ChrisN

Haven't looked at George's shed since he scribed out the bricks. Will pop over in a minute and have a look.

 

I apply the paint to the dressed stone plastikard using a cloth, and rub it in. A technique suggested by Allan Downes in an article on viaducts in MR, around 10 years ago.

 

Jeff

Jeff,

Do you use enamels or acryllics?  You have probably said but I'm old and I've forgotten.

Extra black around the top of course where the  smoke has blacken it.

Apologies that things are very slow. It'll be nice to get back into the bunker and start the scenic work out there.

 

In the meantime, some pics of the branch bridge. Quite a bit of cladding and wing walls made-up. More later.... maybe.

 

100_3141.JPG

 

Jeff

Jeff,

Looking good.  You shouldn't worry about your progress, we are obviously interested but you are doing this for fun, and often life gets in the way.

When I finally get a layout that has more than 009 in it the time period will be the turn of the century, sorry I'm old so that means around the 1890s.  I will endevour to get the stock and locos correct but if they are wrong I am sure someone who was there at the time will be able to put me right.  

Jason,

This may or may not be a bit late as I have only got as far as page 33, I will catch up eventually!

You asked about traffic in the fifties and sixties.  I only remember that I had a photograph of myself and a friend  around about 1960 taken in our cul-de-sac that must have had 40 houses in and there were only 3 cars.  When we went to visit my parents in the 90s we had to park outside it as all the available prking space was taken, cars nose to tail.

That is not a lot of help but I hope this link is.  http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=1773236&displayclass=slide

It is a link from RMWeb on a thread on Trollet buses to about 40 oictures of the beasts. In itself not very helpful but they were all taken in the sixties and they show the general emptyness on the roads.

Hope this is of some help.

On the theme of cars I always liked to see them parked as if they are sitting in the middle of the road they are still stationary and I think it detracts from the realism of the layout. 

Rob, from what I've seen and from the reports of old train drivers, driving diesels and electrics was a relative pleasure in terms of comfort and facilities. But for all their design drawbacks, the romance of steam lives on.

 

Maybe it lives on for the people that didn't have to work on them, maintain them, clean them out, breath in their fumes and avoid their asbestos etc.... Very romantic!!!

 

Jeff

I spoke to an old engine driver who used to drive steam engines into Liverpool Street.  He said that there was a lot of nostalgia for steam but all he could say is when he started driving the electric trains he could go to work in his suit.  Have to admit I was just a tad disappointed.

Jeff,

Your bridges and aqueduct.  Looking at previous pictures would the aqueduct wall be a candidate for early building of the dry stone wall variety.  They certainly look similar, although they must have had some sort of lining.

Impressive.  How much muck and dirt would they have picked up in the cutting?  Would that have been the over riding colouring?

Mike

 

Looks like I might be doing EVERYTHING wrong with my weathering. I only use acrylics.     Oh well.

 

Duncan

Duncan,

Well if it works for you, it can't be wrong. 

Hi Jeff,

 

Re: Weathering. I got a good tip a few weeks ago, "don't try it with acrylics until you are confident as they are near impossible to remove, keep to the enamels." Anyone got any suggestions or experience with these?

I have had a little experience with acrylics.  I thought as they were water based and I was dry brushing they could be washed off if I did not like what I had done.  They dried hard very quickly and I could not get them off.  Fortunately I had not put overly much on so I managed to get away with it.  This was on a building rather than rolling stock.

Just managed to catch up.  I do like the cuttings and the bridges.  As ever a work of art and encouraging to see it step by step which gives you ideas for the structures that you are thinking about.,

I will be interested in how you get on with your stone wall.  Perhaps if you can sort out a simple method we will all have to make a couple of hundred and send them to you.    If you start now then you can spread it out over the next couple of years of layout construction then it will not be one big chore, just a job to fill in between others.  As to what came first, the g**** or the wall.  You could grass up most places and perhaps leave lines of plain earth because whatever you do you will have to go along the bottom with longer stuff anyway, so the order is probably immterial.

Looking at the two bridges, not being a civil engineer, or even an uncivil one, it would appear that the one you are building is higher and therefore can afford to have a simple archereas the other one is lower and needs a complex arch to clear the trains.  Not sure what is easier to build.

Jim,

Up to your usual standard I see.  I am sure building it like that will add to the rigidity of the final structure.  With tahat many windows I am sure you will be able to see inside so the effort is certainly not wasted.

Keep up the good work, and I hope all is well with you.

Jeff,

Just popped in to see what the controversy was and your progress, as we have been 'putting things inside of things' ready for Thursday.  I'm still not convinced we'll be ready but my wife is.

If you have built an S&C layout it would be difficult to have too much LNER stuff but there is something nice about an 0-6-0 tender engine.

I really like your valley and stream, I think it looks fabulous.  Not a lot of water to go in there I presume? 

Could you have a strip, of material or something that you could put down and take up to cover the join?

Chicken Wire, George and I use a mix of Polestyreen, Cardboard and Masking Tape then covered in Mod Rock.

 

You are doing very well mate, well done.

 

Did you see David Wrights article in BRM on rock streams, having seen Davids work close up as he comes to our open, weekend he is very good.

 

Bodgit Just the one smiley today :stinker: well maybe three or four

Jeff,

February's one if I am not mistaken.  I've seen another one recently to, I think in Model Rail.  I'm afraid it is safely packed in a box now though.  When I unpack I'll let you know.

Jeff,

I hopeyou had/ are having a good running session. 

The trouble with suggestions is that you have in your minds eye what you want to achieve and it is very difficult to comment on that.  (I have tried reading minds but it never seems to work.)  If a weir would not work, then streams will have rocks strewn about them, and sometimes form a complete barrier which might work to cover the join.  This is if you are not happy with your bridge.

Personnally, I would buy a Beyer-Garrett and hang about 100 coal trucks of the back, have a Crosti 9F waiting on the viaduct with a Nuclear Flask train and people will be so gob smacked they won't notice a little join.

Have fun

I've actually made it slide out. The valley floor section is a wedge-shape, with the thinner end nearer the viaduct. As I say, I'll put some photos up tomorrow when there is more of a completed product.

 

Here's a taster for you...

 

100_2804.JPG

 

Jeff

Jeff,

Very clever idea.  If you had a footpath or something you could hide the join. (It's too late to ask Ernie Wise how he did it!) Still, that is a problem for another day.

I think Jeff is doing something to his valley so that he can gain access to the bits that he blocked off with his permanently fixed back scene.

It's either that, or something else.

Andy,

I am reading this and thinking, 'Perhaps I could build a small Seagull'  (Cambrian and Furness Railways small Sharp Stewart 4-4-0).  I will look out for some drawings.  Not sure I will ever have anything to run it on.

Chris

Duncan,

Loved the sound of the locos working hard.  It is not always something that you get on preserved railways.  Also, lots of info on freight train make up.

Just spent an hour running stuff around. All ok except for a short stretch of track connecting turnouts 3 and 4 (where the branch loop meets the up line) which looked slightly the wrong curvature and has proven to be so. The class 8 struggled to cross it. So I'll remove and relay it with a bit more curvature tomorrow.

 

Nice to see 3 diesels chasing one another but still a good 20' apart.

 

Jeff

Jeff,

Excellent!    It gives me a really good feeling that you have got it working so I can imagine how you feel.  Have I missed something or is it still only one way?

You can now have a running session to break things up between building stone walls, making the staion, building stone walls, building the goods shed, making stone walls, putting the road in place, making stone walls................

I can happily report that the Up (anticlockwise) mainline is now continuous and at 6.10pm the 9F ran around the circuit, in reverse, pushing a coach. Then in the forwards direction for several circuits.

 

No problems.

 

 

Jeff

Jeff,

Glad to see that you are nearly there and are running locos.

Have fun on the senics.  It is probably the time to have about 6 projects running to add to the variety.  If it wasn't so cold you could do operating sessions during your coffee breaks, perhaps in the spring.

In my packing today I came across 'A Tribute to the S&C' but it appeared to be mostly steam rail tours which was a disappointment as pictures of 50s workings or earlier would have been more ineresting.

Chris - I'll check on the coaches but I know it will be similar to one in Jim Russels book Vol1, it has 'Hemyock' on the sole bar but that particular one may be a bit too early.

Jim,

Found it, thanks.  Yes 1854 does seem a bit early to have survived until 1905(?).  I suppose it depends on how important they thought the line was to replace the stock with 4 wheelers being displaced from elsewhere.  You could probably get away with one.

What is interesting is that they are almost the same design as Talyllyn Railway carriages built at the same time.

Chris

 

Luckily for me the coaches I need did not have a tumblehome so that makes life easier, I think - if my memory is correct - that the panelling even has square corners which is why I thought about building them. As for forming them if I needed I did think of making a wooden former to wrap them to before dunking in hot water, a bit time consuming to make but it should do a few if well sealed.

 

Other than that I would use formers at the compartment partitions and under the seats at the ends, I know I'll end up doing it one day as there are quite a few coaches Iv'e seen that give off that 'must have' urge.

 

I have looked at the Cleminson wheel set too and Followed 'Il Dottores' challenge thread last year to see how it went.. Let me know how it goes if you start before me (more than likely).

 

Jim

Jim,

What coaches are they?  I have a copy of GWR Coaches in pictures to 1912, or something like that. 

I had not thought of formers.  If the plasticard is thin enough that would work, wouldn't it!

I have lots of projects on the go, but there are important reasons why I should finish off some Shire Scenes sides coaches.  In fact it is the only modelling that has not been put away for the move but I have not touched it since, umm November when I went to a conference.

Some projects, like my station, could be progressed but I am at a point where it would make more sense to finish it off on a layout, which is a long way off, but building a represntation of the cottage I honeymooned in is one job that you can do in small bits so will muscle its way in as I do not have to think much about that.  Then there is painting figures, well you need people inside coaches don't you!  Lots of them or the railway will go bust and we will have to give up running trains! 

So I may or may not start a cleminson before you but thanks for the tip about the thread.

Have fun

Hi Chris

 

Thanks very much, as for the roof I still have the figures to paint for the repair team but that will have to wait until later in its new home. The garage will be insulated but that will be as and when funds allow but at least I will have somewhere a bit more draught proof and without the odd leak, it may extend my modelling season a bit too.

 

The coach is a Ratio one, I have six in total plus some of the shirescenes sides to make other types though I will look to scratchbuild some of the early stock later, out of plastic of course.

 

I hope you get 'permission' for somewhere suitable to build in. it took two years for me to (nearly) empty the garage after downsizing.

 

Jim

Jim,

I have a number of ratio kits and I am attempting Shire Scenes sides.  I thought it would be as easy as plastic but I have never worked with brass so it has been a steep learning curve.  If I do a 00 feeder for my 009 layout, or is it the other way round, then I shall build some more with Shire Scenes sides and amybe look at some 6 wheelers.  I have three Kemilway 6 wheelers which will be interesting as I will probably have to put a cleminson wheel set on them.

Coaches from plastic.  All 19th century coaches had a tumblehome, some at 90 degrees to each other.  How would you model that?  I thought about some sort of cylinder filled with hot water but it is not as easy as forming a curved roof.

I will follow with interest.  There are not many late Victorian, Edwardian threads, and even less locos.  Well ones that are not made of brass and need expert soldering.  Still, when I've moved I shall take a serious look at stuff, although I already have lots to do and to build.

Hope you are both keeping well.

Jim,

I do like the look of your layout.  It is good to see inside with the 'broken' roof.  It is the sort of thing that others will want to copy.

Will you insulate the garage or is it just more substantial?  I have always told my wife that garages and sheds are no good unless they are insulated, and I am fairly sure the loft in the new house will be too small as the temperature differences up there would be dreadful.

Is your 4 wheel coach a Ratio, or something else?

There's quite a few things I can salvage. I've already stripped out the expensive street lighting I fitted. But there are a few things it would be easy to just "junk" and then regret - there is quite a lot of Woodland Scenics Talus (rock bits) - I can probably fill a fair-sized bag with the stuff. Quite a few nice sections of 44mm x 44mm wood - if I can get the boards off.

 

I agree that it's exhausting just thinking about it! But the carpet and everything is coming out too, and my brother can't wait to get in and start decorating!!

 

Jeff

Jeff,

Wow! Relative that want to do stuff for you.  Have you got any going spare?

Jeff,

Class 28.  I read on RM Mag tonight that the Class 28 in Hattons is of 1961 vintage as it has different windows from when they were first made.  I assume they were redesigned to stop them falling out!

Not sure how concerned you would be that it will be slightly different from the version that ran over the S&C?