Alan Kettlewell

Thanks Peter. If I hadn't have ran out of materials and had to wait, I reckon it would be a couple of days work, say three at the most. Saved some time of course as I only needed to model one side. Cheers ... Alan

Thank you, I hope I can have the attitude, perseverance and health to keep at it. I can relate to your story as I also got rid of a load of continental HO stock a lot of years ago when going through a divorce, moving out etc. I wish I had kept it all now! More recently, about 5 years ago, a house move lead to me making a list of necessities - on the list was a garden big enough to build me a big shed - no big garden, I wasn't moving! My son and I had a good week together (3 years ago last July) putting up the big shed, and the rest as they say, is history. Before doing this layout I was into building O gauge locos and stock and did a few commissions, so I had every intention of building an O gauge layout but, believe it or not, I couldn't get a satisfactory track plan to work and to meet my preference of a continuous run and interesting design - even with 32 x 14ft to spare. So I decided to sell off all my O gauge stuff, replace it with continental HO and build this layout. Cheers … Alan

What, you mean you're allowing work to get in the way of modelling? Tut tut ..Lol. Cheers … Alan

Agreed entirely. Although 'complete' may never happen and I should resist the temptation to keep developing - right now I'm considering adding a further hidden storage yard under the 'Austrian' side of the layout. The trouble is each time I take on a further development such as that, it's back to track laying, electrics and further testing at the expense of progressing with the rest of it. Must have more self discipline. Cheers … Alan

Eye watering indeed - I see Rails of Sheffiled currently have some of the metal collection - ouch! Anyway, I'll be pursuing non-Bernina ie RhB stock from now on to keep in line with the notional locality of my metre gauge mountain railway. For the Bernina railcar I (accidentally) bought before discovering the Bernina runs on different overhead power, I'll keep it because I like it, and so I'll have a few of my HO scale engineers climb inside and adapt the power pack for running on the RhB. Rule #1 applies. Cheers ... Alan

Hi, thanks. I could go on fine detailing this kind of thing endlessly, knowing when to stop is the difficult part. I have to be aware that too much detail on one small project like this could be over doing it if the surrounding area gets less attention. I've probably said before that with such a large layout, and doing it single handedly, means I can't spend too much time on super detailing otherwise I'd never get it built. I sometimes reflect and wonder if I should have chosen to build something much smaller so I could have the pleasure of spending a lot of time on the details - but I know I'd become bored with trains running on a simple design and I don't enjoy shunting. So I've made by bed so to speak. Next on the to-do list is to get back to completing the narrow gauge mountain line - must remember to get some more wire for the extra DCC bus wire I'll need to put in. Cheers ... Alan

Viaduct - Finishing Touches The glue and Slaters Plasticard arrived so I was able to finish off the small viaduct job today. Here's where I left off when I ran out of materials. You can see I'd used up odd bits of stone walling and stuck them on - I don't mind using odd bits up like this as with a bit of care, it's quite easy to blend in the joins later with a bit of filler. I've also aďded a few bits of grass and bushes clinging to the rock face: All the cladding is complete, I've done the grouting (as I call it) to fill the gaps and blend in the joins. I've given it a coat of light grey paint. For painting scenery, rock faces, stone walling etc, I buy the emulsion tester pots which I get mixed at a local DIY shop in a variety of shades. These are about £3 which I reckon is good value and they are water based so it's easy to make a thin wash where you need to. Next I picked out some stones in different shades, mainly darker shades of grey and shades of brown, and I picked out the arches, stringer stones and capping stones in a slightly darker shade - just so they stand out a bit. The capping stones are made by hacking up a strip of balsa wood and cutting into individual 'stones' glued on separately: Usually, at this stage, I'd add a dirty wash to make the whole thing more grimy, or a light wash to tone it down or lighten it up a bit - depending on the effect I want. But I've left it as it is just now because I want to experiment a bit with snow effects. I'll be buying some Delux 'snow' soon but in the meantime here's the result using some cheap old talcum powder I found cluttering up my scenic materials box: Not bad really, it's intended to represent a light snow fall. I sprayed on some cheap hair spray prior to dropping the talc by tapping lightly on a small sieve full held a few inches above. I like that its settled on all the ledges as it would, and it smells very nice! This last shot is from above and shows the curvature of the viaduct. All in all a nice little project to do on the work bench. All that's left to do is position it in its intended place on the layout. Should look good I reckon. Cheers... Alan

I'll keep you posted Peter. Alan

I thought I'd add some ground cover to my little viaduct project, and while I was rummaging around for some scenic materials I came across an electronic fly swatter and a metal mesh strainer that I'd bought quite some time ago to make a static grass applicator. As it happens, I've already put a Pecoscene applicator on my Christmas list, so I thought, now's the time to have a go at making this home made one so I can decide whether or not it will do instead of forking out for an expensive one. Instructions, which I found in several places on the interweb, and on YouTube, seem fairly straight forward - take batteries out (most advisable), undo the screws that expose the electronic stuff inside the handle, take off the head of the swatter (you have to break it away), expose and cut the two wires that attach to the swatter, solder one of those wires to your strainer, attach and solder an 18 inch lead and a crocodile clip to the other wire, find a way of keeping the strainer fixed in place, put the handle back together, put batteries in. Job done. All in all it took less than a hour. Here I'm fixing the strainer in to the handle, held in place by two pegs while I add some dollops of hot glue: ..strainer firmly fixed in, soldering done, wire and croc clip attached and handle put back on: Time for some tests: It seems to work, although I've had no prior practice so the jury is still out on the quality of the job. This is two layers of the very fine 2mm static grass, which is all I have in stock. I'll buy some longer grass at Warley on Saturday and add to it then report back. With a bit of luck I might have saved a fair chunk of cash (more to spend on some nice Bemo models!) Cheers ... Alan

Many thanks for the link. I'll say hello at Warley, I'm going early doors on Saturday. Cheers ... Alan

Thanks Paul, useful info. I haven't decided yet on the amount of snow I'll model - ie deep snow or just a scattering. I'll have a large area to do so probably just a smattering otherwise it could be onerous. I may grab a tub of 'snow' when I'm at the Warley show this weekend. Cheers … Alan

It's all very nice indeed. I'll be modelling snow on my layout at some point so I'd be interested to know the method you used here. Cheers ... Alan

I'm following a couple of the green & cream coaches on eBay. They might fit the old fashioned aspect of the line I'm after. Cheers ... Alan

I agree. After mistakenly buying the Bernina railbus I reckon on sticking with RhB stock from now on and ignore any nice looking stuff from other lines - I'll have to exercise a bit of will power! Chees … Alan

No worries John. I like the stuff from Rails it's always good kit - and I found by experiment they'll often accept about 15% less. Cheers … Alan

This is the rather nice set of Golden Pass Pullman coaches I've been looking at: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BEMO-HOm-GAUGE-SET-OF-4-MOB-GOLDEN-MOUNTAIN-PULLMAN-EXPRESS-COACHES-BM4/202502129759 Cheers .. Alan

I know the ones you mean, I have a lovely HO pullman set (CIWL) from Roco or Fleischmann I think. But in this instance I was looking at the Bemo HOm set which has MOB logos. Would make a really nice train. Cheers ... Alan

Viaduct continued. The arch stones are about as good as I can get them. There's room for improvement for sure but for a first go using clay they're not too bad and should be improved a bit when I set to with the painting. I started cladding the front wall and arch side walls with my favourite stonework building material - Slaters 7mm dressed stone (item 0415), then realised I'd used up nearly all my supply on an earlier project .. So I ran out of it.. doh! However I can bash on in the meantime until a new order arrives, easy enough to add cladding on later. For the next part I cut out and stuck in some polystyrene shapes. I used the electric kitchen knife for the cutting (better not let the missus know!) It still makes a mess but not too bad. One day I'll get one of those hot wire cutters. Finally for today, I mixed some plaster and spread it around suitably hacked away to form rock faces. This is from an out of date bag of plaster I got free round at the local building supplies store. It goes off quite fast so I have to work with small amounts and go quick. Time to let this all dry and then on with the painting and the decoration, trees, bushes, undergrowth and so on- hopefully my supply of Plasticard will arrive tomorrow. Cheers ... Alan

Viaduct Build ... Continued. At this stage I thought it might be wise to check it's going to fit: Yep, good enough. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that I've glued a snowy back scene on the long wall down this side of the layout which I did by making a panoramic photo then reversing the whole thing. The only problem with this method on a long scene is that you get multiple repetitions of the picture. I'll be working on ways to disguise the repeated pattern by adding other pictures in front to make a montage but I'll keep that for another day as I've still a fair bit of work to do on it. Meanwhile, on with the viaduct. Time to make the arches: Those arches are glued in place, now for something different - for me anyway. When making viaduct or arches I struggle with making the arch stones, having tried a few methods previously this time I'm having a go at making them with DAS modelling clay. I used the tube out of a roll of cling film as a rolling pin and rolled out a chunk of the clay. Then using a piece of foam board as a template, I cut out the semi-circle I need. The next bit, the outer side I did by eye .. Stuck it in place around the arch: 6 Then as acutely as I could by eye again, I marked the arch stones with the back of my knife blade. Nearly done: More to follow...

I decided I wanted to add interest to the mountain line by making a short viaduct part way up the slope. So this will be a curved viaduct on an incline - I must really like making things difficult for myself. Also it will be a one sided viaduct. Just to clarify that, I mean I'll be modelling the front side only, the rear side will be embedded in the Rock face. It'll be roughly 40cm long by 40cm high, with three arches First, marking out on a piece of poster card cut to the correct profile, making sure to have the arch walls vertical and the arch tops following the incline: Olfa cutter in action to cut out the arches. For ease of modelling I'm making the arches semi-circular: So far so good: Next I made it into a box shape by gluing pieces of cardboard to make sides and a back. I'll be making the whole thing on the work bench and slide it into position under the track when it's completed. It will not be supporting the track as that's already laid. More to follow...

I was looking at a set of four of those going on eBay, about £365 I think, around £90 each new from MBL. Lovely though and very desirable. Christmas coming up soon ...hmmmm. Cheers ... Alan Edit: correction, the four set on eBay is £250 or offers.

Very nice, have just bought two of the Arosa coaches, one is a driving trailer. Nice layout and makes me wonder if I'll ever get mine progressed that far .. Cheers ... Alan Edit - I didn't notice the pan ..

Thanks for all the advice and info chaps, much appreciated. I'll have to put it to the test whether I can fit 2 or 3 coaches in the sidings, also how many can be pushed up the winding hill without any problems. Thanks also for the links and pictures, I can see the attraction with Swiss narrow gauge modelling. Cheers ... Alan

Thanks again for pointing this out. For this part of the project I'll be shopping on eBay for older used stock. I'll need another two or three locos so how can I be sure not to order any further Bernina locos eg do they have different markings/logos or any other visual clue? I can research of course but not all ebay offerings are obvious, and often I'll want to grab something quick if it's something I fancy and there's a buy-it-now or make an offer option. Grateful for any pointers .. Cheers … Alan

I find the RhB and its history interesting. The Allegra units look very nice but a bit too modern for my fictitious old time bit of tourist sight-seeing line, also a little too long to fit into the available space I have planned for the hidden sidings. I've knocked up the schematic below taken from the Train Controller screen for level 3 on my layout. The metre gauge lines are shown in red and you should see where it terminates in the station which provides for OBB standard gauge 'through' lines and a terminus line for the metre gauge across the platform. The metre gauge line will meander up the mountain (from left to right on the diagramme), through a passing loop near the top of the rise, across the big bridge and out of sight (to Switzerland) terminating in two sidings inside the East Spiral mountain. Notice that from the station platform, the line will zig-zag right-left-right in order to gain some height and reduce the gradient. Side elevation schematic showing metre gauge line rising via zig-zag movement. Apologies that the view is reversed from the schematic above. … and on the layout the area currently under construction (including 1:1 scale box of screws!) The hidden sidings for the metre gauge line will be a maximum of 90cm long so I'm restricted to short trains only - I'm planning for a maximum of 2 coaches plus loco or perhaps a railcar plus a coach. This suits the line as I'm planning trains to run with adhesion only so long trains wouldn't be viable. Also bearing in mind the line will be operated automatically by 'Train Controller' so I have to allow for a sensor at the entrance to sidings and appropriate stopping distances and so on. On this plan I'll be able to run four trains on automatic sequences - better get shopping! Cheers … Alan