NeilHB

Alrighty folks, is it time to engage full blown panic mode yet?! T-minus 5 days and 15-hours to go till our Modelling Day on Saturday (have I mentioned that enough yet?!)! Painting of buildings continues at pace: Windows and doors next on the house/shop, and then roof etc. Farmers cooperative is still a bare shell, so that’s going on the cutting mat next! Walls need a coat of paint too. Water towers looking better now I’ve painted the mortar courses. The trees been bedded in too, which is a start. Ditto with the cattle dock and goods shed, they had their brickwork finalised, and now I can finish painting the rest of them. You’ll note the new yard surface, good fun this afternoon with the DAS clay. At least now the goods shed is bedded into the yard surface nicely. Coal merchants office has had a coat of paint, and needs the roof sorting now. Need to get a coat of paint or two on the stables as well. Looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday: Lets see how far I get between now and then…

Our group used to meet monthly in the pub, however since the pandemic we’ve been zooming twice a month. It’s been great as we can natter and do some modelling at the same time, plus our far flung members in York and Wales can join in regularly rather than only being present once or twice a year.

Thanks Annie. We did wonder where you were last night, and figured you were probably making a start on hunting the bacon required 🤣

Lots of progress today and particularly this evening during model railway group virtual pub meeting. The house and shop have now been assembled and clad with embossed plasticard. I’ve added a bit of pavement around them to bed them in and hide any gaps around them. Painting and windows/doors next. The warehouse has gone as I still wasn’t happy with it. Lots of filing to clean up the dry stone wall castings, but they’re ready for painting and glueing in place now. I’ve made a start on cladding the gable end of the train shed. Framing next and then the roof. I treated myself to a new stables - another Fair Price Models scratch aid and much better than my naff scratchbuilt attempt. This has been assembled and clad with embossed plasticard, and now needs painting and window/doors adding. I’ve also embedding this one into the yard surface, along with the coal merchants office and the coal staithe. Still debating whether the coal merchants office is too big for this location, but I think it’ll probably look better once it’s been painted (if I can decide on a colour scheme!).

Yesterday I put my woodworking skills to the test, and sorted out a new framework for the layout to sit on. It’s a folding ladder style structure of square timber, with pasting table style hinges to enable it to fold in half for ease of transport. Much better than the rather rubbish bits of timber I was using before! They will get recycled into brackets for the lighting units to clip onto on the back of the backscene in due course. Now ‘Gerda’ is back from sound fitting, I’ve been having great fun running her in and testing out a three train service on the layout. Here’s a few snaps from earlier of ‘Gerda’ in and around the yard doing some shunting: Taking water after arrival. Shunting wagons into the back siding. In the farmers cooperate society siding during shunting. Waiting to depart.

Lots of little baby steps at the moment, but it’s all progress! First coat of cream paint on the goods shed to bring it into the house colours of the tramway: Last night ETCo No.3 ‘Gerda’ returned from being sound fitted: Now I can line her out and add the steps etc and finish the detailing. It did mean that for the first time all four ETCo locos were together: Lovely stuff!

Walls! That looks better now - even if they are just temporarily in place to get a feel for how they look. Resin Dry Stone Wall sections from Skytrex. You’ll also note that some structures (water tower, farmers cooperative dock and yard office) have had their first coats of paint, which has helped. A bunch of suspicious looking characters were spotted earlier lurking on the platform…some would’ve said they’re wastin’ their time!

Thanks Annie, it was a bit of trial and error and hoping I didn't muck it up too much! I followed the guidance from this page for doing the backscene: https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/Techniques/scenery/how-to-paint-a-backscene

Today has been very productive, with the fascia boards attached permanently, the sky tweaked a bit more, and then the first coat of paint put on the fascia (left over from painting the cornice in the lounge and dining room - waste not want not!): I was going to sort out the new support system for the layout as well, but given the rather soggy weather today, I didn’t fancy cutting timber in the rain, so that will have to wait for a drier day.

I like that idea a lot - many thanks!

Progress report - fascia boards added, although they are temporarily propped in place for the photos but at least I’ve got them now! They’ve tidied the front of the layout up nicely I think. I’ll glue them in place tomorrow and then give them a coat of paint. You’ll be able to spot the results of Thursdays virtual pub meeting - the Farmers Cooperative Society dock and store is now in place, although the store needs cladding. I’ve purloined the loading dock from the seed and feed mill (mainly because it was already cut to fit the awkward shape of the site), and the tree has moved location to lurk behind the loading dock, and blocks the hole in the backscene nicely. The house/shop in the background will move to the left now to sit next to the hole in the backscene too. Ultimately I may add another building to the grouping, but that won’t happen until after Mickleover. Speaking of which - our Modelling Day is fast approaching! Details are all on our website - www.henmoredale.org.uk Hopefully we’ll see some of you there.

She looks superb John, simply superb!

Time for a bump - not long to go now folks! Phil Traxson has now confirmed that he's bringing his small 7mm standard gauge layout 'Black Drake Wharf' as well as the Port Wynnstay stand. I foresee that there will be much burning of the midnight oil in this house between now and then whilst I aim to ensure that Elsbridge is finished. Looking forward to seeing you all on the 28th January - come armed with full wallets and empty tums as there'll be plenty of cake and bacon butties to eat!

Sometimes a rethink is required, and you have to take everything off the layout to see things clearly again. The seed and feed mill at the front left is an imposing structure, and I was coming to the conclusion that it’s a bit too imposing for the layout. Having taken all the buildings off to touch up a couple of areas of the backscene earlier this evening, I had an I wonder what if moment… …and popped the goods shed on that siding instead. A quick exchange of messages with Mr Young resulted in a better suggestion, and the goods shed has been returned to its former location: The Farmers Cooperative Society store has then taken its place: It may get turned through 90degrees and made low-ish relief before I’ve finished deciding on its final position. I think this definitely fits the location better though. In the midst of all this I discovered a new view point, so here’s ‘Godred’ sitting at the bufferstops under the overall roof, having just arrived with a early evening goods tram:

No progress to report on over the last month for various reasons, but mainly because we made the mad decision earlier in December to put our house on the market, so it was a bit hectic trying to finish off all the projects that we’d started but hadn’t quite got round to finishing. It was well worth it though as we sold in less than four days from going on the market and for full asking price (eep!). That coupled with a delightful viral chest infection (bloody asthma but no trip to A&E this time so small mercies), meant that I’ve had no motivation for doing any modelling or work on the layout until the last couple of days. Panic mode may have kicked in earlier when the realisation hit me that Elsbridge is due out in just over 24 days to our open day (28th January)!! So I cracked on this afternoon and repainted the backscene: Still needs a bit of tweaking and another coat or two on certain colours, but it looks much better now I think. First day back at work tomorrow (urgh), but I’m determined to try and do a bit every day between now and the 28th.

Thanks John. Thanks to you and everyone else for all your comments etc during the last year, it’s been a big help at times when I wasn’t sure if I was making the right decisions. Merry Christmas to all from the ETCo - there should be exiting things happening in the new year 😁

She's a beauty John, the lowered boiler and fittings make a big difference to the overall appearance, and really help to give it that Victorian style/aesthetic.

The lighting units arrived yesterday, so were attached to the layout: Just goes to show that layout lighting does not need to the expensive or complicated! Much better now.

A visit from Mr Young this afternoon for a cuppa and a catch up resulted in the chance to test out some lighting for the layout: An adjustable LED Reading Lamp, with adjustable brightness and the option of daylight (as seen here), cool white or warm white settings. No complicated wiring, being USB powered, very easy to adjust to the right position and most importantly inexpensive! Three have been ordered which will cover the scenic portion of the layout nicely.

My order of suitably sized strip to finish off the roof trusses finally arrived yesterday, so I cracked on during my lunch break today and got them all cut out and assembled: Much better. A couple more bits of bracing to add and then I can enclose the far end up against the backscene, and start to think about the roof covering etc. Hopefully my Slaters order will arrive soon so that I can crack on with covering the various buildings on the layout too.

That was how the layout was originally built.

Virtual pub meeting last night, so I made some more progress on various projects. I’ve started to clad the parcels lockup to match the goods shed, the framing will be next. The platform edging/facing has been redone, and is now brick faced and better than the first attempt. I’ve also done a bit more on the train shed and enclosed the nearest end partly as a bit of protection against the weather. I can’t do much more with it at the moment as I’ve run out of suitably sized strip for the roof trusses. They’ll get progressed in due course when my order arrives. It will then get clad to match the goods shed and parcel lockup so that there is a house style to the main buildings.

They really are rather cute Annie. Perhaps their previous owner put them through the wash on too high a temperature?

Last night I said I wasn’t going to bother doing the framing for the gable ends. Having slept on it I decided that given the train sheds location right at the front of the layout that I couldn’t get away with that: So I’ve made a start on them. I’ve also added all of the corner braces to each post (that was fun 🤪)

Modelling mojo seems to be back in full force now (and I finally feel better, what a horrendous 9 days that was!!), and I’ve really cracked on last night and today between working: The Seed and Feed mill is ready to be clad (probably stone though I keep changing my mind). Then the Stables appeared: And the Parcels Lockup on the platform: Lastly, who left that blooming great thing there: I’ve made a start on the framework for the train shed! Gable ends next (though as they’ll be hidden behind solid ends I’m not going to bother with the framing). Off for a lie down now after all that modelling, I’m done in 😆