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!

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.

All these wonderful period figures and more to come. But I'm a bloke, uniforms and overalls I'm ok with. However ladies & gents apparel from the Edwardian period and the appropriate colours are a closed book to me, dammit I know nothing of todays fashions let alone 90 years ago! So, has anyone found any useful web sites or resources to point the ignorant such as myself in the correct direction for appropriate colour schemes for our little Edwardian folk. John.

I'll start saving up! John.

May I be a touch controversal...you could always replace the chassis with the High Level chassis kit. Assuming of course you don't mind building it. John.

What??? John.

See you there with Wherewithial Quay. John.

£30.00 to £40.00 worth of Roy Link O14 bits & bobs for £11.00 + P&P John.

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.

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.

Oh yes the leaning loo, I'd forgotten about that! I do hope it's still there. John.

Well worth a visit, I haven't been for some years, but will make a point of so doing this year. John.

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.

1, 3, & 6, agree with the comment about 6. Ditto on the link please. John.

RNAD vans now available for members of the 009 society as of this date 15/02/2013. John Bruce.

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

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.

Ohh, please do share some info' on the conversion to EM, I've mine to do but can't/mustn't start it for a fortnight. John.

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.

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.

Oh Dear, you've done it again. I do find your stuff facinating. well done, I will confess to a certain amount of imitation which I will illustrate as soon as I get some better photographs taken. Or if you don't mind really poor quality photographs visit Turin 60's blog and you might recognise a certain brake van. John

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!

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!