Leaderboard

My little Kerr Stuartish 0-4-0 has now had a coat of primer, probably before it was really ready, but I couldn't hold myself back. It has enabled me to see the worst gaps and blemishes, which I'm now busily filling with Milliput. I used Halfords Etching primer and it does warn you not to use it in humid conditions; I did, and the result is a bit orange-peelish, but I'm not too concerned about that as it will get a rub down with very fine wet and dry paper before I go any further. For those of you who looked at my last posting, I've added very large sandboxes to both sides, they are pretty huge, but they successfully hide the motor. My reasoning is that the loco is built for very steep wet gradients round the quarry it serves, and gets through a lot of sand. I've also added a balance pipe (I think that's what they're called) between the two sides of the saddle tank, and I've deepened the front buffer beam so that its lower edge matches the height of the rear one. Corris No 4 does have something a bit similar. I have added some of the metal strapping holding the cab together, using .3 x Imm brass strip from Eileen's Emporium. Bits yet to be added include couplings, guard irons, sand pipes, brake blocks and rodding, lamp irons, cab steps. crew, the big pipe that runs back horizontally from the smoke box on the Corris locos (whatever it is - maybe someone can enlighten me ?), small pipework etc etc , some rivet decals and the computer printed decals with the lining and some areas of the livery. It's never going to bare very close inspection, but it has succeeded in capturing something of the look I wanted and it is very satisfying to operate, as it runs really well. Some of the running quality, I think, is because I have ballasted it heavily with pieces of old lead type.

Evening all - smashing weather the last few days Last year I accepted an invite to the Billericay Model Railway Group one day show on 5th May 2018, so Kyle is Essex bound. It’s a small one day show which is my preference at the moment juggling the hobby with work and family commitments as many of us do. I wanted to try and do some work on the rolling stock for the show, having now got two class 24’s sound fitted. My priority was to try and get 37025 (purchased from TMC as 37035) also sound chipped to go alongside 37414...so I could run the layout with 24’s in the late 70’s period and the 37’s as the early 80’s period - all with sound - thanks again to Nic Bastable for sending me in this direction - not green Nic, more red in terms of my credit card I purchased the same sound chip and sugar cube speaker from Digitrains for the 37/0 with Paul Chetter sound - which is impressive. As before, they kindly pre soldered the chip wires to the speaker. To get it to fit I repeated as per 37414 by removing the lid of the speaker, cutting off the top by a few millimetres and then made a new top from 5 thou plasticard coloured with a permanent black marker pen. This then sits better inside the loco which has less room as I lowered it as with my previous 37...note I prefer this approach than the raising the bogies method. The other thing was to hard wire the lights. The wires are so thin and temperamental so getting rid of the PCB at each end made for some more room but the thin wire I purchased kept snagging so I ended up using normal layout wire as I call it. I know some peeps think the lights are a bit bright compared to the reality...but the high intensity light is pretty cool...and it does help see which way the loco is about to move off as the Daisy II has a continuous knob for the throttle. The 37 has been renumbered with Precision Decals, detail added one end and a DG coupling the other end. Final touch was to weather it with some powders. Next up was some corridor connections which Andy Stroud (Blueball Summit) kindly told me about for the MK II rake. These are MBM and good value for money and close the gap left by use of the Dapol knuckle couplings. I was going to also add them to the MK I rake then realised that the BG was always centred in the three coach trains to be close to the ramp. So I kind of guessed you wouldn’t let people walk through the train...unless someone can show me evidence to the contrary. Finally (thanks for the tip off Steve Nicholls) some work on the new Bachfar Kyle line coaches which although only available as the digital train set pack, were seen as split out from a pack on E-bay. A must have purchase having asked them at Alley Pally if they would release the coaches separately and been told possibly next year. Would be great if they could replicate the Met Cam observation coach too as per the 00 version. The coaches were joined with the corridor connections and lightly weathered. They always look pretty clean in the pics I have however the rooves were a bit shiny and so I toned these down and brushed some powders into the bogies and underframe too. Am looking forward to run the layout at the show in two weeks time and see how the new stock is received. I will ask the exhibition manager if he can set up a thread on here for the show, failing that, perhaps I will. Here’s a few photos of progress off the workbench...the next update after the show will perhaps have them on the layout itself. Please do come and say hello if you are coming to the show 37414 and 37025... Both locos visited Kyle... Early MK II rake with corridor connections... Close up of MBM connections... Kyle line stock... Close up again with MBM connections... 37025 and Kyle line stock... 37414 and 37025...layout too small to double head them... Cruel close up...love the lights... As always, comments welcome Pete

I thought today's target was optimistic but got to stop while the ballast dries. Mixed thoughts about the coach now, might act as a bonus storage siding for a few wagons. Busy day...thanks for looking.

I have just finished building two Great Eastern 5 planks, for a customer and the Prototype of the Furness medium cattle van. Also the furness 2-4-2Ts have had there first coat of red so I will give them another coat this afternoon and finish them off tomorrow. I will post photos once they are finished. Marc

When last going through my wardrobe I found the old box of railway bits and the Hornby R1046-SD Christmas special. I put the set together on the dining room table and ran the little steam engine, the Classes 37, 29 and a B12 round and found that they all needed cleaning and servicing. On to Youtube to help guide me through this process and pretty soon I was knee deep into model railways again. A visit to Amazon and e bay made me want some brilliant little things that were just too cheap to resist. Then came the voice of that little devil on the shoulder saying: "You could build a nice little layout in the garage you know". And that what it, the idea was born. Like a newborn baby constantly asking for my attention. I am a lorry driver and sitting behind the wheel for 10 hours a day gives you so much time to work out ideas and expand on them. First off, I'm not an experienced modeller, and my handiwork usually looks a bit dishevelled. But I'm filled with good intentions and vowed to not rush this project. I have bought lots of stuff but want to try and make more things myself. I've already tried creating a stone wall from polystyrene and am not too displeased with that (photos will follow). I plan to research things before attempting them and will make plenty mistakes. Inspiration came from watching other peoples layout videos on Youtube and I decided that my railway would need an elevated section at the back and two trains running in opposite directions, I thought that that would make it all look bigger/ more active. The space in a separate bit of the garage is almost large enough for an 8x4 board, I put that in cutting about 20cm of the length and using that cut off as a ramp to get 8cm up at the back. Now most of you will say: "That is too wide, you can't get to the back this way". I researched the height of the baseboard and found on forums that this should be at the 90cm mark. Too high. But it's in place and I'm going to have to deal with it. Part of this blog is I hope to get tip and ideas from fellow, more experienced, modellers. So don't be afraid to comment, I'd love to hear On Scarm I came up with this: The blue loop is elevated 8cm at the back and crosses over the inner part of it. There's going to be a hill/mountain in the top left corner that needs to be able to be removed in case of derailments. Trains will run counter clockwise only and a place still needs to be found for a station. The green loop is completely separate and will have a little shunter running clockwise. The single siding has been moved above the engine shed because the shed would not fit the original design. The two tracks going into the engine shed will be switched so they can be connected to the main line alternatively. Hope this all makes a bit of sense. Let me know your thoughts. I will be away for the next two days but will read comments on my phone.

50022 has now been fitted with the majority of transfers, along with a set of Fox nameplates (bought a very long time ago when the loco was still in revised NSE. There are still a couple of jobs left before I can reassemble, the black paint did not work well with the masking tape around the windows, so this needs to be touched in by hand. In order to do this I need a new paint brush, so it’s waiting an amazon delivery. I also managed to damage the roof grill putting the body on, I didn’t notice a bent bald on the etched fan which pushed through the grill mesh. I have tried to give as best I could but eventually it will need a new grill. Finally it needs an orange cantrail line, I tried with my old replica pack but they wouldn’t stick... The 31 has had the final paint touch up and just needs the cantrail line before I can varnish. It also needs a new 4 on one side as the original transfer has Half peeled off.