ChrisG

A good day's work on the little box at Cowes.

Thanks Westerham Station for the kind comments! Pity you were sacrificed to the M25 :-)

This is the state of play after Day 3 in the loft - this photo is looking towards the site of Newport Station. The trusses in the foreground will come out, the roof now has supports leaning on other brick walls which will leave the central space clear. The hatch will have a drop down cover for operating sessions so we don't lose anyone in the abyss! Taking stock today indicates that the finished size will be slightly larger than I had planned for, allowing a little bit of breathing space all around the layout. Which is nice! Chris

I'll keep posting updates now that I've got the hang of blogging :-) Right now it's full steam ahead on the loft conversion - thick beams are appearing to make the floor and the supports which used to come into the middle of the area are being re-engineered so they can be removed. I reckon in a couple of weeks the space will be ready and I can measure up precisely and commission the baseboards. I will have these professionally made as I have neither the tools nor space nor skill to build really good boards. The idea is that the layout will be transportable though there is no intention to exhibit it. Well, maybe part of it! I hope to have something reasonable running by Christmas. The space I have will be in the region of 14 feet by 9 feet with a 3 foot by 4 foot extension on the side which will be used for the Ryde/Sandown return loops. The thing which has made this all possible is early retirement and taking a lump sum out of the pension! Today I was working on Cowes signal box and have the shell complete. Got to do windows now...... the hardest bit I find. Chris

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/c/cowes/cowes2.jpg Here's the real thing for comparison (after closure)

I learned that through years of working with my sons on their Warhammer collections. Dry brushing and washes!

No - it's the hatch into the loft! I haven't yet worked out how the baseboards will go but it is intended to be walkaround, and will probably use DCC. Or radio control, but a bit tricky to fit into O2s especially those which already have boilers stuffed with lead and araldite! The only tricky bit to reach will be the return loop which will be a ceawl under. Athough everything will be demountable, in preparation for the inevitability of one day not being able to get up to the loft. By then hopefully some children will have left home and there will be spare bedrooms!

This is a lovely little model by York Modelmaking. Made from laser cut Rowmark which behaves pretty much like styrene sheet. This went together in a couple of hours.

Until I can start on the layout itself I am now making progress on various structures for the layout, signals and turnouts. Here is the station building at Cowes looking suitably dilapidated.

Here is the trackplan for the planned layout, designed using the Trax software developed by Geoff Geary. This produces the templates for constructing the turnouts too.......

Work has started on converting my loft to take the planned model of the line from Cowes to Newport on the Isle of Wight in 4mm scale (OO gauge). This is scheduled to take about 3 weeks......