Rusper Road - LBSCR Micro Layout

[Matloughe]

51 minutes ago, BlueLightning said:

Some of us go there quite often, and that colour you've got looks quite good to me, maybe slightly too light, but very close.

 

Thats good to hear from a local such as yourself; it was quite difficult to decide on a colour from digital photos because the colour of the shingle differs on the ambient sunlight & cloud cover, how wet or dry it is from the last high tide or precipitation and its position on the beach. Some photos I have seen the shingle has a distinct orange undertone to it.

 

I can imagine very well the track just being buried - it had served its useful purpose and manually removing it would be tricky as I doubt the Crumbles siding would be strong enough to bare the weight of a rail-mounted crane to pull up sections of track. There could be some really vintage LB&SCR artifacts remaining in the form of chairs, rail & fittings.

Kind Regards,
Gary

[Matloughe]

Evening all,

I've had a couple of weeks off working on the layout persuing other interests - Ballasting isn't my forte, and I find it quite stressful especially that it could go completely wrong and need to be soaked off and re-started. I just needed some time away, I visited the Exe Model Railway show and that brought my interest back to the fore - especially coupled with the fact I am on my summer holiday from work.

My daughter selected the motive power for this morning, she selected this fine A1x Terrier W13 Carisbrooke in SR Malachite Green with British Railways on the tanks she selected this because in her words 'Green is your favourite colour!' and she's not wrong, this is certainly an attractive locomotive especially with the fine yellow lining - wheels included. In the background is what we're talking about today - I've made a start on forming the hills up to the level of the footbridge for the scenic exit.

 

I've been told this is the "Pendon" method of forming hills - I'm not sure, I just am recalling articles from Railway Modeller from my youth - but officially this marks the furthest I have gone with a layout - and am looking forwards to doing more. I have help from other members of the family who are keen to paper mache the hills when the formers are done & filled.

The last time we saw the H1 'La France' she was trapped due to the low footbridge, the bridge has been raised up on small plinths that I am planning to disguise to look like large concrete foundations, I'm pleased to say that she fitted beautifully under the bridge on this occasion.

Previously...

Currently. As you can see, plenty of clearance.
You can also see that the hills were continious and the lines, engineers cut through the ridge when building the line to the station. There is a lower, smaller in length remnant of the hill at the front of the layout - and the engineers punched through just enough for a single track railway line through the ridge line.

Overview of the station at its rightful place on the dining room table - you can see the hill line dropping at both the front and the back of the layout at different locations and gradients to try and make things look a little more natural. There is a deliberate gap between the ballast line and the hill which after the hills have been clad in papier mache will become the cess alongside the track. The gap between the end of the hill at the back and the steps up to the goods platform will have a brick boundary wall fitted to protect the track.
A starter & shunt signal is planned to be somewhere between the signal cabin and the white paper covering a hole in the baseboard. I also wanted a platelayers hut but I am thinking it might be come too busy if I did that - I don't want to block my sightlines entirely. The other option I have is a slightly larger signal cabin - a Withyham scenecraft box which would give some vertical appeal to the layout. Opposed to a lamp hut or a platelayers hut - I havent decided yet.

 

Last but by no means least, 'Brighton' and 'La France' or as I like to call them little & large at rest on the layout - the H1 being isolated on the siding, and Brighton showing off its Kadee coupling. I need to order some more for futher conversions. The only otherwork I have done is to write the Operations Booklet, that outlines all the wiring, history, operations, dice throws for the freight system, everything in one book. A booklet I intend to have ready for this layouts debut exhibition next year - exciting.

Stay safe & happy modelling.
Kind Regards,
~ Gary

 

[Ben B]

Just caught up with this- really enjoying this thread. I like that it's such a contained project, but with room for superdetailing and expansion :)

[Matloughe]

On 30/07/2023 at 17:48, Ben B said:

Just caught up with this- really enjoying this thread. I like that it's such a contained project, but with room for superdetailing and expansion :)

That's very kind Ben, with summer holidays I haven't got much further as of yet. My head is spinning thinking about scatters and static grass. Not to mention do I change the platform for something else or strip it back and clad it in new brickwork. I've got to find some coal for the coaling stage and possibly to make wagon loads out of as well as fit details like the Stroudley Water Crane from 5&9 models.

 

I'll get there slowly, not to mention the Kadee conversions and I am always on the lookout for cheap appropriate stock for the layout.

 

The plus side is I am strictly adhering to my modelling budget each month.

 

Kind Regards,

Gary

[BlueLightning]

3 hours ago, Matloughe said:

My head is spinning thinking about scatters and static grass

 

Save those for next month when Gaugemaster have released their new rebranded Noch Scenic range

 

3 hours ago, Matloughe said:

I've got to find some coal for the coaling stage

 

Sounds like a trip to a preserved line is in order, nothing looks more like coal than coal, and smashing it up ican be theraputic 🤣

 

Gary

[Matloughe]

22 hours ago, BlueLightning said:

 

Save those for next month when Gaugemaster have released their new rebranded Noch Scenic range

 

 

Sounds like a trip to a preserved line is in order, nothing looks more like coal than coal, and smashing it up ican be theraputic 🤣

 

Gary

 

Its probably for the best - I've just cleared Kernow out of their cheap LBSCR Baggage van (under £20, I know its too long to be 100% authentic) and nabbed a Hornby Generic LSWR Brake Third & Full Third so the modelling budget is well and truely spent for the remainder of the month! Does mean my LSWR Terrier now has two coaches, three(ish) wagons and a LSWR Brake Van for an authentic mixed train - I just need a bigger layout to run it on! 😁
I might grab a Hattons LSWR Brake Third to mix it up a little when they release. But the L&Y livery coaches look fantastic from Hattons - as well as the SDJR Prussian Blue Hornby coaches.

Its funny you mention a preserved line - I was just planning a trip to the South Devon Railway over this mornings brew.
How are things with you?
I'm trying to save enough money to pre-order another E1 through yourselves 🙂

Any planned streams coming up?
Kind Regards,
Gary

[BlueLightning]

1 hour ago, Matloughe said:

Its probably for the best

 

Not for those of us who own model shops and want to order scenics it's not, Gaugemaster tell me this new range will be fantastic, I tell them it would have been nice if they had kept the old range until it arrived 😛

 

1 hour ago, Matloughe said:

I've just cleared Kernow out of their cheap LBSCR Baggage van (under £20, I know its too long to be 100% authentic) and nabbed a Hornby Generic LSWR Brake Third & Full Third so the modelling budget is well and truely spent for the remainder of the month! Does mean my LSWR Terrier now has two coaches, three(ish) wagons and a LSWR Brake Van for an authentic mixed train - I just need a bigger layout to run it on! 😁
I might grab a Hattons LSWR Brake Third to mix it up a little when they release. But the L&Y livery coaches look fantastic from Hattons - as well as the SDJR Prussian Blue Hornby coaches.

 

I love both the Hattons Generics and Hornby Stroudley's for different reasons, so far I haven't got any Hattons ones for myself (I would have if they had done a better job at SECR livery) and I also approve of Kernow, I have friends at their Guildford store, very nice bunch of people

 

1 hour ago, Matloughe said:

Its funny you mention a preserved line - I was just planning a trip to the South Devon Railway over this mornings brew.

 

Good plan, a single lump of coal will sort your modelling needs for years, and they'll be more than happy to let you have one (Well, the bluebell have always been nice when I've asked anyway)

 

1 hour ago, Matloughe said:

How are things with you?

 

Very busy recently, mostly in good ways, so I can't complain, got some very exciting things in the pipeline

 

1 hour ago, Matloughe said:

I'm trying to save enough money to pre-order another E1 through yourselves 🙂

 

I've got 8 on order for myself, so I approve of getting another one 🤣

 

1 hour ago, Matloughe said:

Any planned streams coming up?

 

I am starting to feel a bit YouTube-y again, and have even spent some time sorting the recording studio out this week, so keep an eye out, I don't think it'll be long before I return.

 

Gary

[Ben B]

On 04/08/2023 at 10:08, Matloughe said:

That's very kind Ben, with summer holidays I haven't got much further as of yet. My head is spinning thinking about scatters and static grass. Not to mention do I change the platform for something else or strip it back and clad it in new brickwork. I've got to find some coal for the coaling stage and possibly to make wagon loads out of as well as fit details like the Stroudley Water Crane from 5&9 models.

 

I'll get there slowly, not to mention the Kadee conversions and I am always on the lookout for cheap appropriate stock for the layout.

 

The plus side is I am strictly adhering to my modelling budget each month.

 

Kind Regards,

Gary

 

I did well for scatter and static grass at a show a few years ago, some bargain bags on a second-hand stall :)

 

I need to properly try static grass at some point, my last few projects in 00 have been too urban to really justify it. I've baseboards built for a little light railway terminus though, so may have to try it over the winter...

[Matloughe]

@BlueLightning Please let me know if/when you're planning a stream I'll make sure I am ready with a brew and some witty (or not so witty) comments 😁

 

Once I have a better grasp of the pennies I will look at ordering another E1 from your fine establishment. Toss up is IEG or Goods Green, with Marsh Umber slightly higher up the list for desirability. This is in addition to the black one I already have in order with yourselves.

 

@Ben B I know what you mean, I've been meaning to sit back down and get on with filling the hills with stuffing and then paper mache over the top but because it's summer holidays - I don't feel like I've stopped, let alone done any modelling!!

 

I'm not sure if I should use scatter and flock on the hills for a base and then static grass or just paint it brown and static grass after it's all set off.

I have scatter but no static grasses as of yet.

 

I've ordered some more kadee couplings so when the scenery is a little more complete I might do another short video on the layout.

 

Kind Regards,

Gary

[Matloughe]

Some work has happened today, I enlisted the help of some child labour support for some crafting activities. I fitted some additional card fillets to the formers for the hillside and we gathered up some of the rubbish paper ripped it up and scrunched it into balls to fill the gaps between the card formers to offer support to the top surface when it goes on:

 

So after this photo was taken and the child labour support crew, was recalled to other more interesting things (not very Victorian or Edwardian but i'm told its 2023, not 1903!) I did some tweaking and added some more scrunched up balls of paper to fill out some of the areas that needed it and adjusted the profile on a couple of the sections to induce a better looking curve. If its of any interest the paper used in all of this is an old Gas Bill, a useless statement from my pension provider saying they have lost £200 on this year's contributions from me due to the 'economic environment' and other assorted failed prints from the printer. Making hills might be a good option for anyone looking to dispose of any unwanted paperwork - who is going to rip it apart once its all scenic'ed up? 😉

Myself and my partner then applied more scrap paper in a paper mache format over these formers and I couldn't resist a Terrier shot - so here is my Hornby LSWR Terrier on the layout - more of this will most likely be shown off in the future due to the impending arrival of some LSWR Coaches mixed with the LSWR wagons & Guards van I currently own.

Now I must leave the layout alone - poking the wet Paper Mache first coat isn't a good idea, Its going to need a couple more layers of paper mache to secure everything down before we see it again - I'm also going to plan a trip to a model shop for some scatter for an initial coat of green, as well as some other colours, brown earth or gravel, a trip to a steam railway for some coal dust for the coaling stage.
It feels like its coming together.
Kind Regards,
Gary

 

 

[BlueLightning]

Looking good! Going to be great once the embankment is finished!

 

9 hours ago, Matloughe said:

other assorted failed prints from the printer

 

My failed prints look very different to yours! 😛

 

 

Gary

[Ben B]

18 hours ago, Matloughe said:

Some work has happened today, I enlisted the help of some child labour support for some crafting activities. I fitted some additional card fillets to the formers for the hillside and we gathered up some of the rubbish paper ripped it up and scrunched it into balls to fill the gaps between the card formers to offer support to the top surface when it goes on:

 

So after this photo was taken and the child labour support crew, was recalled to other more interesting things (not very Victorian or Edwardian but i'm told its 2023, not 1903!) I did some tweaking and added some more scrunched up balls of paper to fill out some of the areas that needed it and adjusted the profile on a couple of the sections to induce a better looking curve. If its of any interest the paper used in all of this is an old Gas Bill, a useless statement from my pension provider saying they have lost £200 on this year's contributions from me due to the 'economic environment' and other assorted failed prints from the printer. Making hills might be a good option for anyone looking to dispose of any unwanted paperwork - who is going to rip it apart once its all scenic'ed up? 😉

Myself and my partner then applied more scrap paper in a paper mache format over these formers and I couldn't resist a Terrier shot - so here is my Hornby LSWR Terrier on the layout - more of this will most likely be shown off in the future due to the impending arrival of some LSWR Coaches mixed with the LSWR wagons & Guards van I currently own.

Now I must leave the layout alone - poking the wet Paper Mache first coat isn't a good idea, Its going to need a couple more layers of paper mache to secure everything down before we see it again - I'm also going to plan a trip to a model shop for some scatter for an initial coat of green, as well as some other colours, brown earth or gravel, a trip to a steam railway for some coal dust for the coaling stage.
It feels like its coming together.
Kind Regards,
Gary

 

 

Ah yes, I remember when my 3 were still young enough for child labour model-making... now they're grumpy tweens and teens, no chance of that happening again :)

[Matloughe]

11 hours ago, BlueLightning said:

My failed prints look very different to yours! 😛

 

 

Ahh, thats because I am in the paper printing trade - booklets, flyers, certificates, exam papers thats my bread & butter :-)
Today was a bust to be fair, I arranged to go to work to do some copying producing resources for the next school year - however the school is basically having all of its computer network replaced and the engineers are overrunning so after travelling in it ended up I couldn't do anything so I ended up  wasting three or four hours heading two and from work as well as the time there for nought.
I did manage to help my Grandad with an issue with his car much earlier in the day than I had planned becuase of not staying at work but I haven't managed to do any work on the layout - I did get to show it to him some photos of where I had got to - he was mildly interested but railways aren't his thing.
Whilst dinner was cooking I did grab my favourite Terrier and tried to take some photos as if I were a 4mm scale figure - I got a couple of interesting shots:

I like this one quite a lot!

Looking down from the footpath leading up to the overbridge perhaps...?

 

4 hours ago, Ben B said:

Ah yes, I remember when my 3 were still young enough for child labour model-making... now they're grumpy tweens and teens, no chance of that happening again :)

I have a six year old whom believes she is older than her years :-) I'm not looking forwards to the tweens & teen years - I think I'll retreat to the Garage/Mancave and build railways.

Car is off to the mechanic tomorrow to investigate an oil leak, so maybe some more gluing tomorrow to give another coat of paper mache to the hills.

Kind Regards,
Gary
 

 

 

[BlueLightning]

11 hours ago, Matloughe said:

however the school is basically having all of its computer network replaced and the engineers are overrunning

 

That used to be my bread and butter, back when I was a Network Manager I loved the holidays, because we could do exactly that, then in September everyone would come back and not notice a thing (always thank your IT staff for their work, they never hear it, but they do appreciate it 😛)

 

11 hours ago, Matloughe said:

I have a six year old whom believes she is older than her years :-) I'm not looking forwards to the tweens & teen years - I think I'll retreat to the Garage/Mancave and build railways.

 

Mine are 16 and 13 (14 next week) they tend to stay out the way, and occasionally I can get away with paying them a fiver to clean up after I've made a mess cutting holes in baseboards and running new plug sockets, makes the job much easier 😁

 

Pictures look great though (well other than the giant Kadees, practical but ugly 😛)

 

Gary

[Matloughe]

31 minutes ago, BlueLightning said:

 

That used to be my bread and butter, back when I was a Network Manager I loved the holidays, because we could do exactly that, then in September everyone would come back and not notice a thing (always thank your IT staff for their work, they never hear it, but they do appreciate it 😛)😁

 

Pictures look great though (well other than the giant Kadees, practical but ugly 😛)

 

Gary

It's quite fun, my manager is the Network Manager and I'm fairly computer savvy so I often offer to help out.

During COVID we were getting laptops for home learning and I was doing updates configuring them and connecting them to the private network etc before them being handed out to students.

Last year we replaced all of the desktops in each of the computer rooms and admin offices (250+ machines) then we had to sift through the removed machines add extra RAM, reformat them with a fresh windows install to those machines that were capable and cascade them out to replace older boxes it's an interesting task. This year replacing all the switches and cabling upgrade was contracted out so no need for overtime this year.

 

The Kadees are very distinctive, I find them less offensive than tension locks and they are certainly more reliable in operation than tension locks.

I'd love to do Smith's 3-Links but I just don't think I am patient enough to faff with them in 4mm, I find the 3-links in 7mm fiddly enough. I did think of spratt & winkle couplings which look somewhat more compact but I didn't want to modify my models too greatly.

Kind Regards,

Gary

[BlueLightning]

6 minutes ago, Matloughe said:

Last year we replaced all of the desktops in each of the computer rooms and admin offices (250+ machines) then we had to sift through the removed machines add extra RAM, reformat them with a fresh windows install to those machines that were capable and cascade them out to replace older boxes it's an interesting task.

 

Always a fun job, we used to build all our machines so that we could have them to our spec (and to save money as the school were quite tight when it came to IT) which meant a few weeks of assembling parts before the holidays and testing them, I got quite good at that and could assemble a box from scratch and have it turned on in under 10 minutes!

 

8 minutes ago, Matloughe said:

This year replacing all the switches and cabling upgrade was contracted out so no need for overtime this year.

 

About 15 years ago we ripped out all the switches, ran a fibre backbone and put in switches capible of 10Gb, which seemed like a lot at the time, although probably not these days given the amount of PCs schools have these days!

 

13 minutes ago, Matloughe said:

The Kadees are very distinctive, I find them less offensive than tension locks and they are certainly more reliable in operation than tension locks.

 

Everything is less offensive than tension locks 🤣 and I understand why people use Kadees, As you know I use Smiths 3/Screw links at home on the 00, and then I use Spratt and Winkle at club where I am a P4 modeller (I keep telling them they should go all the way and use proper couplings since it's P4, but they don't listen 🤣)

[Matloughe]

On 09/08/2023 at 12:06, BlueLightning said:

 

Always a fun job, we used to build all our machines so that we could have them to our spec (and to save money as the school were quite tight when it came to IT) which meant a few weeks of assembling parts before the holidays and testing them, I got quite good at that and could assemble a box from scratch and have it turned on in under 10 minutes!

We had a 'cyber incident' last year, I wont mention the school I work at but it was reported in the Local & Regional news so its not exactly a secret anymore. It was a nightmare of about two weeks of no IT, two more weeks of seperating out each IT room and each individual machine and wiping them before doing 'local installs' - it was a month before we got access to a back-up and when that was pushed out to the servers it was hijacked as well!
Three months before service as usual was resumed. What I did during this time because I work Reprographics - I had a chat with our Printer supplier, managed to get the photocopiers working locally by removing the Network ID Card requirements, my own office printer was hooked up to my own sacrificial laptop I brought in running Linux - and a spare USB Stick to wipe and re-install it if needed hooked up to my 4G access point so I could recieve emails from teachers home PC's and produce masters to copy in the office. I was scolded by higher up at the trust for using my own equipment - but I did point out it was sacrificial and I had the equipment to wipe it at anytime and it just eased the situation allowing me to print physical resources for teaching aids - I did get a commendation from the Head Teacher being able to continue printing and copying almost uninterrupted.

The long and the short of it is that now the Trust dictates decides the PC Specs, they say how many we can replace what schedule they can be replaced on and any removed machines - despite how young or specc'ed out they may be must be WEE disposed regardless - no reuse of components! The long and the short of it is, when they allowed replacement of the machines for teachers in classrooms hand in hand with new digital whiteboards the new machines are not capable of running Win11 and will need to be scrapped when Win11 is enforced. Yet the machines we ordered two years ago were ordered locally, to locally decided specs with futureproofing in mind - its insanity. And to top it off we're not allowed to introduce other operating systems, so I got very told off for using Linux on my sacrifical machine during the event - despite the fact it was not networked, not windows which the hackers were targetting and I had the ability to erase and re-install faster than I can drink a mug of tea! Ludicrious! I was pushing to get some machines with other operating systems on for the students to get familiar with but it wont happen.

Anyway! Back to trains!
I've been working hard on this the last day or two and am really making some progress, today I returned from the local model shop with a couple bags of scatter material for the hills - but I am getting ahead of myself:

"Brighton" is rather jealous, as LSWR #735 has stolen the limelight... or sunlight this morning - I ordered from Kernow some reduced Hornby LSWR Coaches and Kadees and a LBSCR Hornby Luggage Brake, as you can see here the combination of Salmon, Brown and LSWR Green is actually quite visually striking in the sunlight. I like it.

The hillside got a second covering of plain white paper this time, I had a problem with the paper mache the first time round it was very runny and althought its hardened off it seemed to be a little structually flimsy so this coat was neat PVA then the paper and more neat PVA over the top after drying overnight the hills were coated in the same base brown as the baseboard surface:

So some serious photos were taken here, I was trying to get a sense of how the hills have altered the look and feel of the left-hand side of the layout. I have a very dusty Brighton (she'll be cleaned off tomorrow) and LSWR 735 - I was slightly shocked that it looks and feels fantastic the locos look very much at home infront of the hills - and how vibrant both locomotives looked infront of the brown hill.
Please ignore the paper surface attached to the backscene - I mentioned the lack of structual integrity with the first round of paper mache, so this time I attached it to the backscene with glue and to the surface of the baseboard with PVA as well as a result the whole hill is much stronger and has hardened off nicely. The paper will be painted sky colour and I have a hedge on a roll to use as part of hiding the backscene join.
I've got some Jarvis Heath Meadow scatter to act as a grass base, and some brown dirt to make things like the cess and walking routes off of the ballast. I am planning to static grass as/when I am able to so this is going to very much be just a base coat.
I've had some wonderful help from both my kids and my partner in doing some of the scenery so it has also had a 'family' element to it.

Kind Regards,
Gary

 

 

[Matloughe]

I'm not great at punning but I am scattered! Get it shattered/scattered - ah forget it!!!

This is where we are currently, Javis Heath Grass and some Dark Earth scatter - after some remidial tidying up curtesy of the vacuum. I can't take the credit for this my Partner helped with alot of the scenery on these hillsides and these photos document the efford she has put in as well as myself:

The scenic exit from the layout showing how effective the hillside and the bridge are becoming to this scene.
 

#40 "Brighton" on the run-around loop, a Javis hedge will be used to block some of the interface between the baseboard and backscene as well as hide the paper mache that hasn't been painted as of yet.

An attempt of an arty-farty track level view of the station approach - you can make out here the green scatter, buff colour ballast and brown colour earth scatter.


Similar shot to above but this time taken from the footbridge - I can see some more loose scatter has cascaded onto the tracks. Time to get the USB vacuum!

W13 "Carisbrooke" is back; you may remember her from a couple of weeks ago showing off her malachite colour scheme off against the backscene and newly installed card formers as part of the hill substructure. Here she is comparing her livery to the Javis scatter on the hill.

#40 "Brighton" also showing off her lovely coat of Improved Engine Green against the Javis Green on a photo shoot coming out of the fiddleyard onto the layout.

And with shades of Hayling Island in my mind, W13 "Carisbrooke" is nestled amongst the newly greenified hillside.

Next port of call is to complete the hedges to create some variation in height, a dirt path around the footbridge - some onlookers I've seen some Railway Children figures which might prove suitable for my needs in terms of period and humour. I need a starter signal which I have spoke about previously. The station platform is the next greatest bugbear of mine that will need to be addressed presently, I also am looking for detail pieces such as goods crates, milk churns etc to add more details. I'd like to thank my Partner Hayley who was far more patient than myself when it came to sorting out the scatter - and I think the enjoyed herself to some extent.
I also had some help from the children on some aspects so it has been a family project in some ways.

I hope everyone has a great weekend - I know I will; hopefully playing testing my railway.

Kind Regards,

Gary

 

[Matloughe]

Good Morning All!

I hope all is well? Its been a little quiet here at Rusper Road; the summer holidays have seen much more of a family focus with lots of trips out and activities - its back to work with a bump today and I honestly feel like I need a holiday to myself! 😄

Not much has happened on the layout; I have done some testing and everything seems to be running well.

I had the opportunity to have a running session with the stock I had converted to Kadee couplings (I am buying two packs a month from my budget, so am converting a Loco & 3 pieces of rolling stock each time) and it surprisingly went quite well - I had to lift and replace the uncoupling magnet for the siding as it was causing some stock to lift up off of the rails and for locos to have too much friction on the inner faces of their wheels causing them to stall. This is entirely due to my own initial poor execution of the placement of that magnet but it has since been rectified and it now works exceedingly well.
One realisation I have come to is I can only really fit two wagons into this siding due to the magnet position rather than the three I had hoped for - this is because the third wagon rests over the magnet with the kadee in the open position. I can't adjust the magnet much further away due to the location of the crossover point so I will just accept this limitation. The loco that got converted last month was the SE&CR Terrier from Dapol - I just love the colour scheme!

 

In other news the H1 made it to the club where it put in a sterling performance hauling 5 GWR bogie coaches - from a distance and a squint it looked a lot look a LBSCR express! A great smooth runner she really looked fine pulling her train, due to the size of my own layout I rarely see a full-length train so its always nice to take my locos to the club to stretch their wheels. Speaking of layouts - there is a plan being devised to produce a companion module to Rusper Road to act as another station so I can run station-to-station trains - it actually reaches back to the early 2000's when I produced my one and only attempt at a Boxfile on RMWeb4 I believe "North Boxfile"

As you can see a fairly simple terminus layout:

The idea was for a joint BR(S) / LU terminus of dimunitive proportions, trains would be no longer than 2 Mark I's or 3 LU coach trains with a freight/engineering siding at the front of the layout. Its quite a neat plan. For anyone who wants another link between Rusper Road and North Boxfile - the majority of the trackwork here in the older photos is now ballasted on Rusper Road! I don't throw much away! The layout worked well - but as you can see the structual integrity of the boxfiles wasn't meant to be but its always been in the back of my mind to revise it.
I've recently re-drawn this plan using Y points and it fits my choosen module size... so time will tell - the only alteration I would make is to make the platforms as through roads with the tunnel mouths blocked with buffers so I can possibly have through running down the line. Maybe a LBSCR / District / Metropolitan joint urban terminus... Bishops Park...? (My old minories layout name, or even Byshops Park because it has Y points only!)

 

A much larger interloper has also had a run on Rusper Road -  Iwas trying to gauge how much larger O-16.5 is and surprisingly it fits quite nicely on the layout! This loco has had more work done to it with Westinghouse Pump fitted, name plates & works plates ordered and is now in Grey Primer. A Bingley Works kit on a Hornby Smokey Joe chassis, and a T&S Models 3-Plank behind at the platform.

Lastly - I have grabbed three of my four LBSCR coaches; all of these have been obtained over the past couple of months and none of them were full-price. I have a Hattons 6-Wheel Brake Third and Hornby 4-Wheel All First and Baggage Brake. I also have a Hornby Full-Third at Hattons which I havent taken delivery of (its in my trunk) this fills the platform here at Rusper Road and exceeds the length of the run-around loop but it looks quite good as a train!

It looks like the platform paper is peeling with the heat of living in the kitchen but no-matter a new platform kit is on order to look much more like a wooden halt style platform.
Plans going forwards... I'm tempted to alter the power feeds and add two more section switches for the run-around loop and in front of the signalbox so I can isolate locomotives elsewhere on the layout - but this would entail cutting the track or pulling it up to add isolators... Next items of rolling stock to be kadee fitted include a GER Van, and a couple more open wagons for variety as well as the Baggage Brake to run with the Hattons Brake Third the rest of the Hornby coaches will have to wait until further down the line...
And for locomotives we have either Leadenhall or Merton to be Kadee fitted - suggestions on a postcard!

Stay Safe, enjoy modelling (& BLT's)
Kind Regards,
Gary

Edited September 4, 2023 by Matloughe

[Matloughe]

Hello Everyone,

I hope all is well. A brief post this evening; I have been gathering items to convert more stock to kadee operation and more scenery items have arrived for the layout. I had decided that Leadenhall will be the next locomotive - primarily Merton is in its box still in the bigger box and I cannot be bothered to find it. This brings me onto my subject I'd like to share:

On the left we have Leadenhall from Hornby, and on the right we have Brighton from Dapol.
Both are great models - I have previously complained about the split boiler on the Hornby model being worse than the cab roof on the Dapol model as well as the machine gunned front of the Hornby model where they have only one cab for all variants and the additional holes for A1X additional pipework.

This really highlights the different design choices, the darker shading on the name, the less prominent white lining and black pipework on the Hornby model in my eyes make the Improved Engine Green Darker, this is very noticable that the Dapol model seems brighter all round and includes additional details like lining on the buffer shanks, the copper caped chimney looks correct hand rails, fixtures and fittings like lamp irons all come together to make it a much brighter model all-round. I'm not going to mention the rivet detail on the Hornby cab backs, or the lack of coal in the Dapol bunkers. However - you cant see it here, but Brighton's wheels are lined out - Leadenhalls aren't.

 

I don't often run two locomotives but I was testing out some running combinations, such as shunting the freight into the siding whilst the passenger runs around - this has highlighted that DCC would potentially be useful and I quite like the idea of some DCC sound Terriers barking and panting away for ambience. Even here it looks like the hue of the Improved Engine Green is more orange... like a Midland & Great Northern railway colour.

I've had some trees from Mangley Scenics - 7cm tall; slightly shorter than I had hoped but if we're considering the trees were planted when the line was built then there wont be any massive old Oak trees. I'm going to pop some over by the bridge, but I want to wait and see the new platform and if its work popping some trees there behind the platform between the viewer and the trains.

Stay safe, Keep Modelling.
Kind Regards,

~ Gary
 

 

 

 

[Matloughe]

Good Weekend everyone, I hope you're doing well.
I for one am glad of the respite from the heat! Its allowed me to do some work on the layout:

I've been planting trees and hedges - I'm assuming these trees were planted not long after the line was built so they havent matured as of yet.

This has opened up another sightline which looks fantastic:

Leadenhall on the loop - this angle, an attempt to get a 4mm scale eyeline highlights the lack of a crew in the locomotives and stock in general. I have an almost identical photo of the SECR Terrier in the same spot and it looks brilliant - also these photos were taken on a camera phone using the app 'Open Camera' which gives you alot more control over the camera and additional options.

Then we have a crude mock-up of how far we've come in 6 months, on the left is March 2023 and the right September 2023!
I'm enjoying the project and its amazing how far I have come in such a short space of time.

Have a great weekend everyone, stay safe - keep modelling & have a BLT on me!
Kind Regards,
~ Gary

[Matloughe]

Apologies for being quiet, I haven't even looked at the model railway aside from one photo I took while the layout was bathed in glorious sunshine:

I've had a repeat bout of COVID recently and I was feeling rather sorry for myself. I've had pneumonia several times before (including double pneumonia once!) so if I do catch a cold or virus I need to be shot of it quickly or it goes to my chest. COVID just isn't great - but I am much better now. While I was peak poorly I came to get myself a drink in the kitchen and the sunlight was just at the right angle and illuminated Leadenhall nicely.

I told myself I wasn't going to buy more, but from a variety of locations I have managed to build up enough for a 5-car set of Hornby LBSCR Stroudley coaches. Sadly I can only fit two as a maximum in my run-around loop but in future larger layouts can run the full set of Luggage Brake - Full Third - Full First - Full Third - Brake Third. Aside from the Luggage Brake all of the coaches are lit, and none of them were more than £25! Over the course of the last couple of months its not been to bad - today I converted this three set to Kadees and tweaked the arms. It looks like there is some light bleed on the Full-Third here - you can see it in the next picture as well:

This is an angle that hasn't been seen before! You can make out the light bleed on the Full-Third on the left - and the massive Kadee uncoupler magnet. I've just bought some Neodymium disc magnets, 3mm in Diameter and 2mm high. Initial tests are promising, I am hoping to remove the big Kadee uncoupler and replace it with a set of discs between the sleepers & rails to actuate the Kadees which will improve the looks and running - as some stock tries to jump the rails here.

 

Not for here, but for a future project - I wanted to see how a Myres station building scaled on the layout and it turns out that its quite large!!! Looking at about 55-60cm in length with the extra elevation left of the decorated Station Masters house portion shown on the left side of the paper here. I picked Rotherfield just as a generic for size options rather than anything specific.

So here we have #40 "Brighton" with the new Stroudley coaches looking quite resplendant. The platform is bugging me, I have asked for a custom one to be created for me but the designer has fallen silent so I am just considering refurbishing what I have here - buying the matching bright paper sheets and surface of the platform to improve it immensely - and I'll feel much better then.

Have a great weekend.
Keep on Modelling!
Kind Regards,

Gary

 

 

 

 

[bazzer42]

Funny you posting about sunlit photos and covid, just getting over it now and took some nice shots of a 37 on my layout this morning!   

[Matloughe]

On 22/10/2023 at 14:03, bazzer42 said:

Funny you posting about sunlit photos and covid, just getting over it now and took some nice shots of a 37 on my layout this morning!   

I very much enjoyed looking at the photos you popped up on your thread, i'm still very much considering a version using SR 3rd Rail as an excuse to run my EPB, HAL & BIL on.
In the interests of doing something different and with the theme of nights drawing in - I decided to take a late-night shot of the layout:

The Branch-line set carriages burning brightly, waiting for the off of the last train of the day in October.

I have to admit I've struggled with any sort of modelling recently; I've just not been in the mood - I walk past the layout every day and barely pay any attention to it - the station platforms are bugging me. The supplier who agreed to make a custom set for me has vanished into the ether with my deposit for their work and its just dejected me. What I think I might do, is buy some lasercut pieces from LCut Creative and make my own platform that way; it will also allow me to put the drain on the platform so I can fit my water column - rather than my current idea of refurbing my existing badly made platform. 😄
Badly made on my part, not the designers I should hasten to add.

The only other modelling I have done is some work in O-16.5 Narrow Gauge; I had obtained a few kits here and there over time as something interested me and while I was feeling bored I completed the locomotive:

Its a Resin body kit based on a Kerr Stuart Tattoo from Bingley works and it fits on a Hornby Smokey Joe chassis without many alterations. What I find both interesting about Pre-Grouping and frustrating and tedious at the same time is you have clearly defined items to look at, like wagons, rolling stock, colour schemes etc. But equally you have to discount a lot of interesting items as they aren't within your time period or don't fit etc. So this attempt at 7mm Narrow Gauge was entirely meant to be a bit of fun. Also incidentally I had to remove the signal cabin to get this photo you can just see its footprint in the shot above.

What interested me is after I fitted things like the Westinghouse Pump I started working on the paintwork etc, and the locomotive quickly morphed into this:

Now if you'll excuse any imperfections in the paint application (This is my first ever attempt at painting a locomotive) I think you'll find the livery application here is sightly... LBSC Marsh Umber in its leanings! The cab is fully painted including the controls, there is a small amount of real coal in the coal bunker as well fixed with PVA - the same trick on the coalling stage here aon Rusper Road. If I delve back into the archives we have:

Perhaps the sub-concious inspiration for the colour scheme...

Have fun everyone, stay safe & keep Modelling.
Kind Regards,
Gary

 

[Ben B]

On 27/10/2023 at 11:38, Matloughe said:

I very much enjoyed looking at the photos you popped up on your thread, i'm still very much considering a version using SR 3rd Rail as an excuse to run my EPB, HAL & BIL on.
In the interests of doing something different and with the theme of nights drawing in - I decided to take a late-night shot of the layout:

The Branch-line set carriages burning brightly, waiting for the off of the last train of the day in October.

I have to admit I've struggled with any sort of modelling recently; I've just not been in the mood - I walk past the layout every day and barely pay any attention to it - the station platforms are bugging me. The supplier who agreed to make a custom set for me has vanished into the ether with my deposit for their work and its just dejected me. What I think I might do, is buy some lasercut pieces from LCut Creative and make my own platform that way; it will also allow me to put the drain on the platform so I can fit my water column - rather than my current idea of refurbing my existing badly made platform. 😄
Badly made on my part, not the designers I should hasten to add.

The only other modelling I have done is some work in O-16.5 Narrow Gauge; I had obtained a few kits here and there over time as something interested me and while I was feeling bored I completed the locomotive:

Its a Resin body kit based on a Kerr Stuart Tattoo from Bingley works and it fits on a Hornby Smokey Joe chassis without many alterations. What I find both interesting about Pre-Grouping and frustrating and tedious at the same time is you have clearly defined items to look at, like wagons, rolling stock, colour schemes etc. But equally you have to discount a lot of interesting items as they aren't within your time period or don't fit etc. So this attempt at 7mm Narrow Gauge was entirely meant to be a bit of fun. Also incidentally I had to remove the signal cabin to get this photo you can just see its footprint in the shot above.

What interested me is after I fitted things like the Westinghouse Pump I started working on the paintwork etc, and the locomotive quickly morphed into this:

Now if you'll excuse any imperfections in the paint application (This is my first ever attempt at painting a locomotive) I think you'll find the livery application here is sightly... LBSC Marsh Umber in its leanings! The cab is fully painted including the controls, there is a small amount of real coal in the coal bunker as well fixed with PVA - the same trick on the coalling stage here aon Rusper Road. If I delve back into the archives we have:

Perhaps the sub-concious inspiration for the colour scheme...

Have fun everyone, stay safe & keep Modelling.
Kind Regards,
Gary

 

 

I really like the lit carriage shot- it just needs a bit of firebox glow illuminating the cab, light reflecting off the platform surfaces...

 

I know it's very much 'old school' but I love the Airfix platforms, for the texture of the slabs... I've had good results with night shoots on a couple of dioramas, where I've misted them with gloss varnish so they look like they're wet after a rain shower, you get some interesting, muted reflection effects.