steve howe

I may be turning into an Anorak, but didn't the Birds have stiffening plates only on the rear axles? what's also interesting from the prototype photo is that Seagull seems to have fluted side rods, whereas I was under the impression the Birds had plain rods. Typically I have just fitted plain rods to my, as yet, unnamed version! Steve

Very helpful, thanks guys. Coincidentally only hours after making my post I came across this clip from Huntley Archives which shows Skylark backing on to the special, presumable the same as Miss Prism's photo. It quite clearly shows lining on the boiler and 'G W R' on the tender. From the tonal quality of both images I suggest she is in green livery although the Huntley clip is undated, I suspect its likely to be 1950-1 (?) so I guess she carried the green livery to the end. https://www.huntleyarchives.com/preview.asp?image=1009077# Sorry about the duplicate thread - my internet went down just as I clicked submit, but somehow still managed to post the thread! Steve

I am building a 'Bird' class 4-4-0 in 4mm 00 gauge for to run on our 1950's era Club layout. It will probably be 'Skylark' or 'Seagull' as these were the last to be withdrawn in 1951. I would like to know what livery they would have carried by then? I am assuming unlined British Railways black, and which version of the lion crest would be used, but if anyone can confirm that I would appreciate it. Steve

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm looking at getting one of these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KATO-Powered-Motorized-Chassis-11-104-also-alternative-for-11-103/283601735620?hash=item4207fb0fc4:g:VS8AAOSwJcldbOKh as a basis to either scratchbuild or butcher a body shell. Anyone know if it might be adapted to fit under the Shapeways simplex? I can't find any technical information as to the wheelbase dimensions. Steve

Thanks Andrew, the body looks the thing, the problem seems to be getting the motor bogie. I'm looking on ebay for a Grafar chassis, but don't hold out much hope. Do any of the British N scale manufacturers sell spares?

Not being a 009 or 4mm scale narrow gauger, I am finding getting hold of a simple industrial pre-War IC loco somewhat complicated. My current Cameo Challenge layout calls for a short narrow gauge feeder line running a small IC loco and three V skips on and off stage. Simples I thought! bound to be loads of kits out there to choose from … but it appears not. All of Nigel Lawton's otherwise perfect range are currently unavailable, Narrow Planet have various body kits but all seem to rely on a Kato chassis of some form or other, and my attempts to locate a source of Kato tram chassis without having to purchase the whole unit at eye watering prices, have so far drawn a blank. Can anyone more knowledgeable in 009 matters than I suggest a simple way of getting a basic Simplex or similar loco running at a reasonably sensible price without scouring Europe for obscure chassis parts?

August seems to now be the monsoon season in Cornwall, not much fun for tourists, but handy for railway modellers looking to escape from gardening etc. for a day or two. The trickiest job was always going to be fitting a scenic profile around the board. I glued small wooden blocks around the perimeter of the baseboard with strong wood glue and left them for 48 hours to set. The blocks were set about 3mm in from the baseboard edge to accommodate the scenic profile. I had originally intended doing this in thin ply, but the acute bend at the stern made even the thinnest ply I could find unmanageable, fortunately I had some sheets of 4mm Foamex scrounged from my local B&Q when they were changing their displays. This stuff is widely used in the exhibition and display industry for mounting graphics. It is light, surprisingly easy to cut and, crucially, very flexible. I made a rough cardboard template of the profile and used this to cut a continuous strip of Foamex to shape. The acute bend was helped by vertical scoring on the inside face. The facia was clamped and glued with Evo-stik Gripfil to the blocks with a few strategic screws to make sure everything stayed in place. Eventually the expanding foam filler will be sanded back, the screws removed, and the whole filled with polyester filler to make a smooth profile linking the scenery to the surfboard. The profile in place and a basic mock-up (or maybe c*ck-up) of the loading bins. The timber revetment holding back the encroaching sandunes in trial position. The horizontal beam marks the position of a bridge carrying a 2' gauge tramway from the sand pits. The initial scenic profiles are starting to go in. This is to get an idea of the basic landform before the intermediate profiles are added. More profiles added. A lattice of thin card (cornflake packet) woven over the profiles. I like this method of making landforms even though its been around for donkey's years, because it is a) cheap as chips; b) easy to alter if you don't like it; c) if its good enough for Pendon and Jack Kine, its good enough for me!

Not much to show, but much activity on the M & E side with wiring and point actuation complete, allowing for playing of trains....sorry, extensive testing to take place. The usual bit of filing and furtling, fettling and faffing to get things to stay on the rails most of the time, and things appear to be working. Point actuation is self-explanatory using mini-slider switches drilled to take 0.5mm nickel silver wire bent into a 'Z' to create a spring and soldered to the wire tiebar. The wire in PTFE tube type described earlier have been supplemented in places by the Masokits etched tiebar which is more robust. A primitive platform has been built and the general arrangement of the buildings planned. Just making a start on the buildings along with the scenic profile which has to enclose most of the scene.

I have a bodyshell only of 'Saint Edmund Hall' in BR lined black to dispose of. If anyone wants to make me an offer please PM. Cheers Steve

Now how about a 'layout in a camper van' challenge? it means exhibiting might be a bit restricted to the NEC or Ally Pally tho..... I did think about having a VW Combi parked on the layout with a board on the roof and a model of the model on the board............ thankfully I sobered up in time, and anyway, it would be out of period for me. Steve

Tracklaying, apart from the cassette units, completed yesterday. It was a lot easier to stick the sleepers down first, then add the rails. Even though they are A5 turnouts, they look quite smooth. Rather a gloomy shot, with the sand sidings now in place. Just the wiring and point actuation now.

Jumping ahead slightly....well quite along way as far as I'm concerned.... I have attached a couple of reference images upon which the sand-sifting plant will (might) be based. The hopper will be arranged to accommodate a maximum of three wagons under the loading chutes and the wooden superstructure will probably rest on some unlovely weather-worn concrete blockwork (very typical of Cornish industrial building in the early 20thC) Corrugated iron and concrete block - no one said this was ever going to be pretty! Tracklaying continues - more in a bit.

If its any help, there was quite a bit of discussion on good modelling card on my thread about our Club layout 'Trenance' along with some suppliers which may be of interest: Page 3, posted about June 12th I think. Steve

Having been at Railex recently and felt slightly guilty at my tardy progress with this project I thought a brief update was well overdue. The pointwork is now all completed apart from fixing down and connecting the rodding, so I feel a hurdle has been overcome and the finishing of the plain track is now well in hand. Using Code 55 flat bottom rail has been a new learning curve for me and I found working with FB rail 'challenging' to say the least! partly I think because of its small section, I would think working with a heavier rail section would be easier - to see if nothing else! - I also learnt quite a bit about the subtleties of switch rail shaping so that it fits snugly against the stockrails without the old modeller's dodge of filing a notch in the foot of the stockrail to accommodate it - the switch rail is shaped so as to ride up and rest on the foot flange without any alteration to the stockrail whatsoever. I think I shall be sticking to bullhead in the future! Trackwork is almost all constructed on PCB sleepering on the basis that most of it will be covered in sand. No histrionics here, all straightforward stuff using Code 55 flat bottom steel rail. All the pointwork was built as a ‘fishbone’ i.e the crossing assembly and straight stock rails assembled on a drawing and then pinned in place to achieve gentle curves before the rest of the rails were added in-situ. A few sections of sleeper were left visible where the sand was deemed to have blown away, and here normal ply and rivet sleepering was used with the sleepers turned upside down and the rail sweated to the rivet foot. The track foundation is 3mm cork, with such a vulnerable rail section, I wanted a firm support, the code 55 steel rail is easily bent. I thought I would have to rebate the cork to accommodate the rivet heads, but in practice this has not been necessary. Tie bars are the wire in PTFE tube as formerly supplied by the Scalefour Stores, but now I believe marketed by C&L. They look frail, but provided the soldering is sound, are robust enough in operation. Hopefully progress might be a bit more rapid from now on!

Part 2 Surf’s Up Progress on this layout, like the temperature in the workshop, could best be described as glacial, however we are now at a stage where the baseboard is about ready to receive some trackwork. First however, a little reflection on the thinking behind the project. Small layouts have been built in ingenious situations for many years, and the Finescale Movement has embraced the challenge with enthusiasm (Rice et.al) with layouts appearing on ironing boards, in aquariums, suitcases, long case clocks, box files and musical instrument cases (the iconic 2mm ‘Inversneckie & Drambuie Railway’ even in its rather forlorn state on open storage display at the NRM, remains, to me, one of the most atmospheric layouts of all time) All have been exploited in addition to more conventional formats. The celebrated ‘shunting plank’ whilst often given a derogatory press, has become popular as a beginner’s introduction to a more ‘serious’ project; a solution to the pressures of time and space imposed by the modern lifestyle; or simply a small self-contained project providing a refreshing alternative to a more ambitious scheme that may represent a lifetime’s work. Whatever the reasoning, tiny layouts are popular and we should embrace them as part of the rich heritage of our hobby. This particular scheme came into being through thinking about light railways that were associated with the coast, possibly for industry, or some, as in the Rye & Camber, purely for leisure. It was at about the same time that I was casting around for a little project to make good use of an odd collection of eclectic rolling stock acquired on whims over the years, and rootling around in the garage roof to find an elusive piece of ply, put away for just such a purpose, that I realised my old surfboard really was due for retirement. Memories of sunny teenage times spent on Gwithian Sands (and in the rather dodgy nightclub known as Sandsifters, located in convenient isolation in the old sand quarry at Gwithian beach) triggered the slightly eccentric (alright, alcohol-fuelled) notion that maybe the two could somehow be combined into a modelling project. Gwithian’s industrial past has long been centered around sand extraction and streaming for tin and other metals from the Red River’s sediments, and a study of the 1906 OS map revealed a string of streaming works all along the Red River valley which extended inland as far as the river itself. Crucially, the gradient was gentle all the way to the coast; a perfect opportunity for a light railway to serve these industries and the rationale for it was outlined in Part 1. My plan was to try and create a working sand loading installation so that trains could actually be seen to be performing some kind of useful work. Also some excuse for a passenger service would be desirable to relieve an otherwise rather tedious operating schedule . A Longboard is not the ideal choice for a model railway baseboard; at around 7 feet long, sharply tapered at both ends with a ‘sheer’ i.e curve in the horizontal plane, of about 3” extending from nose to tail and side to side, it is not exactly conducive to the flat smooth surface needed for the laying of an accurate P4 (or any) track system. However the only advantage a surfboard has (other than for surfing) is that it is lightweight, strong and rigid and could be made to support a track foundation without too much modification. The actual presentation of the thing would throw up a whole raft of new challenges! The first job was to see if any worthwhile trackplan could be set out on such a tight shape. A full-size template was made by drawing round the board onto a strip of lining paper, and, after an enjoyable hour spent fiddling about with paper templates and bendy laths (Templot? whats that?!) I arrived at a simple, but I think plausible, layout. “Form follows Function” was the mantra of my old design lecturer, and the track layout reflects that – no three-way points, glittering diamonds or sparkling slips here! The traffic needs are very simple; mineral trains take priority; empty wagons arrive and are shunted straight under the sand hoppers, full wagons are pulled out, run round and taken away. What little other goods traffic comprises the odd wagon of oil in cans for the gas engines powering the screening machinery, coal for the kitchen at the tea shack and locomotive supplies, and one or two covered vans carrying consumables for the sand works. It is assumed the main locomotive and carriage sheds are further up the line at Roscroggan, so locomotive servicing facilities will comprise a tank and standpipe for water and a simple coal bin. Passenger operations (summer only) amount to not much more than running round the carriages, dealing with any attached freight wagons, and departing, after a suitable pause. Dull? Well the truth is that’s how a lot of pre-war light railways were, a well-tried, predictable routine which varied little over the decades. The paper template was used to design a track-base which closely followed the outer line of the sleepers except where a flat surface where structures such as platform or sand hoppers were intended. The plan was to exploit the natural curves of the surfboard as much as possible with the land falling away below track level to the banks of the Red River itself. The track-base was cut from one piece of 9mm ply which was braced underneath with a spine of 40mm aluminium angle except at the points where the ply actually made contact with the surfboard. Here the aluminium was cut to follow the contour of the board so that the trackbase finished more or less touching the tips of the surfboard at either end. Clearly any wiring, point actuation and any other normally sub-baseboard gubbins would all have to be surface mounted, but I had intended from the start that control systems would be as simple as possible. To ensure the surfboard stood level, a simple wooden frame made from 3” x 1”timber was glued to its underside and painted black. (having first removed many years’ accretions of board wax) Thus with the board either stood on a tabletop, or a set of trestles, it would always remain level (this was also necessary to allow clearance for the fins underneath) I wanted to ensure that the origins of the unconventional baseboard were not disguised, so display is to be fairly utilitarian, no black drapes, no fascia or wings and the layout left free-standing so it can be viewed all round. The trackbase was glued and screwed to the spine with self-tapping screws. Care was taken to ensure the ply stayed flat and additional vertical supports had to be cut and fitted in the gap towards the centre. Finally, expanding foam was used to bond the ply to the board and give additional support. Foam application was done in the warmth of the kitchen when the Beloved was safely out at work.... Its not the most predictable of stuff. Masking tape was applied to the surfboard so that the surplus foam would come away easily after trimming. The raw edges will be filled and sanded to blend into a scenic profile mounted on the board above. Its much easier to fit a ply strip to a flat surface than to a multi-curved one! The foam was carved back to form a basis for the river bank. The Red River is already evident! There was not enough space to contain a cassette deck within the outline of the surfboard, so I had to cheat a bit and extend the cassette deck over the edge. So next steps are to put down the underlay and start building some track!

Lovely work here! I like the stonework on the bridge as it does not look like embossed plastic! any idea which pattern you used? it looks (appropriately enough) like Slater's Cotswold Stone? Steve

They look like kiln props to me... sorry to ask a silly question Tim, but if its a plateway do the waggon wheels need flanges?

No compensation then ! I like the square clamp thingy in the last pic, is that a home-made device? very neat solution to fit it to a engineer's square Steve

Were the D29 clerestories panelled? or was the panelling sheeted over later? Steve

I had aspirations once to make an articulated horse with a view to making a diorama of the Portreath tramroad. Driving the thing via a fine cardan shaft from the following wagon,,, until I realised where the shaft would have to go and put me off off the idea... Steve

Oh that's annoying! I was after a Preston tram for Horsley Bank to replace the butchered Corgi one that's been trundling back and forth for years! S

Not being a tram afficionado, but I do know Chris Cornell makes some very nice etched tram kits: https://www.tramwayinfo.com/Tramframe.htm?https://www.tramwayinfo.com/Models/Makersuk/Cornell.htm Steve

I do like these convoluted systems, dockyards and gasworks being particularly happy hunting ground. I'm intrigued, with the presence of the electric tram in the distance, what is tramway and what is railway in this scheme? Steve

Thanks for your kind remarks Rich, much of the credit has to go to Trevor Jones of Hornby Magazine for taking a great set of photos! Steve