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I don't think there's any part of the hobby I like more than adding small details to a nearly finished scene, in this case some of Hornby's delightfully rendered wicker baskets and (just out of shot) some Bachmann's equally useful milk churns grouped around the front of the station building. It's a small touch, and really just open-the-box modelling, but I find it really enjoyable to add these kind of features - it's the kind of modelling you can do at at the end of a busy or stressful day and still feel like you're getting somewhere - 5 minute heroes as PMP puts it. Next up will be some seats, trolleys and station signs, as well as a few hardy passengers. Here are some more general shots of the station area, starting off with Heljan's lovely parcels unit. I've given it a tiny bit of weathering but otherwise it's as it came, other than the addition of a decoder. I've notched some my rails at scale intervals, and the clickety-click sound of this heavy but silent model is really enjoyable as it glides over the joints. Must do the rest of the layout... Finally, the Mogul and its mixed rake of ex-GWR passenger stock: Cheers!

For the building of Fanshawe Ltd I needed a rain pipe to hid the join in the alley. I already made a rain pipe using a 1,2 mm rod from Evergreen for a house on Nice Street. A texture is glued around this. For the warehouse I wanted to use a square Victorian rain pipe. I wanted to create it myself using a self-made texture. My journey on the internet began. I learned a lot of new English words connected to rain drainage. Finally I found a picture by CG textures that was usable. The white arrow is pointed to the rain pipe of choice. Then I started to create my texture. In the PDF you can see the final result. Rainpipe square.pdf And finally how I made the model: 1. I cut out the texture with the header. 2. I cut the header off the rain pipe and glued on a piece 1 mm card 3. I cut out the header again and glued it again on a piece of 1 mm card, that could hold the rain pipe. 4. Coloured the edges of the header black. 5. I cut out the rain pipe. 6. Glued the rain pipe under the header 7. I cut out the total rain pipe 8. Coloured the edges of the header and the rain pipe 9. Glued the rain pipe on place on the structure Picture of the rain pipe in model. I hope you find the model convincing. Regards, Job

I have mentioned before in this blog that my layout includes an 009 narrow-gauge section. Most of this section does not need changing in order to fit in with my revised 19th-century timeframe but, a long time ago (1980), I built a 'Centre Models' kit of a Leek & Manifold 2-6-4T, of which the prototypes appeared in 1904. Whilst not quite fitting my new era, it is a handsome locomotive that I had never got to run well, so I decided to re-build the chassis. A body kit is still available from Meridian Models The original kit included a fret of nickel-silver valve gear, which was extremely fiddly to construct and get working. Alas, all my efforts were soon undone by the unsatisfactory white-metal chassis supplied in the kit. This soon warped and, in the process, destroyed the valve gear, which I could not face re-constructing at that time. More recently I saw a small 'Roco' engine being sold fairly cheaply, which had working outside gear. I had read that this chassis is not considered to be very reliable in heavy use but, nevertheless, I decided to see if I could use under the L&M body. My method is to take photos of the parts I wish to fit together over a sheet of graph paper, as a scale reference. I have the camera fixed on a tripod, so that all the photos are at the same scale. I then overlay the images in a photo-editor (I use 'Photoshop Elements') to check clearances and to see where any parts need to be modified. I find this method of creating a 'visual impression' of how the parts will fit suits me better than trying to make detailed drawings. It was clear that, with a little trimming of the underframe, the 'Roco' chassis could be fitted and give a reasonable impression of the original loco. I even found that there were suitable attachment points for the existing pony wheels and trailing truck. I adapted the motor mount, by fitting a flex grip from a British 13A plug across the side mounting points, and re-wired, omitting the DCC adapter board. (My layout is DC only) It all went together surprisingly easily and proved to run very smoothly at nice low speeds. Now, it must join the queue for re-painting, once I have got the hang of my new airbrush. It probably won't find a home on my current layout but I do enjoy watching the outside valve gear working, as in the following animation. Mike

Spent a little session on the Hunslet this morning fitting the DCC decoder and wiring up the speakers. I had already fitted the speakers into the tanks and the chip went in the bunker. I am only going to wire up one speaker, the other is there as a spare as although it would be possible to get to them it would not be easy. The only thing that won't fit in the bunker is the capacitor which I have put up in the top of the fire box. I have run the wires below the foot plate inside some black heat shrink so although not invisible they will hardly be noticeable from normal viewing angles. Only real frustration now though is that I intend to keep it as DC until it is properly run in as I have found it is all too easy to blow up a chip with the usual teething problems of a new mechanism.

Hi. More on real stone modelling. After all the personalised walls it was time to look at something a bit more challenging. At the time we were living at Keighley just a stones throw (no pun intended) from Bronte Country. In the end it came down to "Top Withens" the remote, now derelict farmstead on the moors above Haworth. Not to build it in this state but as near as possible as it was. Maudie and I did several trips to the building to measure the ground plan and try and calculate the slope of the hillside it was built on. I would mention it's a couple of miles from the nearest point where you can park. But, how did it look? In the end I put an appeal in the Dalesman Magazine. This worked and I got a good number of replies. One interesting one was from a lady whose Grandmother was born in the farmstead in 1896. Another was from a couple with the wife stood in a doorway in the photo they sent pretending to be Cathy. Most of the photos sent were of use. After completing the model I sent photos to all who replied to my appeal. While the attached images show how I went about the construction there were problems and some set backs For instance, the dark stone porch took three tries before I was happy with it, and there were quite a few other minor rebuilds.The blocks in one of the construction images were to enable square window openings to be made. The roof slates were stone slabs and this applied to the model. .I made these from semi perished stone which was easy to slice into thin slabs. That was the easy bit. Cutting them to size seemed to take for ever and I think more were wasted than used. It was a case of nibbling away with the pliers. The ridge tiles were carved from the solid, fortunately not too many of them. The mullioned windows were also a bit of fun! The scale, 1/4 inch to the foot. When we were leaving Keighley it was decided to part with the model I tried to give it the Bronte Museum. but it was declined on various grounds. Who/how would it be maintained? Was there room for it in the soon to be refurbished museum? And anyway the current thinking was it was only the area not the farmstead that Emily used in her book. OK. tell that to all the Japanese students who visit the site as part of their English studies. Somewhat subdued I went round to the Haworth T.I..C. No joy there either. In the end it went for auction. Conversation went. How much did I expect? £300. Ok, reserve of £350.. In the end bidding stopped at £315. I let it go at that. Net sum received, £259.48p. Top Withens was the only model when I kept a building log. 240 hours! So just over a pound an hour..However I like to think someone is enjoying it. After it was sold, (I wasn't at the auction) I only hoped someone hadn't bought it to give to the Bronte Museum. If I have room a little story. Returning to my car one day in Keighley I was asked by an American couple where the bus depot. was. They explained they had come by train from London to Keighley with a view to seeing Wuthering Heights. ie Top Withens . They had missed the Worth Valley train and been sent to catch a bus. I explained the situation of Top Withens, 2 miles there 2 miles back if they had a car, the bus was a no no. And they were getting on in years and it was a real hot day Their faces fell. In the end I did my bit for Anglo US relations and took them up to the Bronte Museum. It seemed, (letter attached) they really did have a nice day! Returning to the was it wasn't it Top Withens. High Sunderland Hall ( long demolished) near Halifax is the main contender. If you want to follow this up, try. w.w.w.wuthering-heights.co.uk/locations/halifax. Finally. When I finished the model Maudie insisted I read Wurthering Heights. I have to confess if I had not seen all the film and TV adaptations I could not have got through it. 'Till next time, Derek.

Well a quick update, I recently went to the Model Railway show in Manchester with a small shopping list for Ingleside (don't we all when we go to a show?). So having purchased some cork for a track bed, kadee magnets for uncoupling and some buffer stops I thought I was sorted and then as ever I started looking at the rest of the trade stands. I saw some decent mouldings for industrial buildings on the Ten Commandments stand, now this is relevant to Carter's Dock one of the two layouts I am upgrading. I had been planning on using Skytrex north light factory units to cover the flat back scene but when Skytrex hit trouble early last month it seemed I was after an alternative, hence the interest in the Ten Commandments buildings. So I set to investigating the usefulness of the Ten Commandments mouldings on Carter's Dock, to be honest they were next to useless being to deep. So I began to mentally shelve the rebuild of Carter's Dock until another option presented itself, and tonight unpacked Tontine Street to see if the Ten Commandments buildings would be of use here instead. Due to the wider space available and lack of a back scene they look like they will be successful. Having unpacked Tontine Street, I did some repairs and removed the rest of the cardboard buildings, then standing back realised that the track plan is a glorified Inglenook............ To add confusion to the quandary I see in tonight's email that Skytrex have restructured and are selling there wares again, so Carter's Dock and Tontine Street both seem to have a scenic building solution and I appear to already have an Inglenook layout. It must be the solder fumes or the impending fate of those red panda kits! So where is this blog now going? I think it is going to get a bit wider and start covering the fun and games with Carter's Dock, Tontine Street and yes Ingleside. I have decided Ingleside is to continue on as my test bed for building a layout from the ground up as the other two projects are only scenic jobs. And what does the lady have to say about all this, well she is currently in Cuba (of all places) on holiday, but did make it clear a few weeks ago that although she had purchased me a baseboard last year I was not going to get planning permission for any further baseboards in the near future ;-) So I better provide some pics of Tontine Street and Carter's Dock, Tontine Street is the one in the pics with the Ten Commandments plaster buildings on it. If you either built, owned or operated Tontine Street / Carter's Dock in the past you may wish to look away now, as they are now missing there original buildings.......

Manage to do a little more. I have carried on with the two sets of frames, the inner set will be painted very shortly and set up to be run in. First up the castings were added to the front, they went to gether quite well, no major problems. The one buffer looks droopy in the photo so I need to checj that. You can now see how the small angle holds the sandpipe. At the rear the brake cross shaft, bearings and cylinders have been added, there are the fuel tank filler pipes etc still to be added. The buffers are ones I had in the scrap box, as only three were in the parts, not a bad thing as these are better than the kit ones. There was still a lot of cleaning out to get working. I have also managed to make the pull rods from the brakes to the cross shaft. Thes are now detachable after an earlier error. bit tricky to fit as the go between the sand pipe and it's bracket, not a lot of room for wriggling it about to attach both ends. For some reason they were camera shy. I thought I ought to have a look at how the axle boxes and springs fit. The instructions say that if you use Slaters cranks the axleboxes need to be adjusted. Well I have got new slaters cranks with the square for quartering. I do not know how much adjustment is required for the old D ended. But after reaming out the hole so the crank could enter. I found I still needed to find over a millimetre to get both cranks to sit on there squares. Time to experiment. After taking the photos I cut a pair of axle boxes from their springs. I then sanded the backs off on some aluminium oxide paper, turning regularly. They are now 3.4mm rather than the 4.1mm they started life at. A little adjustment on the spings and there is about 0.5 mm of end float, on the fixed axle at least. I am hoping that this will be enough on the two that move. Photos of these next time. I may have the wheels fitted to a painted frame. when I fit the axle boxes to ensure it all has enough room.

Well time for this entry which I hope will be of some interest. Please do not take my basic approach as too simple as there is a need for simplicity in regards to such construction. My choice of material is 1/2" ply wood. This stuff is a great invention as it has built in strength thus no need for bracing and reinforcement. For sturdiness in the boards a depth in the side rails of around 20% top width should be sufficient thus 1 foot wide boards needs 2 1/2" rails. A 2' wide board requires at least 4" rails.Anything less will sag. The 3 basic rules of cabinet making are measure everything twice, cut the largest/longest parts first and if at first you don't succeed. Cheat! Start by making a drawing and a cutting list with number required, rips (cutting along the wood) and cross cuts for each part required. If you need wood ripped take your cutting list to the DIY store/lumber yard and get them to do it. Never cut large heavy sheets of material with small machines! Here are the basic tools needed. I am using OFB for this step by step and have used it for at least one baseboard in the past! Start by marking the lenghts out. If you don't have access to a chop saw. Clamp two or more bits down with 2 clamps and cut from corner to corner. Then cut the same but opposite corners and finish off. Take 1 cross member and mark for two holes to drill for 1/4 inch coach bolts (or thicker if required) Using two clamps, clamp 3 pieces flush and some scrap down tightly and drill through all three. Hammer in the coach bolts Mark the edges like this so not to mix sets up. One diagonal mark for the first set two for the second etc. Number them for easy identification If you require holes for wiring use the same technique Mark a double thickness on one end of the side rails. Using a square mark where you want the cross members (avoiding any point motors etc) If you are a belt and braces man you may wish to screw each joint. Clearance holes and countersink for two screws at each joint and pilot holes in the ends of ply. I can't stress how important this is. Begin assembly on a clean and clear flat surface by running a bead of glue (using a forefinger to guide the glue bottle) along your marks. Do this upside down on the base board top. clamp things together and make sure things are flush and square. With the first two pieces of the drilled set bolted together clamp in place on the end with glue on the innermost one only. Remove the outer one to make sure no glue had squeezed out. Now add the third gluing it to the middle piece and linning up those diagonal marks. This forms the end of the next board. which will line up perfectly. Use the frame to mark the top side of the top and fix the top down with fine pins and glue on a flat surface. This fiddle yard serves two layouts and comes appart in minutes using my male-female technique. The close ups show the electrical connectors well but this type are hard to find. I will tackle legs in my next blog.

3863 - Hornby conversion As previously mentioned at the weekend, I have been working on converting 3863 to P4. The initial conversion at the weekend showed that the crank pin nuts on the lead axel fouled the crosshead, and that the drive gear was loose on the axle. I initially attempted to cure the latter with an application of loctight, however it still persisted. I have now stripped it down and attempted to resolve through the application of additional knurling to the axle (attacking with a xuron cutter) which appears to have done the trick. The lead crank pin nuts were filed down, and the crank pin sleeve reduced to match the rod. Upon refitting it still fouled the plastic mounting bracket that supports the crosshead, so some careful material removal was required (it still needs even more to get a reliable joint!) Upon reassembly I noticed that the 2nd axle on the right hand side has a the wrong sleeve fitted to the crank pin (which means it now fouls), so another dismantle and reassemble is needed before fitting that part. Hopefully this will be the final work to get the loco working... Moving onto 3215, I finally made it to the Yate modelshop on the way home from work today and picked up a pack of HMRS GW loco transfers. So finally 3215's tender has been branded up. Given the loco was delivered right at the point of nationalisation I have decided to put the early British Railways logo in GW typeface on one side of the tender (for something a little different) while sticking with the post war G W R on the other. While I was at it the buffer beam numbers were added. So now I just need to get some plates ordered...

Some prototypes are just too much for we mere mortals to resist, even if we can’t completely justify them… This is a Stephen Harris 35T GLW class ‘B’ tank that I’ve been working on (very slowly) over the summer. My original plan was to build three class ‘A’s and one class ‘B’. I thought I’d do the class ‘B’ first as a one-off. While there is plenty of evidence of 35T class ‘A’ Esso tanks in Cornwall, I have not seen any photos of class ‘B’ tanks so had no good reason to splash out on a class 'B' kit or (even less) a set of transfers for four class 'B's but I do think that the photos of them when new looks rather more striking than the class ‘A’ so I could not resist building one. I like to think of it as a tribute to the Airfix kit and the artwork on the box. There’s also a nice photo of a very new looking D601 pulling a whole train of these (also looking very new) in Bradford Barton’s ‘BR Diesel Miscellany’. I have no plans to build a whole train of them though. There is not a vast amount to say about the build – Stephen provides very comprehensive instructions including photos. There is a lot of work to do but nothing particularly difficult – in fact the kit goes together very nicely and is a pleasure to build. I did of course find a few niggles. Stephen has provided for both of the prototype orientations of the ladder with respect to the chassis. I’ve used the Cambridge Custom Transfers sheet which only provides numbers for the earlier tanks so I had no choice about ladder orientation. This showed up a few things that needed me to go ‘off piste’ (even allowing for the multiple options provided in the etch). Firstly I could not get the correct arrangement of the brake changeover lever, ‘V’ hanger and bottom discharge pipe shown in photos of the real thing so I had to remove the changeover lever plate and reposition it. Then I noticed that the class ‘B’ tanks have some plumbing on the bottom of one tank end, possibly for heating the contents while unloading. The prototype (3300) has a very chunky looking piece of kit there but later vehicles have a fairly simple horizontal pipe that looks a bit like a handrail with what might be a small ‘T’ piece in the middle. I have a photo of 3331 when brand new that shows that it has the smaller pipe. 3328 is coupled next to it so hopefully I’m safe with 3329 having the same arrangement. Finally the dimples in the tank top which provide guides for drilling for the catwalk supports invite you to fit the catwalk the wrong way around for the early class ‘B’s. Naturally I drilled the holes by following the dimples and only found out quite late in the build that the ladder should be closest to the bottom discharge handwheel rather than the filler hatch. It was a fairly simple matter to drill new holes for the two centre supports in the right place and fill the other two with superglue. The above issues were very minor. This must rate as one of the best kits that I’ve put together. And then we come to painting and lettering… I’m intending for this to be nice and clean as in the early photos so the whole thing was sprayed with Humbrol satin black in the hope of providing a better foundation (than matt) for the transfers. The finish came out very well but I still found that the transfers showed a lot more silvering than I was happy with. Black bodywork turns out to be very unforgiving of decal imperfections. As I intended to use Tamiya varnish, I’d avoided the Microscale fixing solutions and stuck to water (as also recommended in the CCT instructions). I tried to resolve the silvering by brushing well thinned Tamiya varnish around the transfer edges before the spray coat of Varnish went on. This helped but the big transfers with the long company name still show some silvering. Maybe I’ll spray the tank (but not the chassis) with gloss paint next time around too. Due to some changes of plan involving a couple of ‘extra’ chassis etches that I bought I now have one more class ‘B’ to build (as well as four class ‘A’s instead of three). Next time I will opt for a completely Microscale strategy for the decal fixing using Microset, possibly Microsol if the transfers don’t behave at the first attempt and finally their satin lacquer. Somehow while on the phone to Stephen for a second class ‘B’ tank body I also managed to buy one of his 45T GLW tank kits. Oh well. I’ve also finished and painted the two mineral wagons that I started in Italy and also painted another one that has been languishing for years waiting for the paint brush. While doing the couplings I also took pity on a 12T van that has been floating around unloved since I stole its couplings a while ago for another vehicle that needed some in extreme haste.

I should like to say that I had managed to make this, but I'm too busy making a mess of other models and painting pictures! As there has been some adverse comment in the 0 Guild Gazette on DMR kits I thought that I would post this picture to say that if you get a competent modeller these kits make for a lovely resulting loco! The chap who made this had not done LNER lined green livery before, so purists will note that there are a few bits of lining missing, but that would be very picky! He has made his own compensation system and the loco runs perfectly, well worth the 2 year wait! I hope to post more on the Peppercorn A2 rebuild soon.

Time to finally start laying track and I decided that I needed to start with probably the most critical bit of the formation, the single slip and turnout into the loop. The template from Templot showed these a 1:8 crossings, which is actually the shallowest diamond that you can have apparently. Anyone who has ever made a diamond crossing will tell you the most difficult bit is making the obtuse crossings - they are a pig to get right. That said after spending the whole of Friday evening turning the air blue (sorry Brian!) I managed to get them to my satisfaction. I've made the track off the board so I can work at a comfortable level on the bench and spin it around from all angles. The crossing is not straight which makes it all the more amusing. Exactoscale components on ply works well, the solvent melts the bottom of the chair and gives a decent grip onto the sleepers. I did have some issues with the chairs not having quite enough grip on the rail to stop the sleepers moving on the complete point (this is always a problem with the slide chairs) and had to resort to some 'thin' super-glue. This won't matter once the formation is stuck onto the foam. I've also attached the first 'TOU' (turnout operating unit) to the underneath of the baseboard. This is one of the design I cut on the laser cutter from acrylic. This was pleasing easy to fit and adjust so I'm rather happy with it. The plan is that the operating arm connects to a servo on a separate mounting plate. The crossing appears to pass the 'Weeeeeeee!' test with a wagon and coach (at least until it runs off the ends of the rails! I was a bit cross when one wagon jolted over the crossing until I checked its back-to-back and found it about 3/4mm too narrow and the wheels covered in clag. All rather satisfying so far, dare I try and power it up? David

My small layout includes a building representing a creamery, so I have been considering the traffic needed to serve this facility. I remembered that I had an old K's plastic kit of a six-wheel low Siphon, which had been put on one side as it had no chance of negotiating my small-radius curves. Looking at this model again (30 years after building it!), I think it is an attractive vehicle, representing the earlier low-roof Siphon, with only two doors each side. I intend to change the roof to an earlier single-arc design and apply an earlier style of lettering but the main problem is how to get it to stay on the track! I laid the vehicle and a section of curved track on my scanner, and the image shows the magnitude of the problem rather well. Looking at this image makes me realise how remarkable it was that manufacturers, like Hornby Dublo, made large Pacific locomotives negotiate such track reliably! It also increased my admiration for those fine-scale modellers who manage to make true-scale models stay on the track at all. I remembered that I had tried both removing the centre wheel flanges and also using a 'floating' axle on a centre support, both without success. The Mansell wheels that I had fitted had rather fine flanges, so I replaced these wheels with coarser Bachmann coach wheels and found that, as a four-wheeler, it would now navigate my curves successfully. I 'd be interested to hear from any one who has suggestions for any alternative ways of tackling this problem (apart from the obvious "use larger-radius curves" I've also been exploring the 'GWR wagon red' subject and happened to have some Farrow & Ball 'Rectory Red' paint left over from house decorations. According to their catalogue "Vermilion red was often made cheaper by the addition of red lead which blackens with age, so changing the colour to Rectory Red". This sounded quite a likely description for the make-up of GWR wagon red, so I tried it on one of my 3-plankers: I think this matches the 'light red' given in several descriptions, rather well and also has the potential for being 'weathered' to a much darker colour. Mike

Last month I paid what was only my second visit to my local preserved railway: The Swindon and Cricklade Railway. The weekend of 14th and 15th September was the railways Wartime Weekend. And as one of my mates, who I also play cricket with, was taking his WW2 American truck along, it was an idea chance for a visit. There was no mainline loco on loan at the S&CR this summer so Andrew Barclay 0-6-0ST "Salmon" was doing the duties. Seen here approaching Blunsdon with a rake of four maroon BR MK1s from Hayes Knoll. Salmon upon arrival at Blunsdon. Running around at Taw Valley Halt. The current southern limit of the railway. Back at Blunsdon awaiting to depart southwards towards Taw Valley. Blunsdon crossing, which links the main car park with the station. Exchanging single line tokens. Last year the railway suffered a long period of disruption due to essential bridge maintenance of the road bridges across and near the railway. Work carried out on the bridge over railway is clearly visible. The next big restoration project arrived at the railway recently. GWR Modified Hall No 6984 Owsden Hall. And finally my mates 1942 GMC 352 CCKW "Jimmy".

Just a quick update on the T9. The boiler, smoke box and firebox have all been rolled up as per the instructions. I haven't done this bit before so a lot of care was taken and I took my time. The end results are shown in the photos and I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. The T9 will have to wait for a while before I make any further progress as I really need to concentrate on the new layout Clevedon over the coming months and its first show in January.