Aston On Clun. A forgotten Great Western outpost.

[Darwinian]

You stand a good chance of overtaking me. I've been building Cwmhir since 2007 and you've already got to the point I was at about 2010.

 

Coming along lovely so it is.

[MrWolf]

Thanks, but I suspect that if the lockdown hadn't happened and the summer had been red hot, I am pretty sure that this thread would be about two pages long, if that. 

I have other temptations and I am reliably informed that I am probably an outdoor cat...

 

 

Edited February 16, 2021 by MrWolf

[bgman]

1 hour ago, MrWolf said:

I have other temptations and I am reliably informed that I am probably an outdoor cat...

 

Did someone mention being outdoors ?

 

Better in than out eh ! 

 

 

 

Oh ! I do enjoy Scotland.

 

G

[MrWolf]

Welcome to the Royal Society for Not Particularly Sensible Folk.

 

And I'm not even 100% certain what particular outdoor pursuit you are trying to kill yourself with there!

 

I didn't understand sea kayaking until it was discovered that you can launch at Grange and paddle across the bay to Morecambe for a pint in The Royal before heading back to pie and chips. 

[Mick Bonwick]

When I was younger, so much younger than today. I went kayaking in the sea, but it was as a 'volunteer'. I was on an Outward Bound course here:

 

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Towyn,+Abergele/@52.6117115,-4.1203176,1938m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x486527c9891a0401:0xd22562589fa96dea!8m2!3d53.302171!4d-3.5395369

 

In February!

[MrWolf]

Ah, sunny Towyn. Or not so. Depending on the weather.  I do actually really like it there, it's on my list of places to revisit once the lockdown is over. 

 

I trust that the outward bound course taught you some very valuable life lessons,

 

Chiefly:

 

Never volunteer for anything.

[MrWolf]

Working on how to get the trains off scene....

https://images.app.goo.gl/PGSBU9KY7QiXHDWU7

 

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by MrWolf

[bgman]

Brilliant !

 

Now I just have to go out and find myself a coyote 

[Nick Gough]

Mheep! Mheep!

[MrWolf]

16 hours ago, Nick Gough said:

Mheep! Mheep!

 

Somewhere I do have a 4mm scale anvil...

[Nick C]

On 20/02/2021 at 03:03, MrWolf said:

 

Somewhere I do have a 4mm scale anvil...

Surely you need an ACME 10T weight...

[MrWolf]

A lot of the things that I have been doing have been a diversion from what really needs doing which is to clear everything off the two station boards so that I can fit the trap point on the loop, fit and wire up the six point motors and paint the track.

Logically, the next thing to do is fit the point rodding, it would be a P.I.T.A.  to fit it after ballasting. 

 

Apparently the GWR used round rodding, I feel a cheat coming on!  

 

Then fix down the platform and get ballasting. I keep getting reminded to get to that stage because somebody wants to help. Last time I ballasted anything I had a hell of a job getting everything to work again afterwards, but I am going to let my helper do all the plain track! 

 

This picture looks like I have gone backwards!

 

 

I have of course got another minor distraction on the go, it will be another view blocker on the right hand side of the layout, right at the front edge. It's based on a garage we used to play in as junior school kids and was probably the catalyst for my vintage car and motorcycle obsession. The building was put up around 1925  and demolished in 1982.  At least the basic shell helps to set things out. That's my excuse for going off at a tangent anyway.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by MrWolf
Replaced picture

[chuffinghell]

8 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

A lot of the things that I have been doing have been a diversion from what really needs doing.....,

I tend to get easily distracted but more often than not when I start to struggle or get frustrated with something I’m working on I put it on pause and do something else and come back to it another time

 

It was actually Sarah’s suggestion to occasionally take a step back when I’m struggling instead of getting frustrated and she’s right!

[MrWolf]

1 hour ago, chuffinghell said:

I tend to get easily distracted but more often than not when I start to struggle or get frustrated with something I’m working on I put it on pause and do something else and come back to it another time

 

It was actually Sarah’s suggestion to occasionally take a step back when I’m struggling instead of getting frustrated and she’s right!

 

If you replace the name "Sarah" with "Elly", I could have written exactly the same statement!

[MrWolf]

A little further forward with the garage. It now has a flag floor and a sectional sliding door as per the original. It may not be possible to see the ledging and bracing on the inside of the doors when the roof is on, but I wasn't taking the chance! I am at the stage of waiting for the first coat of paint to dry before adding details, otherwise known as stuck for now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hate paint that dries translucent even when you have stirred it with a power drill....

I'm sure that I am not alone with paint irritations.

Edited August 16, 2022 by MrWolf
Replaced picture

[NHY 581]

33 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

I hate paint that dries translucent even when you have stirred it with a power drill....

I'm sure that I am not alone with paint irritations.

 

 

Add to that matt paint that you stir to a standstill and it still drys gloss.............or the matt paint that remains tacky days after applying it.........

 

 

[bgman]

8 hours ago, MrWolf said:

A little further forward with the garage. It now has a flag floor and a sectional sliding door as per the original. It may not be possible to see the ledging and bracing on the inside of the doors when the roof is on, but I wasn't taking the chance! I am at the stage of waiting for the first coat of paint to dry before adding details, otherwise known as stuck for now!

 

 

 

I hate paint that dries translucent even when you have stirred it with a power drill....

I'm sure that I am not alone with paint irritations.

 

7 hours ago, NHY 581 said:

 

 

Add to that matt paint that you stir to a standstill and it still drys gloss.............or the matt paint that remains tacky days after applying it.........

 

 

 

And that my friends is why I mostly use Vallejo acrylics these days.

[MrWolf]

Although I use acrylics for a lot of my paintings, they must be very different, because you always get a truly matt finish.

Something that I have noticed with model acrylics is that they have a waxy sheen about them that makes it look like a scale 2" thick coat of paint, especially with the darker colours. It alters the lighting effect so that under a strong daylight bulb it looks (to me anyway) like it has just stopped raining.

Where I have used a bit of acrylic for weathering, I have raided my art supplies, so maybe, I should go that way and not have to buy lots of different types of paint?

[MrWolf]

Well, that's encouraging.

 

Having retro fitted a catch point to the eastern end of the loop without too much fiddling around. I checked everything else over before starting the job of fitting the point motors.

 

This was the moment when I found that the point controlling entrance to the goods yard wasn't well. One of the blades was bent at the leading edge and had come away from its pivot at the frog end. I must have snagged it when hoovering up the last of the polystyrene that had escaped from the river board, despite our best efforts.

 

Not only had I soldered all of the rail connections, it runs onto two other points. 

So it's been an interesting hour getting it out without destroying anything else. 

 

One step forward and all that....

[MrWolf]

That WAS fun and games! I think that may have been the model railway equivalent to painting yourself into a corner.

It was an absolute pig to get the point in using the good old fishplates and oddly, I suspect that not all points are precisely the same. I have a couple of gaps that weren't there before and the existing track hasn't moved.

Solder will cure that though. I did it, it took a couple of hours and there's probably an easier way to do it. 

As the old points were scrap, I just cut through the rails near the ends, pulled out most of the point then desoldered the last bit of rail and the fishplate. I had bought a track cutter which wasn't cheap for what it is and christened it on scrapping the point. 

It managed four and a bit cuts. I went back to the razor saw in disgust.

 

 

On a more positive note, my old Mainline 57xx, which has probably only been run an hour or two, decided to fall apart due to monkey metal disease. 

Thanks to the generosity of @Limpley Stoker, I have been sent a chassis which he scrapped from beneath his 57xx. The keeper plate was missing, (actually recycled onto his pannier's new chassis and the motor casing had a big chunk missing supporting the gear train.

So, I used the donated frames, wheelsets and weight, matched with my motor, gears and spacers to give us Frankenstein's Pannier.

 

And it's alive!!

 

 

 

Now I can perhaps get on with the original plan to remove the top feed add etched plates and other details.

 

If / when it goes bang, I will invest in a High Level chassis for it. Still cheaper than a new loco, plus I have various other old 80s /90s GWR nails that would benefit. Thanks to  @57xx for the information on replacement chassis. I have a couple of 14/48xx, four or five Dean Goods and Bachmann pannier's that will be converted as funds permit.

http://www.highlevelkits.co.uk/pannierpage.html

 

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by MrWolf
Replaced picture

[Nick Gough]

I have the exact same '5764' model, which is still in running order.

 

I wonder how much life it still has before it decides to go POP like yours?

[MrWolf]

I think that it's a bit of a lottery. The left hand side of the chassis had distorted, gone brittle and came away in eight pieces. The right hand side is like new. The other weird thing is that the quartering has gone all over the place. The quartering on the replacement wheel set is out too, instead of being at 6 o'clock and 9 o'clock, it's at 6 o'clock and 7 o'clock. But it works. 

I'm wondering when or if my old Bachmann mogul is going to blow up. 

These old (almost forty years old in some cases!) locos sound terribly unreliable and badly made. But I really do wonder about the latest offerings. New locos seem to be more like Russian roulette. As in out of a batch of six, five of them will just go "click" and one will go "bang".

You just never know which.

[Nick Gough]

I've got, I think, seven old Mainline locos in total.

 

The only one that doesn't work is a 43xx mogul that shed the gear train between the motor and the wheels about a year from new.

 

Most of the others can be a bit sluggish, particularly when they haven't run for a while, though they manage my 40 wagon coal train okay.

 

I haven't found any chassis or wheel problems (yet) but I suppose it's just a matter of time.

 

 

[57xx]

On 26/02/2021 at 11:22, MrWolf said:

Although I use acrylics for a lot of my paintings, they must be very different, because you always get a truly matt finish.

Something that I have noticed with model acrylics is that they have a waxy sheen about them that makes it look like a scale 2" thick coat of paint, especially with the darker colours. It alters the lighting effect so that under a strong daylight bulb it looks (to me anyway) like it has just stopped raining.

Where I have used a bit of acrylic for weathering, I have raided my art supplies, so maybe, I should go that way and not have to buy lots of different types of paint?

 

I found a similar thing when I tried using acrylics, they just weren't matt and had a silky sheen. I also had issues with them drying too fast even with retarder and trying to use them as a wash was a non starter as they just would not flow like enamels do in a pin wash.

[MrWolf]

They do dry very fast indeed. Working on a painting can be like going for a run sometimes, because when you are blending tones you can't stop for a minute and start again ten minutes later. It's get this section done, then have a break.

The main problem with all types of model paint is inconsistency. Not of the colours, but of the paint itself. I think it depends on how well and how long the paint has been stored prior to your buying it.