aberdare

Both of those models are fantastic, I continue to be amazed by what you achieve on such a small scale. I look forward to seeing C of T being completed. Oh! and don't let that enthusiasm wane any more please, keep up the great and inspirational work.. Jim

I like that a lot and have just read all the posts. I want too build a model of 1300 which ran on the Hemyock branch and was very similar to this so thanks for sharing your build. Jim

Great stuff as usual Mikkel. I shall make sure I don't offend you at anytime, not with you practising all that Voodoo stuff. Lovely modelling to finish the coach off and I bet you had a satisfied smile on your face after fitting the Lid. Jim

Hi Jeff They are great pictures of the old line. I do wonder if the cleanliness of the lineside at that time was to minimise fire risk in those remote areas - just a thought - and when steam was phased out there was no longer any further need to maintain it, maybe someone with far greater knowledge than I could enlighten us. I particularly like that fencing on top of the hill in the first photograph as it is a bit unusual, well worth modelling in my opinion. Jim

Hi John Great to see this on here and I shall become a follower of this now that I know of it. I love all the detail and busy look of the yard as there is always something to look at, the new additions are looking good too and it will be interesting to follow the development of these. I like to see how other large GW layouts progress. Jim

Jeff I must say that my wife downloads a few out of print books but most of the time we pick them up from 2nd hand Bookshops, we go down to Hay every couple of years and stock up as well as an annual visit to Barter books in Alnwick. We have managed to pick up a lot that way. I used to read a lot of Sci-Fi in the 70s, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Ray Bradbury spring to mind as being some favourites, but tastes change and it is a lot different now though I did read a book called Anathem by Neal Stephenson a couple of years back, which involved Quantum Mechanics and planetary debate or something like that. One of my favourite series though were the Duncton Chronicles in the early 90s and still have the complete set. Right I'll let you get back to your reading. Jim

Blimey Jeff - one of the best!! high praise indeed. Mind you I would like it to appear in BRM or similar as I would feel the effort was all worthwhile. Freeman status - My Lord thou shalt not be disappointed, I promise to work hard and bring back tales from a far away place called Hemyock which I shall fill with wondrous buildings and an iron road. Upon this iron road will ride magnificent Iron Horses dressed in green and red and adorned with brass towing carriages of cream and brown lined black and gold, they will be driven by fire and breath plumes of smoke, fearsome beasts to the ignorant of such things, but not us my Lord. Right that's the bit of insanity over, back to normal life now. Look forward to the sounds of locos in the hills. Jim (free loony)

Evening Jeff I don't think there was that much of a drop in modelling as I remember posting about taking the your portal with you to your dads, remember that was scratch built (= real modelling). Good to see you are determined to get out there again and do some more though, but it does seem a tad cold at the moment. As for your comments on books etc, I agree. My wife has a Kindle but both she and I prefer a real book and I got through three over the festive break, now it is back to modelling and luckily enough I am keeping to my planned schedule so far. I want to get that damn shed done by the months end. I did think I might have to apply some of Andys weathering techniques but the photos always show it looking immaculate, won't be difficult then will it? Great index by the way, it saves a heck of a lot of trawling so thanks for that. Jim (peasant lunester - can I be made a free man now my Lord,- Pleeease

Hi Stefan I look forward to your next project as I still have my Saint to Atlantic to complete some time in the future, so I will be interested to see what you do to get the wheel arrangement as I have not given it any thought yet. My other problem will be replacing a full taper boiler with a half taper which I don;t think you have to do (I've not checked so will look later). I think by the end of the year you will have all the locos I would like to have once I get the mods done, I wonder when that will be!! I think I have said it before and if I have I'll say it again, I love this Dean Single conversion. Cheers Jim

Thanks for the replies. Michael W - There are times when my patience gets a bit stretched but I just get up and walk away until I feel ready to have another go, usually it's down to lack of dexterity as I am quite content to sit and make fiddly little bits. I still remember my first attempt at this years ago, it looked nothing like this as I'd only made two sides and the end from sheets of card with planks stuck on, pretty basic stuff. The eye for detail and patience came with age. Best of luck with your projects. Michael Campbell - Those pantiles have bugged me for ages so it felt good to come up with a solution that worked for me, mind you it took three attempts at fitting and the renewal of tile battens before I was finally happy, the commercial tiles nearly went back on until I had another brainwave. Part of the roof will be revealed at the back end of the shed as it will also let a little light in to allow the framing to be seen. Chris - I agree with you on having the roof come off as that is what I have done with the station building but it was too difficult with this one with all the framing showing, putting 'things inside things' as you say just seems right and leaves one feeling content that it is there even if others think why bother - my wife for one. Jim

Things have moved on albeit slower than I would have wished, but progress has been made all the same. The boards for one side were completed with the addition of the strip to give the feathering effect and after fitting these were given a first coat of paint. This has been stone No1 as it appears to be the colour used, assumed by perusing the B&W photographs and comparing it to the other shades of grey of known colours. Those of you who have read the earlier threads know of my dissatisfaction of the manufactured pantiles shape in comparison to the prototype and I was determined to find a way of representing the double pantile effect seen on the photographs. So I tried a few different things and eventually found something that worked for me and the results can be seen in the following photographs. They may not be as perfect as the moulded ones but from a normal viewing distance I think they give the feel of the real thing. See what you think and don't worry if you disagree because they are staying anyway. Right here goes. I used a large sheet of plasticard and attached a number of half round strips, this were 1mm in diameter and placed 1mm apart , the theory beiing these would give me a double pantile of 4mm rather than the 5mm of the commercial ones. I had to file away the underside to create the concave curve to the underside for the bottom row as these are visible on the model, this first row sits with the top of the tile below the batten so that the following row sits on the batten, this raises the lower edge slightly above the previous row to give the effect of sitting on the lower tile. If you follow my waffle. A picture paints a thousand words so, The effect can be seen better on the top rows especially. Once painted (properly) and weathered to bottom edges will be darker and a curved effect will be created by the half round strips blocking the view of a blunt closed end. Another shot to show what I mean. Those close 2.5x shots are cruel though, looks like I need to do some tidying up with the old head magnifier on. Hopefully when finished it should look something like the real thing http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/h/hemyock/index34.shtml for those who have not seen it before. I hope to complete this side over the weekend and the complete thing in around 2 weeks, including birds nest! time will tell. I did take another inside shot but I think I will leave that until later when it is complete. One last thing is to decide whether or not to include a repair in progress on the roof to reveal the timbers, I'm tempted to as I can think of a good reason for such a cameo. Thanks again for looking in. Jim

Hi Jeff All my comments (re-Hemyock) were tongue in cheek of course, I could not keep up a thread like this one as I'm not on here often enough but like I've said before it does have its club type appeal which is what we enjoy. As for griming up the track I have used both brush and spray but only use the latter if doing larger areas. After the distraction of my copy of BRM dropping through the door I managed to take a few pictures ready for an update, once I have done that then I will press on with the tiles and hope to complete one side of the carriage shed roof this weekend. With the colder weather keeping me indoors it should be easy. Jim

Morning my Lord Blimey! you have a few days away from the thread and there's pages to wade through, where to start that's the question. Iv'e been tied up with my caring role this end and looks as if I will be for a while yet, but then again that's why i retired early which is a positive in itself. Retirement that has been mentioned in the last few days and like you I was 55 when I hung up my work boots and I was 58 last December, not from anything railway related though, I was a Process Manager in a plastics factory (Injection Moulding) heading up a small team of technicians. Now then what else. Oh sheds, mine is full of hand tools, power tools, tins of bolts, screws, plugs etc and a cement mixer, I used to renovate all my old houses so if you think of all the stuff I used to have in a 28 x 12ft barn at one time time so if you imagine all the cra equipment one collects in such a space, that is now crammed into two sheds and some of my garage space. Occasionally the air gets a bit blue when I can't find something. However the new garage is now planned for end of April all being well and I did get a couple of hours preparing for it yesterday. Like others this is one of my favourite threads so long may it continue and what will be discussed when the 10K comes up I wonder. That reminds me I'd better get something done and post on my dry, boring thread , I think I need some prompting to get those bl**dy tiles on, only a few more hundred to go - why do I do it! Because I go around studying photographs and real things and think I'll have a go at that, that's why... Right, chores all done, post typed, time for that deserved coffee now. Catch you later, oh and put that book down and get that grass laid . Mind you I was sitting there reading my new William Dean book last night instead of tiling so I'm a fine one to talk. Jim (a mere luney peasant)

She did, well sort of anyway. I got all the etchings for 2-4-0T 1384 a regular on the branch from 1905/6 while the other engine was at Swindon for mods. All I need now is the time to build it, I'll have to consult the diary and see when I can squeeze it in. Jim PS - Don't go sitting up till four in the morning again, those night shifts are bad for you.

Hi Jeff Those brainwaves can be a nuisance sometimes can't they, they eat into our modelling time but as long as the end result is satisfying all is well. Some of mine just get me into trouble and I have to have a couple more to get out of it As for Georges videos, yes I have seen those and they are very instructive and it makes one tempted to build in ply, something I've not done yet. Decorating starts tomorrow and I have permission to attend the open day at Stafford, I must have been good Right I'd better see if I can get a bit more done to the 'masterpiece', I'm definitely doing something easier next. Jim

Hi Jeff "The track is almost down - though it's taken me nearly 3 months! Nearly 40 turnouts, each with Cobalts and all the soldering/droppers etc has been a fair job! But it looks pretty reasonable." That's not bad going though is it. Once I get my new shed later in the year I will have to look at getting all mine down and it will take me a lot longer than that mainly through a limited budget that will have been blown on the shed itself. I think it will take me a couple of years to catch up to where you are now, still I've got my little BLT to keep me going whilst dreaming about the rest. Jim

Lovely work there Mikkel and I will certainly be using your roofing technique when I eventually get round to building some early coaches for Hemyock. As for the handrails I always like to add them as it just finishes them off, I've still got a lot of them to add yet as well - yet more things to do! Jim

Thanks for the big thumbs up Gary. Things were very quiet (modelling wise) over the Christmas period and nothing got done at all, it also took me until yesterday to start again and then only for a couple of hours in the evening. I hope to progress a bit further over the next few days with the tiling which is giving more problems than I thought it would, however I have changed tack and it seems OK now. Once I have part of it complete I may post a picture or two as the whole thing is going to take an age to do. I have got to go and prune an orchard for a friend who broke his leg and the wife wants some decorating done so time will be at a premium for a while, but I want to get this done as I have 1384 waiting to be built later in the year. Thanks again for looking in and I'll try to keep the updates coming. Jim

I think this is quite true as there is a good mix of characters on here, I'm the quiet one with a smile on his face listening to all the witty banter. Good to know you are back in the bunker Jeff and that the hills are calling to you, I expect they will put in an appearance sooner than you expect. Still not much happening my end and the wife is now talking about decorating, I can't seem to convince her it is more important to paint railway stuff instead of walls and woodwork. Oh well, might as well accept it and get it out the way. Jim

Hi Jeff I think you'll go well beyond the 5 or 6000 figure, you will reach that just getting that grass down and then there's all that scratch building to do, more like 20 000 I think. Reels of solder amongst the books and next to the armchair earlier! wouldn't be allowed in this house, I had to get special permission to use the dining table and I'll be evicted again once the warmer weather arrives. I tried some modelling tonight but kept getting a headache when I wore my glasses for close up work so had to give it up, oh well tomorrows another day. Jim

Hi Mikkel Not the same kits as such, just in the same state. I just loved brass back in those days and have some from Colin Waite, Mallard and TMD to name but a few. It will take me ages to repair/complete those I have before staring on anything new.

I've got several kits like that, they were all built in the late 70s or early 80s and now need the same sort of care and attention. Like you I did not want to practice my skills on them so I purchased an old loco kit that needed a lot of work doing to it, at least if anything goes wrong I won't be too bothered and if it goes well I have another model to use. Happy New Year and I look forward to the next blog Jim

Hi Jeff Thought I had better just pop in to have a look before the year is out and was surprised to see I have had a name change. Your comment yesterday - "Plenty of ongoing, excellent projects. Here on KL, lots to do. Mike's Dent Station. Jason's masterpiece at Bacup. Michael's 009 project. Bill at Hemyock. Bill with his artistry, Andy with his coaches, Gordon with Eastwood Town, Jonathan - with his planned loft-based Midland panorama. Larry with Greenfield, and plenty more... And, of course, master loonster himself, AndyP with his O, OO and N gauge projects.". or is it that there are so many followers you are going to eventually call us all Bill to avoid any confusion.. Funnily enough there was a Bill at Hemyock in 1895, he was the engine driver and had the same surname as me, must be a connection somewhere. Despite you not modelling there's still an awful lot to catch up on, but then again Iv'e nothing much else to do. We've been laid up with a virus this end, wife just before Xmas and my resistance to it crumbled yesterday so taking it easy, mind you it gave me some funny dreams including being lost in a blizzard on the S&C (I was feeling cold at the time). I must be becoming one of those Looney Lunesters! As for numbers, I love them, I used to do a lot a statistical analysis with them when I was in the plastics industry. Hoping to get back to modelling in a few days once I have regained control of the dining table. In the meantime a happy New Year to you and all the other Lunesters. Bill oops I mean Jim

Blimey! the missus was all doom & gloom this morning and I thought that was our Xmas plans derailed, thankfully I have cheered her up since then and all is well - Phew. So I'm going to thoroughly enjoy Christmas now so it just leaves me to wish all ERs a very happy Christmas and New Year. All the best Jim

Thanks for the kind comments, I must admit once I had completed it I did consider having a builder up his ladder replacing a few tiles on the far end which is still something to think about. Afterall some maintenance will have been carried out during its life. More to come in the New Year once I have made the tiles. Jim