Les le Breton

Greetings fellow RMweb fans; a lot has happened since my last post on 18th September. Whilst on holiday, the virus protection of my computer refused to allow me to log in to the forum pages, claiming I would be at risk of hacking! I was delighted to be able to log in this afternoon. Many thanks are due to the technical wizards who have upgraded the RMweb. I have given up using the Hornby e-Link Railmaster and I purchased an NCE Power Cab; it took some time to install the PCP Panel onto the layout, complicated by my decision to use a dp-dt switch to separate the Main track from the program track. However, it has been a brilliant decision; the power cab is a genuine, single handed device and is more practical than the running back and forth to the computer. I have managed a few developments. I scratch built a loco coal bunker which sits well near the electronically planted grass. I built a grounded van; not originally planned but it would have been rude to ignore its’ arrival. I have prepared the River Aeron with acrylic paint, hopefully covering any PVA residues, so the water doesn’t react, spoiling the look of the river. The Aberaeron Canoe Club is anxiously awaiting the arrival of a good river! But mostly I have been enjoying playing trains with my new Power Cab. Today I discovered that I have a lot of catching up to do with the posts that I follow! Happy days indeed! “A railroad station? That was sort of a primitive airport, only you didn't have to take a cab 20 miles out of town to reach it.” Russell Baker

Apologies for the tardiness of this post, I have only just managed to keep up to date with the wonderful anecdotes found on Castle Aching. I still have vivid dreams of sword dancing when I was at junior school (labelled key stage six these days) in1948. It was great fun dancing round with wooden swords ending up by weaving them together into a sort of wooden trophy. We were sent as entertainment to various events like church garden parties and random fetes by the keen dancing teacher. However, the best and last event was when a sword hit my fragile nose (prone to nosebleeds,) the sight of blood adding colour to my all white costume was too much for the teacher, who fainted on the spot. Perhaps this was the precursor of the health and safety executive intervening by banning such fun at my school. Castle Aching elementary school would find sword dancing more fun than maypole weaving dances. Perhaps the Yeomanry band will be present to add gravitas to the school’s recorder group. It has occurred to me that the steam locomotives of your landscape will need to have sound chips to compete with the recording of aforesaid musicians and the squeals of delight from the happy onlookers. History unravels gently, like an old sweater. It has been patched and darned many times, reknitted to suit different people, shoved in a box under the sink of censorship to be cut up for the dusters of propaganda, yet it always – eventually – manages to spring back into its old familiar shape. History has a habit of changing the people who think they are changing it. History always has a few tricks up its frayed sleeve. It’s been around a long time. (Mort ] Terry Pratchett

Bonjour, fellow model railway students and Dons of RMweb University. I have only a sporadic opportunity for modelling, but for the first time I have used static grass, I started with some of my removable boards, as follows:- GWR 5013 has no trouble leaving the Aberaeron sidings with a freight including a mixture of weathered and disgustingly clean wagons. Now that the grass has been planted on the South side of the tracks, I need to consider the modelling of my layout’s telegraph posts. Looking closely at the prototype photographs of the real Aberayron, I have discovered that there are more telegraph posts than I thought originally; prototypically the details are; Each of the telegraph poles has a single arm. There are 4 posts alongside the line from the Signal Box to Lampeter [via the fiddle yard], two posts from the signal box reaching the station and one next to the loco shed. As I have planned to add a whimsical extension to the harbour, I will add posts from the station telegraph post, up to the harbour. I imagine that the increased signalling would warrant more arms to enable complex signalling to be safe! I will furnish the model telegraphs as follows:- The 4 posts alongside the line from the Signal Box to Lampeter [via the fiddle yard] will have three arms; The post alongside the Loco Shed will have one arm; The posts from the Signal Box to the station will have two arms; The post(s) from the station to the harbour will have one arm each. I would be indebted to any modeller who will be able to judge the proposition of this newbie modeller. “They turned to look at the engine, which had come to a stop in a kind of human way, not all at once, but settling down like an old lady making herself comfortable in a favourite armchair, except that at that moment Iron Girder, the locomotive, blew out a hissing stream of shining water vapour, which does not normally happen with old ladies, at least not in public.” Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett

Bonjour fellow model railway students and Dons of RMweb University. Now that my grand-daughters have returned to school I have been able to add more trees to my layout, I hope the following make sense and aren’t totally boring. This picture Illustrates how the tree roots, created with copper cable, are planted in a small bank with PVA papier-mâche. The embankment will be expanded later. I have created some pesky roots playing havoc with the embankment. All of my 14 trees built so far on parade, fortunately, even though freshly planted, they do not require regular watering. An aerial view of the trees, with the painted telegraph poles awaiting fitting. So that the cables of the telegraph, from the signal box to further along the line aren’t hindered by trees I hopefully gave a gap enabling the cables to be unhindered by sagging into foliage in the summer. Something to point out is that the trees will be near the backscene when the modelling has been finished, mainly a wild hedge between the trees, some fencing and other items; any suggestions? “Play is the highest form of research”. Albert Einstein Validating the joys of railway modelling!

I believe this performance of Black Shuck is worth hearing:- It keeps me almost sane whilst gluing clump foliage onto copper wire branches and tree trunks.

Hello Members of RMweb University, I haven’t made any progress with Aberaeron since my last post. We have been looking after our grand-daughters, aged 6 and 8, for much of the summer holidays. They are fortunately fans of railways and we have taken them over the years, on a number of journeys on the GWR, Gloucester and Worcestershire Railway. They asked us for a repeat visit this week, to Perry Grove narrow gauge in the Forest of Dean, which we have enjoyed often. On our return home they asked if they could get out the Brio chez nous. The following pictures speak for themselves (I hope). The track as laid by the girls with a little bit of advice from Pappy. The passengers were aided on board by the girls Some passengers would have been more comfortable with a low loader! “The soul is healed by being with children." Fyodor Dostoevsky

Nice Celtic symbolism.

Why on earth did they board up the windows at all, having renovated a number of houses myself, I never boarded up the windows at all, I waited to remove the old windows only when the new replacements were on site. I fear you have a landlord who doesn't know who his father is.

I hope my posts aren’t boring for the expert modellers of RMWeb University. In case you didn't know I have become a 00 forester. I hope the pictures of today’s fun are self-explanatory. “I'm not a lumberjack and I'm OK I sleep all night and I work all day” Thank you Monty Python.

Hi RMweb followers, with no child care required I seem to be on a roll! In the midst of preparing dinner, my brilliant Gill, suggested that I could use a grape stalk to make another tree. I removed the grape end stalks first, (the cups which hold the grapes). I then used masking tape to attach four, 2.5 mm copper wires, at right angles to the stalk, creating the roots/stand. It was then glued in place with a heat gun, when cool I painted the main trunk and brushed some of the colour onto the larger branches in patches. When dry I glued various shades of green foliage. An indulgence follows, but the thread for Aberaeron has to pay homage to the milk creamery at Green Grove, on the line in the base of the Aberaeron valley, between Aberaeron and Lampeter. “Next week we’ll be investigating rumours that the president of the dairy council has become a Mason, and goes around giving his colleagues the secret milkshake.” Ronnie Barker

Thank you for your very clear master class, connecting the model to your fiddle yard/cassette system. I am currently considering how to build my own fiddle yard with either traversers or cassettes. "It’s still magic even if you know how it’s done" Terry Pratchett

Hi fellow RMweb modellers, like many of a certain age, my wife and I have been looking after our grand-daughters for much of the school summer holiday, which has seriously reduced modelling time. Thanks to the encouragement from RMweb members and my wife, I have just completed my third tree. I will be planting the trees onto the baseboard, when I have enough to try out various positions to find the most pleasing arrangement. I have built the trees with splayed roots which will be embedded in a thin bed of DAS, (other similar manufacturers are possible!). I have had to build the roots because the baseboard beneath is only 5mm thick; however, this has been a huge benefit as I built the intricate branches and foliage. I was able to safely hold the trees in various positions with the roots for easy access of paint, glue, smaller diameter branches and foliage. Why make life difficult when, with a little bit of thought, you can make it damn nigh impossible?

Another tangential posting for Castle Acheing, thanks for the entertainment and mental gymnastics. Lea and Perrins were likely to have had supplies from the Vinegar line. The Lea & Perrins factory was nearest to the Midland Railway sidings supplies were relatively nearby, but the gradient down from Shrub hill to the Vinegar store was quite steep. This is an amazing picture where the guard is signalling the road traffic to stay back. It is particularly interesting that the semaphore signal was designed to warn the road traffic. Here are the road signals! Apologies for posting information which was relevant aeons ago, I shouldn't have gone on holiday! “Geography is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it” Terry Pratchett

I have added patches of clump foliage to my midsummer, coniferous tree. It has given me the courage to try modelling deciduous ones when I have a window of opportunity. I will wait to position any trees I make, hoping to plant them in a prototypical way! The surface roots will be attended to by bending the wires to look more realistic. Inside every old person is a young person what happened.

Moody Blues?

This technophobe septuagenarian discovered that DCC concepts have a number of PDF instructions which are really clear to understand; they are also very quick to pass on information to help if you e-mail them.

Thank you timbowilts and Siberian Snooper for your support and advice. Because I didn’t have any Tetrion to hand, I used my glue gun to smooth and add knotting to the tree; when cool, I used water colours to paint it with burnt umber, burnt sienna and black. My scary, dead tree! My next task will be to glue different shades of clump foliage to the bare tree. This will answer my question of whether I should buy ready- made trees or not. “Human beings make life so interesting. Do you know, that in a universe so full of wonders, they have managed to invent boredom” Terry Pratchett (Not including Railway Modellers obviously!]

Dear Edwardian, I'm glad that the prognosis looks much better and your son has made good progress.Please remember that the hardest part of being a parent is watching a child go through something really tough and not being able to fix it for them. All you can do is all you can do. I am sure you and your family manage to come out out of your black hole well. From my own experiences, once a crisis is surmounted, you will all be stronger and closer. Take care all of you. I am not religious, but the quotation of Corinthians 13.13 has been something to guide me through my own life. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

After a month in Brittany, I returned to England, and then an inspection of my Aberaeron layout, revealed that the new, removable boards had warped!!! I had stupidly forgotten to paint the undersides, allowing the heatwave to do its worst whilst on holiday. I searched the internet and discovered a way to attempt smoothing the secondary boards. In our patio at about 29 degrees, I sprayed water onto the concave undersides, and left them on flat, concrete paving, concave side down with other paving weighted on top. They seemed to have flattened after about two and a half hours. I then painted the undersides with undercoat, placed the wet paint onto newspaper which was on a very flat, 4mm thick, plastic sheet surface above the paving, the paving weights were repeated again above the baseboard. The heat has helped the paint to dry fairly quickly. When dry, I used some cramps to keep the repainted boards flat. Following this, hopeful success, I embarked on attempting to model a tree for the layout about 175mm high. I spent about six hours soldering different diameter copper wire, (salvaged from the rewiring of our house,) I intended to add bark using a glue gun, painting the bark using poly fibre (or similar product), for the foliage. I could continue with my attempt at creating a railway arboretum, but, my conclusion is that I really should buy some ready built ones. The following pictures underline my failure to model a half decent tree. Starting the build of the tree. My contraption to keep the b****y tree still whilst soldering! Branches soldered on. Twigs? However, the post by BWsTrains on 08 July 2018 - 01:25 On the Little Muddle Topic of KNP, spoke to me. “For those interested in avoiding unnecessary US imports (so topical), in place of sagebrush armatures, pieces from an aging English Lavender look remarkably similar. By careful selection, pieces suitable for small to very large trees can be obtained and of course they are free.” Since reading BWs Trains Post I have suggested to my good lady that we should remove some of the dead wood hiding in some elderly lavender’s in our garden. I hope my post alerts fellow modellers, to the damage created by the summer heatwave. I sincerely hope I haven’t crossed the red lines of the RMweb etiquette by quoting the good guys above. No matter how fast technology advances the world will always find a more advanced idiot, Me?

Thanks for the posts of your brilliant modelling, I am looking forward to its' development.

i'm sure that Elisabeth II thinks all toilets have the odour of fresh paint as well.

Today’s post is a saga of planning a prototypical model with limited real estate, a situation that must be understood by many RMweb students and dons. I have been wrestling with the differences of the prototype from the model! Because of the lack of sufficient real-estate the sad necessary of shortening and straightening of modelling track, has made it difficult to decide on the positioning of telegraph poles for example; they are likely to be fairly regularly distances apart in the prototype; the conundrum is that the lengths of track have shrunk on my model, but the turnouts are nearer to the prototype length, meaning that on the model, the poles positioning doesn’t truly resemble the original! Similarly, the straightening of track means that the geography around the model is seriously distorted! As the fields on the station, south side of my model are sited on baseboards 2 & 3, I have an opportunity to create another removable baseboard to hide the join between the two baseboards. [Thank you KNP and others for demonstrating the advantage of planting removable boards on ones’ layout.] My lovely Gill suggested that such a board could have a hedge creating two fields. I will be planting one of my telegraph poles on this board, hoping to keep the board firmly in place but moveable. “Dickens, as you know, never got round to starting his home page” Terry Pratchett

Very prototype mapping PUASHP, meeting the high standards of your layout, thank you for all your posts. "A layout is a little theatre and the trains must act in character; it's all about illusion." Swiss Rail Passion.”

Hi fellow RMweb members. Progress with Aberaeron has been slowed considerably for various reasons. With a little free time I have needed to tidy the ballast on baseboard 2, particularly on the shoulders of the track. I made a slope with the baseboard, making the shoulders nearly horizontal, helping to keep the ballast in place. This ugly photo looks down on the board, with tape keeping the ballast in place. The top track is part of the loco coal siding with the ash pit below. Some of the ballast is surplus to requirements in the ash pit and not glued! When dry I will do the same for the other side of the track. "Educational" refers to the process, not the object. Although, come to think of it, some of my teachers could easily have been replaced by a cheeseburger” Terry Pratchett Hi fellow RMweb members. Progress with Aberaeron has been slowed considerably for various reasons. With a little free time I have needed to tidy the ballast on baseboard 2, particularly on the shoulders of the track. I made a slope with the baseboard, making the shoulders nearly horizontal, helping to keep the ballast in place. This ugly photo looks down on the board, with tape keeping the ballast in place. The top track is part of the loco coal siding with the ash pit below. Some of the ballast is surplus to requirements in the ash pit and not glued! When dry I will do the same for the other side of the track. "Educational" refers to the process, not the object. Although, come to think of it, some of my teachers could easily have been replaced by a cheeseburger” Terry Pratchett

For me it was the goon show that stopped any play. The Archers is rather like Marmite, my wife loves it and then I'm delighted to carry on modelling in the room furthest from the radio.