The Diddington project

[Ramblin Rich]

Wonderful stuff Alex, thanks once more for the step by step instructions. I just need to make sure I can find them in the future...!

[DLT]

A superb bit of "grassing up" there Alex, many thanks for sharing it.

Dave.

[Jason T]

Hi, not sure if he has any left but Judith Edge produced a short run of etched Standard 2MT conversion kits for the Bachmann Mickey Mouse; I have one waiting to be started. Tim Easter built the test etches up and I think it us documented in here somewhere - having seen it in the flesh, it looks lovely.

 

Give Michael Edge a shout, he is a member.

[wiggoforgold]

Thanks for the heads up Jason, I'd missed that. I'll give Mike Edge a shout, as I'd be interested, and I suspect a couple of the other posters on this thread would be as well.

Alex

[46444]

Tim's  build on the 78xxx was very good.  The Mike Edge conversion kit looks well thought out.  

 

Saying that Bachmann will announce their new releases this year so may be worth holding fire!

 

Here's one of 15B's finest 78020:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/64518788@N05/8174474752/

 

Some lovely work progressing on Diddington too Alex.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[wiggoforgold]

I’m working towards re-erecting the Diddington boards back in the railway room. The legs are ready, and I’m getting the individual boards ready for reassembly, when I can check continuity of running and fire up the lighting installation.

I had noticed that however hard I tried to hide it, there was a visible line at the base board joints. The baseboards are made of ply, the longitudinals being of “L” girder construction with the ends being made from 8mm ply. The boards are aligned with cabinet makers’ dowels, and held together with a pair of bolts in each end. The bolts were specifically supplied as base board joiners, and consist of an M6 bolt running in a metal fixings which fit into holes drilled in the baseboard ends. One of the fixings is threaded to allow the bolt to tighten in it. The other is unthreaded.

The track was laid across the baseboard joints, and brass pins were inserted on the outside of the rail adjacent to the joint, and the rails soldered to them. The rails were then cut in line with the joint. Since I did this, I’ve learned of a technique   in which a strip of 10 thou styrene sheet is placed between the boards when they are fitted together before the track is laid.  Once the track is laid the rails are cut. The boards are then disassembled and the styrene sheet removed. When the boards are reassembled, the joint closes up to minimise the cut through the boards.

Electrical connection between the boards on Diddington  is by DIN or D-sub computer plugs. The ends of the scenery, and any imperfections in the ends themselves were filled with Polyfilla, before being rubbed down, primed and given a top coat of blackboard paint. The mill building sits across the joint, which helps disguise the joint in the boards, and also in the back scene. In addition the wagon  turntable outside the mill is removable. Again, it sits across the baseboard joint and helps to disguise it.

Here’s a couple of pictures of the station throat board to show the end.

[phoenixchris]

Fantastic modelling there Alex, I've just read the whole thread from start to finish...

 

Its amazing how many layouts are technically very good but fail to capture the atmosphere - But Diddington does both incredibly well.

 

Cheers Chris

Edited January 28, 2015 by phoenixchris

[wiggoforgold]

Hi Chris. Thanks for the kind comments. You must be a near neighbour. My son works at Mountbatten.

Alex.

[Clive Mortimore]

Fantastic modelling there Alex, I've just read the whole thread from start to finish...

 

Its amazing how many layouts are technically very good but fail to capture the atmosphere - But Diddington does both incredibly well.

 

Cheers Chris

I like it as well.

[HAL 'O THE WYND]

Excellent! Now give us a shot of the several-thousand-pound bike at the back.

 

Hal 'o the Winded

 

(Can't ride anymore - too arthritic. )

[wiggoforgold]

Excellent! Now give us a shot of the several-thousand-pound bike at the back.

 

Hal 'o the Winded

 

(Can't ride anymore - too arthritic. )

Ah! You!ve Sussed why I have to build my own track. But which bike, the one in the stand (mine) or the one on the wall (My son's, better.)?

Alex

[HAL 'O THE WYND]

Ah! You!ve Sussed why I have to build my own track. But which bike, the one in the stand (mine) or the one on the wall (My son's, better.)?

Alex

 

I can only plainly see the blue and white one. As soon as I saw the shape of the frame and the contemporary stem, it was 

[wiggoforgold]

Hal, I,m off to bed now. I'll find a pic and put it on here tomorrow, hopefully before I go to work.

Alex

[HAL 'O THE WYND]

Will this do Hal?

It's the only one I've got to hand as I'm on my way to bed and doing this on my iPad. I can find a better one when I get home from work tomorrow. The black one on the wall (my son's) is an S-works Venge btw, a much more serious bit of kit than mine.

Aleximage.jpg

 

Either way, I'm dead jealous. I am out of date with things - although Evans keeps emailing me since I was looking for winter clothing and lights - but you can always tell class.

 

A quick OT I've been following some womens' world-wide touring stuff. God those girls have courage! eg: putting a head-scarf on (over tight t-shirt 'n shorts) and pedalling through dodgy Muslim places... 

 

nite nite

Edited January 28, 2015 by HAL 'O THE WYND

[wiggoforgold]

OK Hal here's a better pic. I left in the road sign to show where it was taken.

Its a Specialized Roubaix Expert SL3 for the technically minded, with one or two bits changed by me from the original spec. (Stem, wheels, saddle)

Right then, back to the trains....

[HAL 'O THE WYND]

OK Hal here's a better pic. I left in the road sign to show where it was taken.

Its a Specialized Roubaix Expert SL3 for the technically minded, with one or two bits changed by me from the original spec. (Stem, wheels, saddle)

Bike.jpg

Right then, back to the trains....

 

Green with envy doesn't cover it. Thanks for the picture - it has joined my extensive bike album.

 

Such a bike would be totally wasted on me these days, but I do enjoy the aesthetic perfection that a bike IS. In my book, nothing made by man equals the bike for its individual possibilities. Whenever I watch a race I think that nothing else converts a mans energy into performance and speed, the way a bike does. From the agonising climbs to the jaw-dropping descents, I never cease to be amazed at what men are capable of, via the bike.

 

OK, enough pompous nonsense - back to the trains.

 

Hal

[wiggoforgold]

Evening

A number of people have commented on how the layout captures the atmosphere of the area. I’d like to say that this was planned, but the truth is it has happened over a period of years, and I’ve now reached a point where I can look at the layout and think that it is starting to capture the atmosphere of the area.

One of my favourite views of the layout is of the bridge over the river, with not a train or building in site.  An RM Web member (apologies, I can’t remember who it was off the top of my head), took a picture of this at last year’s RM Web members day, and it’s in the Member’s day thread on here. I was so pleased with the picture because for me it exactly captured the scene I remembered from childhood, and what I hoped my model would portray. It’s always interesting to see photos of the layout taken by others, as you are seeing your work through their eyes, which gives an idea of what they are getting out of it.

With Diddington, I’ve adopted a “less is more” approach. Although the model is quite big, it represents quite a small station.  It’s not a minimum space layout. Operationally it would fit in a much smaller space, but squeezing it like that would lose the spacious effect. Remember, a typical country branch terminus can occupy as much space as a busy urban main line, where there is much more pressure on real estate.

I’ve deliberately kept the size of buildings small. After Diddington was first shown, I went round the layout, replacing many of the buildings with smaller ones, which I felt greatly helped the impression of space I was after. David Jenkinson wrote an article in the Railway Modeller (One of the early “Little Long Drag” articles?) In which he compared pictures of two locomotive sheds, and concluded that the smaller shed was better suited to the location, even though the intensity of service he was running would have justified the larger shed.

The backscene has been kept plain. Most of it represents sky. Where the scenery meets the backscene is largely hedgerow, and there is no painted scenery above the level of this hedgerow. The result is a low horizon all round the layout. When it was first built, there were more trees and woods at the river end of the layout, but when I was working on the scenery for the station I decided that the absence of scenery on the backscene gave a better effect, so the river end of the layout was modified, by removing the woods on the backscene, and reducing the number of trees by about 80%

And Hal - glad you enjoyed the bike pic!

Alex

[PGC]

Bet it's nowhere near as expensive a bike as the one that Hamster (Richard Hammond) damaged (wrote off?) in St Petersburg last Sunday on Top Gear! 

 

Phil

[lmsforever]

Like the bike, boy have they changed since I raced in the sixties and seventies the layout is a terrific piece of work and I look forward to your updates ,when is the next exhibition?

[HAL 'O THE WYND]

Evening

A number of people have commented on how the layout captures the atmosphere of the area. I’d like to say that this was planned, but the truth is it has happened over a period of years, and I’ve now reached a point where I can look at the layout and think that it is starting to capture the atmosphere of the area.

One of my favourite views of the layout is of the bridge over the river, with not a train or building in site.  An RM Web member (apologies, I can’t remember who it was off the top of my head), took a picture of this at last year’s RM Web members day, and it’s in the Member’s day thread on here. I was so pleased with the picture because for me it exactly captured the scene I remembered from childhood, and what I hoped my model would portray. It’s always interesting to see photos of the layout taken by others, as you are seeing your work through their eyes, which gives an idea of what they are getting out of it.

With Diddington, I’ve adopted a “less is more” approach. Although the model is quite big, it represents quite a small station.  It’s not a minimum space layout. Operationally it would fit in a much smaller space, but squeezing it like that would lose the spacious effect. Remember, a typical country branch terminus can occupy as much space as a busy urban main line, where there is much more pressure on real estate.

I’ve deliberately kept the size of buildings small. After Diddington was first shown, I went round the layout, replacing many of the buildings with smaller ones, which I felt greatly helped the impression of space I was after. David Jenkinson wrote an article in the Railway Modeller (One of the early “Little Long Drag” articles?) In which he compared pictures of two locomotive sheds, and concluded that the smaller shed was better suited to the location, even though the intensity of service he was running would have justified the larger shed.

The backscene has been kept plain. Most of it represents sky. Where the scenery meets the backscene is largely hedgerow, and there is no painted scenery above the level of this hedgerow. The result is a low horizon all round the layout. When it was first built, there were more trees and woods at the river end of the layout, but when I was working on the scenery for the station I decided that the absence of scenery on the backscene gave a better effect, so the river end of the layout was modified, by removing the woods on the backscene, and reducing the number of trees by about 80%

And Hal - glad you enjoyed the bike pic!

Alex

 

The *Craftsmanship/Clever* covers the entire evolution of the layout which this summary post covers. You have every right to be proud of it - to be content with it. I wonder if I'll ever be in a similar position...

 

Yeah, 'an the bikes not bad.

 

Hal

[wiggoforgold]

Like the bike, boy have they changed since I raced in the sixties and seventies the layout is a terrific piece of work and I look forward to your updates ,when is the next exhibition?

Yes, bikes have changed a bit. I stopped racing about 30 years ago, and sold the bike I had then. It would be a "classic" now. When my son started racing about 8 years ago he asked me if I could help him build a bike. "No problem" I said. Wrong - don't think there's a component that hasn't changed substantially.

Diddington will be seen in public again. Not this year I'm afraid. At the moment I can't take on the commitment, but hopefully we will be out and about next year, possibly with added signals!

Alex

[HAL 'O THE WYND]

My last OT bike thing.

 

It blew my mind. I might have it wrong (could have Googled to  check, but... ) I've heard that there is technology now that feeds back the rider's pressure on the pedals, so he - and his car-based leaders? - can see if he is overdoing it/under doing it, so it's gear-related cadence and pressure! I'm a sci-fi fan so I might have dreamed it up.  

 

Hal

[wiggoforgold]

You are not dreaming Hal. The system's called a power meter. There's various systems, typically costing about £1K. The rider, or his coach, can analyse the figures during and after the ride. With GPS and satellite technology, TV broadcasters are looking at feeding some of this stuff into live race coverage.

[wiggoforgold]

Back to railways after a cycling interlude!

Diddington has now returned to the railway room, the boards have been re-erected and the lights put back in place. This has given an opportunity to see how the new scenic areas fit in, and I’ve taken some pictures round the layout to show progress.

First, a couple of pictures of D5579.  D5579 operates on the Diddington branch quite a lot, because the station master at Diddington likes the colour. Here she is seen entering Diddington over the river Ouse, at the head of an excursion.

 

In the second picture she has reached the crossing at Cow Lane, slightly nearer the station. The real Cow Lane was an accommodation crossing between Godmanchester and St Ives, and I measured it up in about 1972. The gates are made up from plastic strip, the plan of the gates first being drawn on a piece of wood, which was then covered with clear double sided tape, which held the gate bars in place during assembly.

 

In the next picture class 24 D5030 is seen shunting a couple of vans into Diddington Mill. The class 24 is a Bachmann model, which apart from weathering is unmodified. The BR standard van is weathered Bachmann, and the Shocvan is a Red Panda kit.

 

Finally, a group of pictures taken in the goods yard. The goods sheds are the result of the “less is more” policy referred to above. The wooden shed is a Wills kit, and the concrete provender store is from Ratio. The pair replaced a Prototype models Little Bytham shed. The Bedford lorry is a Classix model, sprayed with matt varnish, and lightly weathered with a mixture of earth and grey Tamya acrylics, applied through an airbrush.  In one of the pictures a new Fordson tractor has been delivered on a Lowmac. The Lowmac is an old Airfix/Hornby model, with  replacement wheels and buffers. The Fordson tractor is an Oxford model, sprayed with matt varnish to tone it down, but otherwise left unweathered.

 

[46444]

Evening Alex,

 

Great shots showing Diddington off nicely.

 

Keep them coming.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark