Chuffnell Regis

[MrWolf]

That's another job on my list which I need to work out how to do so I'll second your request!

[treggyman]

Hi

As regards the Buddleia I would suggest it's not right where it is......

I am only going from earliest personal memory of the very late 'fifties & 'sixties & my memory of the plant is of it growing IN walls rather than on the ground apart from waste ground.

So if you are modelling an era prior to this when standards were better I would suggest it's even less likely Buddleia would be allowed to establish itself there....

I lived next door to an ex GWR station & there was no Buddleia to be seen anywhere on railway property  but it could be seen growing in cracks/ledges of buildings in the High Street on buildings that were not well kept......Loads of Rose Bay Willowherb in the surrounding railway 'verge' (& also lots of reeds) which might be more suitable to model in an area that would not necessarily be subject to the the local Pway man's scythe.....

I lived in Somerset on the edge of Sedgemoor (Langport) then so things might have been different in your chosen area....

 

Really enjoying your journey & learning lots by following your thread....

Keep up the good work...

 

Cheers Bill

 

[Graham T]

Thanks very much Bill, thats really helpful - and I'm glad that you're enjoying the thread.

 

So, the buddleia will be getting the chop!  At least from its current position.  But I might put some amongst the vegetation at the top of the cutting (outside the railway boundary), and perhaps dot some around in the hedgerows on the far right corner of the layout.  What do you think?

[treggyman]

8 minutes ago, Graham T said:

Thanks very much Bill, thats really helpful - and I'm glad that you're enjoying the thread.

 

So, the buddleia will be getting the chop!  At least from its current position.  But I might put some amongst the vegetation at the top of the cutting (outside the railway boundary), and perhaps dot some around in the hedgerows on the far right corner of the layout.  What do you think?

Hi Graham

Again it's only my opinion.....

Currently I live in Cornwall & Buddleia is widespread on wasteland & on some verges......But is being/has been overtaken by Japanese Knotweed....

But I don't remember Budleia being as widespread then as it is now........

In my youth I remember Rosebay Willowherb being the plant that was everywhere followed to a degree by Buddleia but now surpassed by Japanese Knotweed....

I've only once been to the Wye valley,in 1973, & I can distinctly remember the closed railway having been overtaken by Willowherb.....Not your era I know but an indication of the plants that grew in abundance when given the opportunity before the more recent interloper.....

 

Cheers Bill

 

Cheers Bill

[Fishplate]

All looking good Graham. I guess your signal will go by the fogmans hut. I seem to remember you discussing signal positions probably many pages back now.

 

Whilst there is a 'prototype for everything', I'm not sure about the  foot crossing by the hut? They are normally reserved for locations where there is a formal walking route between points for staff, so normally more likely within station limits. I haven't personally seen a crossing away from a station unless it is associated with a public foot crossing, as it will be something else that needs to be maintained by the pway gang.  Perhaps it is a public crossing and I've missed the comment? I suspect occasional use of a fog hut wouldn't warrant a formal crossing.

 

I agree with @MrWolf  on the boundary fence and the buddlea.

 

The railway companies also normally provide a bit of flat land between the fence and the top of a cutting or the bottom of embankment to enable the fence to be maintained from inside railway property.

 

Depending on the material in the cutting, and the fall of the adjacent land towards an embankment, there might also be a railway owned cut-off drain to control water running off adjacent fields. However, your cutting slope is quite steep, so safe to assume that it is a stable rock. The fields either side of your embankment also don't suggest there would be significant run-off towards it that would soften the embankment material and lead to a slip.  

 

There is a sense of time passing in the photos with the blue car travelling in opposite directions at different times of the day.

 

ps Perhaps the Ministry of Works will notice the increase in traffic on that road and have to widen that road to enable a bus service to be introduced 

[Graham T]

7 hours ago, Fishplate said:

All looking good Graham. I guess your signal will go by the fogmans hut. I seem to remember you discussing signal positions probably many pages back now.

 

Whilst there is a 'prototype for everything', I'm not sure about the  foot crossing by the hut? They are normally reserved for locations where there is a formal walking route between points for staff, so normally more likely within station limits. I haven't personally seen a crossing away from a station unless it is associated with a public foot crossing, as it will be something else that needs to be maintained by the pway gang.  Perhaps it is a public crossing and I've missed the comment? I suspect occasional use of a fog hut wouldn't warrant a formal crossing.

 

I agree with @MrWolf  on the boundary fence and the buddlea.

 

The railway companies also normally provide a bit of flat land between the fence and the top of a cutting or the bottom of embankment to enable the fence to be maintained from inside railway property.

 

Depending on the material in the cutting, and the fall of the adjacent land towards an embankment, there might also be a railway owned cut-off drain to control water running off adjacent fields. However, your cutting slope is quite steep, so safe to assume that it is a stable rock. The fields either side of your embankment also don't suggest there would be significant run-off towards it that would soften the embankment material and lead to a slip.  

 

There is a sense of time passing in the photos with the blue car travelling in opposite directions at different times of the day.

 

ps Perhaps the Ministry of Works will notice the increase in traffic on that road and have to widen that road to enable a bus service to be introduced 

 

Thanks very much for all that, really useful.

 

The signal will indeed go somewhere near to the fogman's hut, set into the cutting side.  I haven't decided exactly where yet though.  As for the foot crossing, that was put in because (a) I liked the idea of it, and (b) because of the way I had built the cutting, the footpath had to cross from one side of the tracks to the other.  But it sounds as if I should probably remove it, no problem there.

 

I'll also be removing the buddleia   Or relocating it, anyway.

 

Not sure if I'll be able to accommodate flat ground next to the fence on the far side of the cutting, but I think I will just live with that.  And I still don't think I'll be introducing a bus service, sorry!

[Nick C]

20 minutes ago, Graham T said:

The signal will indeed go somewhere near to the fogman's hut, set into the cutting side.  I haven't decided exactly where yet though.  As for the foot crossing, that was put in because (a) I liked the idea of it, and (b) because of the way I had built the cutting, the footpath had to cross from one side of the tracks to the other.  But it sounds as if I should probably remove it, no problem there.

 

It's unlikely there would be a board crossing just because the path along the cess crossed the line - staff would be trained in safe procedures for crossing the line (nowadays a formal training called PTS (personal track safety) back then probably just shown what do do by a senior staff member!).

 

The only place you might have one away from public areas is outside the signal box, if the bobby needed to cross to collect the token.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Nick C

[Graham T]

Thanks Nick - removal operations will commence if I can ever get away from this damned computer!!!

[Graham T]

Ok, so I took a couple of hours break from work this afternoon.  The offending buddleia and foot crossing have both been removed

 

I also had a fix of crack cocaine static grass; I added a mix of different shades and lengths, and a few grass tufts for good measure.  The bare brown patch at the lower right in the first pic is intended to (eventually) be a boggy patch, and I've put some longer and darker grass along the edges of the track, and heading across the field to the right - these are places where I'm planning to put hedgerows.  Grateful for any thoughts on how that all looks please...  Stuff I need to change / add / remove / throw over the side completely?!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by Graham T

[chuffinghell]

Superb!

[LDM34046]

Brilliant modelling! Static grass can be incredibly addictive and sometimes can end up like telly tubby hills with a carpet of regular grass, however the different layers and colours looks great.

 

Great work on the river as well!

[Gopher]

1 hour ago, Graham T said:

Ok, so I took a couple of hours break from work this afternoon.  The offending buddleia and foot crossing have both been removed

 

I also had a fix of crack cocaine static grass; I added a mix of different shades and lengths, and a few grass tufts for good measure.  The bare brown patch at the lower right in the first pic is intended to (eventually) be a boggy patch, and I've put some longer and darker grass along the edges of the track, and heading across the field to the right - these are places where I'm planning to put hedgerows.  Grateful for any thoughts on how that all looks please...  Stuff I need to change / add / remove / throw over the side completely?!

 

 

Change nothing Graham it looks superb.    As I've said before I love the smell of static grass in the morning.     

[Graham T]

4 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

Superb!

 

Thanks very much Chris (looking for the "blushing" icon thingy...)

[Graham T]

2 hours ago, Gopher said:

Change nothing Graham it looks superb.    As I've said before I love the smell of static grass in the morning.     

 

Thanks   I have however changed the colour of the dirt track a bit.  And having changed it, now want to change it again!!!

 

[Graham T]

Lots more pottering and tinkering done this evening, pics of which to follow tomorrow.  One of the things I did was to make some grass tufts, and I plonked a few of them around the fogman's hut.  Almost ready to try putting the fence up behind this now, I think...

 

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by Graham T

[Graham T]

And now Zebedee thinks it might be time to knock it off for the evening

[MrWolf]

Boing.

[Neal Ball]

Morning Graham, greetings from a very wet Spain. I think that’s put paid to my morning run!

 

The static grass and the general look of that whole area looks great, it really has brought it to life. The area of longer grass around the hut also looks very good.

 

You are putting me to shame, I think I need to crack on and get more scenic work done!

 

PS: I’ve started to use Amazon.de a lot. As it’s inside the EU orders come through very quickly with no customs delays. Even better it’s all in English and they stock a large range of English products. Anyway the point is, they also sell a large range of Noch static grass….

[Graham T]

2 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Morning Graham, greetings from a very wet Spain. I think that’s put paid to my morning run!

 

The static grass and the general look of that whole area looks great, it really has brought it to life. The area of longer grass around the hut also looks very good.

 

You are putting me to shame, I think I need to crack on and get more scenic work done!

 

PS: I’ve started to use Amazon.de a lot. As it’s inside the EU orders come through very quickly with no customs delays. Even better it’s all in English and they stock a large range of English products. Anyway the point is, they also sell a large range of Noch static grass….

 

Good morning Neal, and greetings to you from a similarly wet, and grey, Austria.  The little patches of longer grass are really useful to make things look a bit more natural, I think.  I have some grass tufts, but they look rather uniform, so it's much better to make them myself I find (but much more time-consuming of course).

 

I also use amazon.de quite a lot, and have actually bought some Noch grass off there.  Struggling to find any that's 4mm long though...

[Neal Ball]

12 minutes ago, Graham T said:

 

Good morning Neal, and greetings to you from a similarly wet, and grey, Austria.  The little patches of longer grass are really useful to make things look a bit more natural, I think.  I have some grass tufts, but they look rather uniform, so it's much better to make them myself I find (but much more time-consuming of course).

 

I also use amazon.de quite a lot, and have actually bought some Noch grass off there.  Struggling to find any that's 4mm long though...

That’s odd, they seem to do 1.5; 2.5 then jump to 6mm.

 

Woodland Scenics do 4mm, do you have a supplier locally?

[Graham T]

18 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

That’s odd, they seem to do 1.5; 2.5 then jump to 6mm.

 

Woodland Scenics do 4mm, do you have a supplier locally?

 

Yes, seems that grass in Germany is either very neatly trimmed, or allowed to run wild

 

There are a few model shops here in Vienna, but strangely they seem a bit hit or miss on landscaping stuff.  I've bought static grass (and applicators) from War World Scenics in the UK before; they have a good range, and don't charge a fortune for shipping either.

[Graham T]

Back on the subject of import fees, this little chap arrived at Chuffnell Regis from the UK recently.  It wasn't cheap to start with (I got it specced with sound and a stay-alive fitted), and then I also got hit for 102 euros of fees from DHL before they'd deliver it...

 

I didn't actually want a weathered version, but I guess that's my fault for not reading the listing properly.  Not really a problem, as I'll be weathering my other locos eventually (although perhaps not quite so much as this one).  Now I need to fit some screw couplings to it, and a crew, and then do some detailing work on the auto-coach.

 

As you can imagine, I was far from gruntled when I tried 5801 on the layout, and it promptly leapt off the tracks in every direction, even on a straight and level run (which I don't have many of...)  A cup of tea and some pondering, and I decided to check the back to backs.  Sure enough, the trailing axle back to back was out, and after a tweak, some light oiling and a short spell on the rolling road, it now runs very sweetly.  Sounds nice too

 

 

Edited April 15, 2022 by Graham T

[MrWolf]

There's some bizarre things going on with new loco models. It reminds me of all the British Leyland jokes when I was about ten.

Glad to see you have managed to sort it out though. 

[longchap]

A classic combination there Graham and I assume it's the Hattons' version judging by all the handrails. The 58xx class however were not fitted for auto working, so maybe change the number to a 48xx and fit auto gear?

 

Bill

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, Graham T said:

Back on the subject of import fees, this little chap arrived at Chuffnell Regis from the UK recently.  It wasn't cheap to start with (I got it specced with sound and a stay-alive fitted), and then I also got hit for 102 euros of fees from DHL before they'd deliver it...

 

I didn't actually want a weathered version, but I guess that's my fault for not reading the listing properly.  Not really a problem, as I'll be weathering my other locos eventually (although perhaps not quite so much as this one).  Now I need to fit some screw couplings to it, and a crew, and then do some detailing work on the auto-coach.

 

As you can imagine, I was far from gruntled when I tried 5801 on the layout, and it promptly leapt off the tracks in every direction, even on a straight and level run (which I don't have many of...)  A cup of tea and some pondering, and I decided to check the back to backs.  Sure enough, the trailing axle back to back was out, and after a tweak, some light oiling and a short spell on the rolling road, it now runs very sweetly.  Sounds nice too

 

What sound file did you opt for Graham? It certainly looks the part crossing the river.

 

Of course, it’s probably too dirty for a pre-WW2 loco, but presumably you are changing the post war livery when you get rid of the weathering.

 

Enjoy!