Leaderboard

I have been making slow but steady progress. When I started I knew that it would take most of the summer, so I’m happy just pottering on with it all, learning as I go along. A few details. This is the luggage rack assembly, with the mirrored compartment wall. The brackets were a very fancy design, I have simplified them as they are less than 4 mm long. Not difficult in itself, but I have 64 of them to make. Seating is provided in the kit but it is basic and needs a bit of extra work. These are the first class seats. The silhouette cut the armrests and the wings, both trimmed in lace. How many antimacassers? Well, 78 of them. An internal view. The D96 is a nine compartment third. This photo was taken in dark conditions, I wanted to see how the level of lighting looked in practice. As I have mentioned in the past painting and lining is not my strong point. I gave a couple of sides a coat of rattle can, then left them for a few days to really dry. It is “Vauxhall Burgundy Red”. Now experts would tell me that I should be using an airbrush to spray a more accurate shade but there are limitations to what I can do in a flat. I really wasn’t happy about the idea of painting all those panels. Hmm, so I decided to have a go at making lined transfers on white transfer paper. Design was not difficult, but repetitive. I had some “Crafty” brand paper, first print, awful. Ink smeared all over. Second print, worse. So I learned that transfer paper degrades over time. New white transfer paper ordered, “Mister decal paper” brand. Printed well, transfers made and applied to a paint test card. Not bad but I still felt that the white part had too much of a pink tinge from the coach purple underneath. The answer would be to paint the panel white before applying the transfer, but that was what I was trying to avoid. I sat and had a think, what if I just put an identical transfer over the first? I tried it and it worked perfectly, nice white panel with the line round it showing up well. So here is a D 94 composite side as a first example. I am quite pleased with that. I wouldn’t claim that it is as fine as that produced by an expert painter with considerable skill with a lining pen. However I am not one and this method looks the part from normal viewing distances. It is also very fault tolerant. Make a mistake cutting round the transfer, bin it, next one. Realise that a panel is a bit squint, drop of water, adjust it. Having got the techniques sorted out I can push on and do the rest, still a fair amount to do though.

A quick knock up of Bere Dene's track plan: Again, signals are educated guesses, rather than final arrangements. This time the passing loop lines aren't bi-directional. It is my intention to model a section of line between Bere Dene and Arnford as a simple, single straight line through a forest, on a set of 1 foot wide boards I already have. Although I don't think I'd ever have space to put it with this vignette, I like the idea of it being possible to directly connect it to the left end of this plan.

Lattice Footbridge and Steps. Based on a G.N.R. foot bridge that existed at Kimberley station,nottingham, this is a step by step guide to modeling the main components of this bridge, from styrene sheet. The stone support structures for this bridge are not included in this build because similar structures of that type have already been covered in other blogs. The build method is very similar to an earlier construction for Kimberley Station, with slight alterations due to lessons learned from that model. The earlier foot bridge had weak points between the handrail sides and steps that required repair from time to time. The main stone structure that supports the steps is based on a bridge structure at Crediton Station in Devon.

Because I grew up in the days of King Coal and was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne it's not surprising that I fancied a few of these new coal hoppers. They didn't last too long in the required sector, but were used for many other products, even sugar beet ? In my opinion a super little kit, very little to complain about and I'm currently running 2 without any decals. Must road test before finishing, partially while trying to decide what loads to add, be it sand, coal, iron ore, sugar beet. The load will help regarding the very light weight, with nowhere to add much invisible ballast. They weigh in at 11.06 grams, with a shred of lead in the voids behind the buffers I've reached 12.46 grams. Much to my surprise one in lightest form was able to pull 33 wagons around my garage layout that has some 1st radius curves. A bonus from trying to run my stock in it's lightest reliable condition, having said that the Bachmann 3F Jinty couldn't pull the train, but a Hornby J94 could !!. Seen in a much shorter train :- Geoff T.

11th September 2021 OLE Yesterday (writing this, on Sunday) I had a brief visit to see how things are coming along with the layout - getting to see the backscene board nicely in place, looking at where the OLE masts would be placed and what exact form they would take - PIC 4 shows roughly how it might look - having found some brackets a couple of years ago that ''might be'' adapted - siilar in overall resulting appearance to those seen at Chester's Making Tracks layout - but also ones with a variance of appearance, getting to see how Ian's ideas for the space of the fiddle yard would be best used - the thinking is that there may be room for a programming track on the add-on fiddle yard board - more on this to follow - as well as a few snaps from our discussion time - DB Blue and Multimodal had a brief sortie out on the layout as well - mini clips to follow. Unfortuantely, my phone died on this session and i had forgotten to take my charging lead with me :-( For those who haven't seen this layout before, I am using nBrass portals with scratchbuilt cantilevers - inspired by those from the Chester Cathedral layout - as well as others seen at Crewe IEMD, unfortunately PECO's multi-track portals havent arrived in time. The single masts and terminating gantries will be based on PECOs single track masts - the catenary wire is all PECO. Fiddle Yard The track which is the entrance exit for the layout currently splits into three lines and myself and Ian are currently discussing how best to work an additional fiddle yard track which will come out from under the tunnel section, and potentially have two/three tracks, one being for programming and also two for preparing loco arrivals onto Johnson Street IEMD.