Leaderboard

After several sessions of kitbuilding i decided it was time to take the plunge and get out the old hairy sticks. After quite a bit of study i deduced that in the 1970's, mineral wagons were rusty, very rusty. So i set about gathering all my rust coloured paints and washes and proceeded to obliterate the carefully applied shades of grey. I tried to vary things as much as possible. The results are above. The Shark gave me a welcome break from rust and also makes a companion for my lonely Seacow. The Seacow is next in the paint shop but i can't decide on a livery. Dutch is tempting but it's a bit on the late side for my layout. Olive would be a more sensible option.

Work has started on the fourth layout in the Farthing series. This will be named “The stables” and continues our meandering walk through the goods facilities at Farthing in the early 1900s. The layout is inspired by my interest in GWR stable blocks, including the larger variants of the standard design that began to appear in places like Slough and Park Royal around the turn of the last century. Slough, 1928. Source: Britain from Above. Embedding permitted. https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW021896 Park Royal, 1930. Source: Britain from Above. Embedding permitted. https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW033806 Searches on Britain from Above show that stable blocks tended to be located near the entrance to goods yards. This provides an excuse to incorporate another favourite scene of mine, namely the roadside views into Vastern Road yard in Reading – including those lovely trees in the foreground, as seen in the excellent GWRJ articles on Reading goods by Chris Turner and John Copsey (Nos 81 and 82). At this point you are probably expecting a large sprawling layout with an intricate trackplan - but, er, this is the trackplan: The layout will be a micro and follows what I call a “matchstick” design, i.e. a few very short tracks. Ridiculously small, I know, but I like the challenge of making such a seemingly dull trackplan scenically interesting, and working out a shunting puzzle for it. My goods depot layout (below) followed a similar concept, and has become my go-to option when I need a quick shunting fix after a long day at work. So I want another one! With the new layout, the idea is to use roadside trees, fencing and the goods yard entrance as foreground view blocks and “see-through” structures. The stable block will be the main event in the middle distance, while the trackbed behind it will be raised to a higher level. An Inglenook style shunting puzzle will be applied. That said, it would be nice for the locos to stretch their legs on occasion. So I've allowed for the option of a possible future modular approach, whereby some of the Farthing layouts could be joined up for occasional running sessions in our living room, e.g. as illustrated below. Whether that ever happens remains to be seen, I’m taking it step by step. As usual, the baseboard was made from 10 mm foamboard. This time I used actual Kappaboard, which is clearly a better quality than the imitation product I used before. The basic baseboard in place, braced inside with more foamboard. Neoprene foam will be used for noise reduction. I’m now at the mock-up phase, testing the scenic ideas. As some may remember, the stable block has already been built and is a model of the prototype at Park Royal. The one at Slough was almost identical but a little shorter. Incidentally, both of these prototypes had sidings crossing close by at an angle (hard to see in photos of Park Royal). The layout fits on my workbench but will have to be packed away frequently. The 66,5 x 48,5 cm baseboard is therefore designed to fit in an Ikea “Samla” bedroller (55 L version), which can be stored under the bed - or stacked with other layouts in the attic. I’m aware that longer boxes exist, but they tend to be quite narrow and I like visual depth. The backscene and major structures will be stored separately. The Ikea version may not at first seem ideal as it has sloping indents at the ends. However these conveniently hold the baseboard in place whilst allowing room for fingers to be inserted. The bottom does have a slight curve at the middle – not a problem for me as my baseboard has legs at the corners, but it won't work for everyone. There remains the issue of the fiddle yard. I can’t use the normal one I have, as this will be a two-level layout (part of the fun). So I need a fiddle yard arrangement that allows me to move stock vertically as well as horisontally. The simplest option would be to move a fiddle stick back and forth by hand, but I'd like to stabilise the movement somehow. One option is a flexible arm of some sort. There’s a whole world of these, including holders for monitors, keyboards, tablets, smartphones, microphones and lighting. The challenge is to find something that is cheap, of reasonable quality and – importantly - does not require too much fiddling with alignment. Another option would be to do a sliding cassette arrangement with a slope. A few tests showed that, contrary to what I thought, the stock stays put on a light slope. Sides might help too! 🙂

Simond had it spot on in his comment on my last post - I guess the glimps of a roller bearing was a clue. A very new departure here and a pretty steep learning curve but made much easier by some good advice from Giles and Pikey on the RC thread - if you have not already guessed the Foden is now Radio Controlled. Although a bit of an indulgence for the current layout, as in real life, the Foden will eventually be demobbed and will feature large in a new post war creation. There was a rather lengthy wait while some motor options were shipped from China but who can complain at the prices, This was actually quite useful as I was able to complete all the slightly tedious detailing and even spent three evenings recreating the wheels which I was going to use from the kit but a) found they were not particularly round and b) I can now say it is totally scratch built. So here it is with painting and weathering still a work in progress; The radio control is now fully working but it has been a bit of a nightmare as constantly taking things in and out has meant a series of broken wires and conections but now everything is in place I hope that is at an end. In the next pictures you can see the steering servo neatly in place in the fire box and all the other gubbins in the water tank. Power comes from an Ipod LiPo battery under the rear a 2mm worm and gears I found on Ebay perfectly. The only downside is that at 90rpm it is a bit too slow. I bought a second one so may experiment with fitting the shaft to a higher reving gearbox but just happy that the thing moves for now! Next thing of course is that I have to create a body but I have an idea for that. I did do a video of it moving on the layout but can't seem toget it off my phone at the moment so until I have overcome yet another bit of technology you will have to put up with some pics on the layout; I can see great potential in this RC thing and have several more projects in mind and have even bought in several parts to experiment with getting a 20hp Simplex on the move. Oh, did I mention that it is completely scratch built?

Evening all. It's been a while since I updated this blog. Still not too sure about the new software and I haven't had either the time or the inclination to go and update all the previous entries and their photos links etc. I've been working my way through the drawings for the goods shed, to the point where it's now ready to cut (I hope). In the meantime, the station board's been put up, ballasted and the point rodding stools added ahead of the platform sides. There's a lot to do on this board with lots of subtle changes in ground levels. I suspect that not much will change for a while as most of the activity will proceed off layout for now, but I've attached a couple of photos of today's progress.

I wanted to make some fencing to start defining the field boundaries. The fencing I choose was concrete posts and wire. I felt the route of the fence should include the side of the old track down to the now disused loading dock, there will be a gate at the top of the track where it meets the minor road. I chose to make the posts on the laser cutter out of 1.5mm MDF. These were painted with humbrol enamel Matt 121 to give a suitable concrete colour. I found I had to blow on the posts to ensure that no paint blocked the holes the wires were going to pass through. The posts with the slightly large spacing are intended to be used as 45 degree bracing for the end of the fence runs. The first attempt I had worked ok, I drilled holes in the ground to take the posts and then spend an agonizing couple of hours trying to feed EZ-line through the holes. It was a complete pain! The end of the EZ-line would want to go anywhere except through the hole in the post. I managed it in the end but decided there had to be a better way. For the second length I tried something different. I thought it was worth trying to thread the Ez-line through the holes while the posts were still on the laser cut sprue. This worked out to be much easier as I could use tweezers and a lamp at what ever angle was easiest. The second run of fencing then took about 1/10th the time to install as the first! I'm very pleased with the results, I think once I get some long grass along the bottom of the fence and some small shrubs and bushes it should look pretty good. Thanks to Middlepeak for the EZ-line! David

I am very grateful for the appreciative comments on my recent posts and very pleased to know that some of my earlier posts are still considered to be a useful resource. I confess that I am still finding it hard to adapt to the ‘new’ (well, fairly new) RMWeb format and don’t seem to dip into here as much as I used to do – it’s an age thing I suppose. Progress with the 3D printer continues to be slow – two small grand-children do take up a fair bit of my energy resources and I have many other hobbies that I am trying to fit in as well! I recently introduced the nearly-three year old grand-son to ‘North Leigh’ and realised just how fragile most of my models are. Fortunately, my model is completely enclosed with a transparent front screen but that does limit operations, which still depend quite a lot on the ‘big hand from the sky’. A lot of my scratch built items were made more for the sake of appearance rather than robustness, so I find the ready-to-run (RTR) stock is by far the most reliable when exposed to the somewhat random movements applied to the controller by the grand-child. Having said that, he really enjoys reversing a train into the tunnel and bringing it out again to the station, with a rush! The Tri-ang clerestories in the charge of my Wills 1854 pannier, built on a Hornby chassis, proved by far the most reliable stock, for exposure to such treatment, and reminded me how those older models were designed with ‘kiddie interest’ in mind, far more than is the case for most modern RTR models. By chance, my older brother was clearing out his loft recently and came across the model railway, which he had as a child and which passed on to me, when I was around 8 years old. I added a few extra items to the original ‘Princess Elizabeth’ train-set and enjoyed the ‘play value’ that these items added. My favourite item was the R227 utility van, which featured opening doors, through which I could load and unload various stores. I also liked the barred windows, which made the vehicle look rather ‘important’. It is a testament to the original design that these models provided ‘play value’ for many years and survived intact. It gave me great pleasure to set up the whole railway, a few days ago, in the well-remembered format, on the carpet as of old. The coal wagon, like the utility van, had opening side doors, which allowed ‘coal’ to be loaded and unloaded, while the level crossing provided the interface between the railway and my much-loved collection of Dinky Toys. The coaches, from the original ‘Princess Elizabeth’ set, vividly show the problem of warped roofs, endemic in these early Triang models. I intend to see whether hot water treatment on a suitable former is able to correct the distortion. Of course, the model ‘Princess’ bears very little resemblance to the prototype locomotive but that never seemed to matter much to an 8-year old – the important thing was that it represented a main-line express locomotive, like the ones I could see at the head of the ‘Royal Scot’, rushing through Preston Station. What’s more, it could hurtle round those 15” radius curves with no tendency to leave the track. I know that these thoughts are extremely heretical to all those P4 modellers but the fact remains that my interest in model railways was kindled by playing with these models, which fulfilled the ‘play’ needs of a young child. Nowadays, what will be available for my grand-children when they reach the appropriate age?

Here’s a summary of my recent 'experiments' (a.k.a. mucking about) with Modelu and other 4mm figures, and how to store them. I have previously modified figures from the Andrew Stadden, Dart Castings and Preiser ranges. So obviously, the Modelu range had to suffer too! The resin used in these figures cannot be bent (it will break), but clean cuts with a scalpel worked OK. Joins were sanded, fixed with superglue and smoothed out with putty. Not everyone will think it’s worthwhile, but I find it relaxing and you get quick results. This driver was shortened and had his feet repositioned to fit in the cab of my Dean Goods. Another driver had a head fitted from an Andrew Stadden figure, in order to enhance the Edwardian look. That left a headless Andrew Stadden body, so a head was transposed from a Modelu station master who I felt looked a bit too modern for my Edwardian period. I have also been experimenting with painting, especially those difficult eyes. The pro painters do some amazing work in this respect, but as a mere mortal I’m just looking for a simple way to achieve a rough indication of eyes without spending too much time on it. The approach illustrated below has helped. First, two black stripes across the eyes. The stripes can then be narrowed and shortened by painting skin colour carefully around them. I find this much easier than trying to paint the eyes directly. The same technique can be used for the eyebrows and mouth. Eyebrows can be tricky when hats etc get in the way, but do add character. I suppose the next step on the learning curve is to fill in those blank, black eyes. Not sure I'm up for that! Reading up on brushes led to the purchase of these Windsor & Newton Series 7 brushes (not the “miniature” range). The sizes are 00 for faces (right), and 1 for larger details (left). These are bigger sizes than I have normally used. This is based on online advice from pro painters. The theory is that larger brushes give better control and the paint doesn’t dry as quickly on the way to the face. If you look closely at the lady above, you can see that her face isn’t quite smooth, because I let the paint become too dry on the brush. A larger magnifying glass has also helped, although I’m still struggling a bit with the weird hand-eye coordination that this requires. The field for extra magnification is useful and tells me that it may be worth investing in an even stronger glass at some point. Because we now live in a flat I have to pack away the layouts in-between operating sessions. This has led me to consider how to store the figures and other fragile items. If stored too casually the paint easily chips, noses are flattened or accessories break. So, inspired by Chris' storage box for figures, I had a look around the web and came upon “pick and pluck” foam trays. These are available on ebay, or from military modelling manufacturers like Feldherr. After plucking out the foam as desired, a base layer is added, and the tray is ready to use. The foam trays come in different thicknesses, this is 15 mm (0.6 inch) plus a base layer: For my horse drawn wagons I used 30 mm (1.2 inches). In retrospect it would have been better to go for something even deeper so the wagons could be placed upright. The trays can be stacked… …and fitted in an appropriate box. This is just a shoebox. I added an extra protective layer of foam on the top. In order to handle the figures, I fitted a bit of felt to a pair of old tweezers. Having made the trays you end up with a lot of foam cubes that are supposed to be discarded. This seemed wasteful so I decided to use the cubes for making additional storage boxes for my “second-tier” stuff. They have a sticky underside so it’s very straightforward. The box is a takeaway food container. Ever since Northroader pointed out the usefulness of takeaway boxes we have been eating a lot of Thai food! Some of my figures are fitted with wire in order to fix them on the layout, which takes up a lot of space in the “pick and pluck” boxes. So these are stuck into a bit of good quality dense foamboard... ...and fitted in yet another takeaway box (Phat Kee Mao, if I remember correctly!). There is room for a lot of figures this way... ... and the boxes stack up nicely. That's it for now, I'm off to run some trains!

In which the Author discovereth a Cardboard Box in the Study which recalleth his Childhood; and subsequently journeys into the Western-most Parts of Great-Britain..... A few years ago I saw a reissue of the Airfix kit for Trevithick's locomotive in a shop. I had one of these as a child, when I was too young to have any real understanding of how to build it: I recall some attempt was made at it, though it certainly never got as far as any paint, and one or two cogs and bits survive somewhere in the depths of a scrapbox. It has always lingered in my memory as one of the most interesting Airfix kits, both for the subject and for the fact that this one was supposed to work. In the 1970s there was supposed to be a motorising kit available, though I never had it, or knew of anywhere you could get it. Occasional sightings of a residual part would prompt the rueful reflection that it would be interesting to attempt the kit now - when I actually know what I'm doing and might make something of it. So when I saw one I bought it, and brought the thing home - and it's been sitting in a pile of magazines on top of Tramlink ever since. I seem to have bought it from Modelzone in High Holborn, it's that long ago. The kit seems still to be available in places https://www.steamreplicas.co.uk/Airfix-1804-Steam-Loco.asp - I know nothing of these people except that they come up on a Google search and seem to specialise in Mamod live steam. I was meaning to dig out the Judith Edge Vanguard Steelman kit this weekend . But there was the Airfix kit, and it doesn't need a soldering iron, and I don't have to worry about whether it will run... Also Ally Pally is coming up and there's usually someone there who sells display cases, into which I can put the finished model. Here's the kit , with the basic boiler assembled: Essentially the kit is built round the boiler It's a very long time since I built an Airfix kit , other than a wagon kit, and impressions are pretty favourable. It takes a little getting used to the idea that every part is numbered on the sprue and you assemble by part order. This isn't what you expect in a model railway kit. The pictorial instructions are clear, and once you recognise the code, quite detailed. I've only found one place where the instructions weren't clear exactly where a piece went in, and one place where it isn't entirely clear exactly how it will all fit together. The fit of the parts is excellent - quite a bit better than I'm used to. In two places - the boiler and the chimney - two halves leave a seam through slight misalignment, and I've had to use filler and file/emery board to get a totally smooth finish. The seam at the top of the boiler is visible in the photo. Otherwise it's all startlingly good - and this is a forty year old kit. There's minimal flash on the parts. As a result of all this, I'm finding I true up and finish pieces to a fairly high standard There are prototype issues. Wikipedia is not a reliable source, but it is a convenient one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Trevithick In summary, accepted wisdom is that Trevithick's 1802 engine for the Coalbrookdale plateway was 3' gauge, and the furnace door and chimney were at the same end as the cylinder and the reciprocating machinery. It is generally assumed there would have been a small wooden tender pushed in front of the loco. Firing under the piston, slide bar and connecting rod would seem fairly hazardous, and there seems general agreement -I'm not familiar enough with the scholarship to say upon what basis - that Trevithick reversed the arrangement for the 1804 engine, with the furnace door and chimney at the opposite end from the reciprocating machinery. What Airfix have modelled is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coalbrookdale_loco.jpg , but to 5' gauge. As a modern image modeller I'm unfamiliar with the detailed provenance and exact sources of this drawing https://www.locos-in-profile.co.uk/Early_Locomotives/Early_1.html A further point is the boiler cladding - or lack thereof. Airfix - and modern drawings - assume an unclad iron boiler , probably painted black. However the only contemporary colour image of a Trevithick loco seems to be Thomas Rowlandson's watercolour of Catch Me Who Can at Euston in 1808. The best version I can find is here: http://collection.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/co66226/richard-trevithicks-railroad-euston-square-1809-drawing And to my eye that clearly depicts a brown /teak boiler , with horizontal lines and boiler bands . In fact it is plainly varnished wooden boiler cladding, as seen on the restored Locomotion No1 and Wylam Dilly, and on pictures of Planet, Murray's Middleton locos , and other early engines. But Trevithick's tickets for the show just show a plain black boiler : https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Richard_Trevithick:_Catch_Me_Who_Can That , I suspect is the engineer's view - the boiler cladding is a detail to him. I can't see why boiler cladding would have been newly invented in 1808 - surely the purpose was to lag the boiler and improve thermal efficiency? So my money is on both the 1802 and 1804 locos having had varnished wooden boiler cladding as well

Hi all! These are my latest paintings. Abandoned track #1 Acrylic on canvas 50 x 70 cm. Abandoned track #2 Acrylic on canvas 50 x 70 cm.

Good evening all, Decided to skip Ally Pally this year as have a few shows coming up and thought I would put in a shift at home...which also allows me to go off piste to do some modelling Research has been continuing on the project and firstly many thanks to Argos of this Parish who has provided a lot of new information about the line and history. I also posted a thread on typical rolling stock to Oban and this has heralded some great leads too. A couple of small tasks for the mock up were undertaken including adding a new fascia to the base of the water as well as the top to frame the view/conceal the lighting. In addition, one of the things I realised from the information received was that the siding closest to the hotel was in fact a loop...so to increase operational interest I think I will extend this to the fiddle yard so a train can pull in and wait...or perhaps leave a few wagons. I think I will make the signal cabin which can just be seen in a cheeky photo taken of the Ian Futers book which shows top left the original image which caught my idea for this layout proposal. The sketchbook has also taken a beating this week between meetings and journeys to work. Ideas on how to create the water (using a technique told to me by some nice chaps doing a demo stand next to me at the Steyning show) so as to create some depth to the loch. I have also looked at the fascias and realised that the main scenic board needs its own return ends (as opposed to using the fiddle yard ends) so that I can curve the backscene at both ends. Finally an alternative tweak to the track plan by splaying the line to the centre to try and capture some of the curve at the end of the station. The jury is still out on this as it may reduce some of the water at the front and I am not so convinced about this. Following on from the train formation information received I dug out some of my old N gauge stock to represent an oil train - excuse the crass weathering which was done when I was a teenager This will be redone of course. The 27 has been posed as I have sent both my 37’s to Kevin at Coastal DCC to see if he can take a look at them and solve the problems experienced recently. Am also trying to gauge whether I can include a mixed freight composed of Railfreight wagons...must admit I always liked that livery A few more photos of the mock-up. It is crude enough to allow me to add/subtract, hack and chop it about - the key is to not be too precious. Time spent in foamboard is cheaper than when the timber has been cut... As always, comments welcomed... Pete

With the Simplex almost finished and just needing some detail painting and couplings fitted I decided to something rather different. Reason behaind this one is that I have always wanted more road traffic on the layout but suitable models for the period are rather few and far between. Having learnt a leson for once about how long it takes to convert something after doing the bus and remembering my thoughts that it would have been easier to have started from scratch I did just that! Before I get carried away, I also chose this model as it will be very suitable for another project I have in mind but which is known to only a very select few at the moment in order to save the embaresment if nothing actually gets off the ground. So a Foden steam wagon it is. I used as a starting point a drawing I managed to find on the internet and a Duncans white metal kit that I got a while ago. All the parts from this went into a bag and were transfered back to the box once replicated. I now have very few bits left. I used my tried and trusted but pretty basic methods of cutting the mostly nickel silver sheet by shearing off in bending bars. Where two or more identical parts were needed I soldered a sandwich of blanks together, then cut and filled it to shape, then seperating to get the identical bits. Various bits of brass tube and section were used. The only bits I have used from the kit are the wheels which I really don't think I could have done any better with. These would have been a prime candidate for 3d printing if only I could get the hang of CAD. So here is a pile of parts which took about two weeks of evenings to produce; Another couple of weeks has got me to this stage - an almost complete model. I am particularly proud of the chimney which is my most adventurous bit of lathe work yet and only took about twenty minutes to do. A bit more detailing and a rear body to go but I do have another rather interesting surprise in mind but more of that next time.......