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The 56xx class of 0-6-2T tank engines were infrequent visitors to Oswestry, from what I can find only one a year would receive attention during the 1954-1959 period. These were predominantly 84E Tyseley or 84F Stourbridge Rd locomotives employed on freights and passenger workings in the Midlands. Locomotives of the Red route class had to navigate their way to the works at Oswestry via Gobowen with only a handful of sidings unrestricted for their weight category. This chart shows the entries recorded for the period 1954-1959 (excluding 1955): This trend continued right up until the closure of Oswestry Works, with 6644 being captured on camera as late as June/July 1965 (note 9F behind!): [Photo courtesy of Oswestry Family & Local History Group] I picked up a late crest Bachmann 56xx from the RMWeb Classifieds recently, this will be detailed an likely modelled as one of the later visitors to the works. I'm really looking forward to working on this class, it's always held a fascination with me since seeing the layout "Blaenavon" in Railway Modeller in the mid-1980's. 5643 is currently visiting the Bluebell Railway which was a nice surprise when I was there recently to get photos of 9017. Only problem was there was no chance to get any detail from the boiler/tank tops! 1. 5643 on shed in the evening sunshine 2. Buffer beam detail 3. Lubricators 4. R/H Sandbox linkages 5. R/H Cab Step and injectors (?) 6. Buffer detail 7. Vacuum and Steam heating pipes 8. L/H Cab Step, Sandboxes, Injectors 9. L/H Front pipework behind the bufferbeam 10. L/H Sandbox linkage and lubricators 11. Smokebox door 12. R/H front frames and sandbox 13. R/H rear pipework 14. Unknown device on R/H - any ideas? Full set here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/cambrian_al/sets/72157644247589256/ Cheers

What with Easter and a rather misguided camping trip which suffered every indignity the British weather could throw at it progress has been a bit slow and certainly not helped by DCC. Having finally found a chip that worked I got brave and downloaded a slightly better sound from the Digitrax web site - OK an 08 shunter is not ideal but until I manage to make my own sounds this will have to do - well it would if it worked! Download seemed to be fine but no sound. I seemed to remember that I had a similar problem with the other Simplex and after some research found that there was a CV that you had to change to make it use the new sound. Can I remember which one? Of course not and can't find where I got it from. Posting the problem on various sites didn't get me anywhere but then I had a cunning plan...... What I did was to download the sound scheme (BR Yorkie), from the sound depot that I had trouble with previously with the intention of comparing all the CVs to find the one I changed to make it work. That was the plan but this sound worked straight off. Unfortunately I don't know if this was a glitch in the original sound that has been put right or not. At least I now have a sound that works even if it is not the one I wanted! Incidentally, the one I am having trouble with is the BR 08 from Sound Depot - has anyone else had any trouble with this one? Having got at least a sound I pressed on with that other task I love, of fitting couplings and then the roof - what a nightmare! As it balances (and I wanted to make it removable), on four thin posts, getting it even remotely level was not easy. In the end I came up with this little jig Problem sorted! One good thing about this WDLR business is the very unadventurous paint schemes so it was quickly kitted out with a few coats of light olive via a Humbrol spray can. Really couldn't see the point of getting the airbrush out for this. Just need some detail painting, etch some number and makers plates and a jolly good weathering session and I will be there.

The garden has emerged from the soggy winter fairly well, with only a small amount of electrical bonding and track alignment needed. It has allowed me to have some fun taking pics after a spot of hedge cutting and garden tending.

I'm sure there are knowledgeable folk who can help with this one. The track plan of the station area of the layout is very simple - a passing loop, two platforms, and a goods yard on what we'll call the "up" side of the line. Trains arriving on the up loop can easily work the goods shed without a run-round move, just by backing into the yard - if necessary, leaving part of the train on the up line. To shunt from the down line, an engine would need to detach from the train, run around on the up line, and then collect wagons from the rear of the train on the down line, before propelling them into the yard. My query is, would the real railway have operated that way, blocking both the down line and up line (while running around), or would wagons for the yard simply have been forwarded on up the line until they can be sent back on an "up" train? I am presuming the station is on a cross-country route or a heavily engineered branch line. For the sake of play value, I'd much rather be able to shunt "down" trains as well as "up" ones, but I'd be interested to know how likely/unlikely it was in reality. Perhaps it depended on the schedule - if there were long intervals between trains, it wouldn't have mattered that both roads were occupied?

Here are a few pictures to 'flesh out' the text. Been doing a bit of scenicking, Brake can and O2 building to ward off the boredom.

We got back fairly late yesterday evening from Epsom so I didn’t get chance to post any photos last night. We had a good time at the show. There were some excellent layouts on display along with a good selection of traders. The digs and food were good and we also managed to venture into the mean streets of Epsom and track down some pints of St Austell ‘Tribute’ on Saturday evening. I’m sure that our operating on Sunday was much better for it. Unfortunately the journey down on Friday was not great – pouring rain most of the way and a crawl around the M25 in rush hour – over two hours from the bottom of the M40 junction to Epsom. It never ceases to amaze me though how things that have been tested back at base can still let us down at a show and result in lots of crawling under baseboards and dilemmas about whether to go and eat or stay and fix problems on a Friday evening. I’m not going to repeat the whole fault list here, but one particularly puzzling issue was the East crossover. We always run a loco around every bit of track as soon as the layout is set up. I did this on Friday evening (including the same crossover set both normal and reversed). Just as I was taking the loco back to the fiddle yard and about to announce that everything was OK I got a short circuit on the East crossover. We decided in favour of eating but it meant that there was extra work to do on Saturday morning before the show opened. The problem was fixed using a razor saw to open out one of the isolation gaps… but this bit of track has been working and pretty much untouched since 2010. Thanks to Ian Morgan and Dave Stratton for stepping in as guest operators on Saturday. I hope that you both enjoyed yourselves. Next up is the Kidderminster 2mm gathering in June. Between now and then our plan is to replace the control panel overlay and move some buttons that are in the wrong place. The panel is getting rather untidy now with various amendments stuck on with paper labels or scribbled on in marker pen. As usual a random assortment of photos... Lower Exbury - a small layout beautifully executed. Cornwall was well represented at this show... Diesels in the Duchy. Law Junction. Definitely not small! Purgatory Peak Clutton - very Pendon-esque. Penlan The afternoon lull in the St Ruth goods yard - the Carlisle goods waiting for its loco and the pilot waiting to pounce on the GUV when it's time for the sleeping cars to depart. The buildings near the Hotel with the junction signal off for a main line departure.

The 90xx Dukedog classes were obviously synonymous with the Cambrian system and as you'd expect many of them passed through Oswestry Works over the years, in fact probably all of them did at some point! Modelling the works gives a good excuse to model a number of Dukedogs and I've been researching not just which ones frequented the works the most often, but the many varied combinations of components, such as position of smokebox lampirons, sandboxes above/below the footplate, small/long/no whistle shield, parallel or tapered buffers, fluted or fish belly rods.. the list goes on! (for an excellent and comprehensive list of variations see http://www.gwr.org.uk/no-dukedogs.html) 1954 to 1959 is the main focus of the diorama as this is the period I have found works registers for. The table below shows which 90xx's were in the works and how often: Dukedog's that stand out for me as options to model are as follows: 9005 - 3 times in the works between 1954 and 1959 - Spent her whole life on the Cambrian (allocated to MCH, ABR and OSW) - Above footplate Sandboxes - Tapered Buffers pre 1958(?) Parallel afterwards - Fluted rods - In store in Oswestry for 2 years before withdrawal in July 1959 9017 - 4 times in the works - Oswestry Works carried out minor overhaul before her departure to the Bluebell 9018 - 3 times in the works between 1954 and 1959 - Parallel Buffers & Tall Whistle Shield - Red background plates and GWR Button Motif still just about visible on the tender! - Withdrawn 1960 Finally either 9004, 9014 or 9022, to represent the class with a topfeed. Most likely Croes Newydd's 9014 as she featured on railtours Another aspect to the research has been the great fortune of having Bluebell's 9017 only 40 minutes away at Sheffield Park! I made a visit a couple of weeks ago and spent a bit of time with her getting some reference photos. It'll sound daft I know but after spending so long looking at photos, books, websites etc, actually seeing 9017 in the flesh felt like visiting an old friend! Anyway.... Here's some of the reference photos, I hope they may be of use to anyone else looking to add a little extra detail to the Bachmann Dukedog: 1. Traces of the cab spectacle windows filled in 2. Footstep on the tapered buffers 3. Steam heatpipe fittings 4. Pipework under the running plate 5. Same pipework where it enters the cab 6. Front pony detail, will be a challenge removing that unsightly coupling pocket from the Bachmann! 7. Smokebox, Handrail, Chimney details 8. Fisheye shot inside the cab

Matters have moved on since my recent Post detailing the arrival of the Diamond Jubilee Britannia (R3094). The donor – Hornby William Wordsworth R2563 Firstly a view of the model that was to provide the tender with the Late Crest. At the time of writing my last post there were issues with William Wordsworth. I would give it a new identity with a tender with an early emblem and at a suitable time I would sell it. After recovering the white roof, R2563 Left R3094 Right Perhaps I should have attempted to strip the white paint off the roof of Britannia R3094? My first attempts at repainting were not altogether successful. As the paint dried the rivet detail began to appear through the new paint as a pattern of white dots. I would start again. This time I over coated the whole of the white roof area with Humbrol matt black paint. When this had dried the central area was given a second coat of matt black and the sides above the windows were coated with Humbrol GWR green. Now nearly three weeks later it is still looking nearly very good. I hadn’t compared Britannia (R3094) with any other models but placing it next to William Wordsworth (R2563) highlighted a difference in the size of the sliding hatches on the roof. I have searched the web for pictures of cab roofs without success. Which one is correct? Are they both correct? Did British Railways change the design of the cab roofs on the later engines? In my previous Post I published a picture by Nigel kendall of the front of 70000 Britannia. Nigel has suggested that railway modellers might also be interested in another of his pictures, showing the cab – but not unfortunately the cab roof! Where is all this leading? My researching into the history of various ‘Britannias’ is suggesting that where engines received new smoke deflectors to replace the ‘dangerous deflectors’ (with the handrails) the deflectors were changed after or at the same time as the tender received a Late Crest. William Wordsworth has replacement smoke deflectors and as such should only be paired with a tender with Late Crest. I would keep it that way. What about 70000 Britannia? Returning to Derek Dean’s notes Britannia is recorded as gaining a Late Crest in 1958, new deflectors in 1959 and a speedometer in 1960. The Hornby model R3094 (with or without white roof) is thus either representative of the engine in preservation – when it should additionally be fitted with an air compressor inside the one of the smoke deflectors – or in pre 1958 days when it would not have had a speedometer or overhead warning plates.. As to my 1960s layout – I shall bide my time and enjoy the model for how it might have been! Compensating for old age If I was keeping William Wordsworth there were several jobs to attend to. A number of bits had dropped off. How best to reattach these small parts? I would use Blu-Tack to help me hold the smaller items whilst I introduced a drop of Butanone from a tiny paint brush to make the joint. Attaching a lamp iron There was a more fundamental problem with William Wordsworth – it didn’t run smoothly. It had a stiff point - I deduced it had a cracked drive gear. Replacement gear left, cracked gear right Why a cracked drive gear and not just faulty quartering? Observing the movement of the engine showed that the stiffness did not occur at the same point for each revolution of the driving wheels but corresponded to something like one and quarter revolutions – so obviously there was something wrong in the engine’s drive train not directly connected with the wheels. Hornby Britannia Chassis – deconstructed As shown above, the drive gear is buried deep within the Hornby chassis. Luckily Hornby have used screws to hold everything together. It is a straightforward task to tunnel down into the chassis and to replace the gear wheel. Ideally the motor should be lifted clear. This is helped by carefully peeling the wires off the metal chassis where they are attached with black rubbery glue. If this is done carefully the wires can be reattached on completion using the original glue. Hornby William Wordsworth R2563 and Britannia ex R3094 with repainted roof Finally a view of renovated William Wordsworth and Britannia as might have been in the early 1960s if it had not had its ‘dangerous deflectors’ replaced.

Out on a photoshoot and video job today we had chance to take a look at and run the new Loveless Deltic. Just a snap for now but a full review will feature in the mag soon.

Fisherton Sarum as I am sure regular readers will know uses Salisbury shed as its basis and inspiration. The London and South Western Railway (LSWR) buildings and their relationships with each other are modelled to create the spirit of Salisbury shed, that hopefully to some is instantly recognisable. Albeit somewhat modified and condensed to fit within the quite limited space that I had available. This enabled me to use available drawings of the actual LSWR designed buildings along with photographs to portray the location as an adaptation. The weekend of the 10th and 11th May Fisherton Sarum will be returning to the Salisbury area to be exhibited at the Salisbury and South Wilts Railway Societies 50th Anniversary exhibition. The exhibition is being held at the Michael Herbert Hall, South Street, Wilton and being their golden anniversary should hopefully be a special event. It is open to the public 10.30am to 4.30pm on the Saturday and 10am to 4pm on the Sunday. In addition to Fisherton Sarum there are 14 other layouts across a wide range of scales attending including a number that are Southern related. If you are able to get along to this show,and help the Salisbury and South Wilts Railway Society celebrate its 50th anniversary, it will be good to see you. This is an extract of my blog at www.grahammuz.com The full entry with additional information and images can be read here.

Good evening, As Phase I of the 2014 refurb draws to a close (second coat of paint added to fascia and new lettering has been applied) I turned my thoughts to the new fiddle yard. As mentioned previously I would like to give cassettes a rest for a while and revert back to a traverser running on mini 150mm shelf runners that I acquired some place in BCN. One of the issues to be addressed was due to the track layout, for run-a-round the train needs to back the stock almost halfway into the fiddle yard so a short 'transitional ' piece was required which was worked out the other day to be about 200mm. This means the traverser can move independently without the train bridging it. Another issue was not being restricted by the travel length of the traverser meaning all roads could be used. It occurred to me a cheeky little slot could be formed in the facia allowing the traverser to slide out as and when required and also give sneak pics of the rolling stock (don't you just love to crank your neck at shows and get a preview of what's about to emerge?) With this in mind, sketches were happening during my work week as follows: Yesterday I had a brief visit to the Epson and Ewell show and suitably topped up with enthusiasm from seeing St Ruth and Diesels in the Duchy, I decided to make a mock up this afternoon. This is to test a few ideas as most of it will be laser cut at work so I wanted to flush out any immediate problems. Using a couple of sheets of 3mm foamboard I began to map out the enclosure to first get the continuity of the all important front presentation to the viewers. This will all be painted dark grey to match the recent fascia work. I also wanted to express the 'transitional' piece on the front (which also masks the join between the scenic section and FY) so have done so by introducing two 3mm shadow gaps to provide a neat solution. This will also incorporate the 2mmFS logo which I have from the first time it was exhibited. The traverser itself will have 5 roads which should be enough for say 3 fixed train formations and a couple of spare for run around etc. The ends of the roads will have a simple DPDT switch to isolate each individually - no complex sparks from me I am afraid There is also scope for one possibly two shelves built above the traverser to hold additional stock - will need to review this with the lighting positions. Having completed the mock up I can already see a few areas that need further work but overall I am happy with the results. One thing I quite like is the possible glow from the traverser slot when seen from the front. Here's a few iPhone pics with a little stock provided for scale...sorry about the light etc...its not so easy to take the layout outside as I used to do in BCN... Any comments most welcome... Pete

I'm very pleased to announce that LNER 6169 Lord Faringdon is now finished (for a given value of finished, of course). Lining has been done by two methods- the boiler bands by cutting thin strips of paper with a black line inked in, the cab and tender sides with the paint pens (my method with them I think is improving markedly). If I can maintain this level of finish with my planned models (and perhaps update the better of my older ones to it) I'll be very happy indeed. Ah, yes, this is also my 100th post. I'd just like to say thank you to everybody who has liked, commented on or rated my efforts shown here. Here's to the next 100!

Water runs down hill. So, front and centre should be the wettest part of the layout because it it the lowest. I always find myself drawn to water on layouts so I thought I'd add something. The first problem is that there is no space for a sizable water feature. Adding to this, most of the basic landscaping had already been done, the hills are in place along with brambles and a tree so really all that can be done is the hint of water beyond the layout. The edge of a pond or marsh, even a small stream, just out of sight. Started off simply enough. Bit of plasticard, 60 thou I think. A4 sheet, cut about an inch off the short end. The sheet didn't need much trimming to shape as the carpet underlay grass has a fair amount of give. The plasticard was evostuck to the layout, careful to be level and flush with the top of the facia. Then painted grey and sprinkled with N gauge ballast. Once that had dried I spread a bead of PVA around the edge and everyone joined in adding reeds made from excess bits of underlay. That's the state of things as the moment. On Thursday I will have an opportunity to add a few different varieties of reeds. I also have some finer material to add in with the ballast. Once that's done I'll use a bit of gloss varnish to make it look wet.

This time I use a different approach for modelling a Scalescenes model. I printed the PDF’s on fine art paper. In this case Lana Dessin 150 gsm. Beneath a product description: “A perfect paper with light grain which makes every stroke of your pencil a real pleasure. Gelatine and surface bonded, it makes gluing and retouching operations so much easier to perform and the various weights available mean that you can choose the paper which best suits your own needs. Acid free and age resistant.” In the past I mostly used PRITT glue. After I received some advices I searches for a more PH neutral glue. The glue that fitted my wishes was a bookbinding glue. I have to bring it up with a small brush. And I use a rubber roller to get things flat. I let dry every piece I glued for 24 for hours. For cutting I followed the advice of a professional model maker and used a scalpel. He also gave another useful tip that I used. The first cut is no more than a guiding line for cutting. After the first line I cut the lines slowly down to get a good result. Have a look at the blog of David Neat: http://davidneat.wordpress.com/ Below the first picture of the modelling progress of the factory. To be continued. Regards, Job

Digging around on the PC I spent a few minutes looking through some of the better pictures of my old layout. For those that remember, it was the one I was developing when I first started on RMWeb, although by that point it only had a year or two of life left in it. For most of its existence the layout didn't have a name but towards the end it was officially Wyvant. The layout fitted into a 14 x 6 room and began as a much smaller project, only about 8 x 6 in size. This utilised the boards built by my dad for my childhood layout, and indeed much of the track was salvaged and reused on this model. I started it in 1996, the year I returned to the hobby. Over the years, I extended the layout to occupy the whole room, changing the track plan and scenery many times in the process. I didn't set out with a realistic plan in mind, and even in its final stage, the layout had many unrealistic features. Other than not planning, I also made the mistake of not establishing stable foundations for the boards. I used wooden trestles, but the room was uneven and the boards never set truly level at any point in the layout's life. Also, the joins between the boards gave more and more trouble as the chipboard surface warped. That said, I had a lot of fun with it. It was my first layout that I built on my own (my dad had always done all the "hard stuff" like woodwork, tracklaying and wiring) so there was a huge learning curve. I was overjoyed the first day I got a Peco point motor to work, and even basic DC wiring was a challenge for me. Here are some photos and comments: The level crossing scene, one of the better areas of the model. Some of the scenery here is still pretty acceptable, in my eyes, and I always thought there was a good South Wales atmosphere to this bit. The pub was eventually recycled for use on Paynestown (now sold), while some of the other buildings have found their way onto the current 4mm project. The station building, which was originally designed to span the tracks on an overbridge. I was never satisfied with this model and after suffering damage in storage it eventually went in the bin. It didn't take long to construct so was no great loss. Nowadays I wouldn't build a model without basing it on a prototype, at least to some degree. Not a bad back garden for this cottage, which after some upgrading now resides on the new layout. I think the outside toilet ended up on Paynestown. Looking over the main station complex, which was quite extensive for what was a relatively small layout. I still have the long footbridge, which took a lot of kitbashing and detailing - unfortunately I doubt I'll ever have a suitable model for it again. The background area was much less developed and never got far beyond this when the decision was taken to move house. A hint of what might have been, with a goods on the elevated section - shades of Cardiff? Back to the goods yard area, where this Metcalf goods shed now finds a home on the current project: The station throat - subject to many changes over the years. This area looked OK in photos but in reality, it was a veritable roller coaster of undulating trackage, due to warpage. Most stock stayed on, some didn't! Finally, back to the double junction which allowed the branch to join the mainline at Taffsill. Looking back on it, the layout provided a lot of pleasure and challenges, and I probably would have carried on with it for a few years had not the house move intervened. Ultimately, though, the state of the boards would eventually have caused it to be scrapped, and it was perhaps for the best that it happened when it did. It was a sad day when I took a clawhammer to the boards in 2007, but within a few hours, I was over the loss and looking forward to my next project, when I could truly start with a clean slate. I'd particularly like to thank Mikkel, as within a short while of my posting pictures of the layout on RMWeb, he kindly invited me to share some more on the GWR modelling forum. I was thrilled to be asked and very honoured to be able to show off the layout among examples of much better modelling! Hope this has been fun, a bit of a trip down memory lane, and thanks for reading.

Over the last week I knuckled down and finished laying the setts around the goods yard. Now, to be honest, setts are probably not something you'd get in the sort of sleepy, rural goods yard I have in mind here - I would expect a surface of dirt or gravel at best - but since the shed has to be removable, setts help hide the inevitable joins. In fact, the shed fits into a dedicated area of setts which is itself removable, hence the line visible under the front wheel of the GWR vehicle. The point of this is that I can substitute a smaller shed, yet still have it look bedded into the ground, whereas it would have been tricky to conceal such a join in a dirt-type surface. Again the idea is to be able to swap between companies or regions without too much hassle. The main goods siding projects through the shed and continues for a bit, where I've added a set of coal staithes for a bit of shunting variety. Now, this is again a tad unlikely as it would be cumbersome to position the wagons (other than with horse or by manual methods) without propelling them through the shed, which would require barrier wagons or for the loco to enter and pass through the building. There's been some discussion on the forum in the past as to whether this sort of thing would have been allowed, but all I can say is that you do see very heavy smoke staining on some goods shed entrances, which suggests that engines certainly poked their noses in, if nothing else. In any case, I think this is a fair compromise for the sake of extra play value given that I've only got two sidings. I haven't shown much of the right side of the module, beyond the shed, since it's tended to be a bit of a dumping ground for tools and modelling bits, but lately there's been a burst of progress. Here's the general idea of a road sweeping up and out of view, with several cottages lining the right hand side. The two at the top are scratchbuilt, while the timber framed one is the familiar Superquick model, but here given an additional layer of detailing with 3-d framing and a new roof. There's a smaller cottage planned to go to the right of this building, while the church (visible in the other shots) will also get the Superquick upgrade treatment. The shop in the foreground, meanwhile, is the Wills kit. This one suffered a bizarre gardening accident when I snipped a rail end using Xuron track cutters, only to have the offending rail shoot through the air and ram its way through the upper floor windows, neatly dislodging the glazing - which I now can't get back in to fix! The swine! I'll have to, of course, but it'll mean removing the rear wall which is a pain. Unfortunately there is a false floor between the upper and lower stories which is glued in well and proper. Why do the things we need to remove never come undone, and things we need to stay fixed on, keep coming apart? Cheers, and thanks for reading.