nebnoswal

Have been fortunate enough to have 1/3 of the Ixion management staying with me this evening, on the way to the Sandown Model train show here in Oz. Luckily he had some Manors with him, both the polite ones and 4-6-0 variants. I was given the opportunity to put a Manor through its paces on my Sturminster layout. This Manor is the third EP (Engineering Prototype), rather than an actual production-run Manor Let me first start by saying that I'm most impressed, and my loyalty has a strong Stanier bias. It is very well moulded and hardly a seam to be found, the rivet detail is excellent. I was shown one of the rejected bodies due to the rivets being too big, but I could hardly notice, the rivets on the final approved body were very fine. The water scoop on the tender stood out to me as something unique, can't remember seeing one on an N gauge model before. The add-on details are endless, but I was most impressed with the etched fire irons. We carried out a load test, a proper one since it hadn't been done before. The Manor was running around a 5m oval, consisting of both Peco Code 55 + 80 track with 15 inch curves; one which has a 1 in 75 incline, the other with a reverse 12 in curve leading into it. It successfully passed though code 55 long radius points and double-slips. In the whole 1 hour of running it only derailed once, whilst entering a medium radius code 80 insulfrog point. The super creep, 50-1 motor, really does super creep. We started with 5 Dapol Collets, with no trouble. We then added 9 Dapol Gresley's, still no issues. To this we added 16 Farish Stanier coaches. Still the Manor did not struggle, even when we stopped it on the curved incline. A further 3 Staniers and 3 Farish Mk1's were added, bringing the total load to 36 bogie coaches, and only then was some slight slippage notice as the Manor tried to take off from the stationary. Considering a Farish Royal Scot, with traction tyres on 2 axles, was struggling with the same load, the Manor can more than adequately pull a load. Delivery I'm assured is very ,very soon, and you won't be disappointed when it arrives. I would just to add that I am not a Ixion employee (if I was all there locos would be painted crimson), just a happy future customer. Videos are on youtube, here:

Sorry Missy, I should of mentioned it from the start. I found them on eBay at Franko's Rail Depot and Design = http://stores.shop.ebay.com.au/Frankos-Rail-Depot-and-Design__W0QQ_armrsZ1 They have some stuff there that will transition well to UK operations, but other which show up too much as being American. Quite simple to build, arround 5 min to build

Well I was warned. This whole having a baby thing seriously cramps your model train time. Douglas is fast approaching 7 weeks old, but he still can't put N gauge rolling stock on the track. In between all the old chores and new responsibilities that come with being a new father, I’m still trying to find some time to get out into the garage and ‘do some trains’. I dug up the boxes containing UFO’s (Un Finished Objects), with the intent to try and finish some of them off. I was doing really well until tonite when I finally run out of transfers. So I’ve just sent off a new order to the NGS, so far I’ve managed to complete 11 wagons, averaging about 1 every 2 nights, a bit slow I know, but dirty nappies won’t wait for anyone! There is a mixture of Chivers, Parkwood and NGS wagon kits. Now that I’ve taken the photos of them, it really shows up some the blemishes, so still some more touch-up work required! Bigger pictures are in my gallery. Half way through this unfinished exercise I realised I was going to need some loads to put in the open wagons. Flicking through a pile of books showed there was variety of items that could be moved by rail. What did take my fancy was a Crab hauling a dozen bogie bolsters with cable drum reels. Having a look at what was available on the current market place; neither the plastic or whitemetal versions were to my liking. A bit of a search of the internut and I found just what I was looking for. Some lasercut kits for cable drums from the US, the scale maybe a bit out I think they look a lot better, just need to chain them down. Lasercut and laser-etch appear to be giving the modelling fraternity a whole new direction for kit-building. There are quite a few members here who have been exploring this option, with some wonderful results. Here down under there is a company making exclusive wooden N scale kits from lasercut. They give a good finish, especially considering a majority of them are kits of wooden wagons and coaches. I've had a bit of a dabble with them, and am seriously considering commissioning some work. http://www.rmweb.co....8_661_29163.jpg

Since the arrival of young Douglas, work on Sturminster has been going at a snail's pace (and in N gauge that is a very small snail! ). What time I've had has been spent working reducing the UFO pile, see my blog. Am still playing around with the milk loading stage, adding some trial signage. With a 5 day weekend coming-up, hopefully some constructive work will be done.

Forget the indicators, how about moveable steering, or windows that you can wind down. No, even better, working windscreen wipers! I'll get my coat ............................. But seriously Missy, excellant work

You keeping on raising the bar Missy, that is great work. It puts my non-working ones to shame

THat is very impressive, can't wait to see it once it is finished. The more I see of other peoples work with laser cutting and etching the more I want to try for myself.

Whilst playing trains this evening, I had a little bit of a mishap! I looked away from 5682 Trafalgar with 8 bogies Staniers in tow to attend to 46106 Gordon Highlander. Next thing I know there is a loud 'clunk' and when I look over Trafalgar is lying on its side. This is strange, I thought, nothing has ever come off in that area of track, a rather straight stretch about 200' from the Sturminster down platform. This is what I found! I made some measurements of the beetle, it was a scale 6' long, 4' high and 4' at its widest point. I was unable to get a weight as I didn't have scales that measured under 1 gram. It's too short to be a hippo, so what animal in nature could have this affect on a real train?

G'day Carl, that's some good progress you've made there. I too will be watching this with interest. I assume you will be swapping your Manor soon? cheers Ben of Oz

A new employee turned-up on the Sturminster station platform on Sunday evening Welcome to the world young Salguod (Douglas) Noswal.

The last couple of weeks has had me dip my toes all over the place. Fortunately the heat here downunder has cooled off a bit, it was only 33C as I put a layer of top soil on the back lawn. I'm forever doing some sort of tidying up on the layout, finding those little things that need a touch-up; a bit of ballast here, a touch of paint there. I've extended the cattle yards as I felt I didn??™t have enough storage capacity(for livestock), it was a big market! And then you sit down at the work bench and get distracted and start working on some unfinished kits and projects. I've added an album in the galleries showing the latest progress on the layout and also some workbench projects. I was quite impressed with the laser etch kit for a Victorian Railways cattle wagon, a lot of great detail and it just needs a Peco chassis. The ships propeller is something I've been meaning to do since I saw a photo of one many years ago. It's still a work in progress http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?app=gallery&module=user&user=6928&do=view_album&album=661 After all the photos and comparing with the real Sturminster, I need quite a few more trees, even some big 50 footers behind the station. Hopefully by the end of this weekend there should be a new Noswal in the world and Sturminster will have a new junior porter/porteress on the staff. Passing the headshunt at Butts Pond. Cattle platform and Dairy facilities

I don't know if it was ambitious but I made an attempt on the 6 strand wire fence that runs along the rear of the station platform. The posts still need to be toned down, and once I place the platform on the layout I can plant some rose bushes and other foliage growing over it. It turned out to be an all day project, the most tedious part being the drilling of all the holes. I tried making-up several jigs, but they seemed to destroy more fence posts than it made, so I ended-up doing each one individually, 6 holes each, 31 posts. I thought threading the wire was going to be the hardest and most frustrating part, and the 1st strand I did with tweezers. After that I dabbed some superglue onto the end of some handrail wire, attached the wire and then threaded like a needle through the fence posts, so much easier. I only had one minor hiccup, damaging a post, but a bit of glue and weathering and it will add to its derelict effect.

As I was tidying up the ballast and grass this morning, it struck me that the milk loading shed I had built was looking to big, the size of the timbers that is. A quick measurement of the upright timber revealed that they were a scale 6 foot wide, what was I thinking? So today I skinned in some planking. It still retains its openness, but now it doesn't look so out of place, I hope. I've given it a quick coat of humbrol, now I have to decide whether to paint it a cream colour, similar to the other wooden railway buildings, or to leave as unpainted timber and give it a heavy weathering.

In between looking after my 39 week pregnant wife, I got a fair bit done today. I've painted 5 packets of Peco fencing, touched-up the ballast on the sides of the up and down lines and I've put down the 1st base coat of static grass. It still needs a bit of tweaking, but so far so good. I was intending to put in a small pond just below the start of the buildings, that's something I will look into tomorrow. And I only got zapped once! Ouch.

I don't seem to have gotten the hang of this blog thingy, so I reverted back to the old format in Layout Topics. Updates for Sturminster can be found there. Maybe in the future I'll work blogging out. You can now see updates in the link below. http://www.rmweb.co....__gopid__55142&

I've tried the new blog, but after a couple months it's not doing it for me, so I'm moving my layout updates to this format, just like the old forum. You can catch-up on the progress in the links below: http://www.rmweb.co....php?f=9&t=37739 http://www.rmweb.co....r-n-gauge-blog/ So far over the Christmas break I've been working on the landscaping on the Butts Pond end of the layout. My wife tried to avoid giving me train presents this year, but I did manage to get some.

Well, I??™m about to take-off down to the beach for a week, a sort of pre-leave leave. Or as my wife puts it, time for us to spend time alone prior to our new arrival in the new year. Anyway, I thought I??™d better update on the little progress made on Sturminster in the past month. Time has had to be juggled between work, fire brigade training (yet another bad fire season is expected down under), anti-natal classes and keeping my 35 week pregnant wife happy (any tips most welcome). I got some Dornaplas toilets, which I??™ve put together, but still need some weathering. The other grey one's are readymade I got from an American supplier, but can??™t recalled the name at present. I??™ve got a pig sty in progress as well. I??™m still practicing with the static grass, and have only done a small corner of the layout as I try to develop my technique. One thing I??™ve learnt is that my lead wire is too short, as I accidently made contact between it and the wire strainer the other night. It was shocking !!! I definitely need to dull down the green base coat, as it looks a tad fluorescent. You will have to excuse the trees, as they are only temporarily in place. The fence is also too shiny and will need to be dulled down. Christmas is fast approaching, hope fully my new Stove R??™s will arrive in time, and maybe, just maybe, there will be a new Manor in the new year

Have been following this for a while now. Its taking scratch building to a whole new level. When are you taking orders?

Progress on Stur has been a little slow of late. Last few weeks prior to going to the BRMA convention were spent preparing wagons for the modelling competition. I was quite happy with my 3 horseboxes. Whilst Brisvegas I did some consulting with our head musketeer, and owner of the 10 track traverser. Also managed to find an article about a OO layout based on Sturminster Newton, which was in the July 1987 edition of Practical Railway Modelling. Some interesting hints and tips there that may be worth following-up. Over the past week I've managed to work on the rear of the backscene, on the non-viewing side, in the fiddle yard by adding and reinforcing that also acts as a shelf and will also support a TBA lighting arrangement. This work has proved to me that my garage is in a complete mess and needs a good clean-up. It is spring here downunder so it is a good time for a spring clean, even if the temperature is 37C outside. So this weekend will be spent tidying-up. Already I've managed to find several small items that I'd misplaced, many moons ago. Now it s time for the dust to fly and see what other misplaced goodies I can find.

Have been tidying up over the past few weeks, its amazing the amount stuff you find when you clean-up! Other work has included: trying my hand at fence building, refining my static grass technique and trying to finish my entries into modeling comp for the BRMA convention this up coming weekend (3 NGS Mk1 horseboxes). On a good news front, my 7F has hit the rails. Its one of the old GEM S+D 7F 2-8-0 kits running on a Farish 8F chassis. I contacted GEM last month to check on progress of their new updates kit was promised it would be ready by early in the new year. Fingers cross it is and I can get another one, or two, or three ..........

To try and get some authenticity, I found a model-maker who is making their way through my list of building that was require. Opening the order was the station building with station masters office and booking office. I??�m quite happy with them.

This photo shows the expanse of space and several times now I??�ve been quoted as saying I have too much space, what modeller ever say??�s that? As the year has rolled on, work progressed gradually, most of it just tidying up. Ever so slowly I moved on towards the development of the station, yards and surrounds. At the same time research has continue, the biggest gain being some aerial photos taken by the RAF in 1947. These have both helped and hinder the building progress, mainly in the redesign of the cattle dock and station yard area.

Forgive my multiple posts, but I can't get the advanced uploader to work, so its 1 photo per entry 15 months after construction start and where am I up too. By the end of November 2008 we had the all the track laid and all the electrics in place and working. This quick deadline was in place due my impending marriage and a work relate move of 1600km. Believe it or not, on the nite of my wedding we even stole some time to go to the shed and run some trains, with the consent of the newly name Mrs Noswal. The layout survived the 1600km road move and I had set-up again by January. The extreme hot weather in Jan-Feb was not conducive to working in the garage, added to this having to fulfil my childhood fantasy as volunteer fire fighter and fighting the devastating fires that hit Victoria on black Saturday Feb 7th 2009. The above photo was taken from approximately 6m above ground and shows the entire layout. The left-hand end connects to the traverser when at exhibitions or to the 1.4m run around board when I have it set up at home. The maze of tracks at the top of picture is my fiddle yard, I can have 3 major trains (9 coaches plus or 30-40 coal wagons) plus 2 smaller trains (2-3 coaches) in each direction. You can kind of make out the black line indicating where the backscene was to be installed.