Leaderboard

Since my last entry I have had a rethink on the curved scissors crossover. It is critical to the running of the layout and being on a curve I have decided to simplify the entrance/exit of the Up and Down storage sidings by using a single crossover at each end. These will be C12 1600mm radius one will permit trains to access the down main from the UP sidings whilst the other from the DOWN sidings to the UP main. My decision followed additional work on the working timetable and following the movement of trains in and out of the storage sidings. I realised there was no need for the second crossover at each end which enabled simplification of the trackwork. First page of 2 of the working timetable Proposed plan of Storage Sidings C12 1600mm curved crossover - Templot Here is the progress made on the first of the crossovers with the 1 in 12 crossing V's in place.

Having built all the signals it seems like a good idea to install them. The first step in the process is the baseboard waltz. Way back I was asked about my baseboard construction, and I said I would post some pics when I shifted it all about. Much has been said about baseboard building over the years but it basically boils down to designing them to suit the type of layout you want to build in the space available. So firstly, castors. All the boards and for that matter the workbench and various cupboards in the railway room are all on castors. Why ? Well, I am no spring chicken and I am not the fastest modeller about. Building it all from kit or scratch takes a bit of time, and there is nothing rtr out of the box for the followers of pre grouping Caledonian. ( well pre group anything really, in fact if you are EM or P4 the chances are that the boxes rtr comes in are more use than the models ) Anyway, back to castors. I expect this will be the last serious layout I build, I will be well into my dotage by the time I get anywhere near finished, whatever finished is. So to get at things and do maintenance I need to be able to move things about easily. Hence the castors and the lift up boards. Note that they are all on levelling screws; you would not believe the way these big old tenements move about unless you have lived in one. So castors on levelling screws. All the boards have 2 sets of connectors . The blue ones are 4 pole 20 A lighting connectors on 4core 1.5mm flex to give the bus for the up and down lines. The whole lot can be switched to DCC via the main controller if needed. At that size you are not going to suffer volt drop issues. The grey connector is a 25 way D type for all the control side stuff. You can buy the connecter and wire them ( yes I used to ) but really there are folk out there on the internet that will sell you a male to female 3 m one already wired for a few pounds. They might as well sell them to modellers, who needs a parallel printer cable extension these days? So, heres the two curved boards out and rolled back. They are really light and easy to move. I intend to keep the scenery light too. I have gone for a policy of local control. Making the baseboard framing 8 inches deep give room for all the control panels and more than sufficient sufficient depth for all the underboard stuff. Makes the control panels easy to wire and maintain. The signal control panel ready for installation. Bonnets up. The rear face of the boards are hinged, so they can be lifted and propped like a car bonnet. Again I did this looking forward to ease of maintenance in the future. Backscenes are held on with bolts and wing nuts. The photographic images I will use are going to be easier to apply on the flat, so having them come off easily is a good idea. These radio controlled plugs are a great idea, no grovelling about under boards to turn all the power to the railway on or off. So there we are. I appreciate that this is just one way of building baseboards but I do see modellers making layouts that will just be impossible to maintain as time goes on. I have done exactly that in the past and can testify that it is really frustrating to damage stuff while trying to get at something that has gone wrong, hence all the castors and hinges.

I have made significant progress on my Bakewell station project over the weekend and last few days. All four chimneys are now installed in the building roof. These included 3 double chimneys and 1 single which all match the correct height. One has been painted. Stonework details have been added including a representation of the Duke of Rutland's coat of arms carved out into the stonework above 2 of the window voids. Stone buttress details have been added by drilling random holes into the stone; the effect is quite pleasing especially now once the first base coat of paint has been added. I used Humbrol no.63 matt sand acrylic as the basecoat which has enhanced the dressed stonework details. I believe that the station will need a fair degree of weathering to recreate the dirt and grime from steam days. Certainly the roof slates need a fair degree of dry brushing as well as gutters and down pipes to be added The stonework at the moment is ultra clean which is how it is at the present building; this is currently used as office accommodation. Once the painting has finished I will be adding the windows and doors which will bring the station alive and I will be reporting this in my next blog entry

The latest loco project for Brent is to make a Modified Hall, to that end I have picked up one of the recent Bachmann model at a bargain price to use as a basis. The first question is which loco to model, for this I am rather torn. As it comes the model is in BR green (weathered) with a Hawksworth tender. The first Modified Hall to be recorded with a Hawksworth tender is 6971 which was built in October 47. (As an aside if I can find the October carriage working / working timetable my intention is to shift the operating period to October 47, which both captures the Mod Hall build and better justifies the number of Hawksworth coaches) So the work required: Re brand the tender to GWR - I am tempted to give a spare Hornby Hawksworth tender a coat of Klear to darken the green and use this given the Bachmann tooling is rather crude. Rebuild the front end with the Brassmasters parts (so it actually looks like a Modified Hall) Rewire the loco to get the decoder into the tender. Renumber / Name. Add GWR lining to the cab and firebox The alternative approach is to go for a wartime build loco, in black with plated cabside window and no name. This will need a full respray in black, and require the purchase of a Collett Tender to complete the job. So far I have made an attempt at removing the lining from the cabsides and replacing with HMRS transfers. The hardest part being the area above the cab window which was barely wide enough to fit the transfer (in fact I cheated and cut off the lower orange line.) This was my first attempt at lining a loco and I am actually quite happy with the result (which will look at lot better with a dusting of weathering to blend it into the cabside. The only problem is that the Bachmann lining is a lot more red (not sure if that is the BR colour, but its similar to the lining on my GWR hall from Bachmann). So the rest of the boiler will need lining as well. I need to work out how to get the Hornby tender to attach to the Bachmann loco, and get the required bits from Brassmasters to convert the front end.

So, after finishing the Royal Scot it is time to return the Armstrong. At last!!