Leaderboard

When in danger or in doubt, get the model railway out. The fourth layout in the Farthing series is taking shape, a welcome relief from the lockdown blues. Above is a reminder of the trackplan. So complicated that it broke Templot. Only very advanced modellers can do that. A test piece to see what the new Peco Bullhead track is all about. I decided to give Peco a go as a change from handbuilt track. The chairs are wrong for GWR, will be interesting to see how much I notice it. One advantage of the new Peco track is that it’s voice controlled. You simply tell it where to go and it will lay itself. The layout will be operated as a micro on a daily basis, but I may add a further module for extended operation, or even a direct link to my "Old Yard" layout. The rear siding therefore extends to the baseboard edge, and is protected by a removeable buffer stop, knocked together from balsa in the stopgap style of the old N&SJR. The other stops are standard GWR, built from the Lanarkshire Models kit. In order to fit them on the Peco track, I had to carve off most of the chairs. Have others found a better solution? For replacement, I dug into my stash of C+L GWR chairs. Ironic, as I now have proper GWR chairs next to the Peco ones. Maybe I should slice up some Peco chairs and fit them instead. What a cruel close-up by the way, I need to get out the filler. I wanted some sort of 'inset' track for the front siding. Photos suggest that while proper inset track was certainly used in some GWR yards, more pragmatic solutions were preferred when feasible. This includes leaving the four foot unpaved, as seen in the bottom three photos here (all heavily cropped). That seems to have been a favoured solution where cartage vehicles needed firm ground to off-load or pass alongside the rails, but didn’t have to cross them. I haven’t seen this modelled much, so gave it a go. The outer sections of the sleepers were cut off to avoid the chairs fouling the paving. At this point I was seriously wondering why I hadn’t just made my own track! Here, DAS is being applied to the four foot. The rail was raised slightly above the edging stones to allow for track cleaning. Partly modeller's license, but also in compliance with one or two prototype photos. While not as elegant as proper inset track, I like how it creates a visual break in the setts. The setts were made using old paintbrush heads, fashioned to shape. The material is Forex, a.k.a. ’foamed PVC’ but apparently now without the PVC. The technique also works in DAS clay. The photo is a bit misleading as I used a ruler while pressing the setts, in order to ensure straight lines. A scriber was used to individualise a few setts and sort out mistakes. The material can be curved slightly if necessary. The method has pros and cons. You tend to get a fairly uniform look and it’s hard to avoid the occasional gap between the grooves when pressing down the brush heads. But with practice I found it speedy and tidy, and I like that it can be done away from the layout – especially as I have to work in our living room. Drainage channels were made by drawing a screwdriver tip along a ruler… …then pressing in setts as appropriate. This drainage channel was done differently, by simply pressing the setts deeper than the surrounding ones. The ground in front of standard GWR stable blocks was often paved with either cement or bricks. I went for red bricks, forgetting that one drawing I have says blue engineering bricks (better quality). I may repaint them, but then again I may not. For the entry to the goods depot, I used a Green Scene roller on blue foam as described in my workbench thread. The arched setts are a nod to the yard at Birmingham Moor Street. The Pooley & Sons weighbridge is a Scalelink etch. The weighbridge office is a temporary mock-up. The flagstone pavement was done using the same Forex material as the setts, with the kerbs and flagstones lined out in pencil and then scribed. My original plan was that the road the front would be laid with setts, but after encountering this thread I began to examine photos and realized that 1900s urban roads were very often laid with various forms of non-tarred macadam or similar. Here is Worthing South Street, captioned ca. 1900-1920. Even some parts of central London had streets like this. Sometimes such roads had gutters paved with stone, at other times setts were used or there was no gutter at all. Copyright Getty Images, embedding permitted. Call me a romantic but I like the dry, light and almost ethereal appearance that such roads exhibit in certain summertime photos of the period. I used sanding paper, painted with Vallejo light sand and ivory. It still needs some weathering and a good smattering of horse dung! For the GWR spearhead fencing, the initial plan was to use an old Scalelink etch - but it's rather fragile for a position at the front of the layout. So I used the Ratio GWR fencing. Photos suggest that the verticals should extend to the ground, beneath the lower horizontal bar. Never mind. The fencing sometimes had supports, may add those in due course. I wanted the fencing to be detachable, to allow for close-up photos and easy replacement if I break something. So far it rests in a groove lined with blue tack. If that proves a botch too far, I could try micro magnets. Some stations - e.g. Minehead – had a lovely display of enamel signs mounted on the spearhead fencing. I used those from Tiny Signs, cut with a scalpel, varnished twice and edged with a brown marker (in that order, otherwise the marker may discolour the sign). The signs act as view blocks, and also help draw in the eye to what will become a staff entrance. Here’s Charlie the horse admiring the adverts. He looks a bit out of focus. It must be the provender. In his opinion, the GWR always did mix in too much bran. Work to be done includes a scratchbuild of a GWR weighbridge office (the mock-up seen here is the old Smiths kit), and one or two other structures. The elevated rear section of the layout is a whole little project in itself, I'm hoping it will add further depth to the scene. Lastly, an overview shot. It’s all wired up, but I can’t operate it without a traverser. So that’s next.

I've got my science hat on today (it glows, and there are many bells and whistles) and am having a stab at making a controller. I haven't got one here and it's irritating trying to test locos with just a 9V battery. So, the plan is to make something that I can use for testing, which means adding a degree of automation to shuttle a loco back and forth along a short length of track. That means Arduino. So I've had a play around with a new Nano Every on a breadboard with a PWM motor driver - total cost less than £20. If I bought the unbranded eBay equivalents it would be even cheaper. I've got it set up running a motor up to full speed, hold for 5 seconds, then ramp back down to stop. Then the same in reverse. I've tested a load of different motors and they all seem to be running ok. Next step is to mess around with the programming a bit more, add manual control and make a nice neat PCB for it all to sit on. No small task then! Stats: Total motor test hours (so far): 2 No. of motor types tested: 5 Cumulative pushup counter: 2125

I have been with pottering on with the far corner of the layout, signals are installed, then unplugged and a lightweight scenic extension knocked up from foamboard and card. All a bit rough at the moment, but taking shape. I think it will enhance that corner and take the eye round to the storage yard in a more transitional way. Some sort of wooded area perhaps. I also painted a couple of figures and added them to this very odd thing that I made quite a while ago. Now you might well think that I have gone round the bend and dived into the world of steampunk which seems to be popular these days. But no, this is actually a model of a real steam locomotive, albeit a road locomotive rather than a rail one. Call it a mad easter quiz……….

I was found recently wishing that I had posted this blog entry some years previously such that I would have had the information contained within. Back before Coronavirus, a job change, my wife going through childbirth, a house move, and a job change I posted this entry. The subject of that entry has since been finished, painted and lettered but I never did write up how I got there. People who had printers wanting files to test volunteered to print something and I had the 3D file. That gave me two more to make. Looking back to my blog and under the completed model left me scratching my head - a lot - because it was not immediately obvious how I'd completed the under-gubbins. The bogies were obviously association parts for GWR plate frame bogies and there was a 'floor' with queen posts and truss rods that seemed to agree with a fuzzy memory of cross drilling small diameter brass rod but I really wasn't sure where I'd obtained the Vs from to support the cross shafts for the brake and the brake handle. Those for the latter looked to be created/fitted in a rather odd way. I went about making some components. The 'floor' was snipped from 0.010" n/s sheet and marked for the various holes and slots thought necessary. I planned to make the queen posts by fixing 0.3mm n/s wire through a slot each side made with a piercing saw (#0/4 blade is about right for width) covered over with small bore brass tube 0.3mm inside and 0.8mm outside diameter. The hole for the vacuum cylinder was made off set from the centre line. The centre line helps with aligning the central V hangers. I took the V hangers from a 2mm association etch for an underframe with GW DC brakes (2-361). These were a bit long so I elected to fit them above the 'floor', even more so by doubling over the material to space them further upwards. This meant making slots for the Vs to pass through. The length of the floor was made to set the length and angle of the truss rods when fixed to the outer corners. The truss rods were made by cross drilling 0.45mm brass rod. I found this could be achieved by flattening the rod between small nosed pliers where the holes are to be. Holding the rod in an engineers pin chuck and securing that in a bench vice I marked for drilling with a point from dividers. Without this the 0.3mm just wanders over the not-quite-flat flattened section of rod. Also in the above picture is the beginning of the brake pull rods. The crank is shaped around 3 holes drilled in a line in a part of the donor etch material waste. It was left long at one end until the first of the pull rods was fixed in place to make it easier to hold and then filed to the shape seen. Not seen are brake handles (also from the donor etch). The central Vs fixed in place with the vacuum cylinder (also 2mm shop part). The Vs for the brake handle cross shaft needed to be mounted above also and that required some manipulation and reduction of the one end of the 2mm chassis etch donor. This is the end that originally had 3 hangers on (the other has just 2). If it looks wonky that's because it is - the hangers on the Mink F are isosceles triangle instead of the right angle of the etch - they've been bent appropriately and the joins reinforced with solder. The remainder of the brakes (less handles) fitted and trimmed in an assembly order that made sense ensuring that the movement makes sense for applying the brakes: It's' something that I tend to spot and I've seen two many (at least one) models where if it were possible to move the brake lever/handle and the brake components then the brakes would not be applied, in fact quite the opposite. I always leave the handles themselves until last when test fitting to the body and the wire is left long here to facilitate. The brake linkage shown in the previous photo was cut to make the line from the cylinder to the cross shaft as well as the link between the cross shafts. The queen posts were positioned in the slots made in the floor. First I bent a right angle into some n/s wire 0.3mm diameter with a long tail across the floor aligned with the slots. The first bend provides some location where it is fitted tight within the slot. The second bend is made up through the slot after fixing the first side in place. The small bore tubes all cut to the same length are placed over and the truss rods over them secured down whilst held tightly. The ends are bent sharply downwards outside of the queen posts and fixed to the ends. No measuring required since that is taken care of by the floor already. Now trimmed to length ready for a trial fit. Checking the clearance and also the ride height. The bogies are running on the brass top hat bearings supplied with the bogie stretcher etch. The larger side is on top. The smaller side is filed back significantly to reduce the amount of slop so the bogies do not fall as far when placing or lifting the wagon from the rails. The filing can be best achieved by using a piece of material with a ~5mm hole around 2mm deep to place the bearing into whilst filing. Everything is still loose for now; the bogies are only secured once since their lower cross pieces will not endure repeat bending. Checking the ride height against something to hand. The siphon has been out of the box since it needs the roof refitting. This has been an excellent point to try out printing a load of milk churns. It must have taken a fall at some point since the buffer is an odd angle. Securing of the bogies. This view hopefully shoes better the arrangement. A 10BA bolt is fitted from above the bolster printed in the body. Then 2 packing pieces from the bogie stretcher etch fit over that with the filed bearing next, then the bogie. A washer is required above the nut. There are four appropriately sized holes on the bogie stretcher etch (arranged around the part number etching) suited to this purpose that just need cutting out. I made a little nut spinner type tool out of the filing jig for the top hat bearings since it is has already served the primary purpose. With a little tweaking I found it was possible to adjust this to grip the nut for transferring, which made what is usually quite a fiddly job easy. The 'Dean' square style buffer housings with oval heads are filed up from coach buffer turnings whilst holding in a pin chuck. There are some lovely looking castings available in the 2mm shop nowadays, I think resulting from the efforts of @-missy-, but I've always done mine this way since before they were available. Couplings will be fitted after painting. I've undercoated the bodies two different colours in the hope the final shade will vary a little. I think the grey is too light even for faded GWR grey? I said last time I only intended to make one of these Mink Fs. The GWR only built 8 so I now have nearly half this wagon stock in model form. Whilst I really do not plan to make any more - even though I do have another body to hand - this should now be here if I do come to need it again in the future and hopefully it has been interesting and or useful to others.

Hi All, As i continue to be on a very infrequent work rota i have checked off quite of few of those not so glamorous jobs i have been meaning to do for...well years really. One of my lock down foci have been a coupe of my kit-built brake vans. One of these was the very first kit i built on my "pre-return" to the hobby. i say pre-return as i had no layout, no prospect of a layout and to be honest i didn't really get back into the hobby for a further 6 or so years after i built it. Anyway, it was looking quite tatty so i took the chance to do a slight make over of this and a couple of other kits. So here it is prior to a spruce up. The paint has chipped away as this vehicle sees a lot of work on the layout. It has also been battered about in storage no doubt and in my naivety, i don't recall priming the kit before painting and i also think i used acrylic paint. I kept the lamp irons as per the moulding which are quite bulky. I didn't glaze the windows either. One of the brackets had broken and the roof appears quite thick. Also, i now realise the roof mouldings is a mirror image of the real thing. soooo.... A new roof was made from 0.3mm styrene, styrene strips for rain strips and plastic rod for the chimney. vents are the torpedo type by no-nonsense kits (phoenix). Lamp brackets were cut as one piece from styrene which i know makes them vulnerable but i didn't have any brass ones in the box! Glazing is fitted to the windows using clear plastic from packaging. The underframe was painted humbrol 32 dark grey and weathered with carr's weathering powders. I also replaced the spratt and winkle dropper, previously a staple with 2 three links, the bottom one a magnetic one. Similar work was done to my unfitted version... A later project, a bit more prototypical, is my LNER standard brake van kit bash from the kitmaster kit. I have previously made a scratch roof but it was too small so that was replaced also. This vehicle has some more detailed underframe parts in the form of styrene footboards, styrene strengthening braces, and the end weights have been removed. This vehicle still requires weathering and new lamp irons. In addition to these "keeping out of trouble" projects, i have also painted and placed a modelu guard in the veranda of my recent Dapol LMS brakevan face lift. i shy away from figures on the layout but i think this one does bring some life to the model. Hope you are all safe and well and making the most of these strangest of times. Cheers Dave

More progress on the controller, I've managed to put some code together to make the controller respond to a potentiometer, operating as a centre-off (as I prefer that to having a reversing switch). Experimenting with throttle curves and various amounts of dead zone in the centre too, so it buzzes less and has nice smooth control at lower speeds. So the next part is to make this all into a nice neat PCB. I've started on the schematic in KiCAD (free PCB design software), and so far I have the following additional specification: 12V aux connector (for powering lights etc.) Additional reverser (in case I wire up a motor the wrong way round) Two terminal block inputs for additional inputs (might run a shuttle in future) Additional switch input (for some sort of future expansion) erm... Tea maker? Heath Robinson sandwich constructor? Stats: Projects I've started to avoid having to paint a backscene: erm... at least 3 Adequate reasons for making a controller rather than buying one: Not enough... apart from fun Cumulative pushup counter: 2275

I've now finished the Ruston works no. 177530, the prototype that would eventually become the 48DS. The loco was built in 1936, then was sold to Heinz, during whose ownership it was slightly modified (hence the two versions in yesterday's post). I've put together a basic video showing the build and the removal of the DCC socket that was needed to make it fit. Hopefully my voice isn't too soporific! If you'd like a set of prints to do this conversion, have a look at ts3dmodels.blogspot.com where I've got more info and contact details. Stats: Total hours spent building this loco: 3 (roughly) No. of attempts needed to get the loco to fit the footplate: 1 (First time! This never happens!) Cumulative pushup counter: 1975

So the first dowel fitting didn't quite work well enough. I used small blobs of epoxy to try and hold the back sides of the dowel parts to the recess in the plywood end, but its hold on the metal is just to fragile. The parts moved and the end result is a 1mm error. I can use sheets of paper built up in layers to raise track on the 'lower' side for this join, but I need to have a different glue of some kind to hold the dowel parts properly for future joins. I'm now thinking of Original Gorilla Glue as that has a filling nature, though it needs moisture to activate. Alternatively, I'm wondering if 'No More Nails' could be put in and the dowel part pressed into it, filling the area around such that it stops any up/down/left/right movement, even if it doesn't grip the metal of the dowel properly. I will need to experiment. Forstner bit and drilled recesses in board 5: Dowel parts in board 9: Two boards together, held with clamp: 'Top' of boards in position: Side of boards, showing alignment smooth with no error while exposy glue is hardening: Side of boards with dowels screwed into place, showing boards out of alignment (slight offset of camera): Side of boards with dowels screwed into place, showing boards out of alignment (camera exactly positioned for top surface):

A little more work on my latest respray projects 37057 has been reunited with its ends and had most of the transfers applied, it’s just missing the ohle warning flashes on the sides (which will get sorted this evening). The transfers were from Railtec for the EW&S logos (along with the ohle flashes) and a fox tops panel. Really impressed with the Railtec product, very easy to use, a much better colour match than Fox and ready made up numbers for your chosen loco. 67003 has had the remaining painting finished off, the roof grill and window frame etches added along with some minor paint repairs. It has also been reunited with its chassis (although I haven’t fitted the etched brake inserts yet while I decide what gauge I am going to be using. (It is fitted with a set of Ultrascale P4 wheels for now). It still needs attention on the ends (jumper cables, lamp irons and paint. While on one end Ive spotted some file marks that I missed after priming, and will be a tricky fix now... Finally the ohle line needs adding above the window (for which I intend to use transfers). I had planned to get the transfers applied on this as well, but I now remember that I gave away my set of Fox class 66/67 numbers (though I have the cabside crests and GM logos at least. I will order some from Railtec at some point soon (likely along with replacements for my other EWS renumbered 37s

At last, we're onto the final stage; the assembly. First though, and before you start gluing things together, it's wise to do a dry-run; so that you can make final adjustments, and make sure everything fits as it should: Above: The dry run above is actually the point that I realised the underside of the work surface would definitely need bracing; hence why you see the crossbar in it's original position halfway up the legs! Now that I've made any necesarry adjustments, I could finally start gluing it together. I must admit that last week I forgot to mention about how I glued the rest of the supports onto the underside of the work surface... Above: In order to clamp the angled side support, lollipop sticks were used on the "downhill" end of the clamp, so that the pressure is exerted vertically. This keeps the clamps more secure than if they were at an angle. Above: The location of the crossbar could also be marked, and then glued and clamped into place. As always, this was left to cure overnight. Don't forget to ensure that the sides are perfectly vertical, or else it will rub on the legs. Above: Now we can turn our attention to the crossbar that will sit between the legs. The notched ends were glued (having been test-fitted beforehand in a dry-run), and inserted into one leg. Obvious things to point out here are that it's easier to glue this on the floor (make sure you put it on newspaper though, or you'll glue it to the floor!), and also that you will need to ensure you glue both legs the right way around! I actually didn't wait for one end to cure before putting the other end into the second leg. The reason for this is that I also glued the shelving into place as you will see; which helped ensure the whole thing was straight. Above: Thus, glue was applied on both ends of the shelving unit, including the rebates... Above: ...which could then be slid into place, using the rebates in the leg and the shelving end to guide it into place. Excess glue was wiped off with a paper towel... Above: ...and the sides clamped together. Above: Before I left it all to cure overnight, I actually bolted the work surface into place, and used it to double check it wasn't binding too much on the legs. I would recommend adding a washer between the legs and the work surface; as such, I have allowed an extra 4mm for this on the drawings now to be found on the first post. And that was left in place to cure overnight; meaning it was now complete! Before I end this one, I thought I ought to give my final thoughts, and offer some improvements to the design. Final Thoughts Overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out, my only regrets being not allowing for washers on the inside of the legs, and not cross-bracing the work surface sooner. That said, the design itself works as intended, and has produced a stable and useful work surface that can be folded out of the way when not needed. Above: Taking only a few seconds to put away, yet having all your basic tools and paints ready for use at a moments notice, makes for a very useful desk! As for future expansion, an additional bracket on one leg would be ideal for adding a clip-on, adjustable light; perhaps even integrating a cable run (which could just be a series of hooks fastened onto the rear panel) to tidy up any dangling cables. Another idea I had is that if you had a dedicated modelling room (or an awkward space such as a chimney alcove), what I would actually suggest is integrating the desk into a storage wall, as shown below: Above: A storage wall could be easily made from 18mm ply; using the same rebate technique as used on the desk. By putting a monitor/TV on the wall, you could even use it to work on "normal" day-to-day work things (or even just using the monitor for reference photos to work from whilst modelmaking). And to finish off, whilst I accept that the style itself may not be to everyone’s tastes, the basic concept could easily be adapted to suit your chosen aesthetic and choice of materials. All things considered though, the desk has fulfilled the brief; a small, cheaply-built, collapsible workstation, with convenient access to frequently used paints and tools. I really hope you've enjoyed following the design and construction of this folding modelmaking desk/bench, and perhaps it has even inspired you to build something similar! Either way, I'd really appreciate likes, votes, and comments; be it positive or constructive. Next time, we'll be looking at what to do when you need to take a basic set-up on your travels... Jam/Jamie Warne

Once I was happy with the overall size and shape of the bridge, the underside of the arches, parapets and abutments could be tackled. South Eastern Finecast brick embossed sheet was wrapped around a curved former of a suitable diameter (Empty bottle of Aussie red wine!), then placed in a bowl of boiling water and allowed to cool. Once back to room temperature the sheet stayed in a reasonable curve and was glued to the underside of the bridge side walls. Flat embossed plasticard sheet was also cut to fit and glued in position to form the vertical side walls. Underside of brick arches I wanted the finished bridge to have sloping side retaining walls, so the bridge width was increased to accommodate this. Abutment piers were cut from more plastic card sheet and Liquid Poly was used to glue them either side of the bridge. Abutment piers from bridge rear Abutment piers from front 5mm thick foam board was glued using cyanoacrylate, to the inside surfaces of the bridge parapets to give the require thickness for the finished wall. 20 thou plain plasticard was then glued to the other side of the foam board, before using liquid poly to glue curved brick embossed strips to the road side of the bridge parapets. Foam board glued to bridge parapets Curved brick overlay strips in position The sloping retaining walls were then cut out from embossed sheet and glued in position onto the abutments. Once this had dried cap stones were cut from a couple of layers of 40 thou sheet and glued in position on top of the main abutment piers. Capping stones were scribed onto a strip of 40 thou plasticard and then glued on top of the parapet walls. I decided some small brick piers would finish of the sloping wing walls, so these were fabricated from the embossed plasticard sheet and glued in position. Sloping retaining walls End brick piers and capping stones The bridge was then placed back onto the layout to check that it would still fit in position and had the required clearances. Bridge in situ on layout Once the construction phase of the bridge was completed, painting could begin. I like to use enamels for painting on plastic and started by painting a base coat of brick red (Humbrol 100) over all the surfaces. Brick red base coat Once the brick red enamel had dried for 24 hours, the whole bridge was painted with dark grey mortar colour enamel paint and allowed to partially dry for an hour. Grey mortar paint Once an hour had elapsed the majority of the grey paint was removed from the surface of the brickwork using kitchen roll soaked in enamel thinners. The brick embossing helps the grey paint stay in the mortar courses, this is definitely a job best done outside in the fresh air! Grey paint partially removed In Situ on layout I plan on picking out some of the bricks in a warmer red colour to give a bit of variety and this along with a bit of strategically placed vegetation should help with the bridges final appearance. I thought I'd finish this blog post with a few gratuitous pictures of my Dean goods! Dean Goods posing "underneath the arches!" Best wishes Dave

After an offer to Rabs of a file to try on his (then new) printer rather a lot of time passed and after an almost near miss with the postal service a little package arrived through the door recently with a bright orange one of these in it. The detail is comparable to some of the finest stereolithography that I have witnessed from professional bureaus. I know Rabs has spent quite a lot of time tweaking and practicing, refining the machine and the process and it has been worthwhile. The next picture shows a close up. The stepping is visible but was quickly cleaned up with some small fine sanding sticks over the course of an evening, trying to avoid destroying the rivet detail. They were all there in the CAD file The upper end was the worst but being the end it will usually be less visible than the sides and I think it will be okay but not perfect once painted now I've smoothed it out. Under 9x magnification the rivets seem to have distorted here but they are barely visible to the naked eye at 2'. The resin is supposed to have similar properties to some injection moulded plastics. (I didn't ask which ones, because it isn't important to me, sorry.) It is a little brittle and I have lost one of the buffer housings already, along with a small amount of the headstock. This, I suspect, is due to the very thin wall thicknesses. I don't know what I was thinking when I modelled them because I can't use the buffer housings that remain: this type are too small to drill such that they will accept a shank and head when the shank is 0.5mm. It will be back to brass for the buffers in due course, and I have some small repairs to make. I had considered using this as a master for resin casting a few more of these but there were never many of them built and their size meant they were not very useful except for bulk volumes of traffic, which were often conveyed between major traffic centres under darkness. They would be great for anyone craving a 47xx that gets one. Except for that they are a bit of a GWR modelling cliché. At least my model of a branch line isn't a terminus So for the moment I'm continuing on as a one-off. I have built the bogies up to check the buffer height and having used nearly all the packing pieces on the bogie etch it's looking pretty good so far. The GPV at the right hand side shows quite clearly why you can't produce one of these from two iron mink kits. To be continued...

I'm glad to say that laying the track work has almost been completed! The back siding still needs to have its other rail installed, but as I've run out of C&L's plastic chairs, it will have to wait. I've placed the station building and goods shed in roughly the position they'll be on the layout, in an attempt to help keep my enthusiasm going during wiring! I want the private siding to look as if it's been laid with less care than the G.W.R. track, so I've introduced a few direction changes along it's length. Hopefully once its been ballasted with ash and tufts of grass, it will contrast nicely with the mainline. Overall view of layout from fiddle yard end Overall view of layout from private siding end At present the fiddle yard only has one length of track installed on it, but I'm relieved to say, that piece of track does line up with the mainline and the yard! I've used some copper clad sleeper strip to reinforce this vulnerable joint, only time will tell how effective this will be! I'm planning on making some brass bolts to ensure that the tracks align properly and also carry power from the main layout onto the selected fiddle yard road. Fiddle yard aligned with the yard Fiddle yard aligned with the main I still haven't settled on a name for this little branch line terminus, but have been giving it a lot of thought! I like the idea of using a fictitious place name and the "Classic" novels are obviously a good place to start. I toyed with the idea of using one of the place names from Trollope's Barsetshire for a while and was quite taken by the name Uffley until Mikkel pointed out that in Danish it sounds like an expression of disgust! Al (Barry Ten) suggested using a place name from Thomas Hardy's Wessex, which has in my opinion loads of possibilities. I've settled on the name "Sherton Abbas", which I think has a lovely West Country ring to it. In Hardy's Wessex, Sherton Abbas is geographically in the same position as Sherborne occurs in real life. In my alternative reality the GWR built a branch leaving the mainline at Yeovil which terminated at the small town of Sherton Abbas. As usual any comments about this piece of fiction are much appreciated! I've made a start on the wiring, which will probably be the topic of my next blog entry. I'm pleased to find that my trusty hand held Pentroller is still working, despite being tucked away in the loft for the last 15 years or so! At present my locos can travel under their own power for all of three feet, so I've got a long way to go before I can put the soldering iron away. I've bought a Tortoise point motor to experiment with, if it proves a success I'll be using this method to operate the points on the layout. Once locos are capable of more than 3 feet of travel, I'll try posting up some video clips. If anyone's got some top tips on the best way of posting video clips onto the forum I'd be very interested to hear from them. I've no Idea how to edit them properly, how much compression is needed, or any other factors that I've not even considered! Best wishes Dave