Sasquatch

Just a little bit left to do on the semis and the next quick build will be The Handyman hardware. Another Queensbury business for the mill town.

So far so good with the AC system, it warmed up in there in no time! Pleased as punch I had a thorough tidy up and reinstated Queensbury's lift off section. The AC remote has been mounted between the East side controls. After that with the AC set at 70F I had a nice running session for the first time in about a month. Something quite modern here then, (for a bit of a change) Class 128 parcels car with a short bogie GUV in tow. This guy is very heavy and probably very capable of pulling 12 coaches up that 1in 80 gradient, so it's way too over powered for a GUV! Squatch.

Great advances yesterday on the progress front. I spent the morning freezing my butt off down at my friend's place. Being so much more knowledgeable in all things with threads we made an adapter to connect the new aircon unit up to the vacuum pump and manifold. That done I cautiously went ahead and evacuated the air from the system. So far, the pressure has held for 21 hours so it's now ready to fire up! In the evening the semis had their rooves etc. made. The structure that I'm really looking forward to building is the station for the mill town. I've got both Wills station kits which I'm planning to cross kit into a station suited to the lines around the Queensbury system. The spares are going to be made up into a row of house backs. Having not put a Wills kit together for over ten years I'm very much looking forward to a change of modeling medium. No doubt it will go a lot quicker than normal. I did splash out a bit during an online Black Friday sale on the stone station, if you have ever seen how much they squeeze into the box at 26 quid it was a real bargain! Lastly two more orphans have been added to the loco roster. It's about time a standard class 5 was acquired having been on my wish-list for about 24 years! The N2 is intended as another doner for an N1 conversion project. Both run faultlessly just need to add some coal in the class 5s tender. Squatch.

It might have depended on class. One of my most vivid memories from childhood was a trip to London with my great aunt. We took the train obviously and a Routemaster bus (London will never be the same) from Victoria to Kilburn for a funeral of my Grandmother's (and Great Aunts) Aunt. We were shewn into the parlour/living room, the three piece suite looked like it hadn't ever been used in 25 years and there were glass cabinets full of glassware and the coffin of course! Our living room at home on the outskirts of Brighton was a totally different affair even though my grandmother kept it spotlessly clean. All train sets had to be back in their boxes before dinner could be had!! My ex's father lived in Tongeren (Tongres if you prefer French, it's a true by-lingual city!), His house had the same thing, big room at the front which he only used for visiting dignitaries such as a police officer. Still had an outside lav. and no running water in the house either, astonishing for the 21st century. The best thing about staying with though was that his house was situated at the entrance to the old coal drops. Interestingly I found a layout set during WWII on the internet years ago featuring his house. Well, some of you might like to see it. (Images were taken with the iPhone of the old laptop where they're stored). His parlour was down stairs right of the front door. Regards Shaun.

Getting sidetracked again. Something I love doing though. Interiors! This is the squadron leader's front room. I suppose back then it was called a parlor, no doubt one of you will enlighten me if there's a more appropriate name. Chairs are bits of box car ladders with .010 plastic seats and backs. Sideboard is just a bit of envelope with the details drawn on. The wallpaper is actually curtain and panel work constructed the same as the sideboard but with a chair rail. The table is made from a plastic loco wheel tire for the apron with a plastic spoked wagon wheel for the base. It was cut in half and the profile turned in the cordless with a Stanley blade and a half round file. I then snipped out the tire and four spokes. It's topped off with another bit of .010 cut with a two-point compass and finished with the Mike Trice teaking method! Lastly the squadron leader's radio set. This started out as a tram bogie bolster. You can just hear the crackly sound "This is the BBC". Any guess as to where the squadron leader's got to. Down the "Near n Far" having a stiff brandy probably. Still to do: The lamp stand and fire place. How life's changed. Squatch.

Oh stop it. I can assure you that there's no such thing as old man's disease, young men suffer from whatever that was much more severely! (I do it all the time)🙄 As we get older we become more aware of our bloopers. Thats called wisdom my friend! Fortunately, they didn't want the others sent back! Regards Shaun.

No, they come with the kit, wait until you see the dining room. The stonework is just scraps of embossed Peco. I chose to model the dormers in stone so as to give them a West Yorkshire look and added some 1.2mm rounds to the seams. Agree totally that they do look the part and am thinking of making up a short terrace. I keep trying to encourage Pettite Properties to expand their 1/76 range, their O scale calendar cottages would be most welcome in OO for a start! I don't know if it's just me but they keep sending me the wrong kits...I've got a station model but nowhere to put it on the layout and one other kit in the wrong scale😉 Regards Shaun.

A little more work on this yesterday. West Riding grime and windows! The upper story lower sashes have been recessed with bits of .020 microstrip which allow a couple to be in the raised position. Squatch

4MT 80135 taking on water at Goathland.

Three weeks again already. Where does the time go? Firstly, may I wish all my American RMwebbers a very happy Thanksgiving and hope that you are having a feast with family and loved ones. Unfortunately, I have had no time for modeling or running trains. A couple of evenings were spent stripping down gummed up locos. My Stanier fleet in particular. The 8F was well and truly overdue for a service, none of the tender wheels were getting power to the loco and the original 20 year old lubricant had started to solidify into what looked to be tree resin. A little Bachmann E-Z lube was applied to the backs of the tender wheels which stopped that awful squeaking noise. I like that result so much that I did this to all locos with squeaky tenders! Here's 8042 on the viaduct performing admirably. It's had a bit more weathering added with pencils and chalky black paint. After addressing all the same problems, 44908 has never ran this well either! The installation of the air conditioning system is still on going. There have been many hold-ups such as trying to obtain specialist tools and wiring faults on our antiquated electrical service (breaker box). We took a whole day recording which lights and which outlet sockets were on which breaker after alarmingly finding out some had been labeled wrong. (Ruined a decent pair of wire cutters that did!) It's all been sorted and looks like a new box! Anyway, just one last stage before I can fire the AC up. After having withdrawal symptoms, I dug out a kit yesterday and got stuck into a little very relaxing modeling. Pettite Properties station road semis kit. After converting it to full relief it had the front wall clad with scraps of Peco stone sheet. Some images from the layout that I took earlier of 8006 en-route to Goathland with a little project for the restoration chaps. Last but not least, a study of activity around the coal drops. Squatch.

That brace of austerity tanks look like there still sporting army green under all that rust and grime. 68012 definitely doesn't have any black left when compared to that fella's coat and hat. Regards Shaun.

Clever way of doing It! I'd imaging you used something like 10 second "Zap-A-Gap". Sticking thin strips of styrene to aluminium is a tricky business, so well done! Regards Shaun.

I'm glad that it's not just me who doesn't pick up on the jokes, even if mine are really corny! Thanks for the heads too up BTW. I doubt a Duchess would fit on the Wathers job I installed on Exchange. (Nearly splashed out on one last week too!) Anyway, it's going to add so much operational value to HOTN. Regards Shaun.

That's well smooth! 😁

No doubt you've thought about rotating the plan 180 degrees ? The whole plan would flow better too! Just a thought. Regards Shaun.

That's detailing at its best. You must have such steady hands Chris! I do love a bit of detailing. Regards Shaun.

November already. It's starting to get cold we've had heavy frosts which took out all the coleuses and peonies, so this week has been spent installing the garage heating and cooling. A conduit had to be run and wires pulled. I have rewired the back door outside light and installed two more lights, one in the walkway and one in front of the garage side door. Wires for these were pulled through the conduit at the same time. Now I just need to hang the indoor unit, hook that up to the outdoor unit and we'll have year-round modeling and much more progress on the layout. Squatch.

Yet more modeling this week... ...Originally, we made Hogsmead station names. They didn't stay there long and were replaced with Goathland signs from a Tiny Signs special pack, but these were orange and faded to white. So yesterday evening some new ones were knocked up. These etched letters are the closest I had to hand and not exactly a perfect match. They were painted first, mounted on a colour swatch card and trimmed out with .010 x.040 plastic strip with pre-painted .020x.060 for the frame and placed on the layout. This view is quite interesting with three of Queensbury's waiting rooms in the distance. Squatch.

Bachmann's B1 1306 Mayflower wasn't one of their best products. At the time of purchase it was expensive and came with a limited-edition certificate in a wooden box. Having had the same problem of the wheel inserts popping out with other early Bachmann locos, it was time to have a bash at seeing if this one was salvageable too. Not taking any half measures the engine was completely stripped down and the soft plastic inserts removed. Taking one of these apart is a bit (very) fiddly. Tiny "C" clips retain the return crank, they are hard to see and even harder to remove. The apple green paint had been flaking off and first job was to scrub them in soapy water with an old toothbrush. At this point fear set in as to whether this was redo-able. These needed a bit of file work and before I primed them with grey rattle can primer, the back face was sanded to provide a key for the superglue. There's more than enough crafters acrylics in the inventory to float a battleship, two greens were selected that looked close enough and mixed. A test daub on the body molding proved that this mix needed some deep yellow and a touch of black. All previous gunge was cleaned off using acetone. The axles, if you can call them that were split but the gear remained intact. Super sticky tacky glue was employed here to remount the wheels onto the axles, super glue painted on with a tiny brush to both wheel and insert before the whole assembly went into a decent spring clamp overnight. The green mix, which is a strange apple green to my eye, was carefully brushed on and when dry given a brush coat of gloss varnish. Here's a shot of the work bench/kitchen table showing various stages of the work in progress. During reassembly everything was given a puff of Kadee powdered graphite except the motor and anti-thrust mechanism which I lubed with EZlube in medical syringe. Somehow it all just fell back together. At this stage I was very skeptical as to whether it would work but to my astonishment was very pleased with the results, especially how smooth and quiet it was. Unfortunately, my hands aren't steady enough to line out the wheels, but I can live it the way it is! Squatch

You have made a good job of that Justin! Do the Dapol ones run well? My Hornby 8009 is quite a good performer, so I hung on to it when the DJ version came onto the market. There's also a Kitmaster one (I think it's Kitmaster?) I need to complete buried somewhere. It probably got shelved over frustration trying to fit pickups. Now I'm inspired to dig it out and have another go. Thanks for the inspiration. Regards Shaun.

I don't think that those are the platform numbers. They are the road numbers used by Saxby & Farmer or more likely the signalman. If you check out the link to ekeving.se above and scroll down to the two London Bridge signal diagrams you'll notice that the road numberings don't match! Regards Shaun.

Interesting point! I was reading about the electrification on the southern this morning. https://www.railwaymagazine.co.uk/25838/from-the-archive-the-brighton-electrification/ If you download the Saxby & Farmer image it will enlarge and bring out all the detail. After studying it, (more than once,) I found that the most interesting thing on there to be the scotch block on the frog of the docks. That's where road carriages would have been end loaded onto CCTs. Which would explain why CCTs and horseboxes etc. were to be found between the locomotive and the passenger coaches. They would have been loaded there, shunted to the head of the corresponding train and the Locomotive attached in readiness for departure! If I recall correctly the 3 most easterly platforms (1,2&3 on the diagram) were wooden and I believe they're long gone. Number 8 on the diagram had access to the train from both sides which I also believe was usually where you boarded and alighted the Southern Belle, latterly the Brighton Belle (don't quote me on that). Number 9 would have been used for any cross-town coastal services, ie: Hastings to Portsmouth. It's interesting to trace the path of such a train in both directions! Correction. That was also possible on number 10! 466 levers in total, would have been a stressful job, the Victorian equivalent of an air traffic controller! Hats off to Saxby & Farmer!!! Regards Shaun

How about some nerd porn for everyone to drool over. Taken from the Saxby & Farmer katalog 1889 (ekeving.se) Loads more here also https://www.ekeving.se/tlv/Saxby/1889/index.html My great, great grandfather was a signalman at Brighton, it's in my blood. In my next life I'm modeling Brighton. Double Click to enlarge image. (Opens in new window).

The road at Brighton. StephanieWatson on Flicker: And Bradford exchange. David Christie: Flicker pro. Have Oxford ever produced those mail vans? It's a Morris LD I believe! But, a Z series would be more fitting for my era wouldn't it.

Of course. Quite obvious when you think about it. The other side of Bradford (The GNR side) had carriage sidings and there was a big retaining wall on the West side of Brighton station. Besides, as I found out yesterday during a running session, that platform on Exchange is too short for anything longer than 2 coaches! It's just long enough to hold a parcels van up at the buffer stops and an N1 with two 50' suburban coaches or a twin. As built that would have been the case. Times change however and I'm pretty sure during the 70s under a socialist government such practice was abolished. I do remember taxis under the roof at Brighton but that was on the eastern end of the forecourt, double gates at the head of the Victoria mainline platforms and seeing Royal Mail vans on it. There was even a curb on either side of the road on it!! It was possible to sneak onto the newspaper train if you missed the last train down the night before, standing room only and they were unloaded there too I believe. The layout at Brighton is arranged with 3 lines converging on the station and those on the eastern side (platforms 7&8) were and still are mostly used for east coast services to Lewes, Seaford, Eastbourne etc. No doubt I've opened a can of worms and someone older and wiser might throw a little light on this subject. Thanks for your input. Regards Shaun