chris-shay

Spotted in Denmark a few years ago. Youngest was playing up at the time so it seemed appropriate to get it for her…

Just for a change from railway modelling I’ve recently been building this HO barge for the waterfront scene on my layout. It’s built from a Sheepscot Scale Models kit that I have had laying around for about 20 odd years, so I’m not sure if it is still available? I’ve modified it a bit to make it a steel hull rather than wood, with a diesel engine rather than the steam version in the kit. Plenty of places for deck details etc and still a few things to sort out. In a moment of madness I decided to make up some navigation lights out of micro LEDS but really pleased with how they came out!

For those interested in more info on Shay’s, there are a couple of good books… “Modeler’s Handbook - Shay “ by Single Shot Gallery publishers. ”The MDC Shay Handbook” by Jeff Johnston published by Oso Publishing. This second book is an excellent work on how to tune the model to get the gears all running as they should. well worth it!

Bryan Gloch campsite near Caernarfon has the Welsh Highland line running right through the grounds. Great site!

A couple of years back I was chaperoning my elderly Mum on holiday through Switzerland and as she’s not a fan of flying, we did the whole trip by train. The whole trip was very relaxed with only the bit crossing Paris in a taxi being slightly frantic! Starting in Interlaken, it was first class train all the way back to Inverness including some very quick TGV through France and stunning scenery throughout.

The film “October Sky” has some shots of coal trains in West VIrginia (I think) and even features the photographer WInston Link in a cameo role as the locomotive engineer. The film’s about a boy’s dream to be a rocket engineer and work for NASA in the fifties and sixties and is based on the book Rocket Boys. A great little film and worth a watch, with Jake Gyllenhal in one of his early roles.

Boy disappoints father, misses meeting his hero. But it is rocket science!

There is “Graffitti on the Train” by The Stereophonics. Also the band Train from San Francisco I think?

One of the main products supplied to the perfume industry is fusel oil, which is a by-product from the continuous distillation process of a grain distillery. I would guess that tanker delivery and onsite storage tanks would represent this in this instance but not sure what volumes would be typical?

Difficult one this, but narrowed it down a bit... Diesel - has to be the Deltics. Either the prototype or production in two-tone green. UK Steam - 2-6-4 Fairburn tanks RoW steam - Rio Grande K-36 2-8-2 Mikados Electric - Either Great Northern Cascade Y-1 electrics or any of the Swiss Crocodile variants. There's an odd beauty in any machine if you look hard enough!

There is a good book called “Animated Scale Models Handbook” by Adolf Frank that has lots of ideas. Some of its contents are a bit out of date as they would be easier to do with modern electronics and servos, however it’s a good read and has some fun projects. Used to be quite hard to find but a quick check out there showed several available at reasonable prices.

Some 20 years ago I was working at the Boeing factory in Renton. Having only been in the country about 48 hours, it was my first shift at work on a dark snowy November morning when driving through Renton, and not really 100% sure where I was going, one of these BN beasts came rumbling down the street towards me. Talk about a wake -up call!! Mind you, it did start my love of US railroads which continue to this day.

Very sad news indeed. I had the pleasure of meeting Jack many times at numerous Inverness shows and we’d always have a blether about ideas for our shared passion for little US layouts. He was always happy to help and overflowing with ideas - a true pillar of our hobby and a great loss. Sending thoughts and prayers to his family. RIP Jack. Chris

Whilst bimbling around the web I came across this site that might be good for reference. Whilst not specifically a railroad site, it has good pics of the more everyday side off American life from the 70s up to late 90s... http://gfellercollection.org/ I think that there will be more pictures uploaded over time. Enjoy... C.

Just for a change from HO railways , I thought I’d try something in a larger scale, so here’s my rather beat up Revell 1/24 Ford F-150...

Much progress has been made since my last posting so I think the diorama is pretty much complete. For those interested, here’s a brief run down of what I used.... As mentioned before the Shermans and the German infantry figures are from the Dutch company Alsacast. The tank barrels have been replaced with plastic rod to replicate Oddball’s mods and the loudspeaker is made from a ship’s bell! Various little details have been added- rolled tarpaulins from painted tissue paper and some beautiful 3D printed jerry cans from Shapeways. The little shed is built up from plasticard with the roof covered with Rusty Stumps shingles that have been painted to represent terracotta tiles - very please with how it turned out! Logs and lamp pole are bamboo skewers stained with ink & alcohol mix. The lamp itself is the stalk from a Remembrance poppy. I’m not sure who made the tunnel portal but I picked it up at Warley for a quid and it has been chopped about a bit to fit. The side wall is Slaters plastic card stonework. Ground cover & rock face is sculptamould wihich has been overpainted and sifted dirt added. The track is heavily bedded in to the almost non-extistant ballast. Greenery is the usual Woodland Scenics foam & grasses with stuff out of the garden too.

So there has been a little bit of progress over the holidays with everything laid out. Managed to get the tunnel and the building more or less finished. The tanks have been basically assembled but need to have details added...

Back in 1997 I took a trip up to Prince George on the Cariboo Prospector. Picking up a hire car, I went in search of the Tumbler branch and was lucky enough to catch three of the GF6C electrics.

I'm after a bit of advise so hopefully the collective brain out there can help. I recently bought (at Warley) a second-hand Atlas HO gauge C424 with the box advertising it as being DCC fitted. The loco doesn't look like it has ever been run much and I was wondering whether it would run in DC mode on a layout using a Gaugemaster hand held controller (I don't have any DCC facilities) - I've read that they don't like feedback controllers? Failing that, to convert it back to DC, do I just need to disconnect the decoder and insert a blanking plug in the 8-pin socket? And are the blanking plugs available all the same as I'd have to get one as there's not one with the loco. Any help appreciated! Chris

John, Hopefully the following might help - there’s a lot of stuff going up and down and being transferred around with this! For your malt barley, it would be probably be delivered at ground level into a hopper connected to a conveyor and then carried up the milling tower in an elevator and dumped in the feed conveyor. This would then carry it across the top of the malt silos, where it would be loaded into whichever ones it was needed. From here the malt would then be discharged when needed from the bottom of the silo into another conveyor and elevator at ground level that carries it back up the mill tower. It now drops down through a weigher into the mill and is ground into the grist. It now falls into yet another elevayor that takes it all the way back up the tower again and now dumps it into the grist bin. When needed it is discharged from here it a screw conveyor that carries it into the mash tun where it is mixed with the hot water. I’ve added a little sketch to try and make all that hopefully make sense! The wort will be transferred from the mash tun into the wash backs for fermentation. These generally have their bases at ground level and their tops at first floor level within a separate room - the tun room. Access to the lower tun room is usually restricted because of the presence of CO2. The solid waste (draff) from the mashing process is dumped out of the bottom of the mash tun and is taken off site for use in animal feed.

Postman arrived yesterday and dropped off a couple of things, so in the words of Lieutenant Gruber..” I havf my little tank(s)” They are beautifully crisp castings and look pretty straightforward to assemble.

Some interesting finds there and a very modelable little scene in its own right...in grave danger of wandering off at a tangent ! There has been a little bit of progress, as I’ve gone for one of the diorama boards from Scale Model Scenery. It’s a great little kit and was built up very easily too. The only thing to be wary off is making sure you get the side pieces on the the right way round as they have a slightly longer pitch at one end in the joint tabs. Now I’m just waiting for the tanks to arrive in the post and then I can get on with laying things out.

Really interested in the Cakebox Challenge, so before someone reads my mind, I thought I'd better laydown my idea... Taking inspiration from a great movie, I am planning on doing the tunnel attack scene from Kelly's Heroes. I reckon I should be able to squeeze a fair representation of it into the 8" x 8" footprint, and working in 1/87 helps gain a little bit more wiggle room too. Nothing tangible yet, apart from a shopping list and some research to be done!

I'll admit to being slightly biased on this as I work for a distillery, however, one of my personal favourites is Té Bheag ( applogies for pronounciation but I think it something like "tjar vek"). It's a vatted malt from Skye and usually only found at the more specialist shops or more locally at the Coop at Kyle of Lochalsh. Chris

Bizarre weather today in NE Scotland !!