JimRhodo

Cars more than trains but it’s quite short compared with some of my previous.

Crossing the Border It’s 1937, Scotland, between the wars. Scotland is seceding from Great Britain and will be known as the Republic of Alba. With world war imminent, Unionists are trying to slow or stop separation. The Stone of Scone has become more than a symbol and is now the sign of Scottish rule. Unionists steal it as it makes its way to Edinburgh. When a Scottish general intercepts them they make a deal that the winner of a contest will take the stone. General Lamorale is set to win but a Unionist sabotages his car. The Unionists win but only by theft and cheating. The moral victory is Alba’s. This does not reflect my politics by the way. The music is Egmont by Beethoven. Egmont aka General Lamoral was a Dutch Lord when Spain ruled Holland in the 16th century. He was loyal to Spain but protested against introducing the Inquisition to Dutch religion when anti Spanish iconoclasm developed. He believed the justice of his cause would prevail but he was killed by the authorities. His noble death inspired in part the eighty years war against Spanish rule. Ironically Alba is the duke who the King of Spain sent to quell the Dutch Revolt.

Cheers. I’ve been looking over the layout and it is a bit raw and bare.

Just messing about.

That’s the end of the series. Now just to finish fences, puddles, clear up and decide what to do with the hill left of the chapel hill. Maybe get some ducks for the pond and farm animals or domestic bits. My mum thinks it’s all a bit masculine and needs some softening.

$75? No. Not with caramel. Thanks for the link. I like to keep up to date with the latest madness. Now for something completely different.

Just a short film.

Here’s the latest. An end is getting in sight.

Frustration. Ive more or less got the Flying Scotsman running okay but the wee Highland Rambler is chugging along in fits and starts. Clockwise it comes off the track by the points at full speed with wagons and anticlockwise the engine is a bit intermittent and unreliable. Do you think it’s just glue ballast and hairspray? I’ve been cleaning the track forever.

Footbridge. I went for the brown. Darker than intended but I’m really pleased with the steps. I was wondering how on Earth to do steps but in the end balsa wood and superglue did it. Not up to the fantastic craftsmanship I’ve seen on forum but a lot better than I hoped for. Did some scatter grass. Looks like bog grass in places and waiting for later attempts to dry.

The building continues to evolve. The border post cabin is now a coffee kiosk and the single span footbridge is now two separate bridges. The red waiting room stroke shack is beginning to grate so I looked up 1930s LNER livery. Brown footbridge? Not too sure. Cream and green buildings: wife liked it I’ve had great fun with some 1930 cars.: see below for racing Bentley and Austin Seven.

Part three is taking a while. Here’s an interim update. I’ve given up on the quarry. Started a farm. Built a castle ruin. Started a pond which at the moment is just a flooded gravel pit.

I’ve committed myself to the island and the white polystyrene is glued to the base. Video out in the next few days. I’ve started carving a path up to the chapel and I’m happy with the scale of the chapel but I had a go at building a farmhouse. It’s 170mm wide and 90mm high. Does it seem a bit big? I was looking at Hornby buildings and the terrace is ionly 40mm wide.

Part two is ready. Now I’m planning to build a second hill. Loosely based on St Ives in Cornwall. The chapel is St Nicholas on the Island. The waiting room is based on a few photos of 1930 she’d buildings. It’s only garishly coloured as the layout looked so grey (granite). k

I’m now making the hill with the tunnel. The backdrop is okay (3mm hardboard for lightness with some stripwood to reinforce it). A bit warped but useable. The hill will be insulating foam (50mm) with the foil pulled off. Question. What should I use to glue the layers together? Some say gorilla glue, pva, pva plus superglue, hot glue and not solvent based glues. What do you think?

Just in case you needed/ wanted a summary of what I’ve done so far :

I gave it a tentative bend with a screwdriver and it all seems to be working again. Fingers crossed.

I considered that but it’s definitely the coupling/ pivot in the last picture. Several highly magnified slow motion videos located it. I just don’t want to irreparably damage it.

New problem. Ive got a siding point which makes the train jump off when it goes on to the siding. Off the siding is okay. I’ve cleaned it and done slow motion studies of it but can’t see what’s wrong. It’s the pivot of the point where the jump happens. It’s a tiny bump but it’s enough to derail. Is is there anything I can do apart from try and bend it with a pair of pliers?

I may be overdoing the glue. I got it about right and then added more. I just want to get on but don’t really know what I’m doing. The trains can run slowly so there’s no major grit. I’m polishing the track with a wooden cocktail stick and a block of wood I’ve cut two grooves in to match the rails. The inner track is still seriously wet so I’ve not run a train on it at any speed. Next job probably the hinged backdrop. This is a rough idea. I’ll draw a grid and then put some iconic Scottish hills on.

Thanks. I look with envy at the ease with which I see paint brushes tamping and sweeping the ballast while I scrape and thumb rocks about. I’ve done most of the tracks now and read a useful article about using wood to polish the tracks. I nearly got going with sandpaper which I understand is a no no. Question. How long does 50 50 pva take to dry, days?

Well the little independent train for the quarry is up and running and the tracks are pinned. I’m now filling up with ballast. I’m using Javis fine ballast chips. Online ballast seems quite a bit finer. Almost dustlike. They are proving rather labour intensive and that is just the inside of the track. Should i I be using finer still? Now I’ve taken a photo it looks better but what do you think?

I’m thinking of a small highland train working between a quarry and a station contrasted with the Scotsman which just flies by. It would be near a tunnel which is the border between England and Scotland. The only issue at the moment is that a wagon would probably be shunted onto the mainline rather than empty it’s contents from one wagon to another. Unless there was a stone storage facility. Or a crane as the wagon would belong to the quarry The 1cm lip is nearly in place and I’ve filled most of the holes with fine polyfilla. I don’t have many clamps so I have to do one bead at a time. The tunnel i plan to be removable. Will foam support its own weight or should the base be reinforced with hardboard do you think? I also have an idea of Scotland exiting Great Britain in the 1930s but that’s mainly because I have scale soldiers from ww1. French and British. Waving (platform) flags Riding bicycles Running (for trains) Digging holes Laying cable Sitting down (having missed the train) I have to account for all the rifles.

I’m thinking of getting a Highland Rambler starter set to run inside and separately from the Flying Scotsman. Can I just get 8 x double second radius curves. with the track provided in the starter set so that it will run parallel?