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Heading south through Harrow. A class 40 on a Tanker working for Ripple Lane as an Express for Euston overtakes. A short Freight heads south at Linslade with a 25 on the front. Looking south from the Bridge at Harrow. At Linslade, heading south. Approaching Harrow from the south. A class 120 Cross Country DMU has found its way onto the Stanmore Branch. Class 40 on a southbound Freight at Linslade. A brief 'green' moment brings a class 26 through Linslade, a bit improbable, but I like to give some of my other Locos a run every so often ! At the north end of Watford. A 'Bubble Car' DMU on the Stanmore Branch, passing the disused siding to the former Cabinet/Coffin Factory. Close up of Harrow & Wealdstone station as two Expresses pass on the Fast Lines. Looking north towards Harrow.

For some time, I have been feeling dissatisfied with the shaping of the frames on my model of the broad gauge engine ‘Rob Roy’ but couldn’t think of any ways to improve them, with the limited tools that I have. The construction of my model is described earlier in my blog. Recently I started to think about whether my 3D-printer might be able to help. I do like engines to be made of metal, so a complete plastic print wasn’t my favourite option, although I did find it a useful exercise for testing my modelling skills. I had the idea that it might be possible to make a tool or template, to help in forming brass sheet to the correct curved shapes. I couldn’t work from published drawings because I have modified the frames to suit some slightly over-size Tri-ang wheels, which I chose because they have the correct number of spokes for the GWR ‘Waverley’ class. These wheels are a very prominent feature of the prototype. My starting point was a JPEG image of the frames that I made for my model, which has some compromises in dimensions, to accommodate the wheels. It proved quite difficult to turn this into something that I could ‘extrude’ into a ‘solid’ model by using my 'Fusion 360' software. Rob Roy Frames (modified) – JPEG image Different software packages have their strengths and weaknesses. For this application, ‘Silhouette Studio’ has an excellent ‘trace’ function but has very limited export capability. My first step was, therefore, to open the JPEG image in ‘Studio’. One pitfall is that the image had be scaled to 72px/inch, which caught me out because I usually use 300 for printing. I was initially puzzled because the image appeared 4.2 times too big! Once I had a correctly-sized background image, I use the ‘trace tool’, with the various filters turned off. The result was an outline drawing, which I saved in ‘Studio3’ format. To get this drawing into ‘Fusion 360’, it needs to be converted to SVG, which proved tricky.There is, however, a website that will do an on-line conversion of ‘Studio’ files to SVG format, so, by using this, I now had the drawing in a format that I could insert into ‘Fusion 360’. In principle, the extrude tools in ‘Fusion 360’ can be used to transform an imported drawing into a solid object. In practice, however, my drawing turned out to have tiny gaps in the lines, which did not create the closed areas that are needed for extrusion to work. There is an ‘inspect’ tool, which identified a very large number of places where such gaps occurred but I don’t know of any easy way to close gaps in ‘Fusion 360’, other than on a point-by-point basis. Since the gaps are very tiny, it is difficult to find where to apply the editing tools such as ‘extend’ and ‘join’ and, in some places, they did not seem to work on the imported drawing. Failures seemed to occur where lines met some types of curves and would not connect . I needed another piece of software, to try and resolve the problem. So, I opened my SVG drawing in ‘Inkscape’ and explored the various ‘repair’ tools in that software. The ‘edit paths by nodes’ tool revealed that there was a very large number of nodes in the traced drawing. The ‘simplify’ command on the ‘path’ menu did a good job in reducing these to a more manageable number. By zooming in on the drawing to look at the detail of the nodes, it was easy to see where some nodes did not link up and it was easy to move node points so that they ‘fused’. I re-saved the drawing and inserted the new version into ‘Fusion 360’. Overall, the situation was now much better in that the main area could now be selected as a closed object. The ‘inspect’ tool revealed just a few problem areas and it was now feasible to give these points individual attention. In some cases, it was quicker simply to delete a short section and replace it with new lines. This method was sufficient to ‘close’ all the separate areas. It was only when I came to transfer the design to my slicing software, ‘Cura’, for printing that I realised that the scale had somehow changed during the transfer from ‘Inkscape’ to ‘Fusion 360’. In my previous work, I had always used DXF files from ‘Autosketch’ and these transferred correctly to scale. As a check, I tried saving the file in DXF format from ‘Inkscape’, which solved the scale problem, but the other problems of ‘loose ends’ appeared again and, in the end, I found it easier to re-scale the printer file within my ‘Cura’ software, before finally converting the model to ‘gcode’ for my E180 printer. The printed tool is shown below. For my purpose, the most important part is the curved top surface, which provides a firm base on which to construct my curved splashers. My first step was to glue a sheet of 10 thou (0.25 mm) brass sheet to one face of the tool. I used ‘UHU’ adhesive so that, after processing, the brass could easily be removed by immersion in hot water. I then used my Dremel ‘Moto-Saw’ to make a rough cut around the main features. This wasn’t as easy as I had hoped, since the saw operates with a vibrating motion and tended to pull at the thin brass sheet. It was, however, adequate for making a rough outline, which I could then refine by means of jewellers’ snips.. I found it easy to use the snips, now that the brass sheet was firmly attached to the tool, which I could hold comfortably during cutting. For the final trimming, to match the edges of the tool, I used a selection of needle files. Although the tool is, obviously, very soft, it was sufficiently firm to provide feedback when the brass edges had matched the tool surfaces. Once the frames had been shaped to my satisfaction, I started to add the curved top surface to form the splashers. For this, I used lengths of 5 thou (0.125 mm) brass shim. I used separate lengths for each section of the splashers, as I had done in my original model, but I feel it would be possible, with care, to fold the whole top as a single sheet. I provided a series of tabs along the back of the splashers that I folded down for attachment to the frame. Because the tool is plastic that melts easily, I could not solder these tabs in situ but, once everything was correctly shaped, I could remove the components from the tool, by immersion in hot water, and solder the parts together subsequently. I treated this as a ‘practice run’ and propose to try it ‘for real’ on some future engine builds that are in the pipeline. In fact, having looked at my ‘Rob Roy’ again, it doesn’t look nearly as bad as I thought and I shall finish it in its present form, while using the new techniques to build different designs. Having got this far, I decided to see how much extra work was needed to create a complete 3D-printed frame. The answer was not a great deal and, as a training exercise, I made a complete set of frames and splashers with ‘Fusion 360’, as shown below. It was necessary to extrude selected parts of the drawing by different amounts to create the 3D structure. I took the opportunity to add sand-boxes and rudimentary springs to my original drawing. One advantage of using computer-aided design is that producing a pair of right and left handed frames is simply a matter of pressing a ‘mirror’ button! So, here’s a pair of frames, straight from the 3D-printer, with Tri-ang driving wheels in place on one side. Although the splasher tops are rather ‘thick’, to allow successful printing, they are also surprisingly robust and this would be a feasible method to use … providing you are content with plastic engines. I intend to continue with brass construction but with the assistance of 3D-printed tools, to help in forming complex shapes. Mike

I had hoped to show more progress at Swan Hill by now but in spite of hours put in, output looks a bit thin. There's been plenty of drawing (it's warmer indoors at the computer) - part of the current fabrication drawing is shown below together with a few pics of the work-in-progress viaduct and bridge abutment. The abutment face is slotted for square section rainwater DPs but the bearing shelf is incomplete until the bridge itself is made and can be fitted to get the height exact. Unusually, the bridge carries three tracks where an even number would be the norm - but there is such a bridge over Battersea Park Road which only goes to prove the old adage that there is a prototype for anything. The last photo (of the trackwork leading to the bridge abutment) is included because until I looked at it, I hadn't noticed the missing chair - it's odd how pictures can show up things that otherwise get missed. ...If you're reading this post in 2022 (or later!), the bridge abutment which forms the country end (right hand end in the photos) of the layout has been completely re-built since this post was first uploaded - I didn't like it, so I changed it,

Is it really a year on?.. Well 2524 has finally made it into the paint shop along with some other items.

I have a thing for GWR stable blocks. The subject isn't systematically covered in the literature, so in a previous post I tried to obtain a tentative overview of the major types and styles. Since then I’ve been searching Britain from Above, Google street view and old online maps looking for past and present traces of stable blocks. It's all a bit esoteric, but for what it's worth here is a selection of my favourite 'finds'. Westbury It's 1929 and a plane soars over Westbury, capturing the photo above. The small stable block with the distinctive roof vents can be seen at the entry to the goods yard, a common and logical location for them (Britain from Above. Embedding permitted). The stable block at Westbury can be seen in this 1901 map. The station and goods area was later extensively rebuilt, as can be seen in the photos below and in this map. The stables here were built in 1899, with capacity for three horses. Many of the standard stable blocks on the GWR were built around the turn of the century, when the GWR decided to rely less on agents and do more of its own cartage (National Library of Scotland, Creative Commons). A grainy close-up, showing also the cattle dock. There must have been a lovely whiff in this part of the yard! (Britain from Above. Embedding permitted). Toboldlygo of this parish has modelled Westbury stables, using the 4mm Timbertracks kit. Note the manure pit, a standard feature. Thanks to Toboldlygo for allowing use of the photos, there's more about the build in his thread. So, does anything remain of the Westbury stable block today? A look on Google maps suggests that there is in fact a building more or less in the location where the stables were situated! (Google Maps, Map data ©2019 Google, Google Fair Use principles). But alas, it is only the signal box that was built later. Nothing seems to remain of the stable block (Google Maps, Map data ©2019 Google, Google Fair Use principles). Basingstoke The stable block at Basingstsoke has had a happier fate. Well, sort of. Lost in a sea of cars, it is seen here on Google Maps in the guise of - appropriately - a car wash. Thanks to Western Star for the tip (Google Maps, Map data ©2019 Google, Google Fair Use principles). This 1949-68 series map shows how the stables at Basingstoke were originally located at the perimeter of the goods yard, near the road. The structure does not appear in pre-1914 maps (National Library of Scotland, Creative Commons). The Basingstoke stable block in Google street view. Looks like the car park has been covered since the first photo was taken (Google Maps, Map data ©2019 Google, Google Fair Use principles). Details of the roof vents on the Basingstoke block, which appear to be in original condition (though not the colour!). The vents are often a useful distinguishing feature when looking for stable blocks in aerial photos etc (Google Maps, Map data ©2019 Google, Google Fair Use principles). Chipping Norton The stable block at Chipping Norton was built in in 1904. In 1929 it was converted - like a number of other stables - to a garage for GWR motor buses (National Library of Scotland, Creative Commons). Alan Lewis' excellent photo of the Chipping Norton stable block in 1983 (Copyright and courtesy Alan Lewis). The stable block at Chipping Norton lives on today, the only remaining building of that station (Google Maps, Map data ©2019 Google, Google Fair Use principles). There's a Royal Mail facility next to it, so the delivery theme hasn't entirely gone (Google Maps, Map data ©2019 Google, Google Fair Use principles). The stable block itself seems to be on private property now. It isn't much to look at from the road, but think of all the stories it could tell ! (Google Maps, Map data ©2019 Google, Google Fair Use principles). Slough Moving on to the larger types, this is the stable block at Slough in 1928, again conveniently situated between road and yard (Britain from Above. Embedding permitted). The Slough stable block was a fairly large example of what I call the "Archetype" design. The large variants of this design were simply "stretched" versions of the smaller versions. Note the horse drawn vehicles outside. I wonder if they were parked there overnight (Britain from Above. Embedding permitted). Like most stable blocks of the standard designs, the one at Slough had no windows at the back, presumably to keep things quiet for the horses. Prairies on the line! (Britain from Above. Embedding permitted). Today’s, er, view. The stable block was approx. where blue container/lorry is (Google Maps, Map data ©2019 Google, Google Fair Use principles). Park Royal An aircraft passes over modern day London NW. The red line below shows the extent of what used to be the main GWR goods yard at Park Royal (Google Maps, Map data ©2019 Google, Google Fair Use principles). Back in the heyday of the GWR, Park Royal had a 12-stall stable block (National Library of Scotland, Creative Commons). The stable block at Park Royal was almost identical to the one at Slough, but had an extra door and room for fodder. It is seen here in 1930, illustrating how substantial these buildings were (Britain from Above. Embedding permitted). Here is the Park Royal stable block again in the 1950s, now a good deal shorter! Part of the building has been torn down and has been turned into a garage or similar (Britain from Above. Embedding permitted). My 4mm model of the Park Royal stable block. Details here. Handsworth & Smethwick Multi-storey stable blocks were only found in the major urban areas, where space was in high demand. So far the smallest multi-storey block I have come across is the one at Handsworth & Smethwick, as seen on the Warwickshire Railways site. The two storey stable block is seen at the bottom of this map, showing one of the yards at Handsworth & Smethwick. A single storey stable block was located next to it, and can be seen to the right in the photo above (National Library of Scotland, Creative Commons). I was intrigued to find that the lower sidings of the yard can still be seen on Google maps at the time of writing, now apparently a scrap yard (Google Maps, Map data ©2019 Google, Google Fair Use principles). It's hard to be certain, but I wonder if the yellow structure top center in this view is in fact the cut-down and shortened remains of the old two-storey stable block? The location and door/window relationship fits - though one window on the left side is missing (Google Maps, Map data ©2019 Google, Google Fair Use principles). Paddington Mint Lastly, a look at the big one - Paddington Mint stables. (Britain from Above. Embedding permitted.) The original stables here were built in 1878, but expanded and rebuilt several time since then. I've often thought that the interior yard and ramps would make an interesting diorama. There's good info and drawings in Janet Russel's "Great Western Horsepower" (Getty Images, embedding perimitted). A modern day view of the Mint stables (Google Maps, Map data ©2019 Google, Google Fair Use principles). The stables now house St Mary's Hospital (Google Maps, Map data ©2019 Google, Google Fair Use principles). I found a 1922 view of Paddington Mint on Britian from Above, and zoomed in. Two horses can be seen on the upper level, bringing life to the scene (Britain from Above. Embedding permitted). I tried to zoom in further to see the horses better. But it's a funny thing, the past: When you try to pin it down... ....it slips through your fingers. Edit: If the images re-appear following the Dediserve failure, see the following in the discussion below: * Tim V's excellent photos of the stable blocks at Witney, Shrewsbury, Westbury, Shipston and Abingdon * Methusaleh's find of the remaining stable block at Birmingham Hockley * Ian Major's views of the stable block at Littleton & Badsey

It made it through the airport in a suitcase without being blown up! Which was nice...! The narrow gauge turning triangle was wired to have electrical redundancy with the points powered from both ends to avoid running problems. Surface motors change the points by moving rods and are powered from the CDU in the box-file signal box. The siding on the left is the only part of the Narrow Gauge that can be isolated, but as we only have one 009 loco i dont think it will be a problem. The DPDT switch was wired to the right hand side and isolated from the rest of the triangle. The bottom two points actuate from one switch and the top of the triangle from another, to be seen if this is the best way to have it. Running is pretty reliable, but can be improved with a bit of cleaning. The scenic materials were mostly things that i found around the house, kids play sand, dried and sieved soil stuck together with PVA glue and paint onto a base of insulation polystyrene material . After a bit of experimentation, static grass was made to stand-up using a balloon rubbed on hair and the hoover. The joints between sections still need tidying up, as do the points, which need ballasting. The left hand side was made to be a bit overgrown and the right more industrial. Removable covers were put over the point motors and rodding in case of tweaking. The shed was a lovely kit from Nock and the crane from Ratio, both were incredibly satisfying to make after years without modelling. The main building was an experiment with Skaledale from Hornby. The slate is Backmann packs The standard gauge track plan had to be altered to have a parallel line next to the narrow gauge, as it was impossible to fit with the original track plan. I was skeptical at first, but in the end i think it adds interest and looks a bit different. To make it work electrically the whole siding was soldered together and the point also wired to be live on all sides. An additional siding was also added at the bottom. Big weekend!

Cor, this building lark goes on a bit doesn't it? So, to bring things up to speed. The roof has had a fair few sheets of double Roman ABS tile sheets added and the glazing added. This was a little tricky as the Rowmark framing wanted to warp all over the place. The glazing is a single layer of 1mm Prespex. Despite being saturated in Spraymount and heavily weighted down, some of the glazing bars wanted to lift up. The solution was to flood each pane with Johnson's Klear and reset. In a couple of places even that didn't work so I resorted to canopy glue. I got there in the end. I've since added a few sections of framing for the very ends and the ridge tiles etc, though I've not taken any photos of that, but it's coming together nicely. The roof itself is now being subject to a bit of fettling, filling and painting. This weekend's task was to paint all of the walls and keep painting, drybrushing and more dry brushing until I'd got the colours to match those of the already completed goods shed. It took ages but I'm really pleased with the result. I keep panicking I've overdone the mortar work but from 3ft it's exactly the result I wanted. Must be the EM modeller in me! The end shed timber work has had a base coat and will have a lighter top coat and I started on the internal footbridge. These have stone stairs and a timber bridge section. All presently demountable but will be fixed in place permanently when painted. I had to carve out some of the plinths internally as I'd forgotten the steps will be flush to the wall. The rather funky balustrades are cut from Rowmark and have had a base coat to start. I've started to paint the footbridge brackets and have also painted the self adhesive quoins I had cut to tidy up the building corners. A bit more filling and fettling but I feel we're on the homeward straight now. A bit of a photo overload, but I can't be ars8d to sort them out!

Modifications and detailing on Neilson & Co 0:4:0 Coffee Pot. After reading other modellers blogs, its seems that quite a few of us are plaqued with infinished projects syndrome, with incomplete models littering our shelfs. In my case, I had scratchbuilt 16 locos and 5 remained unfinished, so a decision was made to try and get some of them transferred to the done section. This scratchbuilt model of the coffeepot was started some 30 years ago, but because of its racehorse like running qualities was put aside and forgotten for a few months, then years. This just might have been a lesson in ' is it worth scratchbuilding a loco when you have very little information '. This is yet another loco built to run EM gauge that needed modifying to P4. During the initial dismantle of the loco, I was a little surprised with the lack of gearbox and method I'd used for the drive. If memory serves, the boiler had been turned on a lathe and bored out so that the tiny ECM motor was a nice snug fit inside, then a worm and wheel were made that had the same centres as the drive axle / boiler on the model. The boiler was turned to just over a millimeter oversize to accomodate the ECM motor which later caused problems with interference between the suspension springs, reverse lever and boiler. The model was originally built to a simple drawing found in F.C Hambleton's book, Locomotives Worth Modeling, but when making present day comparisons with the model there were differences with the splashers and steps. Recent investigations have revealed that variations did indeed exist with regards to splashers, chassis, steps, rear cab and no doubt, quite a few more, not to mention later revamp modifications to the boiler, coal bunkers and enclosed cabs. Snitzl. Thanks for Looking.

Construction of a Large Brick Semi for Kimberley. Using more traditional modeling methods, here is a beginners step by step guide to building a fairly typical semi-detached structure, based on houses on Newdigate St, Kimberley, Nottingham. Constructed for a layout of Kimberley Station, three models were made, one having the front sliced, due to the back scene. The front of these buildings are only seen by the operator, which is a shame. Snitzl.

My latest conversion is a Bachmann Patriot which has the same chassis as the Jubilee. Wheels are again Alan Gibson with Markits crankpins which have been spaced using 4 x 1mm washers per axle. Brake shoes have been removed an refixed with additional plasticard spacers. The tender has a Dave Franks Fowler sprung chassis. Below is a link to youtube. Question: - how do you upload videos from youtube these days? https://youtu.be/yib4hZZ-TbI

Its been one of those months at Leith Central. Work and Family commitments all over the place and not a lot of time for modelling. Got round to ordering the parts I need to get the board ready for starting ballasting. Point motors to fit, dummy point motors to go on, piano wire surface mounted motors and accurascale buffers for platforms 3 and 4 are on their way as are some more peco platform edging. Currently finalising the design for the Roof support wall footing and aim to start building this on Monday evening and have it painted and in place ready for the platform 5 ballasting to start during February. I am currently in discussion with KS Laser Designs for the main part of the support walls and hope to have these on order or delivered along with the bridges for the outgoing end of the board sometime in March. Before the bridge can go in the base layer for platform 1 will need finishing, About a metre of Card top to finish once ive got the platform edge run the full length. The peco parts are clipped together currently and will face these up as I do the faces for the Support Wall footing as it uses a similar process. More platform sides will be needed for platform 2 and 3 but the short 4 and 5 is now ready for its top to be started and will chip away at this as time allows. Researching what type of lights ill be using on this currently and once ive got the position of these finalised ill get the lift off top section started. The station building has had little progress with the first section of wall started, ill do bits on this as other things get dull to keep things interesting. Shopping list for model rail Scotland is forming. Will be there Saturday with the clubs Tal-Y-Bont (0:16.5) layout and hopefully with shots of the cracking layout line up at Model rail Scotland and work on the layout February should see a lot more updates to talk about and film than January did.

So, this one is a bit detailed and has a few ramblings.... Sorry Some modellers are very clever, they come out with perfectly formed designs, work tirelessly to bring them to fruition and produce superb pieces of work first time. Some practice 'slow modelling', being superbly organized, only getting out the tools and materials needed to for the job in hand and breathing deeply while wielding their scalpels. Much respect it due to these folks, if you feel you fit into these categories then good for you. I'm afraid that I have neither the skill nor the patience. I tend to build things the best I can at the time and have no qualms about 'going back and having another go'. One of the great benefit of the automated tools I have at my disposal is that a lot of the grunt work of redoing something can be done in CAD and on the lasercutter/3D printer. Sometimes I waste a bit of raw material but if can make something better in increments then I'm happy. Perhaps I should coin this 'Agile' modelling after the current trend in software development. I guess I work on the principle that sometimes it is better to build something, even if it turns out to be wrong or could be made better, than not to make anything - 'slow modelling' can risk becoming 'no modelling' if all you ever do is sit in your armchair. Even if all I do is learn how to make a better one then I feel that is a gain. Anyway to the case in hand. I've had a few iterations now of cassette design for my fiddleyard which I thought I'd share. The original design had two low ply sides and a curved handle. The end has a tongue and a slot which aligns the cassette. I realized that these would fit nicely in the 3 larger drawers of my Ikea drawer unit but not the 3 slightly shorter drawers, the handle over the top of the cassette was unnecessarily high and could be cut down a lot without impacting the strength of the unit. I also found that if I flatten out the top of the handle it would be possible to stack one cassette on top of another and they wouldn't slip off which could aid handling and storage. Both these designs though had a common flaw, the sides of the cassette, even though they were only 25mm high, made getting stock onto the rails very difficult if not impossible. As you can see there is no way to get your fingers into the align wheels with the rail particularly with bogie stock. So we come to the third iteration. By extending the sides up to the top of the handle and cutting large holes in the side the unit keeps its strength, still stacks, if anything better than before and you can get the sides of bogies. A pile of cassettes can be made without the risk of them slipping off each other. The other change I made was on the arrangement for current collection on each cassette. On the original version I had made a sort of 'side scraper' design with a phosphor-bronze wiper mounted to engage with the side of the adjacent cassette, this worked from an electrical point of few but I found it could introduce a slight sideways force on the cassette. The original arrangement looked like this. As the cassettes are held in compression by the sliding end clamps I realized that this was unnecessarily complicated and that just a sprung upstand on end of the cassette would press against an identical upstand on the next cassette. These are very much simpler to make and easy to clean and tweak to give a good connection. So in the end I got the cassettes converted to this new arrangement and built another four long and two short cassettes. All this cassette work obviously lead to running a few trains around and it was very satisfying get some stock out of the drawers again. The Class 15 made an appearance with a very mixed bag on a parcels train. There is a Mk1 full brake, a ex-LMS full brake, a GUV, a Gresley full brake and a couple of CCTs on the rear. The station building now has the roof on, I was pleased with the way the various pieces went together, trying to draw up the hipped sections strained the brain a little! I've also had a first short at the toilet block. So I hope you liked this longer than usual entry and please enjoy you modelling, at whatever speed or style works for you. David

What a difference a Jigsaw and a pair of Xuron cutters makes! After the frustration of last time we shifted tactics: Locate point motors directly onto the track rather than going through the board, by Jigsawing holes big enough for the whole motor. Massive win in terms of ease of installation and having the perfect actuation and electrical contact. Easily worth the small loss of credibility for not doing things the hard wayl! Goodbye Hornby, hello Peco! I'm still disappointed by this as Hornby was the company of my childhood, but the wastage rate of Hornby points due to the spring popping out was too high. Goodbye settrack, hello streamline points! Where space allows we moved to bigger radius points. Fettling tight radius curves by cutting settrack rather than using flexitrack that always kinked into first radius - This is still a work in progress somehow The results speak for themselves - Petty reliable operation for most trains (the dropped Mallard is still being weird and the 0-6-0 is a bit temperamental) and all point motors working after only a few hours of installation. The satisfaction derived from driving a loco out of the sidings, around both loops and back home was a great Christmas present. One year exactly since the first bodge job on the back of a door and the Woods Railroad company is finally a going concern!!

Relevant photographic inspiration for the scenic development of slate transshipment, which is starting....now! Talyllyn from the side Detailed site on slate quarrying Minffordd yard on the ffestiniog

First reflections from being back in the hobby: Railway modelling rewards patience and perfection! Problem - The back to back points at the interface of the main lines and the station just didn't work for the majority of the stock. This interface is crucial for the story, as trains that are running on the left hand side should cross here to access the station and it would be a killer to know that trains would always derail here. Solution - Ordered an Hornby LH express point (R 8077) and the matching small radius half turn (R628) to smooth the frog-shock as a train crosses the junction. This helped, but didn't eliminate the problem, so an old Peco point was cleaned and put into service on the other side of it (Picture). This solved the problem, but opened up a Pandora's box of other problems! Firstly by going with a Streamline point the set-track geometry was thrown out of kilter and the electrofrog caused a huge amount of problems for a while, until i got my head around the electrical implications. Problem - Point motors. Enough said Solution - None found and still some points are unpowered Problem - Wiring all over the place, especially the common power and earth to and from point motors Solution - Box file signal box containing the CDU and connections to the Peco levers (picture) Problem - Flat track that wouldn't fit the scenic back-story Solution - Woodland scenic risers. Excellent and so easy to use! (picture) Overall result is better, but not perfect...! Possible next steps: Replace standard points with the Hornby express points, which seem like a great product and still conform to the settrack geometry, although not everyone agrees and tidy up the track interfaces and flexi-track curves.

After some trial and error and discussion on the forums i finalised a track plan with two inspirations, Bredon for the 00 part and Tywn wharf for the 009 part. 00 part While the inspiration comes from Bredon, it became clear that the single track on the left ruins the two track fun that the kids wanted, so the siding was turned into a return loop. The idea of a fiddle siding at the back didn't cut much ice either, everyone involved wants to run trains, not piddle around with them! The back story is now this: The double line on the right is the main line and will be modelled as such with some banking and eventually signals based on left-hand running The interior return on the left is a branch-line with generally lower grade track furniture The exterior return on the left is an private industrial line which will look the part with sunken track etc. The station is a single platform so that trains can arrive from the mainline, run-around and leave again on the other line Branchline services could also leave from the main platform The industrial line would have a life of it's own through the sidings at the bottom and would either exit by reversing up the branch or getting onto the left-hand track further up the line In reality trains will just do laps, but it's nice to dream..! For the kids there are interesting running puzzles, how to change running trains from the inside loop to the outside one without stopping either etc. The sidings and multiple cross-overs provide interest and the opportunity for crashes! 009 The thinking is less developed here, but it's clear that this will be the finer modelling with a shuttle train that winds it's way from a high point on the top left to the wharf at the station. The original Twyn wharf trackplan was very simple with wagon turntables and manual / gravity manipulation of the trucks, which then evolved to have a run-around loop and other features as it transitioned from slate to passengers. For my purposes i will take a hybrid of the different evolutions to have something that is fun and possible to run without any hand-of-god intervention as 009 is too fiddly for the younger generation to re-rail. The challenge is how to gain enough height to cross the 00 lines and where to do it. General The back left will be the highest point and the scenery will be built to fit around the 009 track-bed. As a result there needs to be some scenic features to make things work, mainly some water to explain the gradients and also road access to the station. Both of those two things are parked in the thinkaboutitlater box.. The boards are home made from materials lying around with a pine ply top that looks pretty warp free and are 6' x 4' give or take The location for the layout is at generation +1's house (I'm generation 0 obviously..) so some work will be done off-board by me, some will be done by generation +1, some will be done together during visits and the whole lot will be tested to destruction when generation -1 get to run the trains! The point of this blog is to share progress with all the interested parties, i hope anyone reading enjoys as well!

My quest to build some Underground stock started off as a gimmick, one un-motorised set between some match wagons being hauled round by a 47. It didn't stay a gimmick for long when the set was motorised by a couple of Arnold N Kof shunting locos, made into a simple chassis. A once timeless scene, a 1938 Tube set sits in the Up 'New Line' Platform at Harrow, about to set off for Elephant & Castle. By carefully looking at the front of the set you might see that it has Northern Line type Destination panels. The first set I made was intended for a small layout based on Mill Hill the Hale, a section of the uncompleted Northern Line. Although it was just about finished on two boards of 3 feet by 2 feet it was overtaken by my more ambitious WCML adventure. The tube sets started life as just a moulded coach roof which were scratchbuilding items from Ultima and B H Enterprises. The sides were made from 1mm plasticard, and the ends in 2mm plasticard. These were assembled as a solid box shape glued to the roof section. The windows and doors had all been marked out in pencil. I spent a lot of time carefully drilling out the windows with a very small drill, and needle filing them to finish. This was a very delicate job as it was very easy to split the plasticard if you weren't steady of hand. I did do a few sides and cut the windows out with a sharp knife, but found that the windows were more prone to splitting round the edges, so I reverted to the drill and file method. A rather poor image of the tube bodies under construction. I'm afraid the original images have been lost and I had to scan a hard copy I had available. This one was a 1938 set. At the cab ends the coach roof had been removed before fitting. A small piece of plasticard was fitted flat across the cab end bodysides, then body filler added over this, so that the sloping roof over the cab could be sanded to shape later. The door sections were cut out of the bodyside and into the roof with a fine edge slitting disc. (Steady hand required again.) A piece of 1mm plasticard, just slightly wider than the door opening was cut out. The end which was required to bend into the roofline was warmed on a radiator and then carefully rolled round a small paintbrush handle. After the doors had been glued in place, and left for a while, the windows in the doors were drilled out. This shows how the bogies were fitted. The actual bogies were old Lima ones which I hadn't disposed of (I am a consummate hoarder who throws nothing away, always saying that 'It might come in handy one day') These had about 2mm cut from round the top of the frames. They were fixed by putting a cross member of plasticard at each end of the body with a hole drilled centrally so the bogies just clip in. The non motorised coaches had the sides re-enforced with some clear plastic sheet at the doorways. An almost finished non motorised coach. The windows were all glazed with Humbrol 'Clearfix'. A small screwdriver dipped into the jar and then run round the window edges quickly and withdraw the screwdriver. Leave to dry, and windows done. Although the 'Kof' units gave many years of service on other layouts I have begun a programme of replacing them with Tomytec units. The seven coach sets have the middle coach as the motorised unit, and will quite happily pull and push the three coaches at each end without any problem. One of the last sets to be built was the 1972 set, seen here sitting in platform 1 at the Junction waiting to leave for Central London. The 1972 set under construction. Similar methods employed as with the other stock, just needed a bit more profiling to get the shape right. 1938 and 1972 set at the Junction. A 501 in platform 4 ready for a local service to Euston, and two main line services pass on the Fast Lines. In my reality the Croxley Link had gone ahead in the 1960s, and as a result the Metropolitan Line has been diverted into the Junction. As a result an A60 set is seen departing for Baker Street. These sets were built from early Farish 101 DMUs. These had the early style removable window strips. These were replaced with solid plasticard, and then the windows and doors marked out and made in the same way as the other Tube sets. The A60 under construction, showing the replacement ends to the Farish 101 DMU bodyshells made from thick plasticard. From a different angle showing the bodyshell almost finished. Between Harrow and Headstone Lane. Two 1938 sets pass on the DC Lines, while the Widnes to North Wembley BOC tankers head south along the Up Slow Line. At the south end of Watford a 1938 set sits in the DC Siding awaiting a platform for its next trip. This set has 10306 in it, the 'Porthole' or 'Sunshine' car as it was sometimes known. Close up of 10306. An experiment to make station signs more visible to standing passengers. I remember travelling in this vehicle while it was on the Northern Line. The rain strips over the doors are bits of fine fuse wire. Showing the last of the five Tube sets, in this case a 1959 set, similar in construction to the 1938 ones, but slightly easier to build with a flat front end. Sarah Siddons on Railtour duty. This loco came about as I had acquired a Swiss Loco chassis that was too short for an AC Loco, so I cobbled together No.12 instead! This probably went on a lot longer than I intended, so I hope I didn't bore too many of you. Will be digging out the EMU folder next with the 304, 310, 501, and even a Clacton 309! Will post that when I have had a break for a bit. Andy.