Phil Traxson

These pictures from the Mid Hants railway last year were taken particularly to illustrate just how uneven real sheet metal on loco's really is. Those rivets along the tank sides aren't exactly in line either!

I've not been on RMweb for some considerable time, so found it quite interesting that you and I are going down similar paths. In more ways than one too, subject matter and motive power and mine is also almost an Inglenook ,by default rather than design. Mine is 7mm , a dairy, but is 0-16.5 and one of the loco's is a modified dock shunter. So, a photo for you to mull over. Clicking on it should take you to my Flickr site and click on the Album "The Creamery" if you're interested.

Progress still being made,slowly! A new longer fiddle stick/yard has been produced for the left hand end. As this end has two exit lines which differ in height by 10 mm the fiddle is longer than I would really like as the rear road has to have a down grade to the sector plate. If I had used points it would have made it longer than the layout! It was exhibition tested at the Trent Valley 7mm narrow gauge "do" in Mickleover and certainly added to operating interest. Excuse the poor start and end to the video, operating and picture taking really needs 3 hands!!

Just as on almost every motor cycle!!?

Wales Porthmadog "Spooners Bar on" the Festiniog station. Ales but not the large range they used to have. reasonable food too "The Australia" Couple of hundred yards over the river from Spooners. Brewey tap for Purple Moose brewery does food too. "The Station" Entrance on Porthmadog standard gauge station, opposite end of town to the other two In all of these expect to hear Welsh being spoken, you're in Wales, the folks are Welsh and it really is their natural language in this area, they're not doing it to be arkward!!

I achieved this effect by using "Slaters" dressed stone walling embossed plastic sheet as the ground surface for my quayside layout. It has the similar size variation and almost flush infill. How successful this has been I will leave viewers to judge. This is 7mm/1 ft narrow gauge.(0-16.5). I seem to think (looking back about 15 years) that the walling is for 4 mm scale walls so maybe use 2 m scale for 4mm setts.

That combo would probably put you below the tens at the strip.

Try looking for "N" gauge wagon chassis.

Mmm ! According to the findings with Genclene I should be long gone by now but i'm approaching the 3/4 of a century mark.. I used to install and vulcanize the joints on conveyor belts in a foundry for some 5 or 6 years out of 13 years in the foundry. Worked in an atmosphere full of pulverized coal dust (used in the foundry casting sand) and cleaned the joints in the belts before vulcanizing them with Genclene sloshed on with rags out of a gallon can of the stuff. The can was filled from a tap in a 45 gallon drum. Found it very handy for assembling plastic kits too. Then again I seem to have defied all of the rules, my working life in maintenance consisted of working in a provender mill (flour dust), a rubber works(french chalk dust), the foundry as above and a concrete works( lime stone and cement dust). Hobby is resin casting and building models using superglue and plastic solvents. I must be one of the luckiest blokes around as lung function tests have found no problems at all. Oh and I also fired steam loco's on the Festiniog Railway burning waste oil of unknown provenance for 20 years. Thankfully for following generations most of these activities have been firmly taken control of by Health and Safety and COSHH rules now. I seemed to have run just in front of H & S and their mostly sensible bans all my working life.

Mol, off topic a little. I don't suppose you have any info on the rather tired and battered vessel in the foreground of this shot? It just appears interesting, basic, and small enough to be built in 7mm scale as a waterline model and I have two wharf side layouts (1 canal and 1 dockside) and no vessels! TIA Phil T.

The beauty of coke is that it doesn't produce clinker, one of the reasons most blacksmiths used it in their forges. I used to see my Dad fetching coke for his forge in a large two wheel barrow, large because coke is light but bulky, it was light enough that he could tow it with his push bike.. I do remember him saying that the gasworks at Burton almost gave it away as they made so much of it that it was almost a nuisance by product, his boss was very keen on that idea. (How come I can remember details like this from 60 years ago ,yet I can't tell you what I had for dinner yesterday?) Phil T.

Another plus point of using Gibson wheels is that if you order direct from them you can specify 26mm axle length, which is pretty much the standard 00 axle, or shorter 24.5mm equivalent to the old Lima axle length. Phil T.

Definitely agree there Andy. By way of experiment whilst trying to find a Halfords rattle can colour to match fairly well with Festiniog Railway Purple Brown I cut pieces of plastic about 40mm square. Painted each with a different colour primer. Grey, red oxide, white, yellow and left one plain black, then glued them onto a board so they all got the same treatment and sprayed them with the chosen colour, two coats with a couple of hours gap between coats. Result was 5 visibly different shades, to me that was point proven, and it enabled me to use the right primer to get the colour I wanted. Of course this was only to my eyes, someone else may have seen it differently. Phil T.

Just out of interest. When I was living in Derby and a volunteer on the Festiniog railway, at a time when the FR were painting their coaches maroon, I picked up paint from Masons for them (saved delivery charges) and the old chap behind the trade counter volunteered the info that this also was the same pigment /colour mix that had been used from year dot for Midland/LMS/BR maroon. Only his word for it, but he had been there all his working life and not just as a storeman. Also picked up paint for Blanche on the 1990/93 (RicketRescue) rebuild, reckon it had to be the right green as by coincidence it's Masons code was the same as Blanche's Hunslet build number!!

A comment that maybe only you will understand Mol. Was the driver a relative of Seamus Rogers!!

Out on my trike yesterday, Suzuki 1500 powered, stopped for petrol. Pressed the start button, nothing, know that it is one of 3 things in starter circuit as it doesn't dim the lights when the button is pushed. Started with push ok, booked for fixing after Christmas but what I would have given for a kickstart option!!

A dragon in the sky over North Wales. Sunset from a bedroom window in LLanwnda, near Caernarfon,last January.

Just a quick observation on Halfords grey primer. I have used it a lot on my models, often as the finished colour, and have noticed that the shade can vary from can to can. I thought at first it was down to poor shaking on my part but that does not seem to be the case as it was from can to can rather than one use to the next. Not massive differences but enough to notice. With weathering lightly afterwards my opinion is that this is an asset rather than a problem, giving subtle differences to the cleanliness or otherwise of the vehicle. Phil T.

S'funny, both my Lloyds cards are Visa.

Late afternoon sun over the Lleyn Peninsular in November from the sea front at Criccieth looking in the direction of Abersoch. Now why did I move to North Wales!?

Following on from my earlier pictures of Abersoch. It's now Autumn and all the tourists (and their boats) have left. The spring tides, as in tide cycle not season, means the greatest tide difference and so exposes vast beaches with just a couple of local boats left sitting on the sand.

I travelled no distance at all for these, the ever changing (weather) view from my lounge window in Porthmadog. And occasionally it rains! Or, but not very often, it freezes. I can see the Pub from here!

A venture towards mid Wales, Lake Vyrnwy this time on the really narrow lanes machine! And it's dam, no featureless concrete wall here.

The two beaches in Criccieth, the castle in the first one is directly behind me in the second one. Both pictures face the same direction. Same viewpoint as picture 1 but looking across the bay to the castle at Harlech , top right white building on the end of the far (white) shoreline. Wonderful weather for October, the following day it was invisible due to the sort of rain that only North Wales can do! And one looking in the other direction towards Abersoch 20 miles away. And my transport on these trips

Just a small point but, quaysides tend to be straight it makes it easier to tie up the straight sided ships/boats without dangerous gaps between the said boats and the quayside! Phil T.