Firecracker

Steady on lads, you’re making me blush! Glad you like it! Anyway, here’s a few more bits. First up, a random whitemetal figure I’ve found in a bits box which I think will do nicely as a driver for the Ruston. So he needs repainting and the mould lines removing. A macaw H, from Hornby. Before anyone asks how that’s made it’s way to Cumbria, don’t forget the NYMR’s got one of these that survived as a crane runner at York carriageworks! So it’s been fitted with Kadees by the easy solution of gluing the tails of a pair of no 17’s to the existing coupler mount. Also a start’s been made on the chocolate brown deck, making it look more like weathered wood. Finally,the roof for the goods shed, foam core board with strip wood for representations of the roof trusses. Owain

Another one who’s still going, Scale Model Scenery. Superb communication, got an email when I placed the order explaining the delays (running with a staff of two due to social distancing requirements). Second email when the order was dispatched and the order turned up on time (so well done Royal Mail as well). Spot on. Owain

Playing devils advocate here, I’m modelling a ‘could have been’ preserved line (real location, but never reopened. Should you wish to, you can stand in that field gateway, look at where the bridge isn’t any more and if you wait long enough when the local mart is on, chances are one of Billy Armstrong’s cattle floats will drive past as well). So I decided that the pool of engines would include one or two of those that got away. So 76080 didn’t get scrapped at Barry in 1972 and instead entered preservation. Owain

Well, thank you very much! Weston’s book is pretty much my bible, there’s a link in this thread earlier to a superb collection of photos taken around the demolition of the line. Apart from the OS map and photos taken on a site visit that’s about all I have (this is why some of this is pure guesswork, like the office on the back of 5he goods shed, there’s several errors in the proportions of that, but I’ve not convinced myself where they all are yet), so if you find anything, please shout! When you start on yours let us know, always enjoy seeing someone else’s work. More power to your elbow! Owain

The boards have been temporarily reconnected, a brief ‘testing and development’ session was run to check the work where required. Here’s some photos. Owain

A bit more progress in the goods yard, this time on the goods shed itself. First up, false sliding doors were produced from scribed plasticard, for a bit of variety and as a small detail the rear door had a small secondary door for access to the store vans. The building was then given a coat of grey primer. Then airbrushed cement grey, to give the mortar colour in the stone work. The office roof was also airbrushed blue/grey at this point. The stonework then had various shades of Vallejo grey acrylics stippled on with a sponge, to get a variation in colours and leave the cement grey in the pointing. Corbels picked out with Vallejo sand, doors and runners painted painted humbrol 120. Sat in position, it’s sitting cockeyed due to siding rails fouling the doors. The roof is to follow and awaits wills slates to clad the foam core board base that’s been assembled. Owain

Painting the provendor store. First up, it’s given a coat of Tamiya grey primer. Once dry, the walls are given a base coat of Vallejo cement grey, followed by a light uneven dusting of their sand. The roof is dusted unevenly with a 50/50 mix of their anthracite grey and mid grey. Once that’s dry, it’s then attacked with mig washes. The panel joints in the walls are treated to a neutral wash, the roof dark wash. The lower horizontal wall joints also get a dark wash. Roof fastenings are picked out with tracks wash and rust streaks added with light rust. Doors are humbrol enamel, washed over with migs wood wash before the humbrol has fully gone off and distressed with a cotton wool bud. The loading dock is wood wash over primer, again attacked with a cotton wool bud. Owain

The provendor store. As I said above, it’s an interesting build. On top of that I’m also bashing two kits into 1 to make a ‘type C’. An internal styrene floor was fitted, also due to the doors fitting loosely the doorways were backed with more styrene to give something to glue the doors to. Roofing sections were cut to ensure the resultant three vents were centrally spaced. Legs added and the building is roughly located. More is to be added, it’s going to gain a corrugated tin extension over the siding not the goods shed, to give an undercover workshop area. Owain

The time has come to revisit the goods shed! So the gable ends have been finished off, gaining lintels and the runners for the sliding doors. On the north end, this structure has been added. At a guess an office, going by the chimney (not fitted yet). Dimensions are scaled off an OS map, it looks a little over long though, so I’ll file it as a work in progress. A start has also been made on the new provendor store, from two of the ratio kits. To keep everything square and solid, I’ve built it around a styrene floor, also the styrene bracing across the doorways. Politely described as an ‘interesting’ build. Finally, a bit more on the platform, a ramp has been fabricated and the front wall painted. Owain

Glad you like it! The road is more experimental hotch-potch, involving Payne’s grey acrylic, plasticote ‘stone’ textured spray paint, a bit of airbrushing, woodland scenics fine cinders for the edges. The whole mess has then been rubbed with a fibreglass brush where vehicle tyres would run, to create a slight difference in colour and texture. Just needs some road markings. The mud is various of the games workshop textured paints, which I’m very taken with indeed. For the track in the field it was simply applied with a tatty brush over the grass. Need to decide if that henhut’s staying there and if so grass in round it with a few bits of mud. As a brief update, some wildlife has been added (Langley) Also the spray booth in the garage (produced from various plywood offcuts and the back of a redundant wardrobe) has finally been commissioned. The mound of crap next to it had accumulated in it over the last year, so had to be evicted and tomorrow will be found a new home. Owain

A bit more progress on the bridge - the other side has now been blended in and a bit of light work done around the gateway. All the bridge needs now is some handrails, which are on order from Scale model scenery, along with a gate.. The trees seen earlier have been offered up, some might move around slightly but I’m happy with the majority. A few minor bits to go, but I’m happy with it. Owain

For the first scratchbuild ive done in 15 years, I’m happy. There’s odd bits I’m not 100% happy with, but that’s always the case when it’s your own work! I didn’t find any drawings so scaled off photos (and I’m still not 100% sure the proportions are quite right). On the other hand, I’m very taken with the acrylics for the stonework and roof, which bodes very well for the goods shed (which is now next on the hit list, once the road bridge is finished). The acrylics were chosen for their ease of airbrushing, with the size of the goods shed I didn’t fancy brush painting and the stone finish on the buildings needs to match. Hence the station was a test bed, on the grounds of its smaller and also being at the back of the board, so less scrutinised. The colour scheme is partially based on the building as it currently is (the rh end) and a neighbouring farm to the station where I spent a lot of my youth. Owain

I’ll second the no17 Kadee for the loco, however if (like me) you choose to keep the runner, the easy solution for the wagon is remove the entire coupling mounting and fit a no.5 Kadee. I’ve kept the bar between loco and runner. (I’m sticking with the runner temporarily due to the peco bullhead points and if, like me, you’re in the process of converting the frogs to switched polarity, you discover the Ruston wheelbase isn’t long enough to bridge the dead frog. So the runner is a stopgap. However, I did replace the conflat body with an open wagon body.) Owain

The road bridge has also been attacked as well. First up, a second cosmetic deck beam is required. One had already been built, the second is for the rear, so lacks cosmetic details that will be out of sight. Next, the cork on either side of the bridge is trimmed back. The beams are glued into place and the ballast restated. A couple of scraps of styrene strip give steps to the walkways. The abutments are gently attacked with the airbrush and a start made on blending them in with scenics (I’ve just noticed the static grass fibres stuck in the paint). Owain

And a bit more. First up, the repair seen above has been repeated for the shed line and the ballast replaced. Some trees have been made up from woodland scenics kits. First up the armatures are twisted and bent into a more 3D form. They’re then given a coat of grey primer and once that’s dry a coat of Mig’s wood wash. This is then blotted off with a cotton wool bud, to give an uneven mostly shades of grey finish. Foilage is then added, either clump foliage or the loose leaf on the smaller trees. Finally the station building has had its first coats of paint, a mixture of humbrol enamels and Vallejo acrylics. The roof has been given a wash of games workshops ‘Arthonian Camoshade’ over the Vallejo blue-grey, in an attempt to o replicate Westmorland green slate. The platform is other games workshop washes over the grey primer. Sited, showing the platform wall still needs priming. Owain

And a few little bits, overhauling some silver birch trees (think they’re RTP Bachmann) which had got a bit battered over the last few years they’ve been in storage. So straighten the branches and a bit of new foliage. Also a bit of Pway work - the track had lifted slightly due to a lack of glue under the cork. So cut an access in the cess, inject some glue under the cork and resecure with weights on top. Once that’s dried, repeat with the other line.. Owain

Now for something a little different. To prove the garage is used for stuff other than hiding the layout and all it’s trappings, here the little miller is fired up to modify some bits of ally channel for a mates ham radio lockdown project. Whilst all this this is going on, the board that’s normally in front of the miller has found its way onto the rollchest in the conservatory. It’s due a bit more work, mainly around the road bridge and sat here it’s at a far more comfy height to work. Meanwhile, there’s a bit of maintenance going on as well. The point motor on the yard entry point has a burned out coil, so that’s getting replaced. Also due to an interesting ‘ski jump’ feature, the track from this point to the edge of the board is being relaid. Just needs trimming, the feeds reattaching, paint and ballast. Finally, a two year old cockup in the crossover is being addressed. Due to the points being modified to get a true 6’ cess, several of the bonding links were cut through. This left a section of dead rail, which then missed getting a feed. So the red wire sticking up is to rectify that. Owain

A quick little job today - revisiting a pair of conflats weathered earlier. These were some of the first wagons I attacked when I restarted in this game, and I knew my technique had improved since then. I also wanted to remove the steel ballast weights, due to them playing havoc with the kadee magnets. So both were dissected and the weights removed. Replacement weight was added with lead shot secured with hot melt glue in the containers. The containers started to get breathed on (the worn lettering is the result of a Bob Ross-worthy ‘happy little accident’ removing some grey primer overspray it had picked up at some point. And finished. They look better and also now behave themselves when running over magnets. Owain

And a bit more. As mentioned earlier, there’s two static vans behind the goods shed that are used for storage, the platform to access these has been finished off, shown pre insertion And sited. The walkway on this is stripwood, given it’s pleasing finish with Mig’s ‘Wash for wood’ (the slight differences in shade are where traces of glue are present on the surface of the wood, so prevent the stain soaking in. Can’t say I’m displeased with the effect). Following this and as an experiment, some of the lineside fencing was treated with the same wash, with equally pleasing results (the fence posts are cocktail stick material, the gate stoop is stripwood. The wire is being left off because at scale in 1:76 it’ll be near invisible). Finaly, the layout population has increased. Owain

Further progress - the two vans have been weathered and entered service. A bit of shunting, with the class 15 collecting some pway wagons and the Ruston replacing them in the yard with a tree pruning and scrub bashing works train. The latest recruits to the footplate have been painted and weathered. A bit of electrical work, point motors for the north crossover and a replacement for one on the yard exit with a burned out coil have been wired up, along with a switch for the yard trap point for switching the frog polarity. I’m using the double micro switches on the mainline points for frog polarity and eventually interlocking points with signals. Owain

Thank you very much, glad you like it! I’m really pleased with the trackbed, this is the first layout where I’ve made a serious effort to weather the track and I’m capped with how it’s worked. The patience certainly comes in with the point rodding, it’s Wills with microstrip for the under track rods. I tend to build it up in prefab units on the bench and then add it to the layout, weathering it in situ. Owain

Things have moved on a bit further. The class 15 has been gently breathed on. Plans to renumber it are currently on hold, so it waits it’s next duty in the yard. It’s also been joined from the same source by a 56xx tank. I’ve always fancied one of these, so a visitor comes to the railway in the form of the Furness railway trusts 5643. Again, gently breathed on and fitted with a Zimo decoder. A start has been made on the transfers for the pallvan and the 12t van seen earlier. Fox transfers, settled down with microsol. Just the other side left to do (the lousy paintwork on the pallvan is mostly the result of the lighting). They will both be gently weathered as well. Finally, a start has also been made on the last of the point rodding. As part of this the signal box has shifted slightly. Some angle cranks are still awaited, the point locks and their covers are yet to be fitted. The stray flecks of ballast scattered around are from the clearing of the cess to give a level base for the rodding. Owain

More excellent service - Digitrains with two Zimo decoders and Upstairs Downstairs (a new supplier for me, all the way from the Isle of Wight) with some no.20 kadees. Excellent service from both! Owain

And a little bit more, the loco fleet has expanded again. A fellow furloughee is having a bit of a slim down of his collection and offered me a Heljan class 15. Now a) I like the early, less successful diesels and b) one survives. So money changed hands electronically and the postie delivered the goods today. First up, much to my amusement it took a lenz silver decoder, that must be at least 15 years old and hasn’t been fitted to anything else due to its size. With this installed and it running like silk, it’s had most of the hoses fitted (the missing ones would foul the couplings) and awaits remembering. Idea is it’s going like this, the last cl15 used at Liverpool Street as station pilot, with one addition, if I can find a transfer, it’s getting a Stratford sparrow next to the cab, as a tribute to another colleague who’s an ex Stratford driver. If any others of these stand a chance of surviving, I thought it would be a ‘pet’ loco like this. Here it is, on its first passenger working. Owain

A bit more weathering and the last of the coaching stock (for the moment) - the Pullman dining rake. These have been gently breathed on and like the railbus the weathering focussed on the roof and under frame. The chipper for the pway has been finished off, strapped down to that lowmac and lurks in the pway yard with its accompanying Rudd. A start has also been made on the back scene, with the modification of a shipping container to a low relief version. Finally, the shark brakevan has been revisited and beaten up a bit further. Owain