Aston On Clun. A forgotten Great Western outpost.

[NHY 581]

This is far,far from good. Can I take the opportunity to thank all of you who produce these interior masterpieces....

 

 

I'm going to have to have a flippin' go now.........

[MrWolf]

7 minutes ago, NHY 581 said:

This is far,far from good. Can I take the opportunity to thank all of you who produce these interior masterpieces....

 

 

I'm going to have to have a flippin' go now.........

 

 

[MrWolf]

1 hour ago, Alister_G said:

Well done Rob, don't take any notice of the naysayers, it's that sort of detail that lifts an already good model into the realms of perfection.

 

I'm sure the concussion will wear off after a while...

 

Al.

 

Thanks Al,

 

I would like to take this opportunity to let you all know that 'er indoors is anything but a naysayer ( yeah, I know that sounds wrong! ) If anything, she's quite the perfectionist. She might be slightly unhinged and have any number of diagnosed psychological issues.... BUT...

When I put in a full length chimney in the weighbridge, she said: "You can't make the chimney and not the fireplace..."

 

Damned female logic.

 

We are currently curled up on the sofa for TV and nighttime drinks like a normal couple.

 

The truth being we are laughing our a55es off at Deadpool and drinking hot chocolate that is about 50% amaretto.

 

No frying pans were hurt in the making of this model railway...

 

 

 

[drduncan]

2 hours ago, MrWolf said:

Right, I'm off down to the workshop to weld the handle back onto the frying pan....

 

1. How did that go for you?

2. Why was it necessary?

Duncan

[drduncan]

Deadpool...great film!

[MrWolf]

38 minutes ago, drduncan said:

1. How did that go for you?

2. Why was it necessary?

Duncan

 

1. Not a problem welding cast iron. You just have to let the whole lot cool evenly otherwise it can crack again.

 

2. Not actually necessary, just the tail end of an earlier claim that I had asked my beloved to smite me with a frying pan / rake / steam iron a la Tom & Jerry if I started thinking what other details I could add to the weighbridge model. 

 

In between obscure details about long lost railways and this one which is entirely fictional, it occasionally gets a bit silly on here, with reference to sticks, dysfunctional dogs and things that go bang! 

 

Anyone with such good taste in movies is welcome to a complimentary season ticket to Craven Arms and back.

 

 

Edited December 12, 2020 by MrWolf
Stupid autocorrect

[MrWolf]

Before I paint it, this is a cruel close up of the balance mechanism, made from odds and ends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MrWolf]

From the pictures I have seen, some scales are green others red. It might be that Avery used red, however, I chose red to catch the eye. I went into a lengthy arty fa2ty explanation of the use of small patches of red on @Rowsley17D 's thread Derwent Spa. 

A drop of brass coloured paint on the balance beam and silver on the latch is all it's getting.... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MrWolf]

More fiddling around with little bits of plastic and paper has brought us to the brink of insanity and a completed interior.

I am taking this picture for the record before the front wall and roof goes on.

Then it's time for some neater painting of the outside.

 

[MrWolf]

There's not much more I can do with the weighbridge hut until the slate roofing sheets arrive. The original Ratio roof is unusable because it has a hole at the ridge for the original chimney. 

The next thing I have pulled out of the pile of the might come in useful is a Wills permanent way hut. This doesn't need much, but to make it a bit different, I am going to change the window.

It's fitted with what looks like a Crittal steel frame window, which although they date back to at least the 1930s, I want something a little more Victorian looking.

 

Because I just do...

 

[MrWolf]

Built pretty much out of the box, except I didn't think much of the chimney pot, or rather, I liked the style of the chimney pot, but not the fact that it is a solid lump of plastic. I drilled a 2mm hole down it once the solvent had set.

 

 

The chimney isn't attached yet as it needs the courses recutting across the corners.

I cut out the moulded window frame, leaving the bottom rail in as a sort of cill. This made a suitable aperture for the new window, cut down from a Peco 3x3 pane to a 2x3 pane.

But I still think it needs something.

 

[chuffinghell]

Looking good Rob 

[MrWolf]

The merchant's hut has had an upgrade. A brick base two courses deep, probably supporting a brick floor. That was the easy bit. I then realised that in its original form the chimney only just peeked above the ridge line.  So put two courses under it? Might as well add eight and raise the chimney to a similar height as the weighbridge. There's always a knock on effect.

 

 

 

 

 

Talking of knock on effects, the chimney base is the MK2. The first one I was trimming to shape and sneezed at an inopportune moment, breaking it. It became a combined sneeze/swear which gave somebody else in the room a fit of giggles that caused her to wreck her mascara and nearly wet herself. The force of empathy is strong in this house... 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by MrWolf
Replaced picture

[MrWolf]

@Mikkelwas right, you can't see a thing in there when it's all together. Putting the flash on only just worked.

 

 

Glad I left the door wide open.

 

 

 

A few external details and basic paint.

 

The merchant's hut also has a basic coat of paint. 

 

[MrWolf]

The more I look at these pictures the more I realise that I need to neaten up the edges of my paintwork!

[chuffinghell]

5 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

The more I look at these pictures the more I realise that I need to neaten up the edges of my paintwork!

 

It will just be the curse of the cruel close up, I'm sure they look fine when viewed on the layout 

[MrWolf]

I think that the interior you built for the signal box was much neater. But I suppose that we are all our own worst critics. I also refuse to acknowledge the fact that my right hand only works about 75% which doesn't help me any.

[NHY 581]

9 hours ago, MrWolf said:

@Mikkelwas right, you can't see a thing in there when it's all together. Putting the flash on only just worked.

 

 

Glad I left the door wide open.

 

 

 

A few external details and basic paint.

 

The merchant's hut also has a basic coat of paint. 

 

 

 

Morning Rob,

 

 

What's the source of the ridge tiles? 

 

 

Ta, 

 

Rob 

[MrWolf]

6 minutes ago, NHY 581 said:

 

 

Morning Rob,

 

 

What's the source of the ridge tiles? 

 

 

Ta, 

 

Rob 

 

Morning Rob,

 

Peco LK76 slate roofing, ridge tiles, flat roofing and chimneys. 

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133385951449

 

About a fiver with the postage. There's a number of notice boards in the sprues that are handy too.

 

Rob

[Mikkel]

Only just seen the scene inside the weighbridge, very nice. The look through the door works well I think.

[NHY 581]

7 hours ago, MrWolf said:

 

Morning Rob,

 

Peco LK76 slate roofing, ridge tiles, flat roofing and chimneys. 

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133385951449

 

About a fiver with the postage. There's a number of notice boards in the sprues that are handy too.

 

Rob

 

Thanks Rob. 

 

Visit to train shop in hand.......Never even thought of these. 

 

Rob. 

Edited December 15, 2020 by NHY 581
Sausage hooves

[MrWolf]

Glad to be of help. It's basically three sprues out of the station building kit that @chuffinghellmodified. 

 

The slate roofing sheets have arrived at last and that means I have been busy putting together the windows on the rail side of the crossing keepers house. That has been a challenge, normally three pieces plus glazing, but the upper windows have been cut and shut, so three pieces became eight. Added to which they are (very neatly) cut out of some weird plastic which doesn't like glue.

 

Hopefully I will have the assembly complete and painted by the weekend, unless I get distracted of course...! 

 

 

[MrWolf]

As yet another diversion, this time because the paint is drying on assorted window frames, I have turned my attention to the pagoda hut that will form a cycle shed / parcels store. 

First job was to take a couple of spare windows which are available as part of the Peco range and chop out the top sash. The plastic is quite soft so it's easier than it looks.

The pagoda is roughly the 16' version, I did think of bodging two together to make the 20' version, but the big thing is that I haven't seen many without windows.

I cut out the plastic to set the windows approximately 0.5mm below the head rail of the door and central to each panel.

Two pieces of 0.5mm square provided cills. A latch on the door should about do it.

 

 

 

[Mike 84C]

The Flat Top Romesse, now that is a name from the past which conjured up a vision and a tale. When I was a teenager I foolishly went to work at 84C, always wanted to be an engine driver, the engine man's cabin which had been part of the pump and valve house for the oil burning scheme. So was quite a big building and had one of those stoves as its sole means of heating. Stove, cast iron flue, about 15ft long through the flat concrete roof. This stove was big enough to hold 11/2-2 wheel barrows of coal. On night shift some fireman would be told to stoke up the stove which would glow a nice warm red from bottom to top. All in the know would disperse to tables and benches around the walls of the cabin to play cards, dominoes, read or sleep. This left the benches and tables right by the stove vacant for visiting crews. Who were soon in their shirt sleeves and often could not stand the heat so vacated the cabin, which caused much laughter. The participation was much funnier than the telling.

  Keep posting it all reminds me of Bloxham, our house backed up to the playing field by the station, on the Kingham branch.

[Mike 84C]

AS a total aside, Clun was the last Castle of not very many! that I fired during my BR service. From Shrewsbury back to 84C on a TRPS special, I believe Pat Whitehouse gave my driver and I a bottle of beer and 10/- each. I know I b----y well earned mine, still think that engine is the dog's!.