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cornish trains jez

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Blog Entries posted by cornish trains jez

  1. cornish trains jez
    Good afternoon all,
     
    I have managed to progress board 3 of the layout (or the London end of Par station) over the last week or so. Ballasting has taken place and the track has been painted.
     
    I first painted the rails in Phoenix "rusty rails" colour, then a week wash of track dirt to take the sheen off the sleepers and blend the rusty rails a little. The ballast is a 70/30 mix of Woodland scenics buff and brown. I used this successfully on my swiss layout and having studied the many photos of Par during the 80's, this colour seems to fit nicely. Once the ballast was dry, I then dry brushed sleeper grime across the tops of the rails and ballast on each side, giving the ballast a subtle weathering and again blending in the rusty rails and the earlier wash of track dirt.
     
    Below are some photos with some stock appropriately positioned to add a little realism.
     
    Almost forgot to say, I have also started building up the embankment next to the bridge with some polystyrene blocks, which have been carved to shape. More to come and a separate blog on that one to follow soon.
     
    Early progress shots
     

     

     
     
    Ballasting finished and painted (Class 37206 lurks in the background! )
     

     
    View from the other angle
     

     
    Overall view
     

     
    From the bridge looking West
     

     
    My "work in progress" weathered 37206 emerging from underneath the road bridge.
     

     
    37672 on CDA's bound for St. Blazey
     

     
    Peak leaving with cross country service
     

     
    Paved section on platform now painted. Still needs some weathering, any tips would be greatly welcome.
     

     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  2. cornish trains jez
    Good afternoon all,
     
    Not much progress has taken place over the last few weeks but I have managed to get the stone papers cut out and attached to the cardboard base structure. Thank you Pete and Tom for your tips on how to produce the stonework in my last entry, I used a good photo of the station itself and then cut part of the stonework from the photo, and copied and pasted it several times to get a strip of stone work. Then this was printed onto good quality paper and I carefully measured and cut out the door and window apertures before attaching each section to the card structure using PVA glue.
    I feel the end result has given a fair representation of the stonework.
     
    It all looks a bit bare at present and there is still plenty to do on the model and hopefully I can spend a few evenings this week getting the doors and windows sorted ready to be glued into position.
     
    Anyway, here are a few progress shots of the building with a temporary roof, which I will have to redo as it is slightly too wide. D'oh!!
     

     

     

     

     

     
     
    Any comments very welcome.
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  3. cornish trains jez
    Good evening,
     
    I thought i would post a few pictures of my re-numbered Farish class 37, 37207 "William Cookworthy"
     
    I have also lowered this loco closer to the bogies using the techniques in bcnpete's blog which gives a more prototypical appearance. The decals are from precision decals and the nameplates from Shawplan. I still have a bit of work to do as i need to add the numbers and spray on a coat of varnish to seal the decals.
     
    This is my first time re-numbering a loco and I feel it has gone faurly well and plan to do 37206 next with snow ploughs as this loco also worked in the Par area during the 1980's.
     
    Here are some photos.
     
    Class 37207 and HST
     

     
    Close up of the buffer details with Cornish Railways logo and flags
     

     
     
    Any comments welcome
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  4. cornish trains jez
    Good evening all!
     
    I have finally been able to get somewhere close to finishing this structure for Par station and I am rather pleased with the results. The mesh has fitted in well, albeit seriously tedious to fit, and I have finally painted the model, and added the lamps using wire handrail for the supports and wheel axle bearings for the lamps. I have also made some lamps out of rounded off cocktail sticks and painted them white. ( I have yet to fit these ).
     
    I have also decided to take a big step forward and have moved in the permanent way gang in to convert all the Peco code 55 track to 2FS easitrac. However I'd like to get a good amount of work on the scenics done first, and with a baby on the way due next month, I'm not sure how far I'll get.
     
    I'm also tempted to start a layout thread once the track has been changed over to 2FS so I can document the progress of this long term project and keep it all in one place.
     
    Anyway, here are some progress shots of the structure both off and on the layout.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  5. cornish trains jez
    Good evening all,
     
    Before I embark on the complete change of track on Par, I thought I would write a quick blog on a little ongoing project that has been progressing slowly on my workbench for the last couple of months.
     
    There are a trio of Cornish "Lizzie the Lizard" branded 37's that I want to model for Par. I have already done 37207 "William Cookworthy" and I would like to add 37181 and 37185 too.
     
    So up first is 37181. I wanted to model this loco as she was in the mid 80's and thank you to all who contributed with photos on this subject loco within the "Cornwalls Railways" section. Ok, so here is the first photo showing the donor Farish BR blue liveried loco number 37238 for the project. I managed to pick this up on ebay, including a DCC chip, for a good price.
     

     
    This loco had it's buffer cowlings trimmed, oval buffers, domino centre headcode, and snowploughs added. The model will also have a detailed buffer beam to one end, usual coupling to the other, and a bogie modification to reduce the gap between the bogies and the body.
     
    So I started by removing the oval buffers, cutting away most of the cowlings, and then carefully filing it down to the right height and removed the remainder of the moulded buffer beam.
     

     

     
    Then, new buffer beams were created for each end from sheet plasticard using some scale drawings of the class 37/4 that I had stashed away, being a supplement with an issue of model rail.
     

     
    And then glued into position. I subsequently had to trim and file down the bottoms of the new beams to allow clearance for the bogie modification but this is now hardly noticeable and actually looks more true to scale. Etched brass oval loco buffers were then added.
     

     

     
    Side on view showing bogie modification and original transfers, including printed TOPS numbers and BR arrows, removed.
     

     
    Buffer beam and bogie modification strengtheners primed and painted up in black. Also holes pre-drilled ready for the buffer beam detailing.
     

     

     

     
    I have also decided to replace the moulded roof fan grill with one of the excellent Shawplan extreme etchings versions. Here is a roof shot showing the precut hole, I just need to smoothen this off before adding the grill.
     

     
    Well, that's the progress to date. Still quite a bit to do, "lizzie the lizard" transfers and numbers to be added. Snowploughs, detailing to the buffer beam, roof fans and then an attack with the weathering powders!
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  6. cornish trains jez
    Good afternoon,
     
    No modelling today but thought I would put boards 1 and 2 together and test a bit of stock on this section and take a few posed photos to show the progress to date (not as much progress as I would have hoped for!).
    This exercise was beneficial as I have discovered that the sides of the footbridge are slightly too low over the main running lines (hence the card spacers to adjust the height), so tonight I will be removing these and filing them down.
     
    The station building has had the first coat of paint on the canopies and still requires a second to finish off.
     
    Anyway, here are a selection of photos. As always, all comments are welcome.
     
    Class 50 arrives, London bound.

     
    Bubble car heads off for Newquay.

     
    A grubby class 50030 Repulse awaits departure for Paddington

     
    View of the rear of the station building.

     
    View of board 1 with the footbridge posed in place. Must make a start on those platforms on board 2!!

     
    Class 37206 arrives with a short speedlink working and waits to run round its stock and head to St Blazey.

     

     
    Class 45 storms through on Penzance bound parcels.

     
    Couldn't resist this final shot. NSE liveried class 50 on CDA's!!

     
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  7. cornish trains jez
    Good evening,
     
    Just before Christmas I bought the wonderful Farish 4 CEP in blue/grey livery. A superb model and I'd wanted to get one ever since I had a play with BCN Pete's model on his Paddock Wood bay layout.
     
    I decided to buy some concrete sleepers and some flat bottom rail form the 2FS shop and set out to produce a mini diorama for the unit and hopefully run it. My wife has suggested on several occasions to model something more local alongside my Cornish work in progress layout so I drew up a plan for West Worthing (one of my local stations) using templot on top of a Google Earth printout of the area. This was then printed and the first half was glued on to a 1.2m long board topped with plywood.
     
    The sleepers were then glued down individually (I must be bonkers!) and then spray painted a concrete colour.
     

     
    Then the rail threaded and painted.
     

     
    The third rail was then added using BCN Pete's technique from his Paddock Wood layout. I decided to use bullhead rail for the third rail the width seemed to mirror the prototype quite well being wider than the main running rails themselves if this make sense.
     

     

     
    Quite pleased with how it's turned out so far.
    Anyway,
    Back to the pub for my Cornish layout now!
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  8. cornish trains jez
    Good afternoon,
     
    It's been a while since I wrote my last blog and since then I have got married, found out my wife is now pregnant with our first child, and I've also changed jobs. And all that in the last 6 weeks!!!
     
    Since the wedding and honeymoon, I have been making some good progress with the layout and in particular the station building for Par.
     
    Since my last entry I have completed the windows, attached the roof and layered strips of thick paper to represent the tiles, made the chimney stacks (as they were in the late 80's) from cut down Ratio chimney stacks.
    The front and rear canopies have also been made using a sheet of 0.75mm plasticard cut to size to make the main structure and then ratio canopy edging (taken from kits) to finish off.
     
    The wooden fence panels around the entrance to the toilets has also been made, again using parts from the ratio GWR station building kit, but this needs to be adjusted as it seems to have dried slight "skew wiff"!
     
    A few jobs remain, painting and weathering of the roof tiles, canopy and loo entrance fence. Fitting of drainpipes and gutters.
     
    I have also started to make the changes to my Dapol class 56 to represent it's condition as it was when it visited Cornwall for the day in 1990, using the superb references and photos in John Vaughan's excellent books "Cornish Mainline" and "An illustrated History of China Clay". To do this some depot plaques and etched arrows were ordered from Shawplan and some brass oval buffers were ordered from N-Brass as it appears that one end of the loco had oval buffers and the other end had large round buffers. Rather unusual I would say but the pictures clearly show this, especially Winterbourne's brilliant photo of 56013 at Burngullow, posted in the Cornish Railways pages of this website.
    I still need to attach the oval buffers, buffer beam detailing and weather this loco before it is finished, and the next blog will be dedicated to this loco.
     
    Anyway, here are some progress shots. As always, all comments and any tips are most welcome.
     
    Roof tiles going on.
     

     

     
    Rear canopy before it was attached in place.
     

     

     
    Various shots from different angles of the more or less finished building.
     

     

     

     

     
    Pictures of the station building in position on the layout.
     

     

     
    Class 56013 straight out of the box......
     

     
    ......and with etched depot plaques and arrows added.
     

     
    And heading through Par station with CDA china clay wagons in tow!!
     

     

     
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  9. cornish trains jez
    Good afternoon everyone, this is my first blog so hope that i am doing this correctly. I am currently building an N gauge layout based on Par in Cornwall and no layout based in the 80's would be complete without a class 50 or 2!!
     
    I have decided to upgrade my Farish class 50 as i cannot afford one of the exquisite CJM ones and i have decided to post some of my progress pictures to get some feedback and any tips and hints on how to improve what i have done so far.
     
    I have purchased etched parts from B H enterprises and Shawplan and i hope to finish the loco in large logo blue and number 50010 "Monarch".
     
    I have also lowered the body on the chassis to try and get a more realistic appearance. I look forward to your comments.
     
     
     

     

     

     
     
    Hello all,
     
    Just a little update for today. I have just finished adding the handrails to one end of the 50. Starting to come together now. Still not happy with the headlight but that will be a lesson learnt for the next one!
     

     

  10. cornish trains jez
    Good evening all,
     
    I'm getting a little more confident with these MIG powders now and have spent the last few nights weathering 2 MK1 GUV's, a MK1 BG and a MK1 CK.
     
    I have used a combination of black smoke and Vietnam earth around the door hinges using a wet brush to allow it to run into the door grooves. Then a mixture of Vietnam earth, industrial city dirt, standard rust and black smoke to weather the sides to a varying degree. The roof has also been weathered using a mixture of the first two colours and then brushed with a toothbrush from side to side.
    To finish, a thin mist of Humbrol matt acrylic varnish in several layers to seal it. My first attempt at this didn't go very well as I held the can too close and the spray ended up displacing the powders. So I now spray this from about 60cm in very fine mists so that the coach does not get wet.
     
    Anyway here are some pictures showing my efforts.
     
    Any comments and tips to improve anything are always greatly appreciated.
     
    MK1 BG
     

     

     
    MK1 roof
     

     
    The GUV's
     

     

     

     
    The MK1 CK
     

     

     
    All three vans
     

     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  11. cornish trains jez
    Good afternoon,
     
    Just thought I would add an entry as I haven't updated for a few weeks. Progress on Par is slow but I hope to add an entry by Sunday evening with progress on the layout.
     
    This entry is to talk about my latest loco, class 37 37206.
     
    Having looked through John Vaughan's excellent book "Diesels in the Duchy", I noticed that this loco is photographed on more than one occasion in the Par/St.Blazey area so naturally I wanted to have this loco on my layout.
     
    The donor was the re-tooled Farish class 37238. I have removed the plastic round buffers (donated to 37207 "William Cookworthy") and added some N-brass oval etched brass buffers. I have also added the snowploughs from the same company and will be adding further buffer beam detail over the next few days.
    I also decided to close the gap between the bogies and the body. On William Cookworthy I used the "lowering the body" technique, but on this loco, I have decided to have a bash at the Ian Mercig technique by raising the bogies.
    I feel it has worked well and just like my other 37, gives a more prototypical look.
     
    Anyway, here are some photos prior to the etched parts being painted, bogies repainted, and the loco being renumbered. I may even have a bash at weathering it!!!
    As always, any comments are most welcome.
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
     

     

     

     

  12. cornish trains jez
    Good evening all,
     
    My second entry this week! I must admit, I have been fairly busy modelling over the past few days and the layout is starting to show some progress now.
     
    I have decided to get the platforms down on board two. The edging is Peco and as you will see from the photos, I have used card to strengthen the centre and also used as the platform top as I feel it provides a good texture to paint onto. I still have to scribe the paving onto the island platform which I will do later on in the week. Space has also been allocated for the island signal box. (I'm looking forward to building this - in plasticard this time). I'll also build and fix in the end ramps.
    Still lots to do!!
     
    Below are some more progress shots. Does it look like Par yet!!??!!???
     
    I have posed my 6 car Dapol HST for good measure which really shows how long these platforms are. Come on Dapol, need that buffet car to complete the set!!
     
    As always, all comments welcome.
     
    Edging fixed into position using super glue to form a strong bond.
     

     
    Centre strengtheners glued into position using PVA.
     

     

     
    Platform tops cut to shape and placed into position.
     

     

     

     

     

     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  13. cornish trains jez
    Good evening all,
     
    I have decided to spend a bit of time weathering my Farish class 37 number 37206 and having bought some MIG powders about 6 months ago, it has taken me this long to pluck up the courage to have a bash at using them.
    I have already weathered this loco but I was just missing the smoke streaks on the roof.
     
    I have used the "Black Smoke" pigment to create some smoke stains on the roof using some photos from Flickr as reference.
    On the box it recommends using a drop of turpentine to fix the pigment. Are there any other methods of doing this? Maybe a drop of Klear? Any recommendations would be great!
     
    Here are the results.
     
    All comments and tips welcome.
     

     

     

     

     

     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  14. cornish trains jez
    Good afternoon,
     
    I spent a few hours yesterday trying to make some progress on the footbridge for Par station.
     
    I have now cut and attached some of the sections of mesh to the bridge (mesh courtesy of devondynosoar), and fixed them in place. I have ordered another section but it seems that most suppliers seem out of stock of this item so I can't progress any further until it is received.
     
    I have also made some progress on the footbridge sides as the undersides needed trimming back to allow clearance under the footbridge. I'm still not sure whether to add the rivets to give it some extra realism.
     
    Still a bit more work to do but it's starting to get there now.
     
    Here are a few progress shots. As always, any comments and tips are most welcome.
     

     

     
    The steps side mesh has not been fixed into place yet as I still need to make a mini frame for it using some strip plastic.
     

     

     

     
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  15. cornish trains jez
    Good afternoon,
     
    This will be the second blog for me in a week!! Not bad going !!
     
    Just thought I would update on the progress of the station building. I have now strengthened the structure with some extra card along the centre of the building which has now made it a little more sturdy.
     
    I have also made the doors from artists paper. As these doors are panelled, I first cut out the panelled areas and then glued a second sheet of artists paper behind to represent this, and they have now been positioned into place. I have studied numerous photos online and come to the conclusion that the doors were painted red towards the end of the 80's so this is my chosen colour. Although I may need to tone it down a bit as it has dried a little like "post office red"!!
     
    The windows have all been fitted made from a sheet of transparent plastic, scribed using a template for each window drawn onto a sheet of A4, and white paint added to the grooves to represent the frames.
     
    The station roof still needs redoing as it is too small.
     
    Here are a few progress pics. Hopefully, it is looking a bit more like Par and not some derelict structure as per the photos in my last entry!!
     

     

     

     
    Station building with FGW liveried class 57 passing through.
     

     
    View from the bridge with a selection of appropriate stock from the 80's era.
     

     
    View towards the bridge with class 108 just leaving and BR blue liveried class 47 passing through with mail vans.
     

     
     
    As always, any comments are welcome.
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  16. cornish trains jez
    Good evening all,
     
    A couple of blogs ago I mentioned that I would dedicate a blog to my Dapol class 56. There are very few photos of the loco in Cornwall but thankfully the legendary John Vaughan has several photos published in one or two of his books which were used as reference material. There is also a nice colour one taken by Craig in the Cornish Railways section of this site which will come in handy to get the weathering accurate at the time of the visit. I also have found some rare footage on one of my DVD's which has also come in handy.
     
    To represent the model accurately, I purchased some Toton etched depot plaques and BR arrows from Shawplan and some loco oval brass buffers from N Brass. I will also be detailing one of the buffer beams.
     
    First off I removed the round buffers from one end of the loco as this class 56 had round buffers to one end and oval buffers to the other when it visited Cornwall. Rather unusual, not sure if this was modified specifically for the Cornish China Clay trials. Next I fixed the depot plaques and arrows to the cab ends using photos of the prototype. These were fixed in place using Klear. The brass buffers were then added once the holes in the buffer beam had been enlarged to accommodate them. These were super glued in place once I was happy with the positioning.
     
    Next job is to prime the buffers and fix in the jumper cables and dummy screw link coupling to the buffer beam. Some light weathering will also be added and I'll cover the finished item in part 2 of this entry hopefully by the weekend. (He says!!! )
     
    Anyway here are some progress shots and as always, all comments and tips are most welcome.
     
     
    The 56 straight out of the box
     

     
     
    Depot plaques and arrows added
     

     
     
    Original round buffers to one end with Toton depot plaque added
     

     
     
    Round buffers removed and brass oval buffers added
     

     

     

     
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  17. cornish trains jez
    Good morning,
     
    I have been meaning to post something about my layout for quite sometime now.
     
    Just a bit of background, I have been modelling the swiss scene for many years and have decided to model china clay operations in Cornwall for my latest project. Par was chosen as a prototype as I have never modelled a prototype location before. A visit to Par was tied in with a holiday in Cornwall during July 2010 and many pictures were taken. The great thing with this particular station is that most of the buildings have not changed in years so making my life easier in building it.
     
    My initial plans were to model the station with a period spanning the late 90's to the present day. However after carrying out extensive research on the location, i have decided to model the 80's as this would provide the widest range of traction and rolling stock.
     
    Believe it or not, I started building this layout a year ago and have only built the baseboards and laid the track. A house move later and I have finally finished the wiring which makes the layout DCC ready as I have recently purchased the gaugemaster prodigy advance system.
     
    It is a continuous run layout with an 8 road storage yard to the rear spanned over three baseboards built from ply wood.
     
    The only alteration I have to make is to replace the concrete sleepered track with wooden sleepers as my chosen period for the model has changed in the last 6 months to the 1980's.
     
    I used google earth to make all the platform measurements (I actually measured the width of these whilst down at Par) and where to install the points. I'll also use this to get rough measurements for the buildings and where to position these.
     
    Here are a couple of photos with the layout's progress to date.
    Any comments kindly appreciated.
     

     

     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  18. cornish trains jez
    Good afternoon,
     
    Having had the day off work today, I have managed to finish the basic construction of the station building for Par.
     
    When I was down in Cornwall last week, I dragged my fiancee down to Par to measure the station building so as to make the most accurate model possible. I checked permission with the station staff first.
    So permission granted, and a half hour later (with a very embarrassed wife to be!!) I had my measurements.
     
    The main structure is made of 1mm thick card which I collected in my previous job and has been sitting in a box for the last 8 years. I knew it would come in handy one day!
     
    I'm still not sure how I am going to represent the stone work as I am struggling to find stone/brick papers with this colour stone printed on. Any ideas would be most welcome.
     
    There is still plenty of work to do but here are a few pictures of the progress made over the last week and today. I've also included a few prototype shots.
     
    As always, any comments and tips for the rest of the model greatly appreciated.
     
    Rear view.
     

     

     
    Prototype rear view.
     

     

     
    Side view.
     

     
    Prototype side view.
     

     
    Front view.
     

     
    Prototype front view.
     

     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  19. cornish trains jez
    Good afternoon all,
     
    It's been a while since i've been able to post a bit more progress on my layout. Work commitments still getting in the way of the project, but i've managed to make a little bit more progress over the last few days.
     
    I've laid some of the very realistic ratio concrete trunking which i was initially going to build from thick pieces of card, but having sampled the ratio product, I decided to use it instead. I still need to paint it and add some weathering though.
     
    Progress on the platforms has taken place and, thankfully to the abundance of photos of this station on this website and various other websites, I've managed to start to make some accurate representations. I've used ratio platform edging (which still needs some more painting and weathering added) and thick pieces of card to make the platforms themselves. I've scribed the card to represent the paved areas and this will need painting in due course which hopefully will happen over the next few days. Watch this space!
     
    The relay boxes are modified ratio products with a thin sheet of pasticard added to the backs as the ones at Par seem to be slightly deeper than the ratio products themselves. These have beed primed and are now ready for the top coat of grey. The scratch built signal is still work in progress.
     
    The overbridge, which is still coming along slowly, requires some pointing (in model form of course!) before being painted with a mixture of colours using acrylic paints and photos which I took a couple of years ago. The stone faces are from the Faller range which I discovered when building my previous swiss railway layout. The embankments will be built from polystyrene but I haven't got round to this bit yet as I wanted to concentrate on getting the overbridge right first.
     
    Anyway, here is a selection of photos showing the progress. As always, all comments welcome.
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
     
    A view from the Newquay side of the station.

     

     

     
    37206 heads into the station with a short speedlink working.

     

     
    My scribed card on the platform to represent the paved area. Still quite a bit to go.

  20. cornish trains jez
    Good evening all,
     
    I have been making some progress over the last week or so with the footbridge for Par station. I have still to find a suitable mesh to complete the side railings on the steps up to the bridge and I am hoping that I will find something that will work well when I visit the Warley show at the NEC in Birmingham in a couple of weeks.
     
    The footbridge ends are now complete, the second end being a complete nightmare to build as the structure somehow would not glue together straight and I ended up ripping it apart and starting again.
     
    The main structure is now complete (almost) and I may have a bash at applying some rivet transfers (as per TomE's water tower on Ropley) as I feel this would add a new dimension to the bridge.
    Once this is done. I will then paint the footbridge black and then add the mesh.
     
    Below are a few shots of the footbridge, it's not perfect but I feel it's becoming a fair representation of the real structure. As always, all comments are most welcome.
     
     

     

     

     

     
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  21. cornish trains jez
    Good afternoon all,
     
    First update on this project for 2014! Quite a few small bits have been going on and the model is starting to come together now.
     
    First of all, I decided to make a start on building the handrails. Whilst there is no etched kit available in this scale to model handrail I set about making my own as it looked like they would all be different sizes anyway. Various techniques were tried and tested for making these. First of all, I blue tacked the parts to a pre drawn handrail on an off cut of ply. With all the pieces in position and a dab of solder paste on each join, I applied the iron. Well, while some sections stuck ok, others didn't and when I returned with the iron, the piece which was originally nicely soldered together came apart. With the swear box suitably filled up I set about attempt number 2. This entailed predrilled holes in the sheet of ply, in which to drop in the posts and then solder on the railings. While this technique was a little more successful, the posts became stuck in the pre drilled holes and the subsequent breakage of the structure was trying to remove was inevitable.....swear box number two was then filled up!
    The third attempt was far more successful, and some lessons learned from the previous attempts. I first superglued the brass posts into position (made of 0.5mm brass wire with the cross rails being made out of 0.25mm brass wire) and once dry, I carefully added the rails, again with a dab of solder paste doing one side first then the other side with the minimal touch of the iron on the solder, but just enough to form a join. Hey presto, I had my first handrail!!! While, this melts the superglue a touch, it seems to work well and a second handrail was added into position.
     

     
     
    It needs a little cleaning up, but once painted, it should look ok. And I've just realised that the upper handrail needs an adjustment to the left hand side.....cruel little camera!!
     
     
    Next up, I have built the observation cabin which controls the wagon tippler and skip hoisting machinery. Many thanks to the guys from the "return to grantham" website for their assistance on information and the excellent close up photos of the coal plant and its buildings. These have come in very handy to the build of the model. I just need to add the door frame, door and steps and this little building will be finished. The roof is angled to one side as per the prototype.
     

     
     
    Last up, was the lifting beam situated at the top of the coaling plant which was occasionally used to hoist any machinery up the tower in the event any repairs needed to be carried out. It is built using a small piece of H-section plastic with the "H" filed down a bit and then some strips of 0.5mm micro strip to form the other supports. It's not quite finished yet and still needs some support struts added. Here is a close up of the current progress.
     

     
     
    Here are a few more photos of the overall structure with my latest addition, the Farish A1 pacific which I will be renumbering 60149 "Amadis". I hope to get some baseboards put together soon and start laying the easitrac.
     

     

     

     

     
     
    As always, any comments are most welcome.
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  22. cornish trains jez
    Good evening all,
     
    It's been a while seen I have added a blog entry, so thought it was time to pick up on this. This particular one is another "off Par station" subject, after having almost finished my class 90 upgrade, I decided that I would like to build a little home for my Dapol A4, purchased a while ago as I have always loved this loco. I currently run this loco on Par as a specials working, but thoughts have turned towards a mini layout set in it's own period late 50's.
     
    So ideas have been that I would create a snippet of Grantham, a location that I used to spot at during the 80's with my late grandfather, who was born there. Having researched a suitable area, I decided that the coaling plant area would make for an interesting mini project as this would allow me to build one or two structures which would add to the depth of the layout and interest of operation. Luckily, some material was readily available at home in the form of Steam World mags, collected over the years when the ECML in the 50's-60's articles were featured. I have two which specifically features Grantham which was my initial port of call. However, the LNER encyclopedia website has an excellent thread entitled "returning to Grantham" which has an excellent abundance of quality photos, several of which were of the coaling plant and also some plans of the structure.
     
    Photos here http://www.lner.info/forums/download/file.php?id=11541&mode=view and here http://www.davesrailpics.bravehost.com/grantham/granthamshed.htm The second photo down in the second link will be the main area of the layout plan.
     
    According to the architectural plans featured on the LNER "returning to Grantham" thread, the structure is about 80'10 high, making it 16.2cm high in 2FS. Using this measurement as a base, I have now calculated measurememts for the whole structure and have ordered up some plastic sheets and strip which I will use to build it.
     
    Well, this is just a start. A couple of photos below of my A4 which I weathered a little while back with weathering powders. It might be joined shortly by a Farish A1 once I can get my hands on a reasonably priced one!
     

     
     

     
     
    Any comments are welcome and I hope to have some parts cut out and a layout plan for the next blog entry.
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  23. cornish trains jez
    Good evening,
     
    It's been a while since I posted a blog entry so thought I would add a little update. I have now almost finished the third rail on one side and painted it. I think a lesson has been learnt here as next time I will wipe down the top of the third rail as I paint as the peco track cleaner is a bit harsh on the third rail as the supports are only every 5 sleepers so it tends to bend it and loosen it. I'm also considering painting it a slightly darker shade as per the prototype, which I think I mentioned last time.
     
    I've also had a little experiment with ballasting. Same method as TomE's excellent Ropley, Normandy earth ground cover sealed with Johnsons Klear. I wanted to experiment this to see whether the Klear would lift the suede tan paint that I had sprayed onto the concrete sleepers. I did this last night and have just checked, everything is ok. However, there seems to be a discolouration of the ballast in places which, while annoying, isn't a bad thing as it looks more prototypical!
     
    Here's some photos.
     
    Third rail in place and painted. Still needs some touching in. Cruel little camera!
     

     
     
    Small area of test ballasting.
     

     

     
     
    Having carried out some research, I wasn't aware that there was a slight variation on the 4CEP as some units included buffet cars and were called 4BEP's. So here's my take on it, I've added a RMB buffet car which has commonwealth bogies like the 4BEP's did. A lot of cut and shutting would need to take place to get it accurate but this isn't a bad compromise and adds a little variation. I now have two 4CEP's which look quite impressive as an 8 car consist.
     

     

     
     
    Any comments always welcome!
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  24. cornish trains jez
    Good evening all,
     
    While the station canopy dries from being painted I have decided to move onto my second structural project, the footbridge.
     
    This is definitely my biggest challenge to date and my first scratch built structure that is to be entirely in plastic. Last time I was in Par, I decided to take numerous shots of the footbridge in order to make as near to accurate model as possible.
    Ok, so some L-shaped plastic strips in 2 different sizes, 0.5mm and 0.25mm thick plasticard and a Ratio GWR covered footbridge kit were already purchased in preparation for this project. The reason for the Ratio GWR footbridge was so I could use the steps (really didn't fancy scratchbuilding these! ) and get a general idea as to how I am to build this.
    So here are some photos of the prototype and a couple of progress shots. So far, one side of the footbridge steps have been built with a couple more details to add before embarking on the other side. The base was made from the 0.5mm plasticard, the supports from the larger of the 2 L-shaped section and the crossbars from the smaller of the 2 L-shaped section. The steps being taken from the Ratio kit.
    The L-shaped sections are slightly oversized but anything smaller would get terrible fiddly!
     
    As always, any comments and tips welcome.
     
    Prototype photo's
     

     

     
     
    The model so far....
     

     

     

     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
  25. cornish trains jez
    Good afternoon all,
     
    Well, Grantham is progressing well and this week I have been laying the easitrac and soldering on the dropper wires as I go along. The two tracks to the rear, where the coal wagons are shunted along ready to be tipped into the coal pit, have been laid and wired in.
    Next i have moved onto the track that runs in front of the coaling tower and I have laid the best part of both of the turnouts on this section with just a couple of bits left to finish.
     
    The plan is to lay all of the track that leads into the double slip and then finish with that as it's the most complicated.
     

     

     

     

     

     
     
    I also purchased a Farish B1 this week which I got off of ebay for a reasonable price. It's a stunning loco which will be renumbered and will fit in nicely with the period modelled.
     

     
     
    Best regards,
     
    Jeremy
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