RScore

Much has been done the last week or so in preparation for the Basingstoke show on March 11/12th. As you can see from the first two images, I had a near disaster on my hands - the detachable station roof has decided to detach part of itself from the other part - lengthways. The second image gives you a clue as to how much remedial work was needed to fix it. I've since repainted it. After fixing that, I could focus on adding "life" to the layout. The third image shows the first vehicle added on, secured on the layout by 2 x 8BA screws - a challenge in itself. Five more road vehicles have been added since. The fourth image shows a small selection of the people added to the layout - now totalling 28 including an AA Man, and a photographer on a bridge. All fixed on with superglue on their feet (thank you Ian). The fifth image shows the station lampposts after assembly and painting. I was slightly dismayed to find on arrival by post that these were kits - not ready assembled. They are fiddly to put together and fragile - but are now fixed firmly on the station platforms.

I write in haste as Ramsgate Sands is due for it's second public outing at Fordingbridge (Dorset) this coming Saturday 9th April, a show organised by the local Rotary club. So as you might expect I've been busy getting it as ready as I can in the time available. Touching up paintwork in too many places to mention, for example. Around the turntable (image 1) I've put in all the walls and filled the area around the TT with yard ballast frem John Smerdon. It looked a shade dark compared to the track ballast so I plan to cover much of this with greenery. I also tried a small sample elsewhere with 1 part household filler to 5 parts yard ballast, and this seemed ok. On as larger area it didn't work so well, as the white filler tends to separate from the dark yard ballast and cause lots of white patches to appear. Not so good. I've re-done part of the goods yard (see image 2) and this looks better - though that's not obvious from the image! Image 3 shows the now-welded-in footbridge. Also in the image is the acrylic sheet now mounted around the layout to protect it at shows and in transit. Also nearly completed is a black polyester skirt attached with velcrose. The velcrose I hot-glued onto the polyester sheet - quicker than sewing it on (as I did many years ago to a sheet of black crimplene). Alas, I tried to get crimplete but no-one seems to sell it anymore - crimplete is highly crease-resistant.

Progress has slowed on Ramsgate Sands due to house hunting but the last couple of days has seen progress on the roadway and station area fencing. The first image shows the various pieces of pavement (30 thou plastikard) around the turntable end cut to shape and painted up ready for laying. It also shows the nearly-completed booking office building, which has had several paint jobs and is now only missing the Scalescenes sign board above the entrance. The second image shows the pieces of painted-up SR concrete fencing and a stretch of pavement adjoining it alongside the Down Bay. Also painted up apart from a thin strip along one edge to allow plastic welding of the fence panels to the pavement surface. One of the learnings from 12 inches to the foot wagon restoration (at Mid-Hants and Swanage Railways) is that it pays to think about what order you paint various pieces in before you start. The same applies fo modelling. Here I had to work out an assembly & paint plan that was a balance between painting up items before fixing them to the layout and allowing for good bonding/glueing of the various pieces. There is also (just visbile in the image) a vertical strip of brick plastikard glued on to the seaward edge of the bay road and 3 - 4 mm proud of the surface. The fence panels will be plastic-welded to this as well as the pavement to give (hopefully) robust fencing that stays in place. The roadway is painted in dark grey undercoat. I add the pieces of pavement immediately after painting on the roadway to give a seamless join between the pavement and the road (image 3).

Most of the last few weeks have been spent ballasting (image 1). As mentioned before, the ballast spreader device only works on plain track and away from platforms & other lineside structures. So a lot of time has been spent sprinkling ballast. I'd like to say the whole process worked smoothly. Alas, no. Gluing down the ballast went smoothly on the first batch. i had a slightly dodgy ex-lens cleaner spray bottle that didn't work reliably. But it got the job done. Spray the track, mix up 50-50 PVA glue and water, add a drop or two of detergent and drop the solution on. Then I discovered a fresh empty lens cleaner bottle - the sprayer worked a treat, so used that. But when I dropped the PVA solution on, it kept forming globules. At first, I thought this was down to not enough detergent (which reduces surface tension). So added more detergent and a spot more water. Still the globules kept forming. Incredibly frustrating. The air "turned blue", as the old saying has it. It took me a while to figure out that I wasn't spraying enough water onto the ballast before applying the PVA solution. So, after a generous re-spray of water, the PVA spread without forming globules. Reliably. More or less. Also started this week was what appears to be a booking office, a wooden building at the country end of the station on the sea front side. Image 2 shows the outer walls under construction. The difficulty here was a lack of decent historic images. Image 3 shows one of the only two reference images I have (the orange pencil points to this booking office). And it's not the best quality. It appears from the photo that the roof is hipped at the country end, but pitched at the London end. So I'm building it like that.

Not a huge amount was done in December but with Christmas festivities over modelling has re-started in earnest. All of the platform surfaces have been prepared - as shown in image 1. The white edging has been done by welding down a narrow strip of styrene 20 thou thick and approx 2mm wide at each platform edge. This then presents a slightly raised edge to paint a white line on, and gives a fairly uniform width to the white line. Whilst I've brushed on a white line in OO scale without using this raised edge method, I didn't have the confidence to do a thin line in N scale of uniform width. The overall result is pleasing. Ballasting is now in progress (image 2) using an applicator shown in the image. However, it's use will be limited. This applicator cannot be used alongside a platform face, and can't be used over pointwork. After much fettling about, I finally plucked up the courage to glue the station buildings down. Images 3 and 4 show the buildings in place complete with the removable roof. Much to my relief the roof seems to sit down well. Where pavement meets roadway I've also painted the roadway in dark matt undercoat to represent tarmac, gluing down the building while the paint was still wet in an attempt to avoid a visible join where pavement meets roadway.

The last few days has focussed on installing the semaphore signals. The first image shows one of the signals installed and operational ..... but getting there wasn't straighforward. And there are four to install, labelled RS1 to RS4 - see image of control panel. Note that these are controlled by push-buttons, as per the instuctions. There are dire warniongs in the instructions not to use on-off switches as these can 'flood' the electronics with too much electric current and "may" (so the instructions say) burn out the circuitry. For "may" read "will". As I found out. I was keen to use off-the-shelf motorised signals as I really didn't feel up to making up a working semaphore from a kit in N scale. This does mean that the signals are to an LMS pattern rather than a typical Southern rail-built or concrete signal, But Dapol/Ratio don't do these in N, so LMS pattern it is. I can live with that. I thought it a good idea to bench test the signals before installing them on the layout. For some reason, I got it into my head that the 16-Volt AC supply should be connected to the two yellow wires, rather than the black and red pair (see image 3). Alas, this was wrong. I managed to wreck two signals units before double-checking the instructions and found that I'd wired the AC power to the wrong wires and burnt out the circuitry. A costly mistake - as these signals are £30 each. Image four shows the happy ending - all four signals wiired up, operational and showing a green aspect.

Gents- many thanks for your comments - I've learnt quite a bit more about the area I spent a good deal of my childhood in! And interesting to see the latest images of the station site, I've not been back for a few years now. Ok, back to the modelling ..... Before ballasting the track, it seemed best to do a couple of other things first.. One was to paint the track with sleeper grime, which helps to "hide" the over-scale size of the rails as well as give a more realistic finish. Before spraying, a light film of electrolube oil was applied to the railhead to prevent the paint 'taking' to the railhead and interfering with electrical conductivity. Having sprayed the track (carefully masking off the cliff and the platforms beforehand) I then cleaned the paint off the railhead with a rag and white spirit, followed by a test run of a loco on all areas to ensure electrical contact was good throughout (see first and second images). The test highlighted a few patches where a re-clean was needed and odd spots where the paint had dried hard on and had to be removed with a good old-fashioned thumbnail. Second on the list is the platform edging. By default I prefer embossed plastikard for briick, but in this case clearances are tight. I failed to allow for the rodding on locos when cutting the ply platforms, using a coach to check clearances. Luckily I allowed anough extra tolerance such that all the locos in the current fleet don't appear to foul the platforms. So the platforms edges are being faced with 0.24mm brick card rather than embossed plastikard, which is approx 0.75mm thick. The platforms are made with what is nominally 9mm ply. With the accent on the "nominally" bit. Some years ago I measured up 9mm ply as supplied and found it varied between 8.5 and 9.5 mm. Well, that was some years back. The "9mm ply" here is a shade under 8mm thick. I found it necessary to cut strips of brick card 7.5mm wide to ensure they were not "proud" of the ply platform surface. (see third image).

Simon Assuming your layout is still 22 feet long, it would fit into the Basingstoke show's floor plan for our March 2022 show on the 12 & 13th, If interested, drop me a line on robsscore@aol.com and I can pop over a formal invite plus the usual paperwork Rob (On behlf of Basingstoke & N Hants MRS)

As mentioned last time, the first step in modelling the chalk cliff was to “stab” on a mix of talcum powder and Polyfilla(R) ising a one-inch paintbrush. That’s mainly Polyfilla with a little talc added in. Now I was told by a modeller in the 1980’s that to model a chalk cliff or cutting it should be plain white, as this is how chalk cliffs appear from the distance. The problem I have with this advice is that I reckon it only applies if you’re about 5 miles away from said cliff on a sunny day. In reality, only freshly broken chalk is white. Weathered chalk is a light grey. So, having stabbed on the powder mix and then painted it with white primer/undercoat, I then dry brushed on a dark grey enamel paint to produce a slightly mottled white/grey finish which I think looks better than plain white.

One of the issues highlighted by exhibiting in early September was noise from the turntable motor. The first photo illustrates a partial solution - a large chunk of expanded polystureme foam, carefully cut to be a push fit. The sound level is reduced, but not by a huge amount. A short length of powered track has also been installed to support the minitrix wheel cleaner. Clean wheels and track are important for smooth running, especially in a smaller gauge like N. See photo 2. Having completed the station building (though still in three parts), the next task was to do the chalk cliff. This is a messy job, so thought it best to do this first before fixing down the station building, ballasting, etc. Photo 3 illustrates the first step: using a mix of Polyfilla (R) and talcum powder, cover the plywood base using a stabbing motion with the brush. This produces a good textured finish. As it's applied to a plywood base, it doesn't look entirely white, so will be next painted with matt white primer/undercoat before applying some light weathering.

As many will know, Ramsgate Sands had its first public showing at the Basinstoke club's open day in early September. The layout generally ran well with few niggles. But it highlighted the need for a checklist (two items forgotten), one minor track repair and - if possible - some way to reduce the loud sound made by the Expo turntable motor. The first photo attached shows the latest addition to the rolling stock fleet, which arrived with help from fellow ex-Basingstoke Bodger Pete Thorpe. An ex-SECR N class plus a 3-coach birdcage set, both typical sights to be seen in Kent in the 1950's. Modellers vary as to how they wish to run a layout. I'm keen to run a timetable sequence that closely mirrors a typical day's operation. In this case, based on a 1950's steam era Sunday timetable. The second photo shows the cards used to run it, from the first arrival at 06:58 in the morning to the departure of a light engine at 11:25 pm. It also shows, on the right, s 'Set Up' card for the fiddle yard. During my volunteer days on the Swanage steam railway, I found out that they run two coaching sets, A and B. For their 2-train timetable the sets are allocated to specitic services. This inspired me to do likewise. In theory, this should help to minimise handling of stock once the fiddle yard is set up at the start of a day's exhibition. As I sorted out all this, it transpired that many of the coaching sets need to be 5 car, not six (the maximum length). So it has also saved me money, as I don't need to buy so many coaches as first thought.

Progress has been limited the last couple of weeks - a combination of the fine weather, easing of lockdown restrictions and spending up to 2 days a week playing trains and assembling an ex-BR brake van on the 12" to the foot model at Swanage. Turning to Ramsgate Sands, it's been roofing and more roofing. There are four hipped roofs to do; two are now fixed in place and a third is in progress. Image one shows the first roof complete and the orange pencil pointing to the first roofing piece fixed on for the second roof. You'll notice that there are three angles pieces of plasticard clearly visible, one to support each of the remaining three roofing pieces. The second image shows the other three shaped pieces ready tor fixing on, plus the chimney. This will be welded to the plasticard supporting pieces, which is why only the top section of this chimney has been painted, ready for application of "mortar" ( a mix of Polyfila and brown acrylic paint). The third image shows a full size roofing sheet - plus all the wastage from three hipped roofs. As you can see, it's a lot. Had these all been pitched roofs the wastage would have been a lot less. Roofing sheets can, of course, only be laid one way. You cant turn an off-cut round 180 degrees and use it somewhere else. So I was quite glad I had the foresight to buy two packs of Wills roofing sheets. They will be needed.

Attention turned this week to the toilet block at the London end of the station building. It has a flat roof with a brick built chimney for the stack pipe and two top light window frames. Pictured are the components for the chimney and protruding stack pipe - a short piece of 1.5mm diameter steel rod, plus the roof with a square hole cut for the chimney. Often with model buildings, only the visible part of the chimnet is modelled, and then stuck on top of the roof. However, this can make chimneys more vulnerable to accidents. So here I decided to build a complete stack in plasticard and weld it to at least one wall. Photo two illustrates this. Photo three shows the two top lights - these are folded brass kits, assembled, glazed and painted white. The two black pieces of black plastikard welded to the toilet roof provide a decent surface to glue the top lights to, as well as providing a black backing to the glazing as I'm not modelling the interiors. Photo four shows the toilet roof painted and in place. Next, the hipped roofs. I've done a fair bit of roofing in OO scale, but never any hipped roofs. So I thought it best to start with the lowest hipped roof as any errors wouldn't stand out too much! Photo five shows two parts of this roof welded down. Fitting the third piece - gripped by a crocodile clip in the photo- proved to be a minor challenge. A little too big and it sits proud of the other two pieces. Trim a bit off, and it promptly fell through the gap. The solution was to add two more angled roof supports - one each end - shown here after I'd welded them in. Photo six shows the roof welded in place. As you can tell, perfect it isn't. But some attention with "milliput" and a coat of paint will sort that out.

Progress has slowed a bit over the last two weeks. I've spent two days in the last fortnight "playing trains" on the big 12-inch to the foot railway at Swanage. Life is slowly returning to normal! The first image shows the completed platform facing wall on the 'Up' side of the station. Welded in place and painted up. Attention has now turned to the main building structure and the rear facing wall, which is just a shade over a foot long. Towards the top of the second image you can see the main building structure taking shape with angled shapes which will be supporting hipped roofs. Across the middle of the image was my first attempt at the rear wall in 40 thou black plastikard. It soon became obvious that I couldn't cut black plastikard accurately enough for such a complex shape. Towards the bottom of the image is the solution: A wide strip of 10 thou white welded to 30 thou black pastikard, then measured out on the white side and cut with the white side uppermost. The third image shows the next step - glueing shaped pieces of glazing onto the black (outwards facing) side of the back wall.. The fourth image shows the windows all glued in place (with clear contact adhesive) and a start made on the final layer, the embossed brick plastikard. For the curved arch cuts, I made use of the dividers showing in the image. I was pleased to find that despite the size of the dividers, I could cut a semi-circle of radius 4.5mm with little difficulty.

The past few days have seen more work on the back wall of the train shed, which is also the wall facing the platform on the 'Up' side of the station, where the main station buildings are. The first image shows the windows in place and part of the embossed brick card laid in. In real life, the windows in this wall were large. The N scale industrial windows pack were too small, so I hit upon the idea of using an 00 scale pack. Cutting off the lowest set of panes on each window gives exactly the right pattern and size to match the real thing. The next image shows the completed wall with all brickwork and windows in place, before any painting, etc, below the steel rule in the image. Above the steel rule is the ground floor of the station building, marked up to show where all the internal walls are positioned.