S.A.C Martin

In my last update, I outlined my other ongoing project in the Copley Hill Works Blog. That was to create a Lake Railway layout, to exhibit and hopefully have some building at the same time. I've written a short history section, which has a fictional and real history section, which should hopefully explain what my little layout should be able to convey: Now, bearing that in mind, here is my summation of the truth of the matter: I will be making edits to this section of the blog with each and every bit of interesting historical piece of the puzzle I find in my research to the area. I may have to revise it quite a lot - having checked a few maps I'm not sure a route through Sidcup from Danson to both Sidcup station and the bottling plant in Footscray is possible without majorly modifying Sidcup...! So in that respect this article will evolve every so often to include fresh ideas. It has occured to me that jumping straight into making a full layout may not be the best way to go. A friend has suggested making a few micro layouts in my chosen scale (0-16.5) to see if I like it first. It's a great idea, and one I'm wholeheartedly going along with. With that in mind, I've got an eye on a few kits I want towards making some stock for the first test of the S&DLR - a short shunting plank, with some tests for my scenic modelling skills in store. Until next time!

It all started, with a map drawn on the back of a lecture handout: A very rough idea of a railway situated around a lake. I have always wanted to make a small, exhibitable lake railway layout for myself, but never quite known in what sense and what gauge I'd like to make it. I had had some very ambitious ideas for the layout, like creating a tank to actually put real water into, and using a wave machine to make it appear like a real lake... At the same time, my ambitious plans for the Copley Hill set have put any ideas on the backburner. On the last incarnation of RMweb, I started a thread in which I received some wonderful ideas from the community as to what style the railway should appear in. I always receieved a few wake up calls as to the difficulty of some of my ideas, and for that I am grateful as it has made the actual conception easier to plan! In short, while I had an idea of what I wanted on the layout, and how I felt it would be best to set it out, I had little idea of how it should actually look, whether it would have a real life prototype, and what gauge it should be. That was before a flash of inspiration hit. Driving through my home town of Sidcup some months ago, I realised that there had been a real life prototype I could look at right in my back garden! In the Sidcup and Bexleyheath area, there is a place called Danson Park. Here's a brief blurb from Bexley Council's website: I started to consider this more after I realised that the park actually played host to a minature railway in the 1950s. The 15in gauge railway seemed nice, but was not what I had in mind for a layout. The lake and the surrounding area, however, being very accessible for photographing became a very tantalising proposition... In the absence of photographs, here's a map of the area in question: Now I'd done a little research into Sidcup's history before, and Bexleyheath's too, for a school project. Going back through my files at home, I found that I'd noted down a few "might have beens" for the two towns. Firstly, there had been a Paper Mill similar to that at Kemlsey Down on the S&KLR which had never been built. It would have been near the Danson area in the 1920s. Therein was the possibility of a need for a railway similar in style and setup to the S&KLR, but the with advantage of some beautiful parkland scenery. Add to that the history of Danson Lake and Danson lake, and a "might have been" 2ft gauge railway started to develop... Bearing that in mind, I sat down to have a writing session. I wanted to flesh out the details of the fictional railway in its real life setting. In the next update I'll outline how my ideas developed into a fictional history for the fictional railway... Until next time!

Loving the look of Nellie! I take it that its all 0 Gauge Neil?

Here are is my new back scene en situe. I've been working from a few books, some photographs I bought copies of, and the ever useful Flikr for this particular bit of scenery. It is much more accurate than the red brick backscene I made for the previous incarnation of the layout! I wouldn't call this scratchbuilding (not in the same league as some of the true scratch builders - I will NEVER forget Jim S-W's 4mm scale padlock...!), but to all intents and purposes it has been: I used the ScaleScenes scratchbuilding print products (windows & corrugated iron) and some Peco Roof kits I found in a model shop in Caterham. I made the shape of the works from a spare length of wood, cut to shape (nineteen roofs precisely), which I then covered in the aforementioned Scalescenes scratchbuilding sheets - corrugated iron, and then with their windows pack (one window to a roof). It had started the day like this, a blank (but shaped) canvas: After the sheets were stuck down (using some thick PVA glue, spread thinly) and windows added (using Pritt Stick onto the top sheets), it looked like this: The Peco roofs were then added, cut to shape with a stanley knife and stuck down with alradite, one piece of tiling on each side with some V shaped tiles to form the roofline on top: Then after nine hours, it looked like this after adding the leftover sprues from the peco kit as guttering: And finally, here it is, in a few views of the overall set showing the ballasting, weathering and general decay trying to be portrayed in this scene: Needless to say, I'm very pleased with it. I'm still new to this whole self-building malarky, and two years of reading up on other peoples projects on RMweb have given me a lot of impetus to try a few things myself. I thoroughly enjoyed working from my prototype photorgaphs for this building, and while I'll happily accept is still has some dimensional issues, it is much better than what was there before and that is a victory for me in the modelling stakes. Here's a few photos of some locomotives on the layout, prior to finishing the Shed Facade. The next post will concern the building of the shed for the layout. Until next time!

Thank you, I hope I can do it some justice. Next jobs the big one, doing the splasher!

Hiesler, always a pleasure to read through this - I cannot wait to get started on my own 0-16.5 layout, you have produced something of immense quality and I am literally in awe. Thanks for posting, Simon

The above shows an unpainted concrete floor for a steam-era shed. I hope! Basically I needed to make a proper concrete floor to the shed to give it some realism. I followed Andy Y's advice on his excellent Keyhaven thread (thankfully and delightfully fully ported for RMweb's viewing pleasure) by using Polyfilla. Easy to mould, quick to dry, and then easy to sand down, its a perfect tip for making something look like concrete. And this was my very first attempt...I plan on trying this again sometime in 0-16.5 scale...! To begin with, I marked out my area for filling. I used some spare Peco girders, left over from an overall roof kit, which were cut to shape and then stuck down to the baseboard and between the tracks. Note that the area for filling in is quite small - I am only modelling one end of the shed as its the only end that'll get seen on camera: The next job was to start sticking down some string onto the inside of the rails. The reason for this is simple - the width of the string is enough to allow the wheels of the locomotives to roll along unhindered, and also allows a fairly realistic "tramway" or otherwise concrete railroad to be produced: Having done that, I laid down some newspaper and started putting down some Polyfilla. I used a spreader to make the polyfilla as even as possible (as well as taking up the excess to use later on. As you can see from the post below, I left the Polyfilla to dry before taking the string out: By the end of a two hour polyfilla session, I was left with this, which I in turn left to dry: It was left to dry naturally and naturally cracked in places! This is a good thing, I've not come across any stretch of concrete that doesn't have at least a few cracks running through it. I painted it a few days later using a watery grey, black and rust solution , carefully cleaning the rails after painting and giving it a few more coats every so often until I was satisfied. It then looked like this: And that was that! A simple method that worked beautifully, all credit to Andy Y really as it was a straightforward job with very little hassle. I was incredibly nervous about doing this, I had visions of nothing working or running across the track, but so far the only problems I've had have been on the circuit and not in the yard at all (and especially not on the concrete!!!) The next blog post will concern the building of the Carriage Works backscene seen in the above pic. Until next time!

It was about mid-August 2009 before I could do any more work on the baseboards. Part of the problem was funding. Being a student, I don't have much money! However after three weeks working as a fencing Instructor for a Kids Camp (thats the sword fighting variety and not the white picket fencing variety) I was ready to start work once more! Scenic matts were ordered from Noch, and stuck own with diluted PVA glue after being cut to size and shape. I tightened the matts at the edges with a nail gun, this allows a relatively flat and smooth finish. This also meant I could have some fun with my permanent way train: I used the standard Hornby flathead track pins -or least, I thought they were still standard! It turns out that the Hornby track pins are now round heads, something I'm a little puzzled by - the flat heads seem to me to be easier to position and then hammer in. In any event, I managed to find a small pot of the old style pins, so kept on laying track until all the track was laid. I was enjoying this enormously. This was actually the first time I had done any prior planning or making the decisions on the style and content of the "layout" (I use the term loosely!). In many respects I am aware its a glorified roundy-round train set, but in the context of filming for the series, it works incredibly well. Here's a better overall view of the section of Copley Hill I was trying to recreate - note the the two Peco 3-way points utilised in the shed approach: Then it was time to start doing some ballasting, again using my trusty permanent way train: At the same time, I started work on the backscene - the carriage works at Copley Hill, which will be covered in a separate update post: It was basically a spare bit of kitchen table top wood which was cut to shape using the original backscene as a template. In the next update I'll be looking at the concrete base for the shed, and a recap of the ballasting which took place. Until next time!

Hi Sean, Wanted to copy&paste my original response to here, but can't access the old RMweb at the mo! In response to your question RE valve gear and chassis, the Bachmann N class model has valve gear of a very similar type to the L1, and uses 5ft 6in drivers as opposed the L1's 5ft 2in drivers (difference of 4in in reality, not sure what that is in scale). Adding a four wheel bogie to that chassis would give you a reasonable representation of the L1 "look" but I am unsure of the wheel spacing of the N against the L1. Kind Regards, Simon

After I took the decision to dismantle the old set and build a new one, I got straight to it! Track taken up, scenic mats ripped up and chucked, buildings removed (but stored for possible further use), and then an ideas session where I looked at track available RTR and thought long and hard about what I wanted and what I needed from this new set. Shots for filming meant that the layout would be seen in extreme close quarters. There would be no snow to hide the lack of ballasting or weathering! The shed would have to be 5 roads and closer to the real thing as much as possible. I elected to scratchbuild this, and the carriage works, which I felt I had never really done justice to the first time around. With that in mind, I bought some select pieces of track (Peco code 100 3-ways points, Hornby Flexi-track and a few Y-points), and started playing around with track formations. I have started using some software to plan layouts, but I always find you get a real idea of how everything fits by - well! Fitting it all together in a dry run: I used the old Carriage Works Backscene to provide an idea of how I would be setting up the camera to shoot the films. This track layout would be changed in a few ways - two more sidings would be added, and the derelict turntable well of the reall 56C would be too. You can see in the above shot a mistake I made early on that I have since corrected. The five road shed was separate to the running lines, each going into a single road which branched off towards the main lines and sidings. Here, my branch off to the mainline comes off the nearest road, which was completely wrong and not in accordance with the track plan for Copley Hill I had. I soon changed it! I had a little "Golden Pin" ceremony with a special train running round after I'd decided upon the final look of the layout. And which engine better than my RMweb build, 60163 Tornado and support coach? Until next time!

Copley Hill is a shed I am fascinated by, and indeed is the subject of my external blog, found here: COPLEY HILL Over the years I've tried modelling Copley Hill in an extremely small space, as part of a film project I have been working on, known as The British Railway Series. The series is set around Leeds in the 1950s, and the focal point for the locomotive characters to meet is, typically, the shed. The idea was to make the set as believeable as possible while making the most compromises for filming possible too. The first true incarnation of 56C I made was very much a pastiche: being new to set building and scenic work, I worked from a few photorgaphs and came up with this snow layout for filming: As you can see, the shed is by no means a perfect representation, but it is meant to be just that, a representation. Due to space constraints a four road shed was made (and its proportions are wildly inaccurate), and the Copley Hill Carriage works in the background, while the correct shape, was wrong in both the material portrayed (red brick as opposed corrugated sheet) and length. Only one side of the shed is meant to be seen on camera, so I only made the front portion (a proper depiction of 56C would show that it is a through shed with similar pointwork at either end). With that in mind, early last year I dismantled the original set with the full intention of making something more believeable: The re-design and new build of my little corner of 56C will be the feature of my next layout related post. Until next time!

Welcome back BB! It is always a joy to read up on your 009 modelling (part of which has been pushing me to go 7mm Narrow Gauge, dammit... ) I'll be watching Blanche with interest, I saw Linda I think in August on our Wales Week away pulling the last train into the Wharf.

It seems rather fitting that my first actual modelling update on the new forum should involve a locomotive very, very close to my heart. It's numbered one, but its not Thomas!!! In 1994 I saw Flying Scotsman for the first time, at Llangollen in Wales. I was awe-struck by this machine: I remember with incredible clarity looking up at the black & gold nameplate and just studying its polished finish for several minutes. It very quickly became my favourite locomotive (and in my heart of hearts, it still is, despite the lustre of Tornado, an engine I support monetarily). My dad then bet me that he could show me a locomotive that would change my mind about Flying Scotsman. I didn't believe him, being seven. A few weeks later my father took me to the National Railway Museum to see one of his favourite engines. She was sitting on the turntable, and had been recently polished. I remember my first glance up at those incredible driving wheels with such clarity. That memory has stayed with me all my days. Apple green, polished, with a black nose and incredibly intricate white, black, and red lining. Patrick Stirling's 8ft Single. No.1, Great Northern Railway. That locomotive has held an fascination for me. Whenever I see a photograph of it, I pause to remember briefly that strange sensation - the open mouth, the "wow" factor of the real thing on the turntable, surrounded by other highly polished steam locomotives and rolling stock. I'm only sorry I've never seen it in steam. If the NRM ever wanted to steam it (and I won the lottery), a cheque would be making its way to York instantly... That being said, I have always wanted a model of this engine. I've missed out on a few kitmaster models, but after seeing "Emily" in the Bachmann Thomas range (hows that for a subtle irony) well, how could I resist the chance to carve one up to make no.1? Here's a recap of where we left no.1 on the old forum: To begin with, we have the Bachmann Emily Model, minus face, and with a Kitmaster stirling single tender attached. The tender came as part of a strange lot of engine plus trucks (and the Triang 3F which was paired with the tender became my J17). The Bachmann Emily needed some carving, and I am most grateful to the LNER Encyclopedia forum for some tips as to where and how to carve the body up. So, a few weeks later, the engine's body had a few changes made. I had drilled out the cab spectacles, cut down the running plate on both sides, removed the moulded handrails and added a suitable smokebox door. The tender at this point was still in its form from when it had been built by its previous owner. There was an obvious problem with the heights between the cab and tender (see above). Then I had an idea, mainly caused by a suggestion on the old RMweb of carving the Bachmann Emily tender up to make the GNR pattern one I wanted so much...brace yourselves... I decided to carve up the Kitmaster tender and mix 'n' match the components from the Emily tender to make one tender which was distinctly more GNR like. This also meant I'd have a better ride height, and it also meant that I could attach the tender in the original (more efficient) arrangement. However, I came across this: Could someone please explain to me what the white stuff is??? It's not white tack, and its not chewing gum, but it was used to hold the tender together (!!!) In fact, I discovered that the only thing which had held any of the tender pieces together, was my previous attempt at replacing the cracked bufferbeam, using a defunct bufferbeam from the spares box and supergluing it in place. If I dropped the tender it would have come apart really, really easily...!!! I then started bashing the Emily tender frames about. The idea is to graft the kitmaster side frames on top of these to present the illusion of the kitmaster sides actually carrying the wheels (and I hope no one ever looks at the model from behind the tender, as the frames look very fat when finished!) Carving up the frames: At which point I used some real white tack to attach the kitmaster tender sides and top to the frames in order to see how it all looks. It doesn't look too bad, the biggest downer being the width of the tender in all honesty. This gives a very over wide running plate either side of the tender tank, and gives it a look of strange proportions. Still, see what you make of it (and any and all suggestions are welcome!) At this point I decided to humour myself a little. I've been debating whether or not I can do justice to the real locomotive with this kitbash. I decided to paint out the white running plate and paint the smokebox hinges, just for tonight to see if the model is looking any more like the real thing and less like a toy: I think I might just about be able to do this. Next job is to finish the tender, then turn my attention to the driving wheel splashers, cab and handrails. I am also considering trying to source a suitable chimney as I hate the look of the Emily one. Until next time!

Thanks chap There'll be a first update in a few minutes, I'm just working out how the pictures work again...!

Welcome to the New Copley Hill Works! I much enjoyed my time updating the old Copley Hill Works blog on the old RMweb (and for those interested, it can be found as a link in my signature for the time being), and in my time updating the blog, I had a stab at making quite a few locomotives. Some went well, some didn't quite make the grade, but nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed working on my projects and was delighted to share them with so many knowledgeable people willing to help me through. The intention of this initial post is to provide a list of projects and links to their relevant blog posts. I have therefore taken it on myself to provide an archive of my original RMweb3 blog. The final post in the Old Copley Hill Works can be found here. Copley Hill Works (RMweb 3) The Front Page 60525 A.H Peppercorn Part 1: The Chassis Part 2: Cylinder Bash Part 3: Undercoats Part 4: Brunswick Beauty 60903, "Herbert" Cartazzi, Weathering 72009, Clan Stewart Part 1: "Clan from a Brit" Part 2: Golden Arrow Kit Part 3: Undercoats Part 4: Brunswick Green Part 5: Lining Out Part 6: First to Finish Part 7: Green Cylinders Part 8: Weathered Ending 60113, Great Northern (TBF) Part 1: Gresley to Thompson Part 2: Superheaters Part 3: Running Plate Part 4: Express Passenger Blue Departmental no.6, "Percy" Percy the Pug 60163, Tornado Part 1: Doncastor to Darlington Part 2: Blue Paint & Lining Part 3: Just Whistle! 62536, D16/3 Part 1: B12 to D16... Copley Hill Works (RMweb 4) 2010-2011 Codename: Industrial Saddletank Developing a Beginner's Bodyshell kit to fit on the standard Hornby 0-4-0 chassis. Part 1: Research and 3D Development Part 2: Further 3D Developments Part 3: Sean's 3D Remodelling Part 4: Front End Modifications Project Malta Designing and building a model based on a long lost Malta Railway locomotive. Part 1: Manning Wardle 0-6-0 Part 2: Developing the 3D Mesh Part 3: Placeholder Chassis Thompson K1 Kitbash Cutting and shutting Bachmann components to make a K1. Part 1: Kit of Parts Hornby "Black Fives" Comparing and Contrasting the Hornby Railroad Black Five and the Super Detail version. Part 1: Into the Black! Railroad 45249 Part 2: Stanier Twins...or not? "Bachby" Class 29 Continuing an ongoing RMweb project. Part 1: Delivery to the Works Part 2: Windows & Green Paint Stirling Single Kitbash Creating a reasonable "Stirling Single" from a Bachmann "Emily" model. Part 1: 'No.1' in the Works Part 2: No.1's Tender Part 3: No.1's Cab Part 4: Preparing for Drilling Part 5: Still Preparing...new chimney though! LNER J11 - Restoration Restoring an old white metal GCR J11 locomotive. Part 1: Forward! Part 2: Pom-Pom Progress-Progress Part 3: The Further Progression LNER W1 - Graeme King's Rebuild of a Hornby A4 A Delightful conversion of a Hornby A4 into a Gresley W1. Delivery to Copley Hill 60500 Edward Thompson - Graeme King's Conversion of a Bachmann A2 Converting a Bachmann A2 into an A2/3. Delivery to Copley Hill Hornby B12/3 - 61572 "Stephen" Detailing an old Hornby B12 model. Part 1: Return of an Old Friend Part 2: Doing up a B12 2010 Layout Challenge S.A.C Martin's Entry The Sidcup & Danson Lake Railway Part 1: Inspiration Strikes! Part 2: Creative Writing Part 3: Motive Power Debate Part 4: Ebay Thoughts Hornby Clerestory Conversion - GCR Coaches Cut and Shutting some older Hornby Clerestories. Part 1: First Cuts Part 2: Grab Handles Part 3: Buffers & Wheels Part 4: Paint Mixes Part 5: Roof Grey & Torpedo Vents Part 6: Adding to the rake Airfix LMS Suburbans - BR Repaints Repainting some old Airfix Suburbans. Part 1: Repainting the Rake Hornby Railroad Crane Conversions Repainting and modifying the yellow BR crane. Crane Crazy! Copley Hill Part 1: Copley Hill Mk1 Part 2: Dismantling 56C Part 3: Scenic Work on Baseboards Part 4: Concrete Proof Part 5: Building the Carriage Works Part 6: The Shed Goes Up Part 7: Old Photographs... Sidcup, 1990s, NSE The Departure Board Diesel Reviews Falcon, Deltic & Kestrel Steam Reviews: Bachmann 60163 Tornado Steam Reviews: Hornby 60163 Tornado Wagon Reviews: Dapol Presflo