/systematic for that to happen? Looks familiar, doesn't it? Anyone who ever had trouble with transfers will recognize this. I don't recall seeing this kind of thing in prototype photos though. Were transfers ever used for numbering GWR wagons? The little imperfections that make it real: A bent step. Don't get me wrong: I find the standard of maintenance very high at Didcot. The question is, could we model this sort of thing and get away with it? Again: The everyday wear and tear of things. Ideally it would be an interesting challenge to replicate in model form. But the irony is that it would probably just look like sloppy modelling! Foot crossing with more room on inside of rail, to allow for wheel flanges I assume. Point levers with newly replaced boards. A nice little bit of detail to model. More replacement wood, this time inside the loco shed. Wish I'd done something like this inside "The depot". Maybe next time. Lovely copper cap, eh? :-)

Good evening, A few more pics to share courtesy of Chris, (eastwestdivide) who kindly sent a selection through. These show a bit more of the layout as I was conscious that my pics from the show tried to capture the overall presentation. What is apparent and was commented on during the day is the lack of backscene. You may recall, that when I first started sketching the layout idea, I posed the question of a 'floating backscene' which was suspended across the back but was open at the base and top, a bit like a boob tube (can I say that on here?) to allow views of the station in case of derailments. Some peeps were concerned by whether this would work or not so I left it off but it might be time to revisit that when I redo the fascias. Thanks to Chris for his pictures... PWB as it is today... And from the Operator's side... Old Farish 33 waiting in the siding for the magic wand to cast it into a Dapol 33... 73 deputising on Passenger (the bogies on the 33 kept snagging on the 3rd rail) 4 CEP leaves the Bay...Fuel tanks on 33 kept drooping VSOE Pullman passing through checked at signal... The ARC hoppers also never got finished but were placed to show the mods undertaken to date... Last one from me...here's how it looked 6 months ago... I would like to get some more close up shots of it in natural light as I did with Kyle but I need to do the mods first and also work on the rolling stock accordingly. Thanks for looking... Pete

Not quite 'finished', but at least back in one piece (at the last minute) in a presentable state for Railex. On the whole it's far from perfect (and very shiny just now) but I am very pleased with the result. I'll say more later. For now, here are a couple of slightly iffy photos (dull and rainy day light available today) Off to load up St Ruth for Railex now.

I have just added some photos from my visit to the Bluebell last week to my 2013 page, along with photos from the Bodmin and Wenford Railway's Pannier Gala and the South Devon Railway's Easter Gala that I hadn't previously advertised. 3205 was visiting the Bluebell: Sample from Bodmin: My photos from the SDR are stored on another computer, but expect to find photos of short goods trains and the 57xx running in London Transport red livery!