aberdare

Blimey Ian that photo brings back a few memories.

I started my career in Plastics on Austin Allens just like that as well as some old Ankerwerk 60 ton presses including No3 from the mid fifties which was supposed to have gone to the company at the end of its life as a museum piece, It's a far cry from the all electric Sumitomo machines we were using at the end of my career.

Of course things move on and the industry now seems to focus on on ever larger machines and multi-cavity tools - I have tested and approved 128 impression tools before now - and the smaller machines that people like Coopercraft need are not as common now so tend to be more expensive from new, from memory I think 'Boy' used to do quite a few but that is going back a few years.

Happy days - most of the time!

Jim

Part two in the hugely ignored 'what modelling I did at Christmas' theme.

 

 

Not completely ignored Jason, I'm just not doing anything.

Unfortunately with Tennis elbow in both arms I have enough trouble controlling me tea & biccies let alone a scalpel or a bottle of Mek . Have arranged for injections in the New Year so hopefully will get back to it later without risk of mishaps to me or the models, I still enjoy seeing what others like your good self are up to though.

All the best

Jim

Hi Chris

The coaches in that film clip are indeed family saloons, I know Worsley works do a G2 and Shirescenes the G20 which looks a bit like those seen. From memory I think the BGS do one as well.

I'd like to get one or two for the Culm Valley line along with a Hounds Van as there used to be a Hunt up the line in the early years.

Jim

Hi Al

Just catching up with progress and the cottages in the earlier post are looking good, I can see what you mean about them being perched on the hill though as it doesn't look quite right, mind you the last house I lived in and a few others in this Village do perch on the side of hills. The only difference being the fronts have a more level frontage (roadside) with a sharp rise/fall from there to the back of the house and beyond, I used to store a wine collection (long gone since retirement) in a store at the back of my house which was virtually underground.

All looking good though keep up the good work.

Jim

My dear wife had arranged for us to go to an Xmas dinner by the local MS Society, all paid for except for drinks, we had a great time and a good laugh even though we had not met any of the folk before who were there.

The following day after I had cooked lunch my wife got some chocolates out that she took the previous day for a raffle prize that was not used, she commented that she thought it strange as well as the fact they bought us a drink. I asked her for the letter and could not not help but smile as I told her that she had got the date wrong and we were then supposed to be attending the dinner and went to a completely different one the previous day.

I've no idea whose dinner we went to but we were made most welcome, given a small free gift and told that they looked forward to seeing us again. Best free lunch we have ever been to.

But I was gutted that I had just cooked a lunch I didn't need to had we realised earlier..

Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year from Jim & Linda (the oldest gate crashers in town)

CHUFFED! I should think you are Chris they are just great and look very very good and.... well I'm a bit lost for words really but it has been enjoyable following the build for the last few months and the results speak for themselves.

Great stuff and now you can sit back, relax and have a really good Christmas with a satisfied smile on your face for a job well done.

Have a good time Chris

Jim

What a great post, I love little tales like this as it helps to build a story around the whole layout and though it is out of period to model I'm sure I can use the mystery of the 'Hole of Hemyock' somewhere.

Thanks very much for that post and feel free to add anything else about the Village and its characters as it helps to build a picture, when I get around to completing it I intend to write a fictional story of the Station and its area and it would be great to include these little gems in some way.

During my research I also found that one of the first motor cars in the area was owned by a doctor in Willand (Tiverton Junction) from Sept 1907 and I have a book of his diaries of car driving at that time, a great thing to have and maybe just an excuse for a slight diversion from everything being horsedrawn.

Finally it just leaves me to wish everyone who reads this thread a Very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

As do a few of the locals

(the chap 5th from left is getting an ear bashing for pinching the young lady on the behind - honestly those Edwardians, tut tut)

All the best

Jim

Chris

Great work on those coaches once again and they will certainly be something to be proud of once finished.

I prefer the idea of staples to hang the footboards on and I will be doing something similar later as I am not happy with the fine plastic strip I used, it's a bit too flexible at times and has even snapped off once. Like Andy I also found the board fouling the rocking axle unit if anything moved so definitely a few mods needed there.

I look forward to the completed coaches which I guess will be sometime next year now.

Jim

Hi Al

You are setting a cracking pace with this layout - compared to me anyway - and the standard of work just as good as always, as for not always using the cutter I do that a lot too especially for the odd item as it's more bother getting it out and setting it up than to build from scratch. I might try and make time to produce a sheet of stock items like doors and windows so I can dip in when needed, I've just done that with a sheet of slates to cut out the monotony of producing hundreds for my Mill/Factory.

Great to see the layout progressing well though as it gives me a prompt to do a little more.

Paul

That build of the plough is just fantastic, I remember a few years ago I had a couple of of NE Snowplough books that I acquired from someones estate, I thought at the time what a great subject they would make for a scratchbuild but obviously not for me so it is great to see one made now. Had I known you then I would have offered them to you rather than sell them on.

I think you have captured the look really well.

Jim

Thanks Colin,

I'm glad that you have found a few things to interest you on here, progress is a little slow at the moment as care duties and car issues became the priority for a while and the former still has a way to go yet.

However none of that stops the old brain working and a bit more research has been carried out when possible. One of the things that bothered me was the tall chimney that can be seen on most photographs of the factory as to its actual position and attached boiler house, this can be seen here http://blackdownarchives.org.uk/category/trades/milk-factory/page/3/  fifth picture down. So you can imagine how confused I was by this next picture - second down http://blackdownarchives.org.uk/category/trades/milk-factory/, as can be seen that is not a nice brick boiler house, cue more research.

By using aerial photographs and OS maps I was able to determine that the new chimney was built in front of my factory on the end of a much larger building, I am assuming that this was between 1916 and 1920 when United Dairies expanded the business after buying out the Culm Valley Dairy, my building would seem to have been destroyed in a large fire in 1923 and the corn mill probably went in 1916 at the take over, so I will be making the ramshackle boiler house and will also try to replicate the boilerman, he looks a great character and can't be ignored, but that's a job for later.

Now that is clear in my mind I am going to get on with the rooves for each part, the older mill in slate and the factory in tiles, I just like the idea of seeing different textures as they cover a large area. Once these are sitting in place (not fixed) I will assess what can be seen through the windows in case I have to make some representations of De Laval Separators https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/6c/2b/8d/6c2b8dab6ae014975964d561b1bd5a78.jpg.

Just to finish a picture to show current state of play with windows, office door, canopy and line into one loading bay.

Hopefully progress will continue to be made albeit slowly.

Jim

I look forward to seeing the results of your work as I also think trees need to be as realistic as possible and it is something that I aim for on my own layout, I use both the copper wire method and natural. I never really followed any particular method as I just looked at what I had available and dived in, after all each tree is always a unique item in itself and am always fascinated to see the odd way some grow.

My wire examples start around p9 post 214 ( I think) of my thread and end on p13, natural ones appear later if you are interested.

I hope you achieve the look you are after, best of luck

Jim

Hi Jim,

 

Thanks for that I do agree they are much better. Just a shame I have been banned from spending on the railway at the moment, apparently we have to buy the kids Christmas pressies first. I would like to make my own trees but I just don't think I would be very good at it, I wouldn't even know where to start despite reading how others had done it.

 

I guess when it comes to where to put the fence I will need to go look at lots of photos to see if the Brighton would have had any on the lineside.

 

Gary

I must admit that I do not spend money on anything I can make myself apart from base materials, in the case of the trees I was lucky enough to have a several metres of speaker wire left over from some work years ago, add to that some left over flexible grey floor tile grout, then paint, PVA and water all mixed in an empty weed killer spray bottle and a few hours later a tree, Even my foliage was mostly made from dried & dyed tea leaves so all in all probably even cheaper than the ones you are looking at.

Others come from dwarf shrubs such as Thyme grown from 60p nursery plants and again PVA, tea leaves and a bit of hairspray, I am now also starting to use some silk lap that I picked up for 85p when I took the wife to one of her Sewing & Knitting fairs.

So I keep costs to a minimum by foraging about in mine and others gardens as well as the local hedgerows, I can then spend my money on things such as the Stadden figures that I can't make, I did have a go once though, but they looked even worse than Frankensteins monster.

So if it works it works and if not, well we tried and failed, so what, have a go at something else as it might just work.

All the best

Jim

Hi Gary

Those trees from the model tree shop look much better than what you had so I would definitely go with them and with what you have planned they should end up looking pretty good, as for trees near the line I do know on the line I am modelling there were plenty just over the railway boundary fencing on the farmland. For the first 24 years of the CVLR being open the station was actually over shadowed by some rather tall trees on nearby land.

Personally I like to make my own trees to get the unique look of each but then again I love the scenic side of things.

Jim

I too thought about buying the latest 1860 set with the free figures but took a little time out to think about it and decided not to, there would just be too many I could not use as good as they are, The only use would be the same as Edwardian suggested in mentioning the opening ceremony of the line - 1876 for me - where that type of dress can be seen.

I'll definitely be buying a few of the driver/fireman sets though.

Jim

That is a heck of a lot of slates to fit Paul and a lot of brickwork to paint later too.

I think that amount of repetitive work would test my patience and I would have to have a good few breaks, it'll be a stunning feature once done though with a length of almost five feet.

Jim

Hi Neil

I may have to see if I can make any time to investigate Inkscape as it seems to be the preferred package for a lot of people now especially for more complex work, so far I have stuck with the supplied software as it has been capable of doing everything I have asked of it so far, the trouble is the time to use what I learn before I forget it again and end up back to square one.

I really need to make more use of the cutter though rather than it sitting back in its box for months on end, maybe I need to spend more winter evenings drawing stuff up ready for cutting later, then again I already have a few other bits waiting for me to use. Back to that thing called time again.

Glad to see that you are making progress though and I will keep an eye open for more posts when I can.

All the best

Jim

I have now completed building the rest of the walls to give me some stronger box sections for handling and then placed this on a board with some corner blocks inside to keep the whole structure square, a necessity to allow me to form the roof shapes.

These have also now been fitted and I can start to fit the windows and secure them before roofing commences, the windows are some etched ones from the early 80s that I had and the fineness of them seemed to suit the factory well as will be seen in the pictures. This one is not fixed yet as I just wanted to see how it looked, as this will be the office I do have another with opening lights at the top that could be more suitable and may be chosen instead although the window aperture will need widening by about a millimetre.

Here are a few photos to show progress to date.

I only have to decide on how I am going to have the glazing bars in the curved sections above the main windows, the picture I have seems to show a fan pattern but that may just be a step too far for a building that will sit near the back of the layout, but we'll see.

Catch you all later with more progress, hopefully next week.

Thanks for dropping in.

Jim

Nick

Doncaster is definitely one of the shows I can make as I can get there in an hour or so, I will make plans to visit nearer the time all being well.

I shall be looking forward to that visit immensely.

Jim

Hi Nick

I know what it is like to suffer from a few cobwebs out in the shed but luckily for me the largest ones are up near the roof and not on the layout, as for the tree I guess that is one of the hazards of an exhibition layout - bits fall off - at least with mine the leaf fall remains pretty stable, that is as I modeled it.

It's also good to hear about what you are doing at Pendon with the younger generation.

One day I would like to see MM but sadly I think I am just too far north for that to be feasible.

Keep up the good work.

Jim

Hi Gary

I wondered where you had got to as I had not come across any posts on here and I noted that you had left YMR, it was only the fact I spotted your other post today and followed the link here that I found out you are still modelling away.

Even though this is not my 'kind of thing' I see that it is still up to your usual high standard, I shall have to try and remember to drop in from time to time.

Jim

Hi Al

I love that solution to the seating, so simple and yet so effective. As you know I am not one for doing interiors but I do enjoy watching how you go about yours especially when they are illuminated as well.

Going back a few posts I think the minimum glazing bar thickness I got was 0.35mm but it does seem to depend on the support around that bar, in my case some of the panes were only 2 or 3mm in size so that seemed to help.

Keep up the good work.

Jim

Thanks Andy, I like to share when I can as I remember very well how I was inspired by others sharing their work when I first joined, with a bit of luck I should keep doing this for a while yet.

Chris - Yes I have and I am hoping to get to York next year so I can buy a few bits for the detailing. As for the pace that is because this is the quick bit - building a framework - it will slow up a bit for some of the work to come.

Mikkel, the carcass and brickwork are cut out on the portrait cutter, the stone on the mill are Slaters with the front being an overlay on the brick that I thought looked wrong, like you I like the changes in size as well as the materials as it seems to show the history of an expanding business over the years. The larger bay on the right is the one that had the first line extended across the road from the station into the building, that may help why it is larger than the others.

The rest of the building is under construction so then I'll have a much more stable structure to handle, I have also selected a base to build it on now to keep it all square and eventually to have a surface for cobbles or sets that were in the yard.

Jim

Hi Chris

Congratulations on the Grand daughter.

The coaches are coming along well and I like the idea of your little jig for the seats, just goes to show how some simple things can make life so much easier.

I am looking forward to seeing them completed, are you brush painting or spraying them as I am interested to see how they turn out around the handles etc, I have always left them until last and just been careful not to mess up my paintwork.

All the best

Jim

Hi Jeff.

You can't take your eye of this topic for a minute or else it's all change, I'll have to try and stop those little one or two day breaks away that I have.

I can sympathise with what you are going through as I have done the same on a couple of occasions, I remember talking to Jason about this at Hull a couple of years back as to why I never did. The first time was when I first started back in 1980ish and I wanted to build everything from kits or scratch but I let my old man talk me out of it, he only wanted a big layout to run his stock on and also tried to get me to model the mid 30s.   I wasn't having that though. I then thought about it really seriously again around 2002/3 and had a few discussions at the Doncaster show about converting to EM, I was well paid then and still just short of 50 years old, so plenty of time and money, then I changed jobs and moved house and that was that until I retired here 7 years later with those two critical elements.

As Hemyock and Tiverton Junction will be two separate layouts joined by a cassette I did consider it again for the former but abandoned that idea when I realised I would need two of everything for that line.

So I didn't do it as time and money would stop me from ever completing what I want, so how does that help you? Well, if I was in your shoes I would because I think you can tell it is one of those things that has and still does play on my mind and I wish I had told my old man not to interfere in my layout just as I didn't in his. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though isn't it.

All the best in your decision mate and I look forward to whatever it is you decide as KL will be great either way, the scenics will always make it special and that is why I spend so much time on mine as it is more important than the track to me as life is.

Jim