ChrisN

Lovely specimen Shaun. It is a bit close to the house so you will need to be careful it does not undermine its foundations. 🙂

Shaun, It takes a brave man to do an actual scale size tree, as most people are worried that it will look too big and overpower the layout. Yours looks really good, and I like the way you have changed the colour of the grass underneath the trees. I hope the dof does not miss its bed stuffing and comes to look for it.

That is interesting. The Cambrian were using 4-4-0 for their passenger expresses from 1878, but express might be typed 'express' as they went nowhere very fast.

Great work Mike. I assume your original one has bogies that pivot, or does it just sit there looking pretty?

I find it interesting that they went for bogies but retained a single driving wheel. It would be interesting to know their thinking. Still, the Pearson one is quite beautiful in its own way.

Well done Mike. I can see why they were not adopted as a standard design. I can also see why they were not express engines, as the stress on the boiler could have been disastrous.

I have a new laptop which runs Windows 11. I have kept an old Windows 10 laptop going as I knew it worked with my machine, Cameo 2 I think. I thought I would try my new one on the cutter and much to my surprise the cutter saw the laptop and it all worked as it should. The Silhouette Studio I am running is 4.5.738

Well, as no one else is posting, (not much anyway). You may have wondered what has happened to the progress on the platform, well it has stalled. First some pictures. The idea of making my own paving slabs seemed a good one before I started, well cheap anyway. The slabs have not laid very flat, but worse they are all slightly different sizes. That is cope-able with, but I have compounded it by starting at the ends and not the middle. Real people, that is 1:1 people in the real world start in the middle. That also may be mean that I can make it work. More worryingly, is that I assumed that the slabs would be full length and half length so that you got interlacing. Having got almost this far I had another look at paved platforms and found that they are laid with full length and two thirds length slabs. What I have done so far is not redeemable. I could continue with different size slabs but the most obvious bit is wrong. I could live with all of this except that sticking down an infinite number of paving slabs is not the most riveting of pastimes. That coupled with the above has meant I have come to a halt. I may continue when the warmer weather comes and I can model on the dining table and get the whole lot on there together, and sort the front where the porch and the steps are. I normally only post on one topic, but not today. Mr Price's house. Did I say that the random stone I have used seems to make the stones too small? I will need to look at '0' gauge stone for other builds. Looking at the pictures I realised that every lintel was different. They had not used a standard size, so I had to do each one separately. I have tried to make them visible but I am not sure I have succeeded. The top and the sides were lined with 10 thou plasticard stuck on with tacky glue. Both PVA and tacky glue worked on the trial piece but PVA has not done well here. Tacky glue not much better. Window sills next. Lintels are quite clear now. The large window will have a bow window in it so no sill. The doors may have a step at the bottom, but that is more of a modern thing so I will have to think how I cover the foam. The doors may look large but they have a transom over the door. Talking of size, it looks a little big. Sorry for the lighting in the picture. If I could set the layout up permanently in the extension the lighting would be perfect, but as it is our main room for living in I think I would get a certain amount of resistance. These pictures of course do not show it up that well I have just noticed, but it does look big against everything else. My defence is that I have measured it, and it is two houses, and the prototype looks big. That is a three storey house next to it. My grandson says it looks large because the station building behind is single story. The buildings behind are a Metcalfe cottage and an Airfix Inn, both of which might be under scale. The half finished cottage, although the prototype is a large cottage is still smaller than it, height wise that is. (This is a semi-detached, so two houses really.) Magic you will say, nearly finished. No, stuck together with Blu Tak for when we had the invasion of grand children on Easter Saturday, which never happened as we all went to my eldest son's house. It is in the right position though. So, a long post about not much at all. Modelling may commence again soon. If you have been, thanks for looking.

There is a Pay and Display machine in St Helier Hospital in South London, well there was for a number of years up until 2019, which had the notice on its display, 'Change is possible'. Just what you want, an optimistic Parking Machine.

Apparently. so I was told, that originally Bread and Cheese hill got its name from when there were lots of Dutch living in the area. The locals, got fed up with this, and dragged them up to the top of the hill, where they asked them to say, "Bread and cheese". If they said, "Brot." they were thrown down the hill, as the Dutch did not pronounce 'bread' the same as the locals..

Shaun, I do like the ash tree covered in ivy. The brambles are good, but I think they need to be a little denser, they see a little to open.

Again very interesting. I wonder how many other models actually replicate how the prototype was built?

Fascinating Mike, That is a big driving wheel if it really was for a branch line. A fabulous looking engine.

Sorry to cross post. Jim, Do you have somewhere where you explain how to do roads with DAS? I have a road that I need to do, Macadam but no tar, and gardens, and am thinking about ways to do them. Thank you.

Neal, Just food for thought, as I am not completely certain, but I have found on RMWeb, if you state something then someone will come along with the correct information almost immediately. 🙂 Would the 3rd class not be 5 across? I am fairly certain non corridor stock was 6 across. Also, When seats were numbered, at least in BR days, sorry for the foul language, the seats facing each other had the same number, so it would be defined as say, 5 facing the engine, 5 back to the engine, although this may have only been for non compartment stock.

Tony, Very nice. In your era, is the roof paint lead? If it is then it will react with the smoke and darken it uniformly. If it is not, then it will just get dirty with smoke. I am not sure how long the colour change would take, if the paint is lead.

Mike, It was not long ago I realised that the early engines burnt coke, but I never thought about where they got it from, so very interesting and informative. A layout? 3D printed stock and station?

Do you have a website or is it just by personal contact? I am assuming this is not your business.

Mikkel, I shall follow with interest, not that I will, in the foreseeable future wish to convert anything GWR for main line operation in 1895. (Honest 🙂) I know somewhere you can get a siphon for the conversion as well.

As for the Cambrian there is a Mike Morton-Lloyd book that has images of those seen on the line, plus a list of local PO wagon owners, with or without photos. This means that the likelihood of other PO wagons is unknown, perhaps I should look at other PO books. However, this has not stopped me ordering two wagons, that it is not completely impossible to believe that they turned up on the line. I have ordered these to support Rapido in the introduction of these wagons, as I want to encourage manufacturers in the production of pre-grouping stock. It may be that they may be encouraged to produce in future wagons for the Vauxhall Colliery, Ruabon, the Ruabon Coal and Coke Co., Cannock Case Colliery Co., Wigan Coal and Iron Co., Black Park Colliery and Westminster Colliery. Any colliery around North Wales and surrounding areas seem appropriate. Given enough encouragement with these they may even produce a Sharp Stewart 2-4-0, or 0-6-0. I can always dream.

Mikkel, Mine came from York Models and I have not noticed them doing that. I shall watch out for it, but the alternative is, a bit more tricky. Yes, more mistakes seem to happen as you get older, or perhaps you are more aware it it. Just have to be methodical, mark things, watch what you are doing, put knives down when not using them.............🙂

Jonathan, Mine is Evergreen. I bought lots of different sizes years ago but I am fairly certain they are still available.

I thought things would be slow on the house, and they have been, but they are going quicker than I expected. Still, what I have not done is show you the progress on the Saloon Third. Remember that? It was ages ago I cut it out, and actually was a while ago when I did most of the work, but the pictures were even slower, but here they are. It was August last year that I showed you this. August 23rd to be precise. The laminates had been laminated and 10 thou x 10 thou rodding put on mimicking panels. It stayed like this for quite a while then I filed the ends to make a bevel and then fitted them together. It was not very precise. I then held them together in my magnetic clamps and applied Limonene. I waited and it worked. From the end. I tried filling the gaps at the ends between the sides with Humbrol filler, but when I opened it, all that came out was liquid, which stank. As my wife has insisted that I move my modelling desk into the warmth of the lounge, (here be carpet monsters), I put the top on rather quickly. It must have separated out, and I am not sure if I can shake the tube to mix it again. I will need some sort of filler to strengthen the joints. I then cut out a floor , and filed it to fit, then glued it in. Yes, I took the precaution of making sure I knew which way round it was. (What me? Glue it in upside down? As if?) The markings on the bottom are the centre line, the middle, where I got the middle wrong, and the position of the wheels. I had thought it would go on a Ratio chassis, but of course it is far too short for that, so it will be MJT W irons and homemade footboards etc. This is Z shaped plasticard, with one side nearly cut off except for steps below the doors. I have no pictures of this saloon in running condition, but other coaches of the 1860s on the Cambrian had this arrangement. I glued them in place, much easier as it is Z shaped. Of course it is better to remember that the buffers go all the way across before you do that but, as you see, it is not irreversible. The buffers are 4 x 2mm plastrut. Hope that is not too dark. The buffer positions were marked before they were cut off the length, drilled out with a 1mm drill, opened out with a 1.6mm drill and finally a six sided, or so broach used to open them still further until I could get the buffers to push fit. They will be glued in later. I am thinking about seats next, but there are some other challenges which I shall maybe mention the next time this coach is reviewed. When that will be I am unsure as it is done when the main project is drying, but as there are lots of bits, and you can do one while another is drying it may be a while. If you have been, thanks for looking.

This Web Site could be useful for fonts. I looked at it but all the fonts I have used have ended up being printed at 0.5mm so it really did not matter if they were accurate. You can search for all sorts of things, eg., 1900s. Someone else shared this which is why I have it, but cannot remember who, probably Mikkel.

I was looking at the horses. The one on the top does not seem very large, the second set I am not sure they are shires as they have no feathering on the legs, and I wondered if the last three were Suffolk Punches, as it is an Ipswich firm. I googled Suffolk Punch and in the images this one turned up, so three Suffolk Punches. I did start wondering about traction engine pulling one at Traeth Mawr, but I have seen no photographs of them there, so if I wish to add to the chaos of Station Road it will have to be horse drawn, although I too have quite enough horse drawn vehicles.