Philou

It's all looking good @br2975. Can't understand why they're not doing the OLE through Cardiff Central - can't be more complex than at Radyr AND the GWML electrification helped a bit Queen Street end by the huuuuuuuuuuuuge gantries that stretch over the SWML and the Valleys Line. Cheers, Philip

MY WRINKLY BOTTOM COVERED IN SNOW!! Hello chums and chumesses, As the headline suggests, the PVA had dried out overnight leaving a surprisingly hard crust on the 'styrene and out came the white paint and several hours later - ta daa: ^ Here we are - all the background 'styrene and the part to the right of Dymented, plus the bark have been 'blanked' out. The only casualty was a bit of the bridge retaining wall got a touch of white on it despite having a paint guard. I'll wait until the acrylics have been done on the rock face (just in case!) and a bit of colouring or a piece of printed engineering brickwork will mask it. As the crust of paper plus PVA is very firm, I'm going to cut out the plastering part - no point really as there's no infilling to be done and what has been now painted, will be covered in flock and other materials. Definitely motoring at the moment and I shall continue to do as much as possible over the next few days. Toodle pip, Philip

Ooer - my apologies to both @martin_wynne and @Wayne Kinney for getting BOTH your names wrong/back-to-front (blushes furiously) - nearly, but definitely NO cigar. Onto today which was yesterday's tomorrow. You've probably all heard of Crinkly Bottom? Well, here's Wrinkly Bottom: ^ Aaww c'mon Philou, you're mucking about. Well, as you can see I've dismantled the mainline (again!) and I've done some papering. I did one layer of kitchen roll wetted in situ with PVA yesterday and a second layer today criss-crossing the earlier one over most of the 'styrene. I said Wrinkly Bottom* as the kitchen roll has dried wrinkly, but I'm not bothered about that as flock and other scenic materials will hide it all. I haven't done the hillock between Dymented storage yard and the operating well as I'll probably need to lift it out, and also the storage yard, so I can start painting everything white once the PVA has fully dried. Once the white paint has dried then it'll be a case of getting the acrylics out and colouring the rock face. When done, I shall do all the back scene of Dymented in various flocks - just hope I've enough to make a decent start! Following all of that THEN I shall lay the branchline in the cutting and ballast it. Once I'm happy with that, then the mainline can go back in place with the skew bridge and the track laid and ballasted there as well. I shall then move into the station area itself. I can't get too ahead of myself as I'll need to acquire some point motors in due course and have the holes cut for those as well before any permanent fixing and ballasting - so much to remember and in the right order!! It's all going well at the moment - just hope not too well ................. *Wrinkly Bottom - I like that as a name. Should I change Dymented to that? Cheers everyone and probably more tomorrow, Philip

@lezz01 Ooh! You seem to have boxes of useful bits and bobs! I've never used SMP though I've heard a lot about it. I could make use of it as I said in the yards, but there is a section of track through Ledbury station where the Up is flatbottomed and the Down bullhead and still is today). Now that would really be 'as is'. My brother is due over at the end of the month (he of Lord and Butler of Cardiff). Now, if it was sent to him, he could bring it with him together with some other bits that I've pre-ordered. I'll clear it with him and get back to you on that - thank you. I'll have an EM template copy please - one question though - is it GWR? I ask because the Big Four didn't do things quite the same. I'm still not going to say what it was I did today until tomorrow - but the skew bridge is now 'finished' regarding cranks and angles and I await the transfers before painting and glueing - so a few days wait to completion - just as well when I reveal all tomorrow (and no, it wasn't track laying) ;)). Cheers, Philip

@lezz01 I hope you won't think too badly of me, but it's RTP (ready to plonk) track - flat bottomed Code 75 from Peco. Bullhead would have been good for the goods yards at Pontrilas and Ledbury, unfortunately that boat sailed ages ago as I'd bought all my rail before the bullhead was announced. I've got about 150yds of track and 68 points to lay and whilst hand built pointwork would have been most excellent, I feel time isn't on my side and I would become quickly frustrated if I didn't construct the first point perfectly. I've been looking at the Templot programme together with the British Finetrax pointwork (from the two Wynnes), but I'd have to redo all my drawing for the pointwork and there'd be a learning curve for both. However, I have seen how to 'flex' Peco pointwork to achieve better flow through junctions AND I did see somewhere (perhaps on RMWeb - though I can't remember clearly) drawings showing proper sleeper spacing when doing 60 foot panels. I could be tempted by that to make the trackwork less 'samey'. A sharp craft knife and a simple jig would sort that out. No photo today, but I have been extremely occupied - I'll tell you all tomorrow ;))). Cheers, Philip

Hello chums and chumesses, What a constrast between two days! Despite the cold I cracked on and I really got to grips with the 'styrene and save some tidying up (tiny infills and the like), the area around Dymented is done. I even got the plywood base and track bed back in place and so we have some photos especially for @Barclay - yay! I also managed to do a panorama but as it looks odd, I've also taken some 'normal' ones - here goes: ^ Here you have it in its full glory. From the extreme left we have Ledbury viaduct with the Rule 1 branch behind, that arrives at Dymented via an underbridge (middle left). This is where the skew bridge will go when completed. Above, on the viaduct, is the main through line (Ledbury to Pontrilas). The left hand part of the viaduct remains to be decorated. The green area in front of it is a small holding area for branch line stock. The central area is Dymented station - I have prepared the cut-outs ready for the platforms and a small goods platform in the front. Despite the rather short look, the station platform is over 1.4m in length overall. Towards the front edge will be an industrial building - what exactly, I haven't yet decided - but it won't be dairy. Either a mineral bottling plant (shades of Colwall and the Malvern Spring Water plant) or some form of industrial use requiring chemicals originating from the Chemical Works at Pontrilas. The headshunt to serve both the works and the goods shed will form part of the storage area. To the right of the station area is another headshunt with perhaps a coal depot at its far end. In between this and the mainline beyond, is the branchline rising up to meet the mainline on the right (out of picture). The retaining walls need cutting out and finishing along the main and branch line. On the far right, you can see the rising hill with the roadbridge acting as a visual break between Dymented and Pontrilas. Below are the 'normal' pictures in the same left to right order: Much remains to be done in terms of landscaping, but I can reach the far side using a hop-up so it shouldn't be too much of a task. I must confess having seen the track-bed in place, I was very tempted to say 'Buggrit' and start laying some track! I will be patient and do the dirty stuff first and then have a nice clean area upon which to commence track-laying. All in all, a very fruitful day. Cheers, Philip

I would send Rails an e-mail with your old Hattons order number, if you had one, and include the stock details. I did one in early February to them and got confirmation that the order was set up within a day or so (wasn't for coaches). Cheers, Philip

Hello chaps and chapesses, I was right about not a lot getting done today - bit of a washout, especially as it's cold and wet and it wasn't at all inviting in the barn. I managed to get a bit of 'styrene in place before it was time for the 'air cut. I have done the yard area on the Pontrilas side of Dymented. Tomorrow I have a whole day of modelling ahead and the intention is to do some trimming of the ply that I had done towards the storage sidings (Ledbury direction) and have the 'styrene glued and trimmed there as well. If it all goes well, I may get to finish the whole of the Dymented area. I'll then take a photo of the working area as soon as the track-bed is in place. Definitely more tomorrow, Cheers, Philip

Hello chums and chumesses, Good progress was made regarding the 'styrene. I am all the way back to Dymented and all shaped and glued. A smidge to be completed tomorrow morning in the station yard area and the trackbed can be made good - perhaps @Barclay won't have to wait too long for his photo! I've also done the last 12 cranks on the skew bridge and just waiting for them to set fully before trimming and sanding back. Rivets are ordered and should be on their way soon. Tomorrow has become a 'Oi! Get yer 'air cut!' day so modelling time will be restricted in the afternoon, but I am hoping to get the baulks cut to size and start glueing the chairs in place in the next day or so. Bridge decorating will go hand-in-hand with the aforementioned. Quite chuffed really and despite the cold I got more done than anticipated. More tomorrow, Cheers, Philip

Thanks chaps for all the information. A question: Is it intended that the OLE will pass through Taff's Well station? It's looking .... well .... a bit bare in that department. Cheers, Philip

No problem - I'll do one for you in a few days once the track-beds are back in place. I did more cranks on the skew bridge and I only have 12 left to do - huzzah! Surprising how quickly the other 154 were done. I'd better order some rivet transfers from RailTec asap! Tomorrow, more 'styrene and then start decorating the road bridge and finish the last 12 cranks - too cold and wet to do anything else at the mo'. Cheers, Philip

Hello @Barclay. Oo-er - now you're getting technical :). Do you want a £5 shot or a £10 one? Would you like a shot of just the section I'm working on at the moment or the whole thing (not much to see in the latter case). With my small camera I can do a series of overlapping pictures but I haven't any software to create a single picture. I know with the 'phone it can do a panoramic picture, but it might be rather big in terms of Mb and it would be just my luck that it would be too big to post here (unless I join the Gold Club). I'll give it a go, but you'll have to wait a few days as I've just undone the track-bed so that I can do some fiddling to give the 'styrene some support and to do the faffy bits between the branch and mainlines - looks as if a Scud has landed on the layout! Today it went very cold and it wasn't very inviting to be out in the barn, but as mentioned above I managed to do some support work to the 'styrene so that's ready to complete the Dymented area when I get back out there. As I've undone the track-bed, it also means that I can decorate the bridge abutments in the house of an evening. For the rest of this afternoon, I shall do more on the skew bridge as I have the angle in stock. More updates tomorrow, Philip

Hello chaps and chapesses, No photos as it was a bitsa day - mostly bitsa 'styrene to make up the road embankment on the operating well side. I also did a bit of the headshunt/coal merchant yard at Dymented as I needed a base from which to start the embankment, so I'm definitely on the way back to Dymented. Tomorrow I'll be doing the in-between mainline/branchline embankment under the road bridge - more bitsas! Cheers, Philip

Hello @The Bandit, I DO have some no nails and it's been alongside me all the time that I've been doing the scenery - it may even be in some of the latest photos! D'oh! Well chums and chumesses, I have some more photos today as I seemed to motor along, so I kept going. Ta daa: ^ One hillside completed in 'styrene. Even though I had a hop-up, I found it a struggle to get into the furthest corner as it's over a 1m stretch - but it's done. The interesting part will be doing the scatter and hedge/tree planting. (The tins are there to ensure the 'styrene is weighted while drying.) It means that I have now 'styrened over 3/4 of the Dymented end (back drop only). I may well work my way back towards Dymented and finish off the embankments alongside the branch and in the station area, and that section will be done. Bandaging, plastering, and painting with scatter on top to follow. Could there be a bit of track laid soon after? I do hope so! Cheers, more tomorrow, Philip

I have a couple of pictures for you - ooh, pardon my manners - hello chaps and chapesses, Today wasn't as fruitful as I hoped as visitors arrived and my modelling was cut a little short, but nonetheless I did get the road approaches done which means the bridge skeleton is done. All I have to do is to decorate it. I shall do that presently as I have another retaining wall to complete as well and I shall do them all together - saves getting the colouring crayons out more than once. Right, pictures: ^ There we go - road starts here, up and over the branchline and immediately over the mainline. ^ The road continues then over the hill and beyond. I did think of doing a bit of forced perspective by tapering the road with as it approached the far edge. I chickened out as I've never done such a visual trick before and I didn't want to muck it up. The road was hard enough cutting to shape as it was! You can see what is left to be done regarding the 'styrene - not really an awful lot just needs time to trim before glueing. ^ ........... and yes, I did think to check clearances too! Motoring at the moment and I shall then do some 'styrene tomorrow and then decorate the bridge and retaining walls over the following few days and the weather is turning chilly again and I shall stay indoors. Cheers everyone, Philip

Not a lot happened today so no photos. Real life got in the way again as the weather was warm and sunny this morning, I thought I ought to coup de grace again as it's likely to rain next week. Mrs Philou wasn't best pleased because I'd taken the hopper off the back of the mower (otherwise it clogs or I've to empty it ever other cut and I CBA) and I ended up covered in green mulch ..... tee hee :)) I did get the other abutment in place after a struggle this afternoon and I did a teeny bit more of infilling with the 'styrene to link the one side of the bridge back into the cutting. If I can get the road base cut out of some ply tomorrow, I can get the big cutting finished, so perhaps a photo as well. Toodle pip and enjoy the weekend, Philip

Enough of this doom and despondency! I did something a little different today. I found out how a vacuum cleaner works and got rid of most of the 'snow' that had accumulated in the railway room ;) . I also did some repairs to the cutting AND started the road over-bridge. Two of the four abutments are cut and in place and tomorrow first thing, the other two will be cut'n'stuck in place. I have some pictures - all WiP: ^ Here is the over-bridge crossing both the four-track main-line and the branch. It's set at a grade of 1:10 and will be a plate girder bridge over the main and single brick arch over the branch. The road will wind its way towards the dip in the background. ^ This is the view from the other side. You can see the where I - er - over-cut the 'styrene. It's only a tiny gap in reality and a bit of sticking plaster will have that sorted. I'll continue raising the ground tomorrow once I have the alignment of the the bridge and the road approach sorted. More tomorrow, Cheers, Philip

@Flying Fox 34F Hi Paul, Yeah, you're right. It will dry eventually but it takes up to 48hrs and I didn't exercise enough patience! Works better if at least one surface is absorbant. I shall either do some more landscaping elsewhere or do the bridge retaining walls - it all needs doing. Good news for yesterday which offset the 'styrene problems was that I now have the angle in my grubby little hands, so I can finish my skew bridge too. Cheers, Philip

Hello chums and chumesses, Today was a learning day. I learnt that PVA does not dry within 24hours when sandwiched between sheets of polystyrene and that polystyrene is jolly hard to trim with any kind of toothed tool! It all started when having cut my bridge abutments in ply, I decided I would chamfer the 'styrene to start landforming and the cutting through which runs the main line. A Japanese saw was to hand and for doing the 'original' landform (top of cutting and beyond) in nice shallow cuts, it was fine. Then asking it to cut at 45° (I know it should be 1:1.5 and not 1:1 - but y'know compression and all that) was a step too much. Out came a panel saw - nope - followed by a very coarse toothed plasterboard keyhole saw. That did the trick but cutting at an angle towards oneself at arm's length didn't give the angle I wanted and it was at that moment I discovered the PVA problem! I do have some repairing to do :(( . In the end I used my hot knife literally shaving layers off. It ended up being faster than sawing! Any final shaping will done with the saw and top coating with PVA soaked kitchen towels and plaster. Lesson learnt. I shall pre-shape the edges with my hot knife as I build up the layers. As @Re6/6 said above: Every day is a school day! More tomorrow and if there's something to show, I'll post up a picture :) . Cheers, Philip

Hello chaps and chapesses, A bit of a bizarre day today. It started well enough by being up earlier than usual and out into the barn asap. It was quite cold but I managed to construct about half the hill (in the last photo of yesterday) before lunch. I decided that after lunch I would start the abutments and the deck for the road-overbridge and I just hit the buffers. I couldn't gather my thoughts and just managed to cut the road deck and mark out the abutment to the one side. I think it's the new blood pressure medication that the heart specialist gave me - replaces all my previous medication, but apparently it'll take up to 15 days before the full effects start - goodness knows what they'll be if I feel crappy now :( . We'll wait and see. Tomorrow I must crack on! At least there was some progress so it wasn't all doom and gloom :) . More tomorrow, Philip

Hello chums and chumesses, The angle has finally arrived - not at home - but at a collection point nearby. It'll get picked up sometime. Snow hit the railway room as I did some more landscaping this afternoon cutting more polystyrene. Another three hours flew by, though I felt I hadn't done as much as yesterday. I said I'd do some photos today, so here they are: ^ Here we have the end of Dymented station with the mainline above. The retaining wall just in picture upper side left is to be extended as far as the end of the piece of track and the land battered back thereafter. Going around the curve there is to be a low retaining wall with the land battered back above until it meets the upper surface. ^ Here is the cutting leading out of Pontrilas in the Hereford direction (under construction, natch). The land is simply battered back here. I do have an overbridge to thread through from the inside corner towards the dip above the tin on the left. I'll need to get the bridge in place tomorrow so that I can adapt the landform. The tins, by the way, are there to weigh down the polystyrene whilst the PVA sets, and more layers will be done once the roadbridge is in place. Here, as with the other areas where there will be a lot of raised land, I'm trying out a hollowed hill construction, by building a 'crust' of 'styrene rather than having a solid mass. Polystyrene is no longer cheap! The next step before leaving the area will be to carve the 'stryrene to shape. This I shall do the old fashioned way using a bread knife (no Sureform unfortunately) as there's too much for the hotknife. There we have it - under way again! Cheers everyone, Philip

Hello chums and chumesses, The angle STILL haven't arrived - they're arriving by Mondial Relay (not my choice). I shan't be recommending them to anyone as they should have been here on Wednesday or Thursday last week. I felt a bit down as it seemed the project had stopped - so I had a sharp talking to myself and decided to go into the railway room and do some proper modelling and restarted the landscaping and I got another metre of polystyrene cut and shaped in the background. I was enjoying myself so much I didn't see the time go by and I was at it for three hours - at least I have something to show you tomorrow when I take a picture. Cheers everyone and more tomorrow, Philip

Hello chaps and chapesses, Not a lot happened either yesterday or today unfortunately. Yesterday was a visit to the much bigger town (not big town) for an appointment with a cardiologist - just an MOT. Talk about stress! At nearly every junction was a HGV pulling out of a side turn and going in our direction and even though we left with a bit of a time margin that was being quickly eroded away. When we finally got to the heart clinic and parked up, we were told 'Oh, it's no longer here it's moved up the hill.' It wasn't far but the hill was steep and my pressure went up quite a bit by the time I got there. As we arrived spot-on the appointed time, there wasn't any time to sit down and calm down! Long story short - he doesn't want to see me for 4 - 5 years. It wasn't all lost as I did find some spray matt varnish for my card models whilst in town and I also picked up some square LED ceiling lights to complement what I'd already put in place. Did them this afternoon so no more dangling wires or dark corners in the railway room. Annoyingly, my angle still hasn't arrived as I could have finished the girders as well. I haven't assembled the baulks as yet as I can't find some nice hard-drawn brass wire which I bought eons ago that would now be useful to make the transoms between the baulks. I did however find some small tools that I'd mislaid AND some 2mm brass tube in a rather large crate. The finer wire must in there as well so I'll have that tipped out tomorrow and reorganise the contents (for the umpteenth time!). Failing that, I'll consider using some 1mm² copper wire (got loads of it) that I can strip down. I shall amuse myself trying to straighten it! No modelling tomorrow as we're off out to lunch - again! Enjoy the weekend, Philip

Ta-raaaaa! Hello chums and chumesses, I'm back! Not a lot happened over the Easter weekend due to to visitors, especially Mrs Philou's youngest granddaughter who kept us on our toes. I did do bits here and there and more today until I ran out of angle. There is more on the way and should have been here today, but it hasn't arrived yet. For the last wo days, I've been with M. le Maire cutting trees that had fallen into the highway due to some very heavy rain we had recently (it's a road restricted to frontagers but no legislation enforcing it and as it's within our commune, the mayor is responsible for its maintenance). Oooh, and I have some pictures: ^ Here's a general view of the bridge dry-assembled. I've had to fudge the right-hand to get it all to fit in-situ. Fortunately it's on the non-viewing side and shan't be seen. I'll know it's there and so will you (but stay schtum). Otherwise I'm happy with it. You can see the cranks that I did on the left-hand side as they're waiting to be cut when absolutely gone-off. The left-hand side is now complete. The centre girder needs about half of its cranks to be made up and that too will be finished. The right-hand side needs just 14 cranks on the inside face and that will be that. I did the upper inside face of it today too and that's awaiting trimming. I have a total of 46 cranks to complete and at the speed I'm now doing them, they'll be done in a couple of hours. ^ Just views of the nearly-completed article (ignore the background!). You can see the over-long cranks and once trimmed, they'll all be lightly sanded back to the edge of their respective webs (all three girders need doing). What next? I'm now taking measurements and doing sketches for the fitting of the baulks on the decks. I think I have it cracked (at least in my head). As I'm now going to have the baulks on a straight line, I think I can fix the one set of chairs (plus rail) on the one baulk and the repeat for the the other three. When dry, I can then fix one baulk on each deck and using a gauge the second one can be set at a distance parallel to give 16.5mm between the rails. Is this a plan or have I missed something? Cheers everyone - another weekend is just around the corner! Philip

Hello chaps and chapesses, No photo - boo, hiss. All you would see is a sea of white plastic with various bits of angle sticking out from it. Both the longest and shortest girders are complete along the one side, including the cranks. Both have had their ribs attached on the other sides and await their cranks. The centre beam is all ribbed up and one set of cranks done - there are 8 sets of cranks altogether (4 per rib). I can do up to 12 cranks an hour but I have to stop to rest my eyes and stop breathing the MEK vapours (not that there is much smell - but you never know). Only another 166 cranks do - I'm getting there! The rest of today is a no-go due to real life and visitors having arrived and I shan't get to restart until Monday at the earliest. Have a good Easter break and speak soon, Philip