SonOfMike

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Le Vieux Bancal Fiction (I know it’s all true because I made it up myself): Lamy Lumber #12, often referred to as “le vieux bancal” (loosely translated as “The old wonky / wobbly / rickety One”) was commonly seen switching the spurs in and around Turpentine. Originally built sometime in the early 1900s by an unknown maker, by the 1950s this small locomotive had been patched up and rebuilt so many times that nobody was even certain how much of the original engine was left. Nevertheless, she just kept going and continued to haul cars as far as Apocrypha. Fact: One drawback of building a USA-themed micro layout is the length of locomotives and rolling stock compared to their British counterparts. I therefore wanted to build something that was more along the lines of a sort of American version of a Peckett and would take up less space on the layout’s spurs. I also wanted to build, rather than buy, because I am a cheapskate and I always prefer to have something I made myself, no matter how rough and ready, than something I have bought. My problem, however, is that I am incapable of cutting in a straight line or gluing two items together perpendicular to each other. My usual M.O. is something like: “Measure three times, realise each measurement is different, oh well.. best out of five then, that’ll do, cut once, cut again, buggrit!, why is there blood?, apply glue, realise small part is stuck to my finger, try again, realise there are bits of my finger stuck to the small part, that now looks vertical, glue dries and everything is now wonky, never mind it will do for me.” This means that I am happy producing models of gravity defying rustic shacks but tend to steer clear of locomotives and stock. Nevertheless, this time I decided to have a go. I wanted to create a kind of caricature of a logging locomotive – something with the charm of a narrow gauge loco but in standard gauge, so that’s what I tried to achieve. The loco features: A saddle tank from a Dapol pug kit with handrails and knobs made from guitar string A smokebox made from some sort of wall-fixing, a bit cut from a Calpol syringe and a pug buffer Brass dome, smokestack and headlight castings from the spares box Air tanks made from old fuses and tape A bell made from sprue and a staple A generator made from a cable tidy and some wire, on a bracket made from the seat from an Airfix half-track kit An air tank made from bits of rawlplug and some sprue (purposely oversize to add to the charm, honest gov) A cab from an old Mantua loco A bunker made from the end of a hopper from a cheap battery powered trainset A rear headlamp made from a coupling from above hopper A chassis that my Dad gave me Various bits of scrap plasticard and other tat And the saddle is filled to the brim with Liquid Gravity. The numbers were cut from the decals supplied with the pug kit.

The other item I picked up was this caboose (as I didn't have one) ,which someone has previously attempted to weather - it looks better in the photograph than it does in real life. I do intend to repaint this one; I need some stock that is actually painted and lettered for my imaginary Jemima & Gulf railroad. I don't want to repaint the MoPac and UP diesels that my Dad gave me for fear of spoiling them and my Shay is staying as it was when I built it aged 16. I do have the two tender locos to apply lettering to still, as well as some other stock to build so I'll order some decals at some point in the near future. In the meantime, I am in the process of adding some figures and other small details before finishing the turpentine still.

In other news, back in November ago my Dad (@Mike) and I went to a small show in Solihull, where I managed to pick up a couple of things for just a few quid each. The first was an old MDC Roundhouse ventilated refrigerator car kit which was complete apart from the box. I had originally intended to paint it rather than leaving it in the pre-painted yellow V&T livery but I had a couple of MDC V&T cars back in the 80's and building the kit gave me a bit of a warm nostalgic glow, so I decided to leave it. I replaced the couplers with Kadees and replaced the plastic trucks with some metal ones that I had in stock. Here it is, sat in the morning sun on the team track at Turpentine, where nobody seems inclined to start unloading it just yet...

The fruits of last weekend's labours can be seen at the bottom right of this photo: a scratch-built steam donkey engine (or at least something that approximates one when seen from 12 feet away without one's spectacles - which will do for me). I couldn't seem to get a decent close up picture that was in focus. I'll try again another day.

Jemima & Gulf #22 emerges from the trees into the late afternoon sun and pulls pulls into Turpentine with a train from Apocrypha.

One of the little details that I didn't manage to photograph earlier, but with which I'm quite pleased, is this home-made (albeit rather crude / impressionistic) switch stand. I think it technically counts as a kitbash; the majority of it is cobbled together from some butchered HO scale window mouldings, the lever is a bit of guitar string and the "target" is cut from the end of a ball point pen lid. Apologies for the blurred pic - it looked perfectly fine until I put my glasses on .

I managed to add a few bits and bobs yesterday in terms of some small details, weeds and undergrowth etc. I took the module outside this morning to get some photos and it immediately started raining! I tried taking a few indoors but the light wasn't great so I'll have to try again another day. Of the few I managed to take, these are the two I was happiest with.

A few more...

What a difference a day makes... All that has happened since yesterday is that I have temporarily reattached the backscene and stuck some buildings down (the "shed" part of the turpentine still isn't stuck down yet as I still need to work on the interior) . Nevertheless, I can now feel the scene starting to take shape. Once the glue has dried I can start bedding the structures in and continue with the ground cover. Oh for some decent natural light to take photos in...

Progress is occurring! Nothing too exciting so far but over the last couple of days I have at least managed to get the base layers of ground cover onto the new module. Firstly, some reddish brown paint in some areas, followed by some finely sifted sterilised soil from my garden. Next some Woodland Scenics fine turf and then some static grass. The different areas of cover should hopefully make more sense once the structures and are in place and the backscene reattached. These two jobs are next on the list once all the glue for the grass has completely set. Then the next round of ground cover will go down: grass tufts, weeds, bushes, shrubs, vines, trees etc. before starting on all of the various details I still hope to add. Please excuse the rather poor low-light photos and the assortment of festive / all-year drinks in the background...

I've still been suffering from not finding time to make progress on the new module but I'm hoping that I can get some modelling done during the Christmas break; maybe during those strange days that exist between Boxing Day and New Years' Eve. In the meantime... Happy Holidays From the Town of Apocrypha

The number and format of the ads on RMWeb are no different to any other free site I frequent. If I am not paying to use a web forum then I expect there to be ads. I don't personally find them especially annoying or intrusive and I can easily ignore them or close them when they pop-up. I have the option to become a gold member and not see the ads but have chosen to continue with free membership for now. In my own case it has definitely not caused me to reduce my visits or time spent on the site, nor has it reduced my enjoyment of it.

Time for an update, not that much has happened. I haven't had many occasions recently during which I have had both the time and the inclination to work on the layout simultaneously. I have, however, managed to get at least some stuff done over the last few weeks. Firstly, ballasting has occurred. Not only that, but the layout still works afterwards, which is nice. I have also built a few "impressionistic" coniferous-ish trees. I have purposely made them fairly "dense" - the idea being that they will help to hide the hole in the backscene where the Turpentine module connects to Apocrypha. I intend to try and do a couple of more detailed ones to place at the front, space permitting. Here are a couple of pictures, not especially exciting, but proof that progress is still being made. I find it quite surprising how small the module looks without the backscene in place. I suppose that just proves that the backscene is doing its job.

Finally a couple of pics that I also happened to take at the same time.

A couple of snaps of the still and the kettle, inside its kiln. Crude, as I say, but they won't be that visible once all is in place. The chimney does indeed extend through the rear of the roof, although it's not apparent from the previous pictures.

A gap in the clouds during my lunch break has allowed me to grab a few snaps of the still plonked roughly in place on the baseboard. There is still (no pun intended) much to do including the construction of a second floor inside the shed and additional bracing etc. around the legs that hold up the roof. I will probably need to do some of these once the structure is finally fixed in place as the "building" needs to be constructed around the still and kettle inside, as per the prototype. If I do too much now then I think I will have difficulty in moving the thing in its entirety. Currently it's all in 3 parts, the roof, the still and the kiln. The still and the kettle are fairly crude representations but they are hidden by the superstructure when everything is put together. Firstly a couple of pics of the whole - one of the legs looks rather wonky but shouldn't be when the structure is glued in place. The same for one of the brick pillars under the still.

Electric light??? What trickery is this???? It is the devil's work!!!!

I'm still at it... (see what I did there?). I have made some progress with the superstructure / shed for the turpentine still but I have had to knock it on the head today because it's so flippin' dark and I just can't see what I'm doing, let alone take any photographs. I'll try and take a few snaps to upload as soon as the light is a bit better within the next few days.

An update….Turpentine. Things are still being built. I always forget to take photos during construction, but I may get around to taking some soon so I can show what I have been up to. I lost a bit of momentum a couple of weeks ago by managing to take a slice out of my finger. It’s nearly completely mended now and I’ve been able to get on with things again. Anyway, the theme of the new module, as one may have guessed from the last couple of updates, is logging. I have long had a fascination for logging railroads, but I wanted to do something that suggested the lumber industry whilst being a bit different. What I’m trying to do (without any real reference to reality) is create a couple of scenes in a very small space that represent activity at the periphery of the main logging operation. So far, I have a sort of camp office, the abandoned log hauler and another structure of undetermined use (again, I don’t know what goes on there but boxcars come in and boxcars come out). The whole module is only about 2 foot 6 long but I’m hoping that I can create 3 or 4 scenes that when photographed look like they are much further apart but still make sense when viewed in reality. The thing I am working on currently is a turpentine still. I have fancied building such a thing for a few years and am finally getting on with it. Basically (in the interests of keeping things simple) it’s a brick kiln housing a “kettle” in which resin is heated and a large wooden water tank inside which is a coiled tube which condenses the vapours to produce turpentine. Everything will be housed in a rough and ready wood and corrugated iron two-story shed. I don’t believe such things were really in operation by the 50’s and I haven’t found any which were rail-served, but hey it’s my train set! The model is based on a variety of prototypes; I doubt anyone is going to pull me up on such a thing being inaccurate but I’m doing the best I can whilst working with what materials I have. https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GCEB_enGB909GB909&sxsrf=AOaemvKQm47pWOPQDYeEb_lOdDXIGt4B7A:1630765960276&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=turpentine+still&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwjz_pfOxOXyAhWWl2oFHaUvCf4QjJkEegQIBxAC&biw=1163&bih=525 This has led to me referring to the new module as “Turpentine”. It’s as good a name as any and I quite like it. Geographical location is a bit vague – In my imagination it could be anywhere between a few and a couple of hundred miles from Apocrypha but in the real world it’s just separated by a hole in the backscene. I’ll post some photos of the still as soon as I have progressed enough to have something to show. At the moment all I have is a number of small sub-assemblies in various degrees of construction. TTFN.

Fact: The Lombard Steam Log Hauler was invented by Alvin Lombard of Maine, and was the first successful commercial application of a continuous track to a vehicle. The Phoenix logger was derived from the Lombard Steam Log Hauler, patented on 29 May 1901 by Alvin Lombard, and was built under licence by the Phoenix Manufacturing Co. Fiction: The Dubois Steam Log Hauler was invented by Joseph Dubois in 1907. Resembling the Lombard machine in many ways, Dubois was able to get around Lombard's patents on the basis of demonstrating radically different drive and steering mechanisms and supplying a substantial bribe. Fact: This model of a Dubois Steam Log Hauler was mainly built in an afternoon and is constructed from: bits of an Airfix half-track kit, cylinders from a Dapol Pug kit, a cab made by modifying the pug cab and using the sides inside out, a saddle tank made from the plastic thingie inside a gloss roller, some sort of lid for a smokebox, a couple of brass castings and various scraps of plasticard, card and sprue. Fiction: Local lumber magnate Albert Guidry bought a Dubois hauler sometime in the 1920s. It was nothing but trouble - the pneumatic tyres were next to useless on the rough forest floor and the "radical" drive system prone to constant reliability issues. The machine had been retired and left to rot by the time he sold what was left of his empire to the Crowell & Spencer Lumber Company in the late 1930s. Fact: The slowly decaying machine will be a scenic feature on the new module.

So did I, and now all I can think of is that scene from Father Ted

And now a few of it just plonked in its approximate final position (pending a stewards' inquiry) on the layout

More progress. Another structure bodged together from a card shell, hand cut strips of basswood and balsa, masking tape shingles and some door and window castings from a nearly depleted stash. The windows are actually cut down from some that were 3 times as big originally. The glue and paint is still drying in these photos and it was difficult to get any decent light indoors but far too windy outside to take any outdoors. As usual, the camera reveals all sorts of faults, gaps and mistakes but overall I'm happy with it so far. I will probably do what I usually do and decide to add all of the final details once it's installed on the layout and then subsequently never get around to adding them, but you never know. Firstly, a few snaps of it on its own