billtee

I thought you might like to see my model of the grain store at Colchester Green, Cockfield. The model isn’t quite finished yet as I am awaiting a delivery of 3mm diameter brass tube which I will grind to a half-tube in order to make guttering (why doesn’t Evergreen or Plastruc produce a convincing extrusion of guttering?) and downpipes. The model can then be placed on my layout, filling an awkward vacant area of baseboard. Bill

Managed to ‘make’ a wheel and tyre, with its suspension lever which looks like it has snapped off the trailer (unseen) frame. I had to glue 3 layers of 1/16” plastic together with Plastic Magic, then after cutting the block to approximately the right diameter, turned it on my little Minicraft drill lathe accessory (something I don’t use much these days - I sure miss my Myford ML10 which I once had!). Used a 6BA hex head bolt in the centre after some filing of the head to become the hub of the scrapped wheel, with some brass cut and bent into an approximation of the original broken suspension unit. This little project has been ‘interesting’, and now all I have to do is paint the hub in ‘rusty cream’ colour, and matt dark grey for the old tyre. The suspension unit is just ‘rust’ colour. Anyway, after all this, I will now NOT need a wheel from a diecast model vehicle, but thank you all for reading my ramblings. Bill

The end of the model building is as close to the real thing as I can make it! It is a shame that the brick section of the grain store has had to be shortened so much, but needs must! Now I am awaiting my corrugated iron sheeting which is coming from Greece. I can’t really progress any further until the sheets arrive, as all the other cladding materials will overlay the corrugated iron. Bill

Here’s a photo of where I am up to with the modelling of the grain store:

I am building a model of a grain store which is near my home, and outside the real building is a heap of ‘rubbish’ which includes a couple of (trailer?) wheels and tyres. I cannot get ‘out’ at present due to coronavirus lockdown, so can’t visit a ‘bring and buy’ sale of old/unwanted diecast models where I would find an old model I could dismantle to obtain the wheels. Can anyone in our community help, please? The wheels need to be about 21mm dia (3ft in real life). I am, of course, willing to pay any expenses incurred, so if anyone can help, please let me know at billtee45@outlook.com Thank you, Bill

Here is the actual grain store - I have almost finished the carcass and have begun the cladding. The brick section won’t project anywhere near as the real building, due to space restrictions, and the big metal barn to the left of the brick part is not being modelled. My model is just a shallow-depth depiction, but I am trying to reproduce it as accurately as possible. Bill

I have just discovered KJB Models, who are importers of Evergreen Plastics products, and they have ‘clapboard siding’ (weatherboarding to you and me) in many different sizes, so I have placed an order for their 0.100” size (‘groove’ spacing) which will be about right, hopefully. Anyway, we will soon find out! The construction of the grain store was rather ‘hit and miss’, I think. The actual building is now in very run-down condition, with pigeons flying in and out of the grain elevator tower (which has many missing weatherboard planks). Most of the rest of the building, sides and roofing, is corrugated asbestos sheeting, and I have some one-sided corrugated cardboard of just the right pitch. The building is going to be demolished soon, so I have taken lots of photographs. It is a very ‘interesting’ building, as the farmer just kept adding extensions as required, so the roofing has angles in every direction, and the whole structure is just crying out to be modelled in its entirety. Unfortunately, I have room for only the ‘front’ part to give me a low-relief structure, but it will still make an interesting background, even though in real life there never has been a railway nearby. Thank you, Bill

I am constructing a grain store (the real building is not far from my home!), and I will need a couple of A4 sheets (or thereabouts) of weatherboarding to copy the cladding of a major part of the building. I have considered Plasticard, but I have not found anything like the real thing on the company’s website. Can anyone recommend a manufacturer of (probably plastic) moulded weatherboarding in our scale? I could try making the weatherboarding, of course, but I do not have any wood stripping or thin plastic sheeting from which I could cutI the ‘planks’, and so I am stuck! I am not wanting 1/48 or 1/45 scale products - they are not British O gauge or British 1/43 scale, and would look wrong. Any help would be much appreciated, as I cannot get ‘out’ due to the Covid-19 ‘lockdown’, and virtually all model suppliers are closed, understandably. Surely a manufacturer makes such a product! Thank you, Bill (GOG #22932)

Don’t worry, fellow modellers. I have sorted out the problem, by using a small home-made crank and an old Gaugemaster solenoid-type point motor. It will all fit under a delivery platform I will be squeezing in eventually. Bill

Can anyone advise me on side-mounted point motor for O gauge Unifrog turnouts? I do not have room for a normal Peco point motor, either above or below my baseboard, and my one and only Unifrog turnout (used because it is of a tighter radius than a normal Peco point, and is also about 1” shorter!) is right in a awkward corner where it is very difficult to reach. I can only use a side-mounted point motor, but the Unifrog tiebar is completely different to the normal Peco finescale O gauge turnouts, with the ‘knob’ on each end of the tiebar considerably smaller. I have looked at Peco’s (very, very awkward to readily use on my iPhone) website but there are no details about Unifrog turnouts at all, certainly none regarding motorising them. Could I use an OO side-mounted point motor, even though the hole in the operating part of the point motor would be larger? Would this type of point motor still fit down the side of the Unifrog turnout as they do for OO turnouts? I normally use slow-acting Cobalt point motors, but they just can’t be used where the turnout is situated! I did consider one of those tiny DCC Concepts point motors which use linear motors, but they are diabolically expensive. Although there is a little bit of space beside the curved side of the Unifrog turnout, it would be impossible to disguise such a point motor above the baseboard, even if I had room, and directly below the baseboard is a cupboard which I do not want to chop about. At least I can mount a side point motor on the straight side of the Unifrog turnout, though there is another track running parallel to it with about 1” of clear baseboard between the ballast shoulders for each track. Can anyone help me, please? Thank you for any advice on this matter - it is causing me a lot of worry! Bill

Thank you, everyone! I went to my nearest pet shop and bought a huge container of chinchilla sand for less than £4. It is a grey colour, so will need to have a few dabs of yellow/brown paint here and there when the PVA glue has dried on my river banks, but it looks quite good. Bill

Nickel Silver rails are NOT the best for model railways, but they are easy to clean, they stay ‘bright’ for a long time, they are easy to bend and are relatively easy to paint. Stainless steel is perhaps the best material, but it is very difficult to obtain (if not completely impossible), the rails are very difficult to bend (not that I have ever tried!), and painting is, I have heard, very difficult because you need to use an undercoat. I remember all of the above because many years ago I was offered some HO track in stainless steel, but I decided (probably for the better) to stay with Nickel Silver. This rail material discolours (goes darker coloured) fairly quickly in sunlight, so that may be why it appears dirtier than rail which is kept, err, in the shade! My layout is in the well-insulated loft of my garage, and although I have two Velux windows for ventilation (especially in Summer), the blinds on the windows are kept closed to exclude any sunlight which might cause unwanted expansion of the rails, even though I have allowed small expansion gaps between each one-yard length.

I agree with F-UnitMad, as I also have an 0-6-0 loco which has a sticking pickup on the centre axle (which I can’t fix because I don’t know how to remove the superstructure). This loco (a GWR 1361 saddle tank) used to be a dreadful runner, but since the graphite treatment, it runs perfectly! I will be ‘testing’ all my locos every day for a while to see how long the improvement lasts. I laid my track on 1/16” thick cork (to give a slight shoulder to the track), and used a 3ft steel rule to ensure the rails were flat longitudinally. I couldn’t do much about the large gap in the rails at the frog in the Peco turnouts, hence the Peckett 0-4-0 saddle tank loco used to stop mostly at these points. My track is nailed down but only loosely, to keep track where I want it, and my ballast holds everything firm after the PVA dries. Bill

Although I laid my O gauge finescale track as smooth as possible, some very short wheelbase 0-4-0 locomotives just would not even complete one circuit of my ‘roundy-roundy’ DCC layout without at least one brief stop (especially over pointwork). So I tried rubbing a very soft graphite stick on the top of the rails, and the running of all my engines has improved vastly. I don’t get sound drop-outs, hesitations or unplanned sudden stops any more, and cleaning the rails is a thing of the past! Try a stick of graphite (with track and power OFF!), and you will be amazed! Bill

Thank you, everyone! I did have to laugh at ‘ground up chinchillas’! I agree with the order of river construction - that is what I have planned, and will be using Deluxe Materials Solid Water resin. All the videos I have looked at recommend this stuff, so that’s my choice, too. I was very impressed with one modeller’s tree roots he embedded in his river bank. He used real plant roots (well, weeds I think!), just drying them gently before slicing off the green bits. They looked very convincing indeed, though WHAT weeds or small plants he used exactly was not specified. It looks like I am going to have to do some gardening! (Groan!) All the very best for 2020 to everyone, and thank you for your contributions. It looks like a visit to our nearest pet shop is in order. Bill

I am about to start modelling a small river on my O gauge layout, and I want to make my riverbanks similar to real riverbanks, with shallow sandy bits, steeper clay banks, tree roots projecting from the riverbanks, etc. I have read many OO gauge model railway magazines where they talk of ‘chinchilla dust’, but never having seen or used this stuff, I am not sure it would be the right stuff to use on an O gauge layout. I should say that I have looked at several videos on YouTube showing rivers being created, but they are all ‘rough water’ (fast flowing) models, but my river will be a slow-flowing, calm river (hopefully with no leaks when I pour the ‘water’ resin!). The shallow sandy inlets will be where the river banks have been washed away to create small ‘beaches’ of washed gravels and sands which, with luck, can show the depth of the water as the ‘beach’ goes out into the deeper areas of the river. (I hope people can understand what I am trying to achieve! I have yet to mould plaster of paris to make the river banks, so I will be making the shallow areas quite smooth!) Can anyone give me some advice as to what I should purchase, please? Chinchilla DUST or SAND? Bill

You are absolutely correct, Simond. I’m just going to have to make them, though I am sure the bin wheels won’t be very good - my fingers are far too shaky these days to make tiny things like castors! However, thank you for your help.

I have purchased the Dapol O gauge GWR home signals and fitted them. I am very pleased with them, though the finials are a bit small. Now I am wanting junction signals! Dapol don’t/won’t make them, and I have just made ONE (using MSE components) after a frustrating fortnight of swearing at my shaking fingers and general incompetence. I am supposed to be delighted at having built it, but I am not - I see beautifully built signals in all different scales in the various model railway magazines, and my work is nowhere near as good as them. So this brings me to my question - does anyone know of a company/business which can build me four GWR junction signals? I used to see adverts by one person who would build any signal in any scale you could possibly require (at a price which I thought quite reasonable for the amount of work involved!), but apparently he has retired. I need 2 lefthand GWR signals (both home signals) and 2 righthand GWR signals, again just home signals. The higher doll will control the main line, the lower doll the branch. I do not require distant signals as my layout is far too small for them. The signals need to have 12v ‘grain of rice’ bulbs fitted, with the arms attached to balance weights near the base of the post, the arm on the ‘branch’ doll working via small levers to give the required changes of pull/push direction. I am using 0.45mm wire from servos which will be mounted below my baseboard. The Megapoints Servo Controllers manufacturer recommends tiny HobbyKing servos which are unavailable (from anywhere around the world!), so I would fit my slightly larger HobbyKing servos with omega loops in the operating wires to prevent damage when the controller board is powered up (the servos twitch slightly). Anyway, does anyone know someone who could possibly help me? Thank you for reading my forum post - I have found everyone very helpful and usually I get a response to my questions very quickly! Bill (he with the shaky fingers!)

I have almost given up hope of ever seeing a GWR junction signal from Dapol - I will probably be ash (blasted from the chimney of a GWR loco?) before they are produced! Has anyone heard if Dapol are going to make them? In the meantime, I am trying my rather shaky hand at making one using Model Signal Engineering (MSE) bits. I made the tapered post OK, and the doll for the branch signal, but the instructions are rather ‘sketchy’, omitting to mention what I consider important information - which way to install the angle levers which change the ‘pull’ direction for the branch signal whose doll is out at the end of the platform. I have many books on the GWR, but signal photographs are usually far too dark to give me a clue. I have now read CJ Freezer’s book “Model Railway Signalling” and it was very useful, but even this book gives no clue as to the best way to fit the levers. I’ll do my ‘own thing’ which may work, but someone is sure to comment that I have mounted them incorrectly! I have discovered I need to be a mini-octopus to build the signal - two hands are just not enough! I have NOT soldered my signal components, because I don’t have a variable-temperature soldering iron, or indeed the three different melting point solders recommended by MSE, just the usual resin-cored stuff used by most electricians. I have used superglue (very carefully!) and (so far) everything seems to be going together OK. I had to think hard about how to get 12v to the top of the main post and to the top of the branch doll. I didn’t want two-core wires running down the post where anyone would see them (there are advantages in GWR tubular signal posts!), so finally I have used that self-adhesive copper tape, trimmed to about 1.5-2mm width. The tapes are laid on the back of the post, where they will be obscured by paint and the ladder eventually. I have used 2-core DCC wiring to get the power from the main post over to the branch doll. Anyway, I am having a break from modelling for a day or two to let my shaky hands and nerves settle down a bit! All the very best to you all, and thank you for all the support. Bill

Wow! All these lovely people willing to help me! I am truly grateful for all your help! I rang Scale Signal Supply (SSS) asking for a kit, but the lady just passed me to her husband, and he was not very helpful at all, just saying he didn’t keep stocks of kits and that they would have to be made! (Yes, of course, I thought!) He then ‘suggested’ I go to one of the big exhibitions and ‘if I am early enough, I could buy one from SSS there’, which is no doubt true but I cannot get to exhibitions because I am unable to walk very far now! Grrrr! I had a look at the Invertrain link and found that Invertrain get their signals from Scale Signal Supply, so they aren’t any good. I have found Invertrain good at taking your details, credit card details, etc but then you wait MONTHS before actually getting anything. Invertrain just act as sellers for lots of companies, and usually have to wait for the companies to produce the item you want (before taking money from your credit card!). So although I have used Invertrain several times in the past for things, I try to avoid him if possible. I had a look at the Wizard Models website and have found their website not a lot of use as there are hardly any photographs, so I will be telephoning them today for my signals. A description of parts is NOT much use - what exactly is “heavy counterweight”? I know what a counterweight lever is, and that there are different sizes, but just a description without a bit more info isn’t good enough! I do NOT like buying through the internet because you only see a picture (if you’re lucky!) of the item, you do not get to pick up, turn over, inspect anything! Anyway, everyone, thank you all very much for your help - I’ll get there eventually and have some lovely working signals on my layout. All the very best, Bill

Adrian Vaughan was a GWR signalman for many years - I have read his “Signalman’s Morning”, etc and they are fabulously evocative and wonderful reads! I will give Scale Signal Supply a telephone call and see if they can help me, and I’ll have a look at Wizard Models/51L. One of them hopefully will be able to help, I am sure. The ‘trouble’ with books is that they are wonderful reference items with FAR more info than most people would ever require unless they are learning to become signal engineers. All I need are some GA drawings (I’ve built a live steam 3.5” gauge GWR 45xx, and many items of rolling stock, so I can find my way around drawings!) which I can make my model signals from. I have several of Jim Russell’s books, mostly photos of rolling stock, but I will keep an eye out for his book on signalling. Since my layout is not an accurate (or even near accurate) model of a particular place (Rule 1 definitely applies!), I am placing my starters and home signals in ‘appropriate’ positions, though they are nowhere near where REAL signals would be positioned - I don’t have the space! Anyway, everyone, thank you all very much for your help and interest in my posting. I know one thing - No-one will EVER call me a signalling expert! I’m “Mr Muddle Along” - if it looks about right, that’ll do! Thank you all very much - you are all FAR better modellers than I will ever be! Bill

I have waited AGES for my lovely working Dapol GWR home signals in O gauge (1/43 scale), and having finally received them I am very pleased, but it appears that I might not live long enough before Dapol (if ever) produces left- and right-hand junction signals, so I might have to try building them myself. I would snap up three lefthand and 1 righthand signals if they ever make them, but glaciers move faster than Dapol production! However, if I can’t wait forever, and decide to make my own signals (despite rather shaky hands these days), I do require photographs to give me a good idea of how they look. I have searched the internet for suitable photos, but most are rather blurry and/or so distant that the pictures are not very useful. Can someone point me to nice sharp junction signal photographs please? Preferably wooden post signals, though metal post junction signals seem to be easier to find. I am also trying to find a supplier of all the metal hardware required to model signals. There used to be a supplier of etched brass kits in O gauge, but I think he has retired or gone out of business. Can anyone help me here too? Thank you all for any help in these matters, Bill

The finial ball SHOULD be the correct diameter - not MANY people notice, but we do, and when we are paying nearly £50 per signal, they should be correct! Can’t comment on the arm pivot because my four signals appear OK. They work, which is more than I can say for the signals on many layouts, if they have signals at all! Most visitors to my layout don’t even notice the signals, as they are usually looking for the people on the layout, and I do not have very many people, except those on the footplates of all my locos. Visitors seem to miss the fact that I have NONE in the cabs of my diesels, but that could be because it is not so easy to see in. Doh! Bill

Can anyone give me a clue for interlocking the new Dapol signals with DCC Concepts point motors? I have considered using the two switches built into the motors, but I cannot guarantee that the motor will always reach its ‘end of travel’ and so have both switches work (I have had problems with this in OO gauge, probably due to bad point motor mounting - you have to be exactly precise!). Bill

Having finally received my Dapol O gauge GWR signals, I spent most of yesterday getting them installed on my layout. Before starting, I used my little Gaugemaster controller as a 12v power source to try out one of my signals, and I am delighted with them, except that the pitifully short 3-wire controlling lead is far too short to be useful, so I was lucky to have plenty of ‘track dropper’ wire in the required colours (brown, yellow and orange/red). I had to extend all four signal control leads, one by over 10ft to control the starter at the far end of my station. The 12v power leads also needed extending as I wanted to use a dedicated 12v power source for just the signalling - most of my 12v power sources are used for point motor control and lights in buildings and around the goods shed and MPD. Anyway, all four signals are now installed and working well (I like the little ‘bounce’ on the return!), and I am now holding my breath for GWR junction signals. I would like 3 left hand ones, and 1 right hand one. I won’t hold out any hope for operating shunting signals! Bill