paulontheball

Vary sad to hear this news, Keith produced the Templot and built all the pointwork for my exhibition layout Little Salkeld back in 2016 and it's a real credit to him that the layout is always praised for the track work. More recently Keith produced another Templot for my next project, an EM gauge layout based on Brading on the IoW. To further help out, and totally unprompted, he also sent a collection of old Triang clerestory coaches for me to cut up and convert to IoW stock - a really nice gesture. Keith was a real gentleman, friendly and helpful, a skilled modeller, and generally a great guy, he will be very much missed. My sincere condolences to his family and friends Paul

Spot on! :-)

Thanks very much all, not 100% straightforward and clearly a few shades of grey

Hi, possibly an obvious question, but thought I would check... I'm looking to detail an N Gauge Graham Farish model of a GWR Toad Brake Van (BR ERA), and I must admit, Western Region and any bespoke practices they may have had is new to me. As its unfitted I would just like to confirm my assumption that when it was being used as the brake at the end of a freight train, it would have a single tail lamp showing red at the back of the veranda plus 2 additional lamps fitted on the irons on either side of the veranda near the doors for the guard. Also, the side lamps would show red to the rear of the train and white forwards for the loco crew to see that the train was still joined? Many thanks Paul

Many thanks both. Your responses are pretty much what I suspected as these were getting quite elderly, (certainly in the BR period) and probably suited to smaller branches.

Hi, Question for the wise... can anybody advise if the 2F 0-6-0 Johnson tender loco's found their way onto the S&C in LMS or BR days or both? I have spent some time googling this but not found any record of it.... but that may just be my poor googling skills! Many thanks

Much of the 4 wheeled stock was returned around 1937 however some vehicles remained in service on the island all the way through to 1949 when they were also returned to the mainland. The ones that did stay on the island didn't all remain in passenger service, a number were converted to departmental stock. A number of them also had steel sheeting by way of refurbishment/repair by the time the war was over. I think the IOW railway was always a bit of a mix of stuff, part of its charm I guess!

I'm building stock for a future Isle of Wight layout set in the late 1930s/start of WW2 period and considering what a mish-mash of secondhand, patched up and modified coaching stock they had at the time, I wondered if a set of these or the Hattons units in SR livery would work behind a Terrier or an O2? - any views?

Here’s probably a mad idea and associated mad question .... in planning my retirement, which to be fair is not for a few years yet, I’m thinking about moving to a place with a large enough garden to accommodate an ex BR brake van body - not the heavy chassis, wheels etc but just the wooden structure on top. No doubt it would require refurbishment, and may even need to be transported in pieces, so I wondered if they had asbestos built into them? - particularly as they often contain some form of Stove/burner for heating

Hi, I know the Type 3 (or Class 33) was not a S&C locomotive however I‘m sure that I read a while back that 3 were temporarily transferred as far north as Glasgow shed to cover for failing Class 26 locos. I wondered if they ever ran on the S&C albeit by exception?

As it happens I'm experimenting with an old Triang clerestory and doing exactly that for a yet to be built IoW EM Gauge layout based in the early 1940s. Its currently in process and you can see a before and after pic here. The bogies are Bachmann bulleid units converted to EM Gauge with Alan Gibson wheels. The roof is the original with the clerestory hacked off and the void built up with plasticard and filler and then sanded to profile - it's just placed in position at the mo hence it's not sitting down properly. Hand rails have been carefully shaved/sanded off and will be replaced with wire handrails formed in a more typical SR configuration. Lots still to do, I still need to scratch build the interior and the under frames (which I'll do from brass rod/section), airbrush the malachite green, add transfers, couplings, vac pipes and generally add the fine details and titivate before weathering it down. I haven't adjusted the length of the coach by adding compartments, so appreciate that its not the correct length, mind you, research suggests that the IoW had a fair old mix of coaching stock at varying standards and levels of modification, so I reckon that it may blend in with other conversions that I'm going to do with Ratio Midland coaches as part of the overall view.

Hi, I’m the builder/owner of Little Salkeld. I used a mix of 2/3 chinchilla dust and 1/3 fine N gauge ballast. The fiNetrax was glued down onto a thin cork underlay which already had a paper Templot plan fixed in place. I hand painted the underside of each piece of track with a slightly watered down PVA solution and laid it in place with a piece of flat ply and weights on to ensure it cured whilst nice and flat - then 24 hrs to cure. The ballasting was then the fairly common process of pouring ballast onto the track and using a small paint brush to get it off sleepers and shape it on either side of the track. A light spray from a distance with a water detergent mix to wet it and then a heavily watered down mix was carefully applied using a pipette. A good 24 hours then to dry again. Chinchilla dust drys like concrete, so it’s preferable to get it off sleepers and shaped before you apply the PVA. I air brushed mine after as I found that the chinchilla dust was too light with a bit of a greenish colour which didn’t look right. It does take a bit of time, and not as easy as PECO code 55 because the track is much thinner allowing the ballast to spread around, so it it needs a lot more fettling but the end result means that it’s worth the extra 25% of effort and will be the thing that really makes your track work and layout stand out. By the way I recall that I also did a test piece with around 8 short sections of track bonded onto a piece of scrap ply to get the ratio of ballast to chinchilla dust right. It’s worth painting the samples as well because you get a much better sight of what they will look like when finished. Hope that helps Good luck with it! Paul

Ok, many thanks for the advice folks, very much appreciated

Hi, can the collective advise on the detail for permanent speed restriction signs please? - these are the yellow and black signs as per the attached pic - I’ve spent sometime googling but not found any clarity on the subject yet! Period modelled is early 1960’s and location is a prototype on the Settle & Carlisle line - track plan pic also attached. What would be the maximum speed for the yard and the relief siding? Where would the signs be located? Would there also be a speed restriction on the entrance to the station, or anywhere else? Any advice gratefully received!