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  • SouthernRegionSteam

    Coastguard Creek - 15 months of planning!

    By SouthernRegionSteam

    Hold on to your socks - this is going to be a lengthy one! (In fact it's so long, I've now split it into 2 separate posts - the next will be up soon...)   I think it's fair to say that you are all long overdue an update on Coastguard Creek. Due to other commitments, no real progress has been made since the last post way back in March 2021; almost 15 months ago! If anything, things went backwards for quite a while, as I kept finding more and more inspiring locations that I really wanted
    • 8 comments
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Errors/Inaccuracies etc

Mistakes. We all make them, and if I was immune I wouldn't have to publish this errata sheet for my [hopefully first] book.  https://www.devboats.co.uk/gwdrawings/errata/GWRlocoDevelopmentErrataFirstEdition.pdf   At the moment I've been going through some of my sketches for the book, improving some of the older ones where I think I can do better now, and adding some new ones where I can. I reuse everything I can, so coming to do a 79 class (1858 0-6-0) based on the Ahrons drawing i

JimC

JimC in Miscellaneous Musings

The Dream, the Marshmallow Test and a (small) win on the Premium Bonds

Introduction - Part 2 One of my favourite layouts on RMweb is @ian's HO scale "Die Ercallbahn" in the German Railways Forum.  Drawing on childhood memories of the Marklin 3-rail AC system, Ian has brought those memories to life once more, creating the kind of system layout I'm sure many of us dreamt about when growing up.  I find it tells such an absorbing story that the first time I saw a video of the layout in operation, I was surprised when the doors of a small railcar didn't open on arr

Keeping 26043 alive.....lets see what's under the dome....

Nostalgia alert, as with all these blogs things are fairly depressing....       The glory days.....pre covid...pre inflation...pre quite a lot really...     Last week..... fireman Sam has been busy with his white paint brush and now all of the air pipework is picked out in white, the conduit (which was just floating has been removed and the wiring now enclosed in modern copex, temporarily draped downwards away from welding operations....  

pheaton

pheaton in preservation

Reflections from back at base

The Dorking show was an interesting experience, and back at base we had time to reflect. One surprising area of interest for visitors was our timber work. The Club chairman had offered us a curtain to modestly cover the baseboard legs but we turned it down, thinking that the "layout under construction" tag was better met by having everything open. It turned out to be a good decision. Many people asked about our designs.   The baseboards were discussed in an earlier blog, but as a remin

whart57

whart57 in Monthly Reports

An Introduction

Introduction Railway modelling is mainly a Spring and Summer hobby for me.  Autumn and Winter bring busier times, and as much of my modelling takes place outside (benchwork, paint spraying and big sticky jobs), or inside with the window open for ventilation (gluing and painting), free winter evenings are often spent on research and reflection.   I enjoy exploring fresh ideas, dreaming up new projects and shopping around for bits and pieces.  I've discovered I also enjoy writing ab

The 1/50 project, Batteries and another loco

I was looking for batteries for my old phone on the cheap end of the net. The direct from china end. This thing popped up and I had one of those “hmm, I wonder” moments. Add to basket.   Essentially they are Li batteries stacked to form a pp3 size with all the gubbins for charging inside, even has a bi coloured led to say when they are charged. Twin pack with a neat twin usb charge lead for 12 quid. Easy to lift the lid off a loco and swap them out.     But are the

Bogieing On Down!

My last post concerned the WDLR Bogies I had designed for my 30 odd 7mm Narrow Gauge wagons and several marathon sessions to get the ready for the Cardiff exhibition. It was traumatic but I did manage it and layout, exhibition and bogies went well. While playing at the end of the second day one of the Hunslets managed to pull a load of 16 fully loaded wagons which proved the point of the whole exercise. After a suitable recovery period and to keep Andy happy, I will now turn back to the long run

KH1

KH1 in Up the Line

Old and New

And my pain is over (not really).   I have just finished my most favorite and most proud of model of any Broad Gauge locomotive, the Rover class! I've been building this for weeks, and I've shown my progress in my previous blog post about it.   I don't really know what else to say so here! Left: New Right: Old

Keeping 26043 alive.....No1 end.....Show me the good metal..

First a bit of nostalgia :)     26043 2 weeks off the production line from BCRW and at the time was on commissioning trials, as 26043 is a series 1 class 26 it never had cab droplights fitted, we see the tablet catcher recess, and its front connecting doors, we also see that like all 26s its boiler fitted. Note it does not yet have the opening window instead it has a boiler filler hatch.   26/1s incorporated a number of weight saving measures, such as the cantrail

pheaton

pheaton in Preservation

Running Repairs

At its last outing at the Farnham Club's exhibition in Aldershot, Freshwater sarted to show its age. Two minor problems developed.   The point in the fiddle yard had a blade come detached from the moving tie-bar The central uncoupling magnets started sticking in either the 'up' or 'down' positions.   Fortunately, neither of these problems were too detrimental to the operation of the layout, and were probably not noticed by the viewing public. However, they needed

Ian Morgan

Ian Morgan in The Layout

Tex-Mex, East Anglian style

At least three days a week, my good wife (who is retired) "forgets" to take anything out of the freezer for dinner.    Results can be .... varied. Yesterday's effort was a "vegetarian chili". This sounds good, but like many things she produces, it was bulked up with coarsely-cut carrot and tinned sweetcorn.    I quite like carrots.... but not like this. She also tends to add far too much liquid, so that many dishes appear swimming in a weak liquor and must be carried with car

"Rover Class"

Today's blog entry features one of the most, if not, the most beautiful and very much popular broad gauge locomotives of the Great Western, the Rover (Or Alma) Class!   From Wikipedia     The prototype locomotive, Great Western, was built as a 2-2-2 locomotive in April 1846, but was soon converted to a 4-2-2 arrangement, with the leading wheels set rigidly within the sandwich framing, rather than in a separate bogie. The remainder of the class entered service between Apr

Diesel locomotives

Class 04 11226 (Bachmann) 11226 is my most recent purchase. It was brought from the model shop opposite Grosmont level crossing in September this year.     Class 20 D8156 (Bachmann)     Class 24 D5061 (Bachmann) The real D5061 is part of the NYMR fleet and is currently stored awaiting overhaul at Grosmont MPD.

Running in

I've made a start in running the fleet using DCC Concepts rolling road which I've had for a while. Space constraints makes this a very useful tool for running in.    First up were the two latest additions, 60015 and 4308 then slowly going through the older stuff which haven't been out of the box in three years. So far so good!    I am impressed by the Hornby class 60 with the level of detail and the weight is quite something! One day I would love to run this on a layout with

Stevethomas6444

Stevethomas6444 in Stock

GWR - the Great Way Round – the construction

Recapping from my last Post, some fifteen years ago when the layout was conceived there was a Mainline Terminus and a high level Branch Terminus, both constructed up against the plasterboard enclosure housing the Aga flue.  It was not long before the Mainline Terminus was converted to a through station with the running lines skirting the outside of the plasterboard enclosure.  This provided for a dumbbell shaped layout with reversing loops and storage sidings at both ends.  Most importantly it a

Coppenhall Good's

Well where to begin, 1964 ish My grandad was a guard on the railway and one of these people who knew everyone, I was about 4 and he would take me on his crossbar seat off to places (The station, Crewe works offices, depot's and coal yard) I can't remember for how long and why it stopped I must have been 10 or 11. This of course got me into Railways. When I was 11 We had a big car crash and my sister and me had to live at Gran and Grandads for about 3 weeks at this time I started building Airfix

2-4-0s, and the Armstrong era in particular

When I wrote the first book I was rather guilty of somewhat glossing over the 2-4-0s in the Armstrong and Dean eras. There were so many of them, they were rebuilt so much and I just found them confusing and, dare I say it, not that interesting. I'm paying for it now! Working up my experimental chronologically based GWR locomotive history I'm in into the late 1860s, early 1870s, and they are becoming impossible to avoid! I have to wonder, incidentally, why, with standard goods engines and standar

"Heron"

An interesting locomotive today, "Heron" from the Carmarthen & Cardigan Railway (C&CR)   A Map of the Carmarthen & Cardigan Railway line   From Wikipedia   Heron (1861–1872) Magpie (1861–1872) The first two locomotives for the Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway were 4-4-0T locomotives with straight side tanks, built by Sharp Stewart and Company in 1861. After the line was converted to standard gauge in 1872, they were sold to the South

First use of injectors?

RCTS states "Up to 1865 the general practice was to use crosshead driven pumps... At that date the Giffard injector (invented in 1859) was introduced on the GWR.". Which begs the question, what classes, were they rapidly retrofitted etc etc.  Does anyone know any more?   There's a photo in RCTS (Part 4 D113) of a 322 (Beyer) no 334 "as built by Beyer Peacock in 1864" which would appear to have an injector fitted. Similarly D119 shows a 360 class with injector, but the caption ma

GWR ‘Sir Daniel’

A comment on my recent post about modelling Rocket reminded me that my first scratch-built locomotive was an Armstrong 2-2-2 that I constructed 10 years ago and described in ‘Railway Modeller’, July 2014 , as ‘Simply Victorian’. I explained in that article that I was encouraged by a drawing of one of these engines in Russell’s ‘A Pictorial Record of Great Western Engines’ with the caption comment that: "The utter simplicity of these early engines can be seen." The idea of ‘simplicity’ appealed t

MikeOxon

MikeOxon in general

Keeping 26043 Alive...How it works, the locomotive Part 1 Field Diversion

A bit of a change, i wanted to make sure that people were not getting tired by me just showing photos of metal being bashed, those blogs will continue as there seems to be a lot of interest in it.  However in the last blog i invited some questions that people might have had about how things work in a Diesel Electric locomotive like the class 26, however all of the first generation diesel electrics work on pretty much the same principles so its very relevant across the fleet.   @37114 a

pheaton

pheaton in Preservation

Temporary work bench and preparation for SolRail 23

I'm still waiting for power to be installed in the Log Cabin. The house rewiring took longer than expected, and we decided to postpone connecting the log cabin until other outside work is completed in order to finally get the interior signed off. In the meantime, I've recently negotiated a small area in the snug at which I can work on a few projects. I'll have to see if the better half will allow me to solder, but for the moment I've been working on the 1/8th scale model of my proposed Bosc

Yan

Yan in Planning

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