Tewkesbury Shed and Quay Branch Exhibition Layout in EM Gauge.

[lezz01]

So after a bit of a break from modelling due to RL getting in the way of my modelling time I've started on the other two turnouts. They are a B6 left and a B6 right. I've started with a slightly different order of construction by putting in the straight stock rail first.

Followed by the crossing and the two closure rails.

The curved closure rail is a tad over length so I'll crop it down with a cutting disc in the Dremel before I fit the switchblades. I'm hoping to get them both done in the next few days and I'll do some straight track then sort out a track plan.

Thanks for your patients guys. I'm back in the groove now so I hope to make some good progress.

Lez.      

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by lezz01

[lezz01]

I managed to get a bit more done on the B6 R/H.

Not a great deal to be honest but I never get much modelling done at the weekend. Saturday is pond maintenance day and Sunday is water quality checking and general garden maintenance followed by cooking diner. I'm also in the middle of building a "baccie" shower so not a lot else has been done. Anyway I put the other stock rail in and trimmed the long closure rail to length. I'm not happy with the length of the two check rails either so I'll remake them as well. I hope to get a bit more done on Tuesday it'll have to be then as Monday is one of my working evenings in the pharmacy.

More updates soon guys.

Lez.  

Edited April 3, 2022 by lezz01

[lezz01]

So I've managed to get a couple of hours in the railway room this afternoon and finished the B6RH.

Now for the B6LH. 

I'm hoping to start on it later this evening. More soon guys.

Lez.

Edited April 3, 2022 by lezz01

[lezz01]

So I managed a little more progress tonight. I've made a start on the B6LH and hope to get it all done tomorrow although I'm not totally happy with the position of the rivets under the crossing. The proof of the pudding will be when I put the other closure rail in.

of course the real problem is that the jig is S4 and the turnout is EM so there is a bit of a difference but I can't be fagged to make another jig and as it worked for the RH, the worst case is that I have to reposition some of the rails and maybe make a few new timbers but I won't know for sure until the curved closure rail goes in and I'm too tired tonight to attempt it.

Anyway more soon. 

Lez.

Edited April 3, 2022 by lezz01

[Dancess]

May be interesting as a source of background information.

 

https://tewkesburyhistory.org/Tewkesburys-Two-Railways

[lezz01]

2 hours ago, Dancess said:

May be interesting as a source of background information.

 

https://tewkesburyhistory.org/Tewkesburys-Two-Railways

Hi Dancess.

Last time I tried to buy that book it was out of print so thanks for the heads up on the reprint. A copy is on the way to me even as I type this.

Lez.

[lezz01]

Well I was going to do some work on my koi pond today but I had my second vaccine yesterday and wasn't up to it. Instead I spent some time at the modelling bench and finished the B6LH turnout.

So that's all the point work done now and I'll make some plain track next. I have to say that it isn't my best work ever as I've had to make some compromises due to the jig being P4 but as it's all going to be buried in ash and muck I'm going to live with it. It's also my first attempt at building track for around 18 years or so and all in all I'm quite pleased with it. I still have to fit all the furniture, chairs, fishplates etc and cut the electrical gaps, but I'll do all of that once it's all planted. Once I've knocked up some plain track I'll sort out the track plan and start building base boards, traversers and a few cassettes. I'll also make a start on building some stock as well.

More soon guys.

Lez.   

Edited April 3, 2022 by lezz01

[Anthony Ashley]

Lez,

 

I have been looking through your site and am amazed at the patience in constructing the track. You have been very complimentary about my modelling but the track building you are doing needs to be so accurate. It is very impressive and I shall continue to follow your site from now on. I guess your fundamentals in building the layout will take a long time, given progress in actual track building must be very slow. I looked with interest at the switch blade jig posted on 8 Jan but have no real idea how it works. 

 

I presume every screw is hand drilled into the correct position by hand to then provide the anchor points for the rails. The thing I enjoy about the rail modelling hobby is that there is always something for everyone to enjoy at their own level of expertise. The skilled artisans will go to your level of detail and precision in making their own tracks. I look forward to following and understanding the journey!!  

 

Regards,

 

Anthony Ashley

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/71151-north-welsh-coast-railway-welsh-dragon-rail/page/49/

 

Edited May 1, 2021 by Anthony Ashley

[lezz01]

Hi Anthony. Thanks for your kind comments mate.

TBH track building isn't really that hard and I've built quite a bit of it over the years in both EM and P4. I've even built a bit in 00 although it's not my favourite gauge to work in as there are just too many compromises.

The guys who I really admire are the one's who work in 2mm fine scale, I struggle to see what I'm doing in 4mm scale so how they manage in 2mm is a mystery to me. I really would love to move up to 7mm but I have neither the space or the money for such a venture so 4mm it is.

Progress is a little slow at the moment as I'm building a new filter for my koi pond and that has been taking most of my free time at present. However I'm nearly there and intend to have it all installed this week so I hope to get back to the modelling very soon.

Lez.    

[lezz01]

Hi guys.

Firstly I'm sorry it's been so long I've spent most of the last 3 months keeping my Koi alive and haven't had a whole lot of time for modelling. Anyway I'm back to it now.

First photo is my plane track jig loaded up for soldering.

More of this anon.

The next three pics are of the first loco for Tewkesbury. My Craftsman Models 1F. It's off for stripping and repainting in LMS plain black livery.

As you can see she's suffered from a varnish malfunction which is a bit of a shame as she took quite a while to line out but hey ho you live and learn right! 

Despite the shocking cock up with the varnish she is a good little runner and shouldn't take too long to get squared away.

My koi are still a bit of a problem but I have thrown lots of money at them and should start to see a glimmer of light at the end of that particular tunnel soon. 

One thing the tragic loss of our friend Gordon has shown me and that is to get on with it because tomorrow may not come.

Lez.

Edited April 3, 2022 by lezz01

[KeithHC]

Good to see you back Lez. I was missing your layout looking forward to further instalments.

 

Keith

[lezz01]

So the 1F is back from stripping. 

She's picked up a few scratches and bruises she's also lost a set of footsteps and one or two of the lamp irons are loose but it's nothing that can't be sorted out. All in all I think she's looking quite good. I'll get the iron out and sort out the loose bits and everything that has dropped off then it's off to the paint shop for undercoating.

more soon.

Lez. 

Edited April 3, 2022 by lezz01

[lezz01]

I managed to get a bit more done at the work bench tonight.

Well here she is with all the missing and knocked of bits reattached and she's ready to for paint.

The only thing left to fit are the couplings, buffers and whistle which will be fitted after painting.

Now I can start to look at the chassis and see how she runs. I'm not expecting great things straight away as it's been 25 years since she turned a wheel. I'll start with a clean and a lube and take it from there.

More soon.

Lez.

Edited April 3, 2022 by lezz01

[lezz01]

So after a bit of a clean I have to report that the chassis is a total disaster! The front spacer is detached one side. The brakes are a total loss and the motor mount is also detached. Electrically it is live to the chassis on one side and basically it needs a complete rebuild. So I've stripped it down and will remove all of the paint and rebuild it from scratch. In my defence she was my first etched brass kit and I made a load of errors which I never really addressed properly so I guess that this is my chance to put everything that was wrong with it right. Still the frames, horn blocks and beam/pivot are fine, so are the wheels, rods and motor, so I'll strip off all the paint and re-jig it with the rods in the assembly jigs and rebuild the whole thing from the frames up. The trouble is that she was dropped and I had totally forgotten about that and that's why she wasn't sold with the rest of my EM gauge locos and stock when I switched to S4, but hey it's nothing I can't put right and as I said it will give me the chance to do a proper job and incorporate all of the things I have learnt about chassis construction over the last 30 years. So onwards and ever upwards as they say, but I'll bet they never had a dropped 1F chassis to put right when they said that. I'll take some pics of the stripped down and cleaned up chassis and post for you all to laugh at.

More soon.

Lez.        

[lezz01]

Well here's the chassis all stripped down.

Now it's a case of stripping the paint off and rebuilding it.

More soon.

Lez.

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by lezz01

[lezz01]

Well I've stripped down the chassis and sorted out all of the failed solder joints.

There are one or two other things to do like new double sided copper clad pads for the pick ups, pick ups and brakes then it's ready for painting. It was a fairly easy job tbh I was expecting it to be much more of a faff than it was so happy days! I wasn't happy with the motor mount but a rummage through the draw marked motors/gearbox etc delivered a nice new gearbox and 50-1 gears with the right worm bore so I hope to get it all sorted and out and re-wheeled over the weekend.

However it's pond maintenance tomorrow and that has a habit of being a huge can of worms. I've rebuilt the filter system and it can take a few weeks to settle down so I'm not expecting the water quality to be bang on straight off the bat as it's only been 8 days but as I've thrown over 460 quid at it I do expect it to show some improvement.

Here's the new system for those that have an interest in this sort of thing. The old system just wasn't cutting it. It was fragmented and the water flow over the bakki shower was very poor. The new system is far more homogenous and only has one pump, which is a monster, with the old main filter now acting as a prefilter feeding a much bigger main filter that has well over twice the capacity running at nearly twice the flow rate of the old system which means twice the water flow over the bakki shower. 

Anyway more soon.

Lez.      

Edited April 3, 2022 by lezz01

[MrWolf]

Are you making moonshine or heavy water there? 

 

Good job with the chassis too, I like to see anything mechanical that's brought back from the dead.

[MrWolf]

Duplicate post.

 

 

Edited July 31, 2021 by MrWolf
Thank you dodgy internet.

[lezz01]

Thanks Wolfy. Whilst is wasn't exactly dead, it was very unwell! I just hope the wheels will be OK. I have another set in stock, they are for another 1F as I picked up an MPD kit for not a lot on eBay but if I have to then I have to. There is a set on eBay should the worst come to the worst or I just give Gibson's a ring. I do have a set of Romford's but one side would be live to the axle and as I'm going to use DCC I'm not happy to use them. 

Lez.

[lezz01]

Well given that I'm rebuilding an old loco and that I have quite a few part built locos to build not to mention very old kits both in brass and WM my thoughts have turned to cleaning. On stripping down my 1F one thing that crossed my mind was how the chuff am I going to clean all the little bits and bobs.

Then I thought "I know I'll use a jewellery cleaner". So off I went to eBay and found myself a nice little cleaner for under a tenner.

The only problem with it is that the holes in the basket are a bit on the big side as a lot of those bits will just fall through. My solution was to build a basket out of fine brass mess to drop inside and contain the very small bits so I don't have to empty the thing out and risk losing things down the sink. Once the mesh arrived I made a paper pattern, fixed it to the mesh and cut it out. Once it was all folded up, not the easiest of jobs, I soldered it all up and fitted a cross piece to act as a handle and this is the result.

Here it is in place.

So the whole thing only cost me around £13 and will save me a lot of aggro.

Nice, jobs a good un.

Lez. 

 

Edited April 3, 2022 by lezz01

[lezz01]

So the 1F is all cleaned up and sorted out into appropriate groups of components.

I'm just waiting for some 4 pin micro plugs and sockets to arrive from eBay and then choose a decoder. In the meantime I'm going to start installing the pick ups and other electrical bits on the chassis and then I shall undercoat and paint it. I will undercoat the body at the same time and then get it all running before I paint the top coat on the body.

Lez. 

Edited April 3, 2022 by lezz01

[lezz01]

On a slightly different note. At the beginning of this thread I said I was having so much enjoyment building in EM once again I intended to dismantle my 00 gauge 60s layout and sell it all off to fund a new home layout based on  Dudbridge junction and Nailsworth also in EM. Further to that this is the first three items I have for sale. I'm putting them on here first so you guys who are kind enough to follow me as I muck around building stuff in EM can have first dibs on anything that takes your fancy before I put it up for general sale either in a classified add here or on eBay. 

First off is my Bachmann Class 47 with factory fitted sound 32-800DS. It has all the original paperwork and the detail parts still sealed in it's bag.

Second is a Heljan Class 33 in blue with yellow ends. This is fitted with a ESU V4 sound decoder loaded with Legomanbiffo sound and professionally weathered. It also has it's original documents.

Third and last for now is a Bachmann Class 108 3 car DMU in green with SYP which is BNIB and has never been out of it's box except for this photo. Cat #32-911A.

All three are £180 each preferably by bank transfer. 

If anyone is interested please PM me and we can sort it out. If not I'll be putting them up for general sale next weekend.

Thanks for looking.

Lez.  

Edited April 3, 2022 by lezz01

[lezz01]

Merry Christmas everyone!

Lets hope the coming year brings better times for us all.

Sorry about the lack of progress I just haven't had much time for modelling, since I turned 60 I've been flat out with other projects for myself and others. I intend to get stuck back in after Christmas. 

Regards Lez.

[Dave Hunt]

Well, having joined the ranks of the righteous, Lez, I.e., the Midland Railway Society, here's hoping that your modelling mojo returns safe and well and rarin' to go in '22. 

 

Dave

[Charlie586]

Have a good Christmas, Lez. Looking forward to seeing more of the layout build when you have the time.