Chumley End

[gismorail]

Remember this layout :

 

 

 

Good morning all...... just thought I'd bring Chumley End up to date following my exploits with Chester Northgate Shed at the Hazel Grove Model Railway show last month which was a most enjoyable weekend.

Chumely End is now booked to appear at Hazel Grove next year so work to complete this layout has been progressing well over the last couple of weeks. There are areas of scenery to finalise like some prime tree's to be made for along the front of the scene and setting out population and vehicles around the layout but the main task is to complete the two fiddle yards with cassettes. 

 

                                                                                                       

 

Each cassette has a brass tube & rod connection at each end to make an electrical contact with the main base boards which saves having to have any wiring in the fiddle yards which just makes life simply. 

 

 

I have constructed sides for the cassettes using  3mm ply board at a height of 5cms which makes for good protection of the trains but also makes it easy to make them up within the cassette. As can be seen from the above picture the sides are glued & screwed onto the 12mm base which makes a nice solid unit. 

 

 

Above the completed train cassette ready for operation 

 

 

 

The final couple of pictures shows the two fiddle yard areas with some of the completed cassette's in position for operation as well as others which can be stored behind the front fiddle yard panel which saves having to move the loaded cassette out of the fiddle yard area. 

To be continued and I hope that this will give others some ideas for their own storage solutions. 

 

 

[Andrew P]

Very neat Martin, but where do you put the coffee and cakes?

[gismorail]

9 hours ago, Andrew P said:

Very neat Martin, but where do you put the coffee and cakes?

 

9 hours ago, Andrew P said:

Very neat Martin, but where do you put the coffee and cakes?

He He there's only one place for those Andy  yum yum in my tum tum 

[gismorail]

Well I'm still pushing on with the storage cassette's for the two fiddle yards and it's turning into quite a marathon to be honest. I believe it will be worth all the effort in the long term as I have designed them in such a way that any future layouts that I build can utilise the same cassette's. Something that I have added to them is a removable board to each end so that the stock is held safe within the cassette eliminating any accidents.

 

 

 

 

Each stop board is removable once the cassette is located into the end of the scenery track end. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still got some tidying up of the ends of each cassette and once that has been completed I intend to give each one a coat of varnish then it's time to add Kadee couplings to the stock which will be another marathon job but hey ho happy days / nights 

 

 

[gismorail]

Well here we all are stuck in the 'Lockdown' .....what a very strange world we are currently in ...where the British Prime Minister tells us to stay at home and ''play trains''..... I call it ''Enforced Enjoyment'' 

To be honest the first couple of weeks saw me still doing some Trucking around the country for some of the essential customers as most of the full time drivers have been stood down so it's easier to bring in the 'old part timers' to keep things ticking over. Have to admit it's been a joy to drive a 44 ton articulated lorry on virtually empty roads such a change to normal conditions...... but as is often said all good things come to an end and the dreaded letter from the Chef Medical Officer of Wales landed with a massive crash on the door mat. Yes you've got ''I've been grounded'' due to under laying medical conditions for 12 weeks.....!!!!!!  This is due to the medication I take for arthritis suppresses my immune system so that's it .......modelling time with no guilt  oh yes will have to some DIY work as well I suppose 

 

 

[KNP]

Sorry to hear you are grounded and look forward to see the layout progress.

They are indeed strange times, hopefully we'll get back to some sense of normally in the near future.

 

Look after yourself and stay safe.

[Ray H]

Kevin

 

A downside of getting back to normal will for a lot of modellers will mean less modelling time   :-(

Edited April 15, 2020 by Ray H

[gismorail]

Thanks for that Kevin indeed I will be careful, fortunately my home is 'very' isolated with the nearest neighbour being about 1/3 of a mile away. I always say that there are only three types of people that visit here ....those that are invited .....the postman ....and those that are lost

Well having stood down from my 'Trucking' life for the coming weeks ...... strange thing is when something is taken away for you 'by order'  one does miss it ..... 

 

 

Well she is a beauty .....a new generation Scania 480 with all the driver comforts ....comfy bed loads of storage fridge / freezer microwave semi-automatic with paddle manual gear change climate control and a fully fitted DAB radio ( tuned to Planet Rock in my case ) ..oh it's so hard being a 'Steering Wheel Attendant ' these days  'ROCK & ROLL'

 

Anyway back to 'Enforced Enjoyment' ..... in my earlier post I had explained the cassette fiddle yard system that I had made and over time this has proved to be very successful in my humble opinion so I have turned my attention this week to sorting out the stock which will be used during Chumley  End's exhibition commitments. 

Most of the work has involved the fitting of Kadee couplings to freight stock and locomotives which is a fiddly old job but is well the effort and although this is all but completed there is still more fine adjustments still to be made. I have been also weathering the stock into a 'rundown' state that would be appropriate to the late 1950's and early 60's era. 

 

Three Dapol cattle wagons ready for service , two of these wagons were used in the brewery area on Chester Northgate Shed layout as 'Ale Vans' which was one of the uses that they were used for if they were in good enough condition. Dapol freight stock  I know is fairly basic compared with the more up to date stock that is now available but with a bit of TLC they can be turn into convincing models. 

Chas Jones the Agricultural Merchant who has a branch of his business by the station at Chumley will be pleased to see that a converted bogie bolster is now in service for 'Bulk Tractor' delivery. 

 

The local coal merchant 'Alan Morris' is now able to fill the coal drops ready to delivery coal to the many open grate fire places in this very rural location. 

I am sure that the local PW superintendent will be much relieved to see stocks of rails and sleepers being delivered to the small PW yard at Chumley End ready for much needed track maintenance on the branch, although I'm fairly sure that the unruly PW gang would rather be supping pints of Northgate Ale in the local pub

I do like the Bachmann Presflow wagons and I know these were often used for local cement delivery via tank transfer. (note to myself scratch built a road tanker unless anyone knows a source RTR ) 

 

 

 

[gismorail]

Another little project that I have been developing over the Easter Weekend is a small diorama for displaying / photographing stock

 My normal Easter Weekend activities would involved a day at the York Model Railway Show , I can remember when the show used to be held at the Assemble & De Grey Rooms in the centre of York which shows how long I have been going there each Easter. It's then usually followed the next day with a trip to Pickering to sample the delights of the wonderful North Yorkshire Moors Railway but  that's all a none starter this year 

 

The idea is that it's just a straight length of track with an up sloping embankment to the back scene and a down ward sloping embankment to the front so that a good clear shot can be taken in natural daylight which always shows detail far better than with artificial lighting. 

The basic frame work has been made from 5mm plyboard with insulation (Kingspan) board fitted into the framework and the track bed base is MDF ....all scrap materials from other projects.The insulation board once shaped with a rasp is covered in UPVC glue in generous amounts to make a good strong seal and plaster bandage is layered onto the structure and  allowed to dry out over night . 

 

In the next stage I covered the embankments in-ready to use tile adhesive / grout which I have found to be an excellent product which dries fairly quickly and you can make some nice rock outcrops which you can just make out on the left hand side and I have set a retaining wall made from Wills stonework sheet into the right side end of the embankment. Again this has been allowed to dry over night. 

 

I have given the outside of the framework a coat of white primer and the embankments have received a coat of 'greenish' emulsion paint. I have highlighted the rock outcrop with Tamiya acrylic paints mixed up to give a sand stone effect. Once again the back scene strip is another left over from Chumley End. 

 

The track base was coated with UPVC glue and a length of Fine scale track was carefully laid down into the glued surface and double checked for alignment and then weighted down and allowed to set . 

And what better weight  to use but the prototype  

[St Enodoc]

32 minutes ago, gismorail said:

I can remember when the show used to be held at the Assemble & De Grey Rooms

Oh yes!

[gismorail]

20 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Oh yes!

You too remember those 'massive' columns that one used have to look around to see a layout in the Assembly Rooms and the sear elegance of the De Grey Rooms with it's sweeping staircase ........ oh those were the days. There was something so special about the show in those days which often involved a trip around the Minister and the fledgling National Railway Museum Wonderful 

[gismorail]

Well another wonderful day in ' Lockdown '   self isolation and it's a glorious sunny morning here in North Wales 

 

 

I reckon this is the best place to be in this very worrying time and these are a couple of shots from my front gate this morning ....splendid isolation I reckon even the sheep are keep social distancing 

Before I start on today's tasks here a quick update from yesterday. 

 

After a night under pressure the track has been sprayed with a base 'track colour' and is now ready for ballasting 

 

I made a bit of a discovery while I was looking for some scatter material yesterday and at the bottom of the box I found two old Lima Siphon wagons that I had forgotten about over the years. Both are in GWR livery, one is a Siphon G and the other is a Siphon H so I got a bit side tracked and decided to update them into BR livery with a few added details so that I can run them both on Chumley End 

 

Both have been stripped down and the bodies have received a coat of Halfords primer prior to a respray. 

 

 

Once the primer had been applied the amount of detail that is on these models becomes more obvious which is amazing when you consider how old these examples are ! 

 

 

I have applied Tamiya masking tape in readiness for a coat of dirty roof paint 

 

 

While the spray gun is loaded with some roof paint I have masked up a Bachmann 108 DMU which has just had a Zimo sound chip project from Digitrains and a pair of Hornby suburban coaches that will be running on the layout. 

So plenty to do today with ballasting track and spraying some roofs ...watch this space for the results 

 

 

 

[shedman]

Excellent work, Martin, and a fantastic view from your gate. How did you find working the Ken Patterson way on your new  photo board?  Look after yourself, all the best, Trevor

[Andrew P]

Hi Martin, I loved that view down to the Valley and the Llangollen Railway to Corwen, on my visits to Gismo Towers.

 

I hadn't realised when were chatting on the phone last week that you were on enforced lockdown mate, what a bummer.

 

Love the look of CE mate, it's coming on well.

 

As for the Photo plank, how about making the backscene removable so that you can use your natural setting for the backscene when it's dry and sunny.

 

All the best and STAY SAFE, same goes for ALL your followers and posters on here.

[gismorail]

14 hours ago, shedman said:

Excellent work, Martin, and a fantastic view from your gate. How did you find working the Ken Patterson way on your new  photo board?  Look after yourself, all the best, Trevor

Good morning Trevor, Yes I'm a very lucky lad to live in such a wonderful spot it's just a shame it rains so much but that's why 'The Valley is so Green' 

With regard to the 'Ken Patterson way' I did make a well shaped train bed out of the insulation board be to be honest wasn't happy with the level / stability so I have used MDF supported on a crossbeam. 

 

(If anyone one is wondering what the Ken Patterson way is go onto youtube and type in 'Whats neat this week in Model Railroading' it's good and gives you an interesting look as to what the 'Yanks' are up too )

[gismorail]

11 hours ago, Andrew P said:

Hi Martin, I loved that view down to the Valley and the Llangollen Railway to Corwen, on my visits to Gismo Towers.

 

I hadn't realised when were chatting on the phone last week that you were on enforced lockdown mate, what a bummer.

 

Love the look of CE mate, it's coming on well.

 

As for the Photo plank, how about making the backscene removable so that you can use your natural setting for the backscene when it's dry and sunny.

 

All the best and STAY SAFE, same goes for ALL your followers and posters on here.

Morning Andy 

How's tricks ...yes you know how lovely it is up here at 'Gismo Tower's ... or should it be 'Faulty Towers' I do wonder sometimes.   The Lockdown notice hadn't arrived at the time of our chat it arrived last Thursday ...it's Wales Andy it always work to least two weeks behind everyone else. 

Yes your right about the back-scene on the 'photo plank' I might have to do a cut and shunt on it yet 

[gismorail]

Yesterday my task was mainly to get the ballast on the Photo plank brushed into place and glued. 

I know there are many ways that different people tackle this 'discipline' I use this term for a reason as it's a laborious task. I have used Slaters N gauge grade ballast which is crashed down further and then spread into place using a paint brush yes it takes patience indeed. 

 

I use the normal UPVC glue mixture with a spot of washing up liquid and add an acrylic paint depending upon the location, in this case I added a touch of track colour and this mixture is carefully added to the ballast via a dropper so that the ballast is not disturb in the sleeper beds. 

 

It's waiting time now to allow the whole to dry out before any further work can be carried out . 

 

In the meantime I have sprayed the roofs of the two 'lost' siphons which are ready further upgrade work. 

 

 

[gismorail]

Further work has continued on the Lima Siphon G today now that the coat of BR maroon paint has dried and hardened over a twenty four hour period. It was my intention to apply this with a spray gun but due to the fact that I have run out of Tamiya masking tape I went ahead and very carefully hand painted it with a very slightly thinned down paint mix as I only wanted a light  coat of paint with a slightly faded finish. 

 

The main task has been to fit the Kadee couplings to the Siphon G 

 

The main problem with these older bogie type stock items is the fact that the couplings were , and in many cases today models suffer for the same, fitted to the bogie frames which doesn't result in the best running qualities. So the first job was to carefully cut away the very old tension lock coupling and file down the bogie frame end to match the other end. 

I then got some plastic card sheet and cut it to the correct size to level up the chassis ends so that I could set a coupling base plate into the ends of the chassis. 

 

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I have discovered that the Dapol coupling carrier was well suitable as a good stable fixing for Kadee couplings. The above picture shows the Dapol product before modification / fitting 

 

On a Dapol wagon the floor has a moulding and fitting hole that the two parts fit onto so I have shaped a shim that does the same job . 

 

This is fitted and glued into the base fitting and the NEMS pocket fitting sits on top and and hole is carefully drilling through the skim and the base of the chassis. 

 

 

The whole assembly is screwed down and a number 17 Kadee  is fitted and checked for the correct height etc. Note the pencil line I have marked on the plastic card base and this shows the furthest back that the assembly can be fitted without fouling the moving bogie frame. 

 

The Siphon G has now been reassembled following some Weathering of the freshly painted body work. The eagle eyed amongst  you will note that the rather course Lima wheel sets are still in place but these will be replaced once I can get some replacements. 

A lot of these wagons were used for the  Transportation of Dairy Produce so I feel this will be put to good use on Chumley End. 

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, gismorail said:

Further work has continued on the Lima Siphon G today now that the coat of BR maroon paint has dried and hardened over a twenty four hour period. It was my intention to apply this with a spray gun but due to the fact that I have run out of Tamiya masking tape I went ahead and very carefully hand painted it with a very slightly thinned down paint mix as I only wanted a light  coat of paint with a slightly faded finish. 

 

The main task has been to fit the Kadee couplings to the Siphon G 

 

The main problem with these older bogie type stock items is the fact that the couplings were , and in many cases today models suffer for the same, fitted to the bogie frames which doesn't result in the best running qualities. So the first job was to carefully cut away the very old tension lock coupling and file down the bogie frame end to match the other end. 

I then got some plastic card sheet and cut it to the correct size to level up the chassis ends so that I could set a coupling base plate into the ends of the chassis. 

 

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I have discovered that the Dapol coupling carrier was well suitable as a good stable fixing for Kadee couplings. The above picture shows the Dapol product before modification / fitting 

 

On a Dapol wagon the floor has a moulding and fitting hole that the two parts fit onto so I have shaped a shim that does the same job . 

 

This is fitted and glued into the base fitting and the NEMS pocket fitting sits on top and and hole is carefully drilling through the skim and the base of the chassis. 

 

 

The whole assembly is screwed down and a number 17 Kadee  is fitted and checked for the correct height etc. Note the pencil line I have marked on the plastic card base and this shows the furthest back that the assembly can be fitted without fouling the moving bogie frame. 

 

The Siphon G has now been reassembled following some Weathering of the freshly painted body work. The eagle eyed amongst  you will note that the rather course Lima wheel sets are still in place but these will be replaced once I can get some replacements. 

A lot of these wagons were used for the  Transportation of Dairy Produce so I feel this will be put to good use on Chumley End. 

Looks nice but that coupling is sticking out a hell of a long way.

[Ashley Bridge]

There’s probably a 3ft radius curve involved somewhere, it’s just something some of us have to live with. Great work resurrecting two old dogs, they’ll do fine.

 Rich 

[gismorail]

Good evening all, well it's amazing what a shower of rain does here in North Wales  the grass has started to grow on the track side on the photo plank 

Yes I've been busy with the 'static grass' machine and so that the local farmer's cows don't wander onto the running line the local PW gang have dragged themselves out of the pub and have erected a line side fence.......through I'm not sure as to how straight some of those concrete posts are..... perhaps straight with drunken eye maybe  

 

 

So the first culprit for a photo session is the recently weathered G Siphon 

 

 

 

 

Still got to detail the stone work on the retaining wall and add a few bushes around the embankment areas and maybe a couple of telegraph poles. I was contemplating maybe adding a few trees to the scene but having looked at photographs from the early 1960's most embankments were kept fairly clear of large tree's due to the practice of regular scrub clearance. Maybe Network Rail should learn a lesson from the old days 

Following the earlier comment regarding the coupling sticking out a bit to far I have addressed the situation and cut the NEMS box down a touch and refitted the Kadee coupling. 

 

Another days in glorious enforced enjoyment .... opps self-isolation !!!!!

 

 

Edited April 20, 2020 by gismorail

[KNP]

Very nice photo plank.

Particularly how the backscene seems to blend in seamlessly with the bank. 

This has given me an idea...…...

[gismorail]

Thanks Kevin now that's praise indeed from the 'master'  of scenery effects. The interesting point about the back-scene is that there is a hedge running along the base of the picture which I had at first thought would make a good 'end of scene' feature. However as is often the case once the static grass had been put into place I just wasn't happy with the transition between the two thus the fence was added and it's amazing the sense of depth that it has created. 

[Andrew P]

Yes Martin,  A fence or hedge between the 3 dimensional and the 1 dimensional makes one heck of a difference, and yours looks superb mate.

[gismorail]

A very busy day today not so much on the layout or photo plank as I'm awaiting supplies to arrive for the next stages.  I keep looking at those embankments and still can't decide as to whether any trees need to be planted , been flicking through my Cheshire Lines Books and what tree's are present are mainly on the top edges. Mmmmmm think I'll sleep on that one for now. 

The main task today has been to have a really major tidy up of the railway room and workshop ....it's just become so cluttered I just can't STAND IT ANYMORE ....I seem to be spending most of my time looking for things !!!! why is our hobby such an untidy past time. Anyway from what I keep hearing from the radio DJ's on Planet Rock it's the 'in thing to do ' .....men tidying sheds  during lock-down ....

As is often the case while one is tidying up and some space appears that I didn't know I had ....I'd started another little project by mid after-noon ( what another one ) 

I'm not going to give the full details tonight....... but will show you all a photograph of the first stage and see if anyone can guess what it is ........Answers on a Post Card...