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The Midland roundhouse roof has slatted ventilation louvres along the full length, on both sides, of each of the three roof pitches and although a number were missing during the 50/60's they still pose challenge to accurately model them. As a trial I decided to try and model the rectangular roof ventilator situated over the machine shop in the Workshop building. I decided to use 2mm x 1.5mm 'T' section brass in which I cut 8 x 45deg slots using a piercing saw. 16 of these were made, three for each end and five for each side. The louvres were made from lengths of 0.3mm x 3mm nickel silver strip and soldered into the slots. Once the ends and sides were fabricated the whole assembly was soldered together to give the correct rectangular shape. A test fit.... The hipped roof was then made up from my stock of lengths of 2mm x 1mm rectangular brass. The photo is an enlargement of the roof ventilator at Barrow Road. Finally here are a few photos of ventilator in position above the machine shop. The observant of you may have noticed some intruders in the sidings - Thomas, Annie & Clarabel [converted to P4] made an appearance for my grand-daughter over Christmas The result is pleasing and I shall use the same method to make the ventilators on the roundhouse roof - at least they consist of 3 louvres per side and not eight!

A green and pleasant land. Greetings all, Happy new year! Well progress on Ropley rumbles on at glacial speed, but there has been some in recent weeks. For a while now I've been looking at methods for recreating the overgrown grass on the embankment along the rear of the main running line and station. This varies from quite dense overgrowth to very thin cover where the platform extension was built several years ago. My original plan was to use static grass, but having produced a few test pieces, which have been seen in many of the photos here, I found myself thinking it didn't really capture the uneven nature of the real thing, and was a perhaps too uniform in appearance. So, after looking around the internet for ideas, I found myself back at Treemendus, the same suppliers who produced the earth powders used for the ballast. Now I should say there is absolutely no connection here, other than being a satisfied customer, but I decided to order a piece of their raw grass to see if it was possible to get the kind of look I wanted this way rather than using static grass. Raw Grass, it turns out, is a posh name for teddy bear fabric. It arrives as an A4 size sheet looking like this: A strip slightly larger than required was cut of the main piece and the fur brushed so it was at its full height. At this point it is far to tall for 2mm/N gauge so required trimming down quite a bit to better suit my needs. This was done initially with electric trimmers, then again roughly with scissors to give an uneven look. Before. After. The next stage was to add some colour to the fur. Treemendus recommend applying acrylic green paint to the top of the fur, rubbing it in as you go to add the colour. I felt this was the wrong way to do this though, since new growth appears from the ground so the colour should start from the backing fabric. To try and give this impression I watered down some Sap Green acrylic paint on a flat-ish plate: Pea soup, anyone? The strip of trimmed fur was then placed into the paint and left for a few seconds to soak up the paint through the backing fabric. It's important to let enough paint to absorb to hide the white backing fur, but not to leave it in the paint so long it dyes the piece entirely green: Waiter, there's a hair in my soup. The section of fur after removal from the paint. Once enough paint has been soaked up, the piece of fur is left to dry out overnight. Initially the green seemed quite bright, but once it has dried out it darkens down to a much better colour. I also gave it a very quick blast over with some green spray paint to help blend it all in. It will also need a spray with some matt varnish to take off any residual shine from the teddy fur: This will need some further foliage adding to represent brambles and other growth but overall I'm quite pleased with the result of this trial. Here are the test pieces produced to date rested in place on the layout to get an idea of how they would look: Cheers all! Tom.

It's been quite a successful week all in all. The Weston show went well and I've made steady progress with the T9. The body has been united with the chassis for the first time. A tiny amount of fettling was required but all fitted where it was supposed to. The frames sit inside the cab and have to fit on the inside of the splashers which are obviously between the frames and the wheels. I must admit to slight trepidation when I looked at some of the clearances involved but it all fits and credit to the designer of the kit. I'm using a Mashima motor and high level gear box with a D2 drive stretcher and one benefit is that the cab floor sits perfectly flat. The kit was originally designed for a Portescap and reconfigured gear box but this results in a step in the cab floor. I've started to detail the back head but there are a lot of bits. And I mean a lot... I'll keep chipping away and who knows, it may be in a state for some trial running at Southampton show next weekend but don't hold your breath! Speaking of which, do come along and say hello. The show looks like it's going to be a very good one.

Hi. Bit of an odd ball posting this time, when are they not? The first three photos go back a considerable period of time. The first one is the cover of the first dedicated railway book I bought. Railways had featured in other books such as the Odhams Press publication How it Works and how it's Done. . but this was my first real railway book. As may be seen from the cover it is the script of a B.B.C. broadcast. On the title page it quotes, A dramatisation of events that occurred at a vital Cross-roads on the path to victory on a certain day in 1944 between the hours of 10am and 10pm. The 6th June springs to mind but the book was published in June so presumably the broadcast was before that. Also the forward to the book by the then Minister of War transport is dated 2nd June. So make of that what you want. There is a good selection of photos in the book if any of you would like me to attach them sometime .I was 15 at the time and had been working a year. The second photo goes back to 1962. It was taken at the Leeds Model Railway Exhibition for publication in the Yorkshire Post Paper. It's my son and myself. He was nine at the time and is due to become a Grandad in April. The Leeds Exhibition at that time was held in the Corn Exhange, and was that a dusty place..The Aire Valley did three shows there and the layout got a nice coating of dust. There was no way to dust it and in the end I thought it antiquated the layout. The third photo was taken at a show in Huddersfield organised by the Yorkshire Area of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society in 1964. It's my youngest daughter, now a double Grandmother, holding a model, not built by me of a Corris loco. Hovering just off scene is the builder of the model ready ready to catch it if the worst happened. It was handed back undamaged. the remaining photos all-though recent are of an older subject. It's a model I built about 1965/66 of Emmet's Nellie and train. I think this was the time when Emmet's locos and stock were popular with modeller's. I think the loco chassis is Triang. I remotored it last year. The coaches are scratch built and have an oil lamp for illumination. These are made from a grain of wheat bulb with a short length of brass tube for the oil container and a Chinese style hat on top. These and the bulb in Nellie's headlamp are the original ones. It is now in the possession of the fore mentioned daughter. It is normally kept in a display case but gets to run round the Christmas tree each year. I am also including a photo of a HIAB sea crane I built from a kit I got at the Blackpool Model Boat three years ago. Once again this is in the possession the afore mentioned daughter works for HIAB in the main office in Ellesmere. Think that's about it for now. Cheers. Derek.

Hi Clicking on the link below will allow you to access the latest version of my Ebook. This replaces the flash version. Buildings.pdf Lisa

There was a time when men were men and horses weren't lasagna. I’m currently building some horse-drawn vehicles for the little yard behind my goods depot. I began with Langley’s whitemetal kit for a GWR 5 ton wagon. This represents one of the standard designs often seen in photos from pre-grouping days, especially in the London division. It should be said at once that it isn't a finescale kit - indeed it's a bit rough in places. But with a little work I thought it would be OK for a position in the middle-ground of this little layout. The kit as supplied. At 20£ this is no cheap kit, though I imagine the three horses and carter are part of the reason. There is little flash, but most parts do need a bit of filing and tweaking to make a good fit. The instructions are reasonable, although some details of the assembly are left to the imagination. To improve appearances, I filed thick bits down to a leaner shape. I added rails between the side boards, and used wire in drilled holes to secure items (as per photo above). I compromised on the stanchions that support the "raves": These are moulded as solid triangles, but replacing them is not really practical, I think. In primer. The seating arrangement follows the elevated “Paddington” pattern (as opposed to the much more basic “Birmingham” style). The parts provided for this looked overscale to me, so I basically rebuilt the whole seating arrangement. The fore carriage was fitted in a way that allowed it to actually pivot. There are shire horses and then there are shire horses! The one on the left came with the kit along with two others. The one on the right is from Dart castings. I opted for two of the latter. I replaced the supplied chain with something finer. To fit the chains to the horses, I sunk bits of wire into the beasts, fitted the chain and then bent the wire to form a small loop. For the lettering, I needed yellow letters. There are no ready-made transfers available for these vehicles, so I plundered the HMRS GWR goods wagons sheet, building up the wording letter by letter. The spacing to accommodate the framing was also seen on the prototypes, although it is accentuated here due to the thicker castings. The HMRS sheet does have yellow letters, but not enough for my purposes, so as an experiment I used white letters and coloured them afterwards with a yellow marker. I wouldn’t really recommend this – it works OK at first but you have to be very careful with the subsequent varnishing or it will take the colour right off. I’m not entirely happy with the lettering, but life is short. Done. The chain in the middle is a rough indication of the chains and skids used for locking and braking the wheels when parked. I do like the ‘osses. I was going to call them "the Finching Sisters" in honour of the two lovely ladies on Robin's Brent layout. Then I realized they were male. In position in one of the cartage bays. Although one or two details don't stand close inspection on this vehicle, I am reasonably satisfied with the overall outline and feel of it. The wagon seen from inside the depot. Not sure what to add in terms of load. It is tempting to do one of the sky-high loads seen in some photos (eg here), but I think it might become visually over-powering on this vehicle. Maybe on the next one. Off-topic: Looks like a leftover from the new year decorations has found it’s way into the goods depot. Happy New Year everyone! Notes on the prototype For what it’s worth, I’ve added here some of my own notes on these vehicles. Note that they are mainly based on my own observations from photos and drawings. I do have "Great Western Road Vehicles" by P. Kelley, but despite some useful illustrations, this book does not really go into much written detail on the horse-drawn wagons. Perhaps "Great Western Horse Power" by Janet Russell is better, and worth a purchase? Design These wagons were used for standard and heavy goods cartage. There were different types built to this style, some with six “bays”, some with five. Some were built for a single horse, some for two or more. The tare and tonnage varied considerably across the different designs. They had the “Paddington pattern” of seat arrangement, where the seat was elevated above the wagon. Hoops could be fitted to accommodate sheeting. A light version of the same design was used for parcels delivery vans, with hard tops. Distribution The wagons were especially prominent at Paddington, where photos suggest they were the all-dominant type in the 1900s. However they were also used elsewhere on the system (even as far as Cardiff, according to one drawing). In some areas they seem to have been rare though, eg at Birmingham Hockley the dominant goods delivery wagon was of a quite different design. A photo from Slough in the 1920s shows the type I have modelled alongside one of the Birmingham style vehicles, so the different types did appear together at some locations. Livery In Great Western Way (original edition), Slinn states that by the 1900s, station names were applied to larger horse-drawn vehicles whenever there was room for it (as seen on my model above). I have a theory, though, that this practice ended sometime after 1905 or thereabouts: Looking at photos after that date, station names are no longer present, and the “Great Western Railway” and numbering is all on one plank. Slinn also states that numbering was in random positions, but as far as I can see the numbers on these vehicles were always at the front end of the wagon. Perhaps Slinn missed the fact that the relative position of the lettering and numbers was necessarily “handed”, because we read from left to right (ie on the left hand side, it would be written “667 Great Western Railway” and on the right hand side, it would be “Great Western Railway 667”). According to Slinn, the lettering for horse-drawn vehicles in the 1900s was yellow or gold, shaded or not. I doubt gold would have been used for wagons like these, and there is no apparent shading in the photos I have seen. So presumably plain yellow (but the shade of yellow not clear?). I have sometimes wondered whether the lettering was in fact white on some wagons, because it stands out with very high contrast in some photos. However, looking at photos of parcels vans (which are known to have had white letters on their hard tops) it seems that the letters on wagons were darker than white, so presumably yellow. Later in the 1930s, horse-drawn vehicles adopted a different chocolate and cream livery and a different lettering style.

After much messing with boards, plaster, rail, pcb, magnorail tracks and Faller guide wires the whole lot is now up and working..... There's the 2 tram lines, 2 Faller guide wires and the Magnorail cyclist in about 5 inches. Pavements and road surfaces are all done and now just the setts to scribe. A good number of the buildings are well underway so hopefully it's well on track for it's first exhibition target. Quick video of the cyclist in action passing Leeds 600

Thanks for all the suggestions regarding springs and things (and sorry, I the depths of my despair I didn't manage to take any pics of the chassis!), but have got somewhere. In fact I haven't really gone anywhere but the little Simplex has gone around my loop of Hornby set track on the living room floor (in true train set style!), completely unaided and with three hefty white metal D class wagons. I persevered with the pick ups and the real break through came when I had the brainwave of bending them with a needle. What I did was thread the end through the eye of the needle then twist the needle with a pair of pliers. This enabled me to get a good bend in the right place where you can't really get to just with pliers. It is still not completely right though. I can see the paxolin strip flexing and moving under the pressure of the spring and only really stayed in place with the help of a blob of BluTac under the body. To remedy this I think I will build up the contact area for the glue with some lead sheet and kill two birds with one stone. I do fancy experimenting with phosphor bronze wire and making some springs. Should be taking the Father in Law to the Stafford show in a couple of weeks so shall pick some up from Eileen's then. One thing though - little Iz says it is too noisy and can't go on 'our' railway! That's telling me - I shall have to try and do something about that!

Hi, I joined the forum a couple of months ago and posted a couple of pics but though it was about time I started a thread on my layout. I've been away from the hobby for over 20 years but having a bit more time on my hands and coming across this site thought there was no better time to start again. I was originally going to start in N gauge but having watch youtube clips of the models and the DCC sound chips available it had to be OO. After spending much time thinking of various layout ideas I finally decided to build a diesel depot based in the late 1960's, this will allow me to model br green and blue as well early br prototypes. I want to try and get that dirty feel of an old steam shed converted to diesel and the odd stabling point with overhead line for early AC electrics. Garston Bridge (a name I only came up with today) is based around the Liverpool area although it could be based anywhere in the Northwest, as it will allow me to run a decent variety of classes. As I am limited with space at the moment (in between houses so hopefully our new one will have a big garage or loft) the plan is to construct the layout in three possibly four 3'3" sections and I'm working on the first two wich include the entrance and departure roads, refuelling point and stabling sidings. I stated the layout about 6 months ago so I'll post some pics of the progress so far. Like I said I'm new to this after so long so all comments and advice are welcome. A few more pictures of some locos around the depot, please excuse the loco numbers I need to re-number most of them as well as add DCC sound, the class 47 and class 40 both have Legomanbiffo sound chips and I highly recommend them. I'll try an get a track plan uploaded soon. Managed to get the fueling point track layer this weekend and the fueling point built and weathered although not completely finished yet still needs more detail to be added and a bit more weathering. Got some of the track and ballast weathered tonight still needs more touching up though and a lot more detail adding. New arrival today of a peak, looks really good but needs a bit more weathering though and sound added.

I've been doing a bit lately on my brass Z19 steam engine, heres some progress http://nscalenswgrandpommy.blogspot.com.au/