Leaderboard

I have recently received delivery of the first of a new set of baseboards which will extend the layout into a continuous circuit with a long fiddle yard down the opposite side of the shed. This first board is at the rear of the shed and workshop and will allow trackwork extensions to the roads off the 20ft loco turntables outside the workshop; the sidings alongside the shed and workshop and an extension to the main line under Days Road Bridge towards Bristol Temple Meads. All the new boards are being built by Chris Yates who made all the original seven. I have made a start on the single slip which forms the southern exit to the shed and joins the down main under Days Road Bridge. My trackwork is being made on a templot plan - thanks Morgan - using my usual ply and rivet method with exactoscale functional chairs in appropriate positions. Once fully assembled and tested cosmetic chairs will be added over the rivets. Slide chairs are Bill Bedford etchings which fit over and are soldered to their rivet. My other layout - Sheep Pasture - is in the background but will need to be moved in order to accommodate the extended Barrow Road. Views of the shed from Days Road Bridge which show the rear of the shed and the sidings are to be found in my previous posting The next board due for delivery will be a curved scenic board at the opposite end of the layout which will accommodate Lawrence Hill Junction and the associated road overbridge. I wish all my readers a Happy Christmas and New Year.

As a late December evening draws in, 4574 and her crew prepare to set off for home with just a brake van in tow after having delivered a few wagons to South Yard. The cameraman manages to capture the scene with the train almost silhouetted by the solitary lamp that passes for illumination on the platform these days. Normally I'd post a seasonal message on the St Ruth blog but what with one thing and another I didn't get chance to do the usual pre-Christmas photo session, so you'll have to make do with a postcard from the seedier end of Plymouth instead. A word or two about the photo. We've had builders in for the past few months so the prospect of deliberately putting fine white dust onto things didn't really appeal this time around, so I decided on a snow-free scene. The lamp post is new. This was on the etch that I had done last year. You can't see in the photo, but it's one of the Exmouth Junction concrete jobs. The lamp itself is intended to represent one of those 'ESLA' arched reflectors that seem to adorn the lamp posts (or maybe just post?) at Oreston on the Turnchapel branch. 'Represent' is the operative word because it needs to be rather overscale in order to shade the tiny LED inside. Apart from the lamp, there is a tiny bit of fill-in light from the layout's own lighting system. Even with the LED controller trying to achieve 1/255 of full brightness, the white LED strips were too bright. I got better results by shading some of them during the exposure but I think that the exposure that I finally chose was using just a little bit of blue light. Blue is probably most peoples' idea of how near darkness looks, but it's a bit of a cliche. I took some of the blue saturation away using GIMP to get back to a more neutral overall colour for the scene. Otherwise the photo is unmodified apart from some cropping. The 45XX has appeared here previously. The Toad was built by MinerChris and painted by yours truly. I expect he'll want it back some time. Merry Christmas to all. Hope to see some of you at Kendal in January.

The winter solstice has passed and we are heading to Christmas and the New Year. Times are certainly changing and last Saturday we spotted our first daffodil flower. First Daffodil for 2016? SW Scotland 19.12.15 We have also seen some unusually stormy weather. ‘Desmond’ deposited something like three months rainfall in 48 hours over parts of the Region. There was some local damage but thankfully not on the scale of the property damage and personal misery that has affected the North West of England. Dumfries and Galloway disruption Back to Bob Dylan, he appears to have written the song "The Times They Are a-Changin'" in September and October 1963. It was released as a 45 rpm. single in Britain in 1964, it reached number nine in the British top ten and was Britain's hundredth best selling single of 1965. So – effectively 50 years ago! What were railway modellers up to fifty years ago - in 1965? Christmas Cover Railway Modeller 1965 As well as the advertisement on the back cover for Formoway Track (Graham Farish) there was inside a two page spread for Peco’s own products. Peco Christmas Advertisement 1965 Looking back at the Peco advertisement I was slightly surprised to see the range of N gauge items available in 1965. I don’t think I would have said N gauge had been around that long! I was also intrigued by the plastic clip on point motor. I thought Peco point motors had been made from bent metal ‘for ever’ and have no recollection at all of the plastic variety. I can only guess that the plastic was not robust enough for the job and was soon superseded by the bent metal variety? Christmas 1965, Tri-ang/Hornby and Trix Advertisements The magazine contains full page advertisements from the major model manufacturers. In addition to Airfix and Playcraft there were advertisements for Trix and Tri-ang/Hornby. By 1965 Hornby Dublo had been swallowed up by Lines Brothers but obviously 1965 was thought too soon to drop the ‘Tri-ang’ brand name. The Britannia model holds centre stage – so not a lot different from today. Hornby Britannias - William Wordsworth R2563 and Britannia R3094 with repainted cab roof ‘Synchrosmoke’ is a name from the past as is ‘Magnadhesion’ where the locomotives were manufactured with a permanent magnet within the frames to grip the old Tri-ang steel track. I do believe the wheel has gone full circle and the idea has been re-discovered and is now sold as Powerbase. In its re-engineered form thin steel sheets are laid beneath the non-magnetic track (nickel silver) and high power magnets are glued to the underside of the locomotives. Triang Lord of the Isles from the 1960s and long since sold, with Seuthe smoke unit and Magnadhesion The super detail models from Trix looked very exciting. Perhaps Trix had hoped to take some of the market left by Hornby Dublo. Unfortunately what scale was Trix? About 3.8mm to the foot I believe, so slightly undersize compared to existing UK models at 4mm scale products. Good to see the Western Diesel holding centre stage, but what colour was the model of D1000? My guess from the black and white advertisement was that the model was maroon coloured and not Desert Sand as was the prototype when first introduced. Heljan D1000 Western Enterprise with Desert Sand livery I have also included a copy of Hattons Christmas advertisement. It makes an interesting read comparing prices then and now. I particularly like the reference to Tri-ang Lord of the Isles which "is now out of production". Hattons 1965 Christmas advertisement H&M and W&H advertisements Another page of advertisements with a little bit of history featured H&M and W&H. H&M (Hammant and Morgan) manufactured a popular range of robust and reliable controllers. A lot of us will have owned and perhaps still own a ‘Clipper’ or a ‘Duette’. H&M were swallowed up by Tri-ang/Hornby, I guess leaving a place in the market for Gaugemaster. W&H (Walker's and Holtzapffel established 1928) although a tiny shop was always worth a visit when in town for a ‘conference’. The real value of W&H was their catalogue which predated the Internet and seemed to list every available model railway item. It was an important ‘must have’ item for browsing when there was nothing on the television. If you had already memorised the W&H catalogue then there was always the latest track plan to study from CJ Freezer. I wonder how many people actually constructed a layout identical to one of these plans? December 1965 Track plan courtesy of CJ Freezer Joe’s cartoon December 1965 A regular feature in Railway Modeller was a cartoon from ‘Joe’. The subject matter of the December 1965 cartoon is as relevant today as it was fifty years ago. Corridor connectors made from black cartridge paper have featured at regular intervals here on my Blog. Paper corridor connectors for Bachmann Collett Coaches The Christmas edition contained a number of special features. As a sometimes practicing geotechnical engineer I was particularly intrigued to see pictures of rather irregular looking buildings that had been subject to subsidence from salt workings. Ground water and bedrock containing beds of salt is a dangerous combination which can only become more serious with increased rainfall. Subsidence due to salt workings - Droitwich My final extract from the December 1965 Railway Modeller is a picture of the Blue Pullman. The picture belongs to a feature on the Manchester Model Railway Society’s Wheatstone Bridge and Hartington Layout. Blue Pullman - Wheatstone Bridge and Hartington - Manchester MRS The Blue Pullman featured in 1965 was probably ‘Kitmaster’. Fifty years later and I would say that the Blue Pullman is even more popular. The latest Bachmann model seems to represent one of the recent high points in railway modelling. Bachmann Blue Pullmans As the New Year approaches I will take this opportunity to send Season's Greetings to you all and Best Wishes for the coming New Year.

Fancying a change, I decided to tackle this Comet kit for the Collett 70 foot corridor third. I acquired the kit as a complete set from an Rmwebber a few years ago (the same gentleman who sold me the parts for the Prairie I built earlier this year), but every time I opened the box I didn't quite feel in the mood to tackle it. The Comet kit is mostly brass, and all the coaches I've "built" in the past have been mixed media or RTR conversions using etched and white metal bits. This was going to need a bit of a step-up in my skills... My first job was to solder up the main chassis parts. I must admit I kept struggling with the instructions, until - finally - the penny dropped as to what was to be bent in which direction, which bits were to be detached, which bits were scrap etch and so on. Once I'd got it sorted in my head, the parts fitted perfectly, the only slight problem being that my soldering iron struggled to get enough heat into these large-ish bits of brass. They're quite a bit larger than any loco frames I've ever put together. But we got there in the end, after I'd tidied up everything with files, sandpaper and a glass-fibre brush, it didn't look too bad. The next job was to add the droplights, or whatever they are, behind the doors. I decided to solder them in from the rear for neatness and, despite some concerns about judging the alignment, most of them came out satisfactorily, and I was able to unsolder and resposition the two that were a bit "off". Next I add to think about assembling the sides and ends together. The ends are simple enough, with a small fold-up sub-assembly for aligning them to the coach sides. The instructions kept confusing the hell out of me, though, as they mentioned using a piece of scrap brass to space the etch part by the thickness of the floor. What floor, and why, I wondered? I couldn't work out the construction logic. Luckily, though, I'd acquired a fully-built Comet coach some years ago, and by dismantling it the design became clear, and I understood what the spacer piece was supposed to do do. Comet's parts are excellent, across all their range, but - while they're far from the worst - I have sometimes found the instructions a bit cryptic. Anyway, here's one of the end pieces, with the sub-frame soldered in place. Ugh - look at that soldering! Doesn't look half as bad in reality... And here's another shot, showing how the sub-frame is spaced slightly proud of the level of the floor. Finally I came to the bit I was dreading, which was to solder the sides and ends into a box. But I took it carefully, tack-soldering one end onto one side, and constantly checking for squareness, and then moving on to the other end and repeating. Then all I had to do was attach the remaining side to the soldered half, and - without too much hassle - I had the basic coach body assembled, and it's level and square. Here it is test-mounted on the chassis: Next I'll look at fitting the roof. Hope this of interest to some, and thanks for reading. ,

I have the attention span of a five-year-old, so at this point I started on several projects at the same time, scenery, scratch building the station, goods shed and platform, and ballasting the track, and the electrics for points and control panel. If I got bogged down in one of them, I just moved on to the next. This is a certain technique for not getting very much done at all. Luckily I have a good friend who lives in Copenhagen, every time he visits I get a fresh dose of enthusiasm, and the pace picks up for a bit. This post will focus on scenery. The station is built on a flat baseboard, in reality Hatch station is set in a cutting with steep banks on each side. But to make it a bit easier to see the station the cutting on my layout widens on the left hand side to create a natural viewing window. I cut formers from hardboard with a jigsaw, these are glued against small wood blocks, On the first section shown here, the hardboard formers are quite close together, on the later open frame sections I made MISTAKE number 4. The formers here are placed too far apart which means that the hillsides tend to sag between each ridge, not good! I then used a glue gun to create a lattice of cardboard strips cut from a cereal packet glued over these forms this is followed by three layers of impregnated plaster bandages placed over the top. This white plaster is painted brown, before using a blend of different static grasses to create the base greenery. I started off using a tea strainer type applicator, don’t bother doing this. Being too stingy to buy a Grassmaster, I ended up using a cheapo Chinese copy. It works but the results are a bit uneven, and it is difficult to be precise. As a finishing touch Woodland scenic’s moorland mixture and static grass tufts then add texture to the base layers to create the illusion of weeds. I have tried different forms for hedges, Jarvis hedges are a bit too solid for my liking Though they are what is still in use at the moment around roads. I have made some more ragged hedges by using lichen rolled into shaped sprayed with glued and rolled in a mixture of various Noch leaves. I have then used small pieces of seafoam as small bushes and trees in this hedgerow and I am quite pleased with the results.

This month's blog looks at an alternative to electro-magnetic uncouplers, plus a few progress shots on the newly started scenic development of Slaghill. As a reminder, Slaghill is the high level section at the rear of the scene below, and represents Tweedale's heavy-industrial zone. As mentioned in last month's blog, I wanted to look into the feasibility of replacing the hook and bar couplings with Alex Jacksons. Tests using a couple of wagons fitted with AJs turned out more promising than expected. They negotiated the 18 inch radius curves without problems, and even coupled up on the curves, so the next step was to develop an uncoupler. I didn't want to mess around with the usual electro-magnetic uncouplers (buttons, solonoids, extra power supply, etc), so came up with a mechanical system using permanent magnets and medieval wooden technology. Door catch magnets were used (45p from the local hardware shop). The plastic casing was cut away. Inside was a magnet sandwiched between 2 metal plates. The magnet by itself didn't have enough oomph to operate the couplings from beneath the 5mm track board, but attaching one of the metal plates to the base (as in the right-hand image) concentrated the magnetic rays enough to operate them easily. Here's a sketch showing the general idea... The experimental uncoupler was installed at Slaghill. The left-hand shot shows the magnet in its default, non-activating position. The right-hand shot shows it raised against the base of the track board, by pressing down on the lever. Here are close-ups of the business end of the uncoupler and the arm beneath the baseboard. Not a pretty sight but it does the job. For uncouplers on the lower level tracks I'll probably attach the magnet directly to the arm. With the uncoupler in place I could proceed with the scenery. The railway at Slaghill is perched on a viaduct, a rickety wooden trestle affair that has been boxed in to protect the structural timbers from the town's corrosive atmosphere. At least that's the fiction. If you ask me what the prototype for this structure is, I haven't a clue - it literally came to me in a dream. It was built from scribed card and balsa framing, painted with brown/black washes of poster paint. The point control mechanism sticking out will eventually be hidden behind a building. The front parapet has an important part to play. By hiding the underframes it gives the illusion of the rolling stock being slightly smaller than it is, and so acts as a subtle kind of forced perspective. Not sure the photo shows the effect too well, as it introduces perspective distortions of its own. I decided to try the station with an overall roof, quite a luxury for Tweedale. I don't know whether I'll keep it though. As its a relatively large plain structure it may make the area look too cramped. I'll see how it fits in with later buildings. Cheers Alan.

It's been rather a long time since my last entry, leading to some queries if I and the project are doing OK. Well, I'm fine but the layout has been in abeyance for quite a while because I allowed the prospect of hand scribing all the cobble to over-face me and off I went on my full size restoration work. I'm still involved with that but have had a bout of renewed enthusiasm for the layout and modelling in general recently. As a result, there's been progress with the layout, the latest loco and some coach conversions (from OO to P4). On the layout, I found that the remaining areas of cobbles hadn't scribed themselves in the intervening period so I knucked down to it and finished the lot in a couple of weeks! The next job is to paint them. As I recall from my youth, cobble stones in the North West tended to be a pale buff colour (rather than granite coloured) and the joints filled with tar, so I am thinking of a grey/brown acrylic paint with a very thin wash of dark grey/black which, hopefully, will settle in the scribe lines - like panel lines on military models. Better try out this on some spare card before committing to the layout! The final arrangement of cobbles extends over two of the base-boards but I forgot to photograph the two together before I split them and put the sections away for Christmas visitors. However, I did take a few shots of the main station board, which allows comparison with the previous photos. Unfortunately, the scribing doesn't show up too well on the white card, but you can get the idea. The cut out strip next to the run round in the loop line is to accommodate two rows of wooden sleepers. I imagine these were installed to make it easier to access the chairs in case of track maintenance. Photos of Delph show these quite clearly and also the fact they were only applied at this one place. Otherwise, the cobbles go right up to the side of the rails. First, a couple of shots from the buffer stops: And one looking the other way. The join where the next board connects follows the coarses of the cobbles not the base-board joint. When assembled, the join is fairly neat and not too intrusive. One issue which has arisen is that the "ash"" ballast I used has faded from dark grey to a fawn sort of colour, so some unexpected painting will be required at some stage. Oh well. Dave.

hi guys sorry for such along time without updating you with my modelling hobby, as Christmas is just a few days away and im sure some of you will be adding to your layouts with the general Christmas gifts ie rolling stock and best of all locos steam,diesel and electric.This is probably exciting times for some of you.Anyway what is new for twenty sixteen and what manufactures have got in store for the new year. Well i see Hornby as usual have got some more locos especially steam ones but best of all their will be a new class 50 in original network south east livery called indominous i think or something like that well i hope you all have a good xmas and a happy new year but just before you stop reading this and i stop blabbering how does rydeford sound as a layout name anyway that will be in the next entry of my blog merry Christmas regards the loco shed

The actual building phase of the Sturgeon A has finished with the addition of the door springs on the other side, handbrake wheels and 'V' hangers (representing an air braked wagon). I have only fitted the outer 'V' hangers, but have not mounted the corresponding inner 'V' hangers as they would interfere with the bogie swing. This wagon is now ready for painting. It will go into either very dirty black or very dirty departmental olive green.

At last a start on the Alco and what a good start! Just as a bit of background, the Alco (American Locomotive Corporation), was the 2-6-2 version of the rather more numerous 4-6-0 Baldwins that were built in America for use on the Western Front in the First World War. A slightly bigger loco alround and one for which no kit is available (as yet!), in 7mm scale. The origins of this project started with a chat with Trevor about maybe converting an unmade Wrightlines Baldwin kit I had into the Alco version. It soon became obvious that there were far more differances than were at first obvious (the main one being that they were outside framed), and that it would be far easier just to start from scratch. Being the kind and generous man he is there was soon an offer from Trevor to build the chassis for me as this is would have been a bit outside my capabilities at the moment. So, after a couple of dramatic interludes, I was presented with this rather fine creation; Proper outside frames, and spilt wheel pick up with the correct hand made wheels to the 2'3'' diameter that defide any know OO wheel size. Altogether a lovely piece of work - now it is down to me to do it justice with a body! Initial progress has been very quick and rewarding. I started off by making up a kit of basic shapes from 10 thou Nickle Silver with 15 thou for things like the floor and buffer beams; It was all going well until I realised that the cab floor did not sit on the frames and was infact suspended above it by some means that was not at all obvious in the drawings (in the excellent Roy Link WDLR Album), or in my own photographs of suviving example in France. A litle bit of delving came up with this rather neat solution which, although maybe not 100% correct, certainly looks right; Attention was then turned to the back of the cab and an evenings work came up with this; Was then able to focus on the front of the cab and the side sheets which were soldered together as a pair to be split later so that even if the profile was not completely correct, at least they would be the same. It was very helpful here to cut out the shape from the copied plans and lay it over the metal. These were fretted out very nicely until I realised that I had not allowed for the beading on the cab edge and had to get the files out all over again; A bit of fun was had with the cab spectecal covers as the shape that was needed resembled a broken off finger nail rather too much for comfort. Again these were done as a soldered pair to make sure they matched. Before long it was time to put the front cab assembly together. I am not going to fit the rear or the roof until the backhead is completed; All in all a very good start using just basic tools and metalwork skills which if they are not beyond me, am sure most people could manage!