billtee

To CravensDMUfan, Here’s a photo of my river, and the riverbank on the right (not a very good photo, I’m sorry!). Looking at my river, you can hardly see the chinchilla dust/sand, but it IS there, just hidden by the many water reeds and bullrushes which I ‘planted’. The ducks caused a lot of problems when they began to ‘sink’ into the resin river surface, but I finished up tapping some Peco track pins into the river until the top of the track pins were flush with the resin surface. Then I re-glued the ducks to the track pins! That stopped them sinking. I was quite surprised at just how long the Deluxe Materials resin took to dry rock hard - it was nearly a month, and this in my mildly warm railway loft. All the best, Bill

Sadly, it appears that some proposed models just NEVER get built, or the manufacturer goes out of production. In these lockdown times I would have thought manufacturers would do very well as we modellers always need more time to make their models - ‘work’ keeps us away from the layout or workbench! Of course, some companies have lots of employees, and spacing out their workplaces is not always an option, and then quite a few workers won’t attend their business in case they catch the virus. Over in East Anglia where meat production is situated, many companies have had to stop or pause production because their employees were going down with the virus! Let’s just hope that one day we will be back to ‘normal’ and we will get our ordered models. I might even get out for a meal at my favourite restaurant! With a beer! Yum!!! Bill

I know this is slightly ‘off-topic’, but as we are all railway enthusiasts (otherwise we would not be modelling railways), I think it is relevant. A new coal mine is being proposed for Cumbria, but it will be producing ‘coking coal’. Now, I am not an expert on types of coal, so I am asking everyone: Will steam locomotives (specifically, HERITAGE preserved steam locomotives) be able to use this type of coal, or will preserved/heritage railways still have to import coal from Russia and other countries to run their locomotives? I realise that Welsh coal, with very high calorific value(?) is ‘the best’ according to the experts, but with the closure of all Britain’s mines that type of coal will no longer be available. That means even MORE harmful CO2 being added to the world’s atmosphere so that we steam enthusiasts can enjoy our hobby, which can’t be good. Any comments about the proposals might be very interesting! All the very best, Bill

Thanks, everyone, for your support. It looks as though I just have to wait, and wait, and wait . . . However, it would be WONDERFUL if all manufacturers of our models would only ‘release’ information about their forthcoming models a few months (3?) before actually releasing them. I know some modellers need ‘time’ to accumulate sufficient savings in order to buy their model, but nearly two years is stretching things a bit much! I have to check my list of ‘ordered’ locomotives and rolling stock every so often so I don’t order something twice! I see the reviews in our model magazines, with photos, and that (to me!) indicates that the model will be available SOON, not several years further before it is released. Bill

I have had ‘Lyn’ on order for over a year, and every so often Hattons (the firm I have ordered the model from) send me an email saying that the model should be arriving soon. The last message said the loco would be arriving Dec. 2020! It hasn’t arrived, of course, otherwise I would not be posting this topic. I emailed Hattons asking if the price quoted for this model (an eye-watering £200+!) would be going up because of the import restrictions on goods coming from the EU, and had a prompt answer from them saying that as far as they can ascertain, the price quoted would still stay the same. I was, for many years, a supporter and member of the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway, but when I moved over to Suffolk about 6 years ago, the difficulties of driving down to the very short section of reinstalled track at Woody Bay became rather too much for an old man like me. However, I still support the railway and am building a small OO9 layout, and now have models of all the locomotives and rolling stock, plus the lovely little model of Woody Bay station. I await ‘Lyn’ to complete my collection. Has anyone heard any news regarding delivery of the ‘Yankee’, as ‘Lyn’ was called by its drivers? All the very best, and stay safe, well away from Covid-19, Bill

Thank you, Trevor! I’ll have a look at the Miniprints website for sure. Our hobby is such an all-encompassing one that it is quite difficult to keep up with new products and companies big and small! I used to just use my local model shop many years ago when I modelled OO railways, but O gauge, apart from being bigger, is much more expensive so most model shops do not stock much for our scale/gauge, though r-t-r items (absolutely beautiful models) are beginning to appear in some shops. I am finding that most items or components I require means I have to buy through the internet, not my favourite way of purchasing something. The present crisis with Covid-19 isn’t helping either, as the O gauge exhibitions have been cancelled. Never mind, let’s just hope that eventually ‘normality’ will return! Bill

Thank you, everyone, for your help! I am not so sure about Langley’s ducks, but Duncan’s Models ducks look exactly what I am after, though painting them is going to be a challenge, as my hands are quite shaky, probably due to my advanced age! I have now almost finished my river scene, with viaduct above. Today I ‘planted’ my trees (bought ones, I must admit!), all ten of them (mixed sizes and tree varieties), and my riverbanks now have lots of reeds, bullrushes and grasses. The ducks will be the finishing touch! Thank you for all your help and advice - I did have a laugh about the DUKWs, but my river isn’t that big, more like a fairly large stream than the Thames! Bill

This may appear silly, but I am completely flummoxed! Having reasonably successfully modelled a shallow river (or large stream) (sadly, yes I had a leak so the Aqua Magic resin went everywhere, but I managed to plug the leak eventually!) with lots of green plants on the bottom and with lots of bullrushes and reeds on both riverbanks, I thought I would get a few ducks, swimming rather than just standing about, but I have come to an abrupt halt. No-one seems to have these waterfowl! Langley Models, the ultimate retailer for models of livestock, birds, people and all sorts of creatures, have swans, geese, goslings, and model ducks with feet, even a few sleeping ducks (with heads tucked into their back feathers), but swimming ducks? No! I suppose, at a pinch, I could file the bottom half of each walking duck to make it a swimming duck, but holding such a little figure of a bird and successfully filing off the bottom half seems almost impossible for clumsy fingers like mine. And then I would still have the challenge of painting them! I remember at one O gauge exhibition (near Newport, South Wales) I saw a lovely O scale broad gauge layout in which there was a pond with swimming ducks. One or two were even shown with heads down in the water looking for food! However, something like this just can’t be found on the internet, at least not by me! Can anyone offer some suggestions please?

Thank you, everyone! I think I will try a trial ‘river’ first before working in the layout one. I don’t want my river very deep, so I will get a few bottles of resin from Deluxe Materials (I use a lot of their products!) and try different colours. Anyway, thank you all very much for your guidance. Bill

I am modelling a river for my O gauge layout. I have created the river banks and the valley in which the river flows (from back to the front, not side to side), and have given the earth its first coat of burnt umber brown as a base colour. There will be lots of other colours in due course. My ‘problem’ is the river. I know that rivers are never blue, but possibly a muddy greeny-brown, but what would be best for a SLOW-FLOWING river? Most tutorials I have seen show tumbling water, obviously fast-flowing as there is always lots of white froth as the water splashes its way around and over rocks. But my model river is not anything like that! It is about 50mm wide at its widest, and as the river course goes towards the rear of the layout (disappearing under half of a diagonally placed hump-back bridge - the country road disappears into what one day will be a backscene), it narrow down to about 18-20mm wide. The stretch of river is nearly straight, with just a bit of a curve to it. I have modelled the banks fairly steep, though not very high above what will be the water level, and with occasional shallower sections which will become gravel banks. Water reeds and bullrushes will border the banks. I will glue these onto the river bottom before(?) pouring in a max. 3mm layer of ‘water’ resin. I just don’t know what colour to paint the baseboard which will eventually be my river bottom. The centre of the river would obviously be darker, but darker what? Green, brown, even a hint of blue? All the real rivers near to my residence are mere streams when it has rained sufficiently, and then the water which runs off the fields is usually mud! We are surrounded by acres of sugar beet, so our roads are usually seas of mud after the beet has been harvested. The nearest BIG river is the Orwell at Ipswich, and although it appears to be a slow-flowing river, it is considerably larger than the river I am attempting to model. I suppose I ought to mention that my layout is not a reproduction of any real place. It is all purely something imaginary, with just a hint of Exeter to it (my station is called Great Green and is the home of the imaginary West Exeter Railway, a heritage line of GWR and SR locomotives and lots of BR diesels). Can anyone please give me a clue? I would be very grateful for any advice. Thank you for any help offered. Bill Tranter

CV266. It is by default 65, but can easily be raised, but be careful - too loud and you will destroy the speaker in the loco. Bill

Thank you very much, Ian. I am very pleased with my model which arrived today, but the model does not have any electrical connection boxes on either buffer beam, nor the electrical wiring, but I can fit those myself with not too much trouble. I was rather disappointed by the volume of the Zimo sound chip in my model - I could hardly hear it! I use Gaugemaster’s DCC equipment, and know how to alter overall volume, etc but all my locomotives use ESU chips, not Zimo, and the CV code for ESU sound chips is different. Telephoned Tower Models who supplied my loco, but Roger couldn’t help! He suggested I call DCC Supplies who fit all the sound chips for Dapol locomotives, and the lady there very helpfully sent me the full (over 80 A4 pages!) DCC chip manual. I found the overall volume CV and increased it slightly and now I can hear the sounds much better (not too loud or they won’t be realistic!). I also lowered the top speed of my model as it was doing a scale 150mph when screwed up to its maximum! Now it is a much more realistic scale 50-60mph. The firebox flicker is a disappointment - it is hardly visible at all when the fire is being stoked (F4), but I can live with that. My footplate crew (ModelU figures) aren’t doing much driving - they are standing about and looking out! Anyway, thank you for your help with the matter of the auto gear at the rear of the loco. Now I can modify it with confidence. Bill

I have bought this model (GWR unlined green with G W R lettering), and it will arrive soon. I was particularly interested in the article “A Cornish Autotank” in the July 2020 issue of Railway Modeller about how the modeller modified his locomotive with the fine auto gear, but I have a few problems. (a) I have only ever seen a 14xx 0-4-2 tank loco afar - never close enough to be able to take photographs of the auto gear. (b) I have spent AGES looking for photos of these locos showing the auto gear, but again, the ones I have seen are not exactly good photos of what appears to be a rather dirty lower front of the locomotive. (c) The Railway Modeller article shows wonderful pictures of the front auto gear, but none of the rear of the locomotive. So I thought I’d look on the internet for photos of the rear of an auto-fitted 14xx! Did I find any? NO!!! Not one! My problems which the more knowledgeable of you may be able to answer are: Does the auto gear continue in a straight line from the, err, port side of the loco’s front buffer beam to the port side of the rear buffer, or does it somehow get transferred to the starboard side of the rear buffer beam? (Apologies for using nautical terminology, but ‘nearside’ and ‘offside’ don’t really apply to a locomotive. The port side is, of course, the left side of the engine!) The author of the article in Railway Modeller shows the battery connection box on the starboard side of the front coupling, but again, I have no idea where the connection box goes on the rear buffer beam, or indeed where the wiring to it runs. Does the wire(s?) go behind the buffer beam, or along the bottom edge? And how are they fastened? The author also shows some triangular supporting plates under the footplate, near the sandboxes. I have not seen any supporting evidence that any 14xx locos had these plates, but that could be because they are in a very dark, probably very dirty, position where photo images just do not show. Below the front buffer beam, just behind the screwlink coupling, is a device about which I know nothing! Can anyone tell me what it is, and is there a similar device below the rear buffer beam? I would be very grateful if my queries can be resolved, and I thank you knowledgeable modellers for reading this post. There are a lot of questions to which I need answers, as I don’t want to make lots of mistakes. The boiler shown in most photos of No. 1432 has a topfeed, but my model will not have topfeed! I realise that boilers were often swapped about when the engines were being repaired, so the lack of topfeed on my model is not a concern. My model will have the cut-out on the rear steps, and the steps and handrail up the fireman’s side of the bunker and cab, so I know they are correct. I cannot discover whether the steps below the footplate are ‘joggled’ as they were on later locomotives, or merely angled inwards as they were on early locos. Photos of the Dapol model do not show this detail! Problems, problems! Thank you, everyone! Bill

The grain store building is now being demolished! Sad times, I reckon, but I am glad that I took lots of photos and dimensions when I did! The building will probably be gone in a week! I am sad for the building because it was so interesting. There will never be another structure as nice as this was. Bill

Here are the pigeons I purchased as kits from Giles. Bill

Thank you, everyone! I have just ordered a superb 1/43.5 scale figure of a (rather well-padded!) signalman with token, ftom Hardys Hobbies (who I had never heard of previously). My layout is a heritage line set near Exeter (so I can have SR and GWR locos) and is set early in the 21st century, so people would be more my size, ie 6ft. Anyway, I am looking forward to getting him - he will be working hard as my heritage railway (The West Exeter Railway) is a very popular venue and always has lots of steam trains and diesel hauled passenger trains (and demo. freight trains) running, especially on gala weekends. On my layout the local vintage/veteran car club has a ‘stand’ beside the station, and vintage buses are also bringing visitors. I know this type of layout has been done by lots of other modellers, but it gives me a lot of pleasure, which is what railway modelling is all about, Bill

I have made the Peco platform-mounted signal box, and fitted the interior detailing kit, too. I could have a signalman pulling off one of the point or signal levers, of course, but the figure would not be very visible, even with interior lighting. However, on the steps, below a working lamp above the steps, a signalman would be VERY visible. He could be waiting for a loco crew to pass him the token to his section of line, or returning after giving the token to the locomotive crew. My problem, though, is SIZE! I cannot find an upright figure (probably a man!) who would be about 6ft (42mm) tall! I have plenty of figures of people about a scale 5ft-5ft6” tall, but I think they are 1/45 or even 1/48 scale, and although people come in different heights, a figure only 5ft6” tall beside a door which is 6ft8” high just doesn’t look ‘right’! Does any manufacturer make 1/43 scale figures of a 6ft tall man? I apologise for the various dimensions being in Imperial, but that is what I am used to - metric measurements are either too big or too small for me! Thank you for any help, Bill

Amanda, The construction of the grain store is quite simple really. I made a (rough) basic shape using 6mm foamboard, and the corrugated iron on the front, and the corrugated asbestos roofing, were one-sided corrugated cardboard available from most art and craft shops (different sized corrugations, of course). Living near the old grain store meant I could pop over and get lots of photos so that my finish of each section of the building and its weathering would be as accurate as possible. It is just a shame that I had to ‘cut off’ the rear side of the building to make it a half-relief model, though there was nothing but a large blank wall of corrugated asbestos at the rear! I had to considerably shorten the depth of the brick section of the building too, as the railway track into my steam MPD rather restricts the depth of the whole model. Here is a photo of my model as it was being tried out on the layout for size and position. The inverted jar taped to the baseboard protects a working footpath lamp-post (I didn’t want to damage it!). Thank you for your kind words - I really enjoy doing the ‘little’ details on my models (I won’t even start on the interior details of some of my houses!). Most people don’t notice them, but I know they are correct and that they CAN be seen, if only with difficulty! The tree began life as a 22cm tall tree from Woodland Classics (part of the Woodland Scenics group), and is the largest I could find! I had to butcher it by cutting off all the branches on the rear half of the tree in order to fit it beside the grain store without impeding rolling stock or locomotives passing by! Then I bent the remaining branches to a more realistic shape. I used the ‘cuttings’ as ground cover. Bill

Doilum, email Giles Favell who makes kits of eight pigeons (£4 plus £1 p&p). His email is giles@gilesfavell.com He is a superb 7mm O scale modeller! I am getting a pack (it’s in the post, Giles says!), so I will be busy soon assembling the kits, rounding off the little birds with a needle file, and then painting them. Having eight will allow me to put a few around the grain store, and others can sit on the roofs of my village, cooing all day and driving people nuts! Bill

I have now finished my model of the grain store discovered while taking my daily exercise during the coronavirus lockdown. I have been using each day’s walk to explore the field footpaths around my village (I have only been here five years!), and when I saw the grain store I just knew it had to be modelled - it has such interesting additions and changes through its existence. Sadly, the grain store will soon be demolished to make way for housing, so I have been fortunate to be able to frequently pop along to confirm details, measurements, colours and weathering details before it goes forever. Here are two photos of my model (which is only a shallow-depth backdrop, really). The first photo shows how the farmer used a bit of asbestos angle as a channel to direct rainwater from one gutter to another after a bit of downpipe broke. The second photo shows the grain store with a (shallow depth) birch tree finishing off the right side of the display. I guess I had better do some more ballasting now! Bill (GOG No. 22932)

Err, that’s 2 or 3 BIRDS, not kits! I reckon each bird would be about 6mm long, but I am NOT a pigeon fancier, it’s just that our back garden is infested with them. They nest in all the trees surrounding our garden. Bill

I would buy two or three birds! The birds look very convincing, though painting them may be a challenge! They look superb! All the best, Bill

I have almost finished my grain store building, and where there are broken and missing planks which form the skin of the building, pigeons are always sitting and digesting the grains of wheat, etc lying about inside the building. I would like to have a couple of pigeons, too, but cannot find a company which produces convincing models of pigeons! I did consider using whitemetal seagulls and repainting them into pigeons, but I am not sure they would look right. Can anyone point me in the right direction to buy a couple? Thank you, Bill

If you zoom into my photo of my grain store, you will see the (very rough) planking which the farmer put on the ‘inside’ face of the wooden tower. I had wondered about how to reproduce the rough planking adequately. I finished up cutting wooden coffee stirrers (from our favourite coffee shop) which gave me exactly the required widths of planks which matched the width of the Evergreen weatherboarding sheets. All the planks were then painted in the typically greyish shade old timber becomes, then each plank cut and glued to the underlying foamboard. I have tried to reproduce the broken and missing planks as closely as possible, but I cannot for the life of me model the pigeons which fly in and out of the tower. Here is a close-up of that end of the grain store. It is a shame that I had to ‘abbreviate’ the brick section of the grain store (which used to be the farmer’s storage building for his harvesting machinery). I would have enjoyed making that, and the derelict lean-to right at the end! Bill