HSB

No point in worrying about staircases as they simply wouldn't be seen. I wasted time putting some steps just inside the entrance which can't now be seen. Having decided we had put enough bits inside where they will show through the windows I have finally stuck the fourth side in place. I hope to start on the main roof tomorrow.

Still making bits to go inside but we're nearly there. We've basically used bits and pieces we had to hand to make things which look vaguely like the sort of things found in a brewery. I have found several diagrams of the brewing process and the illustrations of the various bits of equipment are different in every one! I think, once the side is on, only a really dedicated brewery geek will be able to tell if it's right or wrong 🙂.

Basically will stop many elderly people who can't cope with ticket machines or smart phones, many disabled people and those with learning difficulties from using trains!

"The train now standing ON Platform One is......" TT120! Having discovered that what Hornby have been advertising as BCKs are actually BSKs I have bought this BSK-CK-BSK rake for a possible future project. We had a session on Ramchester this afternoon with both of us still making bits to go inside the brewery. Hopefully I'll be able to glue the fourth side in place later this week.

By coincidence I saw Sir Nigel on Saturday on his way to Kingswear. 😉

What we really need from Hornby for longer formations is an SK or TSO which, as Covkid said, shared the same bodyshell so models would just need different interiors and roof details. The mislabelling of the BSKs as BCKs had put me off buying any Mk1s up until now as I didn't want to have to replace the sides with brass overlays in this small scale.

I noticed on the Gaugemaster site that the Hornby Mk1 brakes are described as Brake Seconds rather than Brake Composites and on checking the photo I see that they are indeed BSKs although they are still described as BCKs on the Hornby site! This means you can actually make up a believable three coach train of Mk1s after all.

Almost a month since our last post and little activity on the layout apart from making up a few bits to go inside the Brewery. These will just be vague shapes when seen through the windows. We haven't actually done anything in Rod's shed for a couple of weeks although Rod and I were invited over to Zobland last Friday for a play. I've just come back from a very pleasant few days in Wales which included a trip on the Vale of Rheidol and a ride on Aberystwyth Cliff Railway. I was hoping to see the VoR's Beyer Garrat but couldn't see any sign of it!

I was hoping they'd bring a BR version out but after seeing this I won't bother! I'm still wondering whether to repaint my Mink A into BR unfitted grey livery or try fitting tie bars and brake cylinders to match the bauxite livery Hornby have produced it in. In both cases it will need to be renumbered!

I've now glued on the front and put some more floors inside. These are mainly there so the windows on one floor can't be seen when looking through the windows on the floor above. I am using some bits of wood to straighten them out once they're in place although they will hardly be seen when the other side is glued on.

The axles are also too long!

Apart from a batch built in the early 70s on redundant Palvan chassis' they should be 16' 6" long on a 9' wheelbase chassis. Somebody actually does various 3D printed versions of the mineral wagons although the chassis' aren't as accurately detailed as the Hornby ones.

I've been able to glue the rear wall to one of the side walls at last along with the ground floor. The other walls have been temporarily pushed into place:-

As Brian has said we went to the Bristol Exhibition on Sunday which we all enjoyed. Way back before they built the M5 visiting the Bristol Exhibition was the highlight of the modelling year as it was about as far as it was practical to drive for an exhibition and I remember a whole gang of us from South Devon MRS packed into the back of Brian's van. I've done a bit more work on the brewery this week with a couple of downpipes now in place.

We haven't been able to spend a lot of time in Rod's shed over the last few weeks but the roofs and guttering on the brewery are slowly progressing.

I presume the tank model is based on one in a museum somewhere. I have looked at numerous photos but the nearest one I can find with these proportions has a cradle-mounted tank with a wooden underframe! While these models are superbly detailed I wish they'd chosen something more typical.

No more progress on Ramchester to report as both Rod and I have both been away on a short walking holiday in Ilfracombe with a rambling club we belong to. Our walk on Tuesday included the 1 in 36 climb out of Ilfracombe Station along the old trackbed. While the station itself is long gone there is a running in board and a gradient sign outside the town museum. The path passes through a short tunnel and under a couple of road bridges along the way and there are a couple of platelayer's huts and a fixed distant signal beside the track.

Not a lot of progress over the last few weeks as either one or both of us always seem to be tied up with other things but I have started adding some guttering and slates to parts of the brewery. We bought some guttering from Modelu but I found it far too fragile and impossible to cut to length without it disintegrating so I have gone back to using half round plastic rod with just the odd Modelu detailing part here and there..

I haven't done anything on Brückenheim since my last post but as a change from me working on Ramchester Rod came round to me on Friday which meant a serious attempt at a tidy-up before he came! Unfortunately, while the railbuses which were already standing on the layout ran up and down with no problems, when I put my V100 on there was no response to the controller and the same with my V60! I eventually solved that problem by changing to a long address although it had run perfectly well on it's original address previously! While shunting a train in the station we then discovered part of the front loop was dead! Today Rod came round again and we were able to fix that problem by adding a new feed to one of the rails after which we were able to continue the shunt we started on Friday without anymore problems.

I have a picture somewhere, I'll post it when I eventually find it! Based on 37 with four-wheel bogies. When I was a child they had an American-style loco but I think this was vandalised and ended up in the lake to be replaced by the '37' which was produced locally by a firm in St. Marychurch.

I don't know where that is but definitely not Paignton Zoo!

There were several classes which were delivered to more than one region. At the moment all we get from Heljan and Dapol is an endless succession of DMUs which only ran on the WR!

A non-Western Region DMU.

All the windows are now glazed and I've also done a bit more work on the roofs. I thought I'd take a picture of the rear of the building for a change.

After a short gap when first I had a cold and then Rod got one a few days later we managed to get a session in yesterday when I glued the last five windows in place. A while ago Rod assembled an LNWR loading gauge which was 3D printed for us by Chris Ward which I have now positioned in the goods yard. I'm not convinced a station like Ramchester where goods would be mainly incoming actually needs a loading gauge but Rod wanted one so here it is. We had a visit from Peter Crichton (Savoyard) today who brought a Lenz loco and crane he's recently purchased but I'll leave it to Rod to put some pictures up.