C&WR

Thanks, Lee.  Can't believe how long it's been since I was in here properly, and in my thread at all!  Luckily had a trip home, and dd a little modelling but a fair bit of driving!

First of all the branch line platform, just about complete.  I had forgotten I'd added the handrails on the ramp, so took all the styrene (forgetting model glue, though) and not enough paints.  Luckily I remembered the natural wood enamel so the handrails could be done, and some neutral tint watercolour from Dad's old civil engineering paint selection to dirty up the ramp.  Milk churns from the model shop in Exmouth, mad old Mother bought them for me :

I took a whole load of shots of the railway illuminated.  Sadly I need some more practice as most were rubbish (overexposed from the lights) but this was passable:

Finally was pleased to get my collection of brewery and local coal wagons to work.  Again I hit on the plan of putting large Hornby couplings in the NEM pockets of some of the wagons to act as barrier vehicles with my old stock.  A couple of changes of Dapol couplings for Bachmann (although not all) and I got to run these

Hope not too long until my next trip back, although I do have some models to finish for TSC for School...

Please forgive my ignorance, but what is a fan wagon and why does it have escort coaches?

Forgot to add that the goods yard office & cottages have been fixed in place, & along with the branch station ticket office are all wired up for lights, which all work. I also did the handrails on the branch platform ramp & added some advertising to the existing rails.

That really works.  I'd have never thought of adding scatter to wet paint like that, job's a good 'un!

Another month-and-a-half since I've had anything to report!  Have missed the railway and modellign time has been curtailed.  I've also mainly been working on these chaps as I would like them finished:

The camera is cruel, they look much better in real life as 1/76!  There are also legionaries in action and I am in the process of finishing the Centurion, Optio, Signifer/Aquilifer and Cornicen.

Anyway, back to railways. I had noticed on previous visits home that only the much newer stock was working properly.  This I put down to a combination of dirty track, lack of pickups on older models, and lack of use of the latter.  I have mislaid my track rubber somewhere so remembered the trick of using the grain end of a bit of wood as a rather gentle way to clean the track.  Having done so I then ran some stock light engine, and after some running in had the Warship, Western and Peak all going.

Pictures!  Afraid these are a bit ropy as after a day out the day before my camera battery was a bit low & I was determined to get some shots while I could rather than worrying too much about quality.

First is an offering from the High Wycombe & District Model Railway Society - when i saw they had a wagon from the part of town where we live I had to have one:

I also spotted a bargain on eBay to add to my maroon coach set:

A busy day in the station

Having toned down the Hornby Magazine lamp hut by giving it a rub with an emery board, adding some rust weathering powder, and a coat of neutral tint watercolour it was ready to be planted:

Weathering on the parcels train not consistent:

I also added some fencing at the city gate end as well as painting up all the remaining tarmacked areas:

And a very dodgy shot of the solution to the scenic break at the end of the layout.  This is the modelrailwayscenery.com  low relief 1930s factory, which I made even more low relief by leaving off the sides and roof.  This has just enough clearance from the outer running line and was quite a nice little kit to build.  I'm probably going to build another couple of these to fill more of the gap, or possibly extend by splicing together either a couple of the end bays at each side or even add two kits to the existing one:

Finally I had a go on the 1:1 railways as well.  Easter Monday involved a trip on the C&WR, the return journey made the more interestign as the industrial steam hunter Northern Gas Board No 1 failed to get enough pressure up in the vacuum brakes so it ahd to be double headed by one of the Guinness 08s, leading to comedy value as the drivers of each had whistle competitions.

Easter Saturday morning had been spent at the Great Western Society where the Black Python pub, a real ale bar in a carriage, was open.  Even better Tornado had come to visit and wasn't only hauling trains, there was the opportunity for footplate rides.  

It would have been rude not to...

I presume he took his holidays at his own convenience?

Simply don't get in here enough any more.  I did manage a trip back to the railway to see my family for my birthday, and while the weekend was pretty scheduled I did manage to fold it down.  No pictures or film, I just took the opportunity to fix down the branch line platform & clapboard building, having soldered on droppers hastily before setting off, and to run a couple of trains.

Wonderful.  Quite mad, but wonderful

I did actually bite the bullet and do some work last night.  Herself was out at her knitting group, the Boy was tucked up in bed, we'd had an early supper & while I had Deutschland 83 recorded that was only an hour of entertainment.

I therefore drilled the doors of the warehouse and fitted sewing pins for door handles.  I then made up some doors for the cottages from coffee stirrers scribed to make planks and painted these in various watercolours.  These were then drilled for door handles and the pins fitted.  Finally I did the lintels over the doors.  

I'll fit the doors tonight.  I need to do door steps, some basic furniture, and connect the lighting system to droppers.  The warehouse needs a floor behind the open access door and lighting fitted, along with some ridge tiles.  I have a long weekend off work this weekend, and Monday afternoon looks good to get things squared away for taking the stuff home the following weekend for planting...

Hope it gets in, Richard, sounds very interesting!

I downloaded the Scalescenes viaduct arches the other day & am going to use one of my bits of ply to make a test board for what I envisage. Must be disciplined & finish off the cottages, warehouse & branch platform before I go home in a couple of weeks first, though-only minor bits including wiring to do!

Sounds fabulous!

I always liked this cartoon:

And here's my April Fool from a few years back:

great video,I like the new stock

Cheers!  I'm going back to my childhood home to celebrate my birthday towards the end of the month, I hope to get some video in low light to show it with the flashes & passengers

Thoroughly enjoying tonight's episode of "The Restoration Man" where a chap is doing up an 1897 station near Alnwick, abandoned in 1956, by himself. I think they have confused engine & goods sheds, though!

I keep having to remind myself you are modelling in N, Gloucester Road!

Thanks to all contributors to this thread again for some real inspiration.  Love your work!

A nice feel of summer on a wintry day!

Happy new year to you, Al.  As I said on my thread I was a bit out of sorts over Christmas so it's nice to see someone achieving something.  Love the home-made detailing kit!

Yep, still looking great.  Particularly impressed by the PW wagons and loads.

I'm becoming more interested in DRS stock now we live on the Chiltern line.  The Small Controller wa so impressed by seeing a class 68 in that livery (think it was 68002 Intrepid) on arriving at Marylebone over Christmas that he marched me down the platform to take a photo!

Very much so, Richard.  Then again, as you have seen with all my modelling above I do build what I like and wouldn't get too hung up about whether a particular bit of stock belongs in a particular place, so the S Stock will be likely to run alongside a NSE Class 166.

I may even be tempted for the BR Lines to be third-rail equipped as I have fond memories of the trains which went out towards Kent from Charing Cross when visiting my Grandmother near Greenwich.  That wonderful thrumming sound, so different from the Class 117s we used to travel round the Thames Valley on!

Looking at Google Maps there's a lovely triangle of lines round Borough Market, bounded broadly by Southwark Street in the South with Stoney Street running North-South from the Northern apex bisecting the base in the South.  That would be my inspiration!

As a scenic break I'd probably try and model the end of some platforms at one side, with overall roofs to hide the exit from the scenic boards.  Not sure at the other end, but some of the tracks round there do go into canyons of industrial buildings.  It's certainly a challenge, but I can envisage what I want...

Gosh, have barely been in here for ages.  End of term was severely busy, I was called back into work during my leave, we also had my Mother's birthday party, and I've been feeling really out of sorts over Christmas, just run down and severely demotivated to do anything.

Thanks for the tip above, Julian, it could well be useful in my next project, which could see a railway being built at our home.  You see I was lucky enough to receive one of these for Christmas:

It's also actually for my birthday early in the year too, especially as my extravagant sister, who organised the present, bought the sound/light setas well!

The detail is just exquisite.  I am childishly pleased!

One screw on one of the driving cars just wouldn't come loose.  It took a lot of work to sort this.  I think it might have been the assembler of this particular car as one screw inside wouldn't shift either, but all the rest did.  Finally I have everything in place, including passengers.  It's plainly a middle of the day service not rush hour as eventual pics will show...

Whatever I build will almost certainly have to be end-to-end/fiddleyard-to-fiddleyard as we have limited space, although there is talk of buying a computer hideaway cupboard for me to use as a modelling workstation.  Strangely enough I had just read an issue of Model Rail where someone was showing of his when TLHC made the suggestion, so once Christmas & some plumbing/electrical work paid for we will see.

Things I would like to see on the new railway, for this splendid thing to run on, may include:

• Third & fourth rail set up, obviously.  I've already researched how to lay the relevant parts and indeed bought a starter set of the right track and insulator pots at Pecorama 18 months ago, long before this model was announced!  I obviously had a hankering for a London Underground layout...
• A second set of tracks for normal railways to run on beside or slightly above/below the Underground.  I'm thinking the run in to Marylebone from Wembley, here.
• Still trying to decide whether to try and have a distinctly upper and lower set of tracks, allowing one lot to go under the other adding to visual interest/length and maximising space, especially if I lay them almost on the diagonal across the board.  However this might constrain the next two points.
• Railway arches with businesses in.
• A canal/creek.
• Art Deco architecture.
• Notwithstanding nice architecture some good urban grime as well.
• Tracks above street scenes. 

Therefore I'm wondering about a "what if" where the Underground extended, well, overground out by London Bridge/Borough Market/Deptford Creek.  This part of Sarf-East Laahndaahn has a degree of significance for me, and would incorporate a lot of the above, so it's off to the drawing board!

In the meantime here's a film what I made:

As for my sense of general malaise at least we had a cracking New Year's Eve.  Really hoping that sets me up for next term, I have some major challenges to face. I have even struggled before today to bother to edit the fillum and pictures & get them uploaded!

Strangely enough the Latin Mistress's father was in the Household Cavalry and rode in Churchill's funeral procession!

First sprue of Romans nearly done (just need to shade them & sort out bases) so I can start putting the Testudo  together.  I am deploying all sorts of background entertainment while working, it's not the most exciting job painting 20 or 30 near-identical figures.  Irony is that when the shields are in place and the Tortoise assembled very little of the deatil will be seem.

Still, I will know...

Thanks for comments and likes!  I've now been side tracked into painting up some model Imperial Roman Legionaries for the Latin mistress, but it's going to be a while until I get back to Wallington anyway...

You're making lit ground signals?  Wow!

Just to add I have found out the problem with The Pt Way Dept's 14xx.  I have replaced the gear on the driven axle and the connection with the worm works.  I then tested themotor, and again this works.

Therefore the problem is feed between the track, wheels & motor  Will eventually get it sorted!

Wa-hey!  A weekend at Wallington-Super-Mare

I did do a tiny bit of modelling.  A small thing, but sorted out the ramp for the branch line station.  Luckily the Aged Ps had run out of Evo-Stick otherwise I would have glued all this in place, forgetting the ticket office has an LED but I haven't put droppers on yet:

As I may have said these wagons nearly went out of the window or on eBay.  I simply could not make them stay on the tracks.  However I have recently been taking a good look at why they derailed & came up with a solution.  Part of this came about because the wagons have NEM pockets.

Therefore now one end of the set has a Hornby coupling to attach to the 59.  I then replaced all the rest of the Dapol couplings with Bachmann ones as I have always found the Dapol ones less than satisfactory.  I managed at least one circuit of the track with no derailments, but that was as far as it went.

I then looked again & realised the bottom of the couplings where they are supposed to go over uncoupling ramps were fouling the sleepers.  By the simple expedient of cutting these off with some tin snips the problem was solved!  The video was made with the train just set running while I moved the camera from viewpoint to viewpoint.  Absolutely delighted

Hrar! Day has consisted of writing up some Board minutes & watching London Irish win for once.

Better yet, I've driven some trains. The track needs cleaning, & I need to service some of the older models, but I just played for a bit