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  1. The small yard on Empire mill is entered by a trailing point from the down-line. This had been built while I was building the continuous run around the room. However the yard itself needed a asymmetric double slip to give access to the two sidings and the cattle-dock. the crossings are all 1:8 but one of the curved sides is quite a bit tighter that the other. As with the rest of the track Templot was used to draw it out. The crossings, both standard and obtuse were made as separate units soldered up to some nickel silver strip. Ignore the large hole in the baseboard, this was originally going to be were the lever frame was going to fit, but I've had a change of plan now and a separate box is going to be built to hold the frame which will then fit roughly where it is on the photograph. The slip has taken a fair bit of tweaking, but I can now reverse trains in and shunt between the sidings at speeds faster than scale. Typically the photograph points out a couple of missing chairs so I'd better go and fix that. Friday night was spend continuing to make up another 5 levers of Shropshire and Herefordshire Area Group (spelt in full to avoid the web censor!) lever frame as Empire Mill needs more levers than Empire Basin. David
    8 points
  2. Here’s another horse-drawn vehicle for my goods depot, this time a scratchbuilt light trolley in the GWR’s “Birmingham” style. The model was built from styrene and bits in my spares box, with wheels bought in from Langley. Drawings and photos suggest that there was a bewildering amount of detail variation within this basic type. I based my model on a drawing on page 241 of P. Kelley's "Great Western Road Vehicles", which was built in several lots. Another almost identical version can be seen on page 243 of the same volume. Various photos of the trolleys in action at Hockley can be seen here, although my particular version is closer to one depicted at Slough on page 38 of "GWR Goods Services" Part 2A. The vehicles had a protective canvas cover over the driver which could be extended backwards over the load in wet weather. The canvas was held by hoops over the seat, which – unlike many other goods delivery vehicles – seem to have been permanently fitted. In typical old-world fashion, these otherwise mundane vehicles had moulded panels along the sides. I fashioned the latter from strips of Evergreen - could've done with a Silhouette cutter there! The wheels were a bit of a problem. The closest I could find were Langley’s 12mm wheels. These are 0.9 mm too small and have 11 spokes where they should have 12. In the end I compromised and used them. If I find better wheels I'll replace them. The springs are modified leftovers from Coopercraft wagon kits. The fore carriage and shafts were a nice little puzzle to build. The drawing does not clearly show the type of shafts used. The GWR used several varieties, with designs becoming simpler over the years. To cut a long story short, I chose the graceful “curvy” style of the earlier types. Main parts assembled and ready for painting. Lettering presented the usual problem when you need non-standard sizes. Photos of trolleys from the 1900s show some with serif lettering, some with sans serifs. Some have numbers at the front, others at the rear. I eventually used HMRS Hawksworth coach lettering (!), which is a compromise but not too far off for sans serif lettering. I've only just noticed the broken spoke - a fault in the casting it seems. The weather sheet fitted. Again there was variety on the prototypes. On some vehicles the sheet extended all the way down over the sides, on others it stopped short above the deck. The sheet was fashioned from a wagon tarpaulin from the Smiths range, turned over to hide the lettering. Final detailing included adding a few bits of this fine chain which I've only recently discovered. It is imported by Cambrian Models and has the great advantage of being pre-blackened. It is 33 links per inch, and can be obtained from Cambrian themselves or by internet order from H&A Models (I have no connection to either). For horse power, I chose the recently introduced "feathered" Vanner from Dart, seen here on the left together with a mate from Shirescenes for comparison. As always with figures, I prefer relaxed/calm poses - and I liked the way the Vanner was bending its head down. The bucket was fashioned from bits in the spares box. Keeping draught horses in good shape was taken very seriously, and photos show them both feeding and drinking while waiting at goods depots (eg here). So that's about it. It's been interesting to scratchbuild this vehicle and thereby learn about the design of these vehicles. Sometimes doing a small project like this can bring as much satisfaction (and challenge!) as a whole layout, I think. For a couple of other scratchbuilt GWR horse-drawn vehicles, see Jerry Clifford's lovely little vehicles, and Beachcomber Bob's dray here on RMweb.
    7 points
  3. Good evening, A quick update on progress this week following the initial entry last week and very encouraging comments. Decided to take on board Rich B's idea (thank you Sir) for losing the corner post to the right hand end and cantilevering the fascia to complete the corner. That corner was troubling me somewhat as it would have meant covering up a part of the dockside in addition to looking like there was a piece of back scene missing. I sketched out the components and laser cut them at the office using 2mm grey card to match the previous fascias constructed in BCN. Mid week I brought them home and did a quick dry assemble and as initially feared the 2mm grey card was not up to the cantilever despite me notching the corner joint. I also realised that the 25mm top band was a little too thin and needed increasing in size to 50mm. The mods were made to the CAD file at work at I recut the pieces the next lunch time, checking the same evening with another dry assembly. This seemed to work a lot better so this weekend I began to fit in place with PVA. I also removed the back-scene and after a quick email exchange with Chris Nevard he recommended getting it printed directly onto 2mm or 3mm foamex - I need to give a few calls this week to get some quotes as it looks like it don't come cheap As part of the assembly, small formers have been made which will carry the IKEA lights above. Am thinking I will now make this unit removable to allow access to the layout. Overall, I am pleased with the new fascia and the initial photos with the lights shows it will make a difference even if it ends up a static diorama. It's funny to see the back scene with the old blue sky in place as I think the photographic back scene really helped give it context. Here's a few pics to go with the above description. Any comments most welcome as usual. Pete
    6 points
  4. Haven't done any serious modelling for months now, and no railway related modelling for years. (collecting, yes, enough of that...) So it's time to change all that. But something simple, something that can be finished in a reasonable timeframe. My first 00 rolling stock kit: Removing mould lines and ejector marks: Basic construction: And, while I was modelling yesterday, a nice surprise came in the post, see the photo above. 10 spoke Star replacement wheels. Top marks for Hornby's Customer Service! Added most of the underframe details: The glue marks do show up nicely with flash on.... In reality they are hardly visible and will be completely hidden after painting. Test load: Enough for now. Next installment: Painting!
    5 points
  5. One of the reasons that is most off-putting for people to move to finescale is the additional job of replacing the wheels of RTR stock in order to get things running. Inevitably this leads to a back-log of items in the gloat box of things waiting for wheels, alongside all of the additional kits. So far I have used the conventional methods of replacing coach wheels with replacements, sending wheels off to Gordon for re-profiling and attempting to build a replacement chassis (with only partial success,) however there are situations that require some more elaborate thinking. One of the problems with the track plan of St. Ruth, and even the real Penzance, is the lack of crossovers to release Loco’s arriving from up country, or bringing empty coaching stock in from Long Rock depot or Ponsandane. To combat this in real life, exemptions were granted to propel stock up and down the line and to allow coaches to be gravitated into the platform. Naturally we heavily rely on propelling in the schedule, but the addition of the new sea siding allows us to explore the other option. Several solutions were composed for this, including running a series of magnets in a channel beneath the base-board, but for now it was proposed to place a motor in a coach, and rely on a good knowledge of the location of section breaks, and the strength of the DG loop, to perform the operation. The basis for the “gravity coach,” uses a combination of pieces from a Farish MK1 and one of the motorised bogies from the infamous parcels DMU, so called as there are several others using said DMU for similar, rather than the intended purpose. Initially the wheels of the DMU were replaced with drop in wheelsets, and a mock up tested to ensure that the whole train wouldn't buckle off the rails when run. Initially the coupling arrangement was removed from one end of the MK1, in order to produce a flat floor for the DMU chassis to sit on. Then a suitably shaped hole was filed into the floor for the gears to fit through. Essentially the remainder of the work was filing the body and the chassis so that the two gave a good fit. The MK1 bogie was reutilised, but with the addition of the pickups from the non-driving bogie of the DMU, and some suitable holes through the floor and interior for the fixed wires to pass through. These are connected to the chassis via a IC socket, and a new fixing fabricated from some PCB, which provides power to the motor via new wipers (isn’t DCC isolation wonderful?...) and with that, what must surely be the most complicated conversion of a MK1 is complete, for now. All in all although temperamental, does produce the required effect. Certainly at the shows that we have utilized this, much amusement is caused behind the backscenes by moving the coaches a little, causing putners to say “I’m sure those coaches just moved on their own…” The other unusual conversion just completed concerns the Dapol Class 22. From conversations on the VAG I believe that it is possible for the wheels supplied to be turned down, albeit presumably without thinning the wheels down due to the spoked wheels. Instead of this, taking inspiration from Nigel Hunts Manor kit, I have turned pinpoints onto an extended axle driving wheel using a mini drill, and pushed these onto the existing muff. At the same time, these received a polish, in order to attempt to avoid the rusting which will affect electrical pickup. This may seem daunting (especially considering the price of a wheel-set,) but the pinpoints in the bogies are fairly generous and shorter pins can be paired with longer pins to even the wheel set out to the required length. As the wheels are 8mm compared to the required 7mm, the wheels are much more noticeable, and has the effect of lifting the loco up by 0.5mm, However when matching it up to a MK1, whilst noticeable, it is less so. Whilst there are simpler methods of changing the wheel-depth, these are certainly more satisfying and at the very least are a means to an end.
    5 points
  6. On my layout A Nod To Brent is an embankment that goes over a short arch bridge.Alongside is a farmhouse where this lady lives.Her name is Mrs Honeyman.She's a bit of a village gossip and knows all the ins and outs of the South Hams.A bit well to do if you ask me.A keen gardener and is carrying a trug.Many years ago,she shared a love interest over the same man with Minnie Finching.They've hardly spoke since.The man was an old railwayman who joined the Midland at Bristol. A Dart Castings figure.
    4 points
  7. A little more progress has been made on the baseboards, although as is often the case there has been a step backward before resuming the stepping forward!! The originally made traintable used a turned peg and socket on which to rotate, whilst that worked I could not prevent the whole traintable from rocking slightly on this centre pivot point without introducing a lot of friction at the outer edges which I felt would be counter productive as I could visualise the "sudden unsticking motion" when overcoming the friction throwing all of the stock of the rails. A search of the internet yielded a "Heavy Duty Turntable Bearing" sold by Station Road Baseboards. I recognised this as something called a Lazy Susan, and managed to find a 12" diameter one online at http://simplybearings.co.uk/shop/product_detail.php?products_id=42341&gclid=CO7Ah92WqLwCFafKtAodR1YAsQ. (No association with this company except as a satisfied customer) A fair bit of hacking away at the underside of the traintable baseboard was necessary to accomodate the depth of the Lazy Susan below the traintable (about 8mm), and extra blocks of wood had to be attached to the cross members where the fixing holes in the Lazy Susan were. But once it was all back together it has made a much better and stable traintable that rotates smoothly. The layout has also grown some legs and supporting structure. The legs themselves are 2"x1" timber held apart by 6" panels of 8mm plywood (screwed and glued), hopefully this will allow each pair of legs to be light and not require any diagonal bracing. The top of the legs protrudes above the panel by about 1", and the top panel is slightly wider than the baseboards so that the baseboard side member can rest on the panel and be held in place by the 1" protrusion. To help keep everything together, the leg pairs are held apart/together by 4" deep lengths of 8mm ply, these longitudinal members are slotted at their ends to match slots cut in the leg panels. Hopefully the pictures below will illustrate this. I am in the process of priming all of this woodwork, the undersides of the baseboards will be painted gloss white (hopefully that will aid seeing what I'm doing under there), and the outside sides and ends will be in a suitable colour. The next task will be to construct the traintable at the embankment end, and to form a suitable hole in the end back scene to get to it. Then the lighting pelmet will be constructed to effectively hang between the end back scenes. The back back scenes have bothe been cut from 6mm ply, but won't be fitted permanently until all of the track work is in place. Ian
    2 points
  8. This week I have mostly been... messing with paint! Context On my long list of modelling-things-to-do is the assembly of a rake of coaches to make a 4-TC set. This will involve a cut and shut for the driving ends, plus two of the excellent Bachmann Mk1 coaches to form the TBS and TFK. Whilst gathering the various bits together, my mind turned to how I would paint the driving ends, and importantly achieve a decent colour match to the two middle coaches. Whilst many colour variations exist in the prototypes, 4-TC units mostly stayed in their sets, so their colours were well matched. Background My modelling box contains a range of ~35 year-old Humbrol enamels, including some of the old 'authentic' range. Amazingly, almost all of these still flow and cover well after a thorough stir. However, the old HR135 (blue) and HR136 (grey) are no longer good matches - maybe paints have improved over the years, or perhaps the pigments have aged. Anyway, time for more paint! I'd prefer to spray my new coaches, so a number of options exist: Railmatch or Precision spray enamel - no local stockist, expensive to courier since the 'mail of hazardous chemicals' rules, cans have a tendency to splatter Acrylic - less odour, easy clean, need to acquire airbrush (might be good to have for other jobs) Plentiful choice of brand now - best to keep to one if possible for consistency and compatibility Vallejo are getting good press, increasing availability, including a full rack locally - let's try some. Colour Trials What follows is not a particularly scientific approach and may not be repeatable - but it is the best I could do with what I had available. First I set up my TFT display to be accurate as possible: colour temperature (6500K), grey scale, brightness and contrast using Windows 7 'Calibrate colour' - other tools exist. Importantly, colour rendering varies by screen type and model, and even in JPEG compression, so the pics below may look quite different at your end Here's some sample Vallejo shades available: And here are some samples obtained from good photos of prototypes: The upper group are from a coach and have measured RGB values overlaid. The lower group are from a class 37 and also have three Vallejo samples (with 9xx numbers) for reference. On my screen, all these colours look a little too green to me. By the way, printing these was useless as my Epson SX colour rendering was appalling even using different colour profiles. It may be worthwhile if you have a super wizzy professional hi-grade colour printer. Things looked promising, so it was off to the shops to obtain a few of the colours that seemed to be in the right range. Once the paints were obtained - they are in eye-dropper style bottles which facilitate easy mixing and should reduce waste - the grand test began. For each colour, the bottle was given a thorough shake and roll, then two coats of each colour was painted on white card - the lines are useful to indicate the degree of coverage. The brush was cleaned and dried after each application. Here are the results after about 12 hours drying time: This pic reveals several interesting things: the camera has rendered these colours quite accurately in daylight (no flash), everything being slightly darker 'in the flesh' some colours are quite close to the colour chart but some are miles off Dark Blue is lighter than Medium Blue - have I a duff sample? my old Humbrol authentic colours look quite wrong Bachmann's rail blue seems slightly darker than the prototype Some of my older Bachmann Mk2 coaches have a slightly duller shade of blue, and most of my rail blue diesel locos (various makes) are a little lighter - somewhere between 962 and 963. So that's an area for further trials. Conclusions As if I didn't already know, don't trust the colour charts nor the bottles in the shop! From these trials, I found the best reasonable matches to a recent Bachmann Mk1 coach are: Rail blue - 70.963 Medium Blue (may benefit from a little 962 mixed in) Rail grey - 70.883 Silver Grey And I need to splash out and buy an airbrush soon. I'd be interested to know whether anyone else has tried this, whether your 'dark blue' looks lighter, and what you find works for you. Postscript These 'matches' only get close on a white undercoat/base. Further tests using a grey primer base coat revealed some issues - see next entry.
    1 point
  9. The first weekend of February has produced my first model railway exhibition visit of the new year. I have been looking forward to the Stafford event all week as it is one of my favourite events of the whole year. It guarentees three large halls of exhibits with a host of large and impressive layouts to enjoy and plenty of trade to try and part me from my cash. Once again it did not disappoint. The show was excellent! My dad and I arrived at around 10.20, just twenty minutes after opening, and were greeted by a rather large queue. Clearly the show remains popular. Credit goes to the organisers who managed to keep the queue moving and, despite the numbers, we were in the hall in just over five minutes. Very impressive. At £9.00 per person the show is not cheap, but is definitely well worth the money. The show guide, at £1.00, was excellent value and, I think, cheaper than last year. The guide remains a good read and reference for the exhibits on show. Ok, Kenton, not too many track plans - but not everyone needs them!! This year the show featured a number of micro layouts in the "Sandylands" suite, providing plenty of inspiration to those with limited spaces. The pick of these models was "Ingleton Sidings" which is only 4ft x 1ft in size and is displayed on an ironing board. This takes the form of a shunting puzzle with a short headshunt and three sidings. The wagons are displayed on cards and then the cards were shuffled and five selected to form the train. The challenge is to shunt the wagons, in the short space, to achieve the sequence shown on the card. These layouts often received mixed reviews, but they are fascinating to watch. Set in a brewery sidings there was plenty of detail packed into the limited space with the additional touch of a video screen showing a live feed from a small camera hidden in a crate on the layout. This excellent model always seemed to attract the crowds. There were several layouts I had seen before including the N gauge "Melton Mowbray North" which aims to accurately represent the station and surrounding area. This is a superb model with key features including the "Home Ales" sign on the overbridge. The modern image "New Bryford" was on display. This is another excellent model with plenty of "yellow" on show. Peter Cullen's "Mannin the Middle" which represents the Isle of Man railways is an interesting circular shape. Scanning through the layout list before the show there were some layouts I was looking forward to see. The Hornby Magazine's "St Stephen's Road" has recently returned to the exhibtion circuit. It features an unusual triangular baseboard layout with Western and Southern region lines. The model did not disappoint with a number of sound fitted locos. The sound fitted and weathered Bachmann "Dukedog" was superb as was the sound and smoke fitted Spamcan. The highlight was the sound fitted model of City of Truro which looked a picture as it appeared, majestically, from the fiddle yard. BRM's "Black Country Blues" attracted a large crowd throughout the day and entertained with a procession of slow moving blue diesel hauled freight trains. The layout was superbly lit and the scenics were offset by a fantastic photographic backscene, one of the best I have ever seen! There are always models which have the "wow" factor. At Stafford that was definitely "Gresley Beat" which provided a constant flow of LNER action amongst fantastic scenery. This included a 70 odd wagon freight, hauled by an 0-6-0! A brilliant model and well deserving of the large crowds which gathered throughout the day. Mind you this did not stop the "picky" merchants having a moan. A gentleman next to me, loudly, bemoaned the lack of crews in many of the A4's, whilst my Dad criticised it for falling foul of his "pet hate". He hates bridges which go nowhere. Those bridges that end abruptly at the front of the baseboard always draw his (not mine) criticism. Even my own layout does not escape this! At times it was a little embarrassing to listen to my dad and the aforementioned gentleman "pick flies" out of such a superb model. For me it was the best in show! Mind you there was one or two layouts which did draw my criticism. The excellent N gauge model "Dentdale" did impress me. This excellent Settle and Carlisle model featured a couple of superb viaducts set in brilliant scenery. Sadly it was let down a little by the use of of two 8F's, both numbered 48773, within moments of each other. That is a cardinal sin in my opinion! Stafford does often suffer from the weather with heavy rain and snow causing trouble in past years. This year the recent rain did leave the car park very muddy. We were lucky to find a space on the hard standing and, therefore, had no problems. My father in law was not so lucky and got stuck in the mud!!! All in all an excellent show. Congratulations to all of the organisers. Here are my "awards" for the event. Remember these are only my humble opinion!!! Top layouts (the ones which kept me coming back for more) 3rd: St Stephens Road: Plenty of sound fitted locomotives set in lovely off the shelf scenery. 2nd: Inglenook Sidings: An enjoyable shunting puzzle in a limited space, with the opportunity for the public to have a go. 1st: Gresley Beat: No contest! Plenty of scale length trains with lots of LNER action. Superb! Best scenic item Runner Up: The viaducts on "Dentdale", Winner: The photographic backscene and lighting on "Black Country Blues" - just excellent. Best model loco It could have been any of the sound fitted locos on "St Stephens Road" with the Dukedog and Spamcan being strong contenders. For me the pick was the sound fitted "City of Truo". It looked and sounded superb. And finally - the not so good. Runner Up: The doubling up of 8F 48773 on "Dentdale", Winner: I am not going to name the layout. All I will say is one model featured a card built model of a "cafe". This was falling apart, with the card roof clearly very bent. The colouring on the model looked like it had been done by one of my less able 6 year old pupils!! A great show though, thoroughly enjoyed it!!!
    1 point
  10. Next up was the roof, prior to taking drastic action I decided to have a go at the roof. I started by using a couple of Lima ballast weights to pin the roof flat to the workbench. I then glued the end pieces into position, then glued the clesterory side into position. In the centre the roof had bowed by 6mm below the datum point. Once the ends of the side were in position I the forced this up and glued into place I did find the bowing along the length of the side compounded the problem, if (when) I make another of these I am likely to run a length of brass strip along this side blocking the windows (plated over on the prototype) The tops of the compartments needed some fettling to get a good fit, and once painted will need gluing into place. In the below photo it's clear a tad more work is needed to get a good fit at one end. I have also fitted the first solbar along with the two etched plates that sit on either end of the chassis (not exactly sure what for) Finally made a start on the seats, although they don't match the diagram. Really impressed with this kit, the only downside being the bowed parts (though as a 2nd hand kit of undetermined age I won't hold this against it). The instructions are fantastic (right mix of text and diagrams) and the choice of material is spot on with brass used where it's best). Hopefully Coopercraft will have them back in production soon as I rather fancy an all third clesterory and 3 toplights...
    1 point
  11. Another figure to be found in the village is this guy.Another unnamed casting from Dart MSV5 which they call a railway worker but I've made him into a painter and decorator for this scene.I've used Hornby's Skaledale's terraced houses and here's a garage behind him.Repainted to give some individuality to the products.The pavement is from Metcalfe card kits.
    1 point
  12. Modellers today are spoiled for choice with various buildings either rtp like Skaledale or card kits from several suppliers.Another cottage supplier are Townstreet.Here I've used their corner shop on the end of a row of terrace houses.The kit is plaster castings that glue together using pva .The fun bit is the painting where one can really go to town.I've fitted an interior using castings from Langley models grocers shop.The window castings come with the kit.Tiny Signs adverts adorn the outside.Not a cheap project but very satisfying none the less. http://www.townstreetuk.co.uk/ Here we see George and Mary Rouncewell out shopping but George is more interested in his racing paper than Joseph Aulds wares.
    1 point
  13. I recently stumbled across an unused figure of mine that was stored away in a parts box that we all have somewhere. I'm pretty sure he came from Aidan's range http://www.aidan-campbell.co.uk/76catalogue.htm#Mid%2020th%20century%20Civilians number 008 He's sitting here with his new best friends but needs a name.Can anyone help.I might suggest he's not short of a bob or two as he seems to be reading one of the broadsheet newspapers of the day.
    1 point
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