Leaderboard

Wainwright C class No. 31227 rolls into Cill's platform with a short ballast working. Once uncoupled 31227 runs to the end of the platform ready to run round its train. I had planned to lightly weather this locomotive but then came across a picture of classmate 31716 working a Tonbridge-Brighton train in 1961 (p62 in Kent Steam by Michael Welch, Capital Transport 2002), so I decided to have a go at a more neglected state.

Well thanks you all for you kind welcomes, I will begin my first real blog my giving you a short introduction to what is on this newbie's workbench, well I say work bench it is actually just a bit of kitchen worktop supported by two plastic saw horses. The kitchen top was the waste bit cut out to fit a sink, so sort of sink shaped. I say sort of because my sawing skill need a fair bit to be desired. Anyway back to the subject I now have a workbench of types so I could start doing some work on it. And for me as a complete novice what better place to start than with one of my childhood favourite model an old Hornby Shunter. The shunter had not be run since I was about 15 or 16 so some 40 years. The first thing to do was to download the service guide / sheets, quick google and job done! Time to set up a file with for my new servicing guides so I don't loose them. New folder completed, complete with plastic sleeves for the sheets and all marked up with R152 - Time to open up the old shunter... hold on this that kettle I hear?

Hi, Thanks for dropping-by. For those that have read my previous ramblings, I had to shelve the 3-board project, all the track was laid and running beautifully, but the space left for platforms was too small and the sheer volume of buildings and scenery was too much, I only ever managed a nibble at the workload, so progress was too slow to keep me happy. It was going to be a slow project and that means not fun. I did a cracking job of track-laying, so recovering track was a careful, yet sometimes brutal job. I want somewhere 'scenic' to run my stock. I've always admired micro layouts, so I bought a copy of Paul Lunn's book and read it from cover to cover. The layout idea Retro Railcar caught my attention and so I got together some track on a sheet of card and had a play. Then drew it up on Any Rail (ideal for this job of planning and refining ideas) I got worried about getting the sector plate tracks to line-up, so I tried without the hidden kick-back sidings, obviously that limits the amount of stock, but I want to get a scenic layout running, so simplicity is vital. My next iteration made the sector plate simpler, but that made for a large non-scenic right hand end I drew up AnyRail schemes to use a 3-way point at the fiddle yard end of the scenic layout and do away with the sector plate. But now the simplicity has gone, shunting the kick-back siding needs too many moves and is severely limited by any stock in the lower left siding and including an off-scene track (head shunt?) will add extra length. So, I decided a single-slip is needed. OK, Single-slip acquired, now to refine the track lengths, it would be easy to make the layout longer to accommodate a 'good' length of train, but I want to keep it to 4 square feet with a short loco and 2 wagons in the platform road clear of the right-hand point and 4 wagons fitting inside the loop, if I can squeeze a short Type 2 diesel and 1 wagon in the platform road even better. Buildings/structures I want to keep these simple to maintain momentum, a packed-earth passenger platform on the lower left with a stone retaining wall, a corrugated waiting shelter and lamp hut (and a lamp) will face across the lines to a basic goods lockup on a short platform. I thought I'd try to hide the sector plate behind a basic creamery, but still apply scenic textures to the sector plate to give the layout 'depth'. I would really like a coal siding, does anyone have a suggestion where it could go, I originally thought lower right, but it wouldn't disguise the sector plate. Edit; I've been planning rolling stock moves in my head and I've realised that with the current plan the goods road will have to be empty to shunt the creamery, so I need to swap passengers for goods and put the halt platform upper left and goods siding lower left. A simple halt with shelter has been mocked-up in card, designed to only just hold a 2-car DMU it needs further shortening because it overlaps with the wharf and I have to get rid of the shelter to further simplify it. If I was running a railcar I'd go for one of the tiny jetty style platforms, but this will have to host a Class 121 so it will be overgrown to make it visually smaller. I've abandoned the idea of a creamery, I did some research and figured that I'd have trouble making a convincing structure in the space available and it wouldn't do enough to disguise the sector plate. In it's place I've decided to build a wharf inspired by Marsh Sidings so I can run some coal wagons to be loaded with small mine coal. Overall view to show the halt shifted to the left, the goods platform will only handle 1 or 2 wagons, but might yet have an end loading dock for variety. I've mocked up the goods platform to get an idea of how it looks, I haven't got much space and I want to keep it simple, I want a Goods lockup, probably a pre-Grouping outside framed van body. The passenger platform was too large, so part of the plan is to make it overgrown and to blend it into the landscape, I've added a paper 'skirting' at the back to help create the illusion in the mock up. The roadside bank (rear-right) enabled lorries to reverse off the road and tip into wagons, the ground cover will be worn down by vehicle movements, so dusty ground, low grass and scrubby weeds, I'm thinking it will need weathering powders and fine dust. The backscene can be dense, low relief trees very appropriate for the location. Work has started on the baseboard, I decided a sector plate was needed for the runaround so the picture below shows the underside of the sector plate end. I constructed a simple cassette to enable trains to run onto the layout (although it should be operable in a simple way without the cassette) and to enable trains to be changed off-stage The backscene boards have been sanded and painted, (curved corners are needed) the boards are clamped in place to check look and fit. The right-hand point, single-slip and the track to the sector plate have been soldered together to guarantee alignment, note the super-hot micro blow torch it makes getting enough heat into the joint a breeze, but you need to be hyper alert. A metre rule was used to align the track with the sector plate. I've hit a 'snag', having aligned the platform track with the sector plate and let all that set overnight, the geometry for the loop is badly wrong, it would need an 'S' bend to work. But I have the remedy in shortening the sector plate by 6", filling-in the resulting gap, extending the platform track and giving a few more degrees swing to the sector plate. Not a disaster, I know what to do, I don't like damaging what I've done so far and I will need several hours set aside to ensure a good job.

I've been toying with the idea of DCC on Sherton Abbas for a while now, adding sound to my locos is something that really appealed. The final push came when a friend offered to sell his Prodigy Advance controller to me for a very reasonable price! I had a very enlightening chat with the people at Southwestdigital during the Bristol O gauge show back in January and left their stand armed with a sound decoder, a sugar cube speaker and the rather handy adage " Red and black to the track, orange and grey the other way!" My 517 was the first 7mm loco that I built, so thought it only fair that it should be the first to be equipped with sound:-) The decoder fitted nicely in one of the side tanks and I mounted the speaker in the firebox between the frames. Once the controller was connected to the track testing could begin! Much to my surprise there wasn't a bang or small cloud of smoke and the loco moved in the correct direction :-) Pressing the F1 key for the first time and hearing the loco chuff up and down the track was very satisfying, even Mrs Wenlock was quite impressed:-) I still need to delve into the treacherous waters of CV adjustment, at the moment I've got too many chuffs per wheel revolution:-) Here's a quick video clip of my 517 in action. Best wishes Dave

It's less than two weeks to go before the Missenden Abbey Spring Railway Modellers weekend. This year, in a break from tradition I am booked on the painting and lining course with Ian Rathbone. My chance to learn to finish my models from probably the best around. Although rather daunting I am looking forward to hopefully gaining some new skills. To this end I thought I should try to finish a few items to the state that I can try to paint them at Missenden, time allowing. My Black Hawthorn was already finished, or so I thought until I decided to clean it up ready for primer. It was then I notice I had failed to add the two T handle from the valves on the dome. So I drilled through the cab front and added these out of some bits of 0.45 brass wire. Next on my list was the Neilson, that I knew needed some more work to complete the cab detail, break gear and under frame. So I spent the last evening or so working on the cab detailing, I decided the under frame could wait, it was the body the I was more interested in painting. I believe that I now have the Neilson complete above the footplate. It needs the brake gear to the rear to be added, the clack valves below the footplate and some taps on the cylinder fronts. Next on my list of items to add those finishing touches to are my NuCast steam rail motor and the Duke. The steam rail motor needs some steps made up to replace the broken, and frankly not very convincing white metal ones. The real thing had complex folding steps on the passenger doorways to allow passengers on and off at locations without platforms. The white metal versions in the kit, which have since broken, where very simple and not a good representation of the original. There were also steps on the buffer beams to allow the crew to change the lamps etc. The kit makes no provision for these, but I am hoping I can adapt some etches intended for guards vans to represent these. The roof needs fair bit of cleaning up, but this could be done later, since the main body could be painted without the roof. The Duke needs a top feed, clack boxes, smokebox dart, lamp irons, cab interior fittings, whistles and handrails. The later being a bit of a pain since there are no handrail knobs positions marked on the kit. I also need to replace the middle step tread on the rear tender steps, sadly I was attaching it with the RSU and sneezed, the result was that the delicate half etched tread pretty much vaporised. Something I will have to learn to avoid in the future. Hopefully I will have time to get all these things sorted before Missenden. Then I need to think about priming all or some of them so that I can apply top coat at Missenden. Perhaps I should have started my preparations somewhat earlier!

A brilliant day of progress today. Wizard painter Mark Pretious came over and painted the backscene. The layout is now beginning to look like something. Chris