Stoke Courtenay

[St Enodoc]

12 hours ago, checkrail said:

I don't post many photos showing the layout underpinnings but here's an exception, as 5975 slows to a halt with the M set.

 

The red push-buttons on the fascia are to operate the much modified Dapol signals.  The spare hole to the left is for a switch to operate a new Dapol single-arm bracket signal (in my possession but not yet installed).  This will replace the branch platform signal (Ratio) which you can see just beyond the footbridge - my last non-working signal.  (Except for all the ground signals I hasten to add!)

 

Everything else is switched from the Prodigy wireless handset, which can be seen here attached to the fascia with glue-on Velcro tape.  The list beyond it is of route settings, just in case I forget them.  

 

There's just one exception, the little silver on-off switch you can see, controlling the 12v bulb inside the church tower to show off the stained glass I installed.  Besides the Dapol signals that will be the only nod in the direction of lighting on this layout.  And I have to say I very rarely remember to switch it on. 

 

Some new bicycles have now appeared, scattered around Stoke C., to replace the old Scalescenes ones now residing inside the vacuum cleaner.  These are the laser-cut ones from Model Railway Scenery.  Nice.

John C.

I like that John. As I've said before, I always like to see what goes on behind the scenes.

[checkrail]

7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

As I've said before, I always like to see what goes on behind the scenes.

Then you might like these!

 

As you can see, the fiddle yard is pretty full.  Now if only I could knock into next door's loft and build storage sidings for another dozen trains or so....

 

John C.

[TrevorP1]

Lot's of interesting stock there John.

[gwrrob]

4 minutes ago, TrevorP1 said:

Lot's of interesting stock there John.

 

Good job there's not a well jealous button then.

[The Great Bear]

Even the offstage bits on this layout are spotlessly tidy! Interesting, that you've chosen to operate the fiddle yard points manually - for me, that was one of the attractions of DCC being able to set up macros to set routes through the fiddle yard.

[checkrail]

9 hours ago, The Great Bear said:

Interesting, that you've chosen to operate the fiddle yard points manually - for me, that was one of the attractions of DCC being able to set up macros to set routes through the fiddle yard.

I did realise back in 2012 that DCC would enable me to set up macros for routes through the fiddle yard as it did for the station, but opted to save money - I only had a couple of trains at that time, and there are 17 points in the fiddle yard.  But motorising and automating them is still the medium term intention.  First of all I need to add a bit of pointwork to allow trains from the branch (e.g. the returning branch goods) to get back to the branch fiddle yard via the up main line. A Peco 3-way point might do the trick.  Always more to do!

Edited October 3, 2020 by checkrail
typo

[checkrail]

Following a recent request from @Harlequin here are a few more photos of the station forecourt.  I've tried to take them from a lower angle as Phil suggested, but without further damage to hedges and fencing at the front edge of the layout - I have form there!

 

 

 

 

John C.

 

Edited October 6, 2020 by checkrail

[checkrail]

I rather like this last one of the forecourt.  It's spoilt by the unwanted view of one of the purlins, but in a busy life the the stolen moments for modelling are precious and leave little time for exploring photo processing.  (Having said that, I did accidentally stumble into the cloning tool on Affinity Photo about half an hour ago, but only succeeded in painting Eternit roof tiles all over bits of the sky.)

 

John C.

[Harlequin]

37 minutes ago, checkrail said:

I rather like this last one of the forecourt.  It's spoilt by the unwanted view of one of the purlins, but in a busy life the the stolen moments for modelling are precious and leave little time for exploring photo processing.  (Having said that, I did accidentally stumble into the cloning tool on Affinity Photo about half an hour ago, but only succeeded in painting Eternit roof tiles all over bits of the sky.)

 

John C.

Thank you so much, John. They are great photos. (I never really noticed the wonderful wrought iron fence on this side of the forecourt before.)

 

That last one is the best of the bunch, despite the purlin which I really didn't notice until I read your comments!

 

The eye-level viewpoint makes a world of difference. Magazine quality. Superb!

 

Edited October 6, 2020 by Harlequin

[Neal Ball]

Excellent photos John, thanks for sharing.

 

Superb standard of modelling.

[Nick Gough]

I hope I can achieve that level of realism when I get to that stage with my layout.

[checkrail]

A week or two since anything here from me.  Been totally absorbed by my latest project for Stoke Courtenay's 'year of the coach'.  Seems I've been working on it for weeks, trying to restrain my impatience to hurry it and get back to playing trains.

 

More anon but some bits & pieces pictured below.

 

 

 

John C.

[checkrail]

On the home stretch with this carriage now I hope.  So today, while waiting for glue to set and paint to dry, i got the camera out.  Think I might have discovered another new angle.

 

Looks like it's about to chuck it down as 5557 heads off the branch into Stoke C.

 

Some time later, and it still hasn't actually rained.  And here's 5557 again on the way back to Earlsbridge, having picked up a 6-wheel low siphon dropped off a passing mainline train.  

 

John C.

[checkrail]

Meanwhile on the up main line a 28xx emerges from the road overbridge with a through freight.

 

And here's a more usual angle on the goods train.  The first angle was nice to discover but doesn't allow for much in the way of composition without including big chunks of the void at the centre of the layout.

I'm rather fond of my dirty old 28xx, wobbly handrail an' all!

 

John C.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 18, 2020 by checkrail
missed word

[snailpace]

13 hours ago, checkrail said:

A week or two since anything here from me.  Been totally absorbed by my latest project for Stoke Courtenay's 'year of the coach'.  Seems I've been working on it for weeks, trying to restrain my impatience to hurry it and get back to playing trains.

 

More anon but some bits & pieces pictured below.

 

 

 

John C.

This looks like another fine addition to your coaching stock. I have acquired a couple of PC toplight kits but have decided to try and get some sides with relief on them. You may have mentioned this before, but where are these brass ones from? Cheers, Mark

[richbrummitt]

13 hours ago, checkrail said:

Meanwhile on the up main line a 28xx emerges from the road overbridge with a through freight.

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And here's a more usual angle on the goods train.  The first angle was nice to discover but doesn't allow for much in the way of composition without including big chunks of the void at the centre of the layout.

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I'm rather fond of my dirty old 28xx, wobbly handrail an' all!

 

John C.

 

The new angle seems to be much better for a going away shot, else there is nowhere within the frame for the loco to be going. 

 

I'm rather fond of a 28xx too, especially one without outside steam pipes. 

[checkrail]

6 hours ago, snailpace said:

I have acquired a couple of PC toplight kits but have decided to try and get some sides with relief on them. You may have mentioned this before, but where are these brass ones from? Cheers, Mark

As you've recognised Mark this is another hybrid build from an old PC kit but using brass sides.  It's an E95 van composite, which in my alternative reality will form the daily Paddington - Earlsbridge through coach, alternating with the Bachmann model of a later Collett brake compo. 

 

The sides are from an old Blacksmith kit acquired in 2012 when I returned to the hobby knowing little about what kits were available and what they involved.  I have to confess that it was one of those where I opened the box, had a quick look at the instructions and took fright.  Since then it's languished in the 'too difficult' drawer.

 

From what I've read it seems that Worsley Works might have done sides for this diagram in the past, but it doesn't feature on their list at present.

 

Here are a couple of pics of the new coach build under test, checking gangways, uncoupling etc.

 

 

John C.

Edited October 19, 2020 by checkrail
typo

[checkrail]

The roof went on the E95 yesterday.  Today I hope the sides will go on, then it's just a case of adding the door furniture and the curved handrails on the coach ends.  What could possibly go wrong?  Loads.

 

Meanwhile, views of a quiet moment in the yard between trains.

 

 

John C.

[Coach bogie]

Worsley list it as an F20 slip which is an E95 with the corridor end removed and a slip end in its place. The sides are the same for both the F20/E95. Blacksmith used to have a slip end available to convert their E95 to a single ended F20 slip

 

Mike Wiltshire

[checkrail]

Thanks Mike.  I knew from Russell that they were basically the same coach but hadn't thought of looking at the Worsley works site under the slip diagram.  Might be that WW are missing a few potential sales here?

[checkrail]

Here's the completed E95, based on an old PC kit with brass sides from a Blacksmith Models kit, gangways sawn from a spare pair of Keen Systems clerestory ends, and door furniture, roof vents etc. from Comet.  The roof is the PC Models aluminium one, with water tanks and rain strips from Plastikard and microstrip.  I used the top half of the PC printed acetate sides to simplify the glazing and to provide the corridor side handrails and droplights. I cut these parts into sections and trimmed their length as necessary as the PC window intervals didn't quite align perfectly with the Blacksmith sides. The printed toplights were sliced off and discarded for the same reason - I simply glazed the toplight openings by sticking a length of opaque sellotape behind them.  But these short cuts didn't get me out of painting the bolections which, as usual, took a couple of days or so with lots of touching up first of the cream, then the Indian red, then the cream ... until I thought it passed the 'normal viewing distance' test for a 'layout coach'.

Although I've described it as completed it might still be a work in progress as there are one or two things I'm not happy about, probably the most noticeable being the scratch or mark on the RH guard's door window, corridor side.  I can't tell whether it's inside or outside - the former I suspect - but it's resistant to gentle prodding with a cocktail stick or a meths-soaked cotton bud.  And roof, sides etc. are well glued on.  Grrr!  (I had this problem once with the inside window of another coach and removed the offending bit of whatever it was by drilling a hole in the floor and prodding upwards with a cocktail stick.  This avenue isn't open to me this time as the window has a Brassmasters luggage grille glued behind it and secured with tape.)  It might be worth giving that window a coat of gloss varnish to see if it hides the blemish a bit.  Otherwise I think I'll just have to live with it.

 

Unlike my earlier hybrid PC/brass sides project this time I ensured that the ends were properly vertical and glued the roof on before the sides.  This worked well, except that the thickness of the sides, and perhaps a bit of distortion thereto, plus the thickness of the toplight tape, meant that the cantrail sort of disappeared.  I applied a false one using microstrip, but couldn't get it quite straight.  I might eventually replace it with some brass section (one of those 'round tuit' jobs I guess).

 

Here's the compartment side.

 

Having finished the E95 this morning after what seems an age I've had a relaxing day photographing it in service on the layout, picture to follow.

 

John C.

Edited October 21, 2020 by checkrail
typo

[Nick Gough]

Another nice toplight.

[The Fatadder]

Looking very nice, makes such a difference having a decent mix of coaches.  Especially when they look that nice 

[Neal Ball]

I wouldn’t worry about the blemish John @checkrail, it looks like luggage on board.

 

I bet from the normal viewing distance it won’t be seen.

 

Another great carriage.

[checkrail]

Some through coach action today.  5557 has just brought the branch train in from Earlsbridge and is due to convey the daily through coach from Paddington on the return journey, in anticipation of which it has positioned itself on the up main just by the road bridge.  And right on time 5975 Winslow Hall appears on a Plymouth-bound stopper having brought the through coach forward from Newton Abbott, passes the stationary prairie on the bridge and draws into Stoke Courtenay's down platform.

 

 

 

As the M-set slows to a halt we see that the through coach today is a diagram E95 van composite of 1913 vintage, smartly finished in the 1934 livery (though one of the guard's door windows could do with a clean!)

 

 

 

 

John C.