drduncan

Finished my first bit of mixed gauge track! Many thanks to Jonathan for making the BG 3 and 4 point gauges. Common rail in place. BG rail added. You can see Jonathan’s gauges very clearly as they are made from orange acrylic. Here’s a close up... Standard (or narrow if you prefer) rail going in. And the finished length... Now to start on the first of the points..... Duncan

Ah but I have the fire of doing something (BG and mixed gauge) for the first time to ward off tedium... are you saying that P4 doesn’t rock every part of your world? The S4 society will excommunicate you! D

I was laying track this afternoon while the children slept, and my darling wife watched me threading chairs onto rail. She commented ‘is that as boring as it looks? I mean I know you like doing this but really...’

I’m afraid that oral history (interviewing people to get their memories) is a well known method of introducing errors into the historical record. Professional historians have a number of techniques to get round this that can be briefly described as ‘don’t believe everything you’re told’ and ‘get corroboation’ - preferably documentary... Without getting into what peer reviewed actually means to a historian (its really very dull, believe me) and the differences between primary and secondary sources (even duller) and their use in railway histories, if you want to ascertain the veracity of an author’s research you need to look at the footnotes/endnotes and the bibliography. In our hobby and much of the historical support we rely on the former is almost completely unknown and the latter a rarity. This may be the more significant problem we face in years to come - being unable to verify where information came from originally and therefore if it can be trusted or is just all made up/opinion.... Drduncan

Like this... D

Hi Jon, Yes I think it should be close to a semi circle. Duncan

Very impressive. Now if you’d done a brake composite or a slip coach I’d be thinking of ordering some! (Or better still Dreadnoughts or Concertinas I might order some of them if they are available! If I might offer some constructive criticism, I think the corners of the waist panelling is too square.

A very interesting project and I look forward to reading more about its progress. Regards Duncan

Not in Portsmouth ‘smiffs...

I seem to recall that today was the expected publication date of MRJ.... Shall we bet on when it appears? Or how long before someone takes the huff and has this thread locked? Whenever it comes out, I’ll be waiting with great anticipation for what I’m sure will be an excellent read and worth the wait. Duncan

All the sleepers (except that one that went missing) are down. However, rivets still need to be added to strengthen the point work. Duncan

They look fantastic. Duncan

Tim, Worderful workmanship. Duncan

Lovely work. Duncan

In future could we have a ‘RON’ (reopen nominations) choice for each category as I found a significant number of catalogues did not get a vote from me... If RON tops the poll in a catagory, then we start again! And again, and again, possibly until it’s time for the next year’s competition. Duncan

Very impressive! Looking forward to the next update. Duncan

It is one of the great disappointments in reading rmweb - wading through the rtr frothing and apparent anger that whims aren’t being met. We have a level of choice in the rtr market that has never been seen before, yet a very vocal group within our hobby are still not satisfied. To those unhappy with rtr offerings broaden your skills, join a club, perhaps spend less time posting ‘I’ll never buy one’ comments and do something constructive!

Excellent news and I look forward to trying it out. Duncsn

For photo look at Paul Bartlett’s zenphoto site - there is a fantastic array of images of ex grouping and BR built wagons used in the clay traffic. Regards Drduncan

Today’s progress. One point and the main platform line sleepers laid and several riveted for extra strength. And I only managed to lose one sleeper in the process. I hope I’ll find it in the dip tank.

Looks very good. D

Hi Gareth, Happy new year and all that. I had thought of that as the first stain I got was some sort of acrylic that defied thinning and was designed to be wiped on. However, I managed to find a spirit based stain that thinned nicely and the first batch have been drying since yesterday afternoon and the 2nd lot are in the dip and will come out later today. I’d be interested to see how yours looks. D

And now the diamond crossing and points are ready for the sheep dip... And yes they will be dipped separately as I have no wish to spend hours working out which timber belongs to which point template! D

The start of track laying! Or at least the cutting of sleepers ready for staining.... That’s a pile of about 180 plain sleepers and a slightly blunt chisel blade. Now for the points and diamond crossing.

Thanks! Very helpful. D