Exhill Works and other adventures in 7/8ths

[John Besley]

And in other news the coach had arrived, so expect to look at the options.... might even break out the cardboard and scissors 

[SR71]

17 hours ago, John Besley said:

I know this has nothing to do with railways, But its the engineering process and attention to detail in the rebuild that's fascinated me while I wait to get back in the workshop

 

 

Get the funk out!

[John Besley]

4 hours ago, SR71 said:

Get the funk out!

 

Sometimes it helps to look outside of the main modelling area to get inspiration, doesn't matter what it is just to see how other people tackle projects, their methodology, processes can all be taken on board, take the mini rebuild / reinvention for instance.... look at the thought process / planning that went into it, the attention to detail.

 

There are also military modelling channels that I pick up ideas from, in the model railway world its to easy to get blinkered and never push the boundaries to experiment, try new ideas...

 

 

Edited December 16, 2023 by John Besley
Schpelling

[John Besley]

This has arrived to relive the doredom...

 

 

I have an idea up my sleeve.... Nellie chassis hmmm HLG Road Runner....hmmm

 

[SR71]

Absolutely. Their work is so good and yet they mostly use CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) rather than anything too fancy until the later episodes. Definitely inspiring rather than the current prevailing attitude that you must get a professional to do everything.

[John Besley]

OK I've bit the bullet and ordered a NCE Power Cad DCC starter set from TMC - price is right and they offer other services... so see how we go, one thing I will need to resolve is decoders including sound card, but seeing as all of my lococ are built around modified 00 running gear none of them have built in cards to plug and play - next hunt will be for 6 or 8 pin cards to fit decoders to

 

Any ideas?

[John Besley]

And the coach body has been removed to try outsome ideas... once I have the use of two hands again ill break out some card for a CAD render

 

 

[John Besley]

I am on a roll, Digitrains sound card decoder next along with mini speaker and they have a sound clip for a narrow gauge Simplex .... time to raid the piggy bank

[John Besley]

With the aid of the swivel vice pirchased a week ago this acted as my left hand allowing me to make a start on painting the driver so far his head is now complete - All painted in Humbrol enamel matt 250, 61 and 103 along with Revell matt 35 for flesh all mixed and blended with thinners and matt and satin black for his grease top and satin 131 for his BR(S) cap badge

 

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2023 by John Besley

[John Besley]

Completed the painting of our driver, with a base coat of French blue Humbrol matt 25 and his pullover in mid green matt 76, these were then given a pin wash to add in the shadows lines then the highlights where picked out with varying lighter shades of blue or green as required, before his boots where first painted satin black (got to have polished boots) before a brush over with matt black and black weathering powders for coal dust and dirt, his hands also received a wash over with diluted black and then cleaned off to leave grime ingrained, remember this is a 1970’s ex Southern Region loco driver who wouldn’t have worn gloves to drive with in those days..

 

 

 

Currently left on his ‘stick’ until I’ve finished off the footplate

[John Besley]

The next job will be to cut out a section of the tenders intenal baffle plate to accomidate a Zimo Decoder and speaker at some point

 

28 minutes later... this has now been done with the aid the Dremel and a long drill bit...  looks a bit rough but it's out of sight .... bit of a struggle with only one hand but it's done

 

 

Edited December 21, 2023 by John Besley
Addition

[John Besley]

Whos's bright idea was it to have lunch up here...?

 

[John Besley]

In having a turn out in the workshop office i found this photo taken when the main workshop was being built in the early 60's it must have been lunch time

 

[John Besley]

While I can’t do too much physical hand work I have painted up the drivers seat and the all important Billy can a start has also been made on the black paintwork, first areas where I want to ‘wear’ the paint away have been under painted in red oxide, followed by a thin wash of matt black namely on the running plate, the smokebox, the tender body inside chassis rails and the cab roof 

 

At the same time a spare boiler section was painted so I can try out some weathering ideas

 

 

Once I can get my left had back in action the boiler will be fitted and any gaps filled and sprayed ready for lining out.

 

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by John Besley
Reload

[John Besley]

Might seem pretty insignificant, but the cast came off my arm and stitches out yesterday so... today spent time getting my hand / wrist to try to work and what better than fit the boiler onto the frames, fitted the lead weight and secured in place with two screws, then with epoxy adhesive fitted the boiler into the firebox and onto the smokebox saddle at last leaving room for the DCC fittings when I get these in hand.

 

Then made a start on weathering the running gear on the loco and tender along with assembling the gondala wagon and started to weather this as well - pictures to follow

 

 

Edited December 28, 2023 by John Besley
Schpelling

[Gedward]

All good news John.

[John Besley]

Gondala now finished...

 

[John Besley]

Bite the bullet and lined out the loco and tender including number and totem etc, marked out the cab and tender by scribing a feint line into the varnish then using warm water and Carr’s transfer fix went about the task starting with the boiler bands and pin stripe under the foot framing, finishing off with the cab and tender allowing the corners to dry first before applying the straight runs, checking with the veneer that they were all lining up correctly.

 

 

 

 

 

Now to spray everything gloss to seal it before i finish the paintwork off

[John Besley]

Looking at the picture it reminds me of my old Hornby clockwork engine...

[John Besley]

An error was pointed up elsewhere to me that the power classification is incorrect for a light pacific.... checking my 1962 Ian Allen spotters book (still got my original not a reproduction) showed that a rebuild WC/BB was classed as a 7P6F, so No34 now wears the correct classification.

 

With the aid of some warm water and a cocktail stick the incorrect MT was removed the 7 shifted slightly to the left to make room and the correct classification fitted

[John Besley]

Well hello to 2024, we're still here ...

 

So looking back this time last year we where at 9 pages and now here we are at page 16 with now 34 followers up from 28 last year so must be doing something right or intresting....

 

What have we achieved in the last 12 months... the Tinkerbell build has stallled again as I couldn't get the valve gear to work correctly on the Branchlines chassis I was useing so that was a minus point, however we have built another larger diesel No:4 and well on the way with the 0-8-0 tender engine No:34

 

A boige gondala was built useing parts from a Big Big Train 0 gauge gondala and we now have 2 Gresley coach chassis in stock ready for a start on passenger carrying stock once I've finalised the design.

 

The next development will be to get DCC up and running along with lighting and sound not only in the loco's but I want to add sound as a background feature to buildings as well as ambiant background country noises maybe a distant car and bird sounds not sure how to go about that but its another dimention I want to look at.

 

Meanwhile today sees No:34 in having the paintwork sprayed in first gloss to seal and then matt as a base coat for weathering etc.

 

Our house is still on the market once I've sold my late Fathers place and relocated his photo collections and note books, Id kind of like to think that come this time next year we've moved and a start on a new workshop for myself and a new Exhill... hopefully - time will tell.

 

And I sincerly hope I have the full use of my left hand back again as building models with on one and a half hand's is slow and painful, but i have to keep pushing to get there.

 

Here's to 2024 enjoy the journey

 

 

Edited January 1 by John Besley
Schpelling

[ColinK]

One of my friends has background sounds on his layout.  The actual sounds are downloaded free off the internet (just search for the sounds you want).  Drop them into Audacity - free sound editing software (I put together my radio shows with Audacity) where you can alter the volume of individual clips, join tracks together etc.  Export the Audacity file as a MP3 file, download it to a old mobile phone - play the sound from the phone.

 

All the best for 2024.

[John Besley]

Intresting, guess the same could be added to a CD and played through an old CD disc player and dedicated speakers... food for thought there

[SteveyDee68]

Just to follow up re: Audacity - it is free and a really powerful audio program; I used it before Christmas to join so-called professionally produced backing tracks for a school musical that had gaps between songs that were supposed to run one into another - needless to say the school are mightily relieved and it took about half an hour all told - majority of time spent listening by ear to remove any audibly noticeable joins between the tracks.

 

You can “loop” sounds to act as “beds” for individual audio effects - example the sound of wind through trees looped and then individual bird sounds dropped in on top randomly.

 

Will be watching with interest how you further develop your layout before the house move, and all the best for 2024

 

Steve S

[JeffP]

I too have used Audacity when I put my vinyl collection onto CD.

Time consuming when you have to remove a scratch which repeats, of course, but surprisingly easy to use.

 

I also have several CD's of birdsong, one of which features the dawn chorus and runs to an hour.

I used to listen to it in my kitchen while preparing evening meals.

Looking out of a dark, rain-lashed window, I was transported to a forest in France.🙂

 

You learn from it, too.

I was once sat on a motorway rest area near to Chateauroux in central France, listening to a nightingale.

No-one else knew what they were hearing.