Leaderboard

So Beauty and the Beast - first up beauty.. Cotswold compound - built by Nicktoix a long tine ago and repainted into BR Black by me - I find the compounds fascinating and really beautiful. This is a Sutherland Kit with the cylinders attached to the footplate so it has removable connecting rods.. and then the beast - a Ks garratt.. built by my father and painted by me - long due a strip down and rebuild but this time with two motors. Could have found its way to Chapel en le frith so an opportunity to run it on the new club layout...

I've finished painting and lining my Dean Goods, but it needs a final coat of satin varnish and some number plates before its ready for viewing on the blog. While I've been waiting for the various coats of paint to dry, I've made a start on building the baseboards for my proposed Edwardian, GWR, branch line terminus. As a reminder of what I'm trying to build, here's a picture of my 1/7th scale foam and cardboard mock up. Mock up The layout will fit along one wall of my workshop and comprise of four sections, giving a total length including fiddle yard of 5240 millimetres, or 17 feet 2 inches in good old imperial! Originally the layout was going to be 1370mm (4 feet 6 inches) deep, but I've reduced this to 1220mm (4 feet), which is more manageable when trying to reach the back of the layout. I know there is a vogue for building baseboards from foam board, but I've decided to stick with the method that I have used on previous layouts and that I know I can make successfully. I first came across the technique in Barry Norman's excellent "Landscape Modelling" book, which I must have bought at least 20 years ago. The book describes a method for making layout supporting beams, which resist distortion by having one component of the beam in tension, the other in compression and both held apart by softwood blocks. The resultant beams are also considerably lighter than similar size ones made from sawn timber. The four boards were built as pairs, one pair 1220mm long and one pair 1400mm, giving the required total length of 5240mm. The scenic part of the layout would be made up from both 1220 mm long boards, along with one of the 1400mm boards. The remaining 1400 board will be for the off stage fiddle yard/revolving train turntable. To make the components needed to build the beams, two sheets of 6mm MDF were cut using a table saw into 98mm wide strips. Lengths of 98mm x 18mm softwood were cut into 98mm squares using a circular chop saw. Obviously it would be possible to cut these pieces using a handsaw, but I'm lucky in having a Father in Law who has a workshop equipped with just about every power tool known to man and it seemed daft not to use them! MDF being cut into 98mm strips 98mm x 18mm softwood being cut into blocks Finished beam components, ready for assembly Construction of the beams began by fixing the softwood blocks to the MDF strip using screws and PVA glue. One of the benefits of making the beams in this manner is that the softwood blocks can be rotated through 90 degrees to each other. This ensures that when the beams are joined together to make the framework, you can always screw into side grain rather than end grain. Softwood blocks screwed and glued to MDF strip Once the glue had set, the second MDF strip was glued and screwed in position, and again allowed to dry. Second MDF strip in position This process was continued until all the beams had been fabricated. Completed Beams In order to ensure that the finished baseboards would align together accurately, I decided to use brass pattern makers dowels. I ordered these from stationroadbaseboards.co.uk along with some hole cutting drill bits. Ive not used this supplier before, but the parts arrived within a couple of days as specified, so I'll be using them again. The end beams were marked as pairs and the male part of the pattern makers dowels was fitted into one beam by carefully drilling a 25 mm diameter recess, then screwing into position. Dowel in position The female part of the pattern makers dowel needed fitting into the other beam in exactly the right position, if the pair of beams was going to align together accurately. With this in mind I had to come up with a way of marking the position of the male dowel on the female dowel carrying beam. I needed something that I could apply to the end of the male dowel, that would transfer across to the female beam and clearly mark the wood when the beams were pressed together. I tried pencil and chalk, but the mark wasn't clear enough to dill accurately, so more pondering took place! In the end inspiration struck in the form of lipstick! Armed with some of Mrs Wenlock's best red lippy, I marked the ends of the dowels and pressed the beams together. Once the beams were pulled apart, a perfect red dot was marked on the opposing beam and drilling could commence. From now on, no modelling box should be deemed to be complete without a stick of said lipstick! Lipstick on brass dowel Lipstick marks the spot! Once the pattern makers dowels had been successfully fitted into the end beams, they were numbered as pairs and their top surface sanded to ensure that once the baseboard tops were fitted, they would be exactly the same height. The frameworks were then assembled from the beams, ensuring they were square before gluing and screwing them into position. 9mm MDF was used to form the baseboard tops, these once cut to size, were glued and screwed into position 1st completed baseboard The subsequent boards were assembled in a similar fashion, but plastic bin liner was used as a barrier between the boards to prevent them sticking together. 2nd board under construction Once the three boards that make up the "visible" portion of the layout were completed, the wallpaper layout plan was put into position to check the dimensions. The front of the layout will be on a gentle convex curve, so after marking out, this was carefully cut using a jigsaw. 3rd board and layout plan The framework for the off stage part of the layout was then made, but I still need to construct the revolving train turntable. Board 4, fiddle yard Off stage board Legs were made from lengths of 38mm softwood, bolted to the baseboard framework. I'm not sure how high to make the finished layout, the legs may end up being trimmed. At present the baseboard tops are 4 foot 9 inches from the floor, which is fine if you happen to be 6 foot 4 like me, but not ideal if you happen to be 5 foot 2! I'd be interested to hear opinions on what people think is an ideal height for viewing 0 gauge layouts. Layout on it's legs. I need a name for this project of mine, I can't just keep calling it "My proposed GWR, Edwardian, branch line terminus" for much longer! I remember Mikkel suggesting using place names from literature, which seems like a good idea. Trollope's Barsetshire has a number of likely sounding place names, I'm quite taken with calling the layout "Uffley" or possibly "Lower Uffley" which I think has a nice ring! As always I'm interested in your views and comments. Best wishes Dave

Good evening, I have put together a track plan today which is fairly close to the prototype. I want to keep it as simple as possible as this will be my test bed for building easitrac turnouts, in readiness for the 7 turnouts that I need to build for my Par layout. The layout will be 120cm long across two 60cm boards. 40cm to one end will be allocated for the fiddle yard which will be very simplified as it will only need to hold locos and some coal wagons which will be shunted onto the layout to the coaling plant hopper. The coaling stage will be on the scenic break and will be one of the three buildings that I will produce, the coaling tower being the centre piece. I still need to research the water tower a bit more and to date, have only found one distant shot, so if anyone has any photos of this structure, it will be greatly appreciated. Here is the plan. As always, any comments are most welcome. Best regards, Jeremy

Following on from my previous post on point rodding, I've now got stuck into the facing point lock lock bar. This is located immediately in advance of the king point to prevent the FPL being withdrawn if any stock was standing over the bar. Using information from the Scalefour Society manual and further information and photos from Robin Whittle (of Barrow Road fame) I've made good progress with my 4 mm scale representation. The bar is slightly the wrong proportions being a length of 0.82 x 0.82 mm Tee section but not too far out. It's mounted on wire pins set into the base board top adjacent to the rail. The pivot levers are from an Ambis FPL etch but I didn't bother with the associated support brackets as they're barely visible behind the pivots. I set the top of the bar 0.75 mm below the rail head to make sure that my 0.5 mm deep wheel flanges would be clear of it. This is perhaps a bit generous clearance as the real thing is about level with the bottom of the rail head in the lowered position. To get the bar to the required height I had to file the top of the inside chairs to 1.57 mm below top of rail and trim the bottom of the pivot levers which will be below ballast level when all is finished. A minor inconvenience is that the bar crosses a base board joint, so the total length (50' - 6") is split with 140 mm on one board and the remaining 62 mm on the next. Here's a photo of the longer section in position. Also visible (just) are the cranks for the operating rods (rods not yet done). The drive from the signal box lever is to the far (left hand) end of the bar. At the other end of the bar is the attachment to the FPL bolt mechanism. This arrangement meant that any failure/breakage in the lock bar arrangement prevented the FPL (and hence the point blades) from being moved.

I visited the Swindon Railway Festival yesterday (15th Sep). It's always good to study prototype fittings, such as the sand boxes on the Dean Goods. In model form, these often show a 'draw' from the casting process, so it was useful to be reminded of the shape and details of the original. Dean Goods no.2516 - Sand Box There was also a sizeable model railway exhibition and I got talking on the Broad Gauge Society stand. I mentioned that I had recently photographed BG and NG models together, and had been struck by how the BG locomotive 'towered over' the other. The person on the stand was rather dismissive of this idea, saying that BG engines were actually quite small and could not have been taller because of loading-gauge restrictions. This prompted me to re-check the dimensions from various books and I made the following diagram, for study purposes, from small sections of two scale drawings. The BG single is from Alan Prior's 19th Century Railway Drawings and the Dean Single is from C.J.Freezer's Locomotives in Outline GWR (both drawn to 4mm/ft scale): Broad and Narrow - Head to Head The height from rail to chimney top of the BG engine is shown on the drawing as 14' 6", whereas the Dean measures 52mm on the drawing, or 13' at full-size. I feel that my 'towers over' description was pretty apt! The Swindon Steam museum also houses the North Star replica, which I photographed: From the drawing in Russells GW Engines, the original measured an even more impressive 15' 2" (rail level to top of chimney). Engines like these must have made a very strong impression during the first half of the 19th century! For comparison, a 'King' only manages a height of 13' 4 1/2". Mike

Stocks of the latest Bachmann Midland 4Fs have appeared in the shops and I have taken delivery of one of the examples with a Late Crest. Well I have taken delivery of two engines but more of that later. Bachmann Midland 4F on unfitted freight It is now over 100 years since Sir Henry Fowler introduced his 4F goods engine. 192 of these engines were built by the Midland Railway between 1911 and 1922 and according to Casserley and Asher (1961) all these engines were still in service up until May 1954. The ‘Midland’ 4F continued to be constructed by the LMS Railway after grouping. Between 1924 and 1940 a further 580 engines were built giving a final total of 772 engines, the highest of any class in the UK. Casserley and Asher reported that withdrawals of the later engines constructed under LMS ownership did not commence until 1959. The fact that such large numbers of relatively small 0-6-0 goods engines were still being employed in the 1950s has often been used as evidence to demonstrate the inefficient way that freight was handled by the UK rail network. You might also say that it shows that the 4Fs were simple to maintain and cheap to run. Ex LMS 4F 44605 passing Barrows Green Widnes in the early 60's I admired the 4Fs and my picture from the early 1960s shows the penultimate member of the class gently sauntering along on a sleepy summer’s day. Those of you with an eye for detail will notice in the distance the wooden outside framing to the lead chambers used to make sulphuric acid (the lead chamber process for those of you who studied ‘O’ Level Chemistry!). Airfix ex LMS 4F Airfix I think copied the LMS. When they introduced their model in the 1970s they seem to have manufactured copious numbers of their model. Certainly by the early 1980s there were lots for sale and I bought a couple. One came from C&G Models – trading from Newton Aycliffe, and another from Kings Cross Models – all at around £10.00 approximately half the manufacturer’s recommended price. Airfix LMS 4F renumbered 44605 As a tribute to the engine in my Widnes photograph I renumbered my first Airfix ex LMS 4F to represent the engine in the picture. Adding a smoke box number and shed plate I think makes a huge improvement – as does the addition of some black paint to the metal tyres on the driving wheels. I thought the Airfix models to be good for their time and with their heavy tender drive and rubber traction tyres they had excellent haulage capacities. Why some motors were noisy and others extremely quiet was always a mystery – although I did have theories about the strength of the brush springs. Soft springs might equate to quiet motors? Hornby Tender Drive I guess the 4F has always been a popular model and Hornby re–released the Airfix model with a revised tender drive and improved handrail detailing. Small changes that I thought made quite a presentable looking model. I had to change the bottom plate on my Hornby model which seemed over brittle and just disintegrated. It now says Airfix which might puzzle a future buyer! Bachmann Engine Driven ex MR 4F I know very little about the design of the various prototypes. However comparing pictures of the ex MR and the ex LMS 4Fs does suggest that new Bachman model is a good representation. Obvious difference between the MR and LMS versions are the position of the reversing lever and what I think might be the top feed. On the MR version these are on the right hand side looking from the cab, whilst on the LMS version they have moved to the left hand side. Does that mean that the MR engines were RH drive the LMS ones LH drive? It also looks as though the LMS company indulged in a bit of value engineering because the fine beading on the MR version disappeared on the LMS version. Bachmann are to be commended for their rendering of this detail. In fact the Bachmann model as a whole seems much more finely detailed than the older models. A friend summed it up by saying – ‘neatly superior’. Bachmann 4F left, Hornby Tender Drive 4F right The view above shows the old and new models head to head and highlights the heavier detail and thicker handrails used on the older models. Wiring harness made too long I mentioned at the start of this post that I had taken delivery of two Bachmann models. The view above shows the first model. The wiring harness was over long and it was just not possible to get the engine and tender close enough to couple them together. The little ladies in China had obviously tried and the surplus wire had pushed sideways and bent one of the copper tender pickups. A word of warning – I parcelled my engine back up and posted it straight back to the retailer. There were very good family reasons why I wanted it out of the way. Subsequently the retailer refused to refund my postage on the basis that he had sent out a prepaid postage slip and that I should have waited to use that before posting. Black marks to Rails of Sheffield they should have been quicker to acknowledge a problem and say that they would send the return postage label.

And now for something completely different! I performed a quickie weathering job on a Bachmann blue class 25, 25 276. This locomotive has lost its sound-fitted chassis to a green example. I have used the usual weathering mixes of Humbrol #62 leather, #85 coal black and metallic gunmetal, plus some matt varnish. I have tried to be subtle on the sides, leaving some nearly pristine blue showing. As a visual displacement technique, I have carried the yellow of the front up over the centre part of the gutter to disguise the too-flat curve over the windscreens. While this is fairly obvious in the photos, it works reasonably well to the naked eye at normal viewing distances. I may, at some stage, renumber this locomotive into the pre-TOPS style.

Was sitting there the other night thinking I really should be getting on with something layout orientated but was constrained both by feeling really lazy and the fact that my wife was busying herself with something on the computer in the same room so no cutting or filing of metal allowed. She hate the sound but I retaliate by not letting her file her nails anywhere near me! Anyway, it seemed as if I had little option but to start on the forty or so figures I have been amassing. Now, I don't think I have painted such things since teenage years of plastic modeling. Things seem to be a lot easier (and quicker) now with acrylic paint and was rather please with the results - until I photographed them! That really shows them up at their worst. Am looking at them now from a couple of feet and they don't seem bad again. Only thing I really haven't got right yet is the flesh colour which is possibly the reason that I think they look far better from behind. See what you think; As the field kitchen was still hanging around and a book with a nice big picture I had a little play.

Well, I do actually own one... but sometimes I just choose to "go with the flow" when it comes to weathering.. especially so with wagons. I have had to be a little more careful with which products/techniques I use in the hobby since having kids, so I very rarely get the airbrush out these days. The photo below shows the wagons, in this case some Bachmann Seacows, in different stages of weathering. I find it helps if I set up a "production line" when doing this sort of work. The wagons shown here were all weathered without an airbrush, using washes, powders, rust "pastes" (mixed up "in-house") etc. In my opinion, these techniques work quite well on wagons, which are fairly unloved on the cosmetic front anyway. I'm happy with the outcome, what do you think?

I do like the rolling stock to be close coupled. This Blog entry is about close coupling ex GWR Siphons of the Airfix / Mainline / Dapol / Hornby varieties. I like to keep the rolling stock in as near 'mint' condition as possible. I am against cutting and gluing. For close coupling rolling stock of Airfix origins my usual procedure is to fit Bachmann Mini Couplings (Long). This solution is totally reversible should the rolling stock need to be sold on. It also enables trains to negotiate curves down to Peco Medium Radius. In the past I have successfully employed this technique for 'B' Set coaches and 14xx / autocoach combinations. The view above compares the original Mainline plug in type couplings with the original Airfix style and the replacement Bachmann Mini Couplings (Long). The picture also shows how the wings on the Bachmann couplings have to be cut off to allow the coupling to be placed in the 'plug in' coupling pocket. As well as removing the 'wings' it is also necessary to open out the post hole. The couplings are soft nylon and this can easily be achieved, rotating by hand a suitably sized twist drill in the existing hole. I have been using an elderly imperial drill bit 7/64 which translates into 2.778mm! Having prepared the replacement Bachmann coupling the original Airfix / Mainline / Dapol / Hornby coupling can be lifted out. I find a tiny screw driver most useful for prizing off the tiny nylon keeper plate. The modified Bachmann coupling can then be dropped into the coupling pocket and the keeper plate pushed back in place. I am happy with the looks of the finished product but does it work? Unfortunately - not yet. On reversing the rake of wagons through a set of Peco Medium Radius points the buffers locked and the wagons derailed. On closer inspection the problems appeared to be related to the Siphon H wagons without corridor connectors. In contrast the corridor connectors on the Siphon G wagons would rub together and keep the buffers sufficiently apart to prevent them locking. This suggested a solution. For my Siphon H wagon in the middle I substituted the slightly longer 'original' Airfix couplings. If you had more Siphon H wagons I guess you would need to treat alternate wagons. Does it work - yes now it works very well: http://youtu.be/GDIAPJQrI00

It's been quite a while since I last posted anything about Delph (or should I say "Holt"). This is mainly because there's been precious little progress in recent weeks, partly due to the warm weather making work on the layout an unattractive proposition but mainly because I've been shying away from what seemed like a difficult and fiddly task. Needless to say, when I actually knuckled down to it, it proved much less of a problem than I had anticipated. Anyway, a concerted effort over the past week has seen good progress and it now only remains to do the facing point lock (which straddles two base-boards) and the cranks outside the signal box. Here are some shots showing the main rodding run, complete with compensators, and the arrangements to get the rods across the entrance to the mill siding. First, the main rodding runs. In the second photo, the hole in the base-board is for the starter signal to plug in. And here, the rods pass under the track into the mill siding, seen from each side. An Alex Jackson uncoupling magnet can be seen under the middle rod.

So there has been steady progress at Buckden since my last post. The first thing to do was work on some further ground cover. This started with a rough paint of earth colour over most of the yard with burnt and raw umber acrylic paints, and application of some DAS white clay to fill in the sleepers at the end of the long siding (over a coat of PVA) before this too was given a coat of the same acrylics. I've then been using a mix of woodland scenics material (having found Model Railways Direct shop in Portishead which has a great stock) to build up the ground cover, on top of a dilute PVA base. So far olive green underbrush, soil coloured fine turf and fine light grey and fine ballasts have made an appearance. All of which can be seen in the first pic: Also in the background is a slightly-more-prototypical than last time 2MT with a short goods in the background. I've also added a shortened Ratio 502 cattle dock which is here: And very excitingly I now have a platform! This was built from Wills SS62 station ramps SS61 platform sections, ignoring the stone platform tops and building the platform surface from plasticard and building the rear from plain plasticard too. The top I'm thinking will be sand paper for the gravel and then edged with the edging stones from the kits. I'm mulling over whether to paint the platform brickwork (And the bridge) in engineering brick blue if I can find an appropriate paint, as I think that's more likely based on the pictures I've seen. Soon I'm going to bite the bullet and build the station building - which will be scratch built, and I'm currently mulling over what to colour to surface the rest of the yard with - it's a quite a big expanse and I want to get it right - so suggestions welcome!

Hi Today I have been working on the backscene. I decided, some time ago that I did not want a flat backscene. The first stage, of building backscene was to built a sporting structure onto which I could fix the curved backscene. I decided that I wanted the backscene to extend into the bridge box and hence the it was not to be a simple rectangle. The structure of the backscene is made from 4mm MDF, which was wet and then bent to shape, then allowed to dry for more than 24 hours. The strap across the top was to hold it in shape, before it was wet, and then when it is drying. If the strap was not there, the force exerted, which would tend to make the board flatten itself, may have broken the end supports. Once it has dried it then holds the curve. Once this was done I put a framework in place to prevent the backscene tearing or becoming damaged, whilst the train entry/exit holes were cut. This also makes the backscene stronger. I still have to counter sink the screw heads and fit a card surface to the backscene, and then paint it sky blue. The card will give me an unblemished surface, because the MDF is not thick enough to allow both the screw beneath the surface and then apply filler to hide them! This done I ran a train to check that then holes were big enough. This done I relayed the number 2 siding, because as laid originally the 0-6-0 locomotive derailed nearly every time. Julie

For the members of the RMweb John Thaw fan club. I have followed the TV series of inspector Morse and became a fan of John Thaw. For my diorama’s I searched for names so I started to read some of the Inspector Morse detectives by Colin Dexter. I discovered that the personality of inspector Morse was more complicated in the books than represented in the series. I also discovered a nice link between inspector Morse and our interest in railways and railway history. You can read my discovery in the article about Fanshawe Ltd in the Northall Gazette. In this case I have used the name of inspector Morse and made him a provision merchant in Northall a long time ago. Morse Teas is a real tea brand in Canada and still available. And of course some pictures of my modelling efforts of Fanshawe’s premises. The two windows are resized textures from internet and placed to try out. Thanks for reading. Regards, Job

As I've said elsewhere, I'm a BR (ex GE) modeller who currently lives near Bishop's Stortford but is looking, in the future, to move to Norfolk. For some time I've been harbouring an idea to build a layout that contains a portrayal of one of the most distinctive buildings on the North Norfolk Coast, Burnham Overy mill. At the moment I don't have a large space to build a layout (it's my 8ft x 4ft shed that also has to store a lot of music - my other passion is choral music and I run a choir for which I have over 130 sets of music with 30 copies of each set, so a lot of paper!) so it's been designed with future expansion in mind. The picture below shows the track plan for the first board which is 4ft x 2ft. The first thing I did was to get some paper and make a template to the baseboard size, then I drew out the trackplan to make sure it all worked, which it does. I've also made a cardboard mock-up of the mill to makes sure the size is proportionate to the layout. The picture below shows this. The picture below shows the mock up for the mill with a wagon that I used to make sure the size was right and shows you the size of the mill and layout. I've already got the framework for the board - my club had a spare frame made from 3" deep 6mm ply from an old layout and they readily let me have it for a small donation to the clubs coffers so some space could be cleared in the clubroom. I've also got the board for the track bed cut out so a start has been made! Now all I need to do is cut more bits of timber so the track bed can be attached to the frame - I need a depth of about 4" below the track bed to allow for the water flowing under the mill and bridge etc. When I next do some more work on the layout I will post an update. Phil PS - When I previewed this entry prior to posting, the pictures didn't appear - I hope they do when I actually post it. If they don't, I'll edit the entry to get them in.

In this case it really is the little things!.. Here is one of two Stop boards I have knocked together which are situated on roads around the depot area of my layout. They are based on the real ones made by MC Electronics. They are a bit fiddly, but easy to make. If anyone wants measurements, then drop me a line. They can be positioned either raised or lowered. Unfortunately they are non-flashing, but I think they suffice for my requirements. P.S. I'll give you a fiver if you can make one for N gauge

OK, Back to 4mm. The first wagon is actually one you have seen before, only last time it had no numbers and the 'NW' was much much smaller. It was grating at me so I decided to give it a small make over to fit the 'company style' I've invented. Kind of a cross between GW for the lettering and SR for the tare weight and serial number positions, yet, NW. Eeugh. So, I've re weathered it to look a little newer. Still has my buggered plank that I quite like. This other one is a new one, this time fitted with one fixed axle per instructions and the other with a Bill Bedford unit. The van I did like this runs well so I thought I'd try a straight build like it also. A SR prototype this time and weathered a lot. I can imagine 'Cond' ' being chalked on soon. Apart from plain excuse there is actually a fair reason why a SR wagon is in fictitious NW livery, but I won't go into that here. The first wagon is plain grey with black under frame iron work, and the second is the same but with black strapping. I model both styles. The rear of them both at the most interesting side. At the left wagon is some severe rusting complete with paint crazing. This effect also to my eye gives a rust effect that is probably way out of scale, but I like it. Varnish sprays and too much glue sometimes give similar effects and I haven't perfected a perfect job yet. On wagons however, I don't mind and sometimes do it on purpose. To the right is the new build wagon. Here I scribed some plank detail in two of them because I've seen this before on the prototype and rather like the visual contrast it gives. Also, a 'new' plank has replaced an old one, or rather I've painted it in. Really easy to do by the way. Couplings are yet to be added, but that isn't going to interest you so for the sake of this upload, it's complete. There is a pip on the buffer I see, must file that off.