Leaderboard

I've been experimenting with backscene materials, I finally decided on use of 3mm PVC foamboard. Unlike wood this has a very smooth finish and takes spray paint well, this was glued to the wooden frame with contact adhesive and kept it's subtle curves. Track weathering was carried out with a dark brown powder pigment applied to each rail side, this was then faded in with a broad fan brush. Once happy this, along with the road/yard weathering was sealed with a matt varnish. Fish plates were picked out with black powders to simulate grease. Experimentation now starts with tree placement.

The chassis was airbrushed from underneath, so there is a rather bright red showing along the top edges of the coupling rods. A simple waft of Railmatch tones this down to match the rest of the chassis:

Not a lot more to report. first up the bogie has been almost finished, the frame needed to be lowered by about a mm vs the sub frame. It does still need a tidy up of the inner end of the frames which are not square at the joint between the front frames and the deep part. I have now given it a final coat of etch primer to seal in the rivets (as an aside I am very impressed with the Archers product So the model has gone from this to this It’s a shame it’s far too cold to airbrush or I would get it painted. Of course if it was to be painted black it would be a lot easier as I find I can spray Halfords satin black a lot colder than I can airbrush... I have found this photo on the internet showing the loco at withdrawal (I think). So is it green or black? I suspect the former (but hope for the latter). http://trainphotos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/edd/2015/05/3449-Nightingale-GWR-Bird-Class-Copyright-1560x975.png

Looking over the top of the Advertising Hoardings on the Upside at Harrow. An Up Motorail service about to plunge into Linslade Tunnel. Overview looking south through Harrow. An Anglo-Scottish service hurries south at Linslade. To the south of Harrow. The Stanmore Village DMU sets off on another trip. A pair of 25s head south on a loaded cement working, and a 40 finds itself working south on an Empty Van working. From the Goods Shed at Harrow. A 304 passes through Harrow on a Birmingham via Northampton service. A southbound Express heads in the opposite direction. 1A14 0733 Manchester Piccadilly to Euston 'Pullman' speeds through Harrow on the last stretch into the Capital. To the south of Harrow, visiting Motive Power. A Western heads south as a pair of 33s head north. The Stanmore shuttle returns to platform 7 after another run on the Branch. Southbound Express overtakes a set of Tankers bound for Ripple Lane on the approaches to Harrow. Harrow Goods yard, with a northbound Freightliner passing. North and southbound Parcels workings at Harrow. Occasionally the layout sees other Visitors. In this case one of my normally 'stored' Deltics puts in an appearance on a southbound working to the south of Watford.

I am minded of Pam Ayres and her words: “Infallible, articulate, self-confident... and wrong.” From her monologue ‘They should have asked my Husband’ https://monologues.co.uk/Pam_Ayres/Ask_My_Husband.htm Heljan D1000 Western Enterprise and D1010 Western Campaigner fitted with etched plates When the opportunity presents itself I will buy etched plates. Lately I came across a set of C.G.W nameplates for D1000 Western Enterprise. These were followed by a set of plates for D1010 Western Campaigner from Extreme Etchings. C.G.W. Etched plate for D1000 (top) plates from Extreme Etchings for D1010 (bottom) With all this ‘dreich’ weather we have been having I would spend a morning cutting out and fitting these plates. I don’t know why I had not noticed before but the Enterprise plates looked to have been made to a different scale than those for Campaigner. C.G.W. Plates compared to Heljan printed plates The C.G.W plates were ‘obviously’ defective. I would return them to the seller. “Hello. Sorry to hear that you are not happy with these nameplates, they are certainly not defective. From what I know about Westerns, D1000 was the first build and it carried over sized nameplates on the real loco, a set of these are at the NRM. D1001 onwards had the smaller size. Not prepared to accept return”. I would need to undertake some research. I had a copy of Brian Haresnape’s article in what used to be Trains Illustrated. Clearly the name plates were substantial. I would also look at RS Carter’s book ‘British Railways Main-line Diesels’ from 1963. The RS Carter drawings are printed to a scale of 3.5mm to the foot. By good fortune there is a drawing of D1000 with plates measuring 38.5mm (11ft). The C.G.W plates measure 44mm – exactly 11ft at 4mm scale. So – spot on! An online search directed me to a 2012 Post on RMweb from RUGD1022 http:// https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/54225-western-liveries-1961-1977/ This Post states; “It's worth mentioning here that D1000's nameplates were of a non standard size, the backing plates being the same depth as the number plates. All other Westerns had the standard shallower height plates.” I would fit the C.G.W. plates to D1000 and the Extreme Etchings to D1010. Courtesy of Modern Railways March 1962 British Railways “Western” Class diesel-hydraulic C-C – courtesy RS Carter 1963 Full marks to Extreme Etchings, I was able to cut their plates from the fret in minutes. The C.G.W plates must have been made of tougher (thicker) material because separating their plates from the fret took hours (well a long time) and I had to change the blade in my craft knife three or four times. When using a craft knife to separate etched plates from their fret I place the etchings onto a smooth hard surface such as a Melamine offcut. This way the plates remain well supported and do not distort under the action of cutting. I used my preferred procedure for fitting the etched plates. I covered the existing printed name plate with matt varnish lowering the etched plates into position with a piece of ‘Blue-Tak’. Western Enterprise entered service with three dimensional cast aluminium crests on the opposite side of the cabs to the plates carrying the running numbers. The etching techniques used for the name plates do not lend themselves to making three dimensional objects. Applying the C.G.W crests turned out well, helped I guess by being exactly the same size as the Heljan printed crests. I have added some pictures below of the models fitted with their etched pates. Contrasting Crest and Number Plate A couple of images to highlight the larger plates fitted to Enterprise. Larger name plate fitted to Enterprise Standard size Western name plate as fitted to Campaigner Finally a close up image of one of the cast crests which I feel has turned out rather well. Close up of the etched ‘cast’ crest The images above show D1000 in its original Desert Sand livery with no yellow panel and D1010 in Maroon livery with a small yellow panel. The RMweb post by RUGD1022 which I previously referred to details D1000 carrying the livery without any yellow panel from its introduction to traffic on 26/12/61 up until 05/11/62. The same reference indicates that D1010 carried maroon livery without any yellow panel from its introduction to traffic on 15/10/62 up until 01/03/63 when it received a small yellow panel. These dates indicate that my model layout configuration with D1000 having no yellow panel and D1010 with small yellow panel did not happen! But then isn’t that what railway modelling is about? Heljan Box End Flap – in the words of Pam Ayres ‘and Wrong’ As a postscript I have added a picture of the box end flap for the Heljan model of D1010. I would say in the words of Pam Ayres – ‘and Wrong”! I first spotted the Heljan variation of the spelling on an eBay listing. What a conundrum, should you advertise the model as named or as boxed?

Made a start on the roof, thought I would first try using the parts in the kit, if this fails I will move on to tile or slate plasticard sheets The station forcourt elevation roof will be quite tricky to form with all the gables and roof lengths Also made a start on the painting, base coat of mid stone on the walls, sand around the doors, windows and corners, tomorrow will start picking out stones in differing shades

Evening all, There has been little progress on Wenford since the last post but Rich Brummitt of this parish popped around yesterday afternoon for some matters 2mmFS...so it seemed a good chance to set the layout up and push the dark side of the senior scale... The layout also has a potential show invite for Wycrail 2021. It was 2022 and I thought yep, 3 years is possible...then I was told they have a slot for 2021...so I thought, why not...nothing like a deadline to focus the mind One thing I have been looking at is the construction of the buildings...which look to be a mixture of stone with brick piers, with some openings later closed up with blockwork. I have bought some sample 7mm plastic sheets of each type recently at a show and like the track mockup I may make a small section to test. I am fortunate that a friend that I studied architecture with has a practice that submitted an entry for a competition to convert the dries to some accommodation a few years back. He kindly sent me the drawings (for my own use not publishing etc.) which were a set of PDF files. On here was a series of sections cut through the dries building. I have then imported the PDF sheets into CAD and drawn over them to create the basic forms to scale. I have used minimal lines to capture the profile including the roofs. I then superimposed each of the sections on my CAD sections produced for the layout when I cut the fascias in 3mm plywood giving these two images... Obviously due to the narrowness of the Ikea lack shelves one of the buildings will be very low relief however I have a cunning plan to improve this...“so cunning you can brush your teeth with it” More on that another time... I then used some photos and started to map out the elevations to get a feel for the number of openings which are either open or blocked up...I have been careful so the open ones do not show through the small opening and programming track at the mirror end! These have then be crudely pasted on to the foamboard mock ups that are currently helping me gauge the scene. Here’s an overall shot and close up but excuse the bubbling/peeling off which may have been due to where they were stored. I am still pondering whether to make the building carcasses in 3mm ply or foamboard although am conscious I want to keep the weight down as the Lack shelves are noticeably heavier since the ply fascias were added...still manageable...but am not getting any younger Finally, here’s a short video I took of Rich B getting to grips with the sound chipped 08. Despite the simple track plan, there was an hours worth of moving wagons around to leave one in the short spur. I think Rich enjoyed himself I certainly did, just watching! As always, comments welcomed... Pete

For a layout set in 1970, Templefield has been sadly lacking my favourite locomotive; the ubiquitous class 47. The hole in my loco stable was recently filled by a Bachmann 47 in the perfect livery for the era, and one that suits these locos superbly, two tone green with full yellow ends. Lovely as it is, there is no way the livery would have been as immaculate as the factory finish and so, some gratuitous "filthying" needed to happen. The loco was dismantled, windows removed, metal handrails removed and headcode masked. The body and underframe was hit with humbrol acrylic matt spray. This is to create a "tooth" for the weathering powders to adhere to. Powders are lightly brushed onto the body with a fine brush areas according to photographs of the class at this time period. The roof was completely covered with humbrol smoke, obliterating the green. The whole lot is fixed with a mist of matt spray but great caution is required. Never spray in the cold!!!!

Back in 2015 I wrote a Post for my Blog detailing an improvement to the old Mainline / Dapol model of the ex LMS Fowler 2P. Mainline Ex LMS 2P from 1984 Crucially the work required access to Hornby spare part X6475, the front bogie from their latest engine drive 2P (R3028). Sadly as said in my previous Post about remotoring the Hornby Q6, Hornby seem to have given up on providing useful spare parts. Front bogie X6475 continues to be out of stock. After being tempted by a Dapol offering on eBay I needed to find an alternative solution. Dapol Ex LMS Fowler 2P listed on eBay The ex LMS Fowler 2P was a very common locomotive and as such should feature on BR (LMR) and BR (SCR) layouts. Back in history Tri-ang produced a model of a southern L1. It was engine driven and when repainted black it could be used as the starting point for a model of the ex LMS engine. However as in the prototype the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement of the model does not lend itself to heavy trains. The engine driven model did not haul very much and was not popular. Now what if there had been a tungsten chassis? Tri-ang L1 – image courtesy of the ‘Saleroom’ Mainline solved the problem by using a tender drive borrowed conveniently from their existing model of the 4F (which they had acquired from Airfix)). The tender drive was cheap and cheerful and with careful maintenance it worked well. However for the 2P Mainline only provided electrical pickups on the locomotive driving wheels. For most people’s model railways these were woefully inadequate. As was said in my Blog previously, Mainline must have been aware of the probabilities of poor running because the plastic chassis and bogie are engineered to accept pickups. Mainline look to have been contemplating the same phosphour bronze ‘concertina’ pickups as were used on the driving wheels. I am only guessing, but this form of spring contact generates a high resistance to wheel rotation and perhaps when applied to the lightly loaded bogie it would have caused too many derailments. Wiper pickups from Hornby X6475 bogie The latest Hornby bogie has wiper pickups which generate far less friction than the concertina arrangement. I would add my own wiper pickups to an old Mainline / Dapol bogie. A search of my stash of bits and pieces highlighted some wiper pickups These had been recovered from the bogies of a Bachmann Warship – “Sir Brian Robertson” to be precise which had failed with Mazac rot. Wiper pickups from Bachmann Warship I removed the phosphor bronze wipers from their plastic backing and cut them with a sharp craft knife to what I thought was a better shape for the Mainline bogie. The Bachmann spacing is too small to replicate the Hornby wipers on top of the bogie. Also it has to be remembered that it is only the wheel rim that is ‘live’ and that if the pickups to both sides of the bogie rub against the axle there will be a short circuit. I had an idea to fit the wipers below the axles without increasing the depth of the bogie. Phosphor bronze extension – cut from Hornby Duke of Gloucester tender pick up I soldered the Warship wipers to a rectangular strip of phosphor bronze, bent over at the ‘top’ and tailored to fit the side of the Mainline bogie. In this case the rectangular piece was cut from a left over strip out of Hornby’s Duke of Gloucester tender – but there will be other sources. (In my case these were spare after upgrading the DoG tender with the underframe from a Britannia with sprung buffers.) Dry run I had a number of good ideas for fixing. Not interfering with the central bogie pivot is a must. In the event I soldered the connecting wires prior to using Super Glue to fasten the pickups to the top of the bogie. This way the top and bottom halves of the bogie can still be separated which might just be necessary if you ever wanted to re-bend the wipers – or change the wheels. Soldered and glued prior to painting The finished unit is shown below Complete Mainline 2P bogies with phosphor bronze pickups below the axles The soldered connection to the locomotive chassis is the same as used in the previous Blog Post for the Hornby bogie: Connection to Mainline 2P chassis How does it perform? I would say very well! Finally a view of the finished engine grabbed from the video. Improved Dapol Ex LMS Fowler 2P

A few shots of the recent progress with the layout. Once the sculpimold has set I next give the ground a light pass of short straw static grass, then a second layer of 2mm dead grass. The back scene arrived, this is a 3mm thick sheet of PVC foam board, it takes paint well and is self supporting. Scrub bushes added with simple PVA Seamfoam trees. The trunks were thickened up using builders caulk and grounded foam for leaves. A quick pass of weathering powders to tone down the yard and roads.

This weekend is the annual Ploughing festival near Ely. The farmer behind the drainage engine museum lets lots of vintage tractors plough his field for him. There was a good crowd on Saturday morning, unfortunately I'm not sure the weather is going to be as kind tomorrow. I hope you'll forgive some shameless photographs of vintage vehicles. First up are Archie and Arthur, a beautiful pair of shire horses who seemed to really know what they were doing. I was amazed when the drive just said (and I mean said rather than called) 'Arthur to your right' and Arthur just side stepped to his right while Archie stood still. Next in age terms there were three traction engines and a steam roller. Lovely to see them trundling down the farm track and getting their wheels dirty. The variety of tractors was extensive, the usual collection of little grey Fergusons but lots more obscure too. And not everything had wheels either. All in all a good morning out. There's more pictures if anyone is interested.. David Now I wonder is RMWeb censors Prickwillow ?