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Phew! Superb weather but rather too nice to be stuck indoors doing any modelling. Even now (ten past eight), my modelling room is uncomfortable as it gets the sun all afternoon and evening. So, I've been mainly out in the garden reading and having my meals al fresco. Looks like this might carry on for a few more days. However, I did make some further progress with the Standard 2 tank before it got so hot. Using the second batch of custom etched parts from Rumney Models, I've made the cab roof, lubricator drives and fire iron rests. Still got some lamp irons and the shed/SC plate mounting to go, then it's complete. The roof is just temporarily clipped in place and will not be fixed till after painting, glazing and fitting the crew. This latter is a bit of a dilemma. As a push-pull loco, it should have driver and fireman in the cab when loco first but only the fireman when pushing (as the driver is in the driving trailer coach). I'll probably go for the two on board. I took the loco body out into the garden and took a few shots showing the new parts, hence the strong shadows. Dave.

92061 is now painted, weathered, and ready for action. An initial outing on South Pelaw was rather unsatisfactory. The pickups were not properly adjusted for the new wheels, so progress was rather intermittent. This problem has now been fixed, and I have also added pickups for the centre wheels, which makes a difference on my test track. During this process, one of the shafts that holds the gears in place within the chassis simply dropped out through the spokes while the locomotive was on its side. It slotted back in place with a slight click, and has stayed in since. We will see how she runs on South Pelaw, and as long as all goes well she will join her sister engines for a mammoth running session at RailexNE in a few weeks time. No crew are evident in shot above, and these have since been added. You can see the driver (a modelu one) lurking in the background of the picture below. Those of you who know about these things might have noticed that an air hose is missing from the front of the locomotive. I inadvertently broke it off, and this has now been fixed. These pictures do highlight the rather overscale screw coupling, which grates with me a little. On the other hand having a reasonably large loop to pick up under exhibition conditions does make life easier and less stressful. The handrail knobs look a bit big too ... Overall this has been a satisfying and fairly quick (for me) project. Now it is on to final weathering of the ore hoppers, tidying up broken bolsters, and fixing one or two missing transfers.

Exploring the blog concept with a view to maintaining a record of weathering processes, materials, tools and techniques. Entries will be sporadic and entirely dependent upon time and memory.

Fairly self-explanatory this; for some while I've been toying with the idea of altering the bridge over the three tracks as seen here: The existing girder bridge was all right, and I've lived with it for a good while, but I've gradually become dissatisfied with it and have been considering alternatives. The front-runner at the moment (not that there's much competition) is a brick arch structure which would take the road over the rails in a gentle hump, with one large arch for the main line tracks and a smaller one for the goods siding. Clearance is tight, though, so I thought I'd made a card profile to get some idea of how it might look: The narrower arch is a semi-circle, whereas the wider one is a three-centred arch which gives a little more headroom. My concern was that the pier between the two arches would have to be too narrow, but, allowing for tight clearances, I don't think it looks out of place, at least in this mockup. In practise, I'll have to make the main arch slightly wider to accommodate a run of point-rodding, with the tracks slightly skewed away from the center-line. I very much like the idea of the smaller arch being as tight as feasible, which would in turn place running restrictions on which locomotives could and couldn't traverse that siding. A final consideration might be to make the bridge symmetric, with another small arch on the right side of the main lines, which would permit a trailing siding off the down line. As with the girder bridge, the new structure would be built on a slight skew to add a bit of visual drama and help draw the eye into the scene.

In the early days, train brakes were not of much concern to the Knapford and Elsbridge Tramway, all the trains being unfitted goods, slowed either by the brakes on the loco or by pinning down the wagon brakes. It was not until 1904 that the company had to confront this issue, with the expiration of the contract for the W&S to supply passenger services. Both the 0-6-0T No.5, and the two new Kitsons arrived fitted with only steam brakes on the loco, and it was not until 1906 that all locos were fitted with Westinghouse Air Brakes. After the NWR's absorption of the TK&F in 1923, it was fortuitous that the air brakes on ex-LBSCR E2 No.301 had been retained, allowing it to operate the TK&F stock until replacement with vacuum braked coaches.

The Messerschmitt BF 109E-3 is finished at last (after a big break due to GWR locos)... Ready for transfers. For such a small fighter there's a lot of Decals! Decals done and final details being added. Finished and the obligatory next build cameo (I did promise Shack Attack Part 4 would be coming!) Posing in the late Longest day Sun.. Until the next build or another Loco oriented entry.. TBG

During the Newport show I had an interesting conversation with Ian Pope of Lightmoor Press who was exhibiting his collection of private owner wagons. I'm explained that I was interested in building some coal wagons for Sherton Abbas and would like them to depict coal merchants that were trading in the Somerset/Dorset area circa 1905. He recommended a book on the topic http://lightmoor.co.uk/books/private-owner-wagons-of-somerset/L9877 and said that he would do some research for me. True to his word a couple of days later I received an email from Ian not only recommending likely wagons, but also letting me know that 7mm scale versions were available from POW sides http://www.powsides.co.uk/www.powsides.co.uk/info.php?p=2 I can't thank Ian enough, he's a very useful chap to know! The wagons have been ordered and once they arrive I'll put a post in the blog about their construction. Ian also sent me a splendid picture of Axminster station at the turn of the last century which depicts a couple of Private Owner wagons. Axminster Station Image courtesy of Lightmoor Press In addition to the pair of Private Owner wagons the picture contains a wealth of information that I find of interest, the lime washed cattle wagons and that lovely tall lattice post signal for example. I was also rather taken with the heaps of coal along the back siding, no orderly coal staithes, just piles of coal at the trackside. I decided that I would like to represent this on Sherton Abbas and started by carving some dome shapes from off cuts of polystyrene. These were positioned on the layout to check their size and once happy with the appearance were fixed in position with PVA white glue. Polystyrene cones Polyfiller was then used to coat the polystyrene mounds and blend them into the landscape. Application of filler Once the filler had dried over night the surface was painted using matt black acrylic paint. Painted Polystyrene I combined my outing to the SWAG event with a visit to the West Somerset Railway and spent a very pleasant Saturday riding up and down the line. During my travels I found a lump of coal which once back home I broke into scale size pieces using a hammer. These pieces were then sieved and fixed to the polystyrene mounds using PVA adhesive. I wanted the yard to have piles of different types of coal, so used "coal" scatter from Woodland Scenic's which has a particle size of about 2mm to represent Anthracite. Coal sprinkled onto PVA Once the glue had dried excess material was removed using a vacuum cleaner. I'm toying with the idea of building a coal merchants horse drawn wagon to add to the scene, I think S and D models do a white metal kit that might be suitable. Completed coal mounds Until next time! Best wishes Dave