Dava

There were 8 Island Terriers, the book of the same name shows them on a range of passenger & goods workings on the IoW Rail network. 7 were there at the peak. Dava

Terriers certainly shunted Hodson's Mill siding on the KESR. Possibly a subject for my own model someday. I have a blue Terrier 'Bodiam' on order and also have a P class which the mill owner bought to bring trains in & out after closure by BR. Dava

You may not find exactly what you want Slaters do a 2'7" 8 spoke wagon wheel in their 21mm gauge range, you'd need to adapt the wheel centre/spokes Or a 4mm scale 17mm dia driver & cut out half the spokes Either could work Dava

John, Thanks for your interest. The motor is a small Mashima, a 1824 I think, driving a Scale Link 40:1 gearset. I made the gearbox which you can see in the chassis view on my gallery because the axles are Slaters 1/8" as the driving wheels are from their narrow gauge range, I had to use these to get the 2'3" diameter http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/42965-peckett-class-1287/ I hope this helps Dava

A few evenings and weekend work has brought some progress to Coxheath Sidings. I had bought a couple of loco flywheels in the UK and intended to fit one to the Peckett 1287 class, which was my first 0 Gauge scratchbuilding project a few years ago. The flywheel fitted onto the motor shaft no problem at all and certainly smoothed the running..... Some modifications mainly using a heated scalpel were needed inside the body to obtain the clearance in the firebox area for the flywheel, after which it looked and ran satisfactorily. This little loco is ideally sized for the microlayout and runs nice and slowly. Meanwhile I had been using foamboard to build the first of a series of low relief structures for the backline of the layout. Here is a workshop having its roof slates added this afternoon. The sandstone effect is carved into the foamboard with a pencil and then coloured with acrylic paints. Later on, after two coats of paint on the roof (and the evening out at the pub) the building is placed on the layout next to the retaining wall and footbridge. It requires gutters, bargeboards & small details adding. Here is an under-bridge view. The structures will be bedded into the foamboard as the bridge piers have been before surface texture & track ballast is added. Lots to do. Finally the Peckett on the sector table. Lots of shunting practice now taking place with this delightful loco, before a congratulatory beer on this hot evening. NB Beer footnote: Big Spruce did not make it to our Farmers Market this morning but this catastrophe was mitigated by the opening of the Breton Brewing microbrewery on site which provides alternative tastes! Dava

Thanks Peter, Good ideas, I should have paid more attention to Ian Kirk's bits box! I follow your 'Out of doors' thread with interest, as well as the Cadbury's. I've thought a microlayout based on part of Rowntree's factory in York could be an interesting project, but not this time! Dava

I've started building some low- relief structures from foamboard to go on the back line of the baseboard. It's pretty quick to work & should have some results soon. I'd like a 4 or 6 wheel coach body to sit in the yard, this was a common feature at many stations but I don't intend sacrificing a running vehicle or an expensive kit. Any ideas welcome, this would be an attractive resin, lasercut or even 3D print kit in 7mm scale. There is even a Flickr photopool of grounded bodies showing how they ended up. Maybe the old Highfields Models coach kits would be ideal for this. Here is a grounded NER coach body on the Derwent Valley Light Railway, a typical light/branch line feature Looking at what people are doing with CAD, Silhouette cutters etc makes me feel well behind the curve but I already spend enough time using a computer for work etc and the attraction of modelling is that it's hands-on. Written sitting on the decking here in backwoods Cape Breton, feeling like ED Reardon (available here on iPlayer). Just heard the Greeks have stuffed the Euro! Dava

It was good to revisit the Sydney & Louisburg Station Museum at Louisbourg, NS on 1 July. The Canada Day celebrations were taking place in & around the station with practically the whole community there, waving the flag and eating red & white cake! Almost exactly a year after my first visit, at the start of this thread, it was clear that the station building, the other buildings and especially the rolling stock parked outside are suffering from the weather, and a lack of conservation and protection. This is not a criticism of the S&L Railway Historical Society, but there does not seem to be the means to raise the money needed to conserve what is here. Some of the items, such as a wooden caboose and steel passenger car, may deteriorate beyond the point of no return in another winter and there must be concerns for the buildings if they cannot be weatherproofed. Hopefully it will all be here next year. http://scotiarail.ca/ has the news on the campaign to save the Cape Breton rail line, another long-running story. Dava

Several of us were trying to help with your project & spent time investigating sources, no need to be grumpy that the exact data is not readily available. Ultimately you either guesstimate or go & measure it up! Dava

Wireless Locomotives by Baker & Civil (Oakwood 1976) has drawing of Barclay 0-4-0F but not Bagnall, same authors book on Bagnall SG locos (Plateway) has drawing of 0-6-0F & photos of 0-4-0s! No more dimensions! Railway Bylines had articles on Huntley's railway a couple of years ago. Dava

Thanks John Your link is to the best set of Fraserburgh & St Combs photos I've seen, interesting to see 46460 with the angle-iron cowcatcher bolted on front & back. Sister engine 46464 was 'The Carmyllie Pilot' but also ran to St Combs, and has its own website http://www.br46464.co.uk/ It is now being restored at Bridge of Dun. I did not know the Carmyllie Railway passenger services were covered by the Light Railways Act. Carmyllie had a tiny station ideal for the space-starved modeller which can be seen in one of Ian Fraser's photos on this site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/93303764@N04/8496610405/in/photostream/ Dava

It occurred to me the other day that Scotland had a fair number of light railways, ie those built after the Light Railways Act in 1896. They are an interesting source of ideas for modelling projects, and I have had one planned for a while. Many more lines were planned but those actually built are listed below. I don't think there is a single book which deals with them all, though there is a book on Scottish narrow gauge lines now (they were even rarer) including some fascinating grouse moor lines. https://amentapublishing.wordpress.com/history/scottish-narrow-gauge-railways/\ Also see https://hlrco.wordpress.com/scottish-narrow-gauge/ There is quite a lot of web based information on specific lines from http://www.railbrit.co.uk/ and http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/ as well as Wikipedia on most lines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_Railways_Act_1896 Worth noting that Scotland had a number of Private Railways which were not the same thing and often much older, being built mainly for mineral working (not as public railways) across private lands, but not strictly light railways - eg: Wemyss, Fordell, Carmyllie Private railways (see post below). There were many industrial lines in the Lowlands & Central Scotland, some of length & complexity. There were also long branch lines such as the Lochty Railway which became a Private Railway after preservation but it was not built as a light railway. Some of the branch lines built after 1896 you might have expected to be built as light railways, but they were not, eg Ormiston-Gifford, Boddam-Ellon branches. Some light railways were independent and some built by the main line companies. So its a complicated field. WJK Davies 'Light Railways' (1964) and other writers did not list all the Scottish light railways. Here is the starter list based on Wikipedia. Please add comments on omissions , errors. Especially welcome photos & sources of information from books & articles on any of these: Bankfoot Light Railway Cairn Valley Light Railway to Moniaive Campbeltown & Machrihanish Light Railway (narrow gauge) Carmyllie Light Railway (passenger service) Cromarty and Dingwall Light Railway (not completed or opened) Dornoch Light Railway Fraserburgh & St Combs Light Railway Lauder Light Railway Leadhills and Wanlockhead Light Railway Maidens and Dunure Light Railway Wick & Lybster Light Railway Dava

Its been a while since I added to this thread on an 0 gauge microlayout being built in Canada from foamboard. The layout has the working title of Coxheath Sidings, after the area we live in. Since we got back from the UK I have been using DAS to ballast the tracks, this is then acrylic painted and awaits an ash ballast ground surface. I haven't yet worked out what the ash ballast will be so it stays like this for the time being. This has taken a few weeks to do, in between other distractions (such as the arrival of 'summer' in Nova Scotia, mainly taking the form of more rain!). I've started on a few structures for the layout. The loading platform at the sidings end will gain an awning and warehouse in low relief in due course. The main structure built over the past few evenings is the footbridge which will provide visual separation between the yard sidings and the sector table area. As I have lots of foamboard, the pillars are stone-scribed foamboard with a card bridge span with wood bridge supports.This will be accompanied by a retaining wall and low relief buildings....mainly from foamboard. Here it is from the other side. None of this is spectacular or setting high standards, but continues to be therapeutic. Just to make it more interesting lets add some small locos from the excellent Scottish railway museum at Bo'ness I visited (again). Barclay 0-6-0 diesel, I think from Bandeath naval depot. Finally, the two classic pugs which remind me of the Slaters kit (of the CR variant) which awaits building some day.... Link here to other Scottish rail preservation photos from my visit http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/99850-scottish-railway-preservation-boness-mixed-traffic-gala/ Dava

The weathered planked surface effect on the wagons & container takes this technique beyond old style printed lithos. I particularly like the Saltdean beer van. The layout overall is inspirational, I learn a lot from seeing what Pete is doing. Dava

The E class is quite large for an 0-4-0. Too big for my microlayout purposes, a Peckett M3 is on the list to build some day. I hope this sells well for Minerva. Dava

If you are going to grow your sales in a declining kit market then you have to build customer's confidence that they can actually complete the kit they might want to buy.Most kit producers don't. Connoisseur (Jim McG) does this very well, lots of people have bought his Y7 etc. Lots of us have boxes of unmade kits and don't want any more! I would not buy an ACE kit, I am holding on the Slaters, £320 for an Agenoria is a lot when an rtr is less and I can scratch build for 25% of the kit cost. I would not buy a kit making business. You can do a microbrewery for £50k! Much more fun.Invite your friends to the new product development! Dava

RBS, Neil & Betty will be much missed, there was no where quite like if & no other reason for visiting Long Eaton, with the possible exception of the Home Brew shop. They had a little trove of gauge 0; I wonder what will happen to the huge stocks of rtr kits & bits. Dava

48624 is looking good in BR black at last! Dava

I'm no expert on soldering, believe me, but some of those irons sound a bit meaty for use on whitemetal to me. 40 watts and upward may be fine for the N/S chassis but whitemetal melts much more easily. You need to control the heat or risk disaster. I did a rebuild of a Roxey P Class and the whitemetal parts were soldered easily with Carrs lowmelt solder, red label flux and a 12 volt Weller iron as sold in tool shops which did the job quite well without melting the wrong metal. Also the fumes from this combination are apparently toxic at higher temperatures. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/65446-coney-hill-light-railway/page-4 Dava

Here are a couple of shots from last week, taken on a non-running day, which show the quality of what is being done in odd corners of the GCR. There is much more. The small GCR goods shed at Quorn with the rebuilt corrugated iron shed. Great subject for a small model, charmingly restored. The new halt at the end of the relayed Mountsorrel branch, the trackwork on this line is also impressive as it snakes through the woods and it will be a great ride or location to photograph demonstration freight trains. Dava

Thanks for good wishes, layout building on hold whilst visiting UK for 2 weeks, took delivery of Heljan railbus & Bachmann buildings from Tower Models Now in Scotland & hoping to visit Bo'ness for steam action next weekend, hope to see/ride behind 'Morayshire'! Wrist is getting better but don't yet have full movement but nothing I can't do Dava

Andy's right, the lottery success for Main Line & the progress on bridging the gap will make the GCR an amazing attraction. Whilst I was briefly back in L'bro this week the line was not running but saw the high quality of the completed Mountsorrel branch line & station which opens next year. What will this line not have? Dava

Humbrol French Blue (14) is close Check out 'Gordon' & other Longmoor locos in the 70's before repaintingrepainting S&DJ blue (midnight blue?) Much darker Dava

Worsleyworks does etcvhings for the Pickering cvosches, bogie or 4-wheel mode Dava

If I was doing a basic 4 wheel coach to run with the Terrier, I'd copy NeilHB's neat idea of using Peco 0-16.5 narrow gauge plastic coach sides/components which seems to work well: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/97585-elsbridge-wharf-1906-neilhbs-layout/ I found some second hand small coaches a few years ago so don't need any for the micro layout being built at present. My attempt to use a plasticard kit to build a Brighton 4 wheel 'balloon' brake has not been completed..2 years on. Dava