Jump to content
 

Recommended Posts

On 26/01/2020 at 20:13, James Harrison said:

That's pretty much the method I usually employ; but it usually takes about 4 attempts, wastes a good deal of wire and ends with tried patience, a poor temper and goodly use of Anglo Saxon.  I'm trying stiffened cotton as an experiment; fantastic if it works, if it doesn't I've lost about 10" of Mother's cotton thread.

 

Have you tried letting down the temper of the wire by gently heating it ? This should make it much more malleable and the temper will come back into the wire as you work with it. The main thing is to avoid over-heating the wire to the orange or red stage as it will go like cotton thread at this point !

  • Agree 1
  • Informative/Useful 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
3 hours ago, James Harrison said:

I run scared of anything involving heat.  I have, previously, for instance, achieved the feat of picking up a soldering iron by the hot end whilst plugged in and turned on.  When I do solder, I tend to make sure I have buckets of water to hand....

Been there, got the t-shirt.

it’s the way you hear the sizzle and smell the burning flesh before you feel the pain that I remember.

mind you, this was 40 years ago, and I simply got back on the horse, but I have never picked up a soldering iron by the wrong end since!

  • Like 2
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Regularity said:

Been there, got the t-shirt.

it’s the way you hear the sizzle and smell the burning flesh before you feel the pain that I remember.

mind you, this was 40 years ago, and I simply got back on the horse, but I have never picked up a soldering iron by the wrong end since!

Since this is the pre-grouping forum and we are mostly concerned with the esoteric and exotic,  in response to picking up the soldering iron by the hot end , I'll offer getting soldering flux fumes in the eyes, a trip to the minor injuries unit at the cottage hospital and then seeing everything as yellow-green for the next few days as a result of the treatment. Perhaps we should stop there as this is probably doing nothing to encourage people to start soldering !

  • Agree 1
  • Friendly/supportive 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Resist the temptation to set up anything in the room before you've dealt with the carpet - otherwise you never will, and will spend the next quarter-century at least on your hands and knees combing it for that vital piece that went pinging off...

  • Like 1
  • Agree 6
Link to post
Share on other sites

Nothing is getting set up for a while yet; I've bought the house itself as a sort of project (as in, I want to restore it to vaguely it's Edwardian appearance)... the current plan for the back bedroom (home of Red Lion Square and Hednesford Stafford No.1 Shop) is to paint it a cream or ivory colour (I think a neutral background like that will work well for not leaping out in photographs) and take up the carpet (hoping the floorboards aren't full of holes). 

  • Like 5
Link to post
Share on other sites

On 07/09/2018 at 17:57, James Harrison said:

Thanks! 

 

I painted the lintels last night and- actually- once finished they look pretty good.  Even the ones I wasn't too sure about initially.  

 

The first of the waiting rooms is approaching the same level of completion as the booking hall and station house- so the plan for this weekend is to do the lintels for it and then move onto the final little outhouse which will complete the main building range- I'm holding off on doing the roof for the present because I'm curious what the slating method to be described in the next copy of RM is.  On the goods office of course I did paper overlays, which look convincing enough but on reflection lack any depth.  I bought some embossed slate sheet, but that doesn't look like any roof I've ever seen, more like brick or stone.  Most obvious is the fact that it is in courses and not overlaid, so it's more suited to slate walls than roofs...


Hi James,

 

May I ask who the supplier is for the slate sheet? I’m looking to scratch build some buildings ‘made of’ slate.

 

Cheers,

James

Link to post
Share on other sites

On 08/02/2020 at 16:38, James Harrison said:

Nothing is getting set up for a while yet; I've bought the house itself as a sort of project (as in, I want to restore it to vaguely it's Edwardian appearance)... the current plan for the back bedroom... is to paint it a cream or ivory colour (I think a neutral background like that will work well for not leaping out in photographs) and take up the carpet (hoping the floorboards aren't full of holes). 

 

If you want to go full Edwardian in your new house, there's only place to start:

 

"My dear wife Carrie and I have just been a week in our new house, “The Laurels,” Brickfield Terrace, Holloway—a nice six-roomed residence, not counting basement, with a front breakfast-parlour.  We have a little front garden; and there is a flight of ten steps up to the front door, which, by-the-by, we keep locked with the chain up.  Cummings, Gowing, and our other intimate friends always come to the little side entrance, which saves the servant the trouble of going up to the front door, thereby taking her from her work.  We have a nice little back garden which runs down to the railway.  We were rather afraid of the noise of the trains at first, but the landlord said we should not notice them after a bit, and took £2 off the rent.  He was certainly right; and beyond the cracking of the garden wall at the bottom, we have suffered no inconvenience.

After my work in the City, I like to be at home.  What’s the good of a home, if you are never in it?  “Home, Sweet Home,” that’s my motto.  I am always in of an evening.  Our old friend Gowing may drop in without ceremony; so may Cummings, who lives opposite.  My dear wife Caroline and I are pleased to see them, if they like to drop in on us.  But Carrie and I can manage to pass our evenings together without friends.  There is always something to be done: a tin-tack here, a Venetian blind to put straight, a fan to nail up, or part of a carpet to nail down—all of which I can do with my pipe in my mouth; while Carrie is not above putting a button on a shirt, mending a pillow-case, or practising the “Sylvia Gavotte” on our new cottage piano (on the three years’ system), manufactured by W. Bilkson (in small letters), from Collard and Collard (in very large letters)....

April 3.—Tradesmen called for custom, and I promised Farmerson, the ironmonger, to give him a turn if I wanted any nails or tools.  By-the-by, that reminds me there is no key to our bedroom door, and the bells must be seen to.  The parlour bell is broken, and the front door rings up in the servant’s bedroom, which is ridiculous.  Dear friend Gowing dropped in, but wouldn’t stay, saying there was an infernal smell of paint."

 

  • Like 5
Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes, bit of an unintentional pun there :D  This is the slate sheet I have:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/South-Eastern-Finecast-FBS415-270x380mm-HO-OO-Slate-4mm-Scale-Plastic-Sheet-T48/121569614183?hash=item1c4e1d1967:g:CIAAAOSwv0tU3g18

 

which is actually by South Eastern Finecast.  The reason I didn't use it is because to my eyes it looks too much like cobble stone; I was looking for somethig with an obvious lapping effect as you will find on a roof.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

But of course...

 

Beat me to it!

 

5 minutes ago, James Harrison said:

 

Have you read the much later (much, much later) companion piece, Mrs Pooter's Diary?

 

No!  Must track it down.

 

I once had an absurd young arty friend.  I used to call him Burwin-Fosselton because, essentially, he was.  It wound him up no end that he didn't get the reference. 

 

  • Like 1
  • Funny 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Thank you!

 

Well, it was a long day but probably 95% of my stuff got moved over, plus I had the pleasure of spending money on house stuff, plus there was of course the usual disagreeements and smouldering arguments but for a given value of 'in', I am in.  Internet won't arrive until early March, so until then updates will be intermittent, but the important thing is that all the railway bits are over and the earmarked room has been well and truly claimed, so it's now locked in that I have approximately 12' x 9' to play with.  Less say 3' for the doorway in (9' x 9') less the fireplace (turning the other 12' wall into three 4' lengths). 

 

One of the charming things about buying a house dating to around 1900-1920 (documents are a bit hazy on the date of construction) is that every single wall has some or other feature that breaks it up.  Great if you don't want acres of plain wall space, perhaps not so marvellous if you want long unencumbered runs.... but for my purposes it shall suit admirably. 

 

The last few weeks I've been wrestling with trying to get my trackplan to work.  To be honest, it just feels too plain and clunky and the more I've considered it, the more I've thought it somehow lacking.  So I went back to the layout plan books that I've found most inspiring: the PSL book of trackplans by C J Freezer and Modelling Urban Layouts by Iain Rice.  So the designs I've always found myself coming back to for the dream layout got another airing. 

 

49538718693_15fc0d2403_c.jpg

 

49539442257_6a6d1ea52a_c.jpg

 

49538718778_684e15585c_c.jpg

 

49539213426_5fa1d94b62_c.jpg

 

49539442392_8fa644f481_c.jpg

 

49539213471_16b6c7a27a_c.jpg

 

Of those, the 10' terminus plan was what I originally looked at, discarded and then kept coming back to.  I think the more I look at it the more I like it; with some additions.... let's put that down one long wall.  Then we'll make a long 180 degree plus turn through the width, and inside of the running lines I'll extend one of the sidings into a lead for that 6' MPD design (which will of course have to be cranked into a 'C' rather than a simple length.  Then- the lead carries on- it will run into a decent goods yard lifted from one of the room-filling plans.  Which I think will be on angle in front of the fireplace.  Meanwhile- the mainline just runs into a fiddle yard.  

 

You'll see that's sadly no mention of Cremorne for Pittance (though it will be retained and possibly extended- there's just no room for it in this plan- or the narrow gauge line.  But I'll be getting probably 80 to 90% of my list, which is better than nothing. 

  • Like 2
  • Friendly/supportive 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

There is a degree of optimism in the output of both layout designers: turnouts are often very short and rather acute. Assume that the plans will turn out longer (and wider, for oval schemes) or will involve a lot of very carefully constructed trackwork.

Test with either Templot, or printed templates, before committing!

  • Like 1
  • Agree 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

It might just be possible.  This fits in 10' x 8' 6" to 9'. 

 

49549177352_51e06909d2_c.jpg

 

At which point I ran out of bits on my free copy of SCARM.  There's a bit of tweaking I want to do- I'm sure, quite sure, that I can get the station (at the top of the plan) on a bit more of an angle to remove the blocky not-quite-oval look, maybe put the platforms on a gentle curve (but I find SCARM awkward to use when it comes to flexitrack) and have a bit of a play with cranking the loco depot (which isn't fully shown by the way) to get it sitting inside that 9' end wall (more like 4' to 5' once the curves are in).  But plenty of time to mull it over yet.

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...