Ivatt46403

No I hadn't Chris! Thats a great tip. Thanks! Marcus.

The last train of the day has gone, the yard is still. The coal wagon is ready for pickup tomorrow and the empties stand on the dock in front of the locked shed.

Hi Michael, thanks, I used an FMR Maxi applicator with a range of colours of fibres from them and from Model Display Products. Marcus.

Just a quick update today - in order to do the grass right to the back of the boards I had to demount them, a nerve wracking operation as although built to be portable, they're not exactly designed with doing it very often in mind. That and grass application successful I took a few picks from unusual angles.... Marcus.

The hut was a complete scratch build - the roof is Wills plain tile sheet fabricated into the pitch, then i reinforced the vertices with filler and filed them down to accept Wills ridge tiles from the building detail pack. The window and door I took from the free hut that came with Railway Modeller a while ago (I think, or it may have been the original weighbridge hut). Marcus.

It's the first train of the day and the crew have clearly stepped off the footplate as the 0851 to Cambridge stands at Buckden with J15 65390 in charge.

Thanks Mark! How do you find the hold with hairspray layers? I'm trying to build everything to by Dyson-proof so I can manage the inevitable dust (my Mother always complained that my trainset when I was a child was too dusty and she stays in the train room when she's down...) Marcus

Different Buckden I'm afraid William - mine is the one in Cambridgeshire on the Ketterint - Huntingdon line. I do like your little layout though! Marcus

It's been quiet on the blog but I've been busy on the layout! A few quick pictures of progress - the photos are improving but I definitely need to get a tripod... I've been grassing up using my FMR Maxi applicator and their mixes of spring and winter/autumn 2mm grass (FMW-SG001/SG003) , which the applicator handles quite nicely, I think I'd prefer some longer fibres, but I may dust those over later. This certainly gets a nice ground cover. This was my first patch and is the flattest - I got much better at grounding the ground in the other patches. I can also confirm that if you zap yourself with it, it really hurts! Around the fence line (EZ-line to follow i think) I've added some long Gaugemaster field grass in light green (FG173) and Natural Straw (FG171) and Woodland Scenics Underbrush in Olive Green (FC134). I've tidied this up with the nail scissors since this shot but I quite like the effect, so will likely add some more of the field grass, laborious though it is. In the background behind the freshly painted fence (need to tone that down a bit) I've been building up some undergrowth using more Woodland Scenics material - here there is more of the Underbush, plus Olive Green Bushes (FC144) and Medium Green Clump-Foliage (FC683) with Soil colour Fine Turf (T41). This area is going to be wooded when I've invested in Gravett, and I've been photographing my local trees before they get too green for inspiration. Up at the station end the station building now actually stands on the platform without falling off backwards, and the embankment has had it's grass coat as above but with Straw (GFS002) and Arid (GFS004) fibres from Model Display Products added to the mix. I think this shot really demonstrates how important it is to bed the buildings in to the ground cover that gap really bugs me. It's also remarkable how more wonky the chimneys look on the photo compared to in real life! The road on top is polyfilla, (badly) smoothed on application, sanded to not-very-flat with wet-and-dry paper then stippled with acrylics (ivory black and titanium white mix) with a good dusting of (medicated!) talc for some texture. I really like how this worked out actually, although the little bits of the pollyfilla showing through need touching up. I don't know whether I need road markings - would Buckden/Brampton road have had them in the Late BR crest era?? More foliage and scrub will follow, then the Peco flexible fence will be installed at the top (which I have already painted, should really have stuck it in for the shot) and then I'm leaning towards putting more boundary fencing at the bottom too. Marcus.

Thanks KH1! I'll definitely have a fiddle with that. My main problem is that I learnt on a very manual Minolta X-300 and translating what I know on that to the new one is tricky! Marcus.

Look what arrived! The long anticipated and quite delayed J15 from Hornby (R3231) made it to Model Railways Direct yesterday, apparently to the surprise of everyone involved (and much to the horror of my bank account). This is the DCC Ready Early BR crest version as 65356 (and as this was a Cambridge shed number likely to stay that way http://www.railuk.info/steam/getsteam.php?row_id=18587!). Several of these saw service on the line, and as I haven't built it a Huntingdon East shed to retire to yet, I kept it busy shunting in the Buckden yard today. I also have a new camera (a Canon EOS 1200D) which obviously I need to get used to to try and increase the depth of field.... Marcus.

Back in June 2013 Wiggoforgold very kindly posted some pictures he had of Buckden in 1978 (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1362/entry-11926-buckden-station-1978/) showing the signal box and weighbridge hut/yard office. It spurred me on to do the signal box, and confirmed the colours, but, although I made a basic start on it, I never finished the yard office. SWMBO was on a train to Newcastle all day today (Lucky thing!) so I had time to get back to it. The roof was tricky (and actually I had a failed attempt at it last night) but I think it's about right. A look at the prototype picture suggests they didn't really know how to finish it off either! Fiddly chimneys seem to have been the vogue for Buckden so I got to make another one of those too! I had bought the Wills(?) weighbridge kit a while ago, so dug that out and painted both. The weighbridge is Tamiya NATO black acrylic (46444 uses it a lot - I wanted to know what the fuss was about - it IS very nice to work with), drybrushed with Humbrol MET 53 Gunmetal and then with DCC concepts weathering powders apllied. For the hut I used a similar mix of acrylics as I did when painting the station building (raw and burnt umber, yellow ocre, titanium white, ivory black and sap green). Photo below - it's not in it's final position, but it's all a bit brown over there! I also got hold of the new Wills SS91 ground frame kit so put that together and painted simlarly but with Tamiya Titanium Silver for the handles. Again probably not in it's final place, and I need to sort the point rodding but photo: I'm not entirely sure where it should be. I think it's controlling the entrance to the goods yard (http://www.signalbox.org/diagrams.php?id=865) and facing point lock (in which case I realise as I write this that I've painted on of the handles the wrong colour), and then the siding is on a point lever, in which case it should probably be closer to that yar entry point. Why that was done, given that the frame had to be unlocked in the box and they could have just had the box control the point I do not know.... Strangely the impetus for getting the ground frame in (apart from the fact it's only just been released!) was to finish the point rodding so I can start to lay down grass with my new static grass machine from FMR which arrived this week. FMR / finescalemodelworld.co.uk gave EXCELLENT customer service incidentally, as I'd managed to make an order without including any of my details apart from my name. Not to be beaten they did some excellent googling and called my office number at work! There's a nice, consistent, muted green feel to the buildings, and it's starting to tie things together nicely...apart from the signal box, which is now looking a bit bright...might be time for a repaint. Marcus.

Thanks Mikkel! I was very please with it. The only colour photo of the building I'm aware of is this one: http://www.eastanglianrailwayarchive.co.uk/Railways/Abandoned-Lines-and-Stations/i-vnKWfxfwhich is obviously well after it was no longer in operation, so I tried to go for a bit-less-tired-looking that that. Marcus.

Just before I went away for Christmas (partly to Buckden itself!) I made a start painting the station building for Buckden. I've been putting it off for a while, but there was an excellent "Railway Modeller Shows You How" by Craig Tiley in the November 2014 issue (v. 65(759), pp. 908) on painting resin models with acrylics which gave me some pointers and a little confidence, So I bit the bullet. I finished the roof off today, and a couple of quick snaps are below (neither quite get the colour right - I need to grab some in daylight). The model is Wills sheets over a plasticard/struct framework, with lasercut doors from Truetexture (http://www.truetexture.co.uk/3d-products/3d-doors/). I primed it all (minus the doors) with Halfords car primer in grey, then gave a dirty brown was for the mortar, and proceeded to almost-dry brush in the rest with neat acrylic mixed from Ivory Black, Raw and Burnt Umber, TitaniumWhite and Yellow Ocre. I was surprised how good a red I could get from those alone! The woodwork need touching up, then I'll add in the gutters and stench pipe. The one chimney pot that's on is made from a plastic syringe end with wire wrapped around the rim. The four main ones I'm going to have a stab at 3D printing, as I can't find any of the prototypical ones in 4 mm, and they're so much of the character of Buckden for me to let them be wrong. It also needs a bit of a weather and some moss! Obviously I will document how that goes here! Happy New Year! Marcus.

Oh, no tell a lie - Cranford No. 2 was a Bagnall and is currently at Cottesmore: http://www.rocks-by-rail.org/exhibit/wb-2668-cranford-no-2/ Marcus.

Hi Mark, Thanks for that! I used the rubbing with a cocktail stick method to get the cabsides off. It left a little bit of a ghost but it was mostly covered with the new letters - I'll post a picture when I'm back home after new year. Your model looks great - do you know what chimney 46403 had? I want to say that I'm completely content with the numbers as the are but I fear you might be right! Good tip for how to get them centred and I'll check out the Fox shed code decals. Cranford wasn't a J94 (neither I think was Cranford No. 2) - for one it had outside cylinders but I think it was a Hunslet - all the details are in "Ironstone Quarries of the Midlands Part 5 Kettering" by Eric Tonks (http://booklaw.co.uk/eshop/product_info.php?products_id=4716) again I can post the details when I get home - my copy is in Bristol (or later this week as I got my Mum a copy for Christmas). I think without scratchbuilding the Hornby (or the DJ Models) J94 is a close enough starting point for me and I do love your Cranford - I say is and Juniper Hill in Taunton earlier in the year. Marcus. Marcus.

I only have a very small stud of locos for Buckden at the moment - cost and necessity (Buckden was one engine in steam and the line only had a few regular classes) means I've only bought an Ivatt 2MT(Bachmann 32-829A) and an 0-6-0 3F (Bachmann 31-626A) so far. I am looking forward to the Hornby J15 (although like Alex(wiggoforgold) I'm going to need to build it a working turntable so it doesn't get homesick) and have been toying with picking up an 8F for lost ironstone trains and a J94 so that I can have a Cranford (although I doubt mine will be as perfect as Mark's (46444)). In the mean time I found this shot of my 2MT after I renumbered it, to a more appropriate (and namesake!) 46403! I used the very good value and nicely made plates from Phoenix (http://www.phoenix-paints.co.uk/nameplates.html) and a dab of superglue for the front, and Modelmaster (http://modelmasterdecals.com/) transfers for the sides. I didn't quite manage to get the kerning right, and failed peeling off the transfer film - so after a second go this will stay on and I will just give it a good weather. The loco needs detailing on the front, and front on photos like this really make me wish I was into EM! The strangest thing about this photo is that the walls of the room are blue! Marcus.

Lovely work as always Alex. How are you finding your new static grass machine? I was about to buy the FMR one (and a balloon, following the recommendations here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/64167-static-grass-tips-and-techniques/?p=1687374) to start grassing up Buckden, but your comment makes me worry it might not have the oomph to do nice long tatty grass embankments. Marcus.

The worst thing about the Cattle Market road reconstruction is that it's severed my usual route to Modelmania! Marcus.

Cambridgeshire, as many who know it as well as I will not need telling, is flat. Very flat. So it is that I wasn't too concerned with using bowling green flat boards as a starting point for Buckden. The layout did however need some topography at one end, for the embankment at the Kettering end where Brampton Road crosses the line. The embankment is long gone and was well before I was born, but it slopes gently towards the north and Buckden village to meet the gently raising ground, and on the Brampton side slopes down to meet the rather flatter ground. An inspection of the 1890 and 1920 OS surveys suggest that the grade on the Buckden side was only 0.02 degrees (or 1 in 49ish) so over the short length which would be on the layout the drop would be imperceivable, so I ignored it and kept the approach level. The bridge was skewed over the line, which I modelled (although because of the way the layout was previously housed, I skewed it the opposite way). The bridge is also long gone, and I've only ever seen it at a distance in one photo in E.H. Sawford's "Cambridge Kettering Line Steam" (Becknell Books, 1981), not least as most photos of Buckden station are taken FROM the bridge. From that photo it looks to be pretty similar to the one at Kimbolton which is more clearly photographed, and I used that, plus the extant rail bridge towards Grafham to get the general idea, and used the Wills SS64 abutment kit. For the embankment I used a framework of polystyrene (both from Woodland scenics and the packaging from my Futon): After remembering (through trial and error) that every glue in my box dissolves expanded polystryene apart from PVA, I used that to attach the framework to the boards, along with some panel pins pushed through to hold everything together. I then progressively used plaster bandage to build up the contours. I'm very pleased with the results, and the general view now looks as follows, with the station building now primed grey, and 46403 standing with a short goods: Marcus.

Soon(ish(and slipping back all the time: http://www.Hornby.com/br-0-6-0-j15-class-early-br.html))!

I do like your Huntingdon East pit a lot. I keep vaguely imagining that I'll find a corner somewhere to do the shed and working turntable... Marcus.

Well if you've got a couple of grand handy you can have one too! I had to use it on it's lowest magnification so it would be very handy for 2mm so long as you have a steady hand! Marcus.

I popped to Modelmania in Bristol today (my local shop, and well worth a visit!) for the first time in AGES today, and as usual picked up mostly what I went to get (loco crew, this month's Railway Modeller) but also got drawn in to an impulse purchase of a Cooper Craft Any Name Signal Box kit (No. 2008) because, well, it was ONLY £2.50 and I thought it was neat! If you haven't seen it, the kit is made up of 4 sprues of plastic letters and a blank nameplate blank apart from SIGNAL BOX at one end, allowing one to make whatever sign you please, and shortening and lengthening is possible because of the multiple sprues. The letters are 2.60mm high (my verniers tell me) and thus a little fiddly. At this point I wished, as I do from time to time, that I had a magnifying lamp, before remembering what was sitting in my living room.... At this point I probably need to explain that SWMBO is a micropalaeontologist by profession, who sometimes likes to work from home - hence the shiny, silly expensive microscope currently in my living room, and due to some of the work I did during my PhD, I know my way around a microscope too! A quick request for permission and I had at my disposal a fantastic tool for making very fiddly things much larger! It was still fiddly, but the calm that always descends over me when a ) I'm playing trains and b ) I'm using a binocular microscope and automatically slow my breathing to avoid blowing everything off the stage certainly helped. The first lesson was that Contacta in bottles with the brush is really gloopey, so that was replaced with Contacta Professional in the needly bottle. A short time later and I had the pictured signs ready for painting tomorrow when it's all dry: Now to the quandary - I hadn't intended to buy signal box signage because I have scant evidence that Buckden box had a sign! Mitchell et al., 1991 "Branch lines around Huntingdon" (Middleton Press, Midhurst) does show a sign, but only in the shot taken once it had been removed from the site to a museum. There is one shot (44 in Mitchell et al., 1991) which PERHAPS shows there was a sign on the front, rather low down, in 1866, but it's hardly compelling, and in the 1950s shot (45) it doesn't look like it's there. So what to do with my nice sign? It definitely looks like there was never a sign above the door, and the evidence suggests in the period I'm vaguely modelling (late crest BR but with other stuff hanging on) it wasn't on the front. I briefly thought I could get away with putting it on the rarely seen Huntingdon end, but then remembered that one of my favourite photos of the box in Sawford 1981 "Cambridge Kettering Line Steam" (Becknell Books, Norwich and King's Lynn) shows that end in 1952 as 46400 passes and there's no sign of a sign. There ARE photos of other boxes on the line WITH a sign, so I don't think it would be too much of a leap to suggest Buckden did have one at some point? Ho hum, I suppose I shall wait to see how good a job I do of the painting before final decisions are made.... Marcus.

It's been said many times before but the first and easiest thing you can to do make a RTR loco look better is bung some real coal in it. So ok this is by far the first thing I did to these two but I finally got around to it and it really makes a difference I think! The Ivatt was simple as the bunker is fully modelled below the plastic load, so you just whip that out and stick some in. The 3F required a little surgery to get enough depth for a convincing pile but that done I think it looks lovely. Marcus. A rare passing move at Buckden, as 3F 43257 passes Ivatt 2MT 46446 in the loop. Real coal!