Ressaldar

Feeling somewhat under the weather this week and confined myself to the house, which gave me the opportunity to start painting the coal stage and ramps. I have use a mixture of Winsor&Newton and Railmatch acrylics, initially as a wash - raw sienna, followed by a very thin slate/sienna mix which has now been followed up with individual bricks being picked out in cadmium yellow mixed with varying amounts of sienna and the header string course above and below the recessed panel picked out in slate to represent Staffs Blue Engineering bricks. More individual bricks (in differing colours) will be done tomorrow - as well as a start on a similar exercise on the ramp. The building itself presented a problem in as much as the ply veneer used for the brickwork overlay is of a very dark colour, quite the opposite to the recessed panels and the ramps which have the bricks cut into MDF. Here, the recessed panels have had the same treatment as the ramps but the 'outer panels' have had two further washes of a varying cadmium yellow/sienna mix to try and balance up the colour, followed by a very very thin slate/sienna coat, looking for the overall grubbiness feel. The arches, cills and decorative bands have been covered with a straight slate colour - again for the Staffs Blue Engineering look. I will address the overall colour situation again tomorrow, once things have dried out overnight. regards Mike

Hi Simon, I had five sets of narrows and no wides in my kit! What chance do we stand? cheers Mike

Hi Simon, nice work on the tubs. Don't forget that the counterbalance timbers on the hockey sticks as shown on page 3 of the destructions are on the wrong side - they should be on the outer face otherwise the top platform would never sit correctly. regards Mike

Hi Martyn, many thanks for your comments. A few omissions is one thing, but 12' of brass rod is a bit different. I too am over 70 (and busy as well) and therefore expenditure on hobby items has to be carefully thought about, especially when parting with over £300 for a 'coal hole'. The errors pointed out above should have manifested themselves during the test/prototype builds and rectified before the kit was put on the market (2010, I believe). It might be that adjustments that were found to be needed as a result of the test/prototype build had not been transfered to the cutting programme. My kit is numbered 29/40 so did the previous kit buyers/builders come across the same problems as me? There was a piece missing (the 'open end' spacer which has the brick veneer applied to form the end wall) from the ramp extension kit and yes I did telephone for a replacement, which arrived the following day - but when I offered it up, it was too thin by 1.5mm! As I said earlier, I do not think that I shall be buying any TT kits in the future. regards Mike

Hi TTG, thanks, I don't think it would be wise for me tomake contact with him at the moment. regards Mike

I had not intended to do any work today but my curiosity got the better of me and I ventured out - just to see how the stanchions had 'set'. All was ok so I reached for the packet of 1.2mm brass rod supplied for the railing - all went well until I realised that, bearing in mind that the stanchions have two holes in them, there is only sufficient rod in the kit for a single rail on both sides -just the small amount of 12' of rod not supplied!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not good enough when the kit costs so much. I had sufficient in stock to complete the runs, but that should not have been the case. Thankfully, I shall not need any further of Mr Lewis's kits to go on this layout. regards Mike

Hi TTG, I trust that you had a full and frank discussion regarding the comments made above? cheers Mike

Hi TTG, you're welcome. It was silly of me to think that I had cracked first time! regards Mike

Hi Simon, yes, cost does come into modelling somewhere along the line (pun intended) but I may follow your path and get some of Cornwall Models Boat's brass stanchions for the tank hatch platform as they would have been lighter than the 'concrete' variety as supplied by TT for use at that height! regards Mike

Hi TTG, sorry about that, I tried to be clever and copy/paste from another forum, but whilst I could see the photos on here, you obviously could not. Hope you can see them now. cheers Mike

Now that 'Management' is on the mend I slipped out into the workshop to decide on the ramp stanchion situation and went with the 'as supplied' option - really for no other reason than the brass stanchion alternative, which looked very nice, would have added £120 onto the cost So first up we come to the major error in the kit - the stepped spacers, insufficient supplied, hence the ply 'infill' at the far end, were cut to the same width as the 'roadway' instead of the roadway less the thickness of the two inner skins which form the outer walls. unfortunately, it is not until the glue has gone off having put the second side on top of the spacers (position as in the photo above) and you are able to put the ramp 'right way up' and offer the roadway to the ramp, is the problem seen - as usual much too late to take any useful remedial steps the resultant error - albeit that it creates a drainage channel - a reasonable reason not to try and rectify the situation. An alternative would be to put a coping stone along the top of the wall (I think that one should have been included in the kit anyway). So the fun begins - fitting 170 odd fence posts, all of which have to have 5 strokes of a fairly rough file to form a taper to the bottom 'leading face' to compensate for the angle of the slope I decided to loose fit all of the posts first , then go back with the Glue 'n' Glaze to hold them in place I used a 3' level to maintain the vertical alignment 'up the ramp' and the good old No 1 eyeball across the ramp. No doubt there will be final adjustments made as the brass rod is threaded through. The last picture shows the omission of the post that would have otherwise fouled the exit at the top of the staircase - in its revised configuration. More to follow next week. regards Mike

A fine set of buildings there Rod, they will certainly keep the (7mm) housing shortage in West Kirby down! Looking forward to seeing the 'installed' pictures. regards Mike

The 'smart meters' were not fitted yesterday as planned - the fitter turned up over an hour after the latest agreed time, which meant that there was insufficient time before I had to go for an hospital appointment for him to work his stuff. Installation now re-arranged for next Thursday, so decision time also delayed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! cheers Mike

Hi Simon, many thanks for the offer, I may be in touch next week. regards Mike

Hi Simon, I must say that the stanchion posts look much better than the laser cut posts in the TT kit. I am still mythering as to whether to use the as supplied or follow your route, especially as there was a major error with my kit. We are having smart meters installed today, so hopefully some of the 'smartness' might fall in my direction and give me a kick start into making a decision! Keep up the good work. regards Mike

Hi TTG, I think that it is by chance that mine has ended up square so your shape might be easier to produce! I look forward to seeing your progress on your thread in the near future. kind regards Mike

Hi Simon, many thanks for your comments and tips, much appreciated. I think that I will try altering the steps to suit my 'situation' as I have mentioned above, if I make a ricketts of it then yes the Plastruct seems a good solution. I had looked at Lyons book and on Flickr (Didcot Coaling Stage) and noticed the buttresses but decided that as they would be at the back and generally out of site I would leave them off. I may have track alignment issues yet, due to the ramp kitbeing wrong so I may hopefully end up with two negatives making a positive - but I doubt it! we'll see. I have work to do at the Club over the next few days and will not be back on this until Friday afternoon at the earliest, so I will think about my next moves over the next few days and see what results. kind regards Mike

Hi Jeff, that is what I was trying to suggest in the caption " trouble with a Capital T............" Hi TTG, photos will keep coming do not worry. cheers Mike

Hi Jeff, many thanks for your comment. Before I proceed any further with the build, I thought it would be useful to see how things were lining up overall - I'm glad I did.................................................. from this angle, all seems quite right........ but fro the other end,............................................................................. trouble with a Capital T - the staircase does not line up with the upper door. It looks as if I can found the top landing on the ramp brickwork and move the timber supports back towards the other set of 'legs', I'll have a closer look tomorrow. There is little or no adjustment for the location of the ramp as it needs to be centred on the archway. The next step was to check clearances, so out came the 9F and thankfully, things do not look too bad I will report back on the staircase issue asap. cheers Mike

Modelling over the last couple of weeks has been restricted to my 'den indoors' as my presence was required to be on hand for various deliveries and installations within the kitchen. This indoor work restricted the use of various glues and solvents but fortunately, Glue 'n' Glaze was not on the banned list issued by the household authorities! I therefore made a start on the Timber Tracks laser cut MDF & ply GWR Coal Stage, ramp and ramp extension. I tackled the extension first as it was the smallest kit and it went together quite well - the fence posts being the fiddliest part. I then moved on to the ramp - more of that in a later posting, when it is finished. So a start was made on the building itself - in similar fashion to the ramps - outer and inner skins to give depth of recessed brickwork resulting in a square (rectangular) box, into which the inner lower walls are glued, the tops of which creates a shelf for the suspended floor to sit upon (emphasis in the instructions to make sure that the walls are fully pressed down and level). A dry run saw the floor fit perfectly, so it was removed and then glued in place, shortly followed by the upper walls, again, emphasis on alignment, especially regarding the windows and door openings. The 'box was then laid aside for the glue to go offf. Next comes the tank which is formed by gluing an end and side together and then glue the resultant L shapes around an open rectangular former (which also acts as the floor where the tank sits on the walls) - problem was the the rectangle was 1.5mm too short in both directions! So I made a mitred cut across opposite corners of the rectangle, pushed the resultant two apart so that all edges of the rectangle were in contact with the walls and glued a reinforcing spacer into the corners. I also glued in a length of 20x10 plastic angle to each side of the ring beam as a means of locating the tank onto the building shell and also allow the tank to be removable for painting and any maintenence that might be needed over time. when the glue had dried I then offered up the three roof support spacers to check the fit, only to find the they were proud of the tops of the tank sides by 3mm - the thickness of the rectangular 'ring beam' - so each end of the spacer was notchjed to allow the top of the spacer to sit correctly at the top of the wall I then returned to the shell, only to find that the upper walls were 1mm lower than they should have been , evident by the heads of the window frames being deeper by that dimension than they should have been. It would appear that the floor now being supplied might be thinner than when the kit was designed. The remainder of the assembly has gone fairly smoothly, save that the counter weights on the lower part of the coal chute apparatus is shown on the wrong side to where it should be. The staircase and the coal tubs gave no problems and there only remains for the roof hatch and its associated platform and ladder to build - best left until after the building has been painted and located on the layout. The ramp construction and photos will follow shortly. regards Mike

Hi Rich, Yes. I'm quite impressed with the Digitrax system, so much so I persuaded the Club to go for it when I talked them into DCC in the first place. Again yes, I have recycled the Peco points and plain track from 'Hatcham' and just needed two additional left hand points (L3 & 4) which have now arrived and are awaiting fitting. No tracklaying progress this week as I have had to restrict my modelling to my den in the house (and therefore much regulated by SWMBO) whilst changes were being carried out in the kitchen which involved my attendance from time to time, so I have been assembling the coal stage and its associated ramps - not without issues I hasten to add, which will be described later this week when the full assessment can be posted!! cheers Mike

Hi Brian, The 'front' layers are on the ID Backscenes website here http://www.art-printers.com/Build%20Kits%201.htm and are good value for money in that they have many uses. Today while waiting for the points to arrive (they came at lunchtime) I made a start on the Coal stage ramp extension, the fiddliest part was fitting the posts in for the railings, there was a piece missing from the kit and that is now in the post. I ahve now started on the ramp itself, which at 6' long is a bit of a handful, but the windowsill is just the right width and the sun is pouring in so that is assisting with the drying process.- the post and rail fence on this piece is going to be real fun! cheers Mike

Hi Brian, Both elements are from the I D Backscene range - the 'wallpaper' is two sheets of I think three sheets in the set simply wallpaper pasted onto hardboard and the larger sheets are self adhesive elements which can be 'cut and shuffled' as to how you need/want them. I'll dig out a website address tomorrow. cheers Mike

The PW gang have started the first six points are down, just L1 & L4 to do (they should be delivered tomorrow) and the 'straights' loose laid to check fits etc. Off to the Club Open Day now so no more progress here today. regards Mike