runs as required

I feel a quick walk coming on  ......    

And what about taking 'Fiddler on the roof' along with you? The poor mutt has been stuck up there since 2011, a good walk will do you both a power of good!

Well I spent most of our ill gotten gains at the Air Brush Stall whilst at RMlive.

Ian at FINISHING TOUCHES soon had me hooked.

 Jaz

Did you plump for the big compressor or the smaller £80 package? They'd sold out of the smaller when I called on them (they said they'd had a great day) so I thought I'd ask wor Dan when I got back home whether the larger one could be of use to him too on his motor bike restoration projects.

I stopped for a long time afterwards next door watching that military chap Steve from Topp Shop, Stafford working away with his powders, brushed acryllics etc. I had an interesting exchange with him and a fellow spectator about using hair spray as a fixative over powders (like fixing a charcoal life drawing) instead of blasting it all off and away with matt varnish spray as this guy had done.

I ended up driving back to daughter's wondering whether the airbrush might be a bit too smooth and bland for my needs. 

dhig

PS

I've really enjoyed all the Ricoh images and videos you've posted - were they all just done with that ipad?

with his head full of I Scream when all he had thought he ordered was a small garden Container of Ice-cream for his BBQ set   ...........    

Um.......

This actually happened to me with woven rush matting in Malawi.

A village out near Mlange mountain made these as a local industry so via a draughtsman I ordered a 10 ft diameter circular one.

I kept on asking when was it going to arrive....eventually after several months the reply came that they were going to start clearing the bush to assemble it for me next week.

Alarm Bells!

The draughtsman and I drove out to check and the chief produced a much thumbed note with 3.00 meters dia. still clearly legible on it.

Fortunately my friendly Italian contractor offered to collect all the mats in a big truck and stored them in an empty go-down. Last time I saw him he was in his eighties, still selling them!

dhig

Edit:   still trying to think how to make this post more On Topic

The Wg Co has  recently arrived  back.......    21st Century arrives around Ye Old Sarum at last  ......     

Nice to see him perched back on his window cill sandwich after all that Route 66 Fat Boy stuff riding across the Big Country....

but..... we could have waited until his Batman had finshed unwrapping the Tardis

dhig

The teacher ... took little Billy aside to ask him if that was really true.

 

"No" said Billy, "He plays football for Newcastle but I was just too embarrassed to say....."

Way Aye!

Any other Mackem lad would do the same.

dhig

At present David (Todd) and Kal are sorting out the wagon camera to do some runs along the track. We have been tying his technology to ours.

How very brave of you all at Arboretumville.

Careful about just how much you tie into dt's technology or you'll end up paying his eye watering Dover lecky bill !  

dhig

Not a layout....but so worth a mention

r

mweb2909show130

David Wright is a really gifted lovely guy - and so generous about revealing his techniques (and explaining about what he actually sees when looking at buildings)

I asked him this morning about modelling your "Ye Olde White Horse" and its thatch (yes I crept back into Ricoh this morning for another decko). He pointed to that cottage (just visible bottom left in the above pic). He said he uses "plumbers' hemp" and applies it to scraped foam board much as thatchers make up bundles and work along from the bottom of the roof pitch up to the ridge. Only prob is sourcing plumbers' hemp, long since dispensed with. He suggested trying on line - I think he said he had been dashed his chunk by Pendon.

I have to confess he was NESW* about my 'break through'

dhig

*Never Eat Shredded Wheat

Way aye, you divvunt hang aroond Hinnie! How many posts is that since you got back to Arboretumville?

Some amazing pics you have managed to put up, of stuff I never actually spotted in detail for all the "jaw jaw".

Personally speaking that is the best show I've ever been to - mostly because it was possible to actually talk in an engaged way to the experts (I'd flagged up before as wanting to contact) without feeling there was a huge crowd behind resenting the old f*#¥ hogging the action.

Thanks so much for taking all that trouble to herd us together - mebbe harder than cats.....

dhig

Hi Chris,

I'm sorry but I'm unable to post video footage for you and others to view as I have absolutely no idea how  to post it on here, I have only filmed it on my I-phone anyway and to be quite honest it is poor quality. i'll try and ask a good friend of mine to help on this subject in the not to distant future, watch this space as they say.

 

I wasn't transferring from a phone but a JPEG on my computer and could just simply copy the file into the post - no complexities with another programme such as Flikr nor nuffink.

dhig

Have you seen this You tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT8xhOjYGDE

of 'Environmental Dave' starting a Commer TS3 dupercharged diesel two stroke?

dhig

..... were abandoned when.... the roof became too heavy for the walls

but I will be resurrecting it.....

In fact the massive tidy up...has turned up all sorts of interesting tools and bits and pieces........  .......    

"The roof being too heavy for the walls" was one reason why we were able to afford to buy our house when we came back from Africa with all wor bairns. I'm ashamed to admit we used child labour to take it off ...OK - it might still leak a bit - but it works.

About thatch- have you thought of trying dried lavender stalks? They bunch up well, can be hustled into the right shapes plus they smell good too!

And do you quote for train (and art ) room tidying on a contract basis? I'd really appreciate ....

dhig

David Todd, on 23 Aug 2014 - 17:24, said:

Oh...........    .............hope you did not take a wrong turn,  they used to be quite good,  firing Molotov Cocktail's through there....keep to the main road's..

Its geet posh roond there now since you was last there - lots of new houses for sale with BMWs parked up and bits of sculpture (public art) plonked hither and thither.

The exhibish was packed - with some good layouts too.

I'll try my first RM web post of a pic that might interest you of a tunnel mouth and trees. Beautifully done - so much so it reminded me of DP

[edit]Ha it worked!

It is a wonderful layout called Blackgill that had fooled me at first with the Ribble bus - I was reckoning it was S&D (somewhere around Kikrby Stephen) over in Cumbria.

But reading the programme when I got home I found it is actually supposed to be our own NW Durham going up to Stanley and Consett - so the Ribble should have been a yeller Venture bus. I bet you used to do timed hill climbs up to Stanley through Beamish and around there on yer bike....

OK an update on this:

I'm contemplating my 'heavily weathered' 47796 and wondering about...how to tackle the shiny handrails and motion and reduce it to the look of the only one I ever saw in real life

I can report how I eventually grasped the nettle, attacking first with a waft of matt black spray to give a key, then throwing the lot at it: powders (from a set of 'The Works' pastels) and acrylic paints.

After a couple of goes at it - the second in daylight - I was satisfied that it looked like some of the photos I managed to trawl up of Garretts at work. (Wish I could work out how to post pix on this site.)

Then it struck me!

That I'd thoroughly 'messed up' Hatton's wunderkind without first checking whether it actually worked - given all the probs documented here.

To my huge relief it has run silently and smoothly now  for an hour in both directions.

So I'm as happy as Larry with it - my most expensive loco by far in more than seventy splodge years.

The only minor glitch is that the 'mineral or empty waggon train' lamp only lights up when running bunker first. I'm loath to split it apart to check whether the fibre optic to the other end is adrift until I get round to installing a sound chip.

dhig

[edit] Does this pic upload?

Gosh!

The meat in this sandwich has got seriously spicy since I last looked in (when it could all still fit on the window ledge).

A very enjoyable read from Sir Greasily @ Dawlish, through N gauge plotting for MD's play, to the Big Country and recycling empty wine bottles.

dhig

P.S.

I read in that posh www.smarttinc.com website that the idea for those radio controlled trains a mile or more long came originally from DCC model railroading.  On some railroads a guy shunts the yard sitting in his automobile using his mobile phone app.

.....and now there are going to be crewless ships bringing all the crates of Hornby trains across the world for us for Christmas....

Q. As social secretary.....do i get a box of chocolates  ..................      .....only joking.....on a diet........sighs........

Way aye Pet....

I could slip yer another unmakeable art deco water tower

I like the idea of a lunchtime pie & peas meet-up coinciding with a tab break.

dhig

let us all hope Daughter is ready to extend the hospitality to the deserving venerable, [wot brung 'em up proper]  .......   it would be delightful to place another face  ....       

Yippee!

Daughter Rache she say Yais!

Oh ...and Bonk means Bonk up here north of the Gateshead Angel just as it does everywhere else - with Wallabies, wellies, sheep w.h.y.

dhig

 

 runs as required, on 22 Aug 2014 - 22:15,......  ???

 

 

Whey, Mann..!!, is tha really ye !!

Way Aye......

Up early cos I'm off ter cop this in Railex NE at the Meadowell!

Meopham East Junction all packed and ready to go.

KA.JPG

Go North young man, go North. Haway.

near you I believe (Swanley Bromley and Victoria)

Just got an email from Richard.  He will be there on his stand, the GM stand - and will be giving a Presentation.   ......     

Thats bad news - it means I'm going to have lie through my teeth about how much money I actually managed to spend while looking at 'a few toy trains'.

dhig

The layout is looking great David, Anymore videos of that thumper though and i'm gonna have to buy one, the more i look at it the more i want one.

 

Graham.

I really thought them the pits to ride in - compared to the view forward DMUs on other regions. They used them over Romney Marsh from Hastings via Rye.

But then the real Hastings diesel/electric units were something else - I even liked standing in them all the way from Sevenoaks up to Charing Cross simply for the noise they made.

dhig

PS

yer platform stanchions look straighter tonight dt

Um....now how do I do this...

 

Runs as Required is going.

 

Hmm..........He did not tell me, when he phoned...............@ 8.am yesterday............

 

&

Maybe [the Harkitec] was scared you'd turn up with your mum in tow 

And now we have to find him without an advance scout!!!!

 

Hi smee, in actual poisson....

dt is right, I didn't say anything to him about Coventry - cos I hadn't found out about it at that stage.

I was talking to him about whether he was coming up to N Shields for the Blyth&Tyne exhibition this weekend.

And actually his mum is a whole lot more fun than dt - who is always complaining about the way his layout keeps curling up in all his tab smoke.

About Coventry: my CEO says its fine by her - but did I not think to check first with daughter Rache that they'd be prepared to accept the old trouts for that weekend? (we're still awaiting confirmation of that).

But it would be very interesting to meet up with y'all.

dhig

Hi OzzyO,

I have Olivia's sound fitted to my LMS 4970, the two engines do indeed go in and out of sync, I'm delighted with Olivia's generic sound for the BG and would highly recommend it.

Many thanks for that recommendation

Ozzyo

Er, what automatic stoker? All of the Garratts were manual fired, apart from the U1 when it was converted to oil firing.

Sorry slipshod of me - I meant the rotary bunker - I recall they could make a real racket .

dh

On the subject of sound for the BG......

How would they simulate the sound of a BG?

With a couple of 2-6-0s ? But there would only be one blastpipe - and what about the automatic stoker?

I'm contemplating my 'heavily weathered' 47796 and wondering about:

1

How to tackle the shiny handrails and motion and reduce it to the look of the only one I ever saw in real life (while camping at Shireoaks near the western portal of Cowburn tunnel with my 'Peewit' Scout patrol).

2

Fitting a sound chip

dh

(edit of typo)

I love this thread - cos it's where we used to go courting on the way back to Lower Mosley Street bus station and the NWRCC 27 Buxton bus after going to the pics in Oxford Road.

Quote>>

brick course heights were not always standard

<<Quote

Northern brick courses used to be 4 courses to 1 foot 1 and a half inches compare to southern 4 course to a foot. Trouble was I could never establish where the boundary lay.

dh

A promising thread to happen across.

It sparks my interest because I have an eclectic collection of traction and rolling stock amassed over the decades (that I have converted to DCC operation) which runs on H0/ 00 track .

My solution to the scale discrepancy is to deliberately play down 'realistic' scenery, instead opting for a minimalist setting so that elements such as stations are expressed as wood block outlines that can be 'imagined' in relation to whether the stock I've chosen to run on the layout is within a British railway environment (BR or earlier Big Four or Pre Grouping) or French, FS or Eastern European/ Turkish.

I am planning two 'modular' extensions to my 'anywheresville' continuous run circuit:

1

is a helix that I can sit inside and experience the trains climbing and descending around my club armchair

2

Is an accurately semaphore signalled small station and yard that I can operate on the absolute block system.

I don't know whether this has any relevance to the posts already appearing on this thread other than re-inforcing an overall spec for maintaining an 'open' and 'loose fit' modular approach.

dh

P1130254(1).JPG

This particular pic looks like Jukebox's Taipei build (with an 'iron horse' prominent)

Some good looking use of jigs etc. in the rebuild. I note the original rivetted canopy from that infamous 'Geordie Sweatshop' is still in use.

Did you notice those very same rivets on the cover of Backtrack a month or so back?

Featuring a C class at the head of a passenger train, DP looked barely recognisable - except for them rivets!