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May 2024 marks the fourth anniversary of when I used a free day to being planning the model railway layout I hoped to build. Inspired by the writings of Frank Ellison and Al Kalmbach from 1940's America, I set out on my great adventure: But so far the great layout hasn't happened (yet). I've written extensively, elsewhere and in earlier blog posts, about how plans and space around me have changed regularly, hopefully commenting informatively (I've learned a lot) and reasonably entertainingly (I've also had loads of fun), but with our planned house move now set for the end of June, it is time to look ahead. As I won't have a dedicated layout space in the new house, I've taken a step back to consider some ideas where space takes second place to other aspects of our engaging hobby. I've long had an interest in micro-layouts, and while they do share a lot in common with larger projects, I keep coming back to a photo on @MAP66's engaging Tyteford Halte micro-layout thread that really shows the difference well. The third photo down in this post from 2023 is the one I'm referring to: While the photo shows the space for a good-sized layout (which can be followed here), it is the passing reference to the micro-layout on a shelf over to the right that caught me eye - that's how different a micro-layout in the same scale can look. While I may still dream of watching my German express coaches flashing past as they criss-cross the continent, am I 'brave' enough (for want of a better word), to focus my interests for the next however long on much smaller projects - in other words: will I enjoy them, and will I finish them? I ought to, but my track record isn't great. So I've had a look at some ideas: Back in 2019, @Phil Parker ran a series of layout builds in BRM designed to fit on the shelves of an IKEA 'Billy bookcase' that were documented here on RMweb. I was fascinated, and it just so happens that there is a piece of mdf in my outhouse cut to those precise dimensions: 76cm x 26cm (30" x 10"). Add a cassette to each end and there's room for this in H0e: While a Fiddle Yard / Terminus might need even less space (just one off-stage cassette), my mind is telling me that a run-through could get me closer to a sense I'm "watching trains run", my choice when there is room for a continuous-run layout. A 'full' micro-layout has a scenic space of 4 sq.ft. The idea was pioneered by the late Carl Arendt in the US, who discovered just how many fascinating layouts could fit into such a small space. To keep up to date, @Ian Holmes is the person to connect with, and there's a link to his online magazine devoted to micro-layouts in this thread here on RMweb. If I scale my plan up to micro-layout size, there's room for this, the same H0e project in a bigger space: As a branch line, the same arrangement in the same space but in Standard Gauge might look like this: (Note: the shed kit is unfinished - it has no gutters or roof weathering). Admittedly It's basic, but it doesn't look cramped to me, which is the key point, and something I'll return to at the end of this post. There may not be room for a more mainline layout though - three coaches and a loco take up the whole 4': Of course, what that shows is that choice of prototype is key. As I've hopped around from one HO scale project idea to another, the space I might need has changed even when the scale hasn't. Some photos from my recent archives: 1. American HO v Continental H0: 2. American HO v Continental H0e: Note that the American 4-axle Geeps shown are not large locos by US standards (nor is the boxcar). Much as I continue to be tempted by American HO bargains, it does look like my last shift, towards Continental models, has been the right move. Whisper it quietly, but a few compact OO-scale items may even have started to appear again... ____________________________________________________________________________ What about structures - my favourite part of the hobby? Many micro and shelf layouts don't have any full-size 3-D buildings on them - everything is in low relief. Part of the problem with 3-D buildings is that I want to see space behind a full 3-D building as well as in front of it. I took these photos to illustrate: These have been set up as a 12" deep shelf layout, with the tape measure as the edge of the shelf - very cramped: In another Forum I belong to, it's been suggested that a building with a larger footprint, like the wooden rail-served store kit, may work better than smaller buildings, as the visual relationship between the structure and the trains looks better. It's a fair point when there's more space for a layout, but in the context of this discussion, using a pair of low-relief warehouses instead gives a far less cramped look to me, even after I halve the shelf width to just 6": (The right hand warehouse is under construction - I threw together the basic structure so I could try out these ideas). Perhaps one reason I couldn't quite settle on a plan for an American switching layout when I was looking at ideas last year is that I was trying to fit full-sized buildings (like the grain elevator) into a space better suited to shelf-layout thinking? It means the grain elevator (and possibly the store) may not make it onto the removal truck next month after all, even though they've not long been finished (but they were fun to build). What about the Neustadt Station kit I've bought, that is over three feet long by itself? Roof sections and platforms shown here for size: For this one, maybe I need to revisit the idea of a large station diorama I started some years ago with American HO? After all, as @Mikkel noted when I first showed this kit in a previous post, it could take me a year to make it, without a layout to go around it as well! Is that what I really want? Or perhaps my mainline ideas need to by approached as "modules" more than "dioramas," taking a longer view (just in case a spare room does become available at some point?). That's a another idea for me to think about. I make no claim of originality for any of the ideas in this post of course - what I'm sharing here is a process of translation, taking the trains and ideas I've been moving towards and re-imagining them for our new home. It's unlikely I'll do much more modelling until after we've moved now, so this post will also serve as a placeholder, probably for the next few months. ____________________________________________________________________________ A couple of closing thoughts, starting by returning to the first idea I set up - the Billy bookcase-sized H0e wayside station. Micro-layouts come in all shapes and sizes (just like every other type of layout). Some focus on operation, perhaps making no attempt to mask the intense compression that has been needed. I've designed such layouts myself in the past (eg: here). But there's another approach, which takes a tiny space and nevertheless makes it look like it's something much bigger, keeping things simple - almost taking more time over what to leave out that what to add in. A wonderful small layout that's recently appeared on the "Pilentum" YouTube channel is this model of a small slice of Ontario: I've already watched the video several times. It is a bit larger (scenic area 150cm x 45cm, which is just under 5' x 18"), and has been edited to show continuous running rather than a shuttle service, but I think it illustrates the concept wonderfully. In a sense, it's returning to the Art of Model Railroading that first inspired me (and still does) but seeing it differently - as art. I'm no artist, and never have been, but could I give it a go? That's my next question. Fortunately, help is at hand, and I'm delighted to say that I received copies of @James Hilton's books this past week, courtesy of Wild Swan and the Titfield Bookshop. James has already pointed me in the right direction several times, in this blog and elsewhere, even though we've never met, so what better resource for me to explore as the adventure continues...? Somehow I don't think I'm going to run out of ideas (there's another one in the header photo). Until then, thanks for reading, Keith.

Background As those few of you who have read some of my previous posts know, over the past few years I have been building stock appropriate for the Forest of Dean in the early '20s. As mining was traditionally the largest industry of the area, a huge proportion of the rolling stock in period photos are PO mineral wagons, generally built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company. Broadly speaking, the wagons owned by the collieries themselves were 10t or 12t end door types, while the coal merchants favoured fixed end types. When it comes to models, Cambrian makes GRC&W 10t fixed end and 12t end door kits, both with wooden solebars, of which I've built a few. Recently Brassmasters has also added 3D printed bodies to their range to go with their brass underframes, but I haven't tried them out, as although I'm sure they make are fine models, they are quite expensive when compared to plastic kits. The problem for me was that, judging by the excellent Severn & Wye Railway books by Ian Pope et al., from which I got all of the photos I have based my drawings on, the most commonly used type of wagon used by the collieries was of the 10t end door kind, which I couldn't find a kit for. I had considered whether kitbashing the Cambrian kits could produce results, but after perusing a few websites, I decided that I could easily obtain all the bits, such as W-irons and brake gear, which would enable me to scratchbuild whatever wagon I liked. I thought it would be a quick and easy task to produce a CAD plan of a 10t end door wagon, but the more I looked at photos the more I discovered that there actually were quite a variety, with differing strapping patterns, number of planks and kinds of underframe. So I set about making drawings for each type, which I have presented below. Some aspects are a bit speculative, generally because of the quality of the photos: while the GRC&W works photos are very crisp and detailed, some of photos of the wagons in the wild are not quite to that standard, plus the scanning process has inevitably produced slight distortions. I have assumed that the wheelbase is 9' for all wagons, and worked out the solebar length from there, assuming it is either 15' or 16'. The details on the ends are often hard to determine, so I have based them on the Cambrian kits. I have also only drawn the parts of the wagons that need scratchbuilding, so the brake gear, W irons, buffers etc. have only been sketched in. 7-Plank Wagons These wagons all have 7 equal width planks and wooden 15' solebars and headstocks, side doors 5 planks deep with T-shaped catches on the 2nd plank from the top, and J shaped strapping on either side of the door. Most but not all have one set of brake gear. Variant A The inside diagonal strapping on the sides is secured to the outside of the corner plates on the ends. The end door pivot goes through the topmost plank on the sides and is connected to a full-height piece of strapping. The end door sometimes has a pair of inclined handles between the fourth and fifth plank from the top, and all feature a V-shaped vee-hanger. Variant B Outside diagonal strapping fixed directly to corner plates. End-door pivot sits in a cutout in the topmost plank and is connected to its own short piece of strapping, next to the full-height one. End door sometimes has diagonal handles. Door spring fitted centrally between arms of V-shaped vee-hanger. Variant C Only one photo of this variant, branded Speech House, in an unusual light coloured (yellow?) livery, so it was probably a special wagon of some kind. Outside diagonal strapping, end door hinge through topmost plank and connected to diagonal strap and full-height J-shaped vertical strap. Additional short strapping on the sides around end door catch. Cylindrical cover between the side door hinges. Vee-hanger with parallel ends, handles on solebar between ends of crown plates rather than outside them. 6-Plank Wagons The lower four planks are the same depth as 7 plank wagons, while the top two planks are deeper. The end door pivot is supported above the wagon sides by two short bars which seem to be bent inwards, although the exact shape is a bit hard to determine. The short bar is bolted to the top of the vertical strapping. The side door is still 5 planks deep, and held closed by catches to the side. All have inside diagonal strapping secured through the corner plates at the fixed end. Most of these also appear to have only the one set of brake gear. Variant A Wooden 15' solebars and headstocks, J-shaped strapping either side of the side door, presumably with the lower end bolted to the diagonal strapping. V-shaped vee-hangers. Variant B Steel 15' solebars and thinner steel headstock, all vertical strapping bends around the bottom of the sides and is secured to the solebars. The lower ends of the diagonal strapping are secured with bolts which protrude below the wagon floor outside the solebars. The detail on the fixed end more uncertain, there seem to be some bolt heads between the corner plates, but unlike the wagons with wooden underframes, the two vertical wooden beams are absent. Parallel-ended vee-hangers. The 7 and 6 plank varieties are by far the most common, but there were also one photo of a 5 plank wagon and one of a 4 plank. The 4 plank wagon in particular is quite different from all the others, and seems to me might be an older style of wagon. 5-Plank Wagon The planking on the sides seems to go deep, medium, shallow, shallow, medium, top to bottom. Having only one photo, I can't tell if this is correct. Wooden 15' underframe with parallel-ended vee-hangers and brakes on one side only. 4 plank-deep side door with T-shaped catches on the topmost plank. End door pivot like 6 plank wagons, but the pivot supports are more sharply bent over the top of the sides. Outside diagonal strapping going over the corner plates and the vertical strapping by the door. The diagonal straps are kinked outwards to accommodate this. At the open end, the diagonal straps pass under the end of the pivot supports. 4-Plank Wagon A lot of features about this wagon are speculative, it is hard to tell from the photo even if it has an end door. As one end doesn't seem to be arched and the same end doesn't look like it has corner plates, it seems likely that it has an end door. 4 deep planks with the side door 3 planks deep, T-shaped catches on the topmost plank. Wooden 16' underframe with apparently steel headstocks and V-shaped vee-hangers and brakes on both sides. Narrow corner plates with a single row of bolts on the sides. Bolts for the diagonal strapping on the sides and all details concerning the end door and pivot are based on the 5- and 6-plank wagons as that side of the photo is not as clear. The fixed end is also almost invisible in the photo, so details are also speculative. So there you have it, that is what I was able to do with the photos I have available. I'm quite sure that there are inaccuracies here and there, apart from the speculative parts, I'll come back and correct them if I find any. It might be that this information is already out there somewhere, but I quite enjoyed the process of working things out, and I will eventually put some of it to use once I have finished building the loco to haul them. I haven't included any measurements, but the drawings are supposed to be to scale, and I do have the CAD files, should anyone want them, which can be scaled and measurements taken directly from them. Anyway, enough armchair (or to be more accurate, beanbag) modelling, I need to get my 2021 done.

This is a 51 L whitemetal kit which I bought very cheaply from Pastimes in Glasgow as it was closing down. I am busy with a lot of non railway stuff at the moment but I do need to have something on the bench so I thought I would have a go at this as a simple relaxing build. And so it proved to be. Sharp whitemetal castings with minimal flash, steel head buffers and etched brass frets for the W irons and brakegear. Even includes styrene for the floor and roof and wire for the horse shunting loops. I soldered it together with no issues but I suppose it could be glued. A couple of posed pictures. Perhaps the livery should be a shade redder? The lettering is from various sources and I just inked the knot on. Rough close up, but ok from a distance. These vans were built 1911 so perhaps a tad late for Kelvinbank but I’ll stretch a point since it adds variety and is a nice memento of what was my local model shop.

This week certainly didn't go as planned at work so consequently my to-do list suffered accordingly. On that list was to announce that the Kinver Trams embryo layout display is making an appearance at the Bourneville MRC Industrial & Narrow Gauge Exhibition at Longbridge Social Club B31 2SF - hopefully not haunted by those tortured souls that were responsible for the Austin Princess. While I have not managed to even dent the to-do list I have got some significant advances to unleash onto an unsuspecting public - I will eventually manage to update here but if you want an exclusive, make tracks to Birmingham!

This diagram P4 ballast wagon was an eBay purchase, cheaply bought as a 'fixer-upper'. It's built from the PECO (ex Websters) kit, and the original builder had made a reasonable job of construction. The paint finish wasn't great, with a fair amount of dust in it, and the brake gear was smashed: The first job was a good clean up, and remove the broken brake gear and couplings - the buffer rams had to stay in place, as the retaining parts on the rear of the rams were very firmly glued on. I scraped the paint back on the main panels, but decided a full paint strip wasn't needed. The wheels needed changing for S7 ones - with these kits, they will spring out of the axleguards, though you have to bend them quite a long way so it is a bit nerve-racking. With the destruction complete, it was on to rebuilding and detailing. For me, the things that give the wagon its character are: the riveted body platework, which the kit does very nicely the door retaining pins with their chains, which are rather anaemic on the kit the large wooden door bangers the axle guard covers, which the kit omits - more on those later. I did the new door securing pins and chains as follows: I took a length of 5A fuse wire and folded it round the shank of a suitable sized drill (the diameter the ring needs to be). The ends were secured in a pin vice and twisted to form the chain, with the wire still around the drill. Slip the wire off the drill and release the pin vice, and you have a ring and chain. The securing pins were made from brass wire, about 0.3mm diameter. One end was bent over to form the loop at the top of the pin, and before tightening, the ring of the chain made in step 1 was put into the loop. That gives you a pin-ring-chain assembly. The pin was held in place on the wagon side with a length of the fuse wire folded over and the two ends put into a 0.5mm hole drilled in the wagon side. A drop of thin CA glue (Rocket 'hot') applied on the end of a bit of wire holds the assembly in place. This is definitely the fiddliest part of the whole operation. The 'chain' was formed into a loop so it looks like it is hanging down, and the lose end put into another 0.5mm hole and secured with CA glue. Repeat another seven times... I fitted one at this stage to make sure it worked as planned, but left the others off until later, to avoid damage to them. The door bangers provided in the kit are OK, but suffer a bit because the draw angle required to release the parts from the mould goes across the width of the bangers. They therefore look oddly unsymmetrical when looking at them straight on. Also, the original builder had glued some of them on not quite straight, so I decided to remove them all, square them up with a file, and re-attach them. I also noticed, looking at prototype photos, that the bangers have shallow holes drilled in them, corresponding to the rivets on the door strapping, so that when the door drops down the contact area isn't just the rivet heads. I decided to drill these holes once everything was assembled, so I could position them correctly relative to the door rivets. The prototype photos show that when built, GWR ballast wagons had sheet metal covers over the axleguards - a very distinctive feature. Later photos don't show them, so they were presumably removed at some point. Checking as many photos as I could find, I was fairly sure that for my 1908 period, the wagon should have the covers - and in any case, how could I resist such a characterful detail? Working from photos, I drew up the covers in CAD. The drawing was printed at the correct size on a sticky label, which was stuck on to four pieces of 5 thou brass sheet, previously sweated together: I cut out the outline with a fine fretsaw blade: I left a large 'tab' at the top to make it easier to make the fold where the cover attaches to the bottom flange of the solebar - it is much easier to made the bend this way then try and get an accurate bend parallel and very close to the edge of the material. The label was removed with white spirit, and the four pieces separated and cleaned up: I folded up the pieces in the vice, and trimmed the top flange to size: The part that goes over the axle box is made by bending the main piece to form the sloping top and short front edge. The sides were from scrap etch, chosen to be the same thickness as the saw cuts. They were cut oversize, soldered in place, and filed back to make a neat final assembly: I did a dry assembly to fettle the covers to fit - I made a mistake and glued the door bangers on first, and had to cut away parts of the covers to accommodate the bangers. It would have been better to do it the other way around. I numbered the covers to ensure they would go back in the right place, as each one needed slightly different adjustments. The brake gear was rebuilt using the kit brake shoes and hangers, and WEP and Ambis components for the vee hanger, push rods, and lever. The brake lever guard was my usual combination of the ratchet from the Ambis component, and nickel silver strip bent to shape. After a waft of etch primer on the not-yet-attached metal parts, the final assembly got me to a physically complete wagon: A coat of paint always brings things together, revealing any blemishes but also giving confidence that perhaps it will be OK after all: Lettering was from a sheet of HMRS pressfix transfers, which had the 'PT WAY' text I needed, but which I find difficult to get aligned accurately. I had to get a new sheet to do the 'PT WAY' on the ends as you only get one pair on the sheet, so I bought methfix this time, which allows adjustment more easily. The lettering isn't strictly accurate - the 'PT WAY' should have the characters all the same size, not a larger P and W. The lettering is generally slightly too big, and as a result there is no room for 'To carry' that should precede '8 tons'. There should also be the word 'Construction' on the ends, in italics. These observations are based on a photo of a diagram P5 - I haven't found a photo of a P4 in pre-1904 livery, so I can perhaps get away with these inaccuracies... I don't really have a need for a ballast wagon at Netherport, so, after some discussion: I decided to load it with sand being delivered for the sand boxes of locos and brake vans. The gradient inland away from the harbour at Netherport is steep, so it is important sandboxes are well filled before departure. The shape of the load was formed with a layer of thin corrugated cardboard followed by some cat litter, glued in place with diluted PVA and moulded to shape. As this was an experiment, I put cling film in the wagon first, so I could remove the former if the cat litter didn't work out: The result was OK, but it took a long time to dry and shrank considerably, so I am not sure I would use the cat litter again. Before gluing the load in and adding the 'sand', I did some initial weathering: With the former in place, I could add the sand. This was made using a product called 'Terrains Sandy Desert Acrylic' by AK Interactive - it's aimed mainly at military modellers for dioramas. I used a variety of tools to put it in place, with my biggest concern to get the edges to look natural, and keep it off the sides. I failed to keep it off the sides, and the edges took a fair amount of fettling, adding additional material to fill slight 'sink holes' and scrapping off material that had got in the wrong place. As a result, the inside of the wagon sides were rather scratched - the acrylic sand medium also seems to soften the paint quite effectively, which didn't help. I ended up repainting the inside of the wagon, being careful to keep the paint off the sand. With some final weathering, including the repainted insides, the wagon was complete. The weathering was mainly done with water-soluble artists oil paints, plus some weathering powders. Nick.

To fit Rospeath Lane into my current car I've calculated the trestles need to be less than 3" (75mm) thick when folded flat. On paper it looked achievable, but before this project progresses too far, I thought it wise to test the theory. Jake the peg trestle Using a three leg design allows the single leg to be interleaved within the two main legs. It needs a chain or rope attached to stop the legs splaying out. I'm also considering whether the trestles need some levelling devices adding to the legs. So far so good

I'd started the process of weathering my track in the last entry. I prefer to do this before laying ballast to avoid spoiling the ballast itself and to avoid a uniform colour across the entire trackwork. I start with a good coating of Halfords grey primer, my go-to for any painting project now. In the past I have applied paint direct to the track but it never quite adheres right and looks ugly. Next up is a coat of Railmatch sleeper grime. I mask/cover any areas I wish to avoid getting paint on/in and wipe all paint from the rail heads immediately. A cotton bud dampened with white spirit usually does the job. Although this can have the unfortunate effect of leaving cotton behind as it snags on the gaps between rails courtesy of insulated joiners! Lastly, I paint the rail sides to resemble rust. In the past I have used a Humbrol enamel which is a close approximation to a muted rust. However on reflection it wasn't the most accurate of colours. This time I opted for Phoenix Precision Paints' Rusty Rail paint. On the first attempt I unfortunately put it on too thick. The result was a glaring colour which looked too bright and like I had quite literally painted the track! It also took ages to dry and when it did it was gloss. What a disaster! Luckily I had only tried this on a small section, so I could respray with sleeper grime and start again. On my second attempt I gave the paint pot a much better shake/stir. This has always been recommended to me for any painting project, but I never really paid the advice much heed... until now. After a proper mixing the paint went on a charm, dried quickly and set in its proper matt form. Perfect! I was much more reserved with the paint, almost dry brushing this time. The result was a much more subtle colour that you almost have to look for. I'm pleased with the result. Although not ready to lay ballast, I started to consider what I would use when I did reach this stage. Ballast has been something I've never really been happy with; the size, the colour. It's just never looked quite as I expected it to. So I trawled forums for advice on ballast and found that there are as many options for ballast as there were frustrated modellers seeking a better way! The key appeared to be research of your chosen area/era. Addleford Green may be fictitious, but the line on which it is based was not, so that gave me a starting point. I found this most useful website: https://colourrail.co.uk and was able to purchase a few digital photos of considerable resolution for stations along the Hawkhurst branch - in colour! None of the books I have feature colour photography. Not only will these help me to get a feel for the general "mood" of the area for later into the project, they also showed me the kind of ballast I was looking at. I wanted something that was mostly brown/tan with some grey in it. I looked at the most recent ballasts to be released, hoping things had changed considerably since my last attempts. Hatton's own Constructor range and DCC Concepts Legacy ballast seemed like contenders. Hatton's ballast seemed too grey for my liking, the highland mix being closest to my needs but still too grey overall. Legacy's steam era ballast was much closer but ultimately seemed too dark and better for mainlines that see a lot of use - were I modelling Paddock Wood instead this may have been my choice. It's really very hard to tell for sure from photos but in the end I wasn't satisfied and decided to make my own mix, something that has always felt like a job reserved for "serious" modellers! I had some Woodland Scenics buff and brown in coarse which I had used for another project. I liked the colour of them when mixed so I bought a bag each of the fine variant and poured them together. I also had some leftover grey (possibly my first ever ballast, still going strong) and some black stuff - no idea of its origin! I grabbed a small jar and used an old teaspoon to mix a small amount together. I started with 3 spoons of buff/brown, 2 spoons of grey and 1 spoon of black, mixed and applied to a piece of test track. I was very pleased with the effect and surprised to have something so close to what I wanted so quickly. The only thing I'll change is the amount of grey, as I felt it overpowered the buff/brown mix by virtue of it's larger particles. Oddly I found the black was mostly lost in the mixture and actually gave a pleasingly subtle colour variation. My final mix will be three parts buff/brown, one part grey, one part black. Weathering of the ballast itself will be completed separately, after it is fixed to the track. I'm a long way off laying the ballast for now. I want to get the platform installed first and possibly some of the other railway infrastructure. On reflection I won't be using nearly as much ballast on this layout. In the past I have smothered every track in it. But this time I'm going to try for some more varied and realistic coverings; cinders/ash around the engine shed, tamped earth around the sidings and goods area etc. A lot of new techniques to try and learning curves to handle. All for now, Jonathan Next blog: Installing the station platform.

I have finally finished the first B set for Cheddar. Little did I know that this was going to be quite so involved when I started, what now seems a very long time ago. The origin was a set of sides, roofs and ends from the Ks kit, kindly given to me by Tim Venton. These coaches were prevalent in the Bristol division after nationalisation so I was always going to have a set on Cheddar. When it came to start, I’d lost one of the ends so ended up making a blank from plasticard. The sides were glued together and married up to a Comet under frame and Bill Bedford sprung bogies. Under frame detail is a mixture of Comet and MJT. The bogie sides were originally the incorrect 9ft pressed steel type before I swapped to the 9ft fishbelly bogies and added lots of extra step details. I also made the mistake of painting carmine and cream before being corrected and advised that this wouldn’t have been applied to non gangway stock. Easily rectified and painted chocolate and cream to match the photos in Russell. Lining is HMRS. Numbering and end lettering is from Railtec. Seating is Ratio, handles Comet and an unmarked bag of unknown origin. Glazing… Hmm. This was individually flush glazed with perspex and yes it did take an age but I’m out of therapy now. I’m never, ever doing this again. Thank goodness for Rapido’s E140/5. I’ve an E129 and E147 to do from Comet kits but at least they’re brass. Whether I’ll ever use the shawplan extreme etching flush glazing on the Airfix b sets remains to be seen. At least they’re pre-cut. These coaches have taken over a year to complete and yes there are plenty of things I could have done better. Apart from some weathering they’ll have to do for now.

Some folk may be aware that I recently bought two whitemetal kit panniers from @Tony Wright, which he was selling on behalf of the builder and previous owner, Peter Lawson. I understand that the ex-GW locos listed on Tony's thread are only a small selection from a much larger collection, most of which (if not all?) I gather are to be sold, due to the unfortunate ill health of the owner. Anyway, the two panniers arrived here at Kernow Towers a few weeks ago and were posed on the layout: I understand that the right-hand loco was built from a K's kit, albeit with more a more modern etched chassis, a decent (open frame Anchorage) motor and Gibson wheels. The left-hand pannier was built from a NuCast kit (which was probably derived from the original K's moulds, I think) and also has an etched and compensated chassis, Romford wheels and another Anchorage motor. Both locos were numbered as examples of panniers that were allocated to South Wales sheds at the time that Bethesda is set in, so I decided to renumber them. The K's one was to become 9629, allocated to Oswestry for a while (Pannier Papers) and the NuCast one will become 9741, allocated for a short time to Shrewsbury (Pannier Papers). I have also decided to add a small amount of extra detail, such as lamp irons, sand pipes and injector overflow pipes, which were not originally featured on either loco. Both locos were also single manned at the time they arrived here, both with a fireman, clearly awaiting the driver to turn up from the mess room, so a driver from the ModelU agency has also taken up duty on the footplate. Both locos are extremely well built and run well. Peter Lawson certainly knows how to build a loco kit properly. It is my intention, however, not to alter Peter's work any more that I need to and importantly, to retain the original character of the locos. So far, I have worked on the K's one, which has now become 9269. I am extremely pleased with the result and the loco is now officially listed on the roster for Bethesda Sidings. I've also uploaded a short piece of footage of 9629 working in Bethesda yard today: These locos are probably around 50 years old and whilst it is true to say that they don't have quite the level of detail that their more modern RTR counterparts have, I do think they still stand up very well. What they certainly have is a definite presence (they are heavy when compared to a Bachmann one, especially one of my Bachmann bodied panniers with an etched chassis) and loads of character.

Having deleted RailMaster, put my Hornby Elite in the electronics recycling bin and swapped in a Roco Z21 controller with iTrain I wanted to see how they worked with my layout before getting into the detection side of things. Here's my layout in Hornby RailMaster Pro: I have enabled displaying the point's ID numbers as I want to refer to them when setting up the same points in iTrain. The old Railmaster diagram does resemble my layout in SCARM It's roughly the same but RailMaster is confusing for me - Even at 50% there aren't really enough squares to make it look like it is and you have to fudge 3 way points and double slips by using two points for each of these. To be fair my first go at iTrains was daunting. Some things are familiar but there lots of detailed settings and of course the jargon used is different. I started by slowly by just creating the switchboard to reflect my layout: To my eye this looks neater and more like the actual layout: There are specific symbols for 3 way points and double slips rather than the Railmaster bodge of using two points to represent them. I can see my station and the turntable is resizable although I have yet to try and see how to get an ADM turntable to work with it The size of the grid doesn't matter so much and the curved corners are more elegant Another key feature for me is that iTrain supports modern operating systems from Windows 10/11 (I am running it on windows 11 myself) to Apple (OSX and IOS) and linux distros The obvious downside of iTrain Plus edition is at least double the price the price of Railmaster Pro. However unlike RailMaster which is strictly per device, iTrain can be installed on many devices so I can design layouts in my office, use my all in one Touchscreen PC as my main layout controller, and have it on a laptop right next to where I am working if I am troubleshooting or configuring new stuff. I can use any of these to drive my layout. Moreover iTrain is designed around detection and automation and because I’ll be using those features, it is better value for money for me. I also think some railway modellers can be put off by the complexity and richness of iTrain. That's partly why I am writing this. I could have spent hours getting confused on YouTube watching others try to explain how to use it and use it and all the theory, but I chose a different path. Start simple, learn the basics and apply the principle of RTFM (Read the ... Manual) : Get the switchboard looking like the layout you have Configure every point so that they throw correctly to match what you can see on the switchboard Add a test loco and run it! All the advanced stuff for routes, detection and speeds can wait until you are ready to explore more. It's like learning to play guitar , learn three chords (may be enough if you are a Quo fan) , learn strumming, learn timing and rock 'n roll you are making music. Sure there are more chords, licks and playing with your teeth, but that's for later. That's what I have now done and a couple of days I feel at home and I really like using it - For example the fact that all of the settings for every accessory, loco and can be seen in a list that can be sorted and there is a diagnosis screen to show you what needs fixing later -For example I have not done any measuring yet (more on that later) It's also really really stable. So now I have found my way around iTrain my next task is to fix the wiring - Both to move to a track/accessory bus setup and to wire in the Digikeijs DR5088RC detectors. Finally a polite request - if there is anything wrong in here please let me know, as I do see a lot of conflicting advice out there, and my mission is to keep things simple but accurate.

All this replacement of lost images on previous blogs has made me think about gathering some favourite images from my layout project and dumping them in one blog entry, so here it is. A hotch-potch of photos from around the first baseboard which is almost complete. The layout is 4mm scale and track work EM gauge. I initially set it in 1844 when Bricklayers Arms was completed and opened to the public. However, it has now turned into 1845 as this allows for a little weathering and I don't have to leave everything looking too new. Apologies to those who have seen it all before but I thought a summary was due before moving on to the next baseboard which will be the massive goods shed and lots of wagon turntables, (I'm not sure I'm looking forward to that bit)! Thanks for looking. The backs of the houses at Greyhound Place The stables at the back of the cattle yard. The Rat catcher. The Tannery. A dispute over the chaff-cutting. Preparing to lime wash a new cattle wagon. Delivery of a prize bull. Mr Rolls is late for work.

My last post featured two Coopercraft wagons which were looking a bit sad after about a decade sitting on a shelf. I decided it was time to reassemble and repaint them, and make some improvements along the way. The first thing I did was disassemble them as much as possible without causing damage and removing some of the old paint. The open wagon body came apart completely without much fuss, while the mink's roof came off, but the rest of it stayed together, which made removing the paint a bit tricky , although I did manage to clean up the area where I had originally managed to spill a drop of solvent when I originally built it. I then started putting them back together and Improving them. Underframe After a bit of research on the Coopercraft website and on the GWR wagon book, I determined that what I had were a V4 mink and an O4 open. These two diagrams had the same underframe featuring DCI brakes, at least initially (the V4's were upgraded with vacuum brakes at some point after construction). Having looked at some photos of the real things, I realised that the underframe as supplied in the kit was lacking the prominent swan-necked lever which actuated the brakes, as well as the quadrant sitting behind the brake handle. I decided to have a go at making a representation of these out of plasticard. Luckily there is a space between the V-hanger and the brake rods which is just wide enough to slot in a lever. Using a diagram of a DCI brake as a guide, I stuck some masking tape onto a piece of plasticard and sketched out the shape. Once cut out, I ensured that it didn't interfere with the wheels. Next I had to fashion a piece that looked vaguely like the DC brake quadrant, which was quite fiddly considering the size, but I think I succeeded in crafting something that looks ok on the finished wagon. I glued the swan-neck lever to the V-hanger and the back of the W-iron, glued the quadrant to the back of the bracket holding the brake lever and then added the pair of links between the two with10 thou plasticard. This is what it looks like on the open wagon, the mink had the same treatment. Buffers A couple of the buffers had long ago snapped off and disappeared, so I decided to replace them all. My first plan was to turn replacements on the pillar drill from 4mm brass rod, but after a couple of attempts I decided I couldn't do it consistently enough to get the results I wanted. The two I turned looked fine on their own, but one was actually 1mm longer than the other, and with files and a drill I decided I couldn't turn a complex shape like this accurately. After pondering the matter for a couple of days, I decided the solution was turning the buffer head and shank from the brass rod, and then thread a buffer body made from plasticard onto it. I glued up a few different stacks of plasticard, as you can see in the photo (which also features the two attempts at solid brass buffers): - 8 buffer bodies (3 layers of thicker plasticard) - two stacks of 4 layers of 10thou plasticard to form the raised lip at the end of the buffer body - two more stacks of 4 layers 10thou to form the lip/radiused edge between the buffer and the headstock (in hindsight I don't think these were necessary) These last two stacks were only lightly glued together, as the plan was to separate them into 8 of each component. I then turned the end of a piece of rod to form a spindle 1mm in diameter (the same as the buffer shanks). This was heated with a small blowtorch and pressed through the centre of each of the stacks of plasticard in turn, melting through them to create an appropriately sized hole and also to enable me to turn the plastic components tu the right size and shape. After a few hours of work, I had two of the following kit of parts: It turns out my clever plan wasn't quite as clever as I thought, as the turned plastic parts were not quite as concentric as I was hoping, as well as incredibly fragile. however, I managed to get them all superglued together in the end. I must have slightly underestimated the thickness of the plasticard, because the new buffers are a little longer than the originals, but visually at least, I think they are fine. Reassembly and Painting I now put the open back together. I had to fabricate some new door stops to fix to the solebars as the ones provided in the kit didn't seem to look much like any of the ones I could see in period photos, and I had also put them in the wrong place when I first build the wagon. I crafted some new ones by heating strips of plasticard in boiling water and forming them around a file handle. I then cut some spacers and glued the lot on the solebars in line with the oblong plates of the door. Well, nearly in line as it turns out. The four sides of the body were then glued on. On the mink, i glued one of the two hefty hex nuts i had put inside back to the floor, added a piece of plasticard to stop the sides from bowing inwards and put the roof back on. I then built up some couplings and this was the final result: (You can see my soldering improving as i tried out different flux, techniques and solder) Primer was then brushed on (still no access to an airbrush, but I get decent results, I think), and a good quantity of GWR goods grey was mixed. I managed to get the proportion wrong (9:1 rather than 7:1), but it looks alright. I added a bit of white for the mink, as I wanted the open to represent a recently repainted wagon with 16" letters, while the mink would still be sporting the old 25" letters, so I wanted a more faded look (which I definitely didn't get). I then applied methfix transfers and very carefully cut them with a scalpel while still damp so they would follow the shape of the planking. The mink was then drybrushed all over in light grey and I tried to add some slight spots of peeling paint and rust, which were unfortunately both obliterated by the light grime wash I applied to both wagons. Here is the finished result: The mink especially is a lot smarter than I would have liked, but overall I am quite satisfied, they are definitely much improved, I reckon. The inside of the open has been drybrushed a bit, but it suffers from the unusually high floor and lack of detail these Coopercraft kits seem to feature, so I might provide it with a load or tarpaulin at some point to mask it. Except I managed to set up some ancient Lima track on the floor and run them around a bit, and it tuns out that my new buffers prevent them from going around the bends. I think it is simply because the curves I have are pretty tight (384mm). They should be alright on more sensible radii. If not, I will have to move the couplings outwards a bit. Oh well, you live and learn. Talking of learning, I have made a start (with much concern and trepidation) on the brake van!