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Turin 60

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  1. Turin 60

    O Gauge wagon salvage

    By Turin 60,

    As threatened below should be some photo's of O gauge wagons I've been working on, or perhaps salvaging might be a better description, oh one small thing please don't expect anything truely fine scale or accurate to the nearest thou or so!
     
    A few years back I bought from a certain well known internet auction site a job lot of built O gauge wagons, now I knew from the photographs that they weren't that good and lets just say I was not disappointed! They were stashed away as "someday" projects, now that some day has arrived I have made a start.
    The first one tackled was a very short open wagon based on a cut-down Slaters open which had seen better days being missing its axle guards and a buffer, not to mention the brake gear! Well another wagon from the " job lot" donated a buffer while the bits box provided a source for W irons, V hangers, brake block and lever. Wheels came from my small stock as did the bearings, the body work is still being tarted up with microstrip bolt heads so there will be more to come when it is completed.
    P2260462 by Turin60, on Flickr
     
    You remember the buffer donor wagon, well it's missing a body end, brake gear and all the buffers now! So I removed the balance of the distorted remains of the body, cut a section out of the chassis & floor and re-joined these two to give another short wagon that now has a 1 plank body. The brake gear was robbed from a Duncan models 2 plank wagon, buffers from stock and other bits and bobs from the bits box. It has now received a full set of microstrip bolt heads and is nearly ready for painting.
    by Turin60, on Flickr
    P2260460 by Turin60, on Flickr
     
    Final item for now which might be a no hoper! It is a Triang Big Big train chassis (mineral wagon at a guess) which some one has extended. I have removed the remains of the brake gear and used some microstrip so the chassis looks more like a timber affair. I had thoughts of it becoming some sort of a double bolster wagon, but horror of horrors it sits much too high!
    P2260459 by Turin60, on Flickr
    P2260465 by Turin60, on Flickr
     
    Lets see what happens
     
    John.
  2. Turin 60

    Long time no entry

    By Turin 60,

    I haven't put anything on my blog for a long time so let's start again with a quick catch up.                                                                                                           In the intervening time we have moved back into Andover, in the process lost a bedroom (the railway room), a bathroom and a garage (it's called "downsizing".....don't do it!).
    I now have in the garden a 3m x 3m cabin insulated and with electrics which must serve as both railway room and workshop (you should see how much "stuff" I've had to get rid of ), however there are the startings of 3 layouts in 3 different scale/gauge combinations sprouting around the walls,as usual I couldn't bring myself to concentrate on just one scale/gauge.
    I shall not trouble this forum with my narrow gauge efforts but solely the fine scale O gauge and the EM gauge layouts. The O gauge has baseboards built, track laid and wired, whilst the EM has had to make do with a modified 2nd hand board I bought a couple of years ago and promptly cut it into two parts lengthwise. Although nothing else has happened on the EM other than the construction and wiring of a sector plate for the fiddle yard, why? Because there might be something else EM wise in the wings possibly coming my way.
     
    I'm hoping to take some photographs tomorrow of some O gauge wagon salvage I've been working on, all will become clear.
     
    John Bruce.
  3. Turin 60
    Inspired by "Relaxing Hobbys" conversions to standard gauge from 009 I thought I'd try my hand at following the same path!
    For some years now some slightly battered W&L vans have lurked in the "someday" box, well with nothing to lose I introduced them to Mr Razor saw and they got along splendidly as hopefully the photograph shows.
     
    New ends and floor, a Cambrian Gloucester chassis kit, some Kenline wooden brake blocks, new roof, some Fourmost vents and the job's done. In fact I rebuilt two vans with the second one having vents in the end of the body. And there's more where this came from which I will bore you with at some point in the not too distant future, but in the mean time I must improve the weathering on this one and varnish the other standard gauge wagons for my light railway project.
     
    John.
     
    Edit...oh dear I've just noticed I didn't remove the plates for the diagonal body strapping from the chassis, another little job to do!
  4. Turin 60

    Pepper!

    By Turin 60,

    I am still working on the last pair of cottages for Wherewithial Quay, which I also managed to loose one of the windows for! Window problem is sorted and actually looks slightly better for the larger window.
    However the left hand cottage (the cottage in question) is intended to finished as "pebble dash" and was built with the Wills "render or concrete" sheet material, but try as I might I wasn't happy with the texture or colour. I even tried mixing talc' with what I hoped would be an appropriate coloured paint - still not a happy bunny!
     
    Then I recalled from somewhere that Gordon Gravett had represented this sort of wall finish with house hold pepper, so to the kitchen!
    The pepper was duly liberated from the kitchen cupboard ("what do you want that for?" asked my wife - she should know better by now!) the walls to be so treated were given a generous coating of Humbrol matt varnish and over a sheet of paper the sprinkling began. Once happy with the amount on the first wall the peppr was very gently patted down and the process continued on the next wall.
    Once completed the cottage was left overnight before gently brushing off the surplus, and yes finally I'm happy with the colour and texture. I will say the texture is maybe a little coarse for 4mm scale but overall I'm really pleased with it.
     

     
    Still on the "to do" list for these cottages are make door step for the next cottage up the hill, paint stonework & door steps, install windows followed by a little light weathering and installation ready for Salisbury a fortnight today.
     
    John.
  5. Turin 60
    Last year at Expo NG I was discussing with various folk the subject of railways and water and I said I had always wanted to build a layout including beech huts! Collectively we came to the conclusion that all that was needed was a little imagination and an APA Box. So this afternoon while waiting for some filler to set (really?) on "Wherewithial Quay" I set to and assembled my "Box", fitted some small battens on which the"sea" will sit (this one will be a tide in layout) and cut the "sea" from some hardboard-to be glued in place this evening!
     
    The model will be some sort of cross between the beach extention of the Selsey Tramway and the Rye & Camber with a hint of Iain Rice thrown in for good measure in 009. The modelled scene will consist of a loop and one siding onto a crumbling concrete jetty belong to the local fishermans co-operative.
    There will be passenger trains, trains coming from off-scene on the right with shingle and the odd wagon for the fishermans Co-operative shed.
    A small turntable fiddle yard each end will sort the marshalling of trains out so no grubby mitts on the stock.
     
    The two photographs show firstly the box with its support battens for the sea, while the second shows the sea sat in place.
     
    I'll post some more sooner or later, usual disclaimer"don't hold your breath!"
     
    John.
  6. Turin 60

    Proof of the pudding

    By Turin 60,

    Just to prove that my recent blog entry was not just waffle & hot air concerning the light railway project, behold a station building and a coach.
     
    The building is slightly modified Hornby with a new corrugated iron, glazing and a metal chimney for the office stove. Plus a suitably tired looking looking paint job.
     
    The coach if one may so dignify the relic that you see before you is a 5 and 9 kit obtained from a friend of mine and reworked a little with a new roof and compensation. There are a few passengers inside but the poor souls probably don't realise that the coach has no brakes of its own, but also if they don't reach thier destination before sunset they'll be sitting in the dark!
     
    More soon-ish!
  7. Turin 60
    Well a month has easily passed since The Wiltshire Group show at Pewsey and NSL's debut. Running up to the show I was having some doubts about how insane I would be driven by the limited operating potential of having only 5 wagons! However I can report that as the layout is as much for talking about as it is operating the potential for insanity was not as great as I feared.
     
    However, as is always the case what worked well enough at home decided to misbehave on arrival at Pewsey! Yes the "Hoffman" pattern point motor played up from the very start to the extent that I had to check the position of the blades everytime I changed the point (and on a layout with only one point that was a lot!), that makes it a 100% failure rate :( .
     
    So what to do. As you can see in the photographs that follow there is a nice warehouse in line with the point which will be perfect for hiding a slightly butchered "Tortoise" inside which will operate the point through a wire in tube arrangement-sorted .
     
    The other photographs are just some general views of some of the buildings on the model/diorama. The only nearly finished one being the stone building with the wooden upper story which will be a marine engineers workshop.
     
    As any readers who follow this blog or those who are unlucky enough to stumble across it while looking for something else will know or will discover I am quite incapable of concentrating on one scale or gauge. What should arrive in the post the other day but a chassie from those nice people at Hollywood Foundry for my S scale 04, at least that only leaves me a body "kit" to build. Oh dear I'd better get the 16ton mineral finished to go with it.
     
    On the EM front at the recent Andover show myself and "Fursty Ferret" each bought a cheapie Hornby van body, mine was destined to become a slightly freelance van with outside framing for my light railway project, while "Fursty" informs me it is a little like a Hull & Barnsley(?) Rly refridgerated van? Mine has aqquired its outside framing and a Wooden Gloucester chassie from Cambrian while "Furstys" has some rather natty brass(?) strapping.
    I will try and attach the images if I can find them. Please let me know what you folks think.
     
    John.
  8. Turin 60
    As promised I have all being well, attached a photograph and a scan of the New Small Layout (hereafter referred to as NSL, at least until I come up with a name for it!) , hopefully these will remove any doubt or fuzziness from the issue and prove that I do know what I am talking about.
    Since last night the walls for the derelict chapel have been glued together so for the purpose of the picture you can finally grasp where it's going to be sited. It will sit on a level site with a small retaining wall to the road and a set of access steps at the "downhill" end adjacent to the shop, there will then be timber baulks propping it up to try and encourage it not to fall down.
    The two objects between the sidings and the foam hill are a pair of kilns, both redundant with one still open while the the other will have a small shed appended to the front of it.
     
    Enjoy, hope it makes sense.
     
    John.
  9. Turin 60
    Hello all, it's been a while since I posted any updates so here we go. Not done too much lately, suffering a slight loss of direction and focus but I have been working on a couple of Parkside LNER ply vans. One a salvage job bought as a body only that had been built, this received a new chassie with vacuum Moreton brakes while the other was a new build which has received LNER 8 shoe vacuum brakes and is now awaiting a visit to the paint shop (AKA garage with the door slightly open).
    There's also an ABS LMS van awaiting a roof and of course the visit to the garage/paint shop as well as an old K's LNER van (another salvage job) which is also going to get the full 8 shoe treatment!
     
    Finally as nothing better was planned today (I went to Expo EM yesterday) I spent the afternoon doing most of the wiring on my new micro/micro 009 layout, the strange colours in the board are a consequence of the materials it is made from which include among other things old advertising foam board and a picture frame!
     
    That's about it for now as I shall save my S scale ramblings for another time.
     
    Attached should be a couple of photographs of the top and bottom of the 009 layout.
     
    John.
  10. Turin 60
    I must confess that today I have done something I never thought I'd do, allow me to explain.
    My small EM gauge layout "The Works Yard" has as its fiddle yard a small sliding sector plate running on some quite expensive drawer runners, the sliding action is really nice and smooth and so it should be for the price I paid for them .
     
    However, because the movement required sometimes is beyond the end of the runners (in other words they are being used in the same fashion as they would be for say a kitchen drawer) I'm noticing a certain amount of droop . Which causes the rail alignment to drop and thus cause occasional random uncoupling by the DG couplings I use.
     
    Also I am becoming more fussy about the handling and reversing of the stock and the potential damage this causes, also the delay before the exhibition visitor sees another train arrive on the scene. is this an age related issue I wonder?
     
    So a new fiddle yard is in order. I already have a 9" Lazy Susan bearing, all I now need is a new baseboard for it sit & rotate upon .
    Enter the nice people at Model Railway Solutions of Poole, found their website, phoned them up, had a chat and ordered a ready built baseboard. That was Wednesday, picked it up from them today at Eurotrack. You can't get better than that, looks a nice piece of work and they only charged £10-00 for assembly. At least being done in a proper workshop it should be good and true, and it is. Thanks very much guys.
     
    I always try and make as decent a job as I can when building baseboards, and it is quite satisfying getting your little plywood piece of reality come together. However it's not my favourit part of this caper and I don't have a large flat work area to ensure that it all goes together flat and true. No problem this time .
    I now only have to build the fiddle yard on top of it.
     
    John.
  11. Turin 60

    It's been a while!

    By Turin 60,

    Some time has passed since I added an entry to this blog so here goes...
     
    This morning I went along to the S Scale meeting and AGM at Oxford, managed to pick up some bits & pieces for my various items of S Scale wagonry. Wheels and brake levers+guards for the 16ton mineral wagons and some spoked wheels for the ex LSWR resin van-looking forward to building the van now!!
     
    On the way back down South to Wiltshire I called in to the Newbury MRC exhibition for a quick look around (is this show secret as I found no mention of it on the web?). Serveral good layouts (IMHO) and picked up a cast whitemetal kit from a second hand stand, it looks like a long GWR twin bolster wagon, perhaps about the same length as a Tube C? Haven't looked it up in the reference books yet, was this kit made by K's?
     
    Aside from buying yet more kits to build I've taken my 009 layout Lower Peak Wharf to its last show and delivered it on to its new owner. Taken the EM gauge The Works Yard to the show at Calne, the layout ran well and I ended up buying three RTR wagons for regauging and detailing. I didn't mean to but couldn't resist the "Presflow" wagon.
     
    And finally for now I've got around to starting the High Level chassie kit for an 03, up until now I've only built their gearboxes and they work OK.
    I can honestly say the steps are Origami in nickle silver but they go together wonderfully, what a superb piece of design, absolutely top marks to High Level.
  12. Turin 60
    I haven't managed to put anything up here recently so here's a little catch up!
     
    For the EM gauge we have another 3H ex LNER van this time with wooden underframe and full fitted brake gear (brake gear plus the buffers from ABS/Fourmost), this exhausts my stock of un-built 3H van kits which is a shame as I'd like to have built one as a 10' wb wooden chassie with full vacuum brakes. I'll have to keep my eyes open for another one. This van is now awaiting some more weathering and a decision on wether I continue with the DG couplings or change over to 3mm S&W's.
     
    For the 009 we have a freelance bogie flat wagon with ends, this came from the 009 Society 2nd hand stand bits box and might originally have been a standard gauge wagon. I've removed the sides and fitted bogies beneath it, not sure what it's purpose in life would have been. Don't the Americans refer to this sort of wagon as a "bulkhead flat"? Sittingbourne had some I believe although with metal ends?
     
    2nd 009 wagon is built from an etched brass kit by N Brass for a Glyn Valley Tramway tar tank wagon, although for my purposes I'm saying it is a water tank which is used to take water to a station up the line without it's own water supply. It's a very small wagon and quite fiddly but worth it in the end. I've just got to make a water hose out of solder, paint it and secure on top of the tank with some matt varnish or matt medium.
     
    Oh, the model building in the background is a small workshop for my new small 009 working diorama or shunting puzzle. i was going to take a photograph of it as well but the batteries in the camera went flat at the vital moment , oh well next time maybe.
     
    John.
  13. Turin 60
    My but it's a long time since I put anything into the blog, however to make up for it there are two seperate items.
    First the 06, I had fully intended to put up a couple more entries as it progressed from grey to full green but that didn't happen. So here we are now in British Railways green and all lettered up, the weathering has started but there's a way to go yet. I know the lettering font is wrong but I couln't find the type that corresponded with all the photographs I had, and to be honest I wanted to complete the model as it's taken far longer than I anticipated.
     
    Second we have progress to date of a very small and simple shunting puzzle in 009, base board is built from an old picture frame, foam board (salvaged from skip hence colours!), blue insulation board and small section stripwood. More about this in due course but the setting is a small Cornish harbour or tidal creek set in the early 1920's.
     
    John.
  14. Turin 60

    06 Progress

    By Turin 60,

    Hello all, I do hope no one's been holding their breath since my last/first/initial blog entry as I'd hate to be responsible someone asphixiating themselves!
     
    Attached should be an image of the bulk of my 06 rebuild in grey primer before going into the paintshop (read garage) to be dressed in British Railways green courtesy of those nice people at Railmatch. The cab is awaiting priming and I am currently building a control panel for the aforementioned cab, completely forgot about that until now.
     
    Technical details, body Hornby, chassie and some detailing parts by Branchlines, motor & gearbox Highlevel and wheels by Markits.
     
    Hope to finish the control panel and get that and the cab primed this weekend, mind you the weather is nice outside!!
     
    John.
  15. Turin 60
    Sincere appologies to all who were rightly offended by the poor quality of the photographs in my last blog entry, I have had another go this AM and all looks much better.
    Indeed there is a bonus photograph to suggest whreabouts in the country the light railway is supposed to have been!
     

    Ex LNWR 6 wheel brake van
     

    Light railway brakevan after "Relaxing Hobby"
     

    Local coal merchants open culled from two Trix opens.
     
    I hope I am forgiven, more to follow soon-ish!
     
    John.
  16. Turin 60

    No wait there's more...

    By Turin 60,

    As I promised earlier (rashly!) a few more photographs of rolling stock for the light railway project.
     
    Last year I bought from a society 2nd hand stand a largely built etched brass kit for some sort of non-passenger freight stock, which proved to be a Roxey kit for a S&D van. Well at the time my railway is set many of these vans had been absorbed into Southern stock, so this seemed like a sound idea to follow and a good friend lent me a book on Souhern liverys.
    Well to say it made my brain hurt and eyes nearly start to bleed is not too much of an exageration! The publication in question (and I'm sure some folks will know the one I have in mind) was in essence a collection of various articles on the subject written over the years and subseqently collected together and published.
    well, at the end of this imformation gathering exercise (ha!) I gave up on the original intention and decided the light railway had aquired the vehicle mainly for the conveyance of watercress and other perishables up to the main railway network.
     
    This fiction was aided by the aquisition of an "as new" Hornby utility van from another society 2nd hand stand, I was being good though as I left it 's purchase until the second day of the show to give anyone else a chance. It's conversion to EM gauge though was to say the least interesting!
     

     
    The next vehicle is another complete crib from "Relaxing Hobby", he had the fine notion of using 009 or similar narrow gauge wagon body's (suitably widened) for "old style" standard gauge vehicles. I'm afraid I couldn't resist widening a Parkside 3' gauge van body and fitting it to a shortened "Gloucester" underframe, fitted with archaic wooden brake blocks from Kenline.
     

     
    To draw this saga to an end for now we come to the last vehicle, another salvage job. Aquired from a friend this' partially built brake van by "Jidenco" was just crying out for a home on the light railway or my industrial model. The work involved a little tidying up, making some footsteps, sandboxes, brakegear (including brake standards) and a roof. Rounded off by a wee man standing at one end waiting for something to do (I won't tell him he never will have anything to do if you don't).
    The roof is not destined to stay white, it just wasn't painted at the time the photograph was taken.
     

     

     
    There we are, a few more items of rolling stock for a railway that doesn't yet have a complete engine. The first one though is a terrier bought as damaged from a certain well known internet auction site and already built to EM gauge - curently "in works".
    watch this space, but as I've said before please don't hold your breath!
     
    John.
  17. Turin 60
    Just over a week to go and I should be beavering away on Wherewithial for next Saturdays 009 open day organised by the SWOONS group, however I am easily distracted....
     
    While waitng for some glue to dry I thought I'd just do a few small jobs on another recent aquisition from a 2nd hand stand, it's an Impetus 4mm scale Manning Wardle class I which someone had started. in fact they'd got as far as errecting the frames, to S4/P4 standards as it turned out.
    All my 4mm scale standard gauge stock is to EM gauge and this was to be no exception, so in with the big iron and all came apart in a flash. No actual flash you understand as that would suggest a fault on my soldering iron.
     
    Clean up, EM frame spacers from the etch, bearings in and all went together very nice & square to give the result shown below. I'm not going to touch it now for a least a week....honest!
     

     
    By the way that's not a gold ring the chassis is propped up on but a ferrule out of compression fitting.
     
    John.
  18. Turin 60
    Time marches on and I have tried to resist doing anything to the Manning Wardle I class chassis (opps-sorry mention of standard gauge!), I have however managed to get the top two cottages finished and ready to fix into place on Wherewithial Quay. Along with the pavement in front of same and the tumbledown chapel next door, next projects will be the props holding the chapel upright and the Post Office which is the next building down the hill from the chapel.
     
    After which it will probably be the cobbled road down the hill in front of these buildings followed by the car repairers workshop & house. Busy, busy, busy.
     
    PS I did remove & refit the front frame spacer on the MW as it was the wrong way round.
     

    SAM_0529 by Turin60, on Flickr
     

    SAM_0531 by Turin60, on Flickr
  19. Turin 60

    In the flesh

    By Turin 60,

    I'm busy working on buildings for Wherwithial Quay (it's ok you're spared photographs this time) mainly finishing off and planting. Slightly gutted as I seem to have lost/misplaced/can't find/the cats gone off with it (delete as appropriate!) one of the Grandtline windows for a cottage, I guess I'll have to enlarge or otherwise change the opening.
    The layout will be appearing in the flesh as it were at the Wealdon Railway Group show at Arudel this Saturday. 10 - 5 at the ist Arundel Scout hut, Canada Road, Arundel, BN18 9HG. There will be about a dozen layouts.
     
    Do come & say hello.
     
    John.
  20. Turin 60

    Good intentions...

    By Turin 60,

    I had good intentions of getting on with the final buildings for my 009 layout(?) Wherewithial Quay, however I decided it would be an equaly good idea to complete some of my oustanding projects. Rock & a hard place methinks!
     
    The oustanding projects won. Two of the projects are brake vans (for which I seem to have a cetain affection). First up is a LNWR 6 wheeled affair bought second hand from a member on RM web some tine ago, this I have regauged to EM (in situ!) added a new roof, some bolt head detail and re-painted a dark grey. I'm not sure if this one will end up on my light railway or the industrial yet.

     
     
     
    The second one illustrated was inspired by "Relaxing Hobby"s own version here on RM web using the Parkside Rheidol 009 brake van for an early or old school vintage brake van. Mine uses the same body widened by using the appropriately spaced scribed styrene from Evergreen and a Gloucester chassis which I think was from Cambrian.
    Wooden brake blocks, an old oil lamp, roof vent and some footboards round this one off. Currently in a brown livery it awaits some weathering and toning down, and of course both are awaitng couplings (DG in my case)
     
    So you see although the unlucky light railway passengers don't currently have a carriage with brakes or lights fitted the frieght trains are quite well blessed, and there are more completed projects to follow very soon.
     
    John.
     
    I must appologise having just uploaded the photographs I can see they're pretty awfull, must try harder!
  21. Turin 60

    Blowing the dust off!

    By Turin 60,

    Gosh what can I say, last entry in my blog February 2012. What have I been doing, indeed what HAVE I been doing??
     
    Smallest first I think, Wherewithial Quay my Cornish 009 layout, last seen slowly dragging itself from the primordial swamp that I call my railway room. Actually it was shown at the Wiltshire group of the 009 Society members day last weekend at Pewsey, it's one and only point motor this year survived the ordeal and overall it was well received. It seems that my holidays in Cornwall were not wasted afterall.
     
    My EM gauge layout The Works Yard is nearly finished (as much as any layout ever is), a few details on the layout and screening of the fiddle yard to complete. A few more specialist wagons still need completing, trestle wagon & so on.
     
    S scale...still gathering bits including an etch for a Manning Wardle F class.
     
    The future. I am gathering items for my long awaited EM light railway project, most recently from a certain well known internet auction site an EM A1 Terrier in need of a little TLC, runs nicely though. Whoever built this Westward kit made a really nice job of it.
     
    Hopefully I will be able to post a few photo's in the not too distant future of various (too many) projects, as I've said before though don't hold your breath!
     
    John.
  22. Turin 60
    Wherewithial Quay is going to the Wessex Group do at Colehill at the end of the month so this has given me the impetus to complete some work on the Layout. Firstly the warehouse at the center of the layout has never had it's down pipes for the guttering fitted (not my favourite job I will confess), well this task is now complete. Some flaps have been fitted in front of the inward opening doors to aid the workers on the first & second floors to retieve sacks and so on from the hoist (these flaps must have a proper name...any offers?). Also a modicum of weathering has been applied to take away the newness of the building.
    Secondly the forecourt in front of the warehouse has had the gravel removed and a nice new cobbled surface complete with drainage has been installed, the covers have not yet been painted in the photograph though.
     
    There are still many things to do, for instance the wall around the garage proprieters garden needs to be installed, several small rowing boats need painting and installing, and....the list of small things to do goes on. i'm sure you know what I mean.
     
    SAM_0771 by Turin60, on Flickr
     
    John.
  23. Turin 60
    Long time readers might recall last February(!) I bought a ready built baseboard to make a new fiddle yard for my EM gauge layout "The Works Yard", last February note!
     
    Well over the last year I've cut some holes in it, added a new level to it and generally faffed around.
    The point is the layout is due at both Devizes and Swindon in March, so I'd better pull my finger out .
    The plan is as follows, try and get all the track laid this week including any droppers from the plain track. Next fix magnets to the underside of the turntable to trip a reed switch which will change the polarity on the turntable via a relay , finally test operation of same and fit ply front and end to fiddle yard to smarten things up a little and prevent any "accidents"
     
    A piccy follows below and yes there will be a point installed to complete running round of arriving trains, and the sharp curve for the engine shed at the front will be in the region of 2' - 2' 6" radius - OK for my little engines though.
  24. Turin 60
    There I was beavering away on my RT Models Sentinel when I realised (not very bright this one!) I had in total three Sentinels on the go at various stages.
     
    A Hornby one that has had a repaint and awaits re-assembly, transfers, flush glazing and etched wipers.
    A freelance double cab version from TB for the 009 which sits on a Kato chassis, and of course the RT version still being built. Which when finished will be in a pale blue livery as my old 7mm scale Impetus one was years ago.
     
    Enough tapping of keys....back to the work in hand.
     
    John.
  25. Turin 60
    Visitors to this blog might recall that I was operating the one & only point on the layout with a Hoffman pattern point motor, which duly decided to play up from the off once I arrived at the Wiltshire groups members day at Pewsey back in August.
    This point motor has been removed, it is no more!
     
    It's replacement is a slightly modified Tortoise point motor hidden inside the large warehouse occupying center stage, see below for the now you see me now you don't photographs.
     
    Some years ago I bought a whole load of second hand Tortoise units from the old Mendip Models shop at a very good price - £12-00 for three if I remember. This last one I modified to see if I could work two points at the same time in the fiddle yard on my American HO layout New Sarum. It was not a great success. So now I have restored its functionality with a simple brass strip (etched fret waste) to create a new pivot point for the operating wire, which will the via wire in tube operate the point. Of course all the grubby mechanical items will be carefully hidden beneath the ground and inside the warehouse.
     
    Once this work is done and my enthusiasm for the project is restored all will come on in leaps and bounds - that's the plan anyway.
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