Leaderboard

A little more progress with my Worsley Works 4 and 6 wheel coaches - the painting stage!! The models were given an all over coat of etch primer after the models were thoroughly scrubbed with kitchen cleaner and rinsed thoroughly (and allowed to dry of course). Each was then masked so they the cream upper body could be sprayed (Precision Paints GWR Coach Cream) with the air brush. Once that had dried for a day or two, the masking was removed, and the whole of the cream area painted with Humbrol Maskol, and the roof again masked with masking tape before applying the chocolate (Precision Paints GWR Coach Brown) again with the air brush. Then came the fun part (once the maskol had been removed) ... The mouldings of GWR coaches in my period were black, so this was carefully ruled on with Rotring Black Ink using a Rotring Pen with a 0.1mm nib, once this was dry the bolections around the windows and the door drop lights were painted with Precision Paints Mahogany, this latter was thinned a little to allow it to flow around the windows by capillary action. Once that was dry it was back to the cream on the tip of a fine sable brush to touch up any areas where either the black ink or the mahogany paint had strayed. Finally, the paint on the door handles and G scroll irons was carefully scraped away to show the shiny brass (I've only done this to the U4 so far as the painting of the T38 is incomplete). 4 Wheel 1st 2nd Composite (Diagram U4) : (Step End) (Brake Tell Tale End) 6 Wheel Brake Third (Diagram T38) : The pair together : There is still quite a bit to do (especially the T38), obviously the roofs still need painting, and the mouldings on the end need to be painted black too - hopefully they will be in a more completed state so that they can have a little run out on St Ruth at the weekend at the Epsom & Ewell show. Ian

One of the benefits of working on a painted backscene, as opposed to a digital one, is that it's relatively straightforward to make changes, either big or small. Looking at the pics I've posted earlier in this blog, I decided that the background hills needed to be pushed back a little more to suggest greater distance and haze. Working with the airbrush is tricky due to the height of the layout, so I decided to try and desaturate the hills using a wash of dilute white applied with a very wide artist's brush, kindly loaned by my wife on the strict understanding I'd give it a good clean afterwards. The brush was a quality one so there was no danger of bristles coming off, which can happen with cheaper versions. I brushed broad parallel strokes, taking care not to load the brush too heavily - I didn't want dilute white running down over the existing scenery - and then went back over it as it dried, to reduce obvious brushmarks. Once that was one, I had to go back over some of the foreground stuff on the backscene to reinstate it, emphasizing the difference between the distant hills and the relatively nearby trees. At Trainwest, I'd bought some nice half-relief trees from the nice lady on the Ceynix stand: http://www.railwaytrees.co.uk/ These were too good to resist, especially as I had been looking to add some low-relief trees along the back of the scenery behind the station building. However, I expected to have problems with shadows on the backscene, one solution of which is to paint additional trees to soak up the shadows from the "real" ones. These don't have to be Constable-level masterpieces; it's sufficient to give a suggestion of further growth. Provided the painted hues aren't miles off the modelled trees, the effect will be OK from most viewing angles. One trick is not to use greens straight from the tube, but to add in a bit of red - this will help the finished greens look less vivid. Here, the tree to the right of Ivo's Bentley is a Ceynix half-relief one, with the painted trees in the background masking the shadows. The purple-brown tree leaning in on the left in the immediate foreground is also from Ceynix, giving an idea of the quality of these models. In the picture above, I also added two smaller Ceynix trees immediately behind the railway station. I could happily add more of these as time and funds allow, bearing in mind that trees aren't cheap. But I think they are worth the investment, especially as my own efforts aren't up to the same quality. Cheers and thanks for reading. ps - a diesel for Naturol.

Happy Easter all, Now I have a week off work I am hoping to snuck in a little modelling. Still need to apply the second coat of paint to the fascia and add some white text which I will try to do this week. As Phase I draws to a conclusion, my thoughts slowly start to drift to Phase II which is to try and get the layout working again....otherwise its a photo plank and straight onto rolling stock. This afternoon, I managed to lash up connect my Pictroller and run a few tests...it suddenly dawned on me the layout hasn't been run for almost 5 years Make or break time... I tentatively placed a class 25 (one of my few locos with turned down wheels) and it grunted and moved into the station rather awkwardly...a truly momentous moment given 4 years of neglect from its debut exhibition May 2010 (apart from cosmetic scenery work ) and the track hadn't been cleaned At least it meant power was getting there so I dug out an old Peco track rubber (I know I know...) and buffed them rails. The 25 now worked a lot smoother however there were a few coughs at the turnout in the station...that'll be fettling required then Then followed some quick tests with a Dapol rtr 56 (from Paddock Wood) and the Dapol class 26...both of these are without turned down wheels and an old class 47 with 2mmFS wheels. Overall, things moved around and surprisingly the Dapol locos made it through the turnouts most times, despite coughing...which was an encouragement to get the wheels turned down. I took a quick couple of iPhone videos (avoiding the turnouts of course)...only short grabs but just to give a flavour: In summary, I think there is potential to get it running again so once I have finished the tidying up of the fascia this week I will start the design of the new fiddle yard which will be a simple 4 track traverser I think. As much as I like cassettes I would like to have a break from them as I have too many painful memories from misaligned joints (I know that this can happen with traversers too) but folding box file layouts mean far too many joints So hopefully I now have something to build upon...roll on that new Farish Large Logo class 37/4...a couple of those would be nice. Now...back to those chocolate eggs... EDIT: I should point out that the roof needs to be fixed back down on the station building hence the huge movement joints visible at the eaves...

OK here goes. This is my little blog about my first real layout. I'm going to attempt to capture an area I lived in back when I was a kid. The Inspiration Creswell is a small village in North East Derbyshire. Originally a mining village, Creswell had two stations - namely Welbeck & Creswell (LD&ECR 1897-1939) and Elmton & Creswell (MR 1875-present). This wonderful map shows the LD&ECR to the left and the MR to the right with linking across the colliery. I'm focusing on the MR as there is little information on the LD&ECR railway which was closed shortly after the troops left for WW2. However I would like to revisit this later when more research has been done. I'll try to bear it in mind when designing the layout so it can possibly be linked in at a later point. For now I am quite happy to start with the MR/LMS line I grew up around. "Elmton & Creswell" or "Creswell" as it now known was part of the Midland Railway Clowne branch which was created by The Mansfield Lines Act of 8 July 1865 which authorised the construction of the branch along with others in the area which was undergoing rapid industrialisation, especially in the coal and iron industries. Elmton & Creswell station c1875 The station opened in 1875 and did until the 1980's. It is now a part of the Robin Hood line and sees regular passenger service, albeit without the use of the original station. Having grown up there in the 80's I fell in love with the station building and the wonderful design of Midland Railway architecture. Sadly the station was in disrepair - even then and has been used as storage in Arnold Smith & Sons car parts/scrapyard since. The Station Master's house still exists there, but other buildings such as the goods shed, weighbridge office and smaller platform waiting room have been removed. I remember vaguely the weighbridge office being there in a yard that was inaccessible to children. The two original MR signal boxes (one at the station and another down the line) were replaced with a later wooden box in 1946 which has been refurbished a few times and still exists. The 1946 box - in need of repair c1977 Today both the station and station masters house also remain. Both in need of love, but structurally viable, It's terrible that such beauty is left in this state and building this layout is my way of trying to preserve a little of this before (I hope not) nothing is left of it. Traffic on the line is sparse with Robin Hood line traffic. I am unsure if any freight passes through these days. The one time I got to travel on the line in it's original guise was being pulled behind a Black Five as part of a commemorative display. 4498 Sir Nigel Gresley was also in service that weekend. A service was run from Worksop to Shirebrook Depot. Sir Nigel Gresley A4 in service leaving Elmton & Creswell junction towards Worksop c1987 Since then I have had a fondness for the line and became an avid researcher of its history. My father is a long time OO modeller and since school I have built and collected with him. Now I have my own home and space so it's time to 'live the dream' and build my childhood memories - but with a twist. Creswell was run down in the 80's and I don't want to recreate that. Instead I want people to see it as it was c1936, before WW2 and with some life in it. By then the line was run by LMSR and the MR had been amalgamated in the grouping of 1921, but I intend to run some MR locos purely for colour as 'commemorative runs' like the one I had as a kid :-)

Found some time over Easter to paint the lighting pelmets, satin black on the outside and gloss white on the inside. A trip to Maplins and 60 quid later I had the LED lighting strips and power supply etc. I hooked them up one evening just to see how bright they were, blimey! Once the paint was dry, they were fitted and tested All that is left to do is finish painting the supports white and do the final wiring

Have actually managed to get the DCC sorted in the Simplex. I wired in another decoder (after disconnecting but not removing the first one), so had a glorious mess of wires. What it did proove though was that the first decoder was faulty so that will be going back very soon. So bit the bullet and chopped all the wires which then makes them really lovely to solder back together together again but is essential as not too much room to play with if it is going to be invisible. Here it is all installed and all connections either heat shrinked or epoxied. Went to test it all and worked really smoothly, in fact, the best loco I have to date. Only thing was I still had it on the default steam sound so went to change it to the inbuilt diesel. It jumped forward, jumped back and then nothing. You can imagine the language. Would not then respond to anything. As an alternative to launching the whole thing at the wall, I got out my PR3 programer and read the chip only to find that it had reset the address to 0. Put this , and the sound, right on the programer and am now back in business. I have found the slightly better sound I used on the other one but as I seem to remember that changing it was not without incident, I shall same that until tomorrow.

Modelling chez moi has been on temporary hold for the past week or so due to a trip to see MinerChris in his new abode in Sudbury (not Suffolk!). We did manage to get out and about on several occasions and caught a few of the local activities. I'm no expert on these matters so I'm sure that others will know more than me. This is the view from Chris's local model shop - George's Trains - a mere 237 miles away in Toronto. Nice shop though. A freight on the CP mainline near Chelmsford (not Essex). Might've been a decent photo apart from the silver birches in the way. The same freight climbing the gradient out of the Sudbury basin. Another freight passing the yard in downtown Sudbury - too many little trees in the way again. I'm now back at my workbench albeit a little jet lagged but hope to see some of you at Epsom and Ewell this coming weekend.

Matters have moved on since my recent Post detailing the arrival of the Diamond Jubilee Britannia (R3094). The donor – Hornby William Wordsworth R2563 Firstly a view of the model that was to provide the tender with the Late Crest. At the time of writing my last post there were issues with William Wordsworth. I would give it a new identity with a tender with an early emblem and at a suitable time I would sell it. After recovering the white roof, R2563 Left R3094 Right Perhaps I should have attempted to strip the white paint off the roof of Britannia R3094? My first attempts at repainting were not altogether successful. As the paint dried the rivet detail began to appear through the new paint as a pattern of white dots. I would start again. This time I over coated the whole of the white roof area with Humbrol matt black paint. When this had dried the central area was given a second coat of matt black and the sides above the windows were coated with Humbrol GWR green. Now nearly three weeks later it is still looking nearly very good. I hadn’t compared Britannia (R3094) with any other models but placing it next to William Wordsworth (R2563) highlighted a difference in the size of the sliding hatches on the roof. I have searched the web for pictures of cab roofs without success. Which one is correct? Are they both correct? Did British Railways change the design of the cab roofs on the later engines? In my previous Post I published a picture by Nigel kendall of the front of 70000 Britannia. Nigel has suggested that railway modellers might also be interested in another of his pictures, showing the cab – but not unfortunately the cab roof! Where is all this leading? My researching into the history of various ‘Britannias’ is suggesting that where engines received new smoke deflectors to replace the ‘dangerous deflectors’ (with the handrails) the deflectors were changed after or at the same time as the tender received a Late Crest. William Wordsworth has replacement smoke deflectors and as such should only be paired with a tender with Late Crest. I would keep it that way. What about 70000 Britannia? Returning to Derek Dean’s notes Britannia is recorded as gaining a Late Crest in 1958, new deflectors in 1959 and a speedometer in 1960. The Hornby model R3094 (with or without white roof) is thus either representative of the engine in preservation – when it should additionally be fitted with an air compressor inside the one of the smoke deflectors – or in pre 1958 days when it would not have had a speedometer or overhead warning plates.. As to my 1960s layout – I shall bide my time and enjoy the model for how it might have been! Compensating for old age If I was keeping William Wordsworth there were several jobs to attend to. A number of bits had dropped off. How best to reattach these small parts? I would use Blu-Tack to help me hold the smaller items whilst I introduced a drop of Butanone from a tiny paint brush to make the joint. Attaching a lamp iron There was a more fundamental problem with William Wordsworth – it didn’t run smoothly. It had a stiff point - I deduced it had a cracked drive gear. Replacement gear left, cracked gear right Why a cracked drive gear and not just faulty quartering? Observing the movement of the engine showed that the stiffness did not occur at the same point for each revolution of the driving wheels but corresponded to something like one and quarter revolutions – so obviously there was something wrong in the engine’s drive train not directly connected with the wheels. Hornby Britannia Chassis – deconstructed As shown above, the drive gear is buried deep within the Hornby chassis. Luckily Hornby have used screws to hold everything together. It is a straightforward task to tunnel down into the chassis and to replace the gear wheel. Ideally the motor should be lifted clear. This is helped by carefully peeling the wires off the metal chassis where they are attached with black rubbery glue. If this is done carefully the wires can be reattached on completion using the original glue. Hornby William Wordsworth R2563 and Britannia ex R3094 with repainted roof Finally a view of renovated William Wordsworth and Britannia as might have been in the early 1960s if it had not had its ‘dangerous deflectors’ replaced.

Suddenly the model looks a lot better for being given a new lick of paint: Aside from the paintwork, I've built new front frames to sit just above the bogie and behin the cylinders (this looks much better than the daylight there previously), added a snifting valve to the side of the chimney and reinstated the steampipe running down the driver's side of the boiler. Following a 1925 photograph of Lord Faringdon, I filed down the tops of the tender axleboxes and then replaced them with an attempt at 'Iracier' axlebox covers in plastic sheet.

Things on the loco front are going less than ideally. It turns out the primer I used is unsuitable for metal, and basically hasn't stuck much, a light scrape with a fingernail is enough to scrape the paint off. When I removed the masking tape I had applied, quite a lot of paint peeled off with it, including a large chunk on the rear buffer beam (or maybe I should say the front, I'm not entirely sure with these engines, all the photos I've seen appear to have them running cab first). Here is the result: Also, in certain conditions the blue parts look a bit purple. What I'll have to do is strip the entire thing back to metal, hoping the thinner doesn't eat through the superglue I used to attach the smaller detail and start again. This time I'll use the Games Workshop primer which I already have, and which I know works well on metal. I'll also do a blue basecoat, and then mask it off and spray the black parts, I hope the results will be better. I have also finished the can of paint thinner, so I can't start stripping until I get a new one. On a more positive note, I've bought two 83x30cm sheets of 10mm plywood which I will assemble into some sort of baseboard so I can have a test track and actually run some trains. I still need to find something to use as track underlay, I've been looking in hardware stores for some suitable foam, but they only seem to sell very thick sheets. I suppose I could cut it, but I'm worried I won't be able to get an uneven surface. The track plan will be similar to the 009 part of the layout plan on the forum thread I linked a few posts back, basically a loop with two sidings off one end of it, three points in total. I have also been thinking about frog polarity switching. I am designing a solid state switching system. One possibility is a normal DPDT switch powering the motor through RC citcuits (to convert DC into a pulse) which in turn switches on one of two transistors connecting the 16V AC to the motor, while at the same time switching on one of another pair of transistors connecting the appropriate polarity power source to the frog (it's less complicated than it sounds ). If I can get hold of a momentary DPDT, I could do something more elegant by powering the motor conventionally, and having a flip flop circuit supplying the appropriate polarity to the frog. One problem I can see with this design is that I have to make sure that the initial state of the flip flop is the right one for the position of the switch, or it will supply the wrong polarity. Anyway, I'll post schematics as soon as I have something I reckon will work.

Several months ago I bought somebody else's hackbash of Robinson's 4-cylinder behemoth of 1917. It was described when I bought it as being built from parts of a Triang Princess, however it was running on a chassis from a Hall on wheels from a Black 5! A real mish-mash then. After buying it I replaced the driving wheels and the bogie, and then I put it away for a while. Over the long weekend I started work on it again. The model in as-bought condition. After replacement of the driving wheels and bogie... .... and today, after a weekend's work on it. From front to back I have replaced the Triang buffers with some Craftsman Robinson oval-pattern ones, I've rebuilt the front frames to more closely follow the B3, I've built new slidebar frames (for want of a better expression) from plastic sheet, the dome has been replaced with a low-pattern Robinson version from the spares box and the cab roof has been lowered in profile. Much better, I think. It will look better still with frames reinstated over the bogie and to the rear of the cylinders. Plainly this model is only going to be good as a 'lookslikea' B3, rather than a mm-perfect replica. But to be honest I rather like to think of it like that. It fits with the rest of my collection in that fashion, and given a choice between an imperfect Robinson 4-cylinder machine or none at all....

Finally I am tackling a turnout, the first I have scratch built in two decades. Having spent a couple of days procrastinating and reading whatever I could find about turnout building I decided it was time to take the plunge and stop worrying about getting it wrong. The planned sequence of events is to bend and cut and shape the rails, then to cut and stain the sleepers, then to fix the sleepers to the template, then to spike the rails in place, remembering to arrange for the switch stand to throw the switch rails. This is the station entrance turnout, built with 25-lb/yd (Code 205) flat-bottomed rail; it is curved, the minimum radius is 34' (756 mm), and it will have loose-heeled switch rails. It is a curved crossing, meaning that the diverging road is curved through the crossing, while the main road has a straight section about 2' before and after the crossing vee (this caught me out when I bent the rails). The turnout timbering is 8" wide (14.8 mm), so plenty of room for spikes. The turnout is part of a larger formation which includes the mine turnout. This shows the entrance turnout. It consists of twelve rails: as it is about 25' long and the maximum rail length used on the CMER is 15', there are four stock rails; then there are two wing rails, two check rails, two running rails and two switch rails. It will require eight fishplates in itself and about 140 spikes. The stock rails are complete, as is the outer check rail. For the avoidance of later confusion I mark each rail with a letter (A to L in this case) as well as the joint numbers at each end. This view shows the angle in the diverging stock rail. I bent this simply by holding one end in the vice and bending the rail (held firmly against a short steel rule) by hand and by eye; two adjustments only were needed. There is more science on paper, but I think this will be accurate enough and as accurate as the original most likely was... The diverging stock rail is straight as far as the switch rail heels and then curves. The crossing vee soldered up. Filing was done largely with an eight-inch file and by eye, with frequent reference to the template. The Code 205 rail is substantial, but on the other hand firm enough that I was able to file robustly and quickly. While soldering I used pins in the baseboard to hold all in place—the holes are still visible. I then turned it over and—after bracing it with two scraps of brass strip which I later removed—soldered from the underside too to ensure a strong joint. Loose assembly of the crossing vee with wing rails, stock rails and check rails. The straight section in the outer (main) road stock rail as it passes the crossing is clear in this perspective. The guard rails have long flares rather than being filed—this is prototypical for the CMER. All of the fixed rails are complete in this view; the crossing vee running rails still need to be trimmed, and then the switch rails are next. First switch rail and its stock rail. I transferred the markings from the template for two sections to file on each rail: the foot only, and then both the foot and the head. In this view I have filed the rebate in the inner stock rail too, Close-up of the mating surfaces of the stock rail and its switch rail. I aimed to file the stock rail back until the file touched the web, whereas I filed the switch rail until the web almost disappeared. To hold the switch rail for filing I cut a suitable oblique groove in a piece of scrap wood and clamped the rail upside-down into the groove, then filed the rail as it protruded at a gentle angle from the edge of the wood. All of this was marked up by eye, but seems to be accurate enough. The result of the careful filing and a number of trial fittings. Both switch rails completed. Next up will be the timbers.

Having finally completed the insulation and fitting out of my new shed, I now have a hobby room with internal dimension of some 10' x 5'8". Not huge, but large enough to house a reasonable 2mm scale model railway, a table/bench, etc. Because this new space will also be my modelling room, what I intend to do is to construct a layout along the back wall of the shed which will allow the modelling table / workbench to go under the window for natural light to be used when using my lathe, etc. Some time ago I decided to locate my model in the South Hams of Devon, and be a fictional station in that area as the only real railway in the area was the Kingsbridge Branch from the GWR's main line at Brent. The assumption I have made is that the South Devon Railway Company built their line from Exeter to Plymouth as they initially intended by constructing their line from Newton Abbot down to Churston, crossing the River Dart a little to the South West of that station before continuing along the coast to Salcombe, Kingsbridge, and across the South Hams to Modbury, Yealmpton and thence to Plymouth. The line would have been built to Brunel's Broad Gauge. In my little world, the existing real main line from Exeter to Plymouth was also subsequently built along the south of Dartmoor rendering my "old" line little more than an elongated single track branch. The whole of the South Devon Railway was absorbed into the GWR in 1876, and was subsequently converted to "narrow" or standard gauge in May 1892 along with the rest of the GWR's Broad Gauge network. My model will be based c.1906, and will still retain Brunel's Baulk Road track work. The model will comprise a 20" diameter traverser fiddle yard at each end, and a 6'0" long scenic section which will allow me to model a through station with 2 platform roads which will allow trains to pass each other. The buildings will be based on those on the Moretonhampstead and Ashburton branches (both originally Broad Gauge lines in South Devon). At the left hand end, the platform tracks will disappear under a road bridge, the turnout joining them will be off-scene (and will be replicated by the traverser), this will allow a short section of countryside at the right hand end but will not impact on the operational aspect. The diamond crossing in the plan above will actually be a single slip (I just haven't worked out how to draw them in Templot yet ). Over the last couple of days I have made a start on building the baseboards, so will post again when a bit more progress has been made.