Melyn Valley Railway

[PMP99]

You have made a nice job of those windows Andrew.

[Andrew Young]

3 hours ago, PMP99 said:

You have made a nice job of those windows Andrew.

Thanks Graham. Having had issues with plastic glazing fogging or picking up marks very easily, I’m now a definite convert to using microscope slide glass. 
 

There’s a definite knack to using them and they don’t like being split into two small a pieces or have a second cut made to the same slide. So, there was more wastage cutting the small pieces in the bay windows than the rest of the glazing put together. But once you have the knack it’s surprisingly quick to do. 
 

 

[GWR57xx]

On 03/03/2022 at 23:50, Andrew Young said:

 

 

The Tavern is looking great.

I’m just wondering where Virgil parked Thunderbird 2 on his mission to rescue the Tin Man from the roof? 

 

[Andrew Young]

So, the RMWeb outage debacle rumbles on…. Whoever heard of a back up that wasn’t a back up? At least the site speed is back, even if so are the adverts. This thread is still devoid of photos, all the way through so shall wait a little while longer to see what reappears before deciding what to do next. 
 

Anyway, one benefit of glacial progress is that of the photos lost forever in recent months, the main achievements are in this photo. The Mannin models carriage, the magnetic shunting poles and the Petite Properties pub. 
 

 

Last Saturday saw our Trent Valley Area Group of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association Members Day at Mickleover, delayed from January due to Omicron. An excellent day of catching up with friends fuelled by bacon rolls, tea and cake. 
 

One piece of modelling that caught my eye was this group of Petite Properties buildings, complete with interiors and lighting. 
 

 

Neil bought along his under construction ‘Ffarquhar Road’ layout on which running rights were extended and my Hudswell got a run out. 
 

 

Liz and Annabel came along for a look round and Annabel is a fan of the whistles and bells that DCC brings. 
 

 

An excellent day. Was fun to shunt a few wagons around and showed that less can be more. Also, seeing how Neil had challenged himself to get something to the show reminded me of how we used to do that with our group layout. So have challenged myself to get my layout to a state where it can be taken along to our next members day in January. 

[Mike Bellamy]

 

I was also impressed by that row of buildings but until comparing your photos, I had no idea that the "Navigation" was the same basic building as the "Terminus Tavern". It just goes to show what a difference the surface treatment makes when decorating what started off as a wooden box !

.

[Andrew Young]

12 hours ago, Mike Bellamy said:

 

I was also impressed by that row of buildings but until comparing your photos, I had no idea that the "Navigation" was the same basic building as the "Terminus Tavern". It just goes to show what a difference the surface treatment makes when decorating what started off as a wooden box !

.

Agreed, by their very nature they make a good blank canvass to finish how you wish. I chose render with corner stones and there’s stone. The first one I saw built up was on one of Mike Bragg’s Black Country based layouts with a brick finish. 

[Andrew Young]

Time for another update…. As is often the case, my modelling pace carries on at a plod. Though I do wonder whether I’d be better off having a blog rather than a thread in this section. 
 

There have been some distractions, two of my colleagues chose to have a Talyllyn wedding so went down to drive that for them. 
 

The timing was such that there was only a week between that visit and our summer fortnight in Tywyn. So was away for three weeks in four. On the second visit, I was rostered to drive the Queens Baton Relay up the valley. Great fun and a super day for the local community. 
 

 

Last summer, Annabel very much enjoyed the garden railway at Llechfan on the Talyllyn Railway. On this year’s holiday she got a chance to drive one herself and made a very good job of it for 3 1/2 years old. 
 

 

We thought that might happen so I’m currently building a 16mm scale battery electric loco to give us something quick and easy to get out and which Annabel can control herself. It’s a PDF Models Skylark, ridiculously good value for money. It’s taking me longer than hoped for but it’s getting there now. 
 

Progress has been helped by me catching Covid in Tywyn shortening our holiday by a couple of days. Thankfully, I’ve a couple of days of horrible flu like symptoms, I improved to feeling like having a minor cold. But as I was still testing positive I had to stay home at work. This has meant that I’ve really got on a roll with the Skylark and I’m onto the detailing stage. 
 

 

Once complete I shall be returning to 7mm scale, this is all a bit big for me!

 

There has been some 7mm

entertainment with the annual 7mmNGA Convention in June. Annabel was transfixed by this micro layout. Maybe I should be looking to build smaller rather than bigger and actually make some progress to have something to run?

 

Andrew

[Andrew Young]

Getting there with the Skylark. Whilst I like the extra detail you can see, it also shows up the imperfections more, so keen to return to 7mm scale!

 

Time for some weathering, sort the electrics out and then just some final detailing and it’ll be finished. 
 

 

Andrew

[Andrew Young]

Taken slightly longer than expected, but my PDF Models 16mm scale Skylark is finished. Hopefully, Annabel and I can have some garden railway fun with it soon. 
 

Excellent value for money, with a few detail additions I’m rather pleased

with how it’s turned out. 
 

Need to build some wagons for it to haul, but for now I’m returning to 7mm scale. 
 

 

Uses a LocoRemote that runs off the iPhone (have an old one to use) which with the battery remaining in situ to charge makes for a compact and easily transportable unit. 
 

 

Finally, posed with my 7mm scale version. One is small, the other is far away….

 

Andrew

[Donw]

My 16mm stuff is live steam but of course you get your live steam fix full size.   Nice model.

 

Don

 

[Andrew Young]

25 minutes ago, Donw said:

My 16mm stuff is live steam but of course you get your live steam fix full size.   Nice model.

 

Don

 

Thank you, I have a live steam loco and carriages too. Having a battery loco ready to go does suit the (im)patience of a 3 year old to get something running. Also will be good to be something that she can start driving herself.

 

Andrew

[Andrew Young]

Whenever I embark on a modeling project that takes a while my desk and the surrounding area descend into what can only be described as a mess with any tools, materials and reference material getting put in a pile resulting in an ever decreasing work area. With the Skylark complete, I’ve had a grand tidy up and sort out and am ready for the next project. 
 

Over time, this thread has evolved into more of a blog than just my modeling posts. I’m a member of several forums and groups, but chose to post a thread on here as being the most visible. However, the time has come I feel to start posting on the other forums I’m a member of too. There is also the fact that a large part of this thread has photos missing from the great RMWeb outage from earlier in the year. 
 

In order to prevent repetition, I’ve decided to start a blog where detail of my model making will be posted. I’ll continue to post here, but it will be necessary to go to the blog for greater detail. Hopefully this won’t be too off putting for folk. 
 

There are only a couple of posts on the blog currently, but one is the history of the MVR which some might find interesting. The blog can be found here:

https://melynvalleyrailway.blogspot.com/?m=1
 

Andrew

 

 

[Andrew Young]

Work on Abermelyn is paused currently. To give myself some experience of the scenic aspects of layout building in a smaller space to experiment in, have decided to build a small cameo narrow gauge layout. It would also have the benefit of giving me something to take along to our Mickleover Modelling Days as Abermelyn is too bulky for that. 
 

Initial progress can be found here:

 

https://melynvalleyrailway.blogspot.com/2022/10/wheal-ponder-cornish-cameo.html?m=1

 

Andrew