Minor Points: Annie's layout projects.

[Annie]

Most of you know me as Annie who does digital modelling and messes about with Railway Simulators, but before that I was a keen and fairly competent scratch builder who was working in coarse scale 'O' gauge and 1/16th scale narrow gauge.  I wandered off and looked at Gn15 for a short while and then even had a go at Lego Railways, but it was 'O' gauge and large scale narrow gauge that I was serious about; - or perhaps sometimes not quite so serious about when it came to my big models.

 

 

I was never much of a one for having a decent workable camera so some of my old photos aren't the best.

My 'O' gauge engines were mostly made from galvanised flashing offcuts and tinplate salvaged from coffee cans.  Wheels were pillaged from severely down on their luck Hornby clockwork engines which was fine because my layout was mostly built using old second hand Marx 3 rail tinplate track.

Please excuse the awful photos.

 

14xx

 

B4

 

And this one was made from the boiler from a Hornby M1 clockwork engine and most of a Hornby '101' with extra bits added including a Gibson chimney and dome.

 

During my 30 somethings I had worked in P4 for a while, but changed to British 'S' Scale instead and made a few 19th century Cumbrian models.  Due to far too much life happening this is the only one of my 'S' Scale models that survived unfortunately.  The body is mostly made from 1mm ply and stripwood because I don't like working with plastic solvents and glues.  

 

With tertiary study and building myself a new career as a social worker after the failure of my marriage I didn't have a thought of anything to do with railway modelling for ages.  But after taking early retirement on the advice of my doctor I thought I might be able to settle in and get some railway modelling done.  I moved out of the city to a 1930s miners cottage in the Waikato.  The cottage had been sensibly modernised in the 1980s and I had great hopes for a garden railway around the courtyard at the back of the cottage.

 

Not to be unfortunately.  Far too much life happened again and to cut a long and dreadful story short I ended up developing severe type 1 narcolepsy.  That meant no tools with sharp edges, no power tools, - including my wonderful Myford lathe, - no micro gas torches, - no soldering irons.  And my daughter who was now living me was keeping a close eye on me to make sure I behaved.  So no more model railway building.  😢

I flung everything into boxes, stacked them untidily in my room and tried to forget about it all.  But before I got too despondent my daughter who is a keen player of flight sims suggested that I try a Railway Simulator as a way to cheer myself up.  And that's been what I've been doing to satisfy my creative railway itch for the past eight years or so.  The GER and the real GWR are my two main interests in the digital world, though I sometimes stray over to the NER as well.

 

I'd been going through a bad patch with narcolepsy just recently and sitting on my bed and staring at the pile of old tatty boxes at the end of my room was starting to get me down more than it usually did.  So that was when I made up my mind that I would build myself a tactile non-digital layout.

I thought about doing it in 'O', but I realised that might biting off a bit more than I could chew in my present circumstances.  So I thought 00 would be good since I've got no end of old hoarded 00 gauge stuff.  I even went and purchased a Metcalfe signal box kit, but when I looked at the kit when it arrived it looked awfully small.  So that's when I started to think about On16.5.

I decided that I wanted a Sentinel, but I wasn't so sure about buying one from Shapeways and if I did that it would be an 00 one.  I went and had a look on Thingiverse and found a couple of nice On16.5 ones so I asked a local 3D printing company if they could give me a quote for one of the Sentinels.

 

This one.  A Lima motor bogie fits inside and makes it go.

 

That's a 1950s Sentinel and I have a pre-war one as well, but I thought I'd try the 1950s one first since it looked like a simpler proposition to print.  The 3D printing people have got back to me and given me a quote which I thought was very reasonable for a SLA resin print.  They also confirmed that the loco model's meshes were nicely done and should print out well.  Sooooo that means that I'm going with an On16.5 layout  😁🙃😄

 

More from me soon.....

 

[Mikkel]

Thanks for that Annie, including the personal perspective. They call it a hobby but over the years it becomes more than that, I think, entangled as it is with our lives.

 

The Sentinel looks good. Your prompted me to have a look at Thingiverse, which I had vaguely heard about but never investigated. Interesting that you can simply download the files and have a local company print them. But I suppose it requires some experience to assess the quality of the files?

 

 

 

[Annie]

2 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Thanks for that Annie, including the personal perspective. They call it a hobby but over the years it becomes more than that, I think, entangled as it is with our lives.

 

The Sentinel looks good. Your prompted me to have a look at Thingiverse, which I had vaguely heard about but never investigated. Interesting that you can simply download the files and have a local company print them. But I suppose it requires some experience to assess the quality of the files?

 

 

 

Hayden Bennett from Clone3D told me that 3D models from Thingiverse aren't always the best, which makes sense really since it's a 3D hobbyist's website, but apparently I struck it lucky with a maker who knew what he was doing.  Thingiverse operates under a creative commons licence so choosing a .stl file and getting it printed is fine as is taking a model and enhancing it further.  I was quoted $NZ99.00 to have the printing done and with the present exchange rate that's around £49.46; - which I thought was fairly reasonable.

This is the other Sentinel, - the pre-war one.

 

 

 

Sentinel's are strange and quirky steam locomotives, but I like them.  I think they'll suit my small light railway fairly well.  I want to base my terminus on the Bishop's Castle trackplan since it seems very like the kind of thing I want to represent.  The pre-grouping era can be represented just as well as the 1940s since the only difference is that there's more weeds growing everywhere in the 1940s and everything is a bit more patched.

 

 

Ages ago when i first moved out here to the Waikato I purchased a On16.5 bodyshell for a freelance double Fairlie from TeeBee Models Shapeways site.  It along with an odd collection of On16.5 stuff from the same source should be somewhere about along with a collection of pillaged bits from an H0 American diesel that I was going to use to power the thing.  I hope I haven't gone and lost it all (sigh).

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by Annie
added a picture

[Edwardian]

Looks an exciting NG project .... but ...

 

From the OO Gaugers here: 

 

 

 

[corneliuslundie]

Thanks for your posts.

I too have an interest in the BCR as our club is building a model in O gauge of the authorised but never built branch to Montgomery town. So I joined the BCR.

I wouldn't try modelling the BCR in the 1940s though, if I were you, as all the track had been lifted in 1936.

But a great prototype, though I am not sure out track is sufficiently badly laid 

And lots of opportunities for "what if?"

I look forward to seeing reports of progress.

Jonathan

[Annie]

33 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Looks an exciting NG project .... but ...

 

From the OO Gaugers here: 

It had crossed my mind James that with a little care with building placement and design it could be possible to change from 00 to On16.5 and back again simply by swapping the railway infrastructure around.  Either way it's a light railway that I'm interested in building and some scenic details wouldn't need to be changed at all.

 

38 minutes ago, corneliuslundie said:

Thanks for your posts.

I too have an interest in the BCR as our club is building a model in O gauge of the authorised but never built branch to Montgomery town. So I joined the BCR.

I wouldn't try modelling the BCR in the 1940s though, if I were you, as all the track had been lifted in 1936.

But a great prototype, though I am not sure out track is sufficiently badly laid 

And lots of opportunities for "what if?"

I look forward to seeing reports of progress.

Jonathan

Thanks Jonathon, - though it isn't the BCR that I will be building, - I'm simply using it as a source of inspiration, though the trackplan will be mostly used as is.  James suggested 'Berrow' to me and while it is a classic in every way and an excellent layout design it struck me as being main line railway rather than light railway.  I will be using the late Ian Rice's pages on the BCR as well as this borrowed piece of an OS map for inspiration, but it's very likely that I will be roving freely all through 'Light Railway Layout Designs' before I'm done.

 

 

The more that I look at photos of light railway timber buildings and then look at my part built 1/16th scale signal box, - the more tempted that I am to build my On16.5 buildings up plank by plank.  Should be fun, - and the main thing is that I can do it all using a razor saw and micro saw blades so my daughter won't tell me off for using a craft knife.

 

 

[corneliuslundie]

I understand. In fact the BCR's stations were mostly pretty substantial brick buildings as it started with grand aspirations, so probably better to look somewhere else in the light railway scene for buildings. But short trains, decrepit stock (third hand carriages), odd working practices. Plenty of those on the BCR.

I shall watch progress with interest.

Jonathan

[Player of trains]

And that's a follow! So happy to see another go Annie, funny you mention Lego as I recall coming across your rather boundless creativity on the Eurobricks forums back when I was more of a whippersnapper, safe to say I think you've influenced my own modelling a bit and I cannot wait to see how this progresses.

[Annie]

Gosh Eurobricks, - that seems so long ago now.  I certainly did have a lot of fun with Lego for awhile there.

 

[Annie]

5 hours ago, corneliuslundie said:

I understand. In fact the BCR's stations were mostly pretty substantial brick buildings as it started with grand aspirations, so probably better to look somewhere else in the light railway scene for buildings. But short trains, decrepit stock (third hand carriages), odd working practices. Plenty of those on the BCR.

I shall watch progress with interest.

Jonathan

 

The strange brick station building isn't really something that I would want to replicate Jonathon.  It's the same old sad tale that played out for more than a few light railways, - grand aspirations that came to nothing.  😞

 

 

The trackplan of Southwold station was another one I wondered about.  That's another sad tale of a little local railway that simply stopped one day and sat unwanted for years until the scrapman took it all away. 😢

 

[Annie]

And I've just heard from Michael Rayner at Smallbrook Studios about ordering a 'Hero' kit.  Inspired by  a Kerr Stuart 'Skylark' I think it will do very nicely.  Price wise it's a lot cheaper for me than ordering anything from Shapeways and the surface finish should be a lot better.

 

[Hroth]

22 minutes ago, Annie said:

And I've just heard from Michael Rayner at Smallbrook Studios about ordering a 'Hero' kit.  Inspired by  a Kerr Stuart 'Skylark' I think it will do very nicely.  Price wise it's a lot cheaper for me than ordering anything from Shapeways and the surface finish should be a lot better.

 

 

So.  LNWR (Blackberry)Black or a more iridescent colour scheme?

 

[Annie]

5 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

So.  LNWR (Blackberry)Black or a more iridescent colour scheme?

 

I'm presently tossing up between a mid brown or a darkish green at the moment.

 

There's a Jonathon Clay 'Skylark' painting here that I find rather appealing  http://www.jonathanclay.co.uk/product/kerr-stuart-skylark-0-4-2t-no-1458/

Edited May 16, 2023 by Annie
More information

[Annie]

Anyone remember these?  It's an old 'universal' Wrenn point from the 1950s.  The sleepers are made from some kind of black fibre stuff like a tough variety of cardboard.  Someone on our own local ebay equivalent auction site is selling several of them and as someone who is very much into vintage model railway items I think they are wonderful.  They were called 'universal' because as the point blades switch over the wing rail shifts across and closes up against the frog so there's no gap for wheels to fall into.

I am seriously tempted to buy them, but with already being knee deep in old vintage model railway stuff do I really need any more?

 

[Annie]

You are all going to hate me for being an obnoxious pop-up nuisance with posting all the time, - only this time I found something that could be a real game changer for me.  While looking around for information about 'Skylarks' I found the Blog for the Peckforton Light Railway.  The page I found was about making a model of one of the Metropolitan Water Board's Kerr Stuart engines and it was done using a 3D modelling program called TinkerCAD.  I have used TinkerCAD a little and was encouraged by the fact that it was developed so children could learn 3D modelling, - which very much sets it at my level of competence.  I never went ahead with it because there's not really a way to import TinkerCAD models into Trainz, but now I'm wanting to build a railway layout again things are very different.

 

On this page https://riksrailway.blogspot.com/2020/12/how-i-drew-southwold-open-wagon-with.html the owner of the P.L.R. does a step by step shows-you-how tutorial on how to build a Southwold Railway open wagon using TinkerCAD.  I'd seen other tutorials before this, but not one that explained everything so clearly and well.  If I could learn to make my own wagons without having to worry about hurting myself with pointy tools, - it's just, - WOW!

 

I have got a 3D printer, - it's only a basic one and it's still untouched in its box because it arrived just before narcolepsy came and bit me.  I think though it would be better to get someone else to do my 3D printing for me rather than endlessly frustrating myself with trying to learn now to use a 3D printer.

I've already got one of those Silhouette cutter things that I completely failed at learning how to use so there's no point in adding to the pile of stuff I can't use anymore. 

[Hroth]

The PLR sounds interesting, I'll have to read through the blog properly!  Of course, its close to Bunbury....

 

In the real world, Peckforton is the second to last bump in the mid-Cheshire ridge. The last, Beeston, has a real medieval castle on top of it and is within spitting distance of Bunbury, Peckforton has a Victorian mock medieval castle!

 

The problem with both cutting machines and 3d printers is that they're the end link in a chain where to be really creative, a design has to be plotted in either 2 or 3d software, and that first step can be daunting...

 

[Annie]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

The problem with both cutting machines and 3d printers is that they're the end link in a chain where to be really creative, a design has to be plotted in either 2 or 3d software, and that first step can be daunting...

When the sleep pathways in my brain broke making me a type 1 narcoleptic some other bits of tangled noodle in there got broken too which affected my eyesight and bit a chunk out of my ability to do certain kinds of cognitive tricks like learning how to understand 3D modelling software.  2D I can more or less manage provided I can tie it back to something I already know like graphics software that I already knew how to use before my brain got broken.  

After a lot of persistence I can do some basic stuff in SketchUp 8 and TinkerCAD was designed to be simple, but even so it's still an effort to use it.

 

Anyway I'm feeling disappointed because I've just been told by the Clone3D people that the Sentinel .stl mesh files I've got are way too thin for safe 3D printing and would be very likely to break.  So that means no Sentinels.

 

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

In the real world, Peckforton is the second to last bump in the mid-Cheshire ridge. The last, Beeston, has a real medieval castle on top of it and is within spitting distance of Bunbury, Peckforton has a Victorian mock medieval castle!

Now that is interesting.  The chap who is behind the P.L.R. is working in either 'G' or 16mm scale and he's certainly researched and made a good few narrow gauge models and then written about how he did it.

 

[Annie]

Alright no more feeling sorry for myself over what I can and can't do, - onwards and upwards and all that.

 

I've given the nod on my almost a Kerr Stuart 'Skylark' locomotive order so that's done.  I did some more cleaning up and found a plastic bag full of 16mm large scale castings so that will get put away carefully.  I now have a cardboard box that's almost brim full of old Triang series 3 track......

 

.......Most of it will need a good clean before it's useable.  The smaller 1/4 and 1/8th length straight track bits kept getting caught up in my cardigan, but I think I've suppressed them all now.  I can go two ways with this track, - either I just give it a good clean and bury it in ballast and weeds, - or I remove the rail and glue and pin it down onto wooden sleepers much like I did back when I was 15 or so and heavily into scratchbuilding on the cheap.

I did put a bid in on those old Wrenn 'universal' points, but I don't know if I'll be using them or not on this layout.

 

While checking through the chest of drawers where I keep some of my 'O' gauge tinplate collection to see if they were all sleeping nicely I discovered that I had a Triang 'Jinty' I didn't know about.  So that means I'll have to have a closer look to see what else might have crept in amongst the tinplate.  I've got another chest of drawers I want to move in opposite the other one so I can get some more of my 'O' gauge collection put away properly. 

While poking about I found the 'O' gauge layout board that I brought with me when I came here to the Waikato.  Somehow it ended up getting buried under a load of boxes and forgotten about.  It might just do for my new layout, but I'll have to see what it looks like once I've dug it out.

 

A search on Thingiverse for another time around turned up some nice looking  On16.5 wagons which could be useful.  This is just a selection of them and they are all made by the same person.  I've found a cottage industry 3D printing business who seem to like working with hobbyists so I'm going to send them a couple of the wagons and see what they can do with them.

 

 

 

 

[Schooner]

4 hours ago, Annie said:

I've just been told by the Clone3D people that the Sentinel .stl mesh files I've got are way too thin for safe 3D printing and would be very likely to break.  So that means no Sentinels.

I'm really sorry I can't offer to have a look at these to see if they can't be beefed up a bit, but my railway CAD/3D printing journey has yet to take any meaningful steps. I hope perhaps a similar offer might come from someone who could follow it through - it's no longer really a niche skill after all :)

 

Otherwise, what exciting times these are! 

[Player of trains]

Haha Happy to see you found some of our wagons Annie, those are the old GVT wagons and Southwold ones me and my friend put together (mostly my mate) back when we were starting out printing and designing kits, sadly it didn't really sell so we focus fully on 009 now, I still have quite a stockpile however of the GVT 1 ton and 4 ton open wagons and the box vans which I don't believe were ever uploaded to Thingiverse.

 

I was already wondering if you might want some as they're just taking up space here but since you found the uploads I thought I'd ask. I'd be happy to box some of them up and send them off to you. I'll have a look and see if I could print the Sentinel too if you like? 

I can believe that the meshes were too small for an industrial printer as that supplier might have had but it could work on my smaller home printers. 

 

Sorry if that's too forward of me, just happy to help out if I can and pay some of that inspiration back. 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Player of trains

[Annie]

Gosh, thank you very much, - that's very kind of you.  The ones on Thingiverse certainly are nice looking wagons and are exactly what are needed for my new layout project.  I guess if you could see what you have and then figure out a postage cost we can go from there.

[corneliuslundie]

Back to the track, my first proper layout had the three rail version of the Wrenn universal track as I still had some Trix Twin 3-rail stuff alongside the modern Graham Farish 2-rail. In the end the centre rail got ripped out. But the layout went into the skip about 54 years ago when I left home to go to university.

Keep it up. You look like having a completed layout long before me. I have only been working on Nantcwmdu for ten years.

I am also having to learn about radio controlled larger scale narrow gauge stuff (3.5 inch gauge) as the widow of our former club chairman has asked us to refurbish his garden railway. A whole new learning experience just to work out how to control a loco!

Jonathan

[Player of trains]

That's Fab, I'll have a check when I am home of what there is and get back to you. If I recall its a mix of Midland and Cambrian built 4 ton wagons I have, the one ton slate and one ton open wagons which are effectively small tubs and one or two vans left. On Thingiverse the items we never quite got around to releasing before jumping to 009. Iron body variation of the GVT 4 ton wagon and the Southwold wagons, the Southwold vans might be kicking about if I look around, we never managed to make a Cleminson wagon work hence the fox bogies under the MOY wagon.

 

21 minutes ago, Annie said:

Gosh, thank you very much, - that's very kind of you.  The ones on Thingiverse certainly are nice looking wagons and are exactly what are needed for my new layout project.  I guess if you could see what you have and then figure out a postage cost we can go from there.

 

[Annie]

12 minutes ago, corneliuslundie said:

Back to the track, my first proper layout had the three rail version of the Wrenn universal track as I still had some Trix Twin 3-rail stuff alongside the modern Graham Farish 2-rail. In the end the centre rail got ripped out. But the layout went into the skip about 54 years ago when I left home to go to university.

Keep it up. You look like having a completed layout long before me. I have only been working on Nantcwmdu for ten years.

I am also having to learn about radio controlled larger scale narrow gauge stuff (3.5 inch gauge) as the widow of our former club chairman has asked us to refurbish his garden railway. A whole new learning experience just to work out how to control a loco!

Jonathan

When I was cleaning up yesterday I found two very nice clean lengths of Wrenn 3 rail track; - I'm not sure where they came from.  When I was a teenager I found an almost brand new 3 rail Wrenn 'universal' double junction in a junk shop.  Over the next few years try as I might I could never figure out a way to make use of it on a layout.  It trailed around with me for a good few years and eventually it got thrown in with a collection of old Triang stuff I was selling.  It might look old fashioned and clumsy, but it really was a universal track since even fine scale wheels could run through those Wrenn points without any problems.

Reviving a 3.5inch gauge garden railway, - i'm sure you'll have a lot of fun doing that.  I'm afraid I know nothing at all about the radio control of larger scale steam engines.  Mamod was about my level when it came to live steam.

 

24 minutes ago, Player of trains said:

That's Fab, I'll have a check when I am home of what there is and get back to you. If I recall its a mix of Midland and Cambrian built 4 ton wagons I have, the one ton slate and one ton open wagons which are effectively small tubs and one or two vans left. On Thingiverse the items we never quite got around to releasing before jumping to 009. Iron body variation of the GVT 4 ton wagon and the Southwold wagons, the Southwold vans might be kicking about if I look around, we never managed to make a Cleminson wagon work hence the fox bogies under the MOY wagon.

 

 

I think putting those bogies under the MOY wagon was a very effective solution to the problem.  I had a go at one time with trying to set up a 6 wheel coach to work like it had a Cleminson underframe and didn't have much success either.

I will be more than happy with whatever you are able to find.  It would be nice if there is a van or two, but I'm certainly not going to look a gift horse in the mouth as the saying goes.

 

Why am I being  reminded of this Peter Barnfield Whimshire picture whenever I start to plan out my railway.

MONDAY MORNING AT PLUMBURY BAGOTT

 

[Player of trains]

Great minds think alike, I think that has to be my favorite illustration Peter Barnfield created. Personally I think its the Wantage track plan or at least inspired by it with the passenger platform and train shed on the headshunt of the loop. Maybe a Owd' Ratty Manning Wardle would fit on that Tri-Ang Jinty chassis...